“Well this is disconcerting,” I said. My voice boomed through the air without evident source.
“You’re telling me,” Anna said moving to Mechos who was staring blankly into space. Anna waved a hand in front of his eyes to no response. “Where are we?”
That was a very good question. I couldn’t reach the rest of my systems, it was as if I had been cut off in some ways. I tried to pull up a status screen.
Food: 45
Stone: 0
Iron: 0
Lumber: 0
Population: 2
Leader: Anna
Peasants: 1
Two of the chickens stumbled into each other and with a flicker an egg appeared as both wandered off in different directions.
“I’ve got a status indicator with various things. Food, stone, iron, lumber, and peasants,” I said.
Anna grimaced, “Great. We’re going old school. How many peasants?”
“Just the one,” I said.
“I’m going to kill the bitch,” Anna said grabbing Mechos by the hand and dragging him towards the shack. “I’ve got an idea what this is all about. Keep an eye out for attackers and let me know if any appear.”
“What are you going to be doing?” I asked.
Anna didn’t answer. She and Mechos disappeared in the shack which rocked violently for a few seconds. A toddler stumbled out the door, perhaps thirty seconds later the entire sequence of events happened again. It was time enough for toddler number one to grow to adulthood.
If only the humans on the ship were this efficient. I felt a faint connection to the new peasant much like I would with one of my drones on the ship and I issued an order for them to begin gathering lumber. They quickly moved to the nearest tree and began to chop.
There were ten new peasants created in that fashion before I observed the first attackers that Anna had feared would be on the way. There was a cave into the nearby mountain and out of it came several yellow eyed reptilian men in loincloths and wielding spears.
“We’ve got incoming,” I said.
Anna stepped out of the shack, straightening her armor.
“Well that was tremendously disappointing. We are also never talking about it again,” Anna said.
“What would be the point? We know in the real world he’d never have touched you,” I said.
Anna drew her sword and moved to meet the invaders. They were little match for her, although they swarmed around her stabbing away they didn’t do much. A health bar appeared above her head, they’d taken perhaps ten percent off.
I had split the new peasants between gathering lumber and food. Food seemed to involving scurry around behind the animals and herding them into each other which resulted in new chickens and cows popping into existence.
I found that when I reached 100 lumber I had a new icon blinking for my attention.
Build Menu
Shack (100 Lumber)
Barn (100 Lumber)
Barracks (100 Lumber)
Shrine (250 Lumber)
A SHACK WOULD PRESUMABLY LET me breed new peasants faster. There had been an even mix of boys and girls made so far. Genetics not seeming to play a factor in whatever this strange simulation was, I set a pair to work in the shack and began building a second.
For the time being Anna could handle defense.
If this was any sort of fair challenge it meant the opponent had probably started in a similar position to me. They must have rushed a barracks so that they could get some sort of offensive ability early on. Perhaps they thought that Anna would have gone off exploring, it might have made sense if she had.
Whatever their reasoning it opened an opportunity for me. I could sink everything immediately into population and then use that population to harvest more resources.
I found by directing some of my peasants at the mountain I could harvest stone, but I had no source for iron. It must be inside the cave where the enemy was located.
That made sense, just as lumber was outside and was not a resource they had inside their primary area.
Mechos was cheerfully clubbing away on a pile of lumber with a hammer. An utterly foolish endeavor that against all sense of proper construction techniques seemed to be forming a new hovel.
I soon had it up and running and was allocating peasants to creating more peasants. My opponent didn’t let this go without a response.
More lizardmen were coming out of the cave, they’d had an upgrade. While the bulk of their force was the spear wielders from before they were now backed up by others wielding crossbows.
Anna engaged them again. Even without any sort of super power she was formidable here, weaving her way between them with powerful swipes of her sword until they all were gone. Unlike last time it left her gravely injured with only a flicker of her health bar remaining.
“Well that sucked,” Anna said clutching her side.
“Back to breeding duty then,” I said.
“You can’t be serious,” Anna said.
“Just think how terrible they must find it. You’re getting off lucky. Hopefully you’ll heal up some and that is one more peasant I can put to use elsewhere,” I said.
Anna didn’t look thrilled about it but dragged Mechos towards one of the shacks.
I had to figure out my next steps.
46
I might not know every rule of this setting that we found ourselves in but I could figure out the basics. This was a struggle of one side against the other. Perhaps there was some objective to win to be found out there in the world, but it seemed likely destruction of an enemy base counted as a victory. If it didn’t the opponent wouldn’t be trying so hard to destroy ours.
Their early offensive strategy would have made for a quick win had they pulled it off but since they hadn’t they were now seriously compromised. I’d be far ahead in peasants and resources. I could either use that advantage to build defenses and continue to expand my resources or I could work to quickly shift that advantage into an offensive force.
This game worked against me. My enemy had more knowledge of the rules and that discouraged me basing any strategy on long term play. Long term my opponent would have the advantage.
I had a little over three hundred lumber at this point. I began work on a barracks at once. I knew that once it was constructed there would either be some sort of upgrade or new facility that would let me build ranged units.
I could wait for it or I could invest in a shrine instead. The shrine was an unknown, it might be some sort of healing or open some completely different unit type.
I knew what ranged units could bring into the fray but the chance to get Anna in full fighting shape faster sounded like the best option for success. Even a fair-sized force of melee and ranged units hadn’t been able to take her down. If I could get her fighting with some melee backup they’d likely be able to handle anything the enemy could throw at them.
When I acquired the two hundred and fifty lumber I began construction of a shrine. Immediately more options appeared.
Fire
Water
Earth
Air
So far two members of the crew were represented among the population and it seemed possible my selection here might bring another. I couldn’t think of any crew members that would clearly link to either water or earth. The crazy old bat might qualify as air and Hot Stuff would make sense for fire.
While it wouldn’t help Anna heal, when wanting quick and terrible destruction there was really only one option. I selected Fire. Peasants quickly constructed a shrine and preceded to set it on fire. Hot Stuff stepped out of the flames rolling her shoulders. Unlike Anna she hadn’t gotten any fancy armor or weaponry, rather she looked much as she had the first time she’d invaded my base.
“This is weird,” Hot Stuff said after a look around at the surroundings.