Dark Fate, Chapter 171 (Patreon)

Chapter 171 – Alert

Officially, it was known as the Tactical and Strategic Information Center. That name only truly existed on paper. Everyone else called it the War Room.

And right now, it was in a flurry of activity.

“Report!”

My command brought a moment of silence to the room, before things began moving again, more orderly this time, as Admiral Jordan looked my way. He nodded once, and said, “Your Majesty, six minutes ago, an Ouran cruiser identifying as the Brethak Claw stitched into the system, at one of the stitch points near Pluto. The cruiser matches the readings we got from one of the Ouran ships that managed to escape after their raid on the solar system. The only ship bigger than a frigate to make it out. However, they did not engage stealth, and instead sent a communication, in the clear. Lieutenant, play the message!”

“This is Huntleader Hasluh the Shadowstalker of the Huntship Brethak Claw. On behalf of the Iscand Clan of the Ouran Huntworlds, we raise our spear in honor of the hunters who met us in battle. The Iscand Clan names this world as Defended, by a Peer species. On behalf of the Great Hunter of the Iscand Clan, I come to speak with the leader of the hunters who defeated our first foray into this system. This message repeats.”

Admiral Jordan looked back at me as the replay ended. “On my authority, I ordered the Hellspawn out to escort the Brethak Clawin for diplomatic talks, and had the alert squadrons launch, just in case. Four minutes ago, a second ship entered the system, this time through a Hellspace rift.”

“Hellspace?” I frowned. “I thought only the desperate, or the insane, used that?”

“I’ve been doing some reading through the System Shop, your Majesty, so I could have a better idea of what we might go up against. While that is the general perception of the Hellspace drive, there are groups that swear by it for its flexibility, since you aren’t restricted to stitch points, or need the power draws of a Wormhole drive, and can, potentially, cross interstellar distances very quickly. For them, the flexibility is worth the risk, especially when they have special shields to keep the nastiness of Hellspace away from them.”

“Good to know,” I nodded. And it was. Both the information, and the fact that my Admiral was being proactive in learning about this new world we lived in. “Where is the ship? Do we have sensor data on it?”

“Came out of the rift near Mars, just inside the orbit of Phobos. As for the sensor data, well, it isn’t what we were expecting.”

The admiral tapped a couple keys on his console, and the main display brought up an image of what looked like a giant, oversized squid. Or perhaps kraken? Either way, the thing had ten tentacles, with two that were twice as thick and ten times the length of the others, all focused on one side. What looked like a mouth was there, and it looked fully capable of taking a ship like the Hellspawn in a single bite.

The ‘body’ of the ship was about the size of the Mercurial, but the longer tentacles added half again the length to the thing’s total size. The fleshy thing looked like something that you would definitely see on a sea creature, instead of a ship. I didn’t see anything that looked like eyes, from this distance, but that would be a foolish weak point, especially when eyes can only do so much against the emptiness of space, where attack ranges can be measured in light minutes.

What I did see, however, were what were obviously point defense weapons, even if they looked half-organic and half-mechanical. While I doubted it would be able to actually harm a warship without grabbing it, those weapons would keep fighters on their toes. And there looked to be several ports in the creature’s flanks. Almost like hangars?

Admiral Jordan shared my revulsion and morbid interest in the thing. “Looks like some kind of organic carrier, right? I’ve ordered the alert flights from Rogue, Renegade, Beast, and Cinder squadrons to intercept. The rest of the fighters are preparing to scramble as we speak.”

“Who is in command?”

“We were lucky enough that Rogue Leader and Cinder Leader were on rotation. Rogue Leader has taken temporary command of the flight from Beast Squadron, and Cinder Leader is commanding the flight from Renegade Squadron. So far, no problems.”

I nodded, “Good. I want the pulse torpedoes ready to fire if this thing turns hostile. Fighters are to try and clear the road, and respond to hostile launches. What is our raider ‘friend’ doing?”

“Brethak Claw is currently following the course designated for them, at roughly 70% their normal speed. They have shields up, but weapons are in low-power readiness.”

“Have Hellspawn maintain escort formation with them. Keep an eye on them, but if the squid-thing sends craft their way, Hellspawnis to defend the Brethak Claw as best they can.”

“That won’t exactly be popular with their crew, sir.”

“Yeah, having to protect someone you were trying to kill last time you saw them sucks. But if we can get the Ouran to at least be diplomatic with us, then we won’t have to worry as much about threats from that direction, while the Incux are still out there to deal with.”

“As you say, sir. What about the squid-thing?”

BRING HER TO ME!

The call was not radio, or any conventional communication. It was a psychic scream, echoing across the entire system. I was fairly certain that anyone who had a conscious mind heard that in their heads.

There was a spell that I had, but had never used. Not because it wasn’t good, but because there just wasn’t ever any need for it. The spell was essentially a magnified version of the trick that most magic-users could do, layering magic into their voice. Usually, that did nothing but just make them sound cooler, or more intimidating, unless they had extra spells, skills, and so on to go with it.

