SHTF

"For Justice! For Justice!" Ecstatic cries rose from thousands and thousands of throats as hands waved red flags at the enormous fleet in the skies. Blood red airships of all sizes were formed up neatly and trailing streamers, they paraded over the holy cities and towns as they headed towards the border.

Sherene paused in her work and looked up as a massive shadow carpeted the farm and saw the underside of a low flying airship. Together with dozen others, the fleet of airships made a show overhead as they headed somewhere. She wiped the sweat off her gaunt face and mindlessly cheered and shouted praises to the God of Justice and Creation as the overseers cracked their whips and the zealous priests took note of which worker was not ardent enough in their praises.

The fleet of airships slowly disappeared into the horizon and the cheers and praises died down. The priests satisfied with the workers started giving sermons and promised extra rations for dinner tonight. Sherene dropped her tired arms down and made her way to the shared bucket of water and queued up for a small sip of tepid water to quench her parched throat.

She gave a sip of water to her child who had woken up from all the commotion and had stared innocently with wide eyed wonder at the departing airships. Sherene played with her son for a while before she headed back to the fields together with everyone else as the overseers appeared again.

Hefting the hoe in her hands, she hammered away at the hard dirt and like all the others, thoughts of the massing fleets quickly disappeared behind their minds as they toiled the fields.

-----

The Old World, The Iron Kingdom, The Old Ugly

The cabin remained quiet as Trism finished his update to all the senior officers and members of the crew. He had briefed everyone of the impending attack of the Protectorate and everyone was in their own thoughts.

Finally, the silence was broken when Mills spoke up, "Well, that was to be expected... I didn't think those justice loving fanatics to just sit still when they can do a low blow to the Iron Kingdom."

"We foresaw such a situation." Trism said, "Captain, we should take this opportunity to sneak into the Protectorate. With the bulk of their forces busy with the Iron Kingdom, we can get in and out easier!"

"We should inform Prince Herod about this!" Dr. Sharon cut in. "We can't just let them be unprepared. A lot of people will die!"

"If we delay any longer in this place," Trism shook his head as he disagreed with Dr. Sharon's words. "We will get dragged into this! Captain, I suggest we depart immediately! And it would not be too late to inform the Prince later!"

"Ahem... We still have yet procured the arcane components for the tracking spell..." Magister Thorn chipped in. "And... Professor Hamlot is still in the Capital... the school to be exact."

"Hmm..." Blake stroked his chin as considered their options. "What is the estimated time of arrival of the Protectorate fleet?"

Trism quickly replied as if he memorized the reports. "Intel back home has estimated they will attack within the week. It could be now, tomorrow, or a week later. But I suggest we move the Old Ugly away from the Capital."

"If the Protectorate faces no challenges from the border and advances directly to the capital," Blake frowned as he looked at the map on the table. "How long will they arrive here?"

"Simulations show that they will take four days to reach the vicinity of the Iron Kingdom Capital if they face no opposition," Trism answered. "If they face a blocking force and is able to defeat them with a crushing victory, it only adds half a day or so to the timetable."

Blake's frown deepened as he traced his finger along the map before his finger paused at the other side where the Tri State were supposed to have invaded. "What of the situation with the Tri State?"

"They punched a straight corridor through the Iron Kingdom's border," Trism said after he checked the reports. "Their aim seemed to be the Capital but is currently stalled six thousand kilometers away here."

Trism point to the a particular spot on the map. "We suspect that they are consolidating their forces for another push. I guess the the Iron Kingdom knows this too hence why Prince Herod wanted to... hire us to get to the front faster."

Blake shook his head, "From his words, the Second Prince is planning to do the same. If the Second Prince takes a fleet and Prince Herod takes another, how much forces do they have to prevent the Protectorate from steamrolling them?"

"The most is two or three fleets left," Trism replied. "But those fleets even with the ships of the border defenses cannot be everywhere at once. They cannot block all of the Protectorate ships from entering the Iron Kingdom."

"The numbers in the report are too large for just a simple skirmish or raid..." Blake tapped the map where the borders of the Iron Kingdom and Protectorate met. "This numbers look more like an all out invasion!"

"Is Prince Herod's representative still here at the field?" Blake suddenly asked. "If yes, call him in. I think we do need to inform Prince Herod about the threat of the Protectorate."

"But Sir, if we are to take advantage of the lack of Protectorate troops within their territory, we must act now and meet up with our two escorts!" Trism urged Blake. "We don't have a lot of time."

"No," Blake shook his head. "First we need still lack some of the materials Magister Thorn needs for the spell. Even if we infiltrated the Protectorate, we still have no way to find Sherene."

"And we did form a sorts of alliance," Blake added. "I will still do my part for it and he did help saved Dr. Sharon and the rest."

"Yes sir..." Trism sighed before he passed on orders to find the representative of the Third Prince. "In this case, I would like to recommend some changes to our deployments and measures."

