...for a long few weeks on Ova, nothing seemed to change…
After the tense conversation with their homeworld, just as the situation ramped towards something greater, everything seemed to enter a tepid stability... It was the moment after a stone had been tossed, where it flew through the air and forced everyone to stare at where it would land, and who it would inevitably strike…
“GRAAAAAHHH…”...Jorien slammed her fists down, then slammed them on her middle… very gently. ‘Tink tink tink’…“I am. NOT keen. On sitting here for days and days and DAAAAYS while our enemies close a NOOSE around us…”
“Lower your volume, Jorien…”Osiria’s exhausted voice came from nearby, where she reclined on her throne. In the corner nearby her was Seri Vex, alongside Seria Cognis. Both were studying a screen display, comparing notes. Jorien looked between them, then back to her mighty sister General…
“Lower my VOLUME, or what? The Scrappers will assault us in waves…??? They’ll find our ‘hideout’, here so blatantly in the side of this mountain, because I am SHOUTING AT OUR INACTION???”
Jorien kicked a tile firmly and thumped her fists down on a table again, giving a noise between a shriek and a snarl…
“We might have already WIPED those fools out, to say nothing of that so called ‘assassin’ coming from th-…”“JORIEN.”Osiria’s voice, rather than be bored or annoyed, was suddenly sharp and firm. The ‘younger’ General sister cringed, and spun around to face the imposing, ebony figure who was rising from her throne…
“Do not. Such matters are not for general discussion… Even in a place secure as this, you never know whom might be hearing it...”
...Jorien hesitated… Then slumped, her eyes growing big and pitifully pouty…
“...I don’t understand why we simply WAIT here instead of…”TAP TAP TAP…
...Seri Vex tapped her mental knuckle against the display a few times, as a teacher might tap her chaulk on the board. She looked between the two Soldiers, and then directed their view to the advanced mathematics formulae there, despite how meaningless it was to any but the Scientist…
“...The reason we make no moves is, quite simply, we have none. If we have any kind of off planet intervention, that is not something we can anticipate, beyond that it WILL be sent. Whether an invading force in six months time, or… A single ship with a representative of Allma within a week, carrying an ‘inspector’ who would doubtless doom us and reclaim our authority…”
Jorien sneered, but… She also couldn’t do anything but nod to that. If their homeworld was going to send a problem, it was one they had to deal with when it came…
“...And the Scrappers?”
“Between our defensive patrol of Soldiers, and apparently specialized Rangers who are spying among their ranks… The Scrappers have made no moves we can see. They’re cowering in their cave, perhaps far weaker than we assumed…”
It was good news of course, that their barbaric enemy was not sending waves of harassment at them… Yet, it resulted in this tense and ugly situation. No one had anything to do, other than plod along at a consistent pace and wait for a change to react to.
“I… DESPISE this, then…” groaned Jorien, slumping to a sit and putting her head down on the desk… “I can’t take much more cowering. We cannot explore? We cannot… Do any sort of fieldwork whatsoever???”
“Even being out in our training yard could be dangerous. The Scrappers might be waiting to set a trap there… You could perhaps patrol with the Rangers…”
“Gahahaaaaahhhhh… And waste my moments sulking around the treeline? FEH. Rust all of this… ALL OF IT.”
She swept her arm across the table, though she had long since dramatically tossed everything on its surface to the ground already. She grumbled like a petulant NewBuilt… But Osiria glanced frustratedly at Vex, who nodded sympathetically. Jorien might have been the loudest voice there, but she wasn’t the only one who was less than impressed with their routine. If nothing productive could be done, then…
“...Well.”The other three all looked towards Cognis’s gentle voice. She had an airy, yet enthusiastic way of speaking, as adorable as she was sunny… She looked from one to the other cheerfully…
“...Any sort of visitation from our homeworld that isn’t the product of warfare is, in our codex, a cause for celebration…”
Osiria’s brow furrowed slowly in stunned confusion. Jorien tilted her head, not seeming to understand. Vex blinked… Then, despite being faceless, gained a light smirk about her expression…
“...Oh, well. I see…”
“See?” Jorien spoke up quickly, standing… “See? Is there danger we might face???”
