Chapter 431 - Far Future, Ch. 141 – An Engine of War Lights Things Up (1/2)
Whether they had sought for them or not, the survivors had Leveled up once or twice just making it through this time... and a Three or Four, even if a non-combatant, made an elite workforce member with the right training.
Training came VERY quickly with an Intellect Mark.
Tens of thousands of people were being drawn into the skilled workforce every day, and even the semi-skilled work force was increasing in competency to an amazing degree. G&G and Rantha Corp were expanding like locusts, swallowing up millions of bodies and putting them to work, while the deaths of billions actually lightened a good deal of the logistical load on the support economy of the megacities and kiloplexes. Suddenly people were productive, and once they were Marked, they were DRIVEN.
Deaths had hit everyone, be it from terror attacks in Spires that had thought themselves above the fray, the families of soldiers fighting, or the civilians caught haplessly in the middle as all-consuming biovores and the armies of Man fought with an utter lack of mercy.
There was no time for despair, no time for mercy. Those who were suffering from apathy and loss were brought down before cold-eyed Ranthas with little sympathy for them; Marked, Branded, and impelled to work until they found their anger rising, and some way to vent their sorrow and loss, taking the load for basic services off those who wanted only now to take the fight back to their foes.
The younger generation who wanted to become something great and awesome joined G&G in droves, basically champing at the bit to get Opened, Marked, able to manifest a mindclaw, and Level. The training was brutal, but their Briggs and Rantha sponsors were Right There the whole time, the wickedly demanding women and the brutally overbearing men showing them the way, wide open, right in front of them, the only shortcut being how seriously they took what they could do.
The older generations were rapidly turning into the most skilled workforce the planet had ever seen. Jobs done by the shattered Mechanist workforce in many areas were now being done by unenhanced humans with startling ability, and no desire to swap out their organics. An odd spirituality was permeating through these Marked workers, as both Soul Feats and the ancient power of ki was being tapped to refine their minds and souls, subtly enhance their bodies to endure the demands upon them, and get them through each and every day without fail.
GAMT production was increasing every day, the local and out-system demand for it only growing. The System Fleet was being repaired and re-fit at amazing speed, retooling and inefficiencies in the local supply chain being worked on with tireless zeal and amazing coordination to smooth and streamline the processes, and even build in redundancies in the event of future attacks.
Ship after ship was coming in from out-system for their own upgrades, bringing with them cargoes of goods and parts, and excess people from other systems to add to the workforces... and they usually departed with a Briggs and Rantha or two among passengers or crew, bound to a new location.
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There were several minor events that occurred in the Janus system while this was happening.
The first was a Portal opening on Janus IV near the pole. A cold, dead world with a few isolated mining locations going after deeply buried raw standard minerals, the planet did not have near the strategic importance of Janus III.
The dark elf force naturally knew this, and was very confident of being able to insert a substantial force here. Alas, the opening of their Portal seemed to pull down a passing meteor supercharged with Warp energies. It fell down right upon them, and the resulting explosion and implosion left a three-mile crater in the crust of the planet, some rather exotic materials lining it, and what havoc may have occurred on the other side of the Portal, nobody knew.
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The second event occurred out in space, at an invisible point shielded by holofields where Dark Elvar ships were wont to exit the Underweb and enter the system. This particular incursion of a fleet of drow raiding vessels unfortunately ignited a passing comet that flared with Warp energies and visibly diverted drastically from its course, as if being pulled in by the open Portal. The planar resonance from the burning comet kept the Portal open despite frantic attempts to close it, and it slammed directly into the dimensional opening.
The resulting warpstorm covered a million miles of space, lit up Janus III's nights for a week straight, was deemed a dangerous navigational hazard, knocked out huge amounts of non-vakker tech across the system, and only a single drow ship managed to get out of range before it swallowed the rest of the fleet and set them off to the Warp to be munchies.
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The third event was a couple months later, at the other system incursion point, mostly used by the elvar, and equally as well hidden. It was breached by the drow, to the annoyance of the elvar watching over it... who exited it to find that a force of Warp marauders had chosen it as a deep space anchorage point, guided there by some mysterious divinations. The rival forces looked at one another for a few trembling moments, and then violence erupted.
It would be difficult to say who might have won, had not the elvar forces in the area come swooping in to secure their easy ingress and egress from the Janus system, but a burning Warp cruiser suicidally rammed itself into the Portal while opening a Helldiving Gate. For the second time in two months, a Warp Storm ignited in the system, and really, really annoyed the elvar.
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Four months later, when the drow opened the Portal on Janus VI, and found a Thunder Bulls company undergoing high-g and hostile environment training right on top of them, they were definitely convinced that some horrendously bad luck was afflicting whatever they were doing in the Janus system. The fact that they'd sent dozens of assassins out against the human leadership in the system, and there'd been nothing heard from or about them anywhere only served to raise their hackles further.
The antiproton bomb the Thunder Bulls artillery shot through their Portal just as they closed it didn't help matters any, and the fact it was mechanically timed rather foiled their attempts to subvert its tech and neutralize it, not that anyone survived to realize it.
But at least it wasn't a Warp Event, right?