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THE STORY SO FAR: After suffering their own close calls with some of the terrors roaming Vrr, Staute and friends prepare to storm an undersea fortress in alliance with the rebels.
Chapter seventeen: The taking of Amphitritium
When we first neared the city there was practically no one to meet us.
We saw a few people in something like scuba diving suits (they had flippers and head gear, but no air tanks), but they scattered when they saw us.
Riki and I split up, and began just whizzing through the city, firing our Warrantea harnesses at will.
It was quite satisfying to see pieces of buildings crack loose and slowly fall through the water. We were using some kind of sound effect weapon as I understood it. Riki said it was a very effective underwater weapon. Our outer skins vibrated in some fashion to cancel out the effects for our own protection.
Since I couldn't see anything resembling soldiers, I was loathe to hurt anyone. So I was carefully aiming where I didn't think any people were.
Riki and I seemed utterly unopposed as we cruised in and out of the great cylindrical tunnels that honeycombed the city.
We were stirring the place up like Kurellian had wanted. As a result we could see the whole place lethargically coming to life, here and there.
It was as if they couldn't believe they were really under attack.
After a few minutes of firing on the city, I found myself wanting to stop. It was such a pretty place, after all. I hoped Kurellian's takeover wouldn't harm it much.
*Alert, Jerry* It was Riki over the net.
*Yeah?*
*Troopers are emerging from the north side of the city. You are nearing the area. Be prepared.*
*How many?*
*I estimate seven, but possibly as many as eleven.*
*Whoa! You're going to help me aren't you?*
*I will aid you as soon as possible. There are fourteen troopers appearing near my own location.*
*Oh. OK. I understand.* At least Riki had the larger number.
Frans had given me a bad scare when I'd first met him. Given another moment or two he might have killed me despite my second and third skins. And he'd been in a depleted battle suit.
Ahead of me was seven to eleven guys just like him, except that their suits were probably in excellent shape.
But I had my third and fourth skins here. Plus a Warrantea harness. All around 92 years newer than any old suit of theirs.
The odds might be just about even. I was feeling cocky after all the practice I'd done before the mission. I might still be a bit clumsy in high speed flying, but I felt pretty confident about all the much slower action here undersea.
And the drugs Riki had had my suit give me for my deep water fears didn't hurt either!
Frans had downloaded a lot of juicy data about the trooper suits to Riki for analysis, and also given us his knowledge of what the best strategies were for dealing with them in combat.
Then Riki had briefed me and my suit on the best way for us two to fight against this previous generation of hardware and software.
I dispersed my buffer field to cover a huge area, sending part of it ahead of me to meet the troops. This of course would adversely impact my own maneuvering powers a bit. But Riki and my suit acted like it wouldn't increase my personal risk all that much.
Riki and I had purposely been generating lots of small metallic flakes and particles from the parts of the city we'd been hitting with our weapons-- just so the trooper sensors would have a difficult time separating out our third skin bugs from the debris.
One weakness of the enemy's battle suits were that they were not fully enclosed. That is, there were gaps the size of the grand canyon in them-- at least, from a nano bug's perspective.
Within some of these gaps were delicate circuitry and other niceties, made to order for a buffer field to eat for breakfast.
I waited until my buffer field signaled it was munching on trooper armor, and then jetted out to meet the soldiers. My suit was pre-set for this battle; it knew all the weak areas of the enemy suits, and to avoid hurting my own buffer bugs by targeting where they weren't. It also knew to make the fight look splashy, for the benefit of those Org execs watching from inside the city.
All I had to do was give a command, and hang on for the ride.
*Action* I thought. And there was.
It was really no contest. But for the benefit of the show my skins made it look like there was.
My bugs in the battle suits managed to slow up and sabotage the troopers' movements, as well as inform me as to the current intentions coursing through their circuitry at any given moment. My fourth skin computer synchronized itself with the data from the bugs so that it looked like I was just barely dodging all the weapons fire from the troopers. The bugs were also interfering with the targeting of the enemy's beams and missile weapons.
