The mood in The Pinnacle had been rather melancholy the last time Reina had visited it. Now the general sensation was one of panic, helplessness, and disgrace. The transition between monarchs was never an easy one and never in Calachora's history had a monarch resigned so abruptly. With the nation in the midst of a crisis, some were even saying that Orvenii's actions had made the situation much worse and the media had never been more critical of her.
The Assembly had also rarely been so divided. While Keeper was slowly managing to get more and more members to his banner, resistance against him was becoming firmer.
She sat at a table amidst some of her colleagues, fellow matriarchs and a scattering of matrons she had managed to gain the support of, in addition to Minister Madrelle. A week had passed since Bellchora had effectively ceased exporting goods to Calachora. It had even come to light that they were negotiating with the Octarians, raw materials in exchange for military support.
Such drastic and decisive action was unlike the Consensus, who could get stuck on minor issues for years and who tended to avoid doing anything hostile. They'd even been debating in closed session, something they hadn't done since the Grand Consortium had started taking an aggressive stance against Bellchora. Calachora had been caught completely by surprise and the already straining economy was now tanking badly.
"Keeper says he isn't worried about the economy," Matriarch Scallana said. She was the most recent addition to Reina's growing group of supporters. "He says that unemployment will mean more people freed up to join the militia."
"A militia that needs money to function and pay its soldiers," one of the matrons groused. "Just how stupid is he?"
Reina's mantle turned redder. "I think it's less about stupidity and more about tunnel vision. This is the kind of thing he's waited for since the end of the last war. As far as he's concerned, it's an opportunity to finish things off once and for all."
Matron Trailmaker scoffed. "Why do the rest of us have to suffer just because he needs closure? Besides, there are other ways to get it."
Scallana answered, "he feels that peace with the Octarians and giving them their land back means that the sacrifice of everyone during the war would be rendered pointless."
"We've had a century of peace. I'd hardly call that a waste."
"It will really be pointless if he gets his way and shoves us into a war that will cripple us even if we win."
Reina held up her hands, bringing a halt to the outpouring of frustration they all keenly felt. She wanted to rant too but there were more important things to discuss.
"Let's focus on what we can do to prevent Keeper from becoming monarch. How much support do we know he has?"
It was Madrelle's turn to answer. "About fifty percent of the Assembly seems firmly on his side. Another five percent or so are leaning in his direction but haven't committed. There are maybe another ten percent who would be willing to accept him as monarch, if only because of the crisis."
"That's about sixty-five percent then," Scallana said worriedly. "He needs only five more and he just might get it if things continue to become desperate. The real problem is that there are no opposing candidates."
"Nobody wants the job," Trailmaker commented. "Whoever's put in charge will have the fiery pits of a time trying to get things sorted, except for Keeper, who's going to bury himself in war preparations and ignore everything else."
"The country will be ruined!" Someone moaned.
"Let's not get carried away." Reina tried to use soothing blues to relax everyone but the tension in the room remained high. She knew many of them expected her to officially announce her own candidacy, but there was no way that could happen. She knew that if the Assembly had to choose between her and Keeper, many of them would choose Keeper, which would doom any hope they had. For the moment, there were still enough undecided to prevent Keeper from getting the critical seventy percent majority he needed to become monarch. That was the primary goal of their group. If he failed and even if there were no other candidates, the Ecclesiarchy would choose one instead.
"Is there anyone on the fence we might be able to swing over?"
"Mostly other matrons." Trailmaker pulsed a dark grey. "But they won't change the votes in the Assembly. They can get more of the people on our side but I won't hold out hope that they'll change the minds of their matriarchs. With the current crisis, they feel their positions are secure since they're not going to start removing matriarchs in the midst of a crisis election."
Scallana pounded the table. "And the Ecclesiarchy still hasn't done a thing. What are they doing? Isn't helping us through these crises one of their charges?"
Unlike everyone else in the room, Reina knew the reason, and it was something that weighed on her heavily. Marie was going to become the new queen. By setting things up so that Marie solved the crisis, the Ecclesiarchy was going to make it much easier for people to accept her, making the transition smoother, and making it easier to silence people who had been her detractors since her idol career began. Reina had thought about revealing this information to a select few people, but she couldn't do it now, it was too dangerous. Besides, Marie could only become queen once she was an adult.
