Core Construction

Dimensional Dungeon Cores

Book 2

Jonathan Brooks

Cover Design: Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Edited by: Ellen Klowden

Copyright ©2022 Jonathan Brooks

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The following is a work of fiction.  Any names, characters, businesses, corporations, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner.  Any resemblance to any actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.

Cover Design Copyright ©2022 Yvonne Less, Art 4 Artists

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all my Patrons on Patreon who are supporting me through my writing endeavors, while also giving me valuable feedback on my works-in-progress!

In addition, I want to thank all of my awesome beta-readers:

Aaron Eichler

Brett Siegel

Brian Oles

Charl van Niekerk

Gevan Eldredge

Grant Harrell

James Boyles

James Hensley

Joshua Chausse

Kelly Linzey

Kevin McCartney

Matthew Berry

Michael Huber

Nate Martin

Rickie Brown

Zack Devney

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Recap

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Author’s Note

Books by Jonathan Brooks

Foreword

Dimensional Dungeon Cores is technically a continuation of my complete Station Cores series (links to the eBook and audiobook for the Complete Box Set are at the end of this book). However, you can still thoroughly enjoy this story without having read a single word of the previous series.  Those who have experienced the awesomeness that is Milton and his Station Core will recognize many references to the series, as well as Sandra from the Dungeon Crafting series.

In addition, there are a lot of fun stats in this book that have been included in the footnotes; these stats are completely optional to look at, but those who enjoy a visual representation of different stat tables or additional information can dig into them.  Those who don’t care for stats or just want to enjoy the flow of the story without all of the distractions won’t miss anything if they choose to ignore them.

However you choose to experience this book, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Recap

Milton Frederick thought that he would be an unexpected savior when he finally left Proctus, the world where his Station Core had crash-landed, and emerged into The Collective’s space.

Suffice it to say, he was extraordinarily wrong.

Emerging from the in-between dimension used for traveling via his trans-dimensional drive, Milton’s entire fleet of ships operated by his Proctan friends was destroyed by the Heliothropes, while his own ship was barely able to escape.  After fleeing, the Station Core deduced that going back to former Collective territory was a bad idea; instead, he wanted to see what had happened to Earth while he was gone for nearly 5,000 years.  Sadly, soon after arriving in a familiar solar system, Milton discovered that the Humans on Earth had destroyed themselves many years before, though signs of habitation on Mars indicated the possibility that some Humans may have survived Earth’s destruction.

Unfortunately, there were also signs that the Heliothropes – the race of beings that had threatened The Collective to the point where the pacifistic collection of people designed Station Cores to defend themselves – had attacked the colony on Mars and either killed or captured the Humans there.  After managing to dock with an unknown space station near Jupiter, Milton and his crew, which included ALANNA (his nanite-formed AI guide), as well as Brint and Whisp (two of his oldest Proctan friends), learned from a young Mouslan named Trinket that the Heliothropes had conquered and enslaved the entire galaxy while he was gone.  Even more than that, because he had acquired some materials from the abandoned Mars colony while his ship was there, he had inadvertently alerted the vast Heliothropic empire to his presence.

Such attention was something that he wanted to avoid at all costs, especially considering that he possessed knowledge they wanted: technology created by The Collective, including the trans-dimensional drive.

On the run from Heliothropes, and with the help of Trinket, Milton and his crew eventually took over a derelict space station, which he was able to partially rebuild into a semi-functioning vessel for his Core.  To defend against attacks by the militaristic race of Heliothropes, who prefer physical combat over ship-to-ship assaults if they can help it, he designed a dungeon – of sorts – inside a very small portion of the station’s rings.

The Station Core quickly learned that the shielding that protected the Heliothropes made them as formidable as anything he had encountered on Proctus.  Only through constantly upgrading his defenses, including enlisting the help of hundreds of Proctans, was Milton able to keep the enemy from breaching the station’s inner defenses.

Nothing could’ve prepared him for what happened next.  After witnessing his space station, nicknamed Murder Station by the Proctans on board, escape time and again through a small tear in the dimensional fabric separating him from what he called the traveling dimension, the Heliothropes experimented with traveling to another dimension – though their objective wasn’t to travel faster, but to conquer.  Not only that, but their method of getting to another dimension wasn’t so much to create a tear in the dimensional fabric; rather, they blasted an ever-growing wound in the barrier separating their dimension from the one they wanted to conquer, threatening the entirety of existence in all dimensions at the same time.

To stop this from happening, and to hopefully close the wound from the other side, Milton and crew traveled to the other dimension, only to find that the growing hole was being held open by some sort of Stabilizing Anchor.  That anchor was the key to closing and healing the dimensional fabric between the two dimensions, and it had planted itself in a nearby planet, where it was siphoning off the planet’s energy in order to keep the hole open.

This planet, however, was not barren.  On the contrary, it was full of life, including many different races, such as Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, Orcs, and even Humans.  In addition to that, some of the planet’s energy was focused on Dungeon Cores, which were contracted by The Creator to design dungeons.  These dungeons needed to be periodically culled by the nearby people in order to keep those Cores from expanding and killing indiscriminately.  One of those Dungeon Cores, who was vastly different from the others, wound up agreeing to help to repel the Heliothropes and destroy the Stabilizing Anchor.

Sandra, the Dungeon Core that Milton met with, was a crafter at heart, and her Dungeon Monsters reflected that in the form of metallic constructs.  After Milton built up a base of facilities that constructed biological Combat Units and vehicles for the assault, Sandra contributed thousands of her own Dungeon Monsters to the effort, which were led by a small team of Collaboration and Mutual Protection (or CAMP) Guild members.

The assault on the Stabilizing Anchor and what was some sort of Heliothrope Breeder Ship went well at first, at least until a Commander emerged from the ship.  The 100-foot-tall, black-skinned monstrosity was extraordinarily powerful, absolutely devastating to Combat Units and Dungeon Monsters alike, as well as killing Echo, who was an Elf, a CAMP Guild member, and a personal friend of Sandra.  Thanks to a last-second decision to destroy the anchor immediately, the Commander suddenly lost the protection of his shield and was quickly taken down by the remnants of the forces that Milton commanded.

Devastated by the loss of Echo, Sandra asked Milton if he could bring her back to life using the unique method of cloning he had developed with the Proctans to make them essentially immortal, as long as he was able to provide the Biological Mass to bring them back after they died.  He agreed to try, and he succeeded in bringing her back by using two elemental Energy Orbs during the process, though she lost all of her progress in handling the Holy and Air elements.  The Station Core also discovered that he could theoretically provide access to any or all of the different elements to the people from Sandra’s “Creator” dimension, though that was something that was so far untested.

When he was finished cleaning up the debris and materials from the Breeder Ship exploding, Milton had to leave the planet to go back to his own dimension, as the Heliothropes breaking into yet another dimension was a real possibility. However, he had grown quite fond of Sandra in a way he had never really experienced before, and he hesitated to leave. Miraculously, Whisp and the Think Tank had evaluated the anchor before it was destroyed; as such, they had discovered a way to create a stable and portable hole between the two dimensions, which would allow Sandra to visit Milton’s station.

Which she certainly did at her first opportunity.

Now, back in his own dimension, flush with enough materials to last him at least a few months without having to salvage anything along the way and with a visiting Dungeon Core on his station, Milton needs to figure out what to do next.  Granted, he had succeeded in eliminating the threat to Sandra’s dimension, as well as closing the potential existence-ending dimensional wound that the Heliothropes managed to create.  However, those accomplishments were only a reaction to what was happening, rather than a solution to the overall problem the war-like race presented to the galaxy and other dimensions.

It was time to start making plans, but what those plans would ultimately be was a bit up in the air.  First and foremost, he needed to survive long enough to start making a difference, which was easier said than done….

Chapter 1

Chanfa swung the crude steel pickaxe at the wall again, the ring of it striking against rock drowned out by hundreds of others around him doing the same.  The sound of mining was almost a constant drone where individual strikes were practically indistinguishable from each other.  He was more than used to it, however, and in all honesty barely even heard it anymore; a dozen years of mining inside of the same deep pit made him numb to the environment and the activities found within.

His next strike found the small vein of ore he suspected might be there, based on prior experience within this particular shaft.  While there wasn’t enough light being shed on his workspace to identify the exact nature of the ore, the slight alteration in the pickaxe’s ring as he struck it indicated that it was likely a titanium-bearing iron variety, which would certainly help to fulfill his daily quota.  Not that he needed more, as he had already located a separate vein a few hours ago that fulfilled it, but he wasn’t going to get in trouble for finding more than what was required.  He wouldn’t be rewarded, either, but he had gotten used to that fact after being a slave for so long.

Chanfa spent the next hour digging out the vein, depositing the ore in one of the smaller portable receptacles, while adding all of the worthless stone rubble to a series of larger bins.  Thankfully, he didn’t have to manually move the larger bins because they would automatically relocate to the Deep Pit once they had reached a certain weight.  He had never learned how they did that, though he was well aware that it was due to some sort of levitation system underneath the bin; regardless, as long as it worked, he didn’t really care.

“Shift 36.  Receive sustenance and start sleep cycle.  Shift 36.  Receive sustenance and start sleep cycle.”

The voice of the Master in charge of the slave labor force penetrated his work-focused mind, the repeated instructions a familiar communication to ensure their intended recipients heard the order.  An order it was, too; all the members of Shift 36, including himself, gently put down their pickaxes and filed out of the shafts where they had been working.  Dozens of his people, fellow Raxians, moved as a wave toward the exit while filling up the passageways with their bulk.  Thankfully, despite the close quarters, none of them stepped on each other’s central rear legs, that appendage just one of the reasons Raxians were directed to mine labor rather than most other work.

Their nearly limitless supply of endurance in their 20-hour shifts, the strength in their tree trunk-like arms, and their durable skin that could shrug off most impacts by chips of stone as they mined likely also played a part.  Not that Chanfa minded all that much, because work was work, and while it was boring and monotonous, it had its rewarding moments – such as when he found small pockets of shiny rocks, which he was allowed to keep.  Their Masters didn’t care about anything but the ore that could be extracted from the stone, so the slave laborers were able to possess for themselves whatever else they found of interest.

As they passed through one of the central mine hubs on their way to the lifts that would bring them to their warrens – where the laborers received their daily rations as well as slept during their sleep cycle – Chanfa saw the mine foreman speaking with the slave Master, though it was only an assumption as to which one was which.  Both of them were the green-skinned, two-armed versions of the Masters, who were typically the only ones that any of the conquered races throughout the galaxy dealt with on a regular basis – or so he had heard.  At least, the slaves didn’t want to interact with the other Masters, those with blue, purple, red, or – Raxial forbid – black skin, who were the Commanders of the Master Empire.  He had heard that they were actually called Heliothropes, but no one ever mentioned that, except as a warning never to call them by that name; to the slaves that worked the mine, they were all simply Masters.

Lining the perimeter of the mine hub, separate from the two green-skinned individuals in the middle who seemed to be silently arguing, scores of blue-skinned Masters stood completely still, wielding weapons in their six hands, while here and there a few purple-skinned ones seemed to oversee them.  Near the exit to the lifts, one of the 20-foot-tall red-skinned behemoths stood impassively with its eight arms relatively relaxed at its sides, though Chanfa was positive that it would be instantly prepared to attack if prompted.

A separate lift off to his right was where all of the ore that was obtained in the mine was dropped off, each receptacle tied to individual slaves, indicating fulfilled quotas.  The Raxian was just glad that ore was plentiful in this particular mine, like most of those on Obraxia Prime’s third moon, Ghael.  Chanfa remembered hearing stories of the depleted mines in the far southern region of the moon, where quotas were difficult to fulfill, and dozens of miners were summarily executed for their failure.  Thankfully, since he had entered the labor force, he had only witnessed a handful of executions, which not only spurred on the others to work harder, but also reinforced the futility of fighting against the Masters.

Especially considering that they were essentially invulnerable.

Whatever technology prevented them from being hurt had made the fall of the Raxian civilization on Obraxia Prime over 1,000 years ago a foregone conclusion, as his people had absolutely nothing with which to fight against such overwhelming odds.  The Raxians, so it had been passed down through the years, weren’t a space-faring race; the arrival of an army from the sky had been a complete surprise, as a result, and while they had attempted to fight the invaders on their own terms using melee weapons, very little stopped the Masters from taking over and enslaving everyone on the planet – after killing more than two-thirds of their population, of course.

Now, their people were scattered across a galaxy they had never known existed at the time, though many of their own were still nearby – including himself inside the mines of Ghael.  There were thousands of his people working to extract resources for the Masters, while there was a small commune of them tasked with raising the next generation on the nearby supply and transport station orbiting Obraxia Prime.  It was there that the ore that Chanfa and his fellow Raxians extracted was sent via transport vessels -- after it was refined – and then from there, it supposedly traveled across the galaxy to where it was needed.  He hadn’t been anywhere but Station 487-O and his current home on Ghael, though, so that was all speculation based on what he had overheard over the years.

Not that he needed to know, because it wouldn’t matter if he knew everything about it or not; he was a slave in the mines, and such knowledge was worthless to him.  Even the youthful dreams of somehow escaping his eventual enslaved state in the mines had faded over time, tempered by the obvious futility of the proposition; stowing away on one of the transports to someplace where he wouldn’t be a slave was a childish thought, because there was nowhere in the entire galaxy that wasn’t under the many thumbs of the Masters.

Chanfa frequently reassured himself that, overall, his life wasn’t a bad one.  He had somewhere to sleep, plentiful – if not necessarily overly delicious – food to eat every day, and he was never abused by the Masters unnecessarily.  In fact, throughout all of the years he had been working in the mines, he had never seen anyone actually abused; even minor infractions were met with instant execution, so no one started any type of trouble.  You either did the job you were assigned… or you were killed without recourse.

Still, the work wasn’t necessarily hard, nor were they deliberately mistreated by laboring in hostile, unsafe environments.  Plus, while there wasn’t much variety to their days, they were given 1 full day off every 30 days, just so they would have a chance to rest up for their next 30-day stint.

Obviously, freedom from slavery would’ve been more than preferable, but as that was impossible, his life wasn’t that bad.  From the little he conversed with his fellow Raxians, he was fairly certain that most felt the same.  Sure, there were some outliers that were a bit more outspoken about somehow taking their planet back from the Masters, but no one actually acted on that dream; even a small uprising or a defiant act meant to demonstrate their desire for freedom could result in everyone being killed.

That was the problem with being a slave in the Masters’ Empire: There were always more slaves to take their place.

Therefore, Chanfa didn’t allow such thoughts to cross his mind for long, because it was unproductive.  As long as he went to the mines and did what he was supposed to do, he was left alone.  He supposed that was the best he could hope for in his life.

Passing through the hub didn’t take long, and he entered one of the lifts leading up to the warren of rooms where he would get something to eat and then initiate his sleep cycle.  The orange-tinted skin on his shoulder rubbed up against the rough rock that encapsulated the lift shaft, but he didn’t feel more than the barest whisper of sensation through his tough skin.  In fact, when he turned to see what he had rubbed against, he found that his skin had actually smoothed out the rock a little.  Not for the first time was he thankful for being a Raxian for this type of work, because there was very little in the mines that could hurt him or one of his people.  Well, anything short of the entire mine collapsing on top of them; even a minor shaft collapse was survivable if they were only buried for a short time, as not only their skin but their bones were extremely strong, more akin to their steel pickaxes than anything else.

Yet, a few slices by one of the Masters’ weapons could cut them in half as if there were very little resistance.

The safety gate on the front of the lift closed, and Chanfa felt the entire conveyance jerk once before it started to ascend.  The Raxian thought about his sleeping pallet, as well as the shelf system he had carved out of the stone wall of his living space, filled with thousands of shiny stones in a variety of different shapes and colors he had found over the years.  Patting his pocket in his work overalls (provided to the slaves both for a slight bit of warmth and for the utility pockets), he felt the two stones he had found earlier that shift.  One was a very hard, clear stone that came out all in one piece, as if it resisted cracking – which was a rarity – and the other was a slightly larger specimen with a dark-green color and a cloudy center.  They weren’t the prettiest he had ever found, but he thought they would be good additions to his collection.

Almost everyone he knew had a similar collection, of course, but his own was slightly larger because he tended to search out the shiny stones a bit more than was probably prudent.  Sometimes he traded with others during their off days, though it was more of a way to pass the time than anything else; it wasn’t like they could do anything with the stones, even if some were prettier than others.

Halfway up the shaft, the lift abruptly dropped a dozen feet, nearly sending all of those on it to the floor of the lift, but they managed to catch themselves before they could fall.  A second after they came to a stop, as Chanfa wondered what had happened, the entire lift shaft shook as an enormous cacophony of shearing rock came from below, followed by cut-off yells where he thought he heard, “…collapse!”, before it was drowned out by further sounds of rocks impacting other rocks.  The lift tilted forward slightly and threw him off balance, but he was thankfully saved from plummeting down below by a hand on his shoulder.  He looked over it to thank his savior, but before he could even turn his head, the shaft started to crumble as another incredible shaking rattled everything around him.

Well, I guess this is it.

The risk of dying in a mine collapse was always present, but it was such a rarity because they made sure to reinforce the shafts they opened with an overabundance of caution.  How this collapse happened was a mystery, but Chanfa didn’t really think it mattered at the moment: He was about to be dead either way.

Except that, after the shaking stopped, he was inexplicably still alive.  The lift shaft was in ruins, but somehow the lift itself was still intact, including the dozen or so others that had been on it with him.  He noticed the absence of a few that had been on it originally, the broken front safety gate evidence of some sort of debris falling and taking a few Raxians with it, but the rest were amazingly alive.

The sound of metal straining was followed shortly by the lift suddenly dropping another foot, and it was all Chanfa could do to hold on to the side railing.  Looking up through the metal grate that was essentially the ceiling of the lift, he could see that the lines holding up the lift were straining, and it would only be a matter of time before the entire thing fell.  Falling, of course, wouldn’t necessarily kill them, but given the few hundred feet to the bottom of the shaft, it might injure them severely. Also, being stuck at the bottom of an unstable shaft, where the nearby mine was at least partially collapsed, meant that they would be stuck there without a means to escape if the shaft decided to succumb to the damage it had obviously already taken.

He’d really rather avoid being crushed to death today if he could avoid that scenario.

“We’ve got to climb up!” he shouted, trying to be heard over the creaking and straining of the lift.  Chanfa wasn’t sure where the courage to speak up came from, but no one disagreed; soon enough, they cautiously joined him at the open edges of the lift, where only a short metal wall prevented them from reaching the shaft wall.  Without hesitation, he grabbed onto a handhold he easily found in the roughly carved stone, lifting himself out of the metal conveyance and onto the wall.  His strong arms found the climb to be quite simple, despite his bulk, and he practically flew up the shaft with the others beside him, crawling up the stone at such a pace that it was almost like they were running upwards.

No more than 30 seconds after they had exited the lift, another resounding screech filled the stone shaft, followed by a *twang* as the heavy cables that held the lift aloft snapped, sending the conveyance plummeting to the bottom.  Chanfa heard a yell from behind him, and he shifted his head just in time to see the end of a snapped cable slam into one of his shift-mates with such force that it practically cut him in half, sending him down to join the lift that had fallen.

The crash of the plummeting lift was loud in the silence that echoed through the shaft, which was followed by a rumbling that nearly shook the Raxians off of the wall.  Thankfully, their strong grips were able to hold on, and with only a few seconds of hesitation in respect for their fallen shift-mate, they continued on their journey upward.  Within 5 minutes, they were at the top, where the food distribution area was located, which then led to the warren of living spaces for the miners.

Well, it used to lead there, but no longer.

“It’s gone.  It’s all gone,” he whispered, afraid that talking too loud might collapse the rest of the mine complex.  That seemed likely, too, because the groaning of stone against stone was evident even there, where the entire food distribution area had collapsed; in addition, the tunnels leading to the warren were barely recognizable, because they had also somehow collapsed.

“The only way that would’ve happened was if…”

Another voice from behind Chanfa finished for him.  “…the entire mine system down below collapsed.”

They were dead.  All of them were gone.  The thousands of Raxians still mining, as well as the handful of shifts resting in the warrens, had all been buried under so much rock that there was no hope that they had survived.  Granted, there might be a scattered few in different places that had managed to find a pocket of reinforced area that provided safety, but it would take months to dig them out – if any even survived.  Seeing the desolation before him, Chanfa found it unlikely that anyone had lived through the mine collapse; it was a miracle that he and the others had survived, as looking at the other lift exits, he saw that all of them were buried under the rubble and completely cut off.

“What do we do now?”

The question caught him off-guard, because he was still in shock over what had happened.  Chanfa thought about trying to dig out a few places to see if they could find any survivors, as unlikely as that would be, but a horrible realization suddenly occurred to him.

“We can’t stay here.  We have to leave as soon as possible,” he spoke quickly.

“What?  Why?  And how do you expect to do that?”

He turned from the destruction before him to see that all the people on his shift were looking at him expectantly.  Why are they all looking at me like that?  Do they think I’m in charge or something?  He pushed those thoughts aside as he told them his major worry.

“If the entire mine collapsed, then everyone died down there.”

“Yes, we know, it’s horrible – but that just means we should try to dig out some possible survivors before it’s too late.”  This came from the one that had spoken before, whom Chanfa vaguely recognized as the individual that had saved him from falling off of the lift earlier.  Sadly, even though he had been on this shift with his fellow Raxians for years, he didn’t even know their names.  It didn’t seem important before, but if they survived this, then he made it a point to learn all of their names.

“You’re missing the point; everyone down there died.”

“I get that, but— oh.  Oh, no.”

He saw comprehension dawn on the faces of those surrounding him.  “Yes, all of our Masters died.  I’m pretty sure I don’t need to tell you what that means.”

Retribution on a grand scale.  As much as the Masters wouldn’t care if every Raxian died inside the mine, even the loss of a single one of their own would bring some retribution upon any survivors.  For all of those stationed in the mine to have been killed, there was every possibility that they would simply send a fleet large enough to completely destroy the moon, survivors be damned.  Not only that, but they might take it out on Station 487-O for simply being adjacent to the disaster, though there was nothing Chanfa or the others could do about that.

What they could do something about, however, was to save themselves.  Somehow.

“Look!  The passageway to the transport docks is still open!”

Without any other option, and racing against a timer that had likely started to count down as soon as all of the Masters down below had perished, they ran for the passageway pointed out by one of their number.

Open was a bit of a misnomer, because while the tunnel was still technically intact, the side walls had partially collapsed in a few places, meaning that they had to squeeze through huge piles of rubble multiple times.  However, no more than 30 minutes got the desperate Raxians to the transportation dock – and Chanfa’s hopes immediately diminished when he saw the devastation there.  Not from the mine collapse, however, but from an apparent explosion that ended up destroying a handful of ships that had been docked there.

“What happened?” he asked softly.

One of the older members of his shift spoke up, her voice rough from many, many years down in the mines.  “I’ve heard that the Masters are somehow connected to their ships on a level I can’t even comprehend, but I never thought it meant something like this.”

“Are you saying they exploded because… they died down in the mines?”

She shrugged.  “I don’t know.  Maybe?  I’m not sure anyone really knows.”

Regardless of the reason, the explosions destroyed not only the Masters’ ships, but all of the transport vessels as well.  They were well and truly stuck—

“Wait, I think there’s still a functional one on the end!” he shouted, already racing for the vessel he spotted, covered by shrapnel and other debris.  The others followed behind him, and before he knew it, he was looking at the open hatch of a battered but seemingly intact ship.  Not that he could really tell, because he wasn’t an expert on these things, but it sure looked alright.

He had only been to the transport dock once, when he had first been transferred to the moon, but he remembered that as soon as he passed through the field holding the artificial atmosphere and stronger gravity along the dock where he walked, he would suffer from the empty void of space that he could see past the dock opening.  While he couldn’t see the field, he knew it was there and functioning, though; if it wasn’t, then they would all be as dead as those in the mine below.  Fortunately, the field extended past the massive opening in the ship’s exterior, so they had no problems running aboard and even closing the giant door by hitting an emergency closure button nearby that was as obvious as it could possibly be.

Unfortunately, once they were all on board the ship, inside of the vast cargo area that was half-filled with storage crates containing refined metals, they all looked at each other in simultaneous realization.

None of them knew how to fly a transport vessel.

“It can’t be that hard, right?”

While not wholly ignorant of technology, Chanfa’s experience with it extended to his memories aboard Station 487-O, which was much more advanced than the relatively primitive experience on the moon and inside of the mine.  That wasn’t saying a lot, however, because even that exposure wasn’t that great, though he figured he might be able to navigate his way around a holoscreen or two.

He was quite wrong, as it turned out.

It took a few minutes to find their way to the bridge, but as soon as he saw all of the consoles that likely operated the ship, he discovered one more thing hindering their escape: He couldn’t read a single thing.

He was literate, of course, because all youth – regardless of race – on the Station had been educated.  It wasn’t a rule of the Masters, though, but one of the people who lived there.  The Masters didn’t encourage or discourage education, because they didn’t care one way or another for the most part; they only cared that their orders were carried out, and what people chose to do in between those orders was their own choice – one of the few choices they were given as slaves.

But the language he saw on the consoles was wholly foreign to him, which shouldn’t have been a surprise.  There were hundreds of different races on even the small Station where he was raised, and not all of them spoke the Common language that had been adopted in most areas of the galaxy – or so he had been told.

When none of the others expressed to be able to understand it either, Chanfa knew there was only one solution if they were going to get out of there.  Basically, what it amounted to was a whole bunch of button-pushing.

It probably wasn’t the best idea, but they didn’t really have a choice.  Within seconds of pushing any buttons on the consoles that looked promising, the vessel’s engines started up, and they could feel a rumble through their feet.  A few seconds later, there was a jerk that threw everyone to the floor as the ship shot forward, only to stop abruptly.

“What’s going on?” someone Chanfa couldn’t see asked.

“The clamps along the outside!  We need to figure out how to get them to let us go—”

It was too late, however, as a tremendous thrust of the engines ripped whatever clamps that were holding them steady off of the dock, while at the same time sending them into a spin.  There was a viewscreen that Chanfa could see that indicated the front view of the vessel, and he saw that they had succeeded in escaping the dock and the moon, but they were spinning so fast that he was having trouble holding onto the console.  Others weren’t so lucky as they were flung up against the walls, held in place by the ship’s inertia – and it was only getting worse.  He wasn’t sure what was happening, but something told him it was likely because of the unsecured cargo in the bay; if it kept spinning like it was, then it was entirely possible the ship would tear itself apart.

Scrambling with the last of his strength to keep near the console, Chanfa reached out and hit a whole bunch of buttons without knowing what they would do, hoping that he would get lucky and save them.  A blaring alarm suddenly deafened him after touching one last button with the last of his strength, and he felt himself flung across the bridge, colliding with one of his ship-mates as he hit the wall.  There was a sudden acceleration in the vessel that seemed to enhance the inertia of the spin, and he prayed to Raxial that he hadn’t just made them turn around into a collision course with the moon.  Or worse, Station 487-O.

He didn’t get a chance to see what the result was, however, as he blacked out a few seconds later.

Chapter 2

“…and here we have Murder Station’s command center,” Milton said, doing his best Vanna White impression as he waved at the large room.  He internally winced at the name of his station, because it still seemed a bit childish and inappropriate, but Sandra thankfully didn’t seem to mind what the Proctans had named it.  The name encapsulated the essence of what it was, he supposed, as they murdered any Heliothropes that came to visit his relatively small dungeon located on the Station’s ring.

Sandra – the dark-haired beauty that was, in reality, a Dungeon Core in Human form – didn’t know who the illustrious Vanna from game show fame was, of course, but she seemed to appreciate the extra flair in his presentation.  With a flirty smile directed at him that was quite distracting, she said, “It’s lovely, Milton… even if I don’t know what the majority of the stuff you’ve shown me does.  Nevertheless, your, uh, ‘Murder Station’ is very impressive.”

The Station Core couldn’t help the blush that infused the artificial cheeks on his synthetic avatar, but he was fortunately saved as ALANNA introduced herself.  His nanite-formed AI guide had historically been more than a bit foul-mouthed when communicating with Milton in the past, but thankfully she was on her best behavior with the visiting Dungeon Core.

“It’s nice to finally meet you in person, Sandra.  I must say, what you’ve built on your world is quite impressive – and much better than anything this schmuck has ever created,” ALANNA said, pointing her thumb at Milton.

Obviously not her best behavior, but at least there wasn’t any cursing.

Milton made sure to keep his thoughts as private as possible, because both his diminutive AI guide and the Dungeon Core could “hear” most of his internal musings. ALANNA could hear them because she was intrinsically a part of his Station Core; Sandra could hear his thoughts – as well as his conversations with ALANNA – since he had “bonded” somehow with her own Core, though apparently it was clearer when Milton was closer to her.  It was a little bit unnerving knowing that any stray, unprotected thoughts could be picked up by the two women if he wasn’t careful.  Thankfully, rather than anything that could get him in trouble or embarrass him, most of his recent thoughts were rather boring and mundane.

Thoughts like trying to survive against the likely retaliation by the Heliothropes for their role in stopping their invasion of Sandra’s dimension. Milton knew it was only a matter of time before they put two and two together and realized that he – and his allies, of course – had been the ones responsible for their setback.  While he had been a simple annoyance to them earlier, popping up all over the galaxy and killing dozens of shiploads of Heliothropes when they invaded his relatively small dungeon in the Station’s ring, he technically hadn’t initiated any attacks on them.

Until now.

Milton pushed away those worries for a later time as he turned his attention back to Sandra, ALANNA, and the rest of the command center crew.  The Dungeon Core had already met Brint down on the surface of her planet, but now she was able to meet with the rest of the Think Tank, a collection of super-smart, Intelligence-Boosting Proctans that were adept at looking at a problem and figuring out a solution.  It had been them, along with Whisp – Brint’s significant other – who had developed the two-way dimensional portal that created a relatively permanent connection between Sandra’s own dimension and Milton’s.  That portal was the reason Sandra was able to leave her dungeon and visit Murder Station, because her “Area of Influence” passed through it and encompassed the majority of the massive structure.

She had only seen the central part of the Station, however, where the barracks and other living spaces for the Proctan residents were housed, as well as the makeshift farm that had fast-growing grass and Picow Livestock being raised, which helped to provide Milton’s Core with Organic Material and Biological Mass.  Those were two important materials that his Molecular Converters needed in order both to feed those living on the station, and to create additional Combat Units.  Neither of which was in enormous supply, unfortunately, though he did receive quite a boost in both while gathering resources on Sandra’s planet – as well as Basic Metal salvaged from the Breeder Ship that had exploded.

All of it had been converted into raw, physical resources being held inside a portion of the Station’s giant ring, however; otherwise, moving from one dimension to another left those resources held inside of the Molecular Converters in the dimension in which they were acquired.  It was a pain in the behind to have to go through creating all of the physical manifestations of his Available Resources, though most of it wasn’t a problem storing; plus, he was already starting the process of adding those materials back to his pool via drones and Molecular Converters near the storage area[1].

Pure Water, however, was the most complicated of the materials to work with, because creating large holding tanks or even storing ice tended to get messy, and it was harder to clean up spilled water or melted ice than shoving blocks of dirt into the Converters.  Pure Water was the one resource that prevented him from expanding the number of Proctans he had brought back to life on the Station, because it was needed for drinking water and for the farm, which used a lot of the precious resource to run.  He had picked up a little more on Sandra’s world, but he had been too focused on other things at the time to make it a priority.

Milton was also horribly low on Focusing Crystals, which were needed for many of the more advanced defenses, most of his best Facilities, and even ships – if he had a Space Transport Dock to create them in the first place, which he didn’t (because it cost quite a few Focusing Crystals).  He now had less than 1,000 of them for use in his defenses, and despite looking, none were ever found on Sandra’s world; thankfully, the Dungeon Core said she might be able to craft one, though even if she figured it out, she was unsure of how long it would take.

Both of those resources he would look into finding more of soon, however, because they were going to be needed. Where exactly he was going to find more Focusing Crystals was the biggest mystery, because water was relatively easy to find; he’d found some randomly throughout the galaxy on various planets, but never any massive deposits.

“…I must say, you’re a lot smaller than I imagined.  I hope you don’t take offense at that; some of my best friends are quite little.”

Uh, oh; ALANNA doesn’t like anyone pointing out her small size.  She wasn’t just a little person, like the Gnomes he had seen on Sandra’s world, but was instead only about a-foot-and-a-half tall, essentially just a very small version of a Human woman.

“Little, huh?  What, like that thing floating next to you?  At least I’m not that tiny.”

“What?” Milton mentally blurted out.

He was confused; ALANNA wasn’t making any sense.  His AI guide sensed his confusion, of course, and threw him a bone.  “Use your sensor orbs and look over her right shoulder,” she said to him, the directed communication so tightly compressed that he figured that it was designed to evade Sandra’s detection.  I’ll have to remember that if I need to speak just to her in the future.

He did as she suggested and looked over Sandra’s shoulder.  At first, he didn’t see anything, but then he noticed a wavy distortion in the air of the command center that was only a few inches wide.  It wasn’t a surprise that he had missed it before, because it was so subtle that it was invisible to his avatar’s sight; even his sensor orbs, with their more-sensitive detection abilities, were barely able to see it.

“Winxa, it looks like they’ve spotted you.  Go ahead and say, ‘Hi’,” Sandra suggested, looking right at the distortion.  There was apparently some sort of non-verbal exchange because the Dungeon Core shrugged and waved something off with her hand, but whatever it had been about was already decided.

The distortion abruptly disappeared, and in its place was a tiny woman with sheer, pearlescent wings.  Milton had played plenty of games, read hundreds of books, and seen dozens of movies regarding these tiny people, such that he instantly knew what she was: A Fairy.  Or, more precisely, a Dungeon Fairy – if he understood it right.  There was every possibility that he was completely wrong, but in this case he didn’t think so.

“Hello, Milton,” the Fairy spoke, in a high-pitched though voluminous voice that was easy enough to hear and understand.  That was a little surprising to the Station Core, given her size, but not as surprising as the language she spoke.

“Wait, how?  What?”

Something started to click in Milton’s mind a little.  When Sandra had first arrived on Murder Station, she had mentioned that her Dungeon Fairy, Winxa, had told her to say something that the Station Core had immediately recognized as something from a TV show on Earth.  However, he had been so enamored with her presence on his Station and consumed with showing her around that he had nearly forgotten about it.  Now, though, it came back to him when the little Dungeon Fairy spoke English to him, something he rarely heard spoken.  Even his communications with ALANNA were done in Proctan, since he had learned the language on Proctus, for ease of keeping things simple.

Winxa fluttered delicately over to him, stopping when she was a few feet away from his face.  Up close, he was amazed to see that she looked almost exactly like an extremely small woman – with the added wings, of course – though there was an oddly foreign appearance to her face that he couldn’t exactly pinpoint, but it was there, nonetheless.

“You’d probably be amazed at who I’ve met over the course of my life, Milton,” she continued. “I can’t go into specifics, because while I’m assigned to The Creator’s realm, I’m a bit restrained on what information I can pass on.  What I can say is that I’ve… met those from your Earth, in one way or another.  In fact, there is a realm that—no, I better not.”

Milton wasn’t sure what to say, or ask, or demand.  The entire situation was bizarre, even considering his life over the last 5,000 years, and he was at a loss for how to respond.  Thankfully, because Milton understood Winxa, so did everyone else in the command center – all except Sandra.  For the Dungeon Core, she was able to get a basic understanding through the bond with him, if not the precise words.

Regardless, it was Whisp who spoke up, saving him from having to respond.  “By ‘realm’, do you mean dimension?” she asked.

The steady gaze of the tiny Fairy looked away from Milton to address the Proctan, and the Station Core suddenly felt a weight lifted from him.  He wasn’t sure how she did it, but that little flying person had more physical presence than just about anything he’d seen before.  It was almost like she was really the size of a planet, shrunken down and squeezed into the form of a Fairy.  The only explanation of it he could fathom was something he had heard before back on Earth, a quote by a former president of the US about the “weight of years”. If age and experience had a physical weight or form to them, that overwhelming presence was exactly what he felt when looking into Winxa’s eyes.

It was unnerving, but it also meant that she could potentially be a font of information – if she was allowed to share her knowledge, of course.

“Yes, precisely,” the Fairy answered Whisp.  “You see, us Fairies have an innate ability that allows us to travel between realms—your dimensions—without the use of the technology you are using.”

“So you might know the dimension where Proctus is located?” Whisp asked, a hopeful lilt to her voice.  Milton was also hopeful, because if they were able to go back, even for a few hours, he would suddenly have all of the resources accumulated in that dimension – including Focusing Crystals.

Unfortunately, Winxa shook her head.  “No, I do not know your realm.  I do not believe that my kind was ever needed there in the past.”

“So, you only go where there are dungeons and Dungeon Cores as a natural part of the dimen—realm?” Milton finally asked, the confusion starting to fade enough for him to speak.

“That is correct.  There are some dungeon-based realms that do not require Dungeon Fairies for one reason or another, as well a few that are a bit more… skewed in regards to their inter-realm travel,” the Fairy added.  “Opening up portals to our own realm is very difficult in those particular few, and as a result, most of us that operate there are lifers. In fact, it’s quite possible that the majority of the Fairies that live in those realms do not know that they can travel to other realms, as that knowledge is restricted to a select few.

“Regardless, it is an ability that doesn’t exactly use the same method that your ‘trans-dimensional’ drive uses, if I’m understanding it correctly. We can only portal back to our own Fairy realm before connecting to a different realm, and instead of tearing a hole through the fabric of the realm, we instead pass through it.  As a result, it won’t really help you, even with a demonstration.”

Before anyone could say anything, a small hole in the air appeared in front of Winxa and she disappeared inside.  A few seconds later, she flew back out, the portal closing behind her.

Whisp and the other members of the Think Tank were immediately at their consoles, looking over a recording of the incident from his sensitive sensor orbs.  “There’s nothing there,” Whisp said after only a few seconds.  “It’s like nothing happened.  There was no change in the dimensional fabric at all; not even the slightest bit.  That’s amazing, Winxa!”

The Dungeon Fairy blushed at the praise, obviously unused to people commenting on her ability to move through dimensions with seemingly no effort.  “Thanks, I guess.  But it doesn’t help you any, does it?”

Whisp started to shake her head before she stopped.  “Well, no, not right now.  But if we were to learn how to pass through the dimensional fabric like you can, then there’s no limit to the possibilities…”  The Proctan trailed off, lost in thought, joined by the other members of the Think Tank.

Milton left them to their thinking, knowing that they would be discussing what the Fairy could do for hours or days – and that wasn’t something he wanted to be involved in.  They would either figure it out or they wouldn’t, but his money was on them being unsuccessful; as much as he respected their abilities, what Winxa could do seemed more an intrinsic part of her nature, rather than something that could be replicated.  But, who knows?  He could be wrong; it wouldn’t be the first time, and it was unlikely to be his last.

“Well, there’s one more person I want you to meet,” Milton said abruptly, turning to Sandra and Winxa.  “And that’s Trinket, the only member of our crew apart from ALANNA and I that actually comes from this dimension.”  He looked around, spotting her by one of the consoles, which was hooked up to a veritable army of drones that constantly skittered across the outside of Murder Station.  The young Mouslan had been an invaluable asset when they had been reconstructing the derelict Station, and now she took the maintenance of the finished Murder Station seriously.

“Hey there, Trinket!  Come meet Sandra,” he said in the common galactic language that she understood the best.  While she could speak and understand the ancient Mouslan language that had been passed down from generation to generation, Milton had found that she was most comfortable with Galactic Basic, which was reportedly a bastardization of The Collective’s common language with hints of a few others; at least, that’s what ALANNA had called it, based on what she recognized.

The Mouslan looked up distractedly and smiled, or at least Milton assumed it was a smile.  He hadn’t perfected reading the facial expressions of what was essentially an upright, walking and talking mouse – not that he would say something like that to Trinket or any other race.  Milton, himself, was either a collection of plastic and metal parts when in his avatar form, or a giant metal egg when confined to his Station Core; hence, he didn’t really have a leg to stand on when it came to describing other races in unflattering terms because he was barely even considered to be “alive”.

“It is very nice to meet you, Sandra,” Trinket said as soon as she focused on the dark-haired Dungeon Core.  “I was following a bit of what was happening on the planet, and I was intrigued by some of your construction designs for your… uh… dungeon, I suppose.  I’d love to speak with you about it sometime, because I think there are some things that could be a great asset to this Station.”

Milton thought exactly the same thing.  The way that Sandra employed her “Mana” to create things that normally wouldn’t be possible, even with the advanced Collective technology in his possession, opened up a whole new world of possibilities.

Unfortunately, Sandra couldn’t speak Galactic Basic; through her bond with Milton, she was able to at least understand the Mouslan’s words.  She smiled and nodded instead of answering, and Trinket smiled back before turning back to her console. The small Mouslan looked a little out of place among the three rows of consoles, which looked very similar to a Starfleet console (thanks to his memories of watching reruns of Star Trek: The Next Generation when he was younger), though a small box underneath her feet allowed her to reach it with no problems.

“Lastly, this is the large viewscreen where we can put anything of import up for everyone to watch.  This was where my friends were able to watch nearly everything that happened on your planet, such as the fight against the Heliothropes,” he explained.

There was nothing but empty space being shown on the screen at the moment, but even that was enough to fascinate the Dungeon Core.  She walked up to the screen and stared at the stars depicted on it.  “I’ve seen the stars countless times over my life, but to actually be among them is a whole new experience.  It’s quite amazing, really.”

“That it is,” Milton agreed.  “To tell the truth, I still haven’t really gotten used to traveling through space; a year ago, other than floating through space for over 4,000 years – for all of which I was dormant and unaware – I hadn’t ever truly thought about sailing through the stars, except in my dreams.  And while I wouldn’t exactly call the entire situation a dream, considering the Heliothropes and the problems they present, it’s far from a nightmare.  It has a wonder all of its own—”

There was a sudden beeping alert coming from Whisp’s console, which caught his attention, prompting an interruption in his conversation with Sandra.  He knew exactly what it was even before she threw a map of the local star sector up on the viewscreen.

“Looks like we’ll have to continue the tour in a little bit, unfortunately.  Get us moving, Whisp.”

She was already on it, however, as they started to flee from the giant fleet of ships heading in their direction.  The initial long-range scans showed them to number at least 100, but it could be more.

As easy as it would be to use the trans-dimensional drives and escape, it had been less than 12 hours since they had arrived.  To open up another tear in the dimensional fabric so soon and so close in proximity, especially when the previous one hadn’t fully healed yet, was a bad idea.  As soon as they put some time and distance between the Station and the previous dimensional fabric tear, they would be able to escape.

Now all they had to do was outrun the fleet of Heliothropes in a space station that was many times larger than the fleet headed in their direction.

Chapter 3

Thankfully for Milton and the rest of those on Murder Station escaping the Heliothrope fleet, they had enough forewarning to get a lead on their pursuers. The Station Core wished that his Station had the same traveling speed as the Heliothropes, but at the moment that was an impossibility; while Whisp and the other Master Thinkers of the Think Tank had been able to reverse engineer most of the Heliothrope’s ships’ engines based on remnants picked up from when they exploded near Murder Station, they hadn’t been able to crack the larger problem of adapting them to such a large structure.

Essentially, the engines created some sort of “bubble” around the ships that reminded Milton of a warp field from Star Trek, but in fact was something entirely different.  The fact that they didn’t quite understand the underlying theory behind how they worked meant that he had absolutely no chance to comprehend it; and though they thought they could make a smaller model of the engine, they had no clue how to scale it up to affect the entire Station.

Regardless, their current engines worked well enough to stay far enough away from the Heliothrope fleet following them, and they were even able to navigate their way around a second fleet coming from a different direction.  Throughout the chase, however, Milton worked with the Proctans he had in the Station to ensure his dungeon was fully defended, though it would be far too deficient in its defense against so many Heliothropes all at once.

“I can see what help I can provide,” Sandra volunteered.  The Station Core wasn’t one to disregard help when it was given, so during the 12-hour chase he used what she could provide the easiest to him.  She was unfortunately low on stored Mana reserves and materials that were in what she called her “treasury”, but her constant Mana regeneration was more than enough to provide some much-needed contributions.

“I can provide the Mana, but you’ll need to provide me with the Raw Materials for my Monster Seeds,” she said, which he was more than willing to do.  After acquiring so many Basic Metal Units lately, he was thankfully flush with the material she needed; dirt and stone would work just as well, she said, but she would need more of it.  So, while his drones pulled tiny cubes of dense tritanium from his Molecular Converters, Sandra was able to magically absorb them and turn the concentrated metal into a whole mixture of different spherical Monster Seeds.  He had already seen the process in action back on her planet while she was readying her Dungeon Monsters for the fight against the Heliothropes, of course, but seeing it again on his Station was something else entirely.

From a tiny Monster Seed, with some no bigger than a cheap bouncy ball and others larger than a baseball, she used her Mana to create dozens of constructs and other Monsters, including many of those she had provided against the enemy back on her planet.  Sonic Blademasters, Titanium Ape Savages, and even a few Expanded Mobile Fortifications were added to the ranks of defenders in his small dungeon.

“That is probably all I can do for now, unfortunately, but I can certainly create more once I’ve had time to accumulate more Mana,” she offered, after creating the small army of extra defenders.

Milton was hoping that Sandra would be able to add some of the “traps” he had seen in her dungeon, including the one that had destroyed his avatar the first time they had met, but apparently those needed a little more time and Mana to create.  Neither of which they had at the moment, because the Heliothropes were closing in too rapidly.

“Are you sure the previous tear has closed sufficiently?  And the massive wound the Heliothropes created won’t get worse?” he finally asked Whisp and ALANNA when their pursuers had nearly caught up to the Station.

Looking at the larger map of the galaxy quadrant, Milton could see that the wound they had smashed through the dimensional fabric was slowly shrinking, but it was going to be many weeks or months before it was repaired entirely.  Thankfully, the connection to Sandra’s dimension was lost when the Heliothropes’ Stabilizing Anchor had been destroyed, but that hadn’t fixed the fabric at all; the most it did was stop it from growing and getting worse, and now it just needed time to naturally repair itself.

As for the tear his Murder Station had created when it came back to this dimension, it was more than halfway repaired, but it was still technically there.  However, his experts seemed to think it would be “safe” to try.  Granted, moving between dimensions was never 100% safe, but he’d take whatever safe odds there were, because they were out of time.

“Yes and yes,” Whisp answered.  “Shall we activate the trans-dimensional drive?  The fleet is closing within what we’ve determined is likely their weapons’ range, so we better do it quickly.”

“Engage the drive and get us out of here!” he shouted unnecessarily, the knowledge that the Heliothropes were in weapons’ range making him a little nervous.  He knew that Whisp and the Think Tank – with ALANNA’s help – had gone over the data from their first disastrous battle with the Heliothropes to put together an estimated range, but actually being within it was something else.

Lately, as they had been attacked via the invasion of Murder Station’s dungeon, he hadn’t been overly worried that they would be blown to pieces at a distance.  However, he had to assume that the Heliothropes – who, despite their warlike natures, weren’t stupid – had figured out that he and his friends had been responsible for closing the dimensional wound they had created.  Based on the size of their fleet, which appeared to contain at least one large Commander ship, Milton didn’t think they would be willing to let him go to cause even more trouble in the future.  Granted, there was every chance that they would continue to try and conquer the Station through the strength of their arms, but he wasn’t willing to take that chance at the moment.

Murder Station’s multiple engines fired to slow its acceleration, leaving the Heliothropes to get even closer than was comfortable.  Unfortunately, unless the Station was stopped or moving at a very slow pace, the drive wouldn’t be able to accurately create the tear in the dimensional fabric needed to travel to another dimension.

Soon, they were slow enough to activate the two trans-dimensional drives attached to the Station, which slowly opened the access portal to another dimension.  Milton watched the long-range sensors and the approaching ships nervously, and sure enough, just as they passed through the horizon of the dimensional tear, the Heliothrope fleet launched a volley of fast-moving missiles.

“Hurry!  Pedal to the metal time!” he shouted again, watching things unfold in real time without the ability to do anything to stop it.  Murder Station lurched forward, a burst of additional engines firing sending them fully through the tear; they were almost entirely through when the first volley of missiles hit, smashing right into the Station’s ring.

Everyone inside of the command center staggered as the entire Murder Station shuddered under the impact, and Milton fell right into Sandra.  The Dungeon Core was remarkably steady, however, and she caught him before he could hit the floor, bringing him back upright and already assessing what kind of danger they were in.

“Thank you, Sandra; but you might want to return to your world just in case—"

“There’s no need, Milton,” ALANNA said quickly.  “The tear has been sealed.”

Milton didn’t bother verifying this through the consoles; instead, he directly patched into his Core’s systems, which were connected to pretty much everything.  He immediately discovered that the trans-dimensional drives had shut down as quickly as possible once they were through, which effectively sealed the tear.  “Sealed” wasn’t quite the right word, though, because the tear was still there, and it would repair itself over the next 48 hours or so; but without the drives keeping it open, access through it was impossible.  It was like a scab on a healing cut; the wound was still there, but nothing could pass through the scab.  Unless, of course, they had a scalpel to cut into the tear, such as the trans-dimensional drives – but thankfully the Heliothropes didn’t have that kind of technology.

Yet, at least.  Milton dreaded what would happen if they ever learned the secret of inter-dimensional travel.  Granted, it would be safer for the entirety of existence, but for the dimensions they invaded… not so much.

This same closing of the tear was essentially what had happened when the Stabilizing Anchor had been destroyed on Sandra’s planet, as the energy that was keeping the dimensional wound open was abruptly shut.  The “scab” was still healing, but access was shut down.

“Is everyone alright?” he asked, looking around the command center.  From what he could tell, all of the Proctans were unconscious; the sudden explosion and constriction of travel when passing into another dimension was too much for them.  Somehow, Trinket managed to hold onto consciousness, though she appeared highly shaken.  Other than the Mouslan, only Milton, Sandra, and ALANNA were relatively unaffected.

“I’m… fine.  The Station, not so much,” Trinket said with a groan as she looked at her console.  Before he looked at the damage himself, Milton took stock of the Proctans and saw that they had all survived, though a few of them had minor injuries from being tossed around.

“I’m glad you’re okay.  Damage report, if you can,” he asked of the recovering Mouslan.  He was going to ask Sandra if she was fine, but she seemed the best out of everyone in the command center other than ALANNA.

Trinket’s face said it all.  Uh, oh.

“It’s pretty bad, Milton,” she finally said, after looking through various screens.  The Station Core had walked over to her console while she was looking, seeing the devastation at the same time as he was evaluating it by other means.  “The entrance to your dungeon was hit and damaged extensively, as well as the dungeon itself.  Most, if not all of your defensive weaponry, including your… uh, creatures… inside were either destroyed or vented out into space.  All but the very last room where you have those moveable rock giant thingies was absolutely annihilated, including all of those mechanical-looking constructs that Sandra created.”

“It’s true; I can’t access any that were down there,” the Dungeon Core stated matter-of-factly.  “Either they were destroyed outright, or they’re outside of my Area of Influence.”

Sensors outside of the Station looked for any potential constructs, but there was very little to be seen in the small amount of debris in the traveling dimension.  Milton supposed that anything that survived was on the other side of the dimensional fabric tear.

“In addition, it appears as though more than one of the engines was damaged along the ring, but I think they can be repaired – given enough time.  It’s a good thing you picked up more resources recently; otherwise, we’d be in trouble,” Trinket added, rapidly scrolling through a list of needed repairs on her console.  The fact that nearly every single Proctan that had been inside of the dungeon, hundreds of them, had died during the attack didn’t seem to faze her as much as it used to.  For the pacifistic Mouslan, Milton wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

“So, you’re saying that I’m going to need to basically rebuild the entire dungeon?” he asked, not liking that one bit.  Especially because he had invested quite a few Focusing Crystals in the defenses; that was one resource that he wasn’t going to be able to replace as easily.

“Yes, unfortunately,” Trinket replied, tapping away at the console, before looking at Milton.  “I’m going to get suited up and get out there to supervise the repairs.”

Before she walked away, Milton stopped her.  “Don’t repair any of the dungeon yet, only the structure of the ring,” he suggested.  “There might be some changes to it, now that we have time.”  The Station Core looked at Sandra and gave her a wink, which was returned with an eager smile.

The Mouslan nodded and ran out of the command center, where she would slip into the work suit she had essentially taken from Station 23-E near Jupiter, and then head out to direct Milton’s drones tasked with the repairs.  She was becoming more and more adept at telling them exactly what needed to be done, routed through communication with the Station Core, and he left her to her tasks.

It was about that time that the Proctans in the command center started to regain consciousness, and Milton along with ALANNA explained to them what had happened.  Whisp and the Think Tank appeared more annoyed than sad at the loss of so many of their people inside of the dungeon, as they were more than aware that they could be reborn as soon as it was possible.

The thing was, however, that Milton didn’t want to bring them back quite yet – at least not in the same capacity.  He had never envisioned that those in his care would be employed in dungeon defense, after all, and he felt like he was betraying their trust in him to treat them like simple defensive and disposable Combat Units.  They were far from that, naturally, but right now he wasn’t happy with their role thus far.  There had to be a way to have them back without resorting to sticking them inside of the dungeon like a tool that was only useful for one thing.

“So, what are you going to do now, Milton?” Whisp asked, looking at the damage done to the Station at the same time on her console.  She was also plotting a course through the traveling dimension so that they could put some distance between the healing tear and themselves, just in case the Heliothropes somehow figured out how to open the fabric scar.

Milton thought about it for a minute or so, trying to determine current and future priorities.  Figuring those things out, though, was harder than he imagined.

“I think we’ve got to talk with everyone about our immediate needs and future goals,” he finally answered.  “This has never been about me, it’s about us and what we want to accomplish.  And now, with Sandra’s help, we can start to think about other things.”

“Like what?” Brint asked, speaking up for the first time since he had arrived in the command center with the Dungeon Core.  The Proctan looked worse for wear after the explosion and travel through the dimensional tear, but he also looked stubborn enough to ignore his few injuries until he got an answer.

“Things such as what we can do to stop the Heliothropes from potentially ending all of existence or going on a killing spree in another dimension.  You know, simple stuff like that.”

“Ha.  Yeah, like we could ever hope to stop that from happening.”  Milton looked at Brint with what he hoped was a blank look on his face; while he halfway agreed, he knew that unless they did something, a lot more people would die.  “Wait—you’re serious?!  Murder Station nearly got blown up by a fleet of Heliothropes, and you think we can take them on?”

Milton shook his avatar’s head.  “Not precisely, but there has to be something we can do.  We can’t afford to simply sit idly by while the Heliothropes continue to be a threat to life as we know it.”

“What are you proposing, Milton?” ALANNA asked, though she already had an inkling of his plans because of the Station Core systems they shared.  The same could be said for Sandra, though on a much more limited basis.

“I don’t precisely know, which is why I’m open to ideas.  I’m going to bring back many of those that were just killed in the dungeon, and we’ll have a talk.”  He turned to Sandra.  “Would you be willing to participate in this meeting about our future?”

She placed her hand on his arm, smirking at the same time.  “So forward of you, don’t you think?”  Flustered, Milton tried to respond, but the Dungeon Core cut him off.  “Of course I will be there.  I’m interested to see what you all come up with.  And I’ll help however I can –without endangering my people, naturally.”

“Naturally.  Alright, the sooner we get this started, the quicker we can go about saving the universe.”  That phrase wasn’t something he ever thought he would say, but it was nevertheless true.

Chapter 4

“Are we ready?” Whisp asked him abruptly, and Milton had to pull his attention away from the preparations throughout Murder Station to concentrate on her words.

Ready?  I’m not sure if we’ll ever be completely ready, but we have to do it.

He hesitated for only a second, glancing at the expectant-looking Sandra and ALANNA nearby, and he nodded.  “Yes, engage the trans-dimensional drive.  Let’s see what is waiting for us out there.”

All of their preparation over the last few weeks, journeying through the travel dimension, came down to this.  It wasn’t as if they were expecting to encounter Heliothrope ships immediately after emerging into their dimension, but there was no telling what they would find.  It was still unknown if they were going to be hunted down and destroyed immediately once they were located, so going back before they were completely ready was a bit of a risk.  However, given the time they had spent away, Whisp stressed that they needed to find out if the Heliothropes had punched another hole in the dimensional fabric; as it was, they had no way of knowing unless they physically transported to the same dimension.

Milton suggested a little peek before heading back to the traveling dimension, keeping the tear open, but the entire Think Tank had shot that down.

“Keeping it open that long could be dangerous; reopening the tear after we’ve done a thorough scan of the galaxy for dimensional ripples is a possible solution, but it could also have unforeseen consequences,” Whisp argued.

What those “unforeseen consequences” were exactly was something the Station Core didn’t ask about, but he figured it wasn’t something they wanted to play with unless it was necessary.  Therefore, it was decided that they might as well go all-in and take the chance of having time to react when a hostile fleet would inevitably show up on their sensors.

At least the dungeon was ready for any invaders, thanks to a lot of hard work from everyone on board, but especially from the visiting Dungeon Core.  Unfortunately, they still didn’t have much in the way of external weapons defense, so if they were bombarded by more missiles, they might not survive.  It was a risk, but a necessary one – at least for the moment.

Whisp and ALANNA worked together to activate the trans-dimensional drives in tandem, opening up another tear in the dimensional fabric ahead of the Station.  Before too long, they were through the tear, which closed up behind them as they emerged back in “normal” space.  As he looked at the initial sensor readings, he let out a sigh of relief as all he saw was the simple void of space.  It was good to be out of the traveling dimension after all that time.

“Anything?” he asked, looking at the Think Tank.  Each of them was bent over their consoles, looking at more readings than Milton could easily concentrate on.

“No, not yet; the reverberations from our own passage through the fabric are making the long-distance readings skewed, but it should normalize within the next hour or so.” The Station Core knew that, of course, which was one of the reasons they couldn’t simply peek outside of the tear and go back inside – because their own disturbance in the fabric would overshadow any other readings.

He nodded, just before he felt a warmth along the right side of his avatar.  “Hey there, is there something wrong?” he asked, glancing at Sandra.  The beautiful Dungeon Core had embraced his arm, gently holding it against a portion of her body in a familiarity that was becoming all the more common.  Milton wasn’t complaining, of course, because it felt wonderful, but she usually wasn’t as comfortable about doing it while in the command center.

“No, not at all,” she whispered softly into his ear, leaning closer.  “Quite the contrary, actually; Winxa says that she isn’t experiencing any instability in her own portals, so there is a good chance that the enemy hasn’t initiated another attack on another realm—sorry, dimension.”

It took him a moment to understand why she was whispering, but then he realized that she didn’t want the Think Tank to know.  He agreed with the decision immediately, because he didn’t want to skew the findings of Whisp and the rest based on an assumption; just because Winxa didn’t experience any fluctuations didn’t mean that the Dungeon Fairy was entirely correct.

“Noted.  And thanks,” he added, also speaking softly.  “Do you think we made the right decision?”

“You mean coming back to your dimension right now?”

Milton shook his head.  “No, not that; it was inevitable that we’d have to come back at some point, so that’s not really a decision that could’ve gone any other way.  I was talking about our ultimate goals.”

She was silent for approximately a minute before she responded.  “It’s a difficult goal, for sure.  Is it attainable?  I don’t know.  There’s still a lot I don’t know about this dimension of yours, so I’m not exactly the one to ask.  All I can say is that I will do what I can to contribute, like I have thus far.  And I still want to stick around to see if I can learn how to craft some of your more… exotic objects.”

“You’re welcome to stay as long as you like, Sandra; you know that.  And I haven’t forgotten my promise to help you with that crafting.  I’m sure we can make some interesting things together.”

Milton was hoping that a way to craft Focusing Crystals would emerge from that joint crafting, but he wasn’t relying on it entirely.  It was one of the reasons they had emerged from the traveling dimension near the outer rim of the galaxy, where—hopefully—the Heliothrope presence was a little more sparse than other areas, and they could mine a few moons or even a planet or two.  The Station Core had felt a little handicapped when he was designing the new dungeon with Sandra due to the lack of Crystal resources, so he was eager to get his hands on an additional supply.

“I’m sure we could,” Sandra murmured so softly that Milton barely heard it.  She didn’t say anything else, nor did she let go of his arm; to reorient himself from her pleasantly distracting presence, he thought about the relatively boring-but-necessary meeting most of the crew members of Murder Station had attended a few weeks ago.

*         *         *

(Three weeks ago)

“Thank you all for coming,” Milton told the assembled Proctans, Sandra, and Trinket.  ALANNA was there for the meeting, as well, but she was always there, so he didn’t really count her.

“It’s not like we had anywhere else to be,” Brint said quickly, which caused some chuckles from the majority of the crowd.  The Station Core was thankful for that, because the mood had been a bit dour since many of the Proctans had died in the recent Heliothrope attack.

“Yes, while there is some truth to that, I appreciate you all being here.  Now, you may be asking yourself, ‘Why am I here?’  Well, the simple answer to that is I need your input.  Input on what?  The future.”

“You’ve learned how to time-travel, Milton?”

Milton sighed as he looked at ALANNA, ignoring her smirk.  “I wish.  No, we need to discuss our immediate priorities and what plans we have for the future.”

“Like what?” Brint asked.

“Exactly,” Milton said, looking out over the hundreds of people all assembled in one of the large, empty sections of the Station’s central command pillar.  “That’s the precise question I need help answering: What are we doing?  By now, you should all know what the situation is in this galaxy regarding the Heliothropes, their status as the unrivaled ‘masters’ of every person on billions of worlds, and their recent foray into inter-dimensional travel.  A foray that many of you had a direct hand in stopping, which deserves a very heartfelt thank you from not only myself, but also Sandra and everyone living on her planet.”  The woman he referenced nodded her head, understanding his intent behind the words through their bond, if not the exact translation.  He was speaking to all of them in Galactic Basic because of Trinket, which all of the Proctans now understood thanks to the Neurological Control Units inside of them.

“But that brings us to the next stage of things, where we have to make some decisions.  Previously, we’ve simply been reacting to attacks without any clear goal in mind, such as defending against invasions of small fleets of Heliothropes via our dungeon inside the ring, or when we traveled to the dimension that those same multi-armed enemies were attempting to invade.  Those reactions were all understandable, because I, for one, was still trying to come to terms with the fact that we had left the dimension where Proctus exists behind, only to discover that my own dimension was not anything like what I expected.  Through perseverance, hard work, and a lot of luck, we managed to survive and even acquire this space station… but what now?

“Our first priority will obviously be to repair and rebuild the ring where the Heliothrope missiles have done their worst damage, and Sandra and I will work on replacing the dungeon section that was there.  We’ll discuss some of the changes we want to make inside those defensive rooms later, but the main alteration is to eliminate the need for you—” he said, pointing to the gathered people in the room— “to take part in that defense.”

“What?  But you’re going to need us!”

Milton looked at Micke, the Physical Augmenter that had been one of the first Proctans to go up against the Heliothropes when they invaded Murder Station.  The Tank wasn’t the only one who looked upset at this revelation, and he couldn’t blame them.  “We did need you, and I won’t lie – it is entirely possible that we will need you again in the future.  However, defense isn’t really what you’re the best at, is it?  Sitting around in the ring, waiting on the time when you have to defend against an invasion of the dungeon we’ve created, expected to lay down your lives over and over again like some sort of expendable Combat Unit.  That’s not who you are, not why you came along with me on this journey.  Unless I’m wrong and you’d all rather stay inside of the dungeon in defense?” he asked, his hands stretched out toward them as if inviting them to disprove his previous statement.

As expected, they were quiet.

“That’s what I thought.  I don’t want that for you, and I’m sure you don’t want it for yourselves.

“Which brings us to what we do need help with.  What I need from you is to ask yourselves these questions: What do I want to do?  Why am I here?  Only by honestly answering those queries will we be able to decide on the future.”

Milton walked around through the crowd as they turned to each other, a low murmur rumbling among the Proctans.  He only caught snippets of those conversations, and while there were some outliers, he could sense the general mood of the assembled group.  Finally, he walked back up to the front when most of the murmuring had quieted down, before he pointed to Trinket, who looked startled at being singled out.

“Tell me, my friend, what is it that you want?  Why did you decide to join us on our travels?”  He didn’t like putting the young Mouslan on the spot, but he needed to set the tone for the rest of the meeting; as the only actual inhabitant of the dimension present (other than himself and ALANNA), he thought she would be the person for the job.

“Uh… well…” she hesitated, before shaking herself a little and speaking up.  “I want to live free from the Masters—the Heliothropes—and perhaps find a way to free the rest of my people from their enslavement.  I thought that joining you and the freedom you represented – even if it was likely we were going to die within the next few hours – would be better than dying as a slave.  I’m just thankful that I was wrong about us dying, though.”

Milton chuckled a little at her words.  “I’m glad you were wrong, as well.  But I, personally, agree with your decision to join us – because I’d like to see your goals attained.  I don’t like what the Heliothropes have done to my galaxy; putting a stop to their tyranny is one of my top priorities.  The added endangerment to other dimensions has only strengthened my desire to stop them.”

He pointed at a Proctan near the front of the group, asking her what she wanted and why she had come along on his expedition.  Her answer was one he had expected, though it was slightly influenced by Trinket’s and his own answers.

“I joined you on your journey, Milton, because I wanted to see more than just Proctus.  Not necessarily an experience in adventure, but one of discovery and exploration into the unknown.  In addition, with the abilities at my disposal, the last few years on Proctus felt positively boring, and your departure and overall purpose to your life was something I could connect with on a personal level.

“As for what I want to do, well… I guess that your objective is my objective,” she continued.  “As sad as it sounds, my home is out of reach right now, so I have nowhere else to go; and I haven’t the knowledge or wherewithal to navigate my way through this galaxy – nor do I particularly want to.  What I want to do is feel valued, make a difference, and perhaps make this dimension, your dimension, a little more like a place that I might learn to call home.  I believe that following your lead is the best way to go about achieving that, even if I have no idea what it is we’re doing.

“What I do know is that these Heliothropes sound even more numerous and dangerous than the hordes of Quizards, Bearillas, and Hammerslugs we fought back on Proctus.  I don’t like what they’ve done to these people, but I’m not sure what we can do about it.”

Milton nodded and went to the next person, who repeated many of the same things that the first Proctan had.  Going through most of the crowd, many of them had similar reasons for coming with the Station Core in the first place, and most of them wanted to help but had no idea how to go about that.  Some of them simply wanted adventure, others wanted to see the galaxy and experience space travel, and a few just wanted to use their abilities to kill the “bad guys”.  While there were more than 20,000 Proctans still waiting to be reborn when they had more ways to support that many on the Station, Milton suspected that many of them would have similar stories and objectives.

Essentially, they wanted to help but didn’t know how.

The Think Tank was more interested in new technologies and their applications, as well as learning in general.  A few of them were even interested in partnering with Sandra to gain some knowledge about crafting on a more base, hand-made level, rather than relying on Molecular Converters.  Brint was entirely devoted to Whisp and would go anywhere she went, but the Proctan was also adamant about helping free the people of the galaxy from the leash of the Heliothropes.

He didn’t have to ask ALANNA what she wanted to do, because it hadn’t really changed since he had met her back on Proctus: Save The Collective.  The goalposts were a bit further away, but the overall idea was the same.

As for Sandra, she was just happy to help and to learn about new ways to craft.  And, if I’m not inflating my importance too much, I think she wants to stay with me.  It helped that he felt the same way, wanting to learn more about her and her unique existence as a Dungeon Core.

“Having heard from most of you, I think we can all agree on one thing: We want to help the people of this dimension, to free those under the yoke of slavery.  Of course, that is easier said than done, considering the obstacles we will face in that endeavor.

“First and foremost, we do not have nearly enough information about our enemy to even begin to plan something of this scale.  Making vast plans to take down the Heliothrope empire seems far-fetched at this point in time, but that doesn’t mean we can’t start small.  What we’ve been doing, eliminating small fleets when they assault our dungeon, has made a very, very small dent in their numbers, admittedly, but it’s at least something.  Stopping their expansion into another dimension was also a big step in fighting against them, but that doesn’t help to halt the overall threat.  It can and likely will happen again, but we can’t afford to hope we’ll be able to stop them every single time they try it.

