Afterword - Book 2 - Chapter 43 (Patreon)

Chapter 43: A Slow-Moving Target

(Original Chapter Title: A Slow-Moving Target)

I'll admit it: this is a mean chapter.

It sets up for a major conflict, but by and large that conflict never comes. Yes, there was a (brief) clash with the winged ogre twin, but he was driven off after one failed attack and one (less debilitating than Ranthia hoped) injury. It was brief, and it wasn't anywhere to the scale everyone expected.

There are reasons for this, of course. All indications are that the fake out that the other Sentinels carried out worked wonders—the shimagu seemed to lack meaningful forces in the region intended for the actual base. The nearby shimagu garrison was poorly manned too. And it's easy to forget with the speeds that Ranthia and most of her peers can move at, but it takes time to get armies from Point A to Point B.

The shimagu either couldn't do so, or they chose to bide their time. Launchpoint 8 has its walls up, but walls and base plates alone don't make a base secure. There are still forces yet to be assigned that were superfluous for its founding and it needs time to find itself.

Also, there's the tiny, tiny detail that everyone is still exhausted.

Establishing a new base is a risky proposition. It never really comes up in the prose, but the Legions have absolutely failed at this process—more than once too. The incredible speed that the base came together was a battle-tested process, honed as people learned from their mistakes. Even then, it still requires a fair bit of luck, and they can only do so much to manufacture said luck.

Base-building aside, we also see the L-word slip out of Ranthia. Not that anyone's likely surprised.

Until next time!