First Line of Defence: Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Chapter 4

Do You Want to Build a Station?

Forty-five gruelling hours later, I came to lying inside the regeneration chamber having bled out after I killed the last of the station rats. The network of maintenance corridors and crawl spaces were a complex mishmash without any symmetry or comfort. There were service elevators to some of the station’s main systems, but not to others, which continually confused me. Thankfully, there were multiple ways to reach every system on the station, except the dungeon. The only way into that was through my control room.

All the back and forth running would have made my job impossible in the timeframe I had to work with, but if I got the rats to chase me to the regeneration chamber, they stayed in the area when they killed me.

Even without pain, this had been one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. It was nonstop running, shouting, and dying. Forcing yourself to stand there and get stabbed, even when you know it’s not going to hurt or kill you is not as simple as it sounds. You have to ignore your survival instincts. And I’d been doing it for so long, my brain was telling me to get out there and start running, find a rat, and let it kill me.

A notification floated in front of me.

Congratulations, your Station Master class has reached level 5.

You have 2 Path Points to spend.

You have 15 Class Points to spend.

I hadn’t spent the path point I got from the control room quest, because all I’d been doing was dying over and over again, and increasing my other paths wasn’t that helpful in this situation. However, the points I’d been getting from leveling had immediately gone into my station development path, which was what I did when I saw the notification.

Your Station Development path is level 5.

You have unlocked Internal Turrets. You receive one additional internal turret for each path point in the station development path.

You have unlocked Dungeon Turrets. You receive one additional dungeon turret for every five points in the station development path.

“I’ve got good news,” Tee said, cheerfully. “These internal turrets aren’t stationary. I can deploy them wherever I like and then redeploy them somewhere else, as long as they’re not damaged. That’s going to be a major help with station maintenance.”

That was good news.

I was insanely underqualified.

“How effective are they?”

“They’re better than your sidearm. I could have cleared most of the level 1 rats with just these five turrets.”

“What about the level 10 ones?”

“I’ll get back to you.”

Of course, it couldn’t be that easy.

Nothing was that easy.

Tee hadn’t gained full internal sensors until I’d invested three points in the station development path. I’d run around so many corners only to suddenly die that it had added hours to the whole leveling process. None of this was fun. But I couldn’t take back my choice now. I was stuck with it.

And there was too much resting on me for me to give up or half-ass it. Whatever they were doing to me to make me think this was all normal was affecting how I viewed my class. I couldn’t view this as a game. I couldn’t detach myself from what I was doing. This felt like life and death.

Since I wasn’t immediately going to die this time, I got dressed and made my way to the control room. Tee opened the automatic door as I approached, letting me into the barren little grey room.

I sat in my chair and looked around.

The control console had no buttons for me to push. It was a flat slab of steel in the shape of a C. I wanted buttons. Buttons like bowties were cool. The chair also wasn’t the most comfortable. It was too straight.

I’d put off learning anything else for the last day and a half, so I wasn’t distracted while I leveled the rats, but now I needed to finish getting up to speed. “What are class points used for, Tee?”

“They allow you to improve individual systems beyond their technological limits.”

“That’s a bit vague.”

“If your faction gathered all the necessary resources and technology, they could theoretically build a stationary fortress that would look identical to your transit station. However, your class points are what make replicating a transit stations destructive capabilities impossible, because the class point upgrades allow systems on your station to go beyond their technological limits.”

“And they do that how?”

“If the upgrade says the missile will be 10% faster, it just means that whatever version of missile you’re upgrading will have a limiter on their speed removed.”

“So, we’re given weapons that are capable of doing more, except they won’t unless we have the right upgrades.”

“If you think about it for a second, you will realise it’s the easiest way to make something like that possible.”

He had a point. “Can other classes do this?”

“Special classes have the ability to upgrade technology beyond normal limits, but these classes aren’t common. I’ll explain more as it becomes necessary. For now, you know enough to move on.”

A holographic display appeared in front of me with a resource read to my right. My mood started to improve. Who needed buttons when you had holograms?

Station Name: Unnamed Level: 1Armour: 0Damaged Systems: 0%Resource Points: 100Credits: 0 (In debt)

Station Systems:-L1 Station Reactor: 1 100E-L1 Sensor Array: 1-L1 Weapons Fabricator: 1-L1 Structural Fabricator: 1-L1 Reprocessing Facility: 1

Defence Slot:  0/20

Station Development Path

External Weapons:

-R2: 5-D2: 1

Internal Weapons:

-Turret: 5 Dungeon Weapons:

-Turret: 1

“Right now, your station is basic,” Tee said. “It would be defenceless, but you chose the station development path, so you have a few weapons. As you saw from your notifications, you seem to get an R2 for every station development path point you invest, and an D2 for every three. Once factions start attacking the station, you’ll develop rapidly, but until that happens, it’s going to be much slower than it should be.”

