CHAPTER 011: Briefing

Adam Rytman

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 10:12

Clearing up the rest of the Alum went much better - and easier - than expected. The Botnet lost the first skirmish horribly, and in the meantime, Avran’s squad eliminated practically every single one of the unconnected Soldiers. The Botnet tried to replenish the casualties by hacking the Infantry Bots… but the effects were obviously rather underwhelming.

Besides, we had two soldiers in battle armours. And Avran. Trying to compare these two trump cards might seem a little weird… but only until someone saw Avran in battle. He wasn’t even using covers anymore. He repelled hardlight shards WITH HIS MAGIC. Like a hu… a walf version of Numbers’ Sorcerer.

That comparison made me think if that machine used magic. Craziness intensifies.

We also caught the Botnet with its pants down. As I foresaw, it sent twenty of his puppets to take down Avran’s group. The number, together with the Botnet’s ‘buff’ to intelligence gave them an advantage - Avran avoided massacre only because he shielded the other soldiers, allowing them to fire without fear of enemy retaliation. And even then, the casualties of the Numbers’ were negligible.

It was a stalemate - that wouldn’t last long because Avran was running out of ‘mana’ or whatever the locals used to power their magic. But then we came. Guided by Nymphae, with our armours allowing us to speed up to 50 km/h and our friendly AI opening all doors in front of us so we avoided splashing on them.

It was a crazy ride. Originally we hoped to take the occasion and use it to attack the Botnet’s main holdout near the reactor room… but with Avran’s squad getting trashed, we had to make a detour.

With us emerging from behind, and the paratroopers still in working condition, the effect was a thorough annihilation of two thirds of the remaining Botnet troops.

The Elite made a horrible mistake of not securing the Armoury and allowing us to gear up. Now it was paying the price for that. Then again, if we didn’t have the Alum’s former AI on our side, trying to unlock the Armoury systems and getting the weapons (even the guns were attached to the walls with what essentially was a tough maglock) would take us a lot of time.

We won. We cleared the last holdout after Nymphae told me she made it sure that the Botnet cannot detonate the reactor. The worst it could do would be shutting it down. And, frankly, that would just make the ship circle around the moon, calmly waiting until we manage to reactivate it. While also cutting the Botnet from the only mean of recharging batteries. Which would be bad both for the Botnet itself and its remaining underlings.

So we stormed the reactor area and wiped out the remaining enemies. It wasn’t easy since they barricaded all corridors but one, where we had to made a frontal assault against their rifles… and what I presumed to be a hardlight machine gun.

But we had Avran conjure his magic shield, and then help us get through the bottleneck. After it happened, we used the battle armour abilities to jump away (King to the left, me to the right), while simultaneously firing at the Soldier that was using the machine gun.

It fell. And before somebody else could replace him, the paratroopers stormed in, while I and King were making a suppression fire to prevent the enemy from regrouping properly. A few grenades and the area was clear.

The Botnet himself was a cube. One meter by one meter. He was lying in the back of the room. Didn’t look like a robot, it was more like a computer unit. Armoured computer unit. In the end, I used the Mark IV rifle to make several holes in it.

“Nymphae?” I asked.

“I’m detecting no further enemies. The ship is ours.” Wonderful!

I turned towards the soldiers… to see that King was already conversing with them about something.

Oh, well. I’ll leave soldiering stuff to him. Now I should focus on preparing for the greatest battle of my lifetime. That made the cleaning of the Alum look like a child’s play. The Apocalypse. The Last Battle of Our Times. The…

Nymphae’s chuckled interrupt me. Sigh.

***

TCS Cutlass/Pontifex-A System

Long War

17 April 2547, 11:13

If somebody asked me who exactly Shalyn Or’Kas was, I would immediately answer: ‘A pain in the ass’. Or ‘A necessary evil’. It wasn’t really surprising that the Choir was very interested in having someone like her around me, but it didn’t lower my irritation gauge at all.

