The Airship: A Futuristic Dungeon Core (The Laboratory Book 2)

by Skyler Grant

  I found that when I reached 100 lumber I had a new icon blinking for my attention.

  Build Menu

  Shack (100 Lumber)

  Barn (100 Lumber)

  Barracks (100 Lumber)

  Shrine (250 Lumber)

  A shack would presumably let me breed new peasants faster. There had been an even mix of boys and girls made so far. Genetics not seeming to play a factor in whatever this strange simulation was, I set a pair to work in the shack and began building a second.

  For the time being Anna could handle defense.

  If this was any sort of fair challenge it meant the opponent had probably started in a similar position to me. They must have rushed a barracks so that they could get some sort of offensive ability early on. Perhaps they thought that Anna would have gone off exploring, it might have made sense if she had.

  Whatever their reasoning it opened an opportunity for me. I could sink everything immediately into population and then use that population to harvest more resources.

  I found by directing some of my peasants at the mountain I could harvest stone, but I had no source for iron. It must be inside the cave where the enemy was located.

  That made sense, just as lumber was outside and was not a resource they had inside their primary area.

  Mechos was cheerfully clubbing away on a pile of lumber with a hammer. An utterly foolish endeavor that against all sense of proper construction techniques seemed to be forming a new hovel.

  I soon had it up and running and was allocating peasants to creating more peasants. My opponent didn’t let this go without a response.

  More lizardmen were coming out of the cave, they’d had an upgrade. While the bulk of their force was the spear wielders from before they were now backed up by others wielding crossbows.

  Anna engaged them again. Even without any sort of super power she was formidable here, weaving her way between them with powerful swipes of her sword until they all were gone. Unlike last time it left her gravely injured with only a flicker of her health bar remaining.

  “Well that sucked,” Anna said clutching her side.

  “Back to breeding duty then,” I said.

  “You can’t be serious,” Anna said.

  “Just think how terrible they must find it. You’re getting off lucky. Hopefully you’ll heal up some and that is one more peasant I can put to use elsewhere,” I said.

  Anna didn’t look thrilled about it but dragged Mechos towards one of the shacks.

  I had to figure out my next steps.

  46

  I might not know every rule of this setting that we found ourselves in but I could figure out the basics. This was a struggle of one side against the other. Perhaps there was some objective to win to be found out there in the world, but it seemed likely destruction of an enemy base counted as a victory. If it didn’t the opponent wouldn’t be trying so hard to destroy ours.

  Their early offensive strategy would have made for a quick win had they pulled it off but since they hadn’t they were now seriously compromised. I’d be far ahead in peasants and resources. I could either use that advantage to build defenses and continue to expand my resources or I could work to quickly shift that advantage into an offensive force.

  This game worked against me. My enemy had more knowledge of the rules and that discouraged me basing any strategy on long term play. Long term my opponent would have the advantage.

  I had a little over three hundred lumber at this point. I began work on a barracks at once. I knew that once it was constructed there would either be some sort of upgrade or new facility that would let me build ranged units.

  I could wait for it or I could invest in a shrine instead. The shrine was an unknown, it might be some sort of healing or open some completely different unit type.

  I knew what ranged units could bring into the fray but the chance to get Anna in full fighting shape faster sounded like the best option for success. Even a fair-sized force of melee and ranged units hadn’t been able to take her down. If I could get her fighting with some melee backup they’d likely be able to handle anything the enemy could throw at them.

  When I acquired the two hundred and fifty lumber I began construction of a shrine. Immediately more options appeared.

  Fire

  Water

  Earth

  Air

  So far two members of the crew were represented among the population and it seemed possible my selection here might bring another. I couldn’t think of any crew members that would clearly link to either water or earth. The crazy old bat might qualify as air and Hot Stuff would make sense for fire.

  While it wouldn’t help Anna heal, when wanting quick and terrible destruction there was really only one option. I selected Fire. Peasants quickly constructed a shrine and preceded to set it on fire. Hot Stuff stepped out of the flames rolling her shoulders. Unlike Anna she hadn’t gotten any fancy armor or weaponry, rather she looked much as she had the first time she’d invaded my base.

  “This is weird,” Hot Stuff said after a look around at the surroundings.

  “No arguments here,” I said and moved one of the peasants out of the second shack. “Get in there and do what comes naturally. I want to see if we can breed some fiery warriors.”

  “Sure,” Hot Stuff said moving towards one of the cottages.

  Really she was much easier to work with than Anna sometimes.

  It seemed she was able to make Lieutenants even here, although each required one hundred wood to fuel the process. Still with my resource production that wasn’t too unworkable.

  I soon called her and Anna back out, I had an army. Anna was half healed, Hot Stuff was at full health and in addition there were now two fiery Lieutenants as well as three sword wielding soldiers I’d produced from the barracks.

  I angled them towards the cave. It was time to take the fight to them.

