Allistor tilted his head for moment. “Nigel, could you please connect me with… Longbeard?”
“Certainly, Sire. One moment.”
It was only a few seconds before they heard the dwarf’s voice. “Ye wished ta speak with me, Sire?”
“Master Longbeard! I did indeed. I’d like to ask your opinion on the disposition of the planet we’re about to liberate.” He hesitated, and Harmon guessed the reason, nodding his head.
“Since the planet was previously inhabited by dwarves, I thought you might be the most knowledgeable about its potential.”
“Aye, and ye’d be right, Sire. I’ve been reachin’ out ta old friends o’ me own clan, and others. With what information they give’d me, I think ya would be best served by doin three things. First, ye need a full planetary survey. There be a dwarven company I’d bid ye use. They be skilled, fast, and honorable. Any non-dwarves ye might hire, if they find somethin’ o’ value, will likely sell the information ta others, even before ye receive the report yerself. It’ll be expensive, as much as half a billion klax.”
Allistor grinned. It seemed that dwarven honor, so ingrained in the stories and games of his world, was a real thing. That was somehow comforting to him. And it gave him an idea.
“And second?”
“An auction. Divide the planet as ye see fit. I recommend a simple grid system. Then auction the rights to purchase or lease the parcels to the highest bidder.” Allistor had already been thinking along the same lines, except a lease hadn’t occurred to him. It would allow him to retain ownership, and still have allies occupying, and more importantly, defending, the planet.
“Which brings me ta me third recommendation. Defense satellites.”
When Allistor raised a questioning eyebrow, Harmon filled him in.
“It’s just what it sounds like. A series of satellites in orbit around the planet. They carry sensor, communication, and weapons platforms sufficient to repel the odd pirate or curious explorer. An actual military incursion would blow through them, but you would receive warnings and notifications as the satellites were destroyed. Allowing you to respond quickly.”
Longbeard added, “The money ye spend on the satellites would easily be covered from auction proceeds.” Harmon nodded in agreement.
“And how much would that be?” Allistor grinned at Harmon, who was now leaning forward in anticipation of a large sale.
“With your discount, each satellite would run approximately eight hundred thousand klax. To effectively cover a planet the size of the goblin’s world, you would need approximately…” He paused to do the math, but Longbeard was way ahead of him.
“Eighty-eight satellites fer minimal coverage. One hundred twelve’d be better.”
“So something close to ninety million klax, to protect a whole planet? That’s not even a hard decision. Are there upgrades to make them more effective? Or something else we can add?”
Longbeard chuckled as Harmon nodded. The dwarf said, “I shoulda arranged a finder’s fee with yer merchant friend there. I coulda retired early.”
Allistor saw his opening, and took it. “About that, Master Longbeard. You mentioned the honor of the survey crew, and other crews selling the reports, if there were something worthwhile found on the planet.” He paused, winking at Harmon as the merchant realized what he was about to say.
“Aye, ye may trust me people ta keep our word, and our silence.” Longbeard confirmed.
“But what if, once I’ve seen the report myself, I didn’t want the dwarves to keep silent? Would it offend their honor to pretend to leak the reports, to several different groups, and charge a great deal of money to do so? And would it offend your own honor to collect a portion of the proceeds as a finder’s fee? All with my full approval, of course.”
“HA! I knew I liked ye, Sire.” the dwarf laughed for a good bit. “And aye, me people would certainly be willing ta take advantage o’ thieves and sneaks with no honor, as long as it be with yer own approval. In fact, I think I can guarantee it’ll earn ye a discount!”
“Then let’s do that. Please engage your survey crew, ask them to get here as soon as possible. It may take us several days to defeat all the goblins here. Or we may not be victorious. If we lose, I’ll pay the crew for their lost time. Will they need to wait until the fighting is over?”
“Nah! Most o’ the survey will be done from above. Satellites with specific sensors. If there be some anomaly or error in the data, then mebbe they’d want ta do a surface scan. But no dwarven crew’s gonna be kept away by a few goblins!”
“Great! Then please get them started. I’ll speak with Harmon here about the satellites and other ways to defend the planet.” He thought for a moment, then added one more thing.
“I’d like for you and the other analysts to discuss something for me. Rather than an open auction, I’d like to make it invitation only, if that’s allowed?”
“Oh, aye. Good thinkin’, Sire. It be yer property. Or will be soon enough. Ye can do what ya wish. Just be aware that ye’ll likely lose some favor with those ye don’t invite.”
“Alright, well that’s what I’m going to depend on you analysts for. I want to invite those who already favor me, or those who it might be worth gaining favor with. But only those who would make good neighbors, and be least likely to try and take control of the planet. Once we have that list, I’ll start the bidding at low prices. Maybe I can fill the planet with friends, gain favor, and mutual defense, all at the same time.”
“Now you’re thinking like an Emperor!” Harmon cried out.
“Aye, Sire. Good thinkin’. It shall be done. May fortune favor ye in the coming battles!” Longbeard signed off.