She was a liaison from the Choir’s government - or, to be exact, from the Voice of the Righteous, Var Or’Kas himself. The local pope equivalent. The identical surnames weren’t an accident since she was his niece. He practically adopted her after her parents died in a terrorist bombing conducted from Vistryan inspiration.

He sent her here officially to serve as our group’s guide to the Diamond. Unofficially, however, it was done so he would have someone to keep an eye on us to make sure we wouldn’t try anything stupid or politically suicidal. While also making sure that nobody here could be a Vistryan or imperial spy.

Since major differences between the Choir, Hegemony and Empire were mostly of the religious nature, the significant part of the spies worked for religious reasons as well. Because of that, about half of the Choir’s counterintelligence was a de facto inquisition. That felt fine with burning the captured spies at the stake.

… I admit, when I heard about that for the first time, I had a sudden urge to end cooperation with the Choir. Then, Nymphae told me that Vistryans had a ritual that includes burning a newborn child alive as an offering. Which, according to the Corporation’s cultural experts, was taken straight from ancient Carthage and Phoenicia. Shalyn, later on, confirmed that the burning part is only for the people that willingly supported Vistrya, with other spies (even those from the Empire) being treated more leniently.

So, I guess, they might have a point with the burning part.

Shalyn knew all the details about it… because she was a nun (sort of, the local religion was so hopelessly complicated that it would take me months to figure it out) of the St. Anylyk Sisterhood which was a religious female order. Supposedly a bulwark of absolute religious orthodoxy, from which (together with one or two similar brotherhoods) a lot of inquisitors were recruited.

She came aboard with two older men (actually, a man and a walf) that were, without a doubt, real inquisitors. Tough looks, stern faces. We had them assume the mantle of being a de facto ships’ police. Every military (and most civilian) ship had people keeping the peace onboard. That they were competent detectives, had every qualification a policeman would need, and knew at least a single martial art helped in deciding.

Shalyn herself was officially merely an assistant to them - she was, like, twenty to twenty-five years old? - but everybody knew she was here so we could talk with the Voice with nobody from the Choir’s military command (or its government) knowing. She was also useful in contacting the planet’s surface - surname Or’Kas opened all doors and kept every communication channel open - so she had uses aside from making me want to throw her out of the airlock.

It didn’t make talking with her easier.

However, to execute my little plan I needed her support. So I had to…

“Oh, stop whining, just call her here.” Nymphae interrupted my thoughts. “You are trying to persuade yourself to make this talk for, like, half an hour. And. I. Hear. EVERYTHING.”

Ugh.

Alright, let it be your way.

I pushed a button on the side of the captain’s seat - couldn’t they have it be used through the implants UI?!

“Shalyn Or’Kas to the bridge.” I’M A CAPTAIN SO I CAN ORDER HER AROUND WHEN WE ARE ON MY SHIP, RIGHT? Sure, she wasn’t precisely my underling - more like a representative of a local government - but it was still MY ship.

She came a few minutes later.

Wearing… well, I think the general inspiration for her vestment was a nun’s habit. I’m not sure if it was of any real-life order (not like I really knew anything about that, but I checked it on the internet). It was more like a stereotypical - and undefined in terms of order of origin - nun taken from a manga or something.

She was pretty. I had to give her that. Far beneath the level of Einstein or other female clones, though it wasn’t surprising. Nobody designed her to be pretty. Auburn hair, green eyes. Human, that seemed to have taken most of her genes from people of Caucasian race.

“You called?” She asked.

“Uhm, yes.” Aaand… the fight begins. “I’d like to have the Cutlass fly somewhere. And I want to hear the Choir’s opinion on that.”

“Fly somewhere?” She raised one eyebrow. “Where exactly?”

I explained to her that we found a navigational data we presumed to lead to Numbers’ base. And that we could reach it relatively fast by using a Hypergate.

