Lelystad
28 September 2019
20 February 1639
It's just a normal day in the port of Lelystad, except for the strange numbers of people gathering in the port today. Previously, a similar event occurred during the arrival of the Erusean ships, but days later they quickly dispersed. Now, they're coming again to see another rare ship that would be anchored on the harbor for a day. Most of them brought cameras, indicating that they are reporters with their teams.
Looking into the great Merzen Ocean, there were 3 ships that were sailing here from the north. Those ships though, somehow weren't emitting black smoke or something like what the others ships into this world normally would do. Judging from their flags though, it would be easily known who they belong to.
"Ah, the Mirishial Navy. So they're finally coming eh?"
The sentences that Jonathan heard made him curious, so he decided to ask about it.
"What do you mean by they finally come, Mr. Herman?"
Hearing the question asked by Jonathan, Herman turned his attention from those ships onto him.
"Well, shortly after the appearance of your Arsenal Bird, the Mirishial asked permission to dock in our port to resupply and rest."
"Why though, aren't both of you supposed to be enemies?"
"Because they want to do an expedition to the west to investigate it. And then, we thought that you are the Ancient Sorcerous Empire, a common enemy for all of us."
"Ah, understood. Also, can you tell me what this world is called again?"
"Otril."
"Thank you."
"Well, I need to go now, good luck with the Milishian diplomats!"
Herman offered his right hand to Jonathan which was immediately accepted. After shaking for some seconds, he immediately walked away.
"Wait, what does he mean by good luck?" Jonathan asked with his left eyebrow raised.
Minutes later, the Holy Mirishial ships were docked at the port. After a man in a black purple uniform with a black hat walked out from the ships, the Consul who was stationed there began to greet him.
"Welcome to the territory of Paganda, Commodore!"
"Thank you for your warm welcome Mr. Consul, I never thought that we would just visit the said country called Erusea like, on the next day without any rest," said Commodore Nicolae Ion Malea.
The Consul only can sigh when he receives a somewhat cold response. But given the understanding of his condition, he just put it aside out of the table.
"Well, we didn't know that they would come here first after all."
"I think you are right. I should prepare myself. Have you got the person who would talk with those Erusean?"
"Yes, a senior staff member here."
"Ah, that's good to hear. If you allow it, I will go to rest now."
"Sure, have a nice rest."
Farbanti
On the side roads, two Erusean Army personnel were walking through the fog that was engulfing the city. Their hands were holding Beretta AR70/90 rifles, the standard issue rifle for the Erusean army. Soon, they stopped walking after one of them decided to stop and look for something.
"What happened?"
"I hear something, from there," he said while pointing at the source of sound, a building.
His partner began to look in the direction. The new rules in Farbanti stated that the citizens are not allowed to leave their homes between 9 pm and 6 am, so when they hear a sound, they need to check it. Seconds later, it was clear that the sound was similar to a car engine.
"Isn't that building the headquarters of External Intelligence or something?"
After remembering the district details, he now remembered it.
"Hmm, you are right. Seems like we can just ignore it," said the soldier while lowering his guard followed by his partner. After all, the Intelligence department got special treatment like the soldiers and government employees.
Located on the western side from the Ministry of Defence building, a certain building stood proudly with its four pillars, holding the front part of the building. On top of it, eight flags of the Kingdom of Erusea were flown, like the one on the Erusean Armed Forces headquarters. That building was the headquarters of Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, or General Directorate for External Security in Osean.
The car was opened, showing a man in his mid fifties. That man was Jacques Lacarrière, the head of the Secret Weapon Analysis Division.
He then walked to enter the building, looking for a certain room which was not too far from where he is currently. But suddenly, he decided to take an elevator to quickly reach the room.
Soon, he entered an empty room with only one person on the inside. There, from that person back, he clearly knows who that person is.
"Ventre!"
Ventre, or Jean Ventre is one of his subordinates in the Division. The youngest one in the division, and judging by his appearance, it seems that he was in early 30s. Hearing the call, he turned his head around and looked at a man standing behind him. What he saw was a black-haired man wearing a black jacket. His face was expressionless as usual.
"Yes, sir. What do you need?"
"I need you to look at this position with the satellite. Émin told me that there was something there last time he checked it, but now he is in the hospital. Can you do it?"
