Not What Was Expected I
The empress stopped after an hour and just stood there, running her tongue along her canines as she mulled over the information coming from her ornithopters, recon teams, deep mining control teams and satellite surveillance to try and find whatever cave entrance the iron dragon used to get into the dwarven underground territories. Everyone else, on the other hand, just watched her stand there blinking while the intel flew around on her Hud, the dev trying to make sense of all of it.
A potential dig site was marked about twenty miles ahead of them, though there was some heavy forest for at least the last three miles keeping everything hidden; dense woodland was interspersed in between right next to the mountain side, making use of a helibot to land treacherous at best, at least until a daisy cutter bomb was used to clear a landing zone; that was something she didn't really want to do, as it would be showing the elves that the empire was not intending to ravage the lands and build wherever they wanted to. Having an explosive go off just to allow easier access to an area they may not visit again would be poor form on her part. There were some smaller markers further beyond, but this was the best choice to at least start with.
A heavy tier VTOL transport dropped off three VLRV vehicles, little more than fast moving four wheeled buggies. "Donovan, Melsia. I'd hazard a guess you'd rather not come face to face with a dragon that might not be… well…" Selene tried to find the right words.
"Unfriendly? I understand, your majesty. In this case… we might get in the way. We'll head back to the palace and read through what we can about the laws the high elves use" Donovan replied, looking to his wife for approval. She simply nodded her head at that idea.
"Actually… speaking of my race…" Elsei started to speak, looking between them. "Your majesty, I… as much as it might be an impressive view to lay eyes on an iron dragon, we do not yet know if it will communicate beyond slinging slurs at us… and… we are close to Eil'Ta Forest. I was wondering if Morlan and I, as well as his parents for that matter, would be allowed to head there and… see how things are being contained by the queen, now that they are a part of the empire."
Melsia looked up at her husband and elbowed him lightly. "It would mean we could get access straight from the high elf royal libraries, give us a much better idea of what might need to be addressed in the future."
"Mhmm, it could give us a chance to firmly connect the economies without any issues. Your majesty, could we?" Donovan asked. Selene looked amongst her group, with four of them wanting to head to the new addition to her borders.
"Well, I mean… sure, I guess. Didn't you say you weren't ever going to go back there? Also, I would have thought some of you would want to get a chance to see a dragon up close, like… still living. As you've said, there is no guarantee they are friendly. We might not see another if they do decide to attack on sight. Are you sure?" the dev questioned, wondering if Morlan might actually stick around. It wasn't as if Elsei and her lover were attached at the hip after all.
The elf looked up at the large warrior as he fidgeted, placing a hand gently on his elbow. "It's alright if you wish to stay, they are my people after all. I'll make sure no harm comes to your parents."
"If any harm does come to them, they'll have more than Morlan to deal with" Brynhildr chimed in, looking at the empress. Hurting any of her citizens, especially those in her arbitrarily small administrative cabinet right now, would mean she'd come down on them like an asteroid on a snail. Morlan glanced at the empress and nodded.
"I would like to stay. I have slain some drakes in the past… two, to be exact… I've yet to see anything beyond that age range. It would be an experience I might not get again in my lifetime."
"Good, because frankly speaking… I'd like to go with Elsei" Bryn added in.
"Why?" Selene asked her, furrowing her eyebrows. Surely, she'd want to stick around for the meeting with a potential great wyrm or even older?
"I've seen my fair share of dragons already, your majesty. I… kind of want to see if I can get my hands on some elven wine… I can keep an eye on these three as well. Elsei can act as a tour guide for us, there's bound to be some things to see that she'd enjoy showing the group." The elf had a small smile grow on her face as she looked at the Valkyrja. There had to be some sights she wanted to share, some secret grotto or shop she enjoyed visiting.
"I would be honored to show you around, however, I want to tend to a few things as well. This is not a trip without business, and, I did say I would not come back… though that was before the forest was integrated. Now… I believe there is nothing to fear; I believe you handled quite efficiently what was keeping me from ever seeing my people again. Queen Ynshael would not dare cross her new ruler after she decided to attend to their troubles. Besides… someone needs to tell them they do not have to fear Drow incursions."
