"So..." I mused as I looked over the gathered individuals before me. "Let's get this meeting underway, shall we?"
"Indeed. Nerak believes we have waited long enough," the high-ranking Calthrax said with a nod.
"Let's get this over with, I have more research to get to," Jonas muttered, his fingers tapping on the table as he muttered various calculations under his breath.
(This is off to a good start.) I sighed at my resident mad scientist before turning back to the others.
It hadn't been too long since my conversation with Sapphire; we had agreed to call a meeting as soon as possible to discuss various things. One of the main topics was the big sisters; however, that wasn't the only reason that we had gathered everyone for. And when I say "everyone," I mean all of the command staff as well as several other important individuals. Of course there were some who were unable to attend, like my favourite trio of Ashley, Red, and Connor.
"Let's start with the main reason we're here," Sapphire spoke up, trying to maintain her confidence.
I didn't mind her pushing the line of conversation; after all, while she was more reserved than I, she still had the same amount of authority as I did. So I simply nodded in agreement. "Right. Roseanne, Jonas, any progress on that little project of yours?"
"Yes, in fact, we have made great strides in that particular path of research, my queen." Jonas smiled wickedly, the dozens of scars across his face only making it creepier to behold.
"We've been looking into the mechanics and biology behind adam as well as the sea slugs that produce it, we have found something rather interesting," Roseanne said as she began the explanation, though the look in her eyes, one of an attention-starved puppy wanting to be praised, made me feel rather uncomfortable. "Using various chemicals, we've managed to create a kind of fluid that can disrupt the plasmid abilities of an individual for a short time."
"It hasn't been perfected yet, mind you; however, it should help in keeping them restrained for a while." Jonas chuckled, probably curious to see how his little project would affect the big sisters.
"Unfortunately, the fluid must be digested to function properly." He hummed, continuing with his explanation. "This, of course, means we must first capture them alive before force feeding it to them, as I do not believe they will consume it willingly."
"And therein lies the problem; I'd rather not send my men to their deaths to fight literal super enhanced beings. While I do pity those women, as no one deserves the fate that they have been given, I will not order my soldiers to be potentially ripped apart just to restrain them." Elliott grumbled, although it was clear from the look in his eyes that the idea of leaving them to said fate didn't sit well with him either.
"Nerak must concur with you on that."
(I wasn't planning on having them do such a thing anyway.) I thought as I continued to listen.
"It would be best if we could disable them without direct combat," Darook, who had been silent up until this point, mused as he leant forward slightly.
He then glanced at me before adding, "For what you've told me, clan chief, their power is not to be underestimated."
"S'yuit-de!" a sudden voice came from the back of the room in response to those words.
"What was that?" Darook snapped at the one who had spoken, his voice becoming eerily calm.
"You heard me, coward," Zurvak spoke, his voice low and gravelly with a deep edge to it.
Darook breathed out slowly. His clan went to snap back on his behalf, but he raised his hand to stop them before speaking himself. "There is a difference between being a coward and being cautious, yet it would appear you do not grasp this most simple of concepts." He said simply, his words steady as if speaking to an ignorant child. "Not that I find myself truly surprised, you never struck me as intelligent to begin with."
"You dare! A whelp should know its place," the massive male Yajua hissed in disdain.
(Not this again...) I thought, suddenly getting the desire to bash my head against a wall in frustration.
"I'm terrified, truly," Darook growled sarcastically.
Before they could continue, however, I snapped. "Would you lot please be silent?" As my words left my mouth, a small amount of my essence of change began to leak out of my body, the shifting energy warping the air around me.
Immediately the two stopped their senseless arguing. They may have greatly disliked each other, but they listened when I spoke, and seeing that I wasn't exactly pleased they were quick to put those differences aside… for now, anyway.
"My apologies, clan chief. Please forgive my rudeness," Darook mused, bowing his head respectfully.
"It would seem I have overstepped my bounds. Punish me as you see fit," Zurvak rumbled, causing me to sigh.
Honestly, their bickering had definitely reached the point of seriously getting on my nerves. Although I will admit that part of it was my fault, Yajua usually settled disagreements by fighting each other to the death. The problem was that I refused to let my own people kill each other, so they had resorted to arguing constantly, much to my annoyance. Thankfully, Darook had told me he might have a solution that didn't involve my subordinates murdering one another; unfortunately, it would have to wait until we got back to the sanctuary since right now my full focus was on the tasks at hand.
As for why I allowed the two groups into the meeting despite knowing this would probably happen, well, it was relatively simple overall. They not only had the most influence in my Yajua forces, but they would play a large part in my plans moving forward. I needed them here so I could hear their opinions, as they represented several Yajua clans under my control; however, their bickering was really a massive pain in my ass.
