Elsewhere

Duke took his downtime to review his notifications. He expected that this would be a big jump for him since he was only level 87 in this Tier and was looking forward to it. He was especially grateful that he hadn’t had to use UMBRAL REAPER this time around. The emotional and spiritual pain of activating it and its resultant feedback was hard on his sanity. Setting that thought aside with a shudder, he delved right in.

*** Congratulations, you defeated 1,331 enemies of various levels between Tier One and Tier Three. You gain 1,093,300 experience and are now level 99. You have 216 Characteristic Points to spend.

You have increased a number of Abilities as well:

Your TELEPORTATION has increased to Grandmaster 108

Your REGENERATION has increased to Master 16

Your AURA CONCEALMENT has increased to Initiate 34

Your LASTING DISGUISE has increased to Initiate 31

Your LIGHTNING has increased to Adept 29

Your OVERCHANNEL has increased to Adept 115

Your SIMULCASTING has increased to Practiced 29

Your CLEANSE has increased to Practiced 51

Your RESTORE has increased to Master 85

Your REMOTE CASTING has increased to Initiate 18

Your ARMOR SKIN has increased to Adept 76

Your MANA DRAIN has increased to Initiate 21

Your CLAIRVOYANCE has increased to Practiced 7

Your DUNGEON MONSTER CREATION has increased to Novice 12

***

Duke took in all the gains with a smile. He allocated his new Characteristic points right to his Psyche and immediately felt a slight lessening of the pressure on his mind. With my Psyche enhancement from the Dungeon Title, I’m over 41,000 in Psyche. And that’s still not enough to fully contain what UMBRAL REAPER has brought home with it. That’s something I’m going to have to figure out. But I have other things to worry about right now.

He left his room and headed down to the mech bay to check in on things there. All the mech bays were filled and the various Clan pilots were checking over their mechs after the space battle. Gro’nok noticed Duke right away and headed over to him.

“So, fighting in space without a spacesuit. How did you manage that?”

Duke eyed him with a wry grin, “I’m tougher than I look. And it’s just a cold vacuum. It’s not like it’s all that hard to deal with.”

Several sets of eyes turned Duke’s way and he smiled in response. With a glance around, he addressed the entire mech bay, “You all charged through space to take on a trio of heavy cruisers in mechs. That takes balls of steel, and maybe a head as dense.”

The laughter and affirmative comments that followed into a call and refrain. “Who’s the toughest on the field? Steel Tusks! Who strikes fear into the hearts of our enemies? Steel Tusks! Who are we? Steel Tusks!” They devolved into grunting and cheering with aggressive backslaps.

“Don’tcha start brawling, Tusks. There’s plenty more we have to do!” Gro’nok seemed to catch them just in time as a pair had squared off to fight. Instead, they just smiled at each other and clasped forearms.

“Need any repairs?” Duke casually asked.

“A few of us got banged up a bit but we’re still operational.”

“So, you don’t want me to-”

“I didn’t say that. Work your magic.”

Duke chuckled and activated a RESTORE to cover the whole ship. As the mechs rapidly repaired themselves, the crews gaped in wonder.

“That, my Tusks, is Duke. He’s the reason most of you even have mechs to pilot and a ship to transport them in.”

New looks of appreciation spread through the mech bay, and more than one female orc gave him a appraising glance from head to toe.

“Should I be concerned about that?” Duke quietly asked Gro’nok.

“Only if you and Aurelia aren’t really broken up. Otherwise just ride the wave. And if they ever find out you heal so quickly, yeah. Ride that wave. Ain’t nothing like an orc woman when it comes to passion.”

Duke took his leave shortly after that, stopping off at the ship’s engineering section to refill the Mana cores. He found that they were only down half of one core, so it was a matter of a minute to fill it up carefully. Soon he was back on the bridge.

Mira picked up his entrance immediately. She smiled at him, “So, you ready to get going?”

“Have you decided that you are coming along?”

“Of course. Even the Clan wants to come along.”

“You all know we’re heading to another conflict with the Syndicate, right?”

“Yes, we all know it. But you handled the last one just fine. Maybe this time we can set up an ambush for them.”

“Ambush? What do you mean?”

“Lya has been reaching out to friends to see if they might be interested in a piece of the Syndicate. You’d be surprised how many enemies they have made.”

