Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

The Indomitables’ Ship - The Harbinger

06:00 SET (14:00 EDT)

August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Omeron didn’t know what happened. One moment he was getting ready to thrust into his sex slave, Beria, and the next he appeared in a room he recognized as the brig on The Harbinger. The largest cell, to be precise. He looked around and saw many other people, including his XO. Unembarrassed by his state of dress, he stalked over to his XO.

“What the fuck is happening?!” he bellowed.

Ghur immediately spun and recognized the captain, saluting at once.

“Enough of that! Tell me what is going on!”

Ghur quickly put his arm down. “I don’t know, captain. I was making sure everything was ready in case we needed to jump, and then suddenly I was teleported here, along most of the bridge crew.”

Just then, the communications officer ran forward, “Captain! None of us can use Mindspeak or any of our abilities!”

The captain ignored the man and scanned the room, a sinking feeling quickly taking root in the pit of his stomach. As he looked around, he realized that recognized every single person in the cell, which is very difficult on a ship with over ten thousand crew. He had recruited them all on Kaldrus Dhir’s orders, after all.

‘Damn that man!’ he thought to himself, certain that they were somehow found out.

The Indomitables’ fleet was more powerful than many of the other nation’s fleets that bordered Scyftan space, and Dhir wanted them for his own, or more specifically, the shroud generators onboard each and every ship. With the schematics, Scyftan engineers could quickly manufacture and outfit existing ships for use in the war with The Confederation.

Omeron’s task was to get those schematics, or remove one of the many shroud generators located on the hull of the ship, but it was a task he found impossible without being found out. The schematics couldn’t be found anywhere on his ship, or any of the others his allies had checked. He couldn’t have one of the shroud generators on his ship removed and studied, either. Shrouds required every single generator to be working to hide the ship. If one of them was missing, the shroud wouldn’t activate. If a ship happened to be crippled or destroyed in combat, Xigios was very quick to have all the shroud generators removed, or the ship outright destroyed.

He knew that the only probable location of the schematics was on non-networked computers aboard Nira’s Revenge. That made it absolutely impossible to get them with Xigios’ lap dog running the security aboard his ship. He had people make many attempts, but none of them ever made it through the screening process.

“Good morning everyone, this is your captor speaking!” a female voice said, quieting everyone down. Omeron recognized the voice as belonging to Esriro Dryth. “Now, as you have probably…”

“Let us out, you bitch!”.

“Ah, Omeron Tol. No, I don’t think I’ll do that. Do you like the security measures I had put in place?” she gloated. “Even now, all your compatriots are in the process of being rounded up and teleported into the brig aboard the newer ships, or captured one by one on the older ones. We know all about your plans to assassinate Xigios and hand over the shroud schematics to Kaldrus Dhir when we finished our current contract. It wasn’t very bright to keep recordings of your dealings on a networked computer.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

“No? You know, you may have succeeded with your plans if not for a new friend of mine. Her name is Abi. You might have heard about her?”

‘Abi?’ he thought. ‘I have heard that name before...where…’

Esriro laughed when she saw his eyes pop open. “I see you do recognize the name. She spent over twelve hours trawling through the computers on every ship in the fleet. What would have taken me months to do, she did like that!” she said, with a clearly audible snap of the fingers.

“What are you going to do with us?!” a man at the other end of the room shouted out.

“Well…,” Esriro started.

“None of you say a fucking thing!” Omeron demanded. “If any of you so much as says a thing, I’ll make you wish you’d never been born!”

“Oh shut up!” Esriro barked. “Abi, can you take care of him please?”

“Certainly,” a female voice replied.

Everyone in the room heard a pop, and then saw that Omeron had been teleported to the back of the room where some sort of metal bands appeared around his ankles and wrists. He was clearly trying to get free, but wasn’t having much luck. The metal bands were securely anchored to the wall behind him, and didn’t budge so much as a micrometer.

“Release me this instant!” he shouted when he realized he wouldn’t be able to get free on his own.

“I don’t think so, and I’m getting tired of your voice,” Abi said. A second later, another band appeared, covering his mouth and securing his head against the wall as well.

