Chapter 14

Red Sands Deserts, Contested Border Region

In flight above the outskirts of the Old World Ruins of "Angel Fall"

"You know, I could get used to this."

Allya rose an eyebrow as she tilted her head, looking at Pyn. They were currently leaning against the ship's railing, admiring the seemingly infinitely stretching dunes of the wasteland. Although they were much smaller than they used to be, indicating that they might be nearing their destination.

"What, the airship?"

"Yeah! I mean, it tooks us, what? Two weeks to make the trip on foot? We did it in less than a day by airship! And even then we were being slow and steady about it because of the transports." She gestured vaguely towards the aft of the ship, designating the slow, light freighters that were following the Alberta. "We could have done it, in what? 3 hours at that 'sprint speed' captain Calder talked about?"

Allya nodded.

"Yeah. 100 kilometers per hour, give or take a few."

The baroness had been impressed, despite herself, at the speed the Alberta could fly at if needed. While it was true that airships were much faster than similar sized water going vessels, their cruising speed tended to average around 30 to 50 kilometers per hour, depending on the ship and how loaded it was. Only warships -or expeditionary ships- required the much more mana intensive (and straining on the propellers) 'sprint speed'. They couldn't sustain that speed for very long, of course, although the Alberta could take it for far longer than most (around 6 hours, although the ship wouldn't be able to make use of it again before going to port for repairs). After all, there was some stuff in the wastelands, let alone the death zones, that even such a ship couldn't hope to win against.

"So yeah. I could get used to this." Pyn smiled and patted the railing she was leaning against. "Plus, I like boats!"

Allya had to stop herself from chuckling as she saw the half exasperated, half-outraged expression of nearby skyers and marines as she referred to their ship as a mere 'boat'. Naval crews were already touchy on the subject, but skyers could be even worst. After all, they weren't water bound, ocean enslaved seamen! And neither was their magnificent airship. To call it a mere 'boat' would be the height of heresy!

Fortunately, Pyn wasn't the only one doing the mistake, and the crew had stopped correcting the various adventurers less than 5 hours into the voyage.

"It's an airship Pyn." She said while winking at her friend.

"Oh. Right, sorry." The elf said, sheepishly, as she got the hint. "Anyway. We should be pretty close by now, right? I mean even the transports can't be that slow?"

Allya nodded.

"Yes. In fact I'd expect-"

"For the lookout to sight the mesa of the dungeon soon. Or rather, he already has. Greetings lady Pyn and lady Allya, enjoying the view?"

The baroness sighed, and turned around to look at Calder, who she had fortunately heard coming, which at least meant that her alertness hadn't slipped to badly yet.

"You were waiting for the opportunity, weren't you captain?"

The orc chuckled, and rubbed his chin.

"Perhaps. Perhaps I was mylady." His tone became much more serious. "However, it is indeed true. My lookout has sighted the first mesa of the Angel Fall ruins. We should be making landfall within the hour. I would highly recommend that you get your belongings in order and ready to be offloaded, as we will be running security while the freighters unload."

Allya and Pyn nodded in unison.

"Right, we'll get to it." Said the baroness. "Come Pyn, let's go!"

*****

ALERT: SPOTTER_GOLEM REPORTS ANOMALY

ALERT: SPOTTER_GOLEM REPORTS: MULTIPLE LARGE FLYING OBJECTS ON DIRECT INTERCEPT COURSE

Alexandra raised her head from the spider golem she was working on as the alerts popped up on her interface.

Right after the assessment team had left, she'd put a golem outside to spot for incoming adventurers or anything out of the ordinary really. She'd been surprised at the amount of stuff that went on in this place. She got an alert at least once per day, sometimes even getting several in the span of a single hour. Most of it had been from 'multiple small flying objects', and once a 'single large land object'. So while the area was hopelessly desolate, there did seem to be some activity.

