Against the Tide. [David Weber's Out of the Dark, Waifu Catalog Fanfic]

[Imperator Pax]

Lords of the Night 3​

He had arrived relatively early in the morning but that of course was made possible by travelling subterraneanly. The reality was that it was becoming hazardous to drive at night for simple environmental factors. Everything was having to slow down in terms of overland travel, even the Shongairi seemed to be having fuel problems as stockpiles dwindled and synthetic production simply couldn't keep up with demand. The Cold Mountain habitation was gradually expanding.

Dennis Vardry had of course seen habitation blocks before. It shouldn't have been any sort of surprise to him... maybe it was the scale or at least the speed with which the Dvorak-Wilson home had grown from the surface cabin, and the cave behind the waterfall, to the rapidly expanded facility that had convinced him that it was time for him and his wife to move in with his cousins' extended clan.

It didn't matter to Kane. He certainly didn't care that the Dvorak-Wilson clan had elected to 'bug out' as it were from Greenville, really there was nothing to criticize there. Nor was there any criticism for those who had done similar in the outer county or the surrounding farms of the neighboring ones. Dvorak had withdrawn into the rural back country, and taken stock of the situation, and proven useful for the logistical backend and storage of material for more active participation in the resistance.

Those farmers in the upstate had had some speculation that they would be able to farm, but those grand ideas greatly overestimated fuel availability for modern mechanization, even for the ones who managed to avoid Shongairi attention before the puppies had fallen back north, and towards the coast, and then from human predation. Simply put with the invasion under way it wasn't readily feasible to run modern combines, and harvesters.

Labor intensive farming was much harder to manage with aliens, and human marauders running around. Montreat was slightly better off than Greenville county because of geography, but the area around black mountain just was not as good farmland. "Asheville is using the Biltmore to grow food." Wilson, Dvorak's brother in law, stated.

"Yes, I had heard that." And that made sense, even if it approached putting all one's eggs in one basket a single kinetic strike on the estate ... well then again if the Shongairi were going to strike Asheville it wasn't going to be just one. "I am somewhat surprised that given the situation that more of the town leadership hasn't relocated to there." Kane remarked. He was a little disappointed actually, if it looked as if the council was going to switch sides having them at the estate and relatively isolated from town would have made them much easier to deal with quietly in the middle of the night.

The conversation turned as Dave Dvorak returned from racking his long arm, which quickly turned the conversation to guns. Dennis Vardry's move in had included his relocation of what Kane would have termed quaint at one point, but at the present 30-30 and the Mini 14 still managed to shoot lead at the enemy invaders, and that was enough. It was merely unfortunate that Wilson seemed obsessed with the larger caliber side of the argument.

"I admit that I was in your position at one point," as he wound around and through the finer points of a 175 gr sierra match king, and its terminal performance, "But the Shongairi did not come expecting smokeless gunpowder, and didn't bring effective body armor."

"But its just a souped up 22." The retired marine almost whined at the notion.

"And if we were routinely engaging passed four hundred yards I would concur," Kane's preferred 77gr 223 Wylde from the compact HK 416A5 was sufficient at most ranges... but the reality was he wore it more to give cover. It had come out of his gunsafe, the safe salvaged from a trip to Fayetteville about two hundred miles to the south east, solely because it was expected he had a rifle... the truth was he had pulled the trigger perhaps a dozen times in anger, and probably had fired less than two hundred rounds from a rifle over the course of the invasion... but Kane knew that in no small part to magic... and Ana's distaste for firearms. Marduk's daughter had grimacing accepted the Sig P226, and he doubted she would bother to use it if a firefight broke out... more likely immediately resorting to ... distinctly supernatural means... but he supposed that was going to be a matter to contend with later, "But we are not, this is not Afghanistan, and we are predominantly having to contend with mechanized infantry in close quarters." The Shongairi orbital advantage was only part of that.

Wilson put aside his discussion of the M1A National Match rifle as Mitchell returned with a plate of fish that he had slathered with some kind of bourbon glaze. "Any idea when we can start rolling out the M4s to the troops?" Mitchell questioned.

"The computers are already evaluating the cutting process now." It was mostly quality assurance. The M16A2 was optimized for SS109 ball and thus had a 1-7 twist. "In terms of roll out we save time by using as many pre invasion off the shelf parts as possible." Particularly commercial polymer parts, like stocks, and pistol grips, but not having to manufacture hand guards was also a plus. "It would be faster if we'd recovered the Columbia machinery intact, but again realistically, anything that slung lead.

Mitchell filled them in that the situation the coast was getting hairy, "We think that we can push the puppies out of the coast, but we also don't want a power vacuum where any two legged assholes come to try and take advantage of."

Kane nodded, throwing a look to Ana. "With the food situation desperation is going to increase. As much as an immediate counter attack would be warranted against a peer foe to keep them off balance that isn't the case." Mitchell wanted to rearm with M4s because that had been US doctrine, the human resistance groups in the carolinas had a wide range of weapons, but given the close quarters, and vehicle dependent contact with the enemy it wasn't the worst idea. They were small and less bulky than the A2. Unlike Matherson's Black Mountain based militia Mitchell was a little more institutionally loath to adopt AKMs, despite the robustness of computer controlled milled guns.

The truth was of course that the resupply of AT4s, and supply of anti aircraft weapons really was the greater benefit. That and of course synthgas, and vehicle spare parts. Kane broke a piece of corn bread and ate.

"That'll be good," Mitchell remarked as the conversation continued to wind towards the western theater, and the supply of weapons. "We're getting some contact with groups in Ohio,"

Akron might actually be ideal given its present condition. The Shongairi were unlikely to look too hard at it after their recent strike. Now might be an ideal time to build a habitation block there, but it was, "Too far north for the moment, the river network certainly is useful, and over crossing Lake Eyrie would be possible," With drone transports, though he wasn't going to specify or emphasize the robotic nature of the machines, "I am still looking for a sufficiently adequate staging ground in the Cumberland mountains."

"I thought you were going to use pigeon forge?"

"Thats not going to be large enough, I'm afraid. That's well and good for the survivors in Tennesse especially with a winter potentially colder than we expected," And so many people not used to the loss of long term electrical power Zwei had had to retask more assets there. "Our more immediate concern is the situation nearer to hand."

"But the refugees?" Dave Dvorak spoke up drawing the subject back to the original topic of food and the habitation blocks, and away from the concern of ... rumors of Shongairi experimentation.

"These can be built fairly quickly," As he had seen, "Concrete, steel, wiring can be run through, but as you can imagine the build process is automated for military conveniences, not human comfort.," And that wasn't good for civilian psychology already battered by the invasion. "Our objective with these is insure that as much of the remaining human population makes through the winter. That takes priority over much of the manufacture of new warheads and rockets, even though we will need those."

Small arms were all well and good, AT4s were great as fire and forget but they could not forget winter was coming and most urban dwellers had no idea how to deal with that, even the ones that had made it this far.

--
Kane felt the autumn wind tip around, pushing, and driving broken, and weathered tree branches. The desolation the Shongairi had inflicted was having effects on local ecology. Without government there was no maintenance to cut back on grass, and trees... with the Shongairi holing up in their enclaves their presence was limited and that meant roads were falling into disrepair... or rather further disrepair. The lack of brush clearing, and other factors had lead to fires, and that tended to weaken highway bypass and overhangs and that broke up roadways.

That let Mitchell disappear into the underground travel paths cut by the montauk after hitting Shongairi patrols that did leave the safety of their FOBs seemingly like ghosts and reduced the ability to pursue.

That was precisely what Mitchell was doing now. Ana leaned against the snapped cypress, coolly surveying the storm tossed damage left uncleared by state or federal government. The Shongairi certainly didn't seem to care. He looked at the single, "Mitchell is away, its just us now." He looked at the waxing moon and the starlifter. An expansion of mental will sent the telepathic command to an unmanned surface to air missile battery that was wholly disposable if it were destroyed... the Shongairi strategic transport aircraft was much much more expensive for the aliens to replace.

To that end, he had no worries as the battery quickly salvoed off its several missiles towards the descending transport aircraft. The first missile slammed just forward of the nose, and the other five hit the massive frigate sized flying machine across its body. Kane had no idea what the thing was carrying, but the Shongairi had been flying them in and out was entirely too supsicious. At its altitude the so called 'Medium' SAM Missiles insured it went into an uncontrolled free fall and that much of the aircraft body became shooting stars cratering across the landing strip the Shongairi field crews had laid out meticulously months earlier.