The empress threw her hands in the air and shrugged. "Oh well, guess it's just Hrist and Morlan with me for this little adventure. Just the same, I'll send some escorts with you." Elsei nodded as a transport came down from above, allowing them to board it. An escort frigate airship was pulled away from 1st Air Fleet and would be used to get them safely back to the palace quickly after their business was concluded in the high elven capital.
Morlan looked at the fast-moving buggy that would be carrying him to their destination, the driver being an automaton. The fact the soldier was wearing a visored helmet worried him a little. "So… this is the way we're heading there…" he spoke, wondering how the four wheeled vehicle was going to move so quickly. The last few times he had left the palace was on horseback, a few of the purebreds bought from Werelosil in the event there were visitors who were too afraid to ride in something more advanced, or those who were equestrians.
"Yep, they're small enough to weave around the trees, fast enough to make twenty miles feel like nothing, and I don't really feel like flattening the woodland just for a trip to see a giant lizard" Selene replied. She walked over and picked up a helmet, tossing it over to the man. His eyes showed he was unsure this was the right idea. Hrist, on the other hand, picked up her head protection and immediately put it on, stepping into the reinforced seat and strapping in. She was going to ride with the empress, the Valkyrja wasn't afraid at all. The raven-haired woman did ride Asterion practically on a daily basis.
Morlan sighed and realized what he had gotten himself into. Sticking around with the empress and her general meant doing his best to keep up with them as well. Even her honor guards had smaller ATVs, though they looked a little comical with their bulk sitting on the four wheeled one-seater. They reminded the dev of seeing a circus bear riding a tiny motorcycle; all they needed was a fez cap on their heads and to try and do wheelies.
He resigned himself to sitting down in the buggy, strapping the seatbelts down tightly, and trying to figure out what deity would answer his prayers to safely get him to where they needed to go without injury. As Selene got into the driver's seat of her vehicle, Hrist tapped her lightly on the shoulder. "May I… attempt to drive when we head back?" she asked her. The dev glanced over her shoulder.
"Well… it is a little complicated. Are you sure you want to?" the auburn-haired woman questioned as she placed her helmet on her head, flipping the visor up. Hrist nodded.
"We Valkyrja are quite quick to adapt to new forms of travel." Selene waggled her eyebrows for a moment and blinked. It seemed logical that they would be able to understand all the ways of getting from point A to point B.
"Ok, we'll see how it goes." The buggies started up as the empress drove a little forward, getting used to the fast-moving vehicle's controls. This was her first time getting to use her Driving skill and she was a little nervous. There was no real need for a driver's license back on Earth anymore due to all the self-driving cars or copters. Any place that still had a truck or wheeled transport that didn't move on its own was considered backwater and not many people lived there anymore.
(Recommended Song: District 78 – Shy Boy)
The other buggies pulled up next to hers along with the ATVs, the honor guard ready to chase after her. Morlan looked at Hrist and the dev and seemed to fidget heavily, holding onto the straps and keeping his head pressed against the seat headrest.
Selene revved the engine, engaged {Evel Knievel}, and slowly eased into drive. Within seconds, due to the skill, she was almost at maximum speed, shooting between the trees and dodging around boulders. "Tree! Another tree! Rock! Roots! Big ju- OH BOY!" Morlanion shouted out as the convoy zipped around the forest quickly, the suspension and hydraulics shifting and tilting to add better control to the four wheelers. The tires seemed to segment and slide to allow a far greater movement range than was expected for the transport.
Hrist just laughed as the empress shot through the woodland area without a care, rolling two wheels up over an incline while the left side was still below, providing a chance for the buggy to slip between two closely packed trees. For the dev, it was almost like riding a roller coaster with a dive headset. The buggy landed back on all four wheels and launched over a hillock, landing effortlessly and continuing on. One of the ATVs jumped her buggy and swerved to the right around a tree, keeping up with them even though the honor guard had about the same mass and weight as all three cars combined.
Things were going so fast for Morlanion as he tried to keep his eyes shut where possible, with the empress's buggy drifting just in front of them. "Look out!" he shouted in panic, the driver ignoring his words and following right behind, with each vehicle not even touching each other. The wheels bounced over what seemed to be an array of potholes and gopher piles, then dipped into a large divot with roots arcing multiple times just over their heads. The divot curved and wound a few times then carried the mechanized group out and near the mountains again.
