Last Command of the Witheld Arc 1: Rebirth

TOLOCHI, GINPAARI ARBOREMISSARY, ☆☆ STONE LVL 8

HELDON, PROVINCE OF ARAGONIA

Tolochi

Race

Ginpaari

Rank/Level

☆☆ Stone Rank Arboremissary Level 8

House

Unaffiliated (Order of Ascension Member)

Racial Gifts

System Access, Ethersenses, Photosynthesis, Botanispeech, Land Affinity, Seed Profusion

Attributes

Dominion

10 [Protection] / 30

Speed

15 [Plant] /30

Precision

8 [Stream] /30

Growth

30 [Life] /30 ☆

Arcana

30 [Sun] /30 ☆

Tensa Pool

32 ks

Gear

Summoned Armor, Druid's Pack, Blackheart Oak Razorangs, Sunlaser Drones

Core Grafts

Wood Shield [Protection], Root Traversal [Plant], Water Cannon [Stream], Animal Form [Life], Abundant Growth [Sun]

Class Powers

Defense

Armor of the Ancients [Protection]

Utility

Garden [Plant]

Plantsight [Plant]

The day had started so simple and now it had gotten…complicated. Tolochi didn’t do complicated. He’d been soaking in his daily meal by meditating in the sun, his magenta petals fully extended, all seven eyespots open with his green and black leaves stretched out to their furthest when a sun-bright beam of energy punched through the sheer granite rockface of Mt. Discovery nearly six hundred meters overhead. The beam lanced out and hit a stand of white alder trees near the bottom of the mountain almost a kilometer away and the trees went up in flames like they had been soaked in propellant.

Tolochi stood from his meditative pose in a single flowing movement. He was two meters tall with tough, bark-like skin the color of hay. He was roughly humanoid-shaped with two arm-like growths covered in tiny folded green leaves and white blossoms that grew from his central trunk and two leg-like pillars of twisted vines. His “head” was an elaborate flower bud with an array of complex sensory organs. Tolochi had his facepetals open while he’d been enjoying breakfast, but like all ginpaari, he kept his face politely hidden when not eating. He closed his facepetals now and focused his senses on the place the beam had come from, growing two outer eyespots to make out details in the light spectrum.

Tolochi spotted something moving briefly way up there on the rockface, but it was too far away for him to be able to resolve much detail. Ginpaari senses were tuned far more to the etheric and thermal spectra and those who disciplined themselves enough to grow eyespots had to train themselves to integrate the visual images with the senses they were used to experiencing the world in. He used his ginpaari racial ability to connect to the local plant network and understand the torrent of data the plant life was constantly exchanging.

His feet sank into the soil, toeform pegs at the end of his feet extended into tiny, threadlike roots which dug deep into the dirt. He felt the other plants around him in a pulsing, vibrant rush, and far away down the valley, he felt the alder trees there burning and screaming. Tolochi sent calm through the network of mycelia that connected this forest in the form of feelings of cool breezes and summer rain. It didn’t lessen the burning pain of the alders, but it did let them know he was coming. He felt the trees’ response before he pulled his feet out of the dirt: they had clamped down on their terror and had accepted the death they knew was coming.

Tolochi felt rage spark and catch within him, burning at his heart just like the fire down there was burning the alders. Alders had very poor fire response; they had very sparse postfire seedling establishment and could require decades to recover, especially if those were parent trees burning. An entire generation could be lost down there. He flexed within himself and felt his tensa pool drain nearly a quarter as his form blurred and melted. A moment later, Tolochi was gone, just a ripple in the dirt to mark his passage as he used his Root Traversal graft and sped toward the burning trees.

The stand of white alder was engulfed in a raging inferno when Tolochi arrived just a minute later, his graft having whisked him through the soil. He’d prepared on his way, layering greenery upon himself with his Abundant Growth graft, infusing his rootform with powerful Life tensa. As soon as he emerged from the soil, he summoned his Armor of the Ancients. The powerful graft synergy was timed perfectly. As his armor was summoned in the form of intricately fitted petrified wood slats, it was infused with the Life tensa and the Abundant Growth anchored the armor to him and was reinforced with a thick growth of green, thorny vines as thick as ropes.

