Chapter 16

Oh Yeah, I Have a Dungeon.

The Octorin swarm was a little over three hours from the ring, and the Horde was still headed for my station, so being grilled by General Winston, a Brit and fellow station master, wasn’t exactly the best use of my time. Except, I needed their help to troubleshoot a problem. So, I had to let them vent in order to gain it.

The general was glaring at me and red in the face, but every word he spoke held no trace of anger.

I needed to learn how to do that.

“You have expressed your interests in fostering a relationship with the Kilocksin clan in your neighboring system, Mr. Mars. It is a relationship that would potentially supply your sector with a fallback point in the future, so why did you fire on the Kilocksin fleet?”

I took a slow breath and forced away my grin.

Damn, this was so much fun, but I had to pretend like I was a responsible adult and not a wild lunatic getting to blow up alien spaceships while calling it a job for a few minutes.

I’m not sure anyone bought it.

“Kilocksin don’t view treaties the way we do,” I said carefully. “Alliances are done in the spirit of an alliance, not the letter of it. We don’t have an alliance yet. We have mutual respect for each other’s strength. Strength is important to them, but more important is actions, a warrior’s spirit, and most important of all, being polite and respectful even to an enemy. We are respected enemies working towards friendship in their minds. They came to help me, which was polite and respectful and showed they were interested in working towards friendship. In return, I didn’t target their ships which was polite and respectful and showed I was serious about working towards friendship as well. Then they stopped being polite by not giving assistance and targeting the Hordes engine when they could. If they were human, you could argue that they had done more than enough, but they aren’t human. What they did was not polite or respectful. It was not the actions of someone working towards friendship. They treated me like an enemy, using me tactically to deal with their other enemies. By only destroying half their cruisers when they knew I could have destroyed all of them, I was being polite and respectful. I was behaving like an enemy working towards friendship. I was reminding them of my intent while showing a warrior's spirit. Try to remember their ways are not our ways.”

But damn, their ways were fun.

General Winston frowned. “They were testing you?”

“Perhaps, or their admiral might just be a rude prick. By being polite, he was left with no other smart option but to be polite back. He would have received a much harsher reprimand from his clan if he had lost all of his cruisers for his attitude. Unless his mission is successful, he’s still going to be in a lot of trouble back home. Being rude is acceptable under certain circumstances in their society, but being so rude that it interferes with your ability to fight properly shows you aren’t leadership material. But if this was a test like you said, then I probably passed with flying colors.”

A Japanese admiral named Hiroshi cleared his throat, coming to my rescue. “I have a Kilocksin liaison myself. His Royal Highnesses’ actions were perfectly aligned with their upper warrior classes behavior. They are viewing him like a potential Warlord. Warlords are highly respected in Kilocksin society because they are considered forces of nature. It is said that it is best to stand behind another clan’s Warlord than in front of. The implication is you work with a Warlord, or you are destroyed. If His Royal Highness achieves this status, they will be humanity's ally so long as his station remains. His title of Ma’Lock is greatly respected in their society as well. If he continues down this path and is successful, not only will this clan be his ally, but the entire Kilocksin faction. We all must adapt to this new form of combat, and his highness is doing rather well. He is also right that what might be considered polite by us may be considered irrevocably taboo by another faction. And what we may view as a declaration of war may be viewed by them as polite. We should note that their commander found his actions funny once understood.”

A Russian General named Yuri interrupted. “That does not mean actions should not be questioned. We no longer represent only our motherland but all humanity. We do not have the power to independently decide humanity's relationship with an entire faction.”

I shook my head in complete disagreement. “That’s exactly the sort of power Commander Prime gave us, and it’s why we are here instead of others. It’s also the responsibility we carry as station masters. There are very few factions we can have an alliance with. Evolution is too diverse to allow us to co-exist with everyone. We need to do everything possible to create a good relationship with those factions we can ally with, but factions like the Horde are different. The best we can hope for is to become an enemy that they decide is not worth the trouble. With others, we can’t even hope to achieve that. This is not a friendly game, and we can’t treat it that way. It’s a matter of survival.”

