Chapter 444 - SouthMarch (Patreon)

Notes :

Apologies for the late upload, I had a bunch of groceries to bring home and unload. On the plus side, I am now resupplied.

I've finally received the go ahead to start treating my allergies, at last. I still need to file FAR too much paperwork, but it can be done. Fucking hell.

Also, this chapter is 3k words long, so more to read !

I hope you'll enjoy the chapter !///

Chapter 444

Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire

Dungeon Factory, Briefing Room

"Alright everyone." Said Alexandra. Her dungeon officers, from the AIs to the vampires, were assembled into a side room of the operations center, made for briefings. Technically she could use the ops room or the command center for it, but with ever expanding operations, it was better to clear both whenever it wasn't strictly necessary to use them. "The news of who we're up against has shaken us. But there's nothing we can do about it right now but plan and hope. Since I hate hoping, we're going to plan. And cheat harder than Ella in a card game with CQ."

The vampire maid, for the first time Alexandra could remember, actually blushed. CQ, present via hologram as she was still onboard her task force, laughed and tried to headpat her. She grimaced as her hand phased through the maid, then unceremoniously pointed at Seraph, whose golem delivered the pat without argument.

The AIs around the room smiled. It was becoming common knowledge that CQ was almost unbeatable in games of chance, having a grasp of probability that bordered on that of an artificial intelligence, combined with a finely honed instinct for when to take risks and when to fold, a consequence of her style of combat. After all, when to teleport in to attack, or out to retreat, was key to winning or losing against adventurers, and later Sunrise's forces. It was the kind of experience no amount of training could ever hope to reproduce, and she used it shamelessly.

They also were all fond of their dungeon core's daughter. Even Frank and the triplets, whose personalities had been a little flat, were beginning to develop nicely. Though Frank's vocabulary in particular was getting a bit weird, due to his contact with the New Republic. Apparently Amelia had assigned him to her general staff and given him a liaison to smooth over any awkwardness or problems, and they were making quite the impression on the young AI.

"So." Continued the dungeon core. "We begin planning in earnest for our campaign North."

The holographic display flickered and came alive with a map of the continent, armies from both sides and their supply lines highlighted in various colors.

"We have two fronts. The first, and most immediate one, is in the Western Baronies. That will be handled by CQ and her task force. But it is, as we all know, a side show to the main event." The AI pointed up at a lone city, in the middle of the mountains. "This, will be the central fight of this campaign."

She swept her gaze along her people. Everyone, even the vampires, were listening to her with rapt attention.

"Our primary problem with Southmarch will be that we are forced into a shooting siege. We cannot starve them out, for we cannot surround the city. That means that they will be able to reinforce and resupply more or less at will." The supply lines blinked, highlighting the highways and tunnels that linked the city to the various hubs of the Sapphire Kingdom, chief among them the capital, and its pillar of power. "Which brings me the meat of the issue." Alexandra gestured towards the holographic display, that updated, replacing the strategic map with a massive array of walls, towers and fortifications in front of the city. "Its fortress."

She started pacing.

"That thing was built back when the Sapphirians were absolutely terrified that something would come out of the southern wastelands, also known as 'the entire continent except Gorromar', and obliterate their nascent Kingdom. It started construction under Sapphire Arkhan himself, and its plans are as ridiculous as everything else that man set out to do. Simply put, that fortress was made to stop a fucking sand kraken." She paused, to let that sink in. She was fairly certain Rebirth would have been obliterated by the one the guild had been luring here. Even with her high tech weapons. She wasn't sure about the nukes either.

She smiled.

"Fortunately, that was thousands of years ago. Before long, they learned there was no kraken in the wastelands of Arkhan." An assumption that had proven to be wrong...or made wrong by someone. She was betting on the Church, as Sand Krakens had oh so conveniently appeared a hundred and fifty years ago to prevent the grandfather of the current King of Asaria from marching his army across and conquering the Republic, which had just failed spectacularly in its attempt to conquer Tark, creating the Hegemony in the process. "With Asaria shaping up, then Sunrise, Molro, Kaidan, Lorenz...The danger of anything making it this far evaporated. To put it simply, the fortress was gutted. Some of the defenses on the old, final layers of walls of Asaria and Sunrise were actually originally installed in SouthMarch."

Which, incidentally, had also saved Asaria from falling, Sunrise having failed to pierce them before she was able to start her march north and force the duchess to come down and meet her.

"Of course, that was before the Wars of Shattering and the Sapphire Kingdom imploded. They mounted a, to be entirely honest, spectacular defense of the city against the rebel armies of Asaria a thousand years ago, and been shoring it up ever since. Both as a bulwark against renewed invasions, and a jumping off point for their own incursions and attempts to bring their wayward territories to heel. Unfortunately for them, at that point the Kingdom was a shadow of its former self. They had, quite frankly, few, if any advantages. They still had the pillar of power and their mage academies, but no longer their massive territory or, as they did early on, quite possibly the greatest mage to ever live to lead them and attract investment. Rebuilding the fortress back to its former glory was impossible. Especially as Sunrise began devolving into a slaver state and the pressure on the eastern border increased exponentially, causing it to get the lion's share of the defense budget."

