GATE: the clash of the titans V2

by Qun Nguyn1

Mostly AUs. A Gate has opened in Tokyo by a Roman-esque Empire, familiar scenario with familiar faces but the people marched through the Gate is from a vastly more powerful magic world. The stage is set. Earth Alliance vs The Holy Empire. Science vs Magic. The power of the thousand sun vs The Beast of the Apocalypse. Let the clash of Titans begin. Let the worlds have War.

4. Chapter 4 Prepare for the Great War

Chapter 4: Imperial Preparations for the Great War

---

Secret Location

"Come again, Your Holiness?"

"I want you to tell me which member of the imperial 'Triumvirate' would be the greatest suit to our interests in the long-turn," said the Apostle, as though talking down to a servant who had left a spec in his soup.

The young Sherry Tyueli knew that the Apostle had probably known that answer for a long time, but an order was an order; she was still simply grateful that the her project was being allowed to go forward at all.

"Well, your Holiness," began the young Lady carefully. "I would say that they're all equally beneficial to our interest in the long run. Although the Third Prince is the most skilled in government administration, it was the Second Prince who had the greatest support in the military. However, the incumbent Crown Prince, before his humbling in the 'GATE' scandal, had the most support from the nobles, and his support among the masses of commoners remained very high."

The Apostle's pupils dilated slightly. "Go on."

"In addition to that," said Sherry. "The Triumvirate's members all have a similar economic policy of mercantile-based colonialism, are strong supporters of the Church and are open-minded enough to meet the challenging time ahead." Stopped for a few seconds. "Actually, there Is a person in the current generation with more scientific talent, but her personal hobbies are strange and unsound, to say the least."

The Apostle flashed his teeth. "Then we all know what we must do," he said. He turned to face the wall-sized magic screen in his office. "The enemy are preparing their army to invade Alnus Hill?"

"In about a decade, yes."

"Alert our agents in the region about the course of action, Sherry."

"Yes, your Holiness." And with that, Sherry Tyueli went off to accomplish her new task.

Imperial capital Sadera, 52017 I.C

The conference room was comfortable enough, thought Crown Prince Odysseus. The Crown Prince waited patiently for the meeting to begin. He made a point of always trying to be early for important functions, no matter how trivial. And as it was, the situation was far from trivial.

Aids of the Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Minister of Defence, scurried to and fro.

Suddenly, they began to exit the chamber, which was itself buried below the Ministry of Defence headquarter. Crown Prince Odysseus inclined as his counterparts in the Triumvirate entered the room.

They were like him-the brightest members of the inner circles of the Imperial Defence Council and the brand new Imperial Council of Preparedness.

The Third Prince - Prime Minister: Diabo El Caesar, the Second Prince - the current Minister of Defence : Zorzal El Caesar strode into the luminous chamber and sat at the oaken desk. The few remaining aids left the room.

"Welcome Zorzal ," said Odysseus in a welcoming voice. He repeated a more formal greeting to the newly appointed Prime Minister : Diabo ; he had beeb briefly taught Imperial governing at the Imperial Academy, and knew Diabo as one of the brightest students. He was happy when Diabo was promoted to the Prime Minister position.

"Good day, Big Brother." said Diabo wearily. "I only wish we were under better circumstances."

All three princes had discarded the idea of meeting using the Newly-made magic videotelephony system; family should meet face to face, after all.

"Then let's get right down to the agenda," said Zorzal. "What are we going to do to stop these enemy from Earth?" The Minister of Defence still had a haunted look in his eyes from the first video images he had seen from Earth of those Nuclear weapons...before they exploded in Sukhoy Nos ("Dry Nose") cape of Severny Island, Novaya Zemlya, Russia ( the Tsar Bomba test).

Zorzal had imagined Sadera, Deabis, Telta, or Yerba Buena in place of that scene.

"From the information we've managed to gather from the Count Colt Fortunato Formal," said Odysseus. "The human army land, march to the urban centers, and then bombing and shelling them if they were not willing to surrender. It would seem that fortifying the cities, especially the subterranean ones, is the best way to stop them, secondary only to turning every remote river valley and mountain pass into a death trap."

The idea behind the former part of this strategy wasn't entirely altruistic; after many millennia of building up the mercantile economies needed to dominate the entire world, the Triumvirate of the Holy Empire couldn't afford to give up cities such as Alexandria or Carthage or Antioch without some form of resistance.

"But their long range bombers can also bombarded on any spots throughout the planets when they attack," said Diabo, speaking up. "For all we know, their first nuclear bombardment wave will plop down right atop our Eternal Capital." He sobbed.

"More to the point," continued Diabo. "We need to save as many lives as we can. We're not a particularly numerous species, gentlemen. The Arachnid have 54 trillion beings to bounce back from...we have, between the Holy Empire and its vassal states, only ten billion or so."

Both of his brothers nodded in agreement; the more loyal subjects, the easier the job of ruling...that maxim has been true since the days of the Founding. Even if it meant that Falmartian's gene pool would be cut by half. Odysseus could show empathy to the protesters who denounced the very notion of that idea.

"The idea of these 'SubUrbs,' said Crown Prince Odysseus. "Is especially appealing. The Imperial government has already begun construction of a long series of refugee centres in the Trans-Ornithan and Urales Range. The human also seems to be adverse to the more extreme environmental conditions. So several of those SubUrbs are being constructed in Snow-Covered Mountain Range of Saint Martha and Orinoco Desert as well. The Mid Ocean Ridge will be the forge of our civilization in this fight to live. Which reminds me: Hardy Cave will make a very good refuge during this storm."

"Yes," said Zorzal El Caesar. "I believe, Diabo, that the government is planning to build a series of refugee centers in the Range of Ice and Snow, this in conjunction with the SubUrbs in the Hindukuszu...we should be able to fit in many refugees from Indiya, as well as from our countryside. After that, the Imperial millitary must construct a long seacoast defensive system along the Vermilion Sea, which meshes nicely with our planned defensive lines around the Persae Coast ... furthermore we should also be able to build hundreds of thousands of coastal forts and bunker sites along the Inland Sea coast, as well as the rest of the Indyjski Ocean from south Afrykania to north Tortolia. Getting coastal defense and fortification lines in this way will deny the human their main landing sites."

"Are the humans really are muggle though?" Inquired Diabo. Still had a hard time believing the enemy only used mechanical weapons.

"Yes, that appears to be the case, the enemy don't seem to have any magic capability." said Crown Prince Odysseus. "Speaking of which, how secure is this information?"

"Pardon?" asked Second Prince Zorzal.

"You can't honestly expect to trust all the information from Formal," said the Crown Prince, raising the tempo of his voice. "He might be tricked to feed us false information...it's a good thing that our counterintelligence networks have evolved over the years. It will make any suspicious activity easier to pick up."

"Agreed," said the Minister of Defense, adjusting his turquoise tunic. "To change the subject, we've already agreed to set up research facilities to maximum the war capabilities of our magic using the enemy knowledge."

"Indeed," said Crown Prince Odysseus. "The Count might've only had schoolbook to give us, but it's more than enough for any of our scholars to work with. Now, if we could only trust the Count's assurances that the human would ignore civilians if they surrender."

"It does sadden me that other than the Holy Empire, no other nation on this world has any real capability to challenge the UEA." Several of our vassals had requested the "protection" of the Empire, upon the general announcement of the imminent attack. Several principalities had requested admission into the Imperial provinces.

Likewise, the Kingdom of Elbe had requested that same protection from the Empire, and the Kingdom of Mudwan had even taken the step of invoking the Treaty of Endor.

Both the Crown Prince and the Minister of Defense nodded solemnly as well...more than one-sixth of the Imperial subjects were being sentenced to death...and this was the best case scenario drawn up thus far! said Diabo El Caesar.

For the next several hours, the three men discussed the separate defensive plans, future operations of mutual cooperation, and the imminent order for general mobilisation.

---

Schwarz Forest, Lemuria, Holy Drawinian Empire, 52018 I.C

Marcus Opellius Station had been constructed in the 48740s, as a nexus for the lands to the west of the Anatolia, the Lemuria Peninsula. Its Emroyan design of sombre darkness and crass arches got at least one petition per week to the Lord of Italica for it to be "re-vitalized" (that is, removed).

You would have never heard such a complaint about Marcus Opellius Station from Dehan Haa Dushi. The tall dark elf from the Dushi Clan, dressed in a plain black and brown overcoat to shield his lank frame from the chill of the moaning wind outside, strode into the station to fulfil his duty.

"Don' forget boy," Dehan Haa Dushi's great-grandfather had told him repeatedly. "A Dushi is always patriotic, and will never shirk from duty. Demon claws might have taken me out of the Crusade, but I bloody well don't regret a damn thing. Our glorious Empire is based on that, Dehan. And if you forget it, then you might as well be a Vrijdenkerij or Rationalists!"

Strong stuff to tell any five-year-old, but Dehan had considered himself, even at that young age, to be as unflappable in duty to the Empire as great-granddad had been a heavy drinker and staunch Conservative.

The Dushis had proven to be surprisingly lucky. They'd been visiting relatives on holiday in Italica when an experimental dimensional GATE contaminated most of the Schwarz Forest in Apocryph "The Mist of Nothingness" in a gross meltdown (not long after great-granddad's funeral) in 51947. They'd of course been invited to stay in Italica (with their house considered too close to Ground Zero to seriously consider returning too.

"A Dushi is lucky, boy, and don't you forget about it." His granddad had reminded him.

Eventually, Dehan Haa Dushi, staunch patriot, volunteered for the army. There hadn't been much to do in the 51870s, after the brief skirmishes against Northern Tribe Horsemen in Northern Afrykania. Other than watching the newsreels covering the occasional rebellion in Ornithia or some other spot of bother, General Boredom had proven to be the worse foe. Waiting patiently for action to be sparked...any action.

It hadn't been until the early '960s, when the 30 Colonies of North Gringolia and the Holy Empire almost came to blows over the collapse of the Grand Bank fisheries. And Lieutenant Dushi's men had been stationed on the St. Lawrence. The Dauphine's defence line, built upon since the Gra Valkas Federation Dissolution of 27029, was a daunting site to behold, and Dushi had eagerly looked forward to scaling it for King and Country.

Then the diplomats settled it. Frustrated over the sheer emptiness that army life had begun to spiral into, Dehan Haa Dushi had resigned his commission. It was the single most painful memory that Dehan had logged into his brain; his parents and sister Yao hadn't spoken to him for almost five years after that. He had also come to sincerely regret his decision, and was too ashamed to try to rejoin (he knew how many officers felt about people like that).

