I make a lot of money moving cargo, now that I own it and can properly negotiate. Massive skill buffs are cheating. I actually have a very nice life: I have created servants at my beck and call, a harem of four outrageously proportioned women (Euler, Stephanie, Cowbird, and Linda) who all have crazy-high libidos and are - in one way or another - subservient to me. Oh, I need to fend off an assassin or bounty hunter every now and again when I'm planetside buying or selling, but that’s no big deal.
I come to expect being able to find large lots of cargo that I can sell for exorbitant prices elsewhere… because I can, completely reliabily, thanks to skill buffs.
Which is, I think, why the sting caught me: It's nothing out of the ordinary for a merchant to suggest somewhere to sell the cargo, so I didn't think anything of it… so now I'm facing another minefield (this one mixed with both big and small mines) and the same three ships with their drift shadow generators.
“Orders, Admiral?” Stephanie is quite hesitant.
“Hold in place for a moment. They don't know we arrived yet. We can clear the mines, but… we don't really have the firepower to properly threaten them in a fight. Sure, we'd win, but… they'd just run away and try again.” Which means… I cast a Fleeting Spell Time Stop.
There. My chest is tight, but now I have time. And… I can travel at starship astrogation speeds. I picked that up at first level. A plan forms in my head…
“Oh, so I get to feast today, then?” Hi Patricia. Yes, yes you do. I can't really think of a good way to make them stop hunting me without making it painfully obvious that they lost, and utterly. And if I want to stop other people from doing similarly… I need to make it public, too. So yes, you get to eat three ship’s worth of people.
I walk to the airlock, push the various buttons needed to make it cycle, and wait.
Nothing happens, so I try again, and atill nothing. As I'm about to call Stephanie on the coms, I realize: I stopped time (well, sort of). The electrical signals haven't reached the processors yet. So I just Teleport to immediately outside the airlock… huh. I'm a good six inches off target. Good to know.
Still: I move at starship-scale speeds in the void normally, so it's not too big of a deal: I can keep up with the orbit, no problem, even without the Time Stop. Now? Keeping up should be easy.
Before I go, though… I conjure a ten foot pole (an adventure's friend since the first draft of Dungeons and Dragons), and hold it out in front of me as I go: I don't want to find Stephanie's shields the hard way. When the leading edge disintegrates, I know I've found them, and teleport past. I then create a new ten-foot pole, and repeat the process with the first battleship, teleporting to the airlock door, minding the speed's effect.
Fortunately, this is NOT a biomechanical starship, so the hull is just metal. The Ironguad spell makes my chest a bit tighter, but lets me simply walk through the hull like it wasn't even there. I take my time and go through the ship, taking pictures of everyone on board, from the captain on the bridge to the private cleaning the galley. I then leave, and repeat the process with the other two enemy ships.
Now, I could just systemically destroy them with Disintegrate: I have all the time in the world, or nearly enough. I could use the Greater Remove Radioactivity spell to neutralize the fuel in their reactor, and leave them with nothing but emergency power. But I don't. I want to send a message to whoever is calling the shots, and anyone watching these bozos… and simply killing their ships won't do that job.
Also: If I destroy them, I can't sell them.
I go back to Stephanie, create a demiplane (a very small one), Dimension Lock the entire place, make it a dead magic plane, and Wish transport myself back to Stephanie's bridge (my spells aren't technically magic, so they work fine, and Wish ignores Dimension Lock).
I breathe a sigh of releif as I dismiss the current spells on myself for the project, letting time resume, “I've got this; hold a few minutes more….”
I concentrate, repeatedly casting Wish, for the Transport Travelers clause. I start with the six highest ranking officers on each of the three enemy ships, transporting them to the prison I just created, casting a few times to be sure it sticks.
I then systemically use Wish's Transport Travelers clause to send everyone else on those ships to the big park in the middle of Absalom Station.
I expect it to take about two minutes: There's three hundred people on each ship, so even at four castings every six seconds and eighteen people per casting, it will take twelve and a half rounds… but some people will make their will saves, so it'll be a bit more than that.
That was what I expected, anyway. Sadly, six seconds into getting rid of the crews, all three ships turn into bright lights on my screens, and their red highlighting arrows vanish as the lights go out.
“Report,” just the one word is all that's needed.
A summoned science officer gives me the bad news: “The ships self-destructed.”
“Hypothesis?” Again, the summons are intelligent, and really don't need much in the way of orders.
“Some kind of failsafe… what were you doing to them, Sir?” right, I didn't tell anyone what I was up to.
“I captured their top officers and was sending everyone else to Absalom Station,” no real need to hide that, “with the intent of emptying the ships so we could capture them intact.”
Stephanie answers via her remote, “Then their VI probably killed them all on standing orders, Admiral Alex Abrams.”
Ugh, my head is pounding… “I'm feeling a little dense right now. Please elaborate, Stephanie.”
She chuckles, “So it's almost time for another measurement session, then?” I glare at her, but she answers, “Well, those were apparently very military vessels; heavily armed, operating under orders, and with large crews.”