“No.” Vex answered, briskly… “But there doesn’t need to be. Assuming Allma is indeed sending... someone…”
She glanced hesitantly away, wishing Willow was still there to explain the mysterious fourth clade more fully…
“...then, we might take it as a representative. A Holy Day.”
Oh, the word was like a jolt directly to their hearts. A Holy Day was rare, but not so rare that the elite Forgeborn didn’t excitedly anticipate it. A bit of relaxation, maintenance, and time with companions...
“...That is a flimsy excuse, you know…” Osiria muttered, chuckling gently… “To use the oncoming presence of our killer to…”
“...I thought… I thought we couldn’t speak of this?”
...the room fell silent at Jorien’s uncharacteristically soft question. For a few moments, each avoided eye contact, like they’d just realized that they’d tossed a child into the sea, and none wanted to take responsibility for such an egregious slip… Internally, Osiria chided herself for becoming so eager after a mere mention of a ‘vacation’...
“S… Sorry.” Cognis spoke, as if it were her fault. Vex shook her head and cleared her throat…
“Allma’s right hand comes to us. That’s all we know, and it is all we need to know. We can see that around us, tensions are high. Soon, no doubt, we will long for the solitude, the ‘boring’ days we have now. But in this moment… We are free, or even encouraged, to indulge.”
Vex tapped the screen a couple of times to bring up a blank ‘page’, then began to draw on it with the expected mechanical precision and rapidity…
“In addition to the benefits in allowing our mental processes to defragment, physical maintenance will ensure we are fully prepared for any trials that come to us, off planet and on. While being idle might seem like a fool’s bargain right now… A day of celebration will ultimately be the medicine we need as we go shoulder-first into the house of war.”
“HRM!” Jorien held her hand up to her mouth-plate and shook her head… “You are in the house of war NOW, Scientist… But far be it from me to look down a day of relaxation~”
“I doubt that having my parts dismantled, washed, and returned is going to be calming. Especially with these damned instincts clawing at me about my belly… It would be hard to be so vulnerable.” Osiria sighed. But Vex smirked wider… And tapped the board again, showing one of the things she’d drawn… A complex rendering of a water molecule…
“...I wonder if any of you understand the effects of certain mineral-laden fluids. A soak in warm temperatures can often dislodge and polish the accumulated debt of grime just under our outer layers...”
“...Meaning?” Jorien asked, her chin lifting, as she attempted to sway her ignorance into authoritative demand. Vex ignored it, but answered anyway…
“We keep similar, albeit far more advanced and effective solutions here, at the Laboratory, for post-repair recovery. But… It might naturally occur in certain places, given the composition isn’t terribly complex. Many hot-springs have been found to contain a more than adequate balance for our purposes…”
“Vex.” Osiria muttered, having stood by now to face her, listening intently… “You’re… suggesting?”
“...I’m offering, actually, Osiria… To share a bath with you~”
“Bath?”
Alphi swayed atop the Caravan as usual. Between training her agility, training with her weapon, and waiting for something to happen… She was, in many ways, just as bored as the Generals. Few of the Rangers were much better, considering their daily task consisted mostly of patrolling the edges of territory they’d already secured, rather than having permission to explore the wider world of Ova. For now, this region was where they were ‘fenced off’ by the danger of the encroaching hoards. If that wasn’t bad enough… The fact they had to look towards the skies for an even bigger threat, and from the allies who were supposed to help them no less, had everyone on edge.
