Faith in Superior Firepower [Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI]

[Faith]

In which things continue to fail to go wrong.

11 - Face to Face
If the Core Guardians were surprised to see two ridiculously large gunships drop out of the sky and blast apart an entire horde of Lumes in seconds, they did a pretty good job of hiding it.

That is to say, they barely flinched when the two craft appeared, only TSYGAN noticeably flinching.

The Pioneer followed the Kestrels, lowering to a hover just a few feet off the ground. Most of it's body was over the sea, with only the very front protruding over dry land.

The ramp opened, dropping onto the sand, an unspoken invitation.

---

It wasn't until TSYGAN and the Core Guardians were halfway to the ramp that I realised I didn't have any sort of physical body to greet them with.

Technically, the Fabricator built into the Pioneer, designed for creating foodstuffs, could also create something like a Dox, but it would be a little... no, a lot cramped.

I needed something smaller, more human-proportioned.

I loaded up a few blueprints and got to work.

---

Based heavily on Elysion One's SiMo units, my variant of the droid was, like the ships, totally overhauled in almost every way. The AI core and generator were both replaced, the armour upgraded and streamlined, and the ridiculously oversized glove removed. Ascetically, it was a little slimmer, a little sleeker and a little shorter, about six foot tall.

Their armament was another improvement over the Elysion SiMo units. The plasma rifle that was stock for the military was totally overhauled, much like the Sokol had been, granting it much more firepower, ammo capacity, and a greater fire rate, with the option for a powerful charge attack.

Their secondary weapon was a Freeze Gun. The science behind the Freeze Gun was rather interesting, and I had a few ideas for integration into larger-scale systems, but I decided to leave that out for now so I didn't forget what I was doing. Instead I simply replaced the power systems and outer shell as usual, leaving the rest as it was.

Thus complete, I had the Pioneer's built-in Fabricator construct one of my new robotic Avatars.

It finished just as the team reached the bottom of the ramp, powering up as TSYGAN stepped inside the cargo bay/rec room.

I remotely accessed it, swapping my view of the city from the cliff with a view of the interior of the ship.

Bland metal walls, bland metal ceilings, bland metal floors.

Man, I should have put in some carpets or something.

I turned to TSYGAN, who had stepped away from the door to allow the rest of the team to enter.

"TSYGAN. A dubious pleasure to meet you in person at last."

She raised an eyebrow at my robotic form. "Cyberwarfare and robot soldiers. You're not big on personal connections, are you?"

"Friend of yours, Tsy?" The orange haired squad leader asked.

"Robotic in nature. Superficial similarities to SiMo units. Likely AI controlled." SiMo announced before I could reply.

"To SiMo - yes, yes, no. To you, Skye - it would be inaccurate to say friends. TSYGAN is assisting me in evacuating the people of this planet before the Titans reach Elysion. Beyond that, there is no relation. My name is Faith."

The squad shared a few worried glances.

"Wait, evacuating from the planet? Why?" Sweet asked.

"It has been made clear that humanity is not welcome on this world. When the Titans reach Elysion One, they will destroy it. Everyone within the city will likely perish. It is not my wish to see that happen, and thus I am working to remove as many people from the planet as possible."

"But why evacuate? Why run away?" Skye asked. "We killed the first Titan! We can kill the rest."

What.

"Miss Autumn, I recommend you check your facts on that statement. You did nothing to the Titan. The only thing on this planet that could have scratched the Titan is TSYGAN's Sokol cannon, and even then only after a lengthy charge period. I'd appreciate you don't take undue credit for other people's work. I killed the Titan, and whilst it's true that I'm equally capable of killing the rest, that doesn't mean I want to. As far as I'm concerned, this is their planet. You're the invaders, here. And it's time for you to leave. If I have to drag you from this planet, kicking and screaming... I will."

As I'd spoken, Skye's frown had grown deeper and deeper. Haigan looked mildly horrified and TSYGAN herself had shied away.

"In other news, I just broke into Elysion One's security grid and found some rather interesting live footage of a council meeting. Watch."

The screen mounted on the back wall of the rec room flickered to life, displaying a surprisingly grainy image of two men, apparently deep in conversation. Man, cameras in the future sucked.

"...couldn't even handle that. Do you honestly think you and your army can make a difference here?" The first speaker, a young man with stark white hair, dressed in a fancy business suit. The city's security system helpfully matched faces to names for us. He was identified as Public Relations Manager M. Reid.

Asshole.

"We have all the power we need to stand a chance against the Titans. Especially with help from-" The second speaker was much older, with grey hair and a wrinkled face. He was wearing a dress uniform. I didn't need the system to tell me his name. General J. Whalebrook, only competent, not-douchey member of the Bright Foundation Board.

"People don't want a fair chance, Whalebrook. They want a simple solution where all their problems simply go away. We will give it to them."

"And what happens when they realize they will be left behind? You'll be feeding them false hope and lies!"

"Appearances, my friend. The scientific wonders achieved. The incredible quantities of biotic resources we possess. It would be a crime to let it go to waste. Our priorities-"

"Your priorities sicken me, Reid. My soldiers are out there, fighting as we speak."

"Noble as always, General. You are free to stay behind of course, if that is your wish? Your selfless bravery shall be celebrated in the skies as we mourn your passing."

I cut the video there and looked at the stunned faces of three Core Guardians and the very smug face of one terrorist.

"And that? That's why I'm here."

Skye narrowed her eyes at the screen. "Those bastards... I knew they were bad, but..."

She turned to me. "Alright, fine. If you can get everyone off this planet, good. Until the last ship leaves, though, we fight."

Well, if she wants to push the issue...

"I'm not sure how much difference you'll be able to make, but fine. Until the last ship leaves, we fight."

My robotic avatar turned to TSYGAN. "So, TSYGAN, here's the plan. I put that video on every screen and speaker in Elysion. You follow up with a little speech, something provocative. You get mass hate against the Foundation and I get everyone flocking to my portals to evacuate. Sound good?"

The terrorist nodded. "I'll think of something."

---

On the other side of the city, six Air Fabricators disengaged their fabricators and floated away from their latest construction as it slowly came to life.

If I'd had a face, I'd have been grinning like a madwoman when I received the message.

'LiRoS Cannon, ready'

 

[Faith]

Nothing witty to say here.

12 - Propoganda
"Alright, Faith. I'm ready."

"Excellent. I'm playing the recordings now. Once they're done, just speak into the screen. I'll make sure it transmits clearly."

TSYGAN nodded.

I did as I'd said and spread the recordings to every screen and speaker in the city, and then turned my attention to the evacuation.

So far, things were going fairly well. I had now six ships in the air. Seven more were building. One was full, and loading on the second had just begun.

I'd need almost a hundred. With seven Advanced Airfields, three minutes each... It'd be close.

And that was just the ships. Teleporting people across was proving to also be fairly slow.

I'd established four other teleporters in Brightholme, and crowds were already flocking around them, but I couldn't run more than one pair of teleporters at once. For some reason.

Actually, what was the reason?

A quick trawl through my databanks revealed an almost painful truth.

There wasn't one.

It was a purely gameplay limitation to prevent players from being overwhelmed.

Fucking stupid!

I should have checked, earlier, instead of panicking about it. That would have been the smart, rational, emotionless killbot thing to do.

Fuck.

I'm such an idiot.

Suddenly I had not one but four teleporters from the ground to the ships. Four times as many people loading at once.

And the daunting prospect of getting one hundred and fifty thousand people into space in a little less than an hour was... slightly less daunting.

Indeed, people were already pouring through the newly activated Teleporters.

I had my Air Fabricators build a few Avatar robots around the Teleporters so I could get a little control of the crowds.

Whilst they were doing that, I switched gears back to the Pioneer I'd sent to pick up the Core Guardians. SiMo and Haigen had found their way to the bridge of the ship, and seemed to be looking around for the non-existent pilot. Sweet and Skye had wandered off to one side of the recreation room and were chatting about... something. Probably either their current situation, or their favourite ways of making Lumes dead.

TSYGAN was standing in front of the rec room's video screen, taking deep breaths and muttering under her breath.

