Chapter 145 - Opal (Patreon)

Notes :

Wanted to write another chapter to add to the queue, but today ended up being a complete mess and, as I had predicted, wearing all that medical stuff was hellish.

On the plus side I did write a bunch more of the Battletech fanfic. For those interested, the first chapter is on discord, second one will be uploaded money, as I put the first one up on AO3. I'll share the link then, with an announcement post to outline what the story is and what to expect, for those interested in taking a look. I've also enabled guest comments, so anyone will be able to talk about it with anonymity.

It's also made me question my current chapter format. I set a hard minimum of 2k words for all chapters in my novels, but often I end up delaying finishing a chapter and openly padding them to meet that limit, or adding/cutting up scenes. 1.5k minimum words has proven to be much better, since I usually write scenes that end naturally between 1.5 and 2k words.

I'll do some experiments, see how it fans out.

Wednesday, we switch to TFW with chapter 442 !

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter !

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Chapter 145

Starborn Mountains, Mount Nebula

Crash Site

Sapphiria stared at the hologram, drumming her hand on the tabletop in her simulation. In reality, her android was doing the same, but on the workbench in front of it.

She'd decided to formally separate her workshop from the rest of her growing factory. It wasn't much, literally just four walls, some lights, not even a roof. But it helped.

"So." She said out loud. "Opal's history is..." She trailed off.

"Somewhat varied, yet obscured?" Offered Cia, who was sitting opposite Sapphiria in the simulation, seated neatly on the sofa. She looked...well, a bit more relaxed than before. She wasn't lounging or anything, but she no longer look like someone had made her spine out of rebar, if not shoved an entire bundle of the construction material somewhere less than comfortable.

The AI nodded.

"There isn't a lot about any of the factions, honestly. I'm guessing that part of how the Empire functioned wasn't to the Magistracy's taste, hence why it is...not expunged, but talked about relatively little."

At least not beyond the generalities, and especially in comparison to how the Emperor shed their political affiliations when they took the Throne.

"The Magistracy seemed to have been more centralized. Perhaps they did not wish to emphasize provincial autonomy."

Sapphiria smiled mirthlessly.

"I'm guessing they grew too big and were starting to have trouble on that front." Her smile disappeared. "Honestly, I'm not sure if what we found will help anyway. The Bane seem to be split into their own historical eras to some extent, which makes sense mind you, but the factions we know from before the Empire's collapse straddle those eras. We can match them with their apparent era of course, but that makes what little data we have move from 'massively inadequate' to 'downright pitiful'."

"It is preferable to having no data." Commented the simulacrum, somewhat superfluously, and this time Sapphiria's smile was genuine.

"Yes, it is. So, given that, we know that the Nineteenth uses mostly Age of Expansion troops as their main units. Opal seemed to mostly dabble in territorial acquisitions during that time. Supported the expansion fleets a whole lot. How, it's not said." There were a lot of ways one could 'support' such a thing. Especially since the expansion fleets weren't all naval invasions, some of them were trade missions that reminded her of the old Chinese treasure fleets. You could finance shipyards, source raw materials, supplies, all that. "They're mentioned as fielding a few Dominions during that time. They tried to hold the Empire together during the Age of Fury. They were part of the final battle even. After that they seemed to have vanished. The Thronebreakers appear to have completely and thoroughly wiped them out."

Not all imperial factions had survived during the Age of Silence, when the Empire had pulled in on itself. She was surprised there were records on the subject to begin with. The Empire was supposed to have cut contact with its wayward territories. Where the heck had the Magistracy's scholars gotten insights into the Empire's internal politics then?

"The data appears to fit some of what know so far." Said Cia, and to Sapphiria's surprise, a hologram appeared above the table, showing a map of the continent. "If the Hand is part of the faction that invaded the Magistracy, then it stands to reason Opal is the faction that initiated the invasion on Kauvis by striking Kamer, then Mardecan." The two cities highlighted, at the very southern tip of the continent. "All evidence suggests that invasion was better prepared, with more warships, transports, and a larger initial force. These all fit with Opal having been involved in expansion fleets. However, their destruction at the hands of the Thronebreakers does seem to allude to high levels of loyalty to Imperial leadership, which does not appear to be the case given recent events."

