From: Deceiver Captain Red Talon

To: Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV

Subject: Hell-Titan Project Update

My Honored Superior,

I have taken the opportunity to fulfill your orders by inserting Deceivers into hundreds of adventuring parties during Dungeon-Delving expeditions. They have managed to secure roughly 3,400 fertile Dungeon Seeds. Per your orders, I am planting them in remote locations far from civilization and have assigned a staff of 150 Deceivers to keep watch as the seeds germinate over the next five years. After that, there will need to be roughly ten years for training, indoctrination and chassis construction. Most of that time will be spent ensuring that the Hell-Titans are mentally fit for the task and are unlikely to go rogue, as chassis construction will likely be very rapid once a mana supply is provided.

I do find myself compelled to ask, though; how will the Hell-Titans be powered? Our realm doesn't have the immense levels of background mana that are present in the Realm of Souls, and giving the Hell-Titans access to an independent power supply has the potential for them to go rogue, as proven by the Control Element known as Samathin.

Sincerely, Red Talon

From: Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV

To: Deceiver Captain Red Talon

Subject: Hell-Titan Project

My Necessary Subordinate,

The Hell-Titans will be powered by Hellfire Reactors, but not directly. They will be deceived that a simple dimensional tap to our realm is sufficient to power their chassis by building concealed reactor arrays on our side of the rift to channel mana to them. You need not concern yourself with the exact design of the reactor setup, only with deceiving the Hell-Titans.

Regarding your success at securing such a large number of fertile Dungeon Seeds, I acknowledge your competence at this endeavor, and that I do not have a valid replacement for your skillset as a spymaster. As such, the staff you have assigned to monitoring the germinating Hell-Titans will remain on their current task, but you yourself will be transferred to intelligence-gathering within Control Unit Samathin's Draconic Empire.

Distrustfully, Coordinator Jartham Gorebringer IV

Six months into my term as the Director of Public Infrastructure, there was a security incident in the massive manufacturing complex/office that my Structure had very quickly become. What I had at first thought was an official liaison from the Education Administration not only pinged with 'daemon', 'evil', and 'corruptor' on a Mana Thematograph, put when they were viewed by the security cameras in anti-illusion mode, they were very rapidly revealed as a jet black horned figure with several bandoleers of grenades.

I immediately sicced security on the Daemon, a squad of Clockwork Knights immediately dragging the infiltrator off to be interrogated, then tossed in a nuclear incinerator. I'd learned exactly what sort of threat Daemons presented during my stint as the Transitional Government thanks to Adventurer consultations, and I wanted to make damn sure that they didn't sink their claws into the country I was trying to build. The situation secure for the moment, I called the Public Defense Administration.

As soon as the call went through, I informed the clerk on the other end "This is the Titan of Steel, Director of Public Infrastructure. I need to talk with the Director of Public Defense. Something urgent just came up."

It took a few minutes for my call to be transferred up the Public Defense Administration's Chain of Command, until it eventually reached Ruby Sherridan, Director of Public Defense and a Paladin of the Silver Star. Immediately, I informed Ruby "Ma'am, this is the Titan of Steel speaking. Four minutes ago a Daemon tried to infiltrate my complex under the pretense of being from the Education Admin. A team of Clockwork Knights has them detained for a brief questioning session prior to incineration. I don't know if the Education Administration is compromised or if the Daemon was operating under entirely false pretenses."

Ruby replied almost immediately "Understood. I'll authorize a team of investigators to perform a sweep of the Education Administration. Letting Daemons have any control over the information being taught to the nation's youth could be disastrously bad. Given our combined border security efforts, it is far more likely that the Daemon in question was summoned within the Republic's borders, rather than coming in from outside. So I'll also have to search for Daemon Cults, in order to avoid letting any more in."

I acknowledged Ruby's response, before noting "I've actually got a few ideas brewing for ways to keep more Daemons out that could save your team some work. As I'm sure you're aware, I've been in contact with the Aether Titan for more than a year now, and we're both fairly certain that it's possible to create a field that blocks interdimensional rifts from being opened. We've only got proof-of-concept models so far, but the idea seems fairly easily scaled up. With your approval, we can block dimensional access from Hell for the entire country within the year."

