Chapter 308

Chapter 308

General Declan Raven chewed his lip as he watched the starscape that represented the war front as he listened to General Crawford. As per the orders from King Rusty himself, we need to slow the advance as much as possible.

Declan didnt bother to hide his eye roll. No shit. They all knew the situation but if they wanted to even just slow the war down they needed more. More people. More armor. More weapons. More mana. More time. More healers. More ships. More trainees.

That was the thing. They could use as much as they were given but what they were being asked to do was hard enough with their limited resources let alone with what he was sure was coming next.

Our request for more resources this next decade was denied. We are only receiving our previously allocated quantities.

Fucking bullshit.

Declans curse was echoed by Generals Li and Wilkerson.

General Casey held up a hand. We expected this, stop bitching. I swear you lot complain as much, if not more, than a fresh trooper. Let us be glad we are getting our full allotment.

Declan was going to snipe back, but Wilkerson beat him to it. King Rusty isn't here for you to kiss up to but you still manage to have shit on your nose. Impressive.

Declan smirked. He and Wilkerson didnt often agree, but General Casey might as well hand up her uniform and just become a concubine to King Rusty. It was no secret amongst them that she had only stayed in the military to increase her contact with the royal who didnt reciprocate her feelings at all.

That made it smart all the more that she was right. Declan had half expected them to take a hit in their supplies this decade. If not this next decade, it was surely going to happen within the next few.

Wars were expensive.

General Li pointed at the far wall and took control of the projection. With just our normal number of resupplies, the current battlefields are too large. We need to collapse the outermost ring and fall back. I suggest we retreat from sectors three, four, and seven. That will pull us into the tightest formation possible with the least amount of planets lost.

General Brooks shook his head. That would be foolish. Sector three is a critical defensive point. We

General Crawford interrupted Brooks by taking control over the screen. We can get back to the strategic planning in a moment. First, we need to decide what to do with the Federation's new troops.

Everyone looked to the projection of a skeleton with runes carved on it before turning to him.

Declan just blinked at the rest of the generals asking them what they wanted from him but when the silence dragged on spoke his peace. This isn't the first time we have seen runes carved onto the bones of soldiers. Sure, usually it's just elite soldiers, but this is nothing new. Its runic tattoos taken to eleven, but the side effects are many. They conflict with the body's spirit and burn out faster because of it. These troops might be making waves now, but they will have to be cycled out of the frontlines after every major battle. This has got to be costing the Federation a lot to keep this many rune troops like this active.

So you are saying they arent an issue? They have already won several battles faster than expected. That's not what I would call not an issue. General Kjarr leaned forward and steepled his fingers in a way Declan recognized as him getting ready to pick a fight.

Declan met the challenge head on. I dont believe I said that. I said this is expensive for them. We use the same strategy we use on any expensive consumable. The same one every army since our ancestors thought sharpened rocks were the height of military armaments. We take engagements and play defensively forcing them to burn their runes for minimal gains of areas we already intended to abandon. He looked to General Li and let some of his disapproval show for her last proposal. And that means not giving up valuable systems with no struggle. Seriously, Im special forces and even I know just abandoning those systems is dumb.

General Li leaned forward with fire in her eyes. A controlled retreat would allow us to skuttle those systems leaving nothing for the occupying enemies and preserve lives, giving us more bodies to defend the smaller border. You were special forces and dont know the futility of throwing bodies away in a system you know you are going to abandon. I do. Ive been there and despite no longer being on the battlefield I havent changed my stance. It's the height of foolishness to throw bodies away for no reason.

Declan was going to nod an acknowledgement, but General Hale spoke first. Those lives buy us valuable time and are not given in vain. The Emperor himself informed us of our directives before the war even started. We are to drag this war out as long as possible. We are on the defensive, and our enemies bleed for every system they take. Sacrificing systems without a struggle is at best a hard sell and at worst disobedience.

Declan thought the last bit was a little too dramatic but didnt counter Hale despite disagreeing. General Li wasnt wrong, losing people in a defensive retreat could be done exceptionally badly and he knew she had been a part of a few of those disastrous battles. What was really ridiculous was Hales implied threat that Li could be charged for suggesting an idea.

Since the Sophron dynasty had taken over not a single general had been court-martialed for anything less than full blown treason. Even if Li suggested surrender wholesale to avoid losses the Emperor was unlikely to punish her which made the threat ridiculous. The Sophron dynasty, and their current Emperor most of all, were far less bloodthirsty than their predecessors had been, for better and for worse.This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Brooks leaned forward. We are getting distracted and off-topic. The rune soldiers. We need to counter them. I put forward a slow retreat, putting up just enough resistance to make them struggle for it. Looking at Declan, she continued. How do the runes work with different Tiers? Are there advantages or disadvantages for a Tier 15 versus a Tier 35?

Declan wasnt an enchanter and that question really relied on the methodology on the runes. Some styles of bone enchanting were more dangerous than others, and he needed to flip through the preliminary report to get his answer. He was mildly surprised at the initial results and said so.

