Chapterr 136 - New Dangers

Chapter 136

Elkis Republic Home Province, District of Elkis.

Capital City of Elkis, Veumen senatorial residence.

The door opened, and Charles Veumen, senator of the Elkis Republic, looked up sharply, ready to tear a new one to the member of his staff that had dared to defy his orders not disturb him, but the harsh words died unspoken as he saw his secretary's expression.

"What is it Damien?"

"I…pardon the intrusion, senator, but…senator Loranbor is here! And he is asking to speak with you immediately!"

Charles swallowed heavily. Loranbor was the head of the most powerful dynasty in the entire Republic, and de facto ruled the capital and its surrounding lands. He was, effectively, a king in all but name, although admittedly he was careful about using his influence. Most of the time, anyway.

He'd also been the one whose support had thrown the entire senate into motion and made it support Charles' efforts into subjugating Rebirth and its dungeon.

"Let him in."

"Yes senator, right away!" The secretary retreated with almost indecent haste, and Charles took the time to make himself and his office as presentable as possible.

Usually that wouldn't have been much of a task. He liked things to be neat and tidy, and that extended to his appearance and workplace. But the chaos unleashed by the defeat of that incompetent bitch Amelia and her pathetic excuse for an army had made that a secondary concern.

He did the best he could, and straightened up as his secretary knocked on the door, warning him.

"Yes, enter." He called out, and the door swung open.

Maximilian Loranbor looked calm and collected, and was smiling like he was just visiting an old friend.

That was until you saw his eyes. Usually they were cold and calculating, but this time they were utterly expressionless.

"Senator Loranbor, what a pleasant surprise! Please, do take a seat!" Said Charles, and his fellow senator nodded in thanks. "Damien, would you be a dear and fetch a drink for our guest?"

"No, thank you, that will not be necessary. I have business elsewhere and I am afraid I will not be staying long." Said Maximilian as he sat down.

"Of course senator." Charles nodded at his secretary, who closed the door.

As soon as the door snapped shut and the characteristic click of a soundproofing enchantment activating were heard, Maximilian leaned forward.

"I assume that your office is secure, my dear colleague?"

"Yes, it is. Enchantments and regular sweeps."

"Excellent. Still." The most powerful man in the Republic took a brooch out of his pocket, pressed a diamond embedded into it, and dropped it on the desk. "You can never be too careful." He smiled at Charles' wondering gaze. "A possession of my late mother. She wore it everywhere she went. Quite the powerful scrambler for all manners of listening devices and divination spells."

Charles nodded. Ulix Loranbor had been famous for her cautiousness and number of foes. Which meant that she'd been regarded as a hyper-violent paranoid psycopath with a god complex.

When her reign had finally come to an end, thanks to thirty kilograms of imported Erisian alchemical explosives and a very determined team of suicide commandos, her son had immediately taken over the dynasty. And promptly impaled every single one of the persons responsible for his mother's assassination, which included three senators and five regional governors. The skeletons were still on display on the spikes in front of his residence.

Charles wouldn't do the mistake of thinking the man before him wasn't every bit as dangerous as his late mother. He knew Maximilian just hid it better.

"We can never be too careful nowadays."

"Indeed, indeed." Maximilian took a deep breath. "Now, onto business. As I am sure you have surmised, the recent news made quite the stir. And were sorely disappointing."

"I can imagine, as they were quite the unwelcome surprise for me as well, I can assure you."

"Oh, I wouldn't have expected it to be any other way. The big question however, from me and my…friends, was what you intended to do about these news."

Charles licked his lips as he chose his words carefully. Very carefully. Clearly his fellow senator expected someone to be offered as a scapegoat for him to make an example of, but…there was only so far he could push. There was only so much he could do before the army mutinied, and despite her defeat, Amelia was as popular as ever with her men. More so, in fact, as for some reason her troops had credited her with saving them by prostrating herself before the enemy! Like if folding over, which had allowed the dungeon to resurrect her troops to be little more than a drain on the Republic's limited resources was a good thing!

So offering her was not an option…and he would only manage to grab one of her officers by going over her dead body.

"Currently, I am mainly gathering information and trying to get an accurate pictures of what actually happened, I'm sure you understand." Maximilian nodded, but gestured for him to continue. "And my -admittedly preliminary- conclusions are that this defeat was not only inevitable, but unpredictable."

"How so?"

Charles didn't let the mild tone lull him into overconfidence. There was something very, very ugly lurking into the senator's eyes. He wanted blood…and probably knew the situation well enough to realize that his fellow wasn't going to give it to him. Which didn't mean that he wasn't going to settle for Charles' own lifeblood if he handled this poorly.

"Quite simply, the dungeon core. No one could have predicted that this 'Crystal' would break over six centuries of precedent and reject the UDC's authority, not to mention make an alliance with the town and field an army against our forces! Truly, according to my sources, it was a surprise to everyone." And one hell of a black mark in colonel Orzal Vek's record, because he hadn't seen it coming either. Or if he had, he sure had forgotten to mention it! "And once the dungeon was in play…the forces sent to neutralize the troops massing in Rebirth to attack our Republic were tailored for speed of deployment and geared to fight only the Asarians' forces. Had the dungeon not intervened, their victory would have been certain." Which it sure as hell should have been, with a six to one numerical superiority, an airborne capital ship and over fifty heavy siege bombards! "As it was, they were outnumbered, outgunned and assaulted by an enemy they had not expected and not prepared to face. Even the greatest of commanders would have been overwhelmed by those odds."

And unsaid was that Amelia was hardly one of them.

Maximilian slowly nodded.

