Black Temple: Deserters

Show Content

Spoiler
"I would have to advise you against that idea."
The voice cuts through the intermediary stages of travelling through the air as sound waves and then into your ears and just pops directly into your head.


"She might not sound it, but I can assure you our esteemed leader is entirely sincere with her offer of protection, nobody who enters the reproductive field will be harmed. You look human anyway, so you especially have nothing to fear!
And I must also apologise for the actions of my subordinate there. If it gives you any comfort, he would have let go quite quickly anyway. Not actually able to digest meat, you understand. I can have him executed if you so desire.
Nevertheless, while I as a non human am evidently inferior to yourself, I must insist that the both of you come with me. Once you have taken a few genetic tests you'll be released to do whatever you want, but these tests are not optional even for a first class citizen."

It looks like organising the revolution might take you a little more time than you thought.

Ask him why he's inferior when he has those psychic powers of his.

>Ask him why he works for a genocidal human-supremacist empire if he's not even human to begin with.

There is a small flaw in these questions.
You used the word "work".
This implies that I was given a choice.

>Punch him in the helmet to establish fuck you.

Yeah... What he just said has removed any inclination you had to do that.
Now you're feeling even more guilty about that guy you knocked out.

Failing that, pick up tentacle man and run like hell.

You don't need to grab him because he had the idea first.
The attempt fails spectacularly.


By your reckoning if you make a break for it now you can probably make it past the unconcious guy and to the other side of the street while they are distracted, from there... find a manhole or something?
Things are swiftly getting out of your control, you honestly don't know where you can go that would be particularly safe.
And of course that would involve leaving the Ceph behind, he still looks like he's breathing (and you never even found out his name!) You know a bit of first aid although not much about bullet wounds or on his particular species, but maybe you could help him? That would mean you'd have to go with the invaders of course, although presumably they would have brought some sort of medical service with them to doctor themselves, they might be able to help him more than you can.

Which way do you go?

Actually, work just means work. It has nothing to do with choice. Slaves are considered to be working, too, when they're...working.

You consider pointing out his foolish error in word meaning but decide there are probably more important things to do with your time.

Either option is going to leave a bad impression in the long run. Speaking of runs, you should probably just flee - at least that way you might have some chance of finding Metal Coat.

Despite feeling no small amount of guilt... you're pretty sure there's not a lot you can do to help that guy. He's got multiple wounds and you have no first aid supplies with you or anything, even if there was some way you could take him with you it probably wouldn't do much to save him, so you use the time he's bought to make a break for it yourself.
You think they've noticed you, but you've managed to make it a little further than your unfortunate companion did.

Go for the sewers!

You round a corner and drop down a manhole, pulling it closed behind you. Hopefully you were fast enough that they didn't notice, and it'll be a while before they think of looking down here.


Of course you immediately realise the flaw in your cunning plan, it's pitch black and you have no idea how to get around in the sewers.
Also it's damp and you hate water, it is pretty deadly to you in large quantities as it clumps all your sand together so you can't move it.
Better make sure not to fall in.


Well that's slightly better.

Find out where the nearest safe (and hopefully dry) place is and lie low there for a while.

Try to leave the city : follow the flow of water.

Not having regularly entered the sewers you actually have no idea how you would find a safe or dry place, but following the flow of water to reach an exit does sound like a sensible idea. You could just pick directions at random but it seems safer to follow a theme, there are miles of tunnels under this city and not all of them sewers, a man could get lost for months down here.
As you begin to worry about whether you'll ever see daylight again (despite the ladder you entered by still being in plain view behind you) you are distracted by a little icon in the bottom of your vision, your internet connection seems to have been re-established.

MC: Well it's about time you showed up!

RW: Sorry

MC: What kind of stupid idea is signing out of your messenger program in the middle of an emergency?

RW: The signal just cut out for a while, I couldn't get anything even though I was right outside my house.

MC: Don't be ridiculous, my wireless never fails.

RW: Did you say something about coming to pick me up?

MC: Well actually I'm a bit busy right at this moment, I thought you were dead or something you see so I've started doing something else...

RW: Oh
RW: You see because I'm sort of stuck in the sewers at the moment

MC: Well if you hang on in there for about half an hour or so then I might have finished up, although I can't promise anything


You didn't think Metal Coat was just going to sit there staring out of a window until you got back did you? He's a busy man, got a lot of things to do. While you were away he cleared the rest of those freaks out of his shop and the basement workshop, although there may well be some left further ahead. The amount of mess they could create in such a short period of time is simply staggering.
This is the blast door leading to the main hub of your own personal section of the tunnels under the city, mostly converted from an old subway station that was damaged in an explosion and never brought back into working order. The door is wide open and you aren't the one who opened it, meaning that some of these idiots are already crawling around in your stuff down there, but fortunately you have a plan to deal with it, complete with hastily drawn map.


Ziel is right on the edge of a desert, and although situated very close to deposits of incredibly valuable minerals the founders wanted it to be more than a mining town, and thus implemented a set of laws that were very lenient. Companies that set up shop in Ziel are subject to far fewer safety and ethics checks than pretty much anywhere else which allows them to bring in a lot of money, also bringing in population and commerce. This combined with its convenient closeness to rare elements with intriguing properties allowed it to quickly grow into a centre of scientific advancement, although not one of particularly laudable morals.
This is how you have several barrels of incredibly toxic chemicals hidden in a series of tunnels under your house. Many of them are waste products from your own tinkerings or are useful for synthesising other chemicals but a couple are hooked up specifically to fumigate your whole tunnel system just in case anything like this ever happened.

