Gaian Luck - AAR

[Mart]

Lieutenant Athelgan was sitting on a stone, one of many, that were forming some kind of a symbol surounding alien monolith. Facing west he was watching defensive patrol in a distance of over 15 kilometers through binoculars attacking mindworm boil in the river estuary. His crew made a firecamp near the monolith wall. A stop near the monolith was always most wanted experience. After several of months driving wild regions to the north, he needed it. That feeling of tingling of recuperating body. It was quite strong, so really were they so much exhausted?


The attack looked like a standard one, the rovers were spread with distance of at least 100 meters to minimize psi coupling in case of trouble. Reaching the boil edge, rovers got "attached" to them yellow smudges of fire. Now mindworms were burning. Athelgan was no trancer, he felt nothing. No connection to the planet, although being a scout and explore Chiron was his childhood dream. Speeders were getting deeper into the boil, but one of them stopped its flame thrower. Why? It then stopped. After few secconds violently started with a turn of 90 degrees left. Then started to spit flames again. Although in all directions. Panic? One of the other rovers got hit in an unlacky way, cause quickly caught fire. Its crew left the rover and with hand-held flame throwers seemed to be puzzeled what to do next.


Athelgan got to his feet and walked to their vehicle, the Earth made "unity" rover, scouting version, enhanced for rough terrain. It was bigger than most of the Gaian Chiron made models, and it was equipped with quite a number of additional gadgets. He checked on motion scanner if anything bothering was in their proximity. Scanner showed nothing and was sending reassuring prompt-ok beeps. He turned radio on and tuned in to the military freequency, the one the attacking rover defensive unity would be on.


"...static... regroup to ... could you ... static ... repeat... got them, goth them! ...."
Monolith is affecting received signal? He turned boost on.
" I repeat, stop advancing. Retreat to starting position. Do not approach other vehicles. Do not fire on our rovers. I repeat, retreat to starting position. Do not fire on our rovers..."


This was not looking good. Athelgan took binoculars and again took a look at the battlefield. Another rover was on fire. Three rovers now were flame-throwing everywhere around them. This needed action immediately. He called the crew, the fire camp was over. Red alert. And he needs to contact The Exploration Command.





* * *


Meanwhile in University Base

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* * *


* Lady Deirdre, we have one of our scouting units north of Greenhouse Gate on line. There is a trouble with the defensive rover unit, their attack on mindworm boil went awry. The scouts can hit the boil from the opposite direction. Should they proceed?
- What are their odds?
* They report around 70% of success.
- Yes, proceed. Please keep me informed about the attack.


Minutes of uncertainty. Will they get a human-controlled mindworm boil this time? Unlikely, if the defensive unit failed, this will not happen.


* Lady, I have urgent message from University Base. Should I put it through?
- Yes.
Finally, Zakharov probably solved his connection problems. Being so busy with generating science for their new human colony on this planet must have its impact on everyday life matters, like communication.





- ...
- ...
- So? have you connected the channel?
* Yes, Lady. You do not receive it?
- No.
* ... Sorry, Lady. I do not see anything more on University channel.
- Strange... Or is it?

[Mart]

Unity Scout Rover, commanded by Lieutenant Athelgan, rolled down the monlith hill. They were going towards sea bay, where rock formations were scarce and they could reach battlefield faster. The battle plan was to attack mindworm boil from behind, systematically burn them, while mindworms were focused on human unit on the other boil side. Athelgan trusted his estimate, he had already experience with mindworms and dealt with worse boils.





Only three minutes into the attack, when the flamethrower did not even manage to heat enough to start high intesity cooler, he felt, that something is not as expected. He felt very anxious, much more anxious than usually. What about the crew? Gunner was still shooting, but now he seemed to avoid large concentration spots of mindworms. As if he did not want to harm them.
- "We're loosing focus! Hit the mindworms!" He shouted to the intercom.
And then their rover stopped.
- "This is Athelgan. Resume the attack!" No reaction from the crew. Athelgan looked at the rover monitors. They all seemed to behave ok, no signs of panic.
- "Resume the attack!" Athelgan repeated.
The driver moved, released seatbelts and reached to the entrance hatch lock. Several seconds later Athelgan watched him on exterior cameras, walking around the rover and watching the boil, without any special expression on his face. Hypnosis? Is he somehow hypnotically controlled into non-aggressive behaviour? Mindworms were not acting like this. This is strange and something new. Soon the gunner and the mechanic left the rover too. Mindworms were approaching, they reached the driver and were now crawling on his body.


