Chapter 756 – Setting The Table.
Not an Empire of, but an Empire for.
Not a future of, but a future for.
Not a world of, for a future for.
Not a universe of, but a universe for.
For the reason is us, and the reason is Arda.
And that warrants no reasoning.
Because existence is for us, not of us.
- Piece published in Imperia.
Jaimes and his friends stopped their ballgame in the middle of the school’s field as the raucous sound of jet engines interrupted the shouting from the boys. Frederique, who had just made one of the best saves the boys had ever seen, let the black and white ball slip from his hands as the boys all looked up, staring at the formation flying overhead. Jaimes held his hands ups, counting along with his fingers. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Each time, a finger curled down. Then a new line of massive planes that were large enough to have their…. One, two, three, four engines each, two per wing! Visible even as they soared above the birds and the clouds.
And then another line. And another. Jaimes counted them all as the teacher blew his whistle although no one cared much at this point. A hundred sets of young faces, wide-eyed, their mouths almost agape with awe, watched another flight test. Seven by six… That… that was a lot! That was a whole lot! Flying in tight formation from the north to the south. “I know what that this!” Jaimes said, his voice smug and proud. Thomas and Willern both inched closer to him.
“What is it then?” Willern asked quietly as silence fell over the class of boys from the Mouries Primary School. A little town, not far from the walled Arseille-Zone. Supposedly, if you walked there, you had to be sent to a hospital with a Cleric or else you’ll fall ill! Jaime’s father always said that venturing there was no good at all!
“They’re learning!” Jaimes said. “Papa said that! They’re learning for the big…” He always struggled with this word. “Oh-per-ray-chion. It’s to do with the Sky! It is…” His father always made it sound better. And he didn’t know how to make the sounds at all. “Friday flying.”
“That’s a day.” Thomas said.
“I know. It’s not that, it sounds like that though.” Something to do with flying. In a box. Close together. But Jaimes did not know. The wind gently breezed past them as every pupil stared, eyes wide, at the heroes on the sky. They were on the news every day now. In great black and yellow suits that made them look like heroes, and his mama would always swoon and come watch the news then. And she never watched the news.
“How do you even know that?” Willern asked. And every day, there would be a new party or celebration announced. Supposedly, they would have to go and buy suits soon, or fancy clothes. In the past, that would have been a problem, now, his papa already had gone to a special shop were a lady with a tape measure called him fat. That made mama laugh. Long ago, they would have never gone to shops like that.
“Missus Deferre is my neighbour! She says her son is up there.” Jaimes said, then stretched his hand up as far as he could. “He’s even bigger than this!” He had been in the news too, standing with a helmet under his shoulder that had a black visor and a pair of yellow stripes on it.
“As big as the plane!?”
“No, that’s stupid! The plane is even bigger! Like this!” Jaimes stood on the tips of his toes this time as he stretched up with both hands. “Even bigger than this!”
Captain Deferre receives news that the first strategic bomber squadron will be tasked with dropping the FPN-1, Nene, into the Sassaran Rift.
“Hey!” The shout, obviously angry and obviously caught Charlie, Sophie, Marshall and Libby by surprise. Here they had thought that the ridge would be a good place to hide and look at today’s reason for national celebration! Overlooking Monerset Beach, but high enough that they could see over the swarm of news reporters and Allian dignitaries that had been invited for the first showing of the INS Aliana.
“Oh fuck.” Libby whispered and readjusted her classes, her brown hair catching in the mud.
“Don’t move!” Marshall tried to keep his voice quiet at least, although the man didn’t have much success in that.
“Shh!” Charlie shushed both of them up.
“He’s not seen us.” Sophie said, from the other side of Charlie.
“I’ve seen you!” The voice shouted. Into view walked a soldier. Charlie stared him up and down, his mouth dropping in awe, the man was armed, although his rifle was slung by his side, clanking against a small backpack. He wore a dark green uniform, a helm over his head, a pistol on his belt. Tall black boots that Charlie’s older brother had sent some from Ainai already. They were finely laced over. A dark green belt across his chest, broad shoulders, even the uniform’s bagginess did little to hide the size of the man.
The four teenagers laying in the grass froze, they had been caught like deer in the headlights and they couldn’t even deny it. The soldier unclasped the radio from his chest and held it to his mouth. “Sentry-three reporting, I’ve found the buggers.” The man said. “Yeah, it’s kids.” He looked them up and down. “Teenagers, two girls, two boys, some fucking date or something.”
“EXCUSE ME?!” Sophie shouted, Charlie kicked her leg. Better he think it a date than anything stupid. The soldier rolled his eyes as he listened to the radio.
“No, they’re not Sir.” Then a pause. “Sir yes sir.” He said. “I’ll stay then.” He chuckled, then put the radio back. “No recording, because you got caught, but stay and watch, then fuck off back home. Clean up after yourselves.” His eyes went to the beer cans.
“Of course Sir. Of course. Thank you.” Charlie quickly stammered out. Here he had been preparing to spend his night in a police station.
