Chapter 659 – The ICDT
The third front has been effectively annihilated. There is no longer a force on the third landbridge, we are unsure of whether the structure is still standing. The Ash-Spewer upon it has also been destroyed, the attack was total. The same technology used to strike Legion was used here, we now theorize that the multitude of explosions which evaporated Arseille were actually multiple instances of the same weapon being used rather than one. What hit the third landbridge was definitely multiple strikes by the same weapon.
A new way to channel’s Olephia’s power can be entirely ruled out. The theory that it was actually an amplification of her speech is to be discarded, instead, we have to set the new standard: The Empire, at any time, in any place, without warning, can channel her strength.
The third-landbridge is to be used for scouting. Do not send another Spewer upon it, although troop movements are given the green light. We do not require the cover of Ashen Skies to fight after all. We are still certain that the strategic invisibility provided to us by Ashen Skies has not been breached, the routes along the Sassara should be safe, although the splitting up of major armies into smaller units is advised for travel. The Rilian and Esberian landbridges are now under threat. They should be expanded and tunnelled through. For the immediate while, Prince Asmodeus is certain that he wishes to meet this weapon on the battlefield to try and strike it.
The launch sites of the Missiles have been discovered through, they are conglomerated around the Plateau D’Albion. Reports from security teams indicate that they are utterly paranoid of infiltration, a direct assault has a higher chance of succeeding rather than a rapid infiltration. Blood-testing is rife within Imperial Leadership, the transfer between units also mandates a test. The Imperial Army, if not the civilian population, is cracking down upon infiltrators.
Nevertheless, the Plateau D’Albion site has to be attacked and disabled.
Finally, the missiles striking us in the Kirinyaan Mountains have not slowed down. Simply looking at the pattern of how these things are going, we are certain that the Empire will be able to perform these annihilations strikes at a faster and faster rate as they get more acquainted and refine production lines. Countermeasures have to be developed. Until then, we have to buy time.
The same measures used against Olephia shall be used now. Assume that of Chaos can be present in every battle at any time. In this case, the Ashfront is actually a hamper. The Empire is forced to evacuate its city’s of people as it approaches, Khmet is already evacuating itself, although it is not doing so with the efficiency of Arascus’ land. The army is to ride out, through the Ashfront, and seize the city. The Arseille evacuation shows Arascus puts a price on human life. The country will be held hostage.
Olephia would not be asked to wipe away however millions we shall and hold prisoner.
The hope is that Kassandora is not the one granted sole authority over that weapon.
- New Strategic Report, written by Prince Semirge on the state of the Second Arascan War.
Arascus stared at the first test of the ICDT: The Inter-Continental Deployment Tower. It was a monolith of aluminium and steel, as wide as a barn and as tall as a freight-train was long. And it hung in the sky, suspended by thick steel wires by far too many massive balloons. Deployment itself was still a problem they had to solve but ultimately, that was just a matter of strapping enough rockets onto the thing to have it fly. Those, the Empire knew how to build, they had to prove whether the courier for the payload actually worked.
Men got into position for the test, everything was being done on site. Sections of the Ritual Ring were being housed in this Lubskan field because were was no storehouse to forty miles worth of barn-sized scaffolding anywhere in the Empire. Workers, some on the ground, others suspended by ropes, worked with welding torches and mechanical drills to take apart a feat of engineering that was still being built a week ago. The rest of the engineers got behind dug outs, some went to their chairs, others rolled onto the grass. A crowd had formed in the far distance, just in front of the horizon. Civilians, no doubt looking and scratching their head as to why what appeared to be a solid block of metal was being suspended in the air by weather balloons.
It was high, but not excessively so. Twice its own height, maybe just over that. There was no reason to be testing on whether they could drop from the cloud layer yet. The simple fact of the matter was that it could stand on its side and support its entire weight without collapsing, that was good enough for now. A team of fifty magicians, geo and aeromancers who had been called upon from the construction of the Ritual Ring to assist in the testing of the ICDT.
One of the huge speakers set up on the wooden poles for the tests blared with noise. “Testing in one minute.” Arascus stood and counted the seconds. They could send rockets, why could they not send towers? Ultimately, the gemstone had to be unburied, and out of reach for troops to destroy. Maybe it could be armoured? Elassa would have to return first but the problem was one of simple engineering. His mind worked through the calculations. The rockets used to send satellites into orbit could be used, maybe the Star Missiles and all the derivatives that came from it as well. MURGS would have to be operational too. And the construction as well. That was the main roadblock. Elassa estimated the number should not exceed twenty thousand.
Where would they get twenty thousand missiles from?
The minute of waiting was broken by a ring-tone he rarely received. All the daughters had their own individual track, this one was a slow orchestra that played along to a piano: Kassandora. He answered.
“Hello?”
“Did you see the news? Helenna’s talking it.” Kassandora asked immediately, there was only thing she could be referencing now: the reports regarding Strike-One. Southern Rancais and Eastern Esberia had been saved and they did good damage to the horde. The populace didn’t have to know the horde was being treated as effectively infinite, but that didn’t matter.
