by Rae Nantes
And so when it came time for the event, I escaped at the first opportunity to run home to my friends as the new Queen of the People's Republic and to laugh at the absurdity and to drink and romp and sleep until tomorrow afternoon.
Chapter 38
The International Response
"Do you like it?" Tae’s sheer enthusiasm was so incredibly endearing that I wanted to sweep him into a hug and ruffle his hair. "I designed the entire thing myself! The fins, the rotors, the engines, the reactive armor, and even the guns!" He pointed around at the pieces as rapidly as he could name them off, but too quick for the rest of us to follow.
We sat with him on the deck of the behemoth airship, which was parked in the valley, to enjoy some fresh coffee and the breeze. The decks of the ship were a tad dusty with dirt and splinters, but everything else seemed meticulously well-kept. Ropes and pulleys holding an array of sails above us cut shadows into the deck and across us. On the far end, some of the crew were sunbathing like lazy cats and gambling with card games. But like much of the valley during the day, it was mostly quiet.
Willow and Yun sat beside me, taking in the engineering marvel and taking in every word with care. This was the future, the beginning of an industrialized world and industrialized warfare. Simone and Relce sat beside Tae, looking somewhat bored as if they had heard the explanation some hundred times already.
"Wait, so how does it work?" I asked. "There's no balloon or anything."
He leaned in and shot me a grin. "That's the beauty of it," he whispered as if sharing a trade secret. "It's all manatech."
"Neat. I still don't know what that is."
"Most airships just use a regular float engine," he explained. "Or really just an engine to handle the controls, and float spells to keep the thing up. The ones with the balloons use mages to heat the air inside while cooling the air around it. The temperature differential helps keep it afloat, but not mine. I just have an entire crew of mages using float spells on the skeleton frame, but keeping the ship afloat isn't what was difficult. It was keeping the entire thing in one piece."
"You seem to really be into engineering," I said.
"Of course!" he said. "It's the whole reason I'm here in Stella Vallis." He paused. "Or I mean..."
"Wait," I said. "You're not from Stella Vallis?" Normally such a thing would be impossible, as all people were from Stella Vallis since it was the only thing where people could be. It was the only city on Mars, and even people who lived on the space stations and outposts would claim to be from there. Unless of course, "You're from Earth," I said.
He nodded. "I was born there, but obviously I can't play Martian games there, or attend a decent university."
I was fascinated. Even though my memories of that world were outdated, I remembered the events concerning the people of Earth and how most of us viewed them as backward savages, people who regressed into the dark ages and cults and feudalism. Yet here I was now in a world that embraced it, likely due to the same reasons.
"Uh," he said, noticing that I was in deep thought, "if you want, I can make some airships for you."
Yun almost choked on his coffee. He gathered himself and nodded at me. I took the hint. "Sure," I said. "We can get the materials, manpower, and money, or whichever you want."
Simone cut in. "Honestly, you should just build a fleet up as fast as you can." Relce nodded in agreement.
"I was thinking more quality over quantity," I said.
"You need to consider the fastest," Relce said. He combed his dangling mustache with his fingers. "There's been a lot of talk about your war with Vellen on the forums."
"Oh? Were the players crying about getting their asses handed to them?"
"That among other things," he said as he leaned back in his seat. "A lot of it is just bitchin' about overpowered spells and whatnot. Buncha dudes cryin' about losin' to OP this or that, bitchin' about NPCs or whatever."
"And how would that affect us?" I asked.
Willow answered. "The balance council. Word will reach them, if it hasn’t already, about us and our spells."
"And what could they do about it?"
"More than we'd like to," she said.
We sat in silence for a moment, enjoying our coffee as it brought us warmth. Laughter hit us from the far end of the deck. Someone lost a card game and a bet. "Tae," I said. "We'll provide you a blank check and whatever else you need. We need an air force."
He smiled. "Sure. And about our alliance - do you mind if we build a small castle for ourselves up the valley? I mostly just need a skydock."
I shrugged. "Sure, but I'll need to double check with the President."
Relce tilted his head. "I thought you were the governor, elected general, something-something?"
"Well I was, but now I'm queen."
Simone spewed out her coffee, almost choking her words out. "What."
"It's complicated," I said.
She and Relce glanced at me, at Tae, and back to me. A smile found all three. "Hey," Tae said. "You know, I'm—"
"Your world," Willow cut in. "You said you agreed with our beliefs. What about the other people in your world?"
Tae took a deep breath and sat his cup on the table. He looked away as he spoke. "Not very good. Normally you would think that there should’ve been plenty of time for people to realize that sapient AI need rights of their own, but the idea and the argument were smothered before they got traction. From what I understand, postwar Mars only survived by setting ethics aside in favor of science and research, and over time, that mentality had dug into the culture. The AI researchers were claiming that their work was curing diseases and revealing an entire world of knowledge, but that’s all changing now. There isn't much of an argument anymore given that you find people like," he opened his hands toward us, "like you, in these worlds. There isn’t much of an excuse when people are out playing video games with people like you. The argument, your argument is a strong one, but there's politics, you know?"
