Chapter 60: Chapter 48

Star People

Chapter 48

Subterfuge

April 12^th, 15 AE…

The Council of Prime Directors…

“I hereby call this meeting to order.” Nasaak announced as he and his fellow Directors took their seats.

It had been 2 weeks since the appearance of the Imitation Mech-Frames and the accusations of Free Land’s involvement by Emperor Shenshirine. Since that time, there had been several more attacks against small towns and outposts. All of the attacks were at night and every time the Naran military responded, the Mech-Frames would leave before the Naran jets and soldiers arrived on the scene. The egotistical and enraged ruler of Naran had been more insistent that Free Land admit to their crimes and pay restitutions in the form of advanced Star Alliance technology. All of his ludicrous demands were of course refused, thereby causing the Kingdom of Naran to begin broadcasting the Memory Crystal’s images worldwide in retaliation. It was hoped that showing the crimes of Free Land would discredit them in front of the other nations. The results of showing such bloody scenes had less-than-favorable results for Naran.

The Dwarf Nations stood by their Star Alliance neighbors without question and the Empire of Sath didn’t believe that Free Land was guilty. The crude Mech-Frames didn’t look anything like Free Land’s Battle-Mechs and many people already believed that Free Land was innocent. They had seen the quality of Free Land and Dwarf Nation Mech-Frames, and these roughshod-looking devices were not even close. Some of the less-advanced nations were cautious to approach Free Land, but this was only due to fears of angering Naran. Despite the fact that everyone agreed that the wholesale slaughter of innocent civilians was a heinous act, most blamed this unknown foe and the Naran government for not being able to stop these attacks.

“My fellow Directors, it seems that an unknown entity is using crude, but viable Battle-Mechs to wreak havoc upon the innocent people of Naran.” The Catian declared as he began the conference. “Not to mention trying to make the Star Alliance look bad.”

“This entity may not be as unknown as we first believed.” Sierg pointed out as he motioned for one of the main entrance doors to the conference chamber to open. A moment later, two familiar figures walked into the room and stood before the Council. “Greetings, Clurke. You too, Vulkar. Thank you for answering my summons.”

“It is both an honor and a pleasure to be here.” Clurke stated as he and his son gave the Council a slight bow. “What is it that you require from us?”

“We wish to confirm something.” The dwarf Director turned on the main holo-viewer and showed a 3D image of the knockoff Mech-Frame. “Have you seen this before?”

“We certainly have. We’ve seen these machines on the holo-news.”

“Yeah.” Vulkar nodded. “Talk about pathetic workmanship. Whoever designed those things have no pride as craftsmen and engineers. Not to mention using them to kill innocent people. That’s despicable.”

“Please take a closer look and tell me if you recognize something else about this machine.” Sierg instructed.

“Hmmm… let me see…” Clurke and his son moved closer and began looking over the image.

“Hey Dad… doesn’t this look… kind of familiar?” Vulkar asked after a minute of closer examination.

“Now that you mention it… yes, I think I remember those joint structures… the head is different but the general shape and movement… oh no… it can’t be!”

“You mean those bastards…?”

“Indeed… damn it! I thought I destroyed the prototype!”

“Ahem.” Nerto cleared his throat loudly, getting the attention of the two dwarven blacksmiths and engineers. “It sounds like you two are very familiar with these machines.”

Clurke let off a sigh as he and his son nodded. “We’re both ashamed to admit it, but we were greatly involved in the creation of these… abominations!”

Vulkar let off a sigh as well. “You probably already know about it, but my father and I, along with several hundred of our countrymen, were kidnapped by the former Emperor and First Prince of the Sath…”

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A little later…

“And that’s what happened.” Clurke said as he and his son finished the tale of their imprisonment by Garres and being forced to create his army of fake Battle-Mechs. “The design has been modified somewhat, but this is definitely a Metal Soldier.” He pointed to the 3D image.

“As I suspected.” Sierg stated. “Since Garres Lorcra and his son Lexor were never apprehended, they would be the most likely culprits behind this new batch of mechanical monstrosities.”

