Dungeon Robotics 9 - 19

Good Evening Guys. 

Louella

Count Eran stood next to me as he waved to his people. Vaihdetta banners having replaced Thonaca’s in the middle of the night. My fleet of airships floating over the city hammering in the fact that they had been taken while most of the people had been asleep. When I focused on any particular face in the crowd, they were mostly confused but fear was also strong amongst them.

Count Eran stepped forward and the sounds from the crowd died down. “My people! I know this is a confusing time, but to get through them we must work together! Queen Louella of Vaihdetta has come to our… aid in our time of need. We must remember that they are our brothers and sisters and not the heretics that the church has branded them.”

That didn’t get as good a response as I expected. The church might not be as influential the further north one went, but in a large city like this they still had a lot of pull. I was confident in our ability to deal with any insurrection in Vaihdetta, but here would be much more difficult given the locals would have much better knowledge of the area.

“To show they mean us no harm and only have good intents,” Count Eran gestured broadly which was the signal. Dozens of carriages were revealed that were laden with food and goods. It was bribery at its simplest, but it was fact that the people were starving due to the terra wave from a few months ago ruining almost seventy percent of the crops. Combined with the rush of refugees from Lecazar there were simply too many mouths to feed.

If we hadn’t had the dungeon to provide most of our food, the valley would be a much different place. I likely would never be able to pay back the incredible debt that everyone and I had accrued with Regan. I didn’t think he would every care about such things, but it was more a matter of honor.

Looking over the crowd, it was obvious that many of the people present wanted to resist the offered food. It was from their enemy after all. For all they knew it could be poisoned or rotted left over food that we could no longer consume. There were plenty of examples of such ‘good will’ tactics used in the past.

With no one willing to make the first move, I gestured to the commander down on the site. He nodded then motioned for some of the other soldiers to follow him. He moved to the food and grabbed some of the fruit. With a knife he split it open and showcased the insides to the nearest of the gathered crowd. After that, he took a massive bite from the fruit even allowing some of the juice to run down his chin. Even up on the balcony, I thought he made it look delicious.

The other soldiers did the same, reaching at random into the cart to grab this or that. Then they made a show of displaying the article before eating it. One even reached back in and sprinkled some salt on his item. Salt wasn’t something easily acquired in normal times. But we were offering it as a peace treaty.

The last soldier broke the crowd’s hesitation. Or rather, the ravenous children that most likely had lost their parents in the war earlier in the year rushed forward and nearly dived into the carts as they tried to get to the food. It didn’t take much more for the dam to break and everyone was rushing forward to grab something before it was gone.

I stepped forward and brought Helios around causing a bright explosion in the air before projecting my image and voice so that most of the city should be able to see and hear me. “There is plenty of food where this came from. Everyone will be given a ration! Those found taking food from the weak will be dealt with.” I flared my eyes with plasma, well it would look like flaming lightning to the citizens.

My soldiers added to the theater by stepping forward with their elements raging on their weapons. You would have to be incredibly brave or stupid to the extreme to try and rush after this display. Though, I was sure there would be those that tried to get around my rules in the future. Unlike in Viahdetta, I didn’t have Regan’s obelisks here to keep the order for me.

Order returned to the frenzied crowd as lines formed. I gave another nod to the commander of the site, and he sent an order up to the airships. The smaller dropships that could hold a few tonnes of supplies without much issue. We had to empty our own backstock of food, but with the dungeons, it would only take a few weeks or even days for certain items to be refilled.

Count Evan and I stood at the balcony for most of the morning. The people needed to see stability between the forces that could decide their fates on a whim. I would never do that to innocent people, but there are those out there that would. I was thankful that Count Evans was a smart individual and hadn’t tried anything stupid last night or since.

When about the time for lunch rolled around, we retired from the balcony. The crowd had calmed to an orderly gathering and the soldiers were handling them without too many issues by this point. The threat of the airships would keep the remaining military in line at least for a short time.

“Thank you for cooperating, Count Evans. You made this whole process much easier.”

“No… I should probably thank you for not slaughtering us. I never knew you possessed such powerful weapons.”

