[Fan Fiction] Looking forward to the Mirror (Completed)

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 13, part 2

It wasn’t the wait that made Shadowcloud uncomfortable; she had been in countless battles and had learned to appreciate the calm before a fight for she knew it could be the last time she could delve into herself. It was the doubts and fears that permeated everything around her, doubts and fears that arose from within herself and the other warriors. The youngest and lower ranking warriors had simple fears that were easy to dispel, were their weapons fully charged? Were their armors put on correctly? Are they really ready to face battle?

All of them menial and easy to dispel, just a cursory check and some encouragement by the warrior next to them was enough to overcome them. The harshest fears and doubts, the ones that every Loroi warrior learned to dread were the ones of command. From the Torrai Azerein down to the lowest Soroin squad leader the dread that these fears and doubts caused was the same. They didn’t infect just the leaders, it would be easy if only the leaders would feel them. Their telepathy didn’t make it easy on them and every warrior had learned from their diral days that overcoming the doubts and fears of leadership was the difference between life and death.

Seemingly invincible armies would crumble if the commander in chief allowed her mind to be consumed by doubt and fear and they have done so countless times. The commander had to hide these feelings to the best of her ability, bury them to the deepest reaches of her mind before her peers and subordinates could sense them. Hiding them is never enough however.

Hiding did protect the army from being destroyed from within but it wasn’t enough to fool the other warriors. Even if they couldn’t directly sense them, the commander’s confidants would realize that she is hiding something just from the smallest signs of nervousness and tension. Even if they didn’t wish to do so they would question her about it and if the answer’s weren’t enough the army’s morale would begin to completely erode as their telepathy would make it impossible to keep things under control.

The effects wouldn’t be the same as the great disasters of the past when armies dissolved just before a battle but they would be decisive nonetheless. The officers would at best begin to second guess their commander and do as they pleased at worse, while the rank and file would be confused and not fight with the mettle that confidence in their commander’s judgment brings forth. Such outcomes are inevitable when the warriors suspect that their leader’s mind is clouded by fear and doubt.

Every Loroi officer worthy of her armor knew that there was no hiding them because every warrior had them. Whoever didn’t have them was either a liar or a fool and Loroi warriors hated both with almost equal measure, especially the leaders who openly exhibited such traits.

Mizol like her thrived by implanting doubts and distrust to the minds of an enemy’s leaders and officers. They knew that an army that is plagued by the doubts of leadership was far weaker that an army half its size but filled with confidence. That was the part that the Mizol played in all wars that they fought in, first they would learn everything they could about their enemies, then use that information to weaken them from within while making sure that the armies they belonged to would be protected from similar enemy tricks. The methods stayed the same, even when their enemies weren’t telepaths, chaos and misinformation would spread the same regardless of telepathy; they only thing that they had to make sure was to guide everything properly in order to ensure the best possible outcome.

The other castes foolishly believe that such underhanded trickery was unfitting of a warrior caste but the irony of ironies was that it was the Torrai caste that truly realized the true value of the Mizol without being part of them. It was to be expected since the caste itself was formed to specifically combat the very chaos and doubts that the Mizol were so proficient in spreading.

The Torrai caste, a caste that proclaims itself to be made up of the best leaders of almost every other warrior caste. Exemplars that were selected by merit in order to be taught the mental and leadership techniques necessary in order to inspire confidence to their peers and subordinates. To take fractured armies comprised from many different and often competing warrior castes, in order to turn those them into an indivisible and unbeatable whole. Paragons of leadership, worthy of recognition, respect and devotion; It should be no wonder that the best of the Torrai would rise to the Diadem, from which the Azerein, the Loroi Emperor, would be selected.

Every warrior from lesser castes has wondered at least once why the Torrai tolerate the seemingly frequent Mizol insubordination. Few realize that happens because the Mizol understand these seemingly flawless leaders all too well. Shadowcloud knew their tricks and techniques, all Mizol knew of them because the Mizol practiced them on Perrein for as long as the Torrai existed on Deinar. That’s why she was using those tricks now in order to make sure that the warriors would face the coming action filled with confidence and not self defeating doubts.

The first step and by far the easiest was to have everyone aboard the two shuttles recognize her as the commanding office for this particular operation. She was by far the oldest and most experienced among them, she was a monstrously strong telekinetic, she had led numerous boarding actions in the past and she did proved her harshest critic on Silverspear wrong.

The recognition was the first step however, and wasn’t nearly enough to cast away the doubts and fear of those around her, how much her own. 65 warriors rode in these shuttles, herself, 4 Teidar, 55 Soroin, 2 Gallen, 2 Tenoin and a single Doranzer. Each and every one of them with their own issues and doubts. She made sure to talk with everyone, explaining to them the part they would play in the assault to capture the Umiak wreck. Their inherent Sanzai ability allowing her to discuss the plan in detail with everyone while making sure they all understood their part in it. She knew that this would only alleviate their doubts and fears; she would have to take care of hers on her own and that she had to make a telepathic show of her overcoming them, so they would have the necessary resolve to face what was coming.

The first thing she did was to lower her mental barriers ever so slightly, not enough for them to sense her deeper thoughts but just enough to have her surface ones palatable and somewhat discernible. Then she would have to think about every step that lead to that point and her decision to attack the wreck.

