Chapter 328
Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth
Dungeon Factory, Command Center
Allya swallowed.
"So?" She asked, her voice strangled. "How many?"
"We lost fifteen thousand people. Half...half of which were left behind." Said Alexandra, as if every word caused her physical pain. "And about five thousand golems."
"Merciful Earth Goddess..." Said the archduchess.
That was almost a sixth of the entire army. Annihilated in a few minutes.
"How did they pull it off?" Asked Pyn.
"It's my fault." Said Alexandra as she bent her head. "I...Damn it, I should have made contingencies! I got overconfident. Thought my blackbirds were basically invisible. With the UDC's fleet crippled and their sensor net down..."
"Are you sure it's-"
"Pyn. They shot them down the second I sent them back to scout what was going on." Alexandra closed her eyes. "And they waited for my recon to fly over them before launching their assault. I told them exactly when to strike."
"That's not true." Said Allya softly, and the archduchess raised her hand as Alexandra opened her mouth, forestalling the dungeon core. "They would have attacked anyway. The only thing this did was making sure they wouldn't be discovered too early...and so what? If we hadn't had the blackbirds, we wouldn't have seen it coming any earlier anyway, would we? Did it make us too confident? Maybe, but you still had those drones up, which saved the entire army."
Alexandra closed her mouth. Allya's tone and glare brokered no arguments. And it wasn't frustration either, there was...sympathy in her gaze.
The dungeon looked around the command center, and saw only agreement with the noble's words.
Damn it, what had she done to deserve friends like these?
"Alright. But still, we've lost our long range recon."
"Not fully." Piped in Subtlety. "Their airships are still detectable far outside of the enemy's interception range."
"True, but that doesn't mean they can't use them as decoys." Retorted the dungeon core, and the AI shrugged.
"Perhaps. But we will still be able to know the location of their air units."
"Fair enough." Alexandra smiled. "I guess we're back to reconnaissance the old fashioned way."
"With drones to help." Corrected the AI.
"The drones will get shot down too quickly. They'll serve as a tripwire just fine, but we can't use them to breach their skirmisher screen. No, we'll need something that can haul ass."
Allya looked at the dungeon core, and a small smile appeared on her lips.
"The Mackie?"
"And our armored units in general." Confirmed Alexandra. "Though we'll have to look about making some specialized recon spider tanks, the mythril prototypes already there have enhanced mobility, they should do fine for now."
"Let's hope."
"So..." Pyn shrugged as everyone looked at her. "What do we do now?"
Alexandra grimaced.
"We follow our old plan. Despite the current changes, it's still our best bet."
"Their apparent willingness and increased aggressiveness will have to be taken into consideration for operational matters." Said Seraph.
The dungeon core nodded.
"It will. If they're willing to send their elites forward, rather than use the slaves as an ablative meat shield, we'll have to adapt how we go about it, but the base idea is sound. At least, our retreat and the bloodying of their finest has made them pause for now. Let's get some distance, let them gain some confidence, then we'll start laying out our...surprises." Her wolfish smile was mirrored by her companions. "We'll see how much of their confidence remains then. And once they hesitate...I only need so much time to ready my hammer."
*****
"We are continuing on the analysis of all of the blackbirds' footage." Said Glitch as Alexandra leaned on the railing. With the size of the fabricators and now the need -and ability- to modify them, she had a vast network of catwalks and maintenance rooms set into the fabrication room. "If they found them by observing their launch or flight we'll find it."
"Good." The dungeon core looked as one of the fabricators beeped, and opened, allowing a golem to withdraw the part from within, and carry it to its twin, slowly being put together. "What of our industrial scale up?"
"Continuing apace. Two weeks until we reach the desired number of fabricators for current strategic operations."
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"And the optimal one? To fully replace all of our dungeon production?"
The AI shrugged.
"Unclear. Current production is...fluctuating."
Alexandra grimaced. It definitely was.
They had been around long enough that the ready local supply of adventurers had been thoroughly drained, in the Republic and the Kingdom both. Though, ironically, in some ways the wars were starting to help with immigration, as people were fleeing the fighting and various drafts, from being turned into soldiers or simply used as requisitioned labor.
That wasn't even counting the ones they had rescued with the army, and who were very keen on being shipped to Rebirth, the 'impregnable fortress', that had survived the relentless assaults of the Republic and the Old World, quickly gaining a reputation to equal Sarth's.
Plus, the economic activity, the opportunities...
In any case, the dungeon was starting to see some weird stuff, with some adventurers coming from farther and farther to not only delve but also equip themselves with processed dungeon loot. It was kind of odd, having high ranking adventurers coming in, testing weapons and tactics, before heading out and going back to wherever they came from. But it also distorted their statistics and production needs.
"Fluctuating or no, we have an average, do we not?"
"Affirmative. If the average continues...six months."
"Six months?!?"
"If we wish to sustain military operations without diverting fabricators and funding to this endeavor."
Alexandra grimaced.
"Alright, fair enough. How are we with scaling up the NLR core?"