“Eventually, they’re bound to succeed before we can stop them, and then it will be too late.  Trying to police and safeguard all of the many dimensions out there is ultimately an impossible task, but it’s one we’ll have to attempt for now – at least until we can figure out how to stop them from endangering the dimensional fabric in the first place.”

Whisp walked forward to speak.  “Exactly.  That’s what the Think Tank and I have been looking into, though we haven’t found a solution quite yet.  In the meantime—” she said, before stopping and looking at Milton.  “Sorry, I don’t mean to take over…”

The Station Core just waved her forward, letting her speak.  It wasn’t as though he had any idea of what they needed to do; that was why he called the meeting in the first place.

“Thank you,” she said as she turned back to the crowd.  “Anyway, in the meantime, what we need right now – as Milton mentioned – is information.  Most of our information is still out-of-date on the galaxy, despite what we’ve been able to piece together, as most of it is nearly 5,000 years old; so, we really need access to updated systems, detailed starmaps, and any available knowledge that we don’t already possess on the Heliothropes.

“But that’s not the only thing we’re going to need.  If we’re looking to take down the Heliothropic empire, we’re going to need allies,” she continued, and Milton nodded.  “Right now, we’re just a single space station in the scope of an unbelievably large galaxy, arrayed against an enemy that numbers in the trillions, with millions of ships spread out over billions of star systems.  Even if we were to somehow figure out how to destroy massive fleets of Heliothropes that attacked us, they can replenish their numbers and even replace their ships faster than we could ever hope to make any headway.  We could fight for a thousand years, winning every encounter, and still not make a dent in the number of Heliothropes out there in the galaxy.

“But with allies, that could change.  We’ve already found one ally,” Whisp said, waving at Sandra near Milton’s side, “but Sandra is just one person, as talented and powerful as she is as a Dungeon Core.  We might be able to convince a few from her world to help us fight, but even if we had a few hundred extra fighters, a few more than the 25,000 Proctans that will eventually inhabit this Station is a very small number when going up against trillions of Heliothropes.”

She was absolutely right.  Milton had thought about that before, but he hadn’t known where to even start.  He still didn’t know where to start, but hopefully with everyone working on solving those problems, they might be able to figure it out.

The Station Core spoke up again.  “That is certainly something that we need to explore before we make any definite plans, but there are any number of things that we need to go over.  First and foremost, we need to figure out a way to prevent the Heliothropes from immediately blowing up the Station when they see us again.  ALANNA, you mentioned that The Collective used to have shields on their ships at one time—”

*         *         *

Milton was brought back from his memories of the meeting by something beeping on one of the nearby consoles.  The interruption wasn’t a big deal, however, as the rest of the meeting had been about ideas on how to protect Murder Station from long-range weapons’ fire – to no avail.  No one had a plan for that—yet—but it was on the priority list.  There had also been some talk about the replacement and repair of the dungeon, but that was mainly Sandra and Milton discussing it, and he already knew how that turned out.

“What is it?”

Rhiole, one of the members of the Think Tank in the command center, was looking at something on her console.  “It’s some sort of communication.  It’s a bit sporadic, like it keeps getting cut off at the source constantly.”

Oh, my; what now?

Chapter 5

“What does it say?” Milton asked, referencing the sporadic communication Rhiole had identified.

There was a brief second of silence before Rhiole played the communication over the console’s speakers, and everyone listened to what sounded like a harsh, garbled, unrecognizable message.  However, it wasn’t exactly garbled or unrecognizable – just unfamiliar.  As it stopped playing, Milton thought that he had heard enough for his Communication/Charisma statistic to translate it.

“Play it again.”

She immediately complied, and he listened to it again.  Within the first few seconds, the language finally clicked in his mind, and he was able to understand it.

“…help!  We don’t… control… can’t stop!  …anyone there?  Help!  We… understand this console—"

It cut off shortly after that, and when she ran the communication recording again at his direction, he pushed the translation out to everyone with an NCU, which included everyone but Trinket and Sandra, though the latter got the gist of the message from their bond.

“Well then,” Milton said after everyone had listened to the translation.  “Can you pinpoint the source?” he asked Rhiole.

“I can, but do you think it’s a trap?”

He hadn’t thought of that.  It was a real possibility, however, because the likelihood of Murder Station showing up right where a mayday was being called out was suspicious.  He severely doubted that it might be the Heliothropes setting a trap; they didn’t seem like they were subtle enough for something like that.  They were more the type to invade with superior numbers and kill everything, not the type to set a trap and ambush their victims.

But that didn’t mean it couldn’t be something or someone else.  Pirates came to mind, though he didn’t remember Trinket ever mentioning if they were a thing; with the number of Heliothrope patrols around the galaxy, it was unlikely that those “outside of the law” would be able to operate successfully.  Given their location on the outer rim of the galaxy, though, he thought that anything was possible.

If it was pirates, he thought, then perhaps they were exactly what they needed.  If even a small number of ships were able to operate independently, then Milton wanted to know their secret to staying out of trouble.  Of course, he probably couldn’t trust them, being that they were pirates, but then again he would have to applaud their freedom.

Then again, if this wasn’t a trap at all and the communication was genuine, then they had to do what they could to save these people.

“It could be, but I’m doubting it.  Setting something up like this would be difficult in the short time that we’ve been here, but I’m not completely ruling it out.  Is there any sign of a Heliothrope fleet heading in our direction on the long-range sensors?”

Whisp was the one that answered.  “No, none quite yet.  And while it’s still a little early to confirm, we’re still not seeing any massive dimensional wounds.”

That was good to hear.  “Keep an eye out for any indication of a threat, even if it isn’t in the form of a Heliothrope ship, if you would, Whisp.  Rhiole, where is this communication coming from?”

Instead of answering, the Master Thinker hit a few things on the console and a starmap appeared on the main viewscreen.  He could see that they had arrived where they had calculated, near the edge of the galaxy’s rim, where the star density was very light.  The Milky Way looked like a multi-armed spiral, and where they were was just a bit off the tip of one arm, located basically on the opposite side of the sun he grew up looking at on Earth.  It was also about 25,000 light years away from the edge of former Collective territory, which they had hoped was far enough away not to be noticed immediately.

The image zoomed in until Murder Station was located right in the middle of the viewscreen, before shifting a little off to the right.  There, a star was located that was unknown to Collective records other than as designation 238-65RD; it was a red dwarf-type star, and besides the fact that it had only one planet, nothing else was known.

Just off of the location of the star, a blinking dot represented the source of the communication, and it was moving quickly.  “I’m tracking the continued communications, though nothing but static is coming through,” Rhiole answered his unspoken question.

It wasn’t just moving quickly; it was speeding up.  The potential for it being a trap lessened as the source moved in a direction away from the Station, though Whisp put up a quick pathway showing how they could intercept it – if that was their decision.

“Do it,” he said instantly.  “Still keep an eye out, though.”

The Station immediately shifted its slow acceleration through space and started on their intercept course.  He wasn’t sure what they would do when they got there, though.

“Is there any way to communicate with them?  Get them to stop?”

Rhiole shrugged.  “We can send a tight-beam communication request, but whether or not they will receive it or listen is up to them.  Do you want audio only or both visual and audio?”

Milton hesitated before saying, “Both.  Might as well see who we’re dealing with, as well as showing that we mean them no harm.”  He wasn’t confident on that last part, but he figured it couldn’t hurt.  If it was a trap, then they were already springing it by communicating in the first place.

The viewscreen blipped for a split-second as Milton suddenly appeared in a strange-flashback of a picture-in-picture memory of a TV he had when he was younger.  His “box” was shoved to the lower left-hand corner of the viewscreen, while the starmap and their route was minimized to the lower right.  The main part of the viewscreen, however, was blank; he supposed it was going to stay that way until they heard back from whomever they were trying to contact.

“You’re on,” Rhiole whispered, and Milton began to speak in the same language he had just picked up thanks to his Station Core’s Communication stat.

“Attention distressed vessel.  We are on route to help, but you need to slow down and shut off your engines.  Please respond.”

It took repeating his message another dozen times before something suddenly appeared on the viewscreen where there had just been blankness before.  Milton and the others in the command center were looking at what appeared to be a small bridge on a ship, though he only recognized it because there were some very different-looking consoles with stationary seats – though not chairs, more like stools – located near them.  There were only 2 of these consoles, however, but there appeared to be other viewscreens along the walls he could see; unfortunately, they appeared to have been damaged recently, because they were completely blank with obvious cracks in their appearance.

There were also the bodies of what he assumed were a race of people, though it was hard to tell.  Their skin was a dark-orange color that appeared rough, like it was made of rock or stone, but apparently flexible enough that it could move without being stiff.  Milton also saw that they were tall, if he was estimating correctly, at around 10 feet tall, and instead of two legs they had three.  Their ragged clothing, which covered only their torsos and lower hips, was torn and dusty, like they had just climbed out of a hole.

“Hello?  Is anybody—?”

He abruptly cut off as a face suddenly shot up from below, almost completely obscuring his view of the ship’s bridge.  The person the face belonged to reminded Milton of the rock dude from the Fantastic Four movies he had watched back on Earth, though not quite as rough.  A bald head had bled from a serious cut that looked painful, though it appeared to have clotted and stopped bleeding, thankfully.

“What?  Who… are you?  What… are you?” the person asked, swaying in place even as they spoke.  Milton wasn’t sure if this person was male or female, or if they even had different genders, but the rough voice classified them as a male in the Station Core’s mind.

“There’s no time to explain; you need to slow your speed and shut down your engines so that we can help you.”

“You speak… good Raxian.  What is this about engines?”

The head wound didn’t seem to be doing the alien person on the screen any favors in the comprehension department, as he appeared to be extremely confused.

“You need to slow down and shut them down and we can help you.  We have medical facilities that can help you and your friends there, but we need to be able to reach you first.”

“I don’t know how!” The sudden outburst startled Milton a little, before the other person continued.  “This is not our ship; we were trying to escape—” his rocky-looking jaw suddenly snapped shut on whatever he was about to say, his sense of self-preservation finally kicking in on his obviously rattled mind.

The Station Core looked over at Rhiole, who thankfully took the hint and cut the audio to the unusual ship.  “Thoughts?” he asked the room.

“They appear quite injured, so that means we need them to stop the ship as soon as possible,” Whisp contributed.  “Otherwise, they seem like they are legitimately trying to flee from somewhere or someone.”

“I’m highlighting that corner of the console to see if I can feed those symbols through your Station Core,” Rhiole added, and soon there was another picture-in-picture at the upper left-hand portion of the viewscreen.  As Milton stared at it, and the seemingly random buttons located on a portion of the other ship’s console were fed through his Core, he could feel it starting to come together in his mind.

“Got it,” he said, turning to Whisp.  “Can you send over the commands he needs to look for to slow down and stop his ship?”

“On it.”

He nodded at Rhiole again, motioning for her to unmute the communication.  “We’re sending over information that should appear on your viewscreen momentarily which will help you come to a stop.  Follow it precisely, and you’re going to be just fine.”

Milton couldn’t tell if the alien had actually heard him, though, because the orange-skinned fellow was wobbling and looked ready to drop any moment.  “Hey!  Stay with us, you hear me!”  I’ve got to keep him awake and talking.  “What’s your name?”

There was a moment’s hesitation before the heavily injured figure answered.  “My name… is Chanfa.  What are those symbols—?  They look familiar….”

The Station Core quickly repeated his instructions from before, and it finally appeared as though the alien had understood.  Bulky fingers at the end of two beefy, powerful-looking arms started to punch at the console that he was leaning against, with a constant checking at the viewscreen in front of him.  The constant up and down movement of the injured figure was apparently too much for him, though, because as he touched a few last buttons on the console, he staggered backwards.  Then, like a puppet that had its strings cut, the alien dropped to the floor, out of sight of their view.

“He’s passed out,” Brint suddenly said unnecessarily.  “I don’t think he’s dead, though, but if we don’t get to him soon, he probably will be.”

Milton nodded, thinking the same thing.  Thankfully, it seemed as though the work done at the console was enough to get the ship to slow down.  Whisp monitored the flightpath, noticing on the long-range sensors that it was beginning to decelerate; after a minute, though, it was obvious that it hadn’t stopped entirely.

“It’s enough, however; we can easily match its speed and come up even with it.”

Thinking about the maneuver, he realized that could work.  “Perfect.  We’ll send a few drones over that you can operate from the command center and shut down the engines.  Once that’s done, we can see about transferring over the inhabitants with the shuttle.”  They’d also have to park the big ship down below along the central pillar of the Station, as rough estimates from the sensors had it too large to put anywhere else.  Thankfully, the pillar could quickly be reconfigured to accommodate such a ship, securing and even sealing it away if necessary.

As Milton got Trinket on that latter portion, giving her whatever resources she needed to make it happen, Milton kept an eye on their flight path, which had been readjusted to match the slower speed of the other ship.  “Still no sign of Heliothropes?”

Whisp shook her head.  “No, but I’ve analyzed the origin point of the other ship,” the Proctan mentioned.  “It looks like they came from system 238-65RD, so they hadn’t been traveling that long.”

“What do you think happened to them?  Who are they running from?  Do you think there is a fleet of Heliothropes in that system?”

“I have no idea, but I can make some conjectures,” Whisp said. “Since there is no sign of pursuit as of yet, there is a low probability that there are any Heliothrope ships in the system.  We can’t detect any from this distance, though their proximity to the planet could be interfering with the sensors’ accuracy.  There does appear to be a station there, however.”

A station, hmm….  He had to admit, he was a sucker for space stations, even for those that weren’t his own.

“As for why they were fleeing, that is unknown.  However, given the dust covering their skin and clothing, they appeared to have been tasked with laboring in an environment full of such particulates.”

It only took him a moment to put what she said together.  “Like some sort of mine?”  He remembered many games and books back on Earth that described working in the mines as a punishment in fantasy-type scenarios; if that was the case here, then he thought they might be criminals or prisoners trying to escape.  That thought only lasted half a second, however, before he dismissed it entirely.

The Heliothropes didn’t take prisoners; anyone that did something wrong was simply killed.

“That is definitely a possibility,” Whisp agreed, referencing his question about the mine.

It took the better part of an hour before they were able to get up close to the slowed ship, and Whisp brought it up on the viewscreen.  He recognized the type of ship it was from when they had visited station 23-E back near Jupiter: A transport.  It wasn’t quite as large as some that he had seen, but it had the same general shape of a massive rear end and a small forward section, where the bridge was likely located. Milton suddenly wondered if it contained anything they could use, but he pushed that thought aside; he wasn’t ready to steal from those he was trying to help.

Getting closer revealed finer details, such as where the outside of the other ship looked like it had been in some sort of battle or narrowly avoided being destroyed by an explosion.  There was metal shrapnel embedded in the hull, there were black marks that could potentially be the result of flames, and there were multiple plates on the hull dislodged and hanging loosely.  It didn’t appear to have compromised the integrity of the entire ship, but it was close.

Soon enough after that, they were finally able to match their speed with the damaged transport ship with the bottom portion of Murder Station’s central pillar next to it.  Within moments, a dozen of Milton’s drones launched themselves from the Station and drifted toward the ship, where they landed toward the back of the ship.  Within moments, they had cut themselves into the cargo bay, which was strangely not pressurized, nor did it have any type of environmental life support activated.  He thought it was strange until he contemplated it for a moment; he supposed that it would be a waste of resources if a large hold was kept heated, oxygenated, and supplied with gravity if it wasn’t needed.

Whatever the reason was, the hold was a mess, with what appeared to be stacks of metal that had at one point been neatly stored inside instead scattered all over the place.  Fortunately, his drones – courtesy of being controlled by both Whisp and Brint – were able to navigate their way through to get to the ship’s bridge.  An airlock was the only real obstacle preventing them from getting inside, which was easily activated by the drones, and within a minute of their arrival on the ship, they were able to start crawling over the consoles to deactivate the engines after bringing the ship to a complete stop.

Milton watched it all happen from the perspective of both his drones and the viewscreen.  He let the others do the actual work while he sent a sensor orb from the Station and onto the ship to assess the situation, which was how he was able to finally get a good read on the aliens on board.[2]

Milton looked first at Chanfa, the one with whom he had been speaking originally, and everything he saw about the Raxian – which he supposed was the alien’s race – confirmed that he was indeed a miner, as well as a slave.  That, accompanied by the bars of metal in the half-filled hold, indicated that the transport had likely been at some sort of mine before it was taken, but he still had no indication of what exactly had happened.

That question wouldn’t be answered until they were able to get this Chanfa healed.  Thankfully, with some precise maneuvering by Whisp, she was able to guide the Station so that the transport ship slid right into the waiting bay that was hastily constructed for it, where it was quickly secured by the waiting drones literally welding it to the floor there.

Normally, he would need to have either some Proctans there to help with Power-based healing or to transport any injured people to a Bioconversion Lab to fix them with technology, but Sandra had something different.  She had access to a construct she called an Unobtrusive Multi-Access Repair Drone, which looked like some sort of white, cylindrical, metal trash can with arms, and it could heal just as well and as quickly as any of the Healer-based Proctans.  Even better, it wasn’t hampered by the fact that there was no atmosphere in the Station’s bay where the ship was located, so it was easily able to move around without any handicap.

Within moments, Sandra instructed the Repair Drone to enter the ship, slipping through one of the holes Milton’s drones had made, and it was on the way to the bridge within seconds.  Less than a minute later, and with the Raxian’s Health dropping dangerously low, the magical healing from the construct began.  It took less than a minute for him to stabilize, and a minute after that for him to wake up, looking around in confusion.  During the wait while he was healed, Milton looked around at the other forms flung out around the bridge, looking for other survivors, but they were unfortunately all deceased.

“Who—?  What are you?”

The three-legged alien abruptly stood up as soon as he was healed enough to move, and he glanced around at the various mechanical creations with a frightened look that transcended species.  Milton was just grateful that the communication on the viewscreen was still active, because he was able to reassure the scared alien.

“Those are my little helpers; there’s no need to be afraid of them.  Just be patient, and we’ll get you out of there to someplace safer,” Milton said to calm him down.  “Once you’re safe, I think we have a lot to talk about.”

Chapter 6

It took some extra construction inside of the Station’s central pillar to transport the living Raxian, considering that there hadn’t really been too much of a need before then, but it was completed within an hour of the ship’s arrival.  Milton didn’t have their new arrival brought to the command center, however, but instead brought him to a large room just off of the Proctans’ barracks, which he was planning on using to expand the housing capabilities of the Station in the future.  It was one of those things that were on the back burner while the repairs and defense of Murder Station had taken priority, but the Station Core was hopeful that those plans would come to fruition soon.

Nervousness could be seen throughout every inch of the alien’s body, evident even though he looked different than anything Milton had seen up close before.  He pulled up his memories of Station 23-E near Jupiter and remembered seeing some species of beings that were even more wild and foreign than the Raxian, but he never got close enough to really know much about them.

“Welcome to, uh….” Milton hesitated, wishing that the Proctans had chosen something more welcoming than Murder Station to call their new home.  “…this Station!  I apologize for the strangeness of the welcoming party, but we’re still getting some things set up around here and don’t have proper access to the bays down below.”

There was a pair of Proctans near the door of the room, present just in case the Raxian became violent or was actually some sort of Heliothrope in disguise; other than that, it was just Milton and Sandra, who were trying to appear as non-threatening as possible.  Milton had attempted to have the Dungeon Core stay away because of the potential for danger, but she had insisted on being present despite his warnings.  He had just shrugged and welcomed her along, because he wasn’t going to insist she stay behind if she was as determined as she had appeared.

Even though it was basically just the two of them there, looking as unthreatening as possible, the Raxian still appeared cowed.

“Please, I’m sorry for taking the ship!” he said suddenly, practically cringing back at Milton’s words.  “The mine was collapsing and we had to leave!  I swear, it wasn’t our fault—”

“Whoa, whoa; no one said it was your fault.  Why don’t you tell us what happened—”

“It wasn’t the fault of the hub, either!  They had nothing to do with the deaths of The Masters in charge!”  Chanfa actually collapsed to his knees, holding his hands together in apparent supplication as he stared helplessly at Milton and Sandra.

This was not going the way he imagined.  “Hold up, I think we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot, here,” he said, holding his hands up toward the Raxian, which caused the much bigger person to flinch back.  If the situation wasn’t as tragic as it was, Milton would’ve thought it funny to see such a large, powerfully built person being frightened of his relatively small avatar.  As much as it felt a little emasculating, he had to admit that even Sandra was more intimidating than his own self; thankfully, he wasn’t one to let that bother him, especially considering that his Station Core was basically a giant metal egg.  That, and after living with the Proctans for so long, who could essentially perform amazing feats of a magical nature, his lack of abilities and presence as an avatar was something he was used to.

“We’re not here to hurt you, Chanfa; we’re here to help.  I actually want to help you even more now that I heard that some Heliothropes died,” Milton said.  “Tell us, please, what happened?”

“Helio… Heliothropes?  Who—?”

Milton sighed, hating that those subjugated by the scourge of the galaxy didn’t even know who they were slaving away for.  “You would know them as ‘The Masters’, I believe.  They are actually a race of people called Heliothropes, whom we are actively trying to fight against.”

“What?  You can’t fight against The Masters.  They are too powerful and will kill you and everyone you care about if you resist.”  Chanfa’s tone sounded like that was something he was reciting from memory, as if that was what he was taught as an incontrovertible truth.  In some respects, he was correct; for almost the entire galaxy, fighting against the Heliothropes was a bad idea, and had reportedly led to the deaths of billions in failed rebellions.  At least, that was the impression he got from the information Trinket had shared.

“Unfortunately, that is likely true… for most people.  However, to myself and my merry band of Proctans, we can’t exactly afford to care about that.  We’ve already killed hundreds of them over the course of the last year, and we will probably kill hundreds or thousands more in the next year.  You see, we aim to rid the galaxy of these ‘Masters’ once and for all.”

He thought that sounded quite heroic, which was ruined when the alien began to chuckle darkly.  “You can’t fight against them.  You’ll die just like the rest of us if you try to resist them.  That’s what all of us were taught, anyway,” Chanfa added, his tone now one of resignation.  It sounded a bit more gravelly than it did before, and Milton could tell that the three-legged figure had basically given up.

“We’ll just have to see about that, won’t we?” the Station Core said a little too quickly.  Despite being confident in the Station’s defenses, he couldn’t help but be affected by the alien’s attitude and resignation.  If this is what all of the people in the galaxy are like, how difficult will it be to find willing allies?

He didn’t want to think about that for long, because he knew he had to start somewhere.  All throughout Earth’s history, those who had been downtrodden and who had risen up in rebellion didn’t start with a strong force of eager fighters ready to go; rather, most of them had started with a very small group of people willing to lay down their lives to fight against such oppression, creating a movement that expanded to collect more and more to the cause.  From the ranks of the original rebels rose the leaders, those who had the charisma and wherewithal to lead the uprising to its conclusion.

It was a bit selfish to think of himself as the leader of the oppressed, mainly because he hadn’t exactly suffered what the people of the galaxy had suffered.  He hadn’t been born into slavery, nor had to live with very little freedom to choose what he wanted to do, so he couldn’t be the figurehead of a revolution.  What he, his Station, and the Proctans could be, however, was an instrument of change.

He also wasn’t sure if this Raxian, a miner from all of the information he had gathered, was one to be the face of rebellion, but only time would tell.  It all had to start somewhere, after all.

“Please, tell us what happened.  And did you say something about a hub?”

Chanfa didn’t look any more assured from anything Milton said, but he finally started to talk, his voice dead-sounding, like any hope that he had at one point was lost.  He briefly described his life in a mine on Obraxia Prime’s third moon, Ghael, and then told of the events that led to the eventual escape of himself and those that were on the transport ship with him.  The collapse of the mine was something that the Station Core wanted to know more about, especially about the Heliothropes that were apparently crushed to death down there.

“And you said that these green-skinned Helio—uh, Masters are the ones giving orders?”

“Of course; how do you not know this?  They are the only ones that communicate with us, and they seem like they are the smartest of those I’ve seen.  Granted, I’ve never seen a Commander, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about them that I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t care to.”

A new Heliothrope?  Or just one that we haven’t seen before?

From what the Raxian described, it sounded like these green-skinned versions were like Whisp and the Think Tank: They were intelligent and were adept at giving orders, but only rarely would they be needed in battle.  It made sense that he hadn’t seen any before now, because he had only fought against Heliothropes that were armed and ready to kill, and other than some of the Elites and the Commander, they didn’t seem all that smart.  There were the white-skinned ones he had seen down on Sandra’s planet, of course, but they seemed more like servants than anything else.

In the end, it was all important information that they hadn’t had before – but it was what Chanfa said next that was even more important.

“They are going to kill everyone in the hub, I just know it.  The Masters will blame the deaths of their number on those living on the station, regardless of whose fault it was,” he said sadly.

“That doesn’t make sense—”

Whisp suddenly initiated a communication with Milton, stopping him mid-sentence.  “Actually, I’ve been talking with Trinket, and she says that is how the Heliothropes react to incidents like this,” she informed him.  “Since there are no survivors, there is no way to determine guilt; as a result, everyone that is nearby will be ‘purged’ – her words, not mine.  It’s apparently a way to keep all the people in line if the actions of someone else could adversely affect them.”

Milton could see the horrific sense in something like that.  While this seemed like an accident in the mine… what if it wasn’t?  If someone was planning to collapse the mine in an act of defiance, then he could see anyone knowing of it happening turning those plotting in to the “Masters” so that such an act wouldn’t blow back on them.  It was a cruel but effective way of keeping everyone in line.  There were no degrees of guilt in a situation like this; they were simply guilty by proximity and association, plain and simple.

This situation also brought back the worry that the space station near Jupiter would suffer because Trinket had run away with Milton, and those in charge of the station didn’t stop them from leaving.  However, because there wasn’t any direct attack against a Heliothrope, she thought that they would be spared.  Now I want to go back and check at some point to see if that is true.

“We won’t let anything happen to them, will we, Milton?” Sandra asked, having followed along relatively well despite not speaking the Raxian language.

The Station Core hesitated for a half a second as he glanced at her, because he was trying to calculate the dangers of trying to help an entire space station, rather than a single ship.  After that half-second of reflection, Milton realized that it really didn’t matter.  This was their opportunity to help, to potentially find some allies that would otherwise be killed, and – more importantly to him – a chance to see another space station up close.

He nodded at Sandra before he turned back to Chanfa.  “No, we won’t.  We’ll do what we can to save them.”

The Raxian’s posture straightened in hope, but his face was all sorts of skeptical.  “How?  Do you have a large fleet of ships?  You won’t be able to stand up to The Masters if you don’t, and even then they will simply send more.”

Milton shrugged.  “I’m not quite sure how, but I’m confident we’ll figure something out.  It depends on what we find when we get there.”  Through his Core systems, he sent orders for Whisp and the others in the command center to start moving toward system 238-65RD, which was where the Raxian’s ship had originated.

Current Short-term Goal: Here I Come to Save the Day!

- Travel to System 238-65RD

- Prevent the inhabitants of the space station from being killed by Heliothropes

- Escape with minimal casualties (<10% of the station’s population)

- Acquire the station’s system knowledge for ALANNA

Difficulty of Goal: Average

Timeframe: 1 day

Rewards: +5 to Communication/Charisma, +3 to Ingenuity/Wisdom

“Thanks, ALANNA.  We’ll see about getting you access.”  Milton turned his attention away from the quest update and back to the Raxian.

“There is another important question I need you to answer, however, Chanfa.”

“I will do my best to answer, uh, Master.”

Using his avatar to wave that off, the Station Core said, “No, I’m not your Master.  From now on, it’ll be my goal to ensure that you don’t have any Masters to answer to for the rest of your life.  Instead, you can call me by my name: Milton.”

“Milton?  What an odd name,” the Raxian remarked as he finally got to his feet, somewhat emboldened by Milton’s words.  “It does not sound very inspiring for someone who leads—”

“Be that as it may,” the not-so-inspiring Milton said impatiently, cutting the alien off.  “That really doesn’t matter one way or another, because the question I have doesn’t have anything to do with what you choose to call me.  Just don’t call me ‘The Milton’ like Brint used to do, because it was only recently that I finally got him to stop that.

“That’s neither here nor there, of course.  What I need to know from you is what you want to do with your friends on your ship.”

“My friends?  Oh, you mean my shift mates?”  Milton nodded.  “I wouldn’t exactly call them my friends, sadly; I didn’t even know their names. We just happened to work at the same time in the same areas in the mine.”

“Be that as it may, what do you want done with them?”

“None of them survived, did they?”

The Station Core shook his head.  “No, they did not.”

“Then I suppose you can dispose of them in whichever way you can.  Normally, burial underneath the stones of our mines is our typical—”

“No, that’s not exactly what I meant,” Milton interrupted him.

Chanfa was silent for a brief moment.  “Uh… what do you mean?  You’re not… going to eat them, are you?”

Milton couldn’t help it; the laughter bubbled out of him, and he was accompanied by Sandra, and even as he literally doubled over in his mirth, the two Proctans by the door joined in from the infectious nature of their hilarity.  It took him nearly a minute to recover from the giggles that threatened to spill out, and he realized that it had been quite a long time since he’d laughed like that.  Unfortunately, their reaction had the opposite effect on the Raxian, who appeared even more frightened than he had when he first started talking to Milton.

“I’m sorry, that was highly inappropriate, Chanfa,” he said quickly once he saw how the alien had reacted.  “No, of course we’re not going to eat them.  I should’ve explained myself better from the beginning.

“I forgot for a moment that you aren’t aware of the situation on board this Station.  I merely wanted to know what your thoughts are on cloning.  Would your shift mates appreciate another chance at life, or do your people hold any religious tenets about the afterlife or resurrection?”

The fearfulness had receded a bit in the Raxian’s posture, but it was quickly replaced by extreme confusion.  “Cloning?  Resurrection?  What do you mean?”

Milton just smiled.  “Let’s just say that I’ve found that just one life is way too short for anybody.”  He waved for Chanfa to follow as he left the large room.  “I’ll tell you all about it as we make our way to the Bioconversion Labs.  Are you hungry?  We have a wide variety of food available, though you’ll have to tell me about your specific diet….”

Chapter 7

It turned out that there wasn’t any sort of religious or racial tenet preventing the Raxians from being “reborn” inside of the Biological Converters, at least according to Chanfa.  The three-legged newcomer was skeptical of it all, up to the point where the first of his shift mates came spilling out of the bottom of the Bioconversion Lab, into a pool of water.  The water drained away, and a heater from above helped to dry the newly reborn Raxian, who appeared rightfully frightened and confused.  Strangely enough – and no, he wasn’t trying to be a pervert – Milton didn’t see any type of reproductive organs on the alien, so he was unsure of its gender, or if it even had one.

Come to think of it, I don’t really know that Chanfa is male, but he certainly seems like it to me.  The sensor orbs could penetrate clothing and even skin, just as they could hundreds of feet of solid rock, and it was impossible for him to tell from just a look how the Raxians procreated.  He was sure that if he asked, one of the Think Tank could point him in the right direction, but the longer he thought about all of that, the more he realized that it really didn’t matter.

New Discovery!

After analyzing the DNA of a new sapient subject from this dimension, you have discovered that their genetic disposition is compatible for either (Proctan) or (Creator) mutations.

Congratulations!

You have gained the skill: Bio-dimensional Knowledge (Level 1)

Bio-dimensional Knowledge allows for the application of genetic mutations upon subjects of different dimensions.  Higher levels improve the compatibility of genetic mutations originating from different dimensions.

That is definitely interesting.  Not something I’m going to worry about right now, though.

Milton took some time to explain to the reborn Raxian what had happened, where they were now, and what they were going to be doing in the near future: namely, ensuring that the local “hub” – as they called it – wouldn’t suffer for the mine’s collapse.  He did the same for the next one to come out of the Labs, but after that, the existing Raxians helped to explain the situation to their newly recreated shift mates.  Needless to say, all of them, including Chanfa, were astounded by their sudden resurrection.

“How?  How is this possible?” the original Raxian finally asked.

ALANNA had come to visit the new arrivals, and she answered as succinctly as possible.  “This all comes from The Collective’s technology.  It’s still quite advanced compared to what the Heliothropes have adapted for use through the galaxy, from what I can tell, and it is not knowledge that should be passed around far and wide.”

That last part was for Milton’s benefit, as it was a passive admonition for his use of the Bioconversion Labs.  There were multiple conversations back on Proctus about the benefits and hazards of cloning, and that he shouldn’t be just going around offering to bring everyone “back to life”.  It had been necessary on Proctus in order to survive, however, and it had been beneficial even recently; trying to bring back everyone who was killed while standing up to the Heliothropes, however, could both be highly overwhelming and unnecessary.

In his mind, making everyone essentially immortal was the way to go, but he could also see the potential ramifications in the future.  Limits to who would and could be brought back would have to be enforced to prevent overpopulation over time, but the difficult part would be choosing who would be included in the “lucky” few that he would bring back.  It would most likely be those who would be taking a direct part in the fighting, as they were the ones that would be dying the most often – just like the Proctans.

Still, it was a slippery slope when it came to cloning, and he had to watch out for those who completely opposed it.  The Collective, at least from what ALANNA had told him, were firmly against the cloning of people, even though they were the ones that had originally developed the technology.  In addition, while Sandra had asked him to bring Echo – the Elf who had perished in the fight against the Heliothropes on her planet – back to life, it wasn’t something that would likely be in high demand.  The revelation that he could technically supply any of them with access to all of the different elements they used as part of their abilities was also cautioned against, likely because such a thing could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

He respected Sandra’s viewpoint, even though in order to do such a thing, they would have to be fitted with a Neurological Control Unit.  While the NCU would technically give Milton control of them, like he would have of any of his Combat Units, it was a necessary component to coordinate the remapping of their genetic structure.  It was also a safeguard on the Station Core’s part to prevent anyone he made extremely powerful from acting against him.  Therefore, it was a decision anyone who wanted some extra power from a mutation had to make; he could bring them back without an NCU the same as always, and they would essentially be free from any potential control; or, they could come back more powerful, with an NCU implanted within them.  To those who had just been slaves in the current dimension, it was a difficult choice.

As much as he thought it might be prudent to bring all of the newly reborn Raxians back with NCUs – because he didn’t really know them – Milton didn’t do that; there needed to be a level of trust extended between them, and to deliberately put them technically under his control without their approval was, in his mind, as bad as their slavery to the Heliothropes.  He would never abuse that control, because that went against everything he stood for, but none of the Raxians knew that.

Once they were clothed with some custom-designed overalls similar to what they wore before their bodies were “recycled” in the Molecular Converters, Milton introduced himself to those he hadn’t met yet and then led them to the cafeteria.  There wasn’t anyone cooking, however, because everything produced came out of a bank of Molecular Converters with accompanying touchscreens with a vast array of food available.  Fortunately for the Raxians, their diets didn’t require anything fancy, consisting primarily of starchy grains and proteins in the form of meat, so Milton produced his famous (at least on Proctus) Picow burgers from the Converters, which were consumed in such quantities that he thought that the Raxians might just be part Bearilla, based on their consumption rate.

It was only now, once he had a chance to really look at the large, orange-skinned aliens, that he recalled something that his sensor orbs had told him about Chanfa, but that he had ignored for more pressing matters.  “Chanfa?” he asked, sitting next to the Raxian on the cold metal bench attached to the long banquet tables Milton had placed in the cafeteria for seating.  “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything, Mast— uh, Milton.”

The Station Core was slightly concerned how subservient the Raxian still seemed to be, despite knowing he was free from his slavery.  Then again, intellectually he knows he’s free; internally, though, it probably hasn’t really hit him yet.

Milton ignored the slip-up, knowing it would probably take some time for not just Chanfa but the other Raxians to come to terms with their new freedom.  “What is it that you have in your pocket?”

Chanfa looked confused, and the nearby Raxians turned to watch in concern.  “What do you mean?  I don’t have—oh, you mean these shiny rocks?”  He reached into a pocket in his overalls and came out with two small objects, dwarfed by his comparatively massive hand.  The Station Core recognized them immediately, even without the aid of a sensor orb nearby: Focusing Crystals.

They appeared slightly different from what he was used to seeing, which he typically found in small pockets of certain types of stone, looking like tiny geodes when they were opened up.  The particular ones that Chanfa was holding, however, were smaller and a completely different shape, as well as being different colors than he was used to seeing.  Despite that, they were undoubtedly Focusing Crystals, though their quality was an unknown that even his sensor orbs couldn’t determine.

“Yes, that is exactly what I mean.  Do you know what you have there?”

Still looking confused, the Raxian shook his head.  “Uh, no?  They’re just shiny rocks, right?  They aren’t even as good as the ones that I had on my shelves in the Warren, but I found them on my last shift.”

Milton perked up.  “Those appear to be Focusing Crystals, which are very important to me.  You said you had more of these?”

The Station Core’s explanation didn’t seem to help with Chanfa’s comprehension of the stones’ importance.  “But they are just shiny rocks that many of us collected down in the mine.  How could they be important?  I had to have at least a couple thousand myself, and none of The Masters seemed to find them worth anything.”

A couple thousand?  And many of the other miners had some, as well?

“Would it be alright if I have one of them?  I would like some of my people to check it out for quality, because those two are a bit different from ones I’ve seen before.”

A shrug – which seemed to be universal, no matter where a person came from – preceded Chanfa dropping both Crystals in Milton’s hand.  “You can have them.  It’s a poor repayment for saving us, however, as well as for bringing the rest of my shift mates back to life; we are indebted to you for your help.”

Milton waved that away while he stared at the Focusing Crystals in the palm of his hand.  “It was our pleasure to rescue you, though I can’t guarantee that you’re now out of danger.  The Heliothropes will likely be heading this way because of our presence, and you already know of the potential danger to the space station you told me about.  We’ll still do everything we can to keep you and those on the station safe; but there are no guarantees.”

All of the Raxians were listening by that point, but none of them seemed to be worried by that.  “We appreciate everything you’ve already done for us,” the apparent Raxian ambassador stated, as the others looked to be relying on Chanfa to speak for them all.

As it was still going to take a short time to arrive at the system, and consequently the small space station that was in danger, he left the cafeteria – telling the Raxians that if they needed anything else to eat that they could simply create it on the Molecular Converters, which they seemed to understand the operation of quite quickly – and Sandra accompanied him to the command center.

“That’s a Focusing Crystal?” she asked as they walked.  “It looks quite different from the one you gave me.”

“It is, and you are correct.  My sensor orbs can identify the internal structures of Focusing Crystals inside of these stones, but they’re… different.  Smaller, perhaps.  I’m not sure; that’s why I’m hoping ALANNA or one of the Think Tank can tell me more.”  He thought about tossing it in one of the Molecular Converters to break it down and see what it was, but he was worried the Converters wouldn’t give him the details he was looking for.  That, and he had a suspicion about what he was looking at, and wanted some expert advice.

As soon as he entered the command center, ALANNA rushed at him, accompanied by Whisp, and the nanite-formed AI snatched one of the stones from his hand before he could even say anything, while the Proctan took the other.  “Hey, be careful with—” he warned, but the two ignored him.  Considering the fact that they had probably been listening in on Milton and the Raxians, as well as him and Sandra, it shouldn’t have surprised the Station Core that they were as interested in his acquisition as he was.

“You think—?” Whisp asked.

ALANNA answered as if she knew exactly what the Master Thinker was talking about.  “Yes, I see the compressed divisions of the different structures.”

“Can they be—?

The AI cocked her head to the side.  “Maybe?  I think so.  In fact, I believe if I….”  ALANNA’s free hand suddenly transformed into a stream of greyish nanites, which flowed over the shiny stone like a wave, before seeming to concentrate in a few areas.  There was a sudden *crack*, which worried Milton because he thought she had just destroyed the stone; but instead, he was surprised at what happened next.

One moment, ALANNA was holding a stone approximately the size of a golf ball; the next, her hands overflowed with very familiar Focusing Crystals, though they were more of an opaque color than he was accustomed to. Milton quickly counted 17 Crystals, all caught before they could hit the floor by the diminutive guide, who creepily expanded the size of her hands so that they looked more like platters than hands.

“What?  How?”

Whisp explained.  “This is a Focusing Crystal,” she said, holding up the shiny stone she still held, “but it has been compressed and compacted together with such incredible force that multiple internal Crystal structures are fused together.  However, given enough external pressure in a few places, they can be released from their combined state, where they spring back to their original structures – as demonstrated perfectly by ALANNA.”

“That’s… that’s incredible!” Milton couldn’t help but exclaim.  Considering how difficult it was to find Focusing Crystals, even when specifically looking for them on other planets they’d visited in the past year or so, having some condensed Crystals nearby was a miracle.  He thought that he could probably drop someone down to the moon where the mine had collapsed, have them dig up the collapsed remnants of these “Warrens” that Chanfa had mentioned, and then feed them all into the Molecular Converters—

“I know, right?  It’s a good thing you didn’t put these into the Converters, because the Converters probably wouldn’t have been able to break up their condensed structures to separate them into individual Focusing Crystals.  Only ALANNA can do it, at least until we can come up with another solution, but at least you’ll have some more resources.”

Great.  So much for that plan then.  I suppose we could transport them all up here, but the shuttle probably won’t be able to hold that many—wait.  We technically have access to a transport ship right now, so that might just work.

According to the Raxians, they didn’t technically own the transport, as they had used it to escape.  However, given that they were worked as slaves to provide the raw materials that likely went into its production (at least in part), Milton figured they deserved some sort of compensation.  A transport ship wouldn’t make up for their forced slavery, of course, but it would at least help to get them back on their feet.  He didn’t feel like deliberately commandeering the vessel, so it would have to be done with their permission, in exchange for something.

“We’re approaching system 238-65RD now.  There’s no sign of any Heliothrope ships nearby,” Milton heard from one of the Think Tank, who had been monitoring their progress.  A model of the system popped up on the viewscreen, showing the sole planet – Obraxia Prime, according to Chanfa – surrounded by multiple moons.  Based on the trajectory data calculated by those in the command center, a red dotted line marked the pathway to the third moon, where the surviving Raxians had come from when their mine collapsed.

Orbiting the planet was the space station, though Milton privately thought that it was barely even worth the name.  When Chanfa had mentioned that it was a “hub”, he had been imagining the one he had seen near Jupiter, which was enormous and larger than Murder Station, even if the latter was filled out with additional rings surrounding the central pillar.  This particular station was tiny in comparison, likely only a tenth of the size of his own Station, and shaped like a wire-framed, rectangular cube.  It had a central sphere in the inside of the cube, connected by 8 large struts that were connected to the 8 different edges of the cube, and this sphere seemed to be the main docking and storage area for the station.

As they got closer and were able to determine finer details, dozens of ships were moving near this central part of the hub, though most of them seemed as though they were moving from one part of the station to another.  None of them were large enough to be classified as transport ships, however.

“They appear to be made for in-system travel only,” ALANNA remarked.

As for the planet and the moons, while there seemed to be signs of civilization of some sort on all of them, there didn’t seem to be anything moving.  From what Milton could tell as the long-range sensors acquired more information on them, whoever had lived there before had either been killed or been evacuated entirely, as there were no signs of intelligent life on the surface.  There was a possibility that they were living underground, of course, but he didn’t think that likely.  All that he had learned about the Heliothropes said that they had moved the conquered residents off-planet to be used somewhere else as slaves.

Milton mentally asked some of the Proctans watching their guests to bring Chanfa to the command center.  There was a small disagreement from the other Raxians, wanting to accompany their leader wherever he went, and Milton allowed it.  The command center would become a little crowded, but there should still be more than enough room for them; for safety, however, he had a few small groups of Proctans accompany the aliens.  He couldn’t control the Raxians, since they didn’t have NCUs, and while he mostly trusted that they weren’t going to harm anyone, he felt better with a little backup.

Sandra, however, thought that it wasn’t necessary.  “I have a good feeling about them, Milton.  I’m not sure what that feeling is, exactly, but it’s telling me that they don’t mean you any harm.”

“I’m sure they’re fine, but I have to ensure that you, out of all of us, are kept safe.”  Milton and the Proctans in the command center could be rebuilt or reborn, but Sandra was a Dungeon Core; he didn’t want her in unnecessary danger of being killed permanently.

She squeezed his shoulder affectionately, saying, “Thanks, but you know I can take care of myself.”

Milton was definitely aware of that, considering all that he had seen her do when they were rebuilding Murder Station’s dungeon.  Still, he couldn’t help but worry.

When Chanfa and the others arrived, they were silent as they stared at the viewscreen and the station depicted thereupon.  Fortunately for everyone, they seemed more worried about those inside of the hub rather than causing trouble.

“Incoming visual communication originating from Station 487-O.”

Milton raised his hand, gesturing for it to be put on the central viewscreen.  The model of the system and view of the station were reduced down to picture-in-picture size and moved to the lower left and right corners of the screen, replaced by the incoming message.

This should be interesting.

Chapter 8

A person abruptly appeared on the screen, visibly shaking and staring downwards as if afraid to look him in the eye. Behind the figure, the makings of an office could be seen, though it was difficult to discern more than a few details, considering that the view was taking up most of the screen.  He had to admit that the deference was more than a little strange, considering that the person wasn’t exactly Human; instead, it appeared to be a talking pig.  Not like Miss Piggy, though, but a restructured hog that had longer arms and legs than pigs he remembered from Earth, as well as a bit thinner and better-looking.  Like a grown-up Babe, though with a much more snubbed nose and quivering jowls.

From the information on the Heliothropes in his system, Milton recognized the race as belonging to The Collective: A Porlix.  They – he couldn’t tell what gender they were at the moment – spoke Galactic Basic, without even looking up from where they were staring.

“The weak will serve, oh great Masters.  We have heard of an accident on Ghael, the third moon, but we were unaware of your visit.  How may your slave serve you?”

Milton had heard somewhere back on Earth that pigs didn’t sweat, which was why they rolled around in cold mud to stay cool.  Whether or not that was true, it certainly wasn’t true of the Porlix, as the one on the screen was practically drenched.  They’re lying; they know exactly what happened on Ghael, but are trying to claim partial ignorance to spare their lives.  Smart, but I doubt the Heliothropes would care.

“Hey, there!  We’re not the Heliothropes, as you can see, but we are here to help you.”

At Milton’s voice, the Porlix immediately snapped their head up and stared in confusion and shock, looking around at the different people in the command center.  The light pink skin of the alien practically bleached itself when attention was turned to Chanfa and the other miners, before darkening a second later.

“What have you done?!  Did you collapse the mine?!  They’re going to kill us all, you fools!” The Porlix was obviously blaming the Raxians for their predicament, and it was also plain to see that the small station’s figure knew the repercussions of such an act.  Before Milton could defend them, a voice spoke up from an expected direction.

“They had nothing to do with it,” Trinket said, walking out to show herself in front of the viewscreen.  “There was an unexpected cave-in at the mine, and these were the only survivors, who managed to escape on a transport ship before they were killed, as well.”

“A Mouslan?  What are you doing with these… whoever they are?  And did you say they have one of our transport ships?”  The Porlix appeared very eager about that last part, for some reason.  It didn’t take Milton long to realize why; the ship was likely the only long-distance ship available in the system which could transport a select few people off of the station.  Whether or not the one that had contacted Milton wanted it for themselves and a few of their buddies to escape like rats from a sinking ship was still up in the air.

“I’m happy being free, that’s what I’m doing with Milton and the rest of these people,” the Mouslan said firmly and confidently.  “Why do you care that we have a transport ship?”

“There’s no freedom anymore, you know that.  It’s a foolish notion, young one.  You’re just going to get yourself killed… but I assume you already know that.  I hope your rebellion didn’t make anyone else suffer for your escape.”  When Trinket shook her head, the Porlix sighed, seemingly to slump into themselves.  “That’s good, at least.  As for why I care about the transport ship, it’s the only way to get the children off of the station before The Masters arrive; their coming is inevitable, after the disaster at the mine, and the rest of us won’t survive.”

The small speech told Milton a couple of things.  First, everyone who had told him that the Heliothropes would see the collapse of the mine as an attack on those that were in charge was right, and that the people on the small station were doomed.  Second, he had mentally misjudged the Porlix, thinking the alien wanted the ship to escape and save themselves; in actuality, they wanted to save all or most of the children on the station.  Milton wasn’t sure how many children there were, but he had to assume that there were a few hundred, even inside the smaller hub.

“How many of you are on the station?” Milton asked, interrupting the conversation between the Porlix and Trinket.

“Who are you people?” the figure asked, not answering his question.

“We’re the ones who want to help you, but we need to know how we can do that.  We can explain everything to you later, but you need to tell us some things.”  Milton was starting to get impatient, the nagging feeling of doom in the back of his mind.  It was only a matter of time before the Heliothropes showed up, and there was still a lot they needed to do before they fled.  “Now, how many of you are on the station?  Ten thousand?  Twenty thousand?”

He thought that even 20,000 wasn’t an unreasonable number of people to transfer to Murder Station, and he could make accommodations for that many over the next week or so, though it would stretch some resources a bit.  Thankfully, Sandra could help to replace some of those because of her Mana, but more than that would be difficult without some extra time.

I could probably take 50,000 or slightly more and still be alright, though space will be a little tight with what has been constructed thus far in the central pillar.  Only the areas around the command center were set up for living arrangements, though there was plenty of room to finish it off and create more residential areas.  Of course, that would take time and resources, but it could be done.

In addition, only a portion of the ring was being utilized for the dungeon he had created with Sandra, so it could also eventually be converted into a place where people could live, but there was no need at the moment.  Everything important was contained in the central area of the station, which was why all of the living arrangements had been placed there thus far.  No reason to change—

“We have 247,219 people on board Station 487-O.”

“WHAT?!” Milton asked, shocked into incomprehension.  He remembered hearing that millions of people had lived on the space station near Jupiter, but he figured that was because it was a much larger structure.  But for just under a quarter-million people to live on this station was unbelievable.

The Porlix appeared apologetic.  “Well, we had more about a month ago, but we had a sudden case of Charfelglewick shoot through the population like a plague, and we lost nearly 25,000 before it could be contained.  We’ll have to leave the quarantined areas behind, because we can’t afford to let it spread any further.”

There were gasps from the Raxians and even Trinket as they heard the name of whatever illness the Porlix described, and Milton turned to ALANNA for clarification.  Unfortunately, she appeared completely blank, so he asked the Mouslan, who was standing nearby.

“It’s a horrible disease that liquifies the internal organs of 50% of those who catch it; it happens fast over the course of 48 hours, and there is no cure,” she explained with a shudder.  “Those who are afflicted but don’t have their organs liquified are contagious for up to 45 days, so they have to be quarantined.  I’ve heard that some stations just kill anyone afflicted, even if they are asymptomatic, but those are usually the larger ones with more to lose if the disease breaks free from quarantine.  Thankfully, it’s quite rare; I’ve never had to experience a breakout of it on any station I’ve lived on.”

“That’s outrageous!” Sandra said, her hand going to her chest in shock.  “Why don’t they just heal those afflicted?”

“Very few of us slaves have access to more than basic medical services, focused on injuries rather than diseases,” Trinket answered.  “It’s easier to patch a slave up than attempt to cure them of a disease, though thankfully such deadly diseases are few and far between.  Which, now that I think about it, that’s probably why there isn’t a focus on transmittable diseases, because they are so rare that it would be a waste of time and resources.”

Sandra looked thoughtful.  “Hmm, I wonder if my Repair Drones could cure this disease?”

“If not, then it’s entirely possible that the Proctans can, or even my Bioconversion Labs,” Milton suggested.  “We have a lot of options to figure it out.”

The Porlix had obviously been listening to their conversation, as he pleaded with Milton to save those still afflicted.  “Please, you must save my daughter if you can; she was afflicted but didn’t suffer the effects from it, thankfully, but I can’t leave her behind!”

“Calm down, uh—what was your name again?”

“Station Leader Orkney, sir.”

Orkney?  Ha.

“Thank you, Station Leader.  We’ll do our best to save everyone, not just your daughter.  However, there are a lot more of you than I previously considered, so we’re going to have to figure both how to get you all off quickly and where to put you.  Worse yet, we have to figure it all out before the Heliothropes—”

The sense of impending doom was back, which was punctuated by Whisp interrupting his conversation with Orkney.  “Long-range sensors have detected something headed in this direction from sector 34.  Interference within the system is limiting the range and accuracy, but I give it between 2 and 3 hours before it arrives.”

Speak of the devil.  “Is it them?”

“Too soon to tell, but I can’t see it being anyone else.  It’s a sizable fleet, that’s all I can tell for sure.”

Milton was now facing a dilemma.  There was no way he would be able to evacuate all of the people from the smaller station before the Heliothropes arrived, even if there were perfect accommodations for them on Murder Station.  Then there was the moon that held the collapsed mine, where the concentrated Focusing Crystals were located; it would take a little bit of time to excavate enough to unearth the resources, though Milton thought he could manage to obtain at least some of them before they were forced to flee.

That would, naturally, leave the people of the station to be massacred as a result.  That wasn’t something he would allow, as much as he needed those Crystals.

“I think it’s time to test the dungeon, Milton,” Sandra suddenly said from behind him, interrupting his thoughts.

He turned around and saw the eagerness on her face, and he realized that he wanted to test it as well; however, there was still no guarantee that the Heliothropes wouldn’t simply blow them up from range.

“I’ve been analyzing the attack on us from before,” Whisp spoke up.

“Okay, and…?”

She quickly brought up a small window on the viewscreen depicting the starmap where they had emerged in the current dimension after leaving Sandra’s.  “I believe they attacked us because we were too close to their failed attempt at accessing another dimension, as well as proximity to what I’m starting to reference as their ‘primary territory’.  Based on Collective information, it seems as though a large portion of their former territory is included.  This would also explain why we were attacked when we first traveled from the Proctan dimension: We basically barged into their house, and they responded accordingly.

“The outer fringes of the galaxy, despite being under their control, aren’t necessarily as constantly defended, so they aren’t likely to destroy anything found out here immediately.”  Whisp turned to Trinket, their resident “expert” on the Heliothropes.  “I know that they destroyed most of this station when the Gardrevans rebelled, but is that their normal response?”

The Mouslan was obviously startled to be asked the question, but she thought about it for only a few seconds before responding.  “No, not necessarily.  From what I’ve overheard, their normal punishments are carried out in person; I think that because the Gardrevans actually created a fleet of ships in opposition, as well as attacked those in the system who were ‘in charge’, they earned the response.  For those punished for other reasons, such as what happened here, they would eliminate everyone on board the station and then replace them with slaves from other parts of the galaxy.”  She shook her head in disgust.  “There’s no reason to waste a perfectly good space station unless it serves a greater purpose, such as demonstrating another ‘lesson’.  For something like this, though, eliminating the current inhabitants is enough.”

Heartless, cruel… but efficient.  They’re not stupid, just “practical”; there is apparently no shortage of slaves, but having to replace a space station would be an unnecessary expense.  Unless, as Trinket said, it served a greater purpose.  Most likely, the Heliothropes would want to reopen the mine to produce the resources it had, and a short delay in getting new workers probably didn’t seem all that bad to them.

“So, you’re saying you think we’re safe from being blown up from a distance?” he asked not only Whisp, but the rest of the Think Tank, as well as Trinket and ALANNA.

It was his AI guide that answered.  “We’re never going to be safe, Milton; however, based on the data collected, I concur with Whisp’s assessment.  There won’t be a better time to test that theory than now, though I would advise that Sandra to be ready to flee if we’re wrong.”

It was a huge risk, waiting for the Heliothrope fleet to arrive, but Milton didn’t really see any other way, other than abandoning nearly a quarter-million people to their deaths. “Any new info on the fleet?” he asked, wanting to get a better assessment of what they were up against.

“I can confirm that they are Heliothropes, but they are too clustered together to get an accurate count.  Conservatively, I’d say that there are at least 80 of them, though it could easily number over 100,” Whisp informed him.

He was fairly confident in the dungeon, but against what could be over 1,000 Heliothropes?  If they were all Fodder – the weakest of the enemy – then he didn’t see any problem; if there were more than a few Elites, however, there could be some problems.  Any Commanders with the force would spell disaster, as they weren’t ready for that kind of assault quite yet.

As much as he wanted—no, needed—to stay and help the people, he couldn’t risk losing Murder Station and his Station Core to the Heliothropes if there was a Commander.  Barring that eventuality, however, he knew there was a good chance they would be able to stand up to just about anything else.

“Alright, we’re staying,” he told everyone, including the Station Leader on the viewscreen.  “Park us near the other station, so that we will make a better target than them, and we’ll see if we can beat them in our dungeon.”

Only about half of the people in the command center understood what he was saying, however.  Chanfa asked the question that was in the minds of the other half.

“What is this dungeon you’re talking about?”

Milton just smiled as he began to explain.

Chapter 9

It wasn’t too long after Milton had finished describing the dungeon he and Sandra had built, to those unfamiliar with the concept, that the fleet of Heliothrope ships were close enough to assuage one of his worries: There were no Commander-sized vessels present.  It was easy enough to rule them out because none of the ships were capable of holding a 100-foot+ Heliothrope, though it wasn’t all good news.  Included in the fleet of 95 ships were 5 that he recognized as most likely being ones that carried an Elite, so they were in for a challenge.

Down on Sandra’s planet, their assault against the Heliothropes guarding the Stabilizing Anchor had been brutal, but they had succeeded, despite the presence of the Commander.  While there wasn’t a Commander with these enemies headed in Milton’s direction, there were likely to be twice as many Fodder and Soldiers than the army they had defeated, as well as at least 1 more Elite.  It was going to put their dungeon to the test.

They had built said dungeon to work independently without the need of help from the Proctans, but since this was its first real test, he instructed them to ready themselves, just in case.  Thankfully, there were over 1,000 of the 25,000 Proctans he had brought with him via their patterns in the Bioconversion Labs ready and able to defend the Station if the need arose, but he was hoping that it wouldn’t be necessary.

While they waited, Sandra stayed near the dimensional portal linking her dimension with Milton’s own, while she also checked and double-checked that everything was prepared in the dungeon.  Because she could “see” and interact with everything within her Area of Influence, she was able to make any last-minute changes at a distance.  That had been very helpful during the construction of the overall dungeon, as Milton hadn’t needed to be near, either; he had his viewscreens and perspectives from his sensor orbs, while the Dungeon Core could simply visualize what she wanted to observe.

They had quickly learned that there were both benefits and limitations to Sandra’s abilities on Murder Station, however.  Back in her own dungeon, she could create permanent elemental-based traps that used the nearby ambient Mana to recharge and rearm the traps once they were activated.  On the Station, such ambient Mana didn’t exist; Sandra herself regenerated Mana as it was funneled through the dimensional portal, gathered from a variety of sources, such as the Monsters she had outside of her dungeon. They absorbed the ambient Mana aboveground, and it was then automatically shuttled off to her Core, which was apparently an incredible amount; while she was inside Murder Station, though, she didn’t receive any of the ambient Mana that came from her dungeon, which was a much, much lower amount.

The result of that was that neither Sandra nor her traps would regenerate automatically from the non-existent ambient Mana, and it was only due to a different gathering mechanism that the Dungeon Core was replenishing her Mana at all.  Therefore, any traps that she placed were single-use, and more Mana would have to be spent to recreate them.

That was definitely a disappointment and a serious limitation, but there were also benefits to being inside of the Station.  Because there wasn’t any of the ambient Mana that characterized her dungeon, one major rule regarding the use of her abilities was… bent.  Typically, when there was an invader inside of her dungeon, her hands were ostensibly tied; what that meant was she couldn’t set any traps or manipulate the environment, but she could still create her Dungeon Monsters near her Core for defense.

On the Station, however, the absence of ambient Mana meant that no rules prevented her from doing whatever she wanted, even if there were invaders nearby.  At least, that was what she gathered from the fact that any Proctans near where she was working wouldn’t interfere with her abilities as a Dungeon Core. Whether it was because they were from another dimension and weren’t identified as invaders, or another reason completely unrelated, no one knew; what mattered the most was that she was free to do what she wanted, when she wanted, which even included creating multiple traps in the same room, or Dungeon Monsters somewhere else within her Area of Influence, instead of them needing to be created next to her.

“They’re entering weapons range now,” Whisp said abruptly, startling Milton out of his perusal of the dungeon.  Right now was the moment of truth, and would be the deciding factor as to whether they were to stay and allow the Heliothropes to invade Murder Station, or flee as quickly as they could with the use of the trans-dimensional drives.  Granted it would mean abandoning the people nearby, but staying wouldn’t do much good if they were blown up—especially with the volatile but dormant sub-Fulsite reactor located at the top of the repurposed Murder Station.  If it were to detonate, the explosion could potentially destroy not only the smaller station, but also the planet and nearby moons as well.  I’ve really got to figure out a way to get rid of that thing.  It was on his to-do list, but for now, the reactor was stable and not hurting anyone.

The extreme range of the long-distance weapons of the Heliothropes having passed without any attack, Milton let out a relieved sigh.  As the enemy approached, he was becoming less worried about an all-out attack as the seconds went by, until he was fully convinced that they were safe.  All they needed to do was wait until the Heliothropes landed on the much bigger platform leading into Murder Station’s dungeon, and they would be taken care of in one way or another.

“The majority of the ships are headed straight for us, but another 15 have veered off slightly, including 2 of the Elite ships,” Rhiole called out.

“Where are they going?” Milton asked, but he already knew the answer.

“They are on a heading that will bring them to Station 487-O.”

Great, just great.  The Core thought about moving Murder Station to try and block them, but there was no way that was going to happen; those ships were much too maneuverable to be stopped like that, and there was no way that all approaches could be cut off.  Instead, he thought about all of the people on board the smaller hub and how to save them.  At this point, there was only one alternative that he could see.

“Micke!  I need half of those with you to head down to the bay where the transport ship is located.  It looks like we’re going to be using it sooner than anticipated.”

“On our way!” the Tank responded, and Milton could see him already gathering up another hundred groups of 5 Proctans, where they immediately ran toward the access tunnel that would lead to the command center and then down to the bay where the transport ship was located.  It would take them about 30 minutes to get there, which gave Milton’s drones plenty of time to finish up what they had been working on since the Station Core had decided to stay.

Knowing that the transport ship would be needed to transfer people from the smaller hub to Murder Station, he had been hard at work repairing the outer hull of the vessel and ensuring that its hold had environmental controls.  Thankfully, the life support system and artificial gravity were still in relatively good condition, so there was plenty of room for thousands of people all at once – and more than enough for the 500 Proctans heading there now.

In addition, Milton had also fabricated and installed an airlock door to the outer bay wall, so that they could have an environment capable of supporting life around the ship.  Otherwise, it would be difficult to have anyone enter or exit the ship once the airlock door was closed.  Thankfully, the life support systems contained throughout the rest of Murder Station already reached the bay, courtesy of when the drones had sealed it up before, so he didn’t have to make everything from scratch.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Rhiole run out of the command center, heading for the same bay as the other Proctans.  “Thanks, Rhiole,” he mentally sent to her, and the Master Thinker simply acknowledged him as she ran for all she was worth.  They needed a pilot for the ship, after all, and who better than one of the Think Tank?

Things were progressing quickly, as even as the Proctans were still heading for the transport ship, the Heliothropes arrived.  A full 80 of them landed on the ledge outside of the dungeon, while the other 15 enemy vessels glided unopposed to the small hub station’s center.  He watched them dock with the main loading bays located in that section, but whatever was happening from then on was unknown.

“We’ve already evacuated those areas, but it won’t be long until they reach the first of our barricades,” the Station Leader said as an update, the Porlix’s jowls shaking from the pressure of trying to keep everyone alive as long as possible.  There was a shout from off-screen, and Orkney turned away for a moment before looking back at Milton and the others in the command center.  “I have to go.  We could certainly use your help as soon as possible.”

“Just hold out as long as you can,” Milton responded, just before the screen went blank from the Station Leader’s perspective.  It was soon replaced with multiple views of Murder Station’s dungeon airlock, which was open and quickly filling with Heliothropes as they filed out from the multitude of ships.

Whereas the previous airlock had enough room to hold around 150 of the blue-skinned Fodder, the new airlock was much bigger.  This was, in part, because the dungeon itself was around 20 times the size of its previous incarnation; the other reason was that Milton and Sandra didn’t necessarily want to separate and portion-off the incoming invaders, electing to keep them together for the most benefit.

Why was that a benefit?  Well, as mentioned before, Sandra’s traps would only activate once, as there was no ambient Mana around to recharge them; catching a lot of them all at once was therefore imperative.  Then there was the fact that instead of having a lot of different individual rooms, the dungeon was instead one very large space with separated environments, so as to better utilize the defensive traps, constructs, Monsters, and Combat Units that the two Cores could create.

A total of 883 Heliothropes emptied out of their ships near the newly created dungeon and walked inside of the massive airlock.  Once they were all inside, the door quickly shut on them, cutting them off from the void of space outside and their ships.  As soon as it was fully closed, another airlock door slid to the side, this one further into the ring that housed the dungeon, and the Heliothropes suddenly had access to an entirely different environment.

A few seconds later, they walked from a world of sci-fi, full of spaceships and travel among the stars, to one that wouldn’t look out of place in some fantasy-based RPG.  The dangers therein weren’t a fantasy, however, which the new arrivals would soon discover.

Chapter 10

(Three weeks earlier)

“So, what rooms do you think we should create?” Milton asked the Dungeon Core, as they both sat down at a console in the command center.  The Station Core had already described what the previous dungeon he had created looked like to Sandra, as well as shown some recorded footage of it in action on the viewscreen.  For her part, she had quickly experimented with what she could create, which revealed the benefits and limitations of her abilities on the Station.

It had been a great disappointment that she wouldn’t be able to provide traps that could be reused over and over again, but it was a limitation that they would be able to work around, somehow.  Already, she had a very intelligent Gnome named Violet, back in her own dungeon, looking at the possibility of hooking up some of her special Energy Orbs to a trap as a substitute for ambient Mana, but Milton was told that it could take a while.  They could already be used in enchantments, he was informed, but the properties behind enchantments were different from the pure-Mana trap constructs that Sandra created for her dungeon, so finding a compatibility between the two was a difficult proposition.  Not impossible, though; just difficult.

“You know, ever since I became a Dungeon Core, I never really got used to being enclosed underground, and reaching the surface had been one of my most memorable goals near the beginning,” Sandra mused.  “Having access to a wide-open space, one where I didn’t feel as confined – even if I had to observe the area through the eyes of my constructs – was an important part of keeping me sane, when it felt like I couldn’t do anything right.

“What I’m trying to say is, why do we need rooms?” she suddenly asked.  “I understand keeping each area separate so that there is a theme, or to ensure that the traps are focused in a certain area, but I’m not constrained by the same rules, anymore.  And, I don’t believe you are, either, despite what your dungeon—sorry, dungeons—looked like before.”

In addition to footage of Murder Station’s dungeon, Milton had also shown her a brief look at the massive dungeon he had created back on Proctus, so that she would have a better idea of what he was capable of.  She was right, too, that he wasn’t constrained to creating individual rooms for his defense, though that was primarily what he had focused on in both of his dungeons.  However, he did have experience with a more open space underground, as he had made a very large room that was designed for group raids against powerful Combat Units; it had been created to train the Proctans on large-group tactics and cooperation before they assaulted a dangerous threat later on.

But if he was to use some of those same ideas, along with some of Sandra’s, to turn that around and make something that would stop any invaders, he thought it might work.  The best thing about it was that he wouldn’t have to carve out a massive space like he had when constructing underground caverns, because the internal space of the massive ring – which constituted a large part of the Station – was 10 miles wide all the way around.

“You’re right; we don’t need individual rooms.  They aren’t necessary, especially with all of the space we have in the ring.”

“Exactly.  If we simply create different environments where my traps will be the most effective, then we can manage the influx of invaders quite effectively,” Sandra added.

Milton pictured what that might look like, and he was reminded of some MMORPGs that had “zones”, which could vary quite wildly in environment from zone to zone.  While there wouldn’t be any loading screens in between their dungeon’s zones, like in those same MMORPGs, there would be a transitional barrier of some kind.

Working with the Dungeon Core was an experience and a pleasure unlike anything Milton had experienced before.  As Milton worked on creating an airlock that was many times larger than the one that had just been destroyed, Sandra used her Mana and an army of constructs she called Steel-banded Articulated Powered Golems and Rapid Steel-bladed Diggers to start creating the first section of the massive room.

