First Line of Defence: Chapter 11 (Patreon)

Chapter 11

Days Go By.

When the President offers you an award, saying you’re too busy to accept it apparently isn’t okay. I tried.

The government flew my family out to DC for the award ceremony. They told Tee a time and place for where they would pick him up, but the vehicle never showed. He hired a private jet with my credit card, and when we had dinner with the President the night before award ceremony, he called her by her first name.

It was as awkward as it was funny.

They held the award ceremony where they did the inauguration. I expected a reasonably sized turnout, but seventeen million people showed up, making it the largest crowd in human history. People didn’t just come from out of state; they came from other countries and by the millions.

Leaders from all around the world, who no one recognize because almost all of them were new, came to offer me their nation’s highest honours. I was knighted, dukedafied, showered in medals, and made an honorary citizen of basically every nation on the planet. I was given so many awards I had no clue what I received by the end of it.

The experience was surreal and overwhelming.

And I could live a long happy life if I never repeated it.

The only good thing to come from going to DC was that was where the station design team was located, so I got to talk to them in person. My new station master knowledge from gaining special clearance for all the expansion quests had opened my eyes and we needed to talk.

“Look, you’re not listening to me,” I said, glancing around the room at the design team leaders. “A template design for transit stations doesn’t work. Stations have to be tailored to the factions around them. If those factions change, then the station has to change with them. It’s a constantly shifting battlefield that you have to keep adapting to, so don’t think about long-term effectiveness. Think about what will work now and will continue to work six months from now.”

The twelve heads of the project looked at me with confusion and awe. In their defence, I’d gone from a clueless station master to the most informed station master on the planet in the space of a day. Everyone who could still go for the full special clearance completion was now going for it.

They needed to.

The advantage it gave us was too great to pass up.

It was a complete understanding of what transit stations were, the system onboard, how the operated, how they could change, with a complex understanding of how to deal with the factions around your station. With the new knowledge, I finally understood how badly we were doing.

We were so far behind that it wasn’t funny. Tee was right, our local systems should have been feeding our stations as many resources and credits as they possibly could, but only a few stations had received a single shipment. By now, every transit station should have a quarter of the credits I did and a tenth of the resources. It was a disaster.

Harriet came to their rescue when she realised no one was going to reply. “How are they supposed to help the station masters design their stations then?”

The new knowledge I’d gained from the quest answered that question perfectly. “Efficiency. You were right that the bigger stations get the more delay time there is.”

I grabbed someone’s briefing notes, flipped them over to the blank side, and drew a three-by-three square grid.

“Imagine, the centre box is the station, and these other eight squares around it is the area that the station expands into. First, we need to know if the central station can adequately supply this expanded area. If it can, then there is nothing to worry about.”

I added another sixteen boxes around the outside, making a five-by-five grid.

“Now, when the station expands again, we need to know if the station can still supply all these new sections. If it can, but there is a time delay, we need to know if it’s more efficient to leave this area functioning at 80% or build out systems to support it.”

I added another 24 boxes around the outside, making it a seven-by-seven grid.

“It might be that at this stage, the loss of efficiency is too much to accept, and it becomes more cost-effective to expand system to help. But we don’t know. That’s what we need to find out.”

“We can’t do that,” said Randle, the head designer. “That’s mathematicians' work.”

“Then get mathematicians. Every station is going to have different efficiency problems. Those problems come first. Once we know when the problems will occur and where, you can design a station that will work for each of us, but until we know where these problems will occur, we’re going to make no ground.”

“Sir, it is incredibly time-consuming to do it this way. A template is simpler.”

“A template is simpler, but it is also how we will lose. You’ve got it in your heads that we’re all fighting on similar battlefields against different enemies. But the enemies aren’t just the enemy; they’re the battlefield. Because our enemies are different, our battlefields are different.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

I tried not to roll my eyes, them being clueless wasn’t their fault. “Okay, let me try to explain it another way. You’re trying to build a military vehicle. But this vehicle might be going to war against ground troops, tanks, bombers, fighters, or naval vessels. Depending on which one of those threats you’re fighting, you should design your vehicle differently.”

“I think I understand. But the thing is, we can design a vehicle to fight all those opponents.”

“You can, but it’s not efficient. And that lack of efficiency is what will make us lose. If you’re putting in something to counter a submarine that doesn’t exist, you’re removing something that could take out a bomber that does exist. These factions have been playing this game for millions of years. We’re not going to win. But we can last long enough to snatch all the opportunities and Tokens that we can from our sectors. In a few centuries, we can come back and actually have a chance, but right now, our only chance is to take everything that’s not nailed down and survive long enough to do it.”

