das
Regeneration In Process
OOC: It was closed before I could post this, alas. Spam is an evil greater than even that of the penguins.
IC:
The alarms were raging. Throughout the base, panic spread. Technicians and guards alike were running around, seemingly-aimlessly. Sometimes - not seemingly.
Finally, a clear order came, in booming voice that was even louder than the sirenes.
"ALL PERSONNEL, GATHER IN THE BRIEFING ROOM!"
---
It all started in South America. New and new Federate forces arrived, joining the ones already there in their march to reconquer the Plate's inlands. Military music and the sound of 250,000 men marching synchronously scared away the birds of the sky and the beasts of the land. Canadian, Hudsonian, Carolinan, British, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian... Federates advanced, and ahead of them were the last outposts of a revolution. A crumbling revolution - already, dsepite the sudden end of assassinations, several leaders surrendered themselves to Federate justice, rather than fight to the end. Rebel soldiers mutinied and surrendered en masse, overpowering their officers and those still loyal to them.
The revolution ended with the fall of Asucnion on the 7th of October, which was shelled by several Federate navy squadrons and assaulted by ten infantry divisions. It was one of the largest battles in the history of South America, and definitely the loudest. Even by its end, artillery was still raging as loudly as in the beginning, pounding the last few outposts of the rebels into submission.
And yet... the birds that flew away were coming back. Despite the noise, despite the fear they had developed of the Federates, they were flying en masse towards Asuncion. As if... as if from the west, something much more horrible was coming.
---
"This is the end... the end! Damn, it was all for nothing!" - shouted one of the technicians, wildly gesticulating with his paws. Yes, paws - like everyone else on this base, he was a polar bear.
"Its not the last NES in the world, Gruargh." - said one of his collegues. Another one nodded rather absent-mindedly - most people were waiting for the announcement to continue, having gahtered here in the briefing room, although it was obvious that Ursus wanted everybody to gather first, even from the most distant places in the Earth.
"I know, I know... but it held so much promise... and died within a decade! Less than a decade!" - shouted Gruargh, still in hysteria.
"Oh, come on. Maybe they'll even let us revive ITNES I - remember how fun it was?"
"Aye. Much perspective there. Definitely hope they'll get back to that." - said someone else.
"Draar?" - asked Gruargh, turning around - "How's your wound?"
"That bloody penguins shot me well, but not well enough. Don't worry." - replied one of the best humanipulators in the NESverse - "And don't hope." - Draar grinned.
---
Draar got his wound back in the February of that year, in London. The orders were to watch by, let things happen as they might, and only intervene if the penguins do anything nasty.
Unfortunately, they did. While the newly-founded Ministry for Defense of the Crown was busy acting on the information it has recently received and intercepted all the Persian agents - the ones on the Thames barges, the ones in the sewers and the ones in the Parliament, the ones that were hunting for the MPs and, for no obvious reason, Lord Russel (rather than Gladstone; that was quite irritating to the aging, and increasingly unpopular, Prime Minister), the penguins were easily able to get into position, and into the Federate trust by helping them in their hunt.
Draar and his agents only understood the fiendish penguin plan when it was really too late.
The last Persian assassin was noticed too late. Despite all the polar bear advice, despite all of Draar's help, despite all the efforts of the MDC, now merged with the infamous Unique Unit... the penguins won that last assassin just enough time to get into position, just enough time to aim... and to shoot, despite Draar charging him. That was when the penguins stopped Draar by hitting him with a well-aimed tactical nuclear missile, though he heroically prevented it from blowing up. He still was hit by it, and it was rather heavy.
No matter. The penguins achieved what they wanted. For King George V lie dead, just outside of the Buckingham Palace. By the end of the day, the people of London were crowding the streets before the Parliament.
They were crying for Persian blood.
There could be no peace now...
---
"Actually, not sure why did they do that." - Draar confessed, for the Mod-knows-which time this year - "The war would've continued anyway..."
"But not with such rage and hatred. I'm sure it..."
Yet it was not Draar's fate to learn that day what was Gruargh sure about.