“Yeah, but I can’t understand how they got these things to move like we’ve seen on the news.” Vulkar scratched his head. “They don’t have a Neo-Psion reactor and they definitely don’t have anything that Free Land uses. They shouldn’t even be able to have Metal Soldiers after Dad destroyed the only working prototype. Before we left Euracon, we scrapped all the spare parts, components and frames. Not to mention the remains of that stolen Battle-Mech!”

“It is possible that Garres may have possessed, without your knowing, a duplicate set of blueprints of the prototype.” Nerto suggested. “And we also theorize that they might have stumbled across an artifact of the First Ones; a relic that is able to mimic the same functions as the Neo-Psion reactor.”

“Even if they did find a relic of the First Ones, there’s no chance those egotistical idiots could figure out how it worked, how to recreate it, nor mass-produce it for their Metal Soldier Army.” Vulkar scoffed.

“They may not have those capabilities, but I do believe the Dreanat might.” The dwarf Prime Director surmised.

“Those cronies of the Euracon Empire?” Clurke asked.

“The former Euracon Empire was their biggest customer, but the Dreanat were not obligated to serve only Emperor Xerxal. They’ll work for anyone, so long as you pay them. Their number one priority is to themselves. They worked for Garres when they kidnapped you and the other dwarves, remember? It seems that Garres is employing them again and we have reason to believe that the Kingdom of Naran may be using some of their operatives to spy on Free Land and the Dwarf Nations.”

“So you’re saying that the Dreanat have the ability to not only study and reverse-engineer First Ones magitech, but also be able to mass-produce it?” Viska asked.

“This is not the first instance of the Dreanat using its hidden resources and capabilities. Before its collapse, the Empire of Euracon possessed impressive levels of magitech, all of which were based on Naran, Atlans and Sath devices, stolen and reverse-engineered by the Dreanat. There have been several unsolved cases in which First Ones relics disappeared without a trace. It’s been rumored that they have several high-ranking magical scholars and engineers in their ranks, in order to perform magical espionage and create their spy devices.”

“All right, I’m starting to understand the overall picture here.” Benjamin remarked. “So after finding this relic, Garres had the Dreanat study it and they were able to discern how it worked and how to make copies of it.”

“I’d say lesser copies of it, given how roughly the Metal Soldiers move.” Clurke commented. “I can see with my own eyes how inefficiently they utilize magical power or psions. It’s not even close to the first prototype of my Neo-Psion reactor.”

 “It’s still good enough to do the job. Now, in order to construct the Metal Soldier Army, they needed to learn methods of mass-production.”

“This would explain the spy golems we came across.” Anida spoke. “So not only were the Dreanat trying to learn Dwarf Nation and Free Land technology, they were trying to learn how to create a large number of that technology. In other words, they wanted mass-production techniques.”

“And I’d say they succeeded.” Nasaak commented. “Considering the frequency of these sightings of Metal Soldiers, I’d estimate they have at bare minimum, enough imitation Battle-Mechs to equal one of our regiments. Of course, I doubt they could even stand up to a few squadrons of Hunters and Star Gladiators, but that doesn’t make them any less dangerous to the other nations.”

“So now that Garres has his Metal Soldier Army, what does he plan to do with it?” Nerto asked.

“Obviously he’s not going to try to take on the Star Alliance directly.” The Catian stated. “Garres and his son may have delusions of grandeur, but even they aren’t stupid, ignorant or suicidal enough to challenge Free Land this soon. Nobody is that stupid. After the war with the Sath and kidnapping several hundred dwarves, I think they may have smartened up a bit. They’re not even attempting to take on the Kingdom of Naran but trying to shift the blame onto us.”

“So you think these attacks are a kind of diversion?” Anida wondered. “Perhaps Garres is using these attacks as a kind of test for his Metal Soldiers?”

“That sounds about right. Furthermore, it’s no secret that the relationship between Free Land and Naran has pretty much gone south after the Zedan war.” Viska stated. “It really wouldn’t take much to increase the tension between our nations. He’s trying to fan the flames.”

“Surely Emperor Shenshirine isn’t ignorant enough to believe that we were behind those attacks? And I certainly don’t think he’d be foolhardy enough to declare war on us.”

“No, I don’t believe that either.” Nasaak shook his head. “There is no gain for us to attack Naran and I’m pretty certain that the Naran Emperor knows that as well. He’s most likely using these attacks as propaganda to turn other nations against us and to pressure us into giving Naran some of our technology.”