Randle gave me what I’m sure he thought was a reassuring smile. “You don’t need to worry about that, Sir. We’ve got this well in hand. The army has organized and reformed. Our admirals are building our fleet and our people are training to learn how to operate them. We’re doing better than you think.”

They were deluded.

In their defence, they didn’t have any of the knowledge I did. “Answer these questions for me, please. Is my station the most advanced humanity has?”

“Yes.”

“Is it the most advanced by a long shot?”

“Well, yes.”

“My AI tells me I am in the top 5% percent for station combat power when currently compared to all the other factions. There are over ten million stations in the Game. That means 500,000 stations are in a better position than I am right now, and I am the best humanity has to offer, by a long shot. Most of our stations are in the bottom 1%. The races that know how to utilise stations correctly are all eyeing them up to take over because we’re noobs, and it will be easy. I don’t care if what I’m suggesting is time-consuming. Pick the sectors with the best stations and resources and only work on those stations. We’re going to lose sectors within the first year, so those stations are our best chance of keeping something.”

Randle swallowed. “You can’t be serious. You also don’t have the authority to make us do that.”

“I am serious. The knowledge I got from clearing my quests says I’ve got a 50% chance of losing my station this year and an 80% chance of losing it next year if nothing changes.”

The heads of the design teams glanced at each other nervously.

Randle looked ill. “I can’t implement what you suggested without approval from the joint chiefs, but I can do it for your station if you like, Sir. I’ve been ordered to assist you in any way my team or I am capable.”

“Then do it.”

***

I was staying in a hotel because the media and my new cult couldn’t be trusted. They’d broken into my apartment nine times while I was away, even with the cops watching the place. The hotel didn’t allow pets, but they waved that rule when they realized who I was. It had cost me a couple of selfies, but that was a small price to pay to have Buster with me.

I’d never wanted to be famous. Being mobbed when you were going to the store to get milk sucked. I was considering getting reconstructive surgery. The attention was so aggressive that my Dad and brothers had to move out too. They were in the neighbouring rooms. We had the whole top floor of the hotel.

“I’ve successfully cleared my fifth quest,” The Librarian said through my phone. “I’ve got a good feeling about this next one. The Folmio are a faction of builders. They don’t commit violence of any sort. They're allied with several other factions to work as engineers, so this will be less violent than the last.”

The Librarian had gone from being old and frail to a handsome young man in his prime with grey hair. Somehow, he still managed to look like he was ready to shush you at any second, though. And that much tweed on a young man looked weird, but he refused to change his style. At least without his glasses, his eyes looked normal, instead of oversized.

Most of the people who had received rejuvenation treatment hadn’t dyed their hair. The grey was the only way to tell them apart from everyone else and they wanted to stand out. They didn’t want to be mistake for someone a third their age or younger. That didn’t mean, they weren’t embracing their youth.

Retirement homes had turned into frat houses and there was a huge increase in the workforce. The pharmaceutical industry had died over night and nine out of ten hospitals had closed up shop, because there was no one to treat without obesity, heart disease, cancer, ageing, diabetes, autoimmune disorders, genetic disorders, or any of the other issues that paid their bills.

No one was complaining that they were gone.

“Daniel, how are your quests going?” Alex asked sweetly.

After Tee’s presentation, she’d asked him how he could afford his ridiculous sequin suit and he’d told her I was rich. She tried flirting with me after that. The Librarian had taken me aside and pointed out she was only interested because I was rich and famous.

The change in her personality was really messed up and I was so aware of how everyone moved and acted that I couldn’t help but see the predatory intent behind her actions. When flirting with me hadn’t worked, she’d started treating Daniel like a kid brother who needed help with everything. Trying to get to me through him, since I liked the kid way more than I did her.

Daniel hated it.

He was smart enough to see what she was doing.

“I’m done,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her.

His mother had caught him swearing at Alex. Since he wasn’t paraplegic anymore, he’d received an earful about talking respectfully to adults. I’d had to listen and pretend like I agreed with her, but Alex was really pushing the kid’s buttons.

“Your done,” Alex said, surprised.

“I screwed up the third quest, so decided to throw in the towel and went full murderhobo on their asses. I think I’m going to buy the blueprints for Morgan’s R2D2 and spam them. Their range isn’t as good as my ones, but their dungeon mobs are a lot better.”

