Unacceptable Sacrifice (Reality Benders Book #11): LitRPG Series E-Book

Michael Atamanov

• Herausgeber: Magic Dome Books
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Earth seceded from its suzerains’ state and declared independence. Naturally, such a bold move did not go unnoticed by its powerful neighbors in space, who had aggressive plans for the inhabitable yet overly self-reliant planet. With black clouds gathering and the term of safety growing ever shorter, positive lines of the probable future for Earth's humanity and its allies were nowhere to be seen despite all Gnat the Devourer’s efforts and unique abilities. His one remaining option – to seek advice from someone who never erred and knew everything there was to know – the Great First Female of the Miyelonian race. And although the Great One lived many millennia in the past, since when was time an obstacle to a person capable of controlling chronostreams and manipulating reality?

Leseprobe

Unacceptable Sacrifice

a novel

by Michael Atamanov

Reality Benders

Book#11

Magic Dome Books

Reality Benders

Book #11: Unacceptable Sacrifice

Copyright © Michael Atamanov 2024

Cover Art © Vladimir Manyukhin 2024

English translation copyright © Andrew Schmitt 2024

Published by Magic Dome Books, 2024

All Rights Reserved

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This book is entirely a work of fiction. Any correlation with real people or events is coincidental.

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Table of Contents:

Introduction. Distant War

Chapter One. First Test of Power

Chapter Two. Time to Act

Chapter Three. Correcting Errors

Chapter Four. Back to Medu-Ro IV

Chapter Five. Illegal Artifact Maker

Chapter Six. Hot on the Trail!

Chapter Seven. What a Devourer Can Do When He’s Angry

Chapter Eight. Underground Secrets of the Syndicate

Chapter Nine. Light at the End of the Tunnel

Chapter Ten. Absolute Evil and Ayni

Chapter Eleven. Back to the Past

Chapter Twelve. A Crack in Enemy Defenses

Chapter Thirteen. Two Human Kungs, One Miyelonian

Chapter Fourteen. Everyone Loves Ayni

Chapter Fifteen. Back in Time

Chapter Sixteen. All Roads Lead to Zeta-Reaper

Chapter Seventeen. Forced Ceasefire

Chapter Eighteen. Morphians and their Reproduction

Chapter Nineteen. The Last Thing You See

Chapter Twenty. Time Resonator

Chapter Twenty-One. The Answer to a Riddle

Chapter Twenty-Two. Challenge Issued!

Chapter Twenty-Three. Onward, into the Unknown!

Chapter Twenty-Four. Alien Stars

Chapter Twenty-Five. No Place for Aliens

Chapter Twenty-Six. Massacre in a Dark Corridor

Chapter Twenty-Seven. The Price of Omnipotence

Chapter Twenty-Eight. The Invincible Georg’s First Defeat

Chapter Twenty-Nine. Meeting my Match (part one)

Chapter Thirty. Meeting my Match (part two)

Chapter Thirty-One. Unacceptable Sacrifice

Chapter Thirty-Two. A Star from Orion’s Belt

Chapter Thirty-Three. Meeting the Great First Female

Addendum. Crew list of the assault cruiser Di-Pal-Yu 781

About the Author

Introduction. Distant War

The KE-112 star system.

Domain of the Vahego race (part of the Meleyephatian Horde)

The warp beacon near the second planet

“GROUP RED-4, CUT DISTANCE to two hundred twenty miles! Power to rear shields. Damaged ships, don’t act heroic, pick up drones and fall back to receiver two! Red-5, close in on the enemy and tie them down. Surgeons, patch up the burning battleship I just marked. Electronic warfare ships, damn it, why is the enemy exterminator still firing?! Mammoth-8, cut speed, fall out of formation and don’t shield battleships. Group Blue-8 and Blue-2, accelerate toward Red-5. Greens one to five, cover the heavies while they swing back. Pyros from the purple group, pick up escape pods.”

Fighting back the enemy’s third attack wave was no simple task. The united fleet started taking losses for the first time since the start of the battle. Red-4’s heavy shock cruiser Boydur the Hero was destroyed along with up to eighty interceptors and small frigates covering the heavies. The battleship Orange Majesty was down to bare structural elements and would now require lengthy repairs. Vexing. But the Composite fleet’s sudden appearance on the battlefield could have gone quite a bit worse because they appeared just thirty miles from an Empire heavy ship reserve group with a whole eleven thousand starships. Leng Florianna the Truth Seeker meanwhile had failed to foresee the event, so it came as a nasty surprise while the other flotillas were tied up fighting and not able to come to their aid quickly.

“It is my fault, master. I honestly did not sense them until it was too late.”

“It’s okay, Florianna, it happens. The eyes we placed in all neighboring star systems didn’t see the enemy fleet passing through either. We all let our guard down and missed this significant group of reinforcements. Scan space now so there won’t be any more surprises.”

However, despite all the losses, the situation wasn’t coming together all that poorly. The Composite had lost up to twenty thousand starships from a total of seventy-eight thousand in the first phase of battle. Their plan, which relied on the small Dero interceptors making a sudden, high-speed attack was far from masterful — the human fleet’s Flycatchers, made specifically to counter the even speedier alien Meteors made quick work of them, and each successive wave of kamikazes got wiped out before it could reach its objective. Then, when the Composite launched a particularly large attack, their group of thousands of small ships found itself in a fiery hell, eviscerated by the blasts of thermonuclear explosions launched by Georg the First’s cloaked frigates. The few remaining enemy starships then crashed into God of War’s energy shield, unable to do any damage to the unified fleet’s flagship. After that, the Composite didn’t make any more brash cavalry charges and changed tactics, maneuvering in large groups of five to seven thousand ships with fearsome battleships at the core of each flotilla trying to draw the human fleet apart.

