A/N: Alright, finally a new chapter after months. So much for more than one chapter before I go back to the land of gaming… Being honest this chapter was close to completion ages ago but I just never finished it up lol. This season of Anime being rather lackluster didn't help either but it's done so hey, maybe it did.
NexusPrime42: It's going to end up like the battle of Alnus hill all over again.
Now that's not nice, America isn't going to kill locals willy nilly, they have tranquiliser weapons so it'll all be okay!
The Keeper of Worlds: While true compared to similar moments in history it is a tamer takeover, it still hits me on a moral level how this was a "takeover and fix to our views, never ask" stance on the whole world they found. It's egotism and greed. Call me a moral nut, but there were other ways to do things.
Sure there were, most of them involved either removing the nobles from power or accepting such a barbaric society as a trade partner though. I think this is much more fun than boring political drabble and frankly I can't write it well enough to be interesting.
king Quinn The Last Heir: I still love the story keep it up...man I can't wait to see the look on Albion face when the u.s. gives them a rude awakening.
Albion is going to get destroyed!
Guest: god bless the enclave
God Bless America!
Guest: This is my opinion but I think we all would like some action so yes let's get to it. I never liked Wardes and would love to read about him getting blown up from a missile.
Missile seems a bit harsh and overtly destructive but I suppose I can set something up, maybe.
Pinkpower: Well, as for Putin, ofc I meant not just Vladimir Putin himself, but the whole Russian Federation. RF has a good intelligence service, so I guess Moscow found out that there is a portal almost as soon as USA started sending military units there. Thus, I think it would be logical if you add RF in your story (not cliched, please).
But, but… This land belongs to America! I concede that it would get boring eventually so adding an antagonist country that could stand a chance is worthwhile but I have other plans besides Putin.
Delaybad: Please do something about your need to address so many reviews in the chapter, your replies this time have taken more than 1/3 of the chapter. Please just PM your response to reviews from now on and only add it to your notes in the chapter if you feel that it's important for the other readers to read it as well. I'm guessing that around 1/4 of the story's word count is your responses to reviews and notes by now and that's very misleading for new readers as well.
Aside from that, keep up the good work.
I knew this would pop up eventually. I already added a disclaimer at the first chapter regarding this but I'll put one here as well and elaborate further. This story normally has three thousand plus words a chapter before adding reviews. The reason I do this is because whenever I read a story and the author only answers via private messages, the other readers, and myself, with similar questions as the ones in the review go unanswered.
Sure you can argue that I should only include the ones with important information but then the Guests feel left out since they can't get messages. As for adding the review itself into the story, unlike most authors, it is for context's sake because I always read responses to reviews on other stories and have no clue what they are addressing.
My method is far from perfect but it's my preference so I'll stick with it for now, hope it doesn't bug anyone too much and sorry about the word count inflation but if you want a rough number, the story can be said to be at thirty three thousand words, though obviously it is more, not too far off from your quarter estimate.
ATP: for great chapter is daughter of Albion Archduke and was killed by Albion king James is daughter of viceroy who was Archduke friend and died defending him is her friend, becouse Tiff mother was good for her-she treat her like younger sister orphanage live thanks to Mathilda money,which he get by robbing nobles disliked other nobles and love only Tiff and children - be good for them, and Mathilda is yours. had only 10 modern guns/M.16,AK 47,Enfield/ and Tiger. of the story was not translated, so i knew nothing about H bombs from soviet sub. is on Baka tsuki - Main project - Zero no tsukaima , most informations is about size of girls breasts.
is daughter of ARchduke, who was killed by Albion King for his elven girlfriend is daughter of widowed viceroy, who died defending Archduke. mother was like second mother for Matchilda dislike nobles, but care about children, becouse they are her father wwwwwww retainers children - she treat them as her retiners, like good noble should. wwwwwwwww.I think, that Mathilde think that she is last true noble - but she do not hate others wwwwwwwww. She rob nobles, but only very rich - and he never killed anybody. is in Westwood is in Westwood Village. had only 10 modern had only 10 modern guns/Volume13,ch.6/ is on Baka is on Baka tsuki./zero no tsukaima/
. is daughter of albion is daughter of albion Archduke .Matchilda is daughter of viceroy who died defending . had only 10 modern guns and one tank/Tiger/Pope had only 10 modern guns Baka tsuki-main project-zero no tsukaima -mostly translated-Baka tsuki-main project-zero no tsukaima - 3 mangas - Elves - had many modern weapons, but that part of novel was not had many modern weapons. Sorry, but my reviev get changed.
Tiff is daughter of Albion is Daughter of Albion is daughter of Albion , she is heir to Albion , she is heir to Albion crown.
