War Room, Great General Staff Building, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
"With 100 Lightning model slidercars, Union Slider can lift 126000 soldiers with gear from Esthirant to the Riem border in a week," said Gromel Huxet.
"That is another army added to the front," observed Chancellor Lupasa.
Everyone in the war room watched as a military aide pushed a wooden rectangular black block representing a field army from Esthirant across the table to the Parpaldia's north-eastern border. The block joined four other such blocks facing against a blue block on the other side of the border.
Lupasa continued, "Combined with the armies to be mustered at the border and those arriving from other lines, we'll have five field armies at the border ready to invade Riem and finally resolve the Schiem-Hoffan Question on our terms, Your Imperial Majesty. The time for transportation will be faster than the time we take to mobilize. The Riemans don't have slider lines directly to the border, so they'll be forced to send reinforcements by marching or by ship, which will arrive too late."
Emperor Ludius I stroked his greying beard as he eyed the blue star-shaped blocks supporting the rectangular blue block. "At a ratio of five to one our attack can be expected to overcome even the star forts of Riem. Is this correct, Chancellor?"
Lupasa nodded. "Yes, Your Imperial Majesty. We do want a five to one advantage to attack fortified positions. This is not even accounting for the naval landings we'll make with the Imperial Marines to capture their ports and coastal defences and thus remove their nearest fleet transport capability."
The Emperor looked at the diamond-shaped black blocks dwarfing the opposing fleet located on the right side of the table and nodded. "So the matter will be settled. Once the remaining gaps in the slider network are complete and the armies are fully equipped by mid-spring of 1640, we'll have a war. The last question to answer the Question then, Chancellor, is how should we formally justify to the world at large what we know to be the liberation of our fellow Parpaldians in Hoffan. I've been informed that you now have an answer."
Lupasa smiled as the officers and titans of industry all looked at him with the Emperor. He had spent many hours on the Question since the last king of Riem died without a direct heir, leaving an anti-Parpaldian nephew to take the Rieman throne in a disputed succession. When he finally thought of the answer while enjoying afternoon tea about a week ago, he immediately sent a spell-locked crystal message to the Emperor. Today, he will reveal his reasoning for the first time.
"The Treaty of 1612 guarantees that the Duchies of Schiem and Hoffan remain inseparable. The new king is weak and under severe pressure from his people to ratify the proposed constitution that fully integrates Schiem into the Kingdom of Riem. Hoffan Parpaldians are already objecting to the offending clause, but the Riem king will still sign the constitution at the end of this winter parliamentary session. By doing so, Riem will have broken the treaty, which justifies us to take both Schiem and Hoffan!"
The war room erupted into applause that outmatched the one given to the Emperor's entrance five long hours ago. As Lupasa politely bowed, he remembered the rallying cry that some of the Hoffans reportedly recited at their protests and would soon grace the voices of Parpaldians across the empire, 'Schiem and Hoffan are and shall remain forever inseparable!'
The door behind the applauding crowd opened and someone passed a personal crystal to the Imperial Guardsman there. After the Guardsman checked the crystal, he briskly walked over to Emperor Ludius I. The taps of his feet against the marble floor caused the applause to end as everyone's attention shifted to him as he passed through.
"Spell-locked message for you, Your Imperial Majesty." The Guardsman handed the crystal over and stepped back.
Ludius walked closer to the Emperor, but he maintained proper distance to not see the contents of the crystal as Emperor Ludius I recited his name to the advanced personal crystal. A chiming tone indicated the disabling of the spell-lock.
The Chancellor saw his liege's eyes widen with alarm as he silently read the message.
Finally, the Emperor looked up from the crystal. "I need a direct manacom to the Home Fleet!" he bellowed. The Guardsman was already running out of the war room as Emperor Ludius I elaborated to the rest of the stunned men in the room. "There's an unknown fleet of ironclads approaching on our eastern sea. The Home Fleet has already departed to intercept!"
Combat Information Center, USS Wasp LHD-1
To Captain Nicolo Karlin's surprise, the captain of the Wasp did not lead him up the stairs of the ship towards where he assumed the bridge was. Instead, they travelled down some more corridors until they reached a dark room filled with people looking at various buttons and displays.
