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2024-10-29 19:42:56The next morning, Phoebe found Remian outside the Guild Hall, throwing up into a ditch.
“Are you pregnant?” she asked, politely.
“You do know I’m a guy, right?” Remian asked dryly.
“You’re also a mage. You never know, with mages.” Phoebe mused.
Remian snorted a short laugh, then gave her his hand. She placed her hand on his wrist; yellow light glowed on her fingertips for a few moments.
“Your condition’s deteriorated since last week.” Phoebe mentioned. “Have you been eating the herbs I prescribed?”
“I think so.” Remian mentioned.
“We might want to look for something stronger, then.” Phoebe thought for a bit. “We’ll have to look into the rare and restricted section. It could get expensive.”
“I’m going to have to sell an airship or two just to rush build the town, Phoebe. Isn’t there some cheaper solution?” he asked.
“Well, I’ve heard about a few powerful herbs and fruits out in the Wildlands. The golden speckled
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Kingdom of the Weak 101. George’s Plan
George walked out of the Guild Hall feeling like the world had been swept out from under his feet. “It can’t be! I won’t let it!” he vowed inwardly. “Remian can’t just die like that!” Growing up with the Circling Ravens, he had always had to stay indoors or closely under the watch of a slayer, because outside, there were slavers who kidnapped children. A lot of his friends disappeared over the years that way. The outside was a scary place, and that’s why food was scarce, and expensive. George longed to take care of his friends, to plant food in a garden and provide for everyone so that they would never have to go hungry again. But he couldn’t leave. A little herb garden in Mandy’s kitchen was the best he’d been able to manage. Going out was impossible and far too dangerous. Until Remian arrived. Suddenly, they weren’t afraid to go out any more. He was an agent of the Iron Legion! As long as he was there, as long as they were with him, nobody was afraid to leave the tavern, to leave
Kingdom of the Weak 102. Tortoise wisdom
It was in the evening that the report came in; the third challenger for the lordship of Shadowflash Fief, the giant tortoise, had finally, finally arrived at Kara-Goth. “Where’s Spike and DD?” Remian asked. “Already in position.” Mindy replied, with a little twisted grin on her face. “Shall we?” Remian asked her, offering his arm. “We shall!” Mindy took it happily and together they boarded the Red Helm, the military-grade battle galleon previously owned by the Desert King. It was not, by any stretch of the imagination, going to be a fair fight. Following the Red Helm were the Red Fang and the Tugged Sky Barge with the Bellower Ballista primed and ready on it. Remian arrived at Kara-Goth with three combat-ready airships, a Tier 5 Boar, and a Tier 5 spike-backed Lizard, and proceeded to surround the tortoise. The giant tortoise blinked once, slowly as it considered the sudden arrival of Remian’s forces. DD behind and to the left, Spike b
Kingdom of the Weak 103. Deepsilver
The Black Depths Lake was a deep, dark mystery. While most lakes would seem friendly, like shimmering curtains, or clear like a mirror, the Black Depths had dark green waters that swirled ominously, as if daring a young, clueless boy to brave its depths. George was not that daring. All he wanted to do was stay in his nice, safe, farm and grow cabbages or some other edible foodstuffs. Diving into the Black Depths to meet with the Deepsilver Lord was not his idea of having fun. Given a choice, he did not want to go into those waters. “Um… hello?” George tried. [Anyone there?] In the deep, something stirred and shifted. A sparkle of silver flickered. [Hello…?] Geroge tried again, really, really not wanting to go down there. In the darkness, light sparked. A single, radiant flash, sending untold numbers of fish and water spawn fleeing in all directions. Meanwhile, George sat down at the lake glumly. “What am I even doing here? What
Kingdom of the Weak 104. More Deepsilver
[What is this?] Deepsilver inspected the item George held out curiously. [It’s a rubber ball.] George explained. [Here. Catch.] He threw it at her. Instantly, lightning blazed, even as teeth the size of a wolfcat clamped down over it. [How primitive! What is the point of this… ball?] [You seemed to be rather bored, so I thought I’d come play with you a bit.] George shrugged. [Want to throw it back to me?] [Hmmpfh! As if such mundane activity should be considered enjoyable by one such as I!] she snorted, and shot the ball back at him with a blast of lightning. “Guwaah!” George fell over, knocked back by the impact of the ball on top of being thoroughly zapped with the lingering electrical charges from being too close to the blast. [George? Human? Hello?] Deepsilver inspected George. [What happened to your hair? Why is it standing on end? Is that a defensive response?] George coughed once, weakly. [The George Human is currently u
Kingdom of the Weak 105. More… well, just more.
