Chapter 111

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

In flight over the wasteland.

"So?"

"Well…" The tactical officer sighed and leaned back in his seat, rubbing his eyes. "We damaged the tower alright. But I don't think we damaged it enough. I'm no architect, but it looks still pretty sturdy, and I think the damage was superficial enough that they can fix it in time."

"Damn it."

The commodore's curse said it all, as the men and women around the table looked at each other uneasily. They were the officers of the Republic airship Thunderstorm, and more or less made up the commodore's think tank and sounding board.

The commodore sighed.

"It's my fault, I ordered us to fight off the airships so we could go back to destroying the tower afterwards. I hadn't expected them to have so much groundside artillery in reserve. Do we have any options?"

"Well, they are fully aware of our presence now, so the element of surprise is gone." Said the captain, matter of factly. "Moreover, they're going to get every ship that has guns in the air for the remainder of the night at the very least. So a direct engagement or drawn out battle would be suicide."

"Agreed."

"You know…" The tactical officer tapped on the table with his index slowly. "We probably won't be able to destroy the construction site at this point, but we could do another pass. Pure speed, go only for the tower, reserve our full broadsides for it, then get the hell out. Our ships are fast and nimble enough to pull it off, if we break into two staggered columns to take the tower from two sides at the same time. We should be able to deal enough damage that it wouldn't be operable by the time the general gets there." The tactical officer raised his hands. "I can't guarantee it'll work, but it's worth a shot."

The officers looked at each other, and the commodore cleared his throat.

"Does anyone have any objections to this?" None spoke up. "Alright then, prepare for another night attack. Let's take…two hours to reorganize, treat our wounded and get ready to head back in. Then we show those Asarian assholes what happens when you mess with the Republic!"

The war cry the officers uttered was more animalistic than human, and the commodore smiled as he heard them. They would probably lose some ships doing it, but they were going to cripple that damn tower, and with it the ability of that town to resist the army.

*****

"Do you think they'll be coming back?" Asked Allya as she looked through the binoculars.

"If they're smart they will be." Answered Alexandra through her golem, gazing at the airship docking tower. "The Gorromarians built that thing tough. Since that was clearly their primary target, I believe they'll realize it hasn't been destroyed and at least give it another shot. It's what I would do anyway."

Allya smiled.

"Yes, but you're a relentless dungeon core with thousands of disposable golems, and never had to worry about building expensive airships, let alone train their crews, and all of the niceties that go into having a proper, functioning warships." Alexandra smiled internally at that. If only the baroness knew… "If they tried that, they might succeed, but they'll get shredded." The baroness winced. "I really don't like how hard they hammered it. Even if they pull back there'll be some serious repairs needed before construction can go forward again."

"Let your girlfriend and Gorromarians worry about that." Said the Earth-born as her golem looked out at the night sky. "And focus on the battle. I've emplaced my artillery around the tower, since it's unlikely they'll fly over my mesa again after what happened. I'll probably shred them as they come, but I won't be able to stop them from getting to the tower and shooting at it. Moreover I don't think I'd be able to stop a kamikaze attack."

"They're not fanatics."

"Perhaps not." Alexandra made a note that the term, which she had used without thinking, was indeed used here. "But even then an accidental collision, either from a damaged airship or one straight up crashing from the skies, could seriously screw it."

"Agreed. And a point well taken." The baroness sighed as she lowered her binoculars. "And they chose their attack well. It's the new moon, I can't see shit out there."

"Neither can I." Simply answered Alexandra. Which was, for what it was worth, true. Her golems had a form of night vision she didn't quite understand, but it had its limits, namely some kind of range apparently, although she was already working on an upgrade on that front. For that matter, given how low the airships had gotten during their retreat, even if she could see them it would only give them a few minutes of warning at best.

Suddenly she tensed, and got up from the battlement her golem had been sitting on.

"I might not be able to see them, but I sure as hell can hear them."

The baroness frowned, then tilted her head, her eyes closed, and nodded.

"Your golems have impressively good hearing." Alexandra chuckled internally. They really didn't, she'd just written a program to filter out all of the background noise from their own airships circling overhead, and set some alerts for anomalies. "Alright people, looks alive!"

Soldiers ran to their guns, golems and men alike. And everyone tensed.

Then the ships appeared. They weren't bothering with stealth anymore, simply rushing forward as fast as possible, split into two groups, and-

"Wait, what the hell is that?" Said Alexandra as the ships came into range and a dark shape appeared, right in between the two columns of enemy airships.

*****

The silence on the bridge was absolute. No one dared make a sound as the Volcano, Mintz' flagship, silently sailed in between the enemy warships.

It was a little known fact that, at least for a short period of time, Hegemony airships could run completely silent, using some kind of pure kinetic accelerator born out of the latest technology to enable them to just…move, without the need for noisy propellers. It was a device Alexandra would have recognized as a grav drive prototype, the same technology that had propelled the ships of Earth through the void of space, albeit more magic than hard science.

Unfortunately the technology was only at it's first stages, so the drive itself could only work for an hour or so before failing, and it had to be basically rebuilt every time it was used, but it could give Tarkian warships an edge few would expect or be able to match.

"Ship! Unknown ship to starboard!"

Mintz smiled as the cry of alarm sounded from the enemy ship. He was surprised he'd been able to get so close undetected, and mystified when his ships had snuck between the enemy columns, so great was the focus of the republic's skyers on the fight ahead of them that they hadn't even realized a heavy cruiser was sneaking up on them.