“Hmm…” She was deep in thoughts for a while. “Well, I will ask you a few questions. That, I’m sure, the Voice would ask you if he was here.” Thank you for reminding me who you speak for. ”My answer depends on your answers.”

“Fine.” I shrugged.

“I understand that a frigate is a small ship.” She began while watching me attentively. “Isn’t such a thing… pretty… dangerous?”

Hmm. Yeah, I think I know where this came from. Losing the Cutlass would be a terrible blow to their entire… let’s call it a space program. We would resurrect back here, but the ship, Choir crewmen and so on would be gone.

“Well, theoretically yes.” I answered her. “But frigates were created precisely for such reconnaissance actions. We should be able to evade anyone stronger than us. We certainly would like to avoid fighting.” She didn’t look very persuaded.

“...Unless something awaits right at the exit point of the Hypergate.” Oh. I didn’t think about it. “Didn’t you say it connects two points? You could place mines there.”

Weelll… Nymphae? Save me?

“Ugh.” I heard in my head. “Theoretically she is right. But the Precursors’ expected troubles like that, and the exit point of a Hypergate can be… expanded. It won’t be a comfortable jump, but I can have us land two or three million kilometres from the Hypergate. At worst, we’ll get shot at, but we should be able to evade any enemy easily.” Ufff. “Unless they have voidcraft carriers or something like that. But it’s unlikely.”

… There goes my good mood.

I relayed her answer - in my own words - to Shalyn. Without the voidcraft (whatever it is) carriers.

“I see.” She squinted her eyes. “Just the Cutlass, right?”

“Yes. Neither the Yataghan nor the Sword will be of any use in that mission.” The Choir Space Navy was composed of three Dagger-class frigates. While we successfully reclaimed two more frigates, we lacked sufficiently professional crews for them to be of any use. Sure, they could fly around and even fire their gun on the enemy - Nymphae wrote something that was more or less the programming for weapon systems… but the accuracy was subpar.

“Good.” She nodded. “I can’t promise you anything, but I think you’ll get the green light.”

“I understand the need to keep control over your armed forces, but if you must talk over every move of my fleet, it will be a major detriment to all our operations.” I pointed out.

It was something that had been pissing me off a little for a while now. The Choir was explicitly against any ship manoeuvres - outside of shuttles - which forced me to train ship crews in simulated environments.

She sighed. Loudly.

“This is not a matter of having control over armed forces. This isn’t even a matter of us having doubts or trust issues with you.” Reaaaally? “Listen, captain.” Oh, somebody remembered my (unofficial) rank. “When you ordered the ships to circle around the moon to get our attention, you started certain… processes.”

What? “So, it’s now my fault?” She looked at me… with stern disapproval. Like a teacher whose student turned out to be an idiot.

“Could you stop being so prejudiced and listen to what I’m trying to say?” Oh, she is furious. Coldly furious, since she has quite the self-control. “Every person on the planet knows there are aliens out there. You can’t hide something you can see with your naked eye literally every night. You’ve given a panic attack to every citizen of Choir, and calming them down… wasn’t easy.” Hmm? “We managed to… suppress the panic by pointing out that the ships aren’t moving, that there was no attack. But if you make too many sudden moves in the line of sight of the planet’s surface, we will be in trouble. We are already neck deep in trouble because of the need to make sure that our civilian observatories see nothing. And if you think that not a single one of our citizens saw something wrong or strange with military seizing all astronomical observatories under the pretence of public safety, then you are stupid.”

Oh.

“They already noticed the Cutlass’ initial movements. When you moved to our world’s orbit.” What?! “Someone acted fast after seeing the first ships flying before the moon and turned its telescope towards you. Thankfully, that someone was from a state university. And a reserve officer of Choir’s army. So this didn’t spread.”

Someone was lucky, I guess.

“Why won’t you tell the people?!” Isn’t that the easiest way of dealing with such a situation?!

“If it was only about our population, we would do that without a second of thoughts.” Riiight. “Unfortunately, we have neighbours.”