Curiously, the buttons did not appear to have crystal tops, and instead glowed in various colours like yellow, red, or green. Nicolo then reminded himself that these Americans did not use magical technology. It was impressive that they had managed to emulate the colour effects of crystals without them. The Muans had nothing publicly like the American black display which showed a ring of green circles with a moving line and dots.
The person sitting in front of the display said something to Captain Lasky. He nodded and turned to Nicolo.
"Captain Karlin, welcome to the USS Wasp's Combat Information Center. This room is not the actual bridge of the ship, but it is her heart. I do apologize if you feel misled from my invitation earlier."
Nicolo only just nodded as he tried to understand the purpose of the room. He could not wrap his head around the idea that a bridge was not necessarily the heart of a ship. There were simply not enough gauges on Parpaldian vessels to necessitate a separate room from the bridge.
"You have two flights of six of what I assume to be Parpaldian wyverns headed for us. We have communications with our two sailors left back on your ship. In order to prevent a tragedy for your wyvern riders, I need you to speak into this device here to one of your crew and get them to communicate to those wyverns somehow. Are you able to do this?"
"Yes, I can."
"Good." A sailor picked up a black device connected by a curly black wire to a nearby console and handed it over to Captain Lasky. Lasky spoke into it, and the device spoke back with a distorted voice very different from a manacom. Lasky held it in front of Nicolo's mouth. "Just speak when ready, Captain Karlin."
"Alright then. Umm, First Mate, can you hear me?"
There was a few seconds before a distorted voice came on. "Captain Karlin. Good to hear your voice. It sounds weird coming from this American's not-manacom. It's a bit fuzzy."
"First Mate, the Americans have spotted wyverns headed our way. They believe it's probably the Imperial Navy. Has anyone contacted you on the bridge's manacom yet?"
"Well no, Captain."
"Then call the Port Authority. Allegedly the Americans are capable of harming the wyvern riders flying for us. They do not wish to use their capabilities. Ask the Port Authority if they can contact the Navy."
"As you wish, Captain."
There was a tense few minutes as the First Mate managed to get a manacom to the Port Authority. The PA manacom operator had to confirm that the Glory Hunter was calling. Then she got her supervisor onto the call. A confusing three-way call ensued as everyone involved struggled to establish what exactly was going on via the mixed usage of magic and non-magic communication devices. Eventually, the First Mate was able to switch onto a manacom frequency with someone in the Home Fleet, who then directed the First Mate to switch to another manacom frequency. It was agreed beforehand that Captain Nicolo would be the one talking over the not-manacom to the Glory Hunter's manacom.
"This is Commander Sevren Laos of the wyvern squadron based on the wyvern carrier Arkanos attached to the Home Fleet of the Imperial Navy of Parpaldia. Who am I speaking to?" The whistling sound in the background indicated to Nicolo that the commander was currently flying.
"This is Captain Nicolo Karlin of the Parpaldian kraken hunter, Glory Hunter. I am on a warship belonging to the United States of America Navy. I am speaking to you via their non-magical manacom through my ship's manacom to yours."
"Say again?"
"I repeat. I am Captain Nicolo of the Glory Hunter. I am at present a guest onboard a United States Navy warship."
"I read you. You're onboard a warship of this United States Navy. Are you unharmed?"
"Yes, I am fine."
"Is there any leader of the warship with you?"
"Captain Lasky of the United States Navy is with me. He is aware of your twelve wyverns headed for them. Hence why I am talking to you."
"I would like to talk to this Captain Lasky."
"He does not speak the Parpaldian language. They have a translator who speaks Lourin, however."
"I do not speak Lourin myself. You are going to have to translate for me."
"Yes, Sir."
"Ask Captain Lasky why he has brought a fleet of ironclads towards our shores."
As Nicolo did as he was told. He became a bit concerned whether there would be significant mistranslations from the Parpaldian to Lourin and then to American. Eventually, Captain Lasky replied through his translator.
