Chapter 250 - Power Armor

Note : For those who don't know, Steve Walmsey is the developer of Aurora 4X, a grand strategy video game. It's insane, it's complex, and it's magnificent. Seriously, I'd recommend looking it up and reading his own fiction on his game, it's basically flavored After Action Reports of his campaigns but it's still very good.

Chapter 250

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"They're here for me." Said Allya as she looked at the holographic map of the continent, icons and various silhouettes tagging the location of fleets and armies. "I'm…the only possible target."

"Not to cut down on your own sense of importance and ego, but I doubt you'd warrant sending an entire battlefleet, with a dreadnought no less." Alexandra said as she tapped the icon of the Erisian fleet on the map, expanding a window showing it's -reported- strength. "And, what? Two carriers, half a dozen battleships?"

"I killed the daughter of an archduke. He, alone, owns ten times that many capital ships. Gods know how much more he could command through favors and connections."

"I mean that it would take far less to kill you, realistically."

"Not if they have to go through you."

Alexandra started to laugh, and Allya took a step back as it turned almost maniacal.

"Then my dear, they came severely undergunned. And this assignment of theirs became a suicide mission."

"You'll…stand against them?"

"I gave you my word, and you are my ally. I will stand by you."

"That's…It's the Eris Empire!"

Alexandra turned so fast she left afterimages, and Allya froze like a deer in headlights as the dungeon core stalked towards her.

"I. Burned. An. Entire. Starfleet. To. The. Ground. You feel like this pathetic empire of yours scares me? I stood and won against the United Interstellar States, the greatest industrial power Earth ever had." The Earth-born leaned forward, until they were almost nose to nose. "I fought against dreadnoughts kilometers long, clad in monomolecular armor and armed with missiles capable of wiping out entire metropolises. And both of us were planning to fight an Order who commands technology similar, or perhaps even superior to, my old foes. A few airships won't intimidate me. And they shouldn't intimidate you either."

Allya let out the breath she hadn't even realized she'd been holding as the dungeon core straightened.

"You may be right. But you…you don't know the Empire like I do."

"No. No I don't. Which is why you are going to educate me."

"So you can fight them?"

"Among other things. If they're here…if they're here, they're going to get roped into this mess."

"What? That's…" Allya's eyes went wide. "Do you think the Order got them here?"

"It's my working theory, yes. Hence why I am not too worried about a potential attack on us. For some reason, they, or at least Sylvia, seem to fear me."

"I'm not sure I'd call it fear. More…'awe'."

"My point stands. They don't seem too keen on attacking me directly. With us so tightly intertwined, I think they'll blink."

"But they won't hesitate to draw the Empire into the rest?"

"Precisely. Drawing the Imperial Skyfleet into this conflict might be exactly the push needed to get the Empire to rip itself apart. Or at least, start widening the cracks."

"For the coming wrecking ball that is the UDC's collapse?"

Alexandra grimaced.

"Yeah." She sighed. "But still, there isn't much we can do about that. Not now at least. However, I can do something if they do decide to send assassins after you, or even come after you in force."

"And that is?"

"Your previous refusal notwithstanding, I believe it's time to outfit you, Trira and Pyn with some proper power armor."

*****

"Are you sure this is necessary?" Asked Allya, as Alexandra tugged on the armor piece, making sure it was securely in place.

Once she was done, Allya could just step into the damned thing, but until then, the armor had to effectively be assembled on top of the baroness to make sure everything was adjusted right.

Alexandra was no armorer, but the power armor had come with it's own operating manual loaded in, which had been remarkably easy to decrypt and extirpate of the security protocols, though at the cost of having the tactical information fry itself. Given that it was, at best, millennia out of date, it was no great loss.

Also, she rather doubted one grunt knew more than, oh, the tactical computer core for the combat information center of the ship he was assigned to.

Not that she, or rather Ghost, had been able to break into that yet, but they were making progress. Slow, but progress nonetheless.

"Yes, it is. I don't want you dying because I didn't take even simple precautions."

"Simple. Right. Can you even afford this with your current resource crunch?"

"Protecting prime assets is always a worthwhile, and high priority, investment."

"So I'm a 'prime asset' now?" Said Trira, amused.

"All three of you are in my inner circle, and are de facto prime assets, yes." Said Alexandra, matter of factly. "Also you'd be a pain in the ass to replace."

Everyone chuckled at that.

"It's good to see you back to normal." Said Pyn, and Allya gave her a warning glance.

Alexandra stopped.

"I beg your pardon?"

"I mean…" Pyn gazed uneasily at her fiancée, who sighed.

"She meant that you were very preoccupied before. You were acting…oddly."

Alexandra set down her tools, and gave Emilia a look.

The vampire, who had so far been glad to let her girlfriend and her golems get their hands dirty, nodded softly, before hopping off of the workshop table she'd been sitting on.

"About that…we need to have a talk."

*****

Allya walked around Ghost's holographic avatar, shaking her head.

"I'm going to admit, it's hard to believe. But…Well, the uniform is convincing."

"Seen one before?" Asked Alexandra.

"My ancestor's is kept in the family stronghold."

Alexandra froze.

"That's…I didn't arrive with my clothes." Or anything that wasn't directly integrated into her body for that matter. In fact she was still amazed her implants had made it through, it's not like they couldn't be removed after all.

"I know. She had one tailor made. An exact replica. Well, as exact as she could get it. Since she obviously couldn't get the real materials."

"Interesting." She'd never taken Océane Rivière as that much of a navy fanatic, but then again, this far from home, and the barbarity of Alcheryos at the time…the Federation and its navy would have been a heavenly utopia in comparison.

