You are Summoned

The blue summoning portal opened, and I stepped in. As soon as I did, the system gave me the details of this summoning as I made the transition to another world.

Your summoning parameters are as follows:

You are being summoned by the sapient vessel Serapis.

Summoning tier, 1.

Summoning rank, 2.

Rewards level, Above Average.

This summons is combat related. Prepare accordingly.

Forced compliance is active.

Your armory loadout has been activated.

I appeared in about the last place I expected, a large compartment that looked almost like a ship’s bridge or a space station from a science fiction movie. Oddly enough, the mana link to my summoner wasn’t to one of the dozen or so people in the room, it was to the ship itself.

“Serapis, I know your mana is under assault, but we need a shield over the teleportation chamber, or all is lost,” an elderly human man loudly demanded. He wore a shiny, metallic suit that looked like a spacesuit or a diving suit to me. A small hologram of a man’s face appeared next to him.

“Captain, I will maintain the shield over the teleportation chamber, but it will allow the enemy vessel to cancel out our drives, and we’ll be helpless to their boarding action. Please have crewman Hargrave continue to scry our foe,” the hologram replied.

“Hargrave, keep on it, and call out what you find so Serapis can respond,” the elderly man, who was apparently the captain of this vessel, ordered. I took a better look around the place as my summoner, who appeared to be a freaking starship, discussed things with the captain and other crew.

I was in a small alcove off the main bridge of the ship. Also stuffed in the small alcove were eight or nine other people. They were a mix of the various humanoid races, and from their garb, most were what you’d expect from the strange, almost medieval fantasy worlds I’d visited. All of us looked a little dumbfounded by the situation we found ourselves in, but we couldn’t converse amongst ourselves as the summoner hadn’t granted us permission to do so.

In the main bridge area, the crew seemed to be going about their tasks in an efficient manner, but there was obviously some kind of battle going on. The stress of the situation was etched on their faces, but they remained professional. They interacted with the ship by using floating holographic screens. Instead of touching the screens or typing, the crew’s hands glowed with mana as they operated the various functions of the ship.

“Lieutenant Uxrab, this latest batch of defenders is ready to go. I can grant you only a few more batches of summons, that is all my mana core can allow at this time if we want to keep up the shielding in place over my critical systems,” the holographic ship’s avatar, who was also my summoner, ordered.

“As you wish, Serapis. This group is designated to support the defense of passageway nineteen,” the lieutenant, one of the few non-humans of the crew replied. He had scaly skin and lizard-like features, but as with most of the worlds I’d visited, he fit in just fine among the other species.

“Lieutenant, I’ll grant you, any ships officer, and all other security personnel control over the summoned creatures. Use them wisely,” Serapis ordered, which triggered a system prompt.

Your summoner has granted full control over your current summoning to various members of this ship’s crew. All forced compliance permissions are now shared by the designated crew members.

With that, my mana link to the ship spread out into dozens of different tendrils, one of which was linked to Lieutenant Uxrab. The summoned creatures around me were also linked in the same way. Through the multiple links, I could sense something odd, well, probably not quite as odd as being summoned by a starship. This ship wasn’t powered by some weird reactor, fuel tank, or anything like that. The ship was powered by pure mana, an incredibly dense reservoir of which was at the heart of the vessel.

The crew were mages of various types, using their control over mana to interact with the ship’s systems and help Serapis function. Just as quickly as it appeared, my glimpse into the inner workings of the ship ended as the mana links to all the designated crew were finalized. I fell in behind the other summoned beings as we followed Lieutenant Uxrab out of the bridge and down a series of passageways.

After several minutes, we stopped outside of a hatchway and the lieutenant had us line up along the wall, out of the way of all the frenzied activity on the ship. He tapped the door, and it slid open instantly, just like an old Star Trek episode. Inside he addressed several other crew members that I couldn’t see from my position.

“We have ten more to be equipped for possible boarding action. They’re going to be positioned in passageway nineteen near the mana core, so don’t skimp on the gear. I haven’t questioned them yet on any class abilities, so as always, ask before you arm. We need them as effective as they can be, and we don’t want to lose Serapis because you forgot to ask someone what skills they have,” Uxrab ordered.

We started to file in two at a time. Inside the compartment were two crewmembers, both middle-aged human women, that stood behind a metal counter. Behind them, were rows of sealed storage boxes, ranging in size from a shoebox to a refrigerator. As we waited in the queue, the crew questioned each summoned being before casting some spell that caused the desired storage boxes to hover, then fly to the counter. I tried to peek at what everyone was getting, but there was too much activity as the summoned beings passed over much of their current gear, to make room for their new stuff.

