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2024-10-29 19:42:56The next day, Remian once again took to the road.
By now, they were already in the heart of the world war. All around them were thick columns of smoke; the sound of heavy artillery could be heard on every side. Remian avoided all the columns; each of them was clearly a military position, or else they wouldn’t have been fired upon. As long as he kept clear of any viable targets, he figured, he should avoid getting blasted by cannons.
In any case, the fighting should have drifted farther to the west. Germat and Auria were pushing back the Ashdale and La Vive lines at a steady pace. Thinking back to the prices they offered for elemental metals just before the war, Remian wasn’t entirely surprised. It was clear that Germat had spent a premium in preparation for the conflict.
In terms of combat ability, Ashdale boasted a lot of experience. Proven in the field over millennia against the likes of the Iron Legion, their military firing formations and drills were famo
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Kingdom of the Weak 198. Closer
She wasn’t far now. Remian could sense her getting closer and closer. Just over the next rise, he felt. Talia was coming to meet him partway on this dirt road. He glanced about. The area here was an open space, sparse brush and hard dirt on either side of the road heading north. Ahead was a crossroads with a signpost. On the right, Germat and Auria. On the left, Ashdale and La Vive. To the south, Itarim, and to the north, the sea known as the Dalish Channel. Talia was coming down this very road. Remian narrowed his eyes. Was that them? That little speck in the distance? [Talia?] Remian sent out a thought-burst. [Remian!] Talia lit up. Ahead, at the little speck, he saw movement. Someone was waving both arms frantically. [Over here!] [Talia!] Remian made a quick decision. [We need to find a place with more cover, enough for the Wasp. I don’t want to call the airship out here into the open.] [There’s no cover of that level on the north s
Kingdom of the Weak 199. Dig
Remian and the others hunkered down in the pit and prayed for it all to be over soon so that they could go home quickly. To those prayers, God gave a clear and swift answer; it was a resounding ‘No!’ After an hour of waiting while the storm raged on, they began to hear hoofsteps. There was a lot of sploshing in the mud, and the sound of horses neighing in complaint, but somehow, despite the weather and the terrain, the Bulraki were pressing forward. There was a swish of leaves, and even more bushes were piled onto Remian’s position from above. With that, the hoofsteps began to clatter over the overturned cart, shoes upon wood… “They’re using the bushes to pave the way. That’s how they’re able to move in the mud.” Remian realized. “How long can the roof hold?” Talia asked, worriedly. “Earth.” Remian whispered, reinforcing the cart above with archways of hardened mud. “Stone.” He hardened the mud farther. “Extra hard!” Not satisfied with
Kingdom of the Weak 200. When Things Go Wrong
“We’re going to be in trouble.” That was the conclusion Phoebe came up with upon hearing the scouts reports for the morning. Aurian forces were swarming all over the area. Surveyors were all over the highlands. Heavy construction machinery was starting to arrive one after the other at a new base site two hills away. Phoebe felt quite certain that Auria was intending to fortify these highlands, and the plateau where the Red Fang was sitting on was soon to be a building site. In a matter of hours, somebody, maybe one of those surveyors, was going to come up to the plateau and spot their airship. “What do we do? Do we fight or flee?” Alex asked. “We’re leaving.” Phoebe decided. “But not without our people. We’re going to pick them up.” “Is that even possible? They’re hours away even by airship, and there are soldiers all over the place.” Phoebe turned to a lynxmouse. “I need you guys to steal something.” “Squik?” [What is it?] “It
Kingdom of the Weak 201. Boarders and Old Fears
“Light!” Remian threw up a barrier as another volley of Ashdalian cannons hammered down on the Red Fang. From inside, Mindy exclaimed, “Fire!” The Red Fang’s cannons unleashed a broadside volley onto the nearest pursuing Frigate. Twelve Adventurers and three survivors on deck armed themselves for hand-to-hand combat. Phoebe had taken up Mindy’s Runic Nagamaki, but had put it down as she helped Remian put on his ME Suit. Despite taking on fire, a cluster of grappling hooks were fired out from the pursuing frigate’s cannons. Remian flicked out a hand on that side too. “Light!” Grappling hooks bounced off the light barrier, but one or two caught on the deck. “Lighten!” Sandra cast a lightening spell on one. Gammie grabbed it by hand and easily lifted it off the rim of the deck and tossed it overboard. As for the last one, Phoebe chopped at the attached cable with Mindy’s Nagamaki and… And nothing. That chop failed to cut through the cable
