ALL NOVEL Chapter 38: The New Order
>>>[FOR THE BEST VIEWING EXPERIENCE, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU SWITCH TO ROYAL ROAD'S DARK/OLED BLACK THEME]<<<
===[Chapter 38: The New Order]===
>>> Loading File...
>>> Subject Located...
>>> Continuing playback from previous save
>>> Acknowledged
==[Begin Memory Playback]==
Ani’s eyes adjusted to the bright sunlight trickling into the Palace court immediately upon entering in. The reconstruction efforts had done wonders. The bullet holes were being filled, the burn marks around the palace had been scrubbed, and the cracks in the foundation from the attacks repaired...
Again.
They had all seen the fires of conflict charring the rubble of their homes before. The aftermath of the bombings during the first war had resembled the destruction seen now, and though Raritan had been spared the worst of what could've been, the trauma lingered. Chief Ani had failed to prevent another war from breaking out between the Kiote Union and the River Republic. The devastation, the horror, the nightmares, all of which Ani had sworn upon her oath to never repeat, had come back with a vengeance.
There was still an open wound that couldn’t be fixed, no matter how hard the builders worked to do so. No matter how many orders she made to expedite the reconstruction of Raritan. No matter how many flowers had been planted in remembrance of the dead.
Those lost souls, voices no longer present, families devastated. The war had come back. The ceasefire she had worked her entire life to negotiate with the Republic and the Empire was violated. Her one promise to the Warrior Elves, never another Kiote War, rendered broken. She could feel the resentment the moment she stepped into the Palatial chambers. Where she used to have allies, she had those who plotted behind her back. The tribespeople looked up at her with scorn. As if it were her fault that the war reared its ugly head again. How could she have known? What could she have done?
Then again, maybe it was her fault. Maybe she should’ve never made a promise that she couldn’t keep? But when the war ended, there was at least some hope for peace with The Republic…
It was her job to give a public address, directed to the other chiefs primarily – but also to the rest of the populace who cared to listen. Again, there was some hope that her situation could improve. Their new Coalition allies were making headway into Helena, and if successful, there may have been at least some chance to try and spin the war into a positive light. If they succeeded in capturing Helena, Marshall Navarro’s Military Junta in the River Republic would surely collapse. The Republic was a lot of things, but stable was not one of them. As keen as the Junta's generals were to slaughter the Warrior Elves they considered as savages, they were just as willing to cannibalize each other should Navarro and the power surrounding him ever exit the picture. With Navarro dead, the generals would fight amongst each other - and that's without considering the numerous rebel and separatist groups that were pulling the puppet state apart from the inside. Should the Republic collapse, the Avonians would have no choice but to withdraw. They were cruel in their war, but their tacticians were not stupid. If their only ally on the peninsula fell, there would be no reason to continue investing into the conflict, and they would be forced to cut their losses...
Right?
Chief Ani shook her head free of the doubt as she entered the Palace. This had to work. The war needed to end. Another year of warfare would kill them all, let alone another thirteen. She shuddered to imagine what the peninsula might look like in the event of another decade of warfare, provided glitterbombs hadn't vaporized them all. And if they lost, how would they fare under the iron boot of Republican rule or Avonian occupation? It would be a nightmare, one unmatched to the Kiote people in the historic sense. It could never come to that.
The humans in the Belford Alliance might be able to save them should their alliance with The Coalition fall through, but neither The Ostralands nor Oceania seemed willing enough to commit themselves to fighting The Continental-Pact like they had last time. Ani had gotten reports that there was some support for the war among the more hawkish humans within The Commonwealth, but it was middling at best. Irrelevant, most likely. Outside of RDI supplied intelligence reports and shipments of weapons every so often, there was unlikely to be any assistance coming from Belford. At least, nothing strong enough to end the war.
Everything would have to go perfectly. As she spoke to the gathered assembly of chiefs and the crowd, talking of the latest successes and brushing over the failures, she could feel reality starting to set in the minds of everyone else. There wasn’t going to be a quick end to this war. The ceasefire was tarnished. There were only two questions left. How many more would have to perish this time? And how much time did she have left as Grand Chief before she lost the faith of the Warrior Elves completely?
“… And that’s why we must continue to follow this policy of appeasement. We do not have the available resources and firepower from the Commonwealth and the Belford Alliance this time around. We lack the resolve to fight. What little we’ve managed to rebuild since the first war, is already being depleted. As such, I have to ensure that we remain in good standings with the new faction,” Ani swallowed hard before she spoke the name, “The Coalition.”
