Chapter 359 - Actions, Reactions

Note : Well, no new chapter added to the queue, since this one jumped the queue a bit (as promised).

Not sure the ending is much better than the previous one though XD

Chapter 359

Plains of Reclaiming, Duchy of Asaria.

City of Asaria, Capital of the Asarian Kingdom.

'No plan survives first contact with the enemy', or so went the extradimensional saying. A saying Lesly lived and breathed by.

It was scant reassurance now, but it was all that he had.

Joachim sighed, as he looked at the pile of intelligence before him.

They hadn't seen it coming. Rook...the amount of ingredients, personnel and power required for this had to have been astronomical, and they hadn't seen it coming.

More concerningly, he had to have had divine assistance. If changing magic was this easy, it would have been done during the Great Night. That meant the God of Light.

Another deity throwing their hat into the ring was the last thing they needed right now. Or maybe...just maybe, it was exactly what they needed.

Orbital activity suggested the lackeys of the God of Fire hadn't been informed. If those actions delayed the Purge, and took the heat off of the Order, it could be worth it.

As it was, their plan...was done. As it had been, it was no longer possible. Some things could be salvaged, but the Hegemony and the Far Reach would never invade the Republic now, not when half of it was in open revolt after the threat of the slave brands was removed and outrage swelled, and Rebirth was fully clear to swing South and bring down the hammer to help Amelia and her merry band of revolutionaries.

At least something could be done with the Sapphire Kingdom. They still had the proof that 'their' mages had made the brands, and that would give Lesly the leeway to march North. What she would do was anyone's guess at this point, as she clearly had something in mind besides the original plan for the UDC, but he had come to realize that at this point, it was his job to accomodate her changes and try to help here wherever she could.

With this particular disaster, it was only a question of time before he was called before the council and removed from his post after all.

He sighed. It didn't matter. So long as mankind was free...well, he knew he was going to die at the end of this anyway. By the hands of those he freed or his comrades, it mattered little so long as he fulfilled his duty. That would have to be enough.

He pressed a button on his desk, calling his aide, as he looked out the 'window', in truth a heavily shielded one way screen. The atmosphere in the Kingdom's capital had grown at lot less oppressive, not to mention cramped, as most people had been able to flow out of the innermost fortifications and start reclaiming the other parts of the city. A lot of it was destroyed, but rebuilding efforts were already underway, and Grant the Giant had what little remained of Sunrise's army pinned inside their own siege fortresses, helped along by a large contingent of highly motivated former slaves that wouldn't rest until every single one of their oppressors was shrieking on a spike.

The city wasn't jubilant, not yet, shock was still dominating as everyone tried to parse through what had happened. But he could see the beginnings of it.

His thoughts were interrupted as the doors opened and his aide came through, clearly put off by the silent presence of the two Old World constructs at his door.

"Yes my lord?"

"Send a message to our units up North and East. It's time to make our move."

*****

The Adjudicator was trying not to shift uncomfortably. Not just because of the council, having all five of the Custodians present for one was a rarity nowadays, but also the fact that she wasn't standing by the side of the table or on one of the smaller chairs, meant for Seraphim.

For some reason, beyond her reckoning, the Custodian that had rescued her from that hellish Order ambush had seated her on the sixth seat, meant for the martyr of the First Purge. The other Custodians had gazed at her, and she felt their judgment, but either they had found her worthy of the honor or simply declined to go against their fellow.

She wasn't sure which was worst, the potential for discord among their most hallowed ranks or them finding her worthy despite her all devouring doubts.

"Adjudicator. Report." Said one of the Custodian, a booming female voice coming from the towering suit of armor.

The Seraphim stood up, clearing her throat, trying to avoid appearing too nervous.

"All factors, from our own observations, to data inloads from Central and reports from the clergy point towards this being a full scale modification of the Aether Matrix at a base level."

"Which means Hoeth." Intervened one of the Custodians.

The Seraphim nodded.

"Almost certainly, as otherwise it would have prompted immediate retaliation."

"Was there any changes in the Aether generators?"

"Negative. All spy satellites report normal activity. No anomalies, or gate openings."

"So no direct intervention, like with that dungeon core."

"So far as we are able to tell, no. This was done purely by proxy. Why is..." Not her department, not to mention way, way above her pay grade, but that wouldn't be wise to say out loud. "...unclear."

The Custodian that rescued her nodded.

"It will be elucidated, in time. Commander. We were unable to prevent this from happening, why?"

Jeremiah, commander of the Celestial Watch, stood up from his seat.

"This disaster-" The Adjudicator winced. She knew her colleague did not mince his words but still. "-has highlighted severe shortcomings in our planning and protocols. We were unable to react because we had no way to do so. No rapid response of any kind. No strike teams, weapons, or otherwise, that could answer within even a few minutes."

"I thought our primary guns had a rapid recharge cycle."

"For capital ship weaponry, yes. But they are not made to quickly move to readiness from a powered down state."

"Why were they not active then?"

The commander cleared his throat, looking faintly embarassed, and the Adjudicator spoke up.

"Because we did not have the maintenance capacity to dedicate to them."

Everyone looked at her, then back at the commander, who nodded.

"Indeed. Keeping the guns powered down reduces their maintenance requirements by a considerable amount. Furthermore, their ready capacitors cannot be kept charged for any length of time without courting a catastrophic failure. Even had they been powered up, the guns would have most likely had empty capacitors and thus unable to charge up in time to response."