“Or friends who are only going along until they can betray us for the paycheck.”

“I don’t think that’s the case. She said she was careful.”

“Let’s take this aside for a minute,” Duke directed her to the conference room off the bridge and she followed. Once there, he closed the door and continued.

“It’s very simple. There’s very few I trust in this world. You are one of them, Aurelia is another, and probably Gro’nok. Lya is not on the list for sure. Anyone she brings in is sure as fuck not on the trust list. I’m heading to a confrontation with the Syndicate where they are bringing something called the hounds with them. There are a lot of people counting on me to keep them safe on Teldin but they are not ready for this level of combat. They don’t know what a mech is. They haven’t seen a drop ship. Why do you think I put the ‘come and get me’ sign in the middle of a fucking desert? I don’t need even more variables brought into this fight.”

Mira stared at him as he paced around the conference table. Finally, she gathered her thoughts enough to respond, “Would it be better for you if we all stayed away?”

Duke stopped his pacing, “Is that what you got out of all that? No, I really would like for you to be there but there’s no way that this ship is taking on a capitol ship. You’ve said it before and you’re still right. I just don’t want people that I have no clue who they are showing up to lend us a hand before they stab us in the back. Not now. Not on Teldin.”

“You seem to care an awful lot about that planet.”

“I have a kingdom on that planet and a number of important people, places, and things there that I will protect. Even if it costs me greatly.”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Duke shook her off, “Don’t worry about it. It’s a ‘me’ problem. Nothing anyone else has to worry about. But do you understand why I’m putting the stop to any more external players than we already have?”

“Yeah. I’ll talk to her. How long are you going to need to get ready for the trip there?”

“I’m ready when you are. I have waypoints already selected. It’s a bit more conservative route than it could have been but I want to hit each of the waypoints with Mana in the tank.”

“OK, then,” Mira opened the door to the conference room and strode out onto the bridge in full “captain” form. She sat in the captain’s chair and pulled up the shipwide intercom.

“Attention everyone. We are about to depart for Teldin. When we arrive, we expect to rapidly engage in combat with the Syndicate. Mechs be ready to deploy. Infantry, likewise. I know you have been keeping a low profile and staying in your own circle but now is the time to step out and support each other. We are expecting a fleet similar to what we encountered at Capnok so this ship will be making its way right to the planet’s surface. Duke has volunteered to engage the capitol ships like he did last time. Whatever final preparations you need to make, need to be made now.”

Duke stepped out onto the bridge and took his place at the navigational console. It took him a matter of seconds to bring up his previously created flight plan and double-check it. He saw that he could easily modify it and reduce the number of jumps but that would only speed up the journey by a matter of minutes. He dismissed the revisions and decided to stick to the original plan.

He looked over to Mira who gave him a nod. Duke TELEPORTED the ship to the first waypoint. The scanners swept the area around the ship in an ever-expanding arc. As Duke had expected, the scanners didn’t pick anything up. He waited for his Mana to refill and checked his next location. The silence on the bridge permeated everything to the point that the act of tapping on the display for the next destination carried to everyone’s ears. Duke didn’t wait for confirmation before TELEPORTING them to the second waypoint.

In short order, the waypoints fell away without incident, and they were on the verge of the final jump. Duke looked over to Mira, “Make the announcement. We may be going in hot, but I’m going to place the ship on the planet’s surface. That way you can deploy the mechs quickly if needed and it will give us a minute or two to assess the situation before we engage any further. Sound like a plan? This is a short jump for me so I’ll have about half my Mana left over – just in case.”

“If it means we aren’t going to jump into a pitched battle with a bunch of capitol ships, I’m fully on-board with that.” She took a moment to clear her head before continuing over the ship wide intercom, “Attention everyone. We are about to make the final jump to Teldin. Prepare for possible rapid deployment of mechs and infantry.”

Duke gave them all a minute or two to get ready before calling down on his own comms to Gro’nok, “Are you ready in the mech bay?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be. Please don’t dump us too deep in it if you can help it.”

“No promises. I have no idea what we are going to see when we get there. Strap in, and get ready to fight!”

Duke paused a bit longer and, with a nod to Mira, TELEPORTED them outside of the Lake Front Inn.