Chapter 116 - Bring Out The Big Guns (Patreon)

Chapter 116

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Workshop

"It's almost like Christmas come early!"

"For you, probably." Said Emilia as she looked at the pile of weapons in front of the Earth-born.

She'd chose different words personally. Like absolutely terrifying. She'd seen what her dungeon core could do with low grade gunpowder and a bit of steel. With all that?

The Republic didn't stand a chance.

Hell, if she hadn't been sure the dungeon core would never turn against her, she'd start worrying about the Western Marches' chances to stand against her. Alexandra's pace of improvement had been insane by an standards short of the UDC's founder, and it just kept getting faster.

"Alright then." Alexandra cracked her knuckles. "Let's do this!"

*****

"How many people know of this?" Said Allya as she contemplated the charnel house that had become the warehouse.

"Me, you, and some of the people associated with them might suspect something." Answered Trira.

The baroness slowly nodded.

"Alright. I'll make an announcement and claim credit for dismantling that contraband ring. You, on the other hand, will have to clean up. Kill everyone who might remotely suspect what actually happened, have proof of it, and dig as deep as you can, as long as you stay away from Elkaryos' people." She nudged the corpse of the merchant on the floor. "I want to know who he was really working for, and why. This stinks of a coup attempt."

"He was carrying a letter of safe conduct from Elkaryos."

"Yes. And if my benefactor and corporate ally wanted me overthrown or killed he could have done it in an afternoon. For that matter, even if this was just to buy weaponry on the sly we could have worked something out. Shit, we already did, ever wondered what happened to those mini-ballistas looted from the dungeon's first floor boss?" Allya shook her head. "The document had to have been genuine to some level, but this wasn't sanctioned by him. This stinks of an attempt to drive a wedge between us."

"Seems a bit too elaborate for that."

"Is it? Think about it, it's win win for them. If their guys don't get caught, that letter of safe passage allows them to get around a hell of a lot easier and operate more swiftly. If they do, it instill doubt and might bring about a rift between us and our greatest ally."

"It still doesn't mean there can't be some truth to it." Stubbornly said Trira, although Allya knew the assassin well enough to know she was just playing devil's advocate.

"There can be, and we'll delve into it when we have the time and resources. As it is currently, Elkaryos could crush us by just cutting off all support, and the Republic would do the rest. The dungeon alone wouldn't be able to prop up our government and defences for long when half of our forces -including virtually all of our city guard and thus police force- also more or less work for him. And as a corollary to that we cannot afford to appear suspicious and distrustful of him. So keep it quiet, and silence anyone who might have prove of it being otherwise."

"Yes milady." Trira bowed, and Allya chuckled. "Your will is my command."

Then the invisibility spell activated, and Trira just vanished.

Allya sighed.

"I hate it when you do that."

She heard a faint chuckle, before shaking her head and looking at the bodies. This was going to be a mess…

And not only on the political front. She'd known she'd had domestic opposition, but gathering advanced weaponry for a coup was one hell of a step up from agitating crowds. She wasn't fighting some rowdy merchants, but a genuine, organized insurgency, or at the very least a conspiracy. That was going to be one hell of a headache. But even then, the dungeon was probably a bigger concern at this point.

She didn't know where the hell had Crystal found damned gunpowder in the first place, but she'd clearly been able to develop artillery and rudimentary firearms from that in a matter of weeks. With actual, Tarkian weaponry, which was arguably the third most advanced nation in the world?

She had no idea what the hell the dungeon core was going to be able to do with that. In a way it was a gift from the Gods, not only had the dungeon gotten immensely stronger in military capabilities without having to do it herself -although she'd still have to be careful on the coverup-, but it was probably going to deploy and build weapons compatible with that of her own military, and possibly even ones they were being trained on no less!

Of course that was going to raise a few eyebrows, and she was going to need to carefully decide how she'd explain that to Dominique, and no doubt Starvak, but it was a great boon.

The problem was that at this point she was starting to fear the dungeon. Not in a personal way, like when she had met Crystal for the second time. She'd been afraid of the dungeon core revealing what had truly happened during their first meeting and destroying her legitimacy. Not only was she fairly sure the dungeon core had forgiven her, but also it didn't seem like Crystal cared all that much anymore, especially compared to what had happened to her later.

But in a military way. Crystal's artillery, tactics and military formations…she'd been clearly gearing up to fight something else than the Republic, and that terrified her. The ever increasing pace of the dungeon core's innovations, what with her 'steps' and new weaponry also made her seriously dread what was coming, especially after such a substantial infusion of hardware.

But more importantly, she was wondering if she was next on Crystal's list…and if not, if she would be crushed on the way to another target on said list. Because after talking with the dungeon core, she was becoming increasingly sure that something was burning deep within that dungeon core, and she for one would not want to see what happened when that flame was finally let off the leash.

*****

"And its done." Said the dungeon core.

Emilia looked at the monstrosity before her. They'd spent several hours in the past few days developing prototypes together, but for this one the Earth-born had wanted to save the 'surprise', and only elected to show the end product to her advisor.

"What…the hell is that?"

Alexandra smiled.