Planning a nice speech, hopefully.

Since they were all happily aboard, I had the ship lift away from the beach and fly towards the city.

Apart from a little shudder as the ship jerked into motion, the ride was totally smooth.

And confused the fuck out of SiMo and Haigen.

Before the Kestrels left the Lume-infested beach behind, I had both target the Core.

No one was using it, so there wasn't much point leaving it active.

Their cannons rapidly destabilised the Core, and its blue glow quickly turned to an angry red before it collapsed in on itself, imploding with a bright red flash.

It would take a while for Oxygen levels in the area to drop, but it was a start.

---

Meanwhile, my Air Fabricators finished their work in Brightholme, and for the first time my units moved into the city of Elysion proper.

Between their cameras and the city's security cameras, I could see one rather worrying thing.

People in the city were on the brink of riot.

Since the first Titan had appeared, evacuation warnings had been active. The civilians had swarmed over dedicated evacuation zones only to be told to 'wait for evacuation to begin'. TSYGAN had already sent the messages about the origins of the Lumes. People were starting to get angry, get frustrated.

And then my broadcast had started.

When they discovered that they were being left behind in favour of the chance of turning a profit... well, many did not take the news well.

They were growing restless and uneasy, and Elysion's military and police were doing very little to dissuade them.

Which I couldn't really blame them for, because they'd just been told they were being left behind as well.

I was sure about one thing - TSYGAN would have a very attentive crowd.

As my Air Fabricators circled the walls of the city, constructing more Laser Towers to bolster the existing defences, I diverted my attention between TSYGAN, in the rec room of my first Pioneer, and the security cameras watching PR Director Reid in his office.

He was already having a fit about the leaked messages.

Oooh, boy. When he saw what was coming next...

---###---

The screen in front of TSYGAN broke into quarters. One showed her, standing in Faith's starship. The mysterious saviour had even had the decency to pixelate the lower half of her face, as she did in her own videos. How nice of her.

The other three quarters of the screen showed scenes from Elysion One - two were security cameras at evacuation zones, and the last was the feed from the office of Public Relations Director Reid.

A single word flashed across the screen in green. 'Ready'.

She took a deep breath and spoke, knowing her words would be heard by all of Elysion.

A familiar feeling.

"People of Elysion."

In the corner of the screen, Reid shot upright as if he'd been stabbed.

"Many of you will recognise me. All of you will know my name. TSYGAN."

Reid was glaring at his screen, tapping his fingers on his desk impatiently. Smug bastard.

"The Bright Foundation promise equality, safety, and good health for all."

Hook.

"Promises aren't worth a lot when they're not kept."

Line.

"You see now how the Bright Foundation really are. They do not care for your lives. They are only after a profit."

Sinker.

The yelling of the crowd broke into a roar.

"Were it up to them, you would all be left on this rock to die. I don't accept that."

"And neither does my partner, Faith. You might wonder why that matters."

TSYGAN watched Reid lean forward to look closely at his screen. Morbid curiosity?

"We were responsible for the death of the first Titan. Not your Core Guardians, not your Bright Foundation. Us."

Reid recoiled in shock. TSYGAN the terrorist, hero of the people. She could see why he might have had trouble believing it.

The crowd, on the other hand, were going absolutely wild.

She was surprised they hadn't broken into outright violence yet.

"Already we've evacuated thousands from Brightholme through portals to ships high above. Where the Bright Foundation have cast you aside, we will pick you up. Where the Bright Foundation have left you to die, we will deliver you salvation. This planet would be your tomb. Not any more."

She couldn't help but smile grimly as the crowds roared once more.

She had her army.

---###---

Well, I wouldn't have said 'partners'...

Not that I particularly cared. I hadn't exactly given her much time to prepare her little speech, and it seemed to have worked anyway.

Across Elysion people were starting to get violent. The airports - spaceports? - that had been dedicated 'evacuation zones' were defended by thin walls and chain fences, and the crowd surged against them, trying to go over or in some cases through to get to the other side. None of them had made it in yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Assuming I didn't just open the doors for them.

And in the centre of the city, in his high-rise office, Public Relations Manager M. Reid began to panic.

 

[Faith]

So it's not really related to this fic at all, but I just finished reading up to Arc 15 of Worm. My friends have been bugging me about it for months and after seeing it pop up a lot on here and SB, I decided to finally read it.

Woah. How did I go so long without that in my life? Loving it. If you don't get an update tomorrow, it's probably because I'm reading Worm.


13 - Confrontation
My Fabricators spread across Elysion, seeking out the largest crowds.

As they flew overhead they were greeted by cheers and yells.

I wondered why for a moment, but then realised it probably didn't take a genius to recognise the connection between the bright green bombers that killed a Titan and the bright green aircraft flying overhead.

After TSYGAN's promise of 'salvation', people seemed pretty interested in how that would work.

I didn't aim to disappoint.

The Fabricators arrived at the city's main starport, a large open expanse currently covered in military aircraft, and set to work.

First thing, walls. Like at airports, I created four zig-zagging paths from the crowded plaza in front to the tarmac - well, it wasn't tarmac but whatever.

Each of the four paths lead to a Teleporter, and each was assigned to its own ship. The Fabricators followed up by constructing a few Avatar bots, a crowd control measure.

The bots took position at the entrances of the four paths, seperated from the crowds only by a barred metal gate.

I already had control of the city's various networks. Opening the gate was as simple as flicking a switch.

As the metal bars retreated beneath the ground, the crowd bristled and surged again.

The first few didn't wait for the gate to totally close, simply vaulting over it once it was low enough.

As soon as the gate clicked into place, the people rushed forward, spreading through the designated paths. From above the white ground was slowly covered over by hundreds of fleeing civilians.

Less than an hour to go and now I had ten ways off planet - and I'd only covered one of Elysion's three starports.

I was going to need more ships.

Hm.

I had seven about to lift off. Of the six in orbit, five were linked to the five Teleporters in Brightholme, and the one that wasn't was already full.

Seven ships ready in about sixteen seconds. About how long it would take for the bulk of the crowd to reach the Teleporters.

Excellent.

Didn't help that I'd need almost twice as many ships again if I wanted four Teleporters at each of the other airfields.

Damn these expensive damn ships and their long build times.

Not like I had much other choice, though.

I sent my Fabricators off to the next starport, relying on the Avatar bots to keep the crowds in line.

---

Overhead, the Pioneer carrying TSYGAN and the Core Guardians slowed to a hover as it neared the Bright Foundation's main tower.

I spoke over the speaker system, adressing everyone on board.

"So, we're about fifteen seconds out from Reid's office. Who wants to go punch his face in?"

All four humans jumped to their feet.

"Skye? Thought you'd rather fight Lumes than humans."

She shrugged. "I was talking with Sweet about it. Doesn't matter how many Lumes we fight if everyone dies anyway."

"Right!" Sweet called out. "So we punch Reid for being super dwanky, and then everyone gets out alive!"

Dwanky.

She actually used the word dwanky.

Future fads are weird, man.

Haigen put a hand on TSYGAN's shoulder and both smiled.

It was not a happy smile.

More of a 'I'm going to break your arm, and I'm going to enjoy it' smile.

Don't ask how I learned to recognise those kinds of smiles.

---

The ship settled into a hover just outside the building's roof.

Well, Roof may have been the wrong term. The entire thing was enclosed in a large glass-like dome that I didn't feel like smashing.

That wasn't the target though. The actual target was the floor below. There was no elevator access to the roof - you had to stop at the top floor and take stairs.

The top floor had a balcony looping around the entirety of the building, looking out over the city.

It was this balcony that two robots, a terrorist, and three Core Guardians used as the entry point of their intrusion.

Unfortunately, the balcony doors were in lock-down.

Fortunately, the Pioneer was on station with a key.

Sorry, did I say 'key'? I meant 'plasma cannon'.

---###---

Reid slumped in his chair. To say that things were not going well would be an exaggeration.

The sudden appearance of an entire air fleet coming to kill the Titan had definitely boosted morale, but then more Titans had awoken and now they had confirmation that the mysterious army was working with TSYGAN, of all people.

