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2024-10-29 19:42:56Ten days after the expedition to the south began, three bedraggled figures emerged from the steam and smoke of the Flame Emperor’s domain.
One of them was limping along with the help of some makeshift crutches. One more had his arm in a sling. The third one was stumbling about in broken pieces of armor hastily cobbled together and on the verge of falling apart at any moment.
Father Petrov, Professor Alexei and Sir Ivan had finally made it through the mountainous region.
And before them… was a land of death.
“What… what happened here?” Father Petrov stared, stunned.
The land was black. Actually, more than half of it looked semi-liquid. There were blackened bones everywhere, skeletons of beasts that would take thousands of words to describe for no other reason than to increase this chapter’s word count. Suffice to say the variety was very wide, and even looking at the bones, these three men felt they had been fierce beasts.
The important
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Kingdom of the Weak 184. Regarding the Source of Magic
“This…” Alexei stared in disbelief. “How are we supposed to take this back with us?!” Mindy barked a low laugh. “You can’t. There’s no taking it away.” Father Petrov eyed her. “You don’t seem surprised.” “I made friends with a bird who told me about it. I just had to see it for myself. And so did you.” Mindy admitted. “So… what do we do?” Sir Ivan asked. Alexei was inspecting it. “This crack… it seems to be a leak in some sort of seal. The mana we have now is just what’s leaking out from the seal.” “Or its what came out before the seal was put in place.” Father Petrov mused. “Well, you can’t do anything with it.” Mindy shrugged. “I guess this brings our trip to its conclusion.” “Not exactly. If mana is what it takes to stop the war, then…” Father Petrov hesitated. “Then if there were a way to remove the seal, mana would pour into the world undeterred and everyone would have so much mana, we wouldn’t need to fight for crystals.” Sir Ivan said. “Something like that?” “That soun
Kingdom of the Weak 185. The Burning South
FWOOM! The land had turned to fire. Black smoke covered the skies. Sir Ivan was running with Father Petrov dangling over his shoulder. He must have been using some sort of emergency speed boost technique; they covered ground much, much faster than Petrov dared to hope, faster than had ever seen him run before in his life. But it wasn’t fast enough. In no time, the conflagration caught up to the pair. "Light!" Father Petrov summoned a protective cloak around both of them just a moment too late to avoid harm entirely, but in time to save them from anything worse than blisters by the fires that instantly spread through the entire death zone. Still, he urged Ivan. “Go! It won’t hold for long!” Also, there was another problem. While they were protected from the heat, that sort of protection allowed air through so that people could breathe and talk and all that good stuff. In other words… it didn’t keep out the smoke. Father Petrov only mana
Kingdom of the Weak 186. Survivors
Twelve days had passed after the expedition began. George was looking over some new design drawings for Kara-Goth, designs for shafts sporting mirrors and windows capped by glass domes for streaming sunlight in from the top of the hill, proper airship docking facilities atop Kara-02 rather than barebones mooring atop the clear space of Kara-01, massive balconies with glass sliding door access to the outside of the higher floors of the hill... Those designs came from a professional architect based in Ecclesia who had been called upon by Sir Ivan’s wife. Using them would certainly improve the quality of life in Kara-Goth. They looked downright luxurious. The problem was security. A fierce Beast Wave from flying Wilds, like the Eagle Lord’s, and they’d be hard pressed to defend the place. “I like the sunlight shafts idea, but those clear domes on top have to be made with some tough transparent material, like hardened decaquartz.” George told Sir Ivan’s wife. “We can cer
Kingdom of the Weak 187. First Date
For a moment there, nobody said anything or moved a muscle. Everyone just stared. Then, Phoebe did something quite unexpected. She leaned forward and kissed Remian on the cheek. “Welcome back.” “Uwaaa…” Song Chen looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Even Lydia’s jaw dropped. But Remian didn’t look surprised. His eyes were slightly glazed, and he had an almost silly smile on his face. “What a nice dream.” Then he leaned down and locked his lips with Phoebe’s. “Whoa!!” George gaped. He had a bare moment to stare before Sabriane, Lydia, two nurses and Song Chen all jumped at him rushing to cover his eyes. “This isn’t something a kid should see!” “I… but…” George squirmed, but there were five of them and one of him, and there was no getting past those hands. “Puah...! At least let me breathe!” “What a strange dream.” Under the cover of those hands, George couldn’t see anything, but he heard Remian yawn, and hear
