Ruligret wiped the sweat from her brow with a cloth she kept close to her workbench then carefully set it aside to continue to carefully etch runes into the energy control module she held. Time had, at first, passed slowly for her on the new planet she found herself on. It was in many ways a backwater with technology that was prehistoric compared to what she had been used to. She struggled with the lack of everything modern that she took for granted when living with the technologies of the Multiple System Alliance (MSA). The Trialum galaxy had become largely united and most races within were part of the MSA. Their was nearly a hundred different intelligent species that were part of the Alliance with the largest populations belonging to the Formorian Insectoids followed closely by the humans. Three separate solar systems in the galaxy were filled with humans that naturally evolved on their home planets. This including her own home planet of Neasau Prime of which humans were one of the dominant species along with Dwarves and Orcs.
Still, the Trialum galaxy had been in the space age for thousands of years with magictec that allowed them to colonize and terraform nearly every solar system within it. Which brought Ruligret's thoughts back to the control module she was working on now. It was a minor piece of magical technology but one that had paved the way to many advancements in her own world. Now, after nearly 50 years of working on somewhat modernizing the planet she found herself stranded on, she had begun pushing toward the stars once more.
The large strawberry blonde dwarf woman had not been thrilled when she was informed of her divine purpose. It was not something she was typically willing to entertain except she stranded on a technologically deficient world that did not even have basic plumbing. Early on she had been shoved off to the front lines of this global war that had been apparently a divinely inspired conflict which she was not at all interested in. She was technically a part of the MSA military as she had enlisted as an engineer when she was just over 30 years old but she had not even finished her advanced training program to officially earn her occupational skill. Still, she was a brilliant engineer as her adopted father had trained her since she was a tot. She was not really great with magic but runecrafting and smithing were in her blood, well her adopted blood. Her human father had been one of the great lead scientist in the Dalit Foundation that was on the cutting edge of magical technology in the area of militarized astronautics. Which in hind sight is likely why the gods of this miserable place ripped her out of her galaxy.
So, she understood why she might be targeted by the gods since this backwater planet was in desperate need of a technological revolution. Why they decided it would be a good idea to throw her into combat though, that she will never understand. She was an engineer not a combat engineer. They learned fairly quickly when she ran from the front that she was not the experienced warrior the gods had promised. It took quite some time for them to understand her true worth as she slowly started to advance the dwarven empire's technologies.
The engineer sighed as she placed the control module into a mithrite sleeve then lined up the runes with the ones on the energy matrix and toggled the switch to the on position. The hum of energy release sounded then attenuated as a louder ticking of a motor engaging took its place. Ruligret sighed in relief as the cool air was pushed throughout the room. She had finally created air conditioning which pushed her comfort levels up another level. She had started out her journey by creating basic plans for plumbing and water runes because the once a week baths were not going to work for her. She understood that their would be strong smelling dwarves after a long day of work but the fact that they only bathed once a week was, in her admittedly biased opinion, not acceptable.
With the help of castings from smiths and earth manipulation magics she was able to design and implement plumbing systems throughout the empire. This project had taken a few years to become widespread but she had only to design the initial plans and and teach a select few artisans the rune sequences for the water systems and they took care of the labor. She had only overseen the initial project for her personal abode which was within the palace grounds. Seeing that her blessings were tied to her knowledge the emperor and his council tasked their hero with creating new items of war to defend their holy lands. The dwarven engineer was not really sure about the holiness of their cause but she was certainly not opposed to their efforts after having visited the front lines and seen the insectoids. She had seen several insectoid species before as they were one of her galaxies boogeymen. While they had a tentative peace it would only last until one of the hive queens required expansion then they would be at war once again. So, she was fairly certain this conflict would see the extinction of one of the sides and since she was stuck here and also a dwarf it made sense to develop better warfare based technologies.
She started with incremental advancements based on what the people of this time frame were using. The dwarves were the embodiment of the three S's. They were short, stout, and strong. Not in that order if you were to ask them yet their mentality and frames usually had them with heavy armor with shields and hammers or war picks as their battle gear. Their were some squads that had axes and swords as well but they were smaller detachments with specified roles. They had throwing axes as their main mid ranged weapons but they had special units of ballistae and smaller heavy hand held bolt throwers.
