Austin glanced over the various readouts of the battlefield. His aerial drone units were still few and far between
He still did not have full control over the skies as the bats and scavenger beetles never seemed to end. Though they were now having to come from outside the valley, as Austin finally had enough fire support within the valley to clear out any swarms. Well, close to 2/3 of the valley anyways. So, Austin decided to finally risk putting his air units back up in the air. Especially since this fight was going on for far too long, and Austin was running low on bullets, focusing crystals, and most of all patience. It was time to finally put this stupid campaign to an end.
Sofia, Catherine, Crysteffor, the leader of the town guard, and the village leader all sat around the ad hoc command center Austin had set up in what had previously been the village leader's living room. It wasn't much, in all honesty, a few old maps of the valley, a hastily put together newer map, a few stacks of paperwork, some light snacks, several tables and chairs, and a holographic projector. That Austin's primary beetle bot was currently trying to get working while Crysteffor was talking to the captain of the guard. A large, slightly portly man who, before this, had quite a large beer gut, if Austin was remembering correctly. While none of the villagers had been starving thanks to the constant income of meat from the monsters they were killing, quite a few people had lost a fair amount of weight simply due to just how busy they were. So, while there was no shortage of food, there was a large shortage of Free hands to prepare the food, just another reason to end this. With a pop and a small jet of sparks, Austin's holographic emitter flickered to life.
“Finally.” Austin sighed as his avatar appeared in the emitter.
“Why didn't we have Sophia just summon you like she normally does instead of dealing with this whole mess?” The village head groaned.
“Because while Sophia's ability does grant me some limited capabilities to project visuals, it is exceptionally limited compared to this,” Austin says before his avatar vanishes into a small mist of floating colorful specks that quickly rearrange themselves to show a live tactical map of the entire valley.
This startled a few people, however, Crysteffor and the captain of the guard were surprised for another reason. “Is this, is this how you see the valley?!”
“Partly yes, some of it's extrapolation, um, guesswork done from memory.” About 1/3 of the map lit up with the faint yellow glow.
“This is roughly what I can't see at the moment, but could get eyes on if we need it.”
“Still, that is beyond impressive. Just how can you handle all that information at once?” Catherine asked curiously, her hand passing through a small section of the map.
“I can't, well, not in my weakened state at least. I can't keep up with the entirety of the valley. I have to narrow my focus though, even if I'm not actively paying attention to all of it. I have the ability to… remember and review all that I see. A good example would be say someone took something they weren't supposed to, and one of my drones was nearby and saw what happened, but I wasn't actively paying attention at the time. I could look through that drone’s memory or even show you what happened with something similar to this. I hope that somewhat helps. I know it's not the best explanation.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, magic creature, whatever, what I need to know is how accurate is this.” The captain of the guard had asked.
Instead of answering his question directly, he had the projection zoom in. The edge of the valley quickly vanished off the edge of the projection, tell it only showed the village. Then the village heads home, and then to the very room they were in. Much to the rooms’ inhabitants’ amazement. Austin let them have a few minutes to just play with the projection to act things out and watch their smaller holographic self’s do the exact same. Getting a healthy mix of reactions of both amusement and unease.
“It's not perfectly accurate, there's a tiny delay, but it's so small I doubt any of you will be able to actively notice, and keep in mind I can only do this on areas I am actively looking at, there are blind spots, shadows, and other things. I can move stuff around and get views, but my vision's not everywhere.” Austin explained to the room at large as they finally started to calm down. Austin zoomed the map back out and got everyone back on to the task at hand.
“Alright, we have two points of attack, technically three if we can make enough of a racket to draw away the rest of their aerial units. Though I don't like my chances at bombing it from the air, mostly as the best weapons I can make for that are nothing more than glorified firebombs that could be delivered by the trebuchet just as easily. So, we will leave that third option out for now. The first option, we go this Sapper route, I currently have a singular tunneling unit I'm referring to as the worm tunneling its way into the dungeon. In about a day and a half, it should break through into the dungeon itself. I designed it to act as a bulwark once it does. I do not believe under its own power it could continue further in, but it should be able to either open up a new path of entry or be a massive inconvenience. By either slaughtering anything the dungeon tries to throw at it or by doing damage inside the dungeon itself. I don't know where the dungeons getting all of its resources from or how it keeps healing over the valley wall whenever we damage it, but the worm will be able to parasite some of these resources away. It’s not a fast tool so it won't be a lot, but it would actively be, for lack of a better word, feeding on the dungeon itself during the conflict. We could also use it as a point of entry. However, I do not like this idea as it’s a choke point, and a very tight one at that.”