Kingdom of the Weak 188. Intrusions
Remian and Phoebe couldn’t help noticing. They hadn’t realized anyone was watching them earlier; there were Lydia and Sabriane sipping tea at their table on the café balcony, but they hadn’t thought much of it at first… But when a little red chick went gallivanting around the waterfront green on a wolfcat cub, chirping imperatively all the way, they just had to notice the four kids skulking around the corner. “Where did that bird come from?” Remian asked, frowning. “I sense… a lot of things weird with it.” “Sense later.” Phoebe prodded him. “Picnic first.” It was an idyllic scene, with children and elders at leisure, friends and family spying on the couple, and a red chick charging about on the back of a yipping wolfcat cub… Remian almost couldn’t believe this peaceful place was really the dangerous Frontier or that he was able to set out a picnic on the waterfront without worrying about getting eaten alive from one minute to the next. The old man fis
Kingdom of the Weak 189. Confrontations
It was Mindy, in the end, who finally settled down Sir Ivan’s wife. The conversation went on for a long time while Remian and Phoebe went off for lunch at the reservoir. They chowed down some of Song Chen’s cousin’s best dishes one after the other in a six course meal that had to be carted by the Song Family Restaurant waitresses all the way to the roof of Kara-Goth, but of course, seeing as it was for Remian and Phoebe, Song Chen’s cousin was only too happy to oblige… To cut a very long story short, Mindy ended up having to send everyone home, including Sir Ivan’s entire household and Father Petrov, who seemed half-hearted about going back. “It’s such an interesting place, the Frontier…” he kept saying. “We should come back with a proper commission…” Mindy wasn’t sure what a ‘proper commission’ meant, but she decided that if she was going all the way to Ecclesia on an errand, she may as well pick up as many mages as she could there and bring them bac
Kingdom of the Weak 190. Embroiled in war
Two hours after being captured, the camp was attacked by troops using magical weapons from Auria. “Get down!” Talia told her crew, and the lot of them crouched low, their hands over their heads. There was a lot of screaming and yelling and shooting on all sides, and then all of a sudden, a total silence. It was punctuated by a groan, and then the Aurian troops marched into what was left of the camp… “Can we go now?” Talia asked. Seeing the group of prisoners without uniforms, they asked, “Where are you from?” “We were working for Itarim…” Talia tried to explain. “Itarim?! They just switched sides this morning!” the Aurians growled. “You’re not going anywhere!” Switched sides? Was that even possible?! And why, of all times, did it have to happen this morning!? Couldn’t they wait just another day… just one more day…?! But no. Talia and her crew were brought into an Aurian bunker hastily set up in a rocky area... Actually none of that mattered. Fifteen minutes after arriving at
Kingdom of the Weak 191. Desperation
“What happened?” Around that time, Phoebe also asked a similar question, but the person she asked was hooded and robed in dark brown. “You know the circumstances of the Iron Legion as well as I do, Amber Range. The three factions are struggling for supremacy even now. Aquila is hard pressed for support. Your friends’ aid was most timely for him… too timely. Sepsius made a move, and thus, they are removed.” “Removed? They were betrayed? By us?!” Phoebe glared. “Don’t look at me like that. Sepsius betrayed them, not I.” “Yet you failed to aid them!” “We are short-handed as it is. The war does not go well, and Lupus’ faction is proven right by its course. He was the one saying we should stop trying to interfere with matters other than our own, abandoning all else outside of Itarim’s cause, including the emancipation of slaves and the protection of the roads.” “But the Creed! The old oaths…!” “That is why our faction still
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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
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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
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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
