The Aleph are smart and powerful people. There is a reason that Bob kept them safe. Showing that I trust them might lead to a better relationship. Plus, they probably have all kinds of information on portals like the one at the citadel that it wouldn’t be a big deal.
Dave sent the file.
Anna opened up her interface and went through the information.
I keep on forgetting that she is an AI as well.
“Malsour, get up here!” Deia said.
Dave moved from his terminal and looked out on the cylindrical city. “How do you keep people planted? Gravity manipulation?”
“In a manner. We have a combination of centrifugal forces as well as weight and gravity runes. Areas will not be accessible yet due to this restriction. As more stations come online, more areas will become safe to travel through and I can start up the systems that will allow the city’s gravity to return to normal. There are twenty different power stations in the city but with only four accessible, it will take time for me to run the necessary checks before starting up different systems and powering the city’s runes.”
“This is fucking cool.” Dave grinned like a kid in the candy store, jumping on the balls of his feet a bit. He looked to Suzy, who also looked rather excited.
“An entire city just dormant for a few hundred years and we’re turning it back on! Like, come on, you can’t say that’s not fucking awesome.” Dave looked to the rest of the party.
Induca giggled, Anna shook her head, and Deia smiled at her excitable fiancé.
“What ci—oh my.” Malsour looked out of the window to see the Alephir city.
“Welcome to Alephir!” Dave waved his hands around as if to encapsulate the city.
“As you say, Dave—fuck me sideways.” Malsour moved to the glass and looked over the place.
Everyone, even Induca, looked at Malsour in shock before they fell about laughing. Dave patted him on the back.
“See, fuck works for everything!”
“There is one small issue. The lifts and gravity slides for this tower have been deactivated. You will need to climb down,” Shard said.
“The fuck is with this planet and heights,” Suzy muttered.
“Well, do you have roof access?” Induca asked.
“Yes.” Shard looked to her; his lag had been cut down nicely.
“Well, that will work,” Induca said.
“How so?” Deia asked.
“You forget I’m a freaking dragon. I got wings, dammit, though you better not start thinking of me as some stupid caravan!”
“I wouldn’t think about it,” Deia promised.
“Good. It will be good to stretch my wings.” Induca rolled her shoulders as if they were tight and looked at Malsour.
“Fine, but only because I want to see this great city returned to its functional state.”
“Hashtag winning, bitches!” Dave’s fist pumped the air.
“Do you realize how ridiculous you get at times?” Anna asked.
“Well, with all this awesomeness going on, how can you not be excited?” Dave smiled so hard it looked as if it hurt.
“Ran a multi-trillion dollar business, still a damn child on the inside. There’s no winning with him. Trust me, I’ve seen it for fifteen years. Not dull, though.” Suzy elbowed Deia.
“Well, let’s start powering this place up. We’ve got five days until the rest of the Stone Raiders get here. If Shard doesn’t want them here, then we’re going to have to get all the work done here as fast as possible to get information on the other installations and what kind of forces we’re going to have to clear out,” Deia said.
“Thank you. The risk of bringing you here was high, but the possibility of me going dormant and someone else finding the information of the Masters and wishing to bring evil to Emerilia could be catastrophic,” Shard said. “I hope that we can become closer and trust each other in the future. It is hard to find people who are willing to aid me and have someone like Anna to vouch for them.”
Friend Request
Shard has asked you to become his friend. Do you accept?
Y/N?
“Ye-up! Always good fun to have a few AI friends.” Dave smiled. “Do you have a Mirror of Communication?”
“I do.” Shard smiled.
Dave felt bad for the dude, all cooped up here with his original builders disappearing off because people had found out just how advanced they’d become.
“Transfer of data complete.” Shard tilted his head to the side, as if analyzing something.
“Let’s get these power stations first!” Deia cut them off before they could get distracted.
“That is prudent. I await the restoration of power to Alephir. I will review the data you have provided.” Shard bowed to them before he disappeared.
