Chapter 68

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth, Administration Building.

"So, in total?"

"600 of them. Maybe more, it's hard to tell. 50 in a form of advance guard. 300 as their main force. About 250 in their logistics train, although how many are combatants is...tricky to determine."

Allya nodded.

"Thank you captain, your help is invaluable."

Calder smiled.

"Merely doing my job milady."

The baroness shook her head, smiling. Calder was going above and beyond, and everyone knew it, but she knew the orc would just brush it off if she pressed it.

"Alright. We have at least some knowledge of what we're up against. Did your ship take any significant damage captain?"

"No, our wards absorbed the full force of their barrage, although it will require significant recharging and maintenance before being back to full strength. No casualties either, thankfully."

One of the things that had very clearly answered whether or not the incoming force was hostile was when they'd quite simply opened fire on the Alberta with what seemed like ballistas, and some sort of lightning weapon.

"Thankfully indeed." And not only because that meant some of the people working for her hadn't been killed. She was grimly certain she was going to need every ship and advantage she could get soon. "In any case, this information is crucial. Knight commander Philia, what's your assessment?"

The royal knight blinked, and gestured at the maps spread on the council table.

"If their force estimate is accurate, and they do not have significant reinforcements on the way...I'd say they'll take the time to set up a siege formation."

"We're hardly dug in deep enough to justify that." If nothing else their towers weren't even finished. They could still serve, somewhat, but at this point the only valid defensive positions they had to siege were the lookout posts on the mesas, and they weren't exactly fortified.

"True, but they don't know that, do they? Plus, it's the prudent thing to do. They don't want to attack us right away, so they'll take some time to scout us out. At the same time, a successful sortie from us could spell their doom, and a siege camp would give them a secure fallback point."

Allya nodded. The Eris Empire might not operate a lot in wastelands -the heavy air transports the Empire possessed made wasteland crossings a joke, and nothing short of a sand kraken would tangle with one of it's flying dreadnoughts-, but she had studied the basis of wasteland warfare tactics. Not that it was that complicated, as the basis was: don't ever, EVER, rout in the wasteland. Even in more hospitable terrain, monsters and creatures could tear apart unorganized, panicked troops before they could coalesce into an army again. In a wasteland?

It'd be a miracle if anyone but the most elite units made it back.

"That makes sense. That's probably where they'll park most of their artillery, at least unless they decide to try to shell us."

"Indeed milady." Philia winced. "I'm fairly sure my catapults outrange whatever these scumbags brought with them, but...not enough to justify sieging them. Even if we had the numbers to do that in the first place."

"Yeah. Alright. Anders!"

"Yes milady?" Said the captain as he bowed slightly.

"I want your best men, those trained in wasteland survival and travel, to form into fire teams, and recon the enemy's convoy, and wherever they chose to set down."

The mountaineer smiled.

"I already have them gearing up milady."

Philia frowned.

"Are you sure milady? My knights..."

"Are far too visible. Besides, Anders' men were brought in exactly for this. Do not be deceived knight commander, they might be private security, but they were chosen because of their expertise in safely navigating through the wastelands." Allya's smile was very, very unpleasant. "If any of these idiots decide to tangle with our men, let them. It'll make a few less to strike down when they launch their assault."

The knight commander slowly nodded, and Allya looked to the side at Willard.

"We can't afford a confusion in the chain of command right now. Willard, will you place your troops under my command?"

"Of course milady." Said the merchant. "They will obey like the orders came from the duke himself."

"Good. Have them report in to Anders. Captain, I want you to deploy your forces and Willard's forward, at the positions the engineers had planned to put redoubts. Pyn? I don't care how you do it, but I need those redoubts, and I needed them yesterday. Draft or hire whoever you damned need, even post a quest about it to the adventurers guild if necessary, you have carte blanche." The recipients acknowledged, and Philia shifted slightly.

"What about me and my forces milady?"

