Chapter 289

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Darthar

Allya sighed as she entered the cabin. She seriously needed to discuss getting a room in the Count's palace secure. The cabin was nice and all, but it was sorely lacking in amenities.

"Party finally dying down?" Said Pyn, huddled under the covers.

"Yep. Pretty much." Said the baroness as she sat onto the bed.

"About damned time."

"You and me both."

Predictably, the city had gone into yet another wild round of partying when the secondary dungeon core had arrived. And since Alexandra worked fast, the party had only redoubled when the clay and then iron steps had opened.

Seriously, alcohol traders had been making a killing lately. So did the alchemists that traded in remedies for hangovers.

The general euphoria was good for business, but it was starting to take a toll. Then again, they had little to celebrate about a scant few weeks ago.

"Do you think they'll start up again?"

Allya shrugged.

"Your guess is as good as mine." The news of the dungeon core's victory had just arrived, though it hadn't swept the town yet.

Allya...Allya hadn't doubted said victory for a minute.

She was just sick of how many innocents had to die because of it.

Knowing that Rook was planning on freeing them, or at least that sure seemed to be what he was doing, just made it ten times worse.

She was starting to sympathize with the twins honestly.

"They're always looking for an excuse." Pyn yawned. "Come here, it's bed time."

"Getting tired?"

"With the Count slipping out in the chaos, now everyone thinks I'm the person to talk to if they need your favor."

"What, can't talk to me directly?"

"Well, they think I have influence over you, that I'm more accessible and, you know, I don't make them wet their pants."

"Uh huh. Of course."

"How was the ceremony?"

"As awkward as expected. Starvak looked like he had an entire metal construction beam up his arse, and I wasn't much better honestly." Allya shrugged. "So, it went about as well as we could hope, honestly."

"Right." The elf yawned. "So, are you coming under the covers or not?"

"As soon as you stop clutching them like your life depended on it, sure."

The elf grumbled something under her breath, but threw off the cover, allowing her fiancée to join her, who simply stopped and laughed.

"What?" Said the elf.

"Honey, what...what is that?" Managed Allya, between two bouts of laughter, pointing at her.

Pyn looked down at her pajamas, bright pink in the form of a fluffy full jumpsuit.

"What? It's comfy!"

"You look ridiculous."

"And you look like a pervert."

Allya crossed her arms over her now customary lingerie.

"At least I look sexy."

"Well, I'm comfortable, and right now I just want to sleep. Now come here, I need my personal heater."

"Personal heater? I see how it is." Said the baroness as she nonetheless dived under the covers, her fiancée immediately latching onto her. She had to admit, her pajamas, however ridiculous, were impressively comfortable, even on the outside.

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"Shush. You've graduated from hot water bottle, do not abuse it."

Allya chuckled as she hugged Pyn back, nuzzle her fiancée's throat.

"Water bottle, really?"

"Yes, when I put my fingers inside you they come out all wet."

Allya almost choked as she heard that, but Pyn squeezed her.

"Now quiet, and be a good heater for your fiancée." Said the elf.

"Yes milady, as you command milady, whatever you say milady."

"Good. Now shush and go to sleep."

Allya nodded slightly. Pyn fell asleep quickly, but Allya was left drifting for a bit, worrying. She shifted, and the elf instinctively tightened her hold.

The baroness smiled, as she squeezed her fiancée against her. She could worry tomorrow.

******

"Well this is fucking terrifying." Said Alexandra as the spider tank ran around the testing room.

"I know, right?" Said CQ, or rather, her hologram.

They had taken a pause from the fortresses. They'd set up everything they could, and thrown back several breakout attempts. And since the enemy kept firing warning shots, in the forms of arrows and crossbow bolts mostly, at the golems coming under a flag of truce, Alexandra had decided to let them marinate for a bit. After all, she had some time to spare, her army was waiting for a reason.

CQ, who didn't want to be left out, had more or less commandeered one of the ships' communication setup to continue interacting with everyone back home.

"How fast are they?"

"Thirty kilometers per hour!" Said her daughter, and Alexandra whistled softly.

That was about two thirds of the speed of a horse galloping, and very close to the speed a mount could go at with armor.

And she was looking at spider tanks, the new ones with the light mythril plating. Just dashing across the battlefield.

"Well well well, we might have some decent, speedy armor after all."

"Right, like blitzkrieg?"

"I'm not calling these things panzers." Her ancestors would kill her, if nothing else. A lot of her family tree's branches came to an abrupt end during both world wars after all. "But yeah."

"Awww."

"Don't worry, I-" Alexandra tried to pat her daughter's head by sheer reflex, and stumbled as her hand phased through the hologram. "Crap, right."

"It's okay mom, it's the thought that counts." Said CQ as she patted her own head. "See? I'm doing it for you."

Alexandra laughed. She couldn't help it, the gesture was just too silly and adorable.

"I see it, I see it." She exchanged smiles with CQ. "So, what about the variants I asked for?"

"Here!" CQ gestured, and Seraph took the cue, sending in the new spider tanks. Alexandra really admired the AI, she had faded into a background logistical and engineering role without complain, now that she no longer was the de facto do it all AI, having to handle intelligence, battle planning, ect, having handed it over to Glitch and Subtlety.

A pair of spider tanks rushed onto the field, and Alexandra's eyebrows rose. They were definitely slower than their less heavily armed counterparts, but they actually still outran infantry quite handily. Not bad for a walker, not bad at all.

Especially when one carried a rack of rockets, which reminded her heavily of the Marathon UIS missile tank, itself a very distant descendant of the calliope tank, though why designers had named a tank after the Grim Reaper's apprentice was anyone's guess.

