Notes : Chapter 432 has been written and added to the queue !
Not a great last few days, but at least no construction today. Hurray !
Chapter 427
Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire
Capital City of Rebirth
Allya set down the paperwork, and sighed.
So much to do. The Empire had the advantage of keeping its member nations instead of absorbing them, meaning she didn't have to govern them. But even with that and Alexandra's help, there was so much to handle.
The very basics had been hammered by the summit. Now it was time to start laying the foundations.
First order business, she and Alexandra were setting up a legislature. Which was...a whole mess of its own.
The reasons for why they had to make one were simple. An Imperial legislature would make the member states buy into the Empire at a more fundamental level. There was a world of difference between being part of something greater, and helping shape that something greater. Even on a subconscious level, it massively shifted how people worked and interacted with it.
And furthermore...neither she or Alexandra were lawmakers. They had some people under them who could give it a shot but they were already badly needed where they were. Simply put, they needed people who's job was to draft, put forward and fight over laws.
Which meant, of course, that there was the big problem of how, exactly, that legislature should function, and how it would interact in terms of power with the rest of the government.
They'd set three very hard limits from the get go:
One, the legislature would have absolutely no power in any way, shape or form over the executive branch of government or its functions. Primarily, the military. Even if Alexandra wasn't primed to rant for hours about her experience with idiotic legislators meddling in military affairs, the New Republic would never accept another Senate. Period.
Two, any laws would have an Imperial veto at the end. That part they'd picked up from the Eris Empire. While the Imperial veto was rarely, very rarely used, it was also absolute. Using it was a mess and could cause ripple effect throughout, but it was to prevent the bureaucracy and legislative assembly from trying to take power through another way. It was blatantly going after its wishes but this was an Empire, not a damned Federation. And they were about to run into the largest war since the Dawn of the Flames, she would be willing to discuss checks and balances once they were through that and, you know, alive to talk about it.
Three, no power of the purse. The treasury was hers and she would do what she damned wished with her fucking money. No arguing over budget, and legislators turning the entire body into a pork barrel factory. She'd seen it happen to the Eris Empire, and the Elkis Republic. No way, no how.
With that solved, the big question remained of how to assemble it. How would the legislators be chosen? How many houses?
For now, they'd settled on a one chamber system, with plans to expand it into a two, then three chambers as the Empire started taking firmer form. Notably, once it had an actual constitution. It was something member states would push for eventually, but for now it was simply a vague idea.
Legislators would be drawn from all imperial territories. Basing it entirely on population was simply not acceptable, not to Tark, that didn't even have a fifth of the Republic's population. At the same time, population had to be a factor.
For now, they were planning a half and half design. Half of the legislature would be drawn from member states and Imperial Core on an equal basis. Since they were planning on a one hundred member legislature, so fifty seats in that part, some of the seats would have to be split. The current plan was for one to go to the Imperial Core and the other to the Hegemony. The other half would be drawn by population. One seat every sixteen million people or so.
Both chambers together would give the New Republic twenty seven seats, the Kingdom thirty four, the Imperial Core twenty-three, and the Hegemony sixteen.
The problem was that this probably wouldn't be acceptable to the Hegemony, even with the truckloads carrots they were already getting. Say what you will about the Hegemon and her advisors, but most of them could plan long term and weren't shy about doing it.
Alexandra was arguing that a two chamber system would solve the issue, but they simply couldn't agree on what the second chamber should be able to do exactly. Being able to outright block legislation was anathema to Alexandra, but her proposal of it being simply a nuisance the other side would make concessions to in order to move it out of the way didn't sit right with Allya.
Gods she hated politics. Why did she take this job? Was it worth it? She had more power than she had ever dreamed of, controlled the lives of hundreds of millions of people. Something her old family had never even come close to.
...She also had a chance to save her world. At least influence the madness that was about to be unleashed.
The Empress reached to a drawer in her desk, and pulled out a bottle of her favorite brandy and a glass. She needed a drink. Or two. Or more.
She was about to pour herself a glass when the communicator chimed.
"Hey, Allya." Said Alexandra's voice as soon as the Empress accepted it.
"Hello Alex. Have you come to rescue me from me drowning in paperwork?"
There was a chuckle.
"In a way. The UDC's reached the first village."
Allya jumped up.
"I'll be there in a minute!"
*****
A minute turned to be somewhat optimistic, even with the new transit systems. As Allya had to get to the dungeon more and more, even the military entrance was starting to become cumbersome.
Plus, after the assassination attempt that had ended at the door to her office, it seemed like a good idea to have an escape tunnel. Granted, it added an attack vector, but without the need for daily traffic and guards it could actually be a lot more secure than the Palace was.
The Erisian Imperial Palace in Starcore and the Aubétoile manor had similar passages, though they were usually used to allow in courtesans in this day and age.
Given what Allya herself had been doing with the dungeon core, it might count as well.
The Empress stepped out of the express...tram? Transport pod? As it let her out into the core fortress.
She was immediately confronted by an AI, the new one whose holographic avatar hadn't taken shape yet and who instead used an orb.
"Heya, er..."
"Whiskey."
"Whiskey. Shouldn't you be in the tactical center?"
"I am. But I have spare processing power to greet you there. Please, follow me."
