Chapter 396 - Stealth Ops

Notes : Chapters 397, 398, 399 and 400 have been written and added to the queue !

I'd have added 401 too, but my brother invited me over today. Which...is probably for the best, given how much I've written. All those were written within 24 hours, I think. I'll need to take a break after this. Nevertheless, 401 should be the final chapter of the novel or near enough.

I hope you'll enjoy !

Chapter 396

Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire

In Flight above the Wasteland

Alexandra took in a deep breath as the drone flew over the wasteland.

She had adamantium. Not the means to produce it industrially, but adamantium nonetheless.

That opened a lot of possibilities. Possibilities she, fortunately, had subbordinates to handle since this was a task she couldn't delegate.

She'd had to bring back the previous drone to be able to send in the new one. She simply didn't have enough focus to split with the stealth golem on top of it. It was currently being serviced and readied for Ghost's...backup plan.

Alexandra didn't like it. But push came to shove she wasn't going down without a fight, and even if it was a slim chance it was better than none at all!

She would survive this. Her friends and family would too. She had stealth shuttles, escape pods and teleporters linked to her branch offices. She could evacuate at any moment. Press a button and within thirty seconds everyone she cared about would be out of harm's way.

But that would leave Rebirth, and her main dungeon, to be completely destroyed.

And she couldn't allow that. Not just because for once she was slightly ahead of the curve, but also because she cared about those people. So did Allya. They'd built up Rebirth, the both of them in their own way, and they would die before they allowed it to burn.

Her gaze barely flicked as she received the ping. Same IFFs as last time. All moving.

Good. They were between sites. That gave her some time to prepare.

She moved the drone into a paralllel course to catch up with them. She'd rather approach from the side than the front or back, both spots where all of their sensors would be trained, to watch for forces from Rebirth or the thing trailing them.

*****

The thing that shocked Alexandra the most when she 'joined' the expedition fleet wasn't the fact that they had Old World missiles and not the sensors that came with them, allowing her to fly so close to them she could have read the names on the ships' hulls with her bare eyes had she cared to put herself on the drone.

It was how calm everybody was.

On the ships, the crew -a mix of what looked like expeditionary personel and the guild's private army- were working with smooth, practiced efficiency.

Either they had trained extensively for this, which was weird since everything was so rushed.

Or this wasn't their first rodeo.

That...created a lot of questions.

She watched as they began to ready for landing.

It was her first time seeing the guild's private army in person. She knew they had one. But unlike the merchant guild or WMC's troops she'd glimpsed at Darthar, there had been none present anywhere near her. Actually, as far as she could tell, no one had any real ideas where they were quartered and how. Rumors swirled that they were a kind of minuteman, fading into the crowd of adventurers, but ready to take up arms at a moment's notice.

If that was the case, then her plan to stamp out their forces in Rebirth was going to turn bloody indeed.

Not like she had any better options. She simply couldn't take the risk of betting on a first strike on their weapon stockpiles being a hundred percent succcessful. Provided Elkaryos hadn't lied nor that he had missed a safehouse. Plus, if she were the guild, she'd have other sites beyond the Syndicate's, though they were extremely well hidden and presumably considered to be a place Allya wouldn't loook at too closely to avoid upsetting the dark elves.

Abruptly, the ships began to descend, clearly in a well rehearsed maneuver. One went into high guard, two dove for the ground, while the two remaining medium transports moved into a holding pattern.

It was a different transport than last time that went down. Presumably they were emptying them of the necessary scrap for their little setup, one by one.

It didn't matter, as soon as she saw where the big transport was landing, she dropped the stealth golem.

It was tempting. Oh so tempting to have put it on the ships while in flight. But that would have been asking too much of the landing system.

Besides, why brave the security of their ship when they were going to roll out what she came here for all on their own?

The golem hit the ground soft as a feather, its repulsor systems going dormant as it scuttled towards where the mirage tank would park. One advantage to having a well drilled foe, is that they became predictable.

Like clockwork, the transport's ramp dropped, and the tanks came rolling out. Or, more accurately, floated above it.

Now...there was the tricky part. The repulsors she'd made were stealthy, and she'd upgraded the stealth golem with more active measures to hide itself. Not quite cloaking, not even near that, but good enough for this purpose.

But she didn't want to fire up repulsors next to AA batteries that were specifcially calibrated to hunt them down. That meant doing it before they deployed, without tripping the mirage tank's collision avoidance systems.

She raised the golem up on the air, clamping itself on the underside of the tank as it passed by.

Alexandra froze for a second, listening through the golem's senses for any alerts, any unusual activity.

Noting.

The dungeon core sighed in relief, and the golem started scuttling towards one of the maintenance hatches.

Unlocking it was easy. The tank wasn't in combat mode, and she had Seraph's maintenance codes. Plugging into the hatch's wiring and telling it this was a regular operation, no need to warn anyone, please and thank you, was easy.

Moving into it was harder. The maintenance crawlspace was infested with loose wiring and foreign objects.

Patchwork repairs, thought the dungeon core, as she gave them a critical look. They didn't have the proper tech or parts to keep it operational, so they replaced what broke with what they could.

How long had this tank been operating? Were these repairs the guild's, or had it been recovered during the Great Night?

So many questions, and so few answers...

She moved the golem through the maintenance access, and picked up the interior of the vehicle proper.

