The Clockwork Empress

by Dark Gear

Momonga wasn't the only person to be brought to the New World. What happens when the unseen force has brought in another that it probably shouldn't have? What happens when it brings in... a developer. Fortunately for her, she has a few advantages to give her the edge over any player. Unfortunately for her, she's going to need those advantages, as she doesn't start like Momonga.

21. Ch 20 Sweet Water Harbor

10th, November

The empress of the Clockwork Empire spent most of yesterday refitting and scrapping old crafting stations to replace them with newer versions all networked together to one console in her inventory, making her entire inventory IoT capable. It allowed manufacturing of anything she needed infinitely faster with one place to see every recipe or schematic list. She even added 3D printers to the mix since no one really knew how she produced anything.

This allowed her to rework the materials used for Bronze Team and her automatons far quicker than normal, but while she was happy with the new carbon-based armors and plating, she couldn't seem to get Carbyne to work properly. It was much stronger than any of the standard carbon materials, but if its integrity ever failed, entire sections imploded or disintegrated. That got her to thinking about using her Material Redesign ability to create a new sealant for it. Unfortunately, her first few attempts either caused fires that needed to be extinguished or were highly acidic that needed baking powder dumped on it.

"I'll get that tile fixed in a little bit, sorry Orlo" she said as the smaller helibot puffed the fire extinguisher two more times. "How am I getting this wrong? It should be a stable mixture to act like a wax seal for the Carbyne material. Right now, it seems more reactive than what I'm trying to protect."

"Perhaps you are missing a step, a bad recipe maybe? It could be like cooking, you add extra ingredients or take it away depending on how the flavor is" Orlo replied as an auto vac hose descended from the ceiling and sucked up all the foam. She snapped her fingers.

"It's possible." She worked on focusing the connections of the different molecules on a petri dish, as it couldn't be done in her inventory. The dev sat there for another hour piecing and moving electrons and protons around by literally seeing an atomic model in her Hud, adding and removing them to change the atomic structure, or how it bound to other materials around it. It might have sounded incredibly complex if she tried to explain it to anyone, but it was really quite simple to her… or at least it would for normal resources and materials. Each time she did it, either a new mixture was created, or it was already done before to make some random goop or composite. It never reacted or exploded until she decided to experiment with a new batch, but on 'paper' or via model it was supposed to work fine.

"I'm missing something, now I have a sealant that needs a sealant…" the woman sat down and pushed her bangs back from her forehead in deep thought. An idea poked at the back of her mind to open her inventory and check her recipes for the chemistry benches she had, which sure enough had a sealant already developed for the Carbyne. "God damn it! I'm an idiot… there's already one available…" she dropped her head against the research counter in the middle of the medical lab and rolled her head a little. Orlo had left his own science lab to help Turnie and herself work on the chemistry and act as a spare set of helping manipulators.

"Ma'am, are you getting enough sleep? Are you resting well?" Orlo asked.

"I'm getting decent sleep Orlo, I just… bad luck situations happened yesterday that I had to deal with. We were doing so well before, but as expected, an empire isn't always sunshine and bunnies." The empress rolled her head right and looked up at him sideways. Turnie was on the other side of the room testing a neutralizing agent.

"I see, so too many things piled up?" he asked.

"That's one way of putting it. The shipments made it to Eld Horn and Gold Pine, but Eld Horn has a massive rat problem. Had to release Lightning Mines to clean them up, nearly caused a panic among the populace when they saw them scurrying around going for the kill in hunter mode. Their tiny little drug scrambled brains didn't understand we released them to fix the problem, but all they could do was pray to me and beg for forgiveness and save them. They couldn't understand no matter how many times that I explained it that I released them in the first place! I mean, they weren't even attacking them!" she gestured with her arms into the air fingers spread in a dumbfounded expression.

"Superstition tends to cloud judgment sometimes" Turnie grumbled as she checked on a petri dish.

"Oh, so you had issues with the town as well too Turnie?" Orlo asked. She glanced over her shoulder and then continued with her work. That look, despite not showing any emotion on her metal face, spoke volumes.

"They couldn't understand she was trying to get blood samples via syringe to do experiments on, like checking to see if they had high mercury in their systems or low blood sugar or whatever. They thought she was a torture bot. Again, more begging."

"It's a small little prick of the arm! They could barely feel it!" Turnie now threw all six arms into the air in frustration.

"Seeing their own blood usually lets them know they are wounded, instinctive self-preservation in the subconscious. They also have very little experience with modern medicine, only magic" Orlo responded as he tried to analyze the situation.

"On top of that, they still wanted Scooze. I put a temporary ban on the stuff until the processing could be done safely in a controlled environment and with full knowledge of what it does to the body, I don't want a town of mine drugged up every day." Selene leaned back and dangled her hands at her sides as she sat staring at the ceiling. "I'm not against recreational drugs, I just want to know if its harmful or melting their brains a little each time. If it's safe, fine, we'll allow it, but if it isn't, I'll consider it a poison and outlaw the stuff."

"That seems wise" Turnie replied as she slipped a test tube into a centrifugal spinning machine. Hrist opened the door and walked in wearing what looked like a black halter top and a red leather Bolero jacket, black tight shorts and black thigh high stockings. She also wore tall black combat boots to add to the whole look, along with a black choker and black combat gloves; a pair of gold rose earrings and a black O-ring belt were added to the mix. Jeeves had provided a small data pad for her to peruse clothing designs that he knew about, as the automatons with personality cores all had information from Earth as well as from this new world. Selene blinked at her as she also noticed she was wearing makeup. The empress on the other hand was wearing sweats and a t-shirt with some pink bunny slippers, no makeup and her hair in a ponytail to keep it in control.

"What are you dressed up for?" the dev asked in surprise.

"Am I not allowed to wear what I asked Jeeves to create? You did allow me to get a new wardrobe." Selene snapped her fingers as she remembered.

"So, goth look it seems. Suits you." Hrist did her best to not blush as she looked away.

"Why are you not wearing something… like last time?" the maiden asked as she scratched the tip of her chin. The empress glanced down at her sweatpants and back up at her. The fluffy bunny slippers wiggled.

"What? I'm not allowed to lounge around in run arounds? Oh, you wonder where that ensemble I wore last time in Glass Dale is. That's sitting in my closet until I have to do another speech." Hrist looked like she was going to snap at her already.

"B-but the empress should always look her best at all times! What… w-what if someone came to inform you of events outside or wanted to negotiate their surrender? What if a town decided to join the empire?" she blurted our as she tried to think up reasons for Selene to dress to impress.

"First, we have ornithopters, listening posts and these things called walls providing constant surveillance and defense. We'd know if something was afoot before anyone else and no one would get near me with a full brigade of Security automatons and Honor Guard. Second, I doubt any of them would be seen until after I had changed, we do have waiting rooms after all. Third, why do you care so much? I could walk around in my underwear until someone important showed up." Hrist went red faced at that thought, then shook her head.

"You… you…" the Valkyrja tried to stutter out.

"Point for me." The empress made a motion of marking a line in the air with her finger. "Also, if someone did show up, you'd have to change as well. I highly doubt that would look normal in front of some dignitary. Modern clothing I doubt would be taken seriously given it tends to show skin. Your midriff is showing and some of your thighs." Hrist looked down at herself, wondering if anything was off. In her eyes, showing anything of her body wasn't much of an issue, but the thought of her empress showing anything but armor or a full dress made her want to gouge out the eyes of anyone who would see her. Jeeves and the maids had helped her get the color just right for her jacket and stockings, along with putting on the makeup.

"W-well… I like the way I look" she snapped.

"Fine, I'm happy with the way I feel in sweatpants. Did you go entirely goth or are there any other styles you liked?" The maiden looked at the ceiling thinking about the different dresses and other clothes she asked for.

"Jeeves suggested different styles depending on what I picked out, so… I'm unsure what each one is called." Selene gave her a half-lidded facial shrug for a second then got up from her seat and stretched.

"I think I've got the neutralizing agent" Turnie piped up as she shook a test tube a little. The empress looked over the counter as she held it up, with Hrist crossing her arms over her chest. Science and medicine wasn't her strong suit.

"It looks… is that algae?" the dev asked as she furrowed her brow.

"Very perceptive ma'am. It is in fact algae that will help clean the water, just somewhat modified to speed the process up."

"Wait, you spun algae in the machine?"

"No ma'am, those were blood samples." Selene's mouth went agape as she nodded, realizing her misunderstanding.

"Well, I figured out my screw up with the sealant and we have a way to combat the toxins, might as well go check on the Frigates." As she headed out of the medical lab, Hrist followed her back to the palace. As they both got onto the elevator, the empress glanced over at Hrist. "One thing, what's up with the request from Jeeves to build a Gelato machine, Ice Cream machine and Frozen Yogurt machine? He said you wanted them?" she asked in confusion with a smirk on her face and her brow furrowed. The raven-haired woman tapped her left boot's toe on the floor of the elevator and looked down.

"I just like ice cream. I tried some of that treat in Glass Dale. Am I not supposed to be requesting that?" she asked.

"No no, it's fine, was just weird hearing about it. The ice cream maker is already made, just have to get the other two ready." Hrist nodded as silence filled the elevator.

"What is the difference between the three?" The battle maiden asked. Selene glanced at her while still looking at the elevator door.

"Well, honestly there are a few more versions than just three, I think. Ice Cream is fluffier and uses more cream than milk and churned faster than Gelato. Gelato is usually churned slower and has a much more intense flavor due to being denser, with less cream and more milk so I guess healthier for you. Frozen Yogurt, despite the name, isn't really yogurt as you know it, but just a modification of ice cream with yogurt replacing the cream ingredients and served at a higher temperature to not become solid. Sorbet is frozen juice, syrup and water so it doesn't have any fat; it does have lots of sugar though."

Hrist nodded in semi understanding. She had no idea there were more ways of freezing liquids to turn them into different treats. "Do you like ice cream, Selene?" she questioned. The empress pursed her lips a little and blinked.

"I've never really been a fan of it."

"You dislike ice cream?" Hrist sounded worried. Ice cream tasted great to her, despite the odd sensation she had in her forehead if she ate too fast.

"I don't dislike it, it's just not my favorite dessert. Gelato is nice, but I tend to not eat it much due to the calories." The elevator reached the top and the doors opened. Both ladies walked out and down the hallway, one dressed in style, the other walking in baggy sweats. "I'm going to go get changed to check on the frigates. No, I'm not wearing what I had on the last time, probably a dress suit and pants." As Selene started to walk to her bedroom, Hrist seemed a little confused.

"Why is it that you are using naval ships to fight the next battle? Can you not just have the air fleet engage with the armies on the ground?" the maiden asked.

"I'm covering all directions. Ground forces will move through the front gates but could be bombarded by whatever in the water. Bringing in air they might miss any of the smaller ships trying to slip away from the height, plus I'd rather no one see the air fleet until absolutely necessary so invisibility fields will be in full effect. They're pirates Hrist, I want to make sure none of them make it out alive."

