The meeting with the wildlings went as violent as expected. The Swordmaidens and Vandals opted to greet the tribal dwarf nomads without mechs and on foot. They wore medium and heavybat armor to bnce speed and protection.


    The armor also helped to distinguish them from the tall and lean forms of the blessed people without appearing too threatening. Nobody knew how the dwarves would react against mechs, so the ground forces kept them out of sight.


    Of course, they might as well be ghosts or monsters from the reaction of the savages. The Dwarves all yelled at the first contact delegation before holding up their spears and clubs in a battle stance.


    While their men urged their golding mounts to slowly charge forward, their women and children drove their smaller mounts away from the battle.


    No matter what the Vandals and Swordmaidens tried to say, the dwarvespletely ignored their entreaties.


    They didn’t even yell in standardnguage! It was obvious that theirnguage had diverged into apletely new form!


    Though the Vandals turned on their trantor AIs, they wouldn’t be able to decipher the newnguagepletely without hours of recordings.


    With no way to break thenguage barrier, the first contact delegation helplessly switched to n B. They deployed gas grenadesced with sedatives and other non-lethal toxins.


    "The sedatives aren’t having any effect!" Dr. Tillman spoke over themand channel. "These high gravity variant humans are much more advanced than we suspected! Careful!"


    Captain Byrd cursed. "Commence n C. If we can’t gas them to sleep, we’ll just have to knock them out the old-fashioned way! Kill their godling mounts but keep the dwarves alive unless your life is at risk!"


    Throughout the gxy, dwarves had taken on a negative connotation, with some humans even referring to them as subhumans rather than an equal to baseline humans.


    This was because many dwarves emerged as cheap miningbor on mineral-rich Super Earths. These huges with a considerable amount of mass often possessed high concentrations of heavy ores and exotics.


    It usually wasn’t worthwhile and economic to devote theses to anything else that required advanced skills and well-paid professionals. Therefore, the dwarves that toiled on these Super Earths often received a bad reputation for being dirty miners who weren’t suitable for anything else.


    The grant Swordmaidens became affected by this bias as well, so when they saw the wildlings behaving like savages, they possessed no scruples to treat them roughly. Unlike the blessed people who by all ounts appeared to be the legitimate sessors of the officers and crew of the Starlight Megalodon, the dwarves were kind of like the illegitimate bastard children.


    The CFA would probably discard the primitive and repulsive dwarves once they saw them. The degenerated variants possessed no redeeming value.


    "Kill the beasts and knock them out!"


    The Vandals this time sent out a considerable amount of security officers. All of them trained their marksmanship to a considerable level, so when they whipped out theirser rifles and struck at the juvenile godlings, they never wavered in their aim.


    A flurry ofser beams struck the heads and other vulnerable parts of the lizard-like beasts the dwarves used as their mounts and pack animals. Due to their heavy gravity adaptation, they moved as fast as a human walking forward in a sedate pate under a normal pace.


    If a trained security officer missed their mark under these circumstances, they should be ashamed of themselves!


    Theirser rifles heated up rtively quickly, but the straight beams made aiming them very simple. The ’charging’ godlings might as well be stationary targets due to how slow they actually trod forward!


    For all the damage these potentially future wild gods received, the creatures proved to be surprisingly resilient against infantry-gradeser weapons. Their thick mass and resilient scales made it a bit more challenging to get past their protectiveyer.


    No matter. The Vandals enjoyed all the time in the world.


    "Maintain distance!"


    Each time the godling mounts plodded forward, the Vandals took a couple of steps backwards. Under the influence of their gravitic backpacks, they moved as easily as if they walked on a normal. They could even sprint and run if they had to with the help of their servos incorporated theirbat armor!


    Some of the savage dwarf warriors let out a frustrated cry as their trusty steeds sumbed to the lethalsers. With smoking holes burned through their skulls, the creatures stood no chance at all!


    As the dwarf warriors brandished their bone weapons and attempted to close the distance on their thick, stubby legs, it became obvious why they spent so much effort on taming a godling herd.


    "They’re so slow!"


    As melee warriors, the Swordmaidens went into action at this time. Their antigrav-enhancedbat armor sprung into action, closing the distance with rapid speed. Though they unsheathed their greatswords, they refrained from using their edges to slice the dwarves.


    Instead, the Swordmaidens smacked the savage dwarves with the t end of the de!


    The clumsy dwarves, used to pounding at each other by raiding their weapons and chopping them down with considerable force with the help of gravity, simply couldn’t cope with the nimble movements of the Swordmaidens.


    The two forces yed by different rules, and the Swordmaidens that possessed an absolute advantage in speed never got hit!


    In fact, one of the more adventurous Swordmaidens even decided to stand still and let a dwarf smack her armor with a club. Though the force exerted by the dwarf was strong enough to cause it to dent, that was the entire extent of the damage.


    Unless the dwarves managed to trip a Swordmaiden up and gang up on her, they had no chance at all at felling the women.


    The dwarves possessed thick muscles and a very resilient head for their size. Their intelligence may have taken a slide backwards, but their physical strength and endurance more than made up for it. The Swordmaidens took a lot longer than they thought to knock the dwarf warriors senseless.


    "Alright, that’s enough." Captain Byrd spoke over them. "Restrain five of them and take them away. Oh, and secure a godling beast mount as well."


    A whileter, Ves, Captain Byrd, Chief Dakkon and a couple of other experts entered the bib. The exobiologists descended upon the dwarves with considerable interest. They scanned and studied the unconscious dwarves, even cutting in a couple of them to study them down to the core.


