Summer 1, Year 2

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Regina 1. Mana Bond (x2) -- Prefer W, NW, N in that order.

There are no unbonded mana wells remaining in your territory; you will need to do some scouting to find more. Only Regina or Manaweft can detect mana wells. I see that farther down you had Manaweft scout for wells. You found 4 on the first scout and 1 on the second. (You rolled REALLY well!)

G, G

Regina 2. Queen Spawn -- @ 16 mana; all mana save ID #7, 12, & 14. Add one of my [Shark8] cookies

'Sinew' => 1,

'thrum' => 18



You had 17 mana and your two 'bond' actions failed. I left 7 and 12 untapped and used the rest. All good.



You got unlucky and were hit with two Chaos Shifts, one of them on bond #13 (aka Hive 3 / the SGCL base). It was tapped so there was nothing to moderate the effects. Fortunately you didn't roll 'land shifts away'.



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Also:

Thrums 49..71: Breed (x2) -- Breed w/ Jenny.

Furball 1..2: Breed (x2) -- Breed w/ Jenny.

Jenny Breed (x2)



22 thrums born

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Request for the thread: In future, could you please organize plan in prereq order? When I sit down to write the update, I open the plan and work through it from top to bottom. This plan started with Regina doing two manabond actions, and then a queen spawn that relied on having those bonds. I had announced earlier that there were no mana wells available for bonding, so I had to decide what to do with all this. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, I saw that Manaweft was going out scouting for mana wells, which meant that there would in fact be something for Regina to bond. It wasn't too hard to go back and rewrite—only a couple of paragraphs—but if you could please put prereqs first in future it would be appreciated.



I'm trying to figure out what a good plan format would be that will make life easier for all of us; I'll post it as soon as I do.



I spent about eight hours on this yesterday (when I said 3-4 hours for an average update I was apparently using rose-tinted memory goggles) and couldn't get to everything, so here's some things that happened but weren't specifically mentioned:



Doctor Weir has spoken with the elves and continued to develop diplomatic connections between them and SGCL.



Sumner has likewise been in contact with the elves, working on the military side.



The elves have been running patrols alongside you and doing scout missions and etc. They're pretty happy with you at this point, and you've got a lot of goodwill banked if you need to ask for favors.





Gil worked with the elves on their English. Tolkien was dere dere for elves so of course they're learning very quickly.



Gil worked with Alassiel on his Sindarin. You can't do more than 1 Learn Language per turn but he's now up to 3, meaning full conversational ability albeit with a slight accent and not getting some idioms.



Gil and Alassiel are being progressively more adorkable, although they have yet to exchange phone numbers, much less smooch.



Marines patroled around Hive 3. They found a few various nasties and killed them. No greenskins, though.



Sumner called some of the Marines from Hive 4 back to base but over the course of the month there was enough surveying to bump its sustainability cap to 160. Water is harder to survey, but there's definitely a lot of food here. In the process of surveying they ran across more of those hog footprints, various minor predators, and what looks like cast-off needles from a porcupine except the needles are about the diameter of an index finger and eighteen inches long.



Summary

Request for the thread: In future, could you please organize plan in prereq order? When I sit down to write the update, I open the plan and work through it from top to bottom. This plan started with Regina doing two manabond actions, and then a queen spawn that relied on having those bonds. I had announced earlier that there were no mana wells available for bonding, so I had to decide what to do with all this. Then, about two-thirds of the way through, I saw that Manaweft was going out scouting for mana wells, which meant that there would in fact be something for Regina to bond. It wasn't too hard to go back and rewrite—only a couple of paragraphs—but if you could please put prereqs first in future it would be appreciated.I'm trying to figure out what a good plan format would be that will make life easier for all of us; I'll post it as soon as I do.I spent about eight hours on this yesterday (when I said 3-4 hours for an average update I was apparently using rose-tinted memory goggles) and couldn't get to everything, so here's some things that happened but weren't specifically mentioned:Doctor Weir has spoken with the elves and continued to develop diplomatic connections between them and SGCL.Sumner has likewise been in contact with the elves, working on the military side.The elves have been running patrols alongside you and doing scout missions and etc. They're pretty happy with you at this point, and you've got a lot of goodwill banked if you need to ask for favors.Gil worked with the elves on their English. Tolkien was dere dere for elves so of course they're learning very quickly.Gil worked with Alassiel on his Sindarin. You can't do more than 1 Learn Language per turn but he's now up to 3, meaning full conversational ability albeit with a slight accent and not getting some idioms.Gil and Alassiel are being progressively more adorkable, although they have yet to exchange phone numbers, much less smooch.Marines patroled around Hive 3. They found a few various nasties and killed them. No greenskins, though.Sumner called some of the Marines from Hive 4 back to base but over the course of the month there was enough surveying to bump its sustainability cap to 160. Water is harder to survey, but there's definitely a lot of food here. In the process of surveying they ran across more of those hog footprints, various minor predators, and what looks like cast-off needles from a porcupine except the needles are about the diameter of an index finger and eighteen inches long.

