354 Return to the Wildlands

Back on Sorrel II, when Remian tried to buy supplies in the Dragon Empire, there was an arrogant quartermaster who…

Actually, no, forget it. Nobody cares. In the end, the guy was demanding to know "Who let you buy openly in the great and mighty Dragon Empire?!" and Zor'khan showed up and said "I did…"

So the guy turned and fell to his knees, his face quite white and Remian smiled.

Remian was smiling for roughly three seconds before Nai'khan-dras pounced on him and squealed "Doggie!"

That was the end of his smile.

Anyway, the important thing was, the partnership between Zor'khan-dras and Remian Vin brought another huge fleet to the Wildlands. Upon seeing it, the Song Clan at the Great Docks cheered, thinking powerful reinforcements had arrived just in time to help them face the Beast Flood. To their amazement, however, the fleet went right past Song Chen's territory, heading farther west, and stopped at Craggy Falls.

"We'll set up our district on the south side." Zor'khan tapped a finger on a map laid out across a large table.

"Remember. You promised me. Clean industries!" Remian reminded.

"I swear it on my own name." Zor'khan assured him. "This is a military district, not some industrial park. We just need forges and armories for our combat gear. The heavy duty construction and such would be done back in the Empire."

Most importantly, the Trade Beacon would be built in the Draconian District. This was Zor'khan's means of providing security.

As for where the traders might land, that was Remian's job. Originally he had planned to upgrade the airport into a spaceport, but Zor'khan strongly advised against letting otherworlders land in the middle of his core settlement. Thus, they drew up new plans for a massive spaceport atop the Rocky Thorns themselves. Doing so would pretty much flatten more than half those sharp stone 'thorns', but nobody was going to complain about that.

The design was a simple square landing platform sporting four main loading bays surrounded by cranes and warehouses. While it might be unreasonably large for the common Frigate and Galleon-class airships favored across Sorrel II, Quarin cargo ships tended to be larger and heavier, at least Mothership-class.

By design, each corner 'lot' would be able to host a Behemoth-class spaceship or airship, with loading capabilities on two sides. As for a Leviathan-class… just one of those would occupy half or all of the lots by itself, depending on its shape. Remian only hoped that their visitors' ships wouldn't be so heavy that the entire structure broke beneath it, or sank into the ground. After all, in terms of material technology, this world's structural steel and concrete could only support so much weight.

"Just what sort of ships are you expecting to visit?" Remian once asked.

"Draconian Thrones, at least. Those would be Mothership-class, in airship terms." Zor'khan thought for a bit. "Those are basically single-dragon vehicles favored by the adults of our Dras Clan. Eventually, we should expect a Leviathan-class Draconian Star Nest. That would be the ship coming to take my siblings and I to safety."

Khar'al-dras was already big enough to be mistaken for a Cruiser. Obviously his elder siblings were bigger. Imagine a single ship capable of hosting all eight Great Dragons at the same time…! Not to mention their Broods…

On top of that, the 'Great Dragons' were just juveniles according to the Dras Clan, not even matured enough to venture into space on their own strength. How big were the adults? For a Mothership-class to be just a 'throne'…

Then again, Zor'khan-dras in human form as he was now really shouldn't take up too much space. Remian wasn't sure how it all worked but the fact that they hadn't scaled down their ships to fit human-form Draconians said that the size was important for some reason. Maybe it was to contain all the food? Did dragons eat less while they were in human form? Remian didn't know.

Whatever the case, the point was, they needed to prepare for a Leviathan-class Draconian Star Nest. While Remian hoped to have an orbital starport prepared and able to host it by the time it arrived, Zor'khan preferred to have a minimum facility available if all else failed.

Other than the Dras Clan, Quarin ships might also drop by, seeing how close they were to current Quarin territory. With the Mitigok as a common foe, the two factions had maintained a lukewarm peace recently, and traders going between them were not altogether rare. Among Quarin traders, the smallest ships they might expect were single-tower Dropships of the Cruiser-class. Those would probably be sent out by larger, six-tower Behemoths or nine-tower Leviathans as supply shuttles while their carriers waited in high orbit. Also common were three-tower Mothership-class Transports; those were often outfitted for planetary landing (and plundering! Ahem!) as well.

On the other side of Dras Clan territory, to the Galactic West were Uber States and Kanoasia. Both were Class 5 star civilizations, smaller and weaker neighbors who often supplied cheap labor to the great Class 6 star civilizations like the Dras Clan or the Quarin. In all probability, if those guys really came all the way here, they'd do so expecting to pick up some last-minute salvage and loot after the Dras Clan left…

That would be bad, Remian figured. While Class 5 civilizations were measly in the eyes of the Dras Clan, to the local humans of Sorrel II who were still struggling to rise above Class 3, they would be absolutely overwhelming. Class 5 civilizations would already be accustomed to gravitic drives and warp gates. The local human populace on this world were mostly still trying to figure out steam engines.

Craggy Falls were just one step ahead of the rest. While Libertaria for example could be said to have entered early Class 3, Craggy Falls might be described as intermediate Class 3. They still had a long way to go to reach advanced Class 3. Until they could effectively use hydrogen power, graphene materials and rudimentary robotics, they couldn't even start on the space elevator needed to reach Class 4. That sort of progress could take a whole century even with Remian's knowledge.

But this Trade Beacon offered them hope. With luck, they might be able to skip decades ahead and jump straight into the early Space Age.

Or, they might get nothing until the Dras Clan left and then attract powerful pirates who would enslave them all…

It was a gamble. But it was a gamble that could very well see them complete a Warp Gate within Remian's lifetime.

As long as the Dras Clan remained, at least, the risks were minimal. The only problem was the cost of running the Beacon.

Simply put, the Beacon was magical. It ran on mana. They simply didn't have the capability to build a technological one. Plus, Zor'khan wasn't going to spend any of his precious mana on it. The duty of fueling the Beacon was placed squarely on Remian's shoulders.

That, of course, was why Darian and Mindy were left behind with Ling Yun.

As for Tim, he was very busy now that the Dragon Empire had an open alliance with the Wildlands. The trade opportunities were just too juicy…

All told, the recent developments should have made Remian exceedingly happy, but for some reason, he wasn't. He really, really wasn't.

Actually, it wasn't just 'some reason'. There was only one thing that dampened his mood and one thing only.

"Doggie!" Nai'khan-dras sleepily murmured on top of his Silhouette's back. Until now, she still refused to let him go! Only when she was asleep was he able to get some peace away from her, but the moment she woke up, the first thing she did was look for her 'Doggie'! When she heard he was about to go home, she screamed and nearly set the fortress on fire. It was only like this, by taking her with them, were Zor'khan and Remian able to leave.

"So… first order of business." Remian cleared his throat. "Zor'khan, with your permission, I will bring the Little Princess to Shadowflash's Pack at Kara-Goth."

Even before meeting Phoebe. Even if it meant he delayed the deployment of all the Draconian District's pre-fabricated buildings waiting in the airships. Even before lunch! This had to be done!

"We need to find the Little Princess a proper Doggie!!"