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Baptism by Fire
Procurat-colonel Vegard Tarq, commander of the Volsk army deployed here, could only smell burnt flesh as his infantry died at the incendiary bombs of Saminum artillery. Incendiary bombs turned military formations into craters, pillars of smoke rising from them. Pitiful remnants of what used to be men and women tried to crawl away from the flames, praying to their gods, begging for their mothers to hold them. Tarq ignored them; he would mourn them after the battle was over. All that mattered was the success of this mission. Surrounded by fire and death he led his men towards the objective as quickly as possible.

The Volsk soldiers’ objective was a large structure; the troops had called it a Portal. Tarq had only heard vague rumours of such structures, mostly grand stories told by men to impress the others. It was said that these Portals allowed one to travel vast distances in an instant, some even claimed that it would enable travel between different worlds. The Volsk commander didn’t believe such stories; they were nothing more than make-believe, myths about a long gone era. All that mattered was what the Legion had ordered: Tarq and his forces were to capture the fortress, no matter what.

Having only been part of the Legion conglomerate for a short time, Volsk still had to prove its loyalty. It still felt strange for Tarq to obey the Legion, considering that he had fought against them only a few orbitals ago. During the final war Volsk had formed a coalition with several other factions to counter the Legion. It did no matter; at the end they were all defeated by the Legion. But rather than destroying the Volsk, the Legion integrated its defeated foes into the conglomerate.
The Saminum were the enemy now, or rather again. They had fought against the Legion, raiding its Ecopolis hives for slaves and resources. Eventually the Legion launched a counterattack against Saminum, conquering them. Like Volsk, Saminum was given the possibility of Merger, the become part of the Legion. In the beginning it seemed Saminum was actually trying to do this. Later on it became clear that the Saminum were merely trying to buy time. It didn’t take long before they showed their true colours, turning against those who’ve spared them. The Volsk were now deployed to deal with this matter. This was to be their baptism by fire, the chance to prove that Volsk was loyal to the Legion. Saminum had to die.

The building’s walls were impossible to break open with the weapons they had. Turrets on top of those walls aimed at those soldiers who got too close. The closer Tarq’s troops got, the quicker they died. He saw men who had served him for orbitals torn to shreds or burnt alive. At this rate they would all die before even getting close enough, they have to breach the gates.

The procurat-colonel had hoped for Legion support in the taking of this fortification, but his new allies had remained silent: the Volsk forces were on their own. Without the Legion’s forces to provide covering fire to take out the Saminum defences, Tarq was forced to throw even more of his own men against the enemy. Hundreds of soldiers were killed as the engineer units stormed the building’s only weak point, its gate. The engineers were assigned to detonate the gate, thereby providing the rest of the army entry into the building. Most of the engineers never made it to the gate, but their sacrifice was not in vein. The surviving engineers managed to place the charges and destroy the only thing that stood between the Volsk army and victory.

The soldiers were screaming as they stormed the objective; some of the older troops were still yelling the old Volsk slogans, but most others cried out their newly adopted Legion taglines. Tarq was impressed by how easily they have accepted the Legion’s way as their own. To an outsider it might seem as if the Volsk had completely given up their own identity and taken the Legion’s as their own. Tarq knew better though, all those who were defeated by the Legion were given the choice: Acquisition or Merger. Acquisition meant that the Legion would exterminate a defeated population whilst taking all its knowledge, technology and natural resources. Merger meant that the defeated would be integrated into the Legion conglomerate. Either way, the Legion would always absorb and grow. Through its actions Saminum had chosen for Acquisition, death was the only logical conclusion now.

