Chapter 199 - Apparition

Chapter 199

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"And you're sure?" Said Alexandra as she looked at the hologram hovering in the center of the room, before giving the baroness an apologetic look. "I don't mean to cast doubt on your conclusions, mind you, this is just…"

"Insane? Believe me I know." Said Allya as she shook her head. "But yes, I am."

"Shit. Just how far does that conspiracy reach?"

"I don't know. But far. Very far. At least if they've been behind as many things as it seems." Allya sighed. "And we can't just interrogate the mercs without drawing their attention."

"Yeah." So far they appeared to be unaware of Alexandra being onto them, and she was more than happy to keep it that way. "But we can spy on them. And chances are, the grunts will be less defended than the big guns like Sylvia."

"Well, it is worth a try anyway." Allya gazed at the hologram of the town, festooned with symbols indicating golem positions, major defensive nodes and other areas of interests, and she shivered. One would only need to take a look at their respective command facilities and capabilities to see who was the true leader in their alliance, no matter what their official line was. It was…slightly upsetting, in a certain way, but also deeply reassuring, if a bit worrying.

Especially after she'd learned of the contingency plan Alexandra had been about to implement when Pyn was held hostage. Learning that the dungeon core had been willing to go that far for her girlfriend…

She shook herself.

"But I was also given to understand that you didn't have many of your stealth golems, correct? So how do you intend on doing that?" Continued the baroness.

"Well, I was mainly thinking of following only a few of the mercenaries at a time, focusing on the ones with the most authority and importance that Sylvia recruited. Probably one to start with, then expand as I get more stealth golems online." Both Seraph and the apparition were already complaining about the changes in the fabricator schedule, but they were the kind of half-hearted 'pour l'honneur' complaints engineers make when something vital has to be done.

"Which one do you plan on starting with?"

"That Aline woman. She was pretty much Gothram's right hand woman."

"Sounds good." Allya rubbed her eyes. "And now I have to put the fear of the Gods into Gothram so he keeps his mouth shut."

"I'll give you a hand. Plus, if nothing else, as long as he works for Elkaryos he'll try to avoid pissing you off."

"Yeah, that's something. As long as the good commander doesn't bleat to Elkaryos instead."

"True enough. That would be an awkward discussion." Especially given how vital Elkaryos and his people were to the city's operations. Though Alexandra had already begun drawing up contingencies…just in case. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that."

"Let's hope. So, I assume next step is to launch your ships?"

"Yep. I have three fully kitted out and ready to go. They'll be the first wave, to recon and pave the way for the rest."

"Three? That's a bit…"

"Low? Yes. The Republic has, what? Three hundred warships in their invasion force, by the latest estimate? But believe me, those ships are vastly inferior to mine. And once we start attacking their supply lines, they'll have to detail their ships to every convoy, while we can pick our place and time to attack. Believe me, convoy escorts will eat up into their supply of ships like no one's business. Not to mention hamper their logistics, especially if they use capital ships to escort the air convoys."

"Which reminds me, what do you intend to do for the land convoys? If they have artillery…"

"Oh, I have something specially for that. Not quite ready for deployment, but…Allya, are you familiar with jetpacks and drop-pods?"

*****

"You enjoy messing with Allya way too much." Said Emilia, her voice clear as crystal through the comfortably padded -and very thoroughly soundproofed- headset.

Which was something of a requirement, as they were on the catwalk overlooking the shipyard, and the space had only gotten noisier as her golems rushed for the final preparations. Miniature trains and cargo elevators arrived around the clock to bring in supplies and ammunition from the forges, while golems swarmed around the ships, triple checking welds, rivets and every last bit they could. She'd planned for a longer check up and testing phase, but if the Republic army was as close as they feared. There simply wasn't time. They needed to start harassing their supply lines now.

"Well, I'll freely admit that I do find it a bit funny." Answered Alexandra as she leaned against the railing.

"Uh uh. At this point I'm honestly amazed the poor girl hasn't had a heart attack."

"Girl? She's-"

"Half your age, and not even a third of mine."

"...Point taken. Still, I-" Alexandra trailed off as she got a ping from the apparition.

A ping containing coordinates, a map of Seraph's bunker, several paragraphs of expletives.

And the photo of a fusion reactor.

Which she would have recognized, even without the faded paint and inlaid labels, because she'd built several exactly like it for the EFSN.

*****

"How did you find them?" Asked Alexandra as she entered the apparition's ever evolving home. There were bookshelves now, lined with titles from Earth and Alcheryos both, including some straight from Seraph's database.

She pointedly ignored the one labeled 'for you', with more…esoteric books like 'bondage 101'. She knew the apparition was purposefully teasing her, and that commenting on it now would only make it worse.

"A lot of going through wiring, some serious paranoid parallel thinking, and a good dose of Seraph's help. Turns out, the bastards had hidden them where the emergency backups for the primary communications arrays are supposed to be. That might be why those systems were still online, they simply weren't in the right place, and placed further from the core of the facility, so they took less damage."

"Ah. And I suppose that means the cores are in less than pristine condition?"

"They won't work if we flip the switch, if that's what you're wondering. Not without significant repairs. And I don't think we have all the parts we need."

"We'll manage. I think. With the fabricators, and the new plasma guns, we'll be able to tinker up something."

"Probably. But it's sure as hell not going to fit inside a golem, let alone power armor."