Fleet Commander Thickair was not immediately inclined to view the sudden SAM attack as an escalation, or as a sign to come. If anything Shongairi Ground Commanders were quick to insist that given that an entire launch had been expended, even if they could not identify the actual launch system, or that the specific missile best corresponded to a soviet launch system, was an indicator of human desperation rather than escalation or signs of a counter attack.

Of course it was 'just bad luck' the assembly of Shongairi leaders reporting to the fleet commander agreed that their existing program of zones that were only a few hundred kilometers across simply needed to continue, so that they could better prevent future attacks. The Shongairi traditions of consensus Ground and Squadron commanders who disagreed were largely ignored without repercussion. Thickair listened to them, and the reports ended up in a file ... files that would inevitably be recovered after the human victory... still the loss of such large strategic lift transport spacecraft in supposedly safe space over north america represented a problem... but it would be quickly overshadowed by the losses on the ground at the end of the human month of 'October' around what the humans called 'halloween'...

The Shongairi ironically had a relatively similar holiday at least so far as ghost and ghouls went, as it happened, something that one Vladislav Dracula found bitterly amusing when he learned of it.

As for the here and now, Kane smiled at the burning debris as it showered the Shongairi base.

"Lets hope they were bringing expensive stuff in, instead of out," Ana sourly remarked even as they waited and watched the Shongairi response start to come in over the radio. GB Commander Terraik... probably equivalent at least a brigadier general, had not been expecting such an event tonight and he was now presently in an argument with the navy puppies.

The Shongairi in Greensboro had shut the internet down.... mostly. Cell phones were still a thing so it could hardly be called successful and of course it wasn't as if Zwei was merely human in terms of plugging into their data nets...

Unfortunately that penetration of the data network confirmed that Howell was providing Shongairi convoys with security inside of North Carolina... Kane flexed a hand until the knuckles popped at the scroll of data. There was another problem to contend with as well. A shongairi Company sized MechInfantry unit was due to start patrolling western North Carolina, and would be within a patrol radius of Black Mountain. So they would be going back west after this.

 

[Trek]

At this rate I don't see how mc will be able to unify humanity at all, why not use Ana to slowly under the surface start taking over? Frankly, all this factionalism, collaboration with the enemy shouldn't be taking place at all, mc has very solid options to curb it in its tracks.

 

[Imperator Pax]

At this rate I don't see how mc will be able to unify humanity at all, why not use Ana to slowly under the surface start taking over? Frankly, all this factionalism, collaboration with the enemy shouldn't be taking place at all, mc has very solid options to curb it in its tracks.

Click to shrink...

Principally because the geographical limitation of travel is limitted.

I would have to reread the comics, but normally Ana travels by car or plane, she can fly but not especially fast, at least not consistently (Like, yeah its Marvel, travel times in comics are frequently exactly as fast as the plot demands) yes I could go High-Calc Hellstrom at which point teleport spam on Sword of Empire's bridge and then beam sword the dreadnought in half, which would make for a nice one shot I admit, but for the most part well travel times.

Now what we will see is after Lords of the Night, the shift towards organized government rather than cell structure resistance, which directly leads into correcting the manpower problem and dealing with collaborators as part of Terran unification. Once Thickair is dead, and Vlad has taken the Shongairi battlefleet in his control (and we will be getting into Shongairi tech next) its Terran unification time where there is an aim to make a North American Union, and then a Terran unified government in the face of both the Shongairi threat, and the wider galactic hegemony who are behind the SHongairi and also canonically there are other non hegemony alien powers out there (though I'm not entirely sure how much from the sequel I'm going to use).

 

[Imperator Pax]

Lords of the Night Part 4​

The senior squad commander had not considered himself particularly superstitious. Still there were certain cultural traits that had come to the fore when everything had started going wrong. Not that the invasion hadn't been going wrong since the beginning... but there had been bad and the sort of thing den mothers would tell younglings.

He couldn't tear his eyes from the images though, the images that were made all the worse by how largely stable they were, save for when the the cameras were shaken by the impossible going on around them becoming all the more unfathomable.

Watching as the light pulled out of the falling bodies, and eyes bled. There was blood everywhere from the squad on the video screen. An emotionally disconnected part of his brain, the rational part of his brain knew that ... observed that it seemed to be limited in area effectiveness some troopers were able to try an effect fire... but that just annoyed...

... 'the human'.

Human at least in the same general physiological characteristics of the inhabitants of KU 197 20... and while human armor was good... humans did not walk off squad automatic weapons fire. The Shongairi version of an autocannon... or perhaps more accurately the Dushka or Ma Deuce had no discernible effect. Bullet impacts that should have tearing chunks from the body, volumes of fire from heavy weapon equipped soldiers should have been reducing them to bloody paste the same as any other native or Shongairi soldier hit with that caliber of weapons.

Instead the monster kept coming more irritated than harmed by the occasional scratches the injuries seemed to leave... the bodies of the distant base accumulated as they fell.

The demon, the senior squad commander amended, waved a hand at the cannon manning team, and they all but evaporated in what must have been a wave of heat. Their bodies simply dissolving in line with the gesture. Severed limbs fell as the Shongairi troops behind collapsed.

They simply, the defending troops, had no more frame of reference than the Shongairi who were safely watching the video. The chaos, the bloodshed it was all grotesque as the carnage escalated.

At the end of it the interior, a vehicle storage bay shielded from the elements for maintenance and on load off load was pockmarked, and covered in viscera, pools of blood.

"Is that the end?" He asked, watching the monster override the door control with contemptible ease.

Ground Base Commander Shairez started to answer her hands moving towards the control.

"How interesting." A strange voice remarked.

The voice should not have been there. It belonged to a human, even if the Shongairi it spoke was immaculate if strangle accented. One of his fellow squad commanders managed to draw his mandated side arm but to no avail.

The green eyed monster easily disarmed the smaller Shongairi ending with a thud and a whimper. The demon from cainharn's hall smiled showing sharp edged teeth. The squad commander froze his mind drawing comparison's between the skeletal structure of his own species and the monster. The invader of the base was a predator and while it was not the monster from the video it didn't matter.

The monster monster's smile broadened, showing more of the teeth.

Mischa Baserab glanced at the only one of the invaders quick witted enough to even think to try and present a weapon against him. Not that it mattered. The weapon would have been useless. Mischa had founding something far far more interesting at least for the moment. "What have you found?" He asked in the alien's language... a language he had really only been speaking for a few hours now... but they had such wondrous toys he really couldn't help himself

The Ground Base Commander, easily identified because the Shongairi were so hierarchical and didn't think to conceal their officers, and certainly not within the purported safety of one of their own facilities. That presumed safety had made it ridiculously easy for him to penetrate their defenses. Take had been right of course... he should have moved sooner... expelled and destroyed the invaders throughout Wallachia... no Romania. Had the invaders left his human subjects be it would have been different... but this Ground Base Commander had singled out the children under his protection... and he was not happy to have made the mistake. "Tell me Ground Commander Shairez, what was your thinking of this recording?" He asked playfully dragging the sharp fingernails across the lightweight composite material of the table.

The aliens watched as the Vampire's claws almost cut entirely through the thin top layer of the table, the ground base commander flattened her ears. "The... attacking force are highly resistant to all demonstrated weapons."

"Yes, I saw that for myself." He smiled... and that was true of himself. "Your various guards, and then the others of your kind would have told you the same about my own personage." He remarked still conversationally. "But you know nothing of the strangers themselves? You certainly know nothing of my kind."

Shairez had been experimenting with the hegemony standard neural educators. Humans interfaced exceptionally well with them. The system settings for education for Shongairi minds were fine for educating humans, and thus could have been used as it was... that would violated hegemony protocols for such things, but for scientific experimentation ... in their present conditions she hadn't been particularly concerned.

The monster that had invaded her facility though had clearly found one of the neural educators and used it. It was the only logical explanation especially given that the alien was clearly carrying one of the devices from her laboratory facilities.

The green eyed creature followed her view, "Ah yes, your toys, most entertaining I admit some of your weapons are not quite a fit for me, but well your library has taught me so much, and your computer minds very useful, so helpful." Vladislav Dracula remarked amused, "So tell me what were you planning to contemplate against the strangers, after all I have reviewed your reports. You're already having so much trouble with mortal resistance."

