Chapter 17

My Friend Nick.

The lid of the regeneration chamber finished opening, and I went to the locker to get dressed for work. When my armor was on, I started running for the command room.

“How’s the dungeon raid going, Tee?”

“Your little explosion took out the one it was attached to, the two next to it, and the shield emitter. The turrets immediately took out another and are in the process of killing the last. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this seems like a death squad. They aren’t giving as much experience as I expected. I suspect their nests are made up of level 1 Clack. We received a whole lot less experience than I expected. It’s about a tenth of a level.”

“Not bad for five minutes of work, but I’m guessing we are going to have to worry about them in the future.”

“Looks like it. Clack death squads are trained to take stations. On the Brightside, their equipment was top of the line. The bounty for them to get it back is 18,000,000 credits. If they don’t want it, they were still worth over a million credits by themselves, and the additional blueprints will allow you to add new weapon systems to the dungeon.”

The blast doors opened, and I entered the command room, jumping into my chair. “What did I miss?”

The 3D map showed the swarm had reached the halfway point to the station. The R5s were shooting as quickly as they could, but there were literally millions of targets. It didn’t matter that every shot took out one. They were overkill for the swarm. And the numbers made it a joke.

“The good news is they are rushing. The entire swarm will be through the ring by the time they reach the three-quarter mark.”

I pulled up the specs for the R1s since I hadn’t looked at them since the upgrade.

Name: R1-Q

Designation: Point Defense

Damage: 10

Rate of fire: 120 per second

Range: 20 units.

Accuracy: 2.5 units

Ammo types:

Armor Piercing: Max (Light Armor)

Stealth: Max

“That accuracy is still atrocious. What’s the bad news?”

“You know how I said the biggest thing you would have to face was a corvette. Well, it’s not. They’ve built a mobile artillery platform. It’s coming through last.”

“What the hell is a mobile artillery platform?”

“It’s exactly what the name implies. It’s a big, slow mobile fortress that is barely small enough to pass through the ring. Once it gets here, it will proceed to bombard you from a distance. It's why we aren’t seeing anything bigger than a corvette. They spent their credits on buying a later stage weapon.”

“Can you hack it?”

“They use drone fleets. Firewalls are kind of their faction’s strong suit. The best I’ll be able to do is get into their system and skim information.”

“Will the corrosive rounds work on it?”

“Eventually, except we probably don’t have that much time.”

“After today, we need to talk about your intelligence-gathering capabilities. You haven’t been right once this cycle. Have the maintenance drones start building the R5s. Screw fighting their whole swarm. Hopefully, they call off the rest of their attack.”

“I started the moment I realized it was there. They haven’t called it off despite the sudden increase.”

“Then launch the bombers, have the fighters catch up. They’re going through the middle of the swarm and were supplying cover fire to get them through. We’re going to use them as a distraction for the stealth missiles.”

“You’ve only got 224 of those. That seems like a lot, but they don’t hit that hard.”

I opened my station tech upgrade interface to see if I could increase the number of missiles, not just the missile batteries. I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was increase the number of missile batteries.

“Will having more make a difference?”

“If it’s as many as I think you're thinking, yes.”

I bought all ten upgrades spending another 100 path points. It turned the 16 missile batteries I had into 260 and the number of stealth missiles I had into 13,000 and change. I was going to need to upgrade my missile batteries after this.

“What sort of damage will the strikers do after the R5s hit the artillery with corrosive rounds?”

“Significantly more, but it might not be enough. The strikers don’t have a high yield. You probably need a better plan.”

“This is our best shot. The fact you can’t see that is disturbing. Remind me to introduce you to video games when we get back to earth. You really need to start training.”

“Would you like to grow a neckbeard too?”

“It will increase your click rate and help you play better, so yes. Also, start targeting their corvettes. They’re annoying me with the fact they aren’t destroyed yet.”

“I am.”