"Politics," I echoed.
Willow said, "And how would you feel if we shut the players out. If we found a way to close the gate? You wouldn't be able to come here anymore."
"That would be fine," he said. "Your world isn't the only one in the MVVR, and there's plenty to do on the PVP worlds. We've only been playing this to keep up with Alex."
"After all," Simone said with a smile. "Alex is the world quest. The once raid boss that now has to find a way to close the gate!" She squealed in excitement. "It's so dreamy, and more than that - it's real!"
I looked down into my cup, staring into the brownish coffee that had by now turned lukewarm. I felt wanted, needed, driven by those who held me in high esteem and those who rooted for my success. I felt like I could take on the world. I smiled. "Thanks, everyone."
***
Before we realized it, a month had slipped us by.
The entire time, I returned to my magic training, continually learning new spells and writing my own, including my new favorite - fusillade(). By picking out the functions that created objects, such as barrage's arrows, I was able to produce the same effect, but with guns.
It took some time to get the spell to spawn the weapon correctly, and even more time to decide what type. Instead of using the state-of-the-art bolt action rifles or repeater guns, I stuck to the simple musket. Not only was the caliber much larger, but with the spell, I wouldn't even need to aim - or rather I couldn't.
When I invoked it, dozens of muskets would manifest, floating beside me, then firing a barrage at my target. More mana used meant more muskets. Not only did this look cool as hell, but nobody could deny the sheer morale damage gunpowder weapons would deal. Even the most hardcore player would flinch and panic at the blasting sound and the terrible flash.
I also took the time to understand the element argument that boot-hat man told me about. In essence, I could use it to scan resources and whatnot to find their atomic element and whatever it was comprised of, which was terribly dull at its fac
e. But with my endless curiosity and problem-solving skills, I realized that I could use the element argument with the rest of my spells - I just needed to scan it first to grab the correct variables.
"Tae!" I shouted, catching my breath from the sprint over.
"You alright?" he asked.
I looked into him with fire in my eyes. "What is the most explosive element you can think of?"
"Uh, uranium?"
"No, simpler than that! Something that I can find here, maybe mix together."
He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. "Just make gunpowder. It's sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate."
"Gimme!" I ran over to the nearest cannon, ripped open the nearby barrel and stuck my head in. The spell showed me its chemical composition, and I let out a deep, terrible laugh.
"Uh, you okay?"
I didn't reply. I shot a glance at him with wild eyes and farstepped back into the plains.
A moment later, an explosion.
The flash was bright and all-encompassing, the heat magnificent, the plume of smoke and ash made me weak in the knees. The rumble echoed far and into the mountains to scare away the birds. I could spend a lifetime making magic bombs, but why stop there?
I spent the next few days just running around the town sticking my face in strange powders and mixtures and learning as much as I could about the world to boil down into spells to give to my comrades.
My exploits were vast and my magical, scientific curiosity limitless, but the entire event gave me an idea. Instead of spending time doing this crazy mess on my own, why not just have the President create our own magic research department? Of course. I needed to find something for the Seekers to do anyway, so it was a perfect fit.
By the end of the first week, it was done. The Seekers were given their own laboratory, library, and facilities that offered supplies and workspaces and indoor spas - all fixed with a generous salary. I was a genius, a scientist, a lunatic.
With my time freed up on that end, I helped oversee the creation of our air force. Airships were first purchased from overseas, then retrofitted with Tae's engines and weaponry, including the rotary machine guns. His player guild was more than happy to have pure creative freedom with a blank check to build the wildest of their designs, and we were happy to bolster our strength. This, of course, meant we needed to also focus on our army.
By the end of the month, we had grown from ten thousand people in the port capital, into one hundred thousand spread across new towns and cities throughout the valleys and mountains. Refugees and right's activists from all over the world fled to us to find a new life and to submit to the greater cause. New mining colonies, farmsteads, ports and homes that stretched far along the coast and some deeper into land. Our wealth spiraled out of control and without much else to spend it on, we invested in training and equipping the military.
Relce designed the new rifles, semi-automatic guns that were easy enough to use and so deadly accurate that swords and spears were near obsolete. Cannons and uniforms, drums and standard bearers. The best of the best military instructors were brought in from our new friends in Vellen to drive discipline in the hearts of our new warriors, and now even our military started to look something from the Napoleonic era - if Napoleon had high-level mages to compliment his armies.
I gave Simone the freedom to create the general's guard. Hardened veterans with special bullet-proof armor with anti-magic properties, all trained in countermagic skills and paladin sword discipline. Each man equipped with a pistol beneath their heavy shields and the sharpest swords money could buy. Soon, even our generals would become unstoppable in the field of battle, and I salivated at the thought.
