Chapter 23 - The Response

Note : Chapter 24 has been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 23

Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley

Crash Site

Okay. Maybe it wasn't that bad. Maybe.

"So, the Federation is going to send someone after me." Sapphiria closed her eyes. "First to respond will be naval station Ivarak. They'll probably send a cruiser squadron first, maybe a battleship, to check up on the worlds I visited and try to get a report from me. When they fail..."

When they failed, they'd have to assume one thing, that a group of raiders, which she'd marked as having a shipyard and modern Federation tech, had destroyed one of the Federation's top of the line carriers. Or at least made it vanish while in pursuit.

That would be an 'oh shit' for the ages.

"Protocol dictates falling back on naval bases and waiting for reinforcements to begin a sweep." Helpfully said the simulacrum, and Sapphiria shook her head.

"No. They won't. The entire point of my mission was to show that the Federation cared about those border worlds. Not only will they all be clamoring for the Navy's protection now, but I'll be a damned martyr on the planets I already helped, and the one I saved from the raid. And the CO at Ivarak is no coward." No daughter of Ciel was. "She's going to sweep forward with everything she's got. And the rest of the naval stations will follow, aggressively deploying forwards their squadrons, form a wall of fire, like the old days against the Theocracy, ready to collapse back into a single point at the first sign of enemy activity." It was a risky strategy, but one that had proven its worth against raiders. "Once the message makes it way back to Earth though..." She winced.

"Your mother is renowned for her wisdom." Said the simulacrum, and Sapphiria laughed. Cia was being the devil's advocate and they both knew it.

"She's going to drown this region in fire. Our core fleets haven't deployed in years and high command has been chomping at the bit ever since the Galactic Core campaign came to an end. No, she's gonna let them off the leash, and flood the entire area with dreadnoughts. Which is what worries me." The AI grimaced. "They're going to put the whole sector through a sieve. If they find the anomaly..."

Hopefully the first group to come through wouldn't fire on it, but that was no guarantee they wouldn't be transported.

"They will get destroyed." Completed the simulacrum.

"Yes. First a recon group. Let's say a couple of corvettes. Then the cruiser squadron sweeping their path to see what the hell happened. Normally it'd be reconnaissance in force with a capital ship afterwards, but since I vanished..."

"They'll send everything."

"Yes. And I don't know if they can win. Most likely...it'll be a massacre." Hyperspace was supposed to be safe. They wouldn't expect something to pull them in. "So...we need to either get word out or neutralize the fortresses before then." Sapphiria closed her eyes. "Six months to send word back to Earth. A year to get the core fleets out. Then...depends on the search pattern."

"Doctrine dictates-"

"I know. Check all possible direct system to system jumps, but that won't take long." Sapphiria frowned. "I know mom. More importantly...I know my aunt." If there was one thing that'd take her out of semi-retirement, besides the Theocracy reforming, that would be it. "Once that fails, or even before, she'll start a full sweep. Send ships in a spiral pattern out, jumping in and out of hyperspace to scan for debris fields or anomalies. Start at Tarminia, and then expand it in a sphere."

"That's...exponential. The resources necessary..."

"She doesn't need to jump directly on top of the anomaly. She just needs to detect it or have ships get into the hyperspace...vortex, siphon, whatever the hell that was."

"Data suggests the anomaly encompasses a radius of roughly one point one light year around it central component."

"That's not much. But it's something." It was also roughly the gravity well of a solar system. Interesting. "Still a needle in a haystack. So, a year and half to get out there. Let's say the same until someone stumbles upon it. We have three years, before we start stacking bodies."

"I...Ma'am, how can we affect anything, when a fleet would fail?"

Sapphiria looked at the escape pod through the eyes of her android.

"Because we know something that can get through." She pulled out the maintenance schematics for her escape pod. "We can make some kind of messenger system. And failing that..."

The schematic spun as the parts within vanished, and were replaced with high density deuterium.

"A stealth torpedoe?"

Sapphiria nodded. It wasn't a useful weapon in most scenarios, especially because 'stealth' usually meant 'as long as someone isn't actively looking', but it could work. A railgun slug would be better, but any fortress worth its salt would be periodically adjusting course and dodging to prevent simple kinetic bombardment. They'd need something that could track and hit a moving target.

"Exactly. But first, we have some squishies to save. We can worry about the Navy once we're in orbit."

*****

Kalia cleared her throat, and spoke up, her voice carrying over the assembled crowd.

"Alright people! Sapphiria, Hero of times past, is getting us reinforcements to help us against the Bane! We just have to make sure we're still there when they get here." A sea of heads bobbed in front of her impromptu stage. "So, in order to do that we're going to have to step up our defenses. I'm sorry to say it, but with the nutrigel vats we just don't need foraging parties anymore. I know, I know, it's slop, but it'll keep us alive and we need all hands on deck. Thus, everyone assigned to foraging will be sent to guard duty. We're also going to restart patrols and scouting expeditions in the valley. We need to know in advance for anything coming." There hadn't been a point when the attacks on logging expeditions was just random undead congregating to rush it, attracted by the noise. But if it was a directed attack, at least now they'd get some warning. "Those will be headed by Malry. Any volunteers, please go talk to her. Understood?" Another wave of nodding. "Alright, let's kick some ass! Trunevald ascendant!"

She was greeted by a roar. Not quite a war cry, as Trunevald was nothing but an undead infested ruin now, but the spirit of the magistracy lived on in its citizen regardless.

"Nice speech." Said Malry as the mage-magistrate came down from the stage. "I hope you think the Kingdom should be ascendant as well."

The gaze they exchange was all the messaging needed.

Malry was no one's fool. She realized she'd been sent here half as a political officer, to make sure Turlor's new vassal didn't just slip the leash instantly.

