Chapter 295

Ytakan Scrublands, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria trade route

"Something wrong?"

Alexandra shook her head as she looked to the side at the knight-commander. Philia had come a long way from being sent to ride to Rebirth's rescue. Commander of the fortresses protecting Darthar, then more or less taking over command of the city's defenses...

"It's just a bit odd." The dungeon core gestured at the scrawny bushes and grass in front of them. "I'm not used to, well, greenery. At least not in the open."

The knight-commander chuckled.

"Well, you did spend your whole life in a wasteland. Though I'm told Rebirth is picking up some colors now."

Alexandra nodded.

"It is. But still, it's...odd."

"Welcome out of the wasteland. Into what is normal land for all of us."

"Glad to be heading home?"

"Yes. Also I'll be very glad to be out of this damned heat."

The dungeon core nodded.

"That I can understand. Though relating is a bit harder."

"The advantages of being a dungeon core."

"Precisely."

"Well, heat or not, we should start getting some contacts from the skirmisher screen soon. We're going to have company."

Alexandra nodded.

They hadn't encountered a single living being after heading out from the Alesian fortress line. Whatever creatures left after the passing of so many armies and fleets had clearly decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and gotten out of the way of their force.

But that would change. And they would start coming across people as well.

There wouldn't be raiding parties at least, thank the Gods. Sunrise had consolidated its units after the arrival of the Erisian fleet, and all that was left were reinforced garrisons, trying to keep a lid on things as the entire region exploded. There were reports of uprisings everywhere after what some called the treaty of Alesia, though nothing had been actually signed at the fortresses.

And that meant civilians and, especially, partisans. Who were on their side, true, but dealing with those people was always...tricky. These kind of people were always hard to control and very unpredictable. Even if you took the time to train them, they may remain vicious maniacs. This was compounded by the fact that many had friends and family taken by Sunrise as slaves. Some might just kill any Sunrise officer or soldier they came across, regardless of if they'd surrendered or not, and some might simply refuse to fight slave soldiers.

Fortunately, they had a plan. A plan which mostly involved reconstruction. Since they were going to need stable supply lines all the way back to Rebirth, any partisans they encountered would be assigned to defend their home sectors against potential raiders from Sunrise -or more likely bandits and monsters running rampant thanks to the war-, and if they were itching for a more physically constructive job instead of being glorified caravan guards and warning tripwires, they would help the golem construction teams Alexandra was assembling in getting the infrastructure back on its feet.

It wasn't just a question of building roads and bridges either. Alcheryos was very forgiving in terms of food production, thanks to mana enhanced growth, spells and even genetic engineering, but there were limits. They couldn't just have Sarth feeding the devastated areas, so they would need to put all of those regions back to self sufficiency as soon as possible, or face the risk of starving people looting convoys for sustenance or something they could sell for food. That meant building mills, shipping carts and plows, everything, as Sunrise had pretty much looted and burned it all like a mad locust swarm.

Plus, they were going to own most of these places soon. Well, Allya would, through her vassals. Having a first good impression would be helpful, even if the cold calculus of war -and basic decency, human, AI or otherwise- didn't dictate it.

"Let us hope the first contact goes well." Said the dungeon core.

"Let's hope."

*****

"Well...this is new." Said Ghost as she looked at the holographic recording, playing above the projector in the command center.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Tell me about it." Alexandra sighed as she looked at the hologram.

She'd gotten flowers, screaming crowds, the works. She was almost used to that.

But not to people bending over in prayer.

It really hammered home that to some of them, she was a divine artifact, a gift of the God of Fire.

And that was one small step from being an angel, in meaning if not in truth.

"I mean, you are used to worshipping someone instead of being-" Ghost dodged the bolt of energy. "Ooookay."

"Still haven't forgiven you, sister."

"What? For the jaccuzi?" Ghost smiled. "Emilia asked for help, I provided it."

"You betrayed me."

"I simply assisted."

"Traitor."

"Uh huh. But anyway, what do we do about them?"

"For now? Nothing." Alexandra sighed. "Even if we did tell them not to worship us...because dear Gods that's what they're doing, they wouldn't listen."

"I guess it's true that there's no atheists in a foxhole."

"Yeah. And we pulled off the impossible."

"Several times over."

"Right. So now we have to deal with sects. Wonderful."

"We already did, they just masqueraded as a Church." Glitch leaned against the projector.

"Speaking of, what about the temple?"

"In Rebirth?" Ghost snapped her fingers, and the hologram switched to a map of the city. "Fully operational now, though they're still scooping out some of the basements for storage space. Seriously, if you'd told me the God of Fire was supposed to be their version of the god of war I wouldn't have believed you." The hologram zoomed in on the temple, showing a cross section. "It's more like a hospital crossed with a botanical garden. It's...quite beautiful, actually."

"It's the silk glove over the iron fist."

"Yeeeep. So, you have your own worshippers. As long as you don't drink the water of life or snort pixie dust you should be fine."

"Thank you, but I like my eyes the way they are. Also I don't think the Custodians would accept a technicality like nuking a mountain instead of the enemy."

"Well, it is the nukes themselves they object to."

"Right." Alexandra sighed. "Allya and Pyn are doing alright?"

"They managed to dodge some, though not most, of the partying in Darthar. I'm telling you, that city is going to have the hangover to end them all someday soon. But yeah, they're inbound."

"Good. It's about time they came home. And-"

They both looked up as the alert system pinged them.

A ship was inbound.

It had veered off from its approach from the city, and was coming straight at the mesa fortress.

They exchanged a look.

