Year 40

"I thought the plan was to keep them in the tanks until the sixteenth year." Brenda says.
"No, those were Marik's original plans for the last Eternals he worked on. We're doing things differently. From Elam's earlier calculations, and my own magic theories on this project we both came to the conclusion long ago that keeping them in the tanks for as long as Marik did is asking for trouble in the long term. While it certainly accelerates their skills and abilities there's a risk for it to have a terrible affect on the mind. In fact it's probably just as well that Marik killed them all, otherwise we might've had hundreds of mental cases." You reply.

"But Decena seems okay. I mean from what I know of the girl." Brenda says.
"Decena's an exception, but I'm not going to tempt fate with this group. Five years seems like a good stopping point."
"So are you going to be training the rest of them?"
"No, you are." You say to Brenda who is speechless for a second.

"What?" Brenda says.
"You're going to be responsible for these new Eternals Brenda. I know you're going to need assistants, but it's going to be chiefly your responsibility to train them and to make sure they become the best of the best. What Eternals should be. What WE are."
"But, why me? I mean I've never been on the frontlines like the rest of us were."
"True, but I know you're no stranger to battle and you're the only one I can trust with this task. Warrick's job is to be the head of internal security and to directly oversee the Eyes, so he can't do it. And I feel it would be best if another Eternal should be fully in charge of training these new ones. That leaves you and I know you to be an honorable woman who upholds the ideals of the Empire. Who could possibly be better?"
"You?" Brenda says.
"Heh, well it was a rhetorical question. But besides being too busy myself, I actually don't believe I'd be the best trainer. I think due to our own experiences of how we were trained as well as our personalities, you will make a better teacher."
"But we both had the same training up to our twelfth year."
"Yes, and then our next four I guarantee was vastly different. And even during our twelve years together in Semra's class, MY training experience was very different from yours. I think you'd agree."

Brenda nods, probably remembering that Semra took every opportunity to single you out in the class and subjecting you to the harshest punishments when it struck her fancy.

"You had Captain Gruz as a teacher and from what I heard, he taught you all to fight as a team and to have a shared respect for each other and he did it without resorting to excessive measures. I know the common belief is that I'm cruel by nature, but I'm actually not. Ruthless perhaps, but not needlessly cruel. And because I'm not cruel, that's why I'd rather have a more even-tempered person with at least a less hellish childhood experience than I train these children. They may be Eternals, but they're still children that will have to be molded into good productive soldiers for the Empire with minimal problems to their mental state. I know you'll be tough, but fair."

"Well, I don't know what to say, except I appreciate your confidence in me in all this and I'll do my best to carry out this task successfully. However, while I do understand that you don't really have the time to train the new Eternals I'm still slightly puzzled to as why you believe you'd be a rotten teacher. I mean you trained Decena and from what I've heard she's fanatically loyal as well as a great warrior bringing glory to the Empire."

"That's right, I did. And she is." You answer and don't give any more elaboration, which prompts Brenda to just leave it alone.

"Okay." She responds.

There's a brief pause before Brenda decides to break up the silence by changing the subject.

"So, what's next on your agenda?"
"Me? Well after I go inspect the new airship that Elam is supposed to be finished with, I'm going back on the battlefield. I think its time; most of the internal reorganization and major projects have been dealt with and don't require my immediate watchful eye anymore. I'm sure if any problems crop up, someone won't hesitate to inform me. Besides, the Torites are causing all sorts of problem on Ackerson's front. And I think he may even be having issues with that petty kingdom he recently made contact with. I don't even remember what its name is, and if I have anything to say about it, neither will anyone else."
"Well I'd tell you to be careful or wish you luck, but I know you'll be fine. You always are. Are you going to stay for the grand opening though?" Brenda asks and points at the rows and rows of tanks.

"No. Probably best if they don't see me immediately. Keep me a semi-mysterious unapproachable figure for awhile." You reply.
"Oh like what they told us?" Brenda says.
"Worked didn't it? Still, when you've sufficiently got that idea into their heads, then I suppose I'll make my appearance to them, most likely unannounced. I'll want them to actually believe that I may very well pop up at any time. It'll keep them on their toes."
"Ha ha, that's probably even more frightening than never seeing such a figure as I have to admit even at times I wondered if the Emperor was actually watching me all the time, though Roldan certainly thought so."