“Thank you, Abi. Now, I believe I was asked a question, which I’ll answer now. What we do with you will depend on what you’ve done. We know some of you were coerced, while others were all too happy to take Kaldrus Dhir’s money and work for him, doing various jobs. We also know some of you, particularly people in positions of power, have been kidnapping young women of various races to use as sex slaves, or purchased sex slaves outright. Know now that anyone who has taken part in such acts will be executed in the coming weeks. Jonuth Kidravia will not tolerate rapists or people owning slaves, and neither will I. Murderers will also get the same treatment.”

“Now, as for those of you who are guilty of lesser crimes, don’t worry, you won’t be executed. Instead, you’ll be injected with special nanites developed by Pygmaean scientists, which have done an incredibly good job of curbing crime within the Tetrarchy...”

Everyone in the room had started talking all at once when they found out what was in store for them. Many of them had heard of the Inhibitor Nanites that were developed within the last twenty years. Once inside the body, they were self-replicating and impossible to remove without specialized equipment. If someone had them injected into them, they would quickly lose the benefits from their attributes and the use of their skills.

For Scyftans, it was much worse, however. A Scyftan injected with Inhibitor Nanites would lose both the ability to Mindspeak, and the ability to shapeshift. As such, it was considered a fate worse than death by Scyftans who had been found guilty of a crime within Pygmaean space.

“I see many of you have heard of Inhibitor Nanites,” Esriro said, quieting everyone down. “Only the most grievous crimes will result in someone receiving the nanites permanently. For most of you, it might only be a few hundred years…”

The room started shouting once more, but Abi quickly put a stop to that. There were pops and then every single person in the room had the same metal band covering their mouth, as well as the bands around their wrists, which were then quickly pulled in front of them, acting like handcuffs.

“Like I said. We know some of you were coerced, and we’ll do our best to get your families and loved ones released. As for the rest of you, you made your bed. Over the next two weeks, all of you will be interrogated and then handed over to Pygmaean authorities. We can’t very well have you letting Kaldrus Dhir know what’s happened, now can we?”

*****

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy

The Indomitables’ Flagship - Nira’s Revenge

06:11 SET (14:11 EDT)

August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Xigios had just briefed the rest of the fleet, and was now being briefed by Abi who was using her incredible ability to process data very quickly to brief Xigios on what is happening. She was tied into the computers aboard every ship in the fleet, and thus had access to everything that was going on.

“...destroyers did their job perfectly. They fired from almost point blank so the bridge crew on those ships weren’t able to get the shields up in time. As we planned, the bridge was locked down, and the missiles fired were at various yields. Just enough to open the bridge up to vacuum, but not cause any collateral damage.”

“How many people have we rounded up so far?” Xigios asked.

“Three thousand, three hundred sixty-four captured. Two hundred thirteen have been killed, including those aboard the nine ships with destroyed bridges, leaving one hundred fifty-six left. Everything has been locked down and every ship has its Inhibitor active. I’m directing various squads around ships to make sure we get everyone. I calculate that we will have detained or killed the remaining criminals in approximately eight minutes.”

“Good. Is Tala on her way?”

“I’m right here!” a boisterous voice sounded from behind him. He turned around, expecting to see a four foot tall Dvergr woman, but instead he saw an eight foot tall mech ducking slightly to enter the bridge. The mech looked very impressive, with the torso having her family crest embossed on it. The head had retracted, allowing him to see the red-headed woman’s smile as she stood back up to her full height.

Xigios facepalmed upon seeing her in her mech, to which she responded with a chortle.

“Did you really need to bring your mech?” he asked, walking to stand in front of her.

“Of course I did. It’s tha only time I get ta look down on ya!” she chuckled. “Besides, it’s faster ta take me mech than it is ta take me shuttle.”

Xigios couldn’t help but laugh. He always enjoyed Tala’s company.

“So how’s baby…”

“Marra!” she laughed, interrupting him. “I can’t believe ya forgot her name!”

He smiled sheepishly before Tala answering him.

“She’s doing what babies do; eat, sleep and poop, and not necessarily in tha’ order,” she shrugged. “So why have ya asked me over?”