Those station masters who had cleared their station master quests and met the special conditions to receive station master knowledge all nodded. Those that hadn’t didn’t. They simply didn’t understand. How could they? I hadn’t understood before I received it.

Several others asked questions, but they were just rehashing what was already said. Once that had happened several times, I decided the interview was over.

“I’m sorry for cutting this short, but I can’t talk any longer. I need to prepare for the next wave.”

Tee muted everyone for me. “So, do you want the good news or the bad news?”

“Good news.”

“Your regeneration trait will restore 2 missile batteries, 1 hangar bay, a third R9, and the station energy shield by the time the Octorin arrive. We also have the second ammunition fabricator and the reactor back online.”

“The bad news?”

“The central station will still be critically damaged. Structural damage to the entire station will be at 73%, half the R5-Ms will still be inoperable, and a third of them won’t be able to reload due to structural damage. Because of the widespread damage that is now on both sides of the main station, your armor trait is redundant. And the Octorin drone swarm is too large to calculate numbers accurately.”

“Take a guess then.

“I’d guess somewhere close to two million. The only good news is the largest drones are only corvette class. The majority of the swarm are kamikaze fighter class which are only dangerous when they are close enough to ram and detonate.”

“How many R5s do we have?”

“We currently have 3487 after using the higher grade ammunition, but that number is constantly increasing because of quest clearance and repairs.”

“How many credits do I have left?”

“After these engagements, you have 7,285,972.”

I looked at the viewscreen. “You all heard how many credits I have to work with. I need an upgrade path for the R1s to counter fighters. This path needs to be ammunition light because I can’t resupply a lot of them. My station is currently level 10.”

I eventually wanted to make my R5s my point defense. So I hadn’t wanted to invest in point defense for that reason, but the R5 came with a point defense system, which was an R1 and only an R1, so if I was going to upgrade anything, it had to be the R1 despite how useless it was.

It also meant I had to build one and lock them in for my station tech path.

General Yuri was the first to reply. “I have a design for R1 that technically requires less ammunition and will only cost you 5,650,000 credits at level 10. I designed it for maximum response time. It can engage three times as many targets as the standard R1 upgrade path by using short-range targeting scanners and a high-speed rotator. The system allows for short high precision bursts instead of the extended fire, but it loses three quarters of its accuracy as a result.”

“Send it to everyone, and let’s see if we can improve it.”

The Russian nodded.

A few minutes passed while everyone looked over the designs. “Tee, is there any tech I can use from the other faction’s ships we’ve acquired on this?”

“You could use the Wargarg’s magnetic rotator from their mechs. It’s a cheap piece of tech that would double the rotating speed of the R1 but wouldn’t decrease ammunition costs. The Hordes alloys are better than your factions, but they are expensive by comparison. You need a research lab, and then you could do this for free.”

“When I receive a spare billion credits, I’ll buy one.”

I wasn’t lying about that. A lab was an essential subsystem. Free tech upgrades would save me massive amounts of credits.

“Ammunition is out,” Daniel said. “The R1 rounds are too small to do anything good.”

Alex's face suddenly filled my viewscreen. “You are overthinking this. Buy the maintenance drone facility and then use a million credits to instantly build it. Then spam maintenance drones and have them finish your R5 quests for you. You have enough RP to fill every defense slot on your station. It doesn’t matter if you can’t get ammunition to most of them. You will have numbers. And the maintenance drones can transport ammunition when they are done.”

“Is that possible, Tee?”

“The level 1 maintenance drone facility is extremely limited in what they can build, and the facility is expensive to upgrade, but even a basic maintenance drone would be capable of what she said. And with two hours to prepare, there is more than enough time to fully install all the R5-Ms. You would have close to 19,000 available when they arrive. Chance of victory in that scenario is 100%.”