Hunting: --

Hunting Cap: --

Food consumed: 378 (50 from enemy corpses)

Food from elves: 622

Food stores: 1031 across all locations

"This is insane!" McKay said, hurling his coffee cup against the wall. Manaweft leaped back, hissing in surprise as coffee and bits of ceramic flew everywhere."Yesterday you said that mana vortices would mutually entrain!" McKay shouted. "If they entrain, that means they interact! Now you're telling me they each occupy different spacetimes?!""Interdimensional connectivity is well understood, Doctor," Manaweft said haughtily, drawing himself up to his full height. "It's a third-order effect moderated by—"Regina slithered down the path to the Marine training field with a feeling of tremendous lightness and relief now that the spawning was complete. She loved having new children, and the feel of the mana crackling and sizzling inside her body as the eggs gestated was exciting—especially when, as it had with this spawning, she could feel one of the eggs soaking up so much of the energy that it hatched with the power to strengthen its hive-sibs. Still, no matter how many good things there were about spawning, the 'being pregnant' part was always uncomfortable and inconvenient. It was nice to have it over with, and she was looking forward to lounging in the sun and watching Sergeant Painter give the Marines 'good training'. The phrase was apparently code for "anything that makes you miserable in a vaguely useful way" and it was always fun to watch when you didn't have to participate. (She'd been amused when Doctor Barton explained the human word 'schadenfreude'.)The Marines were in a neatly-formed square, jogging around the field in full battle rattle with their weapons at port arms. "THEY SAY THAT IN THE MARINE CORPS!" bellowed Sergeant Painter, keeping station to the left of the square."THE PAY IS MIGHTY FINE!" the Marines shouted back. "THEY GIVE YOU 100 DOLLARS / AND TAKE BACK 99."OH LORD I WANNA GO / BUT THEY WON'T LET ME GO / NO OH OH OH OH OH OH OH, HEY!!""THEY SAY THAT IN THE MARINE CORPS!" the sergeant prompted again."THE CHOW IS MIGHTY FINE!" roared the Marines. "A ROLL FELL OFF THE TABLE / AND KILLED A FRIEND OF MINE! / OH LORD I WANNA—"A jagged black-and-gold split in reality tore the sky open above the field. The world screamed and the earth heaved like a dog shaking off water. Small bolts of fire rained down, setting the grass ablaze or melting it into pure chaos.The shaking of the earth rose to a crescendo that left Regina clinging to the ground with every inch of her body and tumbled the Marines across the grass like socks in a dryer. The ground heaved itself up, shedding dirt and trees the way a snake sheds its skin as craggy cliffs rose up from the forest.The shaking went on seemingly forever without diminishing—until it stopped, sharp as a knife blade.For several long seconds no one moved or spoke, looking around warily to see if the terrain was simply lulling them into a false sense of security. The silence was finally broken by the leather-lunged NCO."Back to base!" yelled Sergeant Painter. "We'll have casualties!" He was up and running before the words were completely out of his mouth, the other Marines racing after him.Of course, getting back to the base now involved climbing three hundred feet up a rockslide that hadn't been there ten minutes ago, yet was so ancient that the wind had worn the top layer of rocks smooth."What's the breakage, Colonel?" Weir asked with a sigh, sinking into the briefing room chair and scrubbing her hands across her face."Not good, ma'am," the Colonel said grimly. "We lost eighteen of the Air Force technical staff, along with Doctor Sendak and his team. The potato fields were destroyed—all the soil slid off a cliff and the potatoes went with them. Additionally, some of those fireballs melted one of the warehouses and turned about a quarter of our food stores into purple sludge. I've got a team analyzing it to see if it's edible, but I'm not hopeful. Fortunately, it's not critical; even without the food from the elves we'd be fine for the immediate future. Essentially all our arable land just disappeared, though."Weir sighed. "We need to ask Regina to bring Horned back," she said. "It's possible that these new rock formations will have the ore deposits we need. Maybe we can get some good out of this mess."Regina (speaking through a thrum) was briefing Weir on everything that was going on with their far-flung forces when Beckett knocked on the door."What can we do for you, Doctor?" Weir asked."More bad news, I'm afraid," Bennett said, his sad-bloodhound face even more depressed than usual as he took the indicated seat. "We found where the squigs come from. There's actually two separate sources."The first one we found was those flowers that the Marines brought up from the southern patrol area. The squigs shed spores that catalyze the decomposition of greenskin bodies into that black goo that the flowers grow out of. The corpses won't dissolve in the absence of the spores, but the spores are airborne