Stories of Lore 38

The price of the construction materials, which are salvage, is inflated by the general need in the wake of the invasions and wars. Desoir considers the markup due to the situation to be a sub-optimal investment. As the price will eventually normalize, not to mention they have their own production methods. So Bellar is likely the most difficult place to sell it. Also cosmic dice.

Speaking of which, we have sold an additional amount.

We have deployed one of the super battleships to Zenaka.They are in transit, meanwhile the ground forces continue the invasion of various city areas. They have been easily surrendering territory and pulling back to positions within the territory of other lords to regroup. So while progress has been good, they are amassing a much larger retaliation by the nature of pulling back into a tighter group.

Khymin is working on the prototype mech, though is still working out the power requirements for the flight systems.

Operating under the parameter that Arkaric is still alive, I would suspect he would be close to Daiheb. His presumed death occurred while Daiheb was conveniently present, and it is likely they are up to something together. I would also estimate that if it was ‘all according to plan’ then he will be near other major civilizations. Given his familiarity with exerlus technology, I would not be surprised if he took Echo Seven’s place after turning her human and is infiltrating the exerlus for some reason. Another possibility is that he is operating on another scheme entirely, we do know he is collaborating with the jesai and a ‘mysterious empire’ located near the galactic core. A jydoq businessman who lives within our population knew the rumors of this particular empire. It is a secretive isolated society who are known for being spectacularly aggressive to anyone that approaches their galactic territory. They have established a radius around their primary star and will attack anything that enters into that radius. Galactic trade routes take care to go around this location of space. He could also be working alongside the galactic pirate. The jydoq are apparently not as familiar with this name.

Without Seiyomi the only group who might be able to find the library are the Phantoms. Unless we were to come in possession of such a vast collection of valuable information that was never transferred digitally and sit on it to lure them to us.

Modern fighters already work the way you described.

Still no word from Eleazor. By my estimates he should have arrived within the last month at Zero North, though he still has to get back.

As an update, Grassy Gnoll is being postponed. With the knights pulling out of the demon kingdoms there isn’t enough cover for the operation to keep looking for an opportunity.

The hydro shield could be much more feasibly mounted onto a vehicle to create a projected shield that just had to move with the vehicle instead of an individual combatant. So that would be one way to get squads closer. This is a standard practice, especially for Alnae military tactics, though the hydroshield would be a different approach at least.

This concept would also work with your idea to give everyone a panzercycle, then they could move at higher speeds alongside the shield projection. Though the shield is still significantly weaker than contemporary arcane designs. While they’ve refined it to heavily deter small arms fire, large scale impacts tend to destroy the shield with ease.

For perpetually floating buildings, actually Robert from Robert’s rifts knows how to do that. He showcased a prototype using rubble in Moncayo. He just used a Kari rift. Operating the same way a ship’s interior gravity controls do, but holding a structure up instead.

We have begun more aggressive recruitment.

Mahuea knows where to find an earth archon, kind of. The elemental plane has extreme environments so elementals tend not to wander out of their specific territory as that would involve crossing the environment of another element. However, the legendary earth archon can survive all other elemental biomes. It is a titanic creature who carries its territory with it and the earth elementals just live on top of the archon. It’s a giant turtle with a mountain range on its back. So it can walk, it can swim, and its made of rock so it doesn’t mind fire. As a result, this particular archon is notoriously the most difficult to find since it is always roaming. Slowly, but it is roaming none the less. However…I cannot imagine it is difficult to find a walking mountain range. The only problem is we can’t fly around on the elemental plane too carelessly. The air tends to be filled with lightning and strong winds. There is also no vacuum of space so we can’t just hide outside of orbit with a telescope.

The knights have been recalled from the demon kingdom and are on the way back to Eden.

I mean the star idea kind of works it just doesn’t blow up. Little star is kind of passive and doesn’t quite blow up like that. So its more of a pitfall trap that burns your foot. Also sustaining it ‘for little energy’ isn’t happening. Little star constantly radiates energy, that’s sort of its thing. So it doesn’t really sit  and chill for awhile. Though if you want landmines, The Maker specializes in things that pop out of the ground and bite your face off still. Could just strap little star to one of those maybe.

I’d say you can control the drones quite well, as long as they don’t leave your range. Without the synapse they return to their natural behavior. Which is eat and make babies. Aggressively. Part of it seems to do with the fact that all Silnians without a synapse assume they need to spread and expand. Making an ichor puddle will eventually produce a new commander if not a whole new monarch to take control of the swarm. So if they’re lonely, build more silnians. Either it helps invade or it helps replace their losses. True silnians have synapse ranges stretching across planets. Valdir’s descendents like ourselves are operating while missing the top level of the command structure. We’re a hive with no proper queen so to speak. The metaphor breaks down because of the lack of intermediate commanders but you get my point. No mothership means that the synapse is in survival mode. So modern ichors assume that if there is no contact then something has gone terribly wrong and they must now preserve the species at all costs. This is why if the drones get out of range of a sapient commander who can, you know, analyze the situation…they go into conquer and rebuild mode automatically. At least that’s my guess so far, going off of your prophecy pointing out we needed to find Indal to stabilize our ichor. Since he can actually reprogram the ichors itself.

