The Celestial Bureaucracy

[Yoshiegg737]

I believe you mean, "Now to Canada"

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

I believe it's time to cut this short (the spam), unfortunately.
Also, thank you Civ'ed, for regulating it earlier.

Anyways, the Cambodian campaign isn't even close to finished yet (only 3 cities captured if you guys haven't been keeping up), so India & America and all of that really takes a backseat to the war at hand. With that in mind, I have to say that the next update will probably come a lot later (probably a week or two) than usual since there's a lot I need to write for it and I haven't even prepared a pre-write build. It's going to be another big narrative update so hopefully, it'll be something for you guys to look forward to.

 

[Civ'ed]

No Problem
Why don't you just peace out and get them to capitulate? Or do you have Vassals turned off?

 

[Optical]

If it's available, capitulating the Khmer does look like a good option here, but that's only my humble opinion.

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

Don't read this if you don't want to spoil it for yourself. The spoiler serves to explain why I'm not going to cover India or America anytime soon and why you'll be following the current roster of characters for several more updates. Only read it if you seriously can't contain yourself but mostly this is for Civ'ed & General Olaf. You've been warned.

Spoiler :

If it's available, capitulating the Khmer does look like a good option here, but that's only my humble opinion.

I wipe the Khmer off the face of the map. And yes, I intend to write story segments for the whole campaign until the end of the war.

Why don't you just peace out and get them to capitulate? Or do you have Vassals turned off?

Vassals are enabled as you've seen with that entire story segment dedicated to the vassalization of Germany.

 

[Optical]

I couldn't contain myself.

Spoiler :

I suppose I should've seen that coming.

 

[Yoshiegg737]

I now regret opening that spoiler

 

[Civ'ed]

I don't, I've got terrible short term memory.

 

[SouthernKing]

I also regret it

Invade Canada! somehow...

 

[inohotep]

Hes somehow managing to expand with settelers and with war, the Americas can wait guys

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

Hes somehow managing to expand with settelers and with war, the Americas can wait guys

Thank you so much, inohotep. To be honest, I really want to put this matter to rest right now so there's no future mishaps. This isn't really a gameplay based story like most of the other ones on this forum and mostly intended to be a (what I hope to be) entertaining read in the spirit of Helmling, Sisiutil & Zoolooman (look up Let's Play Civ 4 on the Something Awful Let's Play Archive). To that end, it really does make me uncomfortable when people clamor for more invasions and stuff when the time hasn't come yet. There are things I do want to mention from time to time that I learned while playing this (I'm now currently playing at a Prince/Monarch level) since this was pretty much my magnum opus Noble game but I'd really like to hear more thoughts about the actual story than anything else.

With that being said, I present the next update of The Celestial Bureaucracy.



Massive lines of refugees were stretched out of the gate into the outer city limits of Isvarapura.
Pack mules & wagon carts were loaded with possessions amidst the droves of irritated civilians trying hard to not think about the heat.
In the middle of the line, Suriya & Qin ambled at a snail’s pace under the beating sun amongst the droves of people waiting to gain entry into the city.

“Is this really the best way to gain entry into the city?” Qin whispered underneath his hood.
“They’ve tightened security now that they’re losing the war,” Suriya whispered back. They both caught a glimpse of the heavily manned city walls;
hundreds of archers at the main gate alone were peering out from the ramparts constantly for any sign of the Imperial Army.
“The cabal that runs this town finally decided to reinforce the walls now that there’s hearsay that the Empire is coming for Isvarapura.
Figures. Only willing to address a problem when it’s knocking on their doorsteps,” she scowled.

