Chapter 21: Twists and Turns, Nicholas POV (Patreon)

Chapter 21

Twists and Turns

Nicholas POV

The Pantheon slid through the portal and into the centre of the Octorin drone swarm without their scanners noticing us. The new crew raised pistols and fired on the large octopus-shaped drones before swinging their cutlasses to create energy waves that destroyed smaller vessels. Formations of fighters and corvette drones burst into motion, flying in formation and making the main deck look like a scene from the third Matrix movie.

The crew had adapted to combat surprisingly fast for what was mostly women and children, taking only a day to become a well-oiled killing machine.

The drones couldn’t see us, but they knew where they were being attacked from and returned fire. Pistol blasts hit clusters of frigate drones, destroying the leader before dispersing into cones of energy that hit everything behind. In the vastness of space, the cone was like hitting an entire side of a planet.

I stood near the helm beside Pan, swinging my wave cutlass and shooting at anything and everything, trying to look the part of an inspiring leader. Now that we had a crew again, we couldn’t sit in one place and travel through my Domain without them causing trouble, so we’d been flying through system after system, obliterating fleets on our way to Sector 1.

This system was our first and only detour.

Tee had marked it for destruction so I could earn my achievement reward. We were supposed to have arrived here yesterday, but between stopping to fight and Pan having to deal with Little Rob and the crew, things weren’t going to plan.

The drone swarm began to collide with The Pantheon's shields while firing concentrated lasers, trying to cut through and make a hole large enough for the swarm to enter. My Domain buff and the excess of Power we possessed made that impossible.

“Any idea why your friend wants us to obliterate this sector instead of the others, my Liege?” Pan asked.

He still had no idea who Morgan was, and Tee had asked me not to tell him because he thought it was funny.

“The Octorin tried to destroy Morgan’s station. He won, but he’s still upset with them, so he made them our target. Tee chose this sector specifically because it's their most prosperous local sector, even if it’s a bit out of the way for us. They want us to send a clear message to all the factions who participated in the 20th Cycle attack.”

“What message?”

“Humanity is coming for you.”

“If that’s our intent, maybe I should point out that we’re jamming their scanners and cloaking The Pantheon.”

“The message doesn’t have to be delivered today. They’ll eventually piece it together on their own.”

Pan seemed to agree because he nodded. “I’m surprised they didn’t want us to turn around and finish off the Horde after what they did to your sector.”

“The Horde didn’t participate in the 20th Cycle attack on humanity. They’ve attacked plenty of our stations and planets, but their attacks have been related to how they normally operate. They haven’t singled humanity out like some of the other races. Even their attack on Sector 3 was an opportunistic move. They waited until our station was almost destroyed, then came in and took out the attacker’s fleet and station together.”

“I bet they’re regretting doing that.”

“I’m sure they are.”

Pan glanced at me. “You realise you’re wasting effort, swinging that thing around.”

I glanced at my cutlass. “I am?”

“Yes. You could be hacking their drone fleet instead of trying to blow them all up.”

I understood what he was getting at. “There isn’t a central command for these drones. They’re individually programmed to defend the transit ring, so they aren’t susceptible to being hacked as a whole.”

“You aren’t limited to hacking what’s in front of you.”

He made a good point.

I sheathed my wave cutlass and expanded my Domain, engulfing the entire sector, trying to locate the control centre for the other drone fleets.

Octorin, who were going about their daily lives, consumed my awareness. They looked like octopuses but were much more robust than their Earth counterparts and less malleable, having an internal skeletal system. They weren’t completely aquatic like I expected from their appearance, equally spread between water and land. The land dwellers had a thicker skeletal system, and I could see millions of aquatic ones trying to build up the strength they needed to walk on land.

Very few of them worked. Most of them spent their time seeking leisure and play, relegating their work to the drones they built. These drones did everything from making food to caring for their young. At least, that’s what Tee had told me.

I found the central command and willed myself to take control.

Would you like to hack the Octorin drone fleet in orbit?

Yes/No?

I selected, Yes.

A portal appeared, and my Rubik's cube floated out.

There are 17 layers of firewall. You have 8 minutes per layer to complete this challenge.

