Notes : Chapter 427 of The Fallen World has been written and added to the queue !
Construction continues. Had a break yesterday (thank you, national holidays), and today was lighter, probably because a lot of the workers called in a day off to have a four day weekends with their families. But gods it sucks still. The constant hammering, power tools and screaming is driving me nuts.
Chapter 130
Starborn Mountains, Starfire Valley
Starfire Pass
"Greetings." Said Sapphiria as she hopped out of the snowpiercer, watching curiously as the Dominion walked up to the vehicle, and softly patted it.
There was some tension, of course, but truth be told she'd much rather the extraordinarily powerful mage focused on the logistics vehicle rather than her power armor or plasma gun.
Whose absence she felt rather sharply. It was still being repaired at the fabricator. After a blowout like that, the entire gun had to be stripped down and inspected, which didn't take many resources, but required time, some of which couldn't be expedited. Not without taking risks, and it just wasn't worth it.
"Greetings." Returned the Hand. And to her surprise, they extended their flesh arm. "Believe it or not, but I am glad to see you. I assume you have been informed of the most recent...encounter?"
Sapphiria looked at their arm, hesitated, then grabbed it, and they shook. Fascinating that they didn't shake hands, but instead forearms. A quick search popped up references for forearm 'handshakes' as a Roman gesture, but only in the 21st century's popular culture, and not historical fact. Interesting.
"I have. Which is why I brought them." She tilted her head towards the airlock, as the bots began to pile out. The shredderbot had to come from the back, and her sensors alerted her that there was an energy anomaly. The Dominion hadn't even twitched, but she was now surrounded by a sublte nimbus of energy. Reflex, maybe? Or some automatic 'raise shields' when surrounded by enemies?
There were some weird readings on the armor itself as well. She pinged Cia to log it and take a look. She'd been so focused on getting Ramina out alive before she hadn't even bothered to take a further look.
"Reinforcements are appreciated. I am somewhat...low on troops myself."
"Not...exactly reinforcements." Said the AI, before gesturing towards the Dominion. "Did your friend not come with her own troops?"
"She's not-" The Hand seemed visibly upset for a second, then sighed. "Yes, she did. But unfortunately, the Nineteenth will not let them through."
Sapphiria noted that the Dominion had winced at the Hand's outburst. There was a story behind that, she was sure.
"I see. They'll return to reinforce you, of course." She didn't want to give the Hand too much bargaining power, but she didn't want to make the wall look like a pushover either. Around half the troops she'd used during the battle should be a solid cutoff point. "But before that, I wished to, ah, send a message to the other side."
The Hand frowned slightly.
"What message?"
"That the salvage here is ours to take."
The Dominion stepped away from the snowpiercer, and began to sign. The Hand sighed, and spoke, clearly translating.
"By 'ours' you mean 'mine', don't you?"
Sapphiria smiled. With some genuine humor too.
"Well you certainly don't seem to be in a position to make use of it."
Both undead exchanged a look, and the Dominion snorted.
"...You have a point." Said the Hand, rather more diplomatically than his boss. "We won't be able to assist much I'm afraid, but you are welcome to their equipment."
Sapphiria noted that the Hand didn't include the gear of their own forces in, and nodded.
"Most excellent. Then let's begin!" She snapped her fingers, and the bots advanced towards the ruins of the gatehouse, and its piles of destroyed legionnaires.
*****
"When I asked to get us close, I didn't mean inside the fucking pass." Whispered the lieutenant.
Winter smiled toothily.
"Well, what better way to see?" She came to a halt. They were at the very end of the pass, alongside one of the walls, where it suddenly stopped being a more or less straight line and expanded into the hills.
Getting there hadn't been easy. Even with the devastation, there were undead hurrying about, though there didn't seem to be a tight guard. The patrols were meant to prevent an infantry squad from getting in, not a couple of infiltrators.
Still, it was touch and go a couple of times. At least the bulk of the Risen seemed to be completely focused on the assembled cavalry, prepared to charge up the slope at a moment's notice, which was good. Soulless were easy to trick. Risen...not so much.
"I'll be sure to be more clear next time." He leaned into the pass, his spyglass in hand, and she did as well.
The first thing she noticed was the absolute wreck of the place. Trenches, blown to pieces by artillery. Craters upon craters left by shells. Scattered bones and bits of equipment. A forest of stone spikes with impaled skeletons.
Even the wall at the far end of the pass was wrecked. A chunk of it appeared to have been melted. Another had the top blown off. The center, which probably had the gate, was a pile of ruins.
She couldn't see the rest. The wall was in the way, and there was no chance she was stepping fully into view.
She felt more than heard the lieutenant sigh in relief, the tension that had been emanating from him lessening.
"They're alive. I read two machinegun teams on the walls. And a reinforced fireteam...probably a depleted combat squad, sweeping out of the ruins of the gatehouse. I don't know what guns they have but it's definitely firearms. Short. Carbines, probably."
Winter smiled. Of course the lieutenant had focused on the troops there. She frowned. There were other things atop the wall. Was that...a bronze helmet? That-
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden appearance of a figure on the pile of debris, holding a massive weapon.
"Is that...is that a steam knight?" Whispered the former smuggler in awe.
