Chapter 118

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth

"And you're sure?"

Alexandra shrugged as she leaned back into her seat. It had been a while since she'd visited Allya's manor and fortress hybrid, and she was still surprised at how…spartan the baroness' office was. Well, at least in term of creature comforts. Where the hell has she found fucking ninjas to guard it? Or at least some kind of assassin!

"As sure as I can be." She gestured at the sheet of paper in Allya's hands. "I won't divulge my sources, obviously, but they are trustworthy."

"I'm sure you'll understand that the fact that the dungeon under my town has better intelligence than I do is a concern, to say the least."

"I do. But everyone needs their secrets. And in this case I'll say this much: it is more a matter of…friends sending a warning than my own efforts." Allya's eyes flashed at the first part, and Alexandra wondered what she'd said wrong, but the baroness smoothed her expression into neutrality once more.

"That they do. And I suppose that you would indeed have some friends. Speaking of, how is your advisor and her…maids?"

"Emilia is fine. The maids are still recovering."

"If they need any help, or medical attention…"

"I need only ask, I know. And I thank you for that." Alexandra smiled gratefully, while making a mental note that she really needed to start on making a 'legit' avatar. She just couldn't keep hopping into CQ and closing the 2nd floor's boss room every time she needed to meet with someone outside. "Right now I'm more focused on proactive measures to prevent anyone harming them again. Speaking of which, I assume you'll make this public?" Alexandra tapped the sheet with the intelligence she'd received, a copy which had any identifying information omitted, for obvious reasons. She didn't want to implicate her allies within the UDC after all. Besides, as it was everyone would assume it came from the Western Marches, not them, what with her rather spectacular break with the Council.

"Yes. We'll redact where we got it from. But if nothing else we need to prioritize our resources and shift to immediate combat preparations. If we didn't it would only contribute to the panic." She sighed. "As it is its already going to be a pain in the ass."

"If it reassures people, you can extend my guarantee that absent the Republic penetrating the inner defensive perimeter, the dungeon will continue being open for business. I'll even open the steel steps, although it might be in a slightly rough state."

Allya smiled.

"That'll help a lot, thank you. Just knowing the town's source of income is secure will do more than you realize. And the steps will help with throughput. As for your military?"

"I will begin deploying troops immediately. Staging areas are being constructed right next to the military entrance, so I can shift all of my reserves for immediate deployment." Well, the reserves the baroness knew about. A fair bit of experimental weaponry, alongside the golems to use it, were being stockpiled in her rebuilt fortress cluster next to the elevator that lead to whatever the hell was down below her dungeon. She'd simply run out of space in her core fortress, and she might as well put it someplace close to the surface. She never, ever wanted to have the same issue with teleporting enemies bypassing her defenses, and so her core was…well, it was now situated in a fortress built inside a cube the size of the second floor, with clear lines of fire in every possible direction -excluding straight down- and she'd packed the damned thing with her best golems. Three whole battalions of various types of palace guards and CQ's units, one of her upgraded praetorian guard, and another of 'special purpose units', basically suicide bombers and artillery commanders. Six thousand golems at her fingertips, backed up by thirty prototype magic negating artillery rockets, fifty field guns and fifteen howitzers. "I will also, with your permission, start deploying my artillery on the defensive lines. I was thinking of putting the field guns directly on the second line, and the howitzers right behind the inner perimeter."

Allya nodded. Right now there were three completed lines of defense for the town. The outer perimeter, or the 'first line', which was a network of trenches and abattis which was at the very entrances of the corridors between the mesas. The main wall, or the 'second line', was a network of redoubts centered around the artillery towers, with a sturdy reinforced stone wall and abattises, a few hundred meters back from the first line. The inner perimeter, which was quite literally the last line of defense before urban combat, was a line of trenches holding the chokepoints between the last mesas leading into the town. Truth be told, if they were at this point, they were probably screwed.

"That seems sound. What's the range on the howitzers?"

"Three kilometers. But that's really stretching it, and their accuracy is…questionable beyond a kilometer." In fact, given the fact that they were smoothbore, their accuracy was questionable, period. She had rifled guns in production, but they were first slated for her own defenses, then the town's. She was generous, not crazy. Besides, unless she had them in quantity, they wouldn't really make a difference. "So they should be able to drop some rough curtain fire beyond the inner perimeter. That will be a painful surprise when their first attack arrives. And the field guns have roughly a kilometer range, I wouldn't try indirect fire. They can do it mind you, just…not accurately. At all. If our troops are nearby they'd probably be more of a danger to them than the enemy. I also have another weapon I will unveil shortly."