My Warrantea lasers turned on. Barely. They were adjusted down to about the level of spotlights. It would have been grossly inefficient to use them any other way underwater. On cue from my fourth skin, my bugs would completely disable or damage a trooper as I swept my harmless beam over them.
What was delicious about this set up was that the other troopers in the area-- as well as the Org execs inside-- all knew from their instruments that my beams were harmless. And yet apparently their men were being put out of action by them! Another anomalous factor for them was the apparent power drain involved. If I were really disabling their men with some sort of laser weapon through the water, I should rapidly run out of juice. But I wasn't.
This tactic was calculated to spawn fear and confusion among them. For they couldn't know if their instruments were faulty, or their suits defective or sabotaged, or if they were witnessing a new and terrible weapon. Or if perhaps their fickle leader was somehow testing their readiness.
All they knew was that apparently only a couple of beings were immobilizing nearly thirty troopers without acquiring so much as a scratch themselves.
Then a new contender appeared on the scene. Underwater battle tanks. Well, not tanks exactly. Because these things didn't move by treads, but by something else. I wasn't sure what.
These tanks were decorated to look a bit like big turtle shells. And they could maneuver faster than you'd expect.
Three of them swept out of the city and headed straight for me.
Frans hadn't briefed us on these things. Apparently he hadn't known about them.
I figured things might be turning more serious. I signaled my bugs to finish off all the troopers (they only disabled their suits' fighting and maneuvering powers, leaving life support fully functional), and I deceptively swept my harmless beam over all of them. The entire gang began settling to the sea bottom.
I fired a mostly invisible sonic beam at the nearest Org observation post to keep them occupied as my bugs left their host troopers. What looked like heat waves shivered through the water.
Now my gnats swirled towards the oncoming tanks. I figured hey, why not see if the same tactic might work on the big guys too?
But my bugs couldn't find any gaps to exploit on the newcomers.
And they were closing fast.
*Riki?* I asked over the net.
*Yes?*
*Uh, I've taken care of the troopers, but now there's giant turtle shell things coming at me. You want to come join the party?* I asked nervously.
*I too am being confronted by an unexpected array of large vehicles, Jerry. It appears we must improvise.*
*Well, uh, if you find something that works, will you give me a yell?*
*Affirmative.* And then he was gone. I was on my own.
Where the hell was Frans?
I'd called back my buffer field, but it looked like the tanks would reach me before they did.
What to do?
This was an easy decision, as the tanks started firing at me. I turned and ran.
The water made scary sounding noises as the tanks' blasts passed near me. My suit was almost in total control-- I could command it to attack or retreat, but that was about all in this mode. Fortunately the suit was doing great at successfully evading the blasts from the tanks. Only thing was, the tanks were gaining on me. And much of my buffer field was falling further behind.
For all practical purposes many of my buffer bugs were now out of it.
Or were they?
I called back to my trailing thirds and told them to return to the Org observation deck and do whatever they could to disrupt communications with the tanks, and otherwise cause them problems from there.
My suit made a violent ninety degree turn deeper into the city. I noticed it'd turned into a tunnel so narrow that the tanks had to follow us single file. So now only one of them could shoot at us at a time. Great.
Another wrenching turn took us to the left. My stomach hadn't yet caught up with the first turn.
I began to get nauseous.
The tanks were starting to fall behind. They were faster in a straight line, but not as maneuverable as me in a fourth skin. It looked on my readouts like one had bounced off a city corner on a turn. I smiled to myself.
Still, I wanted to do something more. Like take out one of those suckers.
When they'd been coming at me from afar, they'd been out of range of my own weapons. Then they'd started firing, so no way was I going to float there like a drowned duck waiting for them to come into range.
I didn't know if they could withstand my weapons or not. How could I test the possibility?
I could hide and wait. But I didn't know if they were tracking me somehow. It'd be bad to hide and wait for someone who knew what you were up to.
