Chapter 20: Building an Alliance, Morgan POV (Patreon)

Chapter 20

Building an Alliance

Morgan POV

Rass, the first Kilocksin I ever spoke to in person, sat beside me in the station's dungeon dojo as his warriors challenged Thumpa to hand-to-hand combat. They had no chance of winning the fight, but they fought enthusiastically, taking pointers from the liaison, hoping to improve their skill while their leader negotiated.

Rass absently scratched his green bicep while thinking about what I’d said. “You’re asking a lot of my clan, yet you offer just as much in return. I believe we’re not against the concept of an alliance, so I will pass along your proposal to our leaders.”

I smiled, pleased with his response. “Make sure they understand humanity wishes to act as a support role. Our production capacity is high, but our weakness lies in our fleets, so our military benefits are limited.”

“Our analysis of your fleet’s capabilities suggested the same. However, our people share a similar problem. Corvettes are our speciality. We make up for our weakness with numbers, but it takes time to reach the right level of production. More often than not, we are defeated before our infrastructure can achieve the growth required to maintain our fleet, but with your previous assistance with the Horde, we have greatly increased our ability. A stable border and the assistance of a Transcendent so early in the Game could see us go far. Who else did you wish to ally with?”

“We are considering a five-faction alliance with the Quilt, Borak, and the Narsonians. We understand the Narsonians are crafters and will take the central zone, having no border enemies. The Quilt and Borak will take the largest borders. Both their fleets are superior to ours and yours so early in the season, but they are weaker in mining and building infrastructure.”

“We have good relationships with these factions.”

“I’m aware. It’s why we chose them. Relationships take time to grow, so it would be best if our allies were all familiar with each other so that their only conflicts were with getting to know us.”

Rass nodded. “Have you reached out to them yet?”

I shook my head. “My relationship with your people is better than with the other factions. I was hoping that you could approach them for us with our support. My station can facilitate communication.”

Rass glanced at me. “You must be committed to this path if you allow such tactical information to be shared. Communication across enemy sectors is not to be taken lightly so early in the season. We are incapable of communicating with more than our immediate neighbours unless we pass along messages outside the Game.”

“We are not in a position to use the advantages we have made. Without your support, our only option is to pull back to our local sector here, cripple those around us, and hope that we can grow quickly enough to take and eventually hold this territory. We will be in a better position, but not a good position. We will survive longer, but never to the end. There are only seven billion of us, which we consider to be a lot. However, your clan is considered small in your empire, yet you have a thousand times as many. The Game's scale means humanity will never play more than a minor role.”

“Such is the nature of the Game. What of the other ally factions? Have you considered supporting them in our branch of the galaxy? If we worked for a common cause, we could eventually take our branch of the galaxy and hold it together?”

The Kilocksin thought on a much larger scale and timeframe than I did. My plan only saw us surviving until the end of the first decade. “It’s a possibility that we might pursue after establishing our untied faction, but we risk losing our only Transcendent if we do so.”

“This is to be expected. Have you considered how the other factions will react to the news of this Transcendent? When my people gained one this early, every faction in the galaxy went to war with us. They hunted us with abandon, not caring about the sectors they would lose. You consider your sectors precious because of how few you have. My clan has hundreds. Others have thousands. Losing the equivalent to your entire empire is not a loss to them if it removes the threat of a larger power growing that will one day swallow them.”

I frowned. “No. I hadn’t considered that. How quickly will they respond?”

Rass shrugged. “It depends upon how quickly they learn the truth. Your Transcendent is new, but they are loud. If they were small and quiet, you could keep such a secret for a significant length of time. But I would expect news of their arrival to be common within a few Cycles, which does not leave us much time to decide. Kill me now so I may return to and deliver your message.”

“The plans we have made will be delivered to your inbox when you respawn. Merely reply that you need to talk, and we will activate a video call to you wherever you are.”

“Such an ability would certainly make us dangerous,” Rass said as I stepped behind him and drew my pistol. “Our leaders will be most pleased.”

I squeezed the trigger.