Giant Robots? Say no more. I’m in. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

…

With a lot of supplements and physical therapy, within a few weeks, I was now able to hold a cup full of water without straining.

Things would go faster if I was hopped up on steroids and stuff, but that would make House Hariss look bad.

Anyway, while I was getting better physically, my brain wasn’t doing so hot.

“You are barely passing in your classes. Commendable, but requires improvement.” Lady Hariss was evaluating me. “I expect a five percent increase in your academies, otherwise I will only allow you to sortie for one day instead of two.”

“…you won’t let me pack fourteen missions in a day, will you?”

“No.”

Damn, she was really going for my mech time.

Brushing back scarlet hair behind her air, my boss wore a white blouse with long sleeves and a pencil skirt. This was as casual as I’ve ever seen the lady. Usually, her clothes seemed more fitting for a ballroom than casual wear.

“I need some tutoring and access to the software and hardware at school. I can put two more hours towards studying now, ma’am.” I had two hours less now, since the atrophy curtailment method we had going was pretty good. My muscle build up was going great. In a year, I’ll be as strong as a regular kid. “Just reading doesn’t help much when I’m unfamiliar with the software and hardware to make the answers with.”

Lady Hariss gave a sharp nod.

“I noticed that. It’s easy to forget that you’ve been raised off a tablet and a war machine cockpit. You will get a technical workstation within a few hours. My old one is being updated and refurbished as we speak, 549.” Lady Hariss gestured at thin air and a holographic screen popped out of her seemingly wooden desk. She looked at a few graphs and screens, before turning back my way after dismissing them. “You have so far made me over eighty million credits in profit from your work on the field. That is worthy of a promotion. Welcome to Rank 1 of Knighthood, 549.”

She took a small, palm sized box from a drawer on her table and walked over me.

I took the cue to stand up straight and give a salute, before returning to rest with a nod my boss aimed my way.

You people don’t deserve this amount of respect. Giving you people salutes is like spitting on actual soldiers.

“With this ranking, you will receive an upgrade to your living quarters, a small retinue, and finally the right to have a name.” The medal was pinned onto the lapel of my uniform. It was gray and just a sword held by a gauntleted fist. Neat. “I trust you already have plans regarding the retinue and your new funds?”

“Artillery, either orbital or air-craft based.” Retinues for mechs are basically elements of a combined arms approach to warfare. Typically, only vetted and trusted pilots are given all the assets needed to win a battle. You don’t give squads of power-armored infantry, assault guns, and fire support to every OS that can pull the trigger on an autocannon and dodge a few hits. Assets are given on a per-mission basis, basically leaving pilots to the mercy of the operations center. Long-term survival is unlikely and that's the only way to get more stuff. “Anti-swarm duty.”

Lady Hariss gave a nod and with a few gestures, the screens on her table showcased the options that I had available.

And, their costs along with my new monthly stipend.

A hundred thousand credits a month sounds like a lot of money, but to maintain, arm, and keep a high-tech piece of support weaponry asset on standby for any conflict it was barely enough for the bottom of the barrel.

Yeah.

It’s obvious why most noble houses just buy a thousand kids from the masses of humanity, weld the cockpit to a rust bucket closed, and tell them to go fight aliens.

The first option was the close-air-support asset that fit my requirements.

Utilizing a high-speed, loitering drone, I’d get access to cluster munitions specialized for dealing with the teeming hordes of the various enemies of humanity. It was cold war tech, but further refined and made more cost effective. Eighty bomblets would erupt from a single bomb from the drone, fins would erupt from each one as they spun out of the main casing, and sensors would find targets and coordinate with one another so their payloads wouldn’t overlap too much. One delivery would clear out a whole runway of lightly-armored creatures by showering them with superheated shrapnel. One drone would carry five of them, and after it's expended, it can fly back to base to rearm and refuel… which will take at least an hour.