"The Ecclesiarchy can't move overtly," she said. "We have to remember that the Consortium is still hiding out somewhere close by and we haven't had a chance to deal with them yet. They're holding off now because this is an opportunity for them to install a puppet government. If the Ecclesiarchy moves too soon, it may create a situation we can't handle."
Reluctant greens flashed around the table. Reina was glad her reasoning took. Frankly, it was probably true. Marie and the small faction she had formed around herself was doing everything it could to find the Consortium forces hiding in Inkopolis but until they did, they were basically frozen. So it's up to us to buy time, but I should also start planting some seeds.
"It's also possible," she continued, "that the Ecclesiarchy has someone in mind and they're just waiting for time to run out."
"Who?" Madrelle demanded.
"Given how things have gone, I wouldn't be surprised if it was someone outside the current Assembly. It wouldn't be the first time it happened."
"It's only happened twice and both times it was at least a matron," Scallana countered.
Reina frowned, her chest tightening. "Excuse me?"
Scallana crossed her arms and leaned back. "Just a feeling I have, with some logic to back it up. If it were a matron, the Ecclesiarchy could have approached us by now to help create a support base for them before it was revealed." She met Reina's eyes. "Plus, if they're being this cautious because they're worried about the Consortium then it has to be someone they already don't like."
Reina maintained a stony expression on the outside, but inside she was cursing like a sailor at her colleague's sharpness. Scallana was a matriarch that represented many people who worked in the port and warehouse districts on the opposite side of the bay from Xapheerell. She had been fairly neutral in the Assembly until the formation of the Greater Bastion had caused her to rethink things. Members of her shoal were of much the same culture as those of Xapheerell and its neighbouring wards, and while they were not technically part of the Greater Bastion, they were becoming more public and vocal about their support for it since Orvenii's resignation. Of course, she would be able to make that kind of connection.
"Who do you think it is then?" Madrelle asked.
"I'm almost too afraid to guess. My strongest suspicion is that it might be Scylla Sunreader. With the staggering progress Xapheerell has made in reinventing itself and the role it played in its own Liberation, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if it turned out to be her."
Reina did her best to hide her relief that they suspected Scylla and not Marie. Afterwards though, she felt a little angry. Why did they dismiss the idea that it could be Marie so easily? Had it not even entered their heads after all she had done? It was vexing but she had to let it pass. There were more important things to talk about.
"Let's not get too off topic. Whatever the case is, we need to stop Keeper from getting his 70% majority at any cost. We might not be able to wait for the Consortium to be found before we act, especially if an emergency election is called."
Trialmaker clicked her tongue, her mantle turning a dark purple. "The only reason it hasn't already is because they don't think they have enough support yet, especially with what's just happened."
"That's made the people angry," Madrelle said. "But, the matriarchs and Patriarch Keeper think that they're doing the right thing, even if the people don't like it. It wouldn't be the first time the government has had to do something unpopular for the greater good of the nation. The people usually make a fuss for a while until they get tired of arguing about it, move on with their lives or another issue comes up that takes their attention away."
"Which has actually worked to our advantage here," Reina said, just coming to the realisation herself. She stroked her chin and smiled a little. "The people aren't thinking about the Octarians as a threat right now, they're all thinking about what's happened with Bellchora. Nobody ever imagined they would sever ties with us and become so friendly with the Octarians. In other words, Bellchora is doing exactly what Callie and Marie, and Scylla told us we should have been doing since the Liberation."
Trailmaker smiled sardonically. "And they're shoving it in our faces."
"We deserve it, frankly, but the point is that we've been proven wrong. If the Octarians are trading openly with Bellchora and doing so amicably, then the idea the Octarians are the threat Keeper insists it is, is brought further into question."
Scallana looked unconvinced. "Are you sure it doesn't look like they're taking advantage of a nation on the brink of disaster?"
"You mean like we were doing?" Trailmaker countered. "For all we know, the Octarians are treating Bellchora better than we were."
