Chapter 78: Chapter 77: First Floor
The trio fought on as planned, with no adjustments to, or deviations from, the plan.
When they got to the tenth branch however, Carl thought about some of the information Gaia had given him.
"Hey guys, Gaia told me the further you progress into the network, the more challenging the swarm becomes. I kind of figured it would be gradual, but we’re now on the tenth branch." Carl announced, he hadn’t specifically told them because they were acting on that assumption anyway.
"Yeah and nothing has really changed since we started..." Gillian replied.
"Guys, Margo made things the way they are as a game right, well what if it’s like a dungeon in an RPG? If that’s the case, we could just be exploring the first floor of the dungeon and nothing will change until we descend." Blanc asked the question in an attempt to determine what their actual goal was.
"...Or every tenth branch could end in a boss fight. We won’t know until we get there, so let’s keep clearing until we find where The Carrion are ascending from and get the passage guarded so we can stem the tide." Gillian was falling into old habits and trying to push on blindly.
"Right, change of plans, we’re gonna map the entire floor today. When we’re done, thirty royal guard can block the ascent if there’s just one and the rest can patrol and look for anything we missed." Carl said finally, putting an end to the discussion.
"What if there’s more than one?" Blanc asked the question, not to be fasichious, but to formulate the operating procedure for delving into The Carrion’s hives in future.
"More than one, less than twenty and we split fifty percent between the ascents while the other half patrols. More than twenty we change tactics to annihilation priority and give the Carrion-Hunters leave to progress at their leisure."
"Even new types?"
"Yes, but they shouldn’t be harvested, new types should always be recovered for analysis."
"Copy that, I’ll get it noted for official review."
"Thanks, let’s get a move on though, our workload just tripled. Blanc, can you retrieve the drones and compile the data, make sure to show majesty. Have her get the royal guard to start exploring anything unmapped and we’ll just have to try and cover it all in the next few hours."
"On it, I’ll get Alysse to add some additional drones too, Saying two isn’t enough might keep her ego in check." Blanc chuckled.
The other two didn’t laugh, after the Golgia fiasco, they weren’t entire convinced her ego was harmless.
It didn’t take long for the drones to make their way back, when they did, the group cheered at the sight of one ascent. The drones were then immediately redeployed and Majesty redistributed the royal guard as planned.
When the guard reached the ascent the drop in enemy numbers was noticeable almost immediately.
When the next generation was ready to join the fray...
’Creator, I have the remainder of the set population limit ready to enter. Should I send them as individuals to hasten my own mapping? I can always have them converge if one runs into trouble.’
"Fine, but keep to the distribution rates.’
’As you command Creator.’
The systematic slaughter The Carrion suffered on the first floor was brutally efficient and the entire first floor was cleared in no time at all after that.
"Before you say it, I know Gil, I know..."
"Good, I really am sorry man, but decapitation might stop someone coughing, but that doesn’t make it a cure."
"Yeah I get it. I’m going to lay out concrete guidelines with Majesty, ones that can only be changed with approval from eight out of ten of the "Householders". We’ll hold a meeting to establish the guidelines she is bound to when we’re done here."
"Good, but when you say "householders", do you mean the people that joined at the start? ’Cos that’s a pretty cool title."
"Yes, that is the title of the original ten members, glad you like it Gil. Now let’s get topside, I we’re done for the day."
The trio returned topside, when they got there, Blanc had his drones waiting for them and when they docked they had mapped about seventy percent.
When Gillian, Carl and Blanc’s automaton stepped into the open air, Noah and Blaine were studying the digestive pit and Reaga was guarding Blanc who was fully interfaced with the automaton.
"Blaine, when did you arrive?" Carl called over to him, already having a good idea.
"Carl! This is the most terrifying and beautiful creature i have ever encountered. Majesty’s raw efficiency is astounding, the harvester gathers the bio-matter and dumps it in the pit, the creatures are broken down almost immediately, then the resources are pumped through these tendrils into Majesty.
Like an external digestive tract, she absorbs the nutrients, the eggs then grow along the underside of her tail..."
