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Atrocities of the Uprising

Discussion in 'FanFic' started by Ten Thousand Arrows, Apr 24, 2018.

  1. Ten Thousand Arrows

    Ten Thousand Arrows Imperial Sage

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    Part 1: Sakura

    The petals floated around him, drifting softly. They fell like snowflakes. Pale and pink, they were a stark contrast to the blue granite of the battle-torn leisure district. Qi raised a gauntlet to his neck and unclasped his helmet. The seal of his exoskeleton broke with a short hiss as it vented overflow from the armour's coolant circulation. He lifted the birds-beak pattern helm from his head. The spring air was cold against his sweating scalp, but he welcomed it with each calm breath, respite from the sterile recycled taste of his helm's rebreather. Taking in the scene with all his senses, he surveyed his surroundings. He could smell the burnt ozone of energy weapon discharge, he noticed the metallic taste of blood on his gums. It was the sound, that deafening silence, which unnerved him.



    It was a scene straight from an ancient tapestry of the aftermath of war, modernised and brought to life in real time. Bodies leant against hastily made barricades and slumped behind bullet riddled cover. An enormous Sakura stood at the centre of the courtyard, some of its branches laying amongst the debris that surrounded it. Charred craters pitted its trunk, some still bleeding thin wisps of smoke. The insurgents’ defences had been improvised and his group had made short work of them, but the ambush had been effective nevertheless.

    "Captain Jiguang, we've informed the court of your victory. They're sending an envoy and a cube jaeger to process the...insurgents."

    Qi Jiguang noticed the uneasy pause in the banner troop's sentence, but his stoic features didn't betray a thing as he turned to face the man. That had been what command had ordered them to call their new enemy. It aimed to reduce the emotional fog from the conflict, making it more clinical. Many struggled with the reality of the situation.

    "Very well soldier, secure our perimeter for the drop ship.”

    The zhanshi bowed deeply, saluting with his left hand clasped around his right fist and brought to chest height, before turning and attending to his orders. Jiguang noticed that the soldier had fought bravely, as had his fellow zhanshi. This had been their first taste of combat. As much as he'd regretted hearing that his reinforcements were to be from the banner armies, and new recruits at that, they had shown courage standing their ground during the firefight. An admirable quality in a soldier. He made a note to involve himself in their training personally, at least, the two that had survived.

    Jiguang had walked over to inspect the casualties that lay scattered across the courtyard in their fractured power armour. Haramaki. He'd trained with some of these warriors in the barracks dojo, sparred with them, even laughed with them. He didn't let his mind linger on the decorative patterns of each powered suit he passed, as he knew he'd probably remember its owner by name. His efforts were in vain. What a waste of good soldiers, he thought to himself.

    The encrypted radio link in his gorget spluttered a short burst of static;

    "Captain, dropship incoming fast, ready to bring it down on your command."

    On a rooftop behind him stood a formidable armoured giant, the Yan Huo's single enormous rail cannon tracking a moving object in the distant sky.

    "That won't be necessary Khodan, we're expecting them this time."

    The heavy trooper was right to be cautious, the last few days had seen far too many reports of kamikaze attacks using stolen equipment.



    The Dragonfly gunship landed outside the courtyard, more gracefully than its size would suggest possible. This was one of the newer prototypes, lesser troop transport capabilities, but faster, with improved stealth capabilities. The army hadn’t been able to procure any for active use, but during this…crisis…the Judicial Elite seemed to have no shortage of them. Long and sleek, its black hull was marked with the dark red insignia of the Yuándùn division of the Imperial Service. He’d heard the reports of the butchers on the Mayanet. They had brought him nothing but shame.

    The cargo doors folded open silently, revealing the red tac-light glow from inside. Out strutted an Immortal, the representatives of the Emperor himself. A step behind and on either flank came a pair of lower rank agents, both appeared to be zhanying. Qi noticed the troops of his squad, they were making an effort to appear preoccupied with their tasks. They didn’t want to get involved in this mess any more than they had to. Qi knew because he felt the same. The Hsien warrior halted before him, with her retinue stopping a few steps behind. She had an intimidating aura, despite standing a head’s height shorter than him.

