Dark Fate, Chapter 186 (Patreon)

Chapter 186 – Family Dinner

Thankfully, there was nothing happening the rest of the day, so I was able to spend all the time between my after-lunch date to the park and dinner properly ravishing Yuyu and ensuring that the little summoner was thoroughly bred. I liked to think that I showed her a few things about how to properly use the [Carnal Arts] skill, but I couldn’t give her the full education, since she was only human, and in Tier 1. Even if she’d managed to claw her way up to Level 30, there was no way that she was going to keep up with a literal sex demon in Tier 2.

While she slept that off in my chambers, I came out to have dinner with Ran, Sissari, and some of my pets. Oh, Lilith was there, too, along with Aura and the Lilith from this timeline, though the little one was barely a year old, with her highchair set up so Aura could feed her. Of course, not all the pets in attendance were sitting at the table. Some, like the Greater Angel, Harahel, were under it, entertaining those who were seated.

I stroked the angel’s silver-blonde hair as she slowly bobbed her head up and down in my lap. She was still unhappy with how she had to serve ‘unholy filth’ like me, but she knew as well as I did that there was nothing she could do about it, now. She’d gone into the ‘acceptance’ stage, but I didn’t doubt that, eventually, she would come to enjoy her new lot in life.

I took a sip of my wine, and looked over to where Ran was sitting, her face flushed as she squirmed in her seat. No doubt my ‘housecat’, Zarina, was putting her tongue to good use. “So, Ran, how goes the upgrade plan for the Kroscyl? It already had the heavy gun, and some point defense, but you were going to be increasing that with magic missile launchers and needle shooters, right?”

“Y-yes, Master,” the ship designer said, barely managing to keep a moan from her lips as she did so. Family dinners with an incubus family were always enjoyable affairs, unless you deliberately abstained, but she tried to keep focus while she reported. “The upgrades to the ship itself are proceeding at a steady pace. I think they’ll be done by the end of the week. The only thing left are the internal fabrication systems to make more missiles for the bombers. The bombers themselves are set to be finished tomorrow. The missiles are going to be nasty pieces of work.”

“Coming from you, that is saying something. What kind of weapons are they?”

“Two types. The first one is what I call a ‘screamer’ missile. Basically, when it hits something, it unleashes a psychic scream. These models are designed to specifically overload the frequency of the Incux hivemind, which should cut their communications temporarily. The second, however, unleashes a biological self-replicating nanoweapon that consumes all organic material it comes across in order to continue reproducing.”

The dining room suddenly got very quiet. “Tell me you have a kill-switch on those.”

“Yes, Master. You send out the right psychic signal, and the nanites will rebroadcast it across the whole swarm, shutting everything down. They’re also vulnerable to ship-borne energy weapons like lasers and plasma, so carving up a ‘firebreak’ and then working inward to eliminate them is possible. And since they only attack organic material, even an environmental suit would be sufficient protection against the swarm.”

“Very well,” I nodded, as I cut into my steak. The girl was insane, but at least she wasn’t crazy enough to make something like that without safeguards. Looking over to the tentacled catgirl next to her, I said, “So, Sissari, looking forward to getting out in the black again? Any ideas about the first targets you’ll hit?”

The privateer took a breath to consider, and said, “Well, staying with Ran would be my preference, but I’ve done what I can to protect her, and I do need to get to paying off my contract. As for where I will go first, I’ve been looking at the map data that you transferred to me, showing where the Incux systems are. The system of Yodhu looks like a fine place to start. The Incux are using it as a resource collection point.”

I grinned, understanding where she was going with that. The Incux hive structures made traditional logistics almost obsolete, but there were still some few resources that they couldn’t do without, beyond food. And those resources still needed to be harvested, which meant the system was full of goods critical to the Incux, and valuable to anyone else. It also meant that crippling the hives there would cause a major disruption to the Incux war effort. All the better considering that Third Fleet had already launched and would be conducting Operation Slaughterhouse before too long.

“Well, I’ll wish you good hunting, then. I look forward to seeing what the spoils of your raid are.”

Sissari nodded, but said nothing. We weren’t friends, but we at least understood each other. She didn’t like that I had her wife as my property, but she was very much aware that Ran was both respected and protected here, and that she wasn’t being forced to do anything she didn’t want to. The privateer knew that I could easily have done far, far worse, and been perfectly within my rights to do so. That I hadn’t earned points with her, however begrudgingly.

Looking back at Ran, I asked, “And what of the bombers for the fleet? Have you settled on a name for them?”

