Published at 20th of September 2024 7:17 am

Chapter 158: Aerial Observations

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Baron Cain slapped the barely conscious assassin with force, his palm already stinging from the previous slaps. “Why does Baron Namor want to kill me?”

The assassin merely smiled, not saying a word. He hasn’t yet over the last hour of torture in the basement cells of the Baron. The smile infuriated the Baron even further, but before he could slap the assassin again, Kyle intervened, standing between the both of them.

“Let my men handle this. We’ll make sure he talks.”

Sasha already had two other Seven Snakes associates on hand, carrying high concentrations of Euria-Infused water. “Force-feed him for seven days.” Kyle ordered, leaving the torture cell with Baron Cain.

Instead of returning to Baron Cain’s guest room, they instead lingered in the basement for security reasons, as the Baron slowly became suspicious of everything around him. Only those in my circle knew the exact route I was taking. One of my security detail has already been compromised…

This wouldn’t be the first assassination attempt on the Baron’s life either, so Cain was far from being shaken.

“Thank you for saving me.” Cain nodded his head towards Kyle in gratitude, though slightly unwillingly. Kyle’s timely intervention was far too suspicious, and he still harboured a small grudge from the auction against him.

However, the mark on the assassins were unmistakable – clear indication that they were the special forces of Namor sent to kill him. Only a special arcia engraving knife could make such a mark, so Baron Cain was equally convinced that Kyle did save him from a real assassination attempt.

“It is my duty as a Yual citizen to protect others.” Kyle smiled, before sitting down on a small wooden chair, leaning comfortably. “However, it seems that the Barons are not as united as I would have hoped.”

Cain was slightly irked internally, knowing that Kyle would claim his due for saving him. Cain could easily decide to oust Kyle, but he currently had a good relationship with the Seven Snakes.

If it were not for the food and ammunition supply provided by the Seven Snakes, as well a suspiciously seemingly infinite source of arcia ore, the enforcers and mercenaries under him would have collapsed weeks ago. Turning away Kyle now would be like cutting off his own lifeline, so Cain decided to entertain Kyle for the time being. “Indeed, I never expected Namor to act almost immediately after the meeting.”

“So Baron Namor has already betrayed the others?”

“Perhaps he only switched sides today…” Baron Cain recalled the contents of the meeting. “Or maybe, he has always been in cahoots with the major gangs.”

It was not too far-fetched of an assumption. If the Barons had agreed to a compromise, there was a good chance that Baron Namor would receive a far more preferential deal than the others, causing both his power and prestige to be even higher.

Raktor was now truly a free-for-all, having all the markings and signs of a warlord era. Baron Cain himself did not feel any different, no longer having the intention to work with Baron Namor after such a blatant assassination attempt.

“But you should not be in Raktor. A kill order has gone out from Count Leon for your head. Were you complicit in the battle of Tenar?” Cain remarked, not knowing the truth of the matter as to why Kyle was being targeted by the Count. Count Leon did not tell the world that Kyle of the Seven Snakes had gotten the drop on him – which prideful noble would ever admit to that?

“Plenty of others want my head too. Tell him to get in line, assuming he even manages to capture Ocra.” Kyle smirked with a knowing gaze.

“I am legally obligated to carry out my orders.”

“Are you? Even when no one from the capital nor the Duke is coming to help you?”

“Then you know helping me is tantamount to signing your own death warrant. If order is restored to Raktor, my hand will be forced against you once Count Leon returns.”

“That is assuming, Count Leon is still in power.”

“…. What do you mean?”

“Surely you can’t have only the ambition to be a lowly Baron for the rest of your life? A minor noble, unworthy of ruling a county. Forced to listen to the whims of the Count ruling over you.”

Cain thought carefully at what Kyle was suggesting. It took him a few seconds, but he finally pinpointed the crux of the suggestion. He wants to use me as a figurehead to rule Raktor. Cain’s pride was obviously wounded at the mere thought of being used by a lowly gang lord. Yet, the suggestion was tantalizing to Cain.

It was true that he had been a Baron for quite some time, and left without reinforcement from anyone above him. Why should he even pledge allegiance to those who had disregarded his calls for help? He had no loyalty to Count Leon or anyone above him now, especially after the assassination attempt on his life.

“You will not be a puppet. Instead we will share Raktor between the two of us only.” Kyle continued explaining. “You rule the surface, I rule the underground.”

“This implies that all other Barons and major gangs will be removed from Raktor. This would take months, or even a year. By that time, Count Leon would have returned and suppressed everyone, including Baron Namor.”

“Then we simply have to ensure that by the time Count Leon returns to us, the cost of fighting against us is unbearable.”

“Did the Baron agree?” Keith asked as Kyle and Sasha returned to the Culdao Peaks, the two of them walking through the newly built marketplace that served as the centre.

Countless stalls selling all types of grown food, armour, weapons and supplies were here, with the richer goblins enjoying a luxurious shopping spree. Not every goblin was immediately part of the King’s army, as they were not considered to be in full-scale war.

“Not yet.” Kyle replied. “We will need to prove our strength first before he can seriously consider us as a true ally. Right now to him, we are simply a small scale supplier with minimal forces, nothing compared to the Ardent Cretins.”