“I’m sure you’ve seen the ships being towed…”

“Aye, I have. I was wondering ‘bout tha’,” she interrupted.

“You heard my transmission while you were on your way over, right?” he asked. When she nodded, he continued. “A lot of the traitors were found on some of our new ships, which means we need to move our best people around. One of those ships is The Harbinger…”

Before Xigios could continue, Tala let out a whoop and rushed forward, embracing him in a bone cracking hug. One that would have done a serious amount of damage if not for his high level.

“Thank ya, thank ya, thank ya, thank ya,” she said, like a little girl who got the present she always wanted, with a few more ‘thank ya’s’ on the end.

“Can’t...breathe…,” he wheezed out, before she finally let him go.

Tala looked around the bridge and saw that everyone had stopped to look at her. “Back ta work, all o’ ya!”

There were a few laughs around the room, but everyone listened to her and went back to doing what they were doing.

“I think you almost broke some ribs!” Xigios said, rubbing his torso.

“Ah, don’t be such a baby. I really appreciate it, though. I was royally pissed off when tha doctors told me I would be bedridden for a month while I healed. It seems like it all worked out in tha end, though.”

“You’re lucky I took a look at the list Esriro put together before everything happened. She almost gave command of The Harbinger to Zech Duch. Instead, he will be moving over to The Terigon, so you’ll need to transfer all your access codes to him. We’ll be jumping back to hyperspace at 09:00, so you’d better get started.”

She nodded. “Where are we goin’, anyway? Ya didn’t say in yer transmission.”

“I didn’t because there is a chance someone is able to get a warning off before we make the jump. We’ll be heading to Pygmaean space. I’ll let you and the others know more when we arrive there,” continued, before she could interrupt him to ask why they were changing course.

Her helmet formed around her head and she half-turned to head back out the door. “Alright, I’ll get goin’ now, but tell that missy that I’ll be givin’ her a paddlin’ when I see her! Not even on the list,” she grumbled.

Xigios laughed as she left, and then turned and walked back to his chair. As soon as he sat back down, Abi continued her briefing.

*****

The Moon

Spectre Moon Base

August 15, 2019

15:02 EDT

[...everything went off without a hitch,] Abi said, briefing everyone almost an hour later. [All three thousand seven hundred thirty-three traitors were captured or killed, with no injuries to anyone else, or damage to any of the ships. They’ll be ready to jump in two hours or so, and then it will take them twelve days or so to make to to Veria.]

[There wasn’t any collateral damage from the nine ships that had to have their bridges destroyed?] Gabriel asked.

[Nope. A few of the bridge crews were all traitors, while others got out just in time. Esriro was able to contact the innocent ones via Mindspeak and give them the signal to get out shortly before the missiles were launched.]

[They were very fortunate, then. What is going to happen with all the prisoners?] Tich asked.

[Well, some were coerced into working for Kaldrus Dhir, either by having their family or loved ones abducted, or having some sort of incriminating evidence held over their head. Rapists, murderers and people who participate or help facilitate the slave trade will be swiftly executed, while everyone else will have Inhibitor nanites injected, for varying amount of time. So far, thirty-seven young women of various races have been found while searching the quarters of high ranking crew members.]

[Execution is too good for those bastards,] Alexandra spat. [What is happening with the women?]

[Esriro Dryth is taking care of them, personally. I did some searching and found that all of them were abducted from the Pygmaean Academy on Veria over the past twenty years. All of them have living family, so I will be contacting them shortly with the details. I was thinking that the Warvyn Industries Shipyard would be as good a place as any to reunite them with their family. Can you set it up, Thomas?]

[I’ll do so as soon as we’re done here. I have to contact Ercan anyways, since I said I would let him know whether or not Spectres would be sent to level up or not. He’ll be holding shuttles for them until they arrive.]

[It’s a good idea, and probably something we should have thought about sooner,] Alexandra said looking over at Gabriel. [They’re not really needed here, and they could have been incredibly high level by now.]

[I know, I know,] Gabriel said. [I’ll be picking out eighty teams later today, and give them all Legendary Insight Skill Gems if they don’t have the perk already. Can you hold that many, along with the dragons, Abi?]

