System Supervillain, Chapter 111

Chapter 111 – Unwanted Guests

The kids had gone into a wild frenzy, as expected when you have that many together, with things to climb and slide and hide behind. Which meant that, now, they were all curled up on bean bags and cushions in the living area, for nap time. A kid’s show was playing in the background. If asked, no doubt the two-year-old delegation would claim that, yes, they were watching, even though they were all fast asleep.

Unfortunately, that was when the universe decided that it was time to shake things up a bit. Tammy (my head maid) was showing Su-Yun (formerly known as Lady Abstract, and my newest maid), how I liked refreshments to be served. Both women were wearing maid outfits with short skirts and nothing underneath. Only Su-Yun seemed embarrassed about it, though. Still, every time she bent over to serve drinks, I saw a bit of wetness between her legs, so she wasn’t entirely against what was happening.

Crystal froze in the middle of a sentence, her eyes unfocusing for a moment. I recognized that look, as did everyone in the room by now. Her attention had suddenly gone to the digital realm. When she waved a hand towards the TV, and the show playing in the background was muted, I grew concerned. That concern only deepened when I realized that she had actually turned the TV into a noise cancellation device, effectively using sounds on inverse frequencies to everything going on to cancel them out, making the area around the kids perfectly silent. I knew she’d been working on an ability like that, but she was typically a stickler for not using powers without a reason while the kids were watching.

“What is it, Sister?”

When she didn’t even turn to look at me, I could tell that she was all business. Web Mistress took a breath, and said, “Twelve hours ago, deep-space sensors placed at the heliopause roughly between the sun and Alpha Centauri recorded a Tachyon Event. No known natural causes, no other human craft or probes in the area. We have visitors.”

I took a breath, and said, “Any other data you can give us, Web Mistress?”

“I’m sorting through the analysis the boys at NASA are putting together as we speak. Looks like we have at least fifteen ships, possibly as many as fifty. Readings have an 83% correlation to Gel-nak ships. Some of the readings are distorted, probably due to interference… and the probe was destroyed.” Her eyes refocused as she turned to look me in the eye. “I don’t think they came to say hello. But I cannot tell whether these are drones, like the last time, or something new.”

“How fast are Gel-nak drives?”

“Judging by the observations made during the last invasion? They were spotted in 1937, and only made it to Earth in 1970. Given that fact, scientists believed their top cruising speed to be roughly 0.1% of light speed. Roughly eighteen thousand kilometers per minute, or over a million kilometers per hour. However, with the distance between their entry point and Earth, that would give us roughly thirty-three years for the ships to reach Earth orbit.

“However, the scientists are already saying that their data may be flawed, given that those calculations were made without the System’s influence. They are saying that it is possible that those drives were actually ‘maneuvering’ drives, used for tactical movement near planetary bodies. If that is the case, then they may have a means of FTL travel that doesn’t rely on coming out at the heliopause.”

Electra shook her head. “Did you just hack NASA in real-time to get that information?”

“Oh, no,” Web Mistress grinned. “I installed a backdoor in their systems years ago, along with setting up alerts to warn me if something like this happened. Information is power, after all. I might not be able to do as much in the physical world as the rest of you, but when it comes to information warfare, there aren’t many who can match me.”

Then, she blinked, and then said, “Tachyon event detected by satellites in orbit, as well as a gravity wave. Judging by blue-shifting, the Gel-nak ships crossed the distance between the Heliopause and Earth in roughly six hours, moving at twice the speed of light.”

I nodded, and looked over to Electra. “Electra, leave Uriel here, and go report in. If the Gel-nak have returned for round two, then things are going to get very interesting for all of us. Oh, and let your team know that I’m not adverse to helping out. After all, Earth is where I keep all my stuff.”

“Got it,” she said, before turning into pure electricity and entering the nearest outlet. Technically, she could travel through any electrical circuit in that form, but that also tended to blow out lights and short out electronics if she wasn’t careful, the electronics weren’t protected, just like a power surge during a lightning strike.

The others followed me into the ‘control room’. Before Web Mistress moved in, it was basically the closest thing I had to an office, with a computer and multi-monitor setup. Afterwards, it became the main area where we talked about work stuff, especially since there were plenty of displays for Web Mistress to use for visual references, since not all of us could see the digital world in our heads.

“What do we know?”

Web Mistress waved a hand to the nearest monitor, and it displayed an image from one of the telescopes in space. No hacking needed, there, since it was run publicly, and the feeds open to the public. “Final count is forty-five ships. Definitely Gel-nak in design. Fifteen are perfect matches for the ships that attacked in 1970. Given the size difference, it might be appropriate to designate them as corvettes, possibly destroyers. Six more look to be cruiser analogues. Three look to be battleships of some sort, while the last I’m tentatively identifying as a carrier, given how it appears to be launching strike craft. The remaining twenty ships appear to be transports.”

“That’s an invasion force, for sure,” Stolen Victory muttered, darkly.

“Indeed,” I nodded. “But the presence of transports is good news, in my opinion. Transports mean that they’re either bringing in occupation troops, or are looking to haul off slaves. Possibly both.”

“That’s the good news?” Titania asked, incredulously.

I chuckled, and nodded. “Yes, actually. Either of those scenarios means that the Gel-nak aren’t likely to commit wholescale bombardments of Earth. You don’t bring ground forces when you intend to glass a planet, after all. Which means there’s a good chance they’ll try and capture as many people as possible, with as much of the infrastructure intact as they can manage. They’re here to conquer, not exterminate.”

