Download App
33.38% Out of Space / Chapter 224: Monster Briefings

Chapter 224: Monster Briefings

"Its tensile strength can be comparable to graphene which is around 200 times that of steel," Dr. Sharon said as she stood at the head of the conference table.

She displayed an image of a cut out portion of a slab of purplish white meat. Pointing to the skin portion which information overlays appeared, "The skin or hide of the beast is roughly two centimeters thick on average with the thickness raising to five centimeters thick covering vital organs of the creature."

"Tests showed that it can withstand anything below our 3" guns or 70mm rockets as long as the impact point is not at an oblique angle," Dr. Sharon reported. "The hide of the creature, however, isn't so resistant to sharp implements."

"But that doesn't mean that the creature is vulnerable to sharp implements like blades or armor piercing weaponry," Dr. Sharon continued. "It has a second layer underneath that skin which acts as a force absorbent."

She pointed to the next portion highlighted on the image. An animation showed the skin separating from the thick yellow white layer underneath. "This is what we would call the blubber or fat of the monster."

"It's on average 40 centimeters thicks in most places and up to sixty centimeters on selected parts of its body," A rendered image of the Krarga showed up on the display and several locations were highlighted out.

"This fat acts as a shock absorbent and also as a self sealing band-aid," Dr. Sharon showed another image. "We dug two of this out from its body, buried inside its blubber." An image of two battered looking 3" shell heads was laid out alongside dozens of other items.

"We also found a total of 86 expended .50 cal bullets and 43 20mm shells intact inside its body," Dr. Sharon read out a list. "Hundreds of shrapnel, most likely from the bombs casing or shattered ammunition and also dozens of what we believed to be teeth or claws of other sea monsters embedded inside its fat."

"Cause of death is by overpressure," Dr. Sharon said next. "The High Explosives impacts from the 3" shells and the 50kg bombs ruptured its internal organs. You should have seen the mess it made in the science labs, the guys will be cleaning out that place for months!"

"So, Doc," Chief Engineer Matt spoke up, "Does this means our current conventional weapons are useless against it?"

"Yes and no," Dr. Sharon replied. "Hmmm, low caliber weapons will be useless, but thermobaric weapons should mess them up pretty well."

"Hmm," Blake frowned. "This creature sounds a lot like the Swarm..."

The people both gathered around the conference table or attending online all mumbled in agreement.

"Well genetically they do not match each other," Dr. Sharon explained over the concerned mumblings. "Don't forget that the Swarm takes on the traits of the species it consumed. So I will not be surprised if the Swarm had encountered a similar creature like this over the galaxy and took on some of its traits."

"Alright," Blake clapped his hands to gather everyone's attention. "The way to kill it is to bomb it till it dies from internal injuries or hit it with a bigger gun right?"

Dr. Sharon rolled her eyes before replying, "In a simplified way, yes..."

"Ok..." Blake turned to Master Sergeant Pike's image and said, "Top, I want you to get Ordnance to work out some kind of depth charge for both the Navy and Airforce and also to expedite the new guns."

Pike nodded as he took down some notes. "Yes, Sir!"

"Doc, continue your research on the creature and see if we can make use of it hides or blubber for any military or civil applications," Blake ordered. "What else?"

"Continuing on," Dr. Sharon switched the images again and this time, an image of an Island Whale appeared. "We found some interesting things on these creatures."

"By luck, we actually found the backs or islands of these creatures to contain several lodes of energy stones," Dr. Sharon said excitedly. "If you all could remember, we fought and defeated a T Rex Godzilla like monster inside the dungeons."

"On its body, we harvested crystals we dubbed as 'Energy stones', which are in essence a solidified condensation of pure energy," Dr. Sharon explained. "These stones had all been converted into a stable liquid electrolyte that is currently been used for the Point Defense Laser turrets and the ship's main rail gun batteries."

"The amount we harvested from the T Rex only limited to over a dozen charges," Dr. Sharon said. "But we struck gold here!"

"We estimated from the amount we managed to uncover that the Island Whales has close to over a hundred charges or more of the Energy stones!" Dr. Sharon displayed the next few imageries of their findings on the Island Whales.

