0900 (End Hour), Quiet 87th, 195 AE

1800 August 26th, 2019 CE

Near Miami

The steamship was passing by Miami towards Port Everglades under the escort of an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer. Captain Raoul was staring at the skyscrapers of Miami in amazement.

“My angel, the only countries that are capable of building these are the Imperiums.”

Chief Mate Rolfe disagreed.

“Well, sir, that's not quite true. The lost country of the elves could. It’s said that they did it better.”

A young sailor interjected.

“Elves? Their just a myth made up by old geezers.”

Rolfe looked toward the sailor.

“There are clear records of their existence. They lived on a continent near the Magus Imperium.”

“Then where is the continent.”

“They say it disappeared.”

“So you have no proof.”

Captain Raoul wasn’t listening and started muttering.

“They seem taller than the Tower of Magic in Primopolis. That’s impossible. To build so much of these tall structures… this country may be on par with the Imperiums.”

The Chief Mate was listening closely.

“Captain, we can’t just base their technology level on how tall their buildings are.”

2000 August 26th, 2019 CE

In a hotel near Port Everglades

Diplomat Underwood was in a hotel room. They had reached Port Everglades only about 30 minutes ago. Captain Raoul decided that it was late and he wanted to have dinner and rest. Underwood was thinking about accommodating them with hotel rooms but wasn’t sure if it was a good idea. Captain Raoul said that he and his sailors were perfectly fine with staying on their ships. Underwood posted a lot of soldiers around the ship to protect them. It was also out of caution to make sure that none of them snuck out. Underwood agreed to let Captain Raoul and a few of his sailors tour the city tomorrow after an informational meeting. Underwood was under orders to gain information about this world from Captain Raoul.

0800 August 27th, 2019 CE

In a hotel meeting room near Port Everglades

Diplomat Underwood, Translator Hoffman, and a few other personnel were present on one side of a long table. Captain Raoul, Translator Paulin, Chief Mate Rolfe, and a few other sailors were present on the other side. They had gone through introductions. Diplomat Underwood started to talk with the help of his translator.

“I suppose we should tell you about our country before you talk about your world.”

“Sure.”

“As you already know, my country is called the United States of America. We come from another world that we call Earth. Our land area is about 9,833,517 square kilometers. We have a population of about 300 million people. Our language is English. We are a constitutional federal republic or simply a democracy. Our capital city is Washington DC which is a city further north of us.”

Captain Raoul, having basically accepted the American’s claim of being from another world since the existence of a country on this continent was supposed to be impossible, commented in surprise and disbelief.

“That’s quite a large amount of people. Our most populated country is about 100 million. And we never had a successful democracy in history. You are also telling me that this isn’t your capital city?”

“Miami isn’t a large or major city. We have much bigger cities than this. That’s the basic information about our country. Can you tell us about your world?”

They could be lying. Even if it is true, they shouldn’t be better than the Magus.

Captain Raoul decided it was best to calm down and proceeded to explain and answer questions about his world.

1030 August 27th, 2019 CE

In the hotel

With the informational meeting finished, Diplomat Underwood was getting them ready for their tour of Maimi. The other personnel had already written a report about what they had learned and sent it to the government. Captain Raoul had consistently praised the Septentrio Magus Imperium during the informational meeting. During the tour, the group wasn’t that surprised about the car seeing that there were cars in the Imperium but were interested in it. Captain Raoul, the only person among his group who has been to Primopolis and ridden a car, was surprised by its features and speed. Captain Raoul was surprised about how seemingly advanced the car was when compared to one from the Magus Imperium. The group with the exception of Captain Raoul was very fascinated by the city. Captain Raoul showed interest and commented about how it was similar to Primopolis.

1100 August 27th, 2019 CE

Washington DC

Once again President Ronell Haye found himself in the Situation Room.

At this point, I should just live here.

“Mr. President, we have received and compiled the report from the information that was given to us by the captain and crew of the steamship. Basically, we can split this information into three parts. The history, geography, current relations, and the technological capabilities of each country. Let’s start with history.”

Secretary of State Katerina Clifford was giving the President and the rest of the department heads a briefing about what they had learned.

The President interrupted.

“How long will this be? I have lunch at twelve.”

“It shouldn’t take that long.”

“Then by all means continue.”

“The history of this world is centered around the Imperatoria continent which is located here.”

There was a big satellite image displaying the world. The Secretary of State pointed towards the large continent that was east of the United States.

“This world’s lingua franca, the Common Language which is also known as the Imperial Language, and date system came from here. They have two eras like us. However, they call it Before Exploration, BE for short, and After Exploration, AE for short. BE is counted like BCE while AE is counted like CE. I will be giving a crash course on the important parts of their history. On the Imperatoria continent at around 770 BE, the Empire was formed after the Kingdom of Geforius slowly defeated the rest of the countries on the continent.”

“Wait it was called the Empire? Nothing else?”

