Chapter 210 - The Corsairs (Patreon)

Note : Chapters 211 and 212 have been written and added to the queue !

Trying to get the engine running again, slowly but surely. Writing some RPG supplements and adventures helped, oddly enough. Guess I needed something else than the same old same old to get going once more. Doubt you guys would be interested in that stuff (it's for Mongoose Traveller, 2nd edition), so I won't put them here, but do let me know if this sort of stuff is up your alley, maybe I'll make a category or discord channel to put this stuff in.

Chapter 210

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"You're right. It is suspicious as hell. But the problem is, we need that advantage." Said Alexandra, as she circled the holographic projector.

"I know." Allya sighed. "It still worries me. What if it's a trojan horse?"

"If it is, then it was inside a long time ago. You said it yourself, that guild guy's been here basically since you touched down and started the town. Besides, the best way to deal with a trap is to walk into it with your eyes wide open."

"Right." Allya chuckled. "I envy your courage."

"I think you mean 'cynicism'. Regardless. As much as I am for paranoia, we can't afford to be paralyzed by it. Every break that comes our way can't be all from the conspiracy, and even if they are, we can't afford not to make use of them. We just have to do it with…"

"Care?"

"I was going to say 'our eyes wide open', but I realized I'd already said that, and failed to come up with an alternative in time. So, yes, 'care' works."

They both chuckled, and Allya relaxed. As strange as the dungeon core was, she was still human at heart.

"Well, tongue twisting aside, that's about it on my end. What about you?"

"I'm going to be checking in with Seraph about the raiders' redesign, plus some other tidbits. I have also decided to have CQ accompany the next flotilla."

"The boss?" Allya blinked and tilted her head, visibly confused. She hadn't 'known' the boss for long, not truly anyway, but she'd already gathered that she was something of a daughter to Alexandra and her advisor.

Having her call them 'mom' and 'mommy' was rather hard to miss after all.

"Yes. She's getting bored to death, and she loves combat. Since even when she had her boss room few adventurers ever made it to her, I decided her talents would be best used elsewhere. Besides, it'll give her some practical, hands on experience."

"That I can believe." Alexandra had given her a detailed accounting of the battle, and she'd seen enough close quarters combat to know how brutal and bloody the boarding of the frigate must have been. "And if she falls, she just awakens home, right?"

"Yep. So little risk, all in all. The fleet should also be back within the week, though with how unpredictable the wind is out there, and how hard it is to judge distances, I can't be more precise than that."

"That's perfectly fine. Though it is a shame you couldn't continue taking down their convoys."

"The ships took a bit too much damage for that." Alexandra shrugged. "Besides, the wasteland would have eaten the prize ships otherwise. Corollary of having the Republic's unescorted ships get annihilated is that ours will suffer the same fate. And since the frigate was in no condition to even ward off an angry kitten…"

"Right, had to use one of your own warships, and might as well pull them all."

"Yep. Plus, it'll let the Republic stew for a bit, maybe even lower their guard a fraction."

"That might cause them to start moving again early."

"Doubtful. It's nice having a competent opponent, you can rely on them to be professional and thorough. They won't lower their guard much, but they also won't start advancing again unless and until their supply lines are rock solid."

"And you're banking on that never being the case, to drive them back."

"Partially. If they're stupid enough to continue forward, I'd welcome it honestly. They'd be easy meat."

"As long as they don't get to the town."

"Which is why we'll intercept them outside. In an open field battle." Alexandra shrugged. "Goes against the grain, I know. But the fortifications are fucked, and royal engineers or not, we won't get them back up in time. Besides which, the debris field from the fight with the Hammer of Eternity will give them too much cover. No, it's time to be proactive."

"Well, it's your war."

"I won't deny that. But still, I value your advice. If nothing else, you know this world a lot better than I do."

"Thanks. It's reassuring to hear." And it was, strangely enough. Given how thoroughly terrifying the Earth-born had proven to be, any chink in her armor was something of a relief, paradoxically enough. After all, no one wanted an ally with a weakness your enemies could exploit, right? "And thank you, for your trust in my abilities."

"No problem. Oh!" Alexandra snapped her fingers. "Almost forgot. We're almost finished with separating the floors into their own 'steps', so to speak. It should greatly optimize adventurer throughput, and benefit everyone involved."

"Except the higher ranked adventurers, who will resent the loss of all the extra loot."

"But be able to access the deeper levels more often. Even if they come out with less on each delve, they should have them far more often. After all, there aren't many that can make it onto the third floor, let alone survive there."

"That's a good point. I'll probably focus on it during the announcement speech." One of the thing she could have done without were the constant speeches when something had to do with the dungeon's PR. It had started with the speech in Darthar announcing the new dungeon, then the one revealing she was the baroness, and had become a form of town tradition. It cemented her power and helped a ton with having people feel like they could connect with her, but the flip side was that she couldn't delegate them without showing weakness, not now at any rate, and that meant a lot of eating into her valuable time for theatrics. "Hopefully they'll all see the value."

They exchanged a look. They both knew it wouldn't be the case. There will always be the idiots that can't see further than their own nose, who will bristle at the slightest change and go charging headfirst, thinking they know best.

Thankfully, that will help them more than harm them this time. Any behavior like that would be ground to clamp down on the guild even more, and they were both keen to at least keep some of the pressure on Oromar.

"Good. And at least unruly behavior has pretty much stopped within the dungeon. Most of the corrective measures seemed to have worked. A bit of lost income in terms of essence on my end, but at least I don't get pulled away by damned alerts."

"Ah yes, your 'corrective measures'. They're…original."

"What? They work!"