"Captain, I propose that we increase all resource to mine this material," Dr. Sharon said to Blake. "As we do not know when will the Island Whales depart as clearly, they are migrating creatures as evidenced from the tropical floral on their backs."

"What are the risks?" Blake asked as he pondered on the Doctor's request. "We do not really need to rely solely on the energy stones as our power grid is now able to handle most of the ship's onboard weapons."

"Risks..." Dr. Sharon frowned before answering, "I have no guarantees on the risks as we totally have no idea nor any habitual information of these Island Whales. But so far, they are pretty docile."

"We managed to extract some blood from one of the Whales and even mined some samples of the energy stones out," Dr. Sharon clarified. "So far the Whales reminded as they were as before, feasting on plankton and jellyfish."

"I believe this is an opportunity that we shouldn't waste," Chief Engineer Matt spoke up for Dr. Sharon. "Having another energy resource at our disposal allows us to have backups in case of SHTF* (*Shit Hits The Fan) situations."

"What do you think?" Blake turned to Ford and asked.

"I would agree too," Ford replied. "If we can harvest more resources, it will only help us in the long run."

Blake nodded and said, "Go for it but take all precautions. I don't wanna lose lives just for a few energy stones."

"Yes, Sir!"

-----

"Captain!" Pike remained behind in the video conference as everyone left or logged out. "A minute of your time, Sir!"

"What is it, Top?" Blake stopped in his tracks.

"Sir, I think you might want to come down to Ordnance for a look," Pike smiled mysteriously.

"Ok, sure." Blake agreed and Ford gave a shrug as Blake gave him a questioning look.

-----

Ford stepped on the accelerator of the Jeep and grinned, "Damn, I missed driving!"

Blake laughed as he sat back on the seat while Ford continued, "I have spent like almost a month out at sea and at the port, it's not like I have any chance to drive!"

"Well, go slow, I don't wanna spend my time in the hospital under Dr. Sharon's care!"

"Heh, well, I think I know who you would rather care for you, yes?" Ford shot a sly grin at Blake who laughed back.

"So how's the princess?" Ford asked as he took an exit out of the side streets and towards the East Gate. "When you guys plan to wed?"

"Hmm, we still haven't thought of when is the wedding," Blake sadly replied. "That's just too much on our plates now."

"Oh come on!" Ford moaned. "Just set a date and leave the rest to the staff to handle! Is it that hard to do?"

"True," Blake nodded. "I will talk to her later about this."

"Goddamn," Ford shook his head. "I seriously worry for your relationship!"

"How about you?" Blake quickly changed the subject. "Anyone, you are interested in?"

"Ha! Who can I find when I am mostly out at sea?" Ford replied as the guards waved them through the checkpoint at the East Gate. "I just leave it to fate."

"Hmmm," Blake smiled. "Well, maybe I should let you meet up with the Islanders more, that girl Megan is quite pretty!"

"Don't you start!" Ford raised an eyebrow as he raced down the Eastern Highway. "I'm not that desperate... yet!"

"Hahaha," Blake laughed. "I wonder what Top wants us to see?"

-----

1 km East of Base Colony, Ordnance Research Divison Facility

Ford pulled the Jeep to a stop and reversed into a parking lot before the two officers exited the vehicle. They entered the secured facility and found Pike at outside a hangar like structure.

"Sirs!" Pike with the rest of the waiting techs and staff saluted as the two officers walked up and returned the salutes. "Welcome to ORD."

"Well, what's the urgency here?" Blake asked as he followed Pike towards the hangar doors.

"Hehe, Sir," Pike grinned. "I think you would like this!"

Pike turned to one of the techs and nodded, and the hangar doors crunched open while everyone stood back from the doors.

Blake waited with curiosity at the side and he suddenly laughed madly as he saw what stomped its way out of the hangar. "Hahahaha, goddamn it! You guys really did it?"

A five meter tall, six-legged multi-joint walker, similar in design to the ASASGs walked out of the hangar with a crab like grit. An open hatch with clearly a pilot sat on the forward facing of the spider tank and with a turret on its back.

It looked like a 21st century armored vehicle but without tracks, having six multi joint legs instead. while a machine gun blister sat on each side of the walker.

