Chapter 345 - Going Hunting

Chapter 345

Ytakan Scrublands, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria Trade Route

This place really should be called a high road now, mused the Marquis as he looked at his chart.

Or rather, it should be named as such...on the other side of the dungeon core's army.

The trade route that, to be fair, had more than adequate infrastructure for what had gone through it before, had been massively expanded as the dungeon core had marched North, and was being diminished just as greatly as she retreated south. When it wasn't her own sabotage, it was from his own forces, digging into it to try and find any traps.

Of course, the dungeon core knew this and regularly buried scrap and other things to make it look like it had been mined, only sprinkling in the occasional true bomb or gas canister. And with his mages' lack of experience in detecting such things, let alone differenciating between a decoy and a true one...he just couldn't take the risk, especially given the damage it could do.

Thankfully, being finally out of the woods allowed him to spread out his columns and, especially, his cavalry. It wasn't as great of an advantage in terms of skirmishers as it could have been, but the next battle would go very differently if he was able to use his full numbers and his more mobile units.

"So, are we finally ready to attack?" Asked the Duchess, looking at him from a corner of the command tent, bitterness clear in her tone, tempered by resignation.

"Almost my aunt, almost." Said the Marquis, before smiling as the Duchess perked up. He'd told her 'soon my aunt, soon' for almost a full week now.

"Truly?"

"Yes. We have finally fully deployed outside the woods. And despite some...issues, we're almost ready to begin advancing." Said issues were the rather disturbing disappearance of a couple of patrols securing his rear. He wouldn't put it was the dungeon to try to pull exactly what they'd almost done to her with the rogues, and he'd been forced to reinforce security. "Barring any unexpected developments, we should have her pinned down within the week."

He bit down his tongue. Saying that was tempting fate, but the Duchess simply nodded.

"Good. Very good." She sighed, and suddenly looked very, very tired. So much so that the Marquis winced in sympathy. "Keeping this army together...hasn't been easy."

"I assume many of our nobly born....supporters." Not vassals, not for most of them. Not yet. "Wish to pull out?"

The Duchess scoffed.

"And then some. There have been talks, rumors of amnesty. Smart of the core. Doesn't cost her anything, but it is eroding our internal support like nothing else."

"If an amnesty is offered, it won't be honored." Said the Marquis, as he looked at the map. Something still bugged him about those patrols.

He realized after a few seconds that his aunt was looking at him in surprise, and he shrugged before continuing.

"The archduchess won't let it be fulfilled."

"The dungeon core-"

"Seems to be listening to her, if nothing else. Furthermore, this war has gone too far. No, if the crown has any hope of surviving they have to wipe us out."

"And create enough revanchists to rise up a century later." Snarled the Duchess, and the Marquis gave her a sharp look.

After all, it was precisely what had happened to create this war.

"I suspect that, in a century, Sunrise won't matter enough to rise up against anybody." He retorted, and her mouth closed with a snap. "Furthermore, given what is happening...I think they'll see it as a trade worth making, don't you think? A century of tranquility, to be able to deal with everything else."

In fact, the old king, the grandfather of the present one, had done exactly the same. His plans had only been foiled because of the sand krakens preventing his march on the Republic.

Had the monsters not appeared, he would almost certainly have crushed the Republic as it was still reeling from its disastrous first war with Tark, and be well on his way to unifying the continent.

Which was...precisely where the archduchess and the dungeon core were right now.

The realization hit him like a sledge hammer. They were about to unify the continent. The New Republic was practically a vassal state already, and the Hegemony would kneel before such a power, especially if they had destroyed Sunrise and the slave trade on the continent.

And with the UDC...with the dungeon under Tivaro serving as a base to send attacks onto her, she had every possible justification to march onto the Sapphire Kingdom. Once they had that, the last two obstacles would be the Far Reach and Gorromar. Neither of which were truly necessary to conquer. They might even leave them alone as independent trade hubs, after all with that much power it's not like they'd be much of a threat economically. Or in any way, really. Hell, if the Archduchess took the Sapphire throne, and crushed the archmage council that truly ruled Sapphire, she would have the de jure right to the whole continent...and the Far Reach, if no one else, had remained loyal to the Sapphire Kingdom until the bitter end when its hold over the continent had collapsed.