“To the roof.”
It didn’t take long to get to the roof. Once there, Induca seemed to stretch to loosen her muscles before her body expanded; her hands turned to claws and her face extended into a snout. Wings pushed out of her back as she filled out. She shook her wings and moved her feet some.
“What happens to your clothes and gear?” Suzy asked.
“They go into dimensional storage that is part of me. It’s how dragons can move so much loot fast. My clothes are specially tuned to my body that they will disappear at a certain stage of the change.” Induca’s voice was powerful.
You could tell that she was a Creature of Power not only from her voice but the faint pressure of her aura. Even though the pressure was easily noticeable, Dave still knew that it was greatly suppressed because she was with friends and relaxed.
“Well, climb up then!” Induca said.
Suzy and Anna got on Induca’s back.
“Hold on!” Induca said. Dave saw the corners of her large mouth pull up in a smile as she slowly tilted forward like some old roller coaster.
She pushed off with her back legs and dropped down the side of the tower. Suzy screamed while Anna whooped in enjoyment. Dave heard wings flare out as Induca’s red body shot up and into view, gliding between buildings.
“Hey, Malsour, old buddy, ole pal,” Dave said as Malsour underwent his change. “Could you possibly not do that?” Dave asked.
“Don’t worry. I am not as energetic as my younger sister,” Malsour said, his voice deeper as he smiled at Dave’s clear anxiety.
Deia easily got onto Malsour’s back. Dave ambled up in his own manner, holding onto Malsour’s spine ridges.
Induca had taken up maybe a third of the top of the tower. Malsour was easily three times her size, his wings extending over the edges. He spread them out, flapping them once and sending them up ten feet.
A few more flaps and they were gliding down gently. Through the silent city, Dave could hear Suzy’s screams and swearing while Anna and Induca laughed their asses off.
“Thanks, Malsour.” Dave patted Malsour’s back.
Malsour turned his head to look at Dave with an evil gleam in his eye.
Deia laughed as Malsour looked forward.
“DON’T EVEN FUCKING THINK ABOUT…FUCK!” Dave yelled as Malsour tucked his wings and gained speed. He flared them out, making Dave’s stomach sink and then shoot right back up.
He twisted and turned, using his wings and tail to guide them through the city. Dave didn’t stop swearing the entire time as Deia held onto him tightly.
The speed cut off quickly as Malsour circled, spiraling down toward a building that Induca was landing on. Suzy took a few minutes to get off Induca’s back as Dave breathed heavily.
As much as he hated it, now that it was over he couldn’t deny the adrenaline rush or the smile on his face.
“You’re an asshole, but that wasn’t bad,” Dave said as Malsour flapped his wings to bring them to land on the power station’s roof. Deia just laughed as she got off and headed for the stairwell where the others were preparing themselves. Dave sent his senses out as he got off Malsour. “I don’t detect anything other than the different auto
matons that are wandering around. A few creatures here and there, nothing big or threatening.”
“All right, well, Shard says that this one has an issue with the fueling machine. It got jammed in some manner,” Anna said.
Dave’s eyes glowed gray. He looked around to study the different parts of the power station. The rest of the party went down the stairwell to make sure it was really clear. Malsour and Anna stayed with Dave.
“Damn, this place is big,” Dave muttered to himself. There was a large hopper on one side of the building; coal went through grinders and dropped onto a twenty-meter wide conveyor belt. They would then move through what looked like runes for a flame torch. Right after that was a series of runes that would siphon off the power energy until it reached the end. There wasn’t even a chimney for any air to escape; it was all pulled into the extracting runes.
One of the motion runes on the conveyor had failed and friction in other areas had rubbed away the runes. The hopper was messed up as the coal had been sitting there for so long that it had become damp.
