NOTE:
"Doryaaaaaaaaaa!": normal talking
"Charge!": special case
'Darn!': thoughts
GWA HA HA HA! : Giant creature speech
DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!
Please… read and review
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"Now, before you start… I'm gonna say: don't start with-"
"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!?" Murrue started.
"With that. There, I was about to tell you not to start with that, because I think it's common knowledge by now that I'm pretty much insane. And let's be honest… it's getting exhaustingly repetitive." Kage rolled his eyes. The protégé currently being surrounded his three less than pleased teachers.
"You just killed a Logos Minister out in public! I can't even begin to count the number of ways this could go wrong!" Natarle looked like she was on the verge of having a coroner.
"In all honesty, do you HAVE to kill him?" Mwu seems to be the only soul in this room that can maintain her calm better than anyone other than her student. "I mean… we ALL DREAMED of doing him in one of these days… but…"
"But what?"
"The timing!" Murrue replied.
"Timing? TIMING!? We're on a precipice of an INVASION! He compromises our defenses. He jeopardized our whole military operation for the sake of his personal desire. I thought, from my experience with George Allister and Lord Kirihara, Logos Ministers are more reasonable grownups… SERIOUSLY…" Kage growled. "With the stakes so high, how do you people put up with this crap at. This. Time?"
The three Alliance officers were left jaw hung. They see the truth of it, for, lord knows Natarle completely agree with Kage's point of his stern decision, lord knows she personally taught him that. But as rigid as she was, even Natarle wouldn't go this far. This sort of reckless and seemingly thoughtless decision making seems like what Mwu would've done. Yet Murrue also knew Kira is not that thoughtless. That there must be some hard compelling reason that pushed him this far.
And that's the thing. The three Officers knew Kira's way of thinking all too well because that's how they've taught him to be. What on earth have they wrought unto this world? "…still… what are you planning to do today… is a whole new level of crazy." Mwu continued. "You said… you're going to meet Master Bull out in broad daylight… We may not going to arrest you, but the Regulars will have you in chains the minute you step out of the Archangel."
"I know." Kage pulled his Shiki and gave it to Mwu.
"What?" Mwu frowned. "Y… You're going to let them capture you? But… Kid…"
"Putting aside the fact I've made myself the enemy of the army's sponsors… there is… something else… back there." Kira remembered that dark horrifying demon goddess coming out of him. "There's… something… in me. And no… we're not talking about those friendly ghosts we've all been quite familiar of… this is something different. More malicious… and dangerous. And it made me the most dangerous thing on this ship, in a bad way. I endanger everyone as long as I stay."
"So you're… leaving?" Mwu reluctantly took Shiki from his student's hand.
"I have to find a way to control this thing. What happened in that bay was too close to comfort for me. I'm not going to risk that in the coming battle. Either I come back fully in control, or I don't come back at all!" Kage turned to Mwu. "Based on what Xingke told me… Rena won't try to kill me. No. But she wants… me. For some reason. At any rate… I've left instructions. Canard will be in charge while I'm gone, and Mwu-san, you will be the acting captain within advisory capacity. You can give orders to my men as Captain, but Canard will have the final say." Now Kage can say it with more confidence, having understood the dynamics of an Allied officer better. 'Thank you Xingke.'
The three officers looked at each other. Kage had clearly thought out everything, as usual. "Are you sure, you want to do this?" Mwu still has a few last opinions. "Kage… Kira… you… regardless of what ails you… you… and I mean 'you' are the main driving force of the current 7th division. Without you, the changes happening in 7th division will grind to a snail's pace. At worst, the Logos Ministers will attempt to dismantle this division, undo everything you've done."
"I wouldn't think of doing something like this if I feel my men are that easy to dismantle. I have faith in them." Kira smiled. "Plus… I've left behind some… countermeasures."
"Countermeasures?" The three officers echoed.
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On the next day, the news of the Dark Captain's arrest spread quickly among the populace. Hardly anyone was surprised of this eventuality… though everyone was quite surprised at how… uneventful it was. Knowing the Captain's reputation for destruction, everyone was expecting a building or two will be torn down but no. Putting aside that little fight between Kage and his former subordinate, it ended swiftly in his bloody defeat and subsequent arrest.
"Out of curiosity…" Kage grumbled as Rena dragged him out his cell. The Handcuf was not only on his arms, but also on his legs… with acupuncture needles piercing his wrist and ankles. He doesn't know what nerve it hit, but he can't move his fingers. And as if his mask wasn't enough… they put an ironcast mouth gag over it for good measure. They also put him on a strait jacket, 4 people holding him with chain linked poles tying from four directions. And over all that, thick chains literally wrapping him from neck down. No expense was spared to make sure the Blacklist captain couldn't move even a finger, only his eyes, mouth, and his knees. He had to fidget like a chain wrapped penguin to move awkwardly under the trained barrels of twenty encircling troopers from 12 feet away. This may seem had entered the realm of overkill… that is, if their prisoner is NOT a Blacklist captain who butchered hundreds and thousands of people and turned half of Shanghai into smoldering ruin. And yet, Kage was hardly troubled by his current circumstances, given the way he talk so lightly. "…before me… before Harlbarton pick me… do you have any other candidates?"
"I have… or rather… 'They' had." Rena personally dragged Kage by the chains. She's pretty much the only person who's brave enough to stand within 12 feet from the Dark Captain. "Some scythe wielding kid named Andras or something. But I'll be damned if I let those businessmen micromanage this army."
"…I see… thank god I already left instructions to Canard."
"You don't miss a thing."
"But I miss my itinerary." Kage grunted. "Where exactly are we going?"
"To the supreme court. The Dragon's seat of power." Rena explained. "My hometown."
Chapter 52:
The Beijing Court:
Part 1: The Two Blacklist Captains
"Alright… but why did Captain Mwu, Captain Ramias, even Captain Houston had to come with us?" Kage can understand Mwu and Murrue wanting to come… but Jane Houston? "Shouldn't you at least leave one captain behind to supervise?"
"They have to be there to attend as your defendant and witness. After your trial, we'll also be having one final military debriefing between ranked officers before we return back to our post." Rena sighed. "And the base is well cared for in the hands of our lieutenants. Though Xingke is also coming with us because he's been staying in Shanghai for far too long and Beijing is essentially his post."
"I still don't follow." Kage rolled his eyes. "All five… I suppose four (barring myself) Captains are here. Why not just do the meeting here and now?"
"You're the one to blame for all this. Truly." Rena guffawed. "We can't have your trial when we're in the city that is so completely under your control. Lord knows if we… say… execute you or something of like, we'll have a revolt on our hands." To make her point, Rena gestured the many onlookers staring down at this procession. Every single one of them is Kage's men. 7th Division. Understandably, they looked rather perplexed that their favorite black clad psychopathic commander is being dragged away. Kage had given them instructions to keep the peace, so they hold their silence. But all that will go down the drain if something drastic happened right in front of their eyes.
"Fair enough. But last I checked, Beijing is about… 1200 kms away. So I'm guessing we're not gonna walk there, yes? I mean… I don't mind the slow pace tour… but we really don't have much time." As he said this, they've reached the rear gate of the city's walls.
"Of course not." Rena gestured with her chin as soon as the massive doorway was opened.
Kage followed her direction. The first he saw was a carriage… and then a convoy of carriages… led by a horse the size of a cart. 'Wha…' The horse skin was colored a deep dark blood red. Its mane was black. But it's gleaming black. Like the color of the river that reflects night sky. And its eyes. It was clear magnificent green. A faint glow can be seen at the core of said green eyes as its mane's shadow shifted over them. "Red Hare? But I thought it was just some legend!"
"The Horse of Horses is very real. Legend tells he's descended from the great Kirins that once bore the Onis to battle. And he's my friend to many battles." Rena smirked. "BUT… even though he can cover the distance between here to Beijing in half a day… NO, we are not going mount him. Look further behind."
Kage rolled his eyes and focused his sight further back and now he noticed something that he didn't managed to see the first time he was here by virtue of being too busy dodging bullets from bounty hunters.
There in the distance, some few kilometers away, a fortress. Built into the mountain itself. It was littered with many hidden cannon ports and a lot of bunkers and gun emplacements. It's shape reminded him of the Archangel fortress before its true form as a battleship was revealed. But it's… bigger. Larger. And the crown jewel of this mighty stronghold is staring at him right at the top: three giant statues of three great Chinese Lords of old, each sported a weapon he knew all too well… The super gun Lohengrin, no less than three of them. Their massive barrels, one decorated into the shape of a dragon's gaping maw, the other the roaring beak of a phoenix, and at the center is that of a tiger roaring maw, all three cannons pointed at him… at the city. "Shanghai city lay at the door of one of the three Triplet Fortresses that safeguard china. You're looking at the gateways of the Sun Wu fortress."
"Okay… how did I miss that?" Kage rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, when you've arrived, I want to arrange some… warm welcome, so I had my men pulled back to the Fortress. And there they remained until I say otherwise. Well…" Rena nudged her chin to a rising mass of cloud rising on the ground. "It's high time I called them back."
Kage rolled his eyes. Judging by all that dust cloud, he counted at least…
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Rank upon rank of 20,000 Regular Trooper squadrons marched out of the opened gates of the Liu Shuhan fortress. They came in force, armed to the teeth and gun, ready to charge in all guns blazing into a wall of carnage and gore. But the Troopers welcomed the prospect with the stoicism and bluntness of those who endured worse. Even some couldn't be more excited.
"I'm tellin' ya, we're on the path to glory! I'm sure of it." Patrick Corlasour was one such trooper.
"Why are you so hyped up? You do realize we're going to one of the most dangerous cities in China?" Another trooper by the name of Tamaki groaned.
"True that. But the more dangerous the situation, the more chance for recognition and promotion! Don't they say 'ask your fate to the sound of bullets in the battlefield'?"
"You get no glory if that bullet is the last sound you'll ever hear." The trooper grumbled.
"Well I'm-"
"SILENCE IN THE RANKS!" One of the Sergeants barked. It was woman in her thirties, with her hair tied in a bun and a pair of glasses around her eyes. The two chatting troopers whimpered into silence under her firm gaze. The female Sergeant was one of 200 sergeants, leading over 20,000 regulars in a long march from the Shuhan fortress. By Rena's orders, they have been kept in reserve until such time when the chaos in Shanghai had reached a dangerous margin. When they've heard the news of the death of one of the Logos Minister, everyone easily assumed the worst. And so they departed with all due haste.
But then, as they marched hastily towards Shanghai, they inevitably met Rena's convoy along the way.
And to put it kindly… it was a rather bizarre meeting if there ever was one.
Rena's prisoner convoy was composed of 9 carts and one horse rider. 8 armed carts encircling one at the center where the Blacklist Captain was locked up at a distance, all their guns pointed at that one all important prison wagon. Mwu and Murrue manned one wagon each, but they were still on edge. Rather than the prisoner escaping, the two captains were more concerned that one of these extremely tense gunners will have an overly twitchy finger on the trigger. Thankfully, the stern gazes from the Blackrock Shooter and the First Lieutenant of the regulars kept their discipline in place. They can't do anything about the thick tension of the atmosphere though.
What made this meeting bizarre; was the fact that, the two Blacklist captains who contributed to this tenseness of atmosphere took all this in their stride. Rena even took the trouble of actually slowing down her horse so that she can talk with Kage at level pace. Not to watch over him… but to chat with him. Cheerfully too, if their eyes can be believed to have seen it.
When the two convoys met, no words were exchanged. Rena's cheerful disposition vanished to a more familiar stern and coldness she was known for. She merely gave the slightest of nods to her troopers to send them on their way. Every trooper inevitably went past Kage's cage, so they all had a chance to lay eyes at the infamous blacklist captain who had started… all this.
Not one of them dares to maintain their stare any longer than 2 seconds. Not one of them considers saying anything or making any smart remarks. Even Patrick who was so chatty a while ago felt his tongue got swallowed down his throat. Conversely, they all can feel the Captain's dark glare and aura as firmly as an iron-grip chokehold on their necks. Only Kati and Ougi can last slightly longer than their subordinates and fellow officers, but all 20,000 troopers left the brief meeting with the now infamous black devil feeling as if 10 years of their lifespan had just been drained off.
It wasn't until a full fifteen minutes had passed after the two groups had parted out of each other's sights that the troopers found their breath again. By that time, their whole body had been drenched in cold sweat.
"That was…" Patrick choked. "He was…"
"Don't say it." Tamaki was as freaked as the rest. "Just… don't."
And that was just about the only word spoken that day. The rest of the Troopers' march to the Gates of Shanghai was a march of silence.
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"So. Those are… your men." Kage shrugged. "The Regulars. I saw some interesting characters in there."
"Thank you, but you yourself are being modest. I took the liberty of observing you men. I must say… I'm… impressed with what you've done with them so far."
"Impressed… well… that's funny. Ever since I took command of the 7th, I had an impression my division's sole purpose of existence was to be trampled and insulted upon."
Rena chuckled. "When you read the history of generations of 7th division, you'll see a long string of defeats, incompetence, corruption, pillaging, lack of discipline… a mass of men fell in to their baser instinct and perform all manner of villainy showing in its every page and note as soon as their captain's head turned." The General shrugged. "In short… they were so utterly unreliable, even the higher ups had all but given up on them."
"Is that why my budget got axed? Why you deny us firearms and had them stick with spears and arrows? Getting treated into meat shield?" Kage's eyes gleamed dangerously. "And as if my men hadn't suffered enough, Hell. I've been getting reports of other troopers from other division trying to steal from my men using that Challenge Game crap. Some of them even tried to rob me blind right in front of my face. Are you sure the blame lay entirely on the 7th division lack of discipline? I've studied my ledgers and I had an impression you guys are intentionally screwing with my division. I think you should go check the thieves at your own door."
"You're talking about Orga?" Rena laughed. "I've known what he's done for quite some time, and believe me: that punk knows better. If I heard even a whisper that his… sidejob as a mob enforcer compromise his duty, he knew no walls or people army can stop me from wringing his scrawny neck clean off. Besides-" Rena grinned widely. "-haven't I told you? If they can, your men are FREE to kill every last one of mine if they're really that annoying." Rena took the prospect in her stride. "Please. By all means. Shoot, hang, choke, bisect, strangle, stab, club, skewer, burn, drown, garrote, impale… do whatever you do, and salvage their weapons from their cold dead fingers for all I care."
At this, the Troopers' gulp was audible enough to reach Kage's ears but Rena's cold eyes and light smile hardly changed at all. This simply told Kage that this isn't the first time Rena made her thoughts on how much she valued her men everyone's secret. "You…" Kage frowned. "…what on earth are you trying to pull with my… our… men?" That was an accidental delay in pace when Kage realized mid sentence that whatever Rena was planning, she wanted to include both his and her men into it. And she had been planning for this… for a very long time.
Rena merely smiled, as if giving Kage a chance to read her mind. If what Xing Ke told her of his thought process being similar to hers is true, then he should be able to catch on by now.
And as expected, Kage instantly grasped what exactly Rena wanted. Her long term goal. "You wanted this to happen. You intentionally allowed this bullying to continue, you're setting your men in a collision course with mine… This… is… you want to use my men to train yours?"
"Correction. I want to use our men to train both of our men."
"Are you sure this is a good idea?"
"Well, if the Militia had slightly improved under you in comparison to what I remember they were like under Harlbarton… I'd say a little less than half of them might survive."
"True, that." As expected, like Rena, Kage took the horrid prospect in his stride. But it seems he's still worried about something.
"You disapprove?"