"What kind of weapon?" Said Allya, looking a bit worried.

Alexandra smiled, and pulled out another sheet of paper from the folder she'd been carrying. She wasn't sure why an adventurer had carried one in her dungeon, but she wasn't complaining. It was practical, and had started storing paper copies of her prototypes's schematics, just in case.

Allya took the sheet, and Alexansdra had to refrain from giggling as the baroness almost choked. She succeeded. Mostly.

"That's-"

"A railway cannon. Three hundred millimeters of pain to shove right up the Republic's ass. Fully rifled, can fire at up to twenty kilometers, although I doubt we'll be able to hit, well, anything, past nine kilometers or so. Four hundred kilogram shell, forty of those explosives. I'm working on better shells, but I can't make any promises."

"Dear Gods, that's the main gun for a Tarkian battleship. How did you even make that?" Then Allya brutally closed her mouth. She knew exactly where the dungeon core had gotten the tech. Crystal had reverse engineered modern rifled firearms into a naval gun in less than a Gods damned week.

"I have my ways. But it was a long term project. Had the idea for a while, I just missed the…breakthrough to make it work."

Allya relaxed a fraction. That was…still horrifying, but made a lot more sense. The dungeon core could be lying to her, but the baroness didn't think she was.

Alexandra noted the change, frowning internally.

"I see. Still, you have to realize that this is even more worrying than the intelligence."

"Oh, I do. But if that reassures you, I can only make one, it's muzzle loading and thus horribly slow to fire, and the quantity of ammunition I have for it is pitiful."

Allya chuckled.

"Under normal circumstances, that would be reassuring, but under these I hope you won't take it the wrong way if I said I'd rather have a lot more of these."

Alexandra smiled.

"Oh don't worry, I fully understand." Her expression became more serious. "Now, troop deployments. I have a full division of golems ready to move out, and another being assembled post haste, with a single regiment ready to deploy. They're mixed, about one third close quarters, another ranged, and the last being artillery and some casters."

Allya swallowed. By the Gods, a single division was twelve thousand soldiers, and she had less than two thousand men! And that was with scraping the barrel and calling in everyone she could. Half of which was her own troops, courtesy of Elkaryos' steady stream of reinforcements plus the Void Blades, and the other was royal units, which were still being reinforced, and Willard's people. His uncle the duke was keeping his word, and more and more troops from Sarth were pouring into her frontier principality. Since a division usually had three regiments in it, that made each of the latter contain four thousand or so men, depending on the army and how many support units you had. The dungeon had over sixteen thousand golems ready to go, which was just crazy.

"How many artillery pieces?"

"A hundred field guns. Twenty howitzers. The big gun, obviously. Three hundred RPGs. I'm producing more as fast as I can. Might see some rifled artillery pieces in the coming days, but no promises. I don't have that much ammo for any of those, but I am working on a solution for that." Her primary priority now was getting some gunpowder she could produce locally to serve as a propulsion charge for the artillery, and ammo for her muskets. At least the RPGs were starting to phase to the pseudo dynamite -she really needed a better name for it-, although mass production was only beginning.

TO-DO LIST UPDATED

Alexandra blinked at the notification. It had been a while since that had popped up.

"Is there any way I can help?"

"You tell me." Answered Alexandra, sharing a meaningful look with the baroness. "Is this room secure?"

"Yes. Fully soundproofed, enchanted against divination magic, and I sweep it regularly for more…mundane means of spying."

"Good. Then yes, of course you can help. If you manage to sneak it past the adventurers guild."

"What do you need?"

Alexandra checked her mental list, and sighed. There was just so many things on it. But, as she'd just mused on earlier, there was only one real option.

"Gunpowder. Full instructions on how to make it as well as the raw materials for it. Preferably alchemical gunpowder, but any will do really."

"So you are manufacturing your own stuff." Allya smiled. "There were a lot of theories, but I wasn't sure until now."

"What, you couldn't tell the difference?"

"How would we? You can replicate any item you absorb. Furthermore, even dungeon items aren't perfect replicas. But there were persistent rumors of sounds like a forge in certain rooms of the first floor before the collapse. That, and some oddities lead to some intense speculation."