It was true. Human resistance after the initial shock was beginning to effectively codify into effective hit and run tactics that were proving devestating to Shongairi forces who hadn't been prepared to face effective organized resistance groups in the slightest. They had hoped to let natural causes winnow down the numbers, but it simply wasn't fast enough.

Shairez blinked in alarm as the computer system failed to obey her attempt to trigger an alarm.

Vlad's smile widened. "As I said, Ground Commander your computers are so very helpful." The vampire looked at the still image from North America, and then with deceptive ease launched the damaged table forward. The 'double six' of Shongairi on the right side all crunched against the wall as it pinned them against the far wall. "You attacked those under my protection., and now I find your miserable vermin have become so frustrated with your own self created problem, you wish to go beyond that." He tsked ignoring the yelps of pain, and whines from the pinned invaders on the other side of the office.

At least Shairez had the decency not to try and lie about it. The Shongairi ground commander would of course eventually tell him everything that he wanted to know. There were simply somethings you just couldn't google after all.

--

Notes: This is the abridged Dracula intro, Buchevsky is absent from this, its just Vlad casually ninjaing into Shairez's base as they're dealing with video footage from across the pond.

 

[ATP]

I almost pity them.Almost.
P.S his motto should be "Our stakes are sharp"

 

[Imperator Pax]

Lords of Night Conclusion​

Stephen Buchevsky, USMC, stared at the footage. He didn't ask how Mircea had gotten it. The Romanian ... partisan certainly resistance leader had only been gone a couple of days before the shit had hit the fan. When he'd come back to bail them out he'd then turned around and taken Take along with him, but had left most of them behind without really any kind of notice... just stormed out in response to the Shongairi incursion that by dumb luck Buchevsky supposed he'd been close enough to notice. He didn't want to guess how much fuel that had burned.

The confirmation that the Shongairi were preforming human experimentation confirmed a long standing rumor in the internet but it didn't tell them much. The footage though. Mircea, and his friends were in hindsight ... well if aliens well why not vampires. Not that he would have made that jump without proof... but Mircea was a whole lot of convincing when it came to such things... being well the Dracula.

"They seem to have made the invaders, quite uncomfortable." The Vampire remarked leaning back, his fingers steeped in contemplation.

"So can you do that?"

"Fire," Mircea pursed his lips in a thin line, "I have never actually tried... I probably could do. I have called lightning before..." He paused contemplatively at the notion... and the marine wondered if he'd just given him a new idea to test on the invading aliens.

Testing clearly wasn't what had been going. Mircea had launched his attack in revenge, and Stephen had to wonder if that was the same case... with the ones in North Carolina... it was odd to think of some monster of the 'old world' being so close to home... but he quickly discarded that notion.

If anything given what Mircea could do, and the others besides him and Take, the success of their own with limited resources probably was magnified. Take might not have liked 'modern' Assault Rifles but the vampire did use them, and his hunting jacket was liberally festooned with magazines, as well as extra grenades in addition to the knives he carried. Take would have been the knife nut of any marine rifle platoon for sure.

Right now the knife nut was leaning over the bar of the taphouse that they'd appropriated for this 'briefing', and was carrying on a conversation in Romanian that Stephen was only grasping snippets of. "Problem?" He asked.

"No, Take merely observes that perhaps we should have considered this possibility earlier." Mircea responded wistfully. His narrow fox like features flickered in the dim lighting, these were old style bulbs not more modern LEDs or the like. "Additionally that we might have perhaps taken a cue from the Albanians and their fields of mushrooms."

"Excuse me?"

"The bunkers, and networks of anti invasion defenses built by the communists, that we should have tried to expand more into the mountains themselves."

"That would have drawn attention." Stephen pointed out.

"This is most likely true, but it would have been something wouldn't it my Stephen."

... and fighting a vampire in cave was probably worse than fighting one out in the open.
--
They didn't have sufficient winter gear, Kane had known that objectively speaking going into the cold season. The upstate, not even in the mountains proper, was already sustaining below freezing temperatures until midday for much of the past week. They were lucky that there wasn't snow, as there had been little precipitation, but that probably wasn't going to hold as moisture seemed to be moving in from the gulf, as it moved further north and the year grew colder it was going to be an elevated risk.

He did have to wonder how the Shongairi was would deal with the change from high heat high humidity to the cold... but that was an academic curiosity. He watched the various militia fighters in a mix of solids, and camo, mostly hunting, jackets practice. There was a degree of standardization made possible there by the MCV's weapon manufacturing tooling... that meant that it wouldn't matter when the stocks of pre invasion anti armor weapons was depleted. AT4 production was now sufficient he could nearly see that every militia in the region could field entire squads of rocket equipped troops, if not more.

The problem of course as the at the Shongairi had been adapting, and had been even before he and Ana had gone into Central North Carolina to poke at the Shongairi facility. Dave Dvorak walked through the steel reinforced bulkhead and to the massive transparent aluminum window that overlooked the subterranean training complex. 'The Battle Lab' as it had been dubbed wasn't a typical attachment to a hab block... but they were probably going to need to become one.

The NOD SAM base defenses which were built in reinforced concrete bunker lift units that were only vulnerable to fire really when active were another feature that would need to proliferate. The SAMs came in a variety of ranges from large soviet style systems that were akin to Grumble, or Gadfly missiles, nato reporting names, down to much smaller rapid firing medium and short range systems.

The missiles were cheap. The growing number of refineries might have had a hard time producing the volume of synthetic petrol without readily available industrial precursor materials, or tiberium to side step it, but SAMs only consumed that fuel in the 'one use' variety.

"Is there something you need Dave?" The former gun store owner was insulated from the sound of automatic weapons fire from the range, but he was probably imagining the sounds because he sort of half jumped at the sudden question.

"uh, yeah. Mitchell is here..." He trailed off. That wasn't really news, the MP officer now serving basically serving de facto as an infantry 'brigade' commander was only one of several various resistance commands expected to arrive at Black Mountain as they prepared to contemplate how they should address winter, and Asheville's potential issues to the north. It was also going to be the meeting where he disclosed confirmation of the Shongairi human experimentation. "He's brought somebody with him."

That was against protocol. If this had been the imaginatively named 'South Carolina State Guards Garrison', habitation block nearer to Greenville that would have been one thing... but Matherson probably wasn't going to be happy at the MP bringing in someone new... if it was the sort of thing that occasionally had to happen. "I see. Do you think I need-"

The former gunstore owner / prepper was already shaking his head. "I don't think Matherson had a problem with it... given who it is, but," He stopped, "thats its one of Robinson's fighter pilots, and his resistance group. They were coming in from the coast when you launched the SAM attack..."

As it happened Mitchell was the prevailing coastal contact, chain of communication with other resistance groups. His survival, plus time in service, had among other things given them a leg up in terms of having the man power people network to liase in the east... they simply didn't have anyone to do the same on the Tennesse side of the state line... lines. The Shongairi destruction of a TVA damn early in invasion also hadn't helped on that front.

'Longbow' Torino was waiting, but he was also watching as the intercept filtered in from their patch into the Shongairi network. "Did I hear that right?"

"The Shongairi just lost a major base near the black sea." He replied in acknowledgement even as he subconsciously directed his linker core to forward an email to Zwei to delve into and find out. "That included previous losses to a Shongairi regiment." Probably an understrength regiment... he could scarcely fathom that someone had managed to organize that kind of counter attack without inviting a rainstorm of KEWs... except that even now there were no incoming reports of KEW strikes being mounted. The Shongairi response loop was broke... and if "We have nothing further... what can we do for you major?" He inquired even as he briefly met Ana's gaze, her expression shifted left to some of the fighter jock's companions.

They had frankly standardized weapons, probably from raiding a guard or even regular army stockpile, but they could have been from a particularly apportioned police station, federal arms locker. Ethnically they were a motley assortment of men and women, and attracted no more attention on that front after months of resistance fighting... or at least they wouldn't have until introductions made circular.

Kane's lip narrowed. "Kane."

A surviving Harlemite, or at least from his ballcap, looked him up and down... the already tall boy was probably sixteen, "You like emininem ' something?"

"Or something." He replied. "Did Admiral Robinson survive?" Unfortunately Torino didn't believe that to be the case, he'd been keeping an eye out... that was, "Unfortunate. You managed to get into contact with Mitchell through the remains of the Massachusetts national guard you said?"