I nod, “Each ship had a full complement, men only, physically fit, and everyone who wasn't sleeping or bathing was in uniform, yes.”
She pauses, and I watch her mouth “...and you know this how?” Before she actually speaks, “Right. Well, the one thing that irks a military commander more than losing their forces is letting the enemy get ahold of their stuff.”
Ah, I get it now, “So the VI had standing orders to self-destruct if it looked like that would happen.”
“Yes Admiral,” Stephanie adds, “That's my guess.”
Well… at least *I* didn't kill them… directly… I'm so glad I don't sleep. “Beats any I've come up with. Clear the minefield, please.”
“Yes Admiral,” Stephanie salutes, and gives orders to the various summoned creatures I placed under her command.
I get to watch on the screens as the weapons I purchased and installed for this exact purpose do their jobs: Stephanie's array zaps thousands of them, while Euler's sends out an absurd number of missiles, which fly out and destroy the mines in cascading waves away from the ships. It’s quite the light show.
It's a pity my headache prevents me from enjoying it properly.
Before I rest and take care of myself, though, there's something I need to know, “Stephanie, get us close enough to the planet to get a view of the surface.”
She closes her eyes a moment, “Yes Admiral.”
I know what to expect. They did it at the last ambush, too. But I stay on the bridge. I don't strictly need to be here. It won't truly help anything. But out of respect for the dead, I have to be sure.
So I wait. For the couple of hours it takes for us to reach orbit, I wait. Through the pounding headache, I wait. Because that is all I can do for them.
We enter orbit, and one of the science officers gives me the pictures: Yes, this place was nuked from orbit. This colony had roads… they terminate at craters. One big set of them, and systemic erasure of all buildings around.
I give the orders across the coms, “Euler, Linda: Take your ships down, find and collect any survivors you can find. Host them in the Keyhomes. We'll take them back to Absalom Station.”
I wait through the pain, checking via a copied Commune with Planet spell to make sure we get everyone. I get the final survivor tally: Eighty seven. Eighty seven people that will remember orbital fire for the rest of their lives. Eighty seven people who will mourn their family and friends who died in a senseless attack.
And who knows how many people who actually died… I'm sure the colony's population is in an official record somewhere… but it's not here anymore.
“Sync up, and plot a course for Absalom Station,” I order, “and begin the Drift jump once we have a solution.”
And now that the planet is empty, and orders given for the survivors’ sakes, I finally head to my room, lock the door, and take care of my own needs.
I make a lot of money moving cargo, now that I own it and can properly negotiate. Massive skill buffs are cheating. I actually have a very nice life: I have created servants at my beck and call, a harem of four outrageously proportioned women (Euler, Stephanie, Cowbird, and Linda) who all have crazy-high libidos and are - in one way or another - subservient to me. Oh, I need to fend off an assassin or bounty hunter every now and again when I'm planetside buying or selling, but that’s no big deal.
I come to expect being able to find large lots of cargo that I can sell for exorbitant prices elsewhere… because I can, completely reliabily, thanks to skill buffs.
Which is, I think, why the sting caught me: It's nothing out of the ordinary for a merchant to suggest somewhere to sell the cargo, so I didn't think anything of it… so now I'm facing another minefield (this one mixed with both big and small mines) and the same three ships with their drift shadow generators.
“Orders, Admiral?” Stephanie is quite hesitant.
“Hold in place for a moment. They don't know we arrived yet. We can clear the mines, but… we don't really have the firepower to properly threaten them in a fight. Sure, we'd win, but… they'd just run away and try again.” Which means… I cast a Fleeting Spell Time Stop.
There. My chest is tight, but now I have time. And… I can travel at starship astrogation speeds. I picked that up at first level. A plan forms in my head…
“Oh, so I get to feast today, then?” Hi Patricia. Yes, yes you do. I can't really think of a good way to make them stop hunting me without making it painfully obvious that they lost, and utterly. And if I want to stop other people from doing similarly… I need to make it public, too. So yes, you get to eat three ship’s worth of people.
I walk to the airlock, push the various buttons needed to make it cycle, and wait.
Nothing happens, so I try again, and atill nothing. As I'm about to call Stephanie on the coms, I realize: I stopped time (well, sort of). The electrical signals haven't reached the processors yet. So I just Teleport to immediately outside the airlock… huh. I'm a good six inches off target. Good to know.
Still: I move at starship-scale speeds in the void normally, so it's not too big of a deal: I can keep up with the orbit, no problem, even without the Time Stop. Now? Keeping up should be easy.
Before I go, though… I conjure a ten foot pole (an adventure's friend since the first draft of Dungeons and Dragons), and hold it out in front of me as I go: I don't want to find Stephanie's shields the hard way. When the leading edge disintegrates, I know I've found them, and teleport past. I then create a new ten-foot pole, and repeat the process with the first battleship, teleporting to the airlock door, minding the speed's effect.