"For the honourable Commander of the Imperial Navy, the United States of America has sent a fleet to open diplomacy and trade relations with the Parpaldian Empire."
There was a pause. "You send an armed fleet to initiate diplomacy?"
"The United States simply wishes to convey that we are a strong nation with peaceful intentions. We wish to ensure the safety of our envoys."
The sailor eying the green gauge said something to Captain Lasky. He replied to the sailor, then continued, "You'll notice we have a couple of flying aircraft arriving in the airspace around you. I suggest you don't try to approach them."
A burst of noise that boomed and then receded in a manner completely unfamiliar to Nicolo sounded from the device. Commander Laos's voice returned after about ten seconds of silence. "Well then, Captain Lasky. I suppose you have my squadron in check, so I suppose my only course of action will be to personally meet your envoys to determine the nature of your nation's peaceful intentions. I've noticed that one of your ships appears to have a flight deck, otherwise known as a floating runway. Is this correct?"
"You are correct, Commander Laos. Do you wish to land one of your wyverns and board my ship?"
"I will board personally with one other, on the condition that you bring Captain Karlin out in plain view onto your flight deck, so we can see he is unharmed. The rest of my squadron will circle over your ship."
Captain Lasky gave what sounded like orders to the crew inside the center before replying, "I accept your conditions. I'll bring him, myself, and our envoys onto the deck to meet with you."
"Very good then." The manacom call ended.
The American placed the device back into its holder on the console. "Your navy appears to have reasonable leaders, Captain Nicolo."
"All Parpaldian naval officers are gentlemen, Captain Lasky, whether on the water or in the air. You should offer some of your green tea to Commander Laos."
"I accept your suggestion."
Helicopter Deck, USS Wasp LHD-1
Howard Leach gulped in a bit of nervousness as two of the creatures circling the air started slowly spiralling down in a wide arc. He was informed that SAC's aerial reconnaissance had determined two types of the flying creatures. One with a wingspan of 7 meters, and the other with the same wingspan of a Cessna variant at 11 meters. The ones flying down were the larger of the two.
Howard resisted the urge to cover his ears as the lead animal suddenly unleashed an intense bellow as it passed low over the deck and began another circle for what would probably be its final turn. To his surprise and disappointment, the scaly creature's roar was more reminiscent of a deep old fog horn rather than the roar of a dinosaur from Jurassic Park III. It was perhaps closer to the call of a toad's bellow.
Finally, the two so-called wyverns swooped down and landed with a running jog across the deck one after another. Howard could hear the uncomfortable scraping of their claws on the deck, and he thought he heard a groan from one of the sailors on deck as highly visible scratch marks damaged the deck's coating of paint
Upclose, Howard can see that the wyverns' wings folded up nicely like those of a bird, becoming flush against its body as they began testing the hardness of the helicopter deck with their teeth and claws. One raised its scaled head and made a clucking noise, which caused the other to do the same in a reply.
The wyvern pilots were seated in fully harnessed saddles that matched the big convex curve that interrupted the front of the otherwise concave curve of the wyvern's back. The pilots were fully shielded by the neck and the divot from the air as they sat in a position similar to motorcyclists and made their charges turn around to face Howard and the other gathered people directly.
He watched the pilots jump down from the wyverns and begin walking over in black wool or cotton uniforms with crimson bands around the neck and wrists and brass buttons. The two wore black lobster-tail-shaped helmets and WWI-esque flying goggles, with the lead having a brass insignia mounted onto the front of the helmet. Leather holsters on the right side of their hips concealed what appeared to be pistols of some kind.
They were about halfway to the group when one of the wyverns behind them decided to take a dump right there on the deck. A present of large light brown blobs no less than what a horse might make was delivered to the Wasp.
"Shit," cursed a sailor.
Howard found himself quietly chuckling at the sailor's tortured pains of anguish. Someone was going to have to clean up once the oversized birds were gone. That was one disadvantage of handling flying things that presumably didn't leak flammable liquids all the time like with planes.
The two pilots finally halted about three meters away from Howard and Captain Lasky before standing at attention. Captain Karlin and Doctor Banks translated as the one with the insignia spoke.