Great, more review issues… Sigh, it seems to be getting worse, someone help him before his reviews become mush… I'm not even going to respond beyond this and just condense the information for anyone who wants to know besides me.
Tiffania is daughter of Albion Archduke and was killed by Albion king James..
Mathilda is daughter of widowed male viceroy who was Archduke's friend and died defending him.
Mathilda believes she is the last true noble and only robs the rich, never killing.
Orphans are Mathilda's father's retainer's children.
Romania only had 10 modern guns - M16, AK 47, Enfield and Tiger.
Elves have many modern weapons.
Lander Blazer: Huh, that's actually rather good for a crack fic :p
Thanks god USA is not THAT bad in real life, at least not anymore.
Still, I'm expecting a greater fight from the mages:
As you said, transmuting tanks to crush soldiers - Earth Mages
Creating golems so big bullets don't even faze it, making them rely on heavy weapons - Earth Mages
Wind blades that can cut through steel, and are invisible - Wind Mages
Lighting bolts and strikes to fry any machines - Wind Mages
Tornados, raining soldiers everywhere - Wind Mages.
Fireballs, cooking people alive - Fire Mages
Explosive fireballs with all the power of a Bazooka - Fire Mages.
Ice spikes, not that great, but works for intimidation - Water mages.
Tsunamis - Water Mages.
Of course, to do any of what I suggested, it would require at least either a triangle mage (at the least) or a group of mages chanting together. It would not faze the superior army, but would slow them down.
Also, let's not forget Cromwell's zombie ring, and how America almost always gets f**ked up by zombies in movies. Can you imagine it? A zombie army of nobles?
Also, the VERY pissed off water spirits that wants the ring back.
The flying WOODEN ships will be easy to destroy though, very much so.
Question: Will Wales get the chance to meet with Henrietta?
Thanks for the review. I suppose the nobles could put up more of a fight but remember, triangle mages are few and far inbetween, squares even more so. Sure, a bunch of weak nobles could channel the spell together but do keep in mind, magic is delicate and if focus is lost, for example when one of chanting mages die, it gets disrupted.
The easiest to pull off would of course be fireballs but it is easy to imagine that if such a threat actually escalated to a high enough degree, fireproof gear would start to roll out and they would be worse off than they started. I suppose it would work for a while but it is ultimately a war of attrition on their loss.
Of course it would slow them down, putting rocks in their way would also slow America down. Though I do see what you mean by that. However, do understand that not every noble is as zealous as Louise when it comes to sacrificing yourself to hold back the enemy. Even if they were, such a situation would only serve to prolong the inevitable and weaken the last stand. Then again maybe that's what they want?
I remember the ring but I'm not exactly sure how to use it. Oh and the President will probably mention it at some point but in the fine print of the forms, it is signed that they agreed to a certain something in the event that a large enough threat presented itself in Halk that required extreme methods to resolve with minimal casualties.
Water Spirit huh? I'll deal with it when US takes over Gallia.
Wood Ships versus anti-air guns with incendiary round… I think the result is clear enough with regular rounds so no need for more detail lol.
As for your actual question, most likely but perhaps not as soon as you expect.
Deamiel: Please! Please I beg you on my knees this is a diamond mine so please update! I love the idea and humorous aspect of it. You have my full support. Nice Chapter ;)
Diamond mine? I wish! This is, at most, a copper mine… Diamond mines are stories which get a thousand follows and favorites in under a week. Tons of Zero no Tsukaima stories after this have already gotten more follows and favorites than me… *Insert Jealousy of a Thousand Suns Here* I appreciate the support though, keeps me going.
tylermech66: sorry, I don't usually do crack fics, especially uber patriotic ones, so I barely could read halfway through this chapter. but I can see the appeal, I'm sure you'll have much more appreciative reader than me :D
I understand, the story isn't for everyone, glad you checked it out!
A month had passed since the course began and a select few nobles were finally allowed to be released into the public. The number totalled to five, with the rest either deemed to require an extension due to their background like Henrietta or had not scored well enough to warrant a successful pass but were allowed to transfer a percentage of their score into the re-module.
They were split into different areas of the city and allowed to blend in with the commoners. Most of them had a family still in the course but only got through on their own and had decided to try to earn some money for themselves first so as to better support their relatives once they were allowed out. The ex-nobles were assigned new houses just like the commoners and given a suggested cover story and identity they could use if they wanted to hide being nobles in the past.
The reformed nobles knew of what would happen to them if they misbehaved, having signed a long legal agreement which informed them of everything they needed to know before being released. There was of course the chance of them being recognized and scorned so for the first week, they would be protected and kept under MiB secret surveillance.
