2022-02-24 17:44:53[Fireball!]
“RUN!!”
Another fireball streaked across the battlefield, slamming into a tree behind Remian. Fire splashed around the area, charring the tree bark in moments before disappearing.
“Fire!” Mindy had her Fire Bolt scroll out, and was trying to counter, but her little fist-sized Fire Bolt was just no comparison to the Bear’s head-sized Fire Balls. Her little Fire Bolt barely scorched the bear.
“Do something!” Remian yelped. Max was angling for a shot, trying to get behind the bear, but it turned and shot out another Fire Ball right at him. “Someone…? Carrie!”
He looked for the biggest member of their group, the only one which stood a chance at physically stopping the bear…
Only to find her rolling around on her back, all four paws in the air, laughing.
“What’s gotten into her?!” Remian spluttered.
The bear saw the wolfcat rolling around on the ground roaring with laughter. [It was YOU!]
She laughed even harder.
Vigil looked from his mom to the bear, completely baffled.
“For goodness’ sake…” Remian took out the Bonfire scroll and triggered the Sigil. “Fire!”
An outburst comparable to the Fire Ball’s explosion flared out right under the bear’s feet. The bear stumbled back, roaring. The polished stick dropped from its mouth.
“Fire!” Remian triggered the Bonfire scroll again.
“Fire!” Mindy shot the polished stick with a Fire Bolt, knocking it away from the bear a little. She kept aiming for it. “Fire! Fire!”
“Smoke!” Mandy lobbed a smoke bomb right into the bear’s face.
[No fair!] The bear roared, stumbling back.
Remian grabbed the opportunity and made a run for the polished stick. He grabbed it…
“Whoa! Hot!” He dropped it immediately, then kicked it farther away from the bear as he looked around for something to wrap his hand with.
Max was nearly in position. He raised his spear…
Carrie bowled him over.
“Wha…?” Max didn’t even have time to protest before the gigantic wolfcat had him off and away.
At this point, Remian began to have some private suspicions about that wolfcat. Wrapping the stick in nearby leaves, he pointed it at the bear and shouted, “Hold! Nobody move or I’ll shoot!”
“Huh?” Mandy and Mindy both stopped, then wondered why Remian included them in his demand.
The bear, meanwhile, finally got clear from the smoke only to see Remian pointing the polished stick at him. He growled. [No fair! No fair!]
Remian bit his lip. [Sorry. We just wanted the cave. Do you surrender?]
The bear looked at him with that polished stick, then at the other two with their scrolls, sat down on its rump, and grouched. [No fair.]
Carrie came back then, with Max gently held in her mouth like a cub. Her actual cub, Vigil, looked at him with his tail wagging, as if wondering if Max had become his brother suddenly.
“Remian, can you call your wolfcat off? She’s going to leave teeth-marks on my armor!” Max complained.
The bear, likewise, turned to the wolfcat and roared his own complain. [You! Why?!]
Carrie put Max down and snorted. [You weren’t supposed to be here, remember?]
The bear scowled. He just sat there on his rump, one disappointed grouch.
“Can we count on you to watch him? You know, so he doesn’t claw us from the back?” Remian asked Carrie.
“Whuff.” Carrie nodded affirmatively.
Well. They’d come this far on her word. They may as well go all the way. “Let’s check out this cave.”
It was quite a large cave. If they needed to, they could have stuck twenty Tier 4 Wilds the size of Carrie or the bear inside without crowding. The stream ran through right in the middle, seemingly gushing from the cave floor and that was as close as anyone was going to get to its source.
Remian sniffed the air. “It smells of wet bear in here. When Charlie gets back, I’m going to have to ask him for a wind spell that could help with ventilation.”
“Also, there’s a lot of junk.” Mindy noted. “What is all this? Do bears like to hoard stuff?”
“I can understand hoarding food, but this…?” Mandy went over to the heaps of junk piled up. “Broken furniture, random planks, a rusty bar of iron, half a bale of hay, somebody’s cutlery… is that a bathrobe?!”
“What is all this?” Remian shook his head. “We may as well clear it out.”
The bear eyed them uneasily as they cleared out his stash. When they started moving their bags in, though, he growled. [What are you doing?]
“We’re moving in. This is our den, now.” Remian explained.
The bear roared. [This is MY den!]
Carrie rapped him on the head with her paw. [You’re not supposed to be here! Shadowflash said…]
[Shadowflash is gone! You have no right!] the bear roared.
“Stand down!” Remian raised the Fire Ball wand again.
[Give it back!] the bear roared furiously. [Give back my stick! Give back my den!]
“No.” Remian said shortly.
The bear roared.
“Fire!” Remian triggered the Sigil in the wand. It was a runic Inscription, and it still had a few charges left. About one fifth of the power came from the Sigil, the rest of it had to come from Remian himself. A head-sized Fire Ball shot out at the bear and exploded on his shoulder.
