Gra Gryning

[Cherico]

Officer Kim


The reward for doing a good job in police work is another job.

It didn't matter that I had just watched my partner get burned alive, that his screams were still fresh in my mind. It didn't matter that his body wasn't even cold yet, or cremated. No, a series of awful murders had been solved, the murderer was a socially acceptable foreigner which meant that it wasn't Japan's fault and thus, one week ago, I was given the task of solving the golem heist mystery.

"Give me a list of LT's....on the base."

The depressing thing about the case was how easy it was to solve.

The Golem had been held in a large barn, guarded by a collection of servicemen. There were no signs of struggle, no blood, the lock was intact and didn't show any signs of either being picked or use of a bump key. Three Lt's had been charged with making sure the golem was not stolen and all of them vanished during the night of the theft.

I stared at the phone as it rang, I left the warmth of Swan's embrace and picked it up.

"Officer Kim."

The general had yelled at me when I told him the LT's had stolen the golem, shouting that no one would be that stupid.

"Yes?"

"We need to talk...in person, your superior will be there."

I sighed, and looked at Swan. She looked at me smugly.

"Let me guess they were that stupid?"

I sighed.

"Probably."

She kissed me on the neck and I got dressed, I drove towards the base in my vehicle. I flashed my badge and joined my superior in the general's office.

"Hello sir."

The general looked at me with a look of disgust and rage that wasn't directed at me.

"I'm going to kill them, all three of them. Slowly. First I'm going to promote them, then I'm going to kill them real slow."

"I was right?"

The general brought out a bottle of sake. He opened it, brought out a cup, stared at the cup and threw it behind him. He proceeded to chug the bottle.

"I should have known. Of course they were that stupid, all three of them were first leutenants, the stupidest pieces of shit on the earth. Budda save me from these idiots."

He took a deep breath.

"I just got the news that the golem arrived in japan.."

"You're angry?"

The General took another swig of sake.

"I'm beyond angry, I'm so angry that I have attained an enlightment of rage, but for the sake of my men we are all going to pretend this was all a part of the plan."

Subaru frowned.

"You do realize this will look bad."

The general took another drink.

"I have two choices officer. Look like a brutal thug or look like a fool and I will choose thug any day. The problem is both of you know the truth and, though the thought did cross my mind to kill you,"

I reached for my knife.

"I decided I wanted to save all of my hate and violence for those three idiots, so here's the deal. I know the governor general, Subaru. I'm going to get your protege promoted to chief of police for the entire city."

Subaru studied him.

"I thought you hated Koreans."

"Officer Kim was adopted by a Japanese man, he is now Japanese. And anyways soon I will be in China, far away from the Jayu and all of that nonsense. So the deal?"

We accepted it, the threat of assassination that lied underneath the offer wasn't something either of us could ignore. The two of us walked out of the base and to our cars.

"What now, Kim?"

I thought about it.

"Met a girl during the case, I'm going to propose to her."

My Superior smiled and gave me a hug.

"I will pay for it."

"Sir?"

"No arguing, I will pay for all of it. Budda knows I needed some good news."

I smiled.

"I need a best man sir."

The old man smiled.

"I'm there."

 

[Cherico]

Officer Kim


"So you asked Swan to marry you?"

I nodded and watched the sunset.

"Yeah."

"What did she say?"

I took a breath.

"Yes."

Seagull sat next to me drinking his coffee.

"You understand that marriage is a big deal to our people right? It's not just a set of words to us. The magic that runs through our veins, that gives us power? It binds us to our contracts, to our agreements, to our societies. Marriage holds so much power, religious, social and other, that breaking one can hurt us...in some cases it can kill us."

"I know."

I stared out into the distance.

"You know she's a witch right?"

I laughed.

"Yeah, but there isn't anyone else I'd rather be with."

I felt smaller then, somehow, but happier too, satisfied, complete.

"What made you fall in love with her?"

I closed my eyes and smiled.

"She took me to the mountains once, to talk about things, and she was making a sword, a."

"Bonguk Geom sword I've seen her use it."

"Yeah, I just watched her make that sword and that's when it happened that's when I fell in love."

Seagull shrugged.

"I've heard worse reasons to fall in love."

He got up and cracked his back.

"So when's the wedding?"

"Next month, going to keep it small, make it an outdoors event."

Seagull nodded.

"Good, that's great timing. I'm going to invite some people in your wedding, important people."

"How important?"

"Very, and they're willing to turn coat but they want some security in exchange. A chief of police in our pocket? That's very comforting."

I frowned.

"You're all heart."

"I know. but I will provide the venue in exchange, a hotel that works with us, they will offer your Japanese mentor a deal."

"Thanks."

I looked at the setting sun.

"Syngman Rhee."

I blinked.

"What?"

"That's my real name, Syngman Rhee. we have known each other long enough for me to give you that much information."

He put his hand on my shoulder.

"You have my blessing."

And with that he jumped into the air and flew away. Swan opened the door and smiled.

"So?"

"He gave his blessing."

She smiled.

"Well that's good news, now can you come to bed?"

I got up, my life was changing, the world was changing but not all of the changes were bad. You had to take what life threw at you some time

 

[Cherico]

Officer Kim


The Haeunda grand hotel served as the location for my wedding.

On that day Swan officially became Cho Subaru. She was lovely that day, resplendant and glorious. But I couldn't help but sigh when I noticed the small throwing knives hidden in her sleeves.

I decided to let it go, I wasn't that much better after all, and as far as I was concerned pretty much everyone had at least some issues. My superior stood next to me as she went down the aisle.

We said our vows, kissed and enjoyed each other's company then we danced at the reception and carefully drank only enough to be polite. As it got dark Swan looked at me.

"I'm sorry, I have some family to talk to."

Subaru nodded and slapped me on the back, the two of us walked away from the continuing party and into a separate back room. She looked at me.

"Sorry about mixing business with pleasure."

I couldn't help but smirk.

"If you didn't, would we be together?"

She chuckled.

"Good point."

We waited and then a collection of five men walked in.

"We're looking for a drink, something traditional."

"Coffee ok?"

The man in the middle nodded nervously.

"It's a newer tradition but it's still Korean."

They sat down. The door was locked and the man in the middle, the spokesman of the five nodded.

"All right we're ready to come to terms with the Jayu."

"We?"

The man brought out a manilla folder.

"We're not just bringing us in on this defection. We know people, powerful people. That little golem stunt was the last straw, all of us had worked with the regime as best we could. We paid our taxes on time, we did everything they asked and they invaded our homes anyway. They ransacked our properties, they set our businesses on fire."

The man took deep breaths.

"The same businesses that make the warmachines they so desperately love. If we are going to be treated like trash no matter what we do, then maybe it's time to be Korean trash."

Swan nodded.

"So what are you offering the Jayu?"

The men looked at each other.

"Information, a small amount of money, whatever arms we can comfortably let disappear, and safe houses."

She nodded.

"And what do you want in return for that? After all nothing in this world is free."

The man smiled weakly.

"In the event of a regime change we want immunity from prosecution for acts undertaken under Japanese tyranny. We want to keep our businesses and our property and have a say in the future government."

She nodded.

"Done. The Jayu has always prided itself on being an organization that keeps its word and contracts."

The men nodded.

"So assurances."

Swan looked at me.

"My husband here is the future chief of police of Busan."

They looked at me and nodded.

"We assume there will be contracts, magical ones to ensure good behavior?"

Swan nodded.

"Can you really blame us?"

"No...but we agree to that anyway."

She held out her hand and shook his.

"Welcome to the resistance."

Contracts were signed and we went back to our wedding. I danced with my wife, was congratulated by my superior and when the night was over the two of us walked to our hotel room.

There we took the time to watch stars.

"Come on."

Swan grabbed my hand.

"What?"

"There is someone I want you to meet."

She took my hand and took me toward the rooftop.

"Who am I meeting?"

She smiled warmly.

"Someone who taught me a lot."

I followed her with a sense of urgency, when we got to the rooftop we stopped. She looked at her watch and then, in the moonlight, we saw a swirl of leaves. As they dissipated I saw a glowing man dressed in an old outdated outfit.

"I see you got married Cho, good for you."

My eyes widened.

"Kim...this is Ankor Park, Ankor this is my husband kim."

I stood there in shock.

"But, but you're dead."

The man shrugged.

"Compass has a rule. The top student, the valedictorian of a class, is allowed to ask for a single wish. If it is within reason and Merlin can grant it, He will. I asked for immortality."

He smiled and sighed.

"You're immortal?"

"It's immortality of a kind, I bound myself to my school in mind, body and soul. As long as it exists so do I, even if it is in this form."

"So immortality is possible."

The man looked at me with sad eyes.

"It has a price. I am bound to my school for 9 months of the year, unable to leave it. Only during the season of autum can I see the world, and even then I can only exist on the leylines."

He closed his eyes.

"Do you lead the Jayu?"

"I helped form it, but no. I am not the leader, a new generation has taken over that organization. Korea doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the future. These days I just teach new students. Students like swan."

She nodded.

"Thank you teacher."

He smiled.

"I'm glad you're doing well student, and Kim...I wish both of you the best."

He shook our hands and turned his back.

"I'm sorry but I must go. There are so many others to talk to."

With that he vanished, leaving the two of us alone.

"I want children soon."

I nodded.

"Sounds good to me, Cho."

"Any ideas for names?"

I looked at the starry night.

"Yuki....our first will be named Yuki."

 

[Cherico]

Aftermath


Officer Kim Boo-Kyum would go on to clean up Busan's police department. After the second world war he was given the job of creating a new cleaned up police force for the whole of Korea.

Officer Subaru made the decision to protest japan's involvement in china after the rape of nanking. The government punished him by making him spend the rest of his life in prison, he would die in a Tokyo cell of lung cancer.

Fritz Beck and his comrads left for China. After the SS case was made public the diplomat John Rabe decided to offer them a position within the german delegation. Fritz was killed by the Japanese for attempting to smuggle children into Nanking's international zone. His name, along with others, is on the Nanking Memorial for the Justs.

Cho Kim, as the wife of the chief of police, was above suspicion. Cho would lead the city's intelligence network. She would go on to have three children. Unfortunately she would be killed during the communist invasion of Korea, while fighting in the siege of seoul.

Synbman Rhee remains a controversial figure in Korean history to this day. His decision to exile all communists in korea after the country was freed is considered as having given Kim ill-sung the motive to turn to his Chinese allies to invade the country. But most people forgave his actions with the reveal of the Busan Notes.

He would go on to win the presidential elections 4 times and is remembered for helping korea industrialize and for his, at times brutal, suppression of left wing political parties that he judged too close to communists.

Kim Ill-sung, after being exiled, turned to the Soviet Union and the Peoples Republic of China. The Soviet Union provided arms, and the PRC men. Those forces would invade Korea in 1950, and the war would last until 1953. The war would devastate the already damaged country and turn most of the population against communism after the communist forces were defeated in 1953.

Kim Ill-sung was captured, tried and executed for treason. Many outside observers called this victor's justice and say that the trial was unfair. These feelings however are mostly held by communist countries. In korea the man is still reviled as a traitor and is loathed by much of the country.
​

 

[Cherico]

Religion and magic

Tomas Soul


Humanity once asked: Are we alone in the universe? Is magic and the paranormal real?

The answer turned out to be yes and now humanity and its religious community had to deal with this reality and fact.

The catholic church dealt with the revelation with caution. Compass academy invited them to inspect the school and learn more about the history of the phenix people. Faced with inconvertible proof that aliens and the supernatural existed the catholic church was faced with a choice of either condemning or condoning magic.

Their study of the phenix showed that they were a fellow monotheistic religion, this made it easier for the church to handle. The decision was made to coopt magic into catholic dogma. The phenix were to become a failed experiment, a proof about the limitations of reason when trying to understand god's message.

It helped, of course, that the phenix religion was widely considered to be incredibly boring by the vast majority of humanity.

The protestant churches took various positions, with some considering it a tool, others considering it an act of divine favor and a few decrying it as a tool of the devil. As magic became more established the later voices proved to be a rarer view point.

Amongst the Jews the feeling about compass was decidedly mixed until the creation of the state of Israel. With a new country and homeland most jews decided to make peace with magic and the existence of aliens, for practical reasons if nothing else.

In the middle east the existence of magic and aliens and the sheer vastness of the universe tore islam apart. The Ottoman empire was hit hardest and the country entered a period of religious fundamentalism, literal witch hunting and brutal warfare that ended with its self destruction. The Persian empire turned to a more gentle isolationism that ended with the soviet invasion and the installation of a puppet state.

