86 Business As Usual

"Any other signatures?" I ask while clenching my fists. The M777s were unbelievably effective, but we don't know how the enemy will react. Did they have time to send a message back? Are there reinforcements coming? Can we expect some kind of heavy retaliation?

All those questions without answers swirl in my mind as I watch the screen, waiting for anything to happen.

"For now we don't have anything, but we are still observing." a Legionary answers.

Time passes slowly, a minute feels like an hour. Sending this unit to our supposed home base was a declaration of war from the Stonecrusher Empire, and that couldn't have happened at the worst moment. The spatial bags are nowhere near finished, and we didn't even start on researching applications for them. Not to mention that the Spell Jammer I planned to use is nowhere near ready for production, and we still can't store Starmetal properly.

I hurt my head to think about it, a bunch of fancy artillery shells isn't going to win the war. We need more firepower because our enemy has incommensurable might at their disposal compared to our dinky arsenal.

Five minutes pass, Mary looks bored while the eyes of everyone are glued onto the screen. I don't know what they are expecting to see, but if my hunch is correct, then nothing good can come out of this. Destroying a large unit like the one that just attacked is going to have substantial consequences. The risk of another Beelzebub-like menace is genuine, and I wonder if our penetrators will be enough to take care of such a problem.

I hope it does, or we are doomed.

Ten minutes, now I think it's safe to say that the enemy is not going to retaliate, which is weird. Sending a large unit as the opening salvo to start a war makes sense, but why don't they have any support. From what I understood, the logistics of the Stonecrusher Empire are unrivaled, and they have plenty of soldiers to spare.

So why don't we see any reinforcements?

Nevertheless, I need to act the part and dissipate the tension that accumulated in this room. The people need to know that we can succeed and that NoThInG wIlL sTaNd In OuR wAy.

I slam my foot on the ground, "We won this battle! It proves that our weapon is functional! Rejoice for the hammer of Prometheus has struck fear into our enemies' heart!"

The cheesy speech almost makes me want to hide in a hole, but it works wonderfully. Cheers erupt into the command room, and everyone looks at me with even more reverence.

I didn't know that it was possible, but I may have turned my cultists into even bigger fanatics.

Nevertheless, I need to lay out the plan for the future while everyone is gathered here. "This is only the beginning! By their actions, the Stonecrusher Empire declared war on Prometheus and the Order Of The First Flame! Such an affront will not go unpunished, and we will march to war!"

Another, even louder, cheer echoes. Everyone is shouting Prometheus' name while slamming their foot on the floor. The vibrations are almost on par with the M777s firing, or at least it feels like it.

I turn towards Terrence, "Go get Alan, we need to prepare for the upcoming war effort." The Commander nods and I head to my private office, which I barely used since I arrived here.

A few minutes later and the two men enter the room. They sit down once I order them to, and then we can begin to lay out the plan for the war effort.

"As you know, the Stonecrusher just attacked us. We won the first engagement, but it's clear that it won't be the last one. We don't know enough about the capabilities of our enemy, so we need to prepare for the worst. Alan, I want the Fabricators to dedicate all available production to ammunition and rations. If you need more, expand the workshop as you see fit. Terrence, I want all possible Legionaries to be operational by the end of the month." I sigh, once again I'm resorting to methods I would rather not use.

"Reinforce the indoctrination, and ask the Inquisition to be even more stringent on agitators. We can't afford to have a revolt will fighting the Stonecrusher Empire. I'm counting on you for results. Alan, I want you to tell me, in your honest opinion, what would be the best project to focus our research on." I continue.

The Commander nods with a stern expression while the Chief Fabricator looks to be in deep thoughts.

"If you want my opinion, then I think that the Spell Jammer and spatial bags might be worth looking into. I know you told me to focus on one project, but I truly believe that the solution for Starmetal storage resides in spatial bags. And, from the notes you sent me, it shouldn't be too hard to have a simple storage space." The Fabricator says.

I freeze the timeline to think about his answer. Alan knows a lot more than me about manufacturing, so if he says that it's possible then it probably is. But on the other hand, focusing on two projects at once might stall any progress we could make. So I need to find a compromise.

"Alan, so far you have exceeded my expectations. But you have to understand that we are very constrained by our current situation, so I give you a month to have a functional spatial bag. If you don't then I want you to focus all your efforts on the production of the Spell Jammer." I say.

Putting an ultimatum on the middle-aged man leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I have no choice. We need the Spell Jammer if we want to survive, and I believe that focusing all our efforts on its production is the way to go forward.