Lots of firepower, but after it’s used its basically gone for the rest of the operation, until I could upgrade it and get more of the drones and hangars. Some pilots basically had whole fleets of the drones at their beck and call above them like a swarm ready to destroy everything in sight. They would have so many that they’ll have spares to call in when some are low on munitions and fuel, so they’ll have perpetual air support.

In short, the cluster bomb drone was the first step of a very good skill tree that would require massive amounts of investment, but be very effective.

 The other two options were orbital barrages from high-altitude, semi-mobile battle stations. Basically, armored dirigibles outside the range of enemy anti-air infantry, humanity used high-tech, high-flying zeppelins as flying firebases. They could house automated combat walkers ready to be dropped in, and some even specialized as carriers, but most of them just carried lots of ammunition and lots of guns in their bellies. Unlike the aircraft asset that I could get, I’ll basically be leasing guns from the high-tech, high-altitude zeppelins.

A subscription model for artillery, basically, since only the very best pilots could get their own flying firebase to themselves. The payment plan in question would basically give me the rights to certain guns on firebases currently above my mission area, and if I didn’t have one, I’d get one on site with a few requests unless some crisis was going on or there were orbital cannons threatening our control over the sky.

Yeah, you can already see the problem with this path, even before hearing what it offered. It’s not something I’ll own, or be able to customize, or add to. Unlike the high-speed drones that I could start investing into with the cluster bombs, I’ll be relying on someone else for firepower instead of controlling it myself.

So, why bother with it?

Uptime and firepower.

With orbital artillery, I just had to account for travel time of the projectiles and the cooldown for the capacities of the massive guns firing the payload. Minutes of wait time, sure, but I wouldn’t have to worry about having limited payloads and having to send my drone back to rearm and refuel. It’ll just be waiting for the green light, waiting for the massive guns to cool and ammo to load, then I can drop shells on foreheads. The sustained shrapnel barrage it offered would saturate a city-block sized area with fragmentation shells for thirty entire seconds, basically mulching anything I pointed at every seven or so minutes.  The secondary option the orbital battlestations offered was an incendiary artillery barrage. Five massive shells that would explode over a target area and shower a whole grid square in thermite and incendiary jelly. Instant inferno every ten minutes.

The drone-based CAS option was the long-term option. I’ll need to be careful in using the asset, but it’s entirely mine and I can specialize it as I wish. The orbital artillery was the short-term solution with a lot of firepower and constant support at the very start, but in the end it pales in comparison to having a whole drone fleet at your beck and call once fully-maximized.

Yeah, I’m planning on having my own orbital battle station with massive guns to lunch my mech out of, but that’ll be far, far in the future.

For now, I had to be considerate of the present and the coming five years.

Yeah, in the end, it’s a no-brainer.

I wanted my own assets and the ability to specialize them. Once I have a drone, even if I start with cluster munitions only, I can get different payloads for it swiftly and get more drones with more promotions and achievements.

While being able to call upon artillery from the sky is very, very awesome, I just had to be practical with my investments.

So, CAS it is.

I picked the drone cluster bombs for my first option, and moved the rest of the meeting with Lady Hariss along.

…

Interlude: The Rising Heiress: Madelynn Harris

…

Stars that rose fast typically fell swiftly as well.

549 was not the sole OS that managed to reach knighthood, but by all metrics it seemed that he was going to be different from the norm.

OS’s that received stipends and retinues typically used their newfound assets to live luxuriously and indulge. They purchased servants for pleasure, indulged in the night life, and enjoyed the benefits of their new reputation. Wardrobes could change within days, pleasure servants changed within months, and credits would be spent like water as the former orphan would indulge and live for the first time.

549 put all his newfound wealth into a weapons platform.

The only hesitation on his part was the type of weapons platform that he would get.

I shook my head, then proceeded to make my report to my new superior.

She picked up and spoke before I greeted her.

