Send Moi out to check on those corpses she found. If the Salikai are fielding resources to clean those up you may have a chance to search for more food without interruptions. If the Salikai don't bother with cleanup you could have Moi collect more munitions off the corpses.

Huh. Moi tracked us all the way to the battle? That's quite a way, and well outside what we had mapped. Not bad.

>what do?
Uh, overview first. Let's make an informed decision. How long will the food you already have last? Of the hunters you've rescued, how many are up and at 'em, and what kind of state are the others in? (And how long will it take them to finish recovering). Do we have enough equipment / weapons to go around?

(From that we can make the call as to whether we should be hitting salikai troops for materials and/or hunter recruits, or whether we need to gather food).

Have you talked with the hunters about how the control works? (Or do you understand it from your own experience?). Ie, what's it like on the inside? Does the hive know it's being controlled, but the bugs just force them to comply? Is it a subtler brainwashing, like a kind of misleading or deception about who their friends and enemies are? Did we ever find out if any of the aliens are hunter employed forces ignorant to what's going on, or are they all salikai troops? (Things I've been kicking myself for not asking when Polo was here).

How you feeling yourself, ever get any sleep? Honest evaluation for your own merit here, nevermind what you're telling the others.

What do you have for supplies? The taser is great for debugging but every hunter we free is another mouth to feed.

I like the idea of looting corpses but even if the Salikai have left the area that much blood is sure to draw predators from all over. So if you do make sure to watch for cave wildlife.

The Salikai have lots of equipment with there Cai and its mobile factories. But you need people to keep all that running and raw materials to process. Guessing they do not have many techs left they can trust and there stock of refined materials is dwindling.

Every hunter Polo kills or you save is a huge loss to there fighting forces. Also regardless of how much they have infiltrated command the fact that Polo has not reported back yet will be noticed soon if not already. So watch for any unusual troop movement.

>looting battle corpses
She'd have to get all the way back over there, and the limitations of her stealth field wouldn't allow her to take much. Plus, she already said the area was crawling with enemies. Not the best plan.

Any other hiding spots scoped out in case you need to relocate? Relocating might be a good idea regardless since the area's running out of food.

Alright, so the status of Polo's group is uncertain. They could have gotten away, or they could have been killed or captured and Moi missed them being taken away, or some combination of the above. For the time being you'll assume they're still out there and hold off on making any plans.

Have Moi take a seat to let her legs rest and debrief her. Ask if there was anything else unusual or noteworthy on her trip out. How long was she out? And how did she pick up the trail of Polo's group?

With the source of food dwindling you shouldn't consider adding more hunters to your ranks. That means the best option right now is to scout for another hideout location then move on once an acceptable one is found.

Did any of the hunters you debugged say what happened to the non-neumono support that came in with them? They obviously couldn't be bugged to get their memories scrubbed, so how did the salikai handle them? Were they all or mostly with the salikai from the start? Were they all killed?

Any of your group been carrying the mapper when they've been out, or is it considered too risky for them to because it could fall into enemy hands if they're killed or captured?

Why isn't Greenie behind you camo'd up with glowslug slime? Not enough slugs on hand?

And be honest with yourself about how long you can go without sleep. Best to get what sleep you can when you can to be ready for the time when you absolutely have to go without for a long time. That is, unless you've learned to control your body to such a degree that a third of it can sleep for eight hours while the rest keeps going.

1/5 Biles 2013/09/07(Sat)16:44 No. 539748 ID: d38f67
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>Food
5 hours left to feed everyone.

>Weapons
Taser, machine guns for the hunters, pistol for Moi and I.

>Armor
We have one set that fits one of us, Moi's bioarmor that she never takes off, and the rest of us are down to our skivvies.

Moi's been out for several hours.
"Take a rest, Moi. How'd you pick up the trail of Polo's?
>"Well, I saw salikai forces heading downward to where we thought Polo was or so, so I followed them."

>Hunter Bug control
They are mostly aware of what is happening. But they will deny and avoid any talk, thoughts or actions to remove the bugs, as usual. An addition was also made that down deep, they're to assist the salikai. The bugs can't hardwire them permanently, though, so removing the bugs seems to have changed that. Nonetheless, it's been another reason why I haven't gotten any sleep. I can't trust any of them. In the end, the bugs were subtle enough to avoid detection that their empathy was wrong, while garrisoned up above. They often kept to themselves, anyway. Too much. Can't say I like the hunter hive on a personal level. They're the sort that like their knives and guns a little too much. But, people who are on my side is about as good as I can ask for. Plus, given the proximity of shit to the fan, I don't want to get too attached to any of these guys.

2/5 Biles 2013/09/07(Sat)16:44 No. 539749 ID: d38f67
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>Aliens under the salikai
Hummer is next hunter recruit we got after our doorguard, Nomi. Managed to salvage his armor, unlike the others, who were out of their armor, giving us an easier time to subdue them. He says that all aliens that are in the hunter hive are still only in the hive as allies, but not, in spirit, part of the hive itself. It was easy to keep 'em out of the loop until it was too late, and they got jumped by the neumono hunters. They've all bee been captured or killed. Survivors are in the salikai labs now, undergoing shit knows what. Over the years, though, the salikai got a few aliens already. A few Pomi, several mikliks, even a couple belenosians. Those are forces directly under the salikai.

3/5 Biles 2013/09/07(Sat)16:44 No. 539750 ID: d38f67
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Most of us are fresh enough to move, save for Moi, and our most recent hunter. Yes, I am confident in my own awareness. I have gone for weeks without sleep before.

>Every hunter Polo kills or you save is a huge loss to there fighting forces. Also regardless of how much they have infiltrated command the fact that Polo has not reported back yet will be noticed soon if not already.
Winsli, with the bluntest face I've ever seen, came after Hummer. Doesn't ever change that expression of his, not even when he talks. He's a higher up, not too far from the Queen herself, not like that matters too much right now. The hunter's were one of the salikai's evasion cards, to be pulled when they were on the verge of discovery. On the record, the hunters are assisting Katzati and her crew in mapping these caves with haste.

The Salikai have themselves a CAI. With it, they're able to falsify reports with perfectly mimicked voices, tones, inflections, make witty banter, whatever it takes to make things sound natural and that things are proceeding smoothly with no sign of salikai presence.

He doesn't know how many cards the Salikai have that are like the Hunter's complete compromisation. I doubt many. It only takes so long for an elite maneuvering and survival hive to map a cave, even as huge as our caves get. Eventually Polo's or Katzati's hive will want to speak with them, and make a casual visit. Eventually command will want to come down personally to investigate or relieve the hunters. It's known that the salikai have a CAI and that their reports can be falsified. Eventually someone with a brain is going to be suspect of incoming data. We don't know, but the salikai have only so many cards, and they're going to have to burn through them fast to buy any time to do whatever they're doing. But when command comes down, we'll know. Our bureaucracy is one of the most lax and often incompetent things run by a galactic force, but when there's action, it's not light.

4/5 Biles 2013/09/07(Sat)16:58 No. 539755 ID: d38f67
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>Why isn't Greenie behind you camo'd up with glowslug slime?
Not many slugs, and she doesn't leave anyway. At least not until now, and so she's going to cover her face and feet, at the least.

"Pack your bags, we're moving. Caves like these get better meals down below."
>"How much more'f us you planning on getting before we can just push our way out?" Rokko asks. She's our second to last person, just recently recovered from the bug removal. Probably still has some sensitive spots on her, but she can move well.
"More. The salikai know if any of us make it out, it's done, and have fortified the exits to match."

5/5 Biles 2013/09/07(Sat)16:58 No. 539756 ID: d38f67
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I move over to what is most likely our most valuable person at the moment, by sheer merit of information. Her name is Orilo, which in the hunter's old language, means Queen's daughter. Probably also going to be my least favorite person, if she's that reminiscient of her hive. No one but the queen would have more information on the salikai that the hunters would know. Hummer says she's been in the salikai base itself, and got lucky to come across her. Found her bleeding out, armorless with more of her bruised than not. Hummer hauled her back, took the bugs out, and she hasn't woken up yet. Don't know what beat her. Wasn't wildlife, least not indigenous wildlife, I can say that much.

I was hoping to wait just a little longer to get her to wake up before we move out, having to carry her unforgiveably bright green fur. The slugs are going to need to exert themselves more before we get to water.

Sounds like Polo blew her ass up. Hopefully she can provide some good Intel once she wakes up but for now she is going to be a pain to hide and move.

Whatever the Salikai are working on is probably something desperate. The more we push them crazier there plans seem to get. Their main objectives are revenge and escaping or staying hidden at this point. If they figure they have no chance of escape then they might be unstable enough to do something ridiculous on the revenge scale.

Who knows if they have WMD's or not but with what we have seen they could at least take out the caves and kill everyone around here.

So food and supplies are first on our list. Maybe we can use the confusion Polo has caused to our advantage.

>Weapon count
You forgot Moi's plasma blade, unless she's lost that or used up the battery. Useful thing to come out of nowhere in a fight, assuming Polo's instruction is enough to get her to do so, right.

...you should also have a generator or batteries or whatever you were using for previous ECT bug removal treatments.

>I have gone for weeks without sleep before.
Huh. New biological factiod: neumono just don't shut down and die with sufficient sleep deprivation, like some other species.

I assume however the strain of forcing yourself to stay awake and the willpower required only gets worse the longer you stay up. And that staying up that long takes some training up to. And that even with training, there are going to be eventual impacts on performance.

>The salikai know if any of us make it out, it's done, and have fortified the exits to match.
Also, the hunter's air force is out there, sitting around with nothing to do while the others search the caves. Even if you break you, you'd be mowed down before you get out of the valley, and outside the range of the communication jamming / interference.

If Polo doesn't pull off her plan of blowing the salikai communications (no more radio for them, or relaying orders to bugs) that might be something you'd have to consider yourself. You don't have innate silence or her training, but you do at least have yourself and someone in a stealth suit.

>Orilo, heavy bruising, armorless
...that would have been consistent with the hunter Viln beat up at Polo's last hiding spot. Except we were desperate for food and took the hunter's ears. So something else was responsible.

>moving out
Your equipment pretty much sets the marching order. You and the hunters with a jammer, Moi on point, cloaked. That way if she comes across an enemy patrol or a camera around a blind corner, she can double back and warn the rest of you before you stumble across it.

Which sort of means we should stall until she's ready, at least.

>>539756
I think Orilo may be a trap.

There could be a tracking microchip in her, hell ANY of these neumono. Something deep, something that's not a bug or moving at all, just broadcasting a signal.

>>539776
Potentially, but unlikely.

For one thing, a potential tracker would have to be transparent to x-ray, since that's what Biles was using to locate the bugs. It would also have to shielded to endure the electric shock he used in the extraction process. And it would have to be small enough that Biles wouldn't accidentally come across iy while preforming surgery all across the patient's body to remove all the bugs.

There's also the time constraint. I got the impression she's been her at least a few hours. (The cuts from her debugging have healed over). If she was tracked, you'd think we would have been attacked by now.

>>539776
A microchip tracker would need to somehow communicate through meters of solid rock. The only EMR that can pass through rock is in the extremely low frequency spectrum!

To emit that kind of EMR you need to have 1000-2000 kilometers of contiguous wire to broadcast at 1/4 wavelength!

What weaknesses do the salikai have, that's the thing.

The biggest I can come up with is how little they can trust their underlings - and they know it, hence the bugs. Trouble is, the more nervous they get, the more trigger-happy they'll get, probably with those clone darts. If you were able to capture and release a Rokoa, or kill her and just make it look like she get free, the salikai would be less willing to kill the science hivers, and thereby, the science hivers more willing to help you. Maybe even get some more like Moi. I don't know if you trust them any more than the hunters, but at least the two groups would be watching each other. Same would go for the Rokoa, if you did catch instead of kill. The salikai also seem to like keeping a bunch of monsters around, so maybe conspiring to let them out of their cages when they're not supposed to will help sow some disorder. Even bugged minions seem capable of fighting each other, to some degree, so maybe you could also mix something up with the hunter hive, rokoas and pet tribals.

Next weakness is their pet predator. I think they only have one that's trained: if it's taken out, the effectiveness and loyalty of their bugged minions drops considerably. That's probably not a job for your guys, however. Moi maybe could do it, but I don't think she's got the stomach to solo a mission like that. Polo would be better, but she's not here. It'd be nice if you could put the two of them together. Wishful thinking, though.

The fact that the salikai's aliens are individuals may be an opportunity. If you captured one, you might be able to interrogate them, though the salikai probably keep information strictly rationed. That's another weakness; if their communications go down, their left hand won't know what the right is doing. Not too likely, though.

The CAI itself is another point of interest. Where does it keep itself? It's probably well-guarded, but old-fashioned cutting wires might lower its effectiveness. AI still need bandwidth. Or you could disrupt whatever method the salikai use to keep it under control, maybe.

Oh hey. I just realized what team nekkid's biggest vulnerability is.

We have zero gas masks in this group. If the salikai even figure out your approximate location, you're going to be in big trouble when they flood the caves around you with hallucinogens.

We can only hope their last two gas attacks against Polo's group used up most of their reserves.

It seems strange that Polo's salikai set all this up themselves. Salikai have to have relatives and such, right? And get their offspring from somewhere. Has anyone in your crew come across any indications that this lot are getting help?

Moi's gonna have to be on-point to scout for this relocation, so you'll have to wait a bit for her legs to recover. She may also need to eat, drink, and "take care of business" before she leaves which for her is involved, painful and takes awhile for the suit to repair itself.

Group's low on glowslug slime, so the best way to handle Orilo is to cover as much of her in that blue blanket as possible, tie it down so it doesn't shift, and slime-coat her wherever it doesn't cover. I assume there's not enough water on hand to spare to rehydrate the glowslugs, right?

Dunno what to think about how Orilo got into the state she was in when Hummer found her. Did Hummer note the shape of the injuries she was bleeding from when he found her? Like, were they slashes and cuts, punctures and gouges, tears, bullet wounds, or something else?

>Gas
That'll be a problem if it's encountered before Orilo wakes up. Everyone but her could hold their breath for a half-hour at least, but if she gets a lungful or two she'll wake up trippin' balls, possibly at a very bad time. Everyone will have to be ready to quickly plug her nostrils and mouth in that case.

>WMDs?
That brings up a thought: When the ultrahive swooped in after Polo did her work on the warhive's mothership, did they make absolutely sure to account for all of the warhive's nukes? They visually inspected that all the warheads had their payloads and checked not just against the ship's manifest (which could have been falsified by the CAI,) but by what the warhive remembered? 'Cause if they didn't I'm thinkin' that the salikai may just have taken advantage of the situation back then to swipe some nukes. Definitely not enough to wipe out the neumono on this planet, but one for a base self-destruct, and maybe more to hide in the middle of the largest ultrahives as a final "fuck you" move if they lose.

>>539801
What if the salikai thought around something like that, maybe there's all sorts of wire running along the ground disguised as something? Painted as rock or a minor groove? And each section of wire has a personal tiny radio receiver to catch that low frequency whatever you talked about ping that the microtracker would send out?

And for the fact that it would show up on x-ray, has anyone perhaps thought of advancing technology where one can replicate the uses of a mechanical device through a living organism? Imagine if someone engineered a micro-transceiver amoeba! No one would suspect that because it sounds impossible, but if a bird can replicate gunshots and the fact that the human body is an organic machine with electrical signals and all, than a radio-bug amoeba might not be that far fetched, it just needs the microchip circuits inside its membrane to create a ping(the circuits will also be an organic component) and a medium to broadcast, perhaps some form of natural amoebic antenna.

>higher up, not like that matters too much right now.
Well, actually, it may matter in the sense that his hivemates will defer to his judgement. He matters from a getting them to do what you want, or not, perspective. It'll probably be the same thing, only worse, when the princess there wakes up.

