Elsewhere

One by one, things lit up in the chamber, each bringing a new sense of wonder. As the room became illuminated the wall opposite the core came to life with a display of all the chambers below. There were annotations and short descriptions for each.

Mira approached the wall and touched one of the indicated chambers causing it to swell on the display and provide more data. She stared at it for several seconds before sighing and stepping back. “It might be an inventory system, but it’s not in any language I’ve ever seen.”

“Me neither.”

“Nope.”

“Not a clue.”

Duke looked at it and shrugged. “That chamber is a food cache. I have no idea what the actual food items are but it’s definitely a food cache. This one, however, is a bit more interesting.” Duke closed the menu on the food cache and opened another item. “This is the armory.”

“Now that is far beyond interesting. How do we get into the chamber. I don’t see stairs or an elevator in this room. Anyone else?” Mira asked.

Duke continued to tap on the controls in an attempt to fumble his way to an answer. In doing so, he came across a number of other interesting cache descriptions including: Orbital Control System, Picotechnology Storage, Cosmic Foam Containment, and Genetic Engineering. He read the names out as he went. The anticipation and excitement in the room continued to build as he continued to read the names off in the tense silence.

They all jumped when Mira’s communications crystal buzzed. She fumbled with it, “What? What the hell? Why are you calling me?”

“So sorry to disturb you, your majesty, but we have over a dozen Syndicate dropships inbound, and I thought you might want to know about it.” Lya’s voice held an entirely different type of tension.

Duke didn’t hesitate. “Get everyone to the ship. I will lock this place down so that they cannot access anything if they can even find this room.”

“You can do that?” Zarkon asked.

“You’d be amazed at some of the things this trouble-magnet can do,” Mira remarked. “Back to where we can organize everyone please, Duke.”

“On it. I’ll catch up to everyone on the ship. Prepare everyone to depart.”

“Sorry, twins. Guess your mechs will have to stay,” Urgoth muttered.

“What was that?” Duke asked.

“Their mechs are too damaged to move. We’ll have to leave them behind. Mine is barely functional as it is.”

Duke had a clear picture of where the mechs were from his tour and was able to target a trio of remotely cast RESTOREs before responding, “Collect your mechs. They should be functional. Don’t waste time asking questions. There’s a lot to be done before the Syndicate fucking gets here.” With a thought, the room was emptied of everyone save for himself.

He kept his DUNGEON SENSE running at full force so that he would know when the Syndicate ships got close enough to be a problem. His current range of 300 kilometers was not nearly enough to reach the standard ship’s orbit for this massive planet. He did figure it would give him enough of a warning before the ship came into range to be able to attack the fortress.

Duke could see the mad scramble of the infantry picking up everything they could carry and hustling it to the ship. He put that view on hold and split his focus between watching for the descending ship and locating the cache he was looking for. It took a little over thirty seconds to locate it and even less to secure entry, a portal opening in front of him which he stepped through without hesitation. The last thing his DUNGEON SENSE picked up before entering was the first Syndicate ship breaking into the 300-kilometer range.

Immediately, he lost sense of anything outside of the cache confirming to his mind that this was an extra-dimensional space, likely a pocket dimension. He took stock of the room and noted that it was far more vast than he had anticipated. The chamber went on for kilometers in nearly all directions and it was full of equipment and storage containers.

“Fuck. There’s no way I can take all of this and I don’t have the time to sort through it all and still set the place up for lockdown. OK, take what I can and then I have to go lock it all down again.”

Duke pulled dozens of storage containers and stacks of equipment at random into his INVENTORY and retreated back through the portal. He set to securing the system lockdown, having read the “emergency lockdown procedure” that had been flashing on the screen when he accessed it the first time. He didn’t know why it was the first thing to appear, but he guessed it might have been a situation like this when it was shut down previously. He completed the last two steps, tying the lockdown to his own life signature and removing the core he had made for the facility. The Syndicate ships had closed to 100 kilometers and Duke TELEPORTED to the floor above, replacing the standard core with the special one he had created. That will hold you bastards off for long enough for you to bring out the big guns and level this place. No matter what, you’re not getting to the floors below. So…fuck you! He TELEPORTED to the bridge of the Iron Reaver.

***

Urgoth stumbled when he appeared in the fortress’ mech bay. His, and his two partners’ mechs, stood ready to go, their black paint unblemished. The mechs themselves looked like they were new. He stared at it all incredulously.

Morka looked to him, “What is happening? Why is the evacuation alarm sounding?”

“It means we have to evacuate, you poor excuse for a tusk shaper! Now mount up and let’s get out of here before we are up to our bristles in Syndicate mechs!” He did not wait for a response as he scrambled up into his mech and franticly fired the emergency start-up controls. He felt the rush of power as Ebon Firestorm connected to his mind and he could feel the expansion of his consciousness into the magitech flowing through the mech.

