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2024-10-29 19:42:56Lt. General Chuan had seen all sorts of hypothetical situations including massive emergencies that threaten the entire Empire, but never in all his textbooks and case studies had he ever seen something as severe as the scenario Bol’khan brought him to.
After all, every case study usually had a solution and a theoretical way to win, or at least gain the upper hand. But looking at the map now, Chuan saw no hope of anything even resembling victory. The best he could hope for was to save what they could and abandon all else.
“Everyone, the Lt. General is in charge now. Just... just listen to him.” Bol’khan made his escape and disappeared from the scene.
Chuan didn’t say anything for a moment, but then he said, “What is our current political situation like? Do we have any allies? Anyone we can call for help?”
“Not really. We’ve already attacked and conquered most of our neighbors. Most of the Midlands is hostile to us. The Sea People are cordial, but they
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Kingdom of the Weak 448. Mass Deployment
Around that time, five modified Sky Galleons were taking on advanced forces from the Order of Light, the Order of Steel, the Order of Sand and the Adventurers Guild. Darian, Tim, George, Mindy and Alani were in command of one ship each, leaving the Tournament entirely for the sake of the greater cause.They weren’t the only ones to abandon the Tournament. Darian’s entire Adventurer Squad had joined him and the Order of Light on his ship. Mindy had brought Raven and Raven’s siblings were with her, Alani had the entire Class 2 and Tang Yin, both their ships loaded with squads of Adventurers.Ermine, Eriane, and Remian himself were preparing the main forces for the long journey. The bulk of the Three Orders and the Adventurers, a contingent from the Zhao and Xue clans, and eight helicopter gunships were being prepared on board a mixed mash of Deutero, Draconian and Mindy’s airships.“Ermine, what have you got for us?” Remian aske
Kingdom of the Weak 449. Harder Job
As the main forces completed hasty preparations and the troops were boarding, Remian contacted Zor’khan-dras one last time. [You know, you really should make a move. Your people half-expect the Great Dragons to swoop down from the skies to save them.] [That’s not going to happen. If we go back now, we waste all our efforts adapting to starlight. Neither I nor any of my brothers would give up all the effort we’ve put in all this time just to save a bunch of humans. They were nice to play with while we were there, but it’s over now, we’re going home, and the ones I want to bring home are almost all in the Wildlands with you. As for the rest, they’re all doomed when the Mitigok arrive anyway. My son might complain, but there are other worlds, other toys he can play with in the future.] Just like that, the Great Dragon that the citizens of the Empire worshipped as a god casually abandoned his playthings to destruction. [But if we don’t defeat the Infestat
Kingdom of the Weak 450. An Offer They Can’t Refuse
Meanwhile Alani called down, [Tim, are you sure you’re going to be okay?] [No problem. Just leave it to me!] Tim flashed them a thumbs-up, and then stomped his foot. Instantly, the ground responded with a rising wall of dirt twenty feet high before him, stretching out to either side of Tim for five hundred meters. Tim already had a thing for earth magic early on, and on top of that, there was a reason why people swore on Khar’al-dras and the ‘sand’. While Darian and Kor’ag had a thing for wood, Mindy and Chirpy had a thing for fire, and Alani and Reef had a thing for water, Tim and Khar’al had a thing for dirt. “He’s going to be fine.” George concluded, and left him to it, rushing onwards to meet Commander Chuan. *** Meanwhile, down on the ground with his troops in the airship slowly descending to follow him, Tim called out to the refugees. “Don’t be afraid! I’m here now!” A sweaty man stumbling along with his family paused and turned
Kingdom of the Weak 451. Colonels
