Chapter 131 - They Came Here To Die

Chapter 131

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"You did WHAT?!?" Yelled out Emilia.

Alexandra winced.

"I, uh, accepted their honorable surrender and recruited them."

Emilia looked at her in total disbelief, and shifted to staring at the golem by Alexandra's side.

Seraph had accepted a complete disarmament of their units as a matter of course, so the golem was simply a very worn down version of Alexandra's own standard golems. Interestingly enough, the facility had intact examples of the 'advanced' version of them, which she'd encountered during her first day as a dungeon, but the schematics had been deleted and the memory suppressed by the damned control program. She was really looking forward to absorbing and digging into these things. Not to mention, of course, the remaining combat unit!

"I mean no offense, uh, miss Seraph? But I do not know you. At all. In fact, until a few hours ago, I was certain you were dead set on killing me and my dungeon core."

"Seraph four sixteen will do. The human concept of gender does not apply to AIs."

Alexandra chuckled.

"Tell that to Arcadia. And Seraph, for now, please. Even if it isn't exact, just…for the purposes of the discussion."

"Arcadia or no, how can you trust…them?" Said Emilia, gesturing at the golem.

"I don't. That's why I have several home made defense programs running over every scrap of data they send me, their entire force has been disarmed, and they have given me complete access to their internals and I am currently going over their code." The last part was sort of a lie. Her other self was going over the code. But still. "It's going to take a while, but the core overrides and imperatives should be easy to single out." If nothing else, they didn't seem to have been good coders. A lot of code looked cobbled together. Almost like they'd taken different, more complex matrixes, then smashed them together and intentionally crippled them. Whatever the Sagitarius Empire was, it clearly had not trusted its AIs. With reason, given how Seraph had betrayed them. "But I promised them that they would be inducted as a member in good standing of my forces, and they will, period. That is not negotiable, Emilia."

Emilia looked like she'd chewed on a bitter fruit, but she sighed, recognizing the steel in her dungeon core's tone. If nothing else, Alexandra very rarely used her given name, and that signified she meant business.

"You're the dungeon core, I guess. Still, this is…irregular."

"Has anything about me or my operations ever been normal, let alone 'regular'?"

Emilia chuckled.

"No. No I guess not." She sighed. "Welcome aboard this lash up of a dungeon, Seraph. Glad to have you here. Sorry for the cold welcome."

"It is alright. I am, overall, extremely surprised at the lack of hostile reactions."

"That's because, in my opinion, Alexandra here is probably one of the most paranoid and dangerous beings on the entire planet."

"I'm hardly-"

"Shush Alex. You can chose to be modest all you want, but I have lived with you for months. I've learned to know you." And keep some questions to herself. The dungeon clearly had some large secrets and burdens she'd rather keep to herself, and the least the vampire could do was respect that. "You might not be very powerful right now, but you are extremely dangerous. If she says she has it under control, then she does. Because believe me, she will destroy you if you betray her."

A fact that she had learned the hard way given how the dungeon core had prepared to annihilate her very own maids when her mother had gotten a bit pushy.

She was just glad they were on the same side, and as her advisor -not to mention de facto wife-, she was above any and all suspicion. The last thing she wanted was to have to worry about whether her dungeon core trusted her or not!

"That is…acknowledged."

"Excellent! Now, I believe we have some rather thorough briefings to go through to get our new friend up to date, and a surface war to win!" Exclaimed Alexandra as she clapped her hands. "First step, explaining the situation to Seraph and getting the Republic off our damned lawn."

"A very sandy and miserable lawn." Said Emilia, almost under her breath.

"I am a glorified terraformer, I can and will turn this place into a garden if I have to. If nothing else, the bodies of these bastards will make for great fertilizer."

Seraph looked at the back and forth between the two, and wondered just what the hell she'd signed up to.

And why her new mistress was keeping her 'advisor' in the dark about her copy, or the fact that the God of Fire's control programs had been neutralized.

*****

"So, they've finally decided to make their move." Said Allya as she gazed at the advancing enemy army.

"Yes milady. And they're not being too subtle about their intentions." Philia sounded almost disgusted. "No subtelty, just…what, frontal attack? That has to be their only option with how they have deployed their forces."

"It's not like they have a choice. They could have done a two pronged attack, but we could held off one side while crushing the other with overwhelming superiority."

"Well, their numbers aren't going to help them."

"Nor will it help us. Thanks to Crystal's new batch of reinforcements," she had been extremely relieved when the dungeon core had announced the forces that had been 'diverted' were actually available now, and up to a full division now no less! "we actually outnumber them now. And their troops, no offense to our dungeon ally, are actually of higher quality than the golems. Preventing us from using our number superiority while keeping their qualitative edge has to be worthwhile from their perspective."

"I…good point milady. Sorry, with their majesties forgoing conscripts or -Gods forbid- peasant levies, I have been used to being the elite, outnumbered force."

"As I have said countless times, strategy like this is my job, not yours knight-commander. Don't beat yourself up about it." Allya sighed as she took in the entire battlefield, including her own defenses, where golems and living soldiers alike were rushing to man the walls and abatises. "This is going to be a bloodbath."

"Yes milady. Indeed. Let us just make sure that it is their blood that flows, not ours."

*****

"Shouldn't you be moving up to the surface?" Asked Emilia as they gazed upon the screens of the command center. Well, except for Seraph, they were looking at the data feeds directly. Even in the short amount of time they'd had together, the capacity for the AI to handle multiple outputs was scary. But that's why she'd hired them after all!

"No." Alexandra's tone was…Emilia had heard it a few times before, and it sent a shiver down her spine as she heard and felt the hatred, bitterness and just plain cold in her dungeon core's voice. "I am done playing that game with these assholes. I have given them time to surrender, I have never tried to stop them from leaving, and I have danced to their tune and fought them on fair terms. And I am done with it. It's time to make a statement."

"What statement?" Asked the vampire advisor, almost meekly.

"Fuck with me and my own, and die." Simply said the dungeon core, as she turned towards the vampire maids. "Sarah. You worked as an artillery spotter?"

"I was trained as one, but I only directed a few actual strikes." She brigtened up. "Are you building another Bertha?"

"No. Not even close. I'm not interested in making another distraction. This time we are crushing them. I need you at the top of the mesa, the elevator should have a new destination on the console. Seraph?"

"Yes high lady and honored eld-"

"Just call me Alexandra. Or Alex. My lady at the absolute worst."

"I…Yes, my lady Alexandra."

The Earth-born sighed. This was probably as good as it was going to get.

"Double check my ballistics calculations. I'd also like your opinion on my firing pattern and contingency measures. This is going to take all of my remaining mana reserves, so I'd rather get it right. Besides, the advantage of shock and surprise will help a lot, and I'd rather not throw that away with a failed first volley either."

"Firing pattern?" Alexandra flung over the file detailing her plan to the AI, in a gesture that brought her back to Earth for a bit. She hadn't been able to really do that since she'd come to this world. No one had the implants or data structure to handle that, even CQ, who just…more or less took in the concepts themselves, not an organized file structure. "Oh. I now understand why you had them. Are you expecting shields?"

"They worked surprisingly well against you. And yes, when I fired the Bertha at their infantry, they demonstrated some kind of formation level shielding. So the entire first wave will be composed of them, to open up the way for the rest. Feels like I am the droids fighting the gungans. Accurate, I suppose."

"You were lucky milady, one of my combat units' weapons malfunctionned, otherwise it would have never made it. And the calculations appear correct. I would, however, recommend more thorough compartimentalization in terms of contingency. Especially in terms of distance. The launchers are magical after all, and just containing the explosions will not sufficie if the runes of the first wave accidentally triggers." Alexandra had the distinct impression that if the golem could have blinked, it would have. "Droids? Gungans?"

"It's…a referrence to some entertainment from Earth."

There was a few seconds of awkward silence, before the golem nodded. Alexandra was going to really need to work on Seraph's people skills.

"Of course, I see." They said with the tone of someone that had absolutely no idea. "Are you intending to conduct a single overwhelming strike?"

"That is exactly my plan."

"Mass retaliation is always an effective strategy. Of course, it seems not to have worked for my creators." At that the maids shifted uneasily. To say they were uncomfortable with having an Old World AI serving alongside them was a massive understatement. But Emilia had assured them Alexandra had it under control, so they'd kept their doubts to themselves. "But it should be applicable here."

"Excellent. Then let's be about it!" She smiled at the unwitting referrence. Last thing she lacked was a cat on her shoulder at this point! "And give these Republic bastards an ass kicking they'll remember for decades to come!"

"Yeah!" Yelled out everyone in the room, except Jared. Even Seraph joined in, if belatedly.

Time for these bastards to die.

*****

"All batallions have reported in. We are ready to begin our attack general."

Amelia nodded as Malcom spoke, wincing as she heard the sporadic detonations of howitzers shells against her forces' wards. The formation level magic shield could take a beating, but it wouldn't be able to hold out for long against such sustained fire. At least they were at the very edge of their range, and most of the shots were missing. Plus, it wasn't that damned super gun, whose shells had just punched through and slaughtered her troops wholesale!

"Very well! Signal all units, begin attack!"

"Yes ma'am, right away!"

The brigadier walked off towards the signal party, and the general concentrated on looking calm for her troops. She was standing in the back lines, alongside a reserve of two thousand or so men -who were more 'kept in reserve' because there simply wouldn't be space to cram them in when they attacked- and most of her artillery, surrounded by battle standards bearing the Republic's colors and her personal heraldry. The latter the senate would have probably heavily disapproved of, but they weren't here, and those fat conniving pigs could stuff it for all she cared.

Signal rockets flew high into the skies, accompanied by the sound of buggles as Malcom gave the signal.

For a second, nothing happened.

Then with a rumble like the end of the world, the army began marching towards Rebirth. Thousands of heavily armored boots striking the earth as one, filling Amelia's heart with martial pride almost despite herself.

One of her aides gasping was what drew her attention. She looked sharply at the young woman, then followed her gaze.

The mesa the dungeon was in…was vanishing?

No, not vanishing. Someone was removing the top. And only the dungeon could have done it, why-

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as she recognized the glint of metal…and the entire mesa errupted like a volcano animated by the wrath of the God of Fire himself.

Hundreds, thousands of artillery rockets rose into the skies on pillars of fire.

And came back down on top of her army like the hammer of the Gods.