"ATTENTION!" - the huge polar bear that appeared on the holoscreen before them all shouted - "As we have long anticipated, the end of NES2 V is at hand. The post count has broken the records, and, according to the latest reports, the fabric of reality already begun to tear apart, especially in South America. Thankfully, we evacuated it just in time and had no casualties, but that was largely due to the slowness of the progress of what we have termed..."
"Evil!" - someone shouted.
"Darkness!"
"Armaggedon!"
"Penguins!"
"QUIET!" - shouted Ursus, the Generalissimus of Polarbearum.
"The progress of the Quiet?" - asked the first polar bear (the one who said "Evil!") - "Well, actually I suppose..."
"Shut up." - said some other polar bear.
"Indeed." - said Ursus, more calmly - "Shut up, that is. It is the Progress... of the Freeze. The NES is freezing."
"Aw, come on..." - said the first polar bear again - "Can't reality tear apart in some more spectacular way? Maybe we should just nuke it?"
"No-no, its not really the end." - said Ursus - "It is being frozen for future use, we have asked das and he had confirmed it."
"So the fabric of reality isn't really..."
"It IS tearing apart, or is about to begin tearing apart now that the ITNES I postcount was beaten... That's one of the reasons it is now being frozen - to be fixed in the future. The other, and admittedly the more important one, is..."
---
Before the dreaded October could reach Europe, there were yet months and months of struggle ahead. Or, rather, behind - for now was October.
First to freeze were the Federated Kingdoms, the occupied (perhaps permanently-occupied) territory of Portugal and the newly-restored Republic of Spain, and almost immediately followed France, which still was in a phony war with Geneve. Its leaders also wanted to attack Italy, but the Parlement and the referendums didn't let them start a new war.
None of this mattered now. Neither did the fact that, despite the peace and the territorial concessions to the enemies and the allies alike, the Holy Roman Empire was still racked with violence, as rebellions spread, "political parties" fought each other in the streets and the Croats of Zagreb demanded that their city is granted to Yugoslavia as well, like the coastal regions were. For the Freeze took over the HRE as well, and it also took over Italy - just as it had finished uniting the mainland territories.
The Freeze wasn't what one might expect. It wasn't cold in the lands taken over by the Freeze, as the Polish scientists who DARED, despite all, travel to see what was happening to the west from their embattled land. There was no ice, no snow.
Only grayish space. All that existed took on a grayish tone, not unlike the one you get in the world where the Poles failed to hold on to Moscow during the Time of Troubles, if you put a game of Starcraft on pause. And everything, and everyone there... froze. Again, as if on pause.
Strangely, the Freeze recognized political borders. Before it was ready to cover all of Poland, those Polish scientists that were standing on the border could reach out beyond a border and grab something - a leaf, for instance - and move it to the Polish side, and it became alive once more. And vice versa. A Polish scientist that crossed the border COMPLETELY - not just stretched out his hand to cross the border, but actually walked over it - froze. He was only barely rescued, but didn't suffer from it at all, and didn't realize that he froze. Those moments during which he was frozen disappeared from his memory.
A day later, the Freeze took over Poland as well, despite the various attempts to stop it. It is believed now that had the Muscovites still controlled any territory in Poland, those territories would not have been frozen at the same time as the Polish ones.
That belief is based on the fact that when what few Muscovite-held territories - within Muscovy itself - froze as well, the Dalnorossians still held on to the territory they held there. For the Muscovites didn't pay back for their incursion into Dalnorossian territory back in 1869, and the Dalnorossians decided to extract their payment alternatively. Despite all the Muscovite efforts, Tsar Alexius was finally defeated in 1870 - his attack into Scandinavian-held territory was outflanked and crushed, allowing the Scandinavians to start a sweeping southwards assault, outmaneuvering the Muscovite forces gathering in Minsk and threatening their right (northern) flank. And meanwhile, the Poles already fought back all attempts to break out towards Polish core lands, including those led by Alexius himself, and were attacking Minsk as well, from the west - and the south as well, in a well-planned maneuver. Alexius perished in battle, as did most of his forces. Ahead still was Oleg Dolgorukiy's daring offensive into Galicia that for a moment threatened to take Krakow itself, but it too was eventually defeated. By the time the October came, the armies of three nations - Scandinavian Union, Polish Kingdom and the Dalnorossian Land were advancing towards Moscow, tearing through the few defenses that remained. The Freeze stopped the Polish and the Scandinavian forces just as they were besieging Moscow, where Vasilliy Seyev took power as regent after Alexius' death. Dalnorossians had just enough time to break the last eastern defenses, to reach Moscow from the east... when that city fell silent as well. When it Froze.