A few hours passed during which Tim’s job got harder and harder. Holding a few hundred meters of line against pursuing zombies was easy. Holding a few kilometers was not. As for holding a few hundred kilometers...? Even Tim was having trouble coping as the day went by. He’d already received early reinforcements from Fal’Herim and deployed them on the ground, sending back shipload after shipload of his new servants and workers. His forces on the battle front already numbered in the thousands. But even so they were having a hard time keeping up as the front kept expanding along with the numbers of zombies randomly headed their way or in pursuit of fleeing refugees. They retreated every so often, trying to keep their combat arena within manageable bounds, but the zombies were just too many, and covered far too much territory, and the spread was just too quick. This was the situation that Remian found Tim in by the time the main forces arrived at the scene. By that time,
Kingdom of the Weak 452. The Siblings Su
The sister in question, previously Lieutenant Su Jing, and recently, Captain, was in fact on board Mindy’s airship along with Ling Yun (previously Corporal, but currently, Sergeant) and the rest of the Century under her command. Incidentally, Yang Feng (previously Captain, now Major) and the rest of the Cohort under his command were with Remian in the main fleet. (For reference: Cohort = around 1000 troops under command of a Major, Century = around 100 troops under command of a Captain, Company = 30-60 troops under a Lieutenant, Squad = 8-12 troops under a Sergeant.) The fact that Yang Feng was not on board the same ship made Su Jing somewhat moody, so all her troops and subordinates preferred to steer clear of her, leaving her all by herself on the prow of the airship. Feeling the distance somewhat, she’d contacted her brother and assured him help was on the way. Sure enough, Mindy’s airship and the rest of the advance forces from the Wildlands were making a
Kingdom of the Weak 453. What? Why?!
“Four positions, four airships... we can position ourselves like in the Wildlands. Alani to the North, Darian to the East, Mindy to the South. George stays with central command.” George raised a hand. “I object.” “What? Why?” Alani asked. “I’ll take the south.” George said. “What?! Why?” Mindy asked. “Because I can do most good there.” “What? Why?!” Darian asked. “It’s because we’re the Order of Steel.” George said softly. “In terms of fast advance and large scale logistics, do you think any of the other Orders can compare?” “What are you even talking about?” Mindy asked. “I’m talking about being able to set up big orderly camps very, very fast.” George explained. “That’s easy enough. Just put up whatever as fast as you can.” Mindy mentioned. Darian chuckled. “Mindy, you’re making his point for him. Okay, George, I’ll openly agree that Adventurer camps aren’t as neat or orderly as those from the
Kingdom of the Weak 454. Fifteen Lines
To be fair, a Banshee was an entire Tier stronger than an armored skeleton. While a skeleton was comparable to a Tier 6 Lord Challenger, a fully fledged Banshee was comparable to a Tier 7 King Challenger. This particular sample was highly developed, easily able to succeed as a Lord, and would eventually reach the level of a Death Knight, but based on the way Su Jing beat the stuffing out of it, this one wasn’t nearly there yet. As for Su Jing… based on what he could see and sense, Su Jin estimated his sister to be somewhere in the upper Innate Qi stages, very close to breaking through to Earth Qi. In Wildlands terms, upper Tier 6, almost but not quite Tier 7. An equivalent of a Lord of the Wilds, but not yet ready to be a King Challenger. In other words, not as strong as the Banshee. “Leave this one to me.” Su Jin sighed. Among everyone here, only he had the kind of power to handle this. Having had a little bit of rest and a good chuckle, Su Jin got to his fe
Kingdom of the Weak 455. Sixteen Days
The skies rained fire on either side of the exodus streaming into the temporary shelter city. George and Darian had their airships stationed to the left and right dropping Tau cluster bombs to cover the evacuees’ route to the city. These explosives tore apart every zombie or blood hound in their vicinity and carpeted the entire horizon in fire, incinerating all the bits and pieces left by the Undead. Within the city, two hundred members of the Order of Steel were scrambling around setting up emergency shelters and repairing whatever structures seemed most easily made habitable. Six thousand volunteers ran around with them helping them wherever they could or otherwise getting in the way in the attempt. They might not have the strength to fight Undead, but they were willing to pitch in for safer jobs like construction and repair. Already a million evacuees had made it into the city limits safely behind military lines, and almost fifteen million more were on the way. No
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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