He made his retirement in Schwarz Forest as a kindly bachelor, writing an occasional thriller for the Lemuria Review of Books or some other such publication. Life was simple, but it was good.

Until last week. Last week, Dehan had received something so implausible that he found himself reading it out loud in a Elvish burr, something he had hoped had left him. He still had the document in his breast pocket. He had every word memorized:

"Centurio Dehan Haa Dushi.

Having served in His Majesty's armed forces honourably as a Centurio for many years, your skills are now required once again. You are to report to the Emperor Claudius Military Academy and Training Centre no later than Wa 35th for re-commissioning as a Centurio in His Majesty's armed forces. Failure to acknowledge this new order of events shall be regarded as desertion and gross High Treason, and punishable by the Defence of the Realms Act...Gods Save Emperor Molt Sol Augustus."

Unusually blunt for a call-up letter of any kind. Despite the fact that he just have just had a baby, Dehan Haa Dushi wasn't going to shirk in his duty.

Not again, at least (as he put it using hind-sight).

And so, striding along Platform 11 to Troop Train 11-B, with another card marked with the term 'RS' on it (of which the meaning was a mystery) in his pocket, Dehan moved to restore honour to his name and heal the hole that his previous resignation had left him in his heart.

The new high-performance magic powered locomotives could pull Eleven 8-axle double-floor carriages, with a length of 42 metres, width of 6 metres and height of 7 metres each. The whole train had a length of about 500 metres, allowing a capacity of 4,000 passengers, travelling at speeds of 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph).

The lower compartment was already half-full by the time Dehan found a window seat.

It was only then, that he noticed that there were many other men in the crowd of milling would-be soldiers that were just as old as he was.

What the hell ? Are we trying to annex Arachnid Homeworld or something ? He laughed softly at that last thought; the idea of any nation subjugating that empire of 54 trillion green spider-like bugs struck him as surreal, to say the least.

His thoughts were interrupted by a thud to his right. He saw that he had company. A snot-faced, pock-marked, and greasy haired form of company; Dehan disliked him on sight.

"'Allo, 'allow!" boomed the scrawny man, who looked as though he were auditioning for the role of a villain in a play in Schwarz's theatre . He extended his hand. Dehan shook it firmly...after all, a Dushi always had the strongest handshake...as great-granddad had drilled into him.

"Name's Bouro. Bouro Co Igloo ! Fresh outa the city o' Haryo !" His accent sounded like the bastard son of a Cockney and a long-time resident of Akusho's sister city. "What are ya doin' heah, gramps?"

"As a matter of fact-" began Dehan, only to be cut off by the slovenly Bouro. The greasy man pointed suddenly at another recruit sitting two rows in front of them; he had a plain skullcap. Dehan couldn't tell if he was High Elf or Dark Elf, although he would have assumed that latter.

Bouro took something out of his breast pocket. "Watch me pop one ovah the sheeny," he hissed, flecking the object, whatever it was, at the Elf recruit.

Unfortunately for Bouro, the object narrowly missed the Elf and hit the Volralden man sitting in the next row-a big beefy Volralden with very little neck. He turned around sharply. Bouro Co Igloo ducked beneath the embroidered seat. The beefy soldier, his head splattered with what looked like egg yoke, looked behind him. The Elf would-be victim pointed him to Dehan's row.

You're mine mouthed the bullish recruit at Dehan. In the shock at being accused of such a dastardly prank, Dehan Haa Dushi was only snapped out of that stupor by the stupid sniggering of recruit Bouro.

Then the train, groaning with the weight of the new (and returning, in many cases) recruits, began its journey to the illustrious Emperor Claudius Military Academy and Training Centre.

Of course, none of the men on board the train, least of all the greatly affronted Dehan Haa Dushi or the wretched Bouro Co Igloo, knew of the maelstrom that they were about to be sucked in. The fair majority would never grow old enough to engage in the contented sort of retirement that Dehan himself had oh so suddenly been jerked out of.

The train moved north.

---

Imperial capital Sadera, Fla 54th, 52029 I.C

Each day, thousand of lords and nobles would visit the gigantic Sadera Imperial Palaces.

Senators, nobles, and courtiers would gather in meetings, treating politics just like any other chores.

In the meetings, they would enjoy delicious foods, graceful dancers, gambling, courting before engaging in dialogues... That was the general feel of it. The nobles might even decide the deployment of armies based on the number of games they hunted.

However, with the upcoming war haunting their minds, each of them had a serious look on their face.

Imperial Senate

The main hall where senators assemble for the senate session is a sight to behold. About 274 meters in diameter, the senatorial chamber is a perfect circle of five rows, enough room for 2000 cushioned marble chairs. Movement through a row is easy over the 1.45 foot path along the front of the seats. Senators enter from the east end through an 18° gap in seating which leads to the magnificent Porta Publica, golden entryway to the chamber.

Supporting the massive central dome (300 m) are three hundred columns, one meter apart, between which are three meter tall holes that face the city of Sadera beyond. A 15 m wide oculus in the dome's center maximizes the light flooding into the Senate so that it is brightly illuminated all day.

On the west end is another 18° gap in seating. However, this one interrupts the rows with large pieces of art that symbolize the Holy Empire, the Emperor and victory. In front of the wall which supports these symbols - a continuation of the sections of marble making up the rows of seats - are three sellae curules (curule thrones). The luxurious red cushion and golden frame of the Emperor's throne stands in the center of the chairs, flanked on the right by the seat of the Proprinceps, his second-in-command, and on the left by the seat of the Princeps Senatus.

Embedded in the chamber walls are hundreds of magic holographic projectors, allowing hundreds of complex three-dimensional images to be displayed anywhere in the room. Their uses are as limitless as modern animation magic allows, giving senators unbelievable flexibility in their presentations.

XXXXXXXXXXX

'Please pardon me for my bluntness, but the military spending is way out of control. We already spent unprecedented amount of money in the history of this Empire for Crown Prince Odysseus in his vanity project GATE; Now the Goverment is spending 100 times more for the "Fortress of Falmart". Does Your Majesty have a plan to deal with the ever growing budget deficit without cutting essential welfare programs, restricting workers' rights while increasing taxes massively? "

As a Senator as well as a noble, Marquis Casel did not mince his words as he addressed the Emperor Molt Sol Augustus, who was sitting on the throne.

If any of the Senators present in the hall should speak so carelessly with the Emperor, he would be forgiven. They believed that this was their duty as statesmen.

The Senate was a somber hall that forsook flamboyant decorations in favor of a subdued but sturdy architecture. There were around two thousand grim-faced men seated around the center of the hall on benches. These men were all Senators of the Empire.

Should one desire to become a Senator, there were several ways. One way was to be born into an influential family. No matter what country, nobles are a small minority of the population, but that did not seem to be the case in the Imperial Capital. If one were to toss a stone out of a window, it might well have hit a noble.

Thus, if you wanted to be a Imperial senator, your nobility played no role. Even among nobles, only the cream of the crop could be appointed to such a post.

Did this mean that if you were not of noble blood, there was no possibility of becoming a Senator ? This was not the case. If one held the position of a minister or a generalissimus in the army, he had a shot at joining the Senate.

In order to fulfill the daunting task of running a country, the existence of a bureaucracy was necessary. If a commoner possessed the qualities of a Senator, with some luck, hard work and a good record, they could be appointed to the Senate.

There were many ministers in the Holy Darwinian Empire; Prime Minister, Secretaries of State for the Interior, Finance, Agriculture, Foreign Affairs and so on. Many of those that had risen in the ranks to become ministers or generalissimus would be bestowed with a seat in the Senate upon retirement.

Furthermore, a generalissimus could join the nobility even if he were of common birth, as commissioned officers were granted knighthood.

Marquis Casel was born into a family of barons that were merely of the lesser nobility. It was only through his past achievements and excellent service as a minister that he was granted a seat in the Senate. He was a hard worker who always tried to do his duty. In other words, he was a man of character.

Thus, he was feared for his boldness and a sharp tongue that was said to reduce grown men to tears.

As Marquis Casel, the leader of the Peasant Party swung his toga around, he challenged the Absolute Emperor:

'Your Imperial Majesty! Are you trying to bankrupt this Empire?'

When Marquis Casel had finished his speech, he returned to his seat. Gazing at the one who had criticized him, the Emperor calmly shifted in his throne, leaning forward and opening his mouth.

'Marquis, I have considered the circumstances. Our spy on Earth have informed us, our enemy the UEA have gathered a massive army to take their revenge on us, the Holy Empire is threatened. Will the Earth's nations who have long grown their hatred for our glorious Empire begin a crusade and march into the capital Sadera? Ah, just thinking about that makes you lose sleep, correct? How heartbreaking, yet it is useless to cry over spilt milk. The Crown Prince Odysseus all those involved in the Gate disaster have been sent to "Adjustment room" and are now fully serviceable.'

At the Emperor's banter, the tense atmosphere in the hall was softened with quiet laughter.

"Do you remember the War of Unification 25,000 years ago, my dear Senators? How did our great predecessors, Charles the Great Unifier, react to the news of the army's total defeat? Did they lament their lost valor and pride, and negotiate for peace, which would effectively have meant surrender? And did they care about how much money they need to spend for the defence of the Empire? "

Not waiting for answer, the Emperor continued.

"No they didn't. They did their duty, sacrificed everything they had for the Empire do you remember how the women of the Empire responded ?

They said: So what if we lost 16 million men ? We will birth that number in no time, they said, while rolling up their skirts for all to see!

There were heroines, and I hope there is nothing else to be said.

The Empire has weathered dire times like these countless times since its founding. Always, the Emperor has cooperated with the Senate and the citizenry to face these trials – that is why the Holy Empire grew so powerful."

The Emperor's tales resonated with the Senators.

'Nothing is more precious than sovereignty. Money is worthless without the backing from the state. Those who value money more than the safety of the nation, deserve neither money nor safety' Should we really be worrying about budget deficit while the enemy encircles the capital?'

Realizing that the Emperor had effectively persuaded the Senate to raise taxes on the poor, Marquis Casel clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"Now excuse me gentlemen, I have a defence meeting to attend" said the Emperor as he left the room.

War Room

The members of the Royal Defence Council, the special commission dictated by the Ministry of Defence to prepare for the human attack, fidgeted in their seats as Duke Titus Caesar Vespasianus began his presentation; the tall, earnest Titus was easily one of the brightest figures in the entire government...everyone would hang on his every word.

Titus Caesar Vespasianus stood before a wall-sized screen. He stood calmly. None of the other members of the RDC had any idea that they would be receiving a very special guest for their final scheduled strategy session.

