Chapter 800 – Killing Time

Construction of the prototype lattice should be in done atmosphere first, and then in space. Whereas we can feasibly skip this step, we are still waiting on actual materials from the refineries. Constructing in space adds needless complication for the time-being, risks lives and training, and a disaster would set the entire project back immensely.

Nevertheless, I do actually concur with the Minister’s point that space construction should be tested in itself. Instead of mounting an entire lattice, I propose the connection of three individual islands and then their moving, to see whether the computers actually interact as they are predicted to interact or whether the electronic control system is a dud in itself.

Whereas waste material should not be trivialized, we are dealing with amounts that we will either hit or not. We are not at the stage of rationing metal still buried within the ground yet, even if the first restrictions have been applied to the market. Even now, we will not hit our targets without more scaling. A successful test could be used for propaganda purposes, to show off the action we are taking and, more importantly, to ease the acceptance of greater restrictions.

It would be foolish to assume that we shall hit an incalculable figure by a hair’s width. We will either hit the target, or we will not.

In that, I would say that a collection drive should be started. Scrapyards, for one, are filled with old machinery. Whereas the parts don’t work, there is no reason we cannot salvage usable raw material for that. A civilian drive could also be launched, although…

I will say it clearly and only once. Currently, even now, with the mountains we are building at Pheonix Nest, the greatest store of metal lays in the vehicles of the Imperial Navy, followed only by the Imperial Ground Forces. Whereas it is a radical measure, excess vehicles could be turned into their raw components.

- Excerpt from the “M.M.M. Discussions”, credited to Minister Rolf Hauser, of Internal Affairs.

Kassandora and Kavaa stood at the Dorsdurf weapons testing facility and started at the batches of turrets and other mechanical monstrosities that had recently been conceived by the depart of weapons development, IBOUD from Arika was had also submitted several of its own designs. “What do you think?” Kassandora asked, her crimson eyes passing over the turrets as if they were all exciting toys. The data from that first offensive had been taken and whereas they could not get things such as the hardness of the enemy armour down, nor the their full speed, or how their bodies reacted to different substances, what had been acquired was enough for the first round of weapons testing.

And it could only be weapons testing, because the Empire was starting to run out of resources, every single piece of iron excavated from the underground was being refined into steel, and then sent off to Pheonix Nest where discussions were still ongoing on the best way to join a single lattice. “I’m not even thinking about it.” Kassandora said.

Beyond them, the field stretched where various representatives of the Imperial military were walking around with their own inspections. The purpose of this job was the work itself, Arascus understood it, and Kassandora did as well. Humanity needed to be preoccupied by things that weren’t the apocalypse, otherwise, everyone would start to think and if the Empire wanted you to think, then it paid you for it. “What are you thinking about then?”

“Six months from now.” Kassandora said quietly to Kavaa. She took a step closer to the Goddess of Health. “Honestly, we’re just the worst.” Several of the drones and turrets were on display. It was about making a low-cost army, low-cost in the sense of steel and raw resources required. As many plastics were to be used as could be used, for armour or vehicles or whatever else. There was practically no guidance given save for the calibre that would be needed.

“I agree but why?” Kavaa asked. Two engineers were fiddling with a turret that had broken down and everyone was grumbling about waiting their turn. They were in hardhats and blue clothes, complete with cases of wrenches and soldering torches, and they were wiring up some electronics inside the ramshackle construction. The cannon taken off a military IFV, complete with mount, with an untold amount of electronics and power cables sticking out from it.

“Because now, I want to go for dinner with you.” Kassandora said quietly, she would not show affection openly in front of the soldiers. She would have them rinse her down with a hose after a battle, or sleep in the mud next to them, or force down the same gruel they ate when she needed to prove a point about eating, but those were merely statements of affability. Relationships were not allowed in the military, and even the highest position would have to hold to that.

“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Kavaa said. Neither of them were paying attention to the shooting range now. The only thing that had been even slightly interesting was a drone with a thermite load affixed to its underbelly, that lit and dropped the payload and burned through the roof on a house. That could be used. A broken turret, no matter how good the engineers said it was, was still a broken turret. Normally, Kassandora would call them off and tell them to come back next time, but the military had little to do.