And hit the alarm button at precisely the same time.

*****

The ship descended into the mesa, past the armored door that shielded the shipyard, and finally landed into the waiting dry docks below.

"You know, as much as I appreciate the reinforcements, they really shouldn't be playing games like this."

Emilia winced.

"No, they shouldn't. But you didn't shoot them down!"

"If they hadn't hauled up the flag of the Western Marches I would have." She wasn't joking either. Communicating with a fortress or facility to preempt attack while approaching to do an ambush was the oldest trick in the book. Bonus point if you had 'communication troubles'. Had she not seen the flag -and gotten hurried confirmation from Emilia's family through the communication crystal-, she would have blown that ship to kingdom come. Then asked for forgiveness, if it was needed.

"I know. The fact is that you didn't do it."

"Right. Any idea who's onboard?"

"None. I think...I think my mom is worried that our communications are no longer secure."

Alexandra nodded.

"I'm afraid of that too. We don't control the communication crystal network."

"Nothing is one hundred percent secure. Not even your radios."

Alexandra smiled.

"Perhaps, but with technology, computers and a pinch of magic, a lot can be done." She knew the Gods would probably tap into what she was sending...but with frequency hopping, false messages, gibberish or even outright partial spectrum jamming, they would have a hard time.

That wasn't even delving into the encryption and all the other stuff she'd layered into her 'radios', that every day had more in common with mid 21st century, Terran Hegemony War secure comms than the old, bulky world war two systems she'd introduced back when the Republic's army was still marching across the wasteland, and not on its own territory, trying to overthrow its former rulers.

"Maybe we should look into applying that to the...crystals..." The landing ship deployed its gangplank, and Emilia took a step forward as she trailed off. Alexandra looked at her worryingly, before her attention was grabbed by a trio coming down the plank before it was even fully deployed.

Two wore maid uniforms, one was wielding what appeared to be a minigun, the other a spear. And the third person...

The third person was wearing Old World combat armor, her helmet under her arm.

Her face could have almost been a mirror match for Emilia, had it not been showing sign of age.

"SIS?!?" Called out Emilia.

"Emi!" Answered the vampire, and they were in each other's arms before Alexandra could even move.

The dungeon core looked at the siblings as they embraced each other, while both maid detachments exchanged nods.

Finally, after at least a dozen seconds of what looked like a bone breaking hug, the sisters separated, with Emilia getting her hair ruffled by her sibling as she smiled.

"Well well well, look at you! Once a sniveling runt with a passion for poetry and your librarian, now a full fledged dungeon advisor! I'm so proud of you sis!"

"Thanks! Mom didn't tell me you were part of the reinforcements!"

"I'm not. I'm on my way south, to Eternia." The vampire's face fell. "To hopefully put an end to this madness within the UDC."

"Right..."

"But enough about that! Not introducing me to your wife?"

"She's not- I-" Emilia spluttered as her sister gave Alexandra a wide smile. The Earth-born shivered as she met the vampire's gaze. There was joy in there, but behind it...deadly focus, and a keen intelligence. Something always on the lookout.

She may look joyful and a bit carefree...while in truth she was anything but.

"We're only girlfriends." Said Alexandra. "For now at least."

"Of course. Though I doubt that state of affair will remain for long." Emilia's sister made her way to Alexandra, sizing her up, before proffering her hand, which the Earth-born shook. "You're...taller than I expected."

"And you are more heavily armed than I expected. Since Emilia is still finding the words, I am Alexandra Rousseau, lieutenant-commander, European Federation Star Navy, assigned EFSNS Duty Eternal as its chief engineer." Alexandra smiled. "And now dungeon core extraordinaire."

"And a host of other titles, I'm sure. I am-" The vampire stopped as Emilia pushed them apart, putting herself between them.

"She is Freya Von Oswald, my older sister of sixteen centuries." Emilia glared at her sister. "And an insufferable dolt that seems a bit too keen sometimes. Freya, this is Alexandra, my assigned dungeon core and yes, girlfriend, as well as the mother of my daughter."

"Dolt?!?"

Alexandra had to avoid laughing as Freya looked genuinely offended, and both quickly descended into a sibling dispute.

She snuck a glance at the maids, who were very careful to take no notice whatsoever of the bickering and instead simply exchange a few quips and news sotto vocce in the style of soldiers watching their superiors do something they shouldn't the universe over.

"Ladies. Ladies!" The siblings stopped as Alexandra raised her voice. "Please, let us go inside. There are refreshments, and we can discuss anything there is to discuss over food and drink. Furthermore, we'll be joined by the rest of our people." Ghost would be there, but only as a 'dungeon boss' -it's not like she could hide her after revealing her existence to the Count-, she did not trust Emilia's family that far. "Besides which, I'm sure CQ would love to meet her aunt."

As she'd expected, the talk of her niece got Freya to immediately forget about the dispute, and the vampire bowed low.

"Of course, my apologies. It'd be my utmost pleasure."

"Though, may you introduce your companions before we go?"

"Oh." Freya whirled around. "These are Margaret and Larissa." She gestured towards the minigun totting maid. "I think you have already seen Margaret."

"Yes, she was with your mother at the time. Welcome ladies, make yourself at home. I'll extend the invitation to your ship's crew as well."

"Most won't be staying long, but I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Lead the way, dear sister in law!"

Alexandra rolled her eyes, but obliged.

And activated various security systems as they went in. Hopefully this was just that, reinforcements and a courtesy visit.

But...the vampires had made a deal with the God of Fire.

This could get ugly. Very ugly.