Tarq noticed how few men he had left; in the beginning of the campaign he commanded four detachments, which must have been over twenty thousand men. During the war he had lost many men. At Caud Forq, Tarq lost an entire detachment as Saminum troops detonated a chemical weapon in the Volsk camp. Five thousand men reduced to liquefied flesh. During the battle for Latuli 315, the enemy used airships in an attempt to hold off the Legion forces. The Volsk bore the brunt of these attacks: hundreds of soldiers died. Tarq lost more men to random ambushes by local raiders. Saminum employed some of them; most of the raiders were simply survivors trying to make a living. At the beginning of this battle Tarq was forced to reorganize his army. His ragtag band of those who survived so far was reformed into a single detachment. There weren’t even enough men left to form a detachment majority, Tarq now only commanded three thousand men.

With only a fraction of his army left, Tarq knew that this would most likely be their last battle. His army would die today or, if some of the troops managed to survive, be disbanded. Either way, this would be the end. The procurat-colonel wondered how the other Volsk battle groups were doing. They would most likely have been exposed to the same kind of beating as his forces. Saminum forces already crushed procurat-captain Cerus Maltion’s army. This happened early in the war, during the battle for Neopolis. The Legion commanders stood by and watched as Saminum bike cavalry outflanked the procurat-captain’s formations. Procurat-colonel Isol Nurod tried to desert after his army was defeated, Legion execution squads hunted him down and impaled him. The Legion accepted no failure: one either fulfils the assignment or dies. Tarq would not give up, he would prove Volsk’s loyalty to the Legion, or die so in the process.

I liked it but your sentences near the start could do with a touch up - when you talk about pillars of smoke - maybe put - Saminum Insendary bombs turned whole formations into pillars of rising smoke and ash - instead, but on the whole it was good, anymore?

Thank you for your feedback!

I still need to improve the details of the story, like the thingie you mentioned.

The plan at the moment is to write a series of short pieces, each of around a 1000 words. Each piece would be from a different point of view, and in a different style, but still taking place in the same setting. Each piece continues where the previous story ended. Kind of akin to that Aeon FLux episode War.

I will await the next installment, hopefully soon?

Very nicely written. Vegard Tarq seems a tiny bit crazy, with his obsession with the Legion and the mission.

I like this, as LL said well done and dont keep us waiting for too long.

 LoneLictor wrote:
Very nicely written. Vegard Tarq seems a tiny bit crazy, with his obsession with the Legion and the mission.

I see Tarq as very naive or in total denial about what's actually going on. The next story will give a bit more insight on what the Legion might be doing.

I like the idea of each piece being from a different point of view. It adds variety, opens up the scope of the conflict and gives an insight into more than just one mind. I think it'll fit well once it's all put together. This piece, also, is great! Huzzah!

That is the idea. In the past I've been trying to set up various game universes. Whether it's brainstorming with the guy behind Redemption Sector (Icesword's project, in which he did all the writing, ideas, artwork, miniatures, etc), or working on SCIROR.

I really like the idea that users/gamers have to really delve in the material to get a complete picture of what's going on. So some info about weapons can be found in the rules section, a vague hint about some character in a different section, and so on and so on.

This idea is really a continuation of it, Icesword originally threw this at me over at the Troll Forged forums, and now I'm playing with it. Shorts bits of story that put together show you an entire universe.

The material here is based on the stuff me and Philip Sibbering have been discussing for SCIROR and its setting "Stare into the Abyss", but here and there I've taken some liberties.

Last Words

[VALIDATION]
[ACCESS GRANTED]

[VERBAL TRANSCRIPT]
[PERIOD RECORDING: 10-02-09-01 TO 10-02-10-02]
[RECOVERED BY LEGION EMPLOYEES]
[DATE RECOVERY: 10-04-01-10]
[CENSORED FILE]
[LOCATION: CLASSIFIED]

[IDENTITY…]
[IDENTITY…]
[IDENTITY FOUND]

[IDENTITY: TOLEN SOMONEM]
[RANK: CONTRACTED COMBAT ENGINEER]
[COMMANDER: PROCURAT-COLONEL VEGARD TARQ]
[TRANSGRESSION: BREACH OF CONTRACT]
[REPRIMAND: BIOLOGICAL LAY OFF]
[STATUS: MISSING IN ACTION]