"Sure!"
Ventre then shifted the wheelchair he sat on to the left in order to access the computer there. Then, he opened something that then, shows the satellite imagery of this world on the big screen in front of them.
"Now, move it to the big continent in the middle."
"Aight!"
There are 15 big landmasses on this planet, and every person was given one big landmass to be checked. Ventre himself was investigating the landmass located right on the east of Erusea while Émin the one on the north east of the landmass he is currently investigated. But, yesterday, he got into a car accident so Lacarrière decided to continue his work. He himself kinda annoyed by this but, he could only nod and then moved the mouse on his hand over the keyboard. The satellite image from Strangereal was replaced with a new world called Otril using Osean satellites.
"Is this a new image?"
"Yes sir, we actively take a new image every two days as ordered."
"Good. Now, go to the harbor on the southwest."
The mouse on his hand then moved to the direction given by Lacarrière.
"Nice, it seems we got it. Now, zoom it!"
Ventre then pressed a button on the keyboard. Everytime he pressed it, the image became bigger and clearer.
"Alright, that's it!"
Ventre tried to search what Lacarrière was looking for. And after looking around, he thinks that he finally found it.
"Sir, is this what you are looking for?" He asked while pointing one of his fingers to a ship.
"Yep, the Osean stealth destroyer, a secret ship that was not very well known, really interesting to be say."
"Uhhh... If it is a secret, why does this country manage to possess it?"
"That is what we are trying to understand. And now, there is another thing that we need to look for."
Ventre was taken aback by Lacarrière's last sentence.
"There are more of them?"
"Well, not really, but first, swipe the image to the north east."
Ventre cannot do anything but obey his superior order. After seconds had passed, they finally saw a base that seemed to be isolated from the rest of the country.
"Can you put the previous images of these bases?"
"Yes!"
His hands then typed something on the keyboard for seconds, then moved the mouse to somewhere before then clicked it. Three images of the bases taken roughly for a week are now shown on the screen.
"Hmm, it was covered by clouds for at least four days..."
Lacarrière then wrote something on his note before saying, "Zoom it!"
Seconds later, he was taken aback by the images he just saw. His eyes were widened, and his jaws dropped. It was really unexpected for him, even his friend who gave him this information didn't mention it at all.
"Hah, hah. For God's sake, I..." He couldn't finish his sentence, as he is still trying to control his breath.
"Ventre, you would go with me to the meeting since Émin is hospitalized currently."
"Ye... Yes sir, understood," he was annoyed by his superior who likes to do something so suddenly. Problem is, he was also bringing his subordinates into this.
"Prepare yourself! Complete the previous report for Leifor while I prepared the report for this one."
Ventre watched Lacarrière walking out of the office until he was out of his vision. Then, he looked at the watch on his right hand.
"Sigh, seems like going early is a bad idea. Now I understand why they are always going late."
Two days had passed, and now both Ventre and Lacarrière were in the Ministry of Defense building. Footsteps can be heard in the hall as they were walking to a certain meeting room.
"What should I do there, Sir?"
"Just act like what you usually do in meetings."
"Ah, understood. So I don't need to say anything right?"
"Well, if you have something to say, just say it."
"Noted," Ventre said with a nod as a sign of understanding with a tired face as he needed to rush his work, yet Lacarrière only took the report about two countries.
"Damn you boss," he muttered.
Not long after, they were stopped by several guards who were asking for their identity card. Since both of them were employees of DGSE, they were passing it easily, especially with Lacarrière's letter given by the Minister himself.
"Take a seat there," he said to Ventre after they entered the meeting room.
"I guess all of us are here now," the Minister of Defense, Aryye said.
"Yes, Minister," General Theo van Deventer replied.
"Alright."
After that, all the people were looking at Aryye who sat in the mid center on the north.
"Now, without wasting any seconds, the meeting to discuss this new world, or Otril according to the information given by the diplomatic team, would be started. But first, Deventer, what do you want to say before?" Aryye asked the General regarding information he got before.
"Yes Minister, it is about my soldiers who had captured a Nordennavic spy in the city of Selatapura."
"Huh, Nordennavic?"
"Yes, apparently."
