Then, Threnosh World
Cold Plains City was choked by a cloud of rust-colored smoke. It had appeared shortly after the giant humanoids had taken the city. The Threnosh hadn’t been able to identify its constituent parts, which meant that they hadn’t been able to devise a countermeasure to disperse it.
They had no intelligence on what transpired within the city as the cloud blocked their surveillance equipment. While attempts to fly drones into the cloud from above resulted in lost equipment. They tried to send their drones underneath the cloud, but those suffered a similar fate. Shot down by massed arrow fire from the giant humanoids or mysteriously becoming inoperable after a few seconds inside the city’s walls.
The metallic walls were nothing to Shira’s claws. They had to move quickly. Stopping for a second meant they’d slide back down as their power armor’s claws sliced through with ease.
Normally haste made for poor stealth, but Shira was the exception. Their black-colored power armor seemed to drink in the darkness. It embraced them, hid them from all eyes, physical and otherwise, not that they knew anything about the latter.
As soon as Shira slipped over the wall and into the city an alert flashed in their ear holes and was projected into their face-plate. They were taking damage. Fortunately it was a minuscule amount. Their blood stores were full and their power armor could self-repair the damage for several hours before they would need to seek out more of the precious liquid, the source of their power. At the least they now knew what had been happening to their drones.
Shira sought out the largest concentration of cragants. They moved through the city streets as silent as a wraith. They went up buildings and jumped across the rooftops. They encountered several roving patrols consisting of as few as four and as many as ten giant humanoids. They forced themselves to control the urge to fall upon them. They had a task to complete.
It was a difficult thing. The cragants’ size and strength had been in full display on the recordings of the city’s fall. They had sufficient strength to tear the baseline infantry soldiers apart with their bare hands and cleave the heavy infantry apart with their enormous weapons. Shira longed to test their capabilities against the giant humanoids. They wanted to take their blood even more. They could taste the power it could provide.
Another time.
It wouldn’t do to disobey and upset Caretaker. Let alone jeopardize the entire Task.
Shira alighted on the edge of a rooftop, high above a large, open space. A landing zone for aerial transports. It was one of the only areas in the city with enough open space to fit large groups of the humanoids. Their sense of life blood gave them an accurate count through means that they didn’t understand. There were a hundred currently in the square.
The cragants had erected a strange structure. Shira had never seen anything like it. It was made entirely out of wood, it looked like they had simply taken trees from the forests near the city and constructed a roofed building without walls. Just several pillars around the edges with some of the open spaces covered with cloth.
Shira sat and recorded everything they saw and heard.
Cragants, they called themselves. Was it a coincidence that Honor had settled on that very name for their designation? Or was it attributable to the spires’ meddling? Shira didn’t care. Either way they learned more about the invaders.
The giant humanoids had a love for battle and were sorely disappointed by the individual weakness they found in the Threnosh defenders of the city.
An unconscious smile crossed Shira’s mouth, which revealed sharp canine teeth, fangs. They could almost taste the cragants’ blood. They were eager to show these invaders true strength.
Several kilometers away in another sector of the city Actryarius infiltrated the city in another way. They used their power armor’s scientifically impossible, at least according to established Threnosh scientific principles, ability to become intangible and jump right through the outer wall.
It took timing to selectively make their parts intangible in the proper order lest they sink into the ground. They had to turn the soles of their boots intangible after they jumped, but before they passed through the wall. They then had to make sure to make them solid before they landed on the other side.
It only took a second for the damage alert to ring. Caretaker’s briefing had warned of this exact possibility. Fortunately, Actryarius had a countermeasure. They became intangible once again. Every part of them, except for their soles. The warnings ceased. Another possible confirmation of Caretaker’s theory. The rust-colored cloud’s effects might be limited to active systems. They clearly didn’t affect the inert metal of the city’s structures and the composite material of their soles.
They couldn’t stay intangible for extended periods of time. This meant that their scouting mission just got cut shorter. At worst they could try shifting back and forth, but that carried the risk of further damage to their power armor. Enough damage might leave them stranded in the middle of a city full of hostiles.