"I am Commander Sevren Laos of the Imperial Navy. My subordinate over here is Lieutenant Demios."
"I am Captain Lasky of the United States Navy, and this gentleman here is Howard Leach, envoy and hopefully future ambassador of the United States. Together, we welcome you both onto my ship, the USS Wasp, first of her class."
Howard slowly approached the two other-worldly humans with the Captain, and everyone shook hands.
"I have a question I would like answered first, Captain Lasky," said Commander Laos.
"Ask away."
"From where under the Four Stars did those super-fast flying machines of yours come from?"
Three long hours later, Howard watched the two wyverns take off for the black ironclad fleet that formed a line of eight ships across from them.
"Interesting, sails are partially furled and no funnels to be seen, yet still travelling at the speed expected of an early coal-fired ironclad. Those wind crystals of the Parpaldians must give them a lot of power," remarked FSO William Harris.
"Lend me your binoculars," ordered Howard.
The FSO passed them over without fuss. As Howard looked along the side of the ship, FSO Harris continued reporting his observations. "I reckon those cannons spread out along the firing holes of the ship's broadside are about 9 and 6-inch calibre guns. Certainly big enough to put holes into our hull if they have the range and accuracy at this distance."
"What period would these be equivalent to?"
"I'd say the mid to late 1800s, Mister Leach. A bit after the time Commodore Perry opened up Japan to the world."
"And awakened a monster. Luckily, we don't plan to sell guns this time around."
"May we learn from the mistakes of the past. The Zodiacs are coming back."
Howard turned Harris's binoculars on the RHIBs. Then on the kraken hunter ship. The corpse of future calamari was slowly dragged away from the middle of the two fleets. All three of the Parpaldian guests had sworn kraken was delicious when grilled with salt or deep-fried while everyone was having lunch in the wardroom during a break in negotiations. The circling wyverns and two F13F-4 Tomcats had withdrawn from the skies once it became clear it was going to take a while.
"Scrub the deck until it's clean enough to lick, Seaman!"
Howard put the binoculars down and turned around to get a look at the shouting voice. The anti-democratic First Mate was overseeing the deck repairs with two sailors cleaning and painting away.
He turned back to Harris. "We have to tail behind the Parpaldian fleet. What's the speed they travel at?"
"Reportedly, they do the equivalent of 13.5 knots. So almost half the USS Wasp's 22 knots. By the time we arrive at the port, it will be dark."
"Disappointing, I hoped we'll be able to awe the locals on the shore."
"At least it means traffic to our accommodations won't be bad."
The negotiations allowed for a Light Armoured Reconnaissance Batallion to drive into the city with their 4 LAVs to escort the mission, who themselves would be travelling via the intriguingly named slidercars. Supposedly, a slidercar floated above the ground, which sounded magical to Howard.
They would rent, using part of the mission's actual gold, one of the mansions on Esthirant's 7th Avenue as its owner was away until a more permanent building could be brought closer to the capital's existing embassies after the official establishment of diplomatic relations.
Most importantly, they would be able to meet with the Director of the Third Foreign Affairs Department, who had full authority to represent the Empire. Until then, a guide and a small Parpaldian security team would take them and escorting Marines on a tour of the city tonight and tomorrow morning.
If anything happened, the LAVs would thunder wherever they were and get them out of the city. If needed, the Marines would occupy one of the large green parks located in the city for extraction by rotodyne.
The Zodiacs were now back on board and the Glory Hunter was now headed back to its previous destination. One by one, the Parpaldian ironclads slowly turned around and led the way to their home for the US Expeditionary Strike Group… and the Carrier Strike Group beyond the horizon that was the source of the earlier supporting Tomcats.
Esthirant Military Wharves, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
The Imperial Navy pilot boat approached the two Landing Craft Utility vessels at a blazing relative speed of about 30 knots compared to the LCU's 11 knots. Captain Karlin had not been embellishing his claim that Parpaldian wooden-hulled launches were capable of matching the speeds of regular US Navy RHIBs.
