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Well I can say that Emily likes the armor organism I grew. Which is good, the project… may have suffered a few planning issues, other then how to let her control it. Mostly indiscision on how it should look and what Essences to integrate into it.

The Essence started out as strongly spiderlike… then became a horribly over-designed crab thing… At one point I was taking a serious look at Orca Essence acquired from the Antarctic waters. Fortunately I have some sense, and putting a girl into a 'whale' body sounds like a good way to have a rather irate girl on my hands. Tentacles. Whatever.

Even if Orcas are cool. And not actually whales.

Of course one can't deny the sensuous beauty of a naga, but the difficulty in making good human-looking body-parts got in the way, and there is no way I was leaving Emily's upper torso just exposed to enemy eyes. Or bullets. Or various esoteric cape powers. Also lacking legs is a mobility challenge.

After way too much thought and reworks, I came back to the spider. Sort of. Six legs and a pair of manipulator limbs would technically qualify as arachnid I think.

Which is why I am now watching Emily climb a creep covered ruin as something that would probably be called a Drider, or Arachne to the more cultured. A vaguely humanoid upper torso — if one excuses the blue carapace covering it, pallid white skin, sharp clawed fingers, wriggling tentacle-based 'hair' that I admit serves very little purpose except aesthetic, and multiple pairs of eyes — that transitions into a passable merge of spider and praying mantis. Cosplaying as a crab.

Emily herself is curled up in the fetal position under the thick and spiked dorsal carapace. It's probably the most well defended part of the organism. Well I'm sure some Thinker will still look at it and say "That point, right there, that's the weak point despite all the armor!" There's only so much I can do to prepare for cape bullshit. There is however other, slightly less protected weak points, one being the organisms primary heart and the other being it's primary neural organ. Neither of them should be easy to take out, but doing so will effectively 'kill' the organism so… hopefully those will draw any fire if — when — Emily gets into a fight.

The entire organism is quite large, the humanoid portion is roughly on scale with Emily's real size, the spider-crab portion big enough to contain her, a number of organs, and all the superstructure to carry the rest of the body.

It's unfortunate the organism was already on its way to being grown by the time I got my hand on the more interesting South American Essences. Emily will have to make do with her own disintegration field, the Reflect Symbiote which meshes with the armor organism quite neatly, and throwing fireballs thanks to Howtizers shard connection. Oh, and spitting boiling caustic acid as well as containing a small Scourge production organ.

Once she's done familiarizing herself with her armor, Emily returns to the bunker. The organism shudders, twitches, and there's a couple of loud cracks and pops as the back peels open to allow a naked Emily's to slip out. "I love it! It's so fun to move around like that! I can't wait to try it out in a fight!" She exclaims with a wide smile on her face, and throws herself at my Abzu body in a limpet-tight hug.

That's expected, and quite frankly, I'm surprised she's been this patient in not getting involved with the conflict. Oh she's been exploring all over, accompanied by a small host of organisms, but she's refrained from approaching the Enclave — I suppose the encounter and subsequent death of — what was his name, Derick or something like that — soured her on meeting other friendly people a bit. Well it's not like the I'm going to send her to slaughter innocent civilians. Unless they become a problem that Hewson and his folks can't handle.

I ponder for a while, and scan through my organisms to check on the status of my territory and the border.

Ratlings scavenging… Zerglings and Mutalisks patrolling… A pack of Zerglings being nervously watched by soldiers at the current border… Hatcheries growing more units… Sienna, Marcus, and Benjamin talking with a small gathering of people in the newly acquire territory… group of Hewsons people checking out a small powerplant on the outskirts of the city… another pack of Zerglings slaughtering kangaroos…

"Nothing stands out as needing to die right this minute… But I think I'll have to shake things up on the border soon. Push to the ocean before the army gets too entrenched and reinforced. Keep up the pressure since I can outproduce them with all the new hatcheries and Creep expansion. You can join then. Unless you want to try and find out where all these kangaroos keep coming from?"

Emily giggles and relaxes her grip on me, but doesn't let go. "Mmm… nah not really. Maybe a kangaroo triggered as the worlds first animal-cape? With cloning powers!"

"Pretty sure Spree has those."

"Who?"

"Ah some cape over in North America. Doesn't matter."

I should find out what's going on with that but it's not something I can task my organisms with and just leave them to it, and I've got more important things to deal with personally. Ah my — small but growing — kingdom for trusted people to delegate to! At least Hewson seems to have the Enclaves and newly acquired citizens in hand.

Julia Gillard strode into the command room. "General." She greeted the man who was leaning over a large map table. "What's the situation?"

"Madam Prime Minister. Unchanged from when you asked a couple hours ago. Our men are digging in, the front-line is stable. Mostly. We've gotten a few hundred additional refugees from the occupied zone, mostly small groups on foot.

"We've also had about a couple dozen reported cases of individuals attempting to sneak into the occupied zone, mostly reporters, with the odd thrill seeker, and one wanted criminal that thought he'd escape the law. My men have stopped them of course, but odds are a few made it in unnoticed. We are rather stretched thin, even with the international help we are getting. If I may ask, any word on the CUI?"

