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Lousy rain. It just keeps coming relentlessly, not caring who’s picnic plans it ruins or what history it washes away from the earth. Recently, some of the other old-timers keep blaming the Leptis Minor event for all the storms which have been popping up recently. But that’s another story I think. Anyways back to the tale of the greatest war the world has ever known.
When the call for volunteers came out in the cinemas and newspapers after Carthage’s attack on Fort Heron, I was one of the first to enlist and was trained as an assault trooper and deployed to the 8th Assault Regiment based in Isin on the lovely island of New Sumeria. Isin was the coldest city in Egypt, taken in the brief Sumerian War about 40 years before for the rubber plantations nearby. My regiment was fortunate enough to be stationed in the city itself instead of outside in the tundra guarding some rubber plantations with no heat or guarding Hannibal’s Pass to the Carthaginian city of Sulcis. We could look forward to hot showers, electric lighting, cinemas playing the latest new movies out of Memphis, and most importantly of all to most of us, the pleasureable company of local female, ah, escorts. One of the women, Heidos I believe, left many of the men in shambles after a night of, ah, enjoyment. Being a married man myself, I stayed away from this out of loyalty to my wife.
Of course throughout the course of my stay in the lovely resort town of Isin, I received letters from my brother who enlisted as a gunner for a tank in the 24th soon after I joined the Assault forces. His letters came almost daily, and being the only one who’s brother was enlisted on Mendes Island, I had the fun duty of keeping the others in the barracks up to date of happening in the far north. His regiment was stationed at an air force base near Fort Heron and was basking in the warm sun and getting tans on the army-only beaches with bathing beauties who snuck over, probably with the help of the soldiers. His letters, in addition to providing some military news from the north also gave us tantalizing information of exploits with local women that left many of the men drooling with envy. Once he actually sent us a bushel of postcards with movie stars and other beauties in skimpy bathing suits on the beach. That stirred up quite a fuss, let me tell you. Two men even got in a fist fight over a card, only to have a man from another barracks walk away with it as they were exchanging punches.
Anyways, my part in this tale occurs later. Our outfit didn’t go into action until… well… I guess you’ll, now won’t you?
-South of the Carthaginian city of Rusaddir, Mendes Island-
Fumes went up into the air from the tanks as they geared up for the assault. Currently they were stationed on a hilly ridge which was taken by Egyptian infantry soon after the assault on Fort Heron. Now they were geared up to take the war to the enemy. With a radio command, the first line of tanks began moving north across the plains, to the waiting city of Rusaddir and its garrison.
In front of them, lines of trenches were dug, in accordance of the brief Inca-Aztec War which displayed the effectiveness of trenches against assault by enemy forces. Nearly 10,000 Carthaginians were digging into the ground, mounting machine guns, readying flamethrowers, and double-checking their rifles and ammunition. Carthage was certain that the Egyptians would be stopped here.
No doubt those soldiers could not have helped but been impressed at the lumbering iron elephants rolling towards them. Overhead flew flight after flight of Egyptian planes, unhindered by the minor rifle shots the troops shot up at them. The ground shaked constantly as explosion after explosion from the bombs dropped carved out some new valleys where trenches and buildings once stood. The whole scene was illuminated by the background orange flame let off by the burning city, casting a red glow on the ground, as though covered with blood.
As the tanks advanced, the first line let off a volley of smoke and flame, sending scattered explosions through the Carthaginian ranks, already beaten and weary from nonstop arial bombing. Small points of flame began to poke out at the advancing tanks, causing sparks on the armor and the occasional dent. One soldier with a machine gun was lucky enough to get a bullet through the driver’s view hole and stop the tank dead. Despite the Carthaginians’ futile heroics, the Egyptian tanks drove over the trenches and the soldiers in them and entered the city. Now the battle began. Like in the battles in the Incan-Aztec War, the buildings became artillery positions as Monty cocktails were thrown out of the building bombarding the Egyptian tanks and setting several on flame and striking the ammunition in others.
