Chapter 166 - War Plans

Chapter 166

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

Alexandra sighed as she sat down on her command chair, pinching the bridge of her nose.

This…situation was a headache. A huge fucking headache. There was only one clear reason as to why those Old World weapons were attacking her, and that was Seraph's little distress signal.

Which she hadn't mentioned to Emilia, because she'd been scared of the vampire digging into the facility or questioning Seraph, which would have had catastrophic consequences.

At least she'd gotten some of her assumptions knocked on their asses again, with Allya's explanation about some spells being impossible to dodge. After all, starfighters had become obsolete once the EFSN had invented laser based point defense systems, and even then those fighters could be over a lightsecond away. In atmosphere if someone could track you the beams would effectively hit instantly, and so would energy spells.

Plus the stealth golem had gotten back from its little adventure unscathed, although there had been a few close calls here and there.

"Rough meeting?" Said Emilia as her girlfriend dropped onto her lap, cuddling with her.

Alexandra chuckled as she hugged her, before tilting her head to allow the vampire to nibble on her neck.

"Something like that, yeah." She sighed, deeply. "I'm going to need to talk to Seraph. A lot. If these are indeed autonomous Old World weapons, she'll know the most about them."

"Makes sense." Emilia giggled. "After all, she was one!"

"True enough." The Earth-born sighed. "Still, this is a mess."

"It is, but no permanent damage. You can rebuild the fortress."

"Already have, mostly. I just wished I didn't have it blown up in the first place. Those guns aren't exactly free. Especially not the ammo."

"Well, things won't always go your way."

"Agreed. Wish I could have just…spawned a giant stone slab on top of the fortress to protect it before the missiles hit, but…"

"Even dungeon powers have their limit honey." Said Emilia, tilting Alexandra's head with a finger before kissing her. "You can already rebuild the place in an afternoon. Let's not go ask for divine powers and the ability to build it in a second, alright?"

Alexandra chuckled.

"Fair enough." She kissed her girlfriend back. "So, back to the salt mines?"

"Given how moody you are, I think some relaxation is in order. Otherwise you'll get nothing done. How about we retreat to the bedroom for a few hours? Give everyone some time to breathe without us hovering over their shoulders."

"Sure, I can get behind that." Said Alexandra with a smile.

Emilia chuckled, before leaning forward as her hands snuck down, giving her girlfriend's rear a hearty squeeze.

"Oh no, I believe I will be getting behind you, mmmhhh?"

Alexandra blushed, and meekly nodded.

"Good girl~." Said the vampire in a sultry tone, before getting up, and offering her hand. "Come on, let's get some…relaxation."

*****

"This was one hell of a council session." Said Eismi as she closed the door to her office, her twin sister Ellyana in tow. For once they had decided to both attend, and it had been odd, to say the least, trying to pretend they hadn't already met the dungeon core and-

The fox eared cyborg stopped as her sister grabbed her arm, and nodded towards one of the artifacts on the shelf. A crystal orb, one used commonly for divination spell. It was giving off a standard purple 'stand by' glow.

Except that his orb was wired into the office's custom security system…and that color meant that there had been an intrusion.

Ellyana slowly stepped out of the room as Eismi tapped a false book on the shelf, and a port opened, allowing her to plug her index and recover the security logs.

Intrusion. During the council meeting. One…thing. Vague, most of the sensors hadn't seen anything. In fact…only the most advanced ones, those Rook himself had given them, had. The thing looked like some kind of spider. It had dropped something off on the desk and left. No other intrusions or foreign objects left.

The cyborg slowly stepped out of the room, and went for the back storeroom. In the weirder, 'novelty items' -a category so practical for hiding their spying gear- she had a demining golem straight from some forgotten Erisian arsenal whose commanding officer was short on both currency and scruples. It also doubled as a unit capable of shutting off the more violent slave collars. Which was why she'd never actually used it's primary function outside of training…until now.

A solid hour of demining, scanning and testing later, Eismi read the letter off of a secure screen. The real one was safely in an armored box, covered in various types of protection runes, having been opened by the demining golem in a shielded room. She wasn't in any danger, probably, as the golem and various artifacts it had been carrying around had tested it for an embedded mind altering spell or a so called 'basilisk hack' that would trigger upon someone reading the text, however remotely.

