Chapter 1937 TR-3851 Vanquishing the final mech of the guard force sealed the outcome of the battle. The dwarven rebels succeeded in their insurrection attempt! Though the guard force still retained some combatants, their numbers were too few to overcome the surviving rebel dwarves. There were too many rebels and too few tall folk! Therefore, even if the dwarves lost their sole borrowed mech, the rebels still shouted in victory! Outpost 35 was theirs! The rebels finally succeeded in their revenge against the tall folk! Most of their overseers and guards turned into corpses as the vengeful dwarves eagerly took advantage of their local superiority! As the rebels declared victory, the rest of the dwarven population cautiously began to celebrate. They weren't aware that this was only a temporary victory. They didn't know that reinforcements were probably on their way to recapture the fallen outpost. All they cared about was that the tall folk were finally deposed! Many dwarves started to go crazy as they slowly waddled over to the central district in order to break into the luxurious homes and apartments of the tall folk! Soon enough, the dwarves looted the possessions of the tall folk to their heart's content! The jubilant dwarves dressed themselves in ill-fitting clothes. They drank their first bottle of wine. They filled their bellies with organic bread, crispy fresh fruit and other actual food. For a time, Outpost 35 turned into a paradise for the liberated dwarves. With no tall folk in sight, the former slaves liberally acted on all of their repressed needs! "No more rules! No more punishment! This outpost is ours from now on! We will never let the tall folk terrorize us again!" While many of the dwarves were occupied with their newfound freedom, the rebels quietly started to head to the spaceport. Situated a small distance away from the districts where the dwarves ordinarily resided, the spaceport was strictly off-limits to any of their ilk! For years, the only reason a dwarf passed through the spaceport was if they were transferred in to bolster the existing workforce. Other than that, any dwarf who attempted to sneak into these restricted grounds were shot on sight! An hour after the dwarves achieved victory, groups of rebels and their families continued to reach the spaceport. They didn't reach this site by walking. They were far too slow to reach the spaceport on foot. Instead, they used lifter platforms, mining vehicles and other means of transportation to bring the dwarves to the only exit of the outpost. Every rebel and their family looked forward to leaving. "Look at that giant hole above our heads. Is that really..?" "Master Greybeard told me that this hole leads outwards into 'space'. He said that as long as we board a ship, we can escape the gravity of our planet and fly to the heavens!" Some of the dwarves looked happy. Others looked scared. A few even glanced back in the direction of the outpost districts. "Are we abandoning the dwarves in the city?" A teenage dwarf asked his mother. "We are." "Why? Some of them are my friends! I can't leave them behind!" The short-statured woman shook her head. "We can't fit too many dwarves on the ship." "That's stupid! Just look at the size of that ship! Entire mining vehicles can fit inside the belly!" "How much food do we have? How much water? How much oxygen?" The dwarven mother looked sad. "Great Vulcan personally told us that the transport ship won't be able to fit more than a couple of hundred dwarves, and only for a limited time. The more dwarves we bring, the more we strain the ship. This is why we can't bring your friends." "What.. will happen to them, mother?" "I don't know." In fact, every adult dwarf knew that the dwarves who were revelling in the outpost wouldn't meet a good end. Once the tall folk reinforcements arrived at the outpost, they would probably retaliate against any dwarf in sight! The rebels, though furious at this possible outcome, could do nothing to stave off the wrath of the tall folk! The rebellion only won because they overwhelmed an undermanned, underequipped and unprepared guard force. Now that they emerged in the open and lost the element of surprise, the rebels were completely vulnerable to retaliation! Not only their lives, but the lives of their fellow dwarves were forfeit! Since their fate was sealed if they stayed, the only way out was to flee the planet and escape the reach of House Kantis. At least this way allowed a portion of the dwarves of Outpost 35 to live on and spread their deeds. An armored dwarf eventually approached the crowd of milling dwarves. "Alright laddies, the 'ship' is ready to take you in. Step onto the lifter platforms as they come and they'll bring you into the 'cargo hold'!" As the dwarves began entering the massive cargo hold of the ship, elsewhere on the vessel a group of dwarves were observing their god hacking the systems of the transport vessel. In fact, Ves could have gained access to the ship much faster if the dwarves took the captain and crew hostage. The vengeful rebels were too eager. They forgot about their orders to force their opponents to surrender and just shot their bodies until they were no longer in one piece! Fortunately, the security systems of the ship were fairly awful. Although her crew was diligent enough to keep them up to date, the ship called the TR-3851 was far from matching the security of the Scarlet Rose. The only reasons why Ves took longer into taking over the TR-3851's command privileges was because he lacked good hacking software and because he wanted to do a thorough job. It would be a catastrophe if Ves somehow overlooked a backdoor that allowed her owners to regain control of the transport ship! Time was running out, though, so Ves wrapped up his explorations for later. "The ship is