Trilogy Two: Part 33 - Daniel's Generals

Trilogy Two: Part 33 - Daniel's Generals

Chapter 33: Daniel’s Generals
“For centuries, the city of Vartier has been an asset to the city of Hells, but as of recently the city has been decimated by an unknown force. We speculate, however, that the cause is a single being. A destructive force known by many demons as the Duke of Vartier.”
Daniel had his generals in order. He paced the room as he thought of the possibilities. Inside this particular room were several generals, others were what he would consider military options. The first was David Butler; his first man in charge of regulars. The second was engineer and first aid military general Scott White. Daniel replaced General Brine with his number three seated general, Joe Kelvin, in charge of infantry and skirmishers. Number four was magic representative Joseph Octavian. Even if Drake Irving was in full control of magic, Joseph’s Gold Union authority could sway support in the Lumis Magical Academy. The others were basics; mentor Winston Shocker, associate Paul Lester and newly appointed Admiral Forte Raleigh.
“There have been other sightings of ships moving from the Prophecy planet over to Hells. They were large chips; cargo ships which have the power to haul anything from billions of tiny fruits to a few large siege ships inside. Also, there has been a drastic increase in the ships built around the Hells spaceports.”
Daniel turned full to those at the large rectangular table. They all looked as if they had seen this coming. Butler pointed at the diagrams behind Daniel.
“Ugh…Daniel boy…we’ve let them have so much of an advantage, already! The Gold Union has not been increasing military force since the Light/Fire War!”
Daniel rushed up to Butler and suddenly became angry; this was a face that few saw.
“I can see that, David! I have eyes; I can freaking see the military strength of the Hells planet, okay!”
Forte stood up in his seat; his eyes went straight into Daniel’s. Forte’s imposing height and body language signaled Daniel to calm down. Daniel walked back up to the diagram; Forte took his seat once more.
“We have several choices, then, gentlemen. To deal with the armada, we need Forte to battle with his mercenary forces, as well as the few Lumisonian ships. Take few transports with ground units; we need instigation troops to plot certain STMs on the planet. We can deal with them in that way, or we can play defensively and keep our units at home base and defend using IG classified defense outposts, something the Union hasn’t used in a long time, but we have saved the blueprints for.”
Joe scratched his head and looked towards the diagrams. He shuffled through some papers and spoke softly to Scott. Forte walked up to the diagrams himself and looked at them. He scratched his chin several times and blew strands of hair out of his face. Daniel looked up to him as he also gazed at the diagram.
“Something on your mind, Admiral?”
“Call me Forte…”
Forte’s eyes looked into the diagram. He ran his fingers over the page several times, as if reading the maps with his fingers. Joe finally piped up and coughed several times; pointlessly. Daniel swerved around.
“Joe?”
“Mmhhm, right Daniel, uh, I’ll tell you what we got! If ya take a look o’er here…”
Daniel rushed up to the sketches Joe did on his piece of paper. On the side was mathematic work; done by Scott.
“We’re gonna have to do a combination of tactics, Daniel. Hells is an offensive planet, so they’ll throw anything at us. We know for sure they’ll send regular units; their swordsman and their magicians. We got Irving and his students, so we should be fine for a while with that at home and over there. So what we do, then, is play defensively in magic and space force, since Forte’s the strongest in open space. What we also do is gain an ally in this war; we choose Srarm like last time-”
Daniel shook his head and turned to Butler.
“Srarm would side with Hells, right Dave?”
Butler leaned back in his chair.
“I’m not quite sure, boy…we have a representative from them on our planet, now, and on top of that this Enchanter person seems like a thorn in everyone’s side. We could sway them, but never count on it.”
Daniel looked over to Scott; he wasn’t writing, he was sitting up in his chair and staring into the wall across from him. Daniel snapped twice to Scott.
“Hey, White, stay with us.”
Scott’s eyes went to Daniel. His eyebrows depressed into a frown.
“Do you mind, Mister Morgan, I just saw my younger brother switch sides from Lumisonian to Hells.”
Daniel walked over to Scott’s area and looked into his face.
“So we’ve got to battle that much harder; chances are he’s just as good as you are, son.”
Scott gritted his teeth and clenched his fists.
“I’ve also learned he’s an executioner and a necromancer. I’ve learned he doesn’t get sleep and that he twists and turns at night. I’ve learned that he’s scraped this planet for an empty planet and that he’s not safe, now! I think that’s enough reason to count me out at the moment, Mister Morgan.”
Daniel pointed directly at Scott’s face. He kept the other arm behind his back, as if forcing himself to remain calm.
