Chapter 18

The Way The Dominos Fall.

I’d spent two and a half cycles raiding the Horde’s sector, screaming at them for entering my territory and then not paying the tribute I demanded, despite my crusade starting only a couple of hours after their attack on me. The fact the Kilocksin attack had made it physically impossible for them to meet my demands was something I was wilfully ignoring. I’d even raised the amount of tribute they had to send my station from 10% to 25% when they eventually restored their systems.

I’d utterly destroyed the nearby system, bombarding it back into the stone age, finishing off the Kilocksin’s work, before moving on to the following systems. The Kilocksin Clan had accepted my offer and conditions, and a convoy of battleships and carriers had passed through the ring within a few hours before my station could repair. They’d spent a ridiculous amount of credits upgrading their engines to do so, but the payoff was worth it.

I’d still been forced to destroy half of the fleet because the station auto targeted them, but the half that made it through reached the Horde’s planet and set up regeneration points, bringing in waves of their people, to strip the systems of every credit they could. They’d shipped entire cities of scrap to my station for sale, turning them into massive balls of slag, strapping a small engine to them to push them along. The Uon and Octorin started a bidding war, buying them as quickly as they appeared. So the Kilocksin were making bank, even if they couldn’t take any of the resources for themselves. I’d tried to get humanity to participate, but they weren’t organized. It was a massive missed opportunity.

But my position was secure.

The trade going through my station meant the credits were rolling in, and the RP was stacking up. My holographic display showed a new ball of slag appearing through the transit ring every few minutes. Trading vessels were coming from the Uon and Octorin and nearly the same rate. This level of trade was what a good station was supposed to see.

The corvette fleet I controlled still had two-third of its ships, and it looked like I’d finish my attack on the eleventh system by the time they got a large enough force together to wipe it out sometime later tomorrow.

If only the rest of humanity's situation was as good as my station’s. Then I wouldn’t have this cold feeling in my gut. The 20th cycle was turning out to be everything we feared it would be.

“We just lost another station, this one led to sector 17,” Tee said queitly.

The map of the area around my station shifted. In its place was a local galaxy map of the human sectors. With the new station upgrades, Tee had managed to piece together what our local branch looked like. No Sectors bordered one another, everything was at least two sectors away, and everyone else was in the same position. All the factions attacking us were trying to push closer towards their faction’s other territory. Five of our sectors now glowed red. Two shone green and the rest were a neutral yellow, including my sector.

“That makes it the fifth sector we’ve lost today,” I said unhappily. “But the first of the ones we thought we could keep.”

There were three maps on the viewscreen. Alex, Daniel, and The Librarian’s stations were all under attack. The factions attacking Daniel and The Librarian were alone, so they opted to challenge their stations, hitting them as hard as possible. A win or lose scenario. I’d had a strong feeling that was exactly what they were going to do, and their local fleets were ready to support them, having to experience their first major engagement. They weren’t doing well, but every little bit of support helped.

There was no way anyone was getting past my station anymore. Not when everything was level 10. My R5-Ms could hit with more force than the R9s could at level 1, and their range was far beyond the current battlefield size. I needed to get to work designing a decent R5-L and the R5-LH. I also needed to figure out what other weapons paths I was going to go down, but that could wait a few cycles. Now that I had all these options, I needed to get more creative.

I was glad my station was so powerful because it meant I could safely send my entire local fleet to reinforce Alex. She was having a rough time. Three faction attacks were not an easy thing to take care of, even with the help of a fleet made from half the systems in our sector, but if she survived, she’d have the second strongest station in our sector. And that’s all I cared about. I couldn’t help the other sectors, but I could help ours.

Well, that wasn’t technically true.

At the end of the tutorial, I’d gained access to the challenger’s hall and challenger transit ring subsystems. They were currently under construction, but the build time was three cycles, and they wouldn’t be ready until the start of the next cycle. So I could help soon, but not yet. That didn’t change my views, though. Humanity needed to fight. We needed to get stronger.

For that reason, I hadn’t told anyone how many Tokens I now had. Not even, Tee. I hadn’t told them that I could personally keep humanity alive and solve our problems until the start of the next season. People needed to do this for themselves. It was the only way we were going to be ready next time. If they coasted along because of what I had done, then nothing would change. And we needed to change.

