Chapter 92 - Final Preparations

Note : Chapters 93, 94 and 95 has been written and added to the queue !

I also have a new lore file for archivists, which will be posted tomorrow, pertaining to the City of Spires, the capital of the Eternal Empire.

Chapter 92

Starborn Mountains, Mount Nebula

Crash Site

"Status report." Asked Sapphiria as she leaned against the escape pod, gazing at the effervescent hive of activity that was her crash site.

"The new smelter is online and functioning within expected parameters." Said Cia, her projection appearing by her side. "The third's complex components are still on the queue, but it's primary casing is already undergoing assembly."

The AI nodded as she gazed at it. With those three online, she'd be able to completely stop using her pod's refinery for basic materials and alloys. That should give her a lot more production capacity in higher end hardware, and give her a ton of refined, basic metals to play with for her colonial fabricator. Maybe she could even get started in running cables up to the surface.

"The comm tower?"

"Components are assembled and ready to ship out."

"Good." She'd quickly realized that her artillery gun would be pretty useless in holding off the Bane if it could only fire while she was there.

So she was enacting the plan she'd made so long ago. Building a communication tower on top of the artillery outpost, and then a laser relay on the roof of the workshop.

it wasn't perfect, but there was no way to hide where the artillery was when it fired, and it should still camouflage her workshop's location somewhat. She would need to increase the bandwidth of her coms to the surface however. She had relays all the way up to the workshop, but they were pretty garbage.

"I have also begun analysis of the provided samples. There, uh...there were interesting anomalies with the provided tendrils."

Sapphiria immediately straightened.

"Gravitational anomalies?" She asked, hopeful. The tendril she'd cut off from the panther had come at great risk, but if it lead to antigravity...

"No ma'am. The analysis from the minilab seems to indicate it was not used to generate artificial gravity, but rather store energy?"

Sapphiria opened her mouth, then closed it.

"How much energy?"

The simulacrum quoted a range of numbers, and Sapphiria's eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

"That's...holy crap, that's more than the ready capacitors for the fucking plasma gun." And it was the most compact capacitor bank she had, the very best the Federation could offer. "In one tendril?"

"Yes ma'am."

Sapphiria's mind raced.

"We need to look into this further. Catalogue everything. If we can replicate this effect..." She trailed off. She could make her energy weapons work even without portable fusion reactors. Laser rifles, railguns...

If she could crack that, the sky was the fucking limit.

"Understood. Though, I must note that the sample was heavily degraded."

"I'm not blaming you. It was inevitable. Which reminds me, the blast door?"

"I have delayed cutting off a sample until the minilab is free."

"Good call." Sapphiria frowned. "I should probably ask Kalia about some mana, but...I'd probably have to admit that I don't know how to refine it." She sighed. "Which reminds me, I need to pull together some stuff. And you're going to help me workshop something."

Cia tilted her head.

"What do you require assistance with?"

"I've promised Kalia to tell her the truth. And I will. So you're going to help me put that explanation together. Everything else can wait a few hours." Except the monster bits, but they couldn't really affect the scanning. "First and foremost, let's start with explaining where I'm from to someone for whom their ancestors 'came from the sea'."

*****

"No, no no no. That sounds weird." Sapphiria walked back and forth in front of Cia.

They were firmly out of the 'what is the basic info we need to impart' and into the 'how do we impart it' stage, which in this case meant...well, school style roleplay, with Cia pretending to be Kalia.

"Ma'am, if I may?"

"Mmmhhh?"

The simulacrum stepped forward, putting herself on the AI's path, stopping her dead in her tracks. Their gazes locked. And the AI saw a...softness in them. A humanity she didn't think a simulacrum could have.

"With all due respect...the message isn't so much important as it being your words, spoken with sincerity. Rehearsing it and making it come out like a speech will only make it lose impact. You have the information you need to give her. How you do so, you will have to decide for yourself on the very moment. Thanks to your personal interactions, sincerity will help a lot more than any rehearsal ever could."

There was a pause, and Sapphiria slowly nodded.

"You're right." She sighed, and she knew her diminutive avatar visibly deflated, even with the armor on. "It's just that..."

"You are extremely nervous to be revealing you are the most alien thing they have ever encountered?"

The AI chuckled.

"Yeah." She took a deep breath. "Alright. Thanks, C."

"Anytime. Now, I believe you had put a reviewing of the reconnaissance data we have of Starfire Pass on the priority list?"

"Yes. We need to take a look at what we're facing, preferably before we deliver them a formal invitation to rumble via express delivery of one fifty five high explosive shells to the face."

She could have sworn the simulacrum suppressed a snicker.

"Of course ma'am. Let me pull up the sensor data."

*****

"Well, they definitely are very different forces." Said Alexandra as she reviewed the analysis. There wasn't just the data from the pass in there, but also every engagement with the Bane she'd had. "Even if only at the most surface of levels, the Hand only ever used skeletons, but those new guys, the Nineteenth legion, seems to prefer zombies as cannon fodder. Their regular troops are still skeletons though."

"Perhaps there was no avoiding that? They were presumably interred for thousands of years."

"Maybe. But then why did the Hand come back like that?"

"Resources? Embalming or preserving decaying biological flesh is easy with cryogenics technology, but perhaps it is complex for magic."

Sapphiria nodded.