As it was, it was only when Emperor Molt Sol Augustus entered the room that the presentation really got started. His Majesty's entourage was sizable for the small room buried deep under the Ministry of Defence, and included:

The Crown Prince Odysseus; the current Prime Minister, the Third Prince of the Empire, Diabo El Caesar; the Minister of Defence, the Second Prince, Zorzal El Caesar; Secretary of State for the Interior, the Third Princess, Euphemia Von Lichtberg; and members of the Emperor's elite bodyguard — The Emperor's Youxia (wearing silent and deadly looks upon their faces...they would kill without the slightest hesitation if their Sovereign was threatened...the stories of how they'd foiled assassination plots against the Emperors made even Titus shiver when reading the sterile reports), modelled after the philosophy of the Warrior Bunnies 'Knights' who inspired them.

Everyone else in the room straightened up when the ruler of the largest empire in world history sedately sat down, and bid the others to be seated.

Titus let out a sigh of relief and signalled to the operators for the presentation to begin. The screen lit up with a map of the world, showing the red of Azjania, the orange of Europania, the yellow of Afrykania, the green of Gringolia, the blue of Amazonia, the indigo of Tortolia, and the violet of Ornithia. Light pink signified Lemuria Peninsula.

"Your Majesty, Lords and Ladies of the Royal Defence Council. After careful deliberation, and discussion with our generalissimus from around the world I have finalized the final lines of defence against the approaching enemy."

Dark red lines suddenly appeared on the map, showing the main centres of Imperial resistance around the globe.

"First of all, the territory of Lemuria, we've had to make some hard decisions. But due to its terrain, most of the Peninsula will have to be abandoned; Alnus Hill and its close proximity will face the full might of the enemy force and their nuclear weapons therefore it's pointless to wasting troops defending it."

Several members of the RDC cast their heads down in disappointment. They didn't like the idea of abandoning any part of the Empire, and this had led to several extremely heated arguments before the men and women of the Defence Council swallowed their nationalism and bit down hard.

"However, all is not lost. In northern Lemuria, our main areas of defence will centre around the Koan Forest in the Hijaz mountains, which we're coordinating from Kowan Kingdom with the Elves." Two purple lines appeared around Koan Forest and Kowan Kingdom, along with the red. "As well as in the east, where we will centre resistance around the Roldom Canyon, extending into Schwarz Forest, and anchored around the fortress city Italica. The rest of the Peninsula will see our resistance cantered in the eastern portions of Mesopotamiya and Siriya. The Volraldens will make excellent fighters, and we're coordinating this line with the Sasanian, Achaemenid, Elymais Kingdoms defences in Persae." Sky blue lines appeared over the map.

Titus paused to catch his breath. Emperor Molt was staring at him intently. He thought that he could detect a gaze of anger in his eyes; he had just informed him, after all, of the total extent of territory that would be left for the human.

Once the enemy breaks our siege in Lemuria, we will enter the second phase of the war - the naval war. So, in order to protect the territories of Afrykania, Persae, Indiya and Tortolia from amphibious landings we have built the "Indyjski Wall".

The fame "Indyjski Wall" to its eventual fortification depth of 100 kilometers along the Vermilion Sea Coast and to narrower, but still impressive size along the rest of the Indyjski Ocean coast was an almost impentrable coastal defence and fortification lines. Virtually every part of the Afrykania and Persae coast was defended by extremely impressive and well engineered defenses.

In some areas enormous concrete bunkers extended inland for nearly 320 kms. In other the defenses were far shallower, but ended at edge of marchland that was virtually impassable except for a few roads. Roads that had heavy fortifications defending them and coastal artillery registered to rake every centimeter of their straight exposed formidable, effectively unprecedented construct.

Especially the section facing the Lemuria Peninsula, was as much as 300 km in depth, with pillboxes and bunkers sited to provide maximum mutual support. Most of the pillboxes and bunkers were protected by 18 meters of superharden titan concrete roof. Some bunkers layers could be as deep as 300m underground.

This Wall will be supplemented with many fortress cities in the heavily fortified island of Sinai to protect the Suez Strait. With this, we can hope, under the best circumstances, to keep humans out of the Inland Sea, thus protecting Europania and Siberyan from the clutches of our enemy.

"However," continued Titus. "If the enemy breach into the Inland Sea, the main centre of the Europania's resistance will be centered around the Haemus mountains in Balcanica, the Alpes mountains in centre Europania, the Appenninus mountains in Italiya and the Baeticus mountains in Iberische Isles." Four large dark red circles appeared around northern Europania, which had been conquered by the Empire during the great rush for colonies during the Wars of the Jungles. "We're drawing down our forces from Usturt, Escandinavia and Albion to defend the SubUrbs in the central part of the mountainous zones. The thick jungles Europania are as impenetrable and deathly as any mountain, our people will be safe there."

"On the southern coast of Afrykania, our main areas of defence will centre around the Rif Atlass Mountains, which we're coordinating from Tunisien Peninsula with the Octuple Alliance of Mamluk and Cyrenaica." Two purple lines appeared around Marokko and Tunisien, along with the red. "As well as in Aegyptus, where we will centre resistance around the Barrier islands of Benghazi, the Diffah Peninsula and the Qattara Gulf, extending all the way into Suez Strait and Palaestinae Isle, and anchored around the fortress city Gerusalemme in coordination with the Hextuple Alliance of Aegyptus and Libyen."

Titus pointing to the map. "The main centre of the southwestern Afrykania resistance will be cantered in Aethiopia." A large dark red circle appeared around central Aethiopia Highlands, which had been conquered by the Empire during the Unification War. "We're moving forces from the Sudan to defend the SubUrbs in Great Rift Valley. This will be supplemented with the fortified port city of Aden. The hu-man do not like desert. From what the spies have managed to tell us, they need water...even contaminated or putrid water, in order to continue through the deserts. We can hope that they stick to the coasts in their advance on the Great Lakes."

Slowly, Titus Vespasianus began to trace his finger across the planet. "As you know, the Inland Sea is essentially a huge salt lake connected to the wider ocean by several defensible narrow straits. In the south, there's only one way from the Inland Sea to the Gulf of Ob, and that's through the Strait of Turgay, so our men are laying mines and setting up coastal artillery on both side of that long but narrow strait. With that, we can hope, under the best circumstances, to keep the human out of the fertile land of Siberyan, as well as the strategically important Polarny Ocean.

The Midi and Gaditanum straits in Iberische, that connect with Antlantycki Ocean in the north, are harder to defend but they will create perfect choke points allowing a firepower inferior defending force to use the terrain as a force multiplier to thwart or ambush a stronger opponent, as the attacker cannot advance any further without first securing passage through the choke points. We will be stationing The 16th, 18th and 21th Combined Fleets in the United Kingdom of Albion to prevent the enemy from breaking through."

"However," Titus said gingerly. "If despite all countermeasures, the enemy still breaks into the Antlantycki and threaten Gringolia, we have prepared several countermeasures. First of all, the main fortifications. They will be centered in the Rocheuses and the Appalachians in Southern Gringolia, with secondary fortifications lines in the Imperial Protectorate of Tejas with the honourable cooperation of the Mexicanus Commonwealth, the United Provinces of Rio Grande and the Zapotec Confederacy.

This will be supplemented with the Ameryka Srodkowa's fortified areas to protect the narrow Managua and Panama Straits. The heavy fortified areas in the north of Gringolia will include Principality of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Manhattan, Burgess, Voight and Viscounty of Charleston, Jun-Tao and Stanwell. The Rocheuses Mountain Lines will be a joint effort with The Alyesko-Siberian Federation, the Grand Duchy of Haijou, Union of Kaliforniya and Confederation of North Aleyeska."

"As for the Groenlandia Isles," said Titus, bringing his finger west near Europania. "We plan to turn New Calais, New Brittany, New Churchill and New Hanover into fortress cities and zones, to keep the human from sweeping across the Central Sea. New Dorset, Manuela Romanova and Rossland are being reformed into redoubts, anchored around both the Hadrian Line in Rossland and the Black Prince Line in Romanova. Londino, Liverpoul, Bermincham and New Mantsester will be our fortress cities."

"In the south, Tortolia defence will centre around the Forest of Marege, with Cape Flinders being fortified against any kind of attack in partnership with the Kingdoms of Larantuka, Langkat, and Negros; and a large centre of defence around Ayersern Rock with help from Principality of Ayutthaya and Phayao Dynasty. This will be supplemented with the fortified island of Tasmanien."

Titus Vespasianus paused for dramatic effect. He still had the rapt attention of all in the room. Despite holding himself high as a very brave man, he could feel his sovereign's eyes boring into his chest. Turning back to the map, Titus pointed to the Ghiaccioeneve-Hindukuszu Line.

"Now, the biggest defences outside of the Europania and South Afrykania will be reserved for the G-H...the Ghiaccioeneve-Hindukuszu Absolute Defensive Line. With this formidable line, we can hope, even under the worst circumstances, to keep the human out of the former Durrani Empire, as well as the Ghiaccioeneve/The Range of Ice and Snow themselves. This will be supplemented with the fortified island of Ceylon, and of course, the massive Imperial defence lines stretching across the Heavenly Kingdom of Xizang and the Dominion of Nyepal." Both former nations had been conquered by the Holy Empire, and had a long history of Imperial military presence. The Draconian Warriors in particular would be more than a match for any human invasion force in that kind of terrain.

Titus turned to face his audience. "Now, that, in an oak-seed, is our defence strategy. Once the human sweep our cities and millitary bases from the surface of the planet with their Nuke, the deep underground Global Command Centres, spread across the map-" at this, black dots popped up across the globe- "will be our only effective way of communication and command the war. Now, your Majesty," ventured Titus to Emperor Molt Sol Augustus. "Are there any questions required?"

The Emperor was silent so instead the one who asked was Princess Euphemia Von Lichtberg. "Yes," said Euphemia, in a calm but stately manner. "How many of our loyal imperial subjects can be saved from this apocalyptic war ?"

"Your Highness," said Titus pointing to the map. "Most of the areas that will be in the path of the human that we can't defend are already cleared of civilians. Many of the first SubUrbs have been completed, and refugees are moving into them as we speak. Here in Sadera, for instance, most of the population is already being directed to Crety, Tubet, and Gurban. The Ghiaccioeneve-Hindukuszu Line will shelter a billion of our own citizens from Azjania as well as from Tortolia. Not just that, we've managed to set aside hundred millions of our subjects for our Deep sea and Trench outposts, not counting the tens of milions of skilled citizenry that's stationed in the Hardy Cave."

