Chapter 189 - Imminent Collapse

Note : Chapter 190 has been added to the queue !

Chapter 189

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Electronics Laboratory

"-and that is without mentioning the encryption." Finished Seraph.

Emilia opened her mouth, then closed it, and opened it again.

"Uh…In plain english?"

"In short, the datacores haven't only been encrypted, they've been seeded with defensive programs that are tearing the ever living crap of everything we try to connect with them. Seraph is working through them, but they're vicious, numerous, and highly dangerous." Said Alexandra.

"Got it. What about the fabricators?"

"The news are much better on that front." Said the AI. "They are fully functional, and lady Alexandra has been able to replicate them. The problem being that it was prohibitively expensive."

"That bad?"

"Worse." Said Alexandra, grimly. "Without the NLR core taking care of the maintenance cost for a lot of our golems, I wouldn't even have been able to afford the smallest model. I almost regret absorbing it now."

"Damn."

"Yeah. What about more conventional methods to make them?" Said the Earth-born, turning back towards the golem the AI was possessing.

"There are extensive safeguards to prevent self replication without command overrides." Said Seraph. "That includes several critical systems when attempting to produce them as spare parts."

"That seems remarkably dangerous."

"These parts do not need replacement under the normal course of operations. No noticeable wear or damage. Thus, no need for replacements in day to day operations."

"And in an emergency?"

"It appeared to have been assumed that the potential problems were worth the added security."

"I see. Well, at least we can drive the cost down somewhat. How's their output looking?"

"Nominal. Now that I have found a way to convert dungeon schematics into a format they can interpret, we have been able to manufacture some lower technology items, those that still require a level of precision manufacturing beyond the capacity of our assembly lines, such as the new rangefinders."

Alexandra nodded, smiling widely.

"That's great to hear!" And it truly was. Most of her more powerful capabilities were locked behind high tech systems. She'd labored to make lower tech variants for her 'open' forces, but what she had ended up with were things so complex her golems could not manufacture them, and simply too expensive to justify making with her powers, at least not in the quantities required to make any form of difference on the scale of an entire army and soon-to-be-skyfleet. "Any problems with the power supply?"

"Negative. The mana to electricity generators are working without a hitch, and the connection to the NLR core is stable."

"Great. That should save us a lot of running costs later down the line." Alexandra patted Seraph on the shoulder, who seemed a bit confused by the physical contact. "Well done!"

"Thank you milady. I was only doing my duties."

"True, but I-" Alexandra trailed off as alerts began popping up.

ALERT: SENTRY GOLEMS REPORT ANOMALOUS SURFACE ACTIVITY

ALERT: SENTRY GOLEMS REPORT ANOMALOUS MAGICAL ACTIVITY

ALERT: SENTRY GOLEMS REPORT WEAPONS FIRE

"Crap." Said the Earth-born. "Can't the damned surface dwellers go five minutes without stumbling into another crisis? Get our troops ready, it looks like something hit the fan!"

*****

Allya looked grimly at the aftermath of the riot, while smiling internally.

She had to hand it to Trira's people, they sure knew how to get a good fight started. And while they weren't spies per say, they were proving to be excellent agitators, not to mention firebrands.

Which was how some grumbling in a bar about Starvak leaving adventurers to die while he went off chasing personally glory had evolved into a full scale battle between those loyal to the guildmaster, and those who had their doubts.

The loyalists had lost. Badly. As emphasized by the fact that some of them were being collected in wheelbarrows. Because there was simply no way to keep so many pieces from just slipping off from a stretcher.

"Well, this is a fine mess." Said Alexandra, as she stepped by her side, and Allya nodded. She'd already been warned of the dungeon core's arrival, although now it felt both odd and familiar to have her possess her boss, now that she'd met CQ proper.

"It is. It seems our dear guildmaster has some popularity and legitimacy problems."

"Not surprising." The discussion wasn't truly for their benefits, but for that of the rather large group of councilors, bodyguards and officers around, who had given them some space and were doing their best not to look like they were listening avidly anyway, while giving furtive glances to the now repaired spider tank standing ominously behind them. Better to plant the seeds in everyone's minds early. "But that's going to become a problem. If the adventurers start fighting each other…"

"We're looking at a very bloody civil war very soon."

"Agreed. And that's something our enemies will definitely exploit. Have you talked to the guildmaster?"

"He's unavailable." Allya's voice was dripping with sarcasm. "But I did get Dominique. For now the guild maintains that this is an internal matter. But public property was damaged, and the peace disturbed, even if there was no casualties or fatalities among the bystanders, beyond some truly superficial injuries."

"I assume you pressed for accountability?"

"I did. And they won't deny me my right to pass judgment." Which they both knew would be exceptionally lenient to the ones who'd been against Starvak, at least as much as possible without crossing the border between 'favouritism to make a political point' and 'blatant two-tiered justice system'. "They have also offered to pay for the damages, which I graciously accepted."

"Mmmmhhh." Said Alexandra, non-commitally, but Allya could feel her disapproval.

"It's not perfect, and it certainly isn't going to be acceptable if this happens again, but I felt that giving them a chance to own up for their members' mistakes was a good idea."

Alexandra slowly nodded, as that sank in. The baroness wasn't allowing them to buy back some goodwill in the court of public opinion.

She was simply allowing them to extend their necks for the guillotine that would be the further troubles.

"Well, I suppose that is fair. Still, I'd rather avoid something catastrophic happen, so if that is alright with you, I would deploy some of my golems to accompany your patrols. Under your men's command, of course."

