All Chapters of Kingdom of the Weak: Chapter 541
- Chapter 550
561 chapters
536. Now Flustered
Flaming Star Rubies were detected in the very core of Sorrel II. Deep core mining on that level required much more advanced machinery, stuff made with polycarbyne, plasma steel and triphene. Even in the Uber States or Kanonasia, that sort of gear was top tier, highly specialized equipment. They wouldn’t sell it to just anyone.The Woofers, however, were willing to lend theirs… in return for half the haul.“One tenth!” Remian bargained.“One third!” Just A Dog wouldn’t go any lower. “And we’ll crew it for you!”In the end, it came down to either working with the Woofers or stealing heavy industrial machinery from their Class 5 neighbors. Given the urgency of their need, Remian agreed to the Woofer co-op.Dark Silver Ice was also nearly impossible to reach. They’d have to get into the depths of the oldest ice at the far poles of the planet. Those, too, would need advanced mining equipment on top of extreme cold weather gear to mine. Thankfully, the Woofer co-op covered them too… for the
537. Lances
A month after that, the Red Lance and Dark Lance battle fleets arrived.They came in on the far edge of the star system, as if politely waiting at the threshold of their new client’s home. Their call came in long before they were even detected.“Miss Ermine, this is Admiral Kayla Crimson, in command of the Red Lance Battle Fleet. We’ve arrived at Star System Sorrel’s outskirts.”“You have?” Ermine, seated at her command center, glanced over the sensor map. “You can come in. Permission granted to dock at Space Station Sky Haven, Sorrel II b.”“Miss Ermine, this is Admiral Vance Ebon, in command of the Dark Lance Battle Fleet. We didn’t come here on vacation. We’re here to fight. The moment we arrived on site, the job already started.”“Good to know, Dark Lance. Please take up defensive positions around Sorrel II until the Mitigok Swarm arrives. You’re welcome t
538. The day the Mitigok arrived
“In other words, even if we succeed in space, we should prepare to fight the Mitigok on the ground.” Remian summarized.“I’m afraid so.” Ermine admitted. Despite everything, that was the only conclusion she could reach. “Hopefully we can stave off most of them, but some of them will inevitably slip through.”“What can we expect from their ground troops?” George asked.“The incoming swarms have 17 Baronnesses and there’s no way all of them will stop at the outer planets. Each Baronness is accompanied by an average of 10 Rooks, maybe a hundred Knights and a few hundred Bishops. Thousands of Pawns.”“Thinking back to the Mitigok we fought on Xiao Yan’s world, those Pawns didn’t seem all that bad. Now that we’ve got the gear and experience to fight off Undead at Tier 7 and 7.5, we should be able to handle them somewhat.”“Mitigok Pawns range betw
539. Opening Moves
The broadcast was made as a comms conference. Dozens of faces filled the screen that covered an entire wall.Remian began his speech. “In less than an hour, we expect the first wave of Mitigok to arrive. Our plan is to strike at their leadership in space, but experts tell me we won’t be able to stop them from landing troops on our planet. Still, who can say where they will land? If we’re lucky, we might not even have to fight the Mitigok on the ground.”Remian snorted. “I don’t put my hope in luck. Since you’re here today, in a situation like ours, you shouldn’t either. Luck didn’t get us this far. We got this far with our own efforts. We built our future, our chance for survival, with our own determination. We made it this far because we decided we wanted to live, that we wanted a future worthy of our dreams, and we fought for it!”“We’ve fought Wilds and Humans. We’ve fought Spectres
540. The 13th Duchess of the 47th Princess
“Fourth volley, second half, launching!”The third missile volley was taken out by another shockwave.“Artillery ready! Third volley firing!” Tactical announced.Even as they fired, the Mitigok Swarm fired back. Not at Vance’s main formation, though. They fired at Claire’s.“Claire! Watch out!” Vance blurted.“Reinforce shields!” Claire’s voice was heard over the comms.Vance watched, fingers tightening on his armrest as the artillery volleys crossed space and slammed into their targets.From the Mitigok Swarm, another few blips among hundreds blinked out.And Claire, who was halfway between Vance and the Mitigok, took a volley of plasma fire that much more powerful than Vance had taken.“It’s coming straight for us!”“Brace for impact!” Claire shouted before explosions and alarms sounded.“All shields down! Obsidian Tower signal lost! Black Shoe, Dark Cloud, Jet Black losing power! Looming Shadow heavily damaged! All ships reporting significant damage!”Four ships down and one more b
541. Lockdown