"Are there smaller ships to use? Or maybe board their ships?"

"I intend to sink those floating coffins and have drag subs come along to get rid of the wreckage after we take the harbor. Involving smaller ships, yes, I do, but having a few larger ones for intimidation factor fits nicely with keeping any of them from trying to escape quickly. As much as I might want to bring in a battleship, I don't have any built just yet and that might cause more damage than wanted with the civilians. I'm taking a city, I'm not trying to exterminate the populace with riots and heart attacks. Frigates are fine, maybe a destroyer or two if available."

The maiden seemed to understand her reasoning. The empress was attempting to save the city and build it up after. Killing everyone, even the weak willed who may be religious or superstitious to gods coming to end the world, would be counterproductive. She had the automatons easily to populate the city, but that was pointless if there was no one to protect or keep in the empire. Having a whole continent to herself with no one alive would be a very sad and lonely life. One of the few ways to keep the people safe and calm would be only bringing in enough of a technology advantage to end the pirate occupation quickly and efficiently, without looking like some divine force rolling in as much as possible.

"Ma'am, it's Ethan." She heard her coms give her a request to speak.

"Go ahead Ethan."

"We're near Sweet Water, Deacon and I. There's a bit of a problem with engaging the harbor city." Selene motioned for Hrist to turn on her earpiece. The maiden swapped to the channel for special forces and listened in.

"What's the problem?"

"The city isn't just pirates as you already know, but it seems some of the people are going to be tough to keep safe. We did some reconnaissance and found the city populace is sometimes used as human shields on their ships if a fight breaks out. There are civilians that could be held hostage like slave labor in all directions."

"Then we just have to be careful with who we shoot in there, that answers the boarding aspect Hrist just asked about. I've already got the EW autos built, probably add a mana pool to them and give them [Truth from Lies] to weed out anyone who tries to slip by under the guise of an innocent. I trust our military to be dead shots; save the civilians, make sure they see us as rescue from their horrible lives."

"We agree. I'd suggest before we blast those ships that you send us special forces in to evacuate anyone who might be held in the brigs down below." Selene thought for a moment as she wondered just how many were being kept from sunlight, to be used as human shields if they board another ship. Removing that from the equation would make things a lot easier, returning those people to their families.

"Alright, how many ships have been tracked in the harbor first" she asked both Ethan and herself as she checked through footage quickly from ornithopters in the skies. There was a total of fifty ships that docked there, with another twenty already out on the ocean. The corvettes that were already built would make short work of those things given they were faster, smaller, and had both technologically advanced heavy armor for their size and far greater firepower. The dev already figured one corvette could possibly handle ten Middle Ages ships by itself. The only reason it wouldn't go over that would be most fleets probably didn't go beyond that number out on open water.

"We're looking at about seventy ships in total. The PT boats could get our teams on board without anyone knowing we were around, take control and retrieve the packages… sorry, rescue the hostages ma'am." Selene chuckled at that. While she would like to have a little more respect for the people, until they were integrated into her empire, they were just random bodies standing around that didn't know anything. If they were being used as slave labor or meat shields, that meant they had no magic skill, no combat skill, probably didn't know how to do much else beyond fishing.

"It's alright, I understand. Alright, let's get some SF corvettes ready for Bronze Team and the others. Once you finish with the operation, let me know so we can move onto phase two."

"Understood ma'am, I'll let Jorge know we are a go." The coms ended as she took a quick shower, not spending a lot of time in the bathtub today. As much as she liked to soak, the dev knew today had a lot of work ahead of her despite sitting around in the lab attempting her experimentation with the new sealant mixture. As she stood in the shower and cleaned herself up, Selene thought about the new naval fleet she was going to make. The hull classifications were pretty standard, but did she need that? What if she wanted a massive super ship made in the future or a tiny little life boat sized weapons platform?

That brought her to a new decision that would also have an effect on the air fleet most likely. She was going to use a new hull classification system ranging from the smallest ship to the largest. The empress had at one time brainstormed different hulls for a sci fi game that still needed work for another two more years before she came to the new world. It apparently had been used in a very old game in the past, well over one hundred years before her time. She had heard the name before and did research, what little she could find out, about Master of Orion series. This would allow her to have a very diverse fleet defense in the water, air, and perhaps in space.

Lancers were the smallest ship used, despite being roughly fifty meters in length for space, which meant something around thirty meters for the air and barely twenty meters in the water due to less life support requirements and systems needed. The Lancer would be the equivalent of a fast attack craft, meant to move up rivers, support fighters in the air as air gunships or close air support for the ground, and run interception of missiles and fighter craft for larger starships.

Cutters ran around one hundred meters in length for space, fifty meters in air and twenty-five meters in the water, almost similar to the size of a Lancer for a nautical vessel. While not as fast as Lancer hulls, they'd make up for the speed in lots of low tier firepower to fill the area with damage, mulching sections of a forest or jungle and turning boulders into dust. In the air, they'd be used to take on larger flying beasts, probably dragons head on. In space, they'd be in control of picket lines for the fleets.

Corvettes would be the backbone of any defense line. They'd range from two hundred meters in space, one hundred meters in the air and fifty meters in the water. They would be like a smaller Frigate but didn't have as much heavy firepower. While Lancers were attack and Cutters were heavy attack, Corvettes would be used as defense for the coast, watching over the air fleets and keeping space patrolled once she got up there. The length for a nautical version would probably be a bit small for something called a Corvette as from what she could read up on, a military ship could range from fifty meters to one hundred fifty meters for the big ones, but it would still work. They were meant for quick defense and patrol for the water anyways.

Frigates would range from four hundred meters in space to one hundred meters in the water. It would be almost as large as two naval aircraft carriers for the space version due to the special systems and engines. They would be used as escorts or heavy patrol for every fleet type. Due to time constraints, the main naval fleet engaging Sweet Water Harbor would probably be comprised of the nautical versions with no Destroyers. While powerful in their own right, these were not considered ships of the line; as such, they would normally not be used on the frontline, however, most of this world was barely in the Late Middle Ages, so their main ships were at best Galleons with magic cannons. This meant that just one of her Frigates might be a beast against one of Artinia's fleets unless it was their entire naval armada.

Destroyers would be the workhorse, highly adaptable and decently defended. The size would be around double that of a Frigate, despite that not being a normal size in modern times due to resources, time constraints and money, so nations only built as large as required to get the job done. She had no restrictions on any of that. These ships would be the main defense and offense for any engagement. If Selene decided to bring one of these against Artinia, she doubted there would be anything they could do.

The sizes would continue doubling each time with Cruisers, Battleships, Carriers, Dreadnoughts, Titans, Behemoths and Leviathans. This didn't even take into account for starships whether they were System Ships or actual Starships capable of moving between solar systems. System Ships wouldn't have the engines to get out of the solar system, but used up that same space for more power, defenses, weapons and crew space. Starships would use that area for the required systems to "warp" from one point to another. She hadn't even gotten to a high enough tier to worry about getting out of the solar system yet either. Teleportation, despite how powerful it was, couldn't move anyone beyond a certain range, regardless of how far infinite is supposed to be for Yggdrasil or Arcanic's Wizardry. Per game restrictions, you could move around the whole planet pretty much without issue but moving from planet to planet is a massive undertaking even for magic. Five thousand miles or even ten thousand miles to jump from continent to continent is different from well over two hundred thousand miles just to reach the moon, let alone whatever this new world solar system has for a "Mars."

Her main problem it seemed wasn't producing any of the hull sizes, but where to keep them or dock one of the larger ships. A pier or shipyard would have to be massive to allow anything like a Leviathan at its smallest naval size of 25 some odd kilometers in length to sit and repair or resupply, let alone a space station for the whopping 102-kilometer starships. The space stations would be the size of a moon if not larger, maybe part of a Dyson Sphere. Given her nautical Destroyers would already be almost as large as the Yamato Battleship from World War II, it stood to reason there would be no need to make anything beyond a Cruiser or maybe an Aircraft Carrier as a nautical ship. She already had an air fleet, despite Majesty's Grace being only a "paltry" 500 meters in length and considered an aircraft carrier. If she reworked the entire fleet size, upgraded the hull of her flagship, it would be a floating city in its own right.

There was just no need for massive size when the enemy made ships barely below 150 meters. The logistical constraints would be huge for nautical vessels to dock, airships and for that matter starships would potentially cause gravitational issues for the planet if getting beyond a certain size range. It was better to simply keep things a decent size but keep the hull classifications ready in the event the planet got visited by hostile alien lifeforms or some crazed supervillain necromancer. Then it was going to be all bets are off, make the scariest thing she had available. This wouldn't stop her from building new advanced technology or special combat units hidden under the castle, however. The skunkworks area had some particularly nasty and quite large weapons ready if all hell broke loose, with about half still being in the steampunk tech trees. Mass producing Information Age weapons didn't seem necessary yet when she had access to steampunk lasers, railguns and other weird science tech. Pulling out the VX gas or biological weapons, maybe nanite clouds, would be pure overkill and scare the hell out of the populace.

Probably be a good idea to have a canister of the nanites on my person though, it'd make a great offense and defense…

She finished her shower and dried off, then got dressed. The dev could hear the helibot outside winding up and ready for her to head out and check the shipyard. Romeo wasn't there anymore as he just built the place, he wasn't stationed at any one military base. That made the station slightly lonely as there were no Super automatons stationed there right now. The amenities for any living creature to be there were low as well. The empress could get a filtered cup of water, there were a few chairs to sit in and an air conditioned and heated room to watch what was happening, along with a few emergency supplies stashed away like canned food and a sleeping bag, but for the most part it was a boring guard shack that she didn't want to stay in.

At least she would bring a book now that traders were secretly rushing to get to Gold Pine and Glass Dale. The amount of literature was growing, with the royal library starting to build up slowly. There was finally a printing press system built in a newspaper building she had built in Gold Pine that allowed copies of books to be made. Suddenly, everyone was attempting to learn to read and write at the free school provided so they could enjoy the public library, as well as opening jobs for crude journalism and newspapers for what was happening around town. It revolutionized recreational time for the citizens. Glass Dale also had a public library and school, but the newer books weren't quite in abundance yet. Public theatre was also starting to become a thing with plays happening once a week. That might be something she wanted to go see soon.

As she headed out of her bedroom while tracking updates from her special forces teams heading out in her "Lancer" nautical craft to board the found pirate ships out in open water, Jeeves walked by with two maids.

"Your majesty, already heading out to the naval shipyard?" he asked.

"Yes Jeeves, I… oh, I nearly forgot it was lunchtime." Her butler nodded as the two maids bowed to her.

"It is getting a bit cold up there as well. Are you sure you would not wish to wear a coat?" he asked. She snapped her fingers as she realized what she had forgotten.

