Chapter 196 - Insurrection

Note : Chapters 197, 198 and 199 have been written and added to the queue !

I've also tried working on a halloween special, but despite having a plan for it I'm just hitting a wall of writer's block.

Chapter 196

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"That's it. I'm making it official. I hate mazes." Said Raika as she flopped onto her bunk like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Well, it wasn't so bad." Raika raised her head to glare at Thomas, the ranger simply smiling. He looked the worse for wear, like all of them, but he had definitely gotten off easy. "As long as you can dodge, that is."

"Crystal is evil."

"I mean, are you surprised? And we're getting off lightly. If you want to see the fates of those that really pissed her off, just climb one of the mesas."

Raika shivered. She didn't need to, she'd been there for the final battle with the forces of the Old World. And she'd heard enough about the fields of sorrows to know she really didn't want to visit.

"I suppose that's fair." The party leader sighed as she rolled onto her back, and with a truly heroic effort worthy of songs and ballads, pulled herself to a sitting position. "What about you Alyssa?"

"Well, I'm pretty happy." Said the healer, as she quickly inventoried the contents of her slightly singed medicinal pouch. Mage or no, even the most powerful of healers kept some more mundane medicine and herbs. "I did get my ass kicked, but, well…" She brought up her cybernetic arm, which no longer gleamed, and Raika winced.

A golem had managed to get through them and rush her. And Raika had punched it. Or rather, she'd punched through it.

There was some serious power behind that arm. Although Raika wasn't exactly sure where it was coming from. It had even come equipped with its own portable shield generator. It only allowed for the creation of a single pane of energy, like some kind of gleaming kite shield, but it had laughed off bullets and mine explosions, which was no small feat.

Eismi really had gone above and beyond with that thing.

Still…she couldn't shake off a bit of unease. She was fairly sure the golem would have been able to strike Alyssa before she'd managed to punch it, and yet it hadn't. It was as if it had hesitated at the last second. Something which shouldn't have happened.

And it seemed to apply to all of them for some reason, although it was more prominent on the healer. Was it the dungeon protecting them, because of their close ties to the baroness? It seemed absurd, but it was the only explanation that made sense.

"You kicked their asses in turn. Little Alyssa can now fight hand to hand! Up top!" Yelled out Thomas as he held his hand up.

One high five later, Raika shook her head.

"Alright, alright! Settle down. Fernand, how's our loot looking?"

"Deposited it at the guild for full evaluation and bidding." The guild, among many, many other things, had a specialized service for linking adventurers with buyers interested in their loot, at least in dungeon towns. For a fee, of course, but unless you really knew people, it was usually a pretty fair option. "You heard the preliminary evaluation at the exit however." Raika nodded. Had she not done the delve with the baroness, she would have found the numbers absurd, but well…they made it out with thirty thousand mana worth of loot, which apparently was a bit higher than the average for the labyrinth…and wasn't even a fourth of what they'd made out with when delving with the baroness. But it still was a small fortune. "Who knows if it'll sell for more or less?"

"Normally I'd say less, given the trade situation, but since everyone seems to be hot for weapons…" Raika shrugged. "Well, I suppose it was a good day of work!"

"More than that, I'd say. Maybe getting our asses grabbed by these Void Blades assholes wasn't all bad after all."

Silence descended upon the room.

"What…what do you think happened to Alex?" Said Alyssa, softly.

"I don't know." Answered Raika, sighing. "Dominique told me she tried to find out, but those mercs are tight lipped as hell. They won't speak, and she's pretty sure they wouldn't even under torture." How the attendant turned representative found that out, Raika didn't wish to know. "But I think she's alright. Extradimensionals are no good to anyone dead. Besides, she's smart, even if she got herself enslaved or controlled, I'm sure she'll find a way out."

"Yeah, with a lot of violence and explosions. I mean, you saw what she did to the mercs during our fight?"

"Yep. Well, I suppose we'll just have to follow the fireworks, then we'll find her." The fighter smiled. "Should be a novelty, usually when something explodes or catches fire, it's your fault!"

