Chapter 98 – EVO
***Tirnanog, Old Camp***
***Astra***
Are they really going to do this? I asked Thalia with a bit of disbelief in my voice while I watched Magnus bang his fist against the huge blast door barring our way into the bunker.
They are, Thalia mumbled while she observed the scene of my partner taking out his frustrations on the door. Their emotions are dampened, but it feels to me like they have no intention of coming out.
In hindsight, we shouldn’t have been surprised at finding the settlement’s sole defensible position on full lockdown. After thinking it over, I realized I was considering the situation too much from the position of power which came with being a partnered warrior. Had I been unpartnered and in the Thich’s shoes, I would have also locked myself in a hole and hoped for reinforcements to arrive.
Their only other choice was to flee hundreds of kilometres on foot with an airborne enemy breathing down their necks. The chances of surviving such an endeavour were next to zero.
Magnus, you can stop, Thalia said. There is no way they would open the door for us in their state of mind.
What are we going to do then? Magnus kicked the door. Maybe we should smoke them out? Hey! Do you hear me in there? Either you come out now, or we will find all the ventilation shafts for your little hideout and set some fires!
My partner pressed the side of his helmet against the door and listened while Thalia let out a deep, frustrated sigh. Probably because my partners threat had set off an intense reaction of fear from those on the other side.
Thalia massaged her temple and flared her wings before folding them against her back. You aren’t making it any better, Magnus.
I covered my mouth with mirth as I watched my partner pressed against the door like some naughty child. Hopefully, we would get back to our son soon. Magnus, just use your filaments to listen with echolocation. It’s ten times better than the old flesh flaps you got upon birth.
Hush, woman. He waved me off. Someone is whispering on the other side.
Yes, they are very afraid of us. Thalia rolled her eyes.
I sighed and turned to address her, We might have to wait for the return of the airships. They will have the equipment to crack that bunker open.
Unless your hubby finds a way in on his own. Thalia gestured at Magnus who was trying to melt his way into the bunker by channelling a continuous ball of plasma. He held it in place right on the metal’s surface with considerable effort.
I pursed my lips while I watched the attempt. It was a nice idea, but thwarted by the blast door’s huge mass which transported the heat away as soon as the plasma introduced it. Given it was also a remnant left behind by the original settlers, I wouldn’t be surprised if the door had inbuilt countermeasures against such obvious attacks.
My partner abandoned his current approach when he achieved nothing more than chipped paint and a small glowing spot on the door. He shook his hand and the ball of arching plasma on his palm stretched out into a cone combined with the crackling sound of an arc welder.
How long until he gives up and takes the easy way? Thalia asked.
I tilted my head from left to right as I considered his current antics. Till the ships arrive and crack the bunker for us.
Speaking of new arrivals, Thalia turned and focused on a spot to our left. Someone is making his way in our direction. He is following the bunker’s wall to our left.
Why didn’t you say so earlier? I asked. I was sure Thalia was capable of tracking people from further away than a few metres.
Because the survivors who remained at the settlement are the equivalent of an emotional storm which makes it difficult to keep track of individuals. There is nothing I can do about it. I am not going to hunt down every single survivor for Conla, Thalia bristled. She asked me to clear the settlement of opposition which I did. And I didn’t mention him because he was watching from the palisade for some time before becoming bold. I am sure it’s just a scout who was outside my range when I let loose.
Really? I angled one of my javelins in the direction Thalia had pointed out, ready to launch an attack should the newcomer turn out to be hostile. The bunker wasn’t the centre of the settlement. It was set up directly at the northern wall, closest to the cliffs behind the grove. If someone was coming to aid the Thich inside the bunker, he would likely choose this direction as an approach vector. Otherwise, they would have to make their way through the settlements ruins.
A gaunt, almost wraith-like face took a peek around the curve of the bunker’s wall and disappeared again right away, giving me no opportunity to snipe him. He had obviously known we were here, or he wouldn’t have stopped right before presenting himself as a target.
Are you clanners? a shaky voice called out.
I pursed my lips at the use of the term and relaxed with the javelin. Those belonging to a clan would rather refer to themselves and others by their clan’s name. The only ones regularly using the term ‘clanner’ were exiles from the Old Camp, implying they had no clan of their own. Yes, we are from Clan Aerie. We drove away the Thich.
The person squinted once more around the curve of the wall. Astra? Is that you?
He knew me? Was he a survivor of the Old Camp? I took a closer look at the emaciated face in an attempt to line up his features with exiles I knew which weren’t many aside from Gurney, some stall owners, and… the haunted voice sounded familiar. Mark?
Thalia and I exchanged a glance.
Thank Gaia! I thought you were a goner! Using a flash step, Magnus appeared out of nowhere right behind the harrowing-looking survivor and slapped him on the back, making the man stumble forward and come into full view.
At least that was what should have happened.
Instead, Mark rolled forward, dodging most of Magnus’s palm, and came back up with his bow at the ready. Not that it would have helped him against someone in full armour.
He and a few others made their way to the northern mountain chain where they used the closest Aerie travel shelters to get over the winter. Of the eight survivors in Mark’s shelter, only three emerged at the end of the winter. And Mark was now the only one left. The other two had been too weakened to survive the now flourishing fauna and flora.