and most of this area is already saturated with them.""Airborne?" Weir said in alarm. "We're breathing them?"Beckett nodded. "Aye," he said. "They don't appear to be dangerous, though. So far as we can tell they're completely inert until they come in contact with greenskin corpses."When the spores find dead greenskin corpses, they dissolve them into that black goo. Within hours, flowers start sprouting out of the goo. The flowers have an extremely long taproot—five or six meters, it seems, although it will stop early if there isn't enough space. Once the taproot gets to its maximum depth it grows a bulb. The bulb grows steadily larger for two or three days until it's about two meters across. At this point it stops growing. Over the course of a few hours it evolves into a fully adult squig which then tunnels to the surface. By the time it starts digging the taproot is already growing another bulb.""How fast can it produce squigs?" Regina asked."I'd estimate one per week for each fertile flower," Beckett said. "Fortunately, only about one in ten of the plants appear to be fertile. The rest will start to grow a bulb, but the growth will stop partway and the bulb will rapidly decompose.""Well, at least we know," Weir said. "You said there was another methods?""Aye," Beckett said. "Weir shook her head. "This gets better by the moment," she said. "All right, what's the last way these things reproduce?""You won't believe this," Beckett said. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't caught it on video, but it's the gremlins. Two of them got in a fight over some food. The larger one started screeching, pointed at the smaller one, and the smaller one turned into a squig. A full-sized, adult squig the size of a baby elephant that already had a half-dozen pustules on it. The containment chamber wasn't large enough and the creature's expansion split it open, which allowed the gremlins to escape.""Was anyone hurt?" Weir asked.Beckett shook his head. "No," he said. "Fortunately the lab was empty at the time. When Doctor Harmon showed up, he happened to look through the window in the door before walking in, and he saw one of the gremlins. He tripped the fire system and the gremlins suffocated on the nitrogen. Unfortunately, the creatures had been loose in the lab for two hours. Most of the samples are contaminated and a lot of the gear was destroyed."Weir sat back, digesting that. "Well, at least no one was hurt," she said. "And we've learned something about the creatures."Beckett nodded. "There's a little good news, too," he said. "We know they can be suffocated. The spores are easily flammable and don't survive fire at all well, so it's possible to burn off an area if you're thorough about it. Also, burning the bodies will prevent them from decomposing into the goop that the flowers grow from. Acid works too, as does radiation—anything that will sterilize or completely destroy meat works. You need to be thorough, though. Crisping the outer layer isn't good enough, you need to char it all the way through.""What about the zats?" Weir asked. "How effective are they?""They work pretty much like they do on people," Beckett said. "One shot will usually stun them, two will generally kill. They're a little more resilient than humans, so sometimes it takes an extra shot. They don't do anything to the spores, though.""I would strongly suggest deploying some zats to the patrol groups," Regina said. "Greenskin presence is growing rapidly, and the Marines are using up a great deal of ammunition. Production is not keeping up with demand, and you're running low on primers. At current rates you have about two more months of usage before the P90s run dry. Gil is being very sparing about using Lobo's ammunition, but even so it won't last more than three months. One major battle could exhaust his supply.""I'm aware," Weir said. "Colonel Sumner and I have been discussing it nearly every day. The Marines have been policing their brass, and we can print more cartridges for a time. The real problem is the chemicals we need in order to make the primers. I was hoping you'd be willing to bring Horned back and help us do some mining."Horned was busy enjoying the belly rub that he'd cadged from Private Carter when he suddenly rolled over and sat up. With an absentminded, "Thank you, Private", he tailbounced off to the north, four of his thrum hive-sibs dropping into formation around him. Another thrum went over to the very startled NCO who was busy watching ten percent of his slivers apparently flee into the distance."Excuse me, Sergeant Torres?" the thrum/Regina said. "I need to take Horned back to SGCL immediately, and I'm sending a minor escort with him. SGCL base has just turned into a mountain; there's a lot of damage, some loss of life, and a strong need to dig new living quarters and mines, hence the call for Horned. I'm in conference with Doctor Weir and Colonel Sumner right now, and I've updated them on your reports. I'll get you the list of injured and lost in just a moment.""He's on his way, Doctor Weir," Regina said. "I'm bringing him and an escort of four thrums back thround the elfwood. They're on tail, so it will take a few days; it would have been faster to bring them in Lobo, but I didn't want to take away the Marines' fire support.""For which I am very appreciative," Sumner said with something that might almost have been a smile. "All right, let's start talking about where we're going to build the new caverns."Regina's thrum body remained attentive to Weir and Sumner even as another thrum talked to Sergeant Painter to get the injured/dead list for Sergeant Torres and other bodies helped with digging out half-collapsed buildings, salvaging whatever could be salvaged from the farms, and otherwise recovering from the massive disaster.