The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 207

Chapter 207 – Security

The exercise was a true success, in every metric that you could measure. My troops did have a bit more of a magical signature, even suppressed, than the mana-engines on the transports, but the planes were still only five kilometers out when they were detected as more than background noise with the scanners. Five minutes from detection to a full attack, two and a half if you wanted to get into melee as fast as possible. Even if a target had been on full alert, with defense crews already at battle stations and weapons primed, that was precious little time to react to an attack, before it was too late for their defenses to matter.

Pantha and Kiya’s eyes gleamed as we went over the data, already picturing the different possibilities. This drop was more than just a test of what my own troops could do, of course. It also proved that paratroopers could be effective, even with magic in the mix. Even if they needed to use magic to augment or replace their parachutes.

Most people did not consider just how risky it was for mortal beings to throw themselves out of a perfectly good plane with nothing but cloth on a string to keep them from Death’s sweet embrace. Even at the best of times, equipment failure or human error were possible hazards, but when wind and weather started acting up, the dangers naturally rose. The use of magic to help augment or replace a parachute during a drop could allow mortal paratroopers to alleviate much of the danger. Just having a weak shield of Wind mana to keep the air from blowing them around would increase safety dramatically, but thaumaturges who were trained as paratroopers were understandably rare, before the Unsealing, and there had not been any major conflicts since the Awakening to really test how effective they would be.

Of course, it also brought security concerns to light. If my knights could get to five kilometers out before being detected, then that meant mortals who knew how to suppress their mana output would be able to get to the ground practically unseen. That was great, if you were the attacking force. However, if you were on the receiving end, it was less than desirable, to say the least.

The problem was in finding a solution to the danger posed by magically-enhanced commandos infiltrating. Special forces that were literally invisible to the naked eye were something of a nightmare scenario for mortal forces. It would take far more to hide them from my troops, of course, since they could see the presence of living creatures even without eyes. And I had very deliberately not given anyone the spells to hide from undead eyes, so anyone else would need to develop those for themselves. But mortal defenders would not be so lucky.

The issue was that there was only so much you could do to lock down an area without the security becoming more problematic than the potential threat. It was possible to create wards that would block out any intruder, of course. However, those wards were so specific that you either needed specific tokens to pass the wards, or the caster needed to personally allow each person through. And the power required for them went up dramatically, the larger the warded area was.

Such measures were fine for high-security areas, like command centers, but even if one looked at the Pentagon in the US, there were simply too many people moving in and out each day. If you used the most stringent wards, then every cafeteria worker, every electrician, every delivery driver would need to be added to the wards, or be given tokens to get into the building. And the wards would have to be adjusted every time a new service member was stationed in the building, and again when they transferred elsewhere. Changing the wards so often was unsustainable, and adding all those tokens was a security risk in and of itself, just like giving out too many physical keys was just asking for one to get lost, or copied.

Of course, infiltrators had been an issue in the old world, as well. After all, barely a month after my class and I had been summoned, the Demon King managed to slip assassins into the royal palace of Athelia-that-was, and murder not just all of us nascent heroes-in-training, but the King himself! If there was a simple, or easy, answer to keeping out those who wished a nation or its ruler harm, then such a thing would never have happened in the first place.

The other world’s answer to infiltration had been multiple layers of weaker, more subtle wards. They were not designed to stop infiltration completely, but to slow it down, and give the defenders more time to spot and react to a threat. Useless against an army, where the weight of hostile action would overwhelm the wards, but against a team designed to sneak in? The subtle wards against theft, assault, and the like would keep most commandos out.

Even those wards weren’t perfect, naturally. The incident with my flagship in New York was proof enough of that. The first group got through the wards because they were not intending any theft, assault, or damage against me or mine, but wanted to put recording devices on my ship. However, that incident also proved what a defending force could do against such loopholes. After all, the infiltrators had been thwarted by my zombie megalodon on guard.

So, the solution was not to try and find one overwhelmingly powerful ability to solve against all threats, but to layer the different defenses in such a way that any intruder would have to carefully pick their way through, like someone trying to navigate a minefield on foot. It was impossible to make any security system so stringent that no one could get through. Even my strongest, most restrictive ward could be bypassed, if one had enough time, knowledge, and power to throw at it. However, the key to securing one’s facilities was to make it difficult and time consuming, so that anyone trying was likely to either slip up, and get caught, or take too long, and be discovered in the attempt.

And they weren’t talking about just magical protections, either. Infrared cameras, laser nets, vibration sensors, and more. Even just a normal camera side-by-side with a scrying sensor had benefits. Spells which made one invisible to sight did not always make one invisible to magical sensors, and vice-versus. There were spells like that, but they were more complicated, meaning that someone using them would be burning through their mana more quickly, and probably giving off a bigger magical signature, both of which made the rest of the infiltration more hazardous.

