Chapter 299

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

SINS Flickerlight

Alexandra sighed as she tapped the screen. Well, her hologram did, but the system recognized it, and happily ordered the screen to act like it had been touched. Thank the Gods for it being programmed that way. The stuff in engineering, as usual, had the most quality of life, mostly coded in by frustrated and/or bored engineers.

Status screens were brought up. Despite having been repaired over the millennia, there were still some things the onboard fabricators couldn't, or wouldn't, replace. The missile magazines, for example, were still missing. Not just their content, the entire space was just gone.

The ship's main reactor was fine, but it was dry. Not just from fuel usage either, it turned out the vessel had actually jettisoned the tanks alongside the missile magazines. Alexandra had taken one look at the core's specifications, and decided that it would be a problem she should save for later.

She already had a thermonuclear reactor system, courtesy of the base underneath her, and she didn't really have much of a use for it right now. And at least she could fuel it.

The ship used a hellish aneutronic fusion reactor, powered by helium-3 and lithium-6 out of all things. It used some kind of two stage fusion process, combining the helium and the lithium to obtain helium-4 and a proton, then combined that proton with more lithium to get its helium-3 back and another helium-4. It was actually fucking helium-3 neutral which was insane, the problem is that it needed a crapton of lithium-6, an isotope she didn't have, and a sizeable quantity of helium-3 to get going. Which she also didn't have. Since, oh, it just didn't occur naturally on virtually any planet with life on it. At least not in any quantity that could be exploited. Earth had to get its supply off of Luna to begin with, then eventually the gas giants, mainly Jupiter, which was, in part, why the Interplanetary Wars had happened to begin with. And why...why Europa had ended up being transferred to the Pan-Asian Confed, and eventually declared independence.

Or, more accurately, had its local government overthrown by madmen.

She shook herself. No time to dwell on it.

Going on a trip to the moon or outer system was out. She wasn't even sure she'd be able to leave the atmosphere without getting shot down, let alone coming back. That wasn't even taking into considerations all the other problems, like 'if they see this I'm so fucking dead'.

That meant Helium-3 production at home. Which was hell. Pretty much the only industrial (for some value thereof) way to make it was tritium decay, at which point she might as well just use it to power the reactors she already had.

But that also meant that she couldn't power the ship in an emergency, and retrofitting it with the reactors meant to power a base, not a warship, with all the design changes and mass efficiency problems that implied, was a no go.

She tapped her fingers on the edge of the screen, humming to herself.

...The Hammer of Eternity. It had used a helium-3 fusion gun to blow her mesa to kingdom come. The walker was gone, having tanked most of the blast when she'd overloaded the supply ship's reactor, but fuel tanks were usually hardened, for a wide variety of reasons.

Furthermore, there could be fuel supplies aboard the other ships. Especially when it was effectively ammunition. They used tritium deuterium power cores, she'd checked the labels on the fuel lines when she'd flooded them with golems during her rescue of Allya back then, but they could be carrying spare ammo, or another system that used it.

Finding it, however, would be the easy part. Shipping it home...

She couldn't just ship back a small quantity and replicate it using her powers, at least most likely. Experimenting with Ghost's fission reactor and its produce had proven that trying to replicate the end product was a no go. The cost was simply too high. Horrifically so. That seemed to go for many isotopes as well, so no radiation weapons for her, sadly. Nor purely technological artificial gravity, since that required a lot of isotopes for the primary systems, as well as a boatload of platinum. Well, platinum group, technically, osmium and the others would do in a pinch, but platinum was better.

So that meant siphoning and then moving large quantities of the best thermonuclear fuel in existence. It wasn't like with the missiles, where they could just flip off the guild and tell them to stuff it, if the Custodians even caught a whiff of it they'd be on her like her Raiders on a Republic convoy. Hell, their first instinct would be to deduce she was making a nuke, which...she probably would use any surplus for that. Probably using a three stage device, first the fission detonator, then tritium deuterium, and finally the sweet sweet helium juice. Screw a hundred kilotons, she could scale something like that well into the hundred megaton range.

This was-

"Hey."

Alexandra jumped back, her hologram glitching through the seat set behind the console as she did.

She whirled around, and took in a deep breath as she saw Ghost.

"Fucking hell sis. Don't do that, you scared the crap out of me."

"Oh it's sis now, is it?"

"Well, not technically, but..." She shrugged, and Ghost nodded.

"Right. Well, I come bearing news. And a recommendation."

"Hit me."

"The AI on this ship's a writeoff. For conversion, I mean. There simply isn't enough to build off of. It's not a gimped program like Seraph, it's just non sapient to begin with and doesn't have anything to upgrade it. There's no point in using the Arcadia kernel, there's not enough to leave an imprint, it'll basically be a clean install with a few oddities. Honestly it'd be better to wipe it."