[BEGIN PLAYBACK]

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-09-01]
“Is this thing working? [EXPLETIVE] Ah, here we go. [CLICKING SOUND] My name is Tolen Somonem, but my colleagues call me Tolly. I’m an employee of Volsk, serving under procurat-colonel Vegard Tarq. If I die or succeed, I want you to know what [EXPLETIVE] happened here. This here, this war, this takeover, it isn’t some initiation period to see whether we’re worthy for Merger. It’s a [EXPLETIVE] grinder, and we’re the ones being [EXPLETIVE] minced!”

[OUTSIDE NOISES]

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-09-05]
“[EXPLETIVE] You do know why they use us for these campaigns right? Most of the men and that fool Tarq believe that after this war we’ll all become recognized citizens of the Legion. Idiots! This isn’t some test to see whether we’re worthy of Merger, this is [EXPLETIVE] Blow [TRANSLATION: BIOLOGICAL LAY OFF] on massive scale. Our Executives gave us up after the takeover. They knew we were all going to die, but didn’t care: it was a small price for them to pay to become part of the Legion’s elite.”

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-09-07]
“Heads of their arses is what they’ve got! Tarq used to be one of the best, sharp as a blade he was. When the Legion was still busy with our takeover, Tarq managed to blow off anything those [EXPLETIVE] threw at us. What a sycophantic [EXPLETIVE]! Does he really think that the Legion will promote him once the Merger is done? I know the type though, that [EXPLETIVE] Maltion was the same. At Neopolis he depleted his whole army to the Saminum just to impress the Legion. They don’t care; they never care. Maltion was [EXPLETIVE] chained up to one of the Saminum bikes and dragged across the fields until nothing but strips of flesh remained. “

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-09-08]
“No promotion for him, just death. The other procurats have already been killed: Maltion at Neopolis, Nurod at Latuli 315, after he tried to flee the battlefield. Saminum soldiers captured that old [EXPLETIVE] Nezzar outside of [CLASSIFIED], and placed him in the clock tower. He could only keep on running for so long, until the clock caught up with him and crushed him like a bug! The mechanism was literally a [EXPLETIVE] giant, a five-meter tall man living inside that thing! The colossal was… it felt like those wheels children use to put [EXPLETIVE] rodents in! It’s not just the procurats who will die of course. We all die alongside our commanders. Many of Nezzar’s troops declared Byebye [TRANSLATION: BIOLOGICAL BANKRUPTCY] the old [EXPLETIVE] died.”

[OUTSIDE NOISES]

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-09-10]
“Got to be careful. This sort of talk isn’t smart. Normally we’d get damned [TRANSLATION: DEMOTED] when they find out. Tarq would gladly hand me over to the Legion; they’ll do more than just d**n [TRANSLATION: DEMOTE] me. I wonder what he thinks will happen. Promotion? To become what: one of the Legion’s elite? To one day be an Executive as well? Does he really believe they will make an exception for him? He knows who the Legion Executives are, they are not the [EXPLETIVE] same!”

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-10-01]
“The only reason I’m [EXPLETIVE] sticking around is tomorrow’s mission at [CLASSIFIED]. I could have tried to escape earlier, or simply declared Byebye [TRANSLATION: BIOLOGICAL BANKRUPTCY]. But the Legion would never tolerate that unless they wished it. Tomorrow might give us a chance though, if the stories are true. We have to take a Saminum base that contains a Portal. A [EXPLETIVE] Portal! Some of the men who have been rather close to Legion troops say that this device allows you to travel to other worlds. If we manage to take the [EXPLETIVE] thing and keep the Legion distracted, I might make it out.”

