Notes :
Not doing great. Constantly stressed out by ninety different fucking things. Like being told that a control freak, DEEPLY intolerant relative who has repeatedly tried to control my entire life (going so far as calling EVERY MONTH to dictate my haircut) coming over for possibly several days this month and staying at my place because they need to go to the hospital and don't want to stay there.
To say that I'm not thrilled is a considerable understatement.
That's just one of the many things I'm having to deal with.
On the plus side, I got my new PC. Since the old one is starting to have an avalanche of issues. On the minus side, there's even more stress of switching up to my new PC and trying to setup everything while having to do a bunch of other crap at the same time, some of which involves the PC that I am supposed to be switching out of, and is too urgent and thus delaying the entire fucking shitshow.
I think I might be on the verge of a nervous breakdown honestly.
///
Chapter 434
Red Sands Desert, Aurorean Empire
Dungeon Factory, Command Center
"Alright, postmortem." Said Alexandra to her assembled AIs as she sat down into the command chair. Allya and Trira were still present there via hologram, and Pyn could have technically joined in, but she was surrounded by guards in one of the secure fallback locations in the city, as the alert was sent out as she was on her way back to the palace. Ghost was also here, but the vampires were missing. "What the hell happened? Seraph, you go first. What did we run into with the guild compound?"
Seraph stepped forward and saluted, which Alexandra returned more or less automatically.
"Despite our precautions, it has become readily apparent that we do not have the capabilities to pierce static stealth systems or perform scans deep enough to detect buried low energy footprint hardware. " Seraph shifted. "It is unlikely we will be able to without high powered active scans with Old World systems, or an extreme level of passive surveillance. Neither would be possible to conceal from observers." Alexandra nodded. Piercing stealth required one of two things, preferably both: A very, very powerful active sensor sweep. Or a lot of passive sensors, preferably spread over a large area, with a long time to look for stealthed enemies and a massive amount of processing power to crunch through the data for anomalies. Earth's Orbital Defense Grid was so important not because of its giant pile of orbital gun platforms, but because it had the ability to deploy both methods on an interplanetary scale. Though even it wasn't perfect, as evidenced by the Final Contingency. "As such, it appears that the merchants guild was able to build and deploy a short range missile launch site, for defending their compound. It included a set of extremely powerful arcane sensors that, at point blank range, were able to detect stealthed vehicles. The entire sensor system appears to have been destroyed, including its operators, during the artillery bombardment."
"That's something at least. Whiskey, Glitch, you took a look at our target?"
Both AIs nodded.
"We had to enlist the help of Emilia." Said Glitch. "Who is still looking over their lower half. It appears that they were extensively augmented. The implants are clearly terran technology and manufacture, but do not appear in our or the Sagitarius Empire's knowledge base." She hesitated. "They also remain hard to scan. We were...not aware Earth possessed stealth technology of this level."
"I was." Said Alexandra, as she exchanged a look with Ghost. "But stealth is rarely applied to implants."
Glitch nodded.
"Data from the library and our own archives indicates it was rarely the case here as well. Nevertheless, he appears to be extremely heavily augmented. We are still on the assumption stage, but his new appearance was real, not an illusion. His implants apparently allow him to reshape his body into a new appearance extremely quickly."
"'Was' real?"
The AI nodded.
"He returned to his normal configuration rapidly. The reconfiguration appears to put an enormous amount of strain on his systems, both synthetic and biological. It probably would have lasted longer had he not taken such catastrophic injuries, but not enough for a long term change."
"That explains why he had the same face as when I met him." And it was really disturbing. Changing your body like that...
There were simpler tricks to change your appearance. But doing it this way, with stealth implants, would allow you to bypass security scanners. They usually went for body characteristics rather than easy to fool things like facial recognition, because changing your height or build was, well, not possible without a full surgery and even then extremely punishing. At least so she had been told. Apparently, it was doable with specialized augments.
"Affirmative." Said the AI, before stepping back.
Alexandra sighed.
"Alright. We'll interrogate him once we're sure we have him healed and know for certain his brain is wired correctly to put into the simulation and not have any nasty surprises. Ghost, you're on that, you know implants better than all of us combined." Her other self nodded, and Alexandra gazed at Trira. "Any inkling of who started this mess?"
"My agent was able to not only 'save' a couple of the conspirators, but also got in on their exfiltration strategy." She paused. "The adventurers seem to believe they were helped by the Eris Empire."
