Pirate Demands

It stared down at them from the projection and began to make a gurgling and bubbling sound as it waved a giant clawed hand in the air as though it was describing something. Everyone stared in confusion at the screen, wondering just what was going to happen.

"Is it trying to speak to us?" James asked.

Seeming to take notice of what James said, it leaned in as though it was actually looking at them. Its eyes narrowed, and then its upper eyelids angled down toward the center, causing it to look angry before it turned to the side and began to speak in the gurgling, bubbling sounds much faster than a moment before.

Other sounds came from off the camera before the original lobster began hissing and screeching angrily. A moment later, the sounds changed to one of English speech.

"...you absolute idiots! How hard is it to remember to flip on the communication switch? If you weren't my brother, I would..." The creature said before realizing that all of their expressions had changed. "Oh, my apologies. We forgot to set the translation to common. Anyway, where was I?"

"Just start over," another voice said from off-screen.

"I swear to Nashtar, if I hadn't promised Mother, I'd keep you around..."

"Captain, the message," Came a third voice.

"Oh, right! People of Earth! We have come to take the resources for our home planet. You cannot dare to match our abilities as such a fledgling planet. So, surrender now, and we will leave you alive after we have taken what we require."

"What do you think they want to take?" Derek asked.

"That is a valid question," the lobster captain replied.

"He can hear us?" Tom asked.

"Yes, he can hear you," the lobster replied in a childish mocking tone. "We need all of your Earth saltwater, any food you have, most of the metals, and half of your atmosphere."

"That would leave us destitute, and we would all just die anyway," Herbert said.

"That is not our concern. If you resist us, we will be forced to kill you all and then take your resources. That sounds much worse, doesn't it?" The lobster said.

"Can we have some time to talk it over?" Tom called up to the floating screen.

"Fine, we can give you three hours. We will expect a decision when we return."

The screen flicked out of existence, folding into a flat line, then disappearing.

"So, what do we do?" James asked.

"Hold on," Herbert said, pulling an item out of his inventory system and pressing a button on what looked like a key fob for a car. "Okay, continue."

"What was that?" Tom asked.

Herbert said simply, "It is an Anti-listening device. It can tell if anyone is listening to us via electronic or magical means."

"And you made it?"

"I did. handy little thing when you need to have a private conversation. Brian asked for it."

"That sounds like something Brian would want. Alright. We are not surrendering. So, we have to decide how we want to play this," Tom said.

"When we tell them no, they are likely to fire on us. Can we have someone on standby with the shields?" Derek asked.

"Sure can. I just need to give them a heads-up to keep the communication orb on hand, and they can activate it at a moment's notice," Herbert replied.

"Perfect. If they do that, then we just have to hope it holds for their attack," Derek continued.

"Oh, it'll hold. It's far stronger than it needs to be. I way over-engineered it to be sure nothing could get through. I don't know what kind of tech they have for certain, but from what I could gather, almost no weapon can pierce it. They could overload it like I want to do with their shields, but not just destroy it."

"That is excellent news. How many times can it be activated?" Tom asked.

"As many times as we have mana for. It’s definitely a mana hog to start up, but it can remain up with less cost than the mana collectors can pull in. I wouldn't advise activating it over and over, though, because that would exhaust the reserves," Herbert replied.

"Alright, once they fire at us, we have to hit them with something. What's our best option for testing their shields?" Tom asked.

"Probably the Deshieldinator. If they have shields, it'll work to overload them. If not, it'll carve a hole in the side of their ship like a hot knife through butter," Herbert offered.

"We should also deploy the F-35s at the same time so they can be ready to bombard them as soon as the shields go down," Derek added.

"Get the mages on standby for the flying disks. We should head out with those and the others as soon as we can to be ready," Tom said.

"That's a Good call. We need to hit them with whatever we can from a distance. If things go sideways, we can summon Ajax as well," Derek continued.

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"I need one more person's input. Bron! Where are you at?" Tom called down from the battlements.

Bron stood up from where he was sitting under a tree and joined them on the wall. It was getting quite crowded with everyone joining them.

"Do you have any thoughts on aerial tactics or fighting against ships like this?" Tom asked the Mastadonian.

"Ranger skills should be effective once the shields are down. However, they need to be much closer than they are right now for them to be very effective," Bron said, putting a hand on his chin in thought, staring out at the ships in the distance. Are your shields the same as the spells where passage out is possible while passage in is not?"

"Yes, why?" Herbert asked.

"Why not lure them in close with the promise of something they would want, then raise the shields and attack them first instead? Catch them off-guard." Bron asked.

"We weren't sure of their weapon capabilities, but that isn't a bad idea," Derek mused.