"Strange... Very strange."
"Yes, like, aren't Nordennavic located on the north of Emmeria, or Estovakia?" Said an Air Marshall.
Another General that was too confused doesn't know how to react to that information, and just says, "Yeah, that's true. It is...how to say it, like, uhh..."
"I don't know, I got B in geography after all but, my point still stands, what the hell are they doing on here," said another Air Marshall.
"For this, I think we shall just leave it to the DGSI," the Minister said.
"Understood. I would inform my subordinates about this later," General van Deventer answered.
"And Admiral, what do you want to say before?"
"It was about the Osean Next Generation Aircraft Carrier that was abandoned near Selatapura."
"Ah, the OFS Admiral Andersen, right?"
"Yes. This morning, we successfully towed her back to the sea."
"Very nice, now we can have two aircraft carriers. How about the aircraft there, I heard her hangar was full of planes?"
"In a very good condition, just need some repairs then all is good."
The Minister nodded with a smiling face full of happiness. He never expected that they would get a free brand new next generation super aircraft carrier fully loaded with aircraft, especially from their foe. Then, he looking back at Lacarrière and say,
"Now you can start it, Lacarrière."
Lacarrière nodded and began to stand up.
"Well sir, it is kinda unbelievable," he said while giving a sign to Ventre to show the presentation.
In front of them, a holographic map of Otril was suddenly present right on their table.
" Woah, never know that you all have finished it."
"Well, it is our job after all. So to begin with, there are five territories that we have investigated so far. Additionally, we have identified three of them as countries with the help of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and we will focus on them for now."
All the people in the room nodded as a sign of understanding.
"First of all, the country called Imperial Federation of Leifor is the first country that we contacted. They are the allies of a super power called Empire of Mu while possessing 1920s era warships so far, while Mu possess 1940s ones. Kind of contradicting if they are really allies. But, their army is not that bad since Leifor also has tanks."
"So you want to say that Leifor and Mu, despite that they are allies and literally neighboring each other, have a difference in military technology at a range of twenty years?"
"Yes, that's right. But, the Leifor Navy also operates some aircraft carriers which are similar to Mu so, maybe it is not that bad. We assume that Leifor didn't have enough money to procure new equipment. After all, based on information we got from the diplomatic team, there was a war between Mu and Holy Mirishial around three years ago, quite similar to the Circum Pacific War as they are separated by an ocean, but much longer."
"Longer, what do you mean by that?"
"Well sir, the war lasted for roughly six years."
"What?!"
Immediately, the meeting room was full of people talking about how long the war lasted, which seems to be unacceptable. Most of the wars in Strangereal only lasted for months to almost one year at best, except for the Osean War which lasted for five years. So, when they heard the war lasted for six years, it was too long to make them think it was a made up story.
"What the fuck, a fucking six years? Hell, even Osea only needed roughly one month to set foot on Yuktobania mainland from the start of the war!"
"That's right, it was unacceptable. Six years is too long for a super power. Wait, what about the Holy Mirishial technology?"
"According to our observation, they are on 1960s era at best. "
"Are you fucking kidding me?! "
"Well, probably they didn't have any aces. May I know who was the victor of this war?"
"It was the Muan, Mr. Minister."
"Hoo, interesting. It seems that the Muan have a muted pilot on their side. "
"Well, that's probably the reason."
"But if Mu have aces, the war should be over in less than a year right?"
"So Mu also didn't have any ace eh?"
"Alright stop it, we will discuss it for another time or Mr. Lacarrière won't be able to continue his presentation!"
"Ah, sorry then. Please continue."
"Well, we also thought that it was unbelievable but, here it is, both Mu and Leifor already have a jet powered aircraft, so we can safely say that they are not that backwards. Might be comparable to the F-4 and MiG-21 but, we doesn't saw any missiles near of them."
"Interesting."
"Now, let's move to the Holy Mirishial Empire."
The holographic images were moved from Mu and Leifor to the Holy Mirishial Empire. And by that, the Officials and Minister Aryye know that they are really separated by an ocean, although there were some islands lying on there between the two superpowers.
"Here is the Holy Mirishial Empire. We don't really know how big they are or where their capital is, but we can take a look at some of their military bases using the satellites."
