Gra Gryning

[Cherico]

Las Vegas 1987
Ralph Essen- US navy Aquisitions department
Summer Magi 3rd class

I looked at myself in the mirror, my outfit was pressed, my room was empty. I didn't bother eating, I wanted an empty stomach, especially in this town. I looked around and smiled as I found the glowing blue crystal, I sighed and charged it. I then got out of my hotel room, the heat hit me first. The strong overwhelming sense of heat. I looked at the glowing crystal and turned a little knob.

"Hey Ralph."

Tom leaned against the old junker of the van the navy let us use. He was from some podunk town in Louisiana near enough to the New Orleans Nexus to know what we were like. Tom's head was freshly shaved, I envy'd his dark skin, men like me couldn't pull that look off at all but African americans, have to remember that word. Like Tom pulled the look off perfectly.

"I'm going to need you to drive."

He frowned.

"You didn't eat anything did you?"

"No."

"Because I know what this city does to you people."

I frowned.

"What do you mean by you people?"

Tom laughed.

"You really going to pull that one on a brother? I mean Magi, Wizard, or whatever bullshit jargon the bean counters want to use to make to make magic more scientific, by the way what word are they forcing you to call yourself now?"

"Etheric scientist."

Tom shook his head.

"Telling yah Ralph it's bullshit, get into the van the sooner this is over the better."

I gave him a quick heads up and I got into the van, we drove slowly.

"I hate this town."

Tom nodded.

"Never knew a magi who didn't, but that's the point isn't it? Can't have working Casinos with you guys around you, would
end up robbing them blind."

"I understand why this town runs the way it does, it doesn't mean I have to like it Tom."

He shrugged and we drove on.

"So Ralph, the brass said to head to the strip but they didn't say what building."

I looked out the window as the city came within view.

"Castaways."

He smiled.

"No shit, you know I went there once, their cocktails were fucking awesome, and they would bring out this pig and slow roast it just like in the movies."

I shrugged.

"They're closing down, tearing down the whole thing to build another casino, it's cheaper to sell it to us then to hire a demolition crew so here we are."

Tom smiled.

"So Castaways?"

"1700 rooms and 35,000 square feet, don't know what we're going to use the space for, it's all classified."

"Probably a carrier Ralph."

"Probblly, the whole operation's a rank 10 spell minimum, even with the line it's going to take months to get the ritual ready."

Suddenly the miasma of the city hit me, I felt sick.

"Fucking hate Vegas."

Tom looked out ahead.

"I know, but the sooner we get this over with the better."

We drove onward, and then stopped the van, Tom gave me a roll of tums.

"To settle your stomach."

I took two and we walked inside, a receptionist looked up at us.

"US navy aquisitions."

She shrugged.

"Whatever."

She went to her phone and looked up.

"There are chairs over there, sit wherever."

We sat down and a woman walked passed us, from a distance she looked wonderful dusky, leggy and busty and then as she got closer I felt an overwelming sense of revulsion and disgust.

"You the Navy boys."

We nodded, Tom looked at me and then at her.

"My friend has food poisoning."

She looked at me and sighed.

"Sure, let's go with that."

We followed her, and gritted my teeth trying to deal with the stench that came off of her, I was starting to get angry as the door opened, a pale pudgy man looked up.

"Navy Aquisitions."

He looked at me the door slamned behind us.

"Magi."

I nodded.

"You can tell?"

He smirked.

"Sophia there? Married a navy man, took everything he had, and then destroyed him in the divorce, says its because he cheated on her, but we both know she's lying, you wouldn't look sick to your gills if that was the truth."

He paused.

"That why we hired her, hired a lot of people like her, can't have guys like you hanging round the tables."

"I respect that but can you please keep her away from me?"

"Done, and anyways Sophi understands what she does to you people, gets her angry and mad but she understands you
can't help it."

He looked up at the ceiling.

"Going to miss this place, had a lot of good memories here, Elvis played here once, great guy, liked him alot."

"Really?"

"Yeah, but that's the thing about Vegas there's always some thing new."

He sighed and gave me a key.

"You got full run of the place, the check already came in and the employees are leaving as we speak."

"I'm sorry it came to this."

He shrurgged.

"It is what it is."

He got up.

"Look I get why you guys hate this city, but it wasn't built for you, it was built for people who wanted to start over, people
who made mistakes and didn't want everyone knowing their business."

"We can't help it."

"I know, people can't help a lot of things, still going to miss this place."

We followed him as he took one last walk around the casino as we prepared to destroy his life's work, and suddenly that sickness that lurching feeling was put into perspective.

 

[Murica]

It's pretty good-- I'm just confused as to what fandom it's from.

 

[7 Gold Eye Heals the Wise]

Sweet, got early enough into a Cherico story thread to comment on it.

It's pretty good-- I'm just confused as to what fandom it's from.

Looks original, and I'm loving it.

 

[Laskar]

Yeah. Looks original. Not sure what's going on, but I think it has potential.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


I silently looked through the casino, as employees gathered their things, collectors bought trinkets and picked over the corpse of the dying casino and gamblers tried their luck for the last time. I saw a Republic of Chinese soldier and walked up to him. I moved my fingers and cast a simple translation spell.

"What brings you here?"

He looked at me with a thousand yard stare.

"Mage."

I nodded.

"Figures."

He pulled a lever and frowned as a coin vanished forever.

"RnR, was back there for awhile looking for surviviors, refugees, anyone we could save."

I gave him a look of sympathy.

"Find anyone?"

"A few, just kind of wandered through what was left, so many died, and the dying just continues, the Russians."

He took a deep breath.

"Need a drink on me?"

He shook his head.

"If I started now I'd never stop."

He went back to his gambling, and I went around measuring everything I could, trying to make use of this doomed casino. When I was finished I wrote my notes into a book and went to Tom, he looked at me.

"Need to get out."

"Job finished?"

"Yeah, going to go to base, get out of this place."

We got in the van and drove off into the distance. I popped a few more tums, that feeling of sickness fading as we got further from town. I looked at a homeless man.

"The end is neigh, motherfucker the end already came."

I put a hand on Tom's shoulder.

"We're all coping the best we can."

Tom sighed.

"I know, and shit could have been so much worse, thank god for magic, thank god we had the old bird looking after us."

I nodded.

And we drove on my stomach settled as we drove into the sunset and we looked at the sky, our new sky.





"Remember when the sky had one moon."

Tom's voice was haunted.

"Yeah I do too, but Phobos and Demimos are beautiful tonight."

He took a deep breath.

"Hard to belive its all gone, what were those Russian assholes thinking? I mean WHAT THE FUCK!"

His breathing was heavy.

"They destroyed the world, the entire motherfucking world, what the fuck were they thinking?"

"Don't know Tom, they're talking about turning it into a holiday."

"Why the fuck would anyone want to celebrate Bloody September?"

I stared at the two moons in the sky.

"Because we survived. There were what 170, 190 countires on Earth before the end? Now it's just us, the lucky few who survived the war, who got raptured. If the russians had gone crazy just a few years earlier those countermeasures wouldn't have been completed, and that would have been it for the human race."

Project Rapture, a centuries long countermeasure the old bird made just in case, a hundred years to grow the 108 seedlings, a hundred years for those seedlings to terraform 108 planets and moons from Venus to Pluto.

"We could have saved more."

Toms words echoed through the van as my sickness left me, his hands on a map. The map that determined who did and didn't get saved. If you were in blue your country was allied to america and in the event the world ended would be transported to another world, hopefully in time to save your entire country.

If your country was in green you were a fencesitter, the president and the president alone had discression over whether you lived or died, if your country was in red? You died, tough luck kiddo, you picked the wrong side.

It did.

"We're at the base."

We got out of the Van and Tom frowned at a statue of Reagan, the statue of Reagan looked horrified.

"Fucking Asshole, you could have saved more."

I put a hand on Toms shoulder, Reagan had been a hardliner, and took quite a few countries off of the safe list. If you tried to play both sides your ticket on the lifeboat was officially removed. If you tried to stay out of it but had an under the table deal with the US you got to live.

Most countries in Europe and the Americas got the message, Europe got the message, Africa and the middle east? Not so much.

"YOU COULD HAVE SAVED MORE!"

I let him take a couple breaths, three days after the rapture Reagan took a small gun out of his desk and blew his brains out, It was for the best, Bush was decent enough at his job.

We looked at the list 70 countries

The survivors, I traced their names with my finger

Africa

Angola, Liberia, Nambia, South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique.

"Six countries in Africa, we could have saved another 38 if Reagan wasn't a fuck up."

Tom whispered the words, the issue was a sore one, thankfully there werwn't any officers around as we traced the list with our fingers.

