Janis watched the landscape in front of her, sweeping her gaze across the burnt-out ground and small hills of ash. A few hundred meters further on, the remains of a small copse of trees rose into the air like fingers pointing accusingly at the heavens. She knew the drones were still able to get a few nutrients from the charred husks of trees, but not as many as from actual living plants, which was probably the point. Only a few of them even wanted to try, even after their rations had been reduced.
Their advance had been stalled. It shouldn’t take this long to cross this stretch of land, which really wasn’t all that wide. Although she supposed that didn’t matter; the gnomes would just repeat this treatment for the land beyond it. Their scouts had reported they were already beginning to do it.
Janis wondered what the people who’d lived here before, not long ago, thought about this. Gnomes they might be, though she doubted they were happy to leave their places of residence and work, their farms and villages.
But I’m the foreign invader, she thought with a touch of dark humor, I don’t need to worry about that.
Janis sighed, her gaze drifting to the equally burnt remains of a village further away — clearly, the gnomes were taking no chances, either with giving the Imperial army shelter or with the wood of the houses providing food for their drones.
Think of Bea and the others, she told herself. Bea’s smile, her laugh that always sounded a bit hesitant to her ears, as if she was surprised to find she had started laughing.
They weren’t the ones who had laid mines and traps and prepared ambushes, not this time, they just needed to deal with it. Academically, Janis supposed it might even be a good thing, to give her soldiers this experience. The Hive, especially, was already familiar with guerrilla-type tactics of their own, but now they had to face this them. And they were getting much better at dealing with these tactics.
She was even getting a bit of inspiration for potential future campaigns, although Janis hoped never to have to use these ideas.
Still, it was obvious the gnomes had gained a bit of confidence, probably due to their military coup. Their strategy and tactics hadn’t changed all that much — why would they? — but that wasn’t necessarily the most dangerous part.
Anyway, the gnomes wouldn’t be able to run and hide, or to slow the Imperial forces down, forever. Sooner or later, Janis would reach a target they couldn’t afford to just abandon. The next city, in all likelihood. And then she’d have them where she wanted them.
“Gather yourselves”, she commanded the headquarters unit currently taking a rest around her. “We need to march on.”
A few scattered groans answered her, but they were muffled and didn’t need a response. Her troops’ discipline was too good. Janis looked around, at the mix of drones and human soldiers she’d chosen for this. War Drones were already sweeping out in an arc in front of them, starting to clear the path. They had just been swapped with another flock, so these drones were fresh and ready.
Janis climbed on her current Mount and waited for a minute before she started to move, giving the soldiers acting as her bodyguards time to put themselves between her and the real edge of the group. She’d grown used to that, and now spent the time looking through several other drones’ eyes, considering the situation.
Her current strategy would work, but she still found herself unsatisfied with it. Not only would it be slow, incremental, and thus carry the risk for higher casualties, more deaths that perhaps could have been prevented … but it was also, she realized, predictable. And in war, predictability was one of the worst sins. The gnomes knew what they were doing now, they had seen how the Hive could respond to their tactics and how to try to counter them, or ignore their attempts. Expecting them to blindly repeat the same things would be foolish.
Janis sighed and raised a hand from her mount’s saddle to massage her temple, feeling the beginning of a headache. She’d just been confident they’d found the right balance of pressing ahead and sweeping aside resistance, but perhaps she’d been too optimistic.
Instead, she contacted Ben and gave him a brief overview of her recent thoughts.
What do you want to do? he asked calmly. Try to press on fast enough to surprise them and catch them before they can burn the area in front of you?
That might be one option, Janis said. But there has to be a way to play into their expectations, to use their tactics against them.
Hm. We need to look into how exactly they are reacting to our movements.
Which they were. Obviously, they already had people looking into this, analyzing the gnomes’ actions and attacks. Janis mentally stepped away from Ben and instead went looking for some of them, drones of various Classes, including Keepers who helped to store and analyze the information in the psychic link. A great deal of what might have normally been done by a general staff’s analysts — or her own command staff’s — was handled in the psychic link.
