Path of the Hive Queen

Chapter 450: Observing

Galatea watched two forces clash and wondered about their position.The Imperial army could have probably avoided this fight. Granted, the northern allies had attacked a fixed position, probably to force a battle, but the Empire could have still abandoned it. Retreat and harry the advancing enemy on the way, with flying drones and waves of Swarm Drones in the surrounding area and the occasional artillery barrage or elite strike. They’d used tactics like that to good effect before.

But it looked like both sides wanted to fight right now. Even if thousands of soldiers were involved on both sides, this was ultimately simple — a probing attack.

It was the first time the Empire truly faced their new enemies, who the gods had brought from the northern countries, in battle. Although they weren’t facing their main or entire army. Not being idiots, the allies had split their army into several parts, advancing largely on parallel roads, with a large vanguard. They seemed to have copied some of the Empire’s notes, in fact. Galatea supposed that was inevitable.

At the moment, she was mostly just watching, comfortably floating in the air a few kilometers away from the battle that was beginning. She could have watched it together with Ada and her staff, but she wanted to take it in on her own for now.

To be honest, it was also a bit of a break, since the important project she was trying to help with wasn’t going too well, and she couldn’t contribute much to it right now.

The enemy was advancing on the Imperial positions and this wouldn’t be the only battle fought here for long. Galatea wondered what it said about them that the northern allies were attacking like this now, after the gods had refused to work together or stop letting the people fight each other in light of the Mesen threat. Were they making some kind of point, she wondered? Probably not. The leaders of these forces must have planned their approach for some time.

This possibly historic battle didn’t have an appropriate venue. The town in the center had been partly evacuated. Mostly, the fighting would be concentrated at the outpost a little way away from it; an old castle that the Imperials had reinforced. It was positioned at a strategic point on a steep hill beside a river, but it wasn’t exceptional. Its biggest distinction was that it housed the nerve center of the Imperial soldiers’ operations in this area.

It was also currently surrounded by a magical shield. The Empire might be allowing the attack to test their enemies, or so she suspected, but that didn’t mean they would be stupid about it. Such shields were still expensive and finicky, and difficult to deploy for a moving force, but the recent war — and the ones before that — had clearly led to some advancements. She suspected most of the mages involved hadn’t even used a System Spell this time, just a refined magical spell pattern they had worked on and disseminated. Individual defenses would probably be more efficient, but with cannons and mortars in play, the use of larger shields was obvious.

The enemy army didn’t use a defense like that, interestingly. Or at least not one, single, big shield. There were smaller ones, probably cast by individual mages embedded in units of their army. Which was advancing quickly.

The Empire didn’t let them approach uncontested, of course. This output didn’t have much artillery, but there were a few pieces. They rained fire down on the northerners. And they did have a sizable contingent of Winged Drones, who were also carrying ammunition, including explosives. As Galatea watched, a wing of them rose into the air and gathered for an ‘attack run’ over the enemy army, diving forward and loosing their payloads.

For a moment, it looked like they’d scatter the enemy army. But the allies’ discipline held. Some people were struck by rocks or bombs, but others quickly adjusted. As Galatea watched, the number of attacks deflected on shields rose sharply even just in the first minute. And not just magical shields. They seemed to have a large number of people with defensive Classes who managed to use perfectly ordinary shields (or armor, in a few cases) to deflect aerial attacks.

And they still advanced farther. The vanguard was moving faster than unaugmented humans could have.

Interestingly, it looked like slower units hung back a little more and shifted to provide covering fire for the front line instead. Magical spells flew up into the sky, along with arrows, bolts and other weapons. Most of those missed their targets. Some struck; perhaps with System-assisted aim? They didn’t manage to disperse the swarm or really stop it, but the drones did withdraw a bit, to fly a little higher. That decreased the hits, but also made their aiming harder.

Not that Galatea really thought flying drones would aim a lot, to be fair. Giving their payloads a bit more time until they hit the ground seemed to help the humans defend against them, though.

So far, this was going more or less as she’d expected, which actually made her slightly nervous. Sure, they were clearly showing adaptations and some preparation for the Empire’s tactics. But surely there would be more to it than this? They had a lot of time to train their forces and they must have gotten news, reports and analysis from the Esemen and Western fighters. Actually, she could definitely see what had to be observers or advisors staying with their back line!