There was a short silence.

"That is not acceptable." Said one the Custodians. "I assume you have a solution?"

"Yes. I do." The commander gestured, and holograms appeared above the table. "If we can find the manpower, I propose to rotate by quadrants. Each quadrant stays active for a day, before switching to another quadrant." If the Custodians knew that the fortress had been designed for the opposite, for three quadrants to be powered up and ready while another was down for maintenance, under the course of normal operations, no one spoke up. "We cannot keep the capacitors charged, but we can load the missiles and divert all power to them early on for an immediate launch."

"Could we load all the missile launchers?"

"Same maintenance issues, a missile loaded in and on standby to launch has to be disassembled and serviced when it is returned to its magazine. Not to mention has to be cycled for a new one each day to avoid a hyperdrive failure." The commander shrugged. "There is no free solution in this, I'm afraid, unless we wish to keep going as we used to."

The silence was deafening.

"We will find you the manpower." Said the Custodian that had saved the Adjudicator. "Next time something like this happens, we will be ready." Everyone nodded. "Very well. Adjudicator?"

"Yes my lord?"

"We need to know everything there is to know about Rook's plans, both past and future. Deploy your resources accordingly."

"My lord...the Order?"

"The Order is of secondary importance now. Had they been able to change magic, they...they would already be victorious. Which is why this is of utterly critical importance. A single variable change to the Vairoth Effect would cause every NLR core onboard this station to go critical. We cannot afford this."

"Yes my lord."

"Good." The Custodian stood up. "Glory be His Name."

"And Glory be His Pyre." Chorused everyone else, as they stood up in turn, and returned to their stations.

As she left, the Adjudicator exchanged a glance with the commander.

Something passed between them.

They both knew this wasn't going to end well.

And they both knew they would do anything necessary to avoid that outcome, if they could.

*****

"So?" Asked Alexandra, as Ghost flopped into the sofa in the simulation. As usual, the house had grown a bit more since last time, though the addition were far more minor than previously. A few models of the AI controlled ships, nothing more.

"So..." Ghost sighed. "Good news? Got CQ cleaned up. She'd clear, no mind control left in any way, shape, or form." She chuckled hollowly. "Besides whatever parental magic you can pull off of course."

"Of course. And...and Emilia?"

Ghost's gaze was all the answer she needed.

Alexandra sat down, heavily.

"Not even with the medical scans?" Finally said the dungeon core.

"Not even with them. They allowed me to map their brains, but we already knew those were...wrong. Some of the data is in their core, otherwise somebody would have figured out how to bring the 'soulless dead' back to life."

"They have, it's called necromancy."

"Some forms, yes, but nothing of the person remains, or at least, not much. Far more than cellular decay could possibly justify." Ghost sighed. "There...may be another solution, of course. We could use the neutralizer and-"

"I'm not rewriting my girlfriend's mind."

"Then what the hell did you want to do?"

"I thought...I thought we could jam it, or filter out any commands it sent."

Ghost shook her head.

"No way to do that without getting inside Emilia's head. I'm sorry, but there's no choice..."

Alexandra closed her eyes.

"Yes. Yes there is."

The apparition froze.

"You can't be serious. You don't know how she'll react!"

"I think we do. Despite everything that has already happened...she's still here. Still by my side." Alexandra sighed. "Besides, it was going to happen sooner or later. And...well, sometimes, you have to have faith."

"...You have command authority."

Alexandra smiled. They both knew it meant Ghost disapproved, but would comply.

"That doesn't mean we have to be suicidal about it. I want you to activate our failsafes, lockdown our data inputs and put every packet that comes from Emilia inside quarantine." She hesitated. "Actually, do that for Sarah and Ella as well. Just in case."

"Planning in case she does react badly?"

Alexandra shook her head.

"No. Planning for in case the failsafes are wired to activate if the vampire is made aware of them."

"That's...vicious."

"Not as vicious as turning a dungeon core into a berserker."

"Point taken. I can probably stop it, but if she has an uplink of her own..."

"Can't jam it?"

"I barely understand how it works. But...maybe." The apparition frowned. "We have a lot of data about communication systems and others from Seraph. There might be something in there. But if we jam it, it's almost certain it will jam us as well. Our status reports to the Custodians, or whoever the hell is on the other side, everything." Ghost paused. "Are you...certain you wish to risk that?"

"There isn't really a choice." Answered the dungeon core, softly. "Is there?"

Ghost grimaced...but she didn't say anything.

"So." Alexandra looked out the window, still amazed at how much life there was in the simulation now. "Go talk to Seraph. Send me an all clear when you're ready."

The fact that she was leaving it in her hand was also an open ended invitation to make her own failsafes. They both knew that as well.

Ghost nodded.

"It won't take long." She promised.

*****

She was true to her word. Less than six hours later, Alexandra received a ping.

All clear.

The dungeon core closed her eyes, and sat back from the prototype she'd been working on. She knew Ghost had more or less taken the AI off network, as well as several of the fabricators, and been spending a lot of mana with their powers, but for her own safety, she'd decided not to investigate.

She took a few minutes to center herself, then-

"Emilia? Can you join me in the workshop? We need to talk." She said into the communication system.