The forest patch opened up a little to allow more freedom of movement and less haphazard twitch responses to the steering wheel, though the view above was completely covered in the mushroom top of leaves from the huge dendrons trying to get as much light as possible. Selene drove right alongside a small river, hopped it with a controlled use of the hydraulics, racing towards the first cave entrance. Deer ran away as the buggy continued right past them, with Hrist noticing the panic in their eyes, before they parted ways and raced off. Morlan was sweating as the automaton driver just kept on going, not even slowing down once as a tree suddenly fell, its roots giving out from rot and barely missed them.
"Yahoo!" Selene cried out in joy as they launched a second time, happily accepting any chance to get the buggy airborne for more than a few seconds.
They finally arrived at the cave, or what was left of it, now sealed shut with boulders and dirt. Her buggy skidded sideways and nearly performed a 180-degree turn, switched into reverse, and backed up a little more to park her vehicle next to a fallen tree. Morlan's buggy came up next to them, with the man just sitting there as the empress and her general got out and took their helmets off. "Morlan? Hey, Morlan!" Selene asked as she tapped his shoulder. He was breathing and his heart was still going, but his mind was still trying to take in the speed he was going just a minute before. "Oh, come on, that wasn't that fast, we didn't even get past 200 mph."
The man shakily unlatched the seatbelt harness and took his helmet off, pushing his hair back a little and looking at her, blinking. "This is normal to you, right?" he asked. She looked at Hrist, who seemed very relaxed after the jaunt through the partial forest.
"I take it you aren't used to going faster than 50 mph? You gotta understand, going that slow doesn't get you anywhere on this continent, let alone on the planet." The warrior slowly stood up and got out of the buggy, his legs vibrating and tingling still. He massaged his thighs and looked around, feeling a little embarrassed; just as quickly, he tried to hide behind the buggy, with the dev wondering for a split second why he didn't want her to see what he was doing. "Oh. Ah… you uh… had an…"
"Don't say it… can you… use that spell you used on Prince Ralyf?" he asked in a pleading tone.
"Right. Sorry. Hopefully you'll get used to the speed later. I'll… I'll see about getting a landing zone opened up nearby… if you don't want to ride back…" she responded, wincing a little that her idea of protecting the environment from damage caused him to have a bladder problem. A few trees cut down shouldn't hurt the forest too much and she didn't want to make one of her entourage suffer due to her need for speed. What she had just effectively done was force him to travel in a way he was unaccustomed to, and now he was more than a little embarrassed.
As she cast [Scrub] on him, cleaning his clothes as well as his body, the empress let out a light sigh. She was already so used to fast movement and advanced technology now that she didn't realize others in her cabinet weren't so up to date with how she travels. Just a few months ago she was lower level than Morlan and would have thought his Martial Arts abilities were incredible; now, he could be a level 100 and it wouldn't impress her. He did have his strengths though, as his honor and morality made her trust him quite a bit.
Morlan walked up to the front of the cave, with the empress feeling a little guilty about putting him in a position where he had to follow her mode of transportation. Her eyes wandered the collapse of the tunnel, with the whole entrance completely sealed. "You can at least say the dwarves were thorough" the man commented, his hands on his hips as he glanced at his empress over his shoulder, still a little self-conscious.
A minor coms request popped up from security just past Olva'lore Forest, with a picture appearing in the report sent. Selene did her best to not squeal in cuteness overload as she got her first view of a catgirl, with a long black tail and black ears popping out of her raven hair. She was peeking over a hill at the defensive emplacements the automatons were stationed on, with what looked like a large pack strapped over her shoulders. There was another picture of yet another coming up to her to help run away from what they saw, looking to have pure white fur and heterochromia, a green and blue pair of eyes. Both looked to be in their teens and looking for reagents, a few herbs in their hands now seen.
SQUEE! I wanna pet those fluffy ears! Wait, that would be improper of me… I'd ask politely if I can pet their fluffy ears, then probably do it regardless of a yes or no.
The empress seemed to be lost in thought with a goofy smile on her face as Morlan waved his hand in front of her, trying to tell her something. "Empress are you alright?" he asked. She snapped out of it and shook her head, looking at him with a slight red tint of embarrassment.