  47

  A short distance inside the cave the forces came upon a tower. Hot Stuff was leading the way and took an arrow to the shoulder that sent her whirling backwards, blood crimson against her bare flesh.

  An arrow wouldn’t normally be able to get past the intense heat of her flames. It must be a consequence of the world we were in. The single shot had taken a full quarter of her health bar.

  I pulled her back and sent Anna back in. Even though she only had half her health bar she was by far the most durable of the forces we had. While she soaked arrow fire I had the others come in behind her.

  Hot Stuff and her Flames made quick work of the tower. What they lacked in durability they made up for in destructive potential and soon it was but a gutted ruin.

  A bit further in and the cave opened into a larger cavern. Many simple stone structures were set up and a defensive force met us. There were only three melees and three crossbowmen. If Anna had been along they would have overwhelmed her but against our full force they fell quickly.

  We lost two melees in a process and Anna had only a sliver of her health left. There were however no defenders left to threaten us. Anna led an assault against their barracks first and while they spawned two more spearmen by the time we destroyed it, it was not enough and the rest of the structures filled quickly.

  The world dissolved in a flair of golden light.

  My awareness was back on the Powerhungry.

  Iska was lounged indolently in Anna’s throne and she let out a long puff from her cigarette, “That was fun. I went easy on you but you didn’t completely suck.”

  “You’re in my chair,” Anna said.

  Iska grinned and snubbed her cigarette out on one of the skulls. “So, you won! Congratulations.”

  “You’re still sitting in my chair,” Anna said.

  Iska snapped her fingers and Hot Stuff materialized in a shimmer of gold.

  “I promised prizes. The sidekick with chair issues, you get a life. Return the dead or rip one away from someone,” Iska said.

  “Anna having a life? This will be new,” I said.
r />   Hot Stuff snickered and Anna glared.

  “Burning woman,” Iska said before snapping her fingers again. The flames constantly burning around Hot Stuff were snuffed out. My temperature sensors were detecting she was still well above human normal but nowhere near her usual. “Have an off and on switch. You can toggle your abilities.”

  “Wow,” Hot Stuff said and around her the flames flickered back on and then away. It seemed as if she might cry.

  Iska said, “Now I’m going to send you back to where you came from and you won’t have missed a moment. Know that you’ve caught our attention. We’re be visiting. One last present, for the crazy machine. I know you’ll want to study me and there isn’t a chance I’m sitting around in one of your cells but I’ll give you something interesting.”

  Iska opened her mouth and tore out her own tongue, a spray of blood accompanying the motion as she tossed it onto the ground and vanished from sight.

  There was hardly time to teleport it into the research section before I was again getting readings from our dimensional drive. It had been restored and we were in transit. Reality violently tore itself apart.

  48

  Abruptly we were inside the cavern and above Aelfwal.

  "Shit, Emma," Anna said as she crossed the distance to settle into her throne. A moment later she leaned over to vomit. Charming. What was it about humans and them dumping their disgusting bodily fluids all over my nice clean floors?

  "I give you the ability to teleport and you still can't get a toilet in time," I said.

  It was as if we’d never had the side trip. I was picking up the warring fleets on sensors all around us.

  The Wolve's ships were coming after us. All of them. They realized where we were and figured out who had absconded with the pyramid crystal —their one way to get through the shield.

  Sylax was seizing the opportunity to set her forces fully against them. While most of the dragons were downed after the transition, she still had a half-dozen ships.

  The other fleets were breaking off and disengaging, getting out of the way. They'd suddenly found themselves in the presence of the ultimate prize they'd wanted and didn't quite know what to do about it.

  I hit an overdrive thruster burst and steered us into the middle of Sylax's formation. At least she wasn't interested in shooting at us, for the moment, afraid to hit her own ships.

  I teleported the pyramid to the bridge, along with Mechos and Doctor Batavius.

  "I'm rather distracted keeping us alive. The three of you combined may be equal to the task of figuring out what that thing does," I said.

  Mechos reached out to touch the pyramid. Blue lines tracing through the pyramid turned red to match the outlines that ran through his flesh.

  "Well, that is a reaction," Anna said.

  "Do you say silly things in the pathetic hope that one of these days someone might find you interesting? We won't," Doctor Batavius said, pushing up her goggles to take a look at the sphere with her enhanced vision.

  "Do you ever think about the consequences of your words?" Anna asked.

  "I'm usually devoting my thoughts to useful matters," Batavius said. "There are multiple levels of dormant, powered circuitry which are becoming active. It is attempting to interface with Mechos."

  For research purposes, I made sure my scanners were getting a good recording of everything that happened. In the meantime I had to keep us alive. Placing the ship in the middle of Sylax's fleet had provided us some cover from the Wolf ships, but now Sylax was sending out boarding craft.

  "I believe I have it," Mechos said.

  "You can drop the shield?" Anna asked.

  "I think so. The systems are strange and this crystal keeps attempting to connect to a larger network that’s not responding," Mechos said. “But I think so.”

