System Supervillain, Chapter 151

Chapter 151 – Subversion

In the end, Nemesis managed to bag the battleship, the second cruiser, and one of the destroyers before the remaining four destroyers got to their hyperspace lanes and ran off. As for the orbital station, between Nemesis and Web Mistress, they had found a way to cause it to de-orbit, thanks to some brute force mechanics and hacking what remained of their equipment. The station, or at least what was left of it, was going to impact the surface of Srusk 3 in about two hours. Thankfully, that would be on the other side of the planet from the spaceport. Of course, that part wasn’t an accident, but rather a requirement before I signed off on their plan. Still needed the Russians to capture a bunch of transports so they could get their people, and all that.

I would have liked to go along with the prison break team. Hunting lizards through enclosed quarters was the kind of thing I was best at, after all. However, that wasn’t the best thing for my team as a whole. Giving the former heroines a chance to feel like themselves made them more comfortable with their new lot in life. They couldn’t betray me, of course, but they could resist by only following the letter of any command I gave them. Worse, if I pushed too far, they might break entirely. And I wasn’t in the habit of breaking my toys.

But managing my ever-growing harem was a task for another time. Now, I had a starport to take control of. Not that I expected much trouble. There weren’t even anti-air defenses around the starport. Evidently, the planet relied on the fleet and orbital station for protection.

It wasn’t like I couldn’t see where they were coming from, of course. From everything the System told me about combat in space, whoever controlled the orbitals controlled a world. Well, at least so long as they were willing to conduct orbital bombardments. If the goal was to capture industry and infrastructure, rather than simple annihilation or enemy positions, then defenses on the ground had more relevance.

Looking at Srusk 3 and 4, then, it made sense why they hadn’t bothered with massive anti-air defense systems. Srusk 3 was an agricultural world, with 87% of the land being devoted to crops and livestock. Anyone trying to take the world would want the foodstuffs intact, and if they weren’t looking for the harvest, then there wasn’t the population density to properly man and maintain defenses anywhere but near the starport. And putting weapons there would just encourage someone to blow up the entire starport and be done with it.

It was the same for Srusk 4. Much of the world was frozen hellscape, other than the legion headquarters and training areas. There was some mining and industry, but it was spread out. The former prison turned slave pens was one of the few notable buildings on the surface not attached to the legion or the mines. With even less population density than Srusk 3, there was no point in putting heavy defenses there.

The lizards were very practical about such things, it seemed. Of course, the fact that this was apparently a backwater of the Empire, inside the ‘outer ring’ of Imperial territories but not one oof the core systems added weight to the scale on the side of not investing in defenses. Defenses were necessary on the borders, and in the core systems, but putting them in the Srusk system, beyond the station and the small fleet, was pointless. Any threat that could overcome that force would make light work of ground defenses anyway, and there wasn’t a need to make invaders bleed for every step, like there was in the core systems.

Well, that was what the System said about such things, when I started looking with Administrator access. Speaking of which, I could tell that there was an administrator in the system. Oris was their name, but the interface didn’t give me more than a general location of ‘somewhere within twenty miles of the starport’. The only reason I knew that much is because Web Mistress had been combing through the interface after the Gel-nak invasion, looking for ways to identify and locate administrators. Unfortunately, the System seemed to be against letting administrators get easy access to each other’s information. Assuming the reason for multiple admins was to provide checks and balances against one going rogue, that would make sense. If administrators could easily locate each other, it meant that a rogue administrator could easily eliminate obstacles before anyone knew they were rogue. It was annoying, but it made sense.

Fortunately, the Administrator that had come with the invasion fleet inadvertently showed me how to reach out to my fellow administrators, if I wanted to.

Administrator Message Chat

Iceblade: This is Iceblade, otherwise known as the Rhuk of Earth, to Oris, the Local Administrator for the System here in Srusk. I know you can see this, so there really isn’t any point in hiding or ignoring this message.

Iceblade: As a courtesy, from one administrator to another, I’m willing to offer you a deal. Assist me, and I will see to it that you survive what is coming. Do well, and you may even thrive. Refuse, and you’ll be lucky if I am the only one hunting you.

Oris: … Why would I be lucky if only you are hunting me? You’re going to kill us all!

Iceblade: Because I’m only going to kill you. When I land at the spaceport, I’m going to open a portal to the world your Empire attacked, and a lot of very angry Russians, both military and those with superpowers, are going to come pouring through, looking to show this world the same ‘mercy’ that the 173rd Planetary Assault Legion showed the city of Moscow.

Iceblade: Before you make your decision, I am sure you are aware of how the ‘slave revolts’ went. Those were unarmed civilians, many of whom did not have powers or military training. You no doubt are aware of how much damage they were able to do. Now picture what will happen when an army, fully armed and equipped and thirsty for vengeance, comes through that portal. Do you want to be in front of them, or behind the one person in this star system that can protect you from them?