When she'd asked Emilia, her friend had explained that while the wastelands were mostly empty of life, there was a significant number of hibernating monsters and beasts scattered around it, usually burrowed underground or resting in caverns. Apparently most of them either prayed on the caravans regularly crossing the area, or raided bordering cities and villages, before retreating into the wasteland and hibernating long enough for the search parties to give up, and the heat to die down.

That indicated that there was something close enough to attract the attention of these things. That most likely meant that they were near a trade route. Despite the information they had gotten from the group of wannabe core thieves, Emilia hadn't been able to place them on a map. She didn't have the 'Fallen Angel' ruins in her books or maps, and 'between the Elkis Republic and Asarian Kingdom' wasn't exactly the most precise description in the world, as according to the maps she'd been shown both nations went from the east to the west coast of the continent. Emilia had made the educated guess that they were somewhere between the trade city of Darthar and the mana oasis (and trade town) of Erakis, but where exactly on that route was a mystery...and was of critical importance. After all, which nation was going establish the dungeon town (and if it would be close enough to their territory to give them a massive advantage in defending it) would mould her interaction with them. As a matter of fact, Emilia had told her that she was putting together a 'political briefing package' (a term the vampire girl had picked up during conversation with her) to at least give her a broad idea of what she was facing.

In any case, this sounded alarming enough that she should actually take a look. She secured her tools, and then sprinted out of the workshop. She erupted into the core room, and skiddled to a halt.

Emilia, who was currently leaning against a wall, reading one of her books, lifted her head up in surprise as CQ turned around as the praetorian guards saluted.

"Alex? What-"

"The spotter has seen something. Several big flying objects, heading straight for us. Could you head to the command center please?" Emilia nodded, stashed her book, and quickly walked past Alexandra, who turned towards CQ. "Sorry kid, I'm going to need your body for a bit." After all, if those were adventurers, it wouldn't do for one of them to accidentally see her in her avatar. Answering questions about just why she had one could turn out to be...awkward.

Alexandra went into dungeon mode, and quickly took control of CQ's body. She took a deep breath (that she was fairly sure she didn't need), and walked out of the room, straight towards the surface, while simultaneously ordering her avatar to move to the command center on autopilot.

A few minutes later she emerged into the daylight, and froze. She didn't need the spotter golem to point anything out to her.

The giant, flying ships were visible with perfect clarity, and probably would have been discernible even without the boss' enhanced vision.

She whistled softly as she contemplated the slowly growing airships. It looked like she would have to seriously reconsider her pre-conceptions about this world, again.

They looked like a cross between a zepplin and a galleon. Like if someone had pulled out wooden vessels straight from the age of sail, lashed a balloon to them, and stuck bladed propellers to their side. It was...fairly impressive, all things considered.

They also seemed to be fast. Well, compared to what she would consider normal medieval transportation. She knew they had airships, but she'd imagined something like the first zeppelins, bulky, incredibly large for the weight they could move, and slow. Those were nothing like this. True, they couldn't hold a candle to a plane in terms of speed, but their weight to balloon size ratio was insane. Alexandra idly wondered if they were using runes/enchantments to reduce the weight of the ship, or something more akin to an anti-gravity generator to keep the ship from crashing. That or their propellers had far more than they seemed. Either way, those things would have promptly crashed back on Earth.

At least she could be fairly sure that they weren't monsters, and most probably the adventurers guild -and/or perhaps one of the nearby nations- coming to establish the dungeon town. She rather doubted monsters would use airships. Or at least she fervently hoped they wouldn't.

"Well. Let's hope this will go smoothly." She looked to the side at the golem, who obviously didn't answer, and sighed. Maybe she should have brought Emilia with her.

Then again, she thought as she saw the first ship starts to turn, probably to land in a flat area near the cluster of mesas that surrounded her dungeon, maybe not.

Because that was a lot of very big ballistas dotting the side of that ship. Well, not a lot, 8 of them (and 8 of what looked suspiciously like gunports on the deck below), but that was still enough to make her shiver. She had finally made a workable scorpio (small ballista) prototype, by making it smaller and using wrought iron for certain parts, and the subsequent testing had given her a healthy respect for it's lethality, no matter how 'primitive' it was. And it was positively tiny compared to these monsters.

