Halls of Ivory
Chapter 16 - Call to Arms
When the destroyers - creatures made of molten rock in service of Primordus, the elder dragon of fire - awoke and swarmed the many cave systems deep beneath the ground, they drove away many creatures that once lived there. Including among others, the Asura. They were short gremlins with sickly-looking pale skin, floppy ears, sharp teeth and grotesquely large eyes. Counter to the feral or dishevelled impression their appearance gave, the Asura were civilized and pacifistic to an extreme degree.
Not long after fleeing to the surface and encountering humans, they earned a themselves reputation of being selfish cowards by running away from all adversity and relying on other races to fend off their own enemies. At best, they would create golems - large automated constructions powered by arcane magic not channelled by a spellcaster but fed through batteries placed within - that would take care of combat and manual labor in their stead.
The Asura worshiped a concept that described nothing short of the fabric of reality itself, which they referred to by 'the Great Alchemy'. Their worship of the 'great alchemy' consisted of studying all the facets of magic and the laws of physics, which was why they possessed a degree of knowledge and technological sophistication far beyond all other races. When others didn't go much further than the use of gunpowder, the Asura could fashion devices capable of teleportation, turrets and cannons that fired blasts of arcane magic, bolts of electricity or both, control systems for anything from doors to floating platforms and all of it automated so that anyone around them could focus on other tasks.
And unlike what unfamiliar humans might assume, they felt no obligation to share any of it with the rest of Tyria. Most didn't even believe they could, their assumption was that humans, Charr and the like weren't even sentient enough to operate any technology they gave them, let alone understand how it worked.
Everyone had taken their time getting a good rest. Because this was the day when they would move out and march upon Divinity's Reach.
The Separatists did their best to encourage the Seraph to do the same, telling them that this day would be a taxing one without telling them what was going on. That part was up to Logan. The Captain of the Seraph took position at the top platform on the path to Minister Aldryn's house. Overlooking one of the broadest streets of the underground city and two branching roads further ahead. The Seraph struggled to even fit into this district, so he had to make do with reaching a sufficient amount of them so that those who heard his announcement could pass it on to the rest.
Logan cleared his throat to begin his long and rehearsed speech. "Men and women of our force. It has been an uncertain time, the last few months. I can't hope to express how grateful I am that you stood by my side all this time and through everything that happened. I'm sure you didn't appreciate being left in the dark on what my plan for the future was. I'd wager many of you even speculated that I was at my wit's end."
"For those who did, there is cause to take heart: During all this time you spent hiding away and holding position to defend these caves, I and the Commander have been working tirelessly with the Separatists to pursue a way to improve our lot in the long run. The decision to keep most of you in the dark on the ins and outs of those efforts was mine. The reason the Shining Blade knew where the entrance to this hideout was located, was that one from our own ranks went turncoat and told them exactly where to find us. I could not risk losing more intel to the enemy like that."
He continued with a wide swiping gesture. "But that secrecy ends today. You deserve the unvarnished truth and now you will hear it: In your absence, Countess Anise' newfound, undisputed power has gotten to her head and turned her into an irredeemable despot. The people freeze and starve in the streets, plagued by overeager soldiers looking to punish anyone who is not in their home at night, even those who cannot afford one. Her assault that many of you have thankfully aided in fending off, proved without a shred of doubt that she is intent on killing every last one of us should she ever get the chance."
"You've seen the kinds of orders she gave us. We couldn't in good conscience keep complying. But refusing them threw us into a bitter and merciless conflict devoid of quarter or compromise. It is possibly the same conflict the Separatists have been party to since their founding - and the same one in which our own forces served as an unwilling pawn of the Shining Blade. If some of you speak to any of the visitors traveling in and out of the city, you may have heard that there was an attack on the palace. That was indeed a strike team that I and the Commander were a part of. Anise lied about the attack, claiming that they had detained the attackers, when in truth every single one of us made it out unscathed. One of many lies sown upon the populace to instil fear."
