Chapter 389 - Morpheus

Note :

Construction might drag on for even longer than expected, thanks to more bullshit. I might honesty return to my place regardless of if its still going on, provided that the noise is at a bearable level. Because this is just INSANE. There's talks of it dragging into 2026 because of the bureaucrats' demands (I kid you not, they are asking for every window to be removed and repainted because they don't like the specific shade of the paint, these people are NUTS).

Also, some of you were getting antsy I'd glossed over a pretty important story event last time. Don't worry, as you will be able to see here, I am most definitely not.

I hope you'll enjoy !

Chapter 389

Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire

Dungeon Factory, Conference Room

"-their primary force concentrations may have been destroyed, but they have attempted to reinforce minor outposts via air." Said the advisor as he tapped the holographic map. His mustache looked incongruous on a vampire, and it positively wobbled every time he spoke. Alexandra idly wondered if the old general look was deliberate, and if it was normal that so many of the advisors seemed to have some kind of military experience. Because so far, Emilia 'I am an innocent sweet mage' seemed to be the exception and not the rule. "Thankfully there are no hardcore isolationists in the south of the continent, but it is highly likely that at least one dungeon out of the 'neutrals' is giving them some level of support. Even if there wasn't, they don't seem to be willing to let the area fall out of their grasp completely."

"They wish to keep a beach head." Simply said Alexandra, as she looked around the room. The table wasn't as heavy on the food and drink as it usually was, but it was replete with holographic projectors, screens and tablets. For all their faults, the vampires were at least refreshingly au fait with various technologies, though most of them were arcane in origin. "That much is obvious. To open a second front if I march on Tivaro, possibly. The question is, can they? Do they have the forces to do it?"

"Not through airborne means." Answered another advisor. She looked young...and tired in the way only someone who had lived and experienced far too much could ever be. Ghost could probably relate. "Their air reserves are in the final stages of being brought back online, but they're either preparing to move to Tivaro or deploying to counter our own air assets." Alexandra nodded. The isolationists were technically more numerous, and had access to more 'legacy' assets of the UDC's common military program, but they were also less militarily active to begin with and generally had far worse relations with their immediate surface dwellers, at least when it came to troop movements. Most of their airships would be tied up just allowing them to act, since you could block the path of a ground column but it could be very hard to stop an airship without shooting it down, a step most nations weren't willing to take...yet.

"What about waterborne ones?" Everyone turned towards Emilia, who shrugged. "I mean, Arkhan has a lot of coastline."

"They...might have expected to be able to land troops, and perhaps even form an alliance with Tark, had it attacked the Senate and started taking land, drawing the New Republic and thus you into the fight. But that's out of the window." The young yet tired advisor -Mistay, if Alexandra remembered correctly- said. No one commented on how weird it was for the isolationists to rely on surface alliances for their strategy. Nor how mad it would be to try to approach Tark after having helped Sunrise of all people. The isolationists, after all, had done stupider things before. "Maybe they could land in the wildlands?"

"Maybe." Said the first advisor who had spoken, his mustache wobbling like a startled squirrel. Was that thing even real or just poorly glued on? "In any case, that is going to tie down our capacity down south for a while. That means you can only rely on Uron for your march on Tivaro, I'm afraid."

Alexandra nodded. Uron was the dungeon core of Sarth, and just about the only dungeon core whom she had something approaching real discussions with and not effectively sending war correspondance to via proxy. It was kind of...dehumanizing, in a way.

No wonder the UDC has encouraged council meetings where you had to show up via avatar or at least a hologram thereof. It was probably vital for their esprit de corp once the war was over. To see the other dungeon cores as fellows and people and not just some name on a letter.

"That is unfortunate. But, not unexpected, sadly." To say the least. Until she had wrapped up the real reason for inviting all these vampires over, she couldn't trust or rely on any of their dungeons. Even if they had offered her help, she would have had to deflect or delay it until she could have a modicum of faith in them not turning into bloodthirsty abominations at the push of a button. "Fortunately, I do have considerable experience making it on my own."

"Will you? There have been...considerable questions as to what will happen when you march on Tivaro, related to the Aurorean Empire and its military." Said Kaliver, Emilia's aunt. "Will it assist you? Will you be acting as a separate actor or will the Empire formally join your campaign, even if only in words?"

Alexandra had to hold back a grimace. Theeeeere it was. The overly huggy woman had been waiting for her moment, hadn't she? Though in a way, it was doing her a favor.

"As you all know, I have a comprehensive military alliance with the Archduchy of Rebirth. This alliance has transfered over to the Empire, and-"

"I'm sorry, has?" Interrupted Mistay. "The documents for the formation of the Empire itself haven't even been drafted."

"Yes. Has." Alexandra pressed a button on the table -superfluous, but theatrics was in her code-, and holographic documents appeared over the table. "When war is already upon the Empire as it is being created, ensuring coherent military command is paramount."

There was total, absolute silence as they gazed at the documents.

"Why, exactly, did the Empress not mention during her many declarations that you, Crystal of the Dungeon Factory, are the lady general of the Empire's armed forces and minister of war?" Said Kaliver, and this time her voice was deadly, deadly cold.

"Because I have, in effect, been Rebirth's for the past year or so, including the entirety of the Asarian civil war, also known as the largest and deadliest conflict on this continent for decades."

"...This isn't intervening on the surface." Said Mistay, shock clear in her voice. "This is merging with the surface."