Shia and Sunni islam both declared magic to be a tool of the devil and banned its use upon pain of death. Sufi islam however claimed that it was a useful tool for humanity and that all things came from god. Sufi adherents were forced to flee from the middle east to dutch held Indonesia. There they would start a period of mass conversion of Indonesian muslims that ended with them being the most dominant sect of islam by the time of the rapture.

Eastern religions dealt with the issue with the least amount of stress, the hindu faith simply declared the phenix people to be a step below the gods, shrugged and began using magic. Buddists claimed that magic was a useful tool but was not a path to true enlightment. Some thing that compass academy agreed with them on. That said the buddist community was fine with its usage.

The Sikh religion bestowed the title of nonreligious guru onto Merlin after the gifting of an entire planet to their faith. Even before this, the Sikh religion was fine with magic as a practice and took the existence of aliens in stride. As per the compact, the teaching and defence of compass is considered payment for gifting the Sikhs a planet. Many consider being chosen to teach at the academy to be an honor.

In newer religions, the Mormon faith considers the phenix's religious texts to be the lost first book of the bible. Considering that the portions of these texts that are not pure mathematics take up half a page this wasn't that big of an alteration. This left the Mormon faith with a deep respect for mathematics and magic as an art.

Over all, after 200 years and the end of the world the world's religious communities have adapted to magic and its existence. Some consider it an evil practice, some love it. But most religions have become indifferent, considering it just another tool.

Something the founder of compass considers an ideal outcome.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain 1941

Darwin Australia


I glared daggers at the man in front of me.

"This is bloddy highway Robbery, you."

The man raised his hand.

"Think very carefully before you finish that sentence Mr. Mc Clain, because I charge a 10% bigot tax on all my goods."

I paused, staring at the Aborigine's truck.

"You're still a cunt."

The man yawned.

"Your point being?"

"I could go to the mandies and get goods for half the price."

The man shrugs.

"You could. But then you would have to spend money on gas, then you would have to find the mandy who is actually making what you need to sell on the open market and, after all that, you have to talk to the mandies. And, Mr. Mc clain, you white folk hate the mandies and the mandies hate you right back. So what would actually happen is you would either not get anything or the mandy would purposely sell you bodgy goods out of spite."

He paused.

"and you know it. Now, as much as that idea makes me crack a fat, we're all better off if my people do all the talking. You get your magical goods, they get their mundane goods and we get a cut for making sure everything's ace."

"You don't know that, I could argue myself a mate's rate."

"You have a buckly's chance of making that happen and we both know it. We also both know that you're going to take what I brought you and sell it to someone for twice as much. Maybe it will be the british, maybe the Indians, maybe the Africans, maybe the Asians but you're making that money back. So what you are going to do is hand over the quid and everything's going to be fair dinkum."

I glared at him.

"It's still a right rip off, how do you sleep at night?"

"In a worn down truck, with your money."

I blinked and stared at him, and then laughed.

"All right..."

I handed over the money and waved for my boys to take the magical goods.

"Still don't know how your folk got a monopoly on the trade."

The aborigine man sighed.

"What else were we supposed to do? We lost all of our land when you lot came here, and our old way of life just wasn't going to work out. Then we noticed that the mandies made goods you lot wanted and you had goods the mandies wanted and neither of you wanted to talk to each other. And some times I'm damned thankful for that. I would hate to live in some god forsaken reservation and drink my life away like in Canada."

I shook my head.

"Don't compare us to the bloody canadeans. We may not have always gotten on but we never passed anything like the bloody Half Caste Act, we're not fucking savages."

The man blinked.

"That's still on the books?"

I sighed.

"Yes, they still take children away from their parents and raise them to be domestic servants."

The man nodded.

"I heard about their welfare laws, ain't any thing bloody fair about it."

I squashed down my rage.

"What kind of country makes illegal for a grown man to go into a pub."

"Gets worse then that, they made it illegal for half castes to get married or visit their relatives."

My jaw dropped.

"Fucking savages, swear it's the bloody cold. Freezes your damned heart."

My boys nodded at me, the goods were all in the shop.

"You want to come in for a brew? Sure it's fosters and it tastes like piss but it's on me."

"Nah, got to keep my head clear for the road, see you next week Brian."

"See you next week Daku."

We shook hands and I waved him off, it was a point of tradition to be a bit rough when you were in a barter but Daku was an old friend and we both knew the game and the score.

"Well I don't know about you lot, but there's quid to be made, so lets get on it!"

My boy's cheered and I smiled, there were phone calls to be made, letters to write and money to be made and knock on wood but I don't think anything is going to ruin my year.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


I turned on the TV and put in one of the tapes I saw a fuzzy image Night line


"Tonight we have a discussion between two feminists about the freedom of conscience clause of the constitution. Gloria Steinem and Camille Paglia.

GS- The conscience clause is a direct attack on women.

CP- Can you please explain why? Because it sounds pretty fair, it gives individuals the ability to escape the draft.

GS- Yes, at the cost of being unable to ever vote again, at the cost of never being able to hold public office, at the cost of never being allowed to benefit from government programs, at the cost of never being allowed to have a government job.

CP- Excuse me while I say this with all due respect but cry me a river. The draft board warns you of the consequences, of what will happen, if you decide to sign up for a FC clause. You even have a year and a day to take back your decision. It's a very involved process.

GS- An involved process that saw at least half the women of our generation lose the right to vote.

CP- and 10% of the men. You forgot 10% of the men who also signed a FC clause.

GS- The social pressures on women are much stronger and we were fighting an unjust war.

CP- Excuse me?

GS- We never should have gone into india and.

CP- No....you are not doing this. The Chinese invaded India, they commited numerous atrocities.

GS- Name one

CP- the destruction of the sikh's golden temple, the verka massacres, just for a start. Our defense of india during the Sino-indian war was a just conflict.

GS- It was not a conflict American girls should have been sent to die in.

CP- but it's perfectly fine to send American boys to die in our wars? The price of womens suffrage was that they could and would be drafted in times of conflict. The right to vote isn't free. When the nation needs you, you have to step up to the plate. If you decide not to do that then you do not get a say in how the country is run.

GS- The war wouldn't have happened if we had stayed out of korea and out of Chinese affairs.

CP - Are you honestly defending the people who ended the world? The people who are directly responsible for the murder of over a billion people?

GS- The communists were responding to American aggression.

CP- So we're just supposed to let the communists invade any country they wanted? You saw what they did in Cambodia. We have the records of the gulags, we're talking about a monstrous ideology.

GS- I'm not defending them but maybe if we talked?"

CP-Reagan did talk. We had a nuclear disarmament deal in the works and then they BLEW UP THE WORLD!

Reporter- Can we please return to the subject at hand.

GS- yes. Well it's obvious that the FC clause is sexist and discriminates against women and.

CP- I served.

GS- what?

CP- I spent three years going up and down the Ganges with my brothers in arms. I have a purple heart that I received when a Chinese sniper got me in the shoulder. While you were hiding back home writing about how unfair the world is, I was fighting for my country.

GS-People shouldn't be penalized for life for a decision.

CP- Stop your whining. You don't want equality, you want special privileges. You want to have your cake and eat it too. Our mothers fought alongside our fathers during world war 2, our grandmothers fought right by our grandfathers' side. When a woman signs an FC clause she is breaking a chain of duty that goes back to Glenda Goodwitch."

(channel flip.)

"What you watching?"

"The ship came with a bunch of tapes this one is."

I sighed as a song came on.

"Now who's the boss."

Suzy sat next to me.

"I always liked that show."

I turned towards her.

"Why?"

"Because Angela Bower spoke to me."

"The advertising executive speaks to you?"

"Judith Light was in the marine core during the reconquest of Bihar, she fought hard to get that into her character's story."

We watched the credits turn on and.

"This is the episod about Angela's PTSD."

We watched.

"Mom...Is it some thing I did? I keep trying to make things better but it never seems to help."

"John...stop blaming yourself, this is just some thing your mommy has to deal with on her own."

"But I want to help."

"John, this isn't some hing where you can help."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to talk about this."

"Is it about the war mom? You never talk about the war."

"John, let this go."

"Mom."

The actress closed her eyes.

"War...war isn't fun and games, it's a very bad thing to go through."

"But the commies were the bad guys."

"I know that, but killing someone... It changes things John. I left pieces of myself in India, a lot of veterans did."

"Maybe you need help."

She looked at her son.

"Your mommy is fine, I do not need help."

It cut to commercial break.

"Knew a bunch of people with the same issue."

Suzy nodded at my statement.

"I know. When world war 1 happened they said it would never happen again, then after world war 2 they said we would never go to war because of nukes. I somehow doubt that there will not be another war."

I didn't have a comment for Suzy. When your homeworld is covered by nuclear winter, it's hard to feel hope in humanity.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clane

If you're reading this then you're reading my musings, or what's left of 'em as my daft wife ended up throwing away half me memories which of course makes me bloody angry. So this is pretty much what's left of my gift to the bloody future.

If you have a problem with cursing then grow a bloody pair and deal with it. If you can stand it then maybe I have a chance of either making a proper aussy out of you or help you understand where we are coming from.

So what happens when an empire finds a mostly uninhabited continent?

Some people would say settle it, some people would say exploit it, the brits looked at this virgin landmass full of natural wonder and said:

"Well blimy look at all this land, let's put all of the people I don't like here."

So of course they decided to put their criminals here. At first it was the worst of the worst then it got expanded and expanded and then It got to the point where stealing a loaf of bread would get you sent here. Why? Because the limies are pricks.

So during this process the yanks make a deal with a giant fucking magical bird and the brits lose 13 colonies who then become a world power. The giant bird creates a fucking school of magic because, why not?

I mean once you have magic using aliens with magic space trees why not open up a school of magic? So the brits look at this school and decide, I'm going to fuck with this lot, never mind the giant bird pushed my shit in, I'm going to fuck with him and put a bunch of our poor people in his school, you know, really fuck it up.

It doesn't work, it continues to not work and then one day, after decades of fucking with the yanks, they snap. There's a war and the fucking English ask all of the children they tossed away like garbage to help out the old motherland.

So naturally they slaughtered them like fucking animals. So after this the limeys think: "Hey what if, instead of leaving them be, we have these urchins fight our wars for us? You know, use them as enforcers for our empire and then toss them away like rubbish after we're finished with them.

So then they fuck up bad and they lose Ireland. By this point most countries would have figured out "you know bloody wot, maybe I shouldn't treat the person who can throw litteral fireballs at me like dogshit.". Not the limeys, they update their policy, now they're going to take those urchins, force em to serve 20 years in the military then after that they get a land grant in the middle of fucking nowhere with a bunch of convicts. Pension? That's too fucking expensive, you get a land grant and up a pinky promise that you won't have to pay property taxes.

So now you have an entire continent filled with ex cons who are angry at you and the same entire continent also filled with military veterans with 20 years experience with magic powers who are angry at you and the whole thing is a tinder box waiting to go off.

So naturally the Limeys think: "Lets put all of our incompetent and corrupt fuckups there". This is the point where queen Vicky got off of her throne and slapped the prime minister outside the bloody head. After losing America, after losing Ireland, Vicky looked at this plan and instantly realized that this whole thing was going to go tits up.

And Vicky? She was fresh out of patience and mercy, and so the continent was cut up into 7 provinces. And, knowing that the parliament would cock things up, she created the 007 project. A seven is given a literal licence to kill any government official in Australia who they deem enough of a fuck up.

Each province gets three agents. They are elected for a period of 5 years by the people and their job is to punish any government official who threatens to light this tinder box through corruption, incompetence, just being a right asshole or any combination of the three.

This project...worked. Me grandad voted for Ned Kelly for the North territory office three times, best 007 agent we ever had. Pity he died before I could vote for him.

So, my thoughts on Daku's comment.

Man was, like it or not, bloody smart. You see, pretty much all of the mandies live in the outback which is the desolate nightmare world I personally do not want to live in. But it's also apparently one of the most magic rich places on earth. The mandies call it "the Tangle", a giant mess of small leylines of magical power that are just scattered all over the place.

So most any mandy lives in the outback, we normal folk or normies live outside the outback and the two of us can't stand each other. We normies like to cut down any tall poppies, keep people humble. The mandies are a prideful lot who are just filled with resentment because they think they got a bad shake. And honestly they did.

