Earth
Algonquin Park Dungeon, Ontario
August 15, 2019
12:11 EDT

“Ready,” Ben replied once he got his phone out.

“First up is 278E.”

“That’s Minor Jack of All Trades,” Ben answered almost immediately. “Five of each attribute, plus one percent more Strength, Agility, Intellect, Constitution and Endurance from all sources.”

“I’ve got that one, so I pass. It should probably go to Anja since she has the lowest stats out of all of us,” Mason explained. “I think she is just over one hundred attribute points, while everyone else is one-thirty or above.”

“I agree. Here you go, Anja,” I said handing it to her.

She quickly learned the skill, “Thanks, guys.”

I nodded. “The second one is 585E, Ben.”

It took him a little longer this time, but he soon had an answer, “That one is Arcane Bolt. It’s instant cast with a short cooldown, dealing a medium amount of damage.”

“Mind if I take this one?” I asked, looking from person to person. “My damage is limited to close range, right now, and something like this would be a big help. Especially the fact that it’s an instant cast spell.”

“No objection from me,” Anja replied. “I’ve already got Ice Shard which is a better version.”

“It’s absolutely useless for me as well. I don’t have Spellblade like you and Anja do,” Mason elaborated.

“What about you two?”

“It’s yours. You won’t be able to fight in melee all the time, so better you have something you can use for those situations,” Ben answered, with Sonja nodding when he was finished.

“Thanks,” I said, learning the skill. I turned away from my friends and raised my hand towards the chamber wall. As soon as I activated Arcane Bolt, a thin purple bolt of energy, similar to the size of a crossbow bolt, sped across the distance very quickly and struck the wall. The wall absorbed all of the energy so it didn’t do any damage, but it was interesting to see in action. The bolt was very, very fast, and seemed like it would be incredibly hard to dodge. When I thought the cooldown was probably up, I activated the skill just to try to guess how fast it actually was. It shot through the air just as quickly as before, and struck the wall about fifty feet away in a fifth of a second, easily.

“How fast do you think that bolt is going, Ben?” I asked over my shoulder.

“Fire it off again,” he requested.

I obliged him and fired off another bolt.

“I’d say around a tenth of a second or so, though there isn’t any way to be accurate down here. Either way, that means the bolt is probably moving at around five hundred feet per second. Not bad, though not particularly good, either.”

“He’s right,” Mason confirmed. “A lot of bullets travel two to three times faster than that, if not more. It’s still really fast, though. Faster than Sonja’s arrows, at least.”

“It still seems like a nifty skill to have. It doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, but that will change as soon as I can start putting points into Intellect again,” I said once I had turned back to face them again. “Alright, let’s get going. I want to see if we can’t finish the tenth level by tonight. We should have ten hours or so.”

---

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
The Indomitables Flagship - Nira’s Revenge
04:20 SET (12:20 EDT)
August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

“Come!” Xigios yelled upon hearing someone rapping on his ready room door. When it opened, Esririo walked in and closed it securely behind her.

“Everything is set, dad,” she said with a little smirk, emphasising the last word.

‘Might as well get used to it,’ he sighed to himself. “What’s up?”

“I just spent the past hour and a half conversing with ship captains I know we can trust. I kept it off the radio, using Mindspeak instead. I’ve chosen these nine destroyer captains to launch the attack, which will be at precisely 06:00,” she answered, sliding her tablet over with the ship names and their captains.

Xigios picked it up and took some time looking it over, while Esririo took a seat. Every captain she selected was Scyftan, and all were commanding some of their newest destroyers. The fact that they were Scyftan meant that only those nine captains knew of the plan, since none of the other species aboard any of the ships in the fleet were naturally telepathic. Sure many of them had learned Telepathy via a Skill Gem, but Telepathy and Mindspeak weren’t remotely on the same level.

