Chapter 159: The Animated Protector (Patreon)

Shane transformed into his battle commander mode while Coop’s small group had gone to Empress City on the mainland. The Endless Empire had done well to identify Shane as a candidate for leadership as proven by the way he had already stepped up for Ghost Reef multiple times. Coop was glad that they hadn’t flagged Shane for Champion of their first settlement, though he wouldn’t be surprised if the faction intended to hand the reins of their future claims to him and others who had been considered elites. Their loss was Ghost Reef’s gain.

The unassuming plumber who begrudgingly took the lead of his five man party was gone. He had been replaced by the confident tactical commander that marshaled the 15,000 person fighting force that rose up to defend the fort, forged by the siege event into determined and unyielding defenders. He joined Coop and Marcus, ready to explain the lay of the land, eyes clear and alert despite what had inescapably been multiple days of sustained combat. There were few that could match Shane’s endurance, even among those who had experienced Ghost Reef’s siege. Coop might be the only one, really.

Coop frowned, disappointed that he hadn’t been there when the settlement might have needed him. Seeing the earliest recruits of the settlement working hard made him self-conscious of his lack of contribution. He had carefully delegated most of his responsibilities to his advisors and residents, but the few obligations he felt he couldn’t give away remained foremost in his mind. Physically defending their territory, and the residents themselves, was firmly at the top of his list. Even if the current circumstances seemed handled, the fact that he was absent stuck in his craw, like he was a deadbeat Champion.

“I should have been here.” Coop decided, imagining himself becoming a spoiled prince who reaped all of the benefits of a successful kingdom without doing any of the work when it came down to it.

“No.” Shane firmly denied Coop’s conclusion. “If we needed you, we would have used one of the new features in the civilization shard to alert you.”

“You can do that?” Coop wondered. He hadn’t had a chance to explore the civilization shard after the recent upgrade beyond a brief visit ensuring that his advisors were official before they left.

Shane nodded as he continued with his evaluation. “What we actually need is to make sure you are empowered to continue pursuing opportunities. For our sake and for your own. You should take this situation as proof that you are free to seek out advantages wherever you can find them. That way, when we really do need you, you are fully prepared. We might be ahead of the curve, generally, but as long as you’re the frontrunner we have a significant edge over any threats.”

“Well, we’re here now.” Marcus pointed out, shaking his head at Coop’s weird sense of responsibility that obviously contradicted but overruled his general reluctance to fight. “How long have they been sieging the fort?”

“They arrived only a few hours after you left. It was good you got out before then.” Shane began. “The pirates spotted them way out at sea, easily more than 3,000 ships in total, including the capital ship and 200 battleships. They came straight for us, clearly intent on attacking from the start. The troop tubs tried to form an initial perimeter that the navy spent a full day and night engaging with outside of the settlement’s territory. Sharkbait pulled back once the battleships slipped in behind them and started attacking the fort directly.”

Marcus nodded, putting the pieces together. “It seems the Endless Empire made a deal to try and save themselves, offering us up to the Sapphire Armada in exchange for some cooperation. Without needing to worry about their flank, they were able to press the rebels with their full force, but that shift is what got us involved at all.”

“We all received the notification that you were successful in claiming Empress City for The Lighthouse. Are we ready for another settlement upgrade already?” Shane wondered a bit optimistically, apparently looking for more tactical advantages wherever he could find them.

“Not quite.” Marcus answered, breaking the bad news somberly. “Their population is below 100,000.”

“That low?” Shane asked with some surprise as he learned the city’s population had been decimated in just a few months. He just shook his head sadly as Coop and Marcus confirmed it. “I thought they might have had more given the numbers they started with and compared with what the Sapphire Armada rallied to attack us.”

“How many do you think the Armada brought?” Coop ventured, not happy to confirm that it was considerable.

“Judging by their troop transports, and extrapolating quite a bit, they brought something like 200,000. Could be more, but they will struggle to properly coordinate that many across the island chain.”

“Damn.” Coop grumbled at the mobilization for their little island. “That’s insane.”

“It is.” Shane agreed. “Let’s get up on the wall and I’ll show you.” Shane turned and led the way toward the main entrance of the fort.

Before they moved more than a few steps, a commotion erupted at the rear of the Clumsy Shark, in what was effectively an alleyway between the Brewbot’s Brewery and the Tavern. Coop’s ethereal spear was already cocked back by the time it registered that Arthur had appeared and apparently assassinated an intruder, using one of his blood arrows as a dagger. The older gentleman waved his fingers over his shoulder, sending hand signals to unseen allies, and a small squad of three phantoms dropped their camouflage, revealing themselves to have secured both ends of the alley. A pair of them quickly dragged the victim’s body away.

“What was that?” Coop had already grown comfortable with the idea that they were safe inside the walls, but the sense of security was dispelled by the quiet violence appearing so close.

Arthur tilted his head as he approached the group. “Sappers.” He offered the simple statement as an explanation.

