The Spore - Containment required

[RyuKazuha]

Terminus

Ariola squinted at the glare of the rising sun. The lush green fields of Abonar stretched towards the horizon, idyllic and peaceful. "There's nowhere left to run." she remembered him say and it felt like it had been a long time ago. Ariola turned, as she heard the clacking of her officers legs on the concrete behind her. Noralas stalked eyes looking at her inquisitively. "Are you ready, General? Control confirmed the spores droppods are inbound."
Ariola turned back to the landscape. "I have never been ready." she answered. "Noone ever has." grabbing her heavy flamethrower she steadied herself. "I expect every single one of ours to kill a thousand of theirs. Afterwards you're free to die or continue."
Where Ariola had spoken grimly and full of bitterness, Norala voice was suprisingly cheery and jovial, as she turned to the officers behind her. "You heard the lady. Ten Kay each before you drop. Move it!"
As the others spread to their squads, Norala closed the distance to her mother. Her voice now mirroring concern she grabbed for her mothers haptic tentacle. "You shouldn't be like that in front of them." Ariola turned her eyes towards her eldest daugther. "We'll die here." she asnwered, no room for doubt. "No matter how happy we're doing it. There's nowhere to run to. Noone to rescue us. They've taken EVERYTHING!" Norala did not flinch. "I am quite aware of that." she answered. "Still, we've chosen to fight. And I wouldn't want our last stand to be cowering in the dust like a bunch of scared squishys. We're warriors of Xanyr and for all I know this is the end of days."
Ariola dared not scoff at here daughter for invoking the old tales. Her own faith had been shattered decades ago, but if anything gave Norala a reason to believe in some kind of purpose for her far to short life, her mother could not take it from her. The End of Days, when fire would rule the world and death would rain from the skies, when the oceans would boil and the forgotten gods would rise.

There where no oceans to boil on Abonar. But fire did rule the world. Again and again the seering tongues of her flamethrowers incinerated sprocarb warriors, while their plasma ejectors set everything they hit alight in an instant. Several near misses had singed her carapace even through the additional synthetic armor. To Ariolas right Norala hammered the sporian back lines with incendiary grenades to thin them.
The frontline had been in constant retreat for several hours with only brief moments of respite as the engineers collapsed surrounding buildings in front and ontop of the spores forces. Black smoke lit by burning bodies and vehicles had replaced the clear skies and the lush green had long since burned to ashes and dust. Ariola found herself fighting in a trance, going through the motions of killing and protecting herself without much thought nor apparent effort. The few times she realized what a murderous machine she had become, she was as appaled as she was proud of her achievements.

As the days went by, the combat stims became less and less effective at blocking out fatigue and pain. At the second day, the defenders had to give up the ground open to the skies, barrikading themselves within the buildings of city centers. By day four, the surface had been lost completely as the defenders retreated into the extensive cellars and caves deep enough to be secure from all but the most concentrated orbital bombardement, and by the fifth day, all of the tunnels to the surface had been collapsed by the retreating forces.
It was in on of those tunnels Ariola stood, her flamer lighting up the enemy as if fueled by rage, as she tore into the sporocarb warriors with her free claw right until the moment she was rattled by an explosion and crushed by the tunnels roof.

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Well, it seems we've come full circle with this one. As Heinlein will destroy 1.2 saves and there's more or less only mopping up to do, I've decided to conclude the AAR, before the story gets stale.

That said I do plan on writing another AAR based on a Heinlein-Campaign starting November and there will be one last Chapter to this one, tying up loose ends. But as you might expect by now: Happy Ends not included.

 

[Idhrendur]

All is as we expected, I think.

Looking forward to the ending and the new AAR.

 

[sebas379]

Good work wrapping up this story right in time for the patch. Looking forward to a new story, this was a blast to read.

 

[RyuKazuha]

Epiphany

The great halls of the Everlasting University had been richly decorated in the thousands of years since its births. Untold numbers of impossibly valuable alien artifacts lined the walls in expansive display cabinets or where suspended from the ceiling. Every last bit of decor masterfully crafted and of the finest materials.
Nu'un had no regard for the splendour and wealth, as every other member of the University he was primarily focused on his research data.

Most intersting to the arachnoid was a report written by one of his assisstents, concerning the fate of a Nation once called the United Zemmerpuk Hegemony.
Apparently the Zemmerpuk had decided to deal with the threat of the spore eliminating their culture with a quite unique approach: they had done so themselves. Detonating EMP-Devices all over their Planets, banning any use of technology developed after the discovery of FTL-principles. Society had collapsed into civil war soon after, as the available ressources proved incapable of sustaining the large populations. The report estimated a full 70% reduction in population over a mere decade, before the warring factions would stabilize into some kind of equilibrium of nation states. Nu'un was pleased with the result, ordering the extraction of specimen for further study and archiving.

The next report concerned itself with the Fiiral, a remarkable species all things considered, who had inadvertantly caused two direct interventions by the Unity. The headmaster had not been pleased with the prospect of some minor intellect unraveling the secrets of the Unity, and certainly not its involvement into the Spore Phenomenon.
Not for fear of the lesser species of course, but rather of a healthy respect toward the Photecian Primacy. Though the Spore was arguably potent enough to destroy them at this point, it was to be expected they would still manage to send a fleet capable of devastating the Iztran homeworlds. MAD had ended the Endless War. It was not to end the Unity.

Suddenly the communicator chirped and clacked. Nu'un jerked to a halt. With a thought, he had the communicator repeat the message. The Spore had finally begun its assault against the Primacy. Tie Breaker was a success, or so it seemed. But there was something wrong with this line of thinking. Something very much important he needed to remember.
Before Nu'un realized the problem, the communicator chirped again. "They are here." Nu'un shuddered. And he remembered. The Spore was not supposed to attack the ancient enemy without direction. "It's free." his mandibles clacked. "It's out of control."

 

[sebas379]

So the Spore was artificially created with a purpose to destoy an ancient enemy on command, yet its out of control now. I guess its another case of a creation biting its creator in the ass for creating something he could not control. And the whole galaxy paid the price for that.