“Why?”

“The honest answer is, your faction doesn’t have clue what their doings, so they can’t support you the way they should. Normally, they would pump as many credits and resources as they could through your station as trade, because a powerful station is better than a fleet, but they aren’t going to be doing that because they’re noobs.”

“Oh.”

“Exactly. For now, I’ll keep this simple. All you really need to know is that you have no armour, which means anything can damage your station. In fact, your station is weaker than it should be. But you’re also leveling faster than you should be.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let me start by saying, every faction is different. However, normally station masters don’t level independent of their station. Every time their level goes up so does the stations. Your station hasn’t leveled despite you being level 5, which means your faction has probably been given a tutorial of some sort. That’s probably where the expand control quest comes in. You don’t usually get independent quests you don’t initiate as a station master. So, when you do, you need to pay attention. Also, almost all quests like this will have secret quests attached to them that give additional special clearance rewards. These rewards can be massive, but because the rewards are massive, you normally have to do things the hard way to compensate. The tutorial is probably why your station sucks so much.”

This sounded like I was playing against a stacked deck. “They don’t make it easy, do they?”

“I hate to break it to you, but this is easy mode.”

“This is easy mode?”

“There are members of species that have been playing the Game for over a million years. They’re so old that they’ve literally watched their species evolve into something different. That’s why they give new factions all sorts of starter benefits, even though most still don’t survive the first 100 Cycles. It’s only in your second season of playing the game that a species has an actual chance. It takes centuries for a faction to build up the necessary skillset to succeed.”

“You would still think they would give us some time to adjust.”

“A long time ago, they tried to give new factions a century to learn how to play before introducing them. It didn’t help enough to make a significant difference, so they eventually just decided to let factions fail the first time. It’s like the first time you play any new game. Almost everyone is going to suck at it. Or spend ages running around not knowing what to do. Except if they’ve played something similar, that’s where you and the other station masters come in.”

“I guess.” I wasn’t that enthusiastic about my ability to defend my station anymore.

Tee seemed to notice my mood because he changed the subject. “Anyway, your reactor is useless. And you only have 20 defence slots to work with, which isn’t a lot, but that’s okay because you also only have 2 weapons. I assume you will gain access to others later on.”

“What are my weapon choices?”

“You’ve already seen them. There is the R2 point defence railgun which costs 10 resource points or RP to build. It’s for shooting down missiles and fighters and produces an additional station rat each time you build one. The D2 is your other option. It’s the weakest light railgun I’ve ever seen but gives 3 rats. It costs 50 RP though which is a lot of RP for something that weak.”

Put together the two weapons made R2D2, which would be the sort of thing I’d named them if they were designed to be one system. “Did my AI clone name them?”

“AI clone?”

“The AI that saw my memories.”

“Yes. It named these ones, but not others for some reason.”

Excitement filled me. It was leaving me breadcrumbs. I just had to follow them to understand what it thought I should do. “Is there a way to merge them or for them to work together?”

“There’s an upgrade for the D2 which gives them an R2 to provide point defence, or you can build them next to each other.”

The latter wasn’t something I’d typically do. “Can I get a look at their stats?”

Name: R2Level: 1Designation: Point Defence RailgunDamage: 1-3Rate of fire: 30 rounds per second Range: 1 unitAccuracy: 1 units

Name: D2Level: 1Designation: Light Railgun Damage: 30-90Rate of fire: 1/60 sec Range: 30 units Accuracy: 30 unitsEnergy Consumption: 10E

This information wasn’t particularly helpful. “How do range and accuracy work?”

“The distance to the transit rings from your station is currently 100 units. The D2 can at shoot anything that is within 30 units, which is bad because it means anyone can currently move freely between transit rings without you being able to do anything to stop them. As for accuracy, that is the range at which your weapon will hit where it’s aiming 100% of the time. That doesn’t mean it will hit, only that it will hit where it was aiming. These are railguns, so they fire rounds, and those take time to move through space. Ships can and will get out of the way.”

That wasn’t good. “What’s the usual range form weapons on enemy ships?”

