CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE
MAELUN BUNKER: Night of arrival
Jack and Anithea sat around the hearth in the hall. It was late into the evening now, and she had finally relaxed, knowing that for the first time in a long time a majority of her people were safe. Still, in her heart she fretted for those trapped in the city below; her eyes were distant with those thoughts.
“Does the Ward hear and see everything that goes on here, Jack?”
“From what I understand Anithea, my Ward only hears when the area is inside her influence. She’s only able to project that influence for a short period of time here, while so far away from Earth’s territory.”
“Does it bother you, Jack, that Earth has territory here on your homeworld?”
“No, Anithea,” he said shaking his head. “It does not. Nor should it bother you or any of the native kobolds. Our people colonized Earth long before human civilization. From my perspective–and the perspective of the other,” he hesitated, “soul-born–we are the original inhabitants of Earth, and we sent the humans here as our champions to retake our homeworld,” he said grinning ear to ear.
Anithea smiled back.
“Perspective is a funny thing, Anithea. I cannot speak for all humans, only for those within my company. But what I can tell you,” he said, “is that they are young and have much to learn, but they have shown us nothing but kindness, integrity, and loyalty. They demonstrate this to us and to each other.”
” I guess, at the end of this, thanks to the great regression of our people, I think we’re all young again,” she said.
“This is so true, Matriarch,” Jack said with a soft smile.
“Jack, I need to talk to you about something,” Anithea said quietly. “I don’t know if it’s wise to tell your Ward what I need to tell you.”
Jack’s smile vanished. “As long as the words you tell me won’t affect my Ward in a negative way or harm her, I can keep your secret.”
“Earlier, when your Ward lashed out at the Ascended, it scared me,” Anithea said. “I don’t think your Ward realizes her own nature. I’m afraid that if she ever found out, it would not fare well for any of us.”
“Matriarch,” Jack replied, easing his shoulders. “I’ve contemplated these things, too. ARi is like us in almost every way–except for one. She doesn’t realize it, and neither do the others. But her aura. . . it bleeds it. We are soul-born and are of old souls. I don’t understand all the workings of the greater void, but I sense that most life, one way or another, is also of old souls. She is not. She’s something new. And there’s no denying her spirit.”
Anithea laughed softly. “No, Jack–there’s no denying that girl’s spirit.”
Jack looked at the Matriarch with a puzzled expression. “You fear that she’s more like the Ascended than the soul-born?”
“I do, Jack.” Anithea’s voice was steady. “What I did not tell your companions earlier is how most of the universe regards the Ascended. They are seen as gods–wrathful gods. Their power is a constant across multiple planes of existence. They are feared by all, even the most savage races.”
Jack smiled again, slow and thoughtful.
“If ARi is similar to these Ascended in origin,” Jack said with a predatory grin, “I pity the Ascended. I don’t believe she’s making idle threats. If ARi gains the ability and power to tear this unjust system apart and punish those behind it, I assure you–if fate allows, my brethren will be there, not only to watch, but to help her do it.”
Tim, Kyle, and I walked down from the observation deck to find Jack and Anithea sitting around the hearth.
“Greetings, Architect,” Anithea said as she stood from the bench.
“It’s Gav when we’re at the hearth. Please, sit down. I don’t know if Jack told you about our rules when we sit around this fire, but we see this as a free space. There’s no rank or formality here. Only friends,” she added with a soft smile and retook her seat.
“Does anybody know if ARi is back from the city yet?” I asked.
“Yeah, Gav. She should be back soon,” Jack replied. “When I left she was using Bishop to help dig out some survivors from a collapsed building.”
I didn’t want to hear the answer, but I had to ask. “Tim, how many have we lost so far?”
“Surprisingly, Gavin, we haven’t lost any,” Tim said. “But we do have a handful of wounded. I think Tanya’s going to have her hands full tonight.”
I looked to Anithea as Jack translated our conversation.
“Tanya is our healer. With your permission, she’s asked to see some of your sick to see if she can help. I’ve asked her to set up a triage. She can only heal for so long before she has to rest, so I asked her to prioritize the most severely injured or dying.”