Maria, my vampire disciple, had some experience with circumventing security systems. Not surprising, considering the fact that she needed to find food. While there were people who romanticized vampires, they tended to fall into two camps: women who wanted the strong, heartthrob vampire man (or lady, depending on preferences) with a heart of gold to claim them in a primal way, and men who fantasized about seducing or dominating a powerful vampire lady and taming her. Oh, there were men in the first camp and women in the second camp, as well, and those who wanted to be the vampire, but when talking about interactions focusing on the human? Well, the two camps were the big ones. Which meant that any vampire that didn’t want to play into those stereotypes needed to hunt their food the old-fashioned way.

Vampires had some natural magical abilities, but this world’s version had not developed them too fully. However, they were clever with how they used their abilities, and were better able to deal with modern life. Maybe in time that would change, since the oldest vampires had only been undead for a few decades at most, and had lived with magic and technology their entire undead lives, but, for the moment, they lacked some of the differences in perspective vampires in media often had.

On the security front, Maria brought up the two biggest weapons she’d had in isolating and securing prey. The first was the ability to move in three dimensions. A bit of mana, used ‘naturally’, allowed her to climb walls and crawl across ceilings like a spider, avoiding many sensors that simply did not look up. Human systems, designed by humans, with human limitations on perspective.

Exploiting the human element was the second way she hunted, as well. if she could make eye contact with a human, then she could give subtle commands to them. Not to the level of full mind control, but more like the target ignoring their presence, or getting an urge to turn down an alleyway, out of sight. Or a simple order to relax, when the fangs bit down.

Such controls were small, in the grand scheme of things. Nothing like what science-fiction depicted when doing mind control. No Manchurian Candidate sleeper agents, or someone executing complex instructions while under mental domination. Such things were possible, with magic, but even in the other world, those were beyond a vampire’s typical skills. Their abilities were focused on getting food, not on being some kind of supervillain mastermind.

However, little things could add up to bigger effects. You did not need complex commands to encourage someone to prop the back door open while they had a smoke, or to just ignore the shadow passing behind them. Those were little things, that allowed bigger things to happen. Those were the real dangers, when dealing with magic and security. Which is why you had overlapping systems, because it took a lot more work to make the little things to make the big difference when you compared five systems to one, and if any of the little things failed, or went out of order, the whole thing failed.

Pantha nodded slowly. “So, what you’re saying is that we should focus our counter-infiltration work on the same things we have always done, but with the addition of magic? That’s fine for buildings, but what about guerillas or area denial?”

I shook my head, and said, “Denying an area to the enemy, or trying to force them into certain paths, is much the same as you would do with mundane technology. A minefield is not there to destroy every person walking through it. It is there to force people to move through channels that can be used as choke points or security checkpoints. A wall made of magic, or a series of contingent spells or other such things all accomplish the same thing, more or less.

“As for dealing with guerillas? Well, if they don’t have the support of the locals, you can hunt them down, and eliminate them, with the right tools. Those tools are the same as what you had before magic came about, along with other methods like scrying magic, or tracking magic.”

Almir’s eyes widened. “Like you used to spy on the rebels occupying the Seal of Wind, Mistress?”

“Correct,” I nodded. “The scrying spell I used there was focused on a place, rather than a person, but either is possible. However, you must have some kind of visual on the target, or have some connection to it. This is easier for locations, especially large, easily identified locations like ‘a mountain’ or ‘Beijing’, where a map and a couple pictures should be enough to solidify the image. That is a far cry from ‘the secret rebel base’ or the like, mind you. Unless you’ve been in the rebel base, and know its location. And trying to scry for individuals unless they are exceptionally powerful, or you have something of theirs, like a prized personal possession, or a finger, or something like that.”

“What about if the guerillas have the support of the people?” Pantha asked.

“Well, in that situation, you’re in trouble. The only easy methods to deal with them are to either remove the area that the guerillas are hiding in, or remove the population supporting them. If you’re not willing to annoy Geneva and their checklist, then you’re looking at lots of hard work, I’m afraid. Hearts and minds, and all that.”

“Your Majesty,” Kiya said, her eye twitching slightly, “I know the internet likes to play, but please don’t ever call it a checklist again. The joke gets lost when someone not only has the power to singlehandedly recreate parts of the list, but has openly admitted to using those tactics in the past.”

I sighed loudly, though there was a sparkle in my eye. “You’re no fun, Kiya-san.”