“They’re infiltrating the fort?” Coop asked, applying a bit more concentration on Presence of Mind, but not sensing anything unusual. There were a ton of new people between the cruise ship refugees and the freshly spawned phantoms, but no one seemed suspicious to his subconscious.

“They’ve been trying to sneak inside. The shield only prevents attacks. People are unaffected, but they generally struggle to get past the soldiers within the walls. It seems like stealth is heavily dependent on levels and attributes and to that end they are at a significant disadvantage.” Arthur stated matter-of-factly as he used a small cloth to clean his arrow.

“We’ve been tracking the ones that make it through the perimeter, spying on their movements to determine their goals. So far, they haven’t done much of anything but wander around before trying to leave. Simple reconnaissance.” Arthur seemed disappointed by their efforts. Then he pointed out the loose herd of pigs that were enthusiastically sniffing around the perimeter road like they were hunting for truffles, apparently tracking intruders. “We’ve got some powerful gimmicks ourselves. There’s no need to worry.” Arthur made another quick gesture and another trio of phantoms shifted from a corner of the citadel and moved up the main street before sliding behind the bakery.

Coop continued to lean on Presence of Mind, but he didn’t detect anything exceedingly out of place, ignoring the bombardment lighting up the shield scutes above their heads. The fact that they weren’t dealing with simple Marauding Prowlers this time was clear enough. Humans would be more unpredictable than the Primal Constructs, but the residents were calm and collected, trusting each other and their defenses. Arthur appeared to have already established his counterintelligence spy corps and was deftly applying tricks of the trade to impede the amateurish efforts of the Sapphire Armada.

“It seems like things really are under control?” Marcus ventured while they followed Shane passed the citadel. Coop watched behind them as another enormous blood red meteor crashed through the clouds accompanied by a coordinated volley of spells being launched by the residents. There was no blue flash this time, but he could imagine that one of the battleships was panicking beneath the pressure.

“We are in excellent shape, but I should apologize. The defensive shield requires an enormous amount of mana. In order to maintain it, we drained all of the settlement’s credits to construct eight more Mana Mills and upgrade them all to Mana Siphons.” Shane explained with a slightly worried expression.

“All of them?” Marcus was aghast.

“Were they expensive?” Coop was perfectly happy for the expenditure, given the ridiculous security the turtle shell shield appeared to be providing. He would have made the same purchase in a heartbeat.

It seemed like the previous settlement upgrade advanced the tech level of the system services quite significantly. They were finally to the point where the actual function of the services was impressive rather than simply convenient, even compared to human technology. As far as he knew, Earth didn’t have force fields before mana arrived.

“The upgrades were staggeringly expensive. We upgraded all nine Mana Mills for one million credits each.” Shane elaborated as he pointed out a pair of new buildings at each cardinal direction within the fort’s walls.

Coop blew air out through his teeth, mostly because he was surprised that the settlement had managed to generate that many credits. The combination of the market and the direct sales to the contracted residents was far more lucrative than he had anticipated. The Rare materials he had put up for sale had gone a long way. At the rate they had accumulated so many credits, he doubted he would need to keep fronting them money. The siege had been ludicrously profitable when considering the continued ripple effects.

“Even with that level of investment, mana is still being drained from the total. The Mana Siphon upgrade to the Mana Mills increased their productivity by something like 20 times, but the shield is just that demanding. Gideon believes they will run out of ships before we run out of fuel for the shield, but we’re keeping a close eye on it while being careful with our other expenditures.” He gestured back toward the canal, The Fearless, and the other pirate ships. “The cost of firing the cannons are negligible since most of the mana comes from the individual manning the equipment, but replacing our fleet or the phantoms will be too expensive with the shield simultaneously taking damage.”

Shane gestured for them to follow him toward the stairs that led to the battlements above the front gate. Two of the new Mana Siphons appeared on either side of the main gate, protected on the inside of the wall, buttressing the corners. In contrast to the blocky Mana Mills, they only used the mill as a base, upgrading the mobile portion into a seemingly more advanced tower. Extruding from the top were narrow pillars with bulbous tips that appeared to be emitting flowing energy directly into the air where the mana dome extended. Coop wondered if he would find something similar at the bottom of the mana well.

“Why is it a turtle?” Coop asked out of curiosity.

“Local influence is our best guess.” Shane didn’t sound sure, but Coop thought that made enough sense. Several of the islands within their territory were prolific turtle nesting grounds during the right season.

Shane bypassed the new constructions to lead them up to the top of the wall. Arthur bid them farewell, returning to his duties as an interior defender, silently slipping between the quarry and the stonemason.

The interior of the fort was quiet, with phantoms waiting at each doorway, in what Coop assumed was a defensive formation that would make it difficult to sneak through the darker interiors. When they reached the top, they were provided with another perspective of the air bursts of cannon fire, mortars, trebuchets, and spells. Coop was distracted by the constant stream of explosions as projectiles collided with each other, but when he tore his attention away, Shane was already greeting Gideon.