Europe

Iceland, Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Portugal, West Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Greece, Turkey.

The 20 european countries that survived.

In the Americas I saw 33 names, Cuba and Honduras had been left behind in that world of nuclear fire.

In between Europe and America Israel sat in its former frozen wasteland, can't believe they once called in Greenland.


India, Thailand, New Zealand, Phillipines, Japan, Korea, Republic of China, Singapore, Australia, and finally Papua New Guinea.

These were the survivors the ones who lived.

"Fuck Reagan."

Tom wasn't diplomatic about his feelings on the matter.

 

[Cherico]

Project Rapture
November 30th 1962


The world came way to close to ending, one mistep, one mistake and human civilization as we know it would have ended. Even with our technology, with our magic we would have lost too much, and the Soviet Union's nuclear stockpile is only growing with time, which means that if the unthinkable happens then it's just going to get worse.

But the crisis had a silver lining, we learned about assets we didn't know we had, resources we didn't know we had. It's strange, the Garfield presidency, a presidency that only lasted 200 days might be the key to the survival of the human race.

It turns out that the worldtree, the place Compass is located in has a secret function, every hundred years it creates 108 seedlings, powerful bits of magic and technology built to terraform entire planets, the last and greatest creation of the Phoenix people before they were wiped out.

Merlin asked for permission to use that powerful bit of magic and it was granted, it would take a hundred years for the terraforming to be completed. We have talked to the old bird, about it, if we can stall for time, make it to 1980 then humanity might survive, but if the end happens before that, then we need to have back ups, countermeasures.

We have talked to our allies in Nato and project Rapture is the result of our planning. In the event of nuclear war, core allies like Nato will be moved to new worlds if the end happens after 1980, if it happens before homunculi, magically made artificial humans with preprogramed memories will be born after the end. Even if they're not americans a part of our culture, of what made us, us will live on.

Allied core nations will have an option to have homunculi colonies of their own ranging from 1 million to 100 million depending on their preferences.

I pray that this last ditch countermeasure is never needed, I pray that sanity prevales.

May god have mercy on us all.

Spoiler: Project Rapute Damage report 1983

Venus- Not claimed

Mars- USA

Moons of Jupiter- 40 worlds

1-Ganymede- Iceland
2-Calisto- Ireland
3- Io- France
4- Europa- UK
5- Amalthea- Spain
6- Himalia- Portugal
7- Thebe- West Germany
8- Elara-Switzerland
9- Pasiphae- Belgum
10- Metis- Netherlands
11- Carme- Luxumburg
12- Sinoppe- Italy
13- Lysithea- Austria
14- Anake- Chezch republic
15- Leda- Poland
16- Themesto- Denmark
17- Praxidike- Norway
18- Locaste- Sweden
19- Kalyke- Finland
20- Megaclite- Greece
21- Taygete- Turkey
22- Clariho- India
23- Autotoe- Republic of China
24- Harpalyke- Korea
25- Thyone- Thailand
26- Heremppe- New Zealand
27- Chaldene- Phillipines
28- Aoede-Australia
29- Eukalade- Singapore
30- Isone- Papa New Guini
31- Helike- Not claimed
32- Carpo- Not claimed
33- Aitne- Not claimed
34- Eurydome- Not Claimed
35- Arche- Not Claimed
36- Euanthe- Not Claimed
37- Sponde- Not Claimed
38- Kore- Japan
39- Kale- Not Claimed
40-Mneme- Not Claimed



Moons of Saturn- 40 worlds

1- Titan- Canada
2- Rhea- Brazil
3- Lapetus- Mexico
4- Dione- Argentina
5- Tethys- Peru
6- Enceledus- Argentina
7- Minmas- Venuzuela
8- Hyperion- Chile
9- Phoebe-Ecudor
10- Janus-Boliva
11- Epimetheus- Haiti
12- Prometheus- Dominican republic
13- Pandora- Honduras
14- Helene- Paraguay
15- Atlas- Nicaragia
16- Pan- El salvadore
17- Telesto- Costa Rica
18 - Calypso- Panama
19- Ymir- Uragauy
20- Tarvos- Jamaica
21- Kari-Trinadad
22- Skoll- Guyana
23- Surtur- Suriname
24- Loge- Bahamas
25- Bestla- Belize
26- Aegir- Barbados
27- Fenrir- Saint lucia
28- Fornjot- Aruba
29- Methone- Grenada
30- Pallene- Bermuda
31- Aegon- Dominca
32- Thymr- Antiqua
33- Hati- Israel
34- Griep- Saint kitts
35- Narvi- Not Claimed
36- Tarqeq- Not claimed
37- Errapo- Not claimed
38- Leda- Not claimed
39- Elara- Not claimed
40- Skath- Not claimed

Moons of Uranus- 20 worlds

1- Titania- Angola
2- Oberon- Nambia
3- Umberiel- South Africa
4- Ariel- Roadesia
5- Miranda- Liberia
6- Puck- Mozembeque
7- Portia- Not claimed
8- Juliet- Not claimed
9- Caliban- Not claimed
10- Belinda- not claimed
11- Cressida- not claimed
12- Rosalind- not claimed
13- Desdemona- not claimed
14-Bianca- not claimed
15- Ophelia- not claimed
16- Cordelia- not claimed
17- Perida- not claimed
18- Prospero- not claimed
19- Mab- not claimed
20- Cupid- not claimed

Moons of Neptune- 5 worlds

1-Triton- not claimed
2-Proteus- not claimed
3- Galatea- Not claimed
4- Neso- Not Claimed
5- Sao- Not Claimed

Pluto- Not claimed

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

I started packing, I didn't have a lot of things. Tom walked in.

"Leaving?"

I shrugged.

"After I gave my report the navy decided to let a civilian firm handle it, they don't need me in aquisitions so I'm getting moved."

"Where too?"

"Search and rescue, or search and destroy. Depends on if we find commies or literally anyone else."

"Going to Earth then?"

I nodded.

"Opening a portal is a team effort and Compass isn't spitting out trained Magi fast enough to keep up with the increased demand."

"Damned war."

I shrugged, it was what it was.

"If you're looking to get promoted to E4 and increase in your paygrade...."

"No."

Tom's words cut through the room like a knife, he looked at me with haunted eyes.

"My brother was a Jarhead, protected an embassy in Chad."

I grimaced.

"So..."

"Yeah Chad got hit, everyone got hit. They used to be on the protected list but you know fucking Reagan."

He paused.

"I volunteered for search and rescue, thought maybe the russians would leave them be. They were neutral, they didn't bother anyone and they were far away. Then we got to N'Djamena and there was nothing left, place got hit hard, what few survivors we found we sick and dying, because nukes weren't enough for Ivan, he had to use every biological weapon he had too."

I grimaced.

"I spent time in China, Communist China. They were allies, why would you nuke your fucking allies?"

That was the million dollar question, nobody knew why the russians did it, a few months earlier there had been talks of nuclear disarmament, or at least a reduction and then boom they end the world and no one knew why.

I put out a hand.

"It's been nice Tom."

We shook and I put my pack over my back and shuffled out to a bus. It was still dark out and I could see one of the moons in the sky. All around me I saw people who looked nervous or bored. The bus seat was suitably uncomfortable as we drove on.

"Are you a wizard?"

I looked up at the kid, and he was just a kid, his hair had been shaved off and his outfit seemed to hang off him. I pointed at a patch on my shoulder.

"Yeah."

He sat down.

"That's cool, never met one before."

I made room for the newbie.

"So um why did you join the navy?"

He smiled at me.

"Got drafted when we were still fighting the chi-coms in India, now I'm just killing time till retirement, you kid?"

He smiled.

"I came to fight the ruskies, show them they can't-"

I started laughing and he looked at me with anger.

"What?"

I shook my head.

"Ivan's dead, when they ended the war we launched everything we had at him, we destroyed every military base they had, we destroyed every city they had, we hit them with everything we had during the war, and the brits and the french, they backed us."

I paused.

"And when the radiation fell we came back and made damned sure we found whatever remained and broke that too. These days we just try to look to see if anyone survived, if we find anyone we offer them refugee status through the UN's resettlement program, or aid if they want to stay."

He nodded.

"So what's it like, um what's left of Earth?"

I closed my eyes, the memories of the horror returning.

"In the northern hemisphere? Pretty much everything is dead, the only piece of civilization left up there is Saaremaa."

He stared at me blankly.

"Yeah, it's an island off Estonia, one of the countries in the Budapest pact, for whatever reason they somehow managed to survive. We found out about them and demanded an unconditional surrender."

I paused.

"They agreed. Didn't have much choice, we had food and they had nothing. Anyways if you find any survivors in Pact areas, you send them off for processing."