And besides-- being tanks they probably were pretty stout. I doubted that my harness would even tickle them from any normal range.
From any normal range.
What about point blank range?
Maybe. But how to get that close without being fried?
Ugh. Another fast turn. My suit was trying its best to lose them. And according to the readouts they were now falling back. But something else was coming up ahead.
I emerged again on the outskirts of the city. To my right was fierce action. It was the tanks. No! It was Riki's tanks!
I was now near Riki's battle scene.
But behind his tanks.
My suit hadn't even slowed down; it was heading straight for the battle.
Maybe my suit was smarter than I was.
My available propulsion systems were running at maximum thrust. I wondered how Riki was handling the tanks. It was hard to make out what he was doing, as the area ahead of the tanks was pretty torn up by all the energy weapons, and the visibility in general through this sea water wasn't great to begin with.
I decided it didn't matter. My suit was automatically readying itself for an attack run. And I thought I could see what it was doing.
There were trails of disturbed water coming from little nodules at the rear and along the sides of the tanks. It was obviously their propulsion system.
I figured that my suit was targeting those nozzles.
But soon I was surprised to see I'd been wrong.
My suit subtly angled near the sea bottom, in a way that would minimize adverse impact on its velocity. It targeted something in the sand. We came within a foot or so of the sand, causing a cloudy swirl to erupt behind us. My left arm suddenly reached out and snatched something.
I hadn't been prepared for this move, and accidentally resisted the suit's action. My resistance had been overruled by the urgency of the moment. As a result it felt like a muscle was pulled in my arm. Or several muscles. Instant hurt. Just add water. Very funny. Ouch! I thought the suit wasn't supposed to let me get hurt!
The suit angled back towards the tanks. I looked at my left hand. And saw a rock. Instead of lasers, my suit was planning to throw rocks at the tanks?
Maybe the suit had been damaged and I didn't know it. Brain damaged.
We were nearing the tanks with our trusty rock. Yikes! I began to panic. I had to take manual control if my suit brain was on the fritz. Otherwise it'd get me killed. What if the tank proved impervious to rocks? Would our next move be to ram it?
But it was too late. We drew up to within arm's reach of one of the tanks. It was the one at the extreme left of the group. The group was loosely arranged in a row as they attacked Riki. I zoomed right past its rearmost right side propulsion nozzle.
I could feel a powerful blast of water coming from the jet.
We advanced a few feet further beyond the nozzle and I saw a scoop.
I was just realizing the significance of the scoop when the suit suddenly made a violent correction in our flight path.
The next series of events happened so fast that I wasn't able to sort it out 'til afterwards, and even then I needed the help of the data from the suit.
But at the time, my human senses recorded the event like so:
Just as we reached the intake scoop, and reached out with the rock, we violently decelerated and turned upwards and to our left, flying over the top of the tank. Almost instantly after that we made another violent maneuver that took us the rest of the way over the tank and then behind its direction of motion.
It was a bruising experience. But lasted not long at all.
I was dizzy and near sick in the aftermath. Thankfully I immediately began to slow down from the great speed I'd been traveling.
At the edge of my awareness, I was aware that something very bad was happening somewhere. I was shaken by the vibration of a nearby explosion.
A muffled whump! reached my ears, and shook me like a rag in a dog's mouth.
Then somebody put me on a crazy merry-go-round. The city spun by, then the sea bottom, then just the murkiness of infinite ocean distances. Mostly it was murky ocean I saw. But these sights cycled several times, very quickly, before they began to slow down.
I finally came to rest on the sea bottom. Staring up at nothing.
As I waited for my dizziness to recede, I mentally examined all the various things I was feeling, separating pains from mere discomforts, then big pains from little pains....
I felt like I'd been in an intense fist fight and lost. I was sure I'd at least pulled muscles in my left arm, neck, waist and back. And my right leg seemed completely gone.
That last thought scared me. Had something cut off my leg?
I pushed through the pain movement brought me to nervously grope for my leg. It was still there. I just couldn't feel it.
