Path of the Hive Queen Chapter 420: Win and Losses

Tim looked out across the field and saw destruction. A few weeks ago, it had been a fertile adow, most of it half-heartedly planed with so kind of crop that fit a fallow cycle. A week ago, it had been the site of a lot of activity as people dug earthworks. Right now, it was a ruined ss. There were actual craters.

Of course, it had seen a lot of bombardnt. There were probably still so bodies buried under the rubble and dirt; or pieces of bodies. He wasn’t inclined to go digging and look.

Tim was still happy to see this sight, because it ant he had succeeded in his imdiate objective: This used to be an Esen defensive line and now it wasn’t, because they’d pushed them back. Of course, it also used to be an Imperial defensive line before that … but details, details.

Right now, they had not simply broken through another line to see the Esen hunker down behind another one a few kiloters farther away. They had actually managed to make them retreat. It had been costly, of course. Their losses had been high. But his army managed to break through their lines in several places and keep up the montum, defeating the Esen and encircling so of their forces; pushing them enough that they’d finally decamped.

“A glorious victory, right?” Jae comnted; he was still looking at the field like sothing had gone bad, though.

“What are our losses? Do you have the final numbers?” Tim asked.

Jae looked up, frowning. He was probably looking through the psychic link again. “Ten thousand casualties,” Jae finally said. “Mostly War Drones and Winged Drones. But we also lost almost a thousand Imperial soldiers.”

Tim winced slightly. Yes, that figures. It wasn’t that high a number, on its own. But all of those were real casualties; it wasn’t like their troops had fled or anything. And it was one engagent, if admittedly a longer one. And these numbers might well increase by quite a lot, too.

Tim shook his head, focusing on the psychic link again. The headquarters section was busy around him, but they didn’t need his input right now. Instead, he focused on coordinating the rest of his army. Their advance had to be well planned out. He didn’t think the Esen would try luring them into a trap, but he still wanted to be ready for the next battle. And to defend against the Esen trying to raid his army to slow them down and disorder them. Which ant he had to be careful with their artillery.

Tim had not received as many of those as reinforcents as he’d wanted; the Empire’s factories had reached their limits, and there just hadn’t been enough ti. Much less compared to the ti they’d had to build up in the anticipation of the war, at least. Considering this battle alone had cost him ten cannons, though, that was cold comfort.

At least so of them could possibly be salvaged … or at least their tal reused. Losing trained crews was maybe even a harder blow. But when an artillery piece blew up, there was little you could do for them. The Esen had gotten good at targeting.

"I’m going to get so sleep,” he said. “Have them wake up when we’re ready to move out.”

He knew there were still important tasks to be done, but Tim had also learned to pace himself. He had gotten little sleep over the past few days, and the battle had dragged on for quite a while. Plus he would still be busy the coming day. He wouldn’t be any use if he was completely sleep-deprived, though.

“Sure. I should do the sa,” Jae agreed.

Since they had already more or less packed up, and advanced so distance from his last quarters, Tim retreated to a carriage to have a nap. Apparently, it was also easier to defend. Ash had spread out two mattresses on the floor of the vehicle, and Zoe had just co in, too. They curled up together, and Tim reached out to the psychic link for a mont before going to sleep. It looked like nothing had been set on fire that shouldn’t be since he last checked, at least.

Once he finally awoke, he could tell seven hours or so had passed. It was still dark, but the sky was just starting to brighten with pre-dawn light. And Janis had returned to the Empire. As Tim stood up and stretched, looking around for so water and breakfast, he reached out to her.

It’s good to see you back, Janis, he greeted, transmitting his relief. You could have woken to say hi.

I think you needed the sleep, Tim. Congratulations on your latest victory.

Janis sounded tired as well, he noticed. Not in the sense that she hadn’t gotten enough sleep today, it seed more like a lingering kind of tiredness. Like when soone had been ill, he supposed, not that Tim could personally relate to that.

She was in the old base now, and from what he could sense, she’d settled in okay. Focusing and switching to a few other drones in the area, he could tell that security had been increased, and Tia was also there, though she was currently in a workshop. Oh, and Mia was traveling back in that direction. And apparently they had brought Janis’ old uncle here too, probably as part of the guards.

Thanks, he answered. I can’t talk long, I just wanted to say I’m glad you’re alright. You are alright, I hope? You can tell if you’re having trouble.

I’m fine, Janis replied, sounding a bit tired of getting that question. Just having a bit of issues with my magic, but it’ll pass. I’ll relearn things if I have to. Don’t worry about .

If you say so, he replied. I’m always here if you need to talk.

Well, at least as long as he was still within range. For now, Tim had to end the conversation since he did have work to do.

It only took him a few minutes to get ready, before he t with his most important commanders for a quick assessnt. As he could sense over the psychic link, they were ready, and this section of the army could march on. Others were already advancing according to plan. Tim chose a flying drone mount and went up into the air for an hour or so to supervise and check that everything was alright, and to get a better idea of the terrain ahead of him. Then he would have to stay in the carriage to read or write so reports; it was a little hard to do that on Winged Drone-back high in the sky.

The landscape east of their current position was mostly flat. There were wide plains that transitioned into forests, and these forests grew and generally connected to each other until they led into the depths of the subarctic boreal forests that ultimately stretched to Siberia. At least, that had been the case, if the geography still remained the sa. Here, while the region was not quite as settled as the Cernlian heartland, there were still more than enough people to mostly replace forests with rolling fields of wheat and other grain for as far as he could see. Small villages dotted the plains, regularly joined by bigger towns. There was no large city to speak of, at least not until you went much farther east from here, once you passed Prekan.

