Swarming Sovereignty

Lia sat at the head of the table, waiting for the last of her advisors to enter. This was one of their first formal war councils, and while this meeting wasn’t required for anyone not directly involved with it, there was still quite a number of participants.

Of those that were attending, Ophelia, Nailah, Alisha, Lily, and Rose were likely to do much of the talking being the most experienced with warfare, and, in Lily’s case, the one in charge of production and getting the army supplies.

As she thought about Lily, Lia made a note to get her more subordinates; Lily always seemed to have a hand in just about everything, and though she seemed fine, Lia was worried that she was overworking herself. She was sure there were plenty competent administrative personnel between the Glens and Aura, so it would just be a matter of having Lily pick who she wanted to work with.

After a few moments more, Nailah wandered in, a slight blush on her face. “Sorry I’m late.” She said. “I wasn’t keeping track of the time as well as I thought I was.”

“Nailah, you’re not even half a minute late.” Rose pointed out, an amused smile on her face. “You’re fine.”

“If you say so.” Nailah said doubtfully, taking a seat next to Ophelia.

“I say so.” Rose confirmed. “And, if I may, I think it’s time we got this meeting started.” Rose gave a nod at Lia, then continued. “First off, I’d like that status of our troops, both in and out of the capital. Mia, if you would?”

Mia nodded in affirmation. “We have roughly fifteen sapient people in our defense force here at home, and a few hundred non-sapients.” She said. “But…if I may take a moment, Gwinn and I have a request.”

“Go ahead.” Rose said.

“We would like to resign from our posts as head of homeland security.” Mia said. “While we were sufficient before, the scale of our nation has expanded dramatically, and the two of us are simply not qualified to handle the task on a large scale. We would still like to be involved, of course, but just…not on the level of management.”

Rose frowned. “I understand your sentiment,” she began, “but I’m not sure that’s entirely feasible. Not because we couldn’t find a replacement or anything, but because I don’t think it would be wise to not have you in a position of leadership. Your status as Lia’s parents would throw a wrinkle in the chain of command, and that could prove problematic. And I’m not saying I’m expecting you personally to cause trouble, I have full faith that you’ll obey orders and be generally easy to work with, but the people around you will be confused, especially since you used to be in charge.”

Rose drummed her fingers on the desk thoughtfully. “Perhaps it might be better for you to work as instructors?” She suggested. “We would still call you in if we’re attacked, but you’d be outside the normal chain of command.”

“That works for us.” Gwinn said. “Thank you. As for a replacement, we don’t really have anyone in mind, but I’m sure you can find someone capable.”

“I’ll do it.” Nailah offered.

“No, you won’t.” Ophelia said firmly. “We just got you to take a break, we’re not putting you back in a leadership position so easily.”

“That’s what other bodies are for.” Nailah protested. “One of them can just be relaxing, I need to work, I’m already getting a little stir crazy and it’s only been a couple of weeks.”

Ophelia sighed. “Yes, but having one body relax will only ease your mental exhaustion so much. You’re throwing yourself into a highly stressful position again, and I know you’re going to get too into it.”

“For now, let’s give Nailah another two weeks, then let her assume the position.” Rose said. “I’ll monitor her and make sure she’s not overworking herself, and if you feel it’s getting to be a problem, talk with me and we’ll work something out. In the meantime, I’ll take direct command, so there isn’t a gap in leadership for a couple of weeks.”

“Rose, I’ve had to talk with you about overworking yourself before.” Lia reminded her. “I don’t want to have to do it again.”

“I know full well my limits, and the limits of the people underneath me.” Rose said. “I won’t let her work too much, and our current homeland security at this moment isn’t particularly large; I’m already leading the army, managing another fifteen or so people won’t be a problem. By the time it grows bigger, Nailah will already be in her role, so it won’t be a problem, okay?”

“Fine.” Lia said reluctantly. “I suppose that works.”

“Mia, Gwinn, please prepare some documents detailing anything you would consider important for me or Nailah to know.”

“We’ll get on it as soon as the meeting is over. “Mia replied.

“Thank you, Mia. Moving on, Nailah, do you have the report from Lucia on the state of your army?”

“I do.” Nailah said, placing a few papers on the table. “In total, about five percent of our army chose to retire from military service, but we have received reports of some civilians that were interested in joining up. We’ve opted to close recruitment at the moment, not until things have settled down more, but prospects are good.