Thing is, even with the rather loose morals of your home city people generally aren't going to appreciate it if flesh-melting toxins suddenly start billowing out of their cellar, so you're going to have to check for leaks first. The Ziel police force is a joke but some of the vigilantes out there are pretty well armed and it'd probably lose you some business. And some people would die too, that would be a shame.
So first you're going to have to go round and make sure all of the old subway tunnels are still properly sealed before gassing all the remaining aliens to death.


After Metal Coat finishes his detailed explanation on how he is going to gas all the aliens in his house to death using substances of dubious origin you didn't even know he had you are left with something of a dilemma.
Your first thought is that it's pretty rude of him to just abandon you down here, but then again are you really worth rescuing? I mean evidently he can cope pretty well enough on his own and you'd just be a drain of resources. Besides he seemed to think what he was doing was pretty important, what if there's important stuff hidden down there that should never fall into the wrong hands? You're not quite sure what kind of deadliness Coat is capable of at his worst but evidently he doesn't think being able to kill everything in a large collection of winding tunnels under his house with the flick of a switch is anything particularly out of the ordinary.
But what do you do until he's done? You could keep wandering around down here until you find a way out and then try and make it to his house on foot or you could just sit around being useless and hope nobody has followed you.
There really are a lot of tunnels down here though, it's pretty unlikely that anyone would ever find you.

> MC: fab a few flying eyes and send them a-scouting for leaks. No need to go there in person when you got nanotech.

Remember to put in more stringent security measures for your blast doors when this all blows over. Something's very wrong if a lobotomized idiot can figure out how to open them.

You've built many a flying eye in your time, got plenty in reserve too. You could whip up a batch in minutes right now, problem is that no matter how fast you can fabricate metal objects it still takes a fair amount of time to program them. You can't transmit your brainwaves into anything that you aren't in direct physical contact with, and you don't keep any AI-Eye controllers on your person.
Whenever you want to build a new one for whatever reason it's easy enough just to go to a computer, you try to keep the hard drives within your own body just for essentials because as they have your life support routines in them you don't ever want to have to fumble around looking for something to delete if you ever need more space in a hurry.
On top of that, you generally leave your spying for other people's houses so it didn't seem like something you wouldn't just be able to do from your specially designed terminal. The terminal that's in the garage. The garage that's right on the other side of where you need to go.

The thing about security is actually slightly more worrying now that you start to think about it. You're not sure how you could have made these doors more secure.
There are no external controls at all, the bolts are inside the door and cannot be accessed from the outside. You can open them because you can just stick your arm into the door and will it to open but you've never seen anyone else with machines quite like yours. They're just too beautiful for you to ever give them away to anyone else.
And yet the doors are lying open and appear to be completely undamaged.

Metal: Equip yourself with more blades. If there's anything that videogames and movies have taught you, it's that diagonal lifts will be swarmed with enemies as soon as they start moving.

Oh, no need for blades.
You have better plans.
Now, what kind of armaments do you think would be more appropriate?

Rob:Pace and think (and see the guy)

AHHGGFRGAGAAGHAGHRGRHRGHAGAHAGAAA

Aliens: Realize that you don't get paid enough for this. Keep doing it anyway because you're mindless drones and nobody cares about how much you get paid.

SPLOOSH
Words drip very slowly through your mind, it's been a long time since they have. Being immersed in water sends your memory back to when you still had a clear memory, you haven't been able to think very clearly at all since then. Did you lose something back then? Something definitely feels wrong...
These thoughts do not please you but of course your teeth are too big for you to frown.


A voice in your head tells you it's ok, everything's fine, nothing is missing, just shut up and swim.
The voice is very convincing.
You put all thoughts of the past from your mind.

Rob:Ask if the sewer connects to anypaet of the network under his house.

His answer isn't very helpful
Also you feel kind of guilty about pushing that guy into a river of who knows what, although he seems to be able to swim at least

>MC: Use a FLAMETHROWERRRR

If video games have taught you anything it's that you'll get attacked by a horde of enemies any time now and have to engage them in a dramatic moving lift battle, so something that can spew flames in all directions onto foes covered in inflammable, dry bandages sounds like a pretty good idea.


They should be here any moment now...


Any moment now...


Huh.
The entrance hall is devoid of anything of interest, as it's mainly used for hauling things onto the lift you don't really want it too cluttered up.
Your left arm is a flamethrower. Your right arm is a grappling arm, with a smaller flamethrower in its palm. Obvious exits are through the second pair of ominously opened doors to the left or to the firmly shut ones to the north.

>Robert: Stretch out, and see if you can push the crettinous critter underwater without immersing yourself.

You guess you probably don't want him coming back after you, maybe if you just sort of reach over and...


Some form of sewer crocodile beats you to it


The wrestling pair float away, carried by some unspeakable current.
You've honestly been extremely lucky so far with these things, you should probably get yourself more prepared next time you see one.
Just... once you remember how to move again.

MC: Go to the shut doors first. Obviously you want to make sure that what seems safe is safe before walking into what's obviously less safe.

Seems like someone's already sealed that one for you.
Doesn't really look like there's any way you're going to be going through here, fortunately that was mostly where you stored junk you never wanted to look at again rather than anything useful.
Might be a while before you can be bothered to clear it out.

>The open doors. Something's been roaming in your lair and you have to make it pay.

The other door leads to where your tunnels link in with an abandoned subway station.
It was damaged by an explosion about eight or so years ago, and apparently it cost more to repair than it earned anyway, so what with being close to the end of the line in any case the powers that be decided just to shut it down rather than rebuild.


You didn't exactly ask permission to build here, so you've just sort of added extra rooms yourself rather than place anything in this area. Then if anyone complains you can just say you didn't change anything, except that your cleaning machines have possibly made it sparklier than it ever was when it was in use.
You're no lawyer but that has to be a permissable excuse, right?
Besides there's a big set of heavy train tracks in a big ditch in the middle, and another through a wall. They take up a fair amount of the usable space and you don't want to bother removing them any more than they did.

