The Station Core_A Dungeon Core Epic

by Jonathan Brooks

  When it came to his next trap, it walked right into the sheet lining the hallway. With such a light touch, the trap didn’t activate until the wolf lost patience at the annoying sheet covering it, gripped it in its mouth, and yanked hard to remove it. Instead of its desired effect, the Pygmy Wolf was instead impaled by four different sharpened stakes, instantly killing it as one of them penetrated its brain and another its heart.

  And with that, Milton’s first major battle was done – and won. Switching his perspective to various viewpoints throughout his tunnels and outside the entrance, he looked over the entire battlefield. Instead of pride, instead of congratulating himself on a job well done, he couldn’t help but be disappointed and sad at the losses that he had incurred. It had been a long time in his video-gaming career that he had suffered so much to pull out a win – it wasn’t quite a pyrrhic victory, since he at least still had some units and traps remaining – but it sure felt that way.

  Directing his drones to begin cleaning up the corpses of both his own units and those he killed, he turned to the notifications that he had ignored directly after the battle.

  Congratulations! Your Combat Units have defeated Pygmy Wolf x25! You gain (20x25) 500 experience!

  For defeating many enemies in a short amount of time, you receive a combo bonus!

  Bonus: (25x10) 250 experience!

  Congratulations! You have increased your Combat Level!

  Current Combat Level: 4

  Experience: 1575/3000

  By raising your Combat Level, you can choose to prioritize the development of certain statistics. In addition, your Combat Units will receive a 2% (per Combat Level) increase in their own attack and defensive abilities.

  Current Points to Allocate: 4

  Current Combat Unit A/D Increase: 8%

  Congratulations! You have defeated Pygmy Wolf x5! You gain (20x5) 100 experience!

  Experience: 1675/3000

  Congratulations!

  You have acquired the skill: Formation Fighting (Level 1)

  Arranging your units into formations can increase the effectiveness of their tactics, allowing them to smoothly transition from one enemy to another. When each unit follows their orders, a battle can change from a chaotic amalgamation of individual fights to an orderly battle with clocklike precision. Additional skill levels will teach advanced formation tactics, as well as increasing damage output while in formations.

  Bonus at current skill level: 5% additional damage inflicted to the enemy when your units are in a formation.

  Congratulations!

  You have acquired the skill: Combat Communication (Level 1)

  Through the use of neural communication, you can now quickly issue individual commands to multiple Combat Units during a battle. Splitting your concentration between units is difficult and further upgrades to this skill will allow you to communicate to additional units simultaneously.

  Current # of units you can communicate with simultaneously at your current skill level: 3

  Congratulations!

  You have acquired the skill: Cooperation (Level 1)

  Although they might be natural enemies, the Combat Units you currently control work together to defeat a common enemy. By utilizing units with predator/prey distinctions, you force a sense of cooperation found nowhere else on this world.

  Bonus at current skill level: 5% increased defense for Combat Units participating in a battle beside a natural enemy

  Congratulations!

  You have upgraded the skill: Kamikaze (Level 2)

  Inflict more damage during a suicidal attack with one of your units. Whenever this skill is used, current unit will cease to function after the attack, regardless of damage taken.

  Damage bonus at current skill level: 300%

  Congratulations!

  You have unlocked an achievement:

  The First of Many

  Survive your first major engagement

  Bonus – Survivor (Level 1):

  When you lose more than half of your Combat Units during a battle, your remaining units have their defense increased by 5% per level of Survivor

  Holy crap! That’s a lot to take in at one time. Fortunately for Milton, the skills he acquired weren’t knowledge dumps like engineering or geology – the were mostly just bonuses to combat. There was a slight knowledge download as he learned a little more about tactics, but he was so well versed in battle formations from his gaming days that most of what came through was a refresher.

  Now that he had some stat points to spend, he knew exactly what to use it on – Processing Power/Intelligence and Communication/Charisma. For the first, he needed to be able to field either more powerful units on the field of battle or more of the smaller ones to defend the high-ground above his dungeon. For the other, he needed to start expanding where his drones and sensors could reach, just in case he found something closer than the potential distant mine up North.

  With that done, he could already feel a difference in the speed at which he could think things through. Looking at his current state of Combat Units again[19], he realized that he needed to convert more Bio Units – which he now had plenty of – to recreate and improve his small army of defenders. What he didn’t have was Basic Metal Units – the production of which was halted during the attack. Sitting at only 20 BM Units, he knew he would acquire some back from the bodies of his own defeated units, but it wouldn’t be enough for what he had in mind. Leaving one of his drones to finish bringing back convertible bio mass, he sent the other two back to the ore deposit, effectively doubling the previous production. And then he waited for the resources to start coming in…

  Chapter 19 – Party up!