Unlike Milton, who would need to use his available resources and a whole host of Molecular Converters, the Dungeon Core could produce what she needed with her Mana and Raw Materials, which Milton provided for her, when she needed them, with a nearby Molecular Converter.  He found that just by producing Weightonite, the extremely dense and heavy stone that could squish a person flat with a sheet the thickness of plywood, she could absorb it and be full up of Raw Materials in no time.  He had to admit that he was more than a little envious of that ability, especially considering that he had to accumulate quite a few different kinds of resources.

She used those Raw Materials to create a large desert full of Quartz Sand that was nearly a mile in length and width, sculpted into large dunes by her constructs.  The amount of sand she could produce was incredible, and her constant Mana regeneration from her planet was high enough that she could literally make it all day in a constant stream without stopping.  It was also quite disproportionate to the Weightonite absorbed, as Milton couldn’t believe the dense stone contained that much Raw Material for her to work with.  I guess that’s what makes her so magical.  The whole process was unbelievable… but also amazing.

The construction of the giant airlock and the desert took approximately 36 hours, which was an impressive accomplishment.  Once it was done, they were left with a large, sand-filled space that needed some sort of defense; Sandra already had an idea for that, as she had a few constructs and Dungeon Monsters that she felt would work perfectly, as well as a trap or two.  First, the Dungeon Core created thousands of Iron-mandible Segmented Millipedes, which were nightmarish constructs that were about an arm’s length in size, if not larger; they were unique in the fact that all of the different segments were able to act independently of each other if they were separated, and they had pinching mandibles made of sharpened iron.  They could bury themselves under the sand and emerge as a flood to overwhelm their targets – a frightening-enough thought of which Milton didn’t want to be on the receiving end.

The Platinum-banded Wyrm was also able to bury itself under the sand, making it relatively invisible.  The construct was essentially a large, long, metal snake with wings, though the sheet-metal wings were only powerful enough to allow the construct to lift its front half up far enough that it could attack even the 8-foot-tall face of a Heliothrope Fodder.  Hidden under the top layer of the sand dunes, it could ambush its prey and move quickly to avoid retaliation, even going so far as to bury itself again to stay out of range.  There were around 3 dozen of the Wyrms scattered around the sand dunes, ready to attack in conjunction with the Millipedes.

In addition, Sandra provided 50 Explosive Phoenixes, which Milton had seen at work when facing the Heliothropes on the Dungeon Core’s planet. They were essentially large, flaming birds that were hot enough to melt softer metals, and who would explode in a ball of fiery fury when they were killed.  They would also rise from the ashes of that explosion afterwards, though they wouldn’t be quite as strong; in addition, they were essentially flightless, vulnerable, baby Phoenixes while they were in the process of resurrection.

For Milton’s contribution to defenders, the Station Core only produced a handful of Combat Units, but they were powerful enough.  Keeping with the stealthy approach that Sandra had taken, Milton produced a dozen Titanacondas and buried them under the sand; it turned out that their Earth Affinity Special Trait was able to manipulate sand, so they were able to move about as quickly as Sandra’s constructs.

Where his main contribution came from, however, was in defensive traps.  Thankfully, his available resources[3] were in more than sufficient quantities, given that he had acquired tons and tons of Basic Metal Units from the ship remains he had salvaged in the other dimension, both at the dimensional wound and on Sandra’s planet.  In addition, he had also acquired a bunch of other resources while he was preparing for his assault on the Stabilizing Anchor, so he was sitting pretty with enough to last him quite a while.  Unfortunately, as he had been mentally complaining about for as long as he had been dimension-hopping, he had very few Focusing Crystals.

Thankfully, most of what he needed for defense only required Basic Metal Units, or BMUs.  To keep with the theme of the desert, Milton produced and placed 50 Environmental Destabilization[4] devices, spaced out evenly throughout the space.  While these defensive weapons produced by a Defensive Weapons Factory were best used in a smaller space to create extreme heat or cold, using them to heat up the desert to over 300 degrees Fahrenheit was a way to constantly eat into the annoying shields of the Heliothropes.  The Phoenixes and constructs wouldn’t be affected by the heat, though his Titanacondas would; buried under the protective layers of sand, however, they were kept nice and cool.  When they attacked, they would be vulnerable to the heat when exposed to the air above, but Milton didn’t see them staying around for long, instead relying on bite-and-run tactics.

At a base of 1,000 BMUs for each Environmental Destabilization device, as well as a Power Generator – Portable at 25,000 BMUs needed for each, it would’ve been way too expensive resource-wise to produce them.  Thanks to quite a few bonuses unlocked through his life as a Station Core, as well as a high Wisdom/Ingenuity stat, he was able to reduce the number of BMUs needed by more than half; it still required nearly a half-million units of metal, however, but it was worth it for the temperature change.  The best thing about them was that because the space they were heating was so large, they wouldn’t suffer and break down from the extreme heat after a few minutes like they would in a smaller room; instead, they could last for at least an hour before they had to shut off and cool down.

The last items that Milton placed in the desert were small blocks of compacted nanites, produced in the defensive weapon, Nanite Swarms[5].  These swarms consisted of 100,000 low-grade nanites, which were similar in appearance to what ALANNA was created from, though much more crude and designed with a single purpose.  That purpose was to slip through the skin of a target and start to break down a body’s internal organs and disassemble its bone structure, effectively killing them from the inside-out.  While he doubted any of these activated swarms would be able to get through the Heliothrope’s glowing barrier, he had taken the idea of a constant barrage of attacks from many sources when he had used thousands of Tiny Wolfites in the previous dungeon, to varying effect.

Not to be outdone, Sandra also added a few traps of her own using her Mana, though she kept the number of them low after using a lot of Mana on her constructs and the environment.  Triggered by proximity, a 10-foot by 10-foot area of superheated flames would erupt out of the sand and burn for up to 30 seconds.  The fire was so hot that it would actually melt the sand and turn it into glass, so it was likely that any Heliothropes caught in the trap would have their shields collapse within seconds of exposure.  It wouldn’t quite be like dropping them into the sun, but it was close enough.

“I think this will work, Sandra,” Milton said when it was done.  “I love the combination of constructs, Combat Units, and defensive options we’ve put in place.”

She laughed softly, putting her hand on his arm as they sat and looked at the desert they created.  It wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it would hopefully be deadly.  “I agree.  We work very well together, and I can’t wait to see what we create next.”

Before they moved on, Milton spent a lot of time and a lot of resources to create a long, curved “dome” over the large space, constructed from a combination of thin, steel plates and strong plastic blocks in a sky-blue color, which used Organic Material resources to process.  There were a few reasons for the 1,000-foot-high cover over the dungeon, including holding in the heat produced by the Environmental Destabilizers, and having somewhere to place lighting and sensor orbs for viewing.  The more important reason, however, was that he had already seen that those same annoying shields that prevented damage could be used to levitate the Heliothropes over the desert, thereby passing it by entirely.

Now, 1,000 feet of height underneath the dome was still quite a bit of room for them to do this, but that was one of the reasons why there were Phoenixes flying around – to hopefully discourage the war-obsessed people from levitating for long.  Plus, everything he had observed from the Heliothropes indicated that they wouldn’t run from a battle, so it was unlikely that they would choose to miss the chance to attack and kill things.  Still, to make the area a bit more contained and controlled, both Sandra and Milton thought it was prudent.

That whole process took the Station Core and his drones nearly a week to complete, considering that the long dome cover was designed to cover a very large area.  Meanwhile, Sandra took the time to create the next section of their enormous, open-concept dungeon, using her Mana and Raw Materials to create miniature mountains of stone, built upon a thick layer of dirt.  The highest of them stretched nearly to the roof of the dome he was constructing, and they stretched for a few miles into the distance, though they blocked easy sight of what came afterwards – a big difference from the empty, sandy desert.

They were going to have some fun filling it with defenses designed to stop those multi-armed terrors.

Chapter 11

(Present day)

The Proctans were finally racing into the enormous cargo bay of the transport ship, and Milton wasted no time in opening up the airlock door as soon as they were sealed up inside, Rhiole having raced to the bridge and started up the engines.  Because of the connection she had with his Station Core, as well as the various sensor orbs he had inside of the bridge, she was easily able to translate the foreign symbols and phrases on the unfamiliar consoles.  Within seconds of the door to the void of space being open, the Master Thinker had already lifted off – the permanent clamps holding it in place already disconnected by nearby drones – and had turned around using its maneuvering thrusters.

Just like that, they were on the way to rescue those on the smaller space station.  There hadn’t been any further communications from the Station Leader since the Porlix had abruptly cut the video link, but he just had to hope that they would last long enough to survive until the Proctans arrived.  It was doubtful that any of them on the station had any weapons, so defending themselves with anything but their bare hands or perhaps mundane tools was the best they could hope for if it came to conflict; knowing what he knew about the Heliothropes, though, it would be a slaughter.

“No other communications from the station?” Milton asked Whisp, while at the same time watching the Heliothropes in the dungeon spreading out into formation as they encountered the desert-like environment presented to them.  Just before their arrival, the Station Core had activated all of the Environmental Destabilizers, bringing the temperature of the space up to just over 300 degrees; he was pleased to see that even as they passed through the airlock and into the desert, the glowing barriers around the invaders were being activated – though not to any great degree.

“No, nothing yet,” Whisp answered.  “Hold on; this is a perfect opportunity to try something, now that there is a steady, quantifiable stream of damage against the Heliothropes.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m calculating the degree of shield degradation based on current and past evidence and observations,” she explained.  The next second, ALANNA was helping her, and within a few more seconds, the two extremely intelligent beings had developed some sort of program to assess the Heliothropes’ shield levels.

“Well, that’s handy.”

On the viewscreen depicting the invaders inside the dungeon, a glowing percentage number appeared in red over their heads, showing how rapidly the barriers were being diminished.  Above the blue-skinned Fodder, most of them read 99.3%; above the purple-skinned Soldiers, the majority of them were around 99.6%.  As for the trio of 8-armed Elites, standing near the rear of the formations, their percentages had barely budged past 99.9%.

“Once they go down to 0%, they will be vulnerable, and based on the timing observed from multiple attacks on the previous dungeon, you’ll see the percentage rise after a given amount of time.  Be aware that these are only estimates, and the precise calculations of how much they diminish after each recharge are still in flux,” the smart Proctan advised.

That sounded perfectly fine to him, because any sort of information about the shielding of the Heliothropes could be a huge help.  “ALANNA, are we close enough to the other station for the sensor orbs arriving with the Proctans to relay this information?”

“Affirmative.  Communication with them is much smoother through empty space, so the program should easily reach the sensor orbs,” the diminutive guide explained.  “Already patching it through and explaining it to those arriving in the next few minutes.”

“Good.  Excellent work,” he said, before turning to Sandra.  “Are you ready to see our handiwork in action?”

A predatory smile fell over her features, something Milton hadn’t seen before on her – but it didn’t bother him in the least.  In fact, he felt the same urge to see some carnage, something he hadn’t experienced in a long while.  “Of course.  I have full confidence in our little baby here.”

His artificial avatar’s heart skipped a non-existent beat when she called the dungeon their “little baby”, and it took all of his focus to keep from thinking of the implications of that.  Can two Cores procreate?  How would that—no.  Stop it; now is not the time.

Milton heard Sandra chuckle briefly next to him, but he ignored it in favor of watching the action on the large viewscreen.  There were dozens of sensor orbs placed in regular intervals on the underside of the overhead dome, which gave them an unparalleled view of the desert and the Heliothropes.  Given the distance from the metal cylinders that normally blocked out communications with nearby sensor orbs, there was barely a flicker – and certainly not any suppressed views.  However, it wasn’t the same for Sandra.

“I… I feel like I’m disconnected from that entire section,” she said, with a strange lilt to her voice.  Milton looked at Sandra, and her face expressed her worry, so he grabbed the Dungeon Core’s hand and squeezed it to comfort her.

“Don’t be too concerned; my sensor orbs suffered from the same issue when they were too close.”

Thankfully, they had planned for that, at least in part. Sandra’s constructs would automatically attack anything that got near them, and her traps would automatically activate when an enemy got close enough to trigger it.  As for Milton’s defenses, the Nanite Swarms would also activate when an enemy was near, and his Titanacondas had standing orders to attack and retreat quickly, so as to avoid exposure to the hot temperatures for long.  Sandra mentioned that she still had a little access to the Phoenixes roaming throughout the air, but more of whatever control she had would disappear, the closer they got to the Heliothropes.

“The heat is definitely affecting their protective barriers, but just that alone isn’t enough to seriously hurt them,” ALANNA mentioned, watching the percentages above their heads steadily decline.  The speed of that decline was very little, especially with the stronger Soldiers and the Elite, but it was at least something; based on the rate the Fodders’ shields were being reduced, he thought that it might take up to 3 hours or more for it to reach 0%, which was too long even for the extended time on the Environmental Destabilizers.

“Still, it’s better than nothing,” Sandra said, still looking a little uncomfortable about the loss of access to that section.  The Dungeon Core had mentioned not being able to affect her dungeon when invaders were present, but this was likely the first time that the awareness and sight of a portion of her Area of Influence had been entirely cut off.  We really need to know what technology those metal cylinders hold that can do this not only to my communications, but also to Sandra’s magical sight.  Sadly, if it wasn’t for the fact that the cylinders exploded when the Heliothropes were killed, they might have already figured out how to stop the sensory deprivation.

“Alright, they’re entering the first part of the defenses,” Milton said unnecessarily, since everyone already knew where all of the traps, constructs, and other defenses were placed.  There were glowing outlines underneath the sand that were pinpointed by his sensor orbs, showing where all of the Millipedes, Wyrms, and Titanacondas were located, as well as all of the Nanite Swarms.  Sandra’s traps were seen through a filter that revealed the magical nature of them, though it was more like a bright glow than a direct interpretation of what they actually were.

The 800 Fodder had broken up into 8 groups of 100, advancing in 10 lines of 10, with a line of 10 Soldiers behind them. These blocks of blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes were followed by the 3 Elites, who appeared just as dangerous as they always did, standing 20 feet tall and wielding their 8 powerful weapons.  They barely reacted as the front ranks of the weakest Heliothropes were suddenly attacked, as dozens of seemingly random individuals were assaulted by Sandra’s Millipedes.

The constructs swarmed over a single nearby target, instead of spreading themselves out to attack multiple enemies that were in their proximity.  That was probably why, as everyone in the command center watched, they saw the constructs bounce off of the protective barrier of their targets, losing a few of their “heads” in the process, but they also rapidly made progress.  The surprise barrage of little constructs attacking from multiple directions brought down the shields of those being assaulted at a quick pace, with a few being depleted within a few seconds, while most required up to 10.

As soon as the first few shields dropped, the heat in the room immediately had an effect, quickly darkening the blue skin of the Heliothropes that were affected, like a loaf of bread left too long in the oven.  If they were in pain or otherwise hindered by the heat, it was difficult to tell, because the Fodder normally didn’t show much in the way of emotion or expression; still, the oppressive heat couldn’t have been good for them.

Unfortunately, the Millipedes, despite having sharp iron mandibles, could barely capitalize on their advantage, as the tough, natural dermatological barrier of the invaders only allowed a few cuts on their legs and feet, though a few of them were quite deep.  Not enough to kill them, obviously, and also not really enough to seriously hinder them.

Regardless, they had done their job, both to prove a concept and to inflict some damage upon the Heliothropes.  What was even more entertaining and interesting about the Millipedes was the fact that even when the invaders retaliated, with nearby Fodder coming to assist, the constructs were not easy to kill.  Every time a portion of one was sliced up or smashed apart, the remaining segments would continue on as if nothing had happened.  As a result, it took a few minutes for Sandra’s Millipedes to be entirely annihilated, leaving the Monster Seeds that the Dungeon Core required to create them lying on the sand, mixed in with the blood of those the constructs had wounded.

Moving on, there were timers above the heads of the Fodder who had their protective barriers depleted, the longest of which was 15 seconds.  As they kept moving through the desert, not even stopping to rest, the timers counted down to 0; when time was up, the familiar, shining glow appeared around them – though not nearly as strong as before.

“Did the heat damage interrupt the process?” Milton asked.  Whisp and ALANNA were looking at something on their console, with the Proctan frantically punching buttons.

“We think so,” Whisp said after a few seconds.  “Adjusting for that now.”

A brief moment later, the percentages above the heads of those that had previously lost their barriers changed, going from around 80% (where it had stopped) to just over 5%.  The percentages also continued to drop at the same rate, which meant that they would completely deplete again in a few minutes, even if nothing attacked them.  While the heat had obviously affected them, even causing some blood to leak out of their eyes and their enormously wide mouths, he wasn’t sure if the higher temperature would kill them when their shields came down again.  What was encouraging, however, was that the environmental hazard had stopped the recharge of the shields from advancing to near-full levels.

That was something they could work with.

From there, every 50 feet or so, another part of the front line of Fodder would trigger some sort of trap or attack by the desert defenders.  Nanite Swarms were activated and converged on the nearest target like a cloud of tiny mosquitoes; sadly, as soon as they hit the protective barrier, they were fried like a fly touching a bug zapper.  Being that there were 100,000 of the tiny nanites in each triggered defense, however, they were able to deplete the shields of the Heliothropes almost as rapidly as the Millipedes.  One unfortunate invader that had been attacked by those constructs previously had the honor of being the first casualty – and it was a sight to see.

The barrier around that particular Fodder winked out of existence when only a small portion of the nanites had perished against the bug-zapping shield.  The rest, unhindered from accessing the blue-skinned Heliothrope, swarmed over its skin and disappeared, the weapons of the large invader doing absolutely nothing to hurt the tiny little buggers.

At first, nothing seemed to happen, but looking closely at its Health via his sensor orbs showed that it was dropping quickly.  A few seconds later, the Heliothrope fell to its knees and seemed to crumble in upon itself, its arms drooping and dropping its weapons from hands that were no longer able to maintain a grip.  As the other Fodder simply walked past their brethren without showing any type of reaction to the dying individual, the Heliothrope seemed to deflate like a child’s bouncy house with a massive hole in it.  Before more than a minute had passed, it was essentially just a puddle of disgusting goo resting on the hot sand – which immediately began to cook in the oven-like atmosphere.

“I definitely don’t want to smell that,” Milton said with a chuckle, though when he looked around the command center, he could see some disturbed looks on the faces of some of those present.  Sandra and the Proctans appeared entirely unaffected, but the Raxians – who hadn’t moved since they had arrived hours ago – were visibly upset, despite the fact that they were seeing their former slave owners being killed.

They’re not used to these kinds of deaths, I suppose.  Then again, the method was a bit gruesome, so he could understand it.

Sandra’s Platinum-banded Wyrms were an even better defense, as they could erupt out of the sand and attack so quickly that the Fodder couldn’t react.  They would strike out a few times with blindingly fast strikes, and while those initial strikes didn’t hurt the Heliothropes, Milton saw that each of them took off a little over 15% of the protective barrier’s integrity.  As they disappeared down below the sand to strike again in ambush, some of the nearby Millipedes would also attack, bringing the shields down and allowing the Wyrms to actually do some damage.

The strong, piercing teeth of the constructs could fully penetrate the skin and flesh of the Fodder, unlike that of the smaller Millipedes, and the strength of the Wyrms was such that they were easily able to tear off large chunks of their victims in a snap.  These attacks typically targeted the lower extremities of the Fodder, which was also beneficial for any of the smaller constructs nearby, who could finally do some damage to unprotected flesh.  A few of the Wyrms got a little too greedy by aiming higher, however, and were sliced apart with a few quick strikes of the Heliothrope’s weapons; by staying lower and disappearing into the loose sand, they would stay alive just a little longer.

Then there were Milton’s Titanacondas, who struck out in ambush, using their Earth Affinity to move through the sand like it was water.  It seemed even easier for the large snakes to navigate their way through the sand, even compared to through dirt, so he knew he had made a good choice.

“Whoa!  That was impressive!” Sandra exclaimed, pointing at the viewscreen.  One of his large Titanacondas had burst out of the sand without warning, its jaws large enough to encompass even one of the Elites toward the back of the group.  Instead of targeting the red-skinned Heliothrope, however, the Combat Unit shot up beneath two of the Fodder and clamped its jaws shut on them, trapping their arms against their sides.  A sword and a spear were seen to be sticking out of its skin from the inside, but otherwise the massive snake was successful, even while being completely skewered.

It dove back down after completing an arch through the air, its smaller body following after its giant head like the stick on a comically large lollipop.  Milton could see its powerful jaws tightening against the Fodder and their protective barriers quickly depleting even as it landed head-first into the sand and disappeared down below.  Within a few seconds, the massive snake had finally succeeded in taking out the pair of Heliothropes’ shields, and it began to physically crush them in its jaws once the protection was gone.  It wasn’t too long after that the two Fodder were crushed to death, though more than one bleeding wound around the Titanaconda’s mouth was evidence that they had done some damage in response.

Since it didn’t seem as though the Heliothropes were interested in flying to avoid the attacks on the sand, Sandra used her Phoenixes efficiently.  Dropping in on the assembled blocks of Fodder like large balls of napalm, the Explosive Phoenixes slammed into the Heliothropes with devastating effect.  Not only was the sudden impact of the flaming birds enough to take down a shield or two, but the explosion spread so widely that even some of the Soldiers in the back took additional damage to their barriers.  For those that were near ground zero as the Fodder struck at the flaming Phoenixes and killed them, the explosions were strong enough to knock dozens of them down, as well as wreathing their protective barriers in flames for a short while.

All of that contributed to even faster shield degradation, with a few even losing the protection entirely and being covered in flames.  The intense heat almost seemed to encourage stronger, hotter fires as a result, and the unlucky few to suffer a barrier loss were burned alive as their skin seemed to somehow catch fire like it was made of flammable cloth.

All in all, the constant attacks as the Heliothropes marched through the desert took a toll on their numbers.  Eventually, though, even the quickest Wyrms, the most explosive Phoenixes, the random attacks by Nanite Swarms, and the devastating ambushes of the Titanacondas were countered by the sheer numbers of invaders.

Weapons made especially deadly by the special power they seemed to possess cut through even the Platinum-banded Wyrm in a few blows, and when their wings were clipped, they weren’t nearly as maneuverable; the Phoenixes were quickly slaughtered after they exploded, and they were fairly defenseless in their smaller, diminished form; and the Titanacondas were either sliced up so badly by multiple weapons when their jaws closed around their targets, or they were attacked as they were leaving/entering the sand dunes.  Overall, though, all of those – along with the heat of the section due to the Environmental Destabilizers – did enormous damage to the ranks of the Heliothropes as they made their way through the desert.

However, it was actually the few traps set by Sandra that did the most ruinous damage to the Fodder that wandered into them.  Each time the blocks of superheated flames were activated, at least 5 different Heliothropes were close enough to be affected by the incredible heat.  It started with a single blue-skinned invader stepping on the activation trigger, which made the trap spring to life.  A 10-foot cube of pure, fiery destruction appeared, encompassing the nearest couple of Fodder, and their shields were taken down so quickly that Milton barely saw it happen.  Within a second of its activation, the invaders were already being burned alive, their weapons melting in their hands along with their bodies while the sand underneath them turned into molten glass.

It was quite possible that their charred corpses would’ve fallen into the liquid glass underneath them if it weren’t for the fact that their bodies were essentially flash-cremated in spectacular fashion.  The metal in their weapons joined the glass, which he was sure would appear interesting later when it cooled, but as far as anything of the Heliothropes themselves, there was nothing left.

Now, the sheer heat from the trap was such that even those that weren’t directly caught in its perimeter were affected.  There were always a few that were close enough to be blasted with a wave of extremely high-temperature air as it sprung into being, which sped up the process of protective barrier collapse to the point where it collapsed within seconds.  If the Fodder weren’t able to move away in time, their bodies were charred to the point of death, typically doubling the original death toll of the trap by the time it was done.

By the time they passed through the entire desert section, the 883 Heliothropes that had started were reduced down to 312, though more than half of the Fodder that were left had their shields collapse at least once, meaning that they appeared a little extra crispy from the heat that had affected them.  Unfortunately, not a single Soldier or Elite was killed, nor even got close to losing their protective barriers, besides the few that were partially hit by explosions.

“I guess that’s why they’re called Fodder, I would assume,” Sandra said once the Heliothropes were clear of the desert defenses.  “They are there to simply soak up the damage, leaving the most powerful ones to keep going.”

“So it seems,” Milton said, eager to see what was coming next.  While over 500 Fodder had been killed, the real danger the invaders presented was still there.

It was time for them to face something a little more deadly.

Chapter 12

The Proctans had arrived at the smaller space station after a short journey; those in the command center watched as 500 of them disembarked from the transport ship into what appeared to be some sort of run-down dock near the hub’s center.  The 15 Heliothrope ships were already docked nearby, but there weren’t any of the dangerous multi-armed individuals around, as they were apparently busy someplace else.  It didn’t take a genius to know that the Heliothropes were hunting down the residents of the station.

Speedy Rogues spread out as soon as they left the ship, most of them running in their “stealthed” state, using Light Spectrum Invisibility to make them difficult to identify with the naked eye.  From what Milton could see from the sensor orbs that accompanied the Proctans, the area past the docks looked like some sort of giant warehouse, with pallets of various goods stacked up in designated areas, appearing as if they were ready to either be distributed around the station or loaded up on a ship to be sent elsewhere.  The “x-ray”-type feature of his sensor orbs allowed him to see all sorts of foodstuffs, clothing, and other personal items that were likely to be distributed throughout the station, while different metals were prepared to be transported elsewhere.

Seeing all of that made Milton wonder what the nearly quarter-million people on the station actually did for jobs, but he ultimately figured it would probably be like a city: There would be people who served food, merchants that sold goods, and service workers that provided various services.  From what he understood of the galactic economy from Trinket, unless slaves had specific tasks that took them away from the general population – like the Raxian miners they had rescued – life went on as normal as possible, and trade was an important part of that.  Most people existing on the stations didn’t live in a constant state of “slavery”, even if they worked for the overarching goal of serving the Heliothropes.

It was actually a smart plan on the behalf of the war-obsessed race – if it was a conscious decision at all.  Letting their lives go on (for the most part) as they were before they were conquered was a way of pacifying the dissenters.  As long as certain things got done that were specifically requested by the Heliothropes, they wouldn’t be bothered; Milton had seen this back at the space station near Jupiter, as he had discovered that while the people living there were “technically” slaves, they hadn’t really seen much in the way of supervision as long as they kept doing what they were obliged to be doing.

Of course, if the people messed up what they were supposed to be doing, such as a mine collapse with dead Heliothropes in the mix, the disruption of the status quo would bring down unwavering retribution.  It was Milton’s hope that they could prevent that retribution from happening.

“Micke?  Just a reminder; try to not blow up the station.  That would pretty much negate the reason why you’re there in the first place,” Milton communicated to the de facto leader of the Proctan group.

The steady Tank chuckled.  “We’ll try, but it depends on what we find.”

That was all he could ask for, he supposed.

The giant dock warehouse was surrounded by different exits leading to the exterior “cube” of the station, heading off in various directions.  It didn’t take long for the first of the scouting Rogues to return, indicating that they didn’t find any sign of the enemy for as far as they traveled.  Less than two minutes after landing, however, one of the Rogues came back at a run, looking less than pleased.

“Found them,” she said curtly, her face showing restrained emotion.  “It’s… not pretty.”

“Alright, let’s go stop it from getting worse.”

It seemed as though the Heliothropes had chosen to assault one particular section of the station hub first, and then in all probability sweep through the rest like a tidal wave of pure death.  Thankfully, there were a few Support members of the large group that had the Neural Uplink (Limited) ability, which allowed them to communicate with the assembled army of Proctans.  Orders were given to move out as a concentrated group, and those with the ability to boost physical attributes, such as Agility, quickly applied those enhancements to allow them to move at incredible speed through the warehouse and the tunnel leading to where the Heliothropes were located.

When the first of Milton’s sensor orbs started to fuzz out a little bit, he knew the group was getting close.  The first piled bodies of hacked, smashed, and impaled people of a dozen different races were the next indication that their quarry was near, as was the fact that they had gotten to the station too late to save them all.  It was a disturbing sight to see, as the wounds he saw seemed wholly impersonal; there was no evidence of any type of anger being employed in the attack, as most of the damage inflicted on the people was simple to the point of expediency.  It wasn’t revenge killing, but the execution of a population with as little thought to it as Milton would have killing a colony of ants that had invaded his home back on Earth.  Sadly, the people on the station had just as much chance against the Heliothropes as would those ants against Milton.

However, if they were quick enough to engage their targets before they got too far, then the Proctans would be able to stop the Heliothropes from destroying the entire colony.

Finally, after running through the initial tunnel that led to what appeared to be a commercial section of the station, they found it filled with storefronts looking like some sort of strip mall, that appeared very similar to the one other working space station Milton had visited before.  Whereas the large ring on Murder Station was 10 miles in diameter, the rectangular-shaped living areas of this station hub were no more than 1000 feet wide, which still gave the residents plenty of room to maneuver down the “street” in between the stores there, as well as giving more than enough access to the rear-side alleys of those fabricated buildings.

Unfortunately, the makeshift barricades that attempted to close off the street – which were made from a random collection of mismatched metal sheets – were now in shambles, cut up and knocked aside; this was also where those first bodies were found.  More corpses were found in a few of the nearby stores, which Milton got to see were some that sold food products, others that were filled with a variety of personal goods, and there was even a Designated Dining Area, similar in concept to the one in which he had met Trinket on Station 23-E.  Most of those stores were empty, but there were a few that had people hiding in a back room, though now they sadly weren’t capable of hiding any longer.

Up ahead of the large group of Proctans, a narrowing in the overall structure of the station showed the rear side of the Heliothrope force, which included 2 Elites, 15 Soldiers, and 150 Fodder.  Even as he had to stop his sensor orbs from moving forward anymore at that point, given the risk that he would lose communication with them, he could see the lead part of the invading army methodically slaughtering the residents that attempted to run from them.  Unfortunately for those people, there wasn’t anywhere for them to run, as the crowd was so thick that they were trapped and couldn’t push their way through those in the way.

I thought the people were supposed to have been evacuated to other parts?  Then again, maybe this is where most of them had been evacuated to.  He couldn’t tell, and as he didn’t really have a map of the hub, there was no way to figure that out.  It was probably something that he would have ALANNA try to get a hold of once they started moving everyone off the small station, along with any other information in the station’s systems.  I bet she would love that.

“You bet I would,” the diminutive AI guide said in an aside to him, having heard his thoughts.  She rubbed her hands together greedily before saying, “I can’t wait to get all up in there and—”

“Duly noted.”

Milton turned his attention back to the upcoming encounter, seeing the rear Heliothropes – which included the two Elites – notice the newcomers for the first time.  Almost as if they shared some sort of mental connection, the slaughter of the station’s residents abruptly stopped as the Fodder turned as one to confront the Proctans, their weapons dripping red and blood spatters all over their blue-skinned bodies.

“That is… horrible, Milton.”  Sandra sounded horrified, though when the Station Core looked at her, she appeared relatively composed.  He remembered hearing from her how Dungeon Cores in her world would sometimes send waves of Dungeon Monsters at unsuspecting villages, where the people would be slaughtered just because they could – and to advance their Cores from the deaths of those people.  Milton wrapped his arm around Sandra’s waist in a sort of side hug, comforting her as best he could. While Sandra had seen or heard about this magnitude of massacre happening before, she still wasn’t immune to watching it happen – none of them were.

That fact was more than obvious when his sensor orbs witnessed the reactions of the Proctans watching the senseless slaughter in front of them.  In short, they went berserk, charging into the Heliothropes without more than a rage-filled intent to destroy.  Spells were flung out by the Casters in a variety of elements, which included explosive fireballs grown from some quick-strike matches, sharp icicles created from water held in a flask, and stabbing spears of light and dark created from the artificial light and shadows of the station.  There were even a few dangerous spatial voids that were created, tearing through protective barriers faster than anything else; but with no organization to their attacks, disaster was right around the corner if two voids were to touch.  The reaction caused by that happening could wipe out that entire section of the station, which could potentially kill many of those the Proctans were trying to protect.

“Focus!  Kill them all, but be smart about it!” he shouted at them through their NCU, which thankfully seemed to clear up at least a little part of their incensed minds.  Those Casters using the voids suddenly shut them off, recognizing the danger they were heading towards, and fell back on other means at their disposal.  Some used Telekinesis to fling parts of another destroyed barricade at the Heliothropes, while others turned to animating those same objects so that they attacked like constructs of their own.  The rest of the Casters used whatever means within their abilities to attack from afar, consistently causing damage and reducing the barriers of those that they assaulted.

Meanwhile, Support and Healer members were doing their best to affect the enemy from range, while also boosting up the stats of the Tanks and Rogues.  The latter two types of Proctans closed in quickly with the Heliothropes, engaging the Elites immediately before they could attack the back line; casualties mounted quickly due to the power of the red-skinned fighters, as there was very little other than a quick use of Force Field Generation to deflect an attack that would otherwise pierce through their armor like it was cloth.

A few were able to stumble away, where they were fixed up by the Healers, but most that suffered even a single unblocked attack didn’t survive the hit.  Thankfully, they weren’t helpless on their own part, as between dodging strikes by 8 different weapons, the Tanks and Rogues were able to get in their own blows and activated abilities to diminish the protective barrier around both Elites so rapidly that the Heliothropes didn’t know what hit them.  As a result, as soon as the glowing shields dropped and the first of the Soldiers and Fodder moved in to attack, the Elites were torn apart by weapon attacks, elemental spells, and other various abilities that had damaging effects.

It took over a fifth of the Proctan force to take down the Elites, including 81 Tanks, who gladly gave their lives to eliminate the greatest threats.  That still left just under 400 Proctans to face off against 160 blue and purple-skinned fighters, but they were in no way as much of a challenge.  However, the remaining Tanks had their jobs cut out for them as they attempted to protect the more-vulnerable Proctans from attack, and most of them were quickly cut down when the Heliothropes converged on the interlopers.

Outnumbering the Heliothropes by at least 2 to 1 made quite a difference, however.  As the remaining Proctans let out everything they had in reserve, using their Power like it was going out of style and utilizing AOE attacks to encompass more than a few targets at a time, Milton turned his attention away from them as he looked back at the dungeon, which was a little closer to home.  The Station Core had the utmost confidence in the Proctans to carry the day, despite the losses they had suffered already, so he wasn’t too worried about them.

He wasn’t too worried about the Heliothropes in the dungeon on Murder Station, either, but he was more eager to see how the defenses would handle what was left of the original force that invaded.  While there were still twice as many Heliothropes nearby his Core than on the small station where the Proctans were taking out their frustration of not being able to save every one of their victims, he was fairly confident in his and Sandra’s work on the dungeon.

Especially with the next section, which was a bit of an earthy, mountainous realm, where danger lurked around every corner.

Chapter 13

(Two weeks ago)

The environment that Sandra created, courtesy of her Mana, was exactly what they needed for the next section of the dungeon.  A few square miles of dirt was topped by miniature mountains, carved and shaped by her constructs and her own skill at creating different formations with her magic.  Despite seeing the Proctans and even some of his own Combat Units utilizing miraculous spells and abilities, it wasn’t exactly magic; instead, it was a fusing between an unnatural genetic mutation caused by his formerly leaking Station Core, which granted them an ability to affect things outside of their bodies, and the technology created by The Collective.

While he supposed the base effects of their genetic mutations could be considered extraordinary and “magical”, it was all based upon his Station Core, in one way or another – deliberate or accidental, depending on what it was.  The nanites that infused all of his Combat Units, the Proctans included, were what really made the difference in their abilities, as the tiny little machines enhanced physical and elemental properties, with wondrous results.

The Dungeon Core’s abilities, as well as the people of her world, were something entirely different.  It was real magic, born naturally as part of themselves, utilizing the energy of the world to manipulate objects, alter their own bodies, or affect others.  Sandra’s utilization of Mana was similar, in some respects, to the Power that the Proctans possessed, and yet it was fundamentally different. As much as he was proud of what his Station Core had done to develop the abilities of the Proctans, it was unnatural – and Milton knew that.  What the Dungeon Core and the people of her world possessed was natural, unperverted by any abnormal genetic mutations caused by technology gone wrong.

His delight was never-ending while he watched the exceptional woman work with her available resources, creating things of beauty without effort.  What was even more remarkable was that creating a dungeon wasn’t even her passion – that could only belong to crafting – but she threw herself into it with the same enthusiasm as she would anything else.  I suppose the creation of this dungeon could be like crafting something, on a much larger scale.

Regardless of the reason she was so invested in her work, she worked some unbelievable magic upon the second section.  There were valleys in between the mountains that had bare, dried dirt filling up the floor, painstakingly molded so that they looked natural rather than simply flat and uniform – like Milton would have done if using the same material.  Along the sides of these valleys, the grey-stone mountains rose up like sentinels guarding a pass, creating a winding pathway through the difficult-to-navigate mountain range.  By the time she was done, the entire route through the section was nearly 3 miles long.

There were two reasons for this winding route.  The first, and most obvious, was that extending the time the Heliothropes required to work their way through the section could only benefit the defenders, as it gave them more opportunity to set up defenses.  The second and less obvious reason was because the relatively narrow valleys were perfect for funneling the Heliothropes into situations where they would be a little more bunched up, from which certain defenses could benefit.

The first of these defenses came from Milton, who created hundreds of Quelephines, the enormous elephant-sized, armored, and horned Combat Units that specialized in charging without being able to stop easily.  A Quelephine’s giant, horned head weighed almost as much as the rest of its body because it was made of dense bone and thick, reinforced scales, making it the perfect battering ram when confronting the Heliothropes.  While the invaders’ weapons might end up slicing through the tough exterior of the Quelephine, the momentum and weight behind the charging attacks was not something that could be easily ignored – especially when confronted by a wave of these Combat Units.  A stampede of Quelephines was a frightening situation to face, as many of the Proctans had seen first-hand while Milton had been developing the inside of his dungeon back on Proctus.

The second contribution Milton made to the defenses was a few more weapons from his Defensive Weapons Factory.  The first was some more Nanite Swarms buried along the dirt pathway, designed to annoy the Heliothropes as they marched through the route; it wasn’t necessarily designed to kill any of the invaders directly, but to make them a little less aware of the other defenses placed elsewhere.  In addition, they could be used to great effect in conjunction with those other defenses.

The other defensive weapons he placed along the winding route were Explosive Floor Plates, designed to launch thousands of pounds of explosive force upwards – but that wasn’t what he used them for.  Instead, these Floor Plates were located higher in the mountains, hopefully out of range of the communication interruptions caused by those metal cylinders that the Heliothropes seemed to possess.  They were angled near-horizontally, with a slight downward tilt, and they could be triggered remotely, blasting out toward a pile of bowling ball-sized boulders in front of them.  At a base cost of only 200 BMUs, 2,000 Basic Earth Units, and 50 Pure Water Units, Milton was able to place over 200 of these in different places, coordinated to go off with other defenses, such as a group of charging Quelephines.

A few test uses of the Explosive Floor Plates were impressive, as the boulders were propelled with incredible force out and down the mountain toward the dirt pathway below.  Basically, he had created a large shotgun that released cannonball-sized buckshot, and protective barrier or not, they were sure to make an impact.

Not to be outdone, Sandra brought over something that she had crafted herself, which she called magnetic Launchers, that she had placed in strategic spots along the cliff walls of the valleys.  It didn’t take long for Milton and the rest of the Think Tank to identify what they were, especially once they came out of the dimensional portal and into Murder Station.

“Milton, I think those are an upgraded version of your Railgun Penetrators,” Whisp said in fascination when she first saw the wood and metal contraptions.  Based on Sandra’s brief description, that was apparently exactly what they were, and he was in awe of what she could create with a little ingenuity, magic, and enchantments.  Each was essentially two enchanted metal bars set on a wooden frame, which would launch large metal objects from one end with incredible speed. The overall design was relatively basic, but its simplicity was an art all its own.

Whisp wanted to study it to see if it was something she could replicate by using portable Power Generators, but they were too big and dangerous to be around for any of the Proctans – as well as for Milton.  While his avatar was primarily made of synthetic material, there was enough metal inside of his artificial body that being close to that powerful of a magnetic field was dangerous; the same went for the Proctans, because they had a metallic Neurological Control Unit, which had just enough ferrous material inside it that it could be suddenly ripped out of their heads.

Regardless of the danger to Milton or the Proctans, Sandra’s Launchers were the perfect additions to the defense of the mountain range.  Since any of his Combat Units would have a similar metal problem as the Proctans, Sandra created a bunch of creepy-looking Goblin Crafters – which she typically utilized to help with her crafting, apparently – to control, aim, and fire the Launchers.  Included with them were long, metal rods that were launched at incredible speeds, hitting so hard that they could penetrate a few inches into solid stone.  Compared to his Railgun Penetrators, which fired tiny slivers of charged tritanium at supersonic speeds (which then created a small explosion), these particular weapons she had created were going to be far more effective.

“Don’t worry, Whisp; if I don’t get a chance to show you how I created them, I’ll have Violet do what she can to explain in detail how they work,” Sandra told the curious Proctan when she was disappointed not to be able to look closer at the Launcher.  Whisp only looked slightly mollified, but there really wasn’t time for more than a basic explanation.

In all, 20 of the Launchers were brought over and installed all over the section, positioned to also work with some of the other defenses.  They were hopefully high enough up the mountains to avoid the same sense of lost connection Sandra had felt before, because it was quite likely that the Dungeon Core would have to control the Goblins herself, as they weren’t designed for firing weapons.  They were still given orders to that effect, in case she didn’t have access to them, but whether or not it would work with a lost connection was anyone’s guess.

The second defense she added were Hardened Animated Slabs, which were essentially square-shaped, flat pieces of stone that could animate themselves at will.  This even included contorting their structure so that they could actually walk and maneuver around, attacking with sharpened spikes of stone, or even collapsing upon their victims.  What she was using them for in this section, however, was as a Monster-based trap that the Heliothropes would walk over.

By burying it just under the surface of the dirt and covering it up with a thin layer of earth, a Slab could quickly bring two sides of its form together like the jaws of a bear trap, snapping closed over unfortunate victims.  While the initial impact would likely bounce off of the Heliothropes’ protective barriers, the Slab was strong and quick enough to lay flat again and then snap closed a second, a third, and many more times after that.  Milton was reminded of Pac-Man opening and closing its mouth over and over again when he saw it in action.

In addition to the magnetic Launchers and Slabs, Sandra also added two more defenders.  The first was a pair of High Peak Rocs, which appeared extremely large in comparison to the dungeon, and would just barely fit inside of the valleys.  They weren’t there to attack directly, however, but to carry and drop boulders on the invaders down below.  Not the bowling ball-sized ones that Milton was launching via his Explosive Floor Plates, but boulders the size of a mid-size SUV.  Created specifically for the giant birds and placed at the apex of a handful of mountain tops, the Rocs could swoop in and pick such a boulder up within seconds, and then bring it to where the Heliothropes were currently marching.  Easy, simple, and difficult to defend against, a boulder being dropped on top of a Fodder or a Soldier was sure to leave a mark, or at least chip away at their glowing shields quite a bit.

Toward the end of the mountainous route, any Heliothropes that survived would have to face the section’s “boss fight”. A pair of Steel Colossi, which were crude-looking and blocky giant constructs that wouldn’t have looked out of place in Minecraft, stood 200 feet tall as they blocked the way out of the section where the mountain valley opened up.  While they would likely be cut to ribbons by any Heliothrope weapons, they were still large enough to stomp and smash anything that came near them, as long as they weren’t too fast.  Their biggest downside was that they were relatively slow, but with the pair working in conjunction, they should be able to hold their own.

They were aided by a dozen Big Ol’ Badgers hiding under the ground near the entrance of the boss fight area.  The Badgers tracked their prey by vibration, given that they were blind, deaf, and couldn’t smell anything; normally that might be a problem due to the vibrations caused by the stomping feet of the Colossi, but it was easy enough for Milton to instruct them to ignore the much larger vibrations made by the constructs when they took a step.  At least, it worked when he had a few Qwizards roaming around the area, and the Badgers only targeted them while the Colossi stomped around.  So, theoretically it would work.

The very last things that Sandra added were a few more of her one-off traps.  Since this was a dirt and stone-themed section, the Dungeon Core created a few areas in the dirt of the route that were sure to be just as deadly as the superheated flames of the desert.  What she did was place a trap that would convert a large, swimming-pool sized section of the dirt into a pit 8 feet deep, which the nearby Heliothropes would immediately fall inside of.  Now, that wasn’t that big of a deal, because the drop wasn’t very far, and the victims would barely be affected.

It was what happened next that would hurt.

Once the Heliothropes had dropped inside the pit, the trap would instantly refill with stone, surrounding anyone inside.  While their protective barriers would initially prevent them from being inundated with stone, it would only last so long while the trap would continue to try and push stone into the pit, contracting like a vise against the Heliothropes caught inside.  If the glowing shields that protected the invaders from harm were to collapse, as they should, the pressure of the stone would squash them like a bug caught in a hydraulic press.

With that section done, they turned to the next, which was going to take a little bit of time and preparation.  With Sandra’s help, however, growing trees was much faster than it would’ve been if Milton was doing it on his own….

Chapter 14

(Present day)

The amazing part of their combined dungeon was that it was so much more successful than just Milton’s or just Sandra’s defenses alone.  It was definitely a case where the different parts were put together to become greater than the whole.

“Those Launchers of yours are amazing,” Milton gushed, watching a heavy rod of iron slam into one of the Heliothrope’s protective barriers down in the mountain valley. “I wonder if Whisp can adapt the theory behind it to produce a weapon we can launch from the Station.  It would have to be bigger, of course, in order to really do some damage to ships.”

The Proctan he had mentioned was listening to his conversation with Sandra, as well as watching the developments on the viewscreen.  “Probably; but I’ll have to either get with Sandra or this Violet person to know for certain.”

“I’m not sure how compatible it will be with your technology,” the Dungeon Core mentioned off-handedly, her attention almost fully focused on what was happening in the dungeon.  “But I could be wrong; the way your defenses blend so well with my own is proof of that.  See?”

Milton could see what she was referring to on the viewscreen, as the Fodder that had been blasted with the launched metal projectile lost its shield and staggered to the side from the impact – and managed to step into the range of one of Milton’s Nanite Swarms hidden in the dirt.  Seconds later, it started to stagger and then collapse as its insides were ravaged by the nanites, which were absolutely devastating its internal organs, muscles, and bones.

“You’re right.  It seems like we make a good team.”  He grinned at her as she temporarily pressed up against his side with a quick bump of affirmation, but her focus was now wholly on the progress of the invaders.

“I want to see how my Slabs—ooh, that was unexpected!” she exclaimed, watching as the first of the Hardened Animated Slabs suddenly snapped closed over the three Fodder that had walked over it.  They had surmised that the stone slab would simply be stopped by the protective barriers of the invaders like a thick steel bar in a trash compactor; this assumption was based on the visual evidence of his moving walls of steel and Weightonite used in his previous dungeon’s incarnation.

What actually happened was quite different.  Because the Slab snapped closed in a “V” formation, rather than parallel sides like his wall, the Heliothropes were squeezed out in different directions.  One went straight up, flying at least 50 feet into the air; another was sent out at an upward angle, where it hit the side of the nearest cliff and bounced off, landing relatively unhurt moments later.  The third one, which happened to be right on the edge of the Slab when it snapped closed, was sent flying horizontally backwards into the formation, knocking into Fodder and Soldiers alike.

None of those affected by the Slab were hurt by the initial attack, though Milton could see a definite lessening of their protective barriers.  A few others were hit by the Slab as it abandoned its position and transformed into a four-legged stone construct with sharp edges, looking very similar to a piece of origami that was in the middle of being folded into a swan.  It ultimately didn’t do any lasting damage, but it was certainly an interesting thing to watch.

“I may have to tweak them a little with their orders, or get rid of them altogether,” Sandra said softly, clearly disappointed in her Monster’s performance.

“Don’t count them out just yet; that was just the first of them, remember?  We’ll see how they work with the other defenses, as well,” Milton consoled, doing his best to put a good spin on it.  He still had hopes that the other Slabs would perform well later; if they didn’t, then it was just proof that not all of their ideas were good ones.  Ever since he had become a Station Core, Milton had to learn and adapt to changing situations, and he was sure that Sandra had done the same; it was just the nature of their existences, after all.

The Dungeon Core didn’t say anything after that, but he could see a small smile form on her lips at his words.  He went back to watching the advance of the invaders through the mountainous section of the dungeon, excited for what was going to come next.

As the Heliothropes rounded a corner in the winding pathway that led through the mountains, Milton nudged the waiting Quelephines before he lost contact with them.  Soon enough, 80 of the large Combat Units were charging ahead in 2 lines of 40 across, filling up the entire pathway in between the mountains.  The rumble, as they stampeded, was loud inside of the dungeon, and it was a scarily impressive sight as they held their oversized heads down, leading with their horns to impale the unsuspecting Heliothropes.

The Fodder out front, only slightly reduced in number from when they had passed through the desert, saw the incoming herd of Quelephines and braced themselves against the stampede – for as little good as it did them.  When the first line reached their ranks, weapons flashed out to impale or smash the reinforced heads of the Combat Units, with most of the hits killing the large-horned elephants instantly.  However, as he had predicted, the speed and momentum of the injured or dead Quelephines were so great that they didn’t stop moving, crashing down on top of the Fodder and sliding over them, as well as crashing into the lines of blue-skinned invaders behind the front line.

Other elephant-sized Combat Units were pile-driven into the dirt, and like a pole vaulter planting a pole, their horns caught on the ground and acted to pivot the Quelephines’ rear sides into the air.  Launched at least a dozen feet up and a few dozen ahead from their momentum, the whole process looked like some sort of Hollywood car chase and crash scene out of a movie.  When the Combat Units came back down, they bounced off of the Fodder they landed on and kept going, crashing into those behind, who were fully unprepared for the impact.  It was a glorious disaster of stupendous proportions, and it was exactly what Milton had been hoping for, despite none of those hit or squished by the Quelephines actually dying.

That was when the second line of Combat Units came charging into the broken line of Heliothropes, stomping on or knocking out of the way those that had been affected by the initial stampeding line.  A few of the Fodder were killed because their protective barriers had been broken earlier, and even though they ended up stabbing into the normally durable flesh of the Quelephines as they were stomped and squished to death, they still ended up perishing.

“It’s just a shame that I don’t get any Mana from these invaders here in the dungeon.  I could be adding more traps, otherwise,” Sandra said abruptly.

Wait; what?

She must have heard his unspoken question, because the Dungeon Core explained.  “Normally, whenever something dies in my dungeon, I obtain a large burst of Mana from their death, which is one of the main reasons Dungeon Cores tend to send out their Dungeon Monsters to attack any nearby villages or towns.  It is basically a shortcut way of obtaining Mana for the purpose of upgrading their Core Size.

“But it doesn’t seem to work for me here, which I’m guessing is because there isn’t any inherent Mana inside of these Heliothropes.  No Mana in them means there isn’t any Mana for me to absorb.”

That definitely made sense to Milton, but it was also disappointing.  Having another source of Mana for Sandra would be very beneficial to the overall dungeon, especially since after all of the traps she placed were activated and her constructs were destroyed, she would have to replace them.  Thankfully, since she had already helped him to create the environment, there wasn’t nearly as much Mana she had to contribute to the defense.

“Well, at least their deaths are useful in other ways,” Milton responded.  “Their bodies and weapons are useful in replenishing some of the stores I’ve used in creating Combat Units and those defensive weapons.”

She turned to him, a smirk on her face.  “That’s right, you don’t have a constant pool of resources flowing into you, do you?  Sucks to be from a dimension that doesn’t have Mana at its beck and call.”

He wanted to stick his tongue out at her, but he knew it would be childish.  Of course, he didn’t care about that and did it anyway.  “Yeah, well—”

“Did you just see that?!” Brint shouted, his entire body language and tone showing that he was thoroughly enjoying the show in the dungeon along with the rest of those in the command center.  Milton hadn’t seen it, but he had the ability to replay whatever his sensor orbs observed; as such, he popped up another picture-in-picture box on the larger viewscreen that showed the last 10 seconds.

Like an instant replay from a football game, he watched the recording play out with a growing sense of excitement.  Milton saw exactly what Brint was talking about when one of Sandra’s nearby Launchers slammed into one of the Fodder that had been launched into the air due to a Quelephine tossing its head at just the right time as it charged through the line.  The Heliothrope’s protective barrier was down to just under 5% as a result of being thrown in the air, and when the incredibly fast projectile hit it, the glowing shield completely faded.  Not only did what was left of the barrier not stop the iron rod, but the Fodder’s body was certainly not tough enough to halt its advance.  Faster than he could see without slowing it down, the bar went through the blue-skinned individual’s torso and blew a basketball-sized hole in it, severing its spine in the process.

Now, hitting it in mid-air was spectacular timing, and at any other time it would’ve made it on the weekly replay reel.  But what made it absolutely incredible was the fact that the Goblin Crafter that had been controlling the Launcher wasn’t even aiming for the one in the air; it had, in fact, been obviously aiming for a second one on the ground.  It just so happened that the one that had been the original target had been knocked down by a third Fodder when it was slammed into by a different Quelephine, collapsing face down on top of the target – though neither of them had taken any real damage.

So, what happened was the iron bar went through the first Fodder in the air, kept going with more than sufficient momentum to collapse the protective barrier and impale the Heliothrope on top of the original target, and then come through its upper body to obliterate that original target’s head underneath.  The bar didn’t kill 2 birds with 1 stone; it killed 3 birds with one perfectly placed shot from the Launcher.

“That’s going on the highlight reel,” Milton rejoiced, replaying the clip a few times and even slowing it down to actually watch the iron bar pass through all of the different barriers and bodies.

Motion out of the corner of his Avatar’s eye made him look at Sandra, who had turned away.  “What’s wrong?”

The Dungeon Core just waved it off as if it was of no concern, but Milton could tell she was really affected by something.  “Oh, it’s nothing.”

Uh, oh.  It’s not nothing.  “Is this making you uncomfortable?” he asked, seeing as it was the most likely possibility.

She shrugged, though she appeared relieved when Milton stopped the replay of the carnage on the viewscreen.  “I know it really shouldn’t affect me, but it’s hard to see that happen to actual people; I’m more used to seeing Dungeon Monsters being killed, which are basically just Mana constructs rather than real, living beings.”  She paused for a second, before shaking her head.  “No, that’s not really it, either.  I think that it’s more the glorification of that killing that’s bothering me, despite knowing that they probably deserve it.  Actually, seeing what they did on that space station over there, I know they deserve it, but I just can’t reconcile what I’m seeing with how I feel.”

Milton nodded.  He hadn’t really thought about it that way, but he supposed that it was different from most of what happened on Proctus.  In the other dimension and on an alien planet, most of his “enemies” had been the beasts of the forests or other non-personnel.  Now that he was back in his own dimension, the Heliothropes were the only real enemy, and they were technically all people.  At least in the most basic definition of the term, considering that they were grown from the flesh of a Commander.  But then, are only Commanders considered people?  It was a philosophical argument he didn’t really want to have right now.

“I understand, especially when I’m actually thinking about it.  I believe that we—” Milton said, encompassing the Proctans in the command center with a wave of his hand— “have grown a bit numb to death over the years, considering that many of them have personally died many, many times during their training.  They’ve even fought each other in an arena-type scenario, so they are used to the deaths of people by their own hand.”  A bit quieter, he whispered to Sandra, “It’s probably not the healthiest of attitudes to have, and I’m sure there will come a time when we’ll have to reevaluate their mental states as far as stability is concerned; but for now, I believe we need that.”

Looking at one of the picture-in-picture boxes on the viewscreen, which showed the fight between the Proctans on the small station and the remaining Heliothropes there, he knew that their mindset was one of the Proctans’ most important strengths when fighting against this enemy.  Only their fearless drive, and the confidence that even if they died they would be brought back to fight again, allowed them to push on and give everything they had, especially against a foe that displayed a complete disregard for their own safety, nor exhibited any kind of conscience.

“You may be right, but it still makes me a little uncomfortable to see such things,” Sandra expressed.

Milton resolved to tone down the celebratory and gruesome replays of the Heliothrope deaths.  It was one thing to take pride in their dungeon’s efficiency and deadliness, as well as acknowledging that causing the deaths of invaders was a necessary step in freeing the galaxy; it was something altogether different to revel in those deaths and glorify them unnecessarily.  Additionally, a look at the Raxians – who were still in the command center, having nowhere else to go – showed that they, too, were a bit uncomfortable with all of the celebrations of death.

With the mood a little more subdued, Milton watched the Heliothropes proceed through the gauntlet of mountainous death.  His Explosive Floor Plates worked spectacularly when he activated them, shooting out the stone cannonballs at great speed down toward the marching invaders, impacting them with enough force to remove huge chunks of their protective barriers.  Some were even hit multiple times and ended up being injured, though none of them were killed as a result; they weren’t hit by magnetically launched iron rods, after all.

What was surprisingly effective when used in conjunction with his Explosive Floor Plate defenses were Sandra’s High Peak Rocs circling overhead, picking up and dropping the giant boulders on the lines of Fodder.  Not only were the boulders large enough to squish one of the blue-skinned Heliothropes, but they were typically dropped with enough forward momentum that they rolled for at least 15 to 20 feet after impact, hitting even more of the enemy before they came to a stop.  When timed with the activation of his Plates, dozens of Fodder were killed as a result – which was an impressively low-tech feat.

But it was the stone-filling pit traps that Sandra had created with her Mana that performed the best.  Scores of Fodder and even Soldiers were caught in multiple traps, falling inside the suddenly empty space, only for them to be trapped inside of the crushing stone that did its best to squish them.  A few Soldiers were able to escape by reacting fast enough, either by lifting themselves up with their glowing shields before they could be completely trapped, or by using their heads and cutting through the stone as it tried to surround them.  Of all the Fodder that were caught by the trap, however, none of them survived falling inside.

All things considered, the Heliothropes were being steadily slaughtered as the group made their way through the mountains, with Fodder falling the most often of them all.  A few of the 80 Soldiers present were killed as a result of Sandra’s pit traps and the magnetic Launchers up in the mountains, but for the most part they were left alone – along with the trio of Elites.  It was something that Milton had noticed in all of the other incursions: The Soldiers and the Elites would stay out of the fighting if it was only the Fodder being attacked (for the most part), so it was imperative to wipe out the relatively weaker blue-skinned invaders first.

When there were fewer Fodder than there were Soldiers left in the much-diminished Heliothrope force, it was then that the slightly larger, purple-skinned invaders started to take action.  The first thing they did was pick up and unerringly launch tridents from the fallen Fodder at the Launchers high up in the mountain range, shattering the contraptions and impaling the weak Goblin Crafters who had been operating them.  In addition, they actively attempted to dodge any incoming boulders shot out by Explosive Plates or dropped from up high by Rocs, greatly cutting their effectiveness, as a result.  Thankfully, they couldn’t even prepare to dodge the iron bar projectiles shot out by the Launchers, which managed to eliminate quite a few Soldiers before they were taken out.

The few additional Quelephine stampedes eventually only managed to run over Fodder, as the Soldiers and Elites simply raised themselves up over the charging Combat Units and attacked them as they went past beneath them.  The ability to float via their glowing shields was also put to the test when a mass of 40 Soldiers eventually rose up high and attacked the High Peak Rocs, slicing the massive birds apart without any trouble whatsoever.  The process did reveal that levitating the Soldiers took a bit more barrier “energy” than expected, as it was basically a full percentage point or more for every second being levitated; he suspected that it would be even greater of a drain on the Fodder, though he didn’t really get a chance to see that in action.

As for the Elites, since nothing had yet really touched the large red-skinned invaders and consequently had very little to engage them, they continued marching menacingly ahead without a hint of intending to help those weaker than themselves.  They were the real threat, despite the number of Fodder and Soldiers, and Milton just hoped that the defenses they had set up at the end of the section would be able to kill them.  Or, if not, at least be able to whittle down their numbers a bit.

By the time the group reached the end, all of the Fodder had been entirely wiped out through the application of various defenses, and there were only 45 of the original 80 Soldiers accompanying the trio of Elites.  That number was further reduced when they marched over the minefield of Big Ol’ Badgers hiding underneath the dirt, who sprung out nearly in unison as soon as they detected the vibrations.  Despite the speed of the purple-skinned invaders and their quick reaction to the sudden popping up of an extremely sharp-clawed giant badger that was approximately 10 times their bulk, dozens of them were caught in the veritable maelstrom of raking claws and razor-like bites of the BOBs.

Being injured when counterattacked by the Soldiers only seemed to send the Badgers into a frenzy, and the blind, deaf, and olfactory-challenged Combat Units pulled themselves out of their holes and assaulted the Heliothropes in a berserk-like state, uncaring of their own mortality.  Attacking with such ferocity earned them some easy kills, as their powerful claw swipes were able to take down a Soldier barrier in 3 or 4 hits, and if the purple-skinned invaders weren’t able to block or dodge another blow, they were frequently cut completely in half.

It didn’t take more than 10 seconds for the Soldiers to fully rally, however, and they were soon cutting or walloping the large Badgers with their weapon skills, working together to take the Combat Units down.  Regardless, Milton’s defenders had done their job, eliminating 27 of the 45 Soldiers that had progressed that far, leaving only 18 left to accompany the Elites.

Meanwhile, during the fight between the Soldiers and the Badgers, the Steel Colossi nearby were already moving.  With large stomps into the dirt below their feet, the massive 200-foot-tall constructs headed toward the commotion.

Confronted by a threat that could potentially hurt them, the Elites finally actively participated in the fight.  Jumping over the heads of the battling Soldiers and Badgers, the 20-foot-tall, red-skinned Heliothropes threw themselves at both of the Colossi, weapons ready to slice and smash the constructs into oblivion.  One Steel Colossus got a lucky hit of its blocky arm on one of the Elites in mid-air as it bent over and took a swipe, sending the invader flying toward the distant mountainside.  Before it could hit with what would normally be bone-crunching force, it stopped a few feet away, thanks to its protective glow, and floated in the air.  Milton couldn’t help but see that the hit had only taken a little over 20% of its shield away, though the barrier was very slowly reducing as the Elite floated in the air.

As for the other two Elites, they were entirely too quick for any further attacks by the Colossi to hit them, as they dodged kicks and arm swipes with deft movements.  They counterattacked and started taking out chunks from the legs of both constructs, despite the metal Monsters being nearly 10 times their size.  It looked like the Heliothropes would be able to completely destroy the defenders without trouble, at least until the last 2 Launchers up in the nearby mountain cliffs started to open fire on the Elites.

Hit by a powerful projectile from an unexpected direction, the pair of Elites directly battling the Colossi staggered when they were impacted.  Milton saw that over 50% of their barrier had been taken out from just the single hit, which was further reduced as one was hammered into the dirt by a Colossus arm and the other was stomped upon by a giant foot.

Still, despite being hit by what was essentially a railgun projectile and smashed into the ground by a 200-foot-tall metal construct, the two Elites were still protected by a little over 20% of their glowing shield – at least according to Whisp’s estimates.  He remembered how difficult it was for his Bearilla and even some animated stone golems to hurt the Elites, so he wasn’t too surprised, but he had been hoping to get lucky.

His hopes were somewhat fulfilled as the Goblin Crafters fired again, hitting the smooshed Elites with another Launcher bar, which broke their shields and impacted the red-skinned Heliothropes with stupendous velocity.  One of the pair had two of its arms basically ripped off of its body from the bar slamming into it, while the other was hit in the lower hip area, blasting a hole through its left side.  Neither of them were killed outright, but both were heavily damaged, taking them somewhat out of the fight.

It was at that point that the Elite that had been knocked away at the start of the fight arrived to join its comrades, and it went right to work picking up where the other two had left off.  Also at that time, the Soldiers were finishing off the rest of the Badgers; as a result, there were a few of them able to turn to the new threats and toss some available weapons at the Launchers in the cliffs, destroying them before they could do any more damage.

The rest, once the Badgers were dead, joined in on the destruction of the massive constructs, though they were barely needed.  It didn’t take the uninjured Elite more than 15 seconds to wade into the fight and remove a leg from each of the Colossi, causing them to topple to the ground with a deafening *crash* and billowing a cloud of dirt into the air.  Once the Colossi were on the ground, the Heliothropes took very little prompting to hack them apart, though it took nearly a minute for them to find and destroy whatever magical energy was powering the once-mighty constructs.

By the end of the second section, only 18 Soldiers survived, along with 2 heavily injured Elites and a single uninjured red-skinned warrior.  Even as he watched the wounded Elites stagger around on their feet, the bleeding from their injuries suddenly stopped as their protective barrier regenerated.  In another minute, red skin seemed to rapidly grow over the open wounds and cover them like an enormous scab.  Milton was temporarily worried that they would somehow recover completely, regrowing limbs and such, but his worry was unfounded; it appeared as though the only healing they obtained was a simple sealing of the destroyed areas.

“Well, that wasn’t too bad, was it?” Sandra asked.

“No, not at all,” Milton answered.  “Those Elites are tough, I’ll give them that.  And those Launchers of yours are fantastic.”

Sandra blushed a little as she smiled a little shyly.  “Thanks; I really did work hard on those.  It actually makes me feel better knowing that something I crafted works just as well or better than my Dungeon Monsters or traps.”

“That they do,” the Station Core said as his avatar nodded.  “Now, shall we see if the next section can finish the job?”

Milton had no doubt that it was up to the task, given that the dungeon became progressively more deadly as the Heliothropes advanced through it.  It was only a matter of time before the enemy fell, and then the Cores would be free to figure out what to do next.

Chapter 15

“I wasn’t sure if it was even possible, but I think we designed this section to be a little too deadly,” Milton said as he watched the remaining Heliothropes advance through a thick forest of 80-foot-tall trees.  Unlike the many plants and trees that the Station Core typically grew – when he was growing them at all – this particular forest was full of trees that he immediately recognized, the two most prevalent being oak and maple.

All of these particular trees were planted and grown by Sandra, who used her Mana to create a “trap” of sorts over the dirt covering the floor of the section.  This trap was apparently Nature-based in its composition, and instead of doing something harmful, what it did was speed up the growth of the trees as well as a few bushes that Milton recognized but couldn’t name.  All it apparently took were seeds or other starts for the desired plant; a large quantity of water, which Milton was able to provide thanks to Sandra’s help, via a sprinkler system he set up high up above that was similar to his farms; and light, also provided by Milton.  While Milton had some seeds for fast-growing grass and other plants available through his Molecular Converter, he never could’ve created an entire forest like what was grown in just a few days – especially with trees that would’ve taken decades to achieve their current size and height.

The Station Core had seen Sandra’s growing room in her dungeon, but it couldn’t compare to what he was seeing now.  The only thing that rivaled, and overshadowed, it was the former wasteland around her dungeon’s location, which she had spent a long time replacing with healthy dirt, plants, and other trees – all of them grown initially in her dungeon.

“You could be correct, but I’d rather have overkill than not enough defense, if I’m being truthful,” Sandra said.  “I know you have your Proctan friends in reserve, but it would be better if they weren’t needed at all.”

“I agree, and it doesn’t appear as if we’ll need them.  Though, I have to say, it’s a bit annoying how these Heliothropes don’t seem to respect how much work you put into growing those trees.”

What Milton was referencing was the Elites’ tendency to cut down any of the trees that were in their direct pathway rather than going around them.  Already, around 2 dozen fully grown trees had been cut down with as much thought and ease as someone using a machete to navigate their way through a jungle.  It ultimately didn’t matter in the least, however, because the Heliothropes were steadily being killed, thanks in part to an environmental trap that Sandra was able to set up.

It took every single bit of her maximum Mana to accomplish, but the Dungeon Core was able to create 2 Nature-based traps that, once activated, would slowly release a strongly caustic poison into the air, located from ground level to just below the lowest branches of the trees.  The basis behind the poison was that it would slowly eat through any bare skin that it touched, and if it was breathed in, it would quickly burn the mouth, throat, and lungs of the intended victims.

Being such large traps that covered half of the forest, they would only last approximately 30 minutes.  The key to the poison was that it was constantly being repelled by the Heliothropes’ glowing shields, similar to the heat from the desert, and was draining them at nearly double the rate as before.

The remaining Heliothropes weren’t as unintelligent as the Fodder, however, and quickly became cognizant of the danger to them.  As such, they simply lifted off the ground using their protective barriers and flew above the poisonous trap.  Even with their stronger shields, though, the Elites were only able to stay aloft for no more than 3 minutes before they ran out of energy, which was approximately twice as long as the Soldiers.  The first time they went aloft, they traveled a small distance before they flew up to the lowest branches of the trees and stayed there for a moment while their barriers recharged.