Actryarius consulted the miniature map projected in the corner of their face-plate. There was a point of interest fairly close. Sleeping quarters that surveillance drones had caught the giant humanoids doing something too before the cloud appeared. They could cut a straight line to and back from the structure by running straight through the buildings in the way. Their need for stealth was mitigated by the hazy, translucent appearance they took on when intangible. Combined with the darkness, they felt confident that they would be hard to spot.
Actryarius walked through the target building’s walls and immediately jumped back out. Their heartbeat spiked. They waited for it to calm back down before they went back in. This time just with their face. Enough that they could see and record.
The space was open. Walls had been torn down. Floors destroyed. From the readings in their face-plate it was clear that the giant humanoids had turned four floors of sleeping chambers for many Threnosh into a single sleeping space for a handful of their own kind. As evidenced by their sleeping forms.
Actryarius slipped their face back outside. Was that sufficient information? Perhaps in their estimation. However, they knew that Caretaker expected more. It took them a long moment to steel themselves before they slowly walked through the wall and into the building.
They stalked slowly through the sleeping giants. Their helmet recorder drank in everything they turned their eyes on. The humanoids were enormous. They dwarfed even Primal in their power armor. The numbers flashed on Actryarius’ face-plate. They had an estimated average height of 3.97 meters. While estimated average weight of 680.17 kilograms suggested a dense skeletal and muscle structure.
One of the humanoids stirred and Actryarius sank into the ground to their knees before they regained control. They had to disengage the intangibility on their palms so that they could brace them on the floor while they painstakingly pulled their legs up.
They managed to free themselves just in time as loud bellowing and thunderous steps from outside shook the room.
Actryarius dashed across the large space and dived into the next room just as another giant humanoid barged into the room and roused the others.
Actryarius crouched in the hallway as small as possible, hoping that the shadows would hide them since there was nothing else around. Somehow they heard every word spoken over the terrified beating of their heart. Fortunately for them the audio recording function was automatic.
“Get up you lazy dragonshits!”
“May the rockbreakers crush your balls. We’re off duty.”
“Not anymore. General Zanya’s orders. We’ve got hostiles in our territory. Search and capture.”
“Forget the rockbreakers… I’ll do them myself.”
“The hierophant saw.”
That word did it. There were no more complaints. The giant humanoids on the other side of a thin, metallic wall burst into action. The loud sounds were nearly overwhelming. Like an avalanche of boulders crashing down the mountain side. Or a giant monster’s death throes. Actryarius had experienced the latter. It was just as frightening now as it was then.
They didn’t stick around. They ran as fast as they could back the way they came. Long range communication was impossible from within the city and the cloud. They needed to get outside. They needed to get the information they had just discovered to Caretaker as soon as possible.
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Senior Commander Saldin Flats 326 stared with unblinking eyes at Caretaker.
“The scouting task was successful. Shira and Actryarius have returned with useful intelligence,” Caretaker said.
“Elaborate.”
The senior commander’s tone was flat. Caretaker almost took it for disinterest, then they remembered how normal Threnosh acted. They were used to Honor’s more emotive way of interacting.
“They obtained confirmation that the rust-colored cloud damages our equipment. It explains what happened to our drones. Additionally, trueskins are not exempt.”
“Did they discover why our scans are unable to penetrate into the city?”
“Negative. However, they may have discovered a potentially vital target to eliminate. Something or someone called the hierophant somehow detected Shira’s and Actryarius’ presence.”
The senior commander continued to stare at Caretaker. They took that as the cue to continue.
“Probability indicates that this being was responsible for the cloud and was somehow able to detect our scouts’ presence while they were inside.” Caretaker hoped that the senior commander wouldn’t ask them to elaborate further. Honor had discussed magic in depth in the past and the cloud fit a plurality of the criteria. Unlike the normal Threnosh, Caretaker was willing to look beyond verifiable intelligence and listen to their gut when it came to things that by their nature defied rational science. The fact that their predictive algorithm was pushing them in this direction helped. They were close to certain that this hierophant was the same individual they had watched performing some kind of ritual, as Honor had referred it, to bathe Cold Plains City’s walls in fire during the initial battle. “I have tentatively identified Invasive Organism 1867: Subject 2 as the probable identity of the hierophant.”
The senior commander tapped something on their gauntlet. A holographic projection of a thin, giant humanoid clad in dirty robes appeared in the center of the briefing room.
