Chapter 229

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

Trade City of Erakis

"It's been a pleasure, madam president." Said Alexandra as she proffered her hand.

"Please. Call me Amelia. Hell, I'd settle for General." Said Amelia as she took the dungeon core's hand, and stepped down onto the ground. "No one has elected me."

"I'm sure they will, once you give them a chance."

"Ah! As if I'd let them. Once I'm done freeing the Republic, I'm retiring."

Yeah, George Washington thought the same thing. Didn't end up quite that way, thought Alexandra, though of course she didn't voice it.

"But in the meantime, it's a valuable title for public relations?"

"Yeah. I suppose so. It evokes concepts that haven't been around in a long time in my people."

Alexandra nodded. The Republic's senate, effectively its entire legislative branch, had completely neutered and decapitated the judiciary and -especially- the executive branches. The last time the Republic had a president that had more power than a doormat was when it was still trying to peacefully absorb its neighbours and happily trying to prop up Tark with humanitarian aid. Long enough that the office of the president had more or less faded into half legend, which would give Amelia some gravitas, regardless of her electoral status.

"Well, let's hope it works. I mean no offense, but you'll need all the help you can get."

"Indeed. Which is why I'm sure you won't be surprised that I already have some proposals for commercial transactions with you. Which you no doubt anticipated."

Alexandra smiled innocently.

"Did I?"

"Yes. It's why you neither asked for the teleporter nor the sand kraken repeller during the peace negotiations. You're planning to extort them out in exchange for military equipment."

"I prefer the terms 'fair trade'. But yes."

"It would also just so happen to keep any hint of the transaction and your ownership of those devices out of the treaty and its negotiations, which were going to be watched by absolutely everyone who's anyone on the continent."

"...You know, you are disturbingly good at this, for a military officer."

"So are you." Something must have shown on Alexandra's face, because Amelia smiled. "You can't hide behind the baroness anymore. You're in command of your own army, your own fleet…you are a general, whether you wished it known or not."

Alexandra idly wondered if the general would ever know how incredibly close to having an extremely messy and highly lethal accident she just came. Then she decided that it would probably be best if the answer was 'no'.

"Quite. But you'd be amazed at the level of mental gymnastics people will do to try and keep a dungeon out of the equation, at least in their mind."

"No on wishes for a repeat of the Dungeon Wars."

"United Dungeon Wars."

"Not united for much longer."

They exchanged meaningful looks.

Several members of the UDC had sent an ultimatum to the Republic, once Alexandra had resurrected a couple commandos and provided the intact influence disruptors, all verified by the local WMC officials.

Unfortunately for the UDC, instead of going with the fait accompli, it had tried to rein in its own members.

It was currently going…poorly. The UDC was on the verge of breaking apart into a thousand pieces, if not outright civil war, and a fair few of the rebel dungeons were using her as a figurehead. Crap, some of them seemingly wanted her to genuinely be their leader!

After the cold shoulder the organization had given her, it was odd to be treated like the messiah. Or evil incarnate, depending on who you asked. She'd gotten death threats and what bordered on marriage proposals, had the senders been human or equivalent. Actually, she didn't know if dungeon cores had the equivalent of a sex drive, though they did seem to have romantic involvements, if rarely. That would explain why Etheria nearly had a heart attack when she'd learned her daughter had a child with her assigned dungeon core.

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"Perhaps. Perhaps they won't be united dungeon wars for much longer. But perhaps they will be again." The general slowly nodded, and Alexandra smiled. "Now, I believe it's time for you to get with your people. I see your friend the brigadier looks like he's going to explode waiting to say hello."

Amelia smiled as she looked at the welcoming committee. All were standing a respectful distance away, but they looked relieved and elated in equal part, though understandably warry of the golems and their weaponry.

Newly found allies or not, they weren't about to forget how many had died by those very weapons. All the same, they also knew those guns were the reason their leader was free, and were acutely aware they'd mostly been used in self defence, even if only on the strategic level, against their repeated invasions.

"Malcom's not that bad. Though I suppose some trepidation is in order. On my end as well. I mean no offense, and your hospitality as been impeccable, but…"

"The ship was never made to host living beings?" Well, depending on if you counted the vampires as living in the traditional meaning of the word. The more she learned and interacted with them, and the less Alexandra believed that was the case. They were more machine than flesh in a lot of ways, and were closer to androids than anything else really.

"Yes. The sanitation was somewhat, ah, primitive." Amelia cleared her throat, clearly changing the subject. "When will your secondary core arrive?"

"Two weeks, I think. It's a bit chaotic, since we're bringing all the ships back to the town and we'll have to give the crews some leave."

"Not simply going to use your own fleet?"

"Oh hell no. I'm not shipping my secondary core in a frigate when I have a damned battleship on hand! Besides, I could always use some more time to tweak my ships." And fix some serious flaws in the Corsairs, not to mention smooth out a few of the more jagged edges, since the ships had been pushed out early in preparation for the raids and still had some issues. Expected ones, unlike the Corsairs' propellers tendency to spontaneously disassemble themselves, but still. "And I'm sure you won't begrudge me the opportunity to load up the cargo holds on military hardware."

"For us or your defenses?"

"Both, actually. Call it a series of samples to see what is available on your end."