Setal points out she knows where her drones are, just not where the drones her drones made went. Also we could just send a team of only the commanders if you’re that worried about the drones getting out of control. Rhazin would be pretty intimidating to a zenakan. Also Craylin’s drones specifically don’t make more stuff, so they’re easier to keep track of. Though when they do go rogue they start harvesting souls.

Grinhys is doing fine, he’s just sort of trotting along. Though he doesn’t exhibit any abnormalities when exposed to to the area. He has found some interesting deposits on the planet that is being turned into a star. The planet being constantly subjected to the arcane bursts has resulted in some odd formations. Vasia has narrowed down her ability to predict the bursts even more at least.

Also Craylin can put essentia in them, the experiment resulted in rapid dissipation. They don’t have the baseline requirement to start absorbing it.

The shipyard built your stealth ship but pointed out literally all ships can be operated though psionic control. They use psi crystals to give advanced interfaces after all. This is also why psions can use their APT’s without touching them.

Michael has been deployed to Koura to assess the situation and see whats going on over there. Keeping an eye on traffic, the Phantoms appear to be importing populations from various holdings into the Rift. As well as sending reinforcements to Enohas where Valadeus and his fleet are, in his own words, ‘up to no good’. We can discern that Faelyn has been taking over Riftgard while Sakhessa is more interested in the planet below the station. The place is being swiftly turned into a bastion larger than Moncayo, they seem to be heavily investing in control over the Warrens. He is currently moving among their slave populations, which the Phantoms aren’t the best of keeping track of.

The Nomads are currently in deep space cruising around and doing various home improvement projects on the flotilla while seeing if anyone comes through their area.

It does definitely seem that when you control the crime just a bit too well the really nasty crime lords tend to appear as they’re the only ones who can survive and then others are forced to gravitate towards them. Though a little too poorly and then five gang bosses show up and start having territory wars.  Though for now we’re setting up our offices in Moncayo to see what we can keep track of.

Allison has arrived in Sol and pointed out the place is basically a wasteland. So the best opportunity she can find to start some small time smuggling around Shetou territories to feel that one out.

We attempted to have Aryn’s virus infect a ship and carry it elsewhere. Instead the ship shut off reactor controls and exploded. She has pointed out that it seems to behave erratically. Half of her methods of using it are to just exploit weaknesses that appear in a system when it starts wreaking havoc. After a few attempts she managed to stabilize it, and we’ve sent it out though results are pending since the whole ‘erratic behavior’ thing makes it hard to tell what it will do if it encounters a new system.

Though it never does anything beneficial so at worst it does nothing. At best we get some intel from solvang movements. Middle of the road, we crash their servers. Low risk at least.

Arcanist Articles: Magic by Mezzy

A new stealth cruiser has been constructed from the shipyards.

We are currently looking for anyone interested in purchasing the building materials, this month there has been no one interested in the bulk goods.

The invasion of Zenaka has taken a development. Up until now efforts have not been too difficult, though it appears many of our targets are beginning to form alliances. This includes drawing in members who may not have been an original target of ours, but have been swayed into joining none the less.

Strategically this poses a threat as Zenaka’s large population could complicate the invasion efforts. Thus far, their lack of unity is what made it easier for our superior military technology and training to move from one objective to the next. If the target nations successfully organize themselves the sheer numbers could repel our forces. Even if just by running our soldiers out of ammo.

Zenakan nations do not often form alliances, so this is a strange development. We cannot discern the origin of this development as they are taking specific efforts to keep hidden while going from one leader to the next.

The White Talon Armaments company is under reconstruction on Moncayo.

The mech/fighter project is a largely feasible idea, the problem just being the power source required to have both flight and any meaningful firepower on this style of design. The first problem Khymin is working on is how to prioritize certain tradeoffs in design. Lately his question is whether or not you care about agility versus firepower. Such a chassis can either limit its maneuverability in favor of heavier weapons or vice versa. He currently assumes you’ll take speed over armor weight, since a lot of durability issues will be solved with shields and making it fly at all will limit its armor capabilities compared to other class three and four mechs. He is defining ‘agile’ firepower as a small cannon rifle with a melee weapon and maybe some backup machine guns. By comparison Laenadra uses a larger cannon combined with mounted extra smaller cannons, missile launchers, heavy machine guns, and ethi artillery. He points out her mech is class 2. Which leads to his other question, do you want a class one two three or four?

