Nanophlogiston chapter 31

[mc776]

[November is long over and I still have a bunch of stuff left before I wrap this up, so no more restating of the obsolete rule.]


Alvarez instinctively reached for her holster. They had taken her gun. She reached past that spot for the secret compartment in her suit, and pulled out a flask.

"Why is this here?"

We found it and tried to put it back, said one of the shrimps whom she recognized was one of the group who had pulled her out of the tree. You don't go and take someone's mind-killer-water without good reason. That's just wrong.

The clearing was a cacophony of splashes and barks and howls and chatter as people were forming into battle-groups and filing after the messengers.

Weeping-at-the-City-Gates turned to the Terrans and Gunnerbot. I must lead my people in this fight. Broken-Words-in-the-Stars! Black-Spiral Not-Made-Of-Flesh! Many-Discarded-Stones! Accompany our guests and try to keep them out of harm's way. He handed Stones the staff he was carrying. It looked identical to the one they saw on the underground altar.

Vook began to speak but she beat him to it. "Give us our weapons back. We can help you fight them!"

It should be understood that even these communications were delivered with the same psychic force - or at least same in kind if not degree - as the name introductions they had just done. The Chief Meditator's focus shifted to a laser-precise scan of all the physically present Ellobius crew, and the following points were obvious to him and his knowledge of those points was obvious to them:

1. Daughter-of-the-King was desperate to kill something. She only knew how to kill things by spearing them with fiery death-wands. What she really needed to kill was the demons in her own head and the death-wands were useless for that, and so she was hoping the Naked would be the next best thing.
   
   Something, as well, about needing a distraction from some thing going on between her and Glorious-Army-Beloved-of-God.
   


2. Fugitive-of-the-Worthless still wanted to prove both his worth and his people's worth to them. Beyond that he was motivated predominantly by bloodlust and the glory of battle. He would go in and fight unarmed if they did not give him his monster-tooth wands.
   


3. Stone-of-the-Priest was genuinely dismayed at the prospect of yet more bloodshed, but would be absolutely committed to help stop the destruction if asked. Their death-wand was significantly weaker than any of those found on Daughter-of-the-King (many of which were of the same sort that Billion-Sons had used), and could be weakened even further in order to cause maiming or even mere pain.
   


4. Born-of-Death just wanted to be of help to everyone, but at this time being nothing but an autonomous talking head-mounted camera he had nothing to contribute. He could relay messages to and from Broken-Name and Love, the former of which was apparently a very experienced fighter, but from what he gleaned from Daughter-of-the-King and Fugitive-of-the-Worthless, Broken-Name was exactly the sort of bloodthirsty killer Weeping-at-the-City-Gates was worried about when it came to recruiting slayers into this fight.
   


5. All of them implicitly trusted Weeping-at-the-City-Gates for some reason that he himself did not fully understand. The telepathic link might be affecting these alien minds in a way the Children of the Worthless, who have communicated telepathically from the egg, could not anticipate.
   


6. All of them except Stone-of-the-Priest were working under some bizarre misconception, somehow resistant to all implicit telepathic suggestion to the contrary, that "Naked" and "Worthless" were synonymous.
   

You are our guests and not our prisoners. But you are not our people. You know nothing of how we fight and your weapons kill faster than your eyes can blink underneath your detachable skulls. You may do great harm without intending to. You may have your weapons back, but I permit you to use them to aid us only on this condition: He gestured towards Finkelstein. Whatever Stone-of-the-Priest tells you to do, you do it. And, turning towards Finkelstein, The first thing you will do right now is to have Born-of-Death tell Broken-Name and Love that the Naked are actually people, they are our enemies, and they are wrong. But they are people like us, like the Tyrants, like yourselves. Not like the Worthless.

"Gunnerbot." He was already relaying the message to home base. Orgoth made disappointed whining sounds.

"Remember, team. Defensive targeting only. Accept surrender. Do not shoot fleeing targets, but if you sense a tactical retreat that's fair game. If in doubt, ask the locals."

Does Daughter-of-the-King speak your will, Stone-of-the-Priest?

"She does."

Shrimps were starting to mill about near Weeping-at-the-City-Gates. Consumed-Son-of-Earth! You and your sisters Drowned-Daughter-of-Fire and Buried-Child-of-Water get the slayers their weapons from wherever it is you have hidden them. Many-Discarded-Stones, you have charge of the armed slayers. Brief them about the nature of our battles to the best of your ability. He paused and slowly began to turn towards the direction where the other shrimps were headed; in a few seconds splashing could be heard from the other direction and Alvarez, Vook and Finkelstein were handed their weapons by three short, stocky shrimps covered in woad blue diamond patterns. If they overstep their bounds, Many-Discarded-Stones, you may tell them they are no longer welcome to this battle. He then let out a rallying howl and rapidly slithered off into the distance with many others - including the arms-bearing triplets - following him.

He had taken the Tyrant-staff with him, once again wedged into one of his armpits. It suddenly dawned on everyone that Jean hadn't said a thing this whole time.

Alvarez couldn't be happier about this arrangement.