Chapter 24 - Squishie Warfare

Chapter 24

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Settlement of Astralis

Sapphiria sighed as she waited at the entrance of the...keep? Command center? The building Kalia and her people led the town from.

She really needed to get some coms up there. Having to haul ass all the way there and back every time she wanted a word was a royal pain.

Though, how could she explain that? They'd readily accepted everything so far, but there might be limits. Well, she had shown some more fantastical things than a radio, so it would probably be fine.

One issue though was getting the signal up there. Her cheap relays weren't great for having a conversation, and she didn't think they'd fare well in the forest.

Not that she needed them. Once out of the mountain, a standard broadcast pylon would work. One at the tunnel entrance, one in Astralis.

Though...that would be a big 'attack here!' sign for the enemy, at the only way for the squishies to get to her. Yikes.

There were more compact ways of doing it, but they either required workarounds or flat out weren't in her schematics. Colonies didn't need discrete stuff, they needed cheap, sturdy and easy to build.

"You look deep in thought."

Sapphiria looked up, and shrugged as Malry walked up to her.

"I have a lot on my mind."

"No kidding. So, what can we do for you? I'm afraid the countess is currently unavailable."

"I..." The AI cleared her throat. "I require assistance."

"Assistance? You have been of great help to us, we would be happy to oblige."

Sapphiria glared at the diviner. The formal speech wasn't helping. Chances were, the other woman knew that. Something had rattled her, clearly.

"I...I need some help with weaponry. Melee weaponry, to be precise. My reinforcements require them, and I..." The AI deflated as her shoulders drooped. "I don't know anything about them."

"...Oh. Uh. I guess we can't expect you to know everything, now can we? I, ah, don't know much about them myself. I'm more of a ranged gal, when needs dictate I must fight." Malry snapped her fingers. "I know someone who does know plenty, and would be willing to lecture us at length. The problem would be getting him to stop."

"Who?"

The diviner smiled.

"Why, Gregor of course!"

*****

Gregor was, indeed, absolutely delighted to speak about the art of war, how to wield weapons and fight in close quarters.

There was one issue. One Sapphiria had overlooked, and thus failed to understand the full breadth of Malry's warning, who, smart woman that she was, had left immediately after getting the AI to the old warrior.

He was a skeleton. Thus, he had no lungs.

And no need to breathe.

He didn't stop talking. At all. And he kept going on tangent rants about the ways people had lost the subtleties of true warfare, how guns lacked any skill to use or the proper way to make camp for the legions.

Sapphiria would have loved to just hand it off to Cia and go somewhere else, but the simulacrum was locked out of her android. There were a plethora of reasons for it, but first and foremost it would be a violation of the Federation's privacy laws to have another person inhabit it and the simulacrum steadfastly refused to break them.

She could declare case Epsilon, make herself governor of this world until contact with the Federation and its Navy was re-established. It would also automatically declare martial law, allowing her to bypass those kind of pesky limitations.

It said a lot that it was sorely tempting right now.

It was also very tempting to just wander off and do something else, or just record the conversation for later, but there was actually good and interesting information in there.

"-but of course, a good javelin throw depends a lot more on your formation than you'd think. It's why our infantries did not always form shield walls, see. Well, the old legions. I don't know why the newer ones don't usually carry shields around. They rely too much on the armor I tell you! Stupid. In any case-" Continued the skeleton, as she kept trying to avoid shutting down.

Someone shoot me, please.

"Ah! Lady Sapphiria!"

The AI whirled around, and Kalia hesitated as the android almost pounced on her, beaming.

"Kalia! It's so good to see you!" Rescued at last! Thank the merciful stars. "My apologies for not coming to see you, I had been told you were busy."

"I was." The mage-magistrate flicked her glance at her, and Gregor. "Malry told me you were teaching her about warfare?"

"Melee, to be precise. Though I..." The skeleton coughed. Clearly an affection since, well, skeleton. "Might have drifted off topic once or twice." The old legionnaire had the distinct air of smiling sheepishly, despite his utter inability to have facial expression. "Apologies milady."

"It's...fine." Said Sapphiria. "I learned a lot." And she had, for that matter. Even if it was mind crushing and caused her to pray for the sweet, merciful release of atomization. "Unfortunately, neither Gregor nor I know how to make these weapons."

"Well, a spear isn't all that complicated." Kalia tilted her head. "Should I be given to understand that you would need some?"

"Yes! Very much so."

"I'd be more than happy to trade you some weaponry. We have more blades than people to wield them after all."

Sapphiria winced internally. Right, she had to make their relationship transactional, or they'd never have accepted her help. That also meant that their assistance would come with a price.

She wanted to sigh, but instead she nodded.

"Of course. What would you like as compensation?"

"Ammunition. Our firearms are running low, and I was given to understand that you had the means to make more?"

Sapphiria blinked. Right, the scout that had made it to the hub had to have seen the turrets and their ammo feeds. As well as the skeletons turned into swiss cheese by the hail of lead.

"I can try. But I will need the specifications for your ammunition. If possible samples of them and your firearms." She wasn't comfortable arming the squishies, but resupplying them should be fine. They already had the guns, this would just make sure they could make them if push came to shove. Also, it meant they were dependent on her to keep firing them.

"Good. In the meantime, I suppose my men will pair up with your reinforcements when they arrive. Hold the enemy off while- are you alright?"