Fortunately, this is NOT a biomechanical starship, so the hull is just metal. The Ironguad spell makes my chest a bit tighter, but lets me simply walk through the hull like it wasn't even there. I take my time and go through the ship, taking pictures of everyone on board, from the captain on the bridge to the private cleaning the galley. I then leave, and repeat the process with the other two enemy ships.
Now, I could just systemically destroy them with Disintegrate: I have all the time in the world, or nearly enough. I could use the Greater Remove Radioactivity spell to neutralize the fuel in their reactor, and leave them with nothing but emergency power. But I don't. I want to send a message to whoever is calling the shots, and anyone watching these bozos… and simply killing their ships won't do that job.
Also: If I destroy them, I can't sell them.
I go back to Stephanie, create a demiplane (a very small one), Dimension Lock the entire place, make it a dead magic plane, and Wish transport myself back to Stephanie's bridge (my spells aren't technically magic, so they work fine, and Wish ignores Dimension Lock).
I breathe a sigh of releif as I dismiss the current spells on myself for the project, letting time resume, “I've got this; hold a few minutes more….”
I concentrate, repeatedly casting Wish, for the Transport Travelers clause. I start with the six highest ranking officers on each of the three enemy ships, transporting them to the prison I just created, casting a few times to be sure it sticks.
I then systemically use Wish's Transport Travelers clause to send everyone else on those ships to the big park in the middle of Absalom Station.
I expect it to take about two minutes: There's three hundred people on each ship, so even at four castings every six seconds and eighteen people per casting, it will take twelve and a half rounds… but some people will make their will saves, so it'll be a bit more than that.
That was what I expected, anyway. Sadly, six seconds into getting rid of the crews, all three ships turn into bright lights on my screens, and their red highlighting arrows vanish as the lights go out.
“Report,” just the one word is all that's needed.
A summoned science officer gives me the bad news: “The ships self-destructed.”
“Hypothesis?” Again, the summons are intelligent, and really don't need much in the way of orders.
“Some kind of failsafe… what were you doing to them, Sir?” right, I didn't tell anyone what I was up to.
“I captured their top officers and was sending everyone else to Absalom Station,” no real need to hide that, “with the intent of emptying the ships so we could capture them intact.”
Stephanie answers via her remote, “Then their VI probably killed them all on standing orders, Admiral Alex Abrams.”
Ugh, my head is pounding… “I'm feeling a little dense right now. Please elaborate, Stephanie.”
She chuckles, “So it's almost time for another measurement session, then?” I glare at her, but she answers, “Well, those were apparently very military vessels; heavily armed, operating under orders, and with large crews.”
I nod, “Each ship had a full complement, men only, physically fit, and everyone who wasn't sleeping or bathing was in uniform, yes.”
She pauses, and I watch her mouth “...and you know this how?” Before she actually speaks, “Right. Well, the one thing that irks a military commander more than losing their forces is letting the enemy get ahold of their stuff.”
Ah, I get it now, “So the VI had standing orders to self-destruct if it looked like that would happen.”
“Yes Admiral,” Stephanie adds, “That's my guess.”
Well… at least *I* didn't kill them… directly… I'm so glad I don't sleep. “Beats any I've come up with. Clear the minefield, please.”
“Yes Admiral,” Stephanie salutes, and gives orders to the various summoned creatures I placed under her command.
I get to watch on the screens as the weapons I purchased and installed for this exact purpose do their jobs: Stephanie's array zaps thousands of them, while Euler's sends out an absurd number of missiles, which fly out and destroy the mines in cascading waves away from the ships. It’s quite the light show.
It's a pity my headache prevents me from enjoying it properly.
Before I rest and take care of myself, though, there's something I need to know, “Stephanie, get us close enough to the planet to get a view of the surface.”
She closes her eyes a moment, “Yes Admiral.”
I know what to expect. They did it at the last ambush, too. But I stay on the bridge. I don't strictly need to be here. It won't truly help anything. But out of respect for the dead, I have to be sure.
So I wait. For the couple of hours it takes for us to reach orbit, I wait. Through the pounding headache, I wait. Because that is all I can do for them.
We enter orbit, and one of the science officers gives me the pictures: Yes, this place was nuked from orbit. This colony had roads… they terminate at craters. One big set of them, and systemic erasure of all buildings around.
I give the orders across the coms, “Euler, Linda: Take your ships down, find and collect any survivors you can find. Host them in the Keyhomes. We'll take them back to Absalom Station.”
I wait through the pain, checking via a copied Commune with Planet spell to make sure we get everyone. I get the final survivor tally: Eighty seven. Eighty seven people that will remember orbital fire for the rest of their lives. Eighty seven people who will mourn their family and friends who died in a senseless attack.
And who knows how many people who actually died… I'm sure the colony's population is in an official record somewhere… but it's not here anymore.
“Sync up, and plot a course for Absalom Station,” I order, “and begin the Drift jump once we have a solution.”
And now that the planet is empty, and orders given for the survivors’ sakes, I finally head to my room, lock the door, and take care of my own needs.
