Colossus By Choice: Book 1 Verse 4

3001 P.G.E. (Post-Godzilla Era)

[Universal Date: Day 118]
[Planet: Pyrestar]
[Capital: Silver Sun City]
[Location: City wall limits]

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After what seems like forever, Taum of the city scouts finally awakens. A great deal of smoke and fire overwhelms the Draconi youngling's senses at first, causing him to wince a bit while he adjusts. Once he does, he finds that it's now the very early morning of day 118 of the year; it's very much still nighttime at the moment. Taum struggles to get up to his feet, only to see that he's been tied up with metal bolas wiring. The Draconi city scout apprentice then looks around and sees that several others have been rounded up and captured as he was; most of the prisoners are comprised of surviving city scouts and the group of travelling Oxbul blacksmiths that had set up shop yesterday.

Surrounding everyone are unknown humanoids whose body shapes aren't at all familiar to Taum; they have no discernible tails, horns, long snouts, etc., from what little of their bodies they show.

The smaller, skinnier ones are covered in smooth white armour plating with blue lighting highlights that cover their entire bodies aside from their joints and bare feet. The larger ones easily dwarf most Oxbuls and have olive-green armour plating with rougher textures, greater reinforcement, and some red highlights; their armour shows off slightly more of their bodies like parts of their faces, parts of their upper and forearms, and their joints and feet. They all possess dark brown or black fur and hand-like feet, such as those found on apes and other primates.


(Taum): *in thought* Ape men? There haven't been any truly sapient primates since the time of Humanity itself. Them, and a primitive tribe on Humanity's home planet. But those guys went extinct centuries ago. Did they somehow survive? Then how did they advance so quickly if these ape men are their descendants?


These apparent ape men only leave a few soldiers to guard all the prisoners. The bulk of their forces are busy undergoing training regiments, maintaining and scavenging equipment lying around the battlefield, and planning out logistics and strategies at a large table a little ways off in the distance. At the table is one of the larger green-garbed ape men, the giant that killed Sara and likely many others. Taum is seething with rage once he notices his older sister's murderer and begins to rattle his bindings, but he remembers his training and keeps it internal for the time being.

Instead, he focuses on identifying features about him and the rest of this unknown enemy force.

Now that he can see the soldier more clearly, the Draconi youngling can make out more key details about him. Despite possessing the same general style of armour as the other giant ape men, his has several unique distinguishing features, such as an orange plate running down from his right shoulder across his chest plate, large bolts protruding from his forearm armour, and a helmet with a more technologically advanced glass visor compared to the simple barred gate-style helmets of the other presumably elite class ape men; the ape commander's helmet is currently resting on the table.

Taum can see that the officer is much older and has seen more action than those under his command; he possesses greying brown fur extending out the back, a long beard underneath his chin, and has a scar over his left eye that has rendered it blind.


(Taum): *in thought* His armour is more ornate and decorated. It's also more technologically advanced. He's clearly a high ranking member of their military, perhaps even a commander of some kind.


Although he can't hear what they're saying, Taum can tell from his facial and bodily expressions that the ape commander is giving out a detailed strategy for an upcoming campaign of some sort, though the details of said plan remain a mystery. While he's in the midst of trying to read their lip movements, he's interrupted by one of the prisoners next to him nudging him in the side; he ignores the nudging and refocuses himself. It takes a hard shove by his fellow prisoner to get him to break his concentration and force him to turn away to whisper a response.


(Taum): What do you want? I'm trying to see what they're planning!

(Skrill): I have a plan to escape. You in?

(Taum): We're all in bindings and being watched, rat. Even us whispering is putting us at risk of execution for conspiring to escape.

(Skrill): Calm your horns, you wingless boy scout.


One of the smaller ape soldiers passes by and glances down at Taum and Skrill, prompting them to shut up and look down at the ground. Once he moves on and is no longer looking in their direction, the elderly Radent continues.


(Skrill): See my pack there in their lockup? The one with the scale fragments as an ornament?


