Chapter 257 - Last Stand

Note : Chapter 261 has been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 257

Red Sands Desert, Duchy of Sarth

City of Darthar

Chaos couldn't aptly describe the situation.

'Mad pandemonium' was close, however.

Alexandra grunted as she undid the crash harness that had kept her ambassador golem on its chair, turning her head towards CQ as she sat up.

"Are you okay?"

"Next time, mommy is driving…" Said the boss, and Alexandra chuckled.

"She wouldn't know the first thing about piloting." She did. You didn't make it through engineering course without being able to bring a shuttle or starship home. There was a reason there was a backup pilot station in engineering, and it was that basically everything else could fail and be destroyed, but as long as engineering and the systems it contained were still there, you could limp home.

She offer her hand, and her daughter took it, boosting her to her feet.

"We need to-" The ship shook and the air filled with thunder as the guns fired. Alexandra winced. She couldn't see the carnage, but it didn't take much to visualize what a double broadside of cannister shot would do to the swarm she'd seen before crashing. "-get you out there. There isn't much time."

Her daughter nodded, and rushed out into the deck.

Alexandra simply looked at the holographic projector, still faithfully updated by Subtlety. The battlecruiser was making its way to whatever seemed to be a command post, if she had to guess somewhere near the Bazaar, where a defense in depth of the city would be possible.

Meanwhile the last remaining Raider, the Grehai, moved into the city, until it reached the frontline.

Then it came to a halt above the retreating defenders, swung about, and opened fire.

It was a massacre. And the collateral damage was equally terrible.

Alexandra saw the avenue, where a swarm of slaves had been advancing, just erupt into geysers of blood…and stray canister shots ripping into the buildings flanking it.

She didn't need to see into them. The screams said it all.

But there simply wasn't a choice. The civilians would face a much worse fate if Sunrise won.

Alexandra smiled as she heard the roar. Looked like Kara was coming out to play.

She pulled up the command interface. It was CQ's show now. She was just here to support her daughter as much as possible.

*****

CQ looked as Sunrise's soldiers surged forward, from both sides at once, straddling her manticore.

The ones inside the city might not have the numbers those outside did, but they were acutely aware that if they were cut off, they were very, very dead.

Good. Fear and terror would lead them to mistakes.

Mistakes would mean victory.

She quickly assessed the situation as Kara's roar momentarily checked the enemy's rush and her golems opened fire, machinegun teams sweeping the mass of enemies as submachine gunners focused on the front lines, and snipers began picking off high value targets.

The obvious tactic was to hold the ship, use it as a makeshift fort, but that wouldn't work. If the enemy was allowed to reach the hull, they could pierce it. The transport had some armor, but it was too light to stand up to this kind of attack for long.

Furthermore, her golems wouldn't be able to bring their guns to bear. There were too many of them, and too little frontage. For those same reasons she couldn't bring out the spider tank lifters, they simply took too much space for their actual killing power. And the artillery stowed below decks, what remained of it, would take too long to take up, and monopolize the primary hatches as they did.

She barked out orders, and the first two ranks on each side jumped down onto the debris below, their feet crunching through the corpses of defenders and besiegers alike.

Suddenly her available firepower more than doubled, and the headlong rush faltered. It wasn't that the other side was running out of courage, more so that there was simply too much firepower to push through.

A handful of men made it through the onslaught, only to be swept aside by point blank shotgun blasts.

The enemy rallied, and slave soldiers were replaced by knights.

Those took far too many rounds to kill to be held back, and they began pressing her line.

Which was when the golems on the deck parted, clearing the muzzle of the reloaded cannons.

CQ completely ignored the arrows and spells impacting her ward, the damage minimal thanks to her special abilities, letting her snipers respond in kind. If those fools were willing to waste ammunition and firepower on her while she was protected by her crimson shield, she was more than willing to let them do it.

Especially as they were simply tagging themselves for a heavy caliber bullet through the head.

She frowned as the enemy launched a new wave at her defenders.