"No. I approve." Kage nodded. "As of right now, over 60% of my men are all newbies. The remaining 20% are trained gangsters: Triad, Mob, and Yakuzas. The other 10% are from Genesis and some recruits with notable military training… I've been racking my brains out how to train those 60% quickly. Your 'plan' just saved me a lot of trouble. So, thank you."
"You're welcome. But why do I still detect concern in your tone?"
"This permission to kill you've given me… am I correct in thinking you've already told this to Harlbarton and Canard before? You know… Canard must've spread that order around." When Rena nodded, Kage rolled his eyes. "The stuff I've been teaching to the last 10% of my men… and the amount of bad blood you have amassed… I hope you don't mind if barely a quarter of your men survived the end of this week."
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Awkward.
That's what everyone would feel as they neared Shanghai that evening.
As the army neared the city, Kati Manequin had already begun to notice something was odd. "Sergeant Kaname, we're nearing the city, are we not?"
"Indeed we are." Kaname Ougi also checked his map. "In fact we should be seeing it right about… now."
And every other sergeant quickly understood what Kati found to be odd. The reports they have indicated that Shanghai's condition had reached a boiling point on the verge of collapsing into complete anarchy. That usually means a LOT of noise… which usually includes the sound of gunfire, swearing, explosion and etc. But what they found when they arrived at the city gate… was of how quiet the city was. The gate was already opened wide while its guards, a pair of Milita Soldiers, are standing by the bonfire, roasting jerkie, completely unaware of the troopers' presence until a Militia carrying planks and hammer while picking his nose awkwardly just walked out the gate and took notice. "Eh… Hello?"
"…huh?" the troopers blinked in confusion. "…what are you doing?" Tamaki had to ask.
"We're shoring up the defenses while doing some repairs." The Soldier motioned to the sight behind him. Soldiers, Yakuzas, Triads, and Mobs working together rebuilding everything they've torn down, brick by brick, whilst some firearm equipped soldiers standing watch and guard. "What are you doing here?"
"Well… we're… uhh… we heard this place is in chaos and… uh… we're here to secure the city? I mean… don't you guys have some… gangster problem?" Patrick continued.
The Militia gleefully caught on to what's happening. The conflagration died not too long ago and only now the water did arrive. "That was like 3 lifetimes ago. Where the hell were you?"
And the combustion that light that fire in the Troopers belly died out in an instant, bringing with it some sense of stupidity of mind into their already injured pride.
Kati easily cast that sense aside. "We're here to reinforce the city as ordered by our General. Where are your Lieutenant, Militia?"
The Soldiers nodded. "You'll find Lieutenant Canard by the docks."
And so the Regulars entered the clearly pacified Shanghai city. The Sergeants and their Troopers were quickly introduced to this new and improved 7th division under their new black clad commander. Seeing Militias walking around heavily armed with rifles is hardly new, but Kati quickly noted of how… disciplined they are. She can still see their aloofness. Their goofiness. Their lack of discipline.
'But… what is this?' Kati quickly noticed something different with them. She noticed this difference based on what she's seen happening in this city.
Without a doubt, Kage is the indisputable ruler of Shanghai, even thought that reign was consolidated for only a day. Unfortunately, circumstances see to it that he must leave. Without its reigning ruler in place, Kati easily assumed that all will soon fell into chaos. Militia, Triad, Yakuza, and Mob all under the same roof, with the one person that can keep all these disparate factors together gone, there's a massive vacuum of power in Shanghai, everyone braced themselves for the inevitable plunge back into disaster. And yet… it didn't come. Even without the Captain around to enforce his will, the 7th division maintained their firm grip of the city.
"Kati!" Kati momentarily averted her thought when she heard that call from a familiar voice. It was Simca. The only one who officially stayed behind in Shanghai when Rena gave the order that pretty much damned it to fall into oblivion. If one did not know any better, one can easily misunderstand her absolute trust in Simca' ability with apathy. Still, the news that she had joined side with the 7th division was rather… shocking indeed. "Welcome, welcome, welcome!" The long pink haired former third Lieutenant came sliding towards them with a smile.
'Judging by the size of that smile she won't be regretting it anytime soon.' "Lieutenant Simca, Ma'am." Kati saluted, as do Ougi.
"Please, no need to call me that anymore. I'm not a lieutenant anymore. Surely Rena had told you that?"
"Well… it's a force of habit." Kati nodded. "So… what should we do now?"
"Well, protocol dictates that upon arrival, Sergeants had to report to superior officer in command. In Kage's absence, Canard temporarily took command. You should report to him."
"I see."
"Wait a minute, I don't follow. Shouldn't he be Captain by now?" One of the Sergeants quipped jokingly. "I mean… that masked freak of a nutcase killed a Logos… he pretty much just chartered a body bag under his name did he not?"
That one sentence, and suddenly, there's a massive but very… VERY brief surge of blood lust exploding all around them.
Unfortunately, other than Kati and Ougi, no other Sergeant seems to notice this.
"Well Kati, you handle the paperwork, we'll start working immediately, ciao!" The ignorant Regular troopers had already begun to make themselves at home. They quickly spread out across the city like well oiled machine, intending to fully secure the strategic points and other critical locations in Shanghai: Buildings will be garrisoned with sandbags and barbwire, fortified with wooden plate and some metal plating where applicable. Roads and corridors would be barricaded with prefabricated concrete walls with manned Gatling gun emplacements, the streets will be lined with enough mines, bombs, and tripwires that anything larger than a quarter will be roasted by explosions. Artilleries will be set up on fortified high grounds, Gatling guns and belts of ammo will be moved to various critical bottleneck emplacements, hellfire rocket launchers were set up on rooftops and, provision and ammunitions moved into caches in hidden locations.
That was the plan.
The thing is, every time they've arrived at said strategic locations, they found it had been occupied by Militia.
A heavily armed militia. To be specific.
And those Militias had already done all the aforementioned.
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"What are you doing here?" A squad of troopers had just climbed up to a place they determined to be the ideal sniping position and when they found a squad of Militia was already there, all armed with a sniper rifle… and lots of bows and arrows.
"This is a good sniping location. And we're marksmen. So we're on standby here." The Soldiers explained calmly.
The troopers dumbly looked at each other. "The hell you militia know about sniping positions?"
"Well… we know this is an elevated position where we can get a clear view of the street, plus, we're hidden quite well amidst all these buildings… little to no wind disturbance here, thanks to all these structures, and this place is also easily defendable and escapable."
The troopers dumbly listened as a soldier calmly listed all the basic tenets of sniping position like they're his surname. "Yeah. That's cute. Look, some of us had a job to do so why don't you just scram?"
The soldiers looked at the troopers and to each other. They rolled their eyes and the first soldier calmly answered. "No. This is our spot. We got here first. Find your own spot."
"Are you talking back to me you snots!?"
Sensing trouble, the Militia took the initiative with a flat: "No." and…
ZIP! ZIP!
And the troopers suddenly found themselves nailed to the wall by the collars with arrows shot through them.
"We're SHOOTING back at you." Still in that flat tone, the Militia aimed their next arrow a tad higher above the necks…
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A squad of troopers wanted to place an artillery Gatling gun emplacement on a bottleneck location, but a squad of grim faced Soldiers denied them that by virtue that they were already doing it.
"You… you understand we're assigned here to fortify this location?" The troopers asked skeptically.
"Yes." The Soldier flatly answered whilst he continue servicing his gatling gun with the help of a Genesis tuner.
"And that there's a fuck huge army of advanced coming here?"
"Yes."
"And yet you're telling us we're not needed here?"
"Yes."
"Do you guys even know how to use that thing!?"
RATATATATATTATATATAAA~AA! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!BANG!BANG!BANG!BANGBANGBANGBANG!
The troopers gawked when a series of smoking holes silhouetting their figure was formed on the floor right behind them, courtesy to the soldiers' direct demonstration of their use of the now smoking Gatling Guns. The troopers suddenly realized the reason they're not needed here is because: "…are we in the way?"
And the answer is: "Yes."
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A bunch of troopers seeking to plant a minefield on an open plain noticed that this open plain has been covered with papers bearing strange markings. "The hell are these?" They tried to peel it off, but the papers are glued tight.
"Leave it. Probably just some stupid superstitious warding symbol or something."
Of course, at first, the Troopers didn't know that these… 'papers with weird drawings on it' is nothing sort of Explosive tag, each can explode with the force of a barrel of dynamites. So they carelessly marched across it, some even had the gall of stomping on the paper as they thread.
That is… until the soldiers setting the explosive tags noticed their haphazard approach. "OI! What're you doing you dumbasses!?"
The trooper paused for a minute. "What are you doing? Strapping all this talisman stuff on the road!?"
"They're explosives! What? You've never seen minefield before?"
The troopers twitched. "You call these… papers… minefield?"
"Powerful enough to vaporize a human being."
At this point, the Troopers, having never seen an explosive tag do as claimed still in the state of disbelief. "I'll believe it when I see it." The trooper grunted as he stomped the tags smugly.
"…I take it you won't leave until you see the proof?" The trooper answered the soldier with his smug smile. The soldier groaned. "Your funeral." The Soldier made a few handseals…
And just like that, every markings on each explosive tags lit up bright orange, as if they're scalding hot. The ground was soon littered with hundreds of red burning seals of explosive tags, armed and ready to explode.
The troopers still look slightly skeptical… when they saw a rat, panicked by the searing heat of the tag ran out of crevice. Unfortunately, the rat touched a tag and…
BTOOOOMMM!
The force of a barrel of dynamites is a little bit too much for a poor rat indeed. But… as powerful as it was, there's still something left. It's just when the carcass landed in front of the shocked troopers, only its blackened ashes remained. "Uh…." The troopers, who, until a few minutes ago were happily stomping the explosive tags, are now starting to feel this little leak coming down their groin. "O… Okay… You know what…. I think we'll go find some other place to booby trap." They turned around and found… to their horror…
The whole road from where they're standing until at least a few kilometers ahead had been littered with so many explosive tags that anything larger than a cockroach will set it off.
And they're all armed.
"O… Oi! Oi! You've made your point; now turn it off will you?" The trooper barked.
The soldiers looked at each other. And then they shook their heads. "Sorry. It's one time deal. Once activated you can't turn it off."
"Eh?" And the last bit of color they had in their faces faded.
"You're the one who wanted to see it to believe it." The soldier shrugged nonchalantly as they finish up here and leave the troopers to their fate.
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It's the same response everywhere on the city. Allover Shanghai, every Trooper received the same level of inhospitality. The troopers began to understand, the hard way, of the simple fact that Kati had discovered. This is no longer the same 7th division whose incompetence and deficiency would've made the pushovers out of them. No. The 7th division under Kage is a wholly new animal now.
Simca was trying to explain just that to Kati in greater detail as she escorted a few sergeants across the 7th division controlled Shanghai. "I heard that before coming here, Kage personally and intensively trained them all. And when I say train… well… he trained them so hellishly for three days straight without sleeping or resting, so brutal that they still had nightmares about it. (AN: read chapter 42)"
Barely finishing her explanation, an outburst occurred as a sergeant was sent flying out of the corridor with an imprint of a small fist on his crushed cheek.
"I DARE YOU TO SAY IT AGAIN YOU SON OF A CLUSTERFUCK!"
Simca immediately recognize that angry voice.
A very angry Clotho marched out with gritted teeth and balled bloodied fists. The boy was barely recognizable as he was nearly buried under his incredibly thick full body armor made from plates used to armor warhorses. And yet his gait showed the weight didn't bother him by the slightest. "SAY IT AGAIN YOU BASTARD!" He grabbed the sergeant by the collar and pulled him up, intending to give him another. He was so angry he didn't realize the poor man had lost consciousness by virtue of the pain of all his teeth being shattered. And the boy might've continued the punch if two things didn't happen.
Firstly, Simca's roar of his name. "CLOTHO!"
Secondly, the firm grip of his mentor, Prayer. "Clotho. You'll kill him at this rate."
Clotho paused on the account of these two factors and stopped altogether. But his anger still remained when Simca asked some questions. "What is it?"
"It's this asshole! He said… he said…"
"Basically, he said Kage's dead in a much more infuriating grammar." Prayer cut it short. Regardless, the young Juppongatana still looks disapprovingly at Clotho's temperamental outburst. "Still… just because the man can't watch his tongue is no excuse for you to beat him to death, Clotho-kun."
Clotho snarled and unrepentant. But Prayer's glare book no backtalk nor argument, and the boy marched off, still fuming.
"Horse armor." Simca noticed the armor was not meant to be worn by humans. "You had him wear Horse armor."
"Those who lost their sense of pain gained a tremendous boost of power, Simca-san. But… having lost their senses, we Painless Warriors had no idea how to control our strength. So much so that often times, what they consider measured force is actually quite excessive." Prayer spoke from personal experience. "What's more, even before this, your brother had trained himself intensively. He may be much stronger than me. The horse armor is necessary to limit his strength until he can better learn how to control it. That being said…" Prayer glanced at the barely alive sergeant with the bashed up face. Lord knows he knew the sergeant deserves this. He turned to Kati and Ohgi. "Fair warning. Trash talk our absentee captain at your peril. We men of the 7th division are already in a foul mood as is."
Kati and Ohgi blinked and dumbly nodded. Prayer gave a brief salute both to the sergeants and Simca before he went back to chase his fuming student. Simca shrugged. "Clotho Buer. Little brother of the late Stheno Buer. Our latest recruit. Kage was his greatest motivation joining the 7th division. Alas, first day he joined, and his beloved Captain had to leave."
"But… I… I'm sorry, I still don't follow." Ohgi felt something missing. But he wisely kept his voice as low as a whisper. "I mean… the Captain killed an important Minister of the Alliance. That's a capital offense right? Why did the soldiers still… defend him so?"
Simca rolled her eyes, and then she gets it. Need to know details and they don't need to know. Simca knew this kind of treatment well. But this incident, in her personal opinion, is just too outrageous to be considered need to know treatment basis… "You guys… I think you need to know the full story."
And so Simca explained everything. They pretty much get a crash course of the transpiring events that happened in what seemed like a blink of an eye: Kage pacified one of the most violent city in China, pretty much recruited every single one of the worst of the worst citizen in the whole city for his army, and the chain of events which resulted in the captain killing a Logos Minister in the process, thus his eventual arrest. And once she's done, even Kati and Ohgi had to admit: that Corner had it coming.
"And… everyone, as in, everyone in the 7th division knows this?"
"Of course. But Kage told us to stand down and he alone assumed all responsibility for our sake. That pissed everyone off even more." Simca herself was no exception. It's just wasn't fair. All the damage that Corner has done, including a very personal loss of Simca's private medicinal storage that took half her lifetime to collect, not including the many lives lost… people had faced firing squad for less and Kage took the blame for actually carrying out proper justice. Just thinking it again made her, and everyone else who knew the truth of the matter, angrier by the minute.
Seeing this anger in Simca's eyes, Kati finally realized what is different with this 7th division. At first she thought it was discipline. But no. This is something else entirely.
Militia is, in essence, polyglot mixture of non military personnel. Its members range from well meaning volunteering civilians… to bored thugs looking for some action. The Alliance army in general was as varied as is, the Militia take that variation a level higher. Rena once said that only two things can bring an army this diverse together: fear and/or loyalty.
Kati saw both in their eyes. The unflinching loyalty born of unquestioning belief and fear in their leader. So strong was this loyalty that it remained even in the Captain's absence. "I once heard that this new Captain is a cunning strategist." Kati murmured to Ohgi. "And yet, he's ten times better as an awe inspiring warrior standing at the front along with his men rather than cowering behind them." She nodded. "I need not to see it with my own eyes to know it to be true. Only that can inspire this kind of… fanatic loyalty."
