In the ship still

The complete destruction of my ship kicks me out of the Consciousness Uplink Drive, and… that does NOT feel good. But hey, I have Regeneration from a spell, so I'm okay.

My ship is very dead, however. As in, I'm watching the wrecked power core drift away through open space to my left, the engines to my right, and both through a giant gap where the cockpit is supposed to connect to the main body of the ship, but doesn't anymore. I… don't think I can fix that.

But apparently I don't have time; as I watch, a ship pulls up alongside the wreckage, blocking my view, and a few armored men start to board… they're apparently not paid too much: It's just basic stationwear. And… well, they're soldiers working under a guy who apparently has no issues blasting civilian traders out of the sky with zero warning. So….

They don't get a chance to surrender as I spam spells: I start with a basic Destruction blast (spending the spell point to make it deal fourteen dice of damage) add Searing Blast to make them d8's and Sculpt Blast to make it a cone, then use my free metamagic to add Quicken, Empower, Maximize, Twin, Widen, all four copies of Energy Admixture (the metamagic, which doubles as empower) and Repeat spell. Then I use my action economy shenanigans to do it four more times, effectively deleting them from existence (along with their armor and gear).

I cast Invisibility on my decoy, we fly over to the ship they were using, and grab hold of the outer airlock door just as whoever is still aboard turns the ship and guns it back to base. Too late… I calmly hack the door's electronics, have it NOT issue any alerts as I cycle it, fly through the halls straight to the bridge (a mile of Blindsense(Thought) is handy) with my minion, and we open the door… Mind Sphere's Mind Control on him (with Twin and Persistent, so he has to save four times), and he's mine until I let him go.

It's now a simple matter to command him telepathically, ‘Tell me where you're going.’

“Back to the Lord's Ship,” he answers robotically, frowning.

‘Tell me why,’ I continue. Yes, every question is an order.

“Because I'm frankly terrified of whatever blew the rest if the crew away,” he answers, his frown deepening.

Figures, ‘Tell me your plan once there.’

“Report in,” he looks around, apparently wondering why he's following orders that appear in his mind.

‘Tell me how many people are aboard,’ A base ship can have anywhere from a hundred fifty people to a hundred thousand people aboard. More, with the colony ship framework or Guest Quarters.

“Dunno,” he shrugs in his chair, continuing the flight.

‘Tell me your best guess.’ I order.

“About a thousand,” he admits.

I can work with that, I grin, not that he can see. I use the Amnesia Mind sphere talent to wipe the conversation from his head, dismiss the mind control… and then I wait. I watch over the man's shoulder as he contacts the base ship and goes through all of the normal hoops of planning a docking with a space station… which a base ship pretty much is, except it happens to be mobile. And yes, they're expensive. You can't get enough hardware in one to fly until at least tier 14 or so, although they do have features that are simply not available any other way within the rules (like being able to dock medium sized ships). They're also as durable as all get out, of course.

Anyway: He docks, and heads in to get more crew and report to his supervisor… and when he leaves, I get to casting.

See, the Spheres of power Mind sphere has some interesting advanced talents… and I combine a few of them. The casting time is ten minutes, and I metamagic it up to make it harder to resist for those permitted to roll a dave (Twin, Repeat, and Persistent Spell, so they have to repeat it eight times to avoid being affected).

When I'm done, I hear **** whispering in my ear, “I didn't think you were that cold.”

“Yeah, well…” I begin…

…but I'm interrupted by a familiar voice that makes my body ache to be filled on the shipwide, “You are SO dead when I find you. This is, admittedly, the kind of thing I'd expect of one blessed by the Devourerer, but I am going to kill you…”

I try to tune the idiot out and finish my sentence, “They're soldiers, on a warship, that just blasted a peaceful trading vessel out of the sky with no warning. I suppose I could have put everyone to sleep, but…” I start walking out of the little ship into the big one as the captain continues to rant, “...he could fix that in a reasonable time frame with some help. This, he can't,” I pass a guard dead on the ground, his frozen face full of fear.

“Still… one thousand, two hundred, thirty-seven souls for me to collect, just like that,” my patron chuckles darkly, “that's impressive. Oh, when do you want to level up?”

Zeitgeist and Deadly Vision. The first applies a talent to an entire community, up to three thousand people, and renders it a no-save effect vs. low level folks. The second gives people an illusion of their own worst nightmare so strong they can die of fear. Combined, all the basic crew members are simply dead: The metamagic was to get the officers, who not only have the chance to save, but get a bonus for it. There might, maybe,be one surviving officer… but that's unlikely. It's just the champions of Life and **** on this ship now: Two people, on a vessel the size of a city, that requires a bare minimum of a hundred fifty people to run. In order to get this status symbol operational, he's going to need to call for help, which will take days to arrive.

“Now, please,” I answer as the world fades…