Alexandra grimaced.

"I'd rather not. Without it we wouldn't have the ship."

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Ghost shrugged.

"It's up to you."

"Besides, it might not stay non sapient."

"Did you hear what I just said?"

"And do you remember, oh, our daughter, Jared, and our entire golem army, to name a few?"

The apparition's eyes widened.

"Oh. The dungeon feature. That's...interesting. I mean, we have full control, and the AI's loyalty is now completely ours. Plus it's not like we need someone aboard anyway, we can just have whoever needs it borrow processor time now that it's in network."

"I know." Alexandra went back to manipulating the screen, frowning as she looked at the structural diagram. "Was that the recommendation, wipe it?"

"No, the recommendation is for you to get home."

Alexandra looked up and blinked.

"What? Has something happened?"

"No, but your girlfriend is getting very angry."

"Oh."

"So, unless you want me to hop back into the jaccuzzi, or end up not touching the ground for a week again..."

"I get it. And I did touch the ground during that week, I'll have you know."

"Uh huh. Only because she wanted you to. Now scram, or she's liable to turn on me to."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you?"

Alexandra was gone before Ghost could muster a reply through her sputtering.

The dungeon core was still laughing when she took control of her avatar. She sat up from her command chair...and found herself face to face with Emilia.

The vampire advisor was slowly tapping her foot, and her eyes had whole thunderclouds inside of them.

"Hello honey." Said the vampire, and Alexandra winced. Oh crap. "Back again?"

"Yes, I-"

"Shush." Emilia stalked towards her and pushed the taller dungeon core back into her chair. "You, my dear, have been gone for three days. Nothing but status checks. And no news, besides 'I've gone inside the ship and I'm working on stuff'. I understand why you keep secrets, but at least taking a break every once in a while wouldn't kill you."

"I...I'm sorry."

"You are. And you'll be more sorry soon enough. I've had to deflect my sister enquiring about you by telling her you were too busy being suspended in mid air to chat. I had to lie to my sister for you, Alex."

"...Oh."

"Thankfully, after that, she decided she had other business."

"Okay...so what now?"

"Now?" The vampire straddled her legs on the chair. "Now...let's just say that if she asks again in the next few hours, my answer will be the exact same, and I won't be lying. Understood?"

Alexandra swallowed, heavily.

"Y-Yes."

"Good girl."

*****

"Thank you for that cogent summary, Melia." Said Allya with a nod to the dark elf, before turning towards the rest of her council, minus Alexandra. "And with this influx of adventurers, and the substantial tax income from the branch offices, I believe we mostly definitely can afford to begin expanding our air force to accommodate regular patrols along the trade route, not to mention post monster clearing bounties and quests for adventurers. Now, Anders, what are our Republic friends up to?"

The commander got up, and cleared his throat. Ironically, he had become the best choice for linking up with the New Republic, since, well, they were only soldiers and only had the vague basis of a civilian structure for administering the territory they took.

Besides, with what was happening...he was effectively sidelined, and he knew it. Not that he was complaining. He'd even straight up told her that him having not much to do was a good thing, as it meant they and their people weren't in direct and immediate danger.

He had used his sudden influx of free time to deepen some of his connections, and had even pulled some strings to get some of his clanmates in the Far Reach to agree to a tentative meeting with the New Republic, and he didn't seem to realize how insane of a diplomatic coup that was. Often the biggest problem in a conflict was getting boths sides to even accept talking with each other, and he'd done that on his own. Granted, by playing shamelessly the card of 'do you really want to fight the people backed by the dungeon who's kicking every kind of ass up North?', plus...well, bribes. Lots of bribes. Sorry, 'gifts of consideration for his kinsmen'.

With the Hegemon already having made some overtures...there was a real change of a tripartite meeting to decide the fate of the Republic, and a large summit to avoid an all out brawl down South.

"Well, first and foremost, they have split into three sections." Everyone murmured at that. "It's less stupid than it looks. The New Republic has a large army right now, as well as sizeable stockpiles, but no sources of new ones outside of us. Furthermore, they do not have a source of new manpower, while the Republic is acquiring new equipment and putting people under arms as fast as possible."

"Slave armies." Said Ellyana, through gritted teeth.

"Surprisingly enough, not always. They seem to be having a lot of trouble controlling what slave troops they have, probably due to lack of experience. This may be why Sunrise was unwilling to raise its number of slave soldiers above a certain number, at some point it becomes too...problematical. In effect, the officer cadre and its flexibility become the limiting factor."