Yes, trusting the humans when they boarded their ship was risky but the choice was between an instant death and hearing them out. Surrender to agents of the Shells was never an option, everyone knew of the fate that would await them; a quick and painless death was preferable to that. Should they die before exploring every last option other than surrendering? The human appearance and Lotai were cause of great shock and concern but that didn’t mean that the humans were necessarily a Shell trick. Exploring the human option was the only sensible choice and it paid off.

The humans were peaceful, forgiving considering the circumstances and did provide what they promised while asking for a reasonable trade as a show of good will. There was always a chance that it could still be an elaborate trick but their alternative option was always going to be there and they wouldn’t surrender that option under no circumstances.

The Shell appearance was a shock but it still didn’t prove that the humans were collaborating with them even if the circumstances were horribly suspicious. Still the decision to put their team in custody was immediate for everyone’s protection. The four unarmed humans were a possible threat but as long as there was no proof that they were hostiles she didn’t have the option to retract the protection she had promised without blemishing the honor of the Loroi Union. Those were the rules that she had to abide by and she did so.

Thankfully the farseer reminded her that they could send a shuttle to observe what was going on outside, now that they had the human generator and they followed her suggestion. The shuttle having only the Tenoin pilot and one of her own Teidars aboard so both sides of the predicament would be present on it. As expected the Shells attacked the humans who in turn proved themselves resourceful as they managed to cripple a Shell heavy vessel, something that even a fully operation Warhammer class destroyed like Silverspear would have trouble doing without being destroyed in turn.

Teidar Thunderspear and Tenoin Narrat Beak proved themselves focused on their task and quickly investigated the wreck, discovering that they couldn’t sense anyone aboard even when their shuttle was right on top it. They then proceeded to check if there were any surviving Shells aboard the human ship and if they could detect them in turn. Thunderspear did sense the remaining Shells aboard the human ship, killing them as she did so. She then waited for the humans to sweep their ship of any possible surviving Shells, they did confirm her kills and they did confirm that their ship was clear.

The shuttle’s return cleared the humans from most suspicions and allowed for the tensions aboard Silverspear to dissolve but also brought forth a predicament as to what they would do with the Shell wreck. It was obvious that the whatever the Shell were using to create their own Lotai was onboard that ship and it was easy for everyone to understand of the paramount importance of discovering the nature of that trick. As such they had to take over the wreck as quickly as possible before the Shells found a way to self destruct their ship. They could interrogate survivors if the Shells destroyed whatever they were using for the Lotai but it was possible that they would be able to capture their trick intact, a development that would help the war effort immensely. Time was of the essence and she had no time to argue, she was ready to use her admiralty level authority but Darkwing understood what had to be done and immediately consented to it, provided that she would take part in the boarding. Normally a foolish demand but understandable considering everything that had happened.

With some EVA trips and the help of the human generator they managed to gain access to ship’s armory which allowed them to equip everyone that took part on the attack with heavy combat armor and blasters; the problem was that no one thought to requisition a helmet with the necessary hair mesh and she was forced to cut her hair short in order to fit in the one she was wearing now.

“The things I do in order to kill some Shells…” She thought as she brought her show to a conclusion. “I will have Needle grow it back later.”

Chapter 13, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 687#p20687

[dragoongfa]

So part 2 of chapter 13 is out.

To be honest this is a late addition to the plan I had in mind, mainly because I wanted to point out something important in regards to leadership.

Every leader has to inspire confidence in the men they are leading. Humans do it by putting up a confident facade; how would telepaths do it however?

Would they perhaps resort to underhanded and misdirective telepathic tricks?

Would they even convince their own selves about their infallibility?

Would they subtly and partially explain their reasoning behind their decisions while making sure that everyone understands their part?

Who knows, but I went with the third option because the other two don't strike me as very Loroish but when you think about it one has to ask:

Is Stillstorm at the comic acting the way she does because she truly believes that Alex is an enemy agent? Or has she somehow weighted the options and concluded that it is best to present animosity to Alex and arrogant confidence to the Shells than having her command undermined by allowing herself to think 'loudly' that the Umiak are about to win the war regardless of what Alex's true nature is?

[Mr Bojangles]

The weight and pain of command. I think you cut a plausible line for how a Loroi commander would handle doubt and morale. It's hard enough to command when your soldiers only have your body language to go on (which they'll likely be pretty good at reading, honestly). It must be exponentially more difficult when telepathy gets added to the mix.

[Grayhome]

I call kill stealing on the Loroi. Damn ladies, at least let those human bodies get cold in space before you steal the wreck out from under their noses. Come on now, be reasonable here.

It's like there are no rules and nothing is sacred.

Ooooh, I just realized, it's vital to both sides here that they get access to that Umiak wreck. The humans desperately need all the tech they can get and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to nab a (mostly) intact ship; and the Loroi desperately need to figure out the whys and hows of the Umiak mind shielding. Will there be some delicious drama in the next chapter? Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Looking forward to the Mirror!

[Absalom]

I call kill stealing on the Loroi. Damn ladies, at least let those human bodies get cold in space before you steal the wreck out from under their noses. Come on now, be reasonable here.

It's like there are no rules and nothing is sacred.

That is a sensible summation of war.

[Sweforce]

I call kill stealing on the Loroi. Damn ladies, at least let those human bodies get cold in space before you steal the wreck out from under their noses. Come on now, be reasonable here.

