There were creatures of several other species walking in and out, or standing at the counters. A humanoid being with blue skin, at least nine feet tall with four arms and a tail stood at one of the windows. Another was occupied by a creature that Allistor would have described as a gelatinous blob. There were insectile beings, one which resembled a turtle that walked upright, and a couple that had to be elves. Across the lobby in a glass-walled meeting room, Harmon was meeting with a creature that greatly resembled an octopoid. It was hard to make out clearly, as the room was filled with a swirling mist.
Allistor crossed the lobby, nodding or waving at a few of the orcanin, who grunted amiably in return. Taking a seat on a sofa outside Harmon’s office, he spent some time reading through his Capital City tab and its sub-tabs. One of the things he learned was that there were automated repairs available for most structures. They were slow, and had to be purchased using either System Points or klax. He pulled up a random damaged building about a block from where he sat. The building’s condition bar was at about seventy percent, having been partially burned and the ground floor windows and walls smashed. But the option to repair the building was greyed out, as it had not yet been cleared.
Moving to the multi-tiered building next to his high rise, which had been cleared the night before by Sam’s group, he tried again. This building was at eighty-five percent, and the repair option glowed green.
Structure Designation: Invictus 3
Building condition: 1,785,875/2,101,000 (85%)
Estimated Repair time: 15 hours
Repair cost: 2,850,000 sp/klax
There was a details sub-tab that listed the damage. Allistor took a quick look and saw fire damage, water damage, broken windows, bullet holes, plasma burns, broken doors, and a long list of other items.
Closing that tab, he moved back to the main building tab. He had the option to modify it the same way he would any Stronghold building, changing the floor plan or adding features to the building. Out of curiosity, he tried to see what that would cost in System Points, but got a message that he needed to be standing inside the building to make modifications, or use his City’s control Pedestal to make modifications.
He was about to call forth the Pedestal in front of him when Nigel informed him that Jesse had arrived, and was on his way over. He stood to greet the man, who walked into the lobby with Juanita right behind him. Based on her smile, Allistor expected good news. The two moved slowly, taking in the sight of all the aliens, much as Allistor had done.
“Good morning, Jesse. I’m glad to see you back here. I take it you’ve come to a decision?” He shook the man’s hand, then Juanita’s, and motioned for them to sit.
“We have. My people and I will take the oath and join you.” The man’s poker face from the day before persisted, and his smile didn’t reach his eyes. But he was saying he was willing to take the oath, so Allistor chalked it up to not being thrilled with giving up some of his authority. Allistor would have trouble doing the same, especially to someone he’d just met.
“Wonderful! Would you like to bring your people here? Or remain in your Stronghold?” Allistor asked.
“I think most would like to remain where we are.” Jesse looked to Juanita, who shrugged. “I’m okay livin’ in the Outpost, as long as we can come here to eat or buy stuff when we want to.”
“Works for me. I’ve got some things to deal with here, but how about you bring your people over later this morning and you can all take the oath. I can send some droids to escort you both ways safely. I forgot to ask, how many people do you have in total?”
“Just over four thousand. Spread out across the city. It’ll take me a while to get word to everyone and get them together. How about tomorrow morning?”
“Fine. Tomorrow morning, then. I’ll see you all then. With that many people, we’ll need to do it out in the street. I’ll make arrangements.” Allistor waved to them as they left.
Harmon, who’d been standing a polite distance away, shook his head. “That is about a forty percent increase in your population. It’s a good thing you can afford to buy a lot of food!” He moved to take a seat across from Allistor, but Allistor stood.
“You mind if we talk in there?” He motioned toward the room Harmon had been meeting in earlier. The mists had cleared away.
“Of course. Follow me.” Harmon led him inside and pulled a chair close to his desk. “Sorry about the smell. Had one of the elder races in here a bit ago. They breathe a mist that always leaves an odor for a few hours after I remove it.” The orcanin scrunched his nose and shook his head.
“No worries. I was hoping I could bother you for some assistance, and advice.”
“Of course, my friend. How can I help?”
“You may have heard that we were attacked early this morning. One of my advisor’s Strongholds in Cheyenne, spitting distance from my Citadel. A colony ship of goblins…” He gave Harmon the rundown on the fight, capturing the prisoners, their blood oath, the clan name, claiming the ship, all of it.
“I have heard of the clan. Prime was right, they are insignificant on their own. But they may have allies. I will see if I can learn more. Weapons and battle droids don’t just magically appear. I know that they are from a planet currently on the opposite side of this system. A long trip for them, a short hop in your yacht.” Harmon leaned back in his chair. “It is true they will continue to try and eliminate you now. Your plan to take the fight to them is a little ambitious in your current condition. But certainly you could defend against any force they are likely to send. Think of them as a good way to level your people.”
Allistor nodded slowly, thinking it over. When he couldn’t think of anything else to ask about that particular situation, he changed over to the cargo.
“I have the cargo manifest here, but I have no clue what some of this stuff is.” Pulling up the list from his interface, he mentally pushed it to Harmon, and a holo-display came up between them. The merchant looked at it for a moment, then laughed.