But the Composite’s new tactic didn’t get them anywhere. Because it involved a large number of small interceptors and nimble destroyers splitting off, which allowed the united human fleet to confidently avoid close combat with the big guns. At some sections of the grand battle, the human fleet was even able to dictate conditions due to their better speed and maneuverability. The loss of eighty starships was not critical to a group of thirty thousand. What was more, within twenty-five minutes, we were expecting the second part of the united fleet to arrive, and within an hour the third. So there was no doubt that Kung Georg would eventually come out on top. Unfortunately though, the famed commander of the heavy assault cruiser Boydur the Hero had died. It was a ship named many years before by the emperor’s eldest daughter Crown Princess Likanna, and its captain had fought in countless battles and military campaigns with Georg. That meant the loss of elite space fleet troopers, highly experienced veterans, many of whom were personally acquainted with the commander and who would not be easy to replace. Also, his daughter would be upset when she found out…

Emperor Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle switched off his microphone, sat back in his seat and, from the high levitating platform that served as a workstation for the commander of the space armada and his two personal assistants, looked around at the huge fleet headquarters. And he was pleased with what he saw. There was a giant three-dimensional hologram map surrounded by a ring of evenly spaced circular work consoles, and at each of them was an experienced tactics officer commanding their own flotilla of starships or group of combat drones. All events in the KE-112 star system and all neighboring systems were being monitored, every starship, rocket, and scrap of space garbage was accounted for. No pointless fussing, all conversations strictly on topic. No disarray, much less fear or panic even though the balance of forces could easily spook an outside observer. The Composite still had almost twice the ship weight in terms of sheer numbers on the battlefield, as well as the technological advantage — enemy ships of all classes surpassed their Imperial counterparts both in attack abilities and maneuverability and defenses. But that wasn’t all that important, because the human side had impeccable cohesion, and tactics for any situation that had been practiced until they could be executed flawlessly without fail. Every staff officer, every starship pilot, and every gunner knew their role in the grand scheme of battle, and they played it extremely well.

Still, the commander had to occasionally interfere in his subordinates’ work.

“Mammoth groups two and four, link shields. Orange small ship defense, cut that group of Dero interceptors down to size! Yes, like that. Excellent work! Why’d you even let them get that close to you? Orange-4 tactician. What the heck! Where are Red Queen’s drones? Wake up, send out a welcome posse of Leech-As to the group I just marked.”

A large group of red markers disappeared in a series of spherical thermonuclear blasts on the tactical map. That eased things up a bit. But not as much as the volley of all eleven of Georg the First’s exterminators firing antimatter rounds accelerated to near-light speed, erasing from the tactical map a whole six Composite motherships and one enemy supercarrier. And from a larger perspective, the enemy on that flank had lost control of the battle. The Composite starships had fallen out of their strong defensive formation and were now chaotically scrambling without any signs of logic or thought. Apparently, we had just taken out one of the enemy fleet command centers. And that was an opportunity we had to jump on despite the enemy still having a numerical advantage.

“Exterminators, fall back to receiver two for reloading. Great job back there! Mammoths, everyone make a short advance! I’ve marked the attack vector. Yellow battleship groups one to five, follow them at twenty-five miles. God of War, you keep the three carriers on the right flank that stayed behind. You have to clear a path for our heavies. Both Queens, advance! We’re closing in!”

The distance between the fleets was over four thousand miles and the enemy had managed to restore order to its ranks. The Composite’s armada of thousands started regrouping into a defensive formation to meet the human fleet. Starships were pulled in from all directions into a single group forming a large sphere with a center comprised of two giant exterminators and their sole remaining supercarrier. The battleships moved into the front line — they comprised the main strike force of any fleet, and the intergalactic invaders were no exception. The over four hundred fearsome droplet-shaped ships thousands of miles in length would be able to deliver a volley that could blow away any human ship. The only exception perhaps was the human flagship, God of War, and two massive motherships Red Queen and White Queen, though the emperor had his doubts whether the queens would be able to survive. Nevertheless, Georg the First didn’t call off the attack and ordered the fleet to continue its approach.

Three thousand miles… Two thousand… Fifteen hundred…

The head-on attack against a numerically superior enemy force looked like suicide, and the commander caught out of the corner of an eye his assistant Space Colonel Max Gregor wiping sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. However, when the emperor turned his head to the right, the senior tactician was already looking supremely confident and even smiled at the commander.

“The decisive moment of the battle? I know we’re going to win, but should we maybe wait for our second group of ships? Twenty minutes and we’ll have twice this many allied starships on the battlefield.”

“No, there will also be Elvinian ships in the second group and I don’t want to show our allies everything we can do. Especially because the enemy is about to fall back to regroup. Then we stand to lose it all.”

A look of total incomprehension appeared on the commander’s assistant’s face, and Georg the First struggled to suppress his annoyance. What kind of a fleet senior tactician couldn’t see that we were two moves from checkmate even after such clear signs? If Leng Nicole ton Savoia, head of the General Staff were in Max Gregor’s place now, she would have picked up on the fleet commander’s idea instantly because she had seen it before even if the battles were smaller in scale. But Nicole now had a crucial mission and the highly esteemed commander was leading a fleet of ten thousand ships to the capital of the Union of Miyelonian Prides, the Urmi star system. Max Gregor meanwhile… no, he was without a doubt a capable and even talented tactician, one of the best in the Empire, but he was still far behind Leng Nicole — the emperor’s top student.

“Our whole fleet will jump behind the enemy battleships and hold them down with stasis webs,” hinted Leng Bionica, Queen of the Androids, who was seated to her partner’s left.

“Exactly right,” the emperor nodded with approval. “See, Max, even a robot can understand. The enemy’s big guns can only aim forward, so they will be stuck in that position and effectively out of the fight while the two exterminators will be stunned by our electronic warfare ships. But first, our stealth bombers are going to have a pass at the compact formation to radically cut down the small ship count. After that, we will jump with all our ships straight into the center of the enemy fleet. We’ve already calculated jump coordinates. Enemy battleships and exterminators cannot damage us, and our battleships will take their cruisers. It’ll be like a shooting gallery with them safely behind the shields of the Mammoths, protecting us from return fire. Meanwhile, the drones from the eleven Mammoths, two Queens, and hundreds of carriers will tangle with the surviving enemy small ships. It will be like a chainsaw massacre, totally one sided. The enemy has already lost even though they don’t know it yet.”