Titus was afraid that Princess Euphemia would press on for more specifications...and Titus, being the loyal servant, could hardly stomach the idea of trying to tell a family member of the Sovereign just how many wouldn't make it...particularly the soldiers stationed in Afrykania, Europania, and Lemuria. He couldn't even be sure if the human would ignore civilians if they surrender like the Count Colt Fortunato Formal had assured him of...his own misgivings about the Colt Formal had been explained clearly to RDC, which had duly noted his concerns, and spoken of them no more, convinced that it was mostly paranoia.

"Of course," said Titus gingerly. "We still haven't decided the strongest safehold for the Imperial Family's safety and continued surviv-"

"I'm staying in Sadera, of course." said Princess Euphemia with such a suddenness that even the alert Titus felt himself caught off guard. "I will not abandon my capital in her hour of need."

Shades of War of Unification, thought Titus, remembering how the Imperial Family had lost one Crown Prince (Basilio El Augustus) in the last Gra Valkas Federation raids on Sadera during the Unification War (in 27027 Imperial Calendar, if he remembered the date correctly).

"Your Highness," said Titus "The Senate will be sitting deep under the Mout Olympia, and the Holy Order Headquater have been relocated to Hardy Cave. You're far too precious to us to be human's hostage. Prince Schneizel was lucky only to lose an arm in that last air raid. The human, if they break through into Sadera, will use your status to demand royal ransom. Ten billion people are looking to the Imperial Family, Sovereign." Titus tapped the map again. "You're staying under the Mid Ocean Ridge...at least."

The Third Princess didn't try to protest. She had probably already gotten this lecture by her father, the Emperor beforehand. Inwardly, Titus Caesar Vespasianus began to kick himself for being too blunt on the issue.

After consideration, Emperor Molt finally spoke in a serious tone. "How many loyal troops have we been able to muster to defend our homeland?"

"Your Majesty," said Titus pointing to the screen.

Even days before the General Mobilization decree, recruiting stations from Siberyan to Ornithia were already deluged by volunteers. This encouraging phenomenal happened in both the Motherland and our Overseas Territories, despite the reality that close to 75 percent of all eligible males in both place would eventually find themselves conscripted into some level of military service in their lifetime (72 percent of the males reaching 160 years of age in the Motherland and 73 percent in the Overseas Territories in Imperial calendar year 52,018 were called up for at least 15 year of active training and qualification before their 230rd birthday).

These young volunteers were not for the reserve or Home Defense components of the military, a common occurrence during peace time since it minimized time spent on active duty and far from home, but for full time active units, with nearly 90% of the Army volunteers specifying an interest in infantry or cavalry units (those units most likely to engage in direct combat).

Recruiters spent nearly as much time shooing away minors and Slaves (including, famously, an entire class of preschooler in Frederickland, Ornithia ) as processing applications by eligible volunteers.

Reserve units were inundated by members showing up without orders while factories across the Empire began to close down production of civilian products in anticipation of mobilization. The General Mobilization decree, revitalized commitment to victory in a kind of War that had been in a large degree, if not forgotten, marginalized in the minds of most citizens — A Holy War For National Survival.

At the result, the number of service member in the armed forces has increased twenty times up to around 3 billion - that is 30% of the total population ( this, of course, includes air defense units and fortress troops as well as militia corps of engineers support-trooper and mercenaries)

Because of the volunteered labor system employed by the Falmartian Orthodox Church and the use of militia groups, it is impossible to accurately calculate the ratio between the number of personnel performing support functions and the Combat and directly combat related troops although most studies indicate that the ratio of combat trooper to support across the Imperium was between 1:5 and 1:6.

So my best guess is as of right now, we have about 500 million combat troops."

Hearing Titus Caesar Vespasianus's report, the Emperor nodded in satisfaction. He continued to ask." Are there any more news about the development of new weapons and the re-organize of the military force ?"

"Yes your Majesty," said Titus "The knowledge from Earth has been smuggled to us by Count Formal and secret knowledge kept by the Holy Order proved to be very useful."

Titus showed the audience new slide." While it's unfortunate that the enemy weapons are too complex for us to re-created using magic and Titan's power the principles behind them have gave us ideal to create better weapons.

For example:

Artemis Magic Ballista : our latest generation magic ballista armed with the S-1 Ajax magic guided explosive javelins. The magic javelin weight 92 kg; has the maximum speed of Mach 2.25 (2,760 km/h) and have flight ceiling of 21,000 m and have the operational range up to 48 km. They designed to counter attacking plane flying at 800 km/h or more, at altitudes between 6,100 and 18,300 m, and performin turn at 12,000 m. We're testing the next generation magic-guided explosive javelin; The new 200 kg, magic javelin S-2 Dvina offers an intercept altitude of over 100,000 feet (30 km) and a range of 75 miles (121 km) with a top speed of Mach 4 (3,045 mph; 4,900 km/h) h). A single Artemis Magic Ballista can fire 12 shots of 5 javelins per minute. It's the perfect weapon against enemy attack helicopters.

Magic powered cannons : Those are the weapons our magicians came up with after reverse-engineering the weapons used in the so called World War One, but our magic weapons capabilities far surpass those weapons on which they are based on. Unlike on Earth our magic cannons used magical force from magic Iceburst gems that acts like gunpowder to propel cannonballs or shells at the target.

— The 42 cm Helblaster Volley Gun:

The gun's nine separate barrels are divided into three "decks" and are turned by means of a central crank, firing around three shots per deck which would shatter the enemy in hail of armour-piercing or high-explosive shells. Fully assembled, it stood 13.9 m high and 44 m long weight 1500 tones. It was breechloaded, making use of a horizontally-sliding breechblock, and at full charge fired nine 1,160 kg shells at 1,480 metres per second from nine rifled, 22 m long barrels for a maximum range of 459–466 km. The gun had a traverse of 46° and an elevation of 43° to 75°, adjusted with a hand-turned wheel on the front of the gun and another on the gun carriage for finetuning. Helblaster crews may choose to fire all three decks in quick succession, or to load and fire the decks one after another. Either method has advantages. The fastest tested rates of fire were 19,000 shells an hour, after that the gun barrels became too worn out. We also make the 14 cm and 28 cm versions of this gun to counter enemy infantry and tanks respectively.

— The A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launchers:

The design was relatively simple, consisting of racks of parallel rails on which rockets were mounted, with a folding frame to raise the rails to launch position. Each carriage had 48 launchers divided into six "decks". Fully assembled, it stood 18 m high and 40 m long weight 1650 tones. The A-6 rocket of the A-6 system was 400 cm long, 65 cm in diameter and weighed 4200 kg, the warhead weighed 975 kilograms and contained 910 kilograms of explosive. It has a range of 1000 km with a top speed of 5,760 km/h. The weapon is less accurate than conventional artillery guns, but is extremely effective in long range saturation bombardment. A battery of eight A-6 Helstorm launchers could fire a salvo in 7–10 seconds that delivered 350 tons of high explosives over a 40 square-kilometer impact zone, making its power roughly equivalent to that of 720 conventional 16-inch coastal artillery. With an efficient crew, the launchers could redeploy to a new location immediately after firing, denying the enemy the opportunity for counterbattery fire.

— Vicker Rapid Fire Cannon:

The Vicker Rapid Fire Cannon, like the Maxim gun, operated on the basis of short barrel recoil and a toggle lock. Once cocked and fired the Vicker would continue firing shells until the trigger was released or until all available ammunition was expended. Its practical range was estimated at some 20,000 metres up to an extreme range of 37,000 metres when firing 105 mm shells. The firing rate depends on the lock assembly used and averages 250 shells per minute for the Vicker 08 and 300 shells per minute for the Vicker 16. The cannon used 250-shell fabric belts of 78×560-mm mm ammunition. Using a separate attachment sight with range calculator for indirect fire, the Vicker could be operated from cover. The Vicker is 560 cm long, its weight varied based on the gear attached, but was generally 2200 to 2800 kg. The ammunition boxes for the 250-shell ammunition belts weighed 10.000 kg each. In addition, it required about 430 liter of water in its evaporative cooling system to prevent overheating. The heat of the barrel boiled the water in the jacket surrounding it. The Vickers could sustain fire for long durations of time exceeding the recommended 10,000 rounds an hour due to the water-cooled barrel and hourly barrel swaps. The Vicker typically required a six-man team to operate: one fired, one fed the ammunition, the rest helped to carry the weapon, its ammunition, and spare parts.

Magic Ships-of-the-Line: Magic Ships-of-the-line is a Titan bone magic steel armored ship that uses sails equipped with Tear of the Wind God and equipped with 30 to 150 magic cannons. It is equivalent to warships used on Earth between the 17th and 19th centuries.

There are three differences from Earth's warships.

- Magic cannon is used instead of a conventional one, the maximum range of the 6-inch magic cannon is about 200 km. With a talented gunner, the accuracy of the magic cannon against a stationary battleship-size target at 100 km is about 32 percent with high-explosive shells.

- By using Tears of the Wind God, Magic Ships-of-the-line can navigate even in the absence of wind and can travel a lot faster than natural wind only and had vastly superior operational range even when compared to steam or diesel ship, between 500 to 700 thousands kilometers at 160 knots.

- Magic Ships-of-the-line is equipped with high quality magic steel armor and are twice as large as ships-of-the-line on Earth. The total length of the ship is between 80 to 160 m.

Magic Ships-of-the-line uses the world's best magic circuit therefore it is possible to increase the ship maximum speed to over 310 knots and quadruple the bullet speed of the artillery in exchange for hull damage by releasing the limiter. The ship achieves the astonishing high speed via creating a water current by installing " Tears Of The Wind God" at the bottom of the ship. In addition, there were many Artemis Magic Ballista installed.

The Imperial Navy and its inspection forces are deploying 30-, 50-, 80-, 100-, 120-, and 150-gun classes. Ships that are equipped with 100 guns are called "Fishanus-Class magic ships-of-the-line" and ships that carries 120 guns or more are called "Super-F" or "Super-Fishanus-Class magic ships-of-the-line". We are deploying nearly 980,000 of those vessels in the Imperial Navy.

Neptune Class Dragon Carrier:

The new class carrier is much better than the old class dragon carrier at launching and retrieving Monarch wings and Draconians after their Titan transformation. For better facilitate the arrival and departure of Draconians, the Neptune Class Dragon Carriers were twice as large as the old class dragon carrier. The total length is around 260 m. Due to it enormous size, it is sometimes called "Dragon Mother" or "Dragon Carrier Flotilla". It can accommodate 150 to 200 Draconians or/and Monarch Wings on its flight deck. In order to launch and land Titan Griffins and Titan Wyvern Lords after they transform back into their Monarch Wings and Draconians form respectively, the ships need to fold its sails. They have magical point-defense weapons so they aren't rely solely on their own wyverns or other ships of the line to protect them from enemy fire or boarding tactics. Improved from the previous generation Titan bone ships, Neptune Class Dragon Carrier have thick magic steel armor to improve its defense against explosive shells. It uses the world's best Tears of the Wind God so it is possible to increase the maximum speed to over 300 knots. We are deploying nearly 15,000 carriers of this type in the Imperial Navy.

