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2024-10-29 19:42:56Remian’s warning was the first indication Tim got that somehow, something had gone wrong.
“Wasn’t I sneaky enough?” Tim protested.
Mikai shrugged and shook his head helplessly.
And then the cats were upon them.
Three ninja cats pounced from the shadows, claws glittering in the dark. Tim ducked, spinning low a knife appearing in either hand as he swiped at his attackers. Claws and blades met with brief clashes and sparks, and then Tim leapt back while lynxmice lunged into the fray.
Another shadow-cat dropped down from above. Tim raised his knives only to have them tangled with the latest attacker’s claws. Their weapons tangled as the cat itself crashed upon Tim, both of them tumbling onto the floor while more yowls, squeaks, shrieks and hisses filled the tunnels.
Mikai jumped onto Tim’s attacker, clawing and biting at its neck in a flurry. Blood and fur flew as the cat hissed, trying to tug its foreclaws free from the tangle with Tim’s
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Kingdom of the Weak 411. Raining Dogs
A merry chase started in which one Darian Vin went running around the tunnels beneath Kara-Goth yelping with no less than eight metal tigers snapping at his heels. *** Meanwhile, Gary managed to slip around the combat zone and meet up with the lynxmice trying to drag Tim to safety. He ended up giving them a hand and following them through all sorts of secret passages to goodness-knows-where for safety. He thought they were leading him back to Craggy Falls. He was wrong. “Where are we?” Gary asked, looking around a large storage room dumbfoundedly. [Cheese storage #112.] Mikai explained. [I had to bribe the others with extra cheese to get them to stay with us all this way. They refused extra work without payment up front.] [How do you know they won’t just up and leave us once they have their cheese?] [Because we have total monopoly over all the cheese in the Wildlands and most of the Empire. A lynxmouse won’t be able to get chee
Kingdom of the Weak 412. Dragons Move
Alani stood dumbstruck in the very, very empty storehouses of her people. “Everything. They took everything.” she couldn’t believe it. The last time she checked, this storehouse counted her clan’s supplies in tons. Now... she couldn’t even find a single kilogram of their goods left. “Totally emptied?” Gary asked. “Yeah, the Sand People’s too.” [Full report?] Remian requested over the distance. [Precious metals, all gone.] Jun reported. [Raw ores, completely taken away.] Jamie sent in. [Grain and fruit, nothing left.] Gary added. [They took all the fish.] Alani put in glumly. [Didn’t leave so much as an anchovy.] Remian paused. Then, [Mana storage was cleared out too. They’ve taken all our mana.] [All the Frames materials are gone. Most of the lighter industrial machinery’s been taken. Only a few of the oldest, heaviest machines are left.] [Armory’s been cleared out. They even took the ballistas.]
Kingdom of the Weak 413. After the Dogs And Cats Fought
On Sorrel II, humans and Woofers fought against humans and Meorin while the Quarin tried to run away with stolen mana, but in the end, the true beneficiaries of the conflicts were the Dragons. The Dras Clan and to a lesser extent, the Ris Clan raked in mana, frozen food, and stockpiles of valuable metal (including salvageable Meorin wrecks) already brought into orbit and easily stuck onto the Draconian Dominion Nest Ships when they arrived. It was as if all the others were doing their work for them. As for the others... entire human countries were wiped out. The Meorin were wiped out. The Quarin were wiped out. The Woofers took some losses, while Remian had to pay them for their services. Despite that, Remian did not complain. In fact... “I was actually hoping to buy more from you.” [What else did you want?] Just A Dog asked. [Autoforges!] [The fleets can’t spare any.] [Your Robotics Coding Library!] [ABSOLUTELY NO WAY!] <
Kingdom of the Weak 414. Developments in Xiao Yan World
George sat down in front of a pile of rubble that used to be Kara-Goth. “What do you plan to do?” Xiao Yan asked. “I still haven’t turned the Pit into the Grand Arena yet.” “You can go ahead.” George shook his head. “Right now, I just... I just want to remember the Kara-Goth that we all worked so hard to build.” Xiao Yan snorted. “It wasn’t going to last. Once the Mitigok come, it’s all going up in smoke. This just happened a bit earlier that’s all. Besides, we were planning massive renovations anyway.” “Not like this. Not without all our tools and machinery. Now...” George sighed. “The only ones here with advanced gear are the Woofers, and in extension, the wolfcats. All our human workers can just sit around twiddling their thumbs while we wait for the canines to do all the work.” “You may as well send them fishing with Alani.” Xiao Yan sniffed. “Or ask Mindy to send some basic tools over from that world. Besides, isn’t Ermine working to get
Kingdom of the Weak 415. Sudden Downfall
“Actually, putting herbs aside, what I found even more appealing are their pills. I half-think we should kidnap an alchemist and bring him back with us to make pills.” Mindy mused. “Pills?” “Like the Green Jade Vitality Pill. Those things kept Remian alive until now. They actually have even better pills than that.” Mindy tapped her lips. “I haven’t been able to buy any, no matter how much money I offered, but if I can just get in contact with a higher-ranking alchemist, it should be possible.” “They’re here!” Ling Yun dashed in from the side. “Who?” George blinked. “The Alchemist Guild! And... they brought friends.” Ling Yun gulped. “What sort of friends?” “Very Important Friends! One of them is the son of the Alchemist Guild Grand Master!” “That does sound important.” George admitted. “What does the Grand Master do, exactly?” “It’s their chief of chiefs.” Mindy explained. “They have Masters working as branch le
Kingdom of the Weak 416. A Visit to the Alchemist Guild
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Kingdom of the Weak 417. Alchemist Woes
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Kingdom of the Weak 418. The End of the Matter
Over the next week, the markets at Scorched Eartch City went crazy. First, there seemed to be a major shortage of pharmaceuticals. Then, the Xue family abruptly began to sell everything they had. A lot of useful basic pills were sold at premium prices. The Alchemist Guild, upon hearing the news, immediately pounced on them and investigated those pills, but it turned all, all of them had been bought legitimately, and clearly found on their own records. The Xue Family was above susicion especially since pills weren’t all they sold. They sold everything! Furniture, houses, shops... even clothing and dishes were sold out in massive yard sales. “Y-you’re moving?!” Mu Hou quailed when he finally managed to meet up with Big Li and Little Li. “The entire Clan?!” “That’s right.” Xue Yueli answered. “B-but why?” “The city is getting too dangerous. The demons are coming, and anywhere highly populated is like a huge buffet for them. We need to go.
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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
- 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
