Celestara, Holy Celestial Empire.

August 4th, 1427. 9:21 AM

A young elf girl in a floral pattern dress stood inside the lower bow observation deck of the HMS Sirius, a massive and brand new white painted Constellaris-class command ship. Her dress’s floral patterns intertwined with arcane symbols, distinguishing herself from the other high mages. She stood in silence as she observed the capital city down below from the clouds through the glass observatory. The magical cannons and protective equipment of the observation deck were stripped, in their place were luxurious furniture of all kinds to serve the needs of whoever resides on

She could see the capital city below getting closer and larger as the ship descended downward before gently halting to maintain altitude. Several smaller Luna-class corvettes joined in with the massive vessel to escort, their sizes could only be compared to at most only a tenth of the Constellaris-class command ship that they were escorting yet they were far faster and nimble, able to easily ascend and quickly joined the Sirius’s sides.

“Empress.” An elderly butler called for the young elf as he cranked the door open gently. “It is almost time to disembark.”

“I’ll be on my way, Fitz. Go gather the others.” She answered with a voice of authority despite her adolescent appearance, yet still maintained an endearing tone as she spoke to him. “You may leave.”

“As you command, your Majesty. I then shall gather the Minister Mikael and Director Meine.” He closed the door gently as he had opened it, allowing for the low arcane hum of the vessel’s magical energy gem power plant to enter the observation deck once again.

The Sirius finally touched down on a skyport on one of the floating land masses in the city: The Crown District meant to accommodate the Celestial political and magical elites. The massive vessel shook lightly as it made contact with the support structures below the hull. Dozens of large magically powered clamps of the skyport moved forward, anchoring the massive vessel in place as the Sirius powered down.

The landmasses were once part of the mountain ranges surrounding the city from all three sides, except the eastern side which lead to a nearly enclosed sea with a small, busy strait leading out to the open sea.

The vessel lowered its large side cargo bay’s ramps as Celestia observed the men running hastily down below, quickly lining up red carpets and making sure security was adequately provided leading up to the magical railroad-like station where her private transportation is already waiting.

“Seems like it's time.” She mumbles before making her way down through the spacious main corridors, weaving through the humming machinery and onboard crews who stood by to the side to make way. Her guards marched in unison as they followed closely behind with Manaburst rifles, their pose remained rigid despite standing guard for hours before with little signs of fatigue.

Arriving at the spacious loading bay where her ministers and officials already present, Celestia’s dress subtly shifted color from slightly dark gray to bright white as sunlight from the outside shone through the opened loading bay of the vessel, reflecting the magical property of her clothing.

“Empress!” A human man in his late 20s in a sleek, dark protective coating and rounded goggles on his forehead kneeled before her. His appearance fit more so down in a dangerous metal workshop rather than for meeting the Empress. “I hope you found the demonstration of my department’s new weapons satisfactory.”

“You may stand up, Director Meine. Indeed they were spectacular, your new Comet anti-ship missiles and Astralis anti-air missiles have no doubt demonstrated their incredible lethality against the decommissioned vessels.” She gave him a smile. “Your contribution to the armed forces is simply endless, looks like you will be looking at an early retirement in the Aetherion Heights.”

The man stood up straightforwardly, slightly towering over the Empress herself. “Thank you, Empress! But I have no such intentions, for seeing our mighty Empire and your might standing tall over this world is my greatest joy.”

“You seem to know your way with words, Director.” Celestia chuckles slightly at Meine’s horrific attempt at flattery.

She walked down the stairs with him as they moved towards the large cargo elevator platform connecting to the street above the skyport. Celestia kept quiet as she allowed him to endlessly talk about his passion for weapon engineering, constantly switching between explaining how his missiles work and what he can do more to improve them. Though she personally finds his personality and speech patterns somewhat flamboyant and even rude at times, his contributions as her top researcher in regards to both magical and mechanical weaponry negates all the downsides of a few too many words coming out of his mouth at times even when they’re not needed.

Joining closely behind the two in the massive magical elevator platform, Minister Mikael of the Imperial Treasury Department let out a sigh as he reviewed the exorbitant cost of weapon developments through a magical tablet. Tapping away, he scrolled through files after files detailing every single time he had reluctantly approved the budget by the request of Her Majesty.