"You knight commander?" Allya smiled. This time it was definitely wolfish. "You'll be our ace in the hole. I want you to hide your troops. Once they've begun their assault, and are stuck in...pass between the other mesas, outflank them." Allya's eyes hardened. "They opened fire without warning, and attacked what for all purposes is one of my principality's warships. Show them no mercy."

"Yes milady!"

*****

"You know, for a new town in the middle of a blasted desert, these guys sure get attacked a lot." Said Alexandra as she contemplated the screen.

"Well, to be fair, they are sitting on top of a link dungeon. That is to be expected." Answered Emilia.

"Fair enough, I suppose." Alexandra sighed as she replayed the conversation with the emissary through her mind. The messenger from Allya had been to the point: the dungeon town was under attack, and was going to be effectively placed under siege. Dungeon delves would continue as normal...as long as the outer defenses weren't breached.

Allya had gone out of her way to reassure the dungeon core that there should be no cause to worry, and the army should be there to just conquer the dungeon town...but that was what had been supposed to happen with the last group of human attackers, and hadn't that gone well?

As such, Alexandra had placed her entire dungeon on a higher alert level, and ordered most of the reserve golems to be at least armored, and formed entire platoons of rapid response units. She was also toying with the idea of carving out rooms at several points in the logistics network to have nodal reaction forces, but gave it up for now. It was a bit overkill at this point, and it was already hard enough justifying the current measures with Emilia.

She'd also begun her last preparations on her final defense protocols. Unfortunately to do so she had to bring Ella onboard, more or less to get the required books out of Emilia's pouches, but after explaining what she wanted to do, the vampire maid had been more than happy to oblige. The bracelets would take a bit to finish, but thanks to some innocent probing with CQ, she had the perfect cover for them.

Reinforcing the entrance and core room hallway defenses had been a bit too obvious to slip by Emilia, but thankfully the two maids had proven extremely helpful into convincing their young mistress to see reason -mostly by staring disapprovingly at her-, and the vampire girl had agreed to at least install some more defenses. There weren't any new systems per say, but anyone trying to fly above the traps would suddenly find out that claymores worked perfectly well when stuck to the ceiling, and a few more flamethrower traps had been installed in the spike pits. Just to make sure that anyone trying to jump above them was going to regret it. Badly.

If they lived long enough to regret anything of course.

"So, are we going to get back to work or what?"

Alexandra shivered. The vampire girl had dragged her back into design work, this time for the second floor's boss room. They couldn't have their daughter fight in some drab, uninspired arena again after all!

Her advisor had also roped in a full redesign of the royal guard golems as well, although at least Alexandra had managed to fend off attempts to give them capes, mostly by pointing out how impractical they were. Emilia had then proposed half capes, which Alexandra had very firmly shut down. Those things looked completely ridiculous, and she knew that from personal experience. High ranking officers in the EFSN had crimson half capes as part of their formal dress uniforms, and they looked absolutely ridiculous. Even as an ensign she used to make fun of the High Admiral's grand speeches, with the way the cape flurried whenever a sweeping gesture was made.

"Can't we just wait a few more minutes?" Hopefully asked the Earth-born, before sighing and smiling meekly as Emilia leveled her best glare at her recalcitrant dungeon core. "Fiiiine. I'll warn CQ."

After all, they couldn't redesign their daughter's guard without her input...and at least CQ had appeared to have inherited a good dose of Alexandra's pragmatism and practicality, which made her a solid ally in trying to keep the ostentation down...most of the time.

Alexandra jumped into dungeon mode, and began sending messages. Well, at least working would take her mind off of these invaders...whoever they were.

*****

"Greetings, defenders of Rebirth!"

The man's voice reverberated throughout the mesas, amplified by magic, and Allya shook her head.

When Anders had told her that the enemy forces had been setting up a tribune, a freaking tribune, at the edge of their crossbow range, she hadn't believed him.

