Bellum Alíu Orbise

Prologue

I dedicate this story to all military generals, inventors, soldiers and historians in history, especially those who shaped the fate of the area around the Mediterranean, and by doing so shaped the entire world.

Russia, year unknown

Kleng!

"Who's there?"

Deep inside a taiga forest, in a port isolated from the outside world. A strange metallic sound alerted the old caretaker.

"It's so dark. Whoever is here right now must either be a thief, or me, heh, or an utterly stupid idiot. Let's see, where's the flashlight... or here."

The old man pulled out a pair of flashlights and tried to point them into the blizzard. But even with the fluorescent lights, the snow was too dense to see anything more than a meter away. And worse, his legs began to feel cold from the built up snow. If it weren't for some strange noise, he would have been in his guard post warming himself near the stove, instead of going out here searching if there's anyone trying to steal a ship in this kind of weather.

"If I catch any bastard, I'll knock him on the head. What kind of idiot tries to go out in a snowstorm?"

The job of looking after ships near the Arctic was relatively lonely, and boring. It often required him to sit in a hut through the whole winter, with little supply going all the way from Yakutsk every month, and of course, making sure that nothing on a ship was stolen. Yet, low effort needed, quite livable salary, there is literally nothing too big to complain about, except perhaps the weather. Snow usually covers half of the legs, and blizzards are just as regular as Sunday. Aside from that, maybe idiotic thieves are another thing to write in the list of annoying things.

Kleng!

Another sound from the dark came and disturbed the windy noise.

"Hold right there, I have a gun"

The old man moves his hand to his waist, pretending to grab on something hanging in there. He lied, the gun was left inside the hut. He just said so, hoping that the thief, if there was any, would give up and leave before he had to deal with him.

There is no response however...

"​..do I need this....meh..."

A small, but remarkable voice can be heard in the air. No doubt, someone is trying to steal one of the ships in the port. But the sound of wind is too loud, it's hard to locate where the voice comes from. His hand holding the flashlight started to freeze, when the snow was raining to thicken with each passing second. Cold blizzard hammering into his face, making it hard to even open an eye, and it would only get worse. Having not much time left to think, the man started to run along the wooden quay, checking the ships one by one.

"Hey...anyone there?"

"...."-A long silence from the void replied to him, but he felt it's very close. Maybe the thief is just around here. Then, though it's still quite hard to see anything far away, the snow had stopped falling.

"Thank God..."

But before the old man could continue his search, a bright white light burst out from a LED on the last sailboat in the line.

"What the-"-he started to run toward the ship as a shadow standing on the deck pulled the sails and pushed the ship away from the shore-"Come back here!"

However, as the shadow acknowledged his existence, it quickly cut the rope tying the boat to the shore. A loud whoosh from the rope shattered the silence when it smashed into the quay, and the ship began to slide on the ice.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in in the corner of his eyes from the sky

"Come on....huh?"

An aurora, no, multiple ones came in a tick, stripped the sky into parts and collided in one place. In the vivid memory of the man, consider how long he has been here doing this job, he can say that the place the "Auroras" collided is in fact, the Polaris:

"Wait,what-"

The old man can't help but stop and look at it, stunned. At this age of seventy, never, not a time in his whole life had he witnessed Aurora behaving like this, like it was being commanded by someone, or something.

"What is this!?"

The place where Polaris was supposed to be there shined with a bright white light, illuminating the whole ground under it like a new sun. Ice began to melt as the silver ray touched the ground, carving on his face and all around. His knees began to shake and fell into the melting snow ground. The ship doesn't matter anymore, but the auroras. He should run away right now, not standing here waiting for something to come. But then, a sound of ice snapping right close to his ear. The ship had escaped the port:

"Wait! Don't go out there! It's dangerous! Hey!

Under the light of the auroras, the thief jumped off the wooden frame and walked to the front, without any attention to the caretaker, despite him screaming like a walking siren. Seeing that, the man climbed onto his own canoe and started the engine, hoping that the canoe could catch up with the speed of the sailboat.

"You! Get off the ship!"

Vroom!

The canoe began to run. However,the sails, being pushed by the violent force of the wind, pushed the boat away faster and faster, way faster than the canoe. Ten meters...then twenty...the sailboat kept moving faster and rammed through the ice, creating for itself a barrier of small icy minefield preventing the small boat from getting any closer.

Meanwhile, the aurora's sun also started to decay on its own

.
But without any method to stop the cruiser from getting out of the port, the canoe makes a tight turn back to the guard's hut, where there's a telephone that could help him report this aurora,and if he could, summon the navy to take the ship back. The ladder is so cold, much colder than when it's snowing, how could this happen? Whatever...He thought

"Come on, come on"

Getting back to the shore, the guard ran into his hut and put both hands around the stove for a quick warm,a feeling of burn quickly ran through his body. Comfortable, but not now. The old caretaker picked up the phone and began to spin numbers .Eight...four ... .nine...five...wait...something is wrong...

"Ah...yes, clever thief..."

Right outside his lair, a pair of scissors was left in the snow, along with a