He nodded.

"You have no idea what that is?"

"Nope."

"Ok if they're civilians they got to Saaremaa, the UN then decides what to do with them. If they were party members or military they get told to survive on their own."

"Harsh."

"Made their own bed, if they're Soviet civilian or otherwise you let the Angolans handle it."

"And?"

"We don't ask questions about what they do with them."

The kid looked forward.

"Don't worry about it though, any survivors would have been found hte first year before nuclear winter killed all the crops."

The boy looked a little sick.

"So the rest of the world?"

I opened my eyes.

"Only one country survived the war, everyone else either collapsed into civil war, famine or fled to the new territories."

I pulled out a map.

"Behold Indonesia, the last man standing, the greatest and strongest nation on Earth."

"Never heard of them."

I shrugged.

"I didn't know about them before the war either but right now they're the the closest thing Earth has to a functional country so get used to talking about them."

That's the thing about life, sometimes it' the people you never expect who come out on top.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

The commanding officer frowned at us.

"Why are we still on Mars?"

As the senior mage I got up.

"The number still isn't prime."

The man frowned.

"The number isn't prime? What are you talking about, we need to get out of here."

The other magi were scowling, I didn't know how this prick got through officer school.

"Teleportation isn't easy, especially teleportation between planets. It has to be done on a leyline nexus, and you need the weight of whatever you're transporting to have mystic resonance and on top of that you need enough mana to power the trip."

I looked at him.

"I think you're blowing smoke up my ass spooky."

I did not need this.

"Call your commanding officer, put him on speaker."

The man stormed to a small box, I heard the admiral's voice.

"What's the hold up?"

I got up.

"We either weigh too little or too much to make transport."

"Ok what's the nearest tonnage?"

"108883 tons or 108887 tons, right now we're in between that."

"By how much?"

"2 tones, either direction."

"Hmm. Ok I'm going to ask a couple of the flyboys to leave. we're still pretty close to land and there are bases nearby."

"Thanks."

I sat down in the middle of the circle with the others.

"Done."

I smiled.

"Good we have resonance."

We started chanting, getting closer to the seasons using the energy of the large quartz crystal in front of us to move the ship. I felt a rush of power and then a migraine.

"Got confirmation, we're on Earth. Good job people."

The officer looked at me.

"Um good job."

I got up and decided to be diplomatic.

"Ensign right?"

He nodded.

"How much experience do you have with magic?"

"I read through the pamphlets."

I shrugged.

"A couple pamphlets don't teach you nearly enough, and officer school never does enough to prepare you guys for fleet duties. It doesn't help that there is a lot of misinformation out there, point is if you see us doing something you don't understand. Don't be afraid to ask us why we're doing things that way and if you don't like the anwser then I recommend talking to a more senior officer."

He nodded.

"TV makes it seem like magic can do anything and I really wish that was true but it isn't. There are rules to it like any other science or discipline, limitations and we try to work around those limitations as best we can."

The ensign nodded.

"Does the library have more information?"

"It does, but sometimes they leave stuff out so don't be afraid to ask."

I saluted him and he nodded.

"Very well then, good work."

With that the ensign left the room.

"Prick."

I turned my head and looked at Goldberg.

"He's new."

"He's still a prick."

We got up and made our round of the ship. We officially had nothing to do but it was important to look busy otherwise work would be invented for you. Goldberg looked out ahead.

"So you're really going to just quit?"

"After this tour I get to retire, and then I am free."

"Nice. What are you going to do?"

I thought about it, I didn't really have anything. I didn't take a lot of vacation, I didn't really date and I mostly just socked money away, but I did like Japan when I visited there.

"Go to Kore, then go to Japan, figure I would go somewhere rural out of the way and kind of figure myself out. "

"Isn't Japan expensive?"

"Tokyo is, once you get away from the major cities its pretty affordable, cheaper then some cities in the US and the dollar goes a long way."

We opened the door and walked upstairs. We looked outside, it was noon and the world was completely dark.

"When do you think the nuclear winter will end?"

I shrugged.

"They say it's going to last at least 30 years, so we will both be old men when the sun starts shining again."

My eyes met with one of the flyboys as they shooed away anyone who got too close to their precious machines.

"Things would be so much easier if we had our own planes."

"The airforce would throw a shitfit and you know it Goldberg. If it fights in the air it's airforce, if it fights on the water it's navy, if it fights on land it's army and if it fights dirty it belongs to the marine corps."

He shrugged, even after the end of the world interservice rivalry never dies.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


The battleships were blaring music, the carrier was sending out radio, music mostly.

Theorectically it was to signal to anyone who was close by to the international flotilla that there was life, that there was help. Our ship got closer to a swedish battleship, the Johan Banér. A man flew from the ship and looked at me with a look that was suitably grim.

"It's your turn."

He looked at me as his broom landed on the ship.

"God help us all, it is."

He brought out an envelope.

"Fellow mage?"

He nodded.

"Yes."

I put out an hand.

"Ralph."

"Liam."

We shook hands and he hooked his broom to his back.

"So Ralph, what school did you study at?"

I smiled.

"Compass."

Liam nodded.

"Good school, though I could never go there."

"Why?"

"The school uniform has way too many belts."

I rolled my eyes.

"It's not that bad. What school did you go too?"

"Trosa academy of magic."

"Trosa?"

He sighed.

"It was built in the 1850s as a symbol of friendship between our countries, nobody wanted the school near them so Trosa was picked because pretty much no one lived there."

I nodded.

"And?"

"And now it's a tourist trap, the city of magic."

He sighed as we walked to the bridge.

"If this envelope was lost would it be fine if I blamed it on you?"

"Why?"

"Abba... three weeks of nothing but Abba, please don't put us through it."

I shrugged.

"They would just radio the list and you know it."

He pulled out a small flask and took a drink.

"Is that vodka?"

"Made in Sweden."

I looked at him.

"I don't recommend drinking that here, Vodkas not popular here, as far as the people here are concerned it's a russian drink."

Liam sighed.

"And the russians ruin everything don't they?"

"Yes they do."

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

"For what it's worth I'm sorry."

Liam sighed.

"Not your fault, it's our idiot commander, asshole loves Abba."

He cringed as 'dancing queen' started playing.

"You do know that we have bands that aren't Abba right? Right?"

I shrugged as he took another drink from his flask. We were leaning against the wall, watching the the perpetually dark sky.

"So hows the new swedish homeworld doing?"

"New Sweden?"

He closed his eyes.

"It's nice, but the poltics are kind of terrible right now."

"How so?"

He sighed.

"Ok about mid 60's one of our spies found out about the soviets 'kill 'em all' policy, and well they leaked it to the public right after project Rapture was made public. So we were faced with a choice be neutral and die anyways or pick a side and potentially live. We decided to join Nato openly, as did everyone the Finnish."

He took another swig.

"The option of settling on Iocaste didn't exist back then so everyone in Nato was given an option to clone a bunch of people so that at least a part of our culture would survive. With options ranging from zero to 100 milllion."

I nodded.

"We got 120 million."

I cringed.

"And instead of an even population we have 20 million surplus women."

"Sorry about that, Kennedy had a real thing for swedish women, we did that as an um last request."

Liam sighed.

"Thing is we only joined Nato just in case, we didn't actually think either you or the russians would pull the trigger and since we thought that we decided to put the education of the clones into the hands of the Moderata samlingspartiet."

I stared at him.

"The conservative party, they pretty much had no actual power and we did it to shut them up. Thing is when the world ended that program went through automatically. We went from having 8 million people to 128 million people, with the vast majority being essentially raised by the most conservative party in the country."

"How bad?"

He sighed.

"Once you leave the major cities it's just terrible, they get into your business they pester you and pick at you and they don't mind their own business, and the women are just plain predatory."

"Thought you would be for that."

"It's one of those things that seems like a great idea until you actually live in it, this whole thing was a series of things that seemed like a good idea at the time blowing up in our faces. We're basically outnumbered by a bunch of socially inept lutheran theocrats now."

He took another swig of his drink.

"Fucking Russians."

I nodded.

"Can't blame them for the clones though, that was our fuck up."

I shrugged.

"We went from 250 million to 555 million."

"And?"

I shrugged.

"It was more balanced but our clones are just weird, like they're all boy scouts."

We chuckled and he looked out into the distance.

"Pretty much everyone in Nato went for broke, only one who said no was the turks, they may have been the bright ones, everyone's having trouble with the adjustment. We didn't think we were going to live with them and they were basically raised to think of themselves as the last outpost of civilization."

Another swug and he sighed.

"Out of booze."

"That's not so bad?"

