Illuminating Aegis: Tales of the Changeling King

Patina had a frustrated look on her face as she glared at the King across from her, so far he had managed to slip past all of her defenses and narrowed her forces down to just a scant few. She hadn't been the only one to suffer though, the King had lost a little more than half his units as well, her strategic emplacements of mines and snipers had delayed the bulk of his forces across Kashyyk for the first half of the match, but his conquests on other planets and in space had given him an edge that her machine army simply couldn't handle. It started small, He was an absolute beast in the space battles, quickly taking a light craft to enter her hangar and surprise her troops before they could mount a defense, destroying her defenses, life support and engines before simply letting himself sacrifice the soldier to spawn as a pilot and make bombing runs against her frigates and whatever sensitive systems were still undamaged on her capital ship.

The accumulated points of several worlds had allowed him to unlock everything but the commander unit, one that he didn't mind not having for the duration of the game. If he won this match he would have more than enough points to unlock the commander unit and place yet another annoying fleet on the map.

She clenched her teeth as she noticed his laid-back posture while his forces tore through her own, she was down to one command point that was contested all because she couldn't get a moment's peace to take the point for the separatists. Every hit was a risk that her remaining unit would die and then her side would lose even though she still had fifty in reserve all because he played with a total domination strategy that started with a pincer attack to force her into the middle of a two-front battle.

Namiro chuckled a little as his sniper took aim at the unsuspecting droid unit. "I love this game... maybe next time you should choose to join me instead of oppose me." He suggested before hitting the shoulder button of the digital controller and having his sniper make the droid's head explode, finishing off Patina's last hope of at least being able to withstand the onslaught. Soon enough the command point filled in blue on his screen as the symbol of the Galactic Republic replaced the CIS symbol.

Patina let go of the controller in her hands and pouted as it simply floated there. "How can you beat me with the same tactic over and over again?" She growled as a timer counted down on her side of the screen.

Phillip reclined back a little more and let his hands brush against the mohawk-like crest he had grown over the past few days. "Two main things, love... First... The pincer attack in any military strategy is effective when you can execute it, forcing an enemy to fight on two fronts reduces their effectiveness on both and Second; the special resources and units, when my units are constantly healing because of that bacta tank bonus you are pretty much doomed from the start. I didn't even have to worry about the hero bonus in half of those battles." He explained with a smirk as the round ended in a republic victory. "I think I'd make a fairly decent military leader... but hey, I'm just here to help you." He chuckled.

Patina let out a sigh as she examined the controller for the fourth time in the last two hours. "Such an interesting style..."

"Yeah, video games back home were pretty awesome, I'm happy that my datapad came with a holo-vid version of both the battlefront games though." He says as he picks up the Versafunction88 replica datapad. Memories of the comic convention that his friends had attended came back to him; How he had driven the group in his dad's old Dodge Stratus, enjoying the different booths set up, how the five of them had found the one guy selling props for various franchises, giving them a great bundle deal of just under two hundred bucks each for the replica datapads. Phillip looked down at the little plush derpy that was sitting next to his 'chair' and sighed as he picked it up, resting it on his stomach chitin and sighing as his smile shifted quickly to a frown.

"...Why did you have that pony doll with you when you arrived anyway?" Patina asked curiously as she watched him, slowly getting up so that she could ease herself onto the bag next to him, hugging his head to her chest again. "It's not even in the right shape..."

Namiro let out a small breath as he began to tear up. "I bought it at a convention for my sister... she absolutely loves horses... when I saw the comics about the My Little Pony franchise I thought I might as well get her something for her birthday while I was there." He shifted a little, letting his cheek rest against the larger changeling's neck as she pet him, trying to get him to relax a bit more. He took a deep breath as he tried to compose himself a bit better, closing his eyes for a few moments and getting his emotions back under control. "I don't even know how long I've been here... so I don't know if I've already missed her birthday."

