“You can’t be serious!”

Captain Falrauth allowed himself to gape. Uscfrea grinned at him.

“My Queen is always serious, you know?”

“Confused Query: Why would this unit lie when stating surrender conditions?”

Captain Falrauth glared at them.

“You want half the remaining fleet! The South will be left almost completely defenseless!”

Uscfrea’s grin grew.

“And without this surrender, you will be left completely defenseless, with no remaining fleet at all. Be grateful for My Queen’s mercy.”

Captain Falrauth grit his teeth but then shook his head.

“It’s not possible either way. I’m only the captain of the Sentinels of Liberty. I lack the authority to transfer battle-airships to a foreign party, and many of the them do not belong to Mirima at all. I am only negotiating for the surrender of my forces here.”

Seero’s robotic eye flickered. Within the CELIU network’s internal comms, Vopicus was laughing raucously.

“Oh that’s great. Tell him this, Your Majesty…”

With several politically-minded individuals now a part of the CELIU network, Seero had shored up her inexperience in diplomacy. Vopicus could now remain offsite and watch through the network, giving explanations and recommendations to Seero directly.

“Acknowledged. Updated Offer: In that case, this unit requests an unconditional surrender of all hostile forces, who will be interned as prisoners of war. All material will be seized. All prisoner transfers or returns of material must be negotiated by the relevant authorities.”

Captain Falrauth paled.

“That’s…why don’t we go back to your first offer? I’m sure I can convince the Council of the Southern Realms to honor the terms.”

“Negative Response: Captain Falrauth is not authorized to agree to any terms that are sufficient to remove the threat to this unit and allied entities, and so further negotiations are deemed inefficient. Please confirm the intent to surrender or this unit will consider hostilities as resumed.”

Captain Falrauth hung his head.

In the end, the Sky Legion and the forces of the Southern Realms were forced to surrender and their weapons seized. Melion immediately began to analyze the construction of Mirima’s most advanced battle-airships, and the flying artifacts of the Sky Legion. A message was sent to the Council of the Southern Realms informing them of the results of the battle, granting them one chance to negotiate.

Seero was prepared to campaign against them, but would prefer not to if at all possible.

The reason for that being that Captain Falrauth had provided her with intel regarding the Heralds of the New Dawn, as well as informing her that they had betrayed and killed High-King Xavlaeron. The Heralds had many bases and agents in the Southern Realms, but had not infiltrated its leadership to the extent of the Northern Court. Rather, given the mercantile and politically-minded outlook of the individual Southern Realms, such an infiltration was hardly necessary. The cult could operate almost openly so long as they provided benefits to their hosts.

High-King Xavlaeron had attempted to keep track of these as much as possible, as insurance against his shady ally. Captain Falrauth stated he would surrender as much intel as he could…but only upon successful conclusion of negotiations with the Southern Realms.

Seero could have pressed the issue but chose not to, as a negotiated peace was more efficient for her purposes. While an offensive campaign against the South was certainly possible now that their largest military force had been defeated, doing so would take time and attention away from Seero’s primary opponent. Likewise, upon a successful campaign, she would likely need to occupy and garrison the South, which would require raising and committing additional forces to the task. And worse…since the South was a collection of individual realms, it would require a series of campaigns and occupations.

The benefits of doing so were far outweighed by the resources and time Seero would need to commit to a secondary opponent. It was much more efficient to commandeer enough of their equipment to render further offensive action untenable, and then to negotiate a peace.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

And well…she already had additional tasks to take care of, such as the current discussion between Turannia’s leaders.

Seero was currently sitting around a table in Turannia’s largest port, joined by Turannia’s leaders and her own subordinates. The battle-airships had been lowered to the ground and the hostile forces reasonably imprisoned, so the group had gathered to discuss their next move. Governor Aemilia had even brought Princess Caecila along…who Seero predicted as sleep-deprived given her appearance and physiological scans.

It turned out Governor Aemilia had a lot of paperwork to handle and was always pleased to bring on more hands.

Governor Aemilia cracked a smile.

“An impressive victory as always, Your Majesty. You never disappoint, do you?”

“Response: This unit always attempts to achieve the most efficient outcome.”

Governor Aemilia giggled lightly.

“That’s one way to put it.”

And then her smile fell.

“But now we have the question of what to do next. I have sent word to the Council of the Southern Realms as per your request, Your Majesty. But there is another issue we must address. What of the Northern Court?”