[It won’t be a problem, there is more than enough room.]

[What’s this about a Dvergr named Tala Telar being a captain in The Indomitables?] Tich asked while reading Abi’s report on a tablet. [I recognize the name.]

[I was very surprised to see her, too,] Abi replied. [You recognize the name because she is the eldest daughter of Gerabor and Lirra Telar…]

[The king and queen of the Dvergr Regency,] Tich interrupted. [You’ve confirmed it?]

[Yes. She arrived on Nira’s Revenge in a mech when she spoke to Xigios] she said as an image of her appeared on the monitors. Beside her, was an image of her family crest. [The crest embossed on the torso of her mech is an exact match for the Telar family crest.]

[Huh,] Tich said, leaning back in his chair. [What the hell is the heir to the throne doing commanding a ship in The Indomitables’ fleet?]

[I don’t know, but apparently she has been with them for the past three hundred years or so. She and Xigios seemed to know each other pretty well. Do you want me to try to contact the Telars and ask them about it?]

[I don’t think that will be necessary, Abi. Just ask Xigios if he knows about her origins,] Alexandra answered.

[Will do. Oh, Alexandra...you wanted me to let you know when Jonathan and his friends got to the boss room. It looks like they’ve just arrived outside of it. Putting it up on the monitors now.]

“That was fast,” Alexandra said, swiveling her chair to look at the large screens along one of the walls.

The center screen had a good image of his friends chatting before entering the boss room. To the left and right of the center screen, were the stats of each member of ‘The Wolves’. They were level sixteen now, the experience having slowed down a lot, it seemed.

“They’re certainly not wasting any time. Abi, can you turn the volume up so we can hear what they are saying?”

[Sure thing, Gabriel,] Abi replied.

“...so make sure to let Mason, Sonja or myself get the final blow,” they heard Jonathan say.

“It will probably be you hitting it too hard that stops one of you from strengthening Siphoning Strike or Siphoning Shot,” Anja replied with a laugh. “I’ll ease up when whatever is in there starts laboring.”

“Nah, I’ll probably hit it a few times to weaken it and then wait. Ben, make sure you deactivate Aura of Flame if it is active later on in the fight. It would suck if the added damage from that finished it off.”

“Got it,” he said with a nod.

“Alright, give me a minute and then we’ll be good to go,” Jonathan told them.

After a few seconds, Jonathan’s friends, and the people in the conference room up on the Moon, could see Jonathan slowly start to grow. Alexandra immediately knew what he was changing into.

“Well, this is going to be a very quick boss fight,” Alexandra said, the tone of her voice being different from normal.

“Is that jealousy I’m hearing, my dear?” Gabriel asked.

“Damn right it is,” she said after a moment. “So many Spectres have been trying to acquire that form, and he does it on the same day he learns how to shapeshift.”

The others around the table laughed, but otherwise turned their attention back to the screen. Jonathan was done shapeshifting, and after a few seconds they saw two very large shields, and a sword appear in his free hands. He knelt down and placed the sword on the ground, before a spear appeared in that same hand. He put the orb away and then picked up the sword he had dropped..

Standing up, he walked up to the door separating him and his friends from the boss, before stopping. He looked down at the small handles in front of him before looking back at his friends. Mason laughed before Dashing over and turning the handles and pushing the door open. They weren’t opening fast enough, so Jonahan used his shields to push them open more quickly. He seemed to have underestimated his strength, because the doors went crashing into the walls. It did no damage to the dungeon, but did make a very loud sound which seemed to have awoken the boss from its slumber.

A very large infested looking Brown bear came ambling out of a den at the opposite side of the room. Once it was out in the open, it stood up on its hind legs and let out a fierce roar while looking right at Jonathan. It was actually a few feet taller than Jonathan was in his Seotross form, and looked a whole lot heavier.

While the bear roared out its displeasure, Jonathan and his friends had continued to walk forward. After hitting a certain threshold, the bear fell back onto four legs and began running towards them, undeterred by Jonathan’s size.

