The OP Lich is a Returnee: Omnibus 5 - Books 16-20 (Lich Returnee), page 12
Palakiko nodded. “And, if the UnNamed, as you call them, return, then Risen Athelia will be the place with the best chance of withstanding them.”
“Very well. The Lich Queen hears your petition, and agrees to it. Your territories shall come under my domain, and I shall send garrison troops to aid in their defense. And each of your lands shall improve my realm in some way. In Hawai’i, I shall begin building a navy to watch over the seas, and set up a place to train those who follow the Warrior’s Way. In Saipan, production will begin on transport ships capable of safely crossing the seas without drawing the ire of so many monsters. Guam shall see the Athelian Spire reborn, as a tower is built to see to the training of those who take the Mage’s Path. And Athelian Samoa shall be home to a research facility, seeking to discover new magics and develop magical weaponry for the realm, and the Alliance.”
I turned to look at my disciples, who were staring, wide-eyed, in full understanding of how this was going to change things. “Dai Ya, Aeko Naya, I charge you, my disciples, to inform the governments of the Alliance of this, so that they may have some advance warning before I make the public announcement. Also send word to Lilah and Holly, as I am certain that they will wish to get a head start on what is certain to be an unparalleled legal and PR event.”
“As you wish, Mistress.”
Turning my attention back to the Governors, I said, “For now, your rule over your lands may continue unimpeded, save for where your laws conflict with Athelian law. I shall send auditors through your governments, looking for waste and corruption. While I have yet to know a single mortal institution that is bereft of some degree of corruption or wasteful spending, there are limits to what kind of largess I will accept in my realm. You would be advised to send word through your governments that anyone engaged in such things has until my auditors discover them to retire, and find a new line of work, outside of government. Those who heed this warning will face no judgement from me, though they will never again be allowed to work for the government, and will never be eligible for government contracts. Those who think that they can hide their dealings should know that my auditors have been at their task longer than any of your people have been alive, and when, not if, they uncover those who are hiding their deeds, I will find a new way for them to serve Risen Athelia. A way in which I can be absolutely assured of their loyalty, as only a necromancer can be.”
Baxter chuckled. “So, the smart ones take the money and run, and the rest get to spend their unlife regretting their choices. Either way, the government doesn’t have to deal with their antics. If this is how you deal with ethics issues, I can’t wait to see how you simplify the tax code.”
Chapter 176 – Change of Ownership
Captain Kolby Coffey frowned as he looked over the latest reports. As the Commander of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, he was, for better or worse, the name on record when it came to the US military interacting with the people of Hawai’i. Usually, that meant that he was the one ultimately responsible for reading over reports of which sailors caused trouble on shore leave, and managing the logistics of keeping the headquarters of the United States Navy running. There weren’t usually problems with the people of Hawai’i.
The last couple days had been anything but usual, however. Three days ago, Hawai’I, along with the US territories of Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, had jointly announced their secession from the US. The next day, the Lich Queen of Risen Athelia had made an announcement to the world, with the governors of those territories standing next to her. Apparently, all four had gone to her, asking to be annexed into Risen Athelia!
Coffey would be lying if he said he was truly surprised by any of it. Naval Intelligence had caught wind of the polling going on, as the governors assessed the will of their peoples. So, they’d known there was discontent. And it wasn’t like Washington was doing anything to endear themselves to the people, either. Yes, it was a little surprising that the territories had gone straight for secession, rather than trying to use it as a bargaining chip at the negotiation table, but it wasn’t shocking.
Likewise, he couldn’t really be surprised that the Lich Queen accepted the territories so easily. You didn’t gain the kind of power she had without being willing to make enemies of powerful people, after all, and she’d already proven, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that she did not feel the need to bow before the global powers. She was a power, in and of herself, even before the East Asian Alliance legitimized her nation, and made it one of the founding members.
And he really wasn’t surprised by the reaction out of Washington, with the President claiming it was illegal for them to secede, and threatening to send in the military to arrest all the civilian leaders of the territories on charges of treason. Thankfully, the local JAG office had quickly advised against any ideas of going out and using the military to round up civilians. Not without a lot better evidence or a credible threat. And Coffey certainly wasn’t going to order his MPs to do something like that.
No, he wasn’t surprised by this. What he was, frankly, was annoyed. Whatever happened to Hawai’i and the other breakaway territories, his base was still owned by the US government, which meant it was still his command. That much was fine. The annoying thing was how being inside another country’s territory would complicate base logistics, logistics that were already strained to the breaking point by the rising danger of the seas.
A military base required four things above all else: food, water, power, and fuel. Power and fuel were the big concerns. Food and water could be brought in by air, if they needed to, but fuel couldn’t be flown in, not in amounts large enough to matter, and most of the base’s power came from Hawaiian Electric. They had backup generators, sure, but those couldn’t power everything, and weren’t designed for long-term use. Worse, they needed fuel to run, which only exacerbated the shortage.