By then, the Balkans were already Frozen. Frozen was Yugoslavia, with its threats of war towards HRE if it doesn't keep up to its word in full; Frozen was Romania with its court intrigues and very uncertain relations with Poland and Persia alike; Frozen was Greece, but the Greeks were by then quite satisfied with the situation. After all...
After all, their sudden attack worked. Despite all the things that might go wrong, practically nothing did, and most of Turkey Froze with Greece, for most of Turkey was held by the Greeks. And the rest Froze several days earlier - when the FK Froze.
---
"Well?" - asked one of the polar bears, breaking the silence that followed the sudden end of Ursus' speach.
"Hmm?" - replied Ursus, interrupting his meditation and reminiscing - "Ah, yes. The other reason is that this NES will probably be revived one day. But not now, it is now being frozen for storage. And I can understand why.
This world is tired, you see. And it needs some rest. And the Mod needs a change, needs a rest from this bloodshed."
"How is this bloodshed different from that bloodshed?"
"Not something I would expect you to know. So... shut up, damnit!" - said Ursus, his voice going from "lecturer" to "commanding officer" within a second. - "We're leaving this world and taking a break, and getting into whatever comes next! This is our bloody duty, and we'll carry it out without questions! Now, we are to quickly gather the equipment. We have three days before this island Freezes, should be more than enough. Guards are to make sure no penguins or pandas interrupt the evacuation! MARCH!"
---
But the penguins didn't interrupt anything. That was because, with the downfall of Turkey and the Freezing of Africa, where their main base was located. Oh, they evacuated everything alright. To another world. It wasn't worth the trouble to try and teleport some troops back to this world, to stop the polar bears.
As for the pandas... they had only one day left themselves. And also, lots of casualties - lots of agents that remained in France and Persia for all too long.
Not that much remained of the latter by the coming of the October. The Persians tried hard to slow down the Federate advance, but they still lost. The Federates had the advantage in information - they knew far more than the Persians did, and used all this accordingly. They defeated the Turkish invasion of Federate-held Syria, and defeated the Turks themselves. They eliminated what little resistance could be gathered up in Arabia with the trademark ruthless efficiency of the Unique Unit. Having failed to gather enough native allies - who wants to ally with a losing power when it is clearly losing? - the Persians had to withdraw from Arabia. But by then, the Federates overran Iraq, moving from South Iraq itself, and from Syria, and from Turkey. The guerrilas slowed them down somewhat, but not enough. In Persia itself, where Ardashir IV personally commanded, where the new Adat guns were tried out along with the newest Persian rifles and cannons, where even a Sikh expedition force was sent to help out the Persians, where the people despite all continued to actively resist the Federates... even there, the Persians were to face defeat. The Federates didn't try to make any dramatic gains; they advanced slowly, methodically, systimatically, and made sure to defeat all attacks, from within and without alike. Their troops were not squeamish when they had to deal with the rebellions in Shiraz; its not very easy to rebel in a city where all strategic positions are safely held by a regular modern army; and as for the Persian, Sikh, and even French (of the Foreign Legion) attacks, they were driven back, unable to follow the original plan anyway after the loss of Iraq. The Federates continued to advance, ever-so-slowly. By then, the last remnants of Ardashir's empire fragmented. Baluchis, Azeris, Armenians all rose up in arms and established their own states. And even the Persians begun rebelling, tired of war. Some of the embattled Persian divisions had had it as well - they mutinied and surrendered. Most held. But they still lost.
The Federates eventually broke the Persian defenses - with many losses, with many expenses, with curses and cries. And they pocketed those troops that fought on. And they begun pounding them into submission, just like they did back in the Plate. And it probably would have worked...
And then... The Federates Froze, but that brought little relief to the Persians. They were trapped by something much worse than the Federates now. They could fight Federates. But not the Freeze.
