Chapter 163: Defense of Khelron

Chapter 163: Defense of Khelron

Noah remained seated after marking the Arcane-Industrial Integration Package as his first major reward target. The figure beneath it had given the second year a clear scale that had been missing when Major Rowan first introduced Mission Points.

Three thousand six hundred points stood between Eldrath and the package Noah wanted. A successful High-Level Mission normally provided around twelve hundred base points, which meant three strong operations could theoretically earn everything he needed.

Noah finally left the Imperial Development Inventory and opened the mission board.

Hundreds of assignments filled the terminal almost immediately, each listing displaying a mission classification, difficulty, location, basic objectives, known restrictions, recommended deployment capacity, and the Mission Points offered for completing the primary requirements.

Some entries offered little more than one hundred points, while others displayed rewards large enough that Noah understood immediately why Rowan had warned them against allowing the inventory to dictate reckless decisions.

The difference between missions was not merely a matter of reward because the cost of completing them could vary just as dramatically.

Noah opened the filtering options and removed Low-Level and Intermediate missions first.

Those assignments might be useful later if Eldrath needed time to recover from a difficult operation, but completing dozens of minor missions simply to reach three thousand six hundred points made little sense when his civilization possessed the capacity for something larger.

He selected the High-Level category and watched the mission board contract sharply. Only a fraction of the original listings remained, and nearly every surviving assignment involved major military forces, important Imperial assets, or circumstances where failure could affect an entire world.

Noah scanned the first few results without opening them fully. Several immediately looked unsuitable despite their impressive rewards.

One offered seventeen hundred Mission Points for participation in the invasion of a hostile industrial world. The preliminary description mentioned entrenched armies, multiple fortified continents, and an expectation that participating planetary lords would sustain their own offensive forces throughout an extended campaign.

Noah removed it from consideration after reading the operational summary. The reward was attractive, but the mission looked capable of consuming enormous numbers of soldiers before Eldrath even reached the decisive stage.

Another offered fifteen hundred points for helping suppress a rebellion that had already spread across nearly half of an inhabited planet.

The government requesting assistance still controlled the capital and several industrial regions, but the listed enemy strength numbered in the millions before accounting for provincial militias.

That mission disappeared from Noah’s list as well. He wanted Mission Points, but he did not intend to purchase them with another generation of goblin dead.

Eldrath had recovered from the unification war, yet Noah still remembered what total mobilization had done to its population, factories, transportation networks, and cities.

Three successful High-Level Missions would be enough if he chose well, so there was no reason for those three operations to be the most destructive assignments available.

Daniel noticed the difficulty filter on Noah’s screen before Noah noticed him looking. He shifted slightly in his chair and glanced toward the reduced mission list.

"You’re starting with High-Level?"

Noah looked toward him. "Probably."

Daniel leaned slightly closer without attempting to read the individual listings. "You already decided how many points you need, didn’t you?"

"Three thousand six hundred."

Daniel whistled quietly. "That’s not a cheap target."

"No."

"Three High-Level missions?"

"If they go well."

Claire looked over from the neighboring seat. "That last part is doing a lot of work."

Noah smiled faintly before returning to the board. Claire’s comment was correct because a High-Level classification did not simply mean the enemy possessed more soldiers or better weapons.

Some missions received the rating because of fragile infrastructure, complicated political conditions, severe environmental hazards, or objectives that could be ruined even after a military victory.

Noah therefore began narrowing the board again instead of selecting an assignment merely because its reward matched the number he wanted.

For his first operation, he wanted a mission that required a substantial Eldrathi deployment without forcing the Dominion into another civilization-wide mobilization. He also wanted enough logistical complexity to test the new planetary military structure that had emerged after unification.

Occupation could wait, and governance on another world could wait with it. For the first mission, Noah wanted to learn whether Eldrath could move an army through one of his portals, sustain that army on another planet, coordinate with foreign forces, and accomplish a clear objective without placing unnecessary strain on its homeworld.

He changed the mission category to Defense and watched the list shorten again. The remaining assignments immediately looked closer to what he wanted.

The first involved defending an agricultural world against recurring waves of large predatory creatures. The mission paid twelve hundred points because the creatures migrated in numbers large enough to threaten several populated regions, but Noah quickly lost interest once he read the details.

Eldrath could probably solve the problem with artillery, barriers, and concentrated firepower.

The mission would test weapons and extermination capacity more than the institutions Noah wanted to evaluate.

Another assignment involved defending an Imperial military staging region while a larger campaign occurred on nearby worlds.

Noah considered that one longer because the logistical component was significant, but most of the local infrastructure already belonged to professional Imperial forces.

Eldrath would function as another army inside someone else’s military system. Noah wanted a mission where the Dominion carried more responsibility for its own decisions and failures.

He continued scrolling until a title stopped him. The words DEFENSE OF KHELRON appeared beside a High-Level classification and a base reward of twelve hundred Mission Points.

Noah opened the listing and immediately began reading the planetary summary. Khelron was identified as an Imperial-aligned mining planet whose importance came from enormous mineral deposits spread across several continental extraction zones.