    “I heard how you cut down those dogs,”

    Her voice was deep and distorted from behind her faceplate, its vox equipment designed for intimidation and interrogation.

    “The reports praise your command of the situation, ‘surgical precision’ they said. We could use a soldier like you in the Emperor’s Shield.”

    I am a part of the Emperor’s Shield you bitch, he thought bitterly. I hold rank in the Invincible Army.

    “Thank you, general. I merely followed my training. My squad did the same.”

    He ignored the praise, and he ignored the invitation.

    She scoffed. It sounded cold and robotic when projected through her augmented voice.

    “You mistake your own pride for humility. You are a killer Captain Jiguang, I know one when I see one.”

    “I’m not a killer, I’m a sold-“

    He started, but the Hsien’s right arm had already reached out to his shoulder and pushed him to one side. Simultaneously, the heavy machine gun that was magnetically attached to her left leg detached, and was swinging upwards in an arc straight in front of her. The explosive staccato burst only lasted a second before stopping. She rested the weapon across her shoulder. Qi had reached for a breaker pistol before realising he hadn’t been shot. He turned to see the Hsien walking towards the sakura tree, which was snowing a drift of fresh petals. He followed, the zhanying close behind him.

    As she walked her faceplate slid upwards before clicking into place outside of her field of vision. She turned her head to look over her shoulder towards Qi. He could see her face, petite, and pale like porcelain, with eyes of pitch black.

    “These dogs have none of your ‘soldier’s honour’, Captain Jiguang. You would do well to remember it, it might save your life.”

    Her voice was feminine, but biting and sharp, as if it was used to being cruel.

    When he reached her at the trunk of the cherry blossom she was stood over a corpse. Two halves of a corpse to be precise. It had fallen unceremoniously from a higher branch, sawn in half by the high calibre rounds of the heavy weapon. The lithe figure wore a tight black bodysuit, and besides it lay an unfolded compound bow. The LED display screen of its helmet showed the flickering face of a Nipponese style anime girl, with crosses for eyes and its tongue poking out, an expression of exaggerated cartoonish death.

    “How juvenile.”

    The Hsien spat at the corpse, turned, and strode back towards her gunship,

    Bring me their pathetic Nipponese swords.”

    She called out to no one in particular as she walked, gesturing to the mess of scattered corpses with a lazy swing of her arm. The zhanying obeyed immediately, scouring the courtyard for the katana of the fallen.

    “And Captain Jiguang? You will be hearing from me again. If I wasn’t clear earlier when I said the shield needs men like you, I meant you. Your service to us isn’t optional, not after this...Uprising disaster.”

    And with that she disappeared back into the aircraft. Qi knew that the bloodshed would not end in the foreseeable future. He would do what the Empire needed of him, after all he was honour bound to his service. No rest for a soldier of terracotta, he thought as he re-holstered his pistol.
     
    #1 Ten Thousand Arrows, Apr 24, 2018
    Last edited: Apr 24, 2018
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  2. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    Loyalty.
     
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  3. Danger Rose

    Danger Rose The Wrecking Belles

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    Very good story. You convey the mood very nicely! I'll be looking forward to reading more form you.
     
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  4. stevenart74

    stevenart74 Well-Known Member

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    Excellent work to convey many of the more intriguing feelings that are "Troubling" a lot of Forumites that once stood on the SAME side of the Barricade (the once "Big Asian Happy Family" of Yujing) and are now polarized, in OPPOSITE sides, between Loyalist Zhongguo (with "Psycho Cranes" pushing their edges) and Nihonjin Rebels (with their "Bushido Code of Honour" very strained by the selfish demands of Kuges and their Kempeitai "Attack Dogs"). . .!!
     
  5. jherazob

    jherazob Well-Known Member

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    It was never a big happy family, they hated each other's guts from the beginning, only it's now all in the open
     
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  6. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    I'll be honest, I was nervous to click that link when I saw the thread title.

    Looking forward to reading more.


    My brothers and sisters fight among each other a lot. it's how we relieve stress.

    Do not mistake fighting among ourselves for lack of unity against outside attack.
     
