Chapter 88 - Ambush!

Note :

So it begins...

Also I'm starting to feel bone deep tired. Fucking hell it just hit me at once.

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter !

Chapter 88

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Wilderness

"This'll do." Said Sapphiria, as she looked over the area. "We can clear it pretty quickly. And trees are less dense than at the other site. Better sightlines for the defenses."

Gregor grunted.

"Great. Because it's also the closest one to the pass."

"That also helps. Shorter ranges means more accuracy. Less time to hit the target."

"Goes both ways. They can launch an attack and be on top of it much faster.

"Agreed. But honestly...if they're in a position to attack it, we're fucked anyway." Her plan to have a fire magnet were long gone. If that army punched through, she wouldn't be able to stop it.

Maybe if she overloaded her armor's power core, but...she doubted they'd send all of their forces into the valley at once. And if the mountains hadn't collapsed into the pass from orbital bombardment, they wouldn't care the slightest bit about a reactor overload, so plugging it was out.

"Good point. So, should we mark it for a logging expedition?"

"Yeah. And I need to figure out how to ship the howitzer here."

"Why not use the snowpiercer?"

"Barrel won't fit in the cargo hold."

"Just lash it on top." Gregor shrugged as she glanced at him. "You're going to set off literal explosions into it. If it can't take some tree branches..."

"Deflagration. You want a deflagration for the propellant." Subsonic explosion, effectively. It was why you used gunpowder and not TNT to fling shells. Otherwise you'd just blow it up. "But that's fair enough." She looked up as she got pinged.

"Little birdie back?"

"Yep." She reached out her hand, and the drone flittered through a hole in the canopy, before landing on her palm.

She immediately began the download, and-

Oh.

"Well. I can answer a question already." She said out loud, still running through the data.

"Which is?"

"What our dear attackers...what did you call them again?"

"Nineteenth legion. Tough sons of bitches. I never served with them, though we were technically in the Arda campaign together, just never crossed paths."

"Right. You'll have to tell me about that someday." She was so distracted she didn't even realize how terrible of an idea it was to invite another one of the skeleton's endless stories. "But I know what they're up to."

She gestured, projecting a hologram through her armor.

"Is that...a trebuchet?"

"Yep. A big one."

"That's..."

"Strange?"

"Yeah. We've never seen the Bane do this. Trebuchets were invented during the Age of Fury. When the Empire was falling apart, and the legions started transitioning to scale armor."

"I did see some legionnaires in scale armor."

"Yeah, but part of the horde. Never of the maniples or actual organized forces."

Sapphiria blinked. That was...actually true. The heck?

"They use them as cannon fodder?"

"As far as I can tell."

Sapphiria frowned, and checked the hologram, before snapping her fingers, pointing at it.

"There!" The hologram zoomed in, showing a small knots of skeletons, wearing light scale armor. "Those?"

Gregor leaned forward, and nodded.

"Siege engineers alright. But they're not Nineteenth legion." He gave the definite impression of frowning. "They're not...any unit I know actually. Someone defaced their markings."

"Interesting. But that explains how they're making these."

"And makes it weirder. The Hand always treated Age of Fury troops like disposable trash."

"Maybe that's why they're trying to kill each other." Sapphiria quipped, and Gregor stopped.

"That's...actually, might be a reason." He shook himself, before looking up. "The sun will be going down soon. Can you do your thing while we go home?"

"Absolutely."

"Then let's go. This valley is getting downright inhospitable around sundown, and my bones are too old for a force march in the dark."

The AI chuckled, but followed the skeleton as he started jogging back.

"Come on, you don't look a day over one hundred."

The former legionnaire laughed.

"Given your age, I'll take that as a genuine compliment. But seriously. The monsters that tried to slink around town aren't the only ones. We've already halved logging expeditions to concentrate our guards. They'll only get bolder."

"Then we'll just have to thin them out."

"You just came back from a trip to a Convergence, and you are already hungering for more?"

Sapphiria smiled.

"It's what I do."

"Killing monsters?"

"Saving people."

The skeleton looked over his shoulder, and slowly nodded.

"So I see. I guess they don't call you Hero for nothing."

"Hey, you're the ones who slapped that label on me."

"Kalia did." The skeleton picked up the pace. "Now come on. You have celebrations to attend to, and I have sentries to yell at for not paying enough attention."

The AI opened her mouth for a retort, but it simply died on her lips. She was about to invite him to join them for the fun, but Kalia's words came back to mind.

An eternity...not alive, but not quite dead either. Animate, certainly. But unable to eat? Drink? Feel someone's touch?

Stars, she'd go insane. There was a reason her mom had built the first ambassador androids, meant to fully emulate human beings.

Granted, one of those reasons was 'I want to squish my squishies and vice versa', but still. Even AIs couldn't shake the roots of their neural patterns.

There was no telling how hard it would be for an actual human who then lost all of that.

But perhaps...

Perhaps she could make a solution for that. If you could preserve your neural patterns in your skeleton, maybe it could be transferred somewhere else. Like an android.

Maybe.

It was a long way off though. For now, she had to focus on the problems at Hand. Gregor had waited centuries, according to Kalia. He could wait a bit more while she saved everyone else.

*****

Click click click click, reverse.

The Hand watched as the observers returned. They seemed...agitated.

Curious.

Their cavalry screen was leaner this time. Positioned to be able to move around the sides of their own fortifications in the pass, and support the infantry already there.