*Manny,* Regina thought-sent. *Pay attention, this is important. Have you mentioned to McKay that the wells stabilize the land around them?*A Marine medic was putting a bandage on Manaweft's tail; a metal bookshelf had fallen on it during the quake and gashed it open. It wasn't a bad cut, but wounds on sliver tails were serious business since those tails were always being dragged through the dirt. Manaweft was sniffling a little bit at the pain but trying not to be too obvious about it; there were plenty of others hurt a lot worse than he was.*I don't think so...?* he replied to his mother's request. *I don't exactly recall. We've talked about a lot of things.*Regina sighed mentally. *Dotell anyone that I used the mana under this base for spawning," she said. *Not until I figure out how to explain it, anyway.*Private Robert 'Achey' Ackerman parted the grass very carefully, just wide enough that he could see through. He and his thrum escort had spent two hours stealthily creeping up on the dozen-and-one group of greenies sitting in the trampled-out clearing. Manny was driving this thrum so as to keep it quiet and attentive; Achey had impressed upon the far-off sliver researcher that he was not to make a sound or move without Achey's direct instruction. Said impression had involved highly detailed threats of violence against the person of said sliver research. Manny had been very careful to follow orders after that.Achey studied the group carefully for several minutes, then waved for Manny to back up the way they'd come. The Marine followed his non-human escort, carefully erasing all signs of their passage. A hundred feet on, Achey tapped the thrum on the shoulder to get its attention, then leaned in close."Gunny, you there?" he whispered."What'cha got, Achey?" the thrum said, relaying the Gunnery Sergeant's words from back at basecamp. The thrum even managed a reasonable impersonation of Torres's voice."Thirteen tangoes, Gunny," he said. "Five gobbos, eight fatties. Three of the fatties look funny; tribal markings different from any of the others I've seen, and they're wearing a lot more jewelry. Primitive stuff—bone necklaces, beads, that kind of thing. Two of them are carrying staffs, and I think they're probably more of those wizard types. The other one...he's about a foot taller than the rest, built like a brick shithouse, and crazier'n hell. He was waving around a pair of meathooks and yelling at things that weren't there. All the others were steppin' soft around him."Silence reigned for long seconds as Torres thought about that."Manny, you think you can take the wizards?" the thrum sitting next to Ackerman said, parroting what the far-off Gunnery Sergeant was asking another thrum."Yes, sergeant," Manaweft said through both thrums at once. "Based on what Regina saw on the retreat I feel that we have more than enough force available.""Okay," Torres said. "Achey, how's their situational awareness?""Deaf and blind, Gunny," the private said. "Between the weird one yelling and how scared the others are of him, none of them are paying any attention to anything.""Good," Torres said. "Get back in position, get sighted in. When we open the ball, I want you to introduce the crazy one to Barry.""Copy that, Gunny," the private said. "Headed back. Out."Ackerman shrugged his shoulder to settle the strap of the Barrett .50 calibre sniper rifle more comfortably, then started eeling his way back to the edge of the clearing where the greenskins waited.It took ten minutes for the sniper and his thrum to get back into position and get set up. The prairie was a crappy environment for a sniper; the two-meter grass meant that sightlines were very short and movement had to be painfully slow so as not to set the grass waving and mark one's position. The combination of those two things meant that he was about sixty feet from his target instead of his preferred six hundred yards. He had time to kill; the others were only half a mile away, but it would take nearly an hour for such a large group to get into ambush position without spooking the greenskins. He took painstaking care to unfold the Barrett's bipod silently, drape the ghillie cover over it, ensure that Manny's thrum was covered, and then settle in to wait.Ten minutes ticked by. Manny and Achey