by Vowron Prime
The projectors could create targets up to a hundred yards away from them, allowing for simulated enemies to be placed even above the lava field. They could also throw out moving targets that crouched and ducked, but MC doubted that the troops would get to such advanced drills today.
For now, they’d shoot stationary targets projected over the lava, which hazed the air with copious amounts of steam. In MC’s mind, the shittier the training conditions, the more useful they were. There really was nothing like trying to swap a magazine in full armor with a hundred-degree oven cooking you. All while the enemy was doing their best to end you.
“Five rounds. Center mass. Fire!” Krar called out after handing out sound-dampening headsets to everyone present, MC included. While he could’ve formed an energy dampening bubble around his ears, the headsets allowed for them to communicate.
The results were predictable. Even with human targets projected at a mere fifty yards, only the Dyn managed to reliably clock hits. In fact, they decimated their targets with astonishing rapidity. Still, the Zevan troops managed to safely handle the firearms after just an hour of practice, likely due to their pre-existing familiarity with bows and crossbows. Accuracy and skill would come in due time.
“... to all the gods above, I beseech thee, give me the strength to destroy my enemies…”
“Krar?” MC called over comms. “What’s he doing?”
“I… I believe he is chanting.”
“... firebolt!”
A blazing lance of fire roared to the target, obliterating the projection. The mage huffed with satisfaction. To his credit, it did get the job done, albeit horribly inefficiently.
Krar wanted to have them run through some mixed unit tactics after they wrapped up at the range, but MC managed to dissuade the overeager commander from biting off more than he could chew. What the trainees had done thus far could already be considered drinking through the firehose; dumping tactics on top would just drown them.
MC did agree to review tactics that Krar had come up with at a later date. With Zevan fire, ice, lightning, and barrier mages at their disposal, they’d have to alter some of the usual tactics to take advantage of that unique resource. Xikanika had even sent over a couple of her weather-control mages, too. He couldn’t wait to figure out how to incorporate them into their ever-growing military potential.
“Don’t worry, Emsie,” Ansala said, reaching up to pat his back. “I’ll keep an eye on them. We’ll have ’em trained up in no time!”
“Quite the little munchkin you’ve found, brother. You’ll have to tell me all about how you two met.”
“I’ll let the girl handle that. I’m sure she’d be more than happy to give you an hours-long summary.”
“You bet I will! So you see, it all began when Emsie saved me from…”
MC tuned out. Never in his life did he imagine he’d witness rail gun–wielding aliens fighting alongside magic casters, all while decked out in modern human combat armor, communicating over helmet comms calls. He couldn’t quite wipe the smile off his face, even after jumping into Nina’s Humvee to hitch a ride back to the hangar with the girls.
Once they nailed down a training regimen with this pilot program, they’d be able to bring squads up in quick succession, multiplying their offensive capabilities. Of course, that was assuming he could keep them supplied.
“Oh, by the way,” Nina interrupted. “Nova just called. She says she’s ready to launch the satellites.”
He smiled. As nice as mixed magic-unit tactics were, he had to admit they didn’t hold a candle to spy satellites and kinetic energy weapons.
The time had come to deploy the Eye in the Sky network.
Thirty-Nine
MC had to admit, he’d really been looking forward to this moment. It would be the defining moment when the Resistance’s offensive firepower became a force to be reckoned with.
Back when they’d assaulted the transit gateway, Nova had mentioned that the facility could teleport anything that could be targeted. He’d acted quickly with the few precious seconds they had to grab the satellites that constituted the Eye in the Sky. They weren’t able to grab them all, but they’d snagged enough. Especially Heimdall—the big-ass mass driver that formed the core of the network.
“No, I am telling you this is more than sufficient! It would be a waste of resources to outfit any more thrusters on them!” MC exited the electric Humvee along with Nina and Ansala to find Sarek bickering with his angel in the middle of the hangar.
“Yet what about failures?” Nova asked. “We cannot ask Magnus to fly into space whenever something goes wrong!”
“And why not?” Sarek scoffed. “He is our glorious leader after all. He ought to be responsible for fixing his assets when they break.”
“Everything all right?” MC asked.
“Magnus!” Nova cried in relief. “Please, you must convince Sarek that mounting an additional set of thrusters onto the satellites is an investment that will pay off.”
“I was going to use these thrusters for some experiments of my own! With the matter fabricator’s production rate, these are precious commodities at the moment,” the irate scientist replied.
MC gave Nova a look. “You’re worried about redundancy?”
She nodded. “Thruster failure rates are low, but we absolutely cannot afford to lose such an important military asset. It cannot harm anything by being cautious,” she implored. Her pleas were unnecessary. MC backed her up without a moment’s hesitation.
“There’s a saying where I come from: ‘Two is one and one is none.’ Add those thrusters. We’ll get you some more to play with, Sarek. Now, how long is this going to take? I want to launch these bad boys into orbit.” MC rubbed his hands together in anticipation.
“Only a few minutes. Please stand by,” Nova said as she rushed off to oversee the modifications.
MC felt a tug on his arm.
“E-e-e-emsie!? A-a-a-angel!” the little amoeba stammered.