Blake nodded as Trism started to layout some measures the crew needed to take and what their next steps should be. Blake listened with half an ear as he stared at the map before him. After a while, there was a knock on the door and a Marine brought the Third Prince's representative in.

The representative was a young looking elf wearing a junior officer uniform of the kingdom. He gave a bow to the gathered in the room and looked around curiously. Blake gestured for the elf to take a seat before he gestured to Magister Thorn who hurriedly dug out a scroll filled with a list of materials he lacked. "Can you help us gather these materials? Preferably as soon as possible, we need them urgently."

The elf took a quick look at the list of materials and his face blanched as he recognized some of the listed materials were quite rare and used in magic. There barely was any magic in the world now and only ancient families or certain magical schools doing research were use the materials listed. It meant that the materials listed would be hard and expensive to get but his Prince had commanded him to cater to all the needs of these strange mercenaries regardless of the cost.

He only let out a sigh inwardly before he stood up and bowed again, ready to carried out the orders of his Prince to help these people procure the materials. But as he was about to leave, the stern faced leader of these people stopped him. "Wait. There is still one thing..."

"I need you to pass a message on," Blake said and he scribbled down something on a book which he then ripped a page off. "Hand this over to your Prince immediately. Tell him this is urgent and..."

As the representative left, Blake looked at his gathered officers and sighed deeply. "Well... Shit has just hit the fan..."

-----

The New World, United Nations, Sawtooth Mountain Air Base

Former Flight Lieutenant UNMSC pilot Tommy Kanzy stood inside the air traffic control tower and watched the row of four V - 1 Phoenix, wing ships taxiing onto the runway. The giant contra propeller engines of the boomerang shaped flying wings were loud, their heavy drone heard even when separated by hundreds of meters of distance and thick glass and concrete.

"Commander! The V Ones are requesting permission to take off," The flight controller said from his station.

Commander Tommy's youthful face did not reflect the weight of command on his shoulders as Chief of Airforce. Instead of replying to the flight controller, he asked his adjutant, "How many Icarus airships are making the crossing?"

"The Navy has only two Icarus airships that could only make the crossing," HIs adjutant reported. "The rest are still on the factory line or undergoing trials."

"What is the launch schedule for the Navy's airships?" Commander Tommy asked.

"By end of the week," The adjutant replied. "Two more days."

Commander Tommy shook his head as he mentally calculated the travel time, "It would take them at least two weeks to arrive at the Old World... By then, it might be too late for them to do anything..."

The armament factories of the UN had produced the first pair of Icarus airships which was now operating in the Old World. The first pair of airships provided valuable raw data on their performance, quirks and a hundred other things to be improved or fine tuned on. The second pair of Icarus airships were then produced with the data gathered from the first pair, improving the UN's first series of airships.

And in the meantime, the launch of the Wing Ship Cruiser 'Phoenix' or the WSC - 1 for short, exceed expectations and was deemed superior to the Icarus in terms of speed, ease of production and cost. Due to the report made by the Weapon Evaluation Committee, production orders by the Navy of the Icarus dropped from a planned sixteen hulls for a total fleet of twenty hulls changed to a mere six.

The reason being that while the Phoenix could only carry a third of the capacity of an Icarus, it was many times faster and has a way higher operational altitude. It could also make the Crossing within half a day instead of a couple of weeks compared to the Icarus airships, but ultimately, for each Icarus, two Phoenixes could be built for the same cost. High Command mission planners had deemed that with the Phoenix's speed, troops and supplies could be rapidly transferred over to the Old World compared to the slower airships.

Hence the WSC had its production model redesignated as the V - 1 Phoenix and forty were ordered came into operation. Out of the forty hulls planned, six were completed while another ten were in various stages of completion in the factory lines. With the original Phoenix already in operation, this gave the UN Airforce seven wing ships to play with. Commander Tommy had planned to assign two wing ships each as logical support for the New Kingdom of Mecca and to the Isles.

But the sudden notice of a massive military buildup in the Old World had him changing his plans and in the next few days, the techs and mechanics of the entire airbase had no sleep as the six Phoenixes still in the New World were refitted for combat.

Gun gimbals and turrets were fitted into their modular slots along the under hull of the flying wings. Armoured partitions were installed into the cargo spaces, creating protected munition bunkers for the newly fitted 20 mm autocannons and 88 mm cannons. Four retractable 20 mm dual autocannon turrets were installed on each side just above the waterline of the amphibious wing ship with another two more 88 mm mounts on each side.

Four of the Phoenixes were refitted with weapons while the remaining two remained as they were. The unfitted Phoenixes and the single wing ship still in the Old World would continue to run logistics while the armed wing ships would be going to war.

"Order the V Ones to launch," Commander Tommy said with a soft sigh. "We will be leading the war this time!"