---
On the large map before Ursus, India was frozen as well. All of it - Federates froze long ago, Persia - one day before India did, and now froze both Dalnorossia and the remaining Indian rebels. Sikhistan didn't freeze - it was conquered without much of a fight, as all the troops were sent away by the careless Sikh rulers to help the Persians and the Indians and were busy dying far away when the Dalnorossians charged in from Afghanistan, which they occupied, defeated what little militia could be found and provoked a coup d'etat and an immediate unconditional surrender. The young guard of the Sikh elite was alittle more interested in survival than in honour. Then the Dalnorossians attacked the Perso-Indian troops on the Indus, all as a part of their alliance with the FK. Just as Dalnorossians attacked from the north, the Federates attacked from the south. And then, having met up, having conquered the great river once and for all - they advanced east, united. The Indians were fighting with surprising efficiency there... but their defeat was inevitable, they were being simply overwhelmed, and once more the Federates systematically grinded their enemies into dust. The freeze saved the Indians. And then... REALLY saved them, as one saves a game of Starcraft in the world where the Poles failed to hold on to Moscow during the Time of Troubles.
Ursus turned away. All should be ready now. He signalled for the bodyguards to accompany him, as he quickly went out of the office, taking a few vital personal belongings and the data, but not the map - it was heavy, and was rather useless outside of this world, they only took the important, more-or-less irreplaceable equipment. If only because this base was going to be used again one day... right?
The polar bears were rapidly teleporting themselves out now as well, as the last cache of equipment was evacuated a few minutes ago.
Little do they know that they are being watched themselves... Muwhahahaha...
"You win." - said a tired voice behind the tall, pale, aristocratic- and at the same time evil-looking man's back, in the rather gothish ship in Earth's orbit.
"Was that ever in doubt?" - the man asked, standing up in his full height and looking away from the screen. Even in the darkness of this room, his fine Prussian uniform drew attention - "The world can die in many ways. Even without my involvement..."
"True, true... What do you think will happen now, mein herr?"
"Nothing is certain." - laughed von Dunkelheit - "Apart from the never-ending of the story. The grand story, I mean. NESes die... but NESing continues."
"True enough." - das nodded - "Hopefully you won't "
"Just make sure there's a Germany in it."
"A little one, maybe..."
---
Anyway, what now?
IC:
The alarms were raging. Throughout the base, panic spread. Technicians and guards alike were running around, seemingly-aimlessly. Sometimes - not seemingly.
Finally, a clear order came, in booming voice that was even louder than the sirenes.
"ALL PERSONNEL, GATHER IN THE BRIEFING ROOM!"
---
It all started in South America. New and new Federate forces arrived, joining the ones already there in their march to reconquer the Plate's inlands. Military music and the sound of 250,000 men marching synchronously scared away the birds of the sky and the beasts of the land. Canadian, Hudsonian, Carolinan, British, Irish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian... Federates advanced, and ahead of them were the last outposts of a revolution. A crumbling revolution - already, dsepite the sudden end of assassinations, several leaders surrendered themselves to Federate justice, rather than fight to the end. Rebel soldiers mutinied and surrendered en masse, overpowering their officers and those still loyal to them.
The revolution ended with the fall of Asucnion on the 7th of October, which was shelled by several Federate navy squadrons and assaulted by ten infantry divisions. It was one of the largest battles in the history of South America, and definitely the loudest. Even by its end, artillery was still raging as loudly as in the beginning, pounding the last few outposts of the rebels into submission.
And yet... the birds that flew away were coming back. Despite the noise, despite the fear they had developed of the Federates, they were flying en masse towards Asuncion. As if... as if from the west, something much more horrible was coming.
---
"This is the end... the end! Damn, it was all for nothing!" - shouted one of the technicians, wildly gesticulating with his paws. Yes, paws - like everyone else on this base, he was a polar bear.
"Its not the last NES in the world, Gruargh." - said one of his collegues. Another one nodded rather absent-mindedly - most people were waiting for the announcement to continue, having gahtered here in the briefing room, although it was obvious that Ursus wanted everybody to gather first, even from the most distant places in the Earth.
"I know, I know... but it held so much promise... and died within a decade! Less than a decade!" - shouted Gruargh, still in hysteria.
"Oh, come on. Maybe they'll even let us revive ITNES I - remember how fun it was?"
"Aye. Much perspective there. Definitely hope they'll get back to that." - said someone else.