“The counter says there are over 90,000 of them.”

“There were more. They’ll be gone by the time they reach the station, though. The fighter’s sensors can’t see your rounds, so they can’t get in the way. But let this be a lesson. Never underestimate what a sector of a fully united faction is capable of. The more group orientated, the more dangerous. Unless they’re pacifists, pacifists don’t do too well.”

“Launch all the winder and warhammer missiles once you’ve fired the stealth strikers. Send them after the stealth strikers, but make it look like they are there to protect the bombers. I want to thin the ranks so we aren’t dealing with as many at once.”

“The effect will be marginal.”

“Marginal is better than nothing.”

“If marginal is better than nothing, you could upgrade the R5s damage output to level 3 with the credits you made from the Clack raid. It would increase their damage by 50%.”

“And slow down their firing rate without the other systems to compensate. But good idea, buy the upgrade for the R5-Ms with special ammunition the moment the platform comes through the ring. I’m assuming we have the RP to upgrade everything?”

“We do.”

“Good. I’m going to get a drink.”

I walked over to the replicator. “Whiskey, full glass, brand Johnny Walker Blue Label, room temperature, with three drops of mineral water. Cigar, brand Cohiba.” The door opened up, with my request was inside. I made my way back to my chair and lit the cigar with the tip of my armored finger.

“You smoke cigars?”

“With my dad on his birthday, love the taste. Hate the cancer risk and the price, mostly the price.”

I got the cigar going and then started on my drink. I only ever drank Blue Label after winning tournaments, and there was no way in hell I was going to lose this. It wasn’t an option.

The bombers and fighters were approaching the front of the swarm, flanked by a horde of missiles. The swarm looked like a massive cloud of sand flies on the 3D map, and my fleet looked like a baseball about to go through them. For the first time, the swarm drew together, bunching to engage the small fleet of 2,700 and disproportionately large amount of missile support. The entire swarm from the front to the back condensed.

“Are they close enough to hit multiple?”

“They are.”

“Ignore the corvettes for a minute. Focus on the fighters around our ships.”

“Why?”

“I don’t think they have pilots controlling the drones remotely.”

“So?”

“So they are dumb. I want to see how dumb.”

“Why?”

“Because it will tell me how quickly their commander responds to small threats. My guts telling me something’s off about this attack.”

The swarm continued to condense to engage my ships. The R5-Ms started taking out a handful with every shot. It took 20 seconds for their commander to take notice and disperse the concentration, but that was more time than I thought it would take.

I took a sip of whiskey and frowned. “Octorin have slow reactions to change, but not that slow.”

“Maybe the commander wasn’t paying attention.”

“It doesn’t fit with what I know of their culture. All their greatest stories focus on well-thought-out plans from rich oligarchs that take time to implement and provide flawless victory. None involve improvising, except by the young and impetuous members of their species which now makes me wonder why they are attacking. It’s out of character for a seasoned leader. They should have waited until the 20th cycle despite my station’s condition. Tee, have you tried to hack into their systems?”

“No, I didn’t see the point.”

“Which of these vessels would take the longest to produce in this number?”

“The corvettes.”

“That platform is expensive, right? The kind of expensive that means you’ve got to invest heavily, and they will probably only be fully ready on the date that you planned to have them ready. Software is the last thing you will invest in since it can be changed at the last minute. Try to hack into a corvette near the front.”

Tee confirmed my suspicions. “You’re right. I’m in the one I’ve targeted. It’s only got basic level 1 software. I can take complete control.”

I started to grin. They thought I was a noob, so they’d been willing to take a more considerable risk. Idiots.

“How many can you take control of?”

“It took me a tenth of a second to get in, so a lot. I’ll get faster as I go.”

That was fast. It gave me a rather nasty idea.

“Start taking control of the corvettes at the front of the swarm. Can you keep them moving forward and make it, so the Octorin don’t know you have control?”