“While I agree. I have a few mages with Sapper training as well, and while I don't know what spells Miss Catherine has access to. I'm sure a few of our sappers could walk her through the basic spells if she'd be willing to join our forces. That said, I agree a full frontal assault would be a bad idea, but with a few miners to widen the gap and a few mages to further the chaos, we might aid your venture.” Crysteffor Offered as he inspected the map and the image of the worm tunneling towards where Austin believed the dungeon to be.
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“That's not a bad idea but I'd like to limit the number of forces we use for that operation As those sappers could be very useful in the main attack.” Austin said as the map faded to reveal his upscaled beetle tank.
“Ladies gentlemen, moth, allow me to introduce the mrk1 scarab. Think of it like a mobile artillery platform. Where my Beatles are capable of converting into a small weapons in placement this one is far larger and far more powerful. It was meant to be a mobile siege platform when I originally thought we could get away with not destroying the dungeon. The main gun is more than capable of tearing open the valley wall. Combined that with the trebuchets and laser arrays already in the town we can keep whatever wound we blast open. And if all else fails it has enough firepower to take out the core once we know where it is even through the valley wall. I will say however it's only got one shot of that, and it has to be manually reloaded” Austin said as an image of a metal spike not much smaller than a man was shown being loaded into the rail gun compartment. Before the rail gun compartment closed up and lowered itself into the back of the scarabs armored shell.
“If all else fails that's our ace in the hole, but it's only got one shot, it's slow to fire and it's going to bring the entire valley wall down with it when fired. So, let's try and not use it if at all possible.” Austin said as the hologram showed Austins projected outcome for what would happen if the shell was fired at the valley wall.
Before quickly having to reassure them that that wasn’t actively happening at the moment forgetting they didn't know the difference. Claiming it was just an illusion of what he believed should happen if it was fired.
“With that said I do believe we have a small I do mean small chance at salvaging the dungeon. I only bring this up because I would personally like to get my hands on that core even if only for a moment and would very much like to study it. It's the first time I've encountered such phenomena in my very long, long, life. As such I'm quite curious about it and it might hold information I can use to aid in my own recovery as well as the villages.” Austin sighed and if Crysteffor didn't know better he'd honestly think the spirit was tired.
“How do you plan to do that? I do not doubt catherines skill and power having seen it firsthand, but she is not trained in the art of magical contracts, and I fear she is ill prepared for their creation.” Christopher asked as he glanced over at Catherine who gave him a quick nod
“Catherine may not but me and Sophia might be able to. Your language lacks the correct words for it, but I have had to fight other spirits like myself in a type of mental combat before and have won a few of those fights. Though mostly I'm better skilled at keeping them out of my own head than I am actually winning said fights. However, with Sophia’s ability to communicate from range acting as a direct connection. I am however hoping to be able to bypass any form of mental defenses it might have. I might not be able to make a contract but I'm pretty sure I can at least subdue it and in that case all we have to do is keep it subdued until you can get another contract mage out here to properly shackle it. The only major problem I can see with the plan is getting Sophia close enough to the core possibly even touch it which will require us to get her inside. Now I've been setting bases up outside the valley trying to cut off the dungeons foraging efforts. Outside the valley wall I haven't been able to set up a full perimeter, yet I do believe if the worm begins attacking and we use the scarab to damage the valley wall continuously. It'll focus its efforts on us enough that I can use the few bases I have outside the valley to completely cut it off. At that point it's only a matter of hammering at the valley wall until we can create an opening straight into the dungeon. Then we just need to keep the wound open and send in a strike team to clear a path to escort in Sofia to the core.” Austin let that statement hang in the air for a few moments the silence in the room only broken by the light snores of Sophia’s moth as it slept in her lap
“I believe this plan is quite similar to what Crysteffor and his men were planning to do originally is it not.” The whole room turned its attention to Christopher.