Given the situation… The Princess had been utterly confused when a message was sent on from Vex and the General Sisters… proclaiming a day of rest and celebration. A ‘party invitation’ by any other name…
“Bath.” Willow said, cheerfully. She was clinging lightly to the smaller Forgeborn in her lap, rubbing Alphi’s middle with her spidery fingers. Her enthusiasm was infectuous, especially for one who was usually so stoic and emotionally even as Willow… “Baths are rare. Usually, they’re only for certain medical interventions… But a warm soak, with our most sensitive internal components protected of course, feels like little more than bliss, dear Princess. A lesson in why the Grand Forgemother has granted us the blessing of the Sensation. It sounds odd… But you will find out, and I promise you will adore it~”
Willow hummed and swayed, while Alphi was once again left to wait for what would potentially happen next. At the least, it was an air of excitement for once, rather than a tense royal duty shoved directly on the young Forgeborn’s shoulders…
They travelled towards the crash landed Laboratory, but diverted their course to instead let their route take them towards a vast crater lake that was nearby. As they crested a hill and their Caravan settled, they could see a light crowd of gathered Forgeborn…
Not all were given permission to shirk their duties and play at once, of course. There were still plenty of contingents of Forgeborn Soldiers, even here, guarding the scene with diligence. Despite having to wait their turn for their own relaxation, they attended their duties with zeal in anticipation of getting their own soak...
...But on the beach, which was clear from afar thanks to its white sands and the vibrantly blue water washing upon it, the gathered Elites had taken their off-time with gusto. Osiria, Vex, Cognis, Jorien and her bodyguards, M.U.L.U. Viden (as a server), and many others could be seen lounging within the springs…...half… ‘naked’?
“...Why are they dismantled?”
Alphi squinted at their forms, seemingly stripped down and wrapped loosely in certain places with some kind of shimmering material. Willow smirked as she hopped down with the Princess in her arm, letting her land on the grass after they’d come to a stop…
“Well. Our usual outer shell is resistant and reinforced against foreign fluid contamination. Yet, we also use a variety of fluids and substances to ensure our internal components function. Maintenance of such a thing usually involves a process of stripping one’s self down as bare as possible and… manually locating these nooks and niches to wash them with a certain mineralized water solution.”
...Alphi turned back and squinted again at the beach, where she saw that along the rocky shores on one side, there other small craters that had formed from or into wellsprings of steaming water… ‘Baths’…
“...Is that… what is there?”
“Indeed. Those springs, according to the Scientists, are what we need to wash~ Now… We only need to expose our internal components…”
“Don’t we risk damage, of we were to do that?”
...Willow nodded, and then stretched idly before rubbing her back and tummy…
“Indeed. And that is why you see them wearing that material… It seals and covers our most sensitive components, which usually have dedicated self-cleaning solutions anyway. That allows us to soak our joints and such, it’s… Quite enjoyable~”
...was that impatience…? Was Loretracker Willow, the most sage and eager to answer questions… getting ANNOYED at having so many questions to answer…???
“...Does it really feel THAT good, Loretracker Willow?”
“There is only one way for you to find out, my dear little Forgeborn Princess…”
Willow turned and thumped her fist gently against the side of the supine Caravan. A port hummed open, letting Willow step into the room and shut the chamber door behind her…
“...Loretracker?”
...Alphi tapped her foot, tucked her cloak around her body, and cradled her middle. She eventually began to pace, before glancing back at the beach…
“...Even Osiria. Even Seri Vex. That’s… Impressive… Hah?”
...She turned as the door on the Caravan hummed open… And Willow stood back in the open once more…
...She had a positively glowing grin on her face. Much of her outer armour had been carefully stripped away, leaving her looking all the more lean and emphasizing the curve of her components. Around her chest and hips, a bikini of that shimmering material, carefully fastened by some mechanism around her joints to seal what were apparently vitally important internal parts…
...Her head was lightly wrapped in the same material, somewhat like a towel or shawl. But it was clear it was simply for aesthetic, rather than protection…
“...L… Loretracker Willow?”
“I intend to track nothing today, dear Alphi” giggled Willow… “I am going to be indolent, warm, and… Very relaxed Come… Let us get yours on~”
“A-AH?!”