There was a big old universe, and most of it was against us.

“The station and first outer ring have finished reconstruction,” Tee said. “I don’t know why you wanted it so big. You’ll be level 50 before you run out of space.”

The central station was now five miles wide which was about where the edge of where the first ring had previously sat. I’d also changed the shape of the station from a sphere to a tiered, double-sided, circular ziggurat that kind of looked like a spinning top to make it look more in line with the ring, which was now gargantuan after growing to keep the same proportions.

“It’s to deal with the Clack Queens. They are so damn big they turned my dungeon into a single room. Now I can make them fight their way through a dozen rooms.”

“That’s smart. The fleet is about to hit the tenth system. Do you want me to change the display?”

“I’m good. Now that the expansion is finished, I can finally get to work setting everything up.”

I pulled up the station's current information.

Station Name: The Crucible

Level: 10

Armor: 2000

Energy Shield: 100,000/100,000

Damaged Systems: 0%

Resource Points: 183,234,657

Credits: 588,974,235

Station Systems

-L10 Station Reactor: 5,000E

-L10 Sensor Array: 1

-L10 Railgun Fabricator: 1

-L10 Structural Fabricator: 1

-L10 Reprocessing Facility: 1

-L10 Missile Fabricator: 1

-L10 Fighter Fabricator: 1

Additional Systems: 11/20

-L10 Laboratory: 1

-L10 Sensor Scrambler: 3

-L10 Ammunition Fabricator: 3

-L10 Communications Array: 1

-L10 Maintenance Drone Fabricator: 1

-L10 Challenger Hall: 1

-L10 Challenger Transit Ring: 1

Structure Slots: 100,000/100,000

-Medium Railgun Space: 100,000

-Heavy Railgun Space: 1,000

-Missile Battery Space: 10,000

-Hangar Bay Space: 1,000

-Supply Depots: 10,000

Defense Slot: 50,000/50,000

-L10 R5-M: 25,000

Station Tech Weapons:

-R1: 260

-R5-M: 86

-Missile Battery: 260

-R9: 17

-Hangar Bay: 13

Station Tech Subsystems:

-L10 Station Reactor: 2 -5,000E Each

-L10 Sensor Array: 2

-L10 Ammunition Fabricator: 2

-L10 Structural Fabricator: 2

-L10 Railgun Fabricator: 2

-L10 Missile Fabricator: 2

-L10 Fighter Fabricator: 2

Station Master Traits:

-L10 Secondary Reactor: 10,000E

-L10 Particle Cannon

-L10 Missile Battery: 1

-L10 Hangar Bay: 1

My station was undoubtedly better than when I received it. I was significantly ahead of the curve, but my progress was going to stall. I was gaining 2.5 million experience points each cycle from my station rats, but even with that, it would still take me on average 4-8 cycles to level without any attacks. When I reached level 20, the cost of leveling would increase again making it even harder. The RP I had coming in from the station rats was a joke at this point. So, it was time to move on to stage two for my plan of station domination.

I pulled up my recent achievements.

The moderator had taken all my experience, resource, and credit modifiers, and in return, doubled my path and upgrade point rewards. For some achievement rewards, he’d taken more, but he’d also doubled the bonuses again when he had, and I had no clue what he’d taken, only that he’d taken something. The EXP, RP, and credits that were part of the rewards had been traded for more Tokens which were nice, even though it wasn’t that helpful. But at least I’d got to keep some of my perks effects. And they were good, which made me wonder what the hell I’d lost.

Congratulation, you have successfully invaded a system! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+80 Path Points.

+800 Station Points

+800 Dungeon Points

+10,000,000 Tokens

Invader Perk.

+10,000 Tokens a cycle.

+100% Attack and Defense when you are invading a system.

Congratulation, you have conquered a planet! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+160 Path Points.

+1600 Station Points

+1600 Dungeon Points

+100,000,000 Tokens

Planet Conqueror Perk.

+100,000 Tokens a cycle.

+100% Attack and Defense when attacking a planet.

Congratulation, you have conquered a system! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+320 Path Points.

+3200 Station Points

+3200 Dungeon Points

+1,000,000,000 Tokens

System Conqueror Perk.

+1,000,000 Tokens a cycle.

+10% Attack and Defense when you control a system.