It's like there are no rules and nothing is sacred.

Ooooh, I just realized, it's vital to both sides here that they get access to that Umiak wreck. The humans desperately need all the tech they can get and this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to nab a (mostly) intact ship; and the Loroi desperately need to figure out the whys and hows of the Umiak mind shielding. Will there be some delicious drama in the next chapter? Tune in next time for another exciting episode of Looking forward to the Mirror!

In remnicance of my World of Warcraft days: Ninja!

The loroi are already on par with the Umiak and as such really only need the "device" onboard. Once that is done, the rest of the ship will be a smorgasbord of goodies with stuff up for grabs in a de shelled ship. Well it might, perhaps the Umiak commander actually does manage do activate the self destruct or maybe the boarding party doesn't bother to clean it out completely and cut a path to their intended prize. Another, fun possibility would be if the ship is stripped of parts to repair the Silverspear to allow the loroi to travel back home on their own accord.

[Krulle]

SpoilerShow

Chapter 13, part 2


[...]

Hiding did protect the army from being destroyed from within but it wasn’t enough to full the other warriors. Even if they couldn’t directly sense them, the commander’s confidants would realize that she is hiding something just from the smallest signs of nervousness and tension. Even if they didn’t wish to do so they would question her about it and if the answer’s weren’t enough the army’s morale would begin to completely erode as their telepathy would make it impossible to keep things under control.

[...]

Mizol like her thrived by implanting doubts and distrust to the minds of an enemy’s leaders and officers. They knew that an army that is plagued by the doubts of leadership was far weaker that an army half its size but filled with confidence. That was the part that the Mizol played in all wars that they fought in, first they would learn everything they could about their enemies, then use that information to weaken them from within while making sure that the armies they belonged to would be protected from similar enemy tricks. The methods stayed the same, even when their enemies weren’t telepaths, chaos and misinformation would spread the same regardless of telepathy; they only thing that they had to make sure was to guide everything in order to ensure the best possible outcome.

[...]

The Torrai caste, a caste that proclaims itself to be made up of the best leaders of almost every other warrior caste. Exemplars that were selected by merit in order to be taught the mental and leadership techniques necessary in order to inspire confidence to their peers and subordinates. To take fractured armies comprised from many different and often competing warrior castes, in order to turn those them into an indivisible and unbeatable whole. Paragons of leadership, worthy of recognition, respect and devotion; It should be no wonder that the best of the Torrai would rise to the Diadem, from which the Azerein, the Loroi Emperor, would be selected.

Every warrior from lesser castes has wondered at least once why the Torrai tolerate the seemingly frequent Mizol insubordination. Few realize that happens because the Mizol understand these seemingly flawless leaders all too well. Shadowcloud knows of their tricks and techniques, all Mizol knew of them because the Mizol practiced them on Perrein for as long as the Torrai existed on Deinar. That’s why she was using those tricks now in order to make sure that the warriors would face the coming action filled with confidence and not self defeating doubts.

[...]

Oh no! The hair!
But what you do to kill a shell....


And war is a run of "I need that, for tactical reasons at all prize". The Loroi need to find out that the Umiak have such a device, and they need to find out how it works, and if they can counteract it.
The Humans can use examples of all other tech on that ship, but then the Loroi might not want the Humans to have advances tech while not being aligned. But a show of good will might help here (e.g. give them a torpedo or similar to study engine and blast mechanism). With the Umiak computer scrambling tech however, I would be careful when examining any computer systems, as they might be booby trapped and shutting down your systems when trying to analyse them.

And I presume the Human scout ship will not be capable of pulling the large Umiak ship anywhere, less through a jump.

[Grayhome]

The Humans can use examples of all other tech on that ship, but then the Loroi might not want the Humans to have advances tech while not being aligned.

Good point, aligned or deeply, deeply indebted to the Loroi.

And I presume the Human scout ship will not be capable of pulling the large Umiak ship anywhere, less through a jump.

I was thinking they'd pull a Master of Orion 2 and get the whole ship up and running inside a month, drive it back themselves. Cause humans are plucky like that.

That is a sensible summation of war.

ikr. like, omg. Hopefully the humans will be able to teach the Loroi the lesson of a wise philosopher-king named Barney the Dinosaur: sharing is caring.

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 13, part 3

The fact that the Shell ship crashed on an asteroid was a mixed blessing for their boarding party. The crash itself must have killed a significant portion of its crew while the asteroid’s weak gravity would allow for a quick firefight that would be nothing like the careful and slow advances of a zero gravity operation. The problem was that the Shells evolved on a weak gravity planet and they thrived in such an environment. Teidar Sezon Razormist had learned the hard way how deadly the Shells were when they moved on their own gravity and wasn’t about to offer them some easy Loroi kills as the Shells waited for their deaths.

There was the fact that the Shells now had some short of a Lotai to consider, which further complicated matters and fully negated some of their tactics. The usual boarding doctrine was to have a squad of Teidar closely circle the target ship aboard a shuttle, allowing them to sense the crew and kill them from afar with Telekinesis. If the ship self destructed the shuttle would hopefully detect the reactor’s overload and rush away at maximum acceleration in order to avoid the explosion. If someone annoying, usually a Mizol, wished for some live prisoners to interrogate then the Teidar would have to carefully observe the crew they sensed in order to identify potential officers, which as a task ranged from very easy to nearly impossible depending on how easy it was to read their race through sensing. If they were easy then the surface thought patterns were more than enough to identify any officers, if they were hard then they would have to discern this through their movements onboard the ship. Once they had their targets, they would kill the rest of the crew and incapacitate those they wanted alive through a softer application of telekinesis.

