Chapter 124 - Airborne Offensive (Patreon)

Note : Taking a bit of a pause in that frenetic pace of writing, so the daily patreon uploads are unlikely to last. I'm actually considering picking back up one of my old projects, the Riftmaker Saga. I'm only 12k words deep, but I believe it has potential. If nothing else, I need to be writing and thinking about other stories as well, otherwise I'll burn out. Or go crazy. Given how...problematic my irl is being, probably both. And not necessarily in that order. Also started a second playthrough of Tyranny, and I must admit I was rather forcibly reminded of how much I love the setting and the magic system. Probably will yoink some of it.

Chapter 124

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

Dungeon Factory, Fortified Stronghold Alpha.

"Well. This brings back memories." Said Alexandra as she gazed at the gigantic blast door, and the massive power beam 'drills' installed in front of it, slowly cutting through it. She'd have used the lasers she'd acquired, but not only were they damaged, but she simply hadn't had the time to take a good look at them, what with trying to juggle the troop deployments outside the dungeon, the day to day business, and now this mess.

She could really use an AI right about now. Or rather, another AI. Damn her old self!

"Trying to penetrate into highly secure bunkers filled with murderbots?" Said Emilia through the screen, and Alexandra chuckled. She'd flatly refused to let the vampire girl even come close to the front lines, but her advisor had found a way to still accompany her. In the way of a screen being held by a golem.

"Not…exactly. But something similar. Back during the Alpha Centauri campaign, before my captain oh so gently dumped me on the planet, I had the joy of accompanying a marine boarding team on one of the UIS dreadnoughts we'd taken out. We were more on a rescue mission than anything -their naval units had formally surrendered-, but their entire electrical grid was gone and the blast door had been welded into place by a plasma wave. Since they were rapidly running out of air, the marines pulled out all the stops to dig them out. And let me tell you, despite their shitty carriers, the UIS sure did know how to build dreadnoughts. Took us three hours with fusion pumped cutters the size of small tanks to open it enough to allow people out."

"This…might take a bit longer."

"I am acutely aware of that vampy." Alexandra gazed at the door. It was weird as hell, because the power beams were having a noticeable effect, and she was very surprised there hadn't been some kind of magical hell material that would shrug off anything they could throw at it. All in all, it behaved a lot like an ablative thermal reinforced blast door. Much tougher than what Earth could have built, granted, but remarkably similar none the less. "Still, we're making progress. I don't think that thing was designed to take sustained fire. Probably only there to sustain one powerful blast."

""That would make sense. Any normal intruders would have to go through the rest of the facility and its security before accessing that bunker. Defending against big bombs was the only point. A lot of Old World facilities seem to share this feature."

The Earth-born made a mental note that it was probably survivorship bias. Given the pasting the planet had taken, from the Great Night and then the Dawn of the Flames, anything that hadn't been shielded against nuclear bombardment wouldn't have survived, period.

"Yep." Alexandra sighed. "Still doesn't mean we're getting through quickly. My kingdom, my kingdom for a fusion cutter!"

"I thought you didn't want to rule a nation?"

"Shush vampy." Alexandra's head came up suddenly. "Oh come on!"

"What is it?"

"The Republic's advancing! Damn it, can't these idiots do the smart thing and dig a hole in the sand and bury themselves alive? It'd save everyone a lot of ammunition for the same damned end result. Alright, I gotta pop to the surface. Oversee what happens here, I can't fight a war on two fronts, if something happens here while I'm busy, you're in command. Listen to your maids, but please, do try to keep some of the tech intact for absorption. You know Sarah will just blow it up."

"Right, good luck!"

"Thank you. I won't need it." She smiled nastily. "I prefer making my own."

*****

"For what we are about to receive, let us be truly thankful." Muttered the captain as his ship hurtled towards the town. He had no idea where that quote was from, or what it truly meant, but his old extradimensional mentor said it during every battle, when the shooting was about to start.

"Sir, we are approaching the waypoint." Said his executive officer.

"Thank you lieutenant." He pressed the button activating the ship wide intercom. "All hands, all hands, brace for emergency acceleration!"

He then proceeded to stand in the middle of the bridge with every outward appearance of confidence as his crew buckled down.

Then-

"Waypoint reached!" Yelled out the XO.

"Helm, maximum speed!"

"Aye aye, maximum speed!"

The captain grunted the ship's propeller went into overdrive, and it felt like he had been hit with a minotaur. He didn't know exactly what the hell the artificers had put into the propellers to obtain that emergency acceleration, or 'sprint mode', but it packed a wallop.

And more importantly, it would get his ships in range of the town far faster than they expected. Hopefully. He was starting to doubt his general or high command in general had any real idea what the hell they were dealing with here. Attacking a town? Sure. A freaking dungeon?!?

This was crazy, plain and simple.

But orders were orders, and if the general said jump, he'd jump.

At least it explained the shiny gunners and the weird artillery. Not that it was particularly reassuring. But it was something.

He squinted as the town appeared on the horizon.

And swore viciously as he saw the airships assembled in squadrons above the defenses. So much for a successful diversion!

"It seems our friends over there didn't take the general's bait. Well, it looks like we're doing this the hard way." He said to his bridge crew. "Time to earn our paychecks!"

