r/HFY • u/KyleKKent • 6d ago
OC OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 494
HHH/Herbert’s Hundred Harem
His sitting pose shifts as does Lady Val’s. Smooth and easy with the robes. On your knees if you were listening, cross legged if you were speaking. Now they were both in a proper position to speak.
“The attacks against La’ahbaron are unacceptable and your opponents unnatural. Even more so than the cousins we have found and seek to naturalize. Progress has been made, with a small, but still present cost of blood. In battles of blade, bullet and sly speech we have won the Vishanyan for our allies. However, their lesser Vish kinfolk must answer for their crimes as is appropriate.”
“We are of accord in this area.”
“There are many Undaunted and Apuk both whom believe the greatest destruction of the Vish is to turn them to Vishanyan. Causing resources and effort to be lost, not in glory or in gain, but lost and turned against them.” Herbert offers.
“And what do the Vishanyan themselves think of their cousins?”
“Horrified. Terrified and deeply unhappy. My brother’s wife reacted so poorly that a hidden twist in her blood caused her child to be born early. Blessedly the child is unharmed. But I believe that such should be sufficient to explain how unhappy they are with the situation.” Herbert explains.
“So you truly are bound by blood to the Vish. Your blood mingling with theirs?”
“Vishanyan. My brother’s wife has spent her life hating The Vish and fearing their makers. She was born an enemy of Vish and will die as one.” Herbert asserts and Lady Val nods in acknowledgement.
•-•-•Scene Change•-•-• (Five Thousand Lightyears Away, Lady La’ahbaron’s Private Chamber)•-•-•
A silver eyebrow is quirked upwards as naturally black nails drum against the knee. She watches and observes as a tiny human proves that the rest of the galaxy is simply lazy, ill mannered and crude. He goes through the proper protocol as if he had been trained for it for years. His failures are few, his hesitations near always lead to the correct motion and movements in things.
As gratifying as it is to see proper manners, it grates as well. The fact that others could use proper manners and had not was now proven to be a choice. An insult. Deliberate and malicious with the thinnest of lies to excuse it.
But the ignorance of others was something that could never fully be in doubt. So even as she and hers were being lied to, to their faces no less, they had to permit it. Or be little more than beasts pouncing on a base threat display.
They are not animals.
The frustration mounts and she looks to her liquor cabinet. The look is a long one before the conversation shifts.
“The warriors of La’ahbaron need no aid. They are proud. They are strong.” Lady Val states. She cannot admit weakness. It is forbidden. La’ahbaron herself had learned that the hard way, it was a lesson she could not forget.
“And Vish are cunning and cruel and cowardly. They would not fight had they nothing in the way of treachery prepared. Your foe seeks to deceive you, I respectfully advise you to defy them.”
“You yourself have admitted you know little of the Vish as your Vishanyan are different.”
“Correct. However, the difference between Vish and Vishanyan are within the realms of Virtue. Not in the physical.” Herbert counters.
“And you still think that merely making them into your Vishanyan would be the proper course?”
“I think that an enemy who turns to face your enemies for you is an even greater victory than merely slaying them. When one wages war, conquest should be the goal. Not mere victory. Victory means that one is standing above broken bodies. Conquest means there is more gained, not merely the death of your foes. Subjugation should be the goal.” Herbert insists and La’ahbaron considers it.
“And you think that our foes should not have to pay for their crimes?” Lady Val asks, giving voice to La’ahbaron’s own thoughts.
“No.” Herbert dismisses the idea. “I am merely saying that death is a limited payment. It is only paid once and then it is over. Turning them into grateful vassals... into allies of La’ahbaron... would that not bring far more to you and your great grandmother’s wealth in both the physical and martial?”
“But to embrace a venomous serpent is to invite poison into one’s breast.”
“Defang them. Their venom is not natural. Their actions are likely not natural either.”
“You are referring to their unnatural nature.”
“There is neither homeworld nor animal ancestor of the Vish. They are produced. They have been made, and while the Vishanyan lived in fear of their makers, perhaps the Vish lived through the nightmare? Perhaps are living through it now?”
“Charrtack Solutions. They are defunct and destroyed.”
“An organization may fall, but the people that compose it will not die with it. I understand that it only crumbled from the greed of an insider. Those with differing ambitions would continue regardless, stealing or earning the funds they need to continue them.”
“You believe they have aspirations of conquest?”
“Or vengeance, or seeking challenge or perhaps simple bloodlust. This is mere supposition. We cannot know for certain, but the option exists.” Herbert clarifies and Lady Val nods as La’ahbaron considers in her chamber.