“Looks good,” he said, sliding it back to her. He got up and went over to the fridge, grabbing two bottles of Scyftan ale. Opening them both, he walked back and sat down, but not before placing one of the bottles of ale in front of her. “So you’re confident that the systems aboard the other twelve ships will do our job for us?”

“One hundred percent,” she said before taking a swig. “Or at least Abi is, which means I am as well. She was easily able to access all twelve of those ships without detection and has been monitoring everything going on. If something happens, she will be able to quickly and easily take care of it. Just before 06:00, you’ll need to broadcast to the other ships letting them know of the change in plan. At the same time the destroyers strike, twenty-one troop transports will depart their respective ships and make way for one of the compromised ships. Once onboard, they’ll secure key areas of the ship and stay in position until we reach the Warvyn shipyards.”

“What about captains? How many are we going to need to promote to take command of the vacancies?”

“Nine,” she said, tapping on her tablet and then sliding it back in front of him. “These are the ones I have in mind. They’re all good replacements and were set to move up to the newest ships when we got back from Earth.”

Xigios set down his ale and then picked up the tablet once more. He read over it quickly before looking up, “Replace Zech Duch with Tala Telar. She would have been promoted two years ago, but she had a tough pregnancy. We couldn’t afford to wait for her to recover, so I promoted Omeron Tol in her place. She should have been the original captain of The Harbinger.”

“She’s a Dvergr, right?” she asked, seeing Xigios nod before continuing. “It will have to wait until after everything is over. I went with nine Scyftans originally so we wouldn’t have to deal with the possibility of a transmission being intercepted. We can’t ask her over here, either, because that might make the traitors suspicious.”

“I agree, it can wait. The Terigon will need a captain after Tala Telar moves up to The Harbinger. It’s an upgrade over what he currently has, so move Zech Duch up to that.”

“I’ll add it to the list,” she said, gesturing for him to hand the tablet back over. When it was back in front of her, she brought up the file and made the changes Xigios wanted.

“I assume you’re going with our usual setup for boarding parties?”

“Yup. We’ll be sending ten of the teams, as will the Lucidity and Emissary. The remaining fifteen ships will be sending five teams each.”

“Good. Would you like to join me for breakfast?”

Esriro was nodding with a knowing smile before he even finished speaking, “Of course. I was waiting to see how long you could go before asking.”

“What?” he questioned, a little defensively. “You know I always eat before a battle. It could end up being my last one.”

“Meal or battle?” she asked, smirking.

“My last meal, obviously. I’ll be fighting for many years yet if I have my way.”

---

Veria, Pygmaean Homeworld
Warvyn Industries Shipyard, Orbiting Veria
08:40 PTT (12:40 EDT)
August 16, 8387 (August 15, 2019)

A man stood in his office on the Warvyn Industries Shipyard with his hands clasped behind him while he looked out the large window that took up the entirety of outside wall. He was standing tall, looking at the hundreds of ships coming to and going from the massive space station. Some were newly built, while others were here for repairs, or were a part of the constant flow of freighters bringing in various goods and materials.

Until only a few days ago, the only traffic coming in and out was that of the freighters. Two days ago, his company had finished their largest ever commission of six hundred ships, not including smaller troop transports, fighters or bombers. That single transaction had been the biggest any company had ever finished, to his knowledge at least, which made him very proud of his family and employees.

After those six hundred ships had departed, it allowed the shipyard to be open to the public once more. Over the past twenty years, the amount of available space in the shipyard had grown smaller and smaller, the result of each ship being stored there while the others were being built. Kor Gidres, the man who had paid for the ships, was not prepared to receive them until recently, though he had no issue paying for their storage.

Now, the shipyard was busier than ever with the individual berths filling very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that additional engineers had to be hired to keep up with the workload. That wasn’t a problem though; if there is one thing that Pygmaeans are good at, it’s engineering.

A buzz from his desk, followed by a female voice drew his attention back to his work.

“Mr. Warvyn, it is time for your 08:45 transmission with Kor Gidres. He is waiting to be put through.”

“You can put him through. Thank you, Hani.”

