Chapter 26 - Force Recon

Chapter 26

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Settlement of Astralis

Arriving in Astralis was quite the event. People weren't used to her yet by any means, but at least they didn't point and stare anymore.

When she didn't roll into town with a small squad of armed junkbots that was.

To her complete lack of surprise, the commotion drew some attention, and Kalia was waiting for her by the time she reached the keep. Which proved, once again, that gossip was the only true form of faster-than-light communication known to man.

A bit more surprising was the table, with a small variety of weapons laid on it, which a soldier was trying to add to as unobtrusively as possible.

"Lady Sapphiria!" Exclaimed Kalia, as the AI stepped up to her.

"Just Sapphiria, please. We talked about this."

"We did." The mage-magistrate lowered her voice to a whisper. "But it's not for your benefit. We have an audience."

"I had noticed." Answered the AI, equally quietly. She could see the squishies, some trying to look as if they weren't listening, but most simply crowding at what they no doubt believed was a suitable distance to stay out of sight. She raised her voice. "I saw that you gathered some of what we had discussed."

"Indeed!" The mage-magistrate gestured at the table, which the soldier was retreating from, after adding to it. "We have gathered some weapons for your reinforcements, though their number was...unexpected."

"Well, I did promise to bring in the cavalry."

Kalia tilted her head.

"They...appear to lack horses."

Sapphiria's cheeks colored as she coughed.

"Discount cavalry then. Anyway, what do you have?"

Kalia smiled.

"Only the finest weapons of Astralis!" Sapphiria's eyebrows rose, and Kalia laughed. "No, of course not. We brought out the best spares we had in store though."

"You had stores of spare weaponry?"

"...many didn't make the journey here. Weapons were the first thing to be salvaged."

"Of course. My apologies."

"Now, what would you like to take? Unless you'd like them all?"

"As tempting as that is, there is only so much my troops will carry." Also so much as she'd be able to use. The pile of weapons included a crossbow, which while her bots would be able to use it, wouldn't exactly be a good alternative to her carbines, as well as a couple of bows, which she was a lot more dubious about, and a sling, which she didn't know the first thing about besides 'spin rock, try not to hit your head'. Actually, did sling use rocks? Her library queries were returning conflicting information about bullets and...grenades? She mentally shook herself. No time for that. "Would you have any recommendations?"

"For your specifications?" Meaning 'had no idea what she was doing', essentially. "Something...robust. Spears would usually be the best, keeping the enemy at a distance, but against the Bane they are rather...lacking." Sapphiria nodded. Without flesh to hit, any weapon that purely relied on stabbing wouldn't be extremely useful. "In which case...these may be more to your liking."

A small group of weapons had been set aside, strategically hidden behind the main pile. Sapphiria leaned over to take a look. Shortswords, and-

A mace.

A. Fucking. Mace.

A stick, with a heavy metal bit at the end. Perfect for shattering bones, or dealing damage through heavy armor, one of the reasons why she hadn't even considered making some machetes.

Sweet stars, why didn't she think of that?

She firmly suppressed the urge to repeatedly slam her head against the table until all the stupid had escaped her primary processor.

"Lady Sapphiria? Are you alright?"

The AI sighed as she realized she'd lost control of her expression.

"Just...Sapphiria please. And I just had an epiphany." She grabbed the mace, and weighed it. "These. Do you happen to have anymore of them?"

"No, not readily available at any rate."

"Pity. But I think they'll make the perfect weapons for my troops."

Kalia blinked.

"Of course. I'll see if we can make more."

"Do not worry, I believe I will be able to provide them with something similar." If she could make a shotgun autoturret, she sure as hell could make a stick with a metal bit at the end. "I'll take them. The shortswords and the mace."

"No ranged weaponry? Are you certain?"

Sapphiria smiled.

"Why? I have all the ranged firepower I need." She snapped her fingers, and the bots unstowed and presented their guns.

She saw recognition dawn on the mage-magistrate's face.

"Are those...?"

"Firearms? Yes. Carbines."

"They look, uh...unlike every carbine I have ever seen."

Sapphiria smiled at the euphemism. What those guns looked like was exactly what they were: purposefully designed so that squishies would use any feasible alternative, preferably 'do not wield dangerous firearms, please and thank you'. Which was a definite bonus, currently.

"They are a breed of their own. But I can assure you, they are quite effective."

"I believe you." Kalia cleared her throat as Sapphiria gestured, and the junkbots stowed their weapons again, before stepping forward to arm themselves, trying not to goggle as they simply clamped the weapons on their waists. "So, I assume you would like to join the teams protecting the logging expeditions?"

"No. I intend to take a more...proactive approach."

"...Proactive?"

Sapphiria smiled.

"Would you care to point me towards the pass?"

*****

One advantage to being nigh venerated as an 'honored high elder', or decrepit old artificer: people argued, but didn't try to stop you.

Her appreciation of Kalia had clicked up a notch however. The mage-magistrate had insisted on a guide. Apparently one of the hunters normally under Tramistres' remit, until the huntmarshal was turned into a glorified sentry that was.

She had refused to bend on the issue, and Sapphiria had caved in. If nothing else, she could use a local guide...and it had absolutely nothing to do with how flustered she'd been with the mage-magistrate towering over her.

"Alright. Here's about the limit of our patrols." Said the hunter as he stopped. He was rugged, and his eyes inscrutable. He had the air of exactly what he was...and moved with the constant paranoia of a trained killer.

