Cloneborne 081 – Monstrous (Patreon)

Rirris reminded herself that she had managed to extract from human-controlled worlds, so that fact there might have been some sort of undead, body heat devouring intentionally magicshaped monster secretly on the same planets as her didn’t matter, because she was still alive.

Also, this was all completely unsubstantiated. So there was no reason to fear the possibility of undead, blood consuming intentionally magicshaped monsters, especially since she was wearing vacuum armor that should be more than resistant to human teeth trying to consume her bodily fluids in a not-fun nonconsensual way.

…

No, no, she was still feeling disturbed at the possibility she might have been on the same planet as monsters the accursed demons would have thought it was a good idea to make! Ehcielhi were bad enough, the universe hadn’t needed the humans to make their own version!

Of course, after hearing about vampires, it only seemed prudent to ask about the rest. Ghosts translated well enough, and gravehearts and ashhearts turned out to be the terms for human unshaped Symbols and unshaped human magicshapers. The explanation of what a ‘nuisance streamer’ had been bewildering, and it seemed that the Kaedekin themselves didn’t really understand the concept they were explaining. To be fair, it sounded insane. Why would someone intentionally commit actions that broke the law, made a recording of it, and then publicly distributed that recording under their own name, simply for attention? Not even political attention to an important issue, just attention on themselves. For… breaking the law.

Rirris could understand why the Kaedekin would find the idea incomprehensible, she thought it was insane herself… but she could also understand why some humans would do it. Attention tended to make humans act irrational, no matter how small. There’d been more than one instance where her directing attention at a human had resulted in markedly extreme behavior.

The Wandering Nightmare had somehow been worse than the vampires, which according to the Kaedekin consisted of a mobile phenomenon that wandered the planet and went from villages, towns and cities to seemingly attach itself to a single person… to bring their fears and nightmares to life to terrorize the populace so they could feed upon the generated pain and suffering. At least, that seemed to be the consensus for why it existed and what it did. The Kaedekin had admitted that the records they had of the phenomenon consisted of the emergency response to its emergence and had been very lacking in scientific rigor… because people had been too busy dealing with the monsters and phenomena that the Wandering Nightmare caused, and most attempts to study the phenomenon outside of passive observation actively makes it more violent.

Rirris was reasonably sure that the ‘Wandering Nightmare’ wasn’t a phenomenon that existed on the humans’ home world that’s she’d infiltrated… but she couldn’t be certain. Kaedekin had also claimed not to know how the phenomenon had come into being, with their records being limited to responding to it when its presence had been identified. She reminded herself that this was still on the level of hearsay until they could actually peruse the Kaedekin’s own records, then they’d at least be able to call it as primary or secondary sources…

“Here we are,” Rain announced, drawing Rirris’ attention. They’d stopped at an arrangement of several statues, as well as a single stone monolith that seemed to be inscribed with writing. “The original statues are in Outguard Park on Stargazer Fortress, but every park has their own. It’s important, after all.”

“How so?” Tiikasia said as Rirris dutifully pointed her scanner at the statues to record them for later reference. “Who are we looking at?”

“These are the Outguard,” Rain said. “At the time, the Mass Production Models were made, the Outguard were the protectors of the Earth of the other universe. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.”

Tiikasia turned towards Rain. “How so?”

“Well, the Mass Production Models were created to help counter an invasion that the Outguard couldn’t stop,” Rain said, and Rirris felt herself growing very still. “Instead of coming from outer space, the invasion was came up from the Void, circumventing the planet’s detection network and making the invaders nearly impossible to track. To make matters worse, the invaders could pass themselves off as human using either Anthrowyrmy or some kind of magitech based on it, and they were sabotaging Earth’s defenses and logistics to make the planet easier to invade. Magical girls who were capable of Thaumaturgy could identify them, but at the time there were only six known Thaumaturgists on the planet. They couldn’t be everywhere at once.”

“…You informed us that the majority of Kaedekin girls are capable of Thaumaturgy,” Tiikasia said slowly.

Rain nodded. “Yup. As a last resort because they couldn’t think of anything else that might work, the Mass Production Models were made to fight against this invasion. A clone army of magical girls made with the Redmane process so they guaranteed to have magic that they’d be able to use to find the invaders even when they’re disguised, and taking the invaders down when they were found because the invaders try to cause as much damage as possible whenever they get found out.”

Rirris felt her fist try to clench. “And the Outguard approved of this?” she said, unable to keep her tone—

“Oh no, not at all, most of them didn’t know,” Rain said cheerfully. “The Outguard would never have approved of a plan to create child soldiers for the sole purpose of sending them out to fight. They’re heroes, they punch people in the face for doing things like that.”

“Oh,” Rirris said, the indignation in her voice deflating.