  It took about 3 days to finally achieve what Milton wanted for his defensive strategy. He was limited by the amount of BM units he had, but after he added his third drone to the ore deposit they started to roll in much quicker than he expected. He now had a nice reserve of metal in case it all hit the fan again, and he had a diverse standing army of Combat Units to help defend his home base.[20] With the addition of the Pygmy Wolves, he now had 11 Lollipop Snakes, 11 Jackalopes, 6 Pygmy Wolves, 1 Greywiener, and 1 Clawed Badger. Even though the badger wasn’t there primarily for combat – instead being used to hunt for more ore deposits – it was a good last line of defense that he kept near his Core when it wasn’t out digging.

  When he created the Pygmy Wolves, ALANNA reacted similarly to them as she did the Greywieners – she went puppy crazy. This time, however, they almost looked like puppies since they were the same size of a normal puppy. ALANNA also didn’t look diminutive compared to them either – next to them they looked like large dogs instead of monsters. “OH MY GOD! THESE PUPPIES ARE SO CUTE!” she squealed, causing the wolves to hunch in back in pain as the noise pierced their ears. She quickly apologized to them, gathering them up and scratching them on their heads.

  After they had played together, frolicking through the water and racing up and down the tunnel outside his Core Room, he sent them up to the surface with the help of a drone to bypass the traps higher up the tunnels. ALANNA turned toward Milton with a mischievous grin on her face, muttering, “I can’t wait until you make that facility, I’m going to have so much fun!” Milton wasn’t sure what she was planning but he was worried all the same.

  All his traps were reset and once he accumulated more metal, he was planning on adding additional traps throughout the tunnel which his drones could build themselves using the blueprints created from his Rudimentary Trap Design skill. As far as early warning went, he reluctantly created an additional four squirrels to use as scouts. He had to shut down all his nearby sensors when they were created, and he sent them on their way to avoid the temptation to shoot them with his cold laser. If he didn’t have to look at them, they didn’t exist as far as he was concerned. Once they were out of his Core Room, he relaxed and turned back to his next project.

  Based on what had happened during his previous expeditions, Milton decided on a more cauti
ous approach. Instead of sending out units to different locations, he would focus on one direction at a time; concentrating on one danger at a time. He was thankful that those Glider Monkeys hadn’t decided to attack – if they had, they probably would have arrived while he was still incapacitated learning his Geology skill. His additional squirrels were placed further out from his clearing in different directions so that he would have greater warning in case something did decide to attack in the future.

  As for his current expedition into the great unknown, Milton had thought about it while he was gathering the necessary resources fix his defenses. He was thoroughly impressed by the abilities of his different Combat Units when they worked together, so he decided to bump it up a notch. I can’t believe I’m doing this, but if it worked for my games it should work here. Although he didn’t have the typical Tank-DPS-Healer units available, he nevertheless wanted to put together a party.

  Ideally, he would love to be able to create a Scaly Bear for a tank, but he wasn’t capable of that and wouldn’t be able to for a while. Instead, he used his remaining Greywiener as the tank and, strangely, as a mount. Creating a lightweight cloth harness that his drones attached to his dog unit, the other members of the party were able to easily hold on and detach themselves at a moments’ notice. These other members included a Jackalope and a Lollipop Snake.

  It looked silly, and ALANNA laughed in delight when she saw it, but Milton was hoping that his party of three would perform better than having a lone Greywiener exploring the surrounding countryside. He decided to name the members of his expedition group – since they were now distinctive and were probably the only party of natural enemies ever created – and to make it easier to communicate to them on a more personal level. He was violating his own self-imposed restriction on getting too attached to his Combat Units, but he felt that they deserved special attention and, well, screw the consequences.

  Anyway, riding directly behind Frank’s (Frank as in Frankfurter = wiener dog) head, Lolly the snake sat on the dogs’ back, a small bump protruding from the harness that allowed her to clamp down tight with her jaws when moving at full speed. Jack the Jackalope sat near the middle of Frank’s back, small stiff pouches on the harness allowing it to snugly place his legs inside, securing him to his mighty mount. If he was any bigger, Jack would have looked like he was riding the dog like a person would ride a horse – instead it just looked like he was a package being transported on a mule. All in all, however, his party was a great improvement over what he was using before.

  When they were all prepared for their journey, Frank, Lolly, and Jack raced away to the West – a direction he hadn’t explored at all yet. Milton watched from the perspective of Jack since he was further back and had a better view of the other party members. Racing ahead at top Speed, he could see Frank’s tongue hanging out of his mouth, spittle flying by and narrowly missing his riders. Lolly was hanging onto the harness, the speed of movement making her body fly into the air, whipping back and forth like a pennant flapping in the breeze. Briefly making Jack look down, Milton could see that Jack was securely held inside the small pouches but had to constantly shift his center of gravity to avoid being thrown out when Frank turned. Overall, his harness worked rather well, but Milton could see some room for improvements that would make it easier on his party.

  After 10 minutes, they slowed down as Frank caught the scent of a normal Jackalope, unerringly heading straight for his meal. After snatching it up, he gave the order for Frank to stop and share with Lolly, while Jack went off and fed on some greenery nearby, shaking uncontrollably. It was only his influence and orders that prevented his Jackalope from losing control after watching one of his brethren get snatched up, beheaded, and eaten nearly alive. Fortunately, his creatures had relatively poor natural short-term memory, so by the time everyone was done they could continue their journey without any uncomfortableness.

