Skion
Skulna spies several key targets, but decides to go after the mysterious zombie messing with the command console.
She flies over to strike...
The OTC spits gross, green blood over the area, and the zombie is tossed several feet away, still grabbing for the controls.
The console begins to spark!
Something came out of the zombie's hand...
What could it be?
"New directive! New directive!" Mara shouts into the communications channel, leaning dangerously over the railing, "Retrieve the antenna at all costs! At all costs!"
"Will the console work without it?" Dienekes asked.
"None of that matters!" Mara shouted anxiously, "It cannot be lost under any circumstances!"
"What is it, then? Why change the mission parameters for... that?"
"The mission parameters have not changed," Mara said slowly.
Dienekes noticed the rest of the science crew was carefully ignoring their conversation. He thought back to the battle feed, when the fleebnork had zombified the Dew trooper. Things were not adding up.
"Mara..." he said, "I would think very carefully about continuing to keep me in the dark on this."
The scientist glanced to Dienekes' inert OTC before she answered. "It's just a relay. But it talks to all of our systems, and if anyone else were to steal it many of our secrets would be at risk."
"Why would something so valuable be included in that command array? It was to be left on the surface when the portal activated," Dienekes said, "and besides, how in the hell did that zombie know to rip it out?"
The surrounding crew shifted nervously, and Dienekes knew he was the only one in the room in the dark.
He continued, "You will fill me in. Now."
Mira spoke up foolishly, "You misunderstand, we must--"
Dienekes ignored her, and spoke directly to Mara, "I will kill you and everyone in this room if you do not."
Mara hesitated, but gave in. "We were running out of time. The machine needed to be able to operate if we were no longer in orbit, and to coordinate with other portals around the planet. We decided this was our best option, putting an autonomous system with those details on the surface so that other portals could be dropped in and then turned on by the relay."
"Why would that be necessary?"
"Because if we were called back we did not want to abort the mission."
Dienekes pondered this for a moment. "And how did that zombie know to rip it out?"
Mara and Mira exchanged a glance.
"I suppose it evolved to understand the system through the communal hive mind when certain Skion units were assimilated in the nighttime operation."
"They can do that?" Dienekes asked.
Mira cut in, "We thought that sort of thing might be possible, but never expected to lose any of our own..."
Dienekes sensed something was off.
"You've never mentioned evolution of the species. How many meetings and briefings have you given me about the swarm? I fought on Skion during the Swarming. I didn't see anything like this. They chewed right through us, but in all that fighting and the endless violence not once did I even hear rumors of anything like this happening."
He stepped toward on of the monitors. "That fleebnork broke open the Dew troopers face and shoved some sort of appendage into it. All that was left was a sheet of blood. The other zombies don't even have flesh left on their faces. What is going on, here?"
Mara noticed Dienekes' fist was tense. There could be no further delays.
"Dienekes," she said, "we engineered the fleebnorks to do that."
His head tilted to the side and his eyes narrowed.
"You fought true fleebnorks on Skion, and we knew they would be the perfect weapons. We already knew how to fight them, but nobody else in the Brikverse has such an advantage. So, what would it take to wield them in this way? Could we make them faster? Deadlier? No, it turns out, but... we could amplify their ability to disrupt populations. We fought monsters on Skion, imagine if we also had to fight our families. That's what we've been putting into place down there. And, as you can see, it has been a fabulous demonstration."
Dienekes didn't say anything for a moment. He wasn't expecting all of that. He may have to have a conversation with someone beyond the minifigures in front of him.
"Prepare my ship. I will return for you."
The heavy flamer spits heat and death, catching the Studland hero in its arc.
A speedy Redshirt shoves him out of the way, but he doesn't survive the inferno. The other Studlander dies at the very edges of the flamethrower's range. It is not able to start a fire.
The Studland Hero is now Last Man Standing.
The Wolves advance on Jirac and fire at point blank range.
Her redshirt falls right on his face and the slugs hit hard.
Jirac slowly rises, wounded but only more furious than before. (1HP remains!)
The final Wolf kills a zombie with his flamethrower.
The engineers are already sprinting for the relay (did they already know?) and one of them is able to make it. Skion has the relay!
[MACGUFFIN ACQUIRED]
White Knights
The rocket launcher lets loose at the alley while the hero leaps out of the window and advances on the Skion engineer.
Boom! Three kills!
The Hero shoots down the engineer.
[MACGUFFIN DROPPED]
The troops turn the corner. The MG finishes reloading and the two riflemen take down a zombie.
Wait, who is this???
It runs off, giggling.
The Republic of Studland
The Studland hero charges through the lingering flames and guns down the last Skion engineer.
He throws his axe at the heavy flamer and puts him down.
Perhaps a showdown is imminent...
The Survivors of Ynidon Prime
Jirac, full of fight and fire, lets loose with her shotgun.
She downs one Wolf and the rest of the survivors take cover.
Lorr downs a zombie.
The last trooper makes his way toward the group.
The Undead Deadly Spacemen
The two "downed" UDSM suddenly, and with great fanfare, stand right back up.
The other two move up and are almost to Skion.
Children of Dew
The jetpack trooper starts gunning down the giant fleebnork, wounding it.
He tries to kick it off the tower but he fails.
Inside the building, nothing changes except the troops expend more ammunition fruitlessly.
The Child of Dew charges forward at Eldon.
"I will have your sword!"
The two duel with great violence, but to no effect (several rounds of combat with no damage).
The Immortal Empire
The sniper shoots down a zombie before moving up to the group.
The rifleman and officer take potshots and miss them both.
Eldon counters at the Dew Hero, their chainblades singing in the dreary afternoon.
The Dew Hero gets a momentary advantage and uses it to force Eldon into the Dew.
The two face down in their new, much more wet, arena.
The Swarm
The fleebnork line moves forward.
Because the Immortal wasn't able to free himself in time, he is consumed by the fleebnorks.
And, of course, one of them assimilates him.
The zombie Dew trooper beats an Immortal to death with their bare hands in a display of violence so appalling it can't be shown in 61 countries.
The center of the courtyard opens up and a teeming mass of fleebnorks appears.
The Dew trooper is stung by the giant fleebnork, but it fails to do damage.
Overwatch.
Send orders for Turn 7!
Kill count:
Skion: 6 (Skula wounded)
Children of Dew: 7 + 3 fleebnorks (Hero wounded)
Republic of Studland: 3 + 2 fleebnork
Immortal Empire: 4 + 4 fleebnorks
White Knights: 5 + 3 fleebnorks
Survivors of Ynidon Prime: 4 (Jirac wounded)
\