“I did.” Arascus said. “Good job on the strike.” He had congratulated her already but there was no reason as to why he shouldn’t congratulate her again. And if she was calling, she would want something else. “So? I’m in Lubska right now, what do you want?”
“I was just ringing to see what you were doing.” That was a lie, the moment Kassandora started to do, the world would end. Arascus knew her well enough and besides, he caught the tone immediately. It was the usual stern voice but hidden beneath that usual composure was a hint of coyness.
“I’m working on the new plan for Ashen Skies, what are you doing?”
“Strike-Two, this one will have a name though.” She said, the coyness was obvious. Kassandora knew she was going to make a mistake, and she would still go through with it. Because it was the most effective thing and most immediate way to solve the problem and because every time she tried to find a solution, her mind would trail back to the obvious best case solution. “So…” She began, trailing off.
“Are you planning more?” Arascus asked. He would greenlight them on the other landbridges. Those had to be nuked eventually, the faster the better. Before Tartarus developed countermeasures, although whether countermeasures against such missiles were possible was unknown. That didn’t matter, on Arda, everyone fought as if they were a cornered rat.
Kassandora’s voice cracked as she answered. “I am… We’ll need to pull Iri, Ana and Fortia out.” Arascus closed his eyes for a moment as he got into her headspace. At least she was running it by him this time, although if she was running it by him, that meant the fallout wouldn’t be limited to the nuclear kind. What about those three? Why would they need to…
Oh.
She was going to destroy Esberia.
Arascus stood there, looking up at that monument in the sky. For a moment, the feat of engineering didn’t matter. What mattered is that they had Kassandora leading the war and Kassandora could only march forward. Any lakes or mountain in her path be damned, those could be filled in or torn down respectively.
She was going to carpet all of southern Esberia in nuclear fire.
“Kassie.” There was no need to use a scolding tone. She had done nothing yet, she was just intending to. “What are you doing now?”
“I’m planning the strike on Esberia.” Kassandora replied immediately, not a single hint of guilt or shame in her tone. She may as well have been stating that grass was green. But then she paused and thought for a moment. And there it was, the faint tremble of being caught in the act. “You’re going to tell me not to do that, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to tell you to hold off.” Arascus said. His gaze went back to the foundations of the Ritual-Ring as men were cutting it up. “But we have to talk.”
“Do we?”
“We do.” Arascus said as his gaze shifted back to the tower in the sky and saw men on the ground communicate via coloured lights. The test was beginning then. “Where are you right now?”
“Northern Rilia, I can get to you or we can meet in the middle.” Arascus watched one of the ropes let go. Then another as they began to snap, whipping about in the wind. Each one sounding as if it was a giant clapping in the sky. His mind caught onto what Kassandora was saying. “I’ll get to you, I’m not doing anything important here.” That was true, he was just indulging his curiosity and a technical problem.
The grey-silver tower in the sky fell like the great Skysplitter blade that Paradeisius used in the Great Wall. It covered the distance in less than seconds, throwing up ground and dirt as if it was a rock splashing into the water and then forcing a cloud of brown dust away from it, in all directions. Trees in the distance swayed in the wind. The steel skeleton of the Ritual-Ring creaked, a few men lost their footing and swung on the safety ropes they were affixed to. Cars groaned, the wind itself trying to push them over. Arascus felt the wind whip past his ears and face and felt it force his clothes tight over his body. That would have to be noted, these things were dangerous if they picked up too much speed.
A moment later, it began to scream as joints failed, connections made by welding snapped. It was the cry of a dying vulture that managed to drag on for an entire minute. The tearing and twisting of metal continued, until it ripped and was ended in one great crack. The tower began to lean, bend, it slowly ruptured. Beams of metal twisted. Everyone in the area stopped their work to watch was happening. Arascus held the phone to his ear as a field was ruined by the equivalent of a train being dropped on it.
This time, at least, there was less dust. The ground still splashed, but the wave did not travel outwards like an explosion. In the distance, cars driven along a road came to a stop, their occupants coming out to watch was happening. Arascus did not care though. The worst case scenario would have been the top of the structure crushing downwards like a foot coming down upon a tin can. This? This was points of failure revealing themselves. The structure and theory had held, it just needed refinement and fixing. For a first drop, it was a success beyond his expectations. “What was that?” Kassandora asked.
“That…” Arascus chuckled to himself. How was he supposed to explain that over the phone? What would he even say? It was an idea farcical, but it was a better way than trying to set these towers up within Ashen Skies. “Was the sound of a tower being dropped.”
“Excuse me?”
Arascus chuckled to himself as he stared at the two blocks of steel, one part half-stabbed into the soil, other on the ground. The torn edges looked as if they were the guts left behind by a rabid dog, all bent steel beams and sharp, jagged edges. “Don’t worry about it sweetheart.” He turned from the wreckage and began to rise into the air. “Hold off on the strike.” She would torture herself if she had to wait though, Kassandora needed a job. “The front is stable now, focus on your Pax plan. See you soon and love you.”