"Uh… I'm fine, really. I uh… let's… lemme just get this cave in removed…"
Her hand rose and aimed at the entrance, massive in size compared to their small forms. The iron dragon must have been incredible in his dimensions. The boulders quickly started being pulled away and piled neatly to the side with her psionics and telekinesis, removing the very well-made barricade. They noticed some of the rocks had to be dislodged from mortar that was layered in, keeping all of it together. The whole act took no more than five minutes, with a constant flow of earth and stone flying through the air and landing in a makeshift pyramid. The tunnel behind was dark and foreboding. The automatons that were coming with them, including the honor guard, switched on head and shoulder lights so that Morlan could see. A small spider mine converted into a walking lantern kept in front of the man as they started to head in.
"Stay together, the tunnel branches a few times up ahead" Selene informed them as a V Light helibot flew above her head unarmed, just there for sensors and scanning equipment. The trek down the cave network was going to take an hour, almost mind numbing it seemed for everyone. Hrist had a small satchel hanging from her hip, which she started carrying around with a stash of sweets. Her gloved hand snuck in and grabbed some taffy, offering a few to Morlan as he accepted them. Meanwhile, the dev checked on a few reports in her Hud to see what her security around the empire had to deal with.
A man was caught in Sweet Water demanding Nia return to Artinia and claim her rightful place next to her brother, crazy as it sounded. He built up a small cult that took up a picket line outside the mayor's home, in which Gilford had to have his police break it up. Some even stated they would force her to head back. As far as the empress was concerned, that was treason. While she wanted to leave most crimes to the police now being well trained in the towns and cities, things like that required her security to show up and take them into custody. Most, if not all, attempted to resist. They were caught and killed immediately, to most of the people's relief. The empress would not tolerate that, not ever.
Of the three villages below Paldos City that were taken, one decided to attempt to "recapture" lost slaves and wanted to somehow secede from the empire back into Artinia, just because slavery was abolished. Most of the citizens didn't even work, expecting their previous slaves, now freed, to do their jobs. A quickly thought out response that would be sent via a V Light recording automaton was dispatched to warn them if they attempted to break away, the next military action in the area would wipe their village off the map. For the first time since they were created, a Very Heavy automaton, a quadruped walker, was tasked to sit just outside Olva'lore Forest and aim at that municipality. She didn't want to be a tyrant and kill her own people, but if they attempted to disobey and continue in these acts, they wouldn't need to secede. She'd disown the village and allow the walker to shell it into the ground.
I never said I was lawful good in alignment. I'm more than willing to do what I need to do to keep the empire productive and make sure the people are free to attain their dreams, excluding trying to force others into working for them to achieve that goal. Those slaves are free, those assholes don't get the right to try and kidnap them.
Production queues were cleaned up in her inventory, with new 3D printers and fabrication systems added along with a design lab to help create new specialized automatons. Selene was starting to notice there were some shortcomings in what she was building; her military, despite being quite diverse in capability and combined arms, still had too much of a cookie cutter design for her standard soldiers. Her Strategy and Tactics had shown her that having a customizable kit for each soldier in a fireteam, platoon, company or higher would increase their capability to respond to more emergencies. The variants of weapons were too high to just have a platoon with one of each type of damage, let alone the new external equipment that Orlo kept coming up with.
The lab itself would give her a generalized aesthetic of what the automaton would look like for each job, allowing her to simply add or remove new tools or features. Some spots were just labelled "variable" to give the soldier a bag, latch or belt to carry whatever was required for the mission, whether it was fighting on the frontlines or digging an irrigation network. This also allowed her to have completely different vehicles in the same tier, with heavy tanks having multiple different packages for long range, medium range, short range and rapid fire, akin to the difference between a Main Battle Tank and a Tank Support Combat Vehicle. They both had the same chassis usually, just one had wildly different weapons and features to assist other tanks.
Before she knew what was happening, a fork appeared in the tunnel. "Let's sit here for a minute while recon gets the lay of the underground" Selene told them as she sat on a hastily built stone bench brought up from the ground. The automatons split up and moved in different direction, with the only mechanical soldiers staying behind were her honor guard. They waited ten minutes before she got two separate reports… the tunnels split yet again, now turning into four tunnels sinking deeper into the mountains.
Each tunnel seemed to have signs of pickaxes used, though a few had claw marks. This only told her that the tunnels were partly made by the dwarves, with some of the new paths created by the dragon, probably for defense. No one is going to split their forces too much as they go into unknown territory just to find something that seemed like it didn't want to be found. Multiple escape routes, multiple ambush points, lots of ground to cover. Morlan just sat there and sighed after she decided to give them both the news. "It could take days to find the dragon, we don't even know if it is inside its lair right now" he sighed out, wondering if it was pointless to even be there in the first place.
