Chapter 13 (Alamo)

----------------------------------

     Sorry for the long delay. I have been working on editing and caught up in RL. Enjoy the chapter and a shout out to Oeiltheend. Without the messages and requests I probably would not have had this out for a while longer.

Thanks,

Znomad

---------------------------------------------------------

Quick Character List

Nemi- OP character form a super advanced universe. Is a created super soldier.

Asena - Giant wolf like creature with excellent intelligence and the ability to speak telepathically with both Nemi and Sy (Is now a wolf beastman)

Sy - A giant tiger/sabertooth like creature with excellent intelligence also able to speak telepathically with Nemi and Asena. (Is now a cat beatman)

Shonna - Elfin princess who is running away to see the world.

Emma - Dwarven girl who is the Elfin ambassador's daughter. She has a napoleonic complex and is not fully dwarven.

Eli - High wizard of the Human Kingdom and advisor to the king. Also head of a neutral magic academy.

Erich - Commanding General of the Human Kingdoms army. A ladies man and a fearsome soldier. A rival and friend of Eli and a bit of a known troublemaker and prankster.

Roza - A former slave of a pirate vessel. She is known as a demon or demonkind in this world and is considered a hated race.

Tamara - General of the Elfin Rangers who are considered the best scouts of the world.

Hayha - Sergeant Major of the Efin Rangers considered the deadliest bow master in the world and is known for his hard working personality.

Vanya - The queen of the elfs. Known as a beautiful queen who keeps her calm in all situations.

-----------------------------------------------

Nemi POV

     The Albatross was sailing in all its glory. The ship glided through the water with an elegant grace and imposing beauty. The sides of the ship rose out of the water and other than some cleverly recessed and hidden turrets no weaponry could be seen. It was the day before our departure and the weather had decided to mourn our planned journey by trying to drown us in a monsoon style rain.

      I stood on the bridge and looked out at the stormy seas.  The rain was heavy and proved to be a valuable trial for visibility and the range of the Albatross. With the heavy rain visibility with regular optics was severely limited to the point of a little over fifty meters in any direction. All thermal imaging also proved to be near useless with a accurate range of no farther than twenty meters with any form of accuracy. I counted myself to be lucky to have advanced technology that allowed me to see much further in this harsh weather. A combination of advanced radar, visual mapping, laser positioning, underwater sensors, and reconnaissance craft created a overlay of information that made it possible for me to fully identify any object that was within twenty kilometers even in this turbulent and harsh weather. I had found that releasing directional pulses of mana from my reconnaissance craft allowed me to easily identify living organisms as they all contained a much higher level of mana than their surrounding. I had however found a few strange rock substances that seemed to contain an oddly large amount of mana within them. It made me wonder about shielding and camouflage as I found that Asena and I had such a large amount of mana that we would light up the sensors like a bright and loud flare.

     I maneuvered the Albatross towards the harbor and dock that was being created. With a easy access to magma the ability to construct large structures out of solid very easily within a minimal amount of time. A harbor large enough for over thirty of these ships was under construction and the breakwater walls were nearing completion. Dark volcanic rock rose over two meters out of the sea and created a walkable wall out into the sea. Nearly two and half meters across the wall was an impressive creation of dark rock that stood up to the typhoon that seemed to howl at its staunch defiance against the harsh conditions of the weather.

     Large glowing blocks of magma were constantly being moved by an army of drones. The harsh conditions did little to slow their pursuit of fulfilling the orders placed upon them. Large rectangular blocks of magma held in stasis fields moved down the line and into the sea each block lining up with another and being carefully fused to its nearby kin. The scene looked much like an ant colony as the large blocks left the volcano and were transported down to the sea and a wall steadily rose.The thousands of drones worked in perfect harmony and eerie silence.

     I slowed the Albatross as I entered the harbor the wall served its purpose exceedingly well even if it was not fully completed. The seas had calmed tremendously and although the visibility did not improve the ship no longer rose and fell with the waves but instead resumed gently rocking motion from before the storm.

     Directing the Albatross to the partially completed dock we came to a rest next to the large pylons rising out of the depths. The ship cast its anchor and we put up full shielding which further reduced the waves and caused the rain to stop hitting the ship. The droning background sound of the rain disappeared only the quiet humming of the ship's engines could be heard.

     Walking across the bridge exited and walked into the operations room. Drones sat at various screens and terminals as an oversight function and secondary input to the ship's main AI’s. Although lacking the power and capacity of any AI the drones all had become specialized for only the job in front of them and could more easily identify issues if a form of electronic countermeasure confused the four AI’s on the Albatross. This was considered a completely unnecessary feature as the possibility of something getting past the AI’s and being spotted by the droids was less than 2.68*10^2589 percent probability. But as the only problem that I could fix that had a percentage that was found by any of the AI’s I took the secondary measure.

     Sighing I sat down in a rather comfortable chair that overlooked the operations room. I absentmindedly reached up and stroked my beard and thought about Asena and Sy. Sy had yet to awaken and seemed to have developed some form of complication that I was unsure of how to fix. At this point he was stuck in stasis until a viable solution presented itself. One of the reasons that I had decided to leave the island was to see if I would be able to learn more about the effects of mana on different species and what possibilities there might be to cure him or make it possible for him to coexist with this new universe.

