”AGAINST TWO TWATS!!!” shouted Hermione, collapsed face-first onto the table, and went limp.
After the intense emotional swings of the last few days my desensitized brain just shrugged and began processing her words.
‘She started with an unclouded mind. Therefore, by "pussies," she meant not vulvas — which someone like Hermione Granger would have called just as such — but cats. At first, cats. Then... creatures with feline features?
Because of some conceptual bleeding? No, that’s just too much. Then, about biological chimeras?’
I tried to remember settings with similar chimeras but failed. Then I tried to recall settings where the creation of such chimeras — even with a mix of feline and shrimp characteristics — would be possible, and could think of only two.
A computer game in the strategy genre called Spore, which didn’t quite fit the context. And another computer strategy game called Impossible Creatures.
‘But that doesn’t explain why hordes of such chimeras were eaten by two much stronger ones. Because of some out-of-control experiment? Because of two feline deities? Another feline faction? What if...
Then a quite horrifying thought crossed my mind, and in a desperate hope that it wasn’t true, I opened the modifiers page.
Lewd JumpChain CYOA choices:
World: ASOIAF (adaptation; amalgamation; sexual).
All female Named Characters are ≥18 years old.
Drawback: Song of Ice and Fire no longer exists.
Drawbacks: Impossible Creatures invasion; BattleTech invasion (726 days).
Jumpchain Main Quest: 10 years of Winterfell's existence.
Drawback: Direct damage to non-human magical factions results in a charge-reduction penalty.
Drawback: main-quest related Power Manipulation categories locked.
Powers:
Perks: Athletic, Blank, Mind Barrier.
Power Manipulation (50% discount; sexual).
Drawback: only one superpower can be active at a time.
Drawback: smaller potency and bigger costs of powers.
Companion: Hermione Granger (no binding; 50% discount; Blank; Mind Barrier).
‘Great! Just fucking great! The Island of Dr. Moreau on steroids and spacefaring fascist barbarians. Well, in the CYOA context, it makes sense…’
But my thoughts were interrupted by Hermione. She slowly lifted her head and looked around sleepily. Soon, I asked her about her feelings and experience and found out that she didn’t remember anything since the ‘First Keep Gargoyles with pussies’ moment. During which she saw exactly what she was talking about - strange creatures with feline characteristics.
After giving her a brief summary of what I’d heard from her, omitting the controversial connotations and about ‘twat,’ I didn’t waste time and directly addressed what had been revealed to me on the modifiers page.
“You saw two hostile factions from two different fictional universes.
The first faction universe is from a computer strategy game called Impossible Creatures, with a plot based on The Island of Doctor Moreau book.
The second faction universe is from the BattleTech setting, which was originally created for tabletop games.
Later, it spawned numerous books and computer games. All about human factions fighting in the distant future with armies predominantly consisting of 8-20-meter-tall humanoid robots piloted by humans.
The ‘Impossible Creatures invasion’ modifier doesn’t have a timer, so the invasion has already begun. The ‘BattleTech invasion’ will occur in 726 days, roughly at the time of the canonical confrontation with the Others.
I’ll give a general overview of both factions. We’ll talk details later.
If I remember correctly, in Impossible Creatures, the Tunguska event allowed some scientist to discover an energy that lets him almost momentarily combine the DNA of two animals and create mature chimeras.
This is how it worked in the game: You have the DNA of a giraffe and a scorpion. At first, using the machine’s interface, you’d select parts of the future creature. Like a scorpion’s head, a giraffe’s body, and a scorpion’s tail. Then you press the button, and the machine — using a large amount of electricity converted into another type of energy — creates a fully controllable, mature chimera with a fully functional scorpion head and tail, all enlarged to match the size of the giraffe’s body.
In the game, this was part of the following mechanic. Every new level started with a flying by propellers train landing on a new island. From the train come out workers — I'm almost completely sure that human clones — and harvested nearby resources. At least coal to generate electricity. With these they built various defensive and production facilities and created armies of chimeras.
The protagonist of the game was a mutant journalist with very strong regeneration abilities. Who spent the entire game harvesting animal DNA, combining their properties, creating armies on each island, and using them to counter enemy bases run by... a dumb hunter, an analog of Cruella de Vil, and an evil analog of Howard Hughes.
Sometimes the journalist created ground forces, for example, chimeras with gorilla’s body and a shark’s head. With sizes ranging from human-sized to the size of a blue whale. But the larger was the size of the creature - the more energy and time consumed its creation.
Other times, journalist created flying or swimming troops. Or three types at once. The most dangerous of which were those capable of shooting. If I remember correctly, with characteristics of chameleon, capable of shooting their tongues over 10 meters, porcupine-like, venomous, and something related to sound. Ah, yes, sound… The game had powerful sound towers which — if translate game’s simplifications into reality — had dozens of meters of kill radius. And... wooden helicopters? Yes, but I don't remember how they were used.
I finished explaining and looked at staring at me with clear horror Hermione.
After a short pause, making sure she had no comments or questions, I continued.
“Based on your visions, it seems that such a base, or maybe a few, ended up somewhere in Sothoryos. And either they’ve already started, or will soon start, producing troops with feline characteristics. Which, I suppose, isn’t too bad for us…”
“You call that not bad?!” Hermione exclaimed in outrage.
“Yes. If such a base had appeared somewhere in Essos and started producing aquatic or flying creatures, it would have seriously disrupted our preparations for the Others. But if such a base appeared in Sothoryos and began spawn cats? We have time to find it and destroy before substantial complications.”
“Wait. You want to kill... hundreds of animals?” Hermione asked, horrified.
“Not animals... most likely clones with no sentience or even feelings. At least when under control of created them machine.”
