Chapter 182 - Surrounded

Chapter 182

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"Come in!" Said Allya as someone knocked on the door to her ward, deeply grateful for the distraction.

The door swung open, and Dominique clearly did a double take as she stepped in.

The baroness couldn't blame her. Not only did Allya look definitely the worse for wear, but her staff -and Trira- had insisted to transform one of the unused offices in the mansion into her personal hospital ward.

The problem was that Pyn had taken it upon herself to serve as her caretaker, and her girlfriend not only found a nurse uniform that was a size too small, but also had all the energy of a caged tiger. Both of which Allya would have been more than happy to avail herself of under normal circumstances, but unfortunately her health and her own girlfriend's mood prevented that. 'Mood' in that Pyn had been halfway through another long winded speech about not ever, ever staying behind after evacuating her again, or she would find ways to make her pay in increasingly more outlandish and elaborate means.

"Hello miladies." Said the guild representative as she stepped in, and Pyn looked up at her. "It's good to see you alive and well."

"Alive, yes, well might be stretching it." Said Allya with a strained smile, before wincing. "So please, drop the formalities. I already don’t have much patience or energy for all the bowing and scraping when I'm at my best."

"Sure. If you don't mind me saying, you look like hell Allya."

"Broken bones, bruises and mild radiation exposure can do that to you." The latter of which had been a problem for more or less everyone onboard the ships, but her body had reacted extraordinarily badly. The healers were doing their best, but at this point it was more up to her own seemingly modified biology to stop overreacting. Apparently, having terran ancestors had its downsides, outside of the outlandish family names.

"Right. Well, you'll be happy to learn that as per this morning, the wrecks are clear. The town is no longer under danger of attack, courtesy of team Crystalline." Allya nodded. The mythril adventuring party had immediately volunteered to undertake the dangerous work of exploring the wrecked ships to destroy any remaining automata, as a few had kept crawling their way out and attacking the fortifications even after the battle was nominally over.

The fact that it kept their sorceress far away from the city guard and their less than amical intention was probably a welcome bonus as well.

They weren't -quite- at the point of having 'unfortunate weapons discharge' when she was in sight, but the mood was not pleasant.

"That's good to hear. How's Starvak doing?"

"He'll be fine. A bit dingued and fatigued, but he's up and about." Said Dominique, her face studiously neutral, and Allya had to hold back a smirk. She's already heard the rumors, relayed to her by her advisors. To say that the guildmaster's authority with the adventurers was in shambles would have been a considerable understatement.

He had, after all, left them to die.

The fact that this was to prevent the dungeon capturing the walker -and its fusion gun- was irrelevant to them. Most adventurers didn't understand -or care about- the guild's obsession with keeping dungeon's growth under control. Hell, most of them would be opposed to it by now, given how they were profiteering from it. Crystal hadn't stopped distributing her 'special' loot, and they were making a killing with muskets and runed gear in the deeper parts of the dungeon. Though the first floor and all the steps were gone, Alexandra had lost no time in creating a temporary entrance which had gone to incredible length towards restoring morale.

And with the destruction of the Old World construct, trade via airship had resumed. Her decision to disarm the docking tower had paid off, the enemies had completely ignored it in favor of more immediate targets, and the Gorromarians' prowess had preserved it functionally intact, if a bit shaken, from both nuclear explosions.

"I'm happy to heard he is doing so well. After all, archons are notoriously resilient, but even they have their limits."

Dominique squrimed uncomfortably, and Allya smiled. That cat was far, far out of the bag, and everyone knew.

Because if Starvak had not been an Archon, he would have been dead. Nothing else would have survived that level of firepower.

Which meant that the guildmaster wasn't Adamantium ranked. He was at least Eternium. After all, the requirement for that rank was to have undergone transcendance…for your core to have gotten so gorged with essence, so overwhelmingly powerful, that it had gained physical form, slowly replacing the fallible flesh of the body with mana bound into physical form.

And that meant that an archon could not die. Not in the conventional sense at least, how could one kill energy? As long as they had mana to burn, any damage to their body would be undone in an instant. And Starvak had to have been gorging himself on the ambient power ever since he arrived to survive such an onslaught.

