Arc: War against the Han

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Czernobog
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Arc: War against the Han

Post by Czernobog »

Chapter 1: Beginnings

The Emperor of the State of Han narrowed his eyes. The Romans, he knew, were preparing for an attack. Such things often happened in the beginnings of wars, often due to the Roman augurs, a term he used in his thoughts with derision. So he had responded in kind, ramping up clone production, increasing military spending, raising taxes, doing a thousand hundred things to prepare for war. His ministers had worked day and night for three months to calculate everything that would be needed, and every error made resulted in a swift death by decapitation.

He touched the silver panel, waiting for the door to open, and went down. That was good. Very good. Heaven was on his side. As the Romans thought as well. They worshipped foreign gods, strange gods with names like "Jupiter" and "Minerva" and a hundred other names that he had lost deep in the alleyways of his busy mind.

He waited for the door to open again, then walked out of that chamber inlaid with jade. Before him were great contraptions, doors that opened as line after line of clone-warriors marched out in clouds of the strange gases that nourished their embryotic forms. They clutched their rifles, their black armour contrasting with the whitening smoke. The Emperor knew that the same scene was happening all over the State of Han, in cities and fortresses, line after line of new clones being born, armoured vehicles treading off production lines, the whole country preparing for the greatest military campaign in its history.

A prince came to him, his most trusted general, his eldest son, the child of his favourite concubine. His heir. His only hair.

"Lead the army!" the Emperor shouted at the prince. "We must see that your skills are higher than those of barbarians and white devils! Subjugate Rome! Make its Emperor, its false Emperor, kowtow before me! Let the whole world be put under the power of the Middle Kingdom! CHINA!"

"Yes."

****

Amulius Asiaticus looked out from the window of his fort. Armaturae were arriving daily and huge collumns of reinforcements were marching to his fort. It had previously been half-empty, but with the rumbles of war more men had been sent to the front, and the proud general could count four Legions among his forces.

Not that they weren't required. He had recieved a cohort of sorcerors the other day, a sign that things were going to get bloody. Very bloody indeed. He had recieved news of a massive Han army crossing the great wall that marked the boundary of their empire and beginning to march through the desert that was the no-man's-land between the Romans and the Han. The last war, some sixty years since its end, had taken thirty years and ended in an unsatisfactory ceasefire, after the superior technology of the Romans had been driven back by the seemingly-endless numbers of the Han. It had been stalemate - the Han had not able to dislodge the Romans from their forts, and the Romans had not been able to perform a successful offense. The only result had been that the Romans had lost an empty stretch of desert they didn't bother about anyway.

But Amulius didn't bother with that. Instead he looked on at the elaborate system of razorwire, earthworks, trenches and minefields that surrouded the walls of his fort. Made with concrete a meter deep and topped with razorwire curling outwards, they were impenetrable. They surrounded a ten cubic-kilometer stretch of barracks, bunkers airfields and the command building itself. He then looked at the auragraph pictures of the Han army, recieved from orbit just a few hours ago. It was only visible when the picture was enhanced heavily and zoomed in to a stratosphere-height view on one of the ordinators that were so common today. It was large, an indistinct mass, a large swathe of black against the yellow desert. When zoomed closer, it revealed areas of movement, Han armaturae, aircraft, and what seemed to be an immense supply train at the very back. Also revealed were brigades, processions, the whole army marching in parade formation. But that was not the issue. The issue was that the Han troops, if they kept up their current speed, would be there by midnight.

To be continued...
Last edited by Czernobog on Sat May 24, 2008 3:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
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And we shall do so again.
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Re: Arc: War against the Han

Post by Czernobog »

Chapter 2: An Emperor's Thoughts

Emperor Julianus XI looked out on Rome from his palace balcony. Sixty million people, all living in this great city. Towers rising high into the sky, a field of massive buildings, so much construction still ongoing, a city that put Nanjing to shame. His city. The city of the Emperor, the heart and mind of the Empire. The greatest city, the pearl of cities, the great city that was Rome. Lands stretching from Americus to the Mare Caspianus, a military numbering twenty million men, billions of settlements, from farmsteads to great cities. His empire. An empire that had to be kept safe, to be protected from its enemies. An empire the Han would never take.

An empire he swore the Han would never take.

****

The Prince of Yan laughed. This was the Roman fort? It was nothing before his grand army. And unaware. So unaware. There weren't even sentries. An instant later he ordered a charge. He would definitely win.

The Roman aircraft flew over the battlefield. Its pilot hesitated. But the time was now. He was directly over the center of the enemy army, and Han aircraft were climbing to get him. There was no other choice. He released the bomb his plane carried.

