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Wyndon
We must never let our sense of morals prevent us from doing what is right. War is not the last resort of the childish or incompetent. Even if it were, childishness comes as naturally for a man as for a child! I hear all the anti-war cowards rant on and on about demilitarization, but they have never been in a battle. They don't know what it's like to be alive!
-excerpt from a pre-Jihad address by Jake Albans
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"I never expected this to end the way it has," Bronze said.
He looked out to the northern skies, which would be covered in plumes of smoke and flashes of light within the day. The control deck of the L.S. Victory was teeming with engineers and administrators, all personally selected by Bronze or his advisors. Lusamine's tank had been set on the bridge, attended by four white-robed Aether Foundation staff. Zacian and Zamazenta prowled the floor, silent yet watchful.
Tess heard Bronze's words, and then looked at Lusamine again. One of her attendants had a metal mask for a face, eyes two silver balls in their sockets. She was shocked. Cyborg! The Aether Foundation had violated the Tercano Accords by using such bodily augmentation. Stranger still, Bronze didn't seem to care.
We tread dangerous ground.
"What do you mean?" Bibliographer projection: He speaks of his empire falling. Or does he expect to die?
"The fall of a government, Tess, is a massive thing," Bronze said. "However, it is not easily fought. It is dictated by a rising bureaucracy, a receding initiative, a focus on the affairs of Pokemon over human interests, a freezing of caste, a damning of curiosity, and a hundred other factors. It can go on for centuries or a few decades and become too massive and marvelous a movement to stop."
"But any fool can tell a crisis when it arrives," Tess said. "And why-"
"The cyborg? I'll tolerate it. Too late to care. I would even use a thinking machine now if it helped us. The banning of the unity of machine and flesh was merely to appeal the zealots who influenced the Tercano Accords. Because of that, we lost our drive to create. No new inventions have come from the great workshops of Unova for over a decade. Repeal that stricture for me, won't you?"
For me. Bibliographer projection: He expects to die and for me to succeed him. But despair is a paralytic. What does he mean? Recalculate.
"I wanted to be a psychological engineer," Bronze said. "I never would have admitted it, but I loved controlling people. I went into politics, and it's practically the same thing. Now look where that led! A Jihad and an orthodoxy around my name! I have seen the gods and have been forgiven, but I still feel the call to disengage."
"When Arceus was speaking to me," Tess presently said. "I heard only a plea to stay anchored to humanity. If it's that important, then what did you hear?"
"Nothing but a concept, Tess. I was in the presence of Arceus/Elyon for the fourth time. I heard (not really with the ears) the command to scatter, the command to sail, and the image of Sinnosui. But then a vision of the coming battle engulfed all in a cloud of darkness, the symbol of coming judgment."
Tess heard the great engines of the superfrigate thrum, and the shouts of soldiers as they moved to position. "We must leave soon. But speak to me of scattering."
Bronze pointed toward the sky. "You see that? The air is where we make commerce and trade possible. Beyond that is space, Tess, space! Make a projection. Tell me what we use it for."
"Thirty-minute round trip travel across the Earth, military operations by the Moon and Mars-"
"Such as the dogfights by the Moon in the Rorian Jihad."
"Yes, some would have even called those battles glorious. Asteroid mining, the discovery of different genotypes and forms of Pokemon, the principle of frontier expansion and colonization, the possibility of contacting extraterrestrial intelligence, and many more applications. Already, we have overcome the previously crippling mass/weight ratio that limited the number of tonnes that could be brought into space through the use of suspensor technology."
"But we haven't expanded enough!" Bronze said. "People don't care about space, not now. It's worldwide. It's a worship of the past. It's deterioration, a stagnation! Tess, it is remarkable how the religion of science has taken hold, but not in the outer spheres, no. In being planet-bound we cannot mature."
"It seems that if you thought this an evil thing, you should have encouraged colonization."
"I could not. My rule has a part that is dependent on a matter of patriotism, and pioneers are never patriotic." Bronze was wholly conscious of one of the mightiest deeds of Man; the complete and almost contemptuous grounding and conquest of a single planet.
