by Matthew Peed
She giggled and twirled in the air. “Thank you, Father!”
“Is Nova . . . busy?” I asked.
Ever since he’d acquired his new mate, I had been leery about looking in on him suddenly. I feared I would have some interesting children flying around the dungeon in the future. That was also why moving the core down several dozen floors was near the top of my to-do list.
“No. He said he wanted Morka to rest for several days. I think he almost broke her.” Ignea giggled again. I glanced at her, worried she might have a dirty mind.
“Alright. Let’s go thank him while I have the chance,” I said, motioning for her to land on my shoulder.
“Father . . . are you sure you should leave your core next to her like that?” she asked worriedly.
I looked back toward my core. It had grown since the last time I’d really examined it. Still silver, it was nearly two meters in length and a meter in width. It had gained a multifaceted design when I broke through to tier three. Tendrils of mana floated lazily around it as it hummed with power.
When I’d brought Alara back with me, I used some of the little mana I had to remodel the core room. Its previous form had been meant to yell power to people I brought here or that made it here. Now it had the feel of a spaceship’s core room. A ball of plasma surrounded my core and was contained by a quadruple phase barrier. The plasma was caused by the fusion reaction that was constantly feeding the core with mana.
Nanocarbon plates lined the walls and floor, giving it a soft gray look. I wasn’t sure even Starfall could penetrate this room. I had added links to all my other cores in the event something like with Alara happened and my avatar was stuck at one location. There were other defensive measures, but they needed to be charged more before they would be ready.
“It will be fine,” I said, then teleported us to Nova’s lair.
Curled around a massive pile of gold coins and slightly glowing armor, Nova snored contentedly. I looked around and found Morka curled into a ball next to him. I could see links of magic between the two, which I assumed were what Louella had been talking about. The mate link or whatever.
“Nova! Father is here to see you,” Ignea said as she flew up to smack him on the head. I nearly chuckled at the sight, as his head alone was four times bigger than she was. Nova’s eyes instantly shot open, and he looked over to me.
“Creator,” he said with a yawn.
“Hello, Nova. Sorry to disturb your sleep considering how . . . busy you’ve been that last two days,” I said, placing my hands behind my back.
“For the Creator, I’m always awake. Thank you for sending such a . . . tasty morsel to me. Please, if you find more in the future, do not hesitate to send them to me,” Nova said, licking his lips as he looked over to Morka, who shrank back a bit.
I laughed. “Of course. I’ll make a mental note. I wanted to thank you for defending the core. Though I created you with magic, I think of all of you as my children. I’m glad you protected your brothers and sisters.”
Nova yawned, then readjusted his position. “Thank the little one for waking me up before too much damage was done. I might have slept through it and missed my prize if it wasn’t for her,” Nova said with a giant toothy grin. Ignea did a spin in the air, blushing at the praise.
“I have. All of you performed wonderfully,” I said with a nod.
“Then, I am tired.” In a series of growls that my internal translator said was Dragonish, he said something to Morka. Roughly translated it went something like, “Come warm my bed, woman,” with a bit more . . . color.
“Just don’t go too overboard,” I said, then teleported Ignea and myself to another part of the dungeon.
Floating in the pseudo space of the asteroid floor, I looked around for Nexus and found him free floating some distance away. Ignea followed as I willed myself over, and we quickly met him. When Nexus saw me, he started to fly away.
“Nexus! Stop right there!” I shouted after him. Of course, he immediately came to a stop. I hated to do it but sometimes I had to use the binding control I have over my creations.
“Yesss, Creatorrr,” Nexus said with a raspy voice.
“Why are you running?” I asked.
“Faileddd theee, Creatorrrr,” he replied.
“Who decided that you failed me?” I asked, crossing my arms.
“. . .”
“That’s right. No one did. In fact”—I grabbed his shoulder—“I’m proud of you for holding off one of the most powerful beings on the continent.”
“Nottt failedddd?” Nexus asked, sounding almost afraid.
Ignea flew up and popped him on the forehead. “No, dummy! You and the numbers performed well to protect Father!”
“That’s right. Everyone did well in their duties. It will take a bit, but we will repair and rebuild. We’ll be stronger than ever. Anyone that dares to attack us again will be met with a very untimely end,” I said with a grin.
Nexus nodded and I let him go back to fly around his floor. Teleporting back to the core room, we found everything just as we’d left it. Alara was still sleeping. I looked around, then cracked my metal knuckles.
“What now, Father?” Ignea asked.
“Time to get to work,” I said with a laugh.
Chapter 26
Darr
“Target sighted! ETA five minutes!” the navigator announced as a little town came into sight. Behind it was a hill that rose five hundred meters above the town. Not quite a mountain but well on its way to becoming one. The town that I thought would be a ghost town was all but that. Hundreds of undead moved about the place, and nicer buildings that obviously belonged to necromancers dotted the area.
“What’s the enemy’s strength looking like?” I asked the radar officer.
“Mana readings are all over the place, but nothing over tier two. Most likely the reserve or members that need to prove themselves,” the officer said after examining the monitor in front of him.
