Chapter 195 - Ancient Horrors

Note : Apologies for the late upload, I was at the funeral and patreon's scheduling feature failed. Again.

Chapter 195

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Electronics Laboratory

"So?" Said Alexandra as she stood in front of the corpse and the accompanying power armor.

"I have run analysis on the soldier and any identification he might have had." Said Seraph, before gesturing, causing the holographic projector embedded into the laboratory's ceiling to come to life. "I found four."

"Four? That's a bit…redundant, isn't it?"

Seraph shrugged.

"Perhaps. But nonetheless, they were there. His ID number was embedded into his armor's internal and external plates, although the external ones were…no longer readable." A very polite way of saying 'seared clean by a diffraction lance' to say the least. "His dog tags were intact, and his IFF beacon was also functional. Lastly his neural implants also had their own identification protocols."

"Maybe a bit less redundant than I imagined." Said Alexandra, realizing that those methods had probably held true for most of the marines she'd worked with in the EFSN. Crap, it had probably been the same for her in her uniform for that matter. "So, who was he?"

"Corporal Sheen Valin-Castor, Sagitarius Imperial Marine Corps, thirty-third Imperial marine regiment, assigned to the supply ship Iralia's Glory. Thirty eight years old, no outstanding affiliations or titles of nobility."

"So a normal grunt, if a little experienced."

"Affirmative."

"Alright. What the hell happened to him?" Said Alexandra as she leaned over the corpse. He was still clad in his sturdy skinsuit, serving as both an armor underlayer to help disperse energy, and an emergency spacesuit in a pinch. "I assume some kind of neural weapon, since the armor was intact?"

"Actually milady, no. What I found was…more concerning."

Alexandra looked up at them, and the AI shifted uneasily, which had a very strange ripple effect to the golems scattered about the room, with the notable exceptions of the praetorian guard, which were thoroughly beyond their control.

"How so?"

"The soldier didn't die and get mumified my lady. According to the armor logs…"

"It's the mumification that killed him. How?"

"The armor recorded a massive anomaly, as well as a cascade of maintenance errors in the span of six seconds."

"Maintenance errors? How-" Alexandra's eyes went wide. "Shit."

"The expletive seems appropriate."

"They decayed. Just like the systems in your bunkers."

"As if they had been subjected to an intense burst of accelerated time, although without that time actually elapsing, as the systems would have otherwise recorded it as such."

"Crap. And because the automated systems were made to last millennia, they withstood it, but…"

"All the humans died. Even Sagitarius medicine requires regular rejuvenation treatment to maintain one's youth and continue vital functions."

"They aged them to death."

"And considerably beyond. Saturation bombardment with this kind of weapon would certainly explain the destruction of all personel within the fleet without the annihilation of the automated systems."

"But…the God of Fire had nukes. Or high velocity kinetics. The records and impact craters are there, he vaporized several facilities, why bother with…this?"

"Possibly because the decay weapons were meant to be the mainstay of the attack?" Seraph shrugged as Alexandra looked at them. "If it is indeed the same weapon that took my bunker out, then logic dictates the Empire's remnants would have looked for countermeasures, and deployed them in key installations, hence forcing more direct and primitive measures to neutralize them."

Alexandra drummed her fingers on the tabletop, her mind driving into overdrive, bringing a picture into mind. And one she didn't like one bit.

"That would explain why so many minor installations remained…and it means the God of Fire wasn't out to wipe out the automata. The opposite. Stars damn it!"

"My lady?"

"If the decay weapon was the default, they had to know the automated systems would survive. Moreover, given what happened to you, they probably knew that they'd shut down."

"So why were they online?" Asked Seraph, visibly confused, and Alexandra looked at the body in front of her, then the armor.

"Because they turned them back on. Deliberately so. While everything was shut down, they came in, inserted some instructions about not shooting down their own ships in orbit or that battle station of theirs." Because there was no way that orbital 'Citadel of the Flames' Emilia had told her about was anything but a heavily armed battle station. She knew she would have covered it in guns at least. Not to mention sprinkled some hidden starships and secondary bases all over the system. "Probably did the same for their own troops and aircrafts too. And then flipped the switch, possibly remotely."

"But…why?"