His army was in the process of doing that.

The Esen had clearly decided to abandon the city, knowing that they couldn’t hold it. Or maybe they’d simply realized the Empire would need quite a few of its soldiers to hold it. Regardless, Tim had decided to avoid that bait as much as he could. The main part of his army would be moving past Prekan instead of getting stuck in the city. Of course, he had still ordered a few battalions to take it. He couldn’t just leave the city at their backs, and half-ruined or not, he needed to deny the potential logistical base to the Esen.

Now, he watched the city through the eyes of several drones, taking note of the state of the fortifications and its other buildings. While the Esen had held it for a while, they clearly hadn’t invested too much effort into rebuilding it. Most likely, they hadn’t been able to. Unsurprisingly, the walls and the fortress were the most repaired, but it was still clearly a rush job. The castle was not as secure as it had once been, and they’d clearly used a lot of earth magic, but it had kind of been mostly leveled; that they still had a castle at all now was impressive on its own.

There were still so people in the city. They watched the Imperial troops march into Prekan with dead eyes, in silence hovering sowhere between sullen and grimly satisfied. So of these people must have been Imperial supporters, in the short ti he’d had power here, and so the opposite; in the gri and the desolation, it was hard to distinguish them.

At least most people seed to have a roof over their heads, and Tim already knew they had enough supplies to feed them for a while, though they would need shipnts from the Empire after that; the Esen had obviously cleaned out local granaries.

Tim sighed, checked in quickly with the local officers in command, and then moved on.

The Esen army itself was still in retreat, but in an orderly fashion. He poured over a few maps and reports, trying to guess their destination. Would they retreat until the border of their kingdom, or would they stop before that? There were a few towns that would serve as staging areas, at least. And they could probably occupy Ekland, which directly bordered Esen. Their ruler had tried to remain as neutral as possible and maintain ties to both sides, but the situation didn’t really allow for that and he’d leaned toward the Empire. That would be reason enough for the Esen, especially if they just needed an excuse to take the capital to hole up in.

Not that that kind of thing would really be a good idea anymore. The last few months of war had shown that, if nothing else.

Tim focused on his reports, trying to coordinate the advance of his army without losing sight of anything important. Several hours passed like this, as they made steady progress. His forward elents, usually on flying drones or fast tad beasts, but occasionally just fighters with the right Classes, had already established a screen pretty far out. He could at least be confident that nothing would surprise him. Well, except for potential strike teams small enough to slip through that net. There was a reason they had assigned bodyguard details to all high-ranking commanders.

But given their reconnaissance efforts, it shouldn’t have surprised him when Ash contacted him. Tim, there’s a situation I think you need to see.

Alright. Tim paused, following Ash’s focus in the psychic link. What is it?

Ash was showing him sothing from one of their advance units, Tim realized. They had probably reported to Ash and he’d decided to pass it up the chain. Once Tim focused on the drones in place, it was easy to understand why. They were, at this point, very close to the edge of Regina’s range, so connecting to them at all and sending any information took more ti than it should have.

On the other hand, the small group of dark elves in armor was pretty easy to spot.

Tim nudged the senior Hive drone present (one of only two sapient drones), who cleared his throat. “Could you please repeat what you’ve told us again?”

The dark elf n exchanged looks, clearly getting annoyed. But the leader, or at least the one in front, only nodded calmly.

“Of course. We are n of the Eternal Dark and we carry a ssage to the Empire’s leadership from the Free n of Elasetiahval. We bring news, gifts and an offer of friendship.”

That na doesn’t ring a bell, does it? Ash asked.

I don’t think so, Tim replied, not bothering to hide that he was feeling a bit concerned. Since the Esen army had been effectively pinning his soldiers at the eastern border of the Empire and had sat between them and the Eternal Dark, they’d effectively cut off their access to it. They’d received very little news as a result.

Regina had inford him of the visions the Seer had shared with her, though, and Tim had made a few tentative plans based on them. It looked like her fears were valid.

“Thank you,” Zal, the drone on the spot, replied at Tim’s prompting, inclining his head and gesturing with his hand. “We welco you. Our leaders are eager for your news and ssages. We will escort you to et our prince. Unfortunately, we have received little word from the Eternal Dark recently due to the Esen’s interference. Pray tell, is it true that the specter of war has also found your ho?”

A little too poetic, but the dark elves didn’t seem to mind. Their leader responded, “That does not surprise , and yes, it is true. Civil war has broken out in the Eternal Dark. The reactionaries in power sabotaged our army, pocketed our wealth and refused compromise. The Free n have risen against them. Together with more liberal leaders, the Free Brotherhood has ford the Governance and Reform Council. The traditionalists refuse to acknowledge it. Both sides have raised armies and we have started marching.”

“I see,” Zal said. “Thank you for telling us. Please excuse for a mont, I will organize transportation. My comrades will take care of you.”

The dark elves nodded and turned to one of the other soldiers who stepped up. Before Zal could leave, another of the dark elves stepped up to him. “One mont, please,” he said. “Please tell your leaders, I also carry ssages for them from Madris Ulaven. I must hand it over directly to your prince.”

Zal was surprised, but he smiled. “Of course, that’s welco news. I’m sure Prince Tim will see you.”

Tim agreed, then ntally withdrew a little to consider the situation. Madris sending ssages was probably a good sign, he tentatively concluded. Regardless, Regina and the others needed to know, so he reached out over the psychic link to inform them.

Personally, he also liked the chance to see so dark elf soldiers at work. The news they carried was probably a bit out of date, given the limitations in communication at play here, but it was still good to get it.