"What? Our navy wiped out to the last ship!" When the Southern Alliance's leadership received this news,
they all looked incredulous.
They had prepared over three hundred warships;[1] how could they possibly be wiped out so easily?
"According to the last word we received, the fleet the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's side sent as escort this time wasn't one or two ships, but two carrier battle groups! First they found where our carriers were, then sent fighters and bombers to attack our carriers. In a very short time they had command of the air. After that, their warships began hunting our warships. As for those merchant ships of theirs, our warships never even caught sight of them!"
Hearing this,
the Southern Alliance's leaders each slumped into their chairs, dazed.
"Now… what do we do now? Before, when the Nancy Empire got its second batch of weapons support, it retook the second city, and even pushed us back three hundred kilometers at one stroke! Now the third batch of weapons has arrived. We… we…"
"After the last few rounds of fighting, the weapons we got from the Doyle Empire have long since been used up in large part. Even our soldiers have suffered heavy losses in this way of fighting at any cost. If we keep fighting like this… we…"
Everyone present felt at this moment as if a huge mountain were pressing down on their heads,
so that they could not breathe.
Just then King Biller, one of the Three Kings of the Doyle Empire, appeared before these men.
"King Biller! It isn't that we're afraid to fight; it's truly that, in the present state of the war, the enemy has new weapons, and it's made it… really very hard for us."
"Lord King Biller, this support from the Fierce Dragon Kingdom affects us far too much."
"We of the Southern Alliance ask for the Doyle Empire's army to support us directly. We believe that so long as the Doyle Empire's army leads us, we can certainly defeat the Nancy Empire!"
Hearing these words,
King Biller swept his eyes over this lot; he knew very well they only wanted to push this pressure off onto him
and let him find a way to deal with it.
"Enough. I haven't come to blame you. I know all about the situation on the Southern Continent now. I won't blame you without cause. As for the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, rest easy. In fifty days at most, the secret weapon our Doyle Empire has developed will be operational. By then you'll see what the wrath of the gods means! In the meantime, you need not keep attacking. You only need to hold your present lines."
Hearing this news King Biller let slip, everyone present was overjoyed.
"Is it true? The Doyle Empire is bringing out its newest technological weapon?"
"Long live the Doyle Empire; I knew the Doyle Empire would surely bring us a surprise."
"Destroy the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, and we'll stand loyally at the Doyle Empire's side!"
Cheers of every kind filled the room.
Among these men, a senior official of a certain country went back to his own room after the meeting ended.
He checked once more whether his room was safe.
Then he took out the telephone, called room service and ordered a meal.
A man in a white waiter's uniform came in pushing a meal cart.
The door was shut.
The waiter looked at the splendidly dressed man before him.
The man showed none of his high-and-mighty airs toward this waiter, but said nervously and quietly, "Are you sure… it's safe?"
The waiter took a thumb-sized jammer out of his pocket: "So long as this is here, this space is completely safe. Speak. You contacted me suddenly; what is it?"
The man at once told him everything he had just learned about the Doyle Empire's secret weapon.
"That's everything I know."
"Mm, you've done very well. I'll pass this intelligence on." The waiter lifted the cover, revealing the delicious meal prepared for him.
"Sir, here is the dinner you ordered. Please enjoy it."
With that, he made to turn and leave.
"Er… what you promised me before…" The man looked hesitantly at the waiter.
The waiter did not turn his head, and said lightly, "The meal we've prepared for you will surely satisfy you."
Several days later,
the intelligence in question reached the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
"A secret weapon? One that can destroy us outright?" Zhao Chen, in his office, listened to this: what he had suspected before, now with hard proof.
"Yes. This is what King Biller, one of the Three Kings of the Doyle Empire, let slip only to calm the Southern Alliance leadership's nerves. And he said it could be finished in fifty days at most," Secretary Officer Barbara said.
"Fifty days?" Zhao Chen pondered what secret weapon there might be.
