"How many guards did we lose?" Ivan asked solemnly in a room that was only partially constructed.
"157 guards," Eoth answered resolutely.
There was a total of 10,000 guards, the losses were only so large because 7,000 of those were out securing a food source for everybody else – it was a massive job which required a lot of manpower.
"Arrange to have them buried immediately, note down any family or closely aggrieved members for me in a list," Ivan ordered coldly. "Change the rotation of guards to secure food to only be 4,000 members. The rest are to remain on standby and fortify our base. Loreine, take several guards and start informing everyone we are also taking volunteers toward defending our home."
"Understood, President," Loreine answered instinctively while playing with one of her ears. Once the words set in and she realized what she agreed to though, she shot to her feet in embarrassment and apologized before rushing out of the room to carry out her task.
"The rest of you," Ivan looked over the other senior security guards and Eoth, "we need to formulate a plan. That Four-Eyed Devil Lion has learned that 2,000 isn't enough, next time there will be more. It's trying to fight numbers with numbers now, but it takes time to gather and or direct them to assault us. It will keep bringing more beasts until we fall or capture it. It may be smart, but it lacks our foresight and planning."
Ivan lead the meeting for several hours debating strategies. Ivan wanted to prevent it fleeing and returning with even more forces during the next attack. It was like a cancer he was determined to cut out.
Loreine returned later with a list of nearly 5,000 individuals who volunteered to fight on the front line against beasts when defending their home. These were the most patriotic of new Celestials and were willing to put their life on the line for that patriotism. Ivan took to the stage especially because of this incident and spoke words of gold in praise toward these people, causing them to puff their chests out with pride.
*****
Various production facilities sprung up around the CTHQ construction site and began mass producing servers and small access devices. Transmission satellites were also being produced to spread out the network even further.
The servers were large four-dimensional towers which multi-layered data storage devices in a intricate series of connections. A single tower could hold approximately 70,000 storage devices by the engineer's estimation. The first layer of storage devices was installed into it the same way as a standard three-dimension server, but moving deeper or higher through the fourth dimension allowed them to stack many more layers into it according to its total four-dimensional 'height'.
Deeper inside the servers were also many high powered processors based on the engineer's understanding of the fourth-dimensional scaling of devices.
The small access devices were tablets which served as merely a display as the server was running all the calculations. This was mainly for programmers and those individuals who were building the network however.
"Dear, why do you need to create such a massive network, even going so far as to sell products and services to three-dimensional beings?" Iris hummed into Ivan's ear one day as he was overseeing the production.
"Iris, I am running a business here, what I need is economical power. The only way to do this is to branch out."
"But we don't need any of the products or services, let alone money, from three-dimensional beings." Iris had a completely lost expression on her face, causing Ivan to chuckle and kiss her on the lips before continuing.
"You probably never studied economics, so I will give you a brief explanation. I will be establishing my own currency, which is the same as creating an economy. Economies are stagnant pools of water, money is given out by the issuer, usually the government, which is then circulated through the economy as people buy and sell things. This money is constantly circulated back through the government in the form of taxes, before being handed back out again."
"This economy has a fixed value, by itself, it can't grow or fall in value. Inflation and other aspects can seem to affect it over the long term, but this is usually closely related to money supply. Forcefully injecting new money into an economy doesn't increase it's value but reduced the value of each individual unit."
"For instance, If you gave everyone a million dollars and someone wanted to purchase a new car for $30,000. The seller would turn around and say no, $30,000 is practically worthless, I want a hundred million. This isn't because the car is worth that much, it is that much money is equivalent in value to the car."
Iris seemed to understand and nodded as she asked, "Then how does someone increase the economy?"
"By interacting with other economies. When you spend money to import goods, or services, the total value of the economy devalues. Alternatively, by exporting goods or services, you take away from other economies to increase the value of your own."
"I can understand that much, but why do you want to increase absorb other economies. Does that mean it will increase the value of our economy then?"
Ivan shook his head helplessly and sighed.
"Unfortunately not, the only way to do that is by trading with an economy of a four-dimensional community, because our money has no purchasing power in three-dimensional economies. However by hoarding Galactic Credits, we can increase the volume of our economy by taking money from theirs."
"It is however my oldest ambition to increase my personal value and company value. It is the entire reason I created Celestial Trade. Money is power, Iris, and with enough of it, a single person can sit atop the entire world. No, in this era, a single person can sit on top of the entire galaxy, or even greater."
Valeria, who had been following behind Ivan like a ghost as usual, spoke up at this point and asked, "Ivan, but can't people lie? Those who make the money can say they didn't make it, right?"
"Indeed they can, but that is considered fraud. That can cause an entire economy to collapse, so they won't do that. Money is documented and monitored more closely than anything else. Of course the government can lie…" At this point Ivan's face twisted into a grimace as hatred burned in his eyes, "…and they don't play by the rules, but they also have limitations. I will never allow myself to be in a vulnerable position toward those who want to cheat!"
*****
Several months of production went by peacefully, but everyone's tensions where taught under the constant threat of an imminent attack. It was also getting close to the time for the annual visit back to the Vulpes homeworld and induction of another 100,000 Celestials who King Margold should have prepared.
One particular evening, even though subspace was always white in appearance and located near a star, the alarm for an enemy attack sounded.
Most people were resting in their homes, but the large noise produced by a makeshift air siren woke everyone up.
"That devil lion isn't as smart as I thought, attacking when all our security guards are present." Ivan's eyes were as cold as ice.
"You canz't go," Iris, who had woken up drowsy, slowly said as she feebly held onto Ivan.
"No," Ivan rejected and shook her off. "The Four-Eyed Devil Lion has its biggest grudge with me. If I am there, the chance of it acting on emotion and not just fleeing is much higher. This is a confrontation I must face for every Celestial."
"Zear, if you zie…"
"I know, everyone will fall apart. But if that beast isn't stopped, we will eventually be destroyed. I can't avoid this any longer, safety or not."
Ivan grabbed a spear and thin bronze-trimmed iron armor, wearing it quickly before flying up, leaving the Iris still tired after their late-night activities. He didn't forget to wake up Valeria and bring her with him as she was much more combat oriented than himself.
The Four-Eyed Devil Lion had repeated its previous strategy, guiding a horde of carnivorous beasts to attack the Celestial's settlement. This time instead of a 2,000 beast horde, it was one numbering close 15,000.
The beasts roared, croaked, and made a number of various howls as they charged the forming defensive formation of security guards and volunteers, some trying to go around and attack the settlement directly. Their cold and cruel eyes displayed their vicious intentions toward the Celestials.
"Timmeril, Yale! Gather a squadron of a thousand each and cut of the flanking beasts!" Eoth shouted commands from the rear line where he could oversea the situation.
All the gigantic trees in the forest around the Celestial settlement were scarred and had chunks missing from all the battles that had gone on in the vicinity.
"Eoth," Ivan appeared on the battle line and spoke in an irrefutable tone, "give me your hundred best security guards. I'm going to flank this horde and trap the devil lion before it can escape."
"President-" Eoth solemly began to tell Ivan he must remain safe but Ivan cut him off before he could continue.
"This is a must. There is no room for negotiation in this one. My presence is required to prevent the devil lion from simply fleeing."
"…Understood," Eoth hesitated before choosing who he considered the top security guards.