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2024-10-29 19:42:56While Remian was preparing to take up a job that involved taking out garbage, Tim was in a palace, seated at a banquet, dressed in a white coat frilled with gold lace.
Seated across from him were the Dragon Empire’s Chief of Police, the Minister of Finance, and the Empire’s most prominent industrialist. Seated next to him was a gorgeous noble girl who also owned every hospital in the Empire privately. She kept blushing every time she sneaked a glance at him.
At the head of the table was seated a man with a dominating presence. While everyone else was dressed in high formal attire, mess dress uniform or equivalent, this man wore only a comfortable silk shirt and slacks.
But of course, he could wear whatever he wanted. This was a man in his own home, at his own dining table. It didn’t matter what he wore, every servant treated him with absolute respect and very often, awe.
In short, Tim was having dinner with the Emperor and his children.
“Shoul
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Kingdom of the Weak 343. First Electric Flight…?
While Remian, Mindy and Darian were sneaking through the Dragon Empire, Taj, who had somehow ended up supervisoing Mindy’s shipyards, called Mindy urgently. “It’s Xiao Yan. She wants something.” Taj told her. Xiao Yan? What could the little girl want? Color pencils and some drawing paper? “Give her whatever she wants.” “But…!” “I’m busy! Just handle it!” Mindy barked and hung up. At that, Taj gulped, looking at the drawings in Xiao Yan’s hands. It turned out Xiao Yan had already done her drawing, and she wasn’t asking for materials to draw more. In fact, what she wanted was… “This is my latest designs for the Frigate-class Scorpion Gunboat.” Xiao Yan said proudly. “Build it.” “B-but… we don’t even know if it’ll work! Maybe we should wait until Mindy gets back!” “Mindy?” Xiao Yan snorted. “I’ve seen her designs. She doesn’t seem to understand how propellers work. She keeps putting the engines at the back. That’s
Kingdom of the Weak 344. Diversionary Tactics
Meanwhile, in the capital of the Dragon Empire, an epic concert was beginning. As dusk fell over the great city, little flashlights- err… spotlights came to life, shining upon the central square before the mana fortress, where a lynxmouse stood on stage with one paw behind his back and the other high in the air. By the hundreds, his audience gathered, and together, they began to chant his name. “Mikiik! Mikiik! Mikiik! Mikiik! Mikiik!” Softly a breeze blew through the square where they gathered, and from the side of the stage, a lynxmouse beat upon a pair of tanned skin drums. BOOM! BOOM! “Mikiik! Squiikiki… kiik!” One extremely zealous fanmouse squeaked about bearing baby lynxmice enthusiastically, before all but falling over backward in an overexcited faint. To the other side, a skilled musician lynxmouse pulled and played a strange string instrument, filling the air with music… yes, that’s a rubber band. No, we shouldn’t laugh. “Squ
Kingdom of the Weak 345. Meet the Emperor
Zor’khan-dras tapped his lips as he sat on his chair. “Greetings, Remian. I have to confess, when I said I wanted to meet you THIS was not how I envisioned it happening.” Across from him, Remian stood still in his Silhouette, with a collar around its neck led by a chain held in the hands of a very proud-looking Nai’khan-dras. “Grandpa! See what I caught!” “About that… it wasn’t what I planned either, but…” With a grimace, Remian let his Silhouette fade away. Nai’khan-dras stared as the ‘ghost wolf’ disappeared into nothing. “D-doggie? Doggie…?!” Tears welled up in her eyes, and then began to flow down uncontrollably. “Doggie…!!!” She began to sob, and her sobbing rapidly increased in intensity. Abruptly Death re-appeared, looming over Remian, practically on top of him. Under the shadow of Death, Remian hurriedly recalled his Silhouette and had it nose Nai’khan-dras playfully, tail wagging as if its disappearance was just some sort of g
Kingdom of the Weak 346. Portal
At the time, Darian and Mindy were sneaking around the basement levels looking for Tim. They especially made their way to the third basement floor underground thinking he was locked up in a cell there. Nevertheless, the skulking duo did find something of great interest to them. “Mindy? I have good news and bad news.” Darian said. “Which do you want to hear first.” “Your choice.” Mindy shrugged, glancing at her wristcuffs, still in place in case anyone found them and started asking questions. “Either way, you have a captive audience.” “The bad news is, we didn’t find Tim.” Darian grimaced. “The good news is… we found the Portal.” “The Portal?” Mindy blinked, startled. “You don’t think… they’re keeping him on the other side?” “It would make for a very efficient prison.” Darian mused. “Only one exit to guard, and it’s always heavily guarded on both sides. Imprisoning someone in a whole other world would make it extremely difficult to esca
Kingdom of the Weak 347. Corporal Ling
His name was Ling Yun. As a child, he showed high potential, good consistency, and a lot of enthusiasm in martial training. The district magistrate ran a selection and he was among the twenty who were offered a deal; the magistrate would support their martial training and their families as long as they served him. Wanting to support his ailing family, Ling Yun accepted the deal and trained under the magistrate until one day, the magistrate was ousted from office by an offended clan and the state overseer came by to decide the fate of the late magistrate’s servants. The result of that was that Ling Yun ended up serving the state overseer along with four others from his group. This meant an increase of resources, better trainers, and better treatment for his family. The overseer provided enough that Ling Yun’s father was able to outright retire, and all four of his younger siblings were afforded schooling at the overseer’s expense. Then one day there was a tour
Kingdom of the Weak 348. I’m not a dragon
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Kingdom of the Weak 349. Don’t Look!
Remian remained a guest of the Emperor, discussing terms and negotiating the fate of the world, all while playing Doggie to little Nai’khan-dras. By the third hour, he was quite sure that the Little Princess of the Empire already understood that he wasn’t a dog and was, in fact, a very important guest, but every time he let the Doggie disappear she burst into tears. Remian only managed to take a break when she went to sleep. Later that evening, the subject of the missing Underground King popped up. Finally, Remian was allowed to see Tim. Instead of finding the guy in chains like he expected, he was dumbfounded to see Tim dressed in livery and painstakingly trying to serve a blushing Rou’khan-dras dinner. “What happened to you?” Tim asked, bewildered. “I got Doggied.” Remian grimaced. “You?” “Pretty much the same.” Nevertheless, Doggie-business aside, Remian was somewhat satisfied with the way the negotiations were going. Zor’khan’s demands were difficult, but fair. Practically al
Kingdom of the Weak A2. Side Story Chapter 2
As the days passed, the Bright Lance Mercenaries fought sixteen battles, and retreated sixteen times. The Mitigok swarms drove them back over half the planet, and the forces of the Light Carrier Asred struggled to delay their advance. In these many battles, the mercenaries and the golems of the Asred alike suffered severe losses. More than half his original Company were wrecked beyond salvaging. Two squads were wrecked, but might one day be salvageable. One squad’s worth was in Refit, needing essential parts replaced and undergoing massive overhauls. One more squad was in Repair, and would take a day or so to be properly patched up. This left just six fully operable mechs for deployment. “Bright Scout, Bright Scout, report!” Captain Lance called on the comms. “One Knight to the left, two directly ahead. No movement from the Baroness on the right.” The mech farthest ahead was a Bloodhound, a Light Mech of the second generation specializing in reconnais
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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
- 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
