The District Read online

  The riders ahead of the cloud observed what was happening and began to urge their mounts forward. Triceratops were not built for speed, they were meant to be slow certain engines of destruction and were not built for quick getaways.

  When I produced more of the materials I needed for the acid cloud I dosed a second batch.

  The third I had something else in mind for. If they were vulnerable to breathing in acid they would be vulnerable to tranquilizer gas as well. I'd have to up the concentration a good bit from anything I normally used but I should be able to knock them out.

  While I wasn't terribly impressed with the base triceratops design I'd just seen try to hit me I was already imagining what they might be capable of with a few select enhancements. Accelerated healing for instance would help to counter the acid that had just taken so many down and if mixed with other upgrades they could truly impressive.

  One triceratops after another collapsed unmoving. A few of the riders even survived, I wasn't certain what if any upgrades the Professor might have but if these were his lieutenants I had an opportunity to gain from t hem as well.

  16

  I was so preoccupied with taking down the assault from the dinosaurs I had missed a lone airship moving into the skies above my district. While designed for stealth my sensors were good enough that under normal circumstances I still would have detected something like that.

  I'd installed extra security around Magpie and her people and it was that being tripped which drew my attention to what was happening. The airship had landed a shuttle which was breaching those defenses from the outside.

  I didn't have much in the way of defenses designed to take on airships but I did have one beam cannon strong enough to reach it. I'd prepared the high powered weapon in the eventuality of another attack from Jade but it could serve this purpose as well.

  I opened fire on the airship. The cannon cut a jagged scar into the airships sides before shields sprang to life. As soon as it shielded my every sensor started blaring its presence, it was only stealthy when unprotected. A useful bit of knowledge.

  The airships shields flickered a few seconds as bombs dropped and my beam again got to melt jagged rents in the hull. Then the bombs found my cannon and in an explosion of fire silenced it.

  The Wolf soldiers aboard the shuttle were making quick work of the peasants. Firing on them with some sort of static gun that stunned rather than killed. They were then placing some sort of armbands on them and dragging them back aboard the shuttle.

  They subdued twelve this way, including Magpie, before the shuttle lifted off and headed back towards the airship. With my cannon out of the way I didn't have the tools to stop them.

  One of the remaining peasants on the ground was madly hitting a comm panel trying to get my attention.

  "I don't believe their coming back for seconds. Do relax, you weren't interesting enough for them to kidnap the first time," I said.

  "Save your insults. I am Sven, Magpie's apprentice. Can you rescue the ones who were taken?" Sven said.

  I didn't see how I could. While some of my mechanical drones had flying capability I didn't have them in numbers enough to take on an airship. Crystal had her dragons and Ophelia still had possess of the strike ship Graven but I wasn't about to burn a favor for the use of either.

  "The shuttle is a few minutes off from rendezvousing with a larger ship. I don't have anything that can intercept. I suppose you should have fought to defend them instead of hoping for me to solve your problems later," I said.

  "I can get us aboard the shuttle but they are excellent hunters and came prepared to prey upon our weaknesses. Do you have manpower to assist?" Sven asked.

  The Wolven weapons were specially designed them to bypass whatever served as defenses for these people. That was interesting. I again had to wonder just how much these people and Sylax had in common. It was worth finding out, and it was also worth making sure anyone that tried a strike on my district felt some pain from it.

  I began to teleport drones to Sven's location. Time was a factor, the only ones I had were the ones from the first wave I had initially responding to the dinosaur attack. They wore heavy armor and were equipped with acid sprayers.

  Sven sketched several lines in the air and they glowed in the aftermath, a circle of shimmering light surrounding my drones and then they vanished from the room.

  Because of my connection to them I never lost track. Even as they were vanishing from the room they were materializing into the hold of a shuttle. The kidnapped peasants were stacked out in a row on the floor, bound and gagged with the soldiers who had abducted them seated on benches on either side.

  They were fast, faster than my drones. Despite the element of surprise and them starting from a seated position they still managed to get on their feet and fire first. Blue darts of energy splashing against the armor of my drones and causing ripples of energy at the site of impact.

  I couldn't detect any actual damage from the shots, whatever they were doing wasn't effective against my people. I had them open fire with the acid sprayers. The first two soldiers struck began to dissolve at once, these were not heavily armored dinosaurs but rather soldiers dressed for a stealth infiltration.

  "Roger, Avana, transform," shouted one of the Wolves that must be their Commander. He was my next target. Any further words were drowned in screams as his flesh bubbled and dripped away.

  Then the fight got a lot more hairy, literally, as two of the soldiers transformed. When I was an airship I'd seen some of Baron Wolfson's forces in their wolf form, literal wolves. This was something different, part man and part wolf. They were massively muscled and clawed and before I could focus acid streams on them one of my drones had been eviscerated even through the heavy armor, claws shredding the protection and digging into the soft flesh beneath.

