Chapter 214 - Trust (Patreon)

Note : Chapter 217 has been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 214

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Dungeon Factory, Command Center

"Well, this certainly is impressive." Said Trira as she stepped into the room, surveying her surroundings, Allya standing well by the side to give her room.

"Thank you. I'm quite proud of it." Said Alexandra, as her avatar sat down on the command seat.

It had taken a considerable amount of convincing for her to allow the assassin into her confidence, much less into her sanctum and the nerve center of her operations, but Allya was a very determined young woman.

Plus, she had pointed out, repeatedly, that Trira already knew about Alexandra being an extradimensional, and if nothing else they would want to bring her in if only to avoid that little tidbit of information making its way to other ears.

Besides, the assassin sect leader had proven over and over again that she was no one's fool.

"I'm sure you are. Deservedly so, mind you. Not that it means I'm any less insulted by you thinking I hadn't figured out your little deal."

Alexandra and Allya both winced, almost simultaneously.

"It is my fault." Said the dungeon core. "I wished to keep the people who knew this to a minimum."

"Well, I'm no idiot. It didn't take much to realize what the hell had happened after Allya came home and stopped any plan to spy on you, and mysteriously had access to such a remarkable source of external intelligence. I mean, really, where else could she have gotten any of it?"

"Fair enough." Alexandra shrugged. "I suppose we could have been more careful."

"Wouldn't have been much point in my case, maybe just slowed me down a bit. But it's a good habit to have. Still." Trira looked at Allya, and the baroness had the sudden, and extremely unwelcome feeling, of being boxed in. "When are you going to tell Pyn all this? You can't put it off forever, and that girl is head over heels for you. She wouldn't betray you."

Allya sighed.

"I know. And this time it's not Alex's fault." The Earth-born shifted at the use of her nickname, but didn't comment. "It's entirely mine. I just…I'm too nervous."

"Uh uh. But you can't put it off forever."

"Oh I know. But I have something else planned. And if I manage to gather my courage to pull that off, then I'll be able to do it no problem."

"Do what?"

Allya smiled, and Trira's maternal sixth sense tingled.

"It's a surprise~!" She sang, and the assassin sect leader opened her mouth to start prying it out of her ex-subordinate, before being interrupted by Alexandra's advisor polite cough.

"I believe we had a list of topics to go over?" Said the vampire maid, pointedly, though her ire seemed to be primarily directed at the dungeon core, who reluctantly put aside a bow filled with…was that popcorn? Which one of the 'maids' started eating from instead.

"Right." Said Alexandra. "Well, the wonderfulness of the design and technology of my command center notwithstanding-"

"And it's security measures." Said Trira.

"...What security measures?" Said Allya, and Trira nodded towards the ceiling.

Everyone looked thoroughly confused.

Except for the dungeon core, who leaned back into her command chair.

"You are very, very good at this, miss Trira." She said in a voice that sent a minuscule shiver down the sect leader's spine. What the fuck was that? There was…something in her voice, like an echo, not as in a second sound but more of a second tone mixing in with hers.

Or a second person.

A quick side glance at Allya told her that her former apprentice had sensed it too.

"It's what I do." Said the sect leader, neutrally.

"What is she talking about?" Interjected the vampire advisor, and Alexandra sighed.

"She's talking about the squad of praetorian guards waiting in the room above. The one whose floor is this command center's false and collapsible ceiling."

The silence in the room was deafening.

"You never told me about those." Said the advisor, and Alexandra threw a meaningful glance at the maids.

"That was the point." She said, softly, and both the advisor and the maids nodded.

Trira had the distinctly unwelcome feeling of having been privy to something she really shouldn't have, and wondered exactly what divisions existed in the dungeon core's own household, while knowing she would never be able to express the thought out loud without considerable danger. It was a question Allya had probably running inside her head as well, with the same unwelcome conclusion.

The dungeon core had already pierced their best security once, seemingly with casual ease. She could almost certainly do so again, alliance or not.

