Fourth Vector Ch. 19

Jack raised an eyebrow. "Friends? I take it that is your answer then, Reina? Are you still considering the Picards your friends? Can we avoid a war?"

Reina's face started out emotionless but her lips started to part into a small smile. "I'll admit that I was on the fence for a while there, Jack. I thought it might serve Aedan right to have this whole Swabian affair backfire in his face. But the bonds of friendship between our two countries are deep. One incident can hardly allow them to break. Especially now, with the Swabian threat to Picardy so deep, we would be the worst kind of ally to abandon them in their time of need."

"So will you help us? Will you help us rescue the Picards and push the Swabians out of the country?" asked Kat with pleading eyes.

Reina nodded firmly. "I will. Carinthia will aid her old ally once more. And even though I still might ask for compensation for our sunken warship from Aedan when this is all over, I'd like to approach that conversation as allies. There will be no war."

Kat and Jack both looked at each other, letting out deep breaths at the queen's response. Kat couldn't help but beam with a smile as she rushed in to embrace the queen. "Thank you, Reina. Thank you from the bottom of my heart."

Reina started to laugh easily. "I know you have a good heart, Katherine. And I know you wouldn't make the request if you didn't think it was the right thing to do. You may have put me in a bad spot with your cousin, but thankfully, Carinthia has the advantage of good geography, being far away from Galicia should he choose to get off his rump."

"Knowing him, I highly doubt that he will," said Kat with a smile.

"Besides, I couldn't help but give into anything this one here requested," continued Reina, gesturing to Jack. "He's handsome enough that he could be my next husband."

Jack hardly had the chance to turn red before Kat fixed Reina with a serious gaze. "Watch out on that one," she growled. "He's mine."

Reina let out a delightful giggle. "Oh, I'm teasing you, of course. Unless Jack wants to put his opinion in?"

Jack chuckled. "She's right, Reina. Sorry to disappoint you."

The queen let out a mocking sigh. "Always the bridesmaid and never the bride. I guess my current and third husband will have to do."

As the other two laughed, Reina soon regained her composure. "Okay, now that the good feelings are out of the way, we need to talk strategy. This isn't going to be easy. As much as I'm willing to overlook the loss of our warship, the average Carinthian won't be nearly as forgiving. We need to figure out what we're going to do if we are going to help the Picards."

"There's really only one thing we can do, especially if the Picardy is swarming with Swabian troops right now," said Jack. "We need to mount our own invasion."

"Do we have any idea how many Swabians we're talking about?" asked Reina. "We can handle several regiments of Swabians but if they throw the full might of the empire against us, we won't be able to withstand them."

"Unfortunately, we don't know," said Kat. "We're fortunate that it won't be easy for them to shuffle troops to Picardy in any hurry, so whatever is there now will have to do, but we don't know how many men we're talking about. It may just be a regiment in the capital, or we could be looking at a major Swabian army. We just don't know."

"That concerns me a bit," admitted Reina. "With Swabia just being on the other side of Picardy, it's not a far stretch for them to work on reinforcements. I don't want any of more of my forces being destroyed needlessly."

"We'll have to play it by ear when we get there," said Jack. "Luckily, we do have two things going for us. Carinthia is just as close to Picardy as Swabia is, and we do have nearly a full regiment of my own marines, which have proven themselves in battle against the Swabians already."

Kat turned to look at him. "This is true, Jack, but I'd be worried about sea power too."

He blinked a few times. "We've already proven our worth against one of their cruisers before we landed in Andalucia. Surely they wouldn't think to tangle with us again so easily?"

"Sure, but they have plenty more of them," said Kat. "If they send a significant force in our direction, they could wreck havoc." Kat then turned to Reina. "Right, Reina?"

The queen nodded. "She's not wrong, Jack. Unfortunately, Swabian warships are a lot more frequent these days than they used to be. It may count against us."

"We'll just have to use our advantage in firepower then," said Jack. "Most Swabian vessels would have to go up the Swabian Gap, right? The narrow passage between Picardy and Swabia?"

"For the most part," said Kat. "They could come from further west, but most of their voices would transit that channel on the way to Picardy."

"Then what we need to do is get our eyes and ears on that channel. Anything to give us advanced notice of a force moving in those waters. If we have the foreknowledge of what's coming, we can lure them into a battle on our terms and destroy them," said Jack.

"But that would require control of the coasts of Picardy," said Reina. "If the Swabians have seized the capital city, and possibly Aedan as well, it will be difficult to get any messages out. The capital city is the central nerve center of the country."

"Well, we knew we'd have to go there first," said Jack quietly. "Now we have another reason. We go back to Daban and liberate the city from Swabian control. Once Aedan is free, we can coordinate the defense of the rest of the island. It's our best option right now."

"Agreed," said Kat. "And we should get moving quickly. The sooner we can land our forces there, the less time they have to dig in and prepare for us."

"I'll muster my forces as well as a naval task force," said Reina. "I had a small fleet ready to sail to begin the war with Picardy, but now I think we can repurpose them."

"How many ships?" asked Jack.

"Two battleships, five cruisers, and about ten support ships," answered Reina.

Kat's smile grew larger. "That's a powerful force, Reina." She then elbowed Jack gently in the side. "Carinthian ships are high quality. They are more than a match for the Swabians."

"That will be a great addition to our own forces, thank you, Reina," said Jack. "I have about eight hundred marines ready for action as well."

"Well, you have one thousand extra men to join the force, Jack," said a grinning Reina. "I have a regiment ready to embark. Fully equipped, armed, and supplied."

Jack couldn't help but smile back. "I'd say those Swabians don't stand much of a chance at all."

Before Reina could respond, she turned her attention to the air. She kept her silence for a minute or two, as if she was listening to something that was far away. More than once, Jack shot a look over to Kat, wondering what the queen was doing, but each time Kat shrugged, waiting to see what the woman would do.

Finally, it became apparent what Reina was listening for. Somewhere out above the tops of the trees, the sound of a low roar could be heard. It was faint at first, barely capable of being heard, but as the minutes moved forward, the roaring became louder.

As the roar became more apparent, Reina turned to look at both of them. "We've talked about both our land and sea forces for this upcoming expedition, but we're missing one piece."

Kat gave her a quizzical look. "What else could we be missing?"

Jack's face turned to look near the north end of the field, his mouth dropping open as soon as he saw it. "Air," he whispered.

It was unlike anything he'd ever seen before. Just above the trees, a man-made contraption was airborne, flying on its own power and direction by a man sitting just behind a giant engine. It wasn't the easiest thing to see for Jack's eyes due to the distance, but that man in the sky had found the solution to an ancient question.

The question of flight.

"I've been waiting for the right time to use this new discovery," said Reina excitedly. "Our engineers have only recently figured out the secret behind flight, and what you see up there is the extent of Carinthian knowledge and will."

As if to make Reina's words any more dramatic, the flying vessel swooped around the open clearing above them before heading to the far end of the field. The man in charge must have cut his power in that moment, for the machine soon dipped lower in the sky. Once it was close enough, Jack could make out a set of wheels near the front and a much smaller one in the back.

The pilot of the vessel brought it low while also managing to lower his speed as well. Soon enough, the machine bounced one, twice, three times off the soft ground, before rolling to a complete stop at the end of the field. As if the pilot wasn't happy enough to have conquered the air, he soon exited from the contraption, waving his hand and then doing a crisp bow to his queen.

"We're always wanted to conquer the plane above our heads," said Reina with a faint smile. "To conquer the air. That's what we're calling this new invention. An airplane."

Jack still couldn't find the words to express his wonder.

This could change everything.