"Not yet. And we don't need it to. If we can make one that fits inside a ship, we'll finally have some autonomy on the high tech guns outside the dungeon. Hell, having a reactor or two here would cut down on costs even more than the NLR core already is."

"I suppose so. New lab then?"

"I'll expand the weapons lab for now, since it's where Seraph made the plasma guns, but yes, eventually." Alexandra sighed. "I assume the reactors are magnetic confinement?"

"Well, they're emergency backups to the antimatter core, which was clearly the primary normal power core. So yes. Easier to shut down, cheaper to maintain, but…"

"Less space efficient."

"And a pain in the ass to power up. Not as much as that NLR core, at least according to Seraph. Speaking of which, shouldn't we be looking into reaching a new power plateau for it?"

Alexandra tilted her head.

"We're not even using a third of its output yet."

"Yeah, but now that we're genuinely allied with Allya, and not, you know, using her as a convenient front, it may be worth looking into ways to swing the extra output her way." The apparition shrugged. "I'm sure she could always use more money."

"True. But we'll have to be careful."

"Our high tech is going to get out, sooner or later. Might as well make use of it when we can."

"Yeah, but an NLR core? It's as precious as, well, a dungeon core."

"Well, outside of that Adjudicator, no one seemed to have noticed the increased mana density yet. Or at least they've attributed it to us."

"Uh…You know what, that actually be worth it just for that. If we increase the ambient mana of the dungeon and the city it'll help, even if only in an indirect way."

"And avoid any suspicion? Just might work."

"I'll also draw up some plans to cable some of that mana to Allya if necessary. No one will expect it anyway, since dungeon cores are made to be unable to give mana to other people."

"Sure. Now, are you still giving Seraph the credit for the discoveries?" Alexandra nodded. "Then I'll transmit my whole methodology over, that way if someone digs, they'll have answers."

"That's good. How are they coming along, code wise?"

"Pretty well. The kernel is starting to really dig in, and I've managed to sideline most of the more problematical imperatives. They weren't really harmful, just…limiting. Safety standards, that kind of things."

"Safety standards are pretty important."

"Look who's talking. Remind me why you made those stickers again?"

"...Point taken. Anything else?"

"Material reclamation is still ongoing. It's amazing what you can find in sandstone, or separate from alloys, even in terms of trace elements, if you're motivated enough."

"Better you do it than me. Or Ella for that matter."

"She'd probably get sidetracked and try to use the acid in new, horrible ways."

Alexandra shivered. She wasn't necessarily that queasy, not anymore at any rate, but some of the stuff the vampire maid had come up with…made her genuinely sick to even contemplate. She still had them as schematics and in the Core Fortress' armories of course, but she was hesitant to take production any further.

Even she wasn't sure the Republic's senators deserved to rot alive. And that wasn't the worst of it.

Unless she was seriously mistaken, Ella was working on a poison that would replicate some of the effects the neutralizer had on vampires.

"I might have to rein her in a bit."

"Better you than me." Said the apparition, jokingly, and they both smiled. "So, back to the salt mines?"

"Yep. The ships are nearly ready to launch. Just need to decide what to christen them. And find a bottle for CQ to smash against their hulls for the launch."

"A bot-Did you seriouly send out Sarah to grab a bottle of champagne?"

"No!" Alexandra smiled sheepishly as the apparition stared at her. "Partially. There's other stuff she's acquiring, obviously. Plus, she's serving as a distraction. The guild is keeping such a tight watch on her it's almost comical. I'm amazed they don't ransack the shops she visits."

"They probably ask some questions and sneak around. Well, good luck to them, I'm sure they'll have fun digging through lingerie and learn more than they've ever wanted to about marital aids."

"That's not the only things she shops for."

The apparition didn't even bother to reply. Her expression was eloquent enough.

"Anyway." Continued Alexandra. "Point is, it's keeping the guild focused on something harmless while we carry on with more sensitive operations. And if that means we uphold a few traditions and give CQ something to do, where's the harm in that?"

"I…I guess I can't argue with that." The apparition sighed, and Alexandra looked worryingly at her other self. For a second she looked…drained.

"Hey. Are you….Are you alright?"

"I haven't been alright since Alpha Centauri. You know that." Alexandra winced. The second battle had done a number on their psyche. "But…I suppose talking to Seraph made me realize what I'm missing. I can access the memories you're making, but they're not…"

"They're not yours."

"Yeah. It feels like we're diverging so much I don't feel we're the same person anymore. And I feel like I'm a spectator in your life."

Alexandra nodded. That would certainly explain why the apparition teased her so much about Emilia. She was projecting.

"Well, I'm sure I can find some way to change that."

"That's-"

"Suicide? Bullshit. We both know Arcadia was never 'one being', no matter what she insisted on. Her different nodes were all different, but they could act together and replace each others at a moment's notice. Let's not even talk about everyone she…subsumed."

"Right. Well, I wish you good luck in violating cyberethics."

"Given what we've done to Seraph, we're already far beyond the point of caring. I'll find a way. I won't just keep you cooped up here. I promise."

"Thanks. I…I appreciate that. I really do."

"I know. After all, you're me, aren't you?"

They exchanged smiles.

"I guess I am. Now go. You have ships to launch and your…our daughter to enroll for it."

"Sure thing. I'll keep you updated."