Uranus Class Magic Skyship Carrier:

Uranus Class Magic Skyship Carrier is the flying version of the Neptune class Dragon Carrier that is being develop and used in the Imperial Navy. Unlike the "Zeppelin airship" of Earth, its appearance is really like a maritime ship. The skyships are made of Titan bone and just like the Neptune Class Dragon Carrier. They exceeded the limits of wooden ship construction as they had a length of 270 m, two times longer than any wooden ships on Earth. Although it is a ship, it can fly at an altitude of 12,000 meters on Falmart at the maximum speed of 430km/h so it doesn't needs to anchor on water. It also can perform vertical take-off and landing and hovering. Unlike Earth's airplanes, it doesn't needs certain amounts of gliding to take-off and land, so there is no place it can't be used. The ship has operational range of 148,900 nmi (275,800 km; 17,140 mi) when traveling at the more economical speed of 150 knots (280 km/h; 170 mph). Magic Skyship Carrier serves as a floating airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering Draconians after their Titan Wyvern Lords transformation. We are deploying nearly 5,000 carriers of this type in the Imperial Navy.

Titus pause a moment for dramatic effect and continued. "But the greatest contribution of Earth's science is the birth of Modern Magic. After Colt Fortunato Formal smuggled scientific knowledge from Earth, Wizard King Solomon discovered that learning the advanced scientific knowledge of the earthling could aid in his application of magic. For instance, understanding about the physics behind combustion and detonation reactions exponentially increases the power of fire and explosion magic. Likewise, understanding Newtonian motion allows a magic user to move objects more efficiently. As a result of those factors, Solomon concludes that with the help of science and technology Modern Magic are much more efficient than Ancient Magic since it manipulates the origin of reality rather creating a new reality, as a rule of thumb Modern Magic is about 10 times more powerful than Ancient Magic. As a result, The Wizard King speculates that Ancient Magic and even Titan Power will be replaced by Modern Magic and Magitek soon. With the use of Modern Magic, we have been able to creat a new elite force the "Praetorian Guards" by turning normal wizard into powerful magician.

Praetorian Guards:

The Praetorian Guards were armed with the world's finest mass produced magic weapons, with the MGZ Magic-Powered Armor forming the core of its fighting strength.

The MGZ Magic-Powered Armor was the direct result of the lessons learned by the Imperial scientists on amplifying magic using scientific principles. Powered by 3 magical cores, the main function of the suits is to enhance and amplify magical power and physical attribute of wearers. The performance of the suits depend entirely on the magical power of a magical individuals so the stronger the magical beings, the better the performance of the suits and vice versa. Virtually impenetrable by anything less than 20mm anti-material rifles, reasonably light at 50 kg. It was, by far, the most cost-effective magic armor on the planet.

In terms of weapons, the Praetorian Guards equipped with a large number of magical weapons. At a distance of more than 1000 meters, the weapon of choice is a Type XII thunder spear or a Type VII lightning trident. At mid-range, they switched to using sidearms like the large-caliber Maula revolver, or the rapid-fire Balearic magic slingshot. In close range, they wielded the standard Type 94 magic sword and the Type 86 combat knife.

"And about the re-organize of the military force," said Titus. "You can see in this document for more detail."

The Re-Organization of The Holy Darwinian Empire Military and Its Allies

To better prepare for the inevitable : Earth – Falmart Total War. It is important to have an overview of the evolution of the Empire military structure and how its allies and client states fit into the overall Falmart defense network.

With the destruction of the GATE and the apparent Earth Alliance inability to make an immediate entry into homeworld Falmart the Imperial government gradually altered the structure of its own forces and began to make increasing use of the military organizations and/or available manpower in all of its territories In this reform-structure; there were two different types of non Imperial forces existed, National forces and "Pan-Falmartian" units.

National forces were fielded by nations that had more or less joined the Empire voluntarily. The National forces had notional independent command under their respective governments, but all were obligated to a greater or lesser degree, to follow Sadera's specific directions in military matters. All of the National forces were able to, if they desired, manufacture their own weapons and other equipment, including, their own aircraft and warship designs.

Overall, the National forces, and their home countries, gave many of the appearances of independent states, at least on the surface. In actual fact, each of these countries were utterly dominated politically by the Empire, with political leaders selected by the ambassador-general in each country with the final approval of Sadera is necessary before any changes were made.

Each independent Falmartian ally also had its own secret police force, based on the Oprichnina, and staffed by absolute loyalist who often were more loyal to the Emperor than their Imperial counterparts, which watched for any sign of trouble and generally maintained absolute discipline under the oversight of Oprichnina Headquarters in Sadera.

National military forces were also generally deployed outside their home country (Elbe troops, as an example, were the most numerous garrison forces in Mudwan and Toumaren ) which reduced the chances of any sort of unfortunate Nationalist uprisings, although these did occasionally occur, only to be crushed with swift brutality. While the overall quality and morale of the Nation forces was uneven, all were more than sufficient to work as fortress troops with most units being equal to any pure "Old Imperial Legionarius" formation.

Countries that had not been found to be sufficiently politically reliable to be granted the independence of the Empire client states weren't spared from supporting the Empire. In these countries there were three different levels of conscription all lasting 125 years.

The first level was effectively voluntary, as soldiers in Praetorian battalions. These volunteers were limited to those who met the Empire's syandard in magic proficiency and were, for the most part, devoted royalist and/or dedicated orthodox believer.

The second level of conscripts formed the "Pan-Falmartian" units. These conscripts were subjected to absolute discipline , required to make Imperial vow of service and subject to on-going "political education". Discipline in these units was maintained by a combination of generous reward and heavy punishment; good performance can earn you land and citizenship but officers in these units were not required to even file reports if they executed any enlisted man below the rank of Primus. And desertion was punished, not by execution, but by assigned the deserter to the labor corps and erase his/her family name to remove the stain from the family. Generally these forces were used as Fortress troops or common laborers.

The third level of conscription was effectively a hard labor sentence as members of the labor corps. This level was reserved for deserters (including those from National forces) those had questionable political activity, serious criminal acts, or "heretic beliefs". Those unfortunate enough to be assigned to these corps were used to clear booby traps, mining, agricultural labor, and in many cases medical or magical experimentation. The 125 year term of service for these conscripts was purely for show. Their actual fate was lifetime servitude.

And so, with the reorganization of all the Imperial provinces and Imperial client state manpower into military formations the Empire proceeded to remake its own forces. In this it was again guided as much by new battle doctrine as by common sense or tradition. The Imperial Army heavy infantry, the Legionarius, despite its many great successes in the previous wars on Falmart, was nearly dismantled in the immediate aftermath of the GATE disaster and replaced by an new elite military wing of the Emperor, the Praetorian Guards.

The dismantling of the Legionarius (as the Imperial Army heavy infantry was then known) had long been a goal of the Emperor, the Secretary of State of the Army - 8th Princess Yves Sertillanges, and the High Command, one that was confirmed as necessary when Legionarius troops and officers from the most junior platoon leaders to some of the General Staff's senior members found to be "Too inflexible" when it came to new tactics and military doctrine to achieving the goals of the Holy Empire.

With the introduction of National forces and Pan-Falmartian units into garrison duties, the Praetorian Guards became a mainly rocket artillery heavy armored formation, with much of its complement assigned to oversee the Empire vast overseas territories and act as mobile reserves to reinforce the defenses of the Indyjski Wall.

A separate group of Praetorian Guards troops, these mainly comprised of former Legionarius enlisted men who has committed some minor offense with a high rank noble and an Oprichnina officials as commanders and senior NCOs, were organized into Death Korps with the mission of hunting down and liquidating spies and traitors. This was a difficult assignment, with removal to a penal battalion becoming the fate of troops who failed to show proper commitment to the task at hand.

While The Praetorian Guards, which had fully replaced the Legionarius as the Imperial Army Ground Force by 52028, comprised only 14,200 of the 50,000 divisions that defended "Fortress Falmart" it operated 12,400 of the 18,600 rocket artillery divisions in Falmart (with an additional 1800 of these divisions being under the control of the Imperial Air Forces and 2000 of them under the Imperial Navy) and the various Imperial infantry units were the only fully motorized divisions in Falmart (Vassal states did operate 6600 so called "heavy" artillery formations, as well as 2400 rocket artillery divisions, but each unit only had sufficient transport to move 75% of the total heavy guns by train or tracked vehicles).

Despite the fact that, the Praetorian Guards rocket artillery formations made up only a small fraction of the total Falmart defense force, they made up a significant element of the combat power facing the Allies. The Praetorian Guards rocket artillery division operated the world's finest rocket artillery, with 40 fearsome A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launchers forming the core of its fighting strength.

The A-6 Helstorm was the direct result of the lessons learned by the Empire on the effectiveness of the human-made Multiple Launcher Rocket System (MLRS). Easy to assemble, reasonably fast at 135 kph on gravel roads, and armed with 48 high velocity 655 mm rocket launcher tubes; it was, by far, the best MLRS on the planet.

Supported by Heavy Armored Orges Units and eighty 42 cm Helblaster Volley Guns, the A-6 Helstorm were formidable opponent anywhere in Falmart with the range and mobility to serve as a striking force where ever needed (the Empire spent years reinforcing bridges world-wide to allow the movement of the massive Guns and MLRSs and their supporting vehicles)

The remaining ground forces inside the Imperial command structure were mainly light cavalry or fortress troops (a designation that was entirely missing from UAEDF command structures), with many of the troops trained exclusively to fight from fixed defensive positions. Nearly 70% of the fortress troops lacked personal weapons beyond a sword and a slingshot as they were artillery or machine gun bunker crews (who the Imperial high command believed would never need to fight in any role besides servicing heavy weapons and who could not be expected to have any worthwhile fighting skills since they were not imperial citizen) while many of the pure cavalry National units would be used as skirmishers in the low intensity front.

The traditions of both the Imperial Air Force and Imperial Navy were altered less than that of the Army, but both were heavily influenced by the Imperial Court. The Imperial Air Force was under the direct command of the 11th Princess Élodie Valadon, a dragon rider of some considerable skills, who in addition to her role as Air Force commander was also the Princess of the Realm. Princess Élodie was remarkably proud of the Imperial Air Force privileges and position.

