First Line of Defence: Chapter 17 (Patreon)

Chapter 17

Oh Yeah, I Have a Dungeon.

The Octorin swarm was a little over three hours away from reaching the transit ring, and the Horde was still headed for my station, so being grilled by General Winston, a Brit and fellow station master, wasn’t exactly the best use of my time. Except, I needed the other station masters to understand what had happened, because some of their reactions were so wrong that it would cause trouble if they didn’t change their thinking fast. So, I had to let him vent to calm down.

The general was glaring at me and red in the face, but every word he spoke held no trace of anger.

I needed to learn how to do that.

“You have expressed your interests in fostering a relationship with the Kilocksin clan in your neighbouring system, Mr. Mars. It is a relationship that would potentially supply Sector 13 with a fallback point in the future, so why did you fire on the Kilocksin fleet?”

I took a slow breath and forced away my grin.

Damn, this was fun, but I had to pretend like I was a responsible adult and not a wild lunatic getting to blow up alien spaceships while calling it a career for a few minutes.

I’m not sure anyone bought it.

“Kilocksin don’t view treaties the way we do,” I said carefully. “Alliances are done in the spirit of an alliance, not the letter of it. We don’t have an alliance yet. We have mutual respect for each other’s strength. Strength is important to them, but more important is actions, a warrior’s spirit, and most important of all is being polite and respectful, even to an enemy. We’re respected enemies working towards friendship in their minds. They came to help me, which was polite and respectful and showed they were interested in working towards friendship. In return, I didn’t target their ships which was polite and respectful and showed I was serious about working towards friendship as well. Then they stopped being polite by not giving assistance and targeting the Horde’s thrusters when they could have. If they were human, you could argue that they had done more than enough, but they aren’t human. What they did was not polite or respectful. It was not the actions of someone working towards friendship. They treated me like an enemy, using me tactically to deal with their other enemies. By only destroying half their cruisers when they knew I could have destroyed all of them, I was being polite and respectful. I was behaving like an enemy working towards friendship. I was reminding them of my intent while showing a warrior's spirit. Try to remember their ways are not our ways.”

But damn, their ways were fun.

General Winston frowned. “They were testing you?”

“Perhaps, or their commander might just be a rude prick. By being polite, he was left with no smart option but to be polite back. He would’ve received a much harsher reprimand from his clan if he had lost all of his cruisers for his attitude. Unless his mission is successful, he’s still going to be in a lot of trouble back home. Being rude is acceptable under certain circumstances in their society, but being so rude that it interferes with your ability to fight properly shows you aren’t leadership material. But if this was a test like you said, then I probably passed with flying colours.”

A Japanese admiral named Hiroshi cleared his throat before he came to my rescue. “I have a Kilocksin liaison myself. His Royal Highnesses’ actions were perfectly aligned with their upper warrior classes behaviour. They’re viewing him like a potential Warlord. Warlords are highly respected in Kilocksin society because they’re considered forces of nature. It is said that it is best to stand behind another clan’s Warlord than in front of. The implication is you work with a Warlord, or you’re destroyed. If his Royal Highness achieves this status, they will be humanity's ally so long as his station remains. His title of Ma’Lock is greatly respected in their society as well. If he continues down this path and is successful, not only will this clan be his ally, but the entire Kilocksin faction. We all must adapt to this new form of diplomacy, and his highness is doing rather well. He is also right when he says, what might be considered polite by us may be considered irrevocably taboo by another faction. And what we may view as a declaration of war may be viewed by them as polite. We should note that their commander found his actions funny once understood.”

A Ukrainian General named Fedir interrupted. “That does not mean our actions shouldn’t be questioned. We no longer represent only our nation but all of humanity. We should not take it upon ourselves to independently decide humanity's relationship with an entire faction.”

I shook my head in complete disagreement. “That’s exactly the sort of power General Prime gave us, and it’s why we’re here. There are very few factions we can have an alliance with. Evolution is too diverse to allow us to co-exist with everyone. We need to do everything possible to create a good relationship with those factions we can ally with, but factions like the Horde are different. The best we can hope for is to become an enemy that they decide is not worth the trouble. With others, we can’t even hope to achieve that. This is not a friendly game, and we can’t treat it that way. It’s a matter of survival and we need to choose how we survive.”

The station masters who had cleared their expansion quests and met the special conditions to receive station master knowledge all nodded. Those that hadn’t didn’t. They simply didn’t understand. How could they? I hadn’t understood before I received it.

Several others asked questions, but they were just rehashing what was already said. Once that had happened several times, I decided the interview was over.

“I’m sorry for cutting this short, but I can’t talk any longer. I need to prepare for the next wave.”

Tee muted everyone for me. “So, do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Good news.”