Class 1: Can fit in more places easier, just a few meters tall and typically used in dense environments. High agility low top speed. Don’t get shot by a tank/rocket launcher. Carries a main and secondary weapon of smaller sizes.
Class 2: Biggest class that can comfortably fit in urban streets without breaking all the buildings around it. Highest top speed, strong agility. Can carry three weapons systems and survive an encounter with random soldiers who have a rocket. Still don’t fight a tank head on. Though this can dogfight strike craft.
Class 3: Serious mech warfare, packs a lot of firepower and can technically be towed through a city street but if it’s just running around buildings are going to be damaged. Carries larger weapons systems capable of destroying anything short of a destroyer ship or a class 4. With the flight prototype Khymin is making, this would still be decently fast but will be outpaced by regular strike craft. Though it can flip around whenever it wants so it has that going for it. Will get ganged up on by strike craft if it is out of position which could be lethal but it will definitely take multiple strike craft to bring it down.
Class 4: Most mechs in this class have enough firepower to level cities. Often by bumping into the city while walking around. The flight design will compromise that level of firepower and really kind of just hop/hover around. Though the flight mechanisms can be repurposed for faster ground movement with hovering assistance.

He also casually mentioned that a couple slave batteries would enable this design to actually work with much fewer compromises since that would fix one of the issues relating to the power systems.

It turns out that Larazja is a better administrator than most. Even without the help of a computer she can manage vast amounts of information, though I suspect she is cheating and offloading the equivalent of a spreadsheet file to the memory of her drones for later access. It also turns out ‘cool stuff that will keep her attention’ is really just shiny things or passive entertainment. She’s large enough that most defense training boils down to ‘equip ethi gear’. At her size its more about applying her force where its smart to do so, such as not while under fire from twenty other soldiers with training rounds that leave welts instead of taking cover.

The hydro shield…kiiind of works. We can make a shield of water that is somewhat energy resistant but the ‘opening a hole’ part doesn’t quite work. Especially not with the expertise of Steamworks being to avoid as much magic as possible. We can make it work on a large scale but miniaturization has been a struggle. Only ship and planetary shields can usually do this with regular shields, so if they figure it out to any level of practicality I’m sure there’s a Desoir prize for it. Also field tests have proven them less effective than regular shields.

Meanwhile, in the demon kingdom: Succubi/incubi populations are everywhere. They’re the most popular demon slave and many demon lords make an income exporting them out to the middle planes. We also have uncovered something in our investigations into the matter, there is a somewhat secretive succubus lord. It’s Aikane Yakunan. A large part of her mysterious nature and her need for protection in the Vloz alliance is because she wasn’t always that way. Also despite her status she is still heavily desired to either steal her shapeshifting powers, enslave the most powerful succubus, or to put down the only one to achieve the rank. This is part of why its a bit of a secret, atop of this even most succubi and incubi do not know Aikane’s origin. As a shapeshifter she can pose as about anything and she hasn’t been broadcasting her specific sub-species.

Also while not politically useful, one can always rally some imps. Notably they’re lowest on the totem pole and just the starting phase that leads to other evolutions if they survive long enough. However, some demon factions do raise them intentionally to create their armies. It’s not hard to entice them to any level of protection.

On the bad news side of things, the knights are pretty sure they’re being observed. They’re not sure by what and it hasn’t hindered them much, but powerful demons are known to be a little sneaky and mysterious sometimes. So that unnerving feeling has been having quite a bit of impact.

Kaylen has been setting up her own base south of Moncayo in what was once the colony of the Hasao Tei. Who seem to like her more than us, but they still always hang around with us…maybe for lack of better prospects. So I’m not sure what’s up with that to be honest. Though yes back to Kaylen, she’s taken off already back through the portal to continue recruiting, stocking up supplies, and trying to appeal to the various powers around Sol to get more people on board with her project while her intel division works on tracking Phantoms down. Also she’s off to hunt down a few Phantoms with their startup colonies going on.

The Outsider is space worthy once again, though chunks of it’s interior are still radically different materials than they should be. It’s kinda neat actually, adds some spice to walking down the hallways. In terms of structural integrity…eh the hull’s still thick right?

The bottleneck’s planar stabilized areas are really a result more so of the abyssal plane rather than anything else. It’s just very accepting of permanent alteration. What they were connected to has long since been closed off by the cleanup team.

The murder of the aquatic sirens trudges on, they’re becoming rather scarce now. Without Illdath they’re struggling to put up too much of a fight while we have our base planted right here, though we suspect many of them have retreated into the outer edges of the “planet”. This water disc is huge after all.

So there is a snag with convincing Eden to fix Vairatoa, he’s not physical. Eden has only ever worked on organic entities, Vairatoa is a living fireball. It doesn’t seem Eden is even capable of working on beings made of various energy sources, such as elementals, arcurans, spirits, and the like. Since her methodology is just extremely precise surgical work as opposed to energy manipulation.

Yoshai points out he already had his planar corruption removed by Eden the first time. He was literally patient zero to discover this effect even works, with Riley as the sample.

Selah points out that she is aware she needs to be more pro-active but felt it was rude to kidnap Reika to go and invade heaven while she was in the middle of the Zenaka campaign. So she is instead communing with Ankathi on her own, getting to know her new god, and preparing for…who knows what. Though the celestial branch of the Astral Order is the most dominant faction between Selah, Sarnai, Reika, and Aku representing it they have the largest faction of knights. Not to mention the champion and her direct apprentice. So for now she chats with Sarnai and Ankathi while taking it easy until Reika gets back.