“Cluster munitions and a drone hangar. A wise choice. He’ll be able to conserve his sub-weapons’ ammunition and perhaps convert his right arm weapon into something more suitable for large opponents.” The Empress appeared on the screen in a bathtub overlooking the ocean neighboring our arcology. Suds hid her body from sight, while a soft smile graced her features as she sipped a from a dainty glass with a thin neck a sparkling wine. “It’ll also be perfect for his offer to you, Hariss, if you manage to procure that massive laser he asked for.”

Two questions arose within my mind.

How did the Empress know 549 asked for such a weapon?

Why did I once again fail to look deeper into the reasoning behind 549’s plots?

Indeed, with his usual phased emitter replaced by such a massive weapon, he would be at risk of being swarmed.

With the cluster munitions, or the other anti-swarm choices that he had, though… he’d be free to mount the weapon without fear.

And, of course, pursue his goal to hijack an enemy interdimensional transport vessel.

I made a quick check of the missions he had set for the coming months and came to a swift realization.

“He’ll have that battleship in our hands within the quarter, if he survives and you get him his weapons.” The Empress sipped her cocktail and idly moved the camera towards the sea. Out there, a battle was raging. Massive white ships fired on swarms of our drones as they desperately tried to reach our arcology. However, as terrifying their weapons were, our manufacturing capabilities so close to our arcology were beyond reproach. One drone gets through their fighter screen, past their defenses, and a fusion bomb is ignited to jumpstart the birth and death of an intense gravitational field that bends light for a millisecond. For a single second, there is a perfect black void above the ocean, and when it disappears… so is the ship that it hit. The other two have massive chunks shorn from their sides. The rest of the drone’s pounce. “I’m attempting to do so now, but I don’t believe I’ll be able to.”

While bathing, while speaking to me, I realized the Empress was coordinating the current defense of our westernmost flank with the express goal of capturing a ship herself.

I could see transports flying towards the ships with guardian air wings protecting them.

The gravity bomb used to annihilate one ship and harm the other two also opened the other two up.

Why wouldn’t the Empress succeed in capturing the enemy ships now?

She answered my question before I could answer.

“They’re privy to me now. They understand that in conventional warfare, they need to cut their losses when facing me.” As the Empress spoke, the battle changed. Both ships accelerated forward. Massive constructs of pure white with burning, shredded sides wreathed in blue flame… were accelerating forward with weapons blazing. They aimed to do damage, to destroy, and use up their lives. The Empress gave me the energy readings of both ships, while she pulled back the transports and laid into the ships with the rest of the drones. They were turning themselves into massive, skyscraper-sized suicide vessels with immense payloads. “Against me, against my greatest weapons and strategies, they have chosen spite and vengeance.”

The two ships were destroyed by more gravity warheads, twin black spheres of forming on Earth for a moment where the ships were, and disappearing to show nothing left behind.

“They began to change two decades ago, and so I sought out other answers. I found bits and pieces, and began to assemble them carefully using our industry. The assets that only I used to control fell into the hands of new minds and new talents, so that I can learn and find someone that has what I do not.” The pieces fell into place. Or, rather, 549’s tactics and abilities being cherished by the Empress finally made sense. Anyone could replicate his predictive abilities and strategies with time and effort, but what was important was his unconventional methods which kept outpacing the efforts to counter him. “That’s right, Hariss. I found that in 549, and so have my derivatives, and they have already begun to change.”

The screen shifted and she stood in the setting sun, bereft of blemish on her form, and the setting sun’s rays giving the water on her person the look of molten gold coating her completely.

She extended an open palm out towards the seas, where much of the planet remained not under humanity’s control, and slowly closed it into a fist.

As if she was grasping hold of it herself.

“Soon, very soon, I will be able to march against my foes once more… this time with able generals and pilots at my command who can supplement my perfect strategy and weapons with unconventional tactics.”

I shudder went down my spine at her words.

Decades ago, she paused her campaign and focused on reconstruction and rebuilding.

Whispers abounded of her being satisfied with her work and leaving everything to the next generation.

Such was not the case.

She spent those decades sharpening humanity into a weapon that could finally withstand and uphold her strategies.