“I know.” Kassandora said. “It sounds great.” She didn’t even blush at the fact. “It sounds wonderful and like everything we should be doing. And I’m saying it because we have six months left.”

“We have more than that.” Kavaa said quietly. “I’m optimistic on the miracle.”

“That makes one of us.”

“You’re not?” Kavaa asked and Kassandora let out a deep breath. Was she optimistic on them being able to crack a planet in that timespan? Yes, if it was this planet. Maybe the moon too. But something that large? To be erased from reality?

“I…” Kassandora said. “I’m uncertain is how I’ll put it.”

“Uncertain.” Kavaa said dryly. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you say that.”

“I’m uncertain about a lot of things.” Kassandora quickly followed up. There were plenty of things to be uncertain about in fact. There was no such thing as certainty in battle, maybe her men would rout, maybe one of the commanders would happen to have a stroke at a crucial time. Electricity could cut out too, or the ammunition may turn out to be faulty. Or it could be as simple as the weather deciding to turn.

“Like what?” Kavaa asked.

“Duels for one.” Kassandora said. Duels were a matter of luck, that was the reasoning for how the Empire deployed its Divinity. To acknowledge that a duel was necessary between two Divines was to acknowledge that the battle could not be won by anything other than a great, individual feat. It was that individual part which worried her.

“Really?”

“Don’t take it to the extreme, obviously Fer can be sent off to duel on the field.” Fer and Maisara and Fortia, but those were the big three. They did not even duel frankly, they just killed on the spot. Quickly and effectively. “But for example, I wouldn’t send Fer off to fight Fortia, or anything like that.” Then it would be a duel, and that would be a matter of luck which controlled who won. “You against Olonia, I would not risk.”

“I’m not sure whether to be honoured or offended.” Kavaa said dryly.

“You’d win.” Kassandora said definitely. “But it’s through skill and not just like how Fer would win. There’s a chance out there that you could lose.” That Kavaa would step on a rock and trip, or that the wind would turn and knock them down, or that an earthquake would occur, or some other even that obviously would not happen, yet was not a certainty to exclude. “Skill is a variable, it’s not certainty.”

“What’s the difference with Fer?”

“Well…” Kassandora said. “It’s impossible for Olonia to kill Fer.” Fer would have to let herself be killed, and that was obviously not going to happen anytime soon. “Just flat out, it won’t happen. Like how you can’t kill Fer either.” Kavaa sighed and shook her head.

“What a way with words you have sweetie.” She said and Kassandora contained the blush. Ahead of them, one of the engineers slammed his wrench into some exposed circuity and snapped it. Then threw his arms up into the air. So much for the automated turret. It should be called by now, but Kassandora would let them bow out themselves. A day extra here was a day less she had to explain to the soldiers for doing nothing with them.

“But it’s true.”

“It’s true.” Kavaa said. She chuckled to herself. “Do you remember how I told you about the National’s training?”

“I do.” Kavaa loved that story, she had repeated it a few times to Kassandora already, and Kassandora liked listening to Kavaa talk about it.

“When Fer grabbed me, I was just…” Kavaa motioned with her hand, a wave as she locked her fingers around her own wrist. “At that point, it’s not even a fight.”

“That’s exactly why I allow her to duel.” Kassandora said. She sighed. But there was something called taking the piss too, just because Kassandora had to kill time did not mean that she would take such foolhardiness within her Imperial Military. “That’s it!” She shouted from her hill. Every face turned towards the Goddess of War, the judges themselves lowered their clipboards. “Move on! The auto-turret prototype is excluded. Fix it by tomorrow and you may get a chance to show it off.” The engineers bowed down to her, and rest of the inspectors turned back to the work. The fire from the thermite where wood had caught alight still blazed in the distance. “NEXT!”

The crowd got moving, the next was a drone, remote-controlled, a slight adaptation of an already existing Imperial drone. The man who presented stood in a clean suit as he spoke to the inspectors and showed off the features of his tracked abomination. It had a bucket in the back, although that may as well have been a bathtub. “What do you think of that?” Kassandora asked.

“It’s an ammunition carrier.” Kavaa said. “I suppose you could stick a body into it too.”

“Useful or not?”

“When every platoon has a pair of Clerics?” Kavaa asked. “It’s mobile cover.”

“That’s good thinking.” Kassandora said. “Stick sand into it and then it will be even better.”