It was a foolproof tactic against most aliens, including the Shells, unless the target ship was too big and they had to board it in order to sense everyone aboard. Even then the complexity of the task was due to the numbers involved than any other factor. Razormist liked to amuse herself and others by remembering the time she and Shadowcloud led four squads of Teidar in order to secure a Shell Super Heavy that the fleet had knocked out early in Semoset. In the end Shadowcloud herself got bored of trying to figure out who was who from a distance and allowed everyone to kill every Shell aboard but the bridge crew and a particularly eccentric Shell she sensed at the ship’s engineering. It took some time to clear that ship from Shells and the Mizol half expected from the beginning of the whole operation that the bridge crew wouldn’t offer anything of value since the Shell admirals insisted on using smaller ships as their flagships. The only bright side of the whole endeavor was the engineer the Mizol kept alive because it turned out to be the head shipwright who built the ship and knew some things that the admiralty found very interesting.

This time however the new Shell Lotai made all this impossible and they would have to do this like foolish aliens. Thankfully she and Thunderspear had the opportunity to train with some Mannadi during one of the more uneventful periods of the war when Shadowcloud figured that she and her retinue needed a change of pace after a particular mess they cleared up near the Mannadi homeworld.

The Mizol as a caste liked to use the Mannadi to train their warriors and they had come to an agreement with the subjugated race in this regard. The Mannadi warriors they trained with were a tough and interesting challenge to say the least; the Teidar dying more than a few times before learning to ignore their sensing bias and come up with other tactics in order to detect their opponents.

She and Thunderspear now put the lessons they learned back then to good use, both of them cursing Lightwind for dying like a fool some time ago during a raid at a Shell outpost in the charred steppes. Longblade who replaced her, although eager, was too young and could not be compared with that veteran. The two of them had to make do without her and Coldsword who were tasked to keep a close guard to the warriors who struggled, with Shadowcloud’s help, to install an airlock on the crashed ship.

The first mistake they did back then was to attempt to rely solely on sensing, thinking that they should be able to detect the Mannadi if they enhanced it and made themselves more sensitive. In the end they didn’t sense them until it was too late. They tried to compensate for that failing by posting advance pickets but that was their second mistake since the pickets were fooled with some basic camouflage, allowing the Mannadi to infiltrate their lines and wreak havoc yet again. It was after all that that they came up with the tactic they were using now.

One of the least spoken about telekinetic abilities was electrokinesis, the ability to increase or dampen electricity at range. Those who have mastered this ability are able to sense electromagnetic fields from a short range, shorter than the usual sensing range but still long enough to allow the user to detect any nearby active electronic device. Thankfully the Mizol were wise enough to know that they should avoid mentioning this ability to aliens and as thus, very few aliens knew of this potent telekinetic ability. The Shells didn’t seem to know about it, even after all this time in war, which allowed Teidars to avoid some of the nasty traps that the Shells liked to leave behind.

An outside observer who didn’t know about this ability would think that the two Loroi squads were just fooling around as they run several circles around the crashed ship, a fool would even think that they were resorting to panicky tactics due to the ineffectiveness of their sensing. The truth of the matter was that the two Teidar used the Soroin squads with them as cover in order to sense any electromagnetic fields around the crashed ship, in case some Shells managed to get out of it and leave some nasty surprises for anyone who would try to get in it.

“How many did you locate?” Razormist asked as the two squads met each other in their seemingly random patrol route around the ship.

“Several buried teams, some of them Hard-troops, I estimate around 12 to 16 hidden Shells in total. Several mines as well which made it hard to keep some distance from everything that they hid.” Thunderspear replied.

“The same with me…” Razormist concurred as she checked the map on her HUD. “It’s a stalling tactic, they know that we can’t sense them and they believe that we would hesitate after a couple of token ambushes. I was surprised that they didn’t try anything when we ran around like fools but they probably wanted to ensure some kills before they died so they waited for us to get close enough to ensure that.”

“What do we do now?” Thunderspear asked.

“We can’t leave them be, they will be a very dangerous threat on our backs when we breach the ship. We can’t get too close because they are certainly strapped with explosives and on this gravity they will be among us almost instantly. We will get Coldsword and Longblade, then all four of us will drop explosives on the Shell dugouts and mines with telekinesis.” Razormist explained.

“What about Shadowcloud?”

“If she wants in on this, she will do so regardless of what we say but we both know that she likes to crush Shells from up close and she knows that we will get inside that ship far faster with her helping with the assembly of the airlock.”

Chapter 14, part 1: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 905#p20905

[dragoongfa]

Average and overconfident Teidars with Soroin support may rely on sensing too much but these two Teidars and the Mizol they are assigned to are by no means overconfident nor average in their combat experience.

Still, who knows what more tricks some nasty Shells may have inside their ship.

[Krulle]

SpoilerShow

Chapter 13, part 3

[...]