Thankfully, he at least had some precedent to work with in finding a way to deal with a naval base surrounded by a maybe-hostile country. Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was a prime example, and he’d spent the last couple days bouncing emails off the base commander, there, getting their advice, and preparing for what could be a logistics nightmare. Even a small interruption in supplies could cripple the operations of the USS Barack Obama and the rest of Third Fleet. A major or sustained disruption could even have them stuck in port, without even enough fuel to get to San Diego, much less conduct operations like they were meant to.
Unfortunately, the only way to get enough fuel out to the island to service the planes, ships, base vehicles, and more, was by tanker ship. The problem was that, over the last two years, the seas had grown hostile, with sea monsters beginning to appear. The Navy’s answer to that had been to start sending escorts with the tankers, like the convoys of World War II, but even so, there were always losses, and ships needing time in drydock for repairs, which used up more resources.
According to the reports, the most common threat on the seas was the ‘Great Steel Shark’, a mutated version of the Great White that had a hide stronger than steel, and teeth to match. The damn sharks were intelligent, too. Maybe not human smart, but at least dolphin smart. They understood that sinking ships left a bunch of people in the water. More importantly, they had figured out which kinds of ships had more people on them, making them preferred prey.
The cruise ship industry had gone out of business almost overnight, once video from the sinking of the Luxuria Dynasty hit the web. Only eighty out of eight thousand passengers and crew survived, and even then, that was only thanks to a thaumaturge who used their magic to hide the lifeboat from the sharks’ senses. The rest had all been eaten by the shiver of sharks. Over a hundred of the creatures, all working together.
Not that the Navy hadn’t faced difficulties with them, of course. Carrier Strike Group 1 had been attacked by a shiver of similar size. That was when the Navy first recognized that the sharks were intelligent. The shiver hadn’t just attacked the strike group, they’d hunted them.
It started with the USS Ellinor, the logistics ship. Sunk in the middle of the night by the sharks. The USS Donald Trump had been crippled at the same time, with the sharks flooding the engineering spaces, taking out the supercarrier’s main propulsion and steering control. Sonar pulses from the attack submarines Wolffish and Charybdis had driven the sharks off, but had attracted the attention of a Kraken, a giant squid with Water magic. Both submarines had been crushed by water pressure equivalent to that on the ocean floor, resulting in the loss of all hands.
The sharks had returned the next night, while crews were still trying to repair the damage to the Trump. The escorts tried to help, but the cruisers and destroyers, for all their advanced missile launchers and anti-air defenses, only had a few guns that could depress low enough to even try and target the sharks in the water, and only the machine guns fired quickly enough to have a prayer of hitting. Unfortunately, the machine guns were little use against targets even a few feet underwater, as the water itself shredded the supersonic bullets on impact due to the severe pressure difference. And the few hits they did score were like shooting the hull of one of their own ships.
In the end, the rest of the strike group was powerless to stop the Trump from sinking. Worse still, when the missile cruiser Edward Gallagher attempted rescue operations, the sharks turned on the cruiser, and sent it to join the Trump. Admiral Murray, still aboard the sinking carrier, had ordered the remaining destroyers to keep their distance, and ordered the flight deck to launch all helicopters and logistics craft, along with those in the rest of the strike group, to evacuate as many people as possible. Even so, out of the just short of six thousand men and women aboard the two ships, only 1,278 were saved, with Admiral Murray going down with the Trump.
While shivers of Great Steel Sharks were a threat to the supply convoys, as well, they never appeared in numbers greater than ten or twenty, unless a larger ship was present. Massive container ships, cruise liners, and aircraft carriers were hounded constantly, but destroyers, tankers, and light freighters rarely saw more than a dozen at a time, and explosive charges were usually enough to make the sharks seek other prey. And, for whatever reason, submarines were quietly ignored by the sharks, though Kraken and several types of whale took offense anytime they used active sonar.
A knock at the door drew him out of his reading. “Captain?” His aide called from the doorway. He looked like he was about to pass out, or piss himself. “We have a situation at the front gate.”
Coffey had to bite back a groan. Nothing good ever happened when someone started a conversation like that, looking as scared as the aide did. “What kind of situation, Lieutenant?”
“The Lich Queen is outside the gate. Hasn’t approached, though, but is just off the property line. Guards say that she has some of her undead with her.”
Coffey took a breath to steady himself. “Well, if she was here to kill us, we’d already be dead, so I doubt we have much to be worried about, in that regard.” He saw the Lieutenant visibly calm himself, and sighed. “Call the motor pool, and get a vehicle around. I’ll go and see what is happening myself. Then, inform Admiral Banks about the situation, since whatever is happening will most likely affect the fleet.”
As head of Third Fleet, Vice Admiral Kayden Banks outranked him, but even though Third Fleet was headquartered in Pearl Harbor, this was his base, and he was ultimately in command of base affairs. Until something happened to cause a legitimate threat to the fleet, he was in charge of the situation. Even if he really didn’t want to meet the Lich Queen as a possible enemy combatant.
