The Will of Humanity

The Conquest Begins

December 2nd, 4000AF — about 30,000AD/CE, country/Eplye, early morning

Emilia stretched as she woke up, she quickly checked the area of her camp to be sure it was safe before retrieving her bag of meat. Gathering wood for a fire in the process before she settled back into her camp, starting the fire with minimal difficulty. She then retrieved the kidneys from the bag and cooked them for breakfast, running quick calculations in her head for how long it would take to construct her castle palace on the mountain above her facility base and grow her army. She came up with a rough two months for the army, yet the castle — if she used her full strength and a little help from the heads of her army — would take just a month and a half.
A task that would take normal human rulers two to ten years to accomplish, due to both gathering the stone to construct it's walls and the coin to pay for the workers constructing it. With this in mind Emilia ate her breakfast, tended to her personal needs, doused the fire, then continued home to the village. Hearing the sounds of early morning village life long before hitting the outskirts, her friends and neighbors gave her weary looks as she passes. Her armor gave her a certain presence about her, like an omen of things to come. For now though Emilia returned home, giving her family the meat she painstakingly harvested to help feed them.

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Two months after first discovering the facility her impressive and well defendable castle sat on top of Emilia surveyed her army, six legions with a hundred thousand troops each. At their head and almost equal with Emilia herself were six generals who made up the template for the legions they commanded, three of whom were women and all with different genetic heritage. With everything ready Emilia turned to a figure clad in black armor, the pauldrons of which featured a yellow field, and said "Lady General Carter, do the troops understand their orders?" Lady General Carter removed her helmet, revealing a pale face with tan colored hair who said "They do empress, take heart for this day marks the beginning of a great age for mankind. Your kingdom will stretch to all the nations and into the stars."
Emilia permitted herself a smile, stepping closer to her most trusted general and clapping a hand to her shoulder before she said "Thank you Willow, it pleases me to hear you say that." She put on her helmet before she turned to her army and said "March now." following them as their generals led the way to her home village. Each legion was distinguishable by their armor colors, the red of the Sanguine Swarms led by Lord General Korin Hata were the first to see the village. An alarm sound rose from the village as they saw the multicolored army marching towards them, each soldier in it looked like a nightmarish beast as the villagers scrambled to get the women and children into houses and the men took up their bows & tools to use as weapons. Fear was distinct in their eyes as Emilia's army stood eight to ten feet tall, the lord and lady generals stood at twelve to thirteen feet tall.
At the maximum range of the villager's bows the army stopped and Emilia strode forward, the villagers looked confused as she removed her helmet. Knowing her face, many of them having watched her grow up. But they hardly understood what was going on, her current chosen height was fifteen feet to remind her troops and generals that while she was human she was just as powerful as they were. Emilia stopped at the halfway point, looking at the men of her village as she would only give them one chance. Hoping they would take it as she knew they stood no hope of defeating her army, there was no reason for it to turn violent.
One of the village elders looked at the men around him before he strode out to meet her, clearly scared as he looked up at her and her gold armor. Emilia looked at him and said "Honored elder, I will only give you and your men once chance. Submit and there will only be peace and prosperity." He considered the option for a moment, looking from Emilia to her army as if weighing the odds of winning against such a force. He then said "I Josh Kerrisk, elected elder of the village welcome you and your army into our midst." Emilia felt relief at these words, she donned her helmet and passed the orders on to her generals who distributed it to their legions.
Then she heard a warning from the facility she was based in, an army smaller than hers was approaching quickly from the northwest. Pulling up the situational map in her heads up display to survey the information Emilia saw the army on the map, judging by the direction of travel and the speed the enemy were traveling at that they were heading for the village. Acting quickly Emilia said "Elder Kerrisk, gather the village and ready them to travel. Lord General Mário, I want you and Lady General Madini to take the village to the safety of the palace. Lady General Willow, Lord General Viktor, Lady General Laila, and Lord General Korin I want you and your legions with me."
The generals answered her orders with "Yes empress." while Josh returned to his men and they set about their tasks. The village was gathered before Emilia's army in a matter of moments, the women clutched their children to themselves as everyone was led towards the mountains where the palace castle was located. Once the civilians were out of the battle area Emilia said "Korin and Viktor, I want your legions hidden throughout the village where your combat training would be an advantage. Laila, I want your legion to cover the eastern edge of the village to make sure the enemy can't flank us or go after the villagers before Mário and Madini's legions can get them inside the walls of the palace. Willow, I want your legion to build quick fortifications then hide in the surrounding forests until nightfall. Where you will raid the enemy camps until daybreak."