It was a foolproof tactic against most aliens, including the Shells, unless the target ship was too big and they had to board it in order to sense everyone aboard. Even then the complexity of the task was due to the numbers involved than any other factor. Razormist liked to amuse herself and others by remembering the time she and Shadowcloud led four squads of Teidar in order to kill and Shell Super Heavy that the fleet had knocked out early in Semoset. In the end Shadowcloud herself got bored of trying to figure out who was who from a distance and allowed everyone to kill every Shell aboard but the bridge crew and a particularly eccentric Shell she sensed at the ship’s engineering. It took some time to clear that ship from Shells and the Mizol half expected that the bridge crew wouldn’t offer anything of value since the Shells insisted on using small ships as their flagships. The only bright side of the whole endeavor was the engineer the Mizol kept alive because it was the head shipwright who built the ship and knew some things that the admiralty found very interesting.

You seem to jump from past tense to future tense and back. "I was surprised that they didn't try anything when we ran around like fools" just sounds better to me.

Poor Shadowcloud has to install an airlock instead of getting her hands dirty. But then, without that airlock, the boarding party would get no kill, and thus she can write down assists for those kills.

[Grayhome]

Wow, nerf psionics. I thought it was OP in the Xcom universe, it's craaaazy op here.

Great chapter!

[dragoongfa]

Wow, nerf psionics. I thought it was OP in the Xcom universe, it's craaaazy op here.

Great chapter!

I wonder what you will say with the next installment when they actually get into the ship...

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 14, part 1

Shadowcloud couldn’t help but smile as she and the two Gallens examined the airlock that they had built. When she was younger she would flinch at the very idea of using her telekinetic gifts for such a menial task, all of the young ones always thought like that and she was no exception. Teidars and the odd Mizol alike would prefer to just run around like fools in order to kill the first enemy they would run into when their talents could be put at better use elsewhere.

They all believe that their telekinesis should only be used in direct combat, not realizing that the difference between victory and defeat often hinged on them abandoning their pride and do what was most important to fulfill their mission. Using telekinesis to move the heavy supports and wall panels that would form the airlock may seem like a menial task but it took far less time, was far more precise in their placement and allowed the Gallens to focus on the airlock’s mechanisms instead of guiding a few Soroin squads to do the heavy lifting. Pyrokinesis was also the perfect blowtorch, able to quickly heat and cool everything she focused on, another seemingly menial task but one that saved an insane amount of time; in addition to the time saved by having her move the materials they had gathered, cutting and bending them into shape, then connecting them with pyrokinesis in order to form an air tight room for the airlock.

Normally it would take a work crew of several veteran Gallens to do what the three of them did and it would probably take them three times as long to do it. The two technicians were both pleased with themselves about their handiwork and awed about the difference a strong and cooperative telekinetic made.

“You two, return to the shuttle and await further orders.” She ordered them and the two Gallens darted outside after acknowledging her order.

“Razormist, did you take care of the Shells you found?” She sent to the Teidar when she sensed her approach.

“Yes Mizol, nothing that careful application of explosives couldn’t handle.” The Teidar replied with glee.

“The Gallens and I have finished building the airlock.”

“We are returning right now.”

“Did you sense anything odd when you killed those Shells?”

“No, nothing.”

“That’s odd in and on itself.”

“What do you mean Mizol?”

“I am trying to figure out what the Shells are doing in order to create their Lotai; Thunderspear did sense the Shells that were aboard the human ship before she killed them and the humans did confirm the kills so it wasn’t some short of a trick. This alone implies that their Lotai is something like a jamming field that covers only a certain area, if that was the case however then our telepathy should have been affected by it, now that we are inside its effective range. Then there is the fact that Calmwater couldn’t sense the Shells that Thunderspear killed, which means that something affected her sensing while not affecting Thunderspear’s at all.” Shadowcloud explained.

“That’s contradictory.” Razormist agreed.

“Indeed... Do you remember my exact sensing range?” She asked when she thought of something.

“Yes, 200 mannals give or take, depending on the usual factors.” The Teidar replied. “Quite above average but not even close to a farseer’s level.”

“I want to see if my range has been affected. Fly over my position and then go up slowly until I tell you to stop.”

“Do you think that your range is affected?”

“Just an idea I have, could be nothing.”

“As you wish Mizol.” By the time she walked outside Razormist was already levitating above her.

“I see you, start climbing.” Shadowcloud then tagged Razormist’s armor on her heads up display and looked at the distance meter that represented the distance between them.

“Wait, stop.” She said the moment she couldn’t sense the Teidar anymore.

“Why didn’t you send me that Mizol? I should still be well within your sensing range.” Razormist replied.

“I cannot sense you and the distance between us is 172 mannals.” Shadowcloud replied.

“That’s too short.” The Teidar commented.

“I know, more questions for the Shells to answer.”

“What now Mizol?”

“What else? We go inside and make the Shells answer.” Shadowcloud replied and cut the Teidar off.