* * *

“Ah, that was splendid! Just like the good old days!”

Georg royl Inoky, smiling in satisfaction and beet red, undid the collar of his tight-fitting military uniform and sat back in the armchair in his small dining hall while he waited for the servers to finish setting the table. It was sweltering, and his heart was absolutely pounding. And so, Georg put on a blue tunic with gold epaulettes, unbuttoned his shirt all the way to his gut, and even took off his pants, leaving only his white polka-dotted blue stockings. The utterly informal look might have shocked his subordinates, but at the time he was only with his two most trusted companions, who had seen the emperor in even less impressive states over their many years of friendship.

Leng Bionica, his personal secretary and assistant, poured three glasses of strong brandy in silence, handing one to Georg the First, and another to his Chief Advisor and second cousin Duchess Leng Katerina royl Mesfelle.

“To a brilliant victory!” the queen of the androids offered a toast and drained the beverage.

“Whew, that stuff is strong…” Georg cleared his throat and left the glass unfinished.

Either it was the recent stress, or it really was muggy in the room, but the corpulent emperor wasn’t feeling very well, which his cousin did not fail to notice.

“You look horrible, Georg. Shall I call a doctor?”

“No, that won’t be necessary. I’m just tired. No matter how you look at it, that was the biggest battle I’ve ever fought in. One hundred eighty thousand starships in total on both sides. Though essentially, it was all over before the second group arrived, which just helped pick off the remainder of the enemy heavies.”

“Yes, this grand space battle will soon be taught in every space military academy in the Empire as an example of how to conduct a battle with less ships than an opposing force,” Katerina ton Mesfelle confirmed, looking the recordings of the battle on her palmtop. “Spectacular! And most importantly — we lost just one hundred seventy-eight starships and essentially wiped out the enemy fleet in the process… I doubt there’s another fleet commander in the whole galaxy as skilled as you.”

“We still lost a lot. We could have done better,” Kung Georg shook his head in dismay. “We’ll have to review our errors with the staff officers. And that was just one seventh of the Composite armada. We practically haven’t seen the bulk of their forces. Nor have we seen the Trillian Kingdom fleet, and they are also in this war. And the most bothersome part is that the fanatics blew up their own largest ships so we couldn’t take them as war trophies. But the loss of two exterminators and a supercarrier are what have me most worried. After all, Kung Gnat was able to capture two enemy fleets with much worse initial conditions, but we couldn’t…”

Georg’s cousin couldn’t tolerate such self-flagellation.

“There the Miyelonians were ready for the fight, and the space trap in the capital system was prepared in advance, so the two battles are not comparable. As a tactician, you are a good deal more skilled than Gnat. He’ll never reach your level!”

“That is true, cousin, but…” the emperor picked up the unfinished glass in his hand and… placed it back on the table. “Let’s be completely honest, Kat. Gnat has an entirely different power that has nothing to do with fleet command. It’s like he’s in a league of his own, a higher one. He’s immortal, hopscotching around the Universe, knowing every move before its made and reading the future with ease. There’s no beating someone who can see the future! What good is my entire fleet when Gnat could easily kill me, while I could not do the same to him. Gnat could destroy any planet of ours including the Throne World, and we would be powerless to stop him. So, we shouldn’t underestimate Kung Gnat, and certainly should not give him a reason to turn against us.”

“But technically, we already did when we declared him a criminal for the murder of an Imperial Crown Princess,” Katerina ton Mesfelle cautiously reminded him. “I must admit — that story with the Green House Fleet happened so long ago I had already stricken Crown Princess Lydia royl Lavaelle from my memory, figuring her for dead. So should we maybe vacate Gnat’s murder charge?”

Georg considered it for a few seconds, then shook his head.

“No, let it be a lesson for the future for him not to skip around in our space and make off with our stuff. Still, good relations with Earth and Tailax must be restored, I just don’t know how. I must admit, I’m frightened that Gnat didn’t try to flirt with any of my daughters, no matter how much they tried to shake their tail feathers for him. It would be so much less stressful for all of us if Kung Gnat were my in-law. Because our children’s betrothal is all well and good, but it will be some time before they are wed…”

The emperor felt his heart sting, then fell silent, clenching his teeth in pain and squeezing his hand to the left side of his chest. He really wanted to summon a healer, but… What was the point of warding off ever more frequent attacks if there was no way to solve the root cause? The emperor was not a young man, and every subsequent year brought more ailments — it was partially consequences of the many wild years Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky had spent indulging in narcotic crystals. No doctors were skilled enough to remedy that, they could only treat the periodic flareups of pain. Between his joints, atrophied diaphragm, and now heart…

Georg the First frowned, recalling Gnat’s prediction about his health. Fifteen years was, in his words, the maximum he had left. And that lined up completely with what the doctors were telling him. Kung Gnat’s son meanwhile had only just been born, and his coming of age was far in the future. And that left room for a succession crisis and bloody war between Georg the First’s offspring, which threatened to break the whole Empire apart.

Unless…

“Where’s the gift Kung Gnat brought on his last visit? The heavy metal box that supposedly contained an illegal Precursor artifact?”

“In a protected vault beneath a layer of liquid nitrogen,” Leng Bionica replied instantly. “Popori de Cacha and his chameleons studied the gift in every way available to them, but never came to the conclusion on the stone in the box. The only thing they know for certain is that it is not a mineral. It also does not resemble poison or an explosive. In your place, I would…”

“You are not in my place,” Georg the First interrupted his synthetic assistant. “Have the box brought directly here! I’m getting so sick of having to call doctors. I think now is the time to take a risk and test out the artifact my future in-law brought me.”

Chapter One. First Test of Power

“GNAT, I WOULD TAKE IT for a poor joke if I weren’t aware that you were indeed preparing to do battle with a fleet of such untrained players. Most of them will be headed to respawn before they even realize what happened to them.”