Oris: What are you offering? And what do you want?

Iceblade: What I want is another administrator on my side, one who, hopefully, knows more about the System and how things work in the wider galaxy than those of us who were born on Earth. One who will help me navigate both the Empire and the System as I ensure that the Empire is never again in a position to threaten what is mine.

Iceblade: What I am offering is simple. You will be one of mine, and under my protection. The Empire is dead already, but that does not mean you need to die with it. But the only way you live through this is if you are under my protection. The Russians know about Local Administrators, and they will not rest until you are found, and ‘neutralized’.

Oris: Neutralized?

Iceblade: Dead, captured and contained, or placed under someone else’s control. One of the three. And you wouldn’t like how the Russians go about such things. No matter which of the three you end up as, they’re going to make you suffer. Unless, of course, you’re already part of my retinue.

Oris: So, I either die a Warrior of the Gel-Nak Empire, get captured by the enemy, or betray the Empire?

Iceblade: Is there really an Empire with no Emperor? Last I heard, the Emperor was dead, his concubines slaughtered all his heirs and disappeared, and now you have nothing but petty officials and warlords fighting over the scraps, and no one knows if they’ll be able to perform the genetic changes needed to perform the Rite of Perfection. The Empire is already dying. Your choice is whether you die for nothing, or choose to live.

Iceblade: But you should hurry and decide. My ship just landed at the spaceport, and once I’ve finished ‘handling’ the warriors here, I’ll be opening the gate, and your time will be up.

Oris: What about my mate, and our children?

Iceblade: They will live, and be kept in relative comfort, so long as you continue to serve. If you attempt to run, or betray me or mine, however… well, I will make an example of them, and you.

Oris: Fine. How do I do this?

Iceblade: Just open a help request for an administrator through the System. And ones for your mate and children, as well. I will take care of the rest.

Oris: Done.

I checked the interface, and a pile of help requests was there, waiting for me, from ‘Oris Darkscale’. Using that link to open up the System report, I saw that Oris was a female gel-nak, of the Warrior Caste. Lifebonded to another Warrior Caste, and they had seven children from two clutches. Being egg-layers meant that pregnancy was less troublesome for the gel-nak than it was for humans, apparently.

I quickly set about changing Oris, her mate, Okzu, and the seven kids, starting with their disadvantages. Stripped out a lot of the things like their inherent need to follow orders, avenge insults, or that refusal to back down from a battle once it began. Lucky that I’d approached her before it actually got to fighting between us, since she would have had to fight Psychological Limitations to back down.

Of course, I wasn’t just taking things away. I added in the usual ‘cannot hurt Iceblade’ and associated disadvantages, but I decided to go further. That weakness to cold was annoying, so I stripped it out, making them weak to intense heat, and taking extra stun from Lightning, instead of cold. I improved their bodies somewhat, making up for how their armor would no longer fit them after I slimmed them down, but, in return, they now had more powerful physical attacks, which did ice/cold damage. They were now a distinct subspecies called Frost Gel-nak, according to the System.

Naturally, those changes would make them… rather conspicuous to the other Gel-nak. Not to mention that, while the world wasn’t to the level of ‘intense heat’, by their new body’s standards, it was still going to be far from comfortable. Either way, I needed to ensure that they didn’t get killed by the remaining Gel-nak, who were probably going to throw a fit once they saw what I’d done to them.

Thankfully, that much was easily accomplished by using the System to alter their position, like what I did for myself with the System Teleport power I’d made. I let Nemesis know before moving them, since we were still in his body, technically. Fortunately, the AI knew what a treasure trove of intelligence and possibility having a subverted administrator on our side was, so he didn’t complain, beyond ensuring that two of his drones, in ‘guard’ configuration, were stationed outside of the room I dumped the lizards in.

Sibila appeared at my side, as if by magic. “Iceblade, I will help see to your new guests. If I could have Lucy with me? You shouldn’t need her for dealing with the warriors gathered outside, not with Bloodmoon, Mindtaker, and Mistress Midnight at your side.”

I chuckled at the Oracle of Rio, and nodded once. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’ve already ‘looked ahead’ a bit. Are we going to find the ones you mentioned from your vision here?”

“No,” Sibila said firmly. “Química gave me a list of conditions that a planet would have to have in order to match what I saw in the vision. I’ve handed that list to Nemesis, who understands the science better than I do, but I checked the sensor readings. The atmosphere of this planet has the wrong particulates for this type of star to shine the color I was seeing in the vision. But having your newly subverted conspirators along may give us a fast track to finding that planet.”

“Right. Grab Lucy and make sure our guests are comfortable and talking. I’m going to go secure the area so that we can let the angry Russians have their fun.”