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2024-10-29 19:42:56At the Guild Hall the next morning, George took one look at Mindy’s pale face and red eyes and shook his head. “Late night?”
“No, actually I think I slept soon after sunset.” Mindy remembered.
At the next table, Remian was meeting with Joshu. “Your mission is to find Craggy Falls and map the way to it. It is a top priority and you can choose your own companions from anyone who is willing.”
“Anyone? Anyone at all?” Joshu asked. “Even Charlie?”
“You can ask if he’s willing.” Remian nodded. “But you have to tell him that it’s roughly five days away.”
“Why not?” Charlie called over from the next table after. “Arnold’s going to take a week to repair my equipment anyway. I’m stuck until then.”
“What about the priests? The ones with healing powers? And the Legion?”
“Like I said. You can a
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Kingdom of the Weak 69. Swearing
Frankly speaking, today was the worst day anyone could have picked to threaten Remian.Not only had he lost the western settlement (which had been built at his expense), he’d gotten a big new debt to Charlie, plus the mystery bugging him all along had led to a sleepless night and a scarce few hours of sleep this morning. Remian was feeling very grumpy. Despite having two cups of coffee and some well-cooked (overcooked?) bacon and sausages (made from grounded Blood Rabbit meat), he still wanted to bite somebody.Instead, he led an army of wolfcats and lynxmice and let them do the biting.The ‘Deep Desert Den’ was an hour north into the desert on Mindy’s airship. The Foresight flew low, barely ten feet off the ground, Miik and his clan scurrying alongside while Carrie and the wolfcats ran on ahead. The wolfcats went ahead and started early. By the time they arrived at the Deep Desert Den, Carrie’s three packs already had a pile of kil
Kingdom of the Weak 70. Getting a handle on things
“I thought there weren’t any other Tier 5’s in Shadowflash Fief!” Remian protested.[Back then, there weren’t. But now it is widely known that Spike has invaded twice and Shadowflash has not shown himself. Therefore, there are now challengers.] Carrie shifted uncomfortably. [We can no longer avoid a showdown. Unless you can subdue them yourself, one of the new challengers will be the new lord. That could be very bad for you and the other humans in this fief, very bad indeed…]“And how exactly do I challenge them? Single combat?” Remian guessed, grimacing.[No lord ever stands alone. It will be your pack against theirs.]“So I get to bring everyone?” Remian gaped. “I can bring a whole army?”[Anyone willing to fight at your side.] Carrie nodded. [Also be aware that there is no limit to future challengers. To be the Lord, you must not only win, you must defend your rule foreverm
Kingdom of the Weak 71. The Pit
By the time Remian arrived on site, Daring Drum was in a very, very bad mood.He roared. He cursed. He swore. He used a lot of bad language that none of the humans except Remian understood. He squirmed and struggled valiantly…All to no avail. DD was, to put it mildly, stuck. The pit wasn’t very roomy in the first place. Deep, but not all that wide; the giant boar was stuck head-first in the hole, with his backside upended, legs pinned tightly in the shaft.“Surrender!” Remian called down. “Acknowledge my claim as the Lord of this Fief, and we’ll free you!”Actually, looking at how the boar was stuck, Remian had to wonder if it was even possible to get the boar out of there.[Never!] Daring Drum roared. [How dare you treat me as a common pig, to give in to the whims of humans! You…!]The tirade went on for quite a while, with very colorful language (for a Wild, anyway) echoing around the pit
Kingdom of the Weak 72. Conditions
“They’re alive!”It was amazing, but somehow, when they dug through the cooling lava layers, the Burning Bull and the Diamond Bristle Boar stirred and groaned.They had to tie them to the Sky Barge to haul them out of the pit.Now they lay side by side, groaning and twitching on the ground. Bellower’s fire was practically reduced to embers, he flopped around weakly, his breathing hoarse. DD’s entire bottom half had been burned, plus he’d been gored in the bum. It was incredible that either of them even survived until now; Remian had to admit, he was impressed.“How did they do it?” Remian marveled. “How did they live under such conditions?”[Fire essence.] Carrie sniffed Bellower, then turned to DD. [Earth essence.]Bellower managed to open one eye and look at Remian. [Human… give me fire… and I will let you off for one year…]“We’re way past