“This is mostly mining equipment. They really did believe there was gold under your friend’s property. There’s about two weeks’ worth of food for a couple hundred goblins – they are small but they eat like orcanin! The usual crafting supplies for a new colony. Metals for smithing, a smelting plant, a couple of their vehicles, which would be too small for you to use, but might make excellent toys for your young ones. Or you can obviously sell them on the market. Each one would bring maybe fifty thousand klax.” The orcanin continued to review the list.
“Oh ho! Here we go. Three cases of goblin brandy! That’s good stuff. I’d put that in my personal wine cellar if I were you. Strong stuff. Burns like the devil going down, but very smooth after a few sips. Fit for a Prince!”
Allistor listened as Harmon ran down the list, not hearing much more of interest. When the merchant was done, he asked, “And what about the prisoners? I told my guys to use a few of them as sea monster bait. But I doubt we’ll need forty of them for that.”
“Kill them however you wish. But kill them you must.” Harmon’s tone was suddenly serious. “They view it as their duty to escape and kill you. They are clever and vicious and will view themselves as heroes following their code if they can manage it.” He paused, thinking, then leaned forward. “If you bring them here before you kill them, I will purchase their corpses.”
Allistor was unsure he wanted to ask, but couldn’t resist. “Can you use some of their parts for alchemy ingredients or something?”
“Not alchemy, cooking.” Harmon corrected him. “I would never eat a goblin, but my warriors would happily roast and stew them for supper. It would actually raise your reputation with them!”
“In that case, consider them my gift. I’ll take a half dozen fishing, the rest I’ll send here for my low level people to execute, and they’re all yours.” Allistor felt sick to his stomach for even saying it. But he supposed a quick death was the best option for them at this point. And what happened after… well he w
asn’t going to think about that.
“I was going to have Kira take us to the crash site of that ship that attacked us. Are you interested in coming along? Then she can drop us at Wilderness and you can retrieve your ship.”
“Certainly! I am curious to see who would make such a suicidal attack. And speaking of ships, when I bring my ship from your other Stronghold here, might I land in the same park you have? I’d be happy to pay a berthing fee.”
“If there’s room, sure. It seems like your ship was much larger. Might be better to find a parking lot nearby? Or we can knock down one of the burned-out buildings with those construction droids of yours.”
“I have studied the map, and there is a vehicle parking structure a few blocks to the west. It has a large, flat upper deck. But I would presume that such a space would be expensive to lease.”
Allistor pulled up his minimap and zoomed out so that he could see it. There was indeed a huge parking garage a few blocks away where the interstate curved around to connect with the FDR. The multi-lane road actually passed under the building. There were two large sections, each covering about a city block.
“I can’t tell from this map. Is the upper deck big enough to accommodate both of our ships?”
Harmon used his desk to pull up a 3D holo-image of the structure, then pressed a few keys. The outlines of the two ships appeared atop the building. Allistor’s yacht fit snugly atop the smaller section. Harmon’s ship was shown atop the larger section, and it stuck out a bit past the building edges on both sides and at the nose.
“Yes, though you would have to modify the building slightly to expand the roof. And probably reinforce the structure to take the weight, though it does look sturdy.”
Allistor smiled. “I’ll tell you what. You and your orcanin take a party of my people to clear the building, you cover the expense of reinforcing the building and expanding the roof as needed, and you can park there for one hundred klax per year.”
“Done!” Harmon returned the smile with a toothy one of his own.
“Then let’s go. If we hurry, we can catch Kira and join her and the raid groups heading out. She’s dropping one group in Chicago, not far from the crash site.”
Harmon spoke into his bracelet to organize some orcanin to clear the parking garage. They walked next door together, and Andrea assigned a group of humans to hit the garage as well. Allistor and Harmon teleported to the Old Fort, and got aboard the yacht.
Chapter 7
With the raid crews and several hundred droids loaded onto the yacht, Kira lifted off from the park and headed northeast. First stop, Boston.
Allistor gave the others a quick tour of the ship in the few minutes that it took to reach their first destination. Kira found a huge pier to land the ship on, and the Boston crew departed with their droids. There was a large U-shaped condo complex at the base of the pier that looked like it would make a good Stronghold. A short distance away was a high-rise Hyatt hotel next to the airport, and right in front of it was the ferry dock. Across the water, there was also a park with an old stone fort that looked attractive. Allistor left the crew to decide what building or buildings to select.
One by one, Kira dropped the crews off in Toronto, Detroit, and Chicago. Each time, they selected a waterfront location to land and offload the teams. After taking off from Chicago, Harmon showed Kira how to pull up the coordinates of the crash site, and they were off. It only took a short time before the ship came to a halt, hovering about a thousand feet over the spot they were looking for.
Meg pulled up a feed from the ship’s sensor array on the main viewscreen. They were looking down from the underside of their ship at an area of broken and burned trees around a twisted mass of metal.
Once again, Harmon stepped in, this time at Meg’s station. “No life signs other than wildlife in the immediate area. Either the crash killed them, or they fled. There’s a clearing large enough for this ship about a quarter mile north.” He pointed to the display, and Kira piloted the ship, landing it neatly with barely a tremor as it touched down.
