B3-04 - Asoltolia Revvena (Patreon)

“Rockets?” Maya asked looking at the plan. “I don’t think we can make rockets.”

“You made the rocket that sent us Roci,” George said. He pulled up a diagram of the rocket he wanted to build. “Something similar can push the containers into the correct orbit.” The tablet displayed a simulated cargo container moving in an arc around Earth and finally falling into the atmosphere. From there parachutes would deploy and the container full of food, shelter, water purifiers, and weapons would land somewhere.

It was all ambitious and right then and there, it was all theoretical.

“I’m not sure about sending supplies to military bases and national capitols first,” Maya said, pulling up the map of areas that George and Yuri wanted to send the first cargo containers. They were, of course, mostly clustered in the United States and Russian Federation, with a few smattering of bases held by both countries outside their borders.

“We’ve been over this, they’re the best chance at restoring order and securing large areas to create safe zones,” George said. He looked tired and frustrated. Maya had checked the logs and the man had been spending far too much time in the VR gear, with his low levels and stats, even the high-grade VR set was making him sick the same way that it had for Maya with the low-grade gear. Yuri wasn’t all that different either, the man had dark circles around his eyes and he looked to have lost a few pounds in the days since she had last met with them.

The harvesting of the hiveship and inventorying of the gear they had gathered had been progressing for nearly a standard week now. No rogue AIs had come to bother the hiveship, nothing seemed to be moving out in the RSH, so they took the time to work and get everything ready for their next big push.

“We can just use a railgun, can’t we?” Maya asked. She took the moment to pull a chocolate bar from her inventory and ate it.

“We don’t want to shoot the planet,” Yuri said, annoyed.

“You’re thinking old school tech, boys,” Maya said. “I remember seeing something like a railgun; I think it was called a mass driver? Anyway, they had this sci-fi pic of a mass driver shooting loads of mined minerals from the moon. That’s way easier than making rockets, the last rocket I made didn’t work that well, as Roci keeps telling me.

“We can just attach a mass driver to the side of the 4S and hold the payloads within the Cage itself. When needed, we just shove out a gift box and then you can blast away at your heart’s content.”

“You can just make a mass driver?’ Yuri asked, incredulously.

“Dude, did you not see that big ass railgun I made? Same principle, right? Just shooting cargo and not marsani slugs of death. Plus if we’re gonna start putting out the mana netting, we’re gonna need a machine that can toss out large amounts of cargo far from here. Veskari and Roci and Hanna all say that setting up the black goo mana netting in the Earth-Sun Lagrange Point 5 would be the best senario.”

“It is a very stable area of space,” Yuri said.

“That’s what they say. I was gonna just say we toss it out above Earth, but apparently that’s not a good idea. But right now, we’re going to set up some netting to be able to keep the Cage powered, this beast is a hog.” Maya finished her snack and looked down at the tablet once more. “Tesseract making and black goo refining are making up most of our workload these past few days. I’m not sidetracking ya’ll, but power is our main concern. It’s been our main concern since the day I arrived.” Maya yawned. She was also exhausted as many of the SIL in the Cage were. “Now, we’re short on a lot of things, mostly biomass and alchemical explosives.”

“You’re still making your SMAK?” Yuri asked. He had looked over the blueprints for the Sullivan Mana Automatic Kalashnikov and had been actually impressed by what he had seen. Sure, the weapon was still a prototype, but Yuri had made a lot of suggestions as to fix it, with his wealth of military experience. Suggestions that Maya hadn’t even thought of.

She had just copied the AK-47 that Anisa had left behind when she battled Shen so long ago. It had been modified to fire marsani bullets, using a small mana field and its fiery interaction with volex explosives. The weapon worked, but Yuri claimed there was much improvement needed.