“My pleasure, sir. Putting him through now.”

Moments after Ercan Warvyn sat down, the holographic projectors in his office lit up, displaying a headshot of Kor Gidres.

“Good morning, Kor. Sorry I couldn’t receive you last night. We were so swamped repairs and new commissions that I had to suit up and help out. It’s been busier than ever since your fleet departed.”

Kor laughed. “You look good. Maybe you need to get back to doing hands on labor, rather than sitting in your office all day. Make one of your kids do it instead.”

“You know I can’t do that,” Ercan said with a chuckle. “Everyone but Oya would probably disown me. She would probably take it, but I like her right where she is. That girl has a gift.”

Kor was nodding. “I have seen it myself. The ships she designed for me are an absolute masterpiece.”

“I’ll be sure to tell her that. It will mean a lot to her, coming from you.”

“She deserves all the praise. Now as much as I would love it if this was a social call, I’m afraid I’m calling about more business. Wipe that look off your face,” he chuckled, seeing the predatory gleam in Ercan’s eyes. “I’m not commissioning anymore ships, though there will be over a thousand ships on your doorstep in a little over twelve days. Some of them were built by your company recently, though others will need to be refitted with better engines, shields and weapons.”

“You’ll forgive a man for trying. I assume you’re talking about The Indomitables’ fleet?”

“That’s right. You’ve done business with Xigios Dryth, before, correct?”

“Never him personally, no.” he said while shaking his head. “Everything was through his daughter, Esriro.”

“I see. Well in any case, his entire fleet was enroute to Earth when Ms. Dryth found out that six hundred ships had left your station, heading in this direction. They took a contract put out by Kaldrus Dhir which would have sent them to Earth. They put two and two together, and found out what was going on, which led them to call you. Abi got into their systems and checked everything out. They’ve been holding position for the past twenty hours or so, waiting until every traitor has been found before they kill or capture all of them and continue on to Pygmaean space.”

“I assume everything needs to be done according to your previous timetable?” Ercan asked, opening up a file the computer built into his desk.

“That’s right. I don’t know the exact amount of ships that need refitting, though I do know that there will be nine ships that need an entirely new bridge constructed. Other than that, the rest should be as I said earlier; shields, weapons and propulsion.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem. With the manpower available now, we’ll be able to knock out a dozen refittings per day. The new bridges for those ships will take longer, but we’ll get it done with more than enough time to spare. Your usual account?”

“Yes, though I also have something else for you. Something that may entice you into building that new station you’ve been talking about for years. Sending it now.”

A chirp drew his attention over to the screen on his right. Tapping it, he opened up the file and then swiped it over to his center screen. As he read it over, he eyes grew wider and wider. When he was done, he looked up, speechless.

Kor roared with laughter when he saw Ercan’s face, which caused Ercan to be overcome by the infectious laughter. When they finally stopped, Ercan poured himself a glass of water and drank half of it before looking back up.

“This is real?” He asked, pointing down at his screen.

“Very real. Tich had Abi draw it up, and then Jonathan sign it while he was up here last night. Within a year of regaining power, he will contract out the construction of a new fleet and planetary defenses. The ones currently in place are a joke, and it’s a miracle The Confederation hasn’t rolled over them already.”

“Can your people even afford this?”

“I haven’t yet shown Jonathan how much money he and his sisters have. He makes the both of us look like paupers with how much money his family has accumulated over the millenia. If the government can’t afford it, he’ll probably pay out of his own pocket.”

“Alright, I’ll waive your fee. This is too good an opportunity to pass up, and I definitely want that contract.”

“Thank you. There is one more thing. One year after he takes the throne, he wants the Pygmaean people to be the first to join the new Protectorate. He hopes your people will be the first of many, and hopes you can assist with making that happen.”

Ercan’s eyes grew a bit darker when Kor finished talking. He was about to speak when he was interrupted.

