CHAPTER 8 : PEOPLE CAN BE MONSTERS TOO

"See you in 10000 years...", the chubby white centipede had said, waving one of its stubby legs in a so-long gesture before turning its back and walking off into nothingness... as if trying to seem cool. Instead it had seemed surprisingly mundane. Eldritch monsters could be just like people, huh?

It had dropped them both off near the sinkhole, along with Nina's stuff in a big jumble. The pilots had helped them to carry it all back.

Nina was able to communicate with ZU and the pilots, which didn't make much sense. It must be part of the whole transmigration setup. She was now encased in a gel blob in the pool, undergoing the pilot conversion process. Nina had been quite comfortable with her original body as it was, but there would still be some changes due to ZU's limited control, and she needed to fit in the pilot armours which ZU could only make in one size.

The conversion would take two weeks so Riona ordered up 9 more pilots as well using the spoils she had gotten from the battle. She didn't have Zoids for them all yet but it seemed like a good idea to allow time for practice since the pilots did learn and adapt. She also had 40 of the relatively cheap sets of underclothes made. ZU might not be able to make large rolls of fabric, but they could still use the tops for sewing projects. Nina had brought a kit which also contained her dyes.

After this expenditure they still had thousands of Zels sitting pretty in the bank, partly from the ongoing excavation project but most of it from the new biomatter.

The pool had not been able to absorb a piece of chopped off tentacle from the commander's corpse. Something was "deeply wrong" about the matter according to ZU. They were going to dig a pit and leave the whole thing to rot, but one day it was just gone. Had Thuruchc-Khuun returned to snatch it? She had a feeling the 10000 years part had just been a phrase.

The Groundmauler had begun its prospecting at the 1.5km mark, so Riona initiated the growth of another Silverkong and two transport Gools, then two Gariuses. She hoped the enemy commander was a one-of-its-kind, but who knew? Well, Thuruchc-Khuun probably.

She had wanted to make some Glidoler or Pegasuros flying type Zoids – basically a larger variant of the Cannosers – but they were more expensive to mass produce and maybe not as useful for defence. She'd have to continue to scout with the Cannosers for now, then maybe deploy the Gariuses to location if need be.

–o–

As things turned out, nothing came to disturb them in the weeks it took for the new pilots and Nina to emerge.

Nina looked slightly taller but otherwise had close to the same appearance and had the same pale skin as before. It had been the type which gets – or perhaps just shows – blemishes and spots easily, but now only some subtle freckling and the beauty mark on her clavicle remained. She had been relieved to discover that her characteristic landing strip was now zero-maintenance. Apparently ZU had control over -that-, Riona thought, giving the pool a narrowed side eye.

Similarly to Riona, Nina's hair- well, the green mohawk part was now naturally coloured and wouldn't need to be dyed. It could probably be bleached and dyed in another colour if fancy struck, but Riona had never seen Nina with any other style. The number 2 trim hair on the sides would grow out though. Riona's own was visibly longer after over a month.

They had spent a day touring and exploring the place – and later each other.

They were now 18 pilots and two commanders. Well, Nina had technically been appointed a sub-commander as that's how ZU's system worked. It was just a way to give her administrative rights really.

Around the bowl of the spawning pool a few caves had been dug out to eventually serve as private quarters. They were in desperate need of furniture and only had the shag sofa which Nina now lounged sideways in, wearing the only pair of leather pants which now would fit. These thankfully had adjustable side straps going down the entire length of the legs. She wore a triangle bra in matching black and was currently occupied trying to explain the punk scene to A1 who stood in rigid attention.

See, punk at its intersection with the second wave skinhead movement was not a monolithic entity. Typical adherents were members of the lower class rebelling against the various – or specific – established systems keeping them down, while others were more apolitical. The skinhead movement in particular was eventually infiltrated by neo-nazis who -also- wanted to rebel against the establishment - the establishment-of-not-genociding-minorities-and-gays, probably. Meanwhile, Punk was also increasingly permeated and misrepresented by the actual establishment making shallow schlock.

A1 wore her golden pilot armour without the helmet. And also a slight frown, her mouth opening and closing, ultimately deciding to leave questions raised by the lecture unasked. She would just listen then return to completing today's drills, practice and patrols, and further testing of the new Garius units. She had a feeling the commanders were unorthodox but didn't have the experience to know why or how.

