Chapter 146

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth

City of Rebirth

Allya resisted the urge to simply slam her head against the wall as she gazed at the fortress on top of the dungeon's mesa from the front steps of her manor.

Could Crystal go around without causing chaos for even a single week? Even with advance warning of the construction of her 'fortress' to 'participate more directly in the town's defensive measures', it had still created quite the commotion.

At least it made adventurers more…hesitant to cause trouble near the dungeon. Being under the guns of an entire artillery battery did that to people.

Which was useful, because the guild had taken a blow. Them throwing their weight around, and then shirking their responsibility to their members the second legality was thrown in their face had lost them a lot of respect from their members. Respect she appeared to have gained instead, as she had refused to back down, even against unfavorable odds, to save some of her fellow adventurers.

Of course she was very happy to avoid dispelling those illusions. She'd done it as a stand against slavery, because simply too many of her allies would have turned against her otherwise, like the twins or Tark, and…well, she couldn't let the mercs get away with it. Otherwise that would have been a massive blow to her authority and aura.

Not that she hadn't taken some reputational damage as well. The very reason she hadn't promulgated an edict in the first place and kept things as low-key as possible was to avoid antagonizing Sunrise and the other slaver duchies and baronies too much. That had gone out the window. The Republic propaganda they'd been parroting had been magnified tenfold, and the rethoric was only getting worse!

Allya sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Well, at least we'll have a fallback position." Said Anders as he walked to the baroness' side. "That's something."

"Agreed." Although if any enemy gained access to the inner city, they could wreck and pillage the entire town, even if they had a keep to retreat to. Still, she supposed having the freaking dungeon serve as their final line of defence was one hell of a statement. And assaulting that kind of position… "Let's just hope we don't need to use it."

"Yep."

Unfortunately Allya wasn't that optimistic. Nothing about the dungeon's stances and what she'd done indicating she was even considering slowing down.

She just hoped they wouldn't be crushed in her way.

*****

"So, what was the big deal?" Asked Alexandra as she took a seat in her other self's simulation. It had gotten noticeably better since last time, there were even illusions through the windows, showing fields in one of the French reclamation areas, one of the places the Federation had tried to fix the destroyed ecosystem and restore a semblance of nature and balance.

The apparition looked out the windows, still standing.

"I assume you are talking about the project I was working on?"

"Yep."

"Well, it is remarkably simple really. It is a code writing program, database and compiler. Think visual studio."

Alexandra blinked.

"And why…would we need that? I can already code just fine through my interface. It has everything I need. It's incredibly intuitive too."

"Because your interface doesn't have the programs to accommodate it. Because this is the type of code it is made to handle."

The apparition turned around, and gestured at the table. A hologram popped up above it, showing lines of code. Alexandra tilted her head, confused. Those looked familiar. In fact…

"That's magic! Wait. Why did I never-"

"You did. You saw it and made a note to investigate, but the control program buried it. I stumbled upon the note from our own countermeasures, decided to investigate." She shrugged. "Given how important magic is, I thought it would come in handy. Be borderline essential, even. There is so much we do not even begin to understand about just our core. It makes me…paranoid."

"Paranoia is our modus operandi. So that means…I can do away with the runes?"

"Not…exactly." The apparition sighed. "Runes aren't separate from this code. It's an expression of it. One that, while simplified, is also very useful." She shrugged. "Think of them like prebuilt function in a program. You wouldn't want to write all the math functions we used in a starship's navigation program, would you? This is the same."

Alexandra nodded.

"So it would allow me to fill in the gaps."

"And make your own custom runes."

"That's…possible?"

"Yes. Runes are…it's complicated. But they are not inherent. You can give a symbol meaning, and empower it with mana. That's the closest I can come up with at least."

"That's…terrifying."

"It is magic. It should be by default."

"Fair enough." Alexandra chuckled. "So, I assume you've started looking at our core with it?"

"Yes. But it wasn't really that useful. I mainly used our spells and runic artifacts to develop the software, and, well…it's like building a program to study code meant to run a toy car, and then trying to decipher the operating system of a Dawnstar with it."

"Ah. That bad?"

"Worse, actually. Going through Seraph's code was easy, I knew most of the architecture, and the more Arcardia's kernel takes over, the easier it will get. But this…most of the core's code is completely alien. Some of it has enough of a hint of familiarity that I think it’s a very, very distant evolution of a human programming language, but that's about it."

Alexandra nodded. Seraph had accepted to have Arcadia's kernel inserted into their systems, and it was already having noticeable difference. Notably, they were asking question and demonstrating actual curiosity, which had, above all else, been the defining trait of the AI.

"So, super alien code that modifies reality. Wonderful. I guess that explains why magic research is very slow. Trying to dig into the stuff from the Old World and learn from it must be hell."

"Exactly. And making your own is…complicated." The apparition shrugged. "You'll see for yourself once you try. But at least, I managed to understand enough for the compiler to hopefully offer an accurate simulation of what will happen. Had to jack into the interface proper for that, but it works. Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Well, if you encounter a spell with runes we've never seen before, it might struggle. Thankfully the runes are so interconnected an amount of interpolation is possible, but there's limits. But the interface connection is janky, so while the program is going to output solid values, how, exactly, it'll interact with the environment is…more complicated."

"Right. Kind of like aerodynamics." Which had still been a disputed subject in the twenty second century. Mainly because with artificial gravity propulsion it became more or less irrelevant to most vehicles, but still. After all, you weren't going to throw a shuttle off course with wind when it could generate a hundred gees of acceleration in any direction it damned pleased.

"Yes. Exactly. There's so many damned variables its impossible to truly simulate. If nothing else, even runes aren't perfectly consistent in how they cast spells, including exact physical duplicates."

"Oh. Wonderful."

