Chapter 381 - Et tu, Explorator ?

Note :

Hopefully this doesn't feel rushed, because I'm trying to get things moving. And yes, the title just popped into my mind unbidden and I couldn't get it out of my head. Is it correct ? Almost certainly not. Is it funny ? Hopefully.

Chapter 381

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"Nothing." Said Alexandra. "Are you certain?"

Glitch nodded.

"No combat personnel. Plenty of artificers have been moved in by the guild, many with expertise in Old World weaponry, but no one to wield them."

"And no one has been training on those either." Said Raika. Alexandra's former party leader shrugged as the dungeon core gazed at her. "We may not be 'trustworthy' to the leadership, but adventurers talk. And besides where would they even make it happen? There's not really an underground firing range or anything."

"That's true." Alexandra grimaced. "Which means we're missing something."

The guild may be desperate but they weren't stupid. Just handing the guns to people who didn't know what to do with them would be a disaster in every way imaginable. And they probably had enough accidents over the years with people attempting to use stuff they'd just salvaged off of ruins to know more about it than she did. She was missing something...

Reinforcements, maybe? But how? She, or rather Allya, controlled the trade route. There were tight checks in place in Darthar and Erakis for anyone looking to venture to Rebirth, and regular checks to make sure someone wasn't just building another insurgency in either of the cities. Then how-

It hit her.

The wasteland.

Like an idiot, she'd assumed anyone coming from her would have to do so along the trade route. But why would they? The guild ran almost all wasteland expeditions. Shit, Rebirth existed in the first place because Elkaryos and Starvak had wrangled some of those expeditions into going with Allya. Expeditions that were meant to be out of contact, and could just stay in the field for months, even years.

Expeditions no one would blink at being late or taking forever to come home. A force one could mass over time, with no eyes to see.

She opened her mouth to snap out some orders, then stopped.

She could order the blackbirds out but...the guild would know about them. Sunrise sure did, and she didn't believe for a second that there hadn't been plenty of sharing between the two. The risk of tipping them off was too great.

Drones? She could deploy them under the cover of the carriers going through testing trials. They didn't have blackbirds, she'd decided not give the Republic any and had never reversed that decision after deciding to keep command of the vessels, but those drones would never make it that far in the wasteland.

She needed a new recon solution. Maybe even something that could engage the guild's forces out there.

She turned towards Glitch.

"I need you to get me Ghost and Subtlety." She smiled at Raika. "Sorry, about to do some serious engineering here. Time to get a think tank together for some accelerated construction."

"That's fine. Can I...watch? I've heard a lot about you and all the wonders you've built. I'd like to see how they're born."

Alexandra hesitated, then nodded. Why not? She'd have to restrict some of the stuff they said, but she could afford that.

"Sure."

"What will you be working on?"

The AI gestured, and scan data appeared above the hologram projector, coalescing into a single aircraft.

The stealth drone that had crashed into her mesa fortress, luring the Hammer of Eternity to Rebirth.

It was high time she started using her tech outside of her mesa again.

*****

"Welcome, ambassador." Said Allya as she extended her hand.

The woman in front of her smiled and squinted slightly, making her disconcertingly slightly white pupils move in ways that were subtly unnatural.

Neonites, no matter how well made their bodies were, always ended up off in ways that were hard to describe. They just triggered a kind of uncanny valley at the oddest of times. Strangely enough, Alexandra and her AIs didn't seem to run into the issue, despite being far more artificial, in their own way. Hell, even Glitch didn't, and she became a six armed and eyed horror on a semi-regular basis.

"Thank you, archduchess." The woman took Allya's forearm instead of her hand, and shook, which the former assassin took in stride. "It's an honor to be here."

"I would say the honor is all mine, but I do not believe we want to get into a dispute as to whom the honor belong, staying here for hours on end trying to scrape it all to ourselves in some superfluous show of politeness."

That seemed to surprise the ambassador, who cracked a smile.

"That is, perhaps, for the best." She gave an extremely elegant bow, to Allya's surprise. "Lady Nouvelle-Aurore, allow me to introduce myself. I am Nira Valen Haut-Fleuve, bearing a letter of credence from the Hegemon to represent our nation at your court and during the negotiations to come."

Allya nodded, and put her hand on the woman's shoulder.

"You may rise. I accept your letter of credence, ambassador. And, once again, extend my welcome to Rebirth."

The woman rose, smiling, and Allya had to suppress a shiver. It wasn't entirely due to her off putting apperance either.

This one came with a big can of worms attached. According to her intel, she was one of the most senior ambassadors and diplomats the Hegemony had. As in 'she was older than the fucking nation she served'.

And she had acquired most of her experience being the ambassador to the Eris Empire.

There were layers of meaning there, but the first one, that the Hegemony had deliberately reassigned their greatest diplomat from the world's greatest superpower to Rebirth, wasn't going to be lost on anybody. Especially not the Empire.

"Thank you, your Grace." She looked around. "I see no ships of my friends of the mountains. Have the delegates of the Far Reach not arrived yet?"

"No, they have not." Allya blinked as she heard the almost broken way of speaking of the ambassador. Was that on purpose? There was no way she wasn't aware she was doing it. "Why? Are you afraid of having dwarfed their arrival and stolen their thunder?"

