Chapter 212 - Last Ships Out (Patreon)

Note : Chapter 215 has been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 212

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Conference Room

"If that priest is here only to found a temple and terraform the area, then I'm the freaking UIS president." Said Alexandra as she stopped pacing and sat down at the conference table. She wasn't exactly sure why she kept oscillating between the command center and conference room when meeting with Allya, although there was probably a slight edge of wanting to make use of the latter now that she'd gone through the trouble of making it, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone. Except maybe for Emilia. She wasn't very good at keeping things from the vampire, especially when she asked nicely, or the advisor tied her up.

Actually, mostly when her advisor tied her up.

"I don’t know what the UIS is, but I'm going to guess you mean it's unlikely as hell."

"The UIS was the nation I spent most of my life on Earth at war with, officially or not." Mostly unofficially, it should be said. The European Federation and the UIS had remained nominal allies, despite each having killed several millions of the other's soldiers and spacers in the three battles of Alpha Centauri, and sent over a hundred capital ships and Gods knew how many escorts to the scrap yard. "Though I suppose it didn't really have a president in the conventional term by the time I…left."

"Oh?"

"They had been taken over by an artificial intelligence in a military coup."

"Truly? I don't imagine how that could come to be." Said Allya, her voice dripping with sarcasm, and Alexandra winced.

"Touché. Though I hope you'll believe me when I tell you that I have no intention to overthrow you. Nor really any interest in doing so even if I did."

"I do. Now, what do you we do about this?"

"In the short term? Nothing. But we keep a very tight eye on them. The Church might like us now, but who knows how long that'll last? Besides, them arriving this close to the Adjudicator's stunt tells me that 'higher authority' that priest spoke about is her."

"You don't trust the Church?"

"I don't trust the fallible people that run it. Do you?"

Allya opened her mouth, then closed it. The Church was a fact of life to her. But they were indeed fallible. And there were many that distrusted the organization on general principle, no matter how pure its mission. That wasn't even counting the heretics or those that chaffed under the edicts of the God of Fire.

She hadn't truly ever asked herself in what category she was.

But one thing she knew was that there were many hidden players in this game…and even more hidden agendas. Even Alexandra had been exceedingly careful to tell her that she wasn't going to share everything. She was being open about the fact that there were secret objectives in her crusade, but she sure as hell wasn't going to share them regardless.

How far could she trust those that claimed to speak in the name of a God that had departed Alcheryos millennia ago, and wasn't seen again since? People who had no qualm about using their 'worldly power' in service of something long gone?

She sighed.

"No. No I don't."

"Then we are in agreement."

There was a short, awkward silence, before Allya spoke up again.

"What about your preparations? For the new batch of ships, I mean."

"Almost done. I've also started working on the ship to give Calder, not to mention how to rope in Sylvia."

"That's good."

"Yeah. Speaking of, Darthar?"

"By some miracle, the fortresses are still holding. Last report is that the outer defenses were overrun, but the keeps still held, and there was fierce fighting inside the fortresses proper. Philia has pulled back most of her troop to Darthar itself, but the rearguard is giving Sunrise hell. The rebels tried to pursue Philia, but the guys left behind the fortress raised so much hell they had to give up the pursuit."

"Damn. There must be some serious badasses in there."

"Yeah. They'll be sorely missed when the city's siege begins."

"True. But they bought us and Philia desperately needed time. Still funneling everything you can Darthar's way?"

"Yes, but I've started winding down the efforts. With the travel time, there's a fair chance a ship launched today would fail to make it before the city is encircled. At which point they'd have to turn back, and well…"

"They might not have the supplies to do so."

"Yeah. And if they surrender, we'd just be handing the cargo over to the enemies. Still, I'm willing to take some risks. I'll have every ship available and willing depart today, then formally close the route tomorrow. It'll play hell on logistics and morale, but I'm not willing to keep it open for longer."

"A good choice. Sometimes you have to take the losses rather than risking it all. I'm still working on that long range trade ship, but I wouldn't hold my breath for a prototype soon. My resources are starting to get stretched very thin indeed."

"Finally running out of mana?"

"Yep. And then some."

"You know, everyone wondered if you had bottomless pockets. Shit, I did, with all the stuff you pulled off."

"I wish I had. But no, it's just the result of good industrial planning and excellent logistics."

"As well as some solutions no one would have considered before, and a boost from your extradimensional mana income?"

"Well, that too." They exchanged a smile, before Alexandra sighed. "Well, it has been nice talking to you, but we both have things to do."

"Yep. Back to the salt mines it is."

*****

Alexandra smiled as she leaned against the railing, gazing at the shipyard, where the golems were busying themselves with the final preparations.

Three new raider-class ships. The Theev, Darokyn and Irontooth. She'd have named one of them GeDeCo, but there was only so far she dared push her naming scheme. Originally she had wanted to name her vessels after famous Terran pirates and warlords, before reason reasserted itself. She already had more overt ties to Terran culture than was probably safe. Instead she'd decided on something less obvious, and whimsical enough it would confuse a fair few people.

After all, she would be fairly sure that a good amount of Terran literature had made it through. But roleplaying games? It was unlikely someone on this world had even heard of Traveller, let alone of the Trojan Reach, or the Pirates of Drinax.