"Nearly forgot it was November. Thanks Jeeves." He bowed to her as she headed towards the kitchen for a packed lunch. There were many advantages in her eyes of being an empress, but one of the most interesting was on call food preparation at any time of day or night. If she suddenly got a craving for chocolate chip cookies at 2 am, they would be baked for her immediately. Luckily, she had already gotten some cocoa beans from a trader the other day due in no small part to Stafinson. She made sure there were funds to pick up any new seeds, beans or animals that could be bred or grown here. Making sure she had whatever ingredients or creatures available made sure that the empire could enjoy luxury goods just as much as she could. There was someone in Gold Pine, some random cook that had figured out how to make Fried Chicken already. The street stall they opened was one of the most lucrative shops there right now.

One of the maids in the kitchen gave her a lunch that looked like it was a four-course meal. Soup and salad, main course which seemed to be chicken parmesan, along with dessert. There seemed to be a few snacks added in as well, just in case, as well as a thermos. The dev chuckled a little at a thought that crept into her mind of heading off to her first day of elementary school, her mother packing her lunch with extra snacks. Luckily, her metabolism kept most of the weight off her despite her friends having to watch what they ate. Exercising often was just something she felt like doing if it kept her body fit. The fact she got constant exercise anyways after reaching the new world just allowed her to eat what she wanted, along with the magic usage and modern medicine she had available. If she stopped exercising though, eating would probably start packing on the pounds. She wasn't immune to weight gain. There might be a stat for that…

"Thank you" she said to the maid which bowed and accepted her appreciation. There was no real need to acknowledge the female automaton, but it helped her psychologically knowing she was still being grateful. It also built a habit regardless of who she was speaking to, even if it was a drone without a personality core. The maids in the castle were mechanical versions of a homunculus, although probably a lot better at their jobs, given they were a lot faster. While she didn't know enough about homunculus here on this world, the dev had delved a little into the lore for Yggdrasil despite the story not being needed to research as she just worked on the features and programming. It helped make sure she got the features just right for the respective game to know what she was implementing and bring up issues with it not appealing to the target audience.

From what Selene gathered, homunculus in Yggdrasil were just labor, usually very low level and rarely reaching above level 10. While they did sleep, there were anti-fatigue items that could be used on them. However, they were NPCs, so sleep wasn't an issue, nor did they run out of any sort of stamina due to game AI restrictions. They usually were smaller than the average human but tended to have higher base stats as they were built for singular purposes; they also had some fluff lore of eating more than normal, with a nutrient deficiency. Outside of Yggdrasil, lore varied widely in many directions, from humanoids that could exceed human body restrictions and be nigh superhuman, to weird growth like creatures that could perform limited shape changing to accept whatever form their master enjoyed while being an amorphous being.

Her drone maids were leagues ahead of the homunculus in all regards. They were far more resilient, didn't need to sleep, extremely efficient, with much higher level now due to Steampunk Mechanical Engineering. Just the base Civilian model maids were probably on par with some elite soldiers in this world, roughly around level 60. If the empress ever decided to attempt to create some sort of "battle maid" for defense as well as serving her, it might be quite impressive.

That thought had reminded her that she had access to new designs in android and gynoid technology via Information Age as well as Super Steampunk and Space Steampunk eras. The new upgraded hover legs that would be given to Turnie as a reward for being… well… awesome, as her healer for Bronze Team as well as a personal doctor, was a major upgrade. The healing bot would no longer be the shortest member of the team with two anti-gravity legs that stood on their tip toes, with an extendable heel system out the back like a V shaped horseshoe for balance. It would make her very graceful now instead of rolling or jumping around rough terrain. Orlo probably needed a new design for his chassis as well, given the fact he was a Light helibot. He had been instrumental in far too many research projects to count already.

"Have a great day your majesty" the kitchen maid said as it bowed once the lunch was in her hands. The other maids continued to cook for dinner tonight. It would be a minor celebration for taking Sweet Water Harbor. That response from the maid brought her to realize she wanted some Supers with personality cores built under command of Jeeves. There would be battle maids in this castle of hers, probably with more humanoid features. The maids right now, while considered somewhat attractive by Gold Pine townsfolk, were still made mainly of metal, even their faces were a mesh weave to simulate facial expressions with some plastic. The Supers would be life like to a human being and focus on controlling certain aspects of the palace with Jeeves overseeing all actions. All of her Supers might get the gift of a new body if she could get the design and detail just right. They wouldn't have universal templates, the dev wanted to make them very unique and special.

"I will, thank you." The empress responded as she headed out of the kitchen and grabbed a wool button up trench coat from a closet, with a nearby maid assisting her. The whole palace, despite only having a few living people in it along with the wolves, was fairly lively with automatons moving from place to place, cleaning the rooms and dusting, always diligent. It might even get more livelier with any future nobility, if Skuld vouched for them of course. The dev was a little worried about throwing a ball or party in the future, with so many people coming to dance and see her.

One of the worries was having to learn how to dance. On the dance floor, she always seemed to have two left feet no matter what she did. Clubs were not her style either. There was a skill for it, but that took away precious Skill Points for use in other avenues.

Ok, time to go see these Frigates. It'll give me time to work through the points I got this morning from the orb.

As the empress made her way to the helibot, she noticed Brynhildr, heading to an APC loaded with toys. "Hey Bryn, where are you headed with those?" she yelled out. The blonde-haired woman looked up and smiled.

"Going to hand out a few to the young ones in Gold Pine! Also, I figured I'd try out some of the new drinks the alewife there has been concocting. Do you need me for something?" she replied back.

"No, just wondering. We're a go for the assault tonight though, so don't get too boozed up. I know anyone who tries to drink like you would die of alcohol poisoning before you got drunk, but still."

"Is there any reason for me being there though?" Bryn asked. She had a point. The main assault was going to be done entirely by automatons and ships, with vehicular combat thrown into the mix. They'd mainly just be sitting in the back watching the entire spectacle.

"No, but do you really want to miss out on seeing us take that pirate city?" The Valkyrja smiled and nodded with her eyes closed.

"I'll admit, it will be nice to see some justice served. I doubt any of those sea devils could ever be considered an Einherjar. I'll be there." Selene nodded in approval as she climbed up into the helibot, her four Honor Guard situated as the doors closed. The inside pressurized and warmed up to keep her comfortable as the automated vehicle lifted off and headed for the shipyard.

The ride was uneventful as she sat and read the book she brought, explaining the history of the religions that had surfaced on the continent. The range of historical records was quite small given most authors only knew what was what from the royal library, or from a decently equipped monastery. Monks made exceptional writers, but they didn't exactly leave their place of prayer to visit other areas of the world, so their experience was limited. Most of the information seemed to involve a pantheon of some form or another, changing twice in the past six hundred years. Given this world had magic, it seemed plausible that the gods were in fact real or had been real at one point.

From what she could see from research back on Earth, a lot of gods only had as much power as how many followers were worshipping them. The game Dungeons and Dragons had gods that were only as powerful as their following, with small cults having gods that did little more than make farms grow faster, while great gods with millions worshipping them could wipe out a continent. In other games, a person could become a god by birthright or by attaining some special object, a legendary treasure. Given the fact that Yggdrasil followed a similar path to D&D, the gods here might be very real beings.

The fact there had been already two lost pantheons meant that followers abandoned them, probably losing most of their power and becoming a "Vestige" or dead god by mortal means. While not truly dead, it could be possible to resurrect one if they suddenly gained followers and had a ritual enacted to awaken them.

What seemed to worry her right now was the fact that Artinia was corrupt beyond belief, with the people barely more than slaves to make money for the rich. If that was the case, and the fact that gods could exist as real entities, then there might be evil gods or goddesses watching over Artinia due to religious beliefs and how the nobility acts. It could be possible to destroy an avatar of a god, but it was incredibly hard. However, those gods, while powerful, might have been barely on par, if not weaker, than a Valkyrja due to constant stories of them being fought and beaten by regular, albeit strong, adventurers in many a game that followed D&D design or rules. A god could be constrained to a single planet, or even a single continent if the pantheon wasn't very well known. Valkyrja traveled the realms after all.

Normally to kill a god might require some form of taking some of their essence to research and create some anti-celestial weapon or ammunition to kill them once and for all, but she already knew for a fact Artifact quality tier weapons were already capable of defeating one quite handily. Even Legendary quality tier, the equivalent of Divine class items from Yggdrasil, would work, albeit barely. The Divine class items would have to exert an immense amount of damage onto the god's avatar, then find their astral essence and have some sort of severing effect to their following, effectively cutting them off from all life or worship energy. Artifact tier or World Class Items could do that usually without much issue.

Should probably get the points placed Selene, waiting until I get to the shipyard to do that would be a little pointless. I can read once I get there.

She checked her character sheet and noted her level was now 140, which was still nowhere near Jorge now. The dev made a note to eventually add in some more points to Steampunk Mechanical Engineering to increase their levels even more. The annoying bit was going to be if she ever moved their personality cores to something not steampunk in the future, that she'd have to throw more points into Mechanical Engineering or Advanced Mechanical Engineering to get their levels equal or higher.

The empress threw the fifty points into Stamina to get it to two hundred percent, adding into the very large pool she already had if she wore enchanted Rare quality armor. She also had decided to drink a Stat Potion in the morning, adding another eleven points she would hold onto until it reached fifty. That could happen if the dev drank another tonight, however it could increase even further if the next research project bore fruit. It was an attempt at removing injection or having to ingest the potions, turning some of them into slap patches for arms that could be absorbed through the skin via modern medicine. While it was possible it wouldn't cause indigestion, she highly doubted it wouldn't cause other issues like dizziness or skin irritation to counter the change in intake. There always seemed to be that balance to stop her from using massive amounts of them.

"Three minutes to land your majesty" she heard from the helibot as she packed her book away and finished throwing one hundred Skill Points into Martial Arts. That hit her like a sack of bricks immediately as she reeled from the amount of moves that could be pulled, the different styles and variations as well as the counters, grapples and pressure points. While knowing how to fight with melee weapons was diverse, the amount of moves she could make in a fight with just her bare hands was insane.

Ooh, Hrist is going to be in for an interesting sparring match next time when I steal her sword or shield mid strike with something from Krav Maga or Tai Kwon Do…

On top of that, the special abilities she received weren't like the moves she gained from Melee Weapons. [Iron Strikes] allowed her attacks with any body parts to increase by two hundred percent in damage, pretty much making a punch shatter a rib cage now. Hrist seemed to be able to do something similar, but that might have had something to do with her raw strength. Given how Selene was now increasing her own strength as well and doing weight training, she could probably trade blows with her General eventually. The main problem was her armor was giving most of the boosts. Without it, she was much weaker than the Valkyrja. The throws and grapples would be the saving grace for her along with psionic boosts as a spare buff. The battle maidens were strong and fast regardless of armor, while she had quite a few boosts from equipment and consumables allowing her to be on par. Without those, her one hundred percent or two hundred percent stats didn't mean as much.