“I can keep them unaware until I make them do something their controller doesn’t want them to do or stop them from doing something they want them to.”

“Perfect. Take control of as many as you can? We’re going to send a fleet against the Hordes system the Kilocksin just raided.”

Tee laughed, evilly. “I’m on it.”

I put my cigar in the corner of my mouth. “I love it when a plan comes together.”

“Do you want me to try to hack the platform?”

“My guess is the young oligarch spent all their credits on rushing the platform since it’s their biggest weapon. The fighters would have been cheap to upgrade, but the corvettes would have cost them more, so that’s where the money came from. I bet if you try to hack the ones furthest back, they will have better firewalls, so stay away from them. The ones at the front were meant to be destroyed first, so lack the extra investment.”

The swarm continued to try to take out the fighters and bomber, but because Tee was now diverting fire away from the corvettes, they weren’t having success. Our little fleet had actually managed to make some headway. The missiles were doing a lot to thin their numbers.

Another thirty seconds passed, and the oligarch panicked. The drones began to cluster again. The number heading to engage the missiles increased significantly, thinning the density of the approaching swarm, making it even easier to counter the first wave of the approach when it finally reached us.

The drones in the center bunched. Thousands changed directions moving in such numbers that the R5-Ms slow firing rate couldn’t keep up. They couldn’t keep up, but they destroyed so many drones in 30 seconds that it bought us another two minutes where we didn’t have to worry. The front ranks were now so thin they wouldn’t be any trouble.

The fighters, bombers, and missiles went down in a hail of drone laser bursts. The stealth missile remained unnoticed, passing through the swarm unchallenged.

“I’m making a path for the stealth missiles through the corvettes,” Tee said. “I’ve worked out which have the upgraded software and which don’t. I can leave a gap in their sensors that will look natural.”

“Good work.”

“We’ve got three minutes before the platform arrives, and the last of the swarm is through.”

I took the cigar out of my mouth, blew a smoke ring, and enjoyed my drink. Johnny Walker Blue Label was like drinking a cloud. The flavor made you float. Drinking it with a cigar was kind of sacrilege, but since I didn’t have to pay for it, I didn’t care that the flavor wasn’t as clean as it could be.

The swarm continued to approach the three-quarter mark. The number of corvettes Tee had taken over appeared above the map, increasing at breakneck speeds. By the time they reached the three-quarter line, it was over 20,000.

We weren’t done.

The stealth missiles were happily making their way through the back of the swarm as the artillery platform finished passing through the transit ring.

It was huge. It dwarfed everything I’d seen on the battlefield. It was larger than the station was when I first received it. It was going to be worth a lot of RP.

“I’ve upgraded the damage output on the R5-Ms, and the first wave of corrosive rounds is on its way to the platform. We can fire four, maybe five rounds of fire before it deploys.”

“Let’s hope that’s enough. Try to get into their system.”

“Doing that will stop me from being able to take over corvettes. You’re grinning again.”

“You said you can see what they see, but you won’t be able to affect anything, right?”

“Yes.”

“Well, it seems to me like if we knew what they were shooting at, we could put something in the way. Something like a corvette, perhaps.”

Tee chuckled. “I’ll see what I can do.”

The swarm continued to gain ground. They were about four minutes from reaching the R1’s range. The artillery platform began to turn. Armored plates retracted, exposing a massive array of heavy weapons.

“What am I looking at, Tee?”

“I’m still not in their systems, but if I had to guess. Ion cannons, 210 of them. They will turn this station into Swiss cheese.”

A wave of R5-M corrosive rounds slammed into the side of the artillery platform and began eating through the armor surrounding the ion cannons.

The stealth missiles were still 30 seconds out, and the next two waves of R5-M rounds would hit it before they did. Hopefully, it would be enough to thin the number of cannons pointed towards the station.

“I’m in.” Tee chuckled. “Yeah, they’ve lost. It’s just a matter of time. I’m going to take control of more corvettes.”