Julia grimaced at the question. "The Chinese Union-Imperial is proving difficult. They're quite eager to assist us… but the concessions they ask for in exchange are rather… unacceptable."

"That's unfortunate. We could use the extra manpower." He gestures at the map. "With India, Canada, and the Americans providing assistance, we've managed to stiffen the perimeter, but that's it. India especially has my gratitude for the tinkers they sent. They and our engineers are doing what they can to reactivate and reset our heavy armor divisions."

He doesn't need to go into detail of just how badly decommissioning the old-world motorized armor had bit them all in the arse. "I do have some good news, our diplomats wrangled a deal with Thailand, they're sending a healer over. He's nothing like the Americans healers, but he should be able to get some of our less injured capes back into an active role in the next week or so."

"I'm sure that has Minister Vargas happy." The general grunted.

"Quite." Julia agreed. "What about the refugees? What's being done with them?"

"Detained, isolated, and being held for questioning."

"Have them sent over to the Minsitery of Parahuman Affairs." Julia said. "Let them deal with trying to determine which ones are escapees from the quarantine zone."

General Vargas nodded, and made a quick note, sending off a message to to get the transfer organized. "Speaking of the quarantine zone. The current stalemate isn't going to last, we're preparing as fast as humanly possible but the opposing force is… not so limited. Estimates based on sightings and pack sizes of the creatures are growing fast."

"Damn. I'll see what further assistance I can pull in General."

Hours later, Julia stretched at her desk and paused to flex a cramp out of her hands. "What's next Sebastian?" She asked her aide.

"Hm… report from the Minister of Parahuman affairs, regarding the refugees you had the army send over."

"Great… why don't you give me the highlights while we walk, I need some tea and to get out of this chair."

Sebastian fell in beside her when she rose to do just that. "Of course. Minster Vargas starts off with the usual -"

"You can skip that part." Julia sighed with exasperation. The complete failure of the Parahuman offensive into Canberra, and subsequent occupation of territory by the Canberra Creatures had rather changed the mans promising future. Now his reputation was in free fall, and everyone knew it. Julia herself had to distance herself from him, lest she be dragged down alongside. The calls for his resignation had already begun, and some of the more extreme voices were suggesting a harsher punishment. They might even get their way, with how the public was taking the loss of so many heroes.

"In that case…" Sebastian skims through the report. "Ah, they did not find any proof that any of the refugees are from the quarantine zone itself. Four of them however have close family within the city, and while their choice to flee rather then go seek out their loved ones once the quarantine fell speaks well of their judgment…"

"It means we can't entirely trust them either."

"As you say. Further on… Ah, the refugees tell of the slaughter, bloodshed, and so on that they witnessed during the occupation. A few of them however have pointed out that afterwards, even during their escape, the creatures left them alone as long as they didn't take an aggressive stance." Sebastian paused reading the report, and glanced at Julia. "Could we try a diplomatic approach, if unarmed civilians are being left alone?"

Julia gave his question proper consideration. It was a valid question, even if the answer had to be negative. "Unfortunately not. Even if we were so naive as to trust the words of panicked civilians, with the Simurgh involved everything is suspect. Even if whoever is behind these creatures can be talked to and reasoned with, we can't trust them. Worse, they have to know that, which means they know they can't trust us. Assuming the original creator is even still alive and didn't become the first victim of her - or his - creations. Add in the Bio-Tinker and possible Master angle if they are still alive, plus the dead and injured capes… No. Even if I was willing to overlook all that, the people and my rivals would not."

They paused then to order their drinks. After acquiring those, Julia continued. "It's not even a local issue alone. The eyes of the world are on us since that damned PHO leak got out of hand. Everyone… Mostly everyone follows the Endbringer Accords, but those don't mention aid afterwards. Most of our allies are happy to sit back and not get involved. It's not their people and cities in danger of course."

"Some have come to our aid." Sebastian pointed out.

"Yes. Minimally. With mostly traditional resources. Notice how none of the American esteemed Triumvirate came flying in to help out. Except for Thailand's healer," She omitted trying to actually pronounce the name, "the few capes that have come over are solid B and C listers. At best."

Just over four days since the Quarantine broke. Two days since the forty new hatcheries spread around the newly conquered area finished growing and began pumping out Organisms. The Creep is having a hard time keeping up, but even so the hatcheries are stating to hit their biological limit of around a thousand eggs a day. Each. Turns out my initial estimate at eight times that number was a tad optimistic, but that is still a lot of Zerglings, Roachs, and Mutalisks. Mostly Zerglings, as Roachs and Mutalisks take two days to mature so only the first generation is ready. Unfortunately Scourge Crawlers take too long so their numbers a more limited, and I haven't quite found the time to examine the Shard-Essence from the capes captured during the quarantine breach. Or more like, I have been reluctant to touch one and risk losing consciousness again.

Under cover of darkness, my swarm scurries eastward in the direction of what the maps label as the Deua River Valley, which carves through the mountains and into a large floodplain before hitting the coast. It doesn't escape my notice it's a fairly inhabited area. Or that it's one of the places the military is focusing their fortifications on - I suppose it is a rather obvious target, especially since I already tried for it once, during the initial establishment of the current border.

Emily greets the news with cheer and confidence. "I'm going too!" I don't argue, I did promise after all.