Skrill points his nose towards the wall off in the distance at a location where the ape men have rounded up all of the equipment scavenged and captured from the forces that they fought against and everything else that was in the vicinity. One of the larger elites oversees lesser soldiers in cataloguing and organizing it all. They meticulously go through every piece of equipment and cargo, evaluating the worth of each item; any that aren't deemed useful are thrown into the fire nearby. At the edge of the pile being evaluated is a small brown backpack with a little wear and tear; it's uniquely identifiable by the fragments of a misfired Bazelgeuse scale strung from the bottom as decoration.


(Taum): Yeah. What about it?

(Skrill): Before I was caught by these hairy bottom-feeders, I was on an egg collection run.

(Taum): Smuggler, then. You don't have regulation tags for research collection.

(Skrill): Thank you for the obvious insights, youngling. Anyways, I have a canister that has concentrated Tigrex urine extract. It was a backup plan in case our egg run ran afoul of of the Aptonoth herd. I remember smelling some Deviljho dung on the way to the collection point. If we manage to get that scent into the air....

(Taum): We could get one of those Brute Wyverns to cause some chaos and provide a distraction. That's crazy, old man.

(Skrill): You got any better plans?

(Taum): Fair enough. So how do we get to it?

(Skrill): Leave that part to me. Improvise for me.

(Taum): Wait, what--


The elderly Radent smuggler suddenly collapses onto the ground and starts spasming and choking; he even begins to foam at the mouth a bit. This commotion draws in some of the ape soldiers, prompting them to draw their casters on the pair.


(Ape Soldier): Identify yourself! What's going on here?

(Taum): I-I don't know! This old man, he was.... he was talking about needing something from his bag-- Medicine! He needed medicine for his condition!

(Ape Soldier): You expect me to believe that, Draconi?

(Taum): Just look at him! Please, you gotta help him!


The ape soldier attending to the matter turns to one of his larger superiors. The 2 converse in secret a bit, ending with the elite unit giving the soldier under his command a nod and being given a nod back in response; the warden returns to Taum and Skrill.


(Ape Soldier): Fine. Which item is his?

(Taum): The roughed up backpack, with the Bazelgeuse scale fragments attached!

(Ape Soldier): Fine. Wait here.


The warden attending to their fake-out goes to the cargo pile and retrieve's the old smuggler's belongings; he then returns with the bag and starts pulling items out of its dimensional storage to lay out on the ground in front of Skrill. There's an absolutely ludicrous amount and variety of miscellaneous items, ranging from over a dozen Aptonoth eggs, an entire volume of Catzfins Baring All, multiple Pyrebar brand nutritional energy bars, and much more. The ape soldier attending to this matter is left dumbfounded and a little disgusted at what the Radent smuggler had stored in his backpack.

However, he dutifully sorts through everything and looks to Taum and Skrill.


(Ape Soldier): Alright, which one of these is his medication?


Skrill, while still convulsing and having spasms throughout his body, manages to flop his nose at a small cylindrical container; the ape soldier picks it up and prepares to open it up to administer to the elderly smuggler. Before he can do so, however, Skrill suddenly leaps up and smashes his head into the container, knocking it out of the warden's hand and causing it to break open and spill out its contents upon hitting the ground.

The fractured container releases a large cloud of yellow gas that smells absolutely awful. While the cloud isn't harmful, the smell forces everyone to hold their breaths for quite a while as the wind carries the scent away. Once it dissipates, Skrill stops convulsing and takes in a deep breath before then sighing with relief.


(Skrill): Thank you very much, sir. I needed a hit of that.

(Ape Soldier): Disgusting junkie. Don't ask for anything else, or we'll consider executing you on the spot.


The ape warden moves off, clearly quite disgusted at having essentially indulged a drug addict's addiction to sniffing Monster urine. Taum himself looks quite disheartened at this turn of events, though Skrill seems mighty proud with his smirk.


(Taum): Are you really an addict?

(Skrill): I'll admit, not my first time. But this was only for the plan.