“That’s too high. If they realize they can’t win, they won’t attack.”

The Librarian replaced Alex. “We discussed this tactic a few weeks ago. The idea of making yourself weak enough to encourage attacks but strong enough for victory. I would suggest doing as Alex said, but instead of building the R5s immediately, use the drones to transport additional ammunition to depleted weapons and then have them move to where the quests need to be completed. Once the Octorin commit to the attack, begin to build the R5s.

“There is a 63% chance of victory with this method,” Tee said. “The maintenance drone facility cannot produce enough drones to build all the R5s between the time they begin constructing R5-Ms and the time the first of the Octorin Drone fleet reaches your defenses. And the station is so heavily damaged that it will not take much to cause its destruction.”

“What happens if I win this way?”

“The resources points collected from this engagement and the others will give you a grace period from follow-up attacks from any of the surrounding factions until the 65th cycle. Expansion to the second ring will be possible with complete R5-M construction.”

“Sounds good. Build the maintenance drone factory and pay for it to be quickly built. Then begin constructing drones and have them transport ammunition to any R5s that can’t be resupplied before distributing ammunition in other places. And buy the R1 upgrade package with the Wargarg magnetic rotator you suggested and build it.”

I climbed out of my chair.

“Where are you going?” Daniel asked.

“I’m going to clear R5 quests. I need to make it look like I’m doing everything I can to stop them.”

That was a lie. If I stuck around, the other station master would continue to complain about my behaviour. I didn’t want to deal with that.

***

My dungeon master, Tumpa, and I spent the next two hours running around and clearing R5 quests, adding another 750 or so R5-Ms to our arsenal. The dungeon master and Tumpa were still clearing quests, but Tee said the Octorin were approaching the ring a few minutes ago, so I hurried back to the command room.

I took a seat in my command chair. “What’s the spread?”

“They’ve positioned their drone fighters in the first wave. The corvettes are in the middle of the formation. They have numbers on their side, so I think they are using the fighters as a wall. With what they can currently see, your point defense probably looks like a joke. So they likely believe it will be safe for their corvette class drones to approach by the time they pass through the ring.”

“Are the functioning R5-Ms reloaded?”

“Yes. Additional high level ammunition has also been distributed. Drone production is in full swing, and drones are ready to move to quest completion positions when the swarm reaches the halfway point.”

“Good.”

“Damn it, not again,” Tee shouted. “You really need to do something about the Wargarg messing with my sensors. I’ve got a Clack transport passing through the ring. They have a six-man team that wants to challenge your dungeon. They will reach the station in five minutes.”

“Seriously, they want to do this right now? Alright, upgrade the dungeon the way we talked about. And then take the mob limit in the 42 rooms up to 84. And fill it with immortal soldiers.”

“I’m on it.”

I stepped out of my command chair and made my way over to the dungeon entrance along the right wall. Five minutes wasn’t a lot of time, and it was a long walk to get to the dungeon. My command room could move like an elevator, so if anyone ever got to the last room in the dungeon it would reposition to meet them, but since they hadn’t reach there, it was basically on the other side of the station.

The doors opened to a long corridor. I started walking, willing my armor to form around me. The nanobots formed up to cover my head, sealing me in. I did a quick diagnostics check.

He Who Eats First had shown me what a well-armed individual was capable of bringing to the table, and I’d used my one special attack for the day. The immortal soldiers were still nothing but mobs. Since I was fielding so many I’d have three lieutenants, but without the additional upgrades, they would only be marginally better than the sergeants.

I hadn’t planned out the rest of their development path yet, so I didn’t know how to spend the rest of my dungeon points effectively. This was really down to me, the turrets, the squad, and the dungeon master. He wasn’t an offensive dungeon boss, but he had the same equipment I did. And he gave a damage and defense buff to the mobs he shared a room with. The percentage was based on the station level, so it was currently only 10%. The problem was if he died, it went away.