"They've been trying to keep the planet's nose in the dirt. And edicts or not, people were bound to start sniffing in ruins, and they couldn't be everywhere at once. So they put these things as the first layer of defence." She swore. "Which is probably what you were as well, although they didn't seem to have bothered to reprogram you. As soon as you booted up they came down to check if all was well. Damn it, they turned all the automated weapons in tripwires! They're probably monitoring for distress calls or requests for reinforcements from installations and such to know where to look for violations of their edicts."

"That…seems logical."

"It does. And having visible and hostile reminders of the 'heretics of the Old World' indiscriminantly killing everything they came across had to be very useful as well. After all, squashing these things from time to time must be one hell of a PR boost, and it makes sure everyone remembers the Custodians are here to protect them from the worst."

"If that is the case, there is a chance the landships were wired."

"If they were, we'd be dead already. No, for whatever reason they seemed to have stopped at blockers on the combat systems." After all she'd pretty much declared alliegance to the Empire's cause in the Iralia's Glory bridge. "For some reason."

"Possibly because any modification too extensive would become apparenty during a salvage attempt, and might even have triggered countermeasures."

"Hell, they might have simply hijacked the IFF system and added themselves to the list of friendlies. Or simply took the codes and put them in their own emitters. That'd be pretty much impossible to find out for anyone without a lot more knowledge about this tech than they've allowed anybody to have so far."

"Affirmative."

Alexandra continued tapping on the tabletop as she felt a faint pang of worry and consternation from her other self, who had evidently just received the package she'd sent, one which summed up the conversation.

"So we have a giant pile of automated weaponry that's been manipulated by the God of Fire into becoming limiters on the planet's development. Wonderful." She turned towards Seraph. "I want the full audit of our Old World systems and programs accelerated. Maximum priority. We simply can't afford to trip a safeguard they or the Empire might have installed somewhere and tip them off. Maximum priority, liaise with my other self as needed, I'll divert the resources."

"Yes my lady." Said the AI as they bowed.

"And then I want you to check our targeting and IFF systems, and safeguard them. We've been relying mostly on the Sagitarian systems and we need to make sure they're secure." Which she had switched over to once she'd started doubting the reliability of the inbuilt dungeon one, despite the apparition assuring her she'd cleansed it of overrides, and realized just how inadequate it was for complex battlefield situations with allies and enemies as well as civilians running around, not to mention the rather more delicate police work the golems were now doing on Allya's behalf, even if only as muscle backup. "Start over from scratch if necessary. We need to be sure that if we pull the trigger, our guns will shoot." Or rather that the golems will even pull said trigger to begin with, but that went without saying. "Then…I'd like you to see if we can find how the Custodians made the automata ignore them."

"Why?"

"Because if they did it, we might be able to do it as well." Alexandra smiled. "And if we can, the other ruins are ours for the taking. As long as we are careful, of course."

"Of course. It will be done high adm-my lady." Corrected the AI as Alexandra glared at her.

"Good. Very good. Now, about salvaging that armor. I'm sure the baroness would appreciate having her troops be able to pull their weight once the shit truly hits the fan." Not to mention the fact that as soon as she had functional power armor, she was making a suit for Emilia and stuffing her into it the second bullets started flying. She'd already acquired her measurements, although that had been for…other activities. "What's our progress on that front?"

*****

Starvak sighed as he leaned back into his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. His office, with all of its transplanted memorabilia, grew more foreboding every day, despite how cozy it had seemed such a short time ago.

Maybe it was because he could feel the noose tightening. Around his and the guild's neck both.

"It's not your fault, Dominique." He said in a weary tone. "It was inevitable, and a result of my own hubris."

"But, guildmaster, I-" Starvak held up his hand, cutting the representative off.

"I said it's not your fault. And I brought this upon myself." The dwarf sighed once more as he sat up. "I tried to uphold our mandate and keep the dungeon under control. I failed. And the harder I tried to bring things back in line, the more I was digging my own grave." He stepped next to the 'window', truthfully just a screen mascarading as one, and gazed at the bustling town depicted on it. "Crystal is on the warpath now, and so is Allya. The genie's out of the bottle, and it's never going back inside. Which means that the guild's approach, my approach, is counterproductive. Trying to restrain one or the other head on will only foster more resentment. The best you can do is try to head off the worst, and work back into their good graces."

"Me?"

"Yes, you." Starvak smiled sadly over his shoulder. "With this disaster, the guild needs a scapegoat. I've volunteered. I will take the fall for this, to preserve everyone else."

