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Kingdom of the Weak 173. Searching for Magic (3)
Mindy was the first to react. “You can FLY!” “Mana here is twice as dense as it is back at your Kara-Goth.” Doom shrugged. “Ever heard the phrase ‘twice the results for half the efforts’? It applies here.” “Twice as dense?” Alexei perked up. “Could it be… the Source of Magic? We’re getting closer!” “Wait a minute. Aren’t you the guy who keeps saying we shouldn’t use magic, because it’s running out?” Mindy protested. “If mana is so thick here…” “Hey, it was thicker ten years ago. A lot thicker. It’s been draining out.” Doom scowled. “So you came looking for the Source of Magic? What for, so you can steal it for yourself and keep your wasteful lifestyle?” “Then you do know where it is? And what it is?” Alexei perked up. “Oh, I know. But why should I tell you any of it?” Doom said darkly. “All you want to do is maintain the way of life you’ve been living, consuming endlessly, never a thought as to everyone else and everything else.”
Kingdom of the Weak 174. Searcing for Magic (4)
Days since last Beast Tide: 49. Current Kill Count: 2374 (122 since yesterday). “Still no Beast Waves?” Remian asked, when the weekend finally arrived. “Three weeks, and still no Beast Wave.” Lisa confirmed. “I think it’s true. It really is all over. At least until the count reaches zero and another Beast Tide hits.” “Great.” Remian said, and closed his eyes. For the past two days, he’d been basically in bed all day. Soul-boosted magic took its toll sooner or later; in this case, it happened roughly ten minutes out from Dragon Lake. Remian had been laid completely flat out, unable to so much as sit up without feeling dizzy. “Another spoon?” Lisa sat by his bedside, a bowl of porridge in her hand, spoonfeeding him bit by bit like she used to back when he was younger and they were ordinary citizens in the Rain Sultanate. Despite everything, Remian’s mother had taken time out from her busy schedule to care for her sickly son. Actually, sh
Kingdom of the Weak 175. Searching for Magic (5)
While Remian and Petrov were debating the fate of the world for Mindy to learn, Alexei was investigating the Black Ruins at Three Pines Peak. He had already explored the area yesterday; today he was going to look inside several buildings he had hunches about. The whole process went on for a few hours… "Fascinating. Some day, I'd like to come back here and look into this in greater detail." He mentioned as they were taking a break for lunch. Behind him, two of his students exchanged meaningful glances. "Can you make any sense of it?" Ruth asked. She and Sandra were supposedly showing their guests around but really, the magi seemed to know more about these weird buildings than they did. "Well, that's a transmission tower for sure." Alexei pointed. "Those three are certainly mana-gathering foci. That place there appears to be a manufacturing plant for some light machinery. This open cage here appears to have been a garden." "Wow. Really?!" Sandra
Kingdom of the Weak 176. Searching for Magic (6)
Damien and Lisa Vin were at lunch when they heard the ruckus. “What’s going on?” Ruth glanced out the window. “Darian is fighting Remian.” “Boys.” Lisa rolled her eyes. “Brothers fight sometimes.” Damien shrugged. “They’ll get over it.” *** “I failed.” Darian reported to Doom gloomily some time later. “I couldn’t stop them. I’m sorry.” “It’s not your fault. They just wouldn’t accept our kindness. It came to a fight and you were outnumbered.” Doom consoled him. “Try it again with backup and see.” “Yeah.” Darian muttered glumly, not really reacting. There was a short pause. Then, Darian raised his head and found Doom looking at him expectantly. “What?” “What did I just say?” Doom asked. “You said to… try it again with backup…” Darian’s eyes widened. “Wait. You were serious? When?” “Isn’t it obvious?” Doom snorted. “NOW. Go already!” “Okay, okay!” Darian scrambled. *** <
Kingdom of the Weak 177. Searching for Magic (7)
“No. I can’t allow you to do it.” Lisa Vin forbade her son. Only, it wasn’t the son they’d been expecting her to forbid. Out here, in the temporary camp of the expedition, the son she was talking to was Remian. “Mom, this is important…” he tried to explain. “Everything is important! It’s always important!” Lisa flared. “And every time you over-exhaust yourself and you get weaker and weaker! When will you ever stop? At this rate, one day soon, I’m going to ask for news of you and discover that you’ll never be coming home again!” “Uh…” try as they might, none of them, not Remian, not Father Petrov, not Professor Alexei, not Mindy… nobody could think of a way to refute that point. “You’re coming home with me, now. While you still can. Let them handle the search.” Lisa gestured vaguely at Professor Alexei and Father Petrov. “But these are the Wildlands…” Remian objected. “Mindy can guide them. Whatever you want to handle, she can h
Kingdom of the Weak 178. Bog and Fog
“Where am I?” Mindy wandered in endless mist, aimlessly, the fog around her seemingly in harmony and one with the fog in her mind. She came across something cute and funny. There was this big wolfcat, bigger than a horse, and it was carrying a wolfcat cub by the scruff of his neck. Wait. I know that wolfcat. That’s Carrie. And the cub dangling awkwardly in her mouth is Vigil… But such strange ideas faded and swirled around as Mindy giggled and stumbled in the bog. She called into the fog. “Helloooooooo!” “Chirp!” a bird’s voice answered her from far, far away. Meanwhile, the wolfcats right in front of her wandered off to the right and completely disappeared in the mist. “Aeyrie?” Mindy called. “Chirp!” a big bird came flapping over, a chubby eaglet as big as Mindy herself. “Aeyrie! You can fly!” Mindy remarked in surprise. “Oh, but then, you could already fly a bit for quite a while now. Sorry. I forgot.” She gi
Kingdom of the Weak 179. At the Foot of Mount Roc
“Oh, no, you don’t!” Mindy had set one foot on the mountain trail before trouble came by to stop her. Darian was there, with the red crystal firmly grasped in one hand, a fireball taking form in the other. “Back off, Mindy. Stop this search already. The Source of Magic is evil. You can’t use it.” “That’s only what Doom tells you. Have you even seen it? Do you even know what it is, yourself?” Mindy shot back. “We can’t give up! We have a chance to stop the war before it happens, save countless lives… and we’ve already come this far! We can’t stop now!” “The war has already begun. Haven’t you heard? Even I’ve heard of it, and I’m basically a hermit’s apprentice.” Darian informed her. “It’s already too late to stop the war.” “It’s… already started?!” Mindy gasped. “Then we have to stop it! We have to find the Source and tell them they don’t need to fight any more…” “What makes you think that the Source would be of any help in ending the w
Kingdom of the Weak 180. Beyond Mount Roc
When Mindy opened her eyes, she had a dinner of grilled fish already waiting for her. Seriously, that was the first thing she noticed. It smelled delicious and she was hungry. How long had it been since she ate? It felt like a whole day. Glancing up at the sky, Mindy figured that most of the day had in fact already passed… She sat up, looked around for the food… and then her head spun. “Ugh…” Mindy shut her eyes tight. Pain throbbed. “My head…” “Yeah, Ivan tells us that you and that boy went head-to-head in a literal sense.” Father Petrov came over with grilled fish-on-a-stick. “Here.” “He’s still here…?” Mindy took the fish, took a bite, and glanced around. “Tied to that tree.” Father Petrov pointed. There he was, lying on his side, his hands bound behind his back with a few feet of rope leading to the tree. Darian wasn’t the only one tied to it. Vigil was too. They were both currently asleep, the wolfcat cub serving a
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- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