A few minutes later, I stepped out of the corridor and into the second to last room of the dungeon. It looked like a dojo. Only it was a dojo where you could hold a football game. Human super-soldiers equipped with tactical armor and particle rifles were spread out in three distinct groups. There was a force of soldiers near the entrance led by a single lieutenant that was designed to slow down the enemy. They were there purely as a delaying tactic. The rest of the soldiers were more or less in the middle of the room lying, kneeling, or standing. They would swarm them the moment the first group died.

Twenty-two armored turrets the size of humvees were attached to the floor and ceiling, spread out for maximum effect. The sergeants and lieutenants were using the ground-based ones as cover. They were the heavier hitters, and it was their job to focus on the enemy one at a time and take them out. Not that they were likely to be too much help at this stage. The Clack were probably sending their strongest soldiers with the best equipment they had.

On my HUD, I watched the transport vessel land inside the hangar bay that led to the dungeon. The ship was massive, easily the size of a frigate. I thought it was overkill until the entire side of the vessel opened, showing six massive insectoid centaurs that could barely fit inside. They were the size of buildings.

They wore power armor that made them look like mobile fortresses. There were two with missile launcher installations on their backs. Another had a cannon, and one had some sort of weird box that my HUD told me was a mobile shield emitter. The last two were walking anti-infantry platforms.

“What the hell is that?”

“Clack Queens,” Tee said. “I have to reset the dungeon to accommodate them. The good news is that if you manage to kill them, you will kill their hives with them. They are worth a lot of experience. Clack queens grow bigger the larger their nest. These ones will each have at least 25,000 in their hives.”

I ran to the dungeon exit, so it could reset. “Good to know. Make the new room as big as possible and change the layout to Normandy beach. How much will it cost me to add covered trenches and pillboxes?”

“You want cover that will hold up to their weaponry or just standard cover for camouflage purposes?”

“Standard cover, but I want the Wargarg sensor scrambler upgrade in the room to counter their auto-targeting systems and scanners.”

“Standard cover will cost you 10 dungeon points for a room with this many mobs. The scrambler will cost you 1000.”

“Damnit! That’s a lot of dungeon points.”

“I need an answer, not a tantrum.”

“Pay it.”

I opened my interface and spent 50 path points to increase the number of dungeon turrets from 22 to 320. Those things were too big to mess around with.

Challenge Received

The Octorin wish to challenge your station. Vessels that enter your system cannot retreat. No other faction can enter your system while the challenge is in place. Clear the invaders from your system to remove challenger status.

Rewards:

Tokens: ???

“Um, this might create a time problem,” Tee said. “You should upgrade your R1s now in case this takes longer than anticipated.”

I pulled up the R1 upgrade path. It was more simplistic than the R5s. It would cost 605 station points to fully upgrade, and I needed it just to be safe.

R5 Enhancements

Description

Effect

Available

Cost

Rate of Fire

+10%

0/10

1

Range

+10%

0/10

1

Accuracy

+10%

0/10

1

Targeting Speed

+10%

0/10

1

Rotation Speed

+10%

0/10

1

Piercing Rounds

0/10

1

Stealth Rounds

0/10

5

Congratulations, you have completed a hidden quest by upgrading a weapon’s path to completion.

Reward:

The R1 will now generate twice as many mobs each day.

“Fuck! No! Shit! No. You stupid fucking quest! I don’t want that on stupid R1s. Who the hell would want that?”

A whirlwind of emotion ran through me as I kept reading the notification. It was like I’d just invested in a dump stat.

“It’s a trap quest,” Tee explained. “It’s designed to frustrate the first one to discover it and make everyone else more hesitant to complete it. They have to make a choice between buying a full pathway early for the additional mobs or waiting until late game when it can make a significant difference. It’s not quite as bad as it seems. Thankfully each of your R5s will produce another station rat because of the R1 they have for defense. So technically, you just increased the number of station rats your R5s produce from four to five. We should tell the others, though. It isn’t something that should be wasted like this.”