>nukes
To our knowledge, none of the salikai forces made it back off the warship. And considering the circumstances of the multiple and repeated threats of spraying nukes in every direction, checking that all warheads were accounted for seems like something even the semi-incompetent ultrahives would get right.

Especially as it would have been Polo's ultrahive, the Neumono Tree, doing that mop up. They haven't been shown to be as incompetent as the Neumono Coalition.

...not that the salikai couldn't have a last ditch nuclear option or WMD from another source. From shady offworld weapons dealers. Or commandeered from the hunters. Or they just built one.

>Polo's salikai
If you feel the need to be exact and differentiate the salikai we're fighting from the salikai species as a whole, their family name is Su'ata.

1/2 Biles 2013/09/10(Tue)20:36 No. 540194 ID: d38f67
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>Sounds like Polo blew her ass up.
Doubtful, unless Polo turned to take a liking of blunt weaponry. Guns didn't do this.

>Has anyone in your crew come across any indications that the Salikai are getting help?
Outside bug infestations, more tech than what I can believe a single hive could come up with, the munitions that they've got... yeah. Plenty. The implications are nasty that either there are more salikai out there that have the means to help these ones, or that someone up there would help the salikai down here.

>I assume however the strain of forcing yourself to stay awake and the willpower required only gets worse the longer you stay up.And that staying up that long takes some training up to. And that even with training, there are going to be eventual impacts on performance.
Correct. I was up for weeks once, but I certainly wasn't functional by any standards. I don't plan on doing that again.

>The hunter's air force is out there
That's actually not the biggest concern of mine. Course they'd use extrasensory equipment to catch me, but if we were able to break out, Moi could bypass all that. Chances of her messing up when she's got the wide open wilderness and no more than a couple hundred hunters out their to watch it are pretty comforting.

"Hey, Orilo." I pinch her cheeks. "Orilo." I slap them some.
>"Gf... "
"Rise and shine." Slaps usually don't work, but those occasional successes justify the ruffled fur.

2/2 Biles 2013/09/10(Tue)20:36 No. 540195 ID: d38f67
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>"Shit?!" She leaps up and tries to grab her gun, hits bare hip instead and falls back down. Not surprising, had to dig into her calf some. "Who the fuck're you?"
"Nomi, come down here a second."
>"... a friend, then? Wait...?"
"Yeah, your bugs are gone. And we've got to get moving. Use the blanket to cover yourself, you're out of your element."
>"Tell me what's going on."
"Salikai are hunting us. Good enough to get you moving?"
>"Fine, if you answer my questions."
"First, what's the last thing you remember? You were in bad shape when we found you."
>"... I got in a fight."
"Go on."
>"Arkots, alright? And before you say anything, you haven't had fucking bugs in you."

I'd like information as soon as possible, but I also want to move as soon as possible, and can't have nice chats while moving out there. Already know where I plan on going, we scouted possible escape routes, but I've got to prioritize how much time I'm going to spend. Moi could use some rest, but the sooner we leave, the slower we can afford to move. A quick breather can get her walking.

>>540195
You have had bugs in you, though. Everyone here but Moi has. So you understand she couldn't defend herself.

Ask her if she knows anything about who the Salikai are getting help from, and what other tricks they haven't pulled on you yet. If we could sabotage their supply lines it would go a long way towards winning this war. Additionally, forewarned is forearmed.

>time
Give Moi a few minutes to catch her breath while we exchange information with Orilo, and she figures out something to wear. Leaving soon and going slow sounds like a good approach.

>You haven't had fucking bugs in you
I have, actually. Everyone here has. That's neither here nor there, though.

>questions
Play the old game, where you take turns asking and answering. Get the most important information out first.

Like what the heck happened to get those arkots to turn on her, or when they started packing a punch big enough to matter.

She's also been inside the salikai base. She may have seen and know more about what the salikai actually have planned or waiting in reserve than anyone else in a position to say.

...I expect she'll ask about her mother. You can be honest about that if she does, you know from Polo. Last you heard she was alive, although beaten up after a fight with one of those Rokoa clones. Polo put the clone down soon after, if that makes you feel any better.

>Polo
...actually, I kind of wonder how the hunters feel about her. On the one hand, they're free now, and they have to have what the salikai did to them. And she's fighting the salikai, and doing well. (Well, as well as anyone could, in the circumstances).

But then again, she's also been kicking the hunters' asses at their own game. They hunt. It's what they do. You said yourself what kind of personality and mindset they have- I'm not sure they'd take being bested consistently. I mean, maybe there's respect there, but I could also see anger and resentment. Potentially a thorny issue.

>Moi bypassing the airforce
Oh. Good point. Moi changes the equation. You don't actually need to punch out and keep going- you just need to break open an exit she can get through. They'll never catch her out in the open. So long as she has a radio and enough food and water to clear the CAI's jamming and indirection, they can't stop her from getting the word out.

Problem is, of course, right now the exits are guarded closely enough she can't sneak through safely, even invisible. And your group isn't packing nearly enough heat to break through a guarded exit- a couple of machine guns and pistols aren't enough.

>might be someone up there would help the salikai down here
...there's always someone who stands to profit from a war. It's good business, especially if you're selling from a nice, safe, off world distance.

>>540195
Stop leering it's rude
Make it clear no one leads our little ragtag group. So, she's going to have to drop the Queen Daughter act and fight like a pure guerilla soldier... if she's unfamiliar with that. We're not going to make assumptions about you as long as you assume either, like about the bugs.

>>540194
Wouldn't Moi show up on thermal scans?

Make your questions carefully. The first thing you should look for in her, before anything else, is whether there are any holes in her memory. Remember Polo's information: predators can leave limited subliminal commands even without bugs, and/or alter memories (you have told everyone about that, as well, right?). If you had time, I'd get her to tell you everything she did the last few days, in sequence, to see if there are any seams in her recollection. If there's no time for that and you can't do it while you're moving, then alright, but keep it in mind. Don't absolutely depend on her information, and follow any information she does give by asking where and when and how she learned it. Cross-reference with other hunters if possible.

Tell her about your bugs while she gets dressed and say she can ask her questions on the go.

Dang getting beaten up by arkots must have sucked. Wonder what caused that to happen. Lots of tiny guys with sticks wailing on you for hours.

She might be really embarrassed about the arkot's thing so promise not to tell anyone about it. Everyone has had some horrible things happen to them lately.

>dat leer.

You thinking about tapping that avocado Biles?

Anyway ask about possible places we can raid supplies from so we can get our imminent needs taken care of.

>drop the Queen Daughter act
...to be fair, she hasn't actually put it on yet. Demanding answers in an unknown situation is what most anyone would do.

>Wouldn't Moi show up on thermal scans?
I don't think so. That's a weakness of the stealth suits the hunters are wearing. Moi ran off with the next gen prototype- it was transparent under every mode Polo has to check with.

>leering
C'mon, that's not what he's doing! He would have gotten all the eyeful he'd wanted during the bug removal if that's what he wanted.

...besides, who needs grumpy knife happy hunters when you've got Moi running around in that skin-tight fetish suit. :V

Tell her your name and that you actually do know what it's like to be infested with mind-bugs. You experienced it right up to the point you removed them. Not enough time to share the whole story, but you will say it involved luck, hypothermia, and willing your hearts to stop.

Ask why and from where her bugs got the order to hold her still while the arkots beat her. Was it punishment for her actions, just for the arkots' fun, or something else?

Ask what state her queen is in and how well she's holding up. You know she got her shit kicked in by that Rokoa clone so she'd be recovering from that, but she's got extra bugs so her mind may be breaking by now. You'd consider capturing and debugging her, but it's really unlikely she's anywhere where you possibly could grab her.

Does she know how many Rokoas are active, what their capabilities or roles are, and where they're stationed or what objectives they're pursuing?

She's been inside the salikai's base, so get her a piece of paper and a pen so she can draw a map of the parts she was in and ask what she saw and how much activity was going on in there.

Ask if she has any idea what overarching plan the salikai are working towards now, or if they even have one. They know that after the hunter hive was called in that they didn't have much time left before the world comes down on their heads, so if they have a plan they can enact before then they must be pushing hard to get it done ASAP.

>Moi's getaway
Don't be so confident in Moi making it if she gets into the wilderness. She's no hunter or survivalist and she won't be able to take food or water, so that's against her. And she won't be able to carry a powerful radio so even after getting outside the radio jamming field she's gonna have to trek all the way to a settlement to get the word out. And since the voklit reservation is in the middle of nowhere that's gonna be a long way on foot.

>>540229
>>540231

Come on, guys, I'm sure Biles isn't an indiscriminate tail chaser. Not to say he won't sample the feast that sits in front of him, certainly, but he's a man who likes a challenge! To venture where lesser hearts dread, to endure the longer climb for the greater satisfaction. And what could be more the achievement in intimacy than the lady who can hide her feelings whenever she likes? To discover the treasure at the heart of a true mystery? Oh, the seaside salt fruit may be smaller, the skin firm, but how sweeter could be the sounds when the silence is broken, am I right Biles? Nudge-wink? Eh? Biles? By the way I hope you've remembered to keep everyone constantly watching each other and not leaving anyone to even a single moment alone, Biles, especially when you're rubbing sticky goo over each other's athletic half-naked bodies.

1/3 Biles 2013/09/15(Sun)10:53 No. 540663 ID: 4ef19e
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"Hey. I won't make assumptions about you, if you don't about me. I've had bugs. And if I guess right, you didn't have to fight against the arkots as much as you had to fight the bugs, right?"
>"Yeah. Fucking stupid ass salikai, they train the arkots from birth to hate neumono, and act indignant when the little fuckers try and kick us around knowing that our bugs won't let us attack other salikai forces. That shit happens now and then, like they think it makes them stronger than us."
"Do you know what the salikai are planning?"
>"Know what I think? I have a feeling they know they're screwed 7 ways to next week, so they're just getting what they can, and are gonna do as much harm as they can. Just plain, stupid, genocidal revenge."
"But you don't know that?"
>"They don't even let their science pets know much."
"Do you know how many Rokoa's are active?" I add what I know through Polo.
>"Yeah, 14. No, Polo got one, 13. Most are in the base, either being put to science or recovering from being processed for an injection. Probably only a few that actually have their brain lined up right. Crazy fuckers, the lot of them."
"So I've heard. Know any places where we can get supplies?"
>"Yeah, but not when you're dressed like that. You look like you came out of the wrong end of a sewer. They protect their shit pretty well."
"Don't suppose you know where your queen is, or how she's doing?"
>"All I know is that she's been taken back to the salikai base for what better be rest and recuperation. That Rokoa better be happy that Polo got to her before I did. The things I'd do..."
"Please, spare me."
>"I'm going to ask a few more questions, as well as following your train of thought. I know what predators can do, so I hope you understand."

2/3 Biles 2013/09/15(Sun)10:55 No. 540664 ID: 4ef19e
File 137926770908.png - (150.91KB , 700x700 , 588.png )

>Leering
We're going to have problems if idle glances makes anyone bashful, because when I start running her through questions, I'm going to want to feel her empathy.

Upon doing so, we rub each other the wrong way almost immediately. Just innocent personality mismatches, but the sooner I get my hands off her, the better. I run her through the chain of her events that she's aware of, while I have her draw a map of the salikai base. Most of the information she gave me, she gives plausible explanations for.

There is a gap, however, of about 12 hours that she thinks she spent with a few other hivemates of hers, that she can't recall well at all. She's concerned about that, as am I, but there isn't a whole lot I can do about that. Ends up making her cagey about some of her other info, since it could be wrong or misleading.

3/3 Biles 2013/09/15(Sun)10:55 No. 540665 ID: 4ef19e
File 137926772862.png - (25.20KB , 700x700 , 589.png )

We move out. Our trip is smooth as butter. Moi keeps an eye ahead while I direct us to our next spot. Deeper in, but nice branches and escape routes, with a thin tunnel leading to our hole. Wouldn't be able to do this if we had any big guys or girls with us. Takes us 2 hours.

>By the way I hope you've remembered to keep everyone constantly watching each other and not leaving anyone to even a single moment alone
Not a whole lot of room for privacy anyway, but a buddy system will be good.

"So what do you guys think of Polo? She's been getting around from what I gather."
>"Most of us hear of her while some salikai scream at us to go get her, thinking we're incompetent. Course we are when we're bugged. We get forgetful, careless and do shitty jobs, cause deep down we don't want to do it." Rokko just keeps looking into space while she talks. "Not like the salikai will toss us out even if we purposefully do a shitty job. We're still better than the arkots."

>And what could be more the achievement in intimacy than the lady who can hide her feelings whenever she likes?
Challenge can make the reward more rewarding, but then there's unearthing a mountain for a dime underneath. Might be a special dime when your hands pick it up, but it's still a dime. Now, Polo's got determination and focus that I can admire, and she's a life's fortune to someone out there I'm sure, but me? I like my company an open book. Now, I've gotta think of more pressing matters than my dick.

3 hours left to feed everyone before our stomachs start rumbling. Food's around us again, but things around here are good at hiding.
Glowslugs are about a 15 minute walk. Moi's reported that most open rivers are crawling with arkots.
Once we get some good food here, we'll want more hunters. And more information, but Orilo can still be drilled for more while we settle in.

>13 Rokoas
Holy fuck. Here's hoping most of them continue to eschew heavy body armor, or we're kind of fucked.

(Here's hoping that count also includes the one nailed to to ground being being extracted for darts).

>>540664
...sorry, but that's a downright creepy looking hug. Yeah, it's kind of apparent you two don't rub each other right.

>memory gap
Yeah, well let's not forget you had one of those two, back when you and Rokann were first hit. Hopefully nothing, but even if Four Stripes did hide anything in anyone, it's not like we can do anything about it now.

>what do
Food first, I think. Then we can see about getting glowslugs and looking for more hunters to free (convenient if hunters happen to be guarding the river, I suppose. Two for one shopping).

Jammer restrictions mean either the whole group is going hunting, or Moi has to go with the hunting group, with her jammer range turned up to cover you.

>buddy system

If you have the right numbers and think it won't make things too cumbersome, I'd go for a triple buddy system. That way, if any one person is a sleeper agent or whatever, the other two will be able to subdue them. You have six people right now, and better, two who aren't from the same hive as the other four. So if you and Moi each go with two hunters, and something happens to the jammer, neither group can easily be totally controlled if they run into a predator relay.

Be careful with her. Just because she was beaten half to death by arkots does not mean they did it just out of spite. They could have filled her full of subliminal commands and then had her beaten up in a area they have noticed people disappearing in.

Probably is what it looked like but you never know when they might get a clever idea for trapping you.

Buddy up groups for hunting and make sure everyone is watching for anything out of place. Also if the river entrances are crawling with arkots maybe we can pick a few off unnoticed as they move back and forth. No idea if they taste good but food is food.

What's that thing just right of center on the last panel? Looks kind of odd for a rock formation.

Have you thought about getting help from the natives? It would be risky since they might just sell you out to the Salikai. But if we could convince some Voklits to help us we wouldn't need to worry about food, and they might be able to spy on the Salikai forces for us.

Also i had this insane idea of redirecting the river to drown the Salikai base, but it would definitely require help from the Voklits and the theft of some mining equipment and explosives.

>>540752

If anyone's going to try get help from the voklit, it would be Polo's group. They have a voklit already, and the guy who's trained to talk to them, and Polo's been learning a bit of their language. Biles' group has absolutely zero qualifications. In fact, the hunters are probably representative of exactly what the voklit don't like, being a hive of technomilitary types. The invisible science nerd doesn't add much, either.

1/2 Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)11:02 No. 541143 ID: d38f67
File 137961372541.png - (43.40KB , 700x700 , 590.png )

>Have you thought about getting help from the natives?
I have, and concluded that my room for trust is already spread thin. Trying that venue might earn me more enemies just as soon as anything.

>Triple buddy system
Three can be a bit much, but it has merit.

Moi, Nomi and Hummer will be in one group. I, Winsli and Rokko will go in another direction.