“Which one of you is the driver?” Charlie slid the open car of beer.
“It’s just one.” The private looked him up and down, then rolled his eyes.
“Whatever, I didn’t see, I didn’t ask.” He pulled out a bottle of water from the back of his back, then some packet of sweets. A moment later, it was dissolving in the water. A moment after that, the bottle impacted on the ground next to Charlie. “Drink that shit after you’re done, then wait ten minutes, it sobers you up.”
“What is it?”
“Trade secret.” The private said. “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” He patted the side of his trousers, then pulled out a flask and chuckled. The smell that erupted from the uncorked was obviously vodka, if not some stronger spirit. He took a swig. “You lads here to watch the show?” He asked, taking out another bottle of water from the side of his pack and putting his own fizzing drop into it.
“Sir yes Sir.” Charlie said, picking up the fizzing bottle that had built up with enough pressure he was worried it would explode. “We heard it’s happening today and…” He trailed off. “Well it’s better live, isn’t it?”
“Fuck yeah it is.” The private replied. And so, with a new accomplice, they did watch the show. The Aliana, every citizen in the country was watching it. It was the first of the Beaching-Class Battleships, and it would sail to plunge into the south of the desert and become a temporary fortress for the rest of the troops to unload.
“That’s the Aliana?” Libby said, pointing at the ship in the distance. It was huge, with a pair of control towers. One massive turret sat at the front, three guns on it. The front was wide, far wider than any ship had the right to be and around that massive tower were smaller cannons, all aimed in individual direction, like a division’s worth of firepower concentrated on one vessel. The pair of towers held crystals on them.
“That’s her alright.” The vessel detached from the rest of the fleet, the crowd on the beach in their fine suits and dresses took a few steps back, and then again when they realised the Aliana was not slowing down whatsoever.
The ship crashed onto the beach, the carried itself on its own momentum half-way up the dunes. Legs deployed from its sides to hold it upright, in addition to the flat bottom. All the guns turned, simulating what they would look like if they were shooting, and they arched upwards and then forwards. The screeching of metal against fine golden grain could even be heard up here, this was definitely the best spot to watch. That crowd would end up deaf.
The front of the ship fell open on heavy pistons whose hissing noise carried all the way up the mountain, and revealed the Divine that was as impressive as the ship. Aliana stood in a dress of pure white, tinged with red, looking like a queen out of a fairytale. Her bow was in her hand, she took a step forwards and raised her hand.
Fireworks erupted from the ship, and the crowd cheered as the cameras zoomed in. “And that’s the Goddess.”
“That’s her.” The soldier answered, he pulled out a packet of cigarettes, lit it, and inhaled the fumes. “What a fucking sight.” He commented to no one in particular. One a sight indeed. Aliana marched off the battleship that was her namesake, a pair of huge tanks came rolling out the front of the ship, those flanked by rows of men.
“Can I bum a smoke?”
“Bum yourself kid.” Charlie wasn’t even offended, it had been worth a shot after all.
INS Aliana completes its beaching tests, confirming it is able to land and set sail from shore without any external assistance.
Dante and Magdalena turned on their lights in the car when they heard the earthquake. Rilia got earthquakes, they were more common after Ashen Skies, something to do with the Eparika being thicker or whatever, geology wasn’t his strong point. Maybe the amount of firepower had cracked the planet, maybe they were exploding unexploded ordnance. Maybe a thousand different scenarios were happening. The point was he knew earthquakes and this was no earthquake.
It was the ground rumbling, the forest swaying, the hills rolling as rocks shifted and fell loose from their perches. A mudslide happening, but this rumbling had started long before the mudslide. Dante leaned back over the clutch of his car, closing the windows just in case the cloud of dust in the distance decided to roll closer.
“Over there!” Magdalene pointed through the window, clutching her shirt closed tight. Dante had accidently torn a few of the buttons off in his haste. “Look! Look!” Dante only caught sight of the behemoth as it began to trundle from past a hill line.
He saw it. A line of trucks and vehicles in the front, all with their lights on as they drove across empty fields. But trucks driving across a field in a line was an oddity. Rilia had seen more then enough oddities for it to become nothing out of the usual. It was the oddity of oddity that appeared behind that truck line.
A moving city, as vertical as it was wide and long. That was the best way to describe it. With spotlights on every direction outside and every direction inside, illuminating its cargo that was visible through the gaps in the steel scaffolding. Four of the huge ICDT towers that everyone in the Empire knew about at this point. They weren’t a secret, engineers and scientists would even come onto the news to talk about how they worked in basic terms.
And behind it, two dry rivers that the entire machine carved out with its massive sets of treads. Ground fell from the treads, grass that had been frozen over in the winter, the machine shifted, tilted backwards slightly, and then started climbing up a gentle sloping hill. And across the side, proudly illuminated below the Imperial and Allian flags which sat side-by-side, a massive logo of a pig. Someone had attached another piece to it, a stupid character with a smug smile, slightly smaller, giving a thumbs up.
“That’s the thing.” Magdalena whispered. “On the news.”