The arms race between the Holy Celestial Empire and the Florence Republic due to the ongoing Cold War has made life incredibly stressful for every civilian minister in their respective departments. While he had no doubt in his nation’s recognized status as the strongest and wealthiest magical nation in the world, the economy of the mechanical giant down south has proven to be incredibly resilient despite their high military spending, being able to maintain decent social services as well as welfare programs for the poor from what the spies could gather.

He tilted his head over the edge of the massive elevator platform as he leaned his body against the railing, staring at the urban landscape of the Lower Districts far down below from the floating landmasses. Already he could see several poorer areas of the city began to show signs of decay as several public services were scaled down or halted entirely in said areas. Reports of crimes had risen dramatically as well, with criminals finding them to be perfect locations to practice illegal and dangerous spells that normally would’ve been banned and stopped by the police.

While hosting the largest number of citizens who can use magic - up to two millions - the vast majority of the Holy Celestial Empire still consists of regular people of many races, with humans making up around 45% while elves are 32%, the rest are filled in by a hodgepodge of immigrants from other continents and countries seeking a better life for themselves or to study higher forms of magic, hoping one day they could make it to the Crown District.

The once beautiful and proud metropolis landscape of Celestara was slowly stripped of their arcane lights, building by buildings, districts after districts, spared for the elites at the top Upper Districts, especially those who resided in the Crown District where virtually nothing has changed.

Recognizing the effects and consequences of his decisions to approve so many of Meine’s ambitious projects, he finally found the courage to speak up.

“Your Majesty….” He paused slightly.

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“Yes? What is it, Minister Mikael?”

“Perhaps we should rethink our strategy in regards to building up our armed forces, I’m afraid that continuing on this path will lead us to naught but ruin like the Ancient Khanterra Empire of old. Even though I agreed that we should not be falling behind the Florentines militarily, our estimated capabilities gap has already widened far enough from them that a budget amendment and general reduction in military spending would have still been sufficient to safeguard the southern border with our mechanical rival.”

He paused, scrolling to another page on the tablet. “The treasury is running low on magical gems to power Miene’s projects, leading to rationing power in several Lower Districts as well as salary cuts for the workers in the public sector. Many of the ministers and workers have expressed great dissatisfaction with how the country is being run, particularly in said Lower Districts and the countryside.”

“Hmmm… you do have a point there, minister Mikael. What do you think is the best course of action?” Celestia said, making a mental node as she observed the city down below with a sadden face.

“Well I must say, despite Meine’s achievements his experimentations and projects had consumed far more gems than he had promised to both myself and to you, Your Majesty. By cutting funding to or scaling down some of his less important projects we could revitalize many of the Lower Districts before expanding on the refineries to refine more Energy gems for our future needs.”

“Makes sense, many of his projects did run over budget by a significant margin.” Celestia recalled from her memory, putting her hand on her lips as she pondered if her plans to compete with the Florentines had gone too far.

“What?!” Meine yelped from overhearing Mikael’s proposal, directing his anger towards the minister. “Do you even know what you are talking about?! How am I supposed to finish Project Black Swan without critical materials?!”

“Tsk. I know very well, Director. You might want to scale down your future projects or find ways to improve on the research process to make them more efficient.” Mikael puts away the tablet, folding his arms. “Let me remind you again that the treasury cannot satisfy your projects forever.”

“B-but I’ve only asked for 60 tons of magical gems per week!”

“That amount can power Celestara in the same amount of time! Your request is absurd! I don’t think you know much it takes to refine even a ton worth of Energy gems…”

“You can use Flame gems as a substitute form of energy through the use of high efficiency steam engines imported from the Florence Republic and leave those Energy gems to my department!”

“Ar-are you mad?” Mikael widened his eyes in disbelief, not believing the near-borderline insane thought process of Director Meine. “Our perception and status as the greatest civilization in this world would be destroyed if that were to happen! Is that what you want? To acknowledge and allow the Florentines to claim the title as the strongest in the world?!”

“Ahem.” Celestia coughs slightly which caught the attention of the two in front of her. “I have made my decision. Minister Mikael will get his wish, while Director Meine will have to scale down his projects. Given the priority between keeping the lights on or preparing for a conflict that we are assured to win decisively due to Meine’s contribution to magical weapon development, I chose the former. Do not take this as a threat, Director. Despite the Florentine’s recent development of armored land units, our walkers can still counter them with our superior magitech, their inferior armored airships can still be defeated with Meine’s Astralis missiles.” She said carefully, avoiding disappointing Meine as much as she could with her final decision on the matter.