"I did, and I promised I'd also ask if you can help, with winter coming."

He nodded, "Yes. We're going to need to button up. The Shongairi have been experimenting on humans,"

Torino nodded, "I'd heard that... its not going well for them. There is a group up north that got loose from them after the Shongairi did something with them... I don't know what but they can use the invader's tech against them... but the downside is they're kind of crazy."
--
Notes:So I don't know how much of the sequel (Into the Light) I'm actually going to incorporate its very ponderous meandering, and you know some novels can pull off vampires as a result of nanomachines son... Out of the dark is not one of them. Like I could do a trinity blood crossover and I think it would work because trinity blood's lore is more fleshed outeven though the back story is vampires are a result of humans being exposed to alien tech... I digress.

Anyway, this puts Buschevsky on the page, introduces longbow, and obvious we have Dracula name dropped. It also highlights the move into Winter 2016/17 whenever out of the Dark is supposed to take place in

 

[ATP]

Vampires as result of alien technology? good for Dracula,he do not need to fear to be damned for eternity anylonger.
And,i prefer logical explanations.
What is more logical then "aliens did it" ?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Vampires as result of alien technology? good for Dracula,he do not need to fear to be damned for eternity anylonger.
And,i prefer logical explanations.
What is more logical then "aliens did it" ?

Click to shrink...

Its not so much the logic, so much as execution.

Like Trinity Blood's novels are like, humanity finds alien ruins, there is an accident bam vampires, fast forward one thousand years its a time of intrigue and superstition (and losTech.) and while its sort of campy at times with sometimes shoehorning in the rennaiscance geopolitical expies it does a better job than Into the Light (but thats hardly only the problem the sequel has).

 

[Imperator Pax]

Turning​

Kane mulled over the question. The arrival of 'Longbow' Torino and friends had come on the heels, a happy coincidence to be sure, of the 'black sea base' loss. The Shongairi weren't great at operational security, the invaders knew something had gone wrong and that had dispersed to their ground troops in part because of orders to be on alert, but only in part. From ground troops it had passed to second line personnel, and people. The transmission that something had happened, something big, making its way through the human population was the bigger matter.

Zwei deep within Blood Mountain in North Georgia had penetrated rather thoroughly the Shongairi communication, and data networks, but the situation remained opaque. What had happened? What had happened in Romania that had cost the Shongairi a significant combat element... and then a major ground installation to be lost. It wasn't a nuke. That much was obvious. There had been no seismic indications, no radiation detected, or EM generation that might indicate that, and of course the Shongairi knew the facility was intact. It had not been attacked by any kind of concentrated armor counter attack. The facilities in the vicinity of the Black Sea seemed alarmingly intact.

They had no explanation for it.

"We have until the Shongairi figure out what they're going to do about this to figure out what we are going to do."

"Evacuation."

"Yes." He replied. Kane considered the stockpiles of weapons inside underground structures... of discussions of making it through the winter months launching a handful of attritional attacks, maybe of focusing on trying to salvage whatever they could from city ruins, but mostly of focusing on trying to get through the winter and contemplating a spring offensive of some sort.

A hoped for spring offensive was what the public as a whole seemed to be looking for. Some future strike back against the Shongairi. Kane had not admitted that this was a more practical idea than it might have seemed on paper. Perhaps as early as march there would be enough components to assemble perhaps a dozen ion cannons and rail guns that would be able to be launched into space in such a way the Shongairi wouldn't figure out what they were until they were under fire... and by then it would be too late.

It was possible that the Shongairi warships if they could figure out what was going on would realize they were in space combat situation, but the first, the primary targets of those ion cannons would be ships like Sword of Empire the invasion's apparent flagship. The objective was to kill the Shongairi fleet commander, and as much of his staff and the invasion's senior leadership. Even if the ion cannons were then silenced there was a contingency to use surface to orbital nukes to try and break up the Shongairi forces... but those would have to be offset launched... probably from the oceans because of the distance from which a KKV could be fired.... and of course while there were potential counters to KKVs the angle of a defensive shot from a ground based system was limited.

The success of any counter in the spring time was contingent on breaking the Shongairi response loop... which was why it was contingent on leadership destruction. It was why Kane had considered simply waiting out the time they had left until his remaining extra dimensional currency unlocked and he could spend the credits he had to buy something to even the odds with the invaders.

"The puppies might have left Asheville alone but they're going to notice if the city just depopulates over night." A militia officer observed.

"The Shongairi were looking for human test subjects. Whatever deal Howell has worked out with the occupation is unlikely to hold " Or at least they couldn't depend on the puppies holding to that agreement, "And we're not in any position to launch a general uprising." The days were getting short it was getting harder to scavenge, for increasingly scarce goods and buildings weathered by the prevalence of air strikes, and of course kinetic strikes were going to be facing snow loads further north soon.

The problem was food. No one in the room was keen on leaving Asheville's arable land fallow... and they probably couldn't afford it... and the Shongairi could probably figure out, especially once winter came that they should be looking for livestock sources. Cows, pigs, sheep, goats all needed surface land... and raising chickens indoors presented its own challenges, but at least it was still practical.

"Do we have the resources?"

"For bare bones habitation blocks?" Kane replied to Matherson's question, "Yes, and frankly you may want to begin the evacuation of Montreat." Montreat, and black mountain were directly along the msr the Shongairi would probably take if they used the highway to head into Asheville. "The habitation blocks can probably be finished by January and let Asheville's residents finish them out," but he was talking about just living space, communications and food was going to be another matter... and in terms of resources, they'd probably need to cannibalize... recycle part of Asheville proper to fill out those buildings.

There was a throat clearing noise, and Dave Dvorakglanced to his brother in-law for support as the man looked sheepish at having drawn everyone's attention, "Uhm, the Shongairi... launched an attack.. but it wasn't a continuous battle."

"Yeah they clearly retreated," Rob Wilson nodded. Not that the puppies had called it that, "Somebody in Romania gave them a bloody nose, they broke contact..."

"And they must have expected a counter attack they ran readiness drills..."

Someone down the table muttered it did them a fat lot of good. The pre invasion lieutenant was one of the leaders of a coastal based resistance ground that reported to Mitchell as what remained of the SC-ANG. The lieutenant wasn't wrong.

"So did they misjudge whoever they attacked?"

"Why not just use kinetic strikes, then. Its completely against what we normally see. They launch an attack preemptively. No that doesn't make sense." Mitchell shook his head.

None of this made sense though. They didn't have details... and it wasn't as if KKVs had run out of ammo or something. They weren't smart munitions, throwing a rock from orbit was probably the cheapest thing in the Shongairi arsenal.

His private line gave a subdued notification rather than ringing his more public communication device. The communication through linker core was something he didn't advertise for plenty of reasons. The device was useful of course but more typical smart wear looked, blended better, even though he was sure raised questions.

It took a minute to cycle through what Ana was getting at, but her text message that it didn't add up pointed out the discrepancies.

It still took a minute to click.

The only obvious small arms damage in the base eerily reflected their own attack in the base to the north east of Black Mountain nearer to Greensboro, and Howell's government. As if... The Shongairi had been the only ones shooting. It hadn't clicked immediately, because the shongairi regiment that had been retreating had been mauled in a conventional stand up fight with all the accoutrements of modern war.

There was no indication of hellfire blasts as in their attack... but the Shongairi had in some cases been staked to the walls or cut to pieces... some was clearly post mortem... but peri mortem or around the time of death... some were the cause of death... that raised more questions. The only shots that had been fired were also entirely fewer. Whoever, whatever group had gone in, had suppressed most of the Shongairi before an alarm had been sounded, and then they had much as he and Ana had simply walked through the attempts to slow them down... and with significantly less obvious reply.

Swords? Knives?

"Its clear," Longbow was saying. "That the Shongairi don't know what to make of it. They're combing the area around the base looking for things. Leaving aside that obviously some of the Shongairi were killed unaware..."

"They prevented outgoing Shongairi communication for the duration of the attack. No alarm sounded, no attempt to raise outside, maybe even disrupted internal communications."

"Could it be the Russians?"

"No." Kane replied. "And I don't imagine it is a NATO reply... the Shongairi were experimenting on humans... I think they may have shown the wrong human how to use their technology... and that someone turned their own systems off." ... which only potentially answered one question, and frankly the least of the questions he had. "My bigger concern is what prompted this." He tapped the table console, and brought up the forest of stakes.