"If you don't have anything productive to say, then be quiet," I huffed at the two before turning my attention back to the wider meeting as a whole.
Just then a slight cough got my attention. "Yes?"
"Well, we could use the venom of a kinshin," one of Sapphire subordinates said in their native language; Sapphire herself translating for them. "A type of large venomous serpent, it releases chemicals that cause temporary paralysis strong enough to immobilize even the most resilient creatures."
"T-the only problem with that idea is that harvesting the venom of a k-kinshin is rather time-consuming," my fellow alternative added afterward. "Also, we d-don't even know if it'll have much of an effect, considering the adam in their bodies and the way their physiology has been altered."
(I really need to visit Sapphire's sanctuary sometime so I can see all the creatures she has, if she'll let me visit that is.) I thought, my biologist side flaring up slightly.
"Any chance you can make some kind of tranq gun powerful enough to get past the suits, Eric?" I asked for a moment of contemplation, and he didn't even think about it for a full second before answering.
"Should be easy enough."
"Alright, let's give this a shot then," I nodded, before half-jokingly adding, "If this doesn't work we can only go with the other plan: dog-piling them with xenomorphs."
The plan was simple, sure, but it was the most effective method we had available right now. Big Sisters were not only extremely dangerous with a large range of abilities, but they were also extremely agile. Additionally, this was reality, not a game; they were not bound by game mechanics or attack patterns. They were intelligent killing machines that would adapt and react to our actions and strategies.
"Now that we've sorted all of that out, let's move on to the next part of this meeting," I mused, shifting my gaze slightly.
"Ophelia, have we managed to make contact yet?" I asked, and she was quick to answer.
"Unfortunately, no. We have tried speaking to the little sisters, but it's difficult with their so-called guardians in the way," she sighed, shaking her head.
I had suspected as much, but it was still disappointing to hear. We had been attempting to get into communication with Brigid Tenenbaum as well as Eleanor Lamb if at all possible. Unfortunately, as you could probably tell, that was proving more difficult than anticipated. We need to get into communication with them for several reasons, the main one being the various missions Sapphire and I had to complete for this expedition.
I mean, we could simply wait until Delta awoke, taking our time to expand as much as possible until that point. The problem, however, was that we had no actual idea where the events of BioShock 2 would take place. Well, we knew "where" thanks to the games, but just knowing the name of a place doesn't mean we know its exact location.
And yes, while I had indoctrinated several splicers to act as scouts and saboteurs similarly to what I had done in my trial, this unfortunately hadn't exactly worked as I had planned. The thing is, since their minds were already so broken, the forceful indoctrination had apparently shattered their individuality completely. It was like a more extreme version of what had happened to individuals like Roseanne after being added to the hive mind, although instead of becoming obsessed with me they lost all free will and became emotionless puppets that would willingly suffocate to death if I simply ordered them to stop breathing.
I had, of course, also tried downloading some critical information from their memories into the hive net. Frustratingly however, they were still insane lunatics who most of the time couldn't tell the difference between hallucinations and reality. It didn't help that their minds were a complete mess, considering they had the memories of multiple people thanks to the recycled adam they'd been injecting. So yeah, we desperately needed to get into contact with people who truly understood the layout of this place and weren't completely batshit insane.
"Should we attempt to contain them, by the way?" Eno suddenly spoke up, her usually professional demeanour cracking slightly at the thought of the young girls. "I understand that we currently can't cure them without Brigid Tenenbaum's help, but is it really okay to just leave them to wander this dangerous place?"
"I agree. They're just children after all; they didn't ask for any of this," Ophelia added, arms folded across her chest.
"True, Nerak would agree; however, we also can't move rashly. No, we cannot. After all, for every guardian we kill, there is one less potential shield protecting the little ones that we currently can't reach," Nerak said as he scraped his clawed fingers across the hardened surface of the table we were all sitting around.
Elliott, for his part, nodded in agreement with Sapphire's subordinate. "Also, if we just start taking them, it will only bring more unnecessary attention to us."
Several of the others, of course, disagreed with that and were quick to voice their opinion. "But still, we must-"
I could understand both sides of the argument; in fact, this little debate had been going on for a while and was one of the main reasons I had called this meeting. As for why they were calling them "guardians" instead of "Big Daddies," well, that's because some people found it weird to call them that in conversation, so they started calling them guardians instead.
(Both opinions are valid...) I breathed out in thought.
(On one hand I do want to take a more active role and save all those kids that were kidnapped and dragged down into this hellhole.) I sighed, weighing both thighs of the debate. (And yet on the other hand, I'd prefer if we could get into contact with both Brigid and Eleanor first.)
Seeing that this line of conversation wasn't going to end anytime soon, I crossed my arms and muttered to myself, "Welp, it looks like we're going to be here for a while..."