But why couldn't I feel it?
Soon though, I could. And then longed for the numbness to return. For it hurt like hell.
In a few minutes my leg settled down to a heavy throb, and I was able to cautiously peer over the large rocks I was laying among to survey my surroundings.
I was surprised by what I saw.
A few hundred yards away two of the tanks lay in a jumbled heap together. A third rested on the ground a little ways off.
A black oily looking cloud was emerging in occasional spurts from the two touching vehicles. The cloud was spreading over the entire area, reducing visibility with each passing second.
Two still functional tanks were now floating near their stricken comrades in a rescue role, it appeared.
Somehow Riki had disabled the tanks. Perhaps my own experience had been caused indirectly by his actions.
There were flashes of light from the city. And the muffled sound of explosions. Things were still happening somewhere.
Surely Kurellian had attacked by now, I thought. And Frans had to be here too. Somewhere.
I eased myself back down between the rocks. I had to rest a moment, before I rejoined the efforts.
Getting blown up was rough.
Though I didn't realize it at the time, it'd been my actions-- or rather, those of my suit-- which had caused the carnage among the tanks.
The rock had been the key.
Apparently the tanks had small strobing force fields a little in front of each water intake scoop, to prevent debris from obstructing them.
The enemy used these rather than actual mesh screens so that they could coax greater performance from the tanks.
The force fields flashed on and off at high rates of speed, and then only if significant debris was detected in a certain region of the water streaming over the hull and towards the intake.
If debris was detected, the field would snap on just for an instant to deflect the objects clear of the intake. Then the field would snap back off again.
The field also was tuned to affect solid objects much more so than liquid flow.
So the intake stream was about as clean and fast as it could possibly be.
My fourth skin, with the data gathered by the earlier inspection by the buffer fields, had figured all this out.
So as we'd caught up with Riki's tanks, the suit had reached out with the rock, and suddenly changed maneuvering vectors.
It changed course to clear us from the havoc which was to come.
Just as our new vectors took effect, the suit dropped the rock into the intake, too close to be fended off by the force field.
As the rock effectively shut down the unit, we were already arcing up and over the tank, and right into the deflector shields and sensors on the opposite side.
Of course, the force fields added to our impetus away from the scene, as they regarded us as something which might block the precious intakes.
Meanwhile, the systems onboard the tank suddenly discovered a total loss of propulsion in their right rear jet, whilst all the rest were operating at full blast.
This caused the tank to skew sideways, towards the right, and into its neighboring tank. Which caused that tank to also skid sideways, into the next one.
The third tank nose-dived into the seabed that was too close to avoid, ramming into the rocks at full speed.
The second tank crashed almost atop the third. Again, at full speed.
The original tank had bounced off its neighbor. Had all its jets been functioning properly, it likely could have avoided a crash with the help of the rebound.
But the rock had killed the one jet. So it too dived headlong into the rocky seabed, at breakneck speed. A little away from its brothers.
Like I was saying, I only understood all this much later.
After a few minutes, I called to my remote third skin bugs, but got no response. I had this idea that by gathering them back up close around me I might be able to better smooth out future bumps and bruises.
I called Riki. And got no answer from him either. This worried me. But hopefully, it was just the rocks, tanks, and distance all preventing a successful comm link.
I reset some of my suit parameters so they'd be gentler with me. Professor Bryans helped me.
I slowly got back up, looked once again towards the tanks rescuing their comrades, and carefully and slowly moved away.
After I'd put some distance between myself and the tanks, I angled back in towards the city.
I made myself inconspicuous as I detected several more tanks in the vicinity. After they'd passed, I re-entered the city.
I was now actively avoiding confrontation. I figured I'd find Riki and Frans before I joined the fight again. But I half way hoped it'd be a while before that happened.
I could hardly move my left arm or right leg. They were near useless. Sometimes the suit moved them, out of necessity, and it hurt like hell every time.