"Come now, your Grace. They have their own style, it is hard to outshine those who live among the peaks."

The archduchess pointedly looked away from the woman and at the ship docked with the tower. Though, perhaps it should be said that the tower was docked with the vessel.

Because it was bigger than the edifice.

When they'd last visited, the Hegemony had sent a cruiser and a handful of armed transports.

This time they'd sent a fucking dreadnought. With four main turrets, each with four cannons bigger than Alexandra's Bertha. Sixteen barrels, each capable of wiping out an entire infantry formation in a single shell.

Of course, she knew that if that thing so much as twitched in the wrong direction, it would be beset by the entire power of the mesa fortress. But it was still awe inspiring, and a good reminder that powerful or not, they really shouldn't be discounting the Hegemony.

It also comforted her in her strategy. The Hegemony flaunting the pride of their fleet like this wasn't just a show of strength.

It was also a marketing pitch. 'Look at all this shiny stuff without an enemy to fight now that we are all friends here'.

Of course, it was a warning as well, that if they weren't given something to do, the Hegemony would find them some purpose to reinburse the cost in making them.

"Okay. Perhaps I have brought a bit more in terms of transportation than they could." Said the neonite with a wide smile. "But can I be blamed?"

"I suppose not." Allya gestured. "Come. Let me show your quarters, and the rooms the summit will take place in. We shall start immediately after the delegates from the Far Reach have arrived, so better get situated now."

"Of course. Right behind you, your grace."

*****

"That's one hell of a ship." Said Raika, sneaking glances in awe at the holographic screen hovering in the workshop.

"Agreed. But it has its weaknesses." Alexandra stepped back from the engine part she'd been messing with, and looked up at the projection. "It relies too heavily on one weapon system. Don't get me wrong, that's great for specialist ship like Subtlety," she nodded towards the AI, "but not for generalist like this one. I'd have stripped out the aft turret, replaced it with a missile battery."

"It also needs point defense." Added Subtlety. "Remove a few of the casemated batteries, replace them with lighter, more agile weapons. Escorts should be doing the heavy lifting, but you can't afford to leave a hole in the coverage by not having a final backup on the main vessel itself."

"I'd add something else." Intervened Ghost, smiling. "But I think I can see your eyes glassing. Occupational hazards of a bunch of naval engineering focused people girl, you say anything even remotely related to that, and prepare for a rant."

"Right." Raika colored slightly. "Thanks. So, that thing you're making, it's to hide, right? So it can't be traced back to you?" They all nodded. "Aren't you worried about people seeing it arriving and leaving? Because that's how the duchess found out about your blackbirds, right?"

"How...the heck do you know that?" Said Alexandra, as she picked up a wrench. Even with advanced magitech, some classics were still necessary.

"Glitch was ranting about it at the beach."

"Oh." Right, she had to remember that she really didn't do opsec or secrets like a military did. Once you were at a particular level of secrets, it didn't really matter what you knew at that level. "I should probably look at getting you and the others properly briefed at some point."

"It's okay. I doubt we'd fully grasp most of it."

"You don't give yourself enough credit. You're not qualified, but none of you are idiots. Except Thomas, perhaps."

The party leader laughed.

"He'd both resent that and agree with it."

"Proof of wisdom if nothing else."

"Errr....wisdom. And Thomas. Sure."

"He has his moments." She adjusted a few of the parts, and frowned. "I'm still concerned about the payload."

It felt weird working in a team like this. She'd realized that most of her design work was done alone or with an advisor like Emilia.

Ghost shrugged.

"We want them to drop off a couple of stealth golems and the means to get them down intact if hovering isn't a possibility. We don't need much."

"Yeah, but we'll need strike options. I'd rather take them out before they get near the city. If nothing else, they have to have a plan to get them past the defensive perimeter."

The city still had walls, impressive ones too, but the actual security was now provided by a perimeter out beyond the mesas, to cover the cultivated fields. A loose network of outposts, linked by foot patrols and with constant airship sweeps.

It was really all that was needed. The monster density had never recovered from the passing armies, mainly thanks to Calder's aggressive airship patrols and the ever increasing flow of convoys and caravans to Rebirth. The blooming life around the city and the careful construction of a 'normal' ecosystem would only exarcerbate that, until eventually the creatures from the sand got pushed back all the way out.

"Well, that's going to depend on what we find, isn't it?"

"Fair. I just can't help feeling we're still behind the curve."

Raika looked at them, back and forth. Clearly she still grappling with the fact that they were the same person, a fact that had been...interesting to explain at the beach. Alexandra smiled at her, and the adventurer shrugged.

"If it helps, the fact that you're already making plans for being behind the curve and taking it into account brings you forward on its own, no?"

"Yeah. I suppose it does." Alexandra's smile widened. "I just hope we're ready for whatever surprises they have in store for us."

ALERT: AIR DEFENSE PERIMETER REPORTS UNIDENTIFIED INCOMING.

"Oh for fuck's sake, what now?!?"

The screen updated as Raika opened her mouth to ask what was going on. The take wasn't great. But it didn't need to be.

A gigantic shilhouette in the sky. Golden scales glittering in the sunlight.

"Holy shit. That's a fucking dragon." Whispered Raika.