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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Target spotted!”
“Ready all ballistae!” Song Chen ordered. “Range?”
“Three kilometers!”
“Keep me updated!” Song Chen studied the Cyan Python Lord through his spyglass. “Load explosive bolts!”
“Explosive bolts!” the order was echoed from ship to ship. FDF personnel set bolts inscribed with explosive runes into the ballistae.
This was going to be an expensive affair. Explosive bolts, unlike those fitted with runes like Penetration or Impact, were one-use items. Once they hit their targets, they would explode and the bolts themselves would be shattered into countless shards. Song Chen hesitated for a moment, wondering if all this was going to be worth the cost, but George had been quite clear; spare no expense to take down the Cyan Python Lord.
“Fire at five hundred meters!” Song Chen barked.
“That close, sir? But the range of our ballistae can easily hit it from thrice the distance!”
“That close! Those scales on that sna
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Kingdom of the Weak 240. The King’s Challenge
“Song Chen is disqualified.” Doom said. “Hello to you too.” Remian grimaced. They met at the border of the Golden Savannah and the Blood Lands. To the east, there were trees and marshlands. To the west, it was open grassland as far as the eye could see. To the south, the Speckled Highlands, hilly terrain. To the north, Craggy Falls, where a broken-looking cliff supported a towering waterfall. Remian, George, Song Chen, Mindy and Tim arrived on the Red Fang. Doom and Darian were already there, along with several hulking figures, and an especially intimidating dragon. “Is that… Kor’ag-dras?” Remian stared. “No, that’s Tor’na-dras. Madame Tornado herself. But she is Kor’ag-dras’ granddaughter and she is here today to represent her grandfather in officiating this event.” Darian explained. “She is one of the Elders of Dragon Lake. So unless you want a Tier 7 Elder Dragon to wipe out everything you have and care about, treat her with respect.”
Kingdom of the Weak 241. Lizard Challenge
The King Challenger Lizard was charging directly at him, bypassing the iced frog on the way. “Rise!” Remian stomped his foot on the ground. An earth spike reminiscent of the Rocky Thorns shot out of the ground and impaled the Lizard King Challenger through the throat. “Null oxygen field!” Remian added, for good measure. This lizard wasn’t using fire, but it still needed oxygen to breathe, so… The roaring suddenly stopped abruptly, as the Lizard King Challenger slammed its tail against the rock spike, and managed to free itself. “Earth Spike!” Remian stomped his foot on the ground again. “Rise!” This one stabbed the lizard through the center, like the time he’d speared the Flame Salamander Lord… But this was no ordinary Lord. This was a lizard five times bigger and many times stronger and smarter. Despite suffocating from a lack of air, and being utterly furious, it still had the presence of mind to free itself by wriggl
Kingdom of the Weak 242. Chain of Challenges
Out on the battlefield, three monkeys were wrestling two wolfcats to the ground, Shadowflash was nipping at them from the flanks, while the Star Wolf King and the King Challenger Baboon were engaged in a lunging, snapping melee. One more wolfcat was already down and badly injured; three monkeys and a second wolfcat had withdrawn with less serious injuries. Abruptly Shadowflash changed his targets and scored a solid bite on the hamstrings of the Baboon King Challenger. The monkey stumbled; the Star Wolf King immediately pounced on the opportunity and clawed the throat of the Baboon Challenger as quick as a thought. [Halt!] Tor’na-dras roared. [The Star Wolf King wins the challenge! Everyone withdraw and recover!] Big plant-types sporting vines and flowers moved to the challengers, treating their injuries and stopping even the bleeding from the baboon’s throat. “Hey! How come we don’t have healers like that?!” Tim protested. “You have your own h
Kingdom of the Weak 243. Kingship
