Things were getting out of control, and I was expected to go from managing a small but wealthy organisation to being an Imperial Administrator. It was definitely not my knowledge that Raechina was after. My skills were now sealed under a seal that did not let anyone query the System to see any details about them without The Empresses or my direct permission. For my protection, I had already received and had my AI deal with the spam offers from Empire outposts, who wanted me to assist them. Dedicated administration skills were in short demand as a path to power. The System did not breed cowards, and with an indirect pathway, getting skilled and powerful people wasn't easy.
The Earth Alliance was booming. Our official count after Raechina accepted the surrender of the Sydney-based Karass was just shy of 3.5 billion beings. Things got weird with the count because nearly 2.7 billion were in dimensional stasis pods undergoing indoctrination into the Karass Military, a process that could not be halted without dire consequences, but the indoctrination could be suppressed.
A considerable effort was underway to patch the programming to complete the 'upgrades' and ensure no adverse side effects. The result would be Tier 1 to 3 people with minor genetic splicing to improve their base physiology. Depending on aptitude and previous experience, they would have at least basic military skills for foot soldiers.
The issue was that the System categorised them as Karass Slaves and could not free them until they were out of their reprogramming.
The timeframe required to complete the training was nine months.
The timeframe for the kinetic bombardment from the Karass was three to six months.
We had lost contact with our first off-world expedition, which had gone dark while the invasion of Luke's Holdings had been confirmed. Currently, we were in negotiations with the Steward to take refugees, which to me seemed ridiculous as we were going to have to evacuate again. The Karass had doubled down on the invasion and sent some legendary Paragons, Elite Tier 4 or higher commanders and their elite forces. Without a dedicated Legion presence, the holdings either capitulated or fled. Turning up my sarcasm meter, which was in overdrive at the moment, we were lucky that it added only another bunch of people to our already strained resources.
With Luke missing, it was a bit of a shock when Sarah had also gone off the grid. We knew she was training and had some obligations, but we had expected her back. Someone with her power was not easy to replace. Friends going missing just added to the emotional mix. The only thing that Raechina would say was that she was alive and with Luke. Alakaʻi and I were worried about her; she was young, well, weren't we all, but she had little real-life experience with the common people. Damn, if I was not sounding like some elite jerk now. Shit. If Luke and Sarah had heard me, I would never have heard the end of it. Ever since she returned from Brisbane and the meeting with the Karass, she had been laser-focused on getting to the Imperial City and would not share details. That put Xarius on edge, and as he rightly claimed, it was difficult to plan for a campaign with only part of the picture. Mind you, he was fighting a war on multiple fronts, some full scale, like the battle for Theshan OZL, where he was the de facto military commander despite the Senate denying there was an active invasion or that the Legion was required. Tryggvi Benonýsson, the Steward, had been difficult to deal with until the paragons arrived and were not even worse, prioritising his family and the noble elite over the masses. Raechina had stamped that out quickly, and we were now dealing with a sullen Fengur Benonýsson, his eldest son instead. Understandable, really, as his holdings, which had been in his family's care for several generations, had been horse traded with little input or warning by the System to a foreign power, Luke, who had shown next to zero interest in running the place. Now, due to that, his people were on the brink of being slaughtered, and he had to come begging for help. When Luke was not here to help him, it did not help our cause, but it didn’t change the fact that if we didn’t help him, his planet would become another Karass slave planet. It's not something that we could really let happen if we could help it.
Our evacuation plans were going around in circles; no one wanted refugees, and there was no one we could turn to for help. The Drakes were vague and offered suggestions that required risk and had too many unknowns; Dance offered to punch a hole into a place where we would have a chance to survive and rebuild. The Hooda responded that Luke would come through for us and that we should trust Karma to see our way out of the situation. Most of the others were in different states of leaving, planning to leave or staying till the last minute to watch the spectacle, with tickets being sold in a sick and twisted way to get help.
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To say that the people who saw DJ Pandimonim's promotions were not happy was an understatement, but when he explained that the money and energy had to go somewhere and that it would be a significant boost for us in this dire situation, was the only saving grace. It was still a bitter pill to swallow, and in the end, we just limited the promotion to non-Earthers. Still, it made our job of managing the general population difficult.
I was surprised that people were so accepting, and in a sense, the use of the System, according to Saro, made it easier for people to endure trauma and to bounce back. I was unsure how I felt about it, but since I was doing the job of Luke and acting as the Imperial liaison for everyone else, I was thankful that mild annoyance was the most people displayed. It helped that we were able to set quests for people to assist with the efforts. Where we could not rely on goodwill, bribery and, in two cases, threats, we were pretty much unified. I got a rude and fast lesson in System propaganda. I understood that it was a slippery slope to start on, with the Karass exemplifying the end of that slope, indoctrinated drones and cannon fodder.
Dealing with Selwin was an ongoing project. The barriers and the energy needed to contain it were increasing slowly and to dangerous levels, requiring more and more people to maintain. Yet, we had been told in no uncertain terms that if the Karass were not destroying the world, then the outbreak would have generated a similar, probably less lethal response from the Empire, a Blight infestation that was outside the System's power was something that would not be tolerated by either the System or the Prism.
