Vytrix Saljihar, Emperor of the Trilax Imperium sat in his office looking out the window of his space station on the planet below before he turned back to receive the reports of his advisors.
“The telescopes we have trained on our neighboring planets have detected that the large planet, opposite our orbit, has activated indicating that the world below it has unified in some fashion,” Zal Saljihar, Vytrix’s younger brother and chief scientist said.
The next man to speak up was not from the same race as the Emperor and his brother and was someone the Emperor had been lucky enough to acquire through the support personnel exchange. Samuel Jenkins was from a race known as humans from a planet called Earth. His story was somewhat interesting having been an explorer during what he called the 14th Century. He’d found a cave, stepped in, and found himself in a Unification and Classification. He’d realized very quickly that combat wasn’t his forte and declined a challenge and at his earliest opportunity retrained into a support role. The man was also singularly minded. Everything he did was to extend his lifespan. Any extra Contribution points he earned were saved and used for rejuvenation. He had been with Emperor Saljihar since almost the beginning of his arrival here and had helped him with strategy and tactics since the very beginning, “Sire, we sent a scouting mission to the planet approximately 50 years ago. They reported pure wilderness with no hint of civilization. What my esteemed colleague failed to mention is that our telescopes have also detected light coming from the surface. Every single landmass on the island seems to have been covered by a town or city. Whoever has been placed there brought an extremely large population.”
“Your recommendation?” Emperor Saljihar asked.
Samuel Jenkins looked into the Emperor’s slightly reptilian countenance before he replied, “As you know, I am useful because I have researched and read up on the rules the Multitude governs by. Either a very powerful being was transferred to this remote system that is still within the first 1,000 years of a Unification or a reward was given during Classification and the Emperor of the world was just placed there. My experience indicates that the latter is probably true. If so, someone with such luck as to acquire that many vassals will be very limited for at least the next two weeks as their support structures are put in place and the 10-day grace period expires. My suggestion then is to utilize the weapon we invested in around the gas giant and target the controlling station in orbit. The new Emperor is unlikely to be able to leave the station. Of course, we’d also have to launch a strike mission from here immediately to board the station and kill that Emperor so you could claim his territory and vassals.”
“If we implemented this plan now, when would the strike happen?” The Emperor asked.
“As you know, I always come prepared. The station would be struck in exactly 11 days if the projectiles are released in,” Samuel paused to look at something,” seventeen minutes. The Strike force would need to leave in about two hours to arrive an hour after the strike. The orbit of the gas giant and the other planet working in our favor for an assault like this.”
“Very well, send the order to attack and have the strike force depart within two hours. Also, bring our forces to a full defense posture just in case this new Emperor attacks us. I don’t believe he could but why take the chance?” The Emperor asked rhetorically.
Samuel touched a few keys on the pad he was holding and the orders were sent,” “Done Sire,” he said.
“Very well, Dominance through Strength, Improvement through Conflict, these are the tenants of the Multitude and ours as well. In addition to defense also begin preparations to acquire new territory and send our personnel to oversee our new territory when we have acquired it.
“Yes Sire,” chorused around the chamber
The Emperor stood, “if that is all, I’m going review a few other issues. We will meet again tomorrow to discuss how preparations are proceeding,” the Emperor said as he turned his back and looked out the station window behind him
***
Ajhax was both the technician and gunner for the weapon he currently sat in orbit around the largest gas giant in the Trilax Imperium. He was from a race of humanoids that had once been very large and space-faring until the Unification and Classification had absorbed them into it. Now he was simply a member of the military that both manned this weapon and repaired it as needed. The vessel he was on only had a support system for one individual and he shared his duty with three others as they each took one of the ten-day weeks here and then swapped out. This week it was his turn.
An hour ago he’d been contacted and asked what the travel time would be to hit the Administration Station in orbit around the planet opposite Trilax. As all targeting solutions had already been loaded for strategic targets within the solar system it was a very simple thing for him to pull up the information and inform Samuel that the travel time was optimal for any projectiles he sent and that they’d arrive in just over 11 days. A few moments ago he received authorization to fire.