"Hey!" The healer crossed her arms. "I didn't see you complaining when I roasted those golems!"

"Well, a little bit when you melted them and their loot." Said Thomas, before dodging the pillow thrown his way with the ease of long practice. "Of course, what do I know?" The ranger said, smiling and shrugging.

"Darn right." The healer looked back at Raika. "So, any plans oh fearless leader?"

"Right now? Just relax. Tomorrow we can start working on getting all that loot sold. Anyone up for a drink before we go take some well earned rest?"

"Is that a serious question?" Answered the ranger.

"Of course not. Come on, let's celebrate a bit. First round is on me!"

*****

Allya sighed as she set down the stack of paperwork. At this point she was seriously contemplating asking Alexandra to make her some kind of bureaucracy golem. Or borrow her 'Seraph' AI. As much as she'd been able to delegate, there was still so much that required her personal attention. Which was, admittedly, a fair bit of her own fault. She liked to be kept in the loop, and it also meant that a lot of people were trying to suck up to her, which never hurt, especially not when the entire kingdom was collapsing around her.

She shook herself. This wasn't the time to dwell on the latest news from the front. She quickly looked through the -thankfully- small pile of remaining paperwork, and stopped on a request from…Alfyris? What could she possible want?

The dark elf princess had managed to fade into the background with remarkable ease since their first meeting. More importantly, she'd almost immediately started more shadowy deals, which Allya had officially turned a blind eye to…but ordered Trira to keep track of.

Which the dark elves had no doubt expected. Which was why they'd never see Alexandra's stealth golems coming. Trira wasn't thrilled about using her assassins as a distraction, but it was working, and serving as one hell of a training exercise, with both sides trying to outmaneuver the other without resorting to force, meanwhile the dungeon core gathered all the information they were after anyway.

So far it was mostly syndicate business, establishing safehouses and a few other arrangements. But Allya was keeping a close watch on the new data anyway.

She trusted Elkaryos, and the people directly under his orders and vouched for by him, which pretty much meant Melia and a handful of administrators. That didn't extend to the princess or her entourage. She'd do her best to keep the dark elves happy, especially as they'd quite literally gifted her a damned battleship, but if they became a threat to the town…

Well, it would get very unpleasant. Thankfully, given the dungeon's rapidly rebuilding fortress, she doubted even the Dusk Blade would be suicidal enough to turn against the town, especially not with Calder having firmly taken it as his flagship, alongside a fair portion of his crew coming in to make up combat losses. Still, she'd rather not spend her resources fighting her allies, not when her enemies were literally marching to attack her.

Allya reached out to grab her mug as she prepared to read the request, and was halfway to the floor before she'd even understood the sound that had ticked her off was that of a muffled explosion.

Through the soundproofing enchantments.

She leapt forward, and erupted into the hallway, almost running headfirst into Valker as she did so.

"What's going on?" She called out, just in time for the second explosion to rock the building, and for the alarms to start blaring.

Which was when she heard it. The gunfire.

A lot of gunfire.

And most of it wasn't from her troops' Tarkian weapons.

*****

Alexandra, in CQ's body, stopped as she stepped outside the military entrance, tilting her head as she focused on the report by Seraph.

"We have detected multiple more detonations."

"Ammunition cooking off?"

"Negative. At another location. The city's jail. And there is now gunfire there."

"The cit-Crap. The arsenal blowing up is just a damned distraction!" Alexandra looked at the situation quickly as she pulled out a map. "Alright, retask our units. Track any infantry movement from the jail, and update me. Whatever comes out of there is the real threat."

"Affirmative."

Alexandra sighed, and looked around, before following the golems rushing out of the entrance, making a mental note to start building some transports for her forces. Nothing major, but even a few jeeps, trucks, or ideally a handful of Armored Personnel Carriers, even with small endurance, would increase their ability to deploy into the city or its outskirts immeasurably. Not to mention tow her artillery around.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

It still amazed her that the program still ran smoothly, after all this time. Especially given all the clutter of her newer systems. Some things never changed apparently.