Being shoved into the limelight and managing all this had done wonders for my levels, and I had managed to tier up when I hit Level 50. I was not a Tier 4 or 5 yet; there were some hurdles to jump through, but I was assured I would be Tier 4 soon. Imperial and System cheating fuckery was nice when you could be part of it, but it was so unfair to everyone else. My Organisational Shield skill was now Tier 4; it cost 100k in combined energy and credits and an additional 20k to alter the Earth Alliance charters to allow me to allocate 1 health per person per Tier. It was insanely broken.
Skill: Organisational Shield (Tier 4)(Upgradable)
Passive: Reactive
Active: See below.
Suppose you are in an administrative position at an organisation or settlement. In that case, you may use the members of your organisation as a last-ditch shield.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Any damage you take can be taken off members of your organisation at a rate of 1 health for each of their Tier per person.
You may contractually alter this. It can only be removed from members in total health and good standing with positive karmic balances.
Reactive for incapacitating damage. Damage that can be absorbed can be reallocated, and the amount soaked can be modified by situational factors.
Does not affect ongoing damage or consider momentum or other situational factors.
7-day cooldown.
You may pre-emptively apply this, permanently reducing the health pool of members of your community by 1.
Recharges at the average recharge rate of your organisation.
While using this skill, you may not wear armour of any sort.
There were some nice upgrades as the skill increased in Tiers. When I complained about how broken it seemed, she just said that the skill was never offered to people who would be exposed to anything more than a small city and that it was not intended to be ranked up. The fact that the cost to go from Tier 4-5 was over one million credits was a testament to that, although, if you were Tier 5 and could not borrow that sort of cash, you were not punching at a proper Tier 5 level. My current Shield was close to being able to soak 10 million damage in a burst and nearly 100 million in certain circumstances. If I was ever in a situation where those numbers were needed, I am not sure if it was a good thing, given that momentum and other factors were not soaked. I'd imagine something like a nuclear blast would kill me, not the blast or initial damage, but the subsequent heat and all the rest of the 'situation' at ground zero.
If only Luke were here. Shit, I was missing his just get shit done attitude, or more his approach to getting shit done. It usually involved getting someone else to do it, but at least I was not pushing from the top. I was not a leader; I was an administrator who needed direction. That was coming from several directions at the moment, and it was getting very messy to manage. Still, I had come a long way from the near-catatonic mess that I was at the beginning of my integration journey. I was still not brave, and I still did not want to stand out, yet time and time again, people came to me with problems that they could solve but just needed to run by me to see if what they were doing was ok. No, I was not going insane or getting testy yet, but I could feel the edges of my psyche getting frayed. I'd give this all up in a heartbeat to go back to before the day that Luke, Sarah and I visited Port Douglas.
Saro: Quick. Go to the Portal Square. They are coming in hot and need you there. Rach is not answering communications, and Xarius is two hours away.
Who?
Saro: Alpha Squad.
Alpha Team.
I was running to our dedicated portal platform, which was referred to as Portal Square because our people were so good and original at naming things. People could port to or from our big square of concrete. Our secure portal was still the same, but we had a large open tarmac where we could quickly move large numbers of picky. It benefited from being under the direct sight of five Tier 4 cannons.
While we had drilled for teams returning from active combat situations, we had never had to enact any protocols. Currently, I am the ranked official and the highest level and Tier individual in the chain of command, and under our City Defence plan, I was required to attend the command bunker in the portal square.
Cursing my lack of movement skills, not even a quick portal or short-range teleport skill, I had to move and was still very quick. At the Proto-Tier 4, my official rank, I was very, very quick. Our Uber driver was available to take me from the resort to the bunker. Pete, who was now the personal driver for most of the command structure, had upgraded his skills and vehicle and, with our support, was a damn fine and reckless driver. The Buzzard was the VTOL and silent, the new Uber car or semi-spaceship.
The Buzzard Tier 2 (Salvaged, Upgradable) (Tech: Tier 3)
The Buzzard isn't a beauty queen by any stretch, but it is Skyhaven Mechanic's best seller. It has two powerful over-clocked jury-rigged engines from salvaged Tier * engines that protrude from either side, promising enough thrust to defy gravity and the ever-present dust storms. A reinforced undercarriage with oversized karmically enhanced tyres allows the Buzzard to handle the most pockmarked terrain in the Empire with surprising ease.
It features VTOL, Emergency Boost, and Temporal Collison Avoidance System and is fully customisable.
Skyhaven Mechanics are known for their willingness to modify their vehicles to suit a driver's specific needs. With enough credits and the right parts, you can upgrade the Buzzard's weaponry, add shielding modules, or even install a rudimentary cloaking device (although its effectiveness is... questionable at best)
The Buzzard: It may not be the sleekest ride in the Empire, but in the hands of a skilled driver, it can be a reliable companion, a ticket to riches, and maybe even a symbol of hope in a world gone mad.
Despite driving like a demon, Hawk insisted that he should take lessons from Sarah on her bike, something that he still refused to go into.