The weapon Ajhax was using was basically a slingshot. A very sophisticated slingshot but a slingshot. Using orbital mechanics and gravity-assisted trajectories the Trilax Empire created projectiles, rocks really, that it packaged together and then placed in an accelerator that was a mile long. The angle of the trajectory of the rail gun was adjusted and 10 packages were shot in quick succession that would use the gas giants gravity to get them on their way. Each package could course correct and when they were within 30 seconds of striking a small charge would go off allowing all the little rocks within to spread into a shotgun pattern.
The objects would be traveling at almost 25% the speed of light and would obliterate just about any unshielded target. Additionally, the rocks were so small that they would either bounce off the atmosphere or burn up in re-entry allowing the Trilax Imperium to claim the planet without damaging it. Of course, the Administrative station would be all but destroyed but it was much cheaper to replace the station than it was to waste personnel and resources trying to assault it and giving the Emperor on board a chance to escape to the planet below. They’d used this tactic three times so far and each time the would-be planetary emperor had been destroyed in the barrage.
Ajhax watched as all ten projectile packages launched over the next four minutes then shut everything down, reloaded the rail gun, and then put it in standby mode. Once that was done he had some reading to catch up on. There wasn’t very much to do out here in the middle of nowhere and he had three days before the shuttle with his replacement arrived.
***
Adam looked down on the Solar System. This time he didn’t conjure a space station but instead used Mold Chaos to conjure something he put together that was on a gyro and had cameras pointed in all directions that were connected to a hard drive. It was about the size of a small locker. Adam floated beside it while it went to work. He let it take in the whole system for 12 hours while he rested and meditated so that it would have enough time to extrapolate orbits and get a good rundown of how the solar system was set up.
When 12 hours had passed he used Technomancy to download the data and reviewed how the solar system was set up. Immediately Adam knew that the system had been artificially created. There were four planets at between 60 and 70 million miles, right around where Venus was around Sol. Each was offset from the other by 90 degrees.
Between 85 million miles and 100, million miles out from the Sun here there were four more planets, one of which was New Alamo. Exactly opposite his planet on the far side of the sun, there was a planet that looked to have its Administration Station functioning. As he replayed the images he saw the telltale sign that a squadron of small ships was leaving orbit and heading toward the sun. Next out were four more planets at between 135 million and 145 million miles. All 12 planets seemed to have atmospheres and showed signs that light was emitting from the surface on the night sides the telescopes could pick up.
There was an Asteroid belt at right around 300 million miles out from the Sun, but it was much denser and his scopes immediately picked up activity in the area. Some asteroids were being collected and moved toward a staging area. He’d have to go check that out shortly. Beyond the Asteroid belt, he picked up two gas giants orbiting at right around 500 million miles and two more out at a billion miles. Beyond that, there were a couple more giant planets and signs that there might be a few more planetoids he hadn’t detected visually but was pretty sure were there due to fluctuations in the recorded orbits but he’d have to let the cameras record for longer. Adam stored the array in his Shadow Vault then shot off toward the facility he’d noticed in the Asteroid belt.
Adam checked his abilities and at level one his maximum speed with Flight was the speed of light. His maximum range for Teleport was 1 million miles. Adam maintained Obscure, Freedom of Flight, and Flight and headed off toward the facility he’d detected. At the speed of light, he’d get there in about an hour and six minutes. As he sped toward the facility near the asteroid belt a new notification appeared in his vision.
Trial for Supremacy, Step 1 Defend your Administrator Station in orbit around New Alamo.
Reward: Dependent on Contribution.
