All Chapters of Kingdom of the Weak: Chapter 531
- Chapter 540
561 chapters
526. Purchasing
Interestingly enough, as Remian concluded the seventh round of mana-hunting, the Quarin did in fact, offer to sell him a bigger ship.This was a Quarin Castle, Galleon-sized with 6 towers and more capacity than George’s, Tim’s or Darian’s flagships. It would come fully equipped, and with a handful of old staff who absolutely refused to leave regardless of who owned or commanded it. That proved particularly problematic when the Wilkins wanted to scrap the old vessel entirely, thus the offer to sell it to Remian instead.The price? 100 million mana. Given that he’d just reaped nearly 20 million today, he should be able to afford it within a week if he saved up.“We’ll even let you delay payment up to a month.” This generous offer was made over the comms by Eric Wilkins, sales rep for the Wilkins family.Remian considered for a bit. “How about a test run?”“A test run?”“Yeah. Let’s bring out this ship of yours on a little trip. Nothing dangerous, just a salvage run, maybe pick up some re
527. One Month Later
But of course, that was impossible. A month after that conversation, Starbright Shipyards hadn’t even completed the new space structures yet, much less a hundred Long Haul DE’s.They did manage twenty, though. This was with 32 Lunar Lynxmice Clans working with dizzying swarms of drones, fully active space scaffolding and the Long Haul Galleon Yard fully functional over the last few days.That was basically all they managed. In prioritizing Long Haul production, rushing the Galleon Yard and the scaffolding before anything else, even the Drone Hub and the Lynxmice Habitat had been only half-completed. Thousands of Lynxmice had to rough it out for what amounted to 2% of their average lifespans, one entire month of the precious 50 their Lunar kind were expected to live.Those ships were sorely needed, though. By this time, the Black Fang and the White Castle, Remian’s new Quarin Galleon-equivalent, had been running non-stop flights to and from various Star Systems to haul passengers, goods
528. Moon Colony Advantages
The Moon Farms had huge advantages over Farm Ships.Using the Star Hearth for comparison, Sorrelia’s current tech allowed for 25 acre farm ships. This was with 5 decks of farmland, each deck hosting 5 acres (each acre around 40 meters by 101.2 meters each). These farms used vertical farming with near 20 times the yield per area as flat farms, plus they planted Elven crops with quarterly yields roughly four times the yield of regular Sorrelian crops. A quick estimate would be a quarterly yield of 240 tons per farm ship.A Moon Farm, on the other hand, nestled in some crater or the other, could easily be 1000-2000 acres. For safety’s sake, they’d be separate and nestled in different, smaller craters, but either way 1000 acres of vertical farmland using Elven crops was more than enough for the entire Migration’s theoretical food needs (240,000 tons of produce, while the million-strong Migration would need some 189,000 tons quarterly).Of course, their actual needs and yield would vary, pl
529. Enetar Kingdom
A week ago, Darian’s fleet reached the site of a Distress Call identifying its sender as the Enetar Kingdom. Their home star was surprisingly near to Sorrel, being just one day’s journey by their fleet’s warp speeds.At the time, they didn’t know what to expect. Upon arrival, what greeted them was a sensor scope full of white blips, and life-sign readings of over two billion humans. At a glance, they could easily see four colonized planets and a heavily exploited gas giant.Far ahead, directly in front of them was a huge fleet, hundreds of Size 5 Galleons and Size 4 Frigates. Moments after their arrival, that huge fleet started scrambling with activity.“We better talk to them before they start shooting.” Darian grimaced.Sandy, the comms officer, tapped her console rapidly. “Enetari military, this is the Sorrelian Third Fleet, responding to a distress call. What seems to be the problem?”There was a tense silence as the fleet in front of them kept buzzing madly. At length, however, th
530. Cybernetics
Ten hours later, Remian was fuming privately, on the verge of ditching Enetar entirely, or better yet, opening fire.“Those arrogant…!” Remian almost wanted to punch the wall.“Darian said the exact same thing.” Tim said mildly.“What is it about long-lived societies that turn them into self-centered snobs?” Remian bit into a peanut butter sandwich ferociously. Such a sandwich seemed more like lunch than dinner but seeing how fiercely he was biting, none of his crew mentioned it.“Well, they’ve got lots more time. That’s a lot more learning, experience and expertise than we have or would ever have on our own.” Tim mused.Remian glowered. “You seem oddly calm about it.”Tim shrugged. “That’s because I’m not trying to buy tech, or hire anyone, and I’m not trying to convince experts to migrate or flee from world-eating Mitigok who may or may not arrive just because you say so.”“You’re not?” Remian slowed down. He looked at Tim’s face and then suddenly had a rather sneaky thought.Tim saw