"Open fire." He simple said.

And all hell broke loose.

*****

The Volcano was hardly the most advanced ship in the Tarkian airfleet. It was neither old nor obsolete, but it was not the cutting edge. Against Erisian or Gorromarian warships, that would have been a dangerous difference.

Against Republic frigates?

The first two ships the Volcano targeted, each on one of its sides, simply disintegrated as two dozen one hundred and fifty five millimeter shells hammered into them. And the ship reloaded and fired again. And again. And again, as it sailed at maximum power, it's propellers screaming to life as it cut through the enemy.

The next few warships fared better, the Republic having put their most damaged vessels, those whose wards had collapsed, at the very back of the formation. But 'better' didn't equate 'well', as this time they weren't facing a light cruiser with muzzle loading, cannonball spewing cannons, but three heavy cruisers equipped with shells packed with alchemical powder so powerful it would have made a world war two terran admiral green with envy.

The Republic ships were disciplined and trained…but even the best training had its limits.

Ships broke off. And ran straight into the arms of the Tarkian auxiliary vessels.

They weren't heavily armed. Those vessels were, after all, glorified cargo ships. But they were armed and shielded, and with the havoc and slaughter the heavy cruisers had wrought, there were two auxiliaries for every frigate that extricated itself from that nightmare.

None of them managed to even make it far enough to get into their own range of the auxiliaries. And seeing their comrades explode, the remaining, fleeing ships struck their colors, and surrendered.

*****

"Well, whoever they are, they sure know how to make an entrance." Commented Alexandra as she gazed at the ships which had just obliterated the Republic fleet.

"Those are Tarkian ships." Muttered Allya.

"I beg your pardon?"

"Sorry, I said those are Tarkian ships. From the Hegemony. I don't know what the hell they are doing here but…well, they are some of the staunchest enemies to the Republic."

Alexandra nodded, carefully shelving her mental fire plan. If the strangers came forward without identifying themselves, she had been readying to shoot them down….and tasked some of her golems to immediately raid the wreckage, officially to take prisoners, unofficially to immediately steal one of those explosive shells. Gods damn it all, these bastards had functional shells! She was struggling with hers at the best of times, and they were basically hollow cannonballs, not true rifled shells like those the new arrivals used.

"Well, I suppose we should get something together to greet them?"

"We should. We definitely should."

It only took a few minutes to organize a honour guard, minutes which the fleet overhead used to form a corridor to allow what had to be the Tarkian flagship through.

The ship landed, and Alexandra's mouth would have watered as the ship cut off all of its propellers, deflated its balloon and just sank down slowly, held up by an invisible force…and with the barely perceptible hum of an active artificial gravity field. These people had artificial gravity generators! She didn't care if it was magitech or not, that would solve so many of her problems!

A set of stairs extended from the ship, clearly made exactly for these kinds of landing, and an officer with discreet gold braids and the air of a grizzled veteran went down the stairs.

If he was surprised at being greeted by an honor guard half composed of shiny golems, he clearly showed no sign of it as he smoothly walked over to Allya and Alexandra.

"Lady Allya Aubétoile?" He asked bluntly.

"That is me." Answered the baroness.

"I am rear admiral Spear Mintz, of the Hegemony Sky Fleet. I am here on a mission of trade and cooperation with your newly established dungeon town, and carry with me the greetings and blessings of my Hegemon, if you would have them."

Allya pointedly looked at the looming warship, and smiled.

"Trade, I am slightly doubtful, but you have certainly demonstrated your cooperation. I gladly accept the greetings and blessing of your ruler. Come sir, we must talk in private, and have a drink to this night's great victory!"

*****

"That was unexpected." Said Maria as she locked the cabin's door behind her, leaving Sylvia and her alone in the captain's cabin.

"Unexpected, but not unwelcome." Sylvia chuckled. "Have you seen what Lesly has done? She shot them down so one would fall on top of her dungeon! That's one way of justifying where she could have gotten some of her materials for later on, that's for sure!"

"True. Still, I'm worried. The Republic's senate is easy to manipulate, but their military is a whole other animal. They're competent, driven, and quite frankly dangerous. I know this town's survival matters not in the long run, but in the short term it must endure."

"And you're worried about the Republic managing to overwhelm it?" Sylvia poured herself a glass of whiskey, before handing another to her executive officer and taking a sip of her own. "Relax. The baroness is competent as hell, and as you've amply seen, so is our High Commander. See how quickly she intervened? She must have expected something like this." Sylvia sighed. "Always one step ahead of everyone, as always. It’s a damned shame we can't communicate with her."

"The agents of the God of Fire are watching too closely, you know that."

"I know, I know. Speaking of which, have I heard right? Is the inquisition stirring?"

Maria winced.

"So the reports say. They might be little less than glorified meatshields for the Adjudicators or their oh-so-high and mighty Custodians, but they're persistent and annoyingly effective. Not sure what kicked the ants nest though."

"I suppose we'll find out in due time." Sylvia took another sip. "And hey, if both the baroness and Lesly fail to save the town, I'm sure we'll find a way to help, how did agent Serabor put it again, ah yes, 'Order style' ."

"Of course." Said the executive officer, before downing her drink, and looking out the porthole at the ships being escorted into the airfield.

The first true air battle of Rebirth…and if the Order had its way, the first of a long list to come.