That was going to get the guild some interesting questions from very powerful people. Not least of which their majesties, once the current…problem with Sunrise was solved.

"Well, there are indeed limits, and he quite obviously would like to avoid a battle like this again." Finally said the guild representative, chosing her words with exquisite care.

"Right. And I assume that you have come here concerning the salvage."

"Well…Yes." Dominique sighed. "You know what the guild policies are."

"I know. But given the fact that this policy involves strangling and antagonizing my greatest ally, you'll understand if I am not very enthused about it." She smiled mirthlessly, while repressing a grin. She knew Alexandra already had Old World technology, and if she truly was an extradimensional, it would be but a question of time before she started deploying terran technology. But she could milk the guild for concessions and strongarm them into helping her with this leverage, even though she knew she would lose a lot less than she was pretending by acquiescing to their demands. "So, excuse me if I am a bit suspicious about the fact that you're choosing to approach me while I am still incapacitated."

Dominique licked her lips, and looked distinctly uncomfortable before her neutral expression reasserted itself.

"It is not my intention to try and swindle you. But I feel I should point out that the guild, and the guildmaster, just saved this town from annihilation. At great cost to our members."

"Your members were also saving their own lives, and livelihood, last I was aware. And the town -as well as our dungeon ally- has expanded incredible resources bringing the fallen among your ranks back into the world of the living, without asking for anything in return."

"That is very true, however…" Dominique sighed. "The guildmaster also wished to remind you of something." She met Allya's gaze. "That in your time of need, when the Republic's assassins closed in, he was the one to procure the artifact that allowed you victory. In exchange for a future favor. That payment comes due, I'm afraid."

Allya opened her mouth, and closed it with a snap. She couldn't refuse. As soon as it became known she had backed down on a deal, she would anger the guild to a level that simply wasn't advisable, especially not with a war on. But she would also take a hit on her overinflated reputation as a fearless maniac, willing to fight her own mercenaries and horros from the Old World head on.

Besides which, her sense of personal honor demanded she paid her debts.

She glared at the guild representative, and for a split second her mask dropped. Something dark lurked within her eyes and Dominique visibly shivered.

Allya sighed.

"Very well. I will…consider your request. But." She held her hand up. "Having the adventurers have free reign on the salvage is a no go. I will assist in keeping Crystal away from the wreckage, but there will be corporations involved, and the town will have its cut, period. I am not going to cheat the adventurers that sacrificed so much out of their fair share either, mind you, but a common fund will be established and then distributed by the guild among them however it wishes." Which neatly dodged the -bound to be extremely unpopular no matter what happened- issue of dividing the spoils and dropped it firmly into the guild's lap. With any luck, it would help further destroying Starvak's already fragile reputation, maybe even be the final push for it to collapse into pieces. "And the town will keep what it wishes of the spoils in its share." Dominique opened her mouth, and Allya's gaze hardened. "If you dare dictate to me what technology I can or cannot use to defend my people Dominique, I will have you escorted out of this city at gunpoint, and inform the guild that they can either find a new representative or forget about ever having someone on my council again." She smiled, somehow managing to come across as both affable and utterly terrifying. "Which do you think they will chose?"

Dominique closed her mouth with a snap, swallowed, and nodded heavily. There was something in her expression…and Allya realized with a start that there was a hint of fear in there. Well well well, maybe the guild representative wasn't as immune to her reputation as she'd previously thought. Good. That would make things easier…up to a certain point.

"I…will take back these terms to the guildmaster for approval. Including your, ah, caveat. But I think they will be acceptable."

"Good. Then, if you'll excuse me, I have to recuperate."

"Of course. Good day milady."

"And good day to you, representative."

*****

Allya rolled her eyes as Pyn grabbed a spoonful of soup, and brought it towards the baroness' face.

"Honey, I can use a spoon." In fact, she was capable of a great deal more than that, having recovered enough during the night to finally take advantage of her girlfriend's bountiful energy and too small uniform. But Pyn was as intransigent as ever…and Allya was starting to get the feeling that her girlfriend was also enjoying it far more than she'd like to admit, and was milking it for all it was worth.

