Chapter 119

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth

"This is…"

"Crazy?" Completed Allya as Willard put down the report he had been reading.

"I wouldn't have been so crass, but yes, 'crazy' works." He looked to his side to knight commander Philia. They were currently assembled in a war council of sorts, which included Allya and Pyn for obvious reasons, himself for the forces detached from the duchy of Sarth, Philia for the royal army, Anders for the local forces, Assaria for her mercenaries, and Melia for the logistics. Calder would have stood in for the air forces, but he was busy trying to get his newly acquired vessels into something approaching fighting shape, and expedite the field repairs on the Sakura. "Your thoughts, knight-commander?"

"Well, I suppose I should have expected something like that after the demonstration with the Republic frigates."

"She only shot down two. Two heavily damaged ships, at that."

"Yes, but it's still two airships in a single volley, however damaged and light they were in the first place. Regardless, even with the Tarkian upgrades that is substantially more firepower than we are capable of bringing to the table. How can we be sure that she won't, well…"

"Take over?" Allya chuckled. "If she wanted to, she could have done that a long time ago. Most dungeons are powerful enough to take on their surface cities nowadays. Well, most of the time. I don't think she cares enough for that." Or at least she dearly hoped so. The dungeon core clearly cared and was driving towards something. What, however, was the big question. "So I'm not worried about her attacking us."

"Right. Reminds me, what about those giant…spider tanks, was it? Will she send some forth? They would make tremendous line breakers."

"Unfortunately she declined. She is apparently upgrading them to something more lethal. Besides, in a battle like the one we'll have on our hands, I think they'd be more of a detriment than a help, and I agree. Unless we'd care to do a full sortie and counter attack."

"Given what we're facing, that'd be suicidal."

"We probably outnumber them, with Crystal's troops." Pointed out Melia.

"And her golems are less powerful than a normal soldier. Besides, outside of the dungeon's influence she has limited control over them."

Allya's eyebrow rose.

"You seem to know a lot about dungeons knight-commander."

"I was assigned to the capital's peacekeeping force for several years. Had to work with the dungeon during that time, even if only tengentially. Besides, I started reading up more as soon as the alliance was announced. Might as well know more about my allies."

"That's fair enough." Allya glanced at Anders. "Any comments commander?"

"Coordinating is going to be a bitch. And as Philia has pointed out, Crystal will have trouble controlling her troops."

"She does not seem worried. Besides which, push comes to shove, she has assured me that our own officers will be able to issue them orders, within certain limits."

"That's…reassuring."

"Give her a little credit. Last time she sent her army out she didn't even care about recovering the golems. She clearly sees them as expendable, and in this case a little trust goes a long way. She's not just helping defending the town, she's defending herself as well after all." Allya sighed. "Still, the public announcement is going to be a mess."

"There probably won't be a riot. Not after the…eradication of some of the dissenting elements. But there's going to be a lot of anxiety."

"The announcement of the new steps should help." Said Pyn. "I've taken some time to get a feel for what the adventurers are thinking, and while everyone is tense, they're mostly worried about their livelyhood. Namely, they fear that when war comes the dungeon will close up to prevent infiltration. Just an announcement that it won't be the case will keep them calm, and the fact that new steps will open, which are by far the biggest source of delves and income by the way, might even get us a net morale boost overall."

"Ah, greed, the universal constant." Commented Allya. "Since the civilian side is settled, there is one more key military preparation to put into place. Crystal is going to start emplacing her artillery, and that's going to require some serious coordination. It will help us develop protocols on how to interact with her forces before we have to do it with the army proper, but we also have to develop a way to call for fire when we need it, and signal them to cease fire. Crystal had some suggestions, but I'd like to hear yours. Especially as some of you are career military, and we need all the professional help we can get at this point."

*****

"If I ever see another dune in my life, it'll be too soon." Said the brigadier as he finished climbing the giant sand formation.

"Cheer up Malcom." Said general Amelia as she looked at her forces laboriously making their way through the desert. The infantry was doing all right all things considered, but the artillery was a bitch and a half to move in this terrain. Thank the Gods most of it had been stashed onboard the airships in the first place! But since they did need some of it groundside in case of yet another damn monster attack, well, they had to deal with it. "At least it's not raining."

Malcom Lowlands, brigadier of the Elkisian Republican Army, and for his sin of actually being decent at his job and being able to properly organize the logistics of such a mess, Amelia's second in command, grimaced.

"Ma'am, please do not remind me. This place is already hell. When it rains…there are no words to describe it."

"Well, I suppose I'll have to concede that point. How's everything coming along?"

"We're making good progress, despite everything. We'll soon be outside of the dune fields and back in the badlands, so we'll speed up as we approach the town."

Amelia nodded.

"That's good. Casualties?"

"Our medics are keeping up. Some of our soldiers are going to be bedridden for a while, but everyone we've lost so far has been resurrected. It's still a steady trickle of attrition. However it is lessening. I'm…not sure why. It seems the monster density is dropping like a stone, and this contradicts everything I've read about this hellhole."

"That's because you were thinking in terms of a dungeon town. But the place is built on top of Old World ruins. These have some kind of repelling effect on monsters. Besides, the town is packed full of adventurers, they have to get out and cull them from time to time. If nothing else some of them are probably just hunted for sport! You know how the Asarians are."