"I....I don't think so. I've never seen one." Said the lieutenant, but his voice sounded uncertain. "I think it's too small to be one."
"Looks big enough to me. That thing could break my spine with one hand. Or punt me halfway across the pass."
The lieutenant chuckled. But even his chuckle sounded uneasy.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that."
"Are you okay? You sound...shaken."
The lieutenant stayed silent for a couple of seconds. Then spoke.
"These soldiers...I don't think they're wearing armor. I think they are armor. Golems."
Winter blinked. She wasn't an artificer, but even she knew you didn't use golems for warfare.
"They must be getting pretty desperate."
"Yeah." He pulled back from the pass, and folded his spyglass back down. "Let's go. The army needs to be made aware of this."
*****
Sapphiria blinked as she got the alert. An anomaly at the end of the pass? She checked.
The bots had reported some kind of movement. But the angle wasn't right for the sensors on the tower to have seen anything, and the junkbots' own sucked. Was the Nineteenth-
Ah. She saw a few of the 'observers' came out into the pass. One of them looked towards the anomaly, but got brought back to the pass itself by one of their fellows. Probably some kind of sentry, then. She'd wondered how they always seemed to know when stuff happened, even when the pass was empty. If nothing else, they had to have someone checking on the results of their suicidal probing attacks!
Well, it took them a bit. She'd already gotten a lot of loot out of just the skeletons that had made it on the other side of the wall. Given the amount of grenades thrown into the breach, to try and stem the side, none of it was in a good state, but even scrap was useful.
Free stuff, and all that.
"Our friends in the Nineteenth have arrived to take a look." She said to her companions, and the Dominion gestured. First at all three of them, then rising her hand, and then pointing at the wall. The AI didn't need a translation for that. Sapphiria nodded. "Sure."
The Dominion began to make complicated hand gestures. Was she...incanting in sign language?
Suddenly, her programs began to scream in alert as gravity stopped, and her armor shifted, thrusters slotting out of armored ports as it went into zero gravity mode.
She barely even had the time to process it as they flew. It wasn't quite changing the direction of gravity. More like some kind of...reactionless propulsion.
The Dominion flew them over to the wall in less than a second, and set them down, as gently as a feather.
Sapphiria had to stop herself from pouncing on the Dominion as soon as they were down. Holy shit. Antigravity and reactionless propulsion! No inertia too! The three holy grails of the Federation!
She needed to know how! She-
Oh sweet stars, I'm turning into Ramina.
That thought was uncomfortable enough to shock her back into her normal state. Stars. What had she been thinking? Acquiring that knowledge was important, yes, but not mission critical right this instant. It's not like she was in any position to make a starship. Though it could be useful for other projects of course.
The Dominion gave her a questioning look, looking down at the ports in her armor as the thrusters slotted back in.
"Neat trick." Said the AI, and the Dominion snorted again. She was deflecting, the Dominion knew she was deflecting, but thankfully with this, the Bane would think she was deflecting about her armor zero-G maneuvering thrusters and not her almost breakdown at having the use of antigravity.
The Hand had diplomatically ignored them both, or perhaps was simply more professional and focused on the problem at hand. Namely, the small knot of Bane at the other side of the pass.
"I doubt they will attack." Said Sarcher. "But they're no doubt trying to figure out what it is we intend to do, if it is a message, and what kind of message it is."
"It should keep them busy." She focused her sensors on them, both from the tower and her armor. Now that she had more experience in what to look for, she could see that some of them were almost certainly mages.
If they'd been sent to fight us instead of hanging back, we'd be dead.
Thankfully, they hadn't. There also wasn't a single lifeform among them, meaning they were still hiding their necromancers somewhere.
"Not for long." Warned Sarcher. "They have gotten better at adapting."
"Any idea what they'll do?"
There was a short silence, as both sides just gazed at each other.
Then, to everyone's surprise...a figure on the other side waved.
Sapphiria stared for a second, then she waved back.
That seemed to break something, and the other side devolved into what seemed to be a fairly heated argument.
"They seem a bit upset." Commented the AI, and the Dominion gave her a chuckle, that evolved into full throated laughter.
It sounded clear, crystalline and wrong. Like something wasn't quite right with the Dominion's vocal cords.
"They do." Said the Hand. "To answer your question, which I was busy pondering until your friend on the other side returned your previous courtesy, they will either keep this in the bag for the next round of negotiations, or they will send a direct response immediately. I am guessing they are currently arguing about which side to take."
"Ah, I see." Sapphiria shifted. "By the way...how did the negotiations go?"
The Hand smiled slightly. That was creepy. It was creepy on the Dominion too, but she'd encountered the powerful mage showing emotions. The Hand was practically a simulacrum on that front in comparison.
"I told them to go home and try again."
"...Well I suppose that's one way of doing talks."
"Their proposal was quite frankly insulting. Perhaps they will come up with something better next time."
Sapphiria nodded, but didn't say anything else.
Hanging between them, unspoken, was that the Hand hadn't actually said what the proposal was...and that she wasn't asking outright.
They both understood their relative positions, and the delicate balancing act they were doing. They both needed the other to survive, but an armistice did not mean they had to help each other.
They just had to leave the killing to their enemies.