NOVEL NEXT V10: Chapter 11
V10: Chapter 11
…
Going nuclear results in an alien invasion, so the only real routes to putting down the rest of the world were through chemical or biological weaponry.
Chemical weaponry looked good on paper. We have supersoldiers that are resistant to a lot of poisons and diseases. Testing with a few nerve-based aerosolized agents showed that people toughened up with basic enhancement serums were mostly just blinded by the mist it produced. Only after prolonged exposure, like six hours, did they start getting tingly sensations and other problems. Putting the tested individuals in the Citadel healing pods showed that they didn't even suffer any long-term damage.
Add masks and goggles to the equipment list of troops, ones that let them see through the fog, and they can fight without any issue. Meanwhile, our enemies can't breathe, see, and are having seizures.
The problem was that magic was bullshit. An average, ordinary mage with knowledge of healing can just snap their fingers, and the effects are gone just like that. Ordinary people with middling reserves of magic like me can learn the same trick. Chemical weapons might work for a few months, but they'll stop being useful after the enemy adapts to them. That's why we went with the corrosive acid fog instead of something that hit people 'directly.'
My scholars and mages theorized that the Ancients were comprehensive in their efforts to create healing magics and that the effects we were creating with chemical weapons were 'covered' by the basics as a result.
Getting covered in a fog of metal-eating acid, however, wasn't covered by regular healing magic, so it worked.
Unless a mage was smart and strong enough to cast some strong winds, then technically magic could deal with that as well.
We also have our poison weapon extracted from some plants that caused asphyxiation and damaged the eyes, nose, and mouth. It was useful, but before the Iterants were pulled out, we figured out that everyone else already made countermeasures to it. Gas masks were good enough to deal with it, but their research into healing magic and training their troops at it made it so that it's a bygone weapon. I'll need to make something more potent each time… probably not stopping until I reach the endgame version of poison weapons and deploy it.
The Scarlet Mist.
Yeah, I don't want to make a living cloud of magical poison, but I didn't see much of a choice.
But moving on to the biological side of things.
Biological weapons were looking to be our best bet. Even empowering the common cold and stomach flu was great. Sick troops that are shitting themselves and who are also feverish can't put up that much of a fight. The various barbarian/monster/mob tribes we put down while fighting the Death Lord proved that. Deploying it onto enemy populations would also decrease their production capacity and generally bring a lot of harm against them.
If we could create some sort of pandemic virus that could spread across the world unnoticed and go lethal after everyone's infected, that would be great.
But we hit a snag.
We didn't have living test subjects or even bodies of our future enemies.
The only real target we had was the enslaved and degraded versions of ourselves across the world being kept for one reason or another.
But any target that we can hit is better than no target at all.
I'm pretty sure that some of the people living outside this continent want to live.
Even if they are slaves, little more than prey animals, cattle, or sacrifices to be gutted on the street, a lot of people will do their best to live as long as they can.
In the end, though, they weren't my people, and there was no conceivable way that I was going to ferry them here, train them up, and make them productive citizens.
So, since I can't hit their masters/hunters, I'll hit them instead.
I could only hope that in the coming battles I'd get live test subjects from the actual crisis factions to craft biological weapons for.
Until then, I just had to go for the slaves and food.
…
"You seem pleased." Sarala greeted me with a raised hand, and I closed the report regarding the weapon we sent on our final expedition. The Furies were my primary target. They were a DLC along with the octopus bastards and the ancient demons. Unlike those two, though, they were the biggest pain in the ass with all their units being air-based except for their 'slave militias,' which they ate during battles to heal. I wanted those guys as weakened as possible. Dead would be great. "Good news, I hope, your majesty?"
"Riegert's final expedition has launched successfully with the latest strain." Sarala went still for a moment and sighed. He nodded at the chair across from me, and I returned it. He took a seat. He was a champion, so he knew what we were doing. He asked if he could be omitted from it, but if he asked… I shook my head. "That was rude of me, especially to such a kind host."
"I had asked. The fault is mine, your majesty." Sarala shook his maned head. A servant came forward. The desert night was nice and cool, and the stars were magnificent above us. Flames crackled and gave off heat and light. I used magic to give myself a little glowing orb of light over the table so that I could read the reports. The Iterants were standing behind me in their usual maid outfits. Sarala's servant was shivering slightly but had a smile on her face as she served tea to her master. Instead of a teacup, he used a large saucer-like dish that he picked up and sipped from easily with his lion face. "Your majesty, you complimented me on my efforts to make a sanctuary for my family and provided advice on expansion. Do you believe all that I have done is necessary?"
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"It is better to have when in need than need when you do not have." I answered Sarala diplomatically for a moment before giving him a smile. "We are making every effort possible to make it unnecessary. All that can be done is being done, while ensuring that the population is productive and reproducing, of course."
"Of course." Sarala was the most economically minded of my champions. He was also the most likely to take bribes and feed information to people who offered up enough cash. I told him to take it and just relay to me whatever he told them and not stick his neck out or get me information back. He was more than happy to. Money for him, and everyone across the continent knows what kind of industrial war machine that I have. They don't want diplomatic ties and refuse embassies, only willing to deal with me directly in another Council of Kings, so Sarala telling them I can bury them in bodies is the best I can do. "Your majesty, the Merchants contacted me recently. Have you…"
"Yes, I read your report on the matter. I believe that they will be under attack soon, much like the Forgers. They are not ready, and we must make the effort to ferry as many as we can to our lands." The Merchants were going to get hit with an absolutely horrible combo of crisis. The Cthulhu-expies and the bio-mechanical freakshows that were the leftovers of AI rebels and their collaborators. Both factions heavily benefitted from taking slaves/food/spawners, and the Merchants were all about throwing money/bodies at the problem. "Have you forwarded our findings to them and our intentions?"