"Mmmmhhh. Well, I suppose that is fair. You won't consider selling us some of your siege artillery, I trust?"

"Oh they're absolutely for sale." Alexandra smiled at Amelia's evident surprise. "I'm not worried about another attack on Rebirth on your end General." Not to mention she'd have that artillery neutralized long before it came into range, and have better guns in place even if it did. "Though, be warned, my heavy artillery and its ammo are exceptionally expensive."

"Perhaps. But they would also knock holes into walls like nobody's business."

"Smaller artillery would still do so."

Amelia looked at her oddly.

"You have not encountered true fortifications, have you? Besides Rebirth's, which were, as you know, a rushed job by a small contingent of engineers."

"I haven't." Not magical ones anyway. The Planetary Defence Center she'd trained in was probably the definition of 'true fortification' if there ever was one, since it was meant to survive being nuked. Repeatedly. With multi-megaton range bunker busters.

"Well, then believe me when I tell you that it will be a rough awakening when you do."

"...I might send some observers along with you."

"That might be for the best. I'd appreciate some of your radios, if only to be able to ask for troubleshooting with the new weaponry."

"That can be arranged, though their range is limited."

"If it can cross the wasteland, it will reach until the first major cities."

"Right. Well, I should let you go. I know I've said that already, but your friend Malcom is about to have a heart attack."

"He's not-" Amelia glanced at the brigadier. "Alright, point taken. See you later, lady Crystal."

"See you later, madam president."

Amelia sighed and rolled her eyes, but they both exchanged smiles, before parting ways.

Alexandra had her golem bound up the ramp and back aboard the ship, shutting down its hologram as she did. She had finally found a solution for her problem with golems not having facial expressions, and it had been so stupidly simple she'd wanted to bang her head against the walls. Just put a hologram over them. Make a handful of 'ambassadors', which she possessed, that would have specially made magical hologram projectors of CQ's appearance on them.

Worked like a charm. Mostly. Their autonomy was shit but if they were alone she was screwed anyway. Also they lagged and had some interference, but it was still workable. She still hadn't gotten the miniaturization down pat for the holographic projectors, at least not the magical ones, but she would eventually. Then she could use them for other stuff, like illusions, optical camouflage, or projecting cardboard boxes whenever she needed to sneak somewhere.

She arrived onboard the ship, and smiled at the assembled crew, which included what remained of the commando that had saved Amelia, with both maids, CQ, Jared, and Jumper, the golem that had survived and who CQ had helpfully named, before slapping a 'helljumper' sticker on its face.

Because of course she'd made some in advance. Somehow, Alexandra wasn't even surprised anymore. She'd have to check her daughter's baggage for other surprises, just in case.

"Alright. We have nothing more to do here." She announced to the crew. "Let's go home."

The maids and CQ cheered.

So did the ship's crew. And Alexandra had not programmed them to do so.

*****

"My lord Eriksen."

Eriksen Dragonslayer, guildmaster of the adventurers guild hall of Nardria, and former general of the Order to Restore Humanity and newly elevated archivist of the Order, blinked as he looked up from the texts he had been perusing.

"Yes?" He squinted, trying to read the barely legible name tag of the other archivist. "Quentin. Oh hell, I didn't even recognize you."

"It's alright my lord. You have been quite absorbed in your work."

"Alexandra died because I failed to protect her. Because I, and no one else, molded Lesly into what she became. This won't make it right. But it's a start."

"As you say my lord." The archivist coughed. "Which brings me to what I came to you for."

"Ah, found the files relating to Alexandra? The naval ones?"

"Yes, well…there is a problem, my lord."

"Yes?"

"This woman…does not exist."

"I'm sorry?"

"The woman named Alexandra Rousseau. At first I thought it was a mistake, but…as I dug deeper, I found more inconsistencies. It seems she simply did not exist in databases before a certain point, and was just created from the ground up."

"A cover identity?"

"Yes my lord. A very good one. Whoever made it had access to every database we have recovered over the millennia. We only caught it because we have copies from before the identity was created. Created so well, I might add, that I initially thought the older databases were damaged."

"Damn." Eriksen drummed his fingers on the table, or rather the small mountain of books precariously piled on top of it. "Who…Who the fuck did Lesly kill?"

"Well, if the identity she wished to be known as is Alexandra Rousseau, surely we should honor her wish and-"

"No." Erik didn't mean to raise his voice, and inflect it with his full command aura, but he slipped up. Quentin physically recoiled. "We owe her more. I owe her more."

"Then the archives will assist."

"It is my burden to bear."

"I beg to differ, sir." Erik blinked at the change in honorific, and he met the archivist's gaze, which was filled with the intensity of a true zealot. "You are absolutely correct sir. If Lesly's plan works-" Technically, the archivist shouldn't know the details, but the archives knew everything. They had to. They were the keepers of the Order's glorious purpose, of its mission. "-then she will be the sacrifice that has saved us all. And she was never asked, she never volunteered. As you said, it is the least we could do. And I apologize for suggesting otherwise."

Erik stared at the archivist for a few seconds, before slowly nodding.

"Apology accepted. Now, let's get to digging. There has to be some hint of who she was in there. We'll find it."

Their gaze met once again, and this time the light of zealotry shone on both sides.

"No matter what it takes." Finished the guildmaster.