It wasn't all of the Shongairi, so far as he could tell the Shongairi had only identified the Shongairi troopers who had launched the attack into the mountains... but some group of partisans had gone through and taken the time to raise and stake, impale, Shongairi troops of significant number in the open.

"Holy shit." Was about the general consensus.

"Shongairi medical reports say this was largely post mortem."

"Largely?" Dave caught on.

"The Commanding officer of the Regiment was apparently alive when he was impaled, though already injured." Kane replied clinically bringing up the translated document stolen from the Shongairi data network. He wasn't sure what to make of the Shongairi coroner, medical examiner,'s remarks on the strength needed to impale 'Harah' on the piece of lumber, but it was another detail.

"So basically all we know for sure is that they pissed someone off."

... and now they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

--
Notes: I mean he's Vlad the Impaler, Kazlike Bey, for a reason.

 

[Morkail]

thanks for the chapter. In terms of points what has he spent and what will get get once they unlock?

 

[Imperator Pax]

thanks for the chapter. In terms of points what has he spent and what will get get once they unlock?

Click to shrink...

I would have to find my notes I'm not at my computer, but in the original version the Misaka network, and Skynet were two of the reinforcing segments with the implication being that each of the Misaka sisters is managing an MCV but that version also played a little more into on screen game mechanics. Skynet will probably make an appearance as she was more of a character in the original version, complete with Howell's staff making Terminator jokes. [and in that version I had the invasion taking place in 2019, even though I suspect it occured earlier, though not too much earlier given what we know of from whats said in the sequel]

 

[Trek]

Mc knows about the vampires but Is keeping mum about it? Well it makes sense no one would believe it without direct proof.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Mc knows about the vampires but Is keeping mum about it? Well it makes sense no one would believe it without direct proof.

Click to shrink...

Its more like 'something doesn't add up, so its obviously something supernatural, Ana and I are the only people (well Zwei) who have otherwise demonstrated this)

This is in part because the way I tend to write challenge builds like this is the assumption that the MC doesn't have access to plot knowledge. But yes, 'who would believe me when I say clearly magic'.

 

[Trek]

Its more like 'something doesn't add up, so its obviously something supernatural, Ana and I are the only people (well Zwei) who have otherwise demonstrated this)

This is in part because the way I tend to write challenge builds like this is the assumption that the MC doesn't have access to plot knowledge. But yes, 'who would believe me when I say clearly magic'.

Click to shrink...

So mc does not have the metaknowledge about this world and is just going around without any info of the plot? As in he is not just just pretending he does not know they are vampires, he actually does not know the plot about the vampires?

 

[ATP]

When real Vlad was invaded by Ottoman army,he stopped them with forest of impaled tuks/most long dead,but few still alive/
Turks had 10:1 numerical advantagembut stil feared to attack.
Or,to precise ,average troops feared Vlad more then their own ruler.And only 10% of sultan army were proffesional - so he must retreat.

It was good tactic against army made from levies.Would not worked agaist romans or other proffesional army.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Turning
Part 2​

Asheville was formed from a natural confluence of factors... much like most of the western Carolina reach shaped by river and rock. The same features which had shaped colonial settlement in the 1700s also impacted invasion parameters, though in different ways. Asheville's arable land was a valuable resource to use even if they were gambling on the Shongairi not striking a civilian population center that wasn't anywhere close to the Shongairi and not attacking.

That had held through the summer, and now fall months, but things had changed. The Shongairi had changed behaviors, had been changing behaviors even before ... whatever had happened in Romania... and if this had been Ana's native earth there were any number of threats that could have done this.

Demons, vampires, the lot of them. Ana had her suspicions on what it could be but that was impacted by her own nature... was she right? Kane wasn't sure. It seemed possible. This was the first time someone else had replicated a similar overall attack success to their own... which meant it stood out...
As he sat there and contemplated the situation, his gut feeling, his instinct was that Shongairi had to have been attacked by someone, or plural... and he wanted to trust Ana's instincts but they didn't have proof... so even if she was right they could hardly be expected to go to the resistance on it... not on a gut feeling.
and it come right after a major conventional bloody nose meant they still weren't sure how the Shongairi were were going to respond... and that put Asheville at the forefront of their attention. It was the nearest large urban city that was intact that wasn't under occupation. There were a few in the midwest including some along the great lakes, and further afield it sounded, through the grape vine, as if there were surving towns in flyover country that hadn't warranted KEWs... but the east coast states were a different story...
They would have to see what the internet could tell them... see if anything came out, but... there more local matters first.
"Are you sure this will work?" The question came from Dvorak's brother in law. The marine sounded skeptical.

"No we're not sure." someone snapped.

They hadn't even approached Asheville's municipal council with the plan yet... but said council was getting antsy about their dwindling coal stockpiles.... not helped by the early inch of snow. That was a lot for this time of year, and it come suddenly stealing from the night. It was a further indication of the possibility the winter could be significantly cooler, and longer than usual and that warranted the presence of the adjacent mountain habitation blocks, even if it was really the Montreat community potentially more on the hook. While the Dvorak-Wilson community had a few other families in Montreat had actually been a good size town, and one that largely weathered intact.

"The Shongair are going to notice either way."

The question really was what the Shongairi would notice. Asheville's coal stocks were dwindling... Asheville had two coal fired plants to begin with and while Kane was sure they were managing somehow to draw out their stocks by bringing in some coal it wasn't going to be enough.

The room turned into a twist of shouted arguments about whether or not the invaders would believe that Winter and the shut down of the coal plans once the coal ran out had forced the population to largely melt into the wilderness until nothing but a minor agricultural subsistence farming community on the surface remained.

... and that really was the question. Cold Mountain could be expanded with a larger nuclear power generator that in theory could supply a chain of habitation blocks to support what remained of West Asheville through the winter. Kane spared Ana a look, and and the two of them stepped outside as the Western North Carolina Militia staff argued amongst themselves. There were other things they could be doing while the staff debated how they were going to the tell the town, and explain the large subterranean housing arrangements being made. Torino followed them out, which prevented a discussion of whether or not there were people like them in eastern Europe... but the possibility of it certainly would have explained both engagements.

Was there someone else with an MCV did that explain the conventional battle? Had someone else dug into the mountains, just on a different continental landmass? It was in many ways an appealing thought, that maybe someone had covered at least a part of Europe, and then retaliated to an attack on their conventional assets much like he would have... but they didn't have proof. That was grating because he couldn't be sure Ana's supposition was right or wrong, merely that something had happened on the other side of the world that the Shongairi were surely going to respond to.

"Still working on a response?" Major Torino questioned. His Georgian accent was natural but polished and vocabulary shaped by the Air Force. The USAF vernacular English had a tendency that wasn't a hundred percent in line with the army... but it was just different enough that he expected that Kane was cognizant of how English was likely to shift in a generation or two.

Torino had a point though in that they did need to make a decision sooner rather than later. The recent disaster for the invaders while useful didn't change the fact Torino's original objective had been facilitating contact with more northerly American resistance groups... and if western North Carolina was getting snow at the beginning of November then he couldn't imagine what the situation was going to be further north.

"We will be heading further north," Further north really than they had been previously, "Soon." There were limits of course. They'd only be able to go so fast. "You said that the northern groups were trying to move further south."

That was complicated by not just Fuel limitations but also damage to the road network. Any kind of migration was being conducted in small convoys that were at risk.... and that showed in the idea that the nominal Massachusetts National Guard remnants the militias, and their dependents, formed from the pilgrim state were trying to move down to West Virginia... thankfully meeting them there was much more reasonable than trying to push through the ruins of DC or worrying about navigating around Greensboro. Meeting them in West Virginia could be done.

"Are you really going to send those things to hollow out old coal mines?"

"its not that simple." That had been one of the suggestions from one of the Black Mountain ROTC cadets ... now a militia lieutenant... "But the old coal mines will be useful, but not for habitation blocks. We can meet them in the Monongahela National Forest, or at Seneca," That was proving the best way to do things with resistance groups. The pre invasion state and national forests were far enough isolated from urban build up that they were useful to do things away from Shongairi presence. "I don't know how smart trying to move winter quarters would be otherwise..." The idea of marching south for the winter seemed like a poorly thought out one... as if someone had pulled it out of a history book without quite the idea of the logistical requirements for it... or that it was prompted by desperation, which was probably just as likely, whatever the case. "Maintaining the Massachusetts as a coherent fighting force is a priority," As was keeping their dependents alive, for the simple hope of insuring a surviving human species after.