Brenda at this point temporarily spins off into a pleasant memory she has of Roldan. You've never told her it was actually Casimir that had Roldan assassinated for his own reasons. You've pondered if you should tell her the truth, but ultimately decided it wouldn't do any good save for perhaps destroying her faith in the Empire, which you don't want.

You know Brenda is prone to bouts of depression ever since Roldan's died, telling her that the government and its ruler that she served was directly involved in her husband's death might push her into hopelessness. Maybe even suicide. As it stands, you've been working to try to keep her spirits up.

Which is another reason why you picked her to train these new Eternals. Perhaps it will give her a better sense of purpose.

"Sorry, I rambled a bit there. I guess I just still miss Roldan." Brenda says.
"No need to apologize, I completely understand. Roldan was a dedicated soldier of the Empire and if he were here today he'd be proud of your accomplishments. Anyway, I have to go; if I'm lucky Elam hasn't blown up this new machine he just built yet. I trust you have this?"
"Yes I do."

You leave Brenda to her task and make your way to your next stop, which should be very different…

You look at the brand new airship you've poured money into. It certainly is as large as you thought it might be, though it is still strange to see such a machine that was only picture on a piece of parchment a few years ago. Elam is visibly anxious about what you'll think about it. He's surprisingly quiet though, which might be a good sign that he's learned to not run off at the mouth all the time.

"Hrm, its impressive looking, but does it actually work?" you ask Elam.
"Oh yes! We have tested its flight capabilities and it certainly works according to all the notes and plans Marik left. Had to make some adjustments of course, but I believe now that we've made one, we can easily improve upon it and make more." Elam says.

"Good, glad to hear it. What about weapons?"
"We've equipped it with the latest cannons and the prototype repeater. There are also firebombs that can be dropped from the sky." Elam answers.
"Excellent work as always Elam."
"Thank you, my Emperor. Will you be boarding it?"
"Boarding it? Hmm, hadn't actually given it much thought. I mean is this final product? You don't need to do anymore testing on it?"
"Well we were just going to do some weapons testing while it flying it, but the airship itself is fully operational. It won't go crashing into the ground or anything like that."

While you prefer keeping your feet firmly on the ground, you have to admit you do like the idea of potentially floating through the sky towering over your enemies and all those that might oppose you.

"Very well, but I still want you to go through a weapons test like you planned, before I get on it. Do another safety check as well."
"As you wish, so about a week?" Elam asks.
"Fine, but no more than that." You reply and leave.

Seeing as you have a few more days to kick around before the airship is ready, you return to the mundane duties of rulership. A couple days later you decide to check up on Warrick to see if there is anything he's uncovered that needs your attention.

The Eye Headquarters is probably the safest place in the Empire other than the palace itself. The Eyes may not be Eternals, but they're the next best thing and Warrick being both is certainly one of the best warriors at your command.

That's probably why he looks so bored behind his desk when you meet him. In fact your visit is probably the most exciting thing that's happened in his life lately.

"Emperor! Didn't realize you were coming, I was just busy going through all these population lists. You know like who is a potential trouble maker, who is a loyal citizen, that sort of thing." Warrick says getting up when you enter his office.
"Anything interesting I should know about?" you ask.
"Not really. I mean there are still some grumbles from citizens about when we took babies from some families for the Eternal Project and the free elven population is always unsatisfied with the way things are, but I'm not seeing any uprising material. Unless you want to have some dissenters whisked away in the night just to be safe." Warrick says.
"I don't think that'll be necessary. They can't all be kobolds." You reply.
"Heh, got that right. Still can't get over how Brenda was so successful in assimilating them the way she did. I still remember during our first major assignment in Nalin we had to wipe out caves of those vicious little bastards."
"I just saw her a few days ago actually, she's going to be in charge of the new Eternals, training and such."
"Is that right? Well she's probably the best candidate. I mean with you busy ruling and me busy being in charge of the Eyes and all. Um, is she still pissed at me?"
"She didn't really say anything about you, but I imagine you're still not her favorite person."
"(Sigh) That's a shame. You know I don't harbor any ill will against her and if I could've I would've had even tighter security that fateful day. I mean I just…"

You stop Warrick

"Warrick, you don't need to explain. You did everything you could that day. We all did. I mean hell even I didn't see a shadow assassination coming. A dead one that I killed no less. Just don't worry about it. Brenda will probably get over it one day, and if she doesn't, well it's still not your fault."

This reassuring statement seems to make Warrick calmer. You've obviously never told him the real truth about the assassination either and again you see no reason to stir up trouble by doing so.