Congratulation, you have invaded a second system and started a crusade! As the first member of your faction to achieve this result, you have been given an achievement reward:

+320 Path Points.

+3200 Station Points

+3200 Dungeon Points

+100,000,000 Tokens

Crusader Perk.

+100,000 Tokens a cycle.

+1% Attack and Defense when you fight any faction. The longer you fight, the more this bonus increases.

These achievements were insane compared to my earlier ones, but they were also harder to gain. The damage modifiers were why I was able to steamroll the Horde. After the first system, it had gotten easier. I’d even declare war on them to modify my damage further, which pissed off a few governments back home.

The new path points called to me, but I held back. I wanted to be ready to deal with what came next, but I didn’t know what that would be, and they provided an immediate change. The ability to add new weapons or systems to my station mid-battle was not something to be squandered. So I was going to hold off on spending them.

I felt the same way about my station points. I only had burst fire to buy with my R5 path. Everything else was upgraded. So they could just sit there until I had a plan and better weapons.

“You should look into hiring researchers when you are back on earth,” Tee said. “When you level again, you are going to want to research as quickly as you can. I know it seems okay to let the lab just tick over on the alien tech you’ve got right now, but a lab is only so fast by itself, and when you let it do research, automatically you strip your researchers of the opportunity to level.”

“I’ll add it to the list, but it’s not like there are many people on earth who know what they are doing in that department. This tech is way beyond us.”

Tee groaned. “They don’t do actual research. They play puzzle games. Each time they clear a puzzle, they gain experience and progress the research.”

“Seriously, they play puzzle games.”

“Not everything in the Great Game is about combat. There are just as many support roles. There are entire factions who abhor violence, and the Peacekeepers give them a way to participate. What do you think the children from your world have been doing all this time?”

“I honestly hadn’t thought about it.”

“Well, they aren’t blowing things up, that’s for sure.”

“Good to know.”

“Unless their parents are nuts, so there are probably a few million who are blowing things up. Maybe a few tens of millions. A couple of hundred million tops. Though you do let children play violent video games, so maybe it’s like 50%. It can’t be more than 70%. I’m sure there are some decent parents out there. Did you play violent video games as a child? Of course, you did, but you turned out mostly alright, so the 90% of kids out there participating in the war effort should be fine.”

I tuned Tee out as he continued to babble.

I finished reading through the changes and then interrupted his monologue. “Tee, spend dungeon points and build the dungeon.”

My holographic display changed.

Dungeon Name: The Crucible

Level: 10

Room Limit: 8/20

Entrance Limit: 10/10

Dungeon Challenger Limit: 60

Mob Limit: 120

Rooms 1-6 are identical branches that teams of six must pass through before they converge at room 7 and continue the dungeon as a group. Level limit for additional branch challengers is 30. Tech limit is tier 5.

Room 1:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 1, 100 credits

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers

Skills:

-Unarmed combat III

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration-

Physical Tech 3

Room 2:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 2, 200 credits

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers:

Skills:

-Unarmed combat IV

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical Tech 4

Room 3:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 3, 300 credits

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers:

Skills:

-Unarmed combat V

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical Tech 5

Room 4:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 4, 400 credits

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers:

Skills:

-Unarmed combat VII

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical Tech 7

Room 5:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 5, 500 credits

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers:

Skills:

-Unarmed combat X

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical Tech 10

Room 6:

Loot: Shield Bracer Tier 5, 1% chance of loot upgrade.

Challenge:

6 Immortal soldiers:

Skills:

-Unarmed combat X

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical Tech 15

Room 7:

Loot: 1,000,000 Tokens

Challenge:

Station MasterKilocksin Liaison, Tumpa

Room 8:

Room Upgrades:

Mob Limit: 84

Sensor Scrambler

Loot: 100 credits.

Challenge:

Dungeon Master:

The squad:Dungeon

Turrets: 520

Immortal soldiers: 84

Skills:

-Unarmed Combat X

-Kilocksin Culture X

Enhancements:

-Dungeon Integration

-Physical tech 30

-Personal tech 50

I finished looking over the list and smiled. “Tee, send my recording to the Kilocksin that the dungeon is open.”