“This early in the game it’s around 25 units, but it can get as high as 35 unit.”

Based on the weapon’s my AI clone had designed, it had decided not to defend Earth’s transit ring. Either that or the cost of defending the transit ring was so high that it would have led to immediate failure. “How does damage work?”

“Damage indicates whether or not your railgun can get through a vessels armour or shield. Ships don’t have health, so it doesn’t correlate to how many hit points you take off, only whether or not your weapons can harm them. You might hit a ship straight on and miss all its critical systems and have it come away damaged but entirely functional, or you might give it a glancing blow and take out something important. The former doesn’t usually happen with railguns. Rounds that penetrate the hull tend to cause a concussive wave because of the speed they’re traveling. The concussive wave will take out most of the internal systems unless they’re reinforced, which will probably happen once they realize your species is using railguns.”

“So as long as my weapons damage is greater than their armour, I should be able to do something.”

“Pretty much, except your damage is low, so that might not matter.”

“Why is there a variance in the damage amount?”

“The closer their armour rating is to your weapons max damage, the more effective it becomes at redirecting energy. Think of it like this. You’ve got two curved shields. One’s made of Styrofoam, and the other is made from steel. You shoot both with a handgun. The Styrofoam is never going to cause a ricochet, but the steel might. The closer the armour rating is to your max damage, the more likely you will receive a ricochet.”

So, I had a weapon that only worked at close range, which might ricochet if I hit them. I had no idea what the AI clone was thinking. What play style it might be going for. I needed more information.

“What’s up with the energy consumption and what does E mean?”

“E stands for energy. Currently, the reactor your AI clone designed only produced 100E which is the lowest energy output that can still be classified as a station reactor. Thankfully, your R2s have an internal micro reactor, so they don’t draw on the station. However, your D2 uses 10E when it’s active and that is a lot for a weapon that weak. Power is going to be a real problem for you.”

“But not now,” I said, trying to be optimistic, despite what seemed like mounting problems. “What can the weapons do?”

“Like I said, the R2 is only useful against missiles and fighters. Nothing else needs to come that close to the station to attack it. The D2 is your only legitimate weapon, but it has a slow rate of fire, poor damage, low range, and horrible power consumption. Its only not horrible part is that its accuracy is equal to its range. Your weapons suck, but to compensate for this much suck, your AI clone designed one of the most versatile dungeon mobs I’ve ever heard of. It’s called an immortal soldier and I think it’s where the majority of your construction budget went.”

This was potentially interesting. “What’s so special about it?”

“They respawn.”

“That might mean something if I knew anything about a dungeon.”

A holographic projection of a room with six soldiers appeared above the control console. There was a corridors on either side of the room, like the corridor in my station. They were using steel crates for cover, but the crates didn’t look that strong.

A bear entered the room wearing a suit of Ironman armour. The soldiers raised their rifles and opened fire. Their shots bounced off its armour as the bear leapt on the nearest soldier and ripped him apart. Half a second later, the same soldier ran into the room and started firing, while other soldiers pulled grenades and leapt on the bear. A second later they all died in an explosion, and half a second after that six soldiers ran into the room again.

The hologram vanished.

“You’re stations external weaponry, and your dungeon mobs are connected. Each time you design a new external weapon, you will also design a new dungeon mob that goes with it. This connection means that when you build an external weapon, you gain a new dungeon mob or upgrade an existing one.”

“Do I get to choose if I gain another one or the existing ones get stronger?”

“Yes. Your dungeon has a limit to how many mobs you can have in there at once. It’s based on your stations level, so you can play around with how many of each sort you have. The minimum number is always one for any weapon system you’ve built. When the AI designed the D2, they created the immortal soldier. Each immortal soldier can respawn up to three times. Their respawn rate is tied to how many station rats the D2 produces for some reason.”

If I limited the number of immortal soldiers that spawned in the dungeon, then I would have a large supply of powerful dungeon mobs. Clearly, the AI clone thought the dungeon was my biggest weakness and everything was designed to shore up this weakness.

By calling them immortal soldiers, he was telling me that these were what was going to keep my dungeon safe. By naming the R2 and D2 weapons systems after R2D2, he was telling me that this weapon system was going to be with me long term, because R2D2 survived to the end, and was helpful the entire time. This was definitely the sort of thing I would do.

“Tee, do I have access to any other weapons?”

“No, but you can build several other system in the station.”

“Do any of those systems have interesting names?”

“No.”

