Lewd Dungeon, Chapter 291 (Patreon)

This one goes out to Jason Pickett, who had a request, but it was a couple months until I could fit it in. Thanks for waiting so patiently! As compensation, I may have expanded things a bit.

Chapter 291 – Arrival

(Sol System, near Jupiter)

Space stretched, and then warped for a fraction of a second over the great red eye that looked out from the largest planet in the solar system. Mere miles above the raging storm that the great eye, that warp in space revealed itself to be the final moment of a wormhole’s life, connecting two places just long enough for a single figure to fly through. Seconds later, five matching figures joined the first through similar wormholes.

Each figure was the size of an average human, though it was impossible to see their faces, due to the sleek helmets they wore. Their only armor against the cold and vacuum of space was a skin-tight body-suit, the helmets on their heads, and the gloves and boots on their feet. And yet, none of their gear was magical, if anything with the System could be said to be nonmagical.

They each stood upon a personal craft, barely the length of a surfboard yet twice the width. Each craft was armed with a pair of forward-facing guns. But those guns were too small to be a threat to anything but shuttles or fighters, unless they possessed some power beyond reasoning.

Looking closer, it was clear that, despite their outfits being similar, they were not the same. Each individual’s armor was of a different color, red, blue, yellow, pink, black, and green, each with white accents. Each of their helmets was cast slightly different, made to resemble some sort of animal’s head, with a black visor over their eyes. The only one that truly stood out was the one in green, who also sported golden shoulders on his armor, perhaps marking him as the leader?

If they said anything in that moment as they hovered over the great eye of Jupiter, it was over close-range communicators, and it did not travel through the soundless vacuum of space. But, after what looked like a brief consultation, the six figures turned as one, and began flying their craft further into the system. Their destination, the blue-green marble, third out from this system’s primary star.

(Ambassador Zygrash’s office, Akihabara, Japan)

Nyca Zygrash sighed as she slumped back against her chair. She knew that, once the word got out about the eventual time limit on how long she and the other Ambassadors could shield Earth from the best and worst of the galaxy, she would be fielding a bunch more calls than she already did. But she had thought that most of those calls would be from governments!

Oh, sure, each of the one hundred and ninety-five nations on Earth had called her office sometime in the past two weeks. But even corporations and regional governments had gotten in on things! And that wasn’t counting revolutionary movements who wanted to break away or overthrow their current leaders, and so on.

The easiest ones to deal with were the ones who just sought clarification, and wanted something official, on the record, that they could point to. That was something that she could deal with easily. The ones that were responding with general hostility to the idea of Aliens coming and trying to force Earth into submission were also easy enough to deal with. She just agreed with them, and repeated the line about how her role was not to conquer Earth, but to shield it long enough that the people of Earth might be able to defend themselves and stand on their own. Quoting from some of their popular media did great for allaying the fears of those who saw the Alien Menace as a threat.

The problem was the greedy ones. The ones that wanted to either sell out their fellow humans for a chance at riches, or find a way to buy off Zygrash and get her in their faction, to sway the balance and bring them to power. Sadly, she was all too familiar with these types, as they existed everywhere in the galaxy, save for amongst the hive-mind species. Even then, you occasionally had individuals who, through some defect or damage, were cut off from the hive-mind, or heard it only dimly, allowing them to work against it, for their own goals. They were always troublesome to deal with.

Fortunately, they did not have anything that they could truly offer her. Certainly, not anything that she couldn’t easily get on her own. The technology of Earth, while impressive in how far it could go without the System, was a shadow of what could be found in the wider galaxy, and there was nothing that Earth’s industry could provide her that she couldn’t get elsewhere, just as easily. Earth’s only potential export, other than warm bodies to use as mercenaries or slave labor, was their culture, and she had access to their internet, and her office was in one of their cultural centers! There was no piece of their culture that she could not access through legitimate means, and her culture did not have the strange prudish/prurient divide that so many of Earth’s did, so there was nothing she could do, short of betraying her office, that would cause a scandal with her people back home.

And yet, that did not stop them from trying. When bribes did not work, they next turned to trying to find something to blackmail her with, even manufacturing stories. That did not work, since her culture was alien to theirs, and the things they tried to frame her for were of no issue. They were annoying, more than anything. Like this last one, who tried to create photoshopped images of her and Kuronoth in a ‘compromising situation’, as if someone couldn’t tell that it was from someone’s Rule 34 fanart just by looking! And, even if it were real, having relations with a full-fledged god was not a point of shame, anywhere in the galaxy. Especially since she was unmarried and would not be breaking any vows.

She sighed, and added that last number to the block list. Such a useful innovation the humans had made. With a smile, she forwarded the emailed threats, along with the pictures, to Kuronoth, and included a message informing the god that she wasn’t going to bother with this, but that he could have fun. He would be better at dealing with those types than she was, any day.

A chime sounded, causing her to frown. That wasn’t the sound of her human phone, or the private communicator she used to keep in touch with her friends, or the other ambassadors. That was the official communicator, the one that connected directly to her ship, in orbit. She only got messages from them when something unexpected happened.

