Kick the Sphere 13 (Patreon)

Kick the Sphere

Chapter 13

-VB-

Time passed, and facilities began to rise up from the ground. The computer lab that I wanted was shelved for now in favor of more pressing facilities like an armory and mech hangar. Those weren’t hard to make, but the latter took time and resources away from other projects because of the sheer scale.

Unlike with regular storage, a mech hangar had to be big enough to service future mechs as well, not just Glasgows that I had. Because of this, I decided to make it so that at the very least medium mechs might be able to get serviced in this new hangar, which needed machines, tools, and more to help with fitting and unfitting mechs on top of repairs.

Despite my personal dislike of the mechs because I thought them to be relics of a bygone era with the tech I had, most of the T-Dolls and the other employees, orphans included, were in love with them. I wondered if the universe simply favored the mechs because that’s what this universe was about.

Whatever.

T-Dolls… they were great. Aside from the fact that I have more or less ascertained their loyalties to me, they were also capable of doing multiple specialization jobs because, though they looked like people, they were still machines underneath that synth skin. As such, when I found the right information on the Lantean Database, I was able to upload them - after a tricky file conversion - into the T-Dolls, and viola, I had a construction specialist. Combined with Habitat Constructor, I was making infrastructure like it was nobody’s business!

It also helped that nearby villages began to slowly work with me in full. Many of their young men and women began working in and near my compound rather than farm because, well, I offered stuff they won’t be able to get elsewhere. Like education. And a good cup of coffee.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

I stopped my train of thought and looked around.

I wasn’t familiar with that sound.

I got up from my workbench and looked around.

Ping. Ping. Ping.

Where was that sound coming from?

I left the room and towards the sound. I felt … uncomfortable. My stomach began to tighten because I’d begun to walk toward the ship hangar.

My walk became a jog and then a run.

I hurriedly opened the side door to the ship hangar and barged in.

The pinging got really loud.

I rushed into the ship, nearly stumbling when the Forge decided to surprise me with a ping of its own and made it to the cockpit of the Cold. I flipped the engines on and -. Cold sweat broke out when I looked at the radar and found myself looking at three dots heading toward the planet.

I hurriedly flipped on all of the sensor tech I’ve built into the Cold and began to get a triangulation on the location, size, bearing, and speed of the approaching party. While my ship’s abnormally powerful sensors reached out and took in everything it could about the approaching spaceships, I stood there, skin cold and heart pounding.

Then the sensors got back to me.

2 Light Dropships

1 Medium Dropship

I didn’t know about the classification for all of the dropships, so I had done my best by estimating what each dropship was based on size. Two lights and one medium could mean anywhere from twenty to forty mechs. Worse, I was worried less about the mechs and more about artillery and other equipment that would do horribly well against my compound and nearby villages.

The good news was that they were two weeks away from orbiting Dansur.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Two weeks… I can definitely work with that.

I kept the sensors on and turned on the intercom, which should be connected to the rest of the compound.

“Hello? Rebecca, you there?”

I only got static in return.

“Hello?”

Nothing.

Welp, I guessed that the ship’s intercom hadn’t been connected to the rest of the systems. This was … actually a good time to find out because learning about it midbattle would have been horrible.

… But who were they?

Gulping, I wondered if I should talk with them. For all I knew, they were scavengers looking for lostech.

… Actually, lostech hunters might be the biggest issue I might have. Some of them were no better than pirates.

Actually, were they pirates? Could they be pirates? Why would pirates stop here or know about a system that’s been wiped from nearly all maps?

I ran out of the cockpit and then ship. I had people to collect, battle tactics to create, and potential evacuation to plan.

-VB-

“I say we shoot first and ask questions later,” Rebecca grunted. “It’s not like refugees have dropships.”

The three leaders of our small group - Rebecca (Negev), AK-15, and I - sat around what passed for a meeting room in the original storage warehouse that I built first when I landed on Dansur.

“And risk war with a polity?” AK-15 asked coldly.

