Chapter 113 - Infiltrator (Patreon)

Chapter 113

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth.

"And here are our samples lady Aubétoile." Said the admiral as he gestured at the rows of weapons racks, gear, and a litteral fucking battle tank.

Allya was simply speechless. There was enough on display to equip half of her guard force. With everything the ships had to be carrying? She might be able to simply rearm her troops, the royal knights and Willard's men. And they'd have gear to spare.

"That is…a lot." Simply said Allya as Pyn discreetly elbowed her. "To be honest, when you said 'samples' I expected something smaller. I am impressed by the thoroughness of your Hegemon."

"She is a very competent woman."

"So she is." Allya looked at the line of weapons, and chuckled, shaking her head. "Alright, let's do a full review, I'm sure you have something prepared, but already be aware that I am very interested in those gatling guns and that battle tank!"

"Of coure milady. Then, let us start with the most basic. Those used to be our standard infantry rifles. Do not be deceived by their appearance, they are quite effective…"

Allya tuned the admiral out, listening with one ear as she made plans. Because one thing was sure, she was buying everything, she had to.

The only real question she had to answer was whether or not she should risk 'losing' some of it to Crystal's benefit.

*****

"Alex, you're drooling." Said Emilia.

"What?" Alexandra shook herself from her contemplation of the hardware, no the bounty, on display in the town, and looked at her advisor, before quickly checking herself. "No I'm not?"

"I was being metaphorical." The vampire girl shook her head. "You're looking at this stuff like a cat contemplating a fat fish."

Alexandra crossed her arms, huffing.

"Or you looking at a new book."

Emilia opened her mouth, and closed it.

"Alright, touché." They both chuckled. "More seriously however, you're not thinking of nabbing that gear are you?"

"I very much am."

"You'll get caught."

"Not if I do it right."

"And how, pray tell, are you planning on doing that?"

"I'm still working on it."

The vampire girl rolled her eyes.

"Of course you are. Well, when you have a workable solution, you can tell me, because I hardly think the little infiltrator spider golem is going to suffice to steal a tank and-"

Alexandra snapped her fingers.

"That's it! The infiltrator golem!"

"What? To take the tank?"

"No, no, I mean the test! We already tested it against our defences." And enabled some upgrades, particularly for the command center. "But remember our discussion about finding a way to field test it for real? This is the perfect opportunity!"

"How so?"

"Well, it's simple. Since we don't know these Tarkians, and it's perfectly understandable that I'd be suspicious as hell of any foreign armed group in the city after what happened, no one will bat an eye if the infiltrators are discovered." Alexandra waved her hand. "Oh sure, I'll get an earful from Allya, and probably somebody for the guild, but I can point out that every time I ignored a group like that it ended badly. Very badly."

"That…makes a lot of sense."

"I know, right? Okay, let's get some more infiltrators built, and it'll be time to do some proper field testing! And if I can nab some tech, all the better!"

*****

"That was a very impressive selection of samples, admiral." Said Allya as she stepped into the council room, admiral Mintz and Pyn in tow.

"Thank you milady. So, do you have your eyes on any item in particular?"

"Yes." Allya sat down, setting her elbows on the table, before gesturing at at a nearby chair. "Please, have a seat."

"Of course."

Allya waited for the man to be seated, before clearing her throat.

"It is quite simple really. I'll take it."

"It?"

"All of it. Every piece of military cargo you have."

The admiral looked stunned for a second, before laughing.

"Well, that is certainly a simple solution. And what about the Hegemon's suggestions about tarrifs and golem parts?"

Allya gestured at Pyn, who had taken a seat next to her. The Hegemon's 'suggestions' were thinly veiled bases for a trade deal, and that kind of things had always been more up the elf's alley than hers.

"My knight will be more than happy to hash out the specifics with you, or whoever you care to name for the negotiations."

"Ah, of course! Of course. I will warn my advisors then, as you have probably summarized I am hardly a seasoned negotiator or diplomat."

"True, but you are an excellent naval commander. The Republic Air Fleet found that out the hard way."

"It is hardly the first time I have made that particular brand of demonstration to them. One hardly gets to my rank without having crossed swords with the Republic's scum at least once."

"Fair enough. In any case, how long do you intend on staying here?"

"Unfortunately, not for very long. Once the transactions are done and everything is signed I am to discharge my cargo, take on whatever I am able to acquire, then leave. If not all can be done before a week has passed, I am to leave anyway."

"Ah, tight time schedule?"

"Among other things, yes. My ships require regular maintenance that only a Hegemony shipyard can provide, especially after engaging in battle, and to put it bluntly, the Hegemony will need my ships' guns closer to home."

"Expecting trouble?"

"Always milady. Even if the Republic wasn't up and about, creating its usual madness, there are still threats aplenty, and although adventurers have managed to quell the larger monsters at Seaside nine, many more lesser creatures are continuing to pour out of that death zone into our lands, and air support is paramount in stopping them."