“Well, that’s not going to happen.” Benjamin remarked. “However, these incidents will make Naran and Free Land focus on each other, while Garres carries out whatever scheme he has cooked up without interference. We can’t do anything right now, but wait and see what happens.”

“Sierg, you said that the Dreanat owe no loyalty other than to themselves, correct?” Nerto asked.

“Indeed.” The dwarf Director nodded.

“So would it be possible to suspect that this entire affair may not be due to Garres’ manipulations, but actually the Dreanat’s? And would it also be possible to suspect that neither Garres nor Shenshirine is aware that they are being played against one another by the Dreanat?”

Sierg and the other Directors were silent for a full minute before he replied.

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“Now that is a scary thought.”

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April 15^th, 15 AE…

A hidden hanger within a large mountain…

“So how are the studies and upgrades going?” The Naran Emperor asked.

“They are going well enough.” The head engineer Maden Vitra replied, as he and Shenshirine looked upon the Deriaton One battleship from within an observation booth. Workers milled about on multiple decks around the mightiest weapon of the Kingdom of Naran. Some were installing new components to the vessel, while others were researching parts of the ship that were still a mystery to them.

Ever since its poor performance during the Zedan war, the Deriaton One had been undergoing extensive studies and remodeling. The ship had been built using ancient blueprints and original components that were not fully understood. As stated before, it had taken Naran a century to build just one and the other two vessels were only partially functional and were intended as backups.

The main flaws of Deriaton One and its counterparts were their slow magic replenishment processes. In other words, once their weapons were fired, it took far too long to reload and restore their magic payloads. What was even more frustrating was that once the mystical weapons and systems were charged, they had to be used within a limited time frame. If they were left to idle for too long, the levels of psions would drop as they leaked out. Additionally, the rituals used to recharge those systems were complicated and used up a lot of personal mana.

After returning to Naran, Emperor Shenshirine doubled the budget of the research and development divisions of First Ones technology, and ordered them to begin looking for a way to speed up the process of magical accumulation and to store it more efficiently. After months of trial and error, the engineers and mages believed they had found the solution.

The Psion Storage Battery or PSB.

After learning about psions from the Kyteeri, the magical scholars believed that mystic energy could be stored for longer periods or even indefinitely, much like Free Land’s power cells. The main obstacle was to find the right container to do the job. After a long period of experimentation, they came across a solution by using an energy cell made of mithril and imbuing it with restriction runes to keep the magical energy from flowing out. The standard PSB was about the size of a 13-gallon garbage can and was cylindrical in shape.

When in use, the runes would be reversed, allowing the energy to flow into the weapons and systems of Deriaton One.  It still took a long time to charge one PSB, but there was an upside. If one had an ample supply of PSBs on hand, when one cell ran out of power, it could simply be swapped out for another. This greatly reduced reload time and had other potential military and civilian applications. The amount of energy stored within a PSB could keep a Sky Blade II jet flying for over 2 hours, thereby increasing their range and making them more fuel-efficient. Larger PSBs would be used for the Deriaton One’s weapons and propulsion systems.

After making their PSBs feasible, the engineers then began working on integrating the new power sources into Deriaton One’s structure. This meant some considerable remodeling to the interior systems. Not wanting to damage or destroy any of the original components of the First Ones, the engineers started designing compartments to hold and store the PSBs and connect them to the vessel’s power distribution relays.

As they restructured the ship, the engineers and mages began finding previously undiscovered runes and other details about the battleship. Things such as an auto-repair system that could restore certain sections of the hull, and an emergency barrier projector. Some of the engineers even began to think that the new improvements and abilities could make Deriaton One a match against the famed Free Land star battleship, the Missouri.

Back in the observation booth, Shenshirine nodded after his lead magic engineer gave him a full rundown of the ship’s capabilities and upgrades.

“Excellent! And may I ask about that other project that I had assigned?”

“My liege, I must admit that is a more difficult task to accomplish.”

“And why is that?”

“We have yet to capture one of the Mech-Frames that have been attacking our border towns. They attack quickly and disappear before our forces can arrive at the scene.”

