There is seemingly no end to the tunnels that the Dwarves call their own Highway. Back during the Great War, I remember them being called Arda’s endless labyrinth under the ground. Back then, I had nothing to argue about. The tunnels obviously do not stretch to infinity, yet they are as good as endless. Maisara and myself estimated that the tunnel network stretches all the way into central Karaina. Our evidence was based purely off how captured Dwarves would describe their own tunnels, how long it apparently took to traverse for them, and minor seismic activity in central Karaina which had no real known cause, still to this day I assume those earthquakes were simply the dwarves blasting tunnels.
After the Great War, a minor number of dwarves left the underground to live amongst the dwellers of the surface. We accepted them, Helenna has tried to find out what they know, but it quickly became obvious that those who left to join us where dwarves that ran from their own laws or were fearing some loss of status following an Imperial defeat. The rest of the dwarves abandoned the surface holds entirely. They demolished their own entrances, brought down their own tunnels, locked us out and themselves in.
Could we have gone? Yes. Definitely. But after a hundred years of warfare, did anything have the will left to wage a war like that? No. No one did. Not me. Not Maisara. No one.
So we let them be, never forgetting that there was a nation underground that had never been defeated. Now I write this a thousand years later. The recent invention of Ground Penetrating Radar, used for scouting out resource and mineral veins, has reminded us that there is an entire nation underground.
We learned two things. First, the tunnels are not built by Dwarves. They exist, filled in by an unknown material which occurs only within them and that the dwarves cut through to expand their kingdoms. That was odd enough, theories were proposed but nothing really stuck. To try and call them relics of Worldbreaking raised more questions than were answered, but that was the general explanation we settled on.
The second thing we learned is that the assumption that the Dwarven Highway in localized only to Epa is wrong. It is not the Highway, it is the Dwarves themselves that are creatures of Epa. Whereas they themselves do not leave the continent, underground scans reveal a different picture of the tunnels.
They stretch far out of Epa. They stretch into Arika and into Guguo. There are even signs of them going under the oceans and into the territories of the UNN and Pichqasuyu. The tunnels, whatever they are, are a worldwide phenomenon.
In a certain way, it makes me glad they are filled in.
- Excerpt from “The Mysteries of Arda”, written by Goddess Fortia, of Peace.
Premier-General Abakwa sat in the Igos Crisis Control Centre. It had been used for managing operations against the Jungle in the past, but now, it was being to manage the independence movements in the very south of the country. The cities of Ozoria and Manoka, both emboldened by support from the Arikan nations south of them and the sudden swathes of land acquired from the razing of the Jungle, now thought they could seize the chance to gain independence from Ausa.
Abakwa had seen Ausa freed from living in the perpetual terror of the Jungle, he was not going to let his name go down in history as the man who had overseen the collapse of the country that had managed to stand together against such terror for more than four centuries. So the Premier-General looked around the room. He had come to know it, for almost every single damn day was spent here at this point.
The room was huge and fashioned out of steel. Necessity had been the guide during the era of the Jungle, and necessity had come to make all the decisions here. The walls were reinforced, the tables were huge, and unadorned, all fashioned out of steel that was easy to wipe down. Around the corners of the room hung monitor after monitor and in the very centre was a giant television which a person could use to illustrate their presentations with. Currently, on display was a map of central Arika with Ausa illustrated and split into the thirteen different districts that each belonged to a city.
Abakwa sighed and lit up his cigar as Kashako gave a report. The man was supposedly an advisor, although his advice was worth little. He had only been put in place because it made the city of Sasa more compliant to the demands of the capital. There was no chance at a revolution or an independence movement in Sasa, but likewise if all it cost for them to be satisfied with Abakwa’s rulership was a small amount of time, then there was no reason not to give it to them.
“In regards to Manoka” Kashako droned on. “The situation there is just slightly better than the situation in Ozoria.” Abakwa took a deep inhale of his cigar and tasted the smoke as he looked around at the other advisors in the room. All of them, rather sadly, seemed to be paying attention. All of them bar General Domkat. The only other man in this room aware of the plot on how to save Ausa. The dark man sat in his uniform, broad-shouldered, and leaned back. His suit was dark-green, almost black. The style had been slowly changing to something resembling the Imperial uniforms, complete with cap.
Domkat noticed Abakwa and rolled his eyes at the presentation. Abakwa motioned to the man to stay calm, and took another deep drag of his cigar. Kashako continued. “In Manoka, the protestors are on the verge of becoming violent. Stones and bricks have been thrown at the police although no one has been seriously injured. The police have requested for permission to use water cannons to disperse the protestors although the mayor has not given permission. Personally, and I don’t think this is reaching to say, but I think the mayor may have sympathies for the protestors.”
Abakwa rolled his eyes this time. What a revolutionary notion Kashako raised. There were sympathies amongst the Manokan government for the independence movement? That was it? That was all the judgement Kashako had to throw at them? That whole city was a nest of traitors! Every one there was barely following Igos’ orders! “What about Ozoria?” One man in a dark green suit asked.