[CRACKING NOISE FROM RECORDER]

[ENTRY DATE: 10-02-10-02]
“[EXPLETIVE] Is this still working? [EXPLETIVE] Battery is running out. I need to be quick then! [EXPLETIVE] If there is some chance I’ll make it, you won’t see me anymore. Either that or I’m dead. Just remember what is happening here. The Legion is wiping Volsk out. Our boys and girls are cut up on the Saminum grinder whilst our leaders dine in the capital. [EXPLETIVE] them! May they [EXPLETIVE] choke in it!

[CRACKING NOISE FROM RECORDER]

[END PLAYBACK]

This is intresting to say the least! I like this form of telling a tale.

You mean the fragmented thing?

Started working on some city models to kind of show the world in which these stories take place.

Here's one of the cities I've built.


I also decided to take a few of the old models I did and give them the same treatment as the last couple of pictures. These will all become part of a series I've dubbed "Steampunk Urbanism".

 Malika2 wrote:
You mean the fragmented thing?

Yes, in my mind it makes for a intresting and seldom seen type of storytelling.

Definitely, but it has become slightly more complicated. What if the new material kind of makes the old stuff redundant? I mean, if you put it all in one thing you can keep it all on the same level sort to speak. This very fragmented way of doing it leads to the risk that the first story might be really crappy by the end you come to story 20 for example...

Also, I noticed that my attempts at urban design (a series I've dubbed "Steampunk Urbanism") is taking a bigger role than expected. First I assumed that the artwork would support the stories, but lately I'm pondering the other way around, that the artwork have become the determining factor for these stories.

By the way, here some updated on the city, check the attachment on the bottom of this post to see it. If you want a bigger view, take a look here

The original concept was a city built on water, but in a rather dull way. Luckily playing with the filters made me got rid of the textures, which means the city on water premise can easily be hidden away. But there would still have to be a reason why the population decided to live in a city so high above ground on such isolated blocks. What is happened on the surface that drove the people to live this way?

So we basically have the question: what drove the builders of this city to build the city they’ve built? (complicated phrase huh?) Something must have happened to make the normal surface uninhabitable. Or perhaps it has nothing to do with that, meaning that the design is a form of megalomania to show off. Either way is an interesting thing to play with.

I’m in a good vibe lately when it comes to this. I think that, besides the writing and improving of these design, the next stage of this project will probably be to start drawing. Sadly my skills are pretty much non-existent, but I could either practice my ass off, or get somebody to help me out here. But in order to do that I need to have a stronger grasp of what it is I want to do with this…

Now this is a series of ideas I find very promesing. Do keep this comming

Damn, it was just getting interesting, don't stop now Malika!

I'm not stopping, there will be more stories coming. I just need to find some sort of focus. Note that the artwork here and the stories are all part of the same project...sort of. At least I imagine them both to exist in the same universe. Lets see how they'll be connected...

It’s basically a 100m x 150m block, divided in twelve sections of 30m x 30m. The front ones are the actual living spaces and workshops.The eight back blocks are basically huge server rooms, but instead of being filled with server-like stuff, they are more akin to glasshouses.

One problem with the design is that it is supposed to feel very repressed and claustrophobic, which is does in text (just read the stuff Philip wrote). I mean, each ecorium has 45 levels, each level has 6 hab units, which is 270 hab units. And each ecopolis (which consists of 9 mega ecoria, which each has 9 ecoria) basically has 7290 hab units (yes I can sort of count!). This would just be a 3km x 3km block.

However, when looking on paper and putting a human in scale, the space seems vast. The claustrophobic dystopian feel isn’t fully there. Unless you also put the fact that mobility is very much limited. Life inside such environments isn’t urban, despite being a city, it is a rural place to live. Life revolves around food production, not that much else.

Well I dare say that sounds rather grimdark if I am to use a term from another game. Being almost locked into a immense hab block sounds like hell to me at least.

I know. Philip has also given his feedback on my designs and thoughts, which you can read here. I guess the Psidemic scenario and the Legion stepping in to reorganize these Ecoria will make them even more horrific.