"Nephew?" Said the Duchess, and the Marquis took a deep, shuddering breath as he let the horrified realization wash away.

"I just realized..." He froze, as he looked at the map. His mind, finally cleared by thinking about something else, showed him the pattern he had been missing. "OH FUCK!" He slammed his hand on a half communication crystal, half interphone that allowed him to bypass the shielding on the tent. "MESSENGER!"

The Duchess jumped back in surprise, and a soldier stepped into the tent a few moments later.

"My lord?"

"Nephew, what-" The Marquis held up his hand, forestalling his aunt, and faced the messenger.

"I need a message dispatched to our supply convoys now. They're about to get hit! The dungeon core snuck some kind of raiding force behind our lines! Go!"

The messenger nodded, and sprinted off at a speed that few could come close to match, even among those with their bodies enhanced by essence.

The Marquis looked back at the Duchess.

"Apologies my aunt. But it seems we may have that 'unexpected development' I was talking about. If you'll excuse me?"

"Of course. Direct your army."

"Thank you." He bowed, and left.

He just hoped he wasn't too late.

*****

Captain Meerkan sighed as he looked at the first thickets of the qualen woods in the distance.

Getting this far with his convoy had been hell. Guerillas, fanatics, and rampaging monsters every step of the way.

And now they were on the last leg of their journey, to rejoin an army desperate for victory. If he was being honest, he was dreading it.

He'd been assigned to supply duty as punishment. Oh his superiors believed in his loyalty to his lord, but the barony of Stovan, whose household guard he hailed from, had never owned slaves, and stayed mostly out of the affairs of the duchy of Sunrise. They had been quite happy sitting in their corner, tending to their resources. Until, of course, the baron had been given an offer he couldn't refuse. Not if he wanted to keep his head anyway.

But just because his commanders treated the slaves like cattle meant he had to or let it happen on his watch.

After a few...incidents, he'd been reassigned to his present post, where his interactions with slaves were limited to resting in garrisons or having them load and unload the transports. At least he was in good company, half of his people were the same and the other half flatly refused to raise their weapons against the crown. Insurgents and terrorists in self defense, yes. Attacking royal troops? No way.

"Sir!" Yelled one of his men, and the captain made his horse come to a halt.

"Yes, Roberts?" He rarely bothered to use ranks with his troops, they knew each other so well by now they might as well have been his brothers and sisters in arms from Stovan.

"We have an urgent communication from the army! Your eyes only."

Meerkan tensed up. Was it what he had feared? That they were getting desperate enough to draft his troop of reject into the main force?

"Very well. Thanks Rob."

"Good luck cap."

They exchanged nods, and he made his way to the cart holding their communication equipment.

*****

CQ lowered the rangefinger, and tilted her head as she thought.

Well, their commander was moving. Having him in the middle made him less of an easy target, but at the same time whatever was calling him back had been noticed, and his men were now more busy gossiping than guarding anything.

She weighed her options, before deciding as she saw him hop into one of the carts she'd earmarked as a primary target. If she was going to get two birds with one stone...

"Lock and load!" She called out, raising her arm, and golems shouldered tubes, assistants sliding in menacing, finned cylinders. Wires were plugged into the weapons, and she saw the screen of the 'PDA' her mom had given her fill with information, targeting arrays and readiness report. She waited a solid three seconds after everything reported ready, then lowered her arm. "OPEN FIRE!"

The woods came alive with gusts of flames as guided missiles screamed out from between the trees.

Two dozen carts exploded, and the enemy convoy scattered in disarray as her golems tossed down the bulky launchers, picked up their assault rifles and began peppering the entire convoy with remarkably accurate fire.

And behind them, another set of plumes rose into the skies, as jetpack troops jumped into action, carrying grenades and assault shotguns.

CQ waited for a few seconds for the enemy to start pulling themselves together, just enough time for them to settle and organize, before she flourished her sword, and Kara, her manticore crashed through the forest, scattering trees and triggering her mouth mounted flamethrowers for maximum effect.