    "What are the results of your investigation, doc?"


    Dr. Tillman achieved greater prominence ever since they madendfall. Since so many strange forms of life dominated this, it became essential to understand their traits.


    The wildling tribe they encountered might not amount to anything, but the blessed people obviously dreaded them. Before the grant Swordmaidens encountered therger tribes that managed to tame an adult wild god, it became important for them to figure out the origin of the dwarves.


    "Our studies have been fruitful." The doctor began. "The results are surprising. First, they are definitely descended from the crew of the CFA. However, before I go in on their attributes, I would first like to state that we’ve discovered an important difference when wepared the genes of the blessed people with the genes of the cursed people."


    "Oh?" Captain Byrd raised one of her eyebrows. "Do tell."


    "It’smon knowledge that the Common Fleet Alliance provides standardized gene treatments to their own people. These gene treatments generally don’t blend in alien genes, but are mostly meant to optimize the genes of baseline humans so that they are able to achieve their peak potential. Even then, there are different degrees of gene treatments, with the more advanced ones requiring more expensive reagents over multiple treatments."


    Chief Dakkon nodded. "A lowly ship rating only qualifies for a basic gene treatment, while the officers enjoy increasingly generous ones. By the time a CFA officer is promoted to captain, they’ve practically be superhuman in almost every aspect!"


    The MTA maintained their own regime of gene treatments. Though the Big Two discouraged unscrupulous gic modification, they weren’t above using it to their own advantage.


    The biggest difference with other organizations was that they stressed human purity! Every gene treatment had to transform its recipient into a more perfect human!


    After the horrors that happened at the Age of Conquest, the Big Two were determined not to repeat the mistakes of the past. The CFA in particr also wanted to disassociate themselves from the insane admirals who unscrupulously abused their power and engaged in genocide on a whim.


    "Each gic treatment leaves behind a characteric marking that is inheritable by their offspring." Dr. Tillman continued. "While we don’t have thetest versions of these markers in our local database, we do have a fairlyplete library of markers that used to bemon three-hundred years ago. When we matched the genes of the blessed and cursed people with the markers, we’ve identified a clear ss difference."


    Ves smelled where this was going. "Let me guess. The blessed people are the descendants of the officers and experts of the Starlight Megalodon, while the cursed people are the descendants of the riff-raff."


    "That is so." Dr. Tillman glowered a bit at Ves for ruining her big reveal. Served her right for building up too much to this revtion. "The genes of the wildlings have experienced much more radical changespared to the genes of the blessed people. The exobiologists and gicists have been much less restrained when ites to the dwarves."


    Nobody quite knew what to make of this revtion. Had the rtions between the ranks broken down for some reason? Why turn the offspring of the enlisted personnel into squat, dumb and ugly dwarves? Why maintain the blessed people in their weak, mostly baseline human form?


    The exobiologists in the employ of the Vandals touched upon the history of what had happened after the Starlight Megalodon crashnded on Seven. Perhaps a desperate struggle for survival and continuity broke out at some point between the leaders and their subordinates.


    It was difficult to imagine what had happened thousands of years ago under the influence of the spacetime distortion of the astral winds. The elerated time on the surface of the only allowed the grant Swordmaidens to touch upon the consequences of the events that happened in the past.


    "What about the dwarves themselves?" Captain Byrd asked. "You mentioned during first contact that the dwarves aren’t regr examples of a high gravity variant."


    Dr. Tillman nced at the dwarves beyond the observation window. A handful of exobiologists buzzed over an unconscious dwarf. "Much like there is diversity among mechs, there is diversity among gene temtes ma’am. Even though the dwarves throughout the gxy are mostly derived from a single dominant high gravity variant, there are in fact moreprehensive ones that touch upon certain taboos. Unfortunately, the wildlings are the product of an illegal temte, the so-called dark dwarf temte."


    Nobody recognized the significance of that term. "Is that why their skin is uniformly darker?"


    The dwarves all possessed skin and hair as ck as goris.


    "It’s more than that. The dark dwarf temte takes the idea of dwarfs as low-ssbor to its logical extreme. The genes of this variant of humans is even further strengthened at the cost of their longevity. While their maturity is slightly stretched, they will never grow old and feeble because their genes will shut their bodies down as soon as the first onset of old age arrives. This prevents their employers from having to provide for their retirement."


    The Vandals all began to look at the exobiologist in horror.


    "That’s barbaric! Dwarves are always treated badly, but at least they still share in the dignity of the human race. This change is literally geared towards treating them as ves!"


    Dr. Tillman sighed again. "It’s worse than that. The dark dwarf temte deliberately affects their brain chemistry and development. Their intelligence is permanently underdeveloped and stuck in a juvenile and impressionable stage. They simply aren’t able to learn any advanced knowledge, so it’s impossible for them to be managers, scientists,wyers and the like. The best they can achieve with their underdeveloped brains is to be foremen of the mining operations their ve species are designed to work for the entirely of their lives!"


    Ves picked out an important detail in her speech. "You say ordinarily. I take it the wildlings we kidnapped aren’t the same?"


    "That’s very astute of you, Mr. Larkinson. In truth, the exobiologists have modified the dark dwarf temte by adding alien genes. To be more precise, they’ve added the genes of god species into their DNA!"


    God species genes! Everyone looked stunned at that revtion. Even Ves hadn’t anticipated such a crazy thing. How could these savage wildlings share anything inmon with the ferocious wild gods?