“Where’s the highest reading? I want to take that out first,” I asked, leaning over his shoulder to see the readout myself.
In the center of the town, three readings showed Tier Two End. The main cannon should have been more than enough to deal with them if we can caught them unawares. The point defense system covering the ship would be able to protect the ship from the lesser undead.
“Orders, ma’am?” someone asked as I stood back up.
“Time to make Boss Regan proud he created us! All mech pilots gear up. We will begin with a bombardment of the town, destroy everything. Once that is complete, we will move the ship to a central location. From there we will drop the mechs and eliminate anything that moves!”
“Yes, ma’am!” the crew cried with a salute, then went back to work at their stations.
Boss’s stealth magic was easily able to avoid the eyes of the sentries around the town. We maneuvered carefully overhead so that the entire target was in range of the weapons. The ship would turn visible once we began to fire the main cannon, which would require us to act fast.
I ran down to the mech bay and boarded Bervin. The controls came to life and melded to my body. The display soon activated and showed me my surroundings in better clarity than if I was using my own eyes. Data feeds from the other mechs gave me the status of everyone in the group. I could tell in a moment if someone was hurt or worse.
A link to the other twenty mechs in the unit came up. If I focused on one, it would bring up their visual feed. This would allow for greater cooperation on the field. The screens slowly turned green as the other pilots confirmed their status. When they all turned green, I sent the order to commence attack to the bridge crew.
We formed squads of five that would protect each direction as we thinned the undead ranks. I would assist any direction that looked close to being overrun. The mission sounded simple, but that was no reason to push our luck. We would have to adjust to any curveballs that might be thrown at us while down there.
A moment later
the ship rocked backward in the air as the main cannon fired nearly straight down. The feed showed a beam of energy arcing to the spot where the higher-tier readings were coming from. It impacted the ground, then an explosion blasted out from the spot as debris was sent flying over the rest of the town.
There was a collective roar from the undead as more of them realized that there was an airship overhead. Turrets around the airship’s hull rang out as they began gunning down the nearby undead that had survived the explosion. The bay doors opened as the airship dropped within ten meters of the ground.
“GO! Make the boss proud!” I shouted, then started forward.
There was an echo of cheering as the rest of the mechs jumped right after me. With a lurch I fell the ten meters, crushing a zombie into paste when I landed. I turned my machine gun toward the rushing horde, and it warmed up before it unleashed a stream of rounds into them. Booms sounded out around me as the others landed and began pumping lead into the oncoming horde. For the next minute, I was sure every goblin pilot had a grin plastered on their face. Once the surrounding horde was dealt with, we gained a few seconds of breathing room to establish our perimeter.
“Ma’am! Tier two reading from the north ! Showing signs of life. Probability of necromancer seventy-five percent,” the airship sent.
The target was highlighted for me on my hub, and I moved to join the north line. Sure enough, the undead in this direction were more coordinated than those in the other were. I switched my weapon to laser. It would burn mana faster, but it would allow me to punch through just about anything under tier three.
A beast of some kind plowed through a building as it rounded the corner to us. The thing was massive at four or five meters. It looked like an ogre that had died and was reanimated. Carrying a massive two-handed sword, it roared as it saw us. Green flames that put off unholy mana readings wreathed the creature. Not giving it a chance to gain distance, I aimed the laser cannon at the beast.
When I pulled the trigger, there was a moment’s pause before a red line streaked down the street. The heated air caused the few windows still remaining in the town to burst into pieces. The energy beam sliced into the ogre’s chest, quickly melting it to slag. The ogre looked down at the hole as it came to a stop in its charge.
As it collapsed, the beam melted the rest of its upper body. I didn’t want to chance that thing getting back up. Shouts sounded out from the line, and I raised my fist to join the cheer, then got back to work.
“Target neutralized! Send me the next one!” I said into the comms.
“Acquiring . . . Target acquired.”
This time it was from the east line. Three dots were highlighted, each reading high-tier two. I quickly joined the line, adding my machine gun to burn down some of the lesser undead rushing us. It wasn’t long before I spotted the targets in my visual feed—two men and a woman from the shape of their bodies. They were casting spells that amplified the undead, along with sending more deadly spells toward the mechs. The unraulium coating on the mechs resisted much of the intended damage the spells would have caused.
The necromancers were using the undead as disposable shields as they funneled most of their mana into their spells. The machine guns were reaching them but were slowly building a wall of undead in front of them. My laser cannon could penetrate it but needed more time to recharge. The armor could only absorb so much unholy taint before it needed to be purged.
Tossing the machine behind the group, I activated the autocannons on each shoulder and pulled the two mana sabers from their sheaths. When I activated the feed, mana was fed into the weapons and two red lines formed over the orichalcum blades. According to the test at the lab, these could cut through just about anything.
“Cover me!” I ordered, then charged into the fast-moving horde.
“Yes!” The other mechs began to spread their fire on the other targets in their sights.
The turrets on my shoulders turned anything that got close to my sides into mincemeat, while anything in front of me was cut in half either vertically or horizontally. Easily covering two meters with each stride, I cut the distance between the necromancers and myself down quickly.
