Chapter 159

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

In flight near the Lost Sands Death Zone

Holy shit holy shit HOLY SHIT. Thought Sylvia as she looked at the sky in horror.

Now she understood why people never came back from this death zone. Why even airships just vanished, never to return.

There was a fucking carrier out there!

There was no other explanation for the multiple strike crafts assembling by squadrons and moving towards her ship. And at least it answered what the hell the cruiser was -successfully, unfortunately- screening for.

"Alright you dogs!" She yelled out, her voice somehow steady. "Bring us about, I think we've overstayed our welcome!"

She could almost feel her crew's sigh of relief. Their light, nimble craft began turning tail and running for Rebirth. They'd been trying to maneuver around the cruiser and its escort tanks until now, playing a game of cat and mouse against the surprisingly fast vessel. It clearly had been moderating it speed until now to avoid outpacing whatever the hell it was protecting, but once its old escort imperatives activated, it had leapt to stay between the Creative Acquisition and its charge.

They were finishing their turn, and she ordered the ship to go to maximum acceleration with a gesture, her impatience betraying her worry as the ship leapt forward before it was even on the optimal heading

Which was precisely when the cruiser opened fire.

Her impatience saved their lives. A beam of energy, powerful enough to have ripped an expeditionary cruiser apart, stabbed right where they would have been had they not accelerated, skewing their turn. It almost missed them. Almost.

Her starport broadside vanished, instantly annihilated, as the wards shattered. Gunners and weapons alike were reduced to their component atoms and she was thrown to the ground by the impact. Screams filled the air and she scrambled to her feet.

"Emergency acceleration! Full evasive maneuvers! All gunners, sight your target and fire! Gunny, I want every fucking smoke canister we have popped! Move it people!"

Her men, her pirates, leapt into action like a well oiled machine, even Aline and a few of the prisoner newcomers slotting in like they'd always belonged there, and her heart filled with pride.

Then her blood ran cold, as she heard the sound. A sound that no one who had once fought against a mainline Erisian warship could ever forget.

The sound of missiles being fired.

*****

"Are you sure you are up to this?" Asked Allya as she looked the healer up and down.

"Yes, I am." Firmly answered Alyssa. "I don't need both hands to cast. Don't worry milady."

That's not what I'm concerned about, thought Allya, although she wasn't about to say it out loud!

They were currently at the guild's little private training fields. Since they were forming a party, Allya had insisted that they actually train together before doing a delve, to make sure they had at least some level of cohesion. Dominique had heartily approved. So had the others for that matter, but they hadn't had the authority to just requisition an entire section of the training fields. Allya had insisted on financially compensating the guild, and the adventurers who would have otherwise used that slot. Unless she was seriously mistaken, that had even netted her some friends rather than enemies.

"Alright then. So. We have a tank, two mages, one ranged and one close quarters damage dealers."

Everyone nodded, including Raika, who had in the end indeed decided to join them for the delve. Their last two teammates had declined however. The alchemist for work reasons -if he didn't end up Ellyana's apprentice, she would eat her outfit-, and the ranger because he'd ended up in a bar fight the day before and was busy nursing some nasty stabbing wounds. A poisoned stabbing wound.

The drunk adventurer who'd done that wasn't going to get out of prison for a loooong time. If he survived his interrogation to begin with. Because Trira and her people were going to have pointed question as to why they'd brought poisoned weaponry in a dungeon town where the dungeon only had unorganic golems.

"So we need a basic combat formation to start off of." Continued Allya. "Plus a marching column. Here's what I propose. Raika, you take point, for obvious reasons. Pyn, you're right behind her." Her teammates shifted, and her girlfriend opened her mouth, but Allya raised her palm in a universal 'wait a minute' gesture. "Let me finish. Afterwards I will go, then Dominique, and finally Alyssa. The reason why I'm in the middle is twofold. First and foremost, the mages can use spells even if we're in front of them, blocking their sight. Healing, buff, whatever, you girls have options beyond 'blast them!'. Pyn doesn't have that luxury, if she wants to contribute to a fight, she has to have direct line of sight onto the enemies That means she has go to be as close to the front as possible. Secondly, I am by far the most agile and fastest among us." She had to be, or she'd never had survived her more messy assassination missions. A lot of people used ex adventurers as bodyguards, and if she hadn't learned to be faster and more agile than them, she wouldn't have made it. "So I can shift to the back or the front if necessary far easier than anyone else can. It's not perfect, but this maximizes our strengths, at least for now, and minimizes our weaknesses. Questions?"

Alyssa immediately raised her hand.

"This isn't a freaking classroom, just speak up."

"Right, milady. Any provisions against area of effect spells?"

"If we're in the blast zone, or you have a doubt about us being in it, don't. Otherwise, feel free. No electricity spells in the second floor's moat however."

"Okay. I was asking, for the loot and all."

Allya chuckled.

