Ursula had been very interested in the plans for a counteroffensive. Her new ears let her listen in on the planning session as Milo outlined the problem, and then Belinda began organizing people into teams that had a high chance of taking out one of the red snails that were herding the troops and giving orders. When the bear had heard enough, she uttered a low growl to alert the people around her that she was moving and began walking to the meeting. Amarella was sitting on top of her back, her bees buzzing around her. As the large mechanical bear loomed over the meeting, everyone went silent. Amarella waved and smiled at them, "Ursula wants to help."
Milo looked at the pile of snails in front of Ursula's position, where her guns had destroyed over two dozen of the tough Battle Snails and countless smaller snails. "She's been helping. A lot, and doing a great job."
The bear whined a bit, rolled her mechanical eyes, and huffed. The bee girl translated, "She wants to help with this part. She points out that chasing little bosses is good, but if you run into something big, you'll need more bear-power."
Milo looked at the huge bear, nearly the size of a battle snail, and the massive throng of snails filling this end of the cave. "It's a good thought...and Professor Boom is coming up with a few things that pack a punch. I'd love to have her along, but part of the mission needs stealth."
Ursula made an exasperated huff, then turned and pointed at one of the largest snail carcasses. It had taken a bazooka shot to the head and died from the explosion. Brad got it immediately. He'd been looking for a way to go along, but his spell-stealing class didn't have a lot to offer against creatures with no spells of their own. "Trojan Snail. We clean out that shell and disguise her so she can work her way towards the rear of the formation."
Milo knew full well how much destruction was packed into Ursula's new body. But he felt guilty sending her into another battle after just recovering from the last one. "It could be dangerous if you get caught. There are a lot of snails out there..."
The bear growled. Amarella patted her head, "She says that they are little, weak snails, something no bear like her will ever fear again." Then the bee girl grinned at the group, "And I'm sensing a lot of anger inside of her. Maybe it would be better to give her a target for that? No telling what damage a cranky, angry bear who got left out of all the fun might do."
Everyone nodded at the wisdom of that statement. Two-Screws stood up, "Let's get to work then. I need a framework to hold that shell steady on the bear, and we need to clean that sucker out and patch it up, plus, I think it would be a shame if she couldn't quickly deploy her guns. Let's get to work, people!"
It only took a few hours to prepare the shell that would disguise Ursula and her crew. Buttercup and her sister were a great help with finding the proper shell and dragging it back to camp. They could run faster than any of the dwarves and haul as much as one of the mechanical bear-mobiles. They delighted in dashing into no man's land between rounds of cannon fire and dashing back with their prizes. The only piece that gave them problems was the gigantic battlesnail that would be the base of the disguise. It was too heavy to lift or drag, and they had to carve out all the interior first, ensuring a second bath of the day. Gendifur wasn't in a hurry, though. They were having fun, putting their minds to work as well as their bodies, and showing everyone around them that they were normal (if rather large) people, not monsters. By the end of the day, they had presented Two-Screws and his crew with the large battlesnail shell, chunks of other shells to be used to patch and reinforce, and were working on a collection of smaller snail shells, lining them up against the cavern wall by color and size.
The gunners appreciated their fields of fire being cleared, but one other person became intrigued with their collection. Nina was looking at each shell and making notes on the color patterns, size, and shape. She began to watch the battle, trying to see the speed of each snail, armor thickness, and any special abilities like acidic or fiery discharges. The shells she had seen from the first battle had been more uniform, with large distinctions between red, green, and blue shells. These were more varied, and any snail might have a mix of traits. She likened it to having three types of squash growing in carefully separated fields to preserve the separate varieties, only to find that the next few seasons produced crossbreeds as the bees carried pollen from one field to another. She was frustrated by not being able to analyze their DNA and would have to work up her catalog of genetic traits the old-fashioned way, through observation. Then, she wondered how close to real-world genetics the world of Genesis used. She was making assumptions that could prove to be totally incorrect, but had a feeling she was on the right track.
Milo's discovery of who had made this world gave her clues, and the next break she took from the game, she would be looking again at the work done by MENDEL and EPONA. A lot of her own work drew from the discoveries MENDEL had made regarding the human genome, and EPONA had done the same, but taken a wider focus, studying the genetics of every animal species in the world. Their work in tracing the evolution of species based on genetics had been especially upsetting to a subset of humans who insisted the world had been created in 4004 BC. She doubted that model had been used for Genesis, and Milo agreed. Real time might have only been a few years, but the Engine had evolved the world through countless millions of years at a pace only possible to Quantum AI. She was curious how a race of monstrous snails had evolved into three distinct types and then crossbred. With a lack of data, she made notes, helped the girls with cataloging their shell collection, and then made sure she was in the crew of the Trojan Snail.
