“Wait, wait. What the hell is this?”
I’ve been embroiled in experiments with the warp rune I earned over a month ago, with little progress. The warp front seems stable on all of my runes but it doesn’t envelop the item it’s attached to like I am used to. I try to ask Tessa but she says she’s not allowed to help, but keeps laughing at me. She’s definitely got her own personality now that her and my Symbiote merged.
My last experiment was a box theoretically configured to warp a grenade a configurable distance away, but when I think I got it figured out, it flashed with pearlescent light and morphed into a hand-held sphere with movable rings.
“The fuck is this thing? I made it, so I should get to know what it is damnit!” my anger flashes aether in my area and it pings? Against the device.
What the hell? I enrage and finally get an inspection skill. I pulse my aura at the device on purpose this time.
Antimatter Grenade 3IAS device has the capability to warp twice. The second warp is set to BOOM Pricing unavailable
Tessa, what the fuck is this. This seems like I’m the guy that made the nuclear bomb and said, OOPS. And TIER 3?!
You have stumbled upon a planet killer. Your personal power tied with your species hammer-like approach to technology has created something more destructive than a t-1 entity should be capable of. Expect to be contacted by the Supercluster Council.
DAMNIT!!
Hmm, give me an estimated yield for my accident.
200Mtons of TnT, minimal radiation.
Uhh. Where do I hide something like this? Do I sell it for CEs and decide it’s other people’s problem? Tessa punches my psyche in response.
“Owww. I’m panicking okay? I’m sorry.” I rub my temples for a few minutes.
“I need a sounding board because my private experiments aren’t working.”
Katie and Melissa’s project is at the low-orbit stage. They are having trouble reaching the 12,000 km distance for AI control in GEO synchronous orbit. TLDR: They should have time to help you.
/Katie, Melissa, I could use a sounding board for my warp project/
I get two immediate pings of agreement.
***
“PENNY! We don’t care how it used to work! FUCK.” Melissa is throwing pieces of toaster strudel at me. Katie takes a swig of my 10 AE shine.
“Your paramour is right, the warp rune is not behaving as the Annihilator Propulsor did. It seems more efficient and less violent. I have been correlating data with Tessa and . . .”
“Woah, woah, who gave you permission to jack into her brain?”
“Tessa and Ophie have an amicable relationship and they’ve been sharing.” Katie says calmly, expecting it to be obvious.
“I’m kind of tired of you both intruding in my mind, Bee Tee Dub.”
“Regardless, I think that because of your previous hammer approach changing to a more gentle cutting approach, space time is no longer rebounding around your desired object.”
What? That’s a big deal?
“Your tone sucks, but your observation lends to having to propel an object through instead of the re-bound!” Melissa replies.
“Exactly so.” Katie smiles in her vampire way at my girlfriend. “I see why she likes you.”
“Katie, no adding my girl to your Harem. But also, that’s phenomenal insight. I would have missed that for months.”
Katie smirks with her sexy canines, Melissa blushes. Bah. Meli’s not a cheater, but Katie is a Vampire Countess. Bah. “Thanks ladies. I was stumped on why my efforts weren’t working. Back to experiments and moonshine.”
Both Melissa and Katie fidget before Katie speaks, “Frannie is hosting a BBQ tomorrow with some of the new murder chickens. Can you two come?”
Mel is smiling at me with thumbs up, “Yah, we can come. I look forward to seeing what the Doc has come up with.”
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Why does it feel like facing the whole colony feel like defeat? Our being stranded here feels like my fault, despite what Mel, Katie, or Tessa say. It also feels like two months should be enough time to find a warp solution, but so far, all I’ve figured out is a better way to war crime.
I end up taking a break to continue my martial training with Viper, hoping to relieve some of this anxiety.
He ruthlessly kicks my ass. I have learned Knife Fighting and Hand-to-Hand as a result of this near-daily brawling endeavor. Not sure I’d call it “training” though. Viper seems to be taking my slowed research against me, as though he doesn’t realize that breaking time off to make his weapons means less time to research getting them home.
Red lights start flashing.
//RED ALERT—30+ Aether signatures within 10km of Summer station.//
Shit. I stow my knife on my calf and throw half my uniform back on. The boys now have plasma mortars, but I haven’t come up with any gun-type weapons, and to be honest, don’t want to. They can buy those for the 5k AE they earned.
“Mel! Send drones to the bomb silos!”
“Aye boss. Targeting center of mass (CoM) outside of blast radius. 2 minutes.”
“Astoria, napalm turrets primed and ready for close defense.”
“Thanks Katie, make sure Mel and Viper have a link with you. NM, sorry, you’re on that.”
“Yes, I am.” She dismisses me.
“Viper, Jedi, Call fire support. Astoria on mortars and emergency egress.”
I get copies all around. I know that they have this, but I can’t help myself—I just hope they’re not annoyed.
The initial 30 was just the vanguard. Two hundred mana-warped of mixed species assaulted us that afternoon. I got hit by our own Napalm twice with furious apologies. Sorry not sorry? Meh, what’s done and all that.