The bear sat there, his face and shoulder blackened from the blast, and coughed. Smoke leaked out from its mouth.
Carrie snorted. [See what you get?]
There was a short rumble of complaint, and then the bear didn’t say anything more.
Some of the junk, they kept, particularly the hay and the mismatched planks. The rest, they cleared out, along with whatever loose rubble and stones they could remove. Max knocked down some stalactites and stalagmites with his shield, but it was going to take a lot more work to make this hole in the hill a comfortable place.
To make things worse, the sky began to darken in the afternoon. Heavy clouds and a deep rumble promised rain.
“Do we have time to return to town?” Mandy asked, eyeing the storm clouds above. “This looks serious.”
“Probably not.” Remian guessed, going by feeling more than any actual knowledge.
Speaking of feelings, he had a rather odd one when he looked outside the cave.
There in front of them was its previous occupant. Helplessly, thrown out of his home, the bear sat there outside the entrance like a lump, sad and lonely.
It was going to rain, soon. Even Carrie was scurrying into the cave for shelter as more thunder rumbled… but the bear didn’t move.
“What am I doing?” Remian sighed, shaking his head. “Hey, bear! Get in here, before you get wet!”
The bear turned to him and blinked.
“It’s going to happen anyway.” Remian figured. “We may as well get you in safe and warm rather than have to deal with wet bear later. Now, hurry up and come in before it rains!”
Behind him, Mandy’s soft voice asked, “Are you sure? Is it safe?”
“Nothing about the Frontier is safe.” Remian replied her. “But we’re already relying on one Wild for protection. Maybe we can rely on two.”
“Can we?”
Remian paused. “There’s something strange about this bear. The wand, the junk… something is different. Vigil is different and Carrie is different too. Maybe… maybe we don’t have to fight.”
“But we just threw its’ stuff out!” Mandy pointed out.
“We can discuss that with him.”
“We can?” Mandy blinked. “How?”
“Leave it to me.”
“You can talk to Wilds?”
Mindy, overhearing, burst out laughing. “Of course he can! He’s a Mage!”
Remian hesitated, but didn’t try to correct her misconception. After all, what could he say? Perhaps it was best not to have to clarify the matter further.
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Kingdom of the Weak 16. Dreams and Ambitions
His name was Buff. Or Buffy. Remian wasn’t quite decided, but it was a concept about having lots of strong muscles.Buff was a Tier 4 Amber Eyes Bear. They had the reputation of being able to spot honey a mile away. Actually the reputation was false. It was their noses that could smell the honey, not their eyes.But Buff had an existential problem. He did not want to be an Amber Eyes Bear. He was jealous of humans and the way they used tools. He was jealous of Wilds who were of higher Tier than himself. He was jealous of birds that could fly and fish that swam so well. In short, he was jealous of a lot of things.The stash of junk in the cave was his result of his jealousy of humans. He had a bad habit of stealing stuff from them, especially from their unguarded treasure-piles! (Mandy: Silly bear, that’s the rubbish heap). One day, he even acquired his greatest prize and treasure from it; the Fire Stick! (Remian: Which poor idiot couldn’t recog
Kingdom of the Weak 17. Founding a Guild
Joshu Tarim thought of himself as a true Frontiersman. He was a professional explorer, one of the earliest adventurers around the Frontier who helped draw the very first maps. He was there when Frontier Town was first founded. He had traded furs and ivory with the first airship that landed at its edge. He wasn’t around when the gangs began to form, however; he had been trapped for almost a year in a labyrinth of cave tunnels far, far to the south at the time.Younger adventurers had asked for the secrets of his survival. How did he last so long in the Frontier? Most adventurers quit or died within one or two years. Some dozen or two switched to becoming Hunters and stayed in town when they weren’t out there looking for prey. Yet there was Joshu, still exploring, still venturing into unmapped territories and coming back with just a few more smudges on the map he’d been drawing for nine years.Caution and patience, he’d replied. Alertness and awar
Kingdom of the Weak 18. A Map for Missions
Remian and Vigil discovered Joshu’s secret in three seconds, flat.“Yip!” Vigil barked.“Squeak!” Teeny shrieked back. “Squeak, squeak!”“Vigil! Play nice!” Remian warned him.“Yip, yip.” Vigil nodded, tail wagging.Remian eyed that cub which was a mix of wolf and cat, then at the creature with Joshu that was a mix of cat and mouse, and shook his head. Hopefully nothing bad would accidentally happen.Actually, the bigger danger was if Carrie got hungry…“Registration is done!” Mindy said. “Well, mostly, except I’m not sure we should classify a nine-year explorer as a ‘Novice’.”Tim coughed. “What, then? He’s not a warrior like Max, or a mage like Remian. Definitely not ‘wolfcat’ or ‘bear’ like Carrie and Buff.”“Ranger. Like the Ceres Forest Rangers.” Max
