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2024-10-29 19:42:56Charlie wiped sweat from his brow as he brought Remian safely down to the ground in a thick cushion of air. For the moment there, he was afraid he was about to lose his business partner (and therefore, the blue mana crystals) for good.
Already he had lost the airship, of which he was a partial owner and working partner. Just one million Lir wasn’t going to be enough to compensate him for THAT loss! Five million would barely cover the initial cost of his buying in as a partner, not to mention the loss of potential business and his time! Those blue mana crystals were the only comfort Charlie had as to his efforts on this disastrous night.
Who could compensate him for the losses? Who was to blame? Was it the captain, for piloting the airship so close to the Wild? But how was he to know it had such powers? And besides, the captain was dead. The dead could not owe.
Which, of course, was another reason to save Remian. If the guy felt guilty enough, Charlie could st
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Kingdom of the Weak 47. Men and Wilds
[Can someone please tell me what is going on?] The Spike-Back Lizard asked. [You great goof!!] Carrie barked at him. [You’ve destroyed the human nest! What are you doing all the way over here?!] [I… I don’t know…] the great big fellow looked around, blinking. [Where am I? What happened to that horrible shrieking…?] [You’re at the far north end of Shadowflash’s territory.] Carrie advised. [Shadowflash is going to be so mad at you.] [Shadowflash is dead.] Spike-back grouched. [That’s what they say. But nobody has proof.] Carrie insisted. [I’m here. He isn’t. That’s proof enough.] Spike grumped. [If he were alive, he would never have let me get this far.] Carrie fell silent. She did not retort to that. [So… what now? You’ve passed through his entire territory unchallenged. You’ve proven yourself to be the strongest Wild here. Do you intend to claim this territory as your own?] [What? No way! I don’t want that sort of responsibility!] Spike turned and started running south. [You gu
Kingdom of the Weak 48. Unexpected Aid
“There’s an airship coming.” “Really? Where?” “There!” Remian overheard the conversation while he was tending to Mandy the next morning. He glanced at where a raised finger pointed; there was indeed, a little blimp in the distance that looked very much like an airship. “Could it be?” Remian perked up. He glanced around; they were in the Guild Hall along with half the injured; the other half had had to be placed in medical tents in between the Guild Hall and the workers’ quarters along with other temporary shelters set up for the survivors of Frontier Town. To put it simply, they were in bad shape. There wasn’t enough medicine, clothing, or proper shelter. They had plenty of beast meat, so food was no concern, and they had water to spare, but there were many injured who needed better treatment or suffer permanent disabilities. They needed medicine and bandages. Actually, just clean fabrics would help a lot. Better yet; the injur
Kingdom of the Weak 49. Choked
“The road.” Markus said the first word. “We need to build the town around the road. If we have a road, supplies, reinforcements, trade and even new colonists will get here more easily and more cheaply.” “We need to develop industry.” Arnold glanced at the Andros. “Weapons and armor aside, tool-making is the heart of any development. Without a strong industry supporting it, the kind of defenses you want will be difficult, expensive and slow to prepare.” “We need to develop commerce.” Andros shook his head. “People won’t work for free, especially not my crew. You’re going to have to pay us properly, and whatever we earn had better be worth our time and effort! The other side of that is that there’s nothing left in town to spend on. Shops, entertainment, good food… we need lots of businesses.” Remian cleared his throat. “We’ll need something to draw those businesses here. Fresh air and clean water won’t be enough to draw people and businesses to the Frontier, especially not with the Be
Kingdom of the Weak 50. Airships