“The normal metric of level has been thrown into disarray by everyone being reset to level one upon conversion, but we were able to conduct a rough estimation by way of stats and prior level. We have six people that would be the equivalent of over level two hundred, around five hundred in the one hundred to two hundred range, and about eight thousand others. Not the largest army, I know, but we aren’t the largest country.”

Rose nodded in approval. “How many of those soldiers are needed to protect the population from monsters?”

“Aside from the villages near the Spine, not many, a few hundred of the lower leveled people and a few higher leveled people at most. We’re in the process of converting as many monsters as we can and distributing them amongst the villages for labor and protection, so that number should shrink.” Nailah replied. “We can mobilize, say, all those over two hundred, four fifty of those over one hundred, and perhaps six thousand five hundred of the rank and file.”

“Don’t mobilize until we have our supply lines sorted out, and leave about a thousand of the lower leveled soldiers and a few higher leveled ones and station them near the coast.” Rose instructed. “We’re going to want to protect against naval invasion, and build a navy of our own as well. In fact, it would probably be worth looking into converting monsters with ships to see if we can make living vessels; that might give us yet another edge.”

Lily’s eyes sparkled. “I’ve been wondering about that topic myself.” She said. “I’m not sure how it would work, but it’s an avenue worth looking into; if our ships themselves can be weapons, and can move under their own power, then shipping will be easier and safer.”

Rose nodded. “I’ll leave you in charge of that initiative, then.” She said. “Let me know your findings, and I’ll construct our navy around them. In the meantime, how are things on your end, Alisha?”

“Going well, Mistress.” Alisha said respectfully. “Our army has seen a similar rate of retirement, but our army has actually increased in numbers by about five percent due to new recruits, leaving us at roughly twice the size of the Glens’ army. We have already begun concentrating our forces along the eastern border, and while we haven’t had any major attacks, we have caught sight of multiple scouting parties and we’re sure that we’re going to get into some skirmishes soon.”

“The correspondence Emily has given us indicates much the same. What are your border defenses like?” Rose asked. “We may need to send some extra labor over there to get ready.”

“I made a point of having good border security with the east.” Alisha replied. “Not as much with the west, because the Glens are historically a rather pacifistic nation and Nailah was no different, but the Sapphire Empire has always been a threat.”

Rose scowled. “They’re the ones that claim to be my successors, right?”

“Yes.” Alisha spat. “They retain control of your capital city, but I’m afraid they’re nothing like you. They’re a stain upon the world, and the sooner we can reclaim your legacy from the hands of these parasites, the better.”

Rose blinked in surprise. “T-that’s quite alright, Alisha.” She said. “I was never terribly attached to my legacy anyway; I would much rather forget all about it.”

“Still, they drag you down by association, whether or not you currently wish to distance yourself.” Alisha said stubbornly. “As your devoted servant, nothing irks me more.”

Lia couldn’t help but notice how…uncomfortable Nailah looked, and chose to open a telepathic conversation while Rose and Alisha talked. Is everything alright over there? She asked.

Nailah jumped slightly. Yes, sorry. She said. No matter how many times I see it, it feels…wrong to see Alisha acting this way. I keep feeling like she has to be plotting something, but I know she’s been checked over multiple times and has been deemed safe. She was always so arrogant and prideful, and to see her act like…like a zealot is unnerving.

I understand what you mean. Lia sighed. I’m not particularly happy about it either, but…it’s better than she was before. At the very least, she’s not trying to actively tear us apart like she would have before.

I agree, it’s just hard to shake my prior perception of her. Nailah replied. I’m sure it’ll go away with time. But…I believe their conversation is over, we should listen again.

Right. Thanks for talking with me, Nailah.

Of course.

“But, back on topic, yes, the border is more or less secure.” Alisha said. “We have several border forts, and the border villages have been instructed to build fortifications with the aid of our military.”

Lia frowned. She had never quite understood why fortresses were so important, couldn’t people just…ignore them? It was one thing if they were, say, guarding a mountain pass and were the only good route into a location, but just in an open field? It seemed silly to put so much stock in something that could just be ignored.