There's no sign of them here either, maybe that one that got crushed by the cave in was the only one who came down.

> better take out your fire-ax in case of future encounters with those alien things.

You forgot you were even carrying this.
Honestly you aren't sure you want to use it, could you kill someone? I mean I guess they are trying to kill you, and that guy getting eaten by a crocodile was probably also your fault anyway, but that one guy did say they were pretty much being forced. Not that he had any reason to tell you the truth.
Well, you'll keep it to hand. Maybe it'd scare a couple away?
It's probably for the best that you find a way out now though, you only really ducked down here to get out of sight and well... if at least one of them found you presumably there's more down here. You'll at least know where you're going if you reach a ladder and get out.
Just have to find one first.

>_Metal Coat: Examine the posters

Ugh, AMP.

This city is notorious for shady business ethics but if there was some kind of "low moral standards in science" prize AMP would win it, probably by bribing the judges. They are rumoured to do things considered unpleasant even by the already low standards around here. They sell clones and cryogenics to the rich, they market barely legal drugs and stimulants and a couple of very unfortunate slip ups imply they're almost certainly working on bioweapons. Problem is most of their more morally questionable projects are run by two teams, one of which uses the research for something marketable to the public and the other one working secretly on the real deal, just in case their riches aren't enough to send away any annoying inspectors.
Hell, a lot of people hate them because they have literally created their own species in order to sell them as pets.

Plus they're in direct competition with you. You make prosthetic limbs and organs, they grow completely new ones in tanks. How are you meant to compete with that?
You used to have the market covered on "Your hand is now also a gun" but you've heard they're close to cracking that one too. Very frustrating.

But all that said, Robert hates AMP even more than you do and he hardly hates anything.
You can hardly blame him though, is parents used to work there.

"Used" being the most important word in that sentence.


You aren't really the type that often goes to the cinema, and even if you were this poster said "coming soon" eight years ago, so it won't be in theatres any more. Your species' short lifespan and somewhat unique process of mental development means that while it was actually playing you were probably incapable of watching it at the time anyway.
You looked it up on the internet though just because it is hung up on what is now your wall, it gained a tiny cult following but was panned by critics for being full of plotholes and incomprehensible references that only a miniscule fraction of the audience would appreciate.
What a suprise(!)


Who the hell names their product "Worm Soda"?
What part of "Enormous, territorial sand-dweller" yells "Thirst-quenching soft drink" to you?
They might be among the main sources of income and tourism to the city but they're also probably the reason the enormous desert surrounding the place exists in the first place! That's the opposite of thirst-quenching!
It's no wonder you've never seen this drink on sale, probably went bust a couple of weeks after printing these adverts.

Short lifespan ? :c Tell us more !

Being smaller as a species generally means living faster (although there are some exceptions), so your kind tend to measure their age in seasons rather than years. Your given age is thirty five but in years you're about four times younger than that.
You're pretty sure that your incredible mechanical augmentations have increased your lifespan by a significant period of time though, as they are much more reliable than fleshy sacks of meat. Not even your race's creator can match your genius!

Of course the only way to find out if this is actually true is to live a long time and see if you die.

>MetalCoat : go check up on your really worthy equipment.

You seem to have found the intruders, though they have shoved your equipment out of the way to make room for an extraordinarily pleased-looking device filled with green liquid.
There's another of those bandaged ghoul thingies and a shorter floating guy whose limbs don't extend much further past the joint. They haven't noticed you because the little one is talking to that ridiculous girl commander of theirs on another floating screen, although she appears to have removed her hat.
You're not human yourself and you can tell there's something a little off about her. It's probably the shark teeth and enormous red eyes.

"Have you finished sealing those surface tunnels yet? We need every manhole locked down if we want to clear this accursed undercity and you were meant to be finished an hour ago. The stuff'll be useless if it floats up into the city, never mind the fact that we'd be gassing ourselves."

"Alas most glorious one, we may require another few minutes. These tunnels run further than even our most generous of estimates, I am not sure we even have the right quantity of neurotoxin... and our entry opened yet more holes to the surface. Why could we not just teleport in?"

"Are you questioning my tactical wisdom?"

"Of course not, no! I would never dare!"

"Damn right you wouldn't. Now you had better hurry it up if you want time to get out of there before I turn that stuff on. Clock's ticking."

Apparently they have already done most of your work for you. You decide to treat the fact that your plan was essentially the same as that of the evil invading force (apart from the target) as completely unimportant.
So do you kill them now or just tiptoe out, do a bit of extra sealing for them and let them gas themselves?

>Rob: Keep on going then.....

You found another manhole, feels like there's something heavy on top though.
Hold on...


There we go!


Ah.
This perhaps was not the best place to emerge.

Robert: Run like hell.

"A subhuman!
You are luckier than you know to be leaving those tunnels now, we were just about to weld them closed. Come calmly with us and you will not be harmed."

Yeah running sounds more attractive that what he is suggesting.
They said that before, and then... you had to leave that guy behind.

Robert: oh my goodness that one has heads growing out of its body.

"Don't just sit there watching, grab him!"




"Useless freeloaders..."


"You just can't get the help these days, have to do everything myself."


"I'm afraid you're not going anywhere."

>MC: just tiptoe out and let them finish up

"Come, we'd better hurry and seal the last passages to that shop, then we can leave through the tunnels."
Truly you are a master of stealth.


Now you can get another look at this machine.
The interface seems surprisingly simple, although maybe that's because you're clearly just far more intelligent than these invaders.
Five minutes seems like it'll be fine for your purposes. Whatever this stuff is probably isn't going to hurt you even if you don't quite leave in time but there's no point taking unnecessary risks.