You got a lot of people who are in desperate straits and go bushman and decide to rob the mandy's or pull a con. You got the mandy who thinks we're all criminals and wil tell us to shove off and won't lift a bloody finger to help us. Oh they will help their own kind but the normies can go die in a fire.

It's like we can't help but get each other's goat. So Daku's folk, the aborigines, see this mess. They don't have a bloody coin to their name but they realize we normies need magic to survive and the Mandies need our stuff to survive and some one has to do the bloody talking. So they do it, and then someone like me sells the curios onwards. Before the war my biggest customers were the Indians. These days I sell most of me goods to the motherland.

Now do I resent the motherland? Why yes I do, but jolly old England is like a drunken alcoholic mother who beats her children. Sure you dislike her, sure there are days when you want to pretend you're not related but at the end of the day she's still your mum and you support her through the dark times.

Even if she is a bit of a bloody bitch.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I stared at the sheila that was eyeing my goods, the girl was a fat Bogon from the bush but not a mandy. I grimaced as I tried to ignore the sweat that collected between her second and third chin because one chin wasn't bloody enough for her. Greedy little Sheila.

"I need some burner, me old bathers don't fit."

The first step to solving a bloody problem? Admitting you had one. Of course the idea of this Sheila in bathers made me want to vomit but I was a bloody professional and managed to hold back me disgust.

"Good, we have nine kinds of burner to help a person deal with the fat. 1-3 can be sold all over the counter like and."

"Burner x."

I stared at her.

"No."

The Sheila put her hands on her hips.

"Excuse me?"

"Burner X is bloody illegal for a reason."

"But My bathers."

"Burner 1 doubles your metabolism, 2 triples it, 3 quadruples it you can buy all of that over the counter."

I paused.

"It keeps going up like that. Burner 4 to 7 you need a prescription from a doctor. Burner 8 to 9 you have to wear a cooling gem at all times and you need a prescription and the whole bloody thing needs to be overseen by a doc or you can literally kill yourself. Burner X.... That stuff will kill you mate, I don't sell that shit at my store."

"Come on, you're the bloody magic man you have to sell it."

"I don't have to sell a bloody thing."

"Well then just get me in touch with someone who will sell burner X to me."

"You think I'm a bloody Gahal? Some Sheila dies from burner X and people will be looking my way. So not I'm not selling you fucking poison."

"But me Bathers?"

"Do you have a prescription?"

The woman frowned.

"I can get you some Burner 3, you drink plenty of water, exercise and you can burn away the fat 4 times faster, It will take more time but you're not going to die. If you absolutely have to get into that bather soon then I can talk to abby who will get you in touch with a mandy."

She shivered.

"I don't want to deal with the Mandies, them folk aren't natural."

"Well neither is burner bloody X!"

The woman stormed off in a huff, probally because it was the first excersize the bint had had in her fucking life, and I took out me phone and dialed it.

"Police."

"Yeah this is Brian's Magic shop, da one on Peel."

"In the magic district?"

"Same bloody one, had a Sheila come in trying to buy burner X."

The man coughed.

"That shit will kill you! So, a description? color of her hair, skin and."

"She was white, not an abby alive's stupid enough to mess with burner X, had mousy brown hair, brown eyes and dear god was this woman a tub of fooking lard."

"How bad."

"Two chins wasn't enough for the bint, had to go for the bloody trifecta."

The man sighed.

"Yeah, I think I know who you're talking about. We will send in an officer to talk some sense into her. Don't know why some people have to play stupid games when bloody burner 2 is enough for most people."

I shrugged.

"No one wants to do the hard Yakka needed to lose weight these days."

"Deadset right on that one, so how's the boy doing?"

I sighed, me boy was a disappointment in so many bloody ways.

"Still has his head in the books instead of going out and playing rugby or getting in fights like his old man."

"You know as a copper I don't have a problem with the later."

I shrugged.

"The occasional fight's good for ya, teaches your limits."

"I'm just saying maybe it ain't bad if your boy is a Dag, book learning's a useful thing."

"I know, it's just bloody frustrating. Well, keep eyes out for the Sheila so that she doesn't bloody kill herself."

"we will."

I hung up.

"Too many bloody Dragos in this world."

 

[Cherico]

Japan, a prelude to destruction

Nemu Frost


Japan's actions during world war two often seem brutal, psychotic, mad and at times just plain stupid. It is only when one looks at Japan's conditions before the second world war that those actions taken during the second world war make sense.

Japan, unlike most Asian countries, managed to successfully industrialize. They managed to capture and control korea, a goal that had been denied to past Japanese regimes, more or less without a fight. During World War One they managed to capture several islands and concessions that had previously been owned by Germany. During the post war negotiations they were able to successfully convince the western powers of America and Great Britain to declare them a racial equal.

In the interwar period they went from success to success, even the battle of Kacongol ended with japan being given generous terms and tribute from the soviet union. They had successfully punched above their weight for so long that victory disease was perhaps inevitable. During the great depression the military took over the country, with junior officers often dictating the course of the country on the ground.

Japan's opinion of itself grew and an entire generation was raised on a bushido cult. The leaders of the country grew to believe their own propaganda but there were consequences for their actions. The rape of Nanking proved to be a tipping point for the public opinion in both America and the british empire.

The decision was made to stop selling oil and material to Japan until the nation withdrew from china. The Monroe pact likewise followed American example and the Japanese warmachine simply could not prosecute the war without those materials. The Japanese navy, which had been denied glory, pulled out a plan.

An all out surprise attack on the western powers, a campaign of shock and awe that would bring a decisive battle. However they also needed to break the west's will to fight and Prince Yasukiko Asaka, fresh from his victory in Nanking, offered a plan.

The prince believed that westerners were weak mentally and could not take the horrors of war. If the Japanese were fast and brutal enough then the western powers would concede anything out of fear. This convinced many and he and his men were pulled out of China. As a reward for his victory in china Prince yasuhiko would be given the task of conquering Australia and making the land a Japanese continent.

The Japanese victories in China and Russia had convinced them they could win big again. What they didn't take into account was that the Soviet Union's magical resources were limited and that the Chinese tactics of the time were to use magi purely as a support force for conventional fighting.

The Japanese tactics of using machinery and magic as one had pulled one upset after another and, because they used the qulipothic arts, new magi could be trained quickly. They dismissed the power of seasonal magic as they had fought against such in korea and the Jayu, despite all of their efforts, were mostly limited to holding the mountains. Hiding in them according to Japanese propaganda.

The Prince's plan was simple. Take the port city of Darwin, break Australian moral by creating an Australian Nanking and then, when he was finished, take some light infantry and light armored vehicles to take the city of Canberra. Once the capital fell the continent would forever belong to the Japanese.

There was just one slight problem with this. The Australian outback was one of the most magically rich locations on earth. It contained the Tangle a massive collection of ley lines and nexus that seemed to fill the outback. The Jayu were seasonal magi, yes. But they had never numbered more then a hundred thousand during the entire Korean occupation. Meanwhile Australia had been the dumping ground for the british empire's magi for close to a hundred years at this point.

The magi often had large families and they passed the mystic arts down to future generations religiously. At the time of the invasion, Australia had a population of ten million people. Of these ten million people, a quarter were magi. These magi were both skilled and called the Outback home.

For the Japanese to conquer Australia they would have to go through the Outback and two and a half million mandy's were waiting for them.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


The copper arrived at me shop mid afternoon I looked up.

"You here about the sheila?"

"We had a talk with her, the bint's from London and doesn't know any better. A talk with the doc made every thing apples."

I nodded.

"So why are you here?"

He passed me a note and I read it.

"warrant?"

"I need some truth juice."

I narrowed my eyes.

"This better not involve the union dispute."

The Copper sighed.

"It does unfortunately."

"And the judge allowed it?"

"And the Seven."

I stared at him.

"The seven? We got a bloody seven here? Crikey who the bloody hell caused that to happen?"

The cop put up his hand.

"Nah it's apples mate. The man's just here to make sure that no one does anything stupid during the negotiations. The juice is just going to make sure both sides are on the up and up."

"Dead right?"

"My bloody oath. And anyways the whole thing has been a piece of piss, they should have the negotiations finished this afternoon."

"Good 'nuff then. Hate to have a strike get in the way of business. Still the last time you got a warrant for juice was."

"Ito, I was there for that mess. You and I both know that if we didn't use the juice an innocent man would have gone to jail."

I nodded.

"And, in the end, the man they said he killed ended up showing up a week later. Poor Sod just got lost in the bush."

"I met the bint the poor sod was married to. If I was in his shoes I'd get lost in the bush too."

We laughed and I nodded.

"So anything else?"

"Yeah the mandy's are coming in to protest the anzak's day march."

I sighed.

"The mayor still isn't letting them march with the other veterans."

The copper sighed.

"Yes, bad business that. Goes against my sensibilities, just like the sunset law.

I frowned, my eyes narrowed.

"You mean how Mandy's aren't allowed in town after dark."

The copper shook his head.

"The Mayor can insist on that all he wants, far as I'm concerned he can rack off."

I went to the counter and unlocked the truth potion, one of the more minor ones.

"Anything else?"

"Some ciggys. it's going to be a long day."

"Normie or alchemicals?"

"Alchemicals."

I placed the vial of truth juice on table and looked around.

"Got some alchemicals from the yanks, genuine Eagle's flight."

The copper smiled.

"Fair Dikum?"

"Fair Dikum mate."

I put a pack of cigarettes on the table and the copper paid me my quid. He looked at the box and smiled.

"It's from Kentucky, every one knows the best alchemicals are from there."

He smiled as he read the package.

"3 hours? Each ciggy lets you fly for 3 hours? Local stuff lets you fly for half an hour tops."

I shrugged.

"I don't know how they do it mate. So you going to keep that in reserve, or?"

"Hell no! I got to share this with me mates, pleasure doing business with ya."

I waved good bye at the copper and looked at my son Billy. he was carefully organizing the potions we got from the Abby's.

"Go on."

he blinked.

"Da?"

"Git, you need a walkabout. You spend too much time inside and in those books. Now git."

My son cleaned his glasses.

"Are you sure Da? I'm not finished and."

"Bah, you're only young once. Go out and git. And maybe find yourself a nice Sheila while you're out there."

I closed my eyes.

"Stop."

My son stopped and I signed at his tweed jacket.

"Some quid to spend...just don't waste it all on books, this time."

"Thanks da."

As he left I shook me head.

"God help me."

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


The rest of the day proved to be quiet. I had some customers come in and buy things and most of the curios were shipped off to the motherland, to fight the Jerries again. I sat down to our table and smiled.

"What you making Mitzy?"

"Fish n Chips, and coffee with some Milo in it and for dessert some fairy bread."

"You spoil me."

She kissed me on the head.

"What can I say, I'm feeling a bit Clucky these days."

"Suits you."

Billy walked into the kitchen.

"I got a meeting with Nick tonight, mind if I skip Tea?"

Mitzy frowned.

"Sure, get some bloody exercise on your walkabout."

"Thank da."

He walked out and Mitzy's left eye twitched.

"Do you have to let our boy run wild?"

I shook my head.

"I just want him to get some bloody exercise and get his head out of those books."

"Its saturday night you know? He's not coming back, he will be gone all sunday again."

I shrugged.

"Good. We're closed sunday anyway, some time in the bush will be good for billy, make him a man."

Mitzy laid down the food.

"You know, we have never met Nick."

I shrugged.

"What is there to know? Nick's family farms in the bush, plenty of people do that."

"What if Nick is the wrong sort Brian?"

I rolled my eyes.

"Far as I'm concerned? maybe Billy needs the wrong sort in his life."

Mitzy poked me.

"Stop that! We don't know anything about Nick, I haven't seen hide or hair of this boy."

I sipped me coffee and put in a spoonful of Milo.

"What's there to know? He's billy's mate, the one he met when I sent him on that walkabout."

Mitzy glared at me.

"I'm still furious about that, you sent our only son out into the bush alone when he was bloody 10 years old."

I shrugged.

"I needed to toughen him up, Billy didn't have any mates, he wouldn't play rugby or cricket or anything. All he wanted to do was read books in the bloody library. That ain't a life Mitzy, and it was good for him. After he came back he got better grades, he stopped failing Physical education and he stopped getting sick from every little thing and was able to lift things."

"Way he tells it, he almost died out there."

I waved her off.

"Billy exaggerates, and anyways it's a rite of manhood to go into the bush."

It was an old argument we had off and on for about six years now.

