A Beginner's Guide to Constructing Your Phase Two Outpost: Section 8.6: Going on Offense
Interview conducted by Colonel Jefferson Ames, U.S. Army.
Interview subject: Delvonian Squad Commander Hyu’ka Tri, preparing for Phase Two launch.
Despite everything, the little guys have some advantages. Sure, the teams at alpha nodes are way better equipped. Hell, three of my boys could probably take out your average gamma or delta node team without breaking a sweat. The problem is, we don't have time because we're watching for creep.
Sure, everybody's got to deal with creep. That's the point of these maps. But creep spawn points are rated too. The mobs that come out might look similar, but they pack a very different punch. Higher level creep won't attack a lower level node. No way, no how. Alpha creep only goes for alpha nodes. You can lure them, redirect them, do whatever you want. They just won't attack a lower level node.
Doesn't go the other way though. You can get gamma level creep to attack a beta node, no problem. Most of the time, who cares? It's like swatting off flies. Thing is, your turrets and towers have a fixed firing rate. You get enough of those flies in there, pretty soon the whole work's gummed up. I once took out an enemy stronghold by capturing every delta and gamma spawn point on the map and funneling it all at them. They were so busy swatting the creep, I walked right in and took down their node without them even noticing.
Most teams will be watching for that though. So, that's not a technique to count on. Of course, if you can get some creep boosters, you might be able to do something with that. Those are awfully expensive and haven't really been in the meta for a couple of exploits now. Some of the old school folk still use them. I've seen it work a time or two. Remember, with a healthy dose of surprise, almost any tactic can work.
End of interview.
Veda plunged through her father's notes. There was nothing here to help. He had never contemplated going very deep into Phase Two. He’d only considered Phase Three a couple of times when he managed to sell a well set-up Phase Two outpost to somebody planning a Phase Three run.
Am I seriously considering this? Phase Three? I’ve managed to keep our license. That’s all I need. Phase Three would risk everything I’ve earned so far. She didn’t have the funding, the resources, the staff to make a serious Phase Three bid.
But somehow, Team Twofeather’s pleas had gotten under her skin. They’d been using her just like she’d used them. And it had worked. They’d done more than she would ever have asked. Every time they took a risk, it paid off.
Sure, the big guys would shut them down hard. But it would be a lot of fun watching Proxima squirm, even for a few minutes. As long as she kept her Phase Two license, and enough of a war chest… what did she really have to lose?
Abandoning her father’s records, she reviewed her grandfather's logs and then, as those failed her, found the key-coded lockbox containing her great-grandmother's trove.
She hadn't bothered to open it since it had been entrusted to her. Reality engine exploits had changed enough in the 100 or so cycles since her great-grandmother had been active, it hadn't seemed worth her time. Now, Veda pulled out the records and fed them into her personal subsystems, having her algorithms search for anything that seemed even remotely useful.
A couple of hits came up. She glanced them over. When had her family ever had dealings with the Andronade cohort? Those thugs had had a bad reputation for 50 cycles now. And here were notes about a blood feud with the Ragonian syndicate. She'd had dinner with a couple of Ragonian exploit captains two nights ago. Times certainly had changed.
Her algorithms tossed up a couple of possibilities and Veda looked them over. She paused, amused at a record of an exploit where her great grandmother had apparently conned two much larger and more powerful companies into thinking that Tvedra was going to make a bid for a Phase Three license. It had resulted in selling their Phase Two holdings for a 5,000% profit.
Veda stopped and pulled the records open further, looking for details of what her grandmother had done, and found herself nodding along. This might be just what they needed. She felt the grin sliding across her face.
Shad was going to like this. She had noticed the humans enjoyed the dramatic, and this certainly had that flair. She sent Team Twofeather a message. Are you guys willing to risk dying a couple of dozen times this afternoon?
Just as long as we don't trigger our death cool down, I'm up for it, Shad replied.