The Brightsiders had gone into open revolt at the revelation that they were to be left behind - and he still had no idea how that meeting had leaked, especially not less than five minutes after it had ended - and his security guards were reporting outbreaks of violence and rioters trying to break into the Bright Foundation offices. The police and military had effectively deserted to a man, and there were reports that 'Faith' was taking over spaceports and using them for her own 'evacuation'.

Reid couldn't believe anyone would trust a mysterious stranger who came out of nowhere and told everyone to go through the glowing blue portal to safety, yet for some reason everyone was chomping at the bit for a chance.

He sighed and tapped the intercom on his desk. "How goes the loading?"

"Last few crates, sir. Might want to make your way up in a few minutes. We'll be ready to launch in five."

"Excellent. I'll be there in a minute."

Reid stood and sighed. He grabbed his datapad from his desk and a satchel bag from the floor, putting the datapad into the satchel. It was followed by a few other items - his jacket, breather mask, the first aid kit from under his desk, and, lastly, his sidearm.

Throwing the satchel strap over one shoulder he closed the flap and made his way out of the office. The corridor outside his office was lined with windows looking over the city, and he took a moment to appreciate the view.

The streets were empty, desolate. Huge crowds had built up around the one spaceport he could see, and likely at the other two as well. Faith's aircraft filled the skies, both the gunships and the strange building ones.

Reid sighed again and shook his head before moving on, walking at a brisk pace down the corridor towards the elevators.

The bank of luxurious elevators was guarded by two security guards, silver armour shining in the bright lights.

"Sir. We heading up?"

"Yes. Let's go."

The three men stepped into the elevator.

It was unfortunate he'd have to share his evacuation craft with them, but that had always been the price of true loyalty.

As the elevator began the six story ascent to the top floor, the building shook and an explosion sounded out from above.

The guards unslung their rifles from their backs, tucking them against their shoulders. Reid reached into his satchel and drew his sidearm.

When the elevator arrived at its destination, the doors opened revealing... nothing. An empty lobby.

"Upstairs, quickly."

The two soldiers nodded and moved out, sweeping their rifles across the room carefully. They made their way down the corridor, Reid following just behind, until they reached the staircase. Still nothing but the howling wind and the smoke from a recent explosion.

"Up, go!"

The guards raced up the stairs, Reid just a step behind. And then they all came to a stop as they stepped into the sunlight.

Six figures stood at the top of the stairs, brandishing weapons.

Core Guardians, a robot... and TSYGAN.

The terrorist stepped forward, pointing her oversized crossbow at him.

"Going somewhere, Reid?"

The rest of the team raised their weapons. The green robot - one of Faith's units? - spoke next.

"This is not an exit."

 

[Faith]

Firefly verse?

We're gunna need a bigger coat


Sorry this chapter's a little late. Decided I'd just finish Arc 20 of Worm quickly...
Haha, ha, ha.


14 - Captive
The two guards stood stoic, pointing their rifles at TSYGAN.

I was pretty sure they'd have killed her already if they hadn't been surrounded.

"Drop your weapons and put your hands in the air, and we won't toss you off this building."

Reid smiled sadly. "I don't suppose I could interest you in a free flight offworld?"

"We've already got a ship. How do you think we got here so quickly?"

Reid paused for a moment before shrugging. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense."

He dropped his sidearm, and his two guards followed his lead quickly.

Skye stepped forward, rifle raised, and grabbed the PR Manager by his collar. "You've got a lot to answer for, you bastard. When word of this gets out-"

To his credit, he didn't lose his cool. "Gets out where? Who are you going to appeal to? The people of the other colonies? Everyone here already knows. The rest of the Foundation high ups know. They're the ones who approved this mission."

My Avatar stepped forward, Freeze Gun poised and ready. "That's nice, and all, but that doesn't matter. When the people find out, the entire Bright Foundation is going to collapse like a house of cards. You used people as shields just for a chance of turning a profit exploiting this planet."

Reid turned to face my Avatar, leering. "Faith, right? I don't know who you are, or where you came from, but you're underestimating the influence the Bright Foundation has. This is a hit, but we'll stand tall. Any kind of propaganda you and TSYGAN can throw up, we can take. And we give as good as we get."

"You seem to be of the belief there's going to be a Bright Foundation once I'm done. You're going down, every last one of you. And I'm giving TSYGAN the ruins."

The hacker turned to me and raised an eyebrow.

"Even so... how are you going to get everyone off world? Hundred and fifty thousand people on this planet. Your ships can't carry them all." Reid proclaimed. "You promise salvation you can't deliver. You're no better than us."

I regretted not having a face, and therefore being incapable of countering Reid's statement with a shit-eating grin. I settled for a smug verbal retaliation. "I think you're underestimating my production capabilities. Everything I've deployed on this planet? Built on site. From resources harvested on site. All those fighters? Those bombers? Built since I arrived on the planet this morning."

"Bullshit."

My Avatar turned, spreading its arms. Indicating the city, the sky. Everything.

"I've got... thirteen Voyager cargo haulers in orbit, now, currently loading. I've got seven more, on the way. Each takes three minutes to build. Seven every three minutes. I need eighty seven more ships to get everyone off world. At my current production rate, that will take just under forty minutes. Not counting the fact that I'm building more Airfields to build more Voyagers. Sure, it'll be close, but I'm more than capable of doing it. And if the Titans get too close too soon, well, that's what the LiRoS is for."

My Avatar turned back to Reid.

"I am more than capable of getting everyone off this planet. And that's what I'm going to do. Even you, much as I hate you. Now hurry up and disable the dome."

Reid sighed and spoke loudly, intoning clearly. "Roof Dome Override zero five five three."

The dome immediately began to retract, folding into itself and then folding out flat, exposing the roof to the elements. Voice activated. Nice.

The wind howled, but it was quickly drowned out by a low whine as my Pioneer rose from one side of the building, the ramp descending.

"Core Guardians, kindly take our prisoners and toss them in the cells. That's the rooms in the back of the lower level, by the way."

Sweet and Haigen grabbed the two technicians who'd been loading Reid's shuttle. They went peacefully, obviously not wanting to try and fight their way past two Core Guardians.

"You built a long range scout with prison cells? Why?" Sweet asked as she manhandled one of the technicians towards the boarding ramp.

"Oh, they weren't always there. Thanks to my advanced Fabrication tech, though, the ship can adjust and repair itself mid flight. Slowly, of course, but it's possible none the less."

The SiMo and Skye dragged away the two security guards, leaving Reid alone with TSYGAN and my Avatar bot.

TSYGAN waited for about a second before planting her fist firmly into his nose.

He fell backwards with a cry, hands on his face, blood flowing between his fingers.

TSYGAN turned to my Avatar and shrugged. "Worth it."

Now I was opposed to letting humans die, but letting one of the assholes responsible for the whole mess get a bloody nose, literally... well, that was something else.

My Avatar reached down and picked the moaning PR Manager off the ground one handed. "Come on. So many people to save, so little time."

TSYGAN grinned and followed.

---

Of course, whilst I was dealing with that little mess at the top of the Bright Foundation tower, I was also finishing the preparations for the evacuation. All three spaceports had four teleporters each. Brightholme had five. Seventeen total. And of course, I was only building seven ships at a time. For now.

My Fabricators continued to spread across the western continent like a plague, building Extractors over every Metal Deposit in sight and Advanced Airfields in any area big enough to host them.

That brought my number up from seven to ten. Not quite enough, still, but I had other plans.

Namely Orbital. I'd been neglecting it so far because it was a little expensive when I arrived and I'd been worried about the Titans after that, but now that I had most things under control, I was thinking it might have been easier to build some stuff in space. Would save me having to look for room, at least.

I had the Orbital Launcher built on top of a flat rocky outcrop looking over two of my new Advanced Airfields. It only took about half a minute to finish construction and it immediately began constructing an Orbital Fabricator.

---

Loek III's orbit was surprisingly devoid of almost everything. There was a single satellite - some form of communications relay to the rest of civilisation, I believe, - and that was it.

Further out, towards the edge of the system, past Loek V, there was an enormous space station of some kind, a pentagonal prism with a circular hole right through the middle.