"Only booze on our ship is the stuff we smuggled in, there are moral considerations now."

He did some air quotes and sighed.

"At least were not as fucked as the greeks."

I looked up.

"What's going on with them?"

He smiled.

"They get their clones right? Program them to be all rightous, pay their taxes and be good greeks right, but tax dodging is a national past time, the minute their clones get to vote the entire government gets purged, pretty much every last one of them's in jail and they're cracking down on all the tax cheats."

He laughed.

"As bad as we fucked ourselves the Greeks were a special kind of stupid, fucked themselves over proper."

He got up.

"Got to go back to the ship back... it's on a fucking loop."

I nodded.

"Fucking 'dancing quee'n is on a loop, fuck my life."

He got on his broom and flew away and as our flotilla sailed on there was nothing but silence, darkness and a song about a dancing queen blaring out into a dead world.

 

[Murica]

Gawsh dang Russians, always ruinin' everythang!

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

It was hard to tell time in the darkness and cold. We were heading to our first location Saaremaa, the last surviving outpost of civilization in the northern hemisphere. I saw the light of run down skyscrapers in the distance, things transported to Earth to house refugees. Brought here instead of just tearing them down.

Then we warped them together using magic, a hodgepodge of different architectural styles from different countries built in different times, melded together to create a monstrocity to house people and keep them out of the radiation and posioned world around them.

They were crap but it was better then living on the mainland, a glorified refugee camp that acted as Nato's base for the forseeable future.

"Current population numbers?"

The radio man called in and sighed.

"Current population 542,112 people, most of it from natural increase, majority Estonian, 322 thousand, the rest are a mixture of eastern european."

Estonia, the lucky country somehow managing to not get nuked by either the russians or us, they got to enjoy the pleasure of being killed by radiation, toxic air, posioned water, and starvation. Ok maybe they were not lucky.

"Going to port, ok everyone let's get the food off."

I moved with the other magi to help. I made the walkways where the crates would be moved more slippery, spring magi used force magic to alter the gravity to make it easier to move the crates, winter magi cast strength spells on the sailors as they pass by, and the autumn magi used their magic to alter probability to cut down on mistakes.

"Why aren't the spookies helping us? They're just standing there waving their hands, least they could do is fucking help."

The group of us looked at each other and then at the idiot marine jarhead who opened his mouth.

"Fucking hell Leroy."

We put our hands down and the offending Marine knees buckled.

"What the-"

I walked forward. I was one year from retirement no one would press hard if I gave the speech.

"We altered the gravity to half of Earths, we doubled your strength, we altered the walkway to make it easier for you to push that crate, we altered fate itself so you would have less chance of fucking it all up. Now do you want our help or do you want to do it the hard way?"

The Marine glared at me, at us.

"Sorry."

We raised our hands, spending our mana to restart the process.

"Always have to cause trouble, always have to bitch don't you Leroy."

"Fuck you, I didn't know."

The carrier continued to unload food for the refugee. When we were finished we were given the all clear, 48 hours of shore leave. I nodded at the other magi as we walked towards the big ugly block that held the majority of Europe's population.

Bored Nato troops waved us through and we watched the metallic gates open, letting us in.

"Welcome to the city of Oudus people, have fun."

We walked inside, the lights flickered, people held out hats and cups desperate for food or money. Many of them looked sick their faces, I saw several women deathly thin and bald, their teeth missing as they pushed forward trying to compete for our sympathy.

We walked pass them ignoring them, those who didn't know the score offered money and were swarmed. We shook our heads, Oudus was a place where dreams came to die. We passed more people with dead eyes. Heading towards the interior, men with clubs looked at us and nodded.

Estonian security forces, given more food, better housing, and money in exchange for keeping order. They were picked for several qualities. If you hated communism, hated russians, or could suck up to UN forces AKA us you got the position. Competence and a lack of corruption took a distant seat to reliability.

Oudus had a clear hierarchy, one enforced with violence.

At the top of the hierachy were UN forces, we were in charge of everything, under us were Estonian security forces, then Estonian nationals, then nationals of other Budapest pact countries, then former troops who had been cleared, they were forced to wear armpatch's with crossed swords on them. At the bottom of the pyramid were former party members, forced to wear the hammer and cycle armpatches at all time. As for russians there weren't any, they were either not allowed in or killed on sight. Not by us of course, we let the frustrated and angry Budapest pact refugees do that for us.

We didn't trust them with any jobs, and if anything happened to them we turned a blind eye to it.

I stopped, seeing the familar armpatch, his eyes were open in horror as he swayed from the high ceiling. I looked at the shrugging Estonian security forces.

"Suicide is tragic, yes?"

We shrugged and walked forward, the lights twinkled a bit and a man looked up at us. He had a patch that showed that we had rescued him from a gulag. Before the war that meant you were nothing, after the war it mean access to the best housing and jobs in Oudus.

"We're here to fix the generator."

I handed in my paperwork and the man smiled.

"The people of Estonia thank the generosity of the international community and it's spirit of brotherhood."

The Estonians made sure to publically suck up to us. I knew he didn't really like me, we were a part of an invading army, but since we were part of an invading army that brought food, medicine and everything else they made sure not to make us angry.

Why if they behaved themsleves Estonia would have a chance to be an independent country again, lords of an empty Europe. They just had to suffer our presence until the long winter ended, until then frustrations were taken out down the chain, everyone kicking lower.

Half the reason why the comrades were allowed to live was to give even the lowest someone to kick. We walked into an elevator, the machinery wirred and we stood in silence.

"It better not freeze again."

I shrugged, and we went into the depths of the city, each of us praying that the elderly elevator would live just a little longer. We sighed in relief as the door opened, we passed Estonian security forces armed with sticks, and held up our papers. They opened the blast doors and we walked through to a second door operated by actual security armed with guns.

"Papers."

We brought them out.

"Working on the geothermal plant?"

We nodded. Great thing about magic, get enough magi together in one place with enough mana and you can do almost anything, so we built a geothermal plant to power the city, the city had extreme power needs and we certaintly didn't trust the natives with nuclear.

"Yeah, there have been complaints about the power acting up, and this place doubles as the city's water supply so..."

"Whatever, I'm just paid to shoot anyone stupid enough to fuck with things, not keep this shithole running."

We walked inside, I twisted my crystal to help deal with the heat. Sea water splashed onto hot magma, the vapor made the the underground belly of the city unbearable, heat and moisture. We walked up to the project lead, a bored Japanese man.

"Got the quartz?"

"Fully charged."

We opened metallic suitcases bringing out orbs of clear quartz, quite possibly one of the single best mediums for holding mana in the world. He looked at them and directed us to platforms that held the old orbs, we got on our knees and started replacing them.

Casting spells so that the array would allow the unholy mismash of magic and technology to continue to function, to continue to power the mishmash of a city above us. We looked at the project lead.

"Ok the array's fully charged again."

We were now free.

"Any place to go?"

He shrugged.

"Nothing local, the international district just opened a few new restaurants."

I frowned.

"Locals?"

He shrugged.

"Trustworthy ones, they passed security."

I looked around, we nodded and walked to the elevator, we went up and traveled in a group towards the western blocks where the aid workers and Nato officials lived, the good part of what passed for a town. We kept our eyes open.

Foreigners were obvious, they wore uniforms and suits, locals, Estonians were also obvious wearing second hand clothing from good will donations from around the Solar system. They were thin but not emaciated, their skin clear of blemishes, looking healthy.

In exchange for collaborating with us they got first access to food, to clothing, to jobs, to medicine. We passed sickly people in rags waiting for their turn to die, these were other pact members. They were here hoping and praying for a chance to get offworld.

If they got lucky they would recieve refugee status and a chance to get out of here, if they didn't they would remain here until they died. A group of locals passed us, holding a stretcher, they had black armbands. We got out of the way and let them remove the corpse.

We continued to walk through the city, eyes looked at us lingering on patches that proclaimed to the world that we were magi. That we were dangerous, we were given a wide berth. We passed makeshift doors guarded by security forces.

We passed people with makeshift stalls, there had been complaints initially about them, but President Bush said something about teaching the people about capitalism. So we allowed the haphazard adhock stores with their silent owners.

I stopped.

"Liam."

He looked at me.

"Got stuck with repair duty?"

I nodded.

"Yeah powerplant, you?"

He sighed.

"I'm winter so I've been dealing with refugees all day, they let me out of there because I'm out of juice and they don't have any clean water for me to work with."

I winced in sympathy.

"Beer on me then?"

He nodded and we continued walking.

"It's sicking how we treat them."

I shrugged.

"They were the enemy."

"The war's over, we shouldn't treat them like this, where's the compassion the... oh hell."