"And," Reina lifted her finger. "That's probably in terms of military support, which means they wouldn't have enough to take offensive action against Calachora, which means they aren't a threat."
Scallana flashed red. "Keeper would insist they would become a threat later and we would regret not taking them out while they were weak."
"I'm sure their Loyalist faction is saying the same thing to their leaders." She folded her hands on the table. "It's immoral and I've little doubt it would create upheaval throughout the country. What's more, I doubt the people will support it. If nobody's willing to fight your war, you lose by default. That's how Callie and Marie got the Octarians to attempt peace in the first place."
Madrelle hummed and stared across the table, thinking hard. "If we start reaching out to other parts of the country, I think that would have a great effect. Chief Pein once told me that the Consortium's smartest invasion strategy would be to seize the more rural areas of the country and the smaller cities and then besiege inkopolis. If that's the case then I think those people will have a much more vested interest in which direction we take."
"It's a start," Reina agreed. "It won't stop Keeper but it should keep him from getting his majority and getting any significant military force up and going. Speaking of which, what has Chief Pein been doing since the monarch resigned?
Madrelle grinned. "Serving his country, of course."
—-
Three watched with no small amount of pride as the reformed companies began their new drills, using a combination of their new ink weapons and long-handled hammers to batter away at the wooden, crab-shaped figures held at the ends of long wooden poles, operated by members of another company. Each wooden crab was accompanied by two claws, each at the end of their own pole. Their operators thrust out with them, using that to simulate the primary means of crustacean attack.
"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't envious," Sebbain Pein said as he discretely observed the scene in front of them. "If we could have given the militia this level of training they would have been really something. Might have kept more members too."
Three sympathised with him. "You didn't get the support you needed. And all of the Octarians here are trained soldiers so we had an abundance of instructors. We had our own culling of prospective troops too."
"So I heard. You reorganised recently?"
"Beta and Gamma companies were almost entirely octolings. All of the officers and NCOs of the original training companies came from them, so they were effectively gutted as combat units. We had to reshuffle people to refill their ranks. Now, every company has a mix of experienced troops to balance out the neophytes. They just need time together to gain cohesion."
Pein let out a sigh and Three gave him a concerned look. "Oh nothing," He said. "I just realised I was talking about these things with a teenager."
Three looked away, staring back at the fighting. She wondered what had to be going through the head of someone who had been serving in the country's security forces his whole life and found himself suddenly upstaged by someone young enough to be his granddaughter.
She flashed him an apology through tuk'yan but he just gave her a rueful smile.
"Don't be. For decades I've heard complaints about how kids these days are so irresponsible and never do anything for themselves, and now you are and people are criticising you for it. If you weren't doing what you are doing we'd be in a very bad position right now."
"I did what Callie and Marie told me to. It's just that lately, with them so isolated, I've had to do a lot of things on my own."
He smirked. "Of course. When you're in command of an army, you have to be able to deal with situations that come up. You should obviously listen to suggestions and thoughts of your subordinates but you're the one who has to make the decisions, whether it's tactical or something as mundane as personnel assignments."
"I already did that part." Three didn't try to hide her displeasure at that, and Pein laughed.
"Been there, kid, been there. So, what kind of unique problems are you facing? I noticed you've added hammers to your arsenal to get through the crab's natural armour."
"It won't be enough against any giant crabs. There are guaranteed to be some, there have to be. If there aren't then I'll be happy to be wrong."
"Hope for the best; prepare for the worst," Pein quoted. "That's all you can try to do. So how do you prepare to fight giant monster crabs?"
Three crossed her arms, thinking hard. Last time, it had taken Callie and Marie in a berserker state to bring them down, with assistance from many others, but they couldn't count on Callie and Marie's help this time. They needed a better way. The hammers could break the armoured shell in some spots but not everywhere, and they still had to get close enough to do it. That wouldn't be easy if the giants were supported by the soldier crabs and other variations.
"They aren't very quick, but in a confined space like underground they would be more dangerous than they were on Wharf 12. Because they're armoured, they have few weak spots, which means we need a way through their armour. We can't rely on blocking their gills with ink to kill them either. We need something that can penetrate their armour more reliably than the hammers."
