THIS TOOK FOREVER!
i'm sorry for the suckingly slow update, and thank those blocks who reviewed this recently to inspire me to get off my tush and do this. corse now we get to the fun part. Next updates. . . I have surprises.
"Evening." Janet said with a smile. She had just joined a group of select noblemen on a ridge over looking a field on the edge of town. It had taken a short carriage ride to get over here, and right now said Carriage was sitting nearby with darkened windows.
"Miss Courier." one of the more petulant nobles said, Janet meanwhile snickered internally at her choice of last name. "Care to explain why were out in the middle of nowhere? I can think of more pleasing things to do today then watch your toys."
"Indeed I will." Janet said walking over to the crest of the hill, which had the dirt piled a bit higher than else were so it was a bit like a stage. "Of six of you, your lands are considered idea for the future expansion of Albion industry. Of two of you, your lands will be the future drilling zones. Lastly the rest of you have been invited for many reasons which are a bit to long-winded to explain right here." Some of those reason is that I don't trust you and I want to show you what can happen to you. Janet added to her self.
A common problem was the fact that nobles had a bad tendency to ignore laws they did not like. To get them to obey the laws you needed force, and nobles were powerful mages plus they generally came with large family's and blood ties to other family's meaning trying that if you tried to force someone to obey a law on some one and you could incite a civil war, or even a normal war if a few of those blood ties were across a border and they got involved. That was what had happened to Albion. Additionally the house troops that each noble had were generally well-trained professional men, and each noble generally had a couple hundred, though more powerful ones had as many as few thousand.
In war the 'national army' was made of the nobles and the household troops they could bring. This reduced the kings burden to keep a standing army, as that was up to the nobles. This left the king with a, to Janet, unacceptable level of power the position amounting to little more than having a lot of influence with no real power.
Clearly trying to force a law to be enforced required other nobles to be either willing to help, or they had to lend you their house hold troops for the task. So if the nobles did not want to help you then you were stuck with the small royal guard forces that were truly loyal to the monarch. For Albion these were the Yeomen Knights, and they only number 2,000 commoners led by 50 mage knights. Nothing to the joint mite of a mere five counts or dukes, which there were hundreds of, and the risk of civil war made it not worth the trouble for most issues.
It was a constant fight to keep laws enforced and unpopular laws, like tax reform, were generally unenforceable.
Ah! The wonders of the Feudal system.
Janet had the solution.
A powerful, truly, National army with no loyalty to any one noble, but to the state it self. That way they could come down like a hammer on any one who broke any law no matter how unpopular. The idea was not a new one. Romania sort of had the system with the Guard, men loyal only to the pope. The problem was no commoner army could stand even five to one odds with noble men. You needed nobles to fight with you or you lost too many men to be worth the trouble of enforcing the laws, hence revolving back to the issue of enforcing laws the nobles did not like.
It was a catch 22. you needed nobles to be in the army, but you needed the army to police the nobles, so why would the nobles join an army that was just going to smash them?
Hand guns helped, but not a lot. Arquebus just took too long to reload, were to inaccurate, and too short ranged to help. But when they did hit: the target, Commoner and noble was going down. The pope had early on had tried to ban their use upon other human nation, that had gone nowhere.
For Janet the key to a proper National army was making the Commoner more able to fight the nobleman on at least three to one odds. For that she had to do one thing.
Up the tech level.
The standard foot infantry weapon was destined, for now, to be a .308 caliber semi auto revolver rifle. A bullet that was big enough to blow any mages spine out at almost any combat range. The odds even one on one were not good for the noble who could be killed with a finger twitch.
Add to that the array of heavy weapons to be shown off today and there was almost nothing a straight commoner force could deal with, and that was before rest of the army arrived. Namely the national (air) navy, air force, (consisting of airborne dragon and griffin combat 'wings', and mechanical flight methods that had not been implemented yet) and the confusing 'Auto Cuirassiers,' which she had yet to invent or explain in any real detail what they were. Taken together there was in theory nothing that could stand before the army. Much less any puffed up noblemen, like the ones she was trying to intimdate now.
Blowing a few noble manors up would either force the others into line, or make them rise up. Either way, the problem would be solved in short order. After all, they only had so many men they could throw into the grinder, a national army would be bigger by far.