"Billy changed during that trip Brian."

"Yes, he grew up."

"No, there are other changes. He goes off on his own at night to the sea, he gets twitchy around Maggie O'connel."

"Bint's been married 4 times and divorced three that's just bloody common sense."

"Something's not on the up and up Brian.."

I sighed.

"Fine...tell you wot, we will invite Nick over and have him have tea with us, you happy?"

"Heaps."

I nodded and ate my dinner. I didn't know what Mitzy was so upset about. Every boy out there needs at least one mate.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I sighed as my son came in after school, he was wearing that stupid turtle neck and the tweed jacket that almost existed just to bloody irritate me.

"So your mate, Nick."

Brian turned his head.

"Yes?"

"We would like to meet him."

Billy blinked.

"Really? You and mum never wanted to meet Nick before."

I sighed.

"I was afraid I would scare 'em off. You know me billy, I try me best but I can be a bit of a mongrel."

He nodded in understanding.

"Um ok, I will bring Nick over for lunch then."

"Not tea?"

"Tea's too late for Nick, but I will bring Nick over."

I nodded my head and sighed.

"So...the other day I gave you some quid, please tell me you at least talked to a Sheila while you were out."

Billy blinked.

"Yeah I talked to a girl."

I smiled.

"And?"

"We got plans to go see a movie or something."

I wanted to give advice but it was always bloody baby steps with Billy. I gave word to Mitzy and we waited for billy to return home. I felt a sense of discontent as he cleaned his glasses and read another of his economics books.

It would be easier if he read adventure books, I could understand that. But it was always these things that bored a man to tears, and I should know I tried talking to my boy about them. Then I heard the reving of a motorbike and Mitzy grimaced.

"Um."

"That's Nick's bike."

My wife grimaced twice as much.

"I told you he was with the wrong crowd, this nick is a real Hoon."

I rolled my eyes.

"Stop that nonsense Mitzy, lots of blokes use bikes, I used to ride a bike."

"And you were a complete Hoon back then."

I smiled.

"Guilty as charged, Starlight."

I heard a knock on the door and opened it.

"Welcome to."

I blinked, a Sheila stood there chewing some bubble gum.

"I'm here for Billy."

She was dressed in a leather jacket with leather pants. She also wore a white T.

"Hey Nick, ready for the movie?"

"Yeah Billy."

I heard a crash as Mitzy dropped a tea cup.

"Mum, Da, this is Nick."

"Criky."

I looked at me wife and then at Nick.

"They want to have lunch with us after the movie."

Nick shrugged and blew a bubble.

"See ya in the Arvo."

Billy walked next to her and she smacked him on the bum.

"Missed ya heaps billy."

"Missed ya too Nick."

She reved her bike as Billy got behind her and sat down, then the Shela smiled at me and gave me a look that was full of pure bloody defiance. She drove off on her bike as me and my wife were left speechless.

I thought about what just happened.

"Huh....so this is what it feels like to be on the other side of it then."
​

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I calmly cooked some fish on the Barbie while me wife paced back and forth.

"Nick's a Shelia."

I flipped the fish.

"You reckon?"

Mitzi put her hands on her hips.

"Yes, I bloody reckon! Our boy is with some biker Sheila. God in heaven, I won't be able to show me face in church."

I shrugged.

"Doesn't that bloody affect you?"

"Sure it does. If I can't go to church I will have to find another place to take a nap on sunday."

That earned me a punch in the arm but I laughed it off.

"Be serious our boy's with a bloody hoon."

I rolled me eyes .

"Just because a girl rides a bike it doesn't make her bad people Mitzy."

I heard the sound of a doorbell and put the fish on a plate. Nick walked in with Billy, she sat next to him and looked at us with eyes full of defiance. I put the food on everyone's plate.

"So welcome to our home, you want a few coldies?"

Nick frowned.

"Can't drink, I got to ride home."

I looked at Billy.

"Never really cared for the taste."

I sighed. Of course Billy would be like that.

"Fine, tea for both of ya's."

I sat down and took a bite.

"So Nick, that short for some thing?"

"Niko, me ma's from Greece."

I blinked.

"Crikey you deadest?"

She nodded.

"Yes this is true, Dad was stationed in Antolia during the Ottoman advance...for all the good it did them."

I grimaced.

"Yeah, heard it was ugly down there. I was stationed on da western front. I got lucky though, war ended a couple months after I got there."

Nick nodded.

"So what did you da, do there."

"Maintained defensive wards mostly."

"So."

"Yeah, I'm a mandy like me da before me and his da before him. Is that a problem?"

I thought bout it.

"Don't bother me none. Be a bit of a hypocrite if I did, I make my lively hood selling curio's to the motherland. You can't make your bread off a thing and hate it. It's just not done."

She nodded and we ate, mostly in silence, the air thick with bloody tension then, with meal over, she got up.

"Got to go to the Sevo and get some petrol."

"So fast?"

"It's the bloody sunset laws, got to get out of town before they throw me out."

Billy got up with her.

"You want me to come with?"

She kissed him on the cheek.

"I can take care of myself, but thanks."

With that she left. Billy smiled warmly at her as she drove off. Mitzy's eyes were full of terror and she whispered under her breath.

"A mandy, a bloody fucking mandy."

"Don't be like that."

"I will not have a bloody Mandy in my fucking family Brian."

"Excuse me? Look around Mitzy. this house, the food on our plates, it's all here because of the mandy's and youse know it true."

"It doesn't mean I want them in the bloody family tree, ugh I'm leaving."

Mitzy bolted and I sighed. Billy looked at me in concern.

"Is mum?"

"Your mum will come around, give it time."

Billy nodded.

"Good, it's just... Nick's really great and I don't want to lose me only mate."

I smiled.

"I understand, I will also understand if she's more then a mate."

I laughed as me boy's face turned red.

"None of that, alls going to be well. You mum's just worried that people will talk."

"And?"

"And of course people are going to talk. Less then six thousand people here and, let's face it, nothin' ever happens in Darwin."

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I rode over to the Servo to refill me truck. Ito looked up from his desk as I approached him.

"Hey, how you holding up?"

Ito shrugged.

"Doing all right, people here understand that I left Japan for a reason."

I looked at the newspaper next to him and cringed.

"So the whole thing in china."

"Brian, those assholes killed my parents. Japan stopped being my country after that happened."

I looked at the other newspaper, the one that proclaimed his innocence.

"So."

"The bloke who got lost in the bush got me a frothy, these days we're mates."

"Good."

"It was a slow newsday."

I chuckled.

"Every day's a slow news day."

Nothing ever happened in Darwin.

"So I'm told your boy's dating a Mandy."

I blinked.

"How did you know that?"

"Your wife told one person. So, naturally, everyone knows now. Don't worry da city isn't up in arms against you."

"Criky, it was just yesterday when."

"It's Darwin. Nothing happens here, mate. Like I said it's not a scandal, for a scandal to happen the event must be both unexpected and interesting. A boy who works at a magic shop who dates a witch? That doesn't betray peoples expectations. Now if it was a preacher's son it would be a different story."

"I get it."

I put some quid on the table.

"Criky, I get it. so, I need some petrol."

"Oh yes, I will go take care of it."

We went outside and he started refilling my truck.

"So the government killed your parents?"

He nodded.

"Yes, they were part of a fraction that wanted the civilian government to have more control of the military, so the military blew em up. After that I sold everything I owned and got out of there. Now I sell gas."

He shrugged.

"Far as I'm concerned, it balances out. Sure the weather's terrible, I have to deal with the occasional bigot, there are bugs everywhere and the humidity is lethal but at least I don't have to deal with the government back home."

"That bad?"

"Two officers had a contest about how many Chinese they could behead, they lost count and decided to restart the whole thing. It was in the papers from back home."

I frowned.

"So they're in the clink then?"

"Nope, they got medals."

Ito sighed and shook his head.

"Tell you what, you ever see a Japanese navy ship arrive here? Take your family and run. Get out of town, go into the bush."

"You're being dramatic."

Ito looked at my truck with exhausted eyes.

"Really wish I was."

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain



When I woke up something felt wrong. There weren't any birds in the sky nor any clouds but it was too bloody quiet. Everything seemed to be slightly off and me gut told me something was wrong, so I put a closed sign on my shop and started packing up the truck.

"You're being Paranoid Brian."

I shrugged at Mitzy.

"My gut tells me something's off, and I always follow me gut."

Mitzy frowned at me.

"Maybe your gut could shrink a little?"

I smirked at her.

"Hey not me bloody fault you're such a good cook. But seriously there is a feeling in me bones that something's going to go wrong. Maybe it's a storm or maybe it's something else but I think it's best to be packed up."

"And that's where me clothing went?"

"Yes."

"I was worried you had decided to wear me dresses."

I chuckled.

"Cheeky little Sheila."

I finished up.

"Billy still has that mirror?"

"The one he won in a cardgame? it's in his room."

I nodded.

"Good, we're loading it up and putting it on the truck."

I went up into billy's room and saw the enchanted mirror, you didn't see a whole lot of 'em about. The navy would buy 'em all up or the money-people would buy em up. But me boy managed to win one in a card game. Didn't know how he did it until I met his Sheila but it made sense now.

"Come on then."

I touched it and the mirror opened up onto a small room. Inside I saw what looked to be a collection of used books me boy bought over the years.

"Runes 101, compass school of magic?"

I rolled my eyes, my boy was always fascinated with the hows and whys of things. I stocked up the room with water, food and canisters of gas and put it on the truck.

"You know, you have done this before and there wasn't nothing to it Brian."

"Let me have my peace of mind woman."

I continued packing and when I was finished Mitzy shook her head as we had tea.

"You know this has happened before, right?"

I shrugged as I had a frothy.

"I know."

"Every time your gut talks, you lose a day of work and nothing happens."

"There was that storm."

"We live inland, the bloody storm barely hit us. And anyways the weather service works with the yanks to cut up any hurricane or monsoon that gets half way dangerous and."

That's when I heard the explosions. Mitzy looked at me in horror and then grimaced.

"Ma, Da, someone's shelling the city, we need to get out of here."

Mitzy slumped.

"Never going to bloody hear the end of this."

She got up.

"We're all packed Billy, for all the good that will do us. Only thing out there is the bush."

Billy nodded.

"I know. But I know where Nick's place is, it's pretty safe and Nick's family are good folk."

He went outside to the truck and Mitzy sighed.

"Mandy's. We're going to shack up with bloody Mandy's."

I got out of my chair.

"Any port in a storm love."

With that said we got into the truck and drove away. Whatever was attacking Darwin, that wasn't something I wanted to deal with any time soon.
​

 

[Cherico]

Yippi do Kangaroo

Rolf Harris


The Kangaroo is a symbol of Australia as much as the Koala bear and the Emu but many people ask when and why the Australian people domesticated them. Truthfully the taming and domestication of the Kangaroo was not a natural one and it was not done due to a desire to conquer nature but by pure necessity.

When the british empire discharged a magi and gave them their land grant, they just gave them 20 acres of land in the tangle, one for each year of service. But then these magi were not provided with horses or pack mules, they got neither equipment nor seeds. After they were sent to Australia and discharged they were essentially on their own.

This didn't mean that there were no support networks or preparations, Most magi served knowing exactly what was in store for them when the empire didn't need them anymore. They prepared accordingly. You also had groups of magi who banded together and formed fraternities in the military in order to look after each other. Compass also had a known habit of sending supplies and care packages to former students in dire straits. These care packages often meant the difference between life and death for a magi in the bush during the 1800s, but they were limited due to the remoteness of Australia and various other problems.

The biggest thing compass did for their former students came from a willingness to send books. They sent entire libraries to their wayward students. These books contained secrets of magic, engineering, nature, farming and entertainment. For Magi in the bush these books proved to be a much bigger boon then any care package. In these books were the more obscure practical magic that many magi had ignored in their yougth.

But now, in the outback, they rediscovered these spells that would bind a familiar to you, allow you to tame and strengthen a mount, magically bred desired traits into animals. These desperate magi who often didn't have horses, or much in the way of food, looked around and found the ever present red Kangaroo.

At first they were hunted for food and meat but one magi, forgotten by history, got the idea to capture a kangaroo and use their magic to tame it. Runes were then tattooed into the beasts, making them stronger, faster and more loyal. An unenchanted Kangaroo could reach a top speed of 70 Kilometers per hour and an enchanted one could get over 200 Kilometers per hour. Though the normal cruising speed for a unenchanted Roo was around 40 kph, for an enchanted one around 90 Kilometers an hour.