Even though the connection was currently audio-only, I could almost see Ruby grinning as she replied "In my official capacity as Director of Public Defense and as a Paladin, you have my authorization to block all interdimensional access that doesn't go to or from the Realm of Souls. In addition, I would like the designs for the jammer fields forwarded to my R&D department as soon as you've got a design with at least a kilometer of range. I'd like to see the look on those Daemon's faces when they realize I've cut their access to the entire planet."

As I got ready to end the call, I noted "Sure thing, though from our observations so far it takes around 200 times as much power to close a portal that's already open as it does to keep it from opening in the first place. Anyway, it's always a pleasure talking with you Madam Sherridan. I look forwards to collaborating with you in future."

"You too, Steely." And with that, the call ended.

Anyway, now that a response for possible Daemonic activity is in the works, let's see what else my Mad Science department's been up to lately. After all, I am quite interested to see what possibilities they've come up with for Stable Muonic Matter and Deconjuration Fields.

In the northern deserts of the Draconic Empire, Samathin was waiting in front of a massive shed. What she was waiting for was the longest serving and least-trusted of her Scaled Regents to arrive. She wasn't expecting said subordinate to leave in one piece, no matter the outcome of what was about to happen.

Scanning the horizon, Empress Samathin found herself grinning as the grey-scaled Grand Dragon known largely as Scaled Regent Chalexane approached. Soon, Chelaxane landed, and bowed his head low to the ground as he answered "Empress Samathin. I live because I serve. What task do you have for me today?"

Samathin simply remarked "Open the shed, and you shall find out."

Chelaxane grunted, before proceeding over to the shed and ripping the door open with one of his taloned forelimbs. There was a split second during which Chelaxane's face went from confident, to confused, and finally settled on furious. And then seeing Chelaxane's face was impossible, on account of being obscured by Dragonfire as the grey-scaled Grand Dragon was blasted backwards in a painful somersault, the shed being obliterated by the shot's backblast.

A shining metallic blur shot out of the shed's ruins at the exact same instant, a mechanical monstrosity built in much the same profile as a Grand Dragon, with massive Dragonfire-powered jets mounted to its hull and armored wings neatly folded out of the way. A trio of missiles fired from the tubes on the machine's chest even as it dashed forwards, blowing Chelaxane's left wing clean off even as the grey dragon got back to his feet and opened up with his own blast of Dragonfire, slagging the machine's missile cells just before himself closing into melee.

What followed as Samathin looked on was sheer unmitigated violence, as ranged firepower quickly took a secondary role to ripping, goring combat with talons and fangs on the part of both Chelaxane and the prototype Clockwork Dragon. The Clockwork was the first to lose a limb in melee, as its rear-left leg was rendered nonfunctional by a blow to the actuator. However, at the exact same time, the Clockwork Dragon bit into Chelaxane's abdomen and unleashed the full force of its Dragonfire, quickly burning through their scales and frying Chelaxane's internal organs even as Chelaxane frantically clawed at the Clockwork Dragon's plating, damaging various systems but doing nothing to dislodge the nuclear blowtorch that was quickly spelling their doom.

A few moments later, Scaled Regent Chelaxane was dead and the Clockwork Dragon was still in a functional enough state that it could very well kill a second Grand Dragon, provided it was an ambush. Empress Samathin remarked over her communicator "Congratulations to the engineers, the prototype was successful. The first production run of Clockwork Dragons is authorized for deployment, effective immediately."

Samathin very rapidly got a reply from one of her generals, noting "Affirmative. Units 01 through 12 are now leaving the hangars."

And with that, Samathin nodded, and hit the detonator switch for all her remaining Scaled Regents. All across the Sama Empire, Grand Dragons suddenly dropped dead as their heads exploded, scattering fragments of bone, brain matter, and dragon scale all over the surrounding landscape. Thousands of imperial citizens looked on with a mix of horror and joy as they saw the Scaled Regents suddenly cease to live, and when the new Clockwork Dragons landed in front of them, the reaction was only even more divisive.