“That’s what they named it, at that time, no one on the continent was interested in venturing far on the ocean so they thought that the continent was the entire world. Anyways, for about 770 years, the Empire prospered on the continent. At the year of 0, the Empire decided to start exploring the world beyond the ocean out of curiosity. That’s why the eras are named that way. When they started discovering different continents, they established friendly relations with the natives. Most of this didn’t really have a major impact on the Empire. Expect for one continent that wasn’t located that far from the Imperitoria continent. The Continent of the Elves that is located here.”

The Secretary of State pointed to the ocean below the Imperitoria continent. The President was confused

“Wait… that’s just ocean. What continent?”

“We are getting to that. The elves had a major impact on introducing magic to the Empire. The elves were also a bit more technologically advanced when compared to the Empire. The Empire learned a lot about the elves. However, around 50 AE, the elves kicked all humans off of their continent and disappeared.”

“What do you mean disappeared?”

“The entire continent was just gone the next day. According to the crew of the steamship, some say it never existed. However, there is clear evidence that the Empire discovered magic during their explorations. When their last king died with no heir in 76 AE, the Empire was split in a civil war between the nobles that saw magic as evil and the ones that embraced magic. The nobles that embraced both magic and technology formed their own country called the Septentrio Magus Imperium. The nobles that embraced only technology and shunned magic created the Mach Imperium. They fought wars against each other and spread their influence to other continents. That would be the situation today. Next, we will be talking about the geography of this world. There are six continents in this world. The Imperitoria continent contains the Septentrio Magus Imperium to the south and the Magus Imperium to the north. Interestingly, according to our translator, septentrio means north in Latin. It seems that to them, our north is their south while our south is their north.”

Before the President could question it, she moved on.

“The Continent of Soan also known as Soane contains many kingdoms and is where the crew of the steamship is from. The Elevn continent may or may not exist. The Continent of Formido also known as Formidon is the continent we are on. Bem which is a continent north of Imperitoria. And the Insula Continent which is this group of big islands.”

Through this lecture, she was pointing at the locations on the map. The President was getting very bored.

“Now we talk about relations. As I have said, this world seems to be centered around the Imperitoria continent. Which means the Mach Imperium and Septentrio Magus Imperium. Those two countries are sworn enemies of each other. The kingdoms on Soane are allied to each other in this alliance called the League of Soan. They support the Magus. The Kingdom of Bem, which is the main country on the continent of Bem, supports the Mach. According to the crew of the steamship, it’s more like a satellite state. The relations of the Elven continent are unknown seeing that it disappeared. The Insula continent is like a battleground for the Imperiums. This is because they were no original humans on it. It’s populated by an assortment of fantasy creatures. Orcs, goblins, beastmen, and many different creatures. Both Imperiums have sent forces trying to colonize it and are fighting over it. The continent that we are currently inhabiting originally had natives that were one of the least technologically advanced of this world. The Mach Imperium tried to subdue and colonize the natives. At first, they were successful but the phoenixes appeared and killed all humans that lived on the continent. According to the magicians of the Magus Imperium, it could have been summoned by a native who wielded a large potential of magic but couldn’t control the phoenixes it summoned. That’s an overall simplified version of the relations of the countries.”

The President’s interests perked when he heard about the phoenixes.

“So basically, the phoenixes aren’t natural?”

“We could say that.”

I get the feeling that even if it is a fact that the phoenixes aren’t supposed to exist, some will still complain about us killing them.

“Onto the most important part. The technological capabilities. From our satellite images and the information we gained, we know a lot. The Imperiums have technology comparable to a peak World War 1 era nation. The Bem Kingdom is the Revolutionary War era. The Soane League is the medieval era.”

“So basically no one is really a threat to us.”

“That should be guaranteed.”

The Secretary of Defense, Cralson, interrupted.

“There is one place that might have some issues.”

All eyes were on him.

“Uhhh… according to some people at my department, some battleships have enough armor to withstand a couple of hits from our ASMs (Anti-Ship Missiles). What I’m most worried about would be if they have anything comparable to a World War 2 battleship. Those can probably withstand ten or something ASMs.”

“So what you’re telling us is that our main weapon against other ships can’t sink a World War 2 battleship.”

“Wellll… yeah… but bombs, torpedoes, and anti-tank missiles can easily destroy a battleship.”

“Well Cralson, tell me, do we need to produce a new type of anti-ship missile that can destroy a battleship.”

“Uhh… Mr. President, we could but we can just barrage the battleship with a ton of ASMs. After multiple hits, it should be disabled.”

“Then why are you telling me this when we could disable it with ASMs.”

“Ehhh… I’m telling you just in case. As long as the enemy doesn’t have an absurd amount of battleships, we should be fine.”

0400 (Early Hour), Quiet 94th, 195 AE

0800 September 2nd, 2019 CE

Port Everglades

“Diplomat Jacques! I didn’t expect you to come here!”

“Captain Raoul! How are you doing!”