CHAPTER 16: THE SEVENTY-TWO HOUR AUDIT

  [STATE: EMERGENCY PREPARATION]

  [TIMELINE: 68 HOURS TO ARRIVAL]

  [ASSETS: 400 INFANTRY, 3 RANK-5 EMPLOYEES, 1 CORE]

  The silence of the early morning was a lie. I sat at my desk, the violet light of the Core reflecting off the crystal lenses of my spectacles. I didn't feel the weight of the coming fleet; I felt the friction of incomplete preparations. The assassin’s warning was now a data point on my ledger. An Imperial fleet was a significant overhead cost I hadn't projected for at least another quarter.

  "Lilo, get Lito to the war room," I said into the intercom. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't need to. The basalt walls carried my command with the cold authority of a mountain.

  A few minutes later, Lilo and the former Warlord entered. Lilo looked like he hadn't slept, his armor dull and dusty. Lito looked restless, his hand twitching toward the spot where his greataxe used to hang.

  "The assassin was telling the truth, Gray," Lilo said, his voice a low rasp. "My contacts in the capital sent a bird. Three heavy cruisers and a dozen scout-frigates. They’re calling it a 'stabilization force.' They’ll be here in less than three days."

  "I didn't ask for a confirmation of the obvious, Lilo," I replied. I tapped the map on my desk. "I asked for a status report on the heavy-ballistae we recovered from the Junction."

  "They're scrap, Gray!" Lito barked. He stepped forward, his massive frame casting a shadow over my ledgers. "They were built for wall defense, not for hitting ships that drop mana-bombs from three miles up. We're sitting ducks in this ruin. We should move the men to the canyons. We can fight them on the ground."

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  "I didn't build this facility to abandon it the moment a creditor knocks on the door," I said. I looked up at Lito. I didn't look intimidated by his size. To me, he was just a high-maintenance asset. "And I didn't spend my life savings on basalt reinforcements to hide in a cave. We aren't fighting a ground war. We're fighting a logistical war."

  "With what?" Lilo asked. "Your purple chips? You can't throw credits at an airship."

  "I didn't suggest throwing them," I said. "I suggested using them to fund a radical infrastructure upgrade. Core, display the schematics for Floor 3, Sector 1."

  The air above my desk shimmered. A holographic wireframe of the Oasis appeared, but it was different. I had projected four massive circular shafts running from the deep-earth foundations all the way to the surface.

  "I didn't authorize a simple excavation for the men's quarters," I told them. "Those 'ventilation' shafts the men have been digging for the last forty-eight hours? They aren't for air. They're for the Mana-Lances."

  "Mana-Lances are Imperial technology," Lilo whispered. "You need a high-tier enchanter and a mountain of crystals just to fire one."

  "I didn't say I was using Imperial tech. I’m using the Core," I said. I pointed to the base of the shafts. "We have four hundred men. Every breath they take, every step they make in this dungeon, generates a mana-residual. I've spent the night re-routing the siphons. I'm not just taxing their labor; I'm taxing their biological presence. I've channeled that energy into a compression chamber."

  "You're going to use us as fuel?" Lito's eyes went wide.

  "I didn't say it would be comfortable," I replied. "I said it would be effective. If the fleet enters the airspace, the compression chamber will discharge. It won't be a ballista bolt. It will be a concentrated beam of raw, unrefined debt. It will strip the mana-shields off those cruisers like skin off an orange."

  "If it misses?" Lito asked.

  "I didn't plan for a miss. I planned for a high-volume saturation. But for that to work, I need the shafts finished. Lito, your men don't get sleep for the next forty-eight hours. If a man stops digging, he stops eating. Lilo, I need you at the surface. You're going to be the bait. I need that fleet to descend into the kill-zone."

  Lilo looked at me. There was no respect in his eyes, only a cold, hollow recognition. "You're not the man I knew, Gray."

  "I didn't like the man you knew," I said. "He worked for free and died in the snow. This version of me is much more expensive. Now, go."

  I watched them leave. I didn't feel a pang of guilt nor the weight of their resentment. I felt the steady pulse of the Core, growing stronger as the men worked harder. Every hammer blow, every curse, every drop of sweat was being harvested, refined, and stored.

  I opened a new page in the ledger.

  [PROJECTED COST OF DEFENSE: 4,000 MANA UNITS]

  [PROJECTED RETURN: ONE IMPERIAL FLEET (SCRAP VALUE)]

  I picked up my quill. I didn't want a war. I wanted a hostile takeover of the Imperial Navy's local assets. And I had sixty-eight hours to make sure the math was perfect.