It was a short walk. The core fortress was built for defensibility, but it also had a high speed internal transport network to make even the Erisian Archives green with envy. Of course, they might be slightly less envious if they realized that all the transport systems, from elevators to the trains that served to move freight from the industrial centers, were boobytrapped to hell and all had to go through killzones guarded by railguns and plasma cannons.
Alexandra, bless her paranoia, for it had saved Allya and her wife, wasn't keen on taking any chances. Which was good, because though the UDC had stopped trying to kill her, that wasn't going to last once she'd kicked SouthMarch down and started advancing on Tivaro.
Allya stepped into the tactical center, and blinked at the hive of activity. Several of the AIs were present, as well as the taller maid, Sarah. Emilia was here, interestingly enough, and for once seemed genuinely interested and implicated in the conversation. Usually, the vampire realized that she was way out of her depth for military matters, and let her girlfriend handle it.
Golems were also manning consoles and walking about. Those were the strangest to Allya's eyes. Honestly, given the capacity of the AIs, she couldn't shake the impression that as much as Alexandra professed they were a 'useful backup', they were actually there to give the impression of a normal crew, for the dungeon core's peace of mind.
Though, then again...these things were disturbingly human. She swore she saw one scratching their head as they looked at a stream of data, while another toyed with a bolt like a fidgeting person.
Allya shivered, and hurriedly walked up to the knot around the primary consoles and hologram display.
"Ah!" Alexandra looked up, and smiled. "Allya! Glad you could make it. Will Pyn be joining us?"
"Momentarily." Her wife was scarcely less busy than she was. Rebirth was expanding ever faster, and she had the unenviable task of managing that expansion. Which also meant that there were mountains of people, from real estate developers to guilds, corporations and noble houses trying to bribe her or get into her pants to be granted special treatment.
Thankfully, after Allya had made a few examples, the latter category had decreased dramatically, but there were still some idiots.
"Good. Everything is ready on our end." The dungeon core nodded towards her advisor, who gave a toothy smile.
"It was...interesting, doing such things remotely, via communication crystal no less. But the adventurers proved apt."
Allya nodded. One of the great things after the fall of the guild was that the neutrality of adventurers was out of the window. Adventurers in the Empire that wished to keep their licenses would serve the Empire, period. They weren't soldiers, and they could opt out of Imperial service via a special license, but...
Well, she knew adventurers. She had, after all, been one. The new Imperial adventuring license came with a small stipend according to your rank, so long as you remained within the Empire and at least tried to do some adventuring, access to Imperial dungeons, and some very lucrative and stable government quests and standing bounties. After all, with the chaos caused by the wars, there was more need than ever to beat the monsters back.
The stipend was, interestingly enough, the most important part. It wasn't much. But it did solve one of the biggest problems adventurers had, which was knowing where their next meal would come from if they had a string of bad luck. It also sugarcoated the bitter pill of restricting access to dungeons.
Plus, for a lot of people in the Asarian Kingdom, who had been dirt poor peasants even before the war ravaged half the country, the clay rank stipend was a fair amount of money. Many people who otherwise would have turned to banditry and some who had, were signing up as adventurers for this, and keeping themselves out of trouble. Alexandra had talked extensively about basic welfare, and pointed out that the way her home nation of the European Federation had solved many of its criminal issues had been by ensuring that you wouldn't need to resort to crime to feed yourself or your loved ones.
Allya agreed. Some nobles in the Asarian Kingdom were already making strangled noises about the coalescing program to make sure people at least didn't starve if the Empire could avoid it, but she was perfectly fine starting to hammer it down their throats, even if she had to remove their heads first.
In any case, the new licenses meant adventurers could now be hired and used for Imperial purposes, especially military ones.
"That's good to hear." Said Allya. "I'm surprised the UDC didn't change course after you intercepted them."
"Glarvistar is probably clever enough to realize we knew his course already." Alexandra chuckled. "He's not going to start jumping every time something happens. Which is helpful, because our resources in the Western Baronies are limited."
Allya grimaced, and nodded. She was bitterly aware of that. Until the reinforcements headed by CQ arrived, the entire area was defended by adventurers and a disparate bunch of noble house armsmen, left behind when the royal host was summoned to defend Asaria. The fact that it was simpler and more effective to use the adventurers than the noble forces said it all, really.
"I'm still not sure fighting a guerilla war with adventurers is a good idea, honestly." Admitted the Empress. "Especially since it's going to give the other side ideas."
"Well, currently they're courting what remains of the guild, which means preserving its precious neutrality. Though why they're still clinging to that while everyone is going at them, I don't know."
Allya nodded. The way the guild was being dismantled said way more than any speech ever could. It's not that every nation on Alcheryos had plans to tackle them. That was inevitable, these guys were massive pains in the ass and kept meddling in internal affairs. No, it was how they'd practically pounced.
There had been momentum behind the guild's fall for a while. The secret archons had provided more tinder and the battle of Rebirth a potent spark, but it was already on its way out. Slowly and inexorably. She wondered if their leadership had known that. It would explain a great deal, seeing everything they'd worked for slowly dying. She knew she'd be rather go in a blaze of glory rather than just dying of disease.
"Some habits die hard. Besides, shedding their neutrality officially would just make the transition harsher. I-"
Every head turned as the holographic display beeped, and updated.
"They're here." Announced Whiskey.
"Excellent." Said Alexandra as she straightened, and adopted a parade rest posture. "Welcome Glarvistar. I hope you'll enjoy the red carpet."