As soon as they approached the open gate, they were accosted by one of the gate guards doing his routine checkup.
He motioned to search Qin for any possible weapons he might be carrying when Suriya stopped him.
“My brother suffers from a contagious skin disease, sir.
It would be best if you didn’t check him,”
“Lepers are not allowed into the city,” the guard stated with a hint of annoyance in his voice.
“He doesn’t have leprosy; it’s a treatable condition for which we came here for,”
“I want to see for myself,” the guard insisted.
“Very well, sir,” Suriya said as she carefully pulled back the long sleeve over Qin’s hand.
“Augghhh!” the guard recoiled as soon as he saw the welts on Qin’s hand.
The two spies promptly moved forward through the gate as they were stopped by a spear in the path.
“Hold on, I never gave the okay to pass,” the guard said flatly.
“We can get someone with a pair of gloves to come search your brother,”
The Thai woman had to think fast; their cover could easily be blown if they didn’t bite her story.
“Look at your Captain, sir; he doesn’t seem to approve of the pace the line’s going at right now.
I doubt you could get someone to come search my brother in time and meet your quota all at once,”
The guard turned to see the Guard Captain standing on a podium yelling at a pair of privates for working too slowly.
He promptly turned back to Suriya after weighing his options.
“That doesn’t mean I can just let you go through, though,” pointing to his coin purse.
Suriya feigned exasperation as she procured a small bag of coins which she pushed into the guard’s hand.
“Welcome to Isvarapura,” he said as he pushed her along.



Qin peered from the corner of his cloak after walking several steps into the city.
Dust was kicked up high into the air as people bustled into the city and frequented the open-air markets.
The two spies promptly navigated into the back-alley ways after leaving the main street.
As soon as they were sure that there was no one around, Qin peeled the plaster off of his skin.
He also undid the front of his cloak, revealing Suriya’s repertoire of weapons and equipment.
The two spies hastily swapped goods and continued down the back alley streets.

Wary eyes peered out from behind the fences and past the half-opened doorways that littered the back alleys of the Thai Quarter.
Children playing in the streets scattered as the two cloaked figures navigated down the mazelike pathways,
stepping through muddy puddles that pooled through the cracks of the dilapidated streets.
Suriya peered around the corners to make certain that nobody was following them.
As soon as it appeared to be clear, the Thai woman descended down a non-descript,
subterranean flight of stairs by the back-alley corner, motioning for Qin to follow.
Suriya tapped on the door in a very specific rhythm. No response. She tapped again, to no avail.
Suriya soon discovered that the door was unlocked and let herself in.
Bodies laid in abundance on the warehouse floor, seeping blood into the floorboards with their fresh wounds.
The door suddenly shut from behind the pair of spies as several men appeared behind them.
A voice called out from the dimly lit space in front of them.

“Sorry,” a man grinned as he addressed the two spies.
“But we’ve intercepted your little rendezvous. Let’s take the Thai woman alive and save her for later.
As for the Chinaman, we’ll gut his sorry kind alive until he cries for Guanyin,”
Suriya drew her knives as she readied her body to fight.
Qin’s garrote wire was very impractical in this situation, but fortunately, he had a separate wire just for this.
When he retrieved his weapon from out of his pack, it didn’t seem like he had drawn anything at all.
The thugs immediately bum rushed Qin with their blades brandished, believing him to be unarmed,
while Suriya darted to face off against the thugs who had cut off their exit.

Qin's unarmed state made him appear to be the more vulnerable target.
Quite the contrary. Lashing straight out with furious abandon,
a tiny hook penetrated his foremost assailant’s right eyeball causing his target to yowl in pain.
Qin pulled back with control, ripping the man’s eye out straight from its socket.
Another thug brushed past his comrade and struck at Qin as he was prepping the wire for the next attack.
The Han spy nearly forgot that he couldn’t actually parry anyone while wielding his cutting wire, barely ducking a decapitating strike.
Spinning out from under his attacker, he tripped the man; causing his attacker to fall onto the wire and decapitate himself.

