A few minutes after Lia had returned home, her rest was interrupted. “Remember how I said I was going to check for mail before going to bed?” Amelia asked, waving around a stack of papers. “Well, Emily has something for us.”
“Oh?” Rose asked curiously, looking up from her book. “Do tell.”
“From the looks of it, the coalition has a new initiative they’re trying.” Amelia explained. “They’re gathering the world’s best and brightest, sticking them in a highly-secret, incredibly well-guarded, bunker, and they’re going to try and figure out how conversion works. They plan to capture one of our soldiers, bring them to this location, and have them convert people while they study the process.”
“That sounds incredibly foolhardy.” Rose replied, frowning. “Every single time they’ve tried to capture one of our soldiers, the two of us have prevented it. What makes them think this time will be different?”
“Emily didn’t probe too much out of worry about being found out.” Amelia replied. “But Marcus assured them that they had some way of keeping it secret. Of course, they don’t know about the SPS or anything, so unless they’ve suddenly gotten a mega upgrade in terms of their magic shielding, we’ll be able to find them without too much issue.”
“Wait…you just said they’d be having people be converted.” Lia said, horrified. “They’re testing on their own citizens?!”
“That seems to be the case.” Amelia confirmed. “And I get the feeling that this is going to blow up in their faces in a way they could never have imagined. I mean…the world’s best minds all in one spot, along with what would surely be multiple max-level people? They’ll certainly be a very welcome addition to the swarm.”
“We’ll have to be cautious about this.” Rose mused. “I imagine they’re going to be putting everything they can reasonably spare into keeping this place safe.”
Amelia grinned. “You know what the kicker is? As long as I’m taking down that lab, I’ll be unbound, I can feel it. I’m protecting their own people from inhumane experimentation, and I get to take down everyone involved.”
“I’m not surprised it’s so lenient.” Connie said. “Jerry has a rather dim view of rulers who would do this kind of thing, and even our detractors won’t put up more than a token argument about decommissioning this facility. Experimenting on sapient life is a big no-no.”
“How can you even tell when you’re not there?” Lia asked.
“Dunno, just have this gut feeling, I guess?” Amelia replied. “But it’s also more than a gut feeling, which probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but I can’t really explain it.”
“I wouldn’t pay it much mind.” Connie said. “Jerry’s clearly decided to add some extra restrictions to her unbinding Skill, this is probably his way of making sure everything is communicated properly so it doesn’t unfairly impact you.”
“Well, whatever the case, I assume we’re taking this place down as soon as possible?” Lia asked.
“I think so. Once everything is ready and we can be sure all the important personnel are in place, we should start.” Rose said. “That should give us plenty of time to stop the first experiments from being carried out and maximize our gain.”
“Okay, but, what’s the plan? Just teleport in and destroy everything with raw power?” Lia asked.
“No, we’ll scope the place out with scrying first.” Rose replied. “And, hopefully, I can finally get a Skill that will unbind me temporarily, if I can get that, then I’m reasonably confident that the two of us could handle anything our opponents could throw at us.”
“Let’s discuss this more tomorrow.” Amelia suggested. “I think that’s everything important from Emily’s letter, and it’s not like not having a plan right now will make a difference; the initiative is still in its formative stages right now.”
“Yeah, you’re right.” Rose agreed. “To bed?”
“Um…if you’re, you know…making love…um, would it be alright if I…joined too?” Connie asked, face bright red.
Amelia beamed at her. “Of course! Come on, we’ll make it an occasion to remember!”
----------------------------------------
“And that’s the situation, sir.” Septima said, trying not to let her nerves show. “The scouts are shaken, but it’s not completely unsalvageable. What about the rest of you?”
“I call the shots at this meeting.” Gallus said severely. “And, after this, I need you to go out and scour the area around camp for enemy forces. That being said, I do need to know, how is the situation in the rest of camp?”
“The mages are thoroughly demoralized.” Lucretius, the head mage, said. “They are beginning to truly realize the disparity in power between them and Amelia.”
“She’s just one person, Hero or no. Tell them she can’t be everywhere, and that she wants them jumping at shadows and losing their confidence.” Gallus said. “And, the infantry?”
Valerius, one of the infantry division leaders, nodded. “The peasants have had their spirits crushed.” He said. “The professionals are more rattled, but should be fine with some reassurance.”
“That’s not too bad, then.” Gallus said. “It doesn’t matter what the peasants think, they’re just there to fill out numbers and keep the heat off of real soldiers. Alright, go manage your camps, dismissed.”