The battle came to its climax at the governor’s mansion. As the Egyptian tanks advanced down Main Street, they were met by one final organized barricade manned by the ceremonial Numidian Mercenaries who were holed up in the mansion. With one lightning bolt from the lead tank, the building crumbled on itself. The battle for Rusaddir and the first major battle of the war went to the Allies.
Within 36 hours, the remaining tanks which did not participate in the battle would turn east for Saldae and the city would fall to the new rapid tactics of the Egyptian army. The first Fascist island had fallen.
-Thebes, Egypt-
Ra Tower glowed like gold in the dusk. Once more in the same meeting room as before, another meeting was taking place.
The conference room had not changed significantly since the last meeting, except now a larger table was in place with 6 chairs around it and a scorch mark was on the floor from when an underling dropped a lit match and caught the fire barely in time. Once more CEO Mao, the Djrasi brothers, and the Roman were all in attendance. This time two new men were occupying the recently added chairs. They were nearly as wealthy as the rest. One of them was a corporate general, having paid his way into command of the airborne forces by bribery of several important officials.
This man’s name was Ramses. He was a somewhat capable leader, but was despised by his men who thought him a weak-willed coward. Recently though he had been a bit better as his forces were tested in action against the enemy garrisons and counter- invasions of Mendes Island. He was tall for an Egyptian, reaching nearly 7 lengths in height. He was also very muscular in a boisterous sort of way. Most men felt intimidated by him as he strode by or viewed them in marching order. He was an aristocrat all the way though. He was co-owner of Cobra Airlines, the one and only privately owned civilian air transport company in the entire world. This monopoly had made him a very wealthy man.
The second new man was a funny looking man named Cobon. He had wild gray hair that seemed to sprout from his head every which way. Not much is known about this man’s origins except that he was the primary founder of the now defunct United Nations. He also was inventor of the computer and the radio. He was wealthy from his inventions as numerous companies had employed his services in research and development of new products and services. Recently he had been working with the Chemistry University of Heliopolis in an ambitious attempt to identify all the elements.
“Gentlemen,” Mao said, “The war has been a complete success. All of us have begun to feel the easy wealth of war profits pouring into our coffers. Our dear Roman friend has begun to sell weapons at a record pace in all three Allied nations, and some more in Carthage and the Incan Empire. Fuel sales have never been higher as the Egyptian army, navy, and air force all demand more and more petrol for their weapons of war. Even my own business has picked up significantly as large amounts of trade goods go back and forth between Egypt and the other Allied nations. But now, we have an opportunity to not only double our wealth, but triple it, maybe even quadrouple it.”
This quickly set the other billionaires in the room into muttering amongst themselves.
“I will let Mr. Cobon elaborate for you all,” finish Mao, sitting down and allowing the bispectled inventor and scientist to stand up and begin his spiel.
“Honorable men,” began Cobon, “Recently, Mr. Heisenburg, a Hun descendant, came to the conclusion that the atom can be split. I realize that this may have no meaning to you as I am the only scientist here. To be frank, this splitting of the atom could cause a massive release of energy of unseen proportions. It could even end the crises the coal plants of Mendes Island have been having with limited resources, as well as doubling the efficiency of the hydroelectric dams already in place in mainland Egypt. It could also be a feasible power source for navy vessels, allowing them to rely on this much cleaner form of energy than the petrol they use now. But that is not the most important part. More important is the destructive force atom splitting can release. We at the Chemistry University believe that should the atoms be successful piled and split we could create a bomb with a destructive force capable of leveling cities. To build such a bomb will not be cheap and we will need additional funding.” Cobon’s voice drifted off, giving a hint that the gathered people should be the ones doing the funding.
“Gentlemen, I move that this assembly give them their money to build us these wonders of which he speaks,” said Mao.
The room echoed with applause and ayes.
- - - - - - -
Soon after the victory celebrations over the Allied victories at Rusaddir and Saldae the party ran out on us. We were finally brought into the war. Some skirmishes had happened a bit earlier between our forces and the Sumerians, but no major battles had yet been fought on New Sumeria. Not even the Carthaginians had done much but cavalry sorties out of their base at Sulcis.
