The War

Captain Staughler looked through his spyglass and said, "There we go, looks like a few thousand troops standing in our way, let's give them a taste of the Beehives."

Captain Staughler stood up and peeked his upper body out of the roof of one of the fast attack carriages and gave the signal for a Beehive deployment. Each of the carriages pulled up side by side with each other and then came to a stop one hundred meters away from the standing army in front of them. On the roof of the carriage, a large bag was pulled off unveiling the Beehive boxes.

The army of Death sworn saw that the carriages weren't going to come closer so the officer in charge ordered a charge. Almost as one, the Death Sworn cried out and charged at vehicles. The closer they got the more surreal it seemed to them. No one was exiting the vehicles and the people they could see behind the glass seemed to be smiling. Finally, a loud 'SHOOSH!' noise was heard and a cloud of steam appeared on each roof of the vehicles in front of them. The entire army of Death Sworn seemed to melt into lifeless bodies with a few who were merely wounded crying and whimpering. The motionless vehicles backed up and the returned into a single file line driving past the defeated army.

Captain Staughler looked at his map and said, "That should be the road to Capital up ahead, let's make the left there. We're supposed to rendezvous with the Airship there."

The driver pointed up in front of them, "Look at that beauty! How far away are we? It's huge!"

Captain Staughler laughed and slapped him on the shoulder, "That's the CSEA William Smith with our coal and ammunition."

"Incredible! Are following that to the Capital?" He asked hopefully.

Captain Staughler smiled and said, "It's going to win the war for us, we're just going to collect the one doing the surrendering, hopefully."

*****

The CEAS Zealous Gently floated over the Kingdom of Fursia until it came to the border crossing between Fursia and Injia. The observations officer called out, "Enemy sighted south by southeast."

"Helm, bring us to firing altitude. Weapons, activate all hives prepare to fire all banks. Sails, I want us under full sail on my mark!" Captain Gibbs loudly gave orders to the crew. "Observations, I want to know if they send any kind of projectile fire at us!"

Nate Butler walked over to the Observations post and took out his own spyglass and called out, "Five minutes until best firing mark! Captain, we need to adjust course to zero seven five!"

"Helm, bring us to seven five zero!" Captain Gibbs walked up next to Nate and took a look through his spyglass, "Look at them, they are packed up in neat little formation boxes. They don't expect us to be here. They weren't given orders on what to do when they see us fly overhead. Poor bastards."

The Observation officer called out, "Best firing range in two, one...."

The Captain called out, "Fire all Hives!" The loud 'SHOOSH! of the Hives being fired echoed throughout the ship.

The ship lurched up enough to where everyone on the ship gasped. Nate looked at Captain Gibbs and said, "We should report that it didn't use to do it so hard."

The Captain looked at the Observation officer who looked back, "Kill kill kill, enemy army has taken a direct hit, all living enemy soldiers are bugging out."

Captain Gibbs called out, "Sails to full, set patrol course on the border. Keep your eyes out for reinforcements. Weapons officer, track the soldiers that are escaping and put them down with the long-range Wasps."

A few minutes later the loud "BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!" sounded through the ship as the gunners started to fire on the living soldiers as they tried to escape.

The Observations officer called out, "Enemy sited, south by southwest. Course correction zero nine five!"

The Captain called out, "Helm bring us to zero nine five. Weapons time until Beehive reload?"

The Weapons officer called immediately, "All hives ready to fire."

Nate was looking off in the direction indicated and called out, "This is the main host, they are turning back in disorganized retreat, time to intercept ten, nine, eight..."

The Captain called out, "Operations you have the call!"

The Operations officer called out, "Fire in two, one, FIRE!" The ship once again lurched up as the Hives fired with a loud 'SHOOSH!'."

The Captain called out, "Weapons, have the Wasps clean it up!"

The sound of the Wasps filled everyone's ears as the Operations officer called out, "Kill kill kill! Enemy forces took mass casualties, Wasps are cutting off the retreat!"

The Captain called out, "Bring us back to the patrol route!" He turned to Nate and asked, "Best guess on enemy casualties?"

Nate called out, "The first wave looked to be around one million, the second wave should be at least two."

The Captain nodded, "Intelligence put their total forces between five and ten million." The Captain looked grim as he sat back down in his command chair.

*****

A soldier ran into Emperor Asoka's chamber and took a knee, holding up a battle report. The Emperor smiled and said, "Speak, what news do you have from the battlefront."

The Soldier cleared his throat and reluctantly read the message, "Death Sworn unit annihilated. No report on Enemy casualties."

The Emperor sat up and took the scroll from the soldier and motioned with his hand for the man to retreat. He read the message himself three times before he shook his head, "I should hear from my invasion force soon, it's been long enough that they should have at least captured the first city. Guard!"

One the Emperor's personal guards entered the room and took a knee, "Your Majesty?"

