Chapter 8: Rotation

THIRTY MINUTES AFTER THE ATTACK ON ITALICA

The Kantei (Prime Minister's Office), Tokyo

The communications channels of two planets went insane.

The moment that the last Rondel aircraft fell from the sky over Italica, a message was beamed across fiber optic cables through the Gate and into the servers at the Japanese Ministry of Defense headquarters in Shinjuku, then forwarded again to the Japanese Defense Minister's government email account.

JASDF INTERCEPTED AND SHOT DOWN RONDEL FIGHTER-BOMBERS OVER ITALICA, SR.

The note was quietly passed along to the Prime Minister who exploded, "Since when does the Special Region have Fighter-Bombers!?"

"It's an application of their MagThree technology," Defense Minister Nomura explained. "This isn't all that remarkable. It took Earth nations under ten years to go from inventing planes to using them in combat. The Special Region has the advantage of seeing F-4s as an example during the last civil war, so the idea isn't as novel to them as it was to us."

"What am I supposed to tell the Diet?"

At that moment, the door to the Prime Minister's office creaked open and a young secretary stuck her head into the room. "Sorry for interrupting," she said. "The President of the United States is waiting on Line Two."

The Prime Minister gave an aggravated sigh and leaned over his desk to hit the speaker button so that Nomura could listen in. "Hello President Mahana" he said in English.

Dirrel's successor was a firm, but soft-spoken man from Massachusetts, and had a New England accent to match that made the Prime Minister's life difficult at times. Fortunately, he was less bull-headed than Dirrel, and was supported by a less aggressive cabinet.

Or, perhaps he didn't need to be much more aggressive, considering that the Americans had already achieved most of their important geopolitical objectives with regards to the Gate...short of being given free access to Falmart. Still, discussion about the Gate was nowhere near as prominent as it was after it first appeared, and the world had mostly stopped talking about it after the Korean crisis took over the headlines. "Good morning, Mr. President."

"Good evening, Prime Minister," Mahana said. "What's this I'm hearing about air combat in the Special Region?"

The Prime Minister gripped the phone tightly. As far as he was aware, the Americans didn't have anyone in Italica, so how did they know about the battle? "Could you be more specific? I don't believe that the JSDF has released that information yet."

"We had an Osprey turned away from Italica and the pilot was told that there was an active threat in that airspace. Around the same time, we started getting reports of JASDF planes at Alnus being armed and an F-2 having its combat camera footage removed. It's easy enough to see when you have all the evidence."

"I see."

"Do you want us to send soldiers through to help?"

"No!" The response came out sounding a bit sterner than the PM had indented, so he backtracked and said. "No, thank you, Mr. President. I feel that we can handle the situation at this time."

"If you say so. By the way, we also got a report from General Kengun that a second Monarch has shown up at Alnus… our original treaty about SR biologicals is still in effect, right?"

"Of course."

"Awesome. I'll have our guys speak with your guys to make the final arrangements. Looking forward to seeing you at G20!"

The call ended then and there, and the Prime Minister was left holding the phone in his hand. Shaking his head, he placed the phone back in its receiver and asked, "What are our options?"

"The Rondel aircraft fired at us first, so technically, all options are on the table," the Defense Minister stated. "We could do nothing, or we could level their city. If you were to put the question to the Diet, I would expect that they would prefer you did the former. If we were to ask Ambassador Sugawara for the Saderan position, they would probably ask for the latter."

His constituents came first, of course… but now that the Prime Minister's constituents included Japanese on both sides of the Gate, his opponents in the Diet had easy ways to attack him, no matter how he responded. Kouhara Mizuki had been campaigning for moths to replace him in the next elections, and she would probably claim that he left Japanese citizens to die. If he authorized the JSDF to attack, she would call him a warmonger and cite the cost of the deployment to any newsman in earshot.

"Isn't there a middle route?"

The Defense Minister thought about it and said. "Enforce a no-fly zone over Japanese territory, and offer to extend that no-fly umbrella over immediate surrounding territories like Italica. Even if Rondel has invested in air combat, their World War One biplanes are no match for modern fighter jets, as the air battle over Italica has already demonstrated. By keeping to the units that are already at Alnus, our expenditure only goes up by the cost of expended jet fuel and weapons. It is the cheapest option, and it is the option that places the fewest of our citizens in harm's way."

"Excellent! Relay those instructions to General Kengun at once!"