The early magi picked solitary males as their targets but, in time, they realized that they needed to capture females to breed with their steeds. The red ended up being picked to be the work horse and stead of the Magi who lived in the bush.

Due to their attachment to their new animals other Kangaroos were domesticated for meat and leather and, in one or two generations, the idea of eating their red became a bush taboo. Meanwhile eating a grey or Antilopine roo was considered to be perfectly acceptable.

The Magi who settled in Australia often made the best of their pitifully small land grants. Making citadels, castles, pyramids, zigurats and other grand buildings that maximized what land they had.

Green houses were built, primitive hydroponics built by hand and magic allowed them to conserve water and maximize their output. Out in the bush the Magi became the selfstyled lords and knights of the outback.

As their children grew up they would set out and create their own estates using magic. Some Magi decided during the 1870s to bring back the art of jousting. As there was often very little in the way of entertainment in the tangle this sport became a popular one.

Clad in homemade armor and using handmade lances boys would travel on their roos and challenge other boys to a joust. Riders would try to strike each other and unseat each other as their roos jumped around the confined homemade stadiums.

In time other Australians found out about the sport and decided to watch the spectacle. By the time of the first world war rules had been created and it had become a major sport in the outback. These days it's the 6th most popular sport in the country, with the Sydney thunder dome holding the grand melee, the biggest contest in the country every year.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


The sky went dark and we drove for hours, following billy's directions. Eventually I got nervous.

"How far away is this place from Darwin?"

"317 clicks."

I stared at him.

"Think we have enough gas to make it?"

"Don't know Da, I always traveled by carpet."

The truck kept moving along through the night and as the sun rose I grimaced.

"We're here."

I turned my head.

"Billy, there's a bloody mountain in the way."

He waved me off and I sighed, looking at the massive obstacle.

"It's nothing da, just keep going forward."

I drove towards the mountain for a while and then Billy asked to stop and opened the truck's door. He walked out and then pressed his hand against the mountain. I watched as the stone moved away, revealing a road.

"We can drive in."

Billy got back into the truck and we drove in darkness, then I saw light and buildings. I looked up and around.

"Halt."

I stopped the truck and I blinked. A man sat on a kangaroo, he looked almost bored.

"Jeff, it's Me Billy."

The Man yawned.

"Sorry, Bill, didn't know."

"These are my parents."

The man sighed.

"You mean the dipstick who let a bloody ten year old wander the bloody bush alone?"

I puffed up a bit at that.

"Give 'em a fair go, we've have a bad day. Someone decided to shoot up me home town."

The man tilted his head.

"Some Piker loose his mind?"

"Worse, someone was bombarding the city with artillery."

The man shook his head.

"You ain't having fun with me?"

He paused.

"Fair Dinkum."

"Shit."

"We need a place to stay until things are figured out."

The older man got off of the 'Roo and motioned for us to follow.

"Come on then. Follow me."

I walked with him.

"So this is."

"Welcome to Springvale homestead, the Gile's family, um my family built it 1871. It might be the oldest homestead in Katherine."

I stared at him.

"Never heard of it."

"Katherine, city of magic, a town for Magi by Magi..."

I shrugged.

"Bloody Normies. We're the forth biggest city in the bloody province, we have over a thousand people!"

"Not ringing a bell mate."

The man looked at my son and shook his head.

"Come on then. Me da will want to talk about this."

He stopped my son and looked at him.

"You staying the night?"

"Don't know how long we're going to have to stay."

He put some thing in my sons hand.

"Heres a Franger, just in case you decide to get naughty with me sis."

My son turned beet red.

"My intentions are completely honorable Jeff."

The man slapped my son on the back and laughed.

"Maybe so but my sister's intentions aren't, so take it."

My wife frowned as the boy put the thing into his pocket.

"Don't say anything."

"But."

"We're in the Never Never now Mitzy. Different rules so, be nice."

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain



We were led into one of the larger houses. The first thing I noticed was the sound of ticking, lots of ticking. A door was opened and I saw a room filled with clocks. An older man sat at a table, fixing a clock.

"Um."

"Patriot clocks, oldest clock making company in the united states. The clock I'm working on was made in 1885, on their official centennial anniversary."

He paused.

"You must be Billy's father."

I nodded as he continued to work on the clock.

"How are traditions created Mr Mc Clain?"

I shrugged.

"Time. Time is the greatest test, the greatest filter, humanity has. That old song that your grandma sang, that old recipe that's been in your family history for generations? All of those traditions exist because time discards what doesn't work and what does work is taken, codified and gifted to future generations."

He closed the back of the clock.

"How old are the mystic arts Mr. McClain?"

I shrugged.

"Couple centuries, I guess."

"Incorrect, the Phenix people practiced magic for million years. Historically speaking it's older than the human race and that is quite possibly the biggest filter of history the human race has ever experienced."

He continued looking at the clock.

"We're in a bit of a twist."

The man nodded.

"I heard. The Japanese attacked Darwin, the mayor surrendered the city without a fight declared it an open city."

I blinked.

"What."

"It makes sense. The town was undefended, you didn't have any gun emplacements or defenses. The problem is that after that announcement the city went silent."

"And?"

"And that doesn't make sense. I expected propaganda of some kind but complete radio silence? I don't like it."

"So what now?"

"For your part? Your family is welcome to take sanctuary in my family's estate until the crisis is dealt with."

He got up and stretched.

"And you?"

He smiled.

"We're going to have a chat with the Japanese and get this whole mess solved."

I frowned.

"You speak Japanese?

"No, but I can speak violence. I find that pretty much everyone understands that language."

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain



The next couple days were quiet and, as I got to know the mandy's, I came to understand well why we didn't get on with each other.

It came down to the core of who we were as a people. Normie culture was egalitarian, we were all about a fair go but we also hated people who put on airs, loathed them in fact. And, on their side, the Mandy were a proud people.

"Ready your lances."

Bran Giles, the name of the patriarch of the family, held his hand out as two of his sons nodded. Their roos eyed each other and then they charged one another then they jumped, off of the walls, off of the ceiling.

"How?"

"Standard enchantment on the roo's feet allows them to walk on the ceiling. Good form Art."

The roos danced in the air, jumping from location to location, until the lance struck a boy dead in the chest, dismounting him. He landed on the ground and the other rider near him and lifted up his visor."

"Good show Art."

He got off his roo and helped his brother to his feet. After a couple weeks I understood why they were proud. They built this arena, they built the armor they used, the lances they used. They were prideful but it was a pride based on accomplishments, on actions.

Merit was important to them, a motto was hung up.

"Never be less than what you are."

I nodded as I watched the brothers head off.

"So....what does this do?"

Bran looked at me.

"For the war I mean."

The man stared at the arena.

"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."

He paused and I blinked.

"What?"

"Sun Tzu, in compass his works are required reading. Point is we do not know anything about the Japanese military. We don't know what weapons they're using, their force composition, their logistics or how many people they have or if they brought tanks."

I blinked.

"Well if they have tanks."

"If they have tanks we're screwed. The Japanese have thousands of them...we have 14...and all of them are serving overseas."

I blinked.

"What."

"Yes 14 tanks. Japan has the 5th largest tank force in the world."

"Can't we just you know make them?"

"The only company with that capability was the holden Company and they shifted everything over to making artillery for the war effort. Currently we don't even have the ability to make cars, much less tanks."

I grimaced.

"Like I said we don't know anything about the Japanese forces and, worse yet, I don't know anything about our forces."

I motioned for him to explain.

"I have radioed the nearests settlements, who have radioed other settlements. We're very spread out so it's going to take time to mobilize. Right now I have no idea how many men are willing and able to volunteer, what weapons if any they have, what training they have and what we're capable of."

He sighed.

"If we attack the Japanese right now I will be pointlessly throwing our peoples lives away."

"And Darwin?"

"I do not know what is happening to them or their fate. They surrendered, in all likelihood that was the wisest thing for them to do."

I remembered Ito's comments.

"What if they're commiting atrocities."

"If your enemy is of choleric temperament, provoke him."

I blinked.

"If they are doing that, then it's a way to bait us into attacking them."

I felt a sense of anger.

"So you would just let the Japanese kill everyone in town."

"Yes."

I blinked.

"What."

"Darwin has between five and six thousand people. Australia as a whole has ten million people, their lives take priority."

He looked at me with tired eyes.

"And if they kill every one?"

"Then we avenge the dead."
​

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


"Reports?"

Art handed his father a stack of photos.

"They have tanks."

He studied the photos.

"Type 89 Chi-rhos."

Art blinked at his father's statement and I stared at him.

"Does that mean some thing?"

"Type 89s are obsolete tanks. They started production in 31, they stopped making them in 37. Recalled the whole lot of them....hmm."

He sat down and brought out more photos.

"Were these all the tanks?"

"Every thing our cameras could get from the carpet."

"Well, counting it up they have 2150 tanks. In the papers the Japanese press bragged about having a couple hundred. My money is that they had their magi use the fabricate ritual."

I leaned forward.

"Fabricate, you find some thing you want to mass produce then you get the raw materials needed to make it, you put it all into connected ritual circles. Then if you have enough raw materials it will make one object for every year of age of the original object, the original is destroyed during the process."

He took in a breath.

"Chi-rhos have a top speed of 26 clicks an hour and an operational range of 170 clicks. Looking at the photos they have runes carved into the sides, speed runes and they look fresh. If they're looking to take the capital that's over 3000 clicks away and pretty much all of the major cities are over a thousand clicks away."

"They haven't moved from Darwin."

He stared at the vehicles.

"From the looks of it, I think it's because they cant. They didn't bring enough support vehicles to hold all the biodiesel they're going to take from Darwin."

"Biodiesel?"

"Allright, I'm not surprised you didn't know but your diesel isn't actually drilled from the earth anymore. What it actually is, is algae. A strain that comes from the old phenix homeworld. Pretty much every homestead in the area grows the stuff in vats then you have to break it down using magic and after that, voila, you have gasoline. We sent our excess to Darwin with the Abby's and you lot sell it on the international market."

He pointed at the large building in the photos.

"It's all held in the BP holding station. It used magic to create closed space, holds a lot more than it should because of it. BP actually hires an entire tribe of Abby's to handle this kind of thing. Good, solid folk. Point is...this location here has more than enough petrol to handle the ride but their tanks can't hold it."

He looked around.

"Ritual circles...I see people being forced to drag stuff there. Makes sense, Darwin's a major offloading port for everything in the northern territories."

"So?"

"So they're not moving because they have to create their logistics on site. The government isn't moving because the entire army is in north Africa and Europe. The yanks want to help but the Japanese launched a major attack on the philipines, which they are currently dealing with."

He smiled.

"Good news on that front, they did send a carrier group to chase off the Japanese ships so all those people...they're on their own. Everything you see there? it's everything they have."

I looked at the map.

"So the plan?"

"The plan right now is to gather more intelligence, burn any supplies they might use in the bush and mobilize every man we can....

"Art...use the wireless, radio what we found out to the folks down south. Maybe they can jury rig something."

"You just said we don't have any tanks."

The man nodded.

"I did, and that remains true but throw enough shit at something and you will kill it."

 

[Cherico]

Uluru University


After fleeing from Great Britain to Australia, the graves family thought they were safe. The family had managed to become even more extraordinarly wealthy by investing in arms companies that became incredibly successful during the Irish revolution. They then diversified into other companies that also gained a great deal of success.

However, the family was persona non grata in great britain due to being considered directly responsible for the deaths of over a million people and the loss of Ireland. The Irish for their part wanted revenge. The family moved to Sydney and were able to buy a large portion of land. For a time it looked like the family would become successful there.

There was just one problem...The irish never forgot and the irish never forgave and they would not let a little thing like distance get in the way of their revenge. Within five years the assassination attempts started. At first it was just lone wolves, members of the Irish diaspora who just happened to be in Sydney.

These early attempts were often laughably bad but then news of the Graves family move got to the motherland. The Irish in great britain and Ireland mobilized. Irish men would often commit petty theft and then turn themselves in, so that they could be transported to Australia as punishement. One group of Irish men showed up to a bank in Dublin, presented a note to the teller that they were robbing the bank and then kindly told someone to go call the bobbies.

The men then brought out beer and whisky and shared it with the employees and customers until they were picked up by law enforcement. The men then shared what remained of their liquor with the police as they were cheerfully carted off.