Adam had a hint that this had something to do with what he detected in the asteroid belt so continued on his course. After an hour he approached the facility and noticed a ship moving off. He flew in close to the facility and activated Technomancy to see what he was dealing with. It looked like this little facility was manned by a group of people that were collecting asteroids and turning them into projectiles for a weapon in orbit around one of the gas giants that was this system’s equivalent of Jupiter. Adam recovered the coordinates and sped off to see what was going on.
23 minutes later he’d traveled 257 million miles and found himself closing in on a facility that looked like a small space station attached to a very long tube with another much smaller tower offset at one end. The tip of the long tower was pointed in the general direction of the horizon of the gas giant. Adam flew in close, activated Technomancy, and reviewed the data he could.
Just over 13 hours ago, this weapon had launched 10 projectiles. It would be almost nothing for him to catch up and divert the projectiles. Doing so would give him a little bit of time to scout out the planets and figure out how to respond. Adam quickly used technomancy to leave a nice little alteration if this facility was instructed to fire again. Additionally, he searched through the archives of the weapon to check and see if there were any other devices and was pleased to find out that this was the only one.
Once that was complete, Adam flew after the 10 projectile packages that had been shot toward his Administrator Station. It had only been 13.6 hours so the projectiles were still rushing around the gas giant. Adam started with the first one when it was out of visual range of both the station and Trilax then simply used his flight power to adjust the trajectory of each projectile so they entered the gas giant’s atmosphere. It was easy enough to do. Adam just slowed the projectiles down so they fell into a decaying orbit. More than likely they’d detect the warheads as they curved around and into the gas giant on the spiral inward as they flew past the weapon station. This would probably cause the technician to double-check his weapon before he fired the next salvo.
One last thing Adam did was return to the weapon platform and use Mold Chaos to create some of his nanites, Seriously, if the Multitude wanted to reset Universal Density to one he was going to take advantage of it. As before the nanites wouldn’t work outside of his Technomancy ability radius which was 100 feet but it was definitely a big enough area that he could use the nanites to splice into the weapon, attach a communication port and quantumly link that port to a communications port that he could insert into his array back on his space station. Once that was complete he stored it in his Shadow Vault.
Now that he was ready to monitor this weapon he headed to the Trilax space station and did the same thing there once he found a communication port. While it seemed the Multitude was technologically savvy and able to hack universes and dimensions he was betting that those trying to increase their domains weren’t worried about hackers and cyber infiltration. With his attributes as high as they were and everyone’s quintessence abilities leveled down to one, Adam was betting that he was going to be undetectable with Obscure active.
Adam approached the Trilax Administrative Station without incident, conjured some more nanites, and went to work. Soon after he was tied into the communication array as well as all internal communications. Currently, everything was being saved to a drive he’d created for that purpose but once he installed his equipment back on his space station it wouldn’t be an issue.
Stolen novel; please report.
The interesting thing about the Trilax was that they were a reptilian species. They had a chameleon-type attribute that allowed them to blend into the background if they were naked, though they looked more like scaled humans with raptor-sleek faces and eyes. Still, you had to look really close to see the scales. It also seemed that they were cold-blooded as all their environmental settings were set above 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Even more interesting, one of the Emperor’s advisors was a human.
Once everything was in place Adam left the station and went down to the surface to look around. What he found there wasn’t much different than what he’d expected to see. People were working and producing while they received the bare minimum. Though, this system did provide shelter and food for everyone. Adam flew around until he found one of the bigger cities, then found a building that looked to be transmitting. After a little backtracking he was able to find the main communication hub on the continent he was on and again spliced in and set up a permanent link to allow himself to hack into the network and even take over if he wished. He repeated this action on each major continent, six in total. He made sure to do so at points in cities along the coastline that had major communication cables that went off into the sea, though it looked like in some cases the cables didn’t go everywhere.
He soon figured out what was going on. There was no way to know how the equipment of the Multitude was interconnected, though Adam was sure it probably used quantum entanglement of some kind. No, what he found was listed in one of the Administrative backup servers. It seemed that Emperor Trilax had set up a backup control network in case the Multitudes system ever failed. So Adam was hacking into the backup network. Except for the weapon system in orbit around the gas giant. It didn’t have anything on board that looked like it connected to the Multitude. Not like the administrative buildings on the planets or the Word Administrator station.