The public had been made aware of the noble re-education programme a week prior but there was no guarantee everyone would be alright with their oppressor living equally among them, they would likely prefer the ex-nobles be tortured and executed, or at least put lower in the hierarchy than them.
The Tristainian commoners had been assured that the might of America had neutralized the mage's ability to do magic, reducing them to normal commoners which, barring their attitude that was supposed to be fixed in the de-noblization programme, were on equal footing with everyone else now. For now, crime in the city was non-existent thanks to the efforts of the MiB peacekeepers and general lack of nobles, as well as low wealth of people to begin with.
Eventually a monetary divide would form as businesses were set up, children were born and workers were hired, leaving those who didn't work in the ditch where they would likely fester and rot, turning to crime for their funds. There was an easy way around this though, which was to provide an unemployment benefit. It wouldn't cost much since the money was extremely deflated in Halk to the extent that prices were only around ten percent of normal.
However, a different problem would then arise, that people would purposely stop seeking jobs to leach off the benefit. It was a commonplace problem even on Earth so there is no doubt that it would happen in Halk sooner or later as people wisened up to the money circulating freely. There was one way that seemed to present no problems though, only it would go against everything Americans believed in to do it.
The answer, would be Communism, though of course not in its fullest sense. The most glaring issue with Communism in the Soviet Union was that the people working in higher management weren't satisfied with the amount they were paid and so siphoned funds into their own personal accounts, completely destroying the equal income ideal.
However, the situation now was different, the money in Halk was essentially worthless in America. The plan was to have American managers be hired to work these companies while being hired by the state. Though of course, there would still be some corruption such as Halkeginian shopkeepers who could pocket the money but that was easily circumvented by having proper checks and balances.
Sure they could unofficially raise prices and pocket the extra but the idea was that any Halkeginian that worked would receive an amount set by the state, determined based on the prosperity of the nation, any corruption would overall hurt them in the long run which the government made sure to remind them of.
While this deterred most offenders, some may still do so in the end. This was where the loan scheme was planned to come into play. Unlike loans on Earth, the value that needed to be repaid would not come into effect as long as the loan was repaid in successfully by the time stated. This allowed people to get money if they were in a pinch without the fear of loss as long as they confident they could pay it back.
Such methods were impossible to enact into America with the current way the economy was and so they would be tested first in Halk, though they couldn't be perfectly effective forever, more and more Halkeginians would move up the ranks, requiring more policies to be enacted to circumvent corruption and prevent unnecessary money being given out to those who couldn't be bothered to contribute to society rather than those who couldn't manage to.
Hopefully the test proved to be effective and that the Tristain economy could prosper under this system long enough to be a convincing point when it was time for small changes in the American system based on what was being used here as the results would no longer be biased. Hopefully the people didn't just rebel after some time, if they did then the government might have to take this seriously and deploy a full scale army to prevent a revolution.
As Americo progressed gradually, the Albion invasion force was slowly mobilized. A total of a thousand dragon rider mages were rallied along with almost all their ships. Each ship was then loaded with commoner armies consisting of spearmen, pikemen, swordsmen, shielders, some musketeers and other types of soldiers.
The commoners in the ships never wanted to fight but that was the only way to ensure their family's safety at this point with the strife of civil war. Now they were forced to kill civilians and they would obey, killing with the only thought in mind being that with their survival, their wife and kids would be safe.
Wardes sat in the war council as the generals threw possible strategies back and forth between one another to best determine the most suitable combination of plans which would lead to sure victory. He wasn't much of a large scale thinker and so was just there as a formality since he would be leading the dragon rider's charge.
Of course it was a great honour but these pre-war discussions just dulled the sensation into numbness until the actual thing. He would also have to deal with the formal surrender of the new government since he would be the one most ahead. Another responsibility would be the after battle reports, he was never good at those, too much sprucing up to do to make it sound better.
'Maybe we can get Romania to help us distract them if things take a turn for the worse, say they are outlawing Brimirism or something, wouldn't that be fun?'
His thoughts continued to wander as the generals droned on in the background, finding fault in every idea thrown onto the table. Looking around, he saw the leader of their religious division, Cardinal Aries, just about as bored out of his mind as Wardes was. He didn't blame the man, the Cardinal's presence was just a formality at best, so as to allow Reconquista to continue using the excuse that they were doing this for religious purposes.
Wardes' mind eventually reached back to when he saw Cromwell, the most prominent thing being the mysterious purple ring now situated on his finger. Surely it wasn't from a wedding, even Tristain would have heard of that. It couldn't have been a random ornament he picked up and took a liking to either, most of his other jewels were of seemingly higher tier.