Then Reika sent a squire to yell at Selah for not doing the ‘help the poor’ thing she was weaseling out of. As it turns out, Reika’s the only actually nice one of the paladins. So now Selah is roaming around Eden.

Meanwhile on Zenaka, the idea of using Eerihild to calm the drones down kind of worked. The problem is she can only be in one place at a time. The wolf knights had to hunt down escaping drones, fortunately they don’t run too far. They just start nibbling on the first thing they find. Quite a few died…to Setal’s drones. Judging by the reports, we’re lucky that’s all the damage too. The wolves are good enough hunters to track down the drones that are wandering off but the drones are still dangerous and in battle-mode. If we try this again without a giant glass dome to keep them in, they’ll probably get out after another attempt or two. Setal pointed out that the drones already memorized that they were unable to expand and are now developing new drone measures to escape any future containment by the wolves once again. Then she started singing about how she ‘wants to break free’.

As for the carrier portal project, that already exists. Irae can literally just stand at the hangar door and open the portal on the opposite side of the runway. The reason no one does this is because while that rift is open a single shot from a battleship will destroy the entire carrier as it will go straight through the shields and hull. If anything it bounces off the inner side of the defenses and creates even more destruction. If that cannon is undeterred, the ship is instantly gone. You can still take that risk and try to time the gateways to minimize the opening, notably Vloz will do this sometimes, but it’s one of the things Sol has been able to counter for decades now….because the Vloz kept doing it. On the other hand, works great against Nelta who do not have automated cannons and missiles that home in on rifts.

I mean it does make a mana battery if you really try but it doesn’t last very long nor produce more power than a sunstone. Which is already incredibly weak compared to a regular battery. Though you might not be totally insane, since Nelta ships use sahad engineering a lot.

For a human only granted immortality by proxy of being in my presence, you sure have a lot of theories on how immortals work. I am centuries old even before all of this, and now I am still just an infant. Though a human, even a psion as great as you, should be careful lecturing on what they know nothing about. Not that I know that much more either, but so far you’re oh for three on ‘how immortality works’. I appreciate your efforts to guide me, but it sure is strange that you speak as if you definitely know what you’re talking about while you are just as young as me. You and I have only lived through this era, Vasia and Renjala have seen multiple. Not to mention Renjala has made contact with Mahuea recently, a truly ancient being. Vasia…kidnapped an eternal being predating the existence of Sol’s star forming. I suppose I’m just left to wonder why you seem so sure of what our new existence entails instead of having any curiosity or expanded perspective. It feels like you are clinging to being human, perhaps because you barely were one in life and now you will slowly lose it. As each year passes on your lifespan spent as a human grows ever smaller a fraction. In a few centuries you will have lived so briefly as a human that it will be irrelevant. I have much longer before that fraction effect is significant but you…within my standing lifespan you will be human only in a faint and insignificant memory. We will still be infants on the immortal scale long after your humanity has any meaning to you. So I find myself curious as to your confidence in the matter. I’m sure in a few centuries your advice will change, but perhaps it would be best for the both of us to seek the advice of those older and wiser. Such as Renjala, Vasia, Ankathi… and Kanika. Who deliberately deals in these matters.

Also are you coming on to me? Don’t you have a succubus for that?

In regards to meeting with other immortals though, Lancaster only counts on one plane and we aren’t there. She also is younger than either of us anyways. Aryn is…a whole other perspective. She might become super duper ultra hyper sapient one day if she downloads enough RAM.

Craylin’s drones cannot keep essentia intact, that is unique to Craylin herself. It also has to be quite fresh, before the dissipation sets in. Actually she killed Setal herself while the succubus lay there bleeding on the ground. However, the ichor is the judgement of who will be kept or disposed of. So while she can do this, the ichor decides where the value in it is. Which we can’t control.

Rhazin’s drones do indeed share his rampage. They’re not necessarily better than any other drone though, until Rhazin starts fighting at least. They’re also not really more aggressive than regular drones, though those are pretty aggressive on their own, but Rhazin’s control over them will make them hyper aggressive since he’s aggressive.

Setal specifically can infect others in a different mechanism. Instead of getting monstrous mutations and wild behavior as we saw on Que, her infections produce drones…with a bit of time. Instead of overriding their systems and taking control, she can implant parasites that grow inside of people until they’re ready to break free. It’s not really super impactful compared to everything else we can already do, but the ichor found value in that. In keeping with our independent nature, Setal provided a means to create new swarms with a new method.

Also if you want drones you can have some, they’re just laying around the pool most of the day. Just grab a few and wander off, they’ll follow. Can use them to carry stuff for you. Also the more humanoid shaped ones could drive a car if you keep careful on instructing them how to do so.

Grinhys also could just pick up some drones and wander off with them but he is definitely more of a solo kind of guy.