It must have been determined that the Fascist presence on New Sumeria was unacceptable to the High Command, and we were ordered with the newly arrived 12th and 21st tank battalions to take the Sumerian city of Akshak.
Being in the infantry, me and my comrades were significantly more exposed to enemy fire than our friends and relatives nestled in the warm metal stomachs of the tanks. We were forced to march along side the tanks through the snow to provide them cover against potential enemy ambushed on the road to Akshak. Fortunately for us, my regiment never ran into more than token enemy forces until we reached the city itself. It seemed the front regiments were taking the brunt of the fighting straight in the jaw from what we could tell by the trucks full of wounded men which continued to drive back north towards the main base and field hospital.
The fight didn’t really start for us until we reached the city of Akshak itself. The battle had become house to house, and as most of the tanks were still behind our lines, we had no armor support. My platoon was sent to clear a school of a company of Sumerian soldiers using muskets to fight. Quickly we ran, keeping low to avoid stray bullets, heading towards the building. Nothing happened until our sergeant reached the open and advanced towards the building. As he was pulling the tab on his grenade, a great flash of light and the resounding boom of muskets laid into him. Several of us, including myself, stopped in horror, as though paralyzed. For what seemed as hours we watched the man who commanded us fall to the ground, his remaining eye looking up blankly. His arm was turned into a red stump, his head partially removed by a musket ball. As he fell the grenade rolled out of his hand and into the mass of our advancing forces. With another great flash and sparks of flak from the grenade, the soldiers around the sergeant were cut into bloody pieces of flesh.
A second grenade was thrown, landing going through the window of the school. The second story of the building collapsed, silencing the Sumerians and their muskets.
I ran into the building, covered by my comrades who let out a sharp burst of fire with the platoon machine gun. Entering into the school, I saw the floor was carpeted with dead bodies. Apparantly the grenade had caused a secondary explosion or two among the gunpowder stocks for the Sumerians’ muskets. Their bodies were scattered everywhere, all in the flameboyant uniform of the Sumer Army. Then I saw her. A little girl, lying dead amongst several soldiers. One of the soldiers had obviously attempted to cover her with his body when the grenade was fired, only to accidently spear her with his bayonet. Scattered around the area were other small bodies, some beyond recognition, burnt by flame.
The sounds of cheers amongst dying gunfire came from throughout the city. The tanks had arrived, destroying the remaining houses in which the Sumerians had made their last stands against the Army of the Confederacy of Egypt.
Another battle had been won for the Allies.
-Thebes, Egypt-
The Socialists at the gathering cheered the new speaker. She had campaigned actively for human rights and a communist government consistently for decades and had founded the Socialist Movement as well as chaired the Universal Suffrage movement in Pi-Ramsses 24 years back.
“Comrades!” She shouted, “The time for the revolution is coming! Corporations are running the nation now, bribing and cajoling officials in all departments of Egypt. We are nearing evidence of these crimes and we will fight the corruption! We will fight them at their every turn. We will not let them devour us from within, we will rise up and arrest these criminals as much as they deserve. The capitalist CEOs and board members will not be the new dynasty of the nation.” She took a breath and continued, “Onwards to liberty, onwards to our manifest communist destiny!”
As they sipped their wine, the people of the crowds and the leaders of the Party cheered her right off the stage and onto the great pestadal of fame. Another war was soon to begin.
-Saldae, conquered Carthaginian territory on Mendes Island-
General Ramses stood on a hill, looking over the airfields of Saldae. “Look at that, gentlemen. Compared to this war, all other acts of man pale in comparison,” he said, sweeping his arm over the land while talking to his aides.
On the airfields rested mile after mile of planes, being prepared for departure, around which ran thousands of Egyptian soldiers preparing for the invasion. Overhead squadrons of fighters flew, their propellers adding appropriate background to the drama which was about to unfold. Box upon box and soldier upon soldier continue to enter the planes, from the hill looking as ants scurrying about their colony.
“We shall strike the Fascists a blow from which they will never recover. The gods will wash away the evil before us,” said Ramses, striding down the hill to the planes. Rain began to fall from the sky, plopping on his shoulders as he continued to descend towards his troops.