The likeliest was nuclear weapons.
But they had long since prepared every countermeasure; radar had been set up on the islands around the Fierce Dragon Kingdom,
making sure that when missiles came, they would be spotted.
The interception rate could reach 90%.
And with the nuclear weapons the Doyle Empire could make at present, if their number was not large, the area affected would in fact not be too great.
Just to flatten the Fierce Dragon Kingdom alone would take at least twenty hits.
But the Doyle Empire should not have that kind of capability.
Not nuclear weapons.
Then could it be biochemical weapons, germ weapons?
Weapons of that kind could indeed achieve this effect, but the risk was extremely high too.
For anything that could wipe out the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's people would be effective against this planet's natives as well.
Even if the Doyle Empire's people could genetically separate themselves out,
they could not change the genes of every race on the whole planet.
By then, even if they wiped out the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, they might very well turn the whole planet into a wasteland.
By then,
even if the Doyle Empire defeated the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, it would fall far behind the other Trial civilizations in the wars to come.
It was a move that killed a thousand of the enemy at the cost of eight hundred of one's own.
So long as the Doyle Empire's leadership were not fools, they would never use such means.
Besides that, at this level of technology, only one thing remained that could achieve this aim.
A climate weapon!
It could control the climate of some region of the planet, artificially create tsunamis, typhoons and earthquakes, and destroy an area through such extreme weather.
This truly might destroy the Fierce Dragon Kingdom.
But at the same time it carried a certain risk too; if the data were the least bit careless, it might set off a global crisis.
In the history Zhao Chen knew, it was not as though no planetary civilization had used this means.
For example,
a great power of some planetary civilization, to defeat a great power on the far side of the planet, had secretly developed a climate weapon.
First it arranged several earthquakes of over magnitude 8,
leaving the other country boiling with popular resentment; after that came typhoons, tsunamis, sandstorms, scorching heat, bitter cold and so on, one after another without end.
It could be said that within that mere half a year,
that country went through every extreme climate disaster on record on that planet; in the end a quarter of that country's population died outright, and the rest either hid in shelters or fled to other safe countries.
That once-powerful country was routed by the climate weapon without a blade being bloodied.
Just as the country that used the climate weapon was preparing to taste the fruits of this victory,
they found that the planet's climate had gone completely out of control.
The extreme weather from before began to spread beyond its intended range:
hundred-meter tsunamis, magnitude-10 earthquakes, super typhoons, the whole globe at thirty below zero, summer temperatures breaking straight through fifty degrees.
In a mere year,
that planet was reduced entirely to a planet whose climate was out of control; in the end only a scant few people escaped the planet aboard spaceships.
In that war, in the end, there was no victor on either side.
"If the Doyle Empire is using a climate weapon, then we truly need to be careful." Zhao Chen felt the Doyle Empire would most likely use a climate weapon.
After all, it was somewhat safer than biochemical weapons; though there was risk, the risk was not very great.
"How is our Project 001 coming? How much longer does it need?" Zhao Chen asked with concern.
"It's still on the final thirty-day countdown," Secretary Officer Barbara said.[2]
The final thirty days?
Zhao Chen walked to the window and looked at the sky outside, thick with dark clouds.
Then all that remained was to wait.
Over the greater part of a month that followed,
the Northwest won two great victories and wiped out all the invading enemy.
On the Southern Continent, the Nancy Empress, with the support of the third batch of weapons, wholly steadied the Nancy Empire's situation, and even recovered a great deal of territory.
The Middle-Sea Archipelago remained at a stalemate.
The two sides clashed now and then, but neither showed any sign of a decisive battle.
But the weather around the Fierce Dragon Kingdom grew somewhat strange.
It had already rained for half a month on end.
The sea level had already passed the warning mark, and many dams and reservoirs on the continent were already in danger.
