Chapter 343 - A Grand Gesture

Note : Yes, it's a C&C 3 Kane's Wrath reference, even if tenuous ^^

Chapter 343

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Shipyard

Alexandra sighed as she leaned on the railing.

The fabricators online had lead to...well, all sorts of issues. Teething ones, for starters, then a whole load of others. Even with the better raw material production, the demand had simply exploded, especially in materials they had few schematics for. That wasn't mentionning other issues in terms of design, hardware, production...

One of the problems she was contemplating was what to build next, in terms of warships. She had a lot of avenues available, but where to go...

As it was, the ship types she currently had were relatively well balanced in relation to each other, and came together in a coherent whole that should be able to carry her through in the short term.

Medium to long term however...the UDC's shipyards were starting to go full throttle and while they were busy bringing their reserves back online they would also start cranking out new warships to counter hers soon. Ships that would probably be a lot closer to her in tech than anything she'd faced with her own vessels yet. She needed new stuff.

But she also needed, well, everything else to keep running, and couldn't divert funding or industrial capacity to build new manufacturing facilities. Not to mention all of her people had their attention devoured by other projects. Which meant something she could make with off the shelf components.

...The Corsairs used an oversized gun turret, something more fit for a capital ship. Grab a Freedom-class' basic hull, add recoil compensation, scale it up a bit, armor it, slap...what, three, four turrets? Something like that, on. Then add casemated guns for close in broadsides, and you had a heavy cruiser. Not the best heavy cruiser, but a big brawler ship that could fight everything with some decent degree of efficiency and more or less serve in any role, even if less well than her other, more specialized vessels. The epitome of the space age cruiser that the Federation had used damned near everywhere under her leadership.

It would serve as a stepping stone to other stuff, used hardware they already had on hand, not to mention already had in production, and should only require minor design work. It would also bridge the gap between the Culture-class and her 'light cruisers', giving her an actual heavy hitting warship that wasn't, well, a glorified missile silo that happened to fly.

Furthermore, with that size, it should actually be able to be used for close in air support for her army instead of having to hang back like the Corsairs did.

She might even be able to apply the same philosophy to a Culture-class and make some kind of brawler battlecruiser, though that would require a lot more work on the hull. At that point she might as well make a new one, which was a no-go. Still, an idea to keep in mind once things had calmed down a bit.

It was long past time she had something to pummel the enemy into submission face to face, Dawnstar-style.

She quickly assembled a briefing package, described her ideas, and sent the file Subtlety and Ghost's way.

They could figure it out from there.

She straightened, and gazed at the hulls finally taking shape in the shipyard.

The ships had been delayed, thanks to the design issues with the magical projectors, but they hadn't wasted that time. They'd diverted the capacity to-

Her eyes twitched as she received an alert. One day, one, she'd make a secretary AI and have them deal with all that crap. But then she wouldn't always be so on top of things.

She checked the alert. Her ambassador in the army? Why-

Oh.

Well, it looked like there was no putting this off any longer.

She left her avatar, and dove into her ambassador.

Time for the golem to live up to its name, and do some diplomacy.

*****

"Lady Crystal." Said Manson as he bowed, and Alexandra returned it, if a bit more shallowly, as the command tent was sealed once again. Not that it needed to be, the thing was so heavily enchanted no one could have spied through the opening.

She preferred meetings on the bridge of the So Much For Subtlety still, at least in terms of security, but sometimes you had to make a point to meet someone on their own ground. Or at least, not on yours.

Though she had to admit it was a bit...uncomfortable. The cult, for that's what it was, a cult, that venerated her, or appeared to believe her some kind of Divine sent archangel, their tennets weren't clear, had started treating her tent like holy ground, and had only stopped praying, standing guard or even leaving offerings near it once she'd pointed out to them that the reason the tent was anonymous was to prevent Sunrise saboteurs and assassins from targeting her.

With the murderous examples they'd experienced still fresh in their mind, they'd stopped immediately. Which was frightening all on its own, because that was unlike civilians to simply acquiesce and obey.

"Your Grace." She smiled as he rolled his eyes. "Manson. Take a seat, please."

The Duke nodded, and sat down, though he made a point of doing so a fraction of a second after she had.

"Thank you for making time for me, my lady."

"My schedule is full, but I always have time for my allies. Tea?"

"Do you have a kaliber infusion?" Asked the Duke, hopefully, and Alexandra smiled.

"I sure do, here." She poured the content of a thermos. Since she was outside of her dungeon she couldn't just summon a buffet of whatever she wanted with a snap of her fingers, but the army's cooks kept her supplied with drinks all the same.

Though she was, ah, skeptical of all the various herb infusions this world have that one may politely call 'tea'. Though, many weren't consumed for taste but rather for their properties, as effectively the lasiest potion imaginable bar eating the damned grass. Kaliber, at least, didn't taste like it was trying to murder you. Just like it was trying to beat you up because you owed it money.