"As the cause of a rapid expansion, the social fabric would be destroyed," Bronze said. "Science will be broken into a million pieces. In space, individuals will know much of exceedingly smaller facets of what there is to know. Tess, space is an adversary! Whatever you send out there cannot remain the same. The darkness changes you. All that goes there will change and split from those that thought they had it. Imagine another civilization on Mars!"
"Terraforming?" Tess suggested.
"It would be easy, if we spent the money," Bronze confirmed. "Do you know how potent a single Meganium could be in changing the Fourth World? Plants would absorb carbon, hibernate, and then produce enough for a stable life cycle. Magnemite could absorb the static charge in the sands. Coalossal would thicken the atmosphere, Nosepass would form a stronger magnetic field to repel solar rays, while countless Gyarados would make seas and rivers. Trevenant would plant new forests and grass! But why do we not do this? The few settlers do these things on a local scale, so why not for the whole planet?"
"It seems irrational not to do so," Tess said. "Nearly every vessel in this fleet is spaceworthy and capable of reaching Mars in a month. But if we win, then think about how people might think about Earth. They won't want to be stuck to a single planet."
"Current experiences in space are poorly communicated, subjected to extreme distortion, and are prone to mystical speculation," Bronze said. "The idea of space travel gives a different flavor to ideas of religion and Arceus. All through exploration, the feeling of sacredness is touched by anarchy from the outer dark. Even the ancients feared space! The Hisuian Coda says: And for a time the Mbelekoro retreated to the outer realms amid the Kingdom of Imbar, and there he waited until the time was right for him to return."
"Space is a struggle between the demons of evil and the old prayers and rituals," Tess said. "It is well and clear enough that the gods exist, but they are themselves bound to this Earth, the planet that the Hisuians called Exxaia and Imbar."
"Make a projection, Tess. What if I allowed people to take each spaceworthy Association vessel, equip them with prototype spacefolder engines, and let them go wherever they wished in space?"
"Over millennia, there would be countless genetic divisions of humans and Pokemon," Tess calculated. "Through foldpsace, that unimaginable region that neither Space nor Time can conceive of, matter nor energy, something nor nothing, one could traverse the length of the Milky Way in an interval that some would perceive as a few seconds."
"We are on the brink of singularity," Bronze said. "The Rorian Jihad held us back with its destruction of the creative impulse, but now, everything changes. Humanity won't stand for planet-bound logic any longer. And the Pokemon will follow us into the Abyss. I can see the forms and shapes that humans and Pokemon will take across the galaxy. All different, all marvelous, all still the Children of Arceus. I believe that if we are not destroyed, Arceus deems that our destiny is in the stars."
Aziz approached Bronze, bowed. "The fleet is ready to move to Castelia, sir. However, we have some new developments that require your attention."
"Report requested, Burseg Aziz," Bronze said. "I want it all!"
"Henry Sword and Casey Shield have requested to be put aboard the vessel. Professor Magnolia wishes for you to decline."
"Let them aboard. I will attend to them personally."
Tess gasped. "Bronze! Surely they cannot-"
"Send another report. The former Gym Challengers Bede, Marnie, and Hop Aurelius are to also board the L.S. Victory. The Gym Leaders will harbor Champion Leon Aurelius on the Withered Dart. I'll have anyone on the crew who objects to this be vented out into the atmosphere!"
Aziz left, leaving Tess full of contained wrath. "They are children! How could you do something like that?"
"These children have endured more than most adults. If we fail here, they will die along with all the rest of the world. It would dishonor their efforts to not have them present at the final battle. It's a cold decision, not a reckless one."
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Castelia City
A plasma howitzer is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.
-Emrett Dialogues, compiled works
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For almost a month, the control of the New Eclipse Alliance remained complete. The human and Pokemon slaves could not escape, and the Association armies couldn't get closer. Wall after wall of machine forces formed a protective shield around the partially rebuilt Castelia City, while watchdog vessels of the fleet maintained their airtight perimeter with heavily armed frigates.
Machine scouts hidden by Galar had analyzed the Vengeance Fleet and gave their summary report. Over the past few days, the fleet had tripled in size. After a furious debate with Eternatus, the two Eclipse Lords and their servants concluded that they were being faced with enough firepower to destroy them. The probability of defeat was high.
