Chrono Trigger: The Planeswalkers
Epilogue
By Mox Jet
Within two
years of its inception, the Lavoid Exterminatorum
Adeptus was responsible for the deaths of over 150 Lavoids and countless
lesser, Lavoid Energy powered creatures. Initiating their attacks as raids
on Lavoid colonies or smaller Lavoid fleets, they began to gather a power
base. Slowly, they killed more and more Lavoids and the LEA fleet began to
grow. Eventually it could certainly be called a fleet, with the now ever-famous Weatherlight as the flagship.
It wasn’t
always the largest of the LEA’s ships. Other ships such as the Predator
and the Destiny grew past the original Weatherlight in size, but none grew past
it in reputations. While Jack eventually appointed Captains to all of the
ships, the Weatherlight itself was responsible for the most Lavoid related
deaths in the short history of the Organization. Jack still retained his
position as Captain of the ship.
The LEA
found, to their delight, that Farilii were not the basic foot soldier of the
Lavoid horde. There were a series of lesser Lavoid-type creatures that
were killed with much less trouble; if you cut off their head in close combat,
it stayed cut off and the corpse dropped to the ground. Also to their
surprise, it was later discovered that the Farilii regeneration abilities could
be circumvented by two ways. First, if they were knocked unconscious and
then decapitated, they stayed dead. Second, if a swift stab is executed
through the center of the skull, the normal hormonal reaction that cues the
regeneration is somehow bypassed. Needless to say, both techniques were
quickly included in the base set of Tactical Indoctrination.
As they
spread outward, the LEA quickly came into contact with
other forms of human life. Apparently, the planet named Elosia was part of
a political organization known as the Sol Dominion. It was a rather loose
grouping of civilized worlds and there was no real ruler, but it did show that
humanity, like the Lavoids, had spread far. The LEA, however, continued to
operate outside of the jurisdiction of anyone. Jack had merely comment
that he would simply have anyone that would try to control the LEA sucked into
Chaos without second thought.
Continuing to
operate against the Lavoids as their main goal, the
exploration provided by the organization did lead to new trade routes for the
Grand Council back on Elosia. The LEA had paid back its initial debt
within sixteen months. Most of this money came from interplanetary trade,
but there was a growing market for a new type of profit.
As it turned
out, the glowing purplish crystals that were found
on the inside of Lavos’s chamber were also found on the chamber walls of any
Lavoid. It was a result of magical residue, combined with Lifestream
energy and raw Lavoid energy. The result was a crystal that could be
ground into a powder. This powder proved to have some very interesting
results when ingested. Apparently, the high that was induced rivaled most
severe hallucinogenic drugs, according to specialists. Also, while only
mildly addictive in small quantities, when certain amount is ingested daily, it
was extremely addictive. Named Lamange (La, for Lavoid and mange, for the
Zealian word for fruit, literally, Fruit of the Lavoid), the LEA found that
there was a certain profit that they could gain from each of their kills.
Needing money to continue their operations, the moral issues of basically
dealing in the drug trade did not phase them. It did not phase it’s
users, either, as the market for it was growing.
Recruitment was handled by taking budding warriors from each
planet where conflict with a Lavoid had already happened. It was found
that the best psychologically motivated Exterminatorum Adeptus were those who
had met loss at the hands of a Lavoid. After being inducted, they began
the extensive period of training and tactical indoctrination that gave them the
knowledge of an Adeptus. While the training period was kept as short as
possible in the organization’s early years, it was later protracted so that
more effective warriors could be created.
The scouting for potential Adeptus was handled by a growing
organization within the LEA that became commonly known as the Watchers.
Normally examining the individuals from a distance before going further in and
bringing their attention to the impending fate of their planet (as it was always
a planet that was Lavoid infested), they would guide the young Adeptus to
joining the ranks of the LEA. The Watchers ended up being headed by
Tristan Tenser, also serving as a direct reporter to Jack himself.
The Adeptus
themselves were the results of countless years of
research. Jack had picked particular aspects of this research to put into
the program, giving each Adeptus high skill levels in close combat, armed and
unarmed, and usage of all weapons that the LEA employed. Force Tech was a
basic skill among the LEA and even the lowest level soldier in the group had a
Tech Degree of 18. On that note, Jack’s own Tech Degree had reached some
point too high to actual measure anymore, though he never actually used all of
it due to the impractical charging time that would be required.
The
remaining problem proved to be the Class B’s. Whilst the
LEA had no problems with the Class C’s (which the more powerful warriors in
the organization were well capable of felling on their own), the next step they
had to make was the Class B. Jack had trepidation as far as moving the LEA
into combat with the next level of Lavoid. He knew the time would come
when they would be ready, and he did not want to wait forever, but a sense of
fear was still there. New weapon technologies were being researched and
new magical libraries were always being studied in hopes that someday, the LEA
may begin to kill the next level of the Lavoid species.
The final
thing on Jack’s mind was that inevitable existence:
others like him. He knew it’d be lucky to find another potential
Planeswalker without diving into time itself (which he refrained from as it
was deemed that Time Travel and the possible creation of various and
potentially devastating anomalies was not worth it), but he knew there was
another one out there. There had to be one hiding somewhere. They
were his family, in an odd sense of the word, and they would be powerful allies
against the Lavoids. But, finding one was hard. Jack considered it
part of
the mission, though. He had to free the others. All of the other
potential
Planeswalkers, all of the other Lavoid Born…they had to become full fledged
Planeswalkers. And it was that which brought him to his next target… .
To be Continued in – Chrono Trigger: Twins of Destiny!!