Pein let out a thoughtful hum. "Well, the Precursors said that war twisted their gifts for tool-making and problem solving into something abhorrent. Many commented on how inventive they were in finding ways to kill each other."
"Did the Precursors ever fight crabs though?"
Pein pulsed grey. "We know they ate them, but I was referring more to the fact that the Precursors often turned common tools into makeshift weapons and then refined them over time." He gestured to the troops. "Just look at what you've done with those hammers. It's the same thing. Maybe, just maybe, there's another tool out there that can do something for the big crabs."
"Maybe, but what could it be?"
—-
Foame tried not to strike too hard with her hammer. The wooden makeshift crab body (named "crabikins" by the trainees), was already splintering from all the hits it had taken during practice. The Epsilon company troopers holding it at the end of the large pole struggled to manoeuvre the bulky thing but the two controlling the fake crab's large claws were not.
Foame had to duck and side step constantly to avoid getting hit even as she looked for openings to strike the main body. Several times, her partner standing behind her had to intervene to save her from being struck, but the rubber claws were quick and they had reach. Both sides were doing their very best to strike each other. Their lives depended on being able to weather the crab's attacks while striking back themselves.
A high-pitched whistle pierced the cacophony of combat, which abruptly ceased. Kentarch Sungazer raised her voice. "Enough for now. Short break. Rehydrate."
The two sides parted, taking their equipment with them. Their boots splashed through puddles of sweated ink. It needed to be allowed time to dissipate, otherwise, the concrete floor would become too slick and dangerous to continue.
A little weary, but far from spent, Foame made her way back to her pack and grabbed her canteen.
"How you 'oldin' up?"
Foame turned as Mia knelt down next to her, grabbing the canteen from her own pack. Her bare arms had marks on them from deflecting hits from the faux crab claws.
"Alright, I guess. At least we're not constantly retreating now."
At the start of these drills more than a week ago, the "crabs" had advanced constantly and forced every training company back against the wall, where they were "slaughtered" to the last. Things hadn't really improved until the companies had been reorganised and transformed from training companies, to active companies just like Beta and Gamma. Foame had been sorry to be separated from some of her new friends in Zeta and from Wren, but she too had been transferred – to Gamma Company's third splatoon, but being mixed in with the veterans had made facing the wooden crabikins easier, so now they could hold their ground.
"Was this what it was like during the Liberation? Were the crabs as tough as this?"
"It was pretty bad," Mia acknowledged. "The way those little crabs just kept coming, the way the regular ones attacked brutally. It was bad. Lots of girls lost limbs, even if they lived."
Foame didn't need to be told that. Plenty of octolings still had limbs missing or still not fully reformed. It was a grim reminder of just how dangerous fighting crabs was.
"I just hope I'll be able to fight when the time comes," she said. Few of them talked about it out loud but all of the trainees were anxious about going into a fight for the first time. Their instructors had, early on, dispelled any delusions of grandeur. At the same time though, there was a determination in everyone to do what needed to be done, a determination forged in the fire of anger and frustration over their country's recent decisions. The fact that Marie and the Greater Bastion were having to act in total defiance of the majority of the Assembly had gotten up everyone's funnel.
Foame was still coming to terms with her grandmother's sudden resignation. She'd known she had been planning to retire soon but not like this. Stepping down was probably the more graceful option but the knowledge that this happened during a meeting with Patriarch Keeper and Minister Brentuk filled her with bitter resentment. Keeper had gone from being a danger to a personal enemy, and she wanted nothing more than to bring him low.
Mia finished drinking from her canteen and said, "well, if we don't fight we'll die. Those little crabs are relentless, and I think everyone is just mad enough not to not care and fight anyway. I'm just worried about the bigger ones." She frowned deeply. "And I know the officers have been worried about the giant crabs. I've heard 'em whispering about it."
Foame shivered. She had been shown some footage of the giant crabs, cut together from the mask footage of Beta and Gamma company troops during the Liberation. Their sheer size and imposing bulk was enough to make anyone nervous. How anyone of normal size could face such creatures was beyond her, but knowing that those around them had was a comfort.