"This, my dear, is what on Earth would have been called a 'railway gun'. Effectively a naval artillery piece, the kind you would mount on a sea going battleship, put on a railway car to be mobile on land. Three hundred millimeter caliber artillery piece with an explosive shell weighing four hundred kilograms. Enough to rip apart one of those frigate sized airships the Republic threw at us earlier in a couple of direct hits at most, even with their energy shields."

Emilia looked at the gargantuan cannon, mounted on what appeared to be a madman's idea of a train cart.

Mainly because she rather doubted, despite her limited experience with them, that many would outfit train carts with a solid ten centimeter of steel armor plating.

Oh, and cover it in what looked to be murderholes for muskets and what definitely looked like some machinegun emplacements.

Suddenly Alexandra insisting she come without the maids made a lot more sense.

"Isn't this overkill? For that matter, what's the point of this thing? This is for fighting the Republic, correct?"

"Correct. And it's not overkill. We are facing, according to you and your historical documents, what is probably the single most corrupt and aggressive nation on the continent. As for the point…" She gestured at the cart section. "The rails are made to be mounted on the side. I'm going to circle the entire mesa's side with a giant rail, and have this thing travel alongside it, giving it the ability to shoot in any direction, and even evade incoming fire, if only a handful of times."

"But…why? Didn't you make those…'artillery rockets' of yours? Besides, even your howitzers sound a hell of a lot more practical than this!"

Alexandra smiled, like a professor proud at a bright pupil's answer.

"Oh, precisely. But see, this is the whole point of this gun." She gestured at the giant cannon. "This, is a massive, extremely well armored distraction. Its not made to actually do damage. Can it fire an absurdly powerful shell? Hell yes! But each of those would cost me a fortune to make, not to mention I wasn't able to make it a breechloader, so it takes obscenely long to reload."

"A distraction?" Emilia blinked, before hitting her fist in the palm of her hand. "Oh, I see! You mean you're giving them a huge super weapon to focus on, while the actual threat remains hidden until it's too late, correct?"

"Yep!"

"I see…" Emilia looked at the giant artillery piece. At least it explained why the dungeon core hadn't put it on top of the mesa, given where she'd described she wanted those 'artillery rockets' of hers. "Have you…fired it?"

"Well, ah…no. Not really. I've run as many drills as possible but I haven't tried to actually shoot it yet. If nothing else even the testing room would probably collapse from just the shockwave of the propellant charge, let alone an actual shell explosion."

"I can imagine that." Emilia sighed. "Was this really worth it? Spending time and mana on this?"

"Yes. It's a distraction, but it's also a stepping stone and a test. Alright, its probably oversized, but honestly I really needed the distraction. I can only upgrade all of our existing equipment for so long before I blow a fuse." Especially as there was SO MUCH to do. She now had proper rifling, bullet casings, much better gunpowder…it was overwhelming. She'd spent several days at it and she wasn't even halfway done!

"A stepping stone to what?"

Alexandra looked at her advisor.

"Vampy…you do realize we can't fight off the Republic without going on the offensive, right?"

"...Yes?"

"So we are going to need our own airships eventually. Our own capital ships, to be exact." Alexandra nodded towards the massive artillery piece. "This? This is step one towards that goal. One step of many yes, but nevertheless." Alexandra smiled. "Besides, if anyone wonders why we built that monstrosity, we can always pretend it’s to impress our allies! And intimidate our enemies. Hell, for that matter we'll be telling the truth for the latter!"

"I would believe that."

"Most people would, I think." Alexandra sighed. "But enough about distractions. Back to the salt mines of the to-do list, I suppose."

"Or…we could go visit Ella. Some of the alchemical components you found in the debris from the ship have borne promise according to her."

"Promise? What kind of promise?"

Emilia smiled deviously.

"Why, I think you'll have to wait, I wouldn't want to…ruin the surprise, after all."

Alexandra stared at her advisor for a solid second, before sighing.

"I absolutely deserved that one, didn't I?"

"Yes. Yes you did."

*****

"-her security forces raided the warehouse, and there were no survivors."

Sylvia sighed as she leaned back into her seat. Despite her newly acquired privacy field, she still had Maria make her reports in the captain's cabin whenever possible. If nothing else it was a lot more secure…and right now that was a lot more on her mind than usual, given how much she'd seemingly underestimated their resident baroness.

"Well, at least that take care of any loose ends. Any idea what tipped Allya off?"

"None, but if I had to hazard a guess? Her assassins are her only counter intelligence operatives, so them, most likely." The executive officer frowned. "Apparently our chosen proxies were a bit too incompetent."

Sylvia grimaced.

"Unfortunately we have to play with the hand we're dealt, not the one we want. And unless we want to gather the kind of attention we really don't want, we need proxies that won't lead back to us, and all the competent ones want to find out who are their benefactors, unfortunately." Not to mention a too competent proxy might successfully overthrow the town's government, and that would put a wrench in Lesly's grand plan. "What about plan B?"

"Still viable, although I would advise to have them lay low until the heat from Allya's purge has died down."

"Agreed." Sylvia pinched the bridge of her nose. "I just hope the commander understand why we can't just…eliminate that bitch immediately. It must seriously irritate her to have that idiot parade around, putting the whole plan in jeopardy."

"I'm sure she will. In the meantime, we have a new briefing package from Joachim, regarding the operations in Sunrise."

"Right." Sylvia stretched. "Well, let's go through it. If nothing else, their op is going to have one hell of an impact here in a few months."