Editing Primordial Evolution Game/Hastun (section)

===Part 8: Taking to the air and the sea===
The Hu'raan's greater knowledge of the world were immediately a great input to the limited view of the Hastun. They had been too centered on themselves and happily ignored the other potential nations around them unless they bumped into them. The jungle was all that really mattered to them. Their fate was accomplished. But now they had to defend it against all that would prey on it. It was finally time to take heed of the forces of this world. <br>
[[Image:Stusval.png|thumb|left|A stusval drone.]]
The first expeditions were lead to secure the islands where these strange burrowing creatures were found. After liberating them from the disbanded forces that remained there, it was discovered that they were a proud people. As the Rii'dan, they were eventually offered to join the Hastun as they conveniently were perfect candidates to form a third strata underground. The refugee queen of the Stusval laid many children that were highly proficient in building and farming. They optimized the foundations of the cities, hardening the maleable soil under the towers by hardening it with their saliva and provided an underground system to carry good that were not transportable by air. A sizeable portion of the koburrog population moved to new underground habitation complexes built by the pusmalls. The well designed tunnels even helped regulate temperature in the cities. Backup storage facilities for precious substances were built in the ideal conditions of these new walls. 

[[Image:Nadgil.png|thumb|right|The flag of the Trade post and seal of the agreement.]]
In an effort to conciliate the Hastun for their role in the coalition war and probably to avoid that what they couldn't have had teken by force falls into the hands of the Katumoiset, the Nad'lun offered to trade with the Hastun for technologies. At first, the high council, being mostly composed of war veterans, did not see this proposal with a good eye. But they soon came to the realization that without a new trade opportunity, the aggressive economy of the Katumoiset would swallow then under their control. If it was not for the boost procured by the harboring of the Stusval queen, they would most likely already have fallen as vassals of the pirate dealers as the proliferous partnership had quickly tipped in their favor. <br>
The installation of an outpost was conceded and resources began flowing in the right way. The nadlun offered a myriad of exotic and novel technologies. Technological blueprints of the enclave, even if somewhat dated, unlocked a swathe of new prospects in metallurgy and farming. Their model of a distributed workchain was quite compatible with the simple minds of their Kob Thralls. The science of electrical currents was also a nice input in their research and the most central parts of the towns started to be illuminated with limelight bulbs of fluorescent gases. With imports from all over, the diversity in cultured crops offered a much better nutritious ratio of production and a safeguard against desease that would ruin a completely homogenous culture. <br>
The Nad'lun were seemingly cutting the most favorable deals for the Hastun in an effort to keep their economy strong enough to remain independent of the Katumoiset. A fierce plight for control was happening between the two rivals in the economical node that the region had become. The cape the Hastun controlled was probably important for trade as the only passage by water between the othet continents.

As they struggled to grasp all these new concepts and integrate them in their technology, one thing attracted the most attention of the Tentouz of the Hastun collective: old pamphlets from the enclave relating to the joining of a nation known as Ry'lai and of their mystical abilities. The pictures of the individuals were easily identifiable as being of their kind. <br>
The Hastun tried to reach towards the Enclave who were deep into a war on their own land but have been turned away. Maybe because of their reputation of drug and slave traders or maybe because the Ry'lai themselves refused to acknowledge them. No information could be had on where to find their great ships.
Thus an expedition was prepared to reach the north of the continent where they had lived previously as it could be the place where Hastun originate from. A fleet of high altitude airships was to be flown across the great desert. The blue vessels of hope took off carrying the dreams of the hastun.<br>
But as the fleet had travelled halfway across the desert, red beams of fire-hot energy struck at the vessels with high precision. Surely the Naturans didn't have such weaponry. Little did they know that those were the Zu'nul's ground to air red lens towers built to strike at the Sa'rak infidels. Most of the ships had been burst into flames before acid bombs could be deployed from the heavy Hastun artillery to melt the top of the menacing ziggurat. Greatly weakened, the fleet managed an escape by burning flares to cloak their route. After making an emergency stop at the great Hu'raan capital, the vessels finally reached their destination as the Frilla canopies of the northern jungle appeared. <br>
After a difficult landing in the middle of the heavy groves, the search parties dispatched in order to find the remnants of the Ry'lai. Unfortunately, all they found was death at the hand of the tribal Mevolas who easily ambushed them from the Frilla canopy. The ships were lost and only remained a few survivors who took refuge in the hollow trunk of a frilla tree. They were one Tentouz and a few Koburrog citizens. One of them, a notable of the name of Inan'shik (descendant of the old Inan'cic dynasty) had gathered seeds from the giant tree for sustenance. The Tentouz entered a meditative state in preparation of a possible starvation in order to consolidate his memory if he was to wither white. <br> 
But instead of reaching a near catatonic state as intended, the Tentouz was subject to a truely amazing penomenon. The spores of the great tree released airborne substances inside the trunk. The koburrog coughed heavily but the tentouz entered into a trance. The thousands of pheromonal messages entered natively in resonance with its mind and its conciousness was momentarily expanded as it felt the every motives of the great tree. The Tentouz felt as if they had become one and his mind was branching off in the winds as the spores of the tree reached the entire forest. There he heard it all, the millenia old messages of the Ry'lai were still being endlessly replicated by the forest itself. His mind, entirely oppened to the great webway of the Ry'lai went alomst mad from the intense experience. It's skin started to swell as its body was fighting off the heavy influx of foreign substances. Seeing his companion's death nearing, Inan'shik urged him to stop but as he wasn't responding, the koburrog grapped an emergency mask, pierced its pouch valve with the tube and strapped the mask on its mouth. The tentouz fell asleep as the emergency mask relayed a recycling loop between its pouch and stomach to let the imunity build up, isolated from the foreign atmosphere. <br> 
When the Tentouz finally woke up, Inan'shik was surprised that the symbol it displayed had changed. Still dazzeled, the tentouz briefly explained the importance of the tree. It was vital for them to bring a sapling back home. The other kobs dismissed it, saying that there were more important matters at hand, like surviving which, with their legendary luck, wouldn't be a run to the mill. Inan'shik however, was convinced by his companion's plead and made the others fall back in rank. They are the Hastun, and crossing a desert is something they all have in their blood, even with a measly sapling. <br> 
Although, the saplings of these mighty trees were not as measly as they imagined them to be. Scouting expeditions had revealed that the young trees were as great as a full-grown yashed, and actually lumbered around the forest on their roots. They would have to capture one that was very young. Luckilly, it seems that the Mevolite natives had gone away and they were more free to search the area for such a sample. One such was spotted dallying around a pond after hours of research. <br> 
The rag-tag team started to circle it. Two of the five koburrogs initisted a claw maneuver, one holding a llrassen bag. They jumped at it, but it seems that what the small trees lack in size they gain in swiftness. Allerted, the pink sapling jumpted into motion as sudendly as a false Bulva falling on its prey. One of them was grappled by the roots while the other one took a kick into the pond. The Tentouz leaped into action, charging from the air at his rescue. It pulled its tentacles around it atempting to subdue it while trying to lift itself to uproot it. Unfortunately, it was far too weak to subdue the sapling. The small frilla released the already dead strangled koburrog and started to whip at the tentouz. In a panic, the tentouz fired his jets full force to avoid getting tangled. The fire bruised the bark sending the sapling realing back in surprise while it escaped.  <br> 
Inan'shik and his partner shared a quick look and started unleashing preemptive fire with their blunt rifles, sending slugs of lead to the ground to keep the sapling in check. The Tentouz followed their lead and pulled out his specialty gun. It closed his eyes for a moment to gather the weakest acid he could to load into the chamber and mixed in the powdery content of a small bag with it. It then plugged the tubes to his sprouts, took a deep breath to aim the silvery tube at the trees flower and in a contraction followed by a brief explosion, sent the bubble of fluids to the sappling.  <br>
The juices started to burn and seep in through the tubular petal and the tree quickly fell to the ground motionless. Luckilly, the nerve-numbing toxoced powder worked on them. They quickly sealed the bag and looked for their companion, but he never emerged.