"Gamma and Epsilon, back at it," Sungazer barked. "First splatoons switch."
Everyone got up and headed back to the practice area with their weapons. First splatoons of Gamma and Epsilon exchanged roles, with Gamma-One now taking on the role of the crabs, handing their hammers to Epsilon-One.
Foame held her hammer tightly thinking about her next move. She needed to be able to get past the claws to strike the body, but the claws had a lot of reach. An inkling's main advantage against crabs was greater speed and faster reflexes. Unfortunately, the current drill didn't take that into account.
The whistle sounded and Foame was forced to banish those thoughts for now and focus on the fight ahead as the two lines moved towards each other.
Almost immediately, she had to dodge out of the way of one of the claws. Carrying the hammer severely hampered her agility, making evasion difficult. She kept her distance at first, gauging her opponents, watching both the crab body and the claws. If the crab body hit you it counted as being captured by the crab's many arms, which was almost guaranteed death. That's almost what happened as she dodged the claws only for the body to be forced towards her. She managed to keep her distance by jabbing the hammer head into the crabikin's torso, but she ended up getting scraped by one of the claws. Mia deflected the other claw for her, saving her from a direct strike.
Foame's frustration and anger rose to a pitch. She wasn't good enough. The Consortium had threatened Inkopolis, taken lives, and they'd directly affected her family. She couldn't just go on ready to fight, she had to come back alive and bring as many of the others with her! She wasn't going to let the Consortium push her back, she was going to be the one pushing them from now on, and she needed to start showing it!
The claws came again as Gamma-Three was forced back slightly but Foame did not budge. The claw came for her but she was ready this time. "Help me!" She cried out to Mia. She swung hard as the claw came in, and the head of her hammer broke through the rubber claw and hit the end of the stick dead on, shattering it.
Surprised by the sudden breakage and the force of the impact, the handler lost his grip on the stick and it shot backwards, somersaulting once in the air and nearly spearing one of the Epsilon Company medics tending to the injured.
"Watch it!" He shouted angrily. "You almost harpooned me!"
The whistle blew and all combat ceased. Epsilon's company commander hurried over to him and Sungazer did likewise. Everyone else moved back into their lines but Senior-Altern Highwater, the only inkling splatoon commander – and Foame's new splatoon commander, stopped her and Mia.
"What happened?"
Foame suddenly found her mouth unable to function. Highwater was two years younger than her, and while she was normally quite approachable, she was a very serious creature during combat practice and it gave her an intensity Foame still wasn't accustomed to.
"Just wonna' tha' sticks breakin'," Mia replied casually. "She 'it it dead on the 'ead with the 'ammer."
Highwater flashed a casual acknowledgement then motioned them to get back in line while she walked over to speak with Epsilon's company commander.
"It was a nice 'it," Mia whispered to her. "But don' count on that when the fightin's real. They tell us where tah 'it 'em for a reason."
Foame flashed green, her hands still aching from the force of the impact. She had almost hurt one of their own. She'd let her emotions take hold of her.
I have to do better. I have to.
—-
"Harpoon…."
Pein turned his head from the near accident on the practice floor and looked at her, but Three wasn't paying attention to him. The proverbial lightbulb had just gone off in her head. It would be crossing a line, she could feel it in her soul, but it might be the best option.
She motioned Hani over to her and whispered, "I want all Company commanders in the main conference room in fifteen minutes. This is top priority. I'm going to try and get Marina and Captain Hooker here too but I need to discuss this with all of you first."
Hani didn't ask questions and headed off immediately to tell Epsilon and Gamma's company commanders first.
"What are you thinking?"
Three looked back at Pein with a sober look. "Fighting the Grand Master reminded me that I can't hold anything back if I want to make sure I win, otherwise we'll die with regret. I can't be afraid of anything if I want to win and save as many lives as I can."
"Fair…" he said slowly. "So what did you just figure out that will help you do that?"
Three hesitated. "Like you said, The Precursors made weapons out of what were originally tools, just like those hammers. I'm about to do the same thing again, but this time it's a tool that's designed to kill from the start."