"Is that good or bad?" Ohgi asked.
"That depends."
"On what?"
"On whether these Militia soldiers are loyal to the Alliance… or to Kage?"
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"Well, I'm not really worried." Rena smirked. "There are still 200,000 reserve troopers waiting in Shuhan."
Kage grunted and shook his head. "I can be really merciless with my men when I had to… but… Imelia-daren… you really are something." He's not complaining. What a captain does to his or her own men in their division is not his business.
"Please call me Rena." Rena smirked. "But still… I've been observing your men during my time in undercover… I must admit… you've raised their level quite well."
"Thank you."
"I was trying to be modest." Rena shrugged. "Their level is quite high… but not high enough. You… never used firearms, did you?"
"Never needed it."
"There's more to firearms than just destructive power." Rena frowned. "Good thing you now have Shepard as an instructor to point that out for your men."
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But loyalty and resolve doesn't explain the soldier's quick adaptation to the use of firearms, Kati noted. Genesis' integration merely provided the soldiers with means to maintain and procure said hardware. So how come the soldiers can quickly integrate a very advanced weapon tactics and strategy? The answer came as she went past the training grounds.
"Listen up, quickly field stripping a rifle eventually boils down to one thing and one thing only: repetition! Insofar. You guys still need 15 minutes to reassemble a rifle. Our target is 3 minutes! Now hustle up people!" Kyle Shepard barked on a squad of soldiers clumsily trying to put all the separate pieces in front of them into a fully functioning rifle.
"Kyle Shepard!?" Kati balked.
Kyle blinked and he noticed his old colleagues, fellow Sergeants of the 10th division finally arriving. He smirked. "Welcome back to the war, Sergeants."
"The hell are you doing here, butcher!? You're supposed to be on permanent suspension!" One of the sergeants barked.
"And I still am. Your master archivist blacklisted my name to ensure that." Kyle snarled so wide, the scars on his face glowed slightly. "Never said anything about re-enlisting as Militia though."
The sergeants were stupefied… and now that Kati looked around, she finally noticed that Kyle wasn't the only one. His whole tripartite elite squadrons of the Cerberus pack: Lazarus, Specters, and the Reapers. They're teaching the militia soldiers everything they know: Maria is training the soldiers on the shooting range, Garrus is teaching a team of sharpshooters the basic tenets of their sniper rifle, Wrex is having half of his team doing one hand pushups while carrying the other half on their backs, Tali is overseeing the team assembling a grenade, etc, etc.
"So that's why the Militia has become so good with firearms all the sudden." Kati nodded. "You've been instructing them."
Kyle smirked. "I wish it was just that." He gestured at the soldiers. "I don't know what Kage has done to them. But they're incredible students with mountainous potential. They picked things up in days what normally would take months of study. Learning things faster than I can teach them."
Kati rolled her eyes in confusion. "You mean the way Kage employ some unique selection process that…"
"No. This has nothing to do with selection process. It's about the training of the basics. It's like constructing a building. Thanks to the ministration of a certain someone, their foundations are so strong you can build whatever you want on top of it. They're practically every instructor's dream students." Kyle smiled in admiration at his students and their teachers. "And that's not all. He had created a self sustaining system of student teaching students. It started with the first 2,000 soldiers, the veterans who had followed him from the start. He taught them, and then each of those 2,000 taught it to everyone else's. Pretty soon, it's been spread from militia to militia and finally to the entire division."
"Amazing…" For the first time, Kati began to understand that the new captain was more than just terrifying and brave. He had wisdom and intellect.
"This is their 'light' reading." Kyle gave Kati a book. THE book. Kati glanced the content of a few pages…
"Shepard… this is…? I mean… this kind of thing… all this for militia? I mean… this sort of stuff looks like something only XINGKE can understand… and you're telling me he's teaching them THIS?"
"Teach? More like… Kage beat the habit of living and breathing by this stuff into his soldier every waking hour in-between their practical training and any other time they're not being fired upon." Kyle grinned. "You might wanna shoot over that book first for a couple of hours? They've been reading it in their every waking hour, and last I checked many of them had begun to mutter the stuff in their sleep and/or swear by it."
Kati paled. "W… What on earth was he trying to do with them?"
"Dunno." Kyle shrugged. "But wouldn't it be fun to find out? Hm?" That was when Kyle had begun to notice some shady figure trudging the streets along with the troopers. They glanced allover the place, eying soldiers and measuring them. 'Those guys… so… they're here…' And the smile vanished. "By the way… Kati… aren't you supposed to be reporting to Canard right now?"
"I… oh, yes." So many things happening, so many changes happening, she began to wonder if some of the basics still remained.
"You know what? I'll go with you. Coincidentally, I had something to report as well." Said Kyle.
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"Hey, other than the right to use firearms and better privileges… like wages and rations… what other benefits that a soldier can get… if they are to be promoted into troopers?"
"Good question. They vary based on their post. This can range from monthly bonus payment up to 10 times the amount of militia annual wages, free housing, free transport, food… even tax exemption."
Kage's eyes twitched. If it's like that, especially that last part… no wonder Harlbarton had trouble keeping his men from leaving. "But there is a catch, isn't it? There's always a catch."
Rena didn't answer but she smiled. "Shepard would know. That's why you were so desperate to recruit him. All these years, I'd reckon he'll still nurture quite a grudge for the Regulars. Not enough to make him turn traitor… but more than enough to make an unpredictable wild card out of him."
"So you knew about his mother then?"
"Naturally. Hannah and I were close once. But I still haven't forgiven her for betraying the Alliance."
"She's only trying to protect her children."
"I know." Rena sighed in genuine sincerity. "I know how she feels. So I don't hate her for it. It's… complicated."
"Speaking of mother and child…"
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As Kati, Ohgi, Kyle and Simca neared the docks, they, like everyone else, can't help but gawk at the sheer size of Archangel. Of how it was ironclad. That thing is essentially a veritable iron fortress. But Kati quickly put her awe aside. She began to notice for a fact that she was not the only sergeant that was heading to this direction. Many more are heading the same way they're going… their expression is anything but happy. Somehow… Kati had a very good idea as to why.
Coincidentally, Canard was having a conversation with Tessa and some shipwrights. The latter two looked like they were rather at loss over a rather absurd request from Canard.
"What you're asking… You do realize that's borderline insanity, right?"
"I know." Canard nodded. "The fruits from the mind of a mad man. Get used to it."
"It's going to take a while. Probably a month or two." The Shipwright commented.
"2 weeks." Canard immediately stated the deadline. "And we'll lend you our resident giant to speed your work." The Lieutenant jerked his thumb at Fuji who stands ready at the background.
"Well… okay… but… but…"
"2 weeks, or so help me, it's my sword to your gullet and we'll find another who can."
The shipwright can't say anything and left with set jaws. Tessa looked in a rather disapprovingly look at Canard. "I understand the logic of what you're asking but… don't you think you're a bit too… pushy?"
"When we first found the Archangel, she was barely sea-fucking-worthy. Would you friggin believe me if I tell you we made her sea worthy in a fuckin' night and a day? In reality, with Fuji around and this many shipwrights, we can do this in less than one fuckin' week." Canard snarled. "That guy asked for one friggin' month, because he wants to steal as much as he could from orb's shipwright skills. A crapload amount of naval ingenuity went into the making of this ship, and that guy wanted to glean all he could from it. Any other time, we might indulge this… but we got too many crap to put up with, and very little time to kill. Comprende?"
Tessa nodded right after she filtered all the profanity Canard HAD to put into the explanation of his reasoning. But then, she glanced at the corner and noticed a horde of angry sergeants is coming their way. "…Eh… Canard?"
Kati and Ohgi led the other sergeants who were all angry with the treatment their men received from the Militias. Kati and Ohgi managed to convince the other sergeants to let her and Ohgi do the talking. But before they do so, Kyle went ahead of his former colleagues and reported first to Canard over what he… spotted. Kati and Ohgi wasn't sure what exactly Kyle told the Lieutenant, but whispers were exchanged, and Canard merely nodded before Kyle took his stand behind Canard.
Even after Shepard left, the Lieutenant had yet to turn around to face them. For his part, Canard didn't need to face the sergeants to know what's coming. What they want. He smirked. "And you are?"
"Sergeant Kaname Ohgi. Reporting for duty, sir!" The first sergeant saluted.
"Sergeant Kati Mannequin, Reporting for duty, sir." The female Sergeant also saluted.
Canard immediately shrugged the sergeants off before he gets dragged to another introduction. "Yep, yep. I know who you guys are. I know what you guys here for. No doubt you've heard of what's going on in the last couple of days?"
"Y… Yes."
"Good. Now. Sergeants. What were your orders?"
"Well, we were ordered to help you reinforce the city. But…" Ohgi fidgeted. "Well… there was this… problem… complaints of the Militia being… uncooperative…"
"Right." Canard merely shrugged as he rummaged his pocket and handed down what seem like a rather crumpled paper. "Here. Before he left, The Captain gave some instruct-as in suggestions for you guys on where you might want to set up."
"Eh?" Ohgi took the paper and read it. It's an incredibly detailed battle plan which includes troop deployments, battle positions, supply lines, as well as defensive points and critical assets. What unnerved Ohgi, is that the paper also include the EXACT number of people, the amount of weaponry… one particular part even specifically address him, Kaname Ohgi, by name. "Excuse me… your captain left this? How did he know my name?"
"Dude." Canard snarled and he turned around at last. "It's our captain. THE Captain. We're talking about that impossibly super smart son of a bitch. We've taken the habit of NOT asking, not until he explained it in full at the right time. His head is just too big for all of us." Despite the rude language, Canard looked pretty damn happy and proud of his ignorance.
Ohgi was left completely confused and dumbfounded, and Kati was somewhat perplexed. Then again, the two looked at the papers and in all honesty, the strategies contain herein was quite impressive, to say the least. "Well… it's fine for me… I guess…?"
"Now wait a minute!" Suddenly a protesting voice came in from one Orga Sabnak amongst the other Sergeants. "Since when did we take orders from you, Militias!?"
"Since you guys entered our city." Canard snarled. "Didn't you guys get the memo?"
"Shanghai's our city! Our post! You and your goons had no right-"
"Then where the hell were you?" Finally, Canard turned around. "Where the hell were you when this city fell into ruin and chaos? Fuck, I'll even go so far and asked: what the fuck were you doing when you were here? For years, this city was chaos and anarchy incarnate even when you fucks were around. And then we came, and in less than a month we've pacified and secured it. And then when everything is finally calm and cool, you incompetent fucks came here on your high horse and still want a free slice?"
The Trooper's expression wrinkled in anger. "You're just Militias! We're the professionals! Your job is to shut up and wait until we need to throw some bodies into the grinder!"
"Yeah, well, things change." Canard smirked. "Live with it. You have your orders. Carry them out."
"Now wait a minute-"
"This conversation is over." The statement came not from canard, but from a figure standing far above them. The sergeants had to bent their heads up to catch sight of a silhouette sticking up the ceiling of a pagoda. At first, they mistook that person as some rooftop decoration. But it was none other than Karren herself, clad in a strange looking red cloak, standing high above the roof of the said pagoda.
Simca immediately recognize that cloak. 'Isn't that…?'
She stood there on the roof, looking down coldly at the soldiers and troopers down below. Her voice echoed "Ohgi. You've had your orders, have you not? Go." Somehow, Karren's voice reverberated so loud it was as if she was talking right in front of them even when the actual person is around 7 stories above.
"Karren!" Ohgi gawked.
Canard rolled his eyes. He didn't expect she's still here.
"Sergeants. You heard the lieutenant. Get your men to the position as designated by the Captain's battle plan. Pronto."
"He's not our Lieutenant!" And Orga remained rebellious.
Karren scoffed. And suddenly, she tilted her body forward before free falling down the pagoda. Midway, her eerie cloak unfurled itself into its true form, a pair of massive and grizzly looking mechanical demon wings that was shaped like a demonic clawed hand. Upon reaching the critical distance, the exhaust vents inbetween each fingers burst out, 8 pillars of flame burns down, halting Karren's descent as it spread her wings wide, inducing the visage of a demoness descending down in a storm of fire. Beneath her cloak, her entire top half from lower jaw, upper chest, shoulder and arms, is covered in a dark blue skin tight body suit with red glowing veins. A triangle shaped exhaust vent centered on her back is also the part that held the two mechanical wings together. Her upper body is also further covered in grey Kevlar jacket with grey camouflage color, slightly revealing her bust beneath the slightly unzipped Kevlar jacket. The upper half is connected with the lower half via three suspender, two at the front, one at the back leaving a great portion of her mid riff section bare. The lower section is composed of a short skirt, with various pouches for storing provisions. Her legs are also covered with thigh-height, high-heeled boots. Her right thigh sport a holstered sidearm on the thigh, the other had what looked like a holstered… red scissor?
Her legs landed with thud on the scorched ground as she quickly closed her distance to Orga. Her wings quickly furled themselves back into that heavy overcoat. Without sparing another word a giant demonic arm burst out from beneath her cloak and Orga suddenly found himself being pinned to the ground by two giant razor sharp talon belonging to a massive mechanical hand extending out from Karren's right arm side. As Karren pressed her talon deeper, she knelt down to look at Orga's face closer. "No. Canard's not your lieutenant. But I am. And last I checked, though I'm no longer the leader of the Arsenal Five, Rena still put me in charge as her 2nd lieutenant. And in that capacity, I just gave you a direct order." Karren hissed with some barely concealed eagerness. "So help me and disobey my orders one more time, I would love to have the reason to have you shot."
And Orga, like it or not, has to rest his case. For now.
Karren scoffed in disappointment. She glared at the other sergeants. "I'll have you know. Rena gave express permission to, and I quote: kill every last one of you if you annoy them that much." At 'them', Karren jerked her left thumb at Canard's viciously smiling visage at her back, representing the entirety of a very pissed off 7th division. "So here's my advice: don't be annoying."
The troopers can only show their dislike with a groan. Still, they get the message.
Karren also understood the message is sent. "You're all dismissed."
The troopers had no choice but to disperse disgruntled. When every trooper had vacated the area, only then did the tense atmosphere is allowed to melt. Simca being the first to do so. "Karren-CHWAAAN!" and without further ado, Simca hurled herself over Karen and buried her crimson head deep into her breasts. "I sooo missed you!"
"Anoo, we just met a few days back?" Karren struggled to breath under the vastness of Simca's cleavage.
"What I meant is I missed this look!" Simca rubbed her cheek on the metallic surface of Karren's cloak. "How long has it been since you last rolled this bad girl out?"
"I had the impression it would be gathering dust somewhere in an old forgotten warehouse." Karren also rubbed the cloak as fondly as one would rub an old friend. "But when Rena gave it back to me, it was still as good as new. The 'Eight Element Phoenix' can still take flight."
"Aahh… the Phoenix and the Dragon under one roof… just like in that famous whatchacallit story…" Simca smiled happily as she eyed to a certain direction. Kyle fidgeted nervously as he tried to keep his gauntlet out of view.
"You have a lot of brass showing up here again after what you did." Canard quickly interjected. "Not that I don't appreciate the help, of course. But many people around here are very itching to put one between your eyes after that stunt you pulled off. Some more than the other."