This group, known as the paddy gang, would unify and organize the various irish expatriots into an organized force in Australia. After getting to Australia they escaped into the outback, created some homemade cannons and mortars and struck Graves manor in Sydney. They managed to successfully destroy much of the house and the Graves family was forced to flee to Newcastle.

The Paddy gang followed them and managed to successfully blow up their new house. Once again the family barely managed to survive and fled. They escaped to Brisbane, Gladstone, Mcay, Townsvill, Carnes. In each case the assassins kept coming and their homes were either blown up or burned to the ground. Darwin, however, forced them to change tactics.

The paddy gang managed to make a homemade airship, loaded it with explosives and then flew it into the Graves estate. As they watched their home burn down yet again, the Graves family realized that they would never be safe in civilized areas. Thankfully for them they had managed to successfully invest in some rather rich mines and their other investments had proven profitable.

With this money they went south into the bush and contacted the aboriginal tribes. The tribes had at this point realized that fighting the british empire was just going to end in massacre and death. They needed to reach an accommodation and find a place inside the system. They were finding some success as middlemen between the newly settled magi and normal settlers but they were often cheated or had their goods stolen from them.

The graves family offered them a deal. In exchange for using their wealth, resources and connections to help the aborigines they would receive protection from the tribes. The aborigines were not however stupid and tales of the paddy gang had managed to make their way into the bush.

However the world had changed and the tribes realized they needed to change with it. They needed access to schools and education if they were going to succeed in this new world. The Graves family agreed to the addendum and then fled south into the bush. Their lawyers would go on to defend aborigine claims in courts, their money would fund several aborigine schools and their influence in the capital would be used to defeat several bills that would have crippled or greatly injured their new allies.

But the biggest concession that the tribes got out of the Graves family was a promise to build a university. The Graves family went above and beyond and managed to get scholars from all over the empire to teach there. They gathered magi from the local area and paid them to use magic to build the university. It was up to the tribes to decide a location. They decided to build their new university in Ayers rock as it had the advantage of being an important aborigine site, on a powerful leyline nexus and most importantly was a defensible location.

And thus Uluru U was born. The school, which resembles a fortress more then a school, would go on to teach generations of aborigines useful skills like engineering, science and, most importantly, law. Uluru U would become in time the single best school of law in the entire country.

The aboriginal peoples of Australia had accepted that they could not win on the battlefield but gambled that, with skill, they could win in a court of law. By carefully maneuvering through Australian politics and acting as a middleman between the mundane and magical cultures in Australia the aborigines were able to avoid the poverty, dispossession and oppression that other native groups in the empire like in Canada suffered from.

As for the Graves family they continued to be a successful and wealthy family that would hold a great deal of influence in Australian politics and economic life.
​

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


"This is Ajax, you will be riding with him."

I had some experience in war and found myself drafted into fighting.

"Aye."

Bran had seven sons and four girls. His four older sons were in north Africa, his three younger sons were at home. Ajax looked at me and gave me a bottle.

"You get sea sick?"

"Never."

"Take one anyways...this is your first time riding a roo."

I felt slightly insulted but I took a pill anyways then I got on a big scarred roo.

"Come on then."

I held on for dear life as the creature moved with blinding speed, my stomach jumped along with the roo as I followed Ajax. Then we stopped and Ajax looked at me, checking my state.

"We're here."

He got off the roo while I looked around.

"This is a farm."

He nodded.

"I know. We can't let the Japanese have access to food or water, or anything that will make their lives easier."

I felt sick as he knocked on a door. It opened and an old woman looked at him.

"Hello Miss."

She looked at him with sadness.

"This is about the Japanese, isn't it?"

"Official orders. Any unsecured farms are to be burnt, all forms of habitable buildings destroyed."

She nodded.

"This farm is all I have."

Ajax nodded.

"And the land will continue to belong to you. We have room in our home, you would be under our protection for the duration of the conflict."

The old woman nodded and went inside. She brought out some gas cans and poured the gasoline over her fields with our aid. Then she went inside her small house and swept it. With this finished she poured the last bit of gas on top of her wooden floors by herself and lit a match.

"I do this for Australia."

She placed the match on the ground. We watched as the fire spread, the woman's face was stern as she watched her home burn down.

"Once a jolly swagman camped by a billabong
Under the shade of a coolibah tree,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his "Billy" boiled,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

I stared at her as she starting to sing slightly louder.

"Waltzing Matilda, waltzing Matilda,
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me,
And he sang as he watched and waited till his "Billy" boiled,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

I watched as the fires consumed all of her crops and the woman continued singing.

"Down came a jumbuck to drink at that billabong,
Up jumped the swagman and grabbed him with glee,
And he sang as he shoved that jumbuck in his tucker bag,
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

The fires consumed her small house and all of her worldly possessions.

"Up rode the squatter, mounted on his thoroughbred.
Down came the troopers, one, two, and three.
"Whose is that jumbuck you've got in your tucker bag?
You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

Suddenly her small house collapsed. We watched the fire rise into the air as she continued to sing.

"Up jumped the swagman and sprang into the billabong.
"You'll never catch me alive!" said he
And his ghost may be heard as you pass by that billabong:
"You'll come a-waltzing Matilda, with me."

She turned away, and looked at us.

"Well, come on. Let's get on it."

"But your home."

She smiled at me.

"Australia is my home, mate. As long as she still stands, my home still stands."

I stared at the still burning home.

"Why did you sing?"

She smiled at me warmly.

"Well son, in order to have a proper dance you need music."

Then she pulled a pistol out of her bag.

"And I'm ready to dance."

 

[Cherico]

The Legacy of the Phenix

Bill Nye



The lost Phenix people had a large impact on all human sciences but two in particular immediately benefited. Mathematics, from their discovery of Non-Euclidean geometry, and medicine, from germ theory and definite proofs of their existance, which changed and saved lives. As did their research about phages, vaccines and numerous other medicines.

When Merlin came to earth almost the entirety of their knowledge base was opened to humanity and its scholars. Over five thousand years of history and science was laid bare before humanity at once.

The ultimate problem with this knowledge is that the vast majority of the phenix people's technology and science was based on magic. It was a society where magic was not only common but an omnipresent part of life. A culture where every single individual was taught how to use magic. This simply was not true in most human cultures. Finding out what scientific principles worked only with the imposition of higher dimensional power and which ones were always valid in our base universe was difficult.

It didn't help that Merlin, for all of his intelligence, was incredibly bad at organizing knowledge. This often meant that knowledge was hidden in plain sight. Devices and knowledge that could have changed, and later did change, the world was often hidden amongst historical notes, fiction and useless dross. The only part of the library that was organized were the classbooks used as a part of the standard Compass education.

The sheer amount of knowledge, the struggle to adapt a completely different technology base and the horrible lack of organization meant that what should have completely changed humanity forever ended up only changing the world in dribs and drabs. This state of affairs continued until the soviet union managed to beat the united states into space with Sputnik.

After this humiliation the united states went to compass and found several spells that affected gravity. These spells had the potential to make space launch trivially easy. The question of what else had been lying out there hidden in plain sight for hundreds of years was also asked. To this, Merlin shrugged.

The decision was made to send in a small army of libarians to collate and finally organize the great library. Even now, 30 years after this process started, we are still going through the large amounts of information. These books have helped improve computer technology, battery technology and numerous other aspects of life.

With the destruction of earth, our attempts to study the phenix and their technology and magic have only increased.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I watched the road with Art, waiting for any sign of the Japanese.

"Why are they still there?"

It had been a month. A month where the Japanese had stuck to their territory outside the tangle.

"Don't know sir, we're just thankful. The more time we have the better."

I frowned.

"Any word on how things are going?"

"The Japanese launched simultaneous attacks on the philipines, French Indochina, the dutch east indies, parts of Alaska and they also have an ongoing invasion of china going on."

I sighed.

"How bad is it going?"

"They almost captured Singapore, the east indies is a toss up and the invasion of the Philipines is being successfully held back."

I blinked.

"How? I thought yanks were withdrawing from those islands."

"The entire Silent Legion was in Luzon, doing training exercises. The main part of the Japanese advance in those islands decided to hit Luzon first."

I stared at him.

"Famous American unit that's composed entirely of deaf magi. They were formed during the war of 1812, they actually managed to get a law passed that the unit can not be disbanded and has to have at least 5,000 people. There were 10,000 of them on Luzon. That's 10,000 magi, against a force composed mostly of Japanese conscripts and some regular units."

"So what happened?"

"The Japanese ships were caught heading towards the philipines, the americans sent out the air force, which managed to sink a couple ships but were overwhelmed. And then their main forces hit Luzon....and got slaughtered which meant they had to withdraw forces from their attacks on other islands. Story's proving to be the same pretty much everywhere. The Japanese had the element of surprise but they spread their forces too thin and are attacking too much at once."

"Think that will win us the war?"

"Don't know...Singapore's holding right now, the empire is sending in reinforcements, what's left of the French navy is on its way and the yanks, of course, are still in a rage about Pearl harbor. Right now it's all holding actions."

I sighed as a truck road towards us.

"Jap.."

Art raised his rifle.

"No...I know him. He's a mate, tell him to stop and he will."

I got up and left cover then I walked into the middle of the road, Ito stopped the truck.

"Sorry mate, you got to stop and get out."

He looked at me, his face white as a sheet. He got out of the truck then he stopped, landed on his knees and started throwing up. He continued to puke as I got up next to him and patted him on the back.

"Ito. It's ok, we're mates, I'm not going to kill a mate."

Ito shook as he started to dry heave. I helped him up and then he fell down again. He curled up into a ball and started to sob uncontrollably.

"Ito."

"They made me watch."

He spoke through his tears.

"Ito."

"They made me watch."

Art got out of his hiding hole.

"We are commandeering your vehicle."

"They made me watch!"

Ito's crying was hysterical at this point, I wrapped my arms around him and took him to the back seat. Art took the wheel and, for a lack of a better idea, I simply hugged Ito as he continued to cry. The only words he seemed capable of saying was a mantra of madness.

"They made me watch..."

We drove back to Kathrine, to the growing army of Mandy's that slowly filtered in from the rest of the nevernever. The guards let us pass as Art stated.

"Prisoner of interest."

I held Ito against my chest. He was, at this point of time, dead asleep but still shaking as if stuck in a nightmare. Art stopped the car in front of his family's manor, got out and saluted his father.

"General Giles."

"I'm not a general Art, I'm just acting commander until we actually get one in the field."

He looked at Ito.

"You managed to capture a prisoner."

"Ito's civilian.", i said while starting to get out of the car, still holding him.

Bran frowned.

"Wake him."

I shook Ito a bit and he woke up. He stared at Bran.

"They made me watch."

"Son, I want."

"They made me watch."

Ito's eyes were empty and hollow and puffy.

"Ugh."

Bran slapped him and Ito shook himself, regaining some of his composure.

"They....they tapped it....what they did, after they did it....they spared me, told me to give the tapes to the government said...said you would break...I..I couldn't do anything and."

He started crying.

"Art....check the car for tapes."

We all followed as Art opened up the trunk and I saw photographs and film.

Art picked one up and gave it to his father. Bran looked at the film as Ito let himself fall on the ground again. He once again went into a ball and started crying. He continued to do that as I rubbed his back. Bran left us and went off to watch them.

When he came back his face was briefly filled with rage, then his face calmed down.

"Da?"

"Son...I have some wonderful news, our previous concerns about Japanese prisoners taking up our limited space and resources will no longer be a problem."

"Dad..."

"You understand my meaning."

Art nodded.

"I do, da."

I looked up at him.

"Ito is a mate, he's not with the japs. He."

"Nothing is going to happen to Ito. My problems are with the Japanese military, not civilians who are suffering from shellshock."

I took a breath, and looked at Ito.

"You think it's shellshock?"

"I don't think, I know."

He got on a knee.

"I know what you're going through, I've had a lot of good mates who broke because of the horrors they saw on the western front. What they did to you broke you and I don't judge you for it because they were trying to break you. In time we can help you pick up the pieces but you're going to have to work with us, ok?"

Ito nodded through his tears.

"I have a room inside that isn't being used. Art, take our guest there."

Art grabbed him, helped him up and walked away. Bran then turned his gaze onto me.

"I need you to take the truck south, to the university."

"But the war."

"I know you have experience, and you're a decent enough shot, but the only people in the northern territory who have radios strong enough to relay this message are the Graves."

I frowned.

"Them? The whole family's a bunch of mongrels and all of them have kangaroos loose in the paddocs."

