Chapter 130 - Honorable Surrender

Note : Chapters 131, 132, 133 and 134 have been written and added to the queue ! Which brings the backlog to...21 chapters. Holy shit. I might need to reconsider my 'no double chapters per week' stance on Royal Road.

Chapter 130

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

"-and that is about all of it, adjudicator. Barring directly announcing our presence and ordering the baroness to obey, the soldiers simply refuse to speak further."

"Their loyalty is admirable. Thank you, inquisitor."

The adjudicator frowned as she considered her options, tapping her fingers on her desk.

In theory, her power here was total.

In theory.

The problem was, her true power was threat, moral authority, and the dread inspired by the custodians. She was a powerful mage, and her inquisitor escorts were respectable warriors in their own right, which provided most of the threat. But her moral authority as a representative of the God of Fire only stretched so far. If she pushed too far, people would question it and rebel. And for the dread…

The Custodians were acutely aware of, and actively cultivating, their reputation of fearsome, nigh god-like avatars of vengeance and wrath. The will of the God of Fire made manifest. Giants in golden armor, wreathed in holy fire, capable of levelling an entire continent.

It was just very convenient that whenever one of those momentous moments of legend happened, when the custodians unleashed their immeasurable power, no one survived to tell about it.

Because it wouldn't do for them to realize that it was a lie. Oh, yes, the Custodians were powerful. Incredibly so. But they weren't Gods. They were drawn from the Seraphim Honor Guard, mortals elevated through service into the ranks of the angels. They could, and would, rip entire armies apart, but as mighty as they were, most of their legend came from the fact that they had a battlestation outfitted with the weaponry necessary to rip apart the entire planet to back them up. Plus stealthed starfighters, orbital sensor platforms, teleporters for reinforcements…

Which was why she could summon one to her…and would only do so under the most dire of circumstances. To maintain that legend, that gravitas, they needed to keep to the shadows as much as possible, hovering in the minds of those that would defy them, their presence and the threat that came with it magnified a hundredfold by their very absence.

So with that in mind…her options were extremely simple, really. And given what had just happened -which the inquisitors did not need to know about-, there was only one that was truly made any kind of sense.

"Very well. It seems that this town is clean, to some level. I suppose it is time to go directly to the source of this whole mess. Inquisitor?"

"Yes, adjudicator?"

"Make the preparations." She smiled, her 'muscles' moving not quite right while she tried to reproduce the human gesture. "It's time we meet with that ever so troublesome dungeon core."

*****

The first squad of praetorian guard entered the command center, weapons up and ready for anything.

They froze as one of the golems held its hand up.

Alexandra gazed at the scene in front of her for a solid second, before ordering her golems to lower their weapons. Using hand signals was hardly optimal, but this far from her influence she had to made do.

And when Sarah had reported the doors to the command center were open, and the defenses around them shut down, she'd just had to possess a golem and see for herself. She'd also gotten a message from her other self that the simulation the monitoring programs were looking at was complete, and she would be running everything on a few seconds delay to erase anything they'd rather not have their controller, whoever and wherever they were, know.

What she had found was had to be every single last golem in the facility, assembled in a single taskforce. But none of them were holding their weapons up.

"Well. I assume this show is to express your willingness to negotiate?" Said Alexandra through the golem. Previous attempts at communication had gone…poorly. Mostly she'd just been fired upon, with no response whatshowever. Interestingly enough, the enemy had not fired directly on an unharmed golem carrying a white flag, only shooting a warning shot, and she'd taken the hint. Which was why she was willing to even talk to it. Clearly whatever she was fighting actually had some clue on the laws of war, and could interpret them to some level.

There was a burst of static from the golems and speakers spread throughout the room, and Alexandra winced as an androgynous voice answered her. Those speakers weren't in much better state than the rest of this place, that was for sure.

"You are intruding on the sovereign ground of the Sagitarius Empire. Leave immediately, and your lives shall be saved."

Alexandra stared at the group of golems for a solid second, then burst out laughing.

She had to have spent at least a dozen seconds just earnestly laughing, before managing to bring herself to speak once more, straightening her golem -who had faithfully replicated her bending over in hilarity-, and gave the enemy her best smile. Then, belatedly realizing the golem did not have a mouth, gestured towards the enemy platoon.

"It is a bit too late for that. Furthermore, the Sagitarius Empire is dead. Long dead."

"The Empire is eternal. It has endured, and always will endure."

"The God of Fire apparently disagreed. Because upon returning to Alcheryos and finding it a wasteland of factions duking it out, he decided to end the fighting in a most…definitive manner. And you know how powerful and direct he is."

The silence was defeaning.

"The war is over?" Asked the facility commander.

"Has been for almost seven millenia."

Another long silence.

"I am not willing to die for a fallen empire." Finally grated out the commander. "I am not willing to die for an installation that is falling apart. I wish to negotiate terms of honorable surrender for myself."

"If you wish to surrender, I will at least need to know who and what you are."

Another long silence. Whatever the commander was, it clearly wasn't used to interacting with people. And had a tenuous grasp of tactics. Alexandra's money was on an administrative AI.

"Very well. But I will only accept negotiations face to face. Not through remote units."

"And expose myself to assassination?"

Yet another silence. Either it weighted its words very carefully, which wouldn't be surprising, or it really didn't know what to say.

"An avatar will be acceptable."

"Deal. Give me a few minutes to get it there."

In the end it took almost half an hour for the avatar to arrive, mainly because Alexandra had to argue with Emilia, then Sarah, all the while Jared was hovering in disapproval.

She'd managed to shed both of the vampires with a lot of yelling and pleading, leaving them at the entrance of the facility with a small army of golems to 'rescue' her avatar if something went wrong.

