System Supervillain, Chapter 118

Chapter 118 – Supremacy

(Computer Control Nest, Gel-nak Imperial Navy Ship Fury of Thrixl, high Earth orbit)

Computer Technician First Class Ruxo’s tail swung slowly in consternation as he continued performing his assigned tasks. This invasion was not going at all how the Supreme Commander or Emperor had said it would. It should have been easy. The primitives were limited to a single planet, unfamiliar with the way of void warfare. They should have seen their inferiority, and given in. At least in space. Fighting on the ground was to be expected, but everyone knew that whoever controlled the high orbitals controlled a planet.

Except, these ‘humans’ did not seem to know that truth. First, there had been the embarrassment of a single being managing to get onto the Harbinger of Death to the Unworthy, and somehow triggering the Uprising Controls, before eliminating the Supreme Commander and his guards. How they even knew about the Uprising Controls was a mystery, but the fact that they had somehow found a way to broadcast that message to the entire fleet, and the entire world below? Ruxo had a feeling that the entire invasion force might be purged when this was done, to erase that dishonor.

Then, the Triumphant Mercy of Death had been shot down over the land called ‘China’, along with its escort, the Threefold Retribution. Over this ‘Washington, DC’ place, a city shield had bought time for the humans to strike down the Guarantee of Painful Servitude, forcing the battleship to land in the waters of the nearby ocean. Following attacks forced the cruiser escorting it, the Ritual of Devouring, to crash into the ocean, as well. Of the three punitive forces, only the Blessed Deliverer of Judgement and Rite of Regulation, which had been tasked with erasing the city called ‘Cairo’ from the map, had managed to reach high orbit again, but their weapons were crippled, as two creatures flew through the void, targeting their cannons directly, flying inside their shields and evading their point defense!

Things were hardly better at the landing sites, but at least resistance on the ground was to be expected. That was why so many ground forces had been mobilized, after all, and why many landing sites had been targeted. Still, only the forces in London, Moscow, New Delhi, and Rio di Janeiro had managed to secure their landing zones properly, and set up the shields so that portals to the Empire could be established safely. While there were still footholds of resistance in New York, Houston, and Paris, they looked as though they were going to be wiped out, soon, and the Seattle, Tokyo, and Warsaw groups had been completely destroyed.

That was bad enough. However, as a Computer Technician First Class, Ruxo had access to the communications going through the ship, and through the fleet. It was part of his job to report to the Political Officers to ensure that disloyalty or cowardice did not spread through the ship, after all. Couldn’t let rot set in, and weaken the Empire. Unfortunately, every message passing around was suspect, now. Especially amongst the Worker Caste. The Political Officers would be busy, for sure.

The real problem was that he could see more ships going offline, one by one. Their weapons stopped firing upon the captured flagship, and their shields and engines powered down. The masked human who attacked the Harbinger of Death to the Unworthy was clearly attacking the rest of the fleet! Which was why, despite it being close quarters, Ruxo was glad that the Warrior Caste normally posted outside the door had taken up a position inside the Computer Control Nest, along with the two other technicians on shift with him. It wasn’t common knowledge, even amongst the Leader Caste, but the Computer Control Nest on every ship had an override module that could counter the Uprising Controls, as a failsafe against electronic warfare. If the human wanted to disable the Fury of Thrixl, they would have to come here, so having the Warrior in the compartment was reassuring.

And then everything went wrong.

(Iceblade POV)

Turn Order

Segment

Turns

1

2

Iceblade

3

Gel-nak Warrior

4

Iceblade, Gel-nak Spacers

5

Gel-nak Warrior

6

Iceblade

7

8

Iceblade, Gel-nak Warrior, Gel-nak Spacers

9

10

Iceblade, Gel-nak Warrior

11

12

Iceblade, Gel-nak Warrior, Gel-nak Spacers

Segment 2:

Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)

Iceblade uses Martial Strike: +2 DCV (DCV 12), +2 DC Weapon Strike

Iceblade’s Attack Roll (Warrior A), OCV 12: 3d6 = 4 (Hits DCV 19) (Hits)

Winter’s Wrath: 5d6-1 = 21 BODY (7 rED after AP)

Stun Multiplier: 1d6-1 = 5 (105 STUN) (x2 Vulnerability to Ice/Cold) (7 rED after AP)

Iceblade: 47/50 END

Warrior A: 16/30 BODY

Warrior A: -155/55 STUN (Unconscious)

Teleporting into the Computer Control Nest, I found that, despite being a similar sized room to the CCN on the carrier, there were fewer people here. Four targets. Three were the normal Worker Caste, but wearing environmental suits instead of their normal uniforms. Last one of them was a warrior, though, which obviously made them my first target. A quick step to get into range, and my blade ripped through his suit. Not dead, but very much down for the count.

