Path of the Hive Queen-Chapter 420: Win and Losses

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 meadow, most of it half-heartedly planed with some 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 mess. There were actual craters.
Of course, it had seen a lot of bombardment. There were probably still some 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 meant he had succeeded in his immediate objective: This used to be an Esemen 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 Esemen hunker down behind another one a few kilometers 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 momentum, defeating the Esemen and encircling some of their forces; pushing them enough that they’d finally decamped.
“A glorious victory, right?” Jae commented; he was still looking at the field like something 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 engagement, 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 Esemen would try luring them into a trap, but he still wanted to be ready for the next battle. And to defend against the Esemen trying to raid his army to slow them down and disorder them. Which meant he had to be careful with their artillery.
Tim had not received as many of those as reinforcements as he’d wanted; the Empire’s factories had reached their limits, and there just hadn’t been enough time. Much less compared to the time 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 some of them could possibly be salvaged … or at least their metal 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 Esemen had gotten good at targeting.
"I’m going to get some sleep,” he said. “Have them wake me 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 same,” Jae agreed.
Since they had already more or less packed up, and advanced some 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 come in, too. They curled up together, and Tim reached out to the psychic link for a moment 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 some 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 me 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 seemed more like a lingering kind of tiredness. Like when someone 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 me 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 me.
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 met with his most important commanders for a quick assessment. 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 some s; 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 same. 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 Esemen 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 Esemen.
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 Esemen 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 some people in the city. They watched the Imperial troops march into Prekan with dead eyes, in silence hovering somewhere between sullen and grimly satisfied. Some of these people must have been Imperial supporters, in the short time he’d had power here, and some the opposite; in the grime and the desolation, it was hard to distinguish them.
At least most people seemed 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 shipments from the Empire after that; the Esemen had obviously cleaned out local granaries.
Tim sighed, checked in quickly with the local officers in command, and then moved on.
The Esemen army itself was still in retreat, but in an orderly fashion. He poured over a few maps and s, 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 Esemen. 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 Esemen, 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 s, 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 elements, usually on flying drones or fast tamed 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 something from one of their advance units, Tim realized. They had probably ed 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 time 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 men exchanged looks, clearly getting annoyed. But the leader, or at least the one in front, only nodded calmly.
“Of course. We are men of the Eternal Dark and we carry a message to the Empire’s leadership from the Free Men of Elasetiahval. We bring news, gifts and an offer of friendship.”
That name 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 Esemen 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 informed 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 welcome you. Our leaders are eager for your news and messages. We will escort you to meet our prince. Unfortunately, we have received little word from the Eternal Dark recently due to the Esemen’s interference. Pray tell, is it true that the specter of war has also found your home?”
A little too poetic, but the dark elves didn’t seem to mind. Their leader responded, “That does not surprise me, 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 Men have risen against them. Together with more liberal leaders, the Free Brotherhood has formed 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 me for a moment, 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 moment, please,” he said. “Please tell your leaders, I also carry messages for them from Madris Ulaven. I must hand it over directly to your prince.”
Zal was surprised, but he smiled. “Of course, that’s welcome news. I’m sure Prince Tim will see you.”
Tim agreed, then mentally withdrew a little to consider the situation. Madris sending messages 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 some 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.

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Chapter 420: Win and Losses