A quick check of the Elysion Archives revealed that it was, in fact, an FTL Gate. Elysion One's link to the rest of human space.

I'd need to steal that later. Or, the designs. Elysion One's archives didn't have them. Which was fair enough.

Other than those two objects, there was nothing man-made in the entire Loek system.

Which was good for me, because it meant I had all the room I wanted.

I had my Orbital Fabricator move away from the Orbital Relay and begin constructing an Orbital Factory.

It wouldn't be big enough to build the larger ships, but I only wanted it as another source of Orbital Fabricators. The more the merrier, after all.

---

Once I had five Orbital Fabricators, I began designing my Advanced Orbital Factory.

So basically a bunch of upscaled Orbital Factories linked together. One advantage of using them was that they could have Fabricators above, to the sides of, and below the ship to be built without obstructing its motion, doubling the number of Fabricators I could use to build a given ship.

And that cut the build time on the Voyagers down to a minute and a half.

Excellent. I queued up seven.

 

[Faith]

Wooooorm

Why you suck all my free time away? Whyyyy...

15 - Interlude: Exodus
The constant roar of gunfire, Darren Kinnu mused, was making it pretty damned hard to concentrate.

The strange green gunships, their mysterious saviours, were doing an excellent job of annihilating the Lumes. Gore and chitin fragments caked the roads below. Whenever Lumes appeared, it was a matter of seconds before two or three of the gunships flew overhead and destroyed them in a volley of gunfire.

That didn't stop it being annoying as hell.

No Lumes had dared emerge on Clavering Road for almost an hour, but there were still bursts of activity from the dropships as Lumes continued their assault elsewhere.

Darren turned his eyes from the sky and looked back down the road, keeping his eyes out for any more evacuating people from his perch on the roof of an abandoned convenience store.

Honestly, though, when it came to Brightholme, 'abandoned' was the rule, not the exception. Brightholme as a whole was rather underpopulated. It had room for easily three, four times the population. Five, at a stretch.

In a way that was good, because it meant that the streets weren't absolutely packed with people seeking a way off planet.

The fact that most people had already found their local portal site helped with that.

Darren pulled his crossbow closer to his chest and scanned the area again.

Another group of refugees rounded the corner at the end of the road, two Rats with makeshift weapons leading a group of... probably seventy or so refugees.

Darren grabbed his communicator from his jacket pocket. "Yo, Murr. We got another group, coming up from the south east. Clavering Road."

"Right. Ask 'em where they're from. How many?"

"Looks like... call it seventy. Hold on."

As the group passed below him, carefully trying to avoid stepping in the knee-deep Lume gunk, he leaned over the edge of the roof and called out.

"Hey! Where'd you guys come from?"

One of the Rats leading the group, one of the few people who didn't seem to mind stepping in the piles of gore, made his way over to the base of the building Darren was perched upon.

"We came from the Miram district. Southern coast. We waited a while before leaving, though. Got people in our group from as far east as Fermin mines."

"As far away as the city?"

"Yeah. We're the last group coming to the Ember Square portal site from the east. Lumes knocked out the bridge between Miram and Gladesong. Anyone else tries to follow, they're going to have to go around anyway, and at that point they may as well go to Phoenix."

"Right. Thanks for the info."

The Rat nodded and kept walking.

Darren took a step away from the edge and grabbed his communicator.

"Hey, Murr. This group's the last lot, from Miram and far back as Fermin."

"Really? Already?"

"Apparently the Lumes knocked down the bridge between Miram and Gladesong. Anyone else tries coming this way, they'll have to go round through Phoenix."

"Ah, okay. The portal's up and running people are going through pretty fast. We've been stopped whilst the portal's shut down a couple times, but the crowd's starting to die down. Families are all through, it's just the couples and the loners now. Phoenix is probably going to be busy for a while, though, if what you said is true."

Darren shrugged, a pointless gesture seeing as Murr couldn't see it.

"Yeah, probably. What do you want me to do?"

Murr's reply was drowned out by the rumbling thunder of gunship cannons from the other end of the call.

"Murr? You okay over there?"

"Yeah, man, fuck. Lumes just tried to burrow up underneath the overpass. Some of Faith's gunships cleared them out. Scared the hell out of everyone, but we're okay."

There was silence on both ends of the line whilst Murr tried to remember what he was talking about.

"Anyway, you should probably join that group. No point hanging around if there's no one else coming."

"Right. We'll be there in about five minutes."

Darren stood, pushing through the roof access door and descending the stairs, moving through the shop to emerge in the street just behind the last of the refugees.

"We're starting to pick up speed with the loading, but... I dunno. Titans are getting closer by the minute." Murr continued over the communicator.

"Yeah." Darren said simply as he joined the procession. "How long? 'till the Titans get here, that is."

"Uh... hold on." There was some mumbling on the other end of the line. "Bout twenty minutes. I... uh, I don't think we're going to get through the portal before they get here. Rats last, Tsy's orders. And if the portal shuts down again..."

Darren sighed and swore under his breath. "I don't get why they don't just kill them. They killed the first one pretty easily, right?"

"Yeah, but... I mean, killing the first one is what caused five more to jump up. You want to deal with even more Titans?"

"Yeah, you're right. Just wish we knew more about what was going on. About everything. The Lumes, the Titans... I mean, this Faith guy comes out of nowhere, saves our asses with the biggest fleet of bombers and gunships anyone's ever seen, offers to save everyone from the Lumes, and then fucking delivers?"

"Yeah, man, I feel you. Some weird shit. I'll be honest, I kinda want to know as well. Hopefully the boss can tell us when we get... wherever we're going."

Darren sighed again and stopped walking, turning around to look back at Elysion One. The people there had no doubt already been evacuated. The rich ones, anyway.

He just hoped he'd get a chance to join them.

 

[Faith]

It seems you all missed the greater meaning behind the *coughcough*

That being that Midichlorians are dumb and I'm going with my own interpretation, similar to Sakuya's, that the Midichlorians are a symptom of Force Affinity, not the cause.

Because seriously, what the hell kind of parasitic viral chemical crap would give its host space magic? That's just dumb, guys. Come on.

---

16 - Evacuation
The Orbital Factories had made the whole process a lot easier.

Really, I should have rushed orbital first before starting to build the Voyagers. It certainly would have saved me a great deal of time.

Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

I now had ninety occupied ships, sitting in orbit and fully loaded.

Ten more were floating, loading slowly and not quite full.

Three of Brightholme's five portals, and one of the space port evacuation zones, had been totally emptied and shut down, leaving just ten bridges from the surface to orbit.

At the current rate of loading, it would take... about three minutes to get everyone on board.

Unfortunately, I didn't have three minutes.

The Titans had finally arrived. Despite the valiant efforts of my dwindling fleet of Hornets and fire support from the Pioneers, the five colossal Lumes had now closed with the city walls, standing currently about a kilometre distant.

Luckily for me, I had a backup plan.

It had been complete for a while now, simply idling.

But now I had need of it.

As the sun set in the west, my machines lit up the sky of their own accord.

'LiRoS Cannon, Firing'

A bright ball of burning plasma lanced from the cliffs to the west of Elysion, over the slums of Brightholme, and impacted the leg of the first Titan as he neared the walls.

Well, I say impacted...

It punched through the leg, utterly destroying it at the knee, and then slammed into the ground just behind the Titan and erupted into a ball of fire so big it annihilated everything below the Titan's waist.

Holy shit.

I mean, I knew the thing was powerful but that...

The Titan's upper torso, all that remained of the blast, fell from the sky and toppled forward, reaching out with its arms in some vain attempt to destroy Elysion, even in its final moments.

I mean, it failed, but damn if it wasn't impressive.

The rest of the Titans stopped, slowly turning to face the LiRoS cannon. Obviously, they recognised the bigger threat now.

That somewhat worried me, honestly.

One of the Titans roared, followed shortly after by the remaining three, causing the earth to rumble in response.

And then all four began to move again, footsteps kicking up trees and chunks of rocks big enough to build houses on as they crossed the last bit of distance to the city.

I'd attempted to incapacitate one and it had died horribly, still trying to destroy the city.