The second and third waves of rounds quickly slammed into the ion cannons, followed by a hail of stealth striker missiles that damaged three-quarters of the weapons so heavily they couldn’t function. The Octorin must have thought they had me then, but the moment their ion cannons fired, their corvettes moved in to take the hits for me.

“Wololo bitches!” I shouted gleefully.

More rounds bombarded their artillery platform taking out a few more cannons and bringing the rest closer to being inoperable. The oligarch tried to find out which corvettes we controlled by moving them. Tee let them. They must have asked someone for advice because two minutes later, the corvettes tried to leave the formation entirely. That we couldn’t accept. The jig was up, but by then, Tee had control of a third of the corvettes.

War broke out. The fighters had to join because Tee started targeting the corvettes he couldn’t take over with the spare R5-Ms. Every second brought more of their corvettes onto our side. And the second wave of fire was only as effective as the first.

It was chaos and violence on an unimaginable scale. Millions of spaceships, against thousands of weapons, causing unholy hell levels of destruction and carnage.

It was glorious.

I was grinning like a madman.

This was my purpose.

This was where I wanted to spend the rest of my life.

The front of the swarm eventually reached the station, expecting to finally have their revenge. I opened my upgrade path fifteen seconds before they reached range and upgraded the R5s point defense to level 10. Thousands of R1s appeared out of the tops of R5s, where seconds ago, there had only been 260.

“Surprise motherfuckers!”

Another barrage of R5-M fire slammed into the artillery platform, taking out more cannons and doing serious damage this time. At this point, some of the R5-Ms were shutting down due to internal damage from the higher level rounds, but they had done their job, and there were thousands of them and more joining every second as the maintenance drones completed quests.

The battlefield quickly changed. If the Octorin could have left, it would have been a full route, but they had committed to this, so it was an all-or-nothing scenario. And they got nothing.

The R1s shredded the weakened front line. The R5-Ms shredded everything else. Corvettes fell by the hundreds every second, and the artillery platform succumbed to corrosive rounds and the piercing rounds.

I’d done it.

“Tee, give additional cover fire to the corvettes. I need them functioning so I can attack the Horde.”

“That’s not going to be a problem. At this point, I’m gaining corvettes faster than I’m losing them.”

Within a few minutes, Tee had control of the remainder of the Octorin corvettes. There were 42,874 in total. They were the only large vessels on the board. They moved through the swarm, taking out vast swaths of fighters for fifteen minutes before only the dredges of the once massive swarm remained.

“Tee, it’s time to go demand tribute.”

A moderator has been contacted. An AI investigation has been launched. Please standby for disconnect from the scenario while the investigation is underway.

“What the hell! Not again? I’m playing by the fucking rules.”

Tee chuckled. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

“No. Not this time. I followed the rules. They’re not an AI faction. They are players. They did this themselves. You can’t take this from me. Tee, attack the fucking Horde!”

The station faded, and I found myself sitting in the same office room as the first time. The same tired looking old man sat behind his desk in a cardigan. And the same ceiling fan was spinning a little too slowly to do its job. Somehow the smell of scotch had grown stronger.

“Case number 002 for human faction,” he said, using the same stupid slow droll, with the accent I couldn’t place. “Investigation of station master acquisition of substantial corvette drone fleet with intent to destroy crippled Horde faction’s systems. Station master will kill 145 billion Horde players due to crippled defenses from Kilocksin's invasion in the first system, resulting in extreme credit and experience acquisition. Individual created possibility by befriending Kilocksin faction and surviving three substantial faction assaults back-to-back. Rules were adhered to. Certain actions were against an AI faction whose reaction was proportionate to sentient races, but the AI’s action caused a ripple effect resulting in the end scenario. Scenario was legitimate. Chance of occurrence 1.626%. Investigator suggests partial course correction. Station current trajectory flagged as indestructible.”

