((Work kinda got in the way of getting this one out on time, just pretend this came out yesterday in time for a certain holiday. Guess I’m the fool this year.))
CAILLEGIRL™ WEB EXCLUSIVE: OPERATION AFANC WITH VARYAZI CLADE
CailleGirl™ now-freelance war correspondent Hugo Harghest reports on operations in Skarkon to fight the surging tide of environmental collapse alongside Varyazi Clade operatives.
When the Internal Triglavian Revolutionary Organization took action denying free movement for the citizens of Pochven, they said nothing about the creatures skittering across the deserts or in the depths of its oceans. Since calling a summit to bridge the gab between the warring factions on Skarkon II to assess the environmental impact of the war and bioadaption, Varyazi Clade and the Red Knight of Pochven have been doing that they do best; finding unorthodox solutions to impossible tasks.
It seems fuckin’ nuts, the same man dropping antimatter rounds and diving into mutaplasmid swarms after the ghost of Skarkon, Kril Efrit, now playing the role of ecologist. Its no secret I’m on his payroll now, as I’m sure my editors will take great care to highlight, after he asked me to document their exploits on the planet. But is been pretty clear now the self-styled “revolutionaries” of Varyazi Clade picked something up from the RSS as they came to blows over Molden Heath. You don’t need triumphant B-rolls of tanks at parade stance rolling into cities and dumpstering ramshackle APCs labeled “Skarkon Tribal Resistance Cringe Compellation” to build your base. Sometimes its just about documenting the experience, and building the legend however absurd and contradictory. I feel like thats the point right, forbidding themselves at an institutional level from being pinned down in the information war or fully understood even by themselves.
Anyway. That’s, like, the best qualifier I can think to come up with for this ■■■■. Whatever face they project even among the other warclone clans, Varyazi in their hearts thinks Skarkon is their planet and go to great lengths to show pride over their domain and all they inherited when it got dragged into hell. To lose any part of the planet would be to damage that prize. Utterly persistent to have their cake and eat it too, I sit here in my field office reporting on their latest exploit; Operation Afanc.
With slight conversions to the pre-invasion warbarge-freighter Fisher King, launch skids previously converted to carry Mobile Command Centers were turned into tanks and terrariums pre-staged with seawater loaded from the warclone-held orbital customs platform. These tanks were equiped to hold paired samples of any and all Skarkon megafauna Varyazi could get their hands on in the last month. Equipment previously used to hunt for rogue submarines and recon Veles Clade expeditionary groups were used to track and capture as many samples of indigenous pseudo-cetacea they could identify. False whales, dolphins, and porpoises in the interior sea that had been studied and hunted by coastal settlements for decades before the planet fell were loaded into Fisher King from Varyazi-controlled planetary strongholds to be exported for study to evaluate the impact on bioadaption and possible resettlement to nature preserves in K-space.
The results of the endeavor are unclear, and likely will be until we know more from their study and the future of Skarkon. With any luck, it will give some insight into how they can continue to survive in a place like Skarkon. If the planet is really doomed though, then they may be brought to compatible temperate or ocean worlds with a suitable food source, assuming it doesn’t expose their new environment to multiadaptive contamination. When I asked for a short list of locations I was met with a laugh.
“I dunno, Matigu is a nice place this time of year. Y’ever reported on a yacht party there before?”
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Above: Varyazi Retrofitted Fisher King Receives Another Planetary Shipment from Skarkon)