"Good point." The Federation could conserve bodies indefinitely. There were actually a few worlds that had made it a kind of cultural tradition, like Arthurcia or Juner, where the dead were stockpiled in gigantic catacombs, kept in suspended animation. Sometimes living squishies joined them, preserved for eternity in ice. "They also seem to have a lot more intelligent undead, Risen was it? Among their troops. And they have none of the scale armor legionnaires the Hand did. Just the engineers in that getup." She tapped a few datapoints. "Their doctrine appears to be centered around heavy infantry assaults, supported by chaff and artillery. They have cavalry, but they've always held it back on the other side of the pass. Though that may simply be due to it being completely useless in this scenario. Which brings the question as to why they have some to begin with."

"Perhaps to sweep the valley?"

Sapphiria snorted.

"Their army would crush us anyway. But maybe. Maybe." She gazed at the data, holograms and estimates floating all around her. "They won't be able to respond in kind to our barrage. But we should make a few shrapnel rounds for the gun, just to clear out some of the zombies if they send another wave of them. And prepare for some kind of response. Their modus operandi seems to be to withdraw and probe out the enemy's capacities every time they're surprised, so it'll probably be slow, but they did attempt to bum rush the Hand at first, so clearly they're willing to just throw bodies at the problem in certain circumstances."

"Perhaps incendiary weapons would be called for? To block out a rush attack."

Sapphiria shook her head.

"You heard the scouts, the Hand snuffed out the fire they created in an instant. I'm not going to bet on the other side not having similar abilities. That's not even mentioning the fact that we don't know if it'll even stop the skeletons from just marching through. Plus, we don't have the schematics or the materials." She could make both, but it would be too costly for what she would get out of it. "Shrapnel shells will suffice for now, until we can bring more guns online. Speaking of, the ballistic simulations?"

"All done. There will need to be some field calibration, a gun's firing profile is never fully known until it has been shot, but even then the margin of error should be relatively small."

"Good. The sun should be coming up soon. I'll head topside, grab the snowpiercer, we'll install the turrets and set up the junkbots, then we can see about giving the Bane something new to think about."

*****

Click click click click, reverse.

The Hand stared at the trebuchet, mind racing.

It was nearing completion. The window of opportunity to do anything about it was closing.

And the Nineteenth knew it. That was why their fortifications were crowded, legionnaires elbow to elbow. Two, maybe even three maniples of infantry, with two of archers behind. It was flattering, in its own way.

The Hand leaned forward. Perhaps things were not hopeless. They would let their guards down after firing. Though those numbers were a problem. Maybe a double feint. First on the trebuchet, then the observers, as their cavalry screen was guaranteed to respond. Finally, back to the trebuchet.

Of course they might not fall for it and simply keep protecting the siege weapon, but at that point...well, the Hand would accept taking down a few officers with them, if victory wasn't possible.

The coin moved back and forth, rolling on their knuckles endlessly.

There could be a miracle. Reinforcements could arrive in the next few days. But that was unlikely.

This position was going to quickly become utterly untenable.

The Hand sighed. A last stand here, especially if it meant getting pounded into rubble with no way to fire back, would be pointless.

They could withdraw into the portions of the tunnel network they still had access to. Sure, the Nineteenth could just collapse the surface tunnel and seal their forces in, but there was no way the legion knew the access to the rest of the mines was blocked.

They would believe that the Hand and the rest of the undead would make a stand underground, where the advantage in numbers and artillery would be nullified. Possibly even planning to collapse the mines and interdict their use, like the rebels had done during their retreat.

The coin stopped rolling.

That was...a great idea. Of course, it would be fighting with their backs against the wall, but it wasn't like it was any better here.

It would also make the rebels the Nineteenth's problem now. The spotters the Hand had assigned had reported a lot of activity, some tree felling, and perhaps even some construction. Some kind of outpost, maybe? A fortification to prevent another assault upon their little town?

It was commendable. Useless, especially if...or let's face it, when the Nineteenth broke through, but commendable. They were hard at work still, returning at first light in the morning to busy themselves on their little fort.

Had these rebels' ancestors stayed loyal to the Empire, their distant descendants would have made magnificent, if stubborn, legionnaires.

Their project might also draw some attention away during the retreat underground. Of course at that point, defeat would be inevitable, but tunnel fighting would raise the cost of taking the valley considerably for the Nineteenth. Maybe enough for the reinforcements to dislodge them from the pass.

The Hand turned towards one of their bodyguards. Preparations had to be made. Every stockpile of equipment and tools they could not bring deeper in with them would have to be destroyed. There was no sense leaving anything the Nineteenth could use.

The second they realized what was happening however, they would attack. The Hand could buy some time with the double feint. Keeping the ballistas with their crews up would buy a few more minutes as well. It wasn't like they would have any use down in the tunnels, if they could even be transported down there to begin with. And they would hesitate to rush the artillery, try to guess where the trap was before committing.

Then-

This time, the Hand didn't have to get tackled by their bodyguards. They had learned some harsh, very harsh lessons fighting the rebel armies.

They were laying flat on the hard stone before the whistling sound of incoming artillery even consciously registered, their bodyguards immediately moving to protect them with their shields.

They heard the distant, flat whump of a cannon firing a second after the much harsher and closer explosion of its projectile detonating.

The Hand stood up, shrugging off the bodyguards, and looked over the parapet in complete disbelief.

There was a hole, straight in the middle of the Nineteenth's line. Legionnaires were scrambling, trying to reform their formations as Risen ran around, trying to take stock and figure out what had happened.

The Hand turned around, towards the valley.

All they could see was a small cloud of smoke drifting above the rebel outpost.

Then it parted, a tongue of flames hammering through it like a dragon's breath.

Oh sweet merciful throne, the rebels had HOWITZERS?!?