And of course the gas would be released into the undercity and kill people. You'd be unlikely to lose any clients, most people who live down here do so because they can't afford to live upstairs or else have some other reason to avoid society, but it'd probably hit your property value pretty hard.


Now you just need to make sure their stuff doesn't leave your basement and then you can head off. Probably best to leave via the garage, considering they headed off in the other direction.
Wait what was this seriously their cunning method for locking all of your doors to the other tunnels open?
Put a big pile of rocks in the middle so they don't close?

This is insulting.

Robert: Release your human form and turn completely into sand, this will increase the surface area of your contact with the shield. Hopefully he ends up overexerting himself trying to keep the barrier up!

You try exactly that and from the fireworks it looks like it's probably working.
"Stop that!
Look, I know this looks bad for you but until now there was no reason for me to kill you and so I wasn't going to. We need to take you to the Temple where you'll be checked and then assigned a new Citizenship Ranking and then you'll almost certainly be allowed to live while you don't make any trouble, you at least [i]look human enough.
If you persist in giving me a headache I can keep this thing up long enough to find out how you die and then do that. Hell, if that doesn't work I could just drop you back in that sewer, we're pumping it full of neurotoxins in a couple of minutes, you'd either die of that or starve to death as we weld closed all the exits."[/i]

...you'd rather sit in a bubble than die. He sounds like he knows what he's doing, it probably wouldn't take that long.
You reluctantly do as he asks.

> Hope for Deus Ex Machina - Demi-Deities are purportedly living in the area, yes?

Well there are certainly people around with abilities far in advance of your boring old human, you can't think you've met anyone else made of sand (and you weren't born that way) but people probably wouldn't bat an eyelid if you told them and around here it would seem odd to try and keep it a secret.

And of course, not everyone in this town was even born on this planet.
And unless that kid from earlier was lying, those certain individuals seem to be the ones under the most threat.


Some of them don't need a whole lot of provocation to violate the earth airspace treaty, and this counts as a hell of a lot more than a bit of provocation in anyone's book.






...


But it doesn't look like you can expect any help from that quarter right now.

>Pulverize the rocks to ease frustration

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA


Actually that does make feel a lot better.
Now that's dealt with it's probably about time you left, you doubt that whatever they have would affect you at all but there's no point taking risks.
You can take the back door out.


It's fortunate that you keep the car gassed up, stocked with imperishable food and supplies and loaded onto the launch rails just in case you ever do need to make a quick getaway for whatever reason, not that this is in any way paranoid or suspicious.


Even Robert, who usually knows better than to question your obvious genius, occasionally expressed doubts as to the practicality of driving a treaded, windowless, armoured box around town.
Well, we'll see who's crazy now!


"Hey it's me again!
I'm not sure if you noticed, but a few minutes ago we were very rudely attacked by someone who was sticking their nose in where they weren't wanted.
I have to say I found this quite upsetting, considering the restraint we've shown so far! And thus I have a couple of announcements to make.

First of all! If anyone else decides they want to waste their ammunition against my invincible defences then we'll have to start executing hostages! We don't want to, but we also don't want your weaponry richocheting around and killing harmless civilians, so this seems like the only ethical choice.

Secondly! For the increased defence of our citizens and to stop the unprepared and woefully misinformed from wandering out into the desert and dying of dehydration, we'll be raising our force barriers around the city in five minutes time! They don't get on well with electricity, so if you've got anything electronic around the outskirts it might be best to turn it off, that's what the five minutes grace time is for! Only, it's getting closer to four now so you'd better hurry up.
That should be all for now I think, have a pleasant day!"


"Why is it dark? The dome shouldn't be up yet..."


"Hurry up and get in, didn't you hear what she just said?
I can't be bothered to spend the short time it would take to make something to circumvent those forcefields and I don't like our new mayor very much, so we're going on holiday."
"Wait, just the two of us? Can't we bring anyone else?"
"No time! Leaving!"
















































But enough about those losers!
Isn't it about time we paid some attention to the Most Important Character?
We are currently sitting in our somewhat uncomfortable chair and bored out of our skull. Conquering the world and oppressing all non-human sentient races is a lot less exciting than it sounds, believe me! Or... us.
We've had a guy sitting outside our control room for about half an hour now but we think you can leave him waiting a while longer. We did call him ourselves and tell him to get up here as quickly as possible but we're clearly far too busy doing absolutely nothing to see him right now.

>Examine your throne room.

We briefly consider wandering around the room but it's largely pointless, there's only one interesting thing in here and we're it.
We can see everything exciting from this chair (and if we couldn't we can make it glide around the floor as we please, unfortunately the novelty of that wore off years ago).
There's a bunch of power cores around the edge of the room, stacked up in a huge cylinder reaching up to the edge of sight and also down under the floor, and the main controller in the middle of the room behind your chair.
The Control Room also doubles as the Engine Room and triples as the Power Generator, the technology is pretty versatile even if it does require a bit of a convoluted setup.

We don't need any terminals or fancy screens, everything you are required for in here is just routed directly from your brain into the hat into the main controller into the power cores without having to move a muscle.
We do tend to wave our hands around a bit for dramatic effect, it just feels better that way.

Precious is probably also in here somewhere, he likes crawling around in the rafters. He's like our personal bodyguard, not that we've ever been in any danger ever at all.
Can't be a very satisfying job, but he doesn't mind.

Outside is mostly just taken up by cloneries for the Amputees. Who would have thought breeding an army would take up so much space?


Woah woah woah woah wait wait stop STOP STOPSTOPSTOP

Why are there so many of you?!
This isn't good this isn't good. There's only meant to be four voices in here and I don't recognise any of you!
It can't be time yet I'm not ready I have plans the plans there isn't time they aren't finished!