The others were closer now and more likely to succeed in at least knocking over a couple of skyscrapers as they fell, assuming they didn't simply get vaporised once hit.

Damn. I hadn't wanted to kill them - it was hardly their fault that the Bright Foundation had flooded their atmosphere with poison, after all, - but it was looking more and more like I wouldn't have a choice.

One of the starport evacuation zones was right near the northern wall. If any of the Titans got through, then they risked the lives of almost six thousand people.

Given a choice between saving six thousand innocents or one, albeit huge, innocent?

Had to go with the six thousand.

The LiRoS cannon fired again, after a little tweaking of power levels on my part, and this time, rather than piercing clean through the Titan's chitin armour, it detonated on contact with the target Titan's face.

The explosions were even brighter and more intense up close, despite the slightly reduced power level. Which made sense, really. I was basically slinging around contained micro-suns, here.

Said explosion also removed a sizable chunk of the Titan's torso and shoulders from existence. Its arms dropped, collapsing limply on the ground before it followed the lead of its fellows and toppled backwards.

I wondered why destroying the head caused them to topple backwards. Were they that off-balanced that the huge glowing eyeball was somehow the only thing stopping them from collapsing? Was there some greater plant magic at work?

I had no idea and I didn't really care.

I had more pressing concerns, frankly. Like the fact that the LiRoS probably wouldn't be able to kill the last three Titans before at least one reached the walls.

I had my Avatar units tell the crowds to hurry it up, but I wasn't sure how effective that would be. They were already cramming through the portals about as fast as they could go, it seemed.

The LiRoS rocked once more and another searing micro-star raced across the sky, felling another Titan with a blast to the eye.

Two left, now. Too close.

The Titan closest to the wall reached out and slammed a heavy hand into it, shattering the white metal plates like so much fine china.

Actually, knowing the Bright Foundation, I wouldn't have been surprised if the wall was fine ceramic. Certainly they seemed to care very little for the safety of everyone who wasn't on the board of directors. If that hadn't been made obvious enough already.

The second Titan also reached the wall, simply walking through it like it wasn't there.

Bastard.

Unfortunately, its movements put a skyscraper between it and my plasma cannon, preventing me from getting a clear shot.

I mean, I could have used any number of Kestrels to keep an eye on the thing and line up a shot through the building, but I didn't want to risk the thing collapsing from a nearby plasma blast.

Even after I'd toned down the power, they were still a little overwhelming.

I toned down the power further and fired at the Titan again. The plasma blast burned neatly through the tower, and left the Lume Titan absent a large portion of his shoulder, but it wasn't enough to kill him.

The people in the northern starport, now about fifteen seconds from being crushed underfoot, surged forward once more. Well, the front bit did.

I noticed a few of the people at the back, about thirty or so, seemed content to sit on the futuristic equivalent of tarmac and wait for their death.

Oh, actually, no. One of them was holding a rocket launcher. I could make out the REX's distinctive boxy sillhoute even from the cameras of my Kestrels high above.

The REX fired, three explosions blooming on the Titan's ankle. I don't think it even noticed.

I had one of my Avatars look over and confirm my suspicions. The people who weren't moving to the portal were Core Guardians, and it seemed they were determined to wait for all the civilians to leave before leaving themselves, and figured the best thing to do whilst waiting would be to distract the Titan.

Noble. Stupid, but noble.


---

Those Core Guardians weren't the only ones staying behind. In Brightholme, groups of slum dwellers wearing dark hoodies emblazoned with TSYGAN's logo lingered around the Teleporters, even as the last of the people filed through.

I had some pretty serious respect for these guys. Most of them had been first to arrive at their respective Teleporters, yet they'd simply sat and waited, letting everyone else go before them despite the chance to be off planet being right there.

I figured it would be rather rude to cram them on the Voyagers with everyone else, so once the last groups of refugees were through, I closed down and then re-opened the Teleporters, this time linked not to orbital craft but to the now-empty south-west starport, where two of my Pioneers were waiting.

My Avatars directed them through the Teleporters and onto the ships, and with those orders given I switched gears back to the fight at the northern starport.

One of the Titans was seriously injured, the other was unharmed, and thirty-odd Core Guardians stood alone in the middle of the airfield, each armed with some form of high power weapon.

The rest of the refugees had gone, so I shut down those Teleporters, using the energy to fire the LiRoS even faster.

Next to the Core Guardians, my fourth and final Pioneer set down, the ramp opening.

The soldiers seemed to need no further instruction, rushing aboard the craft without hesitation, many leaving their heavy weapons behind.

---

The four Pioneers, one loaded with soldiers, two with Rats, and one with TSYGAN and Reid's group, left Elysion One together. The last craft to leave. Well, almost.

As soon as they broke orbit, I followed. A single Astreaus craft grabbed my Osiris Commander body from the cliffs overlooking Brightholme, and I followed.

 

[Faith]

Not absolutely sure I'm happy with how this came out, but I don't know. Sanctum had a very narrow world, with very little exploration of characters, even the main four (five with Tsygan). I'm basically full-on AU here, and I'm not sure how well I've done it.


Ah well.


17 - Orbit
One hundred and seventeen ships were drifting in orbit above Loek III, all but five idle.

The five that weren't were rushing across the solar system to the FTL Gate. I wanted those blueprints, after all.

And I would probably need to make it a little bigger if I wanted to fit ships through at a decent rate. Which was why I needed the blueprints.

Not that time was an issue, any more. Besides planning what to do next with Whalebrook and TSYGAN, I didn't really have any pressing concerns.

Now that everyone was off-world, I'd had my entire force begin to ignore the Lumes. Turret and wall defences began their self-destruction sequences, breaking down into nano-bots and harmlessly dispersing, leaving no trace they'd ever even been there.

My gunships turned away from the Lumes, immediately switching targets and unleashing storms of fire upon the Cores.

One by one, the cores shifted from bright blue to angry red before flashing brightly and imploding.

As each Core was destroyed, Lume spores spread further and further across the city, taking root in gardens and parks, water fountains and swimming pools. I wasn't sure why, but on the other hand, I didn't really care either.

My remaining Hornets launched volleys of missiles at the buildings housing interior cores, blasting them to rubble and vaporising anything inside.

In under a minute, every Core in Elysion had been destroyed. My Hornets and Kestrels spread further out, seeking out and destroying the few Cores far from the city - Cores at communications relays, outposts, science labs, and in the ruins of Old Brightholme.

Within five minutes, every Core on the planet would be gone.

---

"So, Faith. Everyone's off the planet now. I think you owe us an explanation." TSYGAN said pointedly. Looking over her shoulder through the camera, I could see SiMo and Haigen, both looking rather curious. Sweet and Skye were sitting off to one side in the rec room, but once they heard TSYGAN's words they hopped to their feet and joined their team.

"Ah, yes. That. One moment." I sent a message to Whalebrook, on one of the other Pioneers, and after a few moments his face appeared on the screen in front of TSYGAN.

"General Whalebrook, I assume you know of TSYGAN?"

He nodded and said nothing, sparing a glance at the team of Core Guardians behind TSYGAN.

"Now that we're all here, TSYGAN is correct. I do have some explaining to do. Where, specifically, would you like me to start?"

"Where you came from, why you're helping us, and how you build things so fast, for a start. Assuming you're not lying about that."

"All fair questions. General Whalebrook, anything to add?"

"No, I think TSYGAN, much as I hate to admit it, covered the important points. Well, all but one. What exactly are the plans for now? We're off Loek III. Now what?"

"Okay. I'll answer those questions in order. First up, where did I come from?"

I paused, thinking.

"Where I came from is a place so distant you'll have never heard of it, nor do I expect you to ever reach it. Space is vast, and you're talking trans-galactic distances at best, here."

"Implies you are not a human." SiMo noted.

"Correct, tin man. I am, in fact, an artificial intelligence, of a sort. Specifically, an organic mind uploaded into a computer."

Before anyone could butt in, I hastily continued.

"On that point, you will receive no further clarification from me. If you wish to know more, seek the Progenitors. They have the answers you seek, if you can find them. I doubt that, though."