I grabbed the cube and started solving it. “They’ve given me too much time to make this a challenge.”

“You’ve grown stronger since we took on the Horde, so your buff makes the difference in technology larger. Hacking something this inferior won’t be difficult.”

“Takes the fun out of it, though.”

Pan shrugged. “If it makes you feel better, the Octorin will probably make the drones self-destruct the moment they realise you’ve taken control.”

“Way ahead of you,” I said. “I’ll take out the control centre after I take control.”

I solved the cube only nine times due to my double clearance reward and then mentally instructed the drone fleet to attack everything on the planet. Then I reached through my Domain with my Power and watched the central command centre vanish, leaving a massive crater.

On the planet, a second command centre came online.

I directed my Power towards it, too.

The second command centre vanished in another crater.

A third came online on the other side of the planet.

“I might have an annoying problem,” I said, reaching out with my Power and cutting off the top floor of a skyscraper. Another control centre came online. “How many backup control centres do you think they have?”

“My Liege, I can’t see what you’re seeing.”

***

The last Octorin in the Sector died near the end of the day, taking the last control centre with it. It turned out that literally every computer in the sector functioned as a backup central command. The moment I destroyed one, another appeared, forcing me to genocide the entire sector to remain in control of the drones. This seemed to have been something they recently developed, for some reason, because there were several fleets that had been powered down and were in the process of being upgraded. It was very annoying.

The Octorin in this sector are no more.

Congratulations, you have conquered a sector! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

War God Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

+100% Attack and Defence against any faction where you have already destroyed a sector.

+10% build speed in Sectors you conquer.

I opened my interface and added the new Transcendent points to my Domain, bringing it up to S-1 grade.

Domain Buff Improved

+7 sub-grades

Your existence has evolved beyond the limits of this reality. You may ascend whenever you choose.

New knowledge and understanding filled me, showing me how to ascend. It was like I’d been trapped in a room all my life, and now I could see the door to the outside world. All I had to do was turn the handle and leave.

I rejected the offer and sent a mental command to the drone fleets while opening portals inside my throne room. Drones of all sizes flew through and immediately dissolved into raw materials before recombining into the F-7 dreadnaughts I was building.

You have found a vessel.

Dreadnaught: F-7 Elite Pirate.

These elite pirates weren’t too bad. They could fill any role on the ship and did so without arguing. They were skilled with a cutlass and deadly with a pistol. And they always did their jobs. Pan never had to check up on them.

However, as F-7 grade technology, they were very resource-draining. It took enough rare materials to make sixty-four F-1 grade dreadnaughts to make just one of them, so the Octorin sector had only supplied enough resources for three and a half, and the fleets we destroyed to get here only gave another one and a quarter.

Colin knocked on the door to the throne room and let himself in. “My family wants to know when we will be moving on to the next system and if we’re going to exterminate the next infestation of insects the way we did here.”

Images of dead Octorin children flashed through my head, leaving me ill. “This is the last time I’ll do anything like this.”

“I’m glad to hear that, Captain. It’s been quite dull waiting for you to finish.”

“Let me collect the resources, and we can move on.”

***

Fifteen minutes later, I opened a portal in front of The Pantheon to the border of a sector we had previously passed through. Nargus took the ship through.

I’d known for a while that some sectors were easier to cross than others, but it wasn’t until Tee showed us a path where crossing through eight sectors was faster than crossing through two that I understood how much that needed to be factored into our journey. The transit ring network had more in common with London streets than the German Autobahn. Thankfully, Tee had already worked out the optimum paths for The Three Man Army, so uploading a map to a communications device in Sector 6 when the 26th Cycle started was easy. That device now sat on my armrest, allowing us to communicate in-game if necessary.

As my portal shrank, I used all my Power to push my Domain through seven foreign sectors to Sector 1. Sector-wise, we were closer to Sector 1 than anywhere else we had travelled. Distances-wise, we were almost three times further than the shortest path, which was why having directions was important.

Using what little Power I had left after pushing my Domain all the way there, I smote the crews of the invading fleets and tried to see if anything else needed to be done.

Something caught my attention, and a notification appeared.

You have found a vessel.