"Well, they worked well during martial law." In fact, they'd worked more than well. The ability to just throw disposable bodies at a problem was invaluable for city guards. Especially as it allowed them to go for much less lethal methods most of the time, instead of having to deploy maximum force when faced with, say, a drunk, unstable and potentially violent adventurer. That way they'd at least know if the sword, staff or other weapon pointed at them was a serious threat, some extremely bad joke, or just sheer momentary stupidity, without having to dive for cover and simply start shooting. "So I gladly accept."

"Excellent. I'll give the order then." Alexandra looked around, and sighed. "And I will return to my devices. I still have much to do to get the dungeon back into working order."

"The steps are already active, correct?"

"Mostly. The copper steps will reopen tomorrow, but all the other ones are up and running, yes." And with the special loot still in there to boot, which was making the Omega Consortium's representative positively drool at the volume of muskets being swung his way. The repair workshop wasn't even fully built yet, but the sections that had were already in operation, and quickly approaching saturation. The money from that, and the subsequent celebrations had probably what had gotten the alcohol to flow enough for tongues to wag quite so openly and enable the fight to happen in the first place. "The labyrinth will take a bit longer I'm afraid. Especially as I am looking at a sturdier design." Alexandra shrugged as Allya gave her a curious glance. "Might as well upgrade now."

"Fair enough. You wouldn't want a repeat of the incident."

"No, no we don't. Now, if you'll excuse me?"

"Of course. Have a nice day Crystal!"

"And you too, baroness."

They exchanged a look, and imperceptible nods.

So far, so good.

Now to see if this was going to be the first domino to topple for Starvak's downfall.

*****

"At this point we might as well just stick a sticker on every prototype that has exploded on its first test. Or make a wall of fame." Said Emilia as she watched the fire fighting golems rushing to put out the blaze.

"I mean, I can ask CQ if she's be interested in designing that. She's really started leaning into her artistic side."

"Yes, I've seen her do the color schemes for the security teams."

Alexandra nodded. One of the things she'd realized after the incident in the labyrinth was that there was no way for adventurers to differentiate between security teams and some kind of new trap or golem type, as it was randomized. Simply giving them a special uniform or a specific color scheme would have solved it, but at the time she'd had much better things to spend her mana and valuable attention on.

And once the whole battle with the small armada of Old World constructs had been over, she'd been so busy with the aftermath she'd simply dumped the task onto CQ, for the perfectly reasonable reason that she was the first of her subordinates to cross her path. To her surprise, the boss had been bouncing with excitement, and she'd belatedly realized that she was probably halfway bored to death in her half empty floor, and that even designing it, not to mention her and Emilia's visits, weren't going to fill her days. So she'd made sure to divert a fair few tasks her way, and begun including her in more meetings.

Of course there were some downsides to that. For the security teams, Alexandra would have been quite content with simply dunking the golems in red paint or something.

Instead CQ had come up with intricate color schemes, and then effectively requisitio,ed several golems and had a very bemused Seraph program them to replicate the paint jobs.

It worked the treat, and once the entrance quest board had been updated to include an image of the security teams, as well as a helpful warning, there had been no further accidents of adventurers clashing with them. Which, given the regular influx of idiots that still came in, looking for power, fortune and for some a very messy death, was something.

"Well, it's decided then. I'll send the idea to her and let her run with it. I'm sure she'll come up with something."

Had she known what she'd unleashed with those innocuous few words, she'd have kept her mouth shut and deleted the very idea from her mind.

*****

Sylvia downed her second drink, before scanning the bar. With her ship down for the count, she'd been effectively stuck in Rebirth for the time being. And after sending their distress signal through their emergency channels, since her communication equipment had been vaporized, there wasn't truly that much to do, besides helping Captain Calder with the occasional training exercise. So she'd decided she might as well indulge into some of her past time. Since the baroness had seemed even more unreceptive to her advances than usual, and she'd quickly gathered that the noble had both bigger problems to deal with and was quite willing to make her life hell if she pressed the issue, she'd fallen back on her old hunting grounds.

Which meant going to the nearest bar and picking up some fit adventurer to spend the night with. Of course, Maria tagged along, if only to drag her back home if something went wrong or she was too wasted to do so herself.

"Well well well, what are two ladies like you doing here all by yourselves?" Said a young man as he sat down next to them.

Sylvia turned her most brilliant smile upon him. It wasn't everyday that someone went to her instead of the other way around, despite her choice in clothing, and-

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as she recognized him. They'd served together on several operations for the Order.

She maintained her smile, and hoped Maria had kept her cool as well. Though she had little doubt about that. Despite her worrying doubts in their superiors, she was quite the exceptional agent. Better, in many ways, than her friend.

"Looking for company. Which it seems we've just found." She smiled coquettishly, and the young man, who she knew as agent Volkar, laughed.

"Well, good to know my pick up lines work then." He looked around in a fashion that bordered on the exaggerated. "Still, I believe this is no place to have these kinds of conversations. How about we head somewhere more…private?"

Sylvia nodded, and fervently hoped that no one had paid close enough attention to them these past few days to realize that Maria would almost be certainly declining by now, making sure to point out that she wasn't interested, and would only be there to make sure she got her captain back in one piece and outside of a jail cell.

"Of course. Come on Maria!"

Her executive officer nodded, and they followed the man into a discreet side street.

At which point there was the unmistakable wavering in the air, courtesy of a privacy field, and Valkor turned to face them.

"Damn. You girls look like hell."

Sylvia winced, but didn't contradict him. She'd acquired several new scars, and she knew Maria definitely looked the worse for wear, insisting on wearing her pseudo-uniform, no matter how battered it was.

"You could say that." Said Maria.

"Yeah. I could." Valkor sighed. "Come on, I have some…arrangements made. We'll be able to talk more easily there."

They both nodded, and followed him out, towards the residential district.

None of them saw the stealth golem scuttling in the shadows behind them.