Everyone stared at me dumbly.

"Second question. Why am I helping you? My main goal is the long term preservation of all life. Hence saving not just you but the Lumes as well, to the best of my abilities. They were... not the most cooperative specimens."

Whalebrook snorted. Sweet giggled and Skye frowned. Haigen and TSYGAN remained silent, but both grimaced.

The slum dwellers, I knew, had always been at threat from Lumes. I wondered how many people they knew had been killed by the sentient plant creatures.

Best not to ask.

"The best way to satisfy my goal and preserve both human and Lume specimens was to remove the hostile elements. Seeing as humans were the invaders, you were the ones I relocated. You have other cities in other systems. The Lumes have only one world."

The for now went unsaid.

All those involved in the meeting fell silent.

"Finally, how do I build things so fast? Nanomachines, son."

TSYGAN raised an eyebrow. "I'm not your son. I was about to complement you on your grasp on English, but apparently it wasn't warranted."

"I apologise. The last time I had contact with humanity was the year 2015. Languages develop over time. Obviously that word is no longer used in such a context."

That got more than a few shocked reactions. And really, it wasn't a lie. Technically correct - the best kind of correct.

"Of course, you were somewhat less developed at that time. It does not surprise me that humans never detected my presence beyond Pluto."

"You encountered humanity nearly eight hundred years ago... and left without making contact?"

"Of course. Uplifting species, especially such warlike ones as humans, is never a good idea."

The people I was talking to, five soldiers and a terrorist, had the gall to look offended when I said that.

Hypocrites.

"As for where we're going... well, I don't really know."

"What the hell do you mean, you don't know?" Whalebrook asked, sounding genuinely angry. I couldn't fault him, really.

"I admit, General, it was rather poor planning on my part, but I was somewhat more concerned with getting your people off the planet. The resource reserves on the fleet should be more than sufficient to last a population two or three times the size of the one we've got for as long as a year. It won't be an issue." I explained calmly.

"Very well. I'd rather we had a destination in mind, though."

"It pains me to admit it, Faith, but I agree with the General. We need a destination. Something to tell the people." TSYGAN put in.

"Yes, yes. I get that. I'm simply not sure where to go. What's the nearest developed colony world? The simplest solution would be to drop you off there."

"I don't think there's any developed world capable of taking in one hundred and fifty thousand refugees at once. If we spread the people out, maybe... but I'd rather not do that." TSYGAN shook her head.

"What about Kian Six? It's a fairly developed colony world, atmosphere is breathable, and last time I heard it was rather underpopulated because the megacorporations keep shipping people out to the far colonies. There should have enough room for us all. Ruled by the Humanity First group, who'll happily accept refugees from the Bright Foundation. After what you did on Elysion, I don't think any of us would be safe with them again."

"No, probably not. If you believe that to be the best option..."

On her end of the video conference, TSYGAN nodded. "You said earlier you were going to destroy the Bright Foundation. Kian Six may be ruled by Humanity First, but it's one of the Bright Foundation's main headquarters, too. If you want to destroy them, like you said, it would be a good place to start."

Whalebrook nodded, admitting the point.

"Very well."

"Then it's decided," General Whalebrook proclaimed. "We're headed to Kian Six."

"Spread the word, ladies and gentlemen. Let's get this show on the road."

---

My five Fabricators reached the FTL Gate and immediately sent sprays of nano-bots to assimilate the technology. Within moments, the designs were mine. As were the contents of the databanks, including the location of Kiaan'ru Six. Unlike the Loek system, the Kian system had a number of FTL gates, probably because it was a somewhat larger hub of transit.

I sent a transfer request through the FTL Gate to the Kian system, and the device activated. Apparently there was no queue.

I sent the five Fabricators through and immediately had them begin construction of one of my own FTL Gates. It was about six times larger, capable of fitting almost twenty Voyagers through at once.

I had the five fabricators remaining in the Loek system begin construction at my end, and in under a minute I had a working FTL connection big enough to fit a fleet through.

Perfect.

 

[Faith]

Mass Effect is on the list of settings already. Endless Space was a contender, but there's not much lore (it being a 4X game and all) so, like Destiny, it takes a lower priority on my d100 list.

That said, the dice so far picked Sanctum and FTL, which are also pretty lax on worldbuilding, so I don't know. Might be going there sooner than I thought.


Anyway, have a new chapter, in which an old vet complains about his pay-to-work ratio.

18 - Interlude: Foundation
"Hey, sir? We just got a ping from the Loek System. Transfer request for five ships." The ensign reported from the communications desk.

"Loek System? That's the Bright Foundation's backwater, isn't it?" Major Collins asked, standing and walking over to the ensign's desk.

"Yes, sir. Some kind of science colony, I think." The ensign quickly scrolled through the rest of the request form, shaking his head. "Doesn't say what they want the transfer for."

"Hm. Well, they're not on our arrivals list, but we are pretty empty right now." The Major paused, thinking. "Ring up Gate Six, let them through. I'll get the Bright Foundation on the line, find out what's up with this unscheduled flight."

"Yes, sir. Ringing Gate Six now."

Major Collins stepped away from his subordinate's desk and returned to his own command desk in the centre of the room. He dropped into the chair, reclining in the soft leather.

He tapped a few keys on his computer and brought up the communications menu, scrolling through a list of names.

"Uh, sir?" The same subordinate called out.

"Problem, Porlezki?"

"These ships don't match anything on our record. They're... tiny. Shuttle sized. Don't match any known foundation IFF signals either." Another pause from the operator. "And they're not responding to automated hails."

Collins had served in the United Humanity Defense Force for almost thirty years before being reassigned to the Interstellar Transport Control Division. Even after eight years at a desk in the Navy and six years of overseeing FTL Gate operation, he still had a little bit of that soldier's instinct.

And right now it was telling him that something was very, very, wrong.

The Loek System, as far as he knew, was a backwater science outpost on a Class-2b Terran planet, owned entirely by the Bright Foundation. Whoever these strangers were, they weren't Brightsiders.

"Put them up on the main screen and patch me through to them. I'll talk."

"No good, sir. Ships are refusing all comms. Signals just aren't getting through. I'm bringing them up on camera now though, sir."

By now the rest of the seven-man operations team had fallen silent, watching with interest as the Major took charge.

The ensign nodded in satisfaction and the various large screens around the operations centre flickered on, showing a cluster of small green blobs drifting through space.

The camera zoomed in on one individual ship, allowing the ITCD crew to get a good look at the strange ship.

It was an odd shape, and looked almost too small to contain crew. That said, there were no obvious windows or airlocks visible to use as scale markers, so it could have been the size of a mountain for all the Major knew.

Suddenly the ship began to act. The five ships, flying in tandem, abruptly moved, forming a rough circle - or pentagon, more accurately, - and firing some kind of green spray weapon at the centre.

For a moment nothing seemed to happen.

And then another ship began to appear from nowhere.

Or at least, it looked like another ship. It was hard to tell when it was such an odd shape and scale.

The five invading ships began to spread out, their unknown construction spreading into the form of a roughly curved platform of some kind.

"Mendoza, send a message to the Bright Foundation, I want a status report from the Loek System. Winchester, send an amber alert to any local forces, the UHDF and to Humanity First. We have unknown and potentially hostile craft in-system. Everyone else, close down the rest of the gates. This system is entering lock-down, effective immediately."

One of the junior operators turned to their commander with a skeptical look on his face.

"Sir, don't you think you're over-"

"Overreacting? Newton, during the unification wars, a station with three hundred thousand souls on board was lost because a group of isolationist terrorists caused a ruckus at one gate and then flew three freighters full of dirty bombs through another gate and into the station's biodomes. That is not happening here today, understand?"

The operators, including a red faced Newton, all turned back to their consoles and got to work.

Blissful silence - for about three seconds.

"Sir! Gate Six isn't responding. Unknowns must have done something to it, we can't shut it down. Remote overrides aren't working."

"Bright Foundation just replied, sir. Latest from Loek III, situation normal." Mendoza reported.

"I've rerouted two ITCD corvettes through Gate Nine to provide some support should we need it." Winchester confirmed. "ETA, seventy seconds." She continued.