This didn't stop us from involving ourselves in the usual politics, of course. While the President and his diplomats maintained much with the neighboring nations, I ensured our spy networks spread a pro-nipsy sentiment in distant cities, and pro-freedom movements against players who opposed us. To reach into the hearts and minds to other players, we went so far as inviting adventurers to our now-empire, to buy our wares and sleep in our inns and make trades with us. We even created a coliseum so that they may entertain themselves against each other, an arena that all came to see and enjoy. The time any player would spend within our borders meant more time for our virtues to reach them, and to spread like a virus across their side.
All was going well until the embargo came.
We received word that the Balance Council had condemned our liberal mentality of magic, denounced our aggressive militarization, and that we were "dangerous to the peace of the world." I wanted to scoff at such things, to scoff at the feeble attempt to harm our now self-reliant economy and power, but then the coalitions formed.
We were just enjoying an evening over tea and snacks when the news reached us, and now, we stood over my kitchen table in the old cabin, staring at the map.
"Yes, my queen," the young officer said. "The nations lined in red represent the members of the coalition, and the ones in pink are as yet undecided."
It had been some time that I actually stared at a map, and what I saw surprised me. The nations that had once been numerous and humble in size had all been busy gobbling each other up to blob out across the map. In the north, one nation - the Black Lions - had taken much of the historic German areas including Scandinavia. Its apparent rival sat in old Russia, called Muskvana, stretched far east to the deadlands. Out where France should’ve been, a big blue blob titled Freda poured down into where Spain would be. All three had joined the coalition, and that alone was too much a threat. In the south, an empire had claimed all of North Africa, an empire called Iskala. It snaked along the coast and brushed against our claimed borders where Syria should be.
These were our biggest threats. A number of smaller nations also joined the coalition, but they were weak enough to just threaten out, and those who were smart refused to join outright. Yet still, "How many men is that in total?" I asked.
"Too many," Relce said. "That's a shit load."
"Roughly four hundred thousand," the officer said.
I sighed. "And with our vassals, we only have about thirty thousand."
"The biggest problem," Simone said, "is that one." She tapped her finger over the northern swathe, The Black Lions. "This is Smith's empire."
Chapter 39
The Calm
"This is bad." I stood in the presidential office of the capital, surrounded by generals and officers and the President himself. We all peered down at the map in silence, only the ticking clock to remind us to hurry.
"Should we, uh, surrender?" the President asked.
Some of the officers scoffed, others did nothing. Even then, it felt like any words of fighting spirit was done just to impress me. "No," I said. "We're small in comparison, but we've modernized more than they've ever considered. We can still punch way above our weight."
"This is beyond that," he said. "Ten times the military strength as us."
"But half the morale and half the skill."
The President took a deep breath, leaned back in his comfy chair, and waved away his own argument. "Fine, sure, on with it then."
We took the time to create the battle plan, splitting the army up as well as we could imagine, pitching our strengths against the enemy's weaknesses. The northern nations had most of their men stationed far north, and it would take a week or so to march them to us. Most of their navy was at the Baltic, so that wasn't a threat, and even if it was, we could just send ships to cut them off at Braltar, where the Mediterranean met the Atlantic.
That left the smaller nations nearby and the Iskalan Empire to the south. Our intel led us to believe that they had a sizable navy and air force, but their generals had a reluctance to march through deserts. That was understandable, as marching all along the coast to get to us would be an awful experience. There would be no doubt that their invasion would be from the sea and air so we would need to prepare appropriately.
I was tempted to have our armies rush one of the
enemy nations and knock it out of the war quickly, but my generals explained it likely wouldn't work. I took the advice to heart because they were, after all, much more experienced in this line of work and I ever was. Besides, my idea of dropping a meteor on their capital couldn't happen. No Seeker among us had the power to save the nipsy populations, and I knew boot-hat man wouldn't agree to genocide.
And so, as they say, when you are weak, you must be clever. It was a brilliant idea of mine to leverage the greed of the player guilds that dotted the map. Countless of them that lined the countryside of either nation, specifically those nations that were run by players - Smith and his rival. Our understanding is that they acted almost as dukes and counts in this off-brand feudalistic society that they had created, ramming dents into each other's borders with each conquered castle.
But greed speaks volumes, and there is no loyalty among devils. We had our agents offer quests to turn on their masters for lump sums of gold and to turn on each other when the timing was right for them. A network of smaller rivalries and simmering tension that would only need a few coins to be tossed in for it all the explode out in a terrible, beautiful mess - if it worked. At the very least, a disruption in their manpower and economy would help us out in the coming conflict.
I could have our Seekers act as special forces out on those borders, carrying out false flag attacks to sow distrust among the coalition members. This too would be a gamble, but we didn't have much of an option. If we could have our men disguised as Smith's forces and attack Muskvana, it would give his neighbors an excuse to gang up on him, taking them all out of the coming war. It needed to happen anyway, as his nation was the largest out of all. If he annexed Muskvana, he would be the largest in the known world, then slated to a world conquest. Knowing his contempt for nipsies, this would be the worst outcome to see.
A knock on the door - it was Simone. She creaked open the door, saw all the gruff military people standing around the table, then her eyes lit up when she spotted me. She waved me over.