"Remember. I'd rather see you come back empty handed and undiscovered than come back with a voklit corpse and the salikai on your tails. Don't be seen. Something wrong, Moi?"
>"Oh, no, my bio armor is just itchy is all. It's fine."

2/2 Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)11:03 No. 541145 ID: d38f67
File 137961378822.png - (62.02KB , 700x700 , 591.png )

Can't do much about that, so we say our parting words, which are none, and move out far enough from our base to hunt. Saw one arkot on the way, so we turned around to another path. And that was it.

Doesn't take too long to single out a skitter, and find one of those cave insects. They're one of the higher cases of extreme disparity between having nutritious meat that is absolutely disgusting. We're not on a cruiseline, though, so I start tailing it. It's going somewhere, and I think I know why. I smell one of its favorite preys not too far ahead.

> help from the natives?
I'd agree with your assessment. It's a big risk, and you don't have the tools to properly attempt it. Polo's group has the translator, and the two voklit she managed to befriend. Maybe they can pull it off.

>bio armor, itchy
Hmm. Check in with her later, see if that's persisted or gotten any worse. She's been okay so far, but I wonder if there are long term effects being bound to too strong a bioarmor. Maybe it's nothing, but it's not going to be good if the suit starts killing her, or if it stops being able to provide stealth.

>2 hunting groups
Wait, doesn't that leave Orlio back at camp without a jammer?

>hunting bug
Wouldn't the easiest approach be to hit it after it attacks it's prey? Whichever animal survives will be tired and weak, and you'll bag twice the meat for half the effort.

Unless it's attacking a salikai patrol. But if they're close enough to smell, gunning down the bug before it reached them would just alert the enemy with gunfire.

Why not just kill the bug now and then if its prey is edible track it yourself?
This way there is no risk of losing the insects along the way and coming back empty handed.

1/2 Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)14:33 No. 541175 ID: d38f67
File 137962638459.png - (13.77KB , 700x700 , 592.png )

>Lack of jammer at base?
Moi has a small one she keeps on her. We have 2 besides that, one of which is at base with Orilo.

It isn't a smart bug. When I follow it for a moment, the smell of its prey shouldn't be so strong. The chances of it being lured are high, and shooting the bug now may alert a nearby salikai hunting patrol. Or native voklit.

I keep following. There's the bait, and the insect gradually gets closer.

2/2 Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)14:33 No. 541176 ID: d38f67
File 137962641226.png - (15.91KB , 700x700 , 593.png )

Voklit smashes it through its plates like nothin'.

Rokko communicates that she's going to hand the jammer to Winsli, go in to see if he's salikai or native, and if the latter, going to shoot it. I did choose the phrase 'voklit corpse' for a reason.

...uh, I don't like that plan. We've seen 'native' voklit cooperating with salikai forces before. If we happen to see this one carrying a spear instead of a gun, that doesn't mean his absence won't be noticed.

And native voklit don't tend to hunt alone. They hunt in groups. If that's a native, there's at least one other nearby, and they'll come running at the sound of an attack.

(That and if he's really not a member of the enemy forces, the voklit don't need more reason to hate us. Not that the Hunters will care about that as much).

A Volkit having a spear does not mean its not part of the Salikai forces. Also there could be several of them hunting together. So unless you have a silenced weapon and can drag the corpse off very quickly without leaving a blood trail be prepared for more of them.

The food is worth the risk but make sure you are able to deal with more Volkit and possibly more of those bugs if need be.

Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)15:29 No. 541190 ID: d38f67
File 137962976095.png - (51.36KB , 700x700 , 594.png )

I motion back that voklits don't always hunt alone, and it may still be salikai, even if it's unarmed.

Rokko retorts that we just follow to find out then. She thinks it's alone, and has a suppressor in her weapon.

Winsli, to little surprise of mine, is backing her up on that.

(...oh boy, cave sneaking part II, with a full party of Marras).

I still don't think it's the right move tactically, or that we're hard up enough for food that we should be murdering one of the few voklit who didn't side against us for food.

...if you see any signs there's more voklit, we could follow just to prove you right. Otherwise, unless you feel getting them to stand down costs you too much face, I wouldn't.

Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)16:56 No. 541222 ID: d38f67
File 137963501640.png - (16.35KB , 700x700 , 595.png )

I repeat, no. They damn well look ready to ignore me and do it anyway, but they relent.

>"You better hope we find something soon, then. Don't think you rescuing us from the bugs means that we're going to be complacent to you instead of the salikai."
"I haven't implied anything of the sort."
>"Good. We'd better get something. We don't like running on empty."
"That voklit's moving to us, actually. Not a damn weapon or armor. Or clothes. We'd better move if we're gonna dance around every voklit." Winsly ducks back behind cover. "It's your ear on the table if we go back empty handed."
Rokko turns to sign language. "And the rest of you, if a rumbling stomach blows our cover. Now shut up." She directs the last part of that to Winsli.

These damn guys are getting even harder to work with.

What's a native voklit with *no camo* doing in the caves? This isn't right. Cave voklits are always purple. It's very unlikely to be a salikai trap, though.

I'd prefer to just kill the voklit, but I doubt I'd get any support on that front and you'd look bad for doing a 180. How about an alternative to killing it? Force the voklit to give you the food.

>your ears, find food
Biles cuts off his own ears recreationally. And if there's one thing he knows, it's finding food in the wilderness. This biomme ain't even that bad.

...and I know you guys are antsy to get some food, and start taking independent action action, but caution is the only way we survive.

>Force the voklit to give you the food.
That's the same as killing it, only with stalling and shouting beforehand.

>no cammo, no clothes
Actually, yes, that is odd. And kind of suspicious. The only other voklit we've seen in the caves without any was the group that attacked Polo on the railroads.

If it is a spear voklit, then either a) it's not associated with the salikai and we don't want to hurt them, b) it is with them but is only a drop in the bucket of their forces and taking it out is less beneficial than pays the risk of raising an alarm. And if it's a gun voklit, tackling it would be slightly more valuable but also a good bit riskier. The hunters, I think, are looking for some way to get some vengeance and may err on the side of doing so when presented with choices. Perhaps you can express your concern about this to them at some point, using less potentially offensive language. Some sort of metaphor about snipers only going for the highest value targets.

Tag on with this, perhaps, a little explanation of you being more the expert in this situation. They are hunters, but in hunting... well, let's say that as a hunter you strive to be a predator while also avoiding being prey, while as a survivor you strive to avoid being prey while also being a predator. The difference in emphasis, and its relationship to your current situation, means you should be the leader if a leader there has to be. But this would also be a tricky subject to broach and it would be nice if you could get a sense of their empathy when you tried to explain it.

All this when you have a moment, of course. For now, the prime concern is that this voklit is not behaving how a hunting voklit should. If it's coming towards you, can you hide somewhere where you can observe it as it comes past?

Volkit might still be on the menu but we need to make sure this meal does not get us all killed.

Also a single Volkit without camo is a curious sight. Better to get a bit of info first before we go in blind. Not sure if following it home is possible but might lead us to more resources.

No idea if we can or want to try to make friends but if we kill first and ask questions later it takes that choice off the table.

Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)18:29 No. 541261 ID: d38f67
File 137964057683.png - (28.45KB , 900x700 , 596.png )

I communicate, fast as I can in the circumstances, we're just as likely hunted as we are hunters. They're not used to this sort of thing. They don't respond, but I can sense some hostility, empathy or no.

We'll hide, I say to them, and see what's up with a no-camo nudist voklit running around punching bugs.

Some rocks allow it. Looks as naked as winsli said, and it sounds like he's walking straight ahead, and will pass us.

Looks like he is possibly injured on one side. Might be in the same position we are. Wounded and surrounded by enemies and looking for food.

If he is alone and hunting down here do we even have the option of trying to work with him? Do any of us know any volkit? Having a native or ex salikai trooper on our side might be worth more than just eating him.

Try following him for a bit. Will get a better idea of what he is up to and he might lead us to his lair if he has one.

>>541261
It looks like a mutant of some sort. That face isn't normal, is it? Almost like a Voklit/Miklik... It also seems wounded. Also, its hair is much longer than most Voklits keep theirs. If it's a mutant, the nakedness and long hair is because he was not allowed clothing or proper grooming in the Salikai's care.

Perhaps we can follow it and observe it to gain more information about where it came from and what it's doing. If it IS an escaped mutant, then it couuuld have information. Does anyone here know their language?

Bug smasher seems to have a pretty big mane. And his non bug smashing arm looks like it might be bloodied? And no cammo and traveling alone both seem odd for voklit.

I don't think we're in a position to try talking to it, or working with it. We don't have anyone who knows how to talk to a voklit, and the hunters are probably more opposed to cooperation than ignoring it. And, honestly, approaching bug smasher is riskier than killing him for food.

I dunno. I don't see good reason to kill him. The decision is to let him go, or waste time investigating further.

Can you hear whether he's dragging the bug behind him? A voklit who was with the salikai or part of some trap would be less likely to try and take it with him. It's still possible, but they'd tell him to drop it, being salikai. Hmm. And you should be able to hear, at this distance, whether there's anyone else with him? This is looking less and less like a trap. Even the salikai wouldn't botch it like this.

This guy intrigues me. First, he's not only camoless, he's not carrying anything at all; no spear, even. This guy clearly has not had any time to prepare to be down here, which indicates to me he is not someone who planned to be here, and that he came here in a hurry. And he wasn't ordered by anyone to be down here, because they'd have given him something that would, at the very least, be better for hitting a bug than a fist is. Second, he doesn't have the defeated look that the tech-using voklit get. And third, most interesting of all, is that he's bleeding. Or he could just have red blood on him, but blood is unlikely to spatter up the inside and under the arm like that, and it looks more like it's trickling down from a wound near the armpit. Given that voklit have such huge arms and upper bodies, then that injury was most likely taken at close range from someone much shorter than him; a reasonably long list, but the only people around here who would hurt a voklit like that are your enemies. And since so many people around here have guns, his opponent must not have hit him from the back or been able to see him coming, since then he'd be much worse off and probably not alive.

So: a guy who had all his possessions taken from him at some point, left wherever he was in a hurry, hasn't had time to find slugs or fashion any weapons or tools, and who had at least one close-range fight with someone who wasn't another voklit on his way here. Perhaps this guy is an escaped prisoner? And it'd have to be from the salikai, if anyone. They have to be doing more to ensure their loyalty than vague threats. Keeping the right individuals hostage could compel obedience. Or this guy could just be a guy who was stubborn about being pushed around.

Follow him. Do not eat him yet.

Tail him to wherever he's heading and see what he's up to and if he's with anybody else. Placate Rokko and Winsli by telling them that it'll most likely be a hidden hole like your group has, so if he could be taken out with little risk of his corpse being found by other than the local wildlife. That'll hopefully keep them from revolting until after you've checked this voklit out.

He appears to be bleeding, either from under his left armpit or from his left arm. Put that together with his total lack of gear, camo, or even clothes and he's most likely either an escaped prisoner or an exile from the rest of voklit society. And either of those in this context very likely indicates he's not with the salikai.

Perhaps if that's true he could be convinced to be an ally. But even if that's not possible you know he won't report to the salikai if he does see your group.

>>541263
>>541265
Just to reiterate, 'cause we apparently didn't pick up on it: There's NOBODY in Biles' group that can speak voklit. Communication would still be possible, but slow and crude, using gestures and drawings.

Biles 2013/09/19(Thu)20:30 No. 541294 ID: d38f67
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Rokko and Winsli get my message that we're following the voklit, because this guy isn't normal.

The guy does walk pretty funny. Then he starts talking.

>"Neumono please to come assist will not harm."

Nevermind the broken grammar, guy sounds raspy.

>>541291
Definitely an escapee. Ask it what assistance it's asking for, and what it can give in exchange.

Well he knows you are there and we are pretty sure he is alone so I would say motion for the other two to watch your back and then step out and talk to him.

Ask what type of assistance he wants and if he is being chased by anyone. Maybe find out where he learned your language to start. After we get a feeling for him we can go from there.

You forgot to take the voklit nose into account. He smelled you, even if he didn't see you.

...give your buddies a "I told you this guy was weird" look.

You might as well try talking to him. The hunters can hang back a moment, and shoot him if there's trouble. And don't get too close. He could just be trying to lure you out like he did the bug.

Speaking English is pretty unusual for a voklit, as is asking neumono for assistance. What's his game?

It's possible the odd movements and scratchy voice indicate an injury. Or... something else is wrong here. Remain cautious, keep your distance.

My paranoia worries if this is a fufa in voklit shape. The odd movements, not quite right shape, and talking like a robot fit Niam's description, and might explain the un-volkit like behavior. Unfortunately, Biles doesn't know those things exist.

>>541299
Er, does he?

Biles, do you know what a fufa is?

>>541302
Niam described them to Polo for the first time after Polo made contact with Biles. If Biles knows about fufas, he'd have to have learned independently, from a different source.

I suppose it's possible Moi or one of the hunters they rescued could have provided the information.

How did he...? Dangit, he smelled you. None of you have washed your scent off in a long while and he walked right through where you were standing. Well, that's something to remember for later when tailing voklits.

He's made you so may as well try talking to the guy, but keep back where you are in case he might try something or if this is a trap.

Motion to Rokko and Winsli to quietly reposition away from you into cover to the side of the voklit, get a line on his head and to hold fire until you say so. Then go to the edge of the rock, aim at him and start talking.

Open by telling him to hold still and only move when and where you say to or he'll be shot in the head, followed by saying he's going to have to answer some of your questions before you'll assist him. Then ask him how he knew you were here to confirm if it was scent or not, where he learned to speak your language, how come he's down here without absolutely anything, including clothes, and why isn't he attacking you. Once he's answered your questions, then ask him what kind of assistance he's asking for.

>Raspy, funny walk, possibly crippled left arm
Sounds like he has bullets or shrapnel lodged in him he can't remove to properly regenerate. It might be something else, but that's what it most likely sounds like at the moment.

>>541299
Highly doubtful. From what we know fufas are not in any way intelligent enough to do what this voklit is doing. And as far as we know they can't shape-shift either. But maybe Biles knows more from the hunters.

Step out by yourself - this guy might have had bad experiences with hunter neumono, and you look least like them - and ask him to turn around before you approach him, if he doesn't do so when he hears you. Don't get near him yet, but ask what he needs so he knows you're not just leaving him hanging.

Biles 2013/09/21(Sat)11:46 No. 541413 ID: d38f67
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Smelled me. Or the hunters? We took measures to take care of that. Voklit smell is keen, but I don't know if it's that keen.

Odd movements, bad voice, and yet some odd clarity in his words despite the voice and broken grammar. I shoot a glance to my hunter acquaintances, saying I told 'em he was weird.

"What is your name?"
>"... do not know name name is assumed unimportant."
"It is important."
>"Name remember please neumono hold names remembered names... Nivin. Zalv. Vern. Quova. Salkalo. Neumono satisfied yes. "
"I'll call you Nivin."
>"Nivin understood name."
"How do you know english?"
>"Neumono voklit belenos organisms knowledge attained please neumono closer see."
".... keep your tail back from me."
>"Tail harmless comply order."

>Do you know what a fufa is?
If an organism is on this planet, there's a good chance I know what it is, at least, if it's worth knowing about. Fufas? Well worth knowing about, despite the rarity. Nothing normally dangerous if you recognize and avoid them, but they're of interest to a good deal of organizations. Figuring out a fufa is an endgame, holy grail type ordeal to theoretical biologists, because what fufa's could do under the right circumstances.

I also know Salikai. Their brains develop oddly, sometimes segments develop too much and reduce capabilities of other segments of their brains. They're regularly intelligent, but lopsidedly so. Despite that, there's a few constants, and one of them is an absolute infatuation, and love of, theoretical thoughts. Fufas were practically made for 'em.