===
At the springs lined along the shore, the Elites were taking full advantage of the opportunity to ‘switch off’. Most sauntered around in their simple, stripped outfit, enjoying the company of others or the warmth of the water. Viden swayed through the crowd, holding a small platter of Nanoculi cells. Given how many bellies were being hefted, the energy would be needed for certain.
...it was a bit cruel that Viden was given a water suit, but wasn’t allowed to go into the steaming springs yet. Not until her turn came… And given her lowly status among the Elites, it wouldn’t come for some time…...She made sure not to knock a crowd aside with her hefty middle, still full of stored items, even at such a relaxation event…
“...Please, make requests in an orderly fashion, our supplies are not in danger of being depleted…”
“M.U.L.U.! Here!”
Viden clenched her fist, but her expression remained neutral as she turned and waddled over to offer Jorien a cell...“Gratitude, labourer~” Jorien chuckled, reclined in a bubbling spring with her three bodyguards; one on either side… And a small one tucked up against her midsection, nuzzling it pleasantly. Viden glanced between them all, waiting for another demand...
“...I’m… not in lab-…”
“I hope you enjoy, I’ve frankly needed such pampering. You wouldn’t really understand what a Wardancer like me must shoulder... It’s such a heavy burden...~”
She chuckled and drew her bodyguards closer. Viden’s grin became a bit… strained.
...She turned to walk away, but her attention was drawn by a shout that didn’t seem to be part of the festivities… At least, not directly…
“...keep your hands… Off of my-…”
“Oh, Osiria… If even I can relax at a moment like this, so can you. Reduce and deactivate your tension response, just enjoy the moment…”She gestured to the sun lowering in the sky before them, casting the scene in beautiful yellow and purple hues… The two were in their own private spring, just the two of them… And Vex seemed eager to ‘enjoy’ the holiday, much to Osiria’s red-faced embarrassment…
“I will enjoy the moment just fine without you to-UCHING…”
Osiria nearly squealed as Vex’s tentacles lightly slid over her exposed metal ‘skin’. The Scientist’s lab coat remained on her shoulders in Cognis’s lax style, unable to be removed fully without some intense uninstallation… But under it, she was wearing what might have been one of the most risqué of ‘water suits’… She explained it was because she had many more mechanical parts that needed cleansing, although… One had to wonder of course, how much was simply her exposing the affection she only barely kept hidden to Osiria…
“...A General like you, and you can’t handle a gentle touch against there?”
“...should… should I have to, Vex??? Come now…”
Vex chuckled and sat up a little in the spring, her mechanical eye zooming softly to see Willow striding along. The tall tree above all the other Forgeborn even waved to them proudly, gently clutching the Princess Alphi in her arm…
“...Oh my…”
Vex’s eye… zoomed in a bit further, and Osiria sat up to see that Alphi’s little suit was quite revealing as well. Despite herself, the General beside her couldn’t help but grin, as the Ranger Princess shuddered and glanced around...
Her cloak had been removed of course, and she felt a little exposed… Yet, at the same time…
...this amount of eyes on her, admiring her midsection, her body as a whole… There was a certain thrill to it that she couldn’t deny. An odd impulse for a creature who thrived on being hidden…
“H-Hah, Loretracker Willow… We’re to find and relax in a spring then?”
...Willow was distracted, speaking pleasantly with another Elite. Alphi squirmed gently and looked over at the roiling pools… She rubbed her middle softly and reddened…
“...W-Willow?”
“...Mm? Oh, of course, dear Princess…”
“...No… No, I…”
Willow didn’t seem to notice, politely saying farewell to end the brief interaction and bring Alphi to the soothing pools. To Osiria’s horror, Vex waved again, and Willow came over. After a moment of inspection, she lowered herself and Alphi into the ‘tub’…
“Vex, y-you want to share our tub with these-…!?”