"I see. And you maintain that had these…unfortunately unforeseeable events not taken place, we would have been victorious?"

The emphasis on unforeseeable almost made the senator wince. Clearly Maximilian considered it to have been perfectly within the realm of possibility…which given what Charles had ordered two separate kidnapping attempts on the dungeon core, was perhaps a good point. Not that he was going admit it!

"Yes. Even with the illegal weapon shipment from the Hegemony, they would not have stood a chance."

The other senator regarded him for several second, and leaned back into his seat as he gave him a simple nod.

"Very well. I…bow down to your greater expertise on the subject. Still, our colleagues are asking questions, and the populace has become very agitated. There are even talks of a formal enquiry."

This time Charles failed to keep his expression under control as he shivered. Senate enquiries were when the elite decided to throw one of their own to the hungry wolves that were the Republic's citizenry. It rarely happened, but when it did it was rather spectacular. And it helped quell unrest by giving the illusion to the lower classes that there was a form of justice and that their betters would be held accountable, to some level.

"I think that would be…premature."

"I agree. But we have a need for strong action, to reassure our people, and give our colleagues a direction to go into."

Translation, they needed a show of force to keep the plebe in check and point the senators snapping at their heels, hungry to tear a piece out of them both, towards another target.

"Of course. I have begun requesting that the troops movements to Erakis be increased, and the expansion of the fortress and airbase there accelerated. I promise you this, my colleague, Rebirth will not defy us for long."

"See to it that it does not. Otherwise, the senate will be…displeased, and the people will clamor for the parties responsible to be punished."

Charles nodded. The message had been received five out of five.

Failure was no longer an option.

"Of course, I understand perfectly."

Maximilian gave him a pleasant smile.

"Good! Then, if you will excuse me, I will be on my way."

"Of course! Have a safe journey, dear colleague."

"Thank you, and I wish you luck in your endeavors."

"Likewise."

Charles got up, holding the door for Maximilian…and shivered once more as the other senator walked by him, and gave him a look that would have made most people step back in terror.

That of a cornered rabid dog, one perfectly ready to attack its fellow if it meant it wouldn't be eaten first.

*****

Joachim gazed at the reports, before carefully setting them down.

Things were going according to plan. For now. But they were so, so close to everything derailing. The adjudicator's presence at the core of their scheme would have already been enough of a threat, but Assaria's on top of that?

Fortunately the other parts were going smoothly. The Republic was moving to its doom like a well oiled machine, and the agents in Sunrise were performing admirably as well, although he'd had to divert reinforcements, since it looked like Serabor and her fellows would be stuck in Rebirth laying low for a while.

Still, the further the plan went, the more he became aware of how terrifyingly precarious it was. The reward was more than worth the risk of course, but still!

The communicator on his desk chimed, and more by reflex than anything, he accepted the call.

His face went white as the hologram of a tall woman clad in strange armor appeared before him.

"Herald." He swallowed, heavily. The grandmaster of the Order rarely spoke to his subordinates, and when he had something to say…he sent his Heralds. Drawn almost exclusively from the most fanatical members of the Order's elite units like the commandos or the relic guard, they were a force to be reckoned with. And as they spoke for the grandmaster…Their word was effectively law for members of the Order. "How can I help you?"

"You cannot assist me. I came here to assist you." She shifted to look at him, and he hid a shiver. The Herald's movements were unnatural, her body phased into another dimension by the Old World armor. "High Commander Lesly has neutralized the facility core in site Seraph Four. The NLR core has been moved, and the core emitted a distress signal before it was taken down."

Joachim slowly nodded.

"I'd heard something to that effect. I understand it caused some issues with some of our salvage teams?"

"Far more than that. We have multiple high energy signatures that have begun moving towards Lesly's position."

Joachim froze. Shit. Shit shit shit SHIT! High energy signatures pretty much meant either an NLR core or a fusion reactor. Bad news either way.

"How many?"

"Our intelligence is limited. With the attention of the Custodians focused on the general area, reconnaissance flights, even with stealth aircrafts, were considered too risky. But we have confirmed at least one super-heavy siege walker, and several heavy combat vehicles."

"Damn it." Joachim tapped his index on his desk slowly as he processed the information.

This was bad, very bad, unless…

"We could funnel them to Lesly." He muttered.

"Excuse me?" Said the Herald, in a tone that made it clear that she didn't care if he excused her not.

"It is a risk, but it is an opportunity." He said, gathering his courage, backing up his slip-up. "If we play this right, we might be able to funnel these things to Lesly. The town sure as hell wouldn't be able to defend against these things, that's for sure!"

The Herald stared at him, and then spoke slowly, as if to a child.

"This plan has been put in place over several centuries. Meticulously so. And you wish to change it?"

"No plan survives first contact with the enemy. Our founders taught us that. Lesly taught me that as soon as I was assigned to her. If we play it right, I believe she will see our intent and improvise. We just have to make sure the flow of hostiles is manageable."

The Herald looked at him silently for several, endless seconds. Then he sensed…approval? From her.

"Very well. I will take your suggestion to the grandmaster and the council. But this is your operation. And you are correct. None of our plans survive the reality of the field." The Herald nodded, and her hologram vanished.

Joachim licked his lips, and took a deep breath, before calling for his aide.

If he was going to harness this opportunity, he'd have to move quickly. And find more resources. A lot more resources. And that meant he was going to have to start bringing in the other continental commands.

This was going to be a mess. But if it worked…Lesly would be stronger than ever, and far beyond suspicion when she finally started producing the technology the Order desperately needed.

And the Order would finally rise up against the so called 'Gods' that had crushed humanity under their boots.

END OF BOOK 4