She sighed again, and turned towards the entrance. Time to head inside, it would probably be for the best if she let the other side initiate contact. Especially since there was some stuff she wanted from them...and appearing too eager would undermine her position in the oncoming negotiations.

Shit, I haven't even met the poor bastards and I'm already thinking of how to best fleece them for materials. Talk about slipping into a dungeon mentality, she thought.

Well, at least she was no stranger to bullshitting people for funding and tech. You didn't make it far in fleet logistics if you weren't at least passable at it. And she'd learned from the best.

*****

"Ah, miss Allya and miss Pyn! I was looking for you!"

Allya turned around, and smiled as Starvak came up over the edge of the mesa they had established their guard post on.

"Guildmaster! What can we do for you?" Said the baroness as Pyn smiled apologetically to the duo of marines manning the guard post with them, who simply smiled back, and went back to watching the desert for any sign of monsters.

It was kind of hilarious, actually. Since they hadn't yet revealed that they were the owners of the area, they had been put in the name drawing pool for the various duties of the expedition. And thus, their names had been drawn to man one of the perimeter guard posts. Although, given the fact that it was the perfect place to keep an eye on them, as it kept them away from a crowd were an assassin might hide, and gave Calder the perfect excuse to station his most loyal, competent marines right by them, Allya was inclined to think that the 'random drawing method' had been somewhat tampered with in their case. Still, it was a duty like any other, and little as she liked to admit it, she was thankful for it. She was used to standing guard for her party, and being able to make small talk with Pyn while watching the horizon was a hell of a lot better than grunting as they erected tents or dug latrines.

"Well, in this case I'm afraid it's what someone else can do for you." The dwarf turned around, and gestured towards the slightly out of breath dark elf behind him. "This is Myskaros Norar. He is the expedition director."

Allya smiled, and extended her hand towards the dark purple skinned elf. She hadn't had the occasion to meet him in person (or remotely for that matter), as he had literally arrived at the last minute, rushing from the city's teleporter to the airfield like he had a chimera behind him and gaining. He'd also been onboard one of the freighters, so there had been no way to discreetly meet with him. According to Elkaryos however, he was the very best there was in terms of administration in hostile wastelands, and had at least half a dozen expeditions into the fringe of Death Zones under his belt. Plus, the fact that he was a member in good standing of the Syndicate and a Merchant of the guild hadn't hurt.

In his case, 'expedition director' more or less meant he would be the link between Elkaryos' construction teams and them. Allya was fairly sure that if he was as competent as Elkaryos had promised he was, he would end up Pyn and her's right hand man where city administration and commerce was concerned.

"Baroness Allya, knight Pyn, it is an honor." Said the dark elf as he bowed, before sputtering as he realized that there were other present. Fortunately, the marines seemed to not even blink, staring on at the horizon as if the dark elf hadn't said anything out of the ordinary.

Yeah, randomly drawn my ass, thought Allya as she smiled back at the poor director.

"Relax mister Myskaros. I am perfectly confident in Calder's men discretion." She suppressed a smile as she almost tasted the sense of pride in the marines as they suddenly stood a little bit straighter. "It is an honor to meet you as well." She extended her hand, and the director shook it. "I trust you have been fully appraised of the situation?"

"Yes milady." He pulled out a pair of glasses, and put them on his nose, before pulling a sheet of paper out of the stack of files under his arm -more out of habit than any real need for the glasses or the paper notes, Allya suspected. "New link dungeon, situated on a major trade route. Assassination threat on the nobles owning the area, as well as extreme threat of war." He looked up. "And, well, if you don't mind me saying so...two inexperienced nobles in charge of the whole mess."

Allya winced at the last bit.

"That's...a pretty fair summary mister Myskaros." She smiled crookedly. "Although I suppose you'll excuse us for hoping the 'inexperienced' part will disappear in time."