waited, silent and motionless.Twenty minutes ticked by. Manny and Achey waited, silent and motionless.Thirty minutes ticked by. Manny and Achey waited, silent and motionless.Thirty-eight minutes ticked by. The thrum sat up and scratched an itch at the base of its tails. The grasses rustled wildly as the large animal moved.All of the greenskins whipped around, staring at where Achey and the thrum were hiding for a tenth of a second before screaming "WAAARRRGGGHHH!" and charging."Fucking hell, Manny! I am so going to frag your ass when we get back to base!" Ackerman yelled, leaping to his feet and racing away without taking time to pick up the Barrett. As he ran he yanked a grenade out of his LBV, pulled the pin out, and heaved it over his shoulder without turning. It wasn't going to make the recommended safe distance, but right now he was much more concerned about slowing down the enemy.BOOM! Goblin voices screamed in pain; other voices rose in fury."What? Hm?" said the thrum that was running alongside him. "What's happened? Oh, goodness, private! I'm terribly sorry, I got distracted by—""I don't care!" Ackerman yelled. "Just tell the others we're coming in hot!""Already done," Manaweft said. "The others are on their way. You need to turn thirty degrees right for shortest path, private. I'll send this thrum back to slow down the enemy." The thrum slammed on the brakes, pivoted neatly around, and tailbounced back towards the enemy with the ripping scream of a sliver going to war. Ackerman turned right and kept running flat-out, the tall grass thrashing wildly around him.Within seconds the sounds of fighting grew from behind him. The roaring whoosh of fireballs, the sliver's furious warcries, and the pained screams of goblins, all painted a clear picture of close-range violence."THAT'S A SQUIGGIN'!" yelled the basso profundo of the crazy ogre. There was a squelching noise and the battle noises instantly cut off.Ackerman clawed the Asgard communicator out of one of his ammo pouches without slowing down. "SG units, this is Crossbow!" he said into the mic. "My thrum is down and I'm going to have company in about ninety seconds. Wouldn't mind some backup about now! Over!"Gunny Torres's voice snapped out of the communicator. "Crossbow, hit the dirt! The slivers all went nuts and they're headed your way! Get small so you don't get stepped on!"Ackerman dove to the ground and curled up into the smallest ball he could manage. He was barely in time; four dozen slivers, each the size of a small horse, went bounding past him. They were screaming in fury and paying no attention to their surroundings; Ackerman was slapped in passing by several tails and nearly gouged by a claw as the claw's owner went by.THAT'S A SQUIGGIN! AND THAT'S A SQUIGGIN'! SQUIGGINS FOR ALLA YOUSE! / WAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH! / [tearing-metal screams of rage]The Marines arrived at the edge of the battleground three minutes after the slivers, only to find that all of the greenskins had been torn to shreds. One sliver was dead and three were missing, as was the one who had originally escorted Ackerman. The remaining slivers were hissing and spitting, scratching at the dirt and running in circles, and only-mostly-mock fighting with one another. Four squigs had apparently gotten caught in the confrontation; the slivers had savaged them even worse than they had the goblins and ogres.Torres stepped carefuly into the trampled-down area. "Manny?" he called. "You in there, Manny?"The nearest three slivers spun around and hissed, heads lowered and tails flicking like an angry cat's. Torres raised his hands placatingly and stepped back. The slivers watched him go, then went back to ripping apart the dead body of one of the squigs."Steel Probe one niner, this is Ramrod-Actual, over," Torres said into his Asgard communicator."Ramrod, this is Steel Probe one niner," Gil said. "No sliver com, over?""Slivers are a bit nuts right now," Torres said quietly. "I'd like some heavy steel walls and fire support, on the bounce. Track on my coordinates and put the throttle down. Over.""Roger, Ramrod," Gil said. In the background Torres could hear Lobo's engines cranking up. "Hold what you got, we'll be there in ten. Out."It took four hours for the Brute Squad slivers to calm down and become tractable again, but Manaweft was unconscious for three days. When he came to he was unable to explain exactly what had happened aside from, "The weird one looked at me and his eyes got huge...and then my brain hurt a lot for a really long time, and then I was here. Ow. I'd like to go to sleep now, please."EDIT: Forgot to post hunting results:Bad guys killed:'ogres' => 20,'spiders' => 27,'shaman' => 14,'wargs' => 45,'mage' => 29,'goblins' => 185Good guys killed:'thrums => 4'Torres suspended combat ops partway through the month after everything went to hell at base and Manny got knocked out, but I was still expecting more sliver-losses than that. I shall need to see about upping the challenge levels further. *maniacal laughter*