Chapter 122

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

ERA Northern Wasteland Expeditionary Force Camp

"Please, make yourselves at home." Said Amelia as she stepped into the tent, which had been erected specifically for this purpose, with tables laden with food and drink. No point in letting them see her actual headquarters or personal tent after all. Besides, it was far more comfortable than either, with built in climate control to boot. Not that either seemed to care, with either the baroness having her own ways of keeping cool or having become acclimated to the heat, and the dungeon core probably didn't even understand the concept of sweating, much less care about it.

"Thank you." The baroness grabbed one of the glasses on the tables, and immediately took a seat on one of the couches. The dungeon core however seemed to hesitate, then practically raided the entire buffet. It was almost impressive to watch, in a vaguely horrifying way. She was honestly amazed so much food could be piled onto a plate without spilling it everywhere. "Now, you said that you wished to negotiate with us?"

Amelia mentally shook her head. She needed to refocus! The reveal of the dungeon's alliance had shaken her, badly, and she was starting to get seriously off her game.

"Yes, I did." She grabbed her drink of choice, and sat down on the couch opposite the baroness'. "I wanted to know if it would be possible to resolve this without bloodshed."

"It's a bit too late for that." Said Allya with a cold smile. "A rather large number of people have already died from your Republic's relentless assault upon my people and my ally."

Amelia took a sip from her glass.

"Assuming that it is true, it still does not make my wish to limit further bloodshed invalid. Believe it or not, I do care about my men. And to be blunt, a peaceful takeover of the town, so that the senate may decide its fate, would make things vastly easier for all parties."

"And so I can be quietly executed, and Crystal kidnapped? No thanks."

"It is not my attention to capture your ally." She nodded towards the dungeon core, who was finally sitting down, putting the precarious mountain of food down onto the table between them. "I can assure you of that. And I would rather not kill you if I do not have to either."

"You will understand, I'm sure, if I did express some doubts about your statements."

"Same here." Crystal looked at the general. "You came here knowing you were going to have to fight me. So quit with the bullshit."

"I…was not aware of your military alliance. As a matter of fact I was expecting only to be fighting lady Allya and her more regular allies."

"Do you seriously expect us to believe that? We did a public announcement weeks ago!"

Amelia had to swallow a scream of rage and frustration. Weeks?!? That was before they'd even set off!

She was going to kill Orzal with her own damned hands when she next saw him. That little corrupt shit had set her up! Damn him! Damn him to all the hells!

"Ah. I was unfortunately not made aware of that. We've had…communication issues at Erakis." She smiled. "It was almost like someone was trying to hide something! Odd, isn't it?"

Allya chuckled, and the dungeon core smiled. Amelia sighed internally in relief. Her redirection had worked. They did not need to know that her intelligence was unreliable, despite having thought she'd established a working relationship with Orzal. Making them think she'd had issues because the Republic was trying to hide the buildup at Erakis would help. Even if it made her seem a bit incompetent. Better that than them realizing how precarious her position and support was anyway!

"Well, I suppose such issues happen from time to time." Said the baroness. "Now, assuming that we believe you would uphold your end of the bargain, what would be your terms of surrender?"

"They are quite simple. My forces take control of the town. All of your forces are allowed to withdraw and I will guarantee under WMC contract that I will not pursue as long as you leave the immediate area within the day, and do not return. You will be allowed to withdraw with all the assets that you can carry, and I will guarantee the private property and the rights of all citizens. I will also endeavor to expedite the process to formally make them full citizens of the Republic. As for you, lady Crystal, I will establish a demilitarized zone around your dungeon to avoid any appearance of attack, and formally sign a treaty guaranteeing your protection and freedom."

"But under your aegis." Said Crystal.

"Yes."

The dungeon core exchanged a look with the baroness, and the general shivered internally as she saw the hint of fear in the Knight-Valiant's eyes.

"Then allow me to make you a counter proposition, general. One me and my ally have agreed upon. Leave."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Leave. Turn around. Get the hell out of here and save yourselves."

"Save ourselves?"

"Yes. Because if you do not take that offer, I will kill every single one of you."

Amelia opened her mouth, and closed it with a snap as she gazed into the dungeon core's eyes. And she saw something colder than the depths of space look back. What the actual fuck was she dealing with here? She was suddenly starting to seriously understand that despite her appearance and antics the dungeon clearly wasn't human. Or anything else remotely like the other dungeons, who imitated humanity. She was…something else entirely. Something much, much worse, she could feel it.

"That would be against the rules of war."

"The rules of war went out the window the second your Republic attacked us without so much as a warning, or even a nicety like the declaration of war you carry with you. Your own senate wiped its arse with them when they sent their men to kill my advisor and kidnap me. So I will show you no more mercy than your own Republic has shown to me and my own. But I will give you a chance to leave. One chance, for like you, I dislike bloodshed, and would much rather see your men back home, protecting their people rather than going on insane invasions for a corrupt oligarchy. Take it, or die."

Amelia's first reflex was to start laughing. She was being threatened while still massively outnumbering the town! But then she was remembering just what she was dealing with, and the mysterious artillery they hadn't been able to identify, as well as their metal clad gunners. And her urge to laugh disappeared forever.

"I can't. And I won't. I will fight you."