"But-"

"Don't fight it. It's for the best. I will return to Darthar, and then probably move back to the Loris Empire. It will be good to be home again, I suppose."

"Who…who will be guildmaster then?" Said Dominique, visibly fidgeting.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to dump the responsibility on you like that." Yet. The young woman would make a terrific guildmaster someday. But not yet. She needed more experience, and hopefully responsibility over a less stressfull hall before she moved onto controlling somewhere as sensitive as Rebirth. "I've called up some old friends. Oromar, notably."

Dominique blinked.

"The centaur? I thought he was retired. I heard he even owned a tarvern in Darthar!"

"Not really. Unless you count regularly going on wasteland expeditions as 'retirement'. Had he not been in the middle of one, and thoroughly out of contact, I'd have probably tapped him to help here."

"He just returned?"

"By sheer necessity. His expedition just fought their way out of the Scorchlands, after their supply ships got grabbed by Sunrise." Dominique winced, and Starvak couldn't blame her. Wasteland expeditions were usually just a step away from certain death, and having your supply lines cut would usually be a death sentence. Fighting your way out of the wasteland with a whole expedition was the stuff they usually made epic poems out of. "Although he had some assistance."

"Gorromar?"

Starvak nodded. The schorchlands were the city's state home territory, and although it was as treacherous as any wasteland -and notably more hostile in terms of sheer environment, thanks to the pervasive obsidian dust, result of the eroded glass that made up the ground, hence the name, as the entire region had been scorched and glassed during the Great Night-, it was also patrolled by the Gorromarians, and they were definitely capable of sending some backup to help in the deeper parts. Especially, in this case, for a joint effort between the Kingdom and the city state, with the expedition tasked with finding a way to locate and collapse the tunnel network used by sand devils to nest and attack the trade convoys.

"Precisely. He is on his way, although getting through the frontlines will be something of a challenge." Sunrise wasn't being completely indiscriminate in their attacks and pillaging, and the royal army was in full retreat, but the loyalists were still putting up an impressive fight while running away, and that combined with the duchy's ravenous depredations meant that the advancing army was a formidable obstacle, even to a neutral force. "Once he is here, he will replace me. It's the only way to avert another bloodbath."

Dominique looked distinctly uncomfortable, but nodded grimly. The internicine warfare between adventurers had only escalated since last time, although thankfully permanent death had yet been avoided.

For now at least.

"In the meantime." Continued the dwarven guildmaster. "We will need to brief the attendants and the rest of the staff, and prepare for the transfer of leadership."

"Yes, guildmaster."

"And you, in particular, are going to have to try and make sure Oromar doesn't put his hooves in his mouth when it comes to the baroness. You'll have to hold things together with the town until then, without provoking Allya or Crystal, and prepare whatever briefing you feel is necessary for our four legged friend to make a good first impression, and hopefully not make a complete fool of himself."

"I thought he was…charismatic?"

"He is. But with the common adventurer and soldier, not with the nobility." Which was exactly why he was bringing him in of course, to regain the grassroot support of the adventurers, and hopefully capitalize on Dominique's privileged relationship with the baroness and the dungeon core to compensate for any weaknesses in interacting with the rich and powerful. "Hopefully that will help to calm things down here."

"Of course. I'll try my best."

"I'm not asking for anything more. I know you will succeed." Which was nothing short than the absolute truth, and he had made sure that sentiment had been echoed in his report to his own superiors. She'd go far. "Now, I believe the dungeon had just finished bringing her first floor back up and running? How are the numbers?"

"Well, the lower rank adventurers still prefer to attempt the steps whenever possible, but none of the higher ranks are begrudging the extra loot along the way. What is more interesting is that the new entrance hall has not been dismantled, and nor have the new quests been changed. Which does open the possibility of maybe separating the floors into individual delves, like the steps writ large. I'm not sure if that is Crystal's intention, but she rarely does anything without some kind of ulterior motive. Now, I believe-"

Starvak nodded as she continued her explanation, idly wondering what would happen now that the guild' yoke was firmly off the dungeon.

Nothing good, he guessed.

He just hoped it wouldn't be as bloody as he was starting to fear. He had lived through the United Dungeon Wars, and he'd rather never have to go through those nightmares again. Ever.

Especially as the guild was ready to do anything to prevent that catastrophy from coming to pass again.

Anything at all.