Anithea nodded in approval.
ARi’s projection faded in next to me on the bench. “I hate not having you here,” I said, reaching through to touch her hand only to have my fingers push through the hologram.
“I don’t like it either. This futuristic Zoom-call thing sucks,” she said. I could tell she was exhausted.
“ARi, you should rest.”
“I will, Gav. I promise. But I wanted to see your skill choices first, if that’s okay.”
I looked over to Jack. “Jack, please let Anithea know that we’ll be throwing some projections above the fire. It’s nothing to be scared or nervous about. You’re also welcome to translate the screens for her if you like.”
Jack nodded and continued translating.
I threw my hand up and formed a projection above the fire showing the group my new skill choices. “
“After all the fighting today I’d actually reached level 9, and I’d never had this many choices before. I think I’m going to upgrade two of my existing skills.”
[SYSTEM WINDOW:]
Congratulations, Gavin Daniels Botlink has been upgraded to level 2
Upgrades the familiar-link to level two and expands the familiar’s operational capabilities and link range. This improvement increases the familiar’s relay and command radius, grants the familiar a dimensional inventory, and enables support for a larger hardpoint module. Activation and sustained use consume the familiar’s energy reserve as noted below. Future rank upgrades will further extend range, increase inventory capacity, and improve existing hardpoint upgrades.
Energy & Limits: Casting/activation consumes an upfront link energy cost and a modest sustain cost while actively relaying; exact ER costs scale with familiar chassis level and the complexity of attached hardpoint modules. Familiar cloaking and other existing modules remain subject to their original activation rules and energy costs. The familiar’s current hardpoint occupation and installed module(s) remain as shown in the familiar’s chassis window. See familiar chassis for precise HP and module states.
Recon Drone Deployment: A modular reconnaissance drone can be fitted to the familiar’s frame and deployed as a detachable scout or remote relay. When launched the drone separates from the host, scouts ahead, or holds station to act as a forward communications node; while the drone is deployed the familiar’s effective link and telemetry range is doubled, allowing sensor feeds and direct control to reach twice the usual radius. Deploying the drone consumes a hardpoint on the familiar and imposes a modest additional sustain cost while active. The drone provides basic autonomy for waypointing and short-duration tasks, is more fragile than the host chassis, and will return to the familiar on command or when its energy reserves are low.
Research availability: The Familiars Recon Drone research is now available and unlocks the drone module for any compatible chassis.
Shoulder Mounted Cannon: A modular cannon that can be fitted onto the familiar’s hardpoint and operated from the familiar link. The device is a gas-driven bronze air cannon that fires a single, high-velocity bronze dart. It sacrifices rate of fire for power and range, favoring deliberate, precision shots that can punch through field armor and thin structural barriers.
Research availability: The Familiars Shoulder Mounted Cannon research is now available and unlocks the Shoulder Mounted Cannon for any compatible chassis.
“Oh Gavin, Yumi is going to be pissed when she sees that you got Bishop a sniper before she got her assault drones,” Kyle said as Yumi came walking down the stairs with Tanya.
She walked over, read the system window above the fire, and barked, “Son of a bitch!”
She looked down to find me grinning. She pouted and sat down on the other side of ARi.
I waved my hand and brought up the next upgraded skills.
[SYSTEM WINDOW:]
Congratulations, Gavin Daniels Territory Anchor has been upgraded to Level 2.
Territory Anchor 2 — Places a standard Control-Node that enables building, upgrades, defenses, and cohort spawning within the node’s range. Activation now costs less stamina on use and the node cooldown has been reduced. Node deployment will now consumes 90 percent of the users total stamina. Standard Control-Node rules apply.
Cooldown: 90 seconds.
Area of effect: 200 yards
Notes on scaling: Control-Node radius and AI areas of influence continue to scale by level as defined in the original skill. Baseline radius is 100 yards at Level 1 and increases at the milestone levels described by the system.
Control-Node and AI range scales by level. Baseline radius is now 200 yards at Level 2. At Level 3 the radius becomes 400 yards. The radius doubles again at each addition. This applies to team Control-Nodes and to AI areas of influence.