Kingdom of the Weak 73. Spies everywhere
The day arrived when Charlie’s Roving Albatross was repaired… or at least, repaired enough to fly around.“It’s holding together with patches and jellyfish-glue, but it should get as far as Fal’Herim.” Arnold pointed. “The whole fuel conversion system is gone for good, but if you power it manually, you should be able to get it to move. I wouldn’t push it, though, so go easy on the throttle. Stay below the halfway point and you should be able to avoid a breakdown.”“Right. Let’s go pick up the adventuring team.” Mindy turned to Tim. “Are you guys ready?”Tim glanced over his band of merry lynxmice and nodded. “Ready!”Remian, Mindy and Tim got on the airship with Vigil and a squad of lynxmice. Remian invited Carrie to join them, but the moment he did, she had her claws out dug deep into the ground and absolutely refused to get on board. Candice and Denise joine
Kingdom of the Weak 74. Mandy and Mindy Again
“There’s nothing wrong with you.” Dr. Marakovichi Von something-or-the-other, triple Master of Equinox Studies, Thermomagy and Meteoromagy, and retired captain of the Ashdale Royal Expeditionary Navy, made his verdict after twenty minutes of looking through all of Remian’s reports. “Then why all the tests?!” Remian burst out over the breakfast table. “Their notes indicate that you kept saying something was wrong with your magic, and it was out of control, but all their tests say there’s no problem at all.” Dr. Mar pointed. “Therefore, they speculated and sent you on different tests to see if the problem lay elsewhere.” “In other words, they have no clue what the issue is?” Remian groaned out loud. “I spent a whole day and all my cash just to find out that they don’t know?!” Charlie barked a laugh. “You wouldn’t even have found out that much if Dr. Mar hadn’t explained it to you.” “These doctors are useless!!” Remian roared. All that time and money spent for nothing! NOTHING! “May
Kingdom of the Weak 75. White
Shame. Mandy felt it weighing down on her like a wet blanket. Again and again, she was haunted by a memory of her reaction to Mindy’s excitement. The very idea of returning to the Frontier, of facing another Beast Wave… just thinking about it made her bones hurt, as if they remembered being broken. She felt vulnerable. So very vulnerable. But to reveal her fear and vulnerability to Mindy, of all people! How could she face her younger sister any more? No! She had to regain her senses, regain control! She had to be the older sister and protect Mindy! And Mandy already knew the best way to protect that excitable younger sister of hers; simply take her away from danger. Didn’t she see how the other kids here thrived? Didn’t she see how safe and happy they were? They were running around without fear! They were wearing clean clothes, gaining weight, and nobody needed bandages or plasters every day! She could have that too; Mandy was willing to work for the Meadows Household in whatever c
Kingdom of the Weak 76. Just a little more
Remian got back to Frontier Town by Fryday noon, and met Tim at the airport-in-construction. “Tim! Any signals from the south?” Remian asked directly. Tim nodded. “Five columns! It’s Spike…” he trailed off. There was a sudden, strange silence. Remian blinked to realize everyone meeting the airship at the airport was staring. Right. He kind-of expected that. Turning, he half-smiled, half-grimaced as he said, “Everyone… meet Lydia and Phoebe Kites.” The two sisters waved in greeting. “Hello!” “H-hello…” Tim managed. At least he managed that much. Remian himself remembered the first time he met Phoebe. He hadn’t managed much more than that. Phoebe was stunning. Remian had to admit it. He had met pretty girls before; Mandy, for example, was a head-turner no matter which city she was in. But Phoebe was jaw-dropping, feet-tripping, eye-widening, heart-skipped-a-beat beautiful. Max and Marcus were carrying a crate toge
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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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
- Kingdom of the Weak
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