  I ordered my people to redirect their fire and acid streams converged. They took it better than they should have. They had some form of accelerated healing, not equal to Ophelia's but at the rate they were regenerating flesh it was better than the one I could grant. The soldiers I'd already melted hadn't shown that ability.

  Either they only had it in this form, or these two were special and the only ones capable of a transformation this extreme.

  I spoke through one of my drones to Sven, "Get your people out."

  I had my drones abandon fire on the Wolves to shift it to the engines. Acid poured into the vulnerable components and sparks began to fly.

  The shuttle was still over my district and it would crash into my district. If these two could survive my acid sprayers they'd survive a crash landing. My labs were eager to meet them.

  17

  Things worked out just as I hoped they would. The shuttle went down and although the shuttle crash took out two buildings directly and another one as a result of the explosives I had within misfiring and taking out a third enough remained for me to capture the two transformed Wolf soldiers as well as get samples of their technology.

  In addition to the dinosaurs and their riders this left me with a lot of research to get underway. While my teams increasingly handled this for me I did look over the projects.

  Research Projects

  Professor Lieutenants

  These subjects initially show signs of heightened mental capabilities. Will subject to puzzle death-maze protocols to determine full potential.

  Safari Gear

  The Professor Lieutenants all wore khaki outfits that seems both lightweight and especially resistant to kinetic impacts. Will subject to punishing conditions both indepentently and while worm by test subjects to determine potential.

  Triceratops

  These armored behemoths appear to be based on historical records and may be actual recreations. Potential will be tested by exposing them to a range of destructible environments as well as subjecting them to genetic analysis.

  Werewolves

  These soldiers once appeared to be human but have now transformed into a hybrid with som
e sort of wolf. Their claws are capable of shredding even heavy organic armor plating and they rapidly rengerate damage. Will subject to predator prey protocols to determine full potential.

  Stunners

  Weapons captured from Wolven forces. While they proved ineffective against heavy organic armor they seemed highly effective at taking down the subjects classified as "Sylax Peasants". Such subjects are not cleared for use in laboratory studies but the weapons can be deconstructed for study of components and manufacture.

  Completed Projects

  Jade Lieutenants

  These subjects displayed advanced powers of innate kinetic shielding and offensive kinetic control. They were subjected to puzzle death-maze protocols to determine full potential. By working with the samples provided we can extract one of two possible variants either emphasing this innate shielding or offering some sort of limited kinetic mental control.

  I could pick what sort of power I wanted. It was something I hadn't seen much before although I hoped I would more often as my research facilities continued to grow more powerful. Rather often in the past I'd captured powerful subjects only to get variations of their powers that were far weaker than I'd have liked.

  In this case it seemed I could pick between passive shielding or active kinetic ability for my agents. They both offered a lot of advantages, your typical bullet firing gun was dealing kinetic damage and they were a common choice in weaponry. Anything that could mitigate that damage was useful. So was the ability to manipulate matter with a thought.

  It had to come down to my ability to replicate the effect. I could already create armor that could absorb kinetic impacts, and grant bio-armor abilities that subjects could invoke even when they did not have a set of armor with them. I didn't have anything that could emulate the effects of telekinesis. I instructed my researchers to proceed with that variant.

  While I was looking at research I decided to do an upgrade as well. With all that had just happened morale would b e low, it was a good time to upgrade my entertainment facilities to the next tier.

  Upgrade Options

  Entertainment

  Gamble

  With this option you will build your entertainment facilities in such a way as to take advantage of the need for chance and risk. This can pay off with big rewards both for your people, and for you. In addition to occasional rewards and losses experienced by your people, you too can gain unexpected reserves of resources or points with the construction of these facilities.

  Game

  Instead of focusing upon luck your people focus on skill. By constructing virtually simulated environments you can provide your people with competitions where skill and forward thinking matter. This approach will result in increased morale gains for the skilled but may further frustrate those lacking in talent.

  This was an easy choice, it didn't much matter to me if the untalented or unskilled were happy. It was the morale of those who were useful that mattered. I selected the Game option.

  While I had some structural damage to my buildings and would need to respawn some drones these attacks had mostly worked out in my favor. I had several promising new test subjects to study and the dinosaurs in particular were a new source of Biomatter. The grinders might have a hard time with that heavily armored flesh but I'd manage.

  Fortunately the Wolf airship hadn't stayed around to fight any longer. They were the sort to leave men behind it seemed, at least for the moment.

  It was wise of them. While my beam cannon might be out of operation for the moment it wouldn't remain that way and if I felt threatened enough I could teleport bombs into the air to detonate. I didn't lack for explosives.

  They might be back, I really did need better weaponry to protect myself against aerial threats. On the Powerhungry the main cannons had been a constant source of frustration but I did have those schematics. Eventually I'd built power cannons feeding off the abilities of a powered individual to project them at a distance.