Remian came out of the infirmary after visiting George, Tim, Mindy and Max all in a row later that day and shook his head. “What are we going to do about Deepsilver?” Jujar wheezed. “Harness the power.” “Harness it?” Remian pondered Jujar’s advice for a moment. “You mean, like the Ecclesia’s Lightning Rods? Hmm. If we could use their lightning-storage technology, we use it to power our airships and other machines. Or maybe we should do it like the Empire and convert it to mana. But either way, that kind of technology isn’t easy to get a hold of. They are closely guarded secrets and the devices produced are well-guarded and monitored.” “So?” Jujar asked. Remian fell silent. “I guess we could send Mikai and some of his friends to Ecclesia. I don’t think we want to risk provoking Zor’khan-dras at this time. Or maybe we could try our luck at Liberteria. I heard they were experimenting with that sort of thing too.” At that point, Asda dropped by. S
Kingdom of the Weak 106. Families
Remian sent a certain letter with Charlie during this latest visit. It was a letter he had wanted to send since the first day he arrived at the Frontier, but the time and circumstances had not been right. But now with the Beast Waves seemingly stopped, and having enough military force to fend them off easily even if they didn’t, with the surge of growth in the Frontier, he felt it was time. “It’s really important.” Remian emphasized. “Who is it for?” Charlie asked. “It’s for my family.” Remian told him in a low voice. “The time is ripe for them to join me here.” *** A terrible storm hammered Shadowflash Fief the following week. Mindy, fresh out of the infirmary and raring to fly her airship again, was caught right in the middle of it. “This storm came out of nowhere!” Mindy protested. “Since when did weather like this happen here? We’ve lived here our whole lives; we’ve never had winds this strong, this sudden, before!”
Kingdom of the Weak 107. Vin
Mindy’s first question; “Are they… all right?” “Bueeehhh!” the younger boy threw up on the spot, and the younger girl, the youngest of the lot, looked green enough to join him at any moment. “I need a toilet. Fast.” The older girl, the teenager, added hurriedly. “And I need a place to rest.” Remian’s mom looked pale. His dad, a wrinkly, kindly faced man with graying hair, smiled and said, “Don’t worry about us, we’ll manage…” “My carriage is over here.” Remian pointed. “I have a suite in the Adventurers Guild.” “I think we can give them rooms of their own.” Mindy mentioned. Remian considered briefly. “True. But I’ll pay for their rooms with points.” “No time. I really, really need to go, now!” his sister squirmed. “FDF camp. That way.” George pointed. “Airport inn. Over here.” Mindy gestured. “Bucket?” Tim offered. The second sister grabbed the bucket and used it the way her brother earli
Kingdom of the Weak 108. Visiting
Later, Remian also brought his family to Fal’Herim, where the Crown Prince was rebuilding with the help of his foreign aid allies. They didn’t get to see the prince himself, but they managed to tour the place for at least a couple hours and had lunch at a new restaurant near the airport. Then, they came back with an airship full of new Sand People wanting freedom and to join them at the Frontier. Three days and lots of rest later, he brought them to Ashdale on Charlie’s airship. “Are you kidding me?!” Mandy half-screamed when she saw them arrive. “Remian’s bringing more kids to the Frontier?!” “They’re his own brother and sisters.” Charlie hastily tried to pacify her. “They seem to fit in very well.” “What is he teaching them? Weapons and magic?” Mandy demanded. “Uh… yeah?” Charlie scratched his head. “And you think that’s okay? They should be here! Properly going to school!” Mandy protested. “Growing up in a proper society and learnin
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523. Comms
Somewhere along the line, he’d lost consciousness. George only realized it when he woke up to a splitting headache. “Ow.” He groaned. “What... where...?” “We’re on the way back to Sorrel.” Grace told him, appearing by his bedside. And it was a bedside, he realized. He seemed to be in the Kara’s Medical Bay. “I’m sorry. We had to retreat.” “Our... people?” George managed. “The HAC Troopers made it back. The Mechs... did not.” Grace paused. “We have the refugees though. And the Robotic Assembly Plant for Mining Drones. That’s all they managed to grab.” George slurred. “Mech pilots?” “Alive, if battered.” “Good. Alive is good.” George sighed. “This... didn’t go so well.” “Hey, at least we got the guys we were trying to save, and some machinery on top of that. You might say it was a success. A costly one, but a success.” “Casualties?” George asked. “Plenty of injuries to go around, but no deaths. So far.” Grace paused. “Some of the really badly injured might change that before lo