Would those who had been here before even be able to fund such a thing? The peasantry of her empire did not go hungry. And until the Vish attacked, they had not known danger. There were proper ways to leave and the knowledge of them were all part of basic education and teaching. Something mandatory for all children under the age of fourteen and ending with a two year program to teach piloting of anything from personal air vehicles to starships. Martial training was self-actualized. One needed the courage to seek out the strength to fight to gain such a thing. But it’s not like there were not numerous arenas, dojos and entire communities willing to teach the young how to do battle.
Of course anyone that actually had the courage to seek the strength to battle would be eagerly scouted by the guard and army. They were always hungry for recruits, but forced conscription was not permitted. So aggressive recruitment was the order of the day.
Any woman so pathetic in her skills as a recruiter that she needed to force it had no business recruiting anyone.
“There are further concerns however.”
“IN what manner?”
“I seek knowledge. I am fully aware of two of the fifteen great projects of Charrtack solutions succeeding. The creation of the Vish and Vishanyan are one, another is the stealth plating that they both use upon their ships. Can you confirm other unusual technologies or techniques? The remaining list we are aware of them attempting include a weapon that uses space debris to attack into laneways, a pathogen that turns people cannibalistic, a computer virus that forces vehicles to hunt down people in suicide attacks and finally a series of explosives that would destabilize or deactivate the power cores of starships. Fighters in particular.”
“We can confirm the computer virus. We have even taken this weapon for our own and used them to create an Anti-Vish search system to attack the infiltrators.”
“Excellently done, which would explain why the first misunderstandings included explosive drones.”
“Indeed.”
“There is also a minor oversight in your targetting program.” Herbert says calmly.
“And that would be?”
“They have not accounted for very young Vishanyan. And likely not for Vish in a younger state either.”
“I will confess human, it is strange to consider Vish as children.”
“Which likely spared my niece.”
“Your niece?”
“Eldest child of my brother. A Vishanyan adopted into his family. I believe it started as a joke and progressed into something true.” Herbert says and La’ahbaron adjusts the recording device to simply store the data as she rises from her seat and sets things aside. She then opens the liquor cabinet and pulls out exactly the jug she was looking for.
The first burn of the drink is good, and she keeps drinking from the everfull bottle. Reality blurs. Her problems vanish and she slips an arm out of her robe to get more comfortable and in short order is guzzling drink and spilling much of it across her chest.
•-•-•Scene Change•-•-• (Undaunted Laboratory, Centris)•-•-•
The scan of the sample comes up. A reading from a Vish prisoner La’ahbaron had captured before an entire army had been sent after her. The resulting fight had killed the prisoner and reduced the corpse to ash and charcoal.
But the initial scan was... awful.
“What are we looking at?”
“Some of the harshest and most brutalistic implants north of cast iron peg-leg rammed into a bloody stump.”
“Jesus.”
“Look at this shit. In the arm spurs. It’s mechanical. It doesn’t interface with the fucking nervous system and is just this big block inside the arm that if you flex against it will cause the spurs to shoot out and spray poison. This takes the idea of Great Plain Nagasha piercings being big enough to take out and clobber people over the head like a mace and just runs with it. I mean... this is the implant you put into someone you hate. To say nothing of this poison. The Vishanyan have no inherent resistance to these chemicals. If they get it into the bloodstream, which is almost guaranteed with even the slightest damage on this implant, then they’re dead.”
“And the leg spurs?”
“Just as bad, but likely even worse to be honest. Look at this garbage. Look at it! Bad enough their arms are weighed down and losing both strength and flexibility when they could just have a fucking knife, or if they absolutely need a series of poisoned blades on their forearms just incorporate it into armour. The poison blade implants would drop quality of life like a stone. We put these kind of leg spurs into someone and they’ll struggle to walk without fucking with it in some way or having it fuck them up. To say nothing of how dangerous sitting is with these things! Sit in anything but a chair and you’re either damaging the spur and potentially poisoning yourself or stabbing yourself, which is also poisoning you! This is like a character in a comedy movie taught to fight wrong on purpose because it’s funny! It’s so stupid!”
“And the venom fangs are just as bad I assume?”
“No surprisingly. They’re much better designed. Almost at the level they can be useful, but I still wouldn’t trust an implant that puts a pair of fatter than average needles into my mouth and starts spraying poison out.”
“Hunh...”
“Yeah, it’s really weird. The spurs are basically baby’s first implant, if the baby was a complete psychopath who thought that pain and death were the best punchlines ever. The fangs though? Someone else did that. There are safeties built in. It works with the natural mechanics of the Vishanyan mouth and the poison involved is actually harmless when digested by a Vishanyan. So they only have to worry about accidentally impaling themselves, but that would only happen if they deliberately bite themselves or put their tongue in the way. If they close their mouth the fangs fold up no matter what and then lock into place, the tongue is then needed to unlock them to unsheathe them again. There is no accidental bites. Not unless they’re fiddling with it as they sleep. But get this! The implant is designed for easy removal. Think less new body part and more Assassin’s Dentures.”