Myskaros laughed.

"Fair enough milady, fair enough." He shook his head. "Still. I hope you will realize that that inexperience will remain a factor for a while at least." He met her gaze. "In fact, it is right now."

Allya blinked.

"Pardon me?"

The dark elf sighed.

"Ma'am, where are your bodyguards?"

"I...don't have any. There's no real need, we're-"

"Safe? No, you aren't. Or at least, you won't be for long."

Allya tilted her head, thrown off balance by the elf's answer...and his worried expression.

"Look, milady. I know, it may seem like a safe, controlled environment right now, but it isn't going to stay way for long. You seriously shouldn't underestimate how long it takes to recruit and vet bodyguards, and once the expedition is established and the dungeon town proper starts a lot of people are going to start pouring in. And that's going to come sooner than you think." He held up his sheet. "In fact, that's the primary reason I came here. I've already received word that several caravans of adventurers and merchant associations are already being assembled to exploit the opportunities of the new dungeon and dungeon town."

Allya nodded.

"Right. Point taken mister Mykaros. I assume you wouldn't have come here without having some form of solution."

The director nodded.

"Indeed. Although to be fair, it was master Elkaryos' initiative, not mine." He turned around, and gestured to someone below the edge, before moving out of the way. "You've already met sergeant Valker, I've been told?"

Allya sighed as she watched the guard come over the mesa's edge. She wasn't even surprised at this point.

"I have. It is a pleasure to see you again, sergeant Valker." She held out her hand, which Valker shook. "If I may enquire, in what capacity are you here?"

"The pleasure is all mine milady. And I, as well as my colleagues, are here as a limited time contractor of Rapier Industries, to protect VIPs in a new venture."

Allya blinked.

"Colleagues?"

Valker smiled.

"Of course! Allow me to introduce to you milady, corporal Éclair Étoile-Scintillante, ex-city guard of Darthar, and private Rogard Aulrock, of the same affiliation."

Two new persons came over the lip of the mesa, and Allya blinked. The first one was...stunning. With clear blue eyes, flowing pink hair, she was simply beautiful. However she had an air of...strictness around her, and her face was set in a serious expression. Her name was also most definitely Erisian...and from the Core, if she wasn't mistaken. She was also looking at the marines and her surroundings with undisguised suspicion, like she expected an army of assassins to jump out of the shadows at any moment. The second was a bit odder. His ears most definitely pointed him as an elf...but he looked old. Quite old in fact. Except that most elves would rather be dead than having a single wrinkle. He also had an aura of...solidity around him.

Sweet. Two oddballs, it would seem. Well, the more the merrier, she thought sarcastically.

"Ah, I see. And I assume they will be your relays for our protection?"

Valker nodded.

"Indeed. Do not fret milady, for I would place my life within their hands without hesitation. They are also two of the most skilled combatants I have ever met, and they both have undergone VIP protection training, as well as successfully stopped several assassination attempts."

Allya slowly nodded. Usually, she would have rather doubted that two city guards could have stopped 'multiple assassination attempts', but...Darthar being Darthar, she was more than willing to believe them. She'd briefly considered running the dungeon town from the city, at least for a time, but she had dismissed the thought almost immediately. Yes, it was big, had a competent guard, and she had a powerful friend there in the form of Elkaryos, but it was also one hell of a snake pit. She wouldn't be surprised if mercantile or politically motivated assassinations were a monthly occurrence there, at the very least.

"Excellent. Corporal, private." She extended her hand to them in turn. Éclair looked at her hand for a second, like she didn't know what to do with it, and then firmly shook it. Rogard, however, grabbed her forearm and gave her a firm shake, like a soldier to another, and Allya smiled. It brought back good memories....Then she winced internally as she remembered why those memories had come to an end. Fortunately she was good enough at dissembling to avoid it seeping onto her expression. "It is a pleasure to meet you. I'm sure you'll prove more than equal to the task at hand." She smirked. "If only because I doubt master Elkaryos would have hired you if he didn't think you capable enough, regardless of the sergeant's recommendation."

