Swarming Sovereignty

Pager went off, informing Rose that Lily was approaching.

“Here are the latest reports, Rose.” Lily said, placing a sheet of paper in front of Rose. “The Queen also wanted me to remind you that you have a break scheduled in half an hour, and she expects you to come see her to prove you’re taking it.”

Thanks, Lily. Rose sighed. I’ll just take it now, I suppose. I’m in a bit of a lull right now so I can afford it. Just leave the paperwork you gather on my desk, I’ll look at it once I get back.

“Of course. If you’ll excuse me…” Lily withdrew, heading back towards the perimeter of the fort, where she was keeping a careful eye on the comings and goings of the swarm and taking note of anything they brought in. She was also, apparently, working on compiling a map of the bazaar, though that had been slow going until she had gotten a Skill that aided in gathering information on locations from her unenlightened sisters.

Rose hopped down from the counter of the stall she had been using as a makeshift desk, then began to make her way back towards the center of the fort. She had moved herself closer to the periphery to both get out of Lia’s way and to reduce travel time for the majority of her messengers, so she had a walk of a minute or two before she reached Lia.

Ah, Rose. Lia said, perking up as she saw her approach. Do you need something from me?

No, Lia. Rose said. I’m just taking my break early since I wasn’t doing anything else.

Good. Lia replied approvingly. How are things going? Have the infiltrators been caught yet? I can tell they’re still alive, but…

Rose had had Lia make one of the patrols they had captured into infiltrators so she could get more of a grasp on their enemy’s strength, but Lia had seemed…hesitant about it for some reason.

I can’t say for sure. Rose said. But I don’t think so. If they knew we were capable of converting the patrols they throw our way, I feel like they would have stopped the patrols a long time ago. Though…there have been fewer patrols these past few hours. I’m thinking the goblins have decided to either hole up in their main camp or are marshalling forces for an expedition to see what happened to this fort, nothing to do with the infiltrators. Why are you so jumpy about them?

Lia fidgeted uncomfortably. Well, they’re…goblins, you know? They’re monsters that are kind of famous for being stupid, so I thought they wouldn’t really…get the whole stealth thing? I don’t know, I just figured it would be a lot easier and simpler to just deal with the goblins by overwhelming them instead of risking exposing everything with some subterfuge I can’t even be sure will work.

Be that as it may, Rose replied, faintly amused, but…aren’t they infiltrating goblins too? I feel like they would be as bad at noticing spies as they are at being them.

Yeah, but…like…the leader is more intelligent than the rank and file. And if the leader catches on, that’s just as bad as anything else catching on. So, I’m just…worried.

It’ll be fine. Rose soothed. Have a little more confidence in them. They were made…well, remade, to do this. I’m sure they’ll be able to fit in no sweat. I should be getting a report back as soon as they have a free moment, so I’ll update you the moment that comes in. Sound good?

Yeah. Uh…I guess sort of off-topic, but have you got Analysis yet? Lia asked.

Not yet, but I feel like I have to be close. I just need a little more information to act off of and I think that’ll put me over the edge.

They ended up just conversing for a while, only to be interrupted roughly ten minutes later by Lily sprinting into view. “Big news!” She panted. “The infiltrators just gave a report. The goblins have grouped up and are marching here from the north!”

Rose perked up. How many, and what’s the ETA?

“I couldn’t get a solid number from them, they just said ‘lots’! As for ETA…uh, I dunno, half an hour? The bazaar’s not that big but they’re coming from the far end, and moving as a group is really slow for them.”

Alright, good to know. For the numbers…it’s probably best to assume it’s at least as many as were in this camp originally. How many goblins did you say were here again, Lia?

Like…fifty to seventy five? Lia replied. Sorry, drawing a bit of a blank on the exact details.

We’ll err on the side of caution and call it one hundred and twenty five, then. Lily, go back to the north entrance and intercept any messengers coming in. Give them orders to tell the raiders to come back.

No, let me. Lia said. I should be able to do this over a distance…

There was a pause, and then Rose felt Lia in the back of her mind, giving an order. Everyone back to the fort! Lia commanded. We’re going to be attacked and we need all hands on deck!

Thank you, Lia. Rose said. In that case, Lily, you be in charge of rounding up the drones. I want all rat non-combatants to flee to the burrow, they can work on expansion there, but I don’t want them in harm’s way during this fight. You and the larger creatures can hunker down in the middle of the camp.

