Sima Qian
太史令
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2006
- Messages
- 732
Chapter 24: Light from the Netherworlds
Ariake no / Tsurenaku mieshi / Wakare yori / Akatsuki bakari / Uki mono wa nashi
Like the morning moon / Cold, unpitying was my love / And since we parted / I dislike nothing so much / As the breaking light of day.
Mibu no Tadamine (A.D. 860-920)
In the end, Minamoto no Yoritomo did resign in disgust over Tojo's inhumane practices. He had never before seen such brutality in his many years of military service, and there was no way he could reconcile the actions of the Razor with his bushido principles. Kami will punish Tojo for sure, he muttered to himself. Evildoers like him shall meet their ultimate demise, regardless of whether they are Japanese or not.
Hideki Tojo, on the other hand, was quite eager to assume command of Yoritomo's forces in Germany. Shogun Tokugawa did not even need to give him special instructions, as within days he had arrived in Bremen to inspect the military conditions. There were plenty of tanks and mechanized infantry deployed in the region by this time. All that was missing was a leader to give the orders for a new offensive. Many of the troops had grown quite restless during the period of Yoritomo's inaction following the destruction of Dortmund, and were itching for another battle.
However, Tojo had to cancel his invasion plans at the very last minute because of an unexpected new scientific discovery back in the research labs of Japan. A chemical engineer working on Project Kaguya had synthesized a new material that, upon inspection, proved to be several times stronger and more durable than steel. The report emphasized the usefulness of these new synthetic fibers in spacecraft components such as the exterior casing, but when Toyotomi Hideyoshi read it, he realized that these materials could also be used as protective plating on military vehicles.
On Hideyoshi's orders, other engineers developed new armored combat vehicles that took full advantage of these synthetic fibers to pack. Powered by nuclear reactors and enhanced with onboard computers, these new machines packed significantly more power into both attack and defense and were far more maneuverable than ordinary tanks. The engineers called them "Generation Unsubdued Nuclear Drive Assault Modules," or GUNDAMs for short, but among the first military test pilots the names "mobile suits" and "modern armor" were far more popular.
"I recommend that you wait a little longer before your next attack," Hideyoshi told Tojo. "You certainly want the utmost safety of your troops, am I not correct? Give us some more time to mass produce these materials, and I guarantee that you will not regret it."
Tojo grudgingly agreed, although ultimately he could not contain his thirst for blood. Before the new units with the upgraded plating could arrive at the front lines, he had launched another assault, taking down the Russian city of Tblisi with his tanks. Fortunately for the citizens, they did not get to witness the awesome destructive power of the modern armor before they were handed their swift and painless deaths by the Razor.
With the loss of Tblisi, the Czarina decided that she had enough suffering in this war. She called up Alexander the Great and gave him a formal apology for all the damage that Russia had done to the Greeks, and offered her assistance in helping them rebuild their ravaged nation. Alexander also saw there was nothing more to gain from the fighting, and agreed to sign a peace treaty.
But Catherine would not agree to Tokugawa's requirements of unconditional surrender. "We will bury you!" she swore. And since the mutual protection pact between Japan and Greece had expired, she had little to fear of any renewed Greek involvement.
Tojo would have liked to go on to destroy a few more Russian cities, but he was distracted by the arrival of many more modern armored units in Bremen. Eager to test them out on the battlefield, he directed them to the nearest target, the German city of Nuremburg. The infantry conscripts assigned to defense panicked and fled at first sight of the approaching war machines, which easily crushed any remaining resistance and flattened the city beneath them. Japan did not suffer a single casualty in the battle.
So Hideyoshi was right after all, thought Tojo. These modern armored units are truly formidable in combat. Some more tanks were ugpraded at the barracks in Bremen, and soon the combined forces were ready for the next battle, the Second Battle of Berlin. Of course, only historians would ever use that name, for it wasn't much of a battle at all. Rather, it was just a continuation of the Razor's bloody rampage.
Berlin, though no longer the capital of Germany but nevertheless the nation's cultural heart, now saw the approach of Japanese troops for the second time in history. And this time, they were not coming in just to plunder and loot the Great Library. Only one thought motivated Tojo, and it was pure destruction.