"Of course, I promise I won't disappoint you!" the Fabricator says with a smile and a clenched fist. "But, before we go any further, can I say a few things?"

I nod, "of course, I value your opinion."

"You honor me too much!" the Fabricator is almost blushing, "It concerns the environmental armor that you asked us to look into a while back. Philip has somehow cracked the code used by the Goblin yesterday, and with a few tweaks here and there I think we can begin production of new standard-issue armor for the Legionaries. It will have fewer features than yours, but it will have the same level of environmental protection, and it should provide another layer of defense."

"This is great news!" I nearly jump out of my chair, "But do we have the production capabilities for such a thing?"

Alan scratches the back of his head, "This is where things get complicated, we cleared out all the tunnels we could. We still have space for a bunch of Printers, but if you want us to expand, then we'll have to expand the Shard."

I see. He's only asking me to attach another dimension onto this one.

Sure, it's no fucking big deal, I'll grab my magical Dimension-Grower 5000!

...Wait for a second. I recall Taanyth mentioning something that would do precisely what Alan is asking. I will ask the old chief later. Now I need to focus on Terrence, so I turn towards him. "Do you have anything else to add? Your opinion is important to me."

And I'm not joking when I say this. In truth, Terrence ran all our military campaigns, and most of the Order, ever since we met.

The Commander shakes his head, "I have nothing else to add, my objectives are clear. I will need a bit of time to adjust our recruitment tactics, but you'll have your soldiers in time. However, the increased intensity of training means a lot more rations. Can it be done?"

Alan nods, "We have dedicated Printers for food, and they were running at half-capacity until now, so you won't have to worry about food. Just worry about giving us good soldiers!" he says with a smile, and Terrence chuckles.

I feel like an outsider here, and I'm supposed to be the deity they worship.

"All right, then one last thing. Alan, could you warn me when the armors are ready? I need men to capture and transport the machine capable of processing the Starmetal. And Terrence, can you get someone to bring Taanyth here? He's the old one that was ruling the Ilffs before we arrived."

The two men nod, so I dismiss them and lean back in my chair. I do have a few moments before the old chief comes by, so I should do something with the free time I have. I browse the list of contacts I have in my secure phone and find the number of Sarah.

That mind-reading girl has been recently deployed to collect information on the Stonecrusher, and I should have read the reports in more details. She shouldn't be doing anything right now, so I might as well call her here and listen to what she has to say.

The phone rings and a timid voice answers, "Y-Yes?"

"Sarah, how are you doing?" I say while trying to sound as cheerful as possible. It's certain that she's still a bit afraid of me, and I can't blame her. It must be tough for an ordinary woman to adapt to all of this.

"Can you teleport in my office for a moment? I want to talk to you." I say, and a moment later a portal appears in front of me. It's quite impressive to see, and I feel a bit of pride when I consider that the Portal Station is based on my work.

Sarah's frail figure appears, and she looks a lot more determined than when I last saw her. She also somehow look even more tired. The mind-reader stumbles forward and put her Portal Attachment in her pocket before doing a clumsy salute. It seems like it became a popular way to carry the device for those who are not carrying rifles but still need the capacity to teleport.

"Please have a seat." I point towards the chair, and she nods furiously before sitting down.

"As I understand it, you have been sent on missions to collect information about the Stonecrusher Empire. You may not be yet aware of this, but we recently declared war on them." I say.

Sarah seems surprised, but she quickly regains her composure, "All right, it's true that I was sent to do just that. Was there anything wrong with my reports? It was my first time writing them, so I-"

I wave my hand to silence her, "Don't worry, your reports were fine."

Or at least I think so since I didn't read them.

"I want to hear it from your mouth. What did stick out the most to you? And what were their minds like?" I ask. I hope that my question will push her to give me a summary of what's written in the reports. It's true that I could read them and Rewind to not waste time, but I'd rather not since I have to wait anyway.

"It's a bit hard to explain, nobody has asked that question before. But their minds were very... organized, for lack of a better word. They were very dedicated to their cause and their leader, almost to an extreme level, not unlike- not like anything, sorry." She says while avoiding my gaze.

I stifle a chuckle, "Don't worry. I do understand that we have a few 'enthusiastic' members in our organization, there's no need to be shy about it. So please continue."

"All right, I'm a bit reassured since I don't believe all this- I mean I know you're awesome and all that, but-" Sarah reddens and hides her head in her hands while stammering.