An instant later his plane was shredded by air-to-air fire.

The bomb fell, at incredible speed, into the core of the Han force. A massive explosion, with the force of seventy kilotons of TNT, literally evaporated the Prince of Yan, along with all his bodyguard. Half the army was utterly destroyed, gone, just burned away by the wave of flame. Armoured vehicles were flung around like a child's toys, as the blast tore away the ground and shattered the sky, the mushroom cloud rising high. The devastation was unequalled. Not even in the Han War, when artillery and machine-guns had shredded and pulped wave after wave of soldiers for nothing, had half an army been destroyed in such a way.

But the remainder continued the attack, breaking against the walls, charging into the minefields and stringing themselves on the razorwire, met by Roman weapons and Roman men, desperately fighting for that vague and unknown concept, victory. And they would keep up. They would keep up to the end.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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Re: Arc: War against the Han

Post by Czernobog »

Chapter 3: Strategies in progress

Emperor Julianus watched as General Belisarius sat down on the chair.

"So," he said. "What do you report?"

"Amulius has sent word," Belisarius replied calmly. "He is surrounded, though he has caused devastating casualties to the Han army. It simply will not retreat."

"Good."

"Furthermore, I respectfully ask access to the nuclear arsenal. With it, it will be incredibly easy to win the war."

"Ah," Julianus replied. "but of course, you see, the Han have nuclear weapons too. They could destroy us easily."

"A counterstrike is necessary," Belisarius said, his voice rising in anger. "We must do so, or we will be destroyed!"

"Then, Belisarius, you will be given command of ten of the largest Legions, with artillery, armoured vehicles and aircraft to match."

"Good," Belisarius grinned. Commanding almost a million soldiers - a force that was a twentieth of Rome's full might, not counting vehicles, would be absolutely perfect for wreaking havoc on the enemy.

"But not the Iron Thunderbolt, nor the Chariot of Fire," Julianus cryptically said. "We want to bring an empire to its knees, not destroy it utterly. That will come later."

"Of course," Belisarius replied. "My life at your command."

Belisarius then walked away, still thinking up strategies and trying to guess the significance of what the Emperor had said...

****

The Han army still moved. It had penetrated the outer defences, and was now attempting to take the walls, but at a massive cost. The machine-guns fired, the rat-a-tat-tat of the bullets marking the end of many a soldier. Amulius was still holding out, albeit barely.

Then the walls blew open, and the Han poured in. But something worse was happening, for in an instant the munitions storehouse exploded, in a massive flash of light. When the mushroom cloud had faded, a massive crater had formed, littered with Han bodies. Then Amulius rushed down, into his command bunker, and activated the self-destruct.

Boom.

Another explosion. Screams of the dying were heard all around, as more and more men perished.

Boom.

The earth shook. Doors and bulkheads fell of their hinges and tunnels collapsed. That had to be the artillery.

Boom. Han forces went in, pointed their rifles at Amulius and -

Flash.

A nuclear explosion vapourised most of what remained of the victorious army, evaporating Amulius and the Han commanders alike. The fort was useless now. What remained prepared to retreat, having been defeated and yet having won. About four in ten remained. Not enough. Not enough to survive what was coming.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
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Re: Arc: War against the Han

Post by Heretic »

Finished chapter 1. Heading to chapter 2.

Man, Chinese having clone troopers, with badass clone guns? Crazy. The Middle East still be a crazy shit-hole? More crazy. The Romans resembling the GDI in C&C, with their super firepower? 1337. But what are armaturaes? Are they tanks?
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
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Re: Arc: War against the Han

Post by Czernobog »

Heretic wrote:Finished chapter 1. Heading to chapter 2.

Man, Chinese having clone troopers, with badass clone guns? Crazy. The Middle East still be a crazy shit-hole? More crazy. The Romans resembling the GDI in C&C, with their super firepower? 1337. But what are armaturaes? Are they tanks?
Yes.
You have ruled this galaxy for ten thousand years.
You have little of account to show for your efforts.
Order. Unity. Obedience.
We taught the galaxy these things.

And we shall do so again.
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Heretic
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Re: Arc: War against the Han

Post by Heretic »

Damn, so this is what happens if you give Romans and Chinese guns, tanks, and nukes. This makes the Cold War plus the Second World War look like barbie dolls (not to insult all the men who fought for us). And when Amulius came out of his command bunker and killed himself, was that the similar case in the trailer of Tom Clancy's Endwar?
Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
-Joseph Campbell
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