That meant my starting plan was to spam D2s. “Is this as bad as it seems?”

“It’s almost as bad as it seems. Your station development path has given you five R2s and a single D2. None of these draw on your station's power supply, so you’re not completely defenceless. I think you need to use class points to upgrade the D2s into something that isn’t complete trash.”

“Show me how to upgrade them.”

A prompt appeared.

D2 Enhancements

Damage +10%0/10Cost: 1

Rate of Fire +10%0/10Cost: 1

Range +10%0/10Cost: 1

Accuracy +10%0/10Cost: 1

Power Consumption -5%0/10Cost: 1

Double Barrel X20/2Cost: 10

Internal Reactor +.5E0/10Cost: 10Point Defence +R20/1Cost: 500

Explosive Rounds0/1Cost: 10

The cost for a bunch of these upgrades were incredibly low. They also turned the D2s into something that wasn’t utter garbage. “Tee, would my AI clone have known these upgrade costs?”

“Yes. Before you create a weapon, you can see what sort of upgrades come with it and how much they cost.”

“How long does it take for upgrades to take effect.”

“They’re instantaneous.”

“How do the upgrade costs scale?”

“Multiply the original cost, by which upgrade you’re on. So, if the first one only costs one then the third one will cost three.”

The weapon I’d designed was looking less and less like trash. And more and more like they were designed for someone who couldn’t kill a level 1 rat.

“Are you going to upgrade the D2?” Tee asked.

“Not yet. I’ll wait until it’s necessary.”

“With your debt, it’s probably going to be necessary. Also, your station currently only has 20 defence slots. To increase that number you need to clear the expansion quest. But if I’m being honest, I don’t think you will be able to clear the quest the station generates for you, which means you’re going to have to wait until you’re a higher level and I have more internal turrets.”

I didn’t like that. “What about the special clearance reward you mentioned?”

“I say this with as little sarcasm as I can manage, but you can’t kill a level 1 station rat, so special clearance is beyond you. Since you’re going to have to wait to clear the expansion quest, you won’t have more defence slots than you currently have.”

My mind was in turmoil from being killed so many times. It hadn’t been like actual dying. There wasn’t any trauma associated with my death. But I’d been so focused on running and dying for so long that I didn’t want to slow down and think. But I needed to.

I took a breath and tried to practice mindfulness. Breathing in and out, focusing on being present. It helped.

In a few minutes, I was calmer. “How many defence slots do the R2 and D2 take?”

“R2 requires one and the D2 requires two.”

I started thinking about my problem.

I had a station that could field a maximum of ten D2s. Railguns that were apparently shit but better than the R2 since they could damage larger vessels. I had a mountain of debt to pay back, so much debt that if I didn’t die, it would take more than 100 Cycles to repay it. I had very few options, so I had to make the ones I did have count.

I frowned. “When do you think I’ll be ready to do the expansion quest?”

“It’s not you who will be ready for the quest. It’s your internal turrets.”

“Fine, when will the turrets be ready?”

“Well, you received them when you reached five path points in your station development path, so they might upgrade when you reach ten. But it might not happen until fifteen path. And I wouldn’t want to try the quest before the turrets could take care of the level 10 rats without having to worry. Right now, you have to worry. I’m still trying to work out how many I can kill before they all get destroyed. It might be a long time before you’re ready to tackle the quest.”

“Okay, so the quest is too hard until I’m level 10 or 15.”

“The quest isn’t too hard. It’s just too hard for you. The station master of any other faction would walk through without any trouble. You can barely shoot something at arm’s length, so this is a you problem, not a quest problem. But at level 15, we should definitely get an upgrade for the turret systems, which will be enough to take care of the quest for you.”

Tee wasn’t mocking me. He was just stating facts, so I didn’t take offense. “Can I build the R2s and then replace them with D2s as I gain more resources?”

“Not until you’ve got full control of the station and even then, it will take time and you will lose resources.”

“Give me two D2s then.”

“On it. Wow, that’s cool. The D2 quest generated twenty-five level 1 station rats each when you throw the switch.”

“You didn’t know that?”

“I don’t know everything.”

“Can I level them?”

“You can. I wouldn’t though. Having to repay 1,000,000 credits for 500 experience is terrible exchange.”

I did some maths in my head. “If I level the rats for every D2, it will only take two more Cycle to reach level 10 instead of three. If my faction can’t put together enough credits to repay my original debt, then adding more doesn’t matter.”

“You make a valid point, ma'am.”