Patina bit her lip a little, looking at the plush toy and then to the still-growing Proto-King in her embrace. "You could get lucky and have her come to this world as well..."

Phillip let out a chuckle. "Yeah... That'd be great... she'd probaby go nuts over me, as much as she's like a regular girl, she doesn't shy away from bugs..." His eyes take on a distant look as the smile returns to his face. "I remember when she brought home one of those little trapper cages used to keep a small snake or little crickets in... she had a freaking tarantula in it, scared mom half to death when she saw it." He let out a small giggle. "I... I was actually a little scared of it too, it was huge compared to other spiders I had seen... it didn't help that I shared the same 'creeped out by spiders' fear that my mom had. Dad had to explain to her that we couldn't keep it because it was scaring Mom, he made a deal with her that when she was older... he'd get her a pet snake and would help take care of it as long as the cage was kept in a safe place that Mom wouldn't have to walk through."

Patina smiled as she tasted the sweet happiness that was radiating off of the smaller changeling. "It sounds like your parents were a tad more rational than mine..."

"Patina..." Namiro began. "...Who are your parents?"

The Changeling Queen's smile fell a little as she heard the question, "I... I never met my father... but... I know who he is..." She explained, hugging Namiro closer like a teddy bear. "The main thing I know about him is that he made my mother sad... sad that she couldn't be accepted by him without being in a disguise..."

Phillip gently pet her arm and put the little pony plush between them.

"He was an amazing stallion... strong, caring... noble..." She explained quietly. "Mom had spent her last days before his wedding wishing that she could tell him who she was... why she needed his love so badly... he drove her insane with how much love he had, figuratively and... I suppose literally." She took a breath as she pulled up the memories her mother had implanted in her. "It made her actually feel jealousy... She was able to make a swarm of a hive just off of feeding from him for a day. With his love under her command she was hoping to at least put herself in a position to bargain with Celestia and Luna."

"Wow... she... she really did want the best for her race..."

"She did... but... after being starved for so long... such a plentiful source of love had driven her mad, she got aggressive, faltered in her disguise... kept the pony she was impersonating outside of a cocoon... and in the end... it had led her to losing the one shot she had for peace... My father and his real wife managed to break her mental hold on him and unleashed a spell that overcharged her body with love energy, slowly poisoning her as she was flung from Canterlot... In a last ditch effort she had one Royal changeling egg from the seed she had collected from him the night before the wedding... me... I hatched before she passed away, I watched her die in my arms, pleading with me to forgive her for bringing me into such a harsh world... begging that I not make the same mistakes she had..." Patina blinked as she noticed her voice crack and waver on the last couple sentences as water seemed to be falling from her eyes.

Namiro shifted so that he could hold Patina's head against his chest. he quickly peeled away the chitin covering the sensitive skin, biting back the moan that tried to escape him as he held the side of her face against his soft, sensitive flesh. "It's okay..." He cooed. "Let it out... It hurts... I know..." He says quietly, prompting the Queen to nuzzle against him a bit more as he watched more tears flow from her eyes.

Patina was surprised as she accepted his embrace and noticed the tears flowing so freely, she couldn't wrap her mind around what was going on, she hadn't cried... ever... before now... Why would she do so now? She hadn't cried when her mother had died, she hadn't cried when she found out her father had married someone else without even caring what happened to the Changeling that he had produced a child with, why now? Why in the embrace of a changeling... who had been single-handedly feeding her hive without any signs of fatigue... for almost an entire week... That was when she felt it, she could taste the bitter taste of sadness. It wasn't coming from him though... she felt it... right in her chest. She focused her senses on it and willed it up, away from the rest of her, picturing something similar to an egg as a mysterious pressure seemed to leave her shoulders.

Phillip watched with curiosity as a bulge made its way up Patina's throat, it wouldn't have been the first time he saw something as strange as when he saw several changelings hacking up a thick slime that quickly made a bond like cement. He let her lean away from his chest as the bulge reached her jaw just before she spit up a small egg-shaped sack of goo that was a sickly blue-green color, just looking at it made him need to resist the urge to begin crying. "Uh... Patina... What's that?" Namiro asked cautiously.