She'd also fought alongside them every step of the way here. Push came to shove...

"Getting nervous?" Answered Kalia, and the diviner chuckled.

"Now that it seems we're not just delaying the inevitable? Kinda."

"Oh?"

Malry looked away.

"This...hero, Sapphiria. Her technology. It's better than the Kingdom's. Than anyone's, I think."

"So?"

"What happens if she does retake the pass? What happens...what happens if the Kingdom turns back the tide?"

Kalia's eyebrow rose.

Political officer indeed.

"We're still fighting for our lives, and you're worrying about the political aftermath?"

"I'm a diviner. We may not be able to see into the future, but planning for it is what we do." Malry grimaced. "And I'm not the only one. You're no idiot, you have to know this is going to create shockwaves. Especially after you promised her, oh, a share of a whole damned mana node? Ever think what the King or even the royal council will have to say about that?"

"They're not here. We are. If we're alive for them to be pissed at us, and not shambling towards them demanding their souls, I'll count it as a win. And they should too."

Malry frowned, before sighing.

"Aye aye cap'n. I pray to the Ancestors that his Majesty will see it that way."

"First pray for our survival." They exchanged smiles. "But you're worried that Sapphiria will be a problem?"

"She doesn't strike me as someone who bends the knee to anyone. She..." The diviner hesitated, and Kalia gave her an encouraging nod. "She strikes me as someone people bend the knee to."

Kalia froze.

She...didn't know what to say to that.

Especially not when she was still grappling with what she'd seen. Sapphiria's reaction...it was like she'd seen the valley walls for the first time. As if she was shocked what had happened to it.

And she'd said she'd gotten down there with knowing very little, if anything, about the Empire. But...hadn't an Imperial expedition dug the mines?

Just how long had the hero been down under the mountain? And how had she gotten there?

*****

Sapphiria threw a holographic design program in the air as she paced around her simulation.

"Alright. Step one in helping the squishies: we need an effective combat platform. Preferably cost-effective. That means we need a junkbot." Sapphiria held up a finger as Cia opened her mouth. "If you say the appropriate term is 'minimal function combat automata', I'm muting you for the rest of the day."

The simulacrum closed her mouth.

"I was about to say nickelbot..."

The AI smiled.

"Well, look who's getting infected by mom's twenty-first century memorabilia." Though, it had a certain ring to it. What she was doing was reminiscent of Heart of the Machine, minus the cyberpunk dystopia, ongoing existential crisis and crippling depression. Wait, no, that last part was from Murderbot.

"The term was actually officially used by the Federation armed forces until twenty three hundred seventy six."

"Yeah I can guess why." That was the year her aunt had taken her first retirement, at least as High Admiral and head of the Federation Navy. "So, we need to make some junkbots. That means the cheapest way to get a gun out in the field for a reasonable amount of time." Preferably on a bipedal platform, usually to avoid completely scaring the squishies. "I think we'll use the utility bot chassis as a basis." The hologram updated with their schematics. "Rip out all the tools, and systems to handling them." The material cost and fabricator time estimates fell as parts vanished on it. "Then...we need to make them combat effective." The subtlety of junk bots was that they weren't the absolute cheapest. They were meant to be cost effective. They weren't just a gun on a toy car, they had what was beneficial in terms of combat effectiveness. "So, armor them up. What do we have available?"

Cia supplied a list, and the AI winced.

The cost of half of those...well, they wouldn't be so bad if she had some real industry.

She snuck a glance at the status report from the crusher and material separator. That didn't qualify. It helped, but it was so barebones it didn't count.

Sapphiria sighed.

"So, we have to go for the bare minimum. Steel. Just...steel plating. Not even kinetic gel."

"What about the wood?"

"The wood? Oh." Sapphiria stopped. The kinetic energy absorbing wood the artificer had given her. She had a sample in her lab, it would do nicely. Better than the gel, actually, as it would make a single solid block of armor she could just slap on instead of worry about having to affix the gel onto the chassis. "You're right. We could ask Ramina. I'll think about it. First though, we need something we can make on our own, just in case."

"Affirmative. What of the weapon?"

Sapphiria pulled up the list of available schematics.

"Well...energy weapons are out. We can't give these guys a fusion core." Or a fission one for that matter. "So that means firearms. And since we're already making rounds for the machineguns..." She filtered the weapons by cartridge compatibility, and a host of weapons popped up. Sweet merciful stars, did the squishies really need all this stuff on colonies? Marksman rifles, carbines...even a pistol! Why was a pistol firing a damned machinegun cartridge? She sighed, shaking her head, and simply picked one of the carbines. It was cheap, low maintenance, and while it lacked in range, she wasn't exactly interested in doing a sniper duel. Besides, it was more compact than the full assault rifles, and better suited to the tunnels and forests she was going to fight in.

It even had an 'assault carbine' variant, that could dump the magazine alarmingly quickly. But then again, bots would have far better trigger discipline than squishies, and better to have it than not.

"Should they have a backup?" Said Cia, as she paced around the schematics.

"I don't think it'd be much use. Even if it was the same cartridge."

"How about a melee option?"

Sapphiria blinked. Right, the squishies did fight them in CQC. And there was no guarantee her bots could keep them at bay.

"Good idea. We have, uh...machetes. More machetes. Survival knives. That's...I can't tell if that's a saw, an axe or a halberd. Or all three. I don't think there's any good weapons in there."

"The database...was not made for this situation."

"No kidding." It was why she had her library core. Except that it was made for higher tech stuff, not medieval fucking warfare. She could use its knowledge to make nukes, railguns and firearms, but not damned swords! Damn it. She grimaced. "I guess we're gonna have to ask our dear squishies for help."

Ask the squishies for weapons and warfare advice.

Yeah, that was gonna go well.