She teleported ontop of the giant manticore mech, and pointed her sword at the enemy, screaming at the top of her lungs, her words amplified a hundredfold by the massive speakers on the mech, carrying even to the relatively distant convoy.

"ATTACK! FORWARD, I WANT THEIR HEADS!"

Some ran. But far fewer than she had expected.

And to her astonishments, the remaining formed up around the smoldering wreck of the wagon that had held their leader, and began fighting. Archers and crossbowmen returning fire against her riflemen as best as they could, or trying to take potshots at the marines flying towards them, while the melee fighters dragged wounded to cover and tried to brace the best they could for the coming charge.

These...weren't the same people she'd fought against Sunrise's army. Their spirits weren't broken. Something was off here. For that matter, there wasn't a single slave that she could see, anywhere. Not even as personal servants. She knew that was odd.

She grabbed her radio transmitter.

"Jumper. Change of plans, try and take prisonners." If nothing else, she'd like to know more about what was going on. The original plan was to make an example of the first convoy, then merely cripple the following ones, but well, she had been put in command to make those kind of judgment calls. And it's not like she could cancel the attack anyway, the new assault jetpacks could get you far very quickly but it was a one way trip. "We have a mystery, and I know how mom likes solving them."

For that matter, so did she.

*****

"Sir! Cap, are you okay?" Said Roberts as he dragged Meerkat out of the wreckage.

The captain coughed, before ripping a splinter the size of his forearm from his armor, and watched as the flesh underneath the breached plating began knitting itself together.

"I'll live." He finally said, realizing his subbordinate must have made him drink some kind of regeneration potion. "What's the situation."

"Ambush. Dungeon golems, I think. Rockets and skirmishers, plus-"

Roberts was thrown to the ground by a shotgun blast, and the captain moved like lightning. Untrusted by his masters or not, he had lived by the sword in the wilderness of the Kingdom, and many adventurers would envy his skills.

The golem that had shot his subbordinate hit the ground, only to be cut in half, his mythril sword going through its armor like butter. The captain was thrown back as a shotgun blast hit him, and piroueted like some mad dancer, decapitating a second golem.

The third one that landed rang alarm bells into his mind. That one moved with purpose. Not automated, programmed responses, but will of its own.

The captain leapt to attack, and the golem dodged, his blade coming so close it took off a sliver of armor. The golem tried to use the opening to stave his skull in with the butt of its shotgun, but he danced around the attack, using his momentum to whirl around, and one of his hands left the pommel of his longsword.

The ring upon his index glowed as he pointed his finger at the golem, and the automata charged him, triggering some kind of artifact of its own.

A lightning bolt leapt from his finger...only to go careening into the air as an ephemeral ward appeared, before vanishing in a crash of energy.

His eyes went wide. How-

The golem punched through the collapsing veil of energy, and he found himself face to face with the barrel of its shotgun.

For a second, nothing happened. And at last, the captain understood that death wasn't what awaited him...if he wished.

He looked around. For the first time his brain caught on with the battlefield around him, only to see the golems wading in a sea of bodies, some still moaning in pain, moving to unpin grenades to dig out the last holdouts in the wreckage of some carts, his remaining people using them as cover.

He let go of his sword, and called out.

"Stop!" And to his amazement, the golem standing over him gestured, and the automata holding the grenades froze. "Stop." He repeated. "I...we surrender. No one else needs to die today."

The golem looked at him, or at least it certainly seemed that way, despite its lack of eyes. Or any facial features, besides an almost sticker like engraving labelled 'Hell Jumper' with images he didn't understand. The automata slowly nodded, and the golems around them stood down.

Only for a shadow to fall across them, and the captain almost picked up his sword again my pure reflex as the mechanical manticore landed, its rider not even waiting for the metal monster to settle before hopping down.

He'd never seen her with his own eyes, but he'd heard enough stories to recognize the duneon boss.

"Well commander, it seems we're about to have a talk after all." Said the boss as she strode before him, smiling widely and he shivered as he realized it was genuine. "This should be fascinating."