Empire Builder 3: Breed, Populate, Conquer

by Dante King

  As Ben stood before the door, something seemed to come to life inside of the ruins, like a big machine grumbling. He felt vibrations through the ground, heard the sounds of steam hissing inside.

  Ben kept his hands on the wheel as the machinery inside the ruins came to life, the smell of smoke and gas seeping out through the door.

  “What’s going on?” Melody asked.

  “This place,” Ben said. “It’s coming to life.”

  Something inside the door clicked, and Ben gave the wheel another spin. This time, the machinery in the door worked with him. The wheel turned with ease, and the door creaked open, the sounds of metal on metal and gears turning filling the air.

  The hallway on the other side of the door flickered to life, lights illuminating down its length.

  Ben couldn’t help but grin.

  “Come on!” he shouted over his shoulder before stepping over the threshold and entering the hall.

  “What… what is this place?” Melody asked.

  Ben regarded the lights on the wall, noting they reminded him of the old-fashioned lights he’d learned about in history class when studying Thomas Edison. The hallway was made of steel, and he heard the machinery working through the walls.

  “Is this… is this a factory?” he asked out loud despite knowing that no one around him would be able to answer the question.

  “A what?” Lexi asked.

  “A factory,” Ben said. “A place…” He paused, trying to think of how to describe it. “A place where the power of steam is harnessed to power big machines capable of doing the work of many, many people.”

  As Ben stepped down the hall, his footsteps clanging and echoing down the length, he found himself wondering what sort of technology this world was capable of.

  Seems like early industrial, at the latest. Steam and waterpower and gears and steel. The other tower had been using light industry, too.

  A thought occurred to him.

  “Shrike—has anyone ever dug really, really far down in this area, to your knowledge?”

  The group formed up on both sides of Ben as they traveled down the hall.

  “Hmm. I’ve heard stories of other towns digging far into the earth, below the mineral deposits of the area. If I recall correctly, most of the time they found nothing but water.”

  Water, Ben thought. I’m no engineer, but water could be the key to the industry in the ruins.

  He mentally shelved the question, knowing that it wasn’t anything worth worrying about at the moment. Ben was in a new set of ruins, a new place where he might find power that he once possessed.

  And that meant there would be danger.

  “I don’t understand,” Shrike said as they made their way down the hall. “It doesn’t at all look like an accident happened here. Where are my people?”

  “They have to be further down the way,” Imogen said, innocent hopefulness to her voice. “Don’t worry—I’m sure we’ll find them.”

  Ben noticed something else as they made their way further down the hall.

  “Is it… getting hotter?”

  “You’re asking the wrong elementalkin,” Shrike said. “You could throw me into the center of the sun, and I wouldn’t notice.”

  “It is getting hotter,” Melody said, “but we need to keep going. Those monsterkin are depending on us to find them.”

  Ben glanced around to see that everyone wore the same determined expression on their faces. Brock was near Imogen’s leg, coming up barely past her knees. Nipper stayed close to Melody, his eyes searching here and there for danger.

  The hall led to another round, steel door, and as Ben approached, he heard more grinding, more clanking, more sounds of machinery at work. He placed his hands on the door’s wheel and turned it, the door opening with a grinding noise.

  The room on the other side was not as plain as the hallway—not at all. It was a large, open space that looked out over a massive factory floor, steam-powered machines moving here and there, doing some kind of work that Ben couldn’t quite determine. It was as if they were assembling something. Many somethings, in fact.

  “What… what is this place?” Melody asked. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before!”

  Ben tried to think how to describe it. It was a factory, no doubt about it. A primitive one that seemed to be on the border between renaissance and industrial technology, but a factory nonetheless. While the idea was simple to him, he couldn’t think of any way to describe it other than how he already had.

  He stepped over to the railing and looked out over the factory floor.

  “This is how we’re going to create an army.”

  “How do you mean?” Shrike asked. “There aren’t any people here.”

  “Not yet, but there will be once we get the ruins under control.” He grinned as he began to put it all together, turning away from the railing and toward his party. “When I was the Forgotten Ruler, I must’ve needed ways to outfit all my soldiers with weapons and armor and everything else they’d need, right?”

  “That’s correct,” Melody said. “Your armies were impressive. More than that, they were uniform.”

  Ben nodded. “The One Who Rules All—he has his own ways of outfitting his soldiers, the Black Army. That’s what I saw when I flew over the northern forests. He had his own massive system for strip-mining the earth and woods in order to build what his army needed. And this, here, this is what I’ll use to build what I need for mine.”

  “You’re going to strip-mine our resources?” Shrike asked, putting her hands on her slender hips. “I don’t like that.”

  “There’s not going to be anything like that in my kingdom,” Ben said. “I’ll make sure of it. What The One Who Rules All is doing… it’s only a matter of time before he burns through his resources. We’ll be smarter than that.”

  “How?” Shrike asked.

  Ben didn’t have an answer for her. Not yet. He knew it was a question he’d have to answer later, when he was in charge of his empire’s resources.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe whoever’s in charge of this place can help me, but I can say for damn sure I’m not going to do what that asshole has been doing. I’m not going to ruin this land just so I can rule over wastes.”