 Lia, you’re going to be in charge of the mages, you grab all of them and take them to the north wall. Try and get to high ground if you can, somewhere with a good view of where we’ll be fighting.

I’ll oversee the organization of the rest of our troops. When the battle comes, I’ll get next to Lia so I can keep watch over the battle as it progresses. And yes, at the first sign of danger, I’ll escape back to the burrow. Rose added, cutting Lia off before she could protest. But I need to be there. I can’t be effective if I can’t see the battle and give orders.

And when I go, you’re coming with me, Lia. You’re the MVP here, if you go down, everything crumbles. Without your leadership, Lily and I will die for sure, so no heroic last stands or anything.

I’m barely even leading in this battle! Lia protested. You’d be fine without me!

“With all due respect, my Queen, I don’t believe we would.” Lily interjected. “It is my understanding that your Skills help greatly with keeping my unenlightened sisters focused and coordinated. Even if it doesn’t feel like it, you are the glue that holds us together, and everything will turn to chaos if you die. That is something we cannot afford.”

Fine, fine. Lia grumbled. I get it. I’ll leave with Rose if it comes to that.

Good. Rose said. But I’m confident it won’t. Even if they outnumber us, we have fortifications and we will likely control the magical tempo of this fight; we have the advantage here. I will instruct the soldiers to attempt to convert before killing, but if conversion is not feasible, to kill instead. Is that acceptable?

Yeah. Lia confirmed. I want to keep all of you who are higher leveled or evolved safe rather than start fresh with new recruits, even if their base is a little better. Uh…aside from the commanders or any impressive-looking goblins. Try and convert those at all costs.

Good, I’ll make a note of it. Now, everyone go get to it. Try and be at your posts in ten minutes, if at all possible.

Yes, Rose!

“Yes, Rose!”

The three split off, each going to do their designated task. Rose set off to rally the troops, organizing them into two distinct groups. The first were the defenders; they would be focused on keeping the walls safe and making sure no goblins got into the fort. All of the goblin foot soldiers were assigned to this group, as well as all of the lesser rat foot soldiers and all of the ironclads, and half of the creatures with ranged attacks such as the lightborns or archer. It was ‘led’ by the knight, who Rose would be using as a proxy for herself, shoring up anywhere she thought the defenses were weakening.

The second group was the attackers. These were the other half of the creatures with ranged attacks, as well as the rat foot soldiers that had evolved already and weren’t quite so…squishy. They would be used to probe at weaknesses in the goblins’ formation, preferably ones created by the mages Lia was leading.

Not including the mages, that was just over one hundred troops, split pretty evenly between attack and defense. Rose would have preferred to commit everything to defense and just wear the opponent down from her superior position, but that just…wasn’t really viable in this situation.

First, there was the fact that her fortifications were little more than barricades surrounded by thornbushes. Even with the builder and the drones being much more competent at erecting walls than the goblins that had originally made this place, and wood-like modeling wax being far easier to work with than normal wood, there was only so much they could have done in the day or so they had been working.

Second, rats weren’t great at defending these walls. They had to leave them if they wanted any hope of being able to do damage to the invaders, and rats still made up the bulk of her soldiers. That was why the attack unit was mostly made of rats – otherwise they would be sitting and waiting while the battle raged on.

Which wasn’t a bad thing in a siege, but this wasn’t a siege, not really. Rose had no doubts that the goblins would turn to flee once it became clear they weren’t going to win, and Rose wanted to make sure as few as possible got away. Not only would every goblin she dealt with now be one less goblin she had to deal with later, they would potentially turn into more firepower for the swarm itself.

Still…the defense situation probably wasn’t quite as bad as she had been making it out to be. Calling the pricklers ‘thornbushes’ was selling them a little short. They wouldn’t impede the swarm at all, and the goblins’ armor was of poor enough quality that it would be easily pierced by the sharp thorns. Furthermore, her attackers would be able to dive into them at a moment’s notice, keeping them from having to fully expose themselves.

Over the day she had been working, the gardener and druid had surrounded the majority of the wall with pricklers, too, leaving only part of the wall that faced away from the market uncovered. Rose didn’t think the goblins would try to go around to attack from there, and if they did, then Rose would be able to pepper them with attacks the whole time they were trying to do so, leaving them drastically weakened by the time they reached that area.