The planet produced strategic metals used in heavy industry, military vehicles, specialized alloys, machinery, and magical equipment.

Refineries near the largest mining regions processed much of the ore before it left the planet, meaning Khelron exported more than raw material.

Its settlements had developed around extraction rather than ordinary population growth. Mining cities surrounded deep shafts and enormous open excavation zones, while railways connected mines with refineries, freight yards, machinery depots, power stations, and large storage complexes.

Agriculture existed only on a limited scale because most productive land had never become the basis of the planet’s economy.

Much of the food consumed by the mining population arrived through trade, making the transportation network important for more than industrial output.

Noah immediately identified the weakness. An army did not need to capture every mine to cripple the planet because destroying the railways, isolating major cities, and disrupting food distribution could cause Khelron’s economy to fail while most of its territory remained untouched.

He opened the threat summary and read through the preliminary intelligence. Another planetary lord had begun expanding through the resource network surrounding Khelron, and forces connected to that lord had recently seized several outer mining districts on another planet.

Imperial analysts believed Khelron would be the next major objective. The enemy wanted the mining infrastructure intact, which reduced the likelihood of indiscriminate destruction but made occupation of the industrial zones much more likely.

Noah considered that useful information because both sides would be fighting over resources they preferred to preserve. The attacking force would still be dangerous, but their objectives created limitations that Noah could potentially exploit.

Imperial professional forces were already committed elsewhere, while Khelron’s local military had developed primarily to handle internal security, raiders, industrial unrest, and limited attacks. The planet possessed soldiers and equipment, but Imperial analysts did not believe the local forces could defeat the expected invasion without reinforcement.

The mission therefore required a trainee planetary lord to reinforce Khelron before the main hostile force arrived. Noah would not be replacing the local government or military, but he would be responsible for ensuring the planet survived the offensive.

He opened the primary objectives and read them carefully. Three major mining regions had to remain under Imperial-aligned control, while the largest refining complexes had to remain functional throughout the operation.

The transportation network connecting mines, storage depots, and industrial centers had to remain sufficiently intact for production to continue.

The central resource stockpiles also required protection, and the invading force could not be allowed to establish a permanent foothold from which another campaign could be launched later.

The optional objectives were even more interesting because they rewarded preservation rather than simple destruction. Keeping mineral production above a specified percentage would increase Noah’s final points, while preserving major railway lines, refineries, and mining machinery would provide additional rewards.

Civilian casualties mattered, and captured enemy equipment mattered as well. Enemy officers taken alive could increase the evaluation further, while preventing the loss of secondary extraction districts offered another possible bonus.

Noah studied the objectives for several minutes. The mission did not simply ask him to prevent the enemy from controlling Khelron.

That distinction made the assignment considerably more attractive.

During the unification war, railway junctions had been shelled because armies depended on them, factories had become fortifications, and cities had sometimes been reduced to ruins because they occupied useful transportation routes. The goblins had then spent decades repairing those same systems after the fighting ended.

Khelron would test whether those lessons could be applied before the destruction happened.

Noah wanted to know whether Eldrath had learned enough from rebuilding its own world to protect another industrial system during an active war.

He opened the preliminary military assessment and examined the listed enemy capabilities.

The expected hostile forces relied primarily on conventional industrial weapons, including rifles, machine guns, field artillery, armored vehicles, motorized supply systems, and aircraft.

Noah’s interest increased because the technology was familiar. That did not mean the enemy would be weak, but Eldrath would not be entering a battlefield built around principles its commanders had never encountered.

Noah moved to the planetary map and studied the three major mining regions. The northern extraction belt contained enormous open mines and several processing centers, while the central region held the largest refineries and resource stockpiles.

The eastern zone contained smaller but more numerous mining cities connected through an extensive railway network. Several major lines passed through a limited number of important junctions, which made those transportation centers obvious strategic targets.

Ethan noticed what Noah was studying and shifted enough to see the general map. He did not attempt to read the restricted details, but the railway pattern was obvious even from where he sat.

"Rail-dependent?"

"Very."

"Then whoever controls the junctions controls your reserves."

"Unless there are enough roads to compensate."

"Are there?"

"Not enough."

Ethan nodded once. "Then protect the rails before the mines."

Noah had reached the same conclusion because Khelron’s industrial system had been optimized for moving enormous quantities of ore efficiently. That efficiency had also created predictable arteries an invading army could target.

The mining planet had another vulnerability because its largest industrial districts sprawled across open ground. Refineries, storage yards, railway depots, and machinery workshops occupied huge areas that could not simply be relocated once the invasion began.

Noah liked the problem more the longer he studied it. A careless defense could destroy Khelron while technically defeating the enemy, while a disciplined defense would require careful placement of artillery, reserves, defensive works, and supply routes.

Claire noticed that Noah had remained on the same mission for several minutes. She glanced toward the visible classification and then toward the production requirements.

"What did you find?"

"A mining world."

"Defense?"

"Yes."

She looked at the rating. "High-Level."

"Base reward is twelve hundred."