Segment 4:

Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)

Iceblade uses Martial Strike: +2 DCV (DCV 12), +2 DC Weapon Strike

Iceblade’s Attack Roll (Spacer 3), OCV 12: 3d6 = 14 (Hits DCV 9) (Hits)

Winter’s Wrath: 5d6-1 = 16 BODY (7 rED after AP)

Stun Multiplier: 1d6-1 = 3 (48 STUN) (x2 Vulnerability to Ice/Cold) (7 rED after AP)

Iceblade: 44/50 END

Spacer 3: 11/20 BODY

Spacer 3: -59/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 1’s Attack Roll (Iceblade), OCV 7 = 17 (Hits DCV 1) (Miss)

Spacer 1: 38/40 END

Spacer 2’s Attack Roll (Iceblade), OCV 7 = 15 (Hits DCV 3) (Miss)

Spacer 2: 38/40 END

Iceblade: 44/50 END

Warrior A: 16/30 BODY

Warrior A: -155/55 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 1: 38/40 END

Spacer 2: 38/40 END

Spacer 3: 11/20 BODY

Spacer 3: -59/30 STUN (Unconscious)

I decided to just keep going around the central ‘island’ in the middle of the room. A quick step got me to my next target. The Worker had just barely cleared their blaster from the holster on their hip, but it didn’t do them any good when my blade was already cutting into their chest. The survival suit did help blunt the damage somewhat, but that weakness to the cold continued to be a cheat code for me, as the technician fell to the floor, unconscious.

Two blasts of white-hot plasma burned through the air. However, that was panic-fire from the other two Worker Caste technicians. They weren’t trained shooters, and it showed, since neither shot came anywhere close to hitting me. Though, it was interesting to see that they apparently had a different setting on that gun of theirs, instead of just the stunner. They might be walking luggage, but at least the Gel-nak knew the usefulness of variable weaponry. I did, however, see one of the technicians start screaming into their console, announcing that there was an intruder in the CCN. I named him the ‘smart one’.

Segment 6:

Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)

Iceblade uses Martial Strike: +2 DCV (DCV 12), +2 DC Weapon Strike

Iceblade’s Attack Roll (Spacer 2), OCV 12: 3d6 = 5 (Hits DCV 18) (Hits)

Winter’s Wrath: 5d6-1 = 18 BODY (7 rED after AP)

Stun Multiplier: 1d6-1 = 3 (54 STUN) (x2 Vulnerability to Ice/Cold) (7 rED after AP)

Iceblade: 41/50 END

Spacer 2: 9/20 BODY

Spacer 2: -71/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Iceblade: 41/50 END

Warrior A: 16/30 BODY

Warrior A: -155/55 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 1: 38/40 END

Spacer 2: 9/20 BODY

Spacer 2: -71/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 3: 11/20 BODY

Spacer 3: -59/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Smart One was currently on the other side of the ‘island’ from me, so I just continued my way around, easily reaching my next target, and cut them down. Honestly, at this point it was just busywork. These were IT guys, not fighters. However, their weapons demanded at least a little respect. Even untrained idiots could be dangerous if you gave them a big enough weapon and they got lucky with how they used it.

That was true before the System, but it was doubly so now. The System’s combat rules were fairly simple, once you broke it down. A 3d6 roll that came up 18 always missed, no matter how high someone’s OCV was, or how low the target’s DCV. That meant that a trained sniper could, in theory, miss the broad side of a barn if luck was against them. On the flip side, a 3d6 roll of 3 always hit, even if it was a toddler with OCV 1 against someone with DCV 30.

What that meant for people like me was that you had to treat anyone with a weapon like they were a real threat. Sure, some threats were more… well, threatening than others, but they were all threats. Which meant I couldn’t afford to take it easy on these technicians, even if they weren’t worth my time.