[10,000 Fists] increased her attack speed, not as a flat increase, but multiplied the strikes she could land on a target. While it wasn't exactly 10,000 as it claimed, each attack she performed was the equivalent of ten hitting multiple points of contact, not just where she was aiming. An enemy can't defend against a strike to their knee if the initial attack was coming for their face.

[Iron Skin] followed suit to [Iron Strikes], though it worked on her stat Natural Armor. It would increase that stat by two hundred percent, effectively making her skin pretty much impervious to anything lower than a tank shell. The characteristics were the equivalent of bullet proof armor.

This better not make it difficult for me to put lotion on my skin…

[Pressure Points] allowed her to make aimed strikes at other parts of the body beyond the obvious chest or head, hitting critical spots on arms and legs like joints and arteries to cripple and wound. Pressing a certain spot on an arm while dodging an attack could paralyze it, giving her a far easier way of ending the fight quickly. Cutting circulation off or mana flow would be very beneficial.

[Flow Like Water] seemed to act as a dodge ability, guaranteeing dodging all attacks for the next ten seconds as an active skill. That seemed immensely useful, as not getting hit at all was one of the best defenses. While her Dodge stat was at one hundred percent, it could always be improved to counter any guaranteed strikes.

Combined with her new experience in psionics as well as the new spells she was learning, it could be possible to well exceed supersonic fighting without causing issues with mass, vacuum distortions or wind knockback effects. Amplifying her speed and strength with psionics was her best bet in sparring with Hrist now that it was at a pretty decent level. Psychoactive Muscles and Psychomimetic Aura around her would make for an impressive display without armor now. The psionics actually dispersed air around her to not cause any issues while moving, creating a sort of psychic warp field so that she could move much more efficiently. She could only imagine what it would do if she was equipped with the new armor. Epic quality tier was almost there, but for the time being Rare quality was what she had available. As she got better at controlling her psionics, it could be eventually possible to go hypersonic in a fight.

The helibot touched down and opened the doors, with her guard climbing out and positioning themselves. The automatons stationed at the shipyard weren't in parade stance this time, as they were busy constructing the nautical ships needed. Six Corvettes and two Frigates were already in dock, 125 meters and 150 meters for both sizes. These were the old ship sizes based from Earth, not her new set up. It would hurt to cut the Corvettes down to half the size, but it would mean more ships working in concert, easier to maintain and control more of the ocean. They'd also be easier to man with Coast Guard automatons or military, despite easily being capable of producing platoons at the drop of a hat right now in her inventory, or a company for that matter. Of course, she could always just use the new hull classification system for space and just leave the airships and nautical vessels alone. There was nothing stopping her from doing that.

"Oof, I know these are powerful, but is this going to be enough to stop any pirates from trying to escape? Eh, the Lancers and Cutters should be easy to cover the sides for any stragglers" she muttered to herself as she surveyed the ships ready to head out. The weapons were mainly high powered for the Frigates, with the Corvettes being gunpowder with some small sized railguns and a few lasers at low power. By low power, it was referring to anything that wouldn't sink another ship in one shot, with high power being a critical strike weapon usually. Low power would be used for cover fire and taking out crew on board, allowing boarding operations or strafing to let the enemy know they meant business. The high power would just sink things, no nonsense, no diplomacy.

Selene went into the guard shack and sat down, no automatons coming to check on her as they were ordered already to finish the third Frigate. As she pulled out the book again to read up on one of the pantheons, at least whatever the writer knew about them, she got a request to speak from Skuld via her coms. As she opened the channel, the brunette was heard muttering a little to herself. "Is this thing on? Am I even getting through?"

"I can hear you just fine Skuld, what's up?" she asked as her hands opened the book and pulled the bookmark out. It was a cute little thing that Abby had painted for her, a slew of magical and mythical creatures she knew existed. At the top was a gryphon, followed by a unicorn and dragon, with a manticore on the bottom.

"Ah, so I did get through. Why does it sound as if your voice is booming?" Skuld asked. Selene had never thought about that before, as they were using small microphones in the communication earpiece.

"I… well I never realized my voice was so loud. I'm not exactly using my mouth, so I have no idea how to turn the volume down. Hmm… how's this?" she asked dumbfounded. Her attempts to be quieter in her own head befuddled her.

"Better, but I guess that was insulting, my apologies. It just sounded so… like it was coming from high above, as if a god was speaking down."

"I'll try to keep that in mind, no apologies necessary." That made her wonder if she had been 'yelling' at Bronze Team this entire time. She'd have to make a note to speak softer… in her own head.

I speak from up high down to my subjects mortals! I have come to warn you of a horrible thing that will come to pass! The plumbing will be backed up! You need to get that fixed before… ah screw it… I lost interest in this thought…

"Anyways, I have word that five promising students will be arriving at the newly built academy. I will hold my excitement until after I have seen how well they fair" Skuld reported.

"Just understand that they are mortals, they aren't super people that can jump over buildings, can't pick up boulders or swing giant swords. They're just people trying to learn and do better."

"I understand that Selene. I've been working on the planned training to help them improve their bodies as well as their minds. I have been working on courses involving language, reading and writing, mathematics, martial skills, etiquette and civility and honor. I… erm… believe I am… lacking… in science studies or history…" the maiden explained, feeling embarrassed that she didn't have the expertise to address the deficiencies.

"It's alright, that's still great so far with just one instructor. It'll only get better as more instructors are added to flesh out the curriculum. The mathematics, does it expand to Calculus?" Selene asked her.

"Erm… Calc…ulus? What is that?"

"I'll take that as a no. Calculus is advanced mathematics beyond Trigonometry."

"Trigon… no… metry?"

"Ok… does the mathematics do anything with Algebra?" There was a stressed groan from Skuld as she didn't respond the way the empress expected. The dev felt sorry for her, as she was doing her best. Teaching the people addition and subtraction was probably the only thing in the math courses, no real multiplication or division, no tricks or hints to speed the process up for large numbers. The academy would need more than instructors, it was going to need professors with college level degrees. Skuld might not even know about non-real numbers. Science required things like this to improve and design just about everything.

"Ok, don't worry, it's fine. Just teach what you can, and we'll see about providing some more teachers. If we can't find anyone, as an emergency precaution I think I can get some automatons to help out. Everything will work out, relax."

"I'm grateful Selene, I really am. I've always wondered what it would be like to teach, to build up the sense of honor and conscience in mortals, to help them learn, even if it didn't amount to wars or gaining more Einherjar. I hope the academy will do well." Selene smiled, although Skuld couldn't see it.

"It will do well, because you're at the head of it. Five will turn eventually into five thousand, which means more instructors, professors and teachers will be needed. I'll see about getting some posters printed up requesting the learned to pop their heads out and get paid for their service to the community." As she said that, Selene checked on her inventory and opened a connection to the royal vault, checking the amount of funds that were available. There was more than enough to buy the whole continent many times over right now, if that was even possible. The dev set aside contracted funds for new teachers, placing the money into a small vault inside the main one.

"Thank you. I'll see about getting the rooms prepared."

"The rooms should already be prepared, there are attending workers to keep the academy maintained Skuld." The Valkyrja seemed to gasp a little on the other side.

"I thought the automatons you had here were just applying finishing touches to the buildings! They're going to stay here?" she asked.

"That was the idea. New students come to a clean room, but it should be noted it is their responsibility to keep it maintained while they stay there. Once they graduate, evaluations can be made on how well they treat their bedroom. The rest of the time the automatons are janitors."

"Teaching them to respect their surroundings and their home away from home, that sounds great." Selene checked her pocket watch on a chain, despite having a clock in her visual Hud. While it was simple with no symbols or plated designs on the door, the polish and build felt nice in her hand.

(Recommended Song: Christopher Tin – A New Course (Opening Movie))

The third Frigate was completed and being slowly pushed into the water via offload launcher rails under it, causing a small tidal wave as the water displaced. The fourth and fifth were almost complete, along with another four Corvettes. The engines engaged as it slowly was assisted by a tug boat to pull it into a berth. The weapons rotated on their axle points and turrets, checking to make sure everything was fully functional. The crew was waiting on the dock, ready to board and make sure all maintenance was ready, the marines stationing themselves at doors and on different decks.

"There goes Light 1-2 being launched…" she muttered to herself. Despite needing names, the dev was perfectly fine with her automated nautical fleet just going by numbers and designations. Having to call them some name like Steadfast or Abigail seemed pointless for these steampunk warships. Selene checked on the requisitioned automatons that were going to be stationed on it, despite it being capable of moving on its own. There was no need for a navigator or pilot, no captain or lieutenants. The only thing it would need were boarding protection and engineers for maintenance, given it could fire the guns by itself.

"Hey, I'll talk later, sorry if I'm cutting you off but the third frigate just launched and I figured I'd check out the insides, boring as it sounds. You'll be at the assault of Sweet Water Harbor, right? Sitting next to us?" the dev said as she got up and put her book down.

"Oh, no worries, go do what you do. I will be there, I want to see that city liberated, those pirates ended. Whatever gods they pray to, I hope they never meet them. It's dishonorable to steal from those weaker than you that can't fight back."

"Wait, what does that make us if we're going against them? I mean… they can't possibly fight back against us." Selene asked that in wonder. She already knew they were taking on Artinia to give a better life to the people, to build her empire and show them there were better ways to do things.

"That makes us responsible for meting out justice, on both Artinia as well as those thieves of the waters. Enjoy the tour Selene, I'm sure it is a beautiful ship." Skuld ended communication as the empress sighed and nodded to no one. They were going to end this corruption. These ships would help with that.

Once she got on board the new Frigate and got a chance to see the layout, along with a very small cabin always added as an emergency for her to stay in, the dev sat down back in the guard shack and opened her lunch. Written in vegetables on her salad was "Have a Great Day!" in cherry tomatoes, shredded carrot and cucumber. She laughed at that. "I will with you guys around."

8 pm, 10th, November

"30 seconds to landing" Selene heard as the helibots dropped over the side of the mountain range of Azaltos and kept a stealth distance of about two miles from Sweet Water. Five brigades of automatons, vehicles and air support were rolling into position, ready to storm the large reinforced gate and enter into the depths of the pirate occupied city. Hrist was in another helibot, along with her sisters as they had regrouped. Bronze Team and the other special forces teams were still finishing rescuing hostages from the ships in harbor, with the twenty out on the ocean already sunk. From her reports they were almost done, just had two left. The main problem was getting to each one without someone noticing them. Each special forces team was busy boarding, clearing the crew out quietly and rescuing the hostages, then getting them off the ship and back on land via PT boat pick up; only then were they able to continue to the next ship once they could make sure the people were safe and didn't need medical attention. She had decided to keep the original classifications for all nautical ships, changing them around would just cause problems right now.

