by G Aliaksei C
The first arrivals were aliens. They were the children of Corporate soldiers, those who chose not to swear their loyalty to the Corporate war machine as their parents had. This first generation of civilians found themselves in an empty valley that seemed to stretch into infinity. They were young, poorly educated, but lively and determined. And they were driven by their foolishness of their age, intent on freeing themselves from the Corporation. They found themselves with nothing but basic clothes, a mass of confused aliens surrounded by nothing but wilderness. At the center of the valley, silent and still, was a seemingly indestructible arch. A brick was missing from one leg of the arch, a square hole showing where some part was removed.
The first few thousand were Slime. They were soon joined by Cockroaches, who seemingly appeared out of nowhere near the arch, just as the Slime had. Finally, the first Human civilians from other Corporate worlds arrived. The two knew of one-another from their childhood in the Corporation, but had little interaction. They were forced to work together in this new world, constructing the First City in the Valley of Genesis.
The Valley was lush, fertile, and peaceful, but lacking in metals and minerals. The world’s natural predators avoided the City, sensing the strength of numbers, retreating as the City expanded. But society was a Beast of its own, and the aliens quickly learned of their immortal nature after their first civil war. The war proved to be one of dozens, the constant infighting shaping this new society into a distrusting, authoritarian state.
Years later, when the First City’s population reached three million, the City’s scouts found an artificial structure, a bunker of strange stone that seemed to sink into the ground like an iceberg. Heat radiated from it in the cool nights, attracting wildlife. Hundreds of Beasts swarmed the surface around it.
The City’s Army, a grand name for a collection of civilians armed with swords and bows, set out to raid the bunker for its treasures. Thousands attacked, and all found themselves waking up near the arch the next day. Many were scared by their gruesome deaths, and left the Army in favor of a more peaceful calling. The strongest, most stubborn tried again and again, eroding the bunker’s defenses and weeding out the weak from their own ranks.
“Drake?”
“Argh!” I shot off the couch, the pistol in my hand reflexively tracking the source of my sound. Inna raised her hands, and I quickly lowered the weapon. The Innkeeper’s innate stealth was impressive and concerning in equal measure.
“You are reading up on our history?” Inna plopped down on the second couch, stretching her legs on the stone table between her seat and mine. I lay back down on my side, trying to lower my brain’s defcon.
“Yeah, barely got past the first fifty years. Skimming through this bunker business now. I can’t imagine how they could clear such a structure with nothing but swords and bows.”
“The brief historical documents omit a lot of information. We actually had primitive grenades and even muzzle-loaded shotguns, which were great in the halls.”
“‘We’? Did you just say ‘we’?”
“I was among the first batch of Humans to enter the Rings.”
“So you were there for the Ring’s entire history?” I asked, wondering if Jim knew this when he suggested I talk to Inna for a history lesson.
“Yeah. I have some fond memories from that time. Such fun fights. So much bloodshed. Wars aren’t the same anymore, it’s all about numbers now.” She sighed sadly. “Want me to save you a few hours of reading?”
“Please!”
“Alright.” She closed her eyes for a few seconds. “The bunker… yes. It was made of foam-concrete. It had no doors or windows. The Beasts, hundreds of aggressive bears and wolves, were using it for warmth and shelter. Every time we attacked, they swarmed and overwhelmed us. Arrows were ineffective, and the metal we used in our swords was far too soft. Keep in mind, our weapons and supplies came from the civilized fraction of society that remained in the First City. Most spread out, found a nice cave, and turn into hunter-gatherers. The constant infighting was a natural sort of filter that forced the dumbest and weakest to leave and seek a new home. It was all very barbaric.”
“Somehow, I’m not surprised things fell apart like that.”
“Oh, me neither. I was one of the few old beings there - not that they could tell - and I can tell you, it was textbook chaos. The strong ruled the smart, and everyone else wasn’t even in the equation.”
“And the bunker?”
“The bunker was our salvation. I can’t tell you how relieved I was when we found it. It gave me purpose and hope. I died over and over in our attacks until, one day, we broke through. Earlier I had quietly asked the smiths to rig up shotguns and grenades. Those really helped. In the narrow halls the shrapnel was more effective than any sword.
“Anyway, half a year later we finally reached the bottom. There were very few of us left. Many couldn’t handle the darkness of the lower floors. But those who stayed… we were rewarded.
“There were weapons, agricultural tools, furnaces, metals and industrial equipment that would have taken us centuries to develop. Our smiths, the brightest minds of what remained of the City’s Army, had no trouble figuring out much of what we found.
“What kind of tech was it?”
“Class 1, very basic. Generators, electric tools, high-temperature furnaces, automatic firearms, and everything required to make more. But, more importantly, we found the brick.”
“Ominous. What did the brick do?”
“It activated the arch, the Gate at the center of the First City. We knew instantly what it was, but held onto it until the manufacturing equipment was up and running.
“Of course, the City realized that we were no longer dying and reappearing at the arch. They panicked, and sword-armed mobs at us in an attempt to claim the bunker. It was a slaughter. We killed them all, and in the day it took for them to respawn we raided and burned the First City to the ground.”