  There was passion in his voice. Ben realized it must have persuaded Shrike. She smiled slightly, then nodded.

  “I’m eager to see if you’re going to be half the ruler you plan on being,” she said. “Or if you’ll be just as much of a tyrant as the one in the other tower.”

  “I could tell you that it won’t be that way,” Ben said, “but I’d rather show you all. Come on.”

  He continued deeper into the factory ruins, the sounds of machinery all around him. They reached another door, this one opening just as easily as the others. It led to a hallway that curved around and down. When they reached yet another door, Ben opened it to see that they were on the factory floor.

  The noises were louder, and Ben had a hard time focusing through it all. On the ground floor of the factory, Ben noticed empty rack after empty rack lining the walls—he could tell they were meant for the weapons that this place could likely produce.

  As he reached the center of the factory floor, he stepped on a panel that sank and clicked.

  Grinding sounded from the walls, and Ben turned to watch as two massive, wall-mounted crossbows that had been too high to notice fired. The bolts launched with a thwomp, flying toward him.

  Before they could hit, Ben felt a hand grab the back of his collar and pull him off his feet. As he flew backwards, he watched as the two massive bolts smashed into the ground, crisscrossing in front of him and splitting the floor. Ben fired a quick look over his shoulder to see that Zito had been the one to save him. Ben had come damn close to a quick end—so close that he had felt the air move as the bolts crashed into the ground.

  Zito flashed a sly smirk. The only word any of them managed to get out was Ben shouting, “More!” as he pointed to the ce
iling. Several other sets of huge crossbows emerged from the upper part of the room, loaded with massive, man-sized bolts aimed at the ground. With heavy twangs, the bolts fired their payloads toward the group.

  The first pair flew toward Imogen. Her gray eyes went wide as she realized what was happening, and Ben could see that she was frozen in place. Brock reacted, breaking apart his body and forming a barrier around his mother. The first bolt crashed into the ground, the second slamming into Brock and bouncing off with a horrible, metallic crash. When Brock reformed, Ben was relieved to see that both Brock and Imogen were alright—though the latter was shaken.

  Another pair of projectiles launched, this set flying toward Melody. Nipper was near enough to bite down on her boot and yank her off her feet, the catgirl dropping to the floor and out of the way of the bolts. She was safe.

  Yet another set launched toward Lexi. Ben had to think quickly. Using Drain, he tapped into his own speed and pulled it out as fast as he could, transferring it to Lexi. His limbs felt as heavy as stone, and even moving his mouth took energy he didn’t have.

  “Run!” he shouted, his vocal cords straining from the exertion.

  Lexi’s eyes flashed with energy, and she leaped out of the way with incredible speed, so quickly that her slender body was nothing more than a blur. The bolts crashed into the ground, and she was safe. When he saw that she was free and clear, he pulled the speed he’d given her back into his body.

  But to his horror, a glance up at the bows revealed that each one of them was loading with another set of bolts, compartments opening in the walls and revealing rows of steel-tipped arrows.

  More were coming.

  “Take cover!” Ben shouted. “Hide behind the vats!”

  The group didn’t say a word as they followed his orders. Everyone took cover, hiding behind the massive vats that formed rows in the center of the room. More bolts shot down from the ceiling, but they smashed harmlessly into the ground where Ben and the others had been only moments ago.

  “Well, Benny boy?” Zito asked. “What’s the plan?”

  Ben considered his options as more bolts smashed into the ground.

  We could wait, he thought, but there’s no way to say how many bolts are stored in the walls. Not to mention, we’ve got people waiting for us to rescue them.

  On top of that, it didn’t sit right with Ben to simply wait around for the problem to resolve itself.

  He looked up at one of the huge crossbows to see it move as he did.

  It was tracking him. Once Ben moved his body away from the safety of the vat, another bolt zipped free and crashed into the ground nearby.

  “They’re following us!” Melody shouted. “What do we do?”

  The option of staying put until the crossbows ran out of ammo was no longer an option—it was only a matter of time until one of them slipped up and was hit.

  “We need to take them out!” Ben said.

  “How?” Imogen asked. “They’re all the way up in the ceiling!”

  “I could burn them,” Shrike said, her voice calm. “They are made of wood, after all. A few well-placed fireballs should be able to take them down.”

  At first, it seemed like a reasonable suggestion. Ben quickly thought better of it.

  “No,” he said, shaking his head, “too much of a risk of you getting hit.”

  “I’ve got a better idea,” Lexi said with a slight smile. “They’re up there, right? Maybe you can fly up and handle it?”

  Ben liked that idea a whole lot more. “Right. I could fly up while someone distracts them, then take the crossbows out.”

  Lexi nodded. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Chapter 10

  Ben shifted into his bird form, launching upward while Lexi, joined by Zito, stepped out from behind the vats. It didn’t take long before the crossbows targeted them, all launching bolts. They zipped through the air, Ben barely juking out of the way in time to avoid them.