'I guess it could be some kind of artifact? Though then that begs the question of what exactly it does…'
He cracked his neck as it had stiffed from staring blankly ahead of him the whole time.
'Well whatever it does, I just hope it doesn't have any side effects…'
The meeting ended an hour later and he left to check on his new dragon. He hadn't been with it for long so the amount of trust between them was just barely adequate for him to pull off some of his more tougher evasive maneuvers without a high risk of death. A lot of concentration was needed to successfully coerce the dragon to move though, most of his best tricks involved making the enemy think he was going to get shot by going close to the projectile before dodging.
Such a move was surely effective but it took years of training with his old partner to perfect it. His new partner, who he just now decided to name Lamilean, was miraculously obedient enough that he could just about get it to follow long enough for it to work, the issue was, it was still green, never used in battle before.
'Damn, did they really have no more spare dragons besides these inexperienced ones?!'
WIth a heavy sigh, Wardes dismounted his new companion and left for the barracks to rest. He managed to get about an hour of sleep in for the afternoon before being disturbed. A royal guard awoke him and informed him of Cromwell's call.
'The day of the invasion draws near, Cromwell said he would ask for me when he finalized the plans to give me something, has that finally come?
He kneeled before his lord and bowed.
"Lord Cromwell, what is it you wish of me?"
"The plans have been approved Wardes, the fleet shall fly in a week when the island is closest to Tristain."
"That is most wonderful news my lord, I only hope the time we spent preparing did not allow them to fortify their defences too much."
"Bah, there is nothing they can do, within the month we shall have Tristain under our control and then we can mop up the loyalists!"
"Of course Lord Cromwell!"
"Ah right, I almost forgot, I have a gift for you to use during the invasion."
With a signal of his hand, the royal guard holding the tray brought it forward to the wind mage. On it was a strange weapon which Wardes had never seen before. He picked it up like he would a musket, as that was what it resembled.
"What is this?"
"It is a musket of some sort, enchanted with Fire, Earth and Wind."
"Truly?"
"Our scouts found it in the ruins of a castle we took from the loyalists. After examination from some of our best mages, it seems to use fire magic to launch the projectile out, wind magic to speed it up further, then earth magic to load a new bullet into the barrel."
"Why this is most astounding!"
"Unfortunately we cannot recreate it as none of our mages are skilled enough in all three elements to successfully duplicate the enchantment. The weapon has a total of five shots left, make good use of it."
"Thank you my lord! I shall do my best to repay you for this most generous reward!"
"See that you do."
Wardes left the court with his repeating musket in hand. Once safely in the privacy of his quarters, he looked over his prize more carefully.
'This will surely be useful when I run out of willpower to fuel my spells since I no doubt will in such a sustained conflict.'
He carefully looked into the barrel while readying a wind spell incase and examined it through the wind flow.
'It indeed seems to have an interesting design unlike any other musket, I wonder if five bullets will be enough though… Like I can force them to hit with wind magic if I conserve some for the purpose before I run out but just how much time can this buy me?'
He laid the gun against the wall and laid on his bed to get more rest.
'Maybe i should use it as one shot kill for their generals instead…'
And with that final thought, Wardes drifted off into a nap which he would only get to look back on for a while longer after he awoke.
As the week progressed, Tristain underwent its own military changes. The President had just stamped the seal of approval on the form to solve military shortage in Halk. The army and MiB working in Halk would be merged to create a single organization, the Army of Black. Sure it sounded lame but it had been approved and so would be carried through.
As the forces merged with the former MiB members working as the intelligence and spec ops division of the army, the normal members saw a slight increase in pay as they were now considered a higher rank than those of the regular defense force. The portal was pumped up to full power as well in preparation for reinforcements.
In the following afternoons, APCs, tanks, helis, jeeps and even jets were sent through the portal into Halk. Emergency construction teams were deployed as well and erected a large perimeter surrounding the academy to store all these vehicles in. Near the end, some anti-aircraft guns were also towed into the place to fight against dragons.
With the invasion, unbeknownst to them, just two days away, the reinforcements were finally completed and the defense force was boosted to an increase of up to five hundred percent. Hoffman immediately assigned his new troops around the border and in strategic locations before sending the remainder on more mundane tasks such as helping the professor's research teams, peacekeeping, ex-noble monitoring at Area 52 and other miscellaneous duties that needed to be done.
Seeing as the final measures which needed to be taken were complete, Hoffman now finally had time to look through the last of his paperwork for the week unless something unexpectedly disastrous happened. At the very bottom of the pile, added long ago but marked as unimportant and not urgent, was the file for a certain blue haired Princess. As he read through the file, he sighed slightly.