Sapphiria could recognize spec ops when she met them. Which was why she was somewhat dubious over his job title. If she had to guess, part of the reason he was there was to get her out if she got in over her head.

Cute. Really cute.

Push comes to shove, she could drop into stealth and rush through the forest like a high speed bulldozer.

And if that wasn't an option...

She could shed the armor, run for hell, overload the reactor, and turn half of this damned valley into a crater.

Though that was very much her last resort.

"So, beyond this point, we start running to the Bane?"

"Yeeep. Or rather, it goes from a probability to a damned guarantee. Still sure you wanna do this?"

"Absolutely."

The hunter looked at her strangely.

"You just...straight up don't fear death, do you?"

That's because I can't die would have been the true answer, but she wasn't about to say that.

Well...depending on one's definition of death. Obviously the android didn't house her consciousness, the solid block of atomic level circuitry in her escape pod did. But that could be destroyed as well.

Rather more complicated to get rid of were the backups of herself on Earth, Luna, three separate deep space naval stations and an 'undisclosed location' that she was almost certain housed some of her mom's failsafes from her stint as an nigh-omniscient hivemind. Each dutifully updated when she'd left Sol at the start of her deployment.

Though, legally speaking, these backups wouldn't be her, once brought online. Not out of any philosophical quandaries, but because it would enable the Federation to consider it inheritance and tax her on it. The only two constants in the universe really were death and taxes.

"I do." She said instead. "I just intend to inflict it on the other side first."

The hunter stared at her for a solid two point thirty eight seconds, before bursting out laughing.

"Ahahah! That's a good one! An excellent one even! I-"

The skeleton burst out of the undergrowth without warning.

The hunter's sword was halfway out of its scabbard when the undead's skull exploded.

He looked at it, then at Sapphiria's smoking carbine -she wasn't crazy enough to use her plasma gun in a forest her squishies were living in unless she absolutely had to-, and slowly put his sword back into its resting place.

"...Consider my comments withdrawn." He said, before pointing at the gun. "Could I have one of those?"

"If you manage not to get killed today."

He laughed again.

"I shall endeavor to avoid joining the ranks of our enemies, do not worry."

"Very well then, uh..."

"Paul." He helpfully supplied, and she blinked. "I know, I know, not an imperial name, but not all of us have ancestry back to the First City."

She was about to say his name sounded almost mundane, but her ears pricked up at the way he said First City. Interesting.

"Then, Paul, I will see about getting you one so long as you do not, as you say, join the ranks of the enemy." She frowned. "Is that a...danger? That someone who falls by their hands just...gets back up?"

That was honestly her nightmare. Seeing a squishie she was sworn to protect fall would be hard enough, but for them to stand back up and try to kill the others...

"No, no. More of a figure of speech. Well, unless they have a necromancer on the other side, but that is unlikely."

"Wouldn't the Hand be one?"

"No. necromancy for those already beyond the veil of death becomes...complicated. It is our good fortune that unless one is of great power, it requires a, ah, living touch." He grimaced. "Which is why few were concerned about the Bane at first. Until we found the corruption."

Right. Kalia had said something about that.

"The corruption in the ley lines, right?"

"Yes. They corrupt the Convergence. Go to the heart of it. Then corpses brought to it rise again."

"Convergence?"

"An old name for the nodes. Before they were seen as mere...resources."

"It does have a certain ring to it."

"It does indeed." Paul looked at the fallen skeleton. "We should take its weapon, and move on. It would be better if we use as much of the light as possible."

"Of course." After all, the squishie wouldn't have light gathering optics, or a myriad of sensors that couldn't care in the slightest about light, visible or otherwise. "My reinforcements will lead the way."

He opened his mouth to protest, before closing it as the junkbots deployed in a skirmisher screen, clearly put off by the apparent lack of further communication.

"...Very well. Are you certain putting our ranged specialists in front is wise?"

And putting the squishie first is? She didn't voice the thought of course.

"They are more than ranged specialists. Besides which, I'd rather they have clear lines of fire and didn't shoot you in the back."

He stole a glance to the skeleton's shattered skull as he bent over to pick up its spear.

"An excellent point." He straightened up, weighing the newly acquired weapon. "I rather doubt I would enjoy the experience."

"Indeed. And it would put something of a crimp on your chances of coming home alive and getting your own carbine."

"Those are carbines?" She nodded, and his eyebrows rose. "They struck me more as those...submachine guns Turlor is famed for."

"Interesting." Very interesting. Kalia's liege had even more advanced technology than these people had here? Then again, it might make sense. A magistracy didn't strike her as the place that would be pushing the hardest for technological progress. "They are not, but I can understand how they might seem similar."

"I will be glad to wield one." They started walking again, making their way through the forest, and he grunted in approval as the junkbots kept pace -and formation- effortlessly. "Do you truly intend to go all the way to the pass milady?"

"Oh no. We'll be intercepted long before then."

He gave her a strange look.

"Aye. We will." His gaze returned to straight ahead. "Military, weren't you?"

"Bold of you to assume so."

"I've served with officers all my life, milady. I recognize the type that thinks like one, at least."

The AI pretended to focus on making her way through the undergrowth for a second, as if she couldn't just sprint through it like a tiny battle tank.

"Let us suppose I am. What would that mean to you?"

"Just some reassurance that this isn't some eminently stupid whim, and instead a thought out plan."

"Oh, do not worry, I do have a plan." And that was to punch the enemy in the face to get them thinking about defending themselves rather than murdering her squishies in some stupid belief it would cause her to vacate the mines.

"Good. Then let us execute it."