“Is it really that bad?”

After two days of training the Fleet of Earth, Fox had a strong emotional reaction and was uncommonly pessimistic. And thus her unambiguous assessment.

“It’s worse than just bad! The pilots and crews of the Fleet of Earth have a lot to learn. Almost none of them have even unlocked specializations for the skills required for space battle. The decent Pilots and Gunners in your fleet are few enough to count on one hand. To make matters worse, these people orient themselves in space like blind puppies. They can’t see potential threats on the battlefield or paths for maneuvering. Only the pilot of Tamara the Paladin is beyond reproach. And the crew of Bride of Chaos is up to snuff as well. It’s immediately apparent that the former Imperials have some experience. But even the pilots of your cruiser are not up to standard, much less the others. Most of the players will be using hyperspace drives for the first time to jump to another star system. Some of them haven’t even activated systems before. They’re cannon fodder. All they’re good for is dying heroically and spreading starship debris in space around the Gilvar Syndicate’s capital.”

It honestly sounded scary. My opponent had much better trained forces. According to our recon data, the Gilvar Syndicate had two hundred forty combat starships, and nine cruisers. That was a lot compared to our fleet of three hundred starships, all of which other than my Di-Pal-Yu 781 cruiser and Bride of Chaos battleship were small class. The ship’s tactical computer estimated our chance of victory at approximately fifty-fifty. However, our greater total starship numbers and firepower on account of the battleship were completely zeroed out by our poor training, so the computer was more leaning toward the Gilvar Syndicate with a probability of fifty-three percent.

My Analyst Gerd Jarg agreed completely with the computer’s calculations and even noticed that the calculations had been made with battle conditions in “abstract, empty space without other forces interfering.” But meanwhile, my enemy would have space artillery batteries orbiting Gilvar II to assist them as well as innumerable rocket launchers and laser cannons on the surface, which would seriously reduce our chances of success. In fact, without one “but,” our chances would effectively have been zero — they simply did not have a weapon capable of damaging the Di-Pal-Yu 781, so our flagship was sure to escape. Perhaps, it would be the only ship to do so. Even our battleship wasn’t sure to survive.

So, Fox’s concerns were shared by many, and the battle was expected to be incredibly intense. Nevertheless, I was trying not to let it get me down.

“Fox, can’t you help train my players in the time we have left so they can be more than just sitting ducks? You have experience and instruction skills to help players level faster.”

“I am not all-powerful, Gnat. You’re demanding the impossible. Twelve ummi to prepare the fleet is practically nothing! Your space landing party I trained for fifteen days before landing on Un-Tau. That’s sixty-five ummi. And it was long enough for the troops to have quality training and be able to survive the ice tunnels. However, that was infantry. They’re easier to train than starship pilots! Spaceship crews need at least sixteen ummi just to learn to work together. After that, another two hundred ummi for training and main skill levelling. In that time, the players will at least start to comprehend what is going on around them in space and what their commander requires of them. And most importantly, they learn to survive. Only after that does group and regrouping training begin for main tactics and combat formations, without which a fleet cannot possibly win a battle. Now though, I’m powerless — by Fleet of Earth standards, knowing how to turn on maneuver drives and how to find the rocket launch button on the command console is considered advanced!”

Fox was undoubtedly correct, but we didn’t have enough time to train the crews more. The Gilvar Syndicate had already started loading landing-transport barges to attack either Tailax or Poko-Poko station. They might even be coming for virtual Earth itself. Though that was highly unlikely — after all, reality synchronization was not yet complete, and they would reap no real-world rewards from an attack in the game, but I still wouldn’t count the possibility out. In one way or another, at most in twelve to fifteen ummi, the Gilvar Syndicate fleet would be finished loading the landing party and start moving. We then would miss the chance to destroy the immobile and thus very vulnerable barges. Most importantly, we’d be ceding the initiative and letting them bring the fight to our space, which I really did not want to do.

“But will we win?” I asked the most important question without even listening to the Morphian’s grumbling.

The fluffy red fox (which was for some reason how the Morphian had come to me, just like when we first met) flicked her tail nervously and, after a five-second delay, replied to my question.

“Yes, we will. But the losses will be enormous. Half of the Fleet of Earth ships will be lost, maybe even sixty percent.”

I didn’t tell the fleet commander that my Analyst and tactical computer gave me even more extreme estimates, instead trying to cheer Kung Eesssa up a bit.

“Sixty percent is okay. I’d even call it positive for such a delicate operation. The players will respawn with hard-won but highly valuable experience. As they say in my country: ‘one man who has suffered defeat is worth two who haven’t.’ And as for ships — we can find more. You’ve seen it yourself. There’s a whole Imperial fleet parked next to my home planet. The Miyelonians meanwhile have already started transferring my share of the spoils from the big battle at Urmi.”

The fox quickly looked around and made certain no one was listening, after which she lowered her voice to a whisper.

“It is of course none of my business, Gnat, but don’t you think it was too risky to take the abandoned ships from Georg the First’s space? I’ve heard the emperor is known for his short temper, and he’s not likely to appreciate being robbed…”

I breathed a heavy sigh and admitted that Kung Georg most likely didn’t know that many of the ships that remained after the long-ago battle had disappeared. The most the emperor could know from the game messages was that Crown Princess Lydia royl Lavaelle had fallen to my hand, but that alone made me a criminal to the entire empire and their Elvinian allies. What Georg would do when he discovered the full story of what happened in the Forepost-10 star system I was scared to even imagine. On the other hand, the mad cannibal woman attacked me first and used a death spell. I was just defending myself. The Green House starships meanwhile were just sitting there unused. For nine years, nobody in the Empire cared one bit for them. So sure — I had no right to the ships and if Georg the First demanded them I might have had to surrender them back to the Empire. At some point in the distant future. When the emperor cooled down a bit and agreed to talk to me. And Earth had a space fleet of its own.