"Mana accumulation is ongoing." One of her key problems was that she couldn't directly use the mana from the NLR core for her dungeon stuff. Which, since raw materials were the primary cost with fabricator made stuff, made it unaffected by her current diversion of resources. She still had a lot of surplus, but she'd rather not be caught with her pants down again and have to start drawing mana from her dungeon core rather than the NLR. "One month, approximately."
The dungeon core smiled.
"Excellent. Then we are still on schedule." Alexandra sighed. "Now let's hope the army can hold on."
"Subtlety has a report about the progress of the sappers."
"She'll be my next stop then." The dungeon core shook her head. "Sunrise has to be ecstatic to see us running with our tail between our legs. Let's make sure we take them down a peg or two."
*****
"To our victory! To Sunrise!" Said the duchess, as she raised her goblet.
"To Sunrise!" Clamored her officers, as they toasted.
She smiled, and drank deeply, before sitting down, kicking off the banquet.
Slaves plied the tables with food, or their bodies for some of the more hands on nobles, and the vast tent dissolved into the hubhub of conversation.
The duchess exchanged small talk with the nobles at her table, while keeping an eye on the whole room.
Her spymaster had been right. There was...tension, here. Despite their heroic victory -and damn it, it had been one!-, pushing the seemingly unstoppable dungeon back, there was nervousness within her people.
More worryingly, the ones at her table, those who had covered themselves in glory during the battle, were the most nervous of them all. They were the ones who had fought the dungeon's troops face to face, and seen for themselves the lack of their vaunted invulnerability and unwillingness to retreat. But the losses taken...Some were still nursing wounds, while others were in the grip of the sickness that afflicted those brought back from the dead.
There were already whispers among her officers of a pyrrhic victory. And others...Others were saying it had been too easy, and were waiting for the other boot to drop.
Her eyes flickered as she spotted a man weaving through the crowd. Her spymaster was a noble, by her hand, but he tried to keep to the shadows as much as possible. Few recognized him or cared, but those who did zeroed in like attack dogs, knowing that if he was there, then something was happening. Something that couldn't wait.
The spymaster made his way to the duchess, and slipped by her side, whispering into her ear.
"Your grace, the Brigadier has recovered. He has been healed. My agents says our enemies may involved in his recovery."
The duchess' goblet creaked as her hand threatened to crush it, before she relaxed, leaving an indentation into the bejeweled piece of silverware.
Several of the nobles at her table exchanged looks of alarm, before continuing their conversations as the spymaster's gaze swept the area, clearly deciding that discretion was the better part of valor.
"Very well. We now know without doubt that he has sold out." Said the duchess, before glaring at the spymaster as he opened his mouth to protest. "Don't tell me that this proves nothing. It fits too neatly. Now, find me who, exactly, did that, so that I may impale them alongside him when I am victorious."
Unless those persons happened to be the archduchesses of Rebirth. She had something...special in mind for these two.
"Yes, your grace." Said the spymaster, before slinking away, and the duchess went back to exchanging with her nobles, as if nothing had happened.
But all could see the edge in her eyes. Two step forwards, one damned step back...
Whoever was actually behind all this on the other side, and she was becoming less and less certain it was the archduchesses, or even the dungeon, they knew which pressure points to push. If the southern army turned against her officially...
Right now, it had gone rogue in all but name, but everything in politics was a matter of perception. The neutral nobles flocking to the crown had already shaken her allies, having one of her two field armies -three, now, with the force entrenched around Asaria, pinning down the royal army-, no matter how small it was compared to her main force would shatter their confidence in her. Might even drive some to desertion.
Or outright rebellion. There would be some desperate that throwing her head at the feet of their majesties would buy them mercy. It would be folly, with the scale of devastation unleashed, and their almost victory...the King, no matter how gentle he appeared to be, would have to reap a rich harvest of noble heads.
That wasn't even mentioning the creation of the two archduchies.
Which reminded her of the symbolism of this feast. While the slaves cleared the wreckage of the battle for nobles to resurrect or whatever could be salvaged, including a not so insignificant stockpile of enemy weapons, though unfortunately no artillery, they were here, eating and drinking...on the southern bank of the Kamira river. Which, according to their majesties' peace plan, belonged to Rebirth. For the first time in this war, if you discounted their 'allies' in the Republic, or what little was left of it, they were taking the war to the nascent archduchy.
Technically.
It wasn't as much of a reassurance and symbol as she had hoped it would be.
Especially as, even during their triumph, news continued trickling in of the Republic's imminent collapse, its social unrest and incompetence. The senate was unwilling to do what needed to be done, and use the brands she had generously gifted them. Cowards.
One needed a strong hand, and not hesitate to be bold.
Speaking of...
The duchess grabbed one of her maids as she served her mistress, and unceremoniously drew the young woman onto her lap.
The maid didn't protest, and no one even blinked. Plenty of that was already happening all around with the serving slaves after all, and the duchess smiled as she saw the hatred burning deep within the maid's eyes as she kissed her. Bottomless hatred...lying within the eyes of the heiress of the duchy of Molro, now reduced to her pet.
Yes, she had something special indeed planned for the archduchesses...if she managed to get to them.
And if she managed to keep her army of cowards, sycophants and doubters in line until then.