Chapter 33 - Prepare for War

Note : Chapter 34 has been written and added to the queue !

I decided to continue the streak because why not. Also, spite at the universe.

Chapter 33

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Settlement of Astralis

It said something about how shaken she was that her first reflex, after flooding the hub with her troops and setting the turrets to be salvaged and rebuilt, was to go to the squishies for help and advice.

"That's...not good." Said Kalia as she sat in the council room. Ramina was between her and Malry, but nobody was willing to comment on the change of seating arrangements, so Sapphiria didn't bring it up.

"And then some." Gregor leaned forward. "Are you certain it was the Hand?"

Sapphiria shook her head.

"Not really, no. But I don't really know what or who else it could be." Not that she really knew all that much about the Bane to begin with. "Ceremonial robes, really fancy armor, magic coming out of their ass and clearly intelligent."

"Yeah, that's a good description. Why go down there in person though? If there's one person critical to this entire operation, it's them."

"Well, as far as we can guess." Added Kalia.

The AI frowned.

"I think...the way they reacted...They wanted answers. To know what was going on for sure down there. And they had the confidence that they'd be able to escape it, if need be."

"Yeah, definitely a hand." Gregor shook his head. "That's the kind of crap they pull. They wouldn't have looked very smart if you'd destroyed them though."

"If I had, they wouldn't have been able to deal with me anyway. I think that's the reasoning."

"...I suppose that's a fair point."

"So, now what?" Asked Kalia. "They know you're there?"

"I think so?"

"The Hand already knew something was amiss. What happened to the mining operation at Myrtran spooked them. Badly. So they went to personally see what was happening. Their next step will be neutralizing you."

"Another assault won't end well for them, believe me." With the metaconcrete plant, she wasn't stacking crates like glorified Legos to protect her turrets anymore, but building genuine bunkers and pillboxes. She'd like to see them go through that.

"Probably not, no. That means they'll try something else."

"Astralis." Said Ramina, her voice frail. "They'll attack Astralis."

Sapphiria blinked.

"Why? That wouldn't change anything. I..." She froze. Oh. Oh no.

"You launched a surface assault with a weapon that could only be yours, in response to us being attacked. The Hand is going to try to draw you out, personally."

Sapphiria opened her mouth and closed it, several times. Though it wouldn't stop her static defenses, or her occupation of the mine, the reasoning was correct. An attack on Astralis would draw her out. And she would die before she let the squishies come to harm.

"...Damn it."

"What do we do?" Said Malry, her voice hollow.

Sapphiria gritted her teeth.

"We prepare for war."

The silence that followed was deafening, before Kalia nodded, firmly.

"Right. We didn't give up when things seemed darkest, and we won't now. We need to brace for an attack. Gregor, options."

The old legionnaire seemed electrified all of a sudden, and it was as if there was an unnatural light in his eyes. Wait, no, there was one.

"When the Hand took the pass, they did it using legionnaires with a screen of chaff. From what Sapphiria told us, they threw a maniple at her as their personal escort. They probably have more but it also means they're fairly precious. My guess would be, they have a full cohort up there. Four maniples, plus specialists and support, say five hundred old school legionnaires. One of those maniples is dust. And the Hand won't be stupid enough to leave the pass undefended. So let's say two maniples for the attack, if they use the patrols to reinforce the pass."

"So...two fifty hostiles like I fought?" Said Sapphiria as she ran some estimates. "I was able to handle a maniple, as you call them, in nigh perfect conditions. I had a chokepoint, fortifications and most conceivable tactical advantages. And I lost a great deal of my defenses repelling that attack." Almost all of them, in fact. "I don't know if I can do the same for Astralis."

"You won't have to. Moving infantry through the woods is hell." Gregor tapped one of the maps spread on the tabletop. "They'll use the old Imperial road to get close, and then form up for an attack."

Sappiria frowned.

"Are you sure? They're undead..."

"That's precisely the problem. They need to be in a tight group and move together to stay coherent. Why do you think the only things out there were patrols and that mining thing? And there were so many wandering dead? No. The Hand won't risk them arriving here piecemeal and getting slaughtered. They'll come down as one uniform formation, a good old Imperial fist." Gregor coughed as everyone looked at him. "I mean...it is what it is."

"Right. If you're correct..." Sapphiria leaned forward. "Then I might have a few options."

"What kind of options?" Said the mage-magistrate.

Sapphiria smiled, almost innocently.

"That depends, how familiar are you with the concept of a minefield?"

*****

The answer had been 'a lot, surprisingly'. Apparently, minefields had been invented and deployed by mages a long time ago, usually through arcane means. The 'usually' begged a lot of questions, but it's not what she had focused on.

"So...here?" Asked Ramina, as the stood over the road.

"Maybe." Sapphiria kelt down, as her sensors started scanning the entire area. When Gregor had said 'old Imperial road', she'd expected some half destroyed pile of roughly aligned stones. This was not it. Granted, it had clearly seen better day, but the thing had a solid half a meter of various materials, and it was remarkably even. "This is very well preserved."

"We built things to last, back in the day." Said Gregor. "You should see the highways. Six centuries after being built and they still old strong."

Sapphiria froze.

Six hundred years.

Arcadia had invented the hyperdrive five hundred and fifty years ago.

Maybe they had a different time calculation system, but...they spoke standard english. And used standard measurements. They probably used standardized terran time. Probably.

