Chapter 325


    Red Sands Desert, Archduchy of Rebirth


    Dungeon Factory, Shipyard


    Alexandra smiled as the ship finished its docking sequence, and the unloading cranes deployed.


    So far, so good.


    "Now, be careful with it." She told Subtlety and Seraph. The older AI simply pointed at the giant pile of gravity manipulators, backup cranes and even entire mats of ''kinetic absorption material'', aka foam, lining the floor.


    "Affirmative. Precautions have been taken."


    The dungeon core chuckled.


    "Alright, alright! I''m just being a worrier."


    "Affirmative."


    Alexandra tilted her head. Was the AI giving her sass now?


    "Right."


    She watched as the stealthed container was carefully removed from the ship, then moved to a special holding area, and loaded onboard a train that looked like a pile of safety equipment more than anything.


    One of the simple upgrades her people had added to their logistics network had been to throw out the old minecart network, and replace it with a full train one. It wasn''t made for long trains and such, but it didn''t have to. The longest trips here were vertical, and she had cargo elevators for that.


    The trip to the fabrication chamber, the monster of industry where she had stored Seraph''s fabricators to constantly build her high tech spare parts, was a short one, with Alexandra and her AIs taking one of the express elevators, stepping out well before the container rolled in, and subsequently unloaded.


    "Alright." Alexandra cracked her neck as the golems opened the container. "Let''s get to it."


    *****


    "So, you''ll have to spend a while replicating them?" Said Allya, as she sipped on her hot chocolate.


    The archduchess looked a lot younger, and happier, than Alexandra had ever seen her. The same could be said for Pyn, for that matter, the newlyweds both looking a bit tired, but thoroughly fulfilled.


    "Yes." The dungeon core glanced at the elf, who was busy assembling toasts and then passing half over to her wife. "It''s the eternal battle. Do I produce the gear that I need now, or the industry I''ll need later? Since in this case I''m planning on buying time to begin with, I can afford to scale up a bit."


    "So you''ll just do industrial development for a bit?" Allya bit into her toast, spraying crumbs everywhere as she continued. "No offense, but Manson''s gonna ask questions."


    "I have some gear stockpiles to keep up the flow of ammo and reinforcements for a bit." Basically stuff she''d built after she''d sent the army. "But you''re right, the duke will wonder why there isn''t any of the new, experimental stuff. I can placate him a bit with the new munitions, it''s not like the enchanters can make fabricators anyway, even if I trusted them with them. But..."


    "But you''ll need my help."


    "Yep."


    "I can come up with some distractions, and keep him focused on something else." The archduchess took another sip of her hot chocolate. "But it''ll only last so long."


    "I don''t need much time. I''ve already set the fabricators to self replicate."


    "Not using your powers?" Said Pyn, before biting into her own toast.


    Alexandra grimaced.


    "I considered it, but it''s so damned expensive. Instead I have the other fabricators make all the parts they can to feed into the unlocked one. It speeds up the process..."


    "But one fabricator is still a hard bottleneck." Finished Allya.


    "Yep. A lot of the parts are locked out too, so it''s not like I''m fully using the other fabricators."


    "Right. But once you''re done?"


    "I''ve started serious development on fabricator made hardware, mainly low tech, for the war. Luckily, I should be able to keep up my ship and some of my mech production up and running, at least until I reach a certain stage in the fabricator numbers. Then I''ll have to switch to full replication."


    The elf, now archduchess consort, tilted her head.


    "Wait, if those fabricators will take all your money to run, how will you keep it up?"


    "They wouldn''t. One, because manufacturing all that other stuff will be less costly per fabrication time than building another fabricator. Golems aren''t expensive, in fact they''re dirt fucking cheap with these things, they just need time to make, hence why I need a lot of fabricators. Plus, I have to keep up golem production for the dungeon, but once I''m done with the fabricators, I can phase out my old mechanisms and save a ton of mana."


    "Why not do that in stages? Like, build four fabricators, set one aside for golem production, use the other three to build up, saving yourself money as you grow the capacity and keep up other productions on the side?"


    Alexandra grimaced.


    "I considered that, but I''m afraid of using up too much time for too little gain. This will be decided by a decisive battle at the end of a long string of attrition, not the attrition itself. Sunrise''s army won''t be defeated by a mere fighting retreat, no matter how bloody it is."


    "Provided they don''t grind you into the dust through that attrition." Warned Allya, and Alexandra nodded.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Provided they don''t. But still, I don''t think drip feeding new hardware would be a good idea."


    "Well, I guess you''ll have to rely on the human troops then, won''t you?"


    The dungeon core grimaced.


    "Yeah...I guess I''ll have to. That''ll be weird. No offense."


    "None taken. You always did kick more ass than my city guard."


    "Thinking of sending reinforcements?"


    Allya shook her head.


    "We''re already stretched thin with ensuring civil order, and we have your golems to help. We''re starting to get new recruits though. Lots of people are keen on fleeing the drafts and wars going on in the Republic and the Kingdom. With our small, all volunteer force, and your golems serving as the military, they figure they''ll be safe in Rebirth."


    Alexandra''s eyebrows rose.


    "Oh. I didn''t think of that."


    "Well, they''re growing the place quite a bit. It''s helping diversify from a pure dungeon economy. They''re also...well, they''re very eager to serve in the guard, interestingly enough. Since they basically equate it with a police force that''ll always be kept to guard the capital, which is now widely seen as both impregnable and surrounded by other fortress cities blocking all accesses, they figure it''s a safe bet, especially if we start doing something like kicking out draft dodgers."


    "Will you?"