The dungeon was contacting her to make a deal. Apparently. Which either meant that the dungeon core had access to such absurd technology, or…or someone with access to this tech was trying to out her as working with the dungeon.

Given what had just happened to the town, the latter wasn't as impossible as she would have otherwise thought. Unfortunately the former was…not more unlikely, now that she thought about it.

Just far, far more terrifying.

She would need to contact Rook about this. Immediately.

*****

Allya blinked as she heard the knock on the door, disentangling herself from Pyn.

"Yes?" She called out, and the interphone she had installed so her guards wouldn't have to open the door and maybe walk in on her and Pyn during their….activities, crackled to life.

"Milady, Calder's ships are returning." Said the distorted voice of Éclair, and Allya blinked. Already? They'd only been gone for half a day! "And they aren't alone."

"Shit. How many?"

"Just…one. Another ship is with them milady."

"Another ship?"

"Yes milady. We can't indentify it from there, and the airships are far enough away that we cannot make heads or tails of their signals."

"Right. I'll be right there." Allya looked at Pyn, who simply stretched and smiled.

"You go worry and do all the baroness stuff. I'll back you up…but I'm also not jumping into my clothes like a startled rabbit."

"Uh uh. And enjoying the show while I dress up, uh?"

"Well, rank, or lack thereof, does have its privileges, hhhmmm?"

Allya chuckled. Maybe the elf had a point.

A few minutes later, after some wholly inappropriate comments from her girlfriend, and a very thorough kiss, Allya stepped out of the manor, where Anders greeted her with a warrior's salute, his armored fist slamming against his chestplate with a resounding clang.

"Baroness."

"Commander. Any news?"

"Yes milady. We have managed to identify the vessel they are escorting. It is the Creative Acquisition."

Allay blinked. Sylvia's ship? Why would-

Oh. Oh of fucking course. She knew the pirate captain had been conspiring with those seeking to overthrow her, and might even have been in league with the dungeon. But that lusty bitch couldn't stop here, could she? She had been going towards the Lost Sands death zone, and she just had to kick the hornets' nest, didn't she?

"I see…I want to talk with Sylvia as soon as her ship has docked. I don't care if you have to arrest her or not, she'd coming to be debriefed, period."

"Yes milady, it shall be done."

If the commander was particularly bothered by her orders, he clearly wasn't showing it.

*****

'Worse for wear' might have been a considerable understatement in both Sylvia's case and her ship's, was the thought on Allya's mind as the pirate captain was escorted into her office.

When the ship had docked the baroness had barely recognized it. It was basically a scorched wreck with propellers slapped on it, still floating by some form of divine intervention. Its balloon had been completely ripped apart, and whatever runes were left were clearly struggling against the planet's gravity to prevent the ship from outright crashing.

And the captain didn't look much better. She had multiple bandages visible, including one over her right eye, and for the first time since Allya had met her she wasn't dressed like a stripper, instead totting some really good, if obsolete, Erisian combat armor. Some really good shredded armor.

Looked like she had something of a rough ride, to say the least.

"Greetings captain." Said Allya as Sylvia sat down.

"Hello baroness." Answered the captain, and Allya had to wince a bit in sympathy at the bone deep tiredness in the captain's tone.

"It seems you've had something of an early encounter with the town's newest problem, have you not?"

The captain blinked, surprised.

"You've…encountered these things?"

"Indeed. Several strike crafts attacked the city yesterday. Twelve, to be exact."

"That..Those were attacking us. I was sure we wouldn't make it, then they…they changed course and just left." Allya's ears prickled at the second pause. There was something the captain wasn't telling her, she could feel it. Whatever dissembling skill the captain had appeared to be crumbling under the weight of her ordeal. All the same, better to keep that as an ace up her sleeve. "The rest of the constructs just left us alone after that too." She chuckled bitterly. "Seems were weren't much of a threat."

"Rest of the constructs?"