“What did I say about turning down your tension response, Osiria? These are not our enemies…”...She leaned towards Osiria to speak lower, though her lidded eyes belayed nothing but dreamy happiness at the relief from her constant pressure. Moments like this, she afforded herself so rarely… So of course, she was indulging as much as she could… To a strange extreme. Osiria’s eyes narrowed as the Scientist spoke almost with a drunken tone...
“In moments like this, we must ensure we keep our TRUE friends close… And with what is oncoming… Willow and Alphi seem a better choice than pouting alone in a bath...”
“Hrrrgghhh… And are you going to stop doing such inappropria-AAAHH!”
...Willow glanced Osiria up and down knowingly. They might have been a pair who didn’t see eye to eye, but Willow was more than willing to enjoy the sensation of warmth that pervaded her now, rather than pick at old scars. She chuckled, as though she didn’t see directly what Osiria had experienced, she had an idea given Vex’s smirky expression…
“I doubt much discussion will be had… Besides having nothing new to report, it seems we’re both quite distracted with our… Rest…” Willow smirked as Vex nuzzled and cuddled Osiria almost aggressively. Osiria winced and shook her head…
“I couldn’t tell you why she is so… So PLAYFUL right now… I would presume she shut off too much of her damn mental processing power to enjoy this night!”
“Mmnnnnhhhhh, my mental processes are running at at least 75% capacity, approximate. I’m perfectly fine…”
Willow chuckled and rubbed her chin. Such cuddly behaviour… It was odd, perhaps even worrisome. The Loretracker seemed ready to say more… But she realized suddenly that Alphi had been dead quiet the whole time. Simply enjoying the warm spring water, eh…?
“...Hnnnhh…”
“!?!?”
...Whether the tension or simply bad timing… Alphi was gently rocking forth and back. She was perched on Willow’s thigh, her torso above the water… And most of her belly. She was clutching it tightly, only confirming Willow’s thoughts…
“...O-OH. Oh, goodness, I… Now, Alphi???”
“Hhnnnnnnhhhh…!”
...An inevitability, it seemed. Likely it had happened to more than one of the minor Forgeborn at the ‘party’… But… The Princess herself?
“...H-Hah, discreet then, discreet. We can push here, in the pool, it… It should help… Right, Vex?”
...Osiria’s eyes were a bit wide… Vex was clinging to her like an octopus at their prey… And the Scientist’s dreamy expression indicated she had lost far more than a mere quarter of her mental processing… It made no sense, nothing typical to a Forgeborn’s anatomy should have caused such a decline in processing power…
...But then, each had something that wasn’t so typical to a Forgeborn bulging on their front. Osiria’s gaze snapped down in quiet shock to Seri Vex’s midsection...
“...you… You can’t b-be… Serious… By Allma… Hah…”
Willow glanced quickly between Alphi and Vex, who in contrast to the squirming Princess, was near delirious with giddy excitement. The pain of the process either didn’t seem to touch her… or, worse, excited her further. She had relaxed and evened out much of her mental processes… unaware of what a toll that an onset of labour would do to the rest...
“...l-likely… hehehe… Likely… certain properties of the… The spring water, it can cause us t-to… Accelerate, o-or...”Osiria processed these words, then suddenly stood up with a shriek of indignant fury. It immediately drew attention to the labouring Scientist tightly clung to her. Osiria stared around… Then quickly sat back down into the water…
“Osiria, don’t… Listen to her right now. Even if that is the truth… We have bigger problems in this moment…!” Willow hissed. She seemed less worried about the invasion of privacy, and more concerned with the fact that two of their Elites were in labour...
