Notes : Chapters 433 and 434 have been written and added to the queue !
Wow, the patreon backlog got to 6 chapters. Given the fact that I originally didn't want a backlog for patreon, that felt weird to say.
Anyway, I will be upping the patreon schedule to four posts a week once the construction is over, by reintroducing mondays as posting days. Normally it should end this saturday but...I'm not confident that will be the case, and even if it does end on schedule, my new neighbors will still have to move in.
Wish me luck on having good new neighbors because it's clear mine has run dry given what I've had these last few months.
But hey, at least I'm managing to write, though it isn't easy with my fucked up eyes. I still need to do even more appointments about it, who will probably just toss each other the ball again and go absolutely fucking nowhere, but I don't really have a choice now do I ?
I hope you'll enjoy the chapter, at least.
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Chapter 428
Forest of Luvan, Western Baronies
In Flight
"I don't like this." Said Glarvistar, his hologram flickering as it looked at the instruments in the bridge.
Mytaran's hologram stepped next to him, and nodded.
"I agree." They were both in her war room in her dungeon, but she'd taken his injunction that they use projections without arguing. "The village's deserted."
"No. That was predictable. With what happened to the people Sunrise captured, and our past alliance with them..." Glarvistar shook his head.
No one, absolutely nobody would stay behind to potentially get enslaved. Even if the brands were broken, it didn't matter.
He'd guessed it would be the case, but he'd known for sure the second they'd run across the first empty hamlets, farms and logging camps. Mytaran hadn't blinked, because she didn't understand surface dwellers. Those in the isolated areas, who braved monsters every day to make a living, would never leave their homes unless they had virtually no other option. The isolated pockets of hermits were always the hardest to evacuate before an army, and every good commander knew to make use of that.
Here they'd just vanished. And in good order too.
"But...we aren't allied with Sunrise anymore."
Glarvistar barked out a laugh.
"It doesn't matter. This shadow will haunt us for a long time still."
Mytaran looked like she was about to add something, but in the end she held her tongue. Probably for the best. Glarvistar had made the deals and shook on the agreements to ally with Sunrise, but he hadn't liked any of it. His vote had been to hightail it back to Tivaro, let Sunrise absorb Crystal's attention for a few months, and prepare for the coming invasion.
He'd been overruled. And now here they were. Their forces depleted by a pointless offensive, tagging along with the duchess' army, only to run home with their tail between their legs to at last, greatly diminished and months late, enact the plan he had argued for. That was in addition to having destroyed their reputation, abandoned any pretense to the moral high ground, and quite possibly accidentally caused the Aurorean Empire to form, or at least given it a considerable boost.
He was sure the leaders who were on their way would find some way to blame it on him too.
He smiled, and shook his head at the younger core's questioning gaze.
"Nothing. Just thinking. But, the reason I don't like this, is those." He tapped a couple of buildings. "Those storehouses."
"Why? They look intact."
"Yes. And the village was evacuated in an orderly manner. There aren't even pets left behind. In that case, why the hell would they not torch their stockpiles? They weren't able to take everything."
"...It's a trap." Said Mytaran.
Glarvistar nodded.
"Almost certainly." He smiled. "One of Crystal's favorite tricks is to pile up explosives and then vaporize her foes when they get too close." He winced. He still remembered the stunned moment when the rogue core had detonated buried artillery shells, when the UDC had attempted to halt her march North. That had been a rather bloody object lesson.
"Do you believe that's what it is?"
"Possibly." He shrugged. "She's known to avoid reusing the same tricks if she can avoid it, but at the same time, she isn't shy about doing so either, especially when she gains something by you knowing it's coming." Sunrise had learned that the hard way against her gas mines. Last he had heard, her army's march north had actually been considerably slowed by the need to remove the ones left behind, on top of rebuilding the road it had obliterated in its retreat and Sunrise had finished wrecking by forcing so many troops upon, though it would soon leave the area where that would be necessary, and would be able to move at full speed. "We could bypass the village entirely. It has no strategic importance."
"But we aren't." It wasn't a question, and the older dungeon core nodded.
"No. We aren't. Were we under pure military pressure, we would shrug and move on. Unfortunately for us all, this isn't a military conflict. It never was and never will be. It's a political one." He smiled at her disgusted expression. "And yes, that means we need to actually take that village, so that our own political forces are satisfied."
"Even though it means triggering an ambush."
