An in-game month later, the eggs hatched. They were small and making chirping noises. It was going to take 6 in-game months for them to mature into aeromorphs that could take missions. We had a nice spread of units for all the top brass to look over. the new A.L.I.C.E. 1-01 series had 5 units and there were 4 units in the 1-02 series. I was proud of the 2 units I fathered in the all new A.L.I.C.E. H series. We were all commended for our good work. It was fun to check in on all of the kids and see what the young aeromorphs were doing. They were pretty feral and strutted around aimlessly like chickens. The engineers were the ones that were actually taking care of them and making sure that they had what they needed. Since the first iteration had been hatched with at least 1 male and female in each series, we were pretty redundant as prototypes. That meant that they could be a bit reckless with us. We were put in more and more demanding and dangerous flights. Our country, Ixiti, was not the friendliest. There was a country a continent away that had no aeromorphs. It had lots of oil.
Being that oil was a very valuable resource, our leaders wanted it. The leaders of Hutania did not want to sell it to us for cheap. They wanted way more of our money and hard resources in return. The absolute monarchy made it hard to go through the quagmire diplomatically. Dealing with them wouldn't do. However, they did have a rebel force of an oppressed religious minority. The nobility of the kingdom enforced a strict atheism on their people. It made it easier to do whatever they wanted when there was no higher power to limit them. They worshipped the moon and believed that the greatest virtue was honesty followed by patience and pride. They had been secretly meeting during the early hours of the day to commune and worship together. They would be hung if caught. It was not the only repressed faith. Those that worshipped the sun, stars and the various folk deities were also put to death. Those that worshipped the moon were not the largest share of the religious at 10% of the peasantry that still considered themselves believing in some deity. The largest were the sun worshippers.
Cults forming was not something that normally was appreciated. Lunusaris, those that worshipped the moon simply were the most militant of the group. Spies, assassins and night workers were among those that gravitated to a cult like that. That made them easy to convert into holy warriors and establish many bases for secret worship and proliferation of propaganda and relief to others in their community. In the name of "Religious Freedom", Ixiti had pledged to back a particular cell at the outskirts of the southeast. Lunusaris were all over the country, but there was a very small and militant concentration there. I guessed that the cash and weapons were being put to good use. There were always uses for terrorists. Lunusaris were now rising up all over the east of the country. We apparently were to be giving them air support by going over there. We were experimental prototypes. It was the perfect chance to see how we would do in a foreign theater. If we died, they could deny any and all involvement with the uprising. They would just use the new generations at a later date. I was fine with it.