Rogard nodded, smiling slightly, while Éclair stared at her for a second, before giving her a curt nod, awknowledging the somewhat convoluted compliment. Apparently social skills weren't the woman's forte. She could work with that. After all, she was here to keep her alive, not greet important guests or whatever. Which reminded her that she was probably going to need her own receptionist, probably a Jurgen (an odd term that apparently came from an extradimensional. It designated a form of aide/receptionist whose purpose was to deflect people their master couldn't be bothered to deal with).

"Now that is dealt with, there is the matter of administration." Intervened Mykaros, waving the sheet that he was still holding. "I can do it just fine while this is just a lone, expeditionary camp, but as soon as caravans starts arriving, things will accelerate. So you'll have to settle on how you want to handle it."

Allya sighed, and put a hand through her hair, looking to her side at Pyn, who looked back, and nodded.

"Well, we talked about it. We think it'd be for the best if we made a public announcement about who we are. It'll make it easier on all of us, and simplify a lot of things."

As well as solidify their hold and claim on the area. Because she was fairly sure that there would be people in those forming caravans who would be more than happy to usurp them if they got the chance. And that wasn't going to happen, not on her watch at least. Well, she was fairly sure that some of the stupider ones would try it anyway, but they would make handy examples for the rest.

"Ah, excellent! That will simplify things greatly. Could the announcement take place as soon as possible? It would most definitely help if the chain of command was established immediately, especially for the security arrangements."

Allya nodded. That was one of the points where she had refused to yield. When Elkaryos had started talking about who the town's security forces would report to, and proposed a two tier system, with a Darthar style merchants guild city guard, and a more military oriented armsmen retinue for her, she'd flatly refused. There was no way in hell she was going to let someone implant any significant force loyal to them in her town, especially not on a permanent basis. She had learned the value of having troops loyal to her the hard way, and she wasn't going to forget that lesson anytime soon. Hence the slightly awkward arrangement where the expedition's security detachment should be reporting in to her while she was still undercover as a lambda adventurer.

Now that she thought about it, she was going to have to hire away Valker and his companions immediately. She had a sneaking suspicion that it was the precise reason of why they were 'limited time contractors' under Elkaryos.

"That seems fair. Very well, schedule it immediately." She winced. "The sooner that's done, the sooner we can truly get to work."

"Of course! Right away milady!" Said the administrator as he bowed, and hurriedly made his way down the mesa.

"Oh, and sergeant Valker?"

"Yes milady?"

"You and your friend are no longer employees of Rapier enterprise. You are part of my personal guard now."

"Of course milady."

If that surprised her new guards, they didn't show it. Which probably meant that Elkaryos had already briefed them on it.

Sneaky bastard.

*****

"So, how are our surface dwelling friends doing?" Asked Alexandra as she sat down on the stone seat at the centre of the command center. A new addition, but it was becoming necessary to have a central position to keep an eye on the different stations of the command center. Especially since she'd finally found a way to feed the visuals from her golems directly into the screens. Although the big, central screen was still free for Emilia to project her scrying spell onto, which she was currently doing.

"They seem to be doing pretty well, all things considered. Although they are taking their sweet time about it."

Alexandra hid a snicker at Emilia's vaguely offended tone. Apparently her advisor hadn't taken it very well that the adventurers (and there was no doubt they were adventurers, given the amount of guild medallions around the camp, although there did seem to be a fair amount of civilians as well) had been purely and simply ignoring the dungeon. Well, not totally, there was a handful of adventurers wearing electrum medallions currently guarding the entrance, at a respectful distance of course. Alexandra would have rather that they guarded the entrance itself, just so they were inside of her influence (she could use the mana those high level adventurers could generate), but she understood the logic.

Still, it was a bit annoying to have all of that potential for new materials and mana literally within view, but being unable to profit from it.