  No surprise there, given the city had been long abandoned.

  "Emma?" Anna asked.

  This plan had quickly gotten away from me. We were where I'd wanted us to be, but there were just so many enemy ships. That hadn’t been in the plan.

  "Do it," I said. I just had to hope that we could seize the socket before anyone else, and once the prize was ours the capabilities of the city would somehow save us.

  49

  Mechos screamed out and collapsed. The shield dropped and the city was exposed.

  Much like airships, the city didn't seem to conform to conventional laws of physics. Towers soared without proper support, walls of glass were impractically large and for a massive city there were almost no roads for any sort of vehicles.

  I could save my admiration of architecture for later. For now I had to find that socket.

  At least the enemy ships had given up on trying to kill or board us for the moment. Everyone was looking for the same thing. Everyone wanted to claim this prize before any of the others.

  None of them had my sensors. There were at least nine unusual energy readings in different parts of the city. Each, when I focused upon them, seemed to have a pull drawing upon my Powered self.

  They were all located in different areas. Two were more central than the others, although in a city of such unusual design I wasn't sure that meant anything.

  A central hub of command should be more interconnected, but with none of them being powered up I wasn't able to determine which that might be.

  Things got a little crazier.

  Without warning, the Graven broke free of the Powerhungry and started moving towards one of the points.

  I checked the logs trying to see what had happened. Ophelia. Either Ophelia, or that version of myself, Amme—or the core that was inside of her—was going for what it thought was the best option.

  That didn't mean it was right. The lead Wolf ship was heading for another and Sylax’s vessels were heading for various points in the city.

  I felt a slightly stronger pull from one more than any of the others and changed our heading.

  "You have it?" Anna asked from the command console. Doctor Batavius was kneeling next to the wounded Mechos.

  "I've got something and if I don't act now we are going to miss our opportunity entirely," I said.

  One of Sylax's vessels was making for the same point. It fired a weapon, the beam cannon taking a large chunk out of our armor.

  I fired back. Ratticus, still hooked up to our cannon, let me drain the power of their shields and they flickered out.

  "Send me over there," Anna said.

  "While I do enjoy any chance to get rid of you, you don't have the best record when boarding Sylax's ships. And Ophelia appears to have turned traitor," I said.

  "Actually didn't see that one coming. We don't have a choice. If you connect to the socket are you going to lose control of this ship?"

  I wished I knew. If my previous experience in transferring to an airship held true, I'd be offline for several hours while trying to acclimate to the new systems.

  "Probably," I said.

  "We need to leave someone in command. Tara would be the most capable, but I don't trust her," Anna said.

  I didn't either, so there we were in agreement.

  "Ratticus. Despite being vermin who manages to be nearly as irritating as you, he has the technical know-how and he has proved himself," I said.

  Anna considered this and nodded. I teleported Ratticus to the command console.

  Then I moved Anna, my combat drones, and what remained of our tactical squad to the bridge of the enemy airship.

  Debris was falling on the city. Fights had broken out for control of every socket I'd detected and already-battered airships didn't have much more to give.

  As we drew closer to the unusual readings I felt that sense of pulling increase.

  Aefwal Network

  District Three control hub

  Currently the hub is open to be claimed

  Do you wish to transfer?

  District Three? This wasn't the central operations hub, this wasn't the prize that we'd come so far to seek. I'd gotten it wrong. A pi
llar of light shot into the sky from one section of the city, joined a moment later by another.

  Other hubs were being claimed. I'd gotten it wrong and I didn't have time to get it right.

  I could only hope this hub would offer some possibility of success—somehow. I had no choice. I initiated the transfer and the world went black.

  50

  When I came to I was seeing through the eyes of Candice. I was looking at a goggled face studying me.

  "She's awake and connected," Doctor Batavius said, pulling away from me.

  Candice looked to be in some sort of grand hall, towers of greenish crystal and windows of colored glass that were works of art. My human drone wasn't alone.

  Besides Doctor Batavius there were a few others I recognized. Ophelia was there dressed in a tee shirt and jeans. Baron Wolfson stood a step behind a stern-looking man in heavy armor who shared his son’s features. Zora was there too, the woman that Anna left behind.

  Then Candice's eyes found the throne. The figure sitting upon it I knew too well, I'd done my best to kill her once. Lady Sylax didn't look any the worse for wear for my efforts. To the right of the throne a huge, crystalline spider sat like some kind of pet. To the left, Anna was on her hands and knees. She was dressed only in a shift and wore a collar about her neck. Anna's body looked to be covered with fresh bruises.

  "It is about time," Sylax said, stretching out with a cruel smile. "Welcome Emma, and others."

  "Duchess Sylax," said the man that must be James Wolf, giving a sweeping bow.

  That was a promotion since the last time we'd met.

  "This council is meeting in order to discuss what is to be done with the city of Aelfwal," Sylax declared.