Now facing imminent budget cuts yet couldn’t bring himself up to oppose the Empress’s decision, he stood in silence, letting her know of his passive respect for her decision using it. Celestia smiles slightly looking at Meine, happy that he didn’t make a scene out of it any further.

The elevator platform finally stopped ascending, reaching to the top of the floor where a private cable car line is located which lead directly to the Empyrean Court in the Crown District, acting as the Empress’s personal route to get to the skyport but also often used by other ministers and Director Meine as well to test out his new secret creations out at sea, away from the prying eyes of the public and potential spies.

“So… this morning was fruitful, both of you.” Celestia turned around. “Keep up the work you’re doing for our great Empire.”

The two men straighten up, bidding farewell to the Empress as she enters her cable car with Mikael letting out a smile of relief at the Empress’s decision while Meine bit his tongue bitterly. The cable lines automatically switched its complex mechanism, allowing the Empress’s private cabin to move to the Empyrean Court where she had another boring monthly meeting about worldly situations.

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The 4th Marine Expeditionary Fleet

Minato Sea, 82 km from Kōyōjima Island.

August 4th, 1427. 2:32AM

The fearsome perpetual typhoon surrounding the southernmost archipelago rocked the FES Vortex immensely as the typhoon waves pushed the 6.200 tons Fisher-class frigate up and down like it was made of plywood on the beach, occasionally causing the bow to dip into the water, slightly submerging it before it quickly rose back up again.

Rain falls in endless sheets, cascading with a fury that merges the ocean and sky into a single, chaotic and endless typhoon. More massive waves, like liquid mountains rise crash into the metallic bow of a flat top vessel with a deafening force yet the 42.000 tons FES Vanguard, an Anchorite-class amphibious assault ship, continued to press forward despite the heavy typhoon. President Irwin had authorized an expedition to the nearest landmasses outside the Eastern Continent, hoping to make contact with another civilization to establish diplomatic relationship over the seemingly empty Minato Sea.

They were not alone on this sea, however.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

“I didn’t sign up for this bullshit!” A sailor yelled aggressively through the typhoon as he fired away the 25mm deck gun on one of the escorting frigates, aiming at a pack of predatory Fangtides - carnivorous fishes that devour both sailors and wooden ships alike - with each rounds exploding with a pop in quick succession, taking out many in the process. He managed to cut the large predatory school of fishes down with cold hard efficiency through the deck autocannon, until more showed up which annoyed him immensely.

“Bring me another belt!” He yelled out, emptying the rest of the ammunition into the new horde. He was lucky however, the fishes have only managed to chip the paint on the side hull, unable to dig inside through steel, leaving most of the crew unharmed.

“Here! Make way!” Another sailor yelled out, loading another belt of high explosive ammo as fast as he could under pressure.

The secondary front turret of the ship swivelled, launching two dozen depth charge rockets in quick succession into the water before swiveling back to the loading hatch for a reload. The subsequent underwater explosion dispersed the fishes away, which caused several sailors to cheer a bit in relief as the last of Fangtides were finished off by a quick burst of 25mm high explosive rounds before quickly heading back to their station.

“How the fuck did sonar not picked them up?!” One of the sailors asked, shielding himself from the heavy rain with one arm from the typhoon as he latched onto the railing using another trying to balance himself amidst the soaring waves.

“The sea is too rough! They can’t pick up shit! The fucking fishes tore the torpedo bait emitter off, damaged the sonar too! The damn thing attracted more of them her- WATCH OUT!!”

They both leaped inside through the metal door, quickly closing and sealing it. A giant tentacle attempted to break through the metallic door before abandoning the idea, wrapping itself around the 25mm autocannon and tore it off violently, flinging the deck gun down into the depths.

Other sailors stepped in, firing small arms into the giant tentacle which caused the large kraken to retreat but found itself imploded from the inside out due to the depth charge rockets, fired from the secondary front turret.

“That’s the fourth time we got attacked today…” The sailor breathed heavily, grabbing an R-25SB and magazines left by several other sailors who brought them up from the armory for emergencies.

“Wish I got assigned to the Vanguard.” Another looked at the amphibious assault ship nearby, being attacked by even larger amounts of sea monsters. “Maybe not…”