“Daniel, we talked about this,” Alex said. “You know you shouldn’t have done that.”

“Actually, he should have,” I said, coming to his defence.

Alex scowled at me.

It was a pretty scowl. Everything she did was pretty. I hadn’t dated in a while, and the solitary confinement was leaving me with a little too much energy. She was getting hotter every time I saw her. I had this weird hate attraction thing going on, and I didn’t like it. It wasn’t healthy.

“Don’t encourage him,” she said.

“I will when he makes the right decision. He’s good at tower defence games, and smart, but he’s still twelve. Cultural information isn’t helpful if he doesn’t know how to implement it, and none of his factions will give him a liaison. Without the ability to get the station master education package, trying to clear his quests for the additional rewards is a waste of time. He made the right choice.”

“Did you think beyond the game, Morgan? Having cultural knowledge of a species has real-world applications. He could get all sorts of work with that knowledge.”

I paused. She had a point. “Okay, you’re right. I didn’t think beyond the game, but that doesn’t change anything. He needed control of his station. Now that he has it, he’s built a communication array, and Tee has given him information on his neighbours.”

“Yeah, one of them is preparing to attack me,” Daniel said. “They’re going to be in for a big surprise when they meet my R2D2s.”

“You’re about to be attacked,” Alex said, concerned.

Daniel nodded. “Not this Cycle, but the one after. The government already agreed to divert resources to my station.”

“That’s not good. Harriet said that the first estimate for an attack on your station was the 18th Cycle. Mine’s 21st.”

I ran my hand through my hair and blew out a frustrated breath. “I keep telling you, they don’t have a clue what they are talking about. They’re following their AI’s information too much. They aren’t thinking like gamers which is good in most cases, but bad in this one. We’re noobs, Alex. What do you do to noobs?”

Alex frowned, but she was thinking. Despite everything bad I had to say about her, she was a freaking genius. When she put her mind to something, she ability to strategize and reason out a problem was even greater than my own.

“You destroy them early because they’re a waste of your time,” she said. “And you take risks you wouldn’t normally take.”

“Or you toy with them,” I said. “Don’t forget, the Wargarg set up their attack so it could feed my station resources if they failed, allowing them to take over a more powerful station if their assault on my dungeon succeeded. There are going to be all kinds of strategies at play here that we’ve never encounter. That’s what makes it so much fun.”

“You and I have different definitions of fun.”

“Actually, I think we have the same definition since we are ranked number 1 and 2 in most of the same games. If our personalities matched even a little, I’d ask you out.”

She rolled her eyes, trying to appear indifferent. “Do you honestly think you have a chance?”

“I’m like the most famous and loved person on the planet. I’m beating Tom Hanks and Grumpy Cat. I’ve got a chance.”

She smirked, thinking I was flirting instead of being honest. “You’re not my type.”

“And you’re not mine, except for the whole being super-hot. But that doesn’t mean what it used to. That’s not a dig at you, by the way. I just mean anyone can change their face and body if they’ve got the Tokens, so being super-hot is more common. My cousin managed to clear a weird quest that gave him 10,000 Tokens. He went from looking like a potato to Brad Pitt in the space of a day.”

Alex sighed. “I get that. Natalia hasn’t had a single modelling job since this all happened. No one is hiring models when you can have an AI make a lifelike image for a couple of Tokens. All the major brands are now switching to copyrighted fake models. I’ve had to sell my Token’s through the exchange just to make rent.”

That comment, more or less confirmed that she’d been extorting her sister for money. Tee and I had done a little digging into Alex after she’d started flirting with me. Her sister was famous enough to have been interviewed dozens of times. Whenever they brought up Alex, her identical twin, and asked her why she wasn’t in fashion, there was a moment when you saw her true feelings. Natalia didn’t like Alex.

And if you didn’t like someone you were giving money to, then they were probably screwing you over. Our sector was only as strong as it’s weakest link and despite her talent, my gut said Alex was our weak link.

“I feel like we are getting off-topic,” The Librarian said. “But it is good to know that the communication array is as vital as we thought. And it is troubling to know that we need to prepare for attack sooner than anticipated. My station is not where it needs to be to weather this storm.”

***

“Whacha,” Simon shouted.

My hand snapped out, deflecting the karate chop aimed for my neck. I instinctively grabbed Simon’s wrist and flipped him. He went over my shoulder and slammed into the thick carpeted floor. I only just managed to stop myself shattering his arm and delivering a blow that would have killed him instantly.

