Chronicles X: The Fate of the Philosopher Kings

First, they rose.

Then, they reigned.

Now, they will meet their fate...


See, I should really write movie trailers for a living, don't ya' think?

This will be the conclusion of the Saga of the Philosopher Kings (well, unless Civ 5 comes out). I think this final chapter will stand on its own, but if you really want to understand what's going on, then you should read the first two parts, or better yet the entire saga...which is available to you for three low payments of $19.95. Just send check or money order to...

Oh, ok, enough of that.

Hope you enjoy the story!

Subscribed... let's hear a little more from Helmling himself .

I can't wait for the conclution! The story so far has been very interesting!

Going great, Helmling! Now aren't you glad you decided not to boycott CIV 4?

Er... not that I condone hammers in any way, of course...

Sheilds, dammit! They're sheilds!

Oh, and NO, I wish I had boycotted Civ. Do you have any idea how much of my time this game (and related fiction) has sucked away!?!

Hey, Helming. I haven't posted here in a while. I just wanted to let you know how great IX was. I'm eager to see what X has to offer.

Thanks, man, glad you enjoyed it. I'll try not to disappoint.

The dry and rocky hills leading into the mountains of the Great Desert Cape were favorites for hikers in the summers. In late autumn, though, when cold winds tended to blow in from the North, they were often quiet and serene. In the foothills which overlooked the city of Carina, a few tall, white fiberglass and plastic windmills turned leisurely in the light breeze. Their only company was one young couple escaping from the city to enjoy the ocean view.
“You could not!” the young woman protested.
“Sure I could. It wouldn’t be that hard to do now. The newest body panel is finished. It just need to be prepped for transport and then it’ll be shipped to Far Colony. It’s the perfect time for some vacation time,” the young man insisted.
“She is never going to grant you leave now of all times.”
“You’re just looking for an excuse not to go with me,” he said, leaning over the picnic lunch spread out between them and stealing a bit of cheese she had left behind on her plate.
“Oh, shush,” she said with a smile while she swatted away his hand playfully. A breeze surged over the hill and she trembled. “I told you it was too cold for this,” she said.
“It’s invigorating!” he assured her and kept eating the lunchmeat left on his plate. She rose and rubbed her arms against the cool air.
“Hey.”
“What?” he asked, scurrying to his feet.
She was looking off to the blue sheet of the ocean consuming the western horizon.
“Are those ships?”
He squinted at the white shapes on the horizon.
“Yeah, they are.”
“Sailing ships? I don’t think I’ve ever seen any that big.”
“Sure, sure, they’re like old clipper ships or something.”
They watched for a moment as the shapes drew larger and larger. Soon columns of steam were rising from their decks as they accelerated toward the shore.
“They’re coming in,” he observed.
She cradled herself more tightly against the wintry wind. “There sure are a lot of them.”

The open-topped all-terrain vehicle hopped over the embankment and spun up soft, wet sand with its broad tires. It skidded to a stop just at the edge of the tide water—which had just reached its high mark.
“What the hell!” the officer in the driver’s seat cursed, seeing the huge assemblage of people on the beach.
His partner looked up in confusion from the other seat as the first man hopped from the car and strutted toward the men who were unloading from wooden landing craft on the shore. There were dozens, no hundreds of them moving about quickly and deliberately.
“Hey! What’re you people doing!” the first man shouted.
“Sarge,” his partner called gently from the vehicle. “Get back here, man.”
“You people can’t unload here! Everything you’re bringing in has to go through customs checks!”
“Sarge!” he shouted. “Get back here!”
The first man turned his stout figure around without moving his feet. “They’ve got to go through customs, dammit.”
“Sarge! That’s an army!”
The first man scoffed and turned back to the crowd down on the beach.
“You—“
A shot caught him in the left shoulder. Another clipped him in the skull before he could react.
His partner cursed and scrambled toward the driver’s seat of the patrol vehicle, but before he could start the engine again a hail of bullets was falling on the car, pock-marking its glass with star-shaped punctures and pinning him into the bloody mesh of the seat’s harness.

It appers those hammers will be diverted from the SS. a race against time, Mao, and Ceaser. what an ending!!.

