Cath

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Light almost forgot how much money they had invested during this competition already; he had a fantastic time. He’d never really given gardening much thought before now, but resolved to give it a go afterwards. He got stuck into the difficult task of directing the weeds they eventually chose in the right direction. It seemed intent on seeding soil outside of the plot, but all this growth didn’t count towards their score and was promptly zapped by lasers hidden somewhere above them.

At one point the weed grew so voraciously that in a moment of lapsed focus it actually latched onto his suit and grew round him. Light laughed, tickled by the sensation passed through to him by the gel. He swivelled to face Senjen, who was on the same side as him.

“Senjen.” The Utaysi didn’t respond immediately.

“Senjen, look.” The weed suddenly grew over the QV’s face.

“Senjen, help!” He thrashed inside the bush.

The Human team realised quickly that they were outmatched physically. So they focused on distracting the fledgling opposition by accosting the weakest links - Ruknar and Light. During the chaos, they planted moso bamboo and Kudzu together behind enemy lines, which then sprouted ferociously and was difficult to remove.

When the round was over, the patch looked like a warzone. Tangled masses of Russian thistle, bamboo and kelp stretched far beyond the patch, with dozens of dead patches and hastily assembled frameworks.

The officials sent drones to assess each plant’s land area before announcing the winners.

“Sunlight Sowers, 47.69% land area. Eswatini Twistahs, 50.95% land area. 1.36% land area unoccupied. Eswatini Twistahs win.”

“We…lost?” Light mumbled, crestfallen.

“Yes, sorry. That was fun though, right!” Ruk was scratched and bleeding from the various thorns and sharp edges in the plot but seemed content with their performance.

“We should probably make way; they’ll want to cleanse this patch. What a sight - someone take a picture of us with it for posterity!”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Ruk was busy surveying their new elongated plot, raking the soil in sections with her taloned feet. Without looking at them she mimicked a balloon being inflated and then popping as Light and Senjen spoke.

“Y-y-yes.” Pclendafuun answered Senjen’s eventual question. Light looked at him, stunned. Eventually the Tindrel elaborated.

“We c-could c-construct an underground bulwark topped with biocidal soil over halfway, and then defend it. Plants that propagate runners would be beneficial.”

“Are we allowed to build over halfway?” Light asked eagerly

“I did not hear anything forbidding it.”

“Erm… We should get a move on.” Ruk scratched her head as a shower of seeds landed on their plot from another drone.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Its not exactly peak form, but judging by the crowd here today I would not be surprised. Keep your wits about you.” Ruk warned.

“Senjen and I are no strangers to a scrap, I’m sure we’ll be OK.” Light retorted. He was still giddy from having actually won something. He could suddenly see why people decided to make entire careers from competition circuits.

Officials passed by with remote controls. At their command, the soil between two patches was quickly turned fertile and workable by machines within the ground. What was once two squares became a long rectangle. They had been paired with the group of Humans Senjen had agitated in the previous round.

“I can r-r-recommend simulating the creation of defensive items to forestall any actual ph-ph-physical activity.” Pclendafuun said.

“And I’m not going to the terminal again. If we’re thinking of fast-growing weeds, I can send you names for some kelp that ruined many cave systems when I was a juvenile…” Light continued. Their opponents had already started making their way over to the terminal, leaving two people behind to guard the patch.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Win first, balcony later, keep working.” Light grunted, frantically and messily coating his seeds with oil.

In the end, their entry showed a lack of team cohesion despite sparks of genius. The alarming rate of growth caught Light completely off guard, and he neglected to properly wind the Grabglove around the sticky Dessous tree that grew through the middle of the arrangement. It hung morosely from a few boughs with wild bunches of flowering. At one point it grabbed Light’s face and tried to eat him, which he found very funny - distracting Senjen so he’d stop and look at him.

Ruk’s Creeech plant looked very pretty draped over the trees, but absolutely stank of ammonia so as to outweigh the other olfactory elements. She’d spent so much time managing the other three novices that she’d not had the time to perfect her contribution.

They scraped into the next round by the skin of their teeth.

“Well done everyone! I think we thoroughly deserved that.” Light warbled, completely oblivious to the league table that showed how precarious their situation was.