“Mmh.” Kavaa said. “The design could be changed though.” Now that Kassandora had gotten to thinking though, mobile cover was largely worthless against the angels. They carved craters into the landscape with a blow of their swords. They would need another technological revolution, or maybe sticking more magic into armour. The Imperial Knights would have to be tested too, there was no point designing new suits that would be more expensive to produce if they failed to protect. And there was no point even thinking about that, because Arcadia was off limits anyway. All magical production in the Empire was going towards the lattices. Even civilian construction had had its mages stolen from them.

“We’re not going to outdefend them in a battle though.” Kassandora shut that train of thought down. “So I don’t see anything bar an ammunition carrier.”

“What about a mobile bomb?” Kavaa asked.

“Against things that fly?” Kassandora said dryly. Sometimes, Kavaa could be stupid. It was endearing though, and stupid was the wrong word. Silly was better.

“Well…” Kavaa said. “Decoys?”

“That’s something no one has suggested.” Kassandora said suddenly and realised it was genius. “Decoy tanks, decoy cannons we can make out of wood or plastic. That’s excellent.” Entire cities could be made to look like fortresses then. She had obviously not been thinking of it in that context, but that was the sort of thing that was primitive enough that it would be cheap enough to be mass producible and her father would not have any complaints about the military steel his precious steel from the world.

Suddenly, the vehicle began to drive forwards on its tracks as the inspectors took notes. The crowd leaned forward, Kassandora did not understand what was so impressive about what was effectively a driverless, downsized tank. “What do you want to eat later?” Kassandora asked.

“I was thinking of stew.” Kavaa said.

“Mmh.” Kassandora thought of it. “With breadbowls?”

“Of course.”

“Then we’re sorted.” Kassandora said and Kavaa chuckled.

“There is something we should learn together, and it’s a long-term thing.”

“What?”

“Cooking.”

“I can…” Kassandora said immediately and then trailed off. Well, it was one thing to know how to roast meat over a fire, or what colour it should be, but most of her cooking skill relied on making sure that her soldiers did not die. “You made me eggs once.”

“Height of cooking ability, that.” Kavaa said. “No, we should actually learn how to cook.”

“Such as?”

“How to make a cake.” Kassandora thought of the baking with Kavaa. What would that look like? Hitting each other over the head with rolling pins when one of them fucked it up? Beating dough down?

“Isn’t baking just following an instruction sheet?” Kassandora asked. “That should be easy.”

“Have you ever made a cake before?”

“I’ve ground grain to flour.” Kassandora said. “You stick butter in it, some sugar, and then leave it out in the sun and it makes biscuits.”

“Wow.” Kavaa said dryly. “What a culinary genius you are.”

“Soldiers like it.” Kassandora said. It was actually a soldier’s recipe, she had never done it herself. Just watched it happen. “We should learn to cook.”

“Even with the Second Arc?” Kavaa asked.

“It won’t hit us.” Kassandora said. “Not now.” It couldn’t, she would not allow it to happen, she would retool the army for refinery work if it came to it. They were going to cook together. The ammunition carrier dropped and the show went on. There were another few flying drones, the only one that Kassandora could see being used in the army was the one made entirely out of plastic. It was effectively a small, guided flying bomb. And the creators had brought two kits, the other dropped thick smoke.

Another driving thing, although this one would obviously not pass. The wheels were only barely managing to drag themselves across the cut grass of the inspection field. In real terrain, or up an incline, that was a dud. A bipedal thing too, although that fell over after three steps. The crowd seemed entertained by the fact of a robot, Kassandora saw the practicality in it, but it obviously needed work. Then something that was four legs affixed to another bathtub. It walked with the grace of a fly stuck in tar, but that killed whatever hope the designers of the first, downsized tank had, due to being made almost entirely out of plastic.

A gun that was obviously not going to fire, although it managed one shot before the barrel morphed. That already made a Kassandora raise an eyebrow. They really had designed some material that wasn’t metal and could stand up against the pressure of a bullet.

But throughout the whole presentation, Kassandora could only barely focus. Her mind was wandering. What would baking with Kavaa look like? “Will you wear an apron?” Kassandora asked, absentmindedly.

Kavaa chuckled. “Only if you do.”

Of course she would. “Then it’s sorted.”