“Yeah, I’m still planning on making it, but we’re also really low on defenses back in the RSH. The mana purge is keeping the low leveled rogue AIs dormant, but the big boys are out there somewhere and it’s only a matter of time before they show their faces.” Maya remarked. “We currently can’t make alchemical goods, Bell’s the only talent we got and since he’s now the Merchant Liaison, he can’t make anything for us. No more freebies, apparently. Plus there’s a guy who owes us a lot of money. Now that we’ve finished a majority of the inventory, I think it’s time we went back and collected our money and sold some stuff.”

***

There was Multiverse Time (MVT), RSHT (Rainbow Sky Hellscape Time) and now what Maya was calling Cage Accelerated Time (CAT). The MVT was the standard, it was the movement of time that was shared by all the different universes that had been Integrated. Then there was the RSH time that was on a different plane of existence, where time moved twelve times faster relative to MVT. And finally there was the CAT, where Maya could and did accelerate time to the point it seemed that time had stopped within the RSH.

All of it lead to Maya being slightly confused as to how much time had really passed since she had been last to Haltor’s World. She had spent more than a few days in CAT while battling the hiveship and preparing for the fight. To Maya it felt like more than two months ago, but in reality it might have been only a month or so. Which was only less than four days in MVT.

The view screen displayed the familiar crater that was left of Kobono’s Town on Haltor’s World. The town had been the site of a dimensional instability, the same kind of instability that had brought Maya to the RSH, but here it had brought the Plaxar’s Pleasure Pub. The Pub had been the changing point in Maya’s life in the rainbow sky hellscape. She had found stalwart companions, she had found a mana core, she had gained her first million credits by stealing it from a dimensional container. If it hadn’t been for the Pub, Maya didn’t know if she would have survived more than a few more weeks.

“I’ve got a message from Pegarios,” Yosi said. The old communication’s array was still in its spot.

“Oh, look at that. They’ve got access to an asteroid in that star system his mom is at,” Maya said. “Tzonia.”

Maya pulled up the information on the small base that Pegarios’ family had set up. It didn’t look like much, just some habitat domes and tunnels dug into a kilometer wide asteroid. Hanna and the other Astronauts clamored over the sight, pulling up the images on their own tablets.

“This is a whole different star system?” Inez asked, gasping.

“Yeah, we’re on a different world now too.” Roci said.

“Well, take a good look, because we’re leaving,” Maya said.

“Wait!” Hanna and George cried out, but it was already too late.

The Cage shifted and a moment later the viewscreens showed the interior of a large cargo hold. Peg had sent them the information she needed to move the Cage, telling her that they had built a special room to hold it. Of course, it could be a trap, but Maya was willing to bet that Peg preferred making more money than killing the goose that laid him some golden eggs.

As the Cage appeared, Maya could see alarms suddenly begin blaring to life in the cargo hold. She was impressed by the response time, as it had been less than a second in MVT time since they arrived. The scanners didn’t see anything beyond the room as it was shielded, but Maya made sure that the Cage was set to automatically disconnect if it sensed any kind of dimensional lock going down.

“What now?” Izumi asked. Everyone stood watching the view screen.

“Now we toss out a comm array, tell them we’re here, and we wait. As we’re moving twelve times faster, we’ll be waiting for a while.” Maya yawned and summoned a tablet. “In the meantime, we can peruse the local Trade Network and figure out what’s for sale.”

“Trade network?” Yuri asked.

“Oh, you’re gonna love this!” Roci said.

“No buying, just window shopping,” Maya said. “We’re broke.”

***

It took nearly twelve hours for Peg’s people to respond. Maya had noted that there were guards and soldiers at the ready within an hour of their arrival, but there had been no word from Peg. The comm finally relayed a message that Peg was inbound on a ship and that Asoltolia Revvena, Peg’s mother, was also coming.

“I guess I’m meeting everyone’s family,” Maya said, glancing at Bell.

“This Asoltolia is not Tier 2 or 3, she is only high-grade Tier 1,” Bell replied. “This should not be as difficult as it was with the Matriarch.”

“You call her that? The Matriarch?”

“That is what she is.”

“How about great grand mammy?”

“No.”

“I’m sure she’ll like it.”

“No, she’s killed people for less,” Bell said.