Harmon and Allistor spent the next hour going over options for planetary defense, then haggling over the prices. Both of them enjoyed themselves immensely. When they were done, Allistor went ahead and placed the order. If they failed to capture the goblin’s planet, he’d figure out a way to use them somewhere else.
*****
The rest of the trip was uneventful. There were a few conference calls between the ships to confirm their plans and make last-minute adjustments. Sam had poked around and found Allistor’s surprise, much to Allistor’s dismay. He’d wanted to see his friend’s face when he unveiled it. Still, the ruined surprise allowed them to incorporate it into their plans ahead of time.
After breakfast the next morning, Allistor called together Helen, Meg, Nancy, Virginia, and Lilly, meeting with them in the owner’s suite on the upper level of the Phoenix.
“Ladies… I need your advice. And maybe your help.” He paused, feeling jittery. Taking a deep breath, he continued. “After this battle is finished, I want to ask Amanda to marry me.”
He looked around, waiting for reactions from the various ladies. They all just stared at him. Finally, Meg said, “About damned time. What’ve you been waitin’ for?” The others all just nodded, straight-faced, or barely cracking a smile.
Allistor blushed. “Well, I’ve sort of brought it up a few times, and to be honest, she didn’t seem that interested.”
Nancy looked at him with some compassion on her face. “She loves you, Allistor. I think she has since pretty early on. And you clearly feel the same.” Now the other ladies were smiling openly, apparently having decided they’d punished him enough.
“Okay so, you all know her. Should I… make some grand gesture? Like, write out a proposal with fireworks? Or just, you know, surprise her with a ring in her morning coffee?”
This started an hour-long debate among the ladies, differing opinions and stories of their own proposals, and conjecture on how Amanda would react to various scenarios. Allistor was regretting the question ten minutes into the discussion when Virginia described Bob’s mostly-naked proposal. Now the prospect of arranged marriages to alien brides seemed a little more attractive.
The net result of the debate was that Allistor should use his own best judgement as to the how and the where, and that the ladies w
ould provide whatever logistical assistance he needed to make it perfect. Once he decided what perfect was.
Lilly insisted on starting a wedding dress for Amanda, whose measurements she already had from making her armor. Nancy promised beautiful flowers for the ceremony, and there was never any question that Meg would handle the cake and food. Virginia and Helen stepped to one side and put their heads together, already planning a bachelorette party. Allistor heard the words “oiled-up cowboys” as they moved away.
At that point, he fled.
Back on the bridge, he watched as the planet progressed from a dark spot in the far distance, to a tiny speck of reflected light, and then a planet. It was small for a planet, about a quarter the size of Earth, on the outer edge of the habitable zone within the system. And though it was similar in its coloring to Earth, there was considerably less water. Where Earth was something like sixty percent water, this planet was more like thirty percent. There were vast deserts, huge forests dotted with lakes and rivers, and frozen polar caps similar to Earth’s. Around the equator was a rough belt formed by massive mountain ranges and volcanoes.
And in several areas, so large that they were visible from space, huge sections of the land had been stripped bare, giant pit mines sunk into the ground that looked much like the mine at Thunder Basin. Most of them had at least partly filled with water.
Seeing those, Allistor said, “Maybe this won’t be so bad? I was picturing the mines as tunnels that we’d have to clear, foot by foot.”
“I’m afraid there are certain to be plenty of those, as well.” Harmon replied. “These pits you see would have been the initial blast mines. You see those tilted structures nearby?” He pointed to the screen, and Allistor noted what looked like four giant stone obelisks, all badly tilted in the same direction at about a forty-five degree angle. Based on the height of the trees around them, Allistor guessed each one was at least two hundred stories tall.
“I see them.”
“Before the gravitational shift, they would have stood properly upright. Together they make up a gravitational sling. There would have been a platform at the center of the cluster where the refined ore would be placed. The towers would generate an electromagnetic charge that would slingshot the payload up and out of the atmosphere, where it would be retrieved by ships and taken to its final destination.” Harmon tilted his head sideways slightly. “This is part of the reason the dwarves left. When the grav sling was destroyed, their options were to rebuild them, which would have been hugely expensive, or have cargo vessels land on the planet to retrieve the ore. Also expensive in terms of fuel costs and time.”
Allistor finished the equation. “And with the resources mostly depleted, neither option was worth the investment. I can understand that. But why just abandon the planet? Why not auction off all or parts of it?”
“The gravitational shift was due to the destruction of a nearby planet. There was a faction war being fought, and when the larger planet was destroyed, a sizeable chunk of it passed by very close to this one on its way to the dark sun, dragging this one out of its normal orbit and disrupting its gravity. It was unknown at the time whether this planet would even hold together, let alone hold a stable orbit. No one was willing to take the risk. Except the goblins, who might not have known any better. By the time the dwarves deemed the planet safe enough to inhabit again, the goblins had already claimed it. And it wasn’t worth fighting over to the dwarves, who’d already lost many lives in the cataclysm.”
Harmon pointed to one of the large deserts. “See there? That was likely covered by water at one point. The planet lost some of its atmosphere, and probably some of its water, during the cataclysm. Whole oceans would have shifted, and the face of the planet changed.”
Allistor nodded. “Kind of like when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, and most of the life on Earth.”
