The Pantheon Moves

by Michael Chatfield

  She looked toward Markolm. Her eyebrows came together as she let out a breath. Flames illuminated her mouth and nose in anger.

  She had watched the Affinities Pantheon, been privy to their actions through Fire’s explanations and teachings. She had no mercy in her heart for Light, Earth, or Dark. All of them used people simply to gain more power. Air used people too but it was mostly to entertain herself, and she had brought peace and alliances to fruition. Fire looked to strengthen the people through learning magic. Water kept the seas safe with his merpeople.

  As she flew over that battlefield, watching the advancing drop forces like an impossible juggernaut as the last vestiges of the aggressive species were being wiped out and the portal essentially blocked off, Denur knew that this was only the beginning. She hoped that these battles were enough to raise the levels and temper those of the Terra Alliance for what was to come.

  “We’ve secured this portal. We’re being ordered to move to the Densaou Ring of Fire,” the aerial wing commander called out. “The rest of the portals will be dealt with by the Jakan.”

  Denur and the others didn’t say anything as they moved slowly over the portal location.

  The drop forces had made it to the citadel. There was sporadic fighting here and there but they hadn’t used any of their Stamina or Mana, while the defenders had been fighting for nearly a full day now.

  They quickly swept over the citadel. Scouts and those with detection abilities made sure that there was no one left.

  “Citadel is secured. Let’s go home,” the wing leader called out, flapping their wings and leading them toward the flying citadel they were based out of.

  ***

  Kol walked past an armored door. Waves of heat pressed against his body, making him start sweating right away. He stepped forward and looked upon the massive factory complex. He was in the ark shipyard on Emerilia. With all of the arks now complete, the factories that had been making the different parts and materials for them had been retooled and were now working on making supplies needed by the frontline forces.

  Here they were making orbs based off the designs Dave had given them, as well as swords, shields, the wristbands and breastplates that the DCA were issued and that were now being issued to all manner of forces. Here, different parts of the weapon systems that were installed on the missile ships, arks, battleships, and destroyers were all being created.

  Kol looked to an artillery cannon assembly line surrounded by automatons.

  Different parts that had been machined and created in the different factories came together. The inner coded lining of the barrel matched up with the outer barrel, followed by the firing system, sensing system, and control runes. All of these parts were interconnected and slotted into place, the simple barrel becoming a cannon over the space of just a few minutes.

  On another belt, the different spheres that made up the orbs were being put together and fused. As they were finished, they were pulled off, put into crates and then stored in holding cargo containers, ready to be shipped out to Terra.

  Swords were sent down a conveyor belt; carvers on either side engraved runes into the weapons as they passed.

  There were bows, shields, armor, wristbands. All of it was passed down the line. The metal formed into the different items, engravers going to work and then the finished product placed into crates.

  They weren’t the highest quality, but hundreds of them could be produced in a day. These weapons were not simply for the fighting forces of the Terra Alliance but also the people who were learning combat training in the different cities and towns.

  Weapons were expensive items and smiths were dealing with repairs instead of making new weapons and armor. These weapons and armor were awarded to one once they passed apprentice level in their fighting skills.

  This strengthened these different areas, so that the Terra Alliance wouldn’t need to stretch their forces to these areas.

  Kol’s eyes fell on one of the larger assembly lines—the missile assembly line.

  A missile was made in three sections. In the rear, there was the drive, which was coded with runes, as well as a soul gem power source. The middle section contained the grand working modified payload. The forward section had a soul gem construct that recognized targets and used sensing spells to find them.

  The internals of the missile were connected together by soul gem strands. The rear drive was attached, the soul gem construct fusing with it and intertwining with the areas for the drive runic lines. The middle section was added, secured to the soul gem internals and the rear drive plate.

  Finally, the forward section was attached, hiding the soul gem internals. It looked like a cigar that had been cut at one end where the drive was.

  The dark-gray metal had black runic lines up and down its surface. These were the different sensing spells and stealth codings, as well as drive spells, for the missiles. They were black to make it harder to see the missile. If it was giving off light constantly, then it would be easier for the Jukal’s sensors to read them.

  Kol’s steps came to a halt as he looked at it all. There was the constant noise of machines working, as well as crates and weapons being readied as carts took on the payloads and rushed off to deliver the weapons to where they needed to go while other carts brought in refined materials for the factories to assemble more weapons.

  The grand working shells that were used with the artillery cannons were not assembled here but in the asteroid base with the different shield modules, missile tubes, drive plates, and interceptor weapon systems. All the parts that were needed for the growing fleet were assembled and readied before being added to the different ship platforms.

  Kol checked on the different factories, looking over the production numbers.

  Another facility within the ark shipyard tested all of these systems and readied them for use.