Especially because it meant triggering an ambush. Because he was going to call home, say he was going to bypass the village, and force his detractors to maneuver and get him orders in writing ordering to take it.
Then he would trigger that ambush and let their political capital foot the bill.
He wasn't going to tell her that, however. Though she was bright enough she might figure it out for herself. The young core had hidden depths.
"Indeed."
"Shall we prepare then?"
"Hope for the best, prepare for the worst is a motto to live by." He tapped his fingers on one of the bridge consoles, holographic fingers phasing through polished wood. Damn it! He hated that. "How would you do it?"
She blinked.
"What?"
He smiled.
"You said you wished older cores taught more to younger cores. Here we have a learning opportunity. How do you wish to handle it?"
She sputtered.
"I-but-I have no experience!"
"And you expect to gain it how, exactly?" He lowered his voice, suddenly serious. "You don't gain experience via wargames, training and watching over someone else's shoulder. You want experience, real experience? You go out there and fight. You win, you lose, you get back up and fight again. And again. And again. Until you know what the hell you're doing or the other side removes you from the equation. I told you, I'm not going to be in command for long. But you will have authority and decisions to make even after I'm sidelined. And I won't be there to make them for you. For that matter, I shouldn't make them for you. We can both quote a dozen reasons why that would be a terrible idea. So?" He pointed at the sensor readings on the bridge. "Go out there. Get experience. Take command, make a plan, and execute it. I'll back you up, provide feedback. But keep in mind one thing. Crystal is, without question, the single most accomplished dungeon core at warfare in history. You will lose. Even if only as a technicality because despite overall victory, the other side spent less resources than we did."
"In history?!? The founder-"
"Fought a bloody, eleven years long war to establish the UDC. It was a massacre, a great feat, and the Founder did not unify an entire damned continent under a single flag in two years. I don't think you quite grasp that feat. The Great Reconquest that saw the Eris Empire rise from a coalition of duchies to the successor to the Orlov Empire took over six decades to achieve similar results. And the First Empress is one of the greatest legends of our world for pulling it off. Crystal did it in less than a thirtieth of the time. Not a third. Not a tenth. A. Thirtieth. There are already people writing this into the history books. There are legions of military analysts poring over every move she has made and analyzing them. Every battle she has fought until this point is going to be studied to hell and back. Win or lose she has cemented herself as one of the most successful strategists in history. Period."
Mytaran's mouth closed, and she swallowed, heavily.
"I...hadn't thought to see it quite like that."
"Now you do. They say you learn best and most quickly by pitting yourself against greater opponents. Here's the chance to prove it. With a disposable force against the most dangerous commander of our time, who also thinks this is a secondary battleground." He put his hand on her shoulder, and had to stop himself from putting 'weight' on it and going through her, though both holograms still glitched as they intersected, and he ended up awkwardly hovering his hand over her. "Now let's get yourself some experience, shall we?"
*****
"Everything in position?" Asked Mytaran, and the monster on the bridge nodded, its grotesque amphibian head moving like it had no bones to anchor it. "Good. Then let's begin."
The three warships careened forward, skimming the top of the trees, coming over the village, then climbing after they passed over the storehouses. No response.
The ships began to angle, moving into a guard position, and the transports swooped in.
Glarvistar nodded in approval. Despite her lack of experience, the younger dungeon core had good instincts. Sending the armored ships first to draw fire was a good idea. Especially when the transport ships had to be a priority target for Crystal.
This was a good opportunity for her...and though Glarvistar wouldn't say it out loud, no blame would fall upon her if this failed, as the UDC's leadership needed her onboard.
Which, of course, would mean all of it would fall on the idiots who, obliging as ever, had ordered them to take the village instead of just bypassing it. Three birds with one stone.
"Touchdown." Said the monster, its distorted larynx somehow rendering the words with perfect clarity.
Immediately, monsters spewed out of the transports. Those weren't just old, living ships pulled out of reserve and hibernation, who had last been awake during the United Dungeon Wars. They were top of the line, UDC assault transports, based on the Dwarven Empire of Lorvis' version, which itself was probably inspired by stolen Erisian designs.
They could get down and deploy troops quickly. And, as shown, take off equally quickly.
The monsters dispersed. Most of them were Quavilaks, large amphibians that vaguely looked like the officer on the bridge. They could move deceptively quickly, and were extremely agile. Accompanying them were a handful of Nostrums, four armed furry things that looked like someone had tried to turn a monkey into a war machine, and ended with something that looked like it had been crossed with a spider, what with the horrific multitude of eyes on their faces.