So, the prospect that that's a fufa there, doing an impressive job of looking like a voklit far bigger than they've been known to get... the chances of that are as low as can be, but until that chance is zero, I'm a little uncomfortable. It appears to have normal voklit musculature, as well as a skeleton. It is breathing as well, implying some sort of lung or diaphragm. Still, its mane appears rather thick and solid for hair, and he stands more still than I'd like. Not to mention its unnatural speech.

Whatever the damn thing is, it's creepy, voklit or not.

>robot speech
>lots of names
>knowledge attained from lots of different organisms
...It's totally a fufa. It just as good as gave you a lost of names of people it has absorbed, and told you it learned English by eating other organisms!

>Vern
...holy fuck they fed it Vern's corpse. That means this things knows (part?) of what he knew. The salikai can get intel from our dead. Fuck, I don't have the words to express how bad that is or how disgusted that makes me feel.

>what do
I'm not sure what the hell we can do. You're not carrying any weapons that can stop a fufa. Getting closer is a bad idea. But if that thing can move as fast as a real voklit there's no way in hell you're getting away.

...our only hope might be manipulating it. If part of it remembers being Vern, does it remember Polo? Or you? You did hitch a ride with them, before.

>>541413
Then ask directly what the hell it is. If it IS a fufa... that means we basically can't kill it- you need fire for that. It should know this. Except, it's bleeding? Do fufas bleed? Would its mimicry be so powerful that it can act like it has blood? That it has a skeleton and muscles? It also means that it may want to eat you, to gain more knowledge directly from your brain(s). After all, it said "knowledge attained", not that it was taught. It also seemed to be called by a lot of names, some of which seemed to be non-voklit names. You can attain knowledge by theft... The mimicked injury and biological processes could be to lure you closer. Or... maybe it's not mimicking anything. Can fufas act like parasites and puppet a body? The "hair" could be the fufa. That would explain the odd gait- the body's being puppeted. Did you try an X-ray on him? Or thermal?

Perhaps you can tell it to show you how it eats. I would advise keeping a safe distance for now.

>>541414
>The salikai can get intel from our dead.
Oh my god, what if WE COULD? I won't suggest we be greedy and take risks to get the fufa on our side, but if it were feasible, it would be a great boon.

It's some sort of salikai experiment. Either they have been doing something odd to a volkit like some sort of cybernetic thing or they fed a Fufu enough so it gained sentience.

We need to carefully ask it more questions while staying well out of its reach. Even if its just a very confused volkit.

It does seem like it could be a Fufu that woke up after being fed enough sentient minds and is taking the form of whatever it ate last.

If the salikai did manage to complete there experiment how did it end up here? Could be a valuable ally if we could befriend it. Or a horrible danger if not.

>or they fed a Fufu enough so it gained sentience
We don't know it's sentient. Niam explained them as being programmable- like a crude AI. All it's done so far is answer basic queries and try to get us to come closer- you don't need to be sentient to do that.

If it is self aware, that might mean we can reason with it. If it's not, we might be able to trip it up with it's programming, or it's absorbed knowledge?

Biles 2013/09/21(Sat)18:58 No. 541445 ID: d38f67
File 137981509382.png - (23.40KB , 700x700 , 599.png )

I have to say, I've never tamed a fufa before. But then again, I've never tried. And I may just have to believe that's a fufa, there. Right now it is definitely untamed, so I'll be keeping my distance. Too bad I don't have thermal or x-ray to see if there's funny stuff going on deep.

"Are you a fufa?"
>"........ no neumono no danger evident no fear required to display proper mental function."

Theoretically, again, fufa could mimic blood. But I do not see that blood moving down, so it may not be from the fufa. They could also, I suppose, be puppeting the voklit. Unlikely, but possible while I'm at it. Fuck's sake, it's smart enough to try and deceive us, even if it's not good at it. Fufa's aren't sentient, but if it's able to mimic voklit and neumono brains, it's able to mimic sentience.

Rokko and Winsli are starting to catch up with the whole 'a fufa is there'. Looks like they know what one is, too.

>"Neumono stand voklit come do not move voklit deliver favorable calm hugs will be great hive love for healthy happy neumono psyche."

Much as I'd like to tame a fufa, I'm thinking now might not be the time for that challenge.

>hugs
Well. Hugs have finally become a bad thing. Interesting that it's constantly trying to get you by insisting everything is fine, and trying to get you to approach. It's the same way it hunted the bug, really.

Get the fuck out of there. Don't lead it towards camp, and let's pray that thing can't run like a real voklit.

Small arms aren't going to work against a fufa, unless it is puppeting a voklit. And even then, I don't know if killing the puppet will do anything. It might, I suppose?

>can't tame it
...no, but maybe we can trip it up? One of the names it gave was Vern. That was one of Polo's enslaved guys, right? If it ate him, maybe we can trip it up temporarily with that. Vern had to obey Polo's orders- maybe if you give this thing an order in her name, it'll reflexively comply for a moment, before overriding. Might buy you a moment.

>>541445
I think it might be time to start running. Lead it away from basecamp, try to find a way to lose it in the tunnels.

Oh man now we have possible death hugs to worry about.

It did not just absorb the bug it was hunting. So at least for the moment it is acting like a volkit to some extent.

Its hugs might be safe but I would not bet your life on that assumption. You might be able to make it remember Polo if it did in fact absorb Vern. Might be able to convince it to help you like he helped Polo.

Running might be a good idea but with its advanced senses might be hard to escape from without leading it back to the rest of the group.

Do not start shooting at it. If it is a Fufu then it would be a waste of ammo and might set off whatever defensive instincts it has.

So try to keep it talking while spreading out so it cant grab you all in a big bear hug.

It might not be a fufa. I mean, a fufa would absorb the blood that got on it, right? Its response to the question might just be it not knowing what a fufa is and deciding it doesn't need to worry about not knowing something. And salikai being salikai, it could be some sort of voklit mind control or rapid cloning or brain transplant experiment, or some combination of them all! Could you feed a fufa brains to have it turn into a brain, then stick it in someone? All we know is that it's weird, capable of dealing damage and unpredictable. But not necessarily hostile? Anyway, it's coming for you and that is not so good, because at the very least it is very large and strong and lacking in mental integrity.

It did ask for assistance. Ask it to stop and explain what it wanted help with. While moving away.

in b4 all intelligent neumonoworld lifeforms are actually descended from fufas

>It didn't absorb the bug
Possibly because it was trying to act like a voklit?

Or possibly because the bug isn't smart. Remember what the sniper clone said in ITQ- about why the science hive was afraid of the fufas, and the salikai not having enough smart things to feed to it. A dumb bug won't help it much, but it might be able to improve itself slightly with three neumono.

>it did ask for help
I really think that was a ploy. It offered the bug food. It offered Biles a request for help, assurances that everything is fine and not dangerous, and hive-happy hugs. It seems to hunt or have been trained to hunt with lures and deception, and it understands (sort of) what should be work against neumono. ...distorted through the lens of a very alien perspective that doesn't seem to understand what its doing wrong.

Hey, we found someone with a better rape face than Biles. The fufa's established dominance, societal convention requires we submit and feed ourselves to it.

If it's feasible to lead it back toward the salikai base and have it start causing problems that would be the best option, other than running from it. If we can't we need to find somewhere that it can't fit through and gtfo to there.

Time to run as fast as your legs can carry y'all. You can try shouting stuff over your shoulder to the fufa while on the move to confuse it or make it hesitate, but priority one is staying out of its hug range.

It's bigger than even the biggest voklit, so take advantage of that and take tunnels and routes it can't fit through right now. Even if it can reform itself to fit through it'll take time to get into a form that'll have the same overall huge volume that'll fit. Plus it has a messed up gait in voklit form so that'll slow it down as well, even with its long legs.

Do not head back towards the hideout and do not split up. You'll have to lose the fufa before even considering returning to the hideout, and if one of you falls to it you'll want to be together so the survivors will know it for sure. They'll have to get back to the base and get everyone else out and away before the fufa absorbs the fallen's memories and learns the location of it.

Yell back that none of you want to be absorbed by it. Ask if it remembers how much the other names it took didn't want to be part of it to try and make it hesitate. It said Vern's name so try to invoke the memory of being under Polo's command by telling it that Polo definitely wouldn't want him to attack her allies, making sure to lead with Vern's name to bring those memories to the front.

>>541474
Not an option, no matter how good it sounds. The salikai base is way too far away, there's too many enemy forces and cameras around it and even if we could lead the fufa there presumably the salikai have some manner of control method over it or at least incendiary weapons that could destroy it.

1/3 Biles 2013/09/23(Mon)20:13 No. 541811 ID: d38f67
File 137999241396.png - (44.13KB , 700x700 , 600.png )

A normal Fufa would absorb the blood, but it may be doing a good job of mimicking something that doesn't. We back away while it approaches.

"Vern is in there, right? How about some goodwill for Polo?"
>"Vern irrelevant to outer function."
"What do you need assistance with, anyway?"
>"Neumono proximity needed for hivemate goodtime fun voklit assistance required nourishment physical wellbeing all good everyone forever."

I motion back behind me. This would be a good time to run for it, away from base.

2/3 Biles 2013/09/23(Mon)20:13 No. 541812 ID: d38f67
File 137999242734.png - (25.16KB , 700x700 , 601.png )

>"Neumono no run no run no run do not run run run I starve requirement food nourishment nutrition food require need have must."
"Stand there and I'll walk to you!"
>"NEUMONO RUNNING"

It runs fast as hell. Clumsy, but its lunges are powerful enough to make up for its lack of finesse in this case. We're able to turn corners faster than it can, so we wind through the tougher paths.

>"There!" Winsli says. "I see a hole, follow me!"
"Good eye."

3/3 Biles 2013/09/23(Mon)20:14 No. 541813 ID: d38f67
File 137999244801.png - (23.53KB , 700x700 , 602.png )

>"NEUMONO LOVE REQUIRE LONELY GO AWAY MISS PHYSICAL INTERACTION NEED GOOD FUR CONTACT FOR GOOD PSYCHE HEALTH PHYSICAL HEALTH FUFA PROTIEN FUR CONTACT FOR LOVE FRIEND IMPOSSIBLE LOVE NOT WORK NEUMONO INSUFFICIENT HOLE SIZE"

We're in. It was about a five foot gap through here, just enough for Rokko to move comfortably through at a fast crawl. The fufa keeps shouting nonsense for only a moment. Then it starts belching. It's changing shape, no doubt trying to get in here. I'll assume that this is not a deadend, because we're fucked if it is, and that's not constructive to our getting the hell outta here.

>"We need to wash up." Winsli says. "It's gonna track us with smell until then."
>"Shut up. Did it see us go in here?" Rokko asks. "We might be cool."

This place hardly widens up, but widening at all helps the chances that this isn't just some dead end. If it is a dead end, we're as good as fucked anyway.

Yeah after that little display it seems more like its using what it learned to hunt and is not actually sentient yet. Sort of like a big horrible parrot monster.

Might be cool is far from being cool. If he wants to get devoured by a horrible ooze he can stay behind to do so. The rest of us are going to keep moving until we find a place to wash off before continuing the hunt or heading back to base.

I wonder if it was just scent. Could it be able to sense vibrations in the rock? It did have that big tail dragging on the ground when it was a voklit. And it was able to tell you were running when it couldn't see you.

>>541813
Jeez, for a second there it said that it was impossible for a fufa to receive the empathic contact it wanted. It wants to feel love but cannot. But it probably also wants to eat you so that it can try to mimic a neumono well enough to feel love. Sooo let's keep going.

So... overall, are we better off not having just shot it initially like the hunters wanted? I mean, we'd have been down a bullet, and it would have still charged us. I guess they might not have realized what it was and tried to bring it down for too long instead of running?

>babbling
I can't tell if it's actually lonely and hungry at the same time and mixing the emotions or if it's still just spouting things it thinks are supposed to be appealing to neumono. ...then it gets right to rape talk. Great.

>we might be cool?
If it's not following us, great. Either way though, I don't think doubling back or staying here are great ideas. I mean, if you hear it shape-shift that's likely so it can fit in here after you.

For now, we keep moving. We'll worry about losing the scent trail when we find out this isn't a dead end of death. After all, we can't do anything about that without water, anyways.

"'Might' ain't gonna cut it." Motion for everyone to get moving up the tunnel as quick as they can.

Once you've got some distance from the fufa tell Winsli you agree with him, but you also suspect that the fufa is going by something other than smell. It knew you were behind that rock, and it knew they were fleeing when it shouldn't have been able to see or hear them. It has some kind of short range indirect sense. Might be sonar, seismic, or just really, really good hearing. Heck, it may be some crazy salikai thing for all you know. But it probably isn't going to be as easy as a swim in the river to lose this thing.

Do you know if fufas continually shed spores into the air, and if they do do you know how aggressive they are in growing if inhaled by a neumono? 'Cause right now the next to last thing you three need is having to fight off a fufa infection while on the run.

1/2 Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)11:03 No. 542417 ID: d38f67
File 138039138014.png - (15.51KB , 700x700 , 603.png )

>Do you know if fufas continually shed spores into the air, and if they do do you know how aggressive they are in growing if inhaled by a neumono?
They could, but I doubt it. Fufa's can shapeshift, but they can't control a seperate entity, so they'll have to sacrifice their cells to make some sort of airborne particles. And as far as I know, that's not something they're keen on.

>Could it be able to sense vibrations in the rock?
More possible than I'd like.

"Might's not going to cut it. We're moving."

We start shimmying downwards, more.

>"Fuck, yeah. Hurry up." Rokko says.
"It's coming through, isn't it."
>"Yeah, it's poking something through. Move your ass, it's looking at me!"

2/2 Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)11:03 No. 542418 ID: d38f67
File 138039139190.png - (21.55KB , 700x700 , 604.png )

BAM

"TOUCH SPINY TONGUE"

In light of that, I'd say we're better off having not tried to shoot the thing.

...holy crap. Did that tongue spear right through the rock, or is Rokko just facing the wrong way?

Don't touch it, obviously.

Hopefully the tongue-spear isn't fully prehensile, or Rokko's already fucked. I'm assuming it'll would also take a while to morph more of its mass along the tongue and up here.

We really don't have any way to fight it (plasma blade would be nice, now. Or a very big bomb). All you can really do is keep moving, and trying and help your allies in keeping up. Until we get far enough ahead, or we go someplace it can't follow, or you find an opportunity to cave your route in behind you.

I'd like to lament that if someone does get caught, neumono toughness makes mercy killing them before they're eaten alive tough. Heck, we can't even destroy the brain to keep to from learning from you with your biology.

>>542418
Uh, do fufas eat by contact? Would it be super-dangerous to touch spiny tongue? I am really curious to see if the fufa really does desire physical contact, not more smart food.

>>542419
It could be perspective, but the bit in the rock is thinner than the bit outside of the rock, so unless it can expand really, really quickly it looks like Redshirt is facing the wrong way.

>>542435
Unknown, assume yes. They're fungi, after all. They might need more physical contact than that to digest a victim in any reasonable time frame, but it's still not a good idea.

Did... Did it just punch a tendril through the rock?! Holy fuck!

Haul ass outta there! (As if that needs to be said.) Shout back to Rokko to put a couple bullets in that "tongue" while she scrambles away. Maybe that'll slow it down enough it won't be able to reform to nab her.

1/2 Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)14:12 No. 542450 ID: d38f67
File 138040274396.png - (25.33KB , 700x700 , 605.png )

>Did that tongue spear right through the rock?
Yes. Holding parts of itself under extreme pressure and launching that part out is one of the easier things for fufa to learn.

>Do fufas eat by contact?
Yeah, but that's slow. What's dangerous is if they're able to grab on contact.

I don't need to tell Rokko not to touch it. It could be safe to do so, but it would be stupid.

>"Run, fucking run!" Rokko yells at us. "Bugs!"

Well shit.

2/2 Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)14:12 No. 542451 ID: d38f67
File 138040274871.png - (16.57KB , 700x700 , 606.png )

Nothing to do but run, but it's more falling down a small, cramped series of tunnels. The bugs aren't able to catch up to us, at least, but the belching is still echoing towards us. We reach a small creek sloshing down the tunnel.