Not thirty seconds after I left the line, I slammed into the wall that had formed from the continuous gunfire. Undead bodies went flying in several directions as I glared down at the necromancers, who stared back up in horror. I swung my right saber, removing all three heads in an instant even with them putting up their barriers at the last second.
“Base, are you receiving all the data properly? Boss will be pleased with the performance our weapons are showing.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am! We would regret to the end of time if we didn’t save this data for future development,” Terry from the bay replied on comms.
“Good goblin! Comms, give me another target!”
“Right away.”
A moment later the airship’s main cannon fired. The beam sliced a path to the west side of the town. Explosions rang out as various buildings and undead were destroyed by the weapon. A cheer went up through the comms at the destruction. I whistled. Actually getting to see the destruction firsthand was much better than witnessing it from the ship.
“Target acquired! Northeast fifty degrees. Six readings. They are barricaded in a building from the looks of it.”
“Understood, comms. Heading out!”
Sheathing one of my sabers, I deployed my hex shield. I let the system plot the shortest route before I took off at groundbreaking speed. The street’s stones shattered with each of my steps, while undead were thrown into the air. The path led through a building, so I cracked my neck and hunched the mech’s shoulder before plowing into and out the other side of the already collapsing building.
I pulverized a path through the town before I came to the targeted building. I wasn’t sure but I thought I may have killed a few weaker necromancers in passing. The building in my sights had a thick barrier around it that I didn’t want to try to run through. I ground to a stop.
“Analyze!” I ordered the airship.
“Multiple mana signatures powering the barrier detected. Unholy mana exceeds threshold. Extreme caution is advised.”
I nodded, then deactivated my hex shield and pulled my second saber back out. Something thudded into the back of my mech. Pulling the feed, I found a large undead wolf that looked to be made from plates of bone. Its teeth managed to pierce the unraulium armor, if only by a few centimeters.
“No free rides!” I shouted as I spun. The wolf stayed latched on even with the violent maneuver. “Fine!”
Turning back to the barrier, I spun again, then body-slammed the wolf into it. Smoke rose as the little flesh still remaining on the wolf melted off. I felt when it lost some of its strength. and I reached back to pull the beast off me. I frowned when I saw a handful of teeth still sticking out of the cuts. With a few quick movements, I crushed the wolf’s head into dust.
I checked and found that my journey among the buildings had damaged my left autocannon, a design flaw that would need to be fixed when I got back. After adding that to the log, I then turned back to the barrier. I modified the mana charge on the sabers so that it was concentrated on the point. Rearing back, I plunged both blades into the barrier. A tremendous number of sparks showered me before they burst past it.
I placed my arm inside the tear. Activating the grenade launcher in the wrist, I launched one into the building. A moment later there was a scream as the necromancers inside panicked before the building exploded. It slowly crumbled as I made sure there were no more signs of life.
“Target eliminated. Send me the next one.”
~~~
“Everything within a kilometer radius has been eliminated, ma’am. A total of one hundred fourteen high-risk targets have been put down. Thirty more readings were pulled during the battle but were lost during the confrontation. One mech lost, pilot is alive.”
“Gather the mechs. I don’t want to leave anything for the enemy
to use. Once you’re done with that, load up and head for the dungeon entrance. If they have another base around here, we can be sure they will be back with reinforcements. I want to get to the dungeon so we can set up a defense,” I said, looking up from Bervin. He had taken quite the beating. The unraulium was doing its job and self-repairing the mech, but it would take some time.
“Yes, ma’am!” The officer saluted and ran off to execute the orders.
Soon two mechs entered the bay doors, dragging another between them. All of them were covered in rotting gore and were soon being washed off. The downed mech was missing an arm and a leg after an undead worm had burst through the ground next to him and torn them off. Luckily, his squad responded and tore the worm apart with energy sabers and machine guns.
Once the bay doors were closed, the airship lifted off and turned toward the dungeon entrance. It was more of a short hop than a flight, as the dungeon was only an hour’s walk from the town. By airship it was a few minutes at most. When the entrance came into view, I had to wonder what kind of resistance the original inhabitants had managed to put up.
Craters of all shapes filled the scenery in a circle nearly two or three hundred meters around the entrance. A solid steel door barred the way into the dungeon, though it was horribly scarred. Half-melted goblin corpses littered the area, though they did look a few days old. Anger still rose in my chest at the sight of our cousins being killed in such a manner.
A few undead shambled around the entrance, but the airship easily dealt with them. We set down in front of the door. With the airship in a more defensible position, we quickly set about erecting permanent defenses around the area. The sensors showed we should be inside the dungeon’s aura. I knew the host must be watching us.
“General Gersa! We are the ones Boss Regan sent to aid you,” I shouted into the night.
When no reply came after a few minutes, I went to help the crew set up the camp. It was probably two hours later when a small hatch on the steel door opened. A little goblin squeezed out and trembled as it looked around. I ordered the crew to keep working while I made my way over to the him.