"The Manned Armored Walker 'Bushmaster' or MAW," Pike proudly presented the walker as it stormed its way over to a testing field. "Armed with a 3" stub gun and a dual 10 cell 70mm rocket pods with a coaxial MG, a cupola mounted MG, a co pilot MG and an MG casemate on the flanks."

"It runs with a crew of 7 and can carry up to 30 tons of gear and equipment." Pike led the awestruck officers to the testing field. "Its multi jointed legs allow it to easily maneuver over the roots of the trees in the forest giving it an average speed of 19 kilometers per hour,"

"While moving over relatively flat terrain, it can go up to 28 kilometers per hour," Pike said. "It also can go wheels down, which will increase its speed to 46 kilometers per hour."

"Damn, I didn't expect you guys to really come out with this!" Blake grinned as he admired the walker painted in the local forest green blue camo scheme.

"Well its design and programming came from Senior Spaceman Tae-joon Pak, Spaceman Hideo Koichi, and of course, Irisval who crafted the frames of the golems." Pike gave credit to the trio. "As we lack AI cores, we decided to have a person pilot these instead."

"With the so called 'Magic programming code' which SS Pak and SM Koichi invented, " Pike struggled with a straight as he explained. "They managed to devise a system which the golem will move following a certain set of controls."

"Since the golem does not need any processing power for autonomous control, the amount of energy it uses also is greatly reduced," Pike patted the spider tank. "It can function on average, ten hours on combat situations and sixteen hours on non combat situations."

"Armor is 50 mm thick rolled homogeneous steel with explosive reactive armor plating," Pike pointed to the blocking stabs lining the sides of the spider tank. "Internally the framework of the golem is made out of porous stone mixed with ceramic clay that allows it to absorb any shock and giving it some flexible to prevent any breakage."

Blake and Ford stared up at the sloping side armor of the spider tank and followed Pike's lead as he climbed up from one of the multi-jointed legs.

The test crew stood on the top of the tank and showed off their new vehicle with pride as the two officers gawked at the machine.

"Damn, just in time to show it off for Founding Day!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon

https://www.*******.com/neobear

-----

Join the discussion in Discord

https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V

-----

Donate/Support me via Paypal now!

https://paypal.me/neobear

-----

Here comes the mechs!

Chapter 225: Year One + 4 months

The entire city was decorated with banners and flags of reds, blues, whites, and gold. Music and processions of dancers and performers filled up almost every street as the city inhabitants danced and celebrated in the snow.

Bursts of fireworks rocketed off here and there and the whole city was celebrating Founding Day. Work at all the outposts had stopped and everyone that could make it to the city gathered in the streets except for a few critical personnel.

Princess Sherene stood hand in hand with Captain Blake at the City Hall's balcony and waved madly at the thousands gathered at the plaza before the municipal building. Several Cobras flew pass in diamond formations overhead and peeled off into aerobatic stunts that wowed the crowd.

"Look at the sea of people!" Sherene laughed as she waved at the masses. "Thank you!"

"Why the thanks?" Blake asked from her side as he too gave a wave once in a while.

"If it wasn't for you saving my people," Sherene replied. "We would not have this day today..."

"Technically, it was the Marines who saved your people..." Blake grinned. "I just reaped the rewards!"

"Hey! So you want me to marry some Marine?" Sherene smiled dangerously. "Well... I can do that..."

Blake broke out in cold sweat, "No no no, I was just joking!"

"Hmph!" Sherene eyed Blake with a sly smile. "I got options now!"

"Wh- what?" Blake was speechless and he stared at Sherene who was giggling away. "So you want to play? Huh?"

Blake activated the microphone and cleared his throat. The roaring crowd and music slowly died down as they waited for him to make a speech. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!"

"Today marks a new chapter in our lives, for we celebrate one year since this city which every one of you had helped built." Blake addressed the eager crowd while projections of his image and speech were broadcasted to other temporary displays all over the city.

"We found long and hard, worked with sweat and blood to get to this day where we have a safe place to live and grow in. Our children can play in the streets without a care in the world and we all have a proper roof over our heads and food in our bellies because of what we had put in our sacrifices and efforts into!"

"This city isn't built for me, or the Princess. It is a city for you, even if you are an Elf, Orc, Beastman, Goblin, Troll, Dragon, or even the Wind Wolves!"