The captain blinked.

"Milady…I thought you knew. There is an entire army on its way."

*****

The council room was dead silent for a solid five seconds as Allya relayed what Sylvia had told her.

"Holy shit." Softly said Anders.

"Should we…should we evacutate?" Followed Melia, fear and terror clear on her face.

"Out of the question!" Said Starvak, Philia and Allya in almost perfect sync, before exchanging an awkward look. The guildmaster had insisted in accompanying Dominique on this meeting for some reason.

"I won't abandon Crystal, our ally." Said Allya, simply.

"And their majesties will never give up a single meter of sovereign ground." Added the knight-commander.

"The guild would not go without a fight. And not against the town, I might add." Starvak gave the baroness a tooth smile as she looked at him, surprised. "Milady, I know we've had our differences." More than a fair few in fact. "And that I have stood by a lot of events. The guild is sworn to political neutrality, for a lot of reasons. Some of them are quite noble, I assure you, but yes, we would not have stood by your side against the Republic for very cynical and pragmatic ones as well. But this? Fighting rampaging constructs from the Old World?" His smile got wider. "This is what the guild was created to do. Give me a day and I will have half the adventurers in the city ready to fight."

"As pleasant news as this is, adventurers don't win wars, and this is a war, make no mistake. We are not fighting a handful of constructs but an army. An organized one, even if only loosely. One with quite possibly a landbound capital ship to lead it."

Starvak nodded.

"Of course, my adventurers will place themselves under the orders of your officers. There will be massive discipline issues, but it will work. And as for the capital ship?" His smile turned into a grin. "Well, you have me, baroness."

Allya leaned back into her seat, and slowly nodded. The old dwarf was adamantium rank after all. If anyone could fight an Old World capital ship, it was him…or Alexandra.

"We will need to warn their majesties, adventurers or no adventurers." Said Philia. "Such an attack hasn't happened in centuries, not on such a scale anyway. There could be more armies, or even just simple raiding parties, heading for other areas bordering the Lost Sands. Darthar, hell, even Sarth could be at risk!"

Allya nodded.

"Agreed. And if they have any reinforcements to send, I would be most grateful. I will send a message immediately after we are done here. And in the mean time, I was given to understand that the dungeon had taken some damage?"

Crystal sighed from across the table.

"Yes, it seemed that when I reconstructed the fortress I neglected some structural damage and did not catch the issue in time." Or rather she was too busy being suspended half a meter off the floor with ropes as Emilia played with her to notice, not that she was going to tell them that. "The steel steps have collapsed and the labyrinth took some damage, but I am already halfway through the repairs, both should reopen by the end of the day. I will also try to augment the rate at which adventurers can go through, to help with them gathering money and gear before the enemy's main force arrives."

"That's excellent news. And we are all appreciative of your assistance. What about your army?"

"I will deploy it of course. I have some new weapons and golems available for this fight, although Gods know they will be woefully outgunned against Old World weaponry." There was something like frustration in the dungeon core's tone, and Allya shivered. It was probably because the dungeon core didn't dare flaunt her own Old World hardware, which brought to mind how much she had if she thought it would put even a small dent in what was coming. "But a soldier is a soldier, and whatever hit they take is one less bullet aimed at a living trooper."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Alright, so how many do you think you can contribute?"

"Thirty six thousand mainline infantry, about a thousand of them my new models. Six hundred field guns, a hundred howitzers, and a hundred fully armed spider tanks, similar to the one I gifted you, I call them the 'Templar' variant."

Allya nodded, while swallowing a comment. Thanks to the scans she knew that wasn't even close to the dungeon's full army. What the hell was the dungeon core playing at?

"That is substantial." Answered the baroness with all the awe she could fake. "I assume they will be under the same modalities as last time?"

"Correct. They will place themselves under your men's orders unless I say otherwise."

"Good. Then I propose we start preparing our defenses for a direct, massive attack. Most importantly, we need to integrate the adventurers into our forces as smoothly as possible. This will be a field battle, not a dungeon delve, and we'll need to find a way to distinguish the dungeon's golems from the enemy's. Any ideas?"