Rise of an Empire, Fall of Another

by Kyuubi325

ruins and storehouses (edited by Cakebomb)

Eastern coast of Zebrica
RSRC Forward operating base
1 km from original RSRC landing site
12:30 pm; one week after signing of treaty
Morgan Singer watched as his mutts unloaded the Cyklop walkers from his ship onto ancient stone docks, left over from empires that have since faded away into the bowels of history. While massive in comparison to its operators, standing at over 18 meters, they represented the smallest of the empires walking engines. Originally developed in Germania for rapid response to dragon incursions, they were suited to fast attack roles. However,, since the war ended many of the older models had been scrapped or sold off as surplus. He smiled as he watched a few of the zebra approach the walkers to touch them before jumping back as if they were going to attack. He laughed at their their comments about the walker's chicken legs and armament, often comparing the twin machine guns on its top to eye stalks and the lower 57mm howitzer to…..a stallion's manhood; he snickered at that. A few of the braver warriors ran their hooves over the old armor, feeling the dents and scratches left over from old battles. These walkers were the last few active service MK2dk's, still fitted with the original diesel/kerosene engines that had been replaced with newer, more powerful, but far more complicated pure diesel engines. After watching one start up with a loud animistic growl scaring off the rest of the curious zebras and make its way to the motor pool, he turned his attention to the crates of equipment that had been unloaded and stored into a stone warehouse the architects were still in the process of repairing.
“Hans! How goes the repairs on the ruins?” he yelled at the auburn colored Mutt, working on repairing a roof.
“How do you think?! It would have been easier to build this all from scratch! Once we finish one repair we end up having to back track because the walls start crumbing from the weight of the repairs! Don’t even get me started on the foundations; half of them are badly lopsided!” he yells, annoyed.
Morgan merely shakes his muzzle at Hans. "That was part of the treaty; they wanted us to build the FOB near these ruins so that we could help them repair them. These ruins are from their own golden age, before their country fell into lawlessness. Ear is not just fought on battle fields, it is also fought in the mind. Breathing life back into these ruins will help us fight the many warlords who pose as gods to their slaves and followers while. I have no doubt that we will win the ensuring battles, they will mean little unless we can prevent them from becoming martyrs in the eyes of their flocks. I don’t have to remind you that we are doing the same back home.”
Hans sighed “Yeah…yeah; still doesn’t make this any easier. The only thing unaffected by the tides of time are the defenses. Unlike the buildings in the city the defensive walls are mostly intact and are serviceable. Mounting armaments to them have been easy, but the heavy stone takes time to drill through. I will give you a full report later, sir.
Morgan nodded. “Return to your duties” he said, as he left for the temporary command center.
He smiled, watching many of the young zebra foals run around him as he made his way through the new settlement before stopping at a stall where a lovely zebra mare wearing a number of colorful sashes was cooking fish. His mouth watered at the many smells it gave off, exotic Zebrican spices and herbs giving it a unique scent.
“So you are the great diamond dog who brought us hope.” She says in accented Britannian while smiling. There was a noticeable glint in her mouth, hiding something.
His eyes widen “I wouldn’t say that….” He looks at her suspiciously. “Where did you learn Brittanian?”
She continues talking as she cooks the fish “I was given one of your books; it has always been my special talent to learn and understand foreign languages. I found that yours was very similar to the language of the local diamond dog mercenaries who settled on our continent centuries ago.” She smiles as she hoofs him a grilled fish, wrapped in seaweed.
“I suppose that’s not surprising; they are the descendants of refugees from Britannia...” he experimentally takes a bite of the fish.“It’s good….why do Zebras eat meat and fish? You appear to be herbivores….” He asks, sitting down in front of the stall and chewing on his fish.
She giggles. “That is a common misconception, popular among the Equestrians to the north too. When they first made contact with my tribe they were horrified. They instantly assumed we were feral and were planning on eating them… while many of my tribe found it comical how they reacted to our cooked fish and fine meats, they still attacked us. We easily detained them, even with their magic, but the princesses were not amused. Our village was one of the few that Equestria actively supported instead of the local warlords due to our weaving skills. The princess arrived and even though we treated the prisoners with great care and respect despite their rudeness, she demanded restitution and that it was our fault that they acted so harshly. She went on and on about how equines should never commit such acts.” She shakes her head “Equestrians have always had a superiorly complex; they believe that