"I get your meaning but while the Graves are monsters they're our monsters and they understand, in rather graphic detail, what will happen the moment they stop being our monsters."

"Well if you have to deal with a devil might as well be one you know."

 

[Cherico]

The Darwin Massacre


When Darwin was invaded by a force of 100,000 japanese troops led by Prince Asaka they surrendered without a fight. The city was declared an open city. Darwin didn't have any defenses, didn't have any soldiers. Under the Geneva conventions, the city should have been safe.

That wasn't true though as Prince Asaka thought that the people of western countries were mentally and physically weak. His men had all fought and participated in the rape of Nanking, and he wanted to make an example. At first he turned the people of the city into forced labor for his military. Then he reenacted the rape of Nanking with all of its grisly atrocities onto the city of Darwin.

Out of a city of 5868 people only 76 would survive.

Most of them were people who had wisely decided to flee into the outback before the surrender took place. one of them, Ito Subaru, was a Japanese expatriot who was spared simply to spread the message of the massacre.

Asaka was convinced that the Darwin massacre would convince people to flee instead of trying to fight the Japanese. There were several problems with this plan. The Australian continent was completely unprepared for the invasion, this is true, but his forces wasted a month on rape and rapine. This gave the Australian defenders time to mobilize and organize a defense. The Darwin massacre, instead of breaking Australian willpower, simply enraged the Australian people.

The news of the massacre got out into the wider world quickly and it, likewise, backfired. Singapore had considered surrendering before the news of Darwin. They were outnumbered, and cut off from supplies, but with the news of what happened the governor general ordered the city to be held at all costs.

The defenders were, at the time of their relief by the british, subsisting on rats but with the help of imperial magi, careful rationning and the knowledge of exactly how japan treated their prisoners they held out until help arrived.

In the philipines the Luzon invasion was slaughtered but other Filipino islands were not nearly as lucky. Mac Arthur, in his journal, notes that he thought about ordering a surrender of the islands. With the news of Darwin, he and the other chiefs of staff ordered American and Filipino forces to fight to the last.

The Filipinos, knowing exactly what awaited their people, were the fiercest fighters and the silent legion, after firmly securing Luzon, took their limited boats south and proceeded to liberate the other islands of the philipines from the Japanese. The americans also used experimental teleportation spells to put more troops onto the islands and bring in supplies.

The first 6 months of the pacific war were defined by Japan's agressive advance into several countries and they often enjoyed a great deal of success. But, at the end of the day, their logistics were lack luster, their weapons of war were often technically lacking, their magi used a less powerful system of magic and were outnumbered, and finally their own brutality had awakened sleeping giants and instructed their enemies that surrender was not an option.

After the 6 months of hell Japan would find itself outnumbered, outgunned and surrounded by enemies who wanted revenge.

The quick victorious war the Japanese had been promised never materialized.

 

[Cherico]

Brian Mc Clain


I continued to drive onwards, night turned into day and day turned into night but I had been given heaps of food and cans of biodiesel, more then enough to make it to the rock. With me driving like a madman, and with whatever enchantments were put on the truck, I made it there in a couple days.

I was stopped by armed security, the abby guards looked me over.

"Why are you here?"

"War business, I have intelligence to send to the folks down south."

"We have to search you anyways."

I sighed.

"Understandable."

I declared the weapons on my person and after they confiscated everything, including a dull pocket knife, I was allowed through. Ayers rock was a university town that had been carved into the rock itself. As I drove through the tunnels I was a bit impressed. Once I got to the top I saw shops, businesses and places where people lived. Abby's walked around, some of them were dressed traditional like, some in suits. I passed a man playing a digeridoo and drove up to the location I had been told about.

I saw armed Abby's everywhere with tommy guns, I was searched again as I gave them my letters of introduction. Then, and only then, was I let into the mansion that the Graves family lived in.

The first thing I noticed were the thick walls, inscribed with runes. All the doors were made out of steel plate. Then I heard the faint strumming of a piano.

"Hold me close and hold me fast
The magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose."

It was a man's voice.

"When you kiss me, Heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose."

The singing got louder as I got closer to the room on the end.

"When you press me to your heart
And in a world apart
A world where roses bloom."

The Abby next to me holstered his gun and opened the door, I saw a man a little younger then me singing to a woman.

"And when you speak
Angels sing from above
Every day words
Seems to turn into love songs

Give your heart and soul to me
And life will always be
La vie en rose."

"Suvie Bruce you are doing better yes?"

The woman's accent was thick and French.

"If I get better maybe I could get you into my bed."

He waggled his thick eyebrows and the woman laughed and hit him with a newspaper.

"Always naughty thoughts with you Bruce."

"Only around you momamazel, you inspire me like a muse."

The woman chuckled.

"You say that to all girls."

"True but it doesn't mean I don't mean it."

She wacked him playfully again and sashayed out of the room.

"Another lesson another day yes?"

"Yes."

He looked at me and yawned.

"So um....I have no bloody clue who you are.."

I stood ramrod straight and tried to speak proper.

"I was sent by the armed forces. There was a massacre in Darwin, we need someone to spread the word to the folks back home."

"And I own the most powerful radio in the whole bloody outback, and own the only airfield in miles, right."

I opened the trunk that contained the movie reels.

"So this?"

"Japanese intelligence of a sort."

He grabbed a reel.

"Mind if I watch it?"

"It's a bit disturbing."

He scoffed went into the back room and watched the tape I sat down awkwardly and then he came back white as a sheet.

"You lied to me."

"I told you it was disturbing."

"You told me it was a bit fucking disturbing. That was not a bit disturbing, that was a fucking horror show...fuck whoever got that deserves a fucking medal, I wouldn't have the stones to go into that mess."

"Actually the japs made the movies, said they wanted us to know."

Bruce Graves stared at me.

"You are fucking kidding me."

He leaned back.

"Fuck, I need a drink."

He grabbed a phone.

"Hey....yeah I need a drink...no not vodka, coffee. If I have any booze I will just throw it up and I don't want to waste perfectly good booze. We're out of coffee? Right...the bloody war. Tea then, earl grey, have Rupert bring it up...and tell that little shit not to drop it again."

He put the phone back on and took deep breaths.

"Rupert?"

"His father is Keith Arthur Murdock, one of the best reporters in the fucking world."

"And the boy?"

"Taking care of him for his da, getting him an education and an intership. Between you and me the boy's fucking useless, my money is that the little shit will never amount to anything at all but lets keep that under our hats, no use hurting the feelings of the simple."

The boy came into the room and placed some tea on a table, Bruce stared at the tea set and sighed.

"Good, you haven't dropped any."

"Can I work on something sir?"

Bruce pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Go with Carson, he's writing some nonsense about flowers."

"But that's boring, carson's boring."

"Boy....you have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run and you cant even crawl yet. So it's either join Carson on his fluff piece or you get to spend more time in the mail room."

"Fine."

The boy stormed off and shut the door.

"Spoiled little shit."

"He's just a boy."

"This is how he acts when he's bloody well behaved."

I frowned.

"Considering your family history."

Bruce turned his head towards me.

"My ancestor was a bloody fuck up, you understand that? It's not my bloody fault he made a error in judgement."

"That error killed over a million people."

"Ok, admittedly he was a grade A piece of shit but we have been trying to make thing right."

"Like that time your family goons machine gunned striking workers."

The man pinched his nose.

"Ok admittedly me grandpa was a rough man but it was a rough time and."

"And then there was that incident with the baby formula."

"Donny is a very distant cousin, and yes he did fuck up."

"And kill 300 babies."

"238 not 300. Compensation was paid to all of the families affected. It was a tradgedy but I do not own his company, have any stock in his company or have anything to do with it. My portion of the family is focused on our empire in radio and the papers, not baby formula."

I looked at the tapes.

"So I bet this makes you have extra bad feelings about the party considering who the japs are allied too."

"FUCK YOU!"

He slamed his hands on the desk.

"That story was a bloody lie and slander."

"You mean the one where you and your blokes dressed up as Nazis and had an orgy in a sex dungeon?"

"Yes, we did not dress up as bloody Nazis."

I blinked.

"You're not..."

"Cant a bloke have an orgy in the peace and safety of his own sex dungeon without being accused of being a bloody Nazi?"

I stared at him.

"O....kay."

There was silence.

"I'm sorry. I'm just out of sorts, I'm from Darwin and."

"Shit...."

The man slicked back his hair.

"I didn't fucking know...right, so this whole conversation? water under the bridge. Fuck, you want a girl? I can get you one."

I frowned.

"I'm married."

"I know, so am I."

"Your wife cant possibly approve of this."

He smiled warmly.

"Of course she does, joins in on the fun too. Positively love that woman."

"No sheila is going to approve of her bloke doing the naughty with another woman."

"She's French."

I lifted a finger and then lowered it.

"Well that explains it, doesn't it?"

 

[Cherico]

Italy during the great wars

Ablerto Zanno



Italy's decision to not go to war during both world wars has been at times decried as acts of cowardice and alternatively lauded as wise decisions that prevented destruction of our nation. The decision not to go to war, in both cases, was made by the king Victor Emmanuel the third. Victor was a notably superstitious man. His father, Umberto, had capitalized on the existance of actual magic by bringing back the sibyls, as a nod to the glory of the roman empire.

The sibyls were a cadre of witches whose sole job was to scry the future. Though this was one of the most difficult forms of fate magic the late king thought it was important to have oracles, even ones who were limited in truth, for the government to consult.

The sibyls, though limited in action, were of use and accurately predicted the weather, earthquakes and the eruption of mount Vesuvius. Predicting these things was reliable if at times difficult, but predicting people? The fate of nations required a full department of magi, a department of witches, and even with this teamwork the process was difficult.

With the assassination of archduke Ferdinand Italy was caught between allied and Central powers. Though the Italians had an official alliance with the central powers they had signed secret treaties with the allies. The majority of the Italian political establishment wanted to stay out of the war. Some, however, said that Italy needed to heed its commitments to the central powers and others said that dealing with the allies would give Italy more territory.

The king consulted the Sibyls and, after a lot of hard work and efforts, they formally told him that he had no good options. Joining the Central powers would lead to disaster and joining the allies to disaster. Neutrality would be the least worst of the options. With this advice in hand the king declared Italy's neutrality.

The british and French responded by limiting the amount of coal and other resources that made their way to Italy so that the country couldn't just profit from both sides. The first year of the war was a harsh one but the King was, with some diplomatic help, able to cut an important trade deal with the Monroe pact.

American coal companies needed to export to survive due to the country's reliance on cheap magical alternatives. They were eager to jump into the formerly closed Italian market. Doing so by ship was blocked by the british empire but the American airship companies were eager too and daring enough to take the job.

The government hastily ordered the creation of several airship strips. These locations brought in the coal that Italy needed for its industry, and civilian life. The Italian government and its companies however soon found that the market for coal in the central powers was exploding. They soon bought excess coal from the pact and sold it on at a profit.

While some Airship companies like the silver line were willing to risk the blockade for profit, most would rather sell their products to neutral countries who would then sell them to the central powers. Italy became the central hub for this trade. The allies' need for material also grew and Italy, after initial growing pains, was able to use this crisis to further industrialize at home. There was also a build up of their colonies of Lybia, Somalia and eritrea, with Lybia being the priority of the three.

After the war the country struggled financially and fascism rose in Italy. At first the king ignored them and then tried to work with them. He used parliamentary procedures to limit their crazier antics like the attempted war with Ethiopia which thankfully never happened and was prevented through diplomacy. Unfortunately the leader of the fascist party, Mussolini, wanted his glorious war.

He got his chance during the Spanish civil war where Italy supported the nationalists against the republican forces. Flush with victory, and with war on the horizon, Mussolini signed the pact of steel. When the second world war was declared Mussolini declared war on the allies. During the early stages of "the phoney war" the king consulted the sybils and then, officially, Musolini fell down some stairs.

It was only later during the 1950's that the government and monarchy admitted that they assassinated him. It was already an open secret that the king had ordered him to be killed and, really, no one had been fooled. The king and his new prime minister talked to the French and british and told them that the duce did not speak for Italy and that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

Then they offered both countries one million dollars each in reparations for the scare. The French and British empires rolled their eyes, accepted the money and then concentrated on the much bigger threat of the Nazis. Once again during the second world war Italy would sell resources and manufactured goods to both sides. The money would be used to properly settle Lybia with growing numbers of Italian settlers, focusing on the arts, education and new schools of magic.