That was where they met the reason the forest was so deadly.  Dispersed among the branches of the oak and maple trees were defenders of a variety of types.  The first of them were D-Ranged Monkeys, which mimicked the Soldiers with their 6 arms; instead of melee weapons, however, the Monkeys were armed with Weightonite-tipped javelins that they could throw with enormous strength and accuracy.  Plus, being that they were essentially multi-armed monkeys, they were very at home among the tree branches, and could move among them like some sort of parkour masters Milton had seen on TV back in the day.

Of course, the D-Ranged Monkeys had been used before in the previous incarnation of Murder Station’s dungeon, to relatively poor results if Milton was being honest.  That was mainly because they had been exposed and vulnerable to the Heliothropes simply picking up the javelins and sending them right back at his Combat Units; in the forest, however, they had the advantage of movement and the veritable “high ground” among the trees.

The second defender among the trees was another of Sandra’s constructs: The Powered Jaguar Empress.  Being the size of a Bengal tiger, the Jaguar Empress was nimble enough to maneuver through the trees like it was on flat ground, despite its weight as a metallic Dungeon Monster.  While the construct couldn’t attack from range, it was quick enough to move in on the Heliothropes and attack with a few swipes of its sharp claws before bounding through the tree branches again to escape retaliation.

Put those 2 defenders together and you had a Monkey that could deplete a barrier from a distance, and then a close-range Jaguar that could move in to attack and tear up just about anything it could slip its claws into.  Of course, simply a pair or two of those working in conjunction wouldn’t be all that effective against so many Heliothropes; they could only do so much before they were either countered or overwhelmed.

That was precisely why Milton and Sandra had created hundreds of them throughout the trees, with most of them concentrated near the beginning of the section.  If they needed to move elsewhere, both the Monkeys and the Jaguars could navigate their way very quickly through the treetops to get to where they were going.

As it so happened, as soon as the 3 Elites and 18 Soldiers lifted off the ground and rested a moment in the tree branches above, they were quickly greeted by just over 80 D-Ranged Monkeys and Powered Jaguar Empresses hiding perfectly still among the wooden limbs.  In an action that appeared pre-planned but was entirely coincidental, all the Monkeys released 6 javelins within a half-second of each other at the Heliothropes in the trees.  Nearly 500 projectiles slammed into and bounced off of protective barriers, draining many of them to nearly 0%, and the impact made more than a few of the Heliothropes wobble on their branches and almost fall off.

Before they could recover fully, even the Elites, all 80 Jaguars attacked en masse, moving from their hidden locations in the branches above, and absolutely tore into the Soldiers.  Within seconds, they had shredded the shields of the purple-skinned Heliothropes and tore into the flesh of the invaders before the enemy could fight back.  More than half of them, after losing their barrier and their means of staying up on the branches, fell off and plummeted to the ground below.

As for the Elites, they suffered from the initial onslaught but managed to fight off the majority of the Jaguars attacking them, and then deflected another volley of javelins thrown by the Monkeys.  The two injured Elites accidentally cut the branches they were balancing on by mistake, causing them to join those that had fallen down below.  The remaining, uninjured Elite stood its ground and created a whirlwind of melee weapons that prevented any of the Jaguars from getting in close to finish it off. Eventually, the barrier of the Elite had fully regenerated even as the rest of the Soldiers still up top were finished off, and the defenders were freed up to attack en masse.

Doing what Milton suspected it would do, the Elite dropped from the tree and back down to the ground and landed unharmed due to its shield, where it joined the surviving Heliothropes.  The survivors wouldn’t stay that way for long, however, as all of the Soldiers were missing their glowing shields and were suffering from the caustic poison in the air.  While he couldn’t see the mess that was happening inside of the unprotected Soldiers when they breathed in the deadly air, he saw their Health plummet dramatically.

It was then that another construct appeared, racing through the trees in a large pack of 50: Powered Sabre Wolves.  These metal wolves were slightly larger than the Jaguars and were just as fast, speeding through the trees like a wave and completely unaffected by the poisonous air.  The dying Soldiers didn’t know what hit them as they were ripped apart by the Wolves, though a few did manage to put up a slight defense as they were taken down, killing a pair of constructs in the process.  The remaining 48 were free to attack the 3 Elites at that point, and somehow sensing weakness, they targeted the two injured ones first.

The Elites did not go down easy.  Despite their injuries, the loss of their protective barrier, and being greatly outnumbered, they fought with skill and tenacity.  It took the deaths of half of the Wolves to bring them down, ripping limbs off of the red-skinned menaces, and Milton was convinced that it was only the fact that they were a little slower due to their healed-over wounds and the poison in the air that they perished at all.

The last remaining Elite was a whole other story.  Uninjured and with a relatively full shield, it landed and immediately started to slaughter the Powered Sabre Wolves with alacrity.  The last remaining Heliothrope didn’t make it through unscathed, however, as its shield percentage was reduced down to the teens by the time it was fighting the last few Wolves.

Thankfully for those watching in the command center, the Wolves weren’t alone.  “Hmm, I think that should do it, or I’m a monkey’s uncle,” Milton said when he saw the Elite’s doom incoming.  “Ha, get it?  A monkey’s un—never mind,” the Station Core said as he looked around the command center to see that everyone (including Sandra) was looking at him funny.  Hey, I thought it was genius given that there are D-Ranged Monkeys and—whatever.  Not important.

Hundreds of javelins rained down from the tree branches above, many of them finding their targets and bouncing off of the glowing barrier, chipping even more of it away.  This was followed by dozens of Jaguars either leaping off of the lowest branches to land on the Elite down below or vertically climbing down the trees using their sharp claws.  By the time they reached the embattled Elite, most of the Wolves were dead, but the Jaguars took their place, assisted by yet another volley that the Heliothrope couldn’t fully deflect.

Once its barrier was depleted, that was the end of the last Elite, and the end of the current invasion of Murder Station’s dungeon.

Milton let out a sigh of relief, glad that the danger had passed.  The viewscreen cut to a shot of the landing platform outside of the entrance activating the Magnetic Repulsors scavenged from the wreckage of the previous dungeon, sending the Heliothrope ships off and away from the Station before they could explode. Milton watched them being expelled from the vicinity of Murder Station, but was confused after they didn’t explode after a few seconds.

As he looked at some of the other picture-in-picture boxes, he realized why.  The fight on the smaller station was just wrapping up, though it was plain to see that there had been some intense casualties while his attention had been focused elsewhere.  Only a dozen or so Proctans were still alive and were fighting the last pair of Heliothropes, a Soldier and a Fodder, though Milton thought that they would easily win as the blue-skinned killer was brought down by a combination of a spell and a sword stab through its lower back, severing its spine.  A thought occurred to him when he saw the protective barrier of the purple-skinned Soldier fall, but his warning came too late.

“No, don’t kill them all yet!”

His communicative shout echoed through the surviving Proctans just as a Rogue managed to slit the throat of the last Heliothrope from behind, killing it almost immediately.

“Brace yourselves!”

The Rogue and the other Proctans on the small station appeared confused.  “What?”

There was no more time for warnings, because in the next second the Heliothrope ships located in the central docks of the hub exploded.  With the last of the entire fleet of the invaders dead, there was nothing keeping the ships from detonating like they usually did, just like they did when they were attacking Murder Station’s dungeon.  He couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought of that before just this moment.

Thankfully, Rhiole had already taken off from the docks and had been stationary in the area between both stations, so she wasn’t hurt; more importantly, the transport ship was still intact.  The same couldn’t be said for the smaller space station, however, as the explosions blew up the majority of the docks and immediate areas, though fortunately there weren’t any people nearby; they had all been evacuated earlier.

However, the detonation of the Heliothrope ships also exposed many of the accessways leading further into the station to the void of space, and Milton could see through the sensor orbs he had on board that the environmental atmosphere inside was quickly being sucked out.

“They should have bulkheads that will close upon detection of a station hull breach… as long as they weren’t damaged,” Trinket mentioned quickly, a desperate lilt to her voice.

“Sensors are showing them closing in the sections where we have eyes, but I can’t determine the status of the others,” Whisp informed him, bringing the proof of that onto the screen.  From one of his sensor orbs, he could see that two doors had slammed closed from opposite sides of the station hull, cutting off the void of space and preserving the atmosphere inside of the station – at least in that section.

Directing Murder Station’s external sensors to look more closely at the devastated inner core of the hub, he could see one tunnel after another that was visibly leaking atmosphere – seen as broken and damaged debris was violently pushed out as the air inside tried to escape – quickly shut off as the bulkhead doors sealed off the station once again.

Inside of the hub, Milton could hear an artificial-sounding female voice echoing throughout the area where his Proctans were located, and he realized the words were being said in Galactic Basic, so it was easy to understand.

Emergency bulkheads 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A, and 8A have been engaged to seal up the hull breach.  Life support systems are at 5% efficiency and rising.  Gravitational stabilizers have been damaged in multiple sections.  Please stay in your designated emergency shelter until further notice.

“Uh, 5% efficiency doesn’t sound good,” Milton said, looking at ALANNA, Whisp, and Trinket, hoping they had more clarification.

“It’s not,” Trinket explained.  “That means the majority of the heat and air was lost when the docks were destroyed, so things are going to be a bit rough inside.  Look.”

Milton looked at the viewscreen and saw the Proctans that had succeeded in defeating all of the Heliothropes on board were floating in the air, the gravity on the station obviously having been disengaged due to the damage.  That wasn’t that big of a deal, however, as it was far worse that they were gasping for air like fish out of water and visibly shivering.

“Is there anything you can do?” Sandra asked, horrified as the sensor orb also saw that the rest of the station’s population was doing the same thing.

“No, not from here,” Trinket shook her head.  “There are already automatic emergency atmosphere procedures kicking in, so it shouldn’t be too long before they at least stabilize enough to save them from suffocating or freezing to death.”

“That’s good to hear—” Milton said, concerned about the near-quarter-million people still on the station.

“But that’s not really the biggest problem,” Trinket added.

I’m not sure I want to hear this.

Whisp confirmed that immediately.  “She’s right, there is a more serious issue.  The station hub has fallen out of orbit around the planet because of the rapid depressurization of the dock area, which acted as a propellant.”

“Exactly.”  Trinket nodded, before throwing something up on the viewscreen.  Milton was now looking at the outside of the small station’s hull.  “Normally, these small thrusters are easily able to adjust to any fluctuations in the station’s orbit caused by normal operation, but with all the power being directed toward re-establishing the life support systems, these thrusters aren’t going to be enough to correct the station’s course.  In all fairness, I believe that even if all the station’s power were directed toward the thrusters, it wouldn’t have made a difference because of the seriousness of the course shift.”

“And where is this course shifting it toward?”

Another alteration to the viewscreen showed the worst-case scenario.  “It’ll crash into the planet?”

“Actually, it’ll likely burn up as it hits the atmosphere.  Very little but flaming debris will actually land on the planet,” Whisp added.

“That doesn’t make it any better.”  Milton grunted as he looked at the now-doomed space station on the screen.  A quick look at the inside of the station showed that people were still floating, but they were at least breathing slightly easier than they had been a few moments ago.  “Solutions?  Can we somehow tow it back into orbit?”

“We’re not exactly a tugboat, Milton,” ALANNA noted sarcastically.  “We’re more likely to completely rip apart sections of our own station along with theirs because of the sheer, mind-boggling forces involved.”

“Good point, ALANNA.”  Milton didn’t really want to argue with his AI helper right now or remind her to try and be polite, so he just acknowledged the information and moved on.  “Anyone else?”

“Can we try to evacuate them?” Brint asked.

Whisp, ALANNA, and Trinket immediately shook their heads.  “With the dock destroyed, there’s no safe way to even attempt to ferry them to the transport ship,” Trinket said.  “There are likely some short-range vessels used for inter-station transportation, but I doubt that they could hold more than 1,000 altogether.  That isn’t enough time to evacuate everyone, even if they were to make it here to dock with us.”

“How much time do we have before it starts hitting the atmosphere?”

A clock appeared on the viewscreen reading 5 hrs 42 mins 13 secs.

“Great.  So we have a very limited time to figure something out, and evacuation seems very improbable other than for a select few.”  There was no way he was going to attempt to decide who lived and who died.  He wasn’t going to let all of the sacrifices the Proctans and the people of the small station had made end in failure; there had to be a solution—

“I think I may have an idea,” came a voice from the back of the command center.  Milton looked up, surprised at who had spoken: It was Chanfa from the Raxian miners, who were looking almost sick as they watched the space station on the screen start its descent into the planet’s atmosphere.  “It’s dangerous and a very risky plan; plus, I don’t know if it’s even possible.”

“Dangerous and risky?  Seems like my kind of plan,” Milton said, willing to entertain just about any idea short of simply letting all those people die.  “Tell me your idea.”

All eyes were on the Raxian, who appeared a little less confident due to the attention.  However, he visibly shook himself and spoke clearly, outlining his plan.  “Well, like I was trying to say, I’m not even sure if this will work.  Still, given what I’ve seen you accomplish already, it’s definitely a possibility….”

Chapter 16

“This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” ALANNA said abruptly.  “And that includes you freaking out about a ‘blood-thirsty’ squirrel that you swore had designs to destroy your Station Core on Proctus.”

Milton was not amused.  She just won’t let that go, will she?  “Hey, a little less pessimism and a little more optimism would be appreciated.”  He grunted and said under his breath, “Besides, those squirrels were out to get me, I just know it.”

The Think Tank, Brint, and Trinket were all working together in the command center, all at separate consoles and poking away at a variety of different projects.  Milton let them continue with their duties rather than interrupt them, because they were working at a frantic pace to ensure nothing went wrong; even though he felt a little helpless at the moment without anything to do but watch, throwing a wrench in the process could only have a detrimental effect.

“Oh, I’m optimistic… that this is going to end in disaster,” ALANNA responded, watching the same thing he was on the viewscreen.  “Still, if they can pull it off, then I withdraw my statement of this being the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.  It will be only the second dumbest thing.”

It wasn’t the vote of confidence he was looking for, but from the diminutive AI, sometimes that was the best he could get.  “Alright, shh… let them work.”

For once, the nanite-formed guide didn’t argue.  It was probably because she was perfectly aware that what they were attempting was extremely dangerous and could result in both stations being irrevocably damaged.  Or, less likely, that she was actually listening to him after all of this time and respected his decisions.

No, that’s entirely too far-fetched.

Communication with the small station was very limited at this point, because the explosive damage had apparently also knocked out whatever systems for communication existed on the hub.  The only ways that Milton and the rest of the command center crew were able to speak with anyone was either through the Proctans or the sensor orbs, but they had yet to find anyone in charge – such as the Station Leader, Orkney.  Over the hours since the bulkheads had sealed the station once again, the life support had been brought back to relatively normal levels, but the internal communications system was as screwed-up as the gravity.

That meant that they weren’t able to coordinate with anyone on the station regarding their plan, so they were going to be doing this all on their own.  A great effort had been made to at least spread the word so that people wouldn’t freak out when things started happening, but it was quite likely that they would anyway.

“We’ve matched their speed, Milton,” Whisp said as she brought up the representation of the two stations on the viewscreen.

Rhiole spoke up next.  “Maneuvering us into position now.  Calculations have been triple-checked based on given parameters.”

The Station Core hadn’t bothered to check any of those calculations because they were beyond his easy understanding.  While his stats such as Processing Power/Intelligence and Ingenuity/Wisdom gave him a better comprehension of the overall ideas being implemented, actually applying those ideas to mathematical calculations on telemetry, engine thrust, and any number of other variables was too much for him.  The Think Tank was thankfully smart enough to be able to figure it all out, leaning on his Processing Power to crunch the numbers run through his Station Core’s system.  Basically, they had turned from living in a world filled with manufactured magic, genetic mutations, and monstrous beasts to one filled with space stations and dimensional dilemmas; in other words, they were inter-dimensional, geneticist, rocket scientist wizards.  It was a mouthful, but it summed them up pretty well.

“We’re in position!  Matching external rotation!” Whisp practically shouted, the nervousness in her voice quite evident.  The hyper-intelligent Proctan had been extremely wary of this plan because of the danger, but as there weren’t any other potential options, she had gotten behind it.  She wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about it, but Milton knew she would use everything at her disposal to ensure that everyone survived.  “Inserting now!”

That sounded almost dirty the way she said it, but that was essentially what they were doing.  Murder station had taken a position with its lower central column pointing directly at the center of the cubically shaped hub, where docks used to be before they were destroyed.  Right now, there were only the 8 large passageways coming in from all 8 corners of the station, leading toward the center, where there was just a big gaping hole; it was there that the bulkheads had sealed off the station from the leaking atmosphere inside, leaving it empty of anything else.

Being that the location of the former docks was just barely larger in circumference than the central pillar of Murder Station, this part of the plan was literally like trying to thread a needle.  Except for the fact that the thread and needle were massively large space-based structures, where one wrong shift could end in disaster.

Milton held his avatar’s breath – which was silly, because it technically didn’t need to breathe in the first place – as the bottom of Murder Station slowly slid inside of the empty top face of the smaller hub.  The bottom of the central pillar moved smoothly in between the delicate wire-frame edges of the damaged station, gliding further and further inside of the exterior skeleton of the hub.  So far, it seemed as if everything was going according to—

“Look out!  The automatic thrusters on the station are firing!” Rhiole exclaimed, and there was a sudden frantic maelstrom of activity around the consoles.

“Compensating!” Whisp responded.  “It appears as though only one section of thrusters has come back online; we can still do this—”

“We’re going to impact that section unless you—”

“Already on it!”

There was a shifting in the orientation and rotation of Murder Station as it turned to match what was happening to the smaller hub.  Milton winced as the tip of the central pillar impacted the edge of one of the blocked-off passageways leading into the center of the hub; the two scraped against each other as Murder Station’s lower portion moved past it, flinging debris in all directions, but eventually they separated and slid by without touching.  The Station Core thanked whatever deity might be listening that they hadn’t hit it straight on rather than the glancing blow that actually occurred; otherwise, things would’ve spiraled out of control.

“We’re almost there… just a little further… and… cutting every engine except those that are matching the movements of those thrusters on the other station.”  Whisp sighed heavily and slumped into place, the stress of managing to save them from potential disaster weighing on her.  Looking around the room, Milton could see that she wasn’t alone, as almost everyone around the consoles appeared relieved, as well.  Even the Raxians appeared a little less tense, though they knew that only half of the job had been done.

As for the second half, that was where Brint and Trinket came into play.  Over the last few hours, while they finalized the crazy plan that the miner, Chanfa, had come up with, the Station’s Molecular Converters had been working overtime to produce thousands of steel struts, thick steel bars, and slightly curved steel plates.  Once they were produced, they were brought down to the central pillar of the Station and stored until they were needed – which just happened to be right at that moment, when they had essentially just speared the smaller hub with their lower extension.

“Releasing the drones now,” Brint announced, and thousands of Milton’s flying drones suddenly crawled or jumped out of the lower compartments of the central pillar, dragging the steel materials with them.  While Trinket acted as the architect and directed where all of the different steel components needed to go, Brint was the foreman, using his Neural Uplink ability to order the drones around with his mind.  There were also dozens of Drone Overseers that had been recently constructed in Milton’s Drone Assembly Plant that acted as the points of contact for Brint; these Overseers had an upgraded AI and could direct other drones to accomplish complex tasks, making the whole project that much more simplified.

Though, “simplified” wasn’t exactly the word for it.  It was a massive undertaking that involved thousands of moving parts, as the drones literally built out extensions from the central pillar to the broken passageways, all in a matter of a little over an hour.  It was going to be relatively simple and crude in construction, but it would hopefully be strong enough to attach the entire small station to his own.

That was the crazy plan that Chanfa had cooked up, not even knowing if it was possible.  They weren’t going to just somehow reorient the smaller station into a normal orbit or evacuate the smaller station hub; no, they were going to take it and add it to Murder Station itself.

When asked why he thought they were capable of such an endeavor, Chanfa simply replied, “I figured if you could kill The Masters and bring us back to life, then there isn’t anything you can’t do.”

Milton wished that was always the case, but in this situation they certainly did have the ability to enact the Raxian’s dangerous and risky idea.  And contrary to everyone else’s worries, it seemed as though it was going to work.  I have to stop thinking that, or I’m going to jinx us.

About a half-hour later, halfway through the process of establishing the pillar of Murder Station as the new center of the station hub, his earlier thought about jinxing the plan came true – though not in the way he was expecting.

“Milton!”

Uh, oh; now what?  “Yes?”

“Long-range sensors have detected another fleet heading toward the system.  They’re approximately an hour away,” Whisp informed him, putting the images on the viewscreen.  Milton could see immediately that not only were there approximately twice as many Heliothrope ships in the incoming fleet than the one that had just been eliminated, but one of them was a bit larger than the others: A Commander ship.  While the defenses of their dungeon that had been expended during the last invasion could potentially be replenished, as well as there being a few sections that hadn’t even been challenged yet, there was no way they could defeat a Commander at that point.

“An hour?  Why so short?”

“Sensors were affected by proximity to this planet,” Whisp explained. “I still don’t have completely accurate numbers.”

Great.  Milton was hoping that they could save the smaller station, move away from the planet, and then visit the mines on the third moon, where he could pick up more Focusing Crystals.  It appeared as if that wasn’t going to happen now, because they were going to have to run.  Well then, so be it.  At least we accomplished a more important objective: saving lives.

“When we’re done constructing the braces down below, set a course to use the drives,” Milton said regretfully.

“Will do, Milton.”

Approximately a half-hour later, the drones finished up their work connecting the central pillar of Murder Station to the smaller hub without any other hiccups.

Current Short-term Goal: Here I Come to Save the Day! – Complete!

- Travel to System 238-65RD – Complete!

- Prevent the inhabitants of the space station from being killed by Heliothropes – Complete!

- Escape with minimal casualties (<10% of the station’s population) – 2.1%/10% allowed, Complete!

- Acquire the station’s system knowledge for ALANNA – Complete!

Difficulty of Goal: Average

Timeframe: 1 day

Rewards: +5 to Communication/Charisma, +3 to Ingenuity/Wisdom

“Congratulations on accomplishing the second dumbest thing I’ve ever seen,” ALANNA said with a smirk.  “But seriously, nice job; I didn’t think you could do it, but I was wrong.”

“Thanks, ALANNA.  It feels good to work proactively against our common enemy for once, rather than just reacting to the messed-up stuff that they do.”

“That’s for sure.  Who knows?  At the rate you’re going, you might just end up taking the galaxy back from the Heliothropes in, what?  A million years or so?”

Milton knew she was being deliberately sarcastic, but at least they had struck a blow, albeit a small one, against the slave-owning Heliothropic empire in this dimension.  It was a start, though it was difficult to plan where to go from there.  He was hoping that with the acquisition of the smaller station’s computers and systems, they might have a better idea of what was going on around the galaxy.

As all of the engines on Murder Station started to engage, slowly moving away from the decaying orbit they had been on, he watched the new addition flex a little but hold as the entire structure moved along with the larger space station.  While they started to gain some distance, Milton checked the rest of the notifications he had been ignoring while the crisis had been going on.

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Fodder x950!  You gain (950x100) 95,000 combat experience!

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Soldier x95!  You gain (95x500) 47,500 combat experience!

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Elite x5!  You gain (5x5000) 25,000 combat experience!

He was earning less Combat Experience per Heliothrope his Combat Units killed, which was to be expected.  Still, not a bad amount of Experience for a couple hours of work.

He also looked at the bonus from completing the quest/goal that ALANNA had assigned around saving the people on the smaller station, which was when he realized that he hadn’t yet allocated the stat points from his last Combat Level increase.[6]

He had been so consumed with Sandra being on the Station, as well as with rebuilding the dungeon, that it hadn’t really been a priority before.  Now that he had a couple of minutes, though, he figured he might as well look at it and spend some of those points.

There were a few things that he couldn’t increase through the use of Combat Level allocation points, which were his Reactor Power/Strength and Structural Integrity/Constitution, unless he was willing to sacrifice a lot of Basic Metal Units; increasing those stats required an infusion of tritanium, which was very expensive to create.  While he still had some reserves of BMUs, he had just spent millions of Units to attach the smaller space station to Murder Station, so he was getting a little low.

He also couldn’t increase his Insight/Luck stat, as it could only be increased through quests or unlocking achievements.  Despite those limitations, he still had 5 others to choose from, though he wasn’t sure how much it would really affect things.  After he had been damaged and crash-landed on Proctus, all of the little increases had greatly increased the things he could do; after he hit 100 in most of his stats, which was “normal”, there hadn’t been as much of an increase in his abilities.  How it had been explained to him all those years ago, by ALANNA no less, was that they were supposed to be incremental additions to his overall ability to control and manipulate things created by his Station Core, and as he grew more comfortable with what he was doing, those increases would be natural.

Now, though, he had the ability to raise at least one of his stats up to 150, a threshold that he hadn’t ever reached before.  While he wasn’t sure that it would actually do anything, and ALANNA was always a bit tight-lipped at what different thresholds would reward him with, he had a good feeling about it.

First, Milton threw 9 of his points into Sensor Interpretation/Perception, bringing it up to 130 and in line with the majority of his other stats.  Since he had been relying on his sensors to keep everyone he cared about out of danger, he thought it was prudent to bump that up a little.  As soon as he confirmed that allocation, the long-range images of the Heliothrope ships headed their way became noticeably clearer, indicating that increasing the stat certainly did make a difference.

I wish I had done this earlier, he couldn’t help but think, mentally chastising himself.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t bring Sensor Interpretation/Perception up to 150, given that he only had 18 points left to allocate, though he did add 3 more points to that stat; this time, there was an improvement to the clarity and even the range of the long-range sensors, but it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the previous increase.

With the remaining 15 points to allocate somewhere, Milton threw them into Ingenuity/Wisdom, his highest stat at 135.  The Ingenuity/Wisdom stat had been highly valuable both in the past and currently, as it determined how efficiently he used his available resources and his ability to substitute missing materials for required projects.  What it also did, he had found, was increase his internal understanding of genetic mutations as they applied to the Proctans, as well as giving insights into how to manipulate the genes of different Combat Units to make something entirely new.

Congratulations!

When you reach certain milestones in your statistics, additional bonuses can be unlocked.  In this instance, when you reached 150 points in Ingenuity/Wisdom, you gained these bonuses:

- ALL Defensive Weapons, Spacecraft, Facilities, and other projects can now substitute up to 25% of required Focusing Crystals with an equivalent amount of Organic Material

- Unlock a new goal to increase the Core’s Bio-dimensional Knowledge Skill

The bonuses for achieving 150 points in Ingenuity/Wisdom weren’t Earth-shattering, but they certainly would help.  The 25% reduction in Focusing Crystal requirements was amazing, considering that there were quite a few things that required the Crystals, and even some that normally couldn’t be substituted with anything else.  Of course, that didn’t really matter when he didn’t have much in the way of Focusing Crystals in the first place, but he was sure it would come in handy later.

But it was the second bonus that interested him more, especially when a new notification was sent to him from ALANNA.

Current Long-term Goal: Inter-dimensional Gene-ius

- Acquire additional samples of current-dimension DNA – 0/?

- Acquire additional samples of foreign-dimension DNA – 0/?

- Apply 1 dimension-specific gene to a different species – 0/1

- Apply 2 or more dimension-specific genes to a different species – 0/1

Difficulty of Goal: Hard

Timeframe: Unknown

Rewards: Additional Bio-dimensional Knowledge, +10 to Ingenuity/Wisdom, +5 to Insight/Luck

“Does that mean what I think it does?” Milton asked ALANNA.

She shrugged.  “Probably.  What’s strange is that I didn’t personally create that goal; it was created by your Station Core and I simply pushed it to you.”

“Fun.  Learn something new every day, don’t we?”

“Maybe you do; as for me, I already know everything.”

Milton snorted, then smirked at his diminutive AI guide. “I know, I know—you’re perfect.  Anyway, we’ve got a lot to do; let’s go pick up Sandra from near her dimensional portal and go see what we just hijacked from the Heliothropes down below.”

“Ooh, an Inter-dimensional ‘Gene-ius’ and a thief?  What is this galaxy coming to?”

He laughed, feeling better about things now that they had made some progress in their fight against the Heliothropes.  “Hopefully nothing good; we wouldn’t want to show up those in charge, would we?”

“No, definitely not.  That would just be horrible….” ALANNA giggled, a sound that made his spirits lift even higher as they stopped to pick up Sandra from where she was hiding when things had been dangerously “up in the air”.  Soon enough, they would have to descend down to where Murder Station was connected to their new acquisition – at least as soon as they were able to create some access points that weren’t exposed to the void of space.

As Milton felt the Station’s trans-dimensional drives open access to the traveling dimension, he couldn’t help but think that things were finally starting to look up.

Chapter 17

“Are you sure you want to come?  I can’t guarantee your safety while we’re there.”

Sandra’s face was determined, however, so his warning fell on deaf ears.  “There’s always going to be danger, Milton; I’m a big girl and can make my own decisions.”

He held his hands up, trying to show that he didn’t mean any offense – which he certainly didn’t.  “I know, I know; I can’t help but worry about you when you’re visiting my home.  I… I’m not sure what I would do if anything happened to you here.”

That didn’t come out exactly as he meant it to, but when her expression softened, he knew he had at least gotten his point across.  “I appreciate that, Milton, I do, but I’m a lot stronger and more resilient than you think.”

That is definitely an understatement.  I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as strong, confident, and as beautiful as she is—  Milton stopped himself from going any further, as his thoughts were starting to leak out from the intensity of his emotions.

“You’re right,” he admitted.  “I’m sorry; I’ll try not to be so restrictive with you from now on.”

He realized he had been treating her like some sort of porcelain doll, instructing her to hide next to the dimensional portal to her world, to keep her within range of safety, especially whenever danger to the Station seemed likely.  She hadn’t directly objected, seeing the danger herself, he supposed, but he could see that she didn’t appreciate the heavy-handedness he was displaying.  I guess as long as she knows the risks, it’s her own decision to make.  Hmm… is this what being in a relationship is like?

Back on Earth, other than a few dates he’d gone on with various girls when he was younger, Milton hadn’t ever been in a serious relationship with anyone.  Whether he could call what he had with Sandra a “serious relationship” was hard to say, however, because it wasn’t really what he would define as a relationship based on his own observations and experiences.  He knew that he liked her and felt more connected to her than anyone else he’d ever had the pleasure of meeting, and the thought of something bad happening to her made his mind freeze up in despair.  Being physically near her felt like being warmed by the sun on a cold day, like something that had been missing in his life was now present, like she belonged there.  If he was being honest with himself, it was hard to define, it just… was.

“Thank you, Milton, that’s all I ask,” Sandra said, as she placed her hand on his upper arm and squeezed it gently, before smiling gently at him.  “Now, I think we have somewhere we need to be?”

He nodded, gesturing toward ALANNA, who was waiting impatiently for the two to get moving.  “That we do.  Let’s go.”

As Milton, ALANNA, and Sandra walked down the corridor that led deeper into Murder Station’s central pillar, he was glad that his drones could work endlessly without a break.  From the time they had finished securing their new acquisition down below to now, Trinket and Brint had already used them to finish most of the internal pillar pathways to the main connection, ensuring that there was a habitable space that would support life and wasn’t open to the void of space.  While Milton and ALANNA would theoretically be fine – for the most part – moving through without life support systems operating normally, it was unlikely that Sandra could survive.  Then again, she was a Dungeon Core, and she was essentially using an avatar of her own, created in part from a Stabilized Shapeshifter Monster she had at her disposal, so it was entirely possible that she would survive just as well.

But the main point of creating an atmosphere that was geared toward living beings was because of the connection to the small station hub that was now attached to Murder Station.  Theoretically, he would love to evacuate those who needed to leave the smaller station, either because of overcrowding or simply because they wished to leave.  In addition, Milton knew that a full evaluation of the station’s structure needed to be completed; given how much had happened to it in a short amount of time, he didn’t want the hub to suddenly break apart while they were on the move somewhere.  That would sort of defeat the purpose in saving them in the first place.

“Milton?  I think we’re all finished here.”  Brint’s voice communicated with him internally, and he thanked him back in the same way.  “We’re ready to open the entire route to the life support from Murder Station.”

“Do it.”

There was a sudden rush of air as the life support – which was keeping everything alive in the command center, the ring, and everything on the central pillar down to the bay where the transport ship was now docked – filled in the newly finished space leading to the station hub access.  He didn’t hear any type of alarm from anyone in the command center, and a quick look at all of the nearby sensor orbs showed him that everything seemed to be working perfectly.

“Thanks, everyone.  We’ll take it from here; I’ll let you know if we need any help.  Get some rest; I’m sure you’ll all be quite busy in the days to come.”  When Milton thought about it, the majority of a 24-hour day had passed since any of the Proctans got any sleep.  Thinking of that, he realized the Raxian miners also needed somewhere to sleep, as they’d had a harrowing time over the last day.

“Already on it, Milton,” Whisp responded, after Milton expressed his concern.  “Though they say they want to see the people on the hub as soon as possible.  Apparently, some of their families may be there.”

“I’ll make sure they come down as soon as it’s safe.  Thanks, Whisp—for everything.”

After that, activity in the command center dropped to nearly nothing as everyone went to get some rest, though there was still a single member of the Think Tank that stayed awake to monitor things.  They were moving slowly through the traveling dimension, however, so there wasn’t really a lot that needed to be monitored.

It took nearly an hour of fast walking to make it from the command center to the area where the smaller station was connected to the central pillar, going through multiple open airlocks to ensure that if there was a hull breach in Murder Station somewhere, it could be closed off from everything else.  The space granting access to the large new addition was approximately a mile across on the inside of the pillar, where 8 different holes spaced around the perimeter led to different corners of the station hub.  The access holes were approximately 100 feet in diameter to match the braced extensions connecting to the small station, though they were only a fraction of the size of what they actually connected to.  They didn’t have enough time, drones, or materials to match them up entirely; instead, what they had built was like a temporary weld that would hold everything together, but wasn’t intended to be permanent.

It did the job, but that was about it.  Nothing fancy, just serviceable.

“I believe… this one should be our first priority,” Milton said, pointing toward one particular tunnel.  From what he could put together from the memories of the Proctans landing and exploring the station hub, this was the particular one in which they had encountered the Heliothropes.

“I agree,” ALANNA said, already moving forward.  “I can’t wait to get my nanites on their systems.”  Milton saw hundreds of his drones sitting completely frozen against one wall, and he ordered them inside the tunnel.  At the same time, he considered what his AI guide said.

“Why come down here at all?  I thought all you needed was physical contact with the station to dig into their computers.  Am I wrong?”

She shook her head but kept moving, following after the drones.  “No, you’re correct – if I want to search for information from the outside, like I did at Station 23-E.  However, if you remember, I was stymied by their security systems and wasn’t able to retrieve much.”  Station 23-E was the one near Jupiter, from which they had needed to flee in a hurry.  “The same thing exists on this station, and I know that because I attempted to brute force my way in as soon as it came in physical contact with Murder Station.  In order to preserve the integrity of the data, which could become corrupted if I were to force my way through, I need to interact directly with the mainframe and disable all of the security protocols.  That’s why I’m coming.”

“Fair enough.”  It made sense, actually, when he considered the situation.  Simple physical contact with the station was like trying to hack through a firewall with an internet connection; being in the presence of the actual computer where all of the information was stored was a whole heck of a lot easier, especially when she could cheat and disable any security with her nanites.

It took another few minutes to travel to the end of the drone-made tunnel connecting with what was left of the dock-side passageway of the station hub.  Once they made it to the bulkhead doors that had slammed closed after the Heliothrope ship explosion, Milton mentally directed his drones forward to start dismantling the barrier.  Within moments, the directed Molecular Converters located on their heads had cut through enough of the thick bulkhead to get through to the other side, and there was a small blast of air as the area stabilized with the different pressures of the two spaces.  Less than a minute later, the door had been entirely dismantled, with chunks of it placed to the side by the drones, and the way into the station hub was now open.

“Hey there, boss.  Took you long enough.”  Milton was glad to see Micke, the only Tank that had survived the attack against the Heliothropes.  Only Trond and Pilora were still alive from his original group, the Healer and Support members, and the other 9 Proctans were all from different groups – though they had come to work together to eliminate the threat.  That was one of the best things about the Proctans; they were deadly and quite effective in their smaller 5-person parties, but they could adapt and come together to form a larger raid group without breaking a sweat.

“Good to see you, Micke,” Milton said happily in response, but then he became serious as he lowered his voice.  The Station Core could see some of the residents of the station hub in the distance, milling about and looking lost for the most part; however, there were quite a few of them looking in the newcomers’ direction.  “What’s the situation here?  We still can’t access the communication system, with all that’s happened.  I’m glad to see that the gravity was reinstated, though.”

“Yeah, it turned back on about 10 minutes ago.  Other than that, things seem to have returned to normal as far as air and heat, but we haven’t been able to explore much.”

“Why not?”

Micke spoke a little softer, surreptitiously pointing toward the milling people behind the Proctans.  “Can’t you see them?  They’re terrified.  Whenever we tried to move past them, they’d scurry away almost as if they thought we’re as bad as those multi-armed freaks.  We thought that it would be better if we waited until you arrived to talk to them.”

Milton took a closer look at the people he could see, using his sensor orbs nearby as well, and he could see exactly what Micke was talking about.  The congregating crowd weren’t simply looking lost while they moved around aimlessly; they were casting fearful looks at the Proctans and the newcomers, and it was obvious by their body language that they were still afraid that they would be hurt or killed.  Or, when he looked closer at them, they were worried that they had just exchanged one “Master” for another.

Before he could answer Micke, there was a commotion toward the back of the crowd, which soon parted ahead of a small group.  “Make room!  Out of the way, please!” Milton heard, and he recognized the voice speaking Galactic Basic asking for people to move.

“Station Leader Orkney!  It’s good to see that you survived.”

The Porlix burst through the crowd with a few others behind him, all of them from The Collective races he recognized both from ALANNA’s descriptions and footage he’d seen.  There was a tall Equine wearing what he supposed counted as a suit to those of the horse-like race, though it was torn apart and bloodstained; behind him was a Bovene, similar in general appearance to the one he had met on the space station near Jupiter, whose plain-looking clothing was also disheveled; and then there was an Aquanix, who could only be described as a thin fish with arms and legs, wearing a skin-tight dark bodysuit that seemed to circulate water around their form.  Even that bodysuit had been damaged, though it appeared to be hastily repaired with clear-ish patches, likely to keep water from spilling out.

Station Leader Orkney was even worse-off than the others, the sharply dressed Porlix appearing as though he’d gone through the wringer.  There was a cut on his head that had been poorly bandaged, and his clothing had more bloodstains than anyone else’s – at least, what was left of it.

“Barely,” the Station Leader said tiredly, after recognizing Milton.  “We still have no communication other than the automatic emergency response network, but we can’t even access that.  Reports from around the station are sketchy because of the lack of communication, and moving about before the gravitational stabilizers came back online was difficult, if not impossible.  I’m still trying to determine the status of the station as a whole, as well as that of all of the people. What I can say is that hundreds—if not thousands—perished when the life support systems dropped out for a short time, and that isn’t even counting those that The Masters killed before you stopped them.”

“We’ll do what we can to help—” Milton started to say, but the Porlix wasn’t done yet.

“Now where does that leave us?  Yes, you prevented The Masters from killing us all, but it will only be a matter of time before they come back to finish the job – if we don’t all die from starvation first.  With the docks and the warehouses that had been there gone in the explosion, I doubt we have enough food on the station to last us more than a week, and that’s if we ration our stores.  Most of our recent supplies had just come in on a recent shipment and hadn’t been distributed throughout the station, and now that’s all gone.

“And then there’s the thousands of wounded who suffered when the gravity and life support failed.  We don’t have enough medical supplies on the station to heal even a fraction of them, because most of our medical storage was located near the warehouses, which should’ve been the safest place on the station.  Without the ability to take in more supplies, we’ll all be dead within a month or two—”

“Alright, stop!  We’ll deal with one thing at a time, shall we?” Milton asked, holding his hands up for the frantic Porlix to stop.  “First, what do you know about what happened after all of the Heliothropes were killed?”

“You mean The Masters?  Well, obviously there was that explosion—”

“No, I mean how we literally attached your entire space station to ours, and then we escaped into—

“WHAT?!”

Obviously, he didn’t know.

“Let me quickly get you up to speed….”

It only took a few minutes to convey all that had happened, from the explosion to “threading the needle”, to attaching the two stations together, and to escaping into another dimension to avoid the second fleet headed in their direction.

“But… how?  I know of no technology that could do something like that, or at least nothing more than legends,” Orkney said after he was done.

“Do you know what I am?” ALANNA abruptly asked, just before she made one of her arms break apart into millions of little nanites.  After a few seconds, it turned back into her arm, looking perfectly normal.

The Porlix and most of the others appeared confused, but the Equine tilted their horse-shaped head to the side.  “I learned a few stories from my herd elders about something like that, but that’s all they were: stories.  Or so I thought.  Are those… what were they called?  Nanites?”

“Yes, exactly!” ALANNA seemed pleased, and Milton couldn’t blame her.  To have one of The Collective races identify a certain part of their people’s ancient technology was a bonus.  “You asked about the technology that allowed Milton to do all of this, but the answer is a lot closer than you think.  This is all The Collective’s technology, though it has been altered since your ancestors created it.”

“The Collective? But, that was disbanded thousands of years ago!” Station Leader Orkney exclaimed.  “Where have you been all of that time?”

Milton was about to explain, but then one of the looky-loos in the distance walked by with a limp, and he realized they were wasting time.  “It’s a long story that we don’t have time to get into right now; suffice it to say that you and everyone on this station hub are safe—for now.  ALANNA can probably help with your communication issue, as well as take a look at your station’s systems to ensure they are operating properly, while I need to see about getting some Healers—”

“I can take care of that,” Sandra said, though not in a language any of the station residents would know.  The next moment, a small sphere of what looked like steel appeared on the floor nearby, followed by a hazy distortion around it; it wasn’t something that was new to Milton, because he had now seen her create one of her constructs from literally thin air and Mana, but it was still fascinating to see.  Soon enough, the small metal sphere turned into a white, cylindrical, trash can-looking construct, which floated a few inches off of the station’s flooring.

“What is this—?” the Station Leader started to ask, but he was interrupted when two stick-shaped arms suddenly appeared from some cleverly hidden spaces on the construct as it turned toward the Porlix.  Orkney suddenly froze as waves of magical energy – only seen by Milton because his sensor orbs could detect it – arced from Sandra’s Repair Drone to him, and he grimaced in pain.  That was only temporary, however, as a look of wonder passed over his features, followed by him touching his injured scalp; as he took off the bandage, he wasn’t the only one to discover that his wound was now gone as if it had never been.

“H-How?  Is this The Collective’s technology, as well?”

Milton shook his head.  “No, it’s something entirely different; magical, even.”

“There’s no such thing as magic.”

“I beg to differ, but you could also be right.  As far as I know, there isn’t anything such as magic… in this dimension.”  He wiggled his eyebrows at the Porlix mysteriously, but a look from his sensor orbs at his avatar showed that it just made him appear ridiculous.  “So it’s a good thing that Sandra isn’t from this dimension; instead, she’s from one where magic does exist.”

“Unbelievable,” the Equine said, looking at the Repair Drone, which had just fixed a cut on his hand; or at least Milton assumed the Equine was a he, based on the voice.  “If I didn’t see it for myself, I—well, I did see it, so I can’t deny the possibility,” he said, before turning to Milton, Sandra, and particularly ALANNA. “I apologize, I didn’t introduce myself.  I’m Assistant Station Leader Ghendus; I help assist the Station Leader on a variety of different projects, but I’m primarily in charge of overseeing the internal systems of the station.

“Ferdance, here,” he continued, gesturing to the Bovene next to him with a hoof, “is our Head of Interspecies Relations, which essentially just means that she handles any conflicts among the people on the station.”  Ghendus then nodded to the Aquanix.  “Arax is in charge of the docks and the distribution of supplies as the Head of Logistics, though I suppose his job has become a bit obsolete now that our docks are gone.

“Anyway, it would be my pleasure to show you to the auxiliary control room for the station,” he finished, looking at ALANNA.

“Not the main control room?”

Ghendus shook his head.  “Unfortunately, no; it was located in the central nexus—where the docks and warehouses were—which is why there are now so many problems.”

The diminutive AI guide didn’t hesitate as she joined the Equine in walking away, speaking to the former Collective individual as they dispersed through the crowd.

“But what about supplies?  Food?  Our dead?” the Station Leader asked, his own hoofed hand still rubbing the healed spot where he had been previously wounded.  It was interesting to see how flexible the Porlix’s hooves were, almost to the point where they acted like fingers; seeing them up close, the Station Core found that they were malleable and more dexterous than he expected.

“We can help there, too, as we can create what we need, essentially.  As for the dead… we can discuss that once we help everyone living first.”  Milton spoke quickly with Sandra, who started to create a veritable army of Repair Drones right there in the attached station hub.  “Let’s go take a walk, Orkney, along with Ferdance and Arax.  I need you to calm your people while Sandra’s… assistants do their work to heal them.  Plus, I want to see if they can cure your people of that disease… Charfelglewick?  I promised I’d see about saving your daughter, didn’t I?”

The Station Core could see a small tear form at the corner of the Station Leader’s eye.  “That you did, sir.”  Orkney hesitated for a moment, before he straightened up and looked Milton in the eyes, his entire body language practically shouting fear and determination.  “If I may, you still haven’t told me what you expect in return for your help.  I doubt you’ve risked yourselves and your own people, many of whom I see have perished in the process of killing The Masters here, out of the goodness of your heart.”

He's got a point, I suppose.

“Let’s talk about that as we walk, my friend,” Milton answered, refusing to elaborate on what he wanted.  It wasn’t any sort of deception, though, but because he didn’t exactly know what he wanted.  He had some ideas, but it was something he’d have to work out as they made their way through the smaller station.  “For now, just know that you’re all going to have to make some important decisions soon that will change your lives forever.”

I just hope that it doesn’t end up killing everyone in the process.

Chapter 18

“Do you really think you can succeed?  What you’re proposing seems impossible, and I’m not sure if the people under my care will be willing to sacrifice themselves for this cause of yours.  As much as I’d like nothing more than to believe you’ll finally free us of The Masters’ forced slavery, I just can’t see it happening.”

Milton listened to the Station Leader and nodded along, completely understanding what the Porlix was trying to convey.  However, there was one thing that Orkney didn’t seem to understand.

“You’re all dead already; you do realize that, don’t you?”

The Station Leader stopped abruptly on their walk, even as Sandra and Ferdance helped to assist and heal those that needed medical assistance.  The group had made rapid progress through the small station, now that there wasn’t anything preventing them from navigating their way through the crowds, and they had just come from the quarantine area that held the people infected with the deadly disease.  Thankfully, Sandra’s Repair Drones were more than capable of eliminating any trace of the disease in its victims and asymptomatic carriers.

A very tear-filled reunion between the Station Leader and his daughter, who had the disease eliminated from her body, was probably what was driving Orkney’s reluctance.  Having just gotten his daughter back from an area that was filled with the dying was likely making him reluctant to put her back into harm’s way.

“What do you mean?  You saved us.”

Milton nodded.  “Yes, we did.  But what do you want to do now?  We might be able to repair some of your station and drop you off somewhere, but where?  And what would you do?  I can’t say for certain, but it’s quite likely that the situation with the miners and the deaths of hundreds of Heliothropes, not to mention the disappearance of your space station, has already been communicated throughout the galaxy.  Where will you get supplies when we’re gone?  How will you survive when simply announcing your presence to traders will likely bring your Masters down on your head?  They were already going to kill each and every one of you; I can’t imagine what they will do to you when they discover you’ve somehow killed more than your fair share of them and then fled.”

“But it was you people that killed them.”

“True, but do you think they will care?  I’m honestly asking here; you probably know them better than I do.”

Station Leader Orkney was silent for a few seconds before he shook his head, his jowls jiggling as he did so.  “No, they won’t.  And you’re right; we were already scheduled for execution, so that isn’t likely to change.  Wherever you put us, no matter how isolated, it will only be a matter of time before we’re located and possibly even completely destroyed.  As for supplies, since we’d be operating out of the network, it would be next to impossible to obtain anything.”  The Porlix sighed and looked down, putting both of his hooves up to the sides of his head like he was trying to rub away a headache.  “You’ve all really screwed us here, you know that?”

“Who, us?” the Station Core asked, genuinely shocked at how the Station Leader could blame him and his people for the situation.  “We didn’t do anything but kill those that would’ve killed you.

“We didn’t screw you; on the contrary, we freed you.  Freed you to have the opportunity to fight back against those that oppressed you, made trillions of people around the galaxy their slaves, and left you in a constant state of fear that something would go wrong and you’d end up being killed—just like what happened at the mine.  Tell me, when’s the last time you weren’t worried that one day your life and the lives of everyone you’re responsible for on this station would come to an abrupt end, just because your Masters decided you did something wrong?”

The Station Leader was silent, but he didn’t try to refute what Milton was saying.

“Exactly.  Look around you,” Milton continued, spreading his hands around the corridor they had been walking through, “do you want to subject everyone in here to a guaranteed death, even if it might be delayed until the Heliothropes finally find you?  Or do you want to give them, yourself, and your daughter a chance to survive, a chance to live free without worrying about being slaughtered out of hand?  We can give you all a chance to be a part of that change that is coming, to become some of the first to actively work to throw off the chains of slavery.

“I’m not going to say that it will be easy, or that we will definitely succeed, because I’m not going to lie to you.  I’ll be the first to admit that this goal seems ridiculously impossible, that the scope of it is so unfathomably large that I’m not even sure I can wrap my head around it, and that the challenges in this endeavor are so great that I’d be foolish to even attempt them.

“But I know my people, I know what we can do as a team, and I know that even if there is only the smallest speck of a chance that we might succeed, we have to take it.  Because if we don’t, we’re going to condemn not only everyone in this galaxy to eternal servitude, but it is entirely possible that people in other dimensions will suffer the same fate.

“We have to try.  We may fail, we may all be killed, but that shouldn’t really be a concern for you and your people, should it?  Like I said before, you’re already dead.  What you do from now on can only benefit you, to give you a longer and more fulfilling life than you’ve been living.

“I’m not going to force you to join us, because that would mean that we’re no better than these Masters that essentially just discarded you all like a broken tool that needed to be destroyed.  But I implore you to think about what this could mean if we were to succeed, to finally free the galaxy after all this time.”

Looking around him, Milton realized while he was speaking with the Station Leader, a crowd had formed.  While some of them still looked fearful, many of them had a hopeful-looking appearance to them, especially those that had recently been miraculously healed by Sandra’s white constructs.

“We’re not fighters,” Station Leader Orkney finally said.  “We wouldn’t know how to begin helping in this ‘revolution’ of yours; that’s one of the first things that the Masters essentially tore away from us when they conquered the galaxy: the will and means to fight back.”

Milton put his hand on the Porlix’s shoulder and squeezed it gently.  “I know, but thankfully we have those that are well-versed in fighting back.  And I know that The Collective races were pacifists and opposed to violence, but there are things that can be done that don’t require fighting.  For instance, Trinket—you remember the Mouslan from my Command Center?—does absolutely no fighting, but has proven to be an extremely valuable member of my Station.  I’m sure there are any number of things that your people can do that don’t require any violent conflict on your part.

“But for those that don’t mind getting their hands dirty, to physically fight back against their Masters, we have both the ability and the means to develop them so that they can be an asset to the fight.”

Orkney looked confused.  “What do you mean?  Weapons and such?”

“Actually… did you hear any stories about the Proctans that came to eliminate the Heliothropes that invaded your station?”

The Station Leader nodded.  “The stories sounded impossible and improbable, but now that I’ve seen such things at work,” he said, gesturing to Sandra and the Repair Drones roaming around healing people, “I’m more inclined to believe the fantastical accounts.”

“Well, whatever you’ve heard, those stories are most likely downplaying their abilities.  You see, I believe that I may be able to impart certain… enhancements to those that volunteer to directly fight against the Heliothropes in this war.  And yes, this is now officially a war, as much as I see that word has affected you; we’ve already fired the first few shots and bloodied their noses a tiny bit, but we have yet to see a serious response.  I’m sure that is right around the corner, though, so we need to be ready.”

The Porlix’s face went pale as the word war was spoken, but he quickly recovered.  “I understand.  What are these enhancements you’re talking about?”

“Well, they range from being able to manipulate the elements, to superior physical attribute boosting, to moving objects from a distance, and even making oneself invisible to the normal light spectrum.  There’s a lot more than that, of course, but that’s only what I can provide via my genetic mutations.

“However, I’ve recently learned that I might be able to apply elemental affinities to people based on the genetics of Sandra’s dimension, though I think that I’ll need her help with that.  It’s one or the other, though, at least until I can figure out how to apply both.”  It was part of his long-term goal, Interdimensional Gene-ius, after all.  “But what I can really offer to those fighting, if they are open to the opportunity, is the chance to come back from death.”

“Huh?  What do you mean?”

Milton lowered his voice to speak a little more intimately with the Station Leader, as he wasn’t sure how the Porlix would take it.  From what ALANNA had mentioned before, The Collective races weren’t keen on cloning people, even if it was originally their technology.  As he quickly and honestly explained what it was he could do with his Neural Control Units and Bioconversion Labs, he could see that he was making Orkney uncomfortable.

“I… I just can’t see many wanting to subject themselves to something like that, especially my own people.  To give up their freedom and be controlled like some sort of undying automaton is a scary proposition, and one that frightens me almost as much as The Masters.”  The Station Leader sighed as he looked around at the crowd that was keeping a respectful distance.  “But I cannot speak for everyone, not even for every Porlix.  Times are changing, for better or ill, and sometimes drastic measures need to be taken in order to ensure that we have the best chance for a positive outcome.”

Orkney turned back to Milton and looked the Station Core’s avatar right in the eyes.  “I will advocate for joining you on this venture, though I cannot speak for everyone on this station.  We have a small council of section leaders that I will have to speak with and explain the situation to them, but I have a feeling they will agree.  As you said, we were dead the moment The Masters boarded the station, so it’s not like we have much choice.”

Milton smiled sadly at the Station Leader, shaking his head.  “There’s always a choice, but sometimes really living means making the hardest decisions,” he said.  “Besides, wouldn’t you rather go out in a blaze of glory rather than fearfully hiding from your inevitable doom?”

For the first time, the Porlix genuinely laughed.  “That’s being a little dramatic, Milton, but I understand your meaning.  And I desperately hope you’re not planning any of these ‘blaze of glory’ moments in the near future.”

“No, not necessarily.  I’m more inclined to try and prevent that very thing, but it’s always a risk.”  Milton started walking again, moving along with Sandra and her Repair Drones as they moved to heal anyone still wounded.  “If we’re going to do this, though, we’re going to have to make some changes.  Make sure everyone here knows what those will entail.”

“What kind of changes are you suggesting?”

The Station Core waved above and below him, indicating the station hub rather than the people.  “Well, for instance, I’d like to incorporate all of this into my Station, rather than maintain its temporary attachment.  In short, I want to dismantle this and, if possible, create another ring where we can have people live.  The displacement will be temporary, and it will ultimately be for the benefit of everyone here.”

Orkney was silent as he walked along with Milton, before he said, “Forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical, but do you even have experience creating a place where people can live?  Most of what I’ve seen from you and your people is a bit more, uh, violent than I would deem necessary for this type of thing.”

“As a matter of fact, I do.  I basically built an underground city and training facility for millions of Proctans, though I have to admit that I’m still learning when it comes to doing things off-planet.  My experience living in space has probably been shorter than all but the youngest children you have here on your small station, but I’m a quick learner.  I would be glad of any assistance you or anyone with knowledge can provide.”

“Well, then,” the Porlix said after a moment, “I guess I don’t have any other objections at the moment.  I’ll pass the word along to the section leaders, but I can’t see them opposing the idea.  This station is aging and constantly requires repairs and ongoing maintenance to ensure it doesn’t fall apart, so having somewhere new to live could only be a benefit.  But what it also does is tie us inexorably to your fate, as there won’t be any going back from that, correct?”

“Correct.”

“Fine.”  Orkney sighed again, looking around once more.  “Let’s just finish up here and I’ll arrange the meeting.  The sooner we can start this, the sooner we’ll see how long we’ll actually survive.”

“Hopefully a long, long time, Orkney.  I’m essentially immortal, so I want to take advantage of that as long as possible.”

“You’re immortal?”

Milton nodded.  “Essentially, yes.  I can be destroyed, but I’ll continue to operate indefinitely.  Once we’ve got everything down here taken care of, I’ll have to show you my Station Core.”

“I think I’d like that, Milton.  I think I’d like that a lot.”

Chapter 19

The verdict wasn’t long in coming from the section leaders on the station hub, and while the general sentiment of the people – as far as he could tell, at least – was that they weren’t 100% behind the decision, Milton was sure that they would eventually come around. Then, once everyone down below had been healed of any injuries they had sustained, as well as everyone with any trace of the deadly disease had been cured, the real work began.

The top of the central pillar of Murder Station, below the dormant sub-Fulsite reactor chamber, was actually fairly large and roomy, given that it was the main command center for the entire Station.  At the moment, only approximately 30% of it was being utilized, which consisted of a number of different components.  The first and most important was his Core Room, which was located in the center and protected by thick steel walls and large slabs of Weightonite, making his location fairly impenetrable other than through some smaller access doors.  Granted, if any Heliothropes managed to get that far, they could probably break through all of his protections within minutes, but Milton hoped that day would never arrive.

Near his Core Room was the second-most important part of the Station, which consisted of the command center, limited central pillar gravity generators (which only worked for the topmost part of the central pillar), and the life-support systems that operated throughout the entire structure, as well as the empty room in which Sandra’s dimensional portal was located.  Despite this part’s importance, it only comprised about 1% of the space in the central command sphere, a little bit more than his Core Room.

The next-largest area was where the barracks and living quarters were arranged, with a few large rooms that held hundreds of beds and simple steel dividers for privacy, as well as a few smaller rooms for couples and those in need of more privacy.  Most of the Proctans stayed in the barracks, however, but those like the Raxian miners were given their own private room.  The most complicated part of setting these living quarters up was the need for plumbing and the accessibility of water, but he had set up plumbing systems with the help of Whisp before, so it wasn’t too difficult.  Getting rid of waste was actually the easiest, as everything simply went into a Molecular Converter, where it was broken down and recycled.

Speaking of Molecular Converters, Milton had – at least temporarily – solved his Pure Water resource problem thanks to Sandra, who was kind enough to allow a Molecular Converter to sit in her dungeon on her world.  While it was there, she set up some sort of trap that would produce large quantities of water out of Mana every so often, which would feed right into the Converter; since it was in her dungeon, the ambient Mana would recharge the trap after a while, which would then produce even more water for Milton’s use.  For the moment, it was more than enough to sustain all of the people and different projects around the Station, but he knew that it would need to be supplemented in the future – especially now that they had just grown in population by nearly a quarter million people.  Overall, the current living arrangements only consumed about 5% of the space available.

The next-largest section of the central command sphere was for his facilities, which consisted of dozens of Bioconversion Labs for creating smaller Combat Units (such as Proctans and other types of beasts that were a little larger); a handful of Upgraded Bioconversion Labs (which could handle Bearillas, Big Ol’ Badgers, and anything else around that size); a Biological Recombinator (which allowed for experimenting with different DNA, as well as adding genetic mutations to different specimens); a Defensive Weapons Factory (which produced all of the Defensive Weapons, such as Nanite Swarms and Explosive Floor Plates in the dungeon); a Drone Assembly Plant (the purpose of which was to produce more drones and sensor orbs); and a Cybernetic/Synthetic Organism Factory (which produced Milton’s avatar, as well as cybernetic components that enhanced the Proctans who utilized them).

In addition, there was also a Rapid Coalification Facility (which rapidly converted Organic Material into coal, using intense heat and pressure); and there was a Destructive Distillery (which destroyed materials and changed them into various substances that could be used by the Molecular Converter to produce certain other materials).  Both of those were integral to the creation of Diamine, which was used to create many of the strong and intensely sharp weapons and much of the durable armor that many of the Proctans wore for protection – though they didn’t play as large of a part as they did back on Proctus.

Most of these facilities had been transferred over from his ship after commandeering the derelict station, though some had been added afterwards as the need arose.  Regardless, all of them together only took up about 10% of the space available in the central command sphere.

The last and largest section, which took up about 15% of the area, was dedicated to his farm.  Fields of grass for Organic Material and Picow Livestock for Biological Mass Units were grown, both of them fast-growing and easily able to be harvested with consistency.  The farm section was so large because the resources gathered from it were used not only to feed everyone, but to create Combat Units used in the dungeon – as well as the Proctans and any other clone.

But now, to add to what was already there, Milton had to figure out how to add living spaces for a quarter of a million people (and feed them) while another ring was built down below.  Thankfully, he had a lot of experience to pull from his time on Proctus, as well as great minds to help design a plan for its implementation.  They had to work fast, though, because there was only so much time that Milton wanted to stay in the traveling dimension; he needed to ensure that the Heliothropes weren’t poking a ragged hole into the dimensional fabric again.

The first priority was to expand the farm to feed all of the people that were now coming along on their “adventure”.  However, his prior experience told him that in order to feed so many, he was going to need to have a much larger farm than what could fit inside of the central command sphere area.  As such, he turned to his existing ring, which other than the dungeon – which comprised only about 5% of its current space, a surprisingly small amount for how large it actually was – and being used as a storage area in the past for resources while venturing to entirely new dimensions other than his own and the traveling one they were in right now, was almost entirely empty.

Sandra was a huge help in putting together the farms as she assisted in creating soil that was super-rich in nutrients brought in from her dungeon, which she had originally used to replant the wasteland that used to be nearby on her world.  She was also able to contribute some initial watering and magical growth via her Mana and “traps” to get them started, while Milton’s drones set up a system of sprinklers and lights that he typically used in his farms.  She also created a small section of fruit trees, providing fresh oranges, apples, and pears that the drones could pick and provide to those living on the Station.  While the Molecular Converters could technically create the same fruits, there was something to be said for fresh fruit right off of the tree. She even thought about expanding that section with additional fruit trees and vegetables, or perhaps even wheat like she had in her own dungeon, but for now what they had was more than enough.

Over 50 miles of farms were created in the 10 mile-wide ring, stacked on top of each other as he built a dozen separate platforms that crossed the entire internal structure.  Hundreds of drones ranged over the area, harvesting grass and slaughtering Picows to shove into the dozens of Molecular Converters placed all over the farm, as well as picking fruit to bring up to the central command sphere.  By his estimate, it now operated with a capacity to feed twice as many people as were going to be living on the Station, which even included all of the Proctans; because their abilities consumed a lot more of a body’s energy than a normal person, the Proctans tended to eat at least 3 or 4 times more than the average person.

Now, there was still a lot of room on the existing ring, and it would be easy enough to place some living quarters for all of the new people there and call it a day.  Milton didn’t do that, however, because there was no way he was going to put people anywhere near the dungeon, where some Heliothropes might take it upon themselves to break out of the dome covering the area and attack those who would be most vulnerable.  Plus, he had another plan for the rest of it later, so that was a no-go at the moment.

Instead, he turned the majority of the unused space in the central command sphere – including the farm that was there but was no longer needed – into large blocks of temporary living spaces, really no more than cramped studio apartment-sized rooms.  Once the new ring was built, he would be able to make them quite a bit bigger and customized to who was living there, but for the moment his temporary shelter would have to do.

Thanks to Sandra providing him with a steady stream of Basic Metal Units when she created different metals from her Mana, Milton wasn’t too afraid of running out of resources to get started.  Thousands of drones were created at an incredible rate from his Drone Assembly Plant and sent out with Portable Molecular Converters (to provide or consume materials) in three different places around Murder Station.  The first group was sent to the central command sphere, where they worked quickly to construct the temporary residences for the people down below in the station hub.  Trinket and Brint worked together, along with dozens of drone Overseers to make these living areas the priority to get finished first.

The second group was sent a little bit down the central pillar to begin the process of adding another ring to the station, using the first ring as a template.  These ones worked relatively slowly at first, due to having limited resources, as most of the BMUs being replenished by Sandra were used in the creation of the drones and Molecular Converters themselves; but once those hit the critical level needed to complete all the different jobs, progress steadily increased.

The third and smallest group – at least at first – was sent down to the smaller station hub, where they began to seal off sections that either weren’t being used or were being evacuated as people started to move up above.  As more and more of the temporary living spaces were completed, the construction of which progressed rapidly, more and more of the connected station was sealed off and then broken down, their materials fed into the Portable Molecular Converters the drones brought with them.  Deconstructing and consuming something was much faster and easier than building something, so while there weren’t a lot of drones directly working on the station hub, they certainly made the most visible progress.

The farm in the first ring took a total of a day and a half to construct and another half-day to become fully functional.  The setup and preparation for the three other projects took nearly a full day, but once they started running at optimal capacity, the construction (and deconstruction) progressed rapidly.  Within 48 hours, all of the temporary living areas had been built and the people moved off of the station hub, which was when things really kicked into high gear.

The thousands of drones that had been constructing the living areas moved to assist the third group, crawling over the station hub like a swarm of locusts picking a corpse clean.  Within another 12 hours, the entire connected structure was broken apart and fed into the Converters for resources, and now the thousands of drones were able to move up to help with the construction of the new ring.  The amount of Basic Metal Units gained from the deconstruction of the station hub wasn’t nearly enough to finish the grand project, but thankfully Milton (with Sandra’s assistance) was able to scrounge up enough for at least the structure and outer shell of it.  It would take a little bit longer for the new permanent residences to be completed, but within a week of originally starting every project, it had already begun.

Instead of cramped studio apartments, the plan – which was contributed by his Think Tank and some of the more knowledgeable people from the station hub about specific races’ needs – was to construct large communities filled with spacious buildings and small parks, as well as room to expand and add custom projects over time.  These buildings were relatively uniform in appearance and nothing fancy, but they could comfortably provide living space for multiple large families or up to 50 random people, in a size that reminded Milton of a European mansion back on old Earth.  A dozen of these buildings would surround a central park and what he was calling a “flex space”, which could be used to make just about anything the local residents desired.

Hundreds of these communities would be clumped together – with ample space in between so they weren’t crowded – and then his drones would construct a “roof” similar to the farms, where another layer of communities could be constructed on another level approximately a mile above.  With 8 of these communities stacked on top of each other, the hundreds of thousands of new arrivals would have more than enough room to live and even expand.  Movement between them could be done by simple (though steep) stairways, or through simple lifts that the Think Tank were able to design using the same actuators that created the Station’s airlocks.

All in all, the final project would only take up a relatively small portion of the new ring’s internal space.  Sure, they could expand it all along the “bottom” of the ring, but Milton wanted there to be plenty of room to add more communities in the future, as well as other types of buildings and facilities.  It all stemmed from what he had told Station Leader Orkney of what his plans were regarding the future.

“I want to eventually liberate even more people as we spread through the galaxy, creating a place where they can live without the fear of Heliothropes killing them for minor infractions.  A place where they can feel valued, where they can live in safety, and where they can fight to push back the greatest threat to existence that has ever existed.  In short, I want this to be a haven against the oppression you have experienced, where you and everyone else can raise their family without the threat of death around every corner.  But we have to work together to achieve that goal, and this is where it starts.”

That impromptu speech was what ultimately won over most of the residents on the station hub, as it was repeated by those who heard it to those elsewhere.  Milton hadn’t known at the time that it would go “viral”, which was certainly the first time something he had said had that effect, but he wasn’t disappointed.  As the new arrivals started to move up from down below to their temporary living spaces, he even heard a few of them call their new home Haven Station.  It certainly did have a ring to it, he had to admit.

Of course, as soon as the Proctans heard that, they started calling Murder Station a new name: Murder Haven.  I guess that’s fitting, considering all that goes on here – killing Heliothropes in the dungeon while protecting innocent people on the same space station.  Still, it was just another facet of the difference between the two groups of people, though Milton thought that might start changing soon.

Why?

Because there were quite a few of the newcomers who were interested in learning more about the “enhancements” he had told the Station Leader about.  Some of those, such as the Raxian miners for example, showed him that not all of the people on the station were reluctant to fight or abhorred violence, only that they hadn’t had the means nor the opportunity to combat what had been done to them.

