(2) 28mm scale figures

Sculpted by: Aaron Brown

246C2588 was getting nervous. The enemy soldiers were drawing closer to the destroyed remains of their outpost every moment, but she lacked the numbers to do anything about it. Volatile under the best of circumstances, she could only imagine how they'd respond to the charred buildings and scattered corpses littering that cursed clearing. Truly, they were possessed of inferior minds. Any reasonable creature knew that the Fever was absolutely deadly and had to be eradicated immediately; even so, 246C2588 had no intention of being anywhere nearby when the greybacks reached their fort. 

246C2588 was an Onlooker, a special sort of Handler. She had spent the whole of her Primacy out in these endless woods, living with and guiding the Drahouin. It was her duty to guide the indigenous creatures to the whims of the Colony, whether they realized it or not, whether they liked it or not. Fortunately, the greybacks made the Drahouin’s compliance almost assured. Though the various meri had long fought each other, against the alien they found a common cause, and could usually be relied upon to cooperate long enough to drive the to’ok out of the forests. They might not be the most intelligent species the Race had encountered among the stars, but they could see what had happened to the meri in the grasslands and wanted no part of that fate. 

Her two most friendly contacts in the local meri were a young scout and his brother. They were both sons of the mere’s riik, but neither had yet earned a name of his own. She knew that they hoped to do that this summer, against the aliens marching to the fort. If the circumstances allowed it, she might permit a raid or two, as much to gain information about the greybacks as to satisfy the desires of her allies. Only time would tell. For now she insisted they keep their hoods in their belts, and they begrudgingly complied. Other than turning the Drahouin loose, though, she was at a loss for options. If the to’ok reached their fort, the likelihood of their contracting the Fever was very great, in spite of the prophylactic efforts engaged by others of the Race. While the Sovereigns back in the Colony might welcome an epidemic amid the to’ok, thereby relieving some of the growing pressure along the riverfront, the risk of it spreading to the local species and back to the Race itself was too high. They had to be stopped or distracted somehow. 

246C2588 was pacing the outskirts of a night camp, watching some of the young aliens at play, when something caught her eye. Several of the youngsters were gathered around an old Companion, a walking battery that had lost its charge. They’d likely traded an Exile or less scrupulous Handler for it, exchanging it for food or furs. Generally the diminutive machines regenerated their stored electricity simply by moving around, but if this one had been overtaxed, or rendered immobile for whatever reason, that would explain its current state. It was nothing a trip back to the Colony or even a Keep couldn’t fix, but without a generator or sufficient power source to give it that initial recharge, the Companion would be so much useless metal. 246C2588 stood, staring, while an idea slowly coalesced in her mind.