Coming to a forums near you:
World War: The Gambit
When the call for volunteers came out in the cinemas and newspapers after Carthage’s attack on Fort Heron, I was one of the first to enlist and was trained as an assault trooper and deployed to the 8th Assault Regiment based in Isin on the lovely island of New Sumeria. Isin was the coldest city in Egypt, taken in the brief Sumerian War about 40 years before for the rubber plantations nearby. My regiment was fortunate enough to be stationed in the city itself instead of outside in the tundra guarding some rubber plantations with no heat or guarding Hannibal’s Pass to the Carthaginian city of Sulcis. We could look forward to hot showers, electric lighting, cinemas playing the latest new movies out of Memphis, and most importantly of all to most of us, the pleasureable company of local female, ah, escorts. One of the women, Heidos I believe, left many of the men in shambles after a night of, ah, enjoyment. Being a married man myself, I stayed away from this out of loyalty to my wife.
Of course throughout the course of my stay in the lovely resort town of Isin, I received letters from my brother who enlisted as a gunner for a tank in the 24th soon after I joined the Assault forces. His letters came almost daily, and being the only one who’s brother was enlisted on Mendes Island, I had the fun duty of keeping the others in the barracks up to date of happening in the far north. His regiment was stationed at an air force base near Fort Heron and was basking in the warm sun and getting tans on the army-only beaches with bathing beauties who snuck over, probably with the help of the soldiers. His letters, in addition to providing some military news from the north also gave us tantalizing information of exploits with local women that left many of the men drooling with envy. Once he actually sent us a bushel of postcards with movie stars and other beauties in skimpy bathing suits on the beach. That stirred up quite a fuss, let me tell you. Two men even got in a fist fight over a card, only to have a man from another barracks walk away with it as they were exchanging punches.
Anyways, my part in this tale occurs later. Our outfit didn’t go into action until… well… I guess you’ll, now won’t you?
-South of the Carthaginian city of Rusaddir, Mendes Island-
Fumes went up into the air from the tanks as they geared up for the assault. Currently they were stationed on a hilly ridge which was taken by Egyptian infantry soon after the assault on Fort Heron. Now they were geared up to take the war to the enemy. With a radio command, the first line of tanks began moving north across the plains, to the waiting city of Rusaddir and its garrison.
In front of them, lines of trenches were dug, in accordance of the brief Inca-Aztec War which displayed the effectiveness of trenches against assault by enemy forces. Nearly 10,000 Carthaginians were digging into the ground, mounting machine guns, readying flamethrowers, and double-checking their rifles and ammunition. Carthage was certain that the Egyptians would be stopped here.
No doubt those soldiers could not have helped but been impressed at the lumbering iron elephants rolling towards them. Overhead flew flight after flight of Egyptian planes, unhindered by the minor rifle shots the troops shot up at them. The ground shaked constantly as explosion after explosion from the bombs dropped carved out some new valleys where trenches and buildings once stood. The whole scene was illuminated by the background orange flame let off by the burning city, casting a red glow on the ground, as though covered with blood.
As the tanks advanced, the first line let off a volley of smoke and flame, sending scattered explosions through the Carthaginian ranks, already beaten and weary from nonstop arial bombing. Small points of flame began to poke out at the advancing tanks, causing sparks on the armor and the occasional dent. One soldier with a machine gun was lucky enough to get a bullet through the driver’s view hole and stop the tank dead. Despite the Carthaginians’ futile heroics, the Egyptian tanks drove over the trenches and the soldiers in them and entered the city. Now the battle began. Like in the battles in the Incan-Aztec War, the buildings became artillery positions as Monty cocktails were thrown out of the building bombarding the Egyptian tanks and setting several on flame and striking the ammunition in others.
The battle came to its climax at the governor’s mansion. As the Egyptian tanks advanced down Main Street, they were met by one final organized barricade manned by the ceremonial Numidian Mercenaries who were holed up in the mansion. With one lightning bolt from the lead tank, the building crumbled on itself. The battle for Rusaddir and the first major battle of the war went to the Allies.