As the helibot dropped to the ground and opened the doors, her honor guard got out and lined their shields up, with Selene getting out and walking to a few benches set up for her along with a portable overhead heater. There were blankets and a few snacks available along with drinks.

I can't believe I'm setting this place up like we're about to watch an outside projector movie… people are going to die soon… sheesh, I've changed a lot in the past weeks…

The empress shook that thought from her head and focused. Precision artillery was already set up at Beyond Visual Range, with a squadron of fighters ready to fly over the top of the mountains and strafe locations. The small Frigate fleet was just around the bend, containing five ships with Corvette support. It was a little overkill, but she needed to make sure each ship was sunk with no hostages on board, despite the crew already wiped out on most of them. It was a message that the pirates had no more control over the waters, both to them as well as the citizens still huddling in fear inside the city. She had no idea how long they had been under control of the pirates, but it was coming to an end tonight. The special forces teams were not going to be setting charges, this needed to be seen by the people as her own ships came in to sink those wooden sailboats.

"Just about done with the second one ma'am, be ready for phase two momentarily" Jorge reported over coms as she sat down, her armor regalia worn. It was a bit annoying having to change constantly just to make a first impression to the people once she walked in, but it was obviously worth it each time.

"Copy that, take your time, get the people safely away."

"Solid copy." Snipers were setting up at key positions, tracking the watchtowers that were created in the event someone did lay siege to the city. The plan built was to take out the alarms quickly and efficiently, blow the gate wide open and roll in, dump soldiers via APCs and systematically go through the buildings with EW commandoes to check who was a civilian and who was a pirate. What she expected from the psychology advisory from Orlo was the pirates would run to their ships and attempt to leave, abandoning the city and just hiding out in the ocean or a secret harbor somewhere else while fighting with ballistae and maybe some mana cannons. The fleet would put an end to that very quickly.

Hrist walked up in her armor and sat down next to her. "Ready for your first command?" Selene asked. The maiden sighed and nodded.

"This will be my first chance to prove I am worthy of being your General. I will not let you down." The empress chuckled and patted her on the shoulder. Hrist visibly straightened at the touch and blushed.

"Most of the work is being done already from the planning stage. Now, we sit back and watch how well the army does claiming the city." Selene furrowed her eyebrows. "Why are you so tense? Shoulder pain?" she asked as she removed her hand from the Valkyrja's shoulder.

"What? No, just… erm… nothing, do not worry about it." The dev shrugged and gazed out at the dark two miles ahead of her. All lights were turned off nearby beyond the space heater above them. Although normally November wouldn't be that cold, they were a decent way North, with the harbor city practically right in the middle. While there was no ice to worry about or snow due to still being fall, temperatures would drop slowly in the coming weeks. "Did you inspect your ships?"

"Yeah, they're everything I need right now to balance out the combined arms military. Already have one Destroyer in production." Hrist seemed surprised, as she didn't really have any knowledge yet on the new hull classification system Selene was going to use above her head.

"This 'Destroyer,' it is a formidable warship?"

"Yeah, well, I guess. From what I've seen before in vid… um, from what I'm seen before, not the most powerful. Compared to any other ship in the water right now, it could be considered a dreadnought." The raven-haired maiden waggled her eyebrows for a split second as she blinked. Now the Clockwork Empire had control of the land, air and sea, or it would once the city was under their control.

"Ma'am, last ship taken control of, hostages are being offloaded." The report from Charlie team gave her relief. Now they just needed to worry about the people still stuck in Sweet Water.

"Copy that. Main army is ready. Let us know once you've moved a safe distance." Hrist opened a thermos and poured some hot chocolate for herself and for Selene. The Valkyrja was getting used to the sweets available. Skuld and Brynhildr walked up and sat down next to them, pouring themselves some warm beverages.

"Have we missed the big event yet? I don't see any explosions" Bryn asked as she pulled a small cookie and dipped it in her mug. Selene really thought it felt like they were just enjoying themselves as she already knew there were dead pirates on those ships.

"Not yet, it's just about to start. Just need word from the special forces teams" the empress replied.

"We could probably go in there ourselves, save the whole city."

"Except that could cost more lives than just pirates. Sweeping the area carefully and pulling civilians away to safety is the main goal." Brynhildr nodded her head, conceding to the reason. The Valkyrja were battle maidens, they didn't just want to sit around when there were things to be done. However, they were making changes to their lives, living it for themselves and not for the Norse pantheon. They just wanted to make sure their skills and strengths were put to good use.

(Recommended Song: FreQuency – V)

"We are clear, ready for the party to start" Jorge reported as Selene held her breath for a moment and looked at Hrist, nodding. All the maiden had to do was give the order for her empress. The raven-haired woman looked at her sisters as they nodded to her in support. Snipers took beads on heads as tanks prepared to go full throttle towards the gate, with six of them targeting the giant bolts and pivot points to smash through. Artillery was lined up and tracking, with fighters about to dive in. The fleet above as well as the water pulled in a little closer for support. Soldiers piled into APCs as the doors closed up and got ready for a dash through the soon to be blown up front entrance. There were even paratroopers ready to drop in.

Hrist looked at Selene gave her a reassuring smile. "Go."

The first few rounds thundered off as the shells slammed into the ships from the Frigates, the tanks rolling into full speed and knocking out the gate almost instantly. Snipers performed a synchronized shot across all towers, killing all pirates ready to set off alarms at the same time. The tanks rolled through the shambles of the entrance and fired coaxial machineguns and pin point lasers as the APCs behind them rolled in and dropped their bay doors, with automatons jumping out and kicking down doors, aiming their rifles in a complete sweep as ECM troops came up behind and checked for any pirates hiding out amongst the people.

They were absurdly efficient, moving from floor to floor, building portable checkpoints for civilians to be herded towards as not one single fire was started from the siege.

Completely different from what you would see from a pirate movie. Usually some of the buildings were burning down.

The Valkyrja were very surprised at just how frighteningly effective the automatons were, moving from building to building and cleaning them out. The whole siege couldn't have lasted more than ten minutes tops, if that. "Your automatons are… very… proficient…" Skuld commented as she tried to find the words while watching from afar. The only time they had seen them fight was when they were breaching the Artinian fort before, which made them feel like a fifth wheel. A drone fighter flew over the city and performed a clean strafe run, wiping out a line of pirates trying to make a mad dash to a dingy, the main ships already sunk.

Selene brought up a small display showing what some of the military teams were doing inside, with one soldier kicking a pirate through a wall and flying out the other side. The pirates were scared shitless of the mechanical soldiers taking them out, showing no mercy and only allowing the ones that immediately surrendered without a fight to live, handcuffs placed on them as they were dragged to one building now secured as a temporary jail. One scene was of a pirate attempting to ambush a soldier, but it quickly rifle butted his face after dodging and double tapped after. Why it allowed the pirate to attack so close without shooting through the wall he was hiding behind they had no idea, probably because it considered him easily dispatchable.

"Reports are coming in, almost no loss of civilian life. Very few if any were trampled or killed by pirates in attempt to get human shields. We did good" the empress told them with satisfaction in her voice. Hrist let out a breath she didn't know she was holding, with Bryn slapping her on the shoulder and chuckling.

"The plan worked" Skuld said as they watched the city, the sounds of gunfire dying out to almost nothing. They got up and finished the hot chocolate, folding the blankets and got ready to head into the city themselves. Once packed, they flew in and landed, with the mayor waiting with two Mediums flanking him. Hrist stepped out along with her sisters as Selene came up behind them along with her guard. The people behind the mayor were in awe. They had heard a few rumors there was a goddess empress taking over Artinian and free cities, bringing them under her control and providing brand new lives in the utopias she built. While most of those stories were far fetched and exaggerated, some of it had to be true for them.

"I believe you are in charge here?" Selene asked as she stood in front of the little man. He barely reached up to her chest in height as he rubbed his hands together in worry.

"He… uh… that man… I am the mayor, yes… but…" he started to say as he couldn't find the words, his voice a little nasally. The few people that were wounded were quickly healed by auto docs and nurses looking out for them. He looked over his shoulder at a man pushed onto his knees with a slew of tattoos on his arms and grimacing.

"Oh, I see, he was in charge over you before" she replied as she nodded in understanding. The empress walked over to the man as he swore and yelled at the automatons holding him down and pulled her sidearm, aimed, and fired. She had just executed the pirate lord of the city in front of everyone. A few people screamed at the gunfire in shock. The dev walked back over to the mayor and holstered the weapon.

"Not anymore he isn't. This is now my city. I am Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire. You are all now my subjects, taken away from being used like animals by pirates and treated like trash by Artinia. For the privateers that surrendered, I offer a chance to change your employment quickly or face the consequences. To others, if you had family held captive on those ships, they are being returned shortly without harm." Security teams were quick behind the military, setting up auto turrets and having ornithopters swoop in to track the streets. Dredging submarines were already working alongside the Corvettes to pull the wreckage of sunken ships out of the harbor to a waiting recycler platform.

"Ub… bu… of course… uh, your majesty, yes of course. Um… we uh… we… welcome your rule?" the mayor asked as he tilted his head up at her while hunching over. He stopped immediately as he realized she might be just like King Teiyan and averted his gaze from her gold polished armor.

"Ma'am, Orlo believes there is a dungeon in the city for prisoners by the looks of his scans. There may be some miscreants even the pirates didn't like around" Jorge reported over coms.

"How many?" she asked.

"Roughly about a dozen, not a large amount." She thought for a second as the mayor stumbled through his happy speech that she was taking over and that her reign be as long as possible, trying to kiss up any way he could.

"See to your citizens and make sure they are taken back to their homes. I'll have the bodies removed from the streets. There will be changes happening here, for the better I can assure you. If any of the buildings are too damaged, we can provide temporary living accommodations until repairs are complete." The mayor nodded in acknowledgement, his head rapidly moving up and down.

"Yes, yes of course, hehehuahua… yes…" he made a weird noise as if he was trying to speak a few words mixed together and laugh at the same time, his hands rubbing together. The mayor ran towards his people and waved his hands around, explaining to the civilians they could go back to their homes, no one was going to harm them and that they were now citizens of the Clockwork Empire. Whispering could be heard as people talked to each other wondering if it was really true, that the stories had finally become real. Apparently, Selene was a bit of a legend spoken under breath by the people. However, she was until now just considered that, a legend.

"That little man kind of gives me the creeps…" Selene whispered to Hrist who nodded in agreement. He was odd, quite odd. They had no idea why he was the mayor of the city. It almost felt as if he was undressing her with his eyes, making her shiver in disgust. "I'm heading to the dungeon, give me the coordinates and meet me there" she said via coms to Jorge.

"Copy that, sending coordinates now" he replied as a marker showed up on her Hud. It was incredible that she didn't need any electronics or Augmented Reality visors to see the marker, it just showed up when required in her eyes. They started walking away from the spot and headed through the city to the water line as the city folk stared at her in awe.