Septima hurriedly made for the exit of the tent, but was stopped by Lucretius grabbing her arm. “Come with me for a moment. I need to discuss how best to spin the statuses of Amelia and Rose to the troops with you.” He stood, giving Gallus a nod as he began to lead Septima towards the exit. “We’ll take this out of your tent so we don’t disturb your planning, unless you wish to hear it.”
“No need.” Gallus replied, waving them away. “I need time to think.”
Lucretius led Septima out of the main command tent, then ducked into a side tent near them, casting a quick spell before facing Septima, a complicated expression on his face. “I’ve soundproofed the area.” He said. “You’re planning to defect, aren’t you? No, don’t give me that look, I’m not going to rat you out or anything, I just want to know why, I’m…having doubts myself.”
“Was it really that obvious?” Septima asked guardedly.
“No, but we’ve worked together too long for me to not realize something was up. And, considering your personality and the recent events, I made an educated guess. I doubt General Gallus or anyone else picked up on it, they’re too distracted right now.”
Septima sighed. “Were you able to read their statuses?” She asked.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Lucretius shook his head. “I was too busy trying to handle the situation. What’d you see?”
“It’s not propaganda.” Septima whispered. “Rose is really the Ruby Emperor. She had a Title proclaiming it, as well as titles indicating she’s Blessed by the God of War. If she used a Blessing to legitimize a fake Title of that importance, or even worse, faked the Blessing, she would be immediately struck down by the gods.
“And, I don’t know if you’ve studied outside of the Sapphire Empire, but the Ruby Emperor’s teachings have been twisted so as to fit the current regime’s way of doing things. I don’t care about that as much, that’s normal for an empire, but…not after the last couple of days. They want me to kidnap one of our own soldiers, presumably for use in experimentation.”
Septima sighed. “This is the final straw.” She said. “I think that, with the real Ruby Emperor on their side, our own side willing to do horrible things to its own people, and the superweapon the swarm has just told us they’ll use if the situation gets too dire, that we’d better serve our people by defecting and helping ensure that weapon never has to be used on sapient people.”
There was a moment of silence, then Lucretius nodded. “I’ll be taking all the mages who want to defect away at midnight.” He said. “I won’t ask when you plan to leave, but I wouldn’t be too much later than that, since people will get suspicious.”
Septima paused, struggling internally. She had worked with Lucretius for decades, yes, but she would be risking the lives of her subordinates if she revealed her plans to him. Still, he had covered for her on a number of occasions before, and he had led this talk away from Gallus instead of turning her over immediately, as was protocol. Even if it was in service of a greater good, the higher-ups had made it clear that, with the swarm being what it was, any breach of protocol would be harshly punished.
Eventually, she nodded back. “Understood.” She said. “I’ll see you on the other side.”
She left the tent and hurried back to her section of camp, quickly gathering her personal possessions before meeting up with her lieutenants. They spent the next few hours making last minute preparations, and all too soon midnight had come.
Of the hundreds of people under their purview, about seventy had been deemed safe to take with them, people who were trustworthy, dispirited, and, most of all, had actually seen Rose’s status. They could likely have taken more, but it was imperative that they kept the operation as secret as possible, so as to prevent word from leaking to people who would stop them.
So, heart pounding, Septima led her group outside of camp as quickly as she could. Fortunately, it wasn’t her first time taking a large detachment out on a late-night scouting mission, so it didn’t raise many heads, especially after what had occurred earlier; of course they would send scouts out to verify that the area around camp was safe. Septima just hoped that it wasn’t discovered that they had left later than expected until it was too late for them to be caught.
They made it out of camp without too much trouble, and Septima breathed a sigh of relief. That was the hardest part of the whole thing, now all that was left to do was put as much distance between them and the camp as possible. So, they walked, slowly at first, then picking up the pace once they were out of line of sight of the camp.
As they moved, Septima made sure that a white flag was visible. It was the sacred symbol of ceasefire, one that would provoke the ire of the God of War if it was disgraced by deceptive use or if its bearers were attacked unprovoked. In essence, it was a way of easing the minds of whoever encountered them first, and ensuring that they weren’t ambushed before being able to explain themselves.
And, hours of tense walking later, their effort was rewarded. “I assume you’re the other group seeking to surrender?” A woman asked, stepping out of the darkness.
Septima swallowed, then nodded. “Yes.”
The woman frowned, but nodded back. “Good. Follow me, we’ll take you back to our fort and go over options for your conversion. As people who have willingly surrendered, we have the luxury of letting you have input on the process instead of just blindly picking something.”
Septima frowned. “What does that…no, I suppose I shouldn’t ask you for secrets while you aren’t sure that we don’t have listening devices on us. Please, lead the way.”
