Anarchia read through the news again. She took a heavy breath. Epan Separation had thrown off the chains of the Pantheon and the vain mask of independence had slipped to reveal the autocracy which hid beneath. The populations were primed. As worried as she was about the militarization, it did provide a chance too. Weapons could be seized and self-reliance would be guaranteed through force, if through nothing else.
At the end of the day, the simplest questions were the most important: If not her then who? If not now then when?
Kassandora and Arascus stood in dark uniforms on the largest KAF airfield in Kirinyaa. She had designed the layout, there was a wall of hangars for the planes, those were simple round tubes covered in dirt and grass to hide them from above. Then, on the other side of the runway was everything and needed for the troops; a mess hall, a communications towers, two radar dishes, plenty of barracks, a command building for the officers. The two Raptors had returned here after dropping her three sisters off in the UNN, and then sixty other jets which had been produced domestically in the country were parked in long lines. The former two dwarfed the jets, they were undeniably better, able to serve as transports and fighters and bombers at the same time, yet there were no plans to build any more.
The Raptors, as reliable as they were, were expensive and huge and guzzled fuel like no other. Their magazines were so large that not once had they ever been loaded to capacity and whilst they could carry bombs, they weren’t dedicated bombers that could carpet an entire region in hellfire. The fighters were dependable, were cheap and easy to produce and losing one wasn’t the end of the world. Frankly, if dedicated transports for Divinity wasn’t required, Kassandora would have decommissioned the Raptors already. “I don’t like it.” Kassandora said dryly.
“Colour me surprised at that.” Arascus replied just as dryly and Kassandora found herself smiling. She knew the man was making fun of her, but frankly, she had enough self-awareness to know that it was one of her most common phrases.
“It’s stupid.” Kassandora said.
“You should have been there then.” Arascus replied quickly. That, Kassandora couldn’t argue with. She should have been there, but she always left the minor trite to her subordinates in some false hope that they wouldn’t make an absolutely despicable decision.
“I’m annoyed.” Kassandora once again said.
“Do you want a drink then?” Arascus asked and Kassandora readjusted her high cap. The Sword and Skull emblem was engraved onto it, same as on her belt.
“Do you have one?” Kassandora asked. Arascus shuffled and pulled out a small bottle of whiskey from his pocket. He passed it to the Goddess of War and she stared at it, utterly flabbergasted. “Why even?”
“Because I knew we’d see it each other.” Arascus replied as Kassandora took the bottle.
“So you brought whiskey because you were going to meet me?” She still opened it, and drank the whole thing in one large gulp. It wouldn’t be too much for a mortal, for a Divine, and one of Kassandora’s stature, it was barely a teaspoon of alcohol. “You make me out to be some sort of alcoholic.” She passed the empty bottle back to Arascus and the God of Pride stared at it for a few seconds.
“Why are you giving me an empty bottle?” Kassandora sighed and looked around the airfield, she had honestly thought he would be nice enough to dispose it for her. A group of engineers were happening to pass by. Of War raised her hand and called them over.
“I’m still annoyed, just so you know.” Kassandora said angrily as the men ran over. Engineers in dark blue overalls and hands dirty with oil. One of them was carry a tool case, the other a small welder with a mask strapped to his belt.
“Well I did what I could.” Arascus said as the men engineers formed a rank and pulled a salute. Kassandora returned her own and passed one man the empty glass bottle.
“Throw this away, you’re dismissed.”
“Yes Goddess!” The man took it gingerly, saluted, and the team quickly skittered away. No doubt they’d have a laugh about disposing the Goddess’ garbage later. Let them, small things like this were annoying when humans did it, but it made for a funny story when it was a Divine. A flicker of amusement sparked across Kassandora’s face and was quickly put out.
“And just so you know, I’m still annoyed.” Kassandora said once they were out of earshot.
“Well you’re not drunk yet, so you’re annoyed.” Arascus said and Kassandora shook her head, smiling at that. She couldn’t argue with that either, honestly, she was impressed that the man could put up with her when she was sober. She wouldn’t be able to put up with herself. “And it’s just a name.”
“Well it’s a stupid name.” Kassandora said.
“You weren’t there.” Arascus said and the circle closed again. They could go on like this for hours, and both of them would enjoy each other’s company for it. The culprit of the Kassandora’s frustration rolled into view. The new missiles for the planes, designed in Kirinyaa. They were the first of their kind, supposedly they could home in on a target. Kassandora, as always, had wanted a pragmatic name: The GFAFMM1: Guided Fire and Forget Missile Model One.
But she had not attended the final meeting after the testing trials and instead Arascus had stamped off on the name. To pay respect to the chief Engineer, it was called after a girl he had a crush on: The Alice Model Missiles. On paper, they were AMMs, in reality, everyone just talked of mounting Alices to the jets. It grated on Kassandora terribly. A small car was pulling a huge rack with some eighty or so missiles across the runway to the next set of jets. A second car, filled with engineers, was trailing some distance behind it. “I’ve gotten reports that the UNN is massing aircraft.” Kassandora said dryly. “Most likely they’ll try to strike at Nene.”
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Most likely.” Arascus agreed. “Can these jets get there?”
“With those.” Kassandora said as she pointed to the end of the runway. Kassandora had procured ten AA32s, Ausan Airways 32 Series planes, now converted to ST90T of the KAF. Kassandora smiled proudly, she had named these: SkyTanker-90 Tons. KAF had been training its pilots in the air-refuelling but the system was largely automatic. All that the pilots really needed to be capable of was turning the refueling’s system autopilot on, or just keeping the aircraft steady.
“Those work?” Arascus asked.
“I’ve seen them.” Kassandora said. “They work.”