I raised an eyebrow when he handed me a missive. I was surprised considering he was essentially telling me he still had access to information outside the city. I took it and had to suppress a chuckle. Izora would be helping to keep this war bloodless in her own way. As I heard Regan say before, you have to break an egg to make an omelet. Not that I knew what an omelet was.

Izora had wiped out almost four thousand soldiers with one of Regan’s ion cannons. I guess word hadn’t gotten out about them when we were undertaking rescue operations in Lecazar. Maybe the King and the church would reconsider going to blows with us.

I burned the parchment then took and patted Count Evans hand in a sympathetic way. “Let’s hope we never have to use them.”

Count Evans looked at me like I was a devil, but I ignored him and continued on my way. I had no intentions of looting or allowing my soldiers to loot anything of value from the people. I wanted nothing more than to just have them fall into line with Vaihdetta rule. They could live their lives as they wanted after that.

Wrakras bowed coming into view as I rounded the corner. “My Lady.”

“Wrakras. What is it?” I asked with some worry. He had a concerned look on his face.

“The church… is quite upset that we killed one of their saints. They have barricaded themselves off in part of the city.”

“Is it just me, or do they really like to do that?” I asked shaking my head as I remembered when they cut off a district back in the valley a few months ago. It didn’t work for them then, I doubt this time would go much differently. I sighed before rubbing my eyes. “Lead the way.”

Wrakras and I were soon joined by a platoon of soldiers as we made our way to the cut off district. One of the airships was moving as well to provide strategic cover fire if it was needed. I really hoped it wouldn’t be needed.

We came to a stop in front of the barricade gate. It was central district thus none of my soldiers were harmed when they took it as we were concentrating our efforts on the outer wall and keep. There were seven churches in the city, which ironically made them less of a target for us to deal with since we couldn’t be sure which one was the main one.

“Cease this foolishness and surrender!” I said projecting my voice through the district.

A man on top of the gate threw a rock or piece of brick which fell far short of spot on the street and as a danger to me. “You can’t fool us heretic! If we listen to you, our souls will be lost forever!”

“I could let you meet your precious goddess right now,” I said tossing a ball of lightning up into the air and catching it. “If you want.”

“I have my goddess’s protection! I’m not scared of your threats!”

I rubbed my brow as the other people on top of the gate wall started shouting similar things. There was no getting through to these fanatics. “What do you think?” I asked Wrakras.

“Burn them all?” He suggested with a crooked grin.

“Never mind.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the communication device. “Ah. Captain. Please ready the Raspberries.”

“Raspberry?” Wrakras asked with a confused look. I just shook my head. Apparently that was the only name they said fit the weapon. The airships floating above the district opened their weapon ports causing the man to finally show some trepidation. I wasn’t in the mood to be messed with so they were going to have to suffer for a little while.

“Fire!”

Rounds fired into the streets of the district. While they were packed with Lelune believers, the ships still managed to aim for places that wouldn’t result in any deaths. The walls and roofs of buildings along the streets for example. The people on the wall gave us a smug look as if to say that our weapons had failed due to the protection of their goddess.

That was until ten seconds later when the rounds burst and purple foam started to pouring into the street. Anyone covered with the foam could no longer move and soon became part of the cloud of sticky mess. It only took a few minutes for the airships to fill the entire district to the point it looked like a giant slime was crushing the place. The walls they had taken making it so that no one could flee the assault.

The people trapped inside would still be able to breath and the foam was edible, but even then it would take them a few days to get out without any assistance. I turned to the commander. “That should help them cool off. You’re now in charge of this platoon and I’ll have them send you two more. Leave them for two days then reassess the situation. Pull a few of them out and if they are still belligerent… I guess just put them back in.”

“As you wish, your highness!” The commander saluted before he jumped to action. I nodded when I heard his orders. He doubted that this was all the Lelune believers in the city and thus wanted to make this area off-limits.

The whole situation had taken longer than I cared to waste and the sun was already going down. I stared at the sky as the stars started appearing. “Let’s head back. We have more cities to deal with,” I said to Wrakras as he and my guard fell into step. We’d almost made it back to the keep when I turned to Wrakras when I realized that the moon, Krona wasn’t in the sky. “Where’s Krona?”

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