“Fuck!”

“The dungeon has reset. I had to move the additional rooms to make the necessary changes. Don’t let this tilt you.”

“I’m not an amateur,” I shouted. “Besides, it’s a free perk. Even if I could have used it better, it’s not like something bad happened. It just wasn’t as good as it could be. I just need to get my frustration out of my system.”

I took a deep breath filling my mechanical lungs to capacity. “Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!”

I shouted long and loud, venting my frustration at the game that continued to screw me. As any adamant gamer will tell, the process of yelling at the game was therapeutic, and you feel better for it once it’s over.

I certainly did.

“I’m good. You can go manage the Octorin attack, now.”

I walked back into the dungeon. The size of the room had grown exponentially. It was now a quarter of a mile wide and half a mile long. Considering what I was fighting was sixty feet tall and a hundred feet long aliens, the room was proportionally as large as it had been before.

I stood on a clifftop overlooking a sandy beach that went for most of the length of the room. There was only twenty yards of water on the far side, and it only went to my waist. There were trenches along the beach where the soldiers were preparing for the assault. There was no team to swarm them as they entered because what would be the point, and all the turrets were now attached to a clifftop. They no longer looked like the daunting force they had a moment ago, even though there were a lot more of them.

I launched into the air, flying above the battlefield to perch against the area above the entrance, spawn camping, because fuck’em. My armor immediately camouflaged to match the background. My personal tech path was nuts, and it was only half of what it could have been, which was even crazier.

The counter in the corner of my vision showed they would arrive in a minute.

I connected my communicator to the dungeon mobs’ radio system. “I’m taking the big one.”

“Sir, this is Lieutenant Dan. How will we know which is the big one?”

“I’ll be attacking it.”

“Yes, sir.”

My dungeon mobs weren’t the smartest fish in the sea. They weren’t like Tee. They weren’t AIs. Even the dungeon master wasn’t much brighter. There were dungeon bosses like Daniel’s that were smart, but mine wasn’t. That didn’t stop them from making tactically sound choices, but it did stop them from holding a conversation, so my witty back and forth was wasted on them. And I wasn’t in the mood to give precise instructions.

Stupid hidden quest.

The counter lowered to zero, and the massive door under me opened. A Clack rushed through. It might be more accurate to say they shot through. The first one was moving more than 100 miles an hour. She was past me before I realized what had happened. She took a face full of turret fire for her troubles.

Her head exploded, but she managed to cross 100 yards before her leg gave out. The moment she fell, an energy shield was generated from the device on her back, covering the others’ approach.

I was ecstatic over the fact that the turrets could kill them. I was less ecstatic to see that the shield could block the turrets’ next shots. Round after round collided with the shield, making loud crashes and crackling sounds as the ammunition shattered and fragmented along the barrier.

The other five approached more carefully, using the shield their teammate’s death had brought them to make their way forward. When they reached the corpse, they hunkered down. The two with missile launchers moved to the sides, preparing to shoot around it.

By that point, I stopped watching. My HUD showed the energy cannon on the big one's back was charging and that the power output was enough to take out the entire room. I flew in, expecting to be shot out of the air, but they didn’t see me. Without their sensors, I was so small I was invisible to them. My HUD showed me there was a weak point on the cannon.

It was an exhaust port, about the same size as a Womp Rat. All I needed to do was fire a torpedo down it while trusting in the force, and that would destroy the Death Star. Well, sort of.

The barrel was the weak point.

The cannon was a finely tuned death machine, but that meant that its internal components were sensitive. My HUD told me that if I flew inside and halfway down, my particle pistol could fire at the device that focused the energy beam right as it was about to do its job, causing a misfire that turned it into a bomb.

It wasn’t exactly how I planned to win this, but the blast radius was huge, so I flew inside. Six seconds after I entered, I respawned.

Good game.