Then hang tight and I'll get you what you need. She rubbed her hands together gleefully as she called up her shopping interface.
This was going to be ridiculously expensive. Veda cashed in her reserves without blinking. She tapped a line of credit that would let her risk most of the company's holdings. Her mother would have a fit if she were here, but she wasn't. She was systems away, happily enjoying the fruits of Veda's hard work in a well-paid-for reality engine slot. By the time she knew what Veda had done, it would be too late. They would either be rich beyond her mother's dreams, or they'd be bankrupt and headed for Storage. Veda was betting on Team Twofeather.
She made the necessary purchases and paid the expedited fees to have them delivered straight to her team's Phase Two node, then sent Juana Lopez a message to look for it.
Juana replied back quickly. Veda approved. She had convinced the Lopez family to let her buy out their System contracts some time ago, making them her responsibility, like Team Twofeather. It had been a good investment, especially going into Phase Three with so few support people available.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Speaking of which — Veda glanced at the time and dialed in to the Reality Engine Exploitation Committee open hearing on Phase Three. She wouldn’t miss this for anything.
The cabin around her blurred and fuzzed as the image of the Great Central Debating Chamber was projected around her. Representatives of companies large and small filled the great spherical room. Veda had a small disc to herself, hovering about two-thirds of the way up the room, looking out at the large central core where a cube of enormous projectors displayed the image of the Reality Engine Exploitation Committee as they sat debating.
The Patriarch Kvaltash sat at the center of the table, with representatives from the three major sponsors on his right. Proxima Corporation and their two major rivals, Alabaster Sky and ConSweGo Inc.
On his left were representatives of the major galactic support organizations that usually provided thousands of non-combat miners to these efforts. The Crafters Guild representative was a large green orc with pierced tusks peeking out from behind his curled lip. The Preservationists and Healers representative was a delicate lizardfolk woman with golden scales. And the third member, who represented several dozen different interests, was a humanoid like Veda with a slight bluish tint to his skin and pure white hair.
A little ways off at the end of the table, sitting by himself, was the Grignarian representative. While Grignarian body language tended to differ from that of most other species, this one looked pissed. His arms were folded in front of his chest and his face tentacles wriggled unpleasantly.
Veda dialed up her sound and the broadcast filled her chamber as she leaned in, surrounded by thousands of other exploit members and their hangers-on.
"We must lodge a protest," the Proxima representative was saying. "This timeline is excessively front-loaded and we have not been able to bring in our own support people."
The Crafters orc snarled his agreement. "If we go into Phase Three now, we will be depending on indigenous help! Even if they were competent, there aren’t enough of them working the earlier levels any more.”
The Patriarch raised his hand. "I am taking steps to ensure that there are, in fact, enough indigenous miners to provide us with the raw materials we will need for Phase Three," he said. "The system negotiations have succeeded in persuading all interested parties to agree to a modification of the Phase One rule set. Phase One zones will remain open during Phase Three for farming of materials. However, the permadeath has been turned off. Farmer miners will now respawn. In exchange, all soul coins harvested as an incidental part of the farming process will be turned over to the Reality Engine Exploit Committee to be used to defray certain other costs."
Veda couldn't believe what she was hearing. Phase One remain open into Phase Three? While it was customary to allow the initial farming zones to remain open during Phase Two, by the time Phase Three started, the Reality Engine was usually largely tapped out of the cheaper, more accessible soul coins.
She sent a query and was shocked at the result. The rate of soul coin harvest was a little higher than generally expected at this point in a Reality Engine conquest, but it was still only 20% of the projection total untapped soul coins. Phase Three rarely opened before the collection had reached 80%. Why were they pushing the timeline up so hard?
“All of this could be resolved if we were merely allowed to bring in our own personnel,” the Crafters Guild representative snarled. "Instead, you force our brave warriors to choose between going into battle equipped with the garbage the locals are able to create, or being forced to wait on the sidelines until our few craftsmen are able to supply their needs."