Our options are downwards, trying to climb upwards past the creek, or move laterally across into a tunnel that looks thin. It'll be a close fit for Rokko.

Do you have any idea how good bugs and/or fufas are with water? In any case, though, tight quarters favours them more than you, so I say go past the creek.

The bugs are running blind, thankfully. With the jammer up, they can't follow your empathy.

Although I'm worried about where they came from. Was the fufa carrying them? Did other salikai troops come across the fufa trying to get at you and deploy them? Or did you just have the bad luck to come across a bug patrol or cache?

>where go
The creek is attractive in that you might be able to use the running water to lose the scent that the fufa may be tracking. Also, putting water between you and the bugs may make their pursuit harder. We don't know how waterproofed they are, are they may not be able to handle much of a current without being swept away.

If it's a tight fit for Rokko, then you put her in the middle, so one of you is pushing and the other pulling.

And to think I wanted to go with Biles because he WOULDN'T be jinxed.

Go upstream.

Climb upwards. It's pretty certain that the bugs aren't able to climb such a steep incline. Just be quick about climbing up. If the fufa catches up it'll have a clear line to fire a barbed tendril into anyone still climbing and reel them in.

>>542453
Presumably the bugs are well waterproofed since they're designed to move around inside a neumono, a place that can be quite moist and bloody. And the creek isn't really wide or deep. At least some of them would make it across by jumping, or possibly by skittering across the bottom quickly.

Oh wait. I just realized where the bugs came from. From the neumono it's eaten.

I guess they were undigestible and it just held onto them, until it found a reason to release them against you.

Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)19:08 No. 542501 ID: d38f67
File 138042050001.png - (59.80KB , 700x700 , 607.png )

"Upstream. Be careful, the rocks get slippery."

I say be careful, but there's hardly any time for it. We grab the rougher surfaces as we can and rush upstream. We start hearing small splashes downstream. The fufa is still following us.

Then it roars. All of us reflexively snap our hands to our ears. It's not just some threatening roar, it's well past the number of decibals needed for physical harm. Winsly topples over and falls in the creek, but we're not on a sharp incline, and he won't be falling downward.

The Fufa doesn't stop roaring, either. We've got to keep going, but taking our hands off our ears now during that noise is going to be detrimental. Winsli doesn't look like he's able to get up, either, even though he's trying. One of his eardrums may have bursted, which doesn't do wonders for one's balance.

Sacrifice one eardrum for the use of one arm so you can pull him up and keep going. Stick a bullet in your ear, maybe. Or stick your/everyone's head in the water to get water in your ear canals, that'll muffle the noise too.

At least ear injuries are small and thus will heal fast.

...I don't suppose your can shut your hearing off? Or the heart that keeps your ears going?

We could go with some kind of sacrificial play, where we deliberately deafen two members of the party, while the third covers their ears. Then the deaf lead / assist the hearing through the attack, and then the hearing person acts as the group's ears once we're clear while the deaf heal.

The main problem with this plan is if there's a way to deafen yourself without throwing you off balance like Winsli's ruptured eardrum. I really don't know enough about how neumono hearing works. Secondary problem is communication would be limited to hand signs and contact-empathy.

Keep one ear covered with one hand and get Rokko's attention with your other hand. Hand sign to her to keep one ear covered and use her other hand to haul Winsli up and keep him steady. Then use your free hand to help keep Winsli upright and walking as well.

Don't look back. Focus completely on getting away from the fufa and not slipping up. Looking back will only risk tripping up.

Get to the edge of the stream and try to put rocks between your group and the fufa so it'll have a harder time aiming a tendril spear at you.

About how long does it take for a neumono's ear drums and inner ear to heal up?

Biles 2013/09/28(Sat)20:12 No. 542515 ID: d38f67
File 138042432525.png - (25.38KB , 700x700 , 608.png )

>About how long does it take for a neumono's ear drums and inner ear to heal up?
A couple of hours.

I've had practice with things like this though, so I take hand off. I do dunk myself underwater, but it doesn't help forlong. My ear blows out, and it fucking smarts, but I stay vertical. Rokko, helps me pick up Winsli. He's overwhelmed in pain, but follows our movements. Rokko at least can take pain in stride, so although her balance takes a hit, she's able to move. Least it looks like each of us have one working eardrum.

The fufa finally stops yelling, but we're going to need a minute before we can hear anything. We have sign language, at least. And goddamn if we're not out of the woods yet. The creek goes straight up. It's going to be a pain in the ass to climb, but it is climbable, and our alternative is the split in the creek, where water falls off the other way. It is way steeper. Damn well closer to a vertical drop than a straight walk.

I think the giant monster with complete control of its own body can handle a vertical drop better than you can. The fufa could probably jump right down to little to no ill effect.

Granted, I'm worried it can climb better than you with your current balance injures, but maybe the big heavy thing with coordination issues will have some trouble getting up.

Important thing is not letting anyone lose their balance and fall back down. Anyone who falls is crippled fufa food.

Well shit. If you climb, the fufa will catch up and be able to spear someone before you reach the top. If you go down, you risk losing the jammer from the carrier losing their balance and dropping the thing. Considering you all have ear damage, balance is something very difficult to keep ahold of.

If there's any way to make it down that slope without risking the jammer, do it. Otherwise... someone will die on the climb. Or you could just let the jammer break, I guess.

Oh hey, is there any way you can go up, but make it look like you went down? It would be great if the fufa jumped down and took the wrong path, and then had to climb back up both when and if it realizes it went the wrong way.

C'mon survivalist. Leave a false sign for the monster.

>>542519

Is your blown out eardrum bleeding? You could try dribbling some blood around the drop to try and encourage it to jump down and "follow". Then you might be able to climb up. Your balance is screwy but at you should have an easier time climbing than the fufa's awkward corpse puppet which is significantly heavier than you.

If you pressed your working side to the rock, would you be able to get any sense of sound earlier? I'm worried about wandering into things. How does the place smell?

First off, take this moment while the fufa isn't roaring to get that jammer off Winsli and put it on yourself. Have Rokko assist to transfer it as fast as possible. You really don't want to risk it being broken or lost if Winsli takes a fall due to his severely damaged sense of balance.

Make sure to keep looking behind for the fufa. Until your hearing recovers sight'll be the only way you'll know its coming.

I'd prefer climbing upstream, but with Winsli's sense of balance compromised his climbing speed will be slowed drastically. Likely slow enough the fufa will catch up before he's over to the top. The only way I can think of he could get up is if Rokko is strong enough to carry him on her back and still be faster than Winsli climbing separately. She'd also have to hand off everything else she's carrying to you to lighten her load as much as possible.

But if Rokko carrying Winsli up isn't going to be fast enough you'll have to go down the other branch of the creek. It ought to be possible to get down without breaking the jammer. Send Rokko sliding down the near-vertical incline first. Once she gets to the bottom she'll hold her hands up, you'll drop the jammer and she'll catch it. Then you and Winsli slide down.

1/3 Biles 2013/09/29(Sun)19:10 No. 542593 ID: d38f67
File 138050700873.png - (190.66KB , 700x700 , 609.png )

>How does the place smell?
Nothing of note.

I don't like the idea of going down, but if we go down and slip further down, we still have a chance of catching ourselves, and if nothing else, go faster. Plus, if the fufa gets to this spot and we slip while going up, we're done. Winsli is still clutching his ear, and is only just starting to be able to stand still without our help. I doubt he'll get past the second rock. Rokko is doing somewhat better balance wise, but not well enough to be able to carry Winsli.

For now, I try and create a false trail. Normally I have more stuff to work with. Sure, I get dropped naked, but I kill a few weak things, get some materials, make some tools, and work my way up to the higher stuff. I'm not dropped naked in front of a fufa.

Still, I have myself, and that may be good enough. It's a longshot, but I slice into my arm, draw a decent amount of blood, and whip it upwards where it won't wash away too quickly.

2/3 Biles 2013/09/29(Sun)19:10 No. 542594 ID: d38f67
File 138050701852.png - (365.12KB , 700x700 , 610.png )

I'm hurt too, but I can handle the balance hit better than these two, so I take the jammer. Rokko moves down into the cavern first, but it's clear that the bottom isn't just a quick drop, so we all start heading down.

I hear the fufa blabbering loudly above. I think it took the bait, but I'm not counting on it lasting for long.

3/3 Biles 2013/09/29(Sun)19:10 No. 542595 ID: d38f67
File 138050702451.png - (31.11KB , 700x700 , 611.png )

We don't get that far until Winsli slips. I wish I could say I was surprised. No doubt that I can grab him, but plenty of doubt that I won't slip down with him.

Grab Winsli, you can't take the risk that he'll hit the bottom of the drop quietly.

>>542595
Don't risk the jammer!

I hate to say it but that jammer is worth more than his life right now.

He might survive the fall but if you loose that jammer falling yourself you all could be dead in minutes.

So only grab for him if you are absolutely sure you can hold on.

...damnit. If you both fall, that's two people with broken bones and serious injures, and possibly one broken jammer. We can't afford that. One injured person the other two can help along, at least.

Try to help him, but not at the expense of letting yourself fall.

>>542595

You've got a better grip with your hands, right? This isn't a totally 90 degree cliff-face, so if you swing your leg out and use it to press him back to the rock, you might stop his fall, or at least give him a second chance to catch himself again. And it doesn't risk you falling as much.

>>542605
This sounds like a safe way to attempt to help him.
So kick Winsli in the crotch and hope he gets a new handhold.

Only make a grab for Winsli or try to press him against the rock with your foot if the fall is far enough that he'd likely die or sustain life threatening injuries from it.

Otherwise the risk of you losing your grip, falling with him, and busting the jammer or both of you breaking your legs is too great. Even if Winsli breaks his legs he can still be carried by you and Rokko.

1/3 Biles 2013/09/30(Mon)20:40 No. 542677 ID: d38f67
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The fall might not be far, but it's far enough that he'll have trouble getting another foothold. He'll likely just fall again, and just tumble down. And it only takes one bad landing to bounce forward, leading to a long, long fall.

My hands have, by far, a better grip than my feet, so I reach out with my foot. I can safely do so enough to slow his ascent, at the least, without letting my hands off. It won't be much short of kicking his ribs in, but with a little luck, it'll give him a chance to grab onto something.

2/3 Biles 2013/09/30(Mon)20:41 No. 542678 ID: d38f67
File 138059886693.png - (308.23KB , 700x700 , 613.png )

Something that isn't my foot!

That fuckup! Damnit, he's panicking, he's not catching onto my empathy that I can't hang on like this!

3/3 Biles 2013/09/30(Mon)20:42 No. 542680 ID: d38f67
File 138059896822.png - (201.93KB , 700x700 , 614.png )

No good, I gotta yank my foot back, otherwise we're both falling, and the jammer can't take much of a fall.

He slips on the rock, tries to grab it, fails. Falls another step, and I hear a splash mixed with a thud. I can't quite see. He might have stopped, either that, or it's a long...

CRACK

>"G-GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!"
>"RELEARNING NEUMONO LOCATION FOR FLESH ACQUISITION"

God damnit!

Shit.

We don't have many options, here. We can't go up, because the fufa is above us.

How quickly can we reach the bottom? Ideally, we could get to Winsli and keep moving, but I don't know how quickly the fufa can get down. Can it safely jump right down?

...if we can't get away, or get to Wilnsli, there's the brutal option of hiding and sacrificing him to get away. Really don't want to do that though. It's one thing to lose people in a fight, it's another to knowing leave someone to be eaten alive. And I'd rather that monster not know where the others are hiding, or risk information getting back to the salikai.

If a fufa can just jump down the whole damn cliff, you have no time to climb down. Hide behind a rock.

It kind of depends on how much damage it would take from a fall, and how quickly it can regenerate / reform itself. I mean, if it pancaked and had to slowly rebuild, we'd have time to get down and by.

You gave it your best shot and at least managed to avoid damaging the jammer.

So start moving down as quick as you can without panicking and losing your footing. The Fufu might just throw itself down the waterfall but lets not count on that. Keep a eye out for side passages as you go.

No choice but to keep moving until we find a place where we can lose the Fufu. Once you get to the bottom or wherever Winsli ended up you can figure out if its possible to drag him along or not.

Hack off a bit of your ear if you can and hock it above you if possible. The fufa will want to eat the easy food before it goes for anything living, unless it loves the hunt and a fresh kill. It doesn't even have to be your ear, or even an ear. Somebody, anybody leaves a piece of them behind and it'll be sated for a time.

Fuck. I'm assuming that loud crack was the sound of Winsli breaking his everything on impact.

Whether Winsli somehow survived that fall or not is moot. There's no time to climb down to him, scrape him up if he's alive, and get away before the fufa catches up. Your only chance is to hide and hope the fufa passes you by.

Hand sign to Rokko to hide. Look for a hiding spot that's away from the path you'd guess the fufa would take if it does climb down. If there isn't a hiding spot on this level then keep climbing down until you find one.

>>542687
Yeah, that's really the best response.

>I'm assuming that loud crack was the sound of Winsli breaking his everything
If that were the case, he'd probably be too splatted to scream. That's the sound of him breaking his something. Possibly several somethings.

>hide
And again, the feasibility of getting to him quickly, and before the fufa, all depend on how far down it actually is, and how the fufa approaches the problem (jumping versus climbing, and how fast).

...I'm also kind of skeptical how many hiding places there are going to be on an open rock face eroded by water. And there isn't enough water for the 'hidden cave behind the waterfall' trick to work. Not that I see one.

The worst part of it getting to Wilnsli (aside from horrible death for him) would be the fufa learning the location of our hideout. Which only has one entrance. Which potentially means the death of everyone else in our group if it gets there before us. We want to avoid that, if at all possible. Which means getting to him first, if we can. Or getting back to the others ASAP if we can't.

>>542782
Oh, you're right about Winsli being alive and conscious but seriously injured. I misread the ""G-GAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!" as coming from the fufa. This changes things. You're also probably right about there not being any hiding spots around too.

I'm changing my choice to >>542687 from >>542775. I figure if the fufa is climbing down we'll just have to try to get down ahead of it, and if it does throw itself over the edge it won't be able to catch itself as it passes by us. We'll be able to climb back up and either head back the way we came or go up the way the creek comes from.

Biles 2013/10/04(Fri)21:47 No. 543073 ID: d38f67
File 138094844431.png - (282.86KB , 700x700 , 615.png )

This cave is only flooded from the rain storms happening up topside, so it's not eroded. Nonetheless, there's no hiding spot that I'm confident will fool the fufa, so I take my chances. I slice off a small chunk of my ear and lob it up top in the hopes that the fufa will slow down enough to nab it. A longshot, but if it gets me a few seconds lead, it'll be worth it.

Winsli is still crying at the bottom. He fell damn far where the land finally flattens out and the water is about 2 feet deep. Rokko and I reach him. The fufa, however, is hot on our tail and catching up fast.
>"NEUMONO REMAIN CALM AND STILL FOR BRAIN DISENGAGING SEQUENCE PROMISE OF OUTCOME IS FUN AND PLEASANT NOT PAINFUL BEYOND NEUMONO IMAGINATION LIMITS"
>"Shut the fuck up and be tough, Winsli!" Rokko grabs him while shout-whispering. It helps quiet him somewhat, but I don't know if we can outrun the fufa if we carry him. Hell, I don't know if we can outrun the fufa if we don't carry him. His legs and hip are shattered, and everywhere else roughed up.

2 feet deep water is gonna slow you down a lot, and the Fufa is using a spider form that would not have as much trouble.

Personally I think your best bet is to slice Winsli's throat so he falls unconscious and thus doesn't feel the pain of whatever the Fufa's gonna do, and leave him behind. You could only barely outrun the fufa when you were all uninjured. There's zero chance of getting away while wading through water AND carrying Winsli.