Anything having to do with combat the air, from ground based anti-aircraft ballista to Paratroopers was, in Princess Élodie's opinion, property of the Imperial Air Force leading to the unique circumstance of the Air Force being a military inside the military, with heavy infantry units and even rocket artilery divisions sharing the Table of Organization with Anti-Aircraft Battalions, Dragon Knights, Titan Griffins, Titan Wyvern Lord, and Reconnaissance Air Groups all reporting to the same command staff.

So protective was the Air Force Chief of her position that the Naval Air Arm took orders, not from the Imperial Navy, but from the Imperial Air Force with the Dragon being the property of Élodie's Branch, not of the service that owned the ships off which the dragons operated. The Imperial Air Force also was the true commander of the various National Air Forces that were supposedly under the command of their independent states.

As for equipments; The Imperial Air Forces had an interesting mixture of the extremely advanced and the "experimented" bioweapons. Imperial interceptor dragons were extremely fast and well armed bomber killers, with many carrying lightning cannon as powerful as 5 gigajoules or about the energy stored in 38 gallons of gasoline. They were generally more maneuver than their machine counterparts, but with fairly limited range, being mainly designed as "point interceptors".

The Empire had also developed a number of fast torpedo-carried dragons that saw use in the naval war against the UEADF and in occasional action as anti-shipping attacks in the Inland Sea as well as the infamous Vimanas-225 superheavy bomber. The Imperial Air Force also operated a number of ground-attack flying beasts based on the Striker-class dragon and the Hellsfire-class warbird designs; these beasts had been developed in the immediate aftermath of the GATE disaster to support light infantry units. While low profile designs, they were proven in the ground attack role and were expected to support soldier in this vital but unglamorous role for years to come. Many of the National Air Forces operated squadrons of these flying beasts, as well as a few home-designed fighter and interceptor dragons.

Of all the Imperial Service Branches, The Imperial Navy, under 9th Prince Gerard de Tassigny, maintained its traditions beyond all others. Alone among the armed forces of Falmart, the Imperial Navy maintained the traditional military salute common among the world's militaries, as well as retaining many of the same traditions that would have been recognizable to naval officers from the dawn of the Empire. It was the least aristocratic of the Branches, although nobiliary was nearly as important as actual skill when promotions were announced.

The Imperial surface fleet was rebuilt and expanded by the 9th Prince Gerard de Tassigny, as much as a symbol of superior compered to the Human as with any specific mission in mind, with surprising speed thanks to the resources of the Path dimension and Modern Magic.

The meeting went on for another hour as individual members of the government asked questions about the deployment of the troops to aid the aforementioned union governments, the efforts to reverse-engineer Earth technology, and the handling of refugees from the vassal and colonial states that were seeking the protection of Sadera for the Falmart-Earth War.

---

Tanisan, Ohiyo, Gringolia, Falmart

Ornithianology had been a major fad throughout the Holy Empire throughout the course of the 27 and 28th millennium, particularly after the Penkham Expedition to Ornithia in 26122, during which a scholar attached to the expedition, Carleton Marlowe, discovered the famous stone showing an easy way to translate Ornithian hieroglyphs, which still bears his name today.

Throughout the Empire, all things Ornithian became popular among the local elites. This was especially true regarding place names.

Tanisan had been founded on the shores of Lake Eire in 27030s, as settlers from the Mainland surged east after the collapse of Gra Valkas authority in the area. An outpost of the powerful Commodus Company, Tanisan grew into a bustling port, where traders of all stripes...from Cherokaa Dwarves to Quebeco Orcs, could interact and sell their goods without much in the way of hassle.

Nowadays, Tanisan was the focal point of a far more different enterprise; it was a whistle-stop for the trains bearing refugees away from the Homeland to the SubUrbs constructed in Prince Diadumenian Land. Train after train, groaning with non-essential civilians, roared to the east.

Tanisan was also the site of a immense Global Command Centre; the sprawling complex was heavily armoured...with most of the structure deep underground.

It was also where recently-promoted Tribuni Dehan Haa Dushi was scheduled for a meeting with his counterparts from across the Appalachian Line; they would be briefed on the coordinates of supply, and where reinforcements could be expected in the case of the worst case scenario.

More like scenarios thought Dehan glumly as he padded his head against the humid heat wave blanketing this part of Ohiyo. Now with a 200-year-old's body, Dehan often found himself involuntarily flexing muscle that he had long-forgotten about, even after all these years after rejuvenation.

Dehan had earned his promotion in 52025 for putting down a mutiny at the Emperor Claudius Military Academy, which had been caused by that stupid git Bouro Co Igloo spreading a rumour that the human would be landing any day (as well as fomenting divisions along ethnic and regional lines, which men such as Dehan considered thoroughly un-Imperial...that had sparked a panic, which had in turn sparked a riot, as many recruits were still untrained, and many began to attempt a desertion to return to their families...with prohibited technology crammed into every nook and cranny at that.

Dehan hadn't hesitated. He had called in the military police, who had shown no mercy. The mutiny had ended with the death of Bouro; Dehan's only disappointment was that he wasn't the one who had gotten to silence that misery for all time.

Entering the front of the GCC, Tribuni Dehan hurried to the lift which would carry him down to the conference room. There were multiple commissioned officers in the lift with him, but he didn't bother with attempting any kind of conversation...as granddad had always told him: "A Dushi is a thinker, not a talker. He never speaks unless spoken too, or ordered to by a superior. And he NEVER says anything to draw attention to himself." Dehan Haa Dushi had received that command as a six-year-old, and he had always done his damndest to stick by that order...after all, a Dehan was always obedient.

The conference room bore a mammoth screen (obviously borrowed from the Church of Elange; before the GATE disaster, it only would have been fathomable for the Elange priests of all people to make such a contraption).

The COs lined the antiseptic rows and bid themselves to sit. They were from all possible ethnic groups in this corner of the Empire. Gharkhu, Sykha, and Hundya Dark Elves (a legacy of the 28th millennium Charter Ships which had brought millions of natives from the Indiya subcontinent to colonize North Gringolia); Cherokaa, Seminalen, Creeka, Iroquoisa, Choctawa, and Miamik Dwarves, Winged people (mostly of Ornithian descent), Volraldens (descended mostly from Persae, Mudwan, and Parpaldia immigrants), Ogres (of both Siberyan and Tortolia extraction - the descendents of the slaves freed in the 24th millennium), and of course, the ubiquitous Immanity settlers who could trace their ancestry directly back to the Mother Country...or at the very least Mu, Emor, or Milishial. Scenes such as these always gave Dehan a glowing sensation inside; "This is what the Holy Empire is about after all!"

After a while, Legatus William LaRouche, a thin, anxious looking man of Braseal descent who commanded this portion of His Majesty's North Gringolia Praetorian Guards began to explain the overall strategy for this sector of the upcoming war, upon which the map swirled and changed. For the next several hours, he debriefed them on the schematics of the oncoming defence of the interior of Gringolia. Most of it was obvious to a person like Tribuni Dehan;

Hellsfire, these would be obvious to a child with Bouro Co Igloo's intelligence he thought wryly. Naturally, midland cities were being abandoned...Dehan caught a glimpse of what he guessed to be Seminalen officers bracing themselves against the table. However, there would be more than enough men to secure that front...as it turned out, there would be the 10,000 men of the His Majesty's Royal Seminalen Regiment; supplemented with more than enough Imperial-made (and Church enhanced) heavy weapons to blunt any human surge towards Alyesko-Siberian or the Safe Zone in Rocheuses Mountains.

The rest of the conference dragged on, as Legatus LaRouche named the divisions station in the various gaps and passes in the Appalachians...until, Dehan Haa Dushi got confirmation of where he would be stationed with his men in the 1188th division (an archer division of mostly Marinetteland, Yorkenland, and Rhodan Elves ); The division had been recalled to serve in Lemuria Peninsula and he would be stationed near the Holy Hill of Alnus...which showed up on the map with multiple jagged dark red line surrounding it.

"For great courage and skill in suppressing the mutiny at the Academy, it's clear that this fellow has the mettle necessary to defend this key location for King and Country with the 1188th. He's the ideal leader for such an assignment. Naturally, the 1188th will be supplemented with men from the 1190th Cavalry Division, and a special regiment of Quebeco Orcs."

Primus Dehan swallowed hard, but caught himself. A Dushi never questions orders, Dehan. And besides, this will make for a previous army life long barren of action. Dehan nodded to himself in agreement with his mind's sound logic...until he realized that his mind's explanation had possessed a very strong Elvish burr...which only manifested itself when he was angry beyond all reason; or scarred out of his wits.

Primus Dehan spent the rest of the conference, and indeed, every night until the human arrived, trying to convince himself that he was angry beyond all reason, to mixed success...as he would see later, when push would come to shove, in the most horrific and depraved ways imaginable.

New Sadera, Hardy Cave

At first I saw absolutely nothing. My eyes, wholly unused to the effulgence of light, could not bear the sudden brightness; and I was compelled to close them. When I was able to reopen them, I stood still, far more stupefied than astonished. Not all the wildest effects of imagination could have conjured up such a scene! "The sea—the sea," I cried.

"Yes," replied my mentor, in a tone of pardonable pride; "the Central Sea. No future navigator will deny the fact of my having discovered it; and hence of acquiring a right of giving it a name."

It was quite true. A vast, limitless expanse of water, the end of a lake if not of an ocean, spread before us, until it was lost in the distance. The shore, which was very much indented, consisted of a beautiful soft golden sand, mixed with small shells, the long-deserted home of some of the creatures of a past age. The waves broke incessantly—and with a peculiarly sonorous murmur, to be found in underground localities. A slight frothy flake arose as the wind blew along the pellucid waters; and many a dash of spray was blown into my face. The mighty superstructure of rock which rose above to an inconceivable height left only a narrow opening—but where we stood, there was a large margin of strand. On all sides were capes and promontories and enormous cliffs, partially worn by the eternal breaking of the waves, through countless ages! And as I gazed from side to side, the mighty rocks faded away like a fleecy film of cloud.

It was in reality an ocean, with all the usual characteristics of an inland sea, only horribly wild—so rigid, cold and savage.

One thing startled and puzzled me greatly. How was it that I was able to look upon that vast sheet of water instead of being plunged in utter darkness? The vast landscape before me was lit up like day. But there was wanting the dazzling brilliancy, the splendid irradiation of the sun; the pale cold illumination of the moon; the brightness of the stars.

The illuminating power in this subterranean region, from its trembling and rickering character, its clear dry whiteness, the very slight elevation of its temperature, its great superiority to that of the moon, was evidently electric; something in the nature of the aurora borealis, only that its phenomena were constant, and able to light up the whole of the ocean cavern.

The tremendous vault above our heads, the sky, so to speak, appeared to be composed of a conglomeration of nebulous vapors, in constant motion.