The doors burst open. Several men rushed in and found seats quickly around the long table. They pressed keys on the computer consoles embedded in the ebony surface of the table and the monitors around the room sprung to life.
Helmling entered behind them at a brisk gait.
“Who’s reporting this?”
“The local police in Carina have lost contact with three units sent out to investigate an illegal landing by Casey Pointe Hill,” Defense Minister Acrisias answered.
“And?”
“We also have a report from a Coast Guard interceptor that a large flotilla of unmarked sail or steam driven ships failed to respond to all attempts at communication.”
“How many?”
“Civilian sources say there are dozens of ships.”
“Dozens?” Helmling asked irritably. “What the hell is going on, gentlemen?”
“Bottom line,” General Halius answered. “A landing force of unknown origin and unknown strength has landed outside the city of Carina.”
“Dear god,” the Trade Minister gasped. “You really believe we’re being invaded?”
“Yes, sir, I do.”
“I want better than half-guesses and I want them now,” Helmling barked. “I want aerial reconnaissance of this thing now.”
The General nodded and started punching in orders into the computer terminal. One of the displays behind him switched to a three-dimensional model of an airfield. Several aircraft represented on the display began to glow red as orders were transmitted to the base.
“How is this possible? How could a landing force get past our sonar nets?”
“Sailing ships, sir.”
“What?”
“The ships weren’t under power when they crossed the perimeter. They just drifted right past the network.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me? Are you telling me that the most sophisticated naval defense network in the world was undone because our apparent invaders used such backward technology?”
“It would appear so.”
“This is absolutely insane!”
“Wait, wait,” Trade Minister Meles interjected again. “How bad can it be? If they’re only sail-powered ships, can we really be talking about an ‘invasion’ here? Maybe more like an incursion.”
“I’m not taking any chances,” Helmling said. “General, we need to activate provision 1.1C.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What’s that?”
“Minister Meles, did you really think that the most advanced nation on the planet was defended by little more than ceremonial guards armed with medieval weaponry?”
“Well…”
“All our ceremonial guard divisions are fully trained using simulators to acquaint them with the latest defense technology. We simply have held the actual hardware in reserve.”
“Why?”
“Cost, for one. We could turn any three or four ceremonial guard units into modern fighting forces in a matter of hours, but not the whole army.”
“So—“
“We’ve remained flexible as possible.”
“But now?”
Helmling signaled the General, who brought up another display. A large map of the Nation was illuminated with lines representing railways. The lines between Claudia and Carina turned red.
“We’re clearing traffic on the railways between here and Carina. The quartermaster should have the train ready to roll in about fifteen minutes.”
“And what’s on the train?”
“Mechanized Assault vehicles, carbon-fiber body armor, top-of-the-line programmable anti-personal rifles,” the General answered.
“Geez.”
“Whoever is invading us didn’t know about 1.1C.”
“I didn’t know about it.”
“Still,” Helmling said watching the displays twitch with simulations of the activity winding up at bases around the Nation. “1.1C was supposed to be put into play when we detected an ocean-born threat—not after it already landed.”
“We don’t know how big of a force has landed, sir,” the General reminded him. “We can have that equipment in place inside of four hours, and have units ready to defend the city in another eight. We know that wooden ships didn’t bring any heavy weapons here.”
“Obviously not, but that’s what whoever’s doing this is going to get a load of ours. General, spin up the armored cavalry and air cavalry units and dispatch them for Carina immediately.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And get me fleet command. I want those ships intercepted and destroyed immediately.”
“Isn’t there a chance this is all a mistake?” Meles pleaded.
“No,” Helmling answered. “This was done very carefully…the only question is ‘who?’”

ArmoredCavalry said:

It appers those hammers will be diverted from the SS. a race against time, Mao, and Ceaser. what an ending!!.

Click to expand...

Oh, no, my friend, that's not the problem at all.

Ender Iasonides stepped onto the bridge for the first time. There was a low murmor of voices as crewmembers went about their tasks.
"Ensign," the deck officer said, noticing his arrival.
He saluted. "Ensign Iasonides reporting for duty, sir."
"This way, Ensign." He followed her around a central console to where a tall, well-built older man was studying a display screen with two other officers.
"Captain, Ensign Iasonides has reported for duty."
The Captain turned. He swept his eyes up and down Iasonides. "You're our new flight control officer, is that right?"
"Yes, sir."
"I understand you have flight experience too."
"Yes, sir, I am certified in the PKF-03 and PKB-05."
"Excellent, excellent. Welcome aboard, Ensign," he said extending his hand. Ender smiled as he accepted the greeting.
"You may relieve Lt. Dexteus at the flight control station then."
"Yes, sir."
He introduced himself to his counterpart, who showed him a few glitches in the real console--things he wouldn't know from his time in simulators--and then he was left on the bridge for his first duty shift.

