Chapter 302

Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

Allya gazed at the wasteland as she leaned against the battlements. Well, 'wasteland'. It was actually becoming green now, the first hardy plants rejuvinating the soil, under the careful ministrations of the temple.

She couldn't even remember the last time she'd been on her city's ramparts. Probably one of the inspections of the repairs made on them after the Old World automata attack, back when they expected the Republic army to make it.

Now...she wondered if they'd ever be used again. And if they would even make the slightest bit of difference if they were.

She looked at both sides, at the slots where Alexandra's field guns would have been emplaced for a battle.

It seemed so long ago, when it felt like the fate of herself and her people would be decided on these walls, as golems poured shell after shell into a relentless tide of metal and armor.

Now she was safely removed from the action. Thousands of kilometers from any real enemy, even now surrounded by a small army of bodyguards, and she knew, under constant surveillance by a strike team of Praetorian Guards within the mesa fortress of her ally, ready to unleash hell in her defense.

She heard the clanking of horseshoes hitting the stone, and she closed her eyes.

"Hello, guildmaster." She said.

"Greetings, archduchess." Answered Orromar, as the centaur came to a halt by her side.

They both simply stood there, in a silence that was almost amiable.

Finally, the guildmaster leaned against the battlements as well, no mean feat for a centaur of his height.

"Archduchess." He said softly, and she gave him a sidelong glance.

"Out with it. I see you've finally gathered your courage. Say what you have to say."

The guildmaster was quiet for a second.

"They won't give up, you know."

"Who?"

"The guild. My superiors. They have seen, firsthand, the horrors unleashed during the United Dungeon Wars. They'll do anything, anything at all to prevent it."

"Then they've already lost. They are just fighting the inevitable." Said Allya.

"...What?"

"The UDC is collapsing. There's no stopping it now. Just delaying it. Do you think the isolationists will let their petty kingdom go away? No, they'll fight rather than let others leave. Not after Crystal spat in their faces and dragged their name through the dirt."

"One of those isolationists is dead milady."

Allya rounded on him so quickly he flinched.

"And if your superiors had it their way, there would be more of those, wouldn't there? Don't fucking try to pin this on me, we both know who eliminated that core and why."

The guildmaster looked at her.

"I don't." He said, and Allya looked at him in wonder. He'd tricked her. He genuinely didn't know. Was he...

"You're being kept in the dark." She said.

"I am. But I know something is happening."

"Are you trying to appeal to my good sense, asking me to back down?"

"No. I'm telling you to prepare. I'm warning you."

"...Why?"

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"How many live in Darthar, because Crystal told the UDC to go to hell? They say you can measure the worth of someone by their enemies. If people like the duchess of Sunrise and the Republic's senators are your foes, then you must be doing something right."

"But that doesn't make us friends."

"Nor allies, no." He looked at her. "I took an oath to serve. It said nothing of serving blindly however."

Allya tilted her head, and a shiver went through her as she saw his eyes, heavy with meaning. Why-

Crap.

Crap crap crap.

Wording. The way he'd worded that.

The guild was preparing something. Through him. In Rebirth. It had to be only at its beginning stages, or they probably would have seen something...she dearly hoped.

"I see. And I thank you. For your concern. I will return the favor someday."

Return the favor of sparing his life when Alexandra brought the hammer down on them. Like she'd been planning for a while.

"Thank you."

Allya watched him leave, before returning to the vista in front of her.

She could stay her a while...watch the sunset. She had time.

*****

Alexandra smiled as the machine finished assembly.

"What...is that?" Asked Emilia, in pure awe.

"That, my dear...is my answer to my tech limitations for deploying rechargeable shield generators. And the need for something to draw fire from mages and survive it on the ground. This is my first real mech."

Emilia looked up at the monstrosity, and especially its weapons.

"That's..."

"Made to be overkill. Twin barelled medium autocannon ventral turret, two arm mounted heavy howitzers with rapid fire autoloaders, eight machine guns, two hull mounted forward, two back, one coaxial for every weapon, the last turret mounted to sweep infantry from underneath the mech, and last but not the least, shoulder mounted rocket racks with a back mounted missile launch tube sandwiched between them. All of it bolted on a heavy mythril armored chassis, with additional composite plating with an improved energy dispersion matrix, accompanied by a rapid recharge shield generator."

"Honey, that's a fucking landship at this point."

Alexandra's smile widened.

"Yes, but impossible to board, capable of moving far more quickly than a tread powered ship, and with little need for the expensive recoil cancelling systems of an antigrav vehicle, with its legs to take it. Last but not the least, it's immune to the current terrain issue we're running into up north."

Emilia winced. The army, now that it had gone beyond the Crimson Path, was running into a problem Alexandra hadn't fully anticipated: vegetation.

This wasn't Alpha Centauri, automated colony machines hadn't criss crossed the planet with highways, to enable the planetary terraforming and the construction of the cities.

There were roads, ones that by medieval standards were unbelievably amazing and even, thanks to geomancers being able to smooth them out and maintain them, but that was still incredibly inadequate for an army numbering above a hundred thousand.