"Why are you seeing prisoners?" Hrist asked as they continued on.

"Going to see if any of them are good upstanding folk who just had a run in with the pirates and didn't concede to their leadership."

"But aren't they criminals?" The maiden countered.

"Politics sometimes play more of a role than you think they do Hrist; if they don't like someone, regardless of what they did or didn't do, they might have been dropped in a cell to die. It happens sadly." The Valkyrja were surprised mortals would do that to each other without proper cause, only to further their own agenda.

I'm going to have to build a prison eventually, there's just no way around it. Some people can be redeemed, while others the death penalty is the only way. I'm not about to make it seem like tax money is going to take care of serial killers, but it could go to help rehabilitate minor thieves just trying to survive in a cruel world. Oy… I just remembered this place probably has a red-light district… that's going to need some monitoring and laws to get under control… probably medical… it's oldest job in history after all…

They finally reached the entrance to the dungeon and opened the double doors. The winding stairs twisted downwards as they went underground a good five floors before they reached the iron wrought gate that Jorge ripped off the hinges. As Selene walked up and down the cells to observe the people there, two stuck out, a few of the others might be just political prisoners. One of the others seemed to be looking worse for wear, needing medical attention. One was a woman leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest, her ragged hairstyle and fiery red hair and dirt on her face seeming to run through it told her that one wasn't going to be nice. Her clothes seemed like she knew how to fight, with what looked like a small spot for a cutlass now removed. Her gut was telling her trouble was behind that cell door.

The second one was a man, or she thought was a man, laying down on his metal bed that was chained to the wall, his body rolled to face the wall, a ragged blanket wrapped around himself. He didn't even move given the sounds of explosions outside, just continued as if it was just another night. His haircut seemed familiar to her, as if she had seen it before…

Selene grabbed the cell gate and slowly pulled with one hand, her own strength already bending the metal and prying it open. She didn't need her troops or Hrist to open anything for her with the armor as well as her psionics, no consumables needed. As she slowly entered and looked down at the man, he spoke.

"If you're going to end me, do it quickly, I'm tired." That voice was the same voice as the General who sold her Asterion.

"General?" she asked softly as she peered at him curiously. He rolled a little and looked up at her. His mustache was unmistakable, if quite overgrown with a rough beard now.

"You… I sold you… Asterion…" he almost whispered out. "Wha... what… w-what are you doing here?" he asked as he slowly sat up with her backing up a little to give him room.

"I'm Empress Selene of the Clockwork Empire. I've taken over Sweet Water Harbor as of tonight. There isn't a single pirate left alive in this city."

"I find that hard to believe!" they both heard from the woman in the other cell as she laughed and stopped leaning against the wall, proceeding to lie down on her metal bed and look up at the ceiling. Selene glanced at the wall that sealed the cell off from her, then back at the General.

"Empress? You're an empress?" he asked as he furrowed his brow and squinted his eyes in confusion.

"Yeah. Long story. I… I kept my promise. Aster isn't exactly a horse anymore though…" she replied as she scratched her chin and looked away from him. The General looked over her shoulder at Hrist and the metal man standing behind her, massive in size. Jorge could easily break through every wall in the dungeon without a single issue.

"Is… Aster here?" he asked quietly.

"Um, Aster is a Pegasus now, and no, he's back at the castle. He's the mount of my General, Hrist who is standing right behind me." She motioned towards the Valkyrja as she stepped forward in her armor.

"Aster… a Pegasus?"

"He is well taken care of, a noble steed and one of the fastest Pegasus I have had the honor to fly with" Hrist told him as she looked down at his sitting and feeble form.

"But… how?"

"Hrist is a Valkyrja, a bringer of the slain. She provided Aster the gift of becoming a Pegasus. Now, he has wings and flies faster than most creatures in the skies. I doubt a gryphon could come close to him" the empress told him. He half chuckled and stopped, then looked between both women and continued in full laughter.

"He really? He's a Pegasus now? Oh, my friend, you have risen to the task haven't you…" he gazed at Selene and smiled. "It is good to know he is happy with his new owner, an empress no less."

"Well, he is living a good life, which is more than I can see from you right now. What the hell happened? I thought you paid to get on a ship and leave the continent? You were supposed to be on some other land retired. By the way… what is your name? I feel like calling you General is a little odd given there are two in this cell right now." He chuckled a little from that.

"My full name is Antoine Falksworthy, I forgot you never asked me that before when we first met. As for what happened… they took the gold bars and knocked me out, captured me and sold me to the pirates here. Apparently, I had cost quite a few of them friends on land when they tried to smuggle, so they made me fight in arenas for money. I've survived up until now, but I was about to give up. A miracle you showed up… unless… you are here to end my suffering?" he asked.

"What? Oh, hell no, of course not! I wouldn't do that. You're one of the few people I've seen with honor and a conscience. Definitely better than Artinia by a long shot." He scratched at his dirty cheek and smiled at that compliment.

"Thank you, but it's not as if the compliment will change what Artinia is." Selene looked over her shoulder for a moment at Hrist and smirked.

"I have something to tell you. We're at war with Artinia right now. We've already taken Eld Horn, Glass Dale and Gold Pine, with just tonight Sweet Water Harbor." Antoine gawked at her for a moment as he glanced at Hrist as if she was talking nonsense.

"You… you're at war with Artinia? Then… you… y-you've taken some of the towns already? But… King Teiyan… he'll send armies to defeat you… he'll send… he'll send those… those creatures… by the gods the princess might be in danger…" he spoke as the words stumbled out of his mouth in a haphazard fashion.

"Slow down, you mean the Halivast fort and the five thousand men sent to attack Gold Pine? That's two armies already wiped out to the man. Ghost's Ashes are also no longer among the living, Artinia's assassin's I believe." Antoine almost jumped back from shock. He looked up at Jorge who was still outside the cell.

"You… I can't believe it… but how? How… your army… is it comprised of… those?" he asked as he pointed at the leader of Bronze Team. She nodded.

"I'm the Clockwork Empress after all. My army is full of automatons… er… metal soldiers." It was the only way to explain the situation to him in a way he'd understand. He nodded slowly as if understanding what she was telling him. "What's this about a princess?" she asked, trying to dig for information. He sighed a gravelly sigh as he then cleared his throat.

"Princess Nia Erelius, one of two sisters to King Teiyan Erelius II. I… I rescued her from the imperial city once Teiyan… he…" Antoine almost couldn't speak as he balled his hand into a fist and slammed it against the bed, making Hrist step forward a second as if to protect her. The empress put her hand up to stop her as he looked to be almost about to cry.

"That mad man bred his older sister all to use her in a ritual, just as his father had once done to a mistress. Once the ritual was complete, he killed her. The problem was the summoning… was not what he wanted… he got the sister, Xaxara, summoned instead…" Selene held her breath as she was dumbfounded by what he was telling her. The king of Artinia was pure evil to do that to his older sister.

"This ritual, it didn't go as planned?" she asked quietly. He nodded as he rubbed his beard and tried to keep the tears from flowing.

"She didn't deserve that… when she gave birth to a daughter, he was outraged as the ritual was already halfway complete. It required a sacrifice, no matter what it was, even if it was his own body. He took out his anger on his sister with an axe, then… he sacrificed the newborn to summon Xaxara."

"Who is Xaxara? And she has a brother?" she asked.

"A demonic goddess that has had her following wane in the past few decades. He much rather would have had her brother who is much more loyal and more… violent… in hopes of using him to quell any uprisings as his enforcer. Xaxara is… deviant, manipulative and has a silver tongue. While her brother is straightforward a warrior and berserker that was worshipped by those who were driven by bloodlust and the fight, she was the embodiment of lust, sorcery and corruption."

So not just a demon, but an evil goddess… oh shit, we might actually have a fight on our hands…

"This goddess, Xaxara, she's helping the fucked-up ruler of Artinia?"

"Against her will, yes. I do not have much information beyond she was chained up with imbued manacles to keep her locked away. That was all I needed to know, especially finding out… Princess Arilane was… was… damn him… damn him to the darkest pits of hell…" he replied.

Or not… very little following plus chained as a caged animal, still probably helping through knowledge or weird magic… definitely need to take this son of a bitch down… Xaxara might still be a threat, but a caged threat. I can deal with that.

"You said there was another princess though? Two in total?" She handed him a handkerchief which he rubbed his eyes with as the tears flowed. He must have cared about the wellbeing of that princess.

"Yes, um… she… when I found out about the ritual, I wasn't about to let him do anything to his younger sister, Lady Nia. I stole her from the palace and secreted her away in Silvinholm with some of my most loyal men guarding her. Last I heard, they had bought an estate to hide her in with some of the stolen treasury while I acted as a decoy. It might have worked, I do not know." His lips trembled as his eyes were red from crying in front of her. A small sniffle escaped as he rubbed the back of the cloth over his nose.

"So, there is hidden royalty? Is she like her brother or…?" Selene asked as she patted him on the shoulder.

"Of course not! They were both… rays of sunshine to all who laid eyes on them. I have no idea how such a vile pedigree could create such incredible women. In all my life, I have seen many a man be evil beyond contempt, barely to the point of sprouting horns from their forehead and snarling like beasts, the same being the line of Erelius. And yet, those two girls… their mother… it must not have traveled down the line of the ladies of the royal line." Selene committed this to memory as much as she could, slowly standing up.

"Are you planning to take Silvinholm?" he asked up at her as she glanced at Hrist.

"Yes, eventually. I'm trying to wrap the empire first beyond the Azaltos Mountains and down South. It might take awhile as each time we take a town or city we make sure the citizens are safe and secure, ready to be a part of my empire." He nodded in understanding.

"I can tell just by looking at you that you have what it takes that the Erelius line could never hope to be. Those… explosions… that was done by these metal men? Will that be done to Silvinholm?" he asked.

"Possibly. We have to take out the Artinian army stationed there. Any information you can provide? Any knowledge you'd be willing to share?" she asked him. He grabbed her hands and held them, with Hrist instinctively twitching and about to strike.

"Please, try and be diplomatic with them. Silvinholm is not what you expect of an Artinian city. The nobles, at least not all of them, they aren't completely connected to King Teiyan. They want a productive city to make more money, which is to say they don't always want slave labor. Well paid workers are hard workers in their eyes, at least most of them. It keeps the economy moving if they have money to spend, making the city productive. Some of them… I care not what you do those wretches, but please at least talk with them, they may join you without a single fight. Also, there is no army there."

"Ok, I'll try talking with them, but what do you mean no army? No guards or anything?"

"I mean to say they are mercenaries hired by the nobles to keep the peace. Crime is bad for business, so they hire their own city guards to control their sections. I am unsure how effective they are at their jobs though… there might be some criminal actions by the mercenaries themselves…" Falksworthy licked his lips as she motioned for Ethan to open a thermos and pour him a cup of clean water. He walked into the cell and handed it to him, who drank it quickly.