This wasn't going to work. Every time the broadside pushed the enemy back, they got a little bit closer in the next rush. She'd be swamped eventually. A lot more of them would die at point blank range, but her golems would also fall in droves. Already many were collapsing thanks to the weight of arrows and the occasional spell. They were being immediately replaced, but the enemy outnumbered them…what, a thousand to one? Something close to that at least.

Her ears prickled as she heard more cannon fire and…muskets? And getting closer to boot.

Ah. The city's defenders were pushing back. Good. And the ones up on the walls were still pouring as much fire as they could down.

Well. Enough lollygagging.

She spurred Kara on, and the manticore pounced into the enemy outside the wall.

That would have been suicide with a normal army, but having golems meant perfect fire discipline, and the bullets stopped flying in her sector as the manticore arced overhead.

Kara crushed a group of knights just by landing, causing others to recoil. But they rallied quickly, aided by slave soldiers. CQ patted her puppy's mech, and vanished in a flash of energy.

The mages that had been organizing their bombardment of the ship barely had a split second to realize that someone was inside their ward before the boss whipped out her sword and started tearing them apart.

The good thing about warmages compared to adventurers was that they did everything in groups, including wards. So she just had to teleport in, not push through their individual defenses.

By the time they reacted, five were already dead.

The remaining ones panicked, and moved to counter her…dropping their ward in the process.

CQ simply gave them a mock salute, before vanishing in another teleport.

A split second later, the machineguns reduced them to shreds.

She teleported back to Kara, to find the manticore covered in blood and bodies. Her puppy, without having to worry about a rider, had taken the simplest of solutions to the knights.

She'd rolled over them.

The boss hopped back onto her manticore, and the beast pounced back to the ship. They couldn't afford to simply stay and fight, they needed to keep their enemies guessing.

Besides, they'd bought that side the breathing room it needed.

She looked at the other front right as the flamethrowers opened up.

Screams filled the air, but not enough of them. Many knights simply pushed through, engaging in melee combat while alight.

She had to admire their courage. Or combat drugs. Probably both. She prepared to pounce in and-

The knights were thrown back as the debris beneath them shifted, a miniature landslide crushing at least a hundred soldiers.

CQ looked up, and saw the defending mages, clustered at the edge of the breach. One fainted from the effort, and fell.

She caught him, and set him down. As she looked up, she saw…ropes?

Holy shit, the knights on the walls were rappelling down to come to her aide! In the middle of a battle!

That took some courage. Especially as the enemy's ranged combatants began to retarget. Unfortunately for them, letting up the pressure on her own troops only signed their death warrants, as snipers and machineguns scythed them down.

"Where do you need us?" Said the first knight to touch down on the deck, the golems parting around him like water around a rock as they rushed to reinforce faltering lines.

"I don't have close quarters combatants. Form a skirmish line, ahead of the golems, take care of any that make it through the barrage!"

"Yes milady!" Said the knight, clearly under the impression that her mom was possessing her. There wasn't time to correct him however, and he simply started barking orders to the other knights as they landed.

CQ looked at the fight around her, calculating again.

The reinforcements would buy her time. But would it be enough? She could use her resurrection power, but it only lasted so long, and it was a trick she'd only be able to pull off once. Well, for this fight at any rate.

Royal troops began streaming into her defensive line, one by one.

But by the time they got into position however…

CQ would never be able to tell what tipped her off. Nor would even a skilled psychologist or cyberneticist, her mind made up of fragments of her mother's, rewoven in ways even Arcadia would have never dreamt of. Through this, and her own experiences, she had acquired skills and instincts even Seraphims would find anomalous.

She spurred Kara, and they moved out of the way a split second before a reality blade sliced the ship in two. Fortunately, with the vessel already landed and settled down, it did little true damage.

Mostly because the blade wasn't meant for the ship. It was meant for her. And crimson shield or not it would have destroyed her on the spot.

She looked as the duke began incanting once more.

The next second she was there.