Athelgan could not stay inside the vehicle. He took hand-held flamethrower and left. His crew was already taken over by mindworms. None of them will survive. He looked to the west, Defensive Rovers, that were attacked by the boil, were less than a kilometer now from his position. Smoke was slowly rising from several of them in gentle breeze from the bay. He started to walk there. Athelgan felt no panic, interesting. Was it some kind of mind control? Mindworms were all around him, but were crawling lazily, as if they did not notice him or were not considering him a threat. That was correct, Athelgan felt no need to attack them any more. His Unity Scout Rover lost and now he was a mere observer.

[Mart]

Meanwhile in University Base

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* * *

* Lady Deirdre, there are important reports regarding Human Hive and Morgan Industries.





* Lady, I have also an urgent message from University Base. Should I put it through?
- Yes.
So what is it this time, Zakharov?



- ...
- ...
- So? have you connected the channel?
* Yes, Lady. You do not receive it?
- No.
* ... Sorry, Lady. I do not see anything more on University channel.
- Hmmm ...

[Mart]

Thegan was happy with what his transfer to GreenhouseGate Base brought him. Service in Scout Patrol. They were main base defense, no much work in the terrain, he preferred this way. Sightseeing of Chiron was not his favourite occupation. He liked evenings in the base, the life was good here. Far away from Gaian crowdy core territory. Suny Mesa was not troubled by events from Gaian Headquarters. Except for this New Year, 2162. What seemed to be Great Fun of New Year's Eve, turned into Great Disapointment. Three hours before 2162 hit Greenhouse Gate, the order came of immediate march out. To the North in Mesa River estuary, there was a mindworm boil, spoted to be weak, so time was an important factor, if they hurry, it will be easily destroyed.


They dropped everything they were doing, and after 35 minuts they had the base behind them and were marching along rocky trail towards Mesa River. However, Thegan was no longer that happy with the job. When they completed arming themselves, he have heard from one of the officers unofficial part of the order. The boil destroyed already two Gaian Rover units.


* * *


Next day as the alpha sun was setting, they noticed something in front of them, a human walking south from the estuary direction. When they met, they surrounded him. Armed with hand-held flamethrower, dressed in Scout Exploration Corps uniform, he was smiling. Not reacting to their presence, apart from stopping when troopers blocked his way.
- "Who are you, scout?" Commander asked him. He did not reply. Then Commander slowly approached him and carefully pulled out his name-tag.
Lieutenant Athelgan, Second Unity Scout unit.
- "Lieutenant, can you tell us what happened?" Silence, no reaction. Smiling the same. His eyes were focused on something behind surrounding him troopers.
- "Maybe he is infected?"
- "No, infected do not behave like this."
- "What do we do, Commander?"
Commander clearly was uncertain, what to do. They could not leave Athelgan alone. It was not good to split the unit before attacking the mindworm boil, every man counted. And the Lieutenant could be dangerous, although most likely not infected. There was no other choice though.
- "You and you will escort him back to base. Be careful, he may be dangerous."


* * *


They camped till late morning, then started towards the bay along Mesa River. Around noon on the second day of 2162, they formed an attack line and started cleaning the terrain from clearly exhausted mindworms. "So, this is how it looks like, when the worms are barely alive." Thegan thought. Maybe it is not that bad to serve in Scout Patrol.

[Mart]

Ocean.
Endless container of treasures.
"The sea is everything..."
Money Energy floating around everywhere!

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[Mart]

Too late, Provost. Too late!

Sorry...

Sorry...

Meanwhile in University Base

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Provost Zakharov fell hard on his chair after a call from Intelligence Office.
"Damn!!! This sneaky Lady Deirdre! Gaians have Luck. I wonder why!?"
So University of Planet will not be superior in playing games.
"If we cannot play the best games in our virtuality" Zakharov thought, "We will play real games! HAAA!"

[Mart]

...

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[Mart]

Update of maps with Peacekeepers. Zakharov territory is now visible to Gaians.





Gaians invest in their future.

[Mart]

MY 2164


Chiron oceans and seas are not to be trifled with...





Riding the waves.

Sorry...

[Mart]

Sorry...

...

[Mart]

Morganites have 4 bases, its total population is 12.

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There are 5 synth defenders, all in bases, but what is surprising, Morgan built 5 formers!


Morgan's choice of building items is typical for a builder.


And Morgan's net income of +23 is larger than that of Gaians (+22).


Diva Plavalaguna will perform in Fhloston Paradise luxury hotel and she will have the stones! The stones might be ... rolling?

Sorry...

[Mart]

Blessings of UNS Unity spaceship.

Sorry...

[Mart]

Pollution kicks in.

Sorry...

[Mart]

MY 2165

Gaians get into bussiness of deep mining. Is it environmental protection? Or it is environmental negligence, falsified reports about environmental impact of the boreholes.

* * * Listen to part of the report * * *

[Mart]

Planning a new base on Spartan continent, or actually Spartan-Morgan-...
When in truce, still it is possible to push their border and have starting point on the offensive against Sparta Command.
Santiago will not be happy.