Javier, the Flame Knight was there as well, standing in front of an empty, abnormally large suit of black metal armor, apparently doing his best to make a good name for himself and contribute to the defense of the settlement. When Javier noticed Coop, he seemed apologetic, like the Sapphire Armada’s appearance was partially their fault, but that wasn’t really the case. They would have attacked Ghost Reef either way and they hadn’t committed so much to saving the rebellion that they ended up exposed.

Coop was put on alert for a second time when the empty suit of armor shifted, facing him directly as if an invisible giant wore the metal plating.

[Guard Captain (Level ??)]

[Animated Protector (Mind)]

[Guardian of Ghost Reef]

[Spectral (Haunted)]

“Greetings, Champion. Viceroy.” A deep voice echoed from the empty helmet. Coop felt like he was hearing a disembodied voice being spoken through a tin can.

“Uh?” Coop hesitated as he peered up into the empty space behind the visor. The animated armor stood almost nine feet tall and still seemed bulky. Marcus stumbled behind Coop at the jerky movement of the armor, just as surprised and hoping the Champion would be able to protect him.

“Oh! Right.” Shane started, realizing introductions were in order. “Coop, Marcus, this is Captain Alaric. We thought the Guard Captain would be another contracted resident, but it turned out to be more like the phantoms, though he doesn’t have any history on Earth the way they did.”

Coop paused for a moment before he shrugged. They already had ghost pirates and phantom soldiers, why not add some haunted armor? The fact that he couldn’t see the Guard Captain’s level was interesting, but even more so was the Haunted title. Coop could guess that it had inherited traits directly from the settlement, but his understanding of the title was that it went way beyond the limitations of their territory.

“I am assessing the defenses of the settlement.” The living armor announced while Coop considered its aura.

“Okay… What’s the verdict so far?” Coop wondered, expecting something positive considering how well they were handling the Sapphire Armada’s all-out assault with much fewer numbers.

“Overall: adequate.” The Guard Captain declared.

“I’ll take it, I guess.” Coop bobbed his head noncommittally, adequate defenses certainly meant good enough to survive. “What’s your level?”

“Level 500 is the current maximum for this unit. Further settlement progression will result in immediate increases.” The voice responded from inside the helmet.

“Man, that’s massive.” Coop turned to his military advisors. “Why haven’t you sent this guy to clean up?”

“We planned to have him lead the counter-assault.” Shane responded before he pointed into the distance, beyond the Coral Forest Mana Well where a stream of pyramid ships were breaking their formations in order to beach themselves in the shallow water near one of the more distant islands in Ghost Reef’s chain, one that was closer to the deep water without a barrier reef. Behind the smaller ships, even further in the distance, was an absolutely gargantuan flagship, one that made the already huge battleships look small. The capital ship wasn’t exactly as large as a cruise ship, but it was tall enough to rival even those megaships.

“It looks like the Sapphire Armada recognizes that a simple naval blockade and siege will not be enough to crack our fortifications. They attempted to send troops across the reef itself, but there was no way for them to traverse the open ground, through the shallows, right beneath our walls. Our scouts have indicated that they are massing troops on the more distant islands instead.” Shane pointed out.

Gideon chimed in as he watched the horizon with a grim look on his face. “They will have numbers that would rival one of the waves during the siege, but they are more coordinated than the mindless monsters and have the potential of more tools. They are committed to taking our settlement. I fear the battle will degenerate into a bloody finale before they are defeated.”

“What’s with the big ship? Think I can stop this whole thing if I sink it?” Coop asked, earning him a surprised look, but no comment, from the Flame Knight.

Shane shook his head. “We don’t think so… Even if you could get close enough, they’re already committed to an all-out attack.”

Coop squeezed his spear and squinted into the darkness, judging the distance. “I could get close enough.” If he launched his spear high enough above the ship, he expected that the shield wouldn’t physically prevent him from landing.

“Let’s make sure their assault fails first.” Shane suggested, obviously wanting to lean on Coop’s abilities for what would be the largest threat to the security of the fort.

Gideon nodded in agreement, explaining their plan. “We’ve already prepared the 300 highest level phantom soldiers and have been holding them in reserve inside the fort’s walls. If spies have managed to infiltrate us undetected, they won’t be aware of that particular squad. As soon as we detect the Armada’s troops making their move, we’ll meet them in the field with Captain Alaric taking charge.” The phantom leader pointed to the east beach. “We’ll strike at their forces while they are most exposed, wading across the channel between the islands without the cover provided by their capital ship before falling back to the walls. The key will be destroying any potential siege engines before they have the chance to establish themselves.”

As they considered their immediate future, the horizon was periodically lit with flames as the Sapphire Armada torched their own landing craft. The sacrifices were proof of Gideon’s words. They were committed to their assault.