Normally she would ask Rose, but Rose had gone into a discussion on logistics that was going over Lia’s head, and Lia didn’t want to bug Nailah again, so she just chose to wait it out until the meeting was over.

Most of the rest of the meeting was spent discussing logistics, primarily with how they were going to feed their armies. Unfortunately, most magically generated food wasn’t nutritious enough to be used as anything other than emergency rations, and would result in malnutrition if eaten for more than a couple of weeks in a row.

Amelia’s food dispensers were an exception, as was the case with basically everything she did, but if they wanted more of those, they needed Worship, which meant that they would have to pay an indeterminate amount of Blood Money. It was left as a possibility in case they were cheap enough to feasibly mass-produce, but they were going to proceed assuming they weren’t.

After around half an hour of discussion, the meeting ended, and Lia was finally able to ask her question. “Rose, why are forts important?” She asked. “People can just teleport or even walk past them.”

“Good question.” Rose said, smiling. “Assuming we’re talking about a proper fortress with proper shielding and not a hastily set up encampment, they provide a couple of main benefits. For one, a fort provides a relatively safe and comfortable place for soldiers to sleep, and that helps take away from some of the stress of a long campaign.

“But more importantly, a fort is a way for an army to project strength in a region while remaining in a defensible position. A well-built fort is a very difficult thing to take, and requires the attackers to commit significantly more resources than the defenders, often requiring a drawn-out siege, which takes time.

“And yes, you can march an army past a fort, but that’s almost always a poor decision. With the exception of perhaps Amelia, no mage is able to teleport an entire army’s worth of resources to them every day, which means you need a supply line. And, unless you dedicate a sizeable chunk of your army to guarding the supply lines, passing them through an area that contains an enemy fort is going to end with your supply lines getting destroyed and your army starving.

“By keeping our borders well-fortified, we essentially force an invading army to engage with one of our forts before making any significant push into our lands, and that engagement will take time, time that we can use to prepare. And, unlike traditional armies, every day we are given is a day we can use to grow our ranks with conversion; the longer this war takes, the more advantage we’ll have.”

“So…it’s a time advantage?” Lia said.

“Time and numbers. A smaller force can protect a fortification from a significantly larger force unless the attackers have a significant level advantage, which will allow us to leverage our smaller number of sapient soldiers. If we so choose, we can send out disposable waves of monsters to attack their armies, and while they’ll only do small bits of damage, every soldier they convert is another asset for us. It’s a very favorable position for us, so holding onto that position for as long as possible will be key.”

Lia nodded in understanding. “That makes sense.” She said. “Thanks, Rose.”

“Of course.” Rose replied, scooping Lia up into her arms. “I’m more than happy to teach people things, and doubly so when it’s my adorable wife I’m teaching.”

“W-where’s this coming from all of a sudden?” Lia asked, blushing.

“Do I need a reason to dote on my wife?” Rose giggled, placing a kiss on her forehead. “We are technically newlyweds, and as far as I know that means I get to be as affectionate as I want with you, no matter the situation.”

“Fine, two can play at that game.” Lia said, giggling in response. She activated her transformation ability, taking the form of a fox only barely larger than she had been when she was a rat queen and squirming out of Rose’s grasp. The moment she touched the ground, she nimbly leapt up, landing directly on Rose’s chest and nestling herself within her breasts. Just as good as I remember it being.

Lia borrowed the view of a nearby drone so she could watch Rose’s face grow bright red. “I…I…bedroom. Now.” Rose stammered.

“Don’t leave me out!” Amelia said. “And I’ll go invite Connie too, though I’m sure she’s not ready for it yet. But…you never know, so it’s worth a shot.”

Unsurprisingly, Connie was not ready for it, and that was perfectly fine. Lia wasn’t going to try and push her into something she wasn’t ready for; she had been on the receiving end of that, and she wasn’t going to put someone else through that. So, she’d just have to be satisfied with only her gorgeous wife and alluring girlfriend, but Lia was sure she’d find plenty of ways to manage.

Fighterman481 Another transitional chapter. Not much to say except that I'm pretty sure the bit about why forts are important is accurate, but it was surprisingly difficult to find answers on why people couldn't just ignore forts, and this seemed to be the best one I could find.

Anyway, next time we'll probably get to some border skirmishes, so...look forward to it, I guess!

And, as always, thanks for reading!