The Parpaldian naval pilot introduced himself to the LCUs crew, and after spending time getting his list of commands translated to English and adjusted to US measurements and direction terms, guided the LCUs around the hidden rocks that plagued the corners of the wharf waterways.
As the two Landing Craft Utility vessels noisily approached aftwards to the end of the pier, several Marines jumped off onto the stone pavement to secure the vessels to the iron bollards along the pier. The aft ramps were lowered, and two 12.8 tonnes LAV-25s rolled off one after the other from each LCU. The four total LAVs then rolled up in front and behind two apparently levitating single-car blue painted trams.
Vlad Baris walked off the LCU with the rest of the envoys and dismounted Marines towards the group of six Parpaldians waiting near the slidercars. The crew of the LCU would stay behind as guests of the pilot houses on the wharf. There was a man and woman dressed in a black suit and dress respectively. The other four were men dressed in the same fashion as a Pinkerton agent might once have, with not a single clean-shaven face among them. As the envoys moved ahead of the Marines, the man and the woman bowed and curtsied.
"Greetings envoys of the United States of America. I am Shimon Hague," said the man in Lourin.
"And I am Volentine Vanherm," finished the lady.
"We are aides from the Third Department of Foreign Affairs," continued Shimon. "For the duration of your stay, we are at your service."
Howard and William quickly introduced themselves and then Louise and Vlad as the principal translators. Everyone shook hands.
"We'll first be showing you to your accommodations at the Tesa family home on 7th Avenue," said Shimon. "Please sort into two groups to fit into the two slidercars we have here. Here is a list of directions for your lead wheeled car driver along with instructions on following traffic laws."
The piece of paper was quickly passed to PFC Sharps, who packed himself into the lead LAV.
"Do you have wheeled cars of your own?" asked Howard.
"No, but we know of another country that has them. Our wheeled vehicles are all horse or landwyrm-drawn carriages or traction motors."
Doctor Banks had to double-check with the two on their answer before translating.
"What are landwyrms and traction motors?"
Shimon pointed up at a large red flag flying above the wharves with what appeared to be two dragons spitting flame. "A landwyrm is a large animal about one story tall with a large protective shell. Some people erroneously call it a land dragon, because it can spit fireballs. However, it has not part of the dragon family. Before slidercars became commonplace, landwyrms would be seen pulling heavy loads such as double-decker carriages. Nowadays you'll see them at the zoo, on parades, or on expensive tours. A traction motor is a wheeled vehicle that uses a charge gems arranged into a motor that turns the wheels, and is used mainly in farming."
"Why would there not be motorcars then if traction motors exist?"
"Because if one would pay the expense of using charge-gems.
"Ah, I see. Thank you for the clarification."
As everyone sorted themselves, Vlad noticed that black gems embedded in shaped stone were placed into the ground beneath, behind, and ahead of the trams in a pattern forming what may be the equivalent of tramway tracks.
Vlad found himself with William in the rear slidercar with Volentine. The two Pinkertons had a silent staring match with the Marines across from each other on the unexpectedly posh cushioned bench seating. As the convoy began moving, Volentine tapped what appeared to be a screen, causing the slidercar to smoothly and quietly accelerate, following the crystals in the road. Vlad felt a rush of cold air come from holes in the ceiling of the car.
"Oh wow, air conditioning," Vlad commented in Lourin.
"So you're familiar with air cooling," said Volentine.
"Yes, it's commonplace in buildings and vehicles across America." Vlad then quickly summarized what he just said in English.
Through the clear glass windows, rows of brick warehouses quickly gave way to five-story ultra-wide brick and slab-stone buildings. The style of construction was very reminiscent of Prussian architecture, though he could see large illuminated golden domes rise above the building roofs in the dark.
"What buildings do the domes belong to?" asked William.
Vlad translated for them.
"Well Mister Harris, that dome over there belongs to the Sacred Hearts Church. The larger one is of the Saint Ta Lou Cathedral."
"It's very nice."
"Thank you. We can visit in between service hours if you want."
"I imagine it may take a while. We hope to discuss many things at the formal meeting with your Director."