For now, they didn’t reveal any other trump cards they might have had, though. The battle continued, and she could tell that it would probably follow predictable paths if nothing else changed.

The arrival of several other figures distracted her. Galatea looked at them, identifying several flying drones. She wondered if they came to talk to her for a moment, but it didn’t seem like any of them were actually sapient drones. Though they might still have been sent by others that were. They flew in an arc around her, still keeping a little bit of distance.

Considering it for a moment, Galatea gave a last look at the battlefield, then sighed and canceled her current spell. Instead, she twisted her mana in a new but familiar pattern, and took a step forward, more metaphorical than real. With that, she teleported out of the sky onto firm ground.

Well, reasonably firm ground. She was actually on the top of a temporary watchtower which had been quickly thrown up with generous use of Earth magic and the System, if she was any judge. But the important point was that June was standing there. She twitched when Galatea appeared — half-turning and drawing the dagger on her belt half out of its sheath before she stopped. She also let the mana she’d suddenly gathered disappear.

“Galatea,” June shook her head. She glanced at the other people with them. “As you were!”

They weren’t as quick on the uptake, maybe because they weren’t psychics, but the princess’ command snapped them out of it. A Star Guard grumbled audibly as he sheathed his sword, then took a step back to resume a guard position.

“Well, this is new. Did you change your appearance, or is this just an illusion?” June asked, running her eyes over Galatea.

She shrugged. “Well, I can’t exactly change clothes the way normal people do,” she acknowledged. “But yes. I felt it was time for a change.”

The basics of her appearance hadn’t really changed. She still had a vaguely but not really human form, with the same general size, build, shape and all that. Currently, she was wearing armor, however. It wasn’t a specific set of armor she’d ever really seen before, although it had taken inspiration from several sources and was a mix of different elements. It included more ‘modern’ materials and design, something like modern body armor, but also older elements, and looked vaguely like a full suit of plate without the helmet.

“Well, I suppose it suits you and the times,” June said. “You look good.”

“Thank you. Though maybe you should focus on the battle instead?” Galatea felt compelled to point out.

“They can survive without me looking over their shoulders for three minutes,” June scoffed, but her gaze also got slightly distant, as if she was checking in on them.

Galatea nodded and looked around again. She only recognized most of the people here in passing. There were several people on the lower level, which was somewhat visible since the top was recessed, staring at them curiously, probably here to convey messages. Flying drones perched on some struts in the tower, on a back part that looked a bit like an overgrown perch merged with a cat tree, and on the ground.

“There hasn’t been much change in a while now,” June muttered.

“It does look like it. Do you expect things to continue like this?”

The fighting had reached the walls, but weirdly, that almost felt secondary. The Hive’s flying drones were still mostly carrying the fight, but they were clearly still being pushed at least somewhat.

“Probably, at least for a while, unless they display more we haven’t seen before,” June responded.

Galatea was quiet for a little while. “The flying drones are acting more cautiously,” she said. “Some of them are being hit. I suppose they would act differently if we were within the psychic link?”

June glanced at her and nodded before she turned her gaze forward again. “They have to be guided directly with the psychic link not working here. So there are some sapient drones among them, acting as their commanders. In practice, it means we need more people to handle the wing and they’re still less responsive. With the psychic link, they could be controlled remotely by drones who aren’t participating in the fighting directly.”

Galatea nodded. That made sense. And it showed why a psychic like June was important. Not that she could replace the psychic link herself, or anything remotely approaching it, but she could probably step in for specific situations at critical moments. Which might be easier if she was a member of the psychic link, too, Galatea mused. I suppose there’s more than one reason Regina has been inducting her students into it.

Most of them were currently otherwise occupied, but she knew that Edmund was also watching this battle and probably participating, or ready to intervene. She didn’t expect June to stay long. Especially since the eastern army was getting shorter on psychics now. But she could see how getting her perspective on the ‘new’ enemies was valuable.

Galatea watched the battle progress, using a bit of magic to effectively act like a spyglass and get a closer view. It looked like June was right and things mostly proceeded as before. She wasn’t a tactician, but this looked like a battle the Empire would win. The real question was probably the other allied forces drawing closer from the north.