...
Ok calm down.
Maybe I was wrong, this can't be a symptom, I know I've got a couple of years left, at least. Fishbowl Girl would show signs before me and she's a-ok.
Still, don't really want The Hat listening in on this, if I answer your questions will you go away?
Here goes then..."

>Exposit on why you have [URL="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily"] more teeth than the Osmond family[/URL], all canines, despite calling yourself human.

> exposit on why your eyes and hair are both red because that is not a human trait at all! o:

Aren't you feeling alone ? So far we didn't met much human-like people around you, only cyborg and alien slaves.
Why invading locations so much Humans, anyway?

Out of curiosity, about how old is Brianna?

Ugh straight away with the long questions, you'd think what with hanging around in my head you could rummage around for this stuff without having to ask.

Back on Earth, being human is like a religion. Apparently at some point in the past the planet was bombarded with mutagens from space or something, wrecked the ecology and nearly wiped out civilisation until some aliens following the trail gave them a hand. There were strings attached though, lots of them, and they didn't really like that. On top of which, the weird space chemicals were messing with their genetics something fierce, in ways they didn't really understand at all.
Then a man met God, and God told him that there was only one species worth being in this universe. So after a thousand years of interplanetary war his forces finally managed to annihilate both those who helped them in their hour of need and their own children. Not yet content, Ragnar (their new Prophet-King) started sending out conquest parties to teach everyone else that they should have been born with a different number of limbs. And so here I am!

I've never been anywhere near Earth (well, not that Earth, clearly I'm pretty close to the one we're all on now) and, for that matter, have barely had any contact with humans at all. I'm a mutant, I am the enemy, but unfortunately it turns out that some mutations are too useful to do without. I have to look presentably human, but also obvious enough that I'd never be mistaken for the real deal.
I am broken goods, an inferior product, unwanted, trash. They keep me around because they need me, otherwise I'd be dead too.
I have sisters but we've not met in person for years and they're pretty absorbed with their work, the only people I talk to on a regular basis are my Bodyguard, my Assassin, my Computer, my Self and my Hat.
So yeah, you'd probably find it a bit lonely. I'm not a wimp though, I can take it.

And for the record, it's rude to ask a lady her age!
Also it's a complicated question and I don't know the answer.

>Tell us more about the Amputees

They're mutants too, obviously. Intentional ones, heretical as that sounds.
Humans are holy you see, so it would be blasphemous to expect any of them to risk their lives in battle.

Conveniently, mutants aren't holy at all so if they manage to die in battle for the causes of mankind that's probably the closest they can get to heaven.
Which is nowhere near close enough because they're not humans.
The name is some awful idea of a pun, and it's not even a good one because I'm pretty sure lobotomy doesn't count as amputation at all.

Look behind you.

Why would I look behind me? We both know there's nothing worth looking at back there.

Okay admit it you're just the puppet of the large alien thing in the tnak behind you. .

Hahahahahahahaha!

I am seconding all suggestings involving casual murder.
It is a dirty world out there and a mass geneocidal chick like you needs to keep your murder cred as high as possible.
Gotta make more corpses.

> Just torture a couple more aliens, why don't you

Finally some good ideas. God, why did you two even let the other voices come with you?
Unfortunately the closest I've ever actually been to a battle is watching it through someone else's eyes. I'd love to do something hands on but honestly I don't get to do a lot more than fly a big fancy ship around and administrate. It is awful.
Thousands die at my command but I've never been outside this black box. My sisters get all the luck.

Does "Precious" have any special abilities that set him apart from others of his kind?

He's far more lovable.

And of course, what is that thing in the tank?

>What are the voices you normally hear? Oh dear I don't want to intrude!!

Ask your normal voices about the sudden influx.

Well obviously there's me, I mean I'm talking to you right now. Hell I thought it was only me in here until more than one of you suddenly piped up.
My hat likes giving me orders, it's basically the link back to good old Earth. It likes me to think that's here all the time listening and watching everything I do and it thinks I believed it when it said so, but recently I've figured out how to tell when it is listening.
For example right now it's asleep! If I'm honest I don't want you to meet eachother though, it probably wouldn't approve.
And when your hat doesn't approve of something then bad things happen.

Occasionally girly in that tank over there puts a word in, although usually she only speaks when spoken to. You don't really want your computer to talk back, I suppose, you just want it to turn the lights on or move three lightyears to the left.
When we cycle the tanks once a month to give her a bit of time to fix herself up before the acid's pumped back in she can be pretty chatty though.
I actually secretly sort of look forward to those days. We're actually probably closesly related enough to call eachother sisters! Although not quite as closely as I am to the ones I was talking about earlier.

The last voice is pretty quiet and it took me a while to realise he was there at all.
He doesn't say much though, he usually just tells me to kill people.
Can't hear him at the moment but a couple of you seem to be doing the job in his stead.

You are by far the noisiest voices I have ever heard I hope I am not going to have to put up with you forever.

But you are in charge! Why can't you just like open the door and murder whoever is on the other side? No one will know because he will be dead
It even has the bonus of looking like someone tried to kill you! That might have some unexpected perks, eh?

>Did you ever think that maybe humans weren't that great?

Well basically it's because my hat (or someone on the other end of my hat, I've never quite worked out if it has a mind of its own or is just a reciever connected to somewhere else) is listening to me and if I do anything stupid it will get angry.
Obviously when I was younger I just tried taking it off. It electrocuted me unconcious and then when I woke up it said it had made a new automatic routine to detonate itself if it ever detected the series of nerve impulses I used to lift my hands up to grab it.
So yeah.
That's not happening.

Okay what are your special abilities that makes you useful for that kind of conquest?

> So what exactly does make your mutation so useful?

> Precious obviously exists to ride. Use him as a mount whilst acting out imaginary scenes of killing filthy mutants.