The skins were doing something to heal them, but they weren't miracle workers. Even their advanced gizmos needed some time to perform tricks like that.
I winced as I detected signs of battle ahead. I'd found Riki and Frans. Now I had little choice but to join them.
For a moment I seriously considered chickening out. At least, for a few more minutes. What could it have hurt?
A lot. Riki or Frans could be killed or captured. And Kurellian's forces overwhelmed. I was in a lot better shape than Kurellian or his men. I had a fourth skin! I was even in better shape than Frans, by about 90 years of gadgetry. Riki may have been the most important single element in our attack. But Frans was definitely third. And I was second.
So what would it hurt if the second most important soldier in the attack chickened out for a while?
A hell of a lot; that's what.
Regretfully, I gave the suit the order to attack once again.
I allowed myself some whimpering as things got busy again.
Luckily, it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected.
Frans had indeed caught up with us. And Riki had evidently been doing great. It also didn't hurt that there simply wasn't as many troopers in the complex as there might have been.
We later found out what had been going on behind the scenes of the battle, from captured Org personnel.
The Org contingent in the city had been ill prepared for an attack. When the exterior attack began, they'd at first thought it a joke or prank-- maybe even by their own forces.
They'd routinely ordered a couple of contingents to leave the parties going on inside and scramble into uniforms, to go scare off any locals possibly causing trouble outside.
The executives in charge had been surprised to learn their troopers were put out of action by only two attackers. This development caused the execs to turn their full attention to the interlopers.
They'd sent out the tanks to deal with the invaders. And requested an update from the orbiting mother ship concerning all the altered in the immediate vicinity.
The update described nothing like what they were facing.
That's when they began wondering if the boss was staging a readiness test of their garrison.
At that point reports came in that hostile forces had penetrated the city. But the breech point could not be found to stem the flow. It was like the forces had appeared out of nowhere.
The city was supposed to be shift-secure; that is, only official Org personnel were supposed to be able to shift in and out. Altereds were prohibited by filters.
But apparently hostiles were shifting in anyway, despite the filters.
Then suddenly half the tank force deployed outside had been put out of action, practically all at once.
Automatic beacons of two downed troopers on the surface had also been received.
Next, reports were coming in that city citizens were themselves rising up against the Org personnel.
The city was quickly becoming unmanageable.
The execs did the only thing they could.
A huge black cloud began engulfing everything. It even interfered with some non-visual sensors. It blinded us all. Even radio communications went out.
Riki, Frans, and I were all taken by surprise by the move. But just as our communications failed, we quickly agreed there was little to do but sink to the bottom and take cover for whatever might happen next.
After about twenty minutes the blackness began to dissipate.
I reestablished contact with the others, and we all cautiously emerged from our hiding places.
Visibility was only a few dozen feet, but it was improving quickly with the ocean currents.
The Org forces had retreated under cover of the darkness. We slowly moved deeper into the city.
As we neared the center, we could tell something was different. Many tunnels that had once been enclosed now exhibited great gaps and holes. Whole sections of the city had disappeared!
But there'd been no explosion of such a size. Even in the blackness we'd have felt the shock wave.
And surely no shift had occurred. For the shifting of such a large object from the midst of the ocean could not easily be compensated for by the transportation device. The resulting hole in the sea would have created an immense implosion of ocean water, which we'd have felt in a way similar to an explosion, only in reverse.
The center of the city was missing.
City natives opened up doorways to admit us. They were joyful to see us.
The natives were blue skinned and pale. At first glance, they looked dead. Sort of like zombies. Drowned zombies. Yet they were attractive, too. So they were like cute drowned zombies.
Several of the natives were trying to communicate with us using hand signals and voicing gurgling sounds from their throats. Our translators went to work.
The people were the water breathing citizens of Amphitritium (Apparently some citizens were air breathers, but those naturally weren't in these inundated portions of town). They told us that they were the servants of the high citizens of Amphitritium. And that the high citizens were the servants of the royal family of Amphitritium.