    "No. The ''draft'' in Sarth is a peasant levy, they don''t have any military value, and the New Republic is only taking volunteers, everyone there is running from the Senate."


    "Ah. Speaking of..."


    "I''ve been briefed. The siege of Pavrow has begun."


    "They''re only setting up, but yeah. The other columns are moving towards their targets."


    "Think they''ll make it?"


    "The ones moving towards Gorromar? Yeah, absolutely. Harder to say for the one heading to Mystral. They''re hugging a death zone. One we attracted the most dangerous crap from, but still." And she had a sinking feeling the God of Fire would find a way to replace the ''horrors of the Old World'' there if they came to run out. The death zones were very clearly places the Custodians were trying to keep people away from. Which meant she needed to get in. "It''ll only take a minor force of automata to ruin their day, especially if they come in without warning."


    "Right. Reminds me, didn''t you have a gift for the New Republic? My advisors told me something to that effect."


    Alexandra chuckled, rubbing her neck, almost missing the fact that the archduchess blushed as she said that.


    "Yeah. I realized that two recon carriers was already almost overkill for the army up north, but I already have two more under production, and since their drones are suicide to use in the wasteland..."


    "You''re planning to give them over."


    "Kind of. They won''t have the blackbirds, I''m keeping that particular ace up my sleeve a secret for as long as possible." There was a reason the recon carriers snuck off on ''patrol'' from the army to launch and recover aircrafts. "But they''ll get the drones. It''ll be a nice boost. Though the ships won''t be ready for a bit."


    "I''m sure they''ll appreciate them. Not planning to sell them, though?"


    "Nope. it''s not like they can pay me, by and large. Besides which, I thought it was time we got this more into a friendly alliance than a professional agreement."


    "Uh huh. And does that have anything to do with a conversation with a certain Knight-Commander?"


    Alexandra dipped her head. She had told the two nobles about that little tidbit pretty much immediately after it happening. It was too important not to.


    "Yeah. Her insights...if we''re going to do this..."


    "We need them to actually want to be part of that Empire, not just have it be a necessity."


    "Yes. Jaghatan inevitability is nice and all..."


    "Jag...what?"


    Alexandra smiled.


    "Jaghatan was mongol political and economical scientist. Wrote extensively on why most nations on Earth consolidated into massive military and trading blocs like the European Federation or the UIS. His work created the concept of Jaghatan inevitability, where economical and political factors demand that nations begin regrouping and forming larger ones. Simply put, the challenges and cost of interplanetary colonization, combined with the very real risk of another nuclear exchange just left surviving nations no other solutions but to band together to enable expansion into space and defense from strategic attack."


    "Ah. And with the UDC''s collapse..."


    "That, and everything else going to hell, the same is happening, at least here, yeah. Or at least I certainly think so, and so do my programs."


    "Programs?"


    "I''ve started running a fair few strategic simulations, expanding on my psychohistory scripts. But yeah, Philia was right. We''re in the perfect position to unify both the Kingdom and the Republic under one banner, and once we do..."


    "The rest will fall in like dominos, they''ll have to, as the rest of the world burns down around them."


    "Exactly."


    "And a fully unified continent will give you an excellent core to expand outwards, won''t it?"


    Alexandra lowered her eyes as both nobles looked at her.


    "It will..."


    "I figured that was your eventual goal a long time ago."


    "And you''re fine with it."


    Allya closed her eyes.


    "It will bring us into conflict with the Eris Empire. If it still exists by the time we get there."


    "I suspect we will be in conflict with them long before then." Allya''s eyebrow rose, and Alexandra grimly chuckled. "That Erisian airfleet isn''t here by accident. And even if it was, the Order won''t pass up the chance for more chaos. Before this is over, we''ll be fighting them, even if only in some kind of accident."


    "That''ll be bloody."


    "It''s part of why I''m so keen on stopping everything to scale up. We''re going to need the advantage."


    "Fair enough. But the Empire...is not to be trifled with."


    Alexandra''s gaze hardened.


    "I know, neither am I."


    "I''m not joking. They rule half of the world." By population and industry, not territory, but Alexandra didn''t correct her, they both knew what she meant. "They have the power to squash you."


    "And I have the power to wipe them off of the face of Alcheryos." Said Alexandra, and the newlyweds exchanged a look. "Their gear is impressive, but push comes to shove, I have railguns, hovertanks and plasma cannons, and they don''t. Or at least, not in the quantities I can pump out."


    They both nodded.


    "Right. Just...do understand, they will bring their own Old World gear to the party, if ''push comes to shove'' as you say."


    Alexandra grimaced.


    "I know. I know. And I''m preparing for that." Well, preparing for the God of Fire to try and murder her, but that equipment would work just fine against the Eris Empire. "Do you expect them to send them in though?"


    "Honestly? Probably not. If you''re right, they''ll collapse long before it comes to that. But someone will inherit that hardware."


    "Right. And a warlord will be a hell of a lot more dangerous than a decaying Empire."


    "Exactly."


    "I suppose we''ll see when we come to it. Still, hope for the best.."


    "Plan for the worst. We''ll start working on trade now that we''re, uh..."


    "No longer occupied." Said Alexandra, diplomatically. After all, she''d done the same ''honey moon'' when Emilia had finally dragged her to bed.


    "Right. We''ll use those discussions, and Anders'' little talks with the Far Reach, to pave the way."


    "That''ll be helpful, thanks." Alexandra sighed as she received a notification. "But I''ll have to cut this short, enjoy the rest of the breakfast, you know the way out. Call if you need me, but..."


    "Back to the salt mines?"


    "Yeeep. Back to the salt mines."