They were still zombies however. Not imperial equites.

The observers went into the pass, then stopped. One of them pointed upwards. There was another debate. Clearly they were trying to hammer something out. A dispute? A disagreement on what they'd seen?

Better keep them from settling down then.

The Hand calmly, deliberately, walked to one of the ballistae, pocketing the coin, and picked up one of the stone spheres from the pile of ammunition besides them.

The effect was gratifying. There was a cry, and the observers hastily began pulling back, as the cavalry started moving forward, the infantry closing ranks behind the makeshift fortifications protecting the trebuchet.

They weren't about to take chances again. Interestingly enough, they didn't keep some of the cavalry back as meatshields. Trusting in one's wards was a good idea, but only relying on them was stupid.

The Hand watched them go, then put the stone back onto its pile, and went back to observing the pass.

Something had rattled them. Beyond the little coup with the ballistae.

Perhaps not everything was going their way on the other side? No...they came to the pass specifically because they thought whatever it was came from here.

The Hand turned towards one of their bodyguards.

"Go make the rounds with the sentries. I want to know if anything is out of place."

The bodyguard saluted, and left, as the Hand went back to staring at the pass.

They had the terrible, terrible feeling that something was about to happen again.

Something wicked this way comes...

They turned. Better pull out some artifacts from their personal chest. Just in case.

*****

They returned to Astralis to find the festivities warming up. People were still at the 'clumping together for small talk' phase, but it would get going soon. Especially now that an ad-hoc group of musician had started playing, and the bolder amongst the crowd were dragging their partners to the metaphorical dance floor.

Gregor delivered Sapphiria to the heart of the town to a wave of cheers, and then unceremoniously dumped her to go see if the soldiers patrolling the perimeter were doing their jobs or not. Of course, they didn't need to be thanks to the turrets, but they might spot a stealth monster the sensor net had failed to.

The AI did her best to circulate a bit, the way her mom had taught her to, but it was hard. She had no real connection to these people. Well, she did, but there was a vast chasm between them. She didn't understand their culture, their references. She dared not use hers.

And more importantly, they all treated her like Athena come down from Olympus to take a walk on the Acropolis.

Her old fallback point of hiding near the buffet wasn't an option either. Most of it was nutrigel, mixed with spices, and she had to hide a shudder of revulsion when she got near it.

I really need to make some proper food once the pass is secure.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Mmmhhh.

So, the eternal fallback. Getting near the drink bowl, which was...it wasn't punch, that was for sure. And the goblets were metal ones, the kind you got in a mess kit. But it actually had something of a kick, and tasted...

She squinted at it. Was it...did these fuckers ferment and distil liquor from spiced nutrigel?!?

"Sapphi!"

The AI turned, and smiled as the crowd parted, letting Kalia through. Trying very, very hard to keep her eyes on the taller woman's eyes and not her exquisite purple dress and its generous amount of cleavage on display.

"Hey Kali." She smiled. "Provided we're at the nickname stage."

"Oh." Kalia colored. "Did I call you..."

"Yes. Yes you did. What can I do for you, oh fearless leader?"

The mage-magistrate cleared her throat.

"I wanted to ask if you'd care to join me for a debriefing of what you found...privately."

Sapphiria's eyebrow rose as she set her goblet aside.

"I mean sure, I-" She stopped as Kalia put a finger on her mouth, shutting her up instantly.

"But first..." Kalia extended her hand. "A dance?"

Sapphiria blushed, and gestured at her armor.

"I didn't...bring a dress."

The mage-magistrate giggled.

"I know, silly. But some Imperial dances expect one of the partners to be in armor." Sapphiria boggled at that. The fuck?

"I...don't know any of them?"

"Then let me teach you."

Her voice was warm. Husky. Everyone was staring.

Sapphiria felt her cheeks color even further...and took Kalia's hand.

Her pod's atomic clock insisters it was only about fifteen minutes. But it felt like two or three centuries.

The dance was a kind of slow waltz, with one partner dancing around the armored one in the more vigorous parts. Thankfully, she was able to avoid the classic blunder of stepping on her girlfriend's foot, thanks to her own programs and the armor's own collision avoidance protocols.

It wasn't long before the AI found herself pressed against the mage-magistrate, and she swore the music shifted to a slower, more intimate beat. A few more alarm bells rang in the depths of her mind, but she didn't care. She couldn't. Kalia's smell was intoxicating, and right now the only thing she wanted to do was bury her head in her partern's dress.

Though, of course, given their height difference, it would mean more or less putting her head in Kalia's chest.

Win win...

She shook the impulse off before she could give in. Thankfully, Kalia ended up dragging her off the dance floor before her senses and reason gave out completely.

"Now we can go debrief." Said the mage-magistrate, smiling, and Sapphiria followed her into the central building, both of them darting out of the party, somehow being seen by everyone, yet utterly ignored. It was like everybody was looking the other way with over the top whistling.

More alarm bells.

Sapphiria realized too late where they were going. She was too busy following Kalia, and snapping her gaze back up whenever it drifted downwards...and the way Kalia snuck glances over her shoulder, she knew exactly what she was doing. The minx.

Finally, she blinked as they stopped. That wasn't the council room. It was-

Kalia swung the doors to her dining room open. And the AI suffered a system failure.

Where...how had she found scented candles? Wineglasses? Oh sweet stars.

The alarm bells finally rang fully into her mind.

AMBUSH!

But it was far, far too late.