A renouncing world,
Now begs upon its knees.
For the almighty lays shattered,
Broken by these hands.
For the stars have deigned,
Our existence lacking.
For the sun opens its maw,
And casts us into ruination.
And so,
A renouncing world,
Now prays upon its knees.
From Forever, Until Today,
After That, For Forever,
Deliver Us From Evil.
- Text found by Goddess Paida, of Rancais, during the Aris Expedition. Inscribed upon a pillar.
Kassandora looked over the maps, she had taken Fer’s advice to at least try and integrate with Maisara, and that ant Fortia was also here. As always, Kavaa had to attend a eting. Of Beasthood herself had snuck off sowhere, full of giddy laughter that Kassie was now on babysitting duty. Fortia had let it slip that she had been told the exact sa thing about Kassandora too.
So the four Divines stood around a table which bore the map of the eastern Eparika, and then another of Ainai itself. There was a plan, there was a backup, there was a backup for that backup. There was even a contingency of using the Strategic Missile Corps, which had ended their day-long stint as palace guards and were now back under the command of the Imperial Army. If Ainai was to fall, then Ainai would be turned to glass. Likewise, the smaller nuclear weapons were already prepared to fire as soon as Tartarus pushed substantial forces out of the urban areas. Arascus had called, the discussion was simple as fast, and the compromise was annoying, but it was better than a non-nuking scenario: as long as civilians weren’t being caught in the blast, then Kassandora could open fire with everything she wanted to. The Empire would clean up the ss later.
Kassandora looked at Fortia and Maisara on the other side of the table. This strategy eting could rival lightning itself for all the tension the air had. Of War and Of Peace were number one and number two respectively. Kassandora didn’t think she would ever feel a need to explain her thinking, she never did to her sisters, but to Fortia? And it was the fact they were wearing Imperial black uniforms. Modified of course, the two were harlots, they decided to pretend to be young girls and wear black skirts that were thoroughly immodest, but officially, dress-code was set by Arascus. And he had rely chuckled at Kassandora’s complaint. Of War wouldn’t be surprised if the two decided to embarrass the Empire more and start wearing their hair in pig-tails.
At the very least, Kavaa maintained decorum. Of Health was in full garb, complete with coat and boots and trousers just as Kassandora was. Was it actually just a want to impress a competitor? Seriously? “The main issue is Kandia then.” Maisara said. “Unless you’ve planned for that.” Of course Kassandora had planned for that. Maisara was actually stupid. There had been a ti when Kassandora considered her intelligent but she was rely thorough, anyone could be a good tactician by being thorough.
“I’m surprised you’re not going here.” Fortia pointed to the Eparika south of Kandia. “Borders only extend five miles from the coast, you wouldn’t be breaching international regulations if you terraford there.”
“That was considered.” Kassandora said. “The INS Klodsk has a detachnt of mages if we need to pull the tower up.”
“What about airfields in Ainai?” Maisara asked. The worst part was that Kavaa seed to agree with that stupidity, Kassandora could feel the woman’s gaze on her side.
“And if Ainai falls?” Kassandora asked.
“I don’t see how it will fall.” Maisara said. “With everything we have. At worst, the carriers could be scrambled.”
“Kassandora is correct.” Fortia said, staring at Kassandora from across the table. “Ainai will not fall under the current capabilities that Tartarus fields, but we can’t be certain of whether they have anything new coming. The artillery batteries they use to chase away ships did not exist at the start of the war. The planes need a retreat route planned for them.”
It was perfect military logic. Kassandora had nothing to correct, she could only expand upon the point. “The carriers would take two months to reach eastern Arika if they have to go around the continent. We don’t know if we have two months. A base has to be either in Gracja.” She pointed at the dots on the Eparika map. “In which case we have to create islands on which to station the ICDT towers, or we use Kandai as an airfield.”
Kandai was a tiny island nation. Officially part of the Epan Community, when that still existed, although it had no Imperial presence to secure a coup when Epa joined the Empire. Instead, it had remained loyal to the White Pantheon. Arascus rarely bothered to ntion it, it was too small for his designs. Kassandora though valued the geography. It was an island, it was isolated from Arika by the sea, it didn’t need to be fortified. “And Kandai has better terrain for an airfield.” She looked at the map.
“What do you an?”
“Can you planes set off in duststorms?”
Kassandora looked at the map. The experience gained in Kirinyaa had not been forgotten. She thought of the main stars of the show, the strategic bombers. And imdiately, she saw Fortia’s issue. Those steel juggernauts had not been tested in sand. And a dust-storm brought on by swirling fires was sothing else entirely too. Planes… “No.” Kassandora said. Jet engines could fly in a polluted atmosphere where the ash was miniscule, they would do even worse against sand.
“Why not just seize them then?” Kavaa asked. She looked around the table. “I’m being serious, if Kandai is needed and it has no army, why not just sail ships there and build an airfield and house an ICDT tower?” Fortia and Maisara both turned to Kassandora, who felt an embarrassing blush creep up onto her cheeks. Seizing Kandai…
“Kavaa is correct, isn’t she?” Fortia said. “Why bother through the effort when you obviously don’t actually care and it’s not like the Empire cares either. It will even look good, if you intervene for the sake of Arda and then just back your bags and leave. The troops will spend their wages there, the locals might even grow to like them.”