  7. Durian Khaar

    Durian Khaar It's clubbering time...
    Warcor

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    This is great, and should be noticed by the big ones :)
     
  8. Antares

    Antares Well-Known Member

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    Great story. Nough said.

    Gesendet von meinem SM-J500FN mit Tapatalk
     
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  9. Varsovian

    Varsovian Well-Known Member

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    Good stuff!
     
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  10. Ten Thousand Arrows

    Ten Thousand Arrows Imperial Sage

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    Part 2: Katana

    What some had naively thought was the end, had only been the beginning of a new phase in the conflict. The fighting had only gotten bloodier and more desperate. Unmarked caches of weapons were being smuggled into Shentang daily, and not all were discovered by the authorities. It was also fought over the net, with the cyber-war taking out digital infrastructure on both sides. Rogue hologram projectors were being welded to rooftops, their graphic propaganda emitted into the streets day and night. They never lasted long before being destroyed, but their horrific messages were difficult to forget. Bounties were rife on both sides of the law, facilitated by both the ISS and the black market triads. Off duty police bled out in dark alleys on their route home from work. It hadn’t taken long before the chaos drew the attention of various mercenary corps, who were happy to provide hired muscle to anyone willing to pay. The State-Empire was at peace in O-12’s bureaucratic formalities only.



    The office was ornate, its furnishings of dark stained wood were elaborately engraved with geometric Chinese patterns. Long black banners hung behind the desk, on the left hand side the golden insignia of the ISS and on the right the crimson shield of the Yuándùn. In the middle of the floor before the desk was a great jade mosaic of the yin-yang. The yin a dark green like the depths of a stormy ocean, the yang was the pale green of a tranquil meadow. Upon it was a lattice about 4 foot tall, of stacked Japanese swords; mostly katana, with the occasional ōdachi or wakizashi causing asymmetries in the otherwise orderly collection.

    Qi stood patiently, facing the desk across the room. The imperial agent sat at it with his head bowed as he wrote on a scroll. The silence was broken only by the sound of a brush dragging lightly across paper. The man’s black hair was cropped short in a military style, and showed signs of greying at the sides. His silk tunic was somehow both austere and unmistakably grand at the same time, a plain cut but with subtle lavishness. He would have been indistinguishable from any other Yu Jingese aristocrat, had he not been wearing an enamel lapel pin in the shape of a white crane with wings outstretched. The office's owner looked up, gave a thin lipped smile, and audibly signed the scroll with the soft *thump* of a stamp printing its logogram in blood red ink.

    “I am most grateful for your patience, Captain Jiguang. Our work has taken a curious turn this last month, I'm sure you understand the need for such extravagances"

    The Imperial judiciary had adapted their communications to the ongoing crisis. There could be no more leaks, and it was certain that their systems had been severely compromised. Ever the traditionalists, the Yuándùn elite switched to a physical system, using complex and poetic calligraphy to send encrypted messages between departments. Losing such a scroll was treason, punishable by immediate execution.

    “It’s unusual, but I don’t doubt it’s effectiveness.”

    He did. He understood the potential tactical advantage of atek systems, but he’d have opted for a decentralised three-way encrypted data-chain relay through a series of encrypted EVO’s. Faster. Safer. More accountability.

    “Quite. I understand that you have experience on the front-lines of Paradiso, what did you make of that horrific place? ”

    At his side, his hand instinctively clenched into a fist. Qi felt uneasy at the mention of the planet, and felt uncomfortably frail in his pristine non-combat uniform. He was a tall, muscular man, well trained in unarmed combat and endurance exercise, but during the Paradiso campaign he’d lived for so long encased in his power armoured suit that at times he now felt naked without it.

    “On Paradiso you learn fast. Everything is trying to kill you. The air is humid and thick with parasites. The planet is an ecosystem of predators. The plants, wildlife, even the weather, it’s all deadly. We lost a lot of good men and women to that hell jungle before we even made contact with the enemy.”

    “They say that once you’ve fought on Paradiso, it’s in your blood forever. A badge of honour for the defenders of humanity.”

    “So I’ve heard.”