FIVE HOURS AFTER THE ATTACK ON ITALICA

Royal Palace, Sadera, Falmart

The loud knocking at her bedroom door spurred Pina to scramble into a robe and shove the manga she was reading under her mattress before shouting, "Yes, yes, come in!"

A member of the imperial guard strode in, brandishing a scroll from a carrier pigeon. "My Empress, Countess Myui says that Italica is under attack."

Pina's eyes went wide at that one. A march from Rondel to Italica took nearly a week, while this attack was following the massacre of her soldiers in Rondel by just a couple of days. "Did they send their army preemptively?" She wondered aloud. "Does Myui say if the walls are holding?"

"Your eminence," the soldier replied, "The whole message reads as follows: Italica under attack by Rondel airplanes, send help. That is all."

In a moment of horror, Pina was dragged back to a memory where she stood on the walls of Italica herself as the JSDF rained flaming steel on a sea of raiders from above. She winced at the echoes of an explosion long gone and asked, "Has someone sent for Countess Tyuelli?"

As if on cue, the woman herself pushed past the soldier and asked, "Have you heard?"

"I have. I was considering sending wyverns to assist."

Sherry appeared confused for a moment, then shook her head. "Sugawara-san told me everything. The attack ended hours ago."

"And?"

"Seventeen dead, a few dozen wounded, and many buildings were damaged. The only reason that it wasn't worse was because the JASDF intervened."

They haven't forgotten us after all! In that moment, Pina felt like someone had just lifted a cart off of her. With the JSDF on their side—

"Don't celebrate yet," Sherry cautioned. "Two Japanese aircraft were involved. The one that initiated conflict was being piloted by another Monarch. The second aircraft, an Eftoo, only joined because it saw that the first was in trouble."

"I wasn't aware that the Kingdom of Tinae had finally sent representatives?"

"They haven't. The girl, Ellie Fe Agne, was operating independently, as far as her traveling companion has told the Japanese. What this means is that we still shouldn't expect much from Japan."

Pina sighed. "Now that we know about this means of attack, we ought to come up with a defensive plan. If you would summon the Generals—"

Sherry turned towards the soldier and said, "Would you excuse us for a moment?"

The royal guard bowed and departed, closing the door behind him and leaving Pina and Sherry alone.

"Pina," Sherry said. "We can't just barge into this. We should consider the political options first."

"What do you—"

"Seven years ago you told me that you had enough of bloodshed. I am not advocating for any additional peaceful overtures to Rondel, since that route has obviously failed, but we do have other options open to us. As far as Falmart is concerned, the Japanese were willing to attack Rondel with only limited provocation. If we can push the Japanese towards defeating Rondel for us, that's less blood on our hands, a speedier war, and a guarantee of victory. Or are you planning on marching on Rondel without air cover?"

Pina dropped back onto her bed. "All of these things are true, but Itami never waited for the politicians to catch up with him. If he had, the nuclear bomb would have been loosed against Bellnahgo instead of the Carenth armies. It feels wrong to wait while you handle it. I have to be doing something!"

"You are doing everything that's needed of you," Sherry said with a smile, walking over and placing a hand on the Empress's shoulder. "Itami's a tactician. So are you. This needs the touch of a strategist."

"Then what do I do?"

"Nothing. Leave everything to me." Sherry gave her a deep bow, then left the room.

Pina wanted to scream. She couldn't stand doing nothing. The situation reminded her of the weeks Zorzal imprisoned her while Saderans were hunted and tortured by the Oprichina. Itami didn't need to wait, so what was it he did right that she was failing to notice?

There was another knock at her door. "Yes?" She said.

A new guard entered. "Urgent message from Italica," he said. "The attack has apparently ended. Damage estimates are—"

The Empress slammed her hand on the bedpost. The American space machines had outraced the messenger birds again.

EARLY THE NEXT MORNING

The Council Building, Rondel

The simple agreement with Professor Shirai had changed Flat's entire view of the city he called home. Where once the people around him seemed uninteresting, now every glance in his direction made him paranoid. What if the person looking at him was an informant to the Council? Had the city guards started to suspect? Was that woman's smile or that man's frown meant in earnest, or were they trying to trick him?

And nowhere was this feeling worse than when he was attending to Councilman Tarinium, who was currently pacing in the atrium of the Council Building. "What a mess," he muttered. "Such, such a mess."