We gradually pieced together the facts. We were in the low rent district of Amphitritium here. Farther towards the center of the city was the high class district. Evidently these here towards the outer rim were low level altered beings. Not full fledged gods, but still something more than plain folk. And, at the center, sat the palace. The residence of the royal family. Poseidon and his clan.
But the palace was gone. When we asked them how, they told us the palace was alive. That it could swim the sea like a great whale, at the bidding of Poseidon.
Surely they didn't mean that it turned into a whale, I thought. Of course, the way everything else had gone on this trip, there was really no telling.
I was chagrined to learn that our victory was really a defeat; our purpose had been to give Poseidon back his city, in the hopes that he might side with the lesser folk against Sturme (even if only surreptitiously).
But as the core of the city-- the palace-- with all of Poseidon and his family held hostage inside had been taken by the Org, we'd accomplished nothing.
Only Poseidon and his altereds would have a hope of stopping a concerted counter-attack by the Org. An attack which would definitely come.
Kurellian and the rebels had neither a plan or a desire to hold the city themselves against a full force Org assault.
But we had succeeded in taking two thirds of the city. And with the help of the natives, captured nearly 100 troopers and their equipment. We'd never get another chance to get this far, this easily, again.
With the taste of a small victory on our lips, we didn't want it replaced by that of a larger failure.
We decided to try to salvage our strategies.
Kurellian and Frans agreed we had precious little time. Everything would happen that very day, and no other. Likely within only the next few hours.
Kurellian warned that the other altered of Vrr might appear without warning at any time, once they heard that Amphitritium was in the hands of the lesser folk.
Amphitritium was too great a prize to stay in such hands for long.
Frans alerted us to the fact that the Org contingent of the fleeing palace had already called the nearest Org base for help, and was headed in that direction.
The base had sent forces to meet it halfway as an escort.
The natives had given us information concerning the speed of the palace.
Even the fastest among us would only reach the palace as it met with the Org reinforcements. And the rebels couldn't come with us anyway, in any numbers. We'd have had to outfit them in battle suits, and train them; things we didn't have time for.
A new plan was struck upon. Since I was already tired and hurt, I wasn't too crazy about it. Basically, it called for Riki, Frans, Kurellian, and me to mount a surprise attack on the faraway Org base. We figured the base should be stripped of its main force, answering the call of the palace as it was.
Kurellian would be in a battle suit directed by Frans remotely. He wouldn't be able to help much, but he'd be a liaison between us and the rebels, and a wealth of Vrr savvy in case it was needed.
The rebels would stay and prepare for Wayar's counterattack here. They would resist as best they could, but retreat back through the secret tunnel when things got too hot.
We decided to use the Org's own equipment, set to different frequencies and codes, to coordinate between the two groups.
Frans positioned many of the collected battle suits in strategic locations about the city, programmed to automatically defend against any forces not beaming a special identification code. Being unmanned and 90 years older than fourth skins, they wouldn't be worth much-- but every little bit of delay they caused an assault force might help.
All supplies and equipment that the rebels couldn't immediately use for the impending attack were squirreled away into the secret tunnel. At least, what could be put there without slowing the hasty defensive buildup. Such stuff could be useful in future battles.
Just as we four were about to leave the city, a native reached us with word of unexpected help. It turned out that some of the higher class inhabitants wished to help us. As these folk were minor gods themselves, they could possibly be of use. That is, if they could be trusted to do what we needed them to.
Unfortunately, they had something else in mind. They'd already chosen their own leader, and intended to attack the palace itself and free Poseidon.
Such a move would dilute Poseidon's gratitude to us; but Kurellian decided we couldn't afford not to accept the help.
I was skeptical of what we might gain from them. Several of the lot who were treated as the most powerful among them looked to be pretty old; how much could they do? Especially being only minor deities?
And if they could do something now, why had they not done something before, when the city was first taken by the Org?