“Similar, yes. Only this cataclysm occurred much more quickly. In a matter of days, rather than years.”
As they drew closer to the planet, the ships reduced velocity until they came to a halt several thousand miles distant. The main viewscreen maintained its image of the planet, while the faces of the various raid leaders appeared on the side screens.
“It does not appear that the goblins have established any sort of satellite defense.” Harmon observed.
The human crewman at the sensors station spoke up. “I am detecting three large satellites in orbit. But they look really old, and damaged.
Gralen confirmed. “Two of those are old habitats, and one was a trade station. No signs of life in any of them.”
Harmon perked up at the mention of a trade station. Allistor noticed, and grinned.
Gralen continued. “If you’ll allow me?” When Allistor nodded, the view on their main screen altered, sweeping across the planet, then zooming in on one of the old pit mines. This one had almost completely filled with fallen stone and water. The gravity sling towers nearby were bent low to the ground, and had actual trees growing from cracks in their surfaces. Along the top of the outer rim of the mine, just above the waterline, dozens of tunnel entrances could be seen. Four colony ships similar to the one Allistor’s people had captured, sat in a cleared area nearby. “This is the location of their main colony, based on the number of ships parked here. Best estimates are that there are eight to ten thousand goblins down there. As they tend to send some of their stronger forces out to establish colonies, and the goblins you fought were in their twenties and thirties level-wise, you can probably expect the same or lower down there…”
“Except for the leadership and elites. The ones who’ve evolved the colony from the newly spawned horde it once was.” Harmon finished his thought.
Allistor paused, thinking of the higher-level goblins that had taken Rhonda’s Stronghold. There were hundreds of them, all over level thirty. “How many of those do you think are down there? The ones we fought the other day were no joke.”
Gralen answered first. “Maybe a thousand. But again, this is just a best guess, based on other hordes that evolved, then began to spread out.”
Another question occurred to Allistor. One that he should have thought of much sooner. “Gralen, I know your level, roughly, and I can’t see Harmon’s at all. But I know you’ve both had at least a century of fighting experience. And, no offense, but I seem to be catching up to you after only a year.”
Harmon snorted. “My level is considerably higher than Gralen’s, Allistor. But to answer your question, each level you achieve is harder than the last. Beyond level fifty, for example, you will find that you achieve new levels much more slowly.” He nodded his head toward Gralen, who echoed the movement.
“You and your people are a sort of special case. First, you’re from a newly assimilated world. One which was overrun with a larger than normal quantity of monsters intended to eliminate most of your species. Those of you that survived, did so by fighting. Gralen and myself were born onto stabilized worlds. On such a world, one might remain level five or ten well into adulthood. Crafting allows for some leveling, as does hunting, or fighting in battles. Now, my people are warriors from birth, and we battled amongst ourselves, clan against clan, constantly. So by the time I joined a formal military and began to fight off-world battles, I was already over level fifty. Gralen likely comes from a more… peaceful world.” Again Gralen nodded. “And when one fights a war, experience for the enemies killed is divided amongst hundreds, if not thousands, of your fellow soldiers.”
Harmon continued. “Next, even among people of Earth, who would all be dying or leveling faster than normal due to the circumstances I just described, you and your people have leveled more quickly. You, in particular, earned several levels as you were granted titles and achieved world-first experience. This allowed you to pull some of your people along with you. Not only did you create safe spaces and allow larger numbers to survive, you equipped them with what they needed for hunting, crafting, and surviving in general. Few leaders are so generous.”
&
nbsp; Gralen stepped in next. “You also managed to defeat some creatures like the void titans that were much higher level than yourself, using ingenuity, quick reactions, and thorough planning. Your people leveled up several times for defending their homes against both creatures and other human attackers. You defeated a goblin colony ship full of higher level beings, and defeated my own ship, killing a large number of much higher level beings.” He paused for a moment, thinking of his lost people.
Harmon took over. “All of these things have combined to allow you to level much faster than normal. I think you’ll find that the average level of human survivors across your planet is under twenty. Your adventures, the choices and decisions you’ve made, the chances you’ve taken, all of those are why you have become so popular among the factions.”
“I see. Thank you, gentlemen.” Allistor’s spine itched, that feeling of being a target having returned.
“There is more.” Harmon grinned at him. “As a Planetary Prince, you will be awarded experience for things that others will not be able to take advantage of. Increasing your territory, for example. When you become Emperor of this planet, I expect you will achieve several more levels. The system offers these opportunities to strengthen yourself to offset the danger you face as a noble. You become a target for not only those below you who wish to better themselves, but for other, stronger nobles who want what you have, or simply dislike you.”
“Right. Kill, or be killed. Get stronger, faster, or else. Got it.” Allistor summed it all up.
“Welcome to the Collective.” Gralen bared his sharp teeth in an ironic smile.
“Right! So, we’re looking at the main colony. And there are two more large ones, then several small ones. We have a plan to test out on this one, a plan we hope will reduce the risk to our fighters as much as possible.” Allistor looked at the mine still pictured on the main screen.
Shadow Sun Rebellion Page 40