The time it took for the swarm to assemble was…much less than Rose was used to. She had, in the back of her mind, been expecting the ten minute time she had given to be unreasonable, and had given it to urge the swarm to be ready by the time she actually wanted them ready.

But the swarm wasn’t like a normal army. Orders were followed immediately and with precision, even those who had been asleep were able to wake and transition to battle mode almost seamlessly. It was any commander’s dream, but it also left Rose with an awkward period of time where she wasn’t quite sure what to do.

Eventually, she decided to consult with Lia about magic. They had been lifted to the top of one of the stalls, set back from the main bulk of the swarm by a fair bit. There were no lights near them either, so Rose was confident the goblins wouldn’t notice them until it was too late. Lia, how large of a wall would you be able to make? Don’t pay attention to sturdiness or even permanence, just something quick and dirty that would stop goblins for a minute or two.

Lia mulled that over for a bit. If I made the wall relatively thin and only about the height of a goblin, I could probably stretch it about…one hundred feet if I used all of my Mana and only made it last a minute?

Rose frowned. Alright. Follow-up question, what about pits? How many…say, ten foot by five foot pits could you make? Worry more about permanence with these ones, though.

Uh…probably ten or so? If I use the dirt I’m excavating to pile up ‘walls’ on the edges of the pit, I could cut costs a bit to make keeping them permanent not hurt as much. They wouldn’t be too deep without those walls, though, and they would be pretty easy to knock down, so the goblins might get out that way.

Rose nodded. I see you have two terramancers with you, what about them?

Only two or three between the both of them. They have a lot less Mana than I do.

Alright…what about blood magic? How’ve you done with that?

Honestly…not too great. Lia admitted. I just can’t seem to get any finesse with it. It’s definitely the hardest to practice with, since blood is a bit more of a limited resource than anything else. I need a lot of it before I can even mimic the amount of damage I would do with other spells. It’s really mana efficient, I just…need more blood to get used to it.

Don’t worry about it for now, then. Have the blood mage try and sow chaos with it, but don’t do anything yourself. Have one xylomancer strengthen the wall whenever it looks weak, and everything else…well, just follow my instructions.

“Everything else” included three pyromancers, the terramancers, the photomancer, the druid, one more xylomancer, the shaman, and a singular “normal” rat baroness. It had been something of a toll on their stocks of rats, they only had seven, five of which were reserved for other experimentation and the other two for if they could make more mages from situations like this, but it was worth it.

Even if the mages couldn’t do that much now, they were low level and would be able to do much more later, and that was what really mattered. It was good that they were gaining experience in a battle where they held such an advantage, too, since it was more important for them to be ready by the time they were on the offensive.

The rest of the wait was tense, but soon Rose was able to make out the lights of the goblin army. After that, it was only another five or so minutes before they were upon the fort, and Rose could make out their numbers. She had a hard time getting an exact bead, but she was guessing there was anywhere from seventy five to one hundred goblins rushing towards the fort, screaming their war cries.

Rose answered with a volley from all the ranged creatures, attacker and defender alike. She aimed for the legs of the enemy instead of trying to kill them outright; by crippling their movement, they would become easy targets for the attackers to try and cover in modeling wax later.

There were a few answering shots from the goblins, but it was only three or four, and the defenders were easily able to dodge by just squatting down behind the wall. The goblins’ charge slowed when they reached the pricklers; once the front line blindly charged in and were left with gaping holes in their limbs, the others slowed and began to hack away at the plants.

Rose didn’t let that happen. Lia, sow as much confusion as you can with your mental magic. Make them afraid, make them think their allies are their enemies, do whatever you can, but only use like…half of your Mana. Have the baroness do the same, but let her use all of it, and make the photomancer blind as many goblins as possible. If you catch glimpses of the leader, try and pinpoint target it with something that’ll disable it.

On it.

A few moments later, chaos erupted from within the goblins. A few turned and started swinging wildly, bashing their weapons into anything nearby, some from the front attempted to press back through the crowd behind them and get away, and a few more dropped to their knees and began tearing at the grass, desperately shoving it into their mouths.

Good work. Rose said. Now have the terramancers drop the archers into pits while everything’s confused and keep your eyes peeled for the leader. It should try to reassert control, don’t let it do that. Make the rest of the magicians focus on making things worse for goblins that have been hit by their allies or are otherwise seeming beat up.