“Will you stop doing that!” I shouted at him, terrified for his safety. “I nearly killed you.”

Simon groaned, cradling his arm to his chest.

Peter chuckled from the other side of the suites living room. “He’s trying to win back his number two spot. I said I’d give it back if he could hit you when you weren’t paying attention.”

I glared at him. “You have no idea how dangerous that is. I can literally kick both of your asses with one hand tied behind my back while blindfolded.”

Peter snorted. “I call bullshit.”

“It’s not bullshit! He was in actual danger.”

“You willing to bet on it?”

That caught my attention, and I had to fight the urge to grin. I was concerned for Simon, but family love wasn’t as strong as sibling rivalry. “What are we betting?”

Simon groaned again.

Peter laughed. “Your choice.”

I smiled. “If I win, I get the number one spot, and you have two have to answer to Bitch Peter and Bitch Simon. If I lose, I take the fourth spot after Buster and have to answer to Bitch Morgan.”

“For a month.”

“A year.”

Peter grinned. “Deal. Simon get up. We got a butt whooping to deliver.”

Fifteen minutes later, Dad came back from walking Buster. He looked around the trashed hotel room at the mess we’d made. I probably should have stipulated they weren’t allowed to use weapons. It didn’t change anything, of course. It just made a much bigger mess and resulted in a lot of destroyed furniture.

I gave Bitch Peter another ice pack.

“It hurts to breathe,” he said, looking at Dad for sympathy. “It’s not supposed to hurt to breathe. I’m sure he broke something.”

“It’s just bruising,” I reassured him.

“Lots and lots of bruising,” Bitch Simon moaned.

Dad shook his head as he took Buster off his lead. “Your mother would have all our hides if she knew you were wrestling inside.”

Being the kind, considerate soul he is, Buster came over and licked my brothers mercilessly. When he realized they couldn’t move, his affection became more aggressive. He loved licking people’s faces.

They both groaned.

***

The design team hadn’t messed around. They’d taken everything I’d said onboard, and if they hadn’t done it for everyone, they had at least done it for me. That still took them several weeks, though. The new design for my station was significantly bigger than the old version.

To start with, the new inner ring was the size of the original design for the outer ring. And the two rings around the central station were much wider and taller. The inner ring had space for a massive hanger bay and ammunition depos. The five arches above and below the outer ring were much bigger at the base, because the outer ring would eventually need space for additional systems. The central station could only supply the first ring.

The new design had replaced the hologram of the station, in my command room, as we went over the details.

I leaned back into my command chair. “How much is this going to cost me, Tee?”

“That depends. Are you planning on building this gigantic monstrosity all at once or in stages?”

“Just tell me.”

“The total cost for everything is 8,555,489 RP, but you can build the skeleton of the inner ring for the 550,000 RP.”

“What do mean by the skeleton of the inner ring?”

“The R9 heavy railguns, require a lot of structural reinforcement. I’ve stripped away that reinforcement, because you don’t have the resources, but you can safely build your R2D2’s on the inner ring.”

The size of the station I could build was simply massive, and the rest of humanity was a long way away from being able to do this. Even if I could only build R2D2s on the inner ring, that would still make my station unstoppable. The inner ring could hold twenty-five thousand of them.

I pulled up the station's current information.

Station Name: The CrucibleLevel: 2Armor: 60Energy Shield: 17,000/17,000Damaged Systems: 0%Resource Points: 869,885Credits: 3,087,350 Station Systems:

-L2 Phoenix Reactor: 6400E  -Secondary Phoenix Reactor: 6400E-L1 Sensor Array-L1 Communication Array -L1 Reprocessing Facility-L1 Weapons Fabricator-L1 Structural Fabricator-L2 Missile Fabricator:-L2 Hangar Bay

Defence Slot: 100/10,000 (Current Structure Max)

-L2 D2: 50

Station Development Weapons:

-L2 R2: 17 -L2 D2: 5-L2 Missile Battery: 1  -Hammerheads: 17  -Predator: 5-R9: 1

It turned out the energy shield wasn’t as helpful as I thought it would be. Unlike armour, it did behave like health, and any fleet would take it out with their first volley. Its primary purpose was to save me from a surprise attack, but even with Alex’s phoenix reactor, it would be tough to restore it quickly.

“Will the Wargarg sensor scrambler cover the outer ring, Tee?”