“Rough, but I see why you did it.” I wondered how much biomass was required to regrow a small army over and over again.
“When we were ready we began to amass a population. The decivilized hordes were drawn to our excess of food. Hundreds turned into thousands, and soon we had a brand-new City being built around the bunker. But, this time, there was no infighting. The two hundred of us in the bunker were the ultimate rulers, and we held the ultimate power to back our will. A few tried to gain access to our wealth, but it was nearly impossible to oppose guns with spears and swords.”
“I see,” I said. “You created a more organized City, a civilized oasis that drew in the scattered masses.”
“That’s right. It took us five years, a tenth of the time it took to build the First City. The Second City had electricity, modern farms, foam-concrete houses and walls. Compared to the First, it was heaven. We assembled a group of the smarter citizens, and slowly gave it ruling power over the City. And, when everything settled down, we went to the arch, and activated it with the brick.
“It led to another section of the Green Ring, this one with several incomplete Gates. The two hundred of us that took the bunker dropped everything we were doing, picked up our stuff, and went through before anyone in the City knew what was going on.”
“You built another city on the other side?”
“No, we left that to the rulers we put in charge of the Second City. They did a great job, actually, and they remained loyal to us. We could always backtrack to a city of the First Empire and be welcome.”
“The First Empire? How long did that take?”
“A few decades. We went around, recovering bricks and activating Gates as fast as we could locate the bunker that held them. The Menu removed the need for mapping, and there was no risk of getting lost, just dying.
“Eighty years later, we found the big one. We knew by the size of the Gate that it was something new, and we set up camp there. The local bunker was the largest we had ever seen, with the most Beasts we had ever fought. But i
t also held the very first Gems we found. Our teams began working on equipment to utilize the free electricity provided by this new power source, and it only took a few months to construct the first electronic gear. At the time, we called it Second Generation gear, glorified radios and flashlights that didn’t require batteries. When we thought we had everything we needed, we opened the Gate.”
“That led to another Ring, I’m guessing.”
“Blue Ring. Tiny islands, endless oceans. I hated it. Everyone hated it. Worse, we couldn’t find bunkers or bricks to reactive the next set of Gates.
“We ended up returning to the Empire, letting them expand for a few years until they reached that big Gate, then helped them set up a naval town on the Blue Ring. We used their shipyards to build a fleet of warships. It took a while but we finally found the next activation brick. It was in a Beast that attacked on of the ships, a Class 2 monstrosity that didn’t seem to be bothered by firearms.
“It took us two hundred years to find the next major Gate on that damned Ring. At every junction we had to build ships and search the oceans for the hive of Beasts that held the next brick. When we found it, we wept with joy. I was so tan the people on Green Ring thought I was mutating.
“Anyway, the Ice Ring was a major jackpot. It was rich in metals that neither Blue nor Green Rings had, and it held weapons that were magnitudes more powerful than our firearms. It was cold, miserable, but very profitable, but its discovery also shattered the Empire.”
“I can’t imagine how it lasted that long. Two hundred plus years is a lot for a government.”
“We made a strong system, but it was stretched too thin. The Blue Ring was too independent, and the Green Ring had too many people to control. The Human, Slime and Cockroach populations were in the billions by then. The Empire shattered, gloriously, and the war that followed lasted for over twenty years. We found ourselves isolated on the Ice Ring, holding onto the remains of civilization, armed with the best technology available to us but unable to stop the massive war. So, instead, we worked our way further into the Ice Ring.
“By the time we found the Gate to the Dead Ring the war was over, and a few hundred nations formed around the Gate network. The Blue Ring started re-populating, and the Green Ring began re-civilizing. A few of the Green Ring nations hunted us, branding our vanguard as the tyrants of the First Empire. But they were one whole Ring away, and we were too well-armed and organized to smoke out.”
“But no one died, not permanently, so what happened to the First Empire?”
“It became the Valley of Genesis, a single mega-city built around that first Gate, the place where new arrivals were dropped. They were too many to completely overthrow, so they began to serve as a sanctuary for those who wanted to escape the fighting. They’re still there today, still guarding the First Gate.”
“I see. Go on.”
“Actually, that’s the end of our story. Our little vanguard fell apart at the Gate to the Dead Ring. They were too tired, too exhausted by centuries of exploration. The Dead Ring proved to be too much for us. It was impossible to survive there without extensive infrastructure, resources and technology. We couldn’t go deeper than one or two Gates in before having to retreat. It was around then that the Five Monopolies were formed. They gathered the brightest minds, built the largest factories, and quickly took over much of the shattered economy.
“So, instead, the few of us that remained began to gather wealth. We recruited from the outer Rings, formed a small army, and began wandering the Ice Ring. We would hunt high-Class Beasts for their Gems, mine out veins of rare metals and sell the excess to the outer Rings. No one had the experience we did, so we became the only supplier of high-Class Gems for the longest time.”
“How did you sell your produce if you were hunted?”