Riona – now back in just the standard pilot top and panties – entered the cave and threw herself into the sofa, making Nina rapidly retract her legs up along with her eyebrows. Around their cave were piles of Nina's stuff.

–– "What's up?", Nina shot after an seeing that an explanation for the intrusion was not forthcoming.

Riona began to tip sideways, then fell onto Nina, face down as if dead.

–– "I'm tired.", she said in a voice muffled by a belly, but probably meant "I wanted to fall onto your body."

Nina rolled her eyes at the lie. They had tested these bodies earlier and tired wasn't in their vocabulary. Still, she patted Riona's head momentarily, then thought of a thing she had come up with earlier.

–– "Hey, what if we dug an escape tunnel for ZU under the pool? Then it could breach through a small plug then slosh down and away into a new hollow if an emergency arose."

Riona looked up, her face now looking thoughtful in processing the random remark. It wasn't a bad idea. In fact, a network of these structures could give ZU the mobility to move around and choose direction, albeit only on a sloped downward trajectory. The new Silverkong and Gool workforce were currently busy though. They had gotten to work a while back after the Groundmauler came across a small deposit of useful ore at the 1.5km level.

Riona looked at A1 still standing there looking a bit misplaced, so she dismissed her and briefly noticed a sign of relief or excitement in A1's face. Were the pilots already developing personal features and could she perhaps encourage that kind of development by giving them private quarters, property and time? Was it a cruel thing to do to a being made for war?

The new pilots were called B1 to B9, so Nina was perhaps B0. She had the idea of renaming the pilots after components she had handled at work. Diode, Switch, Via, Trace, that sort of thing, but when brainstorming they quickly ran out of names and abandoned the idea, thus avoiding having to name some poor women PCB, Trimpot, or Electrolytica.

Nina watched A1 leave, then pushed Riona upright and walked off to get a notebook.

–– "How about getting to work drawing that map you mentioned?"

–– "Right, I should probably make a proper one for a strategy room of sorts, though once we have filled out the command map that's kind of superfluous. I'll just make a quick one now to explain the general situation..."

Riona took the notebook and scribbled down a map of the continent of Luraan. It looked something like a ragged triangle standing on its tip.

–– "So we're in the wasteland of the ancients, which lies here...", Riona said, cutting off a sizeable chunk of land at the top left corner of the triangle with a squiggly line.

–– "It's separated from the central region by the Yama mountains", she continued, indicating the line, " which...uh, this world's Riona crossed more in desperation than deliberation."

–– "How does that work anyways? Are there two people in your head?"

–– "No, it feels more like having a set of extra – but old – memories. Like when you remember a thing from childhood, and recognise the past self more as a different person under different circumstances. Most of the cells in your body have been replaced and whatnot."

–– "Ship of Theseus with a fresh coat of paint, huh?", Nina said, poking Riona's supple arm.

–– "Right... I guess technically I'm rather old, but I don't really feel it. Most people probably don't – they live in the present without being constantly aware of the weight of their entire lifetime..."

Riona fell silent for a moment and looked up at the cave roof.

–– "I guess... if Riona was born in 465, and it's now 503, then she was... uh... 38?"

–– "Dope! That makes you 60, you old granny!", Nina jeered.

–– "ANYWAYS. So she fled from Froenkia, east of here, and west of... Gohtzilvba.", Riona intervened, encircling a region of the central and upper part of the triangle.

–– "Gohtzilvba was the shrunken remains of an empire – the Dregh empire – which was at its greatest some three centuries back. In recent times in was more of a... a sort of- uh, uh- pseudo-democratic empire. People had the right to vote, but only on one of the three imperial families who took turns ruling. Somehow it was often a draw with a few percent of the votes tipping the scale."

–– "Hah – That sounds a little bit familiar.", Nina mused quietly.

–– "A decade ago there was a movement there spearheaded by one of the imperial families. A return to 'the good old days', that sort of thing. They lost the election, but won after deploying troops to force a recount."

–– "Sus..."

Riona chuckled sadly.