At this point, Suriya had ended the Cambodians at the entrance and was now in position to actively assist her partner.
Lashing on the wire to the pole across from him, Qin firmly held onto the other end as Suriya kicked the one-eyed opponent into the wire.
His torso was promptly severed in two as his body made contact with the wire.
As the thugs eyed Qin nervously, they yelped suddenly as they found daggers plunged deep into their backs.
Suriya had used the opportunity to sneak behind them and backstab the frightened Cambodians.

The remainder of the foes decided it wasn’t worth it and attempted to flee but were cut off themselves.
Qin shot out the wire onto a nearby wooden column and after breaking out into a sprint off the side of the crate stacks,
he ran past around them in a circle after passing through his fleeing enemies with the wire.
The Cambodians looked at each other and then downwards as their torsos slid off of their severed waists.

There was one more left. The one who had announced his intentions to rape and torture them.
He attempted to run but was intercepted with Suriya’s fist, causing him to keel over, dazed.
“Who tipped you off?” she demanded to know, grabbing him by the scalp.
“I-I-It w-was one of t-the y-younger r-resistance members. W-W-We killed h-him after he r-ratted your p-people out. P-Please, let me g-go,” the survivor stammered.
“Thank you, you’ve been very helpful,” she said as she snapped his neck.

“I need to do a quick search,”
“Just as I thought, all of the sensitive materials and documents have already been either taken or destroyed,” the spy sighed as she returned to the center of the warehouse. “Aren’t there any more insurgent bases here in the city?” Qin inquired.
Suriya shook her head. “We don’t have much of a presence outside of the Thai homelands. This was the only branch operating out here in Yunnan,”
The two made a hasty exit and re-entered the deserted back-alley street.
“We need to lay low right now. Is there a safehouse or something we can use while we wait for nightfall?”
“There is. Follow me,” she responded.



It was a small one bedroom apartment with heavily curtained window openings. Decoration was minimal but the back rooms were
stocked with pots filled with preserved meats & fruits along with a bread & water store.
Not too far away was the bedroom and a cache of weapons in the adjacent closet.
They nestled close together on the reed mat, being exhausted from both the overwhelming humidity and the encounter with the thugs earlier in the day.
“We can’t use the mosquito nets, just to let you know. Security measures and all,” Suriya mentioned.
The two spies took turns taking shifts watching for any sign of compromise as the other slept.

Suriya took the first shift. This would take some rethinking.
Initially, the plan was to rendezvous with the Isvarapura Thai insurgency and open the gates from within in concert with a Chinese siege.
Now that the plan was no longer feasible, she had to think of another way to let the Imperial Army in.

“I can’t sleep anymore, the heat is unbearable,” Qin said as he got up after about two hours of rest.
“That’s good, I was about to wake you up anyway,” Suriya said.
“I’ve settled on a new plan of action on how we’ll get your soldiers in,”
she settled as she sat on her knees atop the red mat.
“Oh? What’s the plan?” Qin asked.
“I’ll tell you when we get there,” she answered.
Suriya brushed Qin’s hair behind his ear as he gave her a quizzical expression.
“You might want to put that up in a topknot considering where we’re going next,”



“The sewer?” Qin gaped, astonished as the pair of cloaked espionage agents approached the grate.
Even though he was involved in some pretty gruesome work,
his Xin Caste upbringing and sensibilities made it difficult for him to
stomach the idea of navigating through a cesspool of human waste.
“It was the only other thing I can think of,” Suriya said.
The Chinese siege had just begun and could be heard even where the two of them were standing, what with the ballistic missiles causing the ground to reverberate upon impact with the walls of the city. “We probably shouldn’t keep them waiting; they’ve already started the siege and we’re behind schedule,”
Qin pulled up his cloak over his mouth as he entered first then pulled his companion up into the passage.
Dirty work of this nature wasn’t exactly his thing.

