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2024-10-29 19:42:56“Still, she does have a point.” Remian said. “You could learn a lot from Ashdale.”
“You’re sending me away?!” Mindy blurted.
“You could visit once in a while, take a weekend or so… Ashdale’s airships are well-respected. Don’t you think they have good airships and engineering methods? There’s a lot to learn there, and no limit to learning.” Remian pointed out. “Also, we bought a lot of good stuff last time.”
“Right. Airships.” Mindy calmed down.
“Not just Ashdale. Itarim, La Vive, Germat, Ceres, Ecclesia, even the Dragon Empire. You should travel to all of them and learn what you can.” Remian went on. “You did say you wanted to see the world.”
“Yes, I did…” Mindy said, but she hesitated.
“Not today, of course. Not without an airship to rival the Roving Albatross, at least.” Remian mentioned. “Actually, if we could put together something like that, you’d be able to start serious trade routes. An industrial grade long-range co
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Kingdom of the Weak 90. Cost
That night, Remian tossed and turned in bed. Mandy’s voice echoed in his thoughts. Most of it was sheer drivel, but when she shrieked about him not writing to her or communicate with her when she was recovering in Ashdale, or that he hadn’t chased her during the period in which he had to know he was losing her… he felt a bit of sympathy then. It was true. He really hadn’t been obsessing over her. There were just too many things going on, too many important issues he had to look after. Speaking of which… [Miik] he called with his mind. Miik was currenly in his cave, happily busy increasing his clan with the help of his dear, fun harem. He was NOT happy to be interrupted by a work call in the middle of the night, but he asked, [What is it?] Remian was actually impressed he was able to reach Miik. The chief lynxmouse seemed quite far away and very preoccupied besides. [Uh… never mind. It can wait till tomorrow. Just a few small things.] [Tell you what. F
Kingdom of the Weak 91. War with Fal’Herim
Lately, the Frontier had been attracting a lot of attention. First, the Secret Waves went silent. Spies were sent in secret. By all reports, the entire East Side of Fort Spoas had dropped down a cliff. Then, the excavation site went dark. Three Sky Galleons loaded with troops went to investigate. By all reports came, a Tier 5 Wild had stomped the excavation site into dust. That Wild had been captured by local miners, and the site was soon under reconstruction. But when four airships from Ashdale visited Fort Spoas at the same time, people began to ask more questions. Apparently, there were a lot of natives from Fal’Herim already there. Taskmasters were sent to those slaves’ clans to exploit that fact. How surprising that most of those clans were already gone. Furthermore, some friends from Ashdale indicated that Frontier Town was on the rise, with the Beast Waves stopped and slaves being freed, and they were even buying airship parts…<
Kingdom of the Weak 92. Airships and the desert
The blast came from above. A surge of energy like white-hot light slammed into Spike’s shell from the cloudy sky.[It’s here! It’s already here!] Spike roared in pain. [Remian! Where are you?!][We’re coming! Fend it off!] Remian replied from the south.Spike roared, but the airship that had shot at him was too high, hidden among the clouds, and he couldn’t even see it, much less affect it with sonic attacks from that distance. [It’s too far! I can’t reach it!][Hunker! Protect your head!]Spike withdrew his head just in time for another blast to narrowly miss his nose. The near-burn scorched the sands beneath his chin; it smelled like glass.Gulping, Spike withdrew his tail as well as his head, trying his best to act like a tortoise.The third shot glanced off the rear of his shell. One of the spikes on his back was burned black, and then fell away, breaking to pieces on the sand like charcoa
Kingdom of the Weak 93. Assault
Salim Eran thought that boarding the airship early would make a good impression on his superiors. As the newest member of the Sons of Sand Mercenary Band, he was often the butt of inside jokes about his inexperience and clumsy ways. Salim wasn’t like the other mercenaries; he was basically a fresh graduate from the Italim branch of the Ceres Metro Magic Academy. They were supposed to be on standby. Apparently some troublesome creatures were headed toward the city and they just might be sent out to bombard them from above. Maybe. If the Desert King felt bored enough to pay them for it. But the Red Fangs and the Red Claws were cheaper, and most of the time, if he could get away with sending only the cheaper mercenaries, the Desert King wouldn’t splurge by calling out the SOS. But Salim figured he might score a few points with management if he made a good impression during this standby period. They probably won’t be sent out, everyone knew it. Half the guys weren’t even