"Most times, waiting to see the strategy of the opponent is the best move. But in a situation where you think you may be completely outmatched; the element of surprise can put them in a position where they don't respond the way they would otherwise. Then, when you strike after, it can be far more effective than it might be normally." Bron explained.

"That sounds like our best option. But what do we have that they want? It sounds like they want our resources, which they could just take from outside the guild. Why come closer to us?" Derek asked.

Everyone stood in silence, trying to think of what an effective incentive for the pirates might be to come near the base.

"Herbert, do you have any large devices that we could try to entice them with? A weapon preferably," Tom asked.

"I have a few," Herbert replied.

"But they would have to get super close to see the weapon, and they would likely want to see it work before they believed us. So, it would not only need to be a real weapon, but something they might be capable of taking from us," Derek frowned as he explained his thoughts.

"I have a much larger version of the Deshieldinator we could use. It's actually less effective because it's less concentrated due to the size, but if we tested it on a building, it would do a pretty massive amount of damage. And if we don't have the shields up, they would have no reason to try to use it against us as they have no idea we have one," Herbert offered. "Plus, it looks like a giant laser gun, so it's pretty appealing to anyone who likes weapons and obvious what it would be used for."

"Go get it. Take the Barbarians to help you bring it up. And let me do all the talking when we speak with them again. Bron, you head back down so they don't directly see you for now. I think they still believe we are just a weak fledgling planet in the throes of the System integration process, so they've let their guard down. They really didn't seem that cautious at the first interaction," Tom called out the orders and smiled as he thought about the surprise they would be getting.

"James, you help with delivering the item. If anything goes wrong, you have permission to open fire. But not before," Derek said. "I'll go as well, just to be safe. Tom will obviously be with us since he will be making the promise."

"Can someone hide inside the machine?" Jay asked.

Herbert stared at him for a second, his eyes slowly going wide in recognition.

"Not currently, but it would take only a few minutes to add an additional false mana storage on the side where someone could hide," Herbert said. "But what if they don't get to the phase where they take the weapon on board?"

"Then whoever might be hiding it in could pop out and join the fight," Jay said calmly.

"So, a sneak attack with a backup Trojan horse tactic...I like where this is going," Tom said.

"Jay, I presume you want to be the one in the container?" Derek asked.

"That's what I was thinking," Jay said, looking at Derek confidently.

"How would you rate your skills when compared with Kuthir?" Derek asked.

Jay's shoulders slumped slightly as he replied, "I'm not nearly as good as he is, but it's a bit of an unfair comparison."

"I know. I'm not trying to put you down, but if he was taken on board and, heaven forbid, he died, we could summon him again in twenty-four hours, right?" Derek asked, looking to Tom and Bron for confirmation.

"That's right," Bron confirmed.

"I see where you're going. Alright, if he fits, I'll let Kuthir take the place instead," Jay acquiesced.

"Good. Bron, please go let Kuthir know...Good Lord!" Derek exclaimed as Kuthir appeared right next to him.

"I heard," Kuthir said.

"Well, that saves us a trip," Derek said, his heart racing at the sudden appearance.

"I'll make sure I can find a storage large enough for him. Come with me, please, Kuthir," Herbert said as he walked down the stairs of the wall.

"Anyone else have any ideas they want to put forth?" Tom asked.

Everyone thought for a long moment before finally shaking their heads.

"Alright, let's get into position and get ready. Derek, stay here with me for the meeting. We have a couple more hours to make sure we don't have any more ideas to implement. I want to go over what we are going to say that might entice them to take the weapon. We can't just offer it up seeming too desperate," Tom said.

"Right, I have an idea for that. It'll need your acting skills, though," Derek replied.

"Okay. Jay, make sure you watch over the passing out of the grenades and Healballs. I want everyone ready with them before the meeting. This could get really dangerous really fast," Tom continued.

"On it, boss," Jay said, moving down the stairs.

"Kiera should be in position by now. We need to fill her in on the details as well. I want her standing by for the meet so she can watch our backs. Bron, did Inari go with them?" Tom asked.

"She did. She was fascinated by the rifles and took to them very quickly. I think she will be making one a part of her regular arsenal," Bron smiled as he thought of her.

"I don't want to get our hopes up too high, but if we can pull this off the right way, we might not need to wait for the Federation to arrive as backup," Tom said.

"Now, let's hold on here. I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We have to remember that it could go to hell super fast. But if it does, according to what Herbert said, we could pull back into the guild and keep the shields up for a long time. Hopefully, long enough for help to arrive," Derek replied, trying to calm Tom's eagerness.

"I know. For now, let's get everything ready. Those crustacean bastards aren't going to be ready for what hits them."