Claire’s attention moved toward the objectives rather than the reward. "Production has to continue?"

"Above a minimum level."

"That explains the rating."

Noah nodded because a candidate could hold every major city and still receive a poor result if half the mines collapsed and the refineries burned. The mission evaluated preservation as much as survival, which was one of the reasons Noah preferred it.

The preliminary listing also described Khelron’s local military. Several standing divisions protected the most important mining regions, and local authorities possessed artillery, armored vehicles, aircraft, engineering units, and security formations.

The problem was scale rather than complete helplessness. Imperial analysts did not believe Khelron could defeat the expected invasion without reinforcement, but the local army could still contribute meaningfully if coordinated properly.

Noah would also need to work with the planet’s governor and existing defense command instead of simply replacing them.

That introduced another useful complication because Eldrath had learned how to unify its own forces but had not yet learned how to fight beside a foreign civilization whose commanders did not answer directly to Noah.

He moved down to the deployment conditions and studied the section carefully. Exact coordinates would unlock only after acceptance, but the preliminary instructions made the process clear.

Once authorized, Noah would use his own planetary-god power to open a portal between Eldrath and the designated deployment location on Khelron.

The goblins could not create that connection themselves, meaning every soldier, vehicle, artillery piece, crate of ammunition, medical unit, engineer, and supply convoy would have to move through the gateway Noah opened.

That would be Eldrath’s first true expeditionary test. Its military understood railheads, ports, depots, and truck convoys, but it had never organized an entire campaign around a passage between worlds that existed only because Noah created it.

The deployment alone would teach the Dominion something important. If the goblins crowded the gateway with units faster than Khelron’s transportation system could disperse them, the staging area could become useless before the enemy even arrived.

Ammunition, food, fuel, engineering materials, medical supplies, vehicles, and reinforcements would all compete for movement through the same opening. Wounded soldiers might also need to return while fresh formations were still moving forward.

Noah wanted to see how Eldrath solved those problems. The defensive nature of the mission reduced the strategic uncertainty enough that he remained comfortable with the High-Level classification.

He did not need to invade another civilization’s homeland or occupy millions of hostile civilians. He needed to arrive, prepare Khelron, hold three mining regions, preserve the industrial system, and break the enemy invasion.

Noah returned to the top of the listing and looked again at the mission summary. The words DEFENSE OF KHELRON, HIGH-LEVEL MISSION, and BASE REWARD: 1,200 MISSION POINTS remained fixed near the top of the screen.

The number connected immediately to his target reward. One successful mission would place him one-third of the way toward the Arcane-Industrial Integration Package before optional rewards were considered.

Daniel noticed that Noah had stopped scrolling entirely. He leaned back toward him while still keeping his own terminal open.

"Found your twelve hundred?"

"I think so."

"What is it?"

"Defending a mining planet."

Daniel looked surprised. "Not conquest?"

"No."

"Why defense?"

Noah looked back at the transportation map. "Because it let me control all the variables that can happen in a mission."

Noah checked the remaining warnings before making a decision. Enemy numbers were still classified, while the exact hostile species and several sections of intelligence remained restricted until acceptance.

Imperial analysts believed the attackers possessed enough military capability for the operation to receive a High-Level classification.

Noah did not interpret the familiar technology description as proof that Eldrath would have an easy victory.

Noah returned to the confirmation option after reviewing the mission one final time. The assignment fit Eldrath’s strengths and would test the Planetary Defense Command, off-world logistics, cooperation with a foreign military, preservation of industrial infrastructure, and deployment through Noah’s portal.

Most importantly, it could test all of those systems without forcing Eldrath into another total war across its own cities. For a first off-world operation, Noah considered that balance worth the risk.

He pressed Accept and waited for the confirmation window to appear. The terminal warned that abandoning the mission after deployment without acceptable justification could damage his training record, and Noah read every section before confirming a second time.

The interface changed immediately after his confirmation. Restricted sections began unlocking beneath the new mission status while detailed maps replaced the preliminary version.

MISSION ACCEPTED

DEFENSE OF KHELRON

Mining output figures appeared beside the three major regions, while rail capacities, refinery locations, storage depots, power stations, local force distributions, and civilian populations filled the side panels.

A new section marked the location where Noah would be authorized to open his portal, while enemy intelligence began loading beneath it.

Noah stopped before opening the enemy section because there would be time to study the invasion properly.

For the moment, he returned briefly to the reward he had marked in the Imperial Development Inventory.

ARCANE-INDUSTRIAL INTEGRATION PACKAGE

COST: 3,600 MISSION POINTS

CURRENT BALANCE: 0

Khelron offered twelve hundred points before bonuses, giving Noah a clear first step toward the package.

If Eldrath successfully defended the mining world, he would complete the first third of the path toward giving the goblins the foundations needed to understand magical energy scientifically.

Noah closed the reward window and returned to the newly unlocked mission file. Eldrath’s first operation beyond its homeworld would not begin by taking someone else’s planet, because Noah had chosen to see whether his civilization could hold one that another planetary lord intended to steal.