"Just eat it, you need your strength."

"I do, but I'm not crippled to the point that I need to be spoonfed."

"You almost were!"

"No I wasn-"

It was a testament to the guard's skill that he dodged the dagger as he burst through the door. It was an even greater testament to his loyalty that he seemed unphased by the fact that his ruler had almost nailed him with a throwing dagger. Even Pyn was caught by surprise, eyeing her girlfriend with stupor, clearly not having realized the baroness had hidden weapons in her makeshift hospital room.

"Milady! We have received urgent news!"

"More constructs?!?"

The soldier shook his head.

"No milady! We…We have received word from the capital! The main royal army has been defeated, loyalist forces are in full retreat! They say that Darthar is going to be under siege soon, and...Milady, their majesties send word that the Republic is marching from Erakis."

Allya's face went white as Pyn dropped the bowl of soup with a resounding crash.

"Convene the council, now!"

*****

"-so that is about the gist of it." Said Anders as he gestured at the maps that once again covered the council table, now covered with carefully places tokens and figurines showing armies, fortresses and even insurrections. "As we had expected, the armies of Sunrise split into two main columns. One is marching towards the capital, no doubt aiming to eliminate their majesties or take the capital. Either will end the war. Their second army is heading for Darthar. Putting it under siege will not only cut off Sarth, as well as a fair bit of the western baronies, from the main arteries to the capital, but it will also cut off the last trade route from Gorromar and Tark to the capital, and that means an end imported weaponry. Not to mention it will cut us off from the kingdom and leave us at the Republic's mercy."

Everyone in the council room nodded grimly.

"What about the Republic's forces?" Asked Crystal, and Anders sighed.

"Our intelligence there is far less reliable. But there are at least ten, maybe as much as thirty, divisions at Erakis. Normally I would have said that there would be no way so many troops would be sent out into the wasteland, and that none would reach us if they did thanks to the Sand Krakens, but evidently they believe otherwise, and as lady Crystal pointed out previously, it is doubtful they would do this without believing they would make it across. How many of these men they can support across the wasteland is another question however. Erakis has been expanded into a major supply dump, and push comes to shove they can requisition caravans and merchant ships to supplement their own logistics, but even that has its limits."

"So we could have anywhere from Amelia's previous expedition to thirty times that at our doorsteps. Wonderful." Allya sighed. "This is not going to be pleasant. Especially as our defenses are not in good shape."

"That would be a considerable understatement." Said Vorton Markol with a grim chuckle. The diminutive man was the leader of the royal engineers Philia had left behind, and more or less stepped into her role. "At the present, outside of the docking tower, we have three remaining artillery towers, four more that could be repaired in time, I believe…and the walls on half our perimeter are beyond saving. Trenches and abbatises are all well and good, but even they have taken extensive damage. Not to mention they are not optimal against massed infantry attack. At least not against one that intends to resolve the problem with swords and axes."

"And there are the Old World wrecks." Said Anders, bitterly. "The Republic can use them to cover their approach. Their troops will get irradiated, but we've all seen how little their senators care about their meat puppets." Everyone nodded. "Not only any attack will destroy a great deal of loot, but they might salvage some technology of their own from them, not to mention the armor of the ships has proven more than a match for even Crystal's artillery."

"That's true." Answered the dungeon core. "But I don't believe we will have to worry about that."

Everyone stared at her, and Allya cleared her throat.

"I take it you have a plan?"

"Oh yes. Quite. And the basis for it is simple. You are all thinking of a defensive action, inside a battered and ruined fortress that is little more than a deathtrap for us. I propose a…different approach." She reached over the table, grabbed the small golem figurine representing her forces, and moved it to meet the Republic's army token. "You know what they say. A good defense…"

"Is a good offense." Finished Allya, as silence descended upon the room.

"And I believe it is long past time for us to take the fight to our enemies." Said Crystal. "The senators sit comfortably behind the frontlines, throwing their subjects at us to massacre? Fine." Her gaze hardened. "We'll take the war to them, and make them pay for their war with their own blood."

END OF BOOK 5