Chapter 3: Opening Moves

China Daily

NEWS: July 10th, 2010

Historic Bilateral Military Exercise to Launch with Newest Chinese Navy

In a groundbreaking advancement of interoperability and cooperation , the military forces of China and North Korea will strengthen their alliance when the military exercise Wukong 65 takes place from July 24th through July 30th of the east coast of North Korea.

The newest iteration of the aircraft carrier: Liaoning marks a historic milestone with the integration of 12 tinkertech specialities, a significant event in the United Imperial Army's history as well as the Yangban's.

For the first time in 30 years this exercise has created an unprecedented opportunity to validate joint operational capabilities across the East China Sea and strengthen response to foreign invasions of the Emperor’s land.

Key highlights of the military exercise include:

• Synchronised operations along the coast of North Korea.

• Joint training in coastal defence against a hostile parahuman force.

• Enhanced focus on expeditionary based operations.

• Joint cooperation in the integration of cutting edge cyberwarfare operations.

Led by General Hu Shi of the Imperial Navy, This exercise brings together elite members of all branches of the United Imperial Army as well as the Yangban who are being led in this operation by the esteemed Two.

This exercise serves as a cornerstone of the C.U.I.'s continued commitment to an orderly Asiatic bloc free from the influence of outside powers that seek to subvert the Emperor’s government.

-Meanwhile, on another Earth-

If there was ever living example of the phrase ‘garbage in, garbage out’ Contessa was currently in the running to become it.

“Are you telling me” Alexandria began, rubbing her head in her hands, “that after whatever effect that prevented thinkers from working on the city expired you asked the path if the Tinkertech present on the island would have any disruptive effects on the world?”

“That is correct” Contessa replied, at least having the decency of appearing sheepish in the face of a massive fuckup.

“But because there is no tinkertech your path couldn’t see any disruption.”

“Indeed.”

Alexandria stared at Contessa for a moment, her head still hurting in spite of her invulnerability. “What about now? What consequences will New Fukuoka bring to the world?”

Wordlessly Contessa placed a large number of documents on the table, before sliding them over to each member.

Kurt glanced across the papers, nodding in places, before sighing and looking up at the rest of them. “This supports my own research into the matter. The technology present has the potential to upset the global economy, some of it good and some of it very bad.”

That sounded about right to Alexandria, you couldn’t just place down a city decades more advanced than the rest of the world and expect for there to be no ripples.

“While the reliance on oil has gone down since the arrival of Behemoth the influence of various oil tycoons is not insubstantial” Kurt mused “Their influence is already waning, so they’ll feel even more threatened by the arrival of technology that could make them impotent. They’ll almost certainly fight the proliferation of New Fukuoka”

Eidolon frowned, looking up from his notes “Would we even have the manufacturing ability to produce some of this technology, the buildings make heavy use of carbons nanotubes. That’s not something we can produce without tinkertech.”

“Yes that is true” Kurt nodded “However not every piece of technology is beyond our ability to make. Much of what is present is simply modern technology if it was given a few decades of iteration and improvement. Electric motors, batteries, filtration devices, solar panels and even something as banal as cooking equipment.”

It was Alexandria who cut in next, her tone unusually morose “This is all true, however there are other concerns in addition to this. The C.U.I. is mobilising to take Kyushu.”

The statement rang across the room, it was something they had all been thinking of but nobody had wanted to put into words. The ‘military exercise’ was almost insulting in how much of a paper thin excuse it was. It wasn’t just Cauldron who had seen the lie for what it was, most of the world knew what was coming.

War.

“Contessa, can you prevent the invasion from taking place” Eidolon asked, likely already knowing the answer.

The hatted woman shook her head.

“Perhaps if I had caught on to what was happening sooner, but now… there is only one way to fully prevent this war from happening” Contessa trailed off, looking slightly uncertain as she did.

Alexandria, in spite of all her decades of fighting and experience, felt a shiver run down her spine. Contessa wasn’t someone who typically hesitated. If there was a path that accomplished her goals she usually took it and only stopped to think after the fact. So for her to hesitate, to wait at all was concerning.

She caught David’s eye. The man was sitting forwards in his seat, almost as if he were ready to bolt out of it at a moments notice. He had been like this as soon as he finished reading the document. A strange blend of concern and excitement danced across his face in a way only she could see.

“And?” David simply asked.

“The complete destruction of New Fukuoka would be required, it is what is drawing the C.U.I. out, with the city gone they would no longer have a practical reason to invade Japan” Contessa explained “It would require either a nuclear bomb or a similarly destructive tinkertech device.”

The room stilled. That was large, the world would start asking questions if the newly emerged city was suddenly wiped out by a weapon of mass destruction. Fingers would inevitably point towards the PRT and America. They were already present on the island and the local population had reason to suspect them from their pull out of Japan after Leviathan.

“You can’t simply persuade the C.U.I. leadership or kill off the leaders of the invasion?” Alexandria questioned.

“Assassination or diplomacy would buy time, but it wouldn’t prevent this war from taking place. China has many grievances with Japan, so the political will to invade will always be present. The only reason it hasn’t happened sooner was because it would have expended too much for too little gain, but with New Fukuoka that has changed.”

And the only way for that to be true once more would be to destroy the city completely. What a shit situation.

A light cough was heard across the table as Doctor Mother lowered her coffee cup back on to her coaster. The woman had be enviously calm throughout the meeting, reading through the notes provided and listening with a detached and serene air despite the circumstances.