Web Mistress cut in, “The fleet is breaking up. Look to be heading to ten landing zones. One of the destroyers accompanying two transports to each landing zone. Projected targets: New York, Houston, Seattle, Tokyo, New Delhi, Moscow, Warsaw, Paris, London, Rio di Janeiro. Battleships each moving with a cruiser as escort, three cruisers remaining with carrier in high orbit. Battleships look to be heading to Washington, DC, Cairo, and Beijing.”

Titania frowned as she looked at the plot. “But can anything stop them? I’ve seen the reports from the 1970 invasion. Sure, our tech has improved since then, with help from the wreckage of the Gel-nak force, but if they were hampered by not having the System, they’re probably more powerful, too. And they have ships we haven’t seen before.” She took a breath. “I know I have a spaceship form, now, but I don’t know how well I can stand up to any of those ships.”

“Don’t worry, Titania,” I grinned. “You’re not going to be going up against battleships until we’ve had a chance to test your new form in battle against something smaller. However, we do need to do something about those big ships.”

“So, we’re really going to help out?” Stolen Victory asked, hopefully. She may have resigned herself to being my pet, but she still wanted to be a superheroine, at heart.

“Yes,” I said, patting her on the shoulder. “Like I said, Earth is where I keep my stuff. And it is also where my kids are. If these aliens think they can just come in and take over, then they are sorely mistaken. Especially since I expect we’ll be hearing unreasonable demands any moment now.”

Web Mistress just grinned, as she snapped her fingers, and a news broadcast came up on the main monitor. The anchor was talking excitedly about the invasion fleet, before he was cut off by a transmission overriding the signal. Stolen Victory squinted her eyes at me as a reptilian creature appeared on the screen. “It is a villain thing. This is the time to demand surrender. Probably followed by them making some kind of demonstration of their power.”

When the reptilian alien spoke, the voice had a hissing growl to it. The language was unfamiliar, but a machine voice quickly overlaid it. Some kind of translator software, obviously.

“This is Supreme Commander Dhava Vrir’ak of the Gel-nak Empire, to the pitiful forces of Earth. Once before, you defied taking your rightful place as slaves of the mighty Gel-nak Empire. However, that defiance was only possible because of the System being offline in this area. Now, that can no longer protect you. Our weapons and technology are far superior to yours, and you face the might of Gel-nak warriors, not mere autonomous drones disconnected from the System.

“However, the Emperor has decreed that he is willing to offer you a chance at mercy. Surrender now, and you will be inducted as Class Two Slaves, rather than Class Six, as your previous defiance demands. You have one hour to surrender, before we begin making examples of your cities.”

The transmission cut, and the anchor appeared on the screen again. I motioned to Web Mistress, who muted the feed. “As you can see, they definitely are not here to be friends. So, the question is how to make them regret ever being born. Web Mistress, run a search with your Administrator access. Find out anything you can about Gel-nak physiology and psychology. Specifically, looking for weaknesses.”

“Of course, Master.”

However, before she could get to work, a blue box of a System Alert appeared in front of us. Just me and her, though, so limited to Administrators, no doubt. Thankfully, the System auto-translated System Alerts, so no needing to read Gel-nak.

Administrator Message Chat

Steks: This is Administrator Steks, messaging the lower-ranked administrators of ‘Earth’. Out of consideration for your position with the System, if you surrender and submit to the Gel-nak Empire, you are offered the chance to be Fifth Class Citizens, instead of slaves. This honor also allows you to own up to fifteen slaves per person, enabling you to protect those you care most about from the coming occupation, and prevent their being sold to outside parties. To accept this mercy, simply open an Administrator Support Ticket.

I took a deep breath, and said, “Well, that settles it, I’m going to have to go a-murderin’. No way I’m limiting my choices to just fifteen. And I won’t have anyone even suggest selling off my kids.”

Web Mistress looked over at me. “I’m still working on Gel-nak phsychology, but I have a basic report on their physiology, as well as System guidelines for how Administrators are to act during war. Starting with the guidelines, if we use our Administrator privileges to tamper with combatants on either side without a valid Support Ticket, then we will trigger an immediate audit of our abilities. However, Support Tickets are shown to all System Administrators in the system, and are not locked to individual Administrators until the Administrator acts on the ticket.”

“Clever,” I nodded. “They’re trying to get us off the board, possibly even flip us to their side, since a Support Ticket would allow them to make changes to us without it triggering a review by other administrators. What about their physiology? Anything useful, there?”

“Not terribly much. They are cold-blooded, look to have evolved from ambush predators. Unsurprising, since they look like bipedal crocodiles on steroids. Bigger, faster, stronger than a normal human, but less endurance. So, their tactics likely favor overwhelming force to shatter any resistance from the start.”

“Just how cold-blooded are they?” I asked, ideas already coming to mind.

“Comfort zone for them is listed, in translated units, as 25C to 35C, or roughly 77F to 95F. ‘Temperature Levels’ from the Change Environment power mean for every 5C it goes above 35 degrees, and every 3C it goes below 25, they start taking -1 penalties to their REC attribute and lose 1 END from just sitting around, per level. Also, when they’re below 25C, they take a -2 penalty to OCV, DCV, and SPD. They’re sluggish in the cold, but their main security forces, at the least, will have some way to protect themselves from the cold. That’s too big a vulnerability for them to miss, otherwise.”

“Yes, their combat troops may have stuff like that. But will all the cooks, medics, and engineers on their ships?”

“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking, Master?”

I just grinned back at Web Mistress. “You know me well enough to know that answer. I’ve never been a Space Pirate before. Might as well cross it off the bucket list.”