“That’s Nova—”
“ANGELS ARE REAL? WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME!” she shrieked, punching MC’s leg. She only hurt herself against his armor.
“Look, I’ll arrange a meeting later, but you can’t be here right now. We need to get you back to your mother. Nina? Can you handle this?”
“On it.”
Nina scooped Ansala up before the little devil could react, carrying her like a sack of potatoes. The girl kicked and screamed the entire time.
“It was good to see you again, girl,” MC murmured to no one in particular. He turned his attention to the satellites and the army of swarming technicians.
The satellites had rockets of their own, but the Dyn antimatter burners were both more efficient and consumed fuel at a significantly reduced rate compared to the stock ones. Even with heavy usage, they only needed to be replenished once every few years.
A good thing, because they were going to need something just a bit more potent than vanilla human tech. While MC could slingshot the satellites into space, his aim was nonexistent at those distances. The satellite wouldn’t end up even remotely close to an ideal orbital position, not to mention that they’d essentially be stationary. Each satellite would have to accelerate under its own power.
To mitigate the risk, he’d send a tiny portal encased in a transparent sphere to space beforehand. It’d let them confirm the altitude and positioning. After that, it was just a matter of relocating the satellites through the portal one at a time.
“Remember,” Nova called out as she directed a gaggle of Dyn scientists to mount the new rockets onto a fancy gimballed mount, “relocate the satellites farther than you think is necessary. It is far easier to accelerate them in space rather than to deal with the atmosphere. In fact, if they are too close to the planet, we will be unable to get them into orbit even with the upgraded thrusters.”
“You got it, boss.”
He’d been practicing for this very occasion over the past several days, relocating throwaway por
tals to space to get a sense of what the “right” throw felt like. His accuracy was still pretty abysmal—only six out of ten attempts resulted in a workable position.
MC idled for twenty minutes while the new thrusters were mounted. Once complete, Nova directed the others to back away before giving him the go-ahead. Sarek and his posse headed up to the CIC where they could monitor and remotely adjust the teleported satellite as needed. Nova chose to stand by MC’s side, communicating with Sarek via the base’s intercom system.
The satellites all sat in neat rows with their solar panels folded. In this state, they fit comfortably within MC’s maximal relocation volume, apart from the mass driver. That one barely fit so they’d made a few modifications to shave some of its girth. Even then, he would have to stretch the relocator well past its limits.
MC took a deep breath.
No pressure.
Nova had sidled up to him at some point. She squeezed his hand reassuringly, giving him one of those heavenly smiles of hers.
He shot her his own wry smile. “Thanks.”
A dozen transparent plastic spheres sat on a table nearby. A metal plate resided within each one—the portal surface, along with some diagnostic equipment that would let Sanctuary determine its exact position in space.
MC spent a couple of minutes creating a portal between the plates within two separate spheres.
First attempt. He went for it.
As was usual, the result was quite anticlimactic. The sphere was there one instant, then it wasn’t—no sound or visual drama to signal its departure.
They waited in silence for Sarek to locate the portal.
The scientist’s nasally voice came through the intercom. “No good. Too close to the planet. I need you to sling it farther.”
MC killed the portal and tried again, reestablishing a portal between two spheres. The second attempt was also too close to the planet, as was the third, but the fourth was good to go.
His shoulders sagged in relief while Nova’s reaction was a bit more exaggerated. She jumped and embraced him in a tight hug, folding her wings around them both. MC was surrounded by white, and he could only chuckle and pat her shoulders. “Thanks, Nova. But let’s celebrate when I’ve got all of them up there, huh?”
She withdrew, nodding. “The others should be simpler now.”
“We don’t have much time before the portal falls back to the planet,” Sarek said over comms. “I advise you to get on with it.”
With the hard part over, MC sent the first satellite through, depositing it several hundred feet away from the other end of the portal.
“The first satellite is within expected positional bounds. We are now vectoring it into geosynchronous orbit. Proceed with the second satellite when ready.”
He relocated the second and third, successfully delivering those too. With each activation of his ability, the primary relocator’s vidsphere filled with blood. Not by a large amount, but the ability was steadily inching closer to its next level.
The rest of the satellites went off without a hitch until they reached the final one—the mass driver. The big boy of the bunch, and the most important satellite at that.
In addition to the fully loaded mass driver housing fourteen tungsten cores, it also had the same GPS and communications suites of its smaller brothers. He absolutely could not afford to mess this one up.
Focusing all of his mental energy, he expanded the relocator to its maximum size, then doubled it. He relocated the massive object, hurling it through the other side, barely staying conscious.
The headache that accompanied the overuse of his abilities hit him like a hypersonic rail slug. The portal collapsed. MC sunk down onto the asphalt to ride it out.
“You bumbling idiot! You hurled it too far! The satellite ended up hundreds of miles from the portal. It’s far too close to the planet. It’s too close to recover.”
The intercom went silent as they awaited Sarek’s message with bated breath. Nova sat beside him, patting him on the back. Ineffective, but he appreciated the gesture. Maybe he was imagining things, but Nova seemed to be awfully affectionate of late. Far more than she ever had been when they had escaped together.