Within 36 hours, the remaining tanks which did not participate in the battle would turn east for Saldae and the city would fall to the new rapid tactics of the Egyptian army. The first Fascist island had fallen.
-Thebes, Egypt-
Ra Tower glowed like gold in the dusk. Once more in the same meeting room as before, another meeting was taking place.
The conference room had not changed significantly since the last meeting, except now a larger table was in place with 6 chairs around it and a scorch mark was on the floor from when an underling dropped a lit match and caught the fire barely in time. Once more CEO Mao, the Djrasi brothers, and the Roman were all in attendance. This time two new men were occupying the recently added chairs. They were nearly as wealthy as the rest. One of them was a corporate general, having paid his way into command of the airborne forces by bribery of several important officials.
This man’s name was Ramses. He was a somewhat capable leader, but was despised by his men who thought him a weak-willed coward. Recently though he had been a bit better as his forces were tested in action against the enemy garrisons and counter- invasions of Mendes Island. He was tall for an Egyptian, reaching nearly 7 lengths in height. He was also very muscular in a boisterous sort of way. Most men felt intimidated by him as he strode by or viewed them in marching order. He was an aristocrat all the way though. He was co-owner of Cobra Airlines, the one and only privately owned civilian air transport company in the entire world. This monopoly had made him a very wealthy man.
The second new man was a funny looking man named Cobon. He had wild gray hair that seemed to sprout from his head every which way. Not much is known about this man’s origins except that he was the primary founder of the now defunct United Nations. He also was inventor of the computer and the radio. He was wealthy from his inventions as numerous companies had employed his services in research and development of new products and services. Recently he had been working with the Chemistry University of Heliopolis in an ambitious attempt to identify all the elements.
“Gentlemen,” Mao said, “The war has been a complete success. All of us have begun to feel the easy wealth of war profits pouring into our coffers. Our dear Roman friend has begun to sell weapons at a record pace in all three Allied nations, and some more in Carthage and the Incan Empire. Fuel sales have never been higher as the Egyptian army, navy, and air force all demand more and more petrol for their weapons of war. Even my own business has picked up significantly as large amounts of trade goods go back and forth between Egypt and the other Allied nations. But now, we have an opportunity to not only double our wealth, but triple it, maybe even quadrouple it.”
This quickly set the other billionaires in the room into muttering amongst themselves.
“I will let Mr. Cobon elaborate for you all,” finish Mao, sitting down and allowing the bispectled inventor and scientist to stand up and begin his spiel.
“Honorable men,” began Cobon, “Recently, Mr. Heisenburg, a Hun descendant, came to the conclusion that the atom can be split. I realize that this may have no meaning to you as I am the only scientist here. To be frank, this splitting of the atom could cause a massive release of energy of unseen proportions. It could even end the crises the coal plants of Mendes Island have been having with limited resources, as well as doubling the efficiency of the hydroelectric dams already in place in mainland Egypt. It could also be a feasible power source for navy vessels, allowing them to rely on this much cleaner form of energy than the petrol they use now. But that is not the most important part. More important is the destructive force atom splitting can release. We at the Chemistry University believe that should the atoms be successful piled and split we could create a bomb with a destructive force capable of leveling cities. To build such a bomb will not be cheap and we will need additional funding.” Cobon’s voice drifted off, giving a hint that the gathered people should be the ones doing the funding.
“Gentlemen, I move that this assembly give them their money to build us these wonders of which he speaks,” said Mao.
The room echoed with applause and ayes.
- - - - - - -
Soon after the victory celebrations over the Allied victories at Rusaddir and Saldae the party ran out on us. We were finally brought into the war. Some skirmishes had happened a bit earlier between our forces and the Sumerians, but no major battles had yet been fought on New Sumeria. Not even the Carthaginians had done much but cavalry sorties out of their base at Sulcis.
It must have been determined that the Fascist presence on New Sumeria was unacceptable to the High Command, and we were ordered with the newly arrived 12th and 21st tank battalions to take the Sumerian city of Akshak.