There was murmuring in the audience. The Coalition had grown… unpopular… in recent days. While the prisoners of Misfit had done a remarkable job at defending Raritan, and the Coalition’s sheer air power managed to single-handedly repel the Republican offensive, they had been taking liberties with the good will offered to them by the Warrior Elves. The price for their assistance was steep, and though their assistance was powerful - extremely powerful in fact - the pill needed to keep in good standing with the otherworlders was starting to become hard to swallow.
Chiefly, the Enterprise Zone. A ring of territory surrounding their fortress and Canau that The Coalition had claimed as their own for their purposes. Luckily, most of the territory belonged to the River Republic since Canau was a Republican city. But there was a not-at-all insignificant chunk of land that had been taken – more stolen – from the Warrior Elves and the greater Kiote Union. Soil which had been sacred farmlands, hunting fields, and burial grounds for well over a millennia! Eons even. Since the first Warrior Elves had stepped foot onto the peninsula’s soil, guided by the Goddess of the hunt across the Solar Ocean to settle this very soil. It was so far back in time, the only records that existed of that journey were the fables. For that entire period, this had been their home. And for the first time ever – even with the River Republic leaving the Kiote Confederation as an Avonian Puppet state and the outbreak of the war – the Warrior Elves had given up their homeland.
And to rub salt into the open gushing wound, they did so willingly to an alien regime. Not the Ostralands, one of their oldest allies, or any other country in the Belford Alliance. Nor had they been the subject of conquest from their enemies. No, this had been to a nation which hailed from a planet completely different from their own, and in a deal for necessity’s sake, they had sacrificed their homes to them. Ani’s deal with Kovic and his faction was a humiliation for the Kiote people, but one they had to endure. It was either a piece of their land now, or another ten years of violence and devastation.
As Ani spoke to the assembled crowd, she had hoped that they would understand. But as she surveyed the faces of the other chiefs assembled around her, they wore their anger silently. Glaring, whispering among themselves when she wasn’t looking, red in the face underneath their tribal decorations. She knew exactly what they were going to say when she finished speaking but was able to do nothing to prevent it.
“Grand Chief Ani, with all due respect, this cannot go on,” Started Chief Zee, as he took his position at the center of the stage to speak while Ani retired to her throne, “Our people have suffered gravely during the war. And we did so only with the hope that we would emerge stronger and sovereign, free from the boot of the great Avonian evil and their Riverlander lapdogs – forever may they be cursed. We have fought against great evil since the end of the Sacred War twenty years ago, and we have continued to resist ever since with the hopes that nobody but ourselves will be the masters of our destiny. But as far as I and those assembled here can see it, our sovereignty is still being ripped from us!” Zee shouted, now getting frustrated.
“We have fought relentlessly with almost fanatic devotion to our independence, we've sent our young to be slaughtered in warfare, we've have had our homes flattened, our soil poisoned, our people traumatized, and what do we have to show for it? Having our homelands voluntarily given up to some alien interlopers with the hopes that they’ll feel sympathetic enough to help us in the war they started!? Does nobody else see how ridiculous this is? It’s embarrassing, for all of us, to watch as you sell our home out these cursed humans from some other planet! You promised us that you would never give up our sovereignty to the Commonwealth and the Belford Alliance, so why are things different now? Have our sacrifices, all that our people have fought and suffered for, been in vain? Just to be proxies in The Cold War? Is that it?”
Zee pleaded not just with Ani, but to all those who had gathered in to watch. They hadn’t spoken yet, but she already knew that they agreed, “For over forty years, we’ve fought. First in the Sacred War, and now to defend our land. And what do we have to show for it? Destroyed homes, dead families, and becoming the puppets of a foreign king!” Ani balled his fist, gesturing strongly to accent his phrasing. But he recollected himself, inhaling deeply, and turning to Ani – addressing her. Directly.
“Ani. You are a wise leader, and you've guided our people and the broader Union through a lot. But let’s be honest. You’ve lost it. These aren’t the days when you were a junior chief during the Sacred War, nor are they the days when you were freshly elected to our council and to the Kiote Congress. We’re living in the thralls of a new order. And it’s no place for your ways. Either we draw a line in the sand now, or our people perish. It's not something that I want to admit, but it is a chilling truth. I believe it’s about time you send a strong signal to The Coalition that we won’t tolerate being their proxies,” Zee spoke those final lines rather calmly, without his anger or usual expressions of force. But to finish, he took a step closer to her, now in a direct challenge, “But if you do not…” he began, “Then I’m afraid the new order will be your downfall. If you don’t take the hit, our people will. And that cannot happen. I mean that with the most sincere respect for yourself and your legacy possible, Grand Chief.”