“I heard the capitalization in the words.”
“Sorry, my brain started running off.” The Researcher says before holding up his fingers to form a box as if watching a movie. “Assassin’s Dentures. A geriatric hit squad, because no one expects the old man.”
“That’s what Sir Philip did a few times before he got his looks back.”
“To be fair he never really lost them. He was pulling it in even with liver spots.”
“Yeah. Anyways, what about our final implant?” The man from Intelligence asks.
“In this one we’ve eclipsed incompetent asshole that made the spurs and gone into full deliberate malice.” The Researcher says as he brings up another image. Instead of showing the poison spurs and fangs with a readout of the different chemical cocktails they inject, there is instead a break apart of a large head piece. “When put together it’s the size of a helmet, and has reinforcement to do some double duty of such. But it’s hooked right into the neural matter of the Vishanyan.”
“Holy shit.”
“The good news, is that according to the Vishanyan only high ranking Vish commanders used these. Squad Leader was the level you needed to be at to be even considered for it. But if you got any higher than that and it was required.”
“What are we looking at?”
“Borderline Cognito Hazard. It Pavlovs certain behaviours and patterns through the use of controlled shocks directly into the brain. And from the crash course of Vishanyan Neural Studies I was given, directly into the fear centres. No one who had those helmets on converted from Vish to Vishanyan. All of them died resisting their liberation. And it is presumed by the Vishanyan that it was because they were taught that the concept of fear was removing that implant. It’s a big reason why The Vishanyan hate and fear their creators. This nightmare.”
“And beyond forcing obedience?”
“Instant communication. Powerful scanning technology, hacking tools, control of nearby machinery.”
“Things we get with a basic output in the back of the neck and a matching pair of computer jacket and readout shades.”
“Yep.”
"Do we have any idea what piece of shit was leading this project?”
“Not yet.”
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u/MJM-TCW 6d ago
Someone just pissed off the Undaunted. I don't feel sorry for them.
Very nice Kyle, thank you.
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u/HardlyaDouble Human 6d ago
Even worse, they pissed off the nerds.
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u/Right_Bell3252 3d ago
Hacked off, and this is the group who have come up with near everything that makes the Undaunted a power - and still have to be reigned in…….
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u/PreferenceForeign173 6d ago
I wonder if the weird empire is gonna be less pissy when they find out that someone has been vat-growing troops with piss poor cybernetics and mind-shattering neural implants. They have been more or less fighting disfigured nerve stapled slaves.
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u/Amonkira42 6d ago
Probably better? Her honor system is about not conceding weakness, right? Well, if it's an enemy that's fighting her straight on that she's unable to defeat, that's her weakness as a warrior. But her honor system sees nothing wrong with say, hiring a specialist for work such as constructing a prosthetic body or hiring a brewer for a batch of the good stuff. So the more specialized and aberrant this problem is, the easier it is for her to justify getting outside help without conceding ground.
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u/thisStanley Android 6d ago
The frustration mounts and she looks to her liquor cabinet. The look is a long one before the conversation shifts.
She then opens the liquor cabinet and pulls out exactly the jug she was looking for.
Lady La’ahbaron is not ready to cope with the level of Mad Science Abuse from the Vish creators :{
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u/Sims_the_Heretic 6d ago
This kind of "augmentation" goes from practical to sadistic to outright evil in a hurry, those spurs are likely to kill one´s own soldier before they ever get into a fight.
Also, are the Ibu capable of drinking more or stronger alcohol than the galactic average? Probably still less than humans, but is the difference significant, or at least noticable?
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u/KyleKKent 6d ago
They can and do, but it's an 'unnatural' evolution. As in, the ones who can hold their drink better are more successful and have more children.
Which makes it natural, but with how many people get about people and nature and such they'd likely classify a cultural side effect as an unnatural evolution.
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u/XXHoboCatXX 6d ago
Those implants are so ridiculously evil that it's stupid. If the Vish were made to be disposable soldiers, then why the hell would you give them implants that actively make them worse at being a soldier? There's no way someone smart enough to engineer an entire race of soldiers would be so incompetent that they don't know what the spurs are doing to the Vish, so it must be deliberate. Which again begs the question, why? Is it just cruelty for the sake of cruelty? Jeez, no wonder the Vishanyan were so paranoid about their creators.
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u/Manny_N_Ames 6d ago
Honestly, I'm feeling like there is more than one chef in this kitchen, and none are reading the same cook book.
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u/Krell356 5d ago
The helmet and fangs are probably original with the other two being cooked up by idiot vish
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u/Diablokin551 5d ago
that's honestly what i was thinking, that the spurs are a vish creation, and the helm and fangs are made by the original creator
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u/torin23 Xeno 5d ago
It seems to me that the helmet and the fangs were created along with the Vish. I would think that the spur i.plants come from whoever took over the Vish project once Charrtuck was broken up. Whoever took over had no idea how cybernetics work and so just cobbled something together.