“Not if we blow the dropships and their jumpship out of existence,” Rebecca snarked back. “You’ve read the shit this universe does. They make people back home look like fucking pacifists.”

AK-15 glared at Rebecca but didn’t refute the pink-haired T-Doll’s statement.

I didn’t know much about the original world that the T-Dolls came from, merely that they were created as soldiers and many surviving veterans not getting scrapped but refitting themselves to join a civilian lifestyle.

Rebecca and AK-15 (still didn’t choose her own name like the rest of the T-Dolls) have read a short primer I made about the Inner Sphere from what I knew. Sure, it wasn’t much and a lot of it came from League propaganda, but each of the four sides said the same thing, it couldn’t be that far off.

“What if they’re pirates?” Rebecca added. “If they get even close, I’ll tell you right now that they will not have compunctions about orbital bombardment if they can help it.”

“If they even have the capabilities for it,” I interjected.

Rebecca grumbled.

“The new IS suit you’ve bought is superior to mechs,” AK-15 spoke up. “We can afford to make a mistake.”

Infinite Stratos suit had been … a really good purchase. Aside from the fact that it was a zero cost purchase, it had capabilities on par with a heavy mech with the mobility of a light mech crossed with a jet fighter speed. Oh, and can’t forget about the energy shielding, which gave it a tier of its own above mechs.

“Letting them in orbit is a fatal mistake,” Rebecca said with a frown.

The line was very clear in this instance. Rebecca wanted to make sure that the dropships didn’t even get close to orbit while AK-15 thought that a diplomatic approach might not be a bad idea.

I … actually had an idea.

“Why don’t I fly up to them with two of the T-Dolls in IS armors and ask them directly?” I asked.

Neither AK-15 nor Rebecca looked like they liked the sound of that.

“Dropships are armed, Alan,” AK-15 chastised. “Getting close can also be a declaration of war in and of itself.”

“Then I’ll make sure to open up comm so that they can contact me. If they see me coming and don’t contact me… well, it’s pretty clear cut what they’re here for, isn’t it?”

Rebecca hummed. “I’m okay with that as long as I’m the one you’re taking with you.”

AK-15 snapped toward Rebecca with wide, infuriated eyes. As one of the two “hands” of the group, we had a standing policy that if one leader went elsewhere, then the other would have to stay. Myself not included. Since Rebecca volunteered, AK-15 would have to stay here.

“Okay, then that’s the plan? What about if they somehow make it down to the planet?”

“Well, they won’t.”

Rebecca and I turned to AK-15.

“How?”

She raised an eyebrow. “Alan, you can make more of yourself, right?”

“Yes…” It had been a confusing thing. Despite the fact that I shouldn’t be able to use it, I was able to use Shadow Clones. And multiples of them, too.

“And we have two weeks, yes?”

“Yes.”

“An unlimited resource capped by limited output?”

“Yes?”

“And you can rapidly construct whatever you want? Like you made the Cold?”

I stared at her.

And then facepalmed myself.

“Of fucking course I completely forgot about that!”

Suddenly, I didn’t feel so bad about our current situation. “AK-15, thank you,” I mumbled into my hands as even Rebecca realized what I had been sitting on. I’ve been so focused on building up that I forgot that I can build myself and at a much faster rate, too.”

“You’re welcome,” she huffed.

“Wait, does that mean I can get my own spaceship?!” Rebecca grinned.

I looked up and saw her maniac grin. “Uhm. Yes?”

“I want a fighter with lots and lots of guns, and I don’t want those puny lasers. I want meaty,” she stalked up to me. “Thick,” she pressed up against me and began pushing me back to the back of the loveseat I was on. “Loud,” she grinned like an absolute lunatic. “And bombastic rapid-fire rotary chainguns.”

“...Okay.”

“Wonderful! I’ll be waiting for my gunship~!” And then she was gone.

I turned to AK-15, who hummed. “I’d like something more utilitarian.”

And then she was gone, too.

I sat alone in the meeting room, and repeated the events of the meeting repeated themselves in my head for a good measure. You know, just so I don’t forget anything.

“I guess… I should get to work.”