"Thank you." Said the Duke, inhaling the aromatic smoke of the infusion, before downing it in one single gulp. "Ah, just what I needed. I'm afraid I had skipped lunch, and needed a pick me up."

Alexandra's eyebrow rose.

"I'm sure one of your aides would have been more than happy to help."

The Duke didn't surround himself with a vast posse of hangers on, but he still had a squad of bodyguards and eager young nobles ready to fulfill his orders. And, as with every leader worth his salt, those aides had long since become nagging nannies, trying to get their superior the rest and sustenance they needed.

And often failing. The difference for her nowadays was that her 'aide' was Emilia and she could tie her up when she thought her dungeon core needed some rest. It made things remarkably easier for her, though it wasn't exactly something that could be applied to the Duke's.

"They, in fact, had been more than insistent that I let them, but I had need of their services for other purposes, and I had little time to sit down today."

Alexandra nodded. Despite his advanced age -and showing it- the duke was still remarkably energetic. A fire burned within him still. She'd seen people like that, like the High Admiral that had preceeded her. They were not to be underestimated.

"Very well. Now that you are suitably refreshed, do tell me, why did you wish to meet?"

The Duke sighed.

"It is a...complicated matter. See, I have been advised of...irregularities with the supply shipments."

Alexandra tilted her head. They both knew what he was saying. But still, the least she could do was go through the steps.

"Do you mean pilfering?"

"Er, no. Everything matched with the manifests, more or less." He cleared his throat. "It is more that, compared to previous ones, especially over a certain length of time, we realize that the contents..."

"Have changed, and in many ways diminished." Completed the dungeon core, and the Duke nodded.

"Quite. It has been...noticed."

"And is it a problem?"

The Duke stared at her.

"With me? No. I understand that sometimes other priorities arise, stockpiles run dry. I do not like it, and I do not like the fact that you have not seen fit to warn me. But nor do you have to. You are allied with my liege, not me."

Alexandra tilted her head, both in acquiescence and respect, and the Duke continued.

"But I am not the only one noticing these things. Many are seeing that reinforcements are sparse. Resupplies...lesser, than they had been. It is having, an...effect."

"One on morale, I assume."

"Yes." The duked sighed. "Our people have been hit hard. Some are no longer so sure of ultimated victory as they had been. Your army, the most visible symbol of your invicibility, has been destroyed, reduce to a fifth of what set out of Darthar. Some...are losing faith."

Alexandra's gaze flickered. Faith. He wasn't using that word out of nowhere.

"Faith is important." She said.

"It is. Those who have lost faith can also be a great problem. An even bigger one than those who never believed to begin with." Alexandra looked impassively, as golems outside the tent and the Duke's bodyguard field of view flipped their safeties off. "But that is not the problem. The problem is those who believe when others do not, and see the loss as betrayal."

Alexandra froze. The cultists. He meant the cultists. They...

Gods damn it. They believed she was basically Divine and infalliable. And they saw others losing faith.

They were going to start a schism, or a full blow inquisition.

"Ah." She simply said. "I see the problem. Intervening in it, however..."

She could crush the cult. Or she could order them to disperse, even lecture them. But...it wouldn't be a lecture. It would be a sermon. Even what she'd done, just telling them to leave her command tent be, might already be having repercusions beyond what she'd intended.

Truth was, she really didn't know what to do with that cult, especially not since it had been so monumental in getting the rest of the civvies moving and thus enabling her army to pull out of the trap Sunrise had set for them.

"I believe it would be counterproductive." Cautioned the Duke. "What we need...is a renewal, of faith. Something to restore our people's belief in ultimate victory. What we need...is a grand gesture."

*****

Alexandra angrily paced back and forth on the catwalk, having just hopped back into her avatar, still overlooking the shipyard.

'A grand gesture' he'd said. What the hell could she send or do? Besides nuking Sunrise's army into submissions. Her fabricators were running at full tilt, but there was no way she was revealing her hand by just sending a handful of her new units. Besides which, would such a paltry number even do a difference in morale? No, she needed something big, spectacular, and hopefully a lot cheaper and less impactful than what it looked like.

...Like a certain unit so like a landship that she had continued, and even increased production as she was making her fabricators. Units that had gobbled up her free industrial capacity from the ship delays like it had never existed in the first place. Enabling her to build far more than she had planned, at least at this stage.

She cackled. He wanted a grand gesture? He would get a grand gesture. And choke on it as she gave Sunrise a reason to fear her...while readying her true forces in the shadows.

"Seraph!" She called out, and a hologram materialized next to her.

"Yes, milady?"

"It's time to change the transport schedule. I want the Mackies moved out of storage, I need them ready to join the next convoy."

"Milady? That is...a significant departure from our current plans."

"Our allies are losing faith, it seems." Alexandra looked at the shipyard. "And I can...understand. They cannot see what we are making. So let us restore that faith. Let us make a 'grand gesture', for our friends and our enemies alike...and if it's smokes and mirrors to hide our true power, then all the better."

"Affirmative milady. I shall begin preparations."