"So, uh…" Pyn licked her lips as she spoke up. "I know you want to be called Ghost, for distinction, but you're the same person as Alexandra, right? I mean, sort of?"

"Our differences have reached a point where broad divergence of thought is expected, but yes." Answered Ghost.

"Well…" The elf gestured at Ghost, then Alexandra, and finally Emilia. "Does that make it…weird?"

"Yes." They all answered, simultaneously, with a slight blush on Ghost and Emilia's part.

"Right. Sorry."

"No, it's alright. Clearing the air is important." Said Alexandra.

"It is. And we all appreciate telling us this, trusting us with it." Allya gestured at her own posse. "Especially given the fact that you only shared it with your girlfriend recently."

"When I give my word, I mean it." The Earth-born shrugged. "Besides, you'll be able to work with her now, that'll up our efficiency."

"Don't expect much though, I'm already crumbling under 'special projects', just so you are aware." Warned Ghost.

"I think we all are at this point." Said the baroness.

"True enough, I suppose."

Alexandra clapped her hands.

"So, enough diversions! Let's get you kitted out. Then we can observe CQ's little exercise."

Allya titled her head.

"Yeah, about that…I appreciate the extra training, and the hardware, but, uh…are you sure a live fire exercise is a good idea?"

"The golems will be using training rounds. And consider it a repayment for your assistance with Asarian siege weapons. I would never have dealt that much damage against Sunrise without it."

"Don't mention it. I'm sure the royal engineers will consider it massively in their favor anyway. Give a bit of training and some demonstrations with catapults, trebuchets and mangonels in exchange for a full complement of heavy howitzers and field guns, plus the training to use them? Yes please."

"Eh. Probably. Plus, CQ wanted some action."

"Isn't she going to lead the marine detachment on the new fleet?"

"She is, but with the So Much For Subtlety…I don't expect much in terms of boarding actions."

"That's…a very good point. You don't intend to follow it up with a ground attack though?"

"Not this time. I'm going to turn their fortresses into tombs. Once that's done? Well, they won't have the artillery contest mine, now will they?"

"Their archmage will meet you."

"I know. I'm counting on it."

"...You made more of your antimagic rockets, didn't you?"

Alexandra smiled widely.

"I know you'd figure it out. And yes, I have. Or rather, I've made a fair few new shells for my guns. That's only one of them. Sunrise has tricks up their sleeves? Fine."

The dungeon core smiled, and Allya's wolfish grinned matched the Earth-born's own.

"So do we." Finished the baroness.

*****

"That was fun!" Said CQ as she walked into the laboratory, Jared in tow. "For a guard force, these guys fight really well."

"They've had a lot of experience." Answered Alexandra as she looked at the prototypes strewn about the room, flicking a glance at Glitch's buggy avatar. "But we've had what we wanted."

"What do you mean?" CQ tilted her head as she looked at the room, filled with pods and a massive central computer core. "What are those?"

"Well, your mom always bugged me about recreating video games, and we were starting to seriously need to be able to do training without blowing our own stuff up. Hence this." The Earth-born gestured at the mass of equipment. "A virtual reality simulation, with its attendant pods."

"Couldn't we just connect to it? Instead of using the pod thingies?"

"I mean yeah, but it's a good place to store your body." Even Arcadia had them. Hell, she'd been a regular guest in them, before and after joining the hivemind. "They have integrated life support and even an inbuilt medical suite."

Well, medical suite as in 'inject healing potions if problem', but still, it counted.

Alexandra wondered if Emilia had realized these 'virtual reality pods' were basically refurbished one person escape pods. Probably.

She might no longer feel the need for an exit strategy for her loved one, at least not at a moment's notice like when the Old World army was bearing down on them, but that didn't mean she'd stopped working on that program. And just like she'd recycled the main escape pod into her stealth shuttles, she could reuse some of the pod tech for other things.

"Uh. So, it's for spending a lot of time in?"

"Yep!" Though, admittedly not to the level of those she was used to. The schematics for some of the stuff in them was straight from the fabricators' repository of spare parts, taken from the systems meant for the high G maneuvering pods for the Sagitarius Empire's starfighters. Apparently, the Empire didn't believe in long range or autonomy fighters, as it clearly was only meant to be used for a couple of days at most, and not the month long autonomy of some of the Earth created starfighters from the Interplanetary Wars. Though, in this case, 'starfighter' was a misnomer, since they were basically just rebranded gunships. "Though we'll limit some stuff. Also the computers will be running strategic simulations while the rest of the system isn't in use."

"Ooooh, predict what our enemy does?"

"Not really, it's actually more axed towards logistics and resource prediction, as well as force deployment speed and agility, so to speak. I'm no Steve Walmsley, but I think I did a pretty good job."

"Steve Walmsley?"

"Someone from Earth. He used to make strategy oriented video games. Really detailed ones. He ended up making a series of strategic simulators during the Terran Hegemony and Interplanetary Wars." In fact, his software and programs were still used in academies, she'd had to use them herself, and they served as the basis for a lot of strategic prediction systems, including Arcadia's own, at least according to Ghost. "They were considered some of, if not the very best at the time."

"Well, you're the very best here, aren't you?"

Alexandra chuckled.

"Nice of you to say so kiddo. Alright, I used the data gathered during the exercise to calibrate the simulators. Care to join me in taking it for a spin?"

Her daughter was inside a pod before she'd even finished her sentence, and Alexandra laughed as she shook her head.

"Should have expected that. Come now, Jared, Glitch, hop in. Let's try for a fireteam simulation to start off of."