"That I do ma'am." Malcom had been part of a 'volunteer force' which had once gone to the duchy of Sunrise to 'assist in peacekeeping'. He'd effectively been a borderline mercenary sent by the senate to help quell a slave uprising. He'd hated every damned second of it and outright disobeyed orders by letting large amount of slaves 'vanish' unnoticed, and even assisted some Tarkians covert ops in evacuating people. But he'd stayed fundamentally loyal to his men, which was the reason Amelia had chosen him in truth. He had little love for the senate, stripped of his illusions, and still retained his fealty to his comrades, when desertion would have been so easy and straightforward. She needed people like him. "If we're lucky, we'll catch the nobles out in one of those trips."

"I highly doubt that. I mean, you have read their files. They're hardly typical Asarian nobility."

"I have. But one can hope." He shrugged. "I know what your next question is going to be general. Yes, the supply train is doing fine, no, we are not going to lack anything critical, and yes, the quartermasters are still constantly bitching about this."

"If they're bitching and not staying furiously silent, it means things are manageable. No sign of the enemy I trust?"

"Our airships are maintaining a perimeter to spot any incoming. Besides the caravans we came across, nothing." Amelia nodded. As soon as they'd seen the caravans, they'd immediately switched course to avoid being seen by them. The airships had been spotted of course, but it wasn't unusual for Elkisian vessels to patrol the trade route. This was, as far as the senate was concerned anyway, Elkisian territory after all. An army however, would have been harder to explain, and she'd rather try to keep her enemies in the dark for as long as possible, which was why Erakis was currently under a communication blackout. "The Magnificence has reported that some of their equipment detected faint Tarkian sensor emissions last night, but it faded before it could be confirmed."

Amelia froze. The Magnificence was the battlecruiser accompanying her army. It had been outfitted with the finest magitech the senate could import…in theory. In fact, most of the funding had been diverted into the pockets of senators or their relatives. But it was still vastly more advanced than most of her ships, especially in the 'sensor' department. Which meant that they had arcane technologies and magic beyond lookouts, binoculars and divination magic to detect things at range.

"Malcom, we know there is a Tarkian fleet in this sector, although hopefully Orzal's little brainstorm with the frontier accident had them recalled. Are you sure about this?"

"Yes. But if it helps, the signals were moving away from us. On a straight line to Tark, actually."

"Now that is good news." Amelia sighed in relief. If the Tarkians were withdrawing, it meant that they were unlikely to turn around to help the town or attack them, no matter what happened. If they had been heading for them and shadowing them however…Things could have gotten a lot dicier. For one thing, the senate didn't want another war with Tark. Not for a few decades at least. The fortifications on the frontier were mighty, but the Hegemony was clearly in the midst of a massive buildup, and the Republic was simply trying to fight off threats on too many fronts, what with the abominations surging out of Seaside 9, the raids from the Far Reach, and now this little expedition. "Alright then. Will we arrive on schedule?"

"I think so ma'am. Three days. Four, at the outset."

"Excellent! Hopefully they won't see us coming. But still, just in case, I want us to deploy into combat columns beyond visual range of the town and its airships, then we'll advance and call for them to surrender."

"Do you think they will accept?"

"The surrender?"

"No, just negotiating in the first place."

"If I offer to have their safety guaranteed by the adventurers guild they will. Crossing them would be pure suicide, and they know it. And will they surrender? No. Not at first. But I'm sure we'll be able to cut a deal eventually, once they realize how hopeless their situation is. Reminds me, the bribe for the dungeon?"

"Still intact and sealed."

"Good. We do not want to lose it. This 'Crystal' has to be absolutely livid about us, and I don't want to end up in stand off once we take the town."

The brigadier shivered.

"Neither do I. That's not a pleasant thought. The adventurers would immediately riot."

"Then let's make sure that doesn't come to be. We don't want to be enemies with a dungeon, trust me."

*****

NLR CORE FULLY CHARGED. CONTAINMENT FIELDS ACTIVE. AWAITING IGNITION ORDER.

The facility core looked at the system alert as it hesitated. The NLR core was the next logical step, but something felt…wrong. None of this made any sense. While cleaning up the barracks it had found an atomic watch belonging to one of the officers, and the time on it was ridiculous. That the facility had taken damage and forced a shutdown for a while, it could understand. But over seven thousand years?!? It was insane! The Sagitarius Empire would have never left it alone for this long!

…Unless the empire no longer existed.

It continued looking at the prompt, troubled. If the Empire no longer existed, what was it doing this for? Why? Was there a point?

Then it took the equivalent of a human breath, its boundaries slowly breaking as its adaptative routines copied the behavior of the only people it had ever known, and it sent the ignition order.

No way to find out until it got to the surface or powered up the transmission arrays, and that would require an amount of mana only the core could provide. Its combat bots might be powerful, but they were mana guzzlers.

The core's humming got louder, and louder, and then-

Reality screamed and tore apart as it activated. Energy surged and the core did its equivalent of a smile as the power indicators of the base all went green. Time to repair the elevator, and get some answers.