While there were nearly a quarter-million new inhabitants of Haven Station, there would be some that would embrace Murder Haven just as well.

Chapter 20

The process of acquiring the smaller station hub had a few bonuses other than material to add another ring and new residences.  First, ALANNA had been extremely successful in her endeavors that first day she had been able to check out the station’s computer system, thanks to Assistant Station Leader Ghendus leading her to the location of the auxiliary system.

“Breaking through the security on it was a joke, especially compared to what I encountered on Station 23-E,” the diminutive AI guide reported.  “Of course, it helped immensely that I had physical contact with the auxiliary system, even if it was in an unfamiliar quantum crystal arrangement that allows for near-instantaneous communication over very, very long distances.”

“Is that how the Heliothropes seem to be able to react so quickly?” Milton asked.

ALANNA nodded.  “Most likely.  The technology is actually an advancement from what The Collective possessed, as it had only been theorized at the time.  Either they were able to discover its potential before they were enslaved, or another civilization invented the technology and it was appropriated.”

“What makes you think that?”

The nanite-formed AI pointed at the viewscreen, which was showing a rapidly shifting assortment of images.  “While it wasn’t as detailed as I would’ve liked, the knowledge in the hub’s systems had some surprising information about how the Heliothropes have managed to get as far as they have throughout the galaxy.  Most of that information was scattered throughout millions of separate databases, but I was fortunately able to reassemble them to get a better picture of Heliothrope history over the last 8,000 years.”

Many members of the Think Tank perked up at this, indicating that this was something they hadn’t heard yet.  “Wait; they just had that information hanging around?” Whisp asked.

ALANNA brought her hand up flat and moved it back and forth.  “Eh, kind of?  Again, I had to process all of the data for nearly an hour in order to reconstitute the original pathways, but I eventually got there.”

Milton was shocked.  The way that ALANNA could process information was so fast that a second in real time for her was like a week or so for a normal Human; so, if a normal Human were to read a thick textbook on astrophysics in that week, she would’ve finished it in a second.  Whisp and the other members of the Think Tank were quite fast and could probably consume that same textbook in an hour or less, but they still couldn’t process the information as fast as a computer.

That was why the Station Core was shocked, as well as impressed.  To take an hour to process something like that meant that it would’ve taken many lifetimes for a normal person, or decades for those such as the Think Tank.  It wasn’t the first time that Milton was glad that ALANNA was on their side.

“Anyway, it seems as though the Heliothropes originally came from a single system, but for as much as I sifted through the data, I was unable to pinpoint their homeworld,” the AI continued.  “What I was able to find out, however, are a few interesting tidbits that may help us on our endeavor to free the galaxy from their clutches.”

The images on the screen stopped cycling, until it showed a single white-skinned Heliothrope which Milton recognized as a Neophyte, the weakest of the weak, as far as he had seen.  The Neophytes, at least according to the information his sensors provided, were basically servants to all of the other Heliothropes.

“At one time, all of the Heliothropes used to look like this, at least when they were still on their home planet.”

“What?  Seriously?  What changed?” Brint asked, likely echoing the thoughts in everyone else’s mind.  Milton cheated a little and looked ahead through his own Station Core systems for the answer, but he waited while ALANNA explained.

“I was just getting to that,” she said impatiently.  “Now, based on the scant information about the early days of Heliothrope society, they were a relatively primitive race and warred constantly with each other, using many of the same weapons we’ve seen them use in combat. They didn’t have much in the way of technology, and were nowhere even close to space exploration; if I was to compare them to something many of you may recognize, I would say that they were even less technologically savvy than the Proctans were before Milton arrived on the planet to say hello.”

Milton could definitely understand what she was trying to say.  Before his Station Core had crash-landed and started to leak radiation from his Zero-point Energy Reactor, changing the Proctans and the beasts of the world on a fundamental level, they were what he would classify as an early Middle Ages society.

As everyone nodded their understanding, ALANNA went on.  “That all changed around 8,000 years ago, when an alien race came exploring and landed among the natives of the planet to learn about them.  This was a huge mistake, and it was one that led to everything that happened thereafter.”

“Why?  If the ‘aliens’ were more technologically advanced, why was this a mistake?” Brint asked.

Milton answered, knowing the answer both from his own knowledge and because he cheated a little and looked ahead.  “I’m assuming it was because there weren’t very many races among the stars that had such a violent society.  I remember ALANNA telling me why it was Humans that were chosen to inhabit Station Cores, and it was because there were very few races they knew of that had the capability to stand up to such ferocity that the Heliothropes showed, because we were probably just as violent – though in a different way.

“Basically, they innocently set down amongst a pack of dangerous, raving beasts.  That couldn’t have gone down well.”

“Exactly,” ALANNA agreed.  “And stop looking ahead; you’ll spoil my lecture.”

Abashed, Milton murmured, “Yes, ma’am.”

Harrumphing in his direction, she turned back to everyone else.  “Anyway, like Milton was saying, these aliens (and I wish I knew which ones were stupid enough to do this) set down on the planet, walked out of their ship all peace-loving and waving hello – and were subsequently ambushed and slaughtered, despite any defenses they had in place.

“That unfortunate happenstance started the ball rolling for the galaxy’s demise.  Before they captured a high-tech alien ship, the Heliothropes were a relatively weak and less-populous race despite their violent and war-like nature. This was, in part, because of the way they reproduced, which was through slicing off chunks of their flesh and throwing them in stagnant pools of water.  After a few months, if nothing happened to disturb the flesh, it would basically produce a clone of the one whose flesh was thrown in. Essentially, it was a Bioconversion Lab in the most primitive and least-efficient terms, with many, many more limitations.

“That all changed when they discovered a huge vat of Bio Gel on the ship they captured, which was and still is typically used for healing or other regenerative purposes.  Why they possessed so much Bio Gel on what was likely an exploratory vessel is beyond comprehension, but that ended up not mattering in the end.  What did matter was that the Heliothropes used the Bio Gel as a means to reproduce, turning what normally required months in a stagnant pool into a process that could be done in hours.”

“So that’s how they reproduce so quickly, and why there are so many of them!” Trinket exclaimed in horror.  “And I’m assuming that their breeding ships are full of this Bio Gel stuff.”

“You would be correct,” ALANNA confirmed.  “But you’re getting ahead of my story here.

“When more of those same aliens came to check on their exploratory vessel, the Heliothropes were ready for them.  Having quadrupled their population in a matter of a month, they swarmed over the small fleet of ships that landed, and while the aliens actually fought back, they were unprepared for the ferocity and single-mindedness of the Heliothropes.

“This is where the information gets hazy, but apparently not all of the aliens were killed; a few of them were captured and forced to pilot all of the ships back to their home world. Along the way, the Heliothropes continued to reproduce and expand their army, so by the time they arrived, they were able to kill everyone and take over the small outpost they were brought to, capturing even more ships in the process.

“The invasion snowballed from there, as some of them eventually learned how to pilot the vessels, invading the alien’s star system like a plague, killing the aliens and capturing everything they could get their hands on… until one day, there weren’t any more of these aliens left – which is why their name was lost in the records.

“Having acquired ships to go out and conquer new systems, they changed their original tactics of slaughtering everyone and started to enslave those they conquered.  Along the way, they started to appropriate the technology of those they enslaved, utilizing it to further their goals.  Not once – even since the beginning – have they ever actually invented anything, only adopted and perhaps altered what was already discovered.

“Approximately 6,000 years ago, 2,000 years after they first started their expansion through the galaxy, something changed amongst the Heliothropes.  What precipitated the change, I have no idea, but that was when the first variations of their forms started to make an appearance.  The normal white-skinned appearance became the Neophytes; these green-skinned ones we recently learned about are called Keepers and are the ones that communicate with slaves, as well as dictate how new captured technology is applied or altered for their use; and you already know about the Fodder, the Soldiers, and the Commanders.

“Previously, the entire Heliothropic civilization had barely expanded past a very small portion of the galaxy in 2,000 years, far from where The Collective had their territory.  But in the 1,000 years after they changed, they became a much greater force than anyone could’ve prepared for, which obviously includes my original creators.”

The viewscreen showed a top-down look at the galaxy with a timeline gauge at the bottom.  There apparently wasn’t enough information to show exactly where the Heliothropes began, but at around 6,000 years ago a relatively small red splotch appeared on the upper northwestern quadrant, showing what the conquering race held at that point.  Even that tiny splotch encompassed hundreds of thousands of different suns, so finding the origin point was nearly impossible, considering that The Collective-explored territory (indicated by a blue-ish splotch) was still quite a distance away.  Milton watched as the red splotch quickly expanded from where it began as a bar on the timeline and quickly progressed through the years, until it eventually encompassed the entire galaxy just over 1,000 years ago, where it continued to exist to the current day.

Milton could see the same thoughts going through his mind as most of the others’ in the command center.  “How could they have changed that much?  What was it that caused it?” Whisp asked.

“Again, I have no knowledge of that.”  The viewscreen suddenly changed, until the Station Core saw a silhouette of a six-armed Heliothrope with a big flashing question mark over it. “There is a reference to yet another Heliothrope, but I couldn’t find anything more than a passing mention here and there.  And all of that information referred to this Heliothrope as Helios, their so-called ‘Sun God’.”

“Wait; this Sun God of theirs is an actual person, not some sort of God?” Brint questioned.

Milton took over for ALANNA.  “That’s what it appears to be, but it isn’t that surprising,” he said, before he launched into a deeper explanation, noticing the looks of confusion on everyone but Trinket’s faces.  “ALANNA, correct me if I’m wrong, but did The Collective ever find evidence of any type of divinity in all of the races they encountered, or through their extensive explorations?”

“No, but that doesn’t necessarily mean there isn’t any.”

“Exactly.  While there may be some sort of God or other divinity somewhere in this dimension, I have a feeling that it is bereft of any type of figure.  It may also be why there isn’t anything like what you might classify as ‘magic’ here in this dimension, which instead relies on technology and science.”

Sandra shook her head.  “That seems impossible.  We have The Creator on my world, and I can assure you they are absolutely real.  And I’ve heard some of the Proctans mention The Goddess multiple times, so I doubt that was just coincidence.”

“No, you’re correct.  I know firsthand that this Creator is real in your world, having felt their presence when I made an oath.  And while I didn’t experience any definite proof that The Goddess existed on Proctus, something tells me that it wasn’t something made up by the people there.”

“Absolutely,” Whisp confirmed, but didn’t elaborate.

Brint still looked confused.  “So, what is this mysterious Heliothrope, if they aren’t a God of some sort?  We’ve all seen those Statuses your sensor orbs have provided on them, and the Heliothropes’ power seems to stem from their connection with this so-called ‘Sun God’, including their protective barriers.  And we all saw what happened when you cut off their connection to our dimension on Sandra’s world, so how do you explain that?”

ALANNA shrugged.  “I can’t,” she said honestly and succinctly.  “However, it is this small kernel of information that might allow us to eventually defeat them,” she added.

“If we somehow discover whatever made this change in them, then we might be able to put a stop to it,” Whisp concluded.  “At the very least, even eliminating their glowing shields would be a huge advantage in any upcoming conflicts with them.”

“I agree,” Milton said, glad to have a goal that wasn’t simply running from one place to another and starting fights.  Granted, their objective wasn’t very defined, but—

Current Long-term Goal: Galactic Liberation

- Investigate, discover, and eliminate the source of the Heliothropes’ power

- Find a way to rid the galaxy of the Heliothrope scourge once and for all

- Liberate the different enslaved races throughout the galaxy

Difficulty of Goal: Nearly Impossible

Timeframe: 1,000 years+

Rewards: The gratitude of trillions of liberated people… and +50 to all Statistics

There it is!  Milton had been expecting this goal/quest at some point, but it seemed as though ALANNA had been waiting until they had more information.  The timeframe and difficulty were certainly a bit daunting, though he had to agree with them.  Whether it took 1,000 years or not, freeing everyone from the enslavement imposed upon them by the Heliothropes was certainly a nearly impossible task.

But at least they had a goal, as vague as it was.

“Anything else of importance that you discovered?” Milton asked.

The viewscreen changed again to one of a starmap, though this one wasn’t of the entire galaxy, but focused on the section near where they had acquired the smaller station hub.  “Apart from the history lesson?  Not as much as I wanted, to be honest.  I was able to get a very detailed breakdown of this small section of systems, with information on nearly 100,000 stars, their planets, industries, stations, and general populations. Anything further out is relatively unknown, other than the same general system descriptions I was able to acquire from Station 23-E near your own home planet, Milton.”

“That’s it?”  He had been expecting more.

Trinket explained.  “While traveling from one side of the galaxy to the other is possible for Heliothropes, it isn’t something that is widely done – especially by slaves. Even at the station I used to work on, we would only get ships from no more than 1,000 other systems. Though occasionally there would be long-range transports that included up to nearly 10,000 more systems, they weren’t common.”

The Station Core thought about that for a second and realized it probably made sense.  There was no need for the stations to know about everything in the galaxy, after all.  He equated it with his life back on Earth when he was still a Human; he knew quite a bit about his home state, and even the surrounding states in the United States, but he rarely traveled to anything outside of those areas.  He knew about other countries but had never visited, so he had very little firsthand knowledge of them.  Unless he needed to know something specific about them from the internet, they basically didn’t exist other than as abstract locations outside of his personal sphere.

The starmap that ALANNA showed was very similar to that.  He found that if he concentrated on some of the nearest stars closest to System 238-65RD (where they had acquired the station hub), he was able to discern a lot of information about them.  He thought it was like knowing a lot about the town or city one grew up in.  Further out, the details were a little less complete, like knowing the nearest cities to one’s hometown.  As the distance increased, even less information was known, similar to knowing what was in one’s state, and eventually what might be in one’s country.

“I guess that makes sense,” Milton said, looking at the closest stars.  Granted, while they were moving through the traveling dimension, they could essentially pop out anywhere with equal ease, but he’d rather go somewhere that they had more knowledge of than somewhere unknown.  Before he could dig into that too much, however, he had something he needed to say.  “We’ll figure out what to do when we’ve had a chance to evaluate that information; but for now, I have an announcement.”

“What is it?” Whisp asked, curious.

None but ALANNA and Sandra – and the Raxians on board the small station, he supposed – knew what he had found while they were dismantling the hub.  “Well, you know how the Raxian miners had found those condensed Focusing Crystals?  It turns out that they didn’t just keep them on the moon, but had sent tens of thousands of them along with the normal shipments of mined metals.  They weren’t useful for anything, from what I was told, so they were kept as simple knickknacks throughout the station.  Thankfully, I recognized them immediately once the drones started dismantling everything and saved them for ALANNA to help break into Crystals.”

Milton looked at his available resources[7] and mentally sighed in relief at what he saw.  He was initially bummed when they had been forced to flee the last system without digging into the mines to retrieve those condensed Crystals, but this was the next best thing.  With over 450,000 Focusing Crystals now available to him, he figuratively felt a safety net materialize underneath their endeavors.  Granted, his Basic Metal Units had taken a huge hit in the construction of the new ring and residences, but it was worth it.  With Sandra’s help, he could always get more if he needed it.

“So, with that business taken care of, what is our next move?” ALANNA asked, though Milton was aware that she already knew what it was.  His AI guide could read his mind and intentions, after all.

The Station Core turned to Sandra and grinned.  “It’s time for you and I to have a serious talk about these Energy Orbs of yours.”

Chapter 21

“I’ve never done this before, Milton.  I’m not sure you can put it in there like that without breaking something.”

Sandra paused and smirked at the synthetic avatar after realizing what she just said.  Milton snorted at the same time, his humor in line with her own, which had changed dramatically since she had met the Station Core.  Not only was she less focused on crafting, but she felt more alive and free than at any point in her life, either as a Human or as a Dungeon Core.

I still want to get back to my crafting, of course, Sandra thought to herself, but I’ve learned so many new things by being on this station of his that I barely miss it.  Then again, I suppose creating the new dungeon with him was almost like crafting something entirely new, especially when trying to incorporate what he could produce with my own abilities.  It was like a challenging puzzle of epic proportions.

Regardless of her lack of crafting work back in her own dungeon – which she still personally visited every day, to ensure everything was still running smoothly – she was having the time of her life.  Now, though, she was working with Milton on another project, along with this “Think Tank” of his – and Violet the Gnome, who she managed to coax over to Milton’s station to participate.

Violet was a Master Enchanter of spectacular skill, as well as being a good friend to Sandra.  The small Enchanter had helped her develop many of her favorite enchantments and had even created some unique ones on her own, but what Violet was really knowledgeable about – compared to anyone but Sandra – was how her Energy Orbs operated.

Basically, the Energy Orbs that many of the Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, and Orcs utilized to regenerate their internal elemental energy – which was sort of like Mana to a Dungeon Core – were simple Elemental Orbs that Sandra created with her Mana, with an enchantment on them.  Each enchantment, which was based upon the same one that surrounded her own Core, converted the much more potent Mana inside of the Orb into elemental energy and then discharged it into an enchantment.  When used with an enchantment, it would power that enchantment for far longer than without, because enchantments used elemental energy rather than Mana to operate. As such, the Orbs were like the little generators that Milton used for some of his traps, though eventually the Energy Orbs would run out of Mana, unlike his – which would supposedly last indefinitely.

But now Milton wanted something she wasn’t sure she could provide – though she hadn’t given up yet.  That was why she, along with Violet and the Think Tank, were working with him to accomplish the impossible.

“I know, I know.  But there has to be something we can do.”

Sandra was sure there was, but she couldn’t quite picture something of the size he needed.

“Well, maybe there is,” Violet said, speaking in Gnomish – which everyone seemed to understand, thank The Creator.  Having difficulty communicating would only complicate the process.

“What do you mean?” Whisp asked, entirely focused on the relatively young Enchanter.  Sandra could tell that Violet wasn’t entirely happy with so much attention, but she had gotten over a lot of her nervousness during the last year or so.  Clearing her throat, she explained – and Sandra listened intently to see if what she proposed would work.

“Well, Milton, you thought of this when looking at the glowing barriers that these Heliothropes utilize, am I right?”  When the Station Core’s avatar nodded, she went on.  “And, extrapolating from that, you wanted to apply that type of all-over protection to this entire… uh, facility.”  The knowledge of where they were and what the massive station actually was had been a bit overwhelming for the poor Enchanter, but she was recovering quite well.

“That is correct.  Neither I nor ALANNA could think of any technology that would be able to cover the entire Station from an attack, at least not without a massive power draw that I couldn’t provide even with my Core.”

“Perfectly understandable, given the size of this place.  It would be like trying to protect all of the former wasteland and a large portion of the surrounding lands back on my world,” Violet said, chuckling a little.  “Anyway, I’m not sure that it would work, trying to power some sort of barrier around your station with power supplied by Energy Orbs.  Like Sandra mentioned, I don’t believe they are as compatible as you might like, and trying to shove them together could create a serious backlash.  They are great for enchantments, but not your… technology.

“In addition, while there are some enchantments that can create a very similar barrier that prevents damage, such as a Holy Shield, the power requirements for something even a small fraction of the size of this place would be unbelievable.  As powerful as Sandra is, even she couldn’t produce something large enough to cover the entire station.  Multiple enchantments of an elemental Shield of some kind could potentially work to supply full coverage, but from the scale of what you’ve shown me, this could take decades of work, both to create the enchantments and to provide enough power for them to operate.

“More than that, they might not even work the way you might expect.  You showed me those moving images of unbelievably powerful weapons attacking your station, and I don’t believe any Shield enchantment would stand up to more than a single strike, if that.  It just isn’t a viable defense, in my opinion.”

“So, what would be a better one?” Milton asked.

Violet took a deep breath.  “Stasis Fields.”

Hmm… those might work, but I’m not sure how to get around—

“What are Stasis Fields—or, wait, is that what is used in that Enchantment Repository you have, Sandra?”

She nodded.

“I don’t see—”

“Let me explain,” Violet said, holding up her hands for quiet.  Sandra was interested in hearing this idea, as well.  “Stasis Fields are meant to preserve anything inside of the field so that absolutely no time passes upon the objects within them.  They are primarily used to keep food or other items fresh inside containers, or in the case of the Enchantment Repository Room that Sandra has in her dungeon, to keep enchantments that have been drawn inside of the Fields as a visual representation of them in perpetuity.

“But Stasis Fields also have a separate function that isn’t really considered very often, because it is rarely utilized.  Some Gnomes have been able to use a temporary Spirit enchantment on their armor that is very similar to the Stasis Fields; this enchantment is used to stop projectiles from reaching them, because any unliving object passing through the field’s edges is stopped completely.  This type of enchantment is dangerous to the user, as well, because it prevents air movement; they can suffocate if they leave it active for too long, which is why it is used only rarely, and only in emergency situations.”

Ah, I see now.  That could certainly work, and I think I could make them large enough compared to a shield that they would cover much more area.  It’s still a lot of work, though.

“So, are you saying that anything passing through the edge of the field would just… what?  Stop entirely?”

Violet nodded.  “Yes, anything unliving, such as any of those weapons you showed me, as well as any explosions that might appear as a result; they would simply stop moving, only resuming when the Field is deactivated or moved out of range.  Anything living – or attached to something living – would pass right through without harm.  I don’t know enough about these Heliothropes to know for sure, but if they were to strap one of their number to a—what did you call it?—missile, then it would pass through the Field without stopping.”

Sandra shuddered at that visual, though she doubted even the Heliothropes would be that cruel.  Violet made a good argument for the Stasis Field, but it was a huge project – and one that would consume a lot of Mana, time, and resources.

“How big are we talking about with these Fields?  How far out would they extend?” Whisp asked, pushing buttons on her console as if she was doing calculations – which Sandra supposed she probably was. She was thoroughly amazed at how smart these particular Proctans were, and it blew her mind how they were able to learn and adapt at speeds that seemed impossible.

“That’s the best thing, actually, and one that will actually save Sandra and I a lot of time and resources.”  Now that got her attention, and it was exactly what she wanted to hear.  “My experimentation over the last few months has led me to discover that Stasis Fields aren’t required to be static in their size and shape, so they can be changed and molded to whatever is needed.  They can also be projected out from a given point with a proper frame of reference, so that the enchantment doesn’t need to be in close proximity.  Given that all you really need is a very thin Field around your station to stop anything from penetrating, we can make the fields large and flat, covering the entire structure like a second skin.”

Sandra’s thoughts were racing as she thought about what Violet explained.  She could see placing Stasis Field enchantments on a model of the Station, for instance, and then attaching Large Spirit Energy Orbs to them in order to power them for years.  Or, if she went a little bigger, she might be able to employ Energy Cubes for a much larger influx of power, which would also allow the enchantments to cover a much larger area.  In fact, Large Energy Cubes could probably power one enchantment for decades, and based on the energy draw, could potentially cover at least an eighth of the entire Station.

Even better, if they were applied to a model with a removable slot for the Cubes in the enchantment sequence, then the enchantments could be turned on and off to conserve power.  In that case, if they were turned off whenever they weren’t needed, the enchantments could last centuries.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Sandra.  You look like you’re thinking hard about this,” Milton said with a slight teasing tone.  She punched him gently in his arm and smiled, realizing that she hadn’t been paying attention as everyone was watching her.

“Yes I am, thank you very much.  And I believe that Violet has an excellent idea.  It’s something I might be able to apply back on my world, too.”

Milton looked so silly and hopeful that she just wanted to kiss him.  Whoa, slow down, girl.  “You really think it will work?”

“Perhaps.  I need to make some smaller examples of it, but I don’t see why not.  I’m going to need something from you, though.”

“What is it?  Anything you need, I’ll do my best to provide it.”

She thought about what exactly she needed for a few seconds before responding.  “I’m going to need an exact replica of this station in model form, exterior only, down to the smallest detail, including materials.  And it has to be large enough to ensure the runic sequences have room to be fully formed, and I need it attached to a base where I can run the sequences down for the Cubes I’ll be using for the power sources.  I’m thinking this model might have to be around 30 to 40 feet tall, though larger will also be acceptable.”

Milton looked at ALANNA and the Proctans that were part of the Think Tank, and they looked back in silence.  Well, mostly silence, because Sandra could vaguely sense Milton speaking with at least the smaller woman; she tended to ignore those conversations most days because the complexity of the content as well as the terminology typically went over her head – like it probably would today.

“Yes, I think we can do that,” Milton finally replied.  “We can create a 3D map of it using hundreds of sensor drones, which will analyze the material composition of the Station as well as the structure.  Then it will be as easy as printing out the materials in an equivalent scale, which we should be able to create at around 50 feet tall.  Does that sound acceptable?”

Sandra nodded.  “That sounds perfect.  While that’s going on, I’m going to spend some time working with Violet and the Think Tank to perfect the rune sequences and run some experiments.”

“Sounds like a plan… and thank you, my dear,” Milton said, picking up her hand and giving it a kiss on its back.  She smiled at him as he left, the feel of his lips – which were quite warm, despite his avatar being artificial – still on her hand.

“Do you think that you and he could even—?” Violet asked quietly when he was gone with ALANNA.

Sandra immediately sensed blood rush to her cheeks, which felt like they were on fire, as she turned and said, “Shhh… he can probably hear you if he’s paying attention.”  She smirked and looked at the Proctans, who were all standing there with smirks on their own faces.  “And… maybe?  It really hasn’t come up yet.”  Probably because I don’t want to ruin this… whatever it is we have together.

“Well, I’ve never seen him like this before,” Whisp said abruptly, “And I’ve probably known him the longest besides Brint.  If there were anyone in any of the dimensions that belonged together, it would be you two.  As strange as it sounds, you were both made for each other.”

“Alright, alright, that’s enough,” Violet said, waving at the Proctans to stop them from talking.  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything, Sandra.”

“No, no, it’s alright.  But we do have better things to do than talk about my love life.”  Although it would be nice to speak with someone about it—but no, not right now.  There’s entirely too much to do.  “Now, shall we get started?”

“Can they even see our enchantments?” the Master Enchanter asked.  Sandra looked at them, knowing that they could, but she wasn’t exactly sure how.

“Milton’s sensor orbs are amazing, especially with his recent upgrades to his Sensor Interpretation stat,” Whisp explained.  “With them, we can see Mana and this elemental energy that you use to create these enchantments, though his orbs can’t quite differentiate the colors of them that you supposedly see.  The designs, yes; the elemental colors, no.”

“Amazing,” Violet said with sincerity.  Truthfully, it really was quite amazing.  “Sandra, are you going to do some as well?”

“If you don’t mind?”

Knowing what that meant, the Gnome sighed.  “Sure, but get some clothes this time, please?”

Sandra nodded and asked Whisp if she could get a set of simple robes from the nearby Molecular Converter.  The Proctan immediately pushed a few buttons on her console, and out came a plain, brown robe, nothing fancy but certainly serviceable.  When that was done, she took it and created a Monster Seed nearby, before using it to create a Stabilized Shapeshifter.

In the place where the Seed used to be was a giant blob of multicolored ooze, which seemed to fascinate the Proctans.  Sandra had to think about whether they had actually seen one in its natural state before, but she couldn’t remember; none of them had been used in the fight against the Heliothropes, either on her world or in the station’s dungeon, so they were probably brand-new.

“How does it work?” she was asked.

Sandra began to explain that all the Shapeshifter needed was a sample of blood from a source and it would be able to shift into it at will, taking on the same characteristics of the original source, such as elemental access and abilities. She was about to do just that to make a copy of Violet, who had an excellent mastery of the Spirit element (hence the robe, because the Shapeshifter shifted into a naked copy), but Whisp interrupted her.

“Will it work on us?”

Huh.  Good question.  “I’m not sure; I guess it couldn’t hurt to try?”

Whisp held out her hand, and Sandra had her Shapeshifter reach out with an appendage and poke at it, taking a very small drop of blood in the process.  Almost as soon as its appendage was back into its body, however, her Dungeon Monster seemed to deflate and fall in upon itself, disappearing moments later and leaving the Seed behind.

“Uh, I guess not.  You all have those tiny machines inside your blood, don’t you?  Nanites, I believe they’re called?”

Whisp nodded.  “Yes… and that could be why that didn’t work,” she mused, her hand on her chin.  “If it was attempting to assimilate our DNA through the blood sample, then the nanites probably fought back and spread through its body rapidly, destroying it from within.  They’re quite potent that way.”

Sandra suddenly had a worrying thought.  Her own form was based on one of her Stabilized Shapeshifters, which she had utilized to contain her Dungeon Core when it had been damaged.  If these nanites suddenly got into her blood, would her own body be eaten up from the inside?  She shook that thought away as she moved on from the failed experiment with Proctan blood.

Creating another Shapeshifter from the same seed, she used it to gain a drop of Violet’s blood, and moments later there was an exact copy of the Gnome Master Enchanter, though she was entirely naked.  One handy robe fixed that problem quite quickly, while the Proctans still looked on in fascination at the process, and she got to work, letting Violet explain to the Proctans what she was doing.

“Now, can you all see this basic sequence right here?  I’m not feeding much more than a trickle of Spirit elemental energy into it, no more than is needed to outline it for now.”  Sandra looked over at the main viewscreen in the command center and saw something very similar to what she saw with her own eyes.  Instead of it being grey, like Spirit energy typically was, it appeared to be a glowing white color.  That’s right, she said they can’t detect the different elements.  Regardless, the fact that they could even see the energy was astounding; she thought that it would help to revolutionize the teaching of enchanting in general.

“Good.  Now, this is the standard Stasis Field rune sequence, but we’re going to need to alter it quite a bit….”

Sandra listened to Violet explain the Stasis Field enchantment to the Proctans, who asked question after question on process and the meaning of different runes.  Within minutes, however, it was obvious that not only did the Think Tank already have a grasp on basic enchantments in such a short time, but they were going to be extremely useful in figuring out all of the different changes to the Field enchantment that would be used on the station.  She also discovered that many of them actually had experience with enchanting, though it was a bit different from anything she’d seen or heard of before, as it used their genetic mutations and the abilities they provided rather than runes.

Despite the difference, within an hour they were already hard at work running “simulations” on their consoles, showing different rune sequence formations, which gave approximate results based on some sort of obscure programming that neither Sandra nor Violet understood.  While the Proctans couldn’t help with the enchanting themselves, they did almost all of the time-consuming, trial and error work for the two Enchanters.

This… this is incredible.  This is the kind of teamwork I can really learn to love.

In only about 90 minutes, they were ready to begin their first tests on a smaller scale, but seeing the different simulations run on their consoles, Sandra was sure that they would be successful.  To no one’s surprise, she was right.

Chapter 22

Milton looked up at the model of Murder Station in the large space located just off from his Core Room in the command sphere.  It had taken most of one day to get the precise and exact measurements and materials correct, but now that it was constructed, he saw that it was a thing of beauty, hung from the ceiling to keep it upright and permanently attached at the base so that Sandra could work her literal magic on it.

“We’re just finishing up the last sequences now,” Violet, the small Gnome Enchanter, said to him.  He nodded and got out of her way, seeing that she needed to get to where he was standing.  Sandra had created a few tall constructs to help Violet and the Violet copies that she had created reach everything on the Station model easily.  Despite the fact that Milton could technically make clones, he thought that it was odd seeing multiple copies of the same person running around.

Along the base of the model, there was more than enough space for the large grey blocks that Sandra said were called Large Spirit Energy Cubes, which were the power that was going to be used for the enchantments.  As for those enchantments, Milton could see glowing lines and runes all over the entire model, tightly packed together and so convoluted that they were a work of art all by themselves.  From what he understood from Whisp and the other members of the Think Tank, they said it was almost like looking at lines of programming code, though it wasn’t quite as simple as that.  They tried to explain it further, but he left it to them to figure out; while Enchanting was fascinating to watch, it wasn’t something that he wanted to necessarily participate in doing.

“You said that we can easily add additional components to this model and incorporate more enchantments to it?” he asked Sandra, who was looking over all of the enchantments with a keen eye.

“Yes, that is true.  Are you planning on expanding the Station?”

He shrugged.  “It’s always possible.  I wasn’t expecting to add this other ring, after all.”

“That’s certainly true.  Regardless, it will be easy enough to do, especially if you have your Think Tank do all of the hard work on their consoles.”

Milton smiled at that, remembering how Sandra had said that the Proctans’ help had saved them days or potentially weeks of work in altering the rune sequences to get them to work.  The Station Core was proud of what they could do to help, even if they couldn’t do the actual runic enchanting; their own enchanting granted to them via genetic mutation was quite different and not as versatile as Sandra’s world possessed.  The Proctans had strengths in a variety of other areas, however.

“Excellent.”  He looked at the model again.  “You know, even if we didn’t make this for the enchantments, it’s still pretty awesome.”  It stood a slight bit over 50 feet tall and was 40 feet at its widest, and it had every single little detail that the outside of the Station possessed.  His drones had worked hard to put it all together, attaching every small piece with their directed Molecular Converter streams so that it was one solid whole.  It was perfect, and he marveled at how it made him feel that the station was all his.  Well, ours; it belongs to everyone living here, after all.

“And… done!”

Milton looked at Violet, who seemed to sag in place.  That was totally understandable considering how hard she had obviously been working.

“Thank you, Violet.  Sandra.  I can’t wait to see what this thing can do!” Milton exclaimed, his extrasensory vision seeing that the entire model was now completely covered in runes.

The Dungeon Core hesitated before she moved the Cubes into place, powering the enchantments.  “Do you want to do the honors?”

Milton saw the smile tugging at the edge of her lips.  “Ha!  You just want to have someone else to blame if this accidentally blows the Station up, don’t you?”

Feigning innocence, Sandra said, “Oh, I would never do that.”  With a more serious expression on her face, she continued.  “Besides, I’m 99.9% sure that this will work, especially after Violet and I have checked it and double-checked it, as well as gone over all of the changes with your Think Tank.  It will work.”

“Alright, then we’ll do it together.”  Milton walked up to the base and put his hand on one of the Large Spirit Energy Cubes, while Sandra did the same with a different one right next to him.  “On the count of 3, let’s activate it.  1… 2… 3!”

Milton pushed the cube forward into the designated slot in the base, where it sunk partway down into the metal to keep it in place; Sandra did the same with a different one, and Milton felt a subtle change in the atmosphere as a quarter of the 8 enchantments on the model lit up blindingly bright.  There was an inaudible hum reverberating through the station for a few moments before it settled down, which told Milton that something had happened, at least.

The view from outside of the Station, thanks to hundreds of sensor orbs floating around, showed the glow of the Field surrounding a portion of the Station’s rings, mimicking what was on the model.  While he didn’t really have any weapons to test it on right now, he at least could see if it stopped physical objects.  Directing one of his sensor orbs to fly straight into the side of the Station protected by the Stasis Field, he watched as it shot quickly through the void of space inside of the traveling dimension and slammed right into the Field… where it stopped entirely.  Not only that, but he lost all ability to move it, though he was still receiving a visual from the sensor; other than that, it had effectively been frozen in place, and he couldn’t direct it out or away from the Field.

“It worked!  Or at least as much as I can test it right now.”

Sandra was visibly relieved, as was Violet.  He knew that they had worked extremely hard to get it all correct, but actually testing it out and having it operate exactly as they had planned was probably the best feeling in the world.

“Shall we try the others?”

The Dungeon Core simply nodded and joined him as he pushed the other 3 Cubes near him into their respective slots, activating the rest of the enchantments all over the Station.  This time, there was an audible hum when it first activated, which eventually faded after a few seconds.  Looking outside courtesy of his sensor orbs, he could see that every square inch of the Station was now protected by a glowing Field, keeping everything inside safe from harm.  Hopefully.  It was difficult to say for sure if it would actually work against ship-fired ordinance or not, but there wasn’t any way for them to easily test it except in an actual battle.

The Field also covered the airlock that led into the dungeon, which was useful because it meant that there wasn’t a vulnerability.  Living people could still pass through the Field with anything they were carrying, so there shouldn’t be any problem with the Heliothropes entering and attempting the deadly defenses found within.  It also meant that they couldn’t simply punch their way through with a ship, because that would also be stopped by the Field – from what he understood – even if there were Heliothropes inside of it.

“You have done an amazing job, you two,” Milton told Sandra and the Master Enchanter.  The Station Core turned to Violet and asked, “Is there anything I can do to repay you for your help?”

The Gnome appeared embarrassed by the question.  “No, I need nothing, Milton.  I’ve already gotten what I wanted out of this.”

Milton was confused.  “And what was that?”

“To work on such a monumental enchantment and to see all of the experimental research on Enchanting put to work in a practical application,” she answered seriously, before cracking a smile.  “As well as being able to say that I’ve visited a whole other dimension and witnessed a structure that makes any city on our world look like a tiny village.”

The Station Core laughed.  “It certainly does, at that.  Think of this Station as simply a very tiny world, instead of a city, and it might put things into perspective.”

“So, you’re saying that I just helped to create an enchantment that affects an entire world?  I think I’ve just hit the pinnacle of Enchanting; there isn’t really anything that can top that.”

Sandra giggled, which was an amazing sound to Milton.  “Now, don’t be giving her a big head; our friends back home will never hear the end of it, otherwise.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it,” he responded, putting his hands up in surrender.  “Are you looking to get back to your dimension, or do you have some time?”

“This is done, correct?  What else did you need?”

Milton shook his head.  “Not for me, actually, but my Think Tank would love to work with you a little more before you go.”

Violet smiled.  “Of course, I would love to talk about Enchanting with them.  Plus, I’ve heard about their strange abilities, such as Item Animation, and I would love a demonstration; we’re able to do that with enchantments, such as with our War Machines, but I wouldn’t be opposed to seeing it done differently.”

“Well then, if you head to the command center, I’m sure they’ll show you all you want to see for a chance to pick your brain about more enchantments.”

The Master Enchanter took herself off to the command center, moving slowly because she was obviously still a bit exhausted from all of the work she had just done.  Sandra helped Milton remove the Cubes from their slots, deactivating the Stasis Fields around Murder Station.  As soon as they were down, the sensor orb that Milton had flung into the field immediately started moving, crashing against the side of the ring it was attempting to hit, breaking apart almost instantly.

“Huh.  It seems as though the previous order I gave the sensor orb was still active, despite trying to change it while it was in the field,” he told Sandra.  “I’ll have to keep that in mind if we’re ever attacked.”

“Will that cause problems?” Sandra asked, concerned.

“Hopefully not, but it means that we’ll have to remove any ordinance that strikes the Field before we deactivate it again,” he said, thinking about it for a second.  “Fortunately, it seems as though whatever gets stuck in the Field travels with it as the Station moves, as evidenced by my sensor orb on the rotating ring.”

It was a minor concern, because he could only imagine Murder Station being stuck with hundreds or thousands of missiles stuck in the field, looking like it had fallen into a cactus.  Still, it wasn’t something that worried him at the moment, knowing that there were multiple solutions for getting rid of weapons like that.  In his opinion, as long as they didn’t hit his Station and damage it, that was the most important part.

“Alright, then, what are your plans now?”

Milton considered that for a moment.  They had been in the traveling dimension for nearly a week and a half, using the time to deconstruct the station hub and construct the new ring, as well as building the new living areas for the new residences.  Nearly a quarter of them were fully done by this point, and the biggest delay was in receiving new resources to finish.  Sandra was still helping to replenish his supply of Basic Metal Units, but with her attention on this massive enchantment over the last day and a half, he hadn’t been receiving nearly as much.

As much as he appreciated the help in acquiring resources, even at the speed she was supplying more BMUs, it could take weeks to fully finish and furnish the new living spaces.  He was hindered by a need to keep a healthy reserve of resources in the “bank” in case he needed it, especially now that he had some Focusing Crystals to use on some defensive weapons.  Eventually, he would love to create a Space Transport Dock and create some more ships so that he and his people weren’t confined to the Station with a simple Transport ship as their only conveyance.  However, he was going to need to build a Planetary Bombardment Dome[8] – which he was told was next to useless on a space station rather than on a planet – as part of the requirement for the Dock.

The costs for those two facilities would be a little shy of a million BMUs and around 2,200 Focusing Crystals, but it was the cost of the ships he wanted to build that was the major holdup.  Even the simplest Scout-Class Shuttle, one of the smallest he could create in the Dock, required 10 million BMUs and 1,250 Focusing Crystals; for creating the largest, an Assault-Class Dreadnought, he was looking at a billion BMUs and 1.25 million Focusing Crystals.  Those kinds of resources took him over a decade to accumulate to make his original fleet of ships he had with him when he left Proctus; he had a feeling that he didn’t have that kind of time to spend accumulating more resources.

He had goals that needed to be accomplished, and it was better to start working on them rather than waste time.  The problem with mining a moon or a planet was that it took a little while to start production, and then even more time for it to actually produce results; given that the Heliothropes would likely attack him wherever he went, it was entirely possible that he’d never have enough time to accumulate more than a few million BMUs and possibly some Focusing Crystals before he was forced to flee when a fleet that was too large to defeat arrived.

“There’s a few things that we need to consider for the future,” Milton answered.  “First, I need to find a larger supply of resources – not that I don’t appreciate your assistance, because I do – but having you constantly generating metal is not a long-term solution.”

“I agree.  There is a lot more that I could be doing with my time and my own resources.”

“Exactly,” he agreed, nodding.  “Second, we have to figure out a way to fight back against the Heliothropes.  I have a quest to investigate the source of the changes ALANNA mentioned in her history lesson, but I have very little idea of where to look for that.  Plus, even if I did find whatever it was, I’m going to assume it is probably something that is hard to get to or destroy.  What if it is this ‘Sun God’, Helios?  Will it be as powerful as any other deity I’ve heard of in stories or like your Creator?

“Regardless of how powerful they are, right now we’d have serious trouble killing one of these Heliothrope Commanders, let alone a God.”  Milton couldn’t even imagine what that would take.  “Therefore, that brings us to what I was mentioning before: How do we fight them?”

“I have no idea, but something tells me that you do,” Sandra answered with a smirk.

“Possibly?  These enchantments that you created with Violet have given me an idea for accumulating resources, as well as a potential way to fight the Heliothropes.”

“Oh, really?  Do tell.”

Milton began to explain, while at the same time cognizant that ALANNA and those in the command center were listening in on his plans….

Chapter 23

Murder Station emerged from the tear in the dimensional fabric into Milton’s dimension, leaving the traveling dimension behind.  They didn’t actually travel that far from their original location, though it was far enough from the previous system that the Heliothrope fleet they had escaped from would require at least a day or so to reach them.  Of course, there was always the possibility of another massive fleet being nearby, but they had to take a risk at some point.

All of the Stasis Field enchantments covering the Station were active as they appeared in normal space, on the outskirts of System 436-7Y.  Because it was a solar system that was relatively near their previous location, they had some useful information about it that ALANNA had acquired from the station hub’s computer systems.

System 436-7Y was centered around an Orange Dwarf star and surrounded by a dozen planets, two of which were capable of supporting life.  There was a total of 30 moons orbiting the various planets, with more than half of them around a very large, reddish planet that he thought would be the result if Jupiter and Mars had a baby planet and it grew up.

Despite the pair of planets in the “goldilocks zone” – where the conditions were capable of supporting life – the system was reportedly completely uninhabited by any people.  As soon as the sensors were able to check on that, Milton was pleased to see that the information was correct.

One of the planets was completely barren, though it appeared as though it might have had some sort of life there before.  However, given that there were indications that the entire planet was set on fire and burnt until there was nothing living left, it was unlikely that anything was still living.  There was no information about what happened to the planet, which meant that it may have happened previous to the rise of the Heliothropes throughout the galaxy.

The second planet capable of life actually did contain life, though it was reportedly in the microscopic stages.  Water covered the entire planet, without a trace of land anywhere to be seen, and the only living beings there lived in the water, though they were probably millions of years away from seeing fish and other large aquatic beasts roaming the perpetual ocean.

As much as Milton wanted to acquire more water for the Station, which was always in demand, he had more than enough coming in from Sandra’s dimension and the trap she had set up near a Molecular Converter.  They weren’t there to visit the water world, as tempting as it was.

Nor were they there for the other planet, though Milton was sure they might find something useful on it if they were to mine it. The various moons orbiting the planets were also not their targets, nor were there any existing or derelict space stations to investigate.

Instead, they were there for a very specific reason: Asteroids.  In the past, they had spent some time mining asteroids for resources, to great effect; but they had always been interrupted by the arrival of Heliothrope fleets and were forced to flee.  The floating debris that made up the asteroid belts was the remnants of the creation of the solar system, though not all systems had them in large enough quantities to matter.

What was important to know, however, was what materials the asteroids consisted of, which was why the information provided to them by the smaller station’s computer was so important.  Many of these particular floating rocks consisted of iron and nickel, as well as very large chunks of ice.

“There they are, those beautiful things.  It looks like all of that information was correct,” Milton said, high-fiving ALANNA – who appeared to give in and return the high-five despite a visible reluctance.

“Of course it was; now, we just have to assume that the Raxians were correct, as well.”

After speaking with the Raxians about the mine where they found the concentrated Focusing Crystals, they discovered that the moon had once been entirely covered in water, though it had obviously been lost somehow.  In addition to that, the ore that they commonly found in the mine consisted of iron and nickel, two very common metals, but it was suspected that the presence of water nearby had aided in the formation of those concentrated crystals.

It was just a hunch, of course, but they didn’t really have anything else to go by at this point.  Therefore, looking for another moon with those same conditions, they hoped to find something very similar; instead of finding a suitable moon, which Milton would take because it would be better than nothing, they found these asteroids, which would be a perfect test to see if more Crystals could be found, while at the same time finding ore for more BMUs.

“I need another 42 minutes until the local dimensional fabric has stabilized enough to check elsewhere,” Whisp warned.  That was the other reason they had come out of the traveling dimension: To check to see if the Heliothropes were up to no good.  It would apparently take another 42 minutes for them to check, because the fabric was unstable near where they had emerged.

“In addition,” Whisp continued, “there are no current ships or fleets on the long-range sensors, though checking some of the moons near the largest planet will require a little longer to evaluate.”

“Excellent, thank you.  Bring us into the belt, if you would; I want to get started as soon as possible.”

“Already on it.”

They actually weren’t too far from the asteroid belt, because it was closer to the outer rim of the system than the center, so it only took approximately 30 minutes before they were in range.

“I like the look of that one right there,” Milton said.  The one he was pointing at on the viewscreen was almost as large as the transport ship they had acquired earlier, which meant that it was on the relatively small side of all of the different asteroids around.  Overall, they ranged wildly in size; there were some that were no larger than a compact car, while there were others that had to have been at least 4 or 5 times the size of Murder Station.  For now, though, he needed to experiment.

“Slowing down… easing us in… and… we have contact.”

From some exterior sensors, Milton watched as the lower central pillar of the station slowly bumped up against the large chunk of floating rock, and he watched in amazement as it hit the field and stopped, refusing to move any more toward the hull of the station.  They continued to move, however, taking along the asteroid like a fly stuck in a glue trap.

“Success!  Alright, deploying the team now.”

The team consisted of thousands of drones and dozens of Portable Molecular Converters, which he had taken from the ongoing project of building more residential areas in the second ring, and they swarmed over the asteroid that was stuck to the Stasis Field.  Before he did that, though, he had Sandra deactivate the Field around the airlock where the transport ship was located, so that they could escape the confines of the station.

One thing he immediately learned was that, like his sensor orbs, his drones were not immune to the effect of the Field.  When a dozen of them got close enough to the Field to touch it with one of their legs, they immediately froze in place and wouldn’t move, no matter the order he gave to it.  Thankfully, all it took was a different drone to drag them out from the Field and they were perfectly fine.

Milton hadn’t ever utilized quite that many drones on a single asteroid before, considering that he didn’t have as many as he did right now the last time he tried it.  Therefore, he was amazed that the entire chunk of rock was disassembled and fed into the Converters in 2 minutes and 54 seconds.  Less than 3 minutes to essentially consume a floating rock that had likely been there for millions if not billions of years.

Even better, their assumptions had paid off.  Milton’s drones were able to find not only 50 natural Focusing Crystals, but also a half-dozen of the concentrated Crystals, as well.  Milton thought that it was entirely likely that he had overlooked these concentrated Crystals in the past when mining asteroids, because he didn’t know any better; now that he knew, he had the drones keep a special eye out for them, utilizing the nearby sensor orbs’ ability to see through solid objects for a short distance to identify them.

As soon as they had consumed all but a sliver of the asteroid that had been touching the Stasis Field, Milton had all of his drones head back inside the Station to deliver the concentrated Crystals and to await further instructions.  As soon as they were inside, Milton deactivated the Field still holding onto the asteroid sliver and it was released, staying stationary because it had no previous momentum.

“Success!  This was exactly what we needed!”

In addition to the Focusing Crystals, Milton also received a little over 20,000 BMUs, in addition to larger amounts of Basic Gravel and Pure Water.  It wasn’t a huge haul, but the asteroid had been relatively small and furthermore, this was the result of only 3 minutes of work.  By any definition, it was a success.

With the venture proven to work, Milton used the 20,000 or so BMUs to queue up another dozen Flying Drones (which cost 1,750 BMUs a piece) from his Drone Assembly Plant and used up some of his reserves to create more Portable Molecular Converters.  While that was going on, Whisp helped to slowly maneuver the Station near another few smaller asteroids, catching them on the Stasis Field.  Milton released the drone army again, and they immediately fell upon the rocky additions to the Station, cutting them up and feeding them into the Molecular Converters and saving the condensed Crystals they located.

More drones were created in a constant stream, with one of them being pumped out every 20 seconds or so, while the Portable Molecular Converters required around 3 minutes to fully assemble from the Defensive Weapons Factory.  As soon as 100 drones were ready along with a small batch of Converters, Milton had Sandra deactivate a key Field in order to let them out, adding to the swarm that was already out there.

A few hours later, he had added to his original swarm of nearly 2,000 drones with another 700, which helped to speed up the process immensely.  A few dozen Drone Overseers added to the batches helped to organize large groups of them into work parties, and eventually Milton barely had to watch as they went to work on the asteroids.

Nearly half a day passed from when he first started, and he stopped creating more drones when he hit a total of 4,000 working on the rocks that were constantly being adhered to the Station.  In just that time, Milton’s Available Resources[9] had jumped up immensely, much faster than they had even when he had been disassembling the smaller station hub.  In total, he had added over 400 million units of Basic Gravel thanks to the mainly stone composition of the asteroids, as well as an insane 265 million Basic Metal Units.  It wasn’t as much as he had accumulated on Proctus by a long-shot, but it was still extremely impressive for just 12 hours.  Even more than that, he acquired just over a half-million Focusing Crystals, either by themselves or through finding the condensed Crystals throughout the asteroids.  Not to be outdone, his Pure Water total jumped by about 14 million units, which was also impressive.

“Still no sign of Heliothrope activity on the long-range sensors, though the asteroid belt might be interfering,” Whisp told him just after the 12-hour mark.  She – along with most of the Think Tank – had gotten some rest around hour 3 when everything was going smoothly without any sign of Heliothropes showing up soon, and Milton had taken over controlling the Station.  He wasn’t afraid to admit that she was much better at precise movements of the engines than he was, so he was glad when she came back to relieve him in their effort to acquire more resources.

The other good news, because that day was full of it, was that there was no sign of any dimensional wounds festering because the Heliothropes decided to try their luck again at another invasion.  He inwardly hoped that meant they had learned their lesson and weren’t willing to try again, but he had a feeling that it was only a matter of time.

“Thank you, Whisp.  We’ll continue harvesting all of these resources until they show up.”  That was the plan, anyway.  If a small fleet appeared, they might allow the Heliothropes to invade the dungeon, but otherwise they would probably run away if it looked too dangerous.  With the resources that Milton was acquiring, he hoped that fairly soon he wouldn’t have to run away from even a Commander ship, but it was going to take some changes and additions to the dungeon to handle something like that.

Sandra came up behind him and slipped an arm around his waist as she moved to his side.  “Anything fun and exciting to report?” she asked.

“I’m not sure if it is fortunate or unfortunate that we haven’t seen any Heliothropes yet.”

She looked confused.  “Huh?  Why?”

“Because the last time we weren’t attacked when we thought we would be was when the Heliothropes opened up the dimensional wound to your dimension,” he answered with a tinge of worry in his voice.  The absence of their opposition didn’t necessarily mean that the enemy was planning to open another wound; it could be that they weren’t detected opening up the tear, or as Whisp had mentioned, their sensors were obscured by the asteroid belt.  We’ll have to move out of it soon just to double-check.

“I’ll let Whisp know,” ALANNA mentally told him, having listened to his internal thoughts. He thanked her and turned back to Sandra as she spoke.

“I really hope that isn’t the case, but at least it gives you some more time to accumulate resources, right?”

“That’s true, but I don’t like it when my expectations are subverted.”  Milton sighed.  “Regardless, I guess I should think of this as a blessing, because it might not happen again anytime soon.”

Milton’s recent plans involved accumulating enough resources to create the Space Transport Dock he was thinking about earlier; once that was completed, he would start to build ships to carry Proctans and anyone else willing to fight.  By utilizing another Stasis Field enchantment on the ships, he would make them invulnerable to weapons damage, and they could therefore be used for getting fighters to places where they are needed to liberate the nearby slaves – such as when the Proctans went to the station hub to save the people there.  He would be utilizing their fighting prowess while at the same time liberating people, taking the slaves away from the Masters; not only that, but any of the work that was contributed by those slaves would be taken away, diminishing the resources the Heliothropes had to continually grow more numerous.

He was well aware that the Heliothropes probably wouldn’t even care if he liberated the people in hundreds of different systems, but he had to start somewhere.  The more people he saved, and the more resources that Murder Station was able to acquire, the more ships he would be able to produce, sending them out to fight and expand, similarly to how the Heliothropes had begun their own brutal expansion.  Milton would essentially turn the tables and use some of their own methods against them – minus the slavery, of course.  Eventually, once they all became strong and numerous enough, Milton would push to find out the source of the Heliothrope’s past changes and then figure out a way to remove any advantage they might have.  It was a lofty goal, of course, but with the advent of the special Stasis Fields that Sandra and Violet had created, it finally had a chance of working.

Mirroring his earlier thought, Milton took advantage of the respite from attacks and continued to accumulate resources in the asteroid belt.  Since he found that they had more time to continue the bountiful harvest, he went ahead and built a dozen Drone Assembly Plants for just under 9,000 BMUs to add to those he already possessed, before he started to churn out Drones by the score.  In another 24 hours, his drone total surpassed 15,000 as he kept adding another Plant every hour, and his harvesting snowballed in production, generating more and more BMUs and Focusing Crystals.  Eventually, he had Whisp ignore any asteroid that wasn’t nearly the size of the Station itself or bigger, and his swarm of drones devoured them in an hour or two, depending on their size.

Looking at the trail of empty space where they traveled through the belt, he realized that it had barely made a dent in the belt’s entire length.  With the Think Tank’s help, they calculated that if he stopped production of additional drones, it would still take nearly 60,000 years to fully deplete the belt of all resources; if he continued to increase production at a steady rate and added to his drone army (if he could even contain that many Assembly Plants), it would still take centuries of constant harvesting to get through it all.

The people of the galaxy didn’t have centuries, however, because they had already been slaves for far too long.  That was why, after an entire week of harvesting, using a portion of what he harvested to finish off the living spaces in the second ring, and continually adding to his drone count, he finally stopped and switched his priorities.

Chapter 24

“You went a little nuts there, don’t you think?” Sandra asked teasingly.

“Huh?  Oh, yeah, probably a little,” Milton replied sheepishly, chuckling a little when he saw his current Available Resources[10].  “But I can’t deny it was worth it, if only because I can finally construct some things that I’ve been putting off.”

His entire week of harvesting materials from the asteroid belt, unhindered by any type of attack by the Heliothropes, was exactly what he needed to feel more secure and stable with a plethora of resources.  While he didn’t necessarily need the Basic Gravel, he now had 573 billion units, of which he was planning on converting at least a billion or two into Weightonite for Sandra and her dungeon, so that she would have Raw Materials for a long time to come.  Pure Water gained both from the amount Sandra was producing for him in her dungeon and the ice from the asteroids stood now at 1.4 billion units, so he didn’t fear running out any time soon.

But the really impressive quantity of resources he received was Basic Metal Units, harvesting 89 billion BMUs over the entire week.  That was many times over what he had ever possessed before at one time, and it would go towards some of the projects he needed to complete in order to put his plan in motion.  The 425 million Focusing Crystals wouldn’t hurt, either.

“What do you need from me?” Sandra asked.

Milton thought about the sequence of events that was coming up, and where Sandra could help the most.  There were quite a few things that needed to be done, but for the moment there really wasn’t much for her to do.  He knew that she was stockpiling what she called Elemental Cubes in her dungeon treasury, which were created from her constant influx of Mana; they acted like storage for the magical substance that she could access later when she needed a large amount and couldn’t wait for her natural accumulation to provide it.  Considering that she, along with Milton, had already replaced everything that had been killed, damaged, or used up in Murder Station’s dungeon a couple of weeks ago, there wasn’t much she could do with it at the moment.

“For now, do you want to walk around with me to visit all of our new arrivals?”

“Sure, I would love to.”  She took his offered arm as they left the command center, leisurely walking down the large tunnel that connects the large central command sphere with the second ring.  Having multi-tasked during his harvesting spree, all of the living spaces necessary for the new residents had been completed – as well as quite a few more.  Having so many resources at his disposal during that time, he had gone ahead and expanded what was already planned and created even more places for people to live; with Sandra’s help to provide dirt for parks and other decorative touches, they now had premium residences for nearly 2 million people.

He wasn’t sure where exactly they would find those people, but at least he was prepared.  Meanwhile, everyone from the original station hub had been moved from their much smaller, temporary living quarters in the central command sphere, and they were now settled comfortably in their new homes.

Once they had moved out, Milton utilized some of the Proctans to help him design a new and improved barracks area to replace all of the temporary living spaces in the command sphere.  Now that he had plenty of resources, it was time to bring back all of the Proctans that had come with him on this journey into space.  Up until then, he had only brought back a little more than 1,000 of them for defense, because the cost in Bio Mass was extensive both to clone them and then to feed them; considering that each one of them ate as much as 4 or 5 normal people, it was an expensive proposition.  Thankfully, with all the farms up and running, he was still at a significant surplus even with everyone now living on the Station.

With just under 25,000 Proctans armed and raring to fight, he knew that he needed to start the next phase of the plan soon.  Hence, he was heading down to the new residents, hoping to find some new recruits.  Granted, 25,000 Proctans was a formidable force, but against billions or possibly trillions of Heliothropes?  Not nearly enough.

While they were strolling down to visit with the new people, Milton began the construction of two facilities in tandem, the Planetary Bombardment Dome and a Space Transport Dock.  He found that as long as the first was in the process of being built, he could start the latter as part of the requirement to produce the facility.

Normally, the construction of such a facility took him days or weeks, because in the past he had never had a huge number of drones to help build it.  With a quarter-million drones, however, as well as thousands of Portable Molecular Converters, that time would be cut dramatically.

The placement of both facilities, unlike most of the ones safely stored away near his command center, was down below near the airlock that housed the transport ship they had acquired previously.  The sheer size of the central pillar of the Station was such that there was plenty of room for the new Space Transport Dock, though it took some rearranging of what was already there in order to fit everything properly.  Whisp, Trinket, and Brint helped him with that portion of the task, as they handled the logistics of the internal changes with small squads of drones, while the majority of the drones worked on the facilities themselves.

“How many of these people do you think will want to fight?” Sandra asked him, shifting Milton’s thoughts away from the progress down below.

“I’m not exactly sure, but I’m hoping that there are at least a few hundred,” he answered after a moment’s thought.  “I could sense an inner fire in the Raxian miners that indicated that they might be ready to fight, but I have yet to really talk with any of the others.  From what I’ve seen of some of them, however, there are a few races that I think might be interested.”

“And you’re going to give them a choice of… what?  Dimensional abilities?”

Milton chuckled, realizing how that sounded.  “I guess you could say it like that, but it’s a little more complicated.  First, anyone who wants to fight or contribute in different ways would need to choose from which dimension they want to earn their abilities.”

“That’s right, I remember you saying something about them being able to choose to do what the Proctans do with your… genetic mutations?  Or from my own dimension, with access to different elemental energies.  But what do you mean by earn?”

“That is correct; they can choose one or the other, though I’m hoping to eventually be able to add both genetic mutations and elemental energies to a single person.  I don’t have the necessary Bio-dimensional Knowledge just yet to do that, however.

“As for earning the abilities, I learned a lot about ability progression when working with the Proctans on their world by training them to defeat a threat that had the ability to wipe them out if they weren’t prepared.  Tell me, if you had access to everything you do right now when you were a brand-new Dungeon Core, what do you think would’ve happened?”

Milton could tell that Sandra was thinking about it for a while as they continued their stroll down to the residential ring.  After a little while, she said, “I think I would’ve been very lost and confused at what to do first.  I also probably wouldn’t be the Core I am today if all of that had been simply handed to me at the beginning, because it was only through adversity and utilizing the scant resources at my disposal that I was able to survive.  I probably would’ve been bogged down with entirely too many choices that may or may not have been effective, and my creativity and inventiveness would’ve been stifled with my crafting.”

That’s actually one of the best explanations I think I’ve heard.  “Precisely.  Only through adversity can people improve themselves.  I once heard the phrase, ‘Failure is growth, while success is stagnation’, and I think that applies to learning how to do just about anything.  In your crafting endeavors, I’m going to guess that not everything you tried was successful or perfect on your very first try; though I’m sure there were rare exceptions, because you are a rare and exceptional individual.”  Sandra nodded even as a faint blush bloomed on her cheeks.  “And even when you managed to succeed in crafting something, you probably looked for ways to improve upon your technique or final product, because there is always room to improve.

“I see these special abilities, granted through genetic alterations, as very similar.  To better put it into perspective, most of the people in your world only have access to 1 or 2 elements, with rarer individuals having access to more.  I know that you mentioned you were an exception with access to all of the elements, but can you imagine someone brand-new to manipulating elemental energy having access to them all like you did? They would be overwhelmed and confused, as there would be too many options to choose from, and they wouldn’t know where to start, and would end up weaker because of that.  It is quite possible that they wouldn’t think to specialize in any specific element or elements, thereby being average with all of them rather than choosing whatever they connect with the best and using the other elements to support that choice.

“On Proctus, I found it better to specialize each person’s ‘Class’ – as I called it – to whatever suited them best, and then to give them a basic package of abilities focused on that Class, so that they could learn them first and make them the foundation of anything they acquired afterward.  I called these ‘Tier 1’[11] abilities, and they consisted of the basics for the 5 Classes I designed.

“The first was the Caster Class, which was focused on manipulating the four natural elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth.  Unlike how the Elves from your world operate, who can create and manipulate elements using the elemental energy inside of them, Proctan Casters need to have a physical source of that element nearby, which they can manipulate and enhance.  The Basic Elemental Suite allowed them to manipulate a small source of fire, such as from a match, or to utilize the air they breathed, or the dirt and stone under their feet, or even to condense the moisture from the air or water from a flask.  They don’t necessarily create an element from nothing, only enhance and expand upon what is already available.

“Then for Tanks and Rogues, a Physical Boost Suite was available, which allowed them to physically enhance their Strength, Constitution, Agility, and Perception to different levels.  Tanks, which the Dwarves and Orcs from your world remind me of, typically relied on boosting their Strength and Constitution above anything else, while Rogues – similar to some of your Gnomes, I’ve heard – specialized in boosting their Agility and Perception to move around a fight quickly and detect dangers to their teammates.

“Healers received the Healing Touch ability, which does exactly what it says.  At a touch, they could heal others at differing rates depending on their skill, acting very similar to your Repair Drone constructs that you possess.

“Lastly, and this was the hardest choice to make for a Tier 1 ability, was Flora Manipulation for Support Class individuals.  Flora Manipulation allowed those with the ability to animate and manipulate plants, both for defense and offense, as well as to support their teammates in different ways.  For instance, being able to reach out with a pot full of vines and snatch up an enemy or tangle up their legs could occasionally spell the difference between life and death.

“Once each Class has gained some practical experience with their basic abilities and passed some sort of challenge, they would unlock Tier 2 abilities, where they could choose between two that were pre-selected for their Class.  They could always choose something[12] different than what was available at each Tier if they gave me a good enough reason, but for simplicity’s sake, most of the work was done for them already.”

Sandra nodded along with his explanations.  “That makes sense, I guess.  How many of these Tiers were there?”

“For each Class there were 8 Tiers for a total of 14 different abilities to choose from, with the first Tier being the same for everyone of that Class.  This allowed for quite a bit of variability of each person’s specializations and allowed them to customize how they wanted to participate in the fighting.”

“It sounds like you really thought it through,” the Dungeon Core remarked.  “How would you apply that to accessing elemental energy from my world?”

Milton had already thought of that extensively when he was considering using the specific dimensional genes from her world to alter people in his own dimension.  “Well, I figure that we would start each person with access to a single element, and then assign them very similar ‘Classes’ to what I have in place with the Proctan mutations; from what I understand, they are similar enough in design that I think I could incorporate them into the Class system well enough.

“Of course, the biggest difference is that I won’t be able to customize the different abilities they would gain as they developed and acquired experience.  Instead of unlocking different ability-based genetic mutations, they would instead expand their access to each of the 8 elements your dimension possesses; there is some overlap with the Proctan mutations with the more common elements such as Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, but you also have elements that are unique but may have some little overlap, such as Nature and Flora Manipulation.  I can see both dimensional mutations being strong in different areas, and both would be a huge asset in the fights to come.”

Milton always enjoyed talking about ability development, as it was one aspect of the video games he used to play that fascinated him.  Different builds for the same Classes were essential to having balanced parties, as sometimes different specializations were needed to properly take advantage of certain situations.

Sandra nodded yet again, with a smile on her face this time.  “I can definitely see that.  After witnessing the Proctans fight, I thought that they were the pinnacle of power and martial prowess, but I can see that they don’t excel at everything.  Seeing the awe in the faces of the Think Tank when they witnessed our Enchanting, for instance, was something that tipped me off.  Plus, I don’t think I’ve heard you mention anything about any specialized armor or weapons that are enhanced by their power, the way Dwarven-made armor is in my world, and I’ve seen the limitations of your Casters.  While certainly effective in a group, by themselves they can’t compare to some of the most powerful Elves I’ve met, such as the Elven King and Queen – and they only had access to 6 of the 8 elements.  In all honesty, those two actually scared me a bit because of how incredibly destructive they were.”

Milton wished he could see the King and Queen of the Elves in action, if only because they were royal Elves.  They still fascinated him, and he wanted to see how they compared to stylized versions of Elven royalty in games and fictional stories.

“Exactly.  Which was why I wanted to give everyone who might want to contribute directly to the fight a chance to choose which method they would prefer.  Then there are those who might not want to participate in the actual fighting but would wish to contribute in other ways, such as the Think Tank or those who might want to help to permanently enchant weapons and armor, or through a variety of different jobs and tasks.  I’ve already heard that some of our new residents are getting a bit restless for lack of something productive to do, so it is entirely possible that many might choose to change themselves to participate in that way.”

Sandra frowned.  “Is that the only way they can contribute?  Either have themselves be changed into something different or be forced to sit around while other people work?”

“No, not at all,” he said reassuringly.  “There are any number of tasks for those who choose not to undergo such a dramatic transformation.”  He paused for a few seconds as he thought about it.  “However, I will admit that most of those tasks are limited in scope, as most of them will be service-oriented around the Station and may not be directly involved in the fight.  It probably sounds harsh, but unless they have some particular skills – such as Trinket or most of the station hub’s leadership, who have proven to be extremely important to managing the transition from their station to this one – I’m not sure how much they would be able to help in the greater scope of things.”

“No, that’s not necessarily harsh; just practical,” she said as she shook her head.  “It’s like the villagers near my dungeon; unless they actively participated in the defense of their villages or had some other benefit to me, I tended to ignore them for the most part if they weren’t directly involved with my dungeon.”  She hung her head as she continued.  “I know that they all serve a purpose, though, like growing food or whatnot, but I feel ashamed that I never really considered them as important as those I could recruit into the Guild or to assist me in other ways.”

Milton stopped walking and brought her head back up with his hand gently against her chin, until she was looking right into his eyes.  “There is nothing to be ashamed of, Sandra.  When we are fighting to save ourselves or others, sometimes all we see are tools that can be used for that purpose.  The key is to recognize that when the crisis is over, those that we may not have paid attention to are the ones that will help bring all of the craziness back to ‘normal’ by maintaining the culture as it was before everything went to hell in a handbasket.