Of course, his bodyguards expected that. Clearly, they knew what she was capable of.

Good. That meant she could dance around their expectations.

They leapt, moving to prevent her from attacking the duke. And she didn't. Instead of rushing the mage like she did with adventurers, she went for them.

Those knights were a whole different calibers from even those assaulting the ship. Unfortunately for them, she was in a league of her own. And so was her mom.

Her sword flashed with energy, enchantments and runes triggering as she struck. Bolts of energy leapt into her enemy's flesh, and her blade heated to the point that, had it been made of lesser materials, it would have melted.

She attacked, again and again and again, heedless of her injuries, trusting into her abilites to protect her as she reaped a bloody harvest.

Finally, her teleport recharged, and she leapt back.

The enemy prepared for her to vanish again.

Except she didn't.

She reached for her belt, and one of the knights had the presence of mind to tackle the duke down as the grenades sailed through the air.

A mix of flashbangs and frag grenades detonated, and the knights closed ranks, disoriented and anticipating a rush attack.

Which was precisely when Kara came crashing down from the skies, breathing fire from the flamethrower within the mech's mouth.

The manticore barreled through the bodyguards, throwing them aside…clearing the duke's line of fire.

Arcane might crackled through the air, and the manticore mech exploded as it was hit with the force of a truck launched at supersonic speed.

Even Alexandra's genius couldn't survive that, and the mech collapsed, armor plates dented and internal systems set alight in cascade failures.

Kara was down…but she had cleared the way, and bought CQ the distraction she needed.

The duke screamed as the boss appeared behind him, and drove her sword into him. Wards flashed, attenuating and deflecting the strike, turning what would have been a killing blow into a merely crippling one.

The archmage staggered back, and gestured, screaming incantations.

CQ dove under the beam of plasma, and danced around the energy swords the duke summoned to fight her. Then she got close enough once more, and struck.

Her foe jumped back, summoning his magic to help him. CQ teleported to intercept him…only to find herself surrounded by the remnants of his guards.

They were in bad shape, and she dispatched them easily. But they distracted her long enough, and CQ screamed as chains of light wrapped around her arms.

She was dragged to her knees as more and more chains erupted from the ether, immobilizing her body. She screamed her hatred at the archmage, his arms trembling with effort as he incanted.

Then she felt the chains start to burn, and her cries turned into ones of anguish.

For a clear, simple instant, she was overwhelmed with something as her mother reached out.

Even this far from the dungeon, their link remained strong, and she saw…flashes.

Targeting systems. A missile. Not Subtlety's, something more powerful. Powerful enough to punch through the city's shield.

Something terrible. Dangerous beyond belief. She saw radiation symbols, and a blast radius that encompassed all of Darthar. The fury of the universe itself made manifest.

An echo of her mother's rage pulsed around her. And she felt something else stir.

The archmage adjusted, the chains growing ever hotter, burning her flesh, and he summoned a spear of energy to finish her off-

The wreckage of the mech exploded, as Kara tore her way through it.

The archmage turned around, but slowly, too slowly. The wounded, half dead manticore pup hit him like a homesick meteor, her jaws ripping his entire right arm from his body.

He retaliated, unleashing the spear of energy point blank into the monster, and CQ felt the rush of essence, just as the chains holding her collapsed into sparks.

She leapt forward, screaming in rage, and the duke had a split second to see her blade, before it swiped his head off his neck.

CQ panted as she collapsed onto her knees, her body hurting all over, motes of light rising from her injuries. She felt a rush of essence as the archmage died…and her sword's soul sealing enchantments triggered.

She saw soldiers, rushing into the fight. What little remains of the duke's guard, accompanied by soldiers that had been kept in reserve.

She reached out, and teleported back onto the ship, only to collapse on top of the bodies littering the deck.

In her absence, the enemy had almost overrun the ship, royal knights desperately fighting back to back with shotgun totting golems on the deck.

She triggered her last ability.

And as she fainted, the fallen golems all around her began to rise.

The soldiers of Sunrise screamed.