Chapter 69 - Final Preparations

Chapter 69

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth, Merchant District.

"There you go. Wasn't easy to do, but all the data should be there."

The merchant smiled as the adventurer set the survey scanners down onto his desk.

"Aaaahhh! Excellent, excellent! Thank you, you have been most helpful! And as promised..." He leaned down, and pulled a sack, setting it down next to the scanners with the strangely musical chime of mana crystals colliding together. "Your reward, plus a little extra, for a speedy delivery and your, ah, discretion in the matter."

The adventurer smiled, along the rest of his party, and quickly opened the bag, before smiling even wider as he saw the sparkling mana crystals.

"It was our pleasure, my good sir. Have a pleasant day, and may this bring you great profit!"

The merchant laughed.

"Thank you young man! Have a pleasant day as well! Hopefully we will do business together again, my, ah, business partner are always in need of discreet adventurers such as yourselves!"

The adventurer nodded, and the party left the merchant's office.

The merchant watched them go, then carefully activated the privacy enchantment in his office. The price to rent such a room had been...astronomical, but it fit. After all, everyone who dealt with him knew he was the representative of a powerful merchant conglomerate desirous to get a piece of the action behind Elkaryos' back, and he was keeping as low a profile as possible.

He took a deep breath, and grabbed one of the wand like survey scanners, and poured mana in several innocuous looking runes on it's surface.

The wand hissed, and then popped open, revealing another, much more compact wand...with the markings of the Erisian Army.

He pulled out a tablet, and carefully entered commands that linked them together. Data began flowing, and the merchant smiled.

A few minutes later, no trace remained that he ever had been in the office. The walls, furniture, carpet, all carefully sterilized, rent paid, and a few discreet words making his contacts think that he was sneaking out with his data for his conglomerate.

Then he put on a cloak, a ring, and vanished as the invisibility spell took hold, and disappeared into the night, walking towards the wasteland, carefully dodging patrols. Fortunately they were more concerned about people sneaking in than sneaking out, and had started properly paying attention only too late to catch him getting in.

Once out, he carefully hid behind a dune, studied a map with pre-arranged rally points and camp sites, and left. He knew where his comrades left, but he could never be too careful, and it was possible he was being followed, however remote the possibility.

A few hours later, he stood in front of captain Aubriana, Elkisian Republican Army, and handed over the data.

"Well done corporal, well done." Said the captain. "You have accomplished your mission with distinction. Dismissed."

The corporal nodded, and walked off. The captain looked at the data for a few minutes, before copying it to her own tablet for dissemination -her men needed to know what they were heading into after all-, and made a beeline towards the knot of mage in the middle of the camp, who were scribbling runes on the ground, and carefully inlaying them in silver. Finding a flat surface had been a challenge, but a low power spell to keep the sand out had let them set up shop on top of a reasonably large rock outcropping.

"Will this do?" She asked brusquely as she thrust the tablet towards the mages' leader.

To his credit, the mage didn't even blink. He simply grabbed the tablet, looked over the data, and smiled.

"It is perfect captain. We can begin the more...advanced preparations right away. Just to be clear, where do you want the ritual's target to be?"

The captain shrugged.

"I'd say on the second floor, right in front of that drawbridge. We'll get maximum effectiveness that way. I know the scanners penetrated the castle, but..."

"Hmmm....Indeed. It would be...dicey."

"And I do not like leaving things up to chance."

"Neither do I, although unfortunately magic sometimes does not oblige." The mage bowed. "It will be done captain. You have lead us here safely and gotten us what we required. We will not let you down." The mage smiled. "Although I would appreciate a bit of time of course."

"Of course." The captain frowned. "But I do not know how long I can promise. The mercenaries got here faster than I expected. We might not have all the time we need. A few days, perhaps, but...no longer. In a week this town will have fallen...or the mercenaries will have been defeated. We need to be far, far away when either happens."

"Fair enough. We will hasten our efforts as much as we can. Now if you will excuse me?"

The captain nodded, and the mage turned back towards his comrades, who had stopped to watch the conversation unfold, and immediately clustered up as he showed them the tablet, and immediately began animately debating it's content.

"Are we sure relying on them is a good idea?" Whispered the lieutenant as he stopped at the captain's side.

Aubriana shook her head.

"No, I hate having a single failure point. Especially if it's a complex magic ritual, but..." She shrugged. "They're our best shot." And quite possibly their only hope, although she wouldn't say so out loud.

The lieutenant grunted. He knew her well enough to understand what she was omitting.

"Well, regardless. We are as ready as we are going to be. Just give us the word."

The captain nodded, smiling.

"Good." She looked at the distant glow in the sky of the mercenary camp and the city. They were too far to have any direct visual contact on anyone -or for anyone to see them, thank the Gods, although they'd layered stealth spells over the encampment just in case-, but they could still see the distant glow reflected in the air. "Hopefully this will end soon...and we can get the hell away from this place. Something here...Something gives me the creeps." She admitted in a whisper.

"Like what?" Answered the lieutenant, equally quietly.

"I don't know...like something ancient is in motion. Something...horrifying."

"Well...those are old world ruins after all."