When the war ended the country was one of the few countries that had not been ravaged by the war and would use its industrial heft to help rebuild Europe. After Communist backed revolutions caused Italy to lose Eritrea and Somalia during the 1950's Italy abandonned its practice of neutrality and joined nato, in exchange for recognition of its last remaining colony in Lybia.

Though there were a few rebellions by the Lybian arab minority during both the 50s and 60s these were ruthlessly crushed, the participants killed, their families land taken and given to Italian settlers, increasing the Italian majority population.

Nowadays Italy remains one of the most traditional countries in Europe, the great leveling of the world wars never really happened here and the church remains an omnipresent force. Abortion is outlawed, women still do not have the right to vote with attempts in 1946, 1953,1964 and 1981 all failing. The rapture has only increased Italian conservativism, and made the country even more religious.

Disconnected from Europe and with a world of its own I find it likely that the country will become more isolationist, stogy, conservative and backwards. Sometimes I wonder if we would be more liberal and daring if we had joined in the world wars but then again the price of human lives would have been too much.

Italy is, in many ways, a creature of the past, a look of what European culture would look like without the world wars. It is up to future generations to decide if the conflict was worth it.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


The sky was a bleak grey and the land around us was destroyed.

"Ship....this is allied forces in Odessa, please state your business."

the man had a slight Australian accent, I put my book away and replied.

"This is the Discovery, we're here to see why this mess got started in the first place. I'm going to radio the mission codes to you, copy that?"

I did so and I heard a sigh.

"You're twelve kinds of crazy, you know that? Come on then, we have a fort near the ruins of Odessa. Our boys will meet your team, god knows we're bored as fuck staying here."

"Copy that, you need me to bring the booze."

"Hell yes, the only thing we have to drink is American beer."

"So?"

"Americans consider Fosters to be good beer...let that sink in."

"Um, we have whisky not a lot but."

"We can ration! come in Discovery, we're waiting for you."

I sailed closer and saw the bombed out ruins.

"Discovery we have visual. Welcome to Odessa or what's left of this shit hole. For obvious reasons you're not going to the city itself."

"Radiation?"

"Not rads but we have Russian plagues and chemical weapons. The soviets kind of shit the entire bed here."

"And?"

"Nato protocol, all weapons of mass destruction are to be used on the soviets in the event of war. This all of this is the product of the Russians suicidal temper tantrum."

I crept closer to the shore and saw a metallic wall made out of scrap.

"Heading in, anything I need to do?"

"Just decontamination, come on in."

The six of us got out of the boat and I carried with me a case of wiskey. I was greeted by a bored mixture of soldiers from around the world...no, around the system, have to remember that. Earth died and humanity was scattered around the solar system.

A man looked at me and then at my book before laughing.

"What?"

"You're reading me great granda's book."

He held out a hand.

"We talked on the wireless, I'm Merlin Mc Clain. welcome to Hell."

"That bad?"

"Oh no, we just named it Fort Hell. Seemed fitting you know."

He looked with fervor at my small box of booze.

"Oh thank Jesus, finally something that doesn't taste like piss."

The ramshackle doors opened and I saw barracks and.

"You have a hotel?"

I blinked.

"Did it survive the bombs or."

The man laughed.

"No, that's the Greenbrier hotel."

I blinked again.

"Ok, way back when there was this family called the Callwell's in the western part of virginia. This was about in 1850 and they wanted the hotel to be something major, something special. On a lark the builder contacted the old bird."

"and?"

"And he aggreed to fund the construction, even send magi to help build it. But there were conditions."

Men armed with glass wands waved them over my group. They turned blue and we were given the thumbs up and walked into the fort.

"Like what?"

"The old bird...well after having your entire people wiped out, you get paranoid. The old bird build hideyholes, shelters and a bunch of other things in case the world ended. The Virginian government always blocked his attempts to build something like that instate but, if someone acted as the front man..."

We walked into the hotel and I stared at the décor.

"He would be able to build it up?"

"Yeah, precisely. After the civil war the government found out about the Greenbrier and other plans."

"Were they angry?"

"Hmm no, but the Greenbrier was close to DC so they decided to give it official sanction. If anything happened that's where the government would fall back to, so the old bird had official sanction to go nuts."

We went to a book case and Mc Clain reached to a decapitated statue and pressed a very evident button.

"What happened there?"

"We got tired of moving the head every time we wanted to use the real elevator."

The bookcase moved and revealed doors. We went inside.

"Giving us a tour?"

"Yes?"

"Why?"

"Because I'm bored, my good sir. really, really, bored."

The door opened and I saw row after row of glass tubes filled with people. Troops wandered the halls with looks of boredom on their faces.

"What's this?"

He waved a hand.

"Behold the remnants of the Ukrainian race."

I stared at the people in the glass tubes.

"So this is?"

"Suspended animation. The old bird built a hundred of these tubes a day since 1820, put them in his little hideyholes."

I did the math.

"There must be millions of these things."

"By the time of the exchange there were 6 million of the damned things and one sixth of them were in this hotel."

"So."

"Yeah the feds decided that, if everything went to shit, they would save one million of their own people. This was in case project rapture didn't pan out for some reason. So after the exchange we went to war. The Estonians had the fucking sense to immediately surrender, they were the smart ones."

The man sighed.

"So men like me? Got stuck taking the war to the Budapest pact countries that didn't wise up."

"I take it it was bad?"

"Estonia got lucky. None of their cities got nuked, apparently we hit the sites that were going to take out their cities. We were able to save a lot of them because of that. Ukraine did not get it so easy, all their cities got hit with everything."

"So these?"

"People the anarchists were able to save, most of them are civilians."

"We're working with anarchists?"

The man sighed.

"Before the exchange Ukrainian anarchists were the single most organized resistance group past the iron curtain. We funneled stuff to them like weapons, info and food and in exchange they gave us information. When the exchange happened they phoned their polish allies and called in all of their chips."

"And that's why the greenbrier's here?"

"Yep, we didn't have the resources to save all the civilians, specially with the remnants of the commie government still shooting at us. So, like in other buddapest pact countries, we teleported people down to the bolt holes and put them on ice. We owed the anarchists one, so they got the largest."

"And?"

"And we put every one we could on Ice until nuclear winter ended or we figured things out. and neither of those things have happened so every capsule we have is filled to capacity right now."

"So the other countries?"

"Estonia got about half of the boltholes. I think they're ready to take them out of stasis soon so that's another 3 million people. the Ukraine got the Greenbier and a bunch of other boltholes that are being protected by other forts, that's another half a million people on ice. The rest are scattered pretty evenly."

"Any hard fighting?"

"Not really, the Ukrainians we dealt with were mostly civi's or allies. The government had some plan to fight us but they're all dead now."

"What actually happened?"

"Some fighting but mostly disease, radiation, and starvation did the killing. I think the worst part of the war outside of Russia was in Romania."

"Really?"

"Yeah, the Romanians fully drank the koolaid. Gave us quite a bit of fighting before the idiots got themselves killed."

He paused.

"Stupid, just stupid. All they did was get a bunch of people killed for stupid reasons."

He looked at me.

"So you're heading into the union?"

"Yeah."

"Wish you the best of luck. Doubt you will find much, we nuked everything they had."

"I still want to try."

Man nodded.

"As I said, wish you luck. As for me? Im getting a drink."

He pulled out a flask and took a sip.

"So what happens to them?"

"Hell if I know, they're talking about us moving this whole show to one of the empty planets. You know, let the Ukrainians have a consolation prize. That's what the refugees that didn't get iced are asking for, but that's."

"Slow going?"

"Every separatist ethnic group that was a part of the alliance wants their own world and there aren't a lot of them out there. The Shiks and the Tibitans had connections to people who were willing to back their moves and even then they had to cut a deal with the old bird to make it happen."

"So you don't know."

"No one knows. And the UN has told the old bird he only gets one more pick. Everything else gets decided by UN mandate..."

"Indonesia?"

"No, they got their own planet based on their own merits. Officially, they were only off the list because of some minor pissing contest about territorial waters and the government decided to go non aligned for a bit at the worst possible time..."

he took out a cigarette.

"Of course, none of them would have died if Reagan."

"Didn't fuck up."

He nodded and slapped me on the back.

"Don't worry, no one's blaming the yanks for this mess. You didn't think Ivan would be this fucking stupid...we all thought he was smarter than this."
​

 

[Cherico]

Know your Ally

Pacific region

1945 war film


An image of a football field

"By now you should know all about our enemies and why we fight. But we are not fighting alone."

An image of five people, in shadow.

"In the eastern theater you will be working the most with these five men: Bruce the Australian, Phil the Philipino, John Britain, Chan from China, and Kim from Korea. It's a good solid team and we're all trying to get that ball to the endzone. Let's start with John."

An image of a British soldier.

"John might seem a little standoffish but he doesn't mean anything by it. The british appreciate keeping a cool head and being polite but that also means that they tend to under report when things go wrong. When John says things have gotten a little sticky? It means he needs your help now!"

An image of London.

"John is here to help but this war isn't as personal, isn't as meaningful to him as it is to the rest of us. John's worried about the folks back home, worried about the Nazis who are bombing his cities as we speak. So if he asks why we're here, don't take it personally he's got other things on his mind. We have known John for a while now, fought by his side in World War One, lets talk about someone else."

An Image of an Australian soldier.

"This is Bruce. Pearl harbor was rough for us, we lost a lot of good people. Unlike John though this war is personal for Bruce. The Darwin Massacre."

An image of a ruined town.

"Taught Bruce the hard way what happens to people when you surrender to the japs. They invaded his country, killed his people. They made a mistake though. Bruce might be laid back but when you invade his home there's nobody fiercer."

The Australian soldier shakes his hand.

"Australian culture, much like American culture, is infused with magic. One in four people use it actually but, unlike America where magic is spread out and about, in Australia it's concentrated here in the outback."

A map of Australia.

"So if you're a magi Bruce is either going to get it or not get it, don't take it personally. In fact don't take things personally in general. Bruce is going to be a little more relaxed than you're used to, a little more irrevent. He's got a wicked sense of humor so take things in stride but when the chips are down you will thank God he's got your back."

An image of a Chinese soldier.

"Chan has had it rough. The Japanese burned down his capital, destroyed his cities and murdered his people. You don't have to tell Chan what this war is about, he knows first hand just how bad things can get. Chan's been through the rough of it and you might wonder why he's so prideful, why he can't admit why things have gone wrong? Fact is, he's going through a rough time. His entire family, his city, might be gone. Pride might be all Chan has left but even if things have gone to hell Chan's a scrappy fighter. Treat him right and he will have your back."

A thumbs up.

"This is Phil. We've known him for awhile, our relationship to him has had its ups and its downs but we mostly get along just fine. Family is very important to Phil so his father, his mother, his grandparents, siblings? If you're joking around, they're off limits. If you insult his mother, you deserve what's coming next and your PM isn't going to have a lick of sympathy for you."

An image of ships.

"And Phil is worried about his family. The japs have invaded his home and, though we're fighting like mad to kick him out, there are still holdouts going around killing people. So this war is a touchy subject, don't go around bragging or looking down on Phil. He's got problems of his own and problems on his mind. That's why he's going to be a little late, a little out of sorts. He may not be punctual but he will be there and that's going to be important."

An image of a man in a white mask, black clothing and trench coat.

"You might be wondering why Kim is dressed up for Halloween? fact is, Kim's country was the first to be conquered by the Japanese, the first domino to fall. If the Japanese figure out who he is, they will try to murder his family."

An image of people being hanged, including women and children.

"Kim is a brave man so he's not letting that stop him but he has to take precautions so that the japanese can't find his people. Kim has been fighting the Japanese for over 30 years now and that makes a man a little impatient. It drives a man to drink harder, yell louder, get angrier. Sometimes Kim might seem a little shady and two faced. Don't take that personally, Kim was forced to do that to survive. Because Kim doesn't know who's a Japanese informant or who's on the level."

An image of a Jayu Soldier mowing down Japanese soldiers with a Tomson submachine gun.

"It takes time to earn Kim's trust. He doesn't give it lightly but when you have earned it, and you will have to earn it, there are few friends you would rather have."

An Image of six men strutting into a sunrise.

"The Japanese sucker punched all of us, Billy yank, John Britain, Bruce, Phil, Kim and Chan. But we have dusted ourselves off, gotten off the ground and we're ready to roll. These are our friends and our allies and we're all ready to roll."