Chapter 332

Qualen Woods, Archduchy of Rebirth

Darthar-Asaria Trade Route

The archduchess cleared her throat as she got up, her wife and 'archduchess-consort', or just 'consort' to help distinguish them when they were together, smiling in encouragement.

Sometimes it was the little things that showed how much two people loved each other, like openly hyping them up in front of their own sovereigns.

"We have, over the last few weeks, received a wide variety of diplomatic missions and opened negotiations with a great deal many parties. While nothing new has come from this yet, we have used this increased diplomatic clout and leverage to close several deals we had been working on for a while. The first one is with the dwarven Empire of Loris." She gestured, and the hologram appeared, showing a variety of ships as well as production graphs and estimated delivery times. "We have begun working in earnest for a fleet for the archduchy. Mainly patrol ships, but it will also include a full complement of wasteland expeditionary vessels."

"But no warships." Said the King, and Allya smiled.

"We hardly have need of them for that." Besides which, Alexandra's ships were better than those the dwarves could make. "But yes. Our second important contact has been with Tark." The hologram updated with a simple map of the southern half of the continent. "With an official line to them, we have been able to get the Hegemon to agree in principle to a meeting with general Amelia and the mountain clans, to hammer out an agreement between the New Republic, the Hegemony and the Far Reach."

"Who will guarantee the meeting's safety?" Asked the Queen, curious, and Allya cleared her throat.

"I will."

The silence that followed was defeaning.

When one did a meeting like this, guarantees of safety were done by massive international organizations or world powers, like the Eris Empire, the World Mage Court or the adventurers guild.

The fact that they had accepted her guarantees, and only needed hers...said it all.

"Very well." Said the King, clearly chewing on what had been said.

"Our last, and quite possibly our most immediately impactful deal was with Gorromar. With Sunrise emptying their mines of slaves to fight the war and the Republic under embargo, not to mention the throes of civil war, they have almost run out of partners to source raw resources from. Thankfully we had been working on a deal with them for a while, and thanks to our closer diplomatic ties and the New Republic's advance, we have been able to finalize it." The map updated with a line. "A new trade route has been established. The original deal was docking towers and industrial assistance for raw materials and preferential trade rights, but our city's increased status and booming economy also now makes us a sizeable export market for Gorromarian goods. Our people have mana to burn, and moreover our ever increasing technological sophistication and number of artificers thanks to the dungeon loot suddenly makes many of these goods attractive thanks to local maintenance."

"What do you mean?" Said the King as he tilted his head.

"Cars, trains and all that jazz can be imported from Gorromar, but the need to send them back for even the most routine of maintenance made it prohibitively expensive, not to mention borderline useless." Cut in Alexandra. "After all, why bother with a car if you're going to have to send it away from six months for a simple repair? That's not to mention all the costs."

Allya nodded, continuing off when the dungeon core finished.

"Exactly. Effectively, with the number of artificers here, plus their intention to build some of their own support industries and maintenance workshops here, for their own technology and our nascent base,-" Also known as 'whatever was built to salvage the crumbs Alex tossed our way'. "-all this takes their products from 'extreme luxury' to 'consumer goods'."

"Won't this require a lot of infrastructure to even make it work?" Asked Manson. "One thing that I know is that Tark got where it was by building stuff constantly, and at great cost."

"It will, and that's why the deal with Gorromar is so important. We'd been drawing plans for a power plant already. Electricity generation through mana is practical and portable, but highly inefficient. And we had more than enough demand to justify it. We have the funds, and they have the industry to fulfill the order."

Everyone nodded, and Alexandra wondered if Gorromar realized that they were effectively doing exactly what the US had done to Japan. Massively industrialized them through trade, until they became their own competition.

Difference was Rebirth had the nukes. And had no intentions of perpetrating the same mad atrocities than the Japanese Empire had been renowned, and eventually dismantled, for.

"I see." Said the King. "You have indeed been very busy, your grace."

"Thank you, your majesty."

The King simply smiled.

"No need to thank me. Now, was that all?" The archduchess nodded. "Very well. I suppose it is time to adjourn then. You have much to do, and I do not wish to take more of your precious time keeping me informed. Give those bastards hell."

*****

"I feel stupid for not thinking of this earlier." Said Alexandra as she looked at the Mackie.

"You? How do you think I feel?" Emilia shook her head. "And you came up with it in the end. It's just...spatial bags, for ammo storage. Of course! Of freaking course!"

Alexandra nodded.

It had been a...stupidly easily solution.

At least on paper.

When she had encountered the limited ammo problem, she'd reached for solution she knew. Increased storage size, rapid swapping ammo bins with dedicated ammo haulers...all options that simply weren't viable for the already heavily loaded, not to mention relatively ungainly, Mackie. Mobility was a key part of her current battle plan, and making it a lumbering behemoth the enemy could run circles around wasn't a good idea. Not to mention the fact that it would inevitably come at the cost of survivability, and her Mackies were, at least for now, giant fire magnets. They were designed ot be.