A budget which they had used to then start launching raids of their own, because of course they had.

"What we are facing now is something of a frankenstein monstrosity. One the one hand, its old defenses were the best of the best in terms of arcana from several thousand years ago. That seems archaic, but I can assure you it is not." Especially given Alcheryos' artificial cycle of cataclysms, it was actually surprisingly advanced on the magical side of things. "They have no equal anywhere but Sapphire City itself. But they're also made to fight off wasteland monsters. As demonstrated in Asaria, they'll hit like a truck regardless, but it is something to keep in mind." Alexandra gestured, and the hologram updated, highlighting the majority of the defenses. "Those, however, are the post-Wars of Shattering builds. They're newer, cheaper, and far less well made. However, they were built to fight people. That includes the Asarians' gryphon knights and pegasus cavalry. It's not just an infantry's worst nightmare, that place has a legitimate point defense grid and missile bombardment isn't going to do jack shit against it, at least not with any level of cost-effectiveness. Moreover, the UDC will park most of its fleet there, and do their best to deploy shore batteries to prevent an airborne attack. Attacking static fortifications with airships is already iffy, here it will border on the suicidal."

She gazed at the hologram as she came to a halt.

"Which gives us one choice, the ground. And there things start getting complicated." She gestured, and leaned against the projector as a bubble appeared around the fortifications. "Because that place has one of the largest energy shields ever built after the Dawn of the Flames. It doesn't have the resilience of the Flickerlight's shield,-" Which was a blessing, because the reason why the Erisian had failed to take it down, was that it was made to eat megaton range blasts, relativistic railgun strikes and laser beams that would have vaporized mountains. "-but it's tough enough. Not to mention, it was built to last. Wearing it down mechanically and letting the generator fail under the strain isn't going to happen. On top of that, the shield effect itself is technological, so we cannot just nullify it. It's power source is arcane, true, but they have the mages to maintain it as well as the mana to fuel it, thanks to their pillar of power, and the power system buried too deeply for a null warhead to have any effect on it without having already breached their generator bunkers, at which point blowing them up is a more permanent solution anyway. That means that we need to overpower the shield the old fashioned way, and then we can bombard the conventional defenses." She grimaced. "There's no way to do that continuously. We'll have to do it in bursts. Amass enough artillery to just hammer the shield down, and then blast the walls and towers until it comes back up. Rearm, resupply, rinse and repeat until we're through. The problem, of course, is that the other side, particularly the UDC, is going to try and find every way to prevent us from doing that, and the Sapphirians will repair everything they can while the shield is up. This will be a grim, grinding battle of attrition...one that I intend to make them think we will play."

She tapped the projector, and the fortress vanished.

"While a long, drawn out siege is something we can win, we don't have the time to get dragged into a years-long campaign. If nothing else, we can't allow the UDC to turn Tivaro into another fortress and major production hub. Which is why our objective, right now, is to develop a siege engine. Because there's two ways to get through a shield."

She smiled wolfishly.

"You can wear it down with a barrage...or hit it with so much damn energy at one point the entire damn bubble pops." Or fractured and the projectile got through. Depended on the shield, but this one should pop. "So we're going to build the mother of all nails to pierce the father of all party balloons. Let's get started!"

*****

"You know popping that fortress is only the first step, right?" Said Ghost, after everyone else had left the briefing room. Emilia had hesitated, but Alexandra had sent her on her way with a reassuring nod.

This discussion, she needed to have with her other self alone.

"I'm aware." Alexandra grabbed a drink from the refreshment table. She peered at it, it was some kind of...herbal infusion. Or tea. Kind of like bissap. Just with flowers from Alcheryos. She shrugged, and poured herself a glass. Then another. "The city's going to be a nightmare."

"And then some." Agreed Ghost.

"One I'm aiming to bypass."

"I beg your pardon?"

Alexandra turned back towards her other self, and extended the second glass. Ghost took it without argument. As their hands brushed, she felt the edge of her emotions, in the back of her mind.

Was it...weird, that she longed for more? After what she had done with Emilia, merging together, she found herself wanting. Wanting to have more than fragments of emotions from those linked to her. To hear their thoughts, feel as they felt, see through their eyes...

She shivered internally. Better not to delve too deep into it. She wasn't Arcadia. Not truly.

But she still had so much from her...

She brought herself out of it with an effort of will, and began to speak, lest she get lost in her own thoughts again.

"I'm aiming to bypass the city. Because it will be a massacre and a bloodbath so terrible we'll never see the end of it."

"How?"

Alexandra smiled.

"I'm glad you asked. I hope you can help me figure it out."

"...Not much of a plan."

"Have you seen the stuff you've accomplished?" They exchanged smiles. Then both of them took a sip of their drink, nearly but not quite in sync.