Was the Multitude using nanites? Adam didn’t think so because the nanites he’d created hadn’t detected anything. Something else was going on. Adam believed it had something to do with the quintessence since he’d already seen evidence that quintessence could be contained and redirected, even if he didn’t know how it was being done. There was nothing he could do about that right now so it was time to get back to participating in whatever the Trial for Supremacy was.
Once he was done on the Homeworld of the Trilax Empire he investigated the other seven inner planets and found that the four planets that were approximately as close as Venus was to the sun in Sol were all a little bit hotter and tropical or desert. None contained a hint of ice or snowfall. There was a world Administrator Station in orbit around each planet but they were currently vacant.
Adam approached one of the World Administrator stations and found himself outside the station with a message flashing before his eyes.
World Administrator Station is off-limits until all domains on the planet below have been claimed. To claim an unoccupied World Administrator Station you must have the Quest, Word Dominator for the appropriate planet.
Occupied World Administrator Stations can be entered and claimed normally.
Adam had a feeling to claim one of these stations normally meant killing the World Emperor. That meant he would have to be able to defend his territory as well as attack. It seemed there was a reason he had vassals after all.
Adam flew down to the planet below the station to get the lay of the land and found various forces of varying species suited for tropical or desert environments fighting or defending various domains but they were scattered across the globe. None had united the planet. Even the Trilax had a contingent of soldiers on the planet, but it looked like they weren’t suited for the environment so expansion was slow going.
That brought up the question of how the Multitude knew which domain was claimed by which force. Now that he thought about it, he really should have asked Zorvan what he specifically needed to protect the planet and station so he knew how to add new locations to his empire later.
After a little bit of investigation, he found a domain in a secluded valley up in the mountains that hadn’t been claimed by anyone. At the center of the domain, a small stone structure sat with a clear crystal floating in it. Adam touched his hand to the crystal and it flashed red as a rumble could be heard outside the chamber.
A moment later the roof was lifted off the chamber by the biggest thumb and forefinger he’d ever seen as all four walls fell outward and crashed against the ground leaving the crystal and Adam exposed. As Adam looked up, and then even further up, he realized that something that he’d thought was a forested hill nearby was now standing thousands of feet in the air. It looked like a two thousand-foot elemental person had leaned over and lifted the roof off the chamber as it stood. As he looked closer it seemed to be more humanoid and the earth with trees growing out of it that was wrapped around it.
Without a word, the elemental lifted its foot and started stomping the ground all around the crystal. Before the elemental’s foot slammed into the ground the first time, Adam teleported to the forest on its shoulder and held on while the whole being shuddered each time its foot came down. Adam quickly double-checked his abilities. Obscure and Flight were still active. He’d deactivated Freedom of Flight so he could touch the crystal and it looked like the creature he was on was just making sure that anything near the crystal was dead which meant that it was intelligent.
Adam flew up in front of its face and deactivated Obscure. The creature’s eyes focused on Adam and he roared as it brought both hands up to squish Adam between them. The creature was big but Adam was betting he could take it.
A tremendous clap slammed against Adam but other than the extremely loud sound the clap made he didn’t even take 1% of his total hit points of damage. Granted it would still be 176 seconds before he fully recovered all of his hit points but it hadn’t been much. Adam waited until the creature saw that Adam looked like he was unaffected then moved over to its ear, flicked its earlobe hard enough to shatter all the caked-up earth on it, and back to his starting position, faster than the creature could follow with Stutter Step and Teleport.
Immediately the Giant grabbed its ear and howled, though Adam knew he hadn’t really hurt the beast yet. He’d made sure the area he targeted didn’t have any part of the creature’s ear under it and that he’d just shattered the layers of stone on it. Splintered trees and broken soil fell to the ground as the creature’s eyes went wide trying to figure out what had just happened.