"I did… But I fear my people have already chosen their path. They either do nothing or overreact." Sarala shook his head. For a second, his ears matted against his skull, but he cleared his throat. It was reminiscent of a low, rumbling growl. Shaking his mane, he refocused. "I have focused on setting aside all the funds they have given me. I offer it all to you in order to save as many of the Merchants as possible."
"We will focus on your tribe first, of course, and all the others assigned to breeding camps." I had to give the Merchants credit for that idea. Churning out litters of kids for a massive population boom was amazing. Pay people to carry them, pop the kids out, and train up the kids in state facilities. It was basically what I was doing, but better because they could churn out more population. They were mainly focused on the lightly affected Canid and Feline types, since they had litters but were 'standard' in terms of size and shape to descendants with just a few bits and bobs added. Claws, tails, eyes, and ears, mostly, with some having fur and snouts. Sarala's people were pressed to accept, since the Leonid types had litter sizes that ranged from two to four, according to Sarala, and they were always strong and more likely to be champions. "We have the capacity to care for them and their progeny, and I hope we can undo what has been done to the 'chosen.'"
Sarala bowed his head at my words.
Yeah, while I could applaud most of the scheme, the Merchants crossed the line. The details were sketchy and probably somebody's debauched fantasy, but using various alchemical compounds and some surgical modifications, 'volunteers' were turned into little more than mindless sacks of meat that popped out baby supersoldiers. Babies that were pumped full of alchemical concoctions, given surgeries, and were being prepped for Scholar-type augmentations as soon as they reached 'maturity' within six or so years.
I'm fine with underage volunteers or conscripts.
I'll put them on crew-served weapons, rear-echelon duty, or just have them keep working in factories while we put more and more people on the front. Turning people into little more than gestation machines that churn out child supersoldiers that are age-accelerated and then modified surgically and medically is something I would never do.
The reputation and happiness loss for that project is far too high for what it offers.
Which was why Executive Harper was keeping it secret.
Kinda bullshit that it can be kept secret, unlike in the game, but I'm used to reality being different nowadays.
"I would very much like to unveil their project… but it will only cause conflict. Conflict with enemies at the door. I'm sorry, Sarala, but we cannot unveil what we have found. Only work to get people out." Sure, they'd be cool to put in power armor and send out against the enemy, but they weren't that good. They're late mid-game units at best, and late-game infantry can deal with them. They barely match a Conqueror, and I have those guys as special forces already. They're not worth the cost of making. It's best to elevate ordinary infantry as much as possible, give them decent gear, and have Champions do the crazy stuff. "Use the funds you have. Tell me where you'll bring them. They will be safe and be made citizens like any other who leave their lands for our own."
Sarala bowed his head and placed a paw over his heart.
He wanted to unveil the whole thing, but it'd send the Merchants into turmoil. He thought that it would just put a fire under Harper, but the Merchants were already in deep shit. They had money, but their lands were filled with slums, their focus was just on industry, and people there didn't have any support. Their breeding program was successful because it was a great method to make money and get food. All signs pointed towards them being on the knife's edge of negative happiness and 0 influence.
If that project is unveiled, everything will tip over, and rebellions will pop up.
As shitty as the Merchants are, a nation is better at fighting off what they'll be facing.
I cleared my throat and offered Sarala an olive branch.
Years of loyal service, doing everything that I asked, and acting as a double agent made me want to make sure that he'll stick around.
There was also the fact that all the people watching him confirmed he was loyal, naturally.
He'd be dead if he weren't.
"Morgan has reported success on the lands of the former Academy. We have effectively seized the lands of the Wardens there and large portions of the Forger's and Merchant's territories. They have their invasion corridors to fight for the Warden Citadel, but no more than that." Sarala raised his head and listened intently to my words. The Academy Lands were mostly for agriculture and control over the Ancients' transportation system. We had more than enough of those lands, and I was willing to part with them. "We'll fortify and strain relations with them a bit, but reinforcing the newly taken territories will give you and your people a corridor to get out of Merchant Lands."
I said it lightly, but it was a pretty big undertaking. One that'll step on the toes of the Merchants, the Guardians, and the Forgers… But they already dislike me, so why not?
There was also the economic cost of fortifying newly regained ground that was essentially surrounded and flanked.
Sarala understood that, stood up, and gave a bow of thanks without being prompted.
"Thank you, your majesty, for helping me save my people! I will never forget this. No. My people will never forget this." He raised his head, and his eyes were full of zeal and determination. It was my turn to get up, and I offered him my hand. He knelt and, without hesitation, pushed his lips against the ring on my finger. Fuzzy. Then he knelt and bowed his head. "Thank you."
For a guy so obsessed with money that he basically turned his superpower into a business, he was really sappy.
I played into it.
"I only wish, Sarala, that we could save more."
Yeah, that line totally works.