“But those are problems for the distant future. For now, we are faced with the task of winning the grand battle against the Gilvar Syndicate. And I am very much counting on you, Fox!”

* * *

Three days later, I was mulling over the conversation with the space fox while watching the battle unfold from the captain’s bridge of the Relict cruiser. Sixty percent losses… Now I would have given a lot to make that highly optimistic prediction a reality.

Though it had all gotten off to a surprisingly good start. Our recon was accurate, and the bulk of the enemy’s war fleet was conducting training near the first uninhabited planet of the Gilvar star system. The nine huge landing barges meanwhile were docked at the orbital cargo terminal of the second planet, which was receiving a never-ending flow of containers of ammunition, armored vehicles, and landing troops through the space elevator.

The Di-Pal-Yu 781 exited warp with exquisite precision just five miles from the nearest landing barge — something of a gloomy pyramid three times larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza on earth. We immediately released the twenty corvettes we’d taken along on the hyperspace jump — the small starships had no warp drives of their own and thus could not travel between star systems independently. However, compared to frigates they had higher firepower, higher capacity energy shields and better overall defense. We kept the combat drones under wraps. They were to be the ace up our sleeve. Meanwhile, Heavy Relict Guard Drones filled all twenty-seven hangars aboard the Di-Pal-Yu 781 — to achieve that, we had emptied all the nose hangars which had previously been serving as storage for spare parts for drones and a workshop for Miyelonian chief Engineer Gerd Orun Va-Mart, where he was attempting to repair the damaged Relict Signal Retransmitter from Un-Tau. One Precursor Symbiote meanwhile had come with us, appearing on the battlefield just a few seconds after the cruiser and immediately flying on the attack.

The party started with a bang! In the first minute, before the enemies came to their senses, our small flotilla managed to down four enemy landing barges, while the Mechanoid Spatial Cutter on my cruiser took a large bite out of the fearsome space fortress nearby in orbit of the capital planet, essentially knocking it out of the fight. But that was unfortunately where our success came to an end…

According to the plan, half a minute later, the bulk of the Fleet of Earth was to appear on the battlefield. Those three hundred starships were to destroy the remaining enemy landing ships while they were caught off guard, then quickly flee the strike zone of the orbital artillery and anti-space defenses in order to meet the Gilvar Syndicate fleet in “abstract, empty space.” However, the Fleet of Earth appeared in the Gilvar system three and a half minutes after the battle started, at a point when not a single corvette was left of my flotilla and dozens of orbital artillery batteries and hundreds of rocket installations were conducting focused fire on my cruiser. The worst part was that three of the heavy barges were still in good shape, and they raised their energy shields, activated camouflage systems and started moving. A critical error in our calculations! And we absolutely could not afford to let the landing ships escape, so they had to be destroyed at all costs, losses be damned.

Completing that task cost us fifty interceptors and light frigates. But they were unable to leave the battle because Bride of Chaos was captured by innumerable stasis webs and warp disruptors, making it impossible to get out from under the dense fire of the enemy artillery. Also, four minutes later, the Gilvar Syndicate fleet came crashing down with all its might on what remained of the Fleet of Earth…

I was racing around like an injured tiger, lighting up targets for the gunners and working the electronic warfare systems hard. I switched off enemy space defense apparatuses with my Machine Control skill and took control of the minds of enemy pilots with Psionics, killing players and turning ships against each other, or steering them into my cruiser’s shield. And with sorrow, I watched the allied markers drop like flies as Bride of Chaos slowly lost shields. We tried to charge the battleship’s shield from the ancient cruiser’s electronics and absorb some of the damage ourselves, but the enemy fire was too concentrated and high powered for us to effectively “heal” the allied ship.

By that point, continuing to hold the ace up our sleeve was stupid because what good was a secret compared to the very survival of the Fleet of Earth, and all Large Guard Drones from the cruiser and battleship were launched into battle. I missed exactly when our stealth bomber lost cloaking and went down, but I saw clearly that the only satellite took a hit and decided to flee, disappearing to parts unknown. I saw Tamara the Paladin in flames as it crept beneath the cruiser’s shield, escaping at the very last possible moment. I saw that the enemy was also in for a tough time and that the Gilvar Syndicate fleet was in the best case down to one quarter of its original strength. But still, we had less ships remaining. What was more, the enemy had the planet’s space defense systems and the orbital artillery which, despite having been cut down a lot, did still exist. But suddenly… It all came to an end.

All fifty enemy ships, including the four remaining cruisers simultaneously warped out toward the neighboring star. Right after that, the fire from the planet ceased. The surviving orbital laser cannons also fell silent. I couldn’t believe my eyes. What just happened??? Did I really make them flinch???

Fox’s voice rang out on the common channel, saying I was not wrong.

“Kung Gnat, we won… The enemy couldn’t withstand the heavy losses and preferred to retreat and save the remnants of their fleet. Recharge Bride of Chaos, pick up the surviving ships, and present an ultimatum to the planet’s authorities. I’m certain they’ll agree to surrender to save the lives of its billions of inhabitants.”

* * *

A pyrrhic victory… Most members of my faction and our allies were probably asking themselves if it was worth it. Losing eighty-seven percent of our ships in the first battle? Had Kung Gnat gone crazy or lost his touch? What if the luck the Free Captain was so famous for had abandoned him? And though no one voiced their complaints in my presence, my Authority fell by three whole points, meaning my subordinates must have been displeased. Oh well. I couldn’t blame them. I was also hoping for a better outcome.

The reason the Fleet of Earth arrived three minutes late to the battle was being investigated, but preliminary conclusions did not point to bad faith. It was just standard bungling — some staff officer had made a mistake converting time from earth minutes and hours into ummi. To be more specific, they rounded to the tenth, which was too crude an approximation. Still, no one bothered to check the calculations. Fox also felt guilty and was avoiding me, changing her appearance and blending into the crew of the huge battleship. So, I had to shoulder the responsibility on my own.