Septima stepped forward, and the expression on the woman’s face morphed into one of shock. “C-Captain Septima?!” She exclaimed. “Forgive me for not recognizing you earlier, I was blinded by your torches! It’s me, Corporal Tacita! Are you really…”
“Tacita?!” Septima asked. “We assumed you had committed suicide or were being used as slave labor or cannon fodder, not…whatever you are right now.”
“I lead my squad, like I always have.” Tacita confirmed. “We were fed many lies about the swarm, and once we realized that the message that was broadcast was truthful…we decided to work as defense personnel, to avoid having to fight our countrywomen. The swarm has been…incredibly accommodating to us, more than we had ever dreamed of.”
She turned, motioning for Septima to follow. “Captain Lucretius and a couple dozen mages made it here about an hour ago and told us to expect you later this evening, they should mostly be done converting by now, so we can have them greet you.”
Septima and her group began to follow Tacita. “They should have left at the same time as us.” Septima said. “How’d they beat us by a whole hour?”
“They made liberal use of magic to speed up the process.” Tacita replied. “And, going back a bit, conversion isn’t a secret, we’ve been very up-front about the process, it’s just so unbelievable that the Empire hasn’t taken it seriously. We put you in a cocoon, potentially add some other things, and set you converting.
“Whatever is converted invariably becomes loyal to the swarm, yes, but it’s…not as unpleasant as brainwashing magic normally is. Or, well, maybe it is, but we’re completely unconscious during the process, and afterwards…well, we’re not affected by magic, it’s just who we are now.”
An uneasy knot formed in Septima’s stomach as she began to doubt things slightly. “Doesn’t that sound…bad?”
“Probably.” Tacita admitted. “But I have a hard time thinking of it that way; really, it just opened my eyes to the truth, and I’m quite grateful for it now. Without it, I would have struggled and resisted, and wouldn’t have been able to fully realize how good things are, nor would I be able to be treated with such trust and compassion despite having formerly been part of the enemy army.
“If you’re nervous, just think of it like a trip to the doctor; it may not seem pleasant, but it’s something that has to happen. As you’ve realized, the swarm is winning this war, one way or the other, and by getting it out of the way now you’re saving yourself heartache in the future. But, uh, back on topic, conversion gives us the opportunity to, essentially, change your Job.
“By converting you with items or monsters similar to what you want, we can influence the process so that you get the desired outcome. If you’ve ever wanted to be anything else, then now’s your chance. And, if you don’t trust that, then you can work towards it with evolutions in the future, really, it’s a thousand times better than the system we used to have.
“And, of course, if it makes you nervous, you don’t have to be converted with monsters, I understand that changing your race can be intimidating. It’s really not a big deal within the swarm, since we’re so…ever-changing anyway, but I do know it’s something I would have worried about before.
“Oh, and don’t think it just has to be monstrous, either, we can easily swing things so that you change your race to one of the ‘normal’ races like human or beastkin. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be humanoid or anything, you saw the dragon-ship, the possibilities are literally endless. Or, well, endless so long as you don’t want to be male. Uh, sorry, the swarm’s female-only, something about Amelia not understanding morality when she made it? I don’t know, it hasn’t been important at all so I didn’t ask much.”
“That does explain some things.” Septima said. “Fair warning, I have a pair of devices on me that shouldn’t be touched until a mage has examined them. They’re safe for normal people to handle, but I’m not so sure about swarm members; they’re designed to capture people and transport them to a far-away location, and it’s possible they’ll activate immediately upon touching a swarm member, I’m not sure. I was ordered to use them on a swarm member and someone from our own army, presumably for experimentation purposes. So…you’ll also need to watch for that, in the future.”
“I understand.” Tacita replied. “We’ll make sure they’re dealt with safely, and send a report to headquarters about them. You have two, right?” Are they identical or is there one for swarm members and one for other people?”
“They’re identical, why?” Septima asked.
“In that case, we can convert you with one of them, it’d probably give you teleportation capabilities, we can have the other analyzed by Mistress Amelia to figure out where it’s taking people.”
“Would it really?” Septima asked skeptically. “That seems too good to be true.”
“And yet, it is.” Tacita replied. “Believe me, once you see how things are here, you’ll wonder why you didn’t defect ages ago. Now, let’s pick up the pace, I’m sure you all are tired and hungry, and we’ll have food and lodgings prepared for you. Though…you’ll have to be converted before you can sleep, but food can come before! Trust me, you’re going to be thanking yourself in an hour or two!”
[author][/author]