"Well…" Started Allya, a bit hesitatingly. "I assume one of the elements on the list was the ship's refit?"

It was a clumsy and obvious attempt to change the subject, but Alexandra accepted it without blinking.

"And damage analysis, among other things."

"Damage analysis?" Said Trira.

"Indeed. The Republic used a fair bit of ordnance I was unfamiliar with, alongside some anomalies in the armaments that I did know. So I conducted a full analysis, both on the unfired examples I seized with their frigate and how my ships stood up to them."

"You completed it in one night? Impressive." Said Trira.

"Unlike you, I do not require sleep, and neither do my people." She coughed. "Not that it took the entire night either, I was…encouraged to go faster, and given considerable incentive to do it thoroughly and speedily."

Allya tilted her head slightly. Was the dungeon core…blushing? Then she realized that Emilia was giving them a big toothy grin, while the Earth-born pointedly didn't look at her own advisor, even as the vampire laid a possessive hand on her shoulder.

Oh. Oh. Those kind of 'incentives'.

"And the results?" Asked Allya, a bit hastily, once again reminding herself to keep Emilia and Pyn as far apart as physically possible, and never, ever let them be alone together to compare notes.

Talking shop and asking a direct question seemed to bring the dungeon core out of her embarrassment.

"Fascinating. The Republic uses the same gun caliber for all of their vessels, as exemplified by their battlecruiser seemingly having the same guns as the frigates during their previous attack, and I assumed that meant they had a single foundry producing them, or had simply decided on full standardization. I was wrong. The guns are different, and so are their payload. It seems the larger or more modern vessels get cannons made out of better materials, possibly with enchantments on some. This enables the more advanced variants to use heavier cannonballs and more powerful propulsion charges. In the raid's case, the enemy seemed to have decided to forgo heavier cannonballs for greater speed on their projectiles, part of the reason why they survived my point defence better."

"Ah. And the other reason?"

"Well, it's remarkably simple. Many of the cannonballs were enchanted. I failed to consider the fact that if they had offensive enchantments, they also could have defensive ones."

"They ward their ordnance? I've only ever heard of that being done on capital ship ammunition, and even then only sparingly, and for the greater powers of the world."

"Not…exactly. More of a way to disperse part of the energy received. I think it's both to enable their offensive enchantments to last longer without overloading and enable greater penetration of the enemy's armor. The resilience to point defence if simply an unintended, if probably welcome, bonus."

"Ah."

"Incidentally, that realization, and my study of their weaponry, has made me feel like an idiot."

"Why so?"

"Because for as long as I have had runed items, I've been trying to grab better materials, those able to take the strain of more complex spells, or survive repeated use. But it never occurred to me to use active measures to enhance those capacity, like energy dispersal or cooling spells and such."

"I'm going to be honest, I didn't even know that was possible either." Said Allya, and Trira nodded in aggreement, alongside the taller of the two maids.

"Well, I should have considered it. Though I've been told that there are limitations and problems with such a course of action-" This time it was the advisor's turn to nod. "-there are also a great deal many new horizons opened by it."

"Ones which will make your weaponry and soldiers even deadlier?"

"That, and also propell my industry to ever greater heights."

Allya winced. The dungeon core already had those…fabricator things. 'Even greater heights' was something she probably couldn't even conceive of.

"A worthy goal." She smiled as the dungeon core looked at her, cursing herself for letting the wince show. "With everything you already have, it just occurred to me that 'even greater heights' is something entirely outside my experience in this case."

"That's unsurprising. I can arrange a tour, once we're past prototyping, if you wish?"

"That'd be lovely. Thank you."

"No problem. But the biggest thing we have to discuss, and part of the reason why I caved in and allowed miss Trira to join us, is that I am debating on how to expand out intelligence gathering capabilities."

"Honestly? Between you and Trira we already have the town wired six days to Sunday. I don't think there's much we can improve on, as long as you aren't able to breach Sylvia's anti-stealth thingy." Said Allya.