“But you’re her descendent.”

“One of thousands. A hundred years ago she ‘trimmed’ one branch of House Domakun, because they insulted her. They were also seeking to defect to another House.”

“Tough old biddy,” Maya muttered.

“Such are the things that the high Tiered must do to ensure the continued growth and success of their Houses,” Bell said.

“Sounds awful,” Hanna replied.

“I know right! Roci and Yosi aren’t gonna be killing their descendants because they don’t like ‘em, aren’t you?”

Roci looked to Yosi. “I don’t know.”

Yosi looked to Roci. “Some of House Sullivan might not be up to the task of being in House Sullivan.”

“Just because some who are in House Sullivan are sore losers,” Roci replied.

“I-“

“Have you guys been playing games again? I told you, if you’re gonna cheat, don’t get caught,” Maya said. “If you get caught, own up to it.”

“I was not cheating!” Roci said.

“Roci was cheating,” Hanna replied.

“Traitor!”

“Hold onto that argument, kids. I think the show is starting,” Maya said, getting out of her chair.

The view screen showed a procession of armored men and women entering the cargo hold. Maya immediately spotted Peg and a woman beside him, possibly Asoltolia, along with Dianarios and Saddeyen. Maya couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the three, it felt like so long ago she had spent hours and hours negotiating with them.

Maya didn’t know what to expect from Peg’s mother, for one she didn’t give off the same aura as Bell’s grandma. She looked almost young, as if she were Peg’s older sister, not his mother. She wore the same battle armor that the rest of her family wore, but more expensive and better fitted. Maya could spot the places where the armor had been repaired; it seemed it wasn’t just for show.

“Places everyone,” Maya shouted. She began transforming the Cage to suit the needs of the new guests.

“You haven’t told us much about these people,” George said. He looked nervously at the weapon being displayed by Asoltolia’s honor guard.

“Oh, y’know, just your normal semi-criminal family organization that also dabbles in trade and mercenary work,” Maya said as she transformed out of her ship suit and into some brightly colored fabrics.

“Criminal organization? Like the mob?” George asked.

“Mercenaries?” Yuri asked.

“Just SIL surviving the best they can,” Maya said. “Peg’s a good sort and I hear his mother is too.”

“You hear?”

“Well, purchased System information,” Maya said.

“Is that why we’re broke?” Roci demanded.

“Hey! That’s totally the reason why.”

***

“Welcome!” Maya called out as Pegarios, Dianarios, Saddeyen, and Asoltolia all entered the Cage. There were three other armed soldiers, guards, or whatever that followed them.

“Mistress Sullivan,” Pegarios said, his voice formal and stiff.

“Oh, is that what I am now? It just feels like yesterday you were threatening to kill me,” Maya said, grinning. “Nice to see ya, Sad, Diana.”

“You are the one who found my son’s remains.” Asoltolia Revvena said. It wasn’t a question.

“Yes, I am, Ma’am. Maya Sullivan of the Sullivan Survival Society,” Maya extended her hand.

Asoltolia looked at the hand for a moment and then gripped it in her own. Her grip was strong and firm.

“As a mother, I must thank you. When I heard that Tommo was caught up in a dimensional instability, I could only weep at his passing. At least, at least now we have something to preform the rites upon. So many other mothers who have suffered through such things cannot say the same thing.” Asoltolia held Maya’s hand, there was a watery look to the woman’s eye as she gazed back at Maya. For once Maya felt awkward, not knowing what to do.

“I would say that I did it out of the kindness of my heart,” Maya said. “But the truth is that I needed an ‘in’ with your son, Pegarios. But I’m glad that it has brought some comfort to you. I understand the feeling, not knowing if someone is alive or not. There is hope, fear, and anguish that cannot be resolved until you find out,” Maya responded. A small bubble of emotion threatened to rise, but Maya clamped down on it. Not now.

“At least you are truthful,” the woman replied, giving a faint grin.

Truthsense. Maya remembered. Pegarios had the same skill, if she tried lying outright they would know.