“Probability?”
“Ninety percent.” Caretaker rounded up.
“You believe that it created the cloud in the same way that you stated it created the walls of fire.” A statement from the senior commander, not a question. They gestured at the projection. The recording played out. The giant humanoid moved over to a cage and grabbed a much smaller humanoid from within. They carried the struggling humanoid over to a large metal, perhaps iron, basin filled with blood. The giant proceeded to butcher the smaller humanoid while chanting in an indecipherable language. “It stands to reason that a large amount of biological matter is required to maintain a constant cloud over the entire city. Then all we must do is wait.”
Caretaker nodded carefully. “That is correct. However, we do not know how long it can last. We must also factor in that the invaders took many captives in the battle.”
“We lost 3915 soldiers in the battle and subsequent retreat. 2493 confirmed killed in combat,” Senior Commander Saldin Flats 326 said.
Caretaker noticed that the senior commander’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
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“An operation to kill the hierophant is the efficient action. Tactically and strategically. We disable the cloud and we deny the enemy the use of its abilities. Furthermore, we recover our soldiers. They will be vital in future campaigns.”
“Create an action plan for my approval.”
“Acknowledged.” That was quicker than Caretaker expected. “Moving on. Shira discovered that the humanoids refer to themselves as Cragants. Their leader is called General Zanya. Their main motivation appears to be the thrill of combat. They seek worthy opponents to test themselves against. Performing and holding other objectives are secondary.”
“Interesting. That is what Designation: Honor referred to them as. However, it is not relevant information to the battle. Perhaps of interest to the researchers.”
Caretaker disagreed. They already had several ideas to use the cragants’ thirst for battle against them. They kept that to themselves for the moment.
“Our only concern is to re-take Cold Plains City before reinforcements arrive through the god hair.”
“The assessment from the information we gathered is that there will be no further enemy forces. The cragants take it as a matter of pride to conquer with the least amount of forces required.”
“Good.”
“I have nothing further to report, Senior Commander Saldin Flats 326.”
“Very well. Dismissed.”
Caretaker saluted and strode briskly out of the prefab command center. The army’s fortified encampment consisted of prefabricated structures of exemplary quality. Any non-Threnosh would’ve taken it as an established town. The only hint that it had been recently erected were the lack of proper streets. There was just grass and soil underneath Caretaker’s armored boots as they made their way to their own smaller compound within the base.
The T-Men were segregated from the rest of the standard army. Annoying, but expected. Caretaker contented themselves with the thought that their team was going to play the most important role in reclaiming the city. Truth be told, they didn’t truly fight for the Threnosh. They fought for their team. For all defectives. For the Universal Points.
As soon as Caretaker entered their compound Primal lumbered over with the earth-shaking steps only their massive power armor could make.
“Are we moving out?”
“Always so eager.”
“I have been sitting around doing nothing for five days. Why bring me if you were not planning on letting me fight?” Primal groused.
“Then you will be pleased to know that your time draws near.”
“When you say ‘near’, do you mean hours or more days? The distinction is important.”
“A day or two, pending the senior commander’s approval. First, we need to come up with an actionable plan to kill a high value target.”
“Boss or secret boss?”
“I do not believe that those classifications fit our current enemy. Like I told you before. We are not fighting monsters. We are fighting thinking organisms.”
“I did not forget,” Primal growled. “Make your plans then. I will ensure my trueskin is at optimum levels… again.”
Primal lumbered away toward their trueskin maintenance bay at the rear of the compound.
Caretaker accessed the team channel. “Attention. There will be a planning session in the briefing room in fifteen minutes. If you are interested in having a voice please be prompt. Attendance is not mandatory.”
Some would attend, interested in being a part of the planning session. Others would attend out of a sense of obligation. A few, like Primal, would not attend.
It was going to be a difficult task. Their target was powerful and had no reason to venture out of a well-defended position. The rust-colored cloud further complicated matters. They couldn’t fight for more than a few minutes inside the city. The solution to the puzzle eluded Caretaker and they were not accustomed to being without answers.
A sudden chime sounded in their earholes. The words and text flowed immediately after.
Task Received.
Kill The Hierophant.