"Please… I know I have no right to ask of this, but would you do an old man a favor and check on the princess? I beseech you to look out for her, as I barely could do." Selene opened her mouth to say something, but nothing escaped, just a soft sigh.

"I'll… I've never seen her before, who would I be looking for? And aren't your soldiers looking out for her? She's… probably fine, I'm sure of it."

"Teiyan would not stop if he doesn't get what he wants. If even one hint appears for him to find, he will have his men investigate… her life could be in danger. Please, if you are heading to Silvinholm, he'll send some of his forces to look into rumors and intelligence" he begged her. She looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. He was right, if they did anything, that put more pressure on the security force for the princess.

"Fine, how old is she, what does she look like. We'll check up on her, do a little reconnaissance, I can't guarantee we'll do anything, but we'll see about what's happening." He clenched his fist in accomplishment.

"Thank you, your majesty, I am so very grateful. She is no more than fifteen, with long blonde hair. She… tends to keep it in two long ponytails on the sides with blue bows, it's her favorite color. She tends to… she is quite meek given the state of the royal family. The estate… I…" he stopped as he tried to figure out what it looked like. "I'm sorry, I… I only know she is being protected in an estate they bought."

"Well, that's not a huge amount to go off of. The city is a big place and she's probably cooped up in the house… is there a symbol your men use, like a tattoo or something we can look for?" she asked as she crossed her arms over her ample chest. He pulled up the worn sleeve of his dirty shirt and showed her a tattoo on his wrist of a helmet with a sword on the back, two arrows and a shield half covering the helmet.

Yup, tattoo. So if some assassins come from Artinia looking for her, all they gotta do is look for the dudes with that on their arms. USE RINGS! AMULETS! SOMETHING YOU CAN TAKE OFF!

"If you see this, they are from the 12th Legion, my best soldiers. No one could best them in combat."

Antoine, you haven't seen what my automatons can do, let alone myself or the Valkyrja…

"Alright, we'll try and keep a lookout for them and track their movements. I cannot guarantee anything will come of it, but we'll do our best, alright?" he smiled up at her as his eyes sparkled.

"Bless you your majesty, bless you for humoring an old General and for taking care of his friend. I cannot thank you enough." The empress furrowed her brow with a small smirk crawling on her mouth.

"You were a General, so you must have experience in many battles like you had told me, right? The stories of your accomplishments in the tavern?" she asked. He looked a little confused.

"Yes, I mean, those are old war stories. Do you want to hear them again?"

"No, I mean, you have experience, real experience." He leaned back on the metal bed, trying to figure out what she was getting at.

"I'm no longer meant to be a General your majesty, there is no point in asking me if that is what you are thinking. I'm… I'm tired of fighting now, tired of seeing armies rush towards each other with weapons ready…" he told her as he sounded exhausted.

"I wasn't thinking of you being my General, I have two already, very fine Generals behind me, another just above us on the docks. I was going to ask if you could share your experiences as an instructor, in hopes that those students would turn away from following down that corrupt path. One of my Valkyrja is the head mistress of an Academy, we're looking for new instructors, teachers and professors of all arts, martial or otherwise. You would be a great boon to the next generation, I'll pay handsomely." He gawked as she told him this, looked at Hrist and blinked.

"You… you want me to… I… I don't know how much it would be worth, my experience, my training… there are many who could prove better at instilling common sense and teaching than me…"

"If there is one thing I've noticed, common sense isn't so common. How about it? Get you out of this cell and into a classroom with students willing to learn what not to do, how to act and stand tall, to right the wrongs they see? It's a good life, you'll be well taken care of, colleagues to talk to that are like minded, and you won't be considered a traitor in my empire" she asked. Silence consumed the cell for a minute as he thought and pulled on his mustache a little. A light chuckle escaped his lips as he gazed into her blue eyes.

"You have yourself a deal, your majesty." He slowly got off the bed and kneeled in front of her.

"You trust him?" Hrist asked.

"Yes, I got Asterion from him after all." She patted him gently on the shoulder to rise. He stood up and saluted her with his hand on his chest like lightning, showing his conviction and how he thought of her already. Ethan escorted him out of the cell with a clean blanket around his shoulders. The maiden watched as he walked out of the cell and slowly down the dungeon hallway. That man was the reason Aster was the way he was, why he was such an incredible steed.

"Perhaps it would be wise to let him see his old friend once more?" Hrist asked.

"Yeah, probably a good idea. Seeing him cry for a different reason would be alright." Selene walked out of the cell and stood in front of the one with the red-haired woman. The supposed criminal looked up at her from her bed and rolled over. The dev wrapped her fingers around the cell door and slowly pulled, the lock groaning and breaking open finally, startling the woman as she stared in awe.

"D… don't believe for even a second this means I'm a part of your empire! I'll never submit!" she snapped. Selene sighed and shook her head. As the woman had spoken, she was missing a few of her side teeth. In a world of magic that could heal, that seemed a little odd. There were probably no magicians or wizards that were in the city at all.

"Jorge, open the other cell doors and get an EW trooper in here to check on their loyalties. Any really nasty-" The woman in front of her rushed forward with a concealed shiv to attempt to stab at her. Before Hrist could even respond, Selene's hand shot out and snapped her wrist, grabbed her neck and twisted. It seemed so fluid as the woman just dangled there in her grip before being dropped on the ground.

"As I was saying, see to it that there aren't any other psychos in here, then get the ones that aren't back topside. I wanna know if there are any political prisoners here that we can get some intelligence off of. Orlo can help with that." Jorge acknowledged as she stepped out of the cell and went back upstairs away from the grungy dungeon.

"You knew she was going to attack you" Hrist stated as she followed behind her.

"Yup. I could pretty much tell she was put in there for a reason. Her clothes looked to have plenty of hidden pockets, so I assumed assassin or serial killer, maybe kleptomaniac. That's probably why she was there in the first place, probably killed someone that the pirates liked." They both continued up as Brynhildr stood on a dock and surveyed the harbor. There were multiple berths everywhere for large ships, but almost none of them could fit more than a Corvette from Selene's fleet. "This place is going to need a lot of work…" she sighed out as her eyes saw just how ramshackle the houses were. One strong storm and a good portion would collapse, some sitting on top of each other with stilts. There were ladders everywhere, with only a few roads. "Place should be ripped down and built back up, this is just… sheesh…"

Skuld jumped down from a building and landed safely just as the ceiling she was standing on collapsed. "How can these people decide to live here?" Hrist asked.

"Simple, good fishing, the populace built up too quick before they could get real housing ready. Probably not a whole lot of resources to gather due to no forests nearby to cut down, can't mine the mountains for stone as it looks like it could collapse down on them." The empress looked at the sheer facings of the mountains flanking and curving around the harbor. It wasn't a smooth cut out, but the whole place looked as if a meteor had struck a long time ago to create the crater, the water filling in after.

The dev ordered a helibot to pick up Antoine and bring him to the palace temporarily so she, and Skuld, could explain what would be needed from him at the academy and to allow him to rest in a guest room, be a little pampered for a bit. "Seriously, few roads, ladders everywhere… this has got to be fixed…" She headed towards the front of the city to the destroyed gate entrance and stopped. The citizens were watching her as they were being tended to by auto docs and counted, their information recorded for job documentation, experience and where their home was.

That was when she used Molecular Reformation to rip apart a healthy chunk of the nearby "city block" and built up the starting foundation of a wooden apartment complex. The people watched in awe at her power as the previous homes were destroyed, barely considered huts, and turned into real places to live in. At first there were a few people that were scared as she was destroying some of their homes, but then saw the new living conditions she had built to replace it.

That was when the praying started.

"This gets old quick, but I honestly don't give a fuck anymore…" Selene grumbled out as she stared at the stars with her mouth agape in annoyance. Too many people thought she was a goddess, probably prayed to her secretly behind her back anyways, and more than likely held mass with an idol in her image. "Juliet, please tell me you aren't busy somewhere else" she asked over coms to her head of construction.

"I'm here ma'am, I believe we just finished with the railroad to Eld Horn, do you need us to come to Sweet Water?" the automaton asked.

"Yes please. I'm almost positive you will hate this place. Sorry."

"That bad? What am I looking at fixing?"

"The whole damned city. I'm seriously not joking." Juliet sounded as if she was sucking air through imaginary teeth.

"Ooh, that bad huh?"

"Yes. Mind the people praying in the streets… see about getting a church built to get them out of the way…" the dev grumbled out in her head.

"Will do ma'am. Will be there in a little bit." The coms swapped to Romeo to request he get to building the shipyard here. Both Romeo and Juliet would work on mining out a large tunnel between the cove and the harbor to transfer supplies and provide quick access back and forth through the Azaltos Mountains.

"We're currently building a FOB after clearing the ruins of Halivast Fort. Do you want us to stop and come over right now?" Romeo asked. Selene took a deep breath and thought for a moment.

"No, finish the FOB and then prioritize the shipyard after. It'll give Juliet a chance to get the residential districts rebuilt and lay the ground lines."

"Understood, we'll head over as soon as we've finished up here." The coms ended as she watched the water calming down with her own fleet staying at a decent distance from the inner harbor. Having a FOB near Eld Horn would allow QRFs to move along the mountain range and protect both Sweet Water and Eld Horn, despite both having their own security forces. She couldn't be too careful, couldn't be to protective.

"Alright, we're done here until tomorrow. I'm gonna hate this, but I'll meet with the mayor again and hash out the laws and rules, taxes and requirements." The empress walked to the waiting helibot and got in, with Hrist and her Honor Guard in tow. Skuld and Brynhildr came in just as it was about to lift off, the doors popping open temporarily as they strapped in. The more religious of the people watched it ascend and leave, still praying as the helibot continued over the mountain range and headed back to the castle, the air fleet right behind them. Despite being able to land on Majesty's Grace and having it do a short teleport jump, she needed the time to think while they flew. The whole trip took an hour and a half.

This would be the farthest she was willing to use a helibot from now on, excluding the assault on the Ghost's Ashes fort before. If the trip took more than two hours, the air fleet would be a layaway station to go to.

"I'm going to have to go to Silvinholm it seems…" she muttered out as Hrist gazed at her.

"I'll go with you" the battle maiden replied.

"No, I need you to continue taking Puldoros Orchards and Werelosil Town. We need that fruit for Eld Horn, and Werelosil… I found out from Giles they breed horses." Hrist was about to object, but Selene put up an open hand.

"Hrist, you're my General. I trust you to take control of the situation without me being there. I can handle things on my own in Silvinholm, please… trust me. I'm just going to go scout around a little, nothing fancy. I'll be back before you know it. I won't start anything, just get names of nobility, their houses and check the market. I might be able to find the Estate the princess is hiding away in." Brynhildr looked at her.

"You could check on the adventurer's guild there as well, see how strong the people really are in Artinia." Selene wore a facial shrug as she nodded in agreement.