As expected. Two pilots, handling the tanks's systems, trying to keep it up. Only the most primitive of controls were still installed, everything requiring implants or, more importantly, identification systems having been ripped out.

Still, the drivers operated it smoothly. Given the fact that the tank was supposed to more or less drive itself in normal operations, and the operator just had to point it where to go, it was a fairly impressive feat. Tank drivers were trained for manually piloting the thing, she'd seen it with her own eyes on Alpha Centauri, but that didn't mean they were proficient with it, just that it could be done in a pinch.

She moved the golem into the main compartment, and started climbing. No tank commander, the chair was empty. Not a big surprise, they were probably being fed targeting data from somewhere else. Given the wiring plugged into the console, that seemed likely.

She entered the turret proper, and stopped.

Okay.

Maybe her assumption about targeting data was wrong.

Because, wired directly into the gun controls and IFF emitter, her objective, was a softly glowing crystal.

An AI core.

Shit.

*****

Alexandra felt like she stared at the AI core for an eternity, that her internal chronometer insisted was only a handful of seconds.

That...was unexpected. As far as she could tell, subborning Old World AIs just wasn't done on Alcheryos. Not only because it would be incredibly difficult even for those who knew how to, but also because everyone hated these things and nobody trusted them.

But...if there was one group, besides the Church and the Order of course, who would be able to do it, it was the guild. After all, they'd been a the spearhead of salvaging Old World tech since the very start.

She moved around, trying to see how tightly connected it was to the IFF.

The answer was 'very'. No way to interact with just the transmitter, she'd had to deal with the AI.

Once again, shit.

She ran through the options. A direct code attack was technically feasible, but she didn't have the bandwidth or the processing power on the drone to take out a local AI. She'd have to dive straight for the transmitter, and pray the AI didn't just crush her instantly. She could physically disconnect it, the golem had a toolkit, thanks to its start as a modified maintenance drone, but that would almost certainly make it self destruct.

That was one of the issues with this damned thing. Officially it was in the turret because it was the highest point of the tank, but in truth it was because if the Mirage lost its gun, everyone onboard was dead. Freaking thing was wired directly into the reactor core, the laser was fusion pumped and-

Oh.

She could make a feint. She knew those tanks' internal architecture. Not to the level of a Glimmer or Dawnstar-class starship, but she'd worked on them, and yes, cowered behind them as the laser reduced platoons of UIS power armor to atoms.

She was going to need that toolkit. Her original plan was out. Discreetly broadcasting the IFF warning was a no go, the AI would notice it, if not be able to reverse it altogether and broadcast an all clear. She needed to use the IFF and blow up the tank.

Maybe there were AIs onboard the ships to confirm they were 'real' as well, but even if they did, the sand kraken was liable to go take a look, and realize that those lumbering airships sure as hell weren't hypersonic interceptor crafts as their beacons claimed.

And even if she failed? They'd have no evidence besides a poorly maintained reactor, maybe a few panic pings before the tank because a burned out hulk, belching plasma.

Too bad she couldn't nuke the expedition with it. But the reactor was specifically designed not to have that kind of catastrophic failure. It could blow up, but not have the kind of runaway reaction a starship fusion core would. If nothing else it lacked the sheer size to do it, and no one would have used it as a battle tank if it could blow up like that to begin with, let alone use it to support infantry assaults.

"Alright." She mentally said to herself. "Stay cozy my little friend. I just need to tweak a few things in your reactor core."

She idly wondered how Ghost was doing on her end.

*****

"Bingo." Said the apparition as she gazed at the images.

Elkaryos had actually come through. Those three safehouses he'd designated were packed with hardware.

The remaining two were empty enough she was certain they were being held as staging grounds.

"What do we do?" Asked Emilia. The vampire looked far more nervous than usual, probably because Alexandra was almost incommunicado.

"We take them out. Ella, Sarah, Subtlety. That's your job. You need to take out those stockpiles."

The maids bowed, as the AI gave a more restrained nod.

"It shall be done." Said Ella, her voice soft, but her eyes gleaming with barely restrained hatred. "What of acceptable collateral damage?"

Ghost hesitated.

If those weapons were used, who knew how many would die, but...

She couldn't just order them to indiscrimently destroy the area.

Could she?

It was the right thing to do.

She shook herself as she felt Emilia's hand on her shoulder, and her eyes met the vampire advisor's.

"Limit it if you can." Said the vampire, softly. "But push comes to shove, we need to blow them up before they're in their hands, or many more will die."

"Of course, young lady. We will work something out." The maids, sensing that now was the time to go, left with the AI in tow, leaving the two alone.

"...Thanks." Said Ghost.

"No problem."

They stayed there, in comfortable silence, until Ghost cleared her throat.

"I need to review what the stealth golems found in the wrecks with Seraph. Then we have our scheduled update from Alex."

"I'll come with you."

"Are you sure?"

The vampire shrugged.

"My fellows can handle themselves for a bit. They're free now, thanks to you, though they don't know it."

"Not all of them are. Not yet." Cautionned the apparition. They'd planned in doing it in a handful of nights, but so much had happened... There were only so many things they could juggle at once. Besides, the advisors weren't going anywhere for now. They could wait for a bit. "But yeah...Alright. Let's go see how screwed we are."