"Right, of course."

But even with these words, the captain knew it was something else. Something about this, and everything that lead up to it, felt...wrong. Like the actions of those involved were just slightly too out of character, slightly too...choreographed.

She shook her head, and turned back towards the rest of the camp. Her lieutenant might say they're ready, but there was always something more to be done.

Besides, burying herself in work would keep her worries at bay until the operation began.

*****

"Alright. My engineers have finalized the redoubts." Said Philia. The knight commander...definitely looked the worse for wear, and Allya winced at the tiredness in the woman's voice. "They're not nearly as good as we would have wanted, but they're done."

"Better to have them now, than have perfect ones too late to help us." Said Allya, before sighing. "And the towers?"

"Quick and dirty finishes. They're nothing more than glorified firing platforms, and not very high, but they'll house a couple archers no problem. No artillery though."

"That's...good. At least we'll have some fire support. How are our troops doing morale wise?"

"Pretty well." Answered Anders, and shrugged at Allya's questioning gaze. "Yeah, they're outnumbered, but...we have a dungeon at our back, and an entire damned kingdom coming in to the rescue. They know they don't have to win, just hold on. Besides, we have a solid plan, a good defensive position, and worse comes to worse, a lot of airships to evacuate us."

"I will not abandon this city captain." Said Allya, her eyes and tone hard.

"No, you won't." Said Anders calmly. "But just the possibility of assured retreat gives them heart. And it gives us options."

Allya's gaze softened.

"Right, speaking of which. Captain Calder, you are the expert in naval tactics here, what can we use our airships for?"

The orc, now an honorary member of the council for the duration of the crisis, stroked his chin.

"Mmmhhh...An excellent question milady. A direct attack on them would be...ill advised. Only the Alberta and the Sakura are well armed enough to serve as proper warships, and even then the Alberta is made to survive against creatures of the wasteland, not fight a fortified position." He shrugged. "Truth is, we cannot truly use our ships, not if they are careful. They simply have too much artillery, probably with combat mages to assist, and have the advantage of being able to fortify their positions. But we can make ourselves a threat they have to honor."

Allya slowly nodded.

"You mean position for an attack, and force them to divert troops?"

"Precisely. If we are in flight they will have to advance more carefully, and keep a lot of their artillery in reserve to fend off an air attack."

Allya looked at the map, and winced. They could do the opposite of course, and goad them into a reckless attack...but if they did that, they might actually break through, and if they got into the dungeon town proper...it would all be over.

"That's probably as good as we're going to get. Alright." She looked up. "Any word from the artificers or the guild?"

Pyn sighed.

"I asked around, and there's no one capable of putting some of Crystal's golems into working order. It's not a question of materials, just...'software', whatever that is. The artificers I spoke to are quite adamant about that. So no way for us to get some golem reinforcements. Well...unless we ask Crystal directly."

Everyone around the table cringed.

"We don't want that." Hurriedly said Allya, while giving her girlfriend a meaningful look. "Even if she accepted, which I doubt she would, the UDC would look...poorly upon us convincing a new born dungeon to meddle in human affairs."

"Indeed." Said Melia, relief evident in her voice. "As for the guild...I asked around, and I have gotten some answers. Officially, the guild support neither side in this conflict, as long as no one interferes with it's operations. Unofficially...the word has been going around that the guild will not penalize any adventurer that signs up for 'infrastructure projects', field hospitals and such. Pretty much as long as they don't directly fight in the battles, the guild will keep a blind eye."

"Ah. That's...better than I expected honestly."

"I think guildmaster Starvak likes you. More importantly, no matter how smooth the transition, a conquest would disrupt business, and, well...with royal reinforcements incoming, it's unlikely to calm down anytime soon if the other side wins."

"Fair enough. Alright, put the offer out. I know we were already hiring adventurers to help build our defensive position, but enlarge that to everything. Our field hospitals, logistics, police, whatever. If we can get some extras in a non combatant role to free up some soldiers for the frontline, do it. We'll worry about the bill later." Allya quickly added as Melia opened her mouth. "We'll worry about the bill later, you have carte blanche for this."

"Very well." Said Melia, nodding. "In that case I'll get right on it."

"Excellent. As for the rest of you, prepare yourself for battle. These guys might be scumbags working for even bigger scumbags, but they didn't get here by being stupid. They'll probably attack at dawn." Everyone around the table nodded. "Then go forth, and fear no evil!"

This caused another round of nods, this time more determined. The line was as old as time, but it felt appropriate.

Everyone except Pyn and their bodyguards left, and the elf looked up at her girlfriend.

"So...do you think we'll win?"

"The first engagement? Yes." Answered the baroness as she poured herself a glass of whiskey, and gulped it down. "Defeat them entirely? I...I don't know." She sighed. "I think we will, but...they'll have surprises in store for us like we have for them. And even then, they have more soldiers, in a more cohesive force, and they're probably better equipped and trained than we are to boot. If we don't get an edge...If we don't get an edge, this might not be a battle we can win."

Pyn slowly nodded.

"Well...We've come through before. I'm sure we will now."

Allya smiled.

"I'm sure we will. I'm sure we will..."