Vasia sent a report that the colony is doing well getting established so they can measure the arcane core of the planet. She can predict the bursts to within a few days, and can tell when its about to occurr with a few minutes warning. So that’s progress.

She also sent the report on Si Yeon. The parasite didn’t change her makeup, it just added a sort of ‘stealth’ reading to her biology that makes the ichor not see her as organic as a survival mechanism to encountering the ichor. The ichor is still an overwhelmingly stronger mutator, but not if the parasite has adapted to hide from it. This is a byproduct of its other mutation that made it so no one noticed she had it until Vasia took a look. As it turns out, she still has the parasite. This is why she needs less coffee than everyone else supposedly. It’s just been hiding in her this whole time.

Si Yeon, when asked about mood enhancers that work for long term, suggested asking Ohalyn or Laura.

In other news, there are demon lords not associated with our enemies. Vloz and the Phantoms make up about half of the demon’s council but that still leaves plenty not associated with them. The best way to avoid getting ganged up on is to have significant enough wealth to be uncontested and avoid pissing off anyone else with wealth. Conveniently starting a frontier government checks all the boxes. Though if the Phantoms and Vloz both agree ‘fuck that new girl’ Setal’s in for a rough initiation.

Speaking of Setal, she has arrived at Zenaka to help with the war effort as a general display of power. The drones were unleashed alongside the knights and VSEC into one of the cities of the opposing Zenakan nobles. Eerihild kept it under control for the most part but she points out, this is not reliable. Had anything else gone just slightly more wrong, Zenaka would be enduring an apocalyptic swarm already. While Eerihild can control drones out of the synapse, the other wolf knights can’t. They’re badly injured and several died trying to control the drones that got out of Setal’s range. This was also a stress test of that ability and the more of them there are the less Eerihild can mitigate the problem.

While not mentioned in her report, I will remind you my swarm specializes in independent operation and infiltration. If they missed a few they could be building ichor pools in secret while preparing to continue their invasion until they reunite with Setal. While it’s necessary to let Setal show her power to Zenaka, the camera crews are dead. VSEC forces died to drones, knights died to drones, and that was in a controlled situation where they hoped to control it. We came to within an inch of the swarm doing its thing, and also we still don’t know for sure that we even have prevented it. Though as I’m sure you’ve noticed, its a recurring theme that the swarm is not easy to control or contain. If Setal ever comes in range of me again, I’m pretty sure a new wave of programming will reach the ichor lake and all future drones will have countermeasures to being contained by the wolves. So we’ll need a new idea before trying to do it a second time.

Greater Seer: The ichor responds to few things, such as what it feels is needed for any situation. Larazja has no needs, she is comfortable and without ambition. She must be baptized by war.

Gunhild wasn’t forming a unit, rather she has always had one. The B-Team, a name kept ironically despite the fact that they are the most elite infantry unit within the Federation as of now. Currently they lack a home garrison to hang out in so they just follow her to various destinations.

Rennyn has his squadron, they call themselves the Starbeasts.

Also you have learned pandem theory but nothing that will allow you to open a rift yet that would corrupt your mana.

The mech you’re requesting is a feasible concept though mana storage or generation technology would need to be improved.

The building materials are selling at a slower rate now, but we have managed to sell another $500,000,000 worth of materials.

 VSEC has been deployed to Zenaka to begin the takeover of the planet. As advisor I am programmed to give a brief strategical assessment. I recommend mechanized assault forces, as the Zenakans do not have that level of technology and are not prepared to counter it. Yes you technically already did this, but my programming still tells me to give you a pop up about it.

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Zenakan natives are resistant though spread out. While some are not even targets as Vloz sympathizers, many are arming themselves for the second invasion of their world but can likely be ignored as time convinces them it is not worth the effort.

Attempts to recruit crew for the new fleet have begun. Though with things as they are, morale is low and few people are signing up. Many friendly Zenakan’s have expressed interest even if they lack the education necessary to crew one of our ships. Training in process.

Eleazor and Echo Seven are still most likely in transit. Though they have left comm and scanner range, so they could also be dead and we just don’t know it yet.

Demon candidates for Grassy Gnoll have been processed and initial phases of the operation have begun.

The outsider is still being repaired, driving it through an ocean and crashing it into a city then letting it get eaten alive by the River has done immense damage to it. The actual bigger problem has been getting its pieces to the shipyards for repair. Moncayo does not have direct access for a ship that large, there is a transport tunnel that leads to the shipyards beneath this floating plate we’re on, but they generally don’t actually enter the city’s bubble. We’re still moving chunks over. The ship is practically destroyed but due to the unique abilities it has we figure its worth repairing the original ship even if it would be easier at this point to build a new ship of equivalent size.

Hydroshield progress has become a cylinder of falling water…which is amusing. I don’t know how often an attack would come from directly above but have you ever watched a cat try to escape a water fountain? In order to test the ability to track a highly mobile target, no one wanted to run all over an obstacle course. So they just clipped it to Yoshai and watched him go.