Jonathan started sprinting towards it as well, with his friends spreading out, getting ready for anything. When Jonathan felt he was within range, he activated what looked like, to the observers, Barbed Spear. Just before it would have hit the bear, the bear disappeared and reappeared right behind Jonathan.

Expecting to get a hit in, the bear seemed very surprised when one of the large shields Jonathan was carrying swung around and hit it, blocking the attempted swipe and continuing on to strike the bear in the face. The bear bellowed in pain while a bit of blood dripped onto the hard stone floor of the chamber. It seemed to have stunned the bear for a few seconds, giving everyone else the opportunity to do some damage.

Mason leapt in with one of his abilities and struck the boss with the glaive he was now using, inflicting a long cut in the bear’s fur, while Sonja rapidly shot off arrow after arrow and Anja kept her distance, using shards of ice to deal damage. Ben wasn’t doing anything but stand in one place, but Mason’s flaming glaive and Sonja’s flaming arrows told them that he was helping them out.

After a few seconds, the bear shook its head and then disappeared. It reappeared behind Ben, who had moved away as soon as the bear disappeared. Its swipe connected with nothing but air causing it to growl out in anger. That angry growl was cut short by a very long spear impaling it its chest before quickly being yanked free. Blood began to pour out of the wound left behind, soaking the fur around the injury.

It teleported again. Before it arrived, a sparking arrow was sticking out of the stone floor and a streak of electricity was moving across the room, quickly coalescing back into the form of Sonja. As soon as the bear reappeared, electricity shot out of the end of the arrow and began coiling itself around the bear. When it had circled the bear a few times, it constricted.

The bear bellowed in pain and began thrashing for a few seconds allowing everyone to get some attacks in. After a few seconds, the bear started glowing red while growing in size, easily breaking free of the electricity that had trapped it. It was now approximately fifty percent larger than it was when they started the fight, and where before it looked like there was intelligence in its eyes, now was only mindless beast.

It roared once more before lowering its head and barreling towards Jonathan. Rather than get out of the way, Jonathan stood his ground and covered the front of his body with both of his shields and activated Mana Shield to provide additional protection. As the bear bore down on him, the camera angle changed, showing much more of the room. The reason Jonathan wasn’t moving became clear when Mason, Ben and the twins were shown fighting three large bears that seemed to have been summoned by the boss.

*****

I needed to keep the boss's attention on myself to give my friends the chance to take care of the three much smaller bears. ‘It shouldn’t be too difficult. All I need to do is keep myself between it and them,’ I thought. As the bear got closer and closer, I realized that it wasn’t slowing down, meaning I would probably get sent flying thanks to its massive weight.

I had my spear angled towards the boss and was surprised when the bear knocked it to the side with a quick movement of its head. Before I could pull it back, the bear finally connected with me. Mana Shield took the brunt of it before the bear broke through, and nearly sent me onto my back. Instead, it was steadily pushing me backwards, with me trying to get any traction I could.

I could have used Blink to get out of the way at any time, but then the bear would just turn to one of my friends. I realized that I would need to do some damage to get it to back off, which wasn’t possible with my spear because of its ridiculous length. I did have an alternative, however, and quickly began hacking at the area between the bears neck and its shoulder with my sword.

It roared out its pain and backed off slightly, giving me the room to hit it with Shield Bash, surprising me when it didn’t get stunned. I looked back and Blinked a few feet away from it to gain some distance, allowing me to use Barbed Spear again while still keeping myself between it and my friends. It was still bleeding from the first time I used the ability, but it still did a decent amount of damage. I walked forward a step, and quickly slashed with my sword, this time activating Siphoning Strike.

The bear wobbled slightly, showing the first sign that it was close to death. I continued slashing with my sword and after a few seconds, there were ice shards and arrows flying at it, followed by Mason flying through the air before landing behind it and using a series of attacks.

The bear rose up on its hindlegs, attempting a last desperate attack, but my mana had already regenerated back up to full and I was able to activate Mana Shield. Once more, Mana Shield absorbed most of the damage, leaving the rest of its attempt to maul me crashing against one of my shields. It stumbled after landing on its front paws again, and I activated Shield Bash followed by another Siphoning Strike. The bear made a final cry before falling on its side, dead.

