A Sinner's Eden-Chapter 171 - EVO

***Tirnanog, Aerie Flagship***

***Astra***

When we returned to the flagship, the battle was largely over.

From a strategic point of view, it had to be called an outstanding victory. Thich’s airship fleet had been crushed, while over half of our fleet was still operational.

A few of Thich’s ships broke rank and escaped, but Hochberg’s already deployed ground forces were denying them access to the glowmoss farms for the foreseeable future. So it was only a question of time until the remaining ships would be grounded.

It was doubtful whether the commanders of the few remaining ships would choose to return to Thich City. I wasn’t completely certain whether I understood Thich’s culture correctly, but I thought it would be shameful beyond belief for them to return after such a crushing defeat. Their only choice was to escape to Vier and maybe bolster their few remaining forces there.

Though some theories on the UI also considered that the crews of the few remaining ships would turn to piracy as long as the ships remained airborne. Currently, there wasn’t much trade going on between the clans, which would be vulnerable to raids, but there were a few smaller clan settlements they could attack, which was a concern.

What was going to happen had yet to be seen.

Nonetheless, it meant Thich City was ripe for the taking as soon as our reinforcements arrived. We would finally be able to reveal the true face of the enemy.

But that was only the factual logic of the situation.

On a personal level, I felt like we had paid a lot for this victory. After this battle, there wouldn’t be a single person who hadn’t lost someone they knew: in many cases, loved ones or partners.

Three elders lost their lives when Zacharias stormed the flagship’s command deck. The tenth strata lost both of their elders at once, and it was unclear who would take up the mantle. The Whites hadn’t left behind a clear successor as far as anyone knew. The people back at Mount Aerie had to be contacted and either vote for candidates, or someone with the necessary political power had to step forward.

Trent Torres was in mourning after the loss of his wife and had resigned from his position after hastily electing two replacements from his strata. Cole and Shannon Torres weren’t officially sworn into office yet, but nobody voiced doubts about their qualification. Unlike the Whites, the Torres had been grooming their replacements for decades.

Clan Jeng lost their ancient, Felix Wolf. This left only the two head paladins, Savannah and Ahmad Gentry, in charge. It wasn’t too much of a disruption to Jeng’s command structure, but from what I observed, the two paladins deferred to their ancient in almost every question. It had yet to be seen how they would handle the responsibility of being in charge.

And then there were Mary and Gunnar.

Unfortunately, we were out of range while we sabotaged Thich’s flagship, so returning to the fleet was a shock for Magnus and me. We barely had time to read up on the most important events in the various UI news groups.

Sadly, the UI had its limits. We couldn’t learn many details through the official communications, but both Mary and Gunnar were reported to be in critical condition. Infuriatingly, there was only very generalised information to be found on the UI because there was a lot of chaos going on, and nobody had time to check text messages.

And the dedicated chat groups organised by our central command were very clinical and bare bones. Which was why I stormed straight to the flagship’s medical bay upon our return, where I found Thalia tending to one of the many wounded.

“Thalia, what about grandmother!?”

Thalia got a complicated expression on her face upon seeing me. She quickly finished what she was doing and instructed a fellow medic to take over for a minute. Then she turned her full attention to me. “Mary will make it, but it will need time.”

I let out a sigh of relief. The old hag was as good as indestructible as far as I knew, but the reports of Zach’s clones using mutations to counter specific people had me worried. There were rumours that Mary once fought a worm and took it down on her own. And as much as I hated the teaching lessons she gave me as a teenager, she was just as much of a parental figure as Teresa.

Thalia’s eyes landed on Magnus, who entered the medical bay behind me. “Magnus, I am sorry, but it doesn’t look good for Gunnar.”

Magnus stiffened. “What is his status?” freewebnoveℓ.com

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Thalia sighed. “Gunnar’s extensive modifications are keeping him alive for now, but he took a lot of damage. Back on Earth, they would probably switch out the damaged parts, and he would be as good as new, but we cannot do this here. His throat was almost completely torn out, and a lot of the things inside his torso are busted. We have some ideas about what the various implants are good for, but none of us is specialised in this type of enhancement. The organisation brought some of the obvious replacements which would wear out over time, but we do not have the facilities for what is needed. Originally, Gunnar expected to last two or three decades without needing replacements. And by then, the organisation was expected to bring our tech-level up to Earth’s standards.”

“Then what is the idiot doing throwing himself in the line of danger?” Magnus asked with anger in his voice.

I slipped my hand in his and squeezed it. He took a deep breath and glanced at me thankfully.