My dungeon master's point reduction had gone into increasing the immortal soldier’s physical tech to 30 and their personal tech to 50. That had taken 80 of the 100 the point reduction I had to work with. The other 20 were already invested in dungeon integration. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the point reduction once I got the physical tech to the max of 50, but I had two whole levels to figure that out.

“You should probably consider using the rest of your dungeon points on the upgrade path of your immortal soldiers. They still only have particle rifles. I mean, those particle rifles could cut through the hull if the dungeon wasn’t shielded, since they have the same personal tech level you do, but they still don’t have the skill to wield them properly.”

“Yeah, I suppose I should. I need to be ready for when the Clack try again. I was waiting for someone else to take the plunge so I didn’t have to go in blind. But that could take a while since I’m so far ahead.”

“I brought it up because there is an information package you can buy on the immortal soldier. There is a basic, standard, and second-season faction package. These are special one-off items, and you can only buy one. You won’t like it, but I’d suggest the faction version. It will save your faction from wasting dungeon points by giving them a document with the full knowledge of what the immortal soldiers upgrade path is capable of while you personally gain a knowledge package on the immortal soldiers.”

That was intriguing. “How much does it cost?”

“A hundred million credits.”

“And the rest of our faction will learn from it?”

“Yes.”

“Why didn’t you suggest it earlier?”

“The bidding war on the second systems slag only finished an hour ago, and I didn’t know you could purchase it until you had the credits to purchase the most expensive version. It’s a hidden item. They appear from time to time. And before you think of saving up to find more, hidden items only appear one at a time. You need to buy the first one to gain access to another. And they never reappear once purchased, so if you buy the basic version, that’s all you will ever have.”

I scowled, a little annoyed I had to carry everyone, even though the information package was worth it by itself. “Buy the expensive one and tell everyone it’s coming.”

“Done. You will start to gain the information package now. Do you want me to wait until you’ve gained it or push ahead?”

“Push ahead.”

“Great, because this is pretty interesting. Your immortal soldiers come with a bunch of redundant upgrade paths.”

“In what way?”

“The particle rifle upgrades into the equivalent of the light machine gun for starters. Combat armor is useless once replaced by power armor, but power armor is actually the basis of nano armor, so it is significantly weaker without it. Personal shields are useless. So are your mini-missile and grenade launcher attachment and the explosives pack. Also, almost all their weapons are less effective unless you have power armor.”

“So get power armor first?”

“Yeah, it’s kind of a necessity. Once you purchase it, the combat knife is integrated into their forearm, and the particle pistol is attached to their shoulder. So is the grenade launcher when purchased.”

“I think I’m going to need to read through this information package.”

“Knock yourself out. Also, Daniel just won his challenge. And he’s ranked up.”

I looked up. The battle was still raging on the viewscreen, but the battleships attacking his station were all destroyed. Now, all he had to do was mop up the weaker targets, and he was done.

“Why’d he rank up?”

“One of the factions that neighbors the one attacking him is massing at their ring. They are going to make a move on the faction that just attacked him while they don’t have their fleet.”

I chuckled. “Makes sense. There is way more credits in invading a system than attacking a station. He should gain a fair bit of experience taking them out in transit.”

I spent the next eight hours going over the information, working through how everything fit together, letting the knowledge package add to my head while I worked. There was a lot to process. A bunch of the upgrades were co-dependent, but when you had them all, they were the basis for making the most potent immortal soldier possible. So, you couldn’t skip steps.

“The Librarian just won his engagement, and the final faction has begun their assault on Alex’s system. You finished reading yet?”

“Just about.”

An hour later, I pulled up the immortal soldier’s upgrade interface. I had 17,540 dungeon points to spend.

