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Dark Fate, Chapter 65
🕑 Added 2021-07-10 21:33:49 +0000 UTCChapter 65 – Preparing the Field
First thing to do was making sure the properties were actually mine, according to the System. While I was at it, I decided to grab the huge empty space behind the house I wanted, too, so I could set up some actual defenses. Going through the interface in my Tablet, that was easily handled, and, for the price of just 3.8 million gp.
Once I had the properties, I needed to decide what to do with them. First thought was to have a wall, like my main house, but that would draw too much attention my way, especially if someone started looking into who the government said owned the properties. Sure, there wasn’t much the government could do to override the System, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t cause trouble for me in other ways. Probably best to start small.
System Shop
Stronghold Upgrades
Utility Upgrades
Upgrade
Cost
Description
System Mailbox
100 gp
Establishes a permanent, indestructible mailbox connected to the System, allowing easy mailing and delivery of messages and packages to other individuals in the System.
Basic Ambient Mana Functionality
25000 gp
Allows basic functionality of electrical equipment with ambient mana, rather than a connection to the electrical grid. Provides enough power for lights, appliances, but not high-power items.
Conjured Water System
50000
Allows for the conjuration of fresh water in place of water pumped in from outside.
Stage 1 Mana Reactor
120000 gp
Incorporates a reactor that converts reactor mass to mana, to power defenses and other items. Sewage and other waste can be converted to reactor mass.
Mana Injector
1000 gp
Allows residents to inject their mana to help power stronghold functions.
Mana Batteries
500 gp
Rechargeable batteries, allow storage of mana for stronghold functions.
Solar Power Collector
10000 gp
Provides solar panels that convert solar energy to mana in order to power stronghold functions
Self-Repair Functionality
1250000 gp
Allows stronghold structures and features to regenerate over time, using mana to replace repair costs.
Teleportation Platform
50000 gp
Allows user to teleport to any location within 1000 miles. Attempting to teleport to unknown locations may result in accidents.
For basic upgrades, I decided to just bite the bullet and trick things out. System Mailbox, Basic Ambient Mana Functionality, Conjured Water System, Stage 1 Mana Reactor, Mana Injector, twenty Mana Batteries, Solar Power Collector, and Self-Repair Functionality for all three houses. That set me back almost 4.4 million gold, but it would be worth it, especially considering that I expected this place to take a hit in the near future.
Next, I paid 100k to install two teleporter pads. One was here, and the other was in my main base. This, combined with the simple recall tokens that Zarina made us, would allow us to zap back to the base, and then pop out here in a matter of moments, when the balloon went up.
Mobility issued settled, I also put down another 25k for the Basic Ambient Mana Functionality in the empty field. If I was going to use the ‘crashed spaceship’ ruse, then I needed power, but not too much. Ambient Mana systems were used by a lot of ships to power essential systems without using fuel while they were on the ground, and were one of a couple standard backup emergency power sources you saw on ships for when they crashed on a planet, or other source of ambient mana. Didn’t do them much good in the middle of the void, but nothing was perfect.
That brought up the need to build a ship. Or, rather, build something that would appear as though a ship had been cannibalized to build it by a crew crashed on a mana-less planet. The best way would be to take the framework of an existing ship, and remodel it.
On the other hand, if I was going to all that work, I could just get a ship, and disguise it to make it look like it wasn’t space-worthy. Sure, I had a dreadnought in storage, but I didn’t have the crew for something like that, not yet. I’d probably lose it if I tried to take it into a fight, and it was too large for the space. I needed something smaller.
The two ideas I had were for either a freighter of some kind, or a light warship. Something in a corvette size could be run with minimal crew, and could still pack a wallop, when needed. On the other hand, if I had a warship, would it discourage the raiders from landing nearby? Decisions, decisions.
System Shop
Ships
Freighters, Light
Name
Cost
Description
Stozeil-Class Freighter
1050500 gp
An ancient civilian freighter, known for reliability and discretion. Still in service after 1000 Galactic Standard Years.
Hiets Lanehauler
2340900 gp
A streamlined, efficient light freighter, common in many systems.
Gulkuts Courier
3500000 gp
The fastest light freighter on the market, able to outrace most civilian transports.