"They're free to try, Canard." Karren answered with a grim look. "That decree of free for all from Rena is genuine. And it extends to everyone, including myself. But fair warning… It won't be that easy." She gently pushed an overly excited Simca off her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I had some things to tend to." And Karren began to walk away. On her way out, she did not miss the many angered and murderous look from every other soldiers of the 7th division that graced her exit. But then, she ran across one whose bloodlust was at a completely different level than the rest.
"You!" Clotho, the Shadowguard in Training, growled. "Traitor!"
"Clotho… you're with the 7th now?" Karren was barely fazed by Clotho's murderous look.
"How dare you!? How dare you came back here after you betrayed him like that!?"
"Betrayed? That's a little extreme." Said Karren nonchalantly. "He said it from the beginning. This is Militia. This is not like the Regular which demands a set years of service. You're free to come and go as you please."
"But you arrested him!"
"That tends to happen when you cut off someone's head in public and put it on a display." Karren sighed. "Honestly, Canard. That guy's way of doing things is way too insane sometimes. You better try to tamper it down a little bit. One of these days his insanity will get him into worse situation than this."
Canard knew this to be true. But the young Clotho perceives that as more salt to the injury. "You bitch!" The young boy charged in, fist swinging, but a loud boom later, and Simca stopped said fist mid swing as she stood between Clotho and Karren. "There, there." Simca gently patted Clotho by the head. "Let's not fight here, okay?"
Clotho wanted to fight, but Simca's eyes are telling him that she will not have any of this. Not now. Not ever. And thus Clotho shrugged back in defeat.
Seeing the situation is defused, somewhat, Karren took her leave. "Simca, I'm going."
"Coming!" Simca gave a meaningful glance to Canard and she quickly departed with her best friend as they walked across a gauntlet of killing intent.
"Guh…" Clotho had no choice but to leave it at that. Canard merely sighed. "You do realize Simca just saved your ass right?"
"Huh?"
"In the 7th Division, Sword Breaker Karren held the post of the fourth seat in Juppongatana. But that's because she's been holding back. Those primitive prosthetic claw she used wouldn't last an hour of fighting if she pulled all stops. But…" Canard eyed Karren in her full gear. "The Red Lotus Kallen however, is nothing like that."
"Red Lotus Kallen… that cloth… I've heard of it before." Clotho frowned. "The Eight Element Phoenix wing. One of the oldest and most powerful Arsenal Gear. Specs say its eight boosters are lost technology of high powered explosive propelled propulsion that enables its wearer to attain high speed flight… but it was so hard to control, normal Arsenal Technician had died using it."
"Even after all these years, based on what I just saw, Kallen was the only person, and still the only one, who can control it properly. Before Blackrock Shooter, she's the former leader of the strongest Squadron in the tenth division, the Second Lieutenant. Do you understand what that means?" Clotho frowned. "That girl is the second strongest woman in the entire 10th division, just slightly below that zombie man Xingke and that monstrous woman Rena."
"Then… why?" Clotho is now more confused than angry. "If she's that strong, why join the 7th? And in the end why did she…"
Canard cut the boy's musing short with the ruffling of his red hair. "Zip it. 7th division second ironclad rule: we don't ask someone's background unless he or she decided to reveal it to us and that we really need to know. That's why none of us were really bothered with Kage's… eccentricities."
Clotho's apprehension immediately turned to a measure of understanding. Everybody has their secrets and tales one wouldn't want to know. Some tolerance is necessary.
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Simca took Karren to a small clinic which has been appropriated by the Genesis. They had to. Their original main workshop and hospital was burned down, restoring it back would take some time.
Karren walked past the series of beds, some are empty, some still had a few of the sick and injured. Simca lead her to a secluded location, a ward isolated from the rest by a curtain.
Simca stopped on the entrance whilst Karren proceeded in.
Inside, is a bed with a single solitary female patient. Said patient looked frail and sickly, and yet she was strapped tight to bed. Karren looked mournfully at the woman. "Mom. How are you feeling?"
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The Regulars escorting their prisoners were freaked. To put it kindly.
That is pretty much what Mato Kuro concluded as she gazed upon the extremely nervous complexions and trembling fingers of her soldiers. And she didn't blame them. Given the fact that the prisoner they're escorting is in fact one of the most dangerous man alive, this level of nervousness is a given. But the cause of this nervousness was something else entirely.
"My late father, god rest his soul, raised horses for a living. It's a family tradition. We were descended from imperial Stable masters." Rena began relaying her life story.
"Really? Now that's unexpected." Kage rolled his eyes in awe. "Unfortunately my past life is nothing so colorful. I was a street rat, professional pickpocket, then a Servant boy, Squire, and finally a cook before I find my calling in whipping out plans of mass slaughter and destruction."
Mwu was the first to voice what's on everyone's mind. "Murrue… in all your years under Rena… was she always this chatty?"
"Quite the opposite. She rarely talks much less chat unless absolutely necessary." Murrue also rolled her eyes. "And every time she did talk, her vocabulary was never this nice."
"They're like… BFFs…" Jane was also utterly bewildered.
"You used to live in Zaft? Did you learn how to cook there?"
"Zaft cuisine is like a reverse Babylon principle. You know the story, yes? One language broken into many. In Zaft's case, they collected the various types of culinary arts and slap them together in a slip shod style. In short… they produce delicious food… but not the sort Master Bull would love."
In all their years knowing the General Captain, every regular troopers had synonymized Rena Imelia with anything but civil. She was cold, distant, composed, militant, and, dare they say it, unsociable. The merest friendly gesture lacking any formality that befits her rank as a General Captain of the Regulars will rouse a brutal and swift response, even when they came from fellow Captains. And yet, now, they see her side by side with Kage, opened up, all civil and even smiling and smirking inbetween chuckles. Now normally, such a thing is indeed a normality, something that tends to happen when two people found that they have a few things in common, and thus they are having a friendly chat… that is, if one of them is not their General Captain and the other is not the most murderous Captain they've ever encountered. Thusly, this… uncharacteristic friendliness, this… unusual cheerful noise had made the atmosphere far more terrifying in comparison with the usual, and would've been much more welcome, ominous silence.
"But come now. You can't honestly expect me to believe you were capable of the kind of ingenuity you've pulled out with sheer raw talent?"
"You don't believe in Geniuses?"
"If I don't believe it, I wouldn't have one of the smartest men alive this side of the Orient as my lieutenant." Rena nudged her chin at her First Lieutenant. "I would've shot Simca in the head when she showed me she can disassemble and reassemble her Arsenal Gear part by part in less than 5 seconds and while she was free falling too, if I might add."
Only one person who seem to have seen this coming from a mile away, hence his calmness. That person is none other than Li Xingke himself. He had noted earlier that Kage possess a very similar temperament to that of Rena. This friendly atmosphere between them is just logical. And yet, having known his General Captain all too well and delved deep into Kage's way of thinking, Xingke can truly see what is really going on. This friendly chat between the two Blacklist captains is anything but friendly. They're currently in a mental battle. Implied in every civil question are subtle fuses that would lead to a barrage of obliterating accusations and inquiries if triggered. Hidden beneath the friendly tone were the murderous will and the desire to find the opponent's weakness to be exploited. That this friendly conversation dragged on and on with no end in sight is a sign that neither side had any intention to give in and no weakness had yet to be revealed… so far.
"But, given this much genius in you and at your age… and because I do know your mentors: Mwu, Murrue, and even Harlbarton and none are capable of such thing, I kinda wonder who taught you all that? I'm just… curious."
Curious. I.E. Suspicious. I.E. Wrong Answer = Bullets flying. "…I grew up doing what I have to survive. And it just turns out I had a knack for it. So much so that eventually I drew too much attention to myself. And once they know what I can do, they won't let me do what I want to. One after another, and in the end… it's like a raw steel turned into a blade so sharp you can't use it to snag your free fall."
"Hm! I like that analogy." Rena chuckled to hide her slight disappointment. Kage answered the question, but he did not go into detail. 'Damn, this little brat is FUN!' But Rena tried to push it one more time. "You know… 12 years ago, the Alliance suffered a big series of hard hits. Something… made Zaft invasionary forces that much stronger, tearing our armies apart in skirmishes of impossible hundred to one odds. Something to do with them having a new strategist, I hear."
Kage's mask hid the slight stiffening on his visage. "How was that supposed to have anything to do with me?"
"I don't know… I've read the reports from Xingke, your strategies are… strangely similar to the ones Zaft pulled during those days."
"Ma'am, 12 years ago I still peed my bed when I had nightmares."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it." Rena glanced meaningfully. "I just… I don't know. I was hoping you could help me confirm a rumor."
"What rumor?"
"Is it true that this mysterious strategist… is a woman?"
Kage blinked in confusion. He was bewildered to the point he didn't answer for some time.
Rena immediately noted the silence was not of shock, but amusement. "…what?" She had to ask.
"…you have something against men?" Kage shook his head. "This isn't the 16th century anymore. There's a lot of things woman can do besides embroidery!"
"Okay… where did THAT come from?"
"According to our mutual friend, you have 10 squadrons full of girls. Half of which are your lieutenants. What was that for? Overcompensating to prove a point when we have three walking examples of woman kind who had beaten the glass ceiling?" Kage nudged at Murrue, Jane, and of course, Rena herself.
The first two of the aforementioned female Captains twitched. The whole convoy stopped on their tracks as the corner of Rena's eyes twitched visibly. Every trooper who knew the legendary proportion of their female captain's wrath when this discussion entered that direction felt their hearts just stopped beating for a second. The General stood transfixed, her eyes barely moved away from Kage's uncaring figure. Everyone waited with baited breath, thinking their general will unholster her sidearm and put a bullet or two in that cage… But then… "I came from four generations of military men. My father wanted me to be a fifth, but he gets me. When I enlisted under Harlbarton, I was 14, with the life expectancy of 16. Everyone sneered at me because of me being a girl. One day… one of them decided he had enough of jerking off at me from the distance and went into insertion."
"Okay. What else did you broke… other than his bird, obviously?"
"A little half of his 200+ bones, give or take." Rena nodded off. "But then, he brought his friends, and they all lined up at the doorway to pluck a piece of me. When the 10th division came recruiting into the 7th… I'm the only viable candidate left with intact set of teeth and unbroken bones. I was 20 at the time. 4 years after, when I made Captain, the Regulars and the Alliance in general had barely recovered from when Zaft gave them a beating of a lifetime courtesy of that Zaft strategist. I had to rebuild everything literally brick by brick while those Zaft gunners lobbed fused cannonballs bringing things down one city block at a time."
"Your point being?" Kage quickly cuts in.
The soldiers gasped, waiting for their general to explode at that snappy remark. "You analog your meteoric rise to Blacklist Captaincy like it was a free fall, of which you have no control. In my case, it's climbing up a sheer cliff. But I don't care. I became a soldier because I am a fighter. So if I'm fighting uphill… I'm taking the hill."
"There's a fine line between Stupid and Stubborn. This is definitely the former." And every soldier had their souls flying out of their mouths. Rena merely rolled her eyes at the person who dared to call her stupid. "If I was in your position, I'd left the ruins as is, making them think they got me while I go after the sumbitch who lob those cannonballs. And once I've made sure they can't do it again for a very, VERY long time… then I'll start building brick by brick. Fighting uphill? I'd prefer to level the hill first and then start fighting."
The two captains glared at each other, noticing a difference in their philosophy for the very first time. Everyone waited tensely, sweat flooded their pale skin as the gun barrels visibly trembled.
"…" Rena hunched and trembled. Everyone winced, waiting for the general to explode in all her fury.
Seconds of silence that felt like centuries, she did explode…
…in full blown laughter. "MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! LEVEL the HILL!? MWAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAA!"
Xingke, the one person who knew his general better than anyone, let loose a long sigh… of relief. That does it. Kage had managed to gain that his predecessor Harlbarton did not: a portion of Rena's respect and recognition.
"Level the hill. My God. You're really are cracked in the head." It took a few minutes until Rena's laughter died down and she can swept away a trickle of tear forming on her eyes. "Well, for what it's worth, I hope that sentiment remains after all this is over."
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Simca didn't know for how long Karren stayed inside that ward, but she heard many voices. Most of them came from Karren. When she walked out of that ward, she still looked as grim as ever. Simca gave one hopeful look at the red haired girl, but she shook her head. "I'm sorry, Karren. But… we're down to 20 mg a day. It's decreasing. And it's working."
"You're sure this… wonder drug will work?"
"Well… Hikari-onee-sama explained the theories for me and it was solid. Still…" Simca looked at Karren. "I already told you from day one, this is bleeding edge experiment that has never been done to any human subject. That's to say… this is uncharted territory, I really had no idea how this will affect your mother. I mean… are you sure you want me to keep going?"
"I wouldn't ask you to do it if I wasn't sure." Karren sighed. Years leaving her mother alone as she campaigned allover the world, and when she finally came back, her mother was already in such a wretched state… addicted and was so close to an overdose. Karren was THAT desperate. "But is this okay with you? I heard that wonder drug of the Doctor is… the only one left?"
"Hikari-onee-sama gave a go ahead." Simca smiled. "Originally, we were going to mass produce that drug for some large scale campaign against drugs… but thanks to a certain son of a bitch burning down my store, we only managed to manufacture enough for one patient. One testing." Simca looked at the ward with hopeful glance. "Don't worry. We lost the sample, but we didn't lose the recipe. Hikari told me how to manufacture more, and she held nothing back. It's in her head and mine now." Simca playfully tapped her head.
Karren smiled happily for the first time in many years. "I know this decision didn't come easy for you Simca. Thank you. Both for you and… say…" And now she noticed someone's missing. "Now that you mentioned it… where's… where's Hikari-sensei?"
"Ah… well…" Simca flabbergasted. "Now this… this is a wee bit harder to explain…"
"?"
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The convoy arrived at the fortress just as the sun has begun to coming down. But even through the dim lighting of the evening, Kage can still comprehend just how mind bogglingly big it was. Build unto the mountain itself, the fortress was as massive as it is artistic. 3 gigantic gates at the front, picturing the visages of three great Chinese lords of olden age, all stood ready with their weapons in hand while tiger statues guarding each gate's hinges. They're currently entering the center gate, which depicts a lord, eldest of the three lords that guard the fortress. It took 6 horses to pull open just one leaf of the giant gate.
As the grand gates opened in full, the convoy was quickly welcomed by the noise of the activity within. Expansive open fields welcomed them. But said field were hardly empty. Scores of troopers marched in formations under the command of their squadron leaders. Scores more are practicing their combat maneuvers in mock setting. Another score were having their physical training in their heavy full combat gear whilst their sergeants barked orders and swear words behind their ears. And there were many more of such scores, each were either doing different iterations of the same activity, or doing other drills their sergeant felt were required of their teams. The harmonic uniformity of the scene lies in two things: the determined discipline of the parties involved, and that they are all focused on war.
Just this alone made Kage understood why his 7th division earned their underdog reputation and why the 10th deserved all their privileges. He didn't forget how, in his early days as a captain, even in the face of an invasion, some of his men still find it in them to play around. Just how hard he had to work to reforge that playful mentality into something more suited to the task at hand? And then in Shanghai, Tolle described to him, in great detail and with no small amount of awe, of the Shadowguard's experience of working with a team of the truly elite and professional Troopers. Skill and training aside, the sheer difference in the mentality of these two classes of soldiers almost made the Dark Captain want to cry in shame. Almost.
"Ah, we're a bit late, it seem." Rena shrugged.
"Late?" Kage turned away from the Troopers for a moment and looked ahead. He saw some figures waiting for them on the gates ahead.