“They are the anchor society relies on for stability, to which we need to look to in order to come back to ourselves and try to return to normalcy.  Those people who you and I may ignore when it comes time to fight are the brave ones, having to watch while their brethren go to war, knowing that their loved ones may have to see and do things that may be horrendous and come back scarred, or perhaps never come back at all.

“They are as important to this upcoming war of resistance as anybody else, even if it doesn’t look like it at first.  So, no, there is nothing to be ashamed of for those who don’t wish to actively participate with the changes I’ll propose to them; they’ll be there to keep us centered and allow their own changed people to come back to the very thing that they’re fighting for: Freedom and a chance to do anything they want.”

They resumed walking, neither of them saying anything.  Milton looked at Sandra, seeing that she was lost in thought, though there was a sad-looking smile on her face.

“You’re right, Milton.  I never really thought about it that way, but you’re right,” she finally whispered as she squeezed his arm tightly for a few seconds before letting go.  It didn’t take much longer for them to arrive at the residence ring of the Station after that, and the two of them were greeted by Orkney, Ghendus, Ferdance, and Arax – the leaders of the former hub.

“Welcome, Milton, Sandra,” the Station Leader and now Residence Leader, Orkney, said.  “Shall we show you two around?”

Even though Milton and Sandra had spent many hours helping to direct the construction of everything in the ring, neither of them had physically been there.  While they knew where everything was, both he and the Dungeon Core weren’t there to see how all of the construction ended up; rather, they were there to meet with the people.  The Residence leaders knew this, of course, as he had told them already on his way down, and he was glad of their help to see everyone they could.

“Absolutely, we’d love that.  Lead the way.”

Chapter 25

Personally speaking with all of the new residents took a long, long time.  Thankfully, they weren’t necessarily on a time limit at the moment, because they were slowly drifting through space near the asteroid belt they had left behind, without any sign of a Heliothrope fleet heading in their direction.  The process took so long that their tour guides had to take turns getting some rest after a while and worked in shifts to introduce them to everyone.  As for Milton and Sandra, they didn’t require any rest and could technically walk around forever if that was what they chose to do, but thankfully they didn’t have to continue walking for more than 36 hours – which was long enough for the both of them.

During their tour, both the Planetary Bombardment Dome and the Space Transport Dock facilities were completed, only an hour or so into their walk around Residence Ring (which was what he discovered the new arrivals called the ring they lived in).  The Dome was essentially worthless, as it wouldn’t even activate; it was meant for a colony on a moon or a planet, using the natural gravity generated by the large, spherical object to produce a force field-like protection dome.  On the Station, it wouldn’t even activate, not that he needed it with the Stasis Fields around the entire perimeter, but he needed to have it as a requirement of the Dock.  Milton also kept it in case he needed to use it on a planet or a moon in the future, because the facility was actually relatively small, only about the size of a very small cabin in the woods.

The Space Transport Dock, however, was quite large.  It spread out over the space that had been made for it, encompassing nearly a half-mile in width and length, though it looked a little different from the one he had on Proctus.

“It’s different because you’re already in space and some of the safeguards used on a planet aren’t necessary,” ALANNA explained.

It was so large because it was meant to be the construction area for some of the largest ships he could create, which included the massive Assault-Class Dreadnought; that particular ship would just barely fit inside of the central pillar of the Station, but thankfully he wasn’t going to be building any of those.  Instead, he concentrated on building Transport Freighters[13] in the Dock, as he queued up 30 of them in short order.  The entire cost of them was 7.5 billion BMUs and 600,000 Focusing Crystals, which took a small chunk out of his reserves, but he had plenty to spare.

As had happened with the construction of the Space Transport Dock, the number of his Drones working on creating the Freighters sped up the construction time considerably.  It took only about an hour to create the pieces for each one of them – thanks to the larger-sized Molecular Converters built into the dock itself – and build it completely.  The entire airlock was left without gravity, thankfully, so as soon as each one was done, the Drones would fly into one side and literally push it out of the way into a designated space hollowed out of the pillar and above the Dock, which Whisp, Brint, and Trinket were working on making into actual slips that could be accessed by people needing to access the insides of the vessels.

Speaking of the Freighter spacecraft, they were a little different from the one they had acquired from the Raxian miners.  For one, it was a little flatter and sleeker in general shape, though it still had plenty of room inside to transport supplies or people – just not quite as much.  Regardless, estimates said that they could comfortably fit up to 1,000 Proctans on board, though if there were some larger races along for the ride, that number would drop a little.

Other than space to hold people, there really wasn’t much more to the spacecraft.  There were no offensive or defensive weapons built into it, nor was it highly maneuverable; it had the capability of obtaining high speeds, though, which made it perfect for the boarding craft for which he was designing it.

Naturally, for a boarding craft to work properly, there needed to be access in the hull of the ship to reach another vessel.  To that end, Trinket and Brint worked together and used some drones to make some changes to each Transport Freighter, taking out portions of the hull and replacing them with simple doors that could be opened inward; this would expose a potential target in the shape of a nearby vessel that they had stuck to using a Stasis Field.  Once all of the changes were done, they were going to install a model of the ship with Stasis Field enchantments into the bridge of the ship.

Of course, this also meant that the Freighter would be exposed to the void of space, which wasn’t good for anyone involved.  This, out of everything else, was the biggest problem that they had to overcome for any assaults to have any chance of succeeding.  There were a number of things that they could do to prevent anyone inside of the Freighter from suffocating or freezing to death, though not all of them would work.

The first, and most obvious solution, was to have space-worthy suits created for each person inside of the vessel.  Trinket had a spacesuit she had originally taken from the Station where Milton had found the skillful Mouslan, and he thought copying it with all of the necessary components would probably be fairly easy, as would altering it to shape different-sized bodies.  There were a few issues with the spacesuits, however, but the major problem had to do with nanites.

In order for many of the Proctans’ external abilities to work – those that didn’t boost one’s physical characteristics, for instance – nanites needed to leave their body to enhance or manipulate different spells or effects.  When wearing a suit, this would effectively block all of the nanites from easily being released from the body, negating many of the most useful offensive, defensive, and support-based abilities of every Proctan – and any that chose to adopt the same type of genetic mutations. Even those that wore armor had at least some portions of their body exposed to the air, and clothing generally had large enough holes in the fabric that allowed the tiny nanites to escape.  The space suits that would potentially protect them from being frozen or from suffocating had dense enough material that nanites would have a difficult time escaping in order to perform the actions they were instructed to do.

Then there was the matter of fighting in a hostile environment such as space, especially against an enemy that could pierce through the suits with even a glancing blow, which could be deadly all by itself.  Armor on the Tanks, while not entirely effective against the glowing enhancements on the Heliothropes’ weapons, was much better than nothing and could stop a blow from being immediately fatal, especially against Fodder and Soldier varieties.  With the added danger of losing air and freezing to death, a normally non-fatal blow against the Proctans could end up being just the opposite.

Therefore, another solution was needed.  Milton considered creating some sort of sealed extension bridge that could be pushed out to connect to another ship, but this also presented issues if the bridge was damaged or wasn’t sealed properly.  Battle was messy, and just about anything could happen during a fight, and explosions were just as likely to destroy the bridge rather than it staying intact through the entire boarding process.

No matter how he looked for a solution, many of them taken from games or movies he’d seen in the past, he realized that none of them would necessarily work properly for them.  He was thinking too much about what this dimension had available to survive in the void of space, and not what the other dimensions he had visited had to offer.

There were a few abilities the Proctans possessed that might help them survive, such as Physical Boosts to Constitution to negate at least some of the effects of the cold, as well as potentially Flesh Manipulation – Self, but none of them would work to negate everything… except for the Basic Elemental Suite, which contained the ability to manipulate Air and Fire.  With a Caster on a team creating a large bubble of heated air around a certain quantity of teammates, they could maintain fresh air and heat, though this also presented some problems.  Moving outside of the effect’s range could spell death, as could the potential for the Casters to be targeted and killed, thereby negating the entire effect and dooming those they were protecting.  Then there was the fact that it would require a lot of Power in order to maintain such a life-saving effect, which meant that there was a finite period of time they could be active.

With all of the issues with that, Milton disregarded anything from that dimension as working anywhere near 100% of the time, and once again turned to Sandra’s home dimension.  She was right in saying that while the Proctans are powerful, there are just some things that they can’t do as well as her own people.

During one of the lulls in their tour, while they were moving from one residence section to another via a lift that allowed people to travel quickly between the levels, he asked her if she had anything that might be able to help.  He had seen some amazing things, such as the Stasis Fields at work, but he wasn’t exactly sure what else could be done. Thankfully, she knew exactly what was needed.

“Absolutely,” she responded, nodding.  “That’s actually quite easy, though it will take quite a while to make enough for everyone.”

“What exactly are we talking about here?”

She laughed shortly, and he could tell that she was laughing at herself.  “I can’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before, but I suppose it didn’t really occur to me.  Let me see if I can explain.

“Silver and Gold are metals that typically aren’t used in objects that need enchanting done on them for external effects, such as weapons or armor, but are used in temporary Enhancement Enchantments that provide an internal benefit.  The most common of these Enhancement Enchantments used to be for Healing Medallions, which could rapidly heal someone when pressed against their skin.  The problem was that they were limited in usage and depended on how much Holy elemental energy was fed into the original enchantment, so they were only good for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of rapid healing before they ran out of energy.

“That was before I discovered how to link my Energy Orbs and Cubes to enchantments, like the Stasis Field enchantment on the Station.  When applied to one of these temporary Enhancement Enchantments, I was able to make them permanent – or virtually permanent, considering that they would eventually use up the energy in the Orbs, though with some of them it could take years before the energy ran out.

“There are any number of different enhancements that can be created, and there are differences in what works best within silver and what works best with gold.  For what it sounds like you need the most, I would suggest Rapid Oxygenation, which is created by those with access to Air; and Lesser Cold Resistance, which is created by those with access to Water.  The first automatically sends oxygen throughout the body, meaning that even if they don’t actively breathe any air in, they can still function normally.  Don’t be fooled by the ‘Lesser’ name of the second, because the Cold Resistance would be strong enough to prevent them from freezing, though they might still be relatively chilly going out into the void.  Even with that Permanent Enhancement Enchantment active, I wouldn’t advise spending more than an hour outside of the Station in the complete absence of any warmth.”

“That is amazing!  But,” Milton worried, “you said that it would take a long time to make?”

“Yes, at least for that many people.  Even working non-stop – with a half-dozen copies of a few Gnomes I know that have access to Air, Water, or Spirit – I could probably make a few hundred a day.  It is possible that I could enlist some help from some other Enchanters who could do each enchantment one at a time or on two completely different pieces of silver, but to have them ready for 25,000 or more people could take weeks, if not months.  As much as I enjoy crafting and creating enchantments, doing it all day, every day for that long would be a nightmare.”

“You’re right, that would just be torture, which is definitely not something I want to subject you to,” Milton said, taking her hand in his.  “But tell me this, would it be possible for someone new to Enchanting to do this?”

The Station Core could see her visibly thinking about it as her eyes unfocused.  After a few seconds, she nodded slowly.  “Yes, I think so, though it will take a bit of practice, and they’d have to learn some specific rune sequences.  Normally, I would say that it wasn’t possible, because you would need a lot of elemental energy in order to power such an enchantment, but these ones would be using Energy Orbs.  The base enchantment only needs to be drawn with the manipulation of a trifling amount of elemental energy, and the Orb will do the rest when inserted into its slot.”

“Do you have enough Energy Orbs for that many enchantments?” Milton asked, quickly thinking about the process.

Unfortunately, she shook her head.  “No, I don’t keep quite that many in reserve, but they are fairly easy to create – and Violet can help with them, too.  It might take a few days, because I have perhaps half that many already, and they are much easier to automate production in my dungeon than the Enhancement Enchantments.”

Hmm… I think this might work.  “Perfect!  I think we may just have a plan then.”

“What do you mean?”

Milton waved his hand around at the Residential Ring, where they were just about to exit the lift and tour some more.  “I know where we might find some beginner Enchanters.  All you need to do is teach a few of them, and then they can teach some others, and so on.  As long as they figure out how to manipulate their elemental energy in the form of Enchantments, we can have these Enhancement Enchantments done in no time.”

Sandra nodded skeptically, but she didn’t refute his claim.  “I hope you’re right, Milton.  There will definitely be some trial-and-error until they can perform the enchantment flawlessly, but it will still be a couple of days until we’re done with the Orbs.  Let’s finish this tour, and I’ll get right on those – as well as those Stasis Field Enchantments on your new transport vessels.”

“Hold off on Field Enchantments for now, because I’m hoping by the time we get all of these new breathing and cold resistance protection medallions done, I’ll have some talented ones who might be suited to learning those from you.  If we’re going to greatly expand our fleet in the future as I expect, then we’re going to have to learn how to get it done on our own.  I can’t see you Enchanting thousands of ships in the future, after all, because then you wouldn’t have time for me—uh, I mean, you wouldn’t have time for your crafting.”

She giggled softly at his slip of the tongue and put her arm in his again, as they stepped out of the lift to see the next level of residential developments.  “That’s very true.  I wouldn’t want to use up all my time on trivial things that can be done by others.  As much as I enjoy Enchanting, I wouldn’t want it to take away my time away from you—I mean, my other crafting.”

Milton laughed at that and pulled her a little closer for a moment, before Residence Leader Orkney interrupted them.  “Ahem.  Here in these few communities we have a large population of Raxians, whom I know you are familiar with….”  The Porlix continued to explain who they were going to meet and where they were going to go, all while the Station Core brought them one step closer to actively fighting back.

Chapter 26

Their visit with every one of their new arrivals, despite taking so long, had been very beneficial, both for Milton and for the residents of the new Station ring.  First, he was able to personally introduce himself, which went a long way toward putting many of them at ease, especially after all that had happened to them.  Second, the Station Core was able to get a feel for their attitude toward joining the fight on a personal level, which was a surprisingly high amount.

Out of the 245,362 people who survived the Heliothrope attack to make it onto “Haven Station”, approximately two-thirds of them were interested in helping in the resistance on some level.  The remaining residents of the ring either were too young to make a decision – there were just over 30,000 children under the age of 12, amazingly – or were afraid of the process that Milton described to them that they would undergo if they chose to alter themselves for the fight to come.  He didn’t blame those who weren’t ready or would never be ready to undergo something such as genetic mutation, as well as being cloned and having Neurological Control Units installed into them; back on Earth, he wasn’t sure if he would be willing to commit to such a drastic change in his body unless he had more information and proof of it working.

Despite those reservations, many of the new residents were cognizant of the fate that already awaited them if they were ever found and rounded up by their former Masters.  They had all been marked for execution, even the children, so for the majority of those that were leaning toward helping no matter what the cost, there really was no risk—because they were already dead.  They figured they might as well do something to fight back now, considering the circumstances.

Less than 2,000 of those interested in fighting back against the Heliothropes wanted to do that up close and personal, however.  These individuals were ones who wanted to put a weapon in their hand or hands and strike back at their former Masters personally, either because they had a grudge or two they wanted to settle, or they found any other option not to their preference.

As he had thought, the Raxians from the mine all volunteered for front-line duty, but it wasn’t just those few that were raring to go.  It turned out that there were just under 200 more Raxians who had been on the station hub for one reason or another, and they also wanted to participate in the fighting.

In addition to the Raxians, there was another race called the Huuphei, who were rhino-sized individuals walking on two feet, with wrinkly grey skin and large frames.  They were slow to speak, but when they did, their voices were deep, echoing an inherent, natural strength that they possessed.  On each hand, this particular race had 7 beefy fingers that allowed them to strongly grip tools and other weapons, and they were apparently typically used for manual labor by the Heliothropes.  Along with the Raxians, Milton thought that the 150 or so Huuphei would be perfect for Tank Classes, as their size and strength would fit them perfectly.

Apart from those two large, strength-filled races, there were others that wanted to participate in the fighting – though in a different role.  First there were the Ghenjoy, a race of very small goblin-looking people, though their skin was a bright blue color.  Their large ears and eyes dwarfed the rest of their facial features, but they also gave the Ghenjoy a natural boost to their hearing and eyesight.  Despite their small frames, they were also quite quick and agile, practically bouncing around the residential areas like kids left out on a playground.  Nothing but the Rogue Class would work for them.

Next were the Svelta, a race of quiet monks in plain-looking robes – or at least that was the first impression Milton had of them.  They actually appeared most like the classic “greys” of Earthen abduction accounts, with large, black orbs for eyes and flat facial features, though instead of grey, their skin was a sickly-looking beige color.  According to those he spoke with, while they weren’t necessarily opposed to violence, they would prefer to help to clean up the effects of a battle rather than kill anyone; they were apparently the most common doctors on space stations throughout the galaxy, as their long, deft, and steady fingers were perfectly suited for performing surgeries, and they had an innate knack for diagnosing conditions.  Obviously, they wanted to be Healer Classes, with which Milton couldn’t disagree.

After that were the Inkory, who were a willowy, tall race that were probably the closest to what a Human looked like out of all the different alien races.  At least, they were what a normal Human would look like if they were stretched like a piece of taffy until they were 12 feet tall, with limbs that were practically sticks.  They also had three eyes and the tanned-looking skin on their faces appeared as if it had been melted and then pushed back into a semblance of a Human. Other than being completely hairless, they were essentially a very tall, facially disfigured Human.  Of course, that was what all of them looked like, so he stopped comparing them to Humans because they were a completely different race altogether, but the semblance was the closest he found to his people out of everyone there.

As for the Class that he thought they would excel at, after he discovered that they had fallen in love with the parks Sandra had helped to create in each residential area, he knew they would probably be best in a Support role.  There was a possibility that could change for individuals based on their preference, but he thought it best to slot them in there at first.

The last race was the Brinfuld, who reminded him of the aliens from the “Mars Attacks!” movie back on Earth.  They were short individuals, around 4 to 4-and-a-half feet tall, but their most prominent features were their sunken faces, large, red-pupiled, protruding eyes, and the tops of their massive heads that were wrinkled like they were all one giant brain.  As he would expect of such a race with a massive head, they were quite intelligent if relatively frail in body, and quite a few of them appeared to want to learn more about the Caster Class; there were also a few that inquired about the Think Tank, in which Milton thought it might be a good idea to include some individuals that weren’t Proctans.

In total, approximately 1,900 of these people – and not even all of those races – were interested in going through the genetic mutation process to become like the Proctans, so that they could fight on the front lines in one way or another.  It was fewer than he had hoped for, but it was a good start; he expected there to be more in the future once these first volunteers proved that the whole process would work for them, but he wasn’t going to press the issue.

That still left over 150,000 people who were willing to do something, even if it wasn’t going straight into battle against the Heliothropes.  What surprised Milton the most was that even some of The Collective races, such as the Bovenes, Equines, Aquanixes, Mouslans, and Porlixes were willing to undergo genetic changes to help out, as long as they were kept to a non-violent role.  That worked perfectly for the Station Core, because right now he could use help with the Enchanting project that Sandra was going to get started on.

“That is a lot more than I was expecting, Milton,” the Dungeon Core worriedly said after she discovered just how many were willing to learn how to Enchant.

“Don’t worry; if you could teach even a dozen of them to create the enchantments, then they can take it from there and instruct others in the process.”

She still looked concerned, but he understood; having that many Enchanters around would probably be a little overwhelming.  Thankfully, the entire situation was made easier because Milton couldn’t simply change everyone in an instant, because each of them had to be sent into a Bioconversion Laboratory individually in order for it to work.  Thankfully, his previous method of killing people and stuffing them into a Molecular Converter in order to get their DNA pattern was a thing of the past, as advancements in his Bioconversion Labs and Biological Recombinator simplified the process.

Each person would jump in the top of the Lab and plummet into the clear, gel-like substance that filled it up like a swimming pool, sinking down until they were fully encased in the viscous fluid.  It was then that their entire body was basically dissolved in a non-painful way, and then reconstituted with the help of the Biological Recombinator connected to his system.  Milton could manually choose which gene mutations he wanted to produce in the person being reborn, and for his initial volunteer he was slightly apprehensive for a few reasons.  First, he hadn’t actually given any gene mutations to anyone from his own dimension before; and second, he had yet to experiment with giving the gene alterations he had acquired from Sandra’s dimension.

The first to volunteer was actually Ferdance, the former Head of Interspecies Relations on the station hub and now the Head of Interspecies Relations in the Residence Ring.  When asked why she chose to go first, she said she wanted to set an example for everyone else braving the changes, which made sense to Milton.

“Just jump in?” she asked, stopping at the top of the platform after climbing up the outer stairs to the Bioconversion Lab.  She had taken her clothes off and placed them down below, where she could put them on again when she was finished.  Milton and Sandra were the only ones in the room, which seemed to put her at ease despite her nakedness.

“Yes; the process will all be taken care of automatically.  You wanted Water as your first element, correct?”

“Yes, that is correct,” Ferdance replied with a slight quaver to her voice, visibly shivering.  Milton thought it was probably a combination of the slight chill in the room without clothes and a healthy dose of fear.  Before he could say anything else, the scared Bovene straightened up and took a step forward with her eyes closed, and she hit the liquid inside the Lab with a brief startled “Moo” that was quickly cut off as she was surrounded and consumed.

Milton pulled up the Biological Recombinator[14] and found what he was looking for.  There was a list of genetic mutations from the Proctan dimension, with which he was very familiar, but now there was a whole new section available that listed all 8 elemental affinities from the Creator dimension: Air, Earth, Fire, Holy, Natural, Nether, Spirit, and Water.

Because Ferdance had chosen Water as her first elemental affinity, he chose it from the list and added it to her genes, and then made sure that she had a Neurological Control Unit installed inside of her.  That way, if she were ever to die in the future, she could be brought back with all of the progress she had made with her affinities.  Sandra had mentioned that developing them was very similar to how the Proctans increased their own Power, through constant use of their elemental energy, so it would be a crime to waste all of that progress in such an event.  In addition, adding new mutations (i.e., new affinities) would be fairly easy and would pose no risk to her development.

Of course, the Water affinity was only 1 of 3 elements that were needed by the Enchanters in their upcoming project.  Ferdance’s element would be crucial to creating the Cold Resistance enchantment, whereas Air would be responsible for Rapid Oxygenation; Spirit, however, was also needed in order to tie everything together, as well as to connect it to the Energy Orb that acted as the power source.  It sounded like a complicated process to Milton, but Sandra assured him that as long as each Enchanter performed their part correctly, it would all fall in place successfully.  He imagined it like a song with multiple tracks, such as beats and vocals, and when they were integrated together, they would create something entirely new.

The process of changing Ferdance’s DNA took all of 5 minutes to complete, and soon enough she was falling out of the bottom of the Lab into a pool of water.  Milton was walking to her to help her out but stopped when the Bovene stood up from the pool of water once it began to drain away, screaming at the top of her lungs.  Thankfully, it only lasted for a few seconds before she stopped entirely; it was only then that he realized that she still had her eyes closed.

“How do you feel, Ferdance?  Are you alright?” he quickly asked, and her eyes shot open.

“Is it… done?” she asked, and Milton nodded.  “I feel strange, but not in a bad way, I suppose.”  She looked down at the water still draining away below her feet and then at the blowing, heated air coming from above that was designed to dry her off.  Milton couldn’t help but notice that she looked quite confused and discombobulated.

“Here, let’s get you out of there and dressed; I’m sure you’ll feel better shortly,” Sandra said quickly, bringing the Bovene her clothes, which Ferdance put on herself like she was on auto-pilot.  As she stepped out of the now-empty pool, Milton reviewed her Status[15] to see if there was anything wrong with her.

After looking at it for a few seconds, he realized what was likely the issue.  Milton’s Skills, which he had improved over his lifetime as a Station Core, automatically transferred to anyone that was considered a Combat Unit – which now included Ferdance because of the NCU inside of her.  The sudden “download” of information due to Skills like Large-scale Battle Tactics, Cooperation, and Kamikaze were probably so foreign to her that her mind was having trouble initially coping with everything.  Other than that, nothing seemed to be wrong – though her Status was interesting, nonetheless.

Instead of “Power”, which the Proctans used, she had Energy, which seemed to utilize Wisdom as the same stat to determine the amount of Energy she had.  She was also Unclassified as a Type, but that was probably because of her Special Traits – which were much more comprehensive than he expected.  First, there was the expected Water Energy Affinity, which was rather weak because it was new, as well as something called Collective Intelligence which increased her Intelligence stat.  He assumed this was because she was one of The Collective races, so she got a boost for belonging to that illustrious organization.

More than that, however, she also received a very basic level in Enchanting, Spellcasting, Energy Link, and Body Enhancement – the same types of things that the people on Sandra’s world specialized in.  Milton wasn’t sure if this meant that they would be equally decent at each type of energy use, supposedly like the Humans of her world were, but he supposed that was the case.

“I… I think I’m better now,” Ferdance said after a few minutes.  “My mind felt like it was being drowned out by something, but it’s finally clearing.”  She looked up at Milton and Sandra.  “Did it work?”

“You tell me; do you feel anything different inside?”

The Bovene was silent for a few seconds as her gaze turned inward, searching out the source of her new powers.  After a moment, her clothes suddenly started to get wet as her body was soaked, and she seemed to droop in place.  A quick glance at her Status showed that her Energy, which had been full at 50, was now at 2.

“Whoa, be careful,” Sandra said, supporting Ferdance as she nearly collapsed.  “If you use too much elemental energy all at once or completely drain your pool, it can knock you unconscious.”

“Thanks, that is good to know.”  The Bovene didn’t look all that great as she continued to sway in place.  “How do I get some of my energy back?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I almost forgot!” Sandra said, as she held out a necklace containing a blue-colored orb on it.  “This is a Water Energy Orb, and as soon as it contacts your skin, it will automatically start to replenish your pool.”

Ferdance immediately picked it up and put it around her neck, before slipping it underneath her shirt.  Within the first second of the blue orb touching her skin, the wilting Bovene was immediately revitalized.  “That feels much better.”  Looking at both of them, she then asked, “Now what?”

Milton smiled along with Sandra, who started to lead Ferdance out from where the Bioconversion Labs were located.  “Well, we need you to show everyone that the procedure was a success, and then I’ll be along shortly to show you what Enchanting is.  It’s a bit of a learning process, but I’m sure you’ll pick it up quickly….”

Milton certainly hoped so, but he knew that it helped that Sandra was there to supervise.  Meanwhile, the Station Core looked at his updated quest while he prepared for an influx of new Enchanter recruits who would be coming as soon as they saw that their guinea pig survived the process….

Current Long-term Goal: Inter-dimensional Gene-ius

- Acquire additional samples of current-dimension DNA – 1/?

- Acquire additional samples of foreign-dimension DNA – 0/?

- Apply 1 dimension-specific gene to a different species – 1/1 – Complete!

- Apply 2 or more dimension-specific genes to a different species – 0/1

Difficulty of Goal: Hard

Timeframe: Unknown

Rewards: Additional Bio-dimensional Knowledge, +10 to Ingenuity/Wisdom, +5 to Insight/Luck

Chapter 27

Milton held off on the conversion process for those who wanted to actively fight until the rest of the new Enchanters were completed.  The priority at the moment was to get as many people working on the enchantment of the new “Space Amulets” as possible, because there wouldn’t be much point in training anyone up unless they had them.  It took a little less than 48 hours to finish with the non-combatants, at which time Milton started on those who would be the start of a whole new force of people in this dimension that were willing to stand up and fight against their former Masters.

Thankfully, for every single race, no matter what they looked like or how their DNA was structured (because some of it was a little bizarre compared to what he was used to seeing), the Biological Recombinator was able to adapt the genetic mutations to suit each race.  When the last batch of his new soldier recruits was processed, he sent them to the Proctans for training.

Along with the living quarters in the command sphere, Milton provided the Proctans with a place they could lightly train or entertain themselves, which primarily consisted of a wide open area with reinforced walls and floor, along with different stations to practice different abilities.  In one area was a target range where spells could be flung by Casters without harming anyone; another area had an agility course that could be used by anyone, but was a favorite of Rogues and even Tanks; and then there was a large park on another end, where Support members could manipulate the plants to their heart’s content, though they had to be careful not to kill the flora by pumping too much of their Power into it.  There were other areas for entertainment, such as a large lounge that doubled as a movie theater of sorts, which could play movies that had been downloaded from Earth prior to Milton’s abduction.

This whole area was where the newly changed soldiers would be trained in a way that was relatively safe, so that they could get used to their new abilities.  The new Tanks and Rogues would be able to try out their new Physical Stat Boosting abilities with sparring partners; new Healers would heal the wounds that those sparring matches would ultimately produce; new Casters could work with experienced Proctans to help get them used to manipulating the elements outside of their body; and new Support Classes could utilize their new abilities with the plants in the park.

This process was very similar to what he had done on Proctus, but back then he’d had many more people to train. Thankfully, the number of new recruits was fairly small this time around, but he expected that in the future those numbers would rise as they ventured through the galaxy.

Eventually, he would create a training dungeon for them to run through, developing their skills in a more dangerous environment, which was an important part of growing as a team and relying on others to do what they needed to so that everyone survived – or more importantly, so they succeeded in the objective.  Death really wasn’t a concern, obviously, because he could simply bring them back as a clone via his Bioconversion Labs.

But that would come later, once the new people got used to their new genetic mutations.  Judging by the first 24 hours, it was going to take a little longer than normal, given that the experience of having special abilities was entirely new to them.  The Proctans and those from Sandra’s dimension at least grew up with access to at least some sort of ability that made them unique, but those from his own dimension had absolutely no knowledge to fall back on.

Thankfully, despite it also deriving from a genetic mutation, those who initially became Enchanters had a much easier time of it.  Milton wasn’t sure what the difference was in the ease of learning the new addition to their bodies, but they seemed to pick it up much faster and demonstrated control far earlier than their Proctan-dimension counterparts.  In fact, within 4 hours of the first ones receiving their new elemental affinities, they were already controlling them well enough to start the Enchanting process.

Naturally, starting and succeeding were two entirely different things.  There were a few from completely different races that seemed to get the knack of it within a short period of time, pushing further than the others seemingly randomly; Milton suspected that anyone who showed exceptional abilities would likely continue wanting to work with Enchantments in the future, whereas the others would probably gravitate toward another type of elemental affinity use.

What really helped, however, was Sandra’s detailed and patient demonstration as she controlled her Shapeshifter with a male Elf’s form, which just happened to have access to all three of the elements necessary for the Space Amulets.  The entire process was recorded, with each element separate and explicitly described, and available to be replayed by everyone who was participating in the Permanent Enhancement Enchantments, or PEEs.  The name “PEE” was something that Sandra had created for the enchantment, which made Milton giggle a little when he heard it; he tried not to think about it when she was around, however.

Of course, before all of the training and practice took place, Sandra created a pristinely made Space Amulet to test to make sure it would actually work.  Brint volunteered to test it by placing it against his bare chest under a thick, leather overcoat, and he went down to the airlocks to try and see if it would work.

It worked spectacularly, though it took Brint a few moments to stop uncontrollably gasping for air once he made it down there.  Once he realized he wasn’t suffocating, he closed his mouth and concentrated on stopping his breathing process, which he said was much harder than he would’ve ever imagined.  While Milton’s avatar didn’t technically have to breathe, it still had the ability – which the Station Core used all the time.  It made him feel more alive than just a synthetic shell, and stopping breathing took a conscious effort; remembering being alive as a Human, though, he could only imagine how difficult it would be to literally turn it off without panicking about suffocating every few seconds.

“It’s something that I believe anyone using it will have to practice before it is used in battle,” he said once he came back to the command center.  “I know that if I had panicked like that when I was trying to fight some Heliothropes, I would’ve been dead before I could defend myself.”  Milton mentally added some airlock practice for the Proctans and even the new recruits to his ever-growing list of things that needed to be done.

“How was the cold?” Whisp asked, now in full curiosity mode about the Space Amulets.  She, as well as the other members of the Think Tank, had also started to work with those enchanting the Amulets, though they couldn’t actually participate.  Instead, they analyzed the footage of Sandra’s enchanting session, and they enhanced sections of it with detailed graphics added to it to break down each rune and how it operated in the sequences.  It was so detailed that Milton thought that even he could figure it out.

“And that’s saying a lot!”

“Ha, ha, ALANNA.”  His AI guide was being her usual self.

Brint was answering Whisp even as the Station Core was communicating with his guide.  “It was like walking outside in really cold weather, and wearing just enough clothing to keep me from freezing.  Just like in cold weather, though, if I stayed out there too long, I think that I would start to shiver and freeze.”  Milton thought that was fairly similar to what Sandra had said about the enchantment.

Days passed, and the Enchanters improved through a lot of practice. The constant use of their elemental energy – even in the small amounts needed for what was essentially the outline of an enchantment – slowly improved their capacity by increasing their Wisdom little by little.  A few exceptional individuals who wielded the Spirit affinity were pulled aside and instructed by Sandra once again on the creation of Stasis Fields.

They first learned what the most basic of Fields looked like and how it operated, before they moved on to the exact models of the Transport Freighters down near the Space Transport Dock, which had been installed shortly after they were all constructed.  With this task a whole lot more complicated than the relatively simple Amulet enchantment, they struggled to understand the extreme changes in the rune sequences needed for the models, though they appeared to understand the idea.  Eventually they were able to copy what Sandra had done, though adapting it for a completely different model, or even minor changes to the Freighter’s exterior, was beyond them for the moment.

Eventually, everyone did improve, and the first complete Space Amulets – double-checked by Sandra for accuracy – started to be put together.  Silver amulets were created by the thousands from his Molecular Converters, along with thin, steel chains that could be wrapped around a neck to hold them close to the skin.  In the center of the Amulets was left a space where the Small Air-Water-Spirit Energy Orb could be inserted and contained with a simple tensioned clamp, which would keep it in place even when some of the energy had been used up by the Orb and it started to shrink.  That last part came from Sandra, as she warned that it was imperative that the Orb stayed in place and didn’t fall out of the Amulet, because otherwise the entire thing would stop working.

Fortunately, the Amulet only expended energy when it was being actively used, so she said that even if it was used an hour each day, they would likely last for years before needing the Orb replaced.   That was excellent news, because worrying about them being used up quickly, such as in the middle of an attack, was one thing he didn’t need on his plate.

It was approximately a week after they had left the asteroid belt behind, and they were making enormous progress.  A few thousand Space Amulets had already been created and were being tested by the Proctans in the airlock.  Brint had been right: It took some of them even longer to get used to not panicking, gasping at the lack of air, so Milton was glad they’d had some practice before they were in a real fight.

The new soldier recruits were still getting their bearings, showing promise that they would eventually catch on, but the process was slow.  The unfamiliarity was just too much to overcome in such a short time, as some of them had trouble even believing that they could do special things, but there were signs that they were becoming more accustomed to their new lives in the way they acted and spoke with the Proctans.  It also helped that they could visually see what kinds of wondrous abilities they might be able to unlock someday if they worked hard to improve themselves.

Fully half of the 30 Freighters now had Stasis Field enchantments, mostly conducted by a dozen of the exceptional Enchanters from the group of new arrivals.  Sandra was gracious enough to double-check their work and supervise the more complicated process, but thankfully all of the ships were exactly the same, so the models didn’t change from one vessel to the next.  In Milton’s opinion, it was nothing short of a miracle that they were able to even do that much, as the Stasis Field enchantments were quite complicated.

So, as he had found was usually the case when things were going well, something happened to change the status quo.

“Milton, I’m picking up some strange communications, but I’m not sure where they’re coming from or what they mean,” Rhiole said one day in the command center.  Milton immediately looked at what she was referencing, but couldn’t make sense of it, either; when displayed on the viewscreen, it looked like static from one of the old-school televisions when there was no signal.  His parents used to call it “snow” because it was all white and black dots moving around the TV screen, but this was more like multi-colored vomit.

“I think I recognize that,” ALANNA said abruptly.  “I believe this might be how the Heliothropes communicate at long distances, though I can’t be entirely sure.  Quite a few references to this type of static communication were found on the station hub, and I spent some time analyzing it.”

“What did you find?” Milton asked.

“Nothing definite, but they were also a bit fragmented and difficult to put together, even for those that are perfect at everything they do, such as myself,” she responded with a dangerous smile that she flashed around the room, as if daring anyone to contradict her.  “But now with this active communication, I believe I might be able to work something out….”

ALANNA’s eyes went unfocused for a few seconds, which to Milton meant that she was really concentrating on doing something difficult.  With how fast she could process information, a few seconds was like a few lifetimes of work for a normal Human.

“Alright, I think I can clean this up a little,” she eventually said, and the static on the viewscreen began to change.  “There’s surprisingly little information encoded in this communication; in fact, I believe there is only a set of coordinates.”

A string of seemingly random numbers appeared on the viewscreen, which Milton could only assume were these coordinates that ALANNA was talking about.  After a few seconds, he thought he saw some patterns start to emerge as he looked at them, but everyone else was way ahead of him.

“It looks like they lead to a system not too far from our current location,” Rhiole commented, before the string of numbers was replaced with a starmap.  It was centered on where Murder Station was currently floating through space, and there was a glowing red arrow pointing to an area a few stars away from their position.  The label on the star it was pointing at read, System 1425-BER, which had a trio of planets orbiting its sun, as well as a space station that ALANNA’s information said was approximately twice the size of the station hub they had dismantled.

Instead of mining being the industry focus of this system, like it had been where they found the Raxians, it was centered around farming.  It appeared as though most of the enslaved people doing the farming were the original residents of the only habitable planet, designated BER-2, and that they were a race that hadn’t been represented on the station hub that had joined Murder Station.  There wasn’t a lot of information on the actual race other than their name, Fursinals, as well as the fact that there were billions of them living on the planet and working extensive farms that fed billions more around this section of the galaxy.  ALANNA’s records also showed that nearly 80% of the food that the hub had transported in came from BER-2.  It was obviously a very important planet in terms of food production.

“What do you think the communication is about?  Is this system a… base of sorts?  I can imagine that they would want to try and protect this place, especially since it seems to be the figurative breadbasket of this section of space,” Milton asked the room.  He was hoping that someone from the Think Tank would have some idea as to what the coordinates meant, because they had been the ones – along with ALANNA – to crack the code.

It didn’t take long before the general consensus was… “I have no idea.”  It could’ve been what he suggested – a base – or a staging area for some sort of Heliothropic campaign, or perhaps even a trap to lure them there.  That last was a bit far-fetched, as far as Milton was concerned, because he couldn’t see these particular enemies planning any type of deception.

The only thing that the Station Core did know was that he wanted to check it out, and their long-range sensors couldn’t penetrate past the outer limits of the system due to interference from planets and the outer cloud of normal debris that surrounded nearly every solar system out there.

“How long will it take by using our normal engines?”  He thought about using the trans-dimensional drives in order to get there quicker, but he didn’t want to announce their arrival – which would surely happen if they did such a thing.

“Approximately… 45 hours and 31 minutes at full speed,” Whisp answered.

Although it was less than two days, it was still a long time to wait to see what was going on.  Milton was worried that they might miss whatever was going on, but they had to ensure they stayed safe and did not fall into a trap.  It would be suicide if they suddenly appeared near a gathering of tens of thousands of ships, which was entirely too much for them at the moment.  Better to take it slow and cautious, rather than have everything come crashing down just when things were starting to look up.

Besides, it will give us some more time to prepare our people.

“Take us there, Whisp.  Rhiole, I want reports if there are any changes in the communication, or if you are able to get any up-to-date sensor data from the system we’re heading toward.  If it’s a trap or something we have no chance of handling, then I want to be able to escape as soon as possible.”

“On it, Milton.”

I wonder what we’ll find there?  I hope our curiosity doesn’t come back to bite us on the butt.

Chapter 28

“We’re getting some more accurate sensor feeds now, Milton.”

The Station Core turned his avatar toward the viewscreen, moving away from Sandra, who was currently looking closely at a few finished Space Amulets, looking for flaws.  The last day and a half had been quite productive, with all of the Transport Freighters now possessing Field enchantments, and more than 20,000 Amulets being finished.  That amount wasn’t quite enough to outfit all 25,000 Proctans, let alone the new recruits, but it was an impressive accomplishment, nonetheless.

On the viewscreen, Milton could see a top-down version of System 1425-BER, which included the sun in the middle and the three orbiting planets, all in vastly different positions in relation to each other.  There was a very thin asteroid belt that circled between BER-1 and BER-2, which obscured many of the details of the innermost planet from their sensors; the most they could tell was that it was there, but if there was anything going on with it, it was currently unknown.  As for BER-3, which appeared to be a small, swirling gas planet that reminded him of a tiny Jupiter, there didn’t seem to be anything nearby.

Instead, all of the action was near BER-2, the only habitable planet.

“What am I looking at?”

The view suddenly dropped down from a top-down perspective to a close-up of the space around the very green-looking planet, filled with very large seas but no oceans like on Earth.  Or, to be more accurate in his description, it was green, blue, red, and black, because there were massive fires burning all over the planet, leaving a charred blackness in their wake.  Smoke from those fires obscured a hefty portion of the planet’s surface, but there was enough for those in the command center to see what was happening.

“What the—?”  At first, Milton thought that there was some sort of natural disaster that had occurred on the planet, causing so much devastation, and that such why there was a communication for the Heliothropes to gather.  It made sense, too, because if they allowed the farms to burn, then it would be much harder to feed the nearby “slaves”, putting the nearby systems in jeopardy.

Unless that was exactly their plan, which became obvious in the next moment.  On the viewscreen, hundreds of Heliothrope ships could be seen orbiting the planet; the sensors couldn’t actually see the weapon that was fired from one of them at their current distance, but they could all see the result.

The Heliothropes were bombarding the planet from orbit, burning the place right to hell.

“What?  Why?”

There was silence in the command center as they watched yet another large explosion happen on the surface of the planet.  From what Milton could tell, it appeared as though more than 70% of the once-green spots on the planet had been destroyed, and now that he knew what to look for, the circular devastation caused by the massive bombs was more than obvious.  There wasn’t a natural disaster that did this to the planet; it was the Heliothrope ships in orbit that were the disaster.

“Those devious, sadistic, unconscionable, heartless motherf—”

“What I think ALANNA is trying to say, Milton,” Whisp interrupted the AI guide’s rant, “is that this was done on purpose.”

“Uh, I can see that.  But why?”

The Proctan was silent for a few seconds as she looked around the command center at the other members of the Think Tank, who sat at their consoles blank-faced.  “To send a message, I believe.”

“A message?  How could this be a message?  When all of those people are dead, who’s going to care?”

As another explosion rocked the green areas of the planet, Whisp sighed heavily before continuing.  “Despite some evidence to the contrary, our enemy isn’t stupid or entirely single-minded.  We saw this when we went to Sandra’s dimension, how their Stabilizing Anchor would’ve been quite effective if we hadn’t been there to stop it.  We’ve underestimated them before, and we might have done it again.”

“Again?  I’m still not understanding.”  It was unfortunately a common occurrence when speaking with the Think Tank, but thankfully he wasn’t afraid of admitting his ignorance.

“Tell me, Milton, in those role-playing games that you used to play, was there ever a situation where you were attacked by something you couldn’t see or couldn’t catch?”

He nodded.  “Of course.  There are multiple instances of that mechanic in many different games.”

“And how did you eventually defeat them?”

He had to think about it for a moment.  Most of those kinds of situations were easily solved by some sort of spell in his arsenal to either reveal hidden enemies or to slow them down so they could be caught.  But those were typically games with smaller parties and a more linear storyline; for some of the strategy-RPGs he’d played where the impossible-to-pin-down enemy was a large contingent, he typically had to cut off their supply lines or destroy their home base—

“Oh, those devious, sadistic, unconscionable, heartless motherf—”

“Language, Milton,” ALANNA said abruptly, cutting him off with a smile.

Whisp nodded.  “I see you get it.  They can’t defeat you with smaller fleets and they can’t catch you with their larger ones, so the only way to get you to stay still is to have you come to them.  They probably don’t understand it themselves, but they have seen that you will go out of your way to save those destined to die, so they thought to lure you here.”

“So, it is a trap.  I didn’t think they had it in them.”  Milton thought about what he was witnessing for a few seconds.  “But isn’t this a little extreme?  They’re destroying their nearest farm planet, after all.”

“That is also the message,” Whisp explained.  “The destruction of this planet serves two purposes: to get your attention, and to demonstrate to everyone else living in the nearest hundred systems or so that this is what happens when they help you, as well as not succumbing to the punishment they supposedly deserve.”

“But, the waste—  That’s right,” Milton said to himself softly.  “They don’t care.  They could kill everyone in this half of the galaxy and still be fine, because they don’t care about the people.  They are all slaves, so it doesn’t matter if they die, even if it reduces production of resources designed to continue their conquest elsewhere.”

“Precisely.”

Milton hung his head, not wanting to see the continued destruction of the planet on the viewscreen.  “So, are you saying that this is my fault—”

“Milton, dear, you stop that right now.”  The Station Core turned in surprise at Sandra’s words, wondering where they had come from.  “This is not your fault any more than it is anyone’s in this entire Station.  This kind of atrocity was inevitable, given everything I’ve learned about these despicable people, and if it wasn’t us that started to rebel, it would have been someone else.  I can tell that these Heliothropes have done this kind of thing before, so it’s not like this is anything new.  You, on the other hand, are trying to stop this kind of thing from happening, so don’t go blaming yourself for this kind of thing happening once again.

“I know that I’ve blamed myself a lot in the past for what had happened to the people closest to me because of my actions, until I realized that it wasn’t my fault.  It was the entire system that allowed those kinds of horrible tragedies, and I did my best to try and put an end to it.  You are all fighting to stop this kind of thing from happening again in the future, and you can’t balk now because they are doing the exact thing you want them to stop.”

Milton wanted to refute her claim that it wasn’t his fault, either because he wanted to feel guilty for his actions or was simply a masochist for emotional damage, but he realized she was right.  Furthermore, if there was a chance to save at least some of the people on the planet, then the Heliothropes’ plan to teach the nearby systems a lesson by starving them to death might just be foiled.

Milton lifted the Dungeon Core’s hand and kissed the back of it, looking the beautiful woman in the eye.  “You’re right; this is no one’s fault but theirs.  I have to stop taking responsibility for problems that shouldn’t even happen in the first place.”  He turned to the rest of the command center.  “But there is still a chance that we can stop this needless and senseless death before it’s too late to save anybody.  Whisp, how far away are we until we can engage those ships?”

“About 2 hours.”

“Alright.  Do you have an accurate count yet?”

It didn’t take her long to evaluate what the long-range sensors were telling her.  “There’s a margin of error here because of planetary interference, but the most accurate count I can give you is 921 smaller ships that historically have contained Fodder and Soldiers, another 92 which likely contain Elites in addition to Fodder and Soldiers… and 1 large Commander ship.”

Hmm… a Commander?  Can we even handle that?

The massive Commander and whatever Heliothropes accompanied it weren’t necessarily the biggest worry, of course, because there were also over 10,000 Heliothropes in the other ships, including at least 92 Elites.  Thinking about how difficult it had been to defeat only 3 of them before in the dungeon, Milton wasn’t so sure of their current defenses against such a force.  Granted, he was hoping that the Proctans would be able to fly out and stop quite a few of them as they rammed into and boarded the ships directly, rather than let them land on the Station, but there were only 30 Ships.  He had thought about creating more, but he wanted them to be as packed as possible, so that they would have overwhelming numbers when assaulting another ship.  I wonder if that was a mistake….

“We can’t handle one of those massive Heliothropes, Milton,” Sandra said sadly, looking at the viewscreen and the bombardment that was still taking place.

“You’re right.  We can’t.”  He looked at her seriously and then cracked a smile.  “But we will be able to soon.”

“What do you mean?”

Milton threw up a shot of his Defensive Weapons Factory, which was actively working on pumping out some new Defensive Weapons.  “I had put off spending any more of the Focusing Crystals we recently gathered, because they are useful for quite a few things other than Defensive Weapons that can be used in the dungeon.  However, I think it’s just about time I put some in, considering what we’re going to face.”

“Which ones?”

Milton cut off the feed of the Factory as he pulled up the list of options[16] he could build in the Factory and started to highlight each one for Sandra.

“There are a few weapons that I had used before in my previous dungeon, though I was slowly phasing them out because I just didn’t have enough Focusing Crystals.  Thankfully, that isn’t the issue right now, though I still need to be careful not to use too many.

“The first of these weapons is the Laser Cannon Emplacement, which is controlled very similarly to your Launchers, and it fires a highly volatile, super-concentrated beam of amplified light particles up to 150 feet away.  I had found that these worked well to reduce the protective barriers of the weaker Heliothropes at an excellent rate, but they were very vulnerable to impact damage when the enemy would throw whatever they had at hand at them.  At a base cost of 75,000 BMUs and 75 Focusing Crystals, the cost really added up when a half-dozen or more would be destroyed in every run.

“The second one is the Railgun Penetrator, which I told you about before because they are very much like your Launchers.  The thin slivers of tritanium shot out from them aren’t as effective as your inventions, plus they can only fire once every 30 seconds without overheating, but they can still do a bit of damage.  The major obstacle I faced before with their creation was their base 400,000 BMU cost, because that had been a struggle to afford back then.  The 15 Focusing Crystals required shouldn’t be that much of an issue, thankfully.

“Then there is the Particle Accelerator, that I’ve shown you a recording of in action.  The acceleration of subatomic particles is particularly effective against the Elite’s shielding, and as long as it doesn’t get destroyed, it can do some serious damage to anything it hits.  While it is reusable, the problem with maintaining its use as my last-ditch weapon was that it required 200 Focusing Crystals after every 30 seconds of use, which is quite expensive even now.  When adding in the 3 million BMU and 5,000 Focusing Crystal base cost to construct the weapon, you can see why I hesitated in building it until now.

“Those were the multiple-use weapons, of course, which are the cheaper alternative compared to the single-use ones, such as the Explosive Floor Plates.  However, now that I’m going on a spending spree, I might as well create some that would normally be too expensive to maintain.

“The first of these are the Plasma Bomb – Small[17], each of which is basically a highly concentrated and condensed quantity of ionized gas.  When activated, they will cause an intense explosion of up to 40 feet in diameter; while each explosion probably isn’t enough to take down the shield of a Fodder, it can hit multiple targets at once – which can be very beneficial.  At a cost of 5,000 BMUs and 3 Focusing Crystals, I can make quite a few of them.

“The second is simply a larger version of the same previous one, called Plasma Bomb – Large[18].  Same principle, but this explosion reaches up to a 400-foot diameter, meaning it’s approximately 10 times as powerful.  This one could probably take down the shield of a Fodder and perhaps a Soldier, though I’m unsure of how an Elite would fare.  At a much higher cost of 200,000 BMUs and 60 Focusing Crystals, I probably won’t make quite as many of these.

“The last two are a bit more dangerous, as they could potentially harm the Station.  The last thing I want to do is blow a hole in the dungeon ring, as that could have serious consequences both to the station and to the Stasis Fields protecting it.

“The first of these dangerous weapons is the Molecular Disruptor[19], which is triggered by physical pressure; after activation, it basically uses the same technology as my Molecular Converters use to scramble the molecules of anything within 15 feet, including whatever is below it.  I’ll have to be very careful not to place these somewhere that will allow it to eat through to the hull of the ring, or else there will be some issues.  Also, I’m not exactly sure how well these will fare against the Heliothropes’ protective barriers, so we’ll just have to see. Still, at 60,000 BMUs and 30 Focusing Crystals, it will definitely be worth a shot.

“And finally, there’s the most dangerous one of them all, and something that will be my last-ditch defense in place of anything else.  The Unstable Void[20] creates a semi-solid void sphere up to 300 feet away from the weapon in a designated area; when active, the 10-foot-diameter sphere will pull in anything within 50 feet.  When sucked inside of the void, which is an unstable vortex of a subatomic implosion, they will be ripped apart to fuel the void, allowing it to grow up to 30 feet in diameter.  The base cost of 1.5 million BMUs and 500 Focusing Crystals isn’t really the main concern with the void, however; I’m more concerned that the void will start ripping apart the Station, if I don’t place it correctly.”

Sandra was silent as she stared at the list of deadly weapons he just described, before she turned to him with a smirk.  “You’ve been holding out on me, you silly Core.  You’re quite a bit more unfairly powerful than I knew.  I’m actually looking forward to seeing how these work.”

“I apologize that I wasn’t able to show you all my goods before, but I was a little shy… on my available resources,” Milton replied with a wink.  “It won’t happen again, I swear.”

Sandra placed one of her hands on his chest as she stepped forward, dropping her voice until it was just a little louder than a whisper.  “It’s alright to have a few secrets hidden away until you need them; in fact, there a few secret things I can show you—”

“Get a room, you two!” ALANNA shouted suddenly, startling Milton and Sandra.  When he looked at the nanite-formed AI, he could see that she was grinning from ear to ear.  He almost responded with a smart remark, but then he saw her face fall when she glanced at the viewscreen, which was back to the bombardment of BER-2.  “We’ve got a little something to take care of, if you weren’t aware.”

Current Short-term Goal: Rescue Operations

- Spring the trap

- Destroy all of the Heliothropes

- Save the remaining Fursinals on the planet

Difficulty of Goal: Hard

Timeframe: 48 hours

Rewards: +7 to Communication/Charisma, +5 to Insight/Luck

Milton cleared his throat after seeing the notification. “Anyway… we’ll have to discuss this later, Sandra.  We’ve got some people to save, and I’d love your help in deciding where I should place all of these new weapons.”

She backed away from him with a smile tugging at her mouth.  “I can do that; plus, I believe the rest of the Amulets are being finished up now, so I should probably double-check them for accuracy.”  With a quick smirk in his direction, she left the command center on her way to review the life-saving enchantments that thousands of people were diligently attempting to create down in the Residence Ring.

With a dramatically deep breath, Milton got to work directing his drones to start moving all of the newly created defensive weapons down into the dungeon, waiting on their final placement until he could consult with Sandra.  She’s become such a vital part of this Station in such a short time that I don’t know what I would do without her help and advice.

She was a miracle, not only as a powerful Dungeon Core, but as a person; he loved having her in his life to talk to, collaborate, and spend time with – even if they weren’t doing anything productive. I’m really looking forward to this “discussion” we’re going to have at some later date….

A glance at the viewscreen again wiped out any thought of that, however, and he got back to work.  There was a lot to do to finish getting ready, and he knew that they needed to be very prepared if they were going to survive the next few hours.  This was going to be Milton’s first real test against the Heliothropes, because this time they were ready for him, rather than simply reacting to his unexpected presence.  He just hoped that he was ready for them.

Chapter 29

“All crews: Get ready to launch!”

Milton’s neural communication went out to all of the Proctans on board the Transport Freighters, including the pilots that had been taught how to control the new vessels.  It had been one of the lessons the fighting force had participated in over the last week while they had been drifting, along with their practice with the Space Amulets in the void of space.  There were hundreds that now knew how to operate the Freighters, just in case the main pilots were killed; thankfully, the controls of each ship were fairly self-explanatory, so he wasn’t too concerned if someone entirely unfamiliar got behind the bridge consoles.

It wasn’t like there was a lot to know, considering that there weren’t any offensive or defensive weapons to worry about.  The only thing they had to do was turn on the Stasis Field enchantment when they were underway, and that was about it.  The rest of the ship would take care of itself, given that its primary function was to transport a fighting force designed to board Heliothrope ships and kill the enemy.

“Milton!” Whisp called, getting his attention.  “We’re entering weapons range… now!”

The past few hours had been a bit stressful as they approached the Heliothrope fleet waiting for them in System 1425-BER, with a lot of last-minute changes and preparations to ensure everything was ready.  As they sped closer and obtained a better view of what was happening, they discovered that the space station that used to orbit the planet that was being bombarded had been completely destroyed.  It was only when they had been able to see the debris field where it had been before that they realized what had happened.  They’re really going with a full scorched-earth policy here, aren’t they?

When they were approximately an hour away, the Heliothropes finally acknowledged that they were heading into the system, and broke off their assault on the planet.  That was probably the only good thing to happen, leaving those still alive on the planet to potentially be rescued, because the cease-fire also meant that the enemy had time to get into position for Milton and Murder Station.

Unless there were some hidden fleets somewhere, Whisp’s original guesstimate on the number of ships they were facing was accurate.  The 921 smaller ships, which typically only possessed 10 Fodder and a single Soldier, were arrayed in a large, vertical circle facing toward the incoming Station.  In a much smaller, concentric circle were the Elite-sized Heliothrope ships, 92 in total, forming a ring around the center Commander vessel, which was easily 10 times the size of the already large Elite ships.  While it couldn’t rival the size of Murder Station, it was formidable enough that if Milton wasn’t confident in the Stasis Fields, he would worry about being simply rammed by the vessel.

The formation the Heliothrope ships used to await the arrival of Milton and his friends wasn’t fancy or overly tactical, but it was quite practical, nonetheless.  All 1,000+ ships had an easy line of sight on the approaching Station, and with them arranged like that in concentric circles, they would be able to concentrate fire on a single target with ease.

“All stop!  Release the drone group Alpha,” he instructed Whisp and Brint, the latter of which directed a group of 1,000 drones out of their holding bay.  He knew that it would be difficult to release them later when the Fields were up, so he wanted to make sure that at least some were available for use.  The rest could be released to crawl along the outer hull of the Station, just under where the Stasis Field hovered a few feet away from its surface.

“Freighters… launch!”

As soon as Murder Station came to a halt just within weapons range of the Heliothrope fleet, drone group Alpha flew outside of the rear-facing launch bay, accompanied by 30 Freighters loaded with just over 800 Proctans a piece.  None of the new recruits were along for the ride, though they were watching visual feeds back in their training facility; despite some progress, none of them were ready to fight even a single Fodder-type Heliothrope, so Milton felt it better to have them watch and learn that way, rather than throw them into a situation where they would be slaughtered almost immediately.  There were some protestations of wanting to be able to participate, but Milton overruled them.

If he and the Station survived this battle, he was sure they would have plenty of opportunities to fight Heliothropes in the future.

Milton watched the vessels stream out of the airlock where they were all stored, which was immediately closed after they departed.  As soon as they were clear, Milton’s sensors saw the Stasis Fields on every ship activate, creating a glowing, bubble-like shield around each vessel that was only visible because of his sensor’s sensitivities.

“Activate the final Field!” Milton then shouted, his order being communicated with those handling the model and enchantments near to the command center.  There was now an open wall in between both rooms for easier verbal communication, just in case Milton was indisposed.

The final Stasis Field was activated as the last Large Spirit Energy Cube was slotted into place, lighting up the rear-most section of the model with Spirit elemental energy.  His sensors outside of the Station confirmed that the last section of their protective barrier was now activated, joining the rest that had been active for hours.  Milton couldn’t help but mentally complain about the biggest drawback of the Stasis Fields: Once they were active, nothing but living beings could pass through them.

It was one of the reasons he hadn’t tried to arm the outside of the Station with weapons, which he could pull from the blueprints of some of the other types of ships he could build in his Space Transport Dock.  Nothing he tried to fire through the Fields would actually go through them, and leaving them outside of the Field would render them vulnerable.  Dropping the Field so that he could fire would be inviting trouble, even if he was able to time the interruption to less than a second; it wasn’t worth the risk that something would get through, and until a time when they could develop something that would work, this is what they had.

The final piece of their defense went up just in time.  The Heliothrope fleet, which Milton and the rest of the crew hadn’t been entirely sure would actually attack them in ship-to-Station combat rather than try to invade, confirmed that they were prepared to simply blow them out of the sky.  Or out of the area they occupied in the void of space – whatever the proper term is for space combat.

From the outer ring of smaller Heliothrope ships came thousands of missiles, all fired simultaneously, and they advanced as a wave of impending destruction.  Each of those vessels released a quartet of missiles, which was more than enough to completely obliterate Murder Station if they were to hit. Milton was glad that they had the Stasis Field enchantment; otherwise, they would probably be dead in the next few seconds.

If that wasn’t enough, the smaller ring of Elite ships also fired their weapons, but they were quite a few more per ship compared to the Fodder/Soldier vessels.  A volley of 20 missiles launched from each of the 92 ships, joining those already fired from the smaller vessels, meaning that there were more than 5,000 of the projectiles heading in the Station’s direction.  Milton couldn’t help but reminisce about their original arrival in this dimension, unexpectedly in the middle of a Heliothrope fleet; from his memories and the recordings, not even back then were they assaulted by so many deadly weapons all at once.

The 20 missiles launched from the Elite ships were also accompanied by a tight barrage of intensely concentrated lasers, which he had seen before in that previous engagement, fired a few seconds after the missile launch. The lasers themselves were multi-colored in appearance, their coloration very similar to Sandra’s Stabilized Shapeshifters in their natural, blob-like form.  From what he knew of them based on the Think Tanks’ review of their previous battle, the lasers were created by combining thousands of different wavelengths of light and weaponizing the output, allowing the beams to cut through any metal, including tritanium.  Normally, that would be extremely bad news for the Station, as they would essentially cut holes through every part of the structure, but the Fields would also stop those cold.

Or so he hoped.  Because they were unsure, Sandra was currently in her own dungeon for the initial attack, at least until they had confirmation that they survived.  It was a huge risk for the rest of the people on the Station, but Milton was 99.9% confident that they would be fine.

The massive Commander vessel, at the center of the enemy formation, broke out the big guns.  While they did launch 100 missiles at the Station, as well as an equally large barrage of more lasers, the vessel had a giant, devastating, orb-like weapon built into the center of the ship, which reminded Milton a little of the main weapon of a floating starbase in a certain popular sci-fi franchise, that could destroy planets.  When it fired, a bluish orb approximately 100 feet in diameter was shot out toward Murder Station, growing in size as it traveled, accompanied by a comet-like tail that stretched into the distance.  He was fairly certain that if the orb actually hit them, that weapon alone could probably destroy half of the Station once it reached its full size.

Instead of fighting back or trying to stop the incoming projectiles and light-amplification weapons heading in their direction, as the Heliothropes likely expected, they just sat there and took it.

“First impacts in 3… 2… 1…,” Whisp called out, and everyone on the command center held their breath.

A quick look at the Residence Ring, where scattered viewscreens of the incoming ordinance were projecting the events to their new residents, showed that everyone was standing silently and watching, many of them with families tightly clutching small children to them as they braced for impact.  They were all informed of what was going to happen, so none of it was a surprise, but they had yet to actually see if this new-fangled “magic” would actually work.  Milton also saw that those that had undergone the change to learn Enchanting were a little more relaxed, knowing that their new abilities were powerful, but even they seemed a touch nervous.

The missiles, lasers, and the giant blue orb of destruction sped across the distance in what felt like the blink of an eye.  Even Milton, with his enhanced sensor orbs and ability to interpret data at higher speeds than most, was barely able to keep up with the projectiles as they crossed the last mile, moving so fast that they were a blur.  The first of the weapons to hit the Stasis Field were the lasers, outpacing the missiles by a half-second; as soon as they hit the suspended, invisible barrier around the Station, they almost seemed to disappear, as if they were absorbed without any effect.

In reality, the laser fire was still there, suspended in the very thin Stasis Field, and could be seen as a nearly two-dimensional, multi-colored dot wherever they hit the barrier.  Essentially, they were frozen in time, unable to pass through the Field – exactly as Milton and Sandra had been hoping would happen.

The over 5,000 missiles came next in a massive wave that was spread out over the majority of the rings and the upper command sphere.  They were moving so quickly that as soon as they hit the Stasis Field, every missile looked like it had simply appeared out of thin air.

Then they all exploded within milliseconds of hitting the Station’s enchanted barrier.  Looking back on it later, the Think Tank concluded that the missiles had been moving with such speed that when their momentum was arrested, they essentially flattened like a pancake, setting off whatever explosive nuclear or other devastating effect they were designed to produce.

The explosions were so great that the entire front side of the Station was enveloped with flames and a cloud of dangerous-looking shrapnel from the projectiles, obscuring the entire structure from the Heliothropes’ sight.  Anything that hit the Stasis Fields was trapped in place and frozen in time, to the point where the affected Fields appeared to be perpetually on fire with frozen flames.  It was actually fairly interesting to see it happen, and he secretly thought it looked awesome, but that still wasn’t the only thing that was headed in their direction.

The blue orb that had been fired by the Commander ship had grown to nearly a mile in diameter, though it appeared to have lost a bit of its sheer destructive power as it expanded.  Like a fist that uncurled until it was a palm of a hand, it could still slap them down like they were gnats – were it not for their protective barrier.

When the orb hit the centermost ring, it stopped and popped like a water balloon that had been pierced by something sharp, sending blue plasma-like waves of force all around the impact site.  By the time it was absorbed by the Stasis Field, sucking it up like a sponge, the blue color covered nearly half of the Station; Milton was very glad that it had been stopped, because just that orb alone would’ve likely crippled most of the Station’s structure.

Milton fist-pumped into the air, shouting, “YES!  IT WORKED!”, which was accompanied by cheering from the rest of the people in the command center.  Another quick look at the people in the Residence Ring showed equal celebrations coming from the assembled crowds, with joyous shouting, hugging, and other displays of thankfulness.

“Brint, let’s get drone groups Beta through Delta working on clearing up those Fields,” Milton said to the Proctan, who was smiling from ear-to-ear.  Brint immediately started to use his Neural Uplink to control the thousands of drones along the outside perimeter of the Station, just underneath the Stasis Fields.  Once they were in position, they stayed just out of range of the barrier and began to use their directed Molecular Converters to essentially break up the molecular bonds of every piece of shrapnel and to disperse the energy formed by lasers, explosions, and the blue plasma from the giant orb.  Since they weren’t moving or constructing anything, they were able to quickly move over the outside of the hull, removing any trace of the destruction that recently got stopped by the Stasis Fields.

It would’ve been so much easier to simply turn the Fields off and get rid of what was held inside of them, but as he had seen when he had a sensor orb enter it at full speed, the energy and shrapnel in there would then continue at the same speed as it had been when it was trapped.  The method with the drones took a lot longer, but it was also a lot safer.

As for the Heliothropes, they immediately launched another attack.  Another volley filled with missiles, lasers, and a second large blue orb crossed the distance between the enemy fleet and Murder Station, and the exact same damage occurred to the structure when the protective barrier was struck: i.e., nothing.

Now, Milton remembered something from his High School days, in which he learned that Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.  If the Heliothropes had continued to attack him without any change, then he would’ve considered them insane – in addition to sociopathic, murderous mutherfiznuckers.  However, after their second unsuccessful attack with no visible damage to the Station, they immediately switched tactics.

In other words, they shot forward from their strategic positions on an intercept course with Murder Station, intending to invade and kill everyone inside rather than blow them up from afar.  That was exactly what Milton was waiting for.

“Move to intercept!  Focus on the larger Elite ships!”

The Station Core received a number of replies from the Proctan pilots as they raced around from the rear of the Station, where they had been staying relatively obscured during the attacks.  A few seconds after the Proctans appeared and started to basically charge at the incoming fleet that outnumbered them 1,014-to-30, the Heliothropes stopped and held their current position.  A second after they came to a stop, another attack was launched from the massive fleet, this time at the smaller ships headed in their direction.

That had as much probability of working as did the previous assault against the Station.  Explosions enveloped the Freighters, who didn’t bother to try and evade the projectiles, and multi-colored lasers were turned into small dots stuck in the Stasis Fields.  A third big, blue orb of plasma was launched, passing around a trio of Milton’s vessels without effect, before impacting the Station’s barriers once again.  The enchantments with which they were equipped worked perfectly, trapping any harmful energy or shrapnel that would’ve otherwise completely destroyed the ships.

“How is everything working so far?” Milton heard at his avatar’s elbow.

Milton turned and smiled at Sandra, who had apparently taken the fact that Murder Station hadn’t been blown to bits as a good sign.  He waved at the screen as she slipped her arm in his own, “So far, so good; your enchantments have worked even better than I could’ve imagined.  Even given their performance, I’m anxious to see what the enemy will do now.”

The Dungeon Core nodded.  “Me too.  From what little I know about them from you or ALANNA, this might be one of the only times they’ve been stopped so thoroughly.”

“That’s probably true,” Milton agreed.  “The Collective had what I would consider classic ‘shields’ to protect their ships and colonies from attacks like the ones we just weathered, but they were limited in how much they could absorb before breaking.”