Patina was quiet for a few moments as she looked down at the egg-like object before crushing it with a small frown. "The sadness that a Changeling Queen had built up... I... Thank you for helping bring it to my attention..." She stated quietly, pensively, before looking up to him and kissing his chest, forcing him to gasp out a little this time. "I actually feel much better now that I don't have that disgusting emotion in me..."

"I..." He started with a slight stutter as she continued to kiss him, causing gentle ripples of pleasure to ride through his body. "I really wish it had been that easy for me to get rid of my bad emotions... while I... ooh... while I was on... earth..." He shuddered as she moved the little plush pony off to the side of their cushion before she shifted positions to straddle her hips over his armored stomach.

"Maybe... but you're a changeling now... a changeling that seems to follow a really old religion... but a changeling nonetheless..." Patina cooed as she leaned down to plant more kisses on his chest.

Phillip raised a finger to put it on her muzzle and stop her before she could get any more 'in the mood'. "You know... you keep calling The Force an old religion... care to explain that a bit?" He asks with a slightly confused look as he fought to keep his own desires in check.

The larger Changeling pouted just a little, giving in only because she could sense the desire that the King was hiding just below his other emotions. With a small sigh she began to explain. "I... don't have a complete knowledge of it because Changelings have had to live in hiding and starvation for so long that we stopped following any major belief... but an old saying between Royal Changelings was once 'May the Force be with you'... It was apparently used as a good luck saying whenever they were going off to do something that had a risk of some sort to it... Other than that the details are a bit fuzzy."

Namiro frowned a little. "I'm going to have to teach you then... perhaps you could learn under me when I finish my training..." At her confused look he continued. "I'm not technically a fully-fledged force-user... I'm still an apprentice, although I've found a new mentor who can help where my previous one left off..."

"Okay... It would be nice to know what you could do when fully trained anyway... and... I'll learn about your Force..." Patina said before shifting her hips. "But only after another clutch of eggs..."

Phillip wanted to laugh a little, this bug was managing to make most of his life for the past few days revolve around sex and learning about his race. He decided to settle on a sigh. "Fine... after another clutch." He relented as she slid her hands down his chest, peeling away the top of the chitin covering his stomach as she rubbed the plate covering her nethers against the plate covering his.

The past few days of intimacy hadn't been solely about sex for the sake of propagation of the species though, he had learned so much about the androgynous species and she had managed to catch him off guard a few times when she transformed into a Changeling King that nearly made him feel like a child again, she had thought she was being reassuring by telling him that it was more like a late teenager, it didn't help too much. The first time he had tried to bring up an argument that he wasn't actually attracted to the same sex she had effortlessly shot it down saying that even if he was a King and she was a Queen they were still the same sex because of the innate Androgynous nature of changelings. A few times he had thought about shape shifting into a Queen to see what it would be like to be on the receiving end...

... but that would have to wait until he was a tad more comfortable with exploring his newfound libido with more than just seeing how many times the two of them could go at it in a day. Patina had laughed when they pierced the skin of her bed the second time they had been intimate, nearly flooding the floor of the queen's chambers with a slime that had a slightly thicker consistency than water and didn't turn into adhesive when it spread.

He had a small smile on his face as the Queen laid her head against his chest, letting her insect wings buzz happily while she fed on the love that he was freely giving. He had seen her run the gamut of every emotion he had known except suicidal depression... and he would be more than happy to never experience that one from her. He had been the only link in the hive that didn't feed on the energy that the queen was harvesting, not that he needed to... he was completely full from the sustenance that The Force provided him with.

He let his right hand gently weave through her mane that reminded him of a weeping willow tree, she cooed with a content sound before her tail began to wrap around his, entwining them like a helix as she kissed his chest, forcing him to send flares of lust through their link.