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2024-10-29 19:42:56Of course, it wasn’t as simple as packing up and saying goodbye.
For instance, there was a very indignant Student Affairs Officer who rattled off something about required courses and assignments and field work to complete…
Remian wasn’t actually trying to become a qualified formation master, so he totally ignored all that from the beginning. Was it important? Maybe, but he was a lot more concerned with going home.
Not that he told that to Student Affairs.
There were other issues to settle. Dorm fees, exit permit, traveling rations, souvenirs that they wanted to buy…
Actually, no forget all that. Whatever would he need a permit for? What was the academy going to do, penalize his grades?
Remian simply slipped out with Xiao Yan that evening, summoned the pod from its hiding place, and set course for Scorched Earth City.
***
Meanwhile, George had all his allied forces retreat. With Tang Yin’s group safely back at Dragon Lak
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Kingdom of the Weak 295. How To Seal A Spatial Rift
“What do you need to seal that Rift?” This was the biggest question on everyone’s minds as they met at a grim dinner that night. Tang Yin ventured an answer. “A couple of red mana crystals would be great…” “We don’t have any of those. Blue is as good as you’ll get and only a few are on hand.” George grimaced. Tim spoke up. “I have some, but we’ll have to fetch them from Fal’Herim.” “That would be great.” George said, in relief. Tim nodded and sent a message. “Then there’s the other question.” “What question?” “How long would it take?” “Four hours? Give or take.” Tang Yin suggested. “Give or take what?” Gary prompted. “Give or take another four hours.” Faces fell. The mood, already gloomy, dropped further. “Are we going to have to go through that again?” George groaned. “No, the scanning is already done. We don’t need those delicate intruments any more.” Tang Yin assured him.
Kingdom of the Weak 296. Adventurers Raid
While the battle raged on at the front, Mindy and George held a private conversation at the back. “You want me to do what?” Mindy stared at George blankly. “Get Tang Yin safely to the Rift and guard him for eight hours.” George repeated. “Didn’t we just do that?” “That was to scan the Rift. Now we need to get him there to seal it. Him, and enough crystals to support a spatial loop.” George explained. Mindy hesitated, then looked away. “It’s better to ask Darian or Tim. Someone with a Tier 8 comrade and enough power to get the job done.” “They’re busy fighting the Tier 8 Spectres. We don’t need overwhelming power for this job. We need stealth, and we need someone with knowledge of the terrain.” George paused. “That means you.” “But… but I’ve lost most of my powers. I’m not much stronger than an average Legionnaire and far less skilled with weaponry and Frames and… and…!” “It’s not about combat ability.” George shook his
Kingdom of the Weak 297. Gearing Up
In order to take revenge on Mindy for her curtness, Gary went shopping. The phrase ‘Mindy said she’ll pay for whatever’ was as good as gold at Dragon Lake. Gary found that he could pick up just about anything he wanted without taking out his own coin even once, all at Mindy’s expense. So far, since arriving here, he’d only been sending Mindy the bills for food, lodging and medicine, but now, he was going to get serious. “I want eight Armored Frames.” Gary told Arnold. “The very biggest and best you have!” “You mean, the kind George uses?” “Yes, exactly!” Arnold stared. “Can you guys even manage that kind of Frame?” Well, it wasn’t hard, really, but to be honest, Gary felt rather uncomfortable with the lunkering, heavy movements of the Armored Frames. The kind of Light Frame that Remian and many Adventurers took up was much more comfortable, easier to use and nowhere near as hot and stuffy. “Isn’t there some way you can combine
Kingdom of the Weak 298. Playing with water
“Who do we have on active duty?” George asked, as Mindy’s raid went out. “Our own? Almost nobody, today. Everyone’s on break.” Marcus commented. “The La Vivans and the Ashdalians are on patrol until lunch time.” “Dragons?” “In really bad shape and worse mood. I’d rather not go anywhere near them right now.” “Other Wilds?” “Took heavy casualties in that last crazy battle. Many of them already want to withdraw.” George closed his eyes. “Artillery?” “Down for emergency maintenance. That last fight took almost everything we had and several ballistae have broken down.” “Airships?” “Mostly exhausted. They can still provide air support, but its best not to ask too much of them.” Marcus paused. “Their crews are all human, you know. Since most of them can’t afford to buy crystal fuel, they’re manually powered by their own magi. Every cannon shot and turbine on all the airships are powered by magi, and those magi are exha