"Everyone has contributed and we live in harmony among all the different races because why?" Blake paused as he looked at the crowd. "We care about this city!"

"Today is the day the city was officially founded one year ago, yet it still bears no name," Blake said. "We had run a poll for everyone to vote which name is best suitable for the city and now we will officially unveil the results!"

"Now the most voted name with 8,000 over votes, I declare this city as Haven!" Blake yelled over the roar of the crowd as they cheered wildly.

Blake smiled and gestured for the crowd to quiet down before he continued. "I have another news for everyone, the Princess has accepted my marriage proposal and we will be wedded next autumn!"

Sherene gasped when she heard his announcement to the city about their marriage. Blake gave a wink and pulled her into his embrace and kissed her in front of the crowd.

The crowd went crazy as they cheered and applauded madly. Bands beat their drums and music blared again throughout the city while a cluster of fireworks erupted over the City Hall.

"I declare the opening of Founding Day!"

-----

Dijon, Megan, and Akron looked around in wonder and felt their hearts beating wildly as they were dragged into the celebratory mood of the crowd even thou they were seated at the VIP viewing platform.

They haven't seen such a large scaled procession before as most parties or even public announcements of nobles and royalty would the most have a thousand or two thousand people gathered the most. But here, it clearly could be seen that the whole city was in celebration and out in force in the streets.

They watched in awe at the aerobatic displays of the strange flying machines as they danced in the air with the dragons. Columns of soldiers marching with such precision that made them wonder if they were illusions made by magic.

The next thing they saw made they gawked in surprised as two massive armored looking monster bearing six legs waltzed it way behind the marching troops. The crowd gasped in astonishment as they too have not seen such creatures before while the hoomans seemed to whooped in joy and excitement.

"What are those monsters?" Megan leaned over to the side and asked a hooman dressed in a strange light grey coat with bits of colorful metal lining his chest.

"Monsters?" The hooman looked surprised at the question before he excitedly replied, "Mecha! Those are freaking spider tanks!"

-----

Liz Regnar held onto the arm of Evelyn excitedly as they stood watching the processions of bands, dancers, performers, and even soldiers passing by the stand. She had seen and attended many balls and festivities of nobility due to her social status and popularity in the Captial and she was secretly impressed by the sheer scale of it all.

Even the normally unresponsive Evelyn gave a small smile and swayed along to the music which made Liz happy as she found out from the Magister that Evelyn's soul had suffered some damage. Her initial hostility to the hoomans and the rebels faded as she was later shown evidence regarding the nature of the Hero that she worshipped.

She did not believe at the start but slowly she slowly came to accept the truth as she recalls several incidents where the hero did something that she can't match it up like sudden disappearance or strange female dried up corpses found in every town, village, or city they had been through.

She wondered why she did not pick up these disturbing signs at the same, but Magister Thorn consulted her told her it might be a Glamor spell the Hero had projected around him, making people trust or naturally feel good near him.

This news struck her mind deeply and she felt she can't trust anyone anymore and instead, she sought Evelyn out to try to help her to recover her damaged soul and uncover the truth.

Today she granted leave by her probation officer to come to view the parade and enjoy some time off. Seeing the cheering and happy crowd, she felt herself being swayed and even started to join in the cheering.

-----

Irisval wore a wide-brimmed straw hat and clapped enthusiastically as she watched the parade passing by her stand. She smiled with pride when she saw the two prototype MAWs marched past to the amazement of the people around as children clung to their parents and pointed and asked questions.

A sudden gush of wind blew against the stand as two Dragons swooped over the stand, their powerful wings kicking up a storm as they flew past over the cheering crowd. Irisval's hat flew off and her silvery hair whipped in the sudden wind.

She flinched and tried to grab her hat only to find someone had already helped her recover hat from flying away. She stood up and thanked the stranger for his help only to freeze as she recognized the hooman holding her hat out to her.

"You...!"

-----

Drake climbed up the steps of the view stand to reach the top where he was supposed to relieve Kont over his security duty when suddenly a gust of wind kicked up by flapping wings of a dragon hit him.

He looked up and frowned at the underbellies of Blue Thunder and Rastraz as the duo flew off somewhere over the stands and out the corner of his eye, he saw a straw hat flying towards him.

He quickly snatched the hat and turned to return to its owner and froze as he stared into the clear golden eyes.