"Fear of ostracism, fear of social repercussions and moreover fear of the Shining Blade themselves. Critics of her policies are arrested or killed - at an alarming rate. Our people are condemned to isolation within the city walls, forced at gunpoint to accept their status as a second class citizen within their own home country - forced to simply live with seeing their kin face extinction in real time - forced to watch as their loved ones die one way or another. Forced into a life of poverty and then penalized for their poverty. All while those who purport to be their protectors gleefully keep their weapons pointed at them."
"The state of our nation is unsustainable. So for lack of a choice, I have pursued a course I couldn't have even dreamt of in my worst nightmares: We will join forces with the Separatists, as we have in the battle of Brisban Wildlands and launch a full-scale assault on Divinity's Reach. We will pursue open, armed conflict with the Shining Blade and we will - we must - defeat them and retake the city. Completely on our terms, with no room for the Shining Blade to make demands. Anise has been waging open war against us to the best of her ability. We have no choice but to strike back, and now is the time to do so."
"The treaty that started all this has been tried and declared void. The high legions of the Charr have returned to Ascalon, the path to Divinity's Reach is now open and our forces alone outnumber the Shining Blade many times over. We have prepared multiple ways to pass the city walls and the Shining Blade have no way to fend us off in the event of an attack."
"Knowing what you know now, you may ask yourselves why I disclose all this to you, knowing full well that turncoats and spies are a possibility. That is because we don't intend to give them time to make use of this knowledge. The Separatists have been quietly preparing the journey, because we move out today. Not tomorrow, not in a week, but before sunset."
Finally, joined by the Commander and the minister, he gave them some words of encouragement. "There may be questions, there may be doubts, but do you really want to linger here twiddling your thumbs? Do you really want to sit idly by while Anise throws out every value we hold dear, just to indulge her nebulous notions? We are the protectors of Kryta and now that the treaty is void, the lands of Kryta are ours once more! Much of our citizens spent their lives paying their taxes and walking the streets unarmed, because they trusted us to take up arms to defend them!"
Aldryn addressed Logan with a lowered voice. "Your 'rallying spirits for war' game still needs some serious work. It needs a little more bravado. Let me see if a little taunting helps." After that, he stepped forward and spoke to the Seraph. "To those of you who don't know me, I am Minister Therol Aldryn and I speak on behalf of the Separatist movement. I know that many of you have reservations about fighting side by side with us. I can understand that. But remember that we have as much reason to have concerns of our own as you do, but we are willing to put our differences aside in pursuit of a common interest: The well-being of Kryta and its people."
He paused to look at what few faces were close enough for him to read. "Oh goodness, the lack of enthusiasm betrays your reluctance. You can pout and stomp around like children all you want, but the only people you embarrass are yourselves. Remember that we are willing to risk our lives and work with you to save our nation. If you don't swallow your pride and return the gesture, you will have to spend the rest of your lives in shame, knowing that however bad or crooked or immoral you may think we are, we are STILL better than you."
He shrugged. "Please tell me I don't have the right of it. Are you really this pathetic? What would your parents think seeing you like this? What would your grandparents think? What would your ancestors think - the men and women that built the kingdom you were afforded to grow up in - if they saw you now, unwilling to fight to preserve the legacy they left you? Are you truly so self-loathing - so devoid of racial pride, that you would rather cower away in a dark hole than fight for the survival of your people? If you truly think yourselves in the right, then prove me wrong! Prove me wrong before myself and before the citizenry."
"If we have to march out there and take on the Shining Blade ourselves, you will forever be remembered as the cowards who turned tail despite being well-equipped to deal with any threat and better yet, our Separatist movement will be immortalized in the history books as the heroes who rose to the occasion and single-handedly saved our nation from an auto-genocidal despot!"
No word was spoken from below, but the mood of the crowd noticeably changed. The stage was set for Logan to take the reins again. "Abrasive as the minister may be, he does have a point. When the time comes for us to show why the people trust us to protect them, will we go down in history as someone who forsook their duty and left a dying nation to its own devices, or will we go to war and emerge victorious, securing a safe and prosperous home for the coming generations?"
At last, the masses raised their weapons and began to chant. The chants had little direction but their tone spoke of high spirits. It was time to set out.