"Oh I don't mean the town." Allya froze. She couldn't mean… "I'm talking about the Republic."

"You…want to risk your high tech, stealth golems across the wasteland?"

"Not exactly. Do tell, have you ever heard of an extradimensional aircraft called the blackbird?"

*****

"General!"

General Coledar Victis, of the Elkis Republican Army sighed as Major Illira Oralis burst through the flap of his tent, giving a forlorn look at his breakfast.

Someday he'd put in a rule to not be disturbed under any circumstances while he was eating. Or take the habit of having something more portable. As long as it wasn't one of those damned ration bars the major was so inexplicably fond off.

"Yes, major?"

The woman took a second to catch her breath, and Coledar's eyebrow rose. It wasn't like her to be so out of breath, what the hell could possibly-

"Sir, a convoy found one of the missing ships! And they brought back survivors!"

Coledar was already out of his chair and halfway to the tent flap before she'd even finished the sentence, his breakfast all but forgotten.

*****

"So you just…stumbled upon them?" Asked Coledar in hushed tones, looking at the group of skyers and officers a few meters away. They looked definitely the worse for wear, but unbroken all the same, though they were gratefully grabbing the bowls of hot food and loafs of steaming bread the quartermaster's staff were busy distributing.

"Not exactly, sir." Said the commodore. He was one of the officers admiral Artay had allowed to accompany the convoys, and clearly of two minds about being directly talked to by someone who could technically order his boss around, but wasn't in his chain of command. "They were attacked by wasteland monsters during the night, and once my lookouts noticed the gunfire I detached a ship, who homed in on the fireworks, so to speak. Their gunship might have been small, but it still had plenty of artillery to make noise and thunder."

"Ride to the sound of the guns, I understand." The general smiled at the officer, who relaxed slightly. "How did they do it? How did they survive?"

"When their ship crashed, they realized there wasn't a single hope of making it out on foot. So they sat tight in the wreck, that had maintained structural integrity. With some strict rationning and ceaseless vigilance, they managed to withstand several attacks. Though, it should be noted, that was mainly thanks to the ship's salvaged artillery and a variety of new gun ports the ship's carpenter cut into the hull, alongside some modified carriages to allow the guns to be brought to bear."

"Artillery or not, this is the stuff legends are made out of." Coledar clapped the commodore on the back. "Splendid work officer. You did the right thing. Even if you had to turn the whole convoy around to pick them up, you lost a day and got our people back. I'll be sure to commend you in my report."

"Thank you sir."

"Don't mention it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some survivors and soon to be heroes to talk to."

"Of course sir."

Coledar gave the commodor one last smile, before heading towards the survivors, Illira in tow.

"Captain!" He called out, and a man in the tattered remnant of a captain's uniform turned to meet him. Despite his disheveled appearance, his eyes remained sharp and alert, and he snapped the general parade ground salute as his superior approached.

"General Coledar, sir!"

"Captain, it's a pleasure to see you here. I'd all but given up hope." Coledar returned his salute. "What the hell happened?"

"Sir, we were attacked, about three quarters of the way into the journey."

"Shit. Monsters?"

"No sir. Airships. Airships crewed by golems."

Coledar felt his heart skip a beat.

"Oh shit."

"Yes sir. My thoughts exactly."

"Captain, I need you to accompany me. Major?"

"Sir?"

"Get me admiral Artay, now. Don't take no for an answer, tell him it's of the utmost urgency and it concerns his fleet. And…Shit, I hate that but tell him he was fucking right." The admiral had been…'paranoid' would too generous to describe how he was feeling towards the dungeon. He was conducting constant exercises and aggressive patrols, waking his crews regularly with alarms about something which might be a giant army of golems lurking in ambush to kill them all. He had been extremely vocal about his belief that the dungeon was somehow responsible for the convoy's disappearance. "We're never going to hear the fucking end of it…captain, I'm going to need a full debrief from you. No detail is too insignificant."

"Yes sir."

"Good man. Now let's move."