After a foraging and camping for the night, the only two survivors of the expedition set course for the desert, deciding to go along the western shore to avoid contact with those that had fired upon them. They barely had any hope to make it out but they simply had to try. Their carriage was simply too important. Luckily, they were met by a Nad'Lun trader fleet that had been contracted to find them by the Hastun Council. 

Their arrival was greatly celebrated even through the mourning of the numerous lost expeditionary crew. The sapling was nurtured back to health while word spread about the importance of the event leading to a grand ceremony the day of the "planting" of the sapling. A location had been especially chosen at the center of the jungle to enthrone the first Great Frilla of the south. 

Decades passed as the Hastun greater civilization focused inward, developing their infrastructure and securing their borders with their more bellicose neighbors. The only expansionist foray was made to the western fringe where the hordes of Khumal once bordered them. It seemed that they had migrated out long ago and left little trace of their passage.

The Frilla tree grew tall in the fertile soil of the jungle, constantly enriched with manure from the Hivog farms until it grew so big stopped wandering around. This pharaonic project employed a massive trall workforce. Around a devitalized zone of the ground from the tree's draining it of nutrients, methane chimney Yashed grew dense and with it, Hastun Tentouz came to build around the great tree. Other layers of the greater Hastun society came further the growth, with the Pusmals from the tribe previously known as Stusval guiding and nurturing the roots. Rising taller than any tree or even building in the jungle, the tree dominated the landscape.

When reaching maturity, it began to spread its spores on the whole jungle. The Tentouz quickly noticed the change and the original discoverer, who had permanently turned pink in hue from the experience, wandered around the settlements as a de-facto prophet to guide his brethren towards the great communion.
As could be expected, this new tree hadn't any connection with the Ry'Lai webway. But instead of despairing at the loss of their ancestral history, they looked forward to build their own legacy in the southern webway. The minds of the Tentouz were now almost all able to exchange with each other with the great network. But they weren't the only ones who  gained this ability. The gestalt mind of the Stusval's, through its pheromonal sympathetic network later managed to communicate through it as well with the development of specialized interface drones. 

The membranes developed by the tree, were of much higher quality than the Great Mudgrub gut usually used for constructing balloons. Instead of hunting these rare animals, they started carefully extracting the new material from the new tree. The researcher's cast began work on furthering their understanding of the tree for the good of the civilization but they also had their own agenda.
Since the time of the great shadow, they never forgot the tragedies that befell them (for the Hastun never forget) more than a century ago. They still wore traditionally full robes of bleached leather to commemorate the white one of old.
The new advancements in aerodynamics allowed them to begin work on their great project. A floating fortress dedicated to pure empirical research. A haven away from any trouble that would befall them. Taking inspiration from tales of the floating Frilla juggernauts of the Ry'Lai, they incorporated an extensive system of valves, baloons, reaction engines to support a hollowed proteo-cement complex filled with chemistry facilities, methane and food greenhouses, and memory Tentouz databanks. It featured the first interconnected anima network but the scientist kept true to the  practice of documenting research with written text.
This sky fortress was to place itself in air above the deeps of the southern bay and never touch ground ever again. Access was only given on an individual case to recruits and emissaries and all other communication was either relayed through the webway or messenger Wlouz.