The locals turned their heads and glared. A man in a uniform was wearing an ushanka, you didn't wear those here especially one with soviet pin. We rushed towards the man and I sighed, american why did it have to be one of our idiots.

"What the hell are you doing?"

The man looked at me.

"Ah bought a new hat."

Accent was southern Texan.

"Take that off."

"Why, ah didn't do-"

"Look around you."

The man blinked and looked around at the frowning and angry stares.

"Ah messed up didn't I?"

I nodded, he took off the hat.

"Ahm sorry folks didn't mean to upset y'all."

The crowd looked away appeased as he put the hat into a box, he grimaced.

"Sorry, didn't know."

"It's ok, the military doesn't do enough to brief people."

He moved away from us holding dollars, picking up more sovieners to bring back home. We walked through another door. We passed places converted into churches, we smelled cooked food. People in rags listen with boredom as preachers from a thousand religions preached. When the sermon was over they would be fed.

Each church, synagoge, mosque, and temple competed for the souls of the indifferent masses of the last city in Europe.

This was Estonia and god had no place here.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

The coffee was terrible, we both grimaced as we sipped it.

"This is your fault."

"I didn't invent instant coffee."

"Yes but your country did."

I smirked.

"What's so funny?"

"Compass forces, you to take a course called the history of coffee."

Liam blinked.

"What?"

"The old bird, Merlin he's obsessed with the stuff, one of things we have to do is coffee ceremony."

Liam stared at me.

"Really."

"Kind of like Japanese tea ceremony, point is we were forced to learn who really invented instant coffee and it was invented by Alphonse Allais, a french man in 1881."

I smirked at him, Liam nodded.

"We still get to make fun of your beer."

I raised a finger and then lowered it.

"You have a point there."

I looked over as security forces moved around the makeshift restaurants and cafes.

"Thought they had their own places."

Liam frowned.

"It's their country, if they want to eat here they can eat here."

I looked up and blinked, the security forces swaggered as they moved forward like they owned the place. One of them on the side was different, his face was older, more sever, he wore the same makeshift armor but there was a patch on his shoulder, with a symbol I didn't reconize. His head was shaved clean.

"What's up with him, that guy."

Liam frowned.

"Magi, like us he's using the norse rune for Heritage, estate or possession, it's red, we're dealing with summer."

I blinked.

Shit, Summer magi were masters of forces and prime, of destruction and illusion and their base element was fire. I controlled earth but everything around me was processed, I'd have to burn mana to get results.

"You angry?"

"Using runes to declare yourself a magi? That's a nordic thing, Estonians are not nordic they're balts."

They were getting closer.

"How much water do you have on you?"

"A one liter canteen, I didn't bring my combat canteen."

We looked at the man and his friends, he looked at the shopkeep. The mood was tense, he brought out a wad of cash. My translation spell was still going.

"I know you have wine, it would be worth your while to sell two bottles to myself and my friends."

"Wine is rare."

He opened the wad.

"Pounds, Lira, Dollars, and yen, it's worth your time."

The man counted it carefully.

"I will bring it out at once."

He turned around.

"TO WINE!"

The security forces cheered and took their seats and then at the worst time my translation spell kicked out, I didn't want to blow my limited reserves incase trouble came. Two wine bottles were brought out as were thick plastic cups which were filled. The man with the shaved head waited until every glass was filled and brought his glass up.

They all copied him and then he started singing.

"Mu isamaa, mu õnn ja rõõm,
kui kaunis oled sa!
Ei leia mina iial teal see
surre lai a ilma peal,
mis mul nii armas oleks ka,
kui sa, mu isamaa!"

They all sang along with them, my hand went down to my waist, I had a knife there.

"Sa oled mind ju sünnitand
ja üles kasvatand;
sind tänan mina alati
ja jään sull' truuiks surmani,
mul kõige armsam oled sa,
mu kallis isamaa!"

It wouldn't do a damned thing to the mage, but if I burned power I could take out most of his allies. If this was a set up we could make them pay for it in blood, we didn't need to win just stall for time.

"Su üle Jumal valvaku,
mu armas isamaa!
Ta olgu sinu kaitseja
ja võtku rohkest õnnista,
mis iial ette võtad sa,
mu kallis isamaa!"

The men cheered and downed their wine. Liam and I had our eyes on the man and he looked at us and strutted towards our table, his hands moved I saw signals around his hands and he sat down.

"Magi."

He sat down.

"You can tell?"

He pointed at Liam.

"Nordic rune of protection, colored blue, a compass pointing east colored green, winter magi of Sweden, spring magi of America."

He smiled, and pointed at himself.

"Summer Magi of Estonia at your service."

I frowned.

"Didn't know you guys had magi."

He swirled his plastic wine glass.

"Did you americans even know my country existed before the war?"

I remained silent.

"Thought so."

My eyes narrowed.

"Are you here to start trouble?"

The man chuckled.

"Nothing of the sort, we had a successful salvage mission in the old country, and came back with gold and silver."

"Salvage mission?"

He nodded.

"Yes, we go off into the ruined lands and look for treasure in the wastes, very dangerous but very profitable. There is a market for old soviet trinkets sovieners for your troops."

He sipped his wine.

"And of course things of the old world."

I looked at him with suspicion.

"And a way to keep in touch with outdated ideas and ideals."

The man frowned.

"Now that my good sir was just rude."

Liam opened his canteen.

"It's also rude to not introduce yourself when you sit a a man's table."

The man blinked and laughed.

"Good point, my name is Endel."

"Ralph."

"Liam."

We were wary of course.

"Thought you guys hated us, so why sit at our table?"

The man shrugged.

"What would have happened to us if we didn't unconditionally surrender the moment we saw your ships?"

I looked him in the eye.

"You would have lost."

He shook his head.

"No, no, there were portions once, of the other Pact countries, of Hungary, of Yugoslavia, of Cuba, they fought you and you retreated. It was early then, before the radiation kicked in, before the long winter. You left them and then you let the radiation do it's work, then you let hunger, and a million soviet diseases, a last bit of their spite finish them off."

He waved his hand.

"We surrendered instantly, and unconditionally."

"Not a lot of loyalty to your allies?"

He tilted his head.

"You had a limited amount of resources, a limited amount of time and a limited amount of empathy, we offered you a deal. We would surrender, we would collaborate with you and in exchange we would live. Estonia still exists."

He raised his glass and his fellows cheered.

"Under occupation."

He shrugged.

"So?"

"That's it."

"We were occupied by the swedes, we were occupied by the poles, we were occupied by the russians, we were occupied by the soviets, then the nazis and then the soviets again."

He leaned forward.

"As occupations go we have had worse, you feed us, cloth us, house us, we could not survive without your help."

"That isn't out of the goodness of our hearts."

He rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes we process the refugees from what's left of the world for you, we keep the order, it isn't free but compared to the russians..."

He leaned back.

"They would tell you what you could and could not read, what you could and could not worship, everything down to what you could wear and even how you were allowed to cut your hair. We toiled in factories that poisoned our land for little pay, to make luxuries that our people would never possess."

He leaned forward.

"You worry about a loyalty that never existed, yes you are rude at times, but as long as there is order you do not care about how we live our lives."

"The world ended."

He shrugged.

"The old world ended, the long winter will not last forever and once the long night ends there will be a new empire, an ESTONIAN EMPIRE!"

They cheered and I frowned.

"And you think we're going to allow that?"

He chuckled.

"26 years."

He paused.

"In 26 years nuclear winter ends, the sun comes out. To the east the Soviet Union is dead, to the north Finland has move to another world, Nato has moved to another world. The few survivors that managed to survive are fleeing off world as quickly as they can."

"Indonesia."

"Has requested a world from the UN. I keep up with the news, they will likely have that request granted, the south is better off but it is still suffering quite a bit. They will move their cities, their people and will vanish from the Earth, and once everyone is gone we will be the last man standing."

He paused.

"Thank you for helping us conquer the Earth."

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

We politely left the celebrating estonians as quickly as we could. I felt disturbed.

"They can't do it, right?"

Liam had his hands in his pockets.

"How many soviets are left?"

I froze.

"Don't know."

"Before the war there was around 250 million of 'em, the nukes killed 90% of them instantly, so 2.5 million survivors. The famines, the bioweapons, the radiation of the first three years, that's another 90% easy. Now there is 250 thousand of them out there, seeking a life on the steps, in siberia in hidden enclaves. We spent 3 years mopping up what remained of their navy but we know they're still out there somewhere."

He froze.

"And no one wants this to happen again, so the plan was simple, de-russify the Estonians, help them rebuild their numbers and then when the nuclear winter ends have them take over the Soviet Union."

"So it's our plan."

