After their affairs were settled, like moving Natalia into ATHENA and sending Fanrik and Juka off, Mori and her group settled into a routine over the next few days, with Mori, Fara, VII, and ATHENA all working on the Talonec Mk. II together. The necromancers slowly explored the base during that time, Oloa even popping into the core room to check out what Mori was doing. Seeing as how the necromancer simply wanted to learn, Mori obliged her curiosity.
The former Guild Mistress learned a great deal from Mori, but Mori somewhat regretted her decision when Oloa tried to make her own complex undead. She used a rage-based reanimation mana to raise the rat she used for testing, which resulted in an extremely strong, raging rat zombie flinging itself at anything and everything that so much as moved. Luckily for Oloa, one of the patrolling Talonecs was passing the spare room Oloa claimed as a laboratory and killed the rat before it could seriously hurt its necromancer. Seeing how the experiment went, Mori banned Oloa from raising any complex undead without her around. Oloa, thankfully, obeyed.
While Oloa was learning from Mori and the second generation of Talonecs were being developed, her death knights were all making great use of their time. Crave disappeared for a few days, during which he spoke to the living dragons in the fortress about their powers. He told her about how dragon mana was, as Xyglst explained, an expression of the strength of the soul, and acted as a direct way of influence the external world. At her death dragons’ levels, they could simply boost their attacks and spells or use it to strengthen themselves, but Crave was assured that dragons, when they became powerful enough, could alter the world around them. They could make mythical artifacts with ease, bring destruction on an apocalyptic scale, and even alter the DNA of species to closer resemble the draconic manipulator. Of course, such feats were far in the future, and Xyglst himself only knew of such feats due to ancient legends. Mori held high hopes for her dragons to, if not become weapons of war since she was distinctly against such things, express themselves as big, shapeshifting people and find their place in her little army.
Her other death knights, Mae, Ally, Tisi, Aerolat, and Pandora, all had their own tasks and ways of becoming stronger. Aerolat had slid, almost imperceptibly, into a hidden servant role. If Mori needed anything done or a message delivered, then she would call for Aerolat. Mae, Ally, and Tisi fit nicely into her administrators and envoys to the living. Mae had a talent for leadership, Ally had a talent for military management, and Tisi had a talent for logistics. All three together kept the fortress from falling apart after their somewhat sloppy coup, and Mori did not doubt that the presence of ATHENA was helping maintain order.
Pandora, however, took a day or so to find his place in the group. He worked with Idle for a while, learning and adapting his fighting style to integrate his berserker-like tendencies and his new defensive focus. His fighting style morphed to involve parries, blocks, and ripostes, along with sporadic, unexpected flurries of reckless attack. Mori thought it suited him well, and was happy to learn that he began to teach it to the Talonecs that, in their yet-unascended states, showed proficiency in the style. Mori was, in the end, happy with his progress; he certainly figured out his goals faster than she had when she came to for the first time.
The production of the Talonecs was going well, with ATHENA already surpassing the five thousand necessary to convince the living armies to begin an invasion a day and a bit after they arrived. Mori, however, said that they needed to wait. She wanted seven thousand Talonecs ready to invade the Hive when the battle began, as well as some Necromechs to support them. Thankfully, they finished the design at the end of the second day.
Mori was able to see the armor model, and she was happy with it. It was large, over ten feet tall, with a gunpowder cannon on its arm since ATHENA wanted to be able to play with the ammunition types, and an unburdened arm Mori intended for it to use in tandem with the special feature she gave their models. While the Talonecs were given the ability to move through light and shadow, the Necromechs were given the ability to manipulate mana-- an addition she gave every new Talonec and she was in the process of giving the other Talonecs thanks to VII-- and to use it in hyper-efficient shields. Those shields could be shaped into weapons, tools, or even just shields that Mori made sure were able to be enchanted.
By the third day, two dozen Necromechs were created, which Mori spent some time examining. They were fine undead, ones that she was sure could help her. She send them into the undead quarters, an area of the base that was very crowded, though the undead who resided there did not mind.
By the dawn of the third day, however, the peace they had enjoyed ended. Mori stood in the Kharon part of ATHENA’s body, staring out at the desert sands. There, she saw a convoy of over a hundred Transport Clockworks. They had no air support, which Mori found suspicious, and they were headed straight towards ATHENA, which was a few hundred feet from the outer walls of the fortress.
Watching them, Mori glared, “I think they want to bait the Talonecs out,” Mori said, turning to VII and Fara, as well as the little model of ATHENA’s core she used to communicate within the Kharon, “Is it just me, or does playing along seem like a terrible idea?”
Fara, lying on a couch she wanted in the front room of the skiff, shrugged, “I wouldn’t say it’s just you, but I’m not exactly good with strategy, so don’t listen to me.”
VII shook her head, “Even if you say that, you’re still right,” she said to Fara, turning to Mori, “I wouldn’t. Maybe you yourself could go out there and take care of them? It’d be interesting, at any rate.”