  Kol arrived in front of a massive armored door. As he approached, the sounds of mechanisms unlocking could be heard. Magical seals that were floating over the door submerged into it, the different protections being unlocked before the door opened.

  Inside, multiple factories and assembly lines were at work. Lines where metal plates were passing, being engraved by carvers that darted down from overhead.

  Soul gem constructs that were coded, growing into different parts as they went down assembly lines, connected to power runic lines that were part of the machines moving them.

  Armored plates were fused together, being sent to different lines where they were formed into breastplates, shoulders, upper and lower arms, legs, kneecaps, ankles and feet.

  A complicated assembly made the different knuckles, fingers and other parts, all of them being connected together to create hands.

  Humanoid-looking forms made up of multiple engraved sheets and runic line-covered items moved down the lines, being assembled piece by piece before finally their interior was complete.

  The shoulders were put on first, and then the back plate was added. A flurry of sparks appeared as they were tack-welded on, fusing arms, working to complete the seal between the two parts. The arms started to take form, coming in from the sides, tack-welded and fused. On one mannequin, the back sections of the armor were added; on the mannequin beside it, the front section was formed.

  Arms came from above, attaching in the soul gem constructs and the different carved-out metal pieces. They were clamped into place and fused as rack after rack of back and front armor moved forward.

  A helmet appeared from above. Different small pieces came together, being fused into the two sections of the helmet. As the helmet’s components came together, the front and rear sections of armor were picked up and put together. As the helmet descended, a soul gem construct reached out from the helmet and neck section into the armor, attaching the two. The armor came together as the neck section and helmet were fused on top of them.

  The final fusing was completed between the different parts of the armor. Power ran through it. The soul gem construct t
hat had been embedded into the lines carved in the armor started to glow with power as the armor seemed to come alive. It was carried off the rack, a complete set of armor, before being set down in a formation.

  To the side of the factory, there was a massive open area. Standing in that area were row upon row of the identical armors. Kol looked at it all.

  Just looking at them, Kol was filled with a sense of power as well as respect.

  Every ten minutes, three sets of Devastator armor were completed. These sets weren’t as powerful as the ones that Gurren and Lox used. However, instead of needing Dave to spend weeks and his own Willpower to complete one of them, these could be mass-produced.

  Kol moved his eyes from the ready ranks and looked over the console that was managing the factories and assembly lines for the armor.

  A cart appeared in front of Kol. On the back of it, there were a half dozen crates that had come from the missile factory line. Kol finished checking the factory’s reports and stepped up onto the cart.

  It took off, taking him through the portal to Pandora’s Box. He entered the now empty work space.

  The hub with all of the portals that connected to different parts of the Pandora’s Box Initiative was filled with activity.

  The fusion power plant was still going and the smaller factories were producing things like the Mana wells and modifying the onos received from the Aleph.

  The teleportation array was still there, now with a crane to drop things through the teleportation array as needed. The teleportation array started to glow. The different parts of the room moved and changed before suddenly stopping. A surge of power blasted through the room as a dark area was revealed on the other side of the teleport array’s wormhole that now appeared in the center.

  Kol took command of the cart. It floated forward, entering the wormhole and appearing on the other side.

  Waiting there was a member of the war council, as well as a number of the dwarven protectors who were usually hidden from the outside world. Now with the fighting going on, a number of them had once again returned to the battlefield, shaking those who believed them to have been dead or traveling across Emerilia.

  “Kol,” the war council leader said with a nod.

  “Feli, good to see you again.” Kol stopped the cart.

  “Go, grab one.” The war council leader waved the dwarven protectors forward.

  They grabbed one of the large crates that was nearly two meters long. With a grunt, they picked up the crate and moved it to a cart that they had ready off to the side.

  The war council member worked a station in front of him. The teleport pad that Kol had just come through closed its wormhole and started to move, changing the runes around and connecting to a different teleport pad.

  “I’ll see to them personally,” Feli assured Kol.

  “Do that, and they will work with our large-calibre mountain artillery,” Kol said.

  “We’ll be ready when it’s needed,” Feli pledged.

  Kol nodded, his face solemn as he turned his cart around and headed through the teleport pad.

  He found another two dwarven protectors and a war council member, and repeated the process he had done at the first dwarven mountain he had just left.

  ***

  Frank Simmons sat up from his chair. He had been in the Mirror of Communication, working with the different techs and people who had created the different warships in the asteroid base.

  This was to get them familiar with the different ships, so if anything was broken they would know how to fix it, and they could use the systems.

  Frank was aiming to be a weapons controller, so it wasn’t as in-depth as those who were on the engineering crews who would service the different ships and look after them. Nor the damage control personnel whose second role was to assess and deal with any damage that happened to the ship that they were on.