Unlike Nuremburg, Berlin actually still had citizens remaining in their beloved city, although many had evacuated to safer locations away from the front lines. It made no difference to Tojo, who gave his troops specific orders to slaughter any Germans that might come in their way. Tens of thousands of German citizens died horrible deaths in Berlin, either crushed to a red stain on the ground beneath the modern armor, or buried in the massive unmarked graves from the toppling of the buildings and the three Great Wonders in the city. To the Berliners, the flames that arose around them were little different from those in hell itself.
Tojo had absolutely no respect for his predecessor Yoritomo, and left Berlin as a smoldering ruin without any qualms. Hideyoshi questioned the rationale for razing such an important city, only to find that Tojo had prepared a stinging response. "What good is a library of obsolete knowledge for us?" he retorted. "Or a theater built of such poor qualtiy material that it would have caught fire even if I left it alone?"
Hideyoshi was left speechless by this argument, but the destruction of the Great Wonders had a wholly different meaning for the other side. Otto von Bismarck, though still safe in his capital at Königsberg, might have cared less about the loss of the Great Library, or even Shakespeare's Theater, but he could not bring himself to accept that the war academy of Sun Tzu was no more. Without any way of training experienced military units, Bismarck knew that continuing the war was a lost cause. Still, he chose to follow the example of Russia, and make peace only with Greece, while continuing to put all his efforts to resisting the Japanese.
In the meantime, Japanese researchers had made two new scientific breakthroughs. The first was the development of a material that could conduct electricity with absolutely no resistance or power loss, making it the perfect choice for constructing the fuel cells on the J.S.S. Kaguya.
And the second one was an optical device that emitted a stimulated, high-intensity beam of radiation, far more focused than ordinary lighting. While there was no doubt that it had tremendous potential for military applications, the visible light variety of the device, known as the laser, proved to be immensely popular in the entertainment industry.
A glamorous concert was held in the city of Fukuoka as the first demonstration of laser technology, with millions showing up to admire the flashes and beams of light. Or perhaps they came to gape at their idol, the pop star Ayumi Hamasaki, who sang to celebrate the discovery of the very last technology needed for Project Kaguya. Shogun Tokugawa was pleased beyond all expectations. It would not be long before the Japanese would finally be able to leave this ravaged world behind.
Ariake no / Tsurenaku mieshi / Wakare yori / Akatsuki bakari / Uki mono wa nashi
Like the morning moon / Cold, unpitying was my love / And since we parted / I dislike nothing so much / As the breaking light of day.
Mibu no Tadamine (A.D. 860-920)
In the end, Minamoto no Yoritomo did resign in disgust over Tojo's inhumane practices. He had never before seen such brutality in his many years of military service, and there was no way he could reconcile the actions of the Razor with his bushido principles. Kami will punish Tojo for sure, he muttered to himself. Evildoers like him shall meet their ultimate demise, regardless of whether they are Japanese or not.
Hideki Tojo, on the other hand, was quite eager to assume command of Yoritomo's forces in Germany. Shogun Tokugawa did not even need to give him special instructions, as within days he had arrived in Bremen to inspect the military conditions. There were plenty of tanks and mechanized infantry deployed in the region by this time. All that was missing was a leader to give the orders for a new offensive. Many of the troops had grown quite restless during the period of Yoritomo's inaction following the destruction of Dortmund, and were itching for another battle.
However, Tojo had to cancel his invasion plans at the very last minute because of an unexpected new scientific discovery back in the research labs of Japan. A chemical engineer working on Project Kaguya had synthesized a new material that, upon inspection, proved to be several times stronger and more durable than steel. The report emphasized the usefulness of these new synthetic fibers in spacecraft components such as the exterior casing, but when Toyotomi Hideyoshi read it, he realized that these materials could also be used as protective plating on military vehicles.
On Hideyoshi's orders, other engineers developed new armored combat vehicles that took full advantage of these synthetic fibers to pack. Powered by nuclear reactors and enhanced with onboard computers, these new machines packed significantly more power into both attack and defense and were far more maneuverable than ordinary tanks. The engineers called them "Generation Unsubdued Nuclear Drive Assault Modules," or GUNDAMs for short, but among the first military test pilots the names "mobile suits" and "modern armor" were far more popular.
"I recommend that you wait a little longer before your next attack," Hideyoshi told Tojo. "You certainly want the utmost safety of your troops, am I not correct? Give us some more time to mass produce these materials, and I guarantee that you will not regret it."
