From the nest rapidly developing around Boomnut Bush 909, Squirrel M115 could clearly see several major landmarks. Another bush with squirrels busily working away at the fortifications around it was clearly visible, and according to the radio chatter between the squirrels in M115’s nest and that other nest the stretch of land between it would be perfect for large scale boomnut bush growth.

And so M115 found itself with the somewhat unwanted task of planting boomnuts between the two nests. They quickly stuffed one into each cheek pouch, and then ventured forth into the no-squirrel’s land between the nests with their quills at the ready to be fired into any hostiles.

They didn’t get very far from the nest before it was time to plant the first nut, quickly digging a hole in the dirt and dropping a boomnut inside. A quick signal to the nut in question set it into growth mode, and then burying it with dirt.

Squirrel M115 then continued onwards to the next spot, still well within support range of the nest when he reached the second nut burial point. Another quickly dug hole, the second nut dropped in and subject to the same treatment as the first, and Squirrel M115 returned to the nest.

When they arrived, they quickly noted that boomnut stocks were tight enough at the moment that further planting operations would need to wait. So M115 queried the nest for other tasks, with the result that current duties in need of completion were predator elimination and auxiliary food source acquisition, both of which would require venturing outside the nest.

And so M115 sallied forth in search of threats to the nest. The newly deployed doomgrass was already starting to grow, but the fruit weren’t mature enough to eat yet and M115 knew from his database that the Doomgrass would respond violently to attempts to eat the actual plant. Still, there were some pre-existing plant species around that M115 knew exactly how to work with. A few minutes of walking quickly took M115 to the massive blood berry bramble that F422 had tried to go around, but for M115 it was currently a resource rather than a hindrance.

So the squirrel carefully plucked berry after berry from the bramble, stashing them in his cheek pouches to bring back to base. He had to shoot down a couple laser falcons with his surface to air missiles on the way back home, but that was a fairly minor annoyance all things considered. Still, soon enough he’d made it back home and unloaded the berries in his cheek pouches for his fellow squirrels to eat.

M115 had barely started back out of the nest for another berry run when the alarm went out throughout the squirrel nest that there was a flight of Brose’s Wyverns inbound and definitely interested in what was going on here.

Immediately M115 whirled around to spot the inbound wyverns, four of them approaching at high speed. The squirrels quickly conferred about a course of action, and it was agreed on to hold fire until the wyverns got closer. Of course, the wyverns did just that, and when M115 spotted one of them opening its mouth to fire the electron beam it was equipped with, M115 immediately shot back with a full third of the surface to air missiles he had in inventory.

Between him and his fellow squirrels the sky was quickly filled with rocket propelled quills, all of them streaking right towards their targets and maneuvering to prevent evasion. Explosion after explosion rang out as the missiles struck home, and the wyverns dropped from the sky in fairly short order with varying degrees of injury.

The injured wyverns quickly got back to their feet and started retreating. In response M115 was immediately ordered to follow after the Brose’s Wyverns and stop them from getting back to their nesting grounds by any means necessary. If they told the rest of the wyverns what they found the entire clan would surely come by and wipe the entire squirrel nest off the map.

So M115 and twelve other male squirrels were dispatched off after the wyverns, chasing after them at top speed. Slowly they closed the distance, the wyverns walking with relative sluggishness given their injuries. Dodging around bushes and rocks the squirrels quickly lined up their shots, and together they all volleyed a barrage of mind control quills into the wyverns in question.

A few minutes of following later the wyverns all fell to the ground for a few moments as the nanoweapon payload seized control of their central nervous system, getting back up shortly thereafter and making their way back towards the squirrel nest.

M115 quickly radioed back to inform the other squirrels and the bush of four mind controlled Brose’s Wyverns en route for composting, all of them in various states of injury and ready to be used as fertilizer as soon as they could be buried.

The nest sent back a transmission indicating approval, and requested nine squirrels to come back ahead of the Wyverns while the rest guarded the caravan to make sure it got back safely. M115 of course took the opportunity to get back early, dispatching a cloaking shocker that was in the way as he traveled.

As soon as he got back, M115 asked for his next assignment, and was quickly informed that it was time to get the next generation of artillery squirrels gestating. Quickly squirrels F001, F980, and F336 presented themselves to him for mating, and he quickly grabbed a boomnut to eat before making his way down into the burrows for a well-deserved break.

Meanwhile back on Bark, I was actually heading up my team’s presentation on our organism’s adaptations and general survival strategy. Queen and Wesseck were present of course, but I’d done the most work on the squirrels so I was the one doing most of the talking about the squirrels. Similarly it had been decided that Queen would handle most microbe-related questions, and Wesseck would handle any curiosities about the boomnut bushes.