“AAAHHH… AAGH…”
Alphi agreed. Her other egg was tucked safely in her and Willow’s personal quarters on the Caravan… And she was about to add a second to that number, here and now…
She curled her lower arms around her thighs to gently pull them apart, bemusedly realizing how routine it almost felt already at only her second birth. She tried to ignore the burrowing anxiety that she would have far more times to of think that over the course of her life…
...She gripped Willow’s forearm with the other set of hands, leaning back. Willow chuckled and stared down proudly, heedless of the other Forgeborn gathering in a loose circle to peer at the commotion… The excitement of yet another Elite demonstration of the obsession that had literally filled the Forgeborn of Ova…
“H-HOUH! Oh, OHH… OH BY ALLMA ABOVE…”
Vex was being overwhelmed, yet her glinting mechanical eye had become overwhelmed with bright, pleasant pink colouring. Osiria wrestled her carefully into a better position, peeling her tentacles away and forcing her thighs apart…
“If you’re going to humiliate me like this, Vex, you’re going to at the least produce a Forgeborn that we might be proud of…!”
...We, meaning the Forgeborn race as a whole. Of course. Not Osiria and Vex themselves… Right…?
...The lesser Forgeborn exchanged amused glances. Vex would absolutely hate herself, once she woke from this excited stupor… But first, she had to perform her maternal dut Not for the first time, technically... but certainly, this was far different than standing before a bench and carefully putting pieces into place until her daughter was ‘born’… This process would be much heavier… Much more involved…And require far more DIRECT labour.Alphi and Vex both had their birthing ports exposed, and prepared. The crowd gathered closer, heedless of Osiria’s wrath, and attracted by Willow’s infectuous pride. She cooed to Alphi and encouraged her… Harder, harder, Princess… While the General did the same to the squirming Scientist, who was starting to feel the sting inside her a bit more acutely…
“Harder, harder…! Do you call that effort…?! You couldn’t push a pebble with that…!”
Impatient snarls from the General were a bit surprising, but the situation was as tense as could be to her… Being surrounded by ‘enemies’ she couldn’t simply outflank or destroy meant she felt the beam of a hundred Forgeborn eyes nearly drilling through her. Risking your life to kill an enemy… That wasn’t near as hard as being so exposed…
...and it wasn’t even HER giving birth… Not yet.
“KYAAAAHH~ HEEEEHHH…!”
Vex arched and gripped at her middle. The readout was blinking rapidly, updating almost randomly with her shaky internal processes. But then, the Scientist curled, and everything on the screen said the same thing;PUSH!
...And Vex, having anticipated this moment for weeks and weeks, pushed…!
Alphi couldn’t care less about the eyes around her… Well, maybe a bit. But… Her focus was entirely on the pod sliding through her body. She shuddered as she matched Vex’s pace, despite the size difference of both them, and their individual ‘eggs’…
“A bit more… A bit more…” Willow cooed, the pride shuddering in her voice, barely contained. Osiria squeezed Vex’s hand nearly enough to crack its metals…
“YOUR CHILD SHOWS HERSELF, VEX…”
Vex squealed with utter excitement, and lifted her thighs a bit more, widening them apart to make room...
...Alphi and Vex crowned at roughly the same pace indeed… Yet in the end, Alphi’s sharp effort produced her’s into Willow’s palm first… Followed a minute or so later by Vex’s heavy egg splashing into the spring…
Osiria snatched it up, and then immediately stood. She nearly JUMPED from the spring and pushed through the crowd, Vex’s shuddering form in one arm, and the egg in the other.
...She seemed furious, of course, embarrassed… Yet, those there couldn’t help but note there was another emotion in that expression… Was she really so proud, even in this moment…?
...Willow merely laughed, musically and merrily, as she inspected the egg. It looked much the same as the first… Just as full of life, and potential…
“...Well Princess… You’ve certainly proven yourself worthy of that Internal Forge, haven’t you…? Someday… You will be queen of a legion, birthed through your very body… I envy you...~”
...Alphi had slumped against Willow after she felt the egg leave her. She reached up and accepted it, tucking it against her body… And as to the mention of ‘birthing a legion’…?
“...Haaaaaaah…”
...She sighed and relaxed into the water once more, letting it soothe away all her aches and worries as much as it could, while she still had the chance...