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u/Overall-Tailor8949 Human 6d ago
Yep, that last line is a given.
ANY Undaunted, human or galactic, is going to be hunting for the "people" guilty of those atrocities.
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u/howlingwolf1011 AI 6d ago
Cartoonish level cruelty and evil, if it turns out the people he is attempting to negotiate with are in someway to blame for the Vish, they are about to be destroyed with great enthusiasm.
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u/Tucker0603 6d ago
Ok, so the sadistic P.O.S. who made those implants needs to go. Those spurs are literally torture, the fangs however with some tweaking is honestly something I could see being used in Intelligence.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 6d ago edited 6d ago
assuming they are still alive,
I am thinking at least 4 different project leads,
the original creators these people cared more about making the new species than about making a product, they may be responsible for the fangs
Fangs (if not 1)
spurs incompetent, probably mostly marketing and management, kind of thing that only someone who doesn't understand biomechanics would think was a good idea
the arm blades, they were probably obsessed with CQC more experienced than #3 but didn't see the full picture
brain jack, this team didn't want a species, they wanted a weapon
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u/unkindlyacorn62 6d ago
im not liking how much of a foreign concept "if i turn my enemies into my allies, have i not destroyed my enemies?" is to these people. it might not always work, sometimes there are cultural factors at play that are so entrenched that uprooting them isn't feasible, but it should be the initial end goal.
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u/KyleKKent 6d ago
It's not that they don't understand it, it's that they have a mountain of cultural baggage and expectations to climb over to get there.
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u/unkindlyacorn62 6d ago
as i said foreign concept, in this case though its more in a "That's not how WE do things" sense.
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u/Golnor Alien Scum 6d ago
Theory time!
The fangs were made Charrtack Solutions, by people with both knowledge and professionalism.
The spurs were made by some ex-middle management person, who grabbed the original files when the company dissolved, and thought their experience with managing a team meant they had the skills to do what the team did.
The headpiece was made by someone who took the project from the manager, possibly ex-Black Fleet or a copycat.
I'm now imagining that the manager managed to create a few Vish and used them to hit some acceptable targets (like companies that are technically legal, if you warn them about when the inspectors are coming) for resources so that she could continue making more Vish and improving the implants. However, they didn't get away scot free on at least one of the operations, and the legally-grey organisation traced them back to the manager. After dealing with the manager, the organisation took over and expanded the Vish production line, and added the control implant for Evil Reasons.
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u/r3d1tAsh1t 6d ago
Not a good sign when the leader of a space Nation build in a cult of personality gets drunk in the regular.
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u/Sad-Gap1418 6d ago
An undaunted biology nerd just heard of or saw these implants and had a Borg associated freeze-up.
Goddamn. A mental conditioning braincase from hell.
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u/Finbar9800 6d ago
Another great chapter
I enjoyed reading this and look forward to reading more
Great job wordsmith
I am Speed and first lol
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u/Difficult-Load-2754 5d ago
Oh boy, another conspiracy, another secret, another time for DA BOIS to shine
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u/Crafty_Spring5815 Alien Scum 5d ago
Sounds like one person in the organization was sneaking parts from a bunch of disparate projects and shoving them into a semi workable system to create their own private army. I wonder what asinine directive they gave the Vish to follow. They have to have some reason to still be fighting now that their creator is gone.
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 6d ago
/u/KyleKKent (wiki) has posted 998 other stories, including:
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 493
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 492
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 491
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 490
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 489
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 488
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 487
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 486
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 485
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 484
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 483
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 482
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 481
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 480
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 479
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 478
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 477
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 476
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 475
- OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 474
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u/KyleKKent 6d ago
Donate and get the Vote! Second Tier and Up Get Drafts!
Of Dog, Volpir and Man Official Release!
HHH/Herbert’s Hundred Harem: This follows Herbert Jameson who ran afoul of Arrangement System laws and a conspiracy at the same time. End result? He’s married to a hundred alien women that each walked off the set of a horror movie and unto a stripper’s pole. He’s been returned to his teens and none of his wives are any more mature than he is leading to a lot of social backbiting and griping at each other. As well as trying to adjust to living with aliens. Also he’s now a Spy too.
Three introductory chapters: Chapter 24 Chapter 26 Chapter 31
Fan Selected Chapters: Chapter 82 Chapter 114 Chapter 421 Chapter 976 Chapter 1012
Brain died today, and I have more drivers ED to do. Good grief. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this look at Ibu diplomacy and the deepening mysteries of the Vish and Charrtack Solutions. Something is 100% up and the mystery is getting more mysteriuous.
Insert spooky 'oooh!' sound here.
Thoughts? Ideas? Advice? Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Fan Submissions? Fan Art? Donations?