“Next, you, human, what’s your class, tier, and rank,” the harried clerk asked.

“I’m a class called a Foe Summoner and I’m tier one, rank two,” I replied.

“Very well, how many and what type of creatures do you summon, also, what is your summoning duration?” She asked.

“Right now, two humanoid creatures, a human, and a dwarf. I also can summon a dog, but that’s my limit. My summoned creatures stay with me until they’re destroyed, I’m killed, or the summoning ends,” I replied.

“Excellent, summon them now so I can scan them for gear compatibility. Pause after each one and tell me their abilities and combat skills,” the clerk ordered. I began to pull out my figurines, starting with Marvin Glum. I explained he fought with shortsword and dagger but was also good with a sling. Once I gave the rundown on Marvin Glum, the clerk chanted while waving what looked like a credit card in front of him. After a moment, she slid the card behind the counter and a pair of crates drifted over.

“Have him equip these items, none of them require any specialized abilities. He can replace his sling ammunition with the new ammo that I’m issuing. Make sure he doesn’t fire it near any friendlies, it has a small area of effect that doesn’t differentiate between friend or foe,” the clerk advised.

I had Marvin put on the gear; his old stuff was dumped into a chute that opened up at the base of the counter. He got a spacesuit like the other crew wore, and the clerk confirmed it contained a limited armor capacity, that was greater than the leather armor I was currently wearing. His blades were replaced by ones that were monomolecular, which would allow them to cut through even the hardest materials. On the utility belt his suit came with several pouches bulged with metal, marble sized ammunition for the leather sling Marvin Glum carried.

Rupert was next, and since he was more limited in his abilities, he just got the armored spacesuit and a metal spear tipped with a blade similar to what Marvin now wielded. For my faithful hound, there wasn’t much in the way of armor would fit him, but the dog did get a harness that strapped over his head, that looked almost like a muzzle, but in this case, left him free to bite. When the dog bit at something, the harness would produce a blast of energy that would slam into the target.

“Now that your summoned creatures are equipped, what are your spells, skills, abilities, and current equipment,” the clerk asked me.

I gave her a brief rundown of my spells and abilities. She had me go ahead and cast empower minion on all three of my summons to make sure their gear wouldn’t need to be adjusted for them. They were all fine, and my mana would have some time to regenerate before we faced whatever it was that threatened the ship. After she finished her questioning, the clerk called up several boxes from the back.

“Your armor is the same as your humanoid minions. Place your old gear in the chute,” the clerk said. I pulled out from the box the armor, a healing, and a mana potion. My hammer was as good as what they were willing to issue me, but I did get one of the monomolecular daggers. The final box contained a two-foot-long magic missile wand that held thirty charges.

“Hand me the wand, I’ll insert it into the proper housing. Have you used a crossbow before? The housing is shaped not too differently,” the clerk said, opening the final box of gear she had gathered for me. Inside, was what looked like some kind of laser rifle from a movie. She popped open something at the butt of the rifle and put the magic missile wand inside, snapping the seal back into place.

“I’ve never used a crossbow before, but that looks like a rifle from back home, which I have shot a few times,” I told the clerk. I’d gone to the gun range with my dad more than once as a kid, but haven’t touched a firearm since I’d moved to LA.

“You come from a world with technology similar to this?” she asked, looking a bit shocked as she eyed the rest of my gear.

“Not quite, we’re much lower tech than this. We have guns that fire projectiles using a chemical reaction. Our computers also are simpler, and we don’t have mana,” I replied.

“That’s odd, but here, I’ll get you some reloads if you think you can handle operating the weapon,” the clerk said, giving me two extra wands that she figured I might put to good use. The magic missile rifle felt a bit odd in my grip, but it was light and instead of a trigger, it had a finger-sized indentation along the barrel of the weapon that served the same function. Reloading was as simple as popping open a tab at the back of the rifle and inserting a new wand.

“Hurry it up there, we don’t have time for fine tuning this one’s gear,” Lieutenant Uxrab ordered. I noticed that I was the last one getting gear, and the rest of my group was ready to leave. The clerk wished me luck and I fell into position at the rear of the line of summoned beings.

“The enemy ship is almost on us, we need to be in position on the double, so move it,” Uxrab ordered, leading our party into a slow trot as we moved through the living ship.