The topic of his aggravation was the line of smokestacks on the city bounds which had, just the night before, started to operate again. Whenever this happened, thick smoke would cloud the sky on otherwise clear nights, and the jobs of the Astronomy department became very difficult. Shirai cared less about these things, given that he had instruments which could see using an invisible "infrared" light, but for the other Astronomers in Rondel, the smokestacks were another level of frustration on top of their much weaker locally-made optical telescopes.

When Chairman Delsus finally emerged from his office, Tarinium was in front of him almost immediately. "We must talk about the smoke."

"Yes, exciting, isn't it?" The Chairman seemed almost gleeful at the mention of the smokestacks which gave Flat a great sense of unease. "It's a symbol of progress, and bound to be one of our most powerful weapons in the arsenal against the Saderans."

"What in heavens are you talking about?"

"Steam power, Tarinium!" The Chairman declared. "They finally got the engines working last night, and they are immediately being put to use as part of the war effort."

The astronomer gave him a quizzical look. "Steam power?"

"By heating water into high-pressure steam, we are able to forcefully move a piston back and forth at great speed. When applied to the same gearworks used in milling equipment, it lets us operate all kinds of tools at much greater speed than if we had left it to wind or water. Even magic can't keep up! This is the same underlying principle that the Earth armies use in the motors for their cars, tanks, and aircraft.

"I have just received word that the mission against Italica was successful," he went on. "Though we lost a handful of pilots, the principles of air bombardment were tested, and Italica sustained respectable damage. All this with fewer than a dozen aircraft. Imagine what we could do with a hundred? A thousand?"

"Do we have that many MagThrees?" Flat asked.

Delsus grinned. "And therein lies the beauty of the steam engines. Perhaps not yet, but soon… soon Rondel will have the largest airfleet of any nation in Falmart… and that includes Japan. While Japan's involvement over Italica was regrettable, all that it means is that we must engage the Saderan Army outside of the Japanese patrol space. Then it won't matter."

"And my telescopes?" Tarinium asked.

"To Hardy with your telescopes," the Chairman said. "We are trying to win a war. Outer space has no place on a battlefield."

With that, he brushed past the two astronomers. Tarinium threw up his hands, exasperated. "And so now whole subcouncils will be thrown out over this war? In all my years, I have never… do you know what the Council would have said of this ten years ago, Flat?"

"They would never have become involved in a war to begin with?"

"Exactly! Back then, it was an affront to Elange to willingly put knowledge under threat of destruction. Promise me—please Flat—that you're smart enough to stay out of this stupid war."

Flat thought back to the promise to Shirai. There was no good way around it. Rather than answer the councilman's question, he asked, "Doesn't it seem strange to you?"

"What?"

"Chairman Delsus incurred the wrath of the Japanese today, and he doesn't seem bothered at all."

"So? We've seen an attitude like that in the last war."

"Yes, but Zorzal was a moron. Chairman Delsus is not. It's...suspicious. And worrying."

"As long as he engages the Saderans away from Rondel, I don't care. Come, Flat. We must find a new position for the telescopes."

But Flat was not so easily dismissive. As they left the Council Building, he glanced over his shoulder towards the Chairman's office. Delsus had a plan. Perhaps he'd had a plan from the very start, and if it was robust enough that he didn't fear the Japanese, then there was a chance that Rondel—perhaps all of Falmart—was in very serious danger.

MIDMORNING

JSDF-Run Medical Center, Italica

Too much happened too quickly.

When Ellie finally woke up, it was on the strangest bed she had ever seen, made of white cloth, steel, and some other material far more perfect than any bale of hay or cotton/spring mattress or hammock she'd ever experienced.

Her right arm was heavily bound up, and various parts of her wings, legs, and other parts of her body were carefully bandaged. Looking around, the room the bed was in was dimly lit, quiet, and clean. Ellie's first thought had been that this must be some physician or mage's residence, as that's where Andromache used to take her for minor injuries, but this was clearly something different.

Since she was laying on her front, she turned her head to look at her left arm. Something that looked like a white laundry clip had been clamped onto her left pointer finger, and this in turn was connected by a thin cable to some incomprehensible machine with an ever-changing picture that displayed wavering lines and letters. Strange as it was, it was better than the tube that lead from a transparent bag of clear fluid to a bandage on her arm.

Or rather, into her arm.

Ellie began to scream.

A handful of Japanese men and women rushed into the room, stopping her from reaching over to pull at the tube. "It's fine!" One of the nurses shouted in the language of the region. "You're fine!"