Actually, most magic classes and magic-infused races had some version of the spell, depending on their nature. For a Druid, it was called [Voice of the Forest], while a Cleric would have [Divine Speech]. Dragons got [Draconic Presence]. Really, they all did about the same thing, with different flavor text.

In my case, I was both a Greater Incubus, and (originally) a Warlock. From my race, I got access to the [Call of the Abyss], while my Blood Warlock class gave me [Bloodspeech]. Both allowed me to transmit my voice over a distance, depending on different things, but they were slightly different in application. [Bloodspeech] only affected living creatures, so undead, constructs, and the like would only hear me if they were in range of my actual voice, but creatures would still hear me, even if they were in an antimagic field, as it echoed from their blood, before the magic-dampening effect could silence it. [Call of the Abyss], on the other hand, allowed everyone, even non-living creatures and simple machines, to hear my voice, and it scaled with my powers as a Demon King, but anyone inside a magic-dampening field would not hear me unless I was close enough to just shout at them.

The other problem with the spells is that the base forms were not subtle, and they were not private. These were not spells for conversations between friends who happened to be out of cell service range. These were spells for informing a battlefield (even if the battlefield was an entire solar system) that Doom was coming. Which, naturally, was why I hadn’t used them before. But now, well, I had a reason to use it.

EAT A BAG OF DICKS!

My response roared back, across the system. In person, I had simply spoken the words, but everyone heard it as a roar of defiance, all the same. I noticed all eyes on me in the war room, and just shrugged. “Never needed to use the spell before.”

BRING HER TO ME, OR DIE!

DON’T WRITE CHECKS YOUR ASS CAN’T CASH, BITCH!

My thoughts were interrupted by a call on my personal line. As king, I had two communicators. The first was for business. While there weren’t that many people who could actually call me directly, it was still a higher number than the ones who had my private line. That was just for my pets, and my inner circle. Looking at the screen, I frowned when I saw the ID. Ran Samiess, my ship designer. The designer that had pitched a squid-like ship design to me at one point.

“Have the fighters converge on the squid. Weapons hot.” Turning from the screen still showing the squid-ship, I took a breath, and answered my phone, putting it on speaker. “Ran, I can’t help but find this suspicious timing, what with there being a squid-like ship in the system. I seem to remember you pitching an idea like that to me earlier. Something you’d like to share?”

“Ah, um, well, Master, I know that ship. It is the Kroscyl! I designed it for my wife, when she was looking to do more than just her normal adventuring!”

“Uh-huh. And what kind of adventurer is this wife of yours, that she needs what my sensors tell me is a bio-tech version of a fleet carrier?”

“Well, Sissari is a Technopath. Or, at least she was, the last time I saw her. She specializes in drone combat. I designed the augments that she uses to create her biodrones, as well as the implant she uses to control them. But she should be almost Tier 2 by now.”

“Really? Even though you’re only level 20 in Tier 1?”

“Her drones are extensions of her, so any XP that the drones get is shared as part of her hivemind. That means she can have teams going through two different dungeons at the same time, so long as there isn’t interference preventing her from operating them effectively. And, because they’re living creatures, they heal and regain mana normally, and still have access to the classes they had when she assimilated them.”

I felt a headache coming on at the idea of someone deciding that combining tentacle ships and the Borg was a good idea. Taking a deep breath, I said, “Well, Ran, you had better talk your wife down, and get her to play nice, or I’m going to see how many pulse torpedoes it takes to wipe that ship out of the sky. I’m willing to talk, if she’s going to be reasonable. Otherwise, this is going to be a very one-sided affair, and you’re going to end up a widow. So, I assume you have some way of reaching out to her, that doesn’t require you to shout to the entire system?”

“Yes, Master. And please don’t hurt her! She was off getting her ship worked on when I got enslaved, and sent off to the Minion Market. I never even got to send her a message before I was sent off, and the equipment I was able to build in my spare time doesn’t reach out of the system.”

“Very well, call her, and get her to stand down. I have to go manage the mess she’s caused.”

“At once, Master!”

I sighed as I hung up, and looked to the Admiral. “Call the fighters, have them move into ready positions. Keep shields up, weapons hot, but do not fire unless fired upon.”

“Of course, your Majesty. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you plan to do? I know Samiess is a bit… eccentric, but her designs are part of why we have the fleet we do, and the plans for future expansion. Without her, we risk stagnating, at least until new designers can be trained up on what the System and magic allow us to add to normal technology.”

“That, Admiral, is simple. If this technopath is willing to talk, I’m willing to find a compromise, where she can see her wife and whatever, though I’m not interested in letting her loose. If she doesn’t want to talk, well, enough antimatter should solve the problem, eventually. And if it doesn’t, then I can always go and deal with it, personally.”