Dark Fate, Chapter 66 (Patreon)

Chapter 66 – Baiting the Trap

The next day, the grounds were upgraded by the System. Getting my ship took a bit longer, but that was to be expected. I had to wait two whole days for an actual warship. Considering that it would have taken weeks even at the best System-enhanced shipyards if it was done manually, with people who had skills to improve the speed and quality of construction, that was practically a blink of the eye.

The ship was all shiny and new, but I couldn’t bring it out of the ‘garage’ to play with, just yet. Instead, I parked it at the end of the prepared ‘landing skid’ that would make it look from above like the warship had done a crash landing. A bit of landscaping later, and there was earth pushed and piled up over the nose of the craft, further selling the illusion.

That done, I set up the ‘emergency transmitter’ I had purchased, and went to work on the message it would be transmitting. That was actually something that needed a bit of work. I had to sell the idea that the ship was disabled, possibly without a full crew, and that it would be easy pickings, without overplaying my hand or giving them reason to take extra precautions.

First, I had to decide who was going to be calling. I purchased a guidebook to alien races from the System Shop. It wasn’t like a full history and biology lesson on each race, but rather a quick overview to visually identify different races. I mean, it did include some basic habitation and food needs, as well as major cultural notes. Baring your teeth at a Rhygaxian was challenging them to a fight, but doing the same to a Ub’g$ta was offering to mate with them. Little things like that.

It took a bit of looking, but I found the perfect bait race. The knelfi were humanoid, elf-like creatures, a little taller and slimmer than normal humans. They looked spot-on like the elves out of fantasy, to be honest. What was important was that they were used to gravity about 6/10 that of Earth’s gravity, and part of their energy intake came from what I could only call ‘manasynthesis’, like a plant’s photosynthesis. They drew in ambient mana, and expelled an aura that kept them healthy and made plants around them grow healthier. I had no clue how that worked, other than shrugging and chalking it up to magic being weird.

The big point was that, in a mana-less void, on a planet that was significantly higher-gravity than they were used to, the knelfi would be at a terrible disadvantage. They wouldn’t have magic to help support them or strengthen them, and they wouldn’t be able to get a balanced ‘diet’ since there was no mana to passively absorb. Any knelfi that survived the ‘crash landing’ on a planet like Earth, pre-Apocalypse, would have been lucky to survive a year.

This, naturally, made them the perfect bait. If I put it so that the ship crashed sometime before the System came back, then the knelfi who survived the crash would almost certainly be dead, and their ship effectively up for grabs. Any pirate would see that as an easy score, and possibly a big upgrade to their fleet. The smart ones might suspect a trap, but that was why there were absolutely going to be no knelfi anywhere near the ship. Not that there were any on the planet to begin with, to my knowledge.

So, that was disguising the hook, now I just needed a shiny lure to draw the fish in. Looking through the information I could find on the knelfi, I found that they were part of a loose confederation called the Stellar Confederacy. Basically, five weaker races gathered together to fend off outside threats. There were plenty of small alliances and star empires out there, it seemed. Anyway, I could pretend that the ship was part of the Stellar Confederate Navy.

I bought another couple info-packs from the System Shop, this time on the Stellar Confederacy, and the Stellar Confederate Navy. Thankfully, this included not only the equivalent of one of those baby name lists, but also a list of the ranks in the SCN. With that, I had almost enough information to start work on my bait message.

The last bit of info I needed was easily found in the data sheet for my new ship. The Oscuns-class corvette entered service in the galaxy roughly 24 Galactic Standard Years ago. That was important, because I wanted to include a date in my bait message, so that the raiders would come down expecting empty salvage, not a crew of recently crashed navy officers.

“This is Assistant Ship Master Eletha Elamaris, of the SCN Keerla Theyra. Galactic Standard Date 23.28.25308. We have crash-landed on a world under System Interrupted status. Readings indicate no mana in the atmosphere, not even trace amounts. Local Gravity is at 2 Galactic Standard Gravities.

“We are trapped. Ship Master Yeltris is dead. Thirteen of fifty officers and crew remaining, and the rest of us are injured. Systems shutting down to conserve power. We are moving to emergency survival protocols. This message will be saved to the emergency beacon, and play when System access is restored.

“This message repeats.”

There, that ought to do it. Anyone picking up the ‘beacon’, would hear about a ship that crashed about twenty Earth years ago, lost their captain and most of the crew, and the remainder were injured on a planet that didn’t have mana and where the gravity was far stronger than their homeworld. It would be only natural to assume that everyone was dead, and the ship would be theirs for the taking.

So, that was the bait, settled. But you can’t have a trap with just bait. You have to have a way to shut the trap before the prey can get in and get out with the bait. I set the ship into lockdown, meaning that it would contact me if anyone got too close, after its point defense blasted whoever or whatever it was. Fortunately, the wards meant that animals and monsters avoided even thinking about the area, so the only creatures who would be trespassing would be locals who were getting too curious for their own good, and willfully pushed through the avoidance ward, or our raiders. Either way, they deserved a blaster bolt to the face for going where they weren’t wanted.