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–– "The new emperor, Arthold Muzzo, managed to stir people into a frenzy – and not just domestically. The whole thing felt very unnatural... surreal. It escalated into bloodshed, and unhinged purgings of political enemies and 'decadents', then war, then organised genocide at a continental scale."

Nina just sat silent until Riona put the notebook down and slapped her thighs and leaned back.

–– "As for religion, they have this Xaedus character who was the reincarnation of 'The last god' and supposedly performed a few miracles. More notably though, he wrote down all of humankind's sins on a parchment, tied it to a rock, and threw it into a deep lake, thus somehow opening up humankind's path to afterlife..."

Nina squinted.

–– "That's... a strange way to go about it."

–– "Apparently it's more about the general idea than the execution. Anyways, since then most other religions have been stamped out and occasionally one leader or another are being hailed as a divine reincarnation."

–– "Like... the current Neo-Dregh emperor?"

–– "Exactly!"

Nina looked a little thoughtful.

–– "Well, I suppose judging by our own experiences, it's not like-", Nina started.

–– "I should have asked Thuruchc-Khuun about Xaedus. However, I'm pretty sure the emperor and his ilk are just riding the divine coattail so to speak. It's just another case of a self-aggrandising wanker seizing the right moment to build a cult."

–– "So are we going to blow his brains out?"

Riona snorted.

–– "I don't know if it will help honestly – there's an entire monstrous machine in place now... and it's made out of people. If that is persuasively trampled there might be another 70 years of peace. Hoping for more would perhaps be too optimistic, especially given the history of this particular world."

–– "Better that than nothing I'd say."

–– "Once we reach the deep mine in three weeks we'll see what happens."

–o–

Trouble came knocking sooner than that. Riona had hoped to start scouting east beyond the Yama mountains and into her 'homeland' Froenkia, but low flying Cannosers on patrol had already picked up Neo-Dregh air forces sometimes spilling over the mountains, and one day a larger Neo-Dregh high altitude 'Scout Wing' went straight out over the wasteland.

Fortunately, the Gools with their ground effect jets had already managed to clean up most tracks in the area surrounding the sinkhole. The scout plane passed by some distance to the side.

Still, it was time to step up production just in case. Currently they only had three Gariuses plus the smaller Zoids.

–o–

Over the next week the excavation and 1.5km deposit yielded around 1000 and over 2000 Zels respectively. It immediately went into making a Garius, two Silverkongs and four Gools. The latter would quickly pay for themselves clearing the new mine.

As the week closed, Riona finally snuck two Cannosers piloted by A1 and A2 over the mountain range into Froenkia to do some low altitude night time scouting. What they found was somewhat expected. This world wasn't as densely populated as Earth. Like most countries, Froenkia was mostly barren wasteland or mossland. The handful of remaining forested regions were in the process of being exploited by what could only be the invasive Neo-Dregh industrial machine.

There were no stretches of farmland or ubiquitous little villages so the scouts focused on the sites Riona had marked on a hand drawn map, namely the two city spires LuParoe and Cegun'zepone-Gufal.

Riona and Nina studied the direct feed from the Cannosers' night sensors. LuParoe looked like most city spires – it was essentially a large and rather flat pyramid structure with a base of some 8 by 8km, though its edges had been cut off leaving an 80 meter tall wall. With a slope of 7 degrees the base pyramid might only have reached a height of some 700 meters if it hadn't been for a secondary pyramid occupying the 1.7 by 1.7km centre. This one instead rose at 45 degrees but was cut off at an altitude of 1.1km where yet another steeper pyramid added 700 meters before cutting off at 1.8km. The flat top housed a 300 by 300 meter area with gardens and parks.

The central spire of course housed only the wealthy, whilst the flat base and subterranean regions housed the middle class. The lower class lived in exposed shanty towns outside of the base, but worked in mines, geothermal plants, factories and food farms sometimes deep below the pyramid.

The surface of the pyramid was partly overgrown by the common green moss, but it was also littered with trench-like streets and structures. Riona had lived in the middle class strata of LuParoe most of her life, before she had to flee. The city didn't look much different now except for some hints of more recent cratering along the side walls. Parked outside was an entire armoured division with perhaps 300 Neo-Dregh vehicles. The two Cannosers could likely cause a lot of damage with a surprise attack, but if similar opportunities were presented elsewhere then Riona would rather not reveal her hand quite yet.