At first glance, nothing she found there particularly surprised Janis. She’d made a point of keeping up with their insights. She looked at the sketched map of their route and the spots where they’d found or encountered gnomish traps, ambushes, minefields or soldiers. The pattern wasn’t hard to see. Then she moved her attention to the area still in front of them, the planned route — which she could still change, although it wouldn’t make much sense for the immediate future — and the features of the terrain around it. The gnomes had good stealth spells and Skills, at least for their elites, so those features didn’t matter as much as they otherwise might.
Still, Janis found herself coming up with the vague outline of a plan. Now the feasibility depended on the details. Look for a good spot, and prepare several options for me, she ordered the drones working on the analysis. Making sure we can naturally fit it into our current advance is key.
She received a chorus of mental assent, and sent back her own acknowledgment before she shook her head and turned her attention back to the world around her.
Losing track of her surroundings and getting too lost in her thoughts or the psychic link at a time like this was inadvisable, and Janis chided herself for it for a moment before she focused on the people around her. The road they were taking, little more than a dirt path although there was little reason not to use it, remained clear. No one was close by except for her escorts and the other units of the vanguard. The army stretched out behind her. Riding roughly at the front of the march might be a bit risky, but the gnomes had attacked other parts just as easily, especially when they were forced to travel in a long column, so she didn’t think it particularly mattered.
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She would have still felt a bit safer if Dan was here, Janis acknowledged to herself. But he wasn’t, he’d been sent north to help with the raids the gnomes were conducting into southern Cernlia. Janis hadn’t arranged that mission for him, of course, but she’d hardly protested and Regina probably knew she tacitly approved. Dan was a great warrior, but his strength couldn’t have been used to his full potential here, however much she liked having him by her side, while the raids would hopefully challenge him and help him grow. Not just in Experience but actual experience and skill. Maybe he’d even manage to take some leadership duties that were frankly only appropriate for his rank and level and discover that it wasn’t so bad after all.
The raids themselves were probably an important component of the plan, though, so Janis focused on them again even as she kept half an eye on her surroundings, trawling through the psychic link and occasionally dipping in and out of a Swarm Drone’s senses. The gnomes were clearly trying to tie down more forces than they themselves committed there, but they required roughly the same type of skills and Abilities as their tactics here. At least, on paper. Their soldiers were versatile, though, it couldn’t be that hard to learn how to dig a trench, throw a grenade or put on some camouflage.
Her own soldiers had certainly learned those skills. The drones might have some advantages, though admittedly the Swarm Drones were handicapped by their lack of intelligence compared to self-aware people, but even they could learn and the sapient drones were getting better at giving orders, too.
Today, things were reasonably quiet as the army advanced. Janis could sense the tension, could almost hear it among the sounds of her troops’ footfalls and the clanking of their equipment. All of them were prepared for the next trap, the next ambush. It didn’t help that the gnomes also appeared to get better at launching them from far away, just Spells and attacks created by Class Skills sent from fortified or hidden positions beyond easy retribution. A few of those had already started to pester the army, but they were nothing they couldn’t deal with. Janis herself only expended a bit of mana once, to swipe an incoming Fireball from the sky. It had been launched from far enough away that it had already lost some power by the time it reached them. She still sent a small group of flying drones to where she’d spotted it coming from, but without success.
The gnomish mage had departed into a tunnel a few meters away, and collapsed it behind them. Trying to dig it out would be a pointless effort.
Janis sighed and checked on the progress of her orders in the psychic link again. Hopefully, the movements in the back lines would be hidden from the gnomes, or at least not be enough to alarm them. Considering the way her troops were heading deeper into enemy territory, it was hardly unexpected for there to be some shuffling around. Janis was even sending reinforcements to the wings of the army and other forces currently pressuring the gnomes to the sides of her current position, who’d been supporting her advance and were guarding their flanks.
At some point, a drone showed up with a wrapped meal for her, and Janis chewed it mechanically as she considered, looking at the horizon and the psychic link. Their advance continued at a deliberate pace.
It wasn’t really winter anymore, but the sun still set earlier than in summer, and the sky was starting to glow in warm colors as they came upon the area she’d mentally marked beforehand. Janis checked once again that everything was ready. They didn’t have to carry out her little scheme today, but there would be little point in it if they waited much longer.