Kingdom of the Weak 202. Warped
Mindy was flying, but she barely even noticed. She didn’t think about how she was doing it. She didn’t think about why she could do it. She just fled, blindly, instinctively, wanting only to get away from the slavers. As for where she was going… that was instinct too. Or maybe she heard a voice, a voice that she recognized… or a combination of the above. “Mindy! I’m here! Over here!” Mandy was calling her. Mandy was calling her away from the slavers. Mindy ran straight to her elder sister… Wait. No, that’s wrong. She wasn’t running. She was flying. How come she was flying. People were staring. Faces and eyes on the airships ahead were staring. Why were they staring? Oh right. Because she was flying. She was flying with Chirpy’s powers. No, no, no… they mustn’t know… Mindy had to figure out some excuse, some way to hide it… With an inkling of an excuse in mind, she flew over the deck of the airship Mandy was on, and deliberately shouted
Kingdom of the Weak 203. Off to Ashdale
Sir Stout welcomed Mindy and the gang as they arrived carrying a stretcher with Remian unconscious on it. “That’s my ex-husband.” Mandy pointed. “Right, right.” Sir Stout nodded absently. “Aide, hand me your rifle...” “And that’s his new girlfriend.” Mandy added, pointing. He looked up and totally forgot about the rifle. Sir Stout was a man who was accustomed to beautiful women. Born in the upper class of Ashdale aristocracy, he practically grew up around the daughters of the rich and powerful, girls with easy access to high quality cosmetics and skilled beauticians. He had seen, spoken to, met and… interacted… with hundreds of dolled-up beauties in his twenty-five year lifetime. But today, he took one look at a girl and froze. Dolled-up beauties thick with make-up and wearing jewelry might not be able to move him any more, but there in front of him was a battered belle marked with ash and soot, fresh from the battlefield with the light of violent combat still flickering in her
Kingdom of the Weak 204. Negotiating for a house
Mindy knocked three times on the heavy, ornate door. “In a minute!” someone called from inside, but really, it only took twenty seconds before the door opened. “Can I help you?” “Ma’am, I’m here to inquire about the mansion. Word has it that you’re selling?” “You’re one of those wild girls, aren’t you? The one staying at the Meadows House?” the woman inside peered at her. “Is it Mr. Meadows who wants to buy this mansion?” “Uh… no, it’s not him…” “Is it Charlie, then? That boy must have struck it rich by now…” “Not exactly, it’s a friend of his…” Mindy wasn’t sure how to tell the woman that it was she herself who wanted to buy the mansion. “Anyway, could you maybe just tell me how much you want to sell it for?” “I’m afraid I can’t do that.” She shook her head. “You’ll have to get your boss to talk to my husband directly.” “My… boss…?” Mindy winced. “Is your husband in?” “No, he’s at…” she hesitated. “Blackram Market.” “Blackram…?” Mindy thought back over all the malls she’d be
Kingdom of the Weak 205. Newcomers
“Mandy! I need to show you something!” Mindy was so excited, she was basically jumping up and down. “What? Where?” Mandy wasn’t sure what to make of it as she followed Mindy down the road. “This!” Mindy said, taking out a runestone and tapping it on the heavy ornate doors of the mansion they were passing by… Wait. They weren’t passing by. Why weren’t they passing by? Why was Mindy… The doors opened. “Mindy…? What did you do? What did you DO?!” Mandy panicked. “You can’t just illegally enter people’s houses with home-made runestone keys! That’s trespassing! That’s burglary! That’s… I don’t even know what that is!” “Relax! It’s fine!” Mindy said, taking out a sheet of paper. “See?” This was a heavily magicked sheet of paper, with a layer of mana protection, and sealed with nine different kinds of runes… “What is this?” Title, area, registry number… and the words ‘Property Deed’. Mandy read the paragraph that followed. “This is to certify that… Ardent Gale Mansion… belongs to Mind
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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
- 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