*****

"Multiple airships inbound! Flying at minimum altitude! Coming in from the south!"

Allya smiled as the soldier yelled out, staggering into the command center.

"There it is. I knew they had something sneaky planned." She looked up at Crystal's boss, which the dungeon core was possessing. "Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Yes. But this is the whole point. To draw them in."

"Well, it looks like it's going to work out on that front. Let's just make sure we didn't leave ourselves wide open." Allya grimaced as the thunder of artillery began to fill the air. "And it begins."

*****

Elkisian airships were, by and large, very good for their technology level. Excellent wards, good armor, and surprisingly effective artillery for being limited to bronze bombards and more traditional weaponry. A fair bit of it was imported, but still.

Unfortunately for them, they weren't 'drive straight through a wall of guns' good. They technically had more cannons than the enemy, but the opposite side was dug in to nice, reinforced earthen berms and ramparts, and they were hanging in the air, practically begging to be shot. There were enemy warships of course, but they were keeping a respectful distance, peppering them with long range fire, clearly intending to pounce when the time was right, and not launch themselves onto a suicidal assault upon a capital ship.

Which was why the battlecruiser was leading the way. The light cruisers wouldn't have been shredded per se, but they would have definitely taken a pasting. The battlecruiser on the other hand was a behemoth of air warfare, made exactly for this kind of punishment, and serving as a massive threat to keep the enemy fleet back. The wards shone with energy and rang out like crystal bells as volley after volley of cannonballs crashed into them. But their own guns stayed silent as the ships forged onward, refusing to swing about and bring the defenses under fire. They were, after all, not here for them. And the pursuit guns, pointing forward and aft, were only light weapons, and of dubious utility against such heavily fortified targets, at best.

The massive gun, their true objective, slowly began to pivot, and track the incoming capital ship. But it stayed silent. The captain wondered idly why it wasn't firing. Perhaps it was a bluff? Should it not fire soon, it would not have the chance to at all!

Well, it wasn't going to matter soon. The cannonballs were doing a number of their wards, but they lacked the sheer power of shells, and the captain internally sighed in relief as they crested over the second line of the defense, the main wall. The fact that they used the lower tech ammunition was very good news. At least he didn't have to worry about explosives-

It was, perhaps, unfortunate that none of the frigates sent on the raid had been able to escape to report back. Because if they had, they might have highlighted the foolishness of charging forward, and ignoring what is below you.

Because the second they arrived above the third line of defense, the howitzers opened fire. Alongside over three hundred RPGs in a single, massive salvo. The RPGs would have never hit had the ships not flown so low, but unfortunately for the Republic, they'd devised their attack plan to avoid as much fire from the field guns emplaced on the walls as possible, not with an ambush in mind. The golems had to scramble to get into position in time, and a great deal many of them had to fire at the very edge of their range, but…

That didn't matter, as a torrent of explosions surrounded the battlecruiser.

The wards held. Somehow, they held. Flickering, sparking, but still holding.

Then the next volley of the field guns came in, and the capital ship's protective energy bubble collapse in a flash of energy.

And the captain found out that the big gun was, indeed, fully operable. It was just waiting for its moment to strike.

*****

One interesting thing about shells was that they had a rather low percentage of explosives compared to their overall mass. That was due to the shell walls being immensely denser than the explosives themselves, but also to the fact that, well, the shell actually had to penetrate its target and deal damage.

In this case, it was more of a case of Alexandra being unsure as to how sturdy her shell needed to be, and erring on the side of caution. Plus, given the atrocious costs of her explosives, she had decided to not skimp on the rest of the shell either, and make it of the finest steel she could create with her powers.

Which, quite accidentally, created an armor piercing shell. A primitive one, to be sure, but…not as primitive as the ship it was fired at.

Three hundred and sixty kilograms of high grade steel slammed into the ship. To its credit, the armor plating almost stopped it. Almost.

But it penetrated. Only partially. But 'partially' wasn't a good enough when fourty kilos of advanced alchemical explosives went off inside your ship.

The entire prow of the battlecruiser vanished in a cloud of shrapnel and splinters. The forward guns were simply obliterated, and several engineering sections were flat out gone. But despite everything, it was still a damned battlecruiser, and the reinforced bulkheads contained the explosion to the forward compartments.

And the ship demonstrated why Alcherosyan air warfare could be so deadly. For any waterborne crafts, this would have been a crippling blow, and they would have quickly begun sinking.

But its balloons and propellers were intact. And it simply kept going.

*****

"Helm, bring us about!" Yelled out the captain as alarms blared throughout his ship. He'd known what was going to happen when the wards had collapsed, but he'd been unable to prevent it. "Take that damned gun under fire! I want this hellish weapon reduced to scrap!"

"Aye aye captain!"

The ship began ponderously swinging around, and the captain winced as he heard the clangs of cannonballs hitting armor. It could take the punishment for a while, but if they hit the prow with one of those volleys…

"Begin an ascent, we must point our prow at the sky! And signal the cruisers, silence those guns underneath us, or whatever the hell they used to take down our wards!"

"Aye ay-"

The officer never had the chance to finish her sentence, as the cart holding the giant cannon vanished behind brilliant beams of energy, stabbing out towards his ship.

And the captain realized in a flash of total horror that the cart's murderholes were filled with power beam weapons.