"GET IT OUT! GET IT OUT!"

"It's an IV drip, and it's safe! It's water. Water! It can't hurt you."

Ellie slowly settled down and looked from the tube to the nurses and doctors. "W-water?"

An older doctor explained, "You had a hard landing, and were bleeding in a few places. There was some internal bleeding as well. By putting you on an IV, we keep your blood vessels from collapsing until you are healed, and have regained lost blood."

Once again, Ellie found herself bewildered by Earth medicine. How could the humans of that world have possibly come to a conclusion like that? She was reminded of the lightning-box that had resurrected the man at the Alnus train station, and wondered if they had used the box on her too.

The man who explained the IV introduced himself as Professor Urushibata, and explained that he was Japan's "leading scientist on demihuman physiology."

"Where am I?" Ellie asked. "What happened? Am I going to die?"

"You are in the JSDF Hospital in Italica, and you are definitely going to live," Urushibata said, "We found you after the battle and immediately did all that we could. In addition to a few nasty lacerations, you dislocated your shoulder and strained muscles in your legs, arms, and wings. You were found unconscious, and were given chemicals to keep you asleep as we surveyed for damage and repaired what we could...but I must say that you are in one of the best hospitals on either side of the Gate. Earth technology is great for diagnostics and precision surgery, but magic has been a godsend for closing wounds and tissue repair."

He stopped for a moment and, scratching the back of his head, added, "I must admit, I have never worked on a Monarch before, and Odette-chan refused to be examined. I had to consult with the head of Avian Veterinary Medicine at Tokyo Zoo for your wings and internal chemical balances, so if anything feels uncomfortable or strange, please let us know immediately!"

Minutes later, another group consisting of Countess Myui Formal and a select handful of maids arrived by her bed. The young noble introduced herself to Ellie, and thanked her profusely for her actions "In defense of Italica."

"I barely did anything," Ellie muttered.

"That's more than my militia or guardsmen can say," the countess insisted. "I'm in direct contact with Empress Pina by Wyvern, and there's a great interest in making you the new head of the Imperial Aviation Group."

Ellie didn't want to be head of anything at the moment. For that matter, she no longer wanted to fly on anything that she wasn't born with—that awful feeling of falling as the airplane stalled, and the way it burst into pieces upon colliding with the ground was cemented in her mind...as was the smell of the blood of the Rondel flight mage. "I'll think about it," she said.

Once the doctors and diplomats had left, she burst into tears. Hector had asked her before if she could kill a man, and now that she'd actually done it, she never wanted to do it again… and here were these people asking her to teach others to do the same. She didn't want to do that; that's not why she'd made the trip. She had gone because…

Why did you go? Are a bunch of lights in the sky really important enough to make you do what you did? After a stunt like that, would the Americans even consider taking you in? Hector was right, this is all beyond you, and you have no place here. Face it, you're done.

She turned her face into the pillow, now damp from her crying, confident that it couldn't get much worse.

Except it did. From the entry to her room, came the aged, droning voice she'd never wanted to hear again.

"I did warn you, didn't I?" said Amita Ze Andromache.

Her old mentor, with her greying hair and wings, stood looming at the end of her bed. Ellie's initial awe at being found was quickly overruled by a simple fact; she TRAINS people how to scout and navigate. Of course she could've found me. And now, here she was, disapproving frown and all.

"I will never understand what got into that head of yours to convince you to run off like this," Andromache said. "You are needed at home. Your place is at home. And to make matters worse, you ran off without telling anyone where you were going. The town has been without a Monarch for port and weather scouting during our absence. If anything, you are lucky that I was able to find you as quickly as I did.

"Have you anything to say?"

Ellie turned her face away to bury it in her pillow. I know, I know, she thought. Go away.

"Typical. I have never been handed such a selfish girl in all my years. In that sense, you got what you deserved. Once the Men in Green are done with you, we are going back the way we came. There will be consequences for this once we have returned."

She felt like she wanted to die then and there, wrapping her arms around her head as if that would keep her mentor's words out.

Of course it didn't help, as her instructor began again, "And another thing—"

"What are you doing?"

Ellie knew the new voice. It was Hector. Of course, she thought, both of them at once.

But it was Andromache who responded. "Ellie is my charge. As a runaway and an imbecile, she deserves whatever punishment I see fit to dole out."