>I don't know if we can outrun the fufa if we carry him
I don't see we have much choice. We either carry him out of here, or grant him the mercy of a quick death and hope the fufa slows down enough to eat him while we run.

Not that I put much faith in plan teamkill. The fufa is big enough to be plenty capable of carrying him without slowing down.

We need options here. A passage it can't follow us down, or a way to block its pursuit, or trap it.

This area was recently flooded? That's good. That means this terrain is in flux- conditions have recently changed. Things aren't stable here. Best possible outcome would be if you can see or find anything that looks like you could trigger a rockslide. You could gtfo out while it digs out.

If necessary, you also have a tempting pieces of bait, there.

Can you lighten the load and cut off bits of him? They might serve as bait.

Also, can we afford to let the fufa learn everything Winsli knows? I'm pretty sure he knows where we're moving our hidey hole to and other such things.

if you do cut bits off, try for the parts that don't hold much brain matter.

The big question is if we could get him back to camp would we be able to nurse him back to health with the supplies we have available.

Neumono regeneration is great but a shattered pelvis probably requires long term immobilization to heal right.

Mercy killing him and leaving him for the Fufu is a option but that might not buy you any time because it might just go for the living prey knowing the dead one cant escape it.

Plus if it eats one of you who knows what type of info it could get from the body.

What was this cavern before the rains flooded it? Are there any sinkholes or odd formations? Now that you are at the bottom can you see how many exits you have?

If the streams of water converge somewhere you might be able to float him away faster than trying to carry him.

>>543076
Ough... I think he'd die from bleeding out trying to do this do him. Neumono can endure a lot but this might be a bit much.


Mercy killing would be more rational but we don't know if we're prolonging the inevitable for the rest.

The idea of feeding Winsli to the fufa kinda leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So this might be the time to find out how conductive a wet fufa is if we still have one of those super tasers. Well, provided that there is anywhere to stand that is not currently submerged, so we that aren't also riding the lightning our selves.

Do you think you could jam a taser to stay on, so that you and Rokko could make a run for it with Wisli and not have to stick around to find out how well a fufa reacts to being electrocuted?

>>543084
That, and we don't really have the tools to carve him up like a turkey. It's not a good solution.

>>543095
>taser
...if we have that with us that's a great idea. The problem is getting our people out of the water and conductive path.

>>543073
Brain... disengaging? Does tha t mean you have to feed it your brain?

No wonder it's getting smarter. It's a brain sucker! An ear isn't going to satisfy it man! It's got zombie fever.

Make Winsli unconscious in any way possible. Leave a little bit of him for the fufa. Since your brain is in most of your body, any part should satisfy the fufa, which explains why it loves brains and neumono so much, there's brain per mass cubed along your entire body. It might get smarter from even eating your ear though, so... like watch out.

Decisions decisions.

Leaving Winsli to the fufa is a terrible idea since he knows the camp location which the fufa could learn after consuming his brain tissue. Try to get everyone out of the water and break out the taser. It will be risky as hell but you might be able to lure the fufa into the water and electrocute the water while sitting on a rock sticking out of the water.

>>543101
This is why leaving any of him is not an option. Regroup fast, and hope the super-taser can give you a chance to get away.

Get your pistol or a machine gun and start unloading into the fufa, if only to went your frustration.

If the taser doesn't give us the miracle we need then i'm afraid you have to leave Winsli for bait and drag Rokko with you to safety.

>>543115
Small arms aren't going to hurt it. We can't afford wasting what little ammo we have on fruitless gestures.

I see two other options you could try.

You could taunt it and try to get it to follow you and lead it away from Winsli and Rokko long enough for them to make a escape. No idea if you could get it to follow you but might be worth a shot.

Or you could try talking to it. This one preferably done while running away or in conjunction with the other plan. It might not be fully sentient but its got some sort of intelligence going on there. Maybe we could convince it to leave us alone if it thought we could get it more food. Promise to lead it to plenty of tasty Volkits and Arkots if it stops trying to eat you.

Both ideas are out there but we do not have a lot of options. If it does manage to get close enough you can try the taser but not sure how effective it will be. Some normal fungus are killed by direct current but this is far from normal.

Biles 2013/10/05(Sat)10:59 No. 543146 ID: d38f67
File 138099597427.png - (53.38KB , 700x700 , 616.png )

I do have the taser! And as much as hunters love their knives way too much, I'm still hurting for one right now. I motion for Rokko to help me drag Winsli across the water, gesture to my taser, and say we've got to get out of the pond. Rokko does most of the lifting of Winsli. She's not gentle with him, but he's going to be out of commission for a long time anyway. I'm more relieved that she isn't slowed down as much as I thought she would be, although she's still wobbling from her ear drum burst.

How conductive a fufa is, is entirely up to the way it constructed itself. The chances of it disabling the fufa for long is not good, but we may be able to injure it enough to slow it down and get some speed.

Rokko and I scramble around a corner. She tosses Winsli up behind a dip in the dry bank, and the fufa splashes into the pond with us. Once I scramble myself up to dry land, I fire the taser's ends into the water. The fufa shuts up, and starts splashing like it's having a seizure.

I can use my bandana to tie off the taser trigger to keep it electrocuting the river while all of us run for it, but that plan does leave behind the taser.

>What was this cavern before the rains flooded it?
There was most likely a big river that ran through here a long time ago that dried up, and only sees water now when heavy rains crop up. The formations behind me are popular with glowslugs and their companions, and does lead me to believe that we can get back to base without having to climb up the way we just came down.

Sacrificing the taser to get away from the fufa is worth it. I don't see how anything short of emptying the batter is going to slow it down, anyways.

Maybe if we're really lucky we'll start an electrical fire in or on part of it.

Sacrificing the taser seems like a good idea. The arkots are carrying them around so should be able to get more later.

Once you do that we need to figure out a way to mask our trail. Want to splash around in water whenever possible to spread the sent around and try to find a stream or river to wade down.

>>543146
Losing a taser in exchange for not killing an ally is a good trade.

Find a way out. If the fufa chases you again, throw some glowslugs on it to try to get the guardians to attack it.

how much more time is leaving the taser here going to buy us? If it it's only going to work for a bit it may be better to keep it in the long run.

Biles 2013/10/08(Tue)20:06 No. 543459 ID: d38f67
File 138128798449.png - (22.83KB , 700x700 , 617.png )

>How much more time is leaving the taser here going to buy us?
Not much. A second could still be the difference between getting back to our cozy base and being eaten alive.

"Rokko, hold the taser for a second!"

I slice off an upper ring of my bandana to tie up the taser's trigger, set it down, and we bolt. We get up a good ways, bout on level where we were before we went down the slip n' slide. I have a good idea of where we are.

>"We shouldn't go back to base till we know the fufa's not on our trail."
"Any good ideas on how to find out if it is?"
>"No. You?"

>>543459
Bait a loud trap.

Thank goodness Winsli is small compared to Rokko.

>tore part of the bandana
Quick thinking. By not using all of it, we still have a tool that might be useful later.

>"Any good ideas on how to find out if it is?"
We need a noise trap. Terrain it can't cross without making a racket. Or some animal it can't get past without making it making a stink. Use your knowledge of the biome to your advantage, here. What could you use as an alarm to put along your trail, here? That you can pass without triggering yourself?

Best bet is to double back a few times to confuse your sent trail as best you can and make sure to hit a water source and spent a decent amount of time washing up as much as you can before heading up or downstream a bit.

Or if your route back to your base went near or through a area controlled by the enemy it might confuse the trail enough to go after them and not you. Of course that has its own problems.

There is always the option to go find something smelly to roll in so you smell like it instead. It's sort of disgusting but it has been used by animals forever.

And if you cant do any of that you just have to find a place to hole up for awhile and watch for it following you.

>>543465
...that fucking bird. We need one of those loudass annoying three-headed cave birds to follow us. The Fufa will eat it, and it will be LOUD.

>>543467
Actually no that's a bad idea, because if the fufa isn't following us, the bird will stick around and be a giant pain in the ass.

>>543467
>>543469
We don't want one following right after us, no.


But if Biles knows how to trick a bird into following the Fufa, or a way to sneak past one so the Fufa would cross it's trail following us, that would work.

The fufa is pretty loud when it's resizing itself, so could you take a winding path that goes through varying small and large tunnels? Preferably one that has loads of tiny cross tunnels that you could hear the fufa shifting shape through, but that're so small it couldn't fit through them.

Or is there a cavern with a high vantage point you could detour to? One where you could wind around between the stalagmites below, then head up and hide to watch if the fufa comes along. Preferably one where the high point is close enough to the hideout that you could get there, pickup another jammer, then return to watch over the cavern, along with someone to watch your back.

We could always just wait.

1/2 Biles 2013/10/09(Wed)19:01 No. 543578 ID: d38f67
File 138137050307.png - (17.96KB , 700x700 , 618.png )

>Loud bird
Only one thing lives in the caves that fits that description. I know how to manipulate 'em into acting as a faroff alarm, too, so that would be excellent if the fufa is following us. They're always there when you absolutely don't want them.

Unfortunately, vice versa applies. When you want to see one, they never seem to be around.

Instead, I start guiding us through a range of small tunnels, doubling around in near-circles a couple times, until we get into a wider cavern. Although it is possible the fufa kept a small enough form to get through our tunnels, we wait for some time at the cavern just in case it comes out. There's no sign of him, and we're sure to stay as absolutely still as we can.

2/2 Biles 2013/10/09(Wed)19:01 No. 543579 ID: d38f67
File 138137051117.png - (16.46KB , 700x700 , 619.png )

What I assume is the fufa comes out from the tunnel we came from and pokes its head through. We're a good distance away. It looks like it's taken pages from a bunch of creatures.

>>543579
Well, it's still following you. So we have to find a way to lose it. Find a river, I guess.

In these caves with no wind blowing your sent can linger for days or more. Need to find a place to remove or hide your smell. That or lure it into a trap of some sort. But not sure what you could do to hurt it much without fire.

That's a lot of ancillary eyes. It's hunting for you, for sure. It hasn't seen you yet, I hope?

We need a way to lose it. We lack a way to hurt it- that means we need it to go down the wrong passage, or go somewhere it can't follow, or make it so it can't track you.

>>543580
Not sure a fast moving river would work like it has before. That would separate us from the other half of our group. And the fufa can probably shift to a form that's comfortable in the water. We'd be even less a match for an underwater predator than a land based one.

I'm still worried this thing can sense you by vibrations in the rock, but I'm not sure how to bypass that. Walk without rhythm?

Okay, it's looking like the only way to lose this damn thing is to ride the river away, since it's tracking you by a sense of smell that's exceptionally strong. And as >>543581 said, even a tiny scent will linger for days in the still air down here. There's no way you can wash your scent off well enough to lose the fufa.

Problem is, if you ride the river past the two or three branches needed to shake the fufa you're going to be far downstream, lost and separated from the rest of the group. And the chances you'll be able to find your way back to them at that point is slim to none. So you're gonna have to head to the hideout. You get there quick, get everyone out, and get to the river before the fufa gets back in sight of you. That's the only way you're gonna stick together here.

>it's looking like the only way to lose this damn thing is to ride the river away
It rebuilt itself into a quadruped in short time. I'm betting it'll shift into a water-predator if it follows our scent to a river. And if it can swim with the current, it'll go faster than us. And then we're fucked.

A river ride would only work if we got enough of a lead that it wouldn't be able to tell where or when we exited.

...and the biggest problem to me seems to be that would leave us alone, cut off from the group, with an injured person, and no food reserves instead of none.

Could we fake it out, maybe? Lead it to river, and let it think we left that way? Then the river would take it far away as we doubled back.

>>543579
>It looks like it's taken pages from a bunch of creatures.
What weaknesses do those creatures have that you could use against it?

Maybe you should send Rokko back to the base and bait the fufa into following you.
I mean you are a damn survival expert! There is no way you would lose to a walking mushroom.

You could lead the fufa to groups of enemies since i have a feeling the Salikai don't have a whole lot of control over the.
You could make a trap of some kind, fire tends to kill everything.
What are the fufas natural enemies and predators? Some other fungi species?

Leading it into a group of enemies might be the best way to get it off our trail.

Biles 2013/10/12(Sat)08:44 No. 543917 ID: d38f67
File 138159264295.png - (51.51KB , 700x700 , 620.png )

>What are the fufas natural enemies and predators? Some other fungi species?
There's a couple creatures that can eat small time fufa that just act like a normal fungi. The fufa that get some intellect and cohesion, though, are right at the top of the food chain.

>What weaknesses does it have?
What I do know is that somewhere inside that fufa, there's the fufa equivalent of a neumono queen. Fufa don't just decide to act together like a group of ol' chums, they have some direction. There's a fufa cell in there that directs the rest. Problem is, is that some theorists think that the fufa cells are a bit psychic themselves too. What that could mean is that, while there was probably some cell that began influencing the rest, by now what made that fufa cell special may have spread to the rest. And now the 'queen' is just a perpetuated spirit through the whole fufa, and doesn't have any single manifestation.

Or somewhere in there, there's a single cell that I have to fry that will cause the whole Fufa to collapse in on itself mentally.

>You could make a trap of some kind, fire tends to kill everything.
These damn rocks make for bad fire starters. I'd have better luck if I just had two wooden sticks around here. We've got gunpowder in our weapons, but I'm a minimal survivalist. I don't know if there's a quick way to make a spark. And that's most of what I need, a spark.

It's another longshot, but I motion to Rokko to walk sporadically, just in case the fufa is sensing vibrations in the rock and watching our rhythm. We start moving again, and the fufa follows us at a quickened pace. It's enouguh to jog, but if we try to move faster, so does it. I think it's trying to wear us out.

It might be working on Rokko. I doubt I could carry Winsli like she could, but she's showing wear.

I hear some talking ahead. Voklits. If they're with salikai, perhaps the fufa may be turned against them. The fufa at on our tail won't give us time to sneak carefully around corners, so we keep our guns out as we make the turn. They're non-salikai natives.

>>543917
they already know you're there.
get away, the fufa will be following you and than hopefully follow them because they have more meat

Even if you took out your gunpower and lit it with a spark, that wouldn't do much. You've got nothing in here to burn, and that small an explosion wouldn't do much to the fufa. We'd need concentrated explosive blasts, or to drop it in an all out inferno.

>voklit
...best solution would be if we could hitch a ride out of here. Voklits can run scary fast- faster than any uncoordinated fungus monster can. You don't get killed by a fufa, they don't get killed by a fufa, everyone wins (no life saving obligation either- your warning helped them, their legs helped you). Unfortunately there's the language barrier- dunno if they know any English or you picked up any voklit. There's also the prideful 'we don't like neumono' barrier.

Still, if you can somehow covey danger, we need to GTFO, and they're amenable, that's great.

Uh, failing that, there's always moving on and letting them fight the fufa when it comes around the corner, or shooting them and leaving them as food. Either might slow it down enough for you to lose it, although those are pretty cruel options.

>>543917
Lower your guns and try to negotiate their help so you can get away from the fufa.

>>543946
Negotiate?! NOW?! With a fuckin' FUFA hot on our heels?! Hell no! That's suicide!

There's absolutely no time to try and be nice about this and work anything out with the voklits. You're gonna have to throw these two under the proverbial bus to save your skin.

Skirt around the voklits as close as you can and head back up the way they came from. That way your scent trail leads right into their much bigger one.

Once you and Rokko are past them yell back "fufa.". Fufas aren't native to this area, so the word "fufa" will likely be the name they'll have adopted for fufas, if they know about fufas at all. That way the voklit might know what they're dealing with and flee instead of trying to fight the fufa. And if they flee it'll be the best outcome, since the fufa will chase after them, and away from your trail.

1/2 Biles 2013/10/12(Sat)17:10 No. 544034 ID: d38f67
File 138162304081.png - (64.90KB , 700x700 , 621.png )

"Do you speak english?!"