  Ben flapped his wings hard, pointing his beak toward the crossbow in the far back-right corner of the room. He watched as it reloaded, a new bolt rolling down a small slope into the chamber of the crossbow. Another mechanism pulled back the string. He held his trajectory for a moment, letting the crossbow fire before he moved out of the way. The bolt flew past, breezing his feathers as it rocketed to the far side of the room.

  It began the reloading process as Ben drew closer but didn’t get a chance to fire off another bolt. Ben shifted back to his human form right when he was on top of it, grabbing onto the body of the crossbow and hanging off. He pulled his scimitar out and brought it to the bowstring. The string was thicker than he’d guessed—almost the thickness of his thumb. It took some doing, but soon he was able to cut through it and render the bow useless.

  Once that was done, he flew to the next. More bolts shot through the air toward Lexi and Zito, who easily dodged them by purposefully erratic zigzagging. Ben disabled the bow he was on, then moved to the next, then the next. After some work, all the bows were disabled, the room silent, the ground covered with steel bolts. Ben flew back down to the ground and returned to his human form.

  “Hell of a trap!” Zito said as he picked up one of the bolts. The thing was as long as his arm, the steel-tip the size of his fist. A single one of them would have been more than enough to kill.

  “I recognize these,” Ben said as he squatted down to take a closer look at one of the bolts.

  “From your world?” Melody asked.

  Well, kind of, Ben thought. They don’t need to know I recognize them from Total War games on my computer. How the hell would I even begin to explain that?

  “From my world, right,” he said. “These aren’t just regular crossbows—they’re called ballistae. They’re huge, huge crossbows designed to punch through multiple soft targets, or a single one covered in armor.”

  “And this place has the technology to make them,” Melody said.

  Lexi picked up a bolt. “Such weapons would make incredible assets to any army.”

  “I have a feeling that these are what this place is for,” Ben said. “An army needs artillery. But making artillery is no small thing. You’d need a factory capable of producing all the parts for ballistae and trebuchets and mangonels.”

  “What are those?” Shrike asked.

  Ben opened his mouth to speak but knew it would take too long to explain the nature of medieval siege weaponry. Besides, he was hardly an expert in the subject.

  “Lots of stuff that can be used to take out masses of troops or break down walls,” he said. “But I’ve got a good feeling that whoever’s in charge of this place would have a much better understanding of them. Let’s keep moving and get to the bottom of it.”

  “And the closer we get to them,” Shrike said, “the sooner we can find my people.”

  Ben kept his expectations measured, knowing that there was a good chance they might not find the missing monsterkin still living, but there was nothing to do but press forward.

  They made their way through the room, stepping over the bolts that were scattered across the ground from the trap attack. Another round door with a wheel was on the other end, and Ben opened it to pass through.

  Another hallway awaited them on the other side, but this one was different from the others. This hallway had long, rectangular windows on both sides, each looking out onto another huge factory floor. The factory was dormant, seeming as if it hadn’t been used for a long, long time.

  He stopped.

  “Melody, do you have the crystal ball in our gear?”

  She cocked her head to the side, seeming a bit confused. “Of course, Ben. Would you like to see it?”

  “Yes. I have a feeling about something.”

  Melody nodded, then turned to rummage through her pack. It didn’t take her long to find the crystal ball, the smooth, priceless object wrapped in blankets. Once it was unwrapped, she handed it over to Ben.

  The moment he laid
his hands on it, the visions appeared.

  He still stood in the same hallway, but everything around him was different. The factory floor was a hive of activity, dozens and dozens of workers tending to the steelworks, pouring boiling hot magma into casts and plunging them into water, the clanking of machinery mixing with the hiss of steam. Ben could see all stages of the assembly process, the materials as they came in, the raw ore being worked into steel.

  At the end of the production line were the finished weapons, catapults and ballistae and mangonels, all with ammunition piled and ready to go. A massive door was open, and through it, Ben could barely make out a massive army, all waiting for their siege equipment to be ready so they could begin their next campaign. Among the troops were massive humanoid shapes made of metal, their forms looming over the soldiers below.

  He turned in the other direction. There was a large platform overlooking the factory floor.

  Ben was there. He stood clad in heavy armor, two beautiful women at his sides. Seated in a large chair, his eyes scanning the proceedings below, was a hulking, powerful-looking orc.

  It quickly became too much. Ben shook his head, and the vision vanished. He was back in the hallway, the factory floor below just as empty and desolate as it had been before.

  “Are you OK, Ben?” Melody stepped over and carefully took the ball from his hands, wrapping it and placing it back in her pack. “You had that look on your face again, like you were a million miles away.”

  “I saw what this place was for, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s essential for the battles to come. Let’s go—I want to speak to the person in charge of this place.”

  Without another word, he started toward the far end of the hallway, the rest of the group doing their best to keep pace. As he did, another thought occurred to him—there was no way this place could be allowed to fall into the hands of Hullbeck. If he did manage to learn its worth, Ben had no doubt he would give it over to the Black Army.

  When Ben reached the door on the far side of the hall, he wasted no time opening it and stepping through. On the other side was an even bigger room than the factory floor, with ceilings dozens of feet high. Boxes and boxes were stacked here and there, and it took Ben no time at all to realize what it was—a warehouse.