WilliamDArand
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Wild Wastes 5 -Ch1-
🕑 Added 2022-07-22 05:15:31 +0000 UTC"That… was lovely,” declared Yaris with a laugh as they walked into the newly designed meeting room.
Vince could only nod his head with a grin.
They’d spent the entirety of the day with the children, enjoying themselves, and generally having fun. Not worrying much at all about the war in Spain, Magi-Vale, the Tribune of Arraignment, the Emperor in the West, or the free states of the East Coast.
It’d all been pushed to the side by mutual agreement and no one had brought it up, other than to say they had a meeting to talk it all out later that night. After the kids had all gone to bed.
Looking around, Vince saw it was an oddly shaped room that reminded him almost of the interior of an egg. There was a bottom with desks arranged in a circle with layers leading all the way up to a halfway point.
Above all that and attached to the ceiling were a number of lights, microphones, cameras, and other things that were likely installed by Legion that Vince couldn’t identify.
In the dead center of it was a large pillar that was loaded with extremely large monitors and speakers.
Each desk had a microphone, display, keyboard, mouse, and a name placard. There was one for each participant that’d be here he imagined, and given the design and layout, almost everyone would have an equal ability to see everyone else with only a minimal amount of movement.
Andrea Elex Campbell went rushing down a set of stairs nearby toward the center area. Her dark blonde hair fluttered as she moved, her mis-matched blue and brown eyes darting back and forth as she took the steps four or five at a time.
Reaching the bottom she made a “nn!” like noise and kicked a door open at the bottom of the pillar, slamming it into the interior. Vanishing inside she blasted it shut behind herself.
Sniffing, Vince only nodded his head and went back to following Yaris as she made her way toward the center. What he’d just seen was about par for the course when it came to his in-law.
He liked her a great deal. Felt like she was an amazing aunt-figure to all of his children. Trusted every single one of her Others and her “sisters” completely and believed that they’d willingly die to protect his kids.
They were all just a little strange and that was perfectly normal for them.
With a chuckle, Yaris glanced over her shoulder to him, her Elven beauty capturing him in that moment. Those delicate and warm features that were a mix of all the Elven races, with dark-blonde hair, bright-blue eyes, and the ability to puncture through his wants and wishes.
Didn’t hurt that she was somehow always getting stronger, becoming more deadly.
To Vince, she felt like an equal in many ways now.
“She’s taking her role very seriously. Felicity asked her to resume her duties as the A-Net. With Felicity acting the part of Felix, she needed her own Felicity,” Yaris murmured as the two of them found their desks.
“Testing,” Andrea’s voice came over the speakers. “One, two, three. Peak, peak.”
The volume had shifted with each word and it was obviously she was balancing some things.
Then the monitors flickered to life and began to flip through various camera feeds.
“What about me?” asked a curious voice from just to the side of them.
Looking over, Vince found Felicity had joined them.
The textbook defintion of a dark elf with dark-hair and dark-eyes, Felicity was a lovely and mature woman now. She’d once been part of his own faction, then joined Felix’s.
From Leggionnaire, to assistant, to wife, to Empress of Legion, she’d jumped the ranks rapidly.
Admittedly Vince had the option to become Emperor if he wished, except he didn’t. He enjoyed very much being the military leader of Legion, vassal king of Yosemite, and generally not struggling at the top of a ladder.
“Oh, just explaining to Vince that the A-Net is booting back up,” Yaris said with a wave of her hand and sat herself down. Her pregnancy was just as visible as Caroline’s was now. The Royal Elf then smiled warmly at the other woman. “You look lovely, Empress Felicity.”
Screwing her face up into a grimace, Felicity took her seat. It was the same as everyone else’s. There were no distinctions to set others apart other than location here.
“Ugh, please, no. I get enough of that at work,” she pleaded. “It was really nice just to be auntie-Fel today. Really, really nice.”
“Going alright without Felix?” Vince asked as more people began to filter in. This was a grand-meeting to discuss the state of everything. To recap where they were for everyone involved.
“More or less,” Felicity said, her eyes partially unfocusing as she stared off into nothing. Then she sighed and let her eyes fall down to the desk she was seated at. “I miss him. I miss him terribly. We all do. Having him at the helm just made things always seem… simple. He somehow got everyone and everything to line up without too much trouble at all.”