  After that, the journey through the forest became rather boring – which Milton supposed was a good thing. He was tired of being surprised by deadly creatures at every turn; but he wished there was more out here than just trees. Trees, trees, some bushes, trees, and more trees. He got a little excitement when his party approached a small stream running through the dense foliage, but the water-level was so shallow that the “mount” was able to carefully walk across without too much trouble. For the next half-hour, the scenery didn’t change, and Milton could sense that they were approaching the new Communication limit as the strength of their connection was subtly starting to fade. He was about to order Frank to turn another direction when the excitement he was expecting almost literally fell in his lap.

  The sharp eyes of Lolly, forever scanning the environment for the slightest movement, saw the danger seconds before it was too late. Jumping straight at the trio from a branch high above, a large multi-colored cat had launched itself off said branch, intending to land directly on the party. Shocked at the sudden attack, Milton panicked and wished he had more time to set up a strategy to take on the incoming predator. He was sure that they were dead but resigned to try to escape before they were all taken out.

  What happened instead was everything started to move in slow motion. Not sure what had happened, Milton watched as the sleek-looking cat – which looked like a Jaguar – very slowly drifted downwards. Now that he could get a better look at it, he saw that it was colored in shades of purple, with each shade blending into another in a gradual lightening of color. He remembered one of his roommates’ old girlfriends had colored hair that looked like this and it was so unusual-looking that he asked how she did that. She said that her hairstylist did it, and the gradual lightening effect was called ombre – not that it meant much to him at the time. But the strange word and effect stuck in his mind, so during that moment of slow motion he decided to call this deadly beast attacking his party an Ombre Jaguar.

  As he sat there watching their inevitable death descending ever closer, he realized that he had a unique opportunity to change that inevitability. Milton quickly issued orders to his party because it appeared the Ombre Jaguar was starting to speed up incrementally. Another 10 seconds passed as he watched the jaguar get closer and closer, while his vision from the viewpoint of Jack changed as it sprung out of the harness and jumped away from Frank. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see Lolly let go of the harness while flinging her body to the side, launching herself in a different direction.

  On Frank’s part, he put extra strength into his legs for a couple of strong strides, putting him just out of reach of the falling Jaguar. As the Jaguar touched down, time sped up back to normal and he suddenly had trouble staying focused on what was happening. He tried giving additional orders to his units but couldn’t properly connect to their mind. Eventually, he figured that if he hadn’t already been connected to Jack he would have lost any sort of connection to the upcoming battle.

  Now just a spectator inside Jack’s mind, he watched as they followed his last order he was able to impart to his party – ATTACK! When he gave the order, he had in mind a three-pronged attack that would have to be adaptable on the fly, depending on the reactions of the Ombre Jaguar. Which was precisely what they did.

  With Frank as the biggest target, the jaguar turned toward where his Greywiener had stopped and turned around, taunting the bigger creature toward him with short barks. As the purple-colored cat stalked toward its annoying prey, Lolly sprung from just behind the jaguar with hardly a sound, landing on its back and latching onto the back of its neck with her jaws. Although the back of its neck was thick and not a vulnerable area, the distraction was enough to deter the jaguar’s attention from his other party members.

  Rushing at top speed from the side, Milton watched through Jacks’ eyes as he aimed for the side of the big cat. The Ombre Jaguar turned around at the last moment while trying to dislodge Lolly, and Jack ended up impaling one of his antlers inside the butthole of the formidable feline. Jumping straight up into the air in surprise and pain, Jack was jerke
d out of its butt by the sudden upward thrust.

  While running away to try for another impaling rush of speed, Jack kept an eye looking backwards at the purple cat. Landing nimbly on its feet, the jaguar instantly turned toward its rear end to survey the damage – which ended up being a costly mistake. All the small painful distractions were apparently enough for the cat to forget about Frank – at least until he bit down on its neck and started crushing its throat. Just as it was raising its paw with sharp-looking claws to strike at Frank, Lolly used the temporary distraction to detach from the neck and slither over its head into its face. She bit down on its nose while it had one paw in the air and the painful shock caused the cat to jerk enough that it fell on its side.

  At that same instant, Jack had arrived back on the scene with a straight shot to its underbelly. The crack of impact worried Milton that Jack had Kamikaze’d and broke his neck. In reality, however, it was a jaguar rib cracking and a portion of Jacks’ antler breaking off as the Ombre Jaguar jerked in pain at the sudden impalement. It was lucky shot right to its heart, and probably wouldn’t have been possible if the cat hadn’t been on its side. Within moments, the damage caused by a combination of Frank’s and Jack’s efforts ended the feline threat. After everything, though, what counted was that his party had survived an encounter with a larger, stronger enemy and emerged largely unscathed.

  As soon as the battle was over, he could feel his control over the party reconnect as if nothing had happened, as well as receiving some notifications.

  Congratulations! Your Combat Units have defeated Ombre Jaguar! You gain 100 experience!