Once Shongairi orbital dominance was broken... once the fleet in orbit was reduced to free floating expanding gasses and metal fragments they could focus on a ground campaign in order to take back the planet, even if that might take a decade, or a generation, or however long it took the Invaders would be defeated... and a response would be mounted... though Kane was sure that any retaliation against the Shongairi would require humanity building their own copies of extra dimensional technology.

First though they needed to get through winter.

--
Notes: Yes, to clarify Kane doesn't know the plot, but recognizes or hopes at least hey somebody fighting the aliens has supernatural powers to... this the same frame of mind, processing Buchevsky goes through where Vlad shows him the Shongairi footage and he zeroes in on 'oh they must be vampires too' because Buchevsky has just been told Vampires are a thing. Kane hasn't zeroed in on Vampires so much as someone with similar magic to him, or Ana, or out of the ordinary for most.

ANd indeed Vlad's response of impalement to the shongairi, doesn't work as well on the Shongairi as it does a turkish army of the 15th century, because the puppies are a professional army... but Vlad also does it because 'I'm damn well going to send these invading bastards a message'. ANd thickair's response is like 'Who could have done this, this isn't normal for the humans we've been fighting. They don't normally do this.'

 

[Morkail]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[Trek]

I really doubt it will take a decade to unify earth after mc destroys or takes over the spaceships he has an overwhelming tech advantage.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I really doubt it will take a decade to unify earth after mc destroys or takes over the spaceships he has an overwhelming tech advantage.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that's a tremendous over estimation based on just failing to understand just how much of humanity is actually dead right now in terms of statistical change

Thats based off 'this is what I know of earth's political situation before the invasion' rather than conciously processing how the Shongairi killing 3/4s of the planet in six months give or take has effected the real political situation. The MC is not omniscient and is still working off of ideas like there 'fifty states' 'Nato is an alliance of 30 countries' 'there a hundred eighty countries' basic facts like that, that aren't really relevant any more

 

[Imperator Pax]

Turning Part 3​

They would have had more options if they had had greater access to the intercostal waterways, but they didn't. Simply put it was easier to simply burrow into the blue ridge mountains and just keep reinforcing... that was a much safer method of protecting against the Shongairi orbital advantage... and further inland there were other problems. The intercoastals were being buffeted by hurricanes potentially as many as three in the last month, but that rain was being pushed inland where it froze and came down sometimes just as frozen rain, sometimes as actual snow. Kane couldn't be sure but the long massive cloud banks of dark grey and no telling what it looked from orbit could very well have been obscuring Shongairi orbital surveillance, and as Shongairi Radio Communications drones became less and less common the Shongairi were forced to fight with less communication apparatus beyond local.

They had confirmed that the destroyed regiment in Romania had been relocated to Eastern Europe... apparently as rear line garrison duty after it had been savaged in fighting in Pennsylvania... the irony. It was darkly amusing news, and Kane hoped that the situation in Europe would continue to keep the Shongairi distracted. He wasn't clear on the details of what had happened in Pennsylvania, the developments beyond Virginia had been opaque since hte invasion had started. Even Torino could couldn't really make the situation much less opaque.

The Massachusetts Militia... a combination of mobilized citizens built around a surviving core of national guard and veterans had put together a collection of supposed regiments. It was painfully continental army highly reminiscent of the Revolutionary war... and indeed given the staff composition of the Massachusetts command that was probably intentional as a rallying effort for their civilian dependents.

In a display of probably the best sense they had gone so far as to nickname their brain trust, the Manhattan project. It was possible, though Kane was doubtful, the collection of surviving MIT and other scientists decision to pursue building a nuke had been inspired by the attempt in late spring, the supposed dirty bomb. The of course was that they would use the weapon against the Shongairi base in North Carolina it was from jump street a planned suicide attack. There had already been other attempts to use nuclear weapons against the Shongairi.

The Chinese. The French. India and Pakistan concurrently to the two deciding to also try and settle their preexisting grievances. The lack of a US, Russian, and Israeli response raised questions for Kane. He suspected that the lack of a US and Russian one might have had something to do with the actual chain of launch command authorization. Israel was an unknown. The UK by all indications had simply had the misfortune of having the kingdom's boomers knocked out before they could determine a strike.

... that brought them back to the matter of the brain trust and what they made of the situation. "Colonel Mason," Doctor Mason... it was absurd to Kane that someone who had separated out after Gulf 1 as first lieutenant missed the entirety of the war on terror, was now sitting at equal footing with a pre war on terror colonel, or also in this case outranked a war on terror air force officer in Torino's case... but he supposed that was desperation by the New Englanders. "Thinks from the data that ninety percent of the planet is dead."

... and on that the staff officer was probably correct. Kane wasn't going to object that Mason was probably brilliant. Statistics. Data. Ninety Percent was an abstract number. The entirety of the Chinese seaboard seemed to have been gone. The cities that hadn't been hit in the initial wave had in what had been a completely bone head maneuver by the CCP moved to a general uprising that had resulted in the rest eating KEWs. Not that the losses in the subcontinent he had already mused over hadn't been insanity at its finest. Brazil had been thoroughly saved. The alien invasion had completely devesasted world grain production, Russia, Ukraine, the United States, China, Kazakhstan, France and so on ... and even if the ion cannons had been ready tomorrow they were likely never going to know the extent of the dead in Africa.

Even the Shongairi didn't know... and frankly had stopped counting months ago after estimated between two thirds and three forths of 'KU 197 20' of the dominant life form had perished. Still staring at the skyline Kane knew that unlike in southern heat his barrier jacket in its broad great coat configuration attracted envious looks as the snow flurries came down.

"Then I trust the doctor understands the necessity of preserving what remains of mankind." The truth was with the MCVs and the facilities, "A single nuclear while tactically useful, is unlikely to operationally change the war."... but nuclear weapons were not by themselves going to change the strategic calculus.

That simply lead them down the rabbit whole of what had been stockpiled, squirreled away before they turned and retreated underground and away from the dark gray skies of west Virginia. Building an MCV was expensive, and time consuming, especially without Tiberium in terms of the raw materials. Reclaiming and tearing down ruins to reprocess provided those materials but it took time... and of course they hadn't operated on the opposite side of Greensboro. Virignia had no groundwork infrastructure so the productivity of an MCV deployed this far north would take time...

... it simply wasn't as simple as the memetic a commander builds a metal extractor... but he had recognized that when they had begun in north georgia... but even then, having arrived in this world with little information beyond that earth faced an alien invasion, and that this local, the contemporary earth ahd no answer to alien orbital supremacy he had had something of a plan... and now they were more than half way there to implementing it, even if they hadn't quite followed exactly the plan.

... the plan really had been more of an outline Kane supposed. A course of events, milestones they needed to reach before they could be sure they had the firepower to break the Shongairi hold on the orbitals and thus return control of Earth to humanity.

The underground passage was a much more straight elevator descent than the angular tram descent used further south, and the opening hab block to the first tram more closely resembled that of the originally hard surface 'fifties' aesthetic hab blocks before Carolinian residents had started making adjustments to livability and not being such a brutalism / modernist eye sore.

They weren't precisely the same. The Massachusetts diaspora had had months to work out hygeniec conditions for moving overland, both on roads and off. They weren't the throngs of people displaced from cities in the first few days and weeks of the invasion, but there was a pointed change in their appearance also. These were a population of several hundred or even low thousands depending on the total size of the movement who hadn't been moved quickly into underground shelters in the upstate. There was a greater volume of winter coats and heavier clothing. The shoes were different as well. Reflecting a roughly seven hundred mile trek from New England to Appalachia.

Given where they were it was unlikely, especially given the changing of the seasons, that these people were going to have the time to start swapping lights to LEDs or finding salvage from the ruins of cities to make the habitation blocks more at home feeling... one thing at a time though.


Torino was vastly less critical... but then the new arrival, the air force major had never been inside the vast depths that had been carved out within blood mountain and the perpetual red lights and hard black surfaces that had replaced the cold war esque decor. "This is amazing, I had heard that in the cold war there were plans to carve out protected hangars to launch interceptors from NORAD or out from Alaska," or Northern Japan, "But getting this done this fast."