Liam nodded.

"We don't live on Earth anymore, all of our cities, all of our history, everything we are is in the stars. In 20 years how attached will we be to our former homeworld? Do you think we're going to be spending money to investigate the Soviet Union forever? No."

He paused.

"We need a partner, we need someone to replace them, to fill the power vacuum left behind. We don't want to occupy this place forever and the locals know it."

The city froze, intercoms lit up.

"This is city commander Richard Anderson of the UN, radiation levels in the world outside are now at safe levels, there will be decontamination of nearby estonian cities and land. Land will be proportioned based on former pre-soviet era land claims. Areas with no legitimate landholders will be given to those of you with proven tract records of trustworthiness."

There was a pause.

"A provisional occupation government will be elected and they will take over most of the tasks formerally held by Nato forces. We will still maintain final say over many things including education. Attempts to spread communist propaganda will be dealt with harshly."

Another pause.

"I'ts been a long 4 years, and we are willing to extend some trust. Abuse it and there will be concequences, prove that you are willing to shove communism in the trash bin of history and you will have a chance to rejoin the civilized world. That said I know somewhere out there there are russian sympathizers, let me tell you this..."

Another pause.

"Russia ended the world, we don't know why and at this point we do not care, in their madness they committed the greatest act of mass murder in human history. In return we put them down like mad dogs. If you try to bring them back we will put you down like dogs. To those of you who want to be decent we are willing to help you regain your homes and rebuild. There will be a new Estonia and it will be free from russian control and influence."

The intercom ended.

"That is all."

Liam shrugged, and we walked forward he started talking.

"Once upon a time the mongols conqured a great land, they however could not do it alone, they needed collaborators people who would work with them, one city decided to do so with gusto and they used the position to become rich and powerful, then in time they created their own empire."

He stoped.

"That city was Moscow."

Were we creating a new monster, a new threat? I didn't know, nobody knew.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

It was getting later and we found a place that served swedish meatballs. We sat down and Liam's eyes opened.

"What the hell?"

A black man walked through the area, he wore a pointed blue wizard hat with moons and stars on it. He wore a robe with mystic symbols over a black business suit, a medallion was on his neck as he strutted around. Liam blinked.

"Why? Those symbols don't even go together, that's not a proper array, it's just nonsense and why would you wear that?"

I shrugged, he was clearly one of ours.

"It's a black thing, let it go."

Liam turned my head.

"What?"

"It's a black thing, let it go."

"No, no I want to understand this."

I sighed.

"War of 1812, first war with magi, the country owed us one, I mean we were at war with Spain, England, and the danes and we essentially held the line until the french acted up and they cut a deal so they could deal with their real enemy."

I paused.

"Merlin grabbed an island as part of the deal, they called it greenland back then, we call it-"

"New Israel."

I nodded.

"Yep handed it over to the jewish people, in exchange they would send teachers and professors, second part of a deal was that discrimination against magi was outlawed."

I leaned back.

"So you couldn't enslave a magi, you had to give them a fair trial and you couldn't exclude them from your businesses and if you were black and also a magi well it was legal to discriminate against black people but it wasn't legal to discriminate against magi."

Liam eyes widened.

"Yep you got it, if you were a black Magi and you were obvious about it Jim Crow did not apply to you. You could sit in any part of the bus you wanted, sunset laws did not apply to you, poll taxes? Do not apply to you, and corrupt cops tended to leave you be because they didn't want their faces melted off."

Liam nodded and I stabbed a meatball.

"We call it going loud, where you don't try to blend in, instead you advertise that you're a magi."

"So Jim Crow ended awhile ago, so why?"

"Because it's tradition, and because it's profitable, you see people who want to buy magical services like it when you look the part so it means more business. Other people go loud too but it's mostly a business thing, vast majority of us don't go to that extreme."

I paused.

"Unless it's a festivel, or part of a school uniform, or it's halloween."

"It's so..."

"Much I know, that's actually subdued, most of the time when people go loud, lots of bright colors, pinks, purples, bright blues, actual glowing signals. Think of it as like poisonous frog, they want predators to know they're toxic and go after something or someone else."

I shrugged.

"Ok so it makes sense but the wizard hat still looks stupid."

"Not going to argue about that with you Liam."

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

"Mind if I sit here?"

The two of us looked up. African american, southern accent, purple suit and turban, he had a glass gem in the turban that looked like a purple eye.

"It's an occupied country."

I shrugged and he sat down.

"Name's Malcom Goodwitch."

Mage, I felt a slight breeze, autumn magi. Goodwitch, an old name, a mage name, in the first century a lot of unwanted kids got dumped on Compass, the old bird renamed them and he wasn't that creative, Goodwitch, wand, wizard, staff, Dragon, Lazerwolf, he kept records on them for future family members to look over.

"School?"

"New Orleans academy of magic."

I nodded.

"Good school."

He looked at me.

"School?"

"Compass."

"Really you sound like a shytown boy, why not Dragon U?"

I sighed.

"Didn't have the money or the time."

He looked at Liam.

"You?"

"Swedish, there was a choice between Trosa, Brunnsberg, and Stockholm. I choose Trosa."

"Doens't that mean?"

"Panty... yes, yes it does, and yes I have heard all the jokes."

He nodded.

"Thanks, notice there are four chairs, is it ok?"

We sighed.

"Fine."

"DAVE, FOUND A SEAT!"

A man, in a shabby suit walked in and sat down, he wore a star of david.

"Hey Mal who are these guys?"

"Ralph."

"Liam."

"David Goldman, Summer mage, Nuuk academy of magic, former hometown. I'm here to help keep the geothermal plant going."

He looked at us, I let Liam talk.

"We're Navy dropping off food and supplies."

David nodded and motioned towards Malcom.

"Autum mage, I'm a troubleshooter."

Liam looked at him dismissively.

"Really?"

"Well yeah, my job is to try to get numbers on what's most likely to go wrong."

"Really, a fortune teller then."

Malcome frowned.

"Not really, I try to look for mechanical failures, see what parts of the arcology are having problems and direct repairs to them before it becomes a problem."

"So fortune telling."

Malcom sighed.

"Fortune telling or divination is a completely different field, and mostly what you're doing is telling people the likely results of an action, the chances of an idea working or what will add to your chance of success. Which is honestly a pain in the butt because human beings are difficult to predict, it's honestly easier to predict the weather then people. Especially when you're in a skry vs. skry environment."

He leaned back.

"So Winter, doctor I assume?"

Liam nodded, Malcom put up his hand.

"Sorry about taking seats at your table but pretty much every restaurant is packed. How about I get you guys some coffee to make up for it?"

We nodded our agreement, and Liam nodded, he looked at Malcom.

"So, you're a mage, I bet the, you know community loves you."

Malcom grimaced.

"Did that feel as awkward for you as it did for me?"

Liam nodded, and Malcom sighed.

"Wish it was that simple."

"But you got to beat Jim Crow."

He hissed.

"Um."

"Yeah, the community has kind of always had a love hate relationship with us."

He shrugged.

"It's complicated."

Liam looked over at David.

"And you?"

"Israel, we're pretty much the go to experts on Geothermal plants, underground construction, and hydroponics."

Liam lifted an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yeah when your homeland is an icy wasteland, living underground makes sense."

"Like treating the indigenous people like shit."

David blinked, he took off his glasses and cleaned them.

"They have full voting rights, freedom of religion, and are full citizens."

"And all it cost them was their land."

David frowned.

"The Vikings stole the land from the natives, the Danes stole it from the Vikings, and we got the land from the yankees after the danes started a war of choice. The vast majority of us pre-Rapture lived in underground cities and caverns, that we dug out through hard work. The vast majority of the natives live on the surface."

He paused.

"They have the right to vote, hold office, freedom of religion, and they do own land, its just that land ownership works on a three dimensional plane in Israel. The Inuits have land ownership rights to the surface and to land up to 7 Meters below that. They don't have a right to buy up a bunch of cheap surface land and then try to evict everyone who lives under that."

David leaned in.

"If you're looking for a point of comparisson we treat our natives better then Canada does, then Australia did, then America does. A couple land speculators tried to screw over millions of people and got burnt, I'm not feeling a whole lot of sympathy."

"What about their health care? Their education there?"

"That stuff gets budgeted for them, but at the end of the day we are a democracy and that means that the majority is going to get their way the majority of the time. Really the only reason we get so much crap for this is because every antisemites wants to use it to bash us over the head everytime they want to fuck with us or extort money."

"It still isn't fair."

David put on his glasses.