"Me and Pyn don't care. We'll probably make ten times as much money during the delve from our taxes than we'll be able to bring back as loot. Dominique's not motivated by money, although I'm sure she won't spit upon it either. That leaves only you two."

"Right." Raika nodded as she interjected. "Speaking of which, how do we split the loot?"

That was undeniably a seasoned adventurer leader. First step: ask about the loot, and defend your group's share to it.

"That's simple. One share each for you, Alyssa and Dominique for all the standard stuff. Pyn and I will only care if we find some kind of specific artifact we can use." Like those runic spatial chests. She'd already talked to Philia and her royal siege engineers about that, and they were preparing a catapult to test if they could use them as ammunition. "Otherwise, feel free to keep the loot. Oh, and taxes will be waived, by the barony and the guild both." That hadn't been a particularly hard sell to Starvak either. It was a show of cooperation and confidence between the guild and the government that was badly needed, and she had a feeling he was starting to realize just how badly strained relations had become and how much he'd fucked up, with both Crystal and her. "So you get to keep everything."

"That's great!" Exclaimed Alyssa, before blushing slightly. "I mean, thank you milady."

"No problem Alyssa. As I said, it's only small change for us after all. Anything else?"

"How do we plan on dealing with the bosses?" Asked Dominique. "I assume we're going to angle for at least going to the second floor, so we need a custom strategy for the spider tank. Let's not even talk about that mage in the second floor!"

"Which is why we are here. We're going to practice some strategies on how to fight these things."

"So, do we get some kind of mock up then?"

Allya smiled. She'd been waiting for that little surprise.

"Better." She whistled, and curiosity filled her teammates faces, before turning to concern as the ground began to shake ever so slightly.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

The spider tank emerged from the corner of the guild hall it had been hiding behind, and came at a stop in front of them. Every adventurer on the training fields was now stopping and gawking at them, instead of sneaking glances when they thought they weren't looking.

"The good thing of being friends and invited guests of the dungeon core." Continued Allya. "Is that she is more than willing to give us a hand. She even offered to clear the boss room and allow us to practice there but I declined. I wouldn't want to cheat adventurers out of their delves for training." She made sure her voice was just loud enough that the adventurers in the nearby training fields would hear her, without it looking like it was on purpose. Given the reactions she saw from the corner of her vision, that particular tidbit would have made it around every bar by evening, and across town by tomorrow. "So here we are. Ready for some training?"

They all nodded, and slowly got up as they got into position to begin.

*****

"Argh!" Cried out Pyn as she flopped face first into the bed. "I hate training." Continued her muffled voice from within the pillow. "I hate training so much."

"Well, you cannot deny it was useful." Said Allya as she took off her outfit, and checked their, ah, 'nighttime collection', making sure to bend over in the process to give her girlfriend a good show. She could practically feel the elf's burning gaze on her rear as she picked out some lingerie. "We know their capabilities, and how they act. Pyromaniac indeed for that healer! She almost nailed me with that firebolt."

"Well, yes. You did kind of almost jump in the way of one of my arrows too."

"I calculated that you wouldn't hit me."

"Of course you did." Allya noticed that the voice was less muffled. "But still, it is something you have to keep in mind. You can't just weave in and out without warning, you're just begging for us to panic, overcompensate, and either miss our target altogether or hit another one of our own instead."

"That's…fair enough I suppose." The baroness sighed. "Very well. I'll try to use a safer combat style, when the enemy allows."

"Good." Said Pyn, now directly behind Allya, and the ex-assassin almost jumped. It still surprised her just how silently the elf could move when she wanted to. She hadn't even heard her get up!

But that surprise quickly melted away as she felt her girlfriend's hands on her rear, exploring, caressing, squeezing.

"Now, what do you say about you finally picking out that outfit, and we can get some little unwinding, mmmhhh?" Continued Pyn, and Allya opened her mouth to answer, before only letting out a moan as one of her girlfriend's hands slipped between her legs and began demonstrating some of that 'unwinding' magic her lover possessed in such abundance..

"Y-Yes! R-Right away!"

*****

Joachim stared at his communicator, cursing himself, his oh so clever planning, and the damned false Gods.

Nothing from Serabor, Iknor or Salter. None of the three agents had either checked in for their scheduled slot, or responded to messages.

And what little reconnaissance they could afford in that area had detected high energy weapons fire. A lot of high energy weapons fire. And then nothing. Just silence, and the inexorable march of the automata towards Rebirth.

He hoped they were alive, but he could neither plan or act on it. If they lived, they would have to rescue themselves, he simply could not afford the resources or the potential suspicion of doing so. The plan needed to go forward, no matter what.

What had that extradimensional said to illustrate it? A yes, 'the show must go on'. Earth had some weird sayings, but it did make sense, in a twisted way. If someone falls or breaks something during a show, you don't stop everything, you evacuate them and you move on. Such an operation was little different. Besides, they only had one shot at this, and he couldn't afford to lose it. The entire world couldn't afford to lose it.

He sighed, and checked his communicator. It was time for some emergency measures.