“‘Most likely’? As with ’human clones’? We don't kill anyone before we know for sure!” She angrilly stated.
“I agree. All I'm saying right now just speculations. But not baseless ones.”
“Can we convince them to help us with the Others?”
“Perhaps. But it’s an enormous risk. If a modifier states that it’s a ’drawback’ and ’invasion’, it’s truly a ’drawback’ and ’invasion.’ It’s possible that we could indeed convince them to help us with the Others. But only to find out manifestation of ‘drawback’ by some insane betrayal at the most inopportune moment, or something like that. I'm not against thorough reconnaissance, but at the same time I'm very skeptical that we'll find anything significantly better than Death Eaters. Judging by what I remember about the plot of the game, the antagonists tried to destroy neutral human settlements.”
“How quickly can they create such chimeras?”
“I’m not sure. In the game it took minutes for the largest creatures. But in reality, it would likely take many hours, if not days.“
I looked at Hermione, who was agitated and clearly angry, though I wasn’t sure at whom. And tried to calm her down.
“We have time. Seriously. I don’t know how much, but enough to figure this out. Establishment of a base, resource gathering, creation of buildings, search for coal, creation of creatures, all of this would take weeks, if not months. My past self caused a huge problem for us. But not without reason, and more so - out of CYOA balances.”
“And what about the second universe?” Hermione asked absent-mindedly, lost in her thoughts.
“First, I want to reiterate that the second invasion won’t happen for another two years.”
Hermione sighed tiredly and looked at me. “It’s much worse, isn’t it?”
“Well... at first it will sound rather bad, but thanks to my Power Manipulation situation isn't bad. Rather challengeable. For us as we are now.“
Under her angry gaze, with a slight guilt in her voice, I began to talk about... "challengeable complications."
"If I'm not mistaken, this planet is located in a galaxy inhabited by humanity from the 31st century. Which uses retrofuturistic technologies as they were imagined in the early 1980s. For you, from 1990, it probably doesn't mean much, but trust me on this, it’s a huge deal that makes everything easier than it seems at first glance.
The history of such humanity is rather... complicated.
Between the 21st and 28th centuries, this united humanity, the Star League, underwent a technological renaissance, invented faster-than-light technology, and quickly colonized space. Everything was going fine until a megalomaniac usurped power. This led to a political crisis and a decision by the highest military commander to take a significant portion of all military ships and — with millions of soldiers and their families — fly away into uncharted space. So that their successors would then create own Star League, and after a few centuries return and conquer the collapsed Star League.
But plans rarely survive first contact with reality. The departed troops quickly became dissatisfied, and after a few rebellions and turmoils his sociopathic son created an ideology that later developed into something resembling fascist barbarism. The Clans.
It’s quite plausible that we’re now living somewhere in the 3040s, just a couple of years before the first wave of the Clans' return to the former Star League territory. Where things are... well... at least slowly degrading.
After the collapse of the Star League, space colonies were divided into five ‘Successor States,’ and many smaller factions, predominantly with soft and hard feudalism. Which began the ‘Succession Wars.’ I think it’s clear for what purpose.
Not knowing that most of these wars were instigated by another evil faction of this universe. For anyone this resided on Earth faction, ComStar, is seen as a neutral scientific interstellar organization which maintain interstellar communication. Not dissimilar to an Order of Maesters.
But in reality, after the collapse of the Star League, ComStar spent centuries destabilizing the situation for the sake of technological degradation of everyone except themselves. This included killing all prominent scientists. Again, with the obvious goal - to conquer and unite all Successor States into new Star League. But not just by armies, but also by technological superiority."
"And in two years, they attack Westeros?" Hermione asked in horror.
"No. You saw two pu— cats. Totemic and heraldic animals of two clans from 20.
I remember only one instance of their cooperation - during the first wave of the Clans' attack on the Successor States. In this attack participated about 4-6 Clans.
The largest cat you saw is the Smoke Jaguar Clan. I don't remember much about it, except that it had a lot of spaceships. The second Clan is Nova Cat, specializing in simple magic..."
"MAGIC?! What's wrong with you! First power by sex, then chimeras, now space wizards!" Hermione shouted angrily.
"Hey, calm down, I said SIMPLE magic. However... Um... Divination one..."
At that, Hermione covered her face with both hands.
”No, not magic, visions, via fire...” I tried to save the situation a little.
’Em, Maesters, sudden attack of a powerful faction, fire-divination. Is George Martin a Mechwarrior fan?’
"... used by very few people. The main threat to us won’t be the magic, but...
Let’s say...
The entire first wave attack consisted of 4-6 Clans, and tentatively:
More than a hundred faster-than-light combat and landing ships, ranging from 500 to 1,500 meters long.
At least 500 interplanetary assault ships, capable of landing on planets and being used as fortresses.
Let’s say 8,000 combat robots. The weakest of which are stronger than several tanks from the 1980s, and the strongest, due to laser weaponry, could probably take on a battalion of the US Army from the 1980s.
And tens of thousands of combat vehicles and genetically engineered warriors in powered armor.
So, we’re facing roughly 33-50% of this... but not right away, of course... perhaps."
Without showing her face, Hermione groaned, obviously seeing all the mentioned risks and problems as her personal duty.
Then, still not looking at me, she slowly pronounced, "Why. Did. You. Take. Something. Like. This?"
"I guess, because I thought that even a simplified version of Power Manipulation would be stronger than all of this. And I was right."
Hermione removed her hands from her face and folded them against her chest. "HOW?!"
’By the power of love’ I wanted to joke, but restrained myself.
"Even as we are right now, we can destroy even the most powerful terrestrial BattleTech robot..." I started trying to inject some optimism into what seemed like a hopeless situation.