But they answered such queries well. Telling us that Poseidon ordered no one to resist. For he hadn't wanted his people hurt or killed. The troopers were the minions of Wayar, who seemed allied with Sturme, after all. Too, Poseidon had hoped the strangers would not stay overly long. And that they might graciously allow the city to host them as guests rather than conquerors during their stay.
Poseidon's plan had sounded reasonable enough. Especially when you considered that there were quite a few altered beings in Amphitritium at the time who could have sliced and diced hundreds of troopers at once if things didn't go well.
So the natives had figured they could afford to be gracious-- for a while.
What they hadn't counted on was Sturme somehow surprising them all by making the entire palace a place where gods were stripped of their powers.
In one fell swoop Wayar had disabled all the most powerful beings in Amphitritium. Through his executives he had first accepted Poseidon's proposal for he and his men to be hosted so. Then he had requested that all the highest of the high in the city attend a banquet in Sturme's honor. This had rankled Poseidon somewhat, but he acquiesced, as the Org appeared to be accepting his hospitality rather than waging war.
But it was a trick. After all the highest altereds in the city had entered the palace, they were mysteriously stripped of their powers.
Over the net Frans informed us that Wayar could selectively switch on and off the areas on Vrr wherein the special behind-the-scenes 'magic' of the altered beings worked. As everything about Vrr (or Sarum 128, as outside observers later called it) was simply a grand virtual reality-- except for many of the sentient beings trapped within it-- it was a simple matter to activate and deactivate their abilities at will.
Of course Frans's own knowledge of Vrr didn't extend beyond what his own role called for. He knew Wayar could control some of the weirder aspects of the place, due to it being a specially constructed environment. But he wasn't aware it was all truly a virtual reality--including his own trooper persona.
Amphitritium itself had two separate main systems; the palace and the rest of the city. Apparently only the palace was affected in this particular action.
With their powers stolen away, even the strongest had to bend to the will of troopers in battle suits.
Sturme had informed the now vulnerable gods and godlings that he was teaching them a lesson. A lesson of the power of Sturme. He had ordered them to serve Wayar's troopers until such a time as He was satisfied. At which point He would consider returning their powers.
Sturme's presence hadn't been perceived again for months now. But the troops hadn't left. And the powers hadn't been returned.
The trapped and powerless gods had not been allowed to leave the palace. Instead, they'd been either imprisoned or made subservient to the cruder pleasures of the troopers.
Poseidon himself had been caged in the very center of his own vast throne room. A room which was now a place of orgiastic parties and various other debaucheries.
To be fair, various areas of the palace had seen somewhat wild parties before, even under Poseidon's reign; for he was a happy-go-lucky sort of god, who much appreciated the pleasures that life had to offer.
But Poseidon rarely gave in to the outright violence and torture that many other Olympians routinely indulged in elsewhere on Vrr. Poseidon preferred a much more civilized lifestyle.
Neither had Poseidon's own wild parties been such public exhibitions as those that went on now within the palace. He had never had such things happening within his own throne room, for instance.
Too, rarely had anyone been forced to join one of Poseidon's parties. Even mortals from nearby villages on the coasts attended more often from genuine desire than real coercion.
There were quite a few pretty young women (or half-women) in the group of city citizens milling about in the water. In fact, they made up a majority of the crowd. And they were almost all topless; some completely nude. There appeared to be fifty or sixty or them. Many possessed blue tinged skin; some with a bit of green, too. Some had legs, and some fish tails. Their hair often seemed to sparkle tantalizingly, as it danced about in the underwater environment. So what if they weren't golden skinned California girls? They still looked terrific to me! Even the true mermaids (with fish tails). I was surprised to learn there were quite a few different types of those-- in terms of where woman ended and fish began. And other characteristics.