He then moved the holographic map to a harbor on the southwest, and two images were popping out which seemed to show one ship but in a different perspective.
"This is a ship that was used by the Osean Maritime Defense Forces, and additionally their newest ship." He stopped for a while to take a deep breath, causing the Military Officials to think that it was a very serious piece of equipment.
"The Osean designated it as a Stealth Destroyer, a destroyer that was designed primarily for stealthy profile and land attacks capability. Our Navy never encountered it, neither did the air force. Best we can get was some images from our intel and satellite images."
Lacarrière can feel that all people were looking at him with eyes full of disbelief and curiosity. He knows why, but he put it aside as it was nothing compared to the next thing he will show to them.
"Is it the one that you mentioned before?" An Admiral named Claudio Matarella asked.
"Yes, it is the one that was previously stationed on Selatapura, but was called back to Osea two days before we start the attack."
"Ah, so that's why I feel that I have heard it before."
Lacarrière just standing there before returning to the map. His right hand then moved the mouse to swift the holographic maps into the North East. Three images then popping out to show three giant vehicles.
"And here is the big ones. The secret base of the Holy Mirishial Empire, located on a stranded location, for me at least. But, there are no nearby cities from the secret base, really."
Stunned, is the best word to describe the situation. All of the military officials and minister of defense were frozen in their own position, unable to spell any single word. They simply cannot accept what they just saw even with their own eyes. Super weapons owned by a super power on this world seemed to be acceptable but, there are three of them.
The right hand of Admiral Lorenzo Dragone was shaking so hard when he raised it, and his finger was pointing to the position of those super weapons before he said, "Is this real, or you just made it up?"
He exhales for a second after hearing it. Although he was a bit annoyed, it was normal for Admiral Dragone to ask. But when he was about to answers it, General van Deventer said,
"Admiral, keep in mind that this gentleman is one of the best DGSE researchers. He is the reason why we can take Gunther region easily, aside from our drones. " He said with a lower tones on the drones section.
His sentences reminded Dragone of the meeting months before, when Lacarrière presented his investigation about the IUN-PKF forces in the Gunther region, indicating that this guy isn't an ordinary researcher. He then moved his right hands back to the armchair and closed his eyes. After some seconds, he opens its back.
"Sorry for the interruption, please continue."
Lacarrière nodded and continued his presentation.
"So then, let's start with this one."
One of the images then got bigger while the others disappeared.
"Isn't that the one used in... uh..."
"Yes, used in the Emmeria-Estovakia war. Honestly, I don't know how they will use this thing as we could not see any refueling tanker on any airfield, or maybe we missed it. So then, I guess its operational capabilities would be limited."
The explanation gave them a sense of relief, but still there is a question remaining.
"With those equipment, I don't understand why the Holy Mirishial Empire got defeated in the war. Was it because of incompetencies or, is there any other explanation?"
The question caused others to begin thinking about it too. It doesn't make sense for a country that big and possessing three super weapons to be defeated by a 1940s era country.
"There is information I got from the diplomatic teams or to be precise, the military personnel who got deployed to guard them."
"What is it about?"
"The Holy Mirishial Empire equipment isn't that great as they are supposed to be. To simplify it, most of their equipment was a copy of the so-called Ancient Empire, but they failed to copy all of it. And most of their copies were, according to what they heard, a garbage."
The word garbage instantly made them understand why they lost the war.
"Ah, understood," Aryye said while nodding like the others.
"But, it seems that those super weapons are new toys. So then, we can expect a revenge from the Holy Mirishial Empire soon. They of course would do it better than the previous war, so we should prepare ourselves and approach them with great cautions."
"How about the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have you informed them about this? "
"Yes sir, I have informed them about this before going here. "
"Very nice. "
The meetings would continue for the next three hours before it ended.
Notes:
1. DGSE
Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, shortened as DGSE, is Erusean counterparts of Osean Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) , or recently known as Osean Intelligence Agency (OIA). Generally being known for their success on gathering information about the Arsenal Bird and IUN-PKF forces that led to Erusea initial quick victory against the IUN-PKF.
2. Circum-Pacifc War started on September 27, and Operation Footprint (Osean first step of amphibious invasion on Yuktobania) was executed on November 1.