Tojo grudgingly agreed, although ultimately he could not contain his thirst for blood. Before the new units with the upgraded plating could arrive at the front lines, he had launched another assault, taking down the Russian city of Tblisi with his tanks. Fortunately for the citizens, they did not get to witness the awesome destructive power of the modern armor before they were handed their swift and painless deaths by the Razor.
With the loss of Tblisi, the Czarina decided that she had enough suffering in this war. She called up Alexander the Great and gave him a formal apology for all the damage that Russia had done to the Greeks, and offered her assistance in helping them rebuild their ravaged nation. Alexander also saw there was nothing more to gain from the fighting, and agreed to sign a peace treaty.
But Catherine would not agree to Tokugawa's requirements of unconditional surrender. "We will bury you!" she swore. And since the mutual protection pact between Japan and Greece had expired, she had little to fear of any renewed Greek involvement.
Tojo would have liked to go on to destroy a few more Russian cities, but he was distracted by the arrival of many more modern armored units in Bremen. Eager to test them out on the battlefield, he directed them to the nearest target, the German city of Nuremburg. The infantry conscripts assigned to defense panicked and fled at first sight of the approaching war machines, which easily crushed any remaining resistance and flattened the city beneath them. Japan did not suffer a single casualty in the battle.
So Hideyoshi was right after all, thought Tojo. These modern armored units are truly formidable in combat. Some more tanks were ugpraded at the barracks in Bremen, and soon the combined forces were ready for the next battle, the Second Battle of Berlin. Of course, only historians would ever use that name, for it wasn't much of a battle at all. Rather, it was just a continuation of the Razor's bloody rampage.
Berlin, though no longer the capital of Germany but nevertheless the nation's cultural heart, now saw the approach of Japanese troops for the second time in history. And this time, they were not coming in just to plunder and loot the Great Library. Only one thought motivated Tojo, and it was pure destruction.
Unlike Nuremburg, Berlin actually still had citizens remaining in their beloved city, although many had evacuated to safer locations away from the front lines. It made no difference to Tojo, who gave his troops specific orders to slaughter any Germans that might come in their way. Tens of thousands of German citizens died horrible deaths in Berlin, either crushed to a red stain on the ground beneath the modern armor, or buried in the massive unmarked graves from the toppling of the buildings and the three Great Wonders in the city. To the Berliners, the flames that arose around them were little different from those in hell itself.
Tojo had absolutely no respect for his predecessor Yoritomo, and left Berlin as a smoldering ruin without any qualms. Hideyoshi questioned the rationale for razing such an important city, only to find that Tojo had prepared a stinging response. "What good is a library of obsolete knowledge for us?" he retorted. "Or a theater built of such poor qualtiy material that it would have caught fire even if I left it alone?"
Hideyoshi was left speechless by this argument, but the destruction of the Great Wonders had a wholly different meaning for the other side. Otto von Bismarck, though still safe in his capital at Königsberg, might have cared less about the loss of the Great Library, or even Shakespeare's Theater, but he could not bring himself to accept that the war academy of Sun Tzu was no more. Without any way of training experienced military units, Bismarck knew that continuing the war was a lost cause. Still, he chose to follow the example of Russia, and make peace only with Greece, while continuing to put all his efforts to resisting the Japanese.
In the meantime, Japanese researchers had made two new scientific breakthroughs. The first was the development of a material that could conduct electricity with absolutely no resistance or power loss, making it the perfect choice for constructing the fuel cells on the J.S.S. Kaguya.
And the second one was an optical device that emitted a stimulated, high-intensity beam of radiation, far more focused than ordinary lighting. While there was no doubt that it had tremendous potential for military applications, the visible light variety of the device, known as the laser, proved to be immensely popular in the entertainment industry.
A glamorous concert was held in the city of Fukuoka as the first demonstration of laser technology, with millions showing up to admire the flashes and beams of light. Or perhaps they came to gape at their idol, the pop star Ayumi Hamasaki, who sang to celebrate the discovery of the very last technology needed for Project Kaguya. Shogun Tokugawa was pleased beyond all expectations. It would not be long before the Japanese would finally be able to leave this ravaged world behind.
... to be continued
Very good! 
!
