Because this chapter is shorter there's less to talk about. Probably more to discuss next time, but there's enough in my mind that I can at least write a little. So here we go.
More Retz Background: I peel off more layers of the mystery of Retz, who he is and why he thinks the way he does. This is probably the most serious I've written him, his usual dry wit is hardened instead by a very direct and personal grudge. One that, as you saw, was semi-confirmed at the end of this chapter.
It's important to note that Zix and Retz have known each other since they were kids. So really, this is almost like a very toxic sibling relationship more than anything. That is sorta how the Syndicate sees itself, an extended family. They don't really act like a good family should, but that is their expectation of you. Loyalty because you're born into this, you belong to it and you have no choice. Who else will you be without them? Something Zix tries to convince Retz of.
I wouldn't say she's trying to get him back into the fold. She never wanted him around to begin with after all. What she wants though, at least from Retz, is an admission that she's owed something. That he can't truly escape her. Some part of Retz will always be Syndicate. Whether that's true or not doesn't matter, but Retz hates the idea that he owes his former employers anything and he certainly doesn't think of them as family. Because family should trust you and you should be able to trust them. He can't, he never has been able and that's Zix's fault more than anyone else. At least for his formative years.
Zek's Commando Attempt: This was for a bit of fun to illustrate how deep Zek is getting into human culture in his attempts to cozy up to them and appeal to their ego. It was a way to push some of the named pirates we've seen before outside their usual comfort zone a bit and we'll get to see them truly inhabit the roles Zek has set out for them soon enough. Mostly though, personally, I just felt the idea of a raid on a heavily fortified facility was a good chance to have the Jackals riff on action cliches.
I enjoyed coming up with the terrible oneliners Zek forced his crew to do. And the argument over codenames as well. Poor Keth, stuck with a horrible name. At he managed to force it's change a bit. I'm hoping to better flesh out these minor side characters among Zek's crew, although they're clearly not the only people I have to focus on.
Where's Johnson been?: I again apologize for not having Johnson show up nearly as much as I want him to. He keeps getting lost in the shuffle of scenes and battles. I want to state now that he WAS down on the ground during the colony fight in the last arc. I just kept forgetting about him and I feel bad about that still. But I made sure he'd be here and I have also made sure he'll have stuff to do as we get into their section of the raid. Luckily I have plenty of inspiration for creating a kick ass action scene with the Marines, ODSTs and nearby Normandy squadmates. So I'm making up for lost time here.
Brewing Ichor: When you're dealing with a place that makes a beverage you actually have to flesh out how it works. So that was a semi goal in this chapter. Lay out how kig-yar mass produce Ichor to drink. Essentially it's like milking a cow, but it lives in the water. So they let the chorka swim around in essentially a giant indoor pool, similar to what you'd see at sea world. Probably less cramped, but it's not exactly the open ocean.
They pick out specific calves to milk using harnesses that pick them out of the water and then they drain the glands of the ichor using extraction machines. That ichor is then processed, filtered, heated, mixed, cooled and stored in tanks for further distribution via bottling and later shipment. Depending on what you want you have to do different things during the brewing section or extract from different places. You have to mix certain excretions with others, but you need to be careful or the flavors won't mix well. At least as far as kig-yar are concerned. They're still drinking oily bodily fluids from an ugly space beluga.
It's a bit of a contrast from Zek's homebrew candy factory on his ship. Less personal touch, more mass production industrial grade farming. It's not horrible for the Chorka, they're not abused, but it's not exactly ideal. Proof of that is evidenced by the fact Snarlbeak has taken... extra precautions to keep the Chorka in line it seems.
This Shark will Swallow you Whole: I've teased them, I've mentioned them, I've talked about them over and over. Razorfins, the terror of the deep on Eayn. The apex predator of the ocean.The sea monster all kig-yar fear. Imagine a great white, but bigger. Purple and blue scales, large black eyes lifeless eyes that can see all around it at all times. Fins with sharp edges that give the creature its name and, it's most firghtening feature, two mouths. One inside the other. The first grabs, the other tears. Think a xenomorph as a fish and you get a close approximation of what is waiting in the water.
They are the only creature that threatens Chorka, they'll eat anything, but they love Chorka. And as a result, the kig-yar tried to kill them off to protect their precious booze oozing friends. That resulted in a lot more horror stories concerning the predators in old kig-yar sea tales than anything else. And because they were real, it made them scarier than anything the Jackals could imagine.The only reason the Razorfins aren't extinct? They go deep to breed. Also, they've developed a taste for kig-yar too, after so many have been lost trying to kill them all.
Naturally the prohibition on Ichor the Covenant created has sorta led to a rise in their numbers now that fewer Kig-Yar hunter teams aren't going after them. The ones that are are criminals, assumed to be a part of the illegal ichor trade because there's no other reason to hunt Razorfins. They're not tasty, they don't go to public beaches looking for kig-yar to eat usually and they're so damn dangerous that it's stupid to go after them in the first place. You can shoot at them from the air, but that tends to attract attention from local authorities who want to know why you're shooting at Razorfins and while not illegal to kill them, it raises eyebrows and puts you on a list of sorts. So you have to go back to the old ways to keep yourself from getting spotted. And that means a boat... hunting a big killer shark with two mouths that can and will slice into your boat with its fins.
Suffice to say, Snarlbeak knows the power of the Razorfin legend. How it scares even the most seasoned pirates. So who better to guard the Chorka and prevent the Chorka from trying to escape their confinement on their own, than the predator that has a taste for them?
And since Zek won't blow up the distillery and put the Chorka at risk, they're gonna have to kill the Razorfins. No easy feat under the circumstances. It's not like they have something that flies after all. At least nothing that won't go unnoticed. But why would Zix not mention this little hiccup in their plan so they could work around it? Perhaps because she has an invested interest in forcing their hand on how to deal with the problem? We'll have to see, but that's for next time.
I'll see you all then, hopefully I'll have another chapter of something or other before too long. Thanks again for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment