Chapter 24
Arion star system, outer star system.
New Arion Republic home cluster.
"Captain!" The XO called out. "We're in missile range!"
"Finally!" Roared out Crescent. "Load up our own missiles and fire everything we have on that gunship!"
"Yes sir!"
Crescent almost snarled, before carefully regaining his composure. 6 minutes. 6 straight minutes of hammering by those damned missiles. Fortunately none of the incoming volleys had been quite as ba...
2021-12-08 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 23
Arion star system, inner system.
High orbit over Arion Prime.
"Traffic control has given us the authorization to depart." Said Connie. "Well, for what it's worth."
Sarah smiled, and shook her head. Arion's traffic control had reacted...badly to them wanting to leave orbit, demanding a small mountains of forms be filled out, alongside other bureaucratic hoops. She'd tried to cut through the red tape, but they'd proven determined to be as obtrusive ...
2021-12-07 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 22
Arion star system, outer system.
Approaching NARN gunships.
"As promised, we have shut down all power systems, drained all of our weapons' capacitors, and have evacuated our ships." Said the rebel officer on the holographic screen. Sarah felt a pang of pity as she looked at the young woman's terrified face -she could have been her daughter. Hell, she was fairly sure Seria was older than the 'NARN captain' was!-, but she firmly repressed it. That young w...
2021-12-06 22:00:09 +0000 UTC
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Hello, I've decided to update the way I handle patreon chapters a bit. I used to just dump everything on patreon whenever I wrote a chapter down, however since I had a tendency of writing in bursts, it lead to some problems, notably people complaining about the low frequency of uploads despite the relatively high quantity for each (those complaints were before my big dip in activity in october and the accompanying complete chaos IRL). As such, and given how well TESS has apparently worked, I'...
2021-12-06 20:45:34 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 65
Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.
City of Rebirth.
Allya sighed as she sat behind her desk. The council session had been...even worse than she'd feared. Even with Melia's help it had been a freaking nightmare. Anders had looked like he'd been hit by thunder, and Willard had bordered on apoplexy. The only person that had seemed truly okay with it had been Eismi, after the enchantress had asked if those pirates took prisoners for ransom...or slav...
2021-12-03 22:25:09 +0000 UTC
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Made by the awesome Arhyuz! Here's a link to his instagram.
2021-11-27 16:32:23 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 21
Hyperspace.
Approaching the Arion system.
"Hyperspace emergence in 5...4...2...1...Emergence!"
"Take evasive action, Elteria what's our status?" Calmly said Sarah as the ship emerged into the Arion star system.
"We're in our jump zone, 150 kilometers off of our target point, but that's it. Scanning near space, and it doesn't seem like there's anything in laser range. Well, except for the beacon of course. It looks like we're alone ma'am." Th...
2021-11-23 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 20
Hyperspace.
Approaching the SSX-M-156-344-115-93 system.
"Hyperspace emergence in 3...2...1...Emergence."
The report was....muted this time. In fact, the entire ship felt muted. Sarah didn't even lean forward in her seat, she just looked up at the system's hologram hanging in the middle of the bridge in silence, before looking at Elteria.
"Status?" She said softly.
"Nothing notable on the scanners, just..." Elteria swallowed. "Just deb...
2021-11-22 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 19
Hyperspace.
Approaching the Calver System.
"Hyperspace emergence in 3...2...1...Emergence!"
Sarah leaned forward slightly as the ship emerged from hyperspace. As usual, the sensors blanked out, before slowly starting to update the central display as they begun scanning their surroundings.
"Status?" She asked.
"We have arrived in our jump zone, only 3 kilometers off of the center." Answered Elteria, her hologram pacing the bridge slight...
2021-11-21 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 18
Sepia star system, outer system.
Approaching hyperspace limit.
"Captain, we have crossed the hyperspace limit." Formally said Normensk, the navigator.
Sarah nodded. It was about time, Gries' freighter, the Flowers, wasn't exactly the fastest ship around, and it had taken them most of an entire day to get the outer system with that ship's pitiful 50 gs of acceleration.
"Very well. Coms? Get me a channel to the Flowers."
<...
2021-11-20 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 64
Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.
City of Rebirth.
"I'm sorry milady, you agreed to what?!?"