"Precisely." Said Alexandra, nodding towards the vampire as if she'd just done her a favor. "And that, my dear advisors, is why I have gathered you here." A lie, but an excellent cover for her actual purpose. "The farce of keeping my dungeon and the archduchy separate as entities was just that, a farce. I have been working with Allya for months, and the pretense that there should be an insurmountable wall between dungeons and the people who depend on us for their very lives must be removed." It had been a useful tool. A very useful tool. And she would be lying if she said she hadn't considered keeping it in reserve. But truth be told, now was the time to drop the pretenses and put some cards down on the table. Not only would that enable her to simplify their internal logistics and military structure considerably, but it would also deliver one hell of a kick into the Guild's little anthill, one she desperately needed. Their security was too tight, and though her drones were ready, she needed them to slip up at home to find out what had happened to those weapons before they used them.

Plus...it was a farce. Keeping it up would only damage her and Allya's reputation. This was pulling off the bandaid. A great shock in the short term, but much better than the slow and agonizing alternative.

The advisors stared at her in shock.

Then the one for Eternia started to laugh. Laugh and slap the table.

Alexandra could guess why. Her dungeon core had fought for centuries to be able to be more open about her surface alliances, and been stymmied at every turn by the UDC.

Meanwhile she had just wandered in, and in a little over two years, overturned the entire taboo, effectively annexing an entire continent along the way.

Because, as many knew...whoever controlled the army usually controlled the country. It was why all the larger countries on Earth were very, very careful to make their head of state the supreme commander of the armed forces. The one whom, push came to shove, the troops should be loyal to.

Allya was still the Empress. And she was, in theory, the end of the chain of command.

But no one was under any illusion of whom the golems would obey if Alexandra went against her.

Of course, Allya was highly aware of that, and unlikely to betray Alexandra for a great deal many reasons. Their alliance may have started out of pragmatism and whims of circumstance, but they were very much friends now. Among other things.

"You never do things by half, do you?" Said Kaliver, softly.

Alexandra very pointed laid her hand over Emilia's on the table, squeezing it, meeting her girlfriend's gaze as she smiled widely.

"No. I don't."

As she expected, a shiver went through the room. Some of it was unease, but mostly resignation.

Deep down, many of them had expected her to pull some kind of stunt here, especially after Allya's announcements. And they were all aware of her relationship with Emilia.

"I assume there are plans for dungeon integration into the Empire?"

Alexandra smiled, and pulled out a very much physical, and bordering on the comically large folder, slamming it on the table.

"Some thought has been put into it. How do you all feel about you and your cores joining the nobility?"

*****

"Most of them have gone to sleep." Said Ghost, as Alexandra entered the operations center, Emilia and her maids in tow. "Including our first candidate."

Deciding the first target had been a complex matter. As tempting as it was to try it on their key allies first, it would be better to target someone less likely to be watched. If something went wrong, there would be a marginally lower likelyhood of detection.

That was, of course, if the 'wrong' wasn't 'the neutralizer killed them', at which points things would get rather complicated very quickly.

"Good. They all had a long day." Alexandra looked over her shoulder at the vampires, and raised an eyebrow. "Before we begin..."

Emilia grabbed the dungeon core's hand, and squeezed it, echoing her gesture earlier in the day.

"You don't need to ask. I helped you perfect it. I know why it has to be done."

The dungeon core slowly nodded, and looked over the maids, who shrugged.

"Better a little neutralizing than slavery." Said Sarah.

"And if the false Gods don't realize they've been stabbed before their entire body falls apart, all the better." Whispered Ella, her hand twitching like she wanted to grab one of her daggers but was barely restraining herself.

"...Right." The dungeon core took a deep breath as she looked at the hologram in the center of the room, then at Ghost. "Do it."

"Morpheus is go." Said the apparition into a completely superfluous headset.

And in the hologram, the stealth golem sprang to life.

They could have set everything in the rooms before the vampires ever came in, but they would have almost certainly swept their rooms. And even if they hadn't, the maids, for those who had some accompanying them, would have.

Overall, not worth the risk. Especially not when they controlled the entire environment.

The golem scuttled into the room and below the bed.

Ghost flipped a switch, and gazed at Alexandra, who nodded.

The apparition took a deep breath, and pressed the big, red 'initiate' button, as Seraph stood by to hit the self destruct.

Alexandra felt it in the back of her mind, like the hum of a reactor. Unlike every other piece of equipment they had, the modified neutralizer was directly wired into her network, drawing from her computational power.

In the end, it was the only way they could ensure things went smoothly. After all, if an alarm tripped...well, they were screwed anyway. Might as well risk a direct network interface. Death by orbital bombardment, death by killcode attack...all the same, really.

The neutralizer finished initializing...and began its work.

Emilia's hand tightened further on Alexandra's. Even with their hivemind severred, their connection remained stronger than ever before, and they could feel each other's worry.

It was nerve wracking. Slowly, bit by bit, the sleeping vampire's body began to change. Nanites, given new instructions, rebuilt neurons, disguised as routine maintenance and cell regeneration protocols. That was why it had to be while they slept, when the nanomachines went into their neural repair subroutines. For obvious reasons, starting to tinker with brains and neurons wasn't a good idea while the individual was awake and conscious, even for advanced, partially magical nanotech.

Alexandra cringed as time went on. It was like watching neural surgery live, except the patient had a nuke in their damned head, and if you did the wrong move you would suddenly have a very happy time in your new existence as thermal radiation and high energy particles.

Finally, the system reported the changes were finished, and all held their breaths.

There was a ping. Or rather, a slight alteration in the background noise the vampires emitted. They couldn't risk much more than this.

It wasn't long. But you didn't need long at all to send all the data you needed for a status report.

SIMULATION: OK

CODE BARRIER: OK

ADV/KILLSWITCH: KO

BERSERKER: KO

ALL CLEAR

Alexandra almost collapsed as the message code burst was finally decrypted and displayed in her interface.

One down. Twenty four more to go.