“Your regeneration trait will restore 2 missile batteries, the fighters, a third R9, and the station energy shield by the time the Octorin arrive. We’ll also have weapons fabricator completely back online.”

“The bad news?”

“The central station will still be critically damaged. Structural damage to the entire station will be at 73%, half the D2s will still be inoperable, and a third of them won’t be able to reload due to structural damage. Because of the widespread damage that is now on both sides of the main station, your armour trait is redundant. And the Octorin drone swarm is too large to calculate numbers accurately.”

“Take a guess then.

“I’d guess somewhere close to two million. The only good news is the largest drones are only corvette class. The majority of the swarm are kamikaze fighter class which are only dangerous when they’re close enough to ram and detonate.”

“How many D2s do we have?”

“We currently have 3487 after using the higher-grade ammunition, but that number is constantly increasing because of quest clearance and repairs.”

“We need more or better D2s. How many credits do I have?”

“After these engagements, you have 94,285,972.”

“Tee, patch me into Diego. Diego, I’m trying to improve our weapons, is there any tech I can use from the other faction’s ships we’ve acquired for the D2 or R2?”

“You could use the Wargarg’s magnetic rotator from their mechs, Sir. It’s a cheap piece of tech that would double the rotating speed of the R2. The Hordes alloys are better than your factions, but they’re expensive by comparison. You need a research lab, so you can do this for free.”

“When I receive a spare billion credits, I’ll buy one.”

I wasn’t lying about that. A lab was an essential system. Free tech upgrades would save me massive amounts of credits.

“Ammunition is out,” Daniel said. “The R2 rounds are too small to do anything good.”

Alex's face suddenly filled my viewscreen. “You’re overthinking this. Buy and build the maintenance drone facility you gained access to for the expansion. Then spam maintenance drones and have them finish your D2 quests for you. You have enough RP to fill every defence slot on your station. You will have the numbers. And the maintenance drones can transport ammunition when they are done.”

“Is that possible, Tee?”

“The level 1 maintenance drone facility is extremely small and limited with what it can build. The facility is expensive to upgrade, but even a basic maintenance drone would be capable of what she said. And with only one hour required to build the facility, there is more than enough time left over to fully install all the D2s. You would have close to 19,000 available when they arrive. Chance of victory in that scenario is 100%.”

“That’s too high. We lost the sensor scrambler to the Horde. The Octorin can see our station. If they realize they can’t win, they won’t attack.”

The Librarian replaced Alex. “We discussed this tactic a few weeks ago. The idea of making yourself weak enough to encourage attacks but strong enough for victory. I would suggest doing as Alex said, but instead of building the D2s immediately, use the drones to transport the higher-level ammunition to depleted weapons and then have them move to where the quests need to be completed. Once the Octorin commit to the attack, begin building the D2s.

“There is a 63% chance of victory with this method,” Tee said. “The maintenance drone facility cannot produce enough drones to build all the D2s between the time they begin constructing D2s and the time the first of the Octorin drone fleet reaches your defences. And the station is so heavily damaged that it won’t take much to cause its destruction.”

“What happens if I win this way?”

“The resources points collected from this engagement and the others will give you a grace period from follow-up attacks from any of the surrounding factions until the 65th cycle. Expansion to the second ring will be possible with complete D2 construction.”

“Sounds good. Build the maintenance drone facility. Then begin constructing drones and have them transport ammunition to any D2s that can’t be resupplied because of structural damage. And buy the R2 upgrade package with the Wargarg magnetic rotator Diego suggested and build one, so I can upgrade it. Destroy it once it’s upgraded. I don’t want its dungeon mob in my dungeon.”

I climbed out of my chair.

“Where are you going?” Daniel asked.

“I’m going to clear D2 quests. I need to make it look like I’m doing everything I can to stop them.”

That was a lie. If I stuck around, the other station masters would continue to complain about my behaviour. I didn’t want to deal with that.

***

Diego, Tumpa, and I spent the next two hours running around and clearing D2 build quests, adding another 750 or so D2s to our arsenal. The dungeon master and Tumpa were still clearing quests, but Tee said the Octorin were approaching the ring a few minutes ago, so I hurried back to the command room.

I took a seat in my command chair. “What’s the spread?”

“They’ve positioned their drone fighters in the first wave. The corvettes are in the middle of the formation. They have numbers on their side, so I think they’re using the fighters as a wall. With what they can currently see, your point defence probably looks like a joke. So, they likely believe it will be safe for their corvette class drones to approach by the time they pass through the ring.”

“Are the functioning D2s reloaded?”

“Yes. Additional high-level ammunition has also been distributed to are cut off. Drone production is in full swing, and drones are ready to move to quest completion positions when the swarm reaches the halfway point.”