The other had a howitzer that was just...hilariously oversized for its frame.

"Is that thing not going to tip over?" Asked Alexandra as she gestured at the howitzer one.

"Nope! Well, as long as you don't try to fire it on the move that is. It has a firing mode." Right on cue, the spider tank spread around, almost looking like it had been squashed, but allowing its legs to gain greater purchase and lowering its body onto the ground.

"Interesting. And clever." As well as dead simple. "That saves on recoil compensation I assume?"

"Yep! Though, only a bit. The body still can't take the recoil without them."

Alexandra nodded. She'd have been amazed otherwise. It wasn't just a question of armor, the tank's brains, communication systems -she had decided on installing radios in every new tank- and sensors were in there after all.

"That's to be expected. So, characteristics for the howitzer one? Firing rate, ammunition?"

"They fire at about two thirds the speed as a normal howitzer, if allowed to set up first. The breach isn't all that easy to access, and the crew golems aren't that agile."

"Thought about upgrading?"

"Yes! But it was too costly. More worth it to build another tank with another base crew."

Alexandra nodded.

"Alright. And the ammunition?"

"Weeeeell..." CQ rubbed her neck.

"CQ..."

"We could only cram so much, with the crew onboard and all. Plus the shells are way bigger than the ones for the field guns, so...twelve rounds?"

"Twelve?!? That's...really not a lot, kiddo."

"I know, I know! But there's limits."

Alexandra looked at the spider tanks.

"Well, it's easy then." She said. "Strip out the rest."

"Mom?"

"Strip out the machineguns, the field guns, everything else. Just the gun and ammo. Keep the armor, because we need it to be able to survive shrapnel and some counter battery fire. But strip out all the rest."

"But what if they're attacked?"

"What if the normal howitzers are attacked? Think, kiddo. If they came in that close they're screwed anyway. Self defense for artillery is pointless, it's the rest of the army's job to keep them safe. Besides, they can run away, push comes to shove."

"Oki...But that means no triple barrels of doom?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The tanks are able to fire all weapons." Said Seraph, speaking up for the first time. "Not simultaneously, but in rapid sequence."

"...Show me."

And they did.

The howitzer tank was...impressive, to say the least. Loaded with normal shells it was already deadly, but canister shot...It was effectively doom incarnate for infantry.

The rocket tank was much, much worse however. It was clear that one had been designed for close in combat from the get go, and the weapon complimented it well. The rockets weren't the massive abominations she'd built to destroy Amelia's army, or her puny RPGs, but a hybrid. They weren't ballistic weapons, but they weren't glorified grenades either.

One rocket wouldn't destroy a trench line. Two wouldn't either. But there were ten rockets per row, and five rows per rack. Reloading it would take a while, but in the meantime it would pack one hell of a punch.

"Impressive." Said Alexandra, and she meant it. "Tell you what. Strip down the howitzer for support, and we'll start working on the rocket one for medium range combat." She looked at the result of the cannister shot demonstration, pensively. "And...draw up some plans for a pure field gun heavy tank. Actually, you know what? No."

"What? Why not?"

"Why put more guns, when you can make one fire faster? Seraph, prepare the workshop. It's high time we built ourselves a proper autocannon!"

*****

"So, that's where you were hiding." Said Emilia as she stepped into the jaccuzi room.

Ghost cracked open an eye, before closing it again.

"Yeeeep. Alex said I could use the place. All of our quarters, actually. Is that a problem?"

"No, no, she asked me for permission too before giving it to you."

Ghost heard the vampire move over to the dresser at the side of the room.

"Good. Sorry, if I'm lazing around a bit, I just...I needed a vacation, honestly."

"Yeah. I can understand that." There was some cloth rustling, and Ghost stopped herself from opening her eyes through a supreme effort of will. "I had to drag Alexandra away from work a lot. Though I have to do it less nowadays."

"Yes, I wonder why?" Said Ghost, her voice dripping with irony. Emilia stopped, and Ghost sighed. "Sorry, that was...uncalled for."

"No, it's okay. I understand that you...you long for some stuff she has but you don't."

This time Ghost did open her eyes, and met the half naked vampire's gaze.

"Which is why I'm not taking anything from her." She said, decisively, and the vampire nodded.

"I know. If you were, it would end badly, because I wouldn't give her up either."

"So what does that make us then?"

"I don't know." Said the vampire, softly. "Do you?"

Ghost closed her eyes again.

"...No. Not really."

"Then we can find out together." Said the vampire, as she continued disrobing.

"Right. Is Alex...okay with that?"

"She outright encouraged me! And teased me about it. A lot."

"Yeah, sounds like me alright."

They both chuckled, before staying silent as Emilia finished up, before sliding into the jaccuzi.

"Besides, I'm...curious." Said Emilia as she sat by Ghost's side.

"Just curious?"

"And a bit aroused." Even with her eyes closed, she could tell the vampire had looked away, just from her voice.

"Uh huh." Ghost cracked open an eyelid, and found the vampire clad in a surprisingly tasteful bikini. "You know, there is one thing I was curious about myself."

"Which was?"

"You've already turned Alexandra's chair against her."

"If she made it, she can sit on it." Said the vampire, blushing.

"So I've seen. Then, how about we turn another one of her tactics against her?"

"What are you thinking?"

"Well, she did pull off an ambush in this very chamber..."

Emilia laughed. No, she positively cackled.

"Sounds wonderful." She grinned. "Let's do it."

"Your wish is my command."

"Oh it better be." Purred the vampire, and suddenly Ghost's knees where far weaker than they had been. "It better be."