Chapter 215 - They Know (Patreon)

Note : Chapters 218 and 219 have been written and added to the queue !

Chapter 215

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region

Elkis Republican Army Expeditionary Force Main Camp

Coledar leaned back into his chair.

"Three corvettes. Just three?" Asked the general.

"Yes sir. That's all it took." Said the captain. He still looked the worse for wear, but the food before him had clearly revitalized him a bit, especially once he'd gotten a good shot of whiskey into his system.

"Superior firepower." Said admiral Artay. Now that his worst fears were confirmed, the admiral had dropped his facade, and was almost openly neurotic. Which was good in some ways, since it supplanted his 'I told you so' expression he'd worn for the beginning of the meeting. The fact that he was more concerned about the dungeon than rubbing it in Coledar's face also boded ill. "Heavy shell firing artillery, with excellent range and precision. Correct captain?"

"Yes sir. Alongside some kind of tesla field. Like the ones used by mages to protect against projectiles. Took out a bunch of our cannonballs."

That wasn't welcome news, even to Artay.

"Crap. She's even more powerful than I realized." The admiral ran a shaky hand through his short, already greying hair.

"Indeed." Said Coledar. "What about the crew? You said the Aegis used its ramming thrusters, and managed to board one of the ships?"

"Yes sir. But they didn't last long. The boarding was successful, but they were thrown back. By machineguns. Lots of them."

"Are you certain?" Asked Artay, as the admiral leaned forward.

"Absolutely. I've fought the Tarkians, sir. No one can forget the staccato of these things."

"Anything else?" Said Coledar, while glaring at the admiral.

"Yes sir. The enemy counterboarded the Aegis. And when they did…Sir, another one of their ships moved above the frigate, and dropped marines on it!"

"They just..jumped down? Or did they rappel?"

"No sir. They used jetpacks."

That gave everyone pause.

"Holy shit." Said the general, as he exchange a worried glance with the major. "Alright captain, I thank you for your assistance. You are dismissed, but please do make yourself available in case we have any further questions."

"Yes sir." The captain saluted, and left, nodding in thanks as the major lifted the tent flap to let him through.

Coledar waited for him to leave, before turning towards the admiral.

"We need to be prepared for the worst. Artay, I need you to draw up contingency plans, assume Tarkian, shit, Erisian armaments."

"Oh, now you listen to-"

"Artay." The admiral closed his mouth with a snap as the general interrupted him. "I'm only going to say this once, and I will consider it the end of the matter, because we can't afford endless petty recriminations and 'I told you so'. I fucked up. I treated you like a paranoid maniac, but truth was, I wasn't paranoid enough. Now get me your best contingency plans because I fear we're going to need them, badly, if we want to get out of this one alive. Understood?"

"Aye aye sir. Wilco."

"Excellent. In the meantime, I'll start talking to the quartermasters about rationing provisions. Because if there was only one raid…"

"It was a probing attack." Finished the admiral.

"Yeah. And that means they'll be back, in force this time. Pass the word to all convoys, we're not alone out there. And assume we're being shadowed by enemy airships."

"I will. And I already operated on that assumption, but I'll enlarge the patrols. If the dungeon took down that many ships with three raiding corvettes…her dedicated warships will wipe the floor with ours."

"Probably. I'll leave that to your capable hands."

"Thanks." The admiral rose. "If you'll excuse me?"

Coledar nodded, although it was clear the admiral was going to leave regardless, he was at least attempting to be polite now, though whether that was from the general's apology or the sheer shock of his worst nightmares being proven correct was impossible to tell.

"And as for us…" The general turned towards the Major. "We need to revise our plans for Rebirth. Because if she indeed made those ships, there's no telling what else the dungeon has deployed in the town's defense."

*****

"So, that's it for the fortresses then?" Said Melia as she looked at the map spread out on the council room table. The dark elf looked vaguely ill, which was no surprise. After all, most of her friends and acquaintances were in the city those fortresses had protected.

"Yes." Said Anders, as he adjusted a few tokens on the map. "Sunrise's southern army is regrouping, but their vanguard has already begun moving towards the city. They'll be there within the week. The army, three, maybe five days afterwards. Some ships could break through the early phases of the encirclement, but once the army has time to set up its artillery…"

"We know. We're officially on our own people." Said Allya. "And the northern front?"

"Mixed news there. Grant and the Queen are still giving Sunrise hell, but they're not stopping. Some troops have been diverted to deal with the Sapphire Kingdom's raids, but not enough to make a difference. The capital will be encircled before long."

"And once that happens, the duchess will declare victory." The baroness scanned the room. "Wrongly, but with the capital under siege, many nobles will think it's only a question of time."

"They could attempt a breakout." Pointed out Willard.

"Unlikely to work. Especially with Sunrise deploying secondary armies to scour the country for more slaves to make up for their losses during the siege." Said Alexandra, elicting some uneasy look as she intervened. Many of the councilors still hadn't digested her earlier intervention. "Once the capital is neutralized, and they have their own siege works and defenses in place, they'll be able to shed more troops to take out the western baronies."

"Which are the last free crown loyalists." Said Melia, bitterly.

"Not quite." Interjected Allya. "We're still here, and so's Sarth."

Willard nodded.

"My uncle is doing all he can, though that is limited. He's raising an army to come to Darthar's rescue, though that will be chancy. The duchy's standing forces are mainly to defend against the threats from the wasteland, there's only so many soldiers we can pull out, let alone feed and keep supplied over such distances. That's not even mentioning the fact that the enemy will probably use the fortresses to defend their rear and avoid being outflanked. They'll be severely damaged, but even a crumbling fort is a formidable obstacle, especially when outnumbered and in the middle of a desert."