"Good, good. Keep trying to call them. What the hell are they doing?"

"Sir, it... it looks like an FTL Gate."

Major Collins looked at the screen again.

Whatever the hell these things were, they built fast. The construct was roughly octagonal with a circular hole cutting through the middle. Like a larger version of an FTL Gate.

The building ships finished as he watched, and the gate began to glow a pale blue before activating, creating a wormhole to... somewhere.

The invaders had been here less than a minute and they'd constructed a fully operational FTL Gate.

His crew asked the same question he was thinking.

"Who the hell are these guys?"

And then the first ships came through.

---

The Pioneers and my Astraeus were first through, taking advantage of the fact that the Voyagers would need some time to get in formation.

By the time the Pioneers were through, whoever it was who was in charge of the space defence in the Kian System decided to show up with a paltry two ships, tiny little things barely bigger than my Pioneers.

Of course, they were also military-looking vessels and armed to the teeth.

Maybe I shouldn't have been steadfastly ignoring their calls.

Oh well.

When the next communications request arrived, approximately three seconds after the last, which had in turn been three seconds after its predecessor, I didn't outright reject it.

Instead, I routed it into the conference call that was still running in the background between TSYGAN and General Whalebrook.

"TSYGAN, General. Someone wants to chat."

TSYGAN shrugged and Whalebrook nodded. "Put them on."

There was a moment of silence as my communicators accepted the transmission and fed it through to the two separate Pioneers.

"This is Major Collins, Interstellar Transport Control Division. Unknown vessels, please identify yourselves."

"This is General Whalebrook, Elysion Defence Force. Sending my credentials now. We're seeking refugee status on behalf of the citizens of Elysion."

There was a pause, presumably as Major Collins checked the General's credentials.

"Refugee status? What happened to Elysion? Whose ships are those? They don't match known Foundation markings."

"Elysion is nothing but dust," I interjected, "the Bright Foundation's haven for equality and freedom is gone. The ships belong to me - my name is Faith."

"Elysion has been destroyed? By who? Terrorists? Rival Foundation?"

"Overrun by native wildlife. That should say something about the tenacity and the danger of the native wildlife on Loek III." TSYGAN rather helpfully added.

Whalebrook continued, repeating his previous statement. "Again, on behalf of the one hundred and fifty thousand people of Elysion, I'm requesting refugee status."

The Major leaned back in his chair, staring Whalebrook in the eyes. "One hundred and fifty thousand refugees? Where? On those freighters?"

"No. On more ships, which should be coming through the Gate now." Whalebrook responded coolly.

Twenty Voyagers, flying packed tightly together, emerged from the portal in unison, rocketing through the wormhole into realspace before splitting apart and drifting away from the FTL Gate, making room for the next group of ships to come through.

"Oh." The Major said, barely a whisper.

"These are the first twenty ships. We've got eighty two more in the Loek System. We want to get them registered as Refugees on Kian Six."

"Eighty two more! You have over a hundred large cargo haulers? Where did you get them from?"

"Never mind that, Major," Whalebrook chided. "We've got one hundred and fifty thousand refugees to house. We need to speak to the Humanity First group, and would appreciate it if you could connect us to their regional director."

The second set of twenty Voyagers came through the portal, bringing with them thirty thousand people.

The Major seemed at a loss for words for a few moments.

"Oh... okay. I'll, uh, I'll put you through to Director Keetings."

He cut the link.

---

On the ITCD Orbital Station over Kian Five, Major Collins slumped back into his chair, watching on the screen as yet another group of twenty ships flew through the portal.

"I do not get paid enough for this."

 

[Faith]

So I was doing some in-game research for some rough calcs for the Sanctumverse...

Holy shit, when I said these guys had tech that was 'weak but exotic BS' way back in like, chapter 2?

Well, you'll see next chapter.


19 - Refugees
"You want me to house how many people?" Director Keeting asked, for the third time.

"One hundred and fifty thousand, director. Give or take."

The elderly woman sighed. "General, it is considered common courtesy to provide some form of advanced warning when you plan to relocate so many people."

"I understand it's inconvenient for us to arrive on short notice, but will Kian Six be able to house that many people?"

"One hundred and fifty thousand people represents almost ten percent of Oldhaven's population. They'll need to be distributed to various cities around the planet, obviously, but I believe that shouldn't be too much of an issue. Although I'm not sure why you wouldn't want to communicate with the Bright Foundation about seeking refugee status, since as you pointed out earlier Elysion was a Bright Foundation colony."

"Faith, could you send the Director the files you sent us?"

"Not a problem, sir."

I sent the files and watched Keeting's face as she scanned the documents.

It shifted from confused to bewildered to outright furious, and then to pitying as she looked back up at her screen.

"I'm no fan of the Bright Foundation, but these records you've provided are enough to make me hate them even more. They used you as an excuse to keep science labs on-world? As bait for these... Lumes? Disgusting. General, I'd be happy to provide assistance in getting your civilians away from the Bright Foundation. We are the Humanity First group for a reason. The refugee ships, how long are they able to stay in orbit for?"

I answered in the General's place. "As long as necessary. Well, not quite. Two months, three, tops, before they'll need maintenance, but they won't need to land for that. I can do it safely up here."

That was true, technically. The Cores didn't operate at 100% efficiency, which meant that after a while the Carbon Dioxide would build up. Luckily my Fabricators were more than capable of dealing with CO2 build-up in other ways, so as long as I was around to operate the systems it would all be fine.

"Excellent. If you could keep them in orbit and bring them down a few at a time for processing, that should be quite doable, I think. If you could have your ships maintain their positions for now, I'll begin making arrangements with the Housing Minister."

"I appreciate it, Director."

"Not at all, General. A pleasure to help. Now, if you don't mind me asking - how did you get all this information against the Bright Foundation, and how did you get so many ships? The Major said they weren't linked to any known foundations."

"TSYGAN here is a notorious hacker," The General explained, gesturing to the side. "She accessed a few Bright Foundation archives and found them. As for the evacuation, one of TSYGAN's acquaintances, known as Faith, was able to assist us in evacuation. I'm unfortunately unable to tell you more than that."

"I see. Miss Faith, I know you're in this call, even if I can't see you. Care to elaborate?"

"Nanomachines. Useful little things. It's not really relevant right now, though, so perhaps we could leave that be?"

"Ah, of course, yes. My apologies. I will contact the Housing Minister and return to you shortly."

She ended the call, leaving just TSYGAN and Whalebrook on the line.

"That was easier than I expected."

"Humanity First have been opposed to the Bright Foundation's operations since the 'rogue elements' on Bekkin. This is just more proof of how unjustifiably corrupt and immoral the Bright Foundation are. When they find out we have Reid in chains-"

"You do?" Whalebrook interrupted.

"Oh, right. I forgot to mention that, General." I explained. "I put Reid in a cell, with help from TSYGAN and Skye Autumn's team. He's been sitting on his bunk staring at the wall for about forty five minutes now."

"That's why we couldn't contact him. I assumed he'd just left."

"He was about to. We got there first." TSYGAN answered.

"I see. I admit, I'm surprised about your knowledge of things outside of Elysion, TSYGAN."

"I've been hacking the Bright Foundation's database for years. I've read quite a few private messages between Reid and his higher-ups in the PR division. Out of context, it's not enough to prove anything, but..."

There was a harsh silence over the communications.

"Now what?" Whalebrook asked. "We're away from the Lumes, hopefully we'll all be resettled on Kian Six. What else can we do? Take action against the Bright Foundation?"

"Well, now that you mention it, General, I did obtain a large amount of information about the Bright Foundation's... less moral activities. I'm not sure what authority you'd submit them too, but unless every human judge is as immoral as Reid, it should be enough to put a lot of people behind bars for a long time."

I displayed a choice few of the files on the screens and there was a pause as both my human companions absorbed the information I was giving them.

"Assuming, of course, that your legal system hasn't changed significantly in... eight hundred years."

"With this... this is just the records from Elysion and it's enough to bring down the upper echelons of the organisation. Combined with the messages I intercepted, the records from Old Brightholme... You were right, Faith. They're going to collapse like a house of cards."