“Welcome to Maya’s Emporium. We have prepared for your arrival and I would like to introduce you to many of the people who are members of the Society. Also we have laid out a feast of Earth foods for your arrival.” Maya gestured and a door swung open, revealing everyone and a laden table. “Have you ever had chocolate?”

***

“This chicken is very good,” Asoltolia remarked as they sat at the table Maya set up. The Sword Union folk and the Earth folk were mixing together, they had been a little standoffish, but once food was served and the Union folks brought out what appeared to be alcohol, everyone was enjoying one another’s company.

“We only used the best food processor we could salvage off an ancient derelict,” Maya replied. Nan had done an amazing job replicating the food that the Astronauts had given her. Tender and Maya had finally raided the Hangy’s bridge for their fancy food processor.

“It is not often that one can consume non-mana infused foods,” Asoltolia said. “Some consider it a delicacy, due to the hardship that is required to grow and process food in a mana-less environment.”

“Yeah, it’s not bad,” Maya remarked. “The tough part was making the right kind of baking pan and an oven.”

“Compliments to your [Chef],” Pegarios said.

“Thanks,” Maya replied. “I did all the cooking.”

“You cooked this?” Asoltolia asked, shocked. “But…”

“Totally. You should have been there the time I cooked for the System. Of course, it was all in a strange fantasy dreamlike state where there was no time, but I still cooked them one hell of a dinner.” May grinned.

The two chuckled, mostly due to not knowing how to respond.

“Ah, before we forget,” Pegarios said. He created a palm sized disc before him. “Once word of the enchanted items you provided got to the right people, they was a bidding war upon them. They were practically snapped up overnight.” Pegarios grinned, so did his mother.

“Every little lordling and noble wants to look good with an enchanted blade on their hip,” Asoltolia said, shaking her head.

Maya picked up the credit disc. She looked at the numeric value on it and whistled. “Is this right?” she asked, amazed.

“We took out twenty five percent,” Pegarios said. “Although now I believe we are flushed enough that we can purchase without the consignment contract.”

“If he weren’t so cute, I’d have beaten his hide raw,” Asoltolia replied. “To give up seventy-five percent of the value? When we made nearly triple on the items he purchased completely.” The woman sighed and glared at Pegarios.

“Nearly triple,” Maya said, feeling a little woozy. She had given Pegarios nine million credits worth of goods in the consignment deal, wholesale value. The normal retail value, according to Bell, had been eighteen million credits. For his service, Pegarios would have obtained four and a half million credits.

Maya stared at the credit disc before her.

Thirty nine million credits.

“I think I’m gonna faint,” Maya grinned as she absorbed the credit disc.

Golden Rule II

First of your race to reach twenty-five million universal credits.

Those with the gold, make the rules.

+ 2 Fortitude

Outpost Settlement Upgrade cost reduced 10 percent

[Merchant] Level 11

You have reached beyond Level 10 in an occupational skill. Would you like to use an Occupational Bonus? Y/N?

+ 8 Mental Strength

“Well, now,” Maya grinned even more.

“Did you just level up?” Asoltolia asked.

“Just in [Merchant],” Maya replied.

“But you’re Tier 2… should you not already have those levels achieved?” the woman asked.

“Long story,” Maya sighed. “I’d rather not go into it.”

“I understand.”

A modified ant approached the table. Asoltolia and Peg stared at it in wonder as it picked up plates and silverware and then skittered off back through a door. Maya could have just absorbed the dishes, as they were all Tier 2 make, but the ants added a little wonder and power to the displays.

“That is incredible,” Asoltolia replied. “If we had an army of those creatures, we wouldn’t have lost Hotano Station.”

Peg scoffed. “If we had an army of those rogue AIs, the Sword would have come down upon us. We would have been drawn and quartered and our ashes thrown into a blackhole.”

“A bit extreme,” Maya said.