“ARi, let me know what you see with the new territory that fell into our influence. I know it takes some time,” I said.
“Anithea, once we’ve defeated the Reapers and removed all their constructs from the city, the Progression-Node buried at the center will convert itself into a Control-Node. It will look like an obsidian column. I don’t know if it will be above ground or not, but they are permanent and can only be captured, not destroyed. This window talks about the area of influence around these Control-Nodes. The territory expands by itself slowly, based on some complicated math behind ARi’s attributes. I wanted to make sure that when this conversion happens we cover the city as much as possible under the node’s influence. That will make rebuilding a lot easier. It also means that as long as Earth holds Ascendancy, unfriendly constructs will not be able to operate within this influence.”
“We did not have any say in whether the city would spawn a Control-Node,” I said. “But I’m glad that working together we can make sure this place remains in your hands.”
Anithea reread the window while Jack translated, and nodded. “I understand, Gavin,” she said. “I understand you are not the one who did this to us and that you are stuck inside the confines of this system. We are glad to have you as new friends.”
“Good,” I said. “It is Earth’s intention to build your people up, not to subjugate. We will share information and technologies and whatever help we can offer in rebuilding your people. This is the strategy we plan to continue throughout the Ascendancy.”
The realization of Earth’s motivations caught Anithea. “Gavin, you continue to surprise me. I’m starting to understand why our ancestors agreed to fight at your side. I hope one day we can directly contribute as well.”
“All right, enough of the formal talk,” I said. “I wanted to make sure you understood what I was doing.”
I waved my hand and another system window appeared above the fire.
[SYSTEM WINDOW:]
Congratulations, Gavin Daniels! You have achieved Level 9.
You have two unassigned skill point to spend. Please select one of the following:
Overseer 1
This is an active skill.
Places a link on Cohorts with a minimum level of 5. Once learned this skill adds two additional control points and also grants a persistent tactical overlay for any cohorts you directly field. The overlay provides positional awareness and basic hostile/neutral identification for cohorts within a 300 yard radius of any leader you have deployed. The beacon does not create a Control-Node and offers no node protections.
Rapid Muster 1
This is a passive skill.
When learned, this skill reduces the base spawn cooldown and increases simultaneous summon capacity. Spawn timers between cohort batches are reduced by thirty percent and the maximum number of cohorts you may summon in a single activation is doubled. Increased simultaneous summons still draw normal energy and stamina costs and are subject to existing stamina penalties if you exceed safe limits. These effects apply only to cohorts spawned directly by you and stack with later tier upgrades to further shorten cooldown and raise batch size.
Field Command 1
This is a passive skill.
Improves cohesion and loyalty of cohorts operating outside your owned territory. Cohorts gain increased formation integrity and reduced rout chance when acting autonomously for short durations, and their basic obedience and response times are improved while away from your influence. This skill also lowers the chance that a cohort will abandon orders under stress and raises the effective command range of squad leaders by thirty percent when they are separated from your core territory. Upgrading this skill increases duration and strength of the bonuses.
“All right, you guys, I can tell you at this point I’m not down with any of this forced loyalty bullshit, so let’s scrap Field Command from the list.” I could see a little sign of relief on Jack and Anithea as he translated.
“Truthfully,” I added, looking at the choices, “I think I’m going to have to take the gamble, because the benefit of Overseer and Rapid Muster together could be huge.” I looked over at Tim and Kyle, who were both nodding.
“I think it’s worth taking the gamble,” Tim said. “When we marched on the city we thought we were going to be fighting the Reapers. We had no idea they’d have so many of these Kobolkai. I have faith in our people, but at some point numbers are going to matter.”
“All right then. I’m going to go ahead and accept Overseer first and we’ll have ARi put Rapid Muster into my last screen,” I said.
“I accepted the Overseer option,” I added, and looked down to see my hands glow for a moment. Anithea’s eyes went wide. “See? It would be so much better if we had little fireworks and confetti, too,” Yumi quipped, reading the projection above the fire.
I changed the projected window one last time.