Light Picket Ships
Name
Cost
Description
Illids Skimmer
250000 gp
A lightly armed attack craft, designed for police actions and customs inspections.
Iqe Interceptor
375800 gp
A quick response craft, designed to intercept shipping and pirates.
Crun Flyer
425000 gp
A picket ship that trades speed for firepower and armor.
Corvettes
Name
Cost
Description
Oscuns-Class Shiphunter
8580000 gp
A corvette designed for hunting pirate ships. Solid balance of speed and defense, includes spinal mount weapon.
Braks-Class Corvette
6250000 gp
A robust weapons platform, focusing on energy weapons and point defense. Designed for escort duty.
Izan-Class Stealth Ship
15090000 gp
A new-model corvette designed for stealth. Includes passive and active stealth systems, and internal weapons bays.
I filtered the VERY plentiful choices down to three options in each category I was looking at. Obviously, I first filtered out all the ships made for, say, aquatic creatures. Then, I took away the highest and lowest-end options, to get rid of ‘luxury’ and ‘deathtrap’ options, and so on. Reducing the thousands of options, per category, to the three contenders took almost two hours, but I was satisfied with the work.
Now, the choice was between what kind of ship I wanted. I didn’t really want a freighter, but they were ubiquitous, and easily overlooked when you wanted to quietly get some goods from A to B. But they weren’t set up for combat, and that was a serious problem. Likewise, picket ships would be the most immediately useful of the three ships, since one of them could take on one of the reconditioned freighters pirates often used, if I had a pilot, but I’d likely outgrow it quickly.
The corvettes, however, were a good compromise. They were tougher than the typical pirate ship, which would make any raiders finding a crashed one eager to check it out, in hopes of salvaging it, but they needed more crew than a picket ship, which was just a glorified patrol boat. More importantly, there was no hiding the corvette as anything but a warship, unless you had tech for that purpose.
Now, there were ways to make a corvette stealthy, which was obvious, given that there was a stealth option in the list, but you traded a lot for that. And it wanted something that could hold its own in a fight. I wanted a wolf, that could stand and fight if it needed to, rather than a bobcat, which relied more on stealth and stalking.
So, with that in mind, I picked up the Oscuns. It looked like a ship that could do a lot of damage and take a hit or two, based on the specs. I was going to get into trouble, eventually, so I wanted my ship to be able to punch its way free, at least until I was ready to move up to the dreadnought.
Name
Unnamed
Type
Corvette
Owner
Zayn Greene
Model
Oscuns-Class Shiphunter
Systems
Weapons
Standard Point Defense Laser Batteries x2
Standard Ion Cannons x2
Standard Laser Cannons x2
Standard Torpedo Launchers x2 (10 torpedoes each)
Standard Spinal Plasma Cannon
External Hard Points x4
Shields
Standard Corvette Shield System
Armor
Standard Warship Armor
Sensors
Standard Sensor Suite
Power
Standard Corvette Reactor
Standard Emergency Reactor
Standard Ambient Mana Collector
Drives
Standard Sublight Drive
Standard Warp Drive
Misc
Open Upgrade Slots x3
Complement
Crew
50 (9 officers, 1 medic, 40 crew)
10 Passengers/Specialists
Cargo
200 tons
Being able to just drop bills and get next-day delivery on a ship was a nice perk of the System. Of course, there were down sides, as well. You paid more, for one. Both in initial costs, and in logistics, since you didn’t have a manufacturer producing replacement parts, meaning you had to buy everything from the System, or do upgrades yourself. And the ship only came with ‘standard’ gear, which was going to put you at a disadvantage if you went up against someone that didn’t do the bare minimum.
So, I needed to make a few modifications. Before that, I needed a name for my ship. ‘Unnamed’ was simply not going to cut it! Instead, I decided to go with something more fitting a demon like myself. The Hellspawnwas a fitting name for a demon’s first ship, in my none-too-humble opinion. With that settled, I started looking at upgrades.
Hellspawn
Available Upgrades
Name
Cost
Description
Mendelius Point Defense System
8000 gp per turret
Rapid-fire point defense system, offering 10% greater range than standard systems and 30% greater firing speed, for 10% less power per shot.