All that was one of the reasons why she was showing off only the flashy weapons today, they made the best impressions, so she would not HAVE to kill any one later.
"Gentlemen we shall keep this short." she turned and face down the steep incline on the other side at the trained gun gun crews, and the handful of mages on, 'target detail.'
"Set up targets: infantry loose formation." the nobles nodded and a number of clay targets were summoned up down range, each the size, and density of a human body.
"I'm sorry does any one have a stop watch?" one noble did. "Care to keep time?" "Certainly." he said.
"Ok then, now when I command a team of six commoners, and two guns will destroy every target there. I want you to keep track of the time." "There are some 60 targets at over a 100 yards. On your ready." Janet finished.
Silence stretched then the man with the stop watch said, loudly in a commanding voice.
"What do you mean?"
"When your ready, just tell them and begin the demonstration.
"OK, ready!" he shouted. He promptly dropped the watch in shock as the roar of gun fire that ensued.
The HR-5 (heavy repeater 5) was a short squat, ugly weapon. Notable for it's round barrel shrouding, oak shoulder stock, and boxy receiver, the gun was built to do one thing.
Spit out .308 caliber bullets out as fast as it could.
The bullet size was chosen to keep a single standard cartridge across the army.
With a roar a five-inch flame was vomited from the barrel of the HR-5, as spent brass slid across the air in smooth arcs.
The targets were blown apart in smooth slicing arcs, while the nobles made impressed noises. Janet meanwhile was not impressed. She made a note to over see all future weapon development. That barrel had to be longer, they were losing to much powder out the barrel.
It was still a frigen impressive weapon for its flaws.
The hail storm of lead cut the the statures down in less then five seconds as it spat it hate down rage faster then the speed of sound.
Silence in the after match as the last target crumbled.
"The time sir." she said not turning to the noble.
"I'm sorry, I was not looking." he said stunned.
"To be expected. Now then, trial two." she called downward at the target detail. "Infantry loose formation." the 60 clay solider rose up ward again.
About to be cut down, again.
"now then, two shots, seven pounder mortar, again on your ready." Janet said. The man, more cautiously this time shouted. "fire at will."
The mortar sounded, odd to any one he knew of mortars being more of a 'thump, then a bang of a true Black power weapon. All weapons in the new Albions army used smokeless powder though it took squad of square class earth mages to make enough. That said they were well on their way to having their weapons being completely commoner make.
Quickly the rounds hammered up and rained down each shell slamming down sending a hail of shrapnel and earth in plumes of stone and steel though the targets ripping the targets apart.
Of the 60 targets, by the second impact, only 12 were left standing, and the time between shots had been incredibly short.
"again, I note your impressed." Janet said with a smile. "now, then one last thing and then were be done for the evening. Target: Golem square class."
With a nod the Target detail cast their magic out of the groundrose the massive golem of rock and stone, this time at much longer ranges than the human targets.
"now then, as you know you standard commoner foot trooper has no recourse when facing a golem." nods went around before one person, Janet labeled him a smart ass piped up. "You arm them with hammers and tell them to go at it."
"Let me restate that: they don't have a effective anti golem weapon." no smart ass comment at that. "Well, now they do." Janet said, before any one could counter that statement she order the test of the last weapon.
This weapon was a damn dodgy one at time, only recently working, and she had worked off and on it for almost five years she had been here.
The weapon was suppose to be a rocket launcher, like, the German Panzerschreck, and missile launcher used in WW three. But the rocket had proven too tricky, there were close, but not there yet.
So instead a stop gap had been implemented. A light 14 pounder cannon with a shape charge warhead. The barrel was short, and the powder load was so low, you had to fire it like a howitzer arcing the shell. Theoretical a strong mage could block the shot.
Very powerful, hardish to move, (Though far easier then a proper cannon), but effective.
With a bang the shell impacted the 'golem', and exploded in a crimson flame ripping the golem apart in a massive smoke cloud of ash and dust.
Silence stretched while they waited for the smoke to blow away, and when it did, it reveled that the solid stone 'golem', lay in three parts on the ground.
Janet smiled broadly. She spun on her heel to face the people in front of her. "Well then, that's it for the weapon tests are there any questions?"
None then one of them spoke.
"What game are you playing!" the smart ass shouted.
"Excuse me?" Janet said back her will rising to batter this fewl apart!