Feeling utterly powerless with a glass of wine in my hand, I was seated on a little sofa in the common room in front of a big screen accepting congratulations from the crew, captains of surviving ships, and leaders of earth factions with a false smile. Yes, we won. And basically, accomplished something great. We had eliminated the threat of a Gilvar Syndicate invasion of our systems. The three hundred thousand well-trained enemy landing troops could have caused very serious trouble if we let them escape. They could have captured Poko-Poko station, which had been left relatively undefended, or landed and reinforced positions on Tailax, which would have been very hard to dislodge them from later. What was more, if they made a direct attack on Earth, particularly the nodes where we were constructed or had already completed planetary shield generators, that would have been a true catastrophe. Now none of that would come to pass.

But at what cost? All that was left of the Fleet of Earth was thirty-four starships, and Bride of Chaos needed lengthy repairs. How Tamara the Paladin had miraculously survived meanwhile I had absolutely no idea. Still, there were also positives. Those who survived the battle levelled up two times on average. I had even made it to the next level. Improving skills, gaining the invaluable experience of real space battle, and exposing errors in planning and command — all those things were highly valuable for the future. We’d also captured some trophies: the biggest was the heavy cruiser Ami-Uro VII, which was under construction at Gilvar II’s docks and was in the final stages. Not to mention the victory over the enemy’s main space force and our first step toward ultimate victory in the war.

We’d already sent our ultimatum to the Gilvar Syndicate planet, but the traditional five ummi for a response had not yet elapsed, so the Gilvar II authorities had not said a thing. However, that delay no longer mattered much — on Bride of Chaos, they were preparing thermonuclear bombs for orbital bombardment, so after a few instructive strikes, the planet’s authorities would have to respond in one way or another. And die if the Kung of Earth didn’t like their response. Now we were expecting reinforcements from Earth for the space fleet as well as our landing troops, which were going to take control over key locations and cities on the planet.

At the same time, in discussions with the leaders of earth factions, I was watching the galactic news on a big screen. The conflict between Earth and the Gilvar Syndicate was given offensively little attention there. All the news channels were flooded with information about the grand battle in the far-off KE-112 system, which belonged to the Vahego race — multicolored intelligent slimes that communicated using electric signals which also sustained them. The only way they could communicate with other races was universal translators. If the news could be believed, something incredible had happened — a Composite fleet bigger than had ever been seen before simply went up in smoke after running into Georg the First’s advance ship group. Eighty thousand starships transformed into scrap in just an hour and a half while the Empire had sustained hardly any losses, though the media did not know exact figures.

The propaganda value of the incredible human victory was very high. Everyone now believed the power of the fleet commanded by Georg the First to be so ground-shaking that the leaders of all the great spacefaring races were tripping over themselves to congratulate the Imperial ruler and assure him of their friendly stance. Interestingly, even Trillian King Hugo the First sent Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle an official missive, though its contents were not disclosed to the public. The Vahego then went even farther and said they were willing to leave the Meleyephatian Horde and accept human vassalage. There had not yet been a reaction from the emperor to that, and the “politics experts” they’d brought into the studio were furiously analyzing whether humans would clash with the Meleyephatians over the slime creatures, or if Krong Laa would allow the Horde to stand down.

I turned off the news, finished my wine and turned to my business partner Gerd Uline Tar sitting opposite me as well as my wayedda Leng Valeri, who was slumped over on the couch with her head on my lap.

“Although Georg the First is an NPC, he’s basically a league above all of us. One word from the emperor could make all leaders in the galaxy fall silent in awe. His fleet could sweep away any barrier and win any battle. The numbers wouldn’t even matter. The talented fleet commander has surrounded himself with his students, each of whom lives to do battle and could conduct a fleet of any size on their own. If Kung Georg were now in the Gilvar system, he’d have won the battle with minimal losses, or even without losses. And it wouldn’t matter which of the two fleets he was leading.”

“That’s true. Georg is a man with a very serious reputation who lives only for space battle,” the Beast Master agreed, “however, his wife could make him do anything. I became convinced quite quickly while talking to Astra that the White Queen is much more intelligent than she wishes to appear in public, and all her foolishness and unserious behavior are for show… now, it isn’t an act, she really does live that way. But it is camouflage. Astra is the true ruler of the Empire, and Georg does whatever his wife wants. I would go through the White Queen, husband, if you want to rid yourself of the inept murder charges and criminal status. Because restoring relations with the Empire is a necessity.”

“I have a special gift for the White Queen — a work of art by Composite leader Krong Bubi-O-O-Yula. He asked me to give it to the emperor’s wife himself. But that makes it a gift from someone else, not me, so the proper effect will not be achieved…”

“We could give the empress a white Shadow Panther kitten!” Gerd Uline the Geckho Trader lit up and joined the conversation. “You said, my friend, that the White Queen was crazy about Little Sister. We should play on the empress’ whims and give her what she wants! Find one just like it for Astrid. I’ll look through trade contracts. Smugglers are always getting all kinds of interesting stuff from the Quarantine Planet. I think I saw Shadow Panthers once, or at the very least their pelts.”

An unhappy grumbling came from invisibility behind me — I didn’t know how, but Little Sister was aware of what we were talking about and she did not approve. Her master Leng Valeri-Urla was also outraged, saying smugglers on the Quarantine Planet were the vilest people she’d ever encountered and she did not want to have any dealings with them.

I meanwhile was aware that Valerie was bothered not only by memories about the past. Her sister Dinka had joined a crew of smugglers as a young woman and was now crew on the ship of Leng Astarta — a severe woman with quite a sordid reputation, dealing in slaves and dangerous animals from the Quarantine Planet. The sisters parted ways not on the best of terms, though I knew for certain that my wayedda still loved her little sister. And was very worried for Dinka, because information had come in that the dangerous Hive of Tintara mafia had killed Valerie’s mother on Hugo the First’s orders and was searching for any other relatives. Gnat’s business partner’s sudden interest in rare animals from the Quarantine Planet might point our enemies to Astarta’s crew and expose Dinka.

