Shadow Slave

Falcon Scott was not the largest city in the Southern Quadrant, but it served an important role. Situated dangerously close to the ocean, it served as an entry point to the Antarctic Center.

A constant stream of people and cargo used to flow through it, making it the heart of the infrastructure of the region.

The city itself sprawled across the foothills of the mountain range, perched on top of tall cliffs. At the bottom of the cliffs, an independent port-fortress stood at the edge of the water, surrounded by its own ring of walls. The fortress was much larger and better fortified than the one Sunny had departed the Northern Quadrant from, and the First Army did not spare any resources to reinforce it even further.

The port was connected to the city by a chain of industrial elevator platforms, which could haul a formidable amount of weight up and down. Due to that, the fortress could be supported by artillery fire from the city wall, and even if it fell, the enemy would have to scale the tall vertical barrier of the cliffs under a rain of defensive fire.

...Not that losing the port was an option, in the current situation.

Several alloy leviathans were currently anchored near the fortress, swaying on the waves and flooding the dark ocean with the moving beams of powerful searchlights. The city itself was grossly overcrowded, housing ten times its intended population. After all remaining siege capitals of the Antarctic Center had been evacuated here, Falcon Scott sheltered close to two hundred million people.

All of them were waiting for their turn to board the battleships and be transported over the strait, to the much better protected expanse of Eastern Antarctica, where the First Army was still maintaining a semblance of control. One of the four naval convoys had been reassigned to ferry people over, but even with the prodigious capacity of the massive vessels, it was going to take a while.

The fact that several of the battleships, like Naeve's former berth and the Ariadne, had been lost to the ravages of the Chain of Nightmares did not make the process faster.

'...That's more than half of the population of NQSC. Crazy.'

Sunny was looking at the live image of the city, which was projected onto a false window in one of the offices of the local government's complex. The city shone with a myriad of lights in the cold darkness of the polar night, with the ghostly aurora swirling eerily above. There were too many people everywhere, and most of them looked lost, disoriented, or outright defeated.

had to be fake. The complex also housed the

the window, walked to the

given time to sleep, take a proper shower, and eat a full meal. Much more important

'Where is she...'

long. A minute or two later,

looked pretty much the same as she had the last time he saw her. Granted, she was wearing the usual bodysuit instead of battle armor today... ah, the bodysuit... but

Noticing Sunny, Jet smiled.

if it's not young Master Sunless, valiant slayer of abominations and savior of men. It's good to

forced out a smile in

have the last two months treated you?

seat at the head of the table and gave him

one man, and you brought me forty thousand instead. I must say,

glanced at

"No thanks."

not a large number. However, a few of those thousands were actual soldiers, and a couple more were experienced sailors. That was actually significant enough to

refugees and the soldiers - also seemed to be very fond of telling tales about the Devil's many exploits. Sunny was not entirely sure what kind of reputation he had earned, but he definitely had a reputation now. All throughout the city, people were familiar

...For better or worse.

sending me your crow,