"That might be a good idea, I could get a feel for how strong they really are. So far, we've been fighting le… er… um… low strength, weak soldiers that prey on the people. There might be a chance in how those adventurers treat people, given they have to take quests." The whole visit wouldn't be for a few days, as she wanted to make sure Sweet Water was up and running as part of the empire and give her a chance to get a decent disguise ready. It also would allow her to finally finish crafting Epic quality tier armor.

"Take Bronze Team at least with you, or… Bryn, go with her" Hrist said as she pointed towards the empress. Selene chuckled at her worrying about her safety. She really cared about her wellbeing.

"Fine, fine, Bryn, you want to come with me? Could see what the market has to offer, maybe pick up some recipes for liquor along the way." The blonde-haired woman crossed her arms over her chest and nodded.

"I'd be happy to. We'll see just how impressive this trade city is supposed to be" Bryn laughed out. The blond-haired woman was actually a pleasure to be around, very social. The dev nodded and worked on her plan. Hrist was annoyed she couldn't go with her, but duty called, and she was going to obey, begrudgingly. Skuld now had a new instructor to help at the academy, probably with some knowledge of who else to bring into the fold as well. He might have some Lieutenants or Sergeants to help with the course work, maybe know some wizards or magicians to teach basic magic, even some sages. Not everyone in power was as corrupt as the nobility, there had to be plenty of people that were decent folk just trying to live their lives.

"Hrist, try not to damage the ranches or stables too much in Werelosil. We need more Pegasus" the empress said with a coy smile. The maiden closed her eyes and nodded.

"I have to make sure my sisters finally have mounts. This will be a defining moment. I will inspect them carefully Bryn, you have my word." While they talked about the next few steps in front of them, Selene checked her research and spells to be learned. She finally got [Pocket Dimension] as one of the spells, creating a temporary or even a permanent place to hide in. If it was permanent, she could store a building or even an entire army to suddenly pop into existence at will or stay in herself instead of being on her flagship. Her capability to be anywhere now and not worry about heading directly to the castle or Majesty's Grace helped quite a bit, with absolutely no need to attempt to stay at an inn near Silvinholm. In the future it probably would be a good idea to build some mansions in Sweet Water, probably Silvinholm once it was under her control.

The future seemed to be coming towards her at an ever-increasing speed as more and more of the land was brought under her rule. The only thing she felt like she was going to have to tackle was the religion that was definitely building around her. There would have to be laws set in place so they don't attempt sacrifices or harm those who do not have the same faith. Wars had been fought on Earth over religions, she didn't want the same to be done in her empire.

Tier 4 armor anti-magic film had finished being researched, causing most tier 4 Yggdrasil magic to simply not work once fired at herself or automatons. It might be possible to create an anti-magic field emitter for AOE immunity, fizzling out spells before they could even be cast, a "lockdown" emitter as it were. Class 2 shields were also completed, being able to stand up to tank shells without much issue.

The way the shielding system worked wasn't like what was seen in sci fi, there was no percentage of damage before the fields would collapse. The shield either protected against the damage or it didn't, with bleed through only happening due to stronger attacks pushing through the field. Class 1 could stop small arms, with the new class allowing heavy arms to be protected against such as vehicles or mounted weapons. Class 3 would probably stop anything that was not a higher-powered weapon, such as a laser or railgun. Given no one on the planet had them besides her, it was a sure bet the Class 3 shields would stop just about anything. That wouldn't stop her from researching higher class levels or stronger defenses, however. The class of shields seemed to go up to at least ten, maybe even higher.

The helibot landed with the ladies climbing out and walking to the palace entrance. As they headed in and went to the dining room for a late dinner, Hrist stopped Selene for a second.

"If you are going to Silvinholm, you should… we… we should spar tomorrow. You have no idea if someone might come up behind you and all you have been doing is exercising." The dev chuckled and rolled her eyes.

"Bryn will be with me to watch my back. But, yeah, sure, we'll spar tomorrow. I uh… with or without armor?" she asked. Hrist cocked her head back a little.

"Without armor normally, that is what sparring usually entails. Do you want to do it with armor on?" The empress nodded in understanding and looked away.

Hopefully the enhancement of my muscles and speed via psionics is going to be enough to keep up with her without armor… crap, I better sneak in some potions and elixirs to be on the safe side…

"Right, of course… no armor… like it normally is… heh heh…" they continued into the dining room to eat a late dinner. Selene was a little worried, but it wasn't as if Hrist wouldn't hold back, as it wasn't a battle to the death this time. She'd be too afraid of really hurting her empress now.

Meanwhile

A man ran through the streets wearing a hooded cloak, checking completely around him and peering at shadows suspiciously as he made his way through twisted passageway of Silvinholm. As he reached one door to a large estate that looked to be an old townhouse, he knocked on the door in a certain pattern. The eye slot opened as another man on the other side looked at him. The slot closed as the door opened, with the hooded figure entering and taking off his backpack then removing his cloak.

"I bought as much as I could get under short notice, sorry" he said as he opened the bag and pulled out vegetables.

"You did good lad. The princess will be fine with that" the door man responded as he looked over the ingredients he brought, his bald head gleaming from the lamp just above his head. The bag man picked up the backpack and brought it to the kitchen where a young woman, barely mid-teens, stood at a pot stirring. Her long golden blonde hair flowed down her back with two draping ponytails with blue bows holding them up to accentuate. Her clothes, while elegant, weren't as royal as it should have been.

"Your highness, I brought the things you requested" he said as he put the pack on the counter and started to unload it.

"Ah, u-um, Gilford, t-thank you. This… t-this should do nicely" she stuttered out in a timid and meek voice. The young man smiled bashfully as he pulled out the last of the vegetables and picked up a knife to help chop them up. Gilford had been a Lieutenant in the 12th Legion, barely reaching that rank not because of his combat skill, but because he was just really good at logistics and memorizing things. General Antoine Falksworthy had given the rank himself. He was also very loyal, albeit known to have a crush on the princess.

"T-thank you for helping me… um… get the stew ready" she said as he nodded.

"It is my pleasure my lady, I'm happy to serve in any way I can." The fact the princess was cooking meant they didn't have a chef available, hiding as they were. Silvinholm was the only place they felt they could disappear, despite having to be careful if anyone saw her. The princess, even though she wasn't a prisoner, was held captive in the house, never allowed outside as someone would recognize her. The mansion would be her jail cell, pretty as it was, like a gilded cage.

Once the stew was prepared, twenty men and two women, one of which was a magician with the second being another guard, sat down with her at the head of the table in the dining room, including Gilford. They waited for the commander, Ralos Alfinteim, to test the food and make sure there wasn't anything that could hurt the princess. She was the one who cooked it, but there was no guarantee the ingredients weren't poisoned beforehand. Once he deemed it worthy, Nia took the first bite before the others started eating.

"Gilford, I need to have a quick word with you for a moment" Ralos said over the table as Gilford looked up from his stew. He felt as if he might have done something wrong.

"Yes sir." They both excused themselves from the table temporarily as the men left the room.

"Did you see anyone follow you?" the commander asked as he leaned against the wall.

"I checked very carefully, no one was nearby. Is something the matter sir?" Gilford asked quietly. Ralos looked into the dining room at the princess, at his men for a moment and licked his lips to wet them then sighed.

"I've gotten word that the king's men are searching for her. There's no guarantee they won't find this place, we need to be ready soon if we are to get her out of here." Gil gawked at his commander as if he never expected this to happen.

"I thought the main army never entered Silvinholm, there was no need with all the mercenaries about."

"Lieutenant, do you not realize they might be under disguise?" Ralos said through gritted teeth. "The market shop keeps might be them for all we know! We may… may need to get her out of the city eventually, it's no longer safe here. It might be possible the nobility has caught wind of her hiding away and come in hopes of receiving some sort of reward."

"Where could we go? None of the towns would have a place to hide her, and we cannot trust the nobility, there is no way we could get her away without someone noticing sir." Commander Alfinteim looked into the dining room again and saw the princess laugh at something one of the guards said to cheer her up. Her smile brightened up the room instantly.

"Given a week's time, we'll be ready. I'm pretty sure we can get a stage coach, that should get us away in the dead of night. Once out of the city we'll… we'll… there's a rumor, I do not know if it's true but… there is an empire in the West that has taken many a town so far from Artinia, treats the people well. I do not know if it is true, but it's the only choice."

"One week's time? Are you sure sir?"

"It's our only option. If he captures her, if the king gets his hands on his younger sister… we will have failed our General."

"Only if we get caught" a voice was heard behind them as a woman with a pink frayed and messy bob cut hairstyle walked down the stairs from the second floor, wearing a white poet shirt and brazier combined with brown leather pants and black leather boots laced up. A cutlass was hanging from her waist with a dagger on the brown leather belt with multiple pouches attached. As she came into full view, her pink hair could be seen with three stripes of her bangs colored red, two hanging from the back of her head blue, and to the side of her right ear one stripe of green. Her eyes shown emerald green as she walked up to the men, the glint of her three earrings in both ears popping from the light above her.

"Erilyn, don't do that" Ralos snapped quietly.

"I thought we were all supposed to be hiding? Can't I step out of the shadows once in a while?" she asked with a smirk on her red lips.

"Admiral" Gilford stated as he saluted.

"My father was an Admiral Gil, I'm just a glorified privateer now that my name is cast as a traitor."

"Yet you hold the title under her highness's power. There's no discussing it anymore. Now, how much did you just overhear?" Ralos said.

"Enough to know we need to leave. You really think we'll be able to get Lady Nia out of here without anyone spotting us?"

"It's the only way to keep her safe."

"Or, you could wait until I have a chance to check with some friends of mine to secret her away through the underground tunnels." Ralos and Gilford looked at each other.

"Those are just fairy tales, they don't really exist" Ralos quipped.

"Says someone who hasn't seen them. I myself have only found entrances, never really mapped them out so I can't say for sure what I found. However… it is much safer than going by road." The commander looked at the ground and sniffed with his hands on his hips.

"How long?" he asked.

"Give me two weeks and they'll have everything prepared I pretty sure. I just have to get in contact."

"Two weeks? We could be dead by then! And you know they're trustworthy? This is the princess after all, they might backstab us."

"If you travel by road, the guards at the gates certainly will do that for a reward immediately. The choice is obviously yours given you are in charge of her protection." Ralos glanced at Gilford and sighed.

"Alright… for her highness's safety, we'll… do it. Make sure they only know we are being smuggled out, not who they are smuggling out."

"You don't give me enough credit Ralos, this isn't the first time I've had to do this. Hell, I remember the first time was in a crate, I was naked with two-"

"We don't need the details. Just see if these friends of yours can help us." Erilyn smiled. She had just as much to lose as they did. She was also the only one who knew how to command a ship or work the sails in their group.

Fate seemed to be twisting in odd ways, some for the better, some for the worse. Only time would tell if it was for the worse for these people.