“From what I heard, he saved Mary,” Thalia explained. “She would be dead without him. Zach’s clone had her completely outplayed. He had some kind of sonic attack which busted her inner organs. Mom said it looked like someone stuck a mixer into her left lung and turned it on. Mary is lucky she can still breathe with the other one.”

Magnus rubbed his forehead. “Is there any chance Gunnar will pull through? Or do I have to say my goodbyes?”

Thalia shrugged. “If we do nothing, his state will worsen until he dies. My parents are currently discussing an option to save his life. But it involves Mary’s participation, and they are reluctant to try.”

“What is this option?” I asked.

“Mary is willing to partner with Gunnar so he may get her mutations,” Thalia replied quickly, blushing. “Though we have no clue how that may turn out.”

Mary and Gunnar? I slapped my forehead. How would they get an idea as insane as that? Hadn’t Mary refused all of Gunnar’s advances out of hand? “What the fff…”

“What is the problem?” Magnus asked, then adding after a pause, “Besides Gunnar getting in way over his head with that one.”

Thalia raised an eyebrow, but from the looks of it, she agreed with the principle of my partner’s sentiment. “Well, Gunnar has a lot of biomechanical implants, as mentioned. He is essentially a cyborg. Plus, those implants were made using DNA gained from Tirnanog, even though they aren’t a dedicated part of his body. Gunnar’s original DNA is untouched, but there is foreign biomass inside him. We have no clue what would happen if we inject Gunnar with the recombination virus and our nanotech. At worst, the virus and the nanotech go absolutely crazy and kill him. At best, they latch only onto his non-modified tissue, and after partnering with Mary, the starfish mutation starts the regeneration process. Which would open a whole new can of worms, as old tissue would be rejected. Not to mention what might happen with the implants.”

Thalia trailed off, showing she was completely out of her depth in answering these concerns. “We have already sent for help from Gurney Camacho. If it is true that he was the original designer of the nanotech, he may know how to do this. Generally, the nanotech is pretty smart. People can have things like symbionts inside their bodies without it freaking out. Pretty much all contact with foreign biomass is safe except for digesting it. It is just that we never before had a case where a new initiate's body was already contaminated with so many different bio-samples even before they went through their first mutation.”

After a moment of silence, she shrugged and gave an exasperated sigh. “There is no way to tell how that may turn out. It may as well be a more horrible way to die than just allowing Gunnar to slip away in his current state.”

I licked my lips, sensing a problem there. “How would they even, you know, partner up? In their state?”

Thalia rolled her eyes. “It would be simple enough to trick the nanotech by placing them in close proximity and exchanging some body fluids. It has been done before to save a mortally wounded individual who didn’t have regeneration traits, though it was never a common practice for obvious reasons.”

“Wouldn’t that put Mary also at risk?” Magnus asked.

Thalia nodded. “Definitely, but she voiced her willingness to take the bet since Gunnar saved her life. It comes down to the question of how the nanotech reacts to Gunnar’s implants. If it does, the idea would be off the table anyway. Mary already has too many mutations to take on any partner except for a completely blank slate.”

Waiting for Camacho took a few dozen agonising minutes, during which Magnus went to talk to his uncle.

I took the time to visit Mary, who was on a whole assortment of transfusions. She looked worse than I ever imagined to see her, but she still smiled upon seeing me.

“Hi, grandma. I heard you are planning something really stupid,” I joked. “You know, if nothing else, partnering with Gunnar might put you over the edge.”

She coughed, but didn’t stop grinning. “I know, but the fool saved my life and I can’t deal with the thought of not returning the favour. Sienna and Richard are sure he is toast if we do nothing. I have always lived my life making certain to repay all my debts.”

I forced myself to smile. “It is certainly a noble sentiment, but are you certain it is still the right thing to do in this case? There could be a lot of misery down the road if you two don’t match.”

Mary winked at me. “Oh, foolish girl. I have already lived for a few centuries alone. If Gunnar misbehaves, I would have no problem beating him up and sending him to the wilds. Saving his life would only balance the scales between us. It’s not like I would feel committed to put up with his bullshit: though I admit he is like chewing gum sticking to my clothes.”

I grinned, glad that Mary was seeing it rather pragmatically. She already had lifetimes of experience to look back upon. It wasn’t the same as placing someone like me in this situation, who had barely experienced being partnered with someone. To her, picking up Gunnar was probably not more than accepting an annoying pet. It would be the wiser move to counsel the old badger on what he was getting himself into: and whether it wasn’t preferable to bite the dust now.

I swayed the topic to some light small talk to ease the mood until eventually, a bedraggled looking Gurney Camacho made his appearance. He listened to the proposal but wasn’t totally sold on the idea at first. After a lot of back and forth and consulting the colony’s supercomputer and some additional advice from Gaia, they decided to take the risk.