With no patrols out, the shift consisted of a lot of standing about. Ender tapped into the national grid, to give himself something to do. He watched standard patrol orders trickle down throught he data network, always keeping an eye on the small display showing ship's vicinity on radar.
Then, as he watched, a red flash went out to the Carina airstation. He maximized it.
"Captain," Iasonides bellowed. The captain, who had been talking with the deck officer by weapons control looked up, puzzled.
"Yes, Ensign?"
"I think there's something you should see, sir."
The Captain gave the other officers a skeptical look, but he set his computer tablet down and strolled over to the flight control station.
"Ensign, we don't even have a patrol out right now."
"I know sir, but look at this," Iasonides pointed at his display. "Carina's air station just recieved a scramble order. All her squadrons, sir."
"All their planes?"
"Yes, sir."
"What the hell?" the Captain said and turned. "Comm."
"Yes, sir," the Communications Chief replied.
"Tap into the main network, track any other activity."
The Comm Officer complied, and in a moment he pulled up an image and splashed it to the bridge's main display screen. "Sir, I'm picking up a lot of red flags going out from command in Claudia. Emergency rail traffic redirections between the capital and the city of Carina. Looks like the air cavalry have also been given activiation orders, but it'll take time for them to actually assemble and scramble."
"Is a scramble order posted? Do we know where they're being sent?"
"Not yet, sir."
The Captain nodded. "I bet I know, though."
"What's going on, sir?" his deck chief asked.
"Navigation," he said.
"Yes, sir."
"Plot me a course for Carina harbor, now."
"Yes, sir."
"Propulsion."
"Yes, captain."
"Bring the engines to 100%, get ready to move."
"Yes, sir."
"Weapons officer, take us to condition two."
"Sir!" the Comm officer exclaimed as all of his displays began to flash red simultaneously. "Incoming orders. An enemy force of unknown size and unknown origin has landed near Carina."
"Dear god," the captain hissed quietly. "Good job, Iasonides."
Ender grinned as the ship came to life around them.
"Sir?" the Navigation officer said cautiously. "About that course plotting...we have a problem."

Aaauuugghhhh!!!!

Why must you torture us with these cliffhangers? aargh, I say, I aargh!!

excellent series of stories, by the way. You should talk to Firaxis about writing a Civilization book, using your ideas about why the leader lives forever. It worked for Myst... I think you could do it.

I knew that a war would happen sooner or later. The French have you outnumberered. This will be very interesting, I believe, seeing how you will surive this.

Darwin420 said:

Aaauuugghhhh!!!!

Why must you torture us with these cliffhangers? aargh, I say, I aargh!!

excellent series of stories, by the way. You should talk to Firaxis about writing a Civilization book, using your ideas about why the leader lives forever. It worked for Myst... I think you could do it.

Click to expand...

Thanks, but I think this will be my only "book" about Civ. I haven't been saving these as I go, but I did have all of Part IX in one Word file at one point. I shudder when I think about what the word count was...and that was only IX.

ToV said:

I knew that a war would happen sooner or later. The French have you outnumberered. This will be very interesting, I believe, seeing how you will surive this.

Click to expand...

So you think the French are the problem, eh?

He he he...

Excellent Helmling!

Well to be honest, the french invasion forces are no match at all; Their using my grandpa's hunting rifle against fiber-tech-nano-thingie-ma-jigies guns and armor.
But if per chance you forget to upgrade your defensive units in Carina, that may cause a problem but with the amount of moola you have, that should not be a problem.

Bravo! Bravo!
Encore! Encore!

Yes, I was holding back enough cash to upgrade units in case of emergency. A defensive strategy that is, i think, quite laughable. Something should be done to balance the game so that it is no longer viable. This part where we see that despite all my modern technology my nation is vulnerable to invasion by cavalry aboard wooden ships and that my cities are still defended by Macement and Phalanxes is by far the most preposterous thing I've had in these stories. Sorry, but I'm doing my best to explain this absurdity away.

But, you're right, cavalry and cannons should be no problem for my modern forces...but there is, however, a problem.

I'm going to continue, but without pictures until the file server is fixed. Sorry, but the pictures should appear once they fixt he problem. I'd upload elsewhere, but I've already stashed them here and delted the 800x600 copies. I'm way too lazy to go and reformat all the original screenshots, sorry.