Tee clearly didn’t agree with my strategy, but he didn’t have a counter argument, so he was insulting me. “I’ll have you know I’m a miss. I’m far too young to be a ma’am.”

“You need to moisturize more then. You can do that while you’re completing the quest. These are D2’s so the quest is basic. You just need to go to the power junction and throw the switch. The station rats will spawn after you’ve thrown the switch, and then you can level them to 10.”

I climbed to my feet and started running. “Just tell me where I have to go.”

Tee gave me directions, and I ran through the station, following the ramp up one floor. I ended up in a nondescript corridor that looked like all the others. Everything was made from steel panelling and smelled heavily of welded metal.

“Now walk forward five meters and open the middle maintenance panel on the wall to your right,” Tee said.

The section of wall looked the same as the others. “How do I do that?”

“You see how the walls are separated into three rectangular panels?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, tap each corner of the panel in a counterclockwise order and it will open.”

I did what he said, touching all four points. The steel was surprisingly cold, despite how warm the corridor was.

The panel popped out two inches and then slid up the wall. There was no visible mechanism to make that happen. It was floating. Behind the panel, nothing made sense. There was a bioorganic root system that glowed with a gentle blue light. The roots were wrapped around square pipes that looked like they were covered in hieroglyphs.

I blinked, but the view didn’t change. “What the hell am I looking at?”

“That’s Peacekeeper tech, and I have absolutely no idea how it works. But it’s what makes the Game possible. You see those gel-covered roots dangling from the square pipe second from the top.”

“Yeah.”

“Good, now there should be some loose roots attached to the pipe third from the bottom directly below it. You just need to lift them up and touch them together. They will intertwine automatically.”

“This isn’t throwing a switch.”

“It’s the Peacekeeper equivalent to throwing a switch.”

“It’s still not throwing a switch.”

“Fine, if you want me to be more accurate. Morgan, gentle caress the station's lubricated internal root system with your fingers and delicately intertwine them with their partner so that the climax of this quest can be met with a sensual, fulfilling, and satisfying ending.”

I paused, a little uncomfortable. “So, I just throw the switch.”

“Just throw the switch.”

***

The rats the construction quest generated appeared all over the station which led to a lot of running, but I eventually died enough to reach level six.

Congratulations, your Station Master class has reached level 6.

You have 2 Path Points to spend.

You have 21 Class Points to spend.

Unlike my path points, which I only increased by one each level, my class points increased by the same number as my current level. With the low upgrade cost for the D2, dying over and over seemed like the right strategy for me. It was creepy how accurately the clone AI knew me.

I used the new path point for my station development path and watched as a notification appeared. I gained one more of every weapon type, but nothing new, so I dismissed the notification and went back to work.

***

I had over a day left before the 1st Cycle was over, and I was sitting in my control room, ready to learn more. Leveling the rats had caused them to grow strong enough to destroy Tee’s internal turrets. And he was a bit peeved at how easily they could do that if he didn’t pay attention.

I adjusted my sitting position a few time, trying to get comfortable. It didn’t help. The chair was too straight. After a couple more attempts, I gave up. “So, who am I fighting?”

A hologram appeared in front of me, showing the barren station and the seven transit rings. One began to glow red. The map was quickly joined by a grey skinned octopus with eight eyes.

“I’m going to go in order of importance and the most immediate threat to your survival. The 3rdtransit ring leads to the Octorin faction. They’re your first problem. They use swarm tactics. Expect them to send a large swarm of octopus shaped drones within the first thirty Cycles. They do not engage in combat themselves, so you don’t need to worry about them invading your dungeon. They’ll try to rush this station as early as possible. If their first attempt fails, they’ll wait until they have created a big enough swarm to destroy this station and begin conquering another faction, before trying again. While they built up for their second attack, they’ll trade through your station quite a lot. If you survive their first attempt, they’ll become great neighbours. Or they would if you weren’t going to lose your credits to paying off your debt.”

The red glow faded from their ring and moved two rings to the right. A reptilian humanoid replaced the Octorin. Its pebbled green skin sat tight against a body muscled like a gorilla. Its features reminded me of a komodo dragon, but one that had been hitting the gym and doing a lot of steroids. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on it.

