Emerilia Series Box Set 4

by Michael Chatfield

  Malsour looked at the final products.

  The battleship was shaped like an octagonal prism. Mana shield nodules covered the ship. Runic lines ran across it, lighting it up with an ethereal glow. Flight drives lay on either end of the ship and then along its body to allow it to maneuver in every direction. Heavy armor covered the surface of the ship as rows of massive heavy cannons lined the different faces of the battleship. Missile ports were sealed up, ready to launch.

  Looking upon the ship, Malsour felt reassured. This was a ship of war seemed to combine clean lethal lines while seeming dominating at the same time.

  The Destroyer was much smaller. It was streamlined with two wings midway up its body for atmospheric flight and they also held missile racks and even a few smaller cannon attachment points.

  armor was more polished and less rough, with lighter weapons and less missile ports than the larger battleship.

  “The destroyer will have the drop teleporting ability that I was talking about earlier, allowing it to move into hostile territory and drop off reinforcements quickly. It will have surface-to-space as well as space-to-space missiles. It will have automated cannon turrets that can fire all types of rounds, from the plasma cannon rounds to the nuclear warhead grand workings. When entering and exiting atmosphere, it’s going to be pretty nimble, but people better be strapped the hell down. Wait—we’ll just boost the power of the gravity runes and we should get Jeeves to code out something that will make it so that everyone’s good at all times. It’s damn useful having an AI around.”

  “Good to know my services are appreciated,” Jeeves said from the ceiling.

  “Hello, Jeeves.” Malsour smiled. Jeeves was the hardest working of them all. In the beginning, they had needed to code everything by themselves. Now they coded some of the more complex stuff that Jeeves didn’t understand. Like Dave’s portals. Though, for the most part, they could tell Jeeves what they wanted and he could whip up code to be inserted into a soul gem construct and with enough power it could be built. It was why and how they could change between designs like they were now.

  If they were an Earth military, then they could adapt their designs but to change them completely, they would have to remake the entire hull, rip out everything and try again.

  “Hello, Malsour. Did the miners within the asteroid belt meet your approval?” Jeeves asked.

  “Yes, they did. Good work,” Malsour said.

  “Thank you,” Jeeves said. The AI didn’t get any happier than when someone praised him on doing a good job. When something went wrong, he would sit over the shoulder of whoever was working on the project and try to help them figure out what went wrong. He was a perfectionist and within Pandora’s Box that was necessary.

  “Jeeves, do you want to tell Malsour the specs on the battleship?” Dave asked.

  “The battleship has multi-layered armor, similar to the armor used by the Devastator suits. Once impacted, the layers of soul gem within the metal will repair itself and then where it has been hit; as long as the ship is powered, it will recover. It has five large fusion reactors, ten small reactors like the one within Pandora’s Box on Emerilia. It has twenty-four Mana wells that are spread throughout. The soul gem construct within all of these ships is the most complicated construct ever made. It is grown on a reinforced and runed metallic superstructure made up of a Mithril composite.”

  “Wait—what? A Mithril composite?” Malsour interrupted.

  “With the information from Earth, the Jukal Empire, as well as the various texts from the dwarves, we were able to work out how to make the Mithril composite. It is rather expensive to make but with our large amounts of resources, it is not impossible. With this surplus, we have been looking at using it with a combination of other materials in different processes to retain the integral strength of the Mithril material without having to use just purely Mithril. With this composite material, we are able to have that strength throughout the battleship. It is actually needed in order to support all of the armor as well as the acceleration you two have been talking about. A lesser material could warp and then the entire ship could break apart or have weaknesses.

  “The Mithril composite material is part of the superstructure that the soul gem construct is grown upon. The soul gem construct will look after things like power distribution, breathable atmosphere, command and control circuits for the various items within the ship. It will also be able to seal off sections of the ship that are heavily damaged and repair them. It can also act as a reservoir of power for the different magical coding within it. All of the coding will be compressed to runic lines but can be altered at any time to do that at the ship level, Administration rights would need to be assigned and delegated. Also, with having the soul gem construct as the base material, it is possible to replace out items like burnt-out Mana barrier coding automatically. As Mana shields go down from overheating, then you could code in heat exchangers that remove the excess heat or replace the soul gem construct completely. With Earth warships and Jukal Earth ships, it is necessary to take out banks of hardware stacks and replace them out due to overheating or damage. Also, they are more likely to have faults. Any issues that are detected by me will automatically be repaired so that there is no loss in functionality,” Jeeves said with some pride.

  “Every time I think of these soul gem constructs, I just can’t think how it would be possible to do it without them,” Malsour said.

  “I know. Terra wouldn’t be at half of its progress, we wouldn’t have flying citadels lying in wait, or be able to create the places we have,” Dave said.

  “Do you wish for me to continue?” Jeeves asked.

  “Please do,” Malsour said.

  “Then we move to weaponry. There is no need for massive missile holding areas like the Jukal or the old Earth ships had. With the bags of holding and storage crates, each ship can store hundreds of missiles easily, each one armed with a fusion grand working warhead.

