March 3rd
Raymond Shen, the leader of the local artificer guild equivalent, has provided me with a data pad for 'messaging, a research journal, opening doors and who could forget... WiFi access.'
Of course, after being told what this WiFi is, the first thing I did was remove the relevant portion of the device and placed a shock rune under the screen to prevent others from accessing this journal. On a similar note, I must now power the removed piece with shock magic to move about the base.
While going over a list of necessary components with the base requisitions officer, I confirmed that the people here have no idea how proper magic is done. Pagan witchcraft indeed.
Apparently asking for a stock of animals to harvest for souls causes the locals to become upset. Three hours of arguing over silly notions of 'animal rights' and sending the supply depot into a religious debate, I have discovered that not only do these people have no idea what soul gems are, but they have not even confirmed the existence of souls. Honestly, I would write them off as primitives, but some of their contraptions are impressive enough to consider them similar to Dwemeri mechanics who sacrifice durability for variety.
Nevertheless, one of the researchers is called in eventually and after hearing the description of a soul gem, an order is placed for one hundred 'aura quartz'.
It is now nearing sundown and Louise shall begin learning alteration magics.
March 6th
A day and a half. So many hours lost to the girl's mistake. Granted, it is a rather new method of an old spell that was made to prevent the girl from making my head explode, but it worked fine when I tested it.
While teaching Louise to cast an Alteration based Invisibility, physically removing oneself from sight rather than changing the perception of others, one of the locals barged in on us. Startled, the girl put far too much power into the spell and instead of simply removing herself from view, she apparently removed the three of us from physical existence. Thankfully the spell ended when she ran out of magicka, but I now refuse to be in the same room as her when she practices any Alteration.
Being locked out of time and space is an indescribable terror that I shall avoid for as long as possible. There are things I dare not remember that lurk at the threshold of reality, I can feel the touch of the Mad Star on my mind even now.
March 7th
The Aura Quartz has arrived and it is both promising and disappointing.
Ignoring the metal coating, the crystals are the proper material, but completely absent of the inherent magicka of a proper soul gem. At most they would hold the soul of a bee before crumbling. Thankfully I have access to someone with a ridiculous amount of magicka and am having her pour the raw energy over the crystals in an effort to reproduce the natural process that creates soul gems on Nirn.
In other news, Raymond and I have decided that maneuverability is the most important aspect of combat for X-com until his team can get access to the aliens' technology. When we voiced the idea of Levitation armor to the combat teams, one of them offered to have my children. I told him that not only is that impossible without unnecessarily complex magics, but I would use such an abomination for ingredients.
March 12th
I have discovered what Cattleya has been up to lately. The woman skipped into my room late last night and tossed a box at me. Upon opening it, I discovered a strange insectoid head staring back at me. She apparently brought samples of all the ingredients on the Valliere lands and has been growing them on the surface around the base, including chaurus and spiders. How she managed to convince the locals to allow that, she wouldn't say.
The soul gems are starting to glow and should be ready soon, which is good, because my apprentice is reaching a breaking point. Living each day surrounded by strange people that she cannot understand has been wearing on her.
In order to prevent an incident, I took the time to teach her the Frost Cloak spell to distract her. Unfortunately, our last lesson has had the side effect of the commander sending one of the combat team leaders to keep an eye on us. Ms. Granger seemed as annoyed as Louise at the news, but kept to herself as Louise ranted about the man's lack of intelligence and how much she despises the locals. I suspect the X-com woman could understand the girl, judging by her scowl deepening throughout the entire thing.
March 15th
The first soul gems are done and Louise took her sister to hunt bears and other large wildlife outside. If the useless louts in supply would just bring in a stock of hounds or something, I would be enchanting already, but apparently I am being 'insensitive'.
For once, Vahlen is on my side and is currently bringing the issue to the commander. As it turns out, potential extinction is enough to convince the doctor to set aside her grievances with magic. Why the woman cannot understand that magic is a clearly defined science is beyond me, but I chose not to mention that should this group of humans die off, it would not be extinction. This does bring up a thought that has been on my mind lately; why are humans so prolific?
My best guesses are that either some entities summoned masses of humans into other realms for unknown purposes, smaller scale incidents such as what happened to the Dwemer, or perhaps even secret Imperial colonization during the rule of the Reman dynasty.
Maybe some day I will uncover the truth, but I find that unlikely at best.
March 20th
Since the sisters slaughtered much of the local wildlife, I have managed to not only enchant two dozen armored vests with a Levitation effect, but have also made another staff of Levitation from a branch of wood and created a simple steel band that goes around Louise's head that will allow her to tap into my understanding of languages. The spell was rather simple in concept and only took a day to create. Of course, I had to modify and restrict it's potential quite a lot to prevent it from simply copying all of my knowledge and skills to the girl, that would have been disastrous. It would have turned her into transplanted mind clone at best.
While there is potential in such a thing, I would prefer to be the only copy of myself unless I can increase my magicka enough to create a constant mental connection between bodies. Conjuration specialists are known to create such a connection between master and student, but mere communication is not enough to run the risk of cloning myself... though if I could devise such a means of communication that does not require training others in the great equalizer that is Conjuration, it could be quite useful.
Louise has managed to perfect the invisibility spell and is using it to great effect by terrorizing the locals. I've taken to casting Muffle on my door to prevent the annoyed personnel from interrupting me with their complaints about the girl's cruel pranks. If she wishes to practice her stealth techniques once more, I wo
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An obnoxious noise interrupts your tapping at the device. It would seem that now is the perfect opportunity to investigate these aliens firsthand.
Donning the Levitation vest and your coat, you rush from the room. It doesn't take long for you to arrive in the Skyranger Hangar and board the nearest vessel. Nodding to Granger, you take a seat beside one of the nervous soldiers. Moments before the door closes, Louise rushes in and squeezes in between you and the door. The girl is wearing the full set of X-com body armor, minus the helmet. Judging by the girl's cold expression toward the rest of the squad and the few glares she gets in return, this is going to be an awkward ride.
Uncaring of the atmosphere, Granger looks over you all as the aircraft takes off. "Alright ladies, here's the situation. We're headed for a small town on the coast of Spain, word of the invasion is still being kept under wraps due to the covert method of attack they are currently using. Villages here and there are going quiet, but so far they've yet to make an attack on a large population center. It's not likely to last, so we need to take advantage of the situation and capture as many samples as possible before things get worse. You see any tech, odd substances, or bodies... bag 'em up."
Status: Healthy
Magicka: (650/650)
General battle plan:
[] Agressive. Summon Daedra and push through the town.
[] Write in.
[] Stealth. Avoid direct combat.
[] Sweep and Clear. It may be slow, but it's better than leaving an enemy to the rear.
[] Write in.