Of course, the very first question I was asked was “What inspired you to make a squirrel as your organism of choice?”

In response I answered to the very polite mob of reporters and camera drones “Academic requirements really. Basically this hardass professor named Thonne took out his personal issues on my grade for microfauna lab, and since I didn’t want to repeat that class I joined the tournament to get the prerequisite for my next class from another source. Also squirrels are a nice versatile platform.”

One of the many reporters (I wasn’t really keeping track of them at this point) remarked “Well, you’ve certainly proven the versatility part what with all the different munitions you fitted those squirrels with. How about the behavioral configuration? From what I’m aware squirrels tend to be pretty solitary.”

I simply replied “Put quite bluntly a solitary animal in that weight class won’t be able to hold territory on Blackwood, plain and simple. Since the artillery squirrels need to hold territory to protect their food sources that means they need a robust social structure, end of story.”

Yet another reporter took the opportunity to ask “And the food sources in question, what’s so special about those bushes that the squirrels need them to survive?”

Wesseck took the stage at that point, my robotic arachnid teammate noting “The thing is that those munition quills the squirrels use require a couple highly reactive compounds that many of the food sources on Blackwood don’t provide. The high explosive quills require dietary PETN, while the anti-air missile quills and incendiaries require solid rocket fuel. In addition all of them need a propellant charge for launching from their follicles. The boomnut bush serves to provide all these explosives and combustibles in one easy to eat package, which the squirrels can use to great effect for keeping stocked up on munitions.”

Things continued in this vein for several kiloseconds as we fielded question after question from the crowd, all of them eager to know what exactly we’d created and sent down to the planet below. I was quite pleased by how enthusiastic the reporters were to know every single detail about our critters and plants, their responses making it even more clear just how wrong professor Thonne had been to screw with my and Wesseck’s grades like that.

Still, eventually the interview came to an end and we made our way down off the stage. After a few minutes to grab a quick snack from one of the cookbots the event planners had gotten set up, I asked “Well, is there anything else you want to do around here for now, or should we go looking for something else to do?”

Wesseck answered “Personally I’d really like it if we could stick around for Chitin’s interview. I want to know what those three have to say, plus it’ll make it easier for us to get in touch with her afterwards.”

I thought about that for a few moments, and remarked “Yeah, I think that would actually be a good idea. I’m interested in what the media crews will ask them, and I definitely think a post-interview chat would be nice.”

Queen agreed as well, and we proceeded to spend the remaining few kiloseconds waiting for Chitin’s turn cruising around the convention center peeking into various other teams’ interviews. Turns out those guys with the corrosive trees suffered total organism extinction within mere kiloseconds of initial deployment on account of attracting the aggression of every single organism in the area, and we all had a good laugh as they tried to explain the thought process that lead to them thinking it was a good idea to have such an indiscriminate offensive adaptation.

Still, eventually the time slot for Chitin’s interview came around, and we all took the opportunity to grab front row seats as the three instances of our favorite spider girl made their way onto the stage, though only in the one body this time.

I eagerly took the opportunity to wave to Chitin as they glanced at me for a moment, her face adopting a happy expression as she saw me greeting her. Then the interview started and Chitin was all business. They explained in elaborate detain how the doomgrass and thrushes were optimized to cooperate for territory control and rapid proliferation, the anti-predator defenses they’d use to avoid getting eaten, and a whole lot of other points about ecological strategy that would hopefully lead to getting an egg by the end of the observation period.

A couple kiloseconds passed before Chitin got off the stage and came to greet us at one of the on-site eateries.

Wesseck spoke up first, saying “Hi Chitin! You did an awesome job on that presentation, the reporters got really hyped up for the details on your grass and birds.” as they resumed guzzling ice cream.

Chitin chuckled “I’m glad you enjoyed it, we put a lot of thought into making sure it was entertaining and informative. You guys did a pretty good job on yours too.”

A few minutes passed as we ate our lunch together in relative silence. The burrito machine we’d stopped by had supplied each of us with a tasty wrap, and we were entirely focused on our food. Still, the meal disappeared relatively quickly.

Then Queen asked “Well, what now? Competitors generally aren’t allowed to edit their organisms after deployment or else the whole thing just turns into a massive hacking competition, so is there anything else for us to really do aside from simply sitting and waiting?”

Chitin thought for a moment, before replying “Look into other bio-engineering work in the meantime I guess? Most competitors in the Blackwood Invasive Species Tournament are either academic faculty of some description or have some sort of day job they work on between tournament seasons. There’s still a couple Megaseconds before your next semester starts up I believe?”