- Kingdom of the Weak
522. Second Aid Mission
“Were these really the best you could do?” George asked, eyeing the six hulking figures in front of him hesitantly. “Mmm.” Juni grunted. In front of them were six brand new Mechs. 2nd Generation products, they were armored weapons platforms on legs, with jumpjets for the signature ‘jumps’ that earned their generation the nickname, ‘Jumpers’. Or were they? George wasn’t entirely sure. When he looked at them, they really looked more like 1st Generation Walker-types. Those Jump Jets seemed to be an afterthought, an added equipment haphazardly strapped to their backs. “Would they really work right?” Juni shrugged. Given the time and materials he had to work with, George supposed he couldn’t expect better. He had only just received 2nd Gen tech. Until now, he’d been working with 1st Gen expectations and schematics. One of these Mechs seemed a bit worn, evidence that it had been built quite some time ago, and only recently been modified for George’s requests. “Fusion Cell for power, Pu
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521. Next Step
It turned out that they also needed to acquire salvage rights to haul away ‘scrap metal’. Fortunately, that was a simple affair now that they had local currency. 50 USD and the matter was done. Grant, being the nearest specialist on matters of scrap to their location, graciously offered to transport their ‘scrap’ directly to their vessel out of sheer goodwill. Finally Benny and Sam went to try out the barbecued skewers. At Grant’s recommendation, though, they didn’t go to the Starport roadside stall. They ended up at another roadside stall run by a ‘foreign refugee’ someplace downtown not too far from Grant’s workshop. There, each skewer was loaded with rows of thick, juicy beef sausages, and only cost 20 USD for 10. Benny stretched. “Not bad for our first day. We’ve got three days here, don’t we? But we’ve already got half of what we wanted.” “What’s the other half?” Sam asked. “Technical manuals on engineering, power and propulsion. Tech, basically.” Benny yawned. However, whe
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520. Uber States Colony
“Black Fang, you are cleared for docking. Follow the designated path and welcome to Trifer, colony of the Uber States.” Benny stood on the observation deck of the Black Fang below the bridge, listening to the conversation between the comms officer and the dock authorities. He eyed the massive sprawl of structures and smoke emitted below and wondered. “This is what they call a ‘small’ colony?” The colony was bigger than Craggy Falls, Kara-Goth and Nightshade City put together. “Just how many people live here?” Benny asked next. “According to our sensors, about half a million.” The bridge crew told him. Okay, that was less than the human population of the Sorrelian Migration, which, after including the Cumin survivors, was over 800,000. They shared the sensor feed with Benny, Sam and Foxy. Looking at the scope, Benny realized that most of the colony below consisted of machinery and robots. Furthermore, what he saw on the surface wasn’t even half the colony. The entire complex went
- Kingdom of the Weak
519. Scoop
That evening, Benny and Sam left with Tim’s battle group, headed for the nearest Uber States outpost with medicine in the cargo holds. This left only one freight galleon to ferry materials and regretful space miners from the surface to Sky Haven. “It’s going too slow.” Remian decided. “I need to call Raven.” With Mindy busy trading across star systems, Raven had inherited (bought over) her airship fleet and company on the surface. They built more gunships and scout ships than freighters these days, mainly focused on providing recon and fire support to ground forces fighting Undead. But it was those freighters Remian needed now, the bigger the better. “We need them refitted for extreme high altitudes, as high as they can go.” Remian explained. “Also we need them spaceworthy, at least up to low orbit.” “You want our airship freighters to fly into space?!” Raven spluttered. “Yes, but not on their own. I want them to haul cargo and passengers as high up as they can. Around 30km woul