"Interesting." Allya leaned forward, putting her head on her steepled fingers. "So, the objectives of these columns?"

Anders gestured at the map on the council table, placing a small token, and moving it around.

"The first one is heading towards the western wildlands. However, I have been told it will veer south somewhere along the way."

"Ah. Heading for Mystral, attempting to cut off the continental road?"

The commander nodded.

"Precisely. The continental road links Suvra, Mystra, Elkis, and beyond Crossroads and Eternity." He tapped each city in turn. "It is the only major trade artery westward. The rest is, well, wilderness by and large, infested with monster still. An army won't care, but traders will. Cut it off, and Suvra is alone."

"Suvra is a port." Pointed out Melia.

"Indeed it is. But to get to it they'll have to go past the Far Reach's coast, not to mention Seaside Nine before that. I don't wager they have a good chance of making it."

"Plus, Mystral supplies and supports the Five Sisters." Added Allya.

"Precisely." Anders inclined his head. "And the Five Sisters are the pillars that hold the frontier to the Far Reach closed. If they take Mystral...I think my kin will see reason, and there will be peace. No one wants to attack the great border citadels. A few forts and villages for raids are one thing, but a fortress meant to withstand siege is another. If they can be gotten to surrender peacefully, without the tremendous price in blood it would demand to break them, my people will strike a deal with Amelia."

"That's good. And at the same time, taking Mystral will eventually force Suvra to surrender." Continued Allya.

"And open another road to Elkis."

"Let me guess, the second column is heading east, straight for Crossroads, to do the same to Norvis and Eternity?"

"No. It is heading east..." He moved the token.

And he moved it to Gorromar.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Absolutely not. They have struck a deal with Gorromar. once there, that column will move to Eternity."

"They're not planning to invade." It wasn't a question.

"No. They have made a deal with the province. From Eternity, the army, moving unimpeded by the province's forces, they'll be able to threaten the fortresses in the Borderlands with the Hegemony."

"The same trick doesn't usually work twice you know."

"That's alright, because it's not the same trick. They don't intend to cross over and attack. Just convince the Republic that they might. Make them keep forces there that they might have otherwise recalled to the capital."

"Ah. Anchor the entire eastern army groups?"

"That...and maybe convince some of the regulars stuck there with the senate guard on their backs that the grass is greener elsewhere."

"...Amelia is going to try to make the fortresses rebel." Whispered Allya.

"Precisely. And lastly, the third column will head straight to Elkis. The problem, of course, will be this." He moved the token to a deceptively small city symbol on the map.

"Pavrow." Said Allya, grimacing.

Pavrow was a rarity for the continent. A city of the Old World, still standing. Well, for some values of standing. Linked by great highways, parts of them somehow still standing, to Lost Sands and the Eastern Shallows, the roads vanishing underneath the waves, it had been a place of middling importance to those of old, at least according to Alexandra's AI, Seraph.

But to them now, it was a megalopolis. A ruined one, but a megalopolis nonetheless.

Much of the debris had been cleared...and repurposed. Pavrow was a fortress the likes of which was rarely seen. Gigantic walls of neoconcrete fragments, held together by mortar, like some mad imitation of a normal stone wall, the towers instead great skyscrappers of the outskirts of the city, serving to anchor the fortifications, giving them the ability to spew for ungodly amounts of firepower. The greatest triumph of the early Republic had been to annex Pavrow diplomatically, making it one of its earliest joiners and arguably one of its crown jewels.

It hadn't seen battle in centuries, but...it had walls large enough that Alexandra's airships could have landed on them.

"Please tell me they're planning on going around it." Said the archduchess.

"Nope. They're going straight through."

"...How?"

"With lady Crystal's help. The walls were built to counter catapults and trebuchets. They also served admirably against bombards, but general Amelia is persuaded that with the howitzers she may be able to sweep the walls, and eventually conquer them. More importantly, with them she outranges the tower. And they were set up to always have the range advantage. After all, with catapults, the higher one shoots farther, and they had lots of height to spare."

Allya nodded.

"That makes sense. Still, it's going to be hell."

"Perhaps, but the siege will give time for the rest of the columns to get to their objectives. And probably accomplish them before the city falls."

"Thus potentially threatening Elkis from every side."

"Indeed. If it comes down to it, the Senate won't simply stand idle, twiddling their thumbs inside the capital. They'll sortie, and probably run away while their troops die for them. Cutting off the avenues of escape..."

"You think they'll surrender?"

Anders shrugged.

"They're slime and scum. If they save their lives and their purses, wouldn't they take it?"

"A good point. An excellent one even. Now, I have a report of my own, since lady Crystal was unavailable, regarding the march north to Asaria..."