“No. You’ll need to level it significantly to do that. Your new reactor produces enough energy to expand the effects to the edge of the first ring.”

“Build the sensor scrambler and then 450 D2s on the station. Once that’s done, we’ll build the inner ring and another 2500 D2s. The inner ring can hold 25,000 of them, so I want them spread out evenly. It’s time to start power leveling. I need to be level 30 for when the Kilocksin challenge my station in a few Cycles.”

“I’m going to assume that you want me to build this in stages. Otherwise, you could find the station overrun by the quest mobs. I shouldn’t have to remind you that the internal turrets weren’t strong enough to take out those weird brain creatures the communication array’s build quest spawned.”

I paused.

In my excitement, I may have forgotten that part. The brains hadn’t been all that powerful, but they had the annoying ability to control the mobs in their general area and debuff everything that tried to attack them. I’d was dizzy for the entire fight.

System build quests were definitely more challenging than the weapon build quests. It was partly because their effect was more significant, but it was also to make up for the fact that they didn’t spawn mobs, only augment the ones you already had.

Ever since I’d made the communication array, the station rats had been working in groups. They called out to each other constantly too. It made me wonder what other changes they would go through.

“Of course, we are doing it in waves,” I said. “I’d have to be an idiot to do it all at once.”

“Good, activating the sensor scrambler array build quest.”

***

The sensor scrambler array turned out to be a problem. It spawned some sort of predator like mob. It was an invisible natural hunter that was heavy on stealth and close-quarter combat. It was also huge.

“It took out the squad,” Tee shouted. “They’re in pieces. But they manage to tag it. Its cloaking system is gone. My turrets are also gone. But it’s coming towards you.”

An eleven-foot lion man charged around the corner at the other end of the corridor. He was bleeding from his side and carrying a pair of scimitars.

I shot him in the eye. The eyeball burst, but the shot didn’t kill him. He roared with pain fuelled fury, so I shot the other eye. That didn’t kill him either, but he was blind. That didn’t slow him down though. He kept running towards me.

I unloaded my particle pistol, trying to drill a hole through his skull. He raised his arm, taking the shots on the forearm. Minor flesh wounds appeared along the muscle.

I suddenly missed being a higher level. My particle pistol had been awesome. When I ran out of shots, I holstered the pistol and charged. The lion man had a dagger on his waist that I could use to take him out.

The moment I started running, he noticed. He turned its head ever so slightly to hear my approach better. As the gap closed, I realized this guy might know how to fight better than anything else I’d faced.

Cool.

Fighting my brother blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back and winning had boosted my confidence. I was beginning to trust my gut when it said I could do something. The reason I hadn’t been trusting it until now, was it said I could do a lot of absurd things. And with each passing Cycle, it said I could do a few more. My skills hadn’t stopped growing ever since I’d been moderated.

The moment I came within arm’s reach, lion man lashed out, bringing both scimitars forward in a wide double slash that covered the largest area. It was an intelligent attack for someone fighting blind. Old Morgan would have been sliced and diced by the attack.

Actually, Old Morgan would have run because there was no chance, he could win this.

New Morgan stayed half an inch outside his range, and then flowed around the blades like he was a damn Chinese martial arts movie master, spinning past, drawing lion man’s dagger, and cutting his achilleas tendon all in one poetically beautiful motion, before stepping out of range again. New Morgan was badass.

Without solid footing, I took the lion man apart in less than ten seconds, ending the fight by leaping off the corridor wall and bringing his stolen dagger down in the middle of his forehead.

“Damn,” Tee said. “That was a solid 5/7.”

“You’re not funny.”

“I’ll have you know Buster thinks I’m hilarious.”

I yanked the dagger out of the mob's head, exposing the bloody electronics, and then picked up his scimitars. I could keep them. I couldn’t repair them, but until they broke, I could use them. The scimitars looked like oversized anime swords in my hands, but the material was incredibly light weight so I could fight with them effectively.

“Are there any more of those things onboard?”

I dropped the second scimitar and pivoted, swinging the other one as fast as I could. The invisible lion man sneaking up behind me found his upper body separated from his lower as he became visible. I side-stepped the dagger heading for me and gave his upper body a kick watching it tumble backward.

“Okay, that was better than the last kill. Also, I think they come in threes.”

Tee had been trying to get me killed. His last line came as the third one tried to cleave me in half. I was already moving, though. The third one went the way of the other two.

I started to grin as I heard more running towards me.