I said “You know that’s actually not a bad idea. Getting a temp position at a biotech group like Hammer and Bennet could be a nice way to get a bit more professional biological engineering experience under my belt. I think I’ll give it a go, at the very least it’ll be something to do.” after mulling it over for a bit.

That’s when Queen interrupted, noting “Personally I think you’d have more fun as a bespoke morph designer. People are willing to pay quite a lot for custom work in that regard, and you’ll get a lot more creative freedom than you would with one of the big operations that churns out mass-produced bio products to ensure basic societal function.”

I mused “Guessing you’re talking from personal experience there, Queen?” as I thought back to her remarks from a little while ago.

Sure enough Queen responded “Yep. Spent a while designing microbes for a few biotech collectives. Not much creative freedom there, and it’s very limiting. On top of that there’s a lot less room in those big operations for people to get work done since they automate everything to such a massive degree, meaning that it’s generally a lot easier to break into the artisanal custom product space than it is to get a spot in industry.”

I thought for a moment, then asked Wesseck “Hey, do you mind if we use the lab space as a studio for custom morphs? I think it’ll work just fine as a spot to do that in, and it’ll save us the trouble of needing to find another place.”

Wesseck cheerfully answered “I’m all for the idea, this is a great plan and I want in on it too. Queen, you want to spend some time doing morph design?”

Queen immediately replied “Absolutely. This sounds like a wonderful thing to spend our time on, and it’ll be a lot more fun than big industrial projects. As an added bonus having an excellent immune system is a major selling point for any morph; no-one wants to get infected with a nanoweapon after all.”

Across the table, Chitin was looking quite happy with herselves, but took the opportunity to get up, noting “Well, nice that you’ve all figured out what you want to do with your time, but we’ve got other commitments that mean we sadly won’t be able to join your enterprise.”

It was about a megasecond and a half later when a tournament official came by and told us “Good news, you’re getting the Platinum Egg for your submission’s exemplary performance in the tournament. The award ceremony is in a Megasecond.”

My jaw dropped in shock and I couldn’t help but stammer out “But… why? We’ve kept track of the tournament listings and though our entry has managed to secure a niche, it hasn’t displaced too many of the existing species. By all accounts it’s only worth a Bronze Egg.”

Wesseck looked up from their work on the latest customer’s morph, asking “Yes, I’d like to know that too. Why exactly are we getting the Platinum Egg?”

The official raised up a tentacle to object, then slowly lowered it before asking “Wait, how do you not know about this already? The coverage of events on the Thundersnow Steppes has been all over the sports channels for an entire Megasecond already.”

Queen meanwhile was looking massively smug in the background, her expression making it quite clear she knew exactly what was going on but had elected not to tell us.

After several moments of silence, I grudgingly admitted “Yeah I kind of just got really engrossed in the custom morph business and lost track of time on that front. I haven’t really been paying much attention to the tournament since the organism deployment and the interviews.”

The official laugh-cried into their tentacles “You mean you don’t know!? You won the Platinum Egg and you didn’t even pay attention to how your organisms were doing!? That has to be one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard of happening in the entire history of the tournament.”

Wesseck just shrugged helplessly, and the official simply replied “Please make sure you get to the award ceremony on time. It’s the same place as you had the interviews so it should be pretty easy to find.” in an exasperated tone before leaving.

As the door closed behind them, I remarked “We should probably look up why we’re getting the Platinum Egg for this. Obviously something big happened and I want to know what it was.”

Wesseck immediately replied “No way, we’ve gone this far without knowing and they’ll tell us at the award ceremony. I want it to be a surprise and don’t either of you dare tell me what happened.”

After a bit of time I admitted “Yeah, on second thought I don’t want much in the way of spoilers either. The idea of knowing what happened down on Blackwood ahead of schedule isn’t actually all that appealing.”

A few moments later Queen confirmed what I’d suspected already “I already know what’s happened and I think you two not wanting to know until the ceremony is absolutely hilarious. Still, it’s an absolutely hilarious story and I’m definitely going to tell you sometime.”

I just chuckled “We’ll take your word for it Queen.”

Meanwhile back down on Blackwood squirrel F1203 was acting as midwife for the birth of the sixth generation of squirrels. The pups were birthed without quills and would need to keep to the safety of the burrow until they could grow to maturity, but that was fine.

In particular, F1203 was overseeing three other squirrels, making sure that the pups came out smoothly. Sure enough the three litters were born shortly thereafter. F1203 quickly started supplying the mothers with boomnuts and water to ensure their milk flowed fast and nutritiously, even as the pups were busily suckling at their mothers breasts.