    He knew of mercenary companies that paid triple wages to veterans whose blood tests showed they were ‘Hellmade’, bearing the latent toxins of the alien world. The buildup was only present in those that had spent months on the planet, any attempts to artificially recreate the phenomenon by exposure to extracts of Paradiso fauna and flora proved either futile or fatal.

    “I’ve read the reports of your urban skirmishes against the Nippon menace, your command of the situation was worthy of Sun Tze himself. And so, I’ve personally selected you for assignment to the Yuándùn. Ah, I see the urge to speak rising, a hint of disgust, perhaps? But yet you refrain. Such iron discipline you invincibles have.”

    The Crane could see right through him, Qi realised. Where he had been trained in strategy and frontline combat, the imperial agent was a master of psychology and forensics. He remained silent as the Crane continued.

    “Whilst operating as a member of the Yuándùn division you shall retain your rank in the Invincible Army, along with a sizeable stipend whilst commissioned. You will also be exempt from certain legal technicalities of the concillium, and shall carry the full authority of the Imperial Service wherever you go. You may choose a couple of your soldiers to accompany you in this as your retinue, but I leave it to you to ensure that there are no teething pains whilst working with the forces of the Imperial Service. We are professionals in the Emperor’s service, after all. Different branches of the same tree, coming together as one. Is this understood?”

    “Yes, sir.”


    He knew there was no possibility of disagreeing with these terms, at least if he wished to avoid life threatening consequences.

    The Crane nodded in acknowledgement of Qi’s reply.

    “I’ve summoned you because we’re expecting civil unrest on Shikuwasa Island. You and your men will be dispatched to maintain harmony whilst law enforcement officials carry out their operation. We have retained contracts with certain Nipponese assets, though thoroughly honourless dogs, they’ve proven loyal for the time being. Their intimate knowledge of the black market has allowed them to sell these weapons...”


    He gestured with a nod and a raised eyebrow to the stacked swords that stood between them.

    “…to the families they once belonged to. After all, some of these have been passed down the bloodlines for centuries. I’ve inspected them myself, there are blades tracing back to daimyō of the Tokugawa Shogunate in this very room. Our assets will be delivering them to their owners in the coming days, I shall alert you when our agents are ready to...recover them. You and your men will be deployed to keep the peace.”

    Qi wasn’t fluent in the murky deception involved in black operations, but he knew how to hunt, and he recognised bait. They were going to flush out any remaining insurgent hotbeds. Good, he thought. Let this be a step towards finality.

    “Where will we be deployed, sir?”

    “The capital, Motobushima.”
     
    #10 Ten Thousand Arrows, May 6, 2018
    Last edited: May 6, 2018
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  11. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for writing about the disgust soldiers feel about shooting civilians.
     
  12. Ten Thousand Arrows

    Ten Thousand Arrows Imperial Sage

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    Part 3: Massacre

    Hao’s boot slammed into the wood, it splintered and buckled inwards with a dry crunch. A consecutive front kick pushed most of the ruined door into the room.

    "Do not resist! Imperial Service! Do not resist!"

    His pistol was raised, gripped tightly in both hands as he advanced. The Imperial agent and another Celestial Guard, Yingpei, swept the room, scanning for threats as they strode in behind him. He held his aim on the room's sole occupant.

    The small Japanese woman's expression flickered from shock to despair the instant she realised what was happening, the energy drained from her face. Her eyes became dull and glazed. She didn't even cry out as she was restrained with servo-manacles.

    There was no chatter. The whole division had been thoroughly briefed on the mission, and this squad was no exception to the rigorous standards of the Yuándùn. The Pheasant scoured the decoration-less apartment with a silent dedication. Both Celestial Guard waited with pistols drawn, one covering the doorway, the other trained on the apprehended Nipponese. He stopped at a corner wall and ran a hand across its surface. The agent paused. He pulled back his arm and drove a fist through the spot his hand had lingered on. The plasterboard crumbled under his armoured fingers as he tore it to the floor by the handful. A chalky white dust cloud spilled into the small room.

    Inside the wall cavity was a small Shinto shrine. A glossy red lacquer torii gate stood above a sepia photograph of a man in military uniform. On the floor in front of the shrine lay a katana in its decorative scabbard, over which was draped a plain strip of linen emblazoned with the family kamon.