"Blaine, I’m happy that you’re so interested, I need a sample of all this material. We need to make sure it won’t negatively affect the area. Majesty, I won’t lie, your lethality is something that demands careful consideration and detailed understanding."
’Of course, Creator. I will produce a sample of each offspring I can currently produce as an analysis subject if you wish. I can also produce my structure skills for sampling and have my offspring do the same.’
"Thank you, but for now, produce only what we have already seen. Also, you are not to stockpile nutrients, digest only enough to maintain numbers... Majesty, we are going now, it pains me to say this; If you or your troops act outside of orders, I will have no choice but to erase you."
’Understood, I would never disobey you Creator.’
Carl bowed with respect, then they turned to leave, Carl, Blanc, Gillian and their pets were all exhausted after the day of holding back an endless tide of The Carrion.
"Carl! We’re going to stay here and study the Carrion-hunters, I’ll return with the samples later tonight." Carl only waved back in response at first, then they reverted the vehicle back to box form and opened a portal.
When they returned, they went through quarantine to be safe, there was no guarantee they hadn’t encountered something other than the flora poison.
Lydia had set up an alert for when they arrived and began decontaminating so she could analyse them to that end.
"Carl, there’s a strange pheromone marker on you all, it’s very similar to the wavelengths of Aldra and Omedra, Did you make a new pet, where is the little one?" She asked curiously as Gillian and Blanc chuckled at the naivety.
"Sorry Lydia, but this time Carl’s "little one" is on priority lockdown. He made something more dangerous than The Carrion. If this "little one" broke free from him, I have no doubt it would be a far greater threat than anything else."
Gillian’s words originally struck Lydia as a joke, but Blanc’s nod of agreement and Carl’s guilty expression corrected that misunderstanding.
"I see. Can I assume he you guys have already po-"
"Nope, luckily he saw sense on his own, we will be having a meeting in a few days about it. For now he has actually been a lot more rational about it than we expected. Even told Majesty that if she acted outside of orders, then her kind would be erased."
"Good. Carl, I won’t lie we’ve had a few meetings about when this eventually happened. When you made Equinox it was one thing, then you went and made Tiamutael. It was only a matter of time until you made something that was as dangerous as any enemy."
Carl didn’t answer verbally, he just nodded in understanding, a bit ashamed he hadn’t observed their concern before.
Carl apologised, promising to do so in the meeting as well, he then sent a message to all the householders telling them that he was preparing dinner.
As Carl prepared dinner, Lydia informed him he didn’t need to make Alisha anything, explaining that she had returned to the settlement to provide a brief overview of the current tasks that they would need to perform.
When it finally came time for the meal, Carl recalled Blaine and Noah as well. deciding that they needed to give Majesty room to attempt to betray them, before they can be certain about her trustworthiness.
After eating, everyone gave their daily report:
Lillim was training a group of members, apparently she had split them into groups depending on ability, one for every day of the week.
Kyubi, Alisha and Maeb had teamed up to start putting a rudimentary plan together for child care and schooling.
Klaire had been training with Faylorna, becoming heir to Faylorn had granted her powers, but she still required training in how to use them.
Alysse had been producing more vehicle cubes and she noted that Sophia had been upgrading everything she had mapped with anti-nanite shielding, just in case the nanites ever ran amok.
Blaine and Kon had used the new vehicles Alysse had produced to expand the survey range and mapping of Mirage.
Noah had been in the process of preparing himself for his next expedition when he decided to see how things were going with Carl.
When everyone had given their reports Carl and his group gave theirs, then to close, Carl announce what he wanted everyone to do.
"Lydia, I want you focused on analysing all samples we take from The Carrion, as well as samples collected from the Carrion-hunters.
Noah, thanks for the help today, but can you focus on your next expedition, I don’t want you warn out before you arrive.
Kon and Blaine, stay on task, surveying has to take priority now that we know there is a chance that every world we have is a potential hive for The Carrion.
Grandma, can you and my Mum Alisha and Gillian process the newcomers? I’m going to keep fighting The Carrion."
"No. You’re welcoming our new members, signing their contracts, then we’re going to see Nergal." Lillim said in the usual commanding tone.