Interstellar Age

Chapter 253 Challenging a Chieftain

While Tia worked on a fix to the truth serum, which was required to extract the information Erich needed from the Sages, he took as a prisoner. Erich himself had begun to set his eyes on another target. He honestly did not know if the Sages were hiding in one centralized area for the most part, or if they had been scattered across the galaxy.

But from the sounds of it, the bulk of their order was hiding somewhere remote. After all, every sage he had come across thus far had told him that only a Greater Sage First Class would know of their whereabouts. Because of this, Erich felt that he needed to have an army of his own, if he were to storm the world and eliminate the so-called prophets of fate.

With this in mind, Erich began looking for even more Orc clans to incorporate into his new Horde. Which was already quite large. Tia had dedicated her processing power to multiple different tasks, including controlling the robotic workforce she employed day and night to build the ships that would house the Orc Clans.

Eventually Erich located another Orc Clan that was nearby. It was significantly larger than the Bleeding Hand Clan, but still smaller than the Ironhand Clan. Because of this, Erich felt as if he would probably have to challenge their chieftain in order to gain their loyalty.

Luckily for Erich, his new body was capable of competing with an Orc Warchief on its own, without any of his mental enhancements. Not only that, but his new body was manufactured with the same the cybernetic augmentations that every Star Marine went through.

Even better, these enhancements were modified by Tia to operate at peak performance. After all, the technology at her disposal was significantly more advanced than what the Germanic-Star Empire had access to. This meant that Erich might actually be physically superior to an Orc Warchief, in addition to being mentally superior.

It was with this in mind that he piloted the Vigilance towards the location of the Orcish clan, which were as per usual in the act of raiding a world. The Orcish ships looked as if they had seen better days. Which was not unusual considering they were not exactly a species which was capable of producing engineers and mechanics that were talented enough to fix giant spacefaring vessels.

Yet these massive ships, that were essentially repurposed cargo hulks, continued to bombard the world with weapons that didn't look like they belonged on board such vessels. In fact, it was almost as if they had been strapped onto the ships with duct tape. That was the level of craftsmanship one could expect from Orcs.

The moment Erich's ship entered the system, he was bombarded with messages from the Orcish ships telling him to flee or be boarded. To which Erich simply scoffed before calling them on their bluff.

"Do you have any idea who I am? I am the Warchief of the Iron Horde. I have come to challenge your chieftain. Join my Horde, or be brought to ruin!"

After saying this, Erich called out to Tia with a slightly nervous tone in his voice.

"Tia, are you sure this stealth frigate is capable of taking on the entire Orc fleet?"

Tia's voice sounded rather annoyed, as if Erich had interrupted something incredibly important, and had asked an even more stupid question while doing so.

"Of course! This ship could jump out of Warp directly in the middle of a Naraku Hive Fleet and still survive long enough to get away. Believe me, there is no warship in the galaxy more advanced than the Vigilance!"

Although she sounded irritated at first, there was a hint of pride in Tia's voice as she boasted of the Vigilance's capabilities, which was something that Erich found adorable. Thus, he decided to trust his faithful AI companion and steam ahead through the potential onslaught of the Orcish fleet.

Of course, they never opened fire on Erich. After all, a challenge to authority was sacred, and only a dishonorable scoundrel would reject such a thing. Thus, Erich docked aboard the largest of the Orcish Vessels, where he once more adorned the "tribal" power armor that Tia had made for him.

Erich walked through the bulkhead of the Orcish capital ship as if he were a conquering hero, the Orcs gathered around him in an attempt to intimidate this intruder, only to see that he was roughly the same size as themselves, at least in terms of height. Perhaps the tallest of their race stood at over eight feet, but Erich was by no means short by their standards, and in his power armor, he actually stood above their tallest warriors.

Rumors had spread across the Orcish clans, about an outsider starting his own horde. A man from one of the few races that the Orcs respected. A race which every clan and horde stayed far away from. After all, the previous war between the Germanic Star-Empire and the Orcs was over two centuries ago, and yet five whole Orc clans went extinct by the end of it.

It was a humiliating defeat that the surviving clans and hordes had never forgotten. Now, for one of them to lead a horde of his own, it was truly unthinkable. Yet, Erich walked forward without fear, until he entered the throne room, where the Chieftain sat on a chair made of bones. The large Orc looked at Erich with confusion before expressing his thoughts aloud.

"So.... This is the mighty Warchief of the Iron Horde? I expected you to look more menacing!"

Erich simply scoffed when he heard this, before ejecting from his power armor, where he stood about a foot shorter than he previously had. There was a look of arrogance on his handsome face as he commented on the Chieftain's remarks.

'How about now?"

Erich stood dressed in nothing but a skintight body suit as he challenged the Orc Warchief who had dared to mock his appearance. After all, he was definitely what the Orcs might consider to be "pretty" because his features were more in line with what were attractive by Elven, and Germanic standards, not so much the orcs, who considered a handsome man to be brutish in appearance.

Now that Erich stood a foot shorter than the Orc chieftain, the man simply laughed as he stood up from his seat and accepted Erich's challenge.

"Very well... I don't know how you managed to defeat a warrior like Mala, but I get the feeling she went easy on you because of your pretty face. You won't be so lucky with me as your opponent! Men! Prepare the Arena!"

Erich smirked when he heard this, knowing that his rival had fallen into a trap. He then followed the towering Orc chieftain to the arena where both men would be stripped down to their trousers before having a fight to the death.