“Everyone who is going in, gather around.” Shadowcloud broadcasted and waited for the four Teidar and all of the Soroin to assemble. “We went through this on our way here so I will be brief. This is going to be a close quarters fight on a weak gravity against Shells we cannot detect. The Shells will know immediately that their particle blasters are ineffective due to the electromagnetic field that I and the Teidars will maintain so they will try to get in hand to hand combat. Keep close to a Teidar and they will make sure that they will keep them away from you. I am going to be the first one to raise an electromagnetic field, pay attention to the count I will give when I am about to drop the field so you can fire. Under no circumstances you are to kill the targets that I or the Teidar will mark out for capture. Don’t let the close quarters intimidate you and kill everything else. Trust in your training, follow the Teidar and kill Shells. That’s all we need to do to avenge our comrades and fulfill our duty to the Emperor and the Union.”


The assembled Soroin nodded at that and she could sense that they were mentally prepared for what was to come. She never liked their caste but with time she had come to respect their tenacity and determination to see things through. If only they had been more open minded to new ideas and flexible during developing situations. Perhaps then the war would have been won already.

“Good, let’s crush some Shells.” She sent and went through the airlock first, followed suit by Razormist, Thunderspear and several Soroin that included an unusually passive Darkwing; twenty warrior in total, the vanguard that would breach the ship and establish the beach head.

Loroi never had done such boarding actions before their wars with the Mannadi and didn’t need to repeat them afterwards. Teidar telekinesis made resistance futile and the Shells had learned quickly that it is best to self destruct the ship quickly than allow the Loroi enough time to take them out from a distance. This didn’t mean that the Loroi didn’t capture Shell ships but to do so they had to either be lucky or having had the Mizol prepare the targeted ship in advance by a variety of means.

On the other side, the Shells had to adopt suicidal shock tactics in order to board and capture Loroi warships. That was the only way to do so when a single Teidar could take out a shuttle load of Hard-troops given enough time. They were crude and simple tactics but highly effective; overwhelm the target ship with numbers, annihilate all resistance with the priority being the Teidar and drug every survivor into unconsciousness. The Mizol had made sure to show the other castes what happened to prisoners and the result was the unofficial understanding that self destructing their ship was preferable than suffering such a fate.

“Thunderspear, when you helped the humans, did you figure out how the Shells attacked them?” She asked the Teidar the moment she remembered something important.

“Yes, it was the same tactic that they use against other aliens.”

“A seemingly major decoy boarding accompanied by an infiltrating force aiming to capture key areas?”

“Yes.”

“If they really thought that the humans are telepaths, wouldn’t they use the same tactics that they use against us?” Shadowcloud asked.

“Without sensing their normal tactic would probably work against us as well.” The Teidar pointed out.

“But the Shells do know about our telekinetic and electromagnetic defensive field techniques. They have been used so much in this war that it was inevitable.” Shadowcloud insisted.

“An acceptable risk if one considers that a Teidar can only be at one place at a time in order to do that. Without sensing we don’t know where to position ourselves for maximum effect and we can’t kill them from cover. We all know that a few dead Hard-Troops aren’t an issue for them.”

“You are probably right.” Shadowcloud conceded and looked at the breaching charges placed at the ship’s hull in front of them.

They were multistage explosive breaching charges, designed to go off in such a way so they could break through the thick multilayered armor that the Shells used on their ships while leaving anything behind them completely unscathed. The devices were prepped and ready to go the moment she gave the signal.

“On my signal, knock out all active Shell electronics you can detect.” She ordered the two Teidar. “Now.”

The Shells liked to leave a variety of traps for them to find, it was an easy and often efficient way of stalling for time and taking out some impatient warriors. Recently they have even begun using purely mechanical traps which the Teidar were unable to detect or disable, she didn’t know if that development was because the Shells finally realized the full extent of electrokinesis or if they found it cheaper to mass produce more primitive explosive devices while shifting the electronic components to more vital avenues. The monomania of the Shells was like that after all.

“Done.” Razormist reported.

“Detonation!” Shadowcloud broadcasted and detonated the breaching charges. The charges begun going off in quick succession and she immediately concentrated on building up the defensive electromagnetic field that would nullify all particle in range.

It was a taxing technique which demanded significant conscious effort. She couldn’t use any other telepathic or telekinetic technique while keeping the field up but its effect was worth the effort she put it. The defensive fields she created were of such strength and intensity that any particle blast passing through it was immediately rendered almost harmless. Normally at least two Teidar would have to cooperate in order to create overlapping fields that would have the same effect but her strength and skill were such that she didn’t need any help to protect the warriors that were with her.

“Go.” Razormist ordered since she couldn’t direct the battle as long as she kept the field up. The breaching charges had done their jobs well and created an oval shaped hole big enough for several warriors to go through side by side.

The Soroin and Teidar darted forward with weapons at the ready, the Soroin taking extra care to keep the Teidar between them and covered at all times, even with their bodies if need be.

“Damn it, a storage area!” Razormist broadcasted and Shadowcloud understood her apprehension since Shell quartermasters liked to pack their store rooms tight, leaving almost no room to move in it except the narrow corridors between the various shelves and stacks of equipment. “It’s food, nothing dangerous. No contact so far.” The Teidar broadcasted with some relief.
She had made sure to have one of the two shuttles fly around the crashed ship with a couple of ECM scramblers active. She hoped that this would be enough to keep the Shells guessing where they would breach the ship and it seemed that her gamble had paid off.

“Point of entry clear and covered, we are spreading out, looking for an exit.” Razormist sent to her and Shadowcloud walked up to the breach and looked into the dark interior, her heads up display automatically turning on its night vision setting, revealing a drop that was a couple of mannals long. She jumped down and was rewarded with a loud metallic clank the moment she touched the ground. Looking around her she couldn’t help but feel a little claustrophobic because of the tall tightly packed shelves and stacks of boxes.