Another set of explosions rang out, and she winced as she ran into the first few streets, people clearing away as the golems forged a path through, before smoothing her expression into seriousness as gunfire began filling the air again, some of it clearly from her golems' guns. Looked like it was show time.

*****

"Anders, report." Called out Allya as she stepped out of the manor proper and onto one of the many half balconies, half gun platforms that dotted it.

The commander lowered his binoculars as he briefly saluted her, before gesturing towards the city, where thick palls of smoke where drifting, obscuring swathes of it. Strange smoke too, as it was keeping low, and was well in the process of blanketing the entirety of it…which meant that it was probably meant to, some kind of spell or special fuel.

"We're still only receiving scattered reports, but from what I can tell there were three main sets of detonations. One at the primary arsenal, the biggest. Another, at the jail. And a handful of detonations are occurring within the city itself. My guess is that the first one was meant to attract attention and maybe cover the noise of the jail ones, but their coordination failed. Regardless, most of our troops rushed in to defend the ammunition stockpile, which was probably the intended effect. The last group of detonations are probably intended to make a mess of the streets and make the civilian panic, preventing our troops from getting back into position or reinforcing us quickly. Probably some smoke artillery rounds in there as well, to add to the confusion."

"Us?"

Anders nodded.

"The gunfire is coming closer. Most of it anyway. There's probably some groups out there trying to slow down our backup even further. And the only worthwhile target in this sector is the manor. Which means you and Pyn milady."

"Crap. What about her, how is she?"

The commander sighed.

"We don't know. I sent messengers out, but I can't spare a search party. I am trying to grab whatever patrols I can and gather them here, but most of them are rushing to the sounds of the guns, not us, and they're simply engaging and getting annihilated peacemeal, although they are slowing the enemy down somewhat."

"We need better protocols for that. But I suppose it is their job. If this had been a normal terrorist attack, rushing to eliminate their attackers would be the logical thing to do. Too bad it seems we have a bit more than a couple of squads of fanatics."

"Indeed. My guess is a small team of specialists opening the prison and arming whoever would follow them."

"The Scarlet Swords. Damn it! We handed them a fucking army ready to go on a plate."

"Agreed. And-" Anders ducked as gunfire redoubled, and a handful of bullets pinged off the battlements, his own men immediately taking cover alongside him before returning fire with their carbines, pouring fire into the now thick smoke, where only the occasional gun flash and vague movement could be discerned. Allya knelt down, just in case, and tilted her head. Those…weren't carbines on the other side. Or at least not that many.

Then she realized with a thrill of horror that they were muskets. The dungeon's muskets, to be precise, whose sound she had grown accustomed to, what with the many fights by Alexandra's side. Fortunately, reason reasserted itself quickly. These had to be looted ones, as if the extradimensional had wanted her dead she already would be, probably via far more advanced weapons than this, and as much as she was still a bit afraid of the dungeon core, she believed their newly reforged alliance was genuine.

Besides, the gunfire was sporadic, uncoordinated, not the smooth metronome of volleys from Alexandra's golems. Or hell, anyone trained in proper musketry. This was the fire of people that had just been handed guns and told to shoot the enemy, not a coordinated battleforce of true musketeers.

Then she heard the gunfire shift, as the enemy began engaging something behind them, and Allya felt a thrill of hope, which quickly turned to horror, as she realized the gunfire attacking them wasn't moving in, but away. As if they'd just stumbled upon the enemy in the thick smoke.

And there was éclair's characteristic gunblade among them.

"Shit! It's Pyn!" She turned towards Anders, who looked thoroughly confused, before comprehension dawned on him as the distinct crack of the high tech firearm echoed over the cruder muskets. "She must have been falling back towards us, straight into their arms! We have to sortie! Now!"

"Yes milady! All units, prepare to move out!"

Allya nodded, and got up…just in time to hear the gunfire fade, and a singular scream from a familiar voice that chilled her blood.

"Baroness!" Boomed a voice, probably augmented by magic. "I invite you to come converse with us. That, or your dear knight gets it!"