"That tracks, given what they were told." Alexandra's eyes widened as she straightened, almost sitting up. "Wait, exfiltration strategy...do you mean the fleet?!?"
Trira nodded.
"They promised them that the fleet would extract them. They'd just have to lay low until it arrived, then rush the docking towers, and once they're through the security perimeter the ships will take them onboard."
Alexandra's expression got thunderous, then she paused.
"...And I'm going to guess their actual instructions to the fleet will be to kill them. If they've even given instructions to begin with. If they're being rushed by people who just punched through the tower's checkpoints, they'll probably open fire on their own, to curry favor and protect themselves. The adventurers won't be ready for it, since they'll think they're running towards salvation." She swore. "And that would clean up their involvement and make themselves the heroes of the hour. Son of a bitch!"
Allya shook her head as she stepped in.
"I doubt they'd be able to wipe out everyone though. It's not like the cannons are loaded with soul-sealing ammunition. They..." The Empress paused, and they exchanged a look.
"They would fail to clean up everything." Completed Alexandra. "Which means we would find the adventurers, who were certain they were being helped by the Erisians, and the Erisian fleet, who had tried to wipe them out, possibly caused a bunch of collateral damage in the process, with a smoking gun at their feet. Sweet Gods, who the fuck is vicious enough to think up something like this?"
Allya looked like she'd bitten a bitter fruit.
"The Empress of the Eris Empire would be. But if she was involved we would have never gotten that letter warning us, believe me. Whoever they are, they knew enough to make it happen. If we can find how they got the info..."
"We find them. The Erisian fleet's itinerary is pretty much public data, they've been telegraphing it pretty heavily. Really, the only things they had was a way to contact the adventurers and knowing what kind of info the Merchant had." Alexandra looked at Trira, who nodded.
"I'll get right on that. Any instructions for the 'rescuees'? They're currently in a safehouse they think is from my agent flirting with the wrong side of the law for unrelated reasons."
Alexandra paused.
"We could wait for them to try and go to the Erisian vessels, but the last thing we want is to actually implicate the Empire. Even if they're the ones actually doing this, we can't afford a war with them. Not now." Gods knew they had enough on their plates currently. She sighed. "Prepare to 'discover' them, and find a way to pull your agent out."
"Yes ma'am."
The dungeon core turned towards Allya, who smiled.
"I'll ask some more direct questions. I think there's some room for me to be outraged and start swinging the hammer of justice. Plus, we can grab the guild by the nethers and squeeze a little."
Allya had plenty of room to do the squeezing too. Though the missile installation was technically legal -she had given broad latitude to the guild and other allied forces to build up defenses-, they sure as hell hadn't told her or her city guard about it.
Alexandra found it slightly bizarre how nonchalant the Empress was about it, but then again, dozens of armed merchant vessels, guild or otherwise, came and went in the city every single day, and half of Rebirth's airfleet was still made up of what were effectively mercenary vessels, sourced by Elkaryos, usually through the Omega Consortium or the merchants guild. A small missile installation wasn't that much of a threat compared to either of those.
Also it wasn't like Alexandra herself hadn't hidden, and was still hiding, much worse in her dungeon. Compared to some of the stunts she'd pulled before she had brought Allya into her confidence -most of the way anyway-, what the guild had done was laughable.
"Just don't squeeze too hard. We do need them." Cautioned Alexandra, and the Empress' smile widened.
"We do. But if you give me some latitude to negotiate, plus perhaps that maid of Emilia's, I can squeeze and get you a favorable deal with them at the same time. After all, if we don't close the agreements with the guild, then that poor merchant would have died for nothing, and the terrorists who killed him would win. Can't have that, no?"
Alexandra chuckled.
"That's vicious. But true." She nodded. "I'll get Ella to you, once she's done rigging failsafes."
Allya blinked
"Failsafes?"
The dungeon core leaned back into her seat.
"You said it yourself. He killed me once. I'm not taking any risks. If there's even the slightest hint that he's breaching containment...I'll deal with not having any answers if it means I'm still alive."
Or, more importantly, that Emilia and CQ remained unharmed.
Allya met her gaze, and nodded. The Empress knew her well enough to guess that part.
"Let's hope it won't come to that." The former assassin grimaced. "And now the intercom is buzzing. I think it's time for me to hop out and start the outraged act."
