Chapter 236 - Trench Warfare

Chapter 236

Reds Sands Desert, Duchy of Sarth

City of Darthar, Sunrise Siege Lines

Sunrise's officers weren't all idiots it seemed. Alexandra was vaguely disappointed by that, but not surprised.

They wouldn't have gotten this far, or planned this revolt so thoroughly, if they didn't have a lot competent people in their ranks. They probably didn't have the same pool the Republic had, but their leadership wasn't trying to sabotage them either, and that counted for a lot.

Their infantry had, yes, reversed course, but they had still taken a hefty toll on her warships with the fortresses before she managed to pull back.

And they had clearly identified the ground assault as the main threat. Furthermore, they'd realized that getting into an artillery duel was simply stupid. They could pound the fortress she'd captured flat, but that wouldn't accomplish squat for them, and it would take forever.

So instead, they sent in the infantry, into the trenchworks and, if she had to guess, the tunnels linking the fortresses together. Everyone staying low and trying to avoid exposing themselves to the artillery.

She was still shooting at them of course, but sparingly. She couldn't draw ammo from the magazines downstairs, since they were firmly in the hands of the enemy, and while there was a stalemate currently, she was under no illusion about her ability to push down into the fortress with her current force.

No. They were going to continue creeping closer in the trenches, build up a critical mass just outside of her line of fire, and then rush her from below and above.

It wasn't a battle her golems could win. But it wasn't one they were supposed to.

It was the right call to make…and would simply end up throwing more slaves onto her demolition charges.

The twins wouldn't be happy. But there was only so much Alexandra could do.

A few marines had slipped into the night, grabbing some of the slaves' bodies with them. They'd get resurrected, and hopefully get some intel out of them. It would also hopefully appease the fox eared twins somewhat. She'd also grabbed the officers she could find. Most of them had slipped into the fortress, leaving their soldiers to rot, but a few had actually stood their ground, trying to organize resistance. They were heading to a jail cell, and probably a firing squad eventually, but she respected someone willing to make a stand like they did. She was still going to interrogate them, but she wouldn't hand them over to Ella. Not that torture would get them good data anyway, even with this world's truth stones.

Of course, this was dependent on her fortress force buying enough time and being enough of a distraction to allow the airships to swoop in and take the marines aboard.

Alexandra smiled, or rather her hologram on her command golem did, as whistles and war drums filled the air.

There was a mighty warcry, and the slaves sallied out.

She snapped her fingers. It wasn't actually necessary, the order was actually given by a radio signal, but she was nothing if not theatrical.

The artillery let loose.

The night came alive with screams as boulders and arcane projectiles reaped a rich harvest.

But not a harvest in the attack wave. Alexandra looked at one of the screens of her field command center, showing the vision of a golem looking over the parapet at the charging slaves, and she could see their confusion.

The artillery was meant for their commanders. The one who she was ready to bet had stayed behind to organize a second wave.

A second wave that, with the chaos she'd just sown, wouldn't be coming any time soon. Leaving the first one isolated, the spearhead without the shaft to hammer it inside her defenses.

Her golems opened fire.

And the slaves died.

Lines of tracer rounds, hails of shrapnel and bursts of buckshot tore bloody holes in the charging line, but they simply kept coming.

Alexandra swallowed as the slaves just continued their rush. It was one thing to know it would happen, and another to experience it.

In warfare on Earth, you never actually annihilated the enemy. Even in space battles, the other side's morale broke before their ships did. There were exceptions, of course, but still. Even the Terran Hegemony had surrendered, though no one had accepted it.

She suddenly had a lot more sympathy for the people terrified of her and her golems.

Unfortunately for the slaves however, it wasn't going to be enough.

They arrived within a stone's throw of her line of golems, and hurled javelins as they came. They weren't good quality, and mostly pinged off of her golems' armor, but it was interesting.

The slaves drew their primary weapons…and died screaming as the flamethrowers opened fire.

There weren't enough of them to actually destroy the attack wave…but there was enough to stagger them, and keep them back for a few seconds.

Right in grenade range.

They were shredded, the few that managed to break on through quickly handled with pistols and shotguns.

Alexandra smiled…then realized that there hadn't been an attack from the fortress.

The ground shook, and the Earth-born watched in amazement as holes were blasted into the ground from underneath them…and knights leapt through them. One practically appeared in the middle of her command center.

"Wow, that's clever. I really should have thought of that."

Whatever the knight had expected to hear, or see for that matter, that wasn't it, and he -or she, hard to tell with that much armor- hesitated, as their comrades began laying into the golems, as the second wave belatedly began moving outside.

Unfortunately, that second of hesitation was all that Alexandra needed, as her golem's fist slammed into a big, red button.

And the satchel charges detonated.

*****

Falmagar, duke of Lorenz and by the grace of the true Queen of the Asarian Kingdom, leader of the Southern Army of Restoration on behalf of the duchy of Sunrise, gritted his teeth as he looked at the devastation before him, his entourage fanning out around him, but still very careful not to step in front of their lord.