The snake charged. Darian darted to one side, slamming his fist out at the snake as it passed. [You think your bare hand can hurt me…?] As quick as a thought, the snake’s scorn burst out psionically. Sudden blue light flared in Darian’s palm. [Uoogh!] the snake wasn’t even half-done charging forward yet when all this happened and its thought broadcast went into an incoherent scream of pain. Blood spurted as Darian zipped away fast enough to leave afterimages before the snake could retaliate. [Human…! HUMAAAAN!!] “Wha…?” Remian and Mindy said the exact same thing with the exact same baffled look on their faces. Darian, who had nothing in his hand before, now seemed to have an enormous blazing sword of blue light extended from his wrist. It covered his fist, and extended no less than five feet out, spread one foot thick. [What is that?] Tim’s question flickered across in a thought-burst. [It’s not magic.] [Second Stage Ps
Kingdom of the Weak 244. Developing the Eastern Edge Region
Contrary to George’s expectations, Darian’s life did not become as complicated as his. Darian simply left the Lords in charge of the Territories to handle their business and went back to continue his training at Dragon Lake. Remian immediately hired a whole army of prospectors and geologists over from the Deutero Company. Various mineral treasures were discovered within a week; small deposits of Misty Steel, Breezium, Earth Pulse Obsidian, a vein of Star Sardeinite, and heap loads of Celestial Salt. That last bit was somewhat controversial; Celestial Salt was considered a valuable cultivation resource in the Dragon Empire, a temporary magic-enhancement food in Ecclesia, an expensive ingredient in luxury restaurants in La Vive, but was outright banned as illegal in Ashdale and nineteen other countries. The reason for this was that while this salt was mildly beneficial to magic and martial cultivation, it was better known for its rather intoxicating effects and addictive trait
Kingdom of the Weak 245. Trees, Ruins, and Settlements
“Sandraaaaaa!” Mindy yelled as she went down faster and faster. “Sorry! You weren’t supposed to jump from here! There’s a clear spot farther down this branch…!” “Too late.” Gammie summarized with a grimace. Speaking of clear spaces, it really was somewhat clear now that she’d gotten past that patch of branches. There was nothing beneath her for the next few hundred feet, all the way to the ground. If there was a branch of something, Mindy might have tried to grab on, but lacking that, and seeing absolutely no human way to save herself from this predicament, Mindy gave up entirely. “Forget this!” Mindy growled, and shouted up. “Sorry, Sandra, I’m going to have to destroy your business tools!” “What?” Sandra herself was already in a panic and didn’t understand what Mindy was trying to say. Mindy didn’t explain further. In a flash, wings of fire erupted from her back, and flapped once, twice, easily bringing her back up to the bra
Kingdom of the Weak 246. Forced March
Filled with self-confidence in her newfound strength, Mindy returned ‘home’ and went to see George. But he wasn’t in his office. “George, where are you?” “I’m busy right now, Mindy. I’ll come find you later, okay?” George said. Something in his voice sounded suspiciously evasive. Mindy frowned. Did he really think he could keep secrets from her that easily? Tightening her lip, she closed her eyes and spread her senses. A flicker of flame drifted out from under one eyelid. There! At the airport, third dock. Mindy dashed up and burst onto the scene with a triumphant, “Surprise!!” There was George, with a bunch of people in weird robes. George’s face was red at first, but then he saw her arrive and then his face turned pale. “So this must be the girl.” A dry, cold chuckle sounded from a very wrinkled old man in a very polished white robe. “Misty, wasn’t it?” “Mindy, your excellency.” One of his people supplied.
Kingdom of the Weak 247. Piling On
“But… but what about lunch?!” Fel protested as Exel led his crew back on board their airship. They left George staring at their back on the docks with a sinking feeling in his heart. “I couldn’t stop them. I couldn’t even protect her…” George muttered darkly. “George! I got them as soon as I could!” Alani came running up. “We have thirty-nine people now!” “Thirty-nine?” George’s face fell. “I asked for a hundred…” “But… but there aren’t many people who can channel magic!” Alani protested. “I tried my best! I really did!” “I know. I know you did.” George sighed, rubbing his forehead. “It’s not your fault. It’s just… without mana crystals, we need people to power the airship engines magically. Thirty-nine people are barely enough to move one Sky Fortress.” “Or nineteen Corvettes. Twenty, if you count yourself in.” “Twenty Corvettes.” George shook his head. “That’s not going to be enough to stop a military-grade Galleon an
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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