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518. We should call Remian
“Relax, I’m not asking you to build them from scratch. You’ll need to remodel a Galleon and a trio of our current Dropships. We do want proper Mech Carriers in the future, but for now, we need to deploy urgently, so we’ll just remodel what we have.” Ermine brought up some projections. “The Mechs in question are going to be Light Walkers, designed and built by J-Armory. Juni’s had a workable prototype for a long time, but it’s never been needed until now. Live testing is scheduled to start in three days. They’re powered by Fusion Cells, the kind that looks like dustbins, so you won’t need to worry about fuel lines, just cell-swapping. You won’t need to worry about replacing the He3 in the Fusion Cells either; spent cells will be sent back to J-Armory for recycling or refueling or whatever it is they do. Same goes for the weapons; Jamie’s J-Arsenal will handle maintenance and replacement and all that. The ship only needs to carry the Mechs, deploy them, and run basic maintenance. Repai
- Kingdom of the Weak
517. Objectives and Objections
They met online the next day. Remian opted out, letting them handle it. Upon bringing up the subject of the Woofers’ request for more aid across different planets… Ermine snorted. “I refuse.” “What?” George stared. “I refuse to help them.” Ermine said stoutly. “I know that you guys all have some sort of savior syndrome, and it’s something that Remian seemed to have passed down from the very beginning, the sort of meddlesome hero complex that has you all trying to save the world at personal cost, but I’m no hero. I’m Tau, and we’re practical survivalists. We simply can’t afford to go around saving everybody. We need all our strength and resources to save ourselves. As for the Woofers, as a collective, they are a Class 5 Star Civilization, a whole class more advanced and stronger than us. They have their own governments and their own fleets. Let the Woofers help the Woofers.” Xiao Yan cut in. “As you say, they are a Class 5 Star Civilization. Since you’re talking about praticality, t
- Kingdom of the Weak
516. Changing Gear
“Go, go, go!” green light flared in the bay of the Dropship as the floor fell away. George and twelve other figures were unceremoniously dumped on the ground nine feet below. They landed with heavy impacts. George staggered, realizing the gravity on this world was at least twice what he was accumstomed to back home. For a moment, he regretted leaving his Frame back on the ship, but they were here to clear the bandits out from a city center, meaning tight spaces, narrow access points, and needing to take care to avoid civilian casualties. Or at least, that was the plan. George and his squad had been deposited on the outskirts of the city, at the very border of a suburban district. “Incoming!” someone yelled. George crouched as something exploded; the ground shook and chunks of dirt flew through the air. “Get to cover! Return fire!” George called, even though he wasn’t entirely sure where the attackers were, exactly. The guys diving behind nearby garages and a public toilet clued hi
- Kingdom of the Weak
514. Out there
Quite predictably, the first of those calls to reach Sorrel II was from their dear friends, the Woofers. Three Paws explained it. [This is from Kelso III. It’s an agrarian world, roughly eighty hours’ flight from here for our fleet. Local gang bosses have titled themselves warlords and suppressed the citizenry with brute force. They take whatever they want, and demand whatever payment they like, on pain of death or torture. Local law enforcement has been completely overrun and even planetary militia couldn’t save the settlements under their control. The best our local paws could do is contain the situation and prevent it from getting worse.] Remian sipped hot coffee. Eighty hours flight for the Woofers Fleet should mean a bit less than seventy for the Tau fleet. “That’s rough. But what’s the point of calling us here to tell us this?” [We can help them. Just one division of your fleet could make a huge difference against these local gangs.] At the moment, the Sorrelian fleet consist