“Yes it was. Though I doubt we have the manpower to succeed now. Actually, with how far more developed the dungeon is I doubt we could have even handled it at full strength.”
“Do not worry I do not plan on sending you in there alone my Beatles will be aiding your men in the clearing process. Meanwhile my other units will be simultaneously attacking the main entrance and the worm unit will be causing as much of a commotion as it can. By splitting the dungeons focus in a three prong attack I'm hoping to limit its options as much as possible and allow us to clear a path straight to the core with as minimum of losses as possible. Also I don't plan for your men to have to march straight from the village unprotected the entire way there's a tunnel leading halfway to the dungeon. Where I have prepared to make a beachhead. After the tank cracks open the valley wall we will emerge from the underground using the beachhead as well as supporting fire from both the village artillery and the tank itself. Once the beachhead is established the scarab will push forward while providing cover fire for your men while it is too large to follow us into the dungeon itself it can make a right nuisance of itself for any of the dungeons defenders it might try and throw at us once we crack it open. With it drawing the majority of the dungeons defenders I'm hoping we'll be able to get most of your men inside relatively fresh and unharmed after that we just have to make it through to the core.”
Christopher watch does the projection of what Austin had in mind played out on the holographic screen.
Austin had intentionally made the image a bit more simple and cartoonish hoping it would help them understand that this was not an active scene of what's going on outside. Thankfully this time no one seemed to have any issue with it so that didn't seem to be too great of an issue.
“That might very well work my main concern is traps. Now I've only ever been in a contracted dungeon before one that had regular delvers. I don't know if a wild one like this will have even considered internal defenses but if it does have traps I can't even begin to try and guess what they'll look like. That will be our biggest issue your beetles seem pretty mobile on relatively flat terrain I've even seen them walk over a few tree roots without much issue, but I don't know how well they'll do inside the dungeon itself. That said despite my misgivings, I do believe this is our best option. We might even actually be able to salvage the dungeon and if not, we can destroy the core. Hopefully without having to fire that big gun of yours and bring the valley wall down on top of us. Now you said you could be inside the dungeon with your worm in a day and a half should I assume that it's the same time frame for this attack.”
“No despite my best efforts getting everything ready will take 3 to 5 days and before you bring up any issues with me dropping this on you at short notice. I only just finalized the plan myself and that 3 to 5 days is how quickly I can be ready myself. If more time is needed, we can take that time we have no major outstanding deadlines. As I do not believe the dungeon can effectively attack the village we have plenty of food, plenty of clean water we have a steady supply of reinforcements. Though I'm going to have to start limiting myself on what I can produce simply because I don't have the more complex pieces for some of them but other than that the only positive or negative, I can find for weighting is for me to further my blockade outside the valley.”
The entire room was quiet while they considered their options. The village was stable, and they could keep this up easily enough. I had even said that I would only grow stronger with time.
“That said we have the capability to end this in three to five days time. I will not lie and say we are in danger. I will not lie and say we cannot maintain for longer. I will however specify it is putting a lot of stress on me to maintain this fight, but you are the experts in this area not me. While I may have more experience in traditional combat, I admit that I have no experience dealing with a dungeon. But I will say whether or not we wait for more advantages or press the attack now there will be costs and losses to end this there is no way around that.” The silence in the room that followed was even more solemn than the previous one.
“How long until you can finish the encirclement of the main entrance.” Crysteffor sighed.
“Two weeks for basic setup another for full fortification it would also give you time to set up if reinforcements don't show up by then I say that's our latest date to do the attack. Unless you can think of a reason to push it further back. Otherwise, I think that's should be the far end of our options schedule.”
“So 5 days or 3 weeks. Well alright then I'll talk with my men and see what we can figure out.” Crysteffor sighed as they brought the meeting to its end.