And so, in order to reassure the big-eyed beauty, I promised not to buy animals from Quarantine Planet smugglers or any intermediaries. But if the war with the Gilvar Syndicate led us to the Quarantine Planet, which felt very likely, we could try to find a gift for the White Queen on our own there. And if we did not find a little Shadow Panther kitten, we could look for a suitable male for Valerie’s pet, which would get us our own Shadow Panther kittens, though it would take some time.

Just then, my communicator beeped with a call from planet Gilvar II. Figuring the capital city authorities wanted to tell their decision before the ultimatum time limit was up, I turned on the screen. And the smile immediately crept off my face.

On the screen was a man I had never met in person, but whose face I had seen many times on screens. Kung Yoji Umoro. The ruler of the Gilvar Syndicate wished to speak with me personally. Noticing the call had been accepted, my enemy immediately pointed the camera away from his face and turned the other way. Toward two tied-up adolescents who looked either dead or unconscious: a human girl and a Miyelonian male with gray fur.

“As you can see, my enemy, your two wards are with me. And you will not be giving the ultimatums — I will. Evacuate the pitiful remnants of your fleet from my capital and pay a four-fold indemnity for all the structures and ships you destroyed. I give you five ummi, just as you gave me. And if you don’t agree, I’ll have a courier send you two decapitated heads. Time is ticking!”

Chapter Two. Time to Act

THE RULER OF THE GILVAR SYNDICATE would regret taking this conflict from a military or political level to personal relationships! And not only because he boosted my Gnat’s Frenzy by a whole two levels — I didn’t go into death machine mode and twice drained the Frenzy Point bar, levelling the skill to forty-nine, then fifty. It was just that Kung Yoji Umoro had suggested we continue the conflict on terms where I felt as comfortable as a fish in the sea. Because as a fleet commander or military strategist, I would not hide that I was an absolute nobody. I was also not great at administrating a huge domain or ruling a country. But as Pyramid Hierarch, with incredible abilities to manipulate reality, or as Devourer with a team of intensely loyal players of unique classes, I could ruin anyone’s life if I wanted!

And so, I didn’t miss the chance to respond.

“Imran! Track Tini and Soia-Tan’s markers, stat. Kung Yoji Umoro’s, too.”

A few seconds later, I got a reply from the Dagestani Arbiter.

“Tini and the girl are not in the game, I can’t track them. But the ruler is somewhere here in the Gilvar system. His marker is moving fast. It seems like his starship is in a warp jump from planet to planet.”

Well, well… Most likely, Kung Yoji Umoro was on a cloaked frigate because the locators couldn’t find any starships in space other than those that were part of the Fleet of Earth. I asked Gerd Imran to track the ruler’s starship’s route together with Navigator Gerd Ayukh.

At the same time, I asked my business partner Gerd Uline to find the names of the captains of the enemy cruisers — it was probably not confidential, so finding out who was in charge of the Gilvar Syndicate’s starships was no trouble. I then asked her to communicate this information to Gerd Imran the Arbiter so he could also track their locations. Now, I was very alarmed by the enemy fleet having escaped from battle. The uninhabited UY-120 star system, where the ships retreated after battle, was not where they stayed. They quickly warped somewhere else. Fifty starships and four cruisers could present a serious threat, and the enemy’s plans to use this flotilla had to be figured out and headed off by greeting the ships right where they emerged from the warp tunnel.

My next step was to compose a list of the wives, sons, daughters, and other relatives of the ruler of the Gilvar Syndicate, famed for his boundless appetites for romance. I had to track down all the people my enemy cared about and capture them to exchange for my wards or at the very least to discover the location of the secrete refuge where the ruler’s relatives were hiding.

My next move was to attack the enemy ruler’s finances. Kung Yoji Umoro was reputed to be quite a rich man, and it was not likely that his funds were kept in local Gilvar Syndicate banks — what was the point of a native currency with no recognition elsewhere in the galaxy, and which could not be used to buy anything? The Meleyephatians also were very unwilling to allow junior partners in the Horde access to their banking system, afraid of losing influence over them. It was possible to obtain Horde currency, but only in very limited amounts and under the strict monitoring of senior partners, which was clearly not the best way to store the capital of a criminal leader. Even more closed-off to other races were the Trillians. Their Kingdom preferred using Miyelonian crypto or even Geckho crystals for trade. So, what did that get me?

I had no way of influencing the Meleyephatian Horde, but the Miyelonians and Geckho would heed the advice of their ally Kung Gnat. Because a request to that effect was immediately sent to Great Priestess Leng Amiru U-Mayaoo with a comment saying to block all accounts of the vile kidnapper of the Miyelonian child Tini Wi-Gnat — and he for the record was her official charge, having once been promised protection and defense by the Great Priestess. I was quite familiar with the personality of the Great Priestess, who saw herself as the defender of the sons and daughters of her people, so no one would have any doubts that Kung Yoji Umoro would be losing his savings down to the last crypto if it was stored in the Union of Miyelonian Prides.

Similar requests went out to the two other leaders of the presently quarrelling Geckho race: Kung Waid-Shishish and Kung Daveyesh-Pir. Yes, the former sole ruler of the Geckho race Daveyesh-Pir had plummeted in authority among his subjects, even rolling back to kung level after signing the act of capitulation in the war. Meanwhile, as far as I’d heard, his opponent now had higher Authority and Legitimacy — Kung Waid Shishish was seen by the proud Geckho as the hope of their race to take off again after a crushing fall. In one way or another, in the case of the Geckho, I even recommended both leaders not only to find but to immediately drain the personal accounts of Kung Yoji Umoro and all companies affiliated with the criminal leader of the Syndicate. Knowing how badly both Geckho leaders needed finances to restore their beaten-up fleets, I had no doubts the Geckho would shake my enemy’s accounts out until not a single crystal remained.

