Chapter 61 - Technological Salvage

Note :

Been playing Days Gone a lot lately. It is amazingly stressful and yet relieving to empty an entire machinegun into a seething mass of zombies, and then cash in on having nuked dozens of them.

I should have Sapphiria do that. Run simulations where she guns down hordes of Banes and find it almost disturbingly therapeutic.

Chapter 61

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Settlement of Astralis

"-and those emplacements are for direct fire weapons. I thought of ballistas at first, but they're put strangely for that. Too high. I think they're for field guns. To be able to fire canister shot directly into an attacking force." Finished Sapphiria.

"Oh fuck." Whispered Kalia, as the mage-magistrate leaned back into her seat.

"We're so fucked." Said Ramina.

"How...how certain are you about this?" Asked Malry, and Sapphiria gestured, and the hologram above the council table changed to a camera view.

They all stared as the drone flew over the pass, sweeping its cameras back and forth.

"Very." Said the AI. She'd run some simulations and estimates with Cia and the data in her library core to back up her guess as well. Which was how she'd come up with the canister shot thing. Turning a whole cannon into a giant shotgun. Terrifying weapon. It reminded her of the shredder point defence guns on some capital ships. When you had enough missiles coming for you, volume of fire was more important than precision, and you could throw a lot of weight of metal downrange if you had gauss guns the size of a shuttle and the power budget of a battleship. "Of course, this brings even more questions."

"Like what the hell they're preparing to fight." Said Gregor. "If they're indeed building these for reinforcements, then what are they going to face?"

"I think the most important question is 'why here ?'. If they've salvaged our weapons and artillery, got them running again and have the expertise to use them, why come here?" Asked Kalia. "Why not Exacor? Or if they're already there, why pull them back from the siege lines?"

Sapphiria froze. That was...a very good question, actually.

"It's the mines." She said, perfectly in sync with Ramina. They looked at each other, then the rest of the table.

Gregor leaned back into his seat, which he'd chosen to take instead of standing behind Kalia as he usually did, while Malry opened and closed her mouth several times in a row, clearly at a loss for words.

"What?" Said Kalia.

Ramina glanced at Sapphiria, who nodded, and the artificer spoke.

"It's the mines. That's why those weapons are being brought here. Think about it, you said they wouldn't be able to use them, but why? They took Trunevald months ago. Same for Vitae and Providence. Let's not even talk about Kamer and Landing. They have our greatest cities and our Convergences. They probably have more soulless and risen that know how to use firearms than they know what to do with. That's not what would be limiting them."

Sapphiria nodded, and continued on as Ramina stopped.

"Advanced weapons aren't a question of training. It's necessary, mind you, but they're primarily an issue of logistics. You can't just repair a cannon by felling a few trees and then carving them into the shapes you need, like you could with trebuchets or catapults. No you need specialized industries. The same goes for their ammunition. You need gunpowder, cannonballs. Those don't grow on trees either, and you can't make them in the field." Well, she could. But they wouldn't be able to. Probably. "They might be able to make stone round shot for the guns, but..."

Kalia shook her head.

"No. They'd never survive the alchemical powder. And they wouldn't want to use cannonballs, they'd want explosive and incendiary shells. That's even harder to make." She gritted her teeth. "And that's why they're here. Because we have the only operational mine this side of the frontline."

"Yeah." Said Sapphiria. "They need the metal to get ammunition flowing again, and start salvaging more weapons. That's...honestly, very fast adaptation."

"Soulless retain some of the skills they had in life. It's why they made great labourers." Kalia sighed. "So the Bane can literally just steal our...well, everything really. I really wish we could just blow up the mines and seal them. Make them divert their efforts elsewhere."

"That assumes they wouldn't kill you in retaliation. And that's not an option. My stuff is down there, and some of it isn't going to be able to move. You'd be crippling me on a very, very risky gambit that might backfire."

Not to mention risking to awaken whatever the hell was down there with her.

"I know." The mage-magistrate pinched the bridge of her nose, squeezing her eyes shut. "Believe me, I know." She took a deep breath. "So, what now? Besides worrying more."

"I think..." Sapphiria grimaced. "I think we need to prepare, but discreetly. They're willing to ignore us for now. I think we should accommodate that. Ignore them back, while we take care of the mana and monster issues. We'll still build up our defenses, but as stealthily as we can. Attacking or building up against them will only invite them to refocus on us. And if we win, chances are we'll have to face whatever they're preparing to face. If they're willing to spend their resources and combat power against a third party, we should let them. Even if said third party is friendly, we're not exactly in a situation to take on the brunt of the punishment."

Everyone around the table nodded, and Malry spoke up.

"That makes sense to me." She hesitated. "Still, it's, uh...very troubling. I thought the Bane wouldn't be willing to adopt our technology. I mean the rest of the world wasn't keen on it."

"The Empire was always good at taking good ideas where it found them." Said Gregor. "It was one of its greatest strengths. That and the measured, steady expansion."

Kalia laughed. There was an edge of hysteria to it, and Sapphiria gave her a concerned look.

She actually stopped laughing, and coughed, smiling sadly at the AI, causing flutters within her heart.

"Sorry. And I wouldn't call Malarak the Great's conquests to be 'measured' or 'steady'."

"Well, there were exceptions. And it worked out, didn't it?"

"Until his distant descendants pissed it down the drain."