"Director Kaios Richter will be pleased to meet you all. You're the first foreign envoys to fall under his purview to arrive from an advanced civilization east of the region."
"Advanced?"
"The other civilizations from outside Third Civilization Area are mostly nations that still live in poor agricultural societies incapable of harnessing the power of spellware or otherwise large-scale mechanical devices."
Vlad saw the convoy had approached an interception and stopped. A large crystal bulb on top of a pole was red. The light traffic around, and the LAVs turn around at an interception in a U-turn. Then he saw the slidercar ahead do something unusual.
"Woah, look at that! The slidercar is hovering sideways."
It had happened fast enough that the people who weren't looking were too late to see as the slidercar quickly sped along the other side of the road backwards. The slidercar they were in then hovered sideways over gemstones linking the 'rails' together at the intersection and then moved backwards.
Volentine smirked at Vlad's outburst.
"Pardon me, my lady."
"Don't mention it. People who've never taken a slidercar before usually react like that."
"Ahem," interrupted William. "Please inform Ms. Vanherm that I believe I understand her earlier explanation regarding civilization categorization."
Vlad apologized and returned to his job.
"I think I understand. That's similar to the concept of the Third World in our society. So is your country inside this Third Civilization Area?"
"Parpaldia is indeed part of the Third. The First and Second Civilization Areas are further west."
"Is there a difference between the First to Third Areas other than geography?"
"Hmm," Volentine thought for a moment. "The First and Second Civilization Areas have a better understanding of the fundamentals of magic, with the exception of Mu and the Hinowari Kingdom, which are mechanical nations, like yours. Ah, we've arrived at our destination."
Vlad was surprised as he did not feel the slidercar stop at all. Everyone filed out to see a large white mansion with a black iron fence around it. Shimon tapped a small screen on the gate, and it slid away automatically. As the Marines dismounted from the LAVs and began establishing a perimeter around the mansion, the two aides gave a tour of the mansion.
The mansion contained tall rooms, with the lower floors comprising servant spaces. As long as the items and furniture were kept or returned into place, they had free reign of the building during the rental. There was a skeleton servant crew on hand to turn on and off the home's magically operated devices like the lights. Since there were not enough bedrooms, the Marines would have to use the ballroom to sleep.
As everyone got settled and security made sure the rooms were free of non-magical surveillance equipment, the aides explained how the voice mail service worked as manacoms were not available. The sender would speak into a magical crystal. When the crystal was hand-delivered to its destination, the recording would be played to the receiver. They left behind the address of the Third Foreign Affairs Department building and then left for the night to return at nine in the morning. Vlad attended a meeting to consolidate the information they learned from the aides and then went to bed.
Imperial War Museum, Esthirant, Parpaldian Empire
Vlad examined the iron miniature cannons of the model 150 charge-cannon ship of the line. The model was ornamented with gold leaf paint at the stern and was detailed enough to include the name Pall written below the stern glass windows.
The morning spent at the Imperial War Museum was enlightening. Nearly every exhibit had a text display that could change to different languages with a tap, although the 'cursed' nature of the Americans meant that they pretty much had to rely on the two Foreign Affairs aides for every translation in Lourin then converted by Louise and Vlad to English.
Content-wise, every historical era of Parpaldian warfare had elaborate models and dioramas illustrating the empire's famous battles. It quickly became evident that the existence of dragons and wyverns had a huge influence on warfare.
Ancient and medieval equivalent fortifications tended to have earth-covered bunkers with plenty of distant ventilation points as the primary defence against attacks from the air. Various models of ballistae were produced in large numbers, arranged much like AA gun batteries with overlapping sectors. Several models were even placed on wagons to protect armies on the move. As far as he could tell from the descriptions, charge-gems enabling rapid-reloading of maximum draw variants are still in active use by several countries of this world such as those on the Rodenius continent.
Modern Parpaldian anti-air weapons seemed to consist of lightning guns and volley guns, both of which can also be used against infantry. Notably, the description of the lightning gun noted its usage in the kraken hunting industry as electrifying water was a great way to kill sea creatures.