After pushing off the grate and exiting from the sewer, Suriya & Qin found themselves back in the outer residential districts of the city just outside the walls.
The surrounding areas appeared to have been evacuated and the two made haste in seeking out the main camp of the siege party.
Almost immediately, they were accosted by several Chinese soldiers pointing spears in their direction.
“Whoa there,” Qin said as he flashed the soldiers the Imperial hand sign and addressed them in Mandarin.
“We’re part of the city-busting party, men.
My companion and I need to speak to the General,”
The troops lowered their weapons and began to escort the two spies back to camp as the night sky was lit by the hundreds of blazing catapult missiles &
the sea of flaming arrows being traded between the two sides; as if a miniature galaxy was being formed over the city.
Soon, they arrived at the General’s makeshift headquarters in an abandoned residence that overlooked the
rows of catapults that were continually hammering away at the stubborn Kampuchean walls.
“What took you so long?” the General asked firmly as he looked Suriya dead in the eye.
“The people on my end were massacred,” she stated.
“The Kampucheans were tipped off beforehand and the initial plan could not be put into motion.
I’m the last and the sole representative of the Thai insurgency here in Yunnan,”
“I’m sorry to hear that, miss,” the General offered his condolences.
“I was forced to find alternate means of smuggling your men into the city, which took some time to brainstorm.
You’ll now find an undefended path into the city through the sewage grates, which is where we came from,”
“Good work, both of you, perhaps you’d like to retire back to the supply camp after your ordeal?” the General offered.
“No, I’m afraid we can’t stay, I need to report back to my people about what transpired here earlier today,” Suriya politely declined.
“And you, Agent?” the General nodded to Qin.
“I’m going to stick with my partner, it’s better for relations between the two factions after all,” Qin answered.
“Very well. It was excellent collaborating with you,”
Suriya & Qin were dismissed, and the two set off for their next destination in the Thai homelands; leaving the capture of the city to the Imperial Army.



“Keep firing! Don’t let up!” one of the Kampuchean lieutenants yelled as they struggled to lay down fire against the Chinese invasion force.
Archers were forced to both shoot and tip over siege ladders whenever they had the opportunity.
Many were sniped off from the ramparts just for trying to multitask.
They were terribly undermanned. Where were their reinforcements?!
The cronies up on the hills better not be fortifying their own estates right now, was the collective thought on every soldier’s mind right now.
The archer lieutenant heard numerous footsteps rapidly approaching on the main street behind them.
"Thank Guan Yu, reinforcements!"
“Men, the reinforcements have arrived, they-“
He was cut short.
Many of the Kampuchean archers stopped firing and looked in horror as an arrow poked through the lieutenant’s chest.
There were no reinforcements coming from the rear.
Only Tiger Vanguard soldiers with Cho Ko Nus, aimed straight up towards the ramparts.
Several more soldiers dropped before they could get the chance to ready their bows.

The remainder of the Kampuchean defenders fought desperately upon realization that help wasn’t coming and that somehow a large force of Chinese soldiers had materialized right behind them. Sandwiched in between the torch & ladder parties scaling the walls and the vicious infiltration force, the garrison was fighting a losing battle. Fairly soon, the infiltrators were able to open the gate from the inside and let the remainder of the invading army in.

By morning, the whole of the city had succumbed to the strength of the Imperial Army.
Yunnan had now completely come under the Xia Emperor’s control.

 

[Mosher]

How big is this map, anyways?

 

[Civ'ed]

I believe it's GIANT!

 

[Mosher]

Giant, you say?

 

[SouthernKing]

There is only one size bigger: GIGANTIC (in ROM/AND/C2C), my game crashes within about 10 turns of opening that map

 

[Civ'ed]

Well, you know what they say to that...
Ok I really should not have done that.

 

[SouthernKing]

You need a dose of MOARCATZ

 

[Civ'ed]

ORLY?
I think we should cut the spam.

 

[SouthernKing]

Anyway, TD, what are you planning next?

 

[Tomorrow's Dawn]

I don't appreciate the spam and personally find it to be a mark of disrespect, guys.