“We must capture one intact at all costs!” Shenshirine declared. “Once we have one in our possession, then we can study its inner-workings and create our own Mech-Frames!”

“Begging your pardon, your Majesty, but wouldn’t Free Land object to such actions?”

“Let them object and protest! For all the good it will do for them!” Shenshirine waved his hand. “They have already denied being responsible for the attacks and therefore, if we capture one of these machines and learn its secrets, then Free Land can do nothing about it. I already know that Free Land was not behind these attacks.”

“You knew?”

“Do you take your Emperor to be a fool?”

“No! No! Of course not!” Maden said quickly while shaking his head.

Shenshirine nodded as he continued. “I have lived for over three and a half millennia and I know a ruse when I see one. Obviously, someone other than Free Land and the Dwarf Nations has Battle-Mech technology.”

“But why the attacks? And why are we accusing Free Land if we know that they are innocent?”

 “I would think that someone is trying to intensify the political instability between our nation and Free Land. So be it, if it helps us to put political pressure upon the Alder continent. In any case, the Star Alliance had denied us access to Zedan technology after the war, as well as Star Alliance core technology and that of the Dwarf Nations. This is an opportunity that we cannot pass up. I understand that whatever is powering these new machines may be similar to the dwarves’ Neo-Psion reactor, is that correct?”

“Yes, my liege.  According to all footage we have, the scholars and mages have determined that the energy emanating from these Mechs are quite similar to what the dwarves possess. The Dreanat spy golems were unable to discern the secret of dwarf runes, but they were able to sense the magical output of their Neo-Psion reactors. The two magical wavelengths are similar.”

 “Excellent! So if we get one of these Mechs, then we will have no need to acquire a Neo-Psion reactor. In addition to being able to create our own Battle-Mech army, we can also use this to improve on Deriaton One and our other magitech devices! The Kingdom of Naran will once again take its position as the topmost nation in Istaria!”

“I see! Then we shall double our efforts to obtain one of these Mech-Frames!”

“Glory to Naran!” Shenshirine declared before turning about to depart.

“Glory to Naran!” Maden said as he bowed to his king.

However, a minute after Shenshirine departed, the head magic engineer took on a more devious expression as he went into a private room and shut the door behind him. After making certain that no one was present, he reached into his lab coat and took out a small device that was about the size of a garage-door remote. He manipulated the runes on the device for a few seconds before quietly speaking into it.

“This number seven-forty-seven to base… come in base…”

A moment later, the communicator responded with a hushed voice.

“This is base… go ahead seven-forty-seven…”

“The Emperor has already admitted to knowing that Free Land was not behind the attacks…”

“That was to be expected… and does he suspect you of being a Dreanat spy…?”

“Not at all… in fact he has given orders to capture a Metal Soldier to learn its secrets…”

“Good… so he is playing into our hands… now, what about the schematics for the Deriaton One and the PSBs?”

“I will be transmitting the latest blueprints and records during the next cycle…”

“Excellent! All is going according to our plans! We shall continue to manipulate those fools Garres and Vexor on our end! Glory to the Dreanat!”

“Glory to the Dreanat!”

Maden shut off his communicator and smiled as he thought about the past few months. Unknown to the Emperor, the Dreanat had long-since infiltrated the Kingdom of Naran and had agents planted among the higher levels of government and the magitech research divisions. The main reason why Naran had been unable to capture a Metal Soldier was because the agents had been giving Garres’ Army advance warning to the approach of Naran forces, thereby giving them time to retreat.

Furthermore, unknown to both the Naran Emperor and the former Emperor of the Sath, the Dreanat had been manipulating the two sides. They didn’t care about Shenshirine’s bid towards regaining his country’s former glory, nor did they care for Garres’ bid for vengeance and conquest. It was simply a means to an end as they used Garres’ Metal Soldiers to entice Shenshirine to commit his forces towards their capture. At the same time, the Dreanat were privy to the secrets of Deriaton One and the newly developed Psion Storage Batteries. It wouldn’t be long before a massive shift in power and politics occurred. And it would all be in favor of the Dreanat.

To be continued…

Author’s Notes

I decided to give this chapter a bit early as I will be taking a short hiatus for a couple of weeks. Hope the readers enjoyed it!

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