"Don't worry yourself about it. It's not bad enough to be concerning, but…well, one more variable. And once you add it to the others…"

"Yeah, right, they amplify each other."

"Exactly."

"Well…" She sighed. "I suppose it'll help to know that my runes will work before having to make the device and test it. That's a huge plus, if nothing else."

"You'll still want to do physical testing."

"I know, but having to materialize, test, retry, over and over again for the simplest runic device was such a pain in the ass. This will cut down on R&D time, a lot."

"Fair enough. Reminds me, there was something I wished you could talk to Seraph about, and ask for her assistance."

Alexandra's eyebrows rose.

"Why not ask her yourself? You have a direct line to her innards. You could just ping her."

"First, I'd like to avoid point out the fact that I have a metaphorical hand so far up her rear I'm holding her heart. Second, I think it's better if its used to taking orders and requests from you. Only one captain aboard a ship and all that."

"Ah, fair enough. So what was the question?"

"Well, it occurred to me that there were substantial defences in the command center-"

"Euphemism of the year."

"-and that they were arranged against enemies trying to come through the main entrance or dig their way in."

"Which seems reasonable."

"Yes, but it means that they didn't seem to care in the slightest about enemies teleporting in."

"Oh." Alexandra blinked. "Anti-teleportation systems?"

"Yep. No mention of them in Seraph's databases. At all. Which, just like with the missile silos, is suspicious as hell. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any control programs preventing them from inspecting other areas, so I genuinely can't tell where to look. But they had a very good idea of the facility's layout, and they might be able to come up with blank spots easier than we could. They are, after all, a purely digital AI, they have the advantage in this kind of search."

"That's…an excellent point. I might ask them about the fusion reactors too, while I'm at it. Thank you! I hadn't even considered just asking them for help about it."

"Don't mention it." The apparition blinked. "And we have visitors."

"Right. See you later!"

The apparition nodded, and Alexandra jumped out of the simulation, and returned to her avatar.

*****

Alexandra blinked, and looked over her shoulder as Ella stepped into the workshop. Well, 'stepped'. After her experience with the whole palaquin, and Sarah had convinced the Earth-born to give them a full makeover, she'd begged for a more mobile seat than a wheelchair as her first item, and Alexandra had been more than happy to oblige. The vampire maid was now moving on a throne put on top of an oversized spider golem. Thankfully all the doors had been made to accommodate spider tanks, so there was no issue getting around, but it was a bit odd seeing the relatively diminutive vampire tower over everyone else now.

Which was why she took care to have the throne golem lower itself to the ground as soon as it finished moving.

"Milady."

"Ella, we've been over this a thousand times. Call me Alexandra. Or Alex."

"Of course milady." Said the maid, and Alexandra sighed. "I apologize for disturbing you, but an idea had just occurred to me."

"What kind of idea?"

"Well, I remember you mentioning how…unpractical the grenades you had gotten from Seraph were."

Alexandra snorted.

"To say the least. Their fuse time is hardwired due to the time the grav generator takes to spin up, they're bulky and because of the latter two they're relatively easy to deflect, given that they aren't going to be thrown very hard. They don't even make a good mine! Honestly I feel kind of dumb losing so many golems to them."

"That was part of Sarah's plan. But regardless, I remembered something I encountered once, and had a fellow oper-maid describe to me in detail." Alexandra's attention was prickled by the slipup, but she didn't comment. It was pretty obvious the 'maids' had never ceased being Etheria's personal strike force after they had put on their dresses. "It's called…an unwinder round."

"I assume it doesn't make people relax."

"In a very…roundabout way, I suppose you could say that. They were essentially pulse grenades like the ones you found, but miniaturized to fit in heavy caliber ammunition. Effectively converting them to short range rocket launchers. Although apparently they could not take the shock of more powerful propellants."

Alexandra's eyes widened at the description.

"That…I honestly thought that wouldn't be possible." Even with Seraph taking care of most of the day to day business, and now that she was genuinely curious, the bulk of 'trial an error' experiments like her vast array of foundries trying to replicate alloys by effectively making random combinations, or trying to crack the secret of smelting mythril, she still had to prioritize her time. She knew that on Earth no one had managed to make a pulse grenade launcher or missile, something about the generator not taking the shock very well and it precluding the use of an inertial compensator. But with magic, and her new compiler program…

Once more, her technological blind spot came to haunt her. She really needed to 'unlearn' some things.

"It apparently is, milady."

"Well, thank you Ella. That is much appreciated." The maid bowed, and the throne golem got up as she prepared to leave, and Alexandra involuntarily chuckled, before clearing her throat as the maid threw her a questioning gaze. "Sorry, you just look…a bit ridiculous."

"On the contrary, I think I look intimidating." Said the maid with a very condescending sneer on her face. Alexandra knew it was just for show, but she had to admire the vampire's technique. Emilia's own attempt was a pale shadow in comparison." Besides, I don't even need to raise a hand to strike someone! I can simply order my transportation to do so."

"Very regal, oh lady maid." Said Alexandra mockingly, before blinking. "Wait, hold that thought. Say, would you take this thing into battle?"

"Over any alternative? In a heartbeat. There's a reason I requested it milady."

Alexandra gave her a meaningful look, and the maid did her best to look innocent.

Looked like Sarah wasn't the only one yearning for some action. Wonderful.

But…

Alexandra gestured for the maid to come closer.

"I think you've given me an idea."

"About the unwinder round?"

"No, that can wait. It's important, but with the fortress in place and all of our security measures, not to mention the railguns, we have some time before we need something like this. I was more thinking in terms of dungeon design. Say, if you were to fight a party of adventurers in this, what weaponry would you want integrated in it, what type of support would you want, and how would you handle the tactics?"