A smile creeps on my face, "Don't worry about that, believing in the Codex is not required at all for joining the Order. For instance, we have one of our best Fabricators who think the Codex is barely worth the paper it's printed on, so you're not alone."

"R-Really? But what about the Oath?" she asks.

"Don't worry about the Oath; you'll be fine as long as you don't betray me. Nothing is mentioning that you have to believe in the Codex." I say.

As long as people are willing to follow my orders and obey me, I don't care if they truly believe that I'm a deity or not. All I need is people to believe in my cause.

Sarah exhales loudly, "Really? You're taking a huge weight off my shoulders here. I was trying so hard to memorize the Codex, but it wasn't necessary at all."

I lean forward, "Don't worry about that, and instead tell me everything you learned from the Stonecrusher people."

Sarah, who looks a lot more comfortable, nods while bobbing on her chair. "All right, there was nothing much. I only found out about their organization. From what I know, they are organized like a regular army, with a chain of command and all that stuff. We only got hits on low-level personnel, so I didn't find the details of any oncoming operations. However, I did learn a bit about the equipment they use. It's all technical stuff, and I don't know what any of the terms mean."

I shake my head, "Don't worry about that, we-" a knock on my door interrupts me. "Oh well, it does look like we are out of time. But before you go, can you tell me how your friends are doing? I've meant to ask, but I've been distracted by everything else that happened."

Of course, I don't care that much about the well-being of her friends, but Sarah is a precious asset so it can't hurt to make myself look better in her eyes.

"You know, we haven't been able to see each other as much lately. But we still manage when we can, Alex is complaining about the training and Cynthia raves on about all the work she has to do. On the other hand, I don't do a lot. I learn spells and how to use them while we try to make my ability better."

I nod while feigning interest, "I see, then it was a good chat. But I expect some people, so I'll have to ask you to leave."

Sarah nods and gets up from her chair. She is about to head for the door when she stops in her tracks and slaps her forehead before rummaging in her pocket. She gives me an awkward smile when she finds the Portal Attachment and fiddles with it for a moment before walking into a newly formed portal on the wall.

"You can enter now," I say to the person on the other side. It should be Taanyth with an escort, but we never know what could happen.

"Hello Sir!" a young Ilff Legionary steps into the room with Taanyth in tow. The old Ilff looks a lot better than the last time I saw him. He's no longer malnourished and his clothes, while simple, are clean and new.

"You asked for me?" he says as he timidly enters the room.

"Yes, please have a seat, your escort can also sit down," I say as I point towards the chairs in front of me. There's another one lined against the wall, but the Legionary stays stiff and doesn't move an inch.

The poor bastard probably believes every bit of propaganda we fed him, so he must be scared beyond measures.

Oh well, I'm sure that it's a problem that will fix itself in the long run.

"I wanted to talk to you about the Dimensional Harpoons. We might be planning to expand the Shard at some point so I would like to know if you had any information regarding those particular artifacts." I ask.

The old man deflates and sigh, "I see. It's true that I heard about them, but I've never seen them in person, I only heard stories about them. To be frank, I don't even know if they exist, and if they are even in this Shard."

Oh, I was expecting something like this, but it's still disappointing to hear.

"Really? Any lead would be welcome. Anything, even a story or an anecdote you heard somewhere, would be helpful." I ask again. I don't want to send my men on a wild goose chase, but the Harpoons are the only thing I can think of that would solve our future space problems.

Taanyth clears his throat, "As I told you before, it's only briefly mentioned in an old folk tale. I think the paragraph went like this: The prince and the princess, now separated by an uncrossable ravine, used the last gift from the ancients to pierce the world and force it to do their bidding. The Dimensional Harpoons chained two separate worlds together and fused them, thus creating a new world born from the eternal love between the prince and the princess."

"I see, I don't think we can do much with this..." I mutter in disappointment. It was worth a shot, but I can't do anything with a vague paragraph from an old story.

Unless someone comes up with more details. "Could you write the complete story for me? Maybe there's a clue hidden somewhere, so I would like to research it myself." I ask, and the old Ilff nods.

"Of course," he answers, "I'll bring it back to you tomorrow, but I don't know what you could get from it. Now, if you excuse me, I'll go back home. Moving around so much isn't too good for my old bones."

"Thank you for your time," I say while Taanyth leaves my office with the Legionary in tow.

I sigh and look at my desk. Now, I need to think about what I have to do.

And it involves robbing a paranoid Goblin.