Not that it mattered all that much. Both were made to be standardized infantry, not living weapons like the Jaskarls. The deployed Quavilaks were spearmen and skirmishers, while the Nostrums served as heavy infantry.
The skirmishers dispersed, giving themselves the ability to fire on damned near anything in the village, as the spearmen rushed into the homes, methodically checking every one down to the cellar.
Which was how they stumbled into it.
"Contact." Said the officer. "Unit eight is reporting unusual activity. Warning the sensors have reported a detonation! Unit eight reports being in combat with multiple hostiles!"
"Send reinforcements!" Barked out Mytaran, and troops began to converge on the house. Heavy infantry first, spearmen on the flanks. The building was large, probably from the village's elders or one of the artisans whose craft fueled the little community. With transport being what it was, any place like this truly existed if it brought something unique enough to market to have the attention of their lord, and thus more than the protection of their local knight. Plus, it helped to bring enough money to hire adventurers if things went south.
The troops surrounded the house...just in time to see a Quavilak crash through one of the windows, bringing itself up in a defensive position.
The skirmishers, still dispersed around the area, Glarvistar noted, prepared to fire, only to hesitate as another of the amphibians erupted from the window...and went straight for the one that was already outside.
"What the fu-"
Several of the swordsmen began to sneeze and cough. Glarvistar watched as the ship's sensors registered a surge in magic. A spell? No. An elixir, vaporized into the air. A potion enriched with enchantments.
Chaos erupted. The Nostrums went wild, and began striking at each other. The Spearmen tried to fall back, only to fall prey to the same problem.
"What's happening?" Said Mytaran, and Glarvistar could sense she was on the edge of panicking. He would have grabbed her shoulder but it was useless. So instead he tapped the sensor report through the ship's systems.
"There appears to be some kind of aerosol dispersion enchantment in that house. I don't know what it's throwing out exactly, but it's an elixir. I'm betting a mix of combat stims and hallucinogens, the kind that enhance paranoia."
Mytaran's eyes went wide.
"That's- Shit! Order the skirmishers to pull back! Get them as far away as possible so they're not affected by this stuff!"
The officer nodded, and the remaining sane monsters began to hop away as fast as they could.
Glarvistar nodded. He hadn't even needed to prompt her.
"Good work."
"Not good enough." She said bitterly. "I didn't even know something like that was possible."
"It is, but it's generally only effective on monsters. People don't have the instincts and innate combat reflexes to just attack each other like that. So a conventional toxic gas is better."
"Then why don't we have countermeasures?"
"Because until a few months ago, this wouldn't have worked on our monsters." Glarvistar shook his head. "Our creatures wouldn't attack each other. They couldn't. Hell, they were unable to even fall back on their own!"
Mytaran's eyes widened.
"The ritual."
"Yes. The way we control our monsters has changed. And to prevent them from running away, we have to give them aggression enhancers before battle. Which only made this attack worse." Glarvistar smiled. "It's brilliant, in a way."
Brilliant, but why reveal it now? Crystal may be relying on golems, but she could make biological monsters, she had to have tested this on them to make sure it worked. Why bother with a field test here? It would simply give the UDC warning.
...Because she wanted them to waste resources on counters? Maybe. Or, most likely, this was just an early prototype, and she had so much worse on the way. And it wasn't like it would have worked in a larger scale battle in this form, as they would have prepared for her gas weapons via shields and wards, not simply dispersing their troops to minimize damage.
Mytaran swallowed.
"So...what now? Do we wait for them to kill each other?"
"They won't." Some of them were already starting to break off from the general melee in fact, much like the spearman that had crashed through the window, the urge to survive punching through even the stim cocktails. "Use the skirmishers for containment. Then we're taking samples, and figuring out what she did and how."
Just as he finished, the barn in the middle of the village caught fire. And so did half a dozen places around the village, deep in the woods.
"Or she'll start a forest fire to deny us any real intelligence." Said Mytaran. "I'm pulling everything out. Screw this place."
"Couldn't agree more." Said Glarvistar, as the transports came down in a hurry, collecting the skirmishers, before powering away from the growing blaze.
An expected outcome. But the scale of devastation Crystal was willing to embrace just to test some of her weapons was worrying.
If she was willing to use scorched earth tactics here, who knew what she'd be willing to do once they started threatening Sarth?