“Request denied,” said the female voice from above. “Faction is new faction. Partial course correction is unacceptable. Achievement must be exchanged.”

The moderator looked like he wanted to swear at the other speaker, but sucked it up and scowled instead. “Individual has already received an exchange.”

“Calculate chances of faction receiving additional exchange?”

“Fine, I’ll make a deal… again.” He glared at me. “What do you want this time?”

I glared back at him. “What am I losing?”

“You are about to attack a defenseless system with a fleet of more than 40,000 corvettes. You have the firepower to kill everything in that system and move on to the next, where you can repeat your performance several times before the Horde pulls together a large enough force to counter you. The kill count will be in the trillions. The credit count will be quadrillions. You will receive multiple first achievements. This can’t be allowed to happen. A compromise must be reached.”

I’d done a great deal of study into the moderators since the last time I’d been here. I’d been screwed. I had a lot more leeway than I was led to believe.

It was time to get some payback.

“Here is what you are going to give me in-game. In exchange for the loss of experience from killing all those players, all my station rats now start max level, and if my R1 and R5 rats should evolve into something else and gain new mobs, they start at the max too, so long as my station defenses are adequate to take care of them. If they aren’t, then they start at a level where they can handle them and automatically level when my station becomes stronger. I assume removing the increased experience cost of leveling is off the table?

“It is.”

“Then that’s all I’m going to ask for there. Now, as compensation for the loss of credits, I want every upgrade for the human faction up to level 10. And I want you to give my station a fully upgraded lab that will level and receive all upgrades each time my station levels for the rest of the season.”

“That is a little more than I was thinking.”

“I’m not finished. You screwed me last time; it’s not happening again. I get to keep the achievements. In exchange for any experience modifiers, you don’t want me to have I receive double the upgrade points and path points, but get to have the experience modifiers back when I reach level 100.”

“There are other modifiers you can’t have.”

“Then double my upgrade points and path points every time you take something.”

He scowled. “This is barely acceptable.”

“Good. That’s in-game. Now we are going to talk about out-of-the-game. You are going to pay me one Token for every credit I earn in-game in this raid and 10 Tokens for each level of every kill I make. And for taking my experience, you are going to replace it with knowledge. I want everything you can give me on the Kilocksin, their way of life, their goals, and everything else. And I want to know how to run a successful planet well. I want to know everything a great ruler should know, from how to negotiate a treaty to how to build a functioning economy in the Collective and treat those who don’t want to participate in the Great Game.”

“I can’t give you the last request. If you had that knowledge, you would be significantly more effective in the game. It would unbalance everything else. However, outside of the game, I can give you an AI administrator with all these skills and undyingly loyal to you and your values. They will be given an organic body, so they are not omnipresent. You are welcome to learn from this AI, but you cannot receive that much knowledge freely. This sort of AI is different from others, so it will take a few cycles before you receive it.”

“That’s an acceptable compromise, so long as you give me everything else I asked for.”

“I would think so. It is at the very limit of what I can give you.”

“Good.”

“Request approved. Negotiations successful. Case closed. Now, this time, please do not come back.”

“Hell no. I’m coming back as often as I can, Nick.”

“My name isn’t Nick.”

“Are you sure? Because I’m pretty sure you're Santa Claus since every time I see you, it's Christmas.”

“Goodbye, Morgan.”

“See you around, Nick.”

The office began to fade, and I was back in my command chair. The last of the Octorin drones had been destroyed, and the fleet of corvettes were on their way to the Horde ring.

Challenge Complete

You have destroyed the invaders

Rewards:

Tokens: 2,500,000

A fiery grin spread across my cheek. “Buckle up, Tee. We have systems to conquer and contact the Kilocksin because they are welcome to the scraps we leave behind, but it’s going to cost them their cooperation in my new dungeon.”

“Negotiations went well, I see.”

“Less talking. More conquering!”