Pein frowned at her for a moment and then he too understood and Three saw his colour fade.
"It's life or death," she said darkly. "After we've gone this far, after Marie has chosen this path, there's no going back. We have to go all out if we're going to succeed. We can't hold back for anything."
Pein's own expression and mantle darkened. "So you're doing something illegal."
"Extremely," she said with a bitter smile. "But so is genetic manipulation on the level of giant crabs. At least my idea should only hurt them."
—-
It was late at night and Jallic clung tightly to his coat as he carefully crossed the roof. The deserted area was not an easy one to infiltrate, especially when anyone who might see him sneaking around like this would probably try to kill him, but he knew the importance of his mission and he wasn't about to let everyone's efforts go to waste.
The warehouse's skylights were blocked with panels of plywood on the inside. While that prevented him from peering down to see within, it also prevented any light bleeding out and exposing his presence. The lack of security on the roof showed just how thinly stretched their enemies were.
There was no access way to the roof but he found an air vent and switched to squid form to slip through the grate into it. He couldn't go far lest any noise in the vents give him away, but he was able to find another grate through which he could see.
The warehouse was dimly lit and crowded with shipping containers but he could see just enough through the grate to see what events were taking place. The container he had been tracking was still being unloaded. The crabs were chittering in their incomprehensible language, but making some effort to keep quiet. He could see some of them loading bags of crab food onto a motorised cart. For what though? The warehouse wasn't that big.
Suddenly there was a bang as one of the containers burst open, and a huge coconut crab came out, looking somewhat sickly and extremely angry. The other crabs near him seemed to be telling him to keep quiet but he just shoved past them and started making more angry noises. There was a brief discussion before the crabs started opening some of the other containers, from which other crabs emerged. Most of them looked healthier than the coconut crab but none appeared to be in fine physical shape.
So that was how they were smuggling more crabs in. But had they been in the container all that time?
The containers were loaded from ports almost two weeks' travel from Calachora, plus the time they would have spent in processing. All of these containers had spent almost 48 hours in the port before being moved here. Two weeks in a cramped container with little air or food. Had they been hibernating all that time?
He began silently praying that he was about to receive the answer to what they had really been looking for the most. Someone between Heaven and Earth must have been listening because that very moment, one of the office walls near the back of the building swung upwards like a garage door, revealing a descending rampway underground. The building next door was another warehouse, vacant, as far as he knew. So this was their secret way underground?
The motorised cart began to move and the smuggled crabs followed. He made a rough estimate of forty crabs of various sizes, plus the ones that stayed behind. Then, the fake wall swung back into place and the crabs remaining hurried about their work, getting more product ready to offload.
They probably sent the crabs down in small groups so that they wouldn't make too much noise as they descended to their underground lair. Jallic had no idea where it went but at least they knew where an entrance was and it was vital he escaped with that information.
Deciding to leave while he could, he struggled back up the air vent. It wasn't the first time he'd done it but it was still tricky moving in just the right way to shimmy up without making too much noise, while also pushing up through the grates. Eventually, he made it back onto the roof, and after a quick check to make sure he remained undetected, he climbed down to the ground and ducked down an alleyway. It would take him a while to get back without giving himself away, but he couldn't wait to tell Superintendent Lavaridge the good news.
Author's Notes:
Yes, as you can imagine, there is a lot going on in the government at the moment, with Reina trying to stop Keeper from taking over the government and other members of Orvenii's outgoing government are doing what they can to try and save the nation they serve, though how far they're willing to go remains to be seen. Three has an idea. An awful, wonderful idea! What's Three's idea? Some of you will have already guessed it I'm sure, but how they'll be incorporated might be a bit more of a mystery. Yes, and now we are entering the final arc of this grand tale. What will be the outcome? You'll have to wait and see of course.
Also, though I normally don't plug my other fics here, I am posting another splatoon fic at the same time as this one now, albeit one taking place in a different universe, called "Blood & Scars". If you're interested, please check out here: s/14133970/1/GundamxSplatoon-Blood-and-Scars