Allya winced as Melia shouted, and looked at the dark elf.
"We agreed to a...business transaction."
"With pirates."
"They'd prefer the term privateers, but yes, essentially."
Melia looked at the baroness for a few second, before leaning back into her seat, sighing.
"Alright, and why exactly are you warning me...
2021-11-20 21:18:05 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 17
Sepia star system, inner system.
High orbit over Sepia.
"So ?" Asked Sarah as she leaned back into her command seat.
"No luck captain. The last receiver appeared to have multiple orbits, in multiple star systems over the last year or so." Answered Elteria as she shook her head.
"Damn. That means a ship." Sarah frowned. "Oh well. How many systems ?"
"6 different star systems. All within 12 astras."
"Not worth it to check them out ...
2021-11-19 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 16
Sepia star system, inner system.
Low orbit over Sepia.
"Point X in 30 seconds." Said the navigation officer, and Sarah nodded.
A single command brought up the ship's all hands channel.
"All hands, all hands. This is the captain speaking. We will engage in orbital drop maneuvers in 26 seconds. Brace for combat atmospheric reentry, I repeat brace for combat atmospheric reentry."
Sarah shut down the channel, and looked at Elteria expectan...
2021-11-18 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 15
Sepia star system, outer system.
Approaching SLF satellite.
"Alright, we're closing in on the satellite. No status change." Said Elteria as the AI gestured at the hologram in the middle of the bridge. The satellite looked....unimpressive. Just a few antennas and receivers sticking out of a ball of rock a few meters wide.
Sarah nodded. She hadn't expected any honestly. A few hours ago the satellite had gone cold, seemingly out of nowhere, and while...
2021-11-17 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 14
Sepia star system, inner system.
High orbit over Sepia.
"Hello captain. Welcome back to the lands of the living."
Sarah groaned, and opened her eyes, but only got blurry images. She felt...sluggish.
"Elteria? What happened?"
"You got shot up. Badly." Sarah's vision finally stabilized, and she looked at the AI's hologram currently bent over her bed. Given the big old red cross on the ceiling, and 'Eternal Seeker' printed under it, she w...
2021-11-16 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 13
Sepia star system, inner system.
Capital city of Landing, Governor's Palace.
"Major. We haven't had any contact for 5 minutes. Should we sally out?"
"Negative lieutenant." Simply said the major as he sat, his back to the barricade as he drank from his canteen. Technically he was as comfortable upright as sitting in his armor, and his armor could hydrate him or extend a tube for him to drink, but human psychology was the one thing no one had manage...
2021-11-15 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 12
Sepia star system, inner system.
Capital city of Landing, Governor's Palace.
"You know, I'm not sure it's a good or a bad thing that this place is mostly underground." Commented Sarah as she stepped over yet another guard body. That particular soldier had been manning what appeared to have been a fortified checkpoint, and the small pile of SLF corpses in the hallway was a testament to how hard the gubernatorial guard and his comrads had fought. "I under...
2021-11-14 22:44:39 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 11
Sepia star system, inner system.
Capital city of Landing, Governor's Palace.
"That's not good."
As a report, it was useless, but....Sarah couldn't blame Elteria. The governor's palace was jammed in a valley, near Landing, the rather unimaginatively named capital city of Sepia, where, well, the first colony ship had landed. Due to that geographical quirk, orbital scans were impossible unless you were passing right over the residence. Since they did...
2021-11-13 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 10
Sepia star system, inner system.
Capital city of Landing, Governor's Palace.
"Welcome, delegate."
Helena Martak nodded and smiled as the security guard greeted her as he returned her identification card, before waving her in. Maintaining her composure during these moments was always hard....but now it was harder than ever. Tonight....tonight Sepia would be free.
Or the SLF would be ashes.
She firmly stomped on the twinge of doubt that ...
2021-11-12 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 9
Sepia star system, inner system.
High orbit over Sepia.
"So....where is it from?" Said Sarah as she weighed the personal shield generator. There was no doubt it was from the Near Verge, no one made them small enough to fit into a large, heavy belt. High Verge tech could build personal shield generators, but they were backpack mounted things, usually integrated into some serious power armor. Hell, if they'd had a bit more money on hand when they'd met tha...
2021-11-11 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 8
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, SLF logistics headquarters.