That meant they'd had to split up their forces into several parallel columns, and many of these roads hadn't been maintained in months, and were thick with undergrowth. With Alcheryos' aggressively growing, mana imbued vegetation, that was an obstacle even the spider tanks couldn't just punch through. And the climate was still arid enough that just using the flamethrowers to clear the way would probably end in creating more problems than it solved for their army, nevermind the poor civilians and partisans seeking their protections that would be caught in it.

That was actual another problem they were running into. Now that they were advancing north, and weren't leaving much of a garrison, beyond some of the town militias, who were in their natural elements, many civilians were following the army. Some were the camp followers such medieval forces attracted by default, but a fair few were simply there for protection.

After all, if their town militias had already been overrun, if they hadn't just turned their coats and joined the invaders, what guarantee would they have that the new ones would prove successful where their predecessors had failed?

Alexandra just couldn't bring herself to chase them away. After all, they were right. If Sunrise's southern army found its balls again, they could cut off her rear. They'd be annihilated by the response, but that would be cold comfort for the poor bastards caught in the way.

So instead she'd started a whole program in partnership with the duke of Sarth, who despite his advanced age -and showing it- marched side by side with his army.

The civilians were enlisted to help with clearing the road. Not just for the army to pass, but do full scale maintenance to ensure it would remain clear for the supply convoys, freeing the heavily loaded soldiers to focus on marching and recuperating. In exchange they were being fed, clothed, and sent back on Allya and the duke's dime with the now -somewhat- empty supply convoys, using whatever space was available, towards Sarth and Darthar. The convoys for the latter had to be lighter, due to the supplies necessary. You'd think they would be less popular, too, due to the dangers involved, but the tale of the Last Stand of the Breach had already taken a life of its own, and her branch office, with its surface fortress, was already becoming a legend on its own. To hear the old defenders of Darthar, who had seen it built, it had a moat filled with magma, thousands of artillery guns pointed in every direction, and a million golems laying in ambush underneath it, ready to annihilate anybody who would challenge the dungeon core.

It was ridiculous, but, well...the refugees who those tales were being told to were surrounded by wonders they'd barely even imagined. Half educated peasants, kept in the dark about even essence, let alone the wider world, were standing the shadows of spider tanks, steel airships and thousands upon thousands of golems wielding weapons that spat fire and flame. It wasn't just that they desperately wanted to believe, they had proof before their very eyes of the wonderous legions of the dungeon and the invicible might of the new archduchy.

Speaking of, she'd need to talk to Allya about some stuff. There were talks on how the Kingdom shall be split, as the new borders of the archduchy had not yet been hammered in stone. After all, do not sell the bear's hide before it has been killed. Some proposes that it be split along the Kamira river, anything west was Allya's, the rest their majesties', splitting Kaidan and it's duchy right down the middle.

Alexandra and Allya had a different idea. Because they wanted, needed, sea access. A full north to south separation, with them inheriting the entirety of Kaidan and Lorenz, and maybe giving up the western baronies in exchange, who, after all, remained extremely loyal to the crown. It would give them acccess to the sea, without taking the jewel -in the eyes of many, at least- that was Sunrise, and in exchange give the crown the northern half of all the trade routes, full control of the border with the Sapphire Kingdom and, in the future, access to the lost Sands if dungeons ever appeared there and pushed the livable border westward.

Or, you know, she plopped a branch office there and went looking into the Death Zone.

So they'd need to start convincing people that their way was the better one. They were going to more or less impose it to their majesties anyway, but it would be a hell of a lot easier and with less friction if the victorious army and its commanders, most of whom were nobles, were backing it. After all, Allya would receive the lion's share of the glory, but all of the others would be damned heroes as well. Provided that they were victorious, of course. But if they did, then their opinion would weigh a lot.

Alexandra realized she'd dozed off into her own thoughts when Emilia poked her.

"Uh? Oh, sorry, was lost in thought. What did you say?"

"I asked you about its name. It has four legs, but it's no spider tank."

"Oh, right. I call it the Mackie. The firstborn of my mechs."

"Mackie? That's a referrence to another one of your Terran tabletop games, isn't it?"

"Oh yes. Battletech, this time. Big stompy mechs."

"I suppose it's appropriate."

"Yes it is. Now, I believe we had a meeting with your sister?"

"Yes we do. Now please don't glare at her again."

"If she puts beans on toast again, I make no promises."

Emilia rolled her eyes.

"This is as good as I'm gonna get, uh? Alright, now move it. We need to be good hosts. Hop hop!"

*****

Allya was still leaning on the battlements when she heard the commotion in the city. She turned around, just in time to watch Éclair erupt on the walls', slamming the door aside.

"Milady!" She said, and Allya shivered as she saw her bodyguard's face. "Thank the Gods you're here! We couldn't find you! You have to get to the council room, quickly!"

"What's going on?"

The bodyguard looked at her eyes filled with terror.

"Milady...there are reports coming in from all over the world! Battles and bloodshed everywhere! It's..." The bodyguard took in a deep breath, trying, unsucessfully to calm herself. "It's a dungeon civil war!"