I should originally have supposed that, under such an atmospheric pressure as must exist in that place, the evaporation of water could not really take place, and yet from the action of some physical law, which escaped my memory, there were heavy and dense clouds rolling along that mighty vault, partially concealing the roof.

Electric currents produced astonishing play of light and shade in the distance, especially around the heavier clouds. Deep shadows were cast beneath, and then suddenly, between two clouds, there would come a ray of unusual beauty, and remarkable intensity. And yet it was not like the sun, for it gave no heat. The effect was sad and excruciatingly melancholy. Instead of a noble firmament of blue, studded with stars, there was above me a heavy roof of granite, which seemed to crush me.

Gazing around, I began to think of the theory of the Immanity captain who compared the world to a vast hollow sphere in the interior of which the air is retained in a luminous state by means of atmospheric pressure, while two stars, Pluto and Proserpine, circled there in their mysterious orbits. After all, suppose the old fellow was right!

In truth, we were imprisoned—bound as it were, in a vast excavation. Its width it was impossible to make out; the shore, on either hand, widening rapidly until lost to sight; while its length was equally uncertain. A haze on the distant horizon bounded our view. As to its height, we could see that it must be many miles to the roof.

Looking upward, it was impossible to discover where the stupendous roof began. The lowest of the clouds must have been floating at an elevation of two thousand yards, a height greater than that of terrestrial vapors, which circumstance was doubtless owing to the extreme density of the air.

I use the word "cavern" in order to give an idea of the place. I cannot describe its awful grandeur; mortal's language fails to convey an idea of its savage sublimity. Whether this singular vacuum had or had not been caused by the sudden cooling of the earth when in a state of fusion, I could not say. I had read of most wonderful and gigantic caverns—but, none in any way like this.

The great grotto of Guachara, in Kolumbia, visited by the learned Humboldt; the vast and partially explored Mammoth Cave in Kentukki— what were these holes in the earth to that in which I stood in speechless admiration! with its vapory clouds, its electric light, and the mighty ocean slumbering in its bosom! Imagination, not description, can alone give an idea of the splendor and vastness of the cave.

I gazed at these marvels in profound silence. Words were utterly wanting to indicate the sensations of wonder I experienced. I seemed, as I stood upon that mysterious shore, as if I were some wandering inhabitant of a distant planet, present for the first time at the spectacle of some terrestrial phenomena belonging to another existence. To give body and existence to such new sensations would have required the coinage of new words—and here my feeble brain found itself wholly at fault. I looked on, I thought, I reflected, I admired, in a state of stupefaction not altogether unmingled with fear!

We began to walk along the shores of this extraordinary lake. To our left were abrupt rocks, piled one upon the other—a stupendous titanic pile; down their sides leaped innumerable cascades, which at last, becoming limpid and murmuring streams, were lost in the waters of the lake. Light vapors, which rose here and there, and floated in fleecy clouds from rock to rock, indicated hot springs, which also poured their superfluity into the vast reservoir at our feet.

At this moment my attention was attracted by an unexpected spectacle. After we had gone about five hundred yards, we suddenly turned a steep promontory, and found ourselves close to a lofty forest! It consisted of straight trunks with tufted tops, in shape like parasols. The air seemed to have no effect upon these trees—which in spite of a tolerable breeze remained as still and motionless as if they had been petrified.

I hastened forward. I could find no name for these singular formations. Did they not belong to the two millions and more known tree species—or were we to make the discovery of a new growth? By no means. When we at last reached the forest, and stood beneath the trees, my surprise gave way to admiration.

In truth, I was simply in the presence of a very ordinary product of the earth, of singular and gigantic proportions. My mentor unhesitatingly called them by their real names.

"It is only," he said, in his coolest manner, "a forest of mushrooms."

On close examination I found that he was not mistaken. Judge of the development attained by this product of damp hot soils. I had heard that the Lycoperdon giganteum reaches nine meters in circumference, but here were white mushrooms, nearly forty meter high, and with tops of equal dimensions. They grew in countless thousands—the light could not make its way through their massive substance, and beneath them reigned a gloomy and mystic darkness.

Still I wished to go forward. The cold in the shades of this singular forest was intense. For nearly an hour we wandered about in this visible darkness. At length I left the spot, and once more returned to the shores of the lake, to light and comparative warmth.

But the amazing vegetation of subterraneous land was not confined to gigantic mushrooms. New wonders awaited us at every step. We had not gone many hundred yards, when we came upon a mighty group of other trees with discolored leaves—the common humble trees of Mother Earth, of an exorbitant and phenomenal size: lycopods a hundred meter high; flowering ferns as tall as pines; gigantic grasses!

"Astonishing, magnificent, splendid!" cried my mentor; "here we have before us the whole flora of the second period of the world, that of transition. Behold the humble plants of our gardens, which in the first ages of the world were mighty trees. Look around you, my dear apprentice. No botanist ever before gazed on such a sight!"

My mentor's enthusiasm, always a little more than was required, was now excusable.

"You are right, Master," I remarked. "Providence appears to have designed the preservation in this vast and mysterious hothouse of antediluvian plants, to prove the sagacity of learned men in figuring them so marvelously on paper."

"Well said, my boy—very well said; it is indeed a mighty hothouse. But you would also be within the bounds of reason and common sense, if you added that it is also a vast menagerie."

I looked rather anxiously around. If the animals were as exaggerated as the plants, the matter would certainly be serious.

"A menagerie?"

"Doubtless. Look at the dust we are treading under foot—behold the bones with which the whole soil of the seashore is covered—"

"Bones," I replied, "yes, certainly, the bones of antediluvian animals."

I stooped down as I spoke, and picked up one or two singular remains, relics of a bygone age. It was easy to give a name to these gigantic bones, in some instances as big as trunks of trees.

"Here is, clearly, the lower jawbone of a mastodon," I cried, almost as warmly and enthusiastically as my mentor; "here are the molars of the Dinotherium; here is a leg bone which belonged to the Megatherium. You are right, Master, it is indeed a menagerie; for the mighty animals to which these bones once belonged, have lived and died on the shores of this subterranean sea, under the shadow of these plants."

— Excerpt from 'A Journey to the Underealm', by Arne Saknussemm.

Made by the Old Gods, Hardy Cave is the largest and deepest cave in the world – 1,170,000 cubic kilometres. The main chamber is more than 5000 kilometres long, 4 kilometres high and 225 kilometres wide. The cave system runs for approximately 9000 kilometres under 10 to 22 kilometres of hard rock and was punctuated by two large sinkholes 1000 meters across. The sinkholes allow plants and animals to enter resulting in a true subterranean world.

Before the announcement of the GATE disaster, New Sadera, the centre of the Imperial subterranean colony, had been famous primarily as the site where the first Immanity being (a boy) had been born in the subterranean world.

Now, with the influx of refugees from the above ground, the settlement was experiencing a boom like no other time. Massive caverns were expanded for new housing. Food and water was stockpiled, and artificial crops were sown; as the Fairy were the leading race on agricultural development in the Imperial Assembly of Races, they had more than enough experience in developing flora just about anywhere.

Some 100 million refugees, mostly the wives and children of the nobility, along with key technicians, magicians and engineers, were scheduled to stay at this expanded settlement alone.

It didn't make administration of the colony any easier; Huong Zheng had been appointed to govern the colony back in 51989. For a long time, the bureaucrat had developed a comforting rut; until the first skyship crammed with refugees had begun arriving.

Since then, Huong Zheng had been everywhere; welcoming important settlers, confirming the timetable for the expansion of the settlement, and coordinating overall expansion on Imperial settlement with Governor Ting.

Watching yet another skyship arrive Docking Station 1 (also known as Shang-Kun Port, after the illustrious Fairy monarch who had merged the Kingdom with the Holy Empire and forged a friendship with Immanity ), Zheng dispassionately rounded off another set of orders to his aids, who rushed to continue their tasks; currently, they were pushing for the building of yet another landing pad to facilitate the traffic.

A long line of bewildered children, gasping women, and aloof dignitaries filed out of the skyships (a fusion of the typically elegant Elven designs and the sheer technological skill from the Dwarves), and began making their way to the guides who would take them to the Walking Road (a moving pathway), which would take them underground to their warren of a home.

Zheng took the opportunity to look up at the West Hole. He could see multiple skyships making the journey to the noble or priest private castle in the Hardy Cave, or to the growing settlements on Mushrooms Forest, or to the floating castle on the subterranean ocean. He looked up towards these skyships (as the Immanity usually called it), and tried to make out who on board (although too far away to see it without a telescope).

Sighing again, he turned away from the window and began the walk back to his headquarters. A detachment of Steel Golem workers (a gift of "great encouragement " from the Emperor) were scheduled to make their debut on the construction teams in the coming week, and Zheng still needed to brief several teams on how to handle themselves around the huge steel beings...among other things.

---

La Habaka, Batavia Island, Spokojny Ocean, Holy Empire

The 11th Princess Élodie Valadon looked with interest on the rapid speed at which the construction teams went to work; the fortifications for Empire's largest Spokojny Ocean Air and Naval base, a key fixture of the Holy Empire since the days of the Unification War (at least) would be extensive.

It had all originated with the desperate Battle for Diess in the Eighth Arachnid War. Over two million men from the Empire finest armies had met their end on the arid plain, before a surviving Dwarf Primus had developed the brilliant idea of drawing the Arachnid into a V-shaped wedge formed by two collapsed mega-skyscrapers, where a "slaughter pen" could be formed. Odysseus had been debriefed by the Imperial officers who survived Diess; the Arachnid had kept swarming, until there were literally none left.

Similarly, it had been a lucky bombardment from an Immanity and Dwarfs Magic Canon barrage, with the newest generation of Apocryph-tipped shells, which had broken the back of the Arachnid on Diess, turning the tide of battle and forcing them to flee.

Mass production of the shells were now underway in the mammoth factories of Amazonia, Ameryka, and western Ornithia, with emergency factories being constructed in Alyesko-Siberian, Dakshina Nad, Kanyakumari Federation, and Manchukuo Uls (and in the defensive zone being formed in the Ghiaccioeneve Refugee Zone being set up by the Imperial Millitary).

Élodie glanced at a file on her DNA magic computer. It stated the level of troops that Kingdom of Elbe, the League Principality, Kingdom of Mudwan, Kingdom of Alguna, Kingdom Toumaren and Kingdom of Arrun (all traditional Imperial vassal) were planning to contribute to the Empire; in return, the Empire would dispatch a token task force to assist those nations in their defensive plans, and shelter the wives and children of the soldiers being deployed to the Empire proper.