Princess Caecila grit her teeth and looked down.

“When I left, High-King Xavlaeron and Magister Verrucosis had all but taken over, and Emperor Lucius had been side-lined entirely. I…do not know what the situation is at present.”

Magister Tiberius nodded.

“I can shed a bit more light. Magister…or, well, former Magister Appius reached out through some unofficial channels. Magister Verrucosis has declared martial law, integrated the local Exploratores back into the Legion hierarchy, and taken command of the Court. Emperor Lucius is under unofficial house arrest. Consul Hiberius remains in his own land. Aedile Hortensus is not particularly resisting or cooperating to any major extent, save for insisting on official procedures wherever applicable.”

Magister Canus rubbed his chin.

“Hm, if High-King Xavlaeron had survived, he would have provided the political legitimacy, but with him gone it’s a military coup. But if I know Verrucosis…he’s not about to just back down, and it doesn’t seem there’s anyone sufficient in the capital to make him. That works to our advantage.”

Governor Aemilia glanced at Princess Caecila, and cracked an amused smile.

“Yes indeed. We can have our Princess here denounce the military rebellion and say she officially requested our help. We could march into Corvanus as the party loyal to the Empire, under the premise of restoring Emperor Lucius to power.”

Governor Aemilia then made a full grin at Princess Caecila.

“Of course, our help will not come cheap, Your Highness.”

Princess Caecila heaved a sigh but nodded her head.

“I will do as you say.”

Magister Canus then turned to Seero.

“Your Majesty, would this plan line up with your own? We may require assistance from you or your forces if Verrucosis ends up resisting and convincing the Northern Legions to follow him.”

“Response: This unit is waiting for negotiations with the Southern Realms to acquire intel regarding the Heralds of the New Dawn. It is possible and efficient to allocate resources to establish control over the Northern Empire, as long as control can be achieved without a long campaign.”

Magister Canus made a small smile as he thought back to the ‘battle.’

“With your help, I don’t think that will be a problem at all.”

The Turannians set off to organize their forces for the coming task. The military leaders began to commandeer some of the battle-airships and familiarize themselves with their use…aided by cooperative members of the Sky Legion. Governor Aemilia, Princess Caecila, and the other civilian leaders began to lay the political groundwork for the mission.

Seero’s forces were also preparing but the CELIU network made communication and organization significantly faster, so Seero had some time on her hands.

She used this time to conduct an analysis of the battle. Modern military hardware had mixed results against their magical counterparts; its ability to target and strike hostiles from beyond visual range gave them an advantage, but it fell off against the powerful defenses magical techniques could generate. In particular, magical barriers which could be repaired or simply recast were a highly efficient means of stopping missile attacks. It traded mana, an abundant resource that would replenish itself mid-battle, for material. Even Seero’s forces, who, thanks to the Primary Home Base, could magically produce more material, took at least some time to gather and process that material into ammunition, and then transport it to the weapon platforms in the field.

Likewise, an excessive amount of ammunition had to be expended within a short time frame to defeat a magical barrier, and only provided a short window of opportunity even when it succeeded. A window of opportunity that was hard to exploit given the strength of magical materials and magical engineering that was not limited by physics…or the need to carry highly explosive ammunition and fuel.

Of course, none of this was a problem within visual range. Seero herself had overwhelming magical firepower that could match magical defenses, and the CELIU network could do likewise with effective use of Ritual Magic and Blessing. But visual range combat allowed the enemy to retaliate, so Seero still found it desirable to develop efficient means of striking from further away. It was never desirable to face the enemy directly if it could be avoided.

In fact, this had been a problem in her original universe as well, given the existence of superheroes. Seero herself had been designed for mostly close-range combat, since long-range strikes were not guaranteed to be effective against any given foe she might encounter, and it was difficult to apply non-standard abilities to modern weapons for the most part. But the magic of Aelea was more ubiquitous than the non-standard abilities in her previous universe, so she felt it should be possible to come up with a solution this time around.

And so, Seero began to brainstorm how she could improve the long-range munitions of Earth for the magical conditions of Aelea. Seero had upgraded some of the missiles with magical techniques and materials…but the recent battlefield performance indicated this alone was not enough to overcome the logistical mismatch. She needed something a bit more than enchanted bombs and magical shrapnel to do the job…