She expected sarcasm, or more of Hector's dry pessimism, but that was not what she got. "Let me make sure that I am understanding you correctly. You have barged into this healers-building and are currently badgering an injured combat veteran because you feel that you own her."

His voice as he said those last lines went increasingly colder, and Ellie lowered her arms enough to peek out at the situation. Hector was standing by the end of her bed, the burnt half of his face warped into a more garish frown than ever. Nearby, Andromache, her fists balled, her wings partially extended and her face beet-red in a way that Ellie rarely saw, was preparing her reply which, when it came, was stiff and pompous as ever. "Ellie is too young, inexperienced, and brash to travel on her own. A Monarch must prove themselves level-headed under the most strenuous circumstances, and Ellie is anything but. This is why it is imperative that she learn her lesson—"

"Listen you old hen," Hector growled, stepping closer, "This city just survived a major battle in the air because your charge was present to intervene. She was handed a combat scenario that no one on this planet was ever faced with before, and not only is she the only woman or man on Falmart to take down an enemy MagThree, she influenced the Japanese to go and support her when lesser powers would have run or waited around to be saved. Not only is that level-headedness, that's leadership. And your gut reaction is to come in here and blast Ellie with your trash as she sits in a recovery bed? How dare you!"

Ellie lay in stunned silence, not sure what she should be reacting to first: that Hector had been so adamant in his defense, or that he had actually used her name instead of "girl"?

Before either could go any further, they were stopped by a cough from the entryway. A man in an Earth military uniform was standing there, but he was very evidently not Japanese. He was taller, for one, with short brown hair and a very different facial structure. The uniform was patterned blue, save for the banner sewn to his shoulder… a pattern that Bozes had pointed out to them in Alnus just a while ago; a square of blue, and red and white stripes.

An American.

Looking back and forth between the two, he asked, in a heavily accented version of Falmart's native tongue, "Should I come back later?"

But Hector's eyes had traveled to the man's shoulder patch as well. He probably recognized it too, because he replied, coldly, "State your business."

"I'm Commander McKann of the United States Navy," he said. "I'm here to escort a Miss Ellie Agne and Hector Sava to our base."

"Now hold on a moment," Andromache said. "Ellie is going nowhere except home. She has been a very—"

"You're a Monarch, right?" The Commander's voice had a slow drawl to it that Ellie couldn't place, and wondered if it was a regional dialect.

"I am, and so is Ellie, and that's why—"

"I hear that ships can hire Monarchs out for navigation roles, right? I have someone who wants her to navigate a ship, and for that, she needs to come with me."

"But she's not ready—"

"We've got someone who can train her, if she needs it."

"I forbid it."

The American smiled. "Well that's funny," he said, approaching. "I don't remember asking your permission."

It was if all the air had suddenly been sucked out of the room. When Hector and Andromache had confronted each other moments earlier, it looked as if they were about to come to blows. Yet, all McKann had to do was smile. It was as if he was daring her to try something and confident that the retaliation would be swift and powerful.

The kindness between two peers is different from the kindness of an adult to a child. Hector had been right all along. What was a Monarch to a soldier that commanded screaming machines that could pulp an entire MagThree midflight?

Now outnumbered two to one, Andromache finally backed off with a sputter. "This is unacceptable," she said. "I'll go to whomever I need to reverse this disgrace, even the Empress of Falmart herself if I have to!"

"How nice. You go do that."

They watched Andromache go and, once sure she was out of earshot, McKann snorted. "Helicopter parent, eh?"

Neither of the two understood the term, and stared blankly back at him.

"Anyway, once the doctors say you're stable, we'll take you back to Alnus and get you on an Osprey. If nothing else, congrats! You'll both be living on easy street from here on out, Uncle Sam has everything taken care of from food and lodging to entertainment. I've got a call or two to make, so I'll be back after I talk to Urushibata."

He turned to leave and Hector called after him, "Wait!"

The Navy captain stopped. "Yeah?"

"Do you know a Robert Clayton?"

"The Ambassador? Sure! Why?"

"I'd like to meet him." Hector said. "It's… about the Godwrecker."

Which was when Ellie realized that, while she had been focusing on her goals, Hector's was now almost in reach. This Robert Clayton must have been involved in using the Godwrecker, and the old battlemage seemed intent on having his revenge.

McKann's expression did not change, nor did he really turn to look back at Hector. "We'll see," he said, and departed.