She did now. Whoever he was, the enemy's leader appeared to believe in the value of spectacle and propaganda. That or he was so full of himself he had his minions build him a giant wooden stand in front of his enemies just to boost his own ego.

Allya was inclined to bet on a bit of both.

"I am Gothram Edingburgh, commander of the Scarlet Swords mercenary company! And I stand here to give you the chance to surrender peacefully, without unnecessary bloodshed!"

Anders visibly twitched, and Allya laid her hand on his shoulder.

"Let him speak. We know his name, and that he is a mercenary, it's more than we did a few minutes ago." If there was one thing she'd learned, it was that if an enemy wanted to make a speech, it was better to let them do so, even if it was a distraction, as long as you were aware of the possibility. "Besides, every second he spends talking to us is one he isn't strategizing or leading an assault, and right now time is on our side."

Anders grunted, and subsided. The first thing Allya had done after her strategy meeting was over had been to call the royal capital via her communication crystal, and ask for help.

To her surprise, she'd been directed straight to the queen, and although they'd been thousands of kilometers apart, she had almost physically felt the woman's anger and resolve through the communication crystal. It was quite clear the crown had always been...annoyed, to say the least, at the Republic's constant probing on the frontier, and if nothing else having a concrete target to smash seemed to have made things much simpler.

Her promised reinforcements were making all haste towards Rebirth...and the Crown had recalled one of their mercenaries, Grant the Giant, to come reconquer Rebirth should the worst happened.

When she'd heard the mercenary's name, Allya had almost fallen from her chair. She hadn't even known Grant the Giant was on Arkan, much less that he worked for the Asarian Kingdom! It was cold comfort, as if Rebirth was taken she'd be unlikely to be taken alive -as a relatively young noble without much clout or a dynasty to bail her out, she wouldn't be worth it to ransom-, but at least she was grimly sure that those who took her head wouldn't survive very long.

The silence stretched on, and Allya shook her head. What was that...Gothram expecting? That upon declaring his intention to let them surrender they'd just drop their weapons and bow before him? If that was the case, he was in for a very bad surprise.

"I see that you are not interested. I understand that, truly I do." The mercenary commander. "Once upon a time, I would have agreed. I know what it is to stand to the end by the side of your lords and ladies." He sighed, and his voice carried a sadness that could only come from true experience...or really good actors. "But you will do your families no favor by dying here."

This drew a reaction of Allya's people, and the baroness smiled nastily as her people almost snarled in reaction.

Poor choice of words asshole, she thought to herself.

One of the things she'd made absolutely sure of after the failed attempt on her life and the attack on the dungeon had been to provide for the family of those that had fallen in service. It wouldn't replaced their loved ones, but she'd be damned if she let the families of those who fell protecting her starve because their loved ones had given their lives for her.

The mercenary commander waited a bit longer, then nodded.

"Very well then. If you will not surrender, or withdraw...Then we shall fight." He drew his sword, and pointed it at the crowded lookout post. "I will meet you on the battlefield, defenders of Rebirth!" Then, with a flourish of his cape, he walked off his tribune and left, his escort of over three hundred soldiers parting perfectly to let him through.

"You know, I could have just shot him there." Whispered Pyn in Allya's ear as the enemy forces began falling back.

"It would have been a bad idea. First, I highly doubt they didn't have contingencies for sniper fire, and if he wants to waste some of his time talking, by all means we should let him. Especially if he gets tempted to do the same thing later on."

"Do you seriously expect him to?"

Allya shrugged.

"If things get bad enough? Yeah. Mercenaries aren't paid to die honey. If they encounter too much resistance, I think they'll at least try to negotiate."

"Right."

Allya looked at the retreating army, before sighing, and raising her voice.

"Well, it looks like our dear friends here have some doubts about our resolve. How about we prove him wrong next time he comes back?"

A cheer rose from her men in response, and Allya smiled.

If those mercenaries had been expecting an easy victory, they were going to be seriously disappointed.