“The Sword of the Universe does not work in half measures,” Asoltolia replied. “War rages in the Core Worlds, our House is in disarray, and here in these backwater planets, we’re barely scrapping by.” The woman didn’t hold anything back. “We are thankful you brought back Tommo’s remains and I am thankful that you contacted my son to trade your goods. You have saved what little remains of my family from slavery or extermination.”

Maya kept her face calm. “Extermination?” She hadn’t read about that in the System information.

“You have not heard? It is sadly common knowledge,” Asoltolia said. “The creditors have broken down the debts that House Revvena owed into every main branch family member. They are now sending out slaving ships to capture or kill anyone who refuses to pay their share incurred by the old Matriarch.”

“It is disgusting,” Pegarios said. “The House head is not even dead yet and the creditors are already looking for blood. Many of my cousins have been killed or captured and I fear things would have gone badly if you had not showed up.”

“With the credits we made from selling the enchantments, we were able to pay off our share of the debt,” Asoltolia sighed. “The Sword of the Universe turns a blind eye to such things. They are too focused on expanding the Union and killing monsters to be bothered with creditors, of all SIL, killing and enslaving system identified House members. In the old days, the Houses would not have stood for such a thing.”

“Sounds rough,” Maya said, not knowing how to respond to such a thing. The two seemed nonplused about their distant family members being killed or enslaved, more annoyed in fact. “Can you do anything for your other family members?”

“Why?” Peg asked. ‘We may be all the descendants of the Matriarch, but for too long she has been ill or unable to perform her duties. The House has been on the verge of war for over a generation. Unfortunately those I would call Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins are just main branch titles, they have no interaction in our lives. They are, in fact, working against our interests to improve their own.”

Maya only nodded and shoved some chicken into her mouth. The world outside of Earth was weird and she missed the simple days of kicking rogue AI butts for fun and profit.

“Well, I think everyone’s about done,” Maya said. “I’m sure you’re all interested in the new wares and items we have for sale… even with your reduced budget.”

Maya rose from her seat, all eyes upon her. “Please, come this way.” Maya walked forward and a large wooden door formed in a section of bulkhead. She grabbed the handles upon the door and pushed it open.

Sunlight poured into the dining room as her guests rose to their feet. Maya stood in the light and stepped forward into the room beyond.

Cobblestones were underfoot and brick buildings towered along the sides of a wide alleyway, where goods and items were set out upon tables, blankets, and containers. There was a muted murmur of music and birdsong, along with other ambient sounds that made the whole place seem outdoors rather than within the Cage.

It had been Inez and Zoya Sokolova who had come up with the idea. They had been tinkering with Nan’s old holographic displays and discovered they could make what Inez called a holo-suite. Where they could make sunny skies and images of vistas on Earth to ease their homesickness and recover from the bland nature of the Cage, ISS, and 4S.

Maya had used it to make her convalescence cabin, adding a little Tier 2 flare to give the room a more realistic vibe. As they returned to Peg, Maya wanted to create a better impression than the simple boardroom they had spent hours upon hours within.

Therefore she created Emporium Alley. What Hanna called a knock off Harry Potter flea market. Of course, Maya had been offended and challenged the woman to make it ‘better’, which she did.

Hanna called Maya’s design work, ugly functional. Yuri called it reminiscent of Soviet era Brutalist architecture and sighed with fond memories.

It was a combination Tier 2 tech and holograms. The system tech holographic displays that Nan had used were easy to dismantle and scale up to produce better and more realistic versions. Hanna had also redesigned the appearance of the ‘sellers’ which were all simply modified ant drones that Roci and Tender were operating.  Underneath the holograms they were still ants, but when Maya looked at them, she could only see various human beings hawking their wares.

And there were wares to be had.

Yosi and the others had spent nearly the entire week sorting through the dimensional containers. It was a massive amount and Maya figured that was only half of the containers still on the hiveship. In addition to all the other things Maya had salvaged and the potions they had bought from Bell’s grandma.

It was all laid out, the items, tools, weapons, potions, and armor all neatly arranged and on display. It was a simple thing, the items shown were holograms as with everything. If they wanted to purchase an item the drones would access the dimensional containers and hand it to them. Which Maya figured would cut down on theft, if it were open to the wider public. Everything else was for show, which Maya figured was half of the buying experience.