They seem to be using a more He paused as he searched for the word he wanted. Unstable style of rune. They wont kill even a Tier 15 but the soldiers are going to be in pain from the runes at all times, more so when they use them. The runes will burn at a respectable rate for a decent power boost but the moment they push the runes, and I mean really push them, they are going to need a new set of bones. Complete regrowth. Ive seen something similar on a few special forces before, but usually only in exceptional circumstances. Nobody without a Talent or Domain to handle them would accept them.

Casey tapped her chin before saying. So if we can stall their latest push, we can really hurt them. What are their reserve projections like? Can we stall them enough to stop their advance long enough to push enough soldiers into a healing cooldown?

Kjarr shook his head. They are already rotating their troops. It's a three verse two, and they are all focusing on us. They are only using half their standing armies on the frontlines at any one time. If we started really slowing them down they would either redouble the assaults with the reserve troops or they would simply slow their advance down to a rate they can sustain. Can we hit the supplies they are using to make these runes? That would put a kink in this plan.

Declan went through his reports and looked for anything that might be a supply depot for runic supplies but found nothing that stood out. It wasnt like the Federation would put a large sign on their critical war supplies. Everything was encoded and for all he knew the runic supplies were being called potions or talismans in their intercepted supply reports.

The Empire did the same thing.

Declan even tried to ping his Talent to see if it had any good feelings, but even it was silent.

Crawford tapped the table. Let us table that idea for Team Zero or Duke Waters if we get reliable intel, but I wouldnt put it past the enemy to leak that kind of information to lure them into a trap.

Declan agreed and tapped a finger to signify his agreement. That was exactly what he would do.

With that thought in mind he went through possibilities to see if there was any way they could bait an attack out from their enemies but they were already getting pushed back which made it unlikely for them to jump at such an opportunity.

It did make him look at a system near the border where Li had suggested retreating from.

Guluja is a Tier 15 nexus and is going to be a hotspot but maybe an opportunity. He let the others look at the system and the seven connected worlds with their tethers. Can we make it seem like we are going to defend it to the last but have already retreated? We can then jump sideways to Lafla which is another Tier 15 system crushing the attackers there between two armies before retreating? They are going to expect us to defend Guluja to the last and send a corresponding number of troops there. It's just a small action but can be integrated into any number of larger plans.

That got them back to the tactical level and together they spent close to five hours hashing out how they were going to defend the Empire for another decade. It wasnt going to be pretty, but Declan was confident they could do it.

Once that was taken care of and they had a rough plan put together they tabled it for at least twenty four hours so they could all slowly think it over.

Declan still thought there was a better distribution that minimized Empire worlds that were on the border region but hadnt been able to find something better than what they had come up with. The current plan was only decent, and they needed something good if not excellent for this war.

The Empire had more troops than any of the other Great Powers but that was as much of a curse as it was a blessing as it meant their resources needed to be spread out even further.

Hed joined the military alongside one Captain Heart, in the wake of the Federations most humiliating loss since the Shattering itself. While the two of them had gone in quite different directions in the tens of thousands of years since, he and the now-General were now undeniably some of the old guard, eyewitnesses to the many ways in which the Federation were on the decline.

Not that he would ever admit it, of course. Or think it, if certain inquisitors were around. But the strongly-encouraged rune package was but the latest example of the many ways his time serving had become far less practical as of late. He needed an out, and while joining some trumped-up team to fight Ascenders was hardly better, serving under General Heart in that kind of strike force could be enough for him to, if not fund his advancement to Tier 45 and ascension, at least get him enough clout to opt out of the ever-more absurd demands that high command was foisting on them.

He still loved the Federation, but they could certainly make it hard at times.

Still, fighting Ascenders was less of a death wish than staying here.

Tapping his rapier, he flowed like the wind and crossed half the planet in a moment. Arriving at the landing site, he made up his mind.

The sooner begun, the sooner done.

His implants gleamed with a white light, and with a thrust of his fist [Wind Manipulation] swelled around him, and he rode the jetstream high into the atmosphere, then beyond.

He reached orbit in a moment and looked down to a battlefield where he had just fought so desperately.

It all seemed so pointless.

Pointless and he wanted out.

To get out, he just needed to kill a few more people.

Sending his acceptance of the old orders, Saziel was freed of his obligations to this army and boarded a supply ship that could get him to a hub.

It took two weeks of travel, but he spent the time productively. He had intended to just relax but his work ethic had forced him to work after just three hours of relaxing.

Any improvement of his skills might be what kept him alive if this joint mission was as dangerous as he suspected.

He always carried around his own personal cybernetics workshop for tune-ups and repairs, and while he was no Maker, nobody knew his body and magic the way he did. It had been a little while since hed given himself a proper upgrade, but if there were ever a time for him to implement all of his newest materials and knowledge, it was now.

