Chapter 12: INTERLUDE

Nell and Vell

Vell’s sleeping pod hissed open as it yawned and clacked its beak. Standing up and stretching, it began climbing out of the chamber. It simply couldn’t believe that it was here, now, with its partner Nell, to achieve something that had been dreamed about by their entire clan for generations. Claiming a homeworld of their very own.

As Vell worked the sleep out of its limbs, it heard a screech of pure rage from the command center. Thinking there could have been an emergency, or that a subject had escaped from the lab again, it raced through the automatic door and down the hallway. Vell’s long legs were genetically engineered to ensure that it had maximum speed and grip in nearly any terrain, ensuring that it got to the command center faster than any human sprinter.

Racing into the room, it found Nell screeching at a display, a display that showed the human Ray’s vital signs on it.

“The damned human failed! Another failure!” it screamed again, slamming its taloned fists down on the counter, denting the metal in.

Nell’s stats were far higher than Vell’s own, although its specialization into a combat-oriented class ensured physical superiority over its own science and discovery-based one.

“What is the problem here Nell? What has you so enraged?” questioned Vell as it came up to the display. “Ah … oh. Oh my,” it muttered, backing through the video footage of the last few on-planet days that their survivors were so kind to provide to them through their suits.

“This is a tad bit of a problem. Oh. Wow, the male survived that? The female certainly didn’t last long. Hmm,” it continued to mutter to itself.

“The damned human died! Look! Its monitoring has flat-lined. Yet another failure to activate the node! That was our last one!” raged Nell. “The other four were lost with our two surface teams and our two attempts to get the resurrected humans to plant and activate them somewhere safe! We must now return to the spawning grounds in shame. It will cost us our lives and the hope of our clan.”

Nell had always been good with fighting and plotting, but when it came to the technical aspect of their species Vell certainly excelled over its partner. Flicking through the video footage again, Vell watched as the three remaining humans were dropped onto the planet. One male shucked his suit and was most certainly immediately killed. The woman was killed in the presence of the node bearer shortly after that by …

“Gods above us, he had a nemesis already?” wondered Vell aloud, causing Nell to freeze in its outrage. “That’s not possible. That would require, at a minimum, a partial System activation on the planet.”

Curious, Nell poked its beaked face over its partner's shoulder to look at the skinless, demonic-looking creature. “Oh hey, that looks a lot like a Skin Walker,” it clacked out. “That … you’re right. That shouldn’t be possible without the System. Look there, it even evolved a bit between this point and that one. Here and here,” it said, isolating two frames of video for comparison.

“There is something very odd going on here,” grunted out Vell. It turned to Nell, “I thought you said this was going to be a, ‘fall guy’, situation. This Earth media you are so fond of has caused us yet another delay, and potentially a significant issue with our plans,” it grunted out, narrowing its eyes. “If we are forced to return to the spawning worlds you will take credit for this failure.”

Nell backed away a bit. Combat class or not, it knew when it was beaten. “Look here Vell, it's just us. I am sure we can find a way to fly out of this situation. Perhaps the node that was given to our latest attempt was activated? Even partial activation should provide enough of a base for the System to begin-“

Their conversation was interrupted by a massive spike of energy from the world belong them. The instrument panel in the command area went wild as Vell raced over to it.

“Gods above, what did that human do?” it wondered aloud. “System connectivity is … less than one percent. However, energy readings from the planetary conversion are skyrocketing. What in Pantheons name?” it turned to Nell, “What in the Twelve Realms kind of node did you give the human?”

“The last one that was in the node's container of course,” said Nell. “We had two standard, two advanced, and one spare node,” it explained. “This Ray human received the spare, it was the only one left.”

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If it was possible for a bird-like alien with no visible skin to pale, Vell certainly achieved that result. “Fool of a partner!” it screeched, kicking the combat class in the chest with bladed feet. The result of which didn’t even leave a scratch, but further perplexed Nell.

“What? What is the problem with using the spare?” it wondered aloud as Vell continued flailing at him with enough force to have killed any unenhanced human being easily. Nell waved its partner off, causing it to crash to the floor of the command center. “Enough. Commander or not, you will explain yourself before continuing your assault it said haughtily.

“Fool of a being, that was no node, you gave the human a Pantheons be damned core!” seethed Vell, spittle flying from its beaked maw. “Just walking around with a core would have affected local changes!”

Nell also achieved the state of unobservable paleness that would have put any sheet of printer paper to shame. Its feathers could almost be seen visibly wilting in fear and shame. “Oh,” it said simply.

The two were silent for a long while as they contemplated the oversight. After what seemed to be hours Vell said, “This is most distressing. The power surge that we detected was certainly the core activating. Who knows what effects it will have on a world with no uplink to the System? This could very well become another spawning world, but for who knows what.”

Nell nodded in agreement as it helped Vell to its feet. “Agreed. The threat here is going to be far too high to ignore … as will the potential gains.”

Vell looked at its other half curiously, “How so? Explain,” it asked.

Nell nodded and said, “Currently the planet and its worlds are covered, or for lack of better terminology infested, with the undead. The core is now active. This means that it will pull from the closest environment in regard to species and parameters. If the human Ray is indeed deceased, this also means that there will be no formed intent by a sentient being nearby. Unless, of course, that nemesis is still lurking around.”

Vell’s eyes opened in surprise, “Indeed! Why did I not see the possibility before? If we were to claim a sector of the planet when the core expands, we would have access to its base-level functions,” then it paused. Looking at Nell in concern it said, “But there is the consequence of entering into a core that hasn’t been integrated. We would lose all progress we have currently gained.”

Nell nodded, “Indeed we would. However, the cores are programmed with this eventuality. While we would lose our progress we would also be reimbursed with NEX. More than enough to re-establish the clan on this world. At that point it would be simple to wipe out the natives, consequences be Pantheon damned.”

Vell considered this. There was merit to Nell’s idea. Quite a bit in fact. Should they be able to restore even a fraction of their clan's power then taking this world and eradicating the infestation would be hatchlings' play. Even wiping out the natives would be easy enough. They would never even know what annihilated them. They could even use them as a labor force until their usefulness ran out.

The options were nearly limitless.

“Oh counterpart of mine, I always knew that large cranium of yours was good for more than head butting,” said Vell appreciatively. “The human did activate a core, whether through our mistake or not. However, we did not. There are no laws governing the use of cores in such a way, nor are there any restrictions on interfering within the confines of a world utilizing one. At least not to my knowledge.”

Nell nodded, “Well then, we have a plan. Establish our clan on this world and wipe out the undead,” it began-

-, “and claim all the usable resources before wiping out everything else,” Vell finished with unveiled glee.

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