The Cannosers didn't seem to have caught any unwanted attention and proceeded to Cegun'zepone-Gufal where they found a similar situation.

–o–

Riona was feeling increasingly impatient. She wanted to end the occupation now, but it was risky business. Nina suggested trying a triple whammy shock strategy. Groups of two Gariuses supported by a Cannoser would handle LuParoe and Cegun'zepone-Gufal respectively. If the old tank wrecks were any indication these newer models would fare only a little better.

They'd also send out the new flying Zoid that just matured – a Glidoler armed with a powerful Beam Vulcan Gun and four missiles for defence or offence. More importantly perhaps, its Dual Booster Rockets would allow it to temporarily reach speeds of Mach 4.1, making a hit and run attack on the Neo Dregh imperial headquarters in former Gohtzilvba possible. It will just be a little demonstration, concluding with a strongly worded message.

Nina had called it operation SIKE, which Riona suggested could mean "Speedy Incursion to Knockout Evil", whilst Nina proposed "Strikeforce In Knickers Enigmatic".

Speaking of knickers...

Since they shouldn't splash around in ZU-113 they had made an actual pool filled with some ground water they came across and redirected to a large new neighbouring bowl. The water was purified and heated by the cooling system of a spare fusion core, turning it incredibly clear. The initial idea was to use the pool for testing water Zoids, but something unexpected had happened – there were half a dozen pilots splashing around in the pool. The underclothes had to double as swimwear bikinis. Nina had even made a few triangle tops out of the spare material, though the pilots didn't seem to get the point of these.

–o–

A1 shot the strange and colourful inflatable plastic ball at B3, who caught it with her face. These new pilots had yet to master their motor skills and A1 was just helping. Or was she doing something else? B3 shot the ball at B9 who tried to sneak attack A1, perhaps figuring that she looked a bit distracted. A1 just smacked it aside towards A7, who reacted just in time to catch it and made a shot at B3 who caught it this time.

At the bottom of the pool idled the new Crablaster which had helped to reinforce the cave walls with its Melt Bubbles, as per A1's suggestion. A1 didn't know why the Commanders hadn't done this earlier but they must have had their reasons.

Upon checking her internal chronometer, A1 could sense that her so called leisure time was ending and she had to get back up. As she exited up the slope of the pool, B3 made a sneak attack, hitting her square on the butt with a loud thwock. A1 froze for a moment, but didn't turn around. She could hear B3 making a strange chuckling noise, just like the Commanders, and a few of the others followed suit. She blinked away the sting – somehow both physical and psychological – then adjusted the panties and walked off without comment.

Since it was a bit cumbersome to wiggle out of the wet panties and dry off manually A1 instead just took a dip in the Zoic liquid which quickly absorbed the water, then she went to her quarters and suited up. Operation SIKE was just a few days away and A1 to A7 had been selected. The Commanders would remain back at base overseeing the operation via the remote command functions.

–o–

The forces set out in the evening and travelled all night. The bipedal Gariuses had no problems safely crossing the mountains, though they did so at a slower speed while the Cannosers scouted ahead. The flat regions were quicker to traverse but the Garuses couldn't quite reach their wheeled top speed of 270km/h. The Gariuses did not carry the bulky rifles as those might have reduced mobility, but they were equipped with the 5 meter long swords which could be kept out of the way, attached to a shoulder opposite of the shield.

The two teams were in place before dawn, taking around 9 hours to reach their respective targets. LuParoe now had two Neo-Dregh armoured divisions camped outside, whilst the one at Cegun'zepone-Gufal seemed to have been partially reduced.

It was unfortunate that the Zoids didn't have primitive radio systems which could be used to pick up communications and news.

A7 and the Glidoler had made their way east to the headquarters in the Neo-Dregh capital, Morlaug. The 4500km trip took less than four hours at a cruise speed of mach 1. Since most of the land wasn't populated and it kept low, perhaps the Zoid had managed to sneak in undetected. They had hoped the Neo-Dregh would mostly only have radar outposts along the coastline.

Presently Riona and Nina were immersed in ZU-113, giving them more immediate access to the command interfaces.