“I will make room once we find the exit.” Shadowcloud said in her command channel and she immediately sensed the others relax for a moment.

“Contact, numerous Shells and… they are covering the exit!” Drywood, the Soroin team leader reported just before blaster fire light up the place. “Got hit, no damage… I don’t see any Hard-Troops.”

“Converge on Drywood’s position.” Razormist ordered and Shadowcloud followed suit, navigating the Shell built maze with ease.

“I am covering the firefight, call out grenades when you see them.” Thunderspear broadcasted in turn.

“Mizol, we have them cornered and they are trying to disengage.” Razormist sent to her.

“Damn! Dropping the field in 4, 3, 2, 1… Down!” Shadowcloud said and dropped the defensive field.

“Don’t let them get away!” Razormist shouted as the blaster fire intensified for a few solons before dying out. “Clear! Cover that door and make sure that it’s the only one!” The Teidar broadcasted before sending directly to her. “Mizol, there were 6 of them, I got the one who looked like their leader alive.”

“Good, I will make some space first.” Shadowcloud replied and drew a mental map of the storage room before using her telekinesis to push everything aside in order to create as a wide a corridor as she could. Metallic selves were instantly swept aside like twigs in hurricane winds while boxes full of food stuff were crushed as she pushed them out of the way with enough force to crush a Shell Hard-Troop whole. As a finishing touch she created a ramp for easing the entry of the warriors that would soon follow.

“Breach secure, beach head established.” Shadowcloud said in her command channel once she was satisfied with the impromptu corridor. She trotted towards Razormist and found her kneeling over a legless and armless Shell, the Teidar was still holding the arms she torn off it, seemingly unsure of what to do with them.

“Nice!” Shadowcloud commented as she took in the state that their broken enemy was in.

“I don’t think that it will last long.” Razormist replied as she stood up and threw away the two severed arms she was holding. “They must have realized by now that we won’t be coming from one of the usual places. I am going to lead the attack before the Shells manage to organize a defensive line, Don’t take long with it.”

“I don’t plan to…” Shadowcloud replied as the Teidar gestured for the Soroin that just came in the storage to follow her.
She quickly took off her armored gauntlets, knelt next to the alien and put her hands on the Shell’s hard forehead, its three eyes dancing around in pained panic but it didn’t say anything in the annoying clicky language that she had the misfortune of learning.

She immediately realized that the Shell Lotai was indeed a telepathic jamming field but it seemed normal; it felt nothing like the surreal, near textile feeling that the human Lotai had. It did feel like a normal jamming field but it was somehow alien, she could only describe it as part Shell and part Loroi in nature. She concentrated and pushed further inside, this time getting a solid telepathic feedback. She smiled and asked the first question that came to her.

“Does the ship still have the ability to self-destruct?” She asked it in basic Umiak. Her pronunciation was off but she sensed that the Shell understood it clearly and a clear answer formed in its mind without it even thinking about it.

“No... that makes things much simpler and easier.” She commented and thought of another question.

“Where is the one who is hiding you?” This time the Shell didn’t know what she was talking about.

“Did you get any new equipment aboard recently?” That one was spot on as the Shell’s mind instantly registered that it had an answer but the Shell suppressed it before she could read it.

“I know about your anti-interrogation tricks but they won’t do you any good.” Shadowcloud told it and telekinetically crushed its left eye. The Shell yelled out in pain but she just asked her next question.

“Where was the new equipment installed?” This time the Shell wasn’t quick enough to hide the answer and she let go of it.

“Thank you for your cooperation.” She said as she wore her gauntlets before tearing the hapless Shell’s head clean off, spraying her combat armor with its black blood. She smiled and spread her mind to sense the current disposition of her forces before the sign of an incoming transmission from one of the two shuttles flashed on her HUD. Sighing she accepted it.

“What is it Tenoin?”

Chapter 14, part 2: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 023#p21023

[dragoongfa]

Late...

Lazyness and rewrites are to blame

I also remember that someone said something about OP telekinetics

[Krulle]

SpoilerShow

Chapter 14, part 1

[...]

“Damn it, a storage area!” Razormist broadcasted and Shadowcloud understood her apprehension since Shell quartermasters liked to pack their store rooms tight, leaving almost no room to move in it except the narrow corridors between the various selves shelves and stacks of equipment. “It’s food, nothing dangerous. No contact so far.” The Teidar broadcasted with some relief.

[...]

“I don’t plan to…” Shadowcloud replied as the Teidar gestured for the Soroin that just came in the storage are to follow her.
She quickly took off her armored gauntlets, kneeled next to the alien and put her hands on the Shell’s hard forehead, its three eyes dancing around in pained panic but it didn’t say anything in the annoying clicky language that she had the misfortune of learning.

you're making me curious.

[Logannion]

You know, this fanfic, more then the source material, helped me to understand how the hell the Loroi had held out -even gained the advantage on occasion- against the Umiak.

I mean, the Umiak are not only more industrial, they also have a slight technological advantage. They can also replace manpower faster, and due to their monomaniacal tendencies, can actually run an efficient facist empire.