      The other thing that I was fully unsure of what to do was with Asena she had transformed into a beautiful women or beastkin according to Rosa. I have never before had a problem with the desire to be near anyone of my gender or the opposite gender because of my prior physiology. My creators had viewed it as fully unnecessary to have their soldiers need or desire sex. They viewed it as something that would only serve as a distraction and weakness in their soldiers. I however now had fully active hormones. I know because I checked twice and was stunned to find that in many ways my hormones were fluctuating between a teenager and a young adult. Needless to say the same thing was happening for Asena. I had experienced many new things much to Roza’s constant enjoyment of our predicament.

      I had something that she referred to as morning wood and as I was worrying that this was some form of serious ailment from my transformation so I mentioned it. Roza literally fell out of her chair as we were eating breakfast and could not stop laughing for almost five minutes. I still don’t know what was so funny.

     Asena was worried for me and we both were trying to find out what Roza found so amusing. When Roza finally took a deep breath she tried to explain that this was something that was considered very normal for men. Even at this moment I wondered about the disconvenience of something like this happening so often. When I questioned if there was a solution to this problem Roza had another fit of laughter before looking at Asena and I and nodding. She did not however inform me of what method I could use to relive the predicament.

      Another problem was that I would see Asena and my heart would start to race and I would feel strange. After questioning Asena I found out that she also often had this problem. We again questioned Rosa and instead of a bout of laughter she responded with a chuckle and a sigh and only told us we would understand in time. Asena had looked at me with a slightly questioning look and we both had decided to leave it as is. The strange thing was the feeling of tension that would sometimes happen between Asena and myself. In true military fashion we decided to alleviate this problem through intensive training.

      It was strange working with Asena in a humanoid body but at the same time remarkably more pleasant. The ability to stand back to back and work on synchronized movement and motion in battle was fantastic. It took a few tries but the natural synergy between us in battle improved remarkably. The combat AI also informed me of a weakness that became obvious very quickly. The weakness was that both of us would willingly take a hit for the other person without a moment's hesitation and this could quickly through us out of sync and definitively spell our defeat in some situations.

      Earlier this week Asena and I had faced off against a set of mechanical opponents and seeing a potential hit from each side aimed at the other person we both took and unnecessary hit. Even with logic seeing Asena in pain from the attack made me want to rip the AI to shreds for harming her. I saw that Asena wanted to much of the same. After calming down a good bit and rationally looking at the situation the glaring errors in our way of thinking was clearly exposed. We now feared more for the safety of each other than we desired to succeed in our goal or mission. It was a strange epiphany that had caused both of us to take some time to gather our thoughts and try and solve the present predicament.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

     This had led me out onto the Albatross for some trials in harsh conditions. Feeling mentally tired after the long period of trying to search through my thoughts I had come to a decision that I felt needed to be made one that would change the way we could act towards each other. With a good bit of trepidation residing within me I left the ship and strolled through the downpour towards paradise island.

Asena POV

      Stretching my neck I ran forward before jumping into the air and doing a flip over a short wall. Landing on the ground I quickly rolled before rising in a kneeling position. A bow in hand with careful and precise movements I fired three arrows and each one entered a humanoid target in the throat. I was trying to practice using these ancient weapons.

     Unlike Nemi I had no prior experience using close ranged weapons or for that matter long range weaponry of the ancient world. The ease of using this humanoid body was amazing to me. Everything about was the same as a human except for my ears and tail.   So learning to utilize hand held weapons had been a bit of challenge. Somehow the transformation had rewired my brain and with the nanites and internal memory processor I was able to do things near as well as a normal human. The fact that I had to get used to me now slightly reduced sense of smell but increased eyesight and hearing had also been a learning curve. I had learned how to use a recurve bow with a good amount of proficiency during this week. I also practice other ranged weapons and throwing knives.

      Nemi was a true master at armed and unarmed combat and his level of skill had improved slightly even if he had yet to notice it. He was truly mesmerizing when he fought with any of the close quarters weapons of the ancient world. Nemi would become a blur of perfect motion. His chiseled body would spring into action and even with my enhanced eyesight his hand and sword would blur into a target and without stopping he would continue onwards. One of the most awe inspiring visions of Nemi was when he decided to dual wield a pair of dark short swords he referred to as a pair of butterfly swords. The two swords were shorter than his forearm and he attached each of the blades in their sheaths to the thin armor he wore on his arms. After doing the preparations he donned a long sleeved robe with large openings near his hands.

      With a signal he had started the battle and with a calm presence he seemed to walk among the attacking drones only to slightly blur to a side or his hands would snap the head off of one of the drones. Nemi however kept up a walk that seemed much like a stroll when armored drones attacked his hands blurred and heads and limbs began to freely fall. The monomolecular edge on the blade made easy and short work of all his foes. The strange thing was that he had never lost his stride and still seemed to be only going on a peaceful stroll. The two short swords had disappeared as quickly as they appeared and seemed to be more of a figment of imagination than reality. The decapitated and multiple amputee drones however stood testament to the fearsome display of combat and martial prowess displayed.