"Everything alright?" Asked Ramina.

"Yeah, yeah. Just...thinking about some things." The AI stood up. No time for that now, she had squishies to save. "You're right Gregor. Mining the road itself isn't worth it. The roadbed's too thick, we'd waste explosives blasting through it, and if we try to just put the explosives inside...the road's too well preserved, they'll see the damage we caused planting the mines." She looked at the woods on either side, quickly calculating. "So we put the mines on the side."

"Trap them in so we can gun them down?" Said Gregor.

Sapphiria nodded.

"Partially." She gestured at the road. "But I can also make directional mines, hide them in the undergrowth and sweep the entire road with sequenced detonations." Having them detonate in a sequence was important, otherwise the bodies wouldn't have time to fall and clear the way for the next mine. Why she'd asked and gotten an actual answer from her mom's friend -astonishingly without benefits- Airah was another question entirely.

"That's not going to do much. Shrapnel will take down a few, but it's not going to hit very hard, especially against soulless. They'll be packed tight, sure, but still."

The AI smiled, widely.

"Oh, I won't be using shrapnel. The front of the mine will be loaded with hundreds of small metal spheres. Musket balls, if you will."

Ramina and Gregor looked at her with undisguised horror.

"That's..." The old skeleton did a reasonable imitation of swallowing for someone lacking every part involved in the act. "My lady, I hope you take no offense in my saying this, but I am extremely glad you are on our side."

"I'll take that as a compliment, actually." Living up to her family's reputation, at last. Actually, was that a good thing? It didn't sound like a good thing when she thought about it. "Once we've sprung the trap, pour down fire from prepared positions. Hopefully well hidden ones." She grimaced. "My carbines won't cut it. I'm going to need heavier hardware."

"Like those autocannons Ramina was drooling over?"

"I was not!" Protested the artificer.

"You climbed on top of the table. Given five more seconds and you'd have started tearing her clothes off."

Ramina grew bright red, apparently beyond coherent speech, and Sapphiria giggled.

"Come now. No need to be embarrassed. But no. What I had in mind wouldn't be portable enough for the battleplan I envision." Especially since the autocannon in question was a monster meant to take down Theocracy xenohorrors. It was the kind of stuff you put on a light assault mech or an armored car, not lugged around with footsoldiers. "I think my machineguns will be sufficient."

"You...You have machineguns?" Said Ramina.

"Yeah. What do you think I defended the caverns with?"

The artificer pinched the bridge of her nose.

"I...nevermind. Can you make them in time?"

"I already have their production worked out, and some ammo reserves. Speaking of, first delivery for your carbine bullets should arrive soon." The round she'd gotten as a sample had been disappointingly mundane. "I tried to keep the same characteristics." Which was hard to do when she had better, well, everything for making those rounds, but massively increasing their power, beyond what the rest of the gun had been designed to deal with and what their users were used to wasn't a good idea. "But you might want to run a few tests."

"That's excellent news! I'll be happy to."

"Good."

"So." Gregor gestured at the forest. "Where will I put my people?"

"Not here."

The skeleton somehow felt like it was frowning, despite its obvious inability to have any facial expression.

"You can't win this alone. And we're not sitting this one out."

Sapphiria took a deep breath, and let it out.

What she was about to say...went against everything she believed in. Squishies should be nurtured, protected, not sent to their deaths. But...her aunt had been a squishie. They should be allowed to defend themselves. She didn't agree with Naval Command that they should be allowed to serve unless absolutely necessary, but she wasn't about to throw away their help when it was needed for them to survive.

"You won't. But I'm not going to win the engagement here." Not unless she was extraordinarily lucky. Against normal opponents? Oh hell yes. But their shields could eat machinegun rounds and ninety percent of their surface area was gone. "I need a place to fall back to, and hopefully something to hold the line while I re-establish my firing positions and unleash hell. That's going to be you, and your people. You'll need to buy me time." Time with squishie blood. That was about the most disquieting thing she'd ever thought about, besides 'my mom and my aunt used to sleep together, including while part of the same hivemind and arguably the same person'. Though, admittedly, being part of and then leaving the hivemind is what had made her 'aunt' in the first place, but it was still weird to think about. "Think you can do that."

"The infantry holds the line. It's what we do. Why not here though?"

"Because I can hide a few machinegun teams and some voltigeurs, but I can't hide an entire frontline formation. Can you?"

The skeleton shook his head.

"No. Probably not." He tapped his armor. "I can hide myself pretty well, and some of my guys are naturals, but..."

"Not enough to make a frontline."

"Yeah. I can get you some additional...what did you call them, voltigeurs? I assume you mean riflemen."

"Firearm wielding skirmishers, basically."

"Aaaah. Velites." The former legionnaire nodded. "I have a few people who are decent shots, and will disappear into the woods like they were part of them."

"Will they be able to keep up with the retreat?"

The skeleton laughed.

"My lady, I'd be more worried about them leaving your own troops in the dirt."

Sapphiria's eyebrows rose.

"I see. In any case, I'm going to have to start production immediately." She grimaced. "Unfortunately, I'm probably going to be short on defenses down in the mines."

Ramina shifted uncomfortably.

"Which is their goal. Do you...have a solution for that? If they take control of the underground again..."

"I do." Sapphiria met the artificer's gaze. "It's called blowing the tunnel they used to kingdom come."