One of them yells something back to me that I'm going to treat as a big fat 'no'. There's no time for negotiations as is, let alone with such a language barrier. Rokko and I run past them. I get lucky, and one lets me leap over his tail. The other one, who yelled earlier, doesn't let Rokko by, as let on by a sharp jab to her face.

I yell Fufa, and he yells back to me things I still don't understand.

2/2 Biles 2013/10/12(Sat)17:10 No. 544035 ID: d38f67
File 138162304899.png - (44.79KB , 700x700 , 622.png )

With a bang, Rokko lets a single bullet lodge itself into the Voklit's head.

Another bang comes from down the tunnel, and then the Fufa roars again. Rokko stumbles and falls. I managed to shove a finger in my ear, but I think Rokko's second drum just went down.

I cover my own ear, but I sense vibrations in the rock. And cracks in the rock. The damn fufa's about to cause a cave-in!

Oh come on, can anything go right, seriously.

We've got two people down and the cave is about to come down. That wouldn't even stop the fufa- it'll eventually shapeshift around any collapse.

See what you can do about grabbing the other two (if Rokko can still hold onto Winsli, and you can drag her in the way you want to go, we can keep going forward even if she can't balance) and getting to cover, or clear of the cave in.

In the absolute worst case you can't get to the others, all you can do is try and get yourself to cover and out of the cave in. Of course that means losing two people who will probably be buried alive until the fufa finds and eats them.

They're not completely dead, right? leave'em for the fufa!

>>544040
I hope you mean the voklit, and not the hunters.

Biles 2013/10/12(Sat)18:11 No. 544050 ID: d38f67
File 138162669894.png - (239.89KB , 700x700 , 623.png )

Goddamn that thing can shout!

"Rokko! Rokko, can you hear me?!" I doubt she could hear me even if her eardrum was still intact, but she's not looking good.

I try to help her up, but she keeps wobbling around, and I can't keep her up well when she's got Winsli on her back! We're making progress, but we're stumbling around more than we're walking forward.

Fire would solve a lot of your problems right now. Lots and lots of fire.

Oh man that thing feeding is terrifying.

Okay, our problem moving forward is Rokko has no sense of balance or equilibrium.

Let's make her as stable as we can. No distractions- use empathy to ask her to shut her eyes. Have her lean on you- so her equilibrium is dependent on you- that when you move forward her natural impulse is to move into the space you're vacating. Use empathy and physical positioning to give her a false 'center' to follow. It might take a moment or two of not running to set up, but after that, you should move forward much faster.

Then get as far as you can before the roof comes down.

Get Rokko down on all fours. She'll be able to steady herself and move better with four limbs than you trying to prop her up on two. Or perhaps you helping to steady her by one arm and she moving on the other three would work the best.

Unfortunately Rokko may have to leave Winsli behind in order for her to make it out. And if it looks like she isn't going to abandon him then you're going to have to shove him off yourself.

But whatever you do you'll have to make sure at least you get out of here. You'll need to warn the rest of the group about the fufa, and if Winsli is left behind that the fufa may know where the hideout is.

>>544055
Well... if we're trying to balance her against us, Winsli's weight on her back angling her in the right directing might actually assist, is we position ourselves right.

>>544050
Sweet jebus that's terrifying!
Get the fuck out of there!

Both of you get on all fours and cart Winsli on your back if need be. If we get caught in a cave in then its over.

However you have to do it keep going forward as fast as you can and don't leave anyone behind. We cant afford to let it gain any knowledge of us even if it is fragmented horribly.

>>544050
RUN LIKE THE DOGS YOU ARE.

1/2 Biles 2013/10/21(Mon)21:13 No. 544917 ID: d38f67
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Somehow we shuffle around and Rokko braces well enough, somehow she gets a sense of direction back, and somehow we don't have any rocks breaking our spines. The jammer hiccups once, but most somehow of all, it stays intact.

The fufa yells unintelligable things before it's buried. We'll have time to get... a headstart, anyway.

2/2 Biles 2013/10/21(Mon)21:13 No. 544918 ID: d38f67
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Rokko gets a hold of herself, relieving me of the thought that Winsli was representative of their hive's toughness. Tough or not though, she's still deaf. We can't wait though, so we head out.

With my good ear, I find water. With a Krasau, too. They're aggressive, but not too tough. It's something that Rokko and I can take with a decent rock, if we can risk a high chance of scratches and small chance of injury. It's growling. Still facing the water, but these guys have good vision.

Food's food, but we can also cover ourself in its blood if I feel like smelling like one of those more than a neumono right now.

Then again... I swivel my head around. It's faint, but I hear arkot chatter ahead past the brook. They aren't getting closer, and I don't hear anything else.

>relieving me of the thought that Winsli was representative of their hive's toughness
...well, in his defense, he did kind of shatter his lower torso. Kind of hard to be useful when you're a ball of immobile pain.

Geeze, those are going to be fun bones to set.

>what do
Wait a moment, see if the arkots get any closer, or if there's anything closer the fenec is growling at. It's possible there's a salikai troop under the water it can see, or that there's a cloaked hunter by the brook it's vision is good enough to pick up.

Once (if) you establish the arkots are the only threat, we have the problem of trying to figure out how to kill the fenec without making any noise to alert them, as well carrying it away, and/or messing with your scent.

...if we have to kill them, it would be convenient if we made it look like the animal did it.

Yeah make sure its not growling at something or someone else first.

Biles 2013/10/24(Thu)21:33 No. 545232 ID: d38f67
File 138267562718.png - (13.10KB , 700x700 , 626.png )

I pause with Rokko, put the jammer safe to the side, and we wait. The Krasau keeps growling, but I hear one of the arkots getting closer. We duck behind the rocks. A few gunshots are fired, and I hear the krasau scream and slump down between them. The arkot leaves again.

Pretty sure they're not hanging out at a choke point, not like I can confirm that here, but if it's not a choke point, there's gotta be another reason why they're hanging around a single spot.

Then let's see why. Scout it out. Just make sure you don't get out of the jammer's range and you'll be fine leaving it hidden for now.

A bit of careful spying should let us know what they are up to. Get them in sight if possible and survey there surroundings.

Can you climb those rocks to get a higher viewpoint of where they are hanging out? Make sure you do not get out of the jammers range. But also make sure the jammer does not get to close to them. If they have a bugged hunter with them it would notice the sudden jamming field.

Camo sneaking might give us an idea what they're up to. And it the coast is clear, they killed the krasau for you. That means, if the arkots aren't coming back to notice the missing body, you can collect it quietly.

Biles 2013/10/25(Fri)17:23 No. 545318 ID: d38f67
File 138274702829.png - (48.80KB , 700x700 , 627.png )

They're leaving the body, so nothing's stopping us from picking it up. Cept my inclination to go take a peek over where they're at, so that'll have to wait. Rokko hangs back a little ways, and I climb up a few rocks to get a vantage point.

It's a little encampment. It looks like there are some supplies here, too.

Too bad we can't get any. If you kill the guards, the salikai will know you're in the area, which will result in increased enemy presence.

I say we circumvent the camp to try to get back to base. The Fufa is gonna be chasing us- wait a minute, there's two arkot sized beds and a neumono sized bed. There's at least one hunter nearby! Be aware.

Weird, would salikai arkots have really rest out here? I figured they'd be shaking up back at base.

Potential unaffiliates? Doesn't matter, they were most certainly bred by the salikai and raised to hate neumono all the same. Even if they've come to hate the salikai too, they'll still have an instinct to fight and kill you. And even if we didn't, communication would be extremely hard and pointless.

Lets leave them alone. They look like there just protecting their territory instead of searching for anyone or anything. If the fufa is full and doesn't want to eat anymore, it's also probably stopped tracking you. That or it knows the location of the base from eating your ear and is going where they'd be more neumono to eat where they'd likely would be surprised.

If we could lure it here, we could see if it also kills salikai troops or if the arkots have been trained on how to properly deal with the fufa. Assuming these have been at least been bred and trained to work in these caves with the fufa running about before they potentially went turncoat.

Huh. So the choice is to take the low hanging fruit of the dead critter, or if we take the risk of killing the arkots for their supplies too.

First consideration: how confident are you that you could get in there and murder them all before they can sound the alarm?

Second problem: how far are you from base, and how quickly can you guys move weighed down by one casualty and the supplies you're looking at? A dead patrol / search party / whatever will eventually be noticed, but we don't want to be around when that happens.

I think its worth the risk to take there little base if we can. The moral boost alone would be huge if we can get our group some real supplies.

Let Rokko know what you saw and then spend awhile watching there base. We want to know how many are here and if they have anyone out on patrol. Also if there are any non Arkots or other surprises. Keep a eye out for any cameras or other communication devices.

Make sure Rokko is watching your back and have the jammer and Winsli hidden with her so nothing can sneak up on you while you are on lookout.

1/2 Biles 2013/10/25(Fri)21:23 No. 545360 ID: d38f67
File 138276139892.png - (17.69KB , 700x700 , 628.png )

>Weird, would salikai arkots have really rest out here?
If you've gotta work 16 hour shifts, I wouldn't want an 8 hour commute.

>That or it knows the location of the base from eating your ear
No chance, my ears are lost first. If there's any brain matter in my ears, it's stupid brain matter, and good riddance.

>How confident are you that you could get in there and murder them all before they can sound the alarm?
Doesn't look like there's much of an alarm to sound, outside of yelling, but that's what gunshots are for.

We've also got a long walk back to base, but that's just as good as it is bad. If they increase their presence here, then fine, we're not around here. As for carrying supplies, if Rokko can hold a bit, and I take a bit, we won't be slowed too much. We don't have to take everything.

I don't like the size of that other cot, probably for either a big neumono or a very small voklit. I tell Rokko to hide, watch my back, and that I may try to get something. We can't wait for hours with that Fufa some ways back that may still have our scent, but after some time, the chances are good that there's no one else around.

I give the attack order to Rokko. She's got good aim, and the arkots weren't hanging around any cover. I'm sliding down the hill in full downhill sprint while she takes them out.

2/2 Biles 2013/10/25(Fri)21:23 No. 545361 ID: d38f67
File 138276140553.png - (18.81KB , 700x700 , 629.png )

I run to the boxes. Don't think I'm gonna try to bring those cots, but we could use simple stuff. That pot doesn't look too heavy, and I can pad it with a blanket to keep other stuff clanging around. That wood isn't even burned, it looks like it was put down there in advance. The light could also be nice to nab.

The boxes themselves aren't packed with weapons. One is mostly food. Neumono food. It's most likely from the salikai, they looked like processed rations rather than any store bought brand name delicacies. The other box has some toolboxes, a large pistol, and at the bottom, a book labeled 'SENSITIVE: DO NOT READ'. It's locked up with a cheap looking combination lock. Makes me wonder how sensitive it really is.

Prioritize the rations and cooking pot. Does the locked journal look like it has neumono hand writing on it?

Ok the paranoid part of me is yelling that this is a trap for Polo.

They know she is down here somewhere and they leave a lightly defended camp with a box of Neumono food and a book labeled do not touch which is probably full of secrets and not lies and or nanobots we swear.

Although it might not be a trap at all because they only have a few competent people left on there side and the rest of there forces are either enslaved or arkots which are not to bright.

So be very careful with the food and test it on something or someone before you eat any. And check the journal for traps or tracking devices. Might not have a long range but you could put one inside the binding.

If you want to disguise your trail make sure to dump the arkots you shot in the river so its not obvious they were killed by bullets. Take what you can carry and drag the Krasau over here if possible and use its claws to tear up the food box. Knock over a bedroll or two and it will look like they got eaten by native wildlife and the supplies eaten by scavengers.

Then remember this location so in case you have the chance later you can come back for the rest.

>no alarm to raise
I was thinking they'd have a radio or something.

>looting
Using the pot to carry things is a good idea. Food first, then miscellaneous supplies like the light, and then maybe the wood if we have space left.

Don't trust the nuemono food yet (someone should test a small amount to make sure it isn't drugged or poisoned). Don't trust the pistol without pulling out the ammo clip and checking that it's loaded and not trapped.

What race is the book scaled to? Does it look like there's any mechanism to destroy the contents if you force it, or is the crude lock just to keep arkots out? Is it solid enough to have a hidden compartment? (Like it holds bugs). Probably keep the book for later.

Oh, and don't forget to head back to the Krasau and use it to hide our scent before we move on.

>>545361
Take the gun FIRST, so you're armed while looting the rest- I fully expect to face the owner of that third bed. If you don't have tools, take a toolbox. The wood seems too bulky and would be used up too fast to be worth grabbing. The light can't really be used in your hiding spot without it betraying the spot's location from outside view. I like the idea of taking the pot.

Take the book too and some food. Hey, aren't the rations going to give you more bang for their weight than the dead critter? Maybe you should take mostly food.

Biles 2013/10/26(Sat)00:49 No. 545378 ID: d38f67
File 138277374642.png - (21.38KB , 700x700 , 630.png )

In hindsight, I suppose they could've had a radio to send an alarm out. Doesn't look like there's a radio here at all, though. For that matter, this could've been a trap for Polo for all I knew, but Polo's not even close to here, if Moi's right.

I can't rule out there being a trap in this book, with the pages hollowed out inside to put in trackers or bugs or whatever, but this is a roundabout way of doing it. Looks like a neumono wrote the note on the front, at least, but I can't tell anything other than that.

The gun goes in my shorts first. Too damn big for me to use effectively, so I'll still be using the one jammed down in the other side of my shorts. I take a small piece of wood, too.

I find a canteen and a knife. I slice off a chunk of the krasau just in case these rations turn out to be no good, fill the canteen, and wash up with krasau blood. Rokko does the same with herself and Winsli. That done, we get the hell out of here. Would've been nice to make it look like the arkots had a run in with some nasty cave denizen, but that fufa could turn a corner and start screaming about brain acquisition any second. Not a chance I want to squander.

Not like the trip back is any better for our nerves. The closer we get, the more nervous I get. But we make it. Full box of tools and knick knacks, full box of food, and that book. Orilo's here. Doesn't look like Moi's group is back.

She's just staring at me like I left the fridge open overnight and know it. Goddamn is she unpleasant.

>>545378
Tell her you ran into the Salikai's pet Fufa. If she doesn't know what it's capable of, share with her your experience of how horrifying that thing is.

When you come home after working all day and the missus ain't happy you gotta bail and go get a beer find Moi's group.

Though first you should search the boxes for something to fashion a new bandana out of.

She's probably holding you responsible for the condition of her hivemates. Or for leaving her alone, though she'll likely never admit that one.

Have Rokko swap info with her, if she can hear yet, touching each other for empathy, so she knows what's up and you can make sure nothing happened while you were out. While they're doing that, you give Winsli what help you can now that you're not on the run, then get started checking the box stuff for danger and/or usefulness. As soon as they're done, get Rokko to help you while Orilo checks to be sure nothing followed you, since she has the good ears.

Going looking for Moi's group is more danger than it's worth. Anything they ran into that could catch them, could catch you, especially with you in bad condition. If there's any chance of helping them, Moi will show up: if she couldn't escape, none of them could, even with your help.

Don't let her get to you. You put your own life at considerable risk to save her family.

Remember that she is still recovering from being mind controlled into letting herself be beaten to death by arkots. And she has to worry about being a sleeper agent due to four stripes programming.

On top of that you show up having single handedly fought off your own bugs and saved a bunch of her people. Something she could not do even though she is the "queens daughter".

So make sure she gets a chance to feel useful so she can hopefully stop feeling so pathetic.

Course I could be wrong and she could just be a surly bitch.

>>545378
One of your girlfriends or boyfriends have given you that look before I take it? Back at home? Where Biles is a tie-wearing, calm everyman?

Don't see much of a point in talking to her, she's just constantly pissed off and she has a good excuse. Find her something to vent on so her morale doesn't become a problem. Maybe talkign to her would be a good idea after all to improve morale.

