Ah wait: SS-Company implies a company, silly me! I will officially retract all my previous statements and accept the shame and continue writing stories in the name of glorious Nihojon. What was I thinking? Industrialized or no, it kicks serious ass.
Lord_Iggy, adjust the time frame if you will. This will have happened by the time Nihojon has access to a single Griffon airship, after modifying it a bit.
When All Else Fails, Show Some Bravado And Cut An Emperor's Head
It's all we can do, really
What is the greatest threat to a big nation whose military can barely keep up with its own dissenters? War, of course! Not just any war, no. A small civil war by some unpopular warlord is no worse than a particularly menacing bandit leader. War with some small, backwards nation—say, Bod—is going to be as big a threat as a particularly rabid mouse is to a decent housecat. No, war can only be threatening if there is some power to that punch, some oomph! in that offensive. To that end, the attacking nation ought to have some advantage, some leverage, some edge over its prey...
Jumping off that, let us look at the Nihojonese attack on Singuo in the September of the third year of the "Spark calendar" (surely, calendars changed for the events that change the world, and who else have made a greater impact to the workings of Earth but the Sparks!). Nihojon was not exactly a powerful nation, only having begun the first big steps towards industrialization and modernization; very big steps they were indeed, for they caused much blood and tears to be shed by the Nihojonese people. Nihojon had a small army, only a fourth or a third the size of Singuo's. A modern and fearsome army the Nihojonese did have, yes, but quantity—as Singuo did possess—had a way of sorting out differences in quality. At this point it seems as though Nihojon had no business invading Singuo, for it had no advantage, no leverage, no edge over its neighbor. But to conclude so is to overlook one very vital factor in the story of Nihojon's rise.
Dr. Akira Light was one of those men you could call "messianic." No, he was no prophesied savior, nor did he hold a great spiritual following (but he was close!), but he was "messianic" in other respects. He changed an entire nation from the ground up, directly bringing about the rapid modernization of Nihojon through his influence in the highest position of government. Aside from being a prominent political figure, he is also a businessman and an inventor. Yes, he was an inventor—in fact, some could say that it was because of him that the modernization project did not encounter much resistance, for it was by the virtue of his deadly machines of war that the reactionary forces to the modernization movement were crushed mercilessly and systematically. Not only that, but he also brought about a sort of agricultural revolution: The farmers of Nihojon no longer tended to their fields by their hands alone, now yielding more with the great steam machines provided to them by Dr. Akira Light.
So, what does this messianic figure have anything to do with the perceived edge of Nihojon over Singuo (at least in the eyes of the Nihojonese war planners)? The already-mentioned machines of war, of course! Dr. Akira Light had provided them with some of the most frightening (if none too deadly) battlefield mechanisms of the age, from the reputably invulnerable steam armor battlesuits to the imposing steam walker. Those who used these deadly forces did so with such a harshness and bloodiness that, at the sight of them, enemies are almost certain to quiver of fear. Even without prior news of their extreme force, the sight of fifteen-foot tall metal monster was not what a soldier's hopes make!
Of course, it was not all Dr. Akira Light's doing that led to that perceived edge in the Spetember of 3 (or 1687, whichever the reader is more comfortable with). Cid Hibiki, a Medlander merchant and Spark of Nihojonese descent, lent a big hand by selling a "Griffon" airship to the Nihojonese government. It was the only battle-ready airship that the Nihojonese had, but it was enough to initiate the bloodiest opening move made in the history of warfare.
It was the morning of September 4, 1687, a date chosen for its symbolic significance (for the number 4 was the number of death in the Far Eastern psyche). The Nihojonese army liked to attack not only with guns and giant war-robots but with psychological weapons as well. Dr. Akira Light had just finished applying the final modifications to the NSAF Warhawk, and the Griffon airship was filled with the most daring men in all of Nihojon—no, not just, for they were surely the most daring men in the entire world!—armed with the latest Steam Armor technology. It was the day to enact Operation First Strike, an all-too daring plan by the Nihojonese Standard Army war planners, and everyone, especially these daring and possibly suicidal men, was getting ready for its fluid execution.
"You will be flying there as men," the general who was in charge of giving the Steam Armor-clad men (SS-Troopers they were popularly and formally called) a pep talk was saying. He had the grimmest of expressions, in contrast with the overtly enthusiastic air about the thirty SS-Troopers. "But you will be returning to us humble mortals as gods. What you hope to accomplish is nothing short of impossible. Yet, we are confident that you will be able to pull this off without the slightest of problems, for the success of this war—well, more on the prestige of the nation—depends a great deal on your success in this mission." He looked at each of the SS-Troopers, and noticed they were all young and cheerful types. "Do not think of this as a game! If you all die, Nihojon will be shamed. You do not want the whole of Nihojon to commit seppuku, now, do you?"
"No, sir!" was the response in unison.
"Very well then," said the general, smiling. He took out a sword from its scabbard and presented it to the platoon leader, the SS-Captain for the mission. The latter accepted it with a bow, and an exchange of salutes between the SS-Troopers and the general marked the end of the briefing. "Off you go to your coronation as heroes and demigods, or off you go to your deaths. Make sure it is the former, for you are all dead men otherwise."
"Yes, sir!" the SS-Troopers replied in unison.