"It wasn't fair when the romans kicked us out, it wasn't fair when we were treated like second class citizens, it wasn't fair that we were murdered in pogroms, it wasn't fair that we got chased, robbed and kicked out of any place we settled. It's not fair that we were not allowed to worship our holiest sites in old Israel pre-Rapture, and it's not fair that the nazis robbed us of all our property and money and sent the now pennieless refugees to a frozen wasteland and extorted their new homeland for the privilege of dealing with that problem."

David frowned.

"Life isn't fair, we were given a frozen chunk of rock a icy hell and we turned it into a 1st world country. You want to live in the waste and away from civilization fine, but don't go bitching to us when shit goes wrong."

The coffee arrived and I smiled.

"So um, it's all instant here."

The mood relaxed as we all agreed that our mutual loathing of instant coffee took precidence over any historical grudges, mutual enemies were great like that

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


I said my goodbyes and wandered the city of the damned alone. People left me alone, I was a magi and that ensured my peace as I tried to make sense of a world gone mad. I was getting hungry and I heard some music. I looked up.

"Figures."

Jollybee's were everywhere, you couldn't escape the damned things. I pulled on my power, getting in touch with spirit magic casting a translation spell and walked inside.

"Hey."

The song was low and slow, translation spells were really only useful for face to face communication or writing, music on a radio or a CD didn't translate. The proprieter looked at me.

"Mage."

I nodded.

"We're going to be closing soon, but I can cook one last meal."

"Thanks."

"What do you want?"

"Surprise me."

He nodded.

"Fiesta noodles it is."

The music was low and sad.

"How did you know?"

He looked at me.

"I know what that symbol means but even without it, I know what a translation spell sounds like, it's slow, halting, a little off, and the person's mouth doesn't match the words."

"Want me to stop?"

He shook his head.

"No, I haven't heard Tagalong in months but it seems like forever."

I closed my eyes.

"Don't recognize the band."

"Juan Dela Cruz, the songs name is Ang Himig Natin."
I listened to it.

"What's it about?"

He smiled as he cooked.

"If you're serious about it then you will look it up on your own, I won't spoil the mystery."

I nodded, the noddles smelled good.

"So the band's name?"

He continued to cook.

"Juan Dela Cruz, kind of like your Uncle Sam except he doesn't wear a wizard hat. Our national personification, a kind of helpless romantic lost and perservering after one disaster after another. He's us, the good and the bad, the name comes from that."

I looked at the bowl as it landed in front of me hot and steamy.

"I'm sorry we weren't able to save the world."

The words felt empty, after so long of thinking of ourselves as heroes, as the good guys we failed completely and utterly and we failed to save more because our president was a shortsighted asshole. The man shrugged.

"Ang buhay ay parang gulong, minsang nasa ibabaw, minsang nasa ilalim."

I blinked.

"Ah I managed to find something your magic couldn't translate."

I sighed.

"I was never that good at spirit magic."

"Sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down. The world ended, over a billion people died, and you failed to save more people because your president did not think the snake was crazy enough to bite."

He sighed.

"We forgave him you know, Reagan."

I blinked.

"What?"

"He was an actor, a foolish man who made foolish mistakes, but he took responsibility for it in the end, pity for the cleaning crew though."

I sighed and took a bite.

"It's good."

Say this about Jollybee their menu could be limited but there was a reason these things were everywhere.

"I know."

He took a breath and closed his eyes.

"It's not all bad, the Earth is still here, life will come back, we live amongst the stars."

"You lost your home."

He shrugged.

"Really? My family is still alive, my family house still exists on Chaldene, we lost our place on Earth and gained another world. The moon is gone yes but when our artificial night ends the glory of Jupiter is in the sky."

"You're handling being lost pretty well."

"I'm a Filipino, I think it's in our nature to always be a little lost, now we have an entire world to be lost in. The Earth is gone and now greater glory awaits those of us brave enough to claim the future."

"What's it like? Your homeworld?"

He smiled.

"A world of freshwater oceans, of endless islands large and small, the unknown awaits."

"So adventure, exploration and beautiful women."

He smirked.

"I'm a Filipino, we are sadly cursed to be surrounded by gorgeous women."

We both smiled and I took another bite.

"Too many people died."

"I know, but where there is life there is hope."

I felt better somehow, with those words, with the food. I place the money on the table.

"Thanks."

"So where too next?"

"We look for the surviving remnants and try to send them food, supplies, until we get to Indonesia and then we go home."

"Wish you luck then, old sailor."

"Wish you luck young cook."

I left the restaurant and watched as the lights turned off, with that done I walked the hallways heading back to my ship, heading back into a dead world and a eternally black sky.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

"Why are you here?"

David Goldstein, the man from earlier from the coffee shop.

"Going home, aren't a lot of civilian transports, I have my paperwork in order."

I looked over at the MP and he shrugged.

"Paperwork's in order, he's limited to the residential parts of the ship and has a security clearance of non-existant but he is coming with us."

I sighed.

"Fine."

It wasn't any of my business.

"Mind showing him were he's authorized to go?"

Only one more year, just one more deployment and I'm gone.

"Fine. Follow me."

David followed me. His suit was still shabby and his suitcase had wheels that squeeked a little too loudly.

"So this your first job?"

Dave shook his head.

"No, Terra industries likes to move me around, this is my second job for them. First one was working with the powerplant in Spooky Bay."

"Not familiar with it."

"Used be called Jamaca bay before the Magi moved in, it's a series of islands near New York city, has a nice series of leylines near it."

He paused.

"I worked in the Rufflebar powerplant, our job was to keep the lights on."

"So you worked in New York city?"

Dave smirked.

"No I worked in New York county, Spooky bay isn't technically a part of the city. It's a part of the New York special administrative zone, it pays taxes to the city but it isn't a part of the city. You see if it was a part of the city they wouldn't be able to provide magic based healing services but if they were completely cut off NYC wouldn't have the tax revinue. So this is a work around."

"The AMA must be pissed."

David shrugged.

"They are but the federal government isn't willing to fight the issue on their behalf, especially with some of the richest donors using those services."

He paused.

"Last time they tried the NYPD went to their headquarters and protested in front of their offices."

I dimmly remembered that.

"Really?"

"Mundane healing is terrible at fixing backs, knees, or missing limbs or anything truely major. No one wants to be crippled for life because some lazy shmucks can't get with the program."

He looked at me.

"Seriously, don't understand why you guys don't force your doctors to learn magic, or at least tell them to get the fuck over themselves and get out of their magis' way."

"Religious reasons."

"Bullshit, we made peace with magic, the damned Pope made peace with magic, this shits been around for over 200 years by now. People shouldn't have to fucking die because some backwards in the sticks feels fucking uncomfortable."

I sighed.

"Magics a rural phenomenon in the US, most of us live live in the sticks, the anti magic evangelicals live in the suburbs. Your average redneck is a whole lot friendlier to us then the suit and tie set."

Dave blinked.

"Fuck the suburbs."

I shrugged, what can you do bored housewives and soccer moms had power and didn't particularly care for us or liked us. They didn't care that magic kept the roads intact, that magic powered their cities, and when little Timmy got fucked up and the hospital couldn't fix it they would show up, have us fix his boo boo and then go back to spitting on us.

To be a mage was to live either in the city or small towns and rural areas, those places in between, those suburbs? We weren't welcome there, it was enemy country a foreign land held by the last holdouts of superstition, holding on to their ignorance and prejudice like gold.

Always hated when the idiots from the burbs came onto the fleet, it always took too long to deprogram them and they sometimes got good men killed because of their bullshit.

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen


It had been 12 hours since our flyboys left, 12 hours of flying around North Africa looking for any sign of life. We stood on the deck silently in the darkness. Other fleets had found scattered survivors in the ruines of C, scattered bedouin tribes. The official rule down the pipe is that any muslims would be sent to the turks, Jews would be sent to Israel, and christians and other would be picked up by anyone willing to make the move.

We were silent, the noon sky was a hazy grey. We heard the hum of engines, the planes landed. The pilots took off their helmets, their eyes tired, the commander looked at them, and shook his head. Magi in bright blue suits looked at the commander with dead eyes.

Powerful magic used to scan for any human life, mixed with the latest and greatest scanners, looking for any sign of life. They shook their heads, no survivors. An airship shown in the sky, we smiled airships like that were tasked with the hard duty of lingering. The commander was given a radio and frowned.

"MAKE SPACE!"

We scooted to the very edge of the aircraft carrier as the small airship landed, we waited in anticipation. A crew brought out a desiccated body on a stretcher and clasped their hands behind their backs. They looked thin, I had listen in on rumors around me.

This was the crew of the Arcadia, all of them had volunteered to stay behind, to cut their rations in half, to spend an entire year just looking for anyone, not many people were willing to do that.

"Russian Plague."