“Oh don’t get mad. It’s not a bribe. Whether you can help or not, you’ll still be able to bid on the contract.”

“Tanyeli and Kuzey retired centuries ago and they’re no longer part of the ruling Tetrarch, you know that. Asil and Sabriye would probably be all for it, but Mahti and Tulan are young. I doubt either of them would want to do anything that might jeopardize the prosperity the Tetrarchy has experienced over the past fourteen centuries. If it is indeed deadlocked, then it will require a vote by the people. That could go either way.”

“I understand. I was asked to bring it up, and I did. We’ll have to wait and see.”

“That we will. You can bet my company will be winning this contract, though. No one else will be able to fulfill it with the same quality or cost. It will finally give me the chance to build the mobile superyard I’ve been dreaming about, It will take even us a few years to build, but when it’s done, it will be able to be parked anywhere and quickly crank out new ships.”

“I have no doubt you’ll win the contract,” Kor chuckled. “There is one more thing before I let you get back to work. I’m sure you’re itching to go talk to Oya, so I’ll keep it brief: Abi will be arriving there in approximately three weeks. There is a good chance that Jonathan will be aboard, but that decision hasn’t been made yet. If he does end up making the trip, you’ll be able to meet him then.”

“I can’t wait! Do let me know as soon as you know, I would love to have him and his sisters over for dinner, if they come over as well. Why is Abi coming here, anyway?”

“The original plan was to head over to Mezotis 3 and 4, but the call from Xigios required us to change that. He wishes to send someone with us back to Earth, so she’ll be by to pick up that person and any security they wish to bring. Do you remember Utych Hios?”

“I can’t say I do. Who is he?”

“He goes by Gabriel on Earth. He and Tesze Inolgeth are the ones who raised Jonathan when he was taken out of stasis. He’s the primary person in charge of the Spectres, and he is deciding whether or not to send several hundred Spectres to Pygmaean space to level up further. Do you still have those five man shuttles?”

“We thought about scrapping them or selling them off, but we renovated them and now we’re renting them out to whoever wants to use them. I assume you want to reserve them for the Spectres?”

Kor nodded. “They’ll likely be in groups of five, with three hundred to four hundred people, total. Do you have that many”

“We have more than enough. I’ll reserve them until I hear from you next. What’s on Mezotis 3 and 4? Aren’t those the twin planets in Scyftan space?”

“Nothing, yet. Abi will be dropping some people on one, or both of the planets, and then turn right back around.

“You’re like my kids, always dancing around a topic,” Ercan said with a chuckle. “Who is she dropping off?”

“It’s not really a who, but what; Dragons”

“Dragons?...”

---

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, enroute to Earth
Xorin Nydror’s ship - The Black Viper
05:15 SET (13:15 EDT)
August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

As Xorin awoke, he immediately knew his wife was already out of bed, without opening his eyes or feeling around. He knew, not because of his senses, or the feeling of his wife’s mind being slightly further away, but because of the scent of food. His wife was a very good cook and he really missed her cooking.

Opening his eyes and looking at the clock, he saw that it was slightly earlier than he usually got up. Rather than turn over and get a little more sleep before his alarm went off, he hit the button deactivating the alarm, and got up, heading to the small bathroom. After doing his business and taking a shower, he got dressed in his gym clothes and then made his way to the kitchen.

When he got to the door leading to the kitchen, he just stopped and leaned on the doorframe, just watching her cook. She loved cooking just as he loved eating whatever she put in front of him, and this morning, she was moving from spot to spot, stirring something here, or flipping something there.

She turned to grab something behind her when she saw Xorin standing there, causing her to jump.

“Don’t do that!” she gasped, grabbing a plate and turning back around to quickly transfer food over to the plate before it could burn.

“Do what?” he asked, amused.

“Scare me like that!” she barked over her shoulder. “What are you doing up anyways? I was going to wake you up in a few minutes.”

“Well then, you should have closed the door behind you when you got up. The smell of delicious food woke me up.”