"Draar?" - asked Gruargh, turning around - "How's your wound?"
"That bloody penguins shot me well, but not well enough. Don't worry." - replied one of the best humanipulators in the NESverse - "And don't hope." - Draar grinned.
---
Draar got his wound back in the February of that year, in London. The orders were to watch by, let things happen as they might, and only intervene if the penguins do anything nasty.
Unfortunately, they did. While the newly-founded Ministry for Defense of the Crown was busy acting on the information it has recently received and intercepted all the Persian agents - the ones on the Thames barges, the ones in the sewers and the ones in the Parliament, the ones that were hunting for the MPs and, for no obvious reason, Lord Russel (rather than Gladstone; that was quite irritating to the aging, and increasingly unpopular, Prime Minister), the penguins were easily able to get into position, and into the Federate trust by helping them in their hunt.
Draar and his agents only understood the fiendish penguin plan when it was really too late.
The last Persian assassin was noticed too late. Despite all the polar bear advice, despite all of Draar's help, despite all the efforts of the MDC, now merged with the infamous Unique Unit... the penguins won that last assassin just enough time to get into position, just enough time to aim... and to shoot, despite Draar charging him. That was when the penguins stopped Draar by hitting him with a well-aimed tactical nuclear missile, though he heroically prevented it from blowing up. He still was hit by it, and it was rather heavy.
No matter. The penguins achieved what they wanted. For King George V lie dead, just outside of the Buckingham Palace. By the end of the day, the people of London were crowding the streets before the Parliament.
They were crying for Persian blood.
There could be no peace now...
---
"Actually, not sure why did they do that." - Draar confessed, for the Mod-knows-which time this year - "The war would've continued anyway..."
"But not with such rage and hatred. I'm sure it..."
Yet it was not Draar's fate to learn that day what was Gruargh sure about.
"ATTENTION!" - the huge polar bear that appeared on the holoscreen before them all shouted - "As we have long anticipated, the end of NES2 V is at hand. The post count has broken the records, and, according to the latest reports, the fabric of reality already begun to tear apart, especially in South America. Thankfully, we evacuated it just in time and had no casualties, but that was largely due to the slowness of the progress of what we have termed..."
"Evil!" - someone shouted.
"Darkness!"
"Armaggedon!"
"Penguins!"
"QUIET!" - shouted Ursus, the Generalissimus of Polarbearum.
"The progress of the Quiet?" - asked the first polar bear (the one who said "Evil!") - "Well, actually I suppose..."
"Shut up." - said some other polar bear.
"Indeed." - said Ursus, more calmly - "Shut up, that is. It is the Progress... of the Freeze. The NES is freezing."
"Aw, come on..." - said the first polar bear again - "Can't reality tear apart in some more spectacular way? Maybe we should just nuke it?"
"No-no, its not really the end." - said Ursus - "It is being frozen for future use, we have asked das and he had confirmed it."
"So the fabric of reality isn't really..."
"It IS tearing apart, or is about to begin tearing apart now that the ITNES I postcount was beaten... That's one of the reasons it is now being frozen - to be fixed in the future. The other, and admittedly the more important one, is..."
---
Before the dreaded October could reach Europe, there were yet months and months of struggle ahead. Or, rather, behind - for now was October.
First to freeze were the Federated Kingdoms, the occupied (perhaps permanently-occupied) territory of Portugal and the newly-restored Republic of Spain, and almost immediately followed France, which still was in a phony war with Geneve. Its leaders also wanted to attack Italy, but the Parlement and the referendums didn't let them start a new war.
None of this mattered now. Neither did the fact that, despite the peace and the territorial concessions to the enemies and the allies alike, the Holy Roman Empire was still racked with violence, as rebellions spread, "political parties" fought each other in the streets and the Croats of Zagreb demanded that their city is granted to Yugoslavia as well, like the coastal regions were. For the Freeze took over the HRE as well, and it also took over Italy - just as it had finished uniting the mainland territories.
The Freeze wasn't what one might expect. It wasn't cold in the lands taken over by the Freeze, as the Polish scientists who DARED, despite all, travel to see what was happening to the west from their embattled land. There was no ice, no snow.