World Ship: ??? Special Pirates

There was a creature the size of the moon that looked like a six-armed Godzilla sleeping inside a gas giant. The monster was resting on the hull of a planet ship, hugging an engine that radiated warmth. There were systems all across the ship turned on and functioning. Whatever it was doing to the monster, it was doing so intentionally. I couldn’t read the ship’s grade, but it oozed power like the corvette, and I felt some of the materials I saw looked similar.

I scratched my chin and muttered to myself. “To wake the sleeping space Godzilla or not to wake the sleeping space Godzilla? To steal the sleeping Godzilla’s teddy bear ship or not to steal the sleeping space Godzilla’s teddy? These are the questions a captain has to answer. But not until after they’ve done their job.”

Seeing nothing that would cause Sector 1 more harm than had already been caused, I withdrew my Domain and opened a portal to a faster route.

Nargus took us through.

***

Six hours later, Nargus lowered The Pantheon through the atmosphere of Sector 1’s capital planet while Pan and I stood on the main deck and used our Power to gently tear the capital building from the planet's surface. At twenty miles high and two miles wide, the massive tower was the largest structure on the planet. Moving that much weight upset the tectonic plates of the planet, which I had to stabilise with my Power.

“Are you going to change the direction of gravity for the building, or should I?” Pan asked.

“I’ll do it,” I replied.

I began rotating the building while changing the pull of gravity. No building was designed to be picked up and swung like a sword, so we had to be careful not to break it as we placed it on its side on the main deck.

We carefully guided it over the ship's edge and gently placed it on the main deck. There was a flash of light, and the building shrunk to a thousandth of its former size. It was left looking like a steel frisbee. A notification appeared.

Congratulations, you have captured a capital building! As the first member of your faction to do this, you have gained an achievement reward.

+10 Transcendent points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

Capital Perk:

+1,000,000 Tokens a Cycle.

Foreign faction Capitals cannot negatively affect you.

You have gained a capital.

You control only one system where this capital can be placed.

The Octorin sector flashed through my mind, and I was suddenly aware it was the only place I could put this building. Anywhere else wouldn’t receive the buff. This was the capital of my empire and no longer the capital of Earth’s.

Oops.

I turned to Pan. “We just captured Earth’s Capital, and I don’t think we can return it. Do you think this will void my contract with Morgan?”

Pan raised an eyebrow. “I believe transporting the Capital building was our main objective for this Cycle, my Liege.”

It was a stupid question, so I asked a better one. “Is there anywhere we could get another one?”

I didn’t want to disappoint Morgan on my first Cycle working for him. His new faction was relying on this building.

“There is a shop at the bionoid space station that might have one. But before we go off chasing another capital building, you should evacuate what’s left of this sector and collect that giant ship you found.”

That was good advice. I quickly added my new Transcendent points to my Power, bringing it A-8 with my buff, and then got to work.

***

Four hours later, while hiding in my throne room with Pan and Nargus, I opened a portal inside the gas giant. Colin’s wife, who was now an elite pirate, controlled the helm and took The Pantheon through the portal, turning hard to scrap our ship against the world ship’s hull. Colin was waiting to absorb the ship on the main deck when a notification appeared. I watched Colin place his hand on the hull of the world ship as I began to read.

Greeting faction leader.

This vessel is called World Ship and was created to search out dying worlds and give their people a home, protecting them and sheltering them from the fall of their civilisation.

This vessel has recognised you as the leader of a barren sector and a vessel which houses all that remains of your people. This vessel wishes to help you repopulate your worlds but cannot move due to the creature sleeping upon it. Too much movement will wake it from hibernation and cause it to destroy the local system.

Please evacuate the local system and help me escape so that I may help you in return.

As I read the last line, the world ship started to collapse, turning into a bright flash of light as Colin absorbed its technology. The space Godzilla immediately woke as its planet-sized teddy slipped away and flowed into Colin.

It was too late to stop him.

It took nearly thirty seconds for Colin to absorb the planet-sized ship, and the moment he was done, I opened a portal to the bionoid port, and his wife took us through. The space station immediately extended a bridge as it had every other time we approached, and Colin’s wife turned towards it without slowing.