  He opened up his interface, looking at the quest board that had been set up for everyone. He was on an extended quest for the battleship building slips.

  He checked that his gear was all sorted out and turned on his Mana barrier. He passed those who were waiting outside to go to class, exiting the Mirror of Communication room. He passed through an airlock and out into the asteroid base.

  He grabbed a ride with a cart that took him over the thoroughfare and toward the battleship slips. Now there were not just two battleships being worked on. There were five scaled-down models that were constantly being fed resources, growing in different slips while another ten superstructures were in various stages of development. The destroyers were coming along at an even faster rate: ten were already sealed up—five of them combat ready and good to go—and another twenty superstructures were being built just for the planned warships.

  All across the different slips, machines and people were working to bring them online as fast as possible.

  Their pace was enough to leave Frank shocked.

  Frank jumped off his cart as soon as he arrived at the way point of where everyone was supposed to meet before going on a shift.

  With their higher Endurance, they only needed about four hours of sleep a night. It wasn’t as impressive as some of the people who needed to only sleep every few days but it allowed them more time to work on the different quests they had and work on leveling up their skills and attributes.

  The orc leading their group wore what looked like a blacksmith’s apron, with tools in a belt around his waist. It looked at odds with the spaceships that were next to them. Around his neck, there was a necklace that showed his Mana barrier was active.

  “All right, I know how much you all want to work on the battleship, but we’re needed over at the asteroid factory—all hands on deck. Since this is going to take a while, I called in a few favors and we’ll be taking a shuttle over.” The orc turned and led them toward a shuttle bay nestled in the side of the asteroid’s walls.

  All of them moved a little faster, shooting excited looks to one another. They hadn’t been outside of the asteroid base yet; this would be their first trip between the different asteroid bases. Normally all transport was done by portal, teleport pad, or ono. Getting a shuttle free was a rare occurrence.

  All of them quickly followed their foreman, smiling as he led them to a shuttle that opened in front of them. They climbed aboard, finding that there were no pilots but there was a connection with the shuttle. They quickly accessed it and were able to use their interfaces to look outside of the shuttle.

  “Everyone in?” the orc asked.

  “Yes!” Frank said after a quick check.

  “Good.” The orc opened a private chat to talk to someone. The door to the shuttle closed and sealed before pushing up off the ground and heading out of its slip. It moved out along the large open area between the walls of the asteroid base and the slips. Materials, automatons, and people were everywhere, moving and working on different projects.

  The shuttle passed them, carts going in the other direction.

  It turned, going out into the main thoroughfare of the asteroid base, diving and turning toward a heavily armored area of the asteroid base.

  Here there were different weapon systems protecting the large hatches that were opening and closing with the movement of shuttles.

  The shuttle came to a halt with a few dozen others. They waited together before the armored doors opened and they rushed forward in formation. Another group entered the asteroid base at the same time, with plenty of room between the two large groups.

  They kept a certain pace, speeding up or slowing down, to meet all of the armored doors as they opened.

  Finally, the last armored door opened and they were looking out upon a star-filled sky.

  The shuttle turned; increasing its speed and heading towards the refinery that they would be working on.

  People talked in excited voices, able to hear one another in the atmosphere-filled cabin of the shuttle.

  Frank looked upon the asteroid base as they left it. From the outside, it
looked like a simple pitted rock that was gently rotating in different directions. His eyes moved to the spectacular star-filled void all around him.

  As he looked upon those stars, it was a sight that he would never forget for the rest of his life. He felt truly insignificant, as complicated emotions rose up within his chest. He held his silence, taking it all in. His mind shook from the things that he was able to see.

  They passed asteroids that were a few meters big to thousands of kilometers.

  “We’re heading into an asteroid-rich area, better for the refinery,” the orc said as the shuttle started to move erratically. However, there was no gravity inside the shuttle, only the gravity that their clothes were exerting.

  A few people had to close their eyes, unable to look at the screens as they moved around wildly. Others gained a new sense of excitement from the screens’ movement.

  Soon they cleared most of the asteroids and they headed toward a large asteroid.

  Other shuttles were visible and on their sensors, they were able to identify mining drills that were opening up paths into different asteroids. They were too far away to be seen without zooming in their interfaces.

  They finally reached the refinery asteroid, being greeted by more armored doors. There weren’t as many as in the main asteroid base, so they quickly found themselves inside.

  The calm of the exterior was at complete odds with the development inside.

  There were mining drills and excavators working to expand out in every direction. The whole area had been cleared out, hollowed out and the mined material removed so it looked like a huge windowless warehouse on steroids.

  Excavators spread out in every direction. The light of their laser drills illuminated the asteroid walls as they ate through everything in their path.

  Massive metal pillars stretched out from the surrounding asteroid and met in the center, where a misshaped construction was being created.