Only grayish space. All that existed took on a grayish tone, not unlike the one you get in the world where the Poles failed to hold on to Moscow during the Time of Troubles, if you put a game of Starcraft on pause. And everything, and everyone there... froze. Again, as if on pause.
Strangely, the Freeze recognized political borders. Before it was ready to cover all of Poland, those Polish scientists that were standing on the border could reach out beyond a border and grab something - a leaf, for instance - and move it to the Polish side, and it became alive once more. And vice versa. A Polish scientist that crossed the border COMPLETELY - not just stretched out his hand to cross the border, but actually walked over it - froze. He was only barely rescued, but didn't suffer from it at all, and didn't realize that he froze. Those moments during which he was frozen disappeared from his memory.
A day later, the Freeze took over Poland as well, despite the various attempts to stop it. It is believed now that had the Muscovites still controlled any territory in Poland, those territories would not have been frozen at the same time as the Polish ones.
That belief is based on the fact that when what few Muscovite-held territories - within Muscovy itself - froze as well, the Dalnorossians still held on to the territory they held there. For the Muscovites didn't pay back for their incursion into Dalnorossian territory back in 1869, and the Dalnorossians decided to extract their payment alternatively. Despite all the Muscovite efforts, Tsar Alexius was finally defeated in 1870 - his attack into Scandinavian-held territory was outflanked and crushed, allowing the Scandinavians to start a sweeping southwards assault, outmaneuvering the Muscovite forces gathering in Minsk and threatening their right (northern) flank. And meanwhile, the Poles already fought back all attempts to break out towards Polish core lands, including those led by Alexius himself, and were attacking Minsk as well, from the west - and the south as well, in a well-planned maneuver. Alexius perished in battle, as did most of his forces. Ahead still was Oleg Dolgorukiy's daring offensive into Galicia that for a moment threatened to take Krakow itself, but it too was eventually defeated. By the time the October came, the armies of three nations - Scandinavian Union, Polish Kingdom and the Dalnorossian Land were advancing towards Moscow, tearing through the few defenses that remained. The Freeze stopped the Polish and the Scandinavian forces just as they were besieging Moscow, where Vasilliy Seyev took power as regent after Alexius' death. Dalnorossians had just enough time to break the last eastern defenses, to reach Moscow from the east... when that city fell silent as well. When it Froze.
By then, the Balkans were already Frozen. Frozen was Yugoslavia, with its threats of war towards HRE if it doesn't keep up to its word in full; Frozen was Romania with its court intrigues and very uncertain relations with Poland and Persia alike; Frozen was Greece, but the Greeks were by then quite satisfied with the situation. After all...
After all, their sudden attack worked. Despite all the things that might go wrong, practically nothing did, and most of Turkey Froze with Greece, for most of Turkey was held by the Greeks. And the rest Froze several days earlier - when the FK Froze.
---
"Well?" - asked one of the polar bears, breaking the silence that followed the sudden end of Ursus' speach.
"Hmm?" - replied Ursus, interrupting his meditation and reminiscing - "Ah, yes. The other reason is that this NES will probably be revived one day. But not now, it is now being frozen for storage. And I can understand why.
This world is tired, you see. And it needs some rest. And the Mod needs a change, needs a rest from this bloodshed."
"How is this bloodshed different from that bloodshed?"
"Not something I would expect you to know. So... shut up, damnit!" - said Ursus, his voice going from "lecturer" to "commanding officer" within a second. - "We're leaving this world and taking a break, and getting into whatever comes next! This is our bloody duty, and we'll carry it out without questions! Now, we are to quickly gather the equipment. We have three days before this island Freezes, should be more than enough. Guards are to make sure no penguins or pandas interrupt the evacuation! MARCH!"
---
But the penguins didn't interrupt anything. That was because, with the downfall of Turkey and the Freezing of Africa, where their main base was located. Oh, they evacuated everything alright. To another world. It wasn't worth the trouble to try and teleport some troops back to this world, to stop the polar bears.
As for the pandas... they had only one day left themselves. And also, lots of casualties - lots of agents that remained in France and Persia for all too long.