Sapphiria's eyebrows rose.

"Well done, Cia." The simulacrum blushed. The red on her cheeks disappeared as quickly as it came, but Sapphiria was certain she saw it. "I'd agree with your analysis. Of course, they might have been loyal to the Throne, not the Empire's leadership. Let alone its current one."

Cia nodded.

"That makes sense. Sadly, this does not illuminate their objectives and strategic doctrine."

"The Hand was almost certainly here for the mines. They might be as well. At the very least, the valley is a supremely excellent place to threaten any advance East. If Exacor still holds, it would also enable someone to absolutely screw the siege. Sure, supplies can be moved across lake Milas, but you need to get the ships there to begin with, and I'm going to guess the Magistracy didn't take the time to collapse every mine without burning canal locks, shipyards and scuttling their own vessels before withdrawing."

That must have not been an easy thing to organize, let alone execute. Yet they seem to have been successful.

"A strategic position that you are planning to take advantage of."

"Indeed. In due time. Speaking of, the electronics plant?"

"All parts of the central node are complete. Assembly is underway. Production for the ancillary systems is ongoing."

"Good. As I was saying, the valley might be worth taking just for its position. It's easily defensive, can be a tremendous pain, and as a bonus the mines could be useful. But..." She hesitated. "I don't think it's worth what they've poured into this mess. I mean, they outright provoked an intervention from their leader. They're negotiating with the Hand, presumably to acquire it diplomatically, instead of just cutting their losses and withdrawing."

"The...Vestige, as the mage-magistrate calls it?"

"Yeah. The Empire definitely knew there was something down there. I'd wondered if the Hand's enemies did, since our 'friend' Sarcher clearly didn't. It really seems to be the only solution."

"This installation appeared to never have been brought fully online. Its value is unclear."

"Would they even know that?" Sapphiria shrugged. "Even if they did, something is clearly running down there. And it has stuff even I can't comprehend, like that cooling system. And the expedition that tried to unearth it got massacred. Moving in with a lot of troops would be wise if one was aware of that." The AI grimaced. "Besides, even if there'd be nothing worthwhile to them down there, the Bane clearly aren't the sharpest tool in the shed, what with reclaiming their Empire by murdering everyone." She almost spat the word out. That was why she hated Empires. To ravage indeed. "Once humanity stops reeling from their attacks..."

Whatever the Bane were expecting, they were probably in for a very, very nasty surprise.

She'd seen the records of the war with the Theocracy. Even viewed some of her aunt's and mother's memory archives of that time. She knew, in a way they couldn't, what happened when humanity was threatened.

One key thing about the squishies, one that was usually overlooked by historians, who preferred the gritty details and bloody intrigue, was empathy. On Terra, before it was unified, if a natural disaster happened, people would band together to send aid packages, or even travel there to help. It happened even between hostile nations.

Now what happened when nations were no longer important? When it wasn't just a region, or a specific people, or an ideology, that was under threat, but the entire species?

Humanity closed ranks. It closed ranks and it fought.

When the war with the Theocracy started, about thirty eight percent of the Federation started looking into ways of helping the effort. After the first few major fleet engagements, sixty percent were supporting it.

After the first world the Theocracy burned, ninety eight percent of every human in the galaxy, in the Federation or on neutral worlds, were dedicating themselves to seeing the alien power ground to dust.

They weren't all rushing to crew spaceships or make weapons of course. Most of them wouldn't have been able to anyway. But did the Bane even remotely understood what it meant to have a population so unified in purpose against them? She had seen the staryards above Terra, teeming with robots, automated construction modules and AIs, with the occasional squishie here and there, commanding teams of bots or even occasionally handling their own module because that's what they liked to do.