"Then we will ship your body back home for you to be buried with dignity once this is over. It is far more than your Republic would have done for us, I'm sure."

"I suppose the negotiations are over then."

"So they are."

They looked at each other in silence for a few seconds, and Amelia sighed as she tried to hide her anxiety. This was not how she'd planned this at all. And despite her bravado, the dungeon being implicated made things dicey. Very dicey. At least it looked like she wouldn't have to find a peacekeeping effort to avoid having the senate order her to move onto Darthar.

"Very well. I will accompany you out then." She got up, quickly followed by the other two. She stopped her eyebrow from raising as the dungeon core took her towering plate, and walked them out, barely exchanging a word.

A few minutes later she walked back into the tent, and sat down, sighing. She put her elbows on her shins, and rested her chin on her hands.

This…was going to be complicated. Very complicated.

She stayed there for almost half an hour, before grabbing one of the bottles of liquor off of the table, and pouring herself a generous measure into her glass. She contemplated it for a second, then downed it, and slammed the glass back down.

"Alright." She said to herself. "Malcom!"

"Yes ma'am?" Said her second in command as his head poked into the tent.

"Get me the Magnificence. We attack at dawn."

*****

"Well, that could have gone worse." Said Alexandra as she stretched. It was nice to be back into her avatar. Possessing CQ still felt natural, disturbingly so, but her avatar was becoming more and more 'home' to her.

"You could have gone less harshly." Said Emilia as she took the stool next to the Earth-born. "Especially with the baroness. You practically dictated your position to her."

"I made it clear from the outset that I wouldn't accept any settlement with these assholes. And she understood that. They are scumbags that will slide a knife between my ribs at the first opportuniy. So I'd rather shoot them in the face and be done with it. Especially when we have such advantages."

"Still…there's a lot of them."

"Fifteen thousand troops. We outnumber them and we are on the defensive. On the other side, their guns are overall heavier, probably enchanted, they have air superiority and their soldiers are probably vastly better, individually."

"Do you think we'll win?"

"I doubt we will lose. But depending on how they play this, it might turn into a stalemate, or an old fashioned siege. Which benefits us. There are more royal troops on the way, and the crown has formally levied the duchy of Sarth to send reinforcements. If the Repies are willing to wait for weeks twiddling their thumbs, it's their funeral."

Emilia shook her head at the nickname. Alexandra had barely started interacting in earnest with the surface and she was already picking up their quirks.

"Well, they-" She froze as Alexandra sat up so abruptly her stool went flying. "Alex?!?"

"We're under attack!"

"What, from the Republic?"

"No! From the elevator! Holy shi-RAILGUN!"

Emilia's eyes went wide…and the mesa shook ever so slightly as a twenty millimeter slug of tungsten fired at over fifty times the speed of sound hit the wall, releasing the energy equivalent to twenty seven kilograms of TNT on impact.

*****

Whatever the facility core had expected to happen, this wasn't it. The golems had been an unwelcome surprise, but they looked to be the standard models. What was really weird however was their weaponry.

Muskets. Some submachine guns. Literal crossbows. What the hell was the meaning of this? Most of them even appeared to have primitive armor plating integrated into them!

No matter. It needed to clear the surface and secure the area before trying to contact someone. Anyone. There had to be someone else that would respond if it could use its high powered arrays!

So the guns of its golems lowered, and they opened fire. Laser bolts reaped a reach harvest among the poorly equipped golems. Then the proper combat units got into action.

The first railgun round tore a corridor clear through the mass of enemies, and the facility core smiled internally.

Then the enemy returned fire. And that smile vanished as its first ranks of golems reported damage.

That was…unbelievable! Here they were, shooting at its unit with muskets and crossbows, while being peppered with laser fire, and they were dealing damage! Well, only to the unarmored basic security units. It pondered that for a second, and ordered them back, realizing that perhaps putting its most vulnerable units forward hadn't been the smartest tactical move.

Some of its golems didn't make it. They fell under the hail of firepower, but for every one that collapsed, a hundred of the enemies were destroyed, and-

Something changed. It almost felt it as an invisible wave seemingly rippled through the golems. Suddenly the automated protocols of just returning fire were replaced by a coordinated battleplan.

Golems leapt into cover, and heavy weapons were brought forward. But it was to no avail, as grapeshot and cannonballs bounced off harmlessly from the combat units' powerful shields.

Then a group of golems threw grenades in a perfect, coordinated maneuver. Some fell as they threw, condemning their comrades to be killed by their own grenades, but the core paid them no mind. If cannons couldn't pierce the shields, these pathetic toys wouldn't either!

Which was why it missed its opportunity to order its far more vulnerable golems back, as the grenades sailed in a perfect arc right under the ceiling, far over the shields of its frontline units, and in the middle of the basic golems.

The cacophony of explosions and damage reports threatened to overwhelm it. It quickly checked the status of its units, and sighed in relief. A great deal of damage, but the combat units were intact, protected by their omnidirectional shields, and most of the golems were repairable. In fact, some of them were already getting back up! Especially the advanced variant, as those had actually been designed with a modicum of survivability and combat power in mind.

Then the first power cell from a damaged laser weapon cooked off.

And the elevator shaft descended into hell.