15 Haven, III
That day, Astrian rushed back to Arcadia.
"LUI-EYA!" He yells out as he approached her office, knocking hardly on its door he yells again, "EMERGENCY!"
The door rushed open and in front of him stood Lui-eya, "What's going on!?"
"Silicio..." he tries to catch his breath, "Silicio knows!"
"Knows? Knows what!?"
"About the army, the magic, everything. He trapped me in Satormia and started asking his questions. Then he shot me, SHOT ME!"
"Calm down, boy." She slaps him, "Calm. Nothing bad will happen. Our army still massively outperforms his in every way. Although..." She drags him towards the war room, calling the two vice generals along the way.
Eventually they reached the war-room where in the middle is the map of both Sicilia and Arcadia, in the middle is the Arco-Sicilian gulf, and in them are the Sicilian islands. Over the east is Arcadia, and over the west is Sicilia.
Astrian let out a deep breath and asked Lui-eya about the rundown of what they know about Sicilia.
"Well to begin with," She rips down the map and replaces it with a more detailed version of Sicilia's kingdom. There's something different though, the peninsula is in the middle, that being the Sicilian kingdom's mainland. Over the east are the Sicilian islands, it could be said that further east from this map is the Arcadian peninsula. And over the west are the Lorian islands. "They're a seafaring kingdom."
"Oh, I don't see much of a problem with that, we take the skies after a-" Astrian said, only to be interrupted by Lui-eya again.
"That's not a problem, but our mages cannot sustain their magic long enough to cross the entire gulf. We need to set up forward camps in their islands."
"So why not just do i-... oh, right."
"Yeah, see what I mean?"
"So we can't beat them on sea, but we can beat them on land and air, yeah?"
"Of course, although our problem is that it'd be difficult for us to set up a forward camp in the islands due to their proficiency with the sea. They could very well just annihilate us from a distance. Not to mention their proficiency with their bows."
"Their bows, they were peculiar." Astrian remembered how they had shot him earlier.
"Oh? How?"
"Well, they seem all very accurate, but they did not feel like marksmen to me."
"Crossbows. Tsk, they can shootdown our bombers with enough men."
They pondered about it for a while, until Lixus, who had been absent from the conversation since the start, told them, "I have experience with shipbuilding. I was the one who built the ships that got us here after all."
"I see," Lui-eya said, "Then I'm assigning you to design the ships we'll use for this." She continued.
"Great! And I thought of something now!" Astrian triumphantly said.
"Spill it out then, boy." Lui-eya replied.
"Well," He approaches the map, drew a few arrows connecting islands together, "Boats need docks, as such we should prioritize capturing them, right?" They nodded, "But what if we incapacitate their docking capabilities before capturing the islands? Giving us ample time to set up our camp."
"That won't be possible much, wouldn't it? Our bombers would be useless in bombing their docks, they might even get shot down." Lui-eya replied.
"That's why we need long-range weaponry. Mr. Zoroan," He glares at him, Zoroan glared back, "You made the designed the trebuchets for the siege, right?"
"Yes I did." He replied,
"So you're proficient in artillery?"
"Yes, I am."
"Then would you kindly design for us a somewhat accurate artillery equipment?"
"I suppose I could do that," He said, "Though I'm not proficient in using magic, so I may need help."
"That's alright, Lui-eya, can you help them with the design?"
"Of course." She sits down in front of them.
"Good, good. Also, make sure that no one else knows about all of this apart from us and whoever you people will choose in helping you with these design, ask Lui-eya if you need any supplies."
"Yes sir!" They both saluted.
"Dismissed." He sighs as they leave, save for Lui-eya who stayed there, still sitting down.
The door closed and he sat down in front of her, "I think this would be more difficult wouldn't it?" She said.
"Yeah, we don't have the element of surprise and we can't just rush to them." He groaned, "Those designs better be good."
"I'll make sure they are."
"Thanks... I'm glad you're here. He said, looking down at the table, for a moment he disassociated, his mind deep in thought about something and when he looked back at her she was gone, the door hanging open. He sighs.
-2 weeks later-
It had been two weeks since Sicilio's march into the city of Sator. Astrian walks through the various industrial buildings that litter the outskirts of the city of Arcadia. He sees the Arcadian Fleet being built, thousands of busy workers working through steam and smoke across the loud factory. They have created a total of five ships so far. Not much but they're getting there. He looks above and sees Lui-eya overlooking the ship-building process, walking through cat-ways to get a clear view.
Astrian then took the stairs up to Lui-eya, it was a pretty high set of stairs, even he felt kind of tired the moment he reached the top. Approaching Lui-eya he raises his hand to catch her attention, she merely glanced at him.
"How's it all so far?" He asked, looking down at the same fleet she was looking at.
"Good. They've finished five already, if Zoroan's estimations are correct, we can fit each with at least two artillery batteries." She replied, her cloak brushing across the wind of the cold night.
"Well that's great, listen uh..." He trails off, thinking of words to use
"Hold on there, I sense something." She focused on the far end of the dockyard.
"I wanna tell you something, it concerns us, Lu-"
"Please, I'm trying to focus." She cuts him off as she focused further into the dockyard her eyes widened.
"Come on, we don't even talk m-" A huge explosion destroyed the far end of the dockyard, from the smoke clouds jumped four people wearing dark clothing, they held bombs that were familiar to the Arcadians. Lui-eya, with no second thought, jumped down.