Fifteen minutes later, he was getting out of one of the base Humvees, just inside the front gate. The MPs were more interested in what was going on outside than the base commander, it seemed. Not that he blamed them, when he took a look for himself.
Several undead of various types were setting up what was obviously a border checkpoint on the other side of the road. Only, it was being conjured more than built, as stone rose up of the ground. And it looked distinctly… medieval. As in, there were battlements being raised on the wall that was slowly extending to the left and right, following the base’s property line. And was that a portcullis being fashioned, cutting off the road? Oh, and let’s not forget the Lich Queen herself, in her full armor, directing the workers.
He took a breath, and walked forward. The Lich Queen turned to look at him, and her presence was like a sledgehammer to the face, causing him to stumble. He was pretty sure she hadn’t even cast a spell. It was just her sheer presence. Coffey took a moment to focus on breathing, and then continued walking forward.
“That’s close enough, Captain. Any further and you’ll be trespassing on Athelian soil,” the Lich Queen said, not unkindly. Good, she wasn’t angry. That meant there was a good chance that, so long as no one did anything stupid, things weren’t going to end in screams and dying.
“Your Majesty,” he nodded. “I know you’ve announced the annexation of Hawai’i, but I’m fairly certain that the legal wrangling over that hasn’t been settled yet. So, might I know why you look to be building a wall around my base?”
“Oh, I believe that you will find that I could care less about what the US courts say about it. The leaders of Hawai’i, and their people, have come to me, asking me to lead them, and I have accepted. There is no court on Earth that could force me to give up these islands, now that I’ve claimed them, and no military can defeat me. So, regardless of what the courts or your president might say, I now control Hawai’i, and the other territories.
“As for why it looks as though I’m building a wall around your base, that is because I am. I am not unreasonable, after all. I am content to let this base continue existing, since I have no reason to start a war. However, just because I am not seizing your base, does not mean I am simply going to leave things be. The wall will be finished by midnight, tonight, and the wards will go up shortly after.”
“And what, exactly, does this mean for me, and my people?”
“Crossing the border anywhere but at a designated checkpoint will not be allowed. The wards will rebuff any illicit crossing attempts, even ones so high as a kilometer above ground. Any US citizens attempting to leave the base will need to obtain a visa and show their passport, unless they are a Hawai’ian national returning home. Transporting goods on or off base will require customs inspections for contraband, and all current contracts shall be void, and will need to be renegotiated. Utilities, such as power, water, and sewage, will be cut off once the wards are up, so that Risen Athelia can focus its efforts on its people, rather than a foreign power.”
Coffey gaped in shock. While not quite the nuclear option (since there wasn’t a dragon burning his base down right now), this was a lot heavier than he had expected. “That will cripple the base. We’re quickly going to run into problems with supplies, at that rate, and the generators won’t hold that long.”
“Yes, I expected as much. However, you do have a teleport pad on base, connecting you to San Diego, and the ward will not extend out to sea, so your ships will be free to go. So long as your planes don’t stray into Athelian airspace, they, too, will be able to leave, and return to the mainland. That will reduce the resource needs for your base quite a bit, no?”
Coffey grit his teeth, and said, “And when the sharks start sinking ships?”
“As a show of good faith, I am willing to have a company of cavalry escort your ships to California. Athelia’s Death Knights and Mages will be able to keep the sharks at bay while your ships hurry to the coast. But that is only if your ships leave port within a fortnight. After that, they are on their own.”
Chapter 177 – The Spire Reborn
Mount Schroeder sat at the southwest corner of Guam, and reached a modest 322 meters above sea level. Not terribly big, as mountains went, but still big enough to be classified as a mountain. Still, the relative height of the mountaintop was not the reason I was here.
There was a history of volcanic activity here. Millions of years in the past, perhaps, but it was symbolic all the same. That gave it a connection to Fire. Of course, a mountaintop also had symbolic connections to Earth and Air, what with the stone underfoot and the air all around us, but this mountain was on the coast, overlooking the sea, which gave us Water, as well.
It was also far from anything approaching a city. Malesso’, the village along the coast and between the arms of different mountain ridges, was the closest settlement, and it sported less than two thousand people in an area a few square kilometers in area. That was important, for two reasons. First, because it meant there would be fewer distractions, but primarily because there would be fewer potential victims when (not if) there were accidents. There were always accidents when it came to young mages feeling their power. You just had to accept it.
And there would indeed be young mages learning here. I had promised to raise the Athelian Spire anew, and this was the place for it. Those who had the talent and the drive would be welcome here. Not just those from Risen Athelia, but I would also allow exceptional students from allied nations to come, and learn here.
“What of the Americans, my Queen?”
I looked over to Iseult Ermina Wynifreed ro Athelas, the High Magus of the Athelian Spire (and former Crown Princess of Athelia-that-was), and chuckled. “I do not foresee them being a problem. As with their forces at Pearl Harbor, I have cut off the power and water to the bases, meaning that they have to rely on whatever resources they already have on hand. And they were already dealing with logistics issues, being so far from their supply base.”