Airships were generally one of five different types. The first time was the no-drive airship; basically just balloons and baskets (or whatever carriage vessel you prefer), they were held up by lighter-than-air gasses, and had no propulsion system of their own. These kinds were usually stationary or towed around by other vehicles or creatures. Even the Storm Cloud Chariot was classified as a no-drive airship. The second kind were the fan/propeller drive airships. These used some sort of turbine propulsion, whether horizontal or vertical. Even turbofan jet engines were classified as fan drives. The third kind were rocket drive airships. Rather than relying on airflow, these relied on the explosive power of combustion to move the airships around. The fourth kind were magic drive airships. These were especially popular because they were generally cheaper to maintain and operate, especially if you yourself were capable of wind magic. While most of the ships had hu
Kingdom of the Weak 51. Espionage
The first Lynx Mice reports started trickling in that evening. Remian summarized it in his head, then glumly sat down at the far corner of the Guild Hall mumbling to himself for ten minutes straight. Mindy, George and Tim tried to give him privacy and space to think at first, but after a bit, Mindy’s concern and curiosity got the better of her and she went over to ask, “What happened?” “It’s like this.” Remian squared off and spoke to her frankly. “The Lynxmice have thoroughly covered the entire East Side and divided it into four regions. The first region is the safest, where they need only worry about cats. There’s not much there, they say, just a lot of flour and old rations.” “Uhuh.” Mindy nodded, still a bit blur. “The second region is a little farther in to the East Side. There, they say that the humans drink more burning water than eat. There are a lot of humans in that area, and they like to chase Lynxmice around for no reason, or sometimes try
Kingdom of the Weak 52. The Roving Albatross
Meanwhile, Charlie brought Mandy and the kids home. After the relief airships dropped them and the casualties of Remian’s crew off at Fal’Herim, Charlie brought these few farther north, across the Midlands Sea, past the peninsula where the Iron Legion first rose up, to a particular city in the southern regions of Ashdale Kingdom. With the help of Deutero services, they were bundled into carriages and delivered safely to his family’s front door. “Charlie… this is the fifth girl you’ve brought home, but I’ve never seen one so badly beaten up before…” his mom noted as the servants wheeled Mandy in. “What did you do to her?” “It wasn’t me!” Charlie protested. “The town was attacked by Wilds. These are just some of the survivors.” Charlie’s family lived in a hilltop villa. Among their neighbors, theirs was the very highest on the hill. It wasn’t overly large, or anything; it was simply where Charlie, his parents, siblings, grandfather, and his brother’s wi
Kingdom of the Weak 53. The Mines of Kara-Goth
“Heave!” Markus called. “HO!” Ten trainees and forty workers chorused and tugged at several long ropes. With a crashing sound, boulders were dragged away from the mine entrance and two trainees with prospecting experience clambered into the re-opened tunnel. Remian watched them from where he sat atop Carrie. She and the wolfcats were running guard duty around the site of the nearer mine they had targeted earlier. Early scouts had reported that both mines had been sealed up, but could easily be re-opened. One mine was a Fire Copper lode; the other contained small deposits of jade. Both had previously been mined by the Kara-Goth family, who then sealed them up upon leaving the Frontier. They never came back. More than five years (more like fifty!) had passed since they left, thus all claims to these mines had long been forfeited. There were other mines, other claims, all over the Wildlands. Many of those mines had been claimed by different natio
Kingdom of the Weak 54. The Foresight
“For your own safety, nobody is permitted south of the Mines of Kara-Goth!” a poster read in front of the Iron Legion camp. Below it was another poster; “Workers wanted, good pay, food and shelter provided, please contact Quarter-master Max at the Iron Legion camp.” A third poster next to that said, “Defense demonstration; the invincible airship gunboat ‘Foresight’ debuts Starday evening! Wilds cannot bite what they cannot reach!” followed by a few bullet points saying; ‘High-powered XL-ballista’, ‘Ammunition for 100 rounds’, ‘Tier 3-4 Wilds leather envelope’, ‘Ironwood deck’, ‘Frontier Town’s first custom-made ground-support battle airship!’. Remian considered that third poster which also sported a rough sketch of a ballista on it. One hundred rounds of ammunition was a bit of an exaggeration; that much ammo was only possible if they were leaving out all the other shooters and their weapons. If they wanted to put a squad of crossbowmen on the airship along with thei
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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