There were also several orc tribes that had begun to repopulate the empire and these people were large and strong and favored light armors and large weapons. They had higher agility and were of approximate strength to their shorter dwarven counterparts but lacked the natural resilience of the stout dwarves. The beast tribes were not so easily categorized by their military prowess as they were so varied with many separate species that fell under the category of beastfolk. The larger cat types tended to be warrior like while the smaller ones were stealthy hunters and scouts. The majority of the bird kin were heavily focused on the mystic arts except for the few raptor kin who were focused on longbows and other long range weapons. They each hade their own sub-communities and had societal roles that were filled based on the need.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
So, Ruligret had quite a bit to think about when she started. The dwarves were easy enough as she was able to start by upgrading their bolt throwers into a crossbow that still required their exceptional strength to use but also could auto load bolts. She found the abundant of mithrite on this continent to be a blessing in creating just about anything she wanted. The locals called it mithril but it did not have the same properties as the mithril she used back home so she changed the name. In many ways it was a better material as it had a higher density and allowed for better mana conductivity. However, the density required special smelting and treating methods to maintain its usefulness. Once she was able to understand how to use it she could start creating the tools that would create the tools to create the better items. This took nearly a decade of trial and error before she finally was able to generate the basic tools of her craft. She did not yet have all of the materials needed to make computing devices but when she did she was certain she would bring this world to the stars.
However, she first had to bring this world to the industrial age. It took nearly 50 years of her life to do just that and while the majority of the technologies she worked on were not military in nature, as she required the infrastructure to create advancements, they did help advance the dwarven empire and its allies. The average soldier had thinner armor plates that covered their vitals while the fabrics they wore below it were heavily resistant to piercing, slashing, and crushing damage. The insectoids used their workers and soldier castes which were not overly strong combatants compared to the allied species but they were individually powerful creatures with colossal strength. They were easy enough to kill but their ridiculous numbers combined with fast maturation made for dangerous foes.
Fortunately, their natural weapons and exoskeleton armor made them forego warfare advancements in technologies. They had been using numbers and speed tactics to try and overrun their foes since the divine war started. While it had initially worked the sacrifices of the dwarven empire and their first heroes had put them into a centuries long stalemate that was just starting to favor the dwarven empire as their new technologies were making an impact. Runic weapons that had elemental enchantments imbued into them cleaved through the weaker caste fodder. Mages with enchantments to renew and refresh their magical energies allowed them to stay on the battlefield longer. The dwarven empire had already held a technological advantage over the insectoids and with better tactical understanding and the years they had tested their tactics they had managed to hold the line against a physically and numerically superior foe. Now with additional advancements it was only a matter of time before they pushed these creatures out of their holy land and back to their demonic homes. At least that is what the dwarven empire expected.
________________
Meanwhile the insectoid species were struggling with internal issues. None had it so bad as Mika'hal at least that is what he believed. He had struggled for decades with trying to find his courage again and even managed a few trips back to the front, but the dwarven empire had their flying archers that had it out for him any time he started making a difference. He had been shot through several times to the point where he had spots in his exoskeleton where it had grown back in unevenly causing a scarring effect. His glorious body had gone through hell and his more cowardly disposition had the queens and hive mothers holding him back to breed stronger and better drones.
He had even finally succumbed to the Arachne Queen which is why he found himself hanging in a web and waiting for her to come and claim him once more. He was glad to find out that the black widow like arachne did not in fact bite his head off when they had finished their first round. However, her nature was difficult for her to deny and many times she had taken a large bite out of him leading to many tears and screams of pain which seemed to excite the queen further. It also added to the many scars he had upon his body. He had been stuck in this web for so long he could only guess at the time but it had been at least 3 decades before succumbed to his lusts and became desperate enough to test his fate against the arachne's biological instincts.
Still the insectoid queen was strange and while she was extremely loving toward him she was also mad in her possessiveness. She had stolen him away after their first coupling and ensnared him in her web where he had been ever since. The many arachne and spider handmaidens would bring him food and water but he there was no doubt that he was a prisoner in this place.
The queen's actions also caused issues with the other hive and colony queens who wanted his seed to be spread amongst their eggs as well. However, the Arachne queen cared little for what they desired and egg sac after egg sac hatched with his arachne children. Their quick growth and increased strengths were obvious to all but the queen did not send them to the front and just kept fortifying her position and increasing her numbers of her empowered children. Mika'hal did not want to complain since now he was sexually satisfied and was almost starting to look forward to the love bites, but he now longed for the freedom to wander the hives and colonies of the other mothers.
It was just after the last hatching that he heard word that the other queens had sent their armies to forcefully take him from the Arachne queen. His lover assured him of their safety and the wicked grin on her face left Mika'hal feeling a bit of fear for what was to come. Sure enough the sounds of battle were close enough that Mika'hal could hear it but the volume of arachne had become so overwhelming that it did not last long. While the other colonies drones were attacking the arachne queen sent her vast swarm out to invade her once allies. It was time for the Arachne to become the dominent force on this continent.