Well, I suppose they must feel the same, if for slightly different reasons, she thought, chuckling.

Emilia turned towards her, tilting her head, and Alexandra simply waved her hand.

"Relax Emilia. Most of them must be as frustrated as you are. After all, they must be pretty excited to get into the dungeon themselves."

"I'm not-" Emilia took a deep breath, halting mid-retort. "That obvious, ain't I? Yeah, I guess I'm a bit...frustrated. Still, that's a very valid point." She smiled. "Plus, if we're lucky, their impatience might mean that they'll rush in without detailed reports from the assault guild! That would be the jackpot!"

Alexandra hid a wince. Despite everything (and knowing full well that she could bring them back), she was still a bit uncomfortable about killing adventurers this flippantly. It wasn't that killing human beings was particularly a problem for her -heavens knew she had caused enough death back on Earth alone, not counting how many people she'd sent to the graveyard on this world as well- but thinking of it in terms of benefit and joy was still very foreign to her. There was a difference between shooting criminals in Vesta station because you had no choice and it had to be done, and high fiving over their cooling corpses and sipping margaritas in celebration.

"Yeah. Still, I doubt they'd be that stupid. And even if they were, the stupid ones won't last long out there." She gestured at the vast expanse of sand that could be seen on the horizon on the screen.

"Fair enough. Although I wouldn't understimate human stupidity. Especially when it's coupled with greed and ambition." She winced. "I've seen enough smart people behave like utter morons when falling prey to them."

"That's...a fair point. And something we should keep in mind." Her eyes and tone darkened. "Someone has already tried to steal you. I wouldn't put it past some idiots to try it as well."

Alexandra nodded.

"Indeed. Although they might find it a tad bit harder this time."

The smile they shared was definitely wolfish. Then Emilia pointed at the main screen.

"Hey, look! Something's happening."

Alexandra turned towards the screen again, and frowned.

"They're gathering. An announcement perhaps?"

A few hours ago most of the new arrivals had gathered together, and seemed to run some sort of tombola before dispersing. She had no idea what that had been about (although she had speculated a lot with Emilia about it), but it must have had at least some importance, judging from the emotions displayed.

This time, the dwarf with the bushy mustache, with the same weird multicolored crystal medallion as she had seen Erik wear from time to time (which Emilia had explained was the symbol for a guild master of the adventurer's guild), stepped on the small stage, which in and of itself wasn't much more than several stacks of crates. Alexandra was only half paying attention, since they couldn't hear anything from the distance at which Emilia had set the scrying spell, as she was afraid it would be detected, and lip reading was impossible, since the mustache was in the way (and none of them were good enough at it anyway). Then her attention snapped back to the screen as two familiar persons mounted on the stage.

"That's..." Started Emilia.

"Yeah. The assassin and the ranger."

The duo seemingly started a speech, before pulling out medallions and putting them around their necks, right above the guild ones. Emilia let out a gasp as she saw them.

"What is it?"

"Those are WMC noble medallions!"

"WM-What now?"

Emilia blinked.

"Oh, right, the WMC. It's the World Mage Court. It's...complicated. I'll explain later." She gestured at the two young women on the stage, who had seemingly generated quite the uproar. "In short, they are uncontroversible proof that these girls are nobles. And if they're revealing it here..."

Alexandra frowned thoughtfully. They wouldn't reveal it here, and cause such an uproar, if they weren't having a massive impact on their expedition, and that could only mean one thing...

"They're the rulers of this area! Ah! Did they buy the land around us? That's classic!" She laughed, before stopping as she saw Emilia's worried expression. "Is something wrong?"

"Not really no....It's just that I remember that most nations had rules and regulations to prevent just that...I don't know, it doesn't feel right. I think there's something else going on there."

Alexandra looked at her advisor, then at the screen, as the dwarf said something, and the crowd parted, letting him and the two young nobles through.

"Well, looks like you'll get a shot at sating your curiosity, because unless I'm mistaken, they're heading straight towards the entrance."