His first battle with the dungeon's forces…and she was every bit as sneaky and crafty as they'd said.

More, even.

"The damage is mostly superficial my lord, we can have the fortress repaired." Said his general.

"And what about all of the lost siege engines? Will they be so easily replaced?" He said through his gritted teeth.

"Honestly?" The general shrugged. "Not really, no. But they're not total write-offs either. Our advantage over those cannons is that a trebuchet isn't just one giant tube that has to be scrapped if it's damaged. I think a lot more of our weapons is salvageable than the enemy might think."

"That's…something." Said the duke, a bit more thoughtful. "But this is still a disaster, Jasmine."

"Never said it wasn't my lord. It's just not a complete one. We learned a lot from this. And got a fair bit of loot, however…damaged it was." And how little ammo they had for the weapons they did take intact, but that went without saying. Ammunition rarely survived giant explosions after all, at least not firearm ammunition. "Won't make much of a difference, but we'll learn something."

The duke nodded.

"But the dungeon core will have learned a lot as well." He shifted. Today wasn't the worst day in his life, because it wasn't the day he'd heard about the dungeon being able to project force outside of her influence without a secondary core or avatar, but it was close. At least her secondary core was headed to Erakis, and whatever the treaty said, that meant that the dungeon core's alliance with the New Republic was shaky, or outright a sword meets throat relationship. "We need to be ready."

"Yes, but so will we. I'll make sure of that. We've reinforced the ground side defences of the fortresses and artillery cluster, pulled back some of the forward units. They won't be available for an assault, but that'll give us a hell of a lot more than some inexperienced idiots for defense."

"Excellent. Speaking of, ready to launch the first assault?"

"Very nearly. Almost done with the preparations and the probing attacks. Then we'll be ready to rush the walls."

The duke nodded. In something like this, especially when cut off from a ready source of slaves -he had some streaming in from his patrols digging into Sarth's territory, but even that was drying up-, he'd rather do it right than do it quickly.

Thankfully, with the mess of the siege of the capital, even the duchess was coming around to that point of view, which was a considerable relief. She hadn't been about to relieve him, blood ties ran deep, but she was definitely putting the pressure on.

Now, with their majesties safely contained and putting up a hell of a fight, she was actually starting to encourage him to do it right and be cautious.

Though today gave him a hell of an emphasis. If he wanted to win this, he needed to be inside the city's impenetrable, Old World shields, when the dungeon core turned her whole airfleet to him.

"Excellent. I hate to say it, general, but we need to be inside the city sooner rather than later. I fear that even our mightiest fortress will only buy time when it comes to that dungeon core."

"No arguments there. I-"

One of their knights came galloping in on one of the wargs that served as their heavy cavalry, the massive wolf screeching to a halt like no horse could have.

"My lords, my ladies! Our airships report incoming!"

"Another raid?" Asked the duke, and the knight shrugged.

"Unknown, my lord!"

The duke and the general exchanged a look, before gazing at the horizon, as one of their sycophants pointed and shouted.

There were indeed four black dots on the horizon. If the air patrol had only spotted them now, when you could see them with ground sentries, he'd need to have a word with them…then again, he was out of the communication loop, out on the field like that. Mmmh, something he'd have to fix. Maybe he could-

He blinked as one of the dots disappeared behind twin flashes of light, before letting out a curtailed yelp supremely out of line with his station as his general tackled him to the ground.

"EVERYONE DOWN!"

The duke gasped as he filled his lungs with air, and his bodyguards surrounded him, swords drawn, some at the general, others at everyone outside their circles.

"Jasmine, what the fu-" He managed to let out.

With a muzzle velocity of a full kilometer per second, a relatively low altitude and remarkably flat ballistic curve, it took almost six seconds for the shells to arrive.

The duke's bodyguard were scythed down like bowling pins as the two hundred milimeter shells detonated mid air, turning the devastated fortress into a brand new abattoir as they showered it with high velocity shrapnel.

He felt the general spasm and gasp, and then go limp over him.

"Jasmine? Jasmine!" He suddenly called out in panic, after spitting out the grit that had found its way into his mouth, before his eyes hardened as he saw her glazed eyes.

He gently laid her body to the side, as healers rushed in.

He brushed them off of him with a trickle of power, as he shouldered his cape off, stepping over the corpses of his bodyguards. The general would live. Maybe. His men, some of which had been watching over him since he'd been a little boy, wouldn't.

And he was done keeping to the fucking back lines.

He may have gotten his command because of his blood ties with the duchess, but he was the duke of Lorenz, descended of a line of archmages so long it stretched all the way back to Saphire Arkhan, lord of the World Mage Court, inventor of the modern teleporter, founder of the Saphire Kingdom and discoverer of the Kingdom's home continent.

He rose through the air as he began to incant, runes of power surrounding him as his will carved them out of the very air in arcane fire.

It was time to give the damned dungeon a taste of the power of his line, and show her what true masters of magic were capable of.