Chapter 306

Ytakan Scrublands, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria trade route, Town of Myriu

"Ma'am, you're a sight for sore eyes." Said the colonel as he saluted her, and Alexandra found herself returning the salute, more by reflex than anything.

"Glad to be." She said, tilting her head. "Though I'm afraid introductions are in order."

"Yes ma'am. Colonel Rim Myles, twentieth royal heavy infantry regiment. Well, what's left of it anyway. We've absorbed so many other units my men joke the two Xs are because no one can keep track of who we should be any more." Alexandra's eyebrows rose at this. The Asarian Kingdom used roman numerals for their units designation for some forsaken reason, that was no surprise to her, but a royal heavy infantry regiment?

"I wasn't told to expect you. What happened?"

"We got separated. During the retreat through Molro, we got cut off at Milban bridge. Though I suppose it should be Milban crossing. The units holding the bridge got hit hard, and the line collapsed. By the time we'd fought our way there it was too late, Sunrise had their pikes in the middle, couldn't cross." The colonel shrugged. "We'd been ordered to fall back across, then blow the bridge with some Tarkian stuff. Since that was no longer an option, I had my men mine the sections we managed to make our way into. I'm no sapper, but we must have hit something weird, because the rest of the bridge gave way like freaking dominos. The rebels were too busy trying to jam into the nearby fjords, pursuing her majesty and the rest of the army to mind us afterwards."

"So you just...slipped off? You didn't rejoin the main army?"

"Tried to ma'am. But we were behind enemy lines, and heavy infantry doesn't move quick."

"Ah."

"We made ourselves enough of a nuisance they started sending some heavy hitters after us. Their slave brands may be nasty, but they still take time to apply, and if you hit them during one of their slave taking raids you tend to make a lot of new friends."

"Why not dissolve into a guerilla group?"

The colonel smiled.

"We're the royal infantry ma'am. We hold the line. It's what we do. We had to go south though." His smile fell. "It...wasn't an easy march. We kept finding stragglers, left behind in the retreat. But the civy volunteers...they didn't have our training, they couldn't just march all day. And they pressed us hard. We lost a good people ma'am."

"And they'll be avenged."

"I hope so ma'am. When you started kicking ass down south, the guys pursuing us got recalled. The capital was under siege by now though, and we were closer to you than there anyway. So we continued south. But the garrisons knew we were coming, and they started organizing sorties."

"So?"

"So we went the one place they didn't expect us." He nodded towards the map spread on the command tent's table. "Straight through Kaidan." He shook his head. "Ma'am, the shit we saw there...there ain't a duchy anymore. It's a ruin. A ruin haunted by slaves they're using to rebuild."

"Did you come across the southern army?"

"No. When we heard you'd marched out of Darthar, we went North, to put ourselves on your path and prepare the way. Dodged those fuckers. Got a lot of people along the way who intended to do the same too. Those Kaidani saw what happened to their home, now they're even more determined than my regulars, and that's saying something."

"And once you arrived, you made yourself one hell of a cork."

Rim smiled viciously.

"That we did. I chose Myriu, nice little town before this mess, and fortified the hell out of it. All the roads converge there, or so I'd been told by the locals who joined us, and the brush's so thick around here you're not getting through it easily. And since they were running from you..."

Alexandra nodded. When they'd found Myriu, they'd been expecting an ambush, or at least some kind of fight. It was a key junction and the place every slave garrison that was running in front of her army would have to go through.

Instead they'd found the town a makeshift fortress, with royal banners flying high, and a loyalist unit almost a thousand strong, comprised of almost damned everything she could think of, from crossbow wielding dragoons to what looked like javelin wielding skirmishers, with even a couple of pegasus riding light cavalry.

And with them, the garrisons. Some had tried to fight, or go around, the surroundings littered with the resulting mass graves of both, but a fair few had chosen to besiege the fortress, and promptly surrendered at her approach. That wasn't even mentioning the ones who'd surrendered to the fortress before she ever showed up.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"They were in too much of a hurry to mount an assault." Which meant that those that had besieged the town were probably resigned to the inevitable, and were trying to look like they weren't just waiting to be overwhelmed, without sending their slaves to their deaths. That was...interesting.

"Yeah. Some of them made it through, around us, but damned few."

"That's good. In any case, welcome aboard colonel." Alexandra extended her hand, and the soldier shook it. "I advise you go and talk to the duke, if you want to join our march. He's handling the logistics for the, well, human part of this army."

"Yes ma'am. We-" They both whirled around as there was a commotion at the tent entrance, where two of her golems were barring the way to an agitated soldier. "That's one of mine, ma'am."

Alexandra gestured, and both the golems let the soldier through.

"Rimmy!" The soldier saluted the colonel, and his eyes widened as he saw her. Had he not realized where he was going? Probably a messenger that had simply gotten directions, and hadn't noticed he was heading straight for the command tent. Which to be fair, was easy to do, it was exactly like any other tent here. Marking your HQ with a big old pile of heraldry and luxury was a good way to get swarmed with assassins or eat a long range spell. "Oh shit, you're-"

"Focus trooper." Snapped Rim, clearly not bothered by being addressed by what had to be his nickname, but by the soldier reacting that way to the dungeon core. Interesting, not may officers were secure enough in their own authority to do that. "What is it?"

"Sir, we got some runners back from our northern patrols. They said they encountered some panicked free trader airship, running like all the demons of hell were after it. They managed to hail the captain. Apparently there's something coming down from the Inner Sea. Something horrible."

Rim and Alexandra exchanged a look. The Inner Sea was the massive expanse of water that separated Asaria from the west of the kingdom, including Sarth and and the western baronies. One of the reasons Darthar had been so important, besides its position as a trade link for crossing the wasteland, was that it was also a major hub to go from the capital to Sarth itself, because the Inner Sea...one could cross it, but on Alcheryos you had to be thoroughly insane to go through large bodies of water when there was an alternative. Any alternative. Monsters might stalk the land, but they ruled underneath the waves.

"I'll we right there." Said the colonel. "Where are the runners?"

"HQ sir, with Digby and that knight-commander lady."

"Alright. Tell him we're coming. Me and lady Crystal, alright?"

"Yes sir!" The soldier threw up a salute, then another, belated one, at the dungeon core, before running off.

"Well shit." Said the colonel, before turning towards Alexandra. "My apologies for assuming, but would you like to accompany me?"

"It seems to be where the action is, sure." She followed him out of the tent, her golems automatically forming up around them, the colonel giving them, and their weapons a fascinated glance. "Who is Digby?"

"Captain Digor Byrone, my second in command. He's not much of a tactician but he can deliver a speech like you wouldn't believe. Half of our success is due to him, honestly. He kept us together in our darkest hours."

Alexandra nodded.

"I see. Everything needs some glue to hold together. You had patrols up north?"

"Feelers, extended in case Sunrise sent somebody to take us out. Or something bigger, intended for you." He shrugged. "They're also part of why so few made it past us. It's hard to fight off monsters and trained soldiers simultaneously, especially when you've had to abandon a lot of your supplies because you thought you'd be able to use the roads the whole way."

"Well, they seemed to have come across something."

"They have. Didn't truly expect them to report in something. East, yeah, but North?"

Alexandra nodded.

"If they were coming from the North, they'd hold at the Royal Union Bridge."

"Yeah. Figured that as well. Perfect chokepoint. Besides, the Inner Sea? Sunrise has one hell of a navy, but they can't sail the rivers worth a damn. They're galleons, not barges, and even if they were, there are too many bridges on the rivers, destroyed or otherwise."

"It's not Sunrise."

The colonel's eyebrows rose.

"Then who the hell is it?"

"You haven't heard the news, have you?"

"We haven't exactly been replete with means of communication, smack dab in hostile territory."

"The UDC has imploded into full blown civil war. And one of the factions blames me."