Even such potent armor was scant protection against the intensity of the fire. It was worse than he expected: the fire had been infused with tensa making air almost sizzle with heat. He knew he didn’t have much time, so he summoned the one graft he had that could combat the tensa-infused fire—though he was loathe to use it since it was just as destructive as the Fire that was chewing through the trees. He banished his reluctance and breathed in a torrent of tensa before unleashing his Water Cannon graft. His armor bulged at his left shoulder and a metallic cannon smoothly grew out of him, aligning itself with laser-like precision where Tolochi focused. Blue runes glowed all along the barrel and coolant hoses extended deep into Tolochi’s trunk. The cannon glowed with an actinic blue light at the barrel, extending a full meter in front of him. Tolochi braced himself and fired the cannon.

The temperature in the area immediately cooled significantly taking it from an inferno to a mere oven. The cannon blasted a stream of tensa-infused Water at the fire. Wherever Tolochi pointed the cannon, the fire was instantly smothered, even its intense heat no match for the direct infusion of Water tensa that Tolochi was pouring into it. The strain was intense though and he couldn’t keep it up for very long.

He had to identify the worst, most intense sources of the flames and concentrate his Water Cannon there before he collapsed from complete tensa drain. It was no sure thing: the smoke was choking him and he felt his greenery crisping and burning away. The petrified wood armor beneath it was growing warm, even infused with Protection tensa. Tolochi didn’t stand in one place, though.

He was able to use the dying plants’ root system in the area to quickly skate throughout the stand, leaving a plowed pair of furrows behind him as he sped around. Tolochi didn’t waste tensa by continuously firing his Water Cannon. He made targeted sweeps, putting out entire trees at once, doing his best to target areas that were likely to spread the flames more.

It took twenty intense minutes of skating through the area with his speed bleeding away as the plants that usually provided him speed through their living roots died, turning into just another stratum in the soil, before he brought the fire under control. He was completely tapped out and singed. His armor was blackened and cracked and he had painful burns from infused Fire all over his body. He could feel his powerful Growth attribute—the first he’d advance to 20—working to heal him, but the burns would take a long time to heal completely. His facepetals had burned off completely and his headstalk was just a smoldering ruin.

Tolochi felt somewhat blind without his normal eyespots and it was certainly uncomfortable to have lost his headblossom. It would take weeks to grow a new one and there was no way it would be the exact same shade of magenta that he’d cultivated over these last few years. Already though, he was recovering tensa as his subtle, but powerful Grass Grows Ever Upward gathering technique fed him tensa through his connection to the Land.

Once he’d topped off his tensa pool, he formed his anima into the headform he wanted and projected his Abundant Growth graft through it. A thin, bright green vine grew up between his “shoulders” with a teacup-sized little headblossom on it. It opened to the sun, shivering a little in the heat of the still-smoldering alder stand. Tolochi drank in a few drachms of sunlight before closing his new headblossom once more and growing a single eyespot on its exterior—he’d have woefully monocular vision until his headblossom grew a little bigger. He happened to get a glimpse of the color of the headblossom and he felt himself wilt a little. Yellow. He’d been trying to work that color out of his system!

He strode through the burned wreckage, withdrawing the Water Cannon back into his shoulder, releasing the huge tensa reserve the Water Cannon required. The reason he’d been so reluctant to use that particular graft became apparent as he inspected the area. There were still isolated patches that burned and smoked, but they wouldn’t spread. Blackened alder trees had been blasted and sprayed everywhere—where they might have survived some scorching, the Water Cannon blasted them apart. The Water beam at this rank was a pure weapon: it wasn’t intended to be used as a fire control method. The only reason Tolochi had considered it an option was because of the infused Fire. A Fire like that would have consumed the entire mountain if he’d let it go.

His intervention had prevented that from happening, but there was still almost a hectare of charred ruin where there had once been a thriving community of white alder. Tolochi peered back up at the sheer rockface far above and saw the hole up there, still smoking in the morning light. He didn’t see any other movement up there now, but he resolved to find out what had happened.

Tolochi reached into the BOTI pocket he’d sewn into his left leg and took his Systablo out. The slim, book-sized silvered tablet came to life in his hand, displaying the OA logo. He quickly navigated through the menus of the local System, frustrated at his limited access. Independents had to depend on so much of the largesse of the Great Houses that any information they got from the System was highly suspect. The maps of the area, for instance, hadn’t been updated in almost half a millennium. He was well used to working within those limitations though, and in this instance, the age of the maps happened to work in his favor.