“I enjoyed that, what’s next?”

“Round two is a head to head.” The announcer duly explained over tannoy as roughly half the competitors trudged off the field.

“Teams take each end of the long rectangular patches. The team with the biggest percentage of the patch land occupied by living plants of their choosing at the end of the time knocks the other team out. You have five minutes to prepare.”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“We need to send Light some credits for the very expensive seeds he just bought.” Light half-joked.

“I think we need a frame that supports each of our four plants separately in their own establishment areas, then guides them into the middle so we can make some kind of companion display. What did you get?” Ruk asked Pclendafuun.

“D-d-d-dessous.”

Ruk’s beak hung open slightly. Dessous was relatively well known to people who visited Tindrel settlements. It was tightly controlled or banned in most worlds, but not Korit it seemed. It grew from the muddy lakes deep inside underground caverns before planting parasitic nutrient tendrils that burrowed up to bind with the roots of surface dwelling plants. “That is…actually brilliant. Its deep resin smell will balance the damask and the ammonia… It likes water so we can make one large basin. It’s also myco-heterotrophic, so we could control the growth of all three plants at once…Ok, Jess - can you build a funnel shape in the next ninety seconds? Senny we need a basin half a metre deep in the middle. Then plant your roses around the edge of the funnel base. Light, take this oil and start smearing the seeds. Quick!” Ruk cast an eye at other patches. Some already had plants growing.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“In my knapsack is an oil I’m gonna need Light to coat the Grabglove in - it tricks plants into thinking they’re underwater. Stiffens their stems too, so they can take structures alongside terrestrial flora.” Ruk said evenly. She was concentrating now, in a doctorly trance just like on the wards. She gave Senjen a disapproving look when it was clear he had sabotage in his heart, but she didn’t stop him. She merely nodded and shooed him away with her trowel.

“Don’t be long.”

The Human who stood to face Senjen from the patch he approached had a thick metal bar through the bridge of his nose. Attached to it were blue tinted lenses that covered each eye. Black adaptive tattoos shifted across much of the pale skin left exposed by their short sleeved half-zip jacket and cargo pants. He pointed a gardening fork at Senjen and shot back in a language his translation package struggled to recognise.

“Tuang fulugwab, huttu wannai! Bek tu yowah petch afor I stick you, robot!”

“Eh, eh! Bek tu work!” A large woman with dark braided hair shouted at Senjen and the man indiscriminately from across the rival patch. The man ignored her, jabbing at the Utaysi accusatorily.

-

Light encountered a solid wall of gardeners before he could actually reach the terminal. He wobbled around them in his suit, trying to squeeze through.

“I just need to get to the terminal… Hey!” He pushed back whenever he was jostled, but didn’t understand the dynamic enough to go further. That is until Pclendfuun politely tapped him on the back with one leg.

“Please a-a-llow me.” Light moved aside and the Tindrel simply parted the crowd with his face plate, moving slowly but implacable. Evolved for higher pressure and constant exertion, his species was far massier than the other species.

This manoeuvre attracted a large outcry from the waiting queue of competitors and the jostle increased dramatically, but Light and Pclenda reached the terminal. They tapped it to access the interface virtually. The Tindrel completed his order immediately and a small hatch opened up in the delivery compartment. He grabbed the large seed pods with his tongue then waited placidly for Light to make his much more hesitant purchases.

“These prices are a rip off! Lets try another terminal!”

“We do not have time. T-t-think of the prize monies.”

Light reluctantly placed his order and grabbed the collection of baggies from another open door.

“Ok, let's get out of here!” The noise inside the arena was increasing steadily.

Once they had left the scrum, Light remembered the plan. He saw Senjen making a distraction nearby; one of his fortes. Scanning the area, he didn’t detect any attention on him. He quickly opened one of the baggies and dispersed the seeds around his suit. Understanding his intention, it spat them discreetly at patches in all directions. They made a quiet *blop* as they left his suit. Light gave Senjen The Look as he passed by and they arrived back at the patch.

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Over there, be careful!” Ruk pointed to a ramshackle old shed about ten metres away. The doors were thrust open and a dozen gardeners were jostling for position to rifle through piles of rusty materials inside.