Not that much remained of the latter by the coming of the October. The Persians tried hard to slow down the Federate advance, but they still lost. The Federates had the advantage in information - they knew far more than the Persians did, and used all this accordingly. They defeated the Turkish invasion of Federate-held Syria, and defeated the Turks themselves. They eliminated what little resistance could be gathered up in Arabia with the trademark ruthless efficiency of the Unique Unit. Having failed to gather enough native allies - who wants to ally with a losing power when it is clearly losing? - the Persians had to withdraw from Arabia. But by then, the Federates overran Iraq, moving from South Iraq itself, and from Syria, and from Turkey. The guerrilas slowed them down somewhat, but not enough. In Persia itself, where Ardashir IV personally commanded, where the new Adat guns were tried out along with the newest Persian rifles and cannons, where even a Sikh expedition force was sent to help out the Persians, where the people despite all continued to actively resist the Federates... even there, the Persians were to face defeat. The Federates didn't try to make any dramatic gains; they advanced slowly, methodically, systimatically, and made sure to defeat all attacks, from within and without alike. Their troops were not squeamish when they had to deal with the rebellions in Shiraz; its not very easy to rebel in a city where all strategic positions are safely held by a regular modern army; and as for the Persian, Sikh, and even French (of the Foreign Legion) attacks, they were driven back, unable to follow the original plan anyway after the loss of Iraq. The Federates continued to advance, ever-so-slowly. By then, the last remnants of Ardashir's empire fragmented. Baluchis, Azeris, Armenians all rose up in arms and established their own states. And even the Persians begun rebelling, tired of war. Some of the embattled Persian divisions had had it as well - they mutinied and surrendered. Most held. But they still lost.
The Federates eventually broke the Persian defenses - with many losses, with many expenses, with curses and cries. And they pocketed those troops that fought on. And they begun pounding them into submission, just like they did back in the Plate. And it probably would have worked...
And then... The Federates Froze, but that brought little relief to the Persians. They were trapped by something much worse than the Federates now. They could fight Federates. But not the Freeze.
---
On the large map before Ursus, India was frozen as well. All of it - Federates froze long ago, Persia - one day before India did, and now froze both Dalnorossia and the remaining Indian rebels. Sikhistan didn't freeze - it was conquered without much of a fight, as all the troops were sent away by the careless Sikh rulers to help the Persians and the Indians and were busy dying far away when the Dalnorossians charged in from Afghanistan, which they occupied, defeated what little militia could be found and provoked a coup d'etat and an immediate unconditional surrender. The young guard of the Sikh elite was alittle more interested in survival than in honour. Then the Dalnorossians attacked the Perso-Indian troops on the Indus, all as a part of their alliance with the FK. Just as Dalnorossians attacked from the north, the Federates attacked from the south. And then, having met up, having conquered the great river once and for all - they advanced east, united. The Indians were fighting with surprising efficiency there... but their defeat was inevitable, they were being simply overwhelmed, and once more the Federates systematically grinded their enemies into dust. The freeze saved the Indians. And then... REALLY saved them, as one saves a game of Starcraft in the world where the Poles failed to hold on to Moscow during the Time of Troubles.
Ursus turned away. All should be ready now. He signalled for the bodyguards to accompany him, as he quickly went out of the office, taking a few vital personal belongings and the data, but not the map - it was heavy, and was rather useless outside of this world, they only took the important, more-or-less irreplaceable equipment. If only because this base was going to be used again one day... right?
The polar bears were rapidly teleporting themselves out now as well, as the last cache of equipment was evacuated a few minutes ago.
Little do they know that they are being watched themselves... Muwhahahaha...
"You win." - said a tired voice behind the tall, pale, aristocratic- and at the same time evil-looking man's back, in the rather gothish ship in Earth's orbit.
"Was that ever in doubt?" - the man asked, standing up in his full height and looking away from the screen. Even in the darkness of this room, his fine Prussian uniform drew attention - "The world can die in many ways. Even without my involvement..."
"True, true... What do you think will happen now, mein herr?"
"Nothing is certain." - laughed von Dunkelheit - "Apart from the never-ending of the story. The grand story, I mean. NESes die... but NESing continues."
"True enough." - das nodded - "Hopefully you won't "
"Just make sure there's a Germany in it."
"A little one, maybe..."
---
Anyway, what now?
Yeah, let's just keep it in this, get the awards and then run a poll on the next one.