'Did we really just put her and her dragon into a coma for all this time? I mean, I suppose they need only awake when the mission is drawing near for rehab but completely sucking away their consciousness for so long is rather much…'
He placed the file back, setting it aside for when they would be needed, and left his office for some coffee in the break room. In said room, he met up with Johnson and Smith.
"Hey agents, haven't seen you guys in a while!"
"Oh hey Hoffman, get a load of this!"
The general looked over to Johnson's plate and saw a humongous steak.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Yup, was just about to dig in before you showed up!"
"Where'd you get that from anyway?"
"Zelinsky let me have it. He was rather pissed when I got back with that wind quartz in the jeep but when I tried to explain and accidentally spilled something onto a bunch of other things, he thanks me and called me a genius before offering me anything he could do."
"So you asked for a steak?"
"Absolutely!"
"You know, having some form of favour from Zelinsky is really useful, the man drives a real hard bargain. I won't say asking for a steak was stupid but there were plenty of other things you could have done…"
"Well I'm a simple man."
"I suppose to each his own, now are you gonna eat that or what?"
"You gotta savour things like this Smithy, didn't anyone teach you that?"
Just then, the base intercom came to life as all available Men in Black agents and important personel were summoned to the meeting room.
"Dammit, now it's gonna get cold…"
"You can stay here Johnny, I'll fill you in later."
"Thanks, I just hope it's somethin' interesting this time."
"Who knows, maybe we finally pissed off the nobles and they got some other nation to attack us."
"Oh wait, I forgot the sauce!"
Johnson ran off to the canteen's stalls to get some of his favorite secret sauce. Sighing at his partner's antics, Smith headed towards the venue on his own, guessing what it would be about. A heavy atmosphere could be felt the moment he stepped into the room and looking up to the screen, standing out in the darkened room, he understood why.
An armada of flying ships geared up fully with cannons and dragon knight flanks were built up along the edge of a floating landmass. With each passing minute, the army grew ever larger as another ship appeared behind the clouds or a new squad of dragon knights joined their ranks. The MiB soon poured in and eventually even Johnson made it in time as he hadn't been able to control himself in eating the steak slowly. Hoffman, sure of everyone's attendance, began the briefing..
"As you can see, they're clearly planning something."
The clouds suddenly cleared at this point and the enemy flagship was revealed.
"Hmph, damn mages. Our scouts at the border had a bad feeling and so used the telescope at the guard towers to take a peek in the direction of where Albion is supposed to be. He spotted something strange and requested a stronger one from headquarters. It only arrived after a day, today, and is what's transmitting this to us now."
Lighting up the room slightly since the projection no longer needed to be as clear, Hoffman continued his address.
"Judging from the distance, the army is predicted to attack soon. I've already ordered the anti-air guns to be shipped in that direction but I believe that the casualties on the local side will be high if this war happens."
Smith and Johnson looked towards each other somewhat reluctantly.
"Therefore, command has decided to send saboteurs into their ranks to spread chaos and disrupt the invasion. Since this will likely be the first real mission in this world, we'll of course have to send in our two veterans. You know who you are so stay here once the meeting's over."
Smith and Johnson sighed as they lamented that their free time had come to an end once again.
"Of course, sending in just two people to stop an army is ridiculous so we'll be sending in other MiB members as well."
After announcing the names of those to be transferred to this operation, Hoffman stressed again the need to minimize local casualties and adjourned the session, letting the briefing for the mission be handled by the higher ups. The head agent of MiB, known only as Agent K, stepped forward and turned to brief his team of six men.
"As you all know, you'll be the team to infiltrate the island and cause confusion. As for how, you will head to the Port City of La Rochelle and there, a man will teach you how to operate the ships and send you there. It's a one way trip though, you'll need to find your own transport back."
"What about equipment sir?"
"You'll be allowed one tranq weapon each and Johnson will handle the live fire SMG."
"What?!"
"You have something to say Smith?"
"No sir…"
"Then get moving, any other items are fine as well, just make sure not to carry too much that you get spotted easily."
"Yes sir!"
With a resounding affirmation, the agents moved out and proceeded to grab their equipment from the armory.
A/N: And finally, Albion's invasion is beginning. See, I told you I'd start it soon. So far votes are one to zero in favour of removing filler so unless that changes, the story is going to move a whole lot faster unless I say screw it and write filler anyway since it's only one vote but that's not important for now.
As always, review, favourite and follow if you've enjoyed. Don't forget to check out my other stories, community and poll as well. Story status information can be found on my profile and you can make suggestions on my forum. Seriously, review, or I'll stop writing again...