Chapter 252 - Trouble in Boomtown (Patreon)

Note : Chapter 254 has been written and added to the queue ! I'm also going to consider seting things up for sharing chapters as a google doc, given how unusable patreon is becoming.

Also I genuinely don't know why I named this chapter that, it just came to me and felt right.

Chapter 252

Red Sands Desert, Duchy of Sarth

City of Darthar

Despite Alexandra's, admittedly well deserved, disdain towards the general quality of Sunrise's officers, most of whom had more blue blood than qualifications, they were still hardened veterans that had conquered all the territories from here to the sea, and marched halfway across an entire continent.

They'd prepared for a renewed attack from the dungeon. The fortresses had been modified, prepared for ground as well as aerial assault, and some artillery batteries had been emplaced to be able to cover the fortresses even if one was to be neutralized.

It wasn't even close to what the Republic could have done, but the Republic had a century and a half of experience fighting a technologically superior foe. Sunrise did not.

Which was, in part, why they never saw the missiles coming. Both metaphorically and literally. No one was watching the skies for ballistic projectiles, only airships. Black dots were dismissed as mere birds by those few who saw them, the missiles having completed their burn long before they became visible.

Then the warheads came back down, and all hell was let loose.

One ton of TNT from a single warhead was bad. Really bad. Oh, humanity back on Earth had built bigger conventional bombs as early as its second world war. But those weren't bombs. They were missiles, coming down at multiple times the speed of sound.

At those velocities, you only really needed a delayed fuse and a good metal nose to turn anything into a bunker buster warhead.

Fortunately for them, Alexandra had only produced few of those. They were expensive, and annoying to produce.

Unfortunately for them, their fortresses had been built with the assumption that they'd be facing airships in an artillery duel. Firing from the side.

Not coming directly from above.

The first fortress, freshly rebuilt after Alexandra's previous assault, erupted.

Chaos ensued. Soldiers rushed to help comrades, and others milled about, stunned by the several tons of explosives that had just gone up on them.

Those that had the reflex of going over to help didn't stand a chance. The So Much For Subtlety's launchers had a cycle time of six seconds at maximum rate of fire.

They barely had the time to make it halfway to their friends before the second wave detonated.

Alexandra walked missile fire back and forth across the fortress three times, then switched targets.

But by this time, Sunrise was responding. Caught by surprise or no, they were still soldiers, and the duke rushed out.

Lightning leapt from his hand, and missiles began exploding in mid air.

It wasn't long before other mages joined their efforts to his, with varying levels of success. None could equal the archmage, but warmages worked in entire formations. Platoons and even companies of mage assembled, and magic leapt to meet the onslaught.

Power beams, lightning bolts, even the odd fireball here and there.

Unfortunately for them, they realized far too late that this was exactly the response Alexandra had hoped for.

Because suddenly, the missiles weren't targeting the fortresses any longer.

Miraculously, the first three missiles to switch targets were obliterated.

Two missiles passed through the hail of magical energy in the next.

The first took out a mage unit's ward, belatedly brought up as they realized what was happening.

The second one annihilated the entire company. A hundred and eighty mages, dead in an instant.

Nearby formations staggered as the wave of essence hit them. Just in time for the next batch of missiles.

This time however, Sunrise's 'airfleet' was better prepared, and airships swooped down, whisking groups of mages not to safety, but straight towards Alexandra's already retreating Raiders.

And at their helm stood the duke.

*****

"Hook, line and fucking sinker. Alright people, time to kick some airborne ass!" Yelled out Alexandra over the radio. "Ready, Subtlety?"

"Cycling all launchers for mobile engagement." Confirmed the AI. "I am not equipped for a close quarter engagement however."

"Oh I know." Alexandra smiled as she looked at the ground, where the Freedom-class she'd rushed to completion was sitting.

Her smile faltered a bit. As a cross wasteland transport, it was a superb ship, but as an assault transport, it left a lot to be desired. Even with the spider lifters and onboard cranes, heavy and light equipment both took forever to get down.

