Chapter 172 - War On All Sides

Chapter 172

Fallen Province of Irakia, Sagitarius Empire.

Hammer of Eternity, Command Center

All forward units destroyed. Noticeable lack of technology and tactics from the enemy.

The AI revised its estimations. Plenty of mages. Abnormally so. But little to no coordination. Possibly a separate force from the main defenders? Unclear.

Defenses had been reinforced. Cannons, primitive field guns and howitzers. Pathetic, but potentially dangerous given the decay of its combat units. Towers housing arcane weaponry, including a form of lightning tower. Main danger for more bombardments from the strike crafts.

Primary threat: central mesa. Fortifications rebuilt despite total destruction. Massive use of geomancy. Weaponry emplaced once more. Possible industrial complex hidden underneath, or arsenal.

Next wave of out of control constructs soon. Opportunity. Will send small contingent to insure high priority targets destroyed.

Then, the annihilation proper could commence.

*****

"Milady." Said Willard as Allya stepped into his office, and he gestured towards the chair in front of his desk.

Allya looked around, a bit amazed, as she sat down. She hadn't really made the time to visit Sarth's little outpost in her barony since it had been just a freshly finished, borderline bare building, much less meet Willard in his own office.

It was surprisingly cozy all things considered, despite being clearly primarily utilitarian. The floor was still base sandstone, but a collection of rugs and furs had done wonders.

The fact that the furrs clearly came from wasteland creatures also added to the atmosphere. Sarth had been on the frontier with the wastelands for a while and was not afraid to show the fruits of that. At least they'd had the sense to keep the trophies on the wall to a minimum. Wasteland creatures were anything but sightly.

"Willard. I assume you have heard the news?"

"I would not have been up had I not. Yes, I've received a short briefing on the matter, and-" He tapped the communication crystal on his desk with his pen. "-had a conversation with my uncle immediately afterwards."

"And?"

"And he wishes for me to assure you that me and my forces would remain here. Most of the reinforcements will however turn back to Sarth, or stop in Darthar to reinforce the town. However specialized units, those who have trained and fought extensively against Old World constructs, will continue on, alongside several engineering units." He chuckled. "I'm afraid their expertise will be…not in high demand against Sunrise."

"The anti-construct units, I can believe, but the engineers?"

Willard shrugged.

"My uncle does not expect Sarth to come under siege. Not if a sufficient garrison is kept there at least. Sunrise's forces are far beyond expectations, but they are not unlimited. If they bypass Darthar to attack Sarth, they will be torn to shreds. They will no doubt send raiders and some contingents to pin us down and avoid us relieving Darthar, but they will not besiege Sarth the city itself. And Darthar…its shield make further fortifications pointless. Its wall is already tall and well built, the engineers would make no meaningful difference there."

"Assuming Darthar won't fall from the inside. I've received word there is fighting in the streets, and I cannot contact Elkaryos."

"The city guard planned for such an eventuality, and I have been warned the count is safe and sound. The advantage of the city being such a powder keg is that it was going to come to a battle on the inside, and preparations were made accordingly. I am not saying it will be bloodless, or that pockets of resistance won't remain, but trust me, Darthar will still stand once Sunrise gets there. Afterwards however…" He shrugged. "The Gods will decide our fate."

"I'd rather do everything to avoid a defeat regardless. The Gods help those who help themselves after all."

Willard nodded.

"Very true milady. Do you have any proposals?"

"Yes. Currently we must focus on surviving the onslaught from the constructs, but I would like you to liaise with your uncle. Once we have dealt with the current crisis-" Assuming that they did. "-I plan to move out to join Darthar, or if it is besieged, relieve it."

"You…do not have many forces milady. And the Republic still looms on the border."

"No, but they are equipped with Tarkian equipment. Furthermore, if push comes to shove, I can ask for Crystal to handle the Republic. She might even help when dealing with Sunrise."

That made the councilor twitch.

"If the dungeon joins us in battle…Milady, is there any chance that she will?" He held his hand up. "I am not doubting you, just…trying to make sure to gauge the probability."

"Possibly. We have sworn to help each other against any foe, and it does not differentiate between internal and external matters. If, as I have come to suspect, the forces against me in this very city are funded by Sunrise, then they will make their move before we have dealt with the Old World constructs. In this case…with Darthar being a key link in the chain that enables new adventurers to come in, and being forced to intervene against their lackeys, I think I will be able to sway the dungeon to at least provide some support, if only in the form of loot. I would rather, however, that you keep this to yourself."

Willard nodded.

"Of course, some would find this…unsettling." He smiled. "But even a fraction of the dungeon's forces during the last battle, or the weapons she had brought…A hundred cannons on Darthar's walls could make a great deal of difference between victory and defeat, milady."

"Yes. They would." Said Allya…while privately certain the dungeon core would jump on the occasion.

And bring a lot more than a hundred cannons to the party.

*****

"Damn it. Well, that's suboptimal." Said Alexandra, grimly, as the royal knights' airship undocked from the tower and began flying away, the command center's various screens showing a massive vista of the town, like one giant fragmented window.