“I had a brother, Scott, so don’t you tell me what’s reason enough and what isn’t!”
“I am not helping you right now, Mister Morgan. I just saw my brother broken and heartless. I see him cold and beaten. He looks practically shattered and there’s nothing I can do because I am his enemy, yet again! And it’s all the fault of these stupid planets, always at war, always deranged from each other, because there’s some moron that wants to prove one planet over the other one!”
Daniel seemed about ready to retaliate again, but a large hand thrust itself in front of Daniel’s path. It was the suited arm of Forte Raleigh.
“Not now, can’t you see the guy’s busted?”
Daniel looked down at Scott and nodded several times.
“Fine…but I know that when there’s business to be solved, I have no time for things like this.”
Daniel swerved back around and looked over the diagrams one more time. He suddenly clapped his hands together.
“I’ve got it! Forte, can you hold off Hells ships from Holy?!”
Forte walked up to Daniel and nodded his head.
“I’ve kept Lumis away with what used to be a meager force; I can sure as heck do it now that I’m a baron in Lumis military. Why?”
Daniel’s eyes looked over the maps several dozen times over as the wheels in his head seemed to turn. He pointed to seemingly random spots on the map; Daniel was playing a game in his head.
“We forge allies with the Holy planet again; we gain the hammer of light once more and we’ll be victorious. That Philly boy, he’s the son of a hero, why not a hero once more? Except we send him with units after we establish a STM or two, that way he’ll be teleported onto that planet and instantly wipe out demon units with Holy tools. And besides, if the rumors are true and that man is Leonardo, we may have need of a specific triple sword bloodline hero. If mythology prevails, triple sword is our trump card against Leonardo.”
Lester jumped up in his seat at this remark. Strangely enough, he seemed troubled.
“So we’re gonna use the kid as a weapon? Don’t you think that’s a little bit much pressure to put on a child?”
“The thought had crossed my mind, but…oh! So Mister Paul Lester has feelings, after all.”
Daniel’s face widened into an absolute grin. Paul twiddled his fingers and slightly flushed.
“Look, Daniel, it’s not like I care for the kid or anything, but using him as a tool is a bit unlike the Gold Union. We don’t use children; we do things on our own, like a military union should.”
Daniel shrugged and took out a card. On it was the word ‘soldier’.
“Consider Philly nothing but a unit in our military, nothing but another soldier. But like his dear old father, he will be one of our special units; one we will have complete and total control over.”
It was Winston’s turn to jump up in his seat.
“With all due respect, Daniel, Philip the First was an apt swordsman and trained military man. What is Philly? A Lumisonian with healing and extrasensory abilities? He’s no soldier; I’ve seen him with my own eyes. I’ve spoken to the source, myself; he’s no fighter, Daniel.”
Daniel put the card away and shook his head.
“He has the blood inside of him, Winston, Paul…give the boy a sword he can carry and see how he reacts. Show him the uniform of his father; play with the violence strings and see how he reacts. Make him remember that the pale man out there killed his father. I want him to burn with rage; I want him to remember who it was that destroyed his life!”
Daniel swerved around to his maps once more and looked them over.
“Why the triple sword? Their blood, gentleman. The style, the finesse, the skill that the ancient triple sword bloodline had was incredible. If Philip could achieve it, why not his own son, Philip the Second? I’m sure he’s got some nerve in that tiny, little, underdeveloped body of his.”
Forte turned to Daniel.
“And suddenly we’re interested in using a boy as our weapon?”
Daniel shot a glare towards Forte.
“A single person took down your entire ship, did he not? A single person bypassed all Holy personnel and assassinated the greatest Lumisonian hero of all time without so much as a scratch. A single person took over the entire Hells planet…”
Daniel turned to face everyone; he gestured for Forte to return to his seat.
“One person in this room controls all the military force on Lumis, another does the same on Srarm, another controls every being on Holy. Any of those people can change the other worlds, don’t you understand? Single people can make a difference; they have and they will continue to do so. But I want this boy to work in our favor; I want this boy to be equivalent to that Chey Yun; that mindless killing machine out there. I want Philly to be better. All we have to do is wonder why Chey could kill Philip and what his tactics are. After that, Leonardo will be a synch to defeat in battle; he’s nothing but a supped-up pyromancer.”
Daniel walked back and forth across the room and scratched his chin.
“Issue a small draft. The military we have, well, order Lloyd Leal to start his drills and technique teachings. Magical? Tell them to be on alert, all espionage and the whole magical academy military. Engineers should prepare their weapons and monster tamers should prepare their creatures for battle. You heard General William White…the Enchanter wants a war, huh? Lumis does not lose.”