The commander looked at the body, as I got closer I noticed that it was the dried out body of a small child, his mouth open in pain, in suffering.

"Well people no luck, we're going south."

We opened space for the crew of the Arcadia. They would be given first choice of the best of everything we had, all of them had earned it. They looked at us their eyes staring into space with looks of defeat.

Russian Plague, a catch all term for the cocktail of biological weapons the russians released after they used their nukes. The closest thing to describe how deadly it was, how effective it was, was the great dying of the native tribes of the americas when the old world came.

If you didn't have alchemical drugs on hand it had a 90% death rate. When we captured Estonia it took every mage we had working round the clock to keep the Estonians alive. The greatest fleet humanity ever took, the largest concentration of magi the world ever saw used in anger. All of that power tied up for 6 months because of something some soviet scientist absentmindedly cooked up in a lab.

By the time the crisis had been dealt with, by the time we were ready to conquer the members of the Pact that refused to surrender they were dead. From radiation storms, from famine, from civil war, and the all encompasing spread of the Russian Plague.

"No survivors."

We went back to sleep, our fleet taking us further south. We busied ourselves with doing maintenance as we traveled south. We sent out our flyboys, every time we got a reply of no survivors. This continued until we got past the Equator, slowly the dark haze ended, the world lit up in a dirty sky.

We stared at the sun as it tried to make its way through the darkness.

"Beautiful."

I blinked and looked to my side.

"Liam?"

He nodded.

"The sun still rises, that counts for something right?"

We turned our eyes to shore and saw grass and life. Here in the south there was still nature, there was still life.

"Think we will find survivors?"

Liam leaned against the edge of the ship.

"I volunteered for fleet duty last year, we searched Africa best we could, all we found were ruins and the bodies of the dead."

His voice was haunted and music played.

"Japan's turn."

I tried desperately to change the subject.

"Yeah... don't recognize the song."

"Plastic love, heard it in a tea shop in Osaka when it first came out in 84."

The music stopped.

"Gentlemen good news, our subs fround someone."

We smiled as the announcement stopped. The world was silent and then our eyes opened as two submarines forced a sub to the surface, Marines jumped on the sub inbetween, they brought out glowing swords and started cuting into the ship. It was then that I noticed the markings.

"Soviet."

We heard gunfire, and then watched as thin emaciated men were dragged out. They looked at us with wild eyes and fear as they were forced out of their sub. 15 men were lifted to the top of our ship. We handcuffed them and chairs were brought out. The commander came out and looked at the men.

"Essen, translation spell."

I stepped forward my hands moving, as my commanders eyes narrowed.

"I want you to be honest with me."

He looked at them.

"What was your sub carrying?"

The leader glared at our commander.

"I am Captain Popov 13278."

The commander stood over them.

"The Soviet Union is dead son, Russia is dead, tell me what your sub is carrying."

"I am Captain Popov 13278."

The commander looked at the marines.

"Search the ship, bring a spooky with you, no two of 'em, I want a spring and a winter."

Liam and I raised our hands. We were lowered onto the sub. I placed my hands on it my eyes closed.

"It's nuclear powered."

The marines nodded. We went inside the hole, I kept my hands on the submarine, trying to find out what kind of sub it was.

"Spooky what's your 12?"

I poured more power trying to analize the make up of the ship, seeing it in my mind's eye.

"It's not magically shielded, no wards to speak of, it has missile launch capability but it's too small to be nuclear."

The marine commander nodded.

"If they're just recon they might live through this."

It had been four years since the end of the world, there was a chance that tempers had cooled enough to spare their lives. I stopped.

"There's a room, locked, mechanical, the code is 666, go down a level and three doors to the left."

Liam left with them as I continued to scan every inch of the sub with my mind. I couldn't control it of course but I knew the very essence of the sub. Liam tapped me on the shoulder his face white, his hands clenched.

"Liam."

"Let's get the fuck out of here."

Everything about him spoke of a quiet rage, we climped up a rope ladder to the top of the carrier. The commander looked at us.

"And?"

Liam glared at the russians with cold hate.

"Biological weapons, russian plague, they were out of missiles but I found the residue."

The commander's face was frozen.

"That's serious."

Liam brought out a scrap of paper.

"Translation spell should still be good."

The commander grabbed it and his body turned pale.

"Im' going to call the rest of the fleet."

He stormed off while the russians looked at us with defiant eyes. When the commander came back the sun was getting low in the sky.

"Sir?"

"The Angolians are comming."

We looked ahead as a small ship flying the angolan flag came up to us, waited while they were brought out. We said nothing while they opened boxes. The boxes were full of AK47s, stamped with marks showing that the guns were made in the Soviet Union. The music turned back on, and played at full blast. All of us turned our backs.

The sounds of the great Maria Takeuchi played on it's highest volume, it almost hid the sound of screaming, it almost covered up the sound of gunfire. We all kept our eyes on the horizon as the black bags were thrown over board.

We said nothing as the song repeated, Liam stood next to me his hands shaking.

"It's a good song."

I nodded.

"Yeah it is, it's better with a nice cup of coffee."

 

[Cherico]

Ralph Essen

The rest of the trip involved us sending out the flyboys and them coming back empty handed.

The world fell into a dull routine as we floated through the south seas. The sun peeked through a dingy brown sky and instead of a biting cold we dealt with a mild warmth.

"Brits turn."

Liam had taken to visiting our ship a lot.

"Careless whisper."

Our ships headed towards the city of Medan, the new capital of Indonesia. Indonesia had either been lucky or cursed, depending on how you looked at it. Only Java got hit by the soviets' nukes and bioweapons. Unfortunately that island had over half the country's population.

The government that survived put the entire island on quarantine, everyone on Java died but the rest of the country survived. Most nations either couldn't or wouldn't do things like that. They're not around anymore. They either died, became refugees, or formed small city states or roaving bands.

Indonesia was the only country to maintain its independence, and remain a nation state, they could have become kings of the new world.

"UN granted their request."

"I thought project Rapture was a one off Liam?"

He leaned back.

"There was a fuck up, Neso's Markers didn't add any energy to Rapture."

"That bad?"

"Far enough away to not cause a cascade failure, the Rapture was the greatest act of magic in human history, the Solar system's leylines will need at least a generation to recover."

Liam paused.

"But all the death caused by the fall, it's juiced up Earth's leylines to above capacity."

"Can it be done?"

Liam sighed.

"Yeah but it's a one off."

We watched as indonesian ships sailed towards us, messages were being relayed. We stood at attention as a helicopter flew towards us, a man in a business suit walked out, the commander of the mission greeted him.

"Are you sure about this?"

The man in the suit, Indonesian looked at us, he took off a pair of sunglasses and looked at us with dead and tired eyes.

"Earth is dead, we will start a new life around Neptune."

The commander ordered radios and all of us magi went into position. We watched as other ships, other international fleets, and indonesian ships formed a circle around the islands, this must have been in the works for awhile if they were able to get so many.

I looked up.

"Oh shit."

I saw a glowing light in the distance, Liam froze.

"He's here."

My mouth went dry.

"Merlin never leaves the zone."

Liam looked at me.

"Well he has now."

We watched in awe as a giant glowing bird the size of a small truck flew closer to our ship. He landed on the deck of our aircraft carrier. The commander took off his hat, we followed his example, this was Merlin the last Phoenix. The founder of the first school of magic on the planet, savior of the human race.

"It is done."

The commander shook and saluted.

"Are you sure?"

"The excess energy is enough to do a swap between Earth and Neso."

The Indonesian man nodded.

"We thank you for our new world."

The commander looked at us.

"WELL PEOPLE STOP LOLLYGAGGING, WE HAVE A MIRACLE TO PULL OFF!"

We scattered, bringing out candles, drawing circles, and when we were ready we started chanting. The great bird chanted with us, to outsiders it sounded like chirping static, a language of a dead people who no longer existed. The language of the Phoenix, blue pillars of light rose from every ship and from the islands in the distance. We saw a glowing blue circle in the sky and then everything went blue.

Time and space vanished and we all staggered, when our vision came back we stared in awe at Neptune in the night sky.

"Beautiful."

The Indonesian man fell to his knees.

"Beautiful."

He started crying, none of us judged him for it, it was ok. This time, this moment didn't belong to us, it didn't even belong to Merlin. It belonged to the 80 million people in the distance. This wasn't our time, our place, our world. If he needed to let it out that was ok.

I looked at the sky and wondered how things went so wrong, what caused this mess.

"So now what?"

I shrugged.

"I'm retiring, I'm going to wander, read, try to figure out why and how."

The question nagged at me, what caused the end of the world? No one knew the answer but I wanted to find out.