When the Commander joined Logan and the others outside the caves, he gazed upon the largest army of Separatist insurgents he had ever seen. Now that they all came out of the woodwork, their numbers rivaled those of the Seraph. Since the crowds reached further than he could see, they quite likely outnumbered the Seraph as well. It was no wonder that they were confident that they could overpower the Shining Blade.
And that was not the only surprise. From within the caves, Rytlock and Grell followed him outside and this time, they had the entire Blade warband in tow. Every single one sported a lengthy sniper rifle and they traded any large melee weapons for daggers, so they could more easily carry the boxes of ammunition affixed to straps.
In the distance, the masses of Separatists parted to make way for a small group of Sylvari to come through. They carried large bags of seeds and various fruits and brought with them several lines of treants, large, barely sentient wooden creatures that walked on all fours. At their helm of course Leigheara, the founder of their long wilted grove. "Up and ready. We will be able to reinforce any position we can reach."
The minister nodded. "Good, good. That accounts for the Sylvari, the Charr, the…"
"Captain! Captain Thackeray!" Two people - Edobar and Kasmeer Meade forced themselves past the slowly ascending flood of Seraph soldiers. "Captain Thackeray, you've got to help us!"
Logan gestured for them to calm down while the others urged the moving mass of soldiers to make more room around them. "We're running out of time, what's the matter?"
Both were out of it, but Edobar mustered a response. "It's Rolan. We can't find him. He just vanished!"
The mention of Rolan's name drew the minister's immediate attention. "One of the princes is gone?" He stepped right in front of the distraught father. "Tell us everything. What happened?"
"I'm not sure, he had his own room. When the soldiers moved out, I checked on him and he wasn't there. He wasn't at the tables, he just vanished. You had guards posted in every place he could be and he still just disappeared."
"He can't have 'just disappeared' unless he can - wait a minute." His eyes darted over to Edobar's wife. "Lady Meade, weren't you a mesmer?" Upon seeing her nod, the minister rolled his eyes. "By Lyssa's grace, you haven't perchance taught him the tricks of our trade, have you?"
"Yes, but - you wouldn't think.."
"Then the reason he can't be found, is because he doesn't want to be. He's probably cast an illusion upon himself or strategically turns invisible whenever someone who could recognize him is nearby. Listen, Lord and Lady Meade, I'll assemble a search team. If and when we CAN find him, we will, but you should know all too well that he has all the tools necessary to elude us for as long as he wants to. On the flipside, if he can slip through our fingers so easily, then he won't have any trouble doing the same with others. So all I can do as of now is urge you to have some confidence in your son. The odds are that he's perfectly able to stay out of harm's way and when he deigns to return, he will."
He ordered a Separatist soldier to lead them back inside and pulled a few more choice soldiers aside to make up the search team and then returned to the task at hand: Organizing their troops.
To say they had the numbers to accomplish their task, was an understatement. There were stray groups of humans hidden all over both Kryta and Maguuma, from which the Separatists filled their ranks, along with more of the Seraph that Logan thought lost coming out of the woodwork to join their army. All making up a colossal force that struggled to fit into the jungle. But with those numbers crammed in the space between hills, mountains and trees, their formation was a complete mess. So as they marched out, the first order of business was to ensure that there weren't any stragglers being left behind. Everyone was ordered to keep watch of any soldiers near them and ensure that anyone who fell behind, caught up.
Then with some encouragement drawn from those first orders, they marched north and from there, consistently paced through the valley and through the tunnels to Kessex Hills. The devastated swaths of barren dirt, borne from years of abuse by the trampling of Centaur herds in many battles fought over this territory, were not a comfortable place to make camp in, but were spacious enough for their troops to gather and set formations.
They decided to divide their troops into three broader groups, each consisting of at least two densely packed columns. Two vanguards with shieldbearers, axe wielders and halberdiers. In the middle, a main force with swordsmen, bowmen, gunmen and accompanied by the Charr snipers from Grell's warband. The main force too was divided into two columns, leaving room between them for ridiculously long lines of dolyaks to transport provisions and ammunition among other things. And in the back, they grouped up their siege and supply personnel with scouts as well as more shieldbearers and gunmen. And besides the ones in the back, they would have pairs of scouts sent out front beyond the vanguard as well as to travel alongside the army on their left and right.