Maybe she should have waited. Maybe. But she had little doubt their enemies would have found them out soon enough. Possibly even ambushed them.

No matter. They had gotten the artillery down, and that was all she needed.

Subtlety needed breathing room, and those weapons would buy it for her.

"Deployment of the ground elements isn't complete." Noted the AI, a split second before the radio crackled to life and CQ's voice came through.

"Mom! We're still not done here! I have the guns and batteries out, but most of the infantry is still onboard!"

"Do you have the gunners down?" Asked Alexandra.

"Yes, but-"

"No buts. It'll have to do. If that transport is still down there in five minutes it's dead. Get the ship up and moving."

"What if they launch a ground assault?"

"Honey, if they're stupid enough to launch a ground attack on an expendable target while a siege ship is around they're more than welcome to try."

"...Okay. Should I stay onboard the ship?"

"That'd be for the best. I'd rather not bomb you, if at all possible."

"I thought you said that if you weren't willing to bomb your own position, you weren't willing to win?"

"I did, but your mommy would be extremely cross with me if I did that." And not the good kind of 'cross' either. The kind that got her to sleep on the couch, not suspended in midair. "Plus, I think it'll enable you to spring a few surprises."

"Oki doki!"

Alexandra shook her head. There should be a sweet spot between 'rigid military discipline' and 'casual banter', but her daughter didn't seem to be able to find it, and kept oscillating between the two extremes, depending on whatever serial she'd watched last.

"This engagement will be hazardous." Warned Subtlety. "We lack speed and maneuverability compared to the enemy vessels, and our fleet is dispersed."

"Agreed. Which is why we have them." Alexandra tapped the ground force on the hologram.

"They are even less maneuverable."

"I know. But they're a rock they must swim around. That means it limits their angle of approach, decreasing their maneuverability in turn."

"Until they have cleared or neutralized the obstacle, yes."

"Then let's make the most of it. Prepare to launch on my mark!" Alexandra waited a second as she watched the ships making their way towards her.

"Fire!" She finally said, as they crossed an invisible line, and the ship shook, this time much more violently, as all six launchers opened up.

The Raiders' images showed what happened next with surprising detail.

She saw the energy, gathering around the duke and his pet war mages as they saw the missiles and prepared to shoot them down.

They braced, got ready to let loose, and-

The warheads activated, and half a dozen power beams stabbed out.

That one's from the Republic, suckers, thought Alexandra.

It may have taken her a while, but she'd finally replicated the damned enchanted artillery they'd used against her. With some help from the New Repubic's own mages and gunsmiths, but she wasn't going to admit that. Not openly, at any rate.

The mages had been preparing point defence fire, and the extra wards were only being woven. But those were for deflecting explosions, not concentrated spears of energy.

The beams broke through, and Alexandra cheered as the front of the enemy vessel came apart.

Unfortunately, the duke was made of sterner stuff. Even as his flagship crashed onto the dune below, the archmage simply flew through the smoke, nimbly landing on another vessel, accompanied by several members of his own retinue, possibly some mages who had enough power to give themselves flight.

"Oh well, it was worth a shot." Said Alexandra, as Subtlety gave her a sidelong glance. She simply shrugged.

Neither of them, actually no one, Emilia first, had expected this to actually take out the duke, but unlikelier things had happened.

Besides which, they'd annihilated the enemy flagship before the other side had even gotten a shot off, and she could already see some of the vessels dropping speed for a fraction of a second, letting their more eager comrads get ever so slightly ahead.

She tagged those vessels. Those cowardly ones they'd save for last. Why waste the ammo on those who would be the first to hesitate, after all?

Besides, if she encouraged that behavior, they'd soon all be jockeying to be in the back.

Natural selection, and all that.

For the following half an hour it took the enemy to make their way to the battlecruiser and the site of the true battle, Alexandra peppered them with missiles.