Arascus laughed and shook his head. “Unreal.” He said and Kassandora smiled proudly. It hadn’t even been her idea, some human had voiced it. And once it was voiced, it was theorized to be possible. And once something was theorized, all that separated it from reality was simply a matter of problem solving.
“I’ll be sending the Raptors too, just in case Nene needs pickup.” Kassandora said and Arascus nodded. “And then I’m going underground.”
“To see the dwarves?” Arascus asked and Kassandora nodded.
“To see the dwarves.” She confirmed. And Irinika, hopefully, depending on how pressing the situation down there was. If their conflict against Tartarus was going on for a whole millennium now, she doubted it would be easy to solve though. “If you need me up here, then give a call. I’ll start laying telephone wires through the ground for communication.”
“I’ll leave you to it most likely.” Arascus said. “When Neneria comes back, it will buy us some breathing room.” Kassandora nodded and agreed, there was no mistake there. “We’ll prepare for the next wave and I’ll focus with Helenna and Malam on Epa.”
“That it will.”
“I’ll have Iniri rebuild Nanbasa.” Arascus said suddenly.
“Iniri?” Kassandora asked. “Why not just copy the old blueprint?” If there was one Maisara had done well, it was design Kirinyaa’s coastal cities. It was thanks to Of Order that the evacuations had been so smooth. And city planning simply wasn’t Iniri’s specialization.
“Iniri needs to be shown that she can co-exist with modern civilization.” Arascus said. “And I don’t see a better way of showing her rather than making her do it herself.” Kassandora shrugged.
“And if she doesn’t figure it out?”
“It’s only one city at the end of the day.” Arascus said. “Whether Nanbasa is optimized as a city or not won’t make or break us. But it could make Iniri.”
“Mmh.” Kassandora said. Micromanaging divinity was Arascus’ speciality, not hers. She was only here to win wars. People were kept happy insofar as they were useful, and Iniri, apart from being a walking granary, simply did not compare to the likes of Anassa and Neneria. Now that Elassa was on the verge of joining too, it simply was not on Kassandora’s list of priorities to train Iniri’s confidence on the off-chance it somehow made her a competent fighter who could be fielded on the frontlines. Even if she was, her power of growth was so enormous that the woman would need to be on the level of Olephia for Kassandora to even consider moving her away from her support role. “Alright.” Was all Kassandora said.
Not her demesne, it was as simple as that. She wasn’t going to start stepping onto Arascus’ toes when he didn’t step onto hers. “And-“ Arascus’ phone started to ring.
“Well well well.” Kassandora said. “Who is it?” Arascus pulled out a huge phone from his dark coat, it still sat too small in his hand. Kassandora didn’t bother to hide her curiosity, she pressed her cheek into his arm to look at who was ringing. There was a picture of a beautiful woman standing by the sea-side, her red hair flowing in the wind: Helenna. That was annoying, Kassandora liked her own hair, she didn’t like when others tried to overstep their authority. “Are you going to answer?”
“I am.” Arascus pressed the green button and then pressed loud-speaker immediately. Kassandora smiled in satisfaction at that. She would never admit it to the man, but she was interested in whatever gossip Helenna was about to spill. “Hello, Helenna, you’re on loudspeaker, Kassie can hear you.” Kassandora elbow Arascus in the side. He didn’t have to say that.
The God merely chuckled at her reaction. “Oh that’s good.” Helenna said from the other side. “I was actually going to call her next, where are you?”
“At KAFAF-One.” Kassandora smiled at the name. That was an excellent name indeed: Kassandora’s Air Force Airfield One. She had blessed KAFAF-One with it.
“I hate that name.” Helenna grumbled over the phone. “Which one is that?”
“The one south-west of CR.” Arascus answered and Kassandora looked around the airfield smugly. Oh? Helenna didn’t like the naming scheme? How sad!
“I was going to say that I just a report from Arcadia. Allasaria visited, she wants to split the school into decentralized colleges. I have a longer report but that’s the short of it.” Arascus looked down at Kassandora and Kassandora looked up at him. She knew what she was thinking, but the God must have been thinking it too.
“Is she pulling mages away?” Arascus asked. Kassandora sighed, good thing the man did see it.
“Apparently several hundred already left with her.” Helenna said over the phone. “I don’t have a location yet but…” Helenna trailed off.
“Not too hard to work out Allasaria needs people to dispel ghosts.” Kassandora said dryly.
“Mmh.” Helenna’s voice agreed over the phone. “That’s what I thought too.” There was shuffling of papers and a bang from the other side, as if the phone had just been dropped. Kassandora and Arascus shared another flat look, and then Helenna spoke again. Not into the phone, but to someone else in the room. “Where the FUCK are the military maps?”
Malam’s voice, sounding as if it was ever on the verge of telling a joke, sounded through it. “What are you looking for?”
“Fucking Kafaf One.” Helenna shouted and Arascus supressed a chuckle.
“Ahh yeah.” Malam agreed. “I hate that naming scheme.” Kassandora’s lips cracked into an angry smile. It seemed she was the only one who appreciated efficiency here. Helenna returned to shout into the phone. “Well whatever, I’ll be there when I find the map. I have the papers for you. Do you have the Ausa meeting today?”
Kassandora narrowed her eyes at that. “You’re going to Ausa?”
“Abakwa is holding a celebration to mark the Jungle’s death. I’m taking Elassa. He wants to thank her personally. You’re invited too.” Kassandora rolled her eyes.
“Tell him I’m busy.” Arascus ruffled her hair.
“I already did.”
Kassandora ignored the strands of crimson now in her vision, and narrowed her eyes in thought for a moment. “Actually, if you’re going, can you do something for me?”
“What?” Arascus asked.
“Well, they won’t need it anymore.”
“Just say it Kassie.”
“Can we have their fleet?”