Unknown to Vance, a rather large chunk of the credit for killing the Duchess belonged to someone who wasn’t even in space. He was in an Observer’s Seat in Craggy Falls’ Command Center.Remian met the 13th Duchess long before Harvey’s Frigates ever did.Or rather, she found him. [Weakling. You? YOU are the Guardian of this tasty morsel?][I am the Guardian of this world, yes.] Remian answered.[A mere spawnling, not even a century in maturity.] She scoffed. [You dared challenge me? With just you, your… acrobat mech? And your… sword? Hah! What a pathetic weapon. A sword that claims to always be true! The biggest liar in the world!]Another mind joined theirs. [Ah! I see my sister has found you first.]Remian’s face fell. The minds of these two Duchesses radiated with power. How strong were they psionically? Stronger than him, for sure. Class 8? Class 9, perhaps?A surge of power struck at Remian like lightning. Remian drew strength from Sorrel II, borrowing the planet’s power to defend
542. The Battle of Craggy Falls
The First Duchess struck with unprecedented fury. Her Rooks struck the ground with enough force to send concrete and dirt fountaining in every direction, raising enough dust to cloud the horizon.As the dust cleared, the hulking shapes of Pawns charged out of the clouds. They tore through buildings like they were paper, even as Knights and Bishops began to land and take the lead in their advance.They went for the defense towers and the command center at the same time, every Pawn given a clear direction, dividing into Knight-led squads. Each squad targeted a series of defense towers, except for the strongest six. The six strongest Knights and their elite squads made directly for the command center.Lan Shan scrambled everything he had. Remian himself went out in the Star Wizard Acrobat, only to find the command center already breached. Two of the Mitigok squads had broken through the perimeter and were trying to break in from the south.He raised his Sword and spoke Truth. “You do not
543. Aftermath of the 13th and 14th Duchesses
As the final settlements of the Migration fell, the Red Lance Battle Fleet killed the 14th Duchess.It wasn’t that hard. The 14th was practically unconscious, unmoving, unresponsive. She was protected by her personal guard, including her strongest Rook entirely capable of striking at targets in orbit, but that was only one Rook and its Bishops, not half a hundred like the Dark Lance had to fight. They simply exchanged artillery fire until it was pounded into the ground, then sent in a few dropships of troops to confirm the death of the Duchess, which they easily did.Compared to the struggles of the Dark Lance, their feat was accomplished almost effortlessly.But Ermine wasn’t happy. In order to have an easy time killing the 14th Duchess, they sacrificed all the worlds of her star system, including Sorrel II. The three cities lost, and defenders who died… all of those might have been avoided had they stopped the Duchess from reaching the planet like she had asked!Her gaze was ice col
544. Waking up
Remian woke up to find himself in a cocoon of sorts. It wasn’t an Elven cocoon; way too dry, and it had tubes and wires trailing from it, not vines. Phoebe’s work, most likely.Memories flickered. He grimaced. “We lost.”Lan Shan died. Remian shut his eyes, breathing deeply for a bit. Shadowy lightning crackled over his head, psionic energies leaking out of control.“Right. I advanced to Class 8.” Remian sat up, then held his head and laid back down again. “Ugh.”Phoebe burst in. Clearly, she’d come running. She must have received an alert that he was awake. “Remian! What happened?!”“I Blinked.” Remian tried to explain. “Not a physical blink. I mean, the Psionic power ‘Blink’. The short range teleportation that Class 8 Psionics are able to learn. They normally take weeks, maybe months to train it before trying a jump as big as I did… but it was an emergency. I had to take the risk.”“Well, you made it. You’ve been in a coma for three months, but you made it.” Phoebe went from machine
545. Suspicious
“I’m done with Kanonasia.” Tim announced as he came by to visit Remian in the hospital after Vance left. “It’s chaos out there.”“Doesn’t that mean it’s the best time to seize whatever tech we can get?” Remian pointed out.“It is, and that’s why I’ve been busy, but I think we’ve gotten everything worth scrambling for. Maybe too much. I’ve outstayed my welcome and they’re getting very jumpy about us coming by.” Tim grimaced. “At this point, they’re watching us even more than the Mitigok, and that’s saying a lot since they’re losing entire star systems to the Swarms.”“The Mitigok have reached Kanonasia?”“Yep. Three star systems down, and one more contested as we speak. They’re facing several Princesses out there, not mere Duchesses.” Tim shook his head. “Compared to them, what we had to dea