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Her crewmates were an odd mix. Brad was going along, having shown that one of his spells, Area of Silence, would be very useful in masking the gunfire from Ursula. It was an anti-mage spell, designed to counter spells with verbal components. He'd picked it up and made it one of his permanent spells after an encounter with the Order of the Silent Blades, a group of goblin ninjas who took contracts to kill spellcasters. Somehow, Kenji had gotten on their bad side when he rescued a Priestess of the Three Moons. The other crew members were Amarella and the twin Scout Masters, Ringtail and Tweedle. The twins had pointed out that all snails had heads and that this snail lacked one, which they offered to provide.
They produced a somewhat good approximation of a snail's head, made of leather, with long eyestalks with knobs they had painted to look like eyes. They proudly presented it to the group, who were getting Ursula's disguise ready.
"We noticed the glaring error in your clever disguise, but being good scouts, we fixed the problem.
"HUZZAH! A perfect replica of a handsome snail. I painted the eyes myself."
Two-screws looked at the leather contraption and scratched his head, "How does it work? Does it inflate? Do we need to make mechanical controls for it?"
The twins looked at each other and nodded. Not hearing a "NO!" to one of their ideas was refreshing. "It is ready to go as is. It just needs a pair of skilled puppet masters to move the eyes and turn the head."
"Lucky for you, we are skilled puppeteers. Ask anyone in the Hollow who isn't named Charlotte."
"Charlotte did not like our puppet shows."
"Even when we made her the star! Charlotte falls downthe well and can't get out! was very popular with the younger children.
"Based on a true story!"
"Sad that she got out."
"Sad that she didn't like the puppet show."
"Sad that our bones are so fragile. We had to promise never to do that show again."
"She didn't like Charlotte is Potatohead either."
"A very educational puppet show that showed the dangers of being put on kitchen duty, which she was after she broke our legs."
"She was the inspiration behind so many good shows. Without her, we lost interest in puppets."
"Until Now!"
Two-Screws looked at the two scouts, then the puppet. "Let me get this straight: the two of you want me to attach this thing to the front of the snail so that you can climb inside and wave the eyes around?"
The twins nodded. "Essentially, yes. We promise to do a very good job."
The dwarf slowly shook his head in wonder, "Who am I to get in the way of a couple of mad puppeteers?" Work began again, adding the twins' contribution to the Trojan Snail. The project was deemed a success. It was easy for Ursula to move, weighing little compared to what her mechanical muscles could lift. She practiced moving back and forth, and then another addition was made, of a thick cloth skirt to cover the gap between the shell and the ground, colored to match a snail's 'foot'. She was escorted far down the wall to where she could skirt around the dead snails and merge with those coming forward.
Milo and Two-Screws had come up with a plan to help her not stand out as the one snail moving in the wrong direction. The parts from the stinky old snail had been put back together, and a much louder broadcast device built. Each bit of conversation could be triggered separately, as the stinky snail had done. It was all mounted on one of the cargo-hauler bears. As Ursula got into position, a grating voice boomed out.
"STUPID SNAILS! GET OFF MY LAWN!"
The forward line of snails quit moving, with the next line slowing as they bunched up. They seemed confused.
Brutus had come along as a bodyguard. "Maybe add a good scream at the end. He did scream a lot to reinforce the messages."
"I SAID, GIT! TIRED OF YOU!" followed by a horrific screech that had everyone holding their ears. The dwarven engineer looked sheepish, "Sorry, had this sucker cranked up to ten, I'll throttle it back a bit. About six should be good, and not deafen us."
The snails were now moving in the other direction. The cargo bear waited until the Trojan Snail began to catch up with the herd, then followed, yelling and screaming and slowly turning this end of the assault back. The change hadn't gone unnoticed. Far away, fast red snails began to redeploy in the direction of the faltering assault. Ursula picked up the pace, moving around slower snails, wanting to get ahead of the pack. She succeeded just as two of the red snails stopped in front of her, yelling and berating her, and screeching loudly. The other snails began to turn around, but the large battle snail held its ground, to the red snails' annoyance.
They were more annoyed, and then terrified, when sections of the strange snail's shell popped open, and two large guns deployed. Each snail was targeted separately, and the guns began firing in an eerie silence, followed by both snails exploding and scattering the parts over a large area. The twins in the head did an impromptu dance, swaying side to side, then twirling the eyes. Ursula huffed twice, highly enjoying herself and got moving again. Behind her came the sounds of the cargo bear, bellowing out commands to retreat, with no counter commands coming from the smoking corpses.
But other snails were on the move. Ursula saw, far ahead of her, half a dozen coming her way. And on the far side of the battle, unseen with all eyes on the Trojan Snail, two very fast, mottled red and blue snails were moving to the rear, giggling as they went.
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