      I stood up from my awkward position and took a deep breath to dispel my thoughts before leaving the training room. This very thing had been the cause of issues during some of the training sessions with Nemi. My thoughts would wander and my focus would waver. This led to situations in which either Nemi or I would end up lightly injured.

      The deep desire to protect Nemi from harm and injury and the desire to show him my own strength had led to several bad situations in training. Although we were able to completely forgo our feeling in some points we would inevitably be drawn to either watching one another or needlessly trying to protect each other from a foe.

       This lack of consistency and synergy was maddening and as Nemi’s military subordinate and second in command many of my thoughts were most definitively inappropriate. While I knew that I had a near non existent desire for mating or going after male canines it was not fully removed as it had been for Nemi. I had no desire to mate with a dumb mutt and as I had lacked the ability to bear children at the time I did not see any point in trying.

     With Nemi I felt a strange and confusing rush of feelings and emotions. I had long ago vowed to myself to forever be by his side but now I wanted more. I wanted to be with him and not just by his side but next to him at all points in time. I just was not sure of how to articulate that to him.

      “Intruder detected” An alarm suddenly blared through the announcement system.

      “Feed me the data” I called out to the AI.

      “Feeding data now” The defensive AI respond.

      “What is that?” I questioned as I saw a strange being suddenly appear out of mana on coast of the island.

      “Unknown being. Composition is over eighty percent mana Major” The AI answered

      “Connect me to Colonel Nemi now” I quickly ordered

      “Connecting now” The AI crisply responded.

      “Asena are you ok?” I hear Nemi anxiously ask.

      “Yes I am doing fine at the moment. Are you ok? The intruder is only around a klick from your position” I ask hoping there has been no problems.

      “Yes. I currently have the individual in observation.” Nemi responded.

      “According to the data the intruder appears to be humanoid.” I said

     “Correct the intruder seems to be a glowing humanoid around a meter and a half tall. All inclement weather appears to be clearing from the vicinity.” Nemi informed me.

      “Be cautious it appears that this might be our first encounter with the mage section of the population proceed with extreme caution please.” I said as I ran towards the armory to gear myself up for possible combat. If whoever that lady was so much as put one mark on Nemi I would kill her and her death would not be slow.

      “Asena you have released some form of pressure or killing intent reign it in she is walking towards the bunker.” Nemi said cutting off my dark thoughts.

     “Roger. Sorry about that.” I apologized.

      I went into the armory and was quickly dressed in a full assault set of armor. Grabbing a RPG launcher and a set of our new mana emp bombs I turned and ran back out of the armory. Now fully ready for battle I set out for the area that Nemi and the intruder were located.

     “The intruder seems to have detected some of the drones” Nemi’s voice broke through my thoughts.

      “Status” I asked

     “The intruder is cautiously approaching one that is facing away from her.” Nemi informed me.

      “I am three minutes from your location” I said as I increased my speed and dashed out into the now sunny day.

      “Roger she just seems to be observing the drone for the moment I have it moving and collecting plant samples. Still observing however command code Alamo is still active and is ready to deploy for defensive at any sign of hostility.”  Nemi informed me.

       “Affirmative” I responded while nearly stumbling after hearing the fact that he had initiated the Alamo protocol.

      “ETA and vector?” Nemi asked

      “One minute until I am in overwatch from southwest” I replied

      “Beware the intruder is has currently started to put mana into the ground around it.” Nemi said

      “Prepared with mana emp aimed in as of now” I let Nemi now

      “That’s my girl” Nemi said with an obvious hint of pride in his voice.

      “No problem” I said well blushing a bright red and trying to downplay his praise a bit.

      “The intruder is releasing a mana spike towards the drone.” Nemi said quickly

      “Alamo Protocol Activated” The primary AI suddenly announced in my head.

     I watched as the seemingly harmless drone dodged the incoming mana in a distinctly non human way and leaped at the glowing women. The women showed a expression of shock before she doged at extreme speed.

     The drone stood up from the ground and turned and faced the women before declaring in the common language we had learned from Rosa to identify who they were. At this statement the women eyes widened even more in shock and she seemed to sputter for a second.

      “What do you mean who am I. I am the …”

       Without empathy or emotion the drone beside her detonated in a mana pulse. The intruder slumped to the ground and even being a full klick away I felt nauseous and strange. Numerous other drones all charged in from all points of the compass. Seeing that the Intruder was nearly unconscious the drones attacked with stun rods and sleeping gas. The intruder feebly resisted before succumbing to the effects of the attack and falling unconscious.

---------------------

      Thanks for reading. Again sorry for the slow release RL has school starting up and work has been crazy. Anyway enough with RL I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I will be trying to limit the amount of times I jump around. Thanks for the comments. Let me know if this makes it easier to read. If you have questions or see a glaring error please point it out.

Thanks,

Znomad