Her archives had showed her entire capital ships swarming with squishies. Millions of them. Legions upon legions of fragile humans in spacesuits building warships the size of mountains. There had been images of R&D stations like Space Station 13 so big they made even those mighty vessels look like gnats, packed bulkhead to bulkhead with engineers, scientists and technicians. Humanity had invented more ways to prosecute conflict in the first decade of the war than the Theocracy, an Empire a thousand times the population of the Federation, had in the last six thousand years.

The Bane hadn't opened the genie's bottle they'd exploded it with a sledge hammer and that genie was going to force every last damn jagged shard of it down their throat.

It was going to be glorious and absolutely terrifying.

Cia didn't say anything. She didn't really need to. She had the full records of the war with the Theocracy as well.

"In any case, we have a duty to save as many squishies as we can. Any help we can give is valuable. Which reminds me, how's the colonial fabricator?"

"Production cycle is almost complete."

"Good. I have some things to add to its schedule. Then I'll head back up to the surface. If nothing else, I need Kalia and Gregor's opinions on who that is in the Pass, and if they know anything more about Opal. I'm sure Gregor will have some things to say, at least. And I have a few things related to that new schedule to talk to them about."

"Understood. Shall I send the message to warn them of your arrival?"

"Do so. I'll be up shortly."

*****

"Hello there." Said Sapphiria as she hopped out of the minecart, noting how the militia had a slightly higher ratio of proper soldiers than usual, and seemed more alert.

The nearest soldier snapped a salute.

"Greetings, ma'am. It's good to see you. I've been instructed to tell you that artificer Ramina is awaiting you in the workshop."

Sapphiria had a slight moment of confusion, given that she'd just built a workshop underground, before realizing that he meant the hangar she had built the snowpiercer in, and which she was starting to use more as a warehouse than anything else.

Though, given the homework she'd given Ramina, it was going to regain its previous purpose fairly quickly.

"Thank you." She nodded towards the troops. "Expecting something?"

"Ever since your reconnaissance mission, we've been on higher alert. Paul is one of the best of us. If he got hurt, while accompanying you..." The soldier shrugged, and Sapphiria nodded.

"Fair enough." She gestured at the tunnel entrance. "A few minecarts will arrive shortly, to be unloaded in the workshop. Just so they don't startle you."

"We're used to the klaxon. But thank you, ma'am."

Sapphiria nodded. She'd installed an alert klaxon a while back, to get people away from the rails when there were minecarts incoming.

The chance of a collision without it was relatively minute. Safety protocols limited the carts to a low speed in an area with foot traffic, and in case of a monster attack she needed to slam the doors closed anyway, so not having carts rocketing about at full speed to crash into them was a must. The monsters were already dangerous enough, no need to get them a battering ram.

Nevertheless, better be safe than sorry, and safety was always a first priority when squishies were involved. Thus, the klaxon. Also flashing lights for incoming carts.

"No problem."

She made it out of the bunker without much fuss. She could have hopped back into the minecart to get into the workshop, but she didn't really see the need.

The outside was still blanketed with snow, but it was...peaceful. She didn't get the same feel of disquiet she had in the wilderness.

Part of it was that she wasn't in the middle of nowhere. There was a buzz of activity around her. Sensor clusters sending status reports, turrets querying about her IFF, communication nodes trading pings, and of course the few squishies moving about, talking, and in one particular case contemplating their bowl of spiced nutrigel as if its very existence was a grave sin against the universe.

Which, according to the Theocracy, it was.

No, genuinely, a Theocracy preacher had declared nutrigel unholy once. It had become something of a joke in the planetary occupation forces, or at least so went the rumor in the navy.

She took a deep breath, enjoying the crisp air, before making her way to the workshop.

Time to talk to her apprentice. Hopefully she wouldn't try to climb on a table again.

...Who was she kidding? It was Ramina.