Kane shook his head, "It is largely cold war reinforcements and material, the concrete setting takes the longest time, but its similar to how the second generation communication bunkers were built, though it is faster. Nuclear reactors are also modular now, and can be installed and run offsite or to capacitors to insure reliable power." they didn't have to worry about above ground transformers or power lines. They weren't to the point, or to where having protected hangars was an option, or at least not a smart diversion of resources. "With shelter from the elements taken care of, we'll seed the aquaponics with fish, and rudimentary coverage of ph management." Then they'd move on to making sure the mountain complex could take care of chickens, and other more complex greenhouse complexes. "That should coupled with food reserves," Canned beans mostly, "Insure there is a margin through the winter months, especially as underground it was easier to maintain a stable and warm temperature without sinking massive volumes of electricity into heating.

 

[Morkail]

Survive long enough to take the orbitals back, steal there ship tech kill every zeno on earth… then go do on to others as they would do on to you. Because I highly doubt the humanity right now would blink at bombing every one of there worlds to the Stone Age. For quite a few generations anyone voting for downsizing the military will probably need to watch out for mobs coming to your house… or bunker door.

thanks for the chapter.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Survive long enough to take the orbitals back, steal there ship tech kill every zeno on earth… then go do on to others as they would do on to you. Because I highly doubt the humanity right now would blink at bombing every one of there worlds to the Stone Age. For quite a few generations anyone voting for downsizing the military will probably need to watch out for mobs coming to your house… or bunker door.

thanks for the chapter.

Click to shrink...

This canonically Vlad's plan. "I'm stealing your ships, and going to all of your worlds" to the Shongairi

and IIRC in the sequel he (I still haven't finished into the Light) may be considering hitting the Hegemony next because they pointed the Shongairi at earth and a couple other 'primitive' worlds to conquer for whatever reason, but most certainly Vlad's plan was 'Grand Theft Starship and Exterminatus' [Vlad is the epitome of 'you fucked with the wrong house' and also that his response is so often the one anecodtally that most people agree with, like here or SB when people talk about the response to the Shongairi and Vlad is absolutely that response in canon.]

 

[ATP]

most prymitive A bomb - gun barrel,with 2 portions of Uran at each end.They were blown at each other,meet in center,and we have atomic blast.

 

[Imperator Pax]

most prymitive A bomb - gun barrel,with 2 portions of Uran at each end.They were blown at each other,meet in center,and we have atomic blast.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much what MIT's eggheads had in mind, "Oh we've got a guy who is okay launching a suicide car bomb lets take this Uranium and make sure he has the biggest firecracker possible"

MIT 2: "Yeah the aliens will get a real nasty surprise out of it!"

Ana: *Gets bowl of popcorn*

Kane: "Now a moment of your time please."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Turning 4​

Ana had moved closer as a by product of the increasing volume of people the Massachusetts Guard was awah in people who had raided gram ma's couch camo, the ACU, from surplus store... then again most of the pre invasion guard still didn't the transfer over to the army's more recent brilliant idea of desert camo either. There were other people who had either raided the surplus stores first and had the good sense to grab the older woodland stuff or had grabbed it because it had been ignored... and then there were those who must have looted the REI or wherever and grabbed hunting camo instead.

It wasn't that much of a surprise. They had seen that and the usual mix of civilian clothes, tactical black nomex, and assorted other 'post apoc chic' over the summer but with the winter cold coming early it had forced a certain amount of practicality. Shirts designed with wearing plate carriers in mind particularly in hot urban environments like Iraq had not been designed with fighting in temperate or near alpine climates, and thus didn't work as well. Not that it seemed as if the Massachusetts Militia had a had an abundance of anything more modern than CIRAS or interceptors and those worked well enough with older style bdu tops of any coloring ... but it wasn't as if the older bulkier armor protection systems were common either.

That was something that could be feasibly addressed. Manufacture of nylon military goods from clothing, parachutes, load bearing webbing, vehicle harnesses and so forth was one thing... medicine production was larger bottleneck. It didn't escape him that they'd avoided discussing the native west Virginians.

This was far further north than Kane had been previously operating and he had to wonder how things were going in the country roads state. With less than two million people originally he wasn't sure how well the state had weathered the invasion... given the broader condition of the US poorly was his working assumption.

"Medical care was one of the thing the Shongairi promised. It was suspicious, but the aliens have a surprisingly good grasp on biology, well beyond what we were expecting. The end result was that they were looking for adolescents." Some of the doctor's information was merely repetition of things he had already been told by one person or another.

'Protein synthesizers' were not quite replicators, but the Shongairi weren't that far off from Star Trek Technology... or at least not quite to TNG level Trek from the sound of it. It raised questions of course, but the flow of information, and its dispersal into the human survivor population was useful.

Of course the Shongairi had FtL, but it was slow. Kane remained silent because of course they had already known that fact and frankly Faster than Light Travel was Faster than Light and not a relevant tactical concern on a terrestrial battlefield. It was obvious, and confirmed now that the Shongairi had not expected to need reinforcements and were not able to easily get reinforcements. It wasn't even clear exactly how useful Shongairi / Hegemony FtL communications were given they were subject to the same limitations as their ships' FtL drives.

'Limitations' that didn't account for much given the orbital advantage, and it was that reason, and really that reason alone that Kane opposed using nuclear suicide bombs. At least since they had better options if they simply waited, and avoided drawing attention. "I assume that you determined at some point the purpose of this interest?"

Their initial confusion on the topic had made sense. The apparent original research had been in how humans learned. The same general conclusions about Shongairi socialization, and learning, how Shongairi were taught, brought up had been made. There was little in the way of technical education in the Shongairi system, nothing that explained how Shongairi children grew up to be a functional part of a star faring civilization on the order that the puppies had.

That was because the Shongairi, and by implication the whole of the Hegemony didn't.

They learned by neural engrams. Neural learning technology, that apparently humans were quite capable of benefitting from with just the standard Shongairi settings. In other words any Shongairi learning package for their neural educators could be given to a human with no real modification, and bam you have a teenager that as long as they had the vocabularly in a human language could explain a working fusion reactor.

It was an intriguing proposition.

Kane's Scientific Talent allowed him to understand the principles behind any of the Nod or GDI technologies, in addition to the insight into Belka's magic, but the Shongairi neural technology was a different kind of thing.

It wasn't perfect of course the Shongairi knowledge didn't allow them to magically build thing that the invaders took for granted... or had taken for granted. Things like the air cushioned hover tanks required a level of ceramic manufacturing that the human survivors didn't have...

... or rather that Massachusetts didn't have. The light weight ceramic armor might not have been as good protection as the latest generation of Chobham or uranium lined wonder armor in Abrams but it was lighter and light enough for the protection that Shongairi tank could have been moved, put on a flat bed, and towed by the commonly available Ford 250 series, and larger, because the 'Shongairi's GEV' was weight comparable to a Stryker as a result of those lightweight composites and the engine technology the Shongairi used to push that chassis around.

Of course that meant that Shongairi GEV were vulnerable to copper formed explosive penetrators or any other fun IED combinations in a way that an Abrams wasn't but the puppies had come expecting to fight knights on horse back... but for under fifty thousand pounds the hover tank was still certainly plenty dangerous if it could shoot at you.

"What you are saying is that, the Shongairi conducted significant experiments that demonstrated that humans could be taught to use alien technology in ... a matter of hours?"

"The Shongairi began their experiments with children, adolescents, the first age cohort were puberty, but we know they began expanding up and down. The conclusion ultimately reached by the shongairi was that was no need to modify existing shongairi neural helmets beyond simple fitting for individuals," Which was so far as the Shongairi were concerned a simple, trivial even thing, "and moved on to confirm fully mature humans would have no issue integrated into working on Shongairi technology after Neural education was provided."

... surely the puppies hadn't been that stupid.. he didn't voice but he assumed someone had probably already brought it up. He wasn't sure how much the Massacusetts knew about the situation in eastern europe but that had been his working theory that someone knew enough about Shongairi systems to override their own equipment... but if the scale of the program was anything like it sounded like... given some of the systems the Shongairi had, "Is that how you planned to deliver the nuke?'

"No, we ultimately decided it wasn't necessary. The truth is that from our reconnaissance the ability to deliver a Hiroshima style device in the back of a truck against the aliens could be accomplished without needing to operate Shongairi technology. Deliver and drive up."