“Oops,” was all she said when she turned back with the plate loaded with food. She grabbed another and started transferring food from another pan. “Can you get the juice out of the fridge, along with some glasses?”

“Sure,” he replied, entering the room and walking to the far side where the fridge was located. He grabbed the orange colored juice that began making waves almost a thousand years ago and placed it on the table before heading back to the counter and picking up two glasses.

No one knew where the orange fruit came from, but it quickly became a favorite of anyone who could get their hands on it, which wasn’t easy at the start. Trees had to be planted, and even with scientists genetically modifying the fruit, it still took over a year for a tree to mature and be able to produce the large double fist-sized fruit. That resulted in prices being astronomical before finally dropping to the point that only the poorest were unable to afford the delicious fruit.

Sadith had tried it for the first time two days ago, and had already drank a large container full of it. Luckily, there was a large storeroom onboard with a powerful Preservation enchantment, meaning the juice was as fresh as it was when it was squeezed.

They would run out of the orange juice sooner or later without rationing it, but he decided to let her have her pleasures for now. Her life was very controlled over the past fourteen hundred-plus years, as he soon found out, and both she and their daughter were only given basic foods and drinks. He couldn’t help but smile imagining Zindra taking her first sip of the orange juice.

“If you’re done daydreaming, can you grab these two plates and set them on the table as well?” she asked, gesturing to two of the three plates with a mountain of food on each. “I’ll bring the third one over, along with some plates and utensils.”

Xorin nodded and grabbed the two plates and set them down on the table. While he waited for his wife to bring over the plates, he poured each of them a glass of orange juice and then sat down. She set down the final plate of food beside the others, and then a plate in front of Xorin, and one for herself right next to him.

While Xorin was transferring food from the three plates in front of them over to his own plate, Sadith took a sip of juice, quietly moaning when it touched her taste buds. Xorin chuckled before digging in to his breakfast.

“What?” she asked looking over to me.

“Nothing,” he replied, stuffing his mouth some more.

“That’s what I thought,” she said with a small smile on her face. She set her glass down and then loaded her own plate with food. The amount of food on it rivaled the amount Xorin had on his own, but that was normal for Scyftans. They ate a lot of food.

“So I did a little digging on the tablet you gave me,” she said between bites.

“Oh?”

“There are rumors that the orange fruit that this juice is made from originated from the planet we’re on our way to. There was a science team on the planet over a thousand years ago, and people think they brought seeds with them, along with seeds for many other plants, like that black stuff you drink.”

“You mean coffee? I suppose it could be true, since if I recall, they were introduced at roughly the same time. It’s pretty likely, actually. The chances of two different plant-based food items being introduced mere years apart and being such big hits with the population is probably quite small.”

“Well, I’ll be very happy if it is true. I don’t think I could go six months without having a glass of this delicious juice,” she said, taking another sip before setting it back down. “I found some recipes using the whole fruit as well and was debating making you turn the ship around to get a few crates. Getting Zindra back is a priority, though.”

Xorin debated getting up and going to the storeroom. If he showed them to her now, he knew they would be gone in a matter of weeks, but he wanted her to be happy. He also had a few other things she had probably never tried before, either. His mind made up, he set down his knife and fork and stood up.

“Be right back,” he said, walking behind the counter and entering the storeroom. After a minute, he came back out and closed the storeroom door behind him, to re-engage the Preservation enchantment to keep everything fresh. He made his way back to his seat, carrying something behind his back, out of sight of Sadith.

“What are you holding?” she asked when he sat down, with the object on the opposite side of his body, still out of sight.

“This,” he said, holding one of the large, orange fruits out in front of her.

“Where was that?! I looked through the storeroom and didn’t find any!” she babbled, after snatching it from him.

“That’s a secret, my dear,” he replied leaning over and kissing her on the cheek. “I’ll have some more surprises for you, provided you’re a good girl while we’re on our journey.

“More?!” she gasped.