"If we don't find it in the next hour, we'll head back. Just let my recon teams do their jobs and-" the dev stopped mid-sentence and noted a marker that was given to her by a scout. They had reason to believe the lair was just up ahead. "Never mind, we might have lucked out." The empress stood up and stretched, making sure Hrist and her escort were prepared. The son of the Rikter family got up and followed her down a good twenty branches of tunnels, forgetting which direction to go just to get out. If he ever got disconnected from the group, he would be lost forever, or at least until she could send a rescue team.
The caves eventually opened up into a wide underground dome, with even more openings lining the edge to unknown areas, probably further escape routes. There were mounds of dirt and stone everywhere, looking like a subterranean hilly plains' biome. Somehow, though she couldn't figure it out, there was grass growing on a few of the mounds, even without sunlight. There were a few bones strewn around the area, nothing alarming beyond what they expected from regular meals to a massive winged lizard. There seemed to be a few wisps, at least what she thought were wisps, floating around and tending to glowing mushrooms, probably the grass as well.
The fungus growing in the area was verified by her Hud to be the last ingredient for the elixirs she was trying to brew. A quick snatch with her hand, barely seen by Morlan, and a good couple of handfuls were placed in her inventory, waiting for the auto farmers to use a hopper and plant them.
There was slight movement on the far side of the area, the sight of a tail in the dimly lit dome.
I just realized that if this thing isn't friendly, Morlan is pretty much a snack. What does the iron dragon use as a breath weapon? Lightning? Or was it poison… crap, there were so many references I had to pick through, I don't know what type of damage it does!
Before the male warrior could take another step, Selene crafted a few quick lower quality tier items and pulled them from her inventory, grabbing his arm and draping an amulet over his neck, a few rings on his fingers, and a sticky emblem on his pauldrons, to his immense confusion; his arms were held out palm up, wondering what she was going to attach on him next, an eyebrow raised. A medal was clipped to his belt, adding in a huge boost to resistances in all forms. While they didn't exactly protect against physical attacks, the concern was for large area of effect attacks that could catch him off guard behind them. For all intents and purposes, he looked like he just got out of a really weird Mardi Gras party.
A pair of yellow eyes opened in the darkness, staring at her. They started to come closer, slowly, as they slightly bounced up and down from the gait the dragon had. As it reached the halfway point, it stopped, a wisp floating near the head as it stood ready to attack, lips pulled back and showing teeth. "I know not which town sent adventurers, but this is your only warning. Leave, or you will become a crunchy meal."
"We're not here to fight you, at least not without provocation. I'd rather talk if you would allow me to" Selene replied as the now known male stopped baring his teeth at her. His scales looked to have slightly tarnished coloring, though that could have been from anything. From what she could research, metal dragons tended to have darker colored scales at younger ages, though the color for this one could have been from a great many reasons, one of which could be he hadn't shed recently. His size, however, was definitely impressive, easily dwarfing the red dragon the dev had seen at the eyrie. They looked almost like ants compared to his looming stature.
"Talk with your kind means very little to mine. I will not give up one thing from my precious hoard, you can be assured of that. That is why you have come, yes?"
"Not really. We just spoke with the dwarves. There is an iron dragon in these mountains that has been attacking them, took over part of their mines for its lair. Are you the one who has done this?" she asked. The dragon chuckled.
"They act as if they own the entire range. For such an insignificant race, they have been quite a nuisance." The empress's eyes surveyed the landscape, her sight raking over the underground lair for signs that there might be others. The place was large, too large, for one dragon to consider its home. She noticed that there were a few broken scales near his rear right leg, a few scars from healed wounds just above them. The dwarves weren't exactly just a nuisance if they could harm him.
"The problem is you've taken over their mining tunnels in this area. Don't they have claim to that which they built?"
"These tunnels were abandoned long ago, the main veins already dug up by those specks. A shame, I would have hoped for more sustenance found here." Selene shook her head slightly in confusion.
"Wait, you eat metal?" The huge creature sat down on his haunches and stared down at her.
"All dragons can supplement our regular meals with a material that embodies us human. How do you think we are so… diverse?" he replied, amused at her poor knowledge.