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I learned that they were all sea nymphs; daughters of Zeus, Nereus, and Oceanus. Apparently there were a lot more of these women in the city, but most had been taken into the palace and not returned. It was generally figured that the troopers had been using them for entertainment. The only good thing about it was that these nymphs were of sturdier stock than normal human females; they couldn't be hurt or killed nearly as easily, even without their powers (whatever those were). So better the nymphs than ordinary girls, I guessed. Of course, I didn't say that out loud in that crowd. Anyway, the nymphs here were fighting mad, like the other citizens. Another major character among the throng was an old man named Proteus. He was clearly the second in command of the group. Though he shrugged away from a primary leadership role, he seemed very knowledgeable. Surprisingly, some members of the royal family were actually present in the crowd of volunteers signing on to retake the palace. Arion was one son of Poseidon. Glaucus was another. Arion had lived outside the palace for a long time, though still in the high class section of town. He wasn't considered a major god, but rather a sort of embarrassment for Poseidon; I guess because he was a horse. That would qualify as sort of a major birth defect I guessed, even here. Anyway, that had saved Arion from being captured with the rest of his family. |
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Arion wasn't a water breather, so he wore a high tech breathing apparatus on his back like a saddle, attached to a plastic bag enclosing his head (The gadget looked better than it sounds).
Glaucus was a different story. He'd been literally out of town when Amphitritium was taken. Friends' warnings saved him from being grabbed on his return. He'd hidden away near the city, until now.
Glaucus clearly wanted to be the expedition's leader. But he wasn't who the crowd wanted. They wanted Triton.
Triton was as handsome as Glaucus, but even stranger than Arion. For Triton was a merman. His top half was human, his bottom half like the tail end of a dolphin.
I found the anatomy of Triton and the other marine people fascinating. They were the first living examples of chimeras that I'd ever seen.
Chimera? The word wasn't my own. My node provided it in response to my lack of a descriptive term. Noting the rise in my curiosity, the node provided more definition for what the word represented. I saw centaurs (half men, half horses), the demi-god Pan (half man, half goat), and mermaids (half woman, half fish). Sights of more exotic beasts, which seemingly included no human parts at all, also swept through my consciousness. Other explanatory information accompanied these visions.
So anything that was a fantastic mix of different animal species (including human) was a chimera. Hmmm. Interesting. I'd never known there was a special word for that. Apparently chimera became a big thing in the centuries following my own. My node had given me a chronological outline of references. But of course I didn't have time to follow those up at the moment.
[Is my younger self alluding to some sort of wide scale creation of chimeras by humanity via genetics, during those future centuries? It would seem so! Damn, but I'd like to know more about that!]
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[You can see more artwork relating to mermaids at Mermaid Art & Origins of Mermaid folklore by H D Johnson.]
Triton really looked more the part of Poseidon's son than either Arion or Glaucus. And the crowd treated him that way, too. They rallied around him, apparently to the cold consternation of Glaucus.
We couldn't control the altereds and we couldn't persuade them to do what we wanted. So we just listened to what they planned to do, and incorporated it into our designs.
The altereds were going to attack the palace. They said if we'd keep Wayar's troops busy in the city, and at the far base, they would take the palace.
We essentially responded 'Great!' and started on our own way.
We didn't have much hope for a handful of minor gods and sixty naked girls to accomplish much, though.
But, on second thought, I figured that the sixty naked girls might at least make a good distraction for Wayar's troops.
At the last moment Kurellian decided he wanted to go with the altereds instead of us. He still needed the protection of the battle suit, but separated from Frans there'd be no one to maneuver the suit for him. So he had to be carried somehow by the altereds.
The altereds didn't seem to think it'd be a problem, so we left him like he wished.
The way one of the nymphs acted towards him, I got the suspicion that they'd met before.
The faraway base was on land. We strapped ourselves into a tank that'd been left behind by the Org. Frans would pilot the craft. He hadn't flown one before, but as all the more advanced machinery on Vrr was a derivative of his corporation's technology, he quickly adapted to the controls. We surfaced, and discovered the tank could fly as well as swim. We were quickly airborne, and speeding to our destination faster than we could have with our suits.
The tank couldn't fly very high though. Apparently it used a ground effect of some kind to stay airborne. Still, it was a very versatile device.