Most Seraph only had swords for weapons, but for those who were in excess of serving as shieldbearers and swordsmen, the Separatists had supplied them with any more fitting weapons they could have needed.
Most of this wasn't out there at all, but what confused the Commander was when two large, dark-blue contraptions came their way, floating barely above the ground and none of the Separatists seemed in the least distressed by it. Each had a bulbous structure mounted upon a flat platform which hovered along the terrain. Attached to the front of it was a lengthy cylinder with a ring of blue light floating in the air around it. He recognized it from the pact's flagship, the Glory of Tyria as well as many Preinforced Pact outposts. An arcane cannon made without a doubt by Asura, except this time it was smaller and mounted on something smaller than the enormous airship.
Runes inscribed on the outer plates, the glow of crystals from between the segments, a ring of blue light around the 'cannon' and the red lines shining along a hexagonal pattern on each side, running all around its entirety through further lines and a familiar flag in red, white and black right above the 'barrel' indicated that it wasn't just of Asuran origin, it belonged to the one college that was independent from the other three, known as the Inquest. "Test! Test! Can anyone hear me?" rang the tinny, nasal voice of a disgruntled Asura from one of the machines.
The Commander walked closer to the contraption that talked while avoiding the front of their barrels and plainly asked: "Are these inquest machines?"
The sarcasm in the voice on the other end was so thickly laid upon every word, it was impossible to miss. "Oh my, aren't we an observant one - for a subasuran that is." At the front of both machines was a tiny cylinder with a lens similar to the 'camera' used for the trial, which adjusted itself to point directly at the Commander. "Why, what gave it away? The big red lines or the inquest's flag engraved and printed in the front?"
"I just -"
"Anyway, this is the Siege Golem IG-S06. The S04-version was already a working model but we managed to outfit it with a few extra functions and fixed any rough edges left in S05."
"I don't believe I've seen a golem like this."
"It's a work in progress, a prototype that doesn't yet have approval for mass production from corporate. The model has somewhat of an autopilot for emergencies, but is intended to be operated manually. It lacks the multi-functionality of regular siege golems as well as the field of view of ordinary turrets, but it's in turn streamlined for specific purposes, such as breaking through solid walls or dismantling airships, golems or mobile machinery."
"Will you be joining us on the assault?"
The Asura on the other end sighed. "No, I plan to just watch from afar and not do anything, the fact that the prototype's functionality is practically hand-tailored to the tasks ahead of you is a complete and utter coincidence."
The Commander was pretty confident that the Asura was joking but in a do-or-die situation like the one they were in, there could be no room for uncertainty. "Really?"
Him asking further made the Asura audibly angry. "No, not really, of course I'm going to test its capabilities by sending it to aid your endeavour. A word of warning ahead of time though. This isn't a piloted golem, I'm not actually here. It's controlled remotely. If at any point both golems are out of commission, there's nothing we can do to help you. So if you require their firepower, then guard them with your lives."
"Why didn't you just come along so you can repair them?"
"And risk getting my head blown off by some stray shot? Or impaled by some dunderhead's sword? It's not our country that's in tatters right now, be thankful for the help you're getting!"
With introductions of the Asuran weapons out of the way, the insurgent army made sure to keep them within one of the central columns. That was the last of the additions to their army, so on the next morning, they made themselves ready to split their army into more manageable lines, with which after marching along the northern coastline, they could separate and utilize all the cave systems to enter Queensdale without the risk of being stuck at a singular chokepoint. Separated into ten smaller troops, they collectively snuck through the mountains into the valley, where they reassembled them and assumed formation once more.
The troops were assembled and got to Queensdale without issue. Before them lay a slightly wound path, straight to Divinity's Reach. It would take them a while to move their troops in position and they were prepared for numerous battles, but to many, the light at the end of the tunnel was clearly visible.