“More rogue AI parts!” Dianarios squealed and rushed off to a stall that was displaying the items.

“This is impressive,” Peg said, he did a double take as he saw a stall. “Potions? High-grade?” Then he too ran off.

“All in a day’s work,” Maya said. “Really, it took an entire day.”

“This ‘cage’ is incredible, but this is also spectacular,” Asoltolia said. She looked at the sky and then back at the wares on display. “What do you want?”

Maya was waiting for the question. Maya could almost smell the profit she would be making here.

“I’m always interested in purchasing garbage,” Maya said.

***

“Low-grade, Teir 1?” Asoltolia laughed. “I have warehouses full of the stuff. I am a [Mercenary General], Mistress Sullivan. If there is one thing that I have too much of, it’s the low-grade armaments. I could drown an entire continent in the surplus I’ve been hoarding.”

Maya and Asoltolia sat in an outdoor cafe. The table between them was glass topped and on it were two steaming cups of coffee. Maya had run Nan ragged, to the point she had been banned from the medical room, trying to get her to finish recreating coffee. Nan was a miracle worker and she claimed, given enough time and resources, she could probably recreate an entire chicken from the scans of genes and DNA that were left over in the samples she had taken. Although it would not be living, since that was a Tier 2 ability.

The two had been in discussions for the past few hours. Long enough that Asoltolia had allowed the rest of the station members to enter the Cage and peruse the goods Maya had for sale. Maya was amazed at the number of people who stampeded her Cage, nearly five hundred were now walking among the stalls, eating the free food she offered, and conversing with the Astronauts, Yosi, Veskari, and anyone else they could.

There was a brisk trade going on, as Asoltolia’s people weren’t shy about selling items they had or trading them for better deals. Roci and Tender were being run ragged from the interactions, each controlling nearly a dozen drones and taking orders, processing, and handing them out. Maya had been concerned, but Roci had only growled and claimed she would make more money than Tender would. Maya left it at that as the two were in a race to make credits.

It was a festive atmosphere and credits were rolling in. Her prices were rock bottom cheap, compared to what one would have to pay in this end of the Union. The crowds that gathered were mostly the mercenaries that Asoltolia commanded, many were selling and buying new mid-grade weapons from the shops, eager to use them on their next mission.

The potions were a big seller also. It was rare that they could get high quality potions that weren’t cut with something else to reduce their efficacy or lower the price. Bell proudly manned the potion station, although he didn’t have to, he was glad to brag about how the Domakun House was the best alchemist in the multiverse.

“In fact, I could clear out our entire warehouses within the next few hours,” Asoltolia said. “We take most of the armaments off of defeated foes,” she explained,” but they are in good condition. I will not have my soldiers using crap equipment. I can guarantee that. In fact, I know plenty of weapons producers who make low-grade armaments. It’s always good to know who’s making your weapons, so that if those weapons fail, you can slag their factories later on.”

“That’ll be great,” Maya said. She needed enough armaments to drown a continent. “I saw that there wasn’t much on the Trade Network.”

Asoltolia sighed. “The Trade Network here in Tzonia is a mess. It is all overpriced junk, it’s better if you find producers and buy directly from them.”

“Yeah, but I know no one here except your family,” Maya said.

Asoltolia gave a predatory grin. “I suppose I can act as a middle-woman in these deals,” she said.

“I’ll pay you a commission,” Maya said.

“I fear I shall lose my occupational ability of [Mercenary General] and become a [Merchant] as well.”

“If everything works out, you might have to become legitimate business people,” Maya replied.

Asoltolia laughed heartily at that.

“On a different topic. Do you have teachers?”

“Teachers?” Asoltolia asked.

/AN, I like this chapter.  Well, the holidays are upon us and i will be spending it with family.  I shall be cone for the next few days and I shall see you all again on Monday.  I hope you have a good holiday.