"Alright, how's this for a plan. As the unofficial leaders of the Elysion Refugees, I recommend you two focus on keeping track of the citizens and deal with the resettling. It'll do wonders for moral to see the leader of Elysion's military and the leader of the rebellion working together. Whilst you two do that, I'll go dive through the Elysion Archives. If I find any shady looking files like those, I'll send them over to you. Should you need to take manual control of the Pioneers, you can. They're also linked to the Voyagers so you can control the whole fleet from either of your ships, if it comes down to it."

Whalebrook and TSYGAN nodded.

"I appreciate you doing all this to help us, Faith."

"Not at all, General. It's a pleasure."

---

Of course, I didn't actually need to trawl through the Elysion Archives to find the Bright Foundation's dirty dealings. Or rather, I did, but I didn't.

By the power of multi-thread processing, I was able to devote a tiny amount of my computational power (still an arbitrarily large amount, but I digress) to doing that and then use my 'main' conciousness for somewhat more interesting tasks.

Namely, I was doing a little bit of technical work.

As I think I already mentioned, the technology of the Sanctumverse was built less 'up' and more 'out' - that is, what they lacked in direct firepower they made up for in utility and exotic effects, such as the Drone's hyper-precise armour-piercing micro-lasers, the Friendship Laser's laser chaining, the Mind Control tower's... well, mind control, and the Kairos Tower (and related systems)'s time-slowing fields.

Coupled with Planetary Annihilation levels of technology, I had a feeling that the Sanctumverse tech would prove to be very useful.

I opened up some Blueprints and got to work.

 

[Faith]

So those silly calcs?

Look at them. Look at them.

Ridiculous.

This is the first setting.



20 - Armoury

First bit of interesting technology to check out - slow fields.

I ran a few simulations, testing the limits of the technology.

In the games, specifically Sanctum 2, upgrading the Slow Field Mines and the Kairos Tower only upgraded the time-slowing effect to a certain point, around 50% for the turret and 40% for the mines.

I learned that this was because of the power cost of the time-slowing mechanism. After a point, it became more energy-efficient to increase the field's area threefold than squeeze an extra 2% time slow out.

Interestingly, overlapping time fields caused the time dilation effect to stack - walking into a 50% time field whilst slowed for 40% meant you moved at 50% of your 60% speed, or 30% of your normal speed.

The requirement was that each field had to come from its own generator, because each generator could only maintain one field at a time. Honestly that wasn't too much of an issue. That just meant double-barrel freeze guns, if I ever needed anything greater than a 50% time slow, and didn't account for the fact that it was possible to overcharge the generator on the Freeze Gun to totally stop time in an affected area for about six seconds, with an admittedly lengthy cool-down.

Of course, all that was based on a slow-field generator designed to be rapidly deployable, man portable and linked to a power system that included, alongside Fission-Fusion reactors, things so primitive as wind turbines.

Not even particularly efficient wind turbines.

I'd already fiddled around with the older Freeze Gun for my Avatars, but now I had a little more time to play around. Where before I'd basically only touched the power supply and the case, now I was able to go all-out.

The design I ended up with was less 'rifle like' than the Freeze Gun, more suited to a heavy cannon carried like a minigun or over the shoulder like a rocket launcher. Or it would have been, if I'd bothered designing it for infantry. Instead I scaled it up slightly, stuck it on a ball joint, and put it on the shoulder of the basic Dox.

On second thought, I scrapped that design. The generator on the Dox was more than big enough to handle the relatively minor power drain of the Freeze Gun. Having removed the main bulk of the weapon, I was able to mount two slow field generators under each of the Dox's plasma cannons and leave it at that.

I contemplated throwing the slow field generators onto some of the other vehicles, like the Kestrels and Hornets.

And then decided to do it, because I totally wasn't overpowered enough without my air support being able to bog down enemies in time-slowing fields as well as unleashing city-destroying levels of firepower.

Simply because of the sheer power levels I was capable of outputting through bullshit Progenitor thermodynamics-fuckery, I was able to reach 65.23% slowing on a single shot, with a range approaching five meters diameter per slow-field. Active in time-stop mode, the Kestrels and Hornets were capable of locking down a spherical area with a diameter of eight metres for about twelve seconds.

Complete and utter bullshit of the highest order.

And this was only the beginning.

I mean honestly I didn't think anything else would be able to match up to the sheer bullshit of time-fuckery, bless the Bright Foundation in all their moral bankruptcy, but there were still a few things I wanted to play with.

Drones, Friendship Lasers, and Focus Lasers were next on my list.

I'd always liked the idea of drones. Whether the Sanctum-style size-of-your-hand drones, the Halo Sentinels, or even bigger drones like the various drones from FTL, I thought the idea of a swarm of robotic minions was ridiculously cool.

Which was why I was looking at the Drones now. As for the three types of lasers, I wanted to see if there was any way to combine them. Because all three of the laser types I was looking at had their own individual strong points - armour piercing, being able to chain lasers into single large shots, and being able to increase damage over time through constant firing - and if I could combine them, I might have ended up with something vaguely useful for the Planetary Annihilation scale.

Combining the Focus and Friendship Lasers was easy. The Friendship Laser was a smaller-scale Focus Laser, which, when fired at another Friendship laser, was caught by a receiver which used the energy to charge up its own laser.

Also, the reason that in game the Friendship Laser could only chain once was because the capacitors were too small to handle large amounts of power, a problem I quickly fixed with yet more application of bullshit Progenitor hypertech.

Upscaling the receiver and replacing the various power transmission and capacitor systems, as well as the plasma projection tech, with my own made it possible for heavily upgraded Focus Lasers to supercharge my own, newer Mark II Friendship Lasers, even when firing continuously at maximum blast. It simply made the resulting beam even more ridiculosuly powerful. And the Mark IIs were no longer limited to being boosted by one tower at a time. Now I could have five Focus Towers charging a Mark II Friendship Laser, which could then in turn output simply ridiculous levels of firepower.

Of course, I could have simply had one stupidly overcharged tower, or remotely transfer the power from any turret to another if it wasn't in range, but this method looked cooler, and honestly I was so far above everyone else in this verse that I didn't think it would make much difference.

That done, all I needed to do was combine it with the Drones.

That wouldn't be so easy - the Drones were tiny, whereas the Mark II Friendship Lasers (which really needed a shorter name) were roughly spherical and almost a metre across.

Downscaling the Mark II would cause it to lose it's massive singular firepower... but would allow it to be fielded by drones and thus in much larger numbers.

Unfortunately, there was a limit to how much I could downscale it without massively sacrificing the firepower back to useless levels.

I decided not to bother, instead choosing to mount the Mark II on some of my other units. Namely on my defensive laser towers, in place of the dual laser cannons.

Which meant that if there was a unit in range of one of my base defence turrets, suddenly it would effectively be in range of all of them.

Oh, such glorious bullshit.

I also loaded the blueprints for the Boom spider bot, and replaced the abdominal warhead with a Mark II laser.

Friendship laser spider death bots, designed to be deployed in swarms.

Hm.

I think my Australian is showing.

I wondered how I would go about making a doombot drop bear.

The final piece of technology I took a look at was the mind control technology.

It wasn't anything as fancy as a robotic psionic beacon or whatever it was they had in StarCraft, but it was still a form of neural control that allowed for very basic manipulation of the target, with the limitation that more complex brains took longer to gain control over and were effected for shorter periods of time.

Not exactly what I'd hoped for. Too clunky to be useful in any ways that mind-control would traditionally be useful for, outside of the scope of Tower Defence style scenarios where the most you wanted was for the guy in front of the enemy army to turn around and punch his friend in the face - fitting, all things considered. I guess it was developed to combat the Lumes, so it was a fair weakness.

Somewhat disappointed in that particular kind of tech, I turned an eye to the rest of the Bright Foundation's arsenal. There was nothing else particularly of note that I didn't have already - railguns, plasma guns, various explosives, low power DEWs, some kind of energy crossbow... nothing immediately jumped out as super useful beyond what I'd already looked at.

My tech assimilation complete, I turned my attention back to reality.