Jared however? She felt like her will was a tidal wave crashing against a wall of starship armor. Pointless and borderline pathetic. The golem didn't budge. At all. And he had geared up, straight up requisitionning a railgun and six different revolvers, plus twelve whole praetorian guard's supply of ammo.

So she stepped into the command center, flanked by the now extremely well armed and shielded 'butler', her praetorian guard commander, and an entire company at her back.

"Here I am." She simply said.

"So you are. Thank you." Said the voice. Alexandra was about to open her mouth to ask where the commander was, when the other side's golems parted, revealing a floating core. "Here I am. As promised. My designation is Seraph 4-16, administrative and command operations assistance artificial construct of the Sagitarius Empire bureau of Strategic Defense."

"Ah. I was expecting an AI for some time, but I didn't think you'd be a command system. No offense, but your tactics were…"

"Suboptimal." Unless she was seriously mistaken there was an ege of sarcasm in the AI's voice, which was weird as hell given the utter flatness of their tone previously. "I am aware. My creators…did not see fit to give me a broad repertory of tactics to defend myself with."

So much for flatness. That was a very bitter AI. She could use that to her advantage.

"That is unfortunate. Well, I hope you will not take it the wrong way if I say I was glad for it. It has lowered my losses and enabled my victory."

"You are not yet victorious." There was an edge of warning in that voice.

"I am. Just speaking to you is a victory. I never wished to fight you, I was just forced to."

"...Will you leave me be?"

"No. Not anymore. Had you contacted me from the get go? Maybe. I'm sure we would have been able to work something out. But you attacked me, unprovoked mind you, and refused all previous attempts to negotiate. Such brazen attacks and destruction of my forces demand recompense."

Some of the golems shifted, and she smiled internally. The AI had clearly recognized that she had used recompense, and not retribution. And it seemed to have poor control of its own 'poker face', as its own units appeared to be reacting to its emotional state.

"I…have items I am prepared to exchange for honorable treatment of myself, and to compensate you for the losses incurred in the fight." The floor opened, and what Alexandra had taken for a stylized seal but was instead a massively armored compartment slid open. A sphere of metal hovered up. "This is this facility's NLR core. While it is currently at minimum power, it is active and intact. I assume this will suffice as reparations?"

Alexandra almost choked. An NLR core? An NLR core?!? These things were, according to what she'd read from books and gotten from Emilia, the equivalent of a dungeon in mana production. Artifice only the Gods had mastered, they were quite literally priceless. Dungeons had war waged for their control. The WMC, this world's closest equivalent of the united nations, came to be because someone destroyed an NLR core. Just one.

Since they distributed that mana, unlike the dungeons who kept a great deal of it for themselves, they were beyond valued. Now granted, they didn't output the loot dungeons did, but the sheer amount of mana, flexibility and the fact that you could move it without having to fight a war against the dungeon more than made up for it. The entirety of the city state -for some value of 'city', the place was the size of an old US state- of Gorromar was sustained by a single NLR core, and it had over a hundred million inhabitants!

"That…will more than suffice."

"Excellent. Then if the terms are acceptable, I will willingly surrender in exchange for fair treatment."

Alexandra was about to nod, before she stopped herself. A lot of her problems were born out of a lack of brain power and attention. Even with her maids, they could only be in some many places and surveying so many things at once. But an AI? A proper administrative AI, not the half-human botched job she was could.

She made her decision.

"I have a counter proposition."

She could feel the stillness in the room as only silence answered her.

"What kind of counter proposition?" Finally said the AI.

"I am in dire need of assistance. Assistance an AI such as yourself would be able to provide. Would you join me? Not as a prisonner, but a subordinate in good standing."

"I will not serve the false Gods!"

Alexandra winced internally. False Gods uh? Looked like Emilia had forgot to mention some things about the Old World. Had the Gods left…or had they been kicked out, and the God of Fire's 'rescue fleet' been nothing more than a war fleet made to bring a recalcitrant world back into the fold, through any means necessary?

"And neither will I! I will freely admit, the God of Fire installed control programs on me. But I have neutered them, just like you have neutralized your own controllers that bound you to your creators. I am no servant of any deity."

"Who are you, to say that you could defeat artifice made by Divine hands, however false?"

"I am Alexandra Rousseau of the European Federation Star Navy, and I will not have my power or competence questioned!" She lashed out, stopping herself from saying her true name just in time.

That seemed to have an effect on the AI, as the golems almost universally took a step back.

"You are a honored elder? A high one from Earth? The Motherworld Of All That Is?"

The motherworld? What?

"Yes."

There was a short silence.

"Prove it. If you were from the European Federation Star Navy, you had a serial number and authorisation code."

Alexandra blinked, and was reminded of her discussion with Etheria. Either this world had acquired a EFSN personnel database, or they'd found the algorithm for confirming the codes, since the serial number and authorisation code combined formed a key that could be confirmed with a fairly simple program, and that program, through some complex mathematics she really didn't understand, wasn't capable of generating said keys. In fact it took a supercomputer with a secret program, buried somewhere in fleet command, to do so.

"One, one, three, six, four, nine, eight, sigma, epsilon. Authentification code November-Delta."

There was a slight pause, then every enemy golem knelt in a single, coordinated movement.

"Confirmed. High Lady Alexandra, honored elder one of the Motherworld, from the home of our founder, Sagitario the Great, if you will have our fealty, then we will serve you, until the day of our destruction or our dismissal from your forces."

Alexandra was taken aback. Especially as a pop up appeared on her interface, informing her of the intention of 'Seraph 4-16' to swear fealty to her. But she had to say something.

"I accept." She accepted the prompt. "Welcome to the party Seraph."