Pausing, Felicity slowly shook her head, still staring at her desktop.
“I find myself doubting if I’m doing well, on top of that. I hesitate over things that I know he wouldn’t. It’s easy to make a clinical choice when I was just making sure to maximize his efficiency, harder when I’m the one the decisions falls to,” she mumbled and then sighed loudly, raising her eyes up to Vince and Yaris. “It’ll be fine. I just never properly appreciated all that he did. It hasn’t even been a year yet since he left but it feels like forever.”
“Nn, nn, nn. I miss him too, Fell,” declared Andrea over the loud-speakers.
There was a general laughter throughout the assembly at that. To one and all, Andrea was a difficult personage to not be in a good mood around.
“Okay!” continued the Beastkin. “We-are-good-to-go! Everything’s set up. Adrianna is gonna be the program director. I’m just gonna be here on hand in the booth.
“Which is fine, I’m kinda tired. We were all playing with our Feral Friend and she totally kicked our ass for a while there. We need to work out a bit more we think. Without Miu we’re getting a little sloppy.”
I… oh.
She was sparring with, Red.
Her “feral friend”.
Ha.
Looking to his desk Vince leaned over the display and then tapped it. It came to life in a blink and opened up to a series of pictures.
“Alright, looks like everyone is here,” Felicity said after clearing her throat. “We’ll open this up with a simple statement, than move to the points that matter.
“Felix is off-world right now on a mission from the Overgods. I’m acting in his place. Legion is rebuilding and fine. We’ve made considerable progress and are starting to bring Legion Prime up past steam engines. We’re actively sourcing materials to begin rebuilding our factories from all available. We’re working through everything in the Legion distribution system so make sure you put in your requisitions.
“Right now we’re a bit limited in output, but we’re still able to provide a great deal of equipment as needed. Rescue missions into the old world continue.
“At this moment, we’re working through all the open items and completing them. We just finished the deployment of the Undead armories requested by the Duke of Denver and are moving to the Snow Ef request for a highway.
“Infrastructure wise, we’re still laying out the power-grid to tie Yosemite into Legion but that’ll be complete in a month or so. It’s been a major investment of time and resources but I truly believe it’ll be worth while. Having a working power system through Yosemite, which would allow us to begin opening manufacturing, plants, and other convenient things would be wonderful.
“There isn’t anything else that needs to be stated from a Legion point of view. The more urgent matter is in Yosemite. I’m going to turn the floor over to the Queen of Yosemite, Yaris Campbell for the update from there.”
Vince was only listening, as he began to idly sort through all the pictures that’d been put onto the display. There was quite a few and they were actually rather interesting to him if only because he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at.
“Thank you,” Yaris said and then coughed delicately. “First, as ever… we of course thank our Empress for making sure Yosemite isn’t just a … puppet state. That while we’re a vassal, we’re treated more akin to an equal. I know there were a great many worried residents of Yosemite who are now clearly eating their own words.”
“With gusto, our queen! With gusto!”called out what sounded a lot like a Dwarf. “This plate of crow is delicious. I’ve never eaten a more fantastic meal and would please like seconds, if not thirds.”
“I’m truly enjoying looking like an asshole. I would very much like to sincerely thank the Empress for doing that to me and please ask for more humiliation as my people benefit more by the day,” called another voice that sounded a lot like an Orc.
Both comments were followed by warm laughter.
“Legion is benefitting greatly from Yosemite. It’s a partnership,” allowed Felicity before going quiet.
“I would agree with both sentiments,” Yaris said with a smile, taking the conversation back in hand. “For Yosemite… Vince is also on a mission from the Overgods. We’re going to take over Europe.
“We’ve taken perhaps forty-percent of the Iberian peninsula for ourselves. Now that we’ve connected the landing point back to home, we should be ablet o move the finalization of Spain much more quickly.”
Vince nodded his head as he finally figured out what he was looking at.
It was a number of satelite images of Europe. A great many of them in fact.
Looking up from his display he saw the monitor was displaying an image of Yaris and a graphic. There were bullet points in it that looked like more would be filled out as she spoke.
“Our first goal is to consolidate our holdings and bring them to Yosemite standard. General Petra has the field and has make remarkable progress with almost no losses at all.”
That got a round of applause from everyone.
Both Legion and Yosemite had a great deal of respect the Ant-Soldier general. While she was deployed in the field, Thera was handling the forces in Yosemite and Ioana Legion security.