Kingdom of the Weak 94. More Chaos
Meanwhile, Frontier Town was likewise having to deal with an assault by Wilds, another Beast Wave. But who cares about that, right? The action was all taking place in Fal’Herim, and that’s where all the fun was at, so… “Fire!” Remian triggered the most powerful weapon he’d ever laid his hands on. The main cannon of the Red Fang shot out a bright beam of energy right into the rear of the left Sky Galleon. “Turning hard to port! Ready broadside!” Mindy announced. “Target the skiff! Fire at will!” The Red Fang turned to the left, hard. The adventurers manning the smaller guns fired off blue fireballs. They rained fire down on the poor skiff, blasting it to pieces before it knew what was happening. The third airship turned around. Magical barriers were raised. The broadside gunners fired on it, but the barriers were too strong, the smaller cannons couldn’t penetrate their shields. “Bring us about! Hurry!” Remian called. “No time!”
Kingdom of the Weak 95. Asda
Tim tried to stay out of the whole mess, he really did. But ultimately, he failed. “We need you to take refugees on board!” a desperate woman pleaded. “Please! My daughter doesn’t deserve to die here! Help us!” “But…” “Even if you can only take one! Just one person!” Dear Tim hadn’t had time to wonder about how anyone managed to contact him using the airship’s own short-range communication crystals. Those things only worked for the air traffic control tower and the royal palace. But of course, Tim couldn’t know that. He only heard the voice, and the desperation. That was why, ten minutes later, a rope was lowered and a girl was reeled in. [Is that how humans pick their mates?] Mikai observed with interest. [Reeling them in with a fishing rod? Like fishing?] “Not exactly.” Tim grimaced. “Although maybe it’s not that different from fishing. But no, the fishing rod is definitely not it. Actually, before that… she’s not my
Kingdom of the Weak 96. The Summit of Fal’Herim
“Mother!” “Asda!” an older, graying-hair version of the ‘refugee’ princess greeted her daughter with a hug as a rather sad group arrived at the south gate. While technically, this was two allied forces meeting up for the first time, it looked more like a group of ragged refugees stumbling onto a zoo. That was really the best description that could be given as the Second Queen and her forces met Remian and his at the south gate; two messy, mismatched groups wondering what the heck each was going to do with the other. On one side was a widowed Second Queen with one general, a few squads of exhausted and injured soldiers, with roughly two hundred armed slaves in rags walking around in a dazed mob. On the other was Remian, with a few teenagers like Tim and Mindy, along with a whole bunch of giant boars, wolfcats, and lynxmice. Neither of them looked particularly suited to conquering the city of the Desert King. “So… let’s withdraw and let them fight it ou
Kingdom of the Weak 97. Power by association
In a great hall roughly five times the size of Spike with a gold-plated statue of a dragon running two loops all around it, the leaders of Fal’Herim met to discuss the future of the city, only to have Remian politely suggest their surrender. “Sorry, who were you, again?” The Crown Prince looked at Remian as if puzzled. “This is Remian Vin, King of the Wildlands!” Asda declared. That’s way too exaggerated! “Uh, no, I just have some influence over one small piece of it…” Remian said, but in a voice so low that only the wolfcats next to him could hear it. Yet he cleared his throat and said, “The point is, I have overwhelming military advantage and if you don’t surrender, I may very well just destroy the city and take all its people captive. From what I hear, there’s not much else of worth in it.” “Oh, but there is!” The Second Queen assured him. “The Imperial Palace is full of valuable treasures. The treasury might be empty, but the cutlery alone
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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
- 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
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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
- 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
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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
- 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