“Yes, Master. Though the name wasn’t really my idea. I came up with the basic design, but brought in people from the Army, Navy, and Marines to check over it, and bring up any problems they saw with the design, or additional suggestions. One of the Marines on the design board said it looked similar to a plane the Americans use, called either a ‘Thunderbolt’ or a ‘Warthog’, so it was given the designation of the ‘AB-5 Thunderbolt III’ for official paperwork.”

“And where does the AB-5 and Thunderbolt III come from?”

“Well, the plane they said it looked like was the Thunderbolt II, named after the P-47 Thunderbolt, a fighter-bomber in your Second World War, so they named our bomber the Thunderbolt III, to continue the lineage. And AB-5 is because the craft is considered an Assault Bomber, and is the fifth prototype design we considered. When properly kitted out, the Thunderbolt III will be able to conduct bombing missions, as well as close air support for ground troops.”

“Yes, I remember, the heavy laser repeater on the nose should be good for chewing up enemy positions. What about the rest of the weapons loadout? I believe you said it could hold six torpedoes or twelve missiles?”

“Sadly, I had to cut back a bit, Master. There are missiles and torpedoes on the market that could work with the space involved, but getting manufacturing licensing from their makers would be prohibitively expensive, and ordering through the System Shop for everything isn’t practical. So, I had to rework things with designs that could be built with the facilities we have available.”

I grunted as I held Harahel’s head down to release her first meal for the evening down her throat. As the angel swallowed, and then began working for her second helping, I said, “Well, that’s fine. I’d rather have weapons that we can use without depending on someone else for logistics, anyways. What kind of loadout do they have, then?”

“The internal bay can hold eight anti-fighter or general attack missiles, good for dealing with ground forces or enemy fighters. Or, those can be traded for four standard torpedoes. I also designed external launchers that can be put on the hardpoints on the wings. Each launcher can hold an additional four missiles or two torpedoes.”

“So, a maximum of eight anti-ship torpedoes, or sixteen anti-fighter or ground attack missiles? Combined with the repeater and its shields and armor, that makes for a fairly robust attack craft. I’m sure the Marines and Army boys will be happy for that kind of support.”

“Indeed, Master. Also, I’ve developed two new weapons that could be used to augment the normal loadouts. However, they might be a bit too destructive for general use.”

Once again reminded of how insane my designer was, I took a good, long breath before asking the question that needed to be asked, “Just what did you design?”

“Well, first is a missile that incorporates a magically enhanced, ultradurable kinetic warhead with a small hyperdrive as part of its systems. It is only rated for 10 lights, with a really short range. Basically, from Ceres to Mars at their closest would be pushing the extreme range of this missile. However, the drive is designed so that it comes out of lightspeed just before hitting the target, giving it significantly improved destructive power, just based on kinetic energy alone. This is enough that it would be considered a Tier 2 ship-to-ship weapon by the System.”

I looked from the designer, to her wife. “Sissari, you have more experience with void combat than I do. What would that weapon do to most warships you’ve come across?”

The stunned eldritch catgirl sighed, and said, “Much like the pulse torpedoes, one hit would be almost guaranteed to take down a frigate’s shields, and two could probably do the job on a cruiser or battleship. Against raw hulls, though? That’s tricky. Anything it touches is going to be utterly destroyed, but the actual damage may end up being restricted to a narrow path if the missile fully penetrates.”

“So, like some rifles that are so powerful that they rip right through human bodies too quickly and overpenetrate, wasting most of their energy on whatever is strong enough to stop them? But when they hit body armor, they transfer much more of that energy?”

“Something like that,” she nodded. “It would allow bombers equipped with these missiles to be a credible threat to larger vessels, and would be easier to disable ships than hoping the pulse torpedoes don’t take out too much of the ship, like you did with the Incux who chased the Neverending Duty here. And the effect on any planetary body it hit would definitely be a city-killer in terms of damage.”

“That’s what I thought. A useful weapon to have, but not one to go throwing around carelessly. Also have to be double-sure to check what is behind the target when firing. Right, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.” I looked back at the designer who was trying not to seem too pleased with herself. “And what of the second ‘improvement’?”

“Oh, that is a fun one! I took the normal torpedoes that most ships use, and replaced the warhead with a singularity generator. Doesn’t have the mass or energy to create a permanent singularity, even a small one, but it is still a Tier 2 micro-singularity that will last for thirty seconds, with a radius of one meter.”

“Raaaan,” Sissari said, hiding her face in her hands. “What have I told you about things like this? That is the kind of creation that scared your old bosses into collaring you in the first place! Normal people do not like it when ships start throwing around black holes!”

“And this is part of the reason I make sure to keep her happy,” I said. “Also why I have final approval on anything that gets designed before it is put into production. Some people are too smart for their own good.”

Lilith (the older one) patted Sissari on the arm. “Good luck with your struggles.”