There was a short silence, and Ramina spoke up.

"Do you think...do you think there may be Banes from that era? Is there anything left in them?"

"Probably, and probably. But they don't care." Kalia gritted her teeth. "We tried to negotiate, remember? Didn't work out. And honestly, even if they're still worth a damn, I can't really blame them. The Crusades of Life levelled the Empire's home territories to 'put an end to necromancy'." She almost spat out the words. "If I were them, I wouldn't be keen on talking if everything I'd ever built and sacrificed for was annihilated by people who think you shouldn't exist."

Sapphiria stopped herself from leaning forward. That was fascinating. There seemed to have been more than what she'd assumed to this war.

She'd pretty much assumed the Bane were just 'kill everything because braiiiins' kind of undead.

"You tried negotiating?"

"Yeah, before they...well before they killed so many people peace just wasn't an option anymore. The only answer we got was that we were rebelling against the Empire and they would accept our dead bodies to repay our debts to the Empire after reanimation."

"Yikes. But there was response?"

"Yes. And there've been reports of more contact being made on smaller scale, but it was usually when our risen engaged theirs."

Gregor nodded.

"Yeah. Heard that they were trying to convince ours to switch side." He grimaced. "It worked sometimes, at first. You can feel the call...but everyone left has seen enough horrors from these bastards to tell them to burn in the deepest pits of the darkest hell." He shrugged. "There were rumors of more pragmatic contacts. Truces and the like, but in the chaos...hard to say if those were real or just wishful thinking."

"There was a lot of that going around." Said Malry. "People really didn't want to believe the Empire had returned to kill them."

Sapphiria nodded, softly. It would be like the old, pre-Arcadia nations of Earth coming back to life and trying to take out the Terran Federation. People were acutely aware of their shortcomings, but they were still history. The roots and past you took pride and inspiration from. Hell, while medical technology back then -nor today, to be fair- hadn't been enough to keep the squishies alive until now, many of the AIs or those who had chosen to become so through digitalization like her aunt, had their roots in these nations. Just like Gregor did.

That must hurt. That must really hurt. To see the nation you'd grown up in, no doubt idealized and then outlived, come back from the dead to kill you and everyone you hold dear...

"Well, it is here, and there won't be peace. Not now. Anyone who signed it would have a revolution within the afternoon." Said Kalia. "Not that it really matters right now. So, as Sapphiria proposed, our policy will be to keep our heads down while it is advantageous to do so. Which reminds me, progress report on the snowpiercer?"

"The walls of the workshop are up." Said Sapphiria. "Tomorrow we'll do the roof. Once that's done, I can start moving snowpiercer parts in and begin assembly as the doors are installed. The bunker and pillboxes will start construction that day as well, should be done the one after. Then it's just a matter of getting the snowpiercer up and running. Might take a break for a couple of days to assemble the defense grid for Astralis though. Probably should handle it when we're doing the hull, it's mostly grunt work and I'll be able to wander off."

"Alright. Why do you call it 'defense grid' anyway?"

"Because..." Uh...she didn't know that, actually. It was just how interconnected defense systems were called in the Federation. "I don't know. I just do."

Kalia's eyebrow rose.

"Alright. Well, in any case, you'll be pleased to hear that your spices are very popular."

"I thought you wanted to keep it a secret?"

"The outpost already knew. And the militia is loyal and motivated but they're...well they're not trained soldiers. 'National security' and 'need-to-know' are mostly theoretical concepts to them."

"Ah."

"So to get ahead of the rumors, I made an official announcement. Just no comment on the origin of them, only that you make them somehow. And we'll try to keep it that way."

"That's...probably for the best. I assume there's been questions?"

"Right now people are more busy trying to stomach the spices, and figure out which ones are good and which ones are, uh..."

"Getting kicked in the shins with flavors best described as colors rather than any comprehensible taste?"

"Something like that." Kalia coughed, trying -and failing- to hide a smile. "I must share the sentiment. It's quite pungent."

"Well, it's kind of the point."

"It also made you even more popular than before. You gave everyone food, safety, and then you gave everyone spice."

"Yeah I'm kind of...ambivalent about that. Some of them almost look like they worship me."

"I mean, you are a Hero and a honored high elder. I'm sure there'll be a living Ancestor cult of you soon enough, if there isn't one already."

"WHAT?!?"

Everyone just jerked back as Sapphiria slammed her hands down on the table, her panic and horror clear on her face.

"I-I mean you might have a cult somewhere that worships you, thinking you died?" Said Kalia, rising her hands in a placating gesture.

"No that's not..." Sapphiria closed her mouth as her mind went into overdrive.

What the hell did Kalia mean? A living Ancestor cult? What-

Oh.

Oh SHIT.

When they talked about Ancestors she'd assumed semi-allegorical figures, very distant legends in the mists of the past, elevated to divine status long after they were gone. That's how she'd encountered them in colonies. Usually the ancestors in question were the people who had left Earth, or their immediate offsprings, the people who'd founded the colony.

But...they thought she was millenia old. And they called her a 'living ancestor'.

What would happen to a society if you had people that could live effectively forever, some of which with technology, magic and power far beyond the reach or imagination of mortals?

The reverrence, people not approaching her, started to make a horrifying kind of sense. They weren't looking at her like she was becoming a Goddess. From their point of view...

From their point of view, she already was one.

Had been from the very beginning.