"The timing is indeed rather problematical." Said Emilia drily, and Alexandra barked out a laugh.

"Ah! As if. If even half of what your books say about Sunrise is true, they chose this moment precisely because of this mess. A lot of loyalist troops are out of position, moving to assist Allya, and the crown either has to split their forces or leave Rebirth to fend for itself." Alexandra shrugged. "From their point of view, I guess this is the right choice. Unfortunately we're basically the stuffing of this sacrificial lamb."

"You think they planned for this?"

"No. If Sunrise could command those automata, even if only to send them on a rampage in a particular direction, I'm sure they'd have had better targets. But they jumped on the occasion."

"And now we're caught between the anvil and the hammer."

"Worse. We have the Republic south, these assholes to our east, and the automata to our west. North is Darthar, and if the UDC's message is right, that might not remain friendly for very long. We're getting boxed in. And this town survives on trade. Hell, if all traffic stops, delves are going to start slowing down really quickly." The Earth-born smiled. "I'm the closest thing I've ever seen to a fully autonomous replicator, and even I'm not immune to traditional economics. Ironic, right?"

"True, even dungeons aren't immune to the whims of surface dwellers." By design, Alexandra was sure, although she didn't interrupt her girlfriend. "But in this case, does it change things that much, at least in the near future? I mean, it's only a few hundred knights and soldiers at most."

"No, you're right. But it's going to have a huge impact on morale. And as much as our main troops are not going to care, I still don't have a passable officer golem, I need the surface dwellers to help command my troops into the field, at least until I develop a lower tech communicator."

Emilia nodded. Alexandra had ranted, at length, about how pissed she was with having to keep her communicator in reserve, since it was not something she wanted anyone to know she had. Which made sense, if people found out she had that level of technology, questions might start to get asked, and since dungeons didn't usually replicate military Old World technology, someone might start wondering if there was truly a dungeon core or…something else. And letting out the fact that the core was an extradimensional was a no-go.

Gods knew what the ones who had killed Alexandra would do if that happened. They hadn't seen sign of them since the raid on the Void Blades, and interrogation had proved fruitless, but they were clearly still somewhere out there.

"Well, I'm sure you'll manage. In the meantime, why are you still keeping them in reserve?" Said Emilia as she looked at the screen where the mixed human and golem patrols were moving, with the golems conspicuously holding only obsolete muskets and crossbows.

"Them?"

"Your 'Standard Combat Units'."

Alexandra sighed.

"Probably because I'm a bit paranoid about revealing too many cards at once. I want to see what the true real attack does before I start pulling out the big guns." For some value of 'big guns', given her new prototypes. The Omega-class spider tank was only at the beginning of design, but even the early iterations were absolute monsters. "Reminds me, how are Sarah and Ella doing?"

"Well, they both went to do your bidding, oh dungeon core." They both chuckled. "More seriously, Sarah's getting the defenses down into the bunker organized. She has scheduled patrols, built fallback positions, and with Seraph's help even gotten some of the defenses back online." Emilia wavered. "Speaking off, is Seraph…"

"Trustworthy? Eminently. With access to her code, she is as loyal as anything can be." Provided she didn't go a bit too off the rails thanks to Arcadia's kernel slowly taking over. "I'm more worried about the defenses we're bringing back online. I simply don't have the time to go over every line of code with a toothbrush. So the hotfix will have to do." The 'hotfix' in question being essentially using Seraph's codes to get into the kernel, then cutting off all external communications and setting them on pure autonomous control. She simply couldn't trust that she wouldn't overlook a remote shutdown or targeting override protocol, and given the variety of weapons and software, it would probably take longer to clean the code than make her own, truth be told.

Thankfully she'd already brought an intact version of each defense structure up when she'd taken out Seraph, and without the control programs erasing them she'd gotten the full software upon absorbing them. She'd idly wondered if absorbing Seraph would do the same, before deciding that it wasn't worth the risk.

"So, what about Ella then?" Continued Alexandra.

"She's helping smooth out the kinks left in explosive production. The hydroponics are keeping up, but moving production to a higher volume, not to mention getting the machinery to stop breaking down constantly encountered…issues."

"Issues as in 'catastrophic unscheduled disassemblies'?"

"Actually, more akin to accidentally creating multiple sludgse of highly hazardous alchemical decoctions that melted down part of the factory. She's got it down on, or so she says. Gunpowder and dynamite productions should improve, and be more stable and reliable as well."

"Excellent!" Technically she could have just built more of the more primitive production facilities, but they were extremely space and mana inefficient, especially in initial costs, not to mention needed a lot of attention from the maid and Seraph with the recurring issues as well as breakdowns, and at this point she was starting to fear she'd need all hands on decks very soon. "That should allow us to truly supply the forces already out there. And…" Alexandra smiled. "If I can truly get those numbers up, I think I'll start sneaking in a few of those muskets into the steps, as a test for the fourth floor, at least officially. Let's give their majesties an incentive to protect Rebirth for the war effort."

"And Allya another heart attack?"

Alexandra winced.

"Gods, I hope not. She's already got enough on her plate."