Chapter 427 - Far Future Ch. 137 – Assessment of the Situation (1/2)
One strategic conclave in Markspace, leaving out numerous parties who would dearly love to be involved...
”What prompted the interest of Dark Elvar beyond mere piracy?” Duke Parablum asked, brow furrowing. It wasn't like drow raiders were a new threat, but daring to go after a planet with existing and well-positioned orbital defenses was a great risk by their standards. They were either incredibly daring, or outright stupid.
”The Saber and Widow taking out their ambush so handily, I'm guessing,” I replied. ”Then, they went eavesdropping on the Boole, and saw a bunch of exciting things here.”
”Hundreds of minor psions in combat,” Duke Rimval nodded slowly. ”Ideal slaves and sacrifices to the Warp.”
”Precisely.” And I could confirm it, naturally enough. ”We've made ourselves interesting. The Briggs Brothers are especially interesting to them. Big strong humanoids butchering one another at their whims are like sweet wine to the drow.”
”The Portal inversion will make it impossible for them to mount a planetary attack that bypasses orbital defenses. Despite everything, they will be forced to launch further attacks from space. That is not a preferred tactic of theirs,” Captain Dornal noted.
Briggs agreed. ”In addition, their Underweb connection here has to be either down or corrupted, and will, for the short term, be unavailable. So they will have to take their slaves another way.”
”Except they really want to hunt down both the Saber and the Widow and take them and their crews apart to find out what makes them tick. They are now designated trophy prey. The drow are OBSESSED with that sort of shit,” I offered.
”That means they will send personal assassins or hunters,” Duke Rimval noted, a hint of worry in his tone.
”Have.” Everyone blinked. ”Ah, Tab didn't tell you about the stalker in her shower? And the shadow in the corner of Tiff's bridge? Must not have wanted you to worry. The twats thought shadow-slipping and hiding in temporalspatial cracks escaped True Sight.
”On a side note, Briggs has also popped a couple stalkers they've sent out to probe him, since he's a bit more accessible with the time he spends with the lads. They're surpassingly deadly when ambushing people, but, you know, they crack easy when a big power fist comes down on their skulls while they are skulking in dim-cracks.”
Briggs just smiled casually, brushing it off. ”It was basically done in passing. No big deal,” he admitted.
”Should I be hoping one tries the same on me when Vala is around?” Duke Parablum mused aloud.
”Yes!” I nodded agreeably, and he had to smile despite himself. ”Of course, that just makes you a bigger, funner target. We're expecting them to try sniping next, and then move on to explosives, then start raising the stakes.”
”They will invade worlds just to set up duels with notable characters,” Duke Rimval noted. ”I think we have made ourselves a target of their idea of fun...”
There was some silence from those in attendance.
”Normal forms of dissuasion simply will not work on the drow. The greater the challenge, the greater their desire to overcome it, by whatever methods are required,” Captain Dornal observed. ”And if they fail, well, they take vengeance on whoever has foiled them.”
”The catastrophe of the invasion definitely has someone wiping egg off their face, if they survived,” Briggs murmured. ”Individual assassins aren't working, it follows that they will try teams next, doesn't it?”
”If they are going after targets to take down who move about, yes. If someone is constantly surrounded by guards, they will still send out the individuals, until their most legendary killers get involved,” I supplied helpfully. It helped to have one of their bladewitches to reference this stuff against. There was a heaping load of stuff I and the other three girls had downloaded into an Akashic Node about the drow, and it was being gone through with a fine-tooth comb. They would probably be REALLY unhappy that outsiders now had such a good look into their society, how it worked, and some of the history behind it.
On the other hand, learning how to fight them better meant a whole lot of Coronal, Umbran, and Legion eyes were looking at all of it with great interest. Our trio of duelists were teaching a class on drow fighting techniques and how to face off against them, with great enthusiasm.
”Speaking of the catastrophe, was there any indication of Portals elsewhere in the system?” Duke Parablum inquired. ”I assume since you were looking at the planet you might have been looking elsewhere...”
I smiled slightly. The Map popped up between us, zeroed out a system view, and nine points blinked on, six on planets, one in the asteroid belt, one inside Janus III's orbit, and the other near the edge of the system, past the eighth planet in open space. ”No eruptions, but there were planar instabilities. If we weren't looking for them, they would have passed as background static.” The memories of the drow had supplied us the locations of six of them, so the other three were a neutrally undesired surprise. Serendipity, let's say.
”Those locations should be mined or Interdicted,” Captain Dornal stated.
”I think we should utterly surprise them with horrific bad luck if they use them, first,” Briggs posited in return. The Legion Captain considered that, eyes flickering to Janus III's representation, and smiled grimly, nodding. ”I do confess to not having the nasty turn of mind to design something suitably devastating and completely random to annoy the piss out of them with...”
”Crowd-source it. There are kids with some really nasty Talents out there,” I waved it off, and everyone present agreed with that. ”We'll review their ideas for prime hilarity, and try to make it look as much like total bullshit luck as possible, while killing the drow in new and entertaining ways.”
”It is how they want to die, is it not?” Duke Parablum nodded agreement. The Coronals had learned long ago not to even bother with attempting a fair fight with the dark elves. If they were found, they should be killed by whatever means were expeditious. The list of atrocities done at their hands simply did not allow for hesitation in this matter.