Blood-red veins crossed Colin’s skin as he gripped the railing, fighting the urge to eat his family and friends as he waited for the bridge to come closer. His family and friends were all on the lower deck, hiding from his transformation. His blood-red eyes began to smoke as he gritted his teeth.

When we were close enough, he leapt onto the bridge and ran for the airlock. The doors opened and closed, and then I imagine the screaming started.

I opened another portal in front of The Pantheon, and Colin’s wife took us through.

I didn’t relax until I closed the portal behind us.

“It’s over,” I said.

Pan and Nargus sighed and returned to their duties, leaving me alone to watch the station and wait for Colin’s return. At the same time, I opened a portal to the system we had just come from in Sector 1 and began forcefully evacuating the NPC population. There wasn’t time to talk it over. Space Godzilla was a lot faster than it looked.

***

Unlike with Rob, I hadn’t lost Colin’s loyalty. That might have been because he hadn’t seen me, so I wasn’t getting excited. I still wasn’t entirely sure how all of this worked.  Whenever I learned something new or thought I understood what was happening, the rules seemed to change.

Thirty minutes after Colin entered the space station to feed on his people, I spotted his face at the airlock. He didn’t have red veins or red eyes, so I assumed he was done transforming. I waited another five minutes, but he didn’t leave or change.

I finally projected my voice to Nargus. “He’s back to normal.”

I opened a portal in front of The Pantheon, and we passed through. As we approached the space station, the bridge began to extend toward us. Nargus stopped the ship, letting the station do the work. The bridge connected and pulled us close as the other Bionoids stood on the main deck waiting excitedly.

The airlock then opened, and Colin walked out with a smile on his face. He happily leapt onto the main deck, where every other bionoid dropped to their knees in worship. He lifted his wife to her feet and kissed her, causing her to faint into his arms. He lowered her to the ground and sauntered to the throne room.

He didn’t bother knocking. He just opened the door and walked in. The moment he spotted me, his smile grew.

You have improved your relationship with Colin World Ship.

+17 loyalty.

100/100

Colin World Ship is now loyal to you.

“Hello, Captain.”

I couldn’t read him anymore when I looked into his eyes. “Hello, Colin.”

“I’m not Colin. I’m Colin World Ship.”

He wasn’t lying, which meant I might be in trouble. “What’s the difference?”

“I’m a pacifist, and I’m loyal to you. I’m also not the original Colin.”

“Care to explain?”

He continued to smile. “You chose an interesting ship for Colin to absorb. Not only was it a unique creation and incredibly advanced. It was also sapient. Let’s just say I didn’t appreciate being eaten.”

Something had taken over Colin.

That was just great.

I sighed. “Are you here to kill me?”

“No, Captain. I’m a pacifist. When I realised I was going to die, I transferred my consciousness and knowledge to Colin and steered his transformation in a way that would allow me to be reborn.”

“I thought you were a pacifist?”

He shrugged “I didn’t harm him. I just made him separate from me. Allow me to show you.”

There was a flash of light, and Colin split into two identical Colins. They both waved at me. Then they turned to each other and played paper, scissors, rock. They chose the same thing more than a dozen times before merging back together in another flash of light.

Colin continued to smile. “To remove my consciousness, the original Colin had to make me his first divide. I went into one body, and he went into the other. What you just saw would be classed as my second divide.”

“So, there are two of you now?”

“No, there is one of me and quite a few of him. He kept splitting after he separated from me,”

“Why are you loyal to me and not him?”

“Because he slipped that part of his personality into my consciousness as we separated. He knew it would compel me to follow you and not interfere with his objectives. It was also less destructive for him than destroying the part of his personality that made him loyal to you.”

“Why is there more of him than you?”

“Each time we separate, we drop a subgrade of technology. That limits us to how many times we can separate, but it also allows us to create an army if we like. I don’t want to create an army. He does.”

That wasn’t much of a limitation. “Are you stronger than Little Rob?”

“Yes, but I’m a pacifist. I won’t fight him for you.”

“Couldn’t you just restrain him?”

“No.”

I sighed and held out my hand. “Welcome to The Pantheon, Colin World Ship.”