“Good.”

“Damn it, not again,” Tee shouted. “You really need to do something about the Wargarg messing with my sensors, Morgan. I’ve got a Clack transport passing through the ring. They have a six-man team that wants to challenge your dungeon. They’ll reach the station in five minutes.”

“Seriously, they want to try steal the station out from under the Octorin.”

“They’re one of the factions allied against you. Why do you sound surprised.”

“I’m surprised because they normally wait longer to backstab someone.”

General Hiroshi appeared on my view screen. “They’re likely planning to offer the station to the Octorin at a steep discount, your Royal Highness. My transit station is also connected to the Clack, and I believe this is something they will do.”

That made more sense, based on what I knew about them. “Thank you for the second opinion.”

I stepped out of my command chair and made my way over to the dungeon entrance along the right wall. Five minutes wasn’t a lot of time, and it was a long walk to get to the dungeon. My command room could move like an elevator, so if anyone ever got to the last room in the dungeon it would reposition to meet them, but since they hadn’t reach there, it was basically on the other side of the station.

The doors opened to a long corridor. I started walking, willing my armour to form around me. The nanobots covered my head, sealing me in. I did a quick diagnostics check.

He Who Eats First had shown me what a well-armed individual was capable of bringing to the table, and I’d used my one special attack for the day. Since I was fielding so many immortal soldiers, I’d have five sergeants, and one lieutenant.

The weapons they had access to now were a lot stronger than in the past, but Steve was still better. He was like a micro particle cannon in pistol form. I’d actually make a difference in the dungeon now.

A few minutes later, I stepped out of the corridor and into the control room of the transport ship shaped dungeon. Human super-soldiers equipped with Ironman armour and heavy particle pistols stood at the control consoles around Diego.

Diego smiled at me, wearing a suit of armour identical to mine, unconcerned by the fact that he was in two places at one. He was both here and running around my station clearing build quests. “My immortal soldiers have received quite the upgrade thanks to your completed paths.”

On my HUD, I watched the transport vessel land inside the hangar bay that led to the dungeon. The ship was massive, easily the size of a frigate. I thought it was overkill until the entire side of the vessel opened, showing six massive insectoid centaurs that could barely fit inside. They were the size of buildings.

They wore power armour that made them look like mobile fortresses. There were two with missile battery installations on their backs. Another had a cannon, and one had some sort of weird box that my HUD told me was a mobile shield emitter. The last two were walking anti-infantry platforms.

“What the hell is that?”

“Clack Queens,” Tee said. “The dungeon has to reset to accommodate them. The good news is that if you manage to kill them, you’ll kill their hives with them. They’re worth a lot of experience. Clack queens grow bigger the larger their nest. These ones will each have at least 25,000 in their hive.”

I ran to the dungeon exit, so it could reset, spending forty-five path points to upgrade the number of dungeon turrets so I received ten for every five path points I invested. With 154 path points invested in my station development path that gave me 300 dungeon turrets.

“Good to know. I want the Wargarg sensor scrambler installed in the dungeon to counter their auto-targeting systems and scanners. How much will it cost me?”

I’d seen the upgrade option for the dungeon weeks ago, but hadn’t looked into it, because it wasn’t a priority.

“Extending the sensor scrambler to the dungeon will cost you most of your credits.”

“Damnit!”

“I need an answer, not a tantrum.”

“Pay it.”

Those things were too big to mess around with.

Challenge ReceivedThe Octorin wish to   challenge your station. Vessels that enter your system cannot retreat. No   other faction can enter your system while the challenge is in place. Clear   the invaders from your system to remove challenger status.

Rewards:Tokens: ???

“Um, this might create a time problem,” Tee said. “You should upgrade your R2s now in case this dungeon attack takes longer than anticipated.”

I pulled up the R2 upgrade path. It was more simplistic than the D2s. It would cost 605 class points to fully upgrade everything, and I needed to upgrade it all just to be safe.

R2 Enhancements

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

Range +10%0/10Cost:1

Accuracy +10%0/10Cost: 1

Targeting Speed +10%0/10Cost: 1

Rotation Speed +10%0/10Cost:1

Piercing Rounds0/10Cost: 1

Stealth Rounds0/10Cost: 5

I bought everything and dismissed the notifications. Another notification immediately appeared.

Congratulations, you have completed a hidden quest by upgrading a weapon system to completion.

Reward:

+2 Path Points

The R2 will now generate twice as many station rats each Cycle.

“Fuck! No! Shit! No. You stupid fucking quest! I don’t want that on my stupid R2s. Who the hell would want that?”

A whirlwind of emotion ran through me as I kept reading the notification. It was like I’d just invested in a dump stat.