Still, at the back of all the adults’ minds was the fact that these pups would eventually be required to venture forth into Blackwood’s unforgiving terrain and serve the survival of the colony. There was no love or compassion here, just the cold hard logic of species propagation as programmed into the ruthless little creatures by Yures.

While the squirrels kept busy with their eternal war against the rest of Blackwood’s biosphere, the boomnut bush this particular nesting site was built around was in hunter-killer mode. Its roots were tunneling through the dirt in search of hostile plants and micro-organisms. After several kiloseconds, it finally logged what it had been looking for: trace concentrations of Microbe ID f420b750b12e.

Immediately it started diverting symbiote through the root network to both initiate hostilities on the subversive microbe in question and identify the microbe’s concentration site. Several minutes of searching later, the bush had identified that the concentration site must be at least a kilometer away. Symbiote was already tearing into the nearby tendrils of f420b750b12e’s web of mind control, but there was no way that would be able to disable the concentration site anywhere near fast enough to prevent another fireball event.

And so the bush dispatched a force of thirty squirrels armed with boomnuts to investigate the concentration site and destroy it if at all feasible. The squirrels with the most surface-to-air missiles at the ready quickly grabbed two boomnuts apiece and with their ordnance at the ready they made their way in the direction of the concentration site.

It didn’t take long for the squirrels to start noticing the signs of a f420b750b12e concentration site ahead of them, as there were already several dozen suborned laser falcons flying around and keeping the allied thrushes away from the airspace. The squirrels simply closed to a range of a few hundred meters under cover of doomgrass, and once they were sure they were in the clear they each fired well over a hundred of their anti-air missile quills.

The laser falcons tried to react, they really did. But that many guided rocket quills coming after them was just way more than they could realistically deal with. So it was entirely unsurprising when the laser falcons were blown out of the sky in a barrage of explosions, clearing the airspace for further action.

The ally thrushes of course took that opportunity to move in for the attack now that doing so wouldn’t get them instantly lasered out of the sky. The wide variety of land animals that had been suborned into digging the concentration pit were immediately subjected to electrified talons and gouging and razor-sharp feathers, even as the squirrels exploited the distraction to move into a perfect firing position.

Moments later the ally thrushes were warned to get clear of the blast radius via radio and immediately began frantically climbing away from the animals they had been savaging. Moments later all thirty squirrels volleyed a barrage of high explosive quills into the mob, immediately killing or crippling the vast majority of specimens.

All obstacles in the way having been removed, the task group of squirrels came into close range and got a solid look at the pit.

Immediately the squirrels tasked to dealing with this concentration site were able to tell that this one was still in the early stages. While there was a pit starting to show the refined heavy metals that f420b750b12e produced as part of such a location, there were still no signs of the complex artificial structures characterizing the later phases. As such the gardener response would be used.

Immediately all thirty squirrels got to planting their boomnuts in growth mode in rings around the concentration site pit. As soon as that was done they fired every last mind control quill they had into the ground at the site. This would be a fight of microbe on microbe, so every last cell of symbiote they could get into the combat area would be needed.

Immediately the task force radioed back that they would be securing this new nesting site until relief forces arrived. Their anti-air munitions had been significantly depleted and they were out of symbiote supplies, so the backup was needed with great urgency.

Soon enough a return message from the massive fortress known as the Thicket arrived, confirming that another fifty squirrels were being sent over to build up the newest outpost of squirrel and thrush territory.

Beneath the feet of the thirty, a microbial war was being waged as Queen’s masterpiece tore into Togi’s work. On a cell-to-cell level, Togi’s microbe was massively outclassed by what it was up against, and quickly started dying back. Still, the symbiote had started at a massive numbers disadvantage, and unlike Togi’s microbe hadn’t yet plugged into a photosynthesizer for power. Quickly the symbiote started to run out of energy and fall back, the boomnuts still needing time to sprout and start metabolizing sunlight.

Fortunately before Togi’s microbes could regain the advantage through attrition, the second force of squirrels came in to renew the assault with even more boomnuts and quills in the ground, the first round of boomnuts breaking through the soil to start photosynthesizing only a few minutes later.

The tense times were largely over now. Yes there were still major concentrations of Microbe ID f420b750b12e beneath the new nesting site, but they were being firmly disposed of now. This land was squirrel territory now, it just didn’t know it yet. And more to the point, a disaster like the first time a concentration site went unattended would not be happening here today.

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This is the free edition of The Blackwood Tourney. It is entirely pre-written, and will have one chapter released each week on Saturday. 
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