Kingdom of the Weak 299. Costly Journeys
While Mindy’s raid was crossing the Nine Kings Range, Remian and Xiao Yan were arriving back at Scorched Earth City.Xiao Yan, at that point, was having some doubts. “Do you… do you really think I’ll be okay there? In your world?”“Of course! I’m kind of a big deal there, you know.” Remian assured her.They stopped by Scorched Earth City to make a big withdrawal of Black Crystals, then made their way directly to the formation where Remian first appeared, landing the entire Pod on it.“Wait in the Pod.” Remian told Xiao Yan and studied the inscriptions on the formation.There. That should be the destination sigil, and the empty space was for him to fill. That board offered a list of choices, with symbols to depict each choice. Remian couldn’t make out what most of them said, but one of them he recognized.It was the symbol sequence for ‘home’. It had a price tag as
Kingdom of the Weak 300. Unexpected Results
Things were not going the way Remian expected. “This is your home?” Xiao Yan marveled as she looked around her. “Uh… no. It’s not.” Remian grimaced. Only when it was too late did Remian realize his mistake. ‘Home’ referred to the homeworld of the guy who made the formation, not Remian’s homeworld. This was… this was… “I had been wondering where the Black Ruins Civilization disappeared to. Now I know.” Remian mused. Indeed the truth was just too obvious to miss. They (still in the pod) were in a large black hall built in the exact style of those ruins. Unlike the ruins, this was filled with light and there were people visible through a long glass window above. One in particular was looking at them, a rather annoyed looking guy who kept staring at Remian with a frown, waiting expectantly, but not saying a word or making any move for the time being. Cautiously, Remian opened the Pod and stepped out. A voice came out over s
Kingdom of the Weak 301. Judged and Sentenced
“Mister Remian, right?” A man in a black-and-gold formal suit-mixed-with-armor offered a weird kind of gesture with one hand. “Uh… yeah.” Remian didn’t know what that gesture meant. Was it some sort of salute? “Huh.” The man looked him over, then glanced about the room. It was reasonably comfortable for a holding cell, plain black walls, with a bed, a small table, chair, and two stalls in the corner for washing and biological excrement, though they held both familiar-looking equipment and strange items Remian couldn’t identify. The cell even had controls for light and ventilation. In the end, while bare, it wasn’t altogether torturous. “They seem to treat you well.” “They seem to think I’m one of your people.” Remian grimaced and admitted. “I’m not.” “No, you’re definitely not. According to our scans and database, you’re not registered to any interstellar faction we know.” The man cleared his throat. “In fact, your genetics indicate a very low level of technology, and there are tra
Kingdom of the Weak 302. Seconds and Years
They tested it out. Ten times acceleration. One hundred times acceleration. Two hundred times acceleration! Three hundred times acceleration!! Four…“Stop! Stop! That’s too much!” Remian’s head was spinning and he felt like the whole world was tilting.Three hundred times. That was his limit. Even the Corpoman let out a low whistle. “That level of Psionic Power… if I didn’t know better, I’d suspect you were a Human Ascendant, or a Revanan. But that’s impossible. You’d have been registered long ago if you were either one.”“What’s an Ascendant?” Remian asked, holding his head.“A member of the Human Ascendancy. Like me. The Ascendancy consists of the Io Republic, the Blue Star Conglomerate and the Orion Empire. Members of any of our factions are called ‘Ascendants’. Not to boast, but we’re almost the most powerful human factions in the galaxy
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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
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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
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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
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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