The defences of La Habaka city is followed the model established in Diess; massive, impenetrable lines were formed by collapsing the tallest fortresses in the city and moving them to the front of the metropolis, as a front line to the already extensive zigzag sheer wall that had already gone up in combine with a series of superheavy bunker with thick armoured dome up to 60 meter of pure titan steel.

The Imperial Army, backed by the Bear's Claws (the Empire ACS detachment earmarked specifically for La Habaka) would be the backbone of the defence. In addition to that, the entire island was walled off, and all non-essential civilian personnel were sent to the SubUrbs (or to Hardy Cave or at the Trench if they were truly lucky). Brother Odysseus's own wife and three daughters were living in the Hardy Cave at the settlement of New Sadera.

A squadron of Dragon Riders/Wyvern Lord Corps thundered overhead, causing Élodie to look up from her outdoor table, which sat on the stately grounds of her palace (only slightly smaller than the Imperial residence at Sadera ). Her face contorted in a frown; Élodie took a love to their air force in the same way that Gerard reserved love for their navy and Yves did for their Army.

And all of those magnificent Wyvern Titans would be near useless against the Earth's nuclear-tipped SAM, along with the Imperial carefully tuned air-transport arm, which more coordination and movement of men and materiel all the more ecstatically fun just to contemplate.

Her frown refusing to abet itself, The 11th Princess went back to studying the plans at her desk for the artillery concentrations that would face the invaders that would soon break across the Motherland in their frightening and bottomless bloodlust for revenge.

Atlantis City, United Fleet Works, Mid-ocean ridge, Falmart.

When the GATE project was proposed, a century ago, the navy of the Holy Empire had only just begun sending the first probes into the Mid-ocean ridge, a seafloor mountain system formed by plate tectonics; primarily for scouting out ideal strategic or valuable mineral deposits to claim in the name of the Emperor, the Lords, or the Holiness.

Now, a sizable swath of the Ocean ridge was home to what had universally been called the Forge. Headquartered on Atlantis City, the Forge was a sprawling workshop, where mechanical derricks, golem workers, and scores of workers from the Holy Empire, as well as from far afield as the Torquia Kingdom, Agartha Kingdom, Magicaraich Community, Nigrat Union, Emor Kingdom, Kingdom of Bretonnia, Tzardom of Kislev, Empire of Grand Cathay, Pandora Greater Magic Principality, and Grand Duchy of Mirishial busied themselves around the clock attempting to turn Imperial merchant submarine vessels into man-of-wars.

A casual observer swimming over the ridge would have noted the sparks, smelting, and the scout ships towing in rocks valuable in minerals for disintegration.

Atlantis was where the operation was headquartered. That was where the best ships designers in the world were now locked down.

The overall administrator of the project was Sir Robert Creighton Anderson. Anderson, the former Administrator of the Argossy Project (which had been headquartered at the University of Oksford), was noted for his fierce temper and excellent motivational skills.

As of late, his temper was even worse than usual; there had been several murders among the technicians (with some of the more competent ones being found dead, among the various nationalities), and nobody knew who to suspect. The Old Nobility Party side of Anderson was inclined to blame every non-imperial in the Forge, but fortunately, his logical, New Nobility oriented side always drew Anderson away from those conclusions.

Not far from Atlantis, several large domes had been drawn together to form a sizable habitat for workmen rotated off of duty so the next batch could take their place; the workers were segregated by nationality.

In the Grand Cathay section of the habitat, Jakob Bao Bien was returning from yet another gruelling shift on the star docks. Bien, the son of a Judaeus immigrant father and a Long mother, scratched the whiskers on his aristocratic face; ten hours of work per day (Falmart's day is 12 hours long) took a lot out of you. Fortunately, after several frustrating delays, 700 super heavy submarine-battleships of the Zeroth Combined Fleet, Jewel of Holy Empire was well on their way to completion. The magic battleships of the First, the Second, and the Third Combined Fleet were almost halfway done.

Bien was the foreman in the Grand Cathay sector of the project; underneath his Life Suit his tunic and skullcap were plain black to signify his rank...the Judaeus and Sarraceni who had fled the Middle Kingdom in the dark days after the Imperial Civil War were prised by the Cathay government for their loyalty and technical skills.

But now, riding back to base on the submarine Heart of Nanjing, Jakob Bao Bien only wanted to get some sleep in preparation for the next day...this was almost as bad as slavery, only he was getting incremental pay, at least.

The submarine docked at Blue Dragon Port. After the ship was sealed off from the crushing water, and the air flooded back in, the 3000 or so labourers were allowed to disembark, and stumble back to their barracks. As a foreman, Bao Bien got slightly nicer quarters...it was what a Darwinian would have called "Spartan," whatever that meant.

As Jakob Bao Bien walked towards the walking path that would take him to his slumber, Tsien Dai Pao, one of the prominent Cathay weapons designers stationed in the Forge, strode past the submarine on his way to the command deck. As he did this, one of the 3000 workmen filing out of the submarine, a Malaise Imanity by the name of Muhammed Monatir stepped out of the long snake of weary Imanity and began walking towards Tsien Dai Pao.

Monatir had needed little prodding from the mysterious stranger who had offered him the money; he bore a life-long hatred for the Grand Cathay since he had first heard the tales of his grandfather's death as the head of a Malaise speratist group at the hands of Cathay counter-terrorism agents. As an extremely gifted engineer at the University of Shang-Long, Muhammed Monatir had spent half is life plotting the best way to wreak revenge on Nanjing and its children.

Killing one of their prominent weapons designers was one way to do just that. He didn't have much to worry about-since he was stationed in the Forge, his wife and one child were safely settled on Cathay SubUrbs (in their arrogant way, the Longs hogged the best slots in the refugee centres. And the resulting explosion would disguise his perpetration of the crime.)

And so, clear headed, and with the money from the mysterious stranger, who had been dressed in those strangely coloured robes, safely in the family bank account (disguised as a sudden inheritance), Muhammed Monatir calmly walked up to Tsien Dai Pao and ignited the detonator (given to him by his mysterious friend) stuffed into his life suit, killing both himself and Pao (and Pao's aides) which would put Blue Dragon Port out of commission for two critical weeks.

Another day in the life of United Fleet Works.

---

Heraclius, Malaisien Isle, Holy Empire

In the early part of the 19th millennium, the Holy Empire, using three-decker ships of the line, based off of the Federation ships, had driven the Afrykania Union from their outposts on the Malaisien Isle. After which, they gave a third of the isle to their loyal vassal, the Empire of Grand Cathay, as a reward since they provided most of the troops in the final battle. By 18255, the city of Heraclius, named after the man whom many called The Second Coming of Ricardo The Founder, utterly dominated trade in this part of the world, smashing what had once been an equilibrium split between the Union and Empire in favour of Empire.

Built on an island, the city had grown into a titanic metropolis, easily dominated by the Darwinian colonists and their many descendents, although plenty of Malaise domestic workers abounded. Now, in the eyes of the Lord Mayor San Kung, the head of the notorious crime syndicate - Golden Triads, everything was collapsing around his ears, quite literally. Even as the massive coastal guns, which had once only faced outwards to the sea, were moved to face the Malaisien jungle, the skyline of the serene metropolis was grossly deformed, as many buildings were dragged down and moved to the front of the island.

The imperial civilians had long exited the city for refugee centres on Nouvelle Guinee or the Island of Zealand. Only the Malaise workers remained, supervised by units of elite military wing of the Emperor, the Praetorian Guards. Below his office, the Mayor watched as two battery of A-6 Helstorm Multiple Rocket Launchers thundered towards what would soon be the front line against the devilish human.

"You were saying?" asked the Lord Mayor, turning back to his visitor. San Kung's office was largely bare of the precious artwork and ruby statues that had once adorned it-it was with his wife and their children on the North Island. He was scheduled to leave there himself...after this business with his unexpected guest had been taken care of.

"What a lovely office you possess," said the figure, a Mr. "Tan We." Tan We was shrouded in a combination of traditional Cathay men's were and what looked like a Malaise sarong; such an outfit wasn't that alien...it was fairly common among Malaise who had assimilated to Cathay lordship through and through. They often changed their names to Cathay sounding ones to further advance in society.

What was unusual about Mr. Tan We was that his entire face was shrouded in what looked more like the death masks that the Sciita terrorists who plagued the Holy Empire would wear.

Tan We had claimed that he had an "offer that could not be spit back" for the Lord Mayor, himself an influential figure in devising the schemes for building up the string of Fortress Cities that now dotted the coastline of mainland Darwinia.

"I thank you," said San Kung. "Now, let's get right to the point. I know that you have an offer for me. An offer so important that you couldn't tell me directly over the phone. Is it something to do with the Black Clergy? An investment opportunity?"

The Mayor knew plenty of political figures in the Empire who were eagerly taking the opportunity to invest in what had come to be known as "Tech-Com," an exclusive joint Church-Royal owned company that was authorized to mass produce advanced technologies and was helping to fund the Fleet and the defence of Falmart.

But was this really how potential investors were invited in?

"Well, in a way, yes," said Tan We, slowly unveiling the thick silk mask. This caused the Lord Mayor of Shang-Kun to jump back in surprise.

It was a furry face which greatly resembled a red panda or fox. Black pupils dilated, and the face grinned, showing very sharp looking teeth - Embroidered Uniform Panda Guard from Eastern Depot.

"What do you bloody well want?" belted out the Lord Mayor, using a phrase he had learned from his counterpart from Madras during a meeting back in the 52000s.

"What you want, 'Honourable' San Kung," said the red panda in unusually clear Malaisien Latin with a hint of sarcasm. "My Master want an investment opportunity. If you prove to be a wise investment, then the opportunities for you will be boundless."

And for the next several minutes, San Kung listened to the men proposal; he was so engrossed, that he didn't pay attention to the submersible artillery platform (a product of Tech-Com) sinking beneath the sea ... the waves generated fanned out across the ocean, rocking a passing ship crammed with refugees from Viceroyalty of Neues Hollandische and Deutsche bound for Ostindien SubUrbs.

---

Unknown location, Earth

"Good morning Mr. President" said Liam Nuttall Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force in the Falmart Front. It was quite an unexpected call, Nuttall admitted.

"Let's get right down to the business, Commander," said Dirrel B Johnson, President of the United States of America."How are our backup plan going? "

"Everything is according to schedule, Mr. President, synthetic Cobalt-60 is being created by bombarding Cobalt-59 target with a slow neutron source. We have been able to scale up the production of Cobalt-60 greatly this year." said the Supreme Commander in a confident voice" the Nightfall protocol will be the final answer to our Interdimensional problem."

"Good job Commander, the Security Council would be pleased to hear that." Dirrel smiled amusingly.