    The Pheasant was already speaking before he began to turn and face the tenant.

    "You are being detained for the possession of the weapon of a known terrorist, and additional inferred charges of conspiracy to commit acts of politically motivated violence. You are found guilty of high treason. Due to this you have surrendered your rights as a citizen, and are now in the custody of the Imperial Service. You are scheduled to begin re-education, effective immediately. If you choose to remain uncooperative you shall be deemed a threat to the state and removed accordingly."


    The Pheasant waited for an acknowledgement, but she sat on the wooden floor and stared at nothing with her unfocused eyes.

    “Move her.”

    Hao grabbed the Japanese woman by the arm and pulled her heavily to her feet. There was a gasp from beneath the floorboards, and both Celestial Guard looked down. The woman burst into a pleading wail of Japanese, sobbing and thrashing in Hao’s arms. He didn’t speak Japanese, but he recognised what sounded like ‘concilium’ being repeated over and over again. The Pheasant walked to them from the shrine at the corner of the room, grabbed the weeping woman by the arm and pointed at the floorboards.

    “Do you have anything to tell us about that noise?”

    She shook her head back and forth as she continued to wail. The Pheasant sighed, and pulled her out towards the doorway.

    “Let’s go."

    In hand-sign he signalled to Yingpei before leaving;

    Deal with whatever’s down there.




    The rest of their squad was waiting in the street. The apartment complex was one of hundreds, all crammed together to house workers for the industrial sectors.

    Hao walked towards his squad, the wailing woman barely supporting her own bodyweight as he dragged her along.

    From inside the apartment block above them came the muffled rattle of gunfire. The trained ear of the squad leader made out two distinct bursts, overlapping.

    The young woman dropped hard onto the floor, her knees hitting the tarmac with a thud. She made a low guttural sigh that sounded like a wounded animal, before taking a deep inhalation and falling silent. Her eyes filled with fury. A madness took over as she flailed on the ground with a shrill and piercing screech. The pheasant's stun baton crackled violently as it pressed against the back of her neck, and she was silent. Her eyes had rolled backwards in their sockets and she was convulsing slightly, but the shrieking had stopped.

    "Scribe; new log, Motubushima serial zero Five Five one:"

    The pheasant’s holo-HUD flickered into life, electric blue light danced across his orange visor.

    "Terrorist apprehended, non-compliant,"

    He paused and noted the frothing spittle at the corners of her mouth.

    "Probable brain trauma.”

    He waved the approaching paramedic away with a hand gesture.

    “As a known threat to the state, detainee does not qualify for medical assistance. Expedite referral to begin processing, assess suitability for immediate reconditioning. High likelihood of violent behavio-"

    The rusted door to the apartment block slammed open with a bang, cutting the pheasant off mid-sentence. The squad of celestial guard turned, their weapons raised, and saw their fifth member stumble out onto the street. Yingpei’s helmet was in her left hand. It was dripping with vomit. Vomit also covered the front of her uniformed chest. She was hyperventilating. Her eyes open wide and staring wildly. Between sharp intakes of breath she mumbled profanities. In her right hand she held her service pistol. She was oblivious to the calls of her squadmates across the tarmac. Despite only being mere metres away she seemed not to acknowledge that they were there. Her right arm began to rise…

    Something whistled past Hao’s ear and ricocheted from a streetlight with a ding. Then another, slightly further this time. It found its mark. The Celestial guard to his left had dropped heavily with a red crater where his shoulder had once been. His spitfire clattering to the ground, arm still attached. Hao dived to the floor as the shouts and shots rang out around him. Rolling to one side he picked up the fallen weapon and began sprinting to cover behind an industrial mechanised girder lifter. He peered out from behind the heavy machinery to see his squad unloading into the buildings across the street. The Pheasants red fury was lighting up room after room indiscriminately, trying to flush out their assailant whilst Celestial counter-snipers took up position.

    The Pheasant opened up a voice link to their helmets.

    “Enemy marksman! Bring me that oathbreaker’s head!”