I arrived three minutes after the alert came through, pushing my speed as I entered the bunker. Hawk, Brick and Seraph from the First Cohort were there. They were probably the only two here who could out-rank me in a combat situation, but since I was both the Administrator and had a rank above them in the Earth Alliance, it would be interesting to see who the System would back. Not that it would come to that, I would listen to experts in the field of combat any day, not that I was a coward or anything.
The command centre had a magi-tech display and control station that gave us all a view of the incoming portal terminus that we were holding in stasis until we were ready. We could hold any friendly portal indefinitely, with minimal u. However,, but in a situation where it was friendly but under combat conditions and the terminus was already being actively tracked and interfered with, the energy expenditure was more substantial.
Once we were ready, and a squad of Earth Alliance combat troops were arrayed around the portal, I nodded to the controller, a young man whom I was only vaguely familiar with. Technically, I knew everyone, but I had never spoken to this person before. Damn, I had to stop calling people young. I was not even a university graduate. I felt positively ancient.
When he accepted the endpoint, a huge grand archway started growing out of the ground. It was easily twenty meters across and took up nearly a third of Portal Square. It was slow and accompanied by a low grinding noise, bricks being dragged along a street slowly, or I got the impression of a tomb door sliding open.
Saro: That confirms it is Sarah's Grand Portal, although it is much more energy-dense, more extensive and bigger than her previous efforts.
The portal, or arch, reached nearly three meters high and stopped. Even here, we could feel the mana and energy bleeding off it. The grinding noise of it growing stopped, leaving the square in silence. A barrier snapped into place with a shimmering silver sheen.
Water, tons and tons of water, emptied out of the barrier, and amongst the flow, watching remotely from the bunker, I could make out several forms, humanoid and not. Our Elite team was washed away and battered against the wall as the water continued to pour at high pressure through the gateway. The square had a wall, close to three meters high, that surrounded it, filling it up with water. It was impossible to see anything coherently as the foam and waves smashed into the walls.
Min Min: Emergency Energy is being diverted to Portal Square wall shields. Integtyis is 82% and falling. Three hours of energy remain main.
Thanks, Min. Keep the shields up and keep an eye out for our people.
The energy cannons started firing into the mess, targeting the non-humanoid creatures. We could see them now, some bipedal crocodile-like monsters.
There was little sign of our people.
As quickly as the portal opened and sent the deluge of water through, it shut, and the last of the water fell into a graceful waterfall.
Saro: We have all of Alpha Squad's beacons, including Sarah. There are 102 Unknown Hostile Entities and three unknown entities marked friendly. Solace is updating me.
It's the Alpha Team. Not squad.
Saro: I know, but Luke keeps mixing it up. He hates the name, so we AIs have been perpetuating his confusion and apathy for it.
Shit, is not the time for that?
Saro: If not now, when? We are not in danger.
I knew when I needed to not press her, but she could be infuriating.
With the cannons fining into the slowly receiving water, Saray took control of the situation in the water. We quickly observed some quick portals opening and closing near where the beacons were marked on our live map. Soon, the wet remnants of Alpha Team and the Earth Alliance combat team were unceremoniously dumped into the containment room just off our command and control centre.
Sarah just appeared beside me with an unconscious Luke over her shoulder. Three of the oldest men I had ever seen shimmered into existence beside her, each one putting a fist to their chest and bowing their head.
The eldest stepped forward, and I noticed a grimace on Sarah's face.
"Ahhh, most eloquent salutation, esteemed and noble administrator! Our profound gratitude extends to you for granting us sanctuary within the hallowed halls of this glorious establishment. We, weary travellers battered by a tempestuous calamity, seek a respite from the relentless grip of misfortune. Yet, fear not an influx of mere supplicants, for within our ranks reside wisdom honed by experience, counsel tempered by tribulation, and a valiant spirit that shall not be daunted by adversity! I, Aethelwulf Bartholomew, third of a lineage steeped in noble tradition, present myself before you. My esteemed companion, Orr – Keilani Orr Jinar, possesses an unparalleled aptitude for strategic planning, supernatural foresight of the oracle traditions and a master of the art of concocting potent libations. And behold! The formidable Professor Thaddius von Beauregard, a colossus of physical prowess, undefeated in the noble art of pugilism! We come not as mere burdens but as potential assets. Our coffers teem with a wealth of knowledge, our minds a veritable repository of strategic acumen. But enough of the formalities! Undoubtedly, the arduous journey we have traversed has left our spirits flagging. Perhaps a sojourn to indulge in a repast of the most delectable nature would be a most welcome respite. Envision, if you will, a feast fit for a king! Succulent meats, roasted to perfection, shall tantalise the palate. A symphony of seasonal vegetables, bursting with freshness, shall delight the senses. My esteemed colleague, Orr, shall preside over the libations, ensuring our spirits remain buoyant. What say you, nobleAdministratorr? Shall we embark upon this culinary odyssey before engaging in further discourse?"
Sarah snapped, "Fucking shut up, you old windbag, Mike, we need ….
Orr's eyes went back into his head, and he snapped, "Fire and Doom."
Luke opened his eyes, "No, we need to get out of here."