Oh, and order the infiltrators to look for an opportunity to bag an important goblin and run away with it in the chaos. Make them bring it around the side and cocoon it before bringing it into the fort. Now, I’m going to micromanage the attackers and defenders for a bit, let me know if anything changes in the back ranks of the goblins.

Yes, Rose!

Rose turned her attention away from the bulk of the goblins and began to send out the attackers. They ran through the pricklers, coming out to nip at the legs of the attacking goblins before running right back into the pricklers and popping up somewhere else entirely.

A few minutes later, the goblins finally cleared a path through the pricklers, and began to wail at the walls. Rose positioned the knight there, and watched in satisfaction as she decapitated several goblins before another path was cleared and the goblins had a new place to attack the walls from.

Still…that took its toll on the goblins. With attacks from both within and without, the goblins had taken a beating. Not many were dead, but many were injured, and they had yet to make any significant progress on the walls.

Rose kept the pressure up with the attackers, while having the defenders bludgeon goblins trying to tear down the walls by using long sticks to whack them while staying outside of their range.

Eventually, however, one section of the wall broke. Rose immediately maneuvered the knight over, while concentrating her defenders, but a few goblins were able to start hand to hand combat with the defenders already there.

Rose took a moment to survey the area. More than half of the goblin army was dead or crippled, another eighth or so had fled or was fleeing, the back line was a mess of dirt walls, and nothing was giving orders anymore.

In short, it was a mess. Most of the goblins that were still mobile were trying to stream in through the hole in the wall, which was…ideal, actually. Lia, encircle all of those goblins with a wall of earth. Use the rest of your Mana if you have to, but box them in. We should be able to prevent most of them from retreating by doing so.

Yes, Rose!

After a moment, there was a loud rumble as a semi-circular wall sprung up around the goblins. It wasn’t perfect, ending where the pricklers started, but it was enough to cause panic among the remaining goblins, who realized that they were boxed in.

The wind went out of their attack as most of those that remained in the back began to focus on clearing out pricklers so they could get around the wall. Some succeeded, only to be met with yet another wall rising up in front of them, completely nullifying the work they had just done.

And…from there, it was just cleanup. A small section of goblins was able to make an escape, but the majority were killed, knocked unconscious, or completely crippled and left to lie on the floor. By Rose’s estimation, roughly twenty goblins were able to flee, a further thirty were killed, and about sixty were stable enough to be converted.

Among those sixty were four archers and the commander. The commander had, apparently, been put to sleep by Lia, and the infiltrators had nabbed it in the confusion and brought it back into the base as ordered. Lia had explained that, after they confirmed their prize, they had been sent back to their duty and had pretended to run away from the battle.

But the swarm had not been without its losses. Thirteen of the attacking rat foot soldiers had been killed, while a further fifteen of the defending rat foot soldiers and three of the goblin foot soldiers had perished. Many of the others were left wounded, with the knight in particular having sustained rather heavy wounds.

But…even that was not without its upside. Each of the rat foot soldiers was able to evolve, as were a few of the goblin foot soldiers. The knight, several of the mages, all of the ironclads, the goblin lightborns, and the kobold archer were also able to evolve, greatly increasing the quality of Rose’s soldiers.

And that was before the conversions were made. The commander would be turned into a kobold knight, and the archers were converted into kobolds archers, while the remainder would be converted into simple foot soldiers. There wasn’t actually enough modeling wax to convert more than forty of them right away, so Rose had a pit built, and only had twenty goblins converted immediately, leaving the other forty to be half-covered in modeling wax and dumped in the pit so they wouldn’t struggle.

And…finally, once that was over, she turned her attention to what she had personally gained in the fight. She had gained four levels, many of her Skills had leveled up, and she had a couple of new ones related to battle command, but, most importantly…she had finally gained Analysis. It was an odd feeling, having gained something she had always wanted, but it was certainly a good one.

But, even more than that, she was thankful she had been given this second shot at life. It had allowed her to get something she had thought was impossible for her to obtain, and in an odd way, this whole thing made her hopeful for the future.

Not necessarily of the swarm, but of the world. Yes, the future of the swarm was likely the future of the world, but when they were able to take over…people wouldn’t have to fight each other. They would all be sisters, and the only thing they would have to deal with was fighting the Lord of Monsters whenever it popped up. It would…well, Rose was sure the world would be shepherded into a golden age the likes of which the world had never seen, and she was ecstatic to be a part of it.