“Who do we have on active duty?” George asked, as Mindy’s raid went out.
“Our own? Almost nobody, today. Everyone’s on break.” Marcus commented. “The La Vivans and the Ashdalians are on patrol until lunch time.”
“Dragons?”
“In really bad shape and worse mood. I’d rather not go anywhere near them right now.”
“Other Wilds?”
“Took heavy casualties in that last crazy battle. Many of them already want to withdraw.”
George closed his eyes. “Artillery?”
“Down for emergency maintenance. That last fight took almost everything we had and several ballistae have broken down.”
“Airships?”
“Mostly exhausted. They can still provide air support, but its best not to ask too much of them.” Marcus paused. “Their crews are all human, you know. Since most of them can’t afford to buy crystal fuel, they’re manually powered by their own magi. Every cannon shot and turbine on all the airships are powered by magi, and those magi are exha
While Mindy’s raid was crossing the Nine Kings Range, Remian and Xiao Yan were arriving back at Scorched Earth City.Xiao Yan, at that point, was having some doubts. “Do you… do you really think I’ll be okay there? In your world?”“Of course! I’m kind of a big deal there, you know.” Remian assured her.They stopped by Scorched Earth City to make a big withdrawal of Black Crystals, then made their way directly to the formation where Remian first appeared, landing the entire Pod on it.“Wait in the Pod.” Remian told Xiao Yan and studied the inscriptions on the formation.There. That should be the destination sigil, and the empty space was for him to fill. That board offered a list of choices, with symbols to depict each choice. Remian couldn’t make out what most of them said, but one of them he recognized.It was the symbol sequence for ‘home’. It had a price tag as
Things were not going the way Remian expected. “This is your home?” Xiao Yan marveled as she looked around her. “Uh… no. It’s not.” Remian grimaced. Only when it was too late did Remian realize his mistake. ‘Home’ referred to the homeworld of the guy who made the formation, not Remian’s homeworld. This was… this was… “I had been wondering where the Black Ruins Civilization disappeared to. Now I know.” Remian mused. Indeed the truth was just too obvious to miss. They (still in the pod) were in a large black hall built in the exact style of those ruins. Unlike the ruins, this was filled with light and there were people visible through a long glass window above. One in particular was looking at them, a rather annoyed looking guy who kept staring at Remian with a frown, waiting expectantly, but not saying a word or making any move for the time being. Cautiously, Remian opened the Pod and stepped out. A voice came out over s
“Mister Remian, right?” A man in a black-and-gold formal suit-mixed-with-armor offered a weird kind of gesture with one hand. “Uh… yeah.” Remian didn’t know what that gesture meant. Was it some sort of salute? “Huh.” The man looked him over, then glanced about the room. It was reasonably comfortable for a holding cell, plain black walls, with a bed, a small table, chair, and two stalls in the corner for washing and biological excrement, though they held both familiar-looking equipment and strange items Remian couldn’t identify. The cell even had controls for light and ventilation. In the end, while bare, it wasn’t altogether torturous. “They seem to treat you well.” “They seem to think I’m one of your people.” Remian grimaced and admitted. “I’m not.” “No, you’re definitely not. According to our scans and database, you’re not registered to any interstellar faction we know.” The man cleared his throat. “In fact, your genetics indicate a very low level of technology, and there are tra
They tested it out. Ten times acceleration. One hundred times acceleration. Two hundred times acceleration! Three hundred times acceleration!! Four…“Stop! Stop! That’s too much!” Remian’s head was spinning and he felt like the whole world was tilting.Three hundred times. That was his limit. Even the Corpoman let out a low whistle. “That level of Psionic Power… if I didn’t know better, I’d suspect you were a Human Ascendant, or a Revanan. But that’s impossible. You’d have been registered long ago if you were either one.”“What’s an Ascendant?” Remian asked, holding his head.“A member of the Human Ascendancy. Like me. The Ascendancy consists of the Io Republic, the Blue Star Conglomerate and the Orion Empire. Members of any of our factions are called ‘Ascendants’. Not to boast, but we’re almost the most powerful human factions in the galaxy
Xiao Yan, it should be noted, did not have as high an acceleration rate as Remian. She, too, had been in the Red Mists and had some practice with Psionic communication plus she had also eaten Psiorin Infused foods. Her own Psionic abilities were actually far above average, but even she couldn’t manage something as crazy as three hundred times acceleration.Since there was no requirement for her to serve out a ten year sentence, merely having to accompany Remian during his twelve-day period, she actually didn’t need to use an acceleration at all. Just for the sake of having more time to learn, though, she opted for it and thus learned at 100x acceleration, at least for the first few minutes (5-6 hours in accelerated time).By then, Remian was starting to dabble in other subjects. A little bit of metallurgy, a little of science, a bit of mechanical engineering…He was exploring subjects, not mastering them. He wanted to see what he could make us
As night fell, Tang Yin needed to take a break. “Just a few more hours. Just a bit more.” He said, as they sat down for dinner that night. “It was ‘just a few hours’ from the very start!” Mindy gritted her teeth, trying her best to put up with the pain from her leg. At least she still had both legs, though one had been badly injured. Wulfgar had flat out lost both of his in the battle against the Tier 5. Mindy had cauterized the remaining stumps, but he still looked to be in extremely bad condition and might not survive the night. They could try to bring him back… but the mission was too important. The Rift had to be sealed, no matter the cost. Even if it meant locking Remian out. “Hurry back, Remian!” Mindy whispered into the night. “Hurry back!” *** But Remian was too caught up in studying to hurry anywhere. He was dabbling into architecture now and learning about structural support, stress and tension. Afterw
As the week passed, Xiao Yan graduated from Grade 3 Formations with flying colors. Remian qualified as a Class 6 Psionic on top of studying everything else he was interested in, especially Biotech. He even relented and dabbled a bit in magic and mana control. After a short converation with Xiao Yan who came to visit, he also took some time to study formations and arrays that she spoke about. Then he dove into runes and inscriptions. Then he even tried to study Chaos Magic, but the many differing theories and schools on that were too confusing and he soon gave up. “I’m nowhere near ready for that!” By the time two weeks were up and Remian’s sentence was fully served, Xiao Yan was about ready to take the tests for Grade 4 formations, and Remian himself was halfway to Class 7 as a Psionic. As the Sentence was coming to an end, the Conglomerate Judge called the Corpoman privately. “Is it wise, sir? This man paid us only 20,000 Black, and we paid him salvage fees of 9,500 Black. This is
“Are you sure we’re not on my world?” Xiao Yan asked, suspiciously. “Yes, I’m pretty sure.” Remian said, pointing. “Your world doesn’t have airships from the Deutero company.” “But it looks the same.” Xiao Yan said, with some disappointment. “People are still people, and dirt is still dirt.” With a short laugh, Remian turned toward the nearby town. “Come on. I’ll get in contact with my family first, and then bring you around to see other kinds of people and places.” *** At that time, Mindy, George and the others were having a bad day. As the sky turned red and the sun began to set upon the day and the sons of man alike, the weary defenders of Dragon Lake heard once more the horns of war. With earth-shaking roars, the colossal titans they battled stood tall, casting long shadows upon the land. Nine Tier-8 Emperor-class Spectres surrounded by the countless forces of their kind. On their own side, the Emperors and Great Dragons ha