"There is no way you could do this without magic, yet this is what you keep insinuating! So again, what game are you playing at?"
"No game. These are exactly as they seem to be." With a hand wave she datomized a SMG, a few people looked impressed at the display of magic, the more learned were confused, that magic should be impossible.
She held the SMG one-handed and fired a spray of 9mm bullets into the air. In the silence the followed she glared at the faces around her.
"You are required to do nothing, much less believe. But when these weapons start to write the pages of history's in the blood of their foes, then you will believe."
Janet spun on her heel and marched back to her carriage, her face lightning with each step.
Everything, bar the mortars maybe since they seemed to be just a noise then a fire-ball, was with in their ability to comprehend. A cannon, and a fancy repatering rifle, they had simple version of those now. (of the multiple barrel kind though). They would believe her, even if they did not, well she could just turn the weapons on them if it came down to it.
Hopefully, she had scared a few of them straight.
Which was the real point of today.
She opened the carriage door and slide across from the single occupant that saw everything.
"in my defense sugar, you wanted to come and see and see what I was doing today, and I did say you could come." Janet said with a snigger at Prince Wales expression. She lit up a cigarette blowing a plume of smoke to one side.
"Your going to war, and your going to win."Wales said softly. Janet stopped smoking.
"Who told you?" she said tacitly confirming it.
"The drilling troops out side my bared window." Wales said smartly back.
"There, you not going to believe what ever is say right?" Janet said shaking her head with smile.
"No, and your going to attack Tristain. It fits. It's why you wanted my letter, it's a weak nation and your going to attack it." O he was clever.
"In my defense: I get my marching orders from Cromwell, he says jump, I "
"Say how high?"
"Nope, maximum height is assumed." Janet said injecting a touch of sadness into her voice. "Again: I work with Cromwell, but rest assured I far from approve of many of his choices and decisions."
This argument was old and Wales sighed. "I know, I know." he said sadly.
"Don't worry Sugar." Janet resting a hand on his shoulder. "The world is changing, and as they say, a rising tide lifts all boats, or dashes them against the rocks, and I highly doubt Cromwell can float.
"I hope he gets what he deserves." Wales said vindictively. "on that note: do you know who killed my family?"
"No, I don't know yet." Janet said. "When I know, I will let you know."
"I would, appreciate that. Thank you." Wales said.
"Don't appreciate me yet sugar," Janet said turning to look at a window as the carriage as they left the demonstration area and started to enter the city proper. "I have yet to deliver."
The sun was hanging low in the sky as Wheatley re-wrapped and changed Colbert leg bandage.
On his part: Colbert was drinking a deatomized whiskey. Grunting Wheatley chucked the bloody bandage into a crackling camp fire where it was consumed instintly.
"You can look now." Wheatley said and Louise, Guiche, Seista and Kirche pulled there hands off their eyes.
"
You sure mages can heal that?" Wheatley asked.
"
Yes, though I will likely walk with a limp for the rest of my life."
"ya, when those other guys going to get back?" Wheatley asked Richard who sat on a log around the fire.
"There all getting there armor on. Sort of a tradition to have it on at these meetings." he responded.
"At this point I'm still unsure if I should shoot you or not." the nobles turned to face Captain Maxwell who walked out of the night to join them by the fire.
His lighter officer armor was easier and faster than every one else power armor. Beside him, towering in his heavy enclave trooper armor was Lance.
"You try that and your find a bullet in your head faster than you can say shoot them."
Wheatley stood up, his own white power armor gleaming in the camp fire and twilight.
That armor," Maxwell walked up and tapped his finger against the armor plate. "or rather, what it represents, is the only thing that makes me willing to inform you and your, nobles of us." he cast a scathing glare over the students. "Where did you get it?" he commanded.
"Locked in a prewar bunker. Had to go into a VR simulation of anchorage to unlock it." Wheatley replied crossing his arms as he glared at the enclave officer. His answer confused everyone but Captain Maxwell.
Interesting." he scanned the armor again. "whats your rank trooper?" Wheatley rolled his shoulder, reveling the symbol of the Brotherhood of Steel there.
"Paladin Wheatley James."
"So, you're a member of the brotherhood of steel." Maxwell said now glaring at the now hated person in front of him.
"and proud of it." Wheatley said back.
The two of them exchanged glares (while Lance just looked confused at all the hidden context he was missing)
Grandfather." Seista said from where she was sitting. "What is going on?"
Wheatley was the one to answer back. "He trying to decide if he wants to kill me."
I am not." Maxwell rallyed back with.
Ya, right." Wheatley said rolling his eyes. "The enclave in my extensive experience is a shoot first and ask questions later organization."
"And yet all you have is your word upon mine." Maxwell responded.
"So it seems." Wheatley countered. The two kept glaring at each other until the sound of clinking armor turned them to face the rest of the squad."
"How long you guys been there?" Wheatley asked.
Long enough." Calvin said walking to the front of the group, "What did happen to the old Enclave?"
"Something I want to know too." Maxwell said crossing his arms."
"Your want the long or the short answer?" Wheatley said with a sadistic smile as he sat down on a log."
"Short, and if that does not satisfy me, the long one." he sat down on a log around the fire, followed shortly by the others."
"Ok, short answer is, Enclave tried to poison every one who a mutant."
"A what?" Louise asked.
"Mutant." Wheatly said looking for words for it. "If a human is normal, a mutant is, not normal. Like Charon."
"So, ghouls are mutants.?" Louise asked. He's a Ghoul.
"Your correct good lady."
"I'm sorry but, Ghouls?" Jane said nervously, echoed by Siesta. "Those thing exist."
"Thing my ass." Wheatley said deatomizing a well-worn photograph and handing it to to the trooper closest to him. "He is a person."
"any way." Wheatley said getting back on track. "Enclave wanted to kill mutants, go after my dads project for clear water."
"James got project purity working?" Maxwell said surprised.
"...How the hell do you know that?" Wheatley said frustrated.
"As if we would not keep tabs on everything, we just never thought he would ever get the damn thing working. What happened next?" Maxwell said, eye brows furling in intrest.. Louise knew this part of the story and held her breath.
"Enclave killed my dad, then I go one big roaring rampage of revenge, get to raven rock base, talk robot president Eden convince him to blow up the base, destroyed enclave with 50 foot tall giant robot that throws nukes like foot balls, then go to Adams air force base blow up land crawler with your own satellite, destroyed Encalve, save wasteland am a hero. End of story." he crossed his arms and waited for the response.
Maxwell opened his mouth silently once, then twice, till he resembled a fish. His mind tried to process that. on the one had, that was just imposable for a mere wastelander to pull off. On the other hand, how the hell did he known about Adams base, President Eden, Raven Rock, the orbital luncher and more. plus his eyes. Hard like Stone they glared at him "Holy shit, were the only east cost Enclave asset you've yet to destroy." he seemed to think about what to do next.
"Never thought of it that way." Wheatley said after a moment of thought with s shrug. "and unless you plan to start something, I won't go ten for ten."
"That makes me so glad." Sally said sarcastically.
"On that note: I've never seen a female enclave trooper, and you have three of them." Wheatley said turning to the trooper in question.
"I'm the, 'pilot'." Katie said. "Not that I've ever gotten air borne." she said with a sigh.
"As for Sally, Jane and Seista, we just go off of blood line, if we discriminated on gender too we would not have nearly enough people." Maxwell answered.
"I see." Wheatley nodded at the answer from Maxwell. "Your turn I suppose." Wheatley asked. "How the hell did you get here."
"Magic." Maxwell answered with a shrug.
"...Details?" Wheatley said after a moment.
"Ok, the Vertibird was on routine patrol, there was a eclipse, next thing we know were flying over a forest. Confused we land and we start to scout a nearby town we flew over. Now, some more back ground." Maxwell took a deep breath. "Before we should up Tristan was in the climax of the plagues and they were in the middle of the de Gramont plan."
"de Gramont? Say, isn't your last name de Gramont; Guiche?" Wheatley said without thinking, seconds later he realized what he had just done.
Guiche suddenly found 11 pairs of eyes focus on him like mirrors focused on an ant.
"What! No of course not!" he said with much hand waving and head shaking. "My names can't be de Gramont!"
"I say we turn him upside down and beat him till candy comes out." Lance said with an evil glare. A chorus of agreements went around the fire.
"Before we do any smacking: what was this plan?" Wheatley said.
"The plan had two stages to it, First quarantine small villages where the plague was, then wait till everyone was dead from the plague, or immune to it then move on." Maxwell explained.
"Sounds sensible, crude, but sensible." Wheatley said just before he shot a quick look, Colbert, he was oddly silent, and not meeting any one's eyes at the moment, just staring at his leg.
"That was the official plan: and while yes on paper it just that, in practice there were two problems." Maxwell replied.
"First, and most important: how is a walled off village supposed to get food? They can't without contaminating the people besieging them so they just starve. Secondly: who gets possession of all the property of the now dead peasant? The nearest noble."
"ouch." Wheatley winched. "They have an incentive to let the villagers die." He said softly.
"They have an incentive: to perform slash and burn." Lance said frustrated. "After the plan was approved, whole villages were burned just for a sign of the infection, city's decimated, as it, one/tenth of their population killed."
"Damn." Wheatley said softly.
"Be fair." Louise said sharply. "Not every noble was like that."
"Name one." Maxwell said in a cold tone of voice his glare forcing the young girl to back down. "I know of at least three ranking barons who tried to burn Tarbes to the ground."
"Only we were there." the so far silent Vance said, he had yet to take off his helmet and his face was a deep mechanical bass, Guiche went pale. He figured who these guys where.
"Impossible!" he said softly. A deep chuckle went around the fire from the Enclave troopers. "He knows." Vince said pointing with his finger.
"What do you mean?" Wheatley asked. "Knows what, Guiche! Have you been hiding something?" he turned his glare on the blonde flop, who was hiding behind a log nervously looking at the troopers across from him.
"What is wrong Guiche?" Kirche asked confused. She looked back at the troopers. "They don't look that bad."
"One of those ranking nobles that tried to sack Tarbes was de Gramont him self." Lance chuckled. "He likely got the story second-hand from his grandfather."
Maxwell nodded agreement. "Were a horror story." Maxwell said with an evil smile, his mind going back to those days, of the cracks of musket, roar of familiar and screech of magic. "If you're a noble you might know the tale by heart. Knights who speak not a word, clad in armor as black as night wielding weapons of fire, light and dark green flames."
"Incenrators, Lasers, and Plasma." Wheatley translated. "You guys must have had a field day."
"You get the picture." Maxwell said with a smile.
"And I don't know why?" Wheatley said "I mean, you think that sort of thing would be shouted from the roof tops."
"It was a long time ago, and in a place where the written word is few and far between memory's save by nobles." he gestured at cowering Guiche. "not only is our friend here likely literate, the very grandfather were talking about may have told him about us."
"Not to mention trying to talk about it is considered sedition." Vance said from under his helmet.
"Right," Wheatley said trying to put pieces together. "so the nobles show up, you show up, why do you defend Tarbes?"
"I make it sound like the two events happened soon after each other don't I?" Maxwell said rubbing a hand though his hair. "There was about a week's gap between the events. It was suggested we fly back though the eclipse but I vetoed that plan, if it didn't work we would have wasted all of our fuel. So we had spent a week in the town, figuring that if we could not do anything else we would have to mingle with the population, then the army shows up, and even in the wasteland seeing a couple hundred guys with flintlocks is bizarre."
"I can imagine." Wheatley said running a finger along a scratch on his armor.
"I think you can picture what happened next." Maxwell said "We fought them off once, twice, and the third time they went for all the marbles."
"I guess even the Enclave has standards." Wheatley commented in his head. "What do you mean by that?"
Maxwell reached into a pocket and pulled out a sausage wrapped in paper. "The first two times was about the plague, the second was about the seeming rebellion that they thought was present. They sent a small army, and we cut them down, one laser bolt a time. After that we stuck around the town for lack of a better idea, and we had kids." He gestured to the troopers around him. "and the nobles pretended it never happened." He took a bit out of the sausage. "The real question is what we do with you."
"What do you mean by that?" Siesta asked nervously.
"Well we have a group of nobles who know more than we want them to, along with the man who claims to have destroyed the entire East Coast Enclave. Before us, and we so love are secrets." He drummed a tattoo on the grip of his pistol.
"Are you suggesting we just shoot all of them?" Randel asked nervously as he glanced at Wheatley. He had pulled his Assault rifle out and was making a point in polishing the barrel.
"It would be the most logical choice." Katie said, only to get a hard glare from Wheatley and the other mages present, (except Guiche, he was till cowering) "but . . . not the best."
"Who said I was going to suggest that." Maxwell said quickly picking up on the lack of support from his 'troops' "The fact is though; we have an important secret we need to keep hidden and a group of nobles now know it, what do we do?"
"Well short of killing us, which by the way good luck with that," Wheatley said as he chambered the rifle with a threatening clank, (and a non-threatening metallic tink) "I'm really hard to kill, your only other option is to just swear us to secrecy which we ALL do." Wheatley said glaring around, chambering his rifle again. A second tink went through the night air.
"Don't we?" He said. This time nods and nervous affirmations went through the noble half of the crowd. "There you see? We are all on board." Wheatley said with a smile.
"I suppose we don't have a choice but to accept that." Maxwell grunted.
"Well if it helps I'm pretty sure I can fly that thing." Wheatley gestured to the Virtibird shed in the dark. "magic runes and all that plus I'm sure we can come up with fuel for it, not to mention capacitors, recharges, servo," Wheatley said as he sweetened the pot so to speak as he counted down all the things that a laser weapon needed to function. "Heck I think I have some spare parts in hand right now." He gestured with his pip-boy. "So really: you're getting ahead out of this."
"Well that is good." Lance said with a relieved sigh. He did not want to know how he would respond to a 'kill them' order.
"Well can we eat now?" Kirche said breaking her silence up to now. "Colbert seems to have fallen asleep." Wheatley pivoted to look the man over. He had fallen asleep propped on his walking staff in a sitting position. "Ya pain killers and whiskey will do that. Anyone knows where we can bunk him down for the night?"
The bed in question was a guest bed, Wheatley, Louise, and Siesta (suggested incidentally by Wheatley as it would leave most of the powerful mages back at the camp fire if they did change their mind) had taken Colbert to the Siestas house and they had just placed them in bed. "Shesh he's heavy for a professor." Wheatley said rolling his shoulders as he closed the door behind him.
"Ya." Louise grunted from where has passed out in a chair exhausted. "Why did you make me carry him?"
"I needed some help, and you have string bean arms . . . what the hell is a string bean anyway?" Wheatley said distracted. "You have any round here?" Louise was too tired to respond to the quip with anything other than a death glare.
"I think so." Seista said as she moved into the kitchen and started to look for it. Wheatley took a chair and puffed his bang out of his face. "What a day. Who knew we find all this here. What do you think Seista? Its you blood."
"I. . . don't know." She said conflicted. "They always said they had a secret to tell me when I grew up, but that is a bit much to take in at once."
"Neatly explains why you got cola here though." Wheatley said shrugging. "You got a baseball team?"
"The Salamanders won 8-5 in the finals." Seista said in response.
"Ya?" Louise groaned. "At this rate we won't be able to head back to the school." Wheatley chuckled.
"I'm actually still free for a few days." Seista said. "I was. . . kind of hoping you could stay for it." Louise was beginning to get up to steam.
"No! I have classes!"
"Any reason you need me for that?" Wheatley said looking at her then at Colbert's room. "And keep it down." He hissed. "In any case I want to ply the Encalve round her for more information, at least for a few more days."
"No way in hell I'm leaving you here." Louise snapped. Wheatley looked at Seista who was still rummaging for string beans. "Leaving me here? Or leaving me with her?" Louise stammering was all the answer he needed. "Louise," Wheatley sighed "lets table this issue for now and talk about it later. For now let me focus on the Enclave thing, and you focus on class work."
"You still don't trust them?" Seista said some what hurt as she found the string beans.
"I trust the Enclave about as far as I could throw Liberty Prime." Wheatley said with more than a little venom. "And he's as big as a castle tower. But better the snake you can see then the snake in the rocks. Sides, they may even be nice and I won't have to kill them all after all."
"You wouldn't! Seista said panicked. "I know Lance and half of those people! There nice people! Good people!"
"OK, first off, calm down." Wheatley said. "Second I said I hope I would not, and if you say so then I highly doubt I will have to. Thirdly: do you need help? You dropped the plants on the floor?"
"Those are string beans." Sesita said glad for the distraction. "and no I have it."
"Crips, no wonder they say people have muscles like them." Wheatley said, decidedly ignoring the death glare boring into his shoulder.