They spent the next few seconds coughing.

"Holy shit. What the fuck is in this thing?" Said Ghost as she set down the glass.

"Kalimenere flowers. I think." Alexandra had tears in her eyes as she gazed down at the drink in her hand, which was an achievement since she was inhabiting a dungeon avatar. "Allya forwarded me a cargo of new drinks and foods to broaden my reserves. Recommended this one. I think it might be vengeance for the ambush I sprang on her on the beach."

"The one with the tentacles?"

"Yeah."

"Fair comeuppance. I just wish I wasn't caught in the blast radius."

They exchanged smiles.

"Back on the subject though." Said Alexandra. "You've done a lot, and I'm going to need help. Yours to lay down the foundations, then Allya and Pyn's to develop it."

"You want Allya's help with it?"

Alexandra smiled.

"Let's not kid ourselves. We're good at what we do, and we're surprisingly decent at ground warfare. But no matter how hard I wrack my brain, I can't find a solution to this. Not a military one at least. I mean, I can, but none are viable in this context. Not without the Sapphirians countering us or massive collateral damage, both political and physical."

"Ah. You mean getting the city to surrender."

The dungeon core nodded.

"Either on its own, or with some push from our friends in the Kingdom."

"I doubt the commanders will listen. Even if the fortress falls."

"If the fortress falls, so will the city."

"I'm not arguing against that. But I'm not sure it's wise to bet on avoiding this fight."

"What the hell do you want me to do?!?" Alexandra snapped her fingers, and the holographic display hummed to life once more. This time, it ignored the fortress, and zoomed in on the city behind it.

Some quarters, far off in the back, looked normal. The rest, the 'old city'...did not.

Alexandra gestured at it, parts of it highlighting as she did.

"The first few layers of buildings are built like fucking bastions. Reinforced architecture, firing slits all the way up, far enough apart that you can build bridges between them, but just not enough to clear the gaps without augmented infantry or jetpacks. Flat roofs to mass archers or place artillery and air defenses, and enable rapid withdrawal to nearby buildings. And every building in the back is taller than the ones in the front, allowing them to pour fire into captured areas and mass the fire from the roofs onto any army advancing on them. Sure, it's going to get smashed by artillery, but guess what? It's a fucking city. People live there! Even if they evacuate the city, which is no guarantee given who we're fighting, it won't look good and you know the UDC will be broadcasting everything we do to the entire world, to say nothing of Sapphire City and Tivaro. We have two choices, either we level entire blocks, or we take them the old fashioned way. And even if we take the 'easy' solution, it's still going to be fighting street to street, building to building in the rubble." Alexandra sighed, her shoulders sagging. "Urban warfare is hell. You know it. I know it. More importantly, the other side knows it. Honestly it's a miracle we did so little damage when we went after the Guild here in Rebirth. We won't get that lucky again."

Ghost opened her mouth, then closed it. They both knew what she was about to say. That it hadn't been luck, it had been methodical preparations and absolute control of the city.

They could try the former, but they certainly wouldn't be able to achieve the latter.

Besides which, luck had been involved. It could have been so much worse. They had been lucky their foes was the adventurers guild. The fanaticism of some of its members had been as absolute as it had been surprising. After all, adventurers were glorified mercenaries.

"...I agree bypassing it would be preferable." Said Ghost. "But I'm not sure if planning on it is a good idea. Especially when the outcome depends on diplomacy."

"I know. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst."

Ghost hesitated, then spoke.

"What is the 'worst', in this case?"

Alexandra was silent for a long time. Then the hologram updated.

And Ghost watched in horror as incendiary missiles rained down on the simulated city. Surrounding the bastions, turning the grand boulevards meant to aerate the city, and serve as killing fields between the fortified buildings, into infernal moats and walls of flames.

She watched as an entire simulated city died screaming, immolated in an inferno of fire, cooking alive in their own bastions.

"We don't allow them to have rubble to burrow into." Said Alexandra, as the simulation ended. "Or drag us into a long battle clearing the city." She slammed her glass down on the projector so hard it cracked, the infusion within splashing onto her hand and the console, thankfully leaving neither much worse for wear. When she turned to meet Ghost's gaze, the apparition felt a shiver run down her spine. She saw the fire in those eyes, a fire whose twin in hers had been extinguished alongside Europa. "So help me find a solution, and give it your all. Because every day, week and month we're delayed pushing through SouthMarch, is more time for the Church and the Order to kill us all. If I have to sacrifice a whole city to save billions, I will."

"...I know." Better than anyone could. Which was why Alexandra had insisted on a private conversation. This was as close to pleading to not let her do it as she could come to. "I'll see about reviving those channels of communication. Get Allya talking to them. See what we can promise or trade in exchange for surrendering."

"Good." Simply said Alexandra.

"The problem will be the UDC, you know that. They'll try to prevent it."

"I know." Alexandra gazed up, as the hologram updated, showing the map of the Western Baronies. "Which is why we need to give them something else to think about."