The first group, he immediately recognize as that of… George Allister… and his daughter, a still sulking Fllay in tow. The second group he recognized as Kirihara with a smiling Yahiko as bodyguard behind him. But the third group… is a lone solitary figure that, upon recognition, initially made his blood ran cold… before boiling in steaming hot fury.
It was Hikari and her Haros.
In less than a second, the whole cage began to tremble. Acupuncture needles suddenly snapped out of the lock within moments before said shackles fell off their freed lone captive. The troopers were still shocked over how the said angry captive could do such a thing, they forgot to respond to the prisoner's breakaway from his bindings. But even when they recovered from their shock, their trigger finger just freezes in terror as a very thick bloodlust overflow out of the cage, hailing from its furious occupant with such intensity, every squadron in that open field had to stop what they're doing when they felt it. "General Captain Rena Imelia… What is the meaning of this!?" Kage hissed with words laced with murder. "Are you sure you want to become my enemy as well?"
"Any other time, I might." Rena was unfazed. "Calm yourself. I didn't force her, I cordially invited your girlfriend, and she accepted on her own free will. And believe me: it's in your interest."
"What!?" Kage fiercely balked.
Hikari also rushed towards Kage. "Calm yourself you big dummy! (Koff)" And she swatted her fuming boyfriend with the Harisen Supreme. "Xingke-sama, Mr. Allister, and Kirihara-sama all cordially and politely invited me to take a visit to Beijing. (koff) And I said yes. (koff)"
"What… business have you in Beijing?" Kage growled with gritted teeth under his breath 'Other than getting yourself killed!?'
"Helping my insanely dumb boyfriend. (Koff)" Hikari growled. "They said there's a way I might be able to prevent you from getting executed. (koff) How can I NOT go with them!? (koff)"
"There's a chance, Kage-kun." George nervously pointed out. "But please understand… the three of us are DESPERATELY trying to help you."
Kage rolled his eyes. He truly appreciates their sentiments. But bringing Lacus along has the potential of turning things from bad to worse. Still… unlike Corner, at the very least, it seems Lacus identity fell in good hands this time. He can trust George to keep his silence, and he too will ensure Fllay's silence… somehow. It's Kirihara he's concerned about…
"George told me everything." Kirihara's words were laced with multiple meanings in many ways. "I too shall do what I can."
'Well, what do you know…' Kira resisted the urge to sigh in great, great relief. 'Looks like Lacus aren't short on support from Logos either.' "Fine." He sighed in faked exasperation instead. "Fine, fine. I'll leave it to you then."
The Logos ministers smiled in relief. Rena rolled her eyes. 'Well, well… Xingke did say some of the Logos Ministers had gotten along quite well with the Captain but this…' "Alright then." Rena breaks up the silence. "Let's move on."
"S… Should we… restrain the Captain, Ma'am?" One of the troopers quipped.
"Hm?" Rena glanced at the now free and unshackled Kage. She snorted. "Meh. No need. We've gone this far. Kage-darren won't be making any more trouble, will he?"
Kage merely groaned as he starts walking. "No. No he will not."
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Meanwhile, the Troopers finally settled themselves in Shanghai, grudgingly following the instructions left behind by the absentee Captain. Multiple complexes of buildings had been assigned as their lodgings. Former civilian houses emptied and repurposed for their use. It is located in the heart of the city, but the complexes are greatly dispersed, each complex is virtually isolated from the other by blocks of buildings.
The instructions from Kage demanded that the Troopers are to be dispersed and evenly saturated all across the city. They were to be divided into small numbers, defending several critical locations in a thin spread location. Of course, it's not that the location given to them is so bad that they're not defensible, but they're far from what the Regulars would consider as the ideal location that conforms to their ideal combat doctrine.
The regulars have been taught. Taught to fight together, to operate as a single cohesive force, a concentrated and centralized unit. A necessity when one wishes to create a sturdy impenetrable bulwark. That's the standard protocol. That's how they've been doing it for decades. Their army regulation dictates that for that purpose, to ease the deployment, to balance out defense and offense, there's a standard minimal set amount of troops needed in one place at all time. However, Kage's instructions just… overturned that. The Regulars were divided into small squads far below the approved army regulations, for some reasons.
Still. They're Regulars. They're professionals. Their job isn't to bemoan or question the orders of superior officers, but to obey them. The more stoic sergeants like Kati and Ohgi accepted their assignment without protest, but there is also a small portion of the troopers that still couldn't quite accept deferring to the orders of a 'psychopathic' captain.
"Those damn Militias… what's with them?"
"They got some guns and some training and suddenly they went all cocky like they own this place!"
"They even forbade us from entering their provision storehouse and deny sharing! What an eyesore."
The troopers grunted and growled. The 7th division has changed. They still remember when the militias are practically the Regular's gofers. But then under Kage, they suddenly developed a backbone. And they don't like that.
"Let's teach them a lesson." One of the Sergeants suddenly smirked. "You have the locations of where they kept their provision yes? Well, let's remind these greenhorns their place!"
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The slightly changed convoy of people simply grew longer with the addition of new members. But even though two Logos Ministers had explicitly declared their support of the convicted Captain, or perhaps precisely because of that, Rena kept the captive dark captain at her arm's length, denying the two Logos Ministers to get anywhere closer than staring distance. Mwu had to explain to the two ministers that, against all odds, the General had found a "soulmate" in her captive prisoner, leaving the two ministers as shocked as they are bewildered. That blood chilling and infamously ruthless general Rena Imelia… getting along that well with another human being?
"Well… it might be a good thing?" George nervously stated. "If the General of the 10th division also gave her support to Kage, then we might-"
"That's overly naïve of you, George." Kirihara sternly noted. "Rena Imelia does not give favors if she did not see any merit in doing so. Need I remind you that Rena was partially responsible for our current circumstances?"
George' barely formed sense of ease quickly evaporated. That's right. It was Rena who gave the order for most of his armies to stand down, plunging the already deteriorating Shanghai to complete chaos. Lacus frowned behind her helmet, already she's starting to have a bad feeling about this woman, especially with how close she is to Kage.
As the group made their way past the training field, they entered the second gate on the second layer wall. When the gate was opened, the first that welcomed them was a wave of sweltering heat and the thick smell of iron and gunpowder. The field of vision was momentarily blocked by the rising smoke racing to get out of its confinement, but as one's eyes adapted to the environment, everyone quickly noticed the presence of two humongous mass of object welcoming them. Kage's first thought was buildings. As Kage's eyes adjusted, he came to realize these buildings are NOT buildings. To be more precise… they are buildings… mounted on threading tracks. They're tanks. Building sized tanks. "So this is…"
"A relic of the Foundation War and the Holocaust." Xingke noted. "The Slayer Tanks."
Kage stiffened as he felt a chill surged through his spine at the mention of the name. Even these days, Advanced parents still use the infamous super heavy Slayers tanks to scare their children to sleep. Named after great legendary heroes of the past, these metallic behemoths designed to do one thing and one thing only: Racial Genocide. Tales often told how they performed said task as they thread across fields of bone and death. The least of them was 30 meters tall, powered by a very powerful Steam Engine. Ones of the very precious, very few, fully functioning ones the Alliance still had.
Behind her helmet, Lacus stifled a nauseous urge down her throat. If she read the legend right, a single one of these literally mowed entire cities off the map, its occupants included. Its shape may have changed, its weapons upgraded or replaced… but so much Advanced blood had greased its gears, every Advanced instinctively felt some form of… racial terror imprinted on their very subconscious every time one looked upon them.
And unless Kage miscount… they have two of these things in this hangar. And any of them can take on an army on its own. "You… you pull two of these monsters here?"
"A hangar of this size used to house and maintain 20 of these things, Kage-darren." Xingke explained. "Now there are only 8 of them left in the WHOLE world, and only 4 are assigned to this side of the world."
Kage rolled his eyes. "I never thought it was that bad."
"It is THAT bad." Rena snickered flatly. "All Advanced hates these things to the bone. As soon as one of them showed up, they'll focus everything they got to bring it down." Rena gestured her chin at one of the largest of these threaded fortress.
It's a massive juggernaut of iron and steel almost the size of a battlecruiser supported by 4 pairs of dual rowed tracks down below. Its sides were covered in an incredibly thick skirt armor that plated its track linked full-grown-man sized wheels. The skirt armor of either side of the rear tank tracks are festooned with a broadside of two sponson mounted weaponries per track. The forward sponson had what looked like a twin linked… flamethrower. Whilst the secondary sponsons sport a Gottfried Cannon. Attached on top of these two rear sponsons is a single heavily fortified turret mounted tower, bearing a Hellfire Rocket Launcher at 3x3 configurations. At the front and back of this top sponson tower are an array of Iggestellung Gatling guns, three arrayed in front of it, and three behind it. Curiously, while there's a space for two more sponsons at the front tracks, the tank forgoes additional weaponries for a set of two sponson mounted massive pile drivers.
The reason for this particular equipment were explained as one looked to the equipment on the center hull. Three forward protruding giant artillery cannons on a fixed turret base. What's balking is that each cannon was even longer than the actual tank itself. It is THE biggest gun any sane man ever placed on a tank. The only thing larger than said guns are the Lohengrin, as far as Kage remembered. Learning with his own experience with said supergun, Kage knew if those monster guns fired, the kickback's a bitch. Hence the pile driver equipment: they're stabilizer locking mechanism to hold the tank in place when the cannons fired. Beneath the monstrous cannons on the frontal main hull, is what looked like a row of four small bore cannons arrayed in a single line: An Organ Gun. And yet… they strapped two more of such weapon in a single and massive triangle rotary base. Still in the center chassis, at the rear section behind the forward pointing main artillery bombardment super cannons are two independent turrets, each with a twin linked Gottfried Cannons. The two said turrets also had a co axially mounted 3x3 Hellfire Rocket Launcher configuration inbetween the cannons.
The stern part wasn't armed as much by virtue of four smoke exhaust vents where the main steam engines are located. And that is also why that spot was armored with layer after layers of thick steel plates, resulting in a rather bulging backside. Still. They had enough sense to mount an array of Gatling gun emplacements for defensive measures on said backside.
"The Hannibal Barca. The last of the T-80 tanks series. A brutal 120,000 horse power Nitro boosted war machine with that Artillery Cannon and its 150 kg shell ammunition comprised over half of its gross weight." Murrue quickly recognized said tank as the captain in charge of heavy weaponry. "Its devastating bombardment cannons single handedly pushed through lines after lines of Zaft fortification from Northern Siberia (Northern Europe) all the way to the edge of Red Sea (Africa) during the counterstrike against Zaft's Hundred Fang campaign."
"Yeah. I know that one." Kage read them in Zaft history books. Those three cannons were the scourge of the Red Sea shores. "Under its watch, no Zaft army ever made it any closer than 60 miles into the shores of Arabia. It's not an exaggeration to say that thing single handedly guarded the Alliance European border from Aden Gulf to Suez Canal Pass." Zaft's strong span of influence in Africa was held in check away from Arabia and the rest of Europe thanks in no small part to this tank. "Is it really okay to bring it here?"
"Well, if the intel I hear about what you've done to Andrew Waltfieldt was reliable, then I'd say we can give a bit of a leeway." Rena shrugged. "Plus, we still have the Bonaparte and his twin Scipio on standby in Belgium and Italy, so the Hannibal is more than compensated."
"Any one of these things is already plenty overkill, and yet…" Kage sighed as he glanced at the second mountainous mass of guns.
The other tank shared a similar chassis of four set of twin tracks covering a center body. But it was larger and bulkier by virtue of its clearly thicker armor. Other than that, the tank has an entirely different set of weaponry for a completely different specialization. If the previous tank was clearly for long range bombardment, this one is designed for linebreaking. That means maximum armor and firepower. For a start, it has no oversized cannon, so it has no need for stabilizing piledriver.
That means, this tank has a broadside of four sponsons, fully loaded with weapons on either side. Which in this case, is a broadside of four Gottfried Cannons on each side, with a top sponson mounted Hellfire Rocket Launcher towers above each of the four tracks. In-between the Rocket towers are an array of three Large Bore Iggestellung gatling guns. And with another three on the forward and rear track armor, made for a grand total of 9 Large Calibre Gatling Guns lining the topside of this war engine track armors on whichever side.
The massive central part inbetween the heavily armed tank threads were just as heavily armed, if not more so. The central chassis were enlarged over everything else, dwarfing the Rocket launcher towers on the tracks, due to that portion was covered in the thickest solid steel armor imaginable for a tank as defensive measures. There are six smoke exhausts slightly jutting out across the central chassis.
Behind the first pair of smoke exhaust is a pair of tower turret, identical with those mounted on tracks, also equipped with rocket launchers. At the center of the tank, sandwiched by two smoke exhausts is a massive main turret. Its main weapon features what looked like four Sledgehammer caliber demolition cannon strapped together in a Gatling cannon like rotary base. Complementing the cannon is four large bore Gatling Guns mounted on the turret sponsons, covering the other four sides all around the main turret. And finally, just above the main cannon, are two small sub turrets mounted Twin Gottfried Cannons, one turret stationed just above the frontal main cannon, the other placed on the back of the main turret as a rear gun. The frontal prow of the tank mounts what looked like four barreled volley flamethrower, and beneath them are two Gottfried Cannons.
But in the end, it is not the firearms that made all onlookers' blood run cold. Beneath the aforementioned frontmost weaponry, is a pair of giant two sectioned grinding steam roller cylinders, covered in rows of equally massive spikes, the whole set were held at the frontmost part of the tank by the middle. Its length covers slightly over the entire width of the tank, while the combined height was even taller than a small house. But what makes even Kage rolled his eyes even more, is what lay at the very center holding the two section of the grinder roller together.
At first, he thought he saw a bronze statue of… an old man with a goatee and top hat sitting on a stone chair. But that chair is part of a mechanism that is a hinge of a very massive pole. It's like the mechanism of a catapult, but it's a steam propelled one, and instead of the sling or a paddle to hurl projectile, it will bring down a tower sized Axe big enough to chop Battleships in half when it drop and arc down from its chain suspended upright position.
Kage's eyes twitched in an angry glare when he noticed and recognized that statue. "Don't tell me you named… a racial genocidal weapon… after the one person who started the fight against Racial Discrimination."
"Uhh…" Neither Xingke nor Murrue had the heart to explain. "Originally it was called Paul Bunyan… but… the powers that be decided they needed a more awe inspiring name and…"
"If that was meant to be a compliment, you guys magnificently failed. (Koff!)" Even Hikari was also not amused.
"Oh, for Heaven's sake!" Rena blared. "It's a machine! A war machine! I can name it Qin Hui (see note down below), I can name it Adolf Hitler, or even Captain kangaroo: I. DON'T. GIVE. A. DAMN. All I want out of it is its ability to inflict death and destruction in the battlefield as needed. And if I can't have that, I'll toss this thing to the junkyard myself."
Hikari rolled her eyes in her inward disapproval whilst Xingke and Kage stoically nodded. Results. That's all Rena cared about.
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That night, a small army of shady figures run across the quiet street of Shanghai. They're all armed and determined. Leading them was a sergeant. The very same who proposed this operation. Seeing the Militia had the audacity to refuse even sharing their supplies, they'll just take it by force. Deadly force.
"But… is this okay?" one of the troopers voiced his doubt. "I mean… doing this to the militia. Aren't we both on the same side?"
"Ano nee." The sergeant quickly put the doubting Trooper by a chokehold. "We're troopers. We're the elite. Don't you dare put us on the same class with those mangy polyglots of street rats! Remember what General Rena used to say?" The Sergeant addressed his men. "This is China. This is the land of the strong. The weak has no place here. We are Regulars. We're the chosen ones. The strong ones! Are you trying to say we're weak?"