Kashako sized, he clicked a few buttons on his controller. The screen moved to zoom in on the District of Ozoria. Several of Ozoria City’s neighbourhoods were shaded in red. As was a swathe of Ashlands territory in the south of the country. Kashako sighed. “The situation is not good. Where we have the red, we have effectively no control. That is territory controlled by the independence rebels and not us.”
There were several sighs and several groans all throughout the room. Only Premier-General Abakwa and General Domkat managed to keep a straight face. The recent treaty the Empire had with Rilia and then again with Norje had wiped away any doubts Abakwa may have had about the Empire. It had been unnerving at first, when the Doschian King Wissel had been killed, when Jozef in Lubska had been hung, when Richard in Allia had been made into a token figurehead. But then Aimone had joined and what had changed? And Norje? What had changed there? They had allowed an Imperial Goddess to be wounded on their territory and Arascus had forgiven them fair and square.
“So the situation is out of control?” Someone in the room asked in a deep voice. Abakwa and Domkat once again shared a look. The situation had been out of control ever since Ausa had been given the Ashlands. On one hand, that land had been a blessing. It had made Ausa into the largest nation in Arika. Once the Ashlands were settled and developed, then Ausa would be a world power.
But the Ashlands were certainly not developed, and they were not even on the way to becoming settled. One had to look at the situation as it was, and not as it could be. Without the Imperial Peacekeeping Forces led by Generals Sokolowski and Zalewski, the Ashlands would be a hotbed of banditry. In fact, it was only because of the Peacekeeping agreement that Abakwa managed to retain any legitimacy in his government. If the Imperials had not turned up, then Ausa would have fallen apart already.
Arascus’ Empire had the manpower, it had the industry and it had the people needed to use the Ashlands. It had performed miracles before, why would it not work for Ausa? The way Abakwa saw it, Ausa could either be a great part of the Empire, or it could foolishly strive for independence and lose it all in the process. The choice existed only in theory, in reality, the path had already been chosen.
One of the other men spoke. “But it’s not escalating, is it?” What cowards. What fools. What were they even doing here?
“In regards to that, yesterday was the first death.” Kashako said. “A police officer was shot in the line of duty. I think that officially marks this movement no longer as a political opposition but as a terrorist group.”
Abakwa leaned back and blew a thick cloud of smoke from his cigar. It had finally happened. He waved to the table to calm them down. It was him and it was Domkat who knew what to do, the rest were simply unaware. Domkat smiled with relief too as the rest of the table descended into panic.
“What are we going to do?”
“We can’t let them get away with this?”
“Traitor.”
“Does Ozoria want a civil war or what?”
“And what can we even do?”
“There’s no army, is there?”
“Everyone else promised not to intervene.”
“Arika will descend into flames.”
“So this is the end of Ausa then.”
“We should send extra police forces.”
“What police forces?”
“There’s no one to send!”
Domkat intervened, he stood up and shouted. That booming voice immediately silenced the whole audience. “SILENCE!” The general stood there for a few moment in his green uniform and beret and then made his tone lighter. “The Premier-General has something to say.” He turned to Abakwa and ceded the floor for him to speak by sitting down.
Abakwa waited for Domkat to finish adjusting his chair before he tapped his cigar on the table and took another large drag of the tobacco. It was to control his own excitement frankly, not for anything else. “Gentlemen.” Abakwa began. “It is with a heavy heart that I say there is only one path I see forwards which will keep the integrity of Ausa without causing a brutal, multi-year long, civil war.” Abakwa wondered in people caught on to what he was meaning, judging from the expressions and the fact that people actually looked at him with some thin layer of hope rather than hatred said that they had no clue.
Abakwa locked eyes with Domkat. The general smiled. Abakwa did too. “As Premier-General of Ausa, I invoke the Emergency Powers Act.” It was a relic of the era when the country was still being threatened by the Jungle. The law had been written so that the Premier-General could circumvent local government and issue orders directly to Ausa’s military in case a Firewall had been broken. It had never been invoked for the Firewalls never fell. There had been little reason to change it for it wasn’t as unlimited in scope as the name suggested. It was simply a sidestepping of bureaucracy that allowed the Premier-General to communicate directly with the military. The Epans had their own versions which allowed their rulers to uproot all society.
Immediately, eyes went wide, cheeks went pale, a few jaws dropped. “But that’s…” One man began and Abakwa cut him off simply by talking over him.
“Ausan integrity was under threat from the Jungle when the Emergency Powers Act was written, now Ausan integrity is under threat from internal rebellion. Do you concur General Domkat?”
“I concur.” Domkat said.
“And do you concur that anything must be done to protect Ausan integrity?”
“I concur.” Domkat replied again.
“Then as my first order, I will say this: Ausa formally requests help from the Empire of Arascus, General Domkat, send a letter to General Sokolowski and General Zalewski of the Imperial Ashlands Peacekeeping Forces. We will ask them to intervene.”