Being in the infantry, me and my comrades were significantly more exposed to enemy fire than our friends and relatives nestled in the warm metal stomachs of the tanks. We were forced to march along side the tanks through the snow to provide them cover against potential enemy ambushed on the road to Akshak. Fortunately for us, my regiment never ran into more than token enemy forces until we reached the city itself. It seemed the front regiments were taking the brunt of the fighting straight in the jaw from what we could tell by the trucks full of wounded men which continued to drive back north towards the main base and field hospital.
The fight didn’t really start for us until we reached the city of Akshak itself. The battle had become house to house, and as most of the tanks were still behind our lines, we had no armor support. My platoon was sent to clear a school of a company of Sumerian soldiers using muskets to fight. Quickly we ran, keeping low to avoid stray bullets, heading towards the building. Nothing happened until our sergeant reached the open and advanced towards the building. As he was pulling the tab on his grenade, a great flash of light and the resounding boom of muskets laid into him. Several of us, including myself, stopped in horror, as though paralyzed. For what seemed as hours we watched the man who commanded us fall to the ground, his remaining eye looking up blankly. His arm was turned into a red stump, his head partially removed by a musket ball. As he fell the grenade rolled out of his hand and into the mass of our advancing forces. With another great flash and sparks of flak from the grenade, the soldiers around the sergeant were cut into bloody pieces of flesh.
A second grenade was thrown, landing going through the window of the school. The second story of the building collapsed, silencing the Sumerians and their muskets.
I ran into the building, covered by my comrades who let out a sharp burst of fire with the platoon machine gun. Entering into the school, I saw the floor was carpeted with dead bodies. Apparantly the grenade had caused a secondary explosion or two among the gunpowder stocks for the Sumerians’ muskets. Their bodies were scattered everywhere, all in the flameboyant uniform of the Sumer Army. Then I saw her. A little girl, lying dead amongst several soldiers. One of the soldiers had obviously attempted to cover her with his body when the grenade was fired, only to accidently spear her with his bayonet. Scattered around the area were other small bodies, some beyond recognition, burnt by flame.
The sounds of cheers amongst dying gunfire came from throughout the city. The tanks had arrived, destroying the remaining houses in which the Sumerians had made their last stands against the Army of the Confederacy of Egypt.
Another battle had been won for the Allies.
-Thebes, Egypt-
The Socialists at the gathering cheered the new speaker. She had campaigned actively for human rights and a communist government consistently for decades and had founded the Socialist Movement as well as chaired the Universal Suffrage movement in Pi-Ramsses 24 years back.
“Comrades!” She shouted, “The time for the revolution is coming! Corporations are running the nation now, bribing and cajoling officials in all departments of Egypt. We are nearing evidence of these crimes and we will fight the corruption! We will fight them at their every turn. We will not let them devour us from within, we will rise up and arrest these criminals as much as they deserve. The capitalist CEOs and board members will not be the new dynasty of the nation.” She took a breath and continued, “Onwards to liberty, onwards to our manifest communist destiny!”
As they sipped their wine, the people of the crowds and the leaders of the Party cheered her right off the stage and onto the great pestadal of fame. Another war was soon to begin.
-Saldae, conquered Carthaginian territory on Mendes Island-
General Ramses stood on a hill, looking over the airfields of Saldae. “Look at that, gentlemen. Compared to this war, all other acts of man pale in comparison,” he said, sweeping his arm over the land while talking to his aides.
On the airfields rested mile after mile of planes, being prepared for departure, around which ran thousands of Egyptian soldiers preparing for the invasion. Overhead squadrons of fighters flew, their propellers adding appropriate background to the drama which was about to unfold. Box upon box and soldier upon soldier continue to enter the planes, from the hill looking as ants scurrying about their colony.
“We shall strike the Fascists a blow from which they will never recover. The gods will wash away the evil before us,” said Ramses, striding down the hill to the planes. Rain began to fall from the sky, plopping on his shoulders as he continued to descend towards his troops.
Coming to a forums near you:
World War: The Gambit
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