Seeing that everyone was in place and the timer reaching zero, Riona ordered the two Garius forces to approach at full speed and attack. Meanwhile, Nina gave A7 the go on poking the headquarters, using the boosters to come in at mach 4.1 – some 5000km/h.

Most of the tanks, armoured cars and transport vehicles outside of the cities likely weren't crewed, it was early in the morning, and realistically at this point in the war, an invasion force had to arrive from the sea then slowly make inroads, giving ample warning.

The Gariuses sped in and at the 2km range their chest mounted Pike Rays drove low power continuous beams into the masses of Neo-Dregh vehicles. Where the beams swept the armour seemed to turn into molten metal like a volcanic outburst, causing some of the vehicles to topple over or explode.

Some figures in grey uniforms begun to rush about. They had slightly conical helmets with a neck guard, looking something like a hybrid between a Spanish Morion or Pith helmet mixed with a the infamous stahlhelm. Most of these figures turned into flaming torches and mush.

Along the base wall of the pyramids some gun emplacements opened fire from narrow slits. The Gariuses ignored the small caliber fire and let the 35mm Maxter Beam Cannons pepper some of the cannon ports, quickly silencing them. Meanwhile the chest mounted swivel orbs kept the Pike Rays trained on anything active on the ground.

The plan had been to use the hip mounted launchers to deploy smoke and gas once the Gariuses came close to the wall, but it wasn't needed with all of the smoke and debris. The veil was as good as transparent to the multi sensors of the Zoids however.

One tank managed to hit the thigh plate of A1's Garius over at LuParoe, but the Zoid armour seemed able to simply shrug it off. A1 and A2 then entered the smoke and drew their swords, becoming reapers in the mist.

Over at Cegun'zepone-Gufal the battle was already over, but they couldn't really do anything about Neo-Dregh foot soldiers inside of the city as the Zoids would probably just make a mess of the place. They'd have to enter using heavy armours or something.

A7 in the Glidoler sent over a video feed of the Neo-Dregh capital. The topmost upper class part of the pyramid was boldly emblazoned with the Neo-Dregh symbol – a triangle with a dot above, then two flanking lightning bolts. It probably symbolised the power structure with emperor Arthold Muzzo at the apex. Nina ordered the pilot to deface it with the Beam Vulcan Gun at full power.

The weapon only had time to fire for a few seconds as the Glidoler was moving at 1400m/s. A7 then pulled up at 12G, just about nicking the park at the top. Coming over at the other side the rear sensors picked up a large horizontal fire torch jetting out the other side of the pyramid. Oops.

A7 banked and veered out towards the ocean for a misleading detour.

The Cannosers only had one task – to drop flyers over the cities. Riona and Nina had used notebook pages for the flyers and dropped enough of them to prevent a complete Neo-Dregh censure, though the Neo-Dregh would no doubt try to present this as an attack on all to unite and rile people up.

To avoid a hostage situation where the Neo-Dregh resort to using human shields, Nina had come up with the idea of blaming the squids. The message thus read...

"Neo-Dregh land-scum, surrender or die in similar repeated incidents. Other humans are okay though.

Signed: General Nuhr, of the Fourth Atlantian Squid Empire"

It was very officially marked with one of Nina's DIY rubber stamps. They had gone for a figure which looked something like a squid face encircled by mysterious but regal looking runes.

Perhaps the Neo-Dregh would fruitlessly try to search in the ocean rather than the wasteland of the ancients. The Glidoler cruised back home at a very low altitude well beyond the radar horizon. However, it still ran into a Neo-Dregh patrol ship, which it zapped on sight, hopefully before it could make a report.

The Gladiuses and Cannosers also apparently withdrew north towards the ocean, but they soon turned west to cross the Yama mountains. A few Neo-Dregh jets could be seen in the sky after an hour but the Gariuses were difficult to spot in the mountainous terrain where they hid until nightfall.

One of the Cannosers returned ahead, carrying something special – a bunch of looted radios and vehicle batteries which Nina then spent an hour trying to hook up, the experience from her old job coming in handy. Eventually one came alive buzzing like a hornets' nest and they both leaned in.

–– "Well, then... let's hear their lamentations.", Riona said, one finger on the tuning wheel.