It didn't take Sunrise long to realize those were unguided ballistics, and to start dodging to avoid the warheads.

Alexandra wasn't exactly sure whether or not to laugh or be concerned at the fact that she'd pushed them to reinvent the space age 'random walk', the sporadic and randomized dodges spaceships did to avoid long range kinetic fire. Hell, even fortresses did it, otherwise all you'd needed was some stealth coating, a railgun slug or, hell, an asteroid, and you could take out damned near anything.

Of course, such dodges forced them to separate their formation, lest they collide with one another.

Those that strayed too far learned quickly that it was a bad idea. The Raiders couldn't take them out, not with an entire fleet bearing down on them, but a single broadside was enough to scare the enemy back. And since they used wards, the damage would last until the end of the battle, unless they had some really good runesmiths onboard, which…they might, but Alexandra rather doubted.

Anyone of the level of skill required to regenerate a ward in battle would be better used building more ships, not babysitting them on the field of battle.

Of course, that meant that the enemy was more concentrated, but she needed them to be for the next phase.

The enemy ships finally came into visual range of Subtlety, and Alexandra could see the ripples of power in the air as the duke prepared his attack, before the circles of rune even sprouted to life.

Clearly they'd pissed him off enough.

"Now would be good." Said Alexandra, and the six launchers on the ship spoke, by groups of three, staggered a second apart. Again. And again. And again.

Except that those weren't ballistic missiles. They flew straight towards the enemy, and she saw the hesitation on the other side.

They had started to understand that anything unexpected coming from her was bad news.

The duke let loose, a blade of…Emilia's description had made little sense to Alexandra, but it still terrified her. Seriously, what kind of maniac would weaponize pocket dimensions like that?

The reality blade ripped through the air.

And encountered the missiles.

Three activated.

And the spell vanished.

Alexandra could almost feel the silence on the other side, as they realized the waves of missiles facing them had antimagic warheads. Or 'null' warheads as they should be properly known.

They were still…not great on the reliability side, hence why she used them in groups of three.

And even then, she'd rather have several layers inbound.

Then the Raiders turned around, as the Corsair, which had been defending the So Much For Subtlety until now, moved to engage as well, and the enemy fleet began to panic.

Their greatest defense was their ward, and their only effective means of attack were boarding or arcane artillery.

Thanks to her tesla point defence batteries, boarding without a ward was suicide. The null zone may last only a split second, not even enough to truly threaten their engines or airlift capacity, but the ward would be down for the count regardless.

It wasn't rational. Null zones were limited in radius, and she didn't have enough missiles to affect all of the enemy ships, especially not if the mages threw magic her way and forced her to detonate them defensively. But people in a life and death situation seldom are logical, especially when surprise after surprise had been dropped on them.

"Aaaand…now." Said Alexandra, snapping her fingers, though truth be told the order had been queued through the radio network.

The ground force, which Sunrise had been more or less ignoring until now, vanished in a cloud of smoke and pillars of fire.

By keeping them distracted with sporadic missile bombardment and Raider harassment, she'd prevented them from wondering what the hell were all of those boxes and tarp covered things accompanying the cannons on the ground. No doubt they'd been dismissed as mere ammunition carts and such.

Unfortunately, they were not.

Those were surface to air missile batteries. The kind that she'd built to counter Old World interceptors.

Against proper airships, they were pitifully inadequate. They would do little damage to wards, and truth be told their armor penetration was laughable.

But not only did the enemy not know that, it simply didn't matter in this case. They were a threat from the ground, far beyond the reach they believed her ground batteries had.

Sunrise's little fleet broke. It didn't flee, it just…shattered. All semblance of discipline and formation forgotten as every captain tried to save their ship.

Only a tight phalanx, which she guessed were the professional navy, what little Sunrise had, stayed around the new flagship.

Time for the battle to begin in earnest.

And for the Duke of Lorenz to die.