Chapter 40: Reflexion

The next morning, Apophis returned to the hotel after finishing his morning jog.

Antanria was happy to see Apophis again and jumped into his arms. Apophis didn't want to get too attached to an NPC, so after a quick hug, so as not to act too cold, he put her down.

Then Apophis ordered them the best breakfast of the hotel, a real feast that cost more than 1,024 GC! It was quite a lot of money to spend on a meal, to be sure, but Apophis was feeling especially extravagant that morning.

After they finished the meal, Antanria spoke up. "I found something that might interest you!"

Apophis was surprised. "Oh, really? You're really more studious than I'd thought!"

"In one of the books you lent me," she said, "I found a reference to an abandoned shipyard somewhere on this planet." She seemed extremely excited to have found such useful information.

Apophis nodded, though he was disappointed. "Actually, I already knew about it, but good job finding it for yourself. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any sign of its exact location, either in the laboratory or the high command base."

"That is the easy part!" said Antanria. "I learned about them when I was a child. There were quite a lot of military topics I had to learn when I was young, in case there was an emergency and I needed to take command for a short while."

"Ah," said Apophis. "That makes sense." He wondered what other useful things she knew. "What can you tell me about this particular place?"

"The shipyards of my people are located on a particular type of land that combines both a flat plain for the storage of ships and the close proximity of mountains for planet-to-space defenses."

.

That was somewhat similar to the place Apophis had found the command center to begin with. "Your people have an interesting way of designing their military installments," he said. "It's pretty clever to use mountains for cover and the natural formation of a valley as level ground."

"Exactly!" she said, beaming. "Of course, this relies on geography which cannot be found on every planet. So it is often planets similar to this one where my people's installments can be found."

Apophis thought about what she'd told him for a long moment. "I understand what you're saying," he said at last. "Since they always build their shipyards in a particular geographical location, we can simply search for one."

"Yes!" she said.

"But this planet is huge," he pointed out. "There must be at least a hundred of the exact configuration you just described."

But at that moment, Enclabossa whispered to Apophis, "Forgive me, my lord, but you are mistaken! There is only one such piece of land that can accommodate the size of a Zetark shipyard. I will show you on your political map."

Apophis entered his political menu. "Shit, no way."

The Zetark shipyard was in the exact location of the city of Tyo, the capital of the Republic, which was under siege by a huge coalition of players!

Then Apophis remembered something which had been debated by players in his first life for years. There was a theory among many explorers that many of the current thriving civilizations in the galaxy had actually begun creating their civilizations upon finding abandoned Zetark structures and learning from the remains of their technology.

Under this theory, many capital cities of planets were actually built on Zetark installments. Since it wasn't exactly a quick and easy matter to wipe out an entire city just to check underneath them, there were very few opportunities to test the theory.

However, what Enclabossa had just told Apophis lined right up with that theory!

Apophis realized that he had no choice but to go there himself. If the city fell, the players would surely loot it! And even if, by some miracle, this did not happen, the coming war with the Federation would probably destroy the city's infrastructure for a thousand years!

If he wanted to claim the shipyard for himself, it was time for Apophis to join the siege of Tyo.

***

CRUISER OF THE FEDERATION OF UNITED PLANETS—HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF KILOMETERS AWAY

"Admiral Azerof, we have exited hyperspace!"

The admiral nodded. They'd been in hyperspace for a week. Now the time for action had come. "Give me a full report of the situation on Era!"

An officer spoke up. "The situation is terrible, Admiral. The whole planet has fallen. Only the planetary capital still stands. According to the Tyo Republic's reports, the death toll is in the billions."

Admiral Azerof grimaced. "The situation is therefore critical! Authorize the fleet to land on Era and prepare to engage. The war against the so-called Eternals has begun!"

***

Down on the planet's surface, Apophis put Antanria behind him on his motorcycle and began riding towards Tyo.