“My Lord?” Tertiary Technician Two curved an optic tube towards Quaternary Lord Ten’s acceleration couch. “The first data capsule is back from Planet 227,736,002.”
Lord Ten looked confused. “Hmm?”
“Your Adoptive Planet, my Lord. The first data capsule is available.”
“Oh!” The Lord sat forwards between the padded cushions and patted his manipulators together in pleasure. “Excellent, excellent, hurry up, show me! Come on, come on! I’ve been looking forward to this for denagun! The natives will have no trouble at all. I almost feel rather sorry for their opponents.”
The Technician’s tentacles flowed across the control screen. The covers glided back from the large data display pool, and the recording materialised from the taui waters. The view was obviously scaled to show a large area, with hundreds of beings gathered together. “If the information from the pre-Adoption report is correct, this recording is from one of the planet’s major military and political power centers.”
Quaternary Lord Ten recognised one large group of figures right away. Slender, grey-skinned, two-armed and bipedal, with a rounded upper protrubrance dominated by two large optical sensors. “Oh, good, the Cezaltiuntare. They’ve been preparing the Planet for Adoption.” He glanced at the timestamp. “They must have set up this meeting just before Initialisation so they could watch the reactions to the System coming online. The culmination of all their hard and careful work on my behalf. Oh, how exciting!”
The Technician hesitated on the controls. “I thought Preparateurs could not also be Participants, my Lord? Shouldn’t they have withdrawn before Initialisation?”
The Lord airily waved a manipulator. “I gave them special dispensation. They wanted to see the results of their labours. Their reports to me have been very impressive. The natives are all well informed and so enthusiastic about having me as their Meosawe! Initialisation is just a formality really. The Cezaltiuntare will just greet the natives, take some recordings then be on their way, I expect.”
The Technician kept silent.
Quaternary Lord Ten studied the Planet’s native sentient species. He’d seen images before, but this was his first view of them in their native habitat. They were superficially quite similar to the Cezaltiuntare. Bipedal, with two manipulation limbs- each with five digits- and a similar rounded protrusion at the top that they termed a ‘head’. They stood a little taller than the Cezaltiuntare, and unlike the Preparateurs they covered their bodies with manufactured garments, although they seemed to have very little variation in their clothing between individuals. The uncovered portions of their bodies looked smooth, and with a few exceptions had more variety than their clothing. The front of their heads had two small optical sensors, two larger audio sensors, an airbourne chemical sensing organ and a nutrient input hatch that they reportedly also used for audio communications and as an additional means of chemical analysis.
He cast his optical sensors over the equipment that the natives had brought. They had a wide range of relatively primitive mechanical conveyances on the ground and in the air. “Ingenious! They’ve produced mechanicals below the technology cap. They call themselves… Heu-manz, the reports say.”
The Technician called up more data. “Ah… these readings… They’re not below cap, my Lord?”
“Oh, magnificent, natural Taui users then! Skilled Technomancers! High natural Taui field!”
The Technician cringed. “Um… the Planet had no Taui prior to Integration, my Lord?”
“What?” Quaternary Lord Ten leant so far forward he almost fell from his couch. “Then why are they…?”
The Cezaltiuntare’s communication filtered through the automatic translator. “
Quaternary Lord Ten’s grey skin flushed faintly green. “But… the reports! What would drive the Cezaltiuntare to resort to conquest? What is wrong with the natives? The reports were so good! What changed?”
Whatever the native said sparked retaliation from the Cezaltiuntare. They opened fire. The natives tried to respond, but their equipment was no longer functioning, which seemd to take them by surprise. Swathes of them fell as their own weapons proved useless. Their flying vehicles fell from the sky. Some swarmed from within the ground vehicles and seemed to be trying to get them to work.