Kaylen doesn’t seem superbly pleased to meet you or Larazja, notably Vasia is away setting up a new research facility at least. Though I suppose to her credit she’s doing her best to stick to her own mantra of trying to convince people to work together despite ideological differences and just mutters to herself about it. Progress I suppose? She does seem to really like Eden though. Granted everyone likes Eden.

For now the knights are playing it slow in the demon kingdom, partially because we’re still working on the Setal thing so making any big plays right now might be dangerous. That and demon civilization is dangerous for them. The Vloz’Khress are somewhat influential in the middle planes politics but in the demon realms their council is one of the major alliances. In the demon kingdom various domains are rather heavily respected, unlike in Shetou where anyone just does whatever they want, so at the very least keeping out of the Vloz alliance’s territory has yielded some level of safety. Though this is still Kharla we’re talking about, and she can be erratic.

Though from a grassroots perspective, there are several demon classes that might be considered a little ‘oppressed’. Succubi like Setal conveniently being one of them, so in setting her up to be the demon lord we actually can find some traction with them. Typically succubi are not very high ranked and are more of possessions, it’s been that way for thousands of years just because of their specific abilities. Setal is actually one of the very few in history to achieve a greater demon status. Admittedly she cheated but it’s still noteworthy to the way their politics work.

Selah is a pretty modern pandem scholar, though is a specialist in binding more planar theory and understanding or any type of engineering. Her current plans are to cannibalize the celestial order, which she’s working on, and preaching the good word. She feels people will just be drawn to the new Order of The Fate once they realize its members can cast heal. Really only Sarnai can do it, but its still interesting.

Vairatoa is a little bland in the personality department, though he is an elemental so that makes sense. We’ve been trying to teach him to do things other than ‘set everything on fire’ as a combat option since that’s his go-to strategy.

The Maker alien has made many monsters in response to previous affairs but it doesn’t really make more of itself very readily. Bill has discerned this is because they generally don’t try to do it until the end of their lifespan so that their descendants can inherit their territories.

Mahuea is tentative about binding with anyone, power aside he is aware of the effects of pandem corruption. It has a unique effect on elementals, particularly ones as powerful as himself. Mana corruption makes mana based lifeforms, like elementals, a little ill. Vairatoa is largely ‘taking one for the team’ when he bound with Alexander. It also can erode their form, which is why Vairatoa really needs the suit. With something like Mahuea, dispersing apart with even small bursts could do a lot of damage. More like a solar flare than a crackle or pop from the campfire. This is also why he can’t bind with the already corrupted Vairatoa. Also pleas of haste don’t move creatures like him who operate on a much different time scale.

Though it is interesting that Mahuea is aware of the Phantoms through Alexander’s work, but doesn’t consider them anything to be cautious of. They don’t regard him as being in need of eradication so he extends the same courtesy to them. His kind qualifies as ‘not Kanika’s enemy’ twofold. The first being that they are immortals and the second being that they just sit around minding their own business and have never given dragons any trouble. He states that the Phantoms are just small pieces on the growing galactic scale we are becoming aware of, struggling for their own right to live. They were the piece used by Arkaric to bring galactic chaos, but he’s doing other things as well using other pieces. Building more of his androids with an exiled exerlus consensus, creating a doomsday weapon with the help of the jesai, cutting off galactic travel and communication allying with the galaxy’s most feared pirate fleet, collapsing stars in key locations with an empire near the galactic core, and so on. To Mahuea, the phantoms are just caught up in the temptations of opportunity. Galactic chaos gave them an opening to come out of hiding, in this state it is hard to bring all of Sol’s guns down to bear on them. Though it was not their plan nor even remotely within their capability without Arkaric. They had actually been infiltrating things to keep things in a constant equilibrium so no one would find them and just waiting things out, a perk of their immortality. As such he is actually critical of Kaylen’s work. While this opening will allow the Phantoms to finally rebuild themselves, they too will be victims of Arkaric’s endless chaos once they do manage to establish themselves again unless Kanika negotiates a deal with Arkaric. However, they still regard Kanika as their leader, not Arkaric. So they are still just pieces in his machinations instead of direct servants of his plans.

I suppose an ancient creature like him is more adept at focusing on the big things but he seems to have issues acknowledging the smaller aspects that are an immediate problem. Such as the Phantoms planning to murder us.

Reika and her forces have headed to Zenaka to lead the war effort. They’ll be there for a little while. Despite the technological advantages of VSEC, rooting out whole countries takes a bit of time and invasion. It should be easier than fighting the Vloz though.

You use little star in a sealed and warded box. We cannot see inside of it, but if we open it then it’ll immediately escape. We also can’t measure into a warded box. As long as it remains in the box, we cannot determine if the spell remains active or not…what was the point of any of that?

I’d review my financial records if it wasn’t blown up by aliens and horribly inconsequential to the fact that I am now a giant snake lady.

Also I’m a drow purebred, my hair has always been white. So I kind of just assumed my fur was like that for a similar reason. Though yes we aren’t aesthetically lacking, granted we’re based on the previously standing blueprints.

Which noodle did you want to impregnate? They’re all noodles as we went over.