"Have fun." Said Alexandra, before turning towards Trira. "If you need any additional resources, just ask. Whoever did this just jumped the queue in terms of priority."
"Understood."
"We'll also need to send a message back to Allya's Erisian friend." Alexandra had been fairly curious about them, until she'd realized that whoever it was, she was linked to a past the Empress really didn't want to remember, and decided that reopening old wounds wouldn't help anybody, especially not when she had her own plethora of horrific scars. "But we can use the agent your people captured for that."
"Assuming they believe him. It might also put Éclair's daughter in danger."
"Then make it clear to him that if they start this kind of crap again we'll make public everything we got from the adventurers."
"What if they call your bluff?"
Alexandra smiled.
"Who said I was bluffing? We don't have to endorse it, just leak enough of the data to start a mess. There are a loooot of things we can do before starting a full scale war. And though I don't want to antagonize the Eris Empire too much just yet, I'm sure they'd rather not be implicated with the adventurers guild or get into a tiff with the merchants guild right about now."
Trira winced.
"And that kind of stuff is why I'm glad I can leave the politics to Allya and you."
Alexandra smiled.
"Lucky you. Good luck, Trira." The dungeon core turned towards the assembled AIs. "As for the rest of you, let's get back to work. We still have a couple of wars to win!"
*****
"What the fuck just happened?" Asked Joachim, as he paced back and forth into his office.
Usually, direct, real time communications with agents was somewhat hazardous. With what had happened to the team he had shadow the Adjudicator, it would be effectively suicide now.
More, everyone was focused on Rebirth, meaning he didn't even dare ask to try a low profile burst transmission. The Church might not care all that much, but that was a dangerous gamble to make, to say the least. And he could not afford, under any circumstances, to endanger Lesly. They had gone too far and sacrificed too much for the plan to fail now.
"Indirect intelligence sources indicates remnants of this mercenary guild have staged an attack upon elements they deemed ideologically significant. Unfortunately, due to their use of soul sealing weapons and superior firepower, they were able to get to the terran before local security forces could intervene." Said the automata, before dipping its head. "It is a sad day when one from the motherworld-of-all-that-is falls. Let alone to such monumental stupidity. Those responsible should be destroyed with maximum prejudice."
"I would normally agree, but our resources are stretched thin." He gazed at the reports on his tablet. His office was bare, and it was almost time to go. "Quite honestly, with this debacle, I am considering pulling our agents out of Rebirth entirely and permanently. The capital has become a nexus with too many forces watching and throwing their hats into the ring."
Of course that had been part of the plan. On that front, it was going swimmingly. Ironically however, the more powerful and influential Lesly's 'Crystal' persona became, the more restricted his actions.
"I have not met your high commander. But her record seems to mark her as capable."
Joachim smiled.
"Yes, she is. In fact I'm starting to suspect she knows more than I do and has been countering fuckups in the plan before I even caught whiff of them." Her decision to found the Empire and keep the UDC fractured had seemed mad, but she had done a tremendous save in a situation where the Order had been caught badly off-guard. There was a reason why the Grandmaster had rescinded the execution order on her, once all of this was over. Despite the mistakes she made, humanity's freedom might hinge on her labor and intellect. "Do we have an update on the Purge?"
"The lackeys of the Gods are still regrouping. However they appear to have diversified their activities. Chances of this Purge being off-pattern verge towards unity."
"Well, that is only to be expected." He checked the time on the tablet. He would have used a watch, but they were something of a rarity in the Asarian Kingdom's capital city nowadays, even the arcane ones. "Lesly's troops will be here in a couple of days. I'll go bribe myself a good spot on the walls. Then we load everything up and leave." Usually he would destroy the room, but that would gather unwanted attention.
Besides, he wasn't immune to the misery around him. Even if there was hope, and construction and repairs were going at a frenetic pace, most of the city's citizens still lived in ruins and hovels barely worthy of the name. Besides, what better way to cover one's tracks than to have your former base of operations turned into an overcrowded dwelling? Good luck disentangling any traces of the former occupants from the current ones.
"Of course." The automata saluted, and a bit surprised, he returned the salute. "Your performance has been satisfactory. Were you in the Sagitarius Empire, I would be filing a positive personnel report, and recommend you keep your rank."
Joachim's eyebrow rose, but he smiled.
"Thank you."
He left the room, oddly cheered by that. He had a guard captain to bribe.