"We should send out more probes like the one used to make this fleet," Avery had suggested. "Then, we can hide in deep space, go into cryogenic sleep, and wait for centuries until we have amassed an unstoppable force! Or we could clone armies of genetically superior Pokemon-"
"Both proposals would take too much time to set into motion, even if we had started working on them a month ago," Cypress said. "And orbiting Martian and Lunar fast-flyers would shoot down any projectile that small leaving the atmosphere. That avenue is hopeless. As for the Pokemon, ten thousand new ships could be constructed in the time that it would take to make that plan work!"
"We must launch more battleships to increase our defenses."
Emrett shot back a response. "There is no time! Although our frigate force is now eight thousand strong, we cannot create many more robotic minds. Our resources are stripped, though our mining robots and mineral scanners are scouring the crust for additional veins of the necessary rare elements. There are no more replacements."
"Then we must attack first and alter the odds," Eternatus said, the psychic link rumbling through the air. "Even without replacement soldiers, we still have a superior quantity of weapons. Most of our fleet is now equipped with basic ray shielding."
"They have Mewtwo, the Swords of Justice, the Eon Duo, and Mbelekoro knows how many more fighters," Cypress said. "We'll need you in the battle. My cadre of demons can stave off most of our opposition. But Mewtwo will require something special to defeat."
"Deoxys?" Avery said.
"Yes. We captured it only a while ago," Emrett said. "Without Eternatus, we never would have found it. It is wholly under our control. The T-Probe saw to that."
"Bronze Tercano is unpredictable," Cypress added. "I expect even he will find a way to defeat Deoxys. But I have another idea; a weapon that will prove effective against the Army of Humanity, and one that they will never expect us to use. One that will infuriate them."
"Explain!" Eternatus asked.
"Cramped in slave pens and their respective Gyms, we have numerous captives and test subjects. According to our latest inventory, the human and Pokemon population we have working as slaves in our factories reaches about three million, in Unova alone. We will use human shields. Put them in harm's way, and any assault on Castelia City will result in millions of unnecessary deaths among the people they hoped to free! That will make the enemy think twice before launching their offensive."
"That would never work," Emrett said. "They are too determined. Tercano was willing to have people killed during the Rorian Jihad. This suggestion makes no sense."
"We'll make them look their victims in the face," Cypress countered. "It is something, at least. We'll place the slaves in cargo containers, attach suspensors to them, and then threaten to slaughter them if the Vengeance Fleet moves against us."
"Agreed," Eternatus said. "There must be no delay. The enemy army is already coordinating their assault. If we ride out to attack them, and then retreat back to Castelia in the case of a crippling attack, then we'll have another front to spread our losses at. Our strength is eight thousand ninety-two frigates, twenty thousand dogfighters, one million combat mechs, thirty thousand cloned Eclipse operatives, a handful of war-Pokemon, stolen technology, twelve nuclear bombs, several Elohim, and a clone of Red Satoshi. We will succeed."
"Should we use our nuclear arsenals?" Colress asked. "A targeted detonation over Galar would destroy the Vengeance Fleet."
"Ineffective," Emrett said. "Again, they have laser-defense systems. Do you have any more ideas to facilitate our survival?"
Colress withdrew a stack of papers from his laboratory coat's pockets. "Yes, sir. Take a look at these!"
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Proposals:
A: Use of Pokemon to facilitate the destruction of the Vengeance Fleet and all derivative universes.
B. Send part of our force into cryosleep past Martian-controlled space to be awakened after more time has passed.
C. Development of nanorobots with the capability to hijack human decision-making capabilities and eliminate variability. Infection of all surviving denizens. Estimation of successful use probability: High. Potential effectiveness of societal institution functionality varies from minimal to exceptionally high.
D. Destruction of Earth and/or all of its inhabitants.
...
"Hardly cause for optimism," Cypress said. "I reject Proposal A. Considering the small amount of Pokemon we possess, the slow speed of effect would render this effectively inapplicable. I reject Proposal B, because it does nothing to solve the present crisis. I reject Proposal C, as in current conditions, we would not be able to finish the project before we would be destroyed. Proposal D does not constitute a conclusive end to the problem, and would also prevent our own survival."
"Wheel Charon in here!" Avery demanded. "Does he have any bright ideas?"