“The 5th transit ring leads to the Kilocksin faction, who is your second problem. They are a war-loving clan-based society. They like to fight and are very good at it. However, the fragmented nature of their society means they never unify and actually have a great deal of infighting. They will be the first to challenge your dungeon simply so they can brag to their people that they were the first to attack you. They will also be the first to attack your station. These attacks will be about status, skill, and bravery, so they shouldn’t succeed. Once they have made their initial attacks, they will attack you sporadically whenever they get bored or have something to prove. It’s useful to know that they normally don’t last past the early stages of the Game. But their chaotic nature makes them hard to defend a station against. They might attack with a single ship or ten thousand.”

The red glow shifted left to the 4thtransit ring. A skeletal thin minotaur creature with pink pig-like skin stretched over emaciated bones appeared beside it. It looked undead.

“This is the Horde. They are going to be a problem. They are an extremely territorial herd species. They will be your biggest issue if you survive the other two factions. Their species excels at alloys, so they use heavy vessels with good armour. Their territorial nature means they will keep coming until they control the station. They hate anything near their territory. Most species build up defences on their side of the transit ring. The Horde don’t. They like to be mobile. They’ll keep a fleet on the other side of their ring, so they can counterattack whenever a species moves to attack their station. They don’t expand their territory once it’s connected, but they aggressively defend it. Your station is considered too close for their liking.”

The red shifted to the 6thring. An armadillo-like humanoid appeared in front of me.

“These are the Uon and your fourth problem. They are going to fuck you up if you survive long enough. You aren’t going to see their forces at all until they’re ready to conquer the galaxy. They’ll even trade through your station if the price is right. They have these massive battleships they like to build that are basically planet killers. Your only hope of not being destroyed is making your station powerful enough that it’s cheaper and easier for them to conquer the galaxy by attacking a different station. They’re very good at resource management.”

The red glow shifted to the 2ndring. An insect version of a centaur appeared in front of me.

“These are the Clack. You know the story The Three Billy Goats Gruff? Well, these guys embody it. They will send escalating waves against you, each one stronger than the last until they succeed. This is more dangerous for your dungeon than your station as their raiders can grow stronger more quickly. But they’re also incredibly predictable as an instinct-driven hive race. Any questions?”

I had a lot of questions.

“Let me make sure I understand. The Kilocksin will attack me first, but it’s only going to be a token gesture. The Clack will attack me second and potentially third. The Octorin will attack me next, and if they fail, I won’t have to worry for a long time. The Horde will probably attack me after that, but once they start, they are going to be super aggressive, so I have to be ready for them. The Uon will win if they attack me, but they won’t attack me for a long time, and I can stop them by making myself too strong to bother with. How long is a long time?”

“At least a decade by Earth time,” Tee said.

The amount of time shocked me. “Wait, how long does a season of the Game go for?”

“It depends. Whenever a new species is introduced, a new season begins. The last one was introduced 348 years ago, Earth time. That’s about normal.”

“How long before the first attack again?”

“Probably five months, but I said four in case the Kilocksin try to rush here. But that would be ridiculous. Their faction will have quests that need to be cleared, similar to what you’ve going through on your station. Also, their ship construction capabilities will be limited until they build up. If they ignore that, they’ll put themselves behind, but some young idiots might come here earlier for the bragging rights. It happens more often than not. Their young are hot-headed for a cold-blooded species.”

“What about the faction through the 7th ring?”

“That’s an AI faction. It’s their job to cause trouble. They don’t have a racial profile like the other factions, and I haven’t skimmed enough information to have a good view of what they will be like yet. They could be militaristic, or they could be a trading faction. I don’t know. Hopefully, I will know more in a few days game time.”

“Okay, how can Earth help me?”

“They can do large amounts of trading through your station to give you credits and resources, and they can send a fleet to another faction’s transit ring when you’re attacked. While Earth’s fleet is passing through the transit area, they’ll be able to attack the fleet that is attacking you, but they’ll have to go through the transit ring and then turn around and come back. If the faction on the other side of the ring doesn’t like them, they might obliterate them. It’s risky unless you have a lot of military might, or a friendly faction nearby, or have two sectors that connect to a single station. So, assume you’re on your own.”

“I can do that. What’s the plan?”

“There’s no plan, beyond studying. It’s going to take you four more Cycles to build all the D2s and you may or may not be able to finish your expansion quest before then. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“How does a station even survive to late game if this is all we get when we start?”

“Normally, your faction would throw all the resources and credits that your local system produces through your station as trade to help your station grow. A strong station is a better defence than a local fleet most of the time. The resources your station produce is actually intended to only be enough for general repairs and maintenance. It isn’t meant to be used for expansion. So, you’re going to need another plan or a lot of luck.”