Adam had always reigned in his persona naturally but he believed he needed to let this creature feel the level of might he was dealing with so Adam relaxed his control and his aura billowed out. Once Adam was satisfied that his power was affecting the elemental he projected his voice in common, “Surrender or die?”
The creature look at Adam, sneered, and began to activate an ability. It wouldn’t have mattered. Adam shot forward at nearly 10 times the speed of sound and entered the elemental’s eye, plowing through the soft membrane at the back. then entered its brain which Adam proceeded to zip around in for another second before he exited through the other eye. As he turned around to take in his handy work, Adam used Mold Chaos to summon Nanites around him and instructed them with Technomancy to clean himself off then stuck them in his Shadow Vault. With the new limitations, he couldn’t just set his nanites free but he could summon up to ten pounds and control them. Unfortunately, as soon as Technomancy was turned off, the nanites dissipated almost immediately. If they went farther than 100 feet away from him right now they also disappeared. Whatever changes had been made did not like people using nanites as a shortcut, unless they were being directly controlled or maintained. He still needed to figure out how to create a stabilization field, which he was thinking about but hadn’t figured out yet.
Congratulations, You have defeated the Mountain Giant Yar. You may now claim his domain. Would you like to claim this domain for the
Adam opened his Personal Interface and found a new tab for his Empire. Under that tab in the place for the name of his Empire, he entered “Adamantium Autocracy”. It was time to Go Big or Go Home. That saying had always been one of his favorite Harley Davidson slogans, maybe he could incorporate it into his Empire somehow.
Adam looked back to the prompt and chose “Yes.”
Immediately a new Quest popped up.
World Dominator – Conquer 25% of the World’s Domains and be the first to reach the Word Administrator Station in orbit and claim it. Current World Percent claimed 1%
Adam noticed something interesting in his Interface. A new World Dominator Tab appeared. When he chose it a list of individuals and empires appeared. Trilax was sitting at 3% while something called the Malteek Hive was sitting at 24% Adam didn’t’ need another Empire sprouting up, nor did he need the Trilax Imperium sending a fleet this way.
Over the next six hours, Adam systematically spread from the domain he’d just claimed in every direction except toward the Trilax. When he was done he’d claimed 25% of the planet’s surface, including some underwater domains.
Once he had his 25% he flew up to the station, entered through an airlock, and found the Control Crystal at the center of the station. He went to the equivalent office to his on his new station and said, “Zorvan?”
“Yes Sire,” Zorvan said after he materialized.
“Are you always with me or just when I’m on one of these stations?” Adam asked.
“When you have taken control of a station you may call for me and I can teleport to your side at no cost to you or myself in the Emperor’s office. This office.” Zorvan said.
“Question, if I build the defenses instead of purchasing them from the exchange are there any penalties?” Adam asked.
“Heavens no Sire, in fact, any personal resources you invest in defending or improving anything within the Multitude garners contribution points which can be spent as you desire.”
“It seems that if I was only worried about myself, all I’d need to do is spend all the contribution points I earn from worlds I conquer and I’d be able to increase my personal power very quickly,” Adam said.
Contribution points earned from the empire, or in this may only be spent on another within the established budget of your Empire. Those Contribution Points are put toward the Empire and level it. You earn Contribution points just as your subjects do by performing the duties you were assigned by the Multitude efficiently. In this case, by ruling them. There are a lot of factors that come into play. Education Level, Housing, Happiness, training, equipment, the number of support specialists you have, etc. I should also point out that after the 10-day grace period, all the vassals you have will be free to act as they like. They will be your vassals but they will be able to act against you or your interests. Also, while you have taken over 25% of the planet below you have not assigned administrators or support personnel to grow the areas and prepare to conquer the rest. If you have not acquired 100% of the domains on the world below within a number of weeks equal to the percent you still have left when you claim the control crystal on the station, you have that many weeks to claim the rest. In this case, you have 75 weeks to claim the other 75% of this world’s domains. If you do not, the station is sealed until one person emerges that has 100% control of the surface.