“You’re getting better at that.” Allistor gave her a pat on the shoulder.
They exited the ship via the cargo bay doors, taking five of the battle droids that Allistor had held back from the raid crews. Harmon, Fuzzy, Helen, and Allistor followed the droids to the crash site, letting them clear a path through the underbrush. When they reached the mangled ship, the droids fanned out and surrounded it, working their way in toward the center. The merchant pulled a device from his inventory and began scanning the ship and surrounding area.
“Goblins. I’m detecting two goblin corpses inside. No indication of any others.”
The nearest battle droid turned and saluted. “No evidence of tracks leading from the ship, Sire.”
“Thank you.” Allistor looked at what was left of the little attack craft. “Is this thing salvageable?”
Harmon shook his head. “It probably is, but I would say it is not worth the cost. Even fully repaired, this is not an effective fighter. I suppose it could be upgraded…”
“How would it do as a training fighter? Something my new pilots could whiz around in and practice shooting at targets?”
Harmon grinned. “For that, it would do nicely.”
Allistor sent the droids back to the yacht to retrieve some cables and the Juggernaut that was in the hold. Between the vehicle and the droids, they managed to drag the fighter back to the yacht. It fit through the cargo bay door, but only because one of the wings was sheared off. A droid followed behind, carrying that wing. All five of the battle droids made another trip back to the site with one of the small hoverpads and collected as many important pieces of the craft as they could locate. When it was all loaded aboard, Kira took off. Allistor and Harmon were standing on the bridge observing Kira’s takeoff.
“We can drop you at Wilderness so you can retrieve your ship.”
“That will not be necessary. My pilot has already left there and is en route to New York. My warriors reported little resistance in the parking structure, though there was a level thirty-five Octopoid in the lowest level. My lieutenant has made the necessary modification to the building, plus a few upgrades. It was necessary to shift the elevator to the area connecting the two platforms, so he added another and made them both larger with much greater weight capacities so that we may transfer cargo. They also established some living quarters, guest quarters, and administrative spaces on the level just below the landing deck. I hope that meets with your approval?”
“Certainly! If we don’t need to head west, then Kira, let’s go back to New York. We can test out our new parking spot.”
During the flight back, Harmon sold Allistor a variety of repair bots and construction bots. As soon as they landed, the group walked the few blocks back to the Invictus Stronghold and retrieved the repair bots. Half of them were sent to the yacht to begin repairs on the damaged fighter, and the others were sent through the teleport to the Citadel to work on the colony ship. Per Harmon’s explanation, they would decrease repair time by nearly fifty percent.
“I think I love you, Allistor.” Harmon said as the repair droids disappeared. “Every time I see you, I get richer!”
“Ha! Stick with me. There are still a couple gold reserves out there. Maybe we can team up and take another one before your fellow aliens figure out where it is.”
“I suppose I’d be willing to assist, if I must.” The orcanin rolled his eyes in mock exasperation.
“We’ll wait and see how our raid groups do, maybe hit the reserve tomorrow.” Allistor replied. “Just please keep advising me on non-Earth topics and I’ll help you amass more wealth.”
The two of them sat in the lobby for most of the evening, chatting about alien worlds and customs. Several of Allistor’s people drifted over to join them, listening for a while before leaving again. Allistor absorbed every bit of information he could, learning some very interesting things.
For example, it seemed that only r
esidents of low-level planets like Earth, a few of the goblin planets, and other recently absorbed worlds relied much on projectile weapons like the plasma rifles. Which explained why they were relatively inexpensive. Harmon assured him that it wasn’t because the weapons were ineffective at all. It was a reputation thing. A majority of the factions looked favorably on hand-to-hand combat, as well as clever fighting tactics. Some of them even considered using ranged weapons above level fifty to be dishonorable.
“You might not remember, because it was a hectic time for you, but when you killed things with your makeshift spear, especially that void titan, that was when you garnered the attention of several factions, and gained a loyal following. You became even more interesting when you not only used your spear effectively, but took advantage of your environment to kill the dragon in that dungeon. And a few of your party members attacked with swords and axes as well.” Harmon grinned at him.
“Is that why the elven blade you showed me is so valuable?”
“In part, yes.” Harmon mused. “It is a fine, effective combat weapon. Lightweight and sharp, yet strong. Certain enemies, mostly elves, would consider it an honor to fall to that blade. But its rarity contributes most to its value.”
“So you’re saying I should develop my melee combat skills.” Allistor sighed. He was starting to like the idea of killing things from a distance and not getting bitten as often.
“It would be helpful, yes. Now, there is no dishonor in long distance magic attacks, mind you. Because those are skills you hone just like your physical abilities. While any half-trained imp can point a weapon and pull a trigger, it takes training, skill, and imagination to properly use a combination of stuns, offensive, and defensive spells and abilities to win a fight. And, of course, in large battles or space battles, ranged weapons are the norm. That is why battle droids exist. It is common, for example, for two warring Princes to field armies of droids and vassals to capture key Strongholds or even face each other in open battle. When one of them achieves a clear advantage, the vanquished may either surrender, or issue a challenge of individual combat.”
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 12