"Ah, yes, I'd heard about that. The adventurers who did it are here, actually." Recovering, in fact. Their fight against Crystal had shaken them badly. They seemed to have had a pretty arrogant faith in their own abilities, and getting obliterated by a small army of low grade golems had been a sudden and brutal reality check. But they seemed to have been employing their time well, as of Trira's last report -the assassins were keeping an eye on powerful individuals within the city as well as more politically dangerous persons- they were helping train some of the silver ranked adventurers, so they could more easily do labyrinth delves.

"Well, if the dungeon is piquing their interest it must be even more exceptional than I first thought! At any rate, that was all we had to discuss I believe?"

"It was. Have a good day admiral."

"And a good day to you too miladies."

Spear got up, gave them his best approximation of a bow, and left the room. Allya looked at her girlfriend.

"So, what do you think of the new stuff."

"That if that is what the Eris Empire fights wars with, I am amazed my home country has survived this long."

"Oh, that? Honey, the gear the Tarkian brought is dated by their standards. Can't fault them for that, after all everything that's remotely up to date is being pooled together to fuel their expansion plans. By Erisian standards? Those things are hopelessly obsolete."

Pyn swallowed, hard.

"Well, that's good to know."

"Keeping in mind that there is always higher, better tech out there is always useful honey. Besides, even if obsolete, it'll still be leagues better than anything the Republic's got!"

"Right." Pyn stretched, and Allya did her best to try and not stare at her girlfriend's chest. Given the elf's chuckle and knowing look, she'd failed miserably, as usual. "What say you and I retired to our chambers for a bit? After the last few days we deserve a bit more leisure time, and we just so happen to have some new outfits in the closet…"

Allya swallowed…and nodded.

This was going to be an interesting night.

*****

Alexandra silently hummed the stealth music within her mind as the infiltrator golem scuttled around.

Directly possessing one of these things had been disorienting at first, but she was getting used to it surprisingly quickly. Actually, according to her other self, not that surprising. Arcadia had always used maintenance drones that looked like metal spiders, so it was hardly surprising that she would adapt quickly to this as well.

After all, apparently she had been Arcadia at some point, part of the definitely insane AI gestalt that insisted it was one whole, unified being despite the massive evidence to the contrary.

Somehow that failed to reassure her.

She continued humming the music as the golem exited the tiny exit she had built for it, and disappeared into the night. Since she couldn't do camouflage very well, and moreover she simply wanted to stack the odds in her favor, she'd decided on a dark sandy coat of paint for the golem, to help it blend in and enable it to avoid reflecting light like a gods damned mirror. Besides, night time was when people were less focused, giving her even less chance of being detected.

The golem scuttled into the town, almost silently, making its way through the almost empty streets towards the place where the Tarkians had established their temporary warehouse, and people were busy offloading crate after crate of hardware.

Alexandra set the golem down on the roof of a nearby building, and settled in to watch. There was too much activity there to risk moving in closer for now, and besides, she'd rather get some observations in and memorize the guard patrol patterns before moving further in. This reminded her a lot of those stealth games she'd played back before she'd enrolled into the navy. All she was missing was a bandana and a silenced pistol and she would be a proper stealth heroine!

Of course, that was if she was insane enough to use her avatar. Which she very much wasn't. Eh, maybe she could give the bandana to the golem instead.

Alexandra sighed internally as she looked at the warehouse, and settled in for the long haul. Someone had once said that war was ninety nine percent boredom, one percent extreme stress. It would have been nice if it hadn't been true for basically fucking everything, including spying and dungeon building.

*****

Miraculously enough, it only took an hour before something odd happened.

A group of soldiers unloaded a crate in a secluded part of the warehouse, and one of them stopped to light a cigarette, letting the others move back to the ship without him, exchanging a couple of jokes about the sergeant kicking his ass for grilling one while on duty.

As soon as the other soldiers were out of sight however, the remaining trooper crushed the barely used cigarette under his boot, and opened the crate. Or rather, opened a discrete secret compartment within it.

Alexandra watched with rapt attention as the soldier pulled out what looked like several neatly made packages in the shapes of firearms, and closed the compartment, scampering to another section of the warehouse, where one of the city's workers just happened to be taking his own break.

A pouch of mana crystals was exchanged, and the worker's own crate of goods, this one taken from the city, loaded with golem parts that had been moved to the Tarkian's own crates, suddenly had its own secret compartment filled, and disappeared into the night, whistling like if nothing had just happened, the guards waving him through after inspecting that the crate was indeed 'empty'.

Alexandra started following the man with the golem. It looked like there was a smuggling ring afoot. And that was potentially deadly, because the worker wasn't just slipping this by the Tarkians, he was also slipping it by the town guard. And the only people who would care to that were hostile to the town's government, and thus enemies.

Besides, those firearms had piqued her interest…and a smuggler's warehouse would probably prove to be a considerably easier place to rob for her dungeon than an heavily guarded military warehouse. And if she got to do some good and help her allies along the way, all the better.