“Incursion repelled boss. Close wounded being hauled to Farm. Request collection.”
Viper, consummate professional.
He calls me in because I get the best AE to core ratio and my fee is free because of it. I also feel he gets a rise out of watching me butcher these fuckers for money. Melissa and Beecham come out to dress the corpses.
“Alright gents, and Melissa, we’re going to confirm and eliminate the source of this warping. An assault a week is stressing our ability to respond.” I que in the quest. 100k to confirm and retrieve the Aether source that is warping the wildlife. Astoria’s citizens look at me like I just handed them free money.
What they haven’t considered, I muse while pulling out aether pearls from the warped beasts, is that these are likely the weaker of the warped that have been pushed out of the original source’s area. We’re probably putting off a large amount of power, so it makes sense to me that they’d be searching for easy power here.
Tessa, what do you think about the massive amount of warped creatures?
I think your deductions are sound. I would further postulate that it is not a natural occurrence as aether rifts are most often temporary. Perhaps a piece of rock that got caught up in the wake of Copernicus abandoning us.
Okay, aether infused rock. From what I’ve been reading in my enchanting modules, it would have to be a rock with high ore density or perhaps a geode. If we’re lucky it’s a geode and I can use it as a power source. If we’re unlucky . . . I don’t even know. I should take a sundering staff and hope that the process breaks the lattice holding the aether in place.
I ask our council of five if they’re okay with releasing the awarded 5CE to Viper to fund our expedition, and only Francesca pushed back. Then I explained that there were bound to be a plethora of warped flora she could research after we clear the site, and then she got excited about the prospect.
Viper asked if we could load his team in the back of the Indulgent (ASS-1), my bougie boy transport that I christened as a spaceship, and survey the proposed direction.
“You know I can’t land in those trees though right?” I tell him.
“There are versions of your aether-charged debris theory that would clear some of the trees. I also have an idea to use you as bait while we parachute in and destroy the thing while you draw them away.”
“That sounds very dangerous and slightly suicidal.”
“Look, Boss, I don’t tell you how to build space ships. Don’t tell me how to fight a combat team.” He seems more annoyed than angry.
I’m embarrassed just the same. “Sorry about that. Sometimes I feel like I should be more involved, but what I need to remember is that everyone here is a smart and capable person.”
He snorts, “Don’t hurt yourself. A lot of leaders feel that way, but it makes it look like you don’t trust us to do the job without you.”
I wipe a hand across my hair and tug on my ponytail. “Yeah, that’s not what I’m trying to do at all.” I take a deep breath and look up into his reptilian eyes. “When do you want that shuttle ride, and when you briefing the mission to the Station?”
“Two days in the Ansible lobby. Need time to train on new weapons and new tactics. Have your . . . ship ready to go.”
“Copy that Viper.”
While I’m walking back to the Ansible, I’m reminded that the Magitech controller I’d bought got used in my “Oopsie” bomb and I needed another one. Which then reminded me that I needed to split the 1274 AE seven ways and send them out. It’s not a ton of money, but it should be enough for something decent.
The controllers are only 20 AE a piece, so I buy two of them and two hand-held screens for 50AE. I remember to buy a crate of ampules before checking my balance: 15191 AE. What? Oh! The sundering bench must have sold! And for quite a lot of money, holy cow.
Good recommendation Tessa, thanks for the assist. She chirps in my head. I put a flag on a new Navigation system for my ship, one capable of navigating interstellar space and connecting to a magic-based drive system once my warp runes work the way I want them to.
I pick up my gear and waddle to the ship I just summoned and move the gear back to the workshop building. There’s space in here for everyone to set up their own private space, but the boys seem to prefer working outside, Katie’s got the Ansible lobby as her primary space, and Francesca stays with her farm projects. Which means I get a whole floor to myself. I moved the fabricator and a lot of tools to the top floor shop via VTOL to the roof.
Time to get back to work. I take in mind what Melissa and Katie suggested this morning and sketched out some plans for a small drone to test my warp rune moving forward through it. I could have bought a drone, but I need practice on Magitech interfaces and programming the damned systems. Tessa also assured me that I could eventually control such things with thought if I got Mellissa to change my bracelet some.
Once I work out the initial concepts, I’ll have to test the warp curves, or non-continuous functions as happened with the Annihilation drive. After mapping power and distance of the warps, some retrofitting of the Indulgence for a interstellar navigation and propulsion suite, we should be able to get back to Earth after some minimal testing. Six to nine months tops.
I start working on a projected timeline, erring on the side of staying longer, and send it to the Council. Seeing as I need at least Melissa’s help, and I need to inform all eight colonists of the weight limits, I feel that the blast to all was warranted. Viper and Katie express their disappointment, Melissa gives me encouragement like the wonderful woman that she is, and Francesca said she might need some assistance preparing near the end, but 9 months seemed adequate for her harvesting plans.