“And that’s important… how exactly?” I said with a mocking tone.

“Somewhere in between of orbits of, as you called it, Pontifex A-4 and A-5, lies an asteroid.” She said, visibly irritated. “That single chunk of rock is worth more money that is in circulation in entire Choir economy.” Wh… “There is more platinum, iridium and several other rare metals that is in Diamond’s planetary mantle. Millions of tonnes. And that’s just one asteroid.”

“Asteroid mining is one of the chief reasons why a kilometre size warship like the surviving battlecruiser is far from being the biggest warship class,” Nymphae informed me silently. “Infinite amount of space, almost infinite resources and industrial capabilities bordering on magic. Rarely does anyone bothers to mine planets when you have so many ores in your space system. All of them of rather good quality.”

Right, now that I think about it, I think I read something about the Spire’s construction happening mostly because of the asteroids towed to the Earth’s orbit and slowly dismantled for materials.

“The problem is simple.” Shalyn continued. “Whoever gets control over the star system, wins. There is no stronger card in that game. Resources, ability to control planetary airspace from above, orbit-surface weaponry. Advanced technology.”

Then I understood.

“The other superpowers.” I said.

“Precisely.” Looks like I got a point in her book. For not being a total idiot. “The second you had the fleet enter orbit, you put us in the road for an inevitable war. Total one. Because this time there will be no armistice to try again later. Those that won’t win, will die. Choir, Hegemony, Empire and Ikhvir - only one will survive.”

“I didn’t want to…” She raised her hand, interrupting me.

“I know. And the Voice knows as well.” She shook her head. ”It was the first thing we made sure to discover. You didn’t know, but we observed you and asked certain questions. You did not understand what this would cause, and, in truth, you had few other choices. Half of the ships lacked fuel to reach another planet. But now we have to live with the consequences.”

Oh. I screwed up, right?

“Thankfully, your arrival showed us new possibilities.” She continued, unfazed by my sudden abashment. “Now we can win the war that is coming. Time helps us, maybe with the exception of the Ihkvir’s front. Every minute that passes without the Hegemony and the Empire figuring out we have a space navy is valuable. That’s why the Choir’s High Council, the highest echelons of the military and the inquisition, and all the other people we trust, are very busy with the biggest campaign of disinformation in the history of the Choir.” She said with a sudden smirk. “For now, both the Hegemony and the Empire think we are preparing a superweapon in Fort Khrystal. Something to face the mysterious aliens and, perhaps, Ikhvir. However, if you make too extensive moves in the orbit, or betray the truth, without a doubt accidentally, the Choir’s situation will be… bad.”

“I… I guess I’m sorry.” Now I’m seriously embarrassed. “I didn’t really…”

“That’s good.” What? “It’s the whole point of a decent country for the armed forces to not be very… political. Not being too knowledgeable about it is a plus for us. That’s why you have me, the Voice and so on backing you up. Just remember that we are in a pinch as well.”

“Live and let live, in short.”

She smiled. “Yes, we know that saying.” She looked at me weirdly. “If you want to do a proper penance for how wrong you were, there is something you might do for us.”

Oh?

“Meaning?”

“We need a hydrogen bomb.” What?! “I asked that… machine of yours, and it said this technology is right in front of ours. We have atomic bombs, the strongest reached one hundred kilotonnes. But we have only a few dozen bombs. And a few experimental long-range ballistic missiles. Unfortunately, both Ikhvir and the Hegemony have them as well. And the Empire has other, much more magical, superweapons.”

“I see.” I took advantage of her pausing for a second. “Still, it’s a… a big thing to ask for, you know?”

“I’m aware. But if we ‘test’ the bomb, we will strengthen the masquerade of a superweapon development. Both the Celestial Empire and the Vistryan Hegemony will think that it was what we worked on in Fort Khrystal. What’s more, the Choir having a bomb like that might discourage the other powers from resorting to mass destruction weapons when the war actually starts.”