Only those close enough to charge the attacking Cezaltiuntare survived more than a few moments, but there the natives proved far more effective. They were more physically powerful than the Participants and obviously better trained in hand to hand fighting. They were also badly outnumbered. Lord Ten’s last hopes crumbled along with his enthusiasm as the last pockets of native resistance fell. They had taken many Cezaltiuntare with them, but ultimately they failed. “It’s as if they didn’t even try. Did they not listen? Not prepare even a little? No wonder the Cezaltiuntare gave up on them!”
Tertiary Technician Two forwarded through the data, but the images were depressingly similar. Across the planet, 227,736,002’s major military forces fell to various Participant forces, including two further Cezaltiuntare units. Whatever they thought they’d done to their technology to convert it for use during Integration had failed, and badly. Lord Ten berated the natives, cursed them, then fell into sullen silence.
Technician Two hunted in vain for good news, finding nothing. Only one small piece of footage stood out. “My Lord?”
“This has ruined me!” Lord Ten moaned. “Ruined! I thought they’d give me a planet with promise! How could those Heu-manz let me down like this? How can I face my Prime after this?”
“My Lord, you should see this.” The Technician risked Lord ten’s anger and flared the display, flooding the Lord’s senses.
It was the same scene they’d first viewed, as the final native fell and the Cezaltiuntare stood over the bodies. The leader of the Cezaltiuntare forces looked up. The datacorders were normally masked during the Adoption process, but the Cezaltiuntare leader clearly knew where this one was. He looked directly towards the datacorder and gave the device a mocking salute. “
Quaternary Lord Ten flushed in rage. “Betrayers!” he shrieked. “Liars! Deceivers!”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Tertiary Technician Two tried to make himself smaller, sidling around the control console a little.
“Stop!” Lord Ten screeched. “Where do you think you’re going?”
The Technician hunched smaller, eyeing the Lord with apprehension. “My Lord?”
Lord Ten was almost blue with rage. “Can you get direct access to the Planet’s System?” he demanded.
The Technician’s neck frill stood on end. “What? That’s illegal!”
“That’s not what I asked!” Lord Ten snappd.
The Technician glanced longingly at the exit door. “I… no. It’s not something my Rank… is supposed to have access to! And… I didn’t hear you ask, because of course you’d never do anything illegal…”
Quaternary Lord Ten drew himself up to his full, unimpressive height. “The Cezaltiuntare are honourless cowardly thieves and I’ll do what I like to take back my Meosawen! They’re my dependents! They’re relying on me!”
“If the Cezaltiuntare even explained to them what a Meosawe is,” the Technician muttered. The colourful nodules along his skin cyced through multiple colours, reflecting rapid thought. “My Lord, of course you’d never do anything illegal. And of course you’d never visit the Octonary Programming Sector. Especially not on Tenday when Octonary Programmer One would be away to make his report to his Supervisor, so the Sector wouldn’t be able to give you the proper official tour suited to your position. And you’d never dream of talking to a lowly Octonary Progammer in the teens, who’d be the only ones left. That would be such a foolish thought I’d never even mention it to you.”
“But you’re mentioning it to me now…” Lord Ten stared at the Technician in confusion. Then his expression cleared. “Oh. Oh! Oh, yes, of course. No, no, ah, of course not. I, I barely even spoke to you. Never heard you say a word. Did your job admirably. Excellent control of the display. I’ll mention that to your Supervisor. Now shut the thing down and leave me in peace, can’t you see I’m busy?”
Tertiary Technician Two almost oozed off his seat as the tension left him. “My apologies, my Lord, I shame myself in failing to recognise your need for solitude. I shall remove my unwanted presence immediately.”
“I should think so too!” Lord Ten slumped back in his couch, each ring of flesh partly collapsing into the one below until he was little more than a quivering cream puddle topped with a messy mass of feathery sensory organs. “How dare they! They seemed so honest. All this is so underhand. I should blow up their homeworld! That would show them! I’d only need to buy a couple of fleets. It worked last time. If only I hadn’t promised not to… Or I could blow up the nadbe Meosawen planet instead… maybe that Technician could make it look like an accident? So much easier than all this messing about not saying what you mean. Altogether easier. I’ll have someone see what’s on the market…”
♩♪♫♩♬♪
“Y’all right now?” Alfie asked carefully.