Janis nibbled on another snack, to keep her energy up, as night set in and the vanguard marched the last kilometer or so. The Hive didn’t have to stop for the night, but the Imperial army usually did. Nightfall made it easier for gnomes to attack them without giving away their own position, and their soldiers needed to sleep, anyway. Their enemies shouldn’t find anything unusual about them stopping here. Janis had chosen a little valley, more of a depression in the mostly flat plain flanked by a few copses of burnt-out tree shells, that offered some additional protection.
She waited in the center of the camp as the troops around her busily set about their work, supervised by their officers. Gradually, all the older and stronger drones as well as many human soldiers edged closer to her. Meanwhile, she checked on the other corps.
Janis had, with the help of the others, designated several spots as gathering points. They’d ensured all of them were as well hidden as they could make them, while still being accessible to their units. Now soldiers were making their way towards them under the cover of the night.
Janis stretched and walked out of the ring of drones that had formed around her while she’d been distracted in the psychic link. They stepped aside to clear the way. A minute later, the soft sound of wings beating in the night air reached their ears and Janis glanced up.
Thor was the first to circle over their camp, though he only did half a circle before he quickly set down in front of her. Already, scattered dark shapes on the horizon converged, and she knew without checking again that the flocks of Winged Drones were behind them, all flying low to the ground.
“Ready for pickup, I suppose?” Thor asked.
Janis patted his arm in thanks. “I’m ready. Now …” she turned to watch her army.
The War Drones had spread out to the edges of the camp, forming several rings. They’d remain on the defensive for now. Other drones walked among them, while many of the sapient drones were formed into neat rows closer to her position, waiting for her signal. The same was true for human soldiers, Delvers and Cernlian men-at-arms, who shifted and fidgeted a lot more.
Janis nodded. Tim might have made some kind of speech to raise their morale and capabilities, but she’d rather not risk it. Instead, she simply told the sapient drones over the psychic link that it was go time and they spread the word. She climbed onto Thor and watched as the flying drones set down on the spots left open for them. More Winged Drones circled in the sky above, only those with the right Class or who were big and strong enough descended. The sapient drones and human soldiers climbed on quickly, and they took to the air to make space for the next flying drones.
Thor shifted beneath her, his muscles bunching, and then they were in the air as well. Janis checked that everything was going well, then glanced in the direction of the Confederation’s interior.
The moon was a picturesque half-circle, but only a few clouds dotted the dark sky, so it was a relatively bright night. That was both good and bad. It increased the chances of being spotted earlier, but it also helped her own soldiers.
Once every member of the strike force was in the air, Thor wordlessly turned and banked to the side to head east. He called a flock of Winged Drones to form a loose circle around them as escorts. The rest of the mounts fell into place in a V formation to decrease air resistance.
Checking via the psychic link showed that the other units at the designated gathering spots were likewise all underway, as planned since they were smaller groups. Two of them would rendezvous with her own force soon.
If this worked out, they would be analyzing her strategic gambit in the history books in the future, Janis felt. Probably if it didn’t work out, too. It might be a risky play, but she was confident. And as they moved east at the speed of the drones’ wings, no arrows or magical attacks disturbed their progress.
Janis smiled and quickly secured herself to Thor’s back with the leather straps someone had fastened. The gnomes would be in for an unpleasant surprise very soon. I didn’t think they’d expected me to leave behind our War Drone horde and skip their little obstacle course, she thought with a grin. If they’re too much of a hassle on the ground, I can just turn it into a contest about our forces in the air, and they definitely have less fliers than we do. And then she could send detachments west to help clear out the way, while also perhaps probing east and even threatening the approaches to their capital. If an army of mages or ranged fighters gathered on the ground to bring them down, they could just evade it.
Janis’ grin widened as they reached their first target and Thor lost altitude, increasing the rush of the wind through her hair. She lit up a Fireball and sent it into the gnomish outpost.
She didn’t need to be a psychic to know they hadn’t been prepared for this attack. There were a lot of screams and shouting, anyway.