Picking up the communicator, she kept her voice calm and controlled, as she said, “This is Zygrash. What has happened?”

“Pardon for the interruption, Ambassador-Prime, but there has been a disturbance in the local gravitational field. Six micro-wormholes have been detected, near the planet Jupiter. All in close proximity with each other.”

“Mana readings?”

“None, Ambassador. Either the emissions were small enough not to trip our scans, or it was entirely technologically based.”

Zygrash frowned. A single micro-wormhole created by technology was one thing. The technology had been around for centuries, after all, and was commonly used by courier services who used small, one-being ships to quickly deliver messages or packages by hand that could not be trusted to normal methods. But six of them? All together? That was not normal.

“Did the scans detect anything?”

“Minor gravitic disturbances shortly after the wormhole events, consistent with personal mobility craft. We have light scanners trained on that vector, but it will still be thirty earth minutes until the light of the event reaches us. Given the speed of the gravitic disturbances, the sources will reach Earth orbit in two hours.”

Personal mobility craft, going a quarter the speed of light itself? Combined with the lack of mana being utilized, that left only one possible option. She hoped she was wrong, but there was no way that she could take that chance.

“Send out a tight-beam message on technological communications wavelength 04.05.1975. Send out the usual warning of this world being under the protection of the Galactic Federation under the Protection of Pre-FTL Species Act of 103698. Demand that they identify themselves immediately.”

“Understood. Please hold on.” There was a moment’s silence, as the ship switched frequencies, and tried to communicate with the incoming craft. After a moment, they came back, and said the words she was afraid of.

“Ambassador, they claim to be a Tech-Knight Squadron from Eltar. They are claiming that their mission takes priority over the Federation laws. They report that they will not stop until the mission is complete.”

Zygrash sighed. “Damn it. All right, track them, but do not engage, except in self-defense, or in defense of human vessels. Our diplomatic vessel doesn’t have anything that can harm a Tech-Knight, but the shields and point defense can at least buy civilians enough time to evacuate, if this turns hostile. And send a message to the Assembly, so that they know that the Tech-Knights have mobilized.”

The man’s voice was tight when he responded, but resolute. “Understood, Ambassador. We’ll do our duty.”

“I know you will. Now, I have to make a lot of calls, very quickly. Zygrash out.” With that, she cut the call. It was slightly rude, but she knew that the comms officer would understand, given the situation.

Her first call was to the Japanese government, since, if the Tech-Knights were coming to Earth, then they would likely come to where her offices were eventually. She had to quickly inform them of the danger of these knights, and urge the government to use restraint when dealing with them. For their own sakes. Then, she had to have the same conversation with the Americans, the Chinese, and the Germans.

By that point, they had visual confirmation that it was indeed a full squad of Tech-Knights, which meant that they could call on their full suite of powers. One Tech-Knight could pose a legitimate threat to a city. A full squad could defend a planet from cataclysmic threats, or they could be a cataclysm all on their own, depending on whether or not they were hostile.

She sighed again. There was one more call she absolutely had to make before the Tech-Knights arrived. Because if they weren’t coming to visit her, there was only one other place that they would likely be going. And that meant that there was about to be problems on a scale that she did not want to contemplate.

She took a breath, and picked up her private phone, the one she didn’t have to keep official records on, and used to have private conversations with people here on Earth. The phone rang twice, and then picked up. And she could hear the smug in the man’s voice.

“Ah, Ambassador, so nice of you to call me. I do enjoy when a woman calls me for a late-night bit of fun. Or perhaps you just wanted a lunch date, given the time difference? Or did you have some suggestions on how I ought to play with the would-be blackmailers who created those delicious files you sent me? Ooh, I know, you wanted to make a real version, to put the fakes to shame, is that right?”

“Heh,” she chuckled. “It is rare for you to be wrong on every point, Kuronoth. I would savor this moment more, if there wasn’t a potential problem coming this way. Tell me, have you done anything else to cause trouble that I don’t know of?”

“Ambassador, I am hurt! I never do anything just to cause trouble! But, if you’re asking if any of my actions have caused trouble in passing, then I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific. Someone is always troubled when powerful figures make moves, after all.”

“There are warriors coming to Earth. They’re a squad of Eltarran Tech-Knights, and they say they are coming on a mission. Even if that mission means they have to fly in the face of Federation law. Have you heard of them?”

“No, I can’t say that I have. Of course, being both a god and a dungeon, my contacts abroad have been more magically inclined than technological. But, I promise you that I haven’t done anything to purposefully rile up these Tech-Knights, or their world. Would you like for me to intercede?”

“Sadly, you are the only one who might be able to, if they turn hostile. My ship is not a warship, and it cannot withstand a concentrated assault by Tech-Knights, especially if they get serious. So far, they are just in armor, with their personal craft, but that doesn’t mean anything, since their war machines are always just a call away.”

“Really? How fascinating. Yes, I definitely will have to pay them a call. And I see them on my ship’s scans, now. Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Ambassador. I’ll call back when I know more.”

As the line went dead, Zygrash prayed to her goddess that she had done the right thing.