"Not disputing that. But you put panels above every restricted area saying 'Attention trespassers and would-be core thieves. Please carry ID so that we can notify your next of kin.', it's not exactly what people expect out of a typical dungeon."

"I'm hardly a typical dungeon. And they'll just have to learn to expect the unexpected."

"No kidding, and they are. And as you said, the message got across."

"That it did." Alexandra clapped her hands. "Well, if there's nothing more, I should get going. Fleet building waits for no one, and I have the Republic's ass to kick!"

"Have fun!"

"Oh, believe me I will."

*****

"So, how's it going?" Said Alexandra as she stepped into the laboratory. She could already see touches here and there, where Seraph had shifted the way work was being done from the basic template Alexandra had given them. That was good, it meant the Arcadia kernel was taking hold, turning them truly creative. And technically insane, but that came with the territory. "Got everything up and running?"

"Greetings milady." Said one of the golem, as they all stopped and bowed to her, before Seraph sent them back to work. "And mostly. The plans for the airships are finished. The anomalous bioengineered captain was most helpful." Alexandra blinked. The AI had to be referring to the orc. Anomalous? Did orcs not exist before the Great Night? Interesting. Since vampires had quite clearly predated the Dawn of the Flames, she'd assumed they were creation of the Old World, probably some misguided projects from the Age of the Gods. Stars new there had been plenty of those bioengineering manias on Earth, to the point of creating inhuman abominations. But if it wasn't the case…it might be worth investigating further. "The new ships are ready to move into the next stage of production."

"That's good!" And it was. They had agreed early on to not touch the core hull too much, to allow the ones already being built to be used instead of scrapped. But they had to put some fabrication on hold until they knew exactly what they were going to outfit the hulls with. Now they could wrap up and get the ships ready to head out. "Any problems with the new recoil compensators?"

"None so far. But they should increase stability tremendously. And enable the use of the new heavy gun turret." Alexandra nodded. One of the key issues of airships was that, unlike a wet navy, there wasn't a giant mass of water to absorb recoil. Much like spaceships, if you fired one way, it would send you tumbling the other. Except that you were inside atmosphere and that meant you could spin out of control and crash. It hadn't been that much of an issue for her Raiders, they were comparatively large for the guns they carrier, and although they were heavy, they weren't the monsters she was planning on putting onboard the Corsairs. "I have also completed the round of testing on the new weapon you wished fast tracked."

"You did? How did it go?"

Seraph gestured, and a golem came in, pushing a cart containing a frustratingly familiar turret. Except that this time it wasn't only a runed barrel and some motors, every component was present and active.

"It functioned within acceptable parameters." Either through the link or some other means, Alexandra could feel that Seraph was looking at her quizzically, even with the golems' lack of facial features. "I do question if it was worth the resources."

Alexandra smiled.

"It was something of a passion project." She shrugged under the AI's unrelenting gaze. The problem with them now was that they knew enough about social cues and such to know when she wasn't being entirely honest, but wasn't doing a great effort to hide the truth either. "And it salved my professional pride."

"How so?"

The Earth-born patted the turret's barrel.

"I spent hundreds of hour on this thing. Trying to get it to work. And now, at long last, I have." She chuckled. "Ironic, right? I have finally fixed the damned pulser turret, the one I grabbed before I even had crossbows or anything beyond swords, spears and shields, after having developed my very own plasma cannons."

"I see. I suppose I have had some similar frustrations on other projects."

"We all do. Alright then. If we have them, let's make use of them. I want some scattered throughout the core fortress, I'll pick the spots. I also want it converted into an infantry weapon. Tripod mounted, maybe. We have the lasers, but someone with the right shields, or a really crafty mage, can defeat that. Let's make a few, just to make sure to keep any would be thieves or assassins on their toes."

"Yes milady."

"And then, we'll move onto the Corsairs. I'm not comfortable making them so dependent on their main gun battery. They need to have something to defend themselves against lighter vessels, even if only to hold them off long enough for the Raiders to come to the rescue."

"I have several systems that sprang to mind for that effect. The main one was an expanded version of the tesla field point defence array."

"Expanded? To make it more powerful?" The AI shook the golem's head. "You want to make it longer ranged?"

"Yes. It would also help with survivability. Beyond the point defence implications."

"Explain."

"I have analyzed the reports from the fight with the Republic, and realized something crucial. The tesla field is extremely powerful against enemy vessels straying too close, but it has a minimum range. It has to, or it would destroy the vessel housing it."

"Yes. And?"

"And it means any vessel affected could close the distance too quickly to make it an effective defense. The frigate was a special case, but a corvette or gunship arriving at full speed would have the same effect, and be able to come hull to hull and neutralize it."

"Right. So extend the effective range. Use it as a short range, but not knife fighting, weapon. It'll cost a lot of mana, but not much in terms of deck space, mass, and it wouldn't require more recoil control systems."

"Affirmative."

Alexandra nodded. Since those three were the main bottlenecks with up-arming the Corsairs, it made sense. It wasn't perfect, she could already see some of the flaws, but it did sound like the best option available, at least if they wanted to get the class moving soon.

"Alright, make it so. I'll divert the resources. I also want you to do a full, detailed analysis of the point defence array logs once the ships are close enough for a data dump."

"Milady?"

Alexandra smiled, grimly.

"The Republic's little cannonballs shouldn't have caused as much damage as they did. There's something wrong there, something I can't quite get my finger on. And now we're going to find out what. And once we have, we'll counter it."

"Yes, my lady."

Alexandra's eyebrow rose at the change in tone, before she realized that she'd taken up her command voice as she spoke. Damn, the old admiral in her really was creeping out.

"Alright then, let's get to work!"

And give the Republic another batch of nightmare fodder.