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2024-10-29 19:42:56After bidding Rou’khan goodbye, Mindy went back to her inn.
Wait. What?
Yes, that’s right. Her inn. Let’s rewind back a bit.
A few days ago, back at the Dragon Empire, as a token of appreciation for their new alliance, Zor’khan-dras bestowed upon Darian and Mindy new clothes fashioned by his family’s tailor.
They were stylish. They were comfortable. They were luxurious. Most importantly… they were fireproof!
“Next time you bring back mana, you can do so without fearing for your modesty.” Zor’khan assured Mindy.
Mindy’s face only grew redder. She absolutely refused to say a single word since emerging from the Portal Room. Not One Word.
“Relax.” Remian told Mindy. “I doubt that was the first time the Emperor faced a situation of having screaming naked girls appear unexpectedly in front of him.”
Mindy raised her fist, then abruptly turned around, spread wings of fire and fled through the skies. Goodness knew where she ran
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Kingdom of the Weak 357. Elder Lich
“Who will stand with me?” General Gar’na-dras called. “HO!” Instantly, the shouts of every soldier in the hall resounded as one. “All of them?” Mindy blinked. “But if everybody goes, the weaker ones are going to get killed!” Suddenly she found herself at the center of attention with glares staring daggers at her from every side. Gar’na-dras barked a laugh. “She does have a point, at that. The battle will go easier if I need not worry over unnecessary casualties. It may take longer with less troops, but I would rather extend the fight than lose good people.” “Qualifiers.” Darian said suddenly. Gar’na-dras turned his gaze to him. Darian explained. “Impose criteria.” “Body Qi stage for support crews. As for the main battle group… Earth Qi stage, minimum.” Gar’na-dras said firmly. “No less.” “When do we deploy?” Darian asked next. One of the nearby officers scoffed. “You don’t need to know. You’re just a boy. You just need
Kingdom of the Weak 358. Draconians vs Undead 1
The moment they emerged from the Portal, they were attacked. “They’re here!” fighting erupted on all sides. The Undead weren’t just wandering around in the wilderness after the Elder Lich appeared. They had, in short, already surrounded the Portal after the Draconians made their hasty exit. The abandoned base camp, the Portal’s vicinity, all of it had been overrun by hordes of Undead. With one quick glance, Darian saw at least nine different Liches right in the Portal Square itself, none of whom were the Elder Lich. Didn’t these Liches normally wander off with just their own gangs in the Wilderness? It was impressive that they had been forced to work together to surround the Portal… There was an unearthly snort that was louder than a shout, but almost unheard in the physical realm, and then a teeming mass of bone was barreling down at Darian from the left. “Death Knight!!” Ling Yun was among the first of the flanking formations to come through
Kingdom of the Weak 359. Draconians vs Undead 2
Holding his face, Darian got to his feet in time to see green energy bolts flying everywhere. He ducked, batted a second one aside with his Psi Blade, and carefully sidestepped to avoid a third while Gar’na-dras, Mindy and two Captains all closed in on the Elder Lich from different directions. Seeing them close in, five Death Knights charged in from two different sides. Darian narrowed his eyes; three of them would pass by narrowly to his left. Giving up his own chance to attack the Elder Lich, Darian lit up a second Psi Blade in his off-hand and turned on the approaching Death Knights. He leapt into the air. Both legs hurtled out at the Death Knight in the middle, each of his Psi Blades sweeping around at the other two. The Death Knights, intent on saving their boss, were caught off-guard. Two of them lost their heads before they even knew what happened. The middle one, however, managed to raise its shield in time to block his flying kick. The shield saved i
Kingdom of the Weak 360. Draconians vs Undead (3)
Putting aside Darian and his prize-shopping, that particular battle marked a distinct change of combat style for the First Draconian Legion. It was the rise of large-scale fire weapons, especially fire bombs and flame-throwers. It was the start of a whole new type of combat squad called Fire Elementals, basically made out of Legionnaires who utilized fire-proofing and set themselves and everything around them on fire. It was the establishment of the ‘Tactical Manual: Killing Elder Liches’. Based on their first success, the manual explicitly stated that Elder Liches were terrors at long-range, but weak at hand-to-hand combat. A single Captain-rank or higher occupying its attention and a second dual-wielding Captain-rank ambusher to finish the job would suffice... It was from this that the ‘Guide on Banshees’ was published. It indicated that pure fire attacks worked best on semi-corporeal beings. Experts hypothesize that lightning would work even better