Kane nodded. "I am quite confident telling you that that isn't going to be necessary, and indeed in our present state would likely prove counter productive to our ends. There have as I have told Major Torino been previous attempts at the use of nuclear weapons, and while there has been limited tactical success," by some metrics, "Shongairi retaliation from orbit, which we do not currently have a response to, is extreme."

"The shongairi neural educators can be used to train pilots."

"I assumed as much." Kane replied. "I assume of course you planned to attempt some sort of hijacking... and then what place a nuke aboard Sword of Empire, and kill fleet commander Thickair in that manner?"

There was some shuffling.

"If we can survive the winter, in approximately four to six months that might not be necessary. It might be possible to deploy enough weapons that the entire Shongairi fleet is crippled and unable to mount any kind of retaliatory strike, but we need time, and resources to make that attack happen."
--
Notes: we conclude Turning with Vlad next, and then move into the first winter post invasion. This was originally going to carry a second scene focusing on just Kane and Ana relative to the moving in of the northern resistance group into their mountain hab blocks but thats been delayed.

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

That has to be an incredibly bitter pill to swallow for the resistance on the east coast. The by far best equipped and coherent group/faction shows up to share info and trade desperately needed supplies. They tell you straight up that a major counter attack isn't just possible but already in the works…but it'll be 4 to 6 months until the attack can start.

 

[Imperator Pax]

That has to be an incredibly bitter pill to swallow for the resistance on the east coast. The by far best equipped and coherent group/faction shows up to share info and trade desperately needed supplies. They tell you straight up that a major counter attack isn't just possible but already in the works…but it'll be 4 to 6 months until the attack can start.

Click to shrink...

At least you the plan is to provide food and shelter to last the winter, but yeah the hard thing is "We have to wait" other wise the shongairi will just sit there and pour rocks into the gravity well and roks don't even cost the shongairi anything to use. They're not a high tech solution the puppies can do it no risk to expensive or hard replace planes or even personnel sit in orbit let 'em fall, "so we have to wait"

 

[ATP]

Neural educators are game changers.Now,every poor nation could become nation of engineers in days.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Turning
Conclusion​

Mischa, Dracula, looked like a placid lake surface, while the marine felt like a coiled spring just wanting for an outlet to burst. "The invaders have no explanation," The Vampire remarked finally. His eyebrows knitting in a vexed annoyed expression and then returned.

"I mean I wouldn't have been surprised if the government was lying about the volume of our stockpiles," Except that, that ... just didn't make sense, because it was no secret that US could rapidly forward deploy units and ready entire brigades in the span of weeks... the cold war era system had involved maintaining a truly massive fleet of constantly updated and overhauled tanks so ...

Mischa shook his head, "No, the invaders have considered this, and while they are willing to admit internally that they misjudged and indeed missed facilities," The Admiral and F 22s came to mind, "They couldn't have possibly missed such a depot,"

"Except they clearly did."

"Indeed my Stephen." He concurred, "Clearly it does not add up, the shongairi believe that part of the United States' snap readiness involved distributing materiel but this was limited to units at the company level and below, perhaps the battalion, but you cannot do such a thing for large units."

"And it wouldn't make sense if the president believed there was a nuclear attack or something imminent."

It was a different sort of response criteria... It wasn't like the Iranians were going to Red Dawn paradrop a bunch of people into upstate new York or something. "And ready access stockpiles would be gone by now."

"Yes." He looked to Take, "Besides Take has other concerns. We need to consider why we are seeing this... so close to a major Shongairi base... especially given what we know of the alien's plans, we must commit to decisive action, and deal with this threat."

The simple truth was that Vlad wasn't a modern person. He understood computers, and could talk about films at length, but it wasn't the same thing. His view of geopolitics was rooted in ideas that were if Stephen Buchevsky were honest centuries back. The kind of ideas of warfare that you only went on winter campaigns when you had to, and one where the ideas of 19th​ century nationalism and civic organization was a concept centuries down the road.

He understood biological warfare in the concept of someone who could actually remember things like plague being a daily occurrence, while still understanding the science behind epidemics spreading through poor hygiene, or tainted water. If Vlad hadn't laid waste toe the Songairi base then he probably wouldn't have recognized the attempt.... if it had gotten off the ground.

Buchvesky was career enlisted, and not in the CRBN career track or an associated briefing area, and then on top of that was that these were aliens. There was no way to be sure the Puppies couldn't still launch the attack, but it didn't change the massive 'conventional' superiority in firepower the Shongairi could send from orbit.

"I think, we should visit America."
--
It was easy for Mischa to say that, but well... he was the super vampire, and it didn't change the fact that there was still a sizable Shongairi threat in the ruins of Europe. Working from the Shongairi's own mathematical modelling the human population may have been reduced to between a quarter or, a half billion people as a result of ongoing secondary effects. The world had been majority urbanized, and major cities had been subject to orbital attacks, which had as first order effects destroyed major population centers, but then as a second order disrupted national transportation grids, power grids, as well as international trade. Buchevsky had remembered participating in a positively anachronistic harvest in the mountains of Romania, and of course trading with other villages for various fresh greens and other goods as they had slowly knitted together a community largely separate from the frontline until the Shongairi had brought the war to their doorstep in the mountains of Wallachia.

Mischa didn't appreciate that territorial incursion into his ancestral homeland, but more than that especially took offense at the direct targeting and attempted abduction of the children under his care... something about the Ottoman turks. That more than anything made it an extreme degree of personnel even though the 'original vampire' had clearly been moving towards more involvement in wider resistance activities before the attack on their collection of villages .

That was why they were looking at the tractors, earth movers, and trying to work out how they were going to do this. "This place is spooky top." One of his surviving marines remarked sweeping his M16 around the cave network. "I don't like it."

"Its a very unique system, a geologic curiosity." One of the local spelunking club, a university student before the war, stated. He was carrying an Arsenal, a Bulgarian manufactured, Kalashnikov type rifle with a folding stock built to approximate the Russian 101.

For Buchevsky he prospect of running out of Five Five Six nato standard ammunition had occurred to him before, but he'd expected that their periodic raids on the Shongairi being mounted on their terms would let them stretch it out, as Mischa had been able to trickle to them enough of soviet, and warsaw built equipment that he hadn't been that worried.

They had bullets for the guns they had, and that had been enough at the moment. It had been when the concern had been extending feelers to neighboring communities out of a concern of human on human violence of people fighting for food during the winter... and that was still a concern before the Shongairi had come a knocking.

"This cave network has been purported to be haunted since even when my father, and grand father were alive," Mischa remarked slipping out from the shadows, "in the stories one could find precious metals, but also the very horrors of hell within it, but I am assured that the air is quite safe, even if it does become quite warm."

Romania, Stephen was given to understand was the kind of place considered ninety five to be hot but nothing compared to Iraq or the high humidity and summer heat of the south with one hundred five days.

"Yes there are no signs of any poisonous gasses and while we haven't completely delved in the there is an underground river which provides clean water, and abundant space."

"Excellent, we should begin trying to take precautions anyway, to shore up the roof of the cave." The vampire replied, "I will make sure Take shows you around where we think is best to start." The other vampire also emerged from the shadows looking a little grumpy and the romanian exchange that followed mostly centered around telling the university student to be careful and not to wander off the marked trails.

They'd helped themselves to a series of road work lights, and then from some ski lodges in order to give them some light to work with down here but the process of running the lights was limited by electrical power and by their limited number of such lights.

"Mischa?"

"As much as I would like to liberate the south east of the country, and drive the invaders from the land, the snows may soon cut us off entirely, they are coming strong and quickly these. It would be lovely weather to ski which is very likely to be forced to do in the mountains, but that will create a problem for fighting." He nodded sagaciously t o the wall of the cave, "This is very important my stephen, but it must be done. And we must look at the neighbors, as well as to find out and carry word over the sea."

"We could try the internet," OpSec was a potential concern there of course and how reliable it was...

"Yes, the internet, no... I have another way... I am simply loath to leave so soon... We must stay here for a time, but maybe we find something worthwhile in all of this." Mischa Baserab looked at the cave wall, "The Shongairi claim their... Hegemony these 'grass eaters' found our world a century before my birth, I mean to make them regret finding our world. We have much to do."

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Oh that's not ominous at all coming from honest to god Hellsing level Dracula.