They acknowledged Emilia's orders then set about their tasks, Willow's legion cut down some of the tallest trees and arrayed them as walls to the west and south of the village before carving trenches into the north and east of the village. Korin and Viktor set two companies of their legions — about 4000 men — up in the buildings and alleys of the village, sending the rest to fortify the palace for future sieges. Laila took her legion to the eastern edge and dug in for a war of attrition, each member checked their stormers in preparation for the coming battle. Emilia checked the enemy's progress on the map, estimating they would arrive into visual range within an hour. Taking a deep breath to focus as she'd been training her magic, and was now able to move objects in addition to calling lightning from the sky among many other things.
By the end of the estimated hour everything was ready, the sound of hooves digging into the earth was heard before the first rider came into view. Followed by what Emilia easily counted to be 1000 men, all riding horses of various colors and carrying a banner with both the symbol of Eplye and the crest of the current ruler on it. Emilia realized that somehow the current king of all Eplye had learned of her rising power, thinking that she was drawing both her forces and power from the village to create a rebellion. The troops now riding towards her were meant to crush the rebellion, thinking that — like their king — it would take her much longer than two months to build a battle ready army. When the vaunted troops of Eplye were within crossbow range of the village their captain rode out of the formation, clearly meaning to get Emilia to surrender without bloodshed.
Emelia approached the captain without fear, knowing her armor would protect her. He looked at her with an expression of disbelief, fear mixed into it as he realized just how big Emilia was. Once within conversation range Emilia removed her helmet and said "Speak your terms." watching the captain's face as he swallowed nervously. It took the man a moment to compose himself as he was unnerved despite his military training, finally he said "King Eskil Sagen, high ruler of Eplye demands your surrender. If you comply you and your rebellious leaders will be arrested, tried, and put to death if you're found guilty." Emilia fought the urge to giggle at the audacity the captain was showing in the face of his enemies, his army was heavily outnumbered by her own forces.
Let alone outmatched in training and technology, so much so that Emilia looked him dead in the eyes and said "Do your worst." She then put her helmet back on and returned to her troops, cocking the bolt on her own stormer as the captain returned to his troops. The peaceful formalities over Emilia watched as the captain gave a well practiced signal, his men readied their crossbows with bolts and positioned the string. He then gave another signal and they fired, the bolts flew true towards Emilia and her army. Only to break upon their armor as they impacted, smiling under her helmet Emilia used the communications system in the armor and said "Green light is on, stain the earth."
Her generals and troops acknowledged the order, leveling their stormers and opening fire at the now charging troops of Eplye. The rounds from their stormers flew towards targets, mostly the mounts of the troops who had come to try and kill them. The stormer rounds proved how effective they were as they impacted the steeds, brief arcs of enchanted electricity made them cry out in pain just a split second before the round entered and proceeded to explode. Spilling the riders off of their now dead or dying horses, the battlefield looked like a bloodbath with bits of horse scattered everywhere. The horses that weren't already dead were laying on the ground with what was left of their organs hanging out of their flesh.
Their riders got up from where they fell and stared in horror at their horses, the captain looked shaken but he ordered them to press forward. Just moments before a stormer round buried itself in his head, the electricity did not even make him scream before his head disappeared in a cloud of red mist. Bits of his skull and brain splattered the troops closest to him, his forces were clearly shaken but were still trying to close the distance. Several fell to taking stormer rounds to the torso, with said torsos following the example of the captain's head. Those were the lucky ones as the troops struck in the shoulder faced slow and agonizing deaths, what was left of their arms laid on the ground beside them.
The other lucky ones were those struck in the pelvis, who fell to the ground with their intestines hanging out of what remained of them. Their only reprieve was when Emilia's troops had to reload, the army of Eplye amassed before them now consisted of a mere twenty men. Twenty men who were now retreating in fear, the ground around them was red with the blood and organs of their comrades. They took the less than fatally wounded with them, and left the dead for the scavengers. With the first battle over Emilia said "Gather the bodies, those brave men deserve a proper burial."
Her troops followed her commands without question, knowing that Emilia wanted to unite humanity. Despite having equipped them with weapons that would horrify the troops they were facing, that would do more than just wound enemies. The burial duty proceeded in grim silence, every soldier that enough of was found for burial was gathered and placed in deep graves. The captain himself was buried near the O'Ferrell ancestral home, a place of honor dictated to him by Emilia for his bravery in ordering his troops on in the face of death. In Emilia's mind one thing was very clear, her conquest of the nation of Eplye had begun. Her kingdom had started on that battlefield that was now stained with the blood, gore, and fragmented armor of men who had dared to oppose her.
When the burial of the men was done Emilia and her troops harvested what remained of the horses, the meat was going to be needed to feed both the massive army and the villagers that were now under their protection. They then began the trek home to the palace, reports from Willow and her legion said that the troops who retreated hadn't stopped running. This fact almost made Emilia laugh, very certain that the soldiers had soiled their armor. In fact she would have, if not for the somber atmosphere of the day. A heavy butcher's bill had been delivered to the army of Eplye, one that would haunt them until the day they died. It even haunted Emilia slightly as she had to give those orders, it had been a necessary evil for her to unite all of Terra and head into the stars once more. At least, that was what she told herself so she could get a good night's sleep.