"Agreed." Said Allya. "Which is why we are planning to speed up the deployment of the long range trade ships, as well as look into some form of blockade runners, to continue supplying Darthar. Furthermore, we may be able to help lifting the siege, after we have taken care of the Republic."

Several of the councilors stared at her, then Alexandra, whose boss was sat at Allya's left.

The dungeon core didn't even blink, and the baroness could see the gears spinning inside her councilors' heads. Some had assumed that Alexandra was now the power behind the throne, but the fact that the dungeon core was letting her announce what should, by all right, be dungeon policy, reinforced the fact that they were equal allies.

"Lifting the siege? I thought you said the best you could do was distract Sunrise?" Said Anders.

"Indeed." Said Allya. "But if the duke is able to get Sarth's army into position, we could do a pincer attack, or even join forces, but adding our airships to his force."

"The fortresses can stop a ground force, but they're too spaced out to do much to airships." Commented Willard. "And I've seen the guns Crystal's ships boast, not to mention the amount of punishment they can take, given the state of the ships that returned. They'll be an incredible asset to my uncle's force. But I don't think it'll be enough."

"Hence the pincer attack." Interjected Alexandra. "Getting troops across the wasteland will be hell, especially in great enough numbers to make a difference, but we are drawing plans to make a form of…compact harassers. A marine, ship carried detachment, using portable artillery and other heavy weapons, that will used superior mobility and technology to bleed the enemy."

"Death by a thousand cuts?" Willard smiled as he spoke. It wasn't a particularly nice smile, all things considered. "I like it. They can't get more slaves until they take the city, or at least breach the walls. And their greatest strength is that they're willing to toss away those poor sods' lives away on a whim. A battle of attrition will be a losing battle on their side."

"But they have to know that." Interjected Melia. "Won't that push them to assault the city harder?"

Everyone stared at the economic councilor for a second, before Anders began slowly nodding.

"It might. No, scratch that, Sunrise is headed by bloodthirsty, morally bankrupt scumbags, but their generals aren't terminally stupid either. Mostly. They definitely will. But it won't change much, in fact, worse comes to worse, they'll lose far more troops taking the city than they would if they were allowed to set their own pace." The guard commander shrugged. "I don't like it, but it's the calculus of war."

"Besides, do any of you have a better idea?" Said Allya. She waited for a few seconds, but no one spoke up, her councilors simply shaking their heads. "Then we'll follow this course of action. Any questions?" Willard's hand shot up, causing Allya to chuckle. "This isn't a classroom, just speak up."

"Right, sorry. Do you have a time table for the long range trade ships? My uncle can shift the wasteland patrols if we know the schedule in advance, that way the route will be better covered when they come through." He shrugged. "It ain't much, but every little bit helps. Also, it would allow the schedules to be juggled around so that the ships are unloaded as fast as possible, to send them back."

Alexandra nodded, before freezing, and Allya tilted her head.

"Crystal? I know that face, something just occurred to you. Spit it out!"

"I…may have some idea to help with the cargo, and assist Sarth's army at the same time. We should also consider giving some of the ships away to Sarth. The round trip is also going to take forever, by the time the ships come back, they'll probably already be obsolete. Giving them to the duke to use as gunboats, especially given his lack of airpower-" Most of the ships he could spare had been sent to help defend Darthar's fortresses, and they were plinky patrol boats her raiders could have eaten for breakfast by the squadron. "-it might provide him a lot more than an extra shipment a few weeks or months down the line would."

"That…is an excellent point." Said Willard. "Any ship that has enough firepower to cross the wasteland alone, or at least without dedicated escorts, is going to be a decent gunboat. With your ships' technological advantage, they will make formidable adversaries. The problem is, they're too advanced. None of my uncle's people will be able to operate them."

"Well that's easy. The golems will come with the ship, obviously."

"What about any losses?"

"We're already planning on sending him some golems with the shipments." The planned shipments were mostly guns, but with Sarth's lack of available troops to send, having a few of the better golems along was pretty much essential. "I'll load them with the instructions to be able to serve as crew if necessary." She shrugged. "It won't be perfect, but it'll do."

"Alright. But if I'm being honest, we don't have many officers to order these ships around, nor, well…generals used to making use of airships beyond scouting."

"Then I'll command them."

"From here? I may not know much about radio, but I've been given to understand your tower won't reach that far out."

"Oh I know. I have new equipment for that." Bouncing high radio waves off of the ionosphere was something she'd mostly read about in the history books, but Arcadia still had dedicated transmitter systems on Earth to do just that, and more importantly Seraph had proven, rather unsurprisingly, to be an encyclopedia on the field of communications. Turns out, her base even had these kind of radios in stock, though the transmitters had been on the surface and presumably reduced to atoms millennia ago, if not simply abraded into dust by the desert. "It should allow me to communicate at the required distances. Though, to be clear, there may be some intermittent breaks. Hence why I'd like to pick a second in command from the duke's people to take over should something happen. I'll train them."

"Alright. I'll relay that to my uncle."

"Excellent." Said Allya. "Then, the last piece of news is that the new wave of airships should be launching tomorrow, alongside the repaired vessels." Turns out, being able to precisely absorb damaged sections and replace them with prefabricated pieces made repairing ships really fast. "Then we'll take the fight to the Republic once again. Just make sure to spread the word around, so people don't panic. Again." That particular lesson they'd learned the hard way after the first launch. There hadn't been much damage, but a lot of panic, and afterwards a prodigious amount of grumbling. "Now let us adjourn, and get some food."

She glanced at Pyn, who smiled, while desperately hiding her suddenly wobbly legs.

She was taking the elf out to a restaurant. Alongside a single, innocuous box…

The baroness marshaled her courage. She was going to need it.