"No."
"Then act like one, dammit! Now, let's go!"
The troopers quickly spread out like a well oiled gears of a war machine. Scouts went ahead to study the situation. Their target is a huge warehouse, intel identified it as one of the Militia's main provision storehouse. One of several. There are only two guards guarding its entrance. The snipers quickly took the ideal position and placed the two guards under their crosshairs. With a flick of a trigger, their heads exploded. They gave the signal for the other troopers that the guard has been taken care off.
Like wolves, the troopers quickly charged in as the Sergeant watched. 'After we took the food in this warehouse, we'll burn it all down. In the morning we can just blame it on the Miltia's ineptitude. And if that wasn't enough to remind them of their place, we'll hit the next, and the next… and the next after that. And they can't stop us.'
The troopers quickly began working on busting the door open. It was just a simple padlock after all. Two other troopers moved towards the corpses of the two soldiers, preparing to dispose of them… when they noticed… they're very light. Too light for two human corpses… "Huh?"
As they began to feel the body… they noticed… this isn't human body…
"Ain't these…. scarecrows?"
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Finally, they moved past the war factory and into a less super sized production facility. It's still plenty huge though. The smell of steel and gunpowder is still thick in the air, but, there's also the sweltering and scalding heat that intensified even more. Now this… Kage knew this kind of atmosphere quite well. This is an ore refinery and a smelting plant. Carts of raw ore poured into gigantic blazing furnaces where the iron is to be refined and then mixed with some carbon and other material to make… molten steel. Poured into moulds, producing… pipes? 'No. Not pipes. Gunbarrels!' This place is also an armory and a factory to produce firearms.
Kira had seen Zaft's workshop as well. When they produce their swords, a single senior artisan aided by an assistant, his apprentice, worked on a single set of products from start to finish. One person can produces a set of sword using a single mould to craft 5 swords all at once. Once the sword base is ready, said artisan painstakingly checked and finishes each sword one by one, putting the arm guard and the handles on the finished blades, casting aside the failed ones. Like this, a single artisan can produce an average of… 2-3 swords a day. But the Alliance had a very different system. A system of assembly line was made. Rather than a single artisan working on a single rifle, multiple workers, each working and concentrating on a single component of the rifle: one worked on the trigger mechanism, one worked on the gun rifling, the other worked on the stock, and some others worked on the targeting sights. All the differing components were then assembled into one by a senior artisan. This makes it possible for new rifles to be produced every ten to fifteen minutes PER assembly line. A quick mental count and there are 200 of such line. In terms of quantity, the Alliance had the Zaft beat. However… mass production means some compromise in quality is tolerated, and the skill growth of the artisan involved slowed.
As Kage observed further, he also noticed that rifles are not the only thing being produced. Some assembly line produced cannons, others produced large bore guns, and of course, bullets. Thousands upon thousands of bullets of every caliber. And more are being made in dozens of assembly lines. 'Neither system is wrong.' Kage shrugged. 'The problem is in mindset and goal. Zaft concentrate more on quality, Alliance emphasize quantity.' But while most of the audiences were in awe, Kage's expression was easily classified as unmoved. Something Rena noticed.
"Let me guess what you're thinking." Rena started. "Why bother?" Kage rolled his eyes to the General. "You're asking us the Alliance… why go through so much trouble just to create a projectile weapon when something as simple as Crossbow or even a bow can do the job?"
"I don't mean to belittle the role of guns." Kage shrugged to George. "I've fired a gun before. I know its destructive power and its strength."
"That's sated curiosity speaking. You've fired a gun once and you think you know." Rena grabbed a rifle from one of her troopers and fired a shot to the air. The sound loudly reverberated across the vast but closed room. Even eclipsing the sound of activity in that plant. An activity that stopped the moment everyone in that room immediately snapped to attention and, involuntarily or not, stopped whatever they're doing to focus on the source, on whoever fired that shot, namely Rena. "Gunfire is the battlecry of muskets. When you point it to someone-" Rena pointed the still smoking barrel of the gun to some random worker, and said worker jumped back in fright. "-it made a statement as loud as putting a blade on the man's neck, at a far greater distance. It takes a lot of training for an archer to get the range out of a bow. Firearms can give that same range and destructive power at a fraction of a time. Just a push of a trigger, and a civilian will turn into killer warriors overnight." As she tossed the rifle back to a nervous trooper, Rena pointed accusatively at Kage. "You know a gun's strength and weakness… but you failed to respect and fear its worth more than simple killing tools like blades and arrows. That, I think, is your problem."
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SNIKT! SNIKT!
Less than a second after the two troopers noticed the oddity, two arrows went through their heads before they can report the findings of these oddities.
And that was just unfortunate, because at about that time, the troopers had just breaking open the padlock. When they opened the door, the first that welcomed them was:
BANGBANGBANGBANGBANGBANG!
A barrage of 200 lead bullets per minute from a roaring Iggestellung Gatling Gun.
The first wave of troopers was wiped out in an instant. And quickly enough, the windows and doors of every house around the warehouse opened up, and soldiers bearing various firearms opened fire at the invading troopers, sandwiched on that narrow road. A soldier bearing a bazooka fired at the front most part of the trapped group, igniting the well covered fish oil, creating a wall of fire. Another batch fired at the rear, igniting yet another trap, another firewall. The troopers were pinned in-between the walls of flame at the front and back, and a gauntlet of building garrisoned to the brim with fully armed soldiers on both sides. "FIRE!"
"What is going-" The troopers didn't have time to be shocked as a rain of bullets fell upon them. The noise produced when the rifles fired in unison make it as if the sky above them just exploded. Half of the trapped troopers died on the first salvo. "W… What is this!?" The Sergeant was initially caught off guard. The soldiers gasped. They've been drilled by Shepard, but for some of them, seeing the guns in action for real was a shocking experience. They watched the troopers fell lifeless as all they did was pull the trigger. They know of cannons… the destructive power of a gun, the noise, the smoke, the recoil… it was much more personalized than cannons… they know of its power… but they've never witnessed just how effective it could be until tonight. They were stunned in astonished awe of the force of the barrage… when they should've kept firing as they were told.
But the power of firearms is nothing new to the troopers down below. They've lost half of their number because of the guns, but they still have the strength to retaliate. They quickly recover from the initial shock and responded quickly, reforming their ranks and took cover, and, naturally, they quickly returned fire.
When the first return fire nearly grazed one of the soldier's head, that's when they came back to their senses. "OI! What are you doing!?" Shepard quickly roared at their back. "They're returning fire! SHOOT THEM BACK YOU IDIOTS! SECOND VOLLEY, FIRE!" The soldiers quickly fired back in unison, emptying their whole clip at the targets down below. Once their rifles are spent, they pulled back, and another group quickly entered and fired as the previous group reloaded. A rotating firing system that produce continuous fusillade of death from above.
Alas, due to their slow pace, the targets down below were given time to respond and react, taking cover and hide, the subsequent volleys were so much less effective than the initial barrage.
"I knew it, it's still too early…" Shepard sighed watching the significantly ineffective and inefficient nature of the 7th division's amateurish firearms handling. He drilled them the basics… but sometimes you can't beat muscle memory and experience. Neither can be gained in a day, no matter how much time you spent in firing range. The troopers knew better than anyone how best to respond when they fell upon the crosshairs of a gun from an elevated position. They moved to cover, using their shields and locking them together to create squads of tortoise phalanxes of guns. 'Still… it does the job. The soldiers will now maintain a continuous suppressive fire. That nailed the targets down on the spot, unable to move…' Kyle smirked. 'Surprisingly, this division has no shortage of advanced CQC specialists.'
On cue, charging out of fire is none other than Juppongatana. Canard, Prayer, Setsuna, Neil, Toudou and his four guards, Kamina, Bushido, even Sven jumped out of the flame, all screaming, all adding to the chaos.
The bulwarks of phalanx were immediately ripped open one by one in a very quick succession. Sven's snaking chain sword slivered across the entrapped troopers, and in an instant, heads fly to the sky. And that's the signal of how things are about to get from bad to worse.
Bushido immediately closed the distance as he pushed towards a group of troopers bunkered behind some pillars. One last shot, and the troopers suddenly lost sight of him. They were just wondering where the target went, and suddenly, the pillar before them exploded into dust. Charging in like an angry war god, Bushido's blade dove into the troopers in a merciless bloody carnage, cleaving shields and limbs to pieces. First the guns, and then their wielder. "Disgraceful! Such disgraceful act and you call yourself the elites!?"
"KORAKORAKORAAAA!" Kamina charged, his giant drill spinning and whirring, tearing up formations and send troopers flying with mangled armor. "GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE! THIS IS OUR TURF!"
The troopers vainly trying to get even one bullet through to Toudou or even one of his guards, but god help them, the bullets keep getting sliced in midair and the Ronins keep coming at them with the surety of death.
Lockon loosed arrow spears after arrow spears, gutting multiple troopers with each shot. A sniper tried to fire at the rampaging Juppongatana, but a spear punctured his throat before his finger pulled the trigger. The last thing he saw was the fact that apparently, the sniper archer didn't even bother looking where he just shot. 'Fu…'
"Your presence here is tolerated because we said so." A trooper fell dead as Setsuna bloody fingers plucked out of the holes on his head, to the horror of other troopers facing the blind warrior. "If you can't get that through your thick skull, my fingers will drive the point in for you."
The pile of people trying to hold back Prayer's Gatotsu charge continue to grow as the boy continue to push forward, as if the weight of several full grown men stuck on his lance is nothing. "You guys pick one hell of a time to mess with us!" And with a roar, Prayer finished the stab by slamming his lance, and at least a dozen troopers stuck on it, to the wall, shattering it all in a bloody mess.
"We're all in shitty mood, see." The two halves of a trooper the lieutenant just bisected fell in a bloody mess as Canard swished the Glamm to splash the blood away. "So…" He grabbed three swords and throw all three with such pinpoint accuracy and force, it stab multiple troopers' heads off their shoulders. "The fact that you guys are all going to die tonight is… well… you stuck up fucks are just shit out of luck."
The troopers may be well versed in firearms, but their CQC are actually not half bad. Unfortunately, 'not half bad' against an elite squad specialized in unconventional but advanced CQC equates an asymmetrical one sided butchery. The surviving troopers now had two choices: jump out of their ramparts and being fired upon, or stay and be at the mercy of the Juppongatana's merciless blades. Some quickly elected the former, hoping the soldier's lack of proficiency will save them. Well, they're not wrong… Some of the troopers that break out of cover actually managed to survive through the hailstorm of bullets, away from the slaughter, but tonight is full moon. They have to hide in the shadows.
Which turns out to be a bad idea, because the shadows are anything but vacant. A trooper just thought he can rest easy when a hand from the shadow suddenly pulled him in and a blade jutted out of his chest, followed suit by a sharp cold pain. Moments before death took him, he saw a person walked out of the shadows, emerging with the swiftness and quietness as if the creature was made from the darkness… and then it disappeared just as fast.
A trooper hiding in the shadow was suddenly shot out of it by a hail of arrow to his chest. Another group of troopers tried to fight back, firing haphazardly at the darkness, but the darkness is everywhere. And in darkness, shadows rule. A mass fell right in their midst, they turned to the mass only to be welcomed by a storm of whirring blades that sliced their weapons before moving on to their throats and arms. One trooper got away losing an arm, but his remaining arm quickly grabbed a sidearm and blindly loosed a shot. Blind luck see the bullet landed on the dual wielding shadowguard's shoulder. But a firm grip from another shadowy warrior emerging from the darkness crushed the gun, preventing another shot. The trooper was still wandering what the heck until that same grip grabbed hold of his throat and lifted him off the ground. And like a crumpled dish rag, the Shadowguard slammed him back to the ground with cracking force. A pair of blades extended out of his other hand before he jammed that to the trooper's throat.
The Shadowguard in Training Clotho looked worriedly at the gunshot wound on Tolle's back. "Senpai, are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Tolle shrugged. "This armor is amazing. The bullet only scratched it and I feel no pain but a nudge… and yet it's so light."
"Thank Kage and Simca-nee-san." Clotho smiled. "Kage gave her input on S.T.R.I.K.E. armor performance, and from that she crafted the one you wear."
"Relay her my gratitude then. Hm?"
"Ah!"
The two shadowguards reacted differently when they spotted a pair of troopers behind each other's back, each trying to gut their target's back. Before they can open fire, two arrows shot from the shadows nailed the one behind Clotho dead. The one behind Tolle was halted in his tracks when he just noticed Tolle's blade had gone through his back via his stomach. "Been blindsided from my back one time too many." Tolle growled. "Not a fan." He pulled the sword out and the trooper fell dead. Milly dared himself a peek out of the darkness to check if her boyfriend and their new young recruit are okay. A wave of gratitude from the two answered the question.
"Watch your back, rookie." Tolle smirked. Didn't expect he can say such thing with confidence. "That's our weakness. Actually, that's everybody's."
"Right!" Clotho grinned. His first night as a Shadowguard (in training) and he began to understand. Shadowguard, as the name implies, embodies the basic combat principle of their shadowy leader, Kage. While capable of flashy destruction and all out carnage, their true shining moment came when they lurk silently in darkness. Fear and silent theatricality is their greatest weapon. Speed and stealth are their shield and sword. Learning that, Clotho dispensed away his firearms and cut back on explosives. For now. "By the way…" He grabbed a trooper by the neck as he charged in. "Where's Lancer-senpai?" And with a snap, he cracked his neck.
"He's…" Tolle sliced a trooper's throat. "…on another mission." He grabbed the dead trooper's knife and tossed it at another trooper's head.
As the Juppongatana rampaged under the moonlight, the Shadowguards does the same as they writhes in the darkness. The troopers who tried to find safety in the shadows only found death as Kage's elite guards moved from shadow to shadow, their dark garment melding perfectly with the night's darkness.
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"Weapons don't win wars, General." Kage argued. "Men pulling the trigger do. Guns are tools. Tools can be taken away from you. Used by your enemies. Guns don't have conscience. They don't have a warrior's instinct and understanding of right and wrong. And let's face the fact: human swinging blades will never run out of bullets."
"I agree. I agree on all accounts. Especially that last one." Rena smirked. "But what you just said merely strengthened my opinion about you. You lacked the understanding of the power of a gun. And as such, you lacked the respect for it. You fail to grasp a gun's power to distort a man's sense of right and wrong. How it simplifies and eases a man's conscience in the act of killing."
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The embers of the fire walls were still burning when the last trooper fell dead, sliced in half in the midsection by Canard's great blade.
Before long, the soldiers gathered on the field, now full of corpses. "Phooey! Fucking Regulars! Think you're so great are you? Who's the weakling now!?" The soldier kicked one of the dead troopers.
"Well, at least we know the sources we paid so much to be placed where they are had not been for nothing." Neil shrugged.
"It's a nice field test for soldiers to gain experience using firearms in formations." Shepard noted, hardly a shred of pity can be found as he heartlessly gazed on the regulars' dead bodies littering the ground. "Now I know what I had to drill into them."
Not a single soldier was killed, the Juppongatana hardly get any scratch, Shadowguards were virtually unscathed, it was a complete victory for the Miltias… with only few Troopers managed to escape.
And normally, for Militia… this would be enough.
If not for what Kage had taught them.
