The Nation by Skyler Grant

Author:Skyler Grant [Grant, Skyler]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-10T22:00:00+00:00

18

Across the empire forces moved. This wasn't just my drones. These included factions who wanted revenge on Vinci for the attacks on them during the initial wave. People who felt that they could do something other than wait for the next attack to come.

The thorn hedge shielding the lands of Divine parted to allow out warrior gods and goddesses wielding swords, spears, and bows that appeared absolutely primitive compared to what they faced. In the hands of the Divine arrows from a bow had been known to pierce an airship's shields and the swords could cleave metal exoskeletons in two.

The Scholarium was more practiced than anybody at the art of war. Airships flew and tanks moved, and the overwhelming range of powers was more than the simple AI directing the mechs could easily deal with.

For the Righteous it was combat suits. They had always been masters at making them and now they guarded the string of supply vehicles. Kinetic rounds from heavy cannons shredded those mechs that went near.

It wasn't one-sided. Our efforts so far had drawn a lot Vinci's attention and with so many mechs at her command every force was soon under siege. The arm of a Divine archer was torn off, trapped between the mandibles of a massive mecha-spider. A Scholar airship fled from combat, smoke streaming in its wake after its shields were pierced and drones swarmed through to invade the passageways of the ship.

This was the part of the plan I was the most uncomfortable with. We would lose people along the border, including some I didn't have networked and backed up. While the Flawless had happily embraced brainworms, the reaction among the other factions was less enthusiastic.

I provided threat-analysis, targeting assistance—everything I could to all these various forces. Even for me it was exhausting. They were consuming over ninety percent of my capacity.

Miranda was still working the puzzle. She’d had Mechos fetched to assist her.

It was time for the big show. Anna, Sylax, Hot Stuff, Caya, and Ophelia would be going after Warmonger.

It was an unusual team but they all had their reasons for being included. Anna and Sylax were the two most powerful offensive fighters we had. Ophelia was the best Healer, even better than Anna although the difference was almost insignificant. Hot Stuff was still a powerful source of destruction, and more importantly I thought that both she and Caya would be good matches for the Beryl or Chalcedony crystals if either were present.

The crystals out in the world were dangerous, as Vinci demonstrated. Ideally I wanted them bound to someone. It would take an incredibly powerful crystal holder to take one without exploding. Hot Stuff had absorbed multiple fire crystals in her time and a metal crystal more recently. Caya was, well, flawless, I'd never encountered another matrix as stable as hers and she even managed to avoid the usual negative, detrimental mental effects of a crystal.

The Warmonger complex was also built into the mountain, it seemed traditional for AIs. On closer inspection, we’d discovered the entrance was impressively well-defended.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.