ALANNA overheard their conversation as they continued to watch the viewscreen, which showed a top-down view of Milton’s Freighters and the Heliothrope fleet.  “That is true; the Concentrated Persistent Plasma Cannon – which I believe is the original version of what the Commander ship is firing – was originally designed to adhere to and erode typical energy-based shielding by inflicting persistent damage to it.  Even with the output of a Zero-point Energy Reactor like the one in your Station Core, any type of energy shielding you might have adapted for the purpose of protecting this Station would’ve been outstripped by the persistent plasma damage enveloping it.”

That’s interesting—wait.  “You mean that I could’ve used an energy-based shield on the Station?”

“Yes and no.  If you had discovered plans for one, or even developed one via your Think Tank, then you might have been able to get it to cover the entire structure,” she said quickly, noticing that things were starting to happen on the viewscreen.  “But the power draw would’ve been incredibly high, to the point where it would’ve been unusable for more than a minute or so, especially under attack.”

“I guess it’s a good thing we didn’t go that route, then.”  Milton turned his attention back to the battle against the Heliothropes, which had been uneventful with no more long-range attacks, and only his Freighters bearing down on the enemy.

“Ooh, I think we’re about to see some action….”

Chapter 30

Seeing that their weapons did absolutely no damage to the incoming Freighters, the Heliothrope fleet eventually decided that they would take their battle to the incoming threat themselves.  About half of the smaller enemy vessels and half of the Elite ships broke from formation and started moving toward the Proctan ships, likely having the same thought of boarding and killing everyone they could get their melee weapons on.  The other half of the Heliothrope fleet, including the Commander, ignored the coming ship-to-ship battle and moved toward Murder Station.

Milton heard Whisp sigh audibly in relief.  “Thank the Goddess they took the bait.  With half of them occupied, the dungeon should be able to take care of the rest.”

I certainly hope so.  They were prepared to kill whatever invaded their dungeon, though how difficult killing the Commander would be was still unknown.  The only time they had encountered one before was when it had been nearly half-dead because it had been ripping chunks of itself off in order to reproduce; and the only reason they had succeeded in defeating it was due to cutting the connection to its home dimension and consequently bringing its protective glowing shield down so it could be killed.  Even that had been extremely difficult, because it was a massive opponent that went berserk after the connection with its “God” was severed.

Milton’s Freighters flew directly toward one of the 46 Elite vessels, ignoring anything else around them.  The smaller Fodder/Soldier ships, however, were quite maneuverable, despite looking like large shipping containers, and they moved to intercept.  Over 400 of the smaller ships created a loose “wall” between the Elites and the Proctans, presenting themselves as some sort of barrier – which didn’t really work that well, considering that Milton’s forces didn’t care what was between them and their targets.

Each of the Freighters was approximately 10 times the size of the smaller Heliothrope ships, considering that they were able to fit up to 1,000 people comfortably, and each of the vessels rammed right into the “wall” of the enemy—and kept going.  On the front of each of Milton’s ships were now stuck 7 or 8 Heliothrope vessels, affixed on the front like some sort of strange growths.  The speed of Milton’s ships did not slow down at all, however, because none of the smaller ships’ engines was transferred to the Freighters.

The first of the Proctan Freighters to break through the blockade slowed and spun so that their rear end was facing toward its target Elite vessel; the next moment, they bumped into the side of the Elite ship, adhering to it as the enemy was stuck in the Freighter’s Stasis Field.  All down the line of Milton’s ships, more and more Elite ships were stuck to the Freighters as they tore through the initial defensive “wall”.  Only 2 weren’t able to make it to their target, having acquired too many hangers-on as the Heliothropes were able to rally and cover the vessels like a porcupine’s quills. As a result, their Field wasn’t able to reach an Elite ship to catch it.

“Boarding action, commence!”

As soon as everyone was in position, each of the ships connected to an Elite vessel popped a hatch on the rear end of the Freighter, letting out all of the heat into the void of space.  To prevent an explosive decompression at the time when a breach was made, all of the air had been pumped out almost as soon as they had left the Station, keeping only heat inside in order to preserve some warmth for the Proctans.  Since all of them had been practicing stopping their breathing when using the Space Amulets, by the time they were ready to attack, they were more than accustomed to the relatively new experience.

All sense of gravity was lost when the hatch was opened as well, but hundreds of handles along the walls and metal poles interspersed throughout the Freighter hold allowed for easy movement – as well as access to a small batch of the Station Core’s drones.  Each of the different Freighters had multiple Proctans that had taken the Neural Uplink gene mutation, which – similar to Brint – could allow them to access certain Combat Units and drones directly, without having to communicate with Milton.  Those particular fighters each used this ability to hold onto one of Milton’s flying drones and use it like an underwater scooter to float through the opened hatch, where they encountered the Stasis Field.

By physically entering the Field and dragging the flying drones through, they were able to bypass the time stop effect; it was one of the strengths and at the same time one of the vulnerabilities of the powerful enchantment.  Once they were through, the drones flew up to the hull of the stuck Elite ships and began to cut through the metal plating at a rapid pace, making their way inside of the enemy vessel.

Meanwhile, the smaller stuck ships connected to the Freighters weren’t idle.  Using their powerful weapons that seemed as though they could cut through anything, the Fodder and Soldiers on those ships cut through their own ships, releasing an explosive decompression of their atmosphere, damaging their vessels in the process – not that they cared.  With the way open, they floated through the intervening space between their ships and the Freighter using their glowing shields, until they began to cut through the Freighters’ hulls.  By the time that Milton’s drones finished cutting holes in the Elites’ vessels, there were dozens of holes in each Freighter, letting in the blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes.

They were met by hundreds of Proctans who were ready and prepared for them.

The thing about the void of space was that it was generally a lightless expanse of darkness, which was exactly what many of the Casters relied upon to generate a lot of damaging effects.  By utilizing their Dark Affinity, they created sharp spikes of pure darkness as the Heliothropes attempted to enter the Freighter, stabbing their protective barriers repeatedly as they lined up, one after another, to enter the Proctans’ ship.  By the time that most of them entered, their glowing shields were already quite damaged and low, and were constantly being consumed to maintain their existence with the lack of atmosphere.

Proctan Tanks were arrayed out front, using their Force Field Generation to create a protective shield of Power to stop the attacks of those that made it into the Freighter, though they couldn’t maintain that for long.  Thankfully, they didn’t need to hold out for more than a few seconds as Rogues suddenly appeared and attacked in unison, using their Self-Levitation ability to move themselves out of the way of a counterattack, which was very useful in the lack of gravity.

Meanwhile, Support and Healers used a number of abilities to whittle away at the glowing shields of the Heliothropes now in the Freighters.   These brilliant abilities included Blinding Light – which directed light toward a target’s eyes; AOE Cloud Suite – which created clouds of detrimental effects; and even Temporal Distortion – which sped up or slowed down people/objects in an area. With a constant assault on the boarders, it didn’t take long for individual shields to wink out of existence; the Proctans immediately took advantage of this with a renewed attack, though the lack of air and freezing cold in the void of space did more to hurt the Heliothropes than the Proctans’ quick attacks.  One after another, blue-skinned Fodder and even purple-skinned Soldiers were killed having managed to kill only a handful of Proctans, who were too slow or didn’t have the ability to flee well enough in zero gravity.

The attacks on the Elite ships weren’t going quite as well, especially considering that they hadn’t even been able to get a foothold on their target vessels yet.  As soon as the drones were able to open up access to their targets, with the aforementioned depressurizing explosion, those Proctans ready to storm the ship were met with a stream of Fodder and Soldiers that prevented them from advancing.  So far, dozens of the enemy streamed through those access points, with none of Milton’s forces able to get through them to kill the Elite that was likely in there somewhere.

Each of the Freighters was now the site of an intense battle on multiple fronts, and only the Proctans’ sheer numbers allowed them to survive the onslaught.  Casters began to use Telekinesis to fling dropped weapons into the incoming Heliothropes, or use their Earth Affinity to do the same, in addition to a scattered Spatial Void here and there.  All of the other Classes pulled out all of the stops, using every ability in their arsenal that was available to them to beat back the incoming waves of Heliothropes.

They were somewhat hampered by the fact that some of their most powerful abilities were unable to be used in the void of space.  Flora Manipulation was out, not because of the lack of air, but because soon after they were exposed to the cold, any moisture inside of them was frozen solid within seconds.  Air and Fire Affinities were useless because both of those needed air in order to be effective, and Atmokinesis – which was the manipulation of localized atmospheric conditions – needed an atmosphere in order to function.

Despite those disadvantages, they were actually in a better position than the Heliothropes, because as soon as the enemies’ protective barrier was defeated, the multi-armed fighters would suffer almost immediately from the lack of air, the cold, and the inability to move easily through zero gravity.  In all of the Freighters, no more than 1,000 of the 25,000 or so Proctans who had started the fight had been killed, though the battle was far from over.

The casualties started to add up after the first of the Elites began to carve larger holes for themselves and enter the fight.  In such cramped quarters, the size, reach, and devastating attacks took their toll on the attackers-turned-defenders, cutting through the Proctans with ease.  Thankfully, on all but 1 of the Freighters that were connected to the Elite ships, the flood of Heliothropes from the smaller vessels had slacked off to just the few dozen that were still in the hold, so the Proctans were able to maintain their lines before they completely collapsed.  By using a combination of different abilities and generally overwhelming the Elite with numbers and too many targets for it to defend against, the sacrifice of hundreds of Milton’s forces per Freighter meant that they were able to collapse the Elite’s shield, making it much easier to kill once those protections were gone.

For the unlucky Freighter that wasn’t able to stay ahead of the enemy flood, it still ended up killing the majority of the Heliothropes that entered.  Milton had a special task for the last few remaining Proctans that had fled to the bridge.

“Get ready to deactivate the Stasis Field.”

“What?  Why?”

“I’m going to overload the engines in just a moment.”

“Huh?  Oh, I see; we’re going to give them a little parting gift.”

“Exactly.”

Milton had access to the Freighter’s controls if he needed to operate it from afar, which is exactly what he did.  As the dozens of Fodder invading the hold managed to make it to the bridge door and began to hack it apart, the Station Core started the engine overload sequence by feeding it copious amounts of energy without activating the propulsion system.  In short, there was no outlet for the power being fed into it, which would precipitate an overload.

Just as the door was finally broken enough to allow one of the Heliothropes through, Milton could tell that the engines were about to blow.

“Remove the Cube now!”

Three of the four remaining Proctans on the bridge went to intercept the incoming enemy and managed to hold it off for the few required seconds as the fourth defender snatched the Cube away from the Freighter model, deactivating the Stasis Field enchantment instantly.

Two things happened in the period following the deactivation of the enchantment.  The first was that the Heliothrope ships that had arrived after the initial blockade run, which had attempted to ram the Freighter and instead slammed to a stop as they got stuck in the Field, had their original momentum reinstated.  In less than a second, the Freighter was struck from different angles, the Heliothrope ships passing through the hull like a train through a brick wall, as they tore the vessel apart.

The second thing that happened a moment after the Freighter was torn apart was that the overloaded engines finally exploded from the excess energy.  A massive detonation ripped through the Freighter and every smaller ship that had been attached to it, obliterating everything in its path.  The Elite vessel, being larger and a bit more durable, only had a hole it its side ripped open, crippling it but not destroying it entirely.

As for the Heliothropes that were either inside of the Freighter or still in their ships, half of the Fodder and Soldiers had their protective shields stripped away, which meant that they suffered from lack of air and the cold for nearly 20 seconds before their glowing barriers started to regenerate.  The Elite, which had survived the explosion but had been close to the engines when they exploded, also had its barrier depleted and two of its arms were ripped off, but it somehow survived.  In only about 10 seconds after the massive detonation, its glowing shield was back, and its wounds started to scab over. Those that survived, a quantity far less than what started the fight on that particular Freighter, managed to float back to the heavily damaged Elite ship, where they took refuge in whatever compartments were capable of having the atmosphere reinstated.

Despite the success of the others, including the pair of Freighters that hadn’t been able to reach an Elite vessel, the ship-to-ship battle wasn’t over yet.  There were still hundreds of smaller ships and more than a dozen Elite vessels that hadn’t been engaged yet, and they took the opportunity, at that point, to remedy that situation.  As if knowing that the previous boarding action had failed, the remaining ships tasked with fighting the Freighters fired upon their own trapped vessels with hundreds of missiles.  When they impacted the now-empty ships, they all exploded in a glorious detonation, obliterating the majority of the vessels in a matter of seconds.

The way was clear for them to board and attack the Proctans once again.

“The explosion of one of your ships earlier demonstrates that they aren’t invulnerable, even if they don’t likely know exactly how it was destroyed,” Sandra noted, after Milton idly wondered what pushed the Heliothropes to keep assaulting the same Freighters even if there was a high probability they would all die.

Thinking about what she said, he realized that it was true.  The remaining ships had stayed in place at a distance until the initial ship-to-ship battle was over, where they were evaluating whether it was a viable method of attack.  Similar to how they had attacked the Station from long-range only twice to confirm that they were having no effect, they had waited to see if boarding and attacking the ships directly would work.  When one of the Freighters blew up, the Heliothropes had their answer.

They were learning; that, or they were more intelligent than he gave them credit for.

The entire initial boarding and assault had happened quickly, all within the first few minutes of the ships’ engagement.  Rather than focus on the additional assaults, he kept a portion of his mind on them in case they ran into trouble and turned his attention back to Murder Station.  All of the smaller ships had landed on one edge of the extra-wide platform leading into the dungeon, stacking on top of each other, quickly discharging their vast numbers.

The Elite vessels came next, each of them containing 50 Fodder, 5 Soldiers, and the expected Elite Heliothrope.  Only some of those ships were stacked on top of each other, which left the Commander ship to land on the far edge of the platform, showing that Milton might need to lengthen the arrival platform in the future if they were going to have more Commander ships visit in the future.  There was enough room for the final ship to unload, however.

“Wow.  That’s a lot more than I expected.”

Milton and the rest of the command center watched as row after row of Fodder marched out of the large Commander ship, 1,000 in total, as well as 100 Soldiers and an additional 10 Elites.  After they all exited, the massive, black-skinned, 12-armed Heliothrope walked out of the enormous airlock doors of its vessel, topping out at over 150 feet tall.  It was half-again as large as the one they had fought on Sandra’s planet, and Milton had to admit that it was a little frightening.

The Station Core thought that it was a good thing that his avatar didn’t have bowel movements, because otherwise he might have had to change his pants.

Chapter 31

With a total force of 7,910 Fodder, 791 Soldiers, 56 Elites, and – not to be discounted – a single Commander, the Heliothrope army that entered the giant airlock leading to the dungeon was an impressive sight.  Like every other time he had seen them enter his dungeon, the Fodder were arranged in blocks of 100 with 10 Soldiers immediately behind them.  After that, the Elites formed their own long line, a wave of red-skinned destruction that appeared ready to devastate anything it came across.  Behind them all was the Commander, appearing almost bored compared to the rigid discipline of the other Heliothropes.  Despite hoping that they would all be dead soon, he couldn’t help but note their organization, overall discipline, and orderly ranks with a bit of appreciation.  They were murdering, slave-owning filth, naturally, but they could certainly put on a show.

“Here we go, everyone.  It’s showtime!” Milton said, doing his best to dispel any worries that had overtaken him when he saw the size of the forces arrayed against his dungeon.  With the recent additions, though, he thought they had a very good chance of succeeding.

Sandra took his hand and squeezed it, showing her own support for their dungeon.  He smiled at her for only a moment before his entire focus was on the advancement of the invading army.  The previous assault on the dungeon had been a minor threat compared to what they faced now, considering that this one not only was around 9 times the size in sheer numbers, but it also included more than 50 additional Elites and the Commander.  It was going to require all of his attention to make sure that they survived and that nothing went wrong.

Of course, things went wrong almost immediately.

As soon as they stepped into the desert section of the dungeon, the Fodder blocks began advancing at a much faster pace than what Milton or Sandra was used to.  Whether it was the presence of the Commander that made them more sure of themselves, or some other effect at work, the end result was the same: Their traps, defensive weapons, and defenders were less effective.  The Iron-mandible Segmented Millipedes barely had a chance to emerge from the sand before the first few rows of Fodder had passed by.  As a result, they were quickly surrounded and killed before they could do more than annoy a few Heliothropes with very minimal damage.

The same could be said for the Platinum-banded Wyrms and the Titanacondas.  As soon as they emerged from the sand below, there were entirely too many of the enemy to contend with; despite a few successes where they were able to inflict large amounts of damage to the glowing shields of the Fodder, they were ultimately surrounded and killed before they could commit more than superficial attacks.

Milton’s Nanite Swarms saw a little more success, as a dozen of the blue-skinned Heliothropes lost their protective barriers in the process, where they suffered from heat damage for a short time before their glowing shields came back.  Unfortunately, that was the extent of the Nanite Swarms’ success, and it was only the constant and persistent heat damage to the barriers themselves that allowed even that much.

Though, based on what little effect the heat had on the Commander, it wasn’t as much of an asset as he would’ve hoped.  While even the Elites’ shields slowly reduced as they progressed through the desert section, the Commander’s didn’t budge.

“We don’t have enough empirical evidence to accurately assess the Commander Heliothrope’s shielding,” Whisp informed Milton when he commented on it.  “In addition, the heat might even be doing very little damage to the barrier, considering how powerful it is.”

Wonderful.

Sandra’s superheated flame traps, on the other hand, worked perfectly.  Catching at least a half-dozen with each occurrence, mainly due to how fast they were moving, the magical traps were able to eliminate 41 of the Fodder-type Heliothropes before the entire force got through the desert.  Unfortunately, that was the barest fraction of how many there were, and while the rest of the Fodder had their shields reduced to around 80% power because of the heat, there really weren’t a lot of other wins in that section.

Meanwhile, the Elites and almost every one of the Soldiers came through it relatively unscathed, along with the Commander.  The giant black-skinned Heliothrope simply walked slowly and menacingly behind the rest, waiting for its subordinates to soak up the damage so that it didn’t have to.  The majority of them were Fodder, after all.

The mountainous section with the winding path between mountain cliffs was a little different – but not by much.  The same random Nanite Swarms defenses, stampeding Quelephine herds, and Explosive Floor Plates designed to launch piles of rock at the advancing Heliothropes were still there and did relatively well, but barely made a dent in the numbers attacking them.  Milton thought that the main reason was because the narrow canyons forced the enormous army to shrink down in width as it snaked through the pathway; this made the entire force stretch out for nearly a mile, so that when the leading edge was halfway through the mountains, the rear was just entering.  The column of Heliothropes was difficult to slow, as well, because they didn’t stop for anything, even when they were attacked; they simply struck out where they could and allowed those behind to clean up whatever was left over.

Sandra’s Launchers, operated by Goblin Crafters up in the cliffs, worked as well as they did before, though because the targets were moving faster, accuracy was down.  Still, there were so many of the blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes that it was hard for them to miss frequently, and hundreds of Fodder were taken down as they advanced.  The Launchers were actually more successful overall because none of the enemy stopped to throw objects at the Launchers to destroy them, as they basically ignored the deadly distraction.

Because they were practically jogging, the Hardened Animated Slabs hiding in the dirt managed to catch hundreds of Fodder and launched them into the air as the Dungeon Monster squeezed them out when it clapped its sides together.  This actually helped the Goblin Launcher crews, because when the Heliothropes would gently drift back down to the ground, the Goblins were able to shoot them out of the sky.

The most successful were the High Peak Rocs, who were picking up and dropping massive, heavy boulders on the bunched-up columns of Fodder with what could only be described as methodical efficiency.  Hundreds more Heliothropes met their doom when one boulder was dropped at great speed from above, where it hit and rolled over dozens of Fodder before coming to a stop.  That, of course, wasn’t enough to kill them, due to their glowing shields, but the follow-up boulder dropped in exactly the same line finished the job.

Unfortunately, there was one time when the two Rocs drifted a little too close to the end of the Heliothrope column where the Commander was located – mainly due to the winding nature of the pathway – and a very familiar knife-on-a-chain weapon struck out at both of them in rapid succession.  The casual flick of the Commander’s hand when performing that deadly act was frightening in its execution, and the Rocs were impaled and killed almost immediately, crashing to the ground in death a few seconds later.

While the Fodder and even the Soldiers ignored the Launchers along the cliffsides, the Elites did not.  They easily picked up fallen weapons that littered the ground in various places, dropped when the smaller Heliothropes were killed, and then launched the melee weapons with scarily accurate throws to destroy them.  As the last part of the column passed through, the powerful Elites were there to make the way safe, both for themselves and for their Commander.

Unfortunately, all of Sandra’s large pit traps that trapped their victims in stone were triggered early in the column, killing hundreds of Fodder – but none of them were around to make a try at the Elites.

All told, just under 900 Fodder and a dozen Soldiers were killed in the mountainous section, nominally matching the success of the first defense against the invaders weeks ago.  Of course, those numbers would’ve reduced the previous assault down to just a few remaining, but even nearly 1,000 Heliothropes dead was barely more than 10% of the total still in the dungeon – and none of the really dangerous ones.

The final part of the mountain section was the area filled with a dozen Big Ol’ Badgers and a pair of Steel Colossi, though there had been a few changes.  With the addition of some powerful Defensive Weapons, Milton thought that he could start reducing those numbers even more.

Along the cliffsides were two more Launchers, which had previously already been there, but they were joined by a few other things.  The first were 24 Railgun Penetrators, which cost nearly 5 million BMUs and only around 45 Focusing Crystals with all of his bonuses, but it was worth it to load up the surrounding cliffsides of the “Boss” area with additional firepower.  While the Penetrators didn’t have as large of projectiles as the Launchers, the thin, charged slivers of tritanium would still help to reduce the shielding of the Heliothropes when they exploded upon impact.  Each Railgun Penetrator was operated by Goblin Crafters, which had proven to have fast hands and excellent aim through their previous Heliothrope assault.

Also along the large Boss area walls were 24 Laser Cannon Emplacements, which were also controlled by Sandra’s Goblins.  The Lasers shot out super-concentrated beams of light particles, which he had seen work quite well against the enemies’ protective barriers.  The Emplacements, along with the Penetrators, were both effective killers – but they were also very vulnerable to being destroyed when the Heliothropes tossed whatever they had on hand at them.

Which brought him to the final defensive weapon he created for the Boss area: Holographic Illusions[21]. The Holographic Illusion was basically an emitter that projected a hyper-real hologram over an area, creating an illusion that was nearly indistinguishable from the real thing.  At a cost of only 500 BMUs and 2 Focusing Crystals a piece, he buried 30 of them just under the surface of the dirt floor of the space, showing just enough that they could project the one-way illusion along the walls, essentially camouflaging all of the projectile locations to look like the blank cliff wall.  Granted, the locations of the Laser Cannon Emplacements would likely be revealed as soon as they fired, but the rest would still be relatively hidden for the time being.

As the first of the Fodder and accompanying Soldiers entered the final mountain area, the space widened considerably until they could spread out a little more.  That was exactly what they started to do, in fact, when the dozen Big Ol’ Badgers erupted from out of the ground underneath them, flinging multiple victims up in the air as they slashed out with their extremely sharp claws at the surrounding enemies.  While, because of their glowing shields, none of the Heliothropes that were hit by the Badgers were hurt, the attack was also the signal for the Goblin Crafters along the perimeter wall to start firing.  At the same time, the two Steel Colossi – stationed at the far end of the area which led to the next section – started to walk forward.

Milton didn’t even bother trying to see the projectiles sent out by the Launchers and the Railgun Penetrators, but he definitely noticed their results.  Many of the Heliothropes that had been sent flying into the air when the Badgers erupted out of the ground were hit by multiple explosions, as the slivers of charged tritanium broke apart their molecular bonds in a violent cataclysm of destructive power.  For a relatively full barrier, it took around 2 of the Penetrator slivers to collapse the shield, and when the Fodder or Soldiers were hit by a third….

The result was like watching a fireworks display on the Fourth of July.

Needless to say, it wasn’t pretty, but the raining gore and filth as Heliothrope bodies exploded in mid-air didn’t seem to demoralize the enemy at all.  In fact, they barely seemed to register that it happened at all, but that was probably because they had other problems to deal with.  The Badgers were holding their own as they slashed out at anything that came near, though they were being wounded at a prodigious rate by the melee weapons wielded by the enemy.  However, they received a little bit of a reprieve as the Laser Cannon Emplacements along the walls fired at those closest to Milton’s large Combat Units, draining their barriers until they were vulnerable. At the same time, when their glowing shields were down, so too was the enhanced sharpening of the weapons, which ultimately meant less damage to the Badgers.

As more and more Fodder and Soldiers made their way into the Boss area, however, the Big Ol’ Badgers were slowly being overcome.  That was until the Colossi finally moved all 200 feet of their bulk near the fighting, where they stomped on the nearest Fodder and smooshed them underneath their bulk, flattening them into the dirt.  Milton could see that they didn’t kill the Heliothropes right away because of the shielding, but the squished enemies were effectively stuck without being able to lift the foot off of them.

Reaching down with giant sweeps of their arms, the Steel Colossi slammed through a wave of Heliothropes each, sending them flying and even draining the barriers of at least a dozen of them as they were flung away.  Then there was another sweep of their other arms, doing the same thing again to even more Heliothropes, before slamming both arms down on the gathered forces, doing incredible damage and killing dozens.

All of the Big Ol’ Badgers immediately retreated back down below the surface to lick their wounds for a few seconds, while the Colossi went to town on the Fodder and Soldiers now focused on attacking the two massive constructs.  Meanwhile, as the Heliothropes were knocked around, smashed, kicked, or stomped upon, the projectile emplacements along the perimeter wall continued to fire intermittently, with Sandra’s Launchers being by far the fastest, and the Laser Cannons being the slowest, only being able to sustain 15 seconds of firing per minute, lest they overheat.

Hundreds and then thousands died even as the feet and legs of the colossal constructs were torn apart by powerful weapons of the Heliothropes, though not nearly as quickly as they had on the enemy’s previous visit; at that time, it had been Elites that had fought the large steel constructs, not the Fodder and Soldiers.  Despite there being far more of the blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes in this battle, Sandra’s creations fared much better because of the enemy’s shorter reach.

The Badgers eventually erupted out of the ground again and created havoc among the fighting masses, doing even more damage to those around them in the process, while the outer wall of the area continued to rain projectiles and lasers among so many tempting targets.  Sadly, one-by-one, the Badgers started to get entirely cut apart by more fresh Fodder and Soldiers marching into the battle.  Then one of the Colossi staggered and fell to a knee as one of its legs was practically sheared off by so many attacks, though it continued to bash at everything it could reach.

The end was inevitable from there, as the second Colossus was brought down as the last of the Badgers was killed.  Still, even when it collapsed on the dirt, unable to support its weight anymore, it kept on flailing and bashing everything within range, draining shields and giving the Goblins hiding behind a holographic illusion the chance to pick even more off than they would’ve otherwise.

“Tell them not to hold anything back now, Sandra,” Milton said softly to the Dungeon Core at his side.

Sandra appeared distressed, however.  “I can’t; I’m completely cut off,” she admitted.  “However, my orders were to ‘Go all-out’, as you say, when the last of the Colossi is killed.”

He nodded to show he understood, and then watched as the first Steel Colossus was hacked to pieces, only to disappear and reveal the relatively small Monster Seed she had used to create the construct in its place.  The moment that the second Colossus disappeared into nothing, with hundreds of Heliothropes surrounding it, he watched the purple-skinned Soldiers turn to the cliffsides.  A second later, the Fodder were jogging toward the perimeter of the area, intent on destroying the emplacements hidden by the illusions, but the Goblins were already at work on their final order.

Laser Cannons opened fire and raked along the front line of Fodder heading for the walls, not stopping even after the 15-second limit was hit, risking severe overheating damage to the Emplacements.  The Railgun Penetrators started to rapid-fire as well, shooting out another sliver every second, tearing through the ranks of the incoming Heliothropes and dropping them quickly as they were torn apart.  The Launchers increased their fire rate only marginally, because they were already firing fairly quickly; the difference was that they didn’t take as much time to aim, but they hardly needed to with the wave of Fodder racing toward them.

The damage to the first of the Defensive Weapons from overheating barely beat out the arrival of the enemy to the cliffs.  As the blue-skinned, 6-armed Fodder used their glowing shields to levitate up and through the hologram, the first of the Laser Cannon Emplacements started to melt into slag, seconds before the Goblin Crafter operating it was decapitated by a sweep of a Heliothrope sword.  Many of the Railguns and Laser Cannons followed quickly on the heels of the first, breaking down or melting into slag, many times burning or even killing the relatively weak Goblins in the process.  Only the Launchers continued to fire until the very end, hitting separate, shield-less Fodder at point-blank range and blowing fatal holes in their chests, before being overcome by even more enemies.

The second section had been defeated, though that was only to be expected.   Many thousands of Fodder and just under a hundred Soldiers had been killed, which was actually better than Milton had thought would happen.

Of course, the killing had just begun.  As the leading edge of the Heliothrope army marched into the third section with the tall trees, the D-Ranged Monkeys and Powered Jaguar Empresses started to migrate toward their designated positions among the treetops, moving stealthily from branch to branch.  By the time the leading edge triggered the new gas trap that Sandra had recently replaced around three-quarters of the way through the forest, there were hundreds of defenders in position.  When the first Fodder and Soldiers started to lift themselves out of the harmful gas using their glowing shields, her constructs were ready.

Chapter 32

When thinking how best to utilize some of Milton’s Defensive Weapons, Sandra had latched onto the idea of his small Plasma Bombs as being something that could be utilized in conjunction with one of her magical traps.

“I think it is time we blow some things up,” the Dungeon Core had told him with a smile, and Milton wholeheartedly agreed.  When she mentioned her plan to him, his enthusiasm grew even stronger.  Still, he didn’t want to blow a hole in the side of the ring, so some alterations needed to be made underneath the topmost layers of the dirt in the forest, to prepare for the large surprise they had in store for the Heliothropes.  A 5-foot-thick steel layer was quickly installed underneath the dirt and trees, courtesy of thousands of drones working in unison, the project just barely finished before the Station engaged with the Heliothrope fleet.

The enemy force had been reduced in size enough that the entire line of Elites entered the tree line ahead of the Commander, which was a second or two before the gas was triggered.  Instead of a strictly poisonous gas, Sandra had altered it at the suggestion of Whisp, who recommended something a bit more… flammable.

“Can you create anything with your Mana?”

Sandra had shrugged at the question.  “Within limits.  I have to have a basic understanding of what I need, and my Core abilities attempt to replicate it in a trap.”

“Perfect.”  Whisp had nodded, bringing up a chemical gas composition on the consoles, along with some Earth-based recordings of what exactly she wanted to show the Dungeon Core.  “This is called Chlorine Trifluoride, which is a very reactive gas that can burn through stone when ignited.  It’s very dangerous—which is exactly what you need.”

It turned out that the smart Proctan was correct.  While Sandra didn’t have the requisite knowledge in chemistry to reproduce the Chlorine Trifluoride gas perfectly, she understood it enough that her Mana was able to reproduce an equivalent gas in the forest section.  This time, her trap covered the entire forest ground at a depth of 5 feet; because of its size and concentration, the gas would only be active for a little under 30 seconds before it dissipated.  Thankfully, that was more than enough.

When the first Heliothropes began to rise up to get above the gas, once the trap was activated, hundreds of D-Ranged Monkeys up in the tree branches started launching deadly javelins at the rising enemy, severely damaging protective barriers as their great accuracy ensured a hit almost every time.  Instead of each Monkey concentrating on a single target, however, they spread the love between as many as they could see.  The goal was to affect as many as possible before the next stage of the plan engaged.

The hundreds of Powered Jaguar Empresses that had roamed through the treetops took the launching of javelins as their cue to lithely jump down off the tree limbs to the ground below, landing among the Heliothropes that were just beginning to rise up out of the gas and forcing many of them to turn back and attack the targets in their midst.  Of course, the enemy didn’t know that before they jumped down, each of the big cat constructs had activated a small Plasma Bomb that they held in their mouths, which would all explode after 10 seconds.

They didn’t last that long.

As soon as the first metallic melee weapon hit a Jaguar construct, a spark was created as a result of the strike, setting off a chain reaction of events that Milton feared had inadvertently damaged the dungeon ring.  Spreading out from the original site of the spark, an explosive force ripped through the forest as it consumed the highly flammable gas, tearing through the shielding of the Fodder and Soldiers caught in the blaze like it was made of paper. The concussive impact of such a detonation slammed into the ground, and only the thick steel plate he had recently installed kept the side of the Station’s ring from exploding outward.

From what Milton could tell from the carnage afterward, the initial explosion only killed a few hundred of the Fodder that had some weaker shielding thanks to the javelins thrown down by the D-Ranged Monkeys.  What that explosion also did was essentially take down the protective barriers of every other Fodder and Soldier caught in the blast, making them vulnerable when the hundreds of small Plasma Bombs activated by the Powered Jaguar Empresses went off due to the intense heat a second later.

The staccato cacophony of the Bombs going off was like music to Milton’s ears as the rapid explosions expanded to encompass thousands of Heliothropes nearby, burning and killing most of those that were caught in the Bombs’ radius – which caught anything up to 20 feet away.  The detonation also served to have enough force behind it to finish the destruction of nearby trees, which had been cracked and burnt from the initial gas explosion, shattering the trunks of dozens of them and flinging large pieces of sharp wooden shrapnel at the unprotected Heliothropes.

The forest eventually fell quiet as nearly two-thirds of the remaining Fodder and Soldiers laid burnt, and in some cases dismembered, on the dirt ground.  The rest were either injured, or by some set of circumstances, still relatively unscathed even after being blown up multiple times.

As for all of the Jaguar constructs, they couldn’t handle being blown up, either, as they had all been destroyed when the gas and Plasma Bombs exploded.  Half of the D-Ranged Monkeys were blown off of their perches high in trees or collapsed along with shattered trees, falling to their deaths down below, but there were still dozens that managed to weather all of the explosions, with little-to-no injuries.  Almost as soon as the destruction stopped, Milton’s Combat Units resumed their bombardment of javelins down on the Heliothropes, who were unprepared and unable to easily fend off the projectiles as they rained down on them.

At that time, hundreds of Powered Sabre Wolves, who had been waiting on the fringes of the forest where there were no explosions, raced through the forest, surrounding and picking off surviving Fodder and Soldiers wherever they could.  The combination of powerfully thrown javelins from above and the sudden attack by packs of metal Wolf constructs overwhelmed the many hundreds of scattered and injured Heliothropes.

“Milton?  Sensors are reporting that there are some stress fractures in the ring’s hull centered on the point of the explosions,” Rhiole suddenly mentioned, dampening his mood a little bit.  “I would suggest toning down the degree of the destruction next time, or better yet, do something a little less… impactful.”  The reprimand made Milton a little uncomfortable, but he couldn’t deny the truth of her statement.

“Yeah, that was a little more than I was expecting, to be honest – but I can’t deny that it was successful,” he responded while rubbing the back of his neck, while at the same time watching the remaining Fodder and Soldiers gather up and start to rally on the viewscreen.  “It was a spur of the moment idea, anyway, and we were pressed for time.”  He looked at Sandra, who was nodding.  “We’ll think of something different for next time, one which will both be safer and subtler than simply blowing up an entire forest with gas and Plasma Bombs.”

Besides, he thought, all of that barely even affected the Elites.  A quick review of the massive explosion showed that it took a little more than 30% off of their glowing shields, and the single Bomb that exploded near two of the red-skinned Heliothropes took off another 20%, essentially meaning that they were barely scratched.  Even if they had been in the middle of the forest instead of the edge, they still would’ve come through relatively unscathed.  Against the Commander, if it had been inside, the explosions probably would’ve been more annoying than an actual threat, but there really was no way of knowing at the moment.

By the time the dust settled and the Elites moved in to help clear out the Wolves and Monkeys attacking the remaining 312 Fodder and 76 Soldiers, the forest was an absolute mess.  Yet another reason not to blow it up like that; it’s going to take some work to rebuild it.  The destruction was made even worse as the Commander entered the forest, or more accurately, pushed it aside.  Strong trees, many of which had actually just survived a large gas explosion, were easily knocked over as the massive black-skinned Heliothrope indelicately pushed them out of its way, creating a pathway through the forest that didn’t exist before.

As the much-diminished army made their way through the forest, Milton couldn’t help but recognize that while the dungeon had managed to kill many thousands of the invading force, its overall power hadn’t been reduced by much.  All that had been killed thus far were basically – as the name implied – just Fodder, and the strongest of the enemy had barely been engaged, let alone harmed.  He didn’t consider the remaining blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes to be much of a threat, at least compared to those that followed them.

But now the entire enemy force was heading into the next section, which was the second to last area before there was a blank, wide open space where already there were Proctans gathering for a final defense.  All of those that had died or were dying on the Freighters out in space were being reborn as quickly as the Bioconversion Labs could process them, so that they could get back into the battle as soon as possible.

As for those Proctans that had survived the initial boarding action, they were actually holding their own fairly well.  As additional ships connected to them, Milton’s defenders were able to tackle them 1, 2, or even 3 at a time, since they all didn’t arrive simultaneously.  Without being attacked from dozens of entrances into the Freighters, they were able to consistently hold off the assaults, though they were slowly losing their numbers through attrition as time went on.  Milton could also tell that the cold was starting to finally settle into many of them, though the constant fighting was helping to keep them a little more warm than they would’ve been normally.

The Elite ships, when they connected to Milton’s vessels, were the most dangerous because of the nature of the red-skinned Heliothropes, and he was forced to self-destruct another 5 Freighters that fell underneath the onslaught.  Any survivors of those explosions managed to get to another ship, typically one that was passing nearby, leaving their heavily damaged vessels behind to rejoin the fight somewhere else.

Nevertheless, the Proctans were persevering.  There were still more than a hundred ships for them to defend against by the time the force inside of the dungeon traveled outside of the forest, but he had confidence that the remaining 8,000 or so Proctans left alive on the ships would succeed.

Milton really hoped they would, because he really didn’t want to have to make any more of his Freighters go boom.

Turning his attention back to closer matters, he saw that the first of the Fodder were approaching the large stone and dirt hill that led upwards, 300 feet up at a steep angle, in fact.  It wasn’t a hard climb, and there were no traps or Defensive Weapons to impede their progress, so they achieved the summit in less than a minute, given that they were still moving rather quickly.

At the top of the hill they stopped for a moment while the Soldiers trailing them came up even with them.  The reason they paused was made evident when the Heliothropes observed the vista in front of them.

The hill they had climbed ended with a sheer cliff that dropped down into a wide open pit of stone spikes that stretched for 2 miles into the distance.  Sandra had created the simple spikes rather quickly with her Mana, shaping them so that they had a sharp point on the end of each 5-foot-long shaft.

Now, given that the Heliothropes could float, the giant pit wasn’t much of an obstacle, though Milton thought that the Fodder and Soldiers would have a difficult time flying all the way across using their glowing shields – even at full power.  But the spikes and the drop below onto them wasn’t exactly the point of this section; instead, it was the thin, 10-foot-wide metal pathway that meandered over the spikes that was the main obstacle.

The pathway was supported by thick columns of Weightonite spaced evenly enough throughout the expanse, and every 100 feet or so there was a larger circular platform that was 30 feet wide, giving the entire route an appearance that – when observed from above – reminded him of a very odd-looking connect-the-dots picture.  In reality, the “picture” wasn’t anything more than a circuitous route through to the other side of the wide valley of spikes, but he thought if he altered the route in the future, he might be able to design something fun.

Speaking of fun, it looks like they’re about ready to start crossing…

Chapter 33

The whole point of giving the Heliothropes a route across to the other side, rather than just forcing them to fly across, was a simple principle that both Milton and Sandra had learned when setting up their own dungeons: Give the invaders an obvious pathway to follow, and they are less likely to break your dungeon to get to their objective.

An example of this principle, on a much smaller scale and in a different location – such as underground – would be to have a room filled with lava with no obvious way across.  Given that most invaders couldn’t float across like the Heliothropes were able to, there would only be two outcomes of an incident like that.  One, the invaders leave, unable to progress further.  This would be the most expedient for the one in charge of the dungeon, as it eliminates the problem of dangerous invaders getting to their Core, for instance.

The second, and significantly more dangerous outcome, would be for the invaders to find a way around the lava.  In the case of his own experiences, Milton had fought against invaders that could tunnel through solid rock, if pressed or given enough time.  It would be a disaster if his enemy suddenly decided to bypass the rest of the dungeon and tunnel straight for his Station Core, after all.

The same went for Sandra’s world.  Milton had already seen how the people there could manipulate the Earth element, so it wasn’t completely out of the realm of possibility that they could also tunnel their way around the lava-filled room and aim straight for her Dungeon Core.  Or, they could demolish the surrounding walls and ceiling of the room, covering and filling in the lava for a way across, potentially destroying the stability of the entire dungeon.  Or any other destructive and dangerous methods that were only limited by their abilities and imagination.

But if there was a way across the lava already in place, then it was much, much more likely that they would follow the path instead of trying to destroy everything in their effort to reach their destination.  In the case of this section in his current dungeon, with the stone spikes and the 300-foot drop, Milton could think of multiple ways the Heliothropes could react that would end in disaster.  The worst thought was that they would simply fly down to the bottom, destroy the spikes they found there, and then punch a hole through the hull beneath them, letting out the atmosphere – and then floating across the rest of the obstacle.  During the ship battle, Milton had observed that the glowing shields of the enemy had a much higher capacity for life-support; as a result, moving through an absence of atmosphere – even with gravity still being present – wasn’t that big of a deal in the short-run.

Hence, the platform that wound its way across the deadly chasm.  The Heliothropes immediately stepped onto the metal pathway leading them across the giant spike pit as it ran to the left, where it would continue for a little way before practically doubling back.  From there, it went in multiple directions, splitting off into 3 different paths; some of those paths would wind up being a dead end, while others would roam back and forth, dipping under other pathways and taking branching turns, making a veritable maze of options that the enemy could follow.

Of course, given that they could float – for a short way, at least – the possibility existed that they could simply leapfrog from one pathway to another in a straight line across the giant pit.  It was what Milton would do if he had their advantage, anyway.

While there was no way to completely prevent that from happening, Milton had created a deterrent, at least for the Fodder, Soldiers, and even Elites (the Commander was a completely different issue). It was an expensive deterrent, but it was something that he adopted from Sandra’s Launchers, after initially seeing them in action.  Since the entire pathway was made of metal – in actuality, iron – that meant that it was highly magnetic.  As such, he placed hundreds of Magnetic Repulsors/Attractors to the underside of the pathway, which he hooked up on a system that would allow him to turn one on at the end of the section and it would turn them all on at once, or even switch the polarity at a whim.

If the Heliothropes decided to hop over most of the pathway, the idea was to turn on the Defensive Weapons all at once, repelling them away from landing where they were aiming.  Of course, the protective barrier would compensate for the repelling of their weapons quite quickly, which was why he would switch the polarity and attract them, and then switch again to repel, and so on.  Previous observations of the Heliothropes had shown that the glowing shield could only protect against one magnetic effect at a time, at least for a little while until it compensated for the changes.

This wasn’t designed to hurt the enemy, but to delay them and drain their shields.  As they were suspended above the spiked pit and the platform, struggling to compensate for the changing magnetic fields, the delay would consume more of their shields than they were likely to appreciate.  Then, with the enemy stuck in the air – even for a few seconds – that was when the other defenses in the room could go to work.

Despite being metal constructs, Sandra’s Sonic Blademasters were formed from a non-ferrous material that wasn’t affected by magnetic fields.  As such, the V-shaped, floating creations were able to move in close to attack, even if the Magnetic Repulsors/Attractors were activated.  Once they were close enough, within about 20 feet, they would rapidly spin these circular discs along their poles, which would create a sonic-charged blast of damaging air and vibration at a target, which could practically tear apart flesh like a shredder.  Against protective barriers, likewise, the attacks would rapidly reduce their energy, especially if many of them were focused on the same target.

Even better, Sandra had said that they weren’t very expensive to create, so she was able to create exactly 1,000 of them, which would hide under the platforms and would fly up to attack when anything passed within 50 feet of their location.

Unfortunately, there were a couple of downsides to the Blademasters.  The first was that they were rather weak defensively, as even throwing a rock at them could upset their balance when they were fully revved up, which more often than not ended up with them ripping themselves apart.  The second was that they were slow to turn or move from a position where they were already actively firing their sonic blasts of air, all due to the fact that they needed to slow their spinning so that they did not tear themselves apart.

In addition to the Sonic Blademasters, Sandra also provided angels: Or in more precise terms, Enhanced Celestial Authorities.  Milton had seen these figures made of a Holy light when he helped to eliminate the Heliothropes on her planet, but they were even cooler inside of Murder Station’s dungeon.  The relatively featureless Authorities could fly with the pair of wings they possessed, and they wielded a blade of light in their hands that almost appeared capable of slicing through even the strongest armor.  But it was their special ability that set them apart from many of Sandra’s other Dungeon Monsters, because each could shoot out beams of light to attack from afar.  They weren’t quite the same as his Laser Cannon Emplacements, but they had certainly proved to be almost as effective.

Because they were more expensive to produce, around 10 times more than the Blademasters, Sandra only created 100 of them, but they were a force to be reckoned with.  Unlike the V-shaped constructs, the Authorities were able to quickly move and dodge attacks sent their way, so they wouldn’t simply be sitting ducks hanging out in the air.  This also gave them the versatility to attack from different angles or even from melee range if they ran out of the elemental energy that was used for their light beam attacks.

One of the last of Sandra’s contributions to their defenses was something that Milton had attempted to create back on Proctus, but had fallen a little short.  The Quagon was the best he could create, though the beast had a lot of issues with it that were only overcome through the use of certain Proctan abilities.  The most prominent of these issues was the fact that it had real trouble lifting off of the ground – mainly because it couldn’t flap its wings, which were rigid like a glider.

But Sandra’s dragon – though she called it a Seed Converter Drake – was much more what he imagined a massive flying lizard would look like, even if it was also a construct.  From head to tail, the Drakes were 125 feet long and 40 feet wide, with a wingspan that could rival her High Peak Rocs, and they had shimmering scales that were almost pearlescent in quality, though the material they were made from was so strong that even the Diamine swords that the Proctans utilized could barely even scratch it.  Sandra said that it was due to the Mithril Monster Seeds that the Drake had swallowed in order for it to grow, which was how the construct got as large as it had.

But to get to the size where Mithril would be beneficial, the Drakes had to consume quite a few Monster Seeds of lower quality and work their way up.  That was the reason why they were called “Seed Converter Drakes”, because they basically ate the expensive Monster Seeds that Sandra could produce and converted them into growth.  It was for this reason that there were only a pair of the Drakes in the room, and each of them took just under 12 hours to fully grow into what they were now.

Next on the list of defenders were some Combat Units of Milton’s, which included his own miniature dragons: Diamine Quagonlings[22].  Unlike their larger brethren, the Quagons, the Quagonlings were highly maneuverable, though they still had rigid wing membranes that allowed for gliding; despite the lack of being able to effectively flap their wings, they could dive-bomb their targets and adjust quickly to avoid being skewered… at least most of the time.  His use of them in Murder Station’s former dungeon had a mixed bag of results, but now they were in their natural environment, circling around and around the elevated section as they gently glided through the air.

With 100 of them joining the other defenders in the air, looking like flesh-and-blood younglings of the Drake constructs, that might have been enough defenders.  But wait, there’s more!

In addition to the flying Combat Units, Milton also added defenders to each circular platform – which was the main reason for creating the platforms in the first place.  On each of the 80 platforms scattered around were a trio of Bearillas, totaling 240 throughout the entire section.  While they were marginally expensive to create in his Upgraded Bioconversion Labs, their real cost came in maintaining them; each hour, every Bearilla had to eat the equivalent of a cow, or else they would start to waste away.  Up until the Heliothropes officially entered the dungeon, there had essentially been a line of Picow Livestock being herded into the dungeon just to feed them, and it was something that couldn’t be sustained for long periods of time.  In fact, he hadn’t even started to create them until he knew that he was going to be in a battle soon, and before he started to make all of the changes to the dungeon, there had only been a single Bearilla per platform.  This was a special occasion, however, considering how many they were going up against, so he decided to stack the deck.

In addition to the Bearillas, there were a few Defensive Weapons in the section.  Spaced randomly throughout the metal pathway were Molecular Disrupters, which – when activated – would essentially wipe out anything within 15 feet, including the pathway.  They hadn’t been tested against the Heliothropes’ glowing shields, of course, but he could only assume that they would be particularly effective against any Fodder or Soldier.  If they were really lucky, then even an Elite could be affected.

It was a lot of defenses, and whether they worked together in unison was something they would be finding out fairly quickly.  There were also a few surprises toward the end of the pathway that he was looking forward to using, as they would be quite impressive.

“I can’t believe you were right, Sandra,” Milton said as the lead enemy units started to follow the pathway as it led to the left, rather than trying to hop over the empty space to get to the next one.  “I really thought they would try to cheat.”

Sandra laughed with genuine amusement.  “Cheat?  Is taking a shortcut considered cheating?”

“It is when I’m designing a dungeon.”

“Well, you might still be right after they take a wrong turn or two; I can’t imagine they wouldn’t hesitate to use whatever advantage they have to advance further along the platform, if given the chance.”

Milton thought she was probably right, again, but only time would tell.

Within seconds of the Fodder up front walking upon the platform, the nearest airborne defenders came to visit.  A dozen Quagonlings, 5 Enhanced Celestial Authorities, and 25 Sonic Blademasters either swooped down from above or rose up from below – in the case of the Blademaster constructs – attacking in unison.  The blue-skinned Heliothropes immediately went on guard as they faced whatever was closest, but they were fully unprepared to be blasted by 5 beams of bright light from the flying angels, which started draining their shields quite rapidly, given that most of them had started around 75% from the constant battering and recharging throughout the dungeon.

Distracted by the attack, none of the 20 or so Fodder along that stretch of the pathway paid attention to the innocuous-looking Blademasters, at least until a tremendously loud whine started to emit from them after they got themselves spinning.  All 25 of them targeted a different enemy, with a few doubling up, and not only were they initially pushed back a little by the sonic onslaught, but their protective barriers began to quickly drop in energy percentage.  The 5 Fodder that had also been attacked by the beams of light got a double dose of shield-destroying power, and they were quickly left vulnerable.  When the sonic blasts hit the bare flesh of the unprotected Heliothropes, their flesh began to ripple and tear away, like watching some poor animal being held near the back of a jet engine back on Earth.  It wasn’t a pretty sight, but it was definitely enough to put all of them out of the fight, if not kill them altogether.

The other sonic barrages didn’t stop on the other Fodder, however; if the blue-skinned enemy allowed the attacks to continue for another 15 seconds or so without reacting, then their shielding would fall, also.  Either they were instructed to keep ahold of their weapons no matter what (and consequently didn’t throw any), or the Soldiers behind them instructed them to jump toward the spinning Blademasters; regardless of the reason, that was exactly what those under attack did.  With a huge leap off of the platform at the floating Blademasters that were 20 feet above, the Fodder attacked with all of their weapons stretched out in front of them, completely obliterating the constructs in only a few seconds, easily ending that threat.

Despite the ease of defeating the constructs, the Fodder weren’t prepared for the swooping attack of the Quagonlings and the Celestial Authorities, which hit the unsuspecting Heliothropes from behind.  Unnaturally sharp claws and tremendous bites from the flying lizards scratched and tore against the shielding of the blue-skinned targets, along with the sheer impact of their diving assaults.  The damage was enough to finish the job of taking down the Heliothropes’ protective barriers, though unfortunately the attacks snapped the wing of a Quagonling in the process.  The glowing angel swords also struck multiple times as the Authorities swooped agilely in to attack, deftly getting in some rapid hits before there was any serious reaction from their victims; as had the Quagonlings, they were able to eliminate the shields of their targets without any problems.

As a result, 17 Fodder fell to their deaths as their only means of staying aloft left them as all of the energy was drained from their protective barriers, along with the single Quagonling that had its wing broken from impact with the enemy.  The long drop down below was nearly enough to allow their shields to recharge, but they were instead impaled by sharp stone spikes as they needed at least another few seconds in order to survive the drop.

Just like that, the battle in the pit was officially on.

Chapter 34

It turned out that having airborne defenders that could attack from a distance was a major advantage that the Heliothropes couldn’t adjust to fast enough to save themselves.  At least, as far as the Fodder and Soldiers went.  Even on the first leg of the pathway through the spiked pit section, they couldn’t seem to get a handle on a proper strategy to combat them, though eventually they started to throw their weapons at the Blademasters, Authorities, and Quagonlings, with some successes.  Unfortunately for them, the Authorities were too quick to be impaled by a thrown trident or battleaxe, and losing a weapon to destroy the Blademasters was almost a waste because there were so many of the constructs.

By the time the lead forces arrived at the first platform with a trio of Bearillas, over a hundred Fodder and a dozen Soldiers had been killed, though all of the flying defenders had eventually been killed on an almost 1-to-1 trade-off.  When push came to shove, being able to fly up to meet the dungeon’s defenders was about the only thing they were able to take advantage of, because in a straight-up fight aloft in the air their superior skills were key.  The problem for the weaker Heliothropes was that being aloft ate into the energy of their protective barriers, and the defenders took advantage of that fact to lure them out over the pit, where they would fall to their deaths.

Fighting against a trio of 20-foot-tall bear-gorilla hybrids, on the other hand, was technically much easier for them, as they could go toe-to-toe with the large Bearillas and hold their own… for a little while.  The incredible power of the Combat Units’ strength, combined with their speed and toughness of their fur and skin, made them formidable foes.  In addition, while their glowing shields protected them from actual harm from being hit with a fist (that was the equivalent of being smashed by a wrecking ball), the Fodder and Soldiers went flying from the impact.  Given that the platforms were only 30-feet across, this ended up with them being flung out into the empty air above the spiked pit – further weakening their protective barriers.  It soon became a game of punching them again when they floated back to the platform, until they eventually ran out of energy.

Of course, the Bearillas suffered greatly from the incredibly sharp weapons of the Heliothropes, as even their tough exterior was cut, stabbed, or smashed in, until they began to slow from their wounds.  Regardless of their injuries, they continued to attack everything that got close to them in a whirlwind of punches, slams, and even back kicks when surrounded; they lasted even longer when more flying defenders participated in the battle, distracting or taking advantage of inattention to score cheap hits, prolonging the fight longer than normal.

The land-bound defenders eventually succumbed to their wounds when they were surrounded on all sides, including from the air, as the Fodder and Soldiers attacked from every direction, finally taking them down.  The toll of the dead, however, was high; of the 300+ Fodder and 76 Soldiers that had walked up the big hill to get to the spiked pit section, only 113 Fodder and 42 Soldiers were still holding the front line as they advanced from the first platform.

The next leg of their journey through the section ended up whittling down their numbers by merely a handful after they were able to defeat another trio of Bearillas on the next platform, as well as all of the flying defenders.  Halfway through the next curving pathway on their route to yet another platform, the last of the blue and purple-skinned Heliothropes succumbed to their inevitable fate, with most of them impaled on spikes 300 feet below.

Through it all, the 56 Elite Heliothropes, the 20-foot-tall, red-skinned, 8-armed enemies that were much more dangerous than their smaller cousins, had been trailing behind, watching everything with keen-looking eyes.  Milton could see them analyzing the different attacks of the flying defenders, and sizing up the quick and powerful blows of the Bearillas; by the time it was their turn to attack, they were ready.

Taking to the air immediately, the Elites hunted down and killed/destroyed the flying defenders that came after them, as their superior glowing shields were much more up to the task of both protecting them and keeping them aloft.  That didn’t mean they came away totally unscathed during the engagements in the air, because most of the red-skinned enemy had their barriers drained significantly, typically from light beams or sonic blasts at a distance, though they typically recharged fairly quickly when they were able to touch down again.

One Elite, however, actually had their shield break while over the spiked pit, and it plummeted toward its death down below.  Because it had a much quicker recharge time, though, it was still 50 feet away by the time it regenerated, saving the Heliothrope from being impaled and allowing it to return to the fight with a diminished capacity.

The Bearillas had a little more luck, though that wasn’t saying too much.  Because the Elites could only walk down the pathway single file due to their size, only one at a time was able to approach the trio of large, hairy, Combat Units waiting for them.  Of a similar size, the Elites were able to utilize their own strength to push against the sheer presence of the Bearillas, chopping off limbs when they were able to score a hit, but they were still knocked off of the platform when they were hit.  Flung off and forced to use the energy in their protective barriers to stay aloft, they came back to attack from the air while another Elite was able to step up and attack from the platform.

After flinging a few of the Elites off of the platform and being subsequently attacked on multiple sides, even the Bearillas couldn’t maintain that for long.  They had gotten some significant damage in, however, breaking a few more barriers in the process, but the plummeting red-skinned Heliothropes were able to save themselves without too much trouble when their shields recharged.

“They are a lot tougher than I realized,” Sandra noted.  “I was hoping they would fall to their deaths as soon as their protection was broken.”

“I had hoped that as well, but they are quite a bit more powerful than that, unfortunately,” Milton replied.  “Still, I want to see what happens when they—ooh, look at that!”

As the enemy moved through the pathway they had chosen after the last platform, the very first of the Molecular Disruptors that Milton had concealed along the way was finally triggered by a lone Elite.  In an instant, the lower three-quarters of the red-skinned Heliothrope was enveloped in a brightly glowing bubble as the enemy’s barrier attempted to prevent the scrambling of the Elite’s molecules.  The glow lasted for no more than a second before it disappeared, along with that small section of platform, the lower three-quarters of the Heliothrope, and all of the weapons said Elite was holding.  Bereft of most of its body and without a shield to protect it, the remaining upper chest and head of the red-skinned enemy fell to the spiked pit below.

“Well, it’s good to see that it worked.”

“Yeah,” Sandra responded, her eyes wide as she looked at the viewscreen.  “It’s a bit disturbing, though, isn’t it?”

Milton nodded.  The sight of most of its body being essentially scrambled out of existence was a bit disgusting, given that the Elite still technically lived for a short time after all of that.  “Yes; yes, it is.  But at least it appears to be a guaranteed kill.”

“Very true.  I guess that one way of killing them isn’t necessarily better than another.”

After the death of that Elite, however, the more-intelligent red-skinned enemy changed their tactics.  Some sort of decision had been made among them that they weren’t going to allow any more of those Molecular Disruptors to kill them, and so they began to stay airborne while they traveled.  Not only that, but they apparently decided that – since they were already aloft – they didn’t need to travel along the pathways anymore, and so drifted straight over them on a route that would bring them to the end of the section much faster.

This, naturally, was when Milton activated all of the Magnetic Repulsors/Attractors connected to the metal pathways, alternating polarities, catching them as they floated by.  The time that they were stuck in place while their glowing shields adjusted to the changes wasn’t all that long, but it was more than enough for a counterattack staged by dozens of Authorities and Quagonlings, and several hundred Blademasters.

In sequence, the grouped Blademasters targeted one Elite after another in groups of 30, literally ripping apart their protective barriers.  When the glowing shields fell, they were officially caught by the magnetic Defensive Weapons, which kept them suspended in the air as they were jerked back and forth – and they were therefore unable to defend against the supporting flying defenders, who ripped apart flesh with extremely sharp claws and teeth, or they were nearly bisected by a sword made out of light.

In short, it was a slaughter.  More than half of the Elites fell in the time their shields were unable to compensate for the magnetic pulling and pushing.  The rest had their protective barriers drained a little bit until they were around the 60% mark; when his Defensive Weapons stopped affecting them, he turned them all off.  The Blademasters and the light-filled angels continued to attack at a distance, for as long as they could, while the surviving Quagonlings backed off.

It was time for the Seed Converter Drakes to finally take part in the attack.

Still suspended above the spiked pit and floating toward the smaller, V-shaped constructs and Authorities, the Elites were unprepared for 125-foot-long metallic dragons to sweep down on them, smashing into them with such force that they were tossed like leaves in the wind.  A few of them were actually picked up by razor-sharp claws and squeezed with amazing grip strength, carving the energy out of their shields in a matter of seconds.  The Heliothropes attempted to fight back, even held as they were, but their weapons only managed to dig small furrows into the prismatic-looking metal of the Drakes.

“What was it you said that metal is?  Mithril?” he asked, seeing how the Drake’s scales had withstood a direct attack and only came away slightly scratched instead of being cut all the way through.

“Yes, though I would classify it more as an alloy,” Sandra clarified.  “Why?”  She obviously didn’t see what he did, so he pointed it out to her.

She just smiled.  “It’s very strong, Milton.  While most of my constructs can’t actually access or use the elemental energy inside of them, my Alloyed Defender can; I believe that the Drake unconsciously uses elemental energy when it has a Mithril Alloy in it to strengthen its scales.  I can’t say for certain, though.”

The Station Core was reminded of the fact that the Dwarves in her world could make armor and weapons made from this alloy and utilize their elemental energy to empower them; if the Drake was doing the same thing, then that would definitely explain why it wasn’t as hurt.  Thoughts about perhaps finding other uses for this alloy fled his mind as things started to really heat up in the dungeon.

It was now an all-out melee as the Elite continued to fight above the pathways, staying aloft with their protective barriers, as the majority of the flying defenders swooped in to take advantage of the chaos.  Even the nearest Bearillas took part in the action, using their speed and enormous strength to leap off of their platforms right at the Heliothropes, catching hold of their exposed backs at the apex of their jump and using them to keep them afloat – all while raining punches down on them.

Gives a whole new meaning to having a monkey on your back.

The Drakes swooped back in, causing even more havoc and snatching up a few more Elites, though even with their strengthened scales, they were starting to get seriously injured.  Sandra mentioned that it was possible that most of their elemental energy could’ve been used up after protecting against such normally grievous wounds, so their Mithril alloy protection was finite.  The rest of the flying defenders swarmed over the rest of the Elites, uncaring of their own safety as they sliced, scratched, bit, or sonically ripped apart the enemy.

Despite taking horrendous losses, the combined might of every single defender was enough to take down the last of the Elites in a maelstrom of blood and mangled flesh.  “Yes!  They did it—”

As Milton started to celebrate, a familiar knife on the end of a chain skewered one of the severely injured Drakes through its chest, the tough scales no longer able to prevent any damage.

The Commander had finally arrived.  While the Station Core hadn’t forgotten about it, the steep cliff had slowed down its advance to the point where it had lagged behind the rest of the Heliothrope forces, but now it was at the top of the hill and ready to fight.  As it casually pulled back on the chain impaled through the Seed Converter Drake, the Commander flicked its arm forward again and the knife shot toward the other dragon-shaped construct.  The second Drake was able to avoid being impaled through the neck, but its dodge was too little, too late, as its wing was clipped and practically ripped off.  The next second it was spiraling out of control, joining the other winged construct as they both plummeted down to the stone spikes below.

Sandra visibly cringed beside him.  “Ouch.  Those were a lot of work, and that thing took them out like it was nothing.”

Milton took her hand to console her over the loss of the Drakes.  “They were already weakened by the other attacks they suffered; they probably would’ve survived longer if they had been fresh.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but that just makes me hope that the last section does the job.”

Oh, I’m very confident it will.

The next few minutes were hard to watch as the Commander basically hopped from one pathway to the next, just as Milton had feared, and even with the Magnetic Repulsors/Attractors being activated, the massive 12-armed Heliothrope didn’t slow down.  It was too strong to let something such as magnetic fields pulling at its weapons affect it, as it leisurely swatted or stabbed at any defender that even got close to it.  Nothing stood a chance to avoid a quick strike by the Commander, and even some of the Bearillas that attempted to attack it were literally cut in half with a negligent-looking swipe of a sword or battleaxe.

Any long-range attacks slammed into its glowing shield and barely seemed to have any effect – or none that could be easily detected by Whisp’s calculations.  She had mentioned that her data set wasn’t nearly large enough to evaluate its strength, after all, so there was no telling if a beam of light was doing 1% damage… or .001% damage.  They had only succeeded in defeating the Commander before when they severed its connection to this dimension, which made its shield disappear; they were still working on the principle that it could be drained, though, which might or might not be an error on their part.

The only thing that seemed to give it the slightest pause was when it triggered some more hidden Molecular Disruptors along the pathway it strode over.  When they were activated, the Commander froze in place for a half-second as its foot was enveloped in an extremely bright glow, before it kept moving.  No actual damage had been done to its foot, though Milton had a feeling that the energy making up the shielding had been drained considerably as a result.  Of course, without any other sources of damage being heaped upon the Heliothrope, it probably recharged almost immediately back up to full or near-full, so it ultimately didn’t do anything except prove that it could be affected.

That kind of information was exactly what he wanted to know, because it influenced what happened next.  When the progress of the Commander meant that it was approximately 30 seconds away from the end of the section, four Goblin Crafters were quickly instructed by Sandra to activate a quartet of Milton’s Defensive Weapons before running away.

When the Commander finally made it to the end of the section, where a hill led down from the spike pit, the 4 Large Plasma Bombs that Milton had placed there for activation exploded, one right after another within split seconds of each other.

Unlike the smaller Bombs that had caused such a widespread explosion due to the gas amongst the trees in the previous section, the larger variety were a little bit more concentrated.  Reaching 400 feet in diameter, the destructive capabilities of them ripped apart the nearby metal platforms, tore up the top half of the nearby hill, and completely enveloped the Commander until it disappeared, surrounded by superheated flames.  Milton lost track of the massive Heliothrope immediately, and the sheer destructiveness of the blasts caused a wave of force to expand all the way up to the top of the massive dome covering the dungeon, shattering dozens of lights and destroying all of the nearby sensor orbs.

By the time Milton was able to get a few sensor orbs closer, he was able to see that the explosions had indeed had an effect, as the Commander had fallen into the spiked pit below when its glowing shield was obliterated.  Looking at its status – and from a visual check – he could see that it had a few burns along the outside of its body, reducing its total Health by about 5%; most of the wounds were superficial, and even the spikes had barely even punctured its skin when landing on them.  Unfortunately, there was nothing nearby to take advantage of the black-skinned Heliothrope’s vulnerability, and before too long, the protective barrier had recharged, allowing the Commander to float up and out of the hole the massive explosions had created.

Somehow, Milton could tell from its expression that it was now thoroughly pissed off.

Chapter 35

“I think we made it mad,” Brint chuckled nervously as they all watched the Commander start to move toward the final section of the dungeon.  The way it was now stalking over the dirt floor gave Milton the impression that it was ready and prepared to absolutely annihilate anything within its path, whereas everything it had encountered thus far was simply an annoyance that it could ignore.

“I think you’re right,” the Station Core agreed.  “But it hopefully won’t matter soon.”

As the Commander advanced further into the dungeon, the light level began to drop precipitously.  At first, the light from the section before – what wasn’t destroyed in the explosion, at least – shed enough illumination that there wasn’t much of a difference.  After about a mile, however, it was nearly as dark as the void of space, offering very little light for the Commander to see where it was going.  Either the Heliothrope had exceptional night vision or it simply didn’t care to see where it was going, but it missed the metal dome overhead changing into a dark grey stone, gradually reducing in height and width over the next mile until it was only 300 feet tall and 500 feet wide, about twice the height of the black-skinned enemy.

Milton could see everything, however, as this new set of sensor orbs weren’t affected by a lack of light.  Colors were a little more muted than normal, but that didn’t matter too much because there wasn’t a lot to see, which he could without any interference; for the first time, the Station Core also noticed that the Commander didn’t possess any type of metal cylinder that interrupted communications. All of those had been left back in the previous section when the last of the Soldiers had been killed, and even Sandra had full access to the new section with the last remaining Heliothrope, with the darkness also not causing any problems.

“Do you think it knows what’s waiting for it?” Sandra asked quietly, as if speaking loudly could somehow alert the enemy to its plight.

Milton shook his head with a hint of an evil smile on his lips.  “Not a chance.”

Something – not likely their conversation, but anything was possible – finally alerted the Commander to a change in his environment.  It started to walk a little more cautiously, with weapons at the ready, as if it sensed danger around the corner.  The Heliothrope was right, of course, but it was totally unprepared for what occurred.

The descent into darkness was designed to instill fear into the Heliothropes, if such a thing was even possible.  Knowing how relatively mindless the Fodder variety was, neither Milton nor Sandra had thought they were capable of such emotion, but the Soldiers and Elites had shown themselves to have a range of emotions, even if those emotions were most commonly associated with serial killers and heartless monsters.  The pure lack of light was designed to play on those emotions, creating fear where there likely hadn’t been any before, to the point where it would negatively affect their decision-making and skills in battle.

