The ground rumbled as the largest set of doors for the Foundry crept open.  They watched, fascinated as not only did the massive doors slide apart, but the ground lowered into a ramp, revealing a much larger opening than Duke had expected – and he had designed the entire Foundry!


    Finally, the opening was complete and ships began to launch from the hangar.  One after another, they silently flew out of the depths only to come to a hover over the large area that had been cleared for a starport.  At first it was one or two ships at a time, but then they started to come out two or three at a time and Duke grew concerned.  He had seen over a thousand ships in the hangar – surely, they weren’t all coming out.  There was no way they would be able to crew that many at this point.


    “Duke, what are all those?”


    “Well, they are ships which makes sense for a space legion, but there are more ships coming out than I had expected.”


    “How many ships do you have?”


    “At this point, it’s hard to say.  When last I saw the fleet, there were more than a thousand.  But, the Foundry produces everything at a shockingly rapid rate.  There could be ten times that number in there.”


    “Where are all the people to fly these coming from?  I’ve only managed to fill the Royal Legion up to ten thousand troops so far and they are far from being ready to act as a cohesive whole.  Even the troops Malkiavick sent still needed training to learn how to operate in the Legion structure.  I’ve had to push the troops to an extreme just to get them to all Tier up once and get the FORMATION Ability.”


    “Ophirian is going to answer that for us but first, tell me about the Royal Legion.”


    “What’s to tell?  They are coming along but are not where I want them to be.  Less than a thousand of the original Legions survived the Hounds and they are the core of the new Royal Legion but since the rest is composed of warriors and troops from all over, they do not have the same capabilities.  Fighting styles are all disparate and getting them all to work as a cohesive unit has been a terrible challenge.  It’s not because they are unwilling, it’s just that they are trained and equipped differently.  Whereas the original Legions were similarly equipped and trained, these troops are all over the place.  Different weapons and styles.  A third of them don’t even use shields.  How do I even field an effective shield wall when they don’t have shields!”


    “You won’t have that problem with the Space Legion.”


    “OK, Ophirian, tell us about it.”


    “As you can see, we have a lot of ships.”


    “Big ships,” Aurealia added.


    “You think those are big ships?  Oh, just wait.  But that’s getting ahead of ourselves.  Each ship has enough space for 500 Legionnaires, 500 crew, and 10 mechs.  They can operate independently, or they can combine their capabilities.  The ships are armed with the heaviest weapons we could fit on them including long-range missiles.”


    Aurelia watched as the last ship came out of the Foundry and remained floating over the landing area along with the rest of them.  A quick count showed a square formation of ten ships a side making a one hundred ships in total.  She looked over to Ophirian, “Can they take a hit?”


    “Yes, they can take a hit.”  They all turned to see Granhok, the albino minotaur in charge of shipbuilding striding out from the ramp.  “They have shielding that can handle most anything that can be thrown at them.”


    “That good?”  Duke asked as Granhok stopped in front of them.


    Granhok leaned in close to Duke, causing Nystrial to shift position as his horns intruded on her space.  She delivered a mild shock that set the minotaur’s fur to fluffing out.  He twitched in annoyance but held his position as he spoke quietly in Duke’s ear, “They held against everything we tested them against, but they do have limits and who knows what else is out there.  Don’t rely on shielding to save your ass.”


    The minotaur straightened up and smiled at the group.  “They’re quite the sight to see, aren’t they?”


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    “That they are,” Aurelia smiled.


    “And it looks like everyone is coming out to see them,” Granhok pointed back towards the city and the crowd streamlining to see what was going on.


    “That took longer than I would have expected,” Ophirian commented.


    “The ships are silent.  If they had come out here with a roaring of engines it would have attracted a crowd instantly.  How are they silent, anyway.  I’m sure I heard engine noise when I saw them in the hangar the first time.”


    “The ships are using their maneuvering systems right now.  Their full engines are loud but the maneuvering systems don’t use propulsion in the traditional sense.”


    “You have my attention.  How do they work?”


    “Magic.”