“He’s not wrong – if we fought head on we would be outnumbered three to one.” Keith nodded. “Even we brought the whole of ADCON in, Baron Cain allying with us means that he would have to fight against the rest of the city and maybe even the enforcers themselves.”

“It is not possible to bring ADCON in now, they are needed to hold Count Leon at bay.” Kyle had ADCON return to Ocra to defend alongside the renewed Versian Military. However, the civil war with the industrialists had taken its toll on the military, leaving ADCON as the main force fighting Count Leon.

Despite the obviously significant numerical disadvantage, Kyle was convinced that he could easily take down the Ardent Cretins. He headed to a brand-new building, built specifically for Adrian’s information gathering outfit, specializing in observations.

“Boss, the hovercraft is a miracle. With this we can conduct far better aerial observations. Take a look at our preliminary data.” Adrian showed the results of their light-capturer, which record the aerial view around Raktor.

“Before the hovercraft, our informant networks were limited to word-of-mouth and close quarters intelligence. However, here we can clearly see farms, villages and other towns that are within the control of the Ardent Cretins.”

The aerial shots were grainy, reminding Kyle of a museum he attended as a kid that displayed the history of Ancient Earth. What he could only make out was the outline of compounds, factories and other temporary encampments that served as checkpoints in the supply route for the Ardent Cretins.

“So is it confirmed that the Ardent Cretins are getting supplies from the neighbouring County?”

“We will need to fly lower on our next observation pass. Flying from one kilometre up is hard for our light-capturers to capture any specific details.”

“Rejected.” Kyle waved his hand. “In fact, I am planning for the hovercraft to ascend to three kilometres above ground.”

This is to reduce the chances of being shot down or exposed. Kyle was aware that residual weaponry and concepts from the civil war in Versia have been giving various forces ideas on how to combat air vehicles. From rumours through the black market, multiple militaries have begun serious research into utilizing the air domain, including Count Leon himself.

As such, it would be no surprise if the major gangs were also planning to dive into the next major development of military technology. Kyle would need his hovercraft to stay ahead of the pack in order to keep up, as he himself did not know what contraptions others might come up with thanks to arcia energy.

“But the lightcapturer will not work at such a height!” Adrian lamented.

“Then we simply have to improve it. Where is Reese?”

Reese and Gordon were overseeing the brand new weapons factory in Culdao Peaks, where thousands of goblins worked day in day out to produce weapons for battle. Not every rifle was immediately donated to the Seven Snakes, with more than half of the production dedicated to the armoury of the goblin kingdom.

“Improve the lightcapturer? But how?” Reese scratched his head. “Isn’t the light we’re capturing just a simple beam?”

Kyle nearly blurted out that they could simply build an electromagnetic sensor in the pico scale, but realized they hardly had the tools to even make electronics or silicon wafers. If I can’t improve the sensor or the light collector itself, what can I do to increase resolution?

He quickly drafted up a rough concept, an enlarged version of the lightcapturer that was only meant to be mounted on a hovercraft. However, as he tallied up the cost of the materials, he realized it would be too expensive and significantly challenging to change production types. The lightcapturer factory that has also been relocated to the Culdao Peaks would take months to be able to ramp up production of these larger lightcapturers.

A way to use only the smaller existing lightcapturers to improve quality… Kyle racked his brains, trying to recall as much as he could from the Galactic Era. However, without the help of an A.I or an cranial implant, he could not recall the exact methods that humans used last time. Even Orisa was of no help, only limited to information regarding agriculture and goblin evolution due to the data wipe.

A few hours passed as Kyle, Gordon and Reese threw ideas around. “Maybe the solution is to simply improve the stealth engraving of the hovercraft. If we can make it better, then there would not be an issue with flying lower.” Gordon pointed out.

“No, if the other major gangs begin to develop their own aircraft, the stealth engraving would be easily visible the moment they enter range. We need to maintain altitude dominance as far as possible.” Kyle shook his head. If he had the option, he would buy an off-the-shelf moon observatory post coupled with a few tungsten rod rockets to serve as his planetary bombardment options. Or maybe just buy a brand new moon outright.

“The sound of the hovercraft gives it away as well. We don’t have an arctech engraving that can absorb or reduce the sound engraving as well.” Reese mulled. The closest form of engraving the three of them knew of was the sonic grenades used to stun enemies.

The three of them eventually took a break, with Kyle and Reese taking a walk through the goblin city again. It reminded him of his criminal ports, where aliens and humans intermingled without worry about race or looks. He watched as a few human kids played with goblins over the bridges built around artificial canals. Many Seven Snakes associates were given the option to have their families moved here for safety while they fought in Raktor.

“I spy a rock!” A young boy shouted as he leaned over the edge of the bridge’s railing, looking down onto the riverbed.

“Oh yea? I spy a fish! Over there!”

“I spy a destcress kelp, here!”

Reese chuckled as he watched the kids. “Maybe if we have them on the hovercraft, they could help us spot wagons and people on the ground easily.” He could already imagine a hundred kids crowded on the ship, shouting ‘I spy’ incessantly.

Kyle obviously was not going to put kids on the hovercraft, but the idea stuck with him. A hundred kids… I got it!

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