As far as Mark knew another group of exiles had tried to follow the mountain chain to Mount Aerie, but Mark hadn’t dared to risk it.
Remembering how our group had just barely made it before the snow, I could only applaud his judgement.
I returned and camped in the woods… I didn’t dare to leave the vicinity of the Old Camp, Mark confessed. I knew the clans have settlements out there and the others insisted on trying their luck with finding another clan. But without knowing the direction, they could have run off into the backcountry for all I knew. So I stayed nearby and watched the Thich, hoping someone would come. When I saw the airships departing in a hurry… I almost didn’t dare to hope.
Don’t worry, Mark. Thalia patted the man’s shoulder while holding his hand. Everything will be alright now.
I hadn’t failed to notice that my friend had used her ability on Mark because his halting speech became more fluent and secure the longer he spoke. From Magnus’s expression, he had also picked up on it but hadn’t said anything despite his dislike of psychic influence.
Judging by how Mark acted before Thalia intervened, he just wouldn’t have been in the right frame of mind to tell us his story.
We did our best for Mark until half an hour later, our fleet returned and we could hand him over to some medics.
Of the ten airships in our fleet, only six were airborne, with two completely unrepairable ships.
Conla had pressed the attack on the eight Thich airships as much as possible, but four airships still got away. Mainly because one of them had a special weapon on board a laser. It was the reason why two of our ships suddenly caught fire for no obvious reason. Allowing the ships to escape must have been no easy decision, but after losing ten more riders to the laser Conla decided to cut her losses.
There was no longer a question that Thich was receiving weaponry from Earth. Our only luck was that weapons like the laser had downsides without a sufficient power source, limiting their reach and rate of fire.
Had the elders sent any fewer ships, Conla might have been unable to retake the Old Camp. On paper, we had won a victory and chased off the enemy with fewer losses than we inflicted. Four of the Thich ships would never fly again while we lost only two. But we hadn’t taken out the laser and the rockets deployed against us were use and forget anyway.
It stood to question how much of this ‘aid’ the Thich would receive in the coming conflict. Enough to counter Aerie’s air superiority?
While our troops secured the Old Camp, we returned to Conla’s command ship.
Thalia took Mark to the infirmary while Astra and I returned to the observation platform from where Conla was supervising the operation. We stayed for another hour until Conla declared the Old Camp as secured. Purging the bunker was a matter which we werent needed for, so we set up a secure jaunt point and returned to Mount Aerie for the night.
Which was of course very welcomed by Isaac, who went to sleep nestled in between us.
The night was once more occupied by one of Gaias cramming sessions during which she educated us on our ability. It was only thanks to the sub-identities I could even keep up with the more advanced theories she was sharing.
My head was smoking when Magnus asked a question, thankfully calling a short pause on the lesson.
Why is it that the growth rate of my filaments seems to be slowing down?
Gaia stopped her scribbles on the chalkboard and looked at us with a displeased frown. She was rather irritable and impatient when she was in her teaching mode.
When no immediate answer came, Magnus clarified, I have been taking measures of my filaments, noting down their speed of growth to get an idea of when I might be able to soar like Astra.
The avatar pursed her lips. I am sorry to disappoint, but that is unlikely. Filaments arent like hair.
Now it was my turn to frown. What do you mean?
Sexual dimorphism, Gaia explained. Something the Gestalt came up with when it designed your species.
But Magnus exclaimed baffled. thats unfair! Werent you the one who manipulated our genes?
Gaia threw her chalk at his forehead and had a new one appear in her hand. Be a little more grateful. The differences between the sexes are something the Gestalt hard-coded into most of Earths biosphere to foster evolutionary adversity and competition. It isnt something I can just do away with. Unless you want to have bigger tits, weaker muscles, and your brain chemistry altered, you have to accept it.
I like his muscles, I mumbled while I tried to imagine Magnus with said traits.
No thanks, he replied. On second thought, I am completely fine with shorter filaments. No need to sail when I can teleport. But why would the Gestalt want adversity and competition in her creations? Arent we symbiotically linked? If I could design my own body, I would want it as perfect as possible.
Gaia shrugged. The Gestalt is thinking on different time scales. Designing an organism for a certain environment might be beneficial in the short term, but it would require a conscious effort on our part. As a whole, the Gestalt prefers a hands off approach, allowing what you call natural selection and mutation. Power gained through adversity, competition, and polymorphy is something which requires no effort on our part and it is all the same to us. It has worked for millions of years and prevented our end several times. You wont change the Gestalts opinion on this.
You differentiate between the Gestalt and yourself in this case, I pointed out. So your point of view is different?
Over the last weeks, I had noticed a pattern of how Gaia was separating herself from the rest of the Gestalt not by being an individual, but by having a different opinion on certain topics.
Gaia nodded. Being alone on Tirnanog has allowed me to form a more independent opinion. As you might have noticed, I believe it might be beneficial to take a more active role in managing the platform I am living on. It’s less than ideal to have the peak predators among my creations fight among themselves instead of the enemy who wants to kill me. Can we return to the lesson now? I want to get this done.