  “Same goes for the various cannons. They will be controlled by the ship’s AI, which I am currently undergoing training on and working with in simulations to improve the accuracy and abilities of the cannons. The cannons are based off Deia and Induca’s plasma cannon as well as the dwarven cannons, and information from the Earth archives and the Jukal fleets.

  “The cannons will use grand workings and their base unit will be similar to the dwarven artillery cannon, but more heavily reinforced and able to channel much more power through in order to reach near relativistic speeds.

  “It will be enhanced by magical formation and magical coding, similar to the cannons that Deia and Induca make out of their fire. While this will increase the power of the artillery cannons, it will also make it impossible for the ships to remain within stealth. Each time that they fire, they will also create these glowing sheet-like apparitions that the enemy will be able to see,” Jeeves said.

  “Are we still going with the stealth runes? I thought that would be impossible?” Malsour asked.

  “Not impossible but really difficult. But Jeeves—” Dave, a grin on his face, pointed to the ceiling.

  “The problem with the stealth runes is that they make an entire area look as if it doesn’t exist and cuts it off from the outside universe. A Mirror of Communication will still work but everything else is dulled.

  “What we worked on was with the heat exchange system as well as the adaptive abilities of the soul gem construct, we can mimic the surrounding area’s heat, reduce our own and also fake the stars and other light sources around us. This will not allow us long, but with the increased speed that I am simulating out right now after yours and Dave’s discussion, I believe that it will give all of the battleships a much better chance at surprising the enemy. However, the destroyers will be unable to use this to such great effect.

  “Their ships, with their smaller power units and their more reduced design, would not have the power or the technological abilities in order to carry this out. However, they could hide in the shadow of a
battleship to get in close with the enemy. The missile boats would be in much the same situation,” Jeeves said.

  “Okay, so the battleships will have massive cannons, a hell of a lot of armor and they can stealth pretty well until they fire and they will have the ability to jump between different locations.

  “The missile boats will be heavily armored, have good missile defenses and shields. It will also be able to pump out missiles like crazy. It won’t be too fast and it will need to rely on an anchor or a portal in order to move across solar system distances.

  “The destroyers will be able to move between atmosphere and space. They will have decent weaponry to deal with most threats. They will be able to use Mana barriers. They are also faster than the battleships but they also cannot move between star systems without anchors or portals,” Malsour said.

  “Correct. However, the battleships, due to their mass, will have issues with slowing their momentum as well as changing their heading. Once they are going in one direction, it’s going to be hard to move in another. Unless you want to burn through the battleship’s energy like no tomorrow,” Jeeves added.

  Dave and Malsour both looked on the warships that floated above the workstation, turning around as they showed off all their sides.

  “Well, it looks like we’re going to have our fleet soon enough,” Malsour said.

  “As long as we can get the materials for them,” Dave said.

  “With current production and the predicted rates of expansion, we are well on our way to meet our needs,” Jeeves said.

  “Shouldn’t we be helping out the people with the flying citadels?” Malsour asked.

  “They know what they’re doing and they’ve done so many of them while we’ve been working on the designs and getting that sorted that we’re not really needed. They have a plan they’ve refined—we’re extra hands but here we’re needed to deal with the issues that crop up, not just build things,” Dave said.

  “You make a fair point,” Malsour said.

  “Which is why I could use your help in building something,” Dave said.

  “Didn’t you just say that we’re better at solving problems instead of building things?” Malsour said.

  “Why, yes, I did but this is a portal. The one I’ve been making in the asteroid base? Well, I finished it and we’re having issues with it.” Dave walked past the workstation and into one of the many workshops.

  There were people all around working on different projects, from cannons to flight drives and armor. Although they had the basis of what they wanted to make and Jeeves was working off of that, it was basic and simple: integrating all of these systems together—although theoretically possible—hadn’t been done before. They were trying to figure out any problems that might happen beforehand and solve them.

  Dave and Malsour entered a room where a portal rested, it was made from soul gem, with runic lines spiraling throughout the ring and the base of the portal.

  Malsour’s sense spread out to the portal. His eyes opened with a blue light as he activated his arcane sight. “Impressive. Your power regulation is way off, though, and your runic lines are so close in places that they might have overlap.”

  The two of them moved forward to the portal. As Malsour talked, Dave used his soul smithing art to change and transform the portal so that it would work out the kinks.

  ***

  “Listen up and listen good, because if you mess this up, then it’s not going to be you turning into meat paste but the man or woman beside you! And they’re a hell of a lot more useful than you!” Deia barked as she looked at the forces in front of her.

  None of them dared to say anything.

  Party Zero had become the trainers of the different citadel crews. They had brought with them the trainers Deia, Quindar, and Anna had worked with in Devil’s Crater to get the DCA army up to their current standard.