Also no I don’t need to be physically pregnant. The ichor is my womb, and you are all my children…some adopted. Though its worth remembering, I cannot be disobeyed should I enforce my will. So wash your cat bowl when you’re done eating and if I have to tell you again you’ll carry it into the dishwasher yourself, muahahah…I need to work on my evil laugh more. Though, your thoughts on how to use the succubus power is lacking in imagination. She is also now of my swarm…and we specialize in parasitic infection. I’ll let you think on that. Just when you thought we were all out of warcrimes, the ichor comes up with new and exciting possibilities! I will remind you…I specialize in parasitic infection. Which means so does Setal.

Also yes, drow men are not particularly large or masculine by the standards of other races. Some of the women are a bit sleek due to being lazy butt mages but you’ll notice all Sarghess women are huge compared to other races.

More accurately Vasia took it out of the enchanted cell that kept the shade catatonic so it didn’t just walk out through a wall and didn’t bother maintaining the spell while dragging it over. Less intentional torture, more ‘too lazy not to torture’. Vasia doesn’t believe in anesthesia, takes too long to apply. It’s just an extra couple of minutes but…she ain’t got time for that.

Uh…I was a waitress as I said. Moved to the frontier in hopes of a better job. I guess nowadays I’m the queen of my little swarm which is a pretty cushy job. Rich people keep bringing me food and I just have to sit around and play with my children. I’d ask for a projector so I could watch tv but the aethernet is blown up. Maybe I should take up a hobby beyond dressing up my drones.

As for roles, I don’t think I have much input on the matter. Though it might be fun to get out more often, granted that seems dangerous these days. I used to dream of being rich but rich is relative right now and what you can buy with it is limited lately. Also now my prospects are a bit different. I’m sure you’ve noticed but many people are losing their dreams and ambitions as civilization crumbles. What good is a golden palace if there’s no power, plumbing, or anything on the holovision. What good is a sports car when the roads are ruins? People have seen their hope eroded…part of why we had that brigade of therapists. Anything I might have once wanted is gone now, for me more than most. There is no ‘return to normal’. I’m a monster, but social implications aside my sense of taste is pretty much gone. It is merely a sense of nutrition. I no longer need clothes since I’m resistant to temperature changes and spend a lot of my day in the ichor lake, so not much point in wearing things that’ll be at most slightly itchy. The farms burn, the buildings fall, the water boils, but what Arkaric really destroyed was hope. Without knowing what he did, all you see is senseless destruction and endless chaos. Knowing what he’s doing is somehow even worse, to know its not random and it will not pass. We’re chasing the Phantoms but they’re just one of thousands of pawns he moved across the galaxy, his influence so endless that civilization ending apocalypses are merely an email away for him. Now most of us just can only hope to survive. Sure VSEC soldiers can aspire to get a promotion, maybe drive the big tank. Vasia has the power to alter things on a galactic scale so she still has the agency needed to feel ambition. But by the millions our eyes grow dull and our dreams rot. Not that its been all bad…less desire to have ‘more stuff’ has made people a bit better at working together and brought many together to help one another. Until the next farm burns at least. Wait what were we talking about?

Wait why am I testing removing myself from the synapse? Just walk over there and do it yourself. Though perhaps it would be better to ask Eerihild to do it.

As for the soul thing, I don’t think we can convince the ichor to do a PR stunt. You could connect to Kaisa again though and I bet it’d get the ‘on’ signal to go back into full war production, which is when it uses it’s souls to make things. I’m sure nothing will go wrong with that idea. The drones already chew on every life form they can find if they get out of the synapse range.

Also no I don’t want to go swimming looking for more Phantoms. I’m in the lake all day in hopes they don’t find me as it is.

I’m just a waitress I am not the right person to discuss philosophical evil with. Though I feel like I get Kanika’s point. Solians lose every objective measurement you can make when compared to dragons like her…or to creatures like me. They’re a pack of wolves eating her children, she feels nothing for their continued existence. Even if you aren’t the exact one that did it…what does it matter? Humanoids are fated to go extinct or be domesticated as far as she is concerned. They attempted to kill everyone who wasn’t like themselves. The fact that Kanika hasn’t done the same yet shows a level of restraint you do not give her credit for.

It’s an argument the phantoms have made…and now that I’m no longer a drow I kind of get it. What is a gnoll to me? A potential threat, meal, or pet perhaps. Though under nothing short of a delusion could you consider them an equal life form to me. Nothing they can ever be is as valuable as beings like myself, Azilath, or half the Phantoms. The potential of their lives is dwarfed by the near infinite potential of mine, if you draw the line of sapience just behind humanoids then what if I draw it just behind myself? I could eradicate them all if I wanted to. I don’t need to negotiate my existence to an animal, I could just end theirs if they piss me off enough to hate them more than I want to dress you up in holiday sweaters. Speaking of which sit still this will be adorable…

Immortality is a funny thing like that. No matter how you achieve it, once you do the potential of your life becomes greater than that of entire races. You now have all the time you need to achieve all that can ever be achieved. Losing thousands of years of work is like knocking your pen off the table. A brief momentary annoyance. The death of an immortal is a tragedy unmatched by the lesser races. What does an orc care when a bee dies heroically protecting its colony? When entire species go extinct due to harvesting their natural habitat? That is the glimpse of the difference in scale. To be honest, I don’t reaaaally care about Cassir dying. As much as I liked her, she was always fated to be but a momentary creature in this galaxy. My pet dog. You, Vasia, Renjala, myself…we might roam these stars until eternity. What does a human matter to us?