Reward: 250000 Universal Points.
That was four times as many points as they ever received for killing a spawn zone boss. Caretaker wondered if that meant the difficulty scale on this was four times as high. They hoped that it was linear and not exponential. The Task was now one of the most challenging ones that they had ever faced. They wondered if it was possible to obtain some assistance from Honor. Surely he could spare a few days away from his own task at Orchestral Meridian. That wasn’t too much to ask. Was it?
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“I do not see the two intruders in your grasp,” Elgorit sniffed. “I assume they escaped?”
General Zanya clenched her jaw. She refrained from speaking for a moment so as to avoid letting the hierophant know what she truly thought of him.
“These intruders… if they were truly here in the first place… are no longer in the city.”
“Excuse me, but it sounds like you are questioning my words? Which is impossible since you know that I am but a vessel of the Savior. My voice is his.”
Despite what she had seen in the past, General Zanya still didn’t quite believe that. It sounded ridiculous, as it always did.
“It’s a moot point. Any intruders are no longer in the city.”
“Are you certain? Will you stake your life on that being truth?” Elgorit caressed the handle of the blade sheathed on a chain around his neck with blood-caked fingers. “Maintaining the aegis is taxing my supplies. Unsurprisingly the tiny gray ones don’t have a great amount of lifeblood in their tiny bodies and what they do have is also weak. I prefer to save the chattel from home for my workings against actual enemies. If you desire to maintain the miasma then perhaps you’d be willing to donate. A stronger source of lifeblood will greatly increase it’s longevity. Additionally, it will allow me to conserve the gray ones. Their blood is necessary for the aegis to work against their machinery.”
General Zanya was used to the unsubtle threats. It didn’t phase her in the least. She had already explained to Elgorit that the miasma was the only thing that kept the enemies aerial attack at bay. She wasn’t going to do it again.
“No,” she said flatly.
“I shall take your words under advisement.” Elgorit took a moment to pick a chunk of meat from his teeth with a long fingernail.
General Zanya’s steely countenance betrayed none of her disgust.
The hierophant wiped his finger on his dirty robes before continuing. “What do you intend to do about those spies? Whether you believe me or not. I swear on the Savior that two of the gray ones did breach our city. I felt it through my connection to the miasma. Somehow their mechanical shells were able to remain functional. It was strange. I did sense that they were different from the rest of the gray ones and even from each other. Hmm…” Elgorit looked deep in thought. “I want you to bring them to me.”
General Zanya resisted the urge to crush Elgorit’s ugly face in between her hands.
“I will.”
A genuine look of surprise crossed Elgorit’s face before he could master it.
“The enemy penetrated our city. They have cast down the gauntlet. Their challenge must be met with greater force. How long will it take you to ready your descending fire?”
“I can start now, however if I glean the truth of your intentions, then I will need a day to prepare for a stronger, wider fire. And as you know I will need clear vision of the location you want me to turn into ash. Additionally, I will need to be outside of the miasma, which means outside of the city walls. Will you be able to protect me from the enemy’s aerial attack?”
“Yes. I will give them something else to be concerned about. We move tomorrow. Be ready.”
A feral grin bloomed on Elogrit’s face. He took great pleasure in creating pain and terror. Which was why he loved the workings. From beginning to end the process was drenched in those emotions.
General Zanya spun on her heel and strode out of the hierophant’s converted lair. The smell had been bothering her the entire time. The depravity in Elgorit’s face was the final straw. She felt physically ill and she didn’t want to display any hint of weakness. Doing so could prove fatal. She couldn’t abandon her army, her clan to Elgorit’s blood-soaked clutches.
“Your command, general?”
A massive cragant awaited General Zanya. He was one of the tallest and broadest in the entire army. He had a couple of feet in height over the general, who was already an impressive physical specimen. Somehow he made her look small.
“Adjutant Trusk. Bring my legates to the command tent. We move against the enemy in one day.”
“Finally!” Trusk smiled. “Which legions shall I gather?”
“All of them.”
“Are you certain, general? The 1st is currently at three-quarters strength. They bore brunt of the enemy defenses during the initial assault.”