“Fuck no,” Chezzo groused. “What the fuck?”
“Aliens.” Noah shook his head in disbelief. “Jack always said there were aliens. We laughed at him.”
Alfie snorted. “He never said aliens’d show up, get topped by a fuckin’ song and put Chezzo in charge.”
“Never said Chezzo’s real name was-” Noah started, then stopped because Alfie’s hand was clamped firmly over Noah’s mouth.
“This is fucked up,” Chezzo said. “I used to like video games. Now we’re livin’ in one, and it’s right traggy.”
They looked out over the eerily silent city. Salcester was normally a rancid, anarchic pit of dischordant stubborness, held together by inverted snobbery and the threat of violence. Now it was an empty maze of shadows and abandoned vehicles. Weird looking animals prowled in the distance, but they’d kept away and nobody had tried to get a closer look yet. The band’s mobiles had power but no signal, so there was no way to check on the outside world without going and looking.
“It’s quiet.” Alfie shuddered and flapped his hands as if shaking off water. “It’s weird, that. Sallie’s never quiet.”
Chezzo sighed. “This is doing my head in. Who the fuck’d put me in charge of anything?”
“You won a fuckin’ epic battle,” Noah pointed out. “And then y’signed a bunch of t shirts and some fit bird’s tits. And then you built a castle! That’s dead ‘ard.”
The three of them turned away from the depressing view of the seemingly dead city, and back at what had been the Salcester International Centre. It was now somewhat taller and built out of huge stone blocks. Great round towers stood at each corner, and a large square-sided tower marked the only entrance. They were sitting on the roof of one of the straight sections that linked the corner towers, and their position did nothing to mask from them the fact that the whole building was now a giant medieval castle.
“I swear down I never meant t’do that! Some box came up about command being political or something or something else.” Chezzo’s face twisted in a sneer. “Fuck politics, I wasn’t picking that. I didn’t know it would turn it into a fuckin’ castle.” Alfie patted him consolingly. Glumly, he opened his stat sheet, in case there were any more nasty surprises waiting for him. There had been a few changes to it already, not long after a message about entering cheat mode. Most of it would have made sense to anyone who had played a few RPGs, except for the part about this being real life and not a game.
Name
Planet
Species
Level
Faction
Rank
Health Manchester United Taylor
Earth
Human
3
Abraham Moss
Commander
3/23
Pen 0
Lio 0
Tan 0
Strength
Agility
Dexterity
Vitality
Intelligence
Wits
Charisma
Power 56
56
56
84
84
56
66
79 Skills
Berserker (Get Out Of My Face) 15%
Epic Soundtrack 3%
Identify Monster 2%
Improvised Weapon 48(2)%
Kick (Right In The Vulnerables) 59(13)%
Management (Fortified Command Centre) 50%
Ritual Magic 2%
Technomancy 2%
Titles
Executioner Una, Founder (Epic Soundtrack), Giant Slayer Una, Impossibly Alive, Prime Voice of the Starry Heavens, Progenitor Una (Ritual Magic), Reaper Una, Sector Commander, Trailblazer (Epic Soundtrack), Trailblazer (Technomancy)
Spells
Marked For Death (Retribution)
Unspent Points: 15
Chezzo sighed and rubbed his face. “Let’s spend these points, then. Put them into fuckin’ cookin’, ‘cause next we got to find scran for three thousand fuckin’ fans.”
Alfie turned a blank stare on Chezzo. The sort of look that passes right through and comes out with an idea on the other side. “I’m not cookin’, me. But we don’t need to, do we? We got this Ritual Magic shit. We can sing for it.”
The band stared at each other for another long moment. Then Chezzo gave a blinding smile. “Nice one, our kid! Alright, Abee-ems. Let’s get writin’!”
♩♪♫♩♬♪