Emrett gave the order, and eventually, the captive clone was brought into the central chamber of Eclipse Base Prime.
Charon, a Team Galactic engineer and geneticist now reviled in history, squirmed in his life-support socket, unable to move more than his head because he had no arms or legs. A retention socket connected the scientist's body to nutrient and waste tubes. Shortly after cloning him and erasing his rebellious memories, Emrett had seen to the removal of the man's limbs, making him more manageable. He was certainly not trustworthy, in sharp contrast to Avery or Colress.
Cypress gave the crippled man a cheery smile. "Good day, Stump. We have much work to do today."
"It's about time!" Charon said, his face pinching into a squint. "I've been lying still for hours. Luckily, I've had enough time to think up remarkable new plans and inventions. Of course, you bastards will throw me away as soon as my worth is expended." He nodded at Emrett. "You killed me in my past life, in a facility like this one."
"That was because I didn't trust you," Emrett said, smiling. "Your brain matter was enjoyable to experiment with. And don't be rude! This is a collaborative effort. You understand that a massive attack force is inbound for Castelia, and will destroy us all. I expect that Tercano will think up a special punishment for you."
"Why should I help you?"
"You have no choice. And don't you want to kill millions of people?"
After pouting for a moment, Charon licked his lips. "I would suggest a supervirus, but that would take years to develop. It was my idea to make an airborne variant of the Eternatus toxin, but we don't have enough of it. How about clones under our control that look like our enemies? They would cause confusion in our ranks."
"We have already considered these ideas and believe that they are ineffective due to the presence of certain variables."
"I have another question!" Charon demanded. "When the Dark Lord Eternatus descends once more on the field of battle, will another Darkest Day begin, the third in history?"
"Yes," Eternatus said.
"Then my next strategy will cripple the Association fleet!" Charon crowed. "We all know that our rate of attrition is much greater than the Vengeance Fleet's, and they have the gods on their side. But think of this. Imagine if we captured all the wild Pokemon we could with our combat mechs. They have capture nets, correct?"
"We have already been doing that," Emrett said. "They will not follow our orders. If you expect us to use them in battle, then I am afraid that your usefulness might have expired. No method of controlling Pokemon without the use of a Bond could ever exert influence on any force large enough to cause serious harm to the Vengeance Fleet."
"Ah, but when the Darkest Day begins, many of those Pokemon will Dynamax and Gigantamax! They will go wild and create much wanton destruction. Furthermore, bringing thousands of wild Pokemon to the site of the battle will cause hesitation among the Army of Humanity. They will not want to hurt innocent Pokemon!"
"Those wild Pokemon would cause just as much damage to our forces as the Vengeance Fleet," Cypress said. "Eternatus, could you control these Dynamaxed Pokemon?"
"Within certain limits. I could shore up our defenses and prevent us from being attacked by our own shock troopers. One of my master's faults was his shocking inability to recognize the usefulness of Pokemon."
"See?" Charon said. "We will bring thousands upon thousands of our captured Pokemon to the battle, and release them over the field! It will be chaos. And once Eternatus comes, the victory is nearly ours. And if all is lost, you could detonate our nuclear weapons aboard the ships and scuttle the fleet. We would leave nothing for our enemies to capture or salvage."
"Thank you, Charon," Cypress said, although he loathed giving compliments to the man. "This will also be part of our campaign. As for the human shields, we will also set the detonation signals for the cargo crates to an invisible electrical net outside Castelia City. If the Vengeance Fleet crosses it, then it will be they who kill those people, not us."
"Well?" Avery said. "What are we waiting for? We have a few days at most! We have to get to work!"
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Wyndon
Past glories are poor feeding.
-Hisuian lament
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I am the hawk. The hawk is my symbol.
Bronze Tercano, with his friends and family circled around him on the command bridge of the L.S. Victory, activated the comlink that would send his words to each and every vessel, craft, frigate, and soldier in the Vengeance Fleet.
"Warriors, I will not spare you from the truth that many of you will not return to your homes and families. But He who gave His life for you demands yours in return to preserve His creation! This is a battle worthy of you, a battle in which it is advantageous to conquer and glorious to die! Illustrious soldiers, general defenders of the Original One's kingdom, remember the example of all those before you who fought against evil. They have a place inscribed in Paradise! All those that die in the Holy Jihad are to go to Heaven."