This section wasn’t originally meant to withstand a Commander, however, but seeing the different emotions going through the massive Heliothrope over the last few minutes, Milton suspected that it was at least capable of the kinds of emotions they were trying to elicit, even if it didn’t normally show them.  Caution was just the first step on the road of fear, after all.

To the Commander, who Milton supposed couldn’t see much, there was nothing obviously dangerous around, though it could sense danger; to those in the command center, they were able to observe 200 large cat-like Dungeon Monsters created by Sandra surrounding the final Heliothrope as it slowly walked forward.  The large cats, which were at least twice the size of the largest tiger he’d seen back on Earth, were pure black in color, mimicking the skin of the Commander, but there was something special about these particular cats, or as Sandra called them, Shadow Wyvines.

They weren’t quite “cats” in the traditional sense of the word, but were a strange mixture of a lizard or wyvern and a feline, and it took Milton only a few seconds to work out the name, Wyvine.  He was somewhat of an expert in smashing two names together in hybrid Combat Units, after all.  Their skin was rough and scaly like a wyvern, though they couldn’t fly; instead, they had the ability to move silently like a hunting cat and used shadows to their advantage.  Being from a magical world like Sandra’s, they used the darkness to teleport wherever there was another splash of darkness or shadow nearby (which happened to be just about everywhere).

Once they were all in position, Sandra gave the order; as one, the Shadow Wyvines all teleported instantly through the darkness until they were right up next to the Commander’s upper body, legs, head, and even arms… and then they all attacked with a few swipes of their extremely sharp claws.

The cavern that the Heliothrope had been unwittingly walking into illuminated with the bright glow of the Commander’s shield once it was struck, before winking out a second later.  The enemy was initially surprised by the attack and then attempted to strike out at the Shadow Wyvines, but as soon as the glow went away, Sandra’s Dungeon Monsters disappeared from where they had been, teleporting through the darkness toward safety.

A moment later, the Wyvines did it again, appearing next to the Commander abruptly and then attacking, before teleporting away when the barrier disappeared.  After the third time of this happening without any success in striking back, that was when the Heliothrope actively turned its glowing shield on permanently, and the Wyvines retreated for the moment.

Now, though, the other denizens of the cavern were revealed.  When Milton had asked Sandra what scared or creeped her out the most out of all of her creations, she had said her Powered Arachnids.  She wasn’t really a bug person and didn’t care for spiders, and while they had served her well since she’d become a Dungeon Core, they still made her a slight bit uncomfortable.  Milton really didn’t like spiders either, which was why it made sense to include them in the dungeon – in their thousands.

All along the ceiling and the perimeter of the cavern were 20,000 Powered Arachnids, which were the least expensive in terms of Mana of all of Sandra’s constructs.  To create 20,000 of them wasn’t actually that big of a deal for her, as they cost just about as much as all of the Powered Sabre Wolves in the forest section, though it physically took more time to create them all.  As soon as the figurative “light switch” that was the Commander’s shield was flipped on, all of the Powered Arachnids started to move.

Thousands of them dropped down from where they had been holding onto the ceiling, landing on the unsuspecting Heliothrope’s head, shoulders, and arms.  While they couldn’t get through the barrier, and in fact started to take a little damage from trying to pierce through it with their sharp, spiky legs, the constant damage was obviously annoying.  The Commander started to smack itself with its own weapons, smashing the spider constructs in the process, though it was hard to tell if it was actually hurting itself, as well.  Meanwhile, the rest of the Arachnids swarmed in quickly from the perimeter of the cavern where they had been sitting completely still, surrounding the massive Heliothrope within seconds.

When Sandra asked Milton what scared him or creeped him out the most, the Station Core was forced to admit that he still suffered from Sciurophobia.  When she asked for further clarification, ALANNA butted in and told her the story of how he had freaked out when a squirrel had attacked his Station Core just after he had regained consciousness on a foreign planet.  First telling Whisp and the others about that embarrassing episode, and now my… uh… I’m not exactly sure what she is to me.  Companion?

Regardless, Milton was relieved when Sandra only giggled a little over the humiliating story, and she didn’t seem to think any less of him.  “So, yes, I’m still a bit afraid of squirrels.  Thankfully, that fear isn’t nearly as bad as it was when I first arrived on Proctus, because ALANNA helped me get over it… a bit.”

“How?”

“By creating something even more terrifying than the small squirrels you might be familiar with,” he explained.  “I present to you… the Squirreling[23]!”

Instead of what most people would consider the cute size of a regular squirrel, with soft fur and a bushy tail, the Squirreling was a 2-foot-tall version with porcupine-like fur and a tail that bent in unnatural ways.  It also had razor-sharp nails and was much faster than even the quick forest rodents that were the root of his fear; by forcing Milton to utilize them in his dungeon and see them every day, ALANNA lessened his fear by overexposure.  It wasn’t gone, but as he had told Sandra, it was much less.

Seeing 10,000 of them perched along the walls of the cavern, their eyes reflecting the light of the glowing shield, brought his Sciurophobia crashing back into him.  A spike of fear went through his mind at the sight of the nightmarish wall of Squirrelings, but Sandra’s hand squeezing his avatar’s was enough to calm him down and force him to concentrate on what was happening with the Commander.

As if they were one unit, the Squirrelings hopped down from the wall and raced toward the Commander, who was methodically squishing, stomping, slicing, or bashing with a combination of its weapons and its feet, killing Arachnids by the hundreds every few seconds.  It was hard to tell how much damage to the Heliothrope’s shield they were actually doing—

“I believe we’ve compiled enough observational data to give an approximation of the Commander’s barrier energy,” Whisp suddenly stated, as if she was reading his mind.  Or did I mention that out loud?  It was hard to tell nowadays, considering that ALANNA and Sandra could both partially listen to his thoughts.

A percentage suddenly appeared over the Commander’s head, reading 89.1%, and it was slowly dropping.  Every other second it would reduce by another 0.1% as the Arachnids continued to attack, which jumped up to every second when the Squirrelings arrived to add their own assault on the massive Heliothrope.  Even with thousands of different defenders attacking the black-skinned enemy, they just didn’t do nearly enough damage to really make an impact on the Commander – but Milton never thought they would.  Instead, the mass quantities of constructs and Combat Units were originally meant to fight any Fodder, Soldiers, or Elite that made it to this final section, as the onslaught of so many defenders would quickly eat away at the less-powerful protective barriers on the smaller Heliothropes.

Instead, in order to prepare for the coming of the Commander a short time ago, Milton had added some extra-deadly Defensive Weapons along the wall of the cavern.  A full 6 Portable Particle Accelerators were set up with Goblin Crafters at the controls – which cost him millions of BMUs and thousands of Focusing Crystals – and all of them were currently pointed at the struggling Heliothrope in the middle of the cavern.  Without any other reason to wait, all 6 of them fired as soon as Sandra gave the order, and a half-dozen 2-foot-wide beams of pure destruction flashed out at the Commander.

The energy percentage of the enemy’s shield plummeted, dropping to the teens in only a few seconds.  The 12-armed Heliothrope wasn’t going to just stand there and take it, however, as it immediately jumped to the side and out of the destructive range of the Particle Accelerators; the Goblins shut their weapons off for a moment, but even as quick as they were, a few of the beams sliced into the cavern walls.  The issue with that was the Accelerators didn’t stop at the walls; the devastating power of the weapon meant that it could punch through anything in its way up to 2,000 feet away, which unfortunately meant that the side of the dungeon ring was punctured in a few places.

Almost immediately, the atmosphere in the cavern started to escape, and such was the force of the evacuation that thousands of the remaining Arachnids and Squirrelings were pulled along with it, as well as dozens of Shadow Wyvines.

“Sandra!  Can you plug the holes?” Milton asked quickly, but the Dungeon Core was already at work.  Within 10 seconds of the damage being done, a thick layer of dense stone formed where the holes were made in the cavern wall, stopping the atmosphere from escaping anymore; the rest would have to be repaired later, but the damage had already been done.  Many of the “living” defenders had been sucked out into the void of space, while the Arachnid constructs were stuck in the Stasis Field still covering the outside of the Station.  Not only that, but the Commander was already fighting back, striking out with its chain knife, and three of them were destroyed in quick succession.

“Fire again!” Milton shouted worriedly.  “We can’t afford to let it regenerate its barrier!”

The remaining Goblin Crafters, who had somehow managed to hold on to the Particle Accelerators and not get sucked out into space, fired again, draining the shield protecting the Commander from harm.  The Heliothrope continued to counterattack, destroying the last of the Defensive Weapons just as its barrier collapsed, and a 2-foot-wide hole appeared in its side where the last of the Accelerator beams pierced through flesh instead of shield.  It was definitely not a lethal wound, though, and the Commander didn’t even seem to feel it, despite its severity.

The remaining defenders immediately rushed in to attack, though even the deadly claws of the Wyvines couldn’t do much more than scratch the surface of the Commander’s tough skin.  Fortunately, they didn’t have to do much, since the last movement to the side that the Heliothrope performed put it near enough to the position Milton had planned for.

“Protect against this, you freak!” he said abruptly, activating the final defense in the dungeon.

Suddenly, in the middle of the cavern, a 10-foot-diameter sphere of pure darkness appeared, so dark that it looked as though a void had been created in all of existence.  The swirling void vortex was approximately 20 feet away from one of the Commander’s arms, but even at that distance, it started to be pulled into the sphere.  Milton watched as first the arm and then the sword it was holding were slowly pulled toward the void, despite the clear efforts of the insanely strong Heliothrope attempting to move it away.  For one brief second, the glow of a shield appeared and allowed the enemy to pull its arm back about 10 feet before the barrier collapsed again, starting the inevitable process of dragging the arm back into the sphere.

For nearly 45 seconds, the 12-armed behemoth managed to keep its arm from touching the all-consuming void, but eventually even its great strength wasn’t enough.  Once the tiniest portion of its skin touched the unstable void, it started a chain reaction that the Commander wasn’t able to stop; like being sucked up by a vacuum and then blended up in a food processor, the rest of the arm was pulled inside in less than a second, followed by the nearby arms and the Heliothrope’s torso.  As the enemy was consumed, the void grew larger and expanded its reach to nearby objects, which sped up the obliteration of the Commander’s body.  Once the void reached a total of 30 feet in diameter, after it had consumed all but the head and feet of the black-skinned warrior, the void collapsed in on itself with a *clap*, disappearing entirely.

For the first time, Milton actually saw the emotion of fear frozen on the face of the Commander’s head as it dropped to the floor of the cavern.

The Station Core was startled as a resounding cheer went through the command center, and he felt himself pulled around to look at Sandra, who bent down and pulled his face close to hers.  Before he knew it, their lips had locked, and he wrapped his hands around her back, pulling her closer to him.

An annoying thought occurred to him just then, and he tried to ignore it to stay in the moment, but it was impossible.  Thankfully, he was able to partition his mind to work on multiple tasks at the same time, so while he was enjoying the feel of Sandra’s body against his avatar and her lips on his, he was also checking in on the Proctans still fighting out in space.

He almost sagged in relief when he saw that they had managed to survive and fight off most of the Heliothropes that had boarded them, though something strange had happened toward the end.  Quickly looking through the recorded footage from the working sensors on board the ships, at the precise moment that the Commander had been officially eliminated, the remaining Fodder, Soldiers, and even Elites that had invaded suddenly froze in place and started to twitch, as if they were some sort of machine that had an error and was trying to reboot.

The Proctans, of course, took advantage of this to slaughter the rest of those on board their ships, though there were very few of the defenders left alive; of the 25,000 that had ventured out in the Freighters, only about 1,200 still lived, with some vessels only having a dozen or so still living.  The fight had taken a toll on them, but they somehow managed to succeed; it was good that the battle had ended, too, because there were still a few dozen Heliothrope ships that had been waiting their turn to board the Freighters, but now, with their Commander vanquished, they were entirely silent.

That was when all of the enemy ships exploded, even those that were still full of Heliothropes.

Chapter 36

“It’s pretty bad, Milton,” Whisp said, displaying images on the viewscreen.  “Our teams are heading down right now, but it appears that this small section of this continent is the only thing that wasn’t destroyed.”

The Station Core acknowledged her words, before turning his attention to the 14 Freighters that had survived the Heliothrope attack.  Technically, there were an additional 6 that remained largely intact, but they were so full of holes that they had to be gathered up onto the Station and repaired by all his available drones.  The 14 that were still operational had seen their boarding holes created by the enemy patched by a Molecular Converter and available drones on the Freighters, along with the clearing of the Stasis Fields; those that had to be repaired and cleared on the Station either had their Converters destroyed during the fighting or didn’t have any drones available to do the work.

Now that the fighting was done – for the moment, at least – the exhausted Proctans took a few moments to rest before starting a rescue operation.  Fortunately (and unfortunately, considering the reason), there was plenty of room on the Freighters to load up with the people they were heading down to the planet to save, because the number of Proctans had been reduced by nearly 80% from their original number.

Sadly, the Heliothrope bombardment had caused so much destruction that the world was essentially full of craters, smoke, and flames.  The only part of the land – which was on the viewscreen – that was even relatively untouched was a small patch of around 500 square miles, which appeared to mostly be planted fields of some sort of produce, with very little in the way of civilization nearby.  There appeared to be a very small collection of buildings that, if any, could hold only a few survivors.  Unfortunately, the density of the smoke, heat, and flames in the air made life signs of any people difficult to detect without getting closer.

Which was exactly what the Proctans were heading down to do right now.

“I’m picking up traces of life in the buildings… and below?  It’s not very clear, but we should have some more information in a moment.”

Milton nodded as the Freighters landed in what appeared to be a hellscape.  While there were acres of unburnt fields of some sort of grain, the surrounding lands were on fire; the heat from so many fires around the world had raised the temperature to the point where almost any Human would’ve had heat stroke within minutes of walking through it, and smoke and ash covered just about everything.  Embers drifting on the wind from the nearby fires were starting to set smaller blazes here and there, and Milton suspected that within an hour, the rest of the living things in sight would be entirely consumed.

Luckily, the Proctans were a hardy bunch, especially as the nanites in their bodies helped to regulate their internal temperatures to a certain level.  The heat, when they landed and emerged from the back of the Freighters, was actually pleasant to most of them.  “So much better than the freezing cold of space,” he heard more than once.  The smoke also didn’t bother them too much, as many of them had still adapted to not breathing, using their Space Amulets instead to provide oxygen to their bodies.  It still irritated their eyes, but the natural healing they enjoyed from their nanites kept them from suffering too much.

Within a minute, hundreds of Proctans had dispersed throughout the small collection of buildings, and it was only when the sensor orbs they brought along saw their figures next to the structures that he realized how large they were.  Not obscenely large, like they were made for giants, but each of the doorways that he saw on what appeared to be houses were at least 3 times as large and wide as he was accustomed to seeing.  The other thing he noticed, which he thought strange that he hadn’t before that, was a very large hill of dirt just outside of the collection of buildings.  His mind must have seen it and thought that it was used for farming or some other mundane reason, but as his sensor orbs started to assess what was under the ground, he discovered how wrong he was.

“Check for an underground entrance near the center of this little village,” he communicated to the Proctans searching through all of the buildings.  Now that his sensors were close enough, he could tell that there was nobody in any of them.  Or, at least, nothing that registered as living.

It only took the quick Rogues a few seconds to find the slightly hidden entrance covered by a huge, flat sheet of wood.  Pulling it aside, they found a very large tunnel leading downward, and Milton was suddenly reminded of the tunnel he had created when he first landed on Proctus; he had built it with the help of his drones to provide him with a safe place to hide from the hostile wildlife.  Instead of this tunnel being used to hide a Station or even a Dungeon Core, though, it was being used to hide something—or someone—else.

Fursinals.

Sending his sensor orbs in first, they traveled down a short tunnel that opened up on an extremely large underground cave, at least 1,000 feet in length and width, though it was perhaps only 25 feet high.  And inside there were the people they were there to save – though they appeared entirely different from what Milton had expected.

The Fursinals were essentially giant pandas.  As in, black and white furred bears that liked to snack on bamboo pandas.  Except that they were panda people, or as much as the sense of the word could convey, because they were all wearing dirt-and-ash-covered clothing that looked more like overalls than anything else; sort of like what an old-timey, stereotypical farmer would wear, though he didn’t see any straw hats.

None of them saw his sensor orbs enter, however, because they were all asleep.  Hibernating, I suppose.  It made sense, though, because as the world burned around them, they might survive if they didn’t have to eat as much and their breathing slowed, meaning that the relatively fresh air down below would last longer.  Of course, once the fires made it to the small village, Milton had a feeling the land above would be so hot that they would all cook alive as if they were in an oven.

“I don’t know if they will wake up when you go down, but if not, we’ll have to carry them.”  Milton thought about that for a second as he looked over the sleeping forms, many of which were piled on top of each other, and he counted at least a few hundred of them.  “Correction: Tanks and anyone with a high-enough Strength Boost will have to carry them, because they are… well, large would be putting it mildly.”

When the Station Core thought they looked like giant pandas, he wasn’t exaggerating on the “giant” part.  While not as large as the Commander, each of the Fursinals was approximately the size of a Bearilla or an Elite Heliothrope, which were both 20 feet tall.  In short, they were going to be heavy.

When the Proctans arrived, some of the Casters lit up the massive underground cave with their Light affinity, and they were able to see what they were working with.  Their presence, the illumination, and even when two Tanks began to lift one of the Fursinals, nothing seemed to wake them up, so the exhausted groups started to carry them back up the tunnel and to the waiting Freighters.  Fortunately, with the help of Physical Boosts, many of those that went down were able to work in groups to carry the large panda people; for those that didn’t have the Strength even with Boosts, such as the Casters and Support members, they used abilities to lift them off the ground and move them along.  Within minutes, in fact, a group of 20 Flora Manipulators created a system of vines that led from the bottom of the dirt cave all the way up to the top of the tunnel, and by placing one of the sleeping Fursinals on the bottom end, they were able to move them upward like a conveyor belt.

In less than 30 minutes, all 615 of the hibernating Fursinals had been moved up to the Freighters, and the ships began to make their way off of the planet and back to the Station.  The efforts of the Proctans were just in time, as the fires had spread to the point where the little village was already catching fire, and the previously unburnt fields were at least 50% engulfed in flames.

As soon as the ships left the planet and docked in the bay where they had originally been stationed, Milton received a few happy notifications.

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Fodder x14,810!  You gain (14810x100) 1,481,000 combat experience!

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Soldier x1,481!  You gain (1481x500) 740,500 combat experience!

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Elite x102!  You gain (102x5000) 510,000 combat experience!

Congratulations!  Your Combat Units have defeated Commander x1!  You gain (1x500000) 500,000 combat experience!

Current Short-term Goal: Rescue Operations – Complete!

- Spring the trap – Complete!

- Destroy all of the Heliothropes – Complete!

- Save the remaining Fursinals on the planet – 615/615 Complete!

Difficulty of Goal: Hard

Timeframe: 48 hours

Rewards: +7 to Communication/Charisma, +5 to Insight/Luck

There wasn’t a lot of change to his Core Status[24] except for a little more combat experience and the bonuses to his Communication/Charisma and Insight/Luck, but every little bit helped.  Getting to the next Combat Level would take a long time if all of the battles his Combat Units participated in were like this last one, considering that he obtained just over 3 million combat experience and he needed another 66 million or so to reach Combat Level 28. Still, it was something to work toward.

But the problem was that if every battle was just like the last one, eventually their luck would run out.

“I’ve got teams moving down to assist the new arrivals to their new homes, though we’ll have to adjust the living spaces based on their size,” Whisp announced, breaking Milton away from his contemplation of his Core Status.  “You can address them when they wake up, because they apparently stayed completely asleep despite the rough handling, space flight, and arrival.

“But there are a few things that we need to talk about, Milton,” she continued, and the Station Core nodded, knowing exactly what she was getting at.  All of the Think Tank, along with Brint and Trinket had paused what they were doing to listen in to their conversation, and Sandra and ALANNA were participating as well.

“I know; the defenses we have in place, while powerful, are not sustainable.”

Whisp nodded, joining in with Sandra and Milton’s nanite-formed AI.  “Exactly.  Those stress fractures from the explosion in the forest mark only one of the issues.”  She started to tick her points off on her fingers.  “The next explosion in the spike pit also damaged the structure of the dome; that same explosion also created some stress fractures in the hull underneath that section; back in your winding mountain section, some of the Railgun and Launcher projectiles managed to dig through the dirt enough to nearly reach the outer hull, which you can understand would be bad; the Particle Accelerators almost caused the complete evacuation of the atmosphere in the ring, and it still needs repairs in order to ensure its safety; the Unstable Void was actually more dangerous than you realize, as the cavern ceiling nearly collapsed because of the extraordinarily strong pull of the void sphere, and only through sheer luck did it not crack and completely destroy that section; and finally, even with all of your preparations, we were barely able to beat the Commander.  If there had been more than 1, or if they had foreknowledge of what to expect, I don’t believe it would’ve turned out as well as it did.”

Nothing she said was all that surprising, as many of the defenses had been hastily placed at the last minute once they knew the Commander would be attacking.  Such Defensive Weapons were dangerous, not only to those they were targeting, but to the environment in which they were activated.

“You’re right,” Milton agreed.  “We need to find a better way to eliminate any Commanders that invade the dungeon, because we’re going to end up destroying the entire thing in order to kill them.  Now that we’ve seen one of them really in action, are there any ideas?”

Silence descended upon the command center, as no one seemed to have any ideas.  After about a minute of everyone looking at each other, he continued.  “Well, hopefully we have a little bit of time before we have to face a force like that again, so we’ve got some time to come up with ideas.  For now, are there any more fleets nearby?”

Whisp shook her head.  “Nothing on the long-range sensors.”

“Good.  We’ll make repairs here while we’re undisturbed and see if we can gather up any debris from the destroyed ships.  It was a good thing that we still had our Stasis Fields active; otherwise, that probably would’ve ended poorly.”  A thought suddenly occurred to Milton while he was considering the Heliothrope vessels.  “Anyone know what would’ve happened if the fleet copied what was done to the Freighters and simply opened up their own access to the Station?”

Whisp and the other Think Tank members seemed to have already thought of that.  “It would’ve been bad,” the super-intelligent Proctan responded. “Seeing that an entrance was open to them, they went there first without hesitation; however, given that there were multiple communications sent out before the entire fleet was destroyed, it is likely that the Heliothropes know that they can breach the Stasis Fields if they do it themselves rather than expect their ships to do it.  Our next engagement may not go so well, if that is the case.”

“So, yet another problem to have to deal with in the future.”  When it seemed as though they had solved one problem, two more popped up.  He sighed, knowing that while they had won this battle, the overall war was just beginning.

“We have some time, especially if we stay away from any of those larger fleets with Commanders,” ALANNA added.  “What is it that you Humans used to say on Earth?  ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ and all that.”

Milton shrugged, acknowledging the advice.  “I guess so, but I hate knowing that we’re vulnerable—”

“Uh, Milton?” Rhiole suddenly spoke up, cutting him off.

“Yes, what is—”

Before he could even get his question out, the viewscreen suddenly changed to a starmap.  Approximately two-thirds of the way across the entire galaxy from their current position, a glaring red dot was flashing, claiming his attention.  When Rhiole zoomed it in toward the dot, it grew in size until it appeared very familiar.”

“Great.  They’re doing it again, aren’t they?”

Rhiole nodded, and suddenly the entire Think Tank was busy on their consoles.  “Yes.  Another nasty wound in the dimensional fabric.”

Sandra stiffened next to him.  “Back to my world?” she asked, worry in her voice.

The Proctan shook her head.  “No, its signature is leading to a different dimension.”

“There’s that, at least.”  Milton looked at ALANNA after she just stood there and looked at the viewscreen.  “What, no quest?”

His AI guide laughed as if he had said something funny.  “No, not this time.  You already know what you need to do.  Plus, there’s no point in giving out a quest until there are more specifics – which you’ll find in the other dimension.”

Milton grunted.  “Makes sense, I suppose.”  He looked at Whisp, who already had her fingers rapidly flying over her console.  “Take us to the traveling dimension, if you would, Whisp.  We’ll make our repairs there, and see if we can figure out how to solve some of our problems on the way.”  Thinking about all of the ship debris floating in System 1425-BER, he realized that they were going to have to leave it.

“Calculating everything now, Milton.  We should be ready to depart in about 2 minutes.”

“Perfect.  As soon as we’re ready, go ahead and engage the trans-dimensional drives.”  Another thought popped into his mind.  “And I better make an announcement about our departure from this dimension.  The transition didn’t turn out so well last time for many of them.”

Perhaps being squeezed through the dimensional fabric might even wake up our new friends.  We’ll just have to wait and see, I suppose.

Milton did what he proposed and made announcements via his sensor orbs all over the Station, warning the people in the Residence Ring of the upcoming transition.  After that, he borrowed some Proctans and took Sandra with him to see if he could get some pandas to talk.

Chapter 37

“Where… are… we?”

The Fursinal’s high-pitched voice speaking Galactic Basic was completely contrary to what Milton had been expecting, as was the slow way it spoke, like Eeyore as a chipmunk.  It was very confusing to him, which was why it took him a few seconds to respond.

“You’re on my space station, in the Residence Ring, to be more precise,” he finally said.  “I’m so sorry; we were too late to save more than those you see here, as the Heliothropes had already destroyed most of your planet.”

“Who?”

Milton quickly explained that he meant “The Masters”, and the Fursinals cringed back in horror.  “But… why… would… they… do… that?  We… were… always… obedient?”

This is the part I hate.  Not the explanation, of course, but because of the guilt that tried to rear up when something happened (even if it was out of his control) because of decisions he had made.  “For retaliation and to teach those in this part of the galaxy that they are expendable.”  There was a lot more to it than that, which he explained after the Fursinal’s next question.

“Retaliation?  Why?”

Milton launched into as brief of a description as possible of who he was and who the Proctans near him were, about the space station they were currently on, about dimensional travel and how the Heliothropes were attempting to travel to a different dimension and conquer it, about the fleeing miners and the station hub that they managed to evacuate after defeating a small fleet, and how they had defeated a large fleet of the “Masters” in order to save the Fursinals.  The whole process still took about 15 minutes, and the Station Core thought about designing some sort of instructional video for new arrivals so that they would have a more comprehensive history of their efforts.

All of the Fursinals, all 615 of them, were gathered in an unused housing complex in the Residence Ring, where they had all woken up after the abrupt transition to the traveling dimension.  Thankfully, Milton, Sandra, and his escort had arrived shortly thereafter to try and calm them down, which was actually much easier than he expected.  They weren’t a very excitable bunch, as it turned out, though they had obviously been thoroughly confused.  Or it could’ve been that they had just been woken up after a long nap and were groggy; it was honestly hard to tell.

Milton expected them to be angry at him for what had been done to their people, because it was – in a roundabout way – his fault; but they were, instead, the exact opposite.  What he took to be a panda bear smile, full of sharp-looking teeth, graced the lips of all the Fursinals that he could see, and their spokesperson bent almost double as they patted him on his head.  It was immediately a little emasculating, considering that it probably looked like a full-size adult patting the head of a toddler, but he let it go; it was made more difficult when he saw the grins on the Proctans near him, who were enjoying themselves instead of making ready to protect him in case the Fursinals attempted to attack them.  To be fair, though, his instructions actually only covered Sandra, because he could always recreate his body while she couldn’t.

“You… are… hero.  You… save… many… for… no… benefit… to… you.  My… name… is… Prinny.  Thank… you… so… much… for… saving… us.”

The guilt he had been saddled with immediately evaporated at Prinny’s words, and he smiled back at her.  “It is very nice to meet you, Prinny.  Let me introduce my companions….”  Milton then did so, before asking the Fursinal questions about the planet they lived on, as well as how they all came to be in the underground cave.

To make a very long story short, Prinny and those that had been saved with her, all lived within 20 miles of the village of Thern – which was the one that was burning as the Freighters left.  When the bombardment occurred, they had no idea what was happening; communication and contact with anyone but transport ships that took the food they grew off-planet was scarce.  Even knowledge of their own people living further than 20 miles away was sketchy, so they had no real personal knowledge of anyone that had been killed.

Eventually, once they determined that the attacks wouldn’t stop, they all got together to dig an underground shelter to weather the bombardment, which took them nearly a day to complete with all of them working together.  After that, they shifted their bodies into hibernation, which was something that they almost never got to do since being enslaved to the Heliothropes.  Despite being told that, without a seasonal hibernation every year their lifespans would be cut in half, the “Masters” forced the Fursinals to keep working nearly every day of the year.

The next thing they knew, they were ripped from their hibernation prematurely, waking up confused on the Station – which was where Milton came in.  After hearing their tale and the hell they had to endure knowing that they would die far before they would naturally – all for not being able to hibernate – the Station Core could understand why they weren’t exactly angry at their current situation.

“Well, you can hibernate all that you want to here,” he assured them.  “There are some other benefits that I can offer you, but I want you to acclimate yourselves to the Station first before we get into that.  Speaking of that, do you have any preferences for the homes where you want to live?  These ones—” he said, waving at the buildings around them— “were created for people a little, uh, smaller than you, but we can make alterations or create something brand-new.”

Thankfully, all they wanted was larger versions of the ones that were already there, constructing which was easily doable, but they indicated that they might have some ideas on other types of buildings that they would appreciate in the future.  “We’ll be happy to accommodate whatever suggestions you have.  Just let one of us know!”  By that time, Orkney and the rest of the Residence Ring leadership had arrived, and Milton introduced Prinny and the Fursinals – who gracefully took over the onboarding of the new residents.

“They seem a lot nicer than I expected, given their size,” Sandra said on their way back to the command center. She seemed disturbed for some reason.  “Maybe I’m size-ist or something, but for some reason, I figured they would be all gruff and mean.”

“Or maybe you’re not quite used to the types of people you’ve met in this dimension,” Milton said gently.  “I have to admit that it is sometimes difficult to speak with someone that is completely foreign to me, and entirely different from my experiences.  So, believe me, you’re not the only one having their expectations tossed on their head.”

Not too long ago, the only “aliens” that Milton had ever seen were the Proctans, and they were Human-like enough that it wasn’t that much of a difference in his eyes.  Even his avatar was technically a Proctan, altered to look as much like his old Human body as possible, but still an “alien”.  After seeing and meeting many different kinds of races thus far throughout the galaxy, he had to admit that he was still woefully inexperienced in easily reacting to their appearances, which were sometimes bizarre (at least to him).

With the meeting of the Fursinals over for the moment and them deciding to go back to hibernation right there on the floor of the housing complex rather than wait for their new homes to be complete, it was time for Milton and Sandra to get to work.  Brint, Whisp, and Trinket were already all over the repairs to the Station necessitated by an overexuberance of explosions in the dungeon.  Arax, the former Head of Logistics on the station hub, took an interest in leading a team to help repair the damaged Freighters, as Milton had found out that he was quite adept at ship construction and maintenance.

“While I was technically the Head of Logistics, I was also in charge of maintaining the transport craft that came in and went out of our hub.  I think I can handle fixing these ships of yours,” he had said, and Milton was more than happy to let him do his thing.  The drones were easily able to follow orders by anyone Milton designated, so it was as easy as that to get him started.  Thankfully, many of the people who had been transferred from the hub had brought space-worthy suits to use inside of the massive airlock, which was currently without gravity to accommodate all of the vessels inside.

That left the dungeon for Milton and Sandra to rebuild and restock.  While they did so, they talked with Whisp and the Think Tank about some ideas for how to make it deadlier versus a Commander without risking the entire Station, but nothing more than simply overwhelming the massive Heliothrope with powerful defenders was proposed for the moment.  His usual method of doing extreme damage to targets was to utilize his powerful Defensive Weapons, but with them out because of the danger to the Station by using them, there really wasn’t a lot that Milton could contribute to the defense.

As for Sandra, a few ideas focused on her Mana-formed traps came to mind, but while they were generally powerful, they were either one-shot bursts of high damage or only slightly effective for a longer period of time.  Based on replays of the amount of damage that the Commander’s shield could withstand, they didn’t believe anything but multiple powerful traps combined together would have a chance of working.  The problem with that was the traps were confined to a single, small area, at least the most damaging ones, and ensuring that the Commander stepped right where a trap was located was hard.  When combined with the fact that there was a good chance that she might not be able to manually activate or deactivate them from a distance, they could be triggered by a few Fodder, and the traps could be used up before the more-dangerous Heliothrope could get near.

There were still a few things that Milton wanted to explore with the advent of Enchanting being so useful, but other than making a massive jumbo Launcher – which Sandra said she had created to defeat a huge threat back on her world – nothing really stuck out at them quite yet.  The Station Core thought that a solution for all of their problems would be figured out eventually, but for the moment, he resolved to try and avoid any potential Commander fights for the near future.

The rest of the dungeon had proven that, even while using some of the “less-dangerous” Defensive Weapons, it was capable of defending against thousands of Fodder and Soldiers, and perhaps even up to 100 Elites – which was quite impressive when he stopped to think about it.  With Sandra’s participation in the dungeon, the overall effectiveness had risen exponentially instead of just doubling, because the combination of both their defenses was phenomenal.  It really was a case of the whole being greater than the individual pieces.

It took a little over 2 weeks for them to arrive near where the dimensional wound was located, even in the traveling dimension.  During that time, Milton and Sandra were easily able to fix all of the broken and burnt trees, the damaged ground, the cracked metal dome and stone cavern, and the exploded section of the spike pit.  They were also able to replace all of the constructs, Dungeon Monsters, and Combat Units utilized throughout the entire dungeon, though Milton held off on ones like the Bearillas for the time being because their upkeep was ridiculous for long periods of time.

When that was done and they still had plenty of time, Sandra started looking into an enchantment that might work to prevent the Heliothropes from simply running into the side of any point on Murder Station and cutting their way inside.  Her Stasis Fields worked perfectly to prevent the Station from being blown up from a distance, but it did nothing against boarders.  If she found a solution, it could also be useful to apply to the Freighters, so that any of his forces sent out to engage Heliothrope ships directly would have a much better chance of surviving longer.

Milton split his time between developing a small training dungeon for his newest fighting recruits inside of the dungeon ring, and preparing for their eventual arrival in another dimension.  What that meant was creating physical representations of his Available Resources, especially his Basic Metal Units, Focusing Crystals, Pure Water, Organic Material, and Biological Mass.  There was no way he would be able to reproduce everything he had available, most of it gathered from the asteroid belt a few weeks before, but large amounts of each resource were still created and filled a significant unused portion of the dungeon ring.

Billions of BMUs and millions of Focusing Crystals were the most important to building nearly anything he needed, but Pure Water and Organic Material were needed to keep the population on the Station fed.  Biological Mass was also used for food, but it was the main component of creating Combat Units, so he made sure that he kept most of what he currently had available for use in the other dimension.

As for his training dungeon, it was a very simple affair at first, with no traps or anything inherently deadly; instead, it was a series of 10 rooms with different small Combat Units in them that the new recruits could fight in groups of 5.  Nothing fancy, just straight-up combat to get them used to fighting in general, because they were still so inexperienced that they needed something easy at first to get them used to killing things while protecting themselves.

The Squirrelings made an appearance in the first few training dungeon rooms, as did some Rabbiteers[25], which were essentially very quick jackalopes that could impale their victims with their antlers.  A few other small Combat Units he had originally developed to protect his dungeon back on Proctus, as well as to train the Proctans, were included, but only a few at a time until Milton could see how they progressed in their abilities.  Based on their inexperience and their continuous learning of things that they had no knowledge of before, starting them slow was definitely the way to go.  He had high hopes that they would excel at their chosen profession, however, and could theoretically even surpass the Proctans in their particular Classes after a lot of development.

None of them got a chance to try it out yet, though, because by the time he was finished with the training dungeon, the Station had finally arrived at their destination.

“We’re about 2 hours away from the wound in your dimension, Milton,” Whisp finally said after weeks of travel.  “If we get any closer, I fear we’ll negatively affect the wound on the other side.  Without knowing how large this new dimension is, however, it’s hard to tell how far away the wound will be when we arrive.”

“This works for me.”  Milton did a quick mental check to see that everything was ready and prepared.  Sandra was currently waiting on the other side of her own dimensional portal in her world, just in case when they arrived in the other dimension, they found themselves in the middle of a sun or something equally as horrendous.  There was no reason for her to perish along with everyone else—but that also gave him an idea.  “Hmm, we should put some trans-dimensional drives on some of the Freighters and have them scout the way.”

“Already done, Milton,” Brint said suddenly, and everyone looked his way.  “I… uh, took the liberty to install one on a single Freighter, having the same idea you had a few days ago.”  The Station Core had forgotten that Brint, out of everyone on the Station other than ALANNA, had special access to his systems and his Facilities, so such a thing wasn’t out of the realm of possibility.  “I told you about it, but I think you were really busy with something.”

A quick run through his memories and recordings, searching for such a conversation, turned it up almost immediately.  It was when his attention was being pulled in a few different directions, with creating physical resources, finishing up the normal dungeon restocking, and determining the layout of the new training dungeon.  He had also been talking to Sandra, and most of his attention had been on her.

“Yes, you’re absolutely right, Brint.  Good thinking.”

The Station stopped, and within a few minutes the airlock down below opened, allowing a single Freighter equipped with a trans-dimensional drive to exit, operated by a skeleton crew of Proctans.  As soon as they were fairly clear of the massive structure that was Murder Station, they opened up a tiny little pinprick in the dimensional fabric and disappeared.  It was strange being able to sense them one moment and then having them disappear the next, which usually only happened when they died.  Of course, no more than a minute later they were back, in a very slightly different position, but basically in the same place.

“They’re reporting that the way is clear, Milton,” Rhiole said from her console.  The Station Core nodded, having heard it directly from them via a sensor orb on board the Freighter as they communicated with the command center.

“Alright, let them dock, and then we’ll take her in.”

In less than 5 minutes, the Freighter was back in the airlock, and it closed behind them.  Before they turned on the trans-dimensional drives, they activated the Stasis Fields around the Station as a precaution.  While it wasn’t likely that anything changed from when the Freighter had been there, it was better to be safe than sorry.  That only took a few seconds, so after that the drives were turned on, another tear appeared in front of them, and they gently passed through.

A few moments later, they emerged into a brand-new dimension.

Chapter 38

The entry into another dimension was a bit anticlimactic, but that was perfectly fine for Milton.  He’d rather avoid what happened when they journeyed to Sandra’s dimension, when they emerged near a planet and nearly crashed into it.  This time, fortunately, there were no planets, suns, or other obstacles in their way as they came through the dimensional tear – just a lot of empty space.

“It appears as though this dimension is somewhat the same size as yours, Milton,” Whisp informed him soon after they arrived.  A starmap of the immediate vicinity appeared, showing only a few hundred stars, which was the range limit of the sensors.  There was no information about those stars other than that they existed, and from what could be seen, they were very similar in composition to his dimension.  “The wound is approximately a week and a half away if we travel at full speed.”  A glowing red dot appeared off of the starmap, where the sensors couldn’t penetrate as of yet, but the severe wounding of the dimensional fabric was easily detectable even at the current distance.

Before he could instruct Whisp to head there with all haste, Rhiole interrupted him.  “I’m detecting some strange readings from the closest system, though I’m not exactly sure what it means.”  The viewscreen changed to show the nearest star, which was perhaps an hour or so away from their current position.

Normally, the Station’s long-range sensors could identify a few details of nearby star systems, which included the number of planets, the presence of asteroid belts, and even detecting the presence of any large fleets, if they were lucky.  Finer details, such as the presence of space stations, the actual composition of the planets, and any other peculiarities or anomalies would have to wait until they were closer to the system itself, and sometimes it took actually being in the system to confirm those details.

What the viewscreen was showing, however, was almost like there was some sort of error in the sensors, as the nearest star system was filled with a dense fog that only allowed the sun to shine through, without revealing any other details.  There was no sense of how many planets there were orbiting the sun, nor even if there were planets there.  It was like something was obscuring the system, like some strange “fog of war” that was a staple in strategy games, which hid the map if you hadn’t explored it yet.

“That is… strange,” Milton said, thoroughly confused.  “Let’s stop by that system on our way to our destination; I want to know if it is unique to this star, or whether it is a common occurrence here.”

Whisp immediately altered their course to intercept the nearest star system, which didn’t put them too far out of their way.  Within a minute, they were on the way, getting closer to the anomaly by the moment.

An hour later, absolutely no more details were revealed, and the Station was forced to slow down as it got within range of the “foggy” obscurement.  Passing through the edge of it, like venturing into a cloud bank, changed everything dramatically within seconds.

Their sensors were finally able to penetrate the strange anomaly, and 6 planets were revealed – or at least that’s what they assumed they were, because the large spheres that popped up in their sensors certainly appeared to be planets.  It was impossible to tell, however, as the fog of war had retreated to cover the celestial orbs, hiding them completely from sight.

Without prompting, Whisp brought them closer to the nearest planet, which was the furthest from the sun.  The journey was quick, only about 10 minutes, but it wasn’t until they were in orbit that the “fog” disappeared and revealed that it was, indeed, a planet; other than the fact that it was an ice-filled rock planet, very few other details could be observed.

“I can’t precisely determine the origin, but it seems as though there is some sort of – for a lack of a better word – energy that is covering the planet, hindering our efforts of sensor interpretation,” Whisp added after a few minutes of them observing what they could on the viewscreen.  The closest comparison he could make to the lack of clarity was as if he was looking at it through a pane of frosted glass; he could make out the general shape and colors, but the finer details were lost.  “Hold on, I’m trying to filter for this energy—”

Suddenly, it was as if someone had shined a flashlight on the pane of frosted glass, because the entire planet was lit up brightly as whatever energy Whisp was talking about was highlighted.  It reminded Milton a little of the Mana that he had seen on Sandra’s planet, but this was a lot less focused and free.

“I’m not sure exactly what this is, or what this means, but we’ve got to get going,” Milton said, staring at the viewscreen and trying to comprehend what he was seeing.  “You can study this later, but let’s get this show on the road.”

“Show?  Road?”  The entirety of the command center looked confused.

Milton sighed.  “Never mind.  Let’s head toward the wound.”

Within a few minutes, they left the again-obscured planet behind, and as soon as they left the vicinity of the system, it too was covered by the strange fog.  Resolving to figure it out later, they traveled to their destination.  Along the way, every star system that was in close-enough range to examine in more detail had the exact same fogginess as the first.  While Whisp and some of the Think Tank wanted to stop and investigate them some more, they had an objective they needed to meet first.

“Either we arrived at this dimension much faster than last time or something else is happening,” Whisp finally said after about a week of travel.

“What do you mean?”

The Proctan put a comparison of what the wound looked like when they first arrived to what it looked like now, and Milton could see that there wasn’t much of a difference.  “It has grown, but compared to the one that had been in Sandra’s dimension, it is not advancing as quickly.”

“What would cause that?  I thought the Stabilizing Anchor would work no matter what happened,” the Station Core asked.

Whisp shook her head.  “I have no idea.  You can see the Anchor strings attached to the wound, but they aren’t as thick as what we’ve seen before.”  Sure enough, on the viewscreen the angry red dot had tiny strings attached to it, leading off to the closest star system, where they disappeared in the fog surrounding it.

“Huh.  Well, based on your data, how long do we have until the wound is fully stable?”

The hyper-intelligent Proctan paused for a few seconds before shrugging.  “It’s hard to say for sure, but if it stays at this current growth rate, I’d say that it would take years before there was any danger.  If something were to change and the growth rate significantly increased, that could cut it down to days or weeks.”

Even though there wasn’t any more information the Think Tank could supply him at the moment, the team continued to analyze the data they were receiving, looking for answers.  In another 72 hours, they were close enough to the dimensional fabric wound that they could almost see it outside the Station with their naked eyes – if it had been visible to the naked eye, of course.  What it really looked like was a warped pocket of space that constantly undulated, showing that there was something there, but having no definition to it.  Only through their sensors were they able to really see it.

This time, there was only debris from a single, small Heliothrope ship near the exit of the dimensional wound, instead of the hundreds that had been at the last wound they had observed from this side.  While they didn’t really need confirmation that the unhealthy tear in the fabric was still killing everything that passed through it, because otherwise there would be fleets and fleets of Heliothrope ships swarming the area, it was still encouraging to see that the restriction was still in place.  For how long that would last, though, the Think Tank still couldn’t give him an accurate timeline.

“Take us in slowly, Whisp,” Milton told her when they finally arrived at the shrouded star system.

Navigating their way past the sensor fog, the inner portion of the system was finally revealed.  Following the Stabilizing Anchor lines wasn’t even necessary, as there was only a single, obscured planet orbiting the sun.

“I’m unable to determine where the Stabilizing Anchor is located,” Whisp suddenly spoke up.

“Well, there’s only one real option, right?”

Something new flashed up on the viewscreen, which showed a side view of the Anchor strings heading toward the planet… and then simply disappearing from their sensors when they were within a few million miles.  There was no sense of where they were actually going, so there was no telling where they would have to look for it once they got to the planet.

“I see.  Let’s put ourselves into orbit first and take a better look at it.”

An hour later, they were moving into orbit of the singular planet in the system when the fog obscuring it suddenly disappeared.

“There’s still no indication of where the Anchor strings are leading,” Whisp abruptly stated.  Milton could see that she was correct; the strings still faded from detection far enough from the planet that they were impossible to trace, though the fact that they were still active was proof enough that they were still attached to a Stabilizing Anchor somewhere.

But Milton wasn’t really concerned about that at the moment, because he was instead focused on the planet itself.  While it was similarly obscured like that ice and rock planet they had encountered soon after arriving in this dimension, there were some details that were evident.  The first detail was that this planet was huge, as in about 5 times larger than what his systems said Earth was originally.  Other than some gas or barren rock planets he had seen in his dimension, this was the largest sphere capable of sustaining life that he had seen up close.

As for how he knew there was life down below, it was obvious even through the frosted-glass appearance it had.  Massive oceans surrounded enormous continents that had huge swathes of green, which appeared to be giant forests that would rival or surpass the Amazon rainforest when it was at its greatest back home.  The ones he saw were even larger than the deadly forested areas on Proctus, which were quite extensive already.

Then there were obvious sections where mountains or perhaps deserts existed, based on the vague color he could decipher, as well as red-colored areas that reminded him of the burning fields of the Fursinals’ planet, along with some darker areas that… might have been the burnt-out sections caused by such fires?  It was impossible to tell for sure, because nothing was quite clear to the sensors.  When he looked around the planet as a whole, mentally taking a step back, he realized that most of the landmass was divided into very specific sections dominated by a single color, making the continents appear like some sort of patchwork quilt with irregularly shaped pieces.

“Hold on, Milton; the strange energy here is a little different….”  A few seconds later, the planet erupted in bright light such as what happened with the last one they looked at, but this time it was different.  Instead of a bright, white light to the energy, it was instead in 7 different colors, all somewhat corresponding to the different areas he had identified before: Green, blue, black, red, yellow, white, and brown.  It was bizarre and fascinating at the same time, but he felt Sandra’s hand stiffen in his own, which he just now realized that he had been unconsciously clutching as they approached the planet.

She gasped suddenly, before she asked, “Don’t you feel that?  From down there?”

Milton tried to feel what she was talking about, but his synthetic avatar wasn’t exactly the perfect form for feeling different kinds of energy.  Shaking his head, he admitted, “No, I don’t.  What do you feel?”

Sandra was silent for almost a minute as she stared at the viewscreen for a while and then closed her eyes, as if trying to identify what she was feeling by removing one of her senses from the equation.  “It’s so strange, but I almost feel a connection to what is down there.”

“The… energy?”

She shook her head with her eyes still closed.  “No, not exactly.  It’s more like the connection to the focus of that energy.  If I had to guess,” she hesitated for a moment, before opening her eyes and looking straight at him, “I’d say that there are Dungeon Cores down there.”

That shocked him more than a little, because he wasn’t expecting to find any other Dungeon Cores in a different dimension.  He thought it had been a fluke that Sandra’s dimension contained Cores at all, but if this energy was a form of “magic” like what was on her planet, then perhaps any dimension with magic had Dungeon Cores to help regulate it.  Since his own dimension didn’t have any magic, that was why none of the people or planets seemed to have any dungeons or Dungeon Cores.

The concept was a bit mind-boggling, but he pushed the thought away because Sandra needed a response from him.  “Are you saying each of those different-colored sections is a different Dungeon Core?”

Again, she shook her head.  “No, not just one.  If I’m right, there could potentially be thousands or tens of thousands of Cores in each of those areas.  If they’re all like that, then there could be millions of them all over the planet.”

Milton remembered looking down on Sandra’s home from orbit and seeing what appeared to be hundreds or perhaps thousands of concentrated energy points, which had been rightfully confirmed later as dungeons and their Cores.  But that was over the entire planet, not just a relatively small section like what he was seeing here; for there to be millions of dungeons and subsequent Dungeon Cores… he could barely even comprehend it.

If she was correct, of course; but he didn’t have any reason to doubt her feelings.

“That is… incredible,” he said, slightly breathless at the thought of so many dungeons down on the surface.  “But it doesn’t really change what we came here to do.  We’ve got to get down there, locate, and then destroy the Stabilizing Anchor before it finds a way to speed up its process.”

“Do you think there is another… Breeder Ship, I think you called them?” Sandra asked, her whole demeanor slightly distracted as she continued to look at the viewscreen and was potentially still distracted by the feelings she was receiving from the surface.

“There’s no way of knowing until we get down there, but it wouldn’t surprise me.”  He turned to Brint.  “Get a small team together; we’re taking the shuttle down to the surface to see what we can find.”  He thought that they could probably take a Freighter, but at this point the original shuttle they had was essentially replaceable, and if it was destroyed along with everyone on board, it wouldn’t be much of a loss.  Besides, if the Heliothropes really were there and were able to see through the fogginess surrounding the planet better than Milton’s sensors, taking a smaller shuttle down to the surface could potentially avoid detection.

“Let’s go see what this strange dungeon world is all about….”

The End

Author’s Note

Thank you for reading Core Construction, book 2 in Dimensional Dungeon Cores!

Things are really starting to heat up in Milton’s world, in more ways than one!  I had a lot of fun developing and constructing the new dungeon inside of Murder Station, while also establishing some goals for Milton and his crew.  The integration of Sandra as part of the dungeon was also important, as I really wanted to combine both systems they control in one place, rather than just have them simply working together to defeat the Heliothropes on her world.  I’m also slowly developing the people of Milton’s dimension by having them adapt the different genetic mutations pulled from other dimensions.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, a good portion of the next book will take place on Dungeon World, where Milton will eventually meet Fredwynklemossering; if you haven’t met Fred yet, check out the complete Dungeon World series to get caught up before book 3 of Dimensional Dungeon Cores comes out in a few months!

Again, thank you for reading, and I implore you to consider leaving a review – I love 5-star ones!  Reviews make it more likely that others will pick up a good book and read it!

If you enjoy dungeon core, dungeon corps, dungeon master, dungeon lord, dungeonlit, or any other type of dungeon-themed stories and content, check out the Dungeon Corps Facebook group, where you can find all sorts of dungeon content.

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Books by Jonathan Brooks

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy

Dungeon Player (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crisis (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Guild (Audiobook available)

Glendaria Awakens Trilogy Compilation w/bonus material (Audiobook available)

Uniworld Online Trilogy (2nd Edition)

The Song Maiden (Audiobook available)

The Song Mistress (Audiobook available)

The Song Matron (Audiobook available)

Uniworld Online Trilogy Compilation (Audiobook available)

Station Cores Series

The Station Core (Audiobook available)

The Quizard Mountains (Audiobook available)

The Guardian Guild (Audiobook available)

The Kingdom Rises (Audiobook available)

The Other Core (Audiobook available)

Station Cores Compilation Complete: Books 1-5 (Audiobook available)

Spirit Cores Series

Core of Fear (Audiobook available)

Children of Fear (Audiobook available)

Carnival of Fear (Audiobook available)

Community of Fear

Dungeon World Series

Dungeon World (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 2 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 3 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 4 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World 5 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon World Box Set: Books 1-5 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crafting Series

The Crafter’s Dungeon (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Defense (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dilemma (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Darkness (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dominion (Audiobook available)

The Crafter’s Dynasty (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crafting Series: Books 1 – 3 (Audiobook available)

Dungeon Crafting Series: Books 4 – 6 (Audiobook available)

The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Series

The Dungeon Fairy (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Two Choices (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Three Lives (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Four Days (Audiobook available)

The Dungeon Fairy: Box Set Books 1-4 (Audiobook available)

Serious Probabilities Series

Dungeon of Chance: Even Odds (Audiobook available)

Dungeon of Chance: Double or Nothing (Audiobook available)

Dungeon of Chance: All-in (Audiobook coming soon)

The Body’s Dungeon (with Jeffrey “Falcon” Logue)

Bio Dungeon: Symbiote (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: Parasyte (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon: Hemostasis (Audiobook available)

Bio Dungeon Box Set (Coming soon)

Tales of Dungeons Anthology

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 2

Tales of Dungeons Vol. 3

Tales of Dungeons All Hallows 2020

Dimensional Dungeon Cores

Core Establishment (Audiobook available)

Core Construction

Holiday Dungeon Core

Christmas Core (Audiobook available)

Valentine Core (Audiobook available)

Easter Core (April 2022)

[1]

Available Resources

Resource Type

# of Units

Basic Earth

254

Basic Gravel

685

Basic Metal

890

Focusing Crystals

115

Pure Water

0

Organic Material

421

Biological Mass

717

[2]

Target Status (Approximate Value)

Name:

Chanfa (Raxian)

Type:

Melee Attacker

Age:

22

Power Ranking: (Major, Minor)

N/A

Health

45/500

Power

N/A

Attack

125

Defense

100

Strength

125

Constitution

100

Agility

90

Perception

60

Intelligence

80

Wisdom

N/A

Charisma

40

Skills

Dedication (lvl 2)

Completes tasks with a dedicated mindset

Mining Knowledge (lvl 5)

Extracts materials from mines at an increased rate

Special Traits

Strength of Arms: +100 to Strength

Tripod: +60 to Agility

Enduring Resistance: +75 to Constitution

Slave to the Mines: -10 to Charisma

[3]

Available Resources

Resource Type

# of Units

Basic Earth

8124549

Basic Gravel

5412356

Basic Metal

98541783

Focusing Crystals

114

Pure Water

3786582

Organic Material

7458965

Biological Mass

14412548

[4] Environmental Destabilization: Instead of manipulating the air, this trap creates extreme heat or cold within a space.  This temperature change is best utilized in a non-sealed room; otherwise it may have a detrimental effect on the defensive mechanism.  Vulnerable to its own extreme temperature changes if subjected to them for long periods of time.  Limited to 2 minutes before self-inflicted damage is imminent.  Cost: 1,000 Basic Metal Units.  Requires: Power Generator – Portable.

[5] Nanite Swarms: Upon activation, a swarm of basic low-grade nanites converge on a nearby target and insert themselves into the victim.  Once inside, the nanites will start to break-down internal organs, degrade musculature, and disassemble bone structure.  Any nanites used in this manner are inoperable afterwards.  Vulnerable to hyper-responsive natural immune systems and high-voltage electrical shocks.  Cost: 500 Basic Metal Units per 100,000 low-grade nanites.  Single use.

[6]

Core Status (Points to Allocate: 27)

Name:

Milton Frederick

Type:

Station Core Prototype 3-B

Combat Level:

27

Experience:

112869657/182089500

Reactor Type:

Zero-point Energy

Reactor Output:

550%

Current Statistics/Attributes

Reactor Power/Strength:

110

Processing Power/Intelligence:

130

Structural Integrity/Constitution:

110

Ingenuity/Wisdom:

135

Processing Speed/Agility:

130

Communication/Charisma:

130

Insight/Luck:

89

Sensor Interpretation/Perception

121

[7]

Available Resources

Resource Type

# of Units

Basic Earth

7254135

Basic Gravel

2154863

Basic Metal

7854215

Focusing Crystals

454215

Pure Water

4215786

Organic Material

5786421

Biological Mass

18452125

[8]

Facility Fabrication

Name

Description

Cost

(Basic Metal Units)

Power Requirements

(% of Reactor Output)

Planetary Bombardment Dome

Primarily for defense, this dome can encompass your entire fortification and prevent most off-planet bombardments from reaching the ground

700,000 (175,000 with bonuses), 700 Focusing Crystals (420 with bonus)

30% when activated (ambient energy too little for power requirements)

Space Transport Dock

Create space-worthy transport vehicles for use in space

3,000,000 (750,000 with bonuses) 3,000 Focusing Crystals (1800 with bonus)

Requires: Planetary Bombardment Dome

40% (ambient energy too little for power requirements)

[9]

Available Resources

Resource Type

# of Units

Basic Earth

7254135

Basic Gravel

415248562

Basic Metal

274791585

Focusing Crystals

954824

Pure Water

18474532

Organic Material

5786421

Biological Mass

18452125

[10]

Available Resources

Resource Type

# of Units

Basic Earth

7254135

Basic Gravel

573412864215

Basic Metal

89741258963

Focusing Crystals

425412535

Pure Water

1425685427

Organic Material

74853254

Biological Mass

245845236

[11]

Tier One Abilities

Basic Elemental Suite (Caster)

Manipulate the elements

Physical Boost Suite (Tank/Rogue)

Boosts your physical characteristics

Healing Touch (Healer)

Heal others upon touch

Flora Manipulation (Support)

Influence living plants

[12]

(Proctan Dimension) Genetic Mutations

Basic Elemental Suite

Physical Boost Suite

Healing Touch

Flora Manipulation

Grey Area Suite

Self-Regeneration

Intelligence Boost

Beast Control

Spatial Void Affinity

Bad Touch Suite

Charisma Boost

Neural Uplink

Enchanting

Low-Light Visibility

Intelligence Boost – On Touch

Light Spectrum Invisibility

Item Shaping

Pheromonal Taunt

Charisma Boost – On Touch

Intangibility

Object Animation

Flesh Manipulation – Self

Physical Boost – On Touch Suite

Self-Levitation

Atmokinesis

Force Blast

Force Field Generation

Ability Mimic

Telekinesis

Limited Precognition

Blinding Light

Sacrificial Touch

Inanimate Object Teleportation

Water Breathing

Temporal Distortion

Primal Scream

AOE Cloud Suite

Pain Immunity

Vampiric Siphon

Scent Nullifier

[13]

Space Transport Dock

Spacecraft Type

Description

Cost (Basic Metal Units)

Cost (Focusing Crystals)

Transport Freighter

A large transport craft designed to hold supplies or personnel; life support systems operational, no defensive weapons systems

500,000,000 (250,000,000 with bonuses)

80,000 (20,000 with bonuses)

[14]

(Proctan Dimension) Genetic Mutations

Basic Elemental Suite

Physical Boost Suite

Healing Touch

Flora Manipulation

Grey Area Suite

Self-Regeneration

Intelligence Boost

Beast Control

Spatial Void Affinity

Bad Touch Suite

Charisma Boost

Neural Uplink

Enchanting

Low-Light Visibility

Intelligence Boost – On Touch

Light Spectrum Invisibility

Item Shaping

Pheromonal Taunt

Charisma Boost – On Touch

Intangibility

Object Animation

Flesh Manipulation – Self

Physical Boost – On Touch Suite

Self-Levitation

Atmokinesis

Force Blast

Force Field Generation

Ability Mimic

Telekinesis

Limited Precognition

Blinding Light

Sacrificial Touch

Inanimate Object Teleportation

Water Breathing

Temporal Distortion

Primal Scream

AOE Cloud Suite

Pain Immunity

Vampiric Siphon

Scent Nullifier

(Creator Dimension) Genetic Mutations

Air Affinity

Earth Affinity

Fire Affinity

Holy Affinity

Natural Affinity

Nether Affinity

Spirit Affinity

Water Affinity

[15]

Combat Unit Status

Name:

Ferdance #1

Type:

Unclassified

Age:

31

Energy Ranking:

Beginner 1

Health

85/85

Total Energy

50/50

Attack

14 (+54%)

Defense

30 (+79%)

Strength

9

Constitution

17

Agility

10

Perception

10

Intelligence

60

Wisdom

10

Charisma

10

A/D Bonus

54%

Skills

Survivor (Lvl 5)

Permanent 25% increase in Defense

Kamikaze (Lvl 9)

1000% more damage during a suicidal attack

Large-scale Battle Tactics (Lvl 4)

25% increase in attack/abilities when fighting with more than 50 participants

Cooperation (Lvl 9)

45% increase in defense when fighting alongside natural enemies

Special Traits

Collective Intelligence: +50 to Intelligence

Beginner Water Energy +1: Weakly manipulate Water energy

Enchanting +1: Use elemental energy to create enchantments with runic sequences

Spellcasting +1: Manipulate the elements to cast spells

Energy Link +1: Link with objects to infuse them with elemental energy

Body Enhancement +1: Imbue elemental energy to enhance the body

[16]

Defensive Weapons Factory

Monomel Filament Wire Grids

High-Voltage Electrified Gates

Molecular Disruptor

Explosive Floor Plates

Harmonic Force Fields

Particle Accelerator – Portable

Alternate Gas Traps

Gravity Manipulators

Plasma Bomb – Small

Nanite Swarms

Auditory Assault Fields

Plasma Bomb – Large

Nitinol Morph Plastics

Optical Barrages

Unstable Void

Atmospheric Condensers

Holographic Illusions

Power Generators – Portable

Environmental Destabilization

Laser Cannon Emplacements

Molecular Converters – Portable

Magnetic Repulsors/Attractors

Railgun Penetrators

(More)

[17] Plasma Bomb – Small: The small Plasma Bomb is a one-time use defense for potentially eliminating small groups of enemies.  Each bomb contains a highly concentrated and condensed quantity of ionized gas.  When activated, the sudden introduction of very high temperatures causes the Plasma Bomb to explode.  The explosion causes a supremely high-temperature blast of up to 40 feet in diameter.  Can be thrown or launched; once activated, the explosion will occur within 10 seconds.  Cost: 5,000 BMUs, 3 Focusing Crystals.

[18] Plasma Bomb – Large: The large Plasma Bomb is a one-time use defense for potentially eliminating large groups of enemies.  Each bomb contains a highly concentrated and condensed quantity of ionized gas.  When activated, the sudden introduction of very high temperatures causes the Plasma Bomb to explode.  The explosion causes a supremely high-temperature blast of up to 400 feet in diameter.  Cannot be thrown, as the Large Plasma Bomb is vulnerable to extreme vibration.  Once manually triggered by a Combat Unit, the activation will occur within 30 seconds.  Cost: 200,000 BMUs, 60 Focusing Crystals.

[19] Molecular Disruptor: The Molecular Disruptor is a defense that is triggered by pressure after placement.  When triggered, the Disruptor uses the same technology in a Molecular Converter on all objects within 15 feet, near-instantly scrambling the molecules of anything unlucky enough to be caught in its “blast radius” – including itself.  One-time use.  Relatively invulnerable and self-contained.  Cost: 60,000 BMUs, 30 Focusing Crystals.  Requires: Power Generator – Portable only at initial placement.

[20] Unstable Void: This defense creates an Unstable Void in a specified place up to 300 feet away from the apparatus.  Anything within 50 feet of the 10-foot diameter, semi-solid void sphere is instantly pulled into the unstable vortex of a relatively controlled subatomic implosion, ripping them to pieces and fueling the void.  The Unstable Void can grow up to a 30-foot diameter before it breaks apart, or after 1 minute the void will collapse upon itself, destroying the defense in the process.  Apparatus is vulnerable to blunt-force impacts and submersion in water; the unstable void is invulnerable.  One-time use.  Cost: 1,500,000 BMUs, 500 Focusing Crystals.  Requires: Power Generator – Portable (4).

[21] Holographic Illusions: The Holographic Illusion emitters project a hyper-real holographic illusion that is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, though it will not hold up under direct physical contact.  Can be displayed up against any type of surface, though surface texture can have detrimental effects on the believability of the illusion.  Can project up to 200 feet wide, but the larger the illusion, the less substantiality it will appear to have.  Vulnerable to excessive heat, excessive moisture, and blunt-force impacts.  Cost: 1,000 BMUs, 5 Focusing Crystals.  Requires: Power Generator – Portable.

[22]

Combat Unit Status

Name:

Diamine Quagonling #7623

Type:

Deadly Airborne Attacker

Combat Level:

1

Max Level:

15

Experience:

0/14500

Health

25000/25000

Power

650/650

Attack

77600 (+94%)

Defense

13950 (+179%)

Strength

4000

Constitution

5000

Agility

1380

Perception

230

Intelligence

150

Wisdom

150

Charisma

13

A/D Bonus

54%

Skills

Survivor (Lvl 5)

Permanent 25% increase in Defense

Kamikaze (Lvl 9)

1000% more damage during a suicidal attack

Large-scale Battle Tactics (Lvl 4)

25% increase in attack/abilities when fighting with more than 50 participants

Cooperation (Lvl 9)

45% increase in defense when fighting alongside natural enemies

Special Traits

Proctan Savant: +100 to Intelligence and Wisdom

Snappy-Beary Jaws: Bites by the Quagonling inflict 200% more Attack damage

Semi-flexible Extra-reinforced Scales: +2000 to Constitution, +100% to Defense, -15% to Strength, -50% to Agility, -50% to Perception

Diamine-formed Teeth and Claws: +40% to Attack

Weak Air Affinity +5: Weakly manipulate air

Rigid Wing Membranes: Skin flaps allow for gliding and keep the Quagonling aloft

Multi-limbed Freak: Has an extra pair of limbs -80% to Charisma

Quizard-like Reflexes: +1000 to Agility

[23]

Combat Unit Status

Name:

Squirreling #3487943

Type:

Speed Striker/Scout

Combat Level:

1

Max Level:

9

Experience:

0/100

Health

165/165

Power

65/65

Attack

64 (+94%)

Defense

64 (+94%)

Strength

33

Constitution

33

Agility

39

Perception

27

Intelligence

13

Wisdom

13

Charisma

6

A/D Bonus

54%

Skills

Survivor (Lvl 5)

Permanent 25% increase in Defense

Kamikaze (Lvl 9)

1000% more damage during a suicidal attack

Large-scale Battle Tactics (Lvl 4)

25% increase in attack/abilities when fighting with more than 50 participants

Cooperation (Lvl 9)

45% increase in defense when fighting alongside natural enemies

Special Traits

Agility Boost +1: +10 to Agility for 300 seconds

Sleek Musculature: +20 to Agility

Razor-sharp nails: +40% to Attack damage

Triple-sized: +30 to Strength and Constitution

Limber tail: +10 to Agility

Stiff fur: +15% to Defense

Focused sight: +15 to Perception

Proctan smarts: +10 to Intelligence and Wisdom

[24]

Core Status

Name:

Milton Frederick

Type:

Station Core Prototype 3-B

Combat Level:

27

Experience:

116091157/182089500

Reactor Type:

Zero-point Energy

Reactor Output:

550%

Current Statistics/Attributes

Reactor Power/Strength:

110

Processing Power/Intelligence:

130

Structural Integrity/Constitution:

110

Ingenuity/Wisdom:

150

Processing Speed/Agility:

130

Communication/Charisma:

137

Insight/Luck:

94

Sensor Interpretation/Perception

133

[25]

Combat Unit Status

Name:

Rabbiteers #11

Type:

Speed Attacker

Combat Level:

1

Max Level:

7

Experience:

0/150

Health

250/250

Power

275/275

Attack

116 (+79%)

Defense

89 (+79%)

Strength

65

Constitution

50

Agility

140

Perception

25

Intelligence

55

Wisdom

55

Charisma

9

A/D Bonus

54%

Skills

Survivor (Lvl 5)

Permanent 25% increase in Defense

Kamikaze (Lvl 9)

1000% more damage during a suicidal attack

Large-scale Battle Tactics (Lvl 4)

25% increase in attack/abilities when fighting with more than 50 participants

Cooperation (Lvl 9)

45% increase in defense when fighting alongside natural enemies

Special Traits

Air Affinity +1: Able to weakly manipulate Air

Unbreakable Antlers: Antlers will not snap upon impact

Strong Bones: +20 to Constitution

Quick Like A Bunny: +50 to Agility

Triple-sized: +15 to Strength and Constitution

Reinforced Needle Antlers: +25% to Attack

Poison-tipped Antlers: Upon contact, the poison slows the target for 30 seconds

Proctan Genius: +50 to Intelligence and Wisdom