Y’thran Arms Ion Cannons
12000 gp per cannon
Improved ion cannons that boast 25% better output than standard models, with a 10% reduction in charge time. However, the range is reduced by 35%.
Imperial Grav-Lance
9000 gp per cannon
A replacement for the standard laser cannons, the Grav-lance offers a 20% increase in range and 45% increase in power compared to the standard cannons, but at a 50% reduced firing rate.
Tiamat Torpdeoes
5000 gp per torpedo
Torpedoes created with antimatter warheads, offering 200% greater yield.
Hellfire Cannon
120000 gp
A replacement for the standard spinal plasma cannon, the Hellfire Cannon is capable of accelerating its rounds up to 95% of the speed of light, at ranges up to 4 light-hours. Fires a 100 kg projectile.
Mk. 25 Reactor
200000 gp
A vastly more powerful and efficient reactor compared to the standard power system used in standard corvettes. Equivalent to a standard Destroyer in output. Available cargo space reduced by 15%.
Coolbreeze Heat Sinks
5000 gp
Improved heat sinks increases amount of time the ship can store waste heat without damage, and allows for directional heat disbursement, increasing stealth capabilities and run time. Takes up one upgrade slot.
Standard Cruiser Shield System
6000 gp
Replaces standard corvette shields with those of a much larger ship. Unlocked due to Mk. 25 reactor.
Hateforged Warsteel Armor
200000 gp
Replaces ship’s armor with Warsteel forged with pure hatred, increasing its defensive properties exponentially. Includes limited self-repair functionality.
Th’thraxi Engine Matrix
50000 gp
Replaces Standard Sublight Drive with new engines. Maximum speed increased by 15%, maneuverability increased by 25%, and acceleration increased by 40%. Unlocked due to Mk. 25 reactor.
Those upgrades cost a cool 739 thousand gold, but I could afford it, and it would be very useful in dealing with any future pirate threats. After all, even if I stopped this one group, that didn’t mean the others who were likely on their way wouldn’t still show up. But, if I could knock out most of these early opportunists, then it would be much longer until anyone important showed up to make a play.
With my ship due to be delivered by the System, I turned my attention to prepping the area. First, I created a trough and impact crater that would make it look like the ship had crash-landed. That was simple enough with the landscaping tools, so it only cost 500 gold. The other upgrades to the buildings, as well as the plot that would house my starship, were a bit more involved, however.
Defensive Upgrades
Name
Cost
Description
Spawn Ward
50000
This ward prevents monsters from spawning within the property impossible. Also prevents the summoning of monsters except by keyed individuals.
Improved Defensive Ward
10000
Warded targets take 25% less damage from hostile forces.
Oppression Ward
10000
Hostile forces deal 25% less damage to warded targets.
Spell Suppression Wards
20000
Hostile spells 10% less effective, cost 200% more mana to cast.
Flight Suppression Ward
5000
Flying creatures not keyed to the wards are unable to fly higher than 5’ from the ground.
Teleportation Suppression Ward
25000
Only individuals keyed to the wards may use any form of teleportation within the affected area.
Avoidance Ward
1000
A simple sensory ward that subtly encourages creatures to overlook or turn away from the warded area.
Cloaking Ward
5000
A simple illusory ward that hides all structures or terrain features from outside viewing.
I put the full suite of wards on all four lots, for the cost of 394 thousand gold. Worth every coin, in my opinion, since it would help keep people from getting too interested in the place, but wouldn’t show up in scans or scrying as an obviously hidden area where divinations were blocked. That kind of thing just screamed that you were hiding something. Which was fine for a private home, but didn’t do so well when you were trying to lure raiders in to be easy prey.
And I really wanted these first couple ambushes to go off easily. I was not opposed to hard work, obviously. But if there was something I could do, to prepare ahead of time so that I could relax more when it came to the final moments? Well, what kind of idiot wouldn’t try to make their lives a bit easier down the road?
Comments
Aztoroth
Space Battleship Yamato gooooo
Jonas
Thanks for the great chapter
Stuart Grosse
Yes, I'm keeping track.
Demian Buckle
Thank you for the Chapter.
dakota downey
Out of curiosity due you actually keep track of his gold or are you just going he has enough
Martin Gamboa
thank you sir. hope we get some action/fun next chapter. maybe a new conquest? hopeful