Dethroned. Ousted from her position as Grand Chief. It must’ve been something that the other Chiefs had debated doing for a while now, for Zee was never going to make such a bold move without knowing that others supported it. It was rare for a Grand Chief to be dethroned, rarer still for it to happen in times of war. Yet, Ani knew that history was not a savior for her. If she wasn’t careful, Zee’s threats could very well prove to be guarantees.
She sighed, lowering her head as the next chief stood to speak after Zee’s conclusion. Some middling applause followed from the audience when Zee finished, yet the applause was far from celebratory...
Another swelteringly hot day out in the Kiote Jungle. Kiya was exhausted from his work tending to farmlands. The elven magic used to speed up growth was lacking recently. Many of the skilled spellcasters had been recruited to the Home Guard, plenty had been sent off to the tribal cores to defend the capital. His own son had been taken to defend Ximac, and though his letters sent back home kept the family in high spirits - they were still missing his physical presence here on the farms. As such, what they were left with were old men and women who were far past their youthfulness to fight, but also to farm. It left most of the brunt work to those who knew little of magical spellcasting, using their tools to try and get the most out of the soil. Kiya knew how to enchant the soil for he'd inherited the spells necessary from his mother, but he was only one elf and there was a village's worth of work to be done. Their slow pace only became more obvious as the morning sun rose to its peak and started to dip once more, noon faded to midday.
The sun beamed down on him, scalding his bright yellow skin, he grabbed a flask of water. Enjoying the lukewarm nectar within as he kept an eye on the other farmers and farmhands who labored away. His attention was pulled away when he heard a faint buzz in the air.
As he looked up to the skies, he could see a faint black dot hang in the skies. It grew larger as it approached, unravelling its form to reveal that it wasn’t a dragon – as he initially feared – nor was it a griffon. But a machine. A 'helicopter'.
He’d only seen aircraft a few times in his life, and all of them were made by the Ossies. Their fancy aircraft were almost everywhere during the war, but at least the humans were on their side. Mostly. This helicopter though, which descended lower as it drew near, was different. It looked strange in its make, something which he had never seen before. Perhaps it was just because he lived out in a remote village, far disconnected from the goings on of modernity in Raritan or the other Warrior Elf cities. His village only recently got a car which had been used exclusively to haul their goods from the village to the markets in Canau, only a half-hour drive there over the bumpy dirt roads, rather than two hours by classic griffon-pulled cart and walking.
The helicopter was coming from about the same direction as Canau, downhill towards the seaside city. He heard gunfire from there a while ago, though it seemed whatever fighting happened had long since ended, at least making it safe enough for him to get to the market. News was slow to make its way into the village, and whatever the village was made aware of had to be found by the regular trips the farmers made either to bustling Markets of Raritan - which was a harsh journey that took a full day by Griffon-cart, or illegally across the Republican border to Canau, paying one of the Republican guards off with whatever chunk of the produce they wanted. One of the villagers had made the trip back from Canau and reported that not only had The Republicans been driven away, it seemed as if the humans had come and taken over the town. They had called themselves "The Coalition", though they were almost exactly like The Commonwealth. It was likely they were the same people if anything.
The helicopter grew larger, it’s blades now discernable from where they stood. The farmers stopped what they were doing to watch as the helicopter descended from the skies and landed… on their land.
When the bird touched down, the farmers all drew close to each other. Cautiously watching as armed humans clambered out of the grey-painted flying machine. Terrifyingly enough, they marched over towards the elves, pointing at them and shouting something foreign to their ears.
Kiya looked to his wife, Niake. She shrugged, putting the rake away to follow Kiya as he approached the humans. Among the soldiers, was an elf. A Kitchi Warrior no less.
“Brothers, sisters,” The Kitchi warrior greeted them as he ran up to bridge the gap.
“What is all of this?” Kiya asked, gesturing to the humans who stood just behind the Warrior and their helicopter, “Why are you here?”
“I’m sorry, friends but-“ The warrior was cut off by talking from one of the soldiers.
“This is land belonging within the Enterprise Zone. This establishment is illegal. You’ve gotta move,” Said one of the humans, cutting the elf off.