    The disembodied voice screamed in Hao’s ears. He patched into the neural network, requesting all available assistance from their support units. Taking a series of meditative breaths, he peered from his cover and assessed the situation. Yingpei lay in a crimson puddle. The rest of the squad were firing blindly into the habitation block, spurred on by the rage of the Pheasant agent. This is a mess, he realised. The assailants fired single bursts, moving and repositioning after each shot. Most were impressively accurate, pinning the Celestial guard in their cover and wounding those that overextended. Where was their support?

    Hao saw the first Weibing remote scutter towards them from around the corner. A large target, it was drawing fire the moment it appeared. He signalled to it digitally using his arm piece. It acknowledged his instructions with a series of low beeps and purring whirrs. Walking on spiderlike legs it came to his side, sensor already scanning, CPU churning through the biometric and geometric data. It was taking serious damage now, the armour plating of an entire forelimb had been ripped clean off, and its hull carapace buckled out of shape and pitted by sustained fire before Hao’s eyes. He waited with sweat pouring from his brow, praying that the delicate sensor array would be spared long enough.

    A red warning sigil flashed in the corner of his pale blue HUD. He selected it with a glance, and his stomach sank as the warning message scrolled across the visor;

    [[ERROR#SIGNAL/LOCK/FAILURE#]] [[ERROR#SIGNAL/LOCK/FAILURE#]] [[ERROR#SIGNAL/LOCK/FAILURE#]]

    Hao reflexively remembered his hypno-dogmatic training and closed his eyes, taking a deep meditative inhalation. You are the tranquil meadow, the eye of the storm, the moment between breaths. The warning continued to beep frantically. That and the scattered thuds of suppressive fire on the paving slabs around him echoed in his skull.

    A scream broke out to his left, then his helmet comms were briefly filled with hyperventilation before going quiet once more.

    “Damn it.”

    He lost focus and with a frustrated yell he opened his eyes to see the Weibing. The remote was slumped, both legs destroyed on its right side. It had deep gauges in its carapace that sparked, and its ocular array only emitted a dim red glow.

    “Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

    He heard another scream from his squad and his temper rose. He kicked the remote. Again and again he kicked it, each klanging of his boot punctuated by another curse.

    A single lens of the ocular array flickered into life, spilling red light onto him. The red sigil disappeared, replaced with one of ice blue. A glance activated its scrolling message;

    [[Satellite_Found]]>>[[TARGET-LOCK]] [[TARGET-LOCK]] [[TARGET-LOCK]] [[TARGET-LOCK]]

    With a piercing martial cry Hao rolled from cover, his spitfire firing on full auto at the figure his visor had highlighted.

    The exterior street facing wall of the habitation block had been ravaged with gunfire leaving whole interiors exposed. An upturned wooden table exploded into splinters under the sudden fire of Hao’s borrowed spitfire. The high velocity rounds ripped straight through, the crouching kempeitai that had been using it for cover took each one in the torso. He tried to stand but lost his balance and fell forward, body half hanging from the room. His rifle fell to the street below.

    Hao dropped to a knee, panting from exhaustion, his spitfire still raised in anticipation. The Weibing remote had collapsed too, ocular array shattered on the paving slabs. Hao placed a hand on its ruined carapace. A silent gesture of gratitude. I apologise for my aggression, he thought to himself, remembering the chastising they’d gotten once for anthropomorphising the crab-like remotes.



    Loan units from the Invincible Army soon patrolled the streets. Guijia squadrons and Zuyong, both with dark Yuándùn emblems on their shoulder armour. Hao wasn’t used to seeing the StateEmpire’s military might from this perspective, only on StateMedia and during the frequent honour parades. They were indeed glorious, but in the aftermath of the day’s bloodshed they seemed tarnished to him. There were executions and arrests on the streets as smoke rose from the habitation blocks.

    Hao heard the news from his squad leader. Yingpei had been fired upon from under the floorboards. Naturally she had returned fire. Upon examination she had discovered that her assailant had been a young child, found with a PanOceanian pistol still in his grasp. It seems that Yingpei had had a breakdown of sorts. The official report was that she was injured in the exchange and had bravely come to warn the others, but Hao had seen that the only wound she sustained had been from the marksman. The only physical wound, he thought sadly. She’d received a commendation for bravery, bringing great honour to her family and the state for their sacrifice. Hao understood that she’d died bravely in service to their homeland, but his thoughts were with her family. He couldn’t decide if it was a blessing or not that her son would be too young to understand.