She gazed at the vessels, smiling in pride. Calder's advice had been invaluable, and he'd pointed out some things she'd had never thought of on her own. But these ships were the product of good old terran ingenuity, from her and Seraph. Ten heavy guns on each broadside, housed in pairs in casemates, effectively steel bunkers, two forward and two aft as chase armaments. Overall, the ships had lost four guns, to accommodate the armor, and lost a fair bit of speed and maneuverability, but they would go toe to toe with Republic frigates and crush them with far few losses than the first batch had taken.

Which reminded her. She quickly checked on their status. A few hours until they came within sight of the city. Then it'd be a matter of taking the prizes, and refitting them.

She was seriously tempted to simply absorb the ships, or hand them over to Allya, but she was staying her hand. She had, at long last, reached the limits of her powers and funds. There was simply no way she could make an airborne navy through her normal powers. Even the most powerful members of the UDC had built theirs over decades, and they resided under cities that made Rebirth look like a lost hamlet whose inhabitants had a god complex. So she had to manufacture them the old fashioned way. And that meant fabrication time. Long ones.

Thus, she would have uses for her already obsolete warships. If nothing else, having some vessels to escort any prizes, while the primary combat squadron continued hunting, would be extremely valuable. And as a sizeable bonus, them just hanging back would force convoy escorts to factor in the possibility of a flanking maneuver, once the battle lines met. She idly wondered if she should start working on remaking the spaceborne wall of battle, before deciding against it. Stacking her ships in the third dimension could be useful for certain maneuvers, like the one that had pounded that frigate into submission, but unlike in space, an airship would fall upon those below it if taken out. And that would almost certainly cripple other vessels, maybe even in a cataclysmic chain reaction.

But there was definitely an opportunity there…Marines. She had made what were effectively rowboats, and Seraph had finished the escape pods, but she could make launches and pinnaces as well. Not fighters or bombers, but vehicles to carry over marines. Maybe even make them single use, like boarding pods. Mmmmhhhh…She'd have to talk to Calder about that. And CQ. Her daughter was going to be the one to lead them after all.

Alexandra shivered a bit as she thought about that. Putting her daughter in the line of fire felt wrong on every possible level, but she also knew that it was what the boss wanted. Her daughter was becoming more and more miserable every day she languished here, even if she hid it well, while her mom went gallivanting about the world. And there was no way she was letting that happen, not under her watch.

Still, she'd put some failsafes in place. A second teleport talisman was given, just in case something happened to the first. And although it seemed insane, she'd given CQ a suicide charge. It wasn't especially potent, and it was extraordinarily stable, to prevent detonation by anything but her daughter's (or her own) will, but it would almost certainly kill the boss, if something had somehow managed to neutralize and capture her. It was the least she could do.

And push comes to shove…she had skirted her rules the tiniest bit, and implanted a tracker in CQ's sword. No matter what happened, she would find the weapon.

Even if they separated it from her daughter, it would give her a place to start looking. And knowing this planet, they would take it as a trophy. Even if sent to some high up asshole to hang up above a fireplace, she'd have someone to interrogate.

And she wouldn't come with some low tech garbage this time.

*****

"So, we are back on track?" Said Joachim as he leaned back into his chair.

"Essentially." Gregor shrugged. "There are still some unexpected developments, but they're under control. Darthar is about to be put under siege, and it won't be long until Asaria suffers the same fate."

"Handing Lesly the perfect excuse to conquer the city, and fly to the rescue of the Crown, thus buying their acquiescence. Good, good…What about the Republic? And the Hegemony?"

"Things are more…complicated there. The Hegemony is flatly refusing to rise to the bait. The Hegemon has nerves of steel, and she's popular enough to be willing to tank the 'border incidents' we're throwing her way without escalating."

"That is…problematical. And concerning. I don't know if we can afford someone this level-headed for what is to come. At least not in such a position of undisputed power."

"Should we start undermining her."

"No. No, we can't risk the Hegemony falling into civil war, or even just retreating on itself." Joachim drummed his fingers on his desk, before snapping them. "I know! An assassination. From Republic forces, or at leat something close enough that it'll be blamed on them. Having such a popular leader killed will drive them to war. Especially as they'll be able to point out to her example, that she was the one willing to deescalate, and how they repaid that."

"Kill two birds with one stone? I like it."

"I know you would. We'll have to be careful however. We cannot afford someone smelling a rat on this. Especially not with everything else already running on a knife's edge."

"I'll take care of it. Personally."

"Are you sure?"

"It'll do me good to head back into the field. And you know what they say, if you want something done right…"

"Do it yourself. Alright, I'll get you the resources."

"Thanks."

"Now, about that new temple?"

"The Custodians have clearly decided that Rebirth is too big a nexus of events to leave without a major intelligence operation. They'll also probably try to get into the locals' good graces through any means necessary."

"Right. Which means we need to get our agents out of there. Now."

"Agreed. I'll have them use the backup evacuation plan, have them hitch a ride on the last ships bound for Darthar." George sighed. "It's not perfect by any means, but it'll do."

"Let us hope so. Let us hope so."