"Ma'am? We have a problem."
Sarah blinked as she turned around, making a gesture for the engineer she had been talking to to pause. Usually she didn't like being interrupted, but when her marine sergeant said there was a problem, it was usually a big one.
"Yes sergeant?"
"We've managed to breach the armory. As expected, there were no survivors." He didn't need to ...
2021-11-10 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 7
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, in flight near the SLF's logistics headquarters.
"I make it...30 or so automated weapons emplacements. The heavy kind. A few turrets spread around as well, but it's clear they expect the big boys to do all the work." Said Elteria as she gestured towards the hologram of the base.
"Types of weapons?" Asked Sarah.
"Mostly surface to air missile batteries. Long range ones, probably with a few stratosp...
2021-11-09 22:00:04 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 6
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, SLF Sylvis action camp Sygma.
"So, may I ask you why you arguably tried to save the life of one of my men?"
Sarah raised an eyebrow as the woman in front of her squirmed a bit, before looking suspiciously at the equipment that had been strapped onto her. It was mostly a circlet on her head as well as the arm bracelets, the rest of the wires and bits were purely for show. They didn't want people to look ...
2021-11-08 22:25:17 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 5
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, SLF Sylvis action camp Sygma.
"Come on people, pack it up!" Said the commander as he clapped his hands together. "We don't have all night!"
Seria grumbled under her breath, but shouldered the crate nevertheless. She'd rather have used it to smash her leader's head in, but that would have been...unwise.
She was in the rather uncomfortable situation of having a skill set the SLF found extremely impo...
2021-11-08 04:39:37 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 4
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, Silvis Province capital of Foris.
"Anything new?" Said Sarah as she popped into the room, sipping from her hot chocolate mug. It was good, although unfortunately being on the job meant she couldn't spice it up with some stronger stuff of the alcoholic variety.
"Not much just yet. Contact information, drop off points, that kind of stuff." Said Hector distractedly as he looked at the displays to the inter...
2021-11-06 22:01:00 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 63
Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.
Dungeon Factory, Command Center.
"They're not doing that bad." Said Emilia, before grabbing a chips from the bowl and popping it into her mouth, chewing pensively.
"No, they're not. Surprisingly well for steel ranked. Well, with a copper ranked, but still." Answered Alexandra as she grabbed a snack of her own and ate it.
"Yeah."
They looked at the screens, where the adventuring party was curre...
2021-11-06 20:16:05 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 62
Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.
City of Rebirth, Baroness' Castle.
"That about sums up our troop strength and defensive arrangements." Concluded Anders as he stepped back from the table and the maps of Rebirth and the mesas spread out on it. "Lady Windwrath's people have started surveying the best spots for the towers, but we haven't even started on their foundations, let alone the outer walls."
"I see..." Knight-Commander Philia nodded...
2021-11-06 19:10:06 +0000 UTC
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The Sand Kraken is one of the few creatures on Alcheryos that bear the title of 'Worldbane'. Beast doesn't quite describe these abominations, nothing truly does.
Each is a highly unique, and extremely distinctive monster. Sand krakens are well known for being dormant most of the time, resting at the bottom of the sands of the wastelands, or even tunneling into the bedrock. That is mainly because they are so large and powerful that very few targets are worth the energy to wake up and att...
2021-11-06 02:55:11 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 3
Sepia star system, inner system.
Sepia Prime, Silvis Province capital of Foris.
Sarah sighed as she stepped down the ramp and onto the landing pad. Fortunately, the Dominion's standard heavy shuttles for it's interstellar freighters were about the size and weight class of her ship, which meant that she could land pretty much anywhere there was industry on a planet in this gods forsaken backwater of a galaxy. Or well, any form of commerce whatsoever, sinc...
2021-11-05 22:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Chapter 2
Hyperspace.
Approaching the Sepia system.
"Hyperspace emergence in 3...2...1...Emergence!"
Sarah tensed slightly in her seat as the hyperdrive gave one last surge of power, and her ship was flung back into realspace. For a fraction of a second the Seeker's sensors simply ceased to function, blinded by the flash of energy that accompanied a jump out of hyperspace.
"Status?" She asked as the hologram representing the star system started filling...
2021-11-04 22:00:03 +0000 UTC
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