Dark Fate, Book 19 prologue (Patreon)

Prologue – Trade Chat

(North American System Information Exchange Forum, formerly Community Building and Civil Defense Chat)

abby_gail, bento, RainyDayze, GringottsGoblin, DoritoMan, D.VaLuvr69, Carion, RadicalEdward, FusionGal, NotACop, Scholar, RamblingWreck, Anonymous4, Anonymous6, RedShift, SevenNationArmy, DarkLord, BagOTrix, White_Queen, Faraday, BackpageGal, FullServiceMassage, daytrader, LinaLuv, Skippy, shadow_clone23, THE_MERCHANT, jenny8675309, Rabbit, Angelus and Tracker are in the chat.

BagOTrix: So, have we got any word on who it was yelling in everyone’s head, yet?

Faraday: Well, obviously the one that replied was DarkLord, but the first one was most definitely that squid-like ship that came out of Hellspace.

BagOTrix: I knew that much. I wanted to know who the squid-ship was, and what they wanted. Because they were clearly pissed about someone getting taken.

DarkLord: The captain of that ship was using a psionic array within the ship to basically do the mental version of broadcasting to every radio in the system. It seems that her spouse was enslaved and put on the Minion Market while she was getting work done on her ship.

Carion: And I’m guessing that she came here because she found out you bought them off the Market?

DarkLord: Yes, even though I purchased her some time ago, it took the captain of that ship a while to get here. Fortunately, everything has been worked out, without any need for unpleasantness.

RedShift: How did you do that voice in our head thing? Do you have one of those psychic arrays on Ceres?

DarkLord: No, I used a spell. I’m not terribly proficient with that type of magic, but I was able to use it well enough.

Angelus: Wait, that was a spell? How fucking powerful are you?

DarkLord: Well, if I wasn’t on Ceres I probably wouldn’t have been able to make the whole system hear my voice. You know how, in stories, some creatures are far more powerful than they would be otherwise, so long as certain conditions are met? Well, I am a Demon King, and one of the skills I picked up from that gives me increased power under certain conditions.

White_Queen: Assuming he’s talking about [Demon King’s Might]? Then basically, all his attributes go up by 1 for every follower within a mile of his position.

RamblingWreck: Holy shit. That would mean that, whenever he’s on Ceres, his attributes would have to be in the tens of thousands, at least!

White_Queen: There’s a reason why stories about a Demon King usually require the King’s army to be driven off or defeated before the heroes can take on the Demon King.

DarkLord: Fortunately, experience in previous timelines gave me an understanding of how abilities like that work. Except this time, I don’t have to worry about traitors stabbing me in the back.

Scholar: What do you mean?

DarkLord: Demon King offers some interesting skills. [Mutual Might], for instance, gives everyone under my banner an XP boost. [Improved Governance] makes it easier for me to control my kingdom. [Sense Disloyalty] points out those who wish to betray me. And [Dissuade Rebellion] makes it harder for those who are disloyal to actually fight against me.

DoritoMan: What about those flames that were all over your troops weapons when they were keeping the Israelis and Palestinians apart? Saw the pictures, and it was wild.

DarkLord: For now, that is a cosmetic effect, but I am hopeful that it will become a real effect later in the Tier.

Carion: Going back to the squid ship, what is happening with them?

DarkLord: Oh, we came to an agreement, and the captain has a Letter of Marque from me. They’re heading off to go ‘find’ things that groups like the Incux might have ‘lost’ and bring them to me for safekeeping, in return for some financial compensation, of course.

bento: Translation, please?

THE_MERCHANT: He made the nautiloid a privateer. Basically, a state-sponsored pirate. And he intends to set them upon the Incux for fun and profit. Not only will he get to weaken the Incux, who are basically the Zerg without a Queen of Blades to hold them back, but he’ll potentially get new technology and more resources to add to his forces.

Skippy: What about the other ship, the one from the lizard pirates?

DarkLord: Oh, they recognized how powerful we were, and decided that it would be much better to be friends. Of course, they’re only one clan out of many, but being recognized as a Peer conveys some assurance that the Ouran won’t be coming to try and conquer Sol anytime soon.

bento: Well, that’s good.

DarkLord: I also plan to send some troops with them, when they return to Ouran space, to start a cultural exchange. They learn some actual military tactics, and the troops learn from some of the best hunters around.

Skippy: So, military that goes around in small groups, taking down targets? Isn’t that just spec ops?

DarkLord: Yes, and no. There are certainly some things that cross over between hunters and operators. Survival training, stealth, and so on. But that is just the beginning. You can’t just run a hunter through boot camp, and call them an operator, just like you can’t teach a soldier to hunt, and make them an operator. Both are part of it, but then you dial it up to 11, and add in a bunch of extra education, including things like languages, culture, history, proficiency with weapons from a variety of tech levels, and so on.

DarkLord: What I’m really hoping for with all this is an exchange of tactics and doctrine. Especially when we consider space combat, and ship-to-ship or ship-to-ground fighting. So far, we’ve basically adapted some blue-water navy and submarine tactics for the CRN. However, the Ouran have been doing boarding actions and hostile landings for a very long time, and will have weapons and tactics to fit. Also, they’ll have a better idea of the types of weapons that can be safely used aboard a ship while striking the balance of lethality and not blowing up your own ship.

jenny8675309: So, I noticed that the Mercurial and some of those ‘corvettes’ just started moving away from Ceres, heading towards Jupiter. Is something going on?

DarkLord: Oh, don’t worry about that. They have a mission that is taking them away from Sol for a while.

White_Queen: What are you up to now?

DarkLord: Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with you.

DoritoMan: Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better.