“No, the only one who knew was biggest sister,” Rain said. “Ah, sorry, I mean Stardancer. When she realized that they wouldn’t be able to stop the invasion without more people who could find the invaders who’d hidden themselves, she started studying some cloning equipment that had been left over from an old adventure. Once she understood how all parts of it worked and got it working, she cloned herself as a proof-of-concept prototype, creating Honored Older Sister Nikaede, the first clone. With Honored Older Sister Nikaede’s help, the two of them were able to begin production of what would eventually be all ten thousand of the Mass Production Models without anyone else finding out.”

Never mind, the indignation was fully justified. Still, she managed to keep it out of her voice as she resorted to her usual displacement activity: asking pointedly logical questions. “That sounds massively unlikely,” she said. “Clones take years to age into maturity, never mind the fact they need to be cared for until they’re old enough to feed themselves. Such a project would also need a massive support infrastructure just to raise those clones and begin training them for their duties, clothe them, equip them, house them, discipline them into obeying orders…” Rirris deliberately shook her in disbelief. “And if they were anything like any of the free peoples, teaching them magicshaping would take at least a year so they could shape magic consistently. Given the sort of damage such infiltration measures could cause, I don’t think a cloned force would be ready in time to make a difference.”

“Normally, that would be true, but biggest si—I mean, Stardancer used the growth acceleration built into the Redmane process and the cloning equipment to accelerate the aging of Honored Older Sister Nikaede and the Mass Production Models’ bodies until they were old enough to be able to fight,” Rain said. “Once they were, Stardancer used the Testimony to give them her memories so they wouldn’t have to learn how to walk around and talk and do magic. That way, Nikaede and all of the Mass Production Models were ready to fight a few hours after they were decanted.”

The pride in Rain’s voice at the idea of being able to send some newborn to fight and die mere hours after they were born made Rirris feel physically ill, matched only by the horror at the idea it was possible to implant memories into clones. The accursed demons had been trying to do the same, using watershaping to try and alter the brains of unwilling test subjects to try to implant memories and skills into them so that training and indoctrination could be turned into a less time-consuming process… and of course the reverse as well, attempting to extract memories from brains in an attempt to create another weapon for the Tsokeri’s bloodthirsty politics. Mercifully, the accursed demons had failed at both, but hearing that the Kaedekin’s creators had actually succeeded in both creating and using such an abominable thing…

“That sounds monstrous,” Rirris said before she could stop herself

“Wozyogen!” Tiikasia snapped. “You will apologize to our hosts immediately!”

“Oh yes, it’s definitely monstrous,” Rain agreed at the same time, making the Ohmadia pause. Her cheerfulness was still present, but her smile had gotten smaller, and her face too on a more serious cast… which meant that she looked like she was having a mildly pleasant day, and wore a little wistful smile. “If the other members of the Outguard had known about Project Starfall, then group leader or not, they’d have kicked Stardancer’s ass and she would have let them. She was creating child soldiers after all, which from our transmission analysis is something even humans of sovereign corporations mostly regard as evil or unethical. It’s why Lyrica and Stardancer did it by themselves, and had to make Nikaede for assistance. She didn’t want her friends implicated in her crimes.”

Rirris and the rest of the exploration party stared at her, and the scholar once more regarded the possibility of a drain chemistry imbalance. She’d only been half-serious last time, but now… “Then why do you seem to admire her?” Rirris said, forcing her voice to neutrality. “You said it yourself. What she did was monstrous.”

“Because if it wasn’t for her and what she did, we wouldn’t exist,” Rain said, which brought Rirris up short. “If it wasn’t for her, the Mass Production Models would never have been decanted, her world would have fallen to the invaders’ sabotage, and I wouldn’t be here telling you about her. How could we not be grateful to biggest sister for what she did? How can we not admire her, when we know what she went through to try and protect her world? She gave us her memories, after all.” Rain raised a finger to tap the side of her head, and Rirris wanted to writhe out of her shell as she realized the Kaedekin still retained the technology to implant memories. “We know exactly what she thought and felt when she conceived Project Starfall. We know how much she loathed the idea of making child soldiers, how ashamed she was to not be able to find a better way. We know how she hated herself for what she was doing, how she thought she was a hypocrite for turning to evil because she had no other way to protect her world. How she thought she wasn’t a good leader because she hadn’t been able to find a way for the Outguard to stop the invaders already. Her own memories told us how hard this decision was for her and how it had torn her apart inside. How could we know all of that and not admire her for still choosing to give Nikaede and all the Mass Production Models a choice about whether or not they wanted to not be part of Starfall? To be willing to let them choose walk away and be safe?”

“That doesn’t change the fact what was done was monstrous,” Rirris said.

“No, it doesn’t,” Rain said. Rirris was starting to lose her mental footing. She wasn’t used to people constantly agreeing with her when she was trying to argue with them! “But it’s hard to condemn a person when you understand why they did something. Nikaede and the Mass Production Models were her clones, after all. She gave them her memories, so they knew everything she knew. They understood why she did it. If they hadn’t, they wouldn’t have betrayed her.”

…

Wait, what?-!