"Good evening, viewers. We now bring you an extremely rare emergency weather warning. According to the Meteorological Bureau's observations, three super typhoons are active at once in the Western Ocean, the Northern Ocean and the Eastern Ocean. This is the first time since weather records began that three typhoons have reached super-typhoon strength at the same time. The three typhoons form a triangle, all moving toward the Fierce Dragon Continent; they are moving extremely slowly, a complex Fujiwhara effect[3] is taking place among them, and their paths and strength are highly uncertain; the situation is very serious. The Fierce Dragon Meteorological Observatory has now issued a yellow weather warning. These three typhoons are expected to reach our Fierce Dragon Continent within a week at the earliest, or they may take over ten days; this cannot yet be determined. From tomorrow, heavy rain will affect the whole of the Fierce Dragon Continent. From the day after tomorrow, coastal areas will enter a stage of controls; all vessels working at sea are to return to port for shelter, and all personnel are to evacuate. Residents of low-lying areas and at sites with geological hazards are to relocate at once. Stock at least a week's supply of drinking water, food, medicine, flashlights and other emergency supplies. From now on, the Fierce Dragon Meteorological Observatory will update the typhoon track forecast every three hours. All residents of every part of the Fierce Dragon realm are asked to take this with the utmost seriousness: life above all, safety first!"
Listening to what the news was broadcasting,
and looking again at the weather outside, thick with dark clouds,
in the housing compound the children huddled together, somewhat timid and nervous.
"Big sister, I'm scared." A small child looked timidly at her big sister.
Princess Polly stroked these children's heads: "It's all right, don't worry. School's been called off, hasn't it? During this time, you all stay home and be good. Don't go anywhere. Once the typhoon has passed, it'll be safe."
"Mm."
"Not having to go to school is really great."
"Looks like we might get half a month off!"
Some of the boys were on the contrary very excited that they would not have to go to school.
Princess Polly noticed a figure outside the window.
She told her younger brothers and sisters a few things and went out.
She saw at the door her sister who worked at the police station.
"In rain this heavy, you still have to go to work?" Princess Polly asked with some worry.
"Sis, I'm a police officer now. This is my job. You look after our younger brothers and sisters at home; if anything comes up, contact me."
With that, the other leaned close to Princess Polly's ear and whispered a few words.
"It seems something's a bit off about this typhoon; the higher-ups are taking it very seriously. Lay in more supplies, and don't go out unless you have to."
"Mm." Princess Polly nodded, watching her walk off into the rain in her raincoat.
She shouted loudly, "Stay safe."
In the downpour, who knew whether her sister could hear her.
Princess Polly looked at the pouring rain outside.
She herself in fact had a very uneasy feeling.
The heavy rain kept falling, falling every day.
In some low-lying places on the Fierce Dragon Continent, standing water and flooding had begun to appear.
So much so that a place where a village of several thousand had lived became, after a mere few days of heavy rain, a lake.
Luckily, everyone in the village had evacuated days before.
Zhao Chen listened to the wind howling outside the window and the rain beating on the windows.
From where he was, the coastal port could be seen through the window.
The waves thrown up could already leap over the seawall.
"Yesterday, five deaths were reported because of this rainstorm. Counting the earlier ones, there are sixteen so far," Secretary Officer Barbara reported. "Over half our factories have stopped work and production. All shipping has stopped. Even the factories still producing can't ship out their finished goods for now. And once their raw materials run out, they'll be forced to stop work too."
"Ensure the safety of key areas, and keep casualties as low as possible. Evacuate local residents from dangerous areas in time. We must be prepared to face the worst," Zhao Chen said gravely.
Secretary Officer Barbara nodded, then said with a sharp look, "Your Majesty. Our Project 001 has entered the final twenty-four-hour countdown. The procedures after this are all automated; unless we input the key on our side to cancel the program, the plan will launch automatically in twenty-four hours."
"They've sent us wind and rain. Then let's send them a fine gift too," Zhao Chen said, gazing up at the gray, murky sky.