You and Warrick talk for a while, some it about the present, some of it about the future, and some of it about the past. During your conversation, it suddenly occurs to you that maybe you could hand a small honor over to Warrick for all his hard work. He certainly could use a break in the mundane paper work that he primarily does nowadays.

You wonder if you should let him take command of the new airship and see some frontline combat.

You take command of the airship yourself

Everyone's got his or her place and Warrick is needed where he is. Perhaps another time.

You bid Warrick goodbye and in a week you make your way over to Elam's factory where you can board the new airship.

It does look rather impressive. Just looking at all the cannons stick out of the sides, makes you wonder how the hell it lifts off the ground with all that weight, but then someone probably also wondered how the hell a regular ship can float with the same amount of weight on it at one time too.

"This is a minor thing my Emperor, but I was wondering what did you want to name this ship? I figured you'd want the honor of doing that." Elam asks.
"Name? Oh yes, I suppose a name would come in handy. Let's see…call it the Storm I guess. Raining down destruction on our enemies and all that. Sounds good to me." You reply to which Elam agrees.

You board the Storm with Elam and meet the crew who will be flying this thing. All of them stand at attention when you arrive. a man dressed in a standard Empire engineer uniform walks up to you and salutes. It looks like his uniform has been crudely altered.

"Emperor on deck! It is an honor to meet you in person! My name is Tavis…" he starts to say before you interrupt.
"Why the hell do you have small metal cogs on your shoulders?" you ask.
"Oh…yeah that well when we started this project nobody knew anything about flying so Elam picked me for a lot of first tests. It was dangerous, but exhilarating at the same time! In time I became the most proficient at commandeering this technological marvel, so Elam made me captain."
"Glad to see Elam's taken it upon himself to completely ignore all military protocol and just arbitrarily assign ranks and such. So I'm guessing those little cogs you put on yourself are supposed to represent your new status?"
"Erm...uh…yes my Emperor. I meant no offense!"
"Calm down, I don't care that much. In the future though, assuming this turns out well. We really need to get you proper uniforms for airship crew rather than this poor attempt of altering old ones. Anyway, take me on the grand tour before we lift off."

Elam and Tavis both take you to various parts of the airship and explain various things mostly involving technical talk, eventually you grow bored and decide you just want to get on with getting this thing to the battlefield where you can see its destructive capabilities.

"Alright I get the picture, let's get this thing to the front lines and blow up some Torites." You say.
"As you wish my Emperor, I'll leave you in the hands of Captain Tavis here, uh he's still a captain isn't he?"
"Yes, since it's as good as a designation as any for now. If he proves competent, he may very well keep the rank." You respond.

Elam and some of the other engineers that were testing the safety of the airship soon leave it so that the rest of you can get on your way. The airship takes a moment to warm up, but soon you're lifting off and high in the air. The experience isn't that bad and a fairly smooth ride. You honestly half thought you'd go crashing down to the ground, but it really looks like your engineers came through. You give some praising comments which seems to put the crew and Tavis in good spirits.

You explain you'll be head towards the south where General Ackerson's command is located. You figure you can meet up and see what the situation is and have the Storm assist accordingly.

Along the way one of the lookouts see a group of the centaur Torites galloping across the plains. There are actually quite a few of them. Enough to be a raiding party probably. When asked if the Storm should try to take them out, you say of course.

"We're too far away to use bombs and the cannons aren't angled in a position to fire at them yet. We could use the repeater prototype though. It's located over there and it has terrific range! Would you like to do the honors my Emperor?" Tavis asks.
"Well I don't usually use firearms and I could probably hit some of those horse beasts from here with a few fireballs, but what the hell." You say and walk over to the repeater prototype.

You turn the mounted gun towards the centaurs who are now quite away that the "big machine" in the sky is heading toward them and means to do them harm. They begin to scatter and you press the trigger…

And the gun promptly explodes spectacularly. Enough so that it sets a large part of the ship on fire which then in turn causes more minor explosions.

As the surviving crew runs around attempting to put out fires and move away gunpowder, you find that you are several feet away from your original location and your arms have become bloody stumps. Your body is in bad condition as well considering you can see out of your one remaining eye that your organs are exposed to the air now.

Healing magic wouldn't be of too much help even if you could concentrate to use it. The explosions aboard the airship are deafening and you're barely conscious as it is. Someone goes over to help you and then you pass out.

You are not awake to experience the Storm's fiery crash to the ground.