"I will be amongst you at this time, not as for my recreation or sport, or to stand behind the lines and have my thralls fight in my stead as most leaders have done, but being resolved, in the midst and terror of battle, to live or die as one of you! I will lay down in my grave for Arceus, for my kingdom, for my people, and for my honor and blood. By this, we will set a glorious example for future mankind to follow! Historians will look back on this day and wonder if there is any higher plateau of bravery that humanity might reach!"
"Will we allow our audacious enemies to violate our women and the territory of our ancestral lands? Will you permit the army to survive that has struck terror into your families? You will not! You will ride out to meet them! Tear from their brows the tokens they have stolen! Teach all the universe that terrible wrath awaits those that invade the lands and homes of the People of the Earth! The result of our efforts will bring unclouded glory, and enduring peace unto the end of the world!"
"Soldiers of Roria! Of Galar! My brothers! When I saw into your eyes, I saw the same fear that would have taken my heart astray! Yes, a day may come when the courage of humanity fails, and we forsake the bonds of friendship with Pokemon. All those who say that they have no fear are liars or bloody killers. But it is not this day! This day we fight! Let me hear your voices!"
All the armies of the Vengeance Fleet cried out with one voice, and the din reached over the whole city and into the fields beyond. The animus was terrifying to Henry. These men would give their lives without a second thought if their deaths would further the cause of the Holy Jihad.
"There is not a man nor woman nor Pokemon here that will stand alone! Today we face the demons that are at our borders and take the fight to them! We will stand and fight. I have ordered all plans and instructions dealing with a retreat plan to be burned. We will not retreat. If we will not remain alive, we'll regroup in Heol!"
Bronze's entourage shifted nervously. Tess realized that it was a desperate gambit, yet another step in making the soldiers have no choice but to fight like hell. And not just rankers...Rorian Commandos, Gym Leaders, even Elite Four Members. This was the culmination of the ages, the final battle in which the world would blossom or burn.
"We will go our way into battle and will be accompanied by the spirits of millions of martyrs who have perished in the war against the Evil Djinn and his servants! Our ancient ancestors lived in fear, tortured and burned, murdered, butchered, and strangled by the Dark Lord's forces! And in this Typhoon Struggle we will break our enemy and bring salvation to our people, tried in the furnace of persecution, thirsting only for freedom, righteousness, and justice!"
"My soldiers, fight! My soldiers, scream! My soldiers, rage! All that shed blood together are brothers. Other men may debase themselves to destroy us by using thinking machines to kill for them! It's time we took the thinking out of thinking machines! Scrap them! Melt them to raw iron! Let them have their machines and lose their glory. I will retain mine! We stand here today because of what we are!"
"Let us meet our end with our heads held high and in the sun. We will not fight on the level of our enemies because of what we would become. We must not be ashamed of the things we have done, for now we do not fight to seek solely glory but because the other options are horrific beyond comprehension. Death is the end and Gift of all Men. Meet it with grace if you must and know that the fight will continue on."
"Now, for all that you hold dear, for the Earth, and for Arceus, I bid you stand, Men of the South, East, North, and West!"
The massive engines of the Vengeance Fleet pushed to maximum impetus, and then they were off, moving slowly, surely, into the North. Galar was behind them, war in front.
Bronze sat in his floater chair, and deactivated the comsystem. "Well, I'm glad that's over! I hardly knew how much longer I could keep them occupied."
"For what, Tercano?" Magnolia asked. "More manipulative tactics?"
"Why, of course not! I merely had to wait until Mewtwo was back inside the ship before I could activate the ray shields again. Look behind you, Magnolia."
Mewtwo appeared from a bay door, and stood at attention. "Bronze, I carry reports from the north! Our enemies are preparing for an offensive strike!"
"Estimations show that we will catch sight of them in about five hours," Lusamine said. "Expect treachery and wicked tactics."
"Oh, how the end of eras comes about," Bronze murmured. "The days are old and weary. The Jihad will never end in the hearts of Men. But a flame has been lit, a threat in its own right. We will not go so gently into oblivion. We will rage against the dying of this world."