A tower mover. Rolling through the countryside as if it owned the whole world. A huge box on huge treads, a skeletal spiderweb of heavy steel that rumbled as it moved through the country. Dante stared at it, mouth agape. Magdalene, he could see and had seen a thousand times before and they would see each other a thousand times more. But this?
This was a sight that he would talk about when he had children of his own.
EIE Reports the sixth hundredth tower has reached its launch site.
Mikaila sat drinking her morning coffee while her two baby girls sat with their ice creams in her hometown of Luntz. It was a major city, a major transport route, a major military logistics checkpoint, a major sprawl. There was nothing minor about it. Not from the huge, four-car-wide street in the middle that pedestrians walked by, or the about of news cameras that had been waiting patiently on display, the reporters practically living out their vans, not the massive town hall, which had been taken over temporarily by the Imperial Military.
Frankly, it made no difference to Mikaila, the plans needed to be done somewhere and the amount of soldiers meant her husband always had work. It was because of their reckless spending that she could even afford to take her girls out for ice cream in parlours far too expensive to be for good sense. She sipped the coffee, the foam had been made into the pattern of a love heart. It was good coffee too. And seeing Kara with a smudge of the all-natural ice-cream and a carefree smile on her face was something she would pay twice over for.
A group of soldiers in formal black suit marched down the street passed them. Her two girls turned and pointed. “Look mama! Look! Look!”
“I’m looking.” Mikaila said, smiling to herself as she sipped her coffee. Well, it was a bunch of strapping young lads after all. There was no shame in looking.
“They’re going to war!” Kara said. “Bye Bye! Good luck!” One of the men turned and shot a smile back to the young girl in her blue dress. Kara blushed, kicked her legs up into the air and hid her face behind the generous serving of ice-cream.
“What do you think they’re going mummy?” Sasha asked.
“We have very important guests in town, so they’re going to see them.” Mikaila explained in the best way she could. The girls knew who Kassandora and Fortia and even Grand Marshal Tremali were from their school work, hopefully. Definitely. They always good marks on their tests. Mikaila sipped her coffee again. War had come to Doschia, war had come to Epa, war had come to Arda and somehow, there was a sense of stability in life that she never knew life could possess.
There were always the Imperial letters, although those had generally slowed down. They had stopped dreading them recently too, apparently, there was talk from the boys in black that the war was coming to an end, and that even they could feel it. The letters everyone was receiving were different. The grand hurrah was coming. Recently, she had even been hoping for the letters with that official Imperial eagle on them. The recent one had been a reward for her husband and his service in the first half of the war, their car had been paid off. Her neighbour had received the finances for a new kitchen. Someone down the treat had a quarter of their mortgage knocked off.
Everyone was getting for peace. “MAMA!” Sasha shouted. “LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK!” She repeated the word a dozen more times, her finger pointing and over and over to the town hall. Mikaila turned around and felt her fingers tighten across the handle of the coffee cup.
Down Luntz’ market wide market street of golden sandstone-brick road, and past all the cafes and restaurants where everyone was enjoying their weekend morning, the town hall was opening its grand doors finally. The only building in the city that was tall enough to house Divines. And for good reason, out of the doorway were the main three heads of the Imperial Military emerging.
On one side, Goddess Fortia of Peace, dressed the best, although that was Mikaila’s own opinion. She had always liked the skirt, and her husband had always liked her in a skirt, and it was good to see a Divine like that wear a black skirt as if it was a piece of armour. Around her was the black coat, a white shirt underneath, that bronze hair that was almost like Mikaila’s brown shone in the sunlight of the late spring.
On the other side was Grand Marshal Iliyal Tremali. The man was something out of a book, she had seen elves more rugged and elves more handsome and elves more boyish, and all elves were beautiful, but it was the simple energy of him. Each step he took, he took like he belonged on those stairs besides the Divines. Everyone should learn from him frankly. “Look at them!” Kara exclaimed.
And in the middle, silhouetted a by cape of crimson hair, was Goddess Kassandora of War. Behind them, the various generals that had appeared on the news began to follow, as the camera crews and the market street went quite. There were times to speak, there were Divines to speak with, but then when it was the pinnacle of the Empire, there was no reason to say anything. If Mikaila could list three reasons for why these streets were clean and why her daughters were eating ice cream. Why they weren’t in some Tartarian prison begging for the lives, or even worse. She shivered, not even wanting to imagine it.
Kassandora came to a stop. The crowd of high command staff stopped around her. Cameras rolled and took pictures. And the silence broke.
“Announce to everyone.” Kassandora’s voice boomed through the streets. Even Sasha and Kara had fallen silent and listened patiently to the Goddess of War. “The planning of Operation Sky’s Return has been finished. As is normal, there is no public date to maintain operation integrity.” She sighed. “Nevertheless, I will give comments where I can. We will see a white winter, and we will have the autumn rains taste of autumn and not sulphur. That, if schedule permits, is a promise.”
Doschia Today: The Sassaran Rift to be closed by the end of summer.