The rush of power still thrilled him as much now as it did on the day he emerged triumphant from his trial and was accepted into the ranks of the Steel Tusks. The connection and power flowed through his body, through his consciousness. When he was piloting Ebon Firestorm, he was just more. Nothing compared to that feeling and no one who was not an Ebon pilot of the Steel Tusks could understand it.

With smoothness that belied the size of his mech, Urgoth slammed his mech’s fist on the door control, opening the mech bay to the outside. He strode out, ready to defend his allies and family while they ran for the ship. Morka and Murgan took station on his wings and the three strode out onto the field of battle with the confidence of a veteran warrior. He would kill or die this day for the Clan!

***

Mira appeared on the bridge of her ship just as Duke had intended. Bless that man’s ability to put things where they need to be but fuck! A dozen Syndicate drop ships? I could handle two, possibly as many as four with the upgrades to our power systems, but there’s no fucking way I can handle a dozen. She scrambled to get the ship ready for launching and combat, her fingers flying across controls as the engines sprang to life in a full emergency start burst. Duke’s going to have to fix those too if we make it out of here.

Aurelia paced around the bridge, unsure of what to do again. Mira was frantically doing something and Lya was also doing something with another set of controls but, once again, she could not understand what anyone was saying. She began to don her armor, able to only sense that a fight was coming and there was enough tension that it was not going to be an easy one.

Lya worked both the communications and navigational consoles, trying to find the closest jump point they could get to while running from the Syndicate ships. It was not looking good. The ships had set up in a wide ring formation that would collapse on the Iron Reaver like the weight of the ocean crushing an egg.

She looked back to get Aurelia to help out but quickly realized that the woman could not understand her and that she really wouldn’t be any help to her if she even could understand. Fucking useless but not her fucking fault. Dammit! Where is the escape vector?

***

Gro’nok led his triad down the ramp to take up defensive position around the Iron Reaver. He spoke on the proximity channel, “Let them come and let them be crushed under our might. For the Clan!”

Tukka and Ter’fald echoed his chant and soon Urgoth’s triad joined them, the six mechs adjusting their positioning to allow the last of the infantry to scramble up the ramp and into the ship. They trained their weapons on the most extreme vertical angle their mech would allow. It wasn’t true vertical, perhaps 75% at best, but it was all they could manage at the moment.

***

The general communication channel sparked to life with a message from the Syndicate, “Attention Iron Reaver. This is Commander Malor Vestu of the Syndicate Drop Ship Battlegroup Nova Vanguard. We have no wish to destroy your ship. We only have interest in one of your passengers. If you turn over the King Duke to us, I offer you a true oath that you will be allowed to leave intact and unharmed. Furthermore, you will be allowed to operate freely independently henceforth.”

The broadcast had run through the ship, the mechs, and even across the personal communications crystals of everyone below. They all received the system notice confirming the oath as well.

Duke read the notification and shrugged. He opened up his communications channel to Mira, “That sounds like a pretty good deal for you. Maybe you should take it.”

“Oh, fuck off, Duke. You know I’m not taking the deal. The Steel Tusks would cut me to pieces and feed me to their children if I pulled something like that.”

“She is right, Duke. We stand with you for this fight and for all the ones to come. Let them spend their blood on our blades!”

“I’m coming back to the ship. Everyone else is aboard so get those mechs loaded!” Duke announced as he activated the fortress’s shield and TELEPORTED to the bridge.

Mira smirked at him, “It is a tempting offer, but I like having my instant repairman onboard too much. Any thoughts on how you want to handle this?”

“Two actually. We can go full scorched Earth and destroy their ships, or we can rabbit the hell out of here.”

“I can’t outrun them or even outmaneuver that many ships. They have us trapped between a rock and a lot of firepower.”

“Then we rabbit.” He could see from his DUNGEON SENSE that the Syndicate ships were only 25 kilometers away and descending quickly. He could also see that all six mechs were aboard and secured. “Close up the ship. We are about to get out of here!”

The Syndicate ships slowed to a hover a mere kilometer above the Iron Reaver. Mira knew they were well within optimal firing range of the Syndicate’s weapons and her time was essentially up. Her engines were fired up but they were still on the ground and they were so heavily outgunned that their options were running out. She was relying on Duke’s Abilities to get them out of yet another jam. It made her skin crawl with helplessness. She did not like the feeling.

“Captain Mira Calder! You will respond. Your ship is grounded, surrounded, and outgunned. Make the smart choice here.” The call over the communications systems was calm and sounded eminently reasonable.”

“Duke?”

The Iron Reaver vanished from the planet, appearing a dozen light years away in empty space. “Sorry,” Duke responded while looking up from the navigation console. “I had to find a safe place to put us. Is everyone OK?”