*****

“Not bad,” Thomas said. “I think they would have had a much tougher time had Jonathan not had that form at his disposal, but they still did well, nonetheless.”

“He needs to give up the spear, though. It’s not a very effective weapon in close quarters and remains useless a lot of the time. You could see that he was surprised when his stun had no effect thanks to the bear being Enraged, and if he didn’t have Blink, he wouldn’t have been able to use the spear at all.”

“I don’t think we’ll see him get rid of the spear entirely, but I do think it’s more of a niche weapon,” Alexandra said. “Barbed Spear is a pretty good ability against bosses, and he only needs to use it once per fight if the boss isn’t able to heal the wound left behind. That said, I think he’ll use his shields less frequently, especially being able to activate and deactivate his shields whenever he wants. He has expressed interest in learning how to wield four swords effectively, though I don’t know anyone who could help him do so.”

“I may be able to help there, though it probably wouldn’t be until after we get back to Scyftan space. There is a man that is a master of all melee weaponry, and may be able to teach him. He is a hermit and I doubt he would leave his home for anything, hence the wait.” Thomas replied.

“You wouldn’t happen to be talking about Aldrurkoth Andarux, would you?” Tich asked.

There was the look of surprise on Thomas’ face. “Yes. I’m surprised you’ve heard of him.”

Tich nodded. “There were a few apprentices of his in the navy. Even as cadets, they were absolutely unbeatable, even by instructors who had mastered many forms of combat before those apprentices of Andarux were born. He would definitely be the best person to train Jonathan.”

“Well, in the meantime, we can get him started on using a sword effectively while we’re on our way to drop off the dragons.”

“You’ve decided to take the trip then?” Thomas asked Alexandra.

“We were probably going to go even before you told us Ercan had invited us for dinner. It might benefit Jonathan to see some more of the galaxy before we eventually depart for Nedovis.”

“Excellent,” Thomas said with a big smile. “Ercan will be glad to hear it. I’m sure his children will be excited to see Abi, as well.”

*****

Earth

Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario

August 15, 2019

15:25 EDT

When the boss’s corpse disappeared, we thought a chest would be in its place, but instead there was nothing. We all looked around, and finally spotted the chest just in front of the bear’s den. We all started walking over and I tucked my spear between my arm and my torso so I had a hand free for the Beacon Abi gave me. While holding it, I transferred the crystalline sword and shields I had her make for me before putting away the spear as well.

[So did any of us get the last hit with Siphoning Shot or Siphoning Strike?] I asked, putting away the Beacon and taking out my phone.

[Well ahead of you there,] Mason answered, his phone already in his hand. [Damn it,] we heard him say after a few seconds.

I navigated to my profile page and scrolled down to my skills. Tapping on Siphoning Strike, I was disappointed to see that I only had six bonus damage from kills earlier in the day. [No luck here either,] I said, taking the time to assign my attribute points. After assigning the points, I took a look at the insanity of my stats in this form. While my Intellect was very low, and my agility took a little bit of a hit, the rest were just ridiculous. My health over doubled, my attacks were about seven and a half times more powerful, and I was much more durable thanks to increased damage reduction provided by the bonus to my constitution.

Putting my phone away, I looked down to Sonja who was looking down at her own phone. Even being over three times her height, I was able to see a small smile on her face.

[Do you have something to tell us, Sonja?] I asked.

She looked up at me, her small smile growing into a grin. [Yup. My Siphoning Shot damage has increased by an additional twenty-five, from a bonus of three, to a bonus of twenty-eight.]

[Nice!]

Having arrived at the chest, Mason walked up to it and opened it. As I saw him peer into it, I could easily see his excitement. I was way too big to handle any of the stuff in the chest, so I began the process of shapeshifting back into my hybrid form. By the time I was back to a relatively small size, Mason had already passed one of the items around, which was a cloth cloak. As it got to me, I knew it wasn’t what Mason was excited about. Looking back up, I saw him pulling what looked like an impossibly long handle out of a comparatively small chest. When the head of the weapon finally appeared, we all saw what it was; a halberd.

“Dibs!” he exclaimed when he turned towards us.