their way is the best way. It didn’t matter that our harvests are far less fruitful then there’s, that we have always had to supplement our harvests with the bounty of the sea and land….” She looks down. “She then had the audacity to ask why we haven’t just joined with Equestria. Like she didn’t know how much our people suffer in her lands…..I told her I would not summit to her Ponies racist tendencies. She took her ponies and left; afterwards, trade with them trickled off, and it was only by griffin merchants that we were able to keep our small village afloat. The ponies didn’t stop coming though; every now and then a traveler would arrive to tell us about the wonders of Equestria and the powers of their god princesses. They never shut up about how their homeland is so much better or how we are so barbaric…..but now? With your peoples help we can make them the primitive barbarians.” She smiles, looking up with determination in her eyes
He smiles “And with your kinds help we will show the Equestrians the errors of their ways.”
She smiles as she leans over “So, tell me admiral; what do you do for fun?”
Eastern Zebrican coast
Forward operating base
Main storehouse
2:00 pm
Anna Kask smiled as she took stock of the supplies in the storeroom. While her current job was fairly boring and mundane, she knew that her own efforts and connections to the merchant and trade guilds would make her invaluable to creating a more stable and modern economy (at least by her own country’s standards). While it would be difficult, especially since the conditions and overall structure of the country were different then her own, she had confidence that she and her partner Yuval Yosef could succeed. She giggled as she took stalk of the Rakfisk (that was mainly for the officers and holidays). She never understood how something that smelled so foul could be so valuable, but like with all goods it was supply and demand, and what made this tall stack of canned Rakfisk so valuable was that a certain popular fish was now getting harder to find, due to a combination of overfishing and the disruption of their habitat five years ago when the military decided it was a good idea to destroy one of the sea serpents nesting grounds. Never mind that it was near the major spawning area of the striped green trout and that the ordinance used had a number of toxic chemicals that could harm them. She shook her head. What was bad for the fishermen was a blessing to her and Yuval Yosef; after all one of their contracts paid them in canned green striped Rakfisk just before the attack! Their old steam lorry could barely hold it all as it groaned under the weight. Within a week the value of it skyrocketed and while they did sell off some of it, she had them wait to sell off the majority when it reached its cap at more than 6000 sterling pounds for a kilogram! Yuval was finally able to repair the ramshackle lorry and even upgrade it to a fresh of the line diesel engine. Sure, it would have been cheaper to just buy a new one, but that lorry was special; it marked the day they started working together, after spending years saving up to buy the outdated wagon.
Word had gotten around that the two of them predicted the increase in value of the fish. It wasn’t long until they got a notice from the guilds, saying that they have been given positions higher in the guild's hierarchy, and another new job offer to head to the west to take advantage of the untapped markets there. She spent the next few moments remembering when they boarded the HMS Wyvern, watching as their beloved lorry was lifted by crane onto the deck... until the crashing of cans snapped her out of her memories.
“Hello...?”, she said, making her way to the opposite side of the storehouse to find that a crate of canned powdered milk had been knocked over. She spoke up again. “Someone here? It’s alright; this happens to me all the time. I'm not mad…” she then heard another noise coming from one of the empty crates “Hello...?" She looks over the top to see a terrified zebra colt hiding inside the old crate. “It's ok...” She reaches for him, only for the colt to flinch and try to scramble further back into the crate. She frowns and sits down to think. “I know!” she smile,s but then quiets down seeing that she scared the colt.. She pulled out a small roll of bread and left over cheese and sets it on a neckerchief on the floor, before stepping back and waiting.
The colt sniffs the air and slowly makes his way out of the crate over to the food. He looked at it for several seconds, before attacking the food like a starving animal. While surprised, Anna waits till he was finished and offered him one of the hard candies she kept in her dress for dessert with her paw. “It's ok...” The colt grabs it rapidly, as if she were about to take it away. She then points to herself “Anna…” the colt looks confused for a moment before smiling.
He lifts his hoof and points it to himself “Kofi…..”
“I think it’s better we keep this to ourselves….” She points to the mess. While the colt doesn’t understand what she said he undersands the meaning.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why is this on hiatus?

[Charedfirescale]

Time to kill some princesses.

[Kyuubi325]

6516761 sorry my mistake

[Kyuubi325]

6516836 there punishment must be far more severe

[Charedfirescale]

6516915 Tarturos?