under my control. Since none of you are able to crew the ship, I'll be operating her in dummy mode. Her performance will drop, but that won't affect our escape too much." Ever dwarf in the compartment bowed in front of their god. "Thank you for your blessing, Vulcan!" "You're welcome." Ves casually shrugged his possessed body. A few minutes later, the hatch to the bridge slid open and a dwarf slowly strode forward. A handful of dwarves had already gathered here. The most prominent among them was Gion Greybeard, who still clutched the Banner of Vulcan as if it was the most precious treasure of the dwarf race! "Great Vulcan!" Each of the dwarves bowed and conveyed their deepest respect towards their god! None of them believed their rebellion could have ever made it this far if not for Vulcan's many blessings! Their eyes glowed with worship as they beheld Rion's body. It was clear that Vulcan was in control. The god adopted a much more confident posture than a typical dwarf, and his glow was unmistakably divine. "All of the dwarves we intend to bring out have entered the cargo hold." Gion stated. "Are we ready to leave? I am rather concerned the tall folk will cut off our escape." Ves didn't reply immediately. He directed his possessed body to step onto a smal crate and sit in the captain's chair. He used his new command permissions to access the captain's interface and slowly bring the ship online. In fact, the previous captain had already gone through most of the startup sequence. It was a pity that he and many of the tall folk at the spaceport underestimated the ferocity of the dwarves! It only took ten more minutes for the TR-3851 to finish her startup sequence. As Ves activated the vessel's dummy mode, he didn't even need to take direct control over her helm. Like a bot, the vessel turned into an obedient artificial pet, especially after Ves flipped a few emergency switches that allowed for such widespread control. While Ves commanded the ship to ascend and overcome the planet's heavy gravity, he accessed her sensor and communication systems. He let out a sigh of relief. "Our way shouldn't be blocked. According to the logs and previous observational data, House Kantis didn't bother to station any guard forces or defensive platforms in orbit. The tall folk are also too late in dispatching reinforcements. While a couple of ships are already on their way to our outpost, as long as we ascend into the air first, the tall folk won't be able to catch up as they're carrying at least a squad of mechs!" House Kantis did not station a single dedicated carrier vessel on this planet. Instead, a couple of transport ships made the rounds. Not every outpost of base housed a ship. The transport vessels were constantly needed to transport ore, water and other goods between Desala X and Desala V. This was why it took a lot of time for the tall folk to dispatch one of their transports to an outpost with a larger guard presence and load up all of their mechs and troops! Even though the tall folk attempted to dispatch their forces to Outpost 35 as fast as possible, the delays still bought enough time for the TR-3851 to blaze upwards and escape the humongous gravity well that had kept the dwarves trapped for their entire lives! In order to make the dwarves understand where they were heading to, Ves helpfully projected a view of the outside as well as a map of the local star system in front of the other dwarves. "This.. this is incredible! Have we entered heaven?" "No! This isn't heaven! This is emptiness! There is no rock in the sky! We are falling into an endless pit!" "I'm scared! There is only darkness up ahead! Where are we going?!" Though the ignorant dwarves weren't coping too well, Gion Greybeard and the other leaders among the rebels did their best to reassure the hysterical dwarves and assuage some of their worries. Even if they didn't know what they were talking about, they at least managed to calm everyone down. Right now, every dwarf believed Vulcan and Gion Greybeard. The two had worked together to achieve the impossible and give the dwarves an entirely new lease on life! That said, even Gion didn't really understand the complete picture. After the TR-3851 entered deep space, Ves programmed her trajectory to head straight to the edge of the star system. Because of Desala X's distance from the sun, it shouldn't take long until the ship was ready to engage her FTL drive! While worn and neglected, the transport ship was still capable of FTL travel! Ves dutifully studied Smiling Samuel's star map and identified the nearest star system which the dwarves could apply for asylum in person. Along the way, Ves also wanted to make another stop. Once he programmed the route into the navigation systems, he slid off the captain's chair and approached Gion Greybeard with a spry step. Once the ship left Desala X, every dwarf became subject to the ship's artificial gravity. Unfortunately, the maximum setting did not go higher 1.5 g! Ves couldn't crank up the gravity any further! This caused many of the dwarves to grow busy or walk around like they were drunk and on the verge of floating in the air. Only Ves managed to retain his dignity as he moved his possessed body forward. "We need to talk." He softly told Gion. The old dwarf nodded. "Please lead the way, my lord." The two dwarves exited the bridge and entered a nearby office compartment. Ves didn't bother taking a seat. He wanted to get right to the point! "Where is the ore? Where is my Timpala Steel?" "It is with my men in the cargo hold." Gion steadily replied. "Is there any way we can keep this rock?" "No. We made a deal. Your freedom for this rock. I have upheld my end of the deal. It is time for you and your people to pay the price for my assistance." The bearded dwarf looked troubled at this response.