...the others aren't back yet? That's not encouraging. Your group almost got eaten by a fufa, and had to spend all that time running away. What could they have encountered that's worse?

But anyways- down to basics, here. Tell her what happened (or let Rokko. She'll probably back you up- she knows she'd probably have died horribly if you'd let her go ahead and attack the fufa), start going through supplies you took in, and someone should start treating Winsli. If there's anything medical in those toolkits, it would be useful now. Possibly pass your new pistol off to Orilo- she's unarmed and maybe better sized for it, (keep the knife though, you need one of those).

...then maybe we can double check that the book isn't a trap or something before we start worrying about the others and if we have to go after them.

Say "it's not ours". Or is it maybe because you haven't painted your eyes? Maybe her hive has some thing where, if you're going to cover yourself with blood, you have to paint some over your eyes? That would be weird, but that's what your teammates have done.

The food probably isn't poisoned, since you guys have to eat so much; every neumono they have would have to carry around a box of antidote or something, and the hunters would know about it. Still, be a little careful. Also, always remember that the salikai might have made more inviso-suits. The neumono that the arkots were with might have had one.

Biles 2013/10/26(Sat)14:48 No. 545444 ID: d38f67
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"We got stuff, including a meet with the salikai's pet fufa."
>"Fufa? So what?"
"It bites. Winsli's beat up, if you couldn't tell. We've got fabric, and maybe some medical supplies here, if you want to go at it."

Really hoping here that there's nothing wrong with these ration packs, but they've got a lot of hunters they've got to feed. Poisoning their own food supply just for the chance that we'll run across it and yank it seems pretty dumb.

Rokko helps Orilo take care of Winsli. As worried as I am about Moi and the others, I have no idea where they are right now. We've got a few medical supplies, hygiene products, and enough food to feed a single neumono for somewhere around 5 days. Depends how good these rations are. Could be less or more. I start divving them up into piles for everyone. There's two knives of a good size, and 3 tool knives with can openers, tooth picks and so forth.

Then there's the book. The more I look at it the more I think I'm just staring real hard at a normal, mundane book, with what could be good info inside. I doubt this lock could withstand a well aimed bullet. It's small too, but the dial has little grooves made for a claw to go into to turn it. Probably a neumono claw, what with the handwriting.

>"Fufa? So what?"
...I don't know if that's a stupid level or blasé, arrogance, or ignorance. Really not liking her attitude though.

>Poisoning their own food supply just for the chance that we'll run across it and yank it seems pretty dumb
Yes, but let's not forget how much of what they've done so far seems pretty dumb.

>Book
So it's just a diary lock? No mechanism to destroy the contents if you force it?

I don't see why you'd need to waste a bullet, then. Couldn't you use a knife to cut around the lock? Or use pliers from one of the toolkits to cut the lock?

Go ahead and try to open it up. But let someone know you are doing it and make sure you are in a safe area.

Don't waste a bullet if you can just pry the lock off.

Wouldn't it be easier to cut the leather strap the lock secures?

The book might have belonged to a hunter neumono so maybe Orilo will know something about it? Maybe lot of hunters keep diaries?

>>545448
Yep. People like to put fancy unpickable locks on doors you can just kick open, or bust through the wall next to them. Same mistake here.

While you are busy with this have Rokko tell miss surly what a fufu is and what happened. She needs to know just how dangerous it is down here.

Can you just open the lock with your clawtip then?

1/2 Biles 2013/10/26(Sat)17:59 No. 545480 ID: d38f67
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I wasn't planning on using a bullet as the first attempt, but even getting that far is overthinking it. The leather is tough, but I'll be able to get through it with a minute's patience. It's no fanciful, unpickable lock around a door I could kick open, but maybe this really is just meant to keep the arkots out.

"Hey, you guys ever keep diaries?" I ask over the rocks.
>"What? No. Is that a diary?" Rokko responds.
"Nope, just wondering. Rokko, can you tell Orilo about the fufa?"
She doesn't respond directly to me, but I hear her talking to Orilo about our trip in better detail.

2/2 Biles 2013/10/26(Sat)17:59 No. 545481 ID: d38f67
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"And nevermind, it's a diary." I say to them anyway.

At first I'm disappointed that it's not some confidential data, yet not just does it make me curious to its personal mysteries, but it may have some personalized info on the salikai after all.

It all depends. I've got to wonder to myself if I'm really going to pry into this girl's personal affairs.

It's a Rokoa Clone's diary. The enemy. You don't get polite about the enemy's secrets.

The name, crossed out in the upper left. Rokoa. And there's another name scribbled after it. And look at how messy this is- the deranged look. The signs of a troubled mind.

This was written by one of the clones.

Probably very unpleasant matter in here, but it could give useful information or insight if you have to fight one of these things. Or maybe information that could help in treatment if someone is hit by a dart.

...wait. Shit. More importantly, that means the empty cot was Rokoa's. She's the one who's going to find the dead arkots and looted camp. And she's going to be pissed that you took that book.

You made damn sure your trail can't be followed, right? Because a Rokoa clone is nearly as dangerous as the fufa, only a hell of a lot more determined.

As creepy as it might be there might be some info we can gain from reading it. Any info about what they are doing in there and what they hope to achieve with all of this cloning could be helpful.

While the clones we have seen are unstable a good portion of that is from being packed full of bugs and other mind control tech. If we ever managed to disable the systems controlling them they would for the most part immediately turn on the Salikai.

>>545489
Seems overly hopeful, to me. Yes, the bugs make things worse, but at least part of the instability comes from poor melding of completely different personas / minds. In the cases where Rokoa doesn't completely (or mostly) destroy the mind of her victim, you get a melding and an unstable, confused, possibly schizophrenic clone.

And it doesn't help that even the original Rokoa flirted with outright psychosis.

>If we ever managed to disable the systems controlling them they would for the most part immediately turn on the Salikai.
We've only encountered two clones- the sniper, and the one who cropped herself. And the cropper was running around without bugs, willingly fighting for the salikai. The sniper was fighting her control, but doesn't exactly come across as the sanest person.

We can't say how many of the other clones are sane, how many are working with the salikai willingly, how many would fight against them but are forced to fight with them, and how many are simply too insane not to bug.

Just give it a skim for tactical info. Like "dear diary, today the salikai are in a better mood because X" or "today I had to go Y with Z", things like that. It's possible the bugs wouldn't have tried to restrain sensitive info with a diary that wasn't intended to be read by others. There's probably not too much to go through, since the clones aren't that old, and you can skip over the personal stuff. Assuming, of course, this is a Rokoa clone's diary, which seems likely, unless there's someone else running around being crazy in that specific "no that's not my name!!" way. What's the other name trying to come through? Something ending in "okok"? Or "okolu"? That sound familiar to any of your allies, here? I don't know if any hunters would have been subjected to Rokoafication, they probably arrived too recently. Though, who knows, maybe some are in the works.

It may be pretty disturbing, but you have a decent sanity rating, right Biles? Guy who spends ages alone in threatening environments, you've got to have a bit of resilience against going crazy yourself, eh? Especially when your planet's naturally full of freaky creatures to begin with.

I am not saying the clones are our friends by any means. Just that even the ones that are "working" with the Salikai are being abused and mind controlled.

So its more like letting a pack of dangerous animals loose in the enemy base if we knocked off four stripes. Some would try to escape, and some would try for revenge or just hide.

Good thing NCO Arkot wasn't there huh?
Read the journal, you may get lucky and learn some clone weaknesses. Keep in mind Moi might know the former identity of the clone and give you some insight into her thought processes.

Biles 2013/10/27(Sun)00:36 No. 545553 ID: d38f67
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The answer is yes, yes I am.

>It may be pretty disturbing, but you have a decent sanity rating, right Biles?
Yeah.

This diary isn't exactly a book of fine draftsmanship, but I can hardly criticize her for it.

Use the left and right arrow keys to flip through pages.

>>545552
Alright, sounds like her and Polo clashed but Polo got away. If you ever find an arkot that seems different from the others, you might want to avoid killing it, so as not to provoke the clone.

Can you find your way back to the camp you found the diary at? This is a big, big target for debugging. If she's not wearing her armor anymore you could operate on her while she resists the bugs.

Goddamn the sniper clone is fighting so hard and she resisted the bugs!
Debugging her would be a major boon since she knows the salikai base and might shed some more light on the psi bomb that she mentioned.

That's a interesting read. If she is wandering around down here with a arkot leader she could be a huge source of info. Not sure how to debug her though. But if her diary is down here with a big crate of food maybe she was in that camp. If we found her without her armor on then we might have a chance. Her bugs are programed to make her go after polo so maybe someone else would not set them off.

I noticed two pages ripped out of the book. Did she write hard enough to leave a imprint of what she wrote on the next page? The stuff they forced her to censor might have forbidden info we could use.

Psibomb probably fucks with Neumono empathy, might destroy it completely. Vanski thinks he's going to die here, and he's going to get vengence, but he also thinks he's going to make the universe a better place.

So the psibomb will kill a lot of neumono, but more importantly kill their empath ability, which is why he needs Polo's brain. He'll monitor the parts of the brain that cover empathy when she shuts it down and try to put a way to force that into other neumono brains in some sort of device like jammers and the empathy relays. Basically, a giant 4 stripes order where every neumono's body is forced into using Polo's technique, forever, and pass it down through their children.

This is all just theory but seems to be the most likely explanation considering the name and his really confusing and slightly contradictory goals that sound true.

He's making the genophage for the neumono. Only its about empathy instead of lowering the reproduction rate.

Or it could just be a bomb that blasts so much energy on the electromagnetic band that neumono empathy relies on that it burns out or kills everyone within a few miles.

He probably started on the disabling empathy idea when he learned about Polo. But now they are getting desperate and it could take months or years of experiments on Polo to figure it out. They could get discovered any time now and are getting closer to the go out in a blaze of glory option.

Whatever the plan is if they set off a bomb underground the signal will not penetrate far. They probably wanted to make several and sneak them into ultrahives or satellites.

Diary of a clone. At least you have confirmation Polo's still alive. Or she was.

If you guys see a funny looking arkot in a blanket, we probably don't want to kill it. It would suck if that clone went from fighting her bugs constantly to wanting to kill you.

>he needs Polo and time to make a psi bomb
...well that can't be good. Has to be something that fucks with empathy. Note to self: don't let her be taken alive.

Although if his endgame is some kind of bomb that permanently damages empathy for revenge on the neumono race, they could have set this up a hell of a lot better. Considering the position they started in, it wouldn't have been hard for a competent commander to have Polo in custody already.

I note it doesn't make any mention of Polo being darted. Do the salikai not know, or did they just not tell the sniper clone?

Psi-bomb? Better tell that to your friends, along with the rest of the useful info. We might end up with someone going "oh we should kill Polo so that doesn't happen", but there are more neumono with the silent ability than just Polo, so that won't work. Though, if the bugs are being used to enforce the "capture Polo" command, maybe getting Polo to wear a bandolier of explosives and a big sign saying "I'll blow myself up if you touch me" might be helpful? Briefly, at least. Enough to avoid one fight, maybe, before they straighten out the confusion.

With this emphasis on Polo, I wonder if they've tried to clone her? Not like the clones we've seen around here, they didn't have enough of her for that, but maybe the old-fashioned way? Could be a little baby Polo around somewhere.

>>545573
Trouble, is, anything that fucks with empathy could mean the end of the species. In jammers, you're ok so long as you're in body contact, but Polo's ability shuts you down completely, so even that wouldn't work. And the problem there is, neumono mothers give empathic instructions to their children while they're pregnant. I don't know the details (it's from an ITQ answer by Rokoa, and the only example she gave of what it teaches them is "how not to be greedy"), but interfering with the developmental process like that would be bad. Very bad.

You don't happen to know much about neumono obstetrics, do you Biles? Or maybe one of your hunter friends just so happens to be a midwife on the side?

>>545583
A neumono populace sans empathy might not be that bad. As we've learned from Lukrasta in ITQ, jammer cities are a thing (mostly off the homeworld I think, though). Growing up without empathy, or as only a sometimes things, doesn't completely mess them up. It just sort of gives them a different outlook. In Father Zozu's opinion, it even seems to be an improvement- resulting in populations that are generally less xenophopic and aggressive. Maybe Vasti is trying to force the same thing? 'Cure' the species?.

Although I guess if jammer city neumono still form hives, the babies would need to be exposed to the hive's empathy long enough to imprint it. So a complete and permanent blackout might be a bad thing.

...oh, and if you were having trouble finding that ITQ, that's cause it was Korli, not Rokoa. >>/questdis/65036 But yeah, not much on details in any event.

>>545586
In Father Zozu's opinion rape is ok if it doesn't cripple the victim.

>>545636
To be more precise, he thought those of lower rank should be accepting of higher ranking members' sexual "needs", because they are more valuable. "Take one for the team", basically.

>>545636
>>545657
Less then kind mob-boss he is, though, I find him pointing out signs of positive social development in a hated racial enemy significant.

And what we know about one Salikai isn't a terrible place to start when trying to puzzle out what annother one might be thinking.

Assuming all the Psi-Bomb does is disable empathy like a big permanent jammer seems innocuous compared to what could be done by by an insane Salikai blasting overpowered signals over a special-wide empathic link.

>>545658
Becoming docile and xenophilic is the kind of development you want to see in a enemy.
Anyway, Excuse me but I am queasy about destroying peoples senses so that they'll develop 'positive' personality traits.

Yeah "solving" a problem that the Neumono are well on there way to fixing themselves by murdering and torturing people is always the way to go.

The Salikai are a bunch of monsters who like to pretend they have some sort of noble goal.

If they had stayed in the spire and made some neat technology that helped people then revealed themselves a few years later they could have impressed the galactic community and done a bunch to redeem there races image.

Instead they start building bioweapons and mind control devices and start experimenting and torturing there own scientists. Then the second things go downhill they swear revenge and start building a doomsday weapon.

Biles 2013/11/03(Sun)11:13 No. 546496 ID: d38f67
File 138350600992.png - (16.52KB , 800x800 , 635.png )

>Did she write hard enough to leave a imprint of what she wrote on the next page?
It's worth a shot. I take my share of the rations, and make a mark on the page. It's hard, but it does smear slightly, if poorly. So I tear off one of the empty papers and place it above a written paper that was below a ripped page. If the written page was pressed down hard, then with just a little luck, it'll keep its indentations, and smearing my rations will make an outline of the ripped words.

I get a little lucky.
>I helped load things from the voklit arena pit to our upper entrance. Not many of us know about it, but it doesn't seem well protected.

And the second ripped page goes just as well.
>I found out today that injecting an neumono that's not hurt that bad with a regeneration salve will just try to repair its whole body and enter hibernation for a bit. I don't know why.

>>546496
NICE. Info about an unguarded exit, and news that the regeneration injections can be used to knock out neumono. Too bad we don't have any of those.

Should we go back out and scout the surrounding area?

Nice. That entrance might prove valuable for Polo's plan, if you're every in communication with her group again.

The other information is interesting, but not immediately helpful, as you don't have any regeneration accelerator at the moment.

(Polo's group will have discovered that anyways when they test it on Marra. She's not seriously wounded, more chewed up. No harm done if the test put her to sleep, since the group is holed up and resting anyways.

Good thing we decided to wait to test later at the campsite and not by the river where we did the rest of the first aid, or we would have had to carry her).

Alright, finish organizing your supplies, think on what details from that to share with your allies when they're done discussing what happened, and think about what our next move should be.

Might be a good idea to send out someone to spy on that camp in case the clone comes back or if the opportunity to get more supplies comes up.

If we ever find some of those regen things they might be a great way to debug someone without having to beat them half to death first.

After our encounter with that fufu we had better be more careful deploying Moi because she might be invisible but I bet there is a ton of stuff in here that can track her by sent or vibration.

How are you holding up energy wise after that little chase? If you need a bit of rest go for it and if not we should start planning our next outing. Also make sure everyone knows about the fufu and what it can do and how you got away.