While I accepted the fact that farsense and psionics must have helped level the playing field (as well as half-hearted Historian support). I never really understood exactly, in detail, how. Now I do.

Thanks Dragoongfa, This story is awesome, and you're a champ.

[Sweforce]

You know, this fanfic, more then the source material, helped me to understand how the hell the Loroi had held out -even gained the advantage on occasion- against the Umiak.

I mean, the Umiak are not only more industrial, they also have a slight technological advantage. They can also replace manpower faster, and due to their monomaniacal tendencies, can actually run an efficient facist empire.

While I accepted the fact that farsense and psionics must have helped level the playing field (as well as half-hearted Historian support). I never really understood exactly, in detail, how. Now I do.

Thanks Dragoongfa, This story is awesome, and you're a champ.

Add to this combat experience. Umiak tend to not survive contact with the enemy they "stray" in the comic are pretty much unique in that he retreats his forces when doing so is a more survivable tactic. Not that humans cannot do similarly stupid things but when Hitler forbade retreat his generals often tried to ignore him when he wasn't looking. The Japanese on the other behaved more like the Umiak, but with crappy techs once the allies had caught up to them. WWI trench war tactics tend to be a rather bloody affair to and with air forces that was forbidden to use parachutes and instead expected to land crippled planes. Hint, planes can be manufactured faster then you can train pilots and give them combat experience.

[alpha]

You know, this fanfic, more then the source material, helped me to understand how the hell the Loroi had held out -even gained the advantage on occasion- against the Umiak.

I mean, the Umiak are not only more industrial, they also have a slight technological advantage. They can also replace manpower faster, and due to their monomaniacal tendencies, can actually run an efficient facist empire.

While I accepted the fact that farsense and psionics must have helped level the playing field (as well as half-hearted Historian support). I never really understood exactly, in detail, how. Now I do.

Thanks Dragoongfa, This story is awesome, and you're a champ.

Add to this combat experience. Umiak tend to not survive contact with the enemy they "stray" in the comic are pretty much unique in that he retreats his forces when doing so is a more survivable tactic. Not that humans cannot do similarly stupid things but when Hitler forbade retreat his generals often tried to ignore him when he wasn't looking. The Japanese on the other behaved more like the Umiak, but with crappy techs once the allies had caught up to them. WWI trench war tactics tend to be a rather bloody affair to and with air forces that was forbidden to use parachutes and instead expected to land crippled planes. Hint, planes can be manufactured faster then you can train pilots and give them combat experience.

To cross the streams of the multiverse, in the former Star Wars EU, the Republic (and the Separatists) used cheap, fast, and lightly armoured fighters and intercepters during the clone wars, because "They're just clones", or vulture droids/tri-fighters, and Jedi aces preferred fast craft that maximised their ability to react using the force. After all, it is a bit hard to dodge turbolasers if you are in a relatively slow Y-wing versus a Delta 7, or an Eta 2. That doctrine carried on to the Empire, with the TIE fighter, which led to high pilot attrition against the shielded and armoured X-wings the rebellion used.

[dragoongfa]

Chapter 14, part 2

The reward!

The reward!

It craved the reward more than anything and now Kt’rkrktkr 48 trkrk would reward it. The reward made it fell transcendent, to become something far greater than the mere machine it was. Now he was going to reward it for everything it did up to that point.

To be fully embraced by Kt’rkrktkr 48 trkrk as he fully opens his wonderful mind to it. He is wonderful, magnificent, perfection made manifest. No even beyond that, beyond even perfection; the thoughts of a mere machine are not enough to comprehend his greatness.

Now the warmness of his mind is all around it, a mere device such as it was again embraced by Him. How could it ever doubt Him and His comrades?

No, it was at fault, it must have been. When someone such as He punishes it He must have had a reason which was beyond its limited understanding. No, nothing in the past matters anymore as He unfolds his limitless glory in its mind. His glory as well as the glory of the Hierarchy that He dutifully serves.

It must listen to Him and do what it can to help him.

He is afraid! Enemies are aboard the ship and are killing His beloved comrades! Beings that are as magnificent as He is! The enemies must be stopped! The must suffer for their insolence!

But how can it do that?

It’s just a machine…

He knows it can feel His thoughts and…

He will show it what to do!

Yes, the enemy life signs, it can feel them dancing around it because they are too close, but what can it do to them?

It’s just a machine...

It should focus on them, He thinks that it should focus on them like it does when it senses an enemy farseer while he keeps his comrades hidden.

Yes, it focused on them…

They are confused! They are so close that now that it focused on their dancing signs it can sense their thoughts! And they are confused because of this!

No, just focusing on them isn’t what He wants it to do.

He wants it to attack them!

But how? It’s just a machine. They must be stopped but how can it do that?

He knows how! He is so magnificent that He know how to make even it useful in this fight!

It should focus, focus, focus on the enemy life signs and then…

Scream its anger at them!

Yes, yes, it screams at them!

They are faltering from its screams alone! The enemy life signs are faltering one after an other!

No, it’s not enough! There are many of them and its screams have only stopped a few of them.

No, He is pleased!

He is pleased because the enemy has been stopped and…

Yes, it must keep screaming at the enemies as his comrades will take care of their insolence.

Chapter 14, part 3: http://www.well-of-souls.com/forums/vie ... 151#p21151