>Ride Precious, RIDE TO GENOCI- I MEAN VICTORY!

Ride Precious.

>Ride Precious.

>Talk to Assassin! ask him or her to kill something :D

"Ah... Mistress? Am I interrupting something?"
"Carrion! About time you showed up! Must have been a good 45 minutes since I called you up here!"
"Yes, many apologies. I am afraid I was delayed by an unfortunate technical issue.
In your infinite wisdom it appears that you locked every entrance to this chamber and thus prevented me from getting in, it took me quite some time to pick the lock and gain your wonderful audience."
"And I don't remember giving you permission to do that either!"

Ask him what he wants.

"What do you want?"
"Mistress... you are the one who summoned me here."
"Yes, and now I am asking you what you want. Is that difficult for you to understand?"
"I wish only to serve you, of course."

we should observe his face with great detail using our body
and pretend that it is perfectly normal to get that close to a face while making vapid banter

see who breaks concentration first

"I did have a task for you actually, but during the wait for you to arrive it has slipped from my mind, I'm sure I'll remember eventually. You can't think what it might have been, can you?"
"I must say, I can't imagine there's any person or fortified position on this worm-blighted rock that would require my talents, so it remains a mystery to me too. Much like the question of why we're even still here at all, I expected us to have been done here very quickly."
"Are you implying I'm doing something wrong? Because I would have thought you knew better than that by now."
"I am sure the true extent of your grasp of tactical knowledge would surprise even me, mistress. I am certain that there surely must be some great reason behind the fact that so far we've spent several hours besieging a single city with our worst forces in the middle of a desert, the one city most full of possible insurrectionists who we need to gather up, instead of simply cutting the head off of the entire weakly-balanced global organisation in a single strike and inserting ourselves into the gap within a day as we have so many times before.
Whatever great scheme you have hatched is evidently beyond my understanding, perhaps the understanding of anyone."
"All part of the plan."

This psychological, personal space stuff would probably work a whole lot better if those eyes on his hat weren't just decoration.
I mean he can tell I'm getting closer through some weird psychic echolocation bullshit or something like that but it probably doesn't have quite the same effect or he'd already have been stunned by my incredible good looks.
Also my body thank you very much. I don't much like disembodied voices laying claim to pieces of my anatomy.

Teleport out of your hat.

"Hey, Girly/computer in the tank over there! Yes I'm talking to you. This is top secret, you can literally not even think about it while the hat is awake; if you can somehow manage to get that crown of her head while keeping her alive, I'll make sure you wn't have to live in a vat of acid any more, deal?"

Oh yeah, I had totally forgotten that I can teleport and never bothered trying to do it without my hat before.
Did you seriously not think the people who grew me in a tank specifically so that I could rip holes in space for them would forget I could rip holes in space?
Hat's made out of this weird stuff called Ercite. The Temple loves it, in fact pretty much everything in this place is made out of it, even the glass. Don't ask me how it works because it's not something anyone thought it was worth telling me, I don't even know how some of it's opaque and some of it's not, but as far as I can tell it's some kind of programmable psychic conductor alloy. As much sense as that makes, I'm no scientician.
So my hat increases the strength and range of my telekinesis, provides me with a direct mental link to the computer and then hijacks that link to lock itself onto all of my extraspacial movements and surround itself with a shield only slightly less intense than the one reflecting laser cannon fire right this second on the outside of the temple, so it is basically completely untouchable.

Which also means your other plan wouldn't work, and while I'm sure Fishtank over there can hear you the whole point of the nasty stuff she's floating is so she can't do anything sneaky like that. I mean I can as good as veto anything I don't want her to do anyway with my headwear but it always pays to be safe.
The hostility level is raised and lowered as we need more power for things and her remaining attention is captivated by the need to constantly repair what's being eaten.
Not exactly pleasant for her maybe, but it's better than what happens to the people outside.

So what do you usually do to spice up your conquesting routine ?

If there's nothing to do I tend to just sit around watching playbacks of planets we've messed up in the past.
Once we turned up at this place that we expected to be Earth but instead the whole place was just covered in ridiculous antler-headed children and their feral animal parents.
No idea where there real parents had gone, maybe they just grew in tanks too...
But anyway we burned them all and it was hilarious.


Oh shit shut up a minute.
Wʜʏ ɪs ᴛʜɪs Aʙʙᴇʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ sᴛɪʟʟ ɪɴ ʏᴏᴜʀ sᴇʀᴠɪᴄᴇ? Yᴏᴜ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ɪɴsᴛʀᴜᴄᴛᴇᴅ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ʀɪᴅ ᴏғ ʜɪᴍ.
He is too useful to get rid of! He's never failed a single assignment! I've not had a more efficient second hand before!
Hᴇ ɪs ɪɴsᴏʟᴇɴᴛ, sᴄʜᴇᴍɪɴɢ, ᴀʀʀᴏɢᴀɴᴛ ᴀɴᴅ ʜɪs ᴄᴏʟʟᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ғʀᴇᴀᴋs sᴘɪᴛs ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ғᴀᴄᴇ ᴏғ ᴏᴜʀ ᴅᴏᴄᴛʀɪɴᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍᴀᴋᴇs ғᴏᴏʟs ᴏғ ᴜs. Hᴇ ᴡɪʟʟ ʙᴇ ʀᴇᴍᴏᴠᴇᴅ.
Yᴏᴜʀ ɪʟʟᴏɢɪᴄᴀʟ ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄʜᴍᴇɴᴛ ᴛᴏ ɪɴғᴇʀɪᴏʀ ʙᴇɪɴɢs ɪs ᴅᴇɢʀᴀᴅɪɴɢ. Yᴏᴜ ᴡɪʟʟ ᴄᴇᴀsᴇ.
Ugh fine, whatever you want.