"You...!"

-----

City Hall

"Well, the naming of the city is settled," Blake raised a toast to the senior officers and ministers gathered.

"To be honest, we, humans have come to this place for over a year," Blake said as the gathered men and women listened.

"It's one year and four months to be exact since you crashed the ship!" Someone yelled in a joking manner.

"Hahahaha," All the humans laughed, while the elves looked confused as they did not know the full story, only knowing that these hoomans came from somewhere and were stranded here.

"Alright my fault, my fault!" Blake raised his hands up in mock surrender. "Well, I am glad that we all made it till now, and I hope that we can continue to survive!"

"CHEERS!"

-----

The Kingdom of Foral, Border to The Great Ocean Plains

A battered company of soldiers and their families toiled against the snow as they made their way to the border to the Great Ocean Plains. Dozens and dozens of wagons pulled by land dragons or muffalos left streak marks and paw prints on the knee deep snow.

Wrapped in several threadbare blankets, Captain Borse leaned into his spear shaft as he plowed through the snow, his breath turning white in the cold.

He stopped and looked at the rear, where hundreds of soldiers slogged on. His company had increased almost tenfold ever since coming to the Two Nation Alliance. It had grown larger than company size, more like a small army as dozens of Meccan and Foral soldiers attached themselves to him after getting lost in the retreat.

They had made used of the heavy snow to pull back from the lines, only to get harassed by Imperial Dragons Corps which the Two Nation Alliance could barely counter with their weaker dragon species.

Knowing that it will be safer to head to outlying regions of the Foral Kingdom, as the Imperial Army will very likely aim the cities and larger towns while pushing towards the Capital. Hence, Borse made the decision to head southwards towards the Great Ocean Plains, where the Oerkin ruled.

The border towns and villages were mostly abandoned due to constant raids from the Oerkin or due to conscription to the Foral Army. Borse was thinking to take over one of the abandoned village or town and have their men and families rest up for the winter before making their next plans.

Even the Oerkins wouldn't risk a raid during the winter months, which will give Borse's Last Company the time it needed to recover its strength.

Taris strolled up next to Borse with Captain Lanser in tow and they shared a wineskin among themselves, warming them bodies with the burning sensation of alcohol down their throats.

"How far more?" Borse asked as he looked at the struggling troops. "The men are flagging, and their families are barely able to keep up with the pace!"

Lanser unrolled a map from the scroll case he had on his side and frowned as he did some calculations of their position. "I say half a day or more before we reach one of the towns."

Borse nodded, "Tell the company to halt. We rest for the day and continue tomorrow."

Taris nodded back and returned to the troops calling the leaders to halt the company and setup camp.

"Captain," Lanser asked. "Do you think we... will survive?"

Borse sighed inwardly as he looked at the hopeful expression on Lanser's young face. "Of course, we will survive!"

"Send out riders to scout ahead of our path," Borse said. "I don't want any surprises along the way."

"Yes Captain," Lanser smiled, his spirits lifted after hearing Borse assurance and he left to see to his orders.

Borse looked at the number of dependants lagging behind the troops and wondered how will he feed everyone over the rest of the winter and how many will die tonight.

"Damn Imperials!"


CREATORS' THOUGHTS
Neobear Neobear

Advance chapters are available on Pat-reon

https://www.patreon.com/neobear

-----

Join the discussion in Discord

https://discord.gg/A8Tm86V

-----

Donate/Support me via Paypal now!

https://paypal.me/neobear

-----

Its friday!!! wooo

Load failed, please RETRY

Weekly Power Status

Batch unlock chapters

Table of Contents

Display Options

Background

Font

Size

Chapter comments

Write a review Reading Status: C224
Fail to post. Please try again
  • Writing Quality
  • Stability of Updates
  • Story Development
  • Character Design
  • World Background

The total score 0.0

Review posted successfully! Read more reviews
Vote with Power Stone
Rank 200+ Power Ranking
Stone 15 Power Stone
Report inappropriate content
error Tip

Report abuse

Paragraph comments

Login

tip Paragraph comment

Paragraph comment feature is now on the Web! Move mouse over any paragraph and click the icon to add your comment.

Also, you can always turn it off/on in Settings.

GOT IT