Hmm.

That certainly makes sense. If your enemy could retaliate a hundred times stronger, would you be crazy enough to attack it? The question was: what if the Choir would use the bomb themselves?

Ah, hell. If I give them ONE bomb, at worst they will kill a few million NPCs. They don’t exist in the first place, right? Then again, they might have been NPCs… but they are so life-like, that… I guess I’d feel pretty bad if the Choir eradicated some random city.

Ugh. I didn’t start playing the Long War to have complicated moral choices! Few games I played had them. But… that was something new. Maybe even interesting.

Ah, fuck it. I’ll trust them.

“I can’t promise anything, but I’ll try to get you one bomb. You’ll probably have to convert it from a missile warhead.” I gave her my answer. “By the way, can’t you just construct your own with our technology?”

NEW QUEST!

ARMS DEALER

Difficulty Level: Medium

The Choir’s government is in dire need of a hydrogen bomb that it wants to use to maintain its political masquerade: researching a powerful deterrent against the use of weapons of mass destruction in the coming conflict.

Or so it claims.

You promised to give them what they want.

Only medium difficulty?

“Unfortunately, according to the machine, you have no blueprint of a hydrogen bomb. And while we can ultimately figure out the way of producing it, it will take a while. Long while. It’s not something we can improvise with magic. There is no magical hydrogenium mineral, unfortunately.”

I guess.

“Nymphae, how hard it will be to procure such a bomb?” Let’s learn it right away.

I asked her privately, but at this point, everyone around more or less figured out how to discern when I’m talking with Nymphae. So Shalyn waited.

“Easy.” Hmmm? “Destroyers have no ship-to-ship missile weapons, but from the light cruiser up every ship is stuffed with them.” Seriously? “Yes. Cruisers are generally armed in the light shipkiller class missiles. Nuclear warheads for them are from one to five megatonnes. Battlecruiser should have shipkillers that are supposed to take down capital ships. They are up to fifty megatonnes.”

“You load every ship missile with nuclear warheads?!” In past space games… well, nuclear weapons were overpowered.

“Obviously, duh.” Am I getting mocked again?! “Missiles, especially shipkillers, can reach the enemy from up to one hundred million kilometres. When you have a missile that can fly like that, it will obviously be big. With an onboard reactor, powerful thrusters and a lot of fuel. Why should a sane individual create such a missile and then load it with some stupid chemical explosives?!” … Now that she says it… “It’s better to put a nuclear warhead or even something stronger inside.”

It made sense. I mean, you didn’t have to be a space-faring superpower to be able to produce a lot of nuclear bombs. And when you have thousands of them, why bother using anything else?!

I’m increasingly interested in how space battle in this universe is like. I got a lot of information, but my knowledge was from being thorough. I needed experience.

I should probably ask how they make themselves survive hits from missiles like that, but that’s something for another time.

“Alright, so according to Nymphae we can easily find the hydrogen bombs aboard cruisers.” I said to Shalyn. “How strong do you want your bomb? One to five, or maybe something closer to fifty?”

Thankfully, the auto-translator translates the megatonnes part properly.

“Any option is fine. Both would be the best, we could make two tests, simulating the supposed progress in our research by increasing the payload.”

Give them a finger and they’ll go for your entire hand.

“Let’s not get too greedy. Though we’ll ultimately get both types of bombs.” After all, we would reclaim ALL ships. Which meant getting all three types of cruisers out there. “I’ll try to get you one after we return from the recon mission through the Hypergate.”

“So, now I’ll really have to make sure you’ll get your recon.” She sighed. “And to be honest, there are many people in the Choir’s leadership interested in who Numbers’ are. The last thing we really want is them joining up with Ikhvir.”

Yeah. That would be beyond bad. For now, there were no signs of cooperation… unless the Numbers’ weird acting was because Moloch hacked them or something.

Looks like I’ll finally get to see how the FTL drive in Long War works.