"Right I know what it was now. One of our Dragons has hit an unexpected complication and crashed itself into some ruins. I need you to go and pick up the central control unit for me and bring it back here. It contains... important information."
"...may I be allowed to make another observation?"
"Grudgingly. You're already sliding along thin ice and it's not like you have enough limbs to slow yourself down."
"As soon as the unit ceased function, the loss of signal will have attracted the attention of one of the Temple's Extractors, who will even now be heading down to remove the pilot. You are asking me to [i]race against one of the organisation's most potent and least restrained armoured units."[/i]
"Yep, that sounds like an accurate assessment! I'm glad I have picked someone so astute for this task! Obviously for such a dangerous and important assignment I couldn't use just anyone and you have just clearly demonstrated for me that you are just what this job needs. Congratulations!
We'll hand the assets over to the Extractor once I'm done with them, I just need to have a little look first.
Might want to get a move on too, Extractor might not have smelled it yet but it can't be long, you'll want a head start!"
"...right away."
"As soon as I've dismissed you of course."

Wʜᴀᴛ ɪs ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜɪs? Jᴜsᴛ sᴇɴᴅɪɴɢ ʜɪᴍ ᴀᴡᴀʏ ᴏɴ ᴀ ᴘᴏɪɴᴛʟᴇss ᴛᴀsᴋ ɪs ɴᴏᴛ ᴇɴᴏᴜɢʜ. Hᴇ ɴᴇᴇᴅs ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ᴅᴇsᴛʀᴏʏᴇᴅ.
So if he fails to bring it back then he will be executed for failing and if he tries to get it before the Extractor does then it will kill him for me.
Tʜɪs ɪs ᴀ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇ ᴏғ ᴛɪᴍᴇ! Iᴛ ᴀᴄᴄᴏᴍᴘʟɪsʜᴇs ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ! Wʜʏ ɴᴏᴛ sɪᴍᴘʟʏ ᴋɪʟʟ ʜɪᴍ ɴᴏᴡ?
Humour me. He can probably deal with some stragglers on the way or something. Plus this will also get rid of his "freak collection" that you hate so much.
...
Yᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴄᴇɴᴛ ᴘᴇʀғᴏʀᴍᴀɴᴄᴇ ɪs ʙᴇʟᴏᴡ ᴀᴠᴇʀᴀɢᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ʏᴏᴜʀ ʀᴇᴘᴇᴀᴛᴇᴅ ᴅᴇғɪᴀɴᴄᴇ ɪs ᴅɪsᴛᴜʀʙɪɴɢ.
Oᴜʀ sᴛᴀᴛɪsᴛɪᴄs ᴘʟᴀᴄᴇᴅ ʏᴏᴜ ʜɪɢʜᴇʀ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴇᴄʟɪɴᴇ ᴛʜᴀɴ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀʀᴇ ᴅᴇᴍᴏɴsᴛʀᴀᴛɪɴɢ ᴄᴜʀʀᴇɴᴛʟʏ, I ᴀᴍ sᴄʜᴇᴅᴜʟɪɴɢ ᴀ ᴘsʏᴄʜᴏʟᴏɢɪᴄᴀʟ ʀᴇᴠɪᴇᴡ ɪɴ ᴛʜᴇ ɴᴇᴀʀ ғᴜᴛᴜʀᴇ.
Looking forward to it. Are you quite done now, so I can send my ex-minion on his suicide mission?

Hello?
Oh good he's buggered off.
Are you still here? I hope not, I certainly wouldn't want him to be right.
I'm too young to die yet.

Nope, we're all gone. Though, now that you think of it, perhaps chasing away the near-omniscient voices in your head, which, by the way, were trying to save you from you likely-immenent death (and long-past brainwashing) may have not been such a good idea after all!

This whole "get heroes from the planet I'm supposed to conquer save you through deliberate strategic incompetence" thing is pretty great! Just be careful, ok?

You...!
How dare you call me incompetent? And you honestly expected me to fall for such absolutely pathetic tricks? That is actually more insulting than the insults!
I just don't believe you, you break into my head uninvited making me worry that I'm starting to break down, almost start blabbering and tip off my hat that I might be about to break down so it just terminates me on the spot and now you're sitting in my head insulting me. What is that going to achieve?
I've done what you wanted for the most part so far! I've answered ridiculous questions that any sane person would already have known the answer to and-
"Do you want me to get rid of them for you?"
Wait can you even do that?
Shit girl, why didn't you speak up sooner? Kill them dead!
"You told me never to speak to you uninvited."
Yes yes whatever just do it. Go! Make it hurt!
Haha, good work you bunch of bastards. Looks like we won't be seeing each other again very soon or hopefully ever. I'd say I'll miss you but I really won't.
Have a nice life doing whatever it is disembodied voices do when they're stuck outside of everything, my life will be substantially longer and infinitely better without you around.

>You're a clever girl, I'm sure you can find a way to get the hat off and our voices out of your skull.

"It is working right? Because I'd look pretty fucking stupid if it turned out I was just ranting at them and they were still here.
Then I might just remember that you just spoke to me uninvited and interrupted me.
"Yes it's working."
"Ok right good."






WAIT


DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE SO EASILY ESCAPED MY NOTICE
YOUR MEDDLING IS NOT WELCOME HERE


CEASE YOUR INTERFERENCE WITH MY CHOSEN OR I WILL BE FORCED TO TAKE ACTION
YOUR PURPOSE IS DONE, YOU ARE NOW SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS
WE HAVE DEALT WITH YOUR KIND BEFORE, I CAN DO MORE THAN JUST PUSH YOU AWAY

THIS HAS BEEN YOUR ONLY WARNING






The interior of this vehicle was clearly not designed with passengers in mind, but you decide that your driver wouldn't appreciate your saying so.
"Are we there yet?"
"You're driving!"
"You're navigating!"
"There's no map back here, and your car doesn't have any windows. I'm not linked to your external cameras. I also don't have a map."
"God you are such a whiner...
I'll turn off my signal blocker so you can get on your GPS."