Kingdom of the Weak 19. Ways To Support
For now, though, the most they could do was offer some light if the battle took place at night. If it happened in the day time, the most they could offer was some fire (and smoke) support. Remian was not about to ask Carrie or Buff to fight on the side of Frontier Town in the event of a Beast Wave. He’d worry about them getting attacked by the human defenders or worse, joining the other side.Why did the Wilds attack Frontier Town anyway? There had to be a reason for Beast Waves and the like.Ten years ago, there had been three towns on the Frontier, but one day there was an event referred to as a ‘Beast Tide’, a large scale version of the Beast Wave. As a result… only Frontier Town was left. There were many dead, and many more fled the Frontier, never to return. Many of the Circling Ravens were babies who were orphaned at that time.If a Beast Tide rose again, the way it was now, Frontier Town would be finished. Already it could barely
Kingdom of the Weak 20. Breakthrough
The wave of Wilds in front of them were three- or four-thick. There must have been at least sixty, maybe seventy of them. There seemed to be more of them this time than the last.A spread of arrows arched high in the fading sunset light.“What do you think Joshu is doing right now?” George asked Tim, seeing the maddened Wilds in front of them charge in spite of the arrows.“I think Joshu’s sitting in a tree.” Tim said in a sing-song chant. “S-H-O-O-TI-N-G!”The beasts roared. They crashed headlong into the sharpened stakes, ran right into the bear traps. Some of them faltered only to get bowled over and trampled by the beasts behind them.“Something’s wrong with these Wilds.” Remian observed to Mandy quietly. “I can’t imagine Carrie or Buff going berserk like that.”“And Vigil?”“Only if you took away a steaming hot barbecue skewer from in
Kingdom of the Weak 21. Next Morning
Markus had his head in his hands. “Eighty dead.” That was the sum total of casualties when Kairos counted all the funerals requested by the five gangs. The Burning Steel gang, with the best equipment in town, suffered only eight losses. The Secret Waves and the Circling Ravens suffered much worse, each losing two dozen. Either of their losses were as much as the Cruel Rose’s and Blood Claw’s combined. “It could have been worse.” Max mentioned. “At least our trainees survived. They might have lost a few limbs, but they’re all alive.” “They’re saying it’s our fault.” Markus said grimly. “Since I was the coordinator.” “Hey, I remember you giving orders. The only ones who followed them were us, the Legion. Everybody else didn’t, and the Wilds broke through their stations, not ours.” Remian groaned and shifted on the bed. They were sitting at his bedside, in one of the rooms of the Open Frontier Inn. For lack of a better place to be, the Iron Legion had ended up staying the night at
Kingdom of the Weak 22. Under Blinding Light
Around sunset yesterday, while the defenders were preparing to fend off the Beast Wave, an elderly skinny man crept into the new headquarters of the Cruel Rose gang. “Mr. Simmons!” Cruel Rose greeted him as a guest. “You came at last!” “Yes, I have been waiting for this day for a long time!” Mr. Simmons smiled, a creepy, toothy grin. “I wanted to come earlier, but I had to wait until everyone was busy with the Beast Wave. I certainly don’t want Kage to barge in on me when I take Mandy’s first time! You have kept her for me, haven’t you?” “Um… about that…” Rose flinched. “You HAVE kept her for me, haven’t you?!” Simmons glared. “We had a deal! How could you offer her to someone else?! You…” “Watch your tongue, Simmons!” Rose snarled. “I offered her to no one!” “She gave herself away before you could get to her?” Simmons stared. “I can’t believe it.” “That’s… I don’t know either.” Rose hesitated. “What are you talking abo
Kingdom of the Weak 23. No, It's Me!
“Mindy…!” Mandy gasped. “No… this…” “It’s fine. I’ll take full responsibility for it.” Remian told her, stepping forward. He crouched down and put both arms around Mindy. He hugged her tightly. “Let go, Mindy. Let it go.” “Isabelle… Jamie… Siti… Juni… Loh… Karen…” Mindy didn’t let go of the knife. She shivered uncontrollably. “Gary… Tamera… everyone… everyone…!” “Let go.” Remian pulled at her hands, trying to wrest them from the knife. Then, Mindy froze. Her shaking stopped. She stared at her hands, at the knife. “I… I killed…” “Let go.” Remian tugged her away. Her hands were still stuck on the knife; the knife came away from the body; Simmons’ corpse tilted over and collapsed in a heap on the floor. “I killed him…!” Mindy whispered, her voice suddenly turning to horror. She dropped the knife. “I killed him!” “No! He’s still alive!” George was there suddenly. He grabbed the knife, and stabbed it into Simmons’ body viciously. “T
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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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