Why are you looking at me like that? Ooh hold on I have a hat to go with the sweater for you.

I still think Si Yeon is suspicious.

Also yes we have found more of Illdath’s people here and there. They’re a broken army with no leader, so it’s just been a matter of putting them down. Hasn’t really been news worthy. Few people died while hunting sure but, they were insignificant. Why are you looking at me like that?

Ironically the least tech savvy people are the best for making floating city’s on any level of efficiency. Open some strategic Kari rifts, tah dah. So…that’s the order’s job otherwise it’ll cost a hundred times more to do it and a lot of fuel.

I don’t know how you’re still bewildered by Vasia’s incredible ego that grants her impossible arrogance. You know all those cats that curiosity killed? They turned into shades. They don’t really have fear until it is taught to them. Exme is a reporter who hung out on a planet being invaded by Valdir and kept taking notes to write a story with even after her equipment was damaged. Shades just don’t really…understand mortality. If anything death is a curiosity to them. This is like being mystified that a revenant is always pissed off for no reason. The actual spirit revenant like Vidarius, not the group of ninja women.

Grinhys is off to explore a planet with a serial number. We should probably name the colony, the locals refer to that planet is Hiekaekus though. It’s the name of their old god of fertility. Likely brought on by the fact that their color morphs are determined at birth through mana absorption. So those born under an eruption from the planet tended to be…blessed. Actually maybe its not named after the god and it is the god.

Establishing Setal as demon lord should be…fun. Though she has her own drone legion so she should be fine hopefully…I’m just trying to comprehend if demon lord outranks me…again. Why do all my children outrank me? I expect spectacular mother’s day gifts.

Also we can’t digest the siwa warforged things really…I guess Craylin could harvest their essentia but who knows.

Kaylen’s general stance hasn’t really changed on the ‘taking all comers’ idea, at least for now. Despite clearly not being enthusiastic about some of our members, she is convinced that the Phantoms need to be dealt with. I never studied history much but apparently Kanika’s name invokes a reaction. Though as Renjala learned from Mahuea, they’re not the biggest problem, yet to Kaylen they are. Kanika was the dragon that almost destroyed the rising and sent all of humanoid-kind into an age of never ending torment. Fated to be nothing more than animals living in a world ruled by higher species.

That being said the Revenants are still invited, even if they haven’t really accepted the invitation. They’re a bit less willing to bend on certain matters than Kaylen is. Probably why they’ll always be just annoying pests on the side of everyone’s business.

The attempt to find essentia in the river would involve opening the river back up, though it does appear to be a really bad idea. Due to the nature of the planar laws changing so erratically, the vestiges of essentia in the area that Craylin can sense are actually toxic to her. We discovered this by a drone going into convulsions and literally falling apart after trying to harvest some.

We’ve done some further upgrading to the Nomad’s impromptu flotilla to house more people. It was originally just a trophy case and a used ship lot for them but it seems to be necessary to house all of these refugees now.

Allison can head up efforts to re-infiltrate the underworld. She’ll need a ship and some boys though. I sent her some of Nomad’s extra pirates we’ve been collecting. Since she doesn’t really need agents for this kind of work. Though Dunchek points out he was a fair and legitimate businessman. We’re still not sure Shetou’s idea of legitimate business matches ours.

The Moncayo black market is just trading rations really. Many of the VSEC soldiers have figured out they have more food than the refugees and can trade it for things. Not our best look, though it hasn’t stopped our old friend from capitalizing. Ohalyn’s still around and with her plaza gone she’s returned to just finding pretty folk to whore out for whatever people are trading these days. Scavenged materials from the war pop up here and there as well, those who found a dead soldier’s gun have a lot of leeway in setting up their own gangs within the refugee population. Laura King’s been sitting cushy and retired so she’s not really helping much.

The problem is that this is all happening erratically and naturally forming. There is no central gang that is running all of this like when Laura, Kyven, or Zhuan were around. So Michael and Dunchek can root out some smaller gangs here and there but then more and more appear. As the housing situation gets corrected its likely to take a downturn though and we’ll see what remains of it in the end. Also half of the gang problems can be solved with food, but food is scarce for the refugees compared to those who are still properly employed.

When it comes to Vanjin, pretty much everyone needs her to hunt every other member of the Phantoms. We could turn her loose as an assassin I suppose, just put up some fake bounty boards for her to claim from. I suppose they wouldn’t be fake but I can’t imagine too many people are dumb enough to go for it.