"...Oh fuck."

"Yeah."

They passed through the gates, the guards, a mixed of twentieth unit and her golems, waved them through without comment. It had been a short walk, Alexandra having decided to put her command tent near the town for a variety of reasons.

"Well, I guess we're going to know pretty quickly." The colonel gestured at what looked like a fortified inn, within plain sight of the gates. "That's our stop."

"You used that?"

"Officers still have to sleep." The guards at the entrance were all twentieth this time, but they opened the door all the same. One of them nodded a greeting.

"They're waiting for you."

"Thanks Gatts." Said the colonel as he slapped the guard's shoulder, before walking inside. Alexandra followed him and almost came to a stop as she entered.

She...crap, when was the last time she'd been in any human building that wasn't a military facility, a political meeting place or a command center? Probably back before she'd been sacrificed, the guild hall where she'd met her party.

Even with it clearly having been converted to a more martial purpose, the sight of the inn's common room hit her like a sledgehammer.

"Lady Crystal! It's good you made it so quickly." Alexandra shook herself out of it, and looked at the speaker. Knight-commander Philia was leaning over a table covered with charts, maps, and tankards, alongside two men. One had to be the runner, given his outfit, and the other would have looked thoroughly unassuming if not for his eyes, burning with an almost unearthly fervor. No officers' insignia, but it had to be the captain.

"What's the situation?" Asked the dungeon core as she followed Rim and joined them in poring over the maps.

"Just rumors so far." Answered Philia. "But according to the free trader, something has gotten everyone running like hell from the coast around Ulrys." She tapped a symbol on the map. "It's a big fishing community. They make their trade by plying the inner sea. They've seen some shit and then some, snatching their people from the deep, so they don't scare easily."

Alexandra blinked at the description, and looked up at the Knight-commander.

"Speaking from experience?"

"I had to pass through there a couple of times. If you have a small amount of well trained people, you can cut a fair bit off of the journey between Asaria and Sarth by following the coast. It's stressful as hell and the going can get difficult, but it's doable."

The dungeon core nodded. ‘A small amount of well trained people’ was basically the definition of the royal knights.

"Good to know. So they ran?"

"And ran fast. There's something that terrified them up there. More than the wilderness did, at any rate."

"So, nothing concrete then."

"No, but..." The Knight-commander tapped their position. Then Ulrys, forming a line.

She dragged her finger across the map, until it crossed another city.

"Fuck." Said Alexandra, as the two twentieth officers exchanged a look.

"What's over there?" Asked Rim.

"That is Tivaro. Fourth biggest city in the Sapphire Kingdom." Alexandra grimaced, like she'd chewed on bitter fruit. "And it's also the home of Mardikan of the Frozen Falls dungeon. One of the staunchest isolationists on the continent." She met Rim's gaze. "The faction within the UDC that wishes me dead." She elaborated.

"Ah. So that makes it...a likely enemy attack, then."

"Yeah. And they're coming straight for us." Alexandra leaned back from the table. "Alright, colonel?"

"Yes ma'am?"

"Get everyone you have that knows the local area. If we're gonna get hit, it'll be by the air. That means we'll need to use our ground pounders right. I need a place I can use my artillery to cover my airfleet."

"Yes ma'am. I'll recall my patrols, most of them have a lot of hands on knowledge now, and they got the lion's share of the local guides, for obvious reasons."

"Do so. I'll dispatch my recon aircrafts north, see if I can get a good look at what's coming. If anything is." Alexandra frowned as she looked at the map, then her eyes widened. "They launched earlier."

"What?" Chorused all three of the officers around the table.

"This...fleet, whatever it is, couldn't overtake that free trader. Thus they can't be moving that quickly. They couldn't have made it from Tivaro since the civil war started."

They all exchanged looks, and Philia swallowed heavily before speaking.

"So they were sent beforehand."

"Well beforehand." Finished the colonel.

Silence descended upon the room, as they all gazed at the map, and it's unpalatable implications.