“This last skill point was from the Find the Clay quest ARi generated for us.”
“ARi, out of curiosity, how come we haven’t been creating more quests?”
“Honestly, Gav, that’s a failure on my part. We should be looking for opportunities. It could be a great way to gain a little bonus experience. Ultimately, though, everything has been happening so fast. We haven’t had to actually go out and look for trouble. It’s kind of come to us every time.”
[SYSTEM WINDOW:]
Congratulations, Gavin Daniels! You have achieved Level 9.
You have one unassigned skill point to spend. Please select one of the following:
Rapid Muster 1
This is a passive skill.
When equipped this skill reduces the base spawn cooldown and increases simultaneous summon capacity. Spawn timers between cohort batches are reduced by thirty percent and the maximum number of cohorts you may summon in a single activation is doubled. Increased simultaneous summons still draw normal energy and stamina costs and are subject to existing stamina penalties if you exceed safe limits. These effects apply only to cohorts spawned directly by the caster and stack with later tier upgrades to further shorten cooldown and raise batch size.
Mass Labor Cohort 1
This is an active skill.
Summon a batch of ten unskilled labor cohorts for heavy manual work and short-term construction tasks. These cohorts are simple and task-focused, lacking combat training, trade skills, or upgrade pathways. They follow direct orders to haul, dig, clear, and perform repetitive labor but have no autonomy beyond basic obedience.
Artisan Cohort 1
This is an active skill.
Summon a compact team of skilled tradespeople such as smiths, armorers, and fabricators. These artisans can process raw materials into finished equipment and modify existing gear on site without requiring formal research. When an artisan cohort develops a novel crafting technique or design during fieldwork that design becomes immediately available for production.
“Some of these options are starting to paint a bleak universe out there. So let’s say right off the bat that Mass Labor Cohorts are off the table. That literally sounds like some kind of slavery or indenturement, and I won’t have it,” ARi said coldly.
“I agree. I do like the idea of being able to spawn in skilled tradespeople though. I mean, it’s not the right choice for right now, but think about it. If we could bring in a master blacksmith or a master weaponsmith. . . I see the potential there,” Jack said.
I went ahead and accepted Rapid Muster and again my body began to glow.
“Gavin, you’ve been outpacing us with these level-ups because you’re gaining experience from the cohorts, but I think even you are going to start to hit a wall here pretty soon,” Kyle said.
“I noticed that too. Honestly, I think we’re going to have a whole bunch of class decisions to go over by the end of this fight. All of you are going to be higher than level five by the time this is done,” Tim added.
I pulled up my stats, this time only for myself. “You guys, I have six control points now. Jack, your entire squad is now over level five as well. Add that on top of the fact that I stupidly summoned three level-7 Praetorians. That means I have six additional squad leaders. And although Jack hasn’t been vocal about it yet, I’m well aware–Jack, that you have reached level ten.”
Jack smiled ear to ear. “Friend Kyle’s grenade was effective.”
“Nice!” Kyle said. “I was meaning to ask you if you had a chance to try it.”
“It was good,” Jack said.
“I don’t know the exact numbers yet, you guys, but in about six hours we’ll find out. I have a feeling I should be able to almost double our numbers, as long as ARi doesn’t want me to spawn any more Praetorians back home.”
ARi stretched her arms and yawned. “Gavin, that’s gonna be a hard no from me. Please do not spawn any more babysitters in the keep. It’s crowded as it is. And remember, I have everything sealed up, so everybody’s getting a little stir crazy.”
“Also, Sawyer and Red said to say hi, “She added. “Starting to feel like a glorified telephone.”
I stood and walked to the wall behind the long table. I threw up a large projection, a map showing the entire city; everywhere Jack and his rogues had been showed up on the overlay in even greater detail. I was surprised by how few Reaper constructs remained in the city.
“The only bad thing about this map,” I said, “is it doesn’t show me any of the native kobolds. That includes the Kobolkai.”
I turned to look at Anithea. “How many of these little traitors are there?”
She looked ashamed. “Our estimates are over five hundred,” she said quietly.