While he preferred to use his rapier, his hands, embedded as they were with metal bands, were his next weapon of choice. Swords and all weapons were force multipliers but there were a thousand and one ways one could be disarmed and still in a condition to fight.

Saziel had that lesson beaten into his skull in a thousand-and-one fights as he made his way up the Tiers.

He ran a power-diagnosis on his arm implants, watching as light slowly collected from a focal point in his wrist, flowed up the metal strips in his hands, and sequentially lit up each of the bands in his forearms. Once they were fully activated, he activated his sensory booth, studying the reads as he lightly channeled his various manipulation skills through the enchantments. No major faults, that was good, though a few areas he saw that he could improve.

Next, the mechanical test. With a flick of his wrist, a blade popped out of his fist between his knuckles, right where a band of metal connected the power focus in his palm to the set of rings on the back of his hand. With a flick of the wrist the other way, his blades vanished just to pop out of his elbows with a snick.

He pulled the blades back in but frowned. There had been a small delay in his left arm.

He left the diagnosis booth and went to his implantation station, turning it so that properly accepted his arm. Once the limb was properly locked in place, he activated the stations enchantments and let the magic peel back flesh and steel, unspooling his muscles and implants to better view where his blade nestled between his metal bones.

Hed faced a bit of ridicule over the years, not storing his arm-blades inside a pocket dimension, but Saziel had never seriously considered the idea. Spatial magic embedded into his body would disrupt his existing implants.

Besides, that was just asking for trouble when someone spatially locked you. Then you were stuck without your backup weapon, and nobody wanted to be in that position. Besides, it wasnt like the physical storage was that hard to maintain if you knew what you were doing, and this way any enchantments on the blade itself would always be active.

He traced the track the blade ran down looking for bends but noticed nothing which was good. That was paired with the arms main support pillar. If it was bent, he would need to replace the arm itself. He then checked the force applicators, but they were cycling perfectly. He eventually tracked the issue down to a speck of depleted metal dust that had slipped into the arm at some point and was hiding from his spiritual perception while trapped in the actuators.

Cleaning the arm took a few minutes but once that was done he cleared his right for good measure.

Creating a knife hand similar to the one he had driven into General Alfonso, he activated the enchantment he had built into his fingers. The fingers merged slightly as the sides of his hands narrowed into a blades edge.

Slashing out he tapped into [Wind Manipulation] and sent out a dozen air blades in sequence, letting them crash into the testing steel he had on the far end of his training room. Fortunately, the rooms sensors confirmed that each blade was identical in size and strength.

Good.

Letting that enchantment drop, his hands returned to normal but he immediately activated his death grip enchantment. He didnt have anything that could survive that level of stress, but he was able to ensure the enchantment was working properly well enough to satisfy.

With his arms implants now in good working order, he returned to his maintenance room to work on his legs. With a thought, he grew another three inches as blades extended from his legs to cover his calves and shins. A kick from him could cut through even the best armor, though that would cause substantial damage to his legs as well. More commonly, he used them to hold himself fast to just about any surface he walked on. Still, they could use a bit of love, and he returned to his implantation station to remove the blades for sharpening, polishing, re-tempering, and just a couple tweaks to the enchantment. Most of that work was done on its own by an automated forge, so while that did its job he turned his attention to his armor.

A couple of contact points, where the armor connected to his body, needed some cleaning, and once those were good, he activated it upon its mannequin, one stage at a time. The first activation expanded it from a breastplate into more of a metal bodysuit, extending to his elbows and knees, as well as protecting his neck. From there, it slotted into covering everything but his hands, feet, face, and the top of his head. One final activation closed those ports as well, letting the armor clunk into place like a guillotine, ready to sever his ponytail if he had been wearing it at the time.

Saziel never cut his hair. It was only cut when he needed to activate his full defenses. When he was younger he had just let his armor cut the hair because he was always activating it and it was easier than stopping the growth of his hair. As he got stronger and needed the full armor less and less his hair started getting longer until it had turned into a bit of a game with himself. The longer it got the stronger he was becoming. That had gone on until he grew to the level where he could contend with even the best of the best. Or the best besides Ascenders.

Most of his commanders didnt care. Either they understood what he was doing and understood what the hair meant, or they feared his reputation as a pinnacle elite only attached to their armies for a mission or two where they would face some of the worst fighting of their careers.

Either way, most left him alone.

He was almost tempted to let his armor cut the hair off here and now. Do it on his own terms. When facing Ascenders, he would be activating his armor before the fighting even started but he wanted a bit more time with his hair before it was less than a finger's length again.

His orders must have been transmitted to the hub because the moment his ship arrived in real space, a courier ship hailed the supply ship and ordered him to board. From there, it only took a month to travel to an intersection between the Federation, Republic, and Sects territories.

The moment they entered real space, Saziel used the scanners to investigate the system.

He had seen a lot of things in his time in the Federation army. Four full wars, hundreds of border skirmishes, and dozens of clandestine missions, but he had never seen something like that before.

Perhaps he wouldnt be dying in this war after all.