Sapphiria realized she'd lost control of her android's expression and let her utter horror through. Squishies, serving as meatshields for her junkbots? That was...she didn't even have words for it!

"Yes, I am. I'm very sorry, but I'd rather...I will send golems. I would rather your people stay back from the fighting if at all possible. I can make more golems, but I can't make more people."

Kalia's eyebrow rose, as she looked down, then back up.

"You can't?"

It took a second for Sapphiria to process what she meant, before sputtering, and the mage-magistrate laughed.

"I'm joking! I'm joking. More seriously though, that is...very sweet of you. And you do deploy your golems however you wish. However, my people will still fight for themselves."

"Of course. I expect nothing else."

She just needed to make sure they didn't have to fight at all. Which was why she was going to need more than just some junkbots.

Unfortunately, it wasn't like she could just litter the valley with minefields and turrets. Not yet anyway. She would need too many of both.

...Unless she made the enemy come to them. Mmmhhh, that could be an idea.

"But in any case, sending golems is a bit...unexpected. I would have expected them to be used as labor, not combat, given how limited their adaptability can be."

"Mine are different." The Federation had long ago developed advanced programs for its ground troops to fully automate them, allowing them to operate effectively without AI or simulacrum oversight. The problem was that she didn't have access to all of them, and even if she had, oversight did increase their capabilities significantly. "Nonetheless, I will accompany them for their first expedition." Though she would need to find a way to communicate with them. That broadcast tower was looking more appealing by the minute. "Also, I was thinking...having to get to the surface every time I have to discuss something with you is becoming problematical. We may need to set something up to exchange messages."

"Of course! Just get a message to the surface, I have assigned couriers to the huntmarshal for a reason."

Sapphiria blinked. Right, couriers. She could just...write down a message and hand it to a cargo bot. Or make an audio recording and have it repeat it.

Why overcomplicate things with lightspeed communications? For now this would be a notable improvement, and at no extra cost, especially not with the minecarts, which were currently being assembled as the construction drones laid down the stolen tracks, taking over for the bots.

"Thank you. I had failed to consider that, if I am being honest."

"No...problem? Was there anything else you wished to discuss? While you are up here."

"Yes. I needed to speak with Ramina. I was told she was out of town?"

"She's trying to jury rig some autosaws for the logging parties. Follow m-" Gregor changed his position and glared at the mage-magistrate, who coughed. "I mean, follow Gregor, I'm sure he'll be delighted to show you the way."

Sapphiria hid a smile as the skeleton nodded calmly, and got up, reflecting that bodyguards really were the same everywhere.

Now, she just needed to see about acquiring some wood...composite, thing. She refused to use the term Cia had pulled out of their guidelines, which was 'anomalous bioengineered kinetic plywood composite type one'. She really needed to update those things.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Good to know that still worked at least.

*****

Finding Ramina was easy. She was the source of swearing so creative the AI set aside a process to record it. She was amazed the bark wasn't being stripped off the nearby trees by the sheer viciousness of the tirade.

The diminutive artificer -well, for some standards of diminutive, her android was still the same height, damn it!- was also tinkering with a pile of machinery, and everyone was giving her a very wide berth. Whether that was due to her vehement swearing or the fact that said pile of machinery looked like it had recently undergone 'an event of rapid unscheduled disassembly', also known as 'exploding', wasn't clear. Probably a healthy amount of both.

"Ramina! Everything alright?"

"Lady Sapphiria?!?" The engineer bolted up from the wreckage like a started rabbit, immediately pulling up her protective goggles, and trying to smooth her grease stained hair into something approaching presentability. "I'm very sorry! I wasn't warned, I, uh-"

"It's fine!" Sapphiria held up her hands with a smile. "It's fine. I was just swinging by." She noticed a few of the lumberjacks were smirking at the artificer's discomfiture, and she gave them a glare to freeze a supernova solid. Suddenly, those same lumberjacks found something extremely important to do, on the other side of the widening clearing. "I heard you were working on some ways of chopping wood?"

"Yeah." The artificer sighed and her shoulders drooped. "Didn't work out though. I was never in that industry, didn't take a few facts into consideration, and, well..." She shrugged. "Wood chips got into the wrong place and things got out of hand."

"It's alright, mistakes happen."

"Yeah, but they're not acceptable when they waste mana, which we have so little of already." The artificer shrugged. "But look at me, being all self pitying. What can I do for you milady?"

"I wished to enquire about that wood you came up with for your...project." She wasn't sure how openly she should discuss that, so she defaulted to a bit of secretiveness. If nothing else, she was certain most of the people in the clearing were listening in. The project hadn't struck her as being a secret from the people here, but when in doubt, maintain some operational discretion. "I was thinking of acquiring some?"

"Oh, uh, certainly! I don't know how much I will have after I'm done, but I'm sure there will be a fair bit left over. May I ask why?"

"Let's get to your workshop first."

"Sure." The artificer sighed as she looked at the pile of broken mecanisms. "I don't think I can fix this. Copson, be a dear and get some of your people to bring it back?"

A man, not a worker but more of a manager by his clothes, and the fact that he was holding a notebook and scribbling into it, nodded and barked out orders, 'volunteering' a handful of lumberjacks for the job.

"Thank you!" Called out the artificer, before turning back to the AI. "I'm all yours!"

Sapphiria grimaced, outwardly and internally.

"Wording. Please."

The artificer had the good grace to blush slightly.

"Right, because of when I...sorry."

"Apology accepted. Now let's go."