“The Monopolies were indiscriminate. They did business with anyone. And business with them was very profitable. We always had the best weapons, the most advanced vehicles and the most durable equipment. General Utilities developed gear, just for us, that allowed a standard of comfort that we never hoped to have on the frozen wastelands of the Ice Ring.”
“Then, several nations began to realize that there was massive money in selling production rights to the Monopolies. A few sent expeditions inward, into the Ice Ring, an effort to grab new technology and resources. They quickly gained an advantage over Green and Blue Ring nations, their ventures producing profit and growth that no one else could match. Many of the expeditions formed their own nations.”
Inna opened her eyes, took her feet off the table, and set up straighter.
“One of those expeditions was called the Innovation Force. They came from one of the larger nations, cities closest to the Valley of Genesis. They had vast numbers and resources with them, so it was no surprise to anyone when they broke off and established their own colony. They called themselves the Nova. Their methods were… brutal. They raided and annihilated other expeditions. They blockaded Gate, often starving out entire settlements to gain access to their stores.”
“That was then, but that had to be hundreds of years ago!”
“Thousands. Since then the Dead Ring got colonized, then the Acid and Night Rings. The Nova changed their ways to adapt and fit into the new age. They became spy-masters, thieves that steal the newest and best developments from others, and sell the rights to the Monopolies.”
“Nasty. But I see why they’re after us. After all these years they probably smell new tech across Gates and Ringworlds.”
“And they’re very good at taking it, too. They move quickly, they strike hard, and they have the resources to reach anywhere on the Rings.”
“I see. How did they colonize the Dead Ring?”
Inna kept talking for hours, retelling centuries of change in a few hours. It was amazing to hear her stories, the memories of someone who had been there from the very start, a being who had seen and participated in millennia of history.
The wealth of information being gifted to me was staggering. Inna was both efficient and descriptive in her retelling, and her words answered many of the questions I had accumulated over my weeks on the Waste Ring.
Eventually nightfall came, and Inna excused herself. I thanked her profusely for her time, glad to have an equivalent of a historical library on my side. Then I lay back down on the couch, relaxing and letting the mass of information in my head organized. The battle between focus and comfort was won by the couch, and soon I passed out.
2 : A Function of Relative Security
Day 49
A few days later I stepped out my bunker to an entirely new sight. My eyes instantly locked on eight large shapes in the distance, clearly visible across the empty base.
I realized I was looking at massive, entirely oversized artillery guns with barrels that had to be at least fifty meters in length. They were shifting, settling down on their raised bases near the northern wall, slowly unfolding themselves into place.
Slightly south the frame of an entire building was being put up, foam-concrete and construction bots organizing the beginnings of a radar or communications dish together by an assortment of drones. The building was quite tall, the roof easily higher than Vazanklav’s perimeter walls.
Most pleasant were the three fresh RAM-Ds decorating the wall towers, closing the gaps the White Specter had created. Between them, on the walls themselves, batteries of sensors, small turrets and round domes were being installed onto freshly-built foam-concrete balconies.
My money! I realized in a panic.
“What the hell is this?” I looked around the base in awe, noting the amplified traffic. Just yesterday I had a tenth of the drones and bots I saw working today. “Jim!”
“Yes Mr. Frost?” Jim approached from somewhere behind, looking eager. His analog face was a glowing grin.
“What are those!” I pointed at the eight artillery cannons, the most grand and noticeable additions to the landscape.
“Class 5 Super-Long Artillery Multi
cannons, SLAMs for short. They fire ninety-millimeter shells…” he demonstrated the diameter with his metal hands, “…over twenty kilometers,” a gleaming finger at the sky, “- with twenty second reload times. They can fire an entire array of shells…”
“And that bunker with the oversized dish on the roof?”
“That’s the command center! A bio-computer core will be arriving tomorrow to help with defense control. We will also be digging down a few dozen meters to bury a reactor Gem to power the new defenses.”
“What new defenses!”
“The new sensors, point-defense systems, deflectors and shields around individual installations, projectors, targeting systems…”
“Did you use up all the money I left you?”
“On the initial loan deposits, Mr. Frost. The total for all this is around ten billion.”
Initial loan deposits?
I tried to grab the mech by the collar of his chest piece and drag his head down to my level to yell at, but being a strong man I instead almost lifted myself off the ground. Annoyed at the ineffectiveness of my anger I released him and rubbed my forehead in thought instead. “So, what can hurt us after all this is done?”
“Better artillery than these new SLAMs - which, mind you, is very hard to move. Attrition, too. Or a proper attack team.”
“And what are you going to do if we get hit by something meaner?”
“That’s actually something I wanted to bring up, Mr. Frost. If you have a few million more credits to spare, I could take another loan in your name and install missile sites, a set for long range attacks and another set for smaller targets. If you are feeling generous we could even order a missile fabricator.”
I slowly opened my Menu, confirmed that under a million credits remained in the wallet I gave Jim access to, and deposited five million more. That left little in the Firebolter sales wallet, and buried me further in loans.