"The locals are catching up nicely," the representative from ConSweGo said. "Your ultimatum may not hold, Guildmaster."
"I'd like to see any of the locals constructing low-yield thermonuclear warheads," the Guildmaster snarled.
"Enough.” Patriarch Kvaltash raised his hands. "The decision has been made. Phase Two will enter terminal stage in a few hours."
Veda immediately tried to send Team Twfeather a message. Her system beeped back at her. [Messages to miners inside Phase Two have been disabled until the conclusion of this phase.] She swore and checked — at least her packages had been delivered. Hopefully Shad and his team would figure out what to do with them.
"What's the rush?" the Healers representative asked. "We expected to be here for years yet."
"I will allow the Proxima delegate to explain.”
A hush fell across the room. Veda felt a tingle of excitement as the Proxima representative stood up. He was an elf, a relative of her own species, with pale skin and silvery hair. His system-generated tag read Halithi Dreamwarden, Proxima.
He lifted a languid hand in greeting. "Thank you, friends and colleagues. Yes, I bring news on behalf of all of us here. Our home base at Proxima Centauri has just confirmed we have located a rogue world reality engine."
Veda sat back in her chair, taking in the reality of her quarters for a moment as the illusion seemed to dim and fade around her.
A rogue reality engine? She'd heard rumors of such, certainly, of reality engines created on planets that drifted between the stars in eternal darkness. Colder than cold, wrapped in ice, shrouded in secrecy. She'd never heard of anyone who'd actually exploited one, but the legends spoke of wealth far beyond what a normal reality engine was capable of, and secrets that could kill.
"We have staked our claim to the reality engine central government and received a patent for its exploit. Due to its proximity to an unfavorable cluster of stars, we believe the optimal exploitation phase is a mere five standard cycles."
Five cycles. Five years. That was no time at all to prepare for a world-shattering reality engine opportunity. A rogue world engine would, theoretically, have no ties to any planet. No requiring the local inhabitants to help develop it, which meant the System/Reality Engine negotiations would be unconstrained. The engine couldn’t be developed into a habitat. Instead, rogue reality engines might be convinced to become ship foundries, production facilities, even used to develop habitats like the Hub.
“To that end, Proxima is going to wrap up this exploit. The Hub will be needed as the primary launch platform for this rogue engine exploit. Once Phase Three of this exploit completes, Proxima will supervise the replacement of the Hub with a development-focused station, to facilitate the re-population of this reality engine. We’ve contracted with resettlement agencies which have already sold thirty percent of the prospective habitation slots. Within a decade, this reality engine should support a galactic population in the hundred billion range.”
That was pretty standard. The exploitation companies would sell their winnings to various developers — mostly owned by Proxima, Alabaster Sky, and ConSweGo. The biggest conglomerates would make a profit yet again by reselling.
Halithi Dreamwarden was still speaking, his dulcet tones almost slippery. “We will be accepting applications from subordinate companies that have shown themselves to be especially adept at exploits. We will be making a galaxy-wide announcement after this. Needless to say, while this reality engine exploit remains a priority for Proxima and our esteemed colleagues here, it is no longer our only prospect.”
She could understand why. Instead of milking this exploit for years, the way many companies would prefer to do, Proxima and the others were clearly ready to stake claims and go home, letting the galactics come in and turn this newly-tamed reality engine into more tenements and shopping malls.
They might be giving up a little bit of wealth now. No doubt this reality engine would retain a trove of soul coins which the new occupants would find ways of extracting over the next few thousand years.
But like the old tale of the vat farmer and the over-prosperous yeast strain, when a new batch is offering five times the volume, you dump your other vats and repopulate from the golden strain.
Veda sat back and listened as the committee expounded the plans for Phase Three. She smiled as they introduced the overarching fantasy model. Shad and his team were going to love this.