She had to admit it. It was just as embarrassing as when Fer had to intervene when Kavaa was there to judge her for it. Kassandora had not even ntioned the event to Kavaa and all that the Goddess of Health said was that she knew Kassandora was better than to act that way. It was condescending beyond reproach, even Arascus didn’t speak to her like that. But it had worked. Kassandora took a deep breath and simply told the unvarnished truth for once. “I cannot, there is internal Imperial doctrine that makes it so that Arascus is the only who can officially expand the Empire.”
Fortia shrugged, Kavaa turned back to the map, sowhat satisfied and Maisara, now that she heard the word doctrine and realised they were talking about theory and nothing to do with people, suddenly seed to grow twice as smart. “Doctrine did not prevent Norje or Esberia.”
“Arascus gave the call of both of them.” Helenna had gotten the forr almost by herself, the latter had actually asked to join. Arascus’ call was rely a confirmation of the reality.
“During the Peacekeeping operation in Kirinyaa.” Fortia stilled at the ntioning of her most humiliating campaign, Maisara either did not notice or care. “You were massing troops near the Attyopyos border.”
Kavaa outright turning to look at Kassandora was a pressure she did not need. Her grey gaze felt like an anvil right now, it was the heaviest thing in the world. But it was Fortia catching the obvious contradiction in Kassandora’s word and the current situation that finally snapped her. “But you’ve not rang Arascus about Kandia though?”
“There’s an irrelevance clause.” Kassandora replied.
Of course it was fucking Maisara who knew. “But the irrelevance clause applies to independent cities or non-functioning states.”
Well, this ti, Kassandora did actually give them the truth. Under three sets of watchful eyes, she finally realised there was no escape from this battle. It was better to simply leave a rear guard and escape whilst she still had so pride left to salvage. “I’m not allowed to expand the Empire.”
Fortia blinked slowly, Maisara stared in disbelief and Kavaa chuckled. “Well, serves you right.” She said it quietly, but Kassandora was sure that the other two Divines heard it.
“Why?” Kavaa asked. Kassandora had no response. Why? Because she would go mad without the restriction? Because she saw the board for what it was? And what it was a series of regis that could not do anything to stand against the Empire? That’s why! Was it not the most obvious thing on Arda!?
“I have very simply been banned from expanding the Empire by myself, another Divine has to do it.” Kassandora replied in a flat tone. “This happened long ago, I promised and try not to break my promises.” Maisara and Fortia both gave the sa disbelieving flat glare from the other side of the table. A set of silver and bronze eyes that carried no emotion in them, just a flat refusal of what their ears had just listened to. “When they matter.”
“Is that why Fer’s gone then?” Fortia asked.
“What?!” Kassandora barked. “No!! Of course not! She’s not allowed to expand the Empire either!”
That actually seed to surprise the other Divines. Why did it not surprise them that Kassie wasn’t allowed to then!? What was the difference. “Oh.” Fortia said. “She seed smart to .”
“She is.” Kassandora said. “But no, we have a team on it already. Apparently they wanted to negotiate already. Tartarus hitting Kht scared them.” Fortia nodded and looked back down to the map.
“Well on Ainai then.” She said. “We should pull the troops back I think. The plan works but if the planes will be flying it’s more efficient to just bomb and leave space for the nukes to land as well.”
“The first strike, we’ll have to make sure it doesn’t have civilians in.” Kassandora said. “I want to practice a war of movent as well.” And so, the topic transitioned naturally to the planning the actual battle-lines of Ainai. Fortia quickly picked up Kassandora’s complicated style of mapping, Maisara was slightly behind her. Kavaa had never put effort into it, after a while, Of Health simply remained in the room to serve as company. She would lean on Kassandora every now and then whenever a terrible idea was proposed. Sotis, Kassandora would backtrack.
More often than not, she knew she was making the right call. Frankly, the two were not that bad. Maisara could be ignored and Fortia was simply a more arguntative Iliyal. Kassandora naturally categorized them into their roles, neither would be getting demoted from General-Divine of the Imperial Army, but Maisara would not be receive the sorts of jobs that Generals were expected to do. Fortia could manage though. The woman was a competitor, she intruded on Kassandora’s field, once, she even made a good point: the Imperial army should extend forwards into Kht and organize a running defeat simply to give the crews more ti to familiarize themselves with the tanks, to scout for new Tartarian technology, to whittle down their numbers and to see whether technology finally managed to defeat the terror that was loose desert sand.
The eting was interrupted when Kassandora’s phone began to ring. Every set of eyes turned down to the where Helenna’s icon, the Goddess of Love standing in a dress in a garden, obviously so piece that had been taken by a professional photographer and then edited to make the colours more vibrant, appeared. Kassandora dragged the green call button and put it on loudspeaker. “Alright Helenna, are you done?”
Through the phone, they could all make the sound of waves and cheering. “Kandia is secured. You’re good to go.”
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