“I personally have a different suggestion, mother. I suggest having one of the death dragons to deal with them. Annihilating the enemy from the air could convince them to send air support next time, which would increase our yield of scrap metal.” She paused as they all gave her amused looks, “T-To increase production, of course! And to deplete their forces.”
“Well, it’s good that you’re thinking about this in so many ways,” Mori chuckled, mask growing serious a moment later, “I don’t think blowing them to kingdom come is a good idea, since we would lose the salvage, so I’ve got another idea: VII, you and I will go out with Jel and we’ll take out this new group. How’s that?”
Mori’s suggestion made VII smile brightly, “You know what? I don’t think I would mind that. I had a lot of fun on our way south, so a bit of action wouldn’t be unappreciated.”
“Great!” Mori said, turning to Fara, “Sorry, Fara. You can’t come.”
Fara laughed, “Mori, I know what I’m about. you guys can have fun tearing all those Clockworks apart. I’ll just wait until I can put them back together into new and interesting shapes.”
Mori nodded with a smile, “Aerolat-”
“I’ve already informed Jealous, mistress,” Aerolat said from the air itself, “She should be on her way.” Mori nodded, nudging towards the door to VII. VII nodded and followed as they left the room.
They walked through the halls for a minute or so, finding Jel as she turned a corner, “Oh, hey mistress, VII. Are we going out to fight some Clockworks?” she asked. Mori nodded, explaining the situation. Jel chuckled when Mori finished, “Oh, Fury’s going to be so mad; he’s been itching for a fight and this sounds right up his alley. But I get to go instead! Alright, let’s go!” Jel said, running off towards the exit. Mori and VII followed her until they reached the staging bay, which was where Jel morphed into her dragon form. Mori made sure to inspect her form-- about forty feet long, two claws and legs, two wing-arms, and smooth, multicolor scales-- and nodded when she found it just as intimidating as when Jel first transformed, “Mistress, VII, climb aboard, please. I want to see if we can destroy them without touching the ground.”
Mori laughed, helping VII up onto Jel’s back and climbing up after her, “Hey, if you want to be the one to carry us, I won’t complain,” Mori said, making sure she and VII were ready, “Alright, let’s go!” Jel did not need to be told twice. There was a gust of mana that blasted from Jel’s wings, propelling the dragon into the air. With another gust of mana, they were sent through the risen bay doors. Jel flapped her wings again, then again. With each flap, they gained altitude until they were at airship height. Mori grinned as she looked down, “You know, I never thought I’d be riding a dragon. I was kind of expecting to just be a second-rate lich for the rest of my infinite life, but this wasn’t how I expected it to go!” she laughed.
“I’m glad you enjoy our service to you, mistress!” Jel called back, “So, how are we going to do this? Do we just launch a massive attack or what?”
“No, we want to salvage them,” Mori replied, “Can you make a trench in front of them? One deep enough so that if they try to cross, they’ll fall in and clog it up for the rest of them?”
“That’s easy enough,” Jel replied, taking in a massive breath. Before Mori could ask why she was taking in so much air, a roar erupted from Jel’s lips. With the roar, a beam of pure, concentrated earth and dragon mana tore the sand up as it flashed across the field in front of the convoy. The trench resulting from Jel’s show of force was not particularly deep, since she did not spend much time with the beam on each part of the ground, but it was still over ten feet deep. Mori watched as some of the Transports, the leading ones, had built up too much momentum to stop in time. Those dozen leading Transports fell into the trench. Most were fine, with only one sustaining proper damage, but they were unable to move.
The rest of the Transports, seeing the fates of their compatriots, stopped. Going against every expectation Mori had for them, they stopped, opened their sides, and waited as odd troops left them. The troops themselves were… odd. They were like highly armored versions of Scouts and Soldiers. There were also things, like the four legs, that tipped Mori off to the fact that the odd Clockworks had some inspiration from Headhunters.
The Scouts were closely related to their origins, with the Scout’s torso only being armored more than before. The legs, however, were altered to be thinner, but another pair was added to compensate. The head was altered slightly, with a helmet-like plate covering the top of it and some armor added to the neck. The arms were, again, armored, but mostly unchanged. The Soldiers, on the other hand, were extremely different. The torso was completely changed, more to the point, removed. In its place was a Headhunter-like torso, with a head like a normal Soldier’s, with the massive arms associated. Instead of claws or fists, however, those arms were fitted with three different barrels, each equally spaced around the fist. The legs were closer to Headhunter legs than Soldiers legs, but they had elements of the latter, giving the Clockworks some stability.
Seeing the new units, Mori smiled, “VII, look at that! The Forgeheart innovated!”
“Yes, Mori, I see them. So, what are you planning?” she asked.
Mori thought for a moment, “You know, it’d be kind of rude to just bomb these new Clockwork models. Jel, take us down a bit! I’m fighting them up close and personal!”