"Have we received word from the front? Why haven't I heard from my invasion force?" He looked annoyed as he grilled the guard.

The guard said, "I will send a messenger, Your Majesty. I will have an answer by sundown."

"Do it!" The Emperor shouted as he threw his wine glass at the guard.

A musician who was softly playing music in the background looked up and noticed the Emperor staring at him with a death glare. "Stop that noise. I want it quiet." He clapped three times, "Clear the room. Someone bring my strategist here at once."

A few minutes later an ashen-faced man who was sweating profusely entered the room and kneeled down, "Your Majesty, it seems some of our intelligence was wrong..."

A loud whistling sound was heard and then 'BOOM!' The building shook so hard that dust fell from the roof. The sound of glass breaking soon followed. A second whistling sound was heard and then another 'BOOM!' Even louder than the first followed by chunks of wall and roof falling in along with a choking dust cloud and a pressure wave that threw everyone against the wall as the dust cleared a huge black airship could be seen slowly creeping over the city through the massive hole in the wall.

The Emperor tried to rub the dirt out of his eyes as he watched the ship spout fire from numerous long tubes that extended from the sides and bottom of the airship. Each time a length of fire extended out from one of the tubes a building on the ground collapsed and turned into a dust cloud followed by a huge 'BOOM!' and a wave of dirt and debris. The Emperor looked over only to see that the strategist was lying dead under large chunks of the ceiling and wall. "Surrender, quickly, flag them down that we surrender before they destroy the city!" Emperor Asoka screeched out as loud as he could.

He stood up with clenched fists watching as buildings started to fall one after another. The giant black ship floating in the air like something out of a nightmare. On the back of the ship, a large Empire of Connaissance flag waved in the breeze. He looked up and whispered, "I have to avenge this..."

A wounded soldier ran up taking a knee, "Your Majesty, a messenger from the invasion force just made it back to us. The general is dead. The main host is dead, no word on the scout force."

The Emperor just nodded his head and said, "Have we surrendered yet?"

The Soldier looked up at the Emperor and said, "Your Majesty, who do we surrender to?"

*****

Emily and Teslaimia held hands as they stood in the Airship factory listening to the reports coming from the two ships by a coded message. Winston was writing it down on a notepad as the tones came in a flurry. Winston spoke out, "CEAS William Smith reports flags of surrender from ground forces at the Palace." A few moments later, "CEAS Zealous reports enemy invasion force has been annihilated. Scattered forces retreating."

Emily sighed with relief, "Any word on our ground force?"

Winston nodded, "The Smith reported that they arrived at the rendezvous point with no injuries. They should be at the capital within the next hour. If all goes well, they will make contact with an official in charge of the Empire of Injia and have him return here by Airship to sign the official surrender."

Emily smiled and then gave Teslaimia's hand a squeeze. "Very good, I will go meet with the Nobles now and draw up the terms of surrender."

Teslaimia smiled and said, "I would like to stay here and listen. I'll come to join you after the meeting."

Emily nodded and said, "See you soon, Mia."

Teslaimia looked at Winston and asked, "Will the Empire of Injia be able to survive this attack?"

Winston looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, you killed their army and possibly killed the leadership, not to mention inflicted horrific damage to their capital city, how will they maintain order?" Teslaimia spoke softly, "Our forces aren't enough to maintain any kind of order in that country, who will protect the population? Won't the Empire dissolve into small pockets controlled by countryside warlords?"

Winston frowned and then asked, "what's wrong with doing that?"

"Won't all of the neighboring countries have a wave of refugees to deal with? Food, water, medical assistance... When the Windsor Kingdom lost the war with Injia our borders were flooded with wounded soldiers and it cost us hundreds of thousands of Sprite to help them. How will we deal with the constant surge of migrants that flee from the broken Empire?"

Winston shook his head, "That's a question you should ask Her Majesty, honestly."

Teslaimia smiled and said, "But you helped build these weapons of war, shouldn't think about those types of consequences when you invent them?" She sighed, "I'm sorry, Winston, you're right of course. I need to bring this up with Emily."

Winston nodded and then said, "War always has these kinds of consequences, the weapons of war we create just speed up the timeline from weeks and months to hours and days." he rubbed his chin, "If you could change one thing about war with these consequences in mind, what would it be?"

Teslaimia smiled and said, "I am not sure, perhaps thinking of solutions to end wars without needing to kill all of the soldiers at once? Or even having weapons of war that are so terrifying that no one is willing to fight another nation? Who knows?" She shrugged and said, "I think I should check in with my store. We have branch offices in Fursia that might be having trouble with the war being so close."

Winston smiled at her and then said, "War is never something people enter into lightly, but there are times when it is absolutely necessary to take up arms to protect was is right for the people you care about. The Empress isn't a woman would fight a war of aggression for no good reason."

Teslaimia thought for a minute and then said, "You're right. Normally that would be the case. I need to be more vigilant in protecting the one thing that can make her give up on good reason."