Light made a noise like a saucepan bubbling over at the thought of being involved in a plot.

“Ok! But what does the Tindrel want?”

“I shall a-c-company you to ensure your protection and a satisfactory selection.” Pclendafuun squelched across the grass to his side.

“Alright, let's go!” Light patted the Tindrel’s faceplate tentatively before wobbling quickly towards a terminal. The QV’s old suit provided a gait approximate to a very intoxicated biped to blend into the flurry of activity. The Tindrel followed so close behind as to be actually touching.

“Ok Senny, I need your help to prepare this soil for a strange mixture of plants. Take some of my homebrew and mix it EVENLY into this area here. Then we need to create a basin in the middle for Light’s horrible grabber to seed from, coating it completely in the stuff Pclenda threw back up, ok?”

Ruk knelt down with an auto-trowel before recoiling as a small shower of tiny seed pods tickled her beak and clinked off Senjen’s head from above. She looked up to find a tiny drone whizzing to the next patch.

“Hey! Alright, do all that while also getting rid of those seeds!”

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

Pclendafuun responded to Senjen before Ruknar could even blink.

“Aesthetics and artistic message are considered by the J-J-judges when scoring entries.” He seemed more confident now.

“Ooh, I wonder if they have any Grabglove spores - they like grabbing fish that clean their scales on spinereef. Maybe it will like these…rose thorns ” Light wasn’t an avid gardener, but had very fond memories of Grabglove from his infancy. He used to play around the deep spine reefs with shoals of other juveniles. They’d flit in and out of range of the grab glove arms, delighting when they would snatch at their tails with their brightly covered ‘mouth’ flower.

“G-g-grabglove is statistically uncommon in this tournament - that may play well w-with the judges if it grows properly.” Pclendafuun offered helpfully.

“Ok, ok, what could I grow?” Ruk raked the moist, loamy soil with one taloned foot.

“Ooh, what about Creeech? Its smell is so potent that it can make you pass out!”

“An interesting c-choice!” The Tindrel chittered. “Creeech developed symbiotically with scavengers who would eat the sleeping prey, leaving some of the flesh at the base of the plant as an offering.”

“Thats right, buddy!” Ruk clicked.

“We have a special announcement. Mokhtar Brobdingh AgriKem have just sponsored this round, offering 50% off their BioBurst range to any gardener who successfully seeds an unwanted companion in another team’s patch. The round starts in ten seconds. Good luck!”

“Hmmm.” Light cast a suspicious eye around as a wave of murmuring rippled across the dozens of patches around them. Teams of all sizes conversed urgent together.

“What is BioBurst?”

“It kills plants. Useful for next round.” Pclendafuun chirped.

A klaxon sounded, and it seemed like every single gardener under the giant shrub that day rushed to one of the dozen terminals placed strategically around the allotments.

Halo: Edge of Midnight

I don't have much time to spare but am very interested in making a character!

Price of Life (EliteCommander and Cath)

“Hold the reef a moment…aren’t I the team leader, since we’re celebrating me?” Light ventured.

“Do you know what we’re doing?” Ruk asked simply, hitting perfect contrapposto from the opposite side of a large raised patch of soil.

“...No…” QV weren’t very facially expressive beings, owing to their evolution in near total darkness. But Light pushed the boundaries of what it meant for a fish to pout. His colours were simpatico.

“Ok, shall i show you the ropes on this one?”

“...Yes…”

“Alright then. Listen up everybody, please.” The Tekeri gestured to the three metre square of ground they had gathered around.

“Here is our patch - we can’t plant anything outside of this square. Round one requires us to grow four plants at once so we’re gonna need you to tend one of them, Senny. Since Jess is our master builder this time, I’d recommend you pick a nice, sociable Human plant.”

“How can we grow plants with no spores?” Light asked.

“Ahh, now here is where it gets expensive. Those vending machines sell seeds for most every type of flora in the known galaxy.” She pointed to a holo pad mounted on a thick base with a little door and container underneath about thirty metres away. “They sell gardening accessories, growing media, the works too.”

“It seems quite unfair for those patches to be so close to it.” Light regarded the robed horticulturalists on the patches next to it.

“They’re probably members. Figures. We should go check it out; make our choices.”