    High ranking Crane agents had been dispatched to direct the operation from the ground level. It was a rare sight to see them in their powered armour, metallic sensor queue’s trailing behind them. Agents of their calibre were thought to be aristocratic, seen more often playing politics with the Imperial Court in their silken robes than marching through conflict zones. One had caught him staring from a distance, as she turned her helmet’s grim visage to face him he felt an icy chill run through his body. Immediately he stood to attention, head bowed slightly in respect. She stared with her three eyed helmet remaining stoically featureless, tapped her blood-splattered gauntlet, and continued with her duties.

    Hao half-sighed with relief at avoiding a reprimand, when a glowing blue scroll filled his HUD. It was sealed with an eagle insignia.

    After reading the ornate calligraphy for the third time, he closed the message, saving it to his databank with a tap of the microconsole in his own forearm armour. Reports of his actions this day had circulated. Quickly. He’d received a commendation for dutifulness. The commendation ended with the notification that he was to be directly transferred from his squad to the Yuándùn leadership academy. Imperial Security leadership had been decimated in ambushes, assassinations, and raids in the Japanese uprising, this was common knowledge. He was honoured at the opportunity, but remained deeply unsettled at the circumstances that had cleared the path for it.
     
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  13. MrMorphine482

    MrMorphine482 Well-Known Member

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    Speaking as someone who wants to run the Uprising as a major arc in the RPG, this is great stuff and I am looking forward to future accounts, particularly of the Zuyong Captain.
     
  14. Samiberi

    Samiberi Well-Known Member

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    This is so fantastic!
     
  15. Papa Bey

    Papa Bey Clueless Wonder. Still.

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    Run this past the White Noise podcast. They do a fan-written introduction for every episode.
     
  16. Ten Thousand Arrows

    Ten Thousand Arrows Imperial Sage

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    Thanks for all the kind words, I'm glad so many people enjoyed it.

    Unfortunately I don't think I'll be continuing my Infinity writing - Uprising and its aftermath really took the wind out of my sails just as I was starting into the hobby, and design/marketing/writing desicions by CB since then have pushed me back to other game settings.

    If I feel inspired again I'll definitely make sure to pop back in and update the story, but for now, this is what it is.
     
    Durian Khaar, oldGregg and xagroth like this.
  17. xagroth

    xagroth Mournful Echo

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    Sorry to hear that, I enjoyed greatly not only the prose but the idea it was written about. Give me a shout if you write more, anyway! :)
     
    Golem2God likes this.
  18. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    I'm sorry to hear that, but please do pop back in if/when you feel like it!
     
    Golem2God likes this.
  19. chromedog

    chromedog Less than significant minion

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    Sort of a "Me against my brother; My brother and I against all others" ?

    I'm more of a "My brother stands by himself."
    (We were never close, then he went and did something probably very illegal and also disavowed the rest of us.

    As for the not continuing the writing ... Writing about atrocities alone will drive you away from wanting to know anything more about that thing whether in reality OR fiction - so it's really not very surprising. It takes a very ... cold ... person to write about such things and NOT be affected. Game or otherwise.
     
  20. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    Not exactly.

    I'm more talking about the usual "toxic masculinity" of typical male interactions which may involve physical dominance displays. Or the potentially very sharp teasing/trash-talking that goes around. If a guy doesn't like you, he wouldn't mess with you.

    Mistaking that interaction for actual hostility is fatal.

    "Me against my brother, my brother and I against our uncle" is the very tribal interaction that is a step beyond teasing/trash-talking. Teasing and trash-talking doesn't result in people trying to kill each other.
     
    xagroth and jherazob like this.
  • About Us

    We are a company founded in 2001 in Cangas (Spain), and devoted to design and manufacture games and figures. Our main product, Infinity the Game, was born with the ambition to satisfy the most demanding audience, offering the best quality.

     

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