“Which is precisely why they will lead this one if Legate Crasta so decides. Her legion has earned that honor. Make haste Trusk. I’m eager to teach these weak gray ones a lesson for daring to think that they are besieging us.”
Trusk let loose with a booming laugh that shook the still night air. “At once, general.” He saluted and strode off with an eager spring to heavy steps that shook the ground and echoed throughout the city.
A smile crossed General Zanya’s face. The unpleasant interaction with Elgorit was out of her mind now that there was a battle to plan. This was what she lived for. To meet your enemies on the field of battle in a contest of strength and skill. This was what it meant to be a cragant.
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Now, Earth
Fertilizer, specifically manure-based, smelled bad. It was a lot worse when one had a superior than normal human sense of smell. An underrated fact that Tessa now learned first hand.
She had thought that it was a lucky stroke that saw her assigned to help old Mrs. Almeida with getting her backyard vegetable garden going instead of getting stuck with hole digging duty like the guys.
Shoveling dirt wasn’t looking so bad now that she struggled to keep breathing through her mouth to avoid gagging. Super strength and stamina meant that she could’ve dug up a half ton of dirt without getting tired as long she paced herself.
Tessa glanced at Veronica through narrowed eyes as the younger girl carried several bags of fertilizer over her head with a big smile on her face. Her little sister always loved gardening with their mom.
Veronica placed the bags near Mads, while the young woman was using a shovel to spread the fertilizer on top of the long furrows that they had dug out earlier that morning.
“I hate that you’re so happy right now,” Tessa groused at Veronica.
“I like gardening. Especially vegetables,” Veronica shrugged.
“Why are you even out here? Don’t you need to rest your arm?”
Veronica looked at her bandaged arm. “Justice doesn’t rest.”
Tessa rolled her eyes. “I don’t think justice has anything to do with shoveling shit and planting veggies.”
“You said a bad word.” Veronica narrowed her eyes.
“Whatever. Tell mom. I don’t care. They can’t punish me more,” Tessa smirked. “Also… don’t be a snitch. That’s what babies do. Are you a baby? Baby Justice?” She laughed.
“I’m not a baby,” Veronica huffed. “And justice transcends age.” She stomped back around the side of Mrs. Almeida’s house to get more bags of fertilizer from the driveway.
“She really leans into that justice stuff,” Mads said.
“We’ve pretty much watched all the movies and shows we had on DVD and on my dad’s computer. Like over and over again,” Tessa said.
“Yeah, I got bored of what we had at home after two years. I figured I’d wait a year to forget most of the story then watch them again. Works pretty good,” Mads sighed. “Really wish I got to watch live action Galactus.”
“MCU was pretty good. Never got into it as much as my dad and Vee did. I don’t know about Galactus though. Giant guy in purple armor seems like it’d be hard to keep it from looking silly.”
“They did just fine with a huge titan with purple skin, so it would’ve been fine,” Mads grinned.
“That’s true,” Tessa conceded.
“So, what’s up with Vee, herald of justice?”
“Oh, right. So, worked through the movies and books in the house. Got some more from the library and best buy. But she struck gold when she found my dad’s old comics in the garage.”
“Ah… that’d do it.” Mads nodded.
“Yup. She went all in. Thinks she’s some kind of superhero now. Loves the Thunderbolts.”
Mads had a blank look on her face. “I only know the movies.”
“It’s weird. From like the late 90’s. It’s about super villains pretending to be superheroes. I read a couple of issues. Decent, I guess. I’m not too into comics especially the older ones. They’re more childish. I like my dad’s newer graphic novels though. Those are more like real literature, you know. They got some good ones at the library. I’ll get you a list of the ones I liked if you want to check them out.”
“Yeah, that’d be cool.”
“The vintage ones are the best!” Veronica shouted from the walkway at the side of the house as she came back with a thick stack of fertilizer bags over her head.
Tessa rolled her eyes then realized that she had forgotten to breathe out of her mouth. The manure smell set her to gagging loudly enough that little, old Mrs. Almeida came out of her house with some ice cold lemonade for the girls.
After getting herself back under control. Tessa decided that perhaps the punishment wasn’t so bad. The work wasn’t hard with her superior physical attributes and Mrs. Almeida kept them well-supplied with snacks and drinks. The rest of the day went a quicker than she had expected.