Immortal Soldier Upgrades

Description

Available

Cost

Skill Upgrades

Knife Combat

0/10

10

Particle Pistol Combat

0/10

10

Particle Rifle Combat

0/10

10

Basic Tactical Training

0/10

10

Weapon Upgrades

Tactical Knife

0/10

10

Particle Pistol

0/10

100

Particle Rifle

0/10

200

Particle Rifle Grenade Launcher attachment

0/1

500

Particle Rifle Mini Missile Launcher attachment

0/1

1,000

Grenade Belt

0/1

500

Explosives Pack

0/1

500

Particle Sniper Rifle

0/10

2,500

Particle Light Machine Gun

0/10

5,000

Particle Heavy Machine Gun

0/10

10,000

Grenade Launcher

0/10

5,000

Missile Launcher

0/10

10,000

Shoulder mounted Particle Cannon

0/10

100,000

Proximity Mine

0/10

10,000

Armor Upgrades

Combat Armor

0/10

200

Power Armor

0/10

5,000

Nano Armor

0/10

100,000

Personal Shield

0/10

10,000

Accessory Upgrades

Automated Turret

0/1

100,000

Shield Installation

0/1

250,000

Combat Drone -Ground

0/10

50,000

Combat Drone -Air

0/10

50,000

Physical Upgrades

Strength

0/100

100

Dexterity

0/100

100

Agility

0/100

100

Perception

0/100

100

Toughness

0/100

100

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the knife combat skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the particle pistol skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the particle rifle skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the basic tactical training skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed) You have unlocked the tactical training upgrade path.

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the tactical knife upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 5,500 dungeon points to buy the particle pistol upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 500 dungeon points to buy the grenade launcher attachment upgrade. You have unlocked the grenade attachment skill upgrade path.

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the grenade launcher attachment skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 1000 dungeon points to buy the mini-missile launcher attachment upgrade. You have unlocked the mini-missile attachment skill upgrade path.

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the mini-missile launcher attachment skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 500 dungeon points to buy the grenade belt upgrade. You have unlocked the grenade skill upgrade path.

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the grenade skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

You have spent 5,000 dungeon points to buy the power armor upgrade from level 0-1. You have unlocked the power armor skill upgrade path.

You have spent 550 dungeon points to buy the power armor skill upgrade from level 0-10. (Maxed)

I sighed. That was more expensive than I liked. I’d just spent 17,450 dungeon points, but it was also necessary. The immortal soldiers had been utterly useless against the Clack. Now they could participate. Hell, they could take them without the turrets if what the information package was telling me was true.

Tee groaned when I made several purchases. “I specifically told you that the particle rifle attachments were redundant.”

He had so much to learn. “They become redundant, Tee. That’s why they don’t level. And that’s different than them being redundant.”

“How?”

“This is simple resource management. I bought a grenade launcher with 80% of the effective firepower as the level 1 grenade launcher, and it was only 20% of the price. I did the same with the missile launcher, which was only 15% of the price. Yes, they will become redundant at a later stage in the game, but I need to survive long enough to reach that stage. Now, I can invest the dungeon points I save elsewhere.”

“Was anything I said right?”

Tee sounded upset. He’d been actively trying to learn more about strategy, but there were only so many hours in the day, and he had to manage a trillion-dollar company as well. It would take him time to catch up.

“Yeah, you were right about the light machine gun, explosives pack, personal shield, and the combat armor. You were also right that those attachments become redundant. You just didn’t realize that sometimes just because something becomes redundant, it doesn’t have a place.”

“Oh, so I should have thought of them the way women think about your penis.”

“No, they’re not saintly at all.”

“How the hell do you quip that fast?”

“Two older brothers.”

“I’ve met your brothers, and neither of them is that fast with comebacks.”

“You misunderstand, Tee. When you’re the smallest in the family of boys, the only way to win a fight is with words. You either learn how to use them, or you lose every fight.”

“You got your butt kicked a lot, didn’t you?”

“So much.”

Tee laughed. “Would you like me to bring up our invasion while we wait to see how Alex does?”

I nodded. “I’m done for the day, and it’s too early for bed. So I might as well relax and try to ignore how badly we are losing. It’s going to be political hell when we go back to earth. Those that sided with us are going to be hailed as kings and queens for seeing what was coming, and those that didn’t are going to be trying to blame us and say we should have done more.”

“That’s the joys of being in charge.”

“I’m a figurehead. The moment I get the administrative AI, it’s taking over. Then when they finish making my country, I’m going to build myself a beachside bungalow, where I can spend my days fishing and swimming and generally relaxing, so I can focus on what’s important.”

“And what’s more important than holding Commander Primes alliance together?”

“Making a station that can survive independent of the human race when our last sector crumbles.”

“To what purpose?”

“Sanity. There is no way in hell I’m going to survive not playing the Great Game as a station master for the next 300 years if I get kicked out.”

Tee sighed. “You’re grinning again.”

The End