“We’re also experiencing a rapid influx of Dryads and Dragons from both continents,” Yaris continued. “Elysia is going to be going through everything as quickly as she can to get everyone sorted out. I know that Legion City has several open spots for Dragons that should soon be filled, as well as Dryad positions.
“We’ve even had several suitable male Dragons show up. Taylor met with them and is having them readied to be sent off-world as they simply… well… they’re not welcome in Yosemite at the moment. We won’t be able to allow other Wings for at least another ten years. It’s best they move to Legion-planet and form their own Wings, which fits perfectly with our plans.”
Once more there was a round of applause and general good cheer at that.
Legion had adapted very quickly to what Yosemite had in it’s positives columns and had been most eager to have Dragons join their secuirty forces.
“We’re going to take Spain as a whole, then pivot to the north. We’re contemplating moving up into what had once been France and taking that territory as well. We’re not quite sure yet, as there could be partisan forces in Spain to contend with,” Yaris continued. “So far, we haven’t seen much of an issue.
“As a brief reminder, we landed safely and built a fort right there. It was the initial fall backpoint. Then we took over Coruna and set up a Dryad Duchess there by the name of Leandra. After that, we vassalized an ant-colony at a Duchy level, then took over Bilbao, and decimated several armies.
“And before I get requests for ant-colonies, Redata the queen of that colony has an entire birthing group of daughters that’ll come of age in a year. That’d be the soonest that the colony can expand.”
Glancing to the side Vince didn’t miss the slight look of dissapointment on Felicity’s face.
Or on Elysia’s for that matter, who’d sat down next to her.
Chances were the two Elves wanted ant-colonies everywhere. Just as they did Dragons, Dryads, Ratkin, and Elves.
A one of a kind work-force that tended to throw their all into Yosemite.
Elysia was a tall, beautiful, blonde, blue-eyed, and lovely High-Elf to behold. She caught his eyes on her, smiled at him, gave him a wink with a smile, then looked back to Yaris.
“After Bilbao was stomped flat, and recruiting a large number of Dryads and Dragons, we took Magi-Vale, a city of magicians, for ourselves. They’ve formally joined and are a Duchy as well.
“Vince talked an army to join our side and then took over a city named—” Yaris paused clearly in thought, then nodded her head. “Zaragoza. The army commander and his men were stationed there and hold the point.
“After that Vince raided a prison filled to the brim with magic users of every walk of life. Some won’t want to stay in Spain, or Yosemite, so providing they pass security checks, they could likely migrate to Legion.
“Though… during that raid we had contact with agents of Zeus. The contact was brief before Vince set off a magical bomb on top of the prison. With any luck, we’ve sealed that entrance for them permanently.”
Vince nodded at the summary as well as all the bullet points that’d popped up.
It was a good run-down of everything that’d happened without overdoing it.
“Wonderful,” Felicity said with a bright smile. “That’s impressive. We all benefit of course when new resources are added. To that end, I haven’t seen any new requisition forms coming in specifically for this war.
“Is there anything we can do to help? Is everything that truly already set?”
“Felix did it,” Vince said with a laugh and a shrug of his shoulders when Yaris didn’t immediately answer. “That… that stupid… loveable brother of mine… went full big brother mode on me. Everything I wanted, he’d already provided somehow. Now we’re just taking what we need from the field, already have it, or it’s not something that would need us to ask for it.”
“That… sounds about right for Felix,” admitted Felicity, who looked thoughtful. “Pretty sure I remember a number of projects he’d put together for it now that I’m thinking of it, but it’s hard to really pin that down. There’s so much going on.”
“We’re alright,” Vince clarified. “Though… I think we can bring magical types across now. After blowing up the prison, I have a pretty good idea of what Ryker said to avoid it. Not likely a worry anymore.
“I know Caroline brought over that group of Legionnaire Elves, but is it possible to have their armor given to a group of Elves who can use magic? Caroline said they were able to hold and use mana, but weren’t trained.”
Yaris grinned at that and shook her head briefly.
“That’s not an issue. The armor itself isn’t terribly difficult to manufacture and if Legion is willing to help a bit, we could easily outfit the other two battalion groups I had put together,” answered the queen of Yosemite. “They’re all sorcereresses from all Elven races. We named them in a fitting way given they’re trained in Legion warfare, wearing Legionnaire armor, from a race that doesn’t exist on their world, while using magic that can only be used by that race.