“It’s a trap quest,” Tee explained. “It’s designed to frustrate the first one to discover it and make everyone else more hesitant to complete it. The other station masters will have to make a choice between buying a full pathway early for the additional mobs or waiting until late game when it can make a significant difference. It’s not quite as bad as it seems. Thankfully each of your D2s will produce another station rat because of the R2 they have for point defence. So technically, you just increased the number of station rats your D2s produce from three to five and your immortal soldiers respawns by that amount as well. We should tell the others, though. It isn’t something that should be wasted like this.”

“Fuck!”

“The dungeon has reset. It looks like Normandy beach Don’t let this tilt you.”

“I’m not an amateur,” I shouted. “Besides, it’s a free perk. Even if I could have used it better, it’s not like something bad happened. It just wasn’t as good as it could be. I just need to get my frustration out of my system.”

I took a deep breath filling my mechanical lungs to capacity.

“Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!”

I shouted long and loud, venting my frustration at the Game that continued to screw me. As any adamant gamer will tell, the process of yelling at the game was therapeutic, and you feel better for it once it’s over.

I certainly did.

“I’m good. You can go manage the Octorin attack, now.”

I walked back into the dungeon.

The size had grown exponentially. It was now a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long. Considering what I was fighting was sixty feet tall and a hundred feet long aliens, the dungeon was proportionally as large as it had been before.

I stood on a clifftop overlooking a sandy beach that went for most of the length of the room. There was only twenty yards of water on the far side, and it only went to my waist. There were trenches along the beach where the soldiers were preparing for the assault. There was no team to swarm them as they entered because what would be the point if trying to ambush something so large in such and open landscape. All the turrets were now attached to a clifftop, which gave them a clear line of sight. But the super-soldiers no longer looked like the daunting force they had a moment ago, even though they had the ability to respawn two more times.

I launched into the air, flying across the battlefield to perch above the entrance. I was spawn camping, but fuck’em. I wasn’t in the mood to play fair. They’d made me waste an awesome opportunity.

My armour immediately camouflaged to match the background. My personal tech path was nuts, and it was only half of what it could have been, which was even crazier. The counter in the corner of my vision showed they would arrive in a minute.

I connected my communicator to the immortal soldiers’ radio system with a thought. “I’m taking the big one.”

“Sir, this is Lieutenant Dan. How will we know which is the big one?”

“I’ll be attacking it.”

“Yes, sir.”

My dungeon mobs weren’t the smartest fish in the sea. They weren’t like Tee. They weren’t AIs. Even Diego wasn’t much brighter once you asked him something outside his skillset. There were dungeon bosses like Daniel’s that were smart, but mine wasn’t. That didn’t stop Diego and the others from making tactically sound choices, but it did stop them from holding a conversation, so my witty back and forth was wasted on them. And I wasn’t in the mood to give precise instructions.

Stupid hidden quest.

The counter lowered to zero, and the massive door under me opened. A Clack queen rushed through. It might be more accurate to say she shot through. She was moving more than 100 miles an hour. She went past me before I could decide what I wanted to do and took a face full of dungeon turret fire for her troubles.

Her head exploded, but she managed to cross 120 yards before her leg gave out. The moment she fell, an energy shield was generated from the device on her back, covering the others’ approach.

I was ecstatic over the fact that the turrets could kill them, despite all the armour. I was less ecstatic to see that the shield could block the turrets’ next shots. Round after round collided with the shield, making loud crashes and crackling sounds as the ammunition slammed into the barrier.

The other five approached more carefully, using the shield their teammate’s death had brought them to make their way forward. When they reached the corpse, they hunkered down. The two with missile batteries moved to the sides, preparing to shoot around it.

On the beach, the immortal soldiers were firing missile launchers and aiming their particle cannons, using everything my traits had given them. Drones were flying through the air, trying to circle around the Clack’s shields, so they could fire their weapons or fly into them kamikaze style.

I stopped watching both sides.

My HUD was showing me the energy cannon on the big one's back. It was charging and the power output was enough to take out the dungeon. I flew towards her, expecting to be shot out of the air, but they didn’t see me. With my sensor scrambler messing with their sensors, I was invisible to them. My HUD showed me there was a weak point on the cannon.

It was an exhaust port, about the same size as a Womp Rat. All I needed to do was fire a torpedo down it while trusting in the force, and that would destroy the Death Star. Well, sort of.

The barrel was the weak point.

The cannon was a finely tuned death machine, but that meant that its internal components were sensitive. My HUD told me that if I flew inside and halfway down the barrel, my particle pistol could fire at the device that focused the energy beam right as it was about to do its job, causing a misfire that turned it into a bomb.

It wasn’t exactly how I planned to win this, but the blast radius was huge, so I flew inside. Six seconds after I entered, I respawned.

Good game.