But making it take longer for the enemy to steal the ship wasn’t my goal. That was just a backup plan in case they got sneaky, and managed to get down to the planet without anyone noticing. What I really needed was an early warning system, to let me know when the aliens showed up.

Unfortunately, my knowledge of satellite early warning systems, in the old world or the post-apocalypse world, was effectively zero. That just hadn’t been something that had ever come up, when I was the Black Knight, leading my army against the forces hoping to take Atlanta. So, I was going to need help.

Fortunately, I knew just the guy to call. Sure, Shadraus might not know the best early warning system to get, but he was connected (quite literally) to the System itself. If anyone knew what I needed, it would be him, or he’d know the guy to call.

With that in mind, I placed the call.

“Ah, my old friend! What can I do for you today?”

“Hey, Shadraus. You know that trap I was talking with you about? I’ve got everything groundside set up and ready for whenever the aliens decide to come and pay a visit. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a problem. I would really like to be in place before they spring the trap, so I can devote my full attention to the situation. It would be very unfortunate if I was in the middle of something critical, and they managed to slip out of the trap because I was delayed.”

“Yes, yes. I can see how that would be a problem. What kind of warning system are you looking at, specifically?”

“Well, that’s where I’m a bit stuck. I’d really like to have something that would detect the aliens when they jump in. Does their FTL give off some kind of radiation or whatever that can be detected? Of secondary importance would be the ability to track ships once identified.”

“Well, lucky for you, I’ve got a few ideas. Unfortunately, it would be hard for you to learn how to use the systems that I could sell you without extensive training. The ‘idiot-proof’ systems are not really worth it, if you ask me. Fortunately, there’s a way around that, as you well know.”

“Oh, has the System hooked the Minion Market up yet?”

“Yes, indeed! In fact, it happened just a couple days ago. Of course, most people on Earth don’t know about it, and even if they did, there’s the usual caveat that prevents people from purchasing minions that are above their Tier through the Minion Market unless they have certain classes or professions.”

“Naturally. It would be bad if a minion that was too powerful broke free, and started causing trouble. Have to have someone around who can ride herd on them, and keep them in line. Someone like a Slave Master, or a Demon Tamer, for instance.”

“Exactly. But first, let’s handle the warning systems you’re looking for, and then you can come in and check out the Minion Market interface. Unfortunately, that one isn’t available through the tablets, for security reasons.”

“Yeah, I can imagine. Send me the listings you want me to look at, and I’ll swing by the store tomorrow so we can see about getting some minions, and getting them equipped.”

“Of course, of course. See you then, Zayn.”

“Later, Shadraus.”

Satellite Surveillance Options

Temporary   Surveillance Satellite

5,000   gp

A   simple satellite with a simple sensor suite, configured during order. Power   source lasts for 1 month, or until orbit degrades.

Mk. 12   Hadorat Satellite

25,000   gp

The   basic early warning satellite of many new colonies. Able to detect jump   flares and warp drives in use. Limited tracking capabilities.

Ytharan   Stealth Observation Satellite

250   million gp

A stealth   satellite used by spy agencies throughout the Galaxy for long-term   observation of systems and planets.

Makaran   Orbital Encouragement Satellite

1.259   trillion gp

The   premier orbital obedience encouragement device. Obedience is encouraged by   example from the craters left by the Encouragement Beam eliminating those who   refuse obedience.

That… was one hell of a list. And I knew that Shadraus had curated the list down to some of the best options for what I needed. I wasn’t entirely certain why Shadraus thought I needed what was clearly an orbital cannon of some kind, though.

Not that I couldn’t see the appeal of having my own orbital weapons platform, of course. Wrath of god was always a good selling point in encouraging people to not be dicks to you, and deal with anyone who tries to raise an army to oppose you. But I wasn’t sure I was at a place where it wouldn’t cause more problems than it solved. I wasn’t a nation-state, not yet.

The temporary satellite was good, if I wanted to just have something that would die off in a month. Actually, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to grab a couple of those to use as probes, for when I eventually had my ship off the ground. But that was something for another time.

I decided to get five satellites. Four were the Hadorats, which I put at several of the Sun-Earth Lagrange points. L2, L3, L4, and L5, to be precise. Those points would give me plenty of coverage, hopefully allowing the system to detect incoming ships even if they popped in on the other side of the Sun. A nice simple setup.

The fifth satellite? Well, that was the stealth surveillance satellite. This one I put out in Earth orbit, only it was facing down, not out. Why? Well, even if I wasn’t a nation-state, there was no harm in keeping an eye on the neighborhood, right? Never know when it might come in handy for stopping problems while they were still other people’s problems, and before they became MY problems.

Hmm. Maybe I should get the orbital cannon, after all. Nah, I’d wait until after the first couple raiders got wrecked. That’d be a better plan.