I was also planning a propaganda offensive. First down the Meleyephatian Horde line, where I was preparing a speech before the Expanded Council of Horde rulers explaining the reasons for the conflict between the two kungs of the human race and reassuring neighbors that the conflict was purely an internal human affair and should not touch on the interests of any other spacefaring race. What was more, the war was sanctioned by Horde leader Krong Laa, and the Kung of Earth was only doing as instructed by the powerful ruler. I had another big speech planned for the rulers of Gilvar II from orbit, where I was planning to reassure all my future subjects that their lives would not get worse after casting off the heavy yoke of criminal ruler Kung Yoji Umoro and his innumerable offspring.

I was still just discussing the details of the future speech with my business partner Gerd Uline Tar and Leng Valeri, but overall, I was planning to repeat the trick which had been played many years ago by the then unknown Crown Prince Georg royl Inoky ton Mesfelle when capturing the planet of Unatari — the future capital of his independent state. At the time, the Fleet Commander of Perimeter Sector Eight declared a “grand hunt” for money and property belonging to the former rulers of the planet Unatari, and any person had the opportunity to grow fabulously wealthy by being the first to tell the new authorities about a bank account, property, storage facility for valuables or stock belonging to the criminal king. In that way, he achieved three separate goals: to gain a loyal group of new oligarchs for the new government who would be given the assets of the former owners with a commission due to Crown Prince Georg; to deprive his enemy of funds; and to make the people on the planet stop fearing the return and possible revenge of the former authorities so they would be eager to work with the new administration.1

And now that the first response steps had been taken, I needed to think it over well. The blackmail video, which I had now watched multiple times, I paused to study the frames individually. Tini and Soia-Tan were lying on the floor of some dark room tied up. It was like an underground bunker or bomb shelter based on the old concrete walls covered in dark mold and the heavy metal prison cell door. It was not possible to find out what kind of place it was, but it certainly was not a berth on a starship. And that meant that Kung Yoji Umoro could not be with the prisoners, meaning he was trying to trick me by presenting old or manipulated footage, which seemed to have been given a new soundtrack appear fresher.

And so, I sent the following message to the blackmailer:

“The video you sent bears obvious traces of editing. And so, I will give you nothing until I receive confirmation that Tini and Soia-Tan are alive and conscious.”

I considered it and added another thing:

“King Hugo the First, ruler of the Trillians, claims my wards are with him. And I have more reason to believe him as ruler of a great spacefaring race than some pitiful loser who lost his war fleet, entire landing party, and his capital in the very first engagement. And so, I expect a video of my wards alive and well. Otherwise I will consider your threats a bluff and see no reason to continue talking.”

Yes, sometimes it was helpful to pretend to know less than I did to put an enemy’s guard down. And my calculation paid off! At first, I got a message about a successful Authority check, then from out by the third planet of the Gilvar star system, came a response.

“Alright, my friend. You’ll get confirmation that your youths are alive. But I need time to arrange a video call with them. Four ummi. And now that you’ve introduced this condition, your ultimatum is prolonged by the same amount. As is mine.”

* * *

The furry Navigator reached out to me when I was preparing to head back to get some rest after the endlessly long and very action-packed day.

“Captain Gnat, the Syndicate ships are headed for the UU-43 system and will be there in a quarter ummi.”

“What is in that system?” I asked, suppressing a yawn.

Gerd Ayukh rumbled out something unintelligible while looking at a complicated diagram of intersecting lines on his monitor, then answered clearly.

“Apparently nothing of interest. It’s an empty system, no planets suitable for colonization. No spacefaring race is conducting any activity in the UU-43 system. It’s just a convenient starting point to reach Earth in one hyperspace jump.”

Earth? So, the enemies had decided to attack my home planet after all! In theory, there was nothing to fear — the four existing generators could support a rudimentary planetary shield, so the virtual planet was not under threat from orbital bombardment. What was more, there was a corvette and interceptor flotilla in a state of constant combat readiness near earth and a few orbital batteries were already finished, so the enemy would be met with dense fire. Beyond that, the crews of the ships downed in the Gilvar system had already received new ships and were undergoing training in the Solar System, so our side would have a serious numerical advantage. But the very idea of allowing the enemy to get so close to my homeworld bothered me, so I was going to intercept the Gilvar Syndicate ships before they could get there! I had plenty of time to make it and even take the corvettes and interceptors from Earth.

“Interestingly, one of the cruisers is being piloted by Leng Vaka Umoro — third son of the Gilvar Syndicate’s ruler. A Mara-O III model rocket cruiser of Trillian design. It’s called Babehunter and serves as something of a flagship. Imran and I have been tracking the route of the whole flotilla with him.”

I winced in disgust — the son of the Syndicate’s ruler seemed to have taken after his father. But the main objective was now determined: I had found one child of my enemy and now our mission was to take him captive.

“Find any of the Kung’s other relatives?”

“Yes, his second wife is with his eldest daughter on the neutral Medu-Ro IV Station, which…”

“I know where Medu-Ro is!” I interrupted the utterly unnecessary explanation from the navigator. “Tell me, Ayukh, what are such important ladies doing on a pirate station? Are they not afraid to lose their purses?”

“I can’t tell you things I don’t know, captain. But clearly the human women have enough security that they don’t have to worry about robbers.”

Robbers maybe… But the ladies’ bodyguards would likely be unable to stand up against my boarding team reinforced by a hundred Alpha Iseyek with training from Fox herself, much less Gerd Svetlana Vereshchagina the professional Assassin and physical education instructor who was back in my crew after a long absence.

Just to be safe, I also asked:

“As for Kung Yoji Umoro’s other wives and children, have you figured anything out? Or have Tini and Soia-Tan come back into the game?”

“No, they haven’t, captain. The ruler’s core group of family, as we assumed, is located on the Quarantine Planet. There’s no way to determine their exact location from so far away, we’d have to go right next to the planet itself. Then we could find their secret refuge.”

Apparently, sleep was not in the cards for the next few hours. I had to act before my opponent came to his senses and my wards were hidden somewhere far away.

Chapter Three. Correcting Errors

WITH EVER-GROWING ANXIETY,