The same basic principles applied to the spider tank that used the autocannons and gatling, though in their case it was more of a 'be faster than the mech so you can use it for cover when the enemy finally figures out they should be killing you, not the distracting stompy robot of doom'.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

But she'd had a solution this entire time.

Spatial bags. Something she got off of virtually every medium ranked adventurer now. With that magic, she could demultiply the mech's ammunition capacity, raise it to ludicrous levels.

Of course, that meant enchantments. A lot of enchantments. Not an option before she'd gotten the vampire reinforcements, which was why it had taken her so long to reach for it.

And why even now, she was so hesitant.

"As obvious as it is, will your enchanters do it?"

"Of course! This is well within their skill level, and-"

"Not the question I was asking, vampy."

Silence descended upon the room.

"They will." She softly answered. "They'll do it." She smiled sadly. "After all, if they won't, you'll just replace them, won't you?"

"I will. But it will slow me down."

"They'll do it. I guarantee you that. But..."

"You don't know for how long."

"No. I don't."

Alexandra sighed as she closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry."

"No. I am. You're...you're right. Something is rotten. Within the UDC, within my homeland, within..." She bit her lip.

Within the Church. That was what she had stopped herself from saying. But they both knew.

"Well, I just need them for the start. My production demands will outpace their capacity anyway."

"A nice way of framing their replacement."

The dungeon core shrugged.

"Doesn't make it any less valid." She sighed as she looked at the mech. "Nevertheless, it doesn't solve all of our problems. These things don't exactly interact well with each other. And if they're too heavily damaged..."

"You lose what's inside."

And unfortunately, not in the 'everything is ejected at force' way either, or she'd be using it as ammunition. More in the 'it's kind of gone but the vehicle looked like it went through a grinder' way, the joys of failing exotic gravitational phase systems. Also known as 'catastrophic hyperdrive malfunctions', which was getting her extremely curious as to what those 'spatial distortions' actually were. Automatic ammo disposal, at least. Weaponizing was possible, but turns out said weaponizing that was easier said than done...and a closely held military secret by those who knew. Which was the Eris Empire, mostly.

She'd added it to Ghost and Glitch's list, just in case they wanted to take a crack at it.

"Yeah. So better one, heavily armored magazine. Which means one caliber of weapon."

"Not exactly something for your Mackie then."

"No..." Alexandra smirked. "Not yet, at any rate, but perhaps for something later. I'll ask CQ to pull out some of the schematics she'd made."

"...Honey, what did she make?"

"I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."

*****

"One week."

Allya nodded as Pyn spoke, trying not to stare too much as her wife, not her girlfriend, not her fiancée, her wife, brushed her hair.

It was still hard for her to process that she was married. And even harder to keep her eyes and hands off of her wife for any length of time. She just wanted to be with her, always.

"I know. One week before Alex is done." Answered the archduchess. "Though, of course, that's just getting the fabricators."

"Do you think the army will hold on?"

"It will. I wouldn't be able to keep it going, but..." Allya grimaced. "I thought I was well versed in military matters, but Alex is on another level entirely."

"I mean...she is from Earth."

"Yeah, and how is she so good at this? Earth had Old World technology, last I checked. Not what she had, much less facing what Sunrise is fielding."

Pyn set down her brush.

"Feeling suspicious?"

"Of her? No. But I'm starting to wonder about that 'Arcadia' of hers. What she was trying to turn Alex into....because she modified her, didn't she? Created Alex out of Ghost. Then...why is she behaving like a natural born general? Or admiral, for that matter."

There was a long silence.

"You think she was being...made for something?"

"Wouldn't you? She seems like a loose end. Yet the more she speaks about this Arcadia, the more it seems she was being set up as some kind of phoenix, one that would be reborn."

"Reborn in fire."

"Yeah. I just doubt this was the kind of inferno that AI was expecting."

There was another silence, and Pyn left her little hairdressing corner and laid down on the bed beside her wife.

"So...what is it?"

Allya blinked.

"I beg your pardon?"

"What's troubling you? We've known Alex was weird, but there's something you're not telling me. That you're not telling her either. Something that's been slowly eating at you."

Allya looked at the ceiling.

"...She told us what happened to her, remember? How she wound up here."

"Yeah?"

"...Honey. I've killed...so many people for money. I spent years doing so." She turned towards her wife. "What happened to her, that free trader...it wasn't an accident. It was an assassination. Someone...someone destroyed one of the biggest, most vital trade ports of her homeland just to kill her."

Pyn closed her eyes.

"Does it change who she is?"

"No. But I'm worried...because you've seen how she treats vengeance."

"I think...I think she's never tried to avenge herself because of what happened to her. She's always prattling on about taking revenge against the Order for sacrificing her, but I think...I think she doesn't really care about dying. She cares about the people that almost died with her, and who she would leave behind."

"So, since those people can't threaten her now...or her family, even indirectly..."

"She won't care."

"She'll know we know she's more than what she let on."

"Honey...we've known that for months. And we've been ignoring it for months. Just like she's never cared that I was some criminal scum or you, as you put it, killed people for money. How is this any different?"

Allya smiled.

"I suppose it doesn't." She turned around, and kissed her wife. "Goodnight love."

"Goodnight honey."