“Okay, I think I have a plan,” Dave said as he walked. “Anna, I want you to go to that coal and cut it up so that it can be easily eaten through the crusher. Malsour, I want you to see if you can make sure the coal gets through that crusher. Once we’ve done this load, it should be good. I’ve got to fix a few runes and then we should be on to the next one. It’s really not a hard fix,” Dave said, happily surprised.
“Shard was made to manage the various portals of the Aleph. He can do gravitational and position computations with great ease and has defensive programs as well as a personality complex that allow him to talk and protect the Aleph, but he is not one for mechanical situations,” Anna said.
“Well, good thing he’s got us around.” Dave jumped off a catwalk and dropped next to the conveyor belt. With his higher Agility, the ten-foot drop was nothing. He pulled out two handfuls of tools from his bag of holding and looked at Induca, Deia, and Suzy, who stared at him.
“Let’s fix some power stations!” he said with a half-crazed look. After a few uncomfortable seconds, he faded into awkwardness. “Babe, could you heat something up for me?”
“Sure, you dolt,” she said, amused. Working together, they fixed the runes. Dave used his soul smithing and his tools to fix it up.
Anna and Malsour were ready on their side as Dave ran through checks of the machine. He hit the button that would fire the whole thing up.
“Well, that is a fucking buzzkill.” Dave looked over the machine. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face in annoyance. He stretched his senses out. “Yeah, not a single Mana point of power. Right, well, if it doesn’t work the first time, use diesel. The second time, use jet fuel. The third time, use some damned nitroglycerin!”
“Everything okay?” Malsour asked.
“We’re just going to kick-start this sombitch!” Dave said in an exaggerated Southern accent. “Deia and Induca, I’m going to need you here. Blow torches aren’t working but you’re the next best thing. Anna, you blow air through this place so we have a constant flame. Suzy, you see that crankshaft there?” Dave pointed to the metal bar on the side of the crusher connected to the hopper of coal outside the power station.
“Yeah.” Suzy looked at it.
“Good. I need you to get a golem cranking on that thing like there’s no tomorrow. Malsour, can you see about moving the coal down toward Deia and Induca at a constant pace?”
“Can do,” Malsour said.
“Okay, well, let’s try this out. I’ll be back here with the extractor to make sure that the runes are working properly.” Dave clapped his hands together as people moved into position.
Suzy put a metal core down and then poured pieces of metal out of her bag.
She’s adapting well to Emerilia and being prepared, Dave thought as the metal turned into a metal golem, stretching to grab the crankshaft. It tried moving it but it was clearly impossible until Suzy added more metal; the grinder’s round teeth moved an inch, dust and coal that hadn’t moved in decades falling to the conveyor belt.
Malsour used his Dark magic to move the inanimate conveyor, slowly at first but then faster. Deia and Induca coated the coal in blue flames as Anna directed the air through the room.
Dave watched through malachite windows as the smoldering coals entered into the extraction area. Runes lit up, dull at first but gaining in strength as the coal seemed to melt into nothing, burning from the inside in seconds.
Not even smoke came out the other side. Slowly, more power started to seep into the runes and through the rune circuits. Dave followed it, stepping to a different part of the power station.
“Holy crap.” Dave looked at a massive train station. He spread his senses out. This was not the only conveyor belt in the power station; it was one of twenty. All of them were linked to the train yard, where massive drums loaded onto freight cars waited.
“The drums are soul gems, massive damned soul gem batteries,” Dave said to himself with a grin as the power reached out toward the trains. A malachite window started to glow as the soul gem inside began to charge.
Dave checked on the other conveyors. It would take some time, but it was mainly cases where maintenance hadn’t been performed and the systems had fallen into disrepair. Dave walked back to the conveyor belt room where everyone was talking to one another. Part of the energy was being directed to the system’s own powering soul gem.
It took five minutes, but then Suzy’s golem stood back from the coal grinder. Then, one by one, the others stepped away as the conveyor belt continued on its own.
“Good work. Now, let’s go to those other power stations,” Deia said.
“We’ve still got four more conveyor belts to get online here!” Dave said.