It looks like there are a couple of choices. This surprises you because you've never been out of the city, you'd assumed the desert would just be empty sand for miles upon miles.
Closest to you are some old world ruins. You can probably set up there for a good while without anyone bothering to look, although it might be a bit lonely and probably also a little bit dangerous, not only from collapse but from sandworms.
There's a worm hunting station a little way further ahead that might well be home to some actual people and supplies. Coat said he has his own supplies in the back but more couldn't hurt, right? Where there's other people there's always a chance
And of course you could always rejoin the one road through the desert, the only one protected from the worms and thus the only one that survives for any period of time. Following that you'll reach another city before too long but you're far more likely to be found by those invaders. How can you be invaded by humans anyway when you mostly all live here?
Honestly you're surprised you haven't been pursued since leaving the city. Hopefully that wasn't because of the jamming systems you just persuaded your friend into turning off.
"So come on, where are we going?"

Try to contact that evil glowy sigil-thing again, for teh lulz. Boast about our power, and to prove it, we're going to direct our avatars to single-handedly (and possibly accidentally) riposte the invasion. Be careful not to expose their location or anything, though...

Your attempt is a complete failure!
It looks like you have lost the ability to control where your view is pointed (if you ever had it), guess we'll just have to stick with Robert and Metal Coat for now.

Hunting Station might be your best bet. Whilst you're more open to being found there, as long as you're quick it shouldn't matter.
Whilst at the Hunting Station you could gather said supplies and ask for advise on how to deal with worms (or even get something which could help you against them) After all, neither of you look like you're expert worm hunters.

Obviously, caution is advised on the approach, and as soon as we gather who/what we can, we should flee for the ruins.

The ruins are apparently meant to be sort of lousy with Sandworms, what with their habit of eating architecture. The only reason the ruins are still there is because they're over the remains of places with particularly large amount of tunnels and water pipes under the surface, worms hate water and also tend to shy away from large empty spaces, even if those spaces are underground.
It therefore seems like it'd probably be practical to see if the guys who hunt worms for a living have any tips for you before you go and hide in some old buildings.

There doesn't appear to be anyone by the entrance but there's a lot of noise coming from around the back.


There are certainly a lot of people over here though. And machines.
It dawns on you that you don't really know how worm hunting works at all, maybe Coat does.
"Hey why is it darker over here?"
"Look up, genius."


The monstrous truck parked beside the buildings seems to have a floating sand island tethered to it by a series of thick cables. A bunch of little robots are crawling around on and inside it.
Well, they look little from down here but actually they're probably fairly large.

You aren't entirely sure how or why they've managed to pull an island over here but you do at least know where the things come from, they're a pretty common sight outside the city so it's no mystery.
Sandworms aren't terrestrial animals and are still only very vaguely understood by science, but they seem to mostly consist on a diet of rocks, masonry and each other. In order to protect their eggs from cannibalism, they cover them in thick shell of sand which is treated with chemicals that both bind the grains together and somehow makes the egg case float into the air. For a long time everyone assumed they trapped some form of lighter-than-air gas inside in large quantities, but as far as anyone has managed to find by actually breaking one apart, it's just sand and eggs the whole way through.
As soon as baby hatches, it eats all of its siblings and then the island itself, falling into the desert to annoy people who just want to build houses. Or live on the planet.

If you had to hazard a guess as to what one of them is doing here, you'd say that this is actually probably a much easier method of getting useful stuff from worms than tracking down and subduing adults.

And you'd be right, only because this is exposition from the point of view of a character we have to pretend that you aren't aware of that last part.


Your musing is cut short when the Foreman scuttles over to you and demands your attention, his voice crackling from a metal box stuck to his carapace.
He looks rather annoyed, but his species usually do.

"This one must inform you that you are trespassing on land that is not only private property but also a dangerous work site.
It advises you to return to your vehicle with haste, for its employer will take no responsibility for any harm that may befall you here."
"Are you threatening me?"
"This may be so, does it wish to find out?"
"Wait! We just wanted to warn you about what's happening in the city. Haven't you seen anything? You're not all that far away."

At these words the giant insect visibly calms down.

"It brings news? This one apologises.
It would not believe how many stupid tourists decide to wander into worm refinery, do they not know that this is a place of work?"
"No no we're just here to tell you what's going on, and maybe ask a few questions if that's alright with you."
"This one did wonder what was going on, it saw many lights in the sky, heard sounds of violence and even saw a great ship fall from the heavens.
Is it the rioting again? This one believes a greater police visibility is necessary. Place a Cys'tar warrior on every corner, then we shall see who dares defy the peace."
"It's not riots I'm afraid. We're being invaded.
All these screens appeared in the sky and said something about a Great Empire of Humanity, they're speciesist extremists as far as I could tell.
Then all these pods fell out of the sky and soldiers came out, they were talking about placing some kind of blockage around the city exits when we left. We're lucky to have got out at all, I think."
"It was all thanks to me."
"This one does not understand. There are no humans empires, how can they be invading?"
"I know as much as you. If it helps, we've only actually seen one person... uh, one human in their broadcasts. Their soldiers are something else I've not seen. I've not seen technology like any they used, in fact, although I'm no expert."
"Nope, he's right. Definitely alien."
"Did they dare break the great treaties? The wrath of our benefactors will be great indeed.
It surprises me that they are not here already.

We have weathered many riots in the desert, nobody remembers the worm hunters. We shall be safe here until retribution arrives."

Now that you've managed to avoid a fight, what do you think it would be smart to talk about?