The Parpaldians seemed to place a large emphasis on the usage of their national animal in warfare. They dedicated an entire room to this subject alone. A model of a landwyrm in the center of the room that would have been 1:1 scale with an Earth giant tortoise was equipped with a wooden tower with an early small charge cannon and troops. On the surrounding walls, paintings and descriptions detailed how ancient Parpaldians first captured and then domesticated these fire-breathing elephant-sized tortoises.
In sword and archery warfare, the shell proved invulnerable to everything except the highest draw-strength ballista bolts, and a landwyrm proved much easier to control than real elephants. As a result, there was no equivalent tactic to defeat them as the Romans did with elephants. The descriptions claimed that a landwyrm's fireball was intense enough to even crack the stone. The most notable anti-landwyrm strategy of the ancient and medieval periods was digging extremely large holes to limit their movement on the battlefield.
As the chargegun era arrived, the landwyrms had cannons mounted as depicted on the model. Supposedly, a solid round shot would simply bounce off the shell if the inaccurate shot hit at all, and it took the invention of shaped penetrators to slowly reduce their primacy in land warfare. Implosives concluded the landwyrm's long reign as kings of the battlefield in violent darkness.
The members of the American mission were very surprised by chargeguns and implosive. While simplistically they could be equated to firearms and explosives, the details were very different.
With an armoury of old chargeguns on display, it became apparent that early chargegun development was not constrained by a weapon's tendency to explode in a user's arms, but by accuracy and power. There was simply no equivalent of gunpowder here. Instead, chargeguns used the same principle of charge gems found in slidercars and charge-arbalesters. Two charge gems can be attracted or repelled from each other with varying strength, much like electromagnets. Crucially, unlike magnets, gems can focus their force unidirectionally in any direction towards or from the gem to another gem of a specific 'charge'. I.E., the magnetic laws of always like repel like and opposites attract did not apply.
This meant that a set of charge gems lining the barrel of a chargegun could be set to not repel each other, but only bullet with a charge gem core or powdered coating. The gems would propel the bullet along the barrel diagonally forwards, accelerating the bullet suspended in the air.
The Parpaldians effectively had functional coilguns. Thankfully it appeared that charge gems had limits on their power largely due to the inefficiency of the spells that used them along with the size of the gem itself.
Unfortunately, as rifling was impossible, it also meant that the Parpaldians were developing smoothbore kinetic penetrators much earlier than the equivalent period on Earth.
The subject of implosives was more difficult to grasp conceptually. In short, instead of explosives, the Parpaldians had implosive gems. From quotes from old war journals on display for illustration, an implosion consisted of a large flash of perfectly black darkness originating from the gem that violently flung nearby objects in a larger radius toward it. Objects that entered within the visible boundaries of the darkness would be quickly crushed together towards the origin in a soundless affair, leaving a messy lump of flesh and debris after the darkness disappears as quickly as it appears.
Vlad thought maybe it was less traumatic to people than an explosion. At least this weak black hole didn't fling someone's arm into another person twenty meters away. There was no shrapnel effect, although debris could cut people up as they got flung towards the implosion center.
The delegation was advised that the annual military parade on Proclamation Day would be the best way to see current military equipment aside from recruiting posters pinned on a wall. No, books on current weapons were not on sale anywhere.
There was a section on future warfare, though it was mostly a series of artist sketches and paintings showing the Parpaldian desire to eventually catch up to the First Civilization Area by building turreted battleships and abandoning wyverns for aircraft.
All in all, the morning was being well spent, since there would not be a convenient way to examine Parpaldian economics to help in negotiations. Vlad moved on from the naval model to a display showing off cork lifejackets. His stomach growled, and he recalled that the delegation would first meet Director Kaios at lunchtime for what the Parpaldians called high tea. He hoped they had something as filling as scones.
Author's Notes
Sorry for the long wait. I was busy at my job completing as many features of a software application for demoing at a trade show. Next chapter I intend to begin the official negotiations between the US and Parpaldia and check in on what Louria is doing.
Thanks for continuing to read my writing, and be sure to leave some reviews or feedback if you can.