“What?” Deia asked.
“Yeah. It’s a hell of a lot bigger than I thought.”
“Then, how many conveyors does a class A have?” Induca asked.
“No idea.” Dave shrugged.
“Well, I guess we should get started.” Deia clapped her hands together.
“Hoorah! Let’s power up a city, folks!” Dave smiled.
Chapter 11: Power Me Up!
“Hey, it is good to see you.”
“Where the heck did you get a Mirror of Communication from?” Josh asked Anna. Dwayne and Kim filed in behind him. Deia and Anna sat on their chairs, looking tired as they stared at the new faces.
“Dwarves. Seems they want to keep in touch with one of their Dwarven Master Smiths. Dave also has another one back in Cliff-Hill,” Deia said.
“Huh, well, I guess we all have some secrets. So what is this about a raid?” Josh asked. The rest of the Stone Raiders’ leadership tried to hide their excitement and failed badly. They had been looking to travel to Selhi Capital, and then over to Gudalo, around Per’ush and into Ashal. Having a raid to lull them over in Selhi Capital would be fun, instead of just the monster clearing that the nation was offering.
“We were out adventuring and checking out the monster areas to see what it will be like when the rest of the guild gets here. There are these Aleph ruins, an old race that made a lot of portals that connect to different places. We were offered a quest called Aleph Homecoming.” Deia shared the quest with them.
Quest: Aleph Homecoming
You have restored enough power that portals can once again be opened and scouting guardians sent out to find the enemy.
The more power sources activated, the more scouts that can be sent to different locations.
When you are ready to fight the monsters that have found their way into the Aleph areas, let Shard know. He will start opening portals to the different locations to start clearing out the Aleph installations and substations.
Rewards: ???
Do you accept?
Y/N
“The others are completing off the Power Up quest right now,” Anna said.
“So, what kind of raid is this?” Josh asked.
“Think of it as a mi
x between horde mode and capture points. We will have certain places that we can move through, capturing them and gaining more assistance from the Aleph automated systems. We can hold position, defending and killing off whatever creatures we find or advance to control more of these positions in order to increase the forces that the Aleph automatons can help us with,” Anna said.
“That sounds awesome. The more places we hold, the more assistance we get. I’m guessing the more we have, though, the harder enemies we will be facing each time?” Dwayne asked.
“Correct.” Deia nodded.
Dwayne looked to Josh and Kim. “I’m in. That’s cool.”
“Who are the Aleph?” Josh asked.
“They’re an ancient race that lived underground. They’re the ones who created the teleport pads. All of their cities and homes are connected by teleport pads,” Deia said.
“So, their capital is in Selhi?” Dwayne asked.
“We have no idea where their capital is and the current administrator of the Aleph automatons has made it clear that while he doesn’t exactly trust us, he is willing to take a chance on us,” Anna said, blurring the lines a bit.
“It could be under Selhi; it could be in the ocean between Gudalo and Ashal. They have teleport pads everywhere. Usually multiples in a small installation,” Deia said.
“So, this race, the Aleph, one of their administrators is asking for our help in helping to re-establish order within his home?” Josh asked.
“Pretty much,” Anna said.
“Well, I agree. This could be fun. No matter what the rewards are, I’m excited to check this out.” Josh smiled.
“I agree.” Kim smiled.
“Now, what kind of information do we have on this place?”
“Well, we’ve got quite a bit on not only where we will be starting but maps of the other places we will be going through, including enemy‘s numbers and such. These Aleph scouts are damned good at what they do,” Deia said.
The table turned into a computer desktop, with maps all across it.
“The first places we will be going through are the primary installations. These are places of research and development, manufacturing centers, power stations and all the rest. These places cannot fall into anyone’s hands but the Aleph’s. Again, this is a big trust that they are giving us. We need to make sure that no one gets sticky fingers.” Anna pointed to an array of maps.
For The Guild (Emerilia Book 2) Page 13