House Vasilias had been a Great House for two epochs before they had fallen in their great war with the Kildari Federation and House Bardoul. It seemed that they had managed to achieve Greatness once more since that was the top story on all the news boards in the System. Any Great House that had been in the Empire for as long as House Vasilias had skeletons aplenty in its closets and they only reluctantly fulfilled their part of the Last Commandment in sharing information with the System. That meant whatever maps they chose to share were invariably old, out-of-date, and intentionally misleading. Information security was an obsession for those in power.

Tolochi’s map of the province did not, for instance, show the prospering town of Heldon at the foot of Mt. Discovery. Instead, it showed a small dot on the side of the mountain with just a label: SITE 7Z-87-U6. The only other information the System offered at his level of clearance was “Owned by: House Vasilias”. That was enough to pique his curiosity. His OA mandate was clear here, even if no True Quest would be granted to him: he must investigate what caused the fire and evaluate whether it posed any danger to those in the area.

He put the Systablo back into his BOTI pocket and gazed in dissatisfaction at the still-smoldering woods. It wouldn’t spread, but he didn’t like leaving it unattended. He had no choice though, so he let the frustration go and breathed in the tensa. He allowed a couple of his facepetals to spread a little and drink another bit of sun. Tolochi’s tensa pool was slowly recovering and he picked up speed as he started root-gliding toward the rockface, intent on making his way into the mysterious SITE 7Z-87-US and ending whatever threat could punch through solid stone and ignite the woods with infused Fire.

GRIFFIN TUCKER VASILIAS, GREAT HOUSE SCION, REBORN LVL 5

MOUNT DISCOVERY, PROVINCE OF ARAGONIA

Griffin had flown into his room as if he were shot from a rifle. The 3-D Movement System had proven to be an extremely effective, if not entirely comfortable, method of traveling quickly. The plasma cybercentipedes weren’t too far behind him. He had to get this right or he’d be monster food.

He was still getting used to the DEEP Suit and its additions to his HUD. He looked himself over, taking a moment to decide whether or not to use the dynamite he had conjured when he’d started this whole trek. He knew it would be destructive, but he didn’t know if it would be destructive enough to break through an enchanted windowall.

Griffin faced the windowall and considered it. “The DEEP Suit doesn’t have anything for this, does it? Oh, hang on a second… Artillery?”

Griffin activated the “Weapons System” function of his new DEEP Suit and a text box flashed up in front of him.

SELECT WEAPON SYSTEM TYPE

1. Deadly melee<

2. Nonlethal melee

3. Deadly ranged (Requires Targeting System)

4. Nonlethal ranged (Requires Targeting System)

5. Artillery (requires Targeting System)

“Let’s hope that artillery is enough to blow a hole in the wall,” Griffin muttered. He chose “5. Artillery” even though it also required that he activate the Targeting System and felt the DEEP Suit react. There was a quick drain on his tensa as the weapon began to materialize. Motes of yellow-green light coalesced on his left shoulder into a meter-long sci-fi-looking gun barrel on a shoulder mount that moved where he moved his head.

“I feel like I’m Robocop!” Griffin exclaimed in excitement.

He turned his attention to the wall and the Targeting System reacted to his intent. His vision suddenly came alive with information as the Targeting System informed him that he was not within the safe zone for an artillery shell that would destroy the windowall. The safe zone was indicated with a semi-transparent red half-circle extending out several meters from the windowall. “Griffin,” Kismet said, her voice urgent and right in his ear, “they’re almo—"

“Not right now,” he interrupted, “we’re still in the blast zone for this thing!”

He moved back out of the red half-circle and realized he was right next to the room’s main door. He cleared his throat and knelt down, trying to get a little more stability. Just as he was about to fire the cannon on his shoulder, the door behind him was wrenched right out of the frame and tossed casually down the corridor. Griffin caught a quick impression of thick leafy vines before something slammed into him and he fired the artillery cannon kind of by reflex.

The wall exploded at the same time as he was sent flying toward it. Instead of crashing into the wall, he was sent flying through the still-smoking hole he just made with the cannon. As he was soaring through the air, watching the ground drop precipitously away from him he distinctly heard a very deep, almost melodic and genteel voice say, “Maybe that was a bit too much…”