531. Cybermedical
One week passed.“You’re those alien alarmists, aren’t you?” Dinah Serjei guessed with some resignation. “The ones going around medical organizations offering to evacuate them and their experts because super alien monsters are coming to kill us all.”“We’re quite human, I assure you.” Tim answered. “And the Mitigok are real.”“But does it matter?” Remian asked bluntly. “You’re on the verge of bankruptcy and debt collectors are lining up at your door right behind us. We’re offering you employment with higher pay and benefits, debt-clearance and a whole new life.”“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” Dinah mused. “You must be desperate enough to scrape the bottom of the barrel to recruit the likes of us.”“Perhaps a little desperate.” Remian admitted. “But I’m hoping for more than just Teddy Junior Pediatrics Cybermedical. You have friends, don’t you? Maybe once you’ve seen how good life is in our employ, you could convince others.”“Your employ? Some backwater planet out in the Dark Regions, a t
532. Progress of a fortnight
After the Zhao and Xue Clans completed their migration to space, Starbright finished its next phase upgrades.There were two starship yards running at full capacity. One was specialized for Long Hauls, Galleon-sized, both DE and H1 versions. The other was Frigate-sized, specialized for Turtles of any kind, whether Artillery Turtles, Utility Turtles or Star Turtles, it could do them all. Dozens of ships had been churned out by them, and were surrounded by modular scaffolding, being outfitted, or painted with protective layers, or having some sort of work done on them.There was an orbital Lynxmice Habitat, where around forty Lunar Lynxmice clans enjoyed moon-like artificial gravity. Right next to it was the Drone Hive, where hundreds of thousands of Drones were housed and maintained.Between them and the shipyards was the 3D Megaprinter. Rather than call it a factory, it was better described as a single huge machine in itself, one big enough for mechs to fly into for work. Just below it
533. D-Frames and Warp Engine 2
Su Jin, Bai Hua and Lan Shan, these three who were previously colonels under the command of General Chuan back when the Undead first overran the Dragon Empire, reunited at the lobby of J&J United with sombre expressions bearing the weight of years and Tier 7.5 Undead attacks.“How’s the general?” Bai Hua asked Lan Shan.“Happily retired. He’s gone fishing with the Old Fishers.” Lan Shan shrugged.“People are still fishing?! Aren’t they in danger?” Su Jin asked.“With the general there? They’ll be fine. Even if he’s not, there’s Doom and the others. Plenty of old, overpowered retirees in their ranks.”The agenda of the day was the latest, and probably last product launch of Jamie and Juni United. New weaponry to deal with Tier 7.5 Undead were on display, including the latest JJS16 Gauss Rifle, the heavyweight shock-and-shock ‘Mjollnir’ electro powered sledgehammer, and the ‘White Fire’ plasma grenades. New armor was on display, particularly those using Junkdura, whether heavy plating fo
534. Dragons have come
With the now-widely available photonic computers offered by Gary’s Comtech, J&J United finally rolled out the first Fourth Generation Mech locally designed and built by the Sorrelian Migration; the Pixie. Rather than combat, the fourteen-foot tall Pixie was an Ultralight Mech built for utility and repair jobs, such as flying around a damaged portion of hull with a tool kit and enacting repairs in space, or retrieving delicate salvage or any number of sensitive tasks requiring intricacy, delicacy, or specialized tools.If they really had to, they could pick up a suitably sized rifle, pistol or sword, but nobody seriously considered them as combat assets. There were at least ten times more mech-sized tools getting sold than mech-sized weapons.Nevertheless, the release of the Pixie on the open market qualified as the entry of 4th Generation Mechs in the Sorrelian Migration. They were controlled by holographic interface. They had plenty of agility and finesse. As far as Remian was concern
535. Now Hiring
There was quite a bit of shrieking and screaming going on over the comms after Remian explained to Phoebe and the rest. The Dras Clan were in a hurry to move on, and the Mitigok after them were likely to eat everyone and everything here on the way.“We’re not ready!” Ermine protested. “There’s not enough time! If we fled now, we’d only be able to bring a few hundred people. Everybody else will die!”“What if we rented the Quarin ships…”“Maybe just tens of thousands, and only to another nearby world, where we’d be stuck, with no Migration fleet to bring us any farther, and no infrastructure to build more ships!”“What if we bought Enetari ships and retrofitted them with warp drives…”“Or fled to Enetar entirely and set up shipyards there to modify their ships…”“What if we called for reinforcements? This isn’t the main host of Mitigok, this is just a single Hive. Maybe we can fight them off?”“And who’s going to help us? The Dras Clan aren’t going to stick around, and even if they did