“The Praecantrix. Which roughly translates to Witch or Enchantress. I think that’s just perfect.
“As to outfitting them… there’s sixty of their number and they’re ready to be deployed. Just need the armor. We have fifteen we can spare right now. Fel?”
“If it’s the armor set Mr. White made, I can easily have those put together in a day,” Felicity agreed. “I’m sure I can talk Felicia into trying her hand at making a mass production armory for that Legionnaire armor designation. It’s very suitable for anyone who can hold a smidgen of mana.”
“Perfect,” Yaris said, then looked to Vince.
“I don’t really have any other needs, I guess. It’s more or less a war. Need more soldiers,” Vince admitted.
Yaris, Felicity, and Elysia all sighed at that at the same time.
“Ioana is working on taking the territories in the east of Yosemite,” Felicity began after Elysia and Yaris both looked to her. “It’s slow going and a bit of a slog, but it’s worth the experience. We’re making veterans by the day and getting more and more people trained and ready.
“Thera is pushing deeper and deeper to the west. There’s very little, other than that toad’s stronghold, that she isn’t actively fighting for.
“To the south and north we’re pushing expeditionary forces right up to the border or to the shore. All our people are committed elsewhere at the moment.”
“I… yeah, I get it,” Vince muttered and shook his head. “I do. I get it. This wasn’t something we were expecting to get involved in. It’s hard to put personnel into it when we’d already accounted all of our forces to be elsewhere. Alright.
“That means I guess I need to recruit locally or get an ally. Any suggestions?”
“Actually, yes,” Elysia said and then leaned over her display. She started tapping at it, moving her finger around, and looking like she was hunting for something. “Ah, here we go. This. This was taken not long ago as the satelite passed over.”
Vince looked to the monitor in the middle.
It looked like an island to him.
A big one, but still an island. It was set quite close to a larger land mass to the south-east of it.
Then the picture shifted and it became dark. There was a great number of yellow spots and lines criss crossing back and forth on the island. With several large circular like spots as well.
“This is what would be apparently called the British Isles. The large island on the right as you can see is quite obviously inhabited,” Elysia continued. “And with a people who actively have electricity. Those are lights and civilization.
“For whatever reason, somehow, they seem to have technology above the norm for our world.
“The island to the left seems dark. I’m not sure why one island but not the other has power, but there’s the possibility that it had a portal open up on it that could have… wiped out the local population, but the island on the right didn’t.”
Vince nodded his head slowly at that, he could already see what Elysia was going to suggest.
“I think you should approach that island and see if they’re willing to be friendly,” Elysia offered. “Because it’s obvious that Francia isn’t a nation we should ally ourselves with. The nation known as Prussany is a question mark, but preliminary information suggests they’re just as bad. We should obviously dispatch a messenger to them regardless though to make sure of that.”
“Right. Historically… I think that’s… England,” Vince offered, looking at the island on the map. His mind flipped through a number of fanciful tales his parents had told him, and the books they’d left behind as well.
Well.
Let’s go see if they ended up getting dropped into their own mythical past.
After all… a great many of those fairy tales came from that area to begin with, didn’t they?
Off we go to the land of the Eng.
I guess it’s more the… land of the Anglo-Saxons? Eh… weird name to begin with.
Land of Eng it is.
Comments
William D. Arand
I don't quite agree, but I certainly understand the sentiment.
Davonne Smith
I feel you she just shows up and declares herself queen. I feel better connection to Caroline because she had a whole adventure mission in book 3
Nick Cartwright
Also this was a great chapter to really get an idea internally how legion and Yosemite function together. I feel it was a great world building chapter.
Nick Cartwright
I’ll just say I don’t feel like the relationship of Vince and Yaris was earned. I feel it very much a “tell” and not a “show”. She has never been a long term travel companion of Vince so I don’t feel the depth of the relationship that I’m being told they have. The only girl in the stable that I feel has earned that deep of a relationship is Berenga/fes. Unfortunately she has been on the backburner for a while. Ps. I realize that much of my comments are somewhat negative or critical in nature. I just want to make it clear I’m a big fan overall. I think the vast majority of your work is a strong positive and I highly enjoy it. I just only seem to comment when I have a critique. Maybe that something I should change.