    The look from Duke was enough to make the minotaur take a step back.  He continued, “Seriously, it is magic.  It is a Spell embedded into the runescripting that allows for silent movement.  It was one of Baslin’s first students that developed it for us.  He called it something like ‘magic mage fingers’ or something like that.”


    “Magic Mage Fingers?  You’re screwing with me, aren’t you?”


    “Totally serious.  It allowed the mage to move things without touching them.”


    Duke paled as he realized that the minotaur was serious.  “My entire fleet of ships is going to maneuver through ‘magic fingers’?  FML.”


    “What’s wrong, Duke?”


    “More idioms, Aurelia.  They just follow me around at this point.”  He paused, looked around at the gathering crowd and nodded to himself.  This was a good show for the populace if nothing else.


    All eyes turned to the ramp as the sound of armored boots echoed up from the depths.  Necks craned to see what was coming and the sense of anticipation rose as, on the landing site, each ship silently descended to the surface and lowered their ramps.  Eyes flipped back and forth between the ships and whatever was coming up the ramp.


    In the end, shouts broke out as the Space Legion marched up the ramp and out into the open.  They marched out in rows of ten.  The three-meter-tall armored suits were nearly identical with their black base coat.  All the Legionnaires had a single glowing gem emblazoned on their chests.  As they passed by Duke, they slammed a fist over their hearts with an echoing sound of metal on metal in salute.


    The sound of their marching boots striking in unison reminded Duke of the FORMATION Ability the Thrice Blessed Legion had employed.  It was a sight to behold as they marched past and to their respective ships.  They loaded up effortlessly, disappearing into the darkened doorways.  For several minutes the Space Legion moved to their ships and loaded up.  Finally, they finished loading and the crowd started to disperse back into the city.


    Then the next wave began, and citizens rushed back out to watch.  These Legionnaires were smaller than the previous ones and their armor was decorated with different bands of color on what appeared to be different bands of white across their arms.  They marched in synch, but it did not have the same effect at the first group.  The steps did not carry the weight of their predecessors but this group had an aura all their own.  The aura was magical in nature but massed around the Mage Corps, it bore the weight of a physical presence.  They too split and boarded their ships.


    The crowd did not turn back to the city, anticipating what would be coming next.  In fact, more and more came pouring out of the gates to see what was transpiring.  They were not to be disappointed.  The ground shook as the last group marched up the ramp.  There were fewer of them, but not a single eye looked away as the monstrous black and red mechs marched up the ramp.


    The mechs were all the same.  They each sported weapons pods underneath each left arm and on the shoulders, but the most noticeable weaponry was a massive cannon mounted alongside the right arm.  Duke could see the added reinforcement that was needed for that arm to support the cannon.  He wondered just what the thing fired – the opening was as tall as he was.  Each titan-class mech marched with a thundering pace and was greeted with gasps of awe from the gathered crowd.


    When they mechs were all loaded, Granhok handed Duke a crystal on a chain.  “This is your command crystal.  It will allow you to communicate with any and all your ships and other forces.  It has the longest range of anything the shops have been able to create.  You should be able to reach your forces as long as they are within one hundred light years.”


    “That’s very useful.  Thank you.”  Duke placed the chain over his head and tucked it into his shirt.


    “You are welcome.  Now I must away to work on the next generation of ships for you.”


    Duke watched the minotaur head down the ramp moments before things started to close up.  As the doors rolled shut, Duke gestured to Aurelia, “Are you joining me on the shakedown cruise of the First Space Legion?”


    “Of course I am!”


    They headed for the ships as Duke tried to figure which one was the command ship.  As they got closer, he noticed the names of the ships.  There was a theme for sure.  All the ships were named “Hand of” something.  Ultimately, this made it easy to find the command ship – Hand of the Emperor.  They boarded and were greeted by the troops still standing in formation, their ten mechs ringing the perimeter of the massive hold.


    A single Orc came forward wearing the distinctive look of a Steel Tusk.  He stopped in front of Duke and offered the same clenched fist salute the troops had, snapping to attention before speaking.


    “Welcome aboard the Hand of the Emperor.  Captain Moknahr at your service, Emperor!  We stand ready for your orders.”


    “As you were.  Let’s head to the bridge and figure out where we are all going for this shake-down cruise.”