Three months have passed since Alvera was put under house arrest, and for the most part, she had been doing as well as could be expected. She was depressed at first, having been cut off from her blog and its many opportunities, but she slowly recovered when Rhea upgraded her personal defenses.
Her exosuit was repaired, then underwent maintenance and upgrades. Her camping gear, specifically her house, was loaded with turrets. She even received a spacebag with a hundred androids inside, along with a brand new Rotom that would be added to her team.
She had never bought one before because she didn't need one for her journey, but given the trouble she often found herself in, a Rotom to defend her with androids suddenly became a necessity.
For the rest of her stay, her new Rotom would undergo training to properly manipulate the androids and execute army formations. It would also spend time with Alvera, getting to know her as its new trainer.
As for Alvera herself, she underwent a refresher course in combat training that would last for the duration of the house arrest. She didn't have much to do with no access to technology after all.
Meanwhile, Alex was doing a bit of research on Galar and became more intrigued by the region the more he read. First of all, Team Dominion had been making heavy moves to spread their ideology there, supported by the old aristocracy in a bid to improve their status, which had been waning due to the political power high ranked trainers wielded. This meant he would at least have something to do while running around the region.
Secondly, he had wanted to go to the Isle of Armor ever since he first read about it. However, visiting required an invitation from Mustard, a powerful trainer and martial arts enthusiast, and so far he hadn't received one. So he planned to travel around the region and find a way to earn an invitation without having to beg for it over email.
Thirdly, he wanted to pick fights with assassins and bounty hunters who were after his head after Team Dominion put out a bounty on him worth an airship. There hadn't been any takers so far because everyone knew how well defended his base was. So he planned to leave its relative safety and tempt them into challenging him.
There was a fourth reason as well, but since Rhea hadn't finished building it yet, he had been putting off leaving for now.
"Alex! It's done! I've finally finished installing the main guns to the top of the main hub!" Rhea exclaimed as she entered his room.
Alex wasn't expecting Rhea to finish anytime soon, given the difficulty of the task, so it was shocking for him to hear her news. She had a lot on her plate ever since Team Dominion invaded and had been slowly knocking out one project after another over the past year and a half.
This particular project involved removing the main guns from the luxury airship meant for vacations and travel, then installing them on top of the main hub as defensive weapons against future enemy airships. The luxury airship, unlike the one intended for military use, didn't need these massive guns since it would only ever travel with Alex on board, and with him present, he was all the offense the airship would ever need.
In terms of the idea behind the project, it was simple enough. All she had to do was remove the guns from the airship and install them on top of the main hub building. In terms of execution, however, it was a nightmare.
First, the guns needed energy, so upgrading the main hub's battery was necessary. Second, the guns were heavy, even more so when fired, so the main hub needed structural reinforcement to ensure the top of the building could survive the recoil. Third, the telecom tower was the tallest structure in the base, so there would inevitably be blind spots that needed covering as a result. It was understandably quite problematic to implement.
"Is it ready to fire?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, but I wanted to show you what I have under the hood before testing it," Rhea said as she led Alex to the roof of the main hub.
"So the battery was easy enough," Rhea said. "All I had to do was add independent batteries right next to each gun, reducing heat bleedoff from long wires that would otherwise have to run underground from the roof. Nothing complicated."
They exited the stairwell and stepped onto the roof of the building, which contained the Crobat, Honchkrow, and Mandibuzz nests. They were built like beehives, each pocket forming a room for a single Pokémon, easily able to house at least 3000 of them in total.
At the northwest corner, the southwest corner, and the southeast side of the roof stood three railguns mounted on sliding carriages that would mitigate the recoil when fired. Next to each turret were batteries meant to power the guns independently of the main hub's supply. Each barrel was about 10 meters long and 1 meter thick, which made the weapons look quite intimidating.
"To mitigate the recoil, I mounted the railguns on sliding carriages with a spring in the rear that has excellent vibration absorbing properties. It converts the recoil into heat rather than sending it down into the building. It's rated for Champion rank, so it should be able to withstand about a dozen shots before the system and the railgun overheat."
"As for the telecom tower being in the way, I spread the three guns out instead of placing them on the same carriage so they can fire around it, greatly maximizing coverage. As for the tiny blindspot directly east, there isn't much else I can do about it, I'm afraid. Other than hoping they don't approach directly from the east and destroy the valley just to target our blind spot. Aside from that, it should be able to repel the invading force we fought before."
Alex nodded, impressed with Rhea's design as usual. She had managed to circumvent every problem he could think of. He honestly didn't know what he would do without her.
"Excellent job as always, Rhea," Alex said, rubbing her head.
"Ehehe," she said, enjoying her reward before pulling out a remote with a single large red button. "Ready to test this puppy?"
"Sure."
She slammed her fist on the button with exaggerated force, and the hum of electricity began to thrum through the railgun's circuits. Five seconds later, the northwest gun fired, sending a sleek, glowing projectile streaking toward the mountainside in the danger zone. It hurtled through the air for a few seconds before
BOOM!
It slammed into the cliff face with a deafening crash, detonating a cloud of dust and sending jagged rocks tumbling down the slope. The sudden rockslide tore through the trees and scattered Flying type Pokémon in every direction, their cries echoing through the mountains. When the dust settled, a 5 m gouge marred the cliff, and spiderweb cracks radiated 50 m outward, splintering loose stone and sending smaller fragments skittering down the mountainside.
It had more than enough force to gouge a hole through an airship, but it would likely take more than a single shot to bring one down unless they got lucky. Rough estimates indicate three such guns could guarantee taking down at least three airships before needing to cool from overheating. Not bad for stationary turrets that Rhea had jerryrigged on top of the main hub.
"Pretty good, aye?" Rhea said proudly. "I'm honestly impressed Team Dominion could come up with something like this. It would have turned our main hub into cheese if it hadn't been for the Golbats taking the hits as they came."
"How well do you think it would work against airships?"
"Three guns with a dozen shots each before needing to cool down. I'd bet good money on taking out two airships, but I wouldn't hold my breath for three. It's pretty good, but it has to hit the engine to really do significant damage."
"I was afraid of that," Alex said. "I don't think it's enough. Plus, I want to do some live testing."
"You want to destroy my airship to test it?" Rhea exclaimed, afraid her baby would be used as a test dummy.
"No, I had something else in mind."
The fourth reason Alex wanted to leave the base undefended at a time like this was to test out Rhea's new defensive protocols. To do that, he planned to lure Team Dominion into attacking again while he was away in the Galar region.
"I'm planning to leave for the Galar region soon. You know what that means, right?"
"More sources of raw materials?" Rhea answered brightly.
Alex chuckled. "Do you think your new defenses can handle it?"
"Fuck yeah," Rhea cheered. "You go off and do your thing, I'll keep the base safe."
"I'm counting on you."
"You'd better."
They shared a tender moment with a kiss before returning to the hub to prepare. Rhea worked on her defensive plans while Alex got ready for the long journey ahead.
His destination, the Galar region.
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