“So what you’re saying is that the Multitude does not like councils or multiple people calling the shots within a single domain, in this case, the World?” Adam asked.
“Correct,” Zorvan said.
“Very well, besides you, how do I bring anyone else over here to take control?” Adam asked.
“YOU bring them here,” Zorvan said. “I should also point out that I have no authority over this world or interface functions with this world. I am allowed to teleport over here to ensure the smooth Administration of your Multitude awarded world. This feature will not be available to any other World Administrators you acquire unless they are rewards granted by the Multitude.”
“I see,” Adam said, “Very well Zorvan, I will return shortly. Please prepare a welcome package for three assault crews that are on their way from Trilax. I am going to set up some automated defenses here and then I’ll head back.”
“As you wish Sire,” Zorvan said then teleported away. At which point Adam went to work.
Mold Chaos at ability level 1 only allowed him to create 10 pounds of material. Granted there was no way his mana regeneration rate couldn’t keep up but it was going to take a while to make the modifications he wanted to. Of course, if he summoned 10 pounds of nanites and had them alter already present mass, that might work. He might try that on a planet, but not on a station created by the Multitude.
Adam moved throughout the space station and began personally upgrading every entry point by adding features he created with Mold Chaos. He also personally made sure that no one was on the station then placed an antimatter bomb next to the Command Crystal. If someone didn’t deactivate the device with an ability like his Technomancy a nuclear blast equivalent to the detonation at Nagasaki would go off. Adam was pretty sure the station would survive but he was betting that anyone that made it to the Command Center would have a very bad day. As he was finishing up he looked around and a thought crossed his mind, How would a Mountain Giant fit in this station to take control? Maybe the Multitude didn’t take that into consideration, if it did though, that would be interesting. Once he was done he made his way back to the New Alamo Space Station.
This time, he couldn’t bobby trap the station because there were a lot of people on this one. It would not do to be that ruthless at this point. Instead, this was going to take a much more methodical and balanced approach.
As Adam teleported into his office he called out, “Zorvan,”
“Yes Sire,” Zorvan said.
“Adam is fine and preferable in this setting when we are alone,” Adam said.
“Yes, Adam?” Zorvan asked.
“I need at least 20 technicians, preferably 60 that will be available to begin production of light spacecraft and shuttles and a location on the surface to set up a production facility,” Adam said.
“ You own the planet so I can set this up anywhere you wish. I should remind you that you do not have the Contribution Points required to purchase such a facility, even with the 25 billion Contribution Points you earned for your empire by conquering other domains. The facility, with the technological ability that would be necessary, would cost in the thousands of billions of Contribution Points. Such a facility would be a World Project,” Zorvan said.
“Zorvan you worry about getting the 60 people I need, I need a place where I can create an airfield and also the infrastructure I need to build the materials and facilities I need.”
“Do you mind if such a facility was on a desert or flat barren plain?”
“A flat barren plain would be preferable,” Adam said.
“A map appeared showing where on the planet the location Zorvan had found was with trajectory and the time it would take to get there with the one shuttle they had.”
“Thanks, Zorvan. Also, please use the 25 billion Contribution points to purchase 25 administrators and the support staff necessary to run the 25 domains on, what I’m going, to call New Venus. Do not purchase them yet but be ready to in about 72 hours.
“What happens in 72 hours? Zorvan asked.
“The first shuttle will roll off the Assembly line at Skunkworks New Alamo.
“Skunkworks?”
“Yep, it’s what I’m going to name the City that pops up in the area. Now it’s time for me to get to work,” Adam said as he teleported into space and headed toward the new location of Skunkworks New Alamo. He’d spent two days exploring and getting the lay of the land. He had some work to do if he was going to get back to his family and friends.