The SS-Troopers made their way into the NSAF Warhawk, uncertain of their fates but ever hopeful of their success. They were idealistic spirits. Idiots, some would call them, but the state-sponsored description would be "heroes." Indeed, within a few minutes they were up in the air, with a recently-trained Nihojonese pilot (for no sane pilot from Hibiki Airships even considered to take part in this mission which screamed "death wish" from its very conception) at the helm. The soldiers made uneasy talk once in the air, but mostly about their first time flying: Either none made their fear of failure evident, a fear made quite likely for they were closer to reality than ever before, or that they were so confident of their ultimate success. It was most likely the latter, for they were all indeed so very young and foolish.
As they sliced through the sky in their high-altitude airship, they saw little of the ground below. The modifications given to the Griffon airship allowed little sightseeing. The only way they could tell that they were ever nearing their destination was the constant screaming of the pilot.
"Oooh, beautiful lake!" he screamed in his annoyingly high-pitched voice on one occasion. He would continue, saying, "Ah, big towns! Houses! Trees! Houses! Road! Trees! Houses! More houses! Big towns! City! River! Lake! Trees! More Trees! Houses! More houses! Even more houses!" The pilot went on like that for the entire trip, to the slight annoyance of the SS-Troopers.
The trip was mostly uneventful until the pilot shouted, "We're at the VERY BIG HOUSE! The VERY BIG HOUSE! Ready yourselves, steam soldiers!" Whoever chose the codename "Very Big House" was really lacking in ideas, but it sufficed. At the uttering of those three words, the SS-Troopers had scrambled into position at the middle of the airship where the "repeating ballista" used to be before the modification.
Within moments, the soldiers felt themselves falling. It was a familiar feeling, being trained in the art of high jumping with their super-powered suits of armor, but they never felt it for this long or this fast. In fact, they felt that it was too fast. Some feared that there was a sort of malfunction, that the ship was falling as an accident and not part of the plan. Fear crept into the SS-Troopers like it has never crept before, and the screaming of the pilot did not do much to calm them.
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" the pilot was screaming at the top of his lungs, at the highest pitch he could must. And a very high pitch that was.
"Is there something wrong?" asked the SS-Captain, shouting over the sound of air whipping against the ship and the high-pitched screaming of the pilot.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" The pilot did not seem to hear him.
"Is there something wrong?" the SS-Captain repeated, louder and with much more distress than before.
"AAAAAAAAAA—Oh?" the pilot said. He didn't sound distressed, despite his screaming.
"Is there something wrong?!"
"Oh, no, I was just getting into the feel of the ride. It's quite a peaceful fall, really, save for the fact that the wind's blowing us down a little too hard. Speaking of the fall, you better get ready to jump—"
As the pilot spoke, the familiar sound of gunfire filled the air. The sound of shot hitting the bottom of the ship alarmed the SS-Troopers, but they readied the ship just for this. Shot fired upwards made little damage to a ship plated in steel.
"—as I was saying, ready to jump! I will be in high-altitude until you signal the palace to be clear, alright?" finished the pilot, not quite as scared as he should have been from the guns firing. But then again, he was a bit crazy. The SS-Captain nodded, and signaled for his companions to make "the jump."
From the Imperial Palace of Singuo (OOC: Which, I presume, looks a lot like the Forbidden Palace, with a hollow area in the middle), the Singuonese guards saw a large airship making rapid descent into the Palace grounds. It was not quite going to land, for it suddenly stopped in mid-fall by some mechanism unknown to the grounded observers. In any case, they saw the bottom the ship open. It looked as though the ship was going to bomb—a foreign concept only found in rumor in Singuo, a remote possibility and excluded from all the plans of the Singuonese generals, but what else could the thing have been doing?—the middle of the Palace. Whatever end that might have achieved eluded the observers, but they soon found their assumptions to be spot-on wrong. Instead of bombs, in whatever form the Singuonese observers might have imagined them to be, they saw the heard-of-but-never-seen Steam Armor-clad soldiers of Nihojon jumping down into Palace grounds. Their falls were softened by thick ropes, and they were only fazed by their descent for only a short time. Soon, the SS-Troopers made their way towards killing everyone within the Singuonese Imperial Palace: If they were not going to catch the emperor of the Singuonese, they would at least burn the palace to the ground.
Elsewhere, over a hundred thousand Nihojonese soldiers surged forth into Singuo, backed by the great steam weaponry developed by Dr. Akira Light. Poor, slant-eyed souls.
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*Note: The SS-Troopers in the Imperial Palace would set a smoke signal for the NSAF Warhawk to fetch them: The pilot will be watching the ruckus from above, going to descend only when he sees the smoke signal.
*Note: The bulk of the Singuonese armies should be at the Singuo-Nihojonese border, after the visible military parading done by the Nihojonese. The Palace should be minimally guarded, and mostly by ceremonial guys practicing with swords and spears.
*Note: NSAF = Nihojonese Standard Air Force
*Note: Sorry if I can't maintain a consistent storytelling tone and if this feels a tad rushed, because I can't and it is.
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Completely unrelated with anything but the nationality of Jeremy Sieko (and possibly others, but I was hit by this stroke of funny when I was going through character profiles and re-read his): [wiki]Durian[/wiki].