Kingdom of the Weak 361. Draconians vs Undead (4)
A lot could be said about regrets. Some of it had to do with finger-pointing. It could be blamed upon reckless spies trying to find the source of the Empire’s mana. It could be blamed on corrupted officials allowing them through. It could be even be blamed on an issue of disbelief on the part of various officials as to whether there was any actual need to ‘decontaminate’ people who come through the Portal with fire. There was a prevailing opinion even among officials that the whole fire-decontamination system was just another control method to raise the importance and prestige of Draconians to give their particular race more advantages. Part of that could even be blamed on the people actively and obviously attempting to raise the privileges of Draconians (please don’t stare at Rou’khan, she’s already very sorry for being too open about it). Those parties advocating racial equality saw the fire-decontamination system as an unnecessary barrier and a mere excuse to prev
Kingdom of the Weak 362. Beacon On
While Zor'khan-dras might not have shown much of his stress and grief over the Undead Infestation of his Capital, Remian was very much showing his. "What happened?" Phoebe asked, as they met for dinner that night. "The Dragon Empire has been infested with Necromancy. It's spreading through the Capital." "I heard about it. But Zor'khan-dras doesn't seem too upset about it. Why do you?" "Because the Quarantine forces everyone who wants to leave to become a Draconian. Then they have to grow for about a year before their Fire Resistance is high enough to survive the fiery Decontamination." "That can't be good for the economy. But what does any of it have to do with you?" "It has to do with me because they become Draconians!" Remian groaned. "When I made the deal with Zor'khan-dras, I promised to build him a space fleet capable of bringing his Draconians with him when he leaves. Back then, I was only planning to ship a million Draconians, m
Kingdom of the Weak 363. Guild Receptionist
After a quick check up from his concerned girlfriend, Remian went on to inspect the Adventurers Guild. The Guild Hall had currently taken over the entire building. Apartments were rented by Adventurers. Shops were opened by retired Adventurers and people catering to Adventurers’ needs. Outside, the street had carts and rides available to several well-known Adventurer destinations, including three ruins, one giant spider’s nest, a Wyrm-infested mine, and oddly enough, Dragon Lake. Inside, the Adventurers Guild Reception had flat out taken the front desk of the entire building, and was in charge of everything from accommodations, points redemption, missions and bounties, promotions and trials. There was another front desk at the railway section that involved railway-specific issues, but more and more the building that was originally the railway depot had become increasingly utilized and occupied by Adventurer needs. Was that a problem? Should Remian do something to ret
Kingdom of the Weak 364. Adventurers Guild Matters
During this time, Libertaria was in an all-time high. Their adoption of steam technology gave their people great hope for the future, and people were flocking to jump on board this new direction. Ashdale was seen as their only viable competitor, but matching the industrial capacity of Libertaria with only the landmass of their kingdom basically left the Ashdalians coughing on high density air pollution. As for rumors about great technological advances in the Wildlands... Pah! What did those uncultured monkeys living in the Wild know about technology? To them, a wind-up music box must be a miracle from God! Truth be told, Ivy’s assignment in the Wildlands was to keep an eye on the Beast Floods in case they went overseas again. It was a low value, out-of-the-way assignment akin to exile for past mistakes, even if those mistakes were her director’s, and not hers, and the assigner was the director’s jealous wife... Given the high Libertaria was experiencing, asking them
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- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- 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