---

Somewhere in the Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy
The Indomitables’ Ship - The Harbinger
05:55 SET (13:55 EDT)
August 16, 12610 (August 15, 2019)

Life was good for Omeron Tol. He was recently moved up to the biggest and baddest ship in The Indomitables’ fleet, The Harbinger. It was an absolute monster of a dreadnought, with a length of five thousand meters, a width of fourteen hundred meters, and a height of seven hundred meters. It wasn’t the fastest ship, or the most mobile, but it had an incredible amount of firepower, and could withstand a beating.

A cluster of four mass drivers ran through the front five hundred meters of the ship, each able to propel a heavy tungsten round at tens of thousands of meters per second. Only one mass driver could be fired at a time in most circumstances, but it allowed them to rotate between each one to maintain a steady rate of fire. All four mass drivers could be fired at once, but it required power to be diverted from all other system, including shields, to generate enough power. That wasn’t a viable tactic in a battle, but a single hit could easily take out another ship with a direct hit anyways. It wasn’t easy, though, and thus the mass drivers weren’t heavily relied upon.

No, the bread and butter of The Harbinger was the eight massive turreted plasma cannons, with four barrels mounted side-by-side in each turret. Four were mounted evenly on both the dorsal and ventral hulls, and allowed a nearly three hundred sixty degree firing arc. The fire rate wasn’t very good, but it didn’t have to be. A barrage from one turret would be enough to deplete the shields from any ship below a battleship, sometimes outright destroying a ship with a single barrage.

Besides the plasma cannons, there were hundreds of gauss cannons mounted all around the ship to provide point defense, and a large missile battery located toward the aft of the ship. All in all, it was a very impressive ship, and one that any captain would enjoy commanding.

“I’m going back to my stateroom,” Omeron told his XO when he arrived in his ready room. “Let me know as soon as that fool Xigios finally tells us what is going on, and make sure we’re prepared to jump to our predetermined coordinates if he launches any sort of attack.”

“You think he knows?” his XO, Ghur asked.

“I don’t know, but better safe than sorry. There is no reason to stay stationary for so long without letting everyone else know. It is unusual for the man. It makes me nervous.”

“I’ll make sure it’s done, captain,” Ghur said with a salute.

The captain returned the salute, and then turned and left his ready room. He needed some stress relief, and he knew just the person to help with that. He pulsed the locking mechanism with his mana to open the door, and entered his room. After undressing, he made his way over to the adjoining room and pulsed his mana to open it as well.

He flipped the switch to bring the room out of complete darkness, and saw the teenage Pygmaean woman lying on the bed under the covers. He saw her eyes pop open shortly after he turned on the lights. They focused briefly on his midsection before she threw the covers off of herself before trying to dive under the bed. As soon as he saw her begin to move, he rushed forward and was able to grab her foot. With a yank, he pulled her out, picked her up and threw her back on the bed.

“Now, none of that, Beria! You remember the last time you fought me,” he said gesturing to the bruise on the side of her face. “If you don’t want that to happen again, you won’t resist, got it?”

She quickly nodded with tears in her eyes.

“Good. Turn around and get on your hands and knees. Now!” he said, when she hesitated.

She slowly turned around and assumed the position he wanted her to take on the edge of the bed, tears running down her face the entire time. This wasn’t the first time he had taken her, and she knew it wouldn’t be the last. She remained there, shaking while waiting for his relatively massive size to enter her. She heard him spit on his hand while holding on to her hip with the other. A moment later, there was a loud popping sound and the hand was no longer on her hip.

She remained there for another minute or so, with the fear of being hurt again forcing her to stay still. After a minute of silence, she finally turned around and saw that he was nowhere to be seen. She slowly got off the bed and crept towards the adjoining doors, which had been left open when Omeron entered. When she finally arrived, she saw his clothes on his bed, and he was gone.

Suddenly there was knocking on the door, which caused her to run back into her room. She grabbed the covers, and, after throwing them around her, crawled under her bed and hid.