  The DCA were regarded with great respect by their peers; their fighting skills and their tactics weren’t any less than other groups. Coupled with how they fought and their supporting abilities, they had earned a place within the hearts of all the soldiers within the Terra Alliance. Nearly no other force had been so active: many times, the DCA aerial forces provided support and the DCA ground forces lay down traps and went out into the no-man’s-land between castles and searched out creatures around towns and cities to finish them off and give the people peace.

  “We have been training within the Mirror of Communication for a number of weeks. All of you have come to understand your gear and your roles. Obviously we have not trained in real life with the flying citadels. Today, we will be lifting Citadel One. We will move it near to Citadel Two. We will be going through practice drops throughout the day. Make sure that you follow your training and follow the orders of your leaders. We’re here to get you used to dropping and carrying out your various duties. Safety is paramount. I don’t want any screw-ups. If you see something going wrong, I want you to point it out immediately. If you don’t, I’ll have your damn asses and by the time I’m done with you, I’ll have you jumping out of those citadels in your nightmares.” Deia looked to them all.

  A few made snide comments to one another about being around Deia. She was a good-looking elf and many held her in their eyes with interest. Some of their peers shot them dirty looks while others gave them looks of pity.

  Deia and Dave were completely devoted to each other. If Deia was to hear their comments, then many of the people would wish that they had died from the training that she would put them through.

  “Once you are down on the ground, you will move to Citadel Two, where you will move through the ono back to your citadels. From there, you will go over after-action reports on what you did well and what went wrong. We will be doing one drop per day this entire week. If we can, I want to get to two or three for next week. Get used to the drop backpacks and the platforms! After this training, we will be using them to directly attack the enemy,” Deia said.

  The officers and the training staff looked over the twenty-five different citadel groups that were arranged in rows.

  There were five dwarven War Clans, a unit of ten thousand mounted, two thousand mages and two thousand archers, followed by forty-five dwarven artillery gun crews, four hundred Aleph controllers and their four thousand automatons, and then a flying force of a thousand. There were sixteen flying citadels under construction right now. The nine extra units were there so that if the citadels needed reinforcements, they could assist without needing to be familiarized in the middle of battle. They could also completely switch out with citadel fighting forces, rotating units that had been fighting from the citadel outward without any problems.

  It had been a pain to deal with everything but Lucy and Florence had kept everything organized and equipment flowing. They were still waiting for some gear but the industrial complexes of the Terra Alliance were rushing to meet their needs. The flying citadels could alter the balance of the war, after all.

  “Okay, let’s get going. Citadel One crew, you will be up first, moving down through the crews. While waiting, I want everyone doing drops within the Mirror of Communication,” Deia said. “That’s all I have to say. Citadel commanders, I turn them over to you.”

  The different forces started to disappear as the citadel commanders talked to their people and disseminated information to their leaders and their troops.

  Party Zero, as well as Quindar, exited the Mirror of Communication, finding themselves in the command center of the first citadel.

  “Captain Farul, take us up please,” Deia said.

  “You heard the lady. Flight?” Farul looked to the woman in the flight chair.

  “Yes, Captain. Power is looking good; flight drive is looking good. Power retention at eighty percent and charging. Ready to push off. Powering up the drive to five percent.” The flight officer’s hands moved across the different buttons and the screen in front of her.

  The citadel started to shake slightly.

  “Shak
ing free the dirt and rubble.” The flight officer increased the power to the flight engines.

  Around the citadel, the grass, trees, and dirt was pushed away as power pulsed out from the citadel. For a few moments, it seemed to pause before it lurched upward slightly. Then it gradually rose up above the massive crater below.

  The citadel’s polished walls shone in the early morning light. The runes and the soul gem that had grown through the wall lit up even in the early morning sun. Dirt and debris fell from around the outside of the citadel as the soul gem base was revealed. Glowing with motes of light, the citadel rose upward.

  “We are free. Moving to altitude of one kilometer and moving toward Citadel Two.” The flight officer said, her voice sounded both nervous and excited at the same time.

  “Well, seems that it works at least,” Anna said.

  “If there is one thing that those guys can do, it’s build things,” Induca said.

  “Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass to get them to do anything else.” Deia sighed.

  “You’ve been training people the entire time,” Anna rebuked.

  “So, have you and Alkao, but you’ve still been sneaking off together,” Deia said with a sly smile.

  Anna turned red in embarrassment. “Well, that’s none of your business,” Anna muttered, hip checking him and looking around shyly, at complete odds with the commanding force she was on the training grounds.

  The forces of Citadel One were roused from their different barracks and quarters. Mages and ranged forces moved to the various casting balconies, as well as weapons. The Aleph automatons manned repeaters along the wall. Dwarven artillery crews checked their guns and made them ready for battle.

  Mages stepped onto the specialized casting balconies that were inscribed with runes that would allow them to recover their Mana faster and make it harder for them to go into Mana fatigue.

  Aerial forces moved to the new flight deck that had been added to the main tower. Here people could launch and land from all manner of beasts. Runes were used to create a jet stream that people could drop into and use to reach impressive speeds right from launch. The other sides were landing areas that didn’t have any wind to make it easier to land.