“New Fukuoka shouldn’t be destroyed, at least not yet. Our scientists and engineers are still combing through the city and documenting their findings. We can revisit the idea of destroying the city later, but for now we should act as if we can’t” The woman laid out, pausing and cupping her chin with a thoughtful look on her face.

“If we can’t stop this war then can we use it to our advantage? Would it be possible to turn this war into a long drawn out low intensity conflict?”

Alexandria knew what she was asking, could they turn this situation into one which created the ideal environment for more triggers.

Contessa paused at that, silently going through the question in her head before consulting her thinker power.

“Yes, however the first battle is always going to be devastating. In fact we will need to make it more so if we want to achieve what you’re suggesting. As it stands Kyushu will fall to the C.U.I. in one month if nothing is done.”

Doctor Mother leaned back in her chair thoughtfully before responding “What if we send the irregulars?”

Alexandria hummed at the thought. The irregulars were Case-53’s who didn’t quite meet the requirements for being released into the world. Considering they had recently released a woman made up of uncontrollable strangling tentacles that said a lot on the condition of the irregulars.

“00478, 01429, 01987 and 02173 would be suitable to be released, provided you allow me to place them in certain areas and at certain times. The rest are too unstable to be of any use.”

Four parahumans wouldn’t be enough to turn the tides of the war. She knew the parahumans Contessa was referring to and while each and every one of them was potent they would only slow the C.U.I. down.

“The President was discussing way of re-opening dialogue with the Japanese Government. One of the plans was to retake the Okinawa islands from the warlords that had taken them.”

The Okinawa islands had once served as an American base but when Leviathan sunk Kyushu those bases had been deemed to be too at risk and were evacuated. Now that Kyushu had reemerged there were talks going on at the highest levels of the United State’s government to drive out the local warlord and reestablish the military base.

“Would soldiers help even the odds Contessa?” Eidolon asked, picking up what Alexandria was suggesting.

“If they were well supplied and had a small contingent of parahumans at hand” Contessa paused before turning towards Alexandria “I’ll send you an email regarding the specific parahumans that will be needed.”

Well, it seemed like they had a plan.

Alexandria leaned back in her chair, rolling the plan over in her head. A constant low level war with the C.U.I. would likely boost funding if she could word things well to the President. Recruitment might also see a small surge, she would have to contact Glenn later to get him focused on potential propaganda.

All of this while keeping the advancements made possible by new Fukuoka. Alexandria was no stranger to turning disasters into advantages, but this was quite the coup.

Assuming nobody was stupid enough to flip the table again.

-Alexander POV-

“Brothers of the mines rejoice! Swing, swing, swing with me!” I sung off key as my powers drilled through rock and gravel.

I had very quickly gotten bored of wading across the bottom of the ocean, so I had picked a direction and started digging.

It was about a day after I started that I realised my tinker power wasn’t being refilled at all, and then realised I had to be building for the process to actually kick in. So that was a day wasted.

Now I was leaving little underground houses along the tunnel I was creating, The dark and shadowy atmosphere, as well as my lack of focus had the tunnel resembling a shanty town. Mismatched houses  and rugged improvisation whenever the mood struck me to fix my lousy work.

It wasn’t pretty, but it was scratching that itch I had since leaving Kyushu.

“Raise your pick and raise your voice! Sing, sing, sing with me!”

And also I may be the slightest bit bored.

My singing came to an abrupt end as a light bloomed inside my mind. My tinker power had once again evolved and was prodding me for a direction with all the energy of a puppy hyped up on cocaine.

I quickly glanced at my current choices.

SilkPunk Level 1- A mesh of magic and technology with an aesthetic that mirrors East Asia. It is a mesh of both technology and poetry where art has meaning beyond simply beauty.

SolarPunk Level 2- A technology based focused on sustainable energy sources and living in harmony with nature. It is a vision of a future that encourages community, independence and ingenuity. The user is now more knowledgeable of the intricacies of this technology and is able to craft larger and more powerful pieces of technology capable of effecting entire cities.

Should I upgrade either of these specialties? I’m pretty content with where SolarPunk is already at. My hobby was building cities, what reason would I have for SolarPunk technology on the scale of islands or continents?

No, I wanted something that could add a little more oomph.

NanoPunk Level 1- The science of a world where nanites and bio-nanotechnologies are widely in use and are the predominant force in society.

I blinked as what felt like an encyclopaedia was shoved into my head. Most of my tech trees had pre-requisite knowledge that you needed to understand before you could fully grasp them in their entirety. SilkPunk had involved a fair amount of woodworking and mythology, while SolarPunk focused on the Environmental Sciences.

I had expected that something similar would happen here, what I was not expecting was the topic the power chose. Biology related to the human species was not what I had been expecting, but as it settled I quickly dismissed that thought in favour of the sheer potential.

Because dear god had I been wasteful! So much room that I could have used in the construction of my city was taken up by ugly bulk!

Now I had nanoscale circuitry and materials, and not simply nanotubes like I had before. Alloys that could be made only with nanoscale manufacturing danced in my head, offering materials lighter than aluminium and stronger than titanium. It was absurd, and it had made both of my other tech trees better by its inclusion.

I started back up on digging my hole, the ragged houses around me taking on a sleeker and more refined look.

I hummed happily, I would continue on like this for another day or so before resurfacing and regaining my bearings.

I could only hope that while I was down here the people of Japan were happy with getting their island back, because my next city would blow the previous one out of the water!

AN: Things are starting to heat up. War is on the horizon and Cauldron is looking to milk the current situation for all it’s got. Meanwhile the MC is doing his own thing and happily plodding along. Where is he going next? Only I know!