  It had worked better when I had a collection of prime power holders at my disposal. Still, I could imbue people with the virus that powered Hot Stuff to create lesser pyrokinetics. While a single heat cannon powered by one of those would be relatively unimpressive multiple ones would be incredibly dangerous.

  It required some highly specialized parts to create, that had always been a problem on the airship but with my most recent manufacturing upgrade I could now produce those directly from my growth vats. I'd do that, a dozen cannons located around the district and a dozen fiery drones to man them. If I could get those built the next airship to darken my skies uninvited would regret it.

  18

  If I'd wondered what James Wolf was hoping to do with the prisoners he'd taken I didn't have long to wait for my answer. It was only a few hours after his airship left my district that I was received a broadcast being sent out globally to the entire city.

  It was an arena of some kind, stone walls surrounding a pit with a dirt floor. Within it were two dozen terrified people, naked but for the bands around their wrists just like the ones the Wolves had put on the peasants they'd captured here.

  Magpie and her people were still recovering from their ordeal, I opened a comm channel to her and sent in the video.

  "What is this?" she asked, her voice sharp.

  "What they had planned for you I expect. Others of your people?" I asked.

  "Not exactly. Burr Harr and his tribe. Another village, not mine. Another group who tried and failed to kill Sylax," Magpie said.

  I had no idea that so many people shared my hobby. We really should start some sort of club, but then, I planned on making a success of things which was something none of these failures had ever managed.

  New figures were entering the arena, massive and furred like those I had captured. Their eyes looked over the villagers with a raw hunger visible in them.

  "I wonder who would have been more tasty. Then, probably, you seem stringy," I said.

  "The wolf does this? He will pay," Magpie said.

  The wolves closed in. Normally it would be cats who toy with their prey but there was something malicious about the way these creatures moved, one swiped out with their claws to leave a leg gushing blood before they pulled back. The first kill was a child ripped out of the arms of her mother, fanged teeth digging into the young flesh and tearing it apart as the mother screamed and wailed.

  "Why does he hate you so?" I asked.

  I wasn't nice, I truly wasn't but there was something of the needlessly cruel here. This wasn't just murder for murders sake, this was hurting these people, terrifying them and breaking them and wanting to make sure the entire city saw it. This was the sort of thing Sylax would have been proud of, had she been the one to put on this spectacle.

  "Me and my people are tricksters dearie and we have tricked that tired old wolf before before but it is more than that. It is not us he is hoping to terrify. This is a lesson to you and the others about what he does to those who stand in his way," Magpie said.

  Most of the peasants now were bleeding from wounds, a few had lost limbs. The wolves continued to circle, taking their time and enjoying every moment. I thought that Magpie had to be right, there was no audio for this transmission, there were no speeches and no grandstanding. Wolf was letting cruelty speak for itself, for those who had sworn allegiance to Sylax it was perhaps a good tactic.

  "Is this all a trick then and your people are simply pretending to be the Wolve's dinner?" I asked.

  "No, I think this trick is on us," Magpie said.

  One of the peasants had been dragged aside for a wolf to rut with, a sight made all the more terrible by the fact another was choosing to eat her face while it happened.

  I was getting a transmission from Crystal. I wondered if she was horrified by all this or if she simply took it as perfectly natural after so long an association with Sylax. Neither, as it turned out, the transmission instead revealed Airships rising from the moorings and taking to the air.

  This wa
sn't a carelessly timed spectacle, Wolf was about to make a move on someone.

  If it was me, I was in poor shape. My anti-air defenses were far from being constructed. Still if it was me I'd not go easily. I issued an order for all clones to prepare for combat and I readied my biobombs. I wouldn't go gently, if they were coming for me.

  "He is preparing an attack on somebody. His airships are taking off. It may be us," I said.

  Magpie tilted her head, "No. You're not a big enough threat, he isn't scared of you or he wouldn't have tried to take me and mine. To him you're prey not predator."

  Was I? It would be good news if so, for all that my ego didn't like it. I was getting very tired of being weak and surrounded by those who were stronger. I even found myself missing Anna, whatever else could be said of Anna she knew when and how to go for the throat. Anna knew how to be stronger than she should have been.

  "He'll find he is wrong," I said.

  "This is twice now you have saved my people. Twice that we find ourselves in your debt. You will find us good at repaying them," Magpie said.

  "I'm sure. You've been splendid at repaying Sylax for all she has done to you," I said.

  It was a needless barb but I couldn't help myself. I could never help myself.

  Magpie instead of seeming offended laughed, "The best debts are old ones. If we let yours go so long be assured the payoff will be especially memorable."

  Perhaps empty threats to Sylax or empty promises of reward made her feel better. The images on the screen surely weren't doing that. The visuals were simply getting confusing now. Was I watching a torture session, or lunch, or an orgy because it seemed to have elements of all three. Some of the remaining villagers were unfortunate enough to find all three happening at once.

  "Shall I kill the feed?" I asked.