The seconds turned into minutes. MC eyed the relocator’s vidsphere. With just that one invocation, it’d almost breached the next level. Just a couple more activations would push it across. It’d been so long since the core ability had leveled up—he was eager to see the results.
Just when the pain had subsided enough for him to start getting pissed at Sarek’s lack of communication, the intercom buzzed.
“I’ve managed to recover the mass driver. Barely. Without the extra rockets, we would have lost it. Be sure to thank Nova for that,” he said condescendingly.
“That asshole. If he’d had his way, there wouldn’t have been any extra rockets.”
“We are now maneuvering it into orbit,” Sarek continued. “With their current trajectories, the satellites should be in geosynchronous orbit by this time tomorrow.”
Hoots and cheers erupted from both the hangar and over the intercom from the Dyn in the CIC. MC could finally breathe easily, but just as the tension dissipated, he felt something soft on his cheeks. His eyes widened upon discovering Nova’s blushing face right next to him.
“Did you just…”
“I—Nina! She said you would like it.”
That sister of mine.
“I’m sorry, Nova. I’ll be sure to have a good, long chat with her.”
“No! Please, I would not have done that had I not wanted to.”
MC nodded. “I’ll just take that as a congratulatory kiss, then. Or did you intend it as something more?”
She turned into a red apple, which told him everything he needed to know, but she hastily backtracked. “It, er, please treat it as you wish!” she mumbled before scurrying off, her wings smacking everyone she passed.
Is she really over two hundred years old?
His ruminations were cut short by Nina, who’d returned from reuniting Ansala with her family.
“Magnus, you’ll want to hear this. Let’s move to the CIC. It’s an emergency summons from Empress Xikanika.”
Forty
Twenty minutes later, MC and company stood halfway across the planet within his manor at Kyron, courtesy of the teleportal. The abode was a bit livelier now, with several Dyn stationed there, and a steady stream of traffic to and from Sanctuary. MC had knocked down the wall that blocked the portal from the rest of the house; between the Resistance fighters and the drones, the place was more than secure even without that precaution.
Krar’s eyes had widened like saucers when they’d informed him of their base here—or they might have if he’d had eyes. As a Zevan-type, Sarek did have eyes, but as usual, his reaction was one of begrudging approval.
The Resistance had thrown up an illusion field immediately after being informed of the manor, overjoyed to have such a convenient forward staging base so close to the enemy HQ. The field left the structure visible but masked any activity within, just in case the Legatus got a bit too snoopy.
This time, it was just MC, Nova, and Nina who stepped through, accompanied by a handful of guards. With MC around, any protection gained by a larger team would be negligible. At worst, extra guards would just get in the way.
They followed the empress’s messenger up the central elevator of the Undercity, then up out onto the highest level of the wedding-cake-shaped city that housed the imperial palace. Their boots crunching on the blue ice of the castle’s halls. Ice that should have been slick yet firmly gripped their boots nonetheless.
He’d seen them several times by this point, but the castle’s many flying buttresses and ornate ice pillars never ceased to amaze him. In fact, MC found himself appreciating the beauty of this world all the more now that he knew it was all real.
Unlike their last visit, the empress chose to receive them in a spacious circular room with a domed ceiling, somewhere deep within the fortress. A
large, centrally positioned hearth fire burned within a firepit made entirely of ice, and elegant sofas and armchairs surrounded it.
A chimney reached down to the middle of the room, ending a dozen feet off the ground above the hearth. Platters of snacks and fruits were arranged on the side tables. He never thought that such a juxtaposition of fire and ice could ever feel so warm and inviting.
Unlike last time, the Resistance envoy wore the newly fabricated uniforms of the Resistance—MC included. Nina insisted that a prim uniform with a coat of arms would go a long way toward establishing their faction’s identity. The girls had put their heads together to come up with something that took a few cues from Victorian tailcoat suits merged with the futurism of the Dyn.
The result was a jet-black microfiber fabric adorned with emerald accents. The Resistance’s insignia was stitched upon the left breast—an outline of the business end of a seven-barreled Gatling gun with a peace sign in the middle, surrounded by the words PAX SVPERIORE VI TELORVM, or “Peace, Through Superior Firepower.”
MC’s old military motto felt like an appropriate slogan when the topic had come up. Nina had wanted to go with something a bit less confrontational, but when he mentioned that no Zevan would ever be able to read the text, she capitulated—after a fair bit of grumbling. His new look seemed to shock all those around him, garnering a new kind of reverence that he’d never before seen. Nova kept sneaking glances at him when she thought he wasn’t looking.
“Welcome, Nina! Welcome, Nova. I am delighted to see you! Thank you so much for heeding my summons. We have much to discuss, but might I interest you with some refreshments first?” Xikanika addressed the girls, ignoring MC’s existence entirely.
Despite her consummate professionalism, Nina couldn’t resist taking a bite or two out of the appetizing pastries. As for Nova, well, the confections near her disappeared at an alarming rate. Not content with only those, she started working through the ones near MC as well, throwing him a guilty smile as she squirreled the desserts away.