And of course, just when she was thinking that, it changed. It took a moment for Galatea to notice. It wasn’t flashy, just a movement of people that didn’t fit the flow of the battle.

“Are they rearranging their formation?” she asked, glancing at the others.

“It looks like it,” June agreed with a frown. “Are they … but no. Galatea, you’re the ritual expert here. Does this form look familiar?”

Galatea paused, then looked closer. She didn’t reply that rituals needed material components and not just people forming a shape. June should know that. Besides, there were some things — spells that straddled the line, that could be cast better (or at all) with a group like this. It wasn’t exactly common, but she’d heard of it before …

“Perhaps you should recall the flying drones,” she said.

June hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure that’s not the reaction they want? Spook us into hesitating?”

“No, but I think the potential damage if they are is a better option than if this is a new attack and we lose the fliers.”

“True,” June muttered, then screwed up her face slightly. Galatea assumed she was concentrating on the drones and communicating an order to back away.

Meanwhile, she dissolved her earlier magic and instead tried something else. As always, it took a little while, but eventually she was able to dimly make out June’s soul, and those around her. Instead of watching them furtehr, she focused on the battlefield.

Her hunch turned out to be useful. The northern mages finished whatever they were doing. Even from here, she could feel a faint ripple in the local ambient mana, although most mages probably wouldn’t be able to. But that wasn’t the only thing. She also saw … something, with her new sight — she wasn’t sure, it didn’t seem like a big effect and the distance was too great. But the actual effect it had in the world was harder to miss.

Imperial soldiers facing the enemy suddenly just … fell over. Remaining flying drones, those on the static defenses themselves, did as well. Some people tumbled, some staggered and managed to get back to their feet. Some just laid down.

“What the hell’s that?” June asked.

“I don’t know,” Galatea said. “But …” she trailed off, going through her memory to correlate every occasion she had heard of or witnessed something similar.

“It’s a cone,” June said. “Spreading in a cone in front of their formation.”

She was right. Those at the edges of the Imperial forces, not directly opposite the main thrust of the enemy advance, were spared. But the further away you got, the wider that area became. It was like something out of a video game. Except that the effect also seemed to fade with distance — there were more people who remained standing further back. Even a few Swarm Drones.

As Galatea watched, June started bellowing orders to the messengers, and the Imperial forces quickly tried to reorganise. It was chaotic. The psychic link would have helped, but they didn’t have it. A new wing of flying drones was scrambling, to attack the enemy mages that had done this. But as she watched, they melted back into the troops around them, covered by defensively-Classed soldiers.

“The people affected, are they dead or hurt?” Galatea asked.

“No, my lady,” one of the messengers who’d just passed word said. He looked tired. “Those not affected report no apparent injuries, and they are still breathing.”

“Galatea —“ June interrupted her managing of the situation to turn to her again. “Can you tell me anything about this? Some kind of overpowered ‘Sleep’ spell? It didn’t quite feel like a psychic attack.” She frowned, muttering. “But it also didn’t not feel like it, I guess …”

“Perhaps,” Galatea said. “I can tell that soul magic was involved, or something adjacent to it. It seems —“ She paused, then decided to press on. “This is speculative. But I’ve read of something similar to this effect before. Especially considering the delivery method, a cabal of mages working mana together like this, it’s … something Leian would probably know more about.” She paused, whispering just to June. “It’s mentioned in the book Berren gave us, though not directly. It’s something that I suppose could come from Leian or Berren … or from the Mesen.”

June paused. “You don’t think —?”

“I don’t know,” Galatea said. “Like I said, I don’t know much and this is speculative. But I think influence from the Mesen is the most obvious explanation.”

“Well, shit,” June swore.

“Indeed,” Galatea said drily. “Forget this battle, you’ll have a lot of work trying to trace where this comes from and find potential influence.”

June grimaced, turning back to look at the battle. The enemy army was advancing, clearly pushing the Imperials hard in the wake of that attack. “I’m not really concerned about my workload right now. Also, would you mind?” She gestured at the battle. “They could use your help.”

Galatea elected not to start bantering, instead she just nodded and teleported again. She could at least enable the Imperials a controlled retreat.

And then she had to talk to a few people about some magic.