"I take it that's not common."

"Not really, no. As fa r as I know, anyyway. There are rumors that the most powerful members of the UDC do it as well, but it's just that, rumors."

"Right. Well, would you be able to get it?"

Allya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I might, but not immediately. The problem is going to be getting it to you."

"Don't worry, I'll find a way."

Allya stared at Alexandra for a second.

"Yes. Yes I suppose you will."

*****

"So, battle comes to us at last." Said Assaria as she leaned back into her seat. The accommodations the town had handed over to her and her company were hardly spartan, but they weren't the height of luxury either. She wasn't going to complain one bit however, a roof over your head and even running water beat camping out in the rain anytime, even if it got a little crowded. "Are we ready?"

"Less than I would like. The Republic is going to come out in force. And we have five different forces with their own command structures working together. Coalition warfare is always a mess ma'am." Said her executive officer. She was still on light duties, following her rather impressive death at the hand of that extradimensional. Resurrection had been…complicated, but doable. Not sure why, but apparently being liquefied was less of a problem than being incinerated. Something about the 'proteins being still available for the spell to work with', whatever that meant. "The real bright spot in this is the dungeon. She has by far the largest force. They now have individually inferior weaponry, thanks to the Tarkians, but they outnumber everyone else almost ten to one. And her artillery…" She shivered. "The town has, what? A dozen catapults, a tesla tower, and a couple of cannons from the Tarkians? The dungeon is going to be our primary fire support and it'll simplify things a lot."

Assaria nodded. The 'gift', which was going to be taken out of her salary, not that she minded, of the Tarkian weaponry had been one hell of a surprise. Of course her men were going to take a while to being proficient with it, but they were very enthusiastic. The fact that she'd let slip that those who qualified on the new hardware would get pay raises had further helped sharpen said enthusiasm. Still, it made her troops a hell of a lot more lethal, even if they were only going to use the rifles and carbines during the opening stages, and resort to good old swords and spears afterwards.

"Keep in mind that the dungeon is using golems. And hers are rather…fragile. Adventurers bring them back by the bagful."

"Quantity has a quality all of its own, despite our own policy on the matter. Besides, would you want to face three thousand muskets and crossbows firing in volleys?"

Assaria chuckled.

"No. No I would not. But assume you're looking worried for a reason?"

The executive officer sighed.

"Ma'am, as much as I hate to say it…if we take as much of a pasting as I think we're going to, we're going to need our support units here, not in Darthar."

Assaria frowned. Their support units was a mix of highly paid specialists…and people they'd captured and more or less enslaved over the years. Well, they weren't technically slaves, more like prisoners, but the baroness' policies were so bloodthirsty she was afraid of risking it. Besides which there was still that party of adventurers they'd taken, and the guild…well, the guild would go ballistic if they learned. In most places it would probably end with a lot yelling and some threats, but this was a dungeon town, basically one of the pillars of power of the adventurers' guild. If they asked for them to be kicked out, they would be.

"Could we leave the more problematic elements back?"

"Without a substantial escort? No. We need all hands on deck, or the setup we have now. And if we continue with this…"

"We'll lose people."

"A lot of people."

Assaria sighed, and went through her options. She could ask the baroness for an authorization, but unless she was seriously mistaken, that woman was the kind to kick her out even on the eve of a battle. It wasn't stupidity or a lack of pragmatism, she simply had extreme convictions, and had built her network of alliances and her reputation on that. They could go on like this, but losing people would be simply too painful. It took a lot of time and resources to get people to electrum rank, and those soldiers where her company's main selling point. Push came to shove, she could find work elsewhere.

"Could we…sneak them in? Part of the one of the caravans that camp outside the town proper. That way they stay out of sight, out of mind unless we really need them. And even then, we can bring our dead and wounded to them."

"That's…doable, but tricky. We'll need a setup to get them out of dodge if something happens. And a friendly caravan willing to keep their mouths shut."

"The latter won't be a problem. I have connections. The former…we'll have to think about it. Still, put it into motion. You're right, we're probably going to take some serious damage, and we'll need everyone here if we want to make it. Even that pyromaniac bitch."

The executive officer smiled. Assaria really had it against that healer and, yes, fireball throwing adventurer. She'd even kept the girl's severed arm in her office, encased in a stasis field.

"I'll make sure proper precautions are taken."

"Good, then get to it!"