Kiya didn’t know what to say. He looked to his family and friends, and they clearly didn’t either. He smiled, chuckling to himself thinking that it must’ve been some bizarre joke that the human’s had come up with, “Oh okay. Right.”
“I’m sorry, brother… but it’s not a joke,” The warrior said, placing a hand on his shoulder, “This land has become part of The Coalition’s territory. You have to move.”
“What?” Kiya asked.
"Not necessarily evicted," Another human soldier butted in, as if that would soothe things over, "You'll be relocated. Housing is available in Canau where each of you will receive employment contracts with local firms. You'll be given training to understand English, and from then on your future is your own."
The villagers looked among each other, absolutely dumbfounded by what the human had just said. English? What in heavens name was that supposed to be? And since when did the humans have any interest in taking people to Canau? The Coalition had only just recently appeared, and their first interaction with the people who lived here was kicking them out of there homes and packing them into Canau? Why? And what gave them the right to dictate that?
“I’m sorry, but you have to-“
“No, no we don’t have to do anything!” Kiya demanded from the warrior. It was rude to disrespect Kitchi, the sacred fighters of the Warrior Elves. The closest thing they had to an army outside of the group of volunteer civilians in the Home Guard. But it must’ve been equally rude to show up to Kiya's home escorting humans with guns, demanding they leave their own homes, “You show up here, with these people, and you ask us to leave?”
“Where would we even go? This is our home!” Niake shouted at them.
“This territory lies within the boundaries of the Enterprise Zone, and as such is being seized by official order from Overwatch Command stationed in The Nexus!” One of the soldiers produced a slip of paper, with text that read everything they had previously admitted. Signed and stamped. It looked… official. The human handed it to Kiya.
As Kiya took the off-white paper into his hands, he could feel the presence of the dozens of other farmers crowding around him. Their outstretched hands demanded to see the paper for themselves. There must’ve been some sort of mistake. There must have been!
Kiya shook his head, “No… this can’t be…”
“The farm is an illegal construction. Either you tear it down and relocate, or we will,” The soldier threatened.
And it was then that Kiya snapped. He took the paper into his hands, and with all the force in his hardy arms, ripped it in half. And he continue ripping it until it was nothing more than tiny pieces, “You DARE call us illegal? For living in our own home? You come here with guns, to our home, and you tell us to move! This is our home, it has been our farmland for centuries! My ancestors built this village! Nothing we do here is illegal!”
Anger, fear, humiliation. The Kitchi were the noble warriors who existed to protect them from events just like this. Had they not been trained since they were children for this very reason? Several of the villagers had children of their own who had been sent to Raritan in order to train for it, and all of it just for their so-called 'defenders' to betray them like this? It was an absolute disgrace!
“Please, brother, relax. Just consider the offer, you're being given a place to live in Canau-“ The warrior tried to assuage Kiya’s grief with a hand on the back, but Kiya threw it off.
“Why are you taking their side! You are a Kitchi! You’re supposed to help us! Right?”
“They are orders from Chief Ani herself, look..." The Kitchi turned off the translation spell, leaving the humans in the dark while he talked to his kin, "I hate these 'Coalition' intruders with every fiber of my being. Trust me, if there was a way I could have prevented this, I would've taken it a million times! But there is nothing we can do. I'm sorry. Everything they say is true, please. You have to leave-“
“We’re not going anywhere!” Shouted another farmer.
“Tell them to go back! We’re staying here!” Chirped in another.
More and more voices of anger and confusion joined in until the entire group of farmers were angrily shouting at them. The soldiers started to yell back, making moves towards the guns they held near their chests. One thing snowballed into another, an insult was hurled, then a rock, and then –
The Kitchi warrior unsheathed his spear, brandishing it. But not at the soldiers… the Kitchi wielded it against his own people. It was glowing with magical energy, and was pointed straight at Kiya’s chest.
“I am no longer asking! Leave! If you come back, you'll be arrested! Go!” The Kitchi shouted, his blue eyes narrowing from behind his painted mask.
Kiya could feel his chest rise and fall, a cascading waterfall of grief welling up in his chest. He looked to the others, they were the same. Betrayal from those who were called their guardians. Evicted from their own homes at the end of a spear.
“Please…” He tried to beg the warrior.
“Leave, or I will make you,” the warrior hissed, “Chief Ani’s orders.”
>>>[Verifying...]
>>>[Searching For Newest Updates...]
>>>[Searching...]
>>>[Standby...]
==[ERROR: No New Updates. For Now. Check Back Next Time.]==