* * Chapter 3 - Towards the unknown •
Anatomy of the local fauna - Kobold
The kobolds are a sentient race of lizard-like people. Like the animals I used to know, they are a multicellular, carbon based lifeform, which are capable of thoughts and empathy. Some of their kin, seemingly the leaders, are capable of sorcery (unconfirmed).
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The mechanical spiders met up with the rest of the machines at the lake, where the Hermits started constructing a recharging station and laying cables back to the facility. I better power up more reactors, since my current situation is… sub-optimal. The radioactive heart of Verja started beating more intensely, as new reactors powered up. More and more military-grade machines booted up, as they started marching towards the main gate of the Ace facility.
Two doors ten meters tall and twice that in width slowly creaked open, as Verja found a solid wall of marble waiting for them. I’m unsure if I should even be surprised at this point. A car-sized mechanical ant, called the Razorback, with a pair of deep drills as its “mandibles” walked towards the wall. A loud screeching noise came from the machine, as its drills dug into the rock. Some of the powdered stone was brought downstairs for analysis. This is quite similar to common marble found back on earth, but there’s no marble where the facility is located. The Razorbacks dug through around twenty meters of solid stone, before the walls crumbled to reveal natural tunnels, which eventually led to the lake.
After venturing around three hundred meters from the lake, Verja found a new animal. It looked like a cow-sized gray centipede, with only six thick, crab-like legs on the front. The bug was covered from mandible-to-tail in chitinous armor, and had a mean-looking pair of mandibles. It was eating something unrecognizable in a pool of mud, with signs of conflict around it. I want to capture it alive. For science. One of the Arbiters charged in head-first, as the insect started screeching. The machine tackled the beast, which fell on the ground on its back, legs flailing helplessly in the air. Lancers arrived to grab the legs of the bug, and swiftly wrapped the entire thing in wires, immobilizing it, and started hauling the struggling beast back to the facility.
Eventually, a squad of Specters discovered a group of 15 lizard-people, who were surrounding a puddle of mud. As Verja sent some of their forces there to investigate, all of the sudden, one of the kobolds was suddenly dragged into the mud. The others immediately shoved their spears in the mud, as the tail of an insect rose up.
The group of kobolds pulled their spears in unison, dragging the creature onto the dry land. A fierce battle ensued, as the insect ripped apart kobolds, and the kobolds tore holes into the chitinous armor of the insect. Five minutes and four dead kobolds later, the insect was dead. One of the kobolds started healing the wounds of others, by drawing circles of light in the air. The wounds of the kobolds started closing, as the light enveloped them. One of the kobolds had broken their leg during the fight, but the healer seemingly couldn’t mend it back together. The hunting team grabbed their dead brethren and the insect carcass, and started heading out. If I follow them, they should be able to lead me to their lair- And so the Specters began to stalk their victims.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Eventually, they ended up in an enormous cavern with large roots hanging from the ceiling, where there was a single side tunnel guarded by two kobolds. The hunting party entered the tunnel, and the guards helped to carry the insect inside. I think I want to look a bit closer. One of the Specters suddenly went invisible as it approached the tunnel. The MCRA or mobile concealment reactive armor is expensive to create and maintain, and drains their batteries really fast, but it is worth it in situations like this. The Specter entered the tunnel, and found around 50 kobolds in there, gathered around a campfire. One of them, the scarred kobold who fled from the previous engagement with Verja’s Lancers, was in the middle of the group, explaining something to his friends. Every word they said was analyzed by Verja. Patterns were found, and piece by piece, a word or two could be comprehended.
The largest kobold was dressed in a ritualistic set of bone armor, and holding a staff on one hand. His scales were damaged here and there, and his posture was crooked, giving him an elderly look. He approached the one with a broken leg, and created more complex circles in the air, as the bone audibly snapped together, accompanied by a painful scream. I see. So the scar-cheek isn’t the most powerful sorcerer. Come to think of it, I might not even be on Earth right now. I know most of the large underground cavern systems known to man, and this doesn’t resemble any of them. And did I already mention the lack of radio signals of any kind? I know I’m underground, but it's not like my transmitter can’t reach the surface. Unless I’m somehow located 10 km below the ocean, which is possible, given my current situation. I thought that I was always on “Redcon-1”, but this is too much.
“Hunt-east-danger-monster,” were a few words that Verja understood from the things that the survivor of the massacre said. So he’s alerting the others of my presence. Smart. But even if every single one of these kobolds wanted to destroy the outpost I made, they wouldn’t succeed with flimsy weaponry like that. The kobolds slowly sliced apart the mandibles of the mudthresher and another kobold started sharpening and molding them into a tool.
The Specters noticed three other kobolds approaching the cave. They were larger and more blue-ish in color, and had armor made out of chitin. They talked to the guards, who were obviously afraid of them. They backed off as the blue kobolds entered the cave, and started speaking with the elder. “Food-offering-safety-temporary,” were the words Verja could make out of them. The elder led the blue ones to the back of the tunnel, where they grabbed the corpse of the mudthresher, said something to the elder, and left.
I better follow these ones too. Are they perhaps from a different tribe? But what was that interchange about? Did they just take the insect corpse from them or is this an exchange of some sort? The kobolds were obviously angry at the blue ones, but they couldn’t oppose them. It seems like they have a shortage of food. Some of them have their ribs visible through their skin, so is there perhaps a famine? Judging by the fact that it took 15 kobolds to kill one mudthresher, with 4 fatalities, I can’t imagine their situation being that good.
The elder said a prayer and placed one of their dead kin on a stone slab, and started dissecting it. Then the scarred kobold added more roots to the smoldering campfire, and started cooking the kobold meat. Unless this is a tradition, I have a feeling that they are quite desperate for food. I should help them, as it's not going to take long before I can understand and speak their language, and perhaps they could tell me something about their magic?
And so did Verja take action. The one kobold intruder, which Verja captured after the failed maintenance, was analyzed. His internal organs were quite similar to that of a human, but his body temperature was only around 30 °C, and his skin was scaly and reptile-like. As the anesthetic wore off, the kobold rose up from his bed and looked at his surroundings. He saw white walls in all directions, and a lancer standing by, leaning onto a wall. Time to improvise.