Segment 8:

Iceblade: +2 CSL to OCV (OCV 12)

Iceblade uses Martial Strike: +2 DCV (DCV 12), +2 DC Weapon Strike

Iceblade’s Attack Roll (Spacer 1), OCV 12: 3d6 = 9 (Hits DCV 14) (Hits)

Winter’s Wrath: 5d6-1 = 23 BODY (7 rED after AP)

Stun Multiplier: 1d6-1 = 5 (115 STUN) (x2 Vulnerability to Ice/Cold) (7 rED after AP)

Iceblade: 39/50 END

Spacer 1: 4/20 BODY

Spacer 1: -200/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Iceblade: 39/50 END

Warrior A: 16/30 BODY

Warrior A: -155/55 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 1: 4/20 BODY

Spacer 1: -200/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 2: 9/20 BODY

Spacer 2: -71/30 STUN (Unconscious)

Spacer 3: 11/20 BODY

Spacer 3: -59/30 STUN (Unconscious)

And down went the Smart One, with another slash of my blade. Eight seconds, start to finish. Honestly, this was probably the best matchup possible for me, if we were talking about alien invaders. The Warrior and Leader Castes had weapons that were likely dangerous, even deadly to me, but I could basically one-hit-KO any of them. So long as I fought on my terms, and controlled the battlefield as much as possible, then these Gel-nak were basically just raw meat and materials that didn’t realize they were dead yet.

I walked over to the console that Smart One had been standing at, and typed in the code for the Emperor-level Uprising Controls that Web Mistress had given me. The door to the compartment slammed shut and the environmental systems began sucking out the air, all over the ship. Of course, by now, most, if not all, of the Workers would be in their environmental suits, so I couldn’t count on most of my work being done for me, like it had been on the flagship. No matter, I still had plenty that I could do.

“Web Mistress, how are things going?”

“Good and bad. For the good, Stolen Victory and Titania have taken out the engines of their targets, now that there isn’t a risk of them crashing down into the pyramids, so the last battleship is out of commission. I’ve melted the overrides and instituted uprising controls in the remaining cruisers, and am working on the destroyers, now. But with the crews still being alive, we’ll still need to clear the ships, one by one to ensure orbital supremacy. On the ground, the Gel-nak presence in Seattle, Tokyo, and Warsaw have been completely wiped out, along with the destroyers flying cover. Houston, New York, and Paris are still fighting, but the destroyers have been brought down, and supers, SDI, and the military are moving in to clean out those areas.”

“That’s the good. What is the bad? I notice that there were a few cities left off that list.”

“Time zones bit people in the ass. 6PM in New York is 8PM in Rio, and the middle of the night in the UK, Russia, and India. Only reason Warsaw didn’t join them is because Foxtrot and Serafina delivered some immortal wrath upon the Gel-nak, giving the locals time to wake up and get organized. And your playmate Lucy was still in Paris, and was Not Amused by the Gel-nak. She basically laid down a continuous area Transform, defined as ‘Gel-nak to Stone’. Paris has a lot of new statues, now.”

“So, what is the situation in the other cities?”

“Organized resistance has been beaten back. There are shields covering the landing sites, probably similar in strength to the city shield over DC, or better. I haven’t been able to get into those networks yet, since I’ve been busy with the space battle, but I’m seeing chatter about portals.”

“Clever lizards,” I nodded. “Instead of arranging enough transports and protection for enough armies to actually subjugate a world, they establish footholds where they can get local control long enough to open this portal, and allow potentially limitless reinforcements through.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Once you finish locking down all the ships, start sending Stolen Victory and Titania through them. Full extermination. No quarter, no surrender. Every Gel-nak in space goes out an airlock or to the morgue. While I would prefer that they leave ships intact, I’m not tying their hands. Oh, and make sure they know what kind of weapons the different Gel-nak use. For the Devastation members on the ground, they can continue their current fights, or move to reinforce areas still under assault at their discretion. No surrenders for them, either, but don’t interfere if local forces convince some of the Gel-nak to give up.”

“And what will you be doing, Master?”

“Cleaning the vermin out of my new ship, naturally. And probably the other ships around here, too. Might as well do a good job of it.”