"But it's not over right!?" One of the soldiers growled. "I saw. Some of them escaped. One of them was a sergeant. The coward ran, leaving behind his men. You can bet your ass he's gonna come back again! In force! You all remember what Kage taught us right?" The soldiers stated. "Winning the first fight does not win the war. To really win a war one has to make sure the enemy can never to do this to us ever again!"
"If an enemy survived the failure of their unprovoked assault against us, that failure will just become their training for the next success." Kage taught the soldiers when they're aboard the Archangel. "When I first defeated Zaft and killed one of their Hakutenkun, what did they do? Did they surrender? Did they cower in fear? No. They'll keep coming back. And they'll always keep coming back because… let's face it… our adversaries are stronger than us. And we're weak. Yes, I'll say it. We're weak. No use in trying to fake that. So what to do? Find them. Destroy them. We'll break them. We'll crush them so thoroughly and utterly, in body and in spirit, that they'll never even think of doing this to us again. Because when their hearts and bodies are crushed, they'll know we'll always win all the next battles!"
And the soldiers of the Archangel, so pissed of the many unfair treatments heaped upon them by the regulars, the discrimination, the mounting hatred born from it, they easily embraced Kage's teaching. Small wonder then, that rather than fading, their bloodlust grew more prevalent in the red glint of their eyes. What's more, now they've also gained the firepower of guns. They can now fight the Regulars on even ground. They're not done. They're FAR from done.
Canard smirked. "Maa, maa… calm down. Let's cool those hotheads for a bit. The night's still young. No need to be so hasty!"
"But, Lieutenant!" The Soldier argued. "We've taken care of only… what, 40, 50 men? That Sergeant can rouse in 200, maybe more if other sergeants get involved! If we don't stop him, we might have to deal with a few more hundreds…? Maybe… dare I say thousands!?"
"Then we'll kill thousands." Canard grinned sadistically. The red glint of bloodlust in his eyes glowed even more than all the other soldiers. "We'll slaughter every single one of them stuck up fuckers, if that's what it takes! Daijobu! We got permissions don't we? We can kill them all if they're annoying… and if this… unprovoked assault on us doesn't count as annoying then I don't know what is."
And the soldiers chuckled sinisterly in agreement. The rising killing intent coming from the combined bloodlust of the assembled soldiers were so thick, even rats run scared from them.
Meanwhile, as the soldier had spotted, the Sergeant managed to somehow escape the slaughter. His pride is in tatters though, and his sanity isn't far behind the same path. The reason he hasn't cracked yet, is because he knew it's not over yet. "Just you watch you sons of bitches. I still have 1,000 more of my men in reserve, and more will join to this cause! We'll come back and show them the meaning of strength!"
Said sergeant was so desperate to escape, he didn't notice something, or rather someone, is watching closely from the skies.
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"Do you believe humans to be so frail of heart?" Kage sighed. "Humans are weak. All humans. Including this one and that one." Kage pointed at himself and Rena. "So we made mistakes. We made many mistakes. From there we learned. We learned how to be wise. We toughened up from there. I can tell from your back that you too once made mistakes and you've learnt from it."
"Hm. This time I don't entirely agree. Especially the weak part. Humans are not meant to be weak forever. At some point we have to be strong. Still… I see your point." Rena smiled. Though she never once thought the sakura shaped scars on her back as a sign of failure. "Our men learned things from us. Our abilities, our wisdoms, and our mistakes. Inevitably, they become more… like us. But that also means they'll inherit our strengths… and our faults." Rena no longer needs any more convincing. Harlbaton… her old mentor had found the greatest successor he could ever hope for. "In many ways, we are alike, Captain Kage. And yet… we're also different. And our armies reflect that. There are some ways you raised them of which I greatly disapprove, but I suppose we both had a very different definition of strong. Your men ARE strong. I'll admit that much. Which is a good thing. The Militias are virtually useless before, now they can at least count for something."
"So will you leave my men alone now?"
"I don't have to do anything anymore." Ren smirked. "This is China. This is the land of the strong. The Strong lives, the weak dies. A baptism by War is coming to these lands. Strong by my definition or yours… China will decide who will survive."
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In the Trooper's quarters…
"Could you… say that again?"
"Wiped out. My men. Every last one of them." The sergeant barely had the chance to catch his breath. "Those militias, I don't know, I think they were possessed or something. They killed everybody. We have to get back in there in force. Those… monsters are dangerous."
"Wait…" The other sergeant growled. "You ran? Straight here? You were there, they saw you, and then you came back here?"
"Y… Yes?"
"You shit for brains lead them straight here!?"
No sooner than he said that, a titanic sword the size of a building crashed through the ceiling, and just so it happens, it landed right on top of that other sergeant, just inches away from the first one.
When Fuji violently and purposefully yanked his blade out, the troopers' quarter had been partially obliterated and it would've collapsed in time… time that Fuji had no intention to give. He lifted his sword, grasped it with both hands, and when he brought them down again with the force free falling meteor, the shocked and horrified faces of the sergeants and troopers within the obliterated house had yet to fade.
Up on the rooftop Gino watched as the titanic cloud of dust rising up to the sky as Fuji's giant blade landed. Down below, the 7th division soldiers from the warehouse, joined with the remainders of their reserves all flocked to the ruins of that building like angry sharks coming to taste blood on water.
"So… you're really are serious about this?" Gino jumped when he heard that voice from his back. It was Kallen.
"…if I said yes, would you believe me?"
"…you were always so indecisive." Kallen walked past her bewildered ex boyfriend to watch the proceedings occurring below.
The troopers resisted. The few that survived the initial devastation used the ruins of the building as protection as they opened fire from every openings and crevices. Beneath the rubbles, the militia noticed the troopers had assumed their tortoise phalanx formation. They interlocked their shield as they fired behind them.
"You're not going to stop this?" Gino felt no sentiments for enemy troopers. But shouldn't Kallen, the 2nd Lieutenant of the Alliance act to at least save her underlings?
"I've warned them this will happen." Kallen sighed flatly. Apparently this isn't the first time. "They reap what they sow for not listening."
Receiving this kind of hostile response, the Militias were understandably pissed. They huddled together, locking their shields in their own tortoise shield formation, shielding a certain squad from view as they returned fire, suppressing their target right on the spot, preventing them from moving anywhere else. "Is it ready?"
"Anytime!"
"BLAST EM!"
The Militia's tortoise shield formation opened up revealing a pack of archers, all bearing special arrows with hissing fletchings. "FIRE!" and flurries of explosive tagged arrows slinked past a hail of bullets and disappeared in the tiny crevices of the ruble, some even managed to slip past the barely closed openings of the shield wall, puncturing whoever poor bastard's beneath it.
Then again, that's the least of their concern when the arrows exploded full force in that confined space.
Moments later, the Militia soldiers now had the belly aching task of finding any intact corpses amidst burnt chunks and scorched pieces of those caught in the ground zero of the explosion. Rough count by piecing together the pieces the best they could, they count at around a few hundred casualties. It's a rather rough estimate considering some of them indeed vaporized, leaving nothing to be identified.
Still… unbelievably enough… there's a survivor.
Just. One. Survivor.
And of all people, it had to be the stuck up sergeant who started this mess. Somehow, he survived without a scratch. His sanity though, was different story entirely.
When Balsam Arendo dragged the convicted before the tribunal (Juppongatana and Shadowguards) everyone can easily see he was already a shattered wreck of a man. His mind lost beyond help. "So… what are we going to do? We killed several hundred troopers. What then?"
"We'll make an example out of them." Canard snarled. "We've killed these few batches… now let's make sure the remaining tens of thousands know their place."
"What are you thinking?"
"I had a few ideas." Canard smirked. "Inspired by our captain, in fact. If it's still attached to their shoulders, cut off their heads… bury it… as for the bodies… whichever ones still… reasonably intact… hang em and torch em. All across the city. That should send the message."
"What about him?" Balsam nudged the gibbering sergeant with the back of his rifle. "Should we make a human torch out of him too? Alive. Figure that'll send the message louder and clearer."
Even for Canard, it disturbed him that some of the soldiers actually nodded in agreement with the former Juppongatana's idea. Even after everything, Balsam still had some swaying influence.
Toudou voiced his opinion: "If Kage were here, he would disapprove."
"Kage taught us to think for ourselves too, didn't he? Let's just say… we're improving his ideas a bit." Balsam replied.
Clotho looked at the sergeant. Screw psychological therapy, the man was so terrified out of his mind, he'll never be able to go into combat again. "You know…" Everyone turned to the Shadowguard in training. "Kage taught me a few things too. We could, as you say, burn him alive. I'm sure his screams will teach everyone else a lesson. We torture this one soul, we'll prevent thousands more from trying. That does sound solid… except the fact that we're better men than that." Clotho was reminded of that chess game. Of what Kage was trying to teach him. Only now did he understand what he meant. "Just because we could… doesn't mean we should. We've rained bullets at him, we've cleaved a building right on top of him, and some angel saint in the distant heaven up there still saved him. If we kill him now, we'll be as bad as the rest."
"Feh, you must be the newbie." Balsam grunted. "Do you think you can afford to be that naïve?"
"I…"
"You know what?" Neil suddenly interjected with a knowing wide grin. "I think I'm starting to understand why boss man took the boy in as a Shadowguard. Albeit in training." The sniper ruffled the boy's red hair fondly. "I agree with the boy. I think we've had enough of killing our own for one night."
"But the message-"
"We'll hang the recognizably human carcass on the streets and burn them. That should send the 'message' loud and clear enough." Canard ended the argument short. "You'll settle with that. As for this one… well, the kid had a point. Dead man tell no tales. We need at least one alive to spread the word. To let everyone knows who did this. That'll send the message clearer. Agreed!?"
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Kage frowned as they finally walked out of that hangar and left the armory behind. "General Imelia… what exactly are you trying to do?"
"Oh? I was under the impression you already know what I want?"
"Nah, I'm not talking about the obvious." Kage shook his head. "Pretty soon, you'll receive a letter report from one of your sergeants you assigned to Shanghai, confirming that all my men in Shanghai are an army of bloodthirsty psychos and maniacs. And they may have proven that by parading your probably dead troopers in a grand gesture of terrifying proportions. I kinda expected this will happen as soon as I left them alone. And I knew you know it too. In fact, I had a feeling you were HOPING it would happen."
Rena smirked, guilty as charged.
"I see the tactical wisdom of what you're trying to achieve." Kage nodded, to the confusion of everyone present but the cleverest. "I just don't see the tactical wisdom of putting two super heavy tanks on this side alone. Shouldn't you at least put one of those monsters at our rear?"
Xingke quickly explained. "There's a fourth Slayer tank, Kage-darren. The Atilla. But it has yet to be assembled, for it's not meant to be stationed here. Half of its components are already in Beijing, the rest had just arrived in Shanghai some time ago, along with Jane's fleet. It will be reassembled in Liu Shuhan fortress, where it will guard our rear flank." Xing Ke continued. "Then again, Liu Shuhan fortress had the advantage of a natural protection of the Himalayan heights. The Scandinavian Principality guards those regions."
Rena followed: "Last I checked, their main policy is still that of: 'hack anyone who illegally cross our borders to pieces, Zaft or Alliance'. And seeing I have no interest in duking it out with those Battle maniacs…" At the mention of said country, Lacus stifled even more uncomfortably behind her mask. Unfortunately, no one noticed it. Rena continued: "And even before we have all these additional tanks, Qin Shih Huang was more than enough to guard the whole of China by itself."
"One tank guarding the whole nation?" Even to Kage, that doesn't make sense.
"Oh, that's right." Mwu nodded. "Rena, Kage had never seen that."
Rena snorted. "Oh yes. Kage, if you think that humongous angelic ship of yours is the largest thing men ever made… well…" Rena pushed open a grand gate, and behold… "Meet the competition."
At first, Kage thought he saw a wall. Humongous slabs of wall that is even taller than his archangel at 12 stories tall. But when he looked down, he noticed… tracks. Gigantic tracks big enough to crush the previous two tanks under its wheels. That was when Kage realized… he's looking at cars. A series of 7 interconnected cars that formed… a 350 feet long train! As with the previous Slayer Tanks, the wall cars were also heavily armed to the point one may need to redefine the word overkill. One's talking about rows and rows of protruding Gottfried cannons, innumerable gun emplacements, Demolisher mortars, Rocket launchers, and lord knows whatever manner of weapons of mass genocide packed on the wall like train. What's more, weapons mounted on the aforementioned two tanks of mass destruction were also mounted on some of the cars at larger quantities, seeing this particular 'tank' has more than enough space to compensate.
Rena waited until Kage's jaw closed in again, because when it does, that was the sign Kage had finished getting shocked and start getting smart again. It took him less than 3 seconds. Ordinary men would normally ask stupid questions like how many guns it has, or… how thick the armor is, or even stupider: can I try to ride it? But if Kage is every bit the tactician he is, his next question will immediately answer the true strategic prowess of this train.
"How many men can it carry? How many men needed to run its equipments?" Kage quickly noted, beneath all those guns are strategically located exit and entrance gates, and he quickly understood the true value of this oversized train beyond simple firepower. "And how fast can it go?"
Rena smiled. Yet another test passed. "No less than 250,000 Troopers. Full load. Not including the complementary artillery equipments and other support provisions. Fully 1,000 of that number are needed if we're to operate the weaponry of each car at full capacity. Still, only 10 people at the forward Locomotive are needed for it to only move." Rena smiled. "And it can travel from here to Beijing in 6 hours. Less, if they really push it. The engine took only 1 Hour of preparation before each departure." Once again, Kage's jaw noticeably slunk down slightly.
"Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, Qi, and Qin." Rena calmly listed the name of each car from last to first. "In a time before the era of Captains and Alliance, my country once endured a similar situation with that of Japan's warring states era. The Central Plain was divided into 7 warring nations before eventually, all under heaven was conquered by one man. The man whose name we used for this… Grand War Train. As the name suggest, it runs on a massive rail road that spans the entire breadth of China. Said railroads also connected the three major alliance fortresses in a giant circle that unites this country. Built and assembled here in Central Plain, it is the pride and glory of my people."
"Okay… Now I understand how this thing can guard China single handedly." Kage gulped.
"Sorry. (koff) I… don't follow. (Koff)" Hikari overcome her shock a little late, and she's still confused. Her question earned her a glaring look from Rena. "I'm a doctor not a soldier! (koff)"
"A train that can move a quarter million troopers to any of the three most strategic locations in China at incredible speed." Kage explained briefly and simply. "That would enable the Alliance to quickly respond to any threat from any direction with great force. Still…" Kage rolled his eyes. "How much it cost to operate?"
"An interesting number of zeroes added behind a 5 digit number." Rena shrugged. "Which is why it is also partially funded by the Chinese tax payers to keep this thing running for a year. The amount that was not consumed by corruption anyway. In normal circumstances, the Qin Shih Huang will engage in a nationwide inspection patrol once every 2 years. But… current time isn't exactly normal, so exception has to be made. For example…" Rena snarled a grin at Kage. "Normally, it would be preposterous to use this thing just to escort a prisoner, a couple of ministers, and some tank components. But given the circumstances…"
Kage rolled his eyes. "You know… I never said I wanted some special treatment for snobs. I'm perfectly okay with the usual treatment for the psychopathic killer routine."
"You may be okay… but a certain person won't wait."
"Who?"
"Your main prosecutor: Robert Corner. A senior Logos Minister as well as the most powerful man in China… financially speaking, of course." Rena snarled. "Oh, and in case it's still unclear yet, he's Alejandro's father. And the person who sent those incompetents back then."
"Wonderful." Kage rolled his eyes.
Rena turned to the other Captains. And in an instant, her jovial tone also vanished; no trace left of her earlier friendly disposition. Replacing them was that cold and militaristic tone everyone was quite familiar with and made them snapped to attention in an instant. "Now then… Admiral Captain Houston, what's the status on the loading of the last of Atilla's components!?"
"Ma'am. We should be finishing in six hours, Ma'am."
"Make it sooner. I want this train start moving the moment the last of Atilla's components are on board."
Another thing Rena had in common with Kage, is that her sheer presence was strong enough to command unquestioning obedience from all around her. Rena then turned to Mwu and Murrue. "Vanguard Captain Mwu La Flagga and Marshall Captain Murrue Ramias, escort Minister George Allister, Kirihara Taizo, and their… guests, to the VIP hall while they wait." Rena frowned in dislike at an indifferent Hikari and the sulking Fllay. Especially the latter.
"Ma'am, yes, Ma'am." Murrue saluted.
"Right, right…" Mwu halfhearted nodded… which quickly turned to a proper: "Ma'am, yes, Ma'am." -as soon as he felt Rena's deathglare climbing up his spine.
Finally, she turned to her own officers, and unlike the rest, she need not to give them any specific orders, both already know what they have to do. "Mato, Xingke! Escort the prisoner Captain Commander Kage to Qin Shih Huang brig, post maximum security guards and double everything."
"Ma'am, yes, Ma'am!" Both echoed with a ready salute.
"NOW MOVE YOUR ASSES PEOPLE! WE HAVE A WAR TO WIN!"
It's like someone cracked a whip behind everyone's back, every activity in that War Station doubled in pace as everyone moved about to comply with the General Captain's orders.
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When Kaname Ougi woke up that morning, it was not because the first ray of dawn pierced his window. Truth be told, judging by the clock, (3 in the morning) the sun shouldn't even be up yet. But his nose registered a disgusting smell. 'What the heck?' funny thing is, the sun shouldn't be up yet, but he saw light piercing through the window. When his eyes cleared and he peered through that window… he suddenly realized the light doesn't come from sun at all…
"What in the blazes…!?"
When Ougi rushed out of his quarter to make sure he wasn't hallucinating or dreaming, he also came to realize he wasn't the first to notice this bizarre view. Other sergeants and troopers all across the regular's resting quarters had also be sent wide awake by this horrid smell… and this… horrid scenery.
Several hundred corpses held suspended in dangling cages… hung across the street and all of them were set ablaze like some twisted lantern across every street within the Trooper Quarter complex.
"SOMEBODY PUT THEM DOWN! NOW!" Kati roared for all her lungs' worth.
It took a full hour for the terrified troopers to put out all the fire. The cages were dragged down, its contents examined… They quickly realized that, while whatever fueled the fire didn't even resemble human bodies anymore, it was unmistakably human corpses. Of the several hundred cages, some were mutilated human corpses, but some are but chunks of human flesh put together to provide enough mass to keep the fire burning.
"Who the… what the…" Just like everyone else, Ougi was questioning this horrid scene while fighting the urge to throw up.
Just as everyone was still wondering why or what caused this atrocity, a trooper yelled as he dragged a body behind him. "Here, over here!" The trooper was dragging a person. A sergeant. He pulled and placed the sergeant in front of Kati, Ougi and everyone else's.
Catatonic and wild eyed, the Sergeant was obviously in shock, but more than anything, he was frightened out of his wits. Kati knelt down in an attempt to see him eye to eye. "What happened?" She asked. "Who did this?"
But the Sergeant was unresponsive. He fidgeted and shook uncontrollably as he curled down on the ground, terrified and crazed like an overgrown child trapped in a perpetual nightmare. Murmuring to himself incoherently as he balled and buried his head to his knees.
Kati frowned, and so she closed her ears in on the traumatized sergeant's gibbering lips so that she can hear what exactly he's murmuring about. As words flowed in and formed a complete statement, Kati stood back up, disturbed and alarmed.
"What's wrong?" Ougi asked. "What did he say?"
"He said…" Kati looked meaningfully at the silhouette of the Archangel at the docks. "The 7th's Devils are coming. And he keeps saying that over and over again…"
"7th…?" Ougi blinked… and somehow, he, and all other sergeants, can picture what had transpired that it led to this.
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Around 4:25 AM…
In the Sun Wu Fortress station, the activity around the Qin Shih Huang is fast reaching the end as their preparation to depart was completed. Passengers were finally allowed to enter the massive vehicle. George, with a little help from Hikari's haros, had to drag the half asleep Fllay whilst Kirihara and Yahiko followed closely behind, as well as a complement of a small army of troopers, both the train's crews and escort. The Atilla's components have been loaded in. The boilers of the train's steam engine had almost finished its warming up.
Rena stood calmly as she watched over the proceedings with Mato at her side. Her attention, in particular, was focused on a certain spot in that train where she knew Kage was being imprisoned. They should be leaving at 4:30. More than enough time for her to engage her little hobby. "Mato."
"You want to know his color?" Mato shrugged. "Personally I don't feel this to be a reliable psychological assessment."
"On the contrary, I value your opinion on this matter… to a certain extent."
It was something of Mato's peculiar hobby that caught Rena's interest. Mato had a tendency to synonymies a certain person with a certain color, the first color that pops up in her head as soon as she looked at that person. What is curious is that somehow, that color seems to describe a certain but dominant aspect of that person's personality. Jane was ocean blue – because apparently she loved ocean more than men. Mwu was sky green – the sort of sky that appeared right before a freak storm or twister. Rena herself, she described, was fiery red of scalding steel because Rena was being… Rena. And Mato's evaluation of Kage was…
"…white."
"What?"
"Bright… blinding white." It was obvious that even Mato herself was as confused as Rena, but there she goes. "I know it's strange but… that's the first color my mind popped out. It's also strangely familiar, but I just can't seem to remember where I've seen it."
Rena rolled her eyes. Of course, Mato's judgment had been wrong before… "Well I did say to a certain extent, didn't I?" The General sighed. Just then, she noticed Xingke was coming towards them, his expression was paler than usual. In his hand is a particular looking bird: a red feathered eagle Rena recognized as Kallen's fastest messenger hawk, Mako. "Xingke? What is it?"
"We just received a message from Kati. From our detachment in Shanghai."
"Already?" Rena rolled her eyes. "How many?"
"They confirmed… an estimate of 200 bodies… maybe more…" Xingke gulped. "The report indicates the bodies were mostly in pieces so this count is just an estimate…"
"Can't they do an exact headcount?"
"A full headcount will be made available in a full debriefing currently being compiled… but there's a conflicting report." Xingke gulped. "Because when they did an actual headcount… they found they're over a thousand men short."
Rena's eyes widened and twitched ever so slightly. "Any survivors?"
"There was one survivor."
"Was?"
"According to Kati's report, the man's in severe shock, so they placed him in a general ward until he calms down but…" Xingke rolled his eyes. "…somehow, he managed to gain possession of a sidearm… which he's done giving it a blowjob. Preliminary psychological analysis stated, and I quote: they scared the living shit out of his sanity."
Rena frowned. "I'm surprised this came from Kati, of all people. I thought I sent Kallen to watch over them."
"Actually, Ma'am. Kati's report piggy backed Kallen's. I read Kati's first because Kallen's report is just… confusingly short?" Xingke handed a tiny parchment to Rena.
The General read it in less than a second. Inside the parchment is one short sentence, handwriting recognizable to be that of Karren's explaining the reason of this incident in a very simple three word sentence:
"They were annoying."
Rena's lips parted ever so slightly as she digested the meaning behind this simple statement. And then a wide grin formed on said lips. "Send in another 1,000 troopers to replace the losses of the Shanghai Detachment. And this time… tell that 1,000 troopers, and have them relayed it to their friends in Shanghai, my personal, sincere advice: Don't be annoying."
Xingke nodded.
Rena chuckled inwardly to herself one last time before she roared: "ALL ABOARD! WE'LL DEPART TO BEIJING IN FIVE MINUTES!"
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Arcane Magic
Pt. 2
With the domestication of Arcane Magic, human civilization prospered in the golden age of the era of two Emperors. However, things take a different turn for the worse when everything fell apart as the Two Emperors system failed and the empire crumbled into anarchy. During the Alliance Holocaust campaign, witches and wizards were treated no different than the advanced, as monstrosities that has to be eliminated. Small wonder then, that the majority of the Magi unanimously decided to join with George of Glenn in order to survive. The combination of Magic wielder and Bloodline Limit users is like a potent combination of Onis' and Demons' descendants fighting side by side. It was deadly and destructive… but unsurprisingly, at certain times it can be highly unreliable. There has been known occasions when a spell cast by some wizard went awry and consumed both friend and foe. Another dilemma arises in what defines an Advanced. The Magi who also inherit Bloodline Limits in their veins, an Advanced Magi, are highly coveted Allies for the budding nation of Advanced, Zaft, not only because Magic and Bloodline limit make a powerful combination, helping fellow Advanced in such a dark times is the right thing to do. However, Magi can also be found in the ranks of Naturals as well. While George personally feels for them, many of his lieutenants don't share the sentiment. Unfortunately, while Advanced can still see the difference, the Naturals care not if the Witch and Wizards they captured possess bloodline limits or not. So it is that whilst a portion of the Advanced Magi survived, so many Natural Witches and Wizards were captured and executed in the frenzy of the hunt, that by now, most of the Magi that exist today are Advanced.
However, not all Magi approved of this discriminating treatment. Just as the Naturals fail to see the difference between Natural Magi and Advanced Magi, so too did some Magi fail to see why the difference matters. While everyone railed on between who is advanced and who is natural, these Magi differentiate things based on who is Magi and who is not. And while clearly they disapprove with how the Naturals slaughtered everyone indiscriminately, they also disapprove of how George's lieutenants discriminate against Magis that is not an Advanced. To them, every magical blood is precious and must be preserved, regardless of racial origin. They petitioned many times to George to repeal the order to abandon Natural Magi to their fates. Unfortunately, for George, the situation was no longer that simple. At that time, George had risen from simple warlord to a father and ruler of a nation. The warlord of old may still be able to act as he liked it, but now, as the Emperor, he has become a subject to some standards and expectations of his people. And at the time, the majority of the population demanded that he reject Naturals, regardless of what they can do, be they Magi or not. The grim era of the Holocaust also demanded that he cannot compromise on this demand, and the military necessity requires it so. If he allows Naturals entry into Zaft, even if they're Magi, there's a slight chance they may well be Natural's spies. The then still nascent Zaft Empire cannot yet withstand the might of the Order of Blue Cosmos, its existence are predicated on the Naturals' unawareness of its existence. It was with genuine tears of sorrow in his eyes that George had to reject the Magi's request, denoting that he can do nothing…
…except secretly granting the Magi a patch of land far away from Zaft, where these Magi can try to build a life for themselves. He cannot offer all Magi asylum in Zaft, but if they wish it, they can create their own ideal safe haven. A haven for all wizard and witches, Natural and Advanced, independent to that of Zaft and Alliance. The grant was accepted, and a small portion of the Magi's population left Zaft for these new lands. There, they began crafting their ideal magical civilizations. Hidden in mimicry and magic, the small settlement grew and grew into a secluded society of witch and wizards. As set by their ideal vision of a safe haven, witches and wizards of all ilk and kin, Naturals or Advanced, were naturally drawn to such haven, more so than they were drawn into Zaft's embrace. In an irony, the powers that once corrupted the world and humanity actually managed to bridge the gap between Naturals and Advanced. The civilization thrives on this unity to the point where they have considered themselves to be in their own world, their own race, separate from the rest. There were no Natural or Advanced in this new civilization, there's only them, the Magic users, and the world of the non magical people out there… the Muggles, as they came to be called.
In the era of Holocaust, aiding the cause of Magi ultimately synonymous with aiding Zaft, and so, during that time, all Magi unreservedly provide their aid to Zaft. When Zaft came to prominence, the Magi' society also provide no small amount of their ranks to boost said empire's strength. In secret or in the open. Unfortunately, eventually the Haven's existence was revealed to the Order. The Mad Blue Emperor, Calron Azrael wasted no time and sent the Order's forces to destroy the Haven. While protected by powerful magics, the Haven has not the full force of Zaft's military strength, and thus it fell. Many managed to escape, but many did not. Some were captured and killed. Some, however, was brought before the mad Emperor himself. And there, they discovered the terrible truth. Calron, and a small cabal of his ministers, were actually wizards. Natural Wizard. However, they practiced a dangerous and terrible form of magic, long since banned: Necromancy. Calron's paranoia and distrust of his lieutenants had gone so bad, he actually can no longer trust the living, only the mindless dead can be trusted. Calron forced the captured wizards to aid him in perfecting a very dangerous spell that would open the doorways of Hell, summoning an army of the dead to aid him in his mad quest. Some were coerced to help him, but others only saw Calron for what he is: a genocidal maniac. At grave cost, some of the captured wizards managed to escape and warned everyone of the coming calamity. This time, the Advanced, Naturals, even the long lost Samurai united in recognition of this… terrible danger.
While they triumph, the cost was great. The Alliance was fractured; the Samurais lost a portion of their limited military strength, and most grave of all for Zaft: they've lost the founding father of their Nation, George of Glenn when he made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure their victory. With his death, the remaining Magi also realized they've just lost their one hope of reunion with Zaft. Alliance is simply out of the questions and Samurais, who must now look to their own borders, would never accept them. Calron's blasphemies had reignited the hatred and fear of magic in a world mostly populated by the non magical denizens.
TBC
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Qin Hui: Probably the most hated person ever to rule China as its prime Minister during the Song Dynasty. Other than consorting with the Jins who were invading his own country and took the emperors hostage, his most heinous act was the murder of Ancient China's national Hero, Yue Fei and his sons. He ruled for 20 years, and it was China's darkest political time where honest ministers were executed and corruption thrives. He was so despised, that after his death, a small metallic statue of him, and his equally evil wife, was build within Yue Fei's grave complex. The statue was that of the couple on their knees, ready to be executed, and begging for mercy. Generations hence, young and old, spit and curse that statue every time they came to visit Yue Fei's grave. Of course, nowadays, the statues were protected as a cultural asset, so spitting has been forbidden. Didn't say anything about cursing though.
Qin Shih Huang: the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty who united all of ancient China under one rule. Real name Ying Zeng, he came to power in his twenties by mercilessly obliterating his every opposition in Qin's court, including his indecent mother (who had an affair with an eunuch) and his primary economical sponsor (who was usurping the court). Though a ruthless and tyrannical ruler, he was nevertheless remembered as one of China's greatest emperors. He united the country not only by force of arms, but by also creating a system of uniformity, standardizing everything from currency to weight measurements, road width and length, even language and literature. In retrospect, all these contribute great prosperity and stability to the welfare of the people. Unfortunately, the latter two achievements also see to it that he destroyed many other literatures that did not conform to his singular vision. That includes the burning of many ancient scriptures and the execution of countless scholars and philosophers as well as the suppression of the concept of free thinking and democracy. He also had a penchant of creating various mega structures both for functional purposes and/or self aggrandizement, the Great Wall being the former and Er-Pang palace as well as his own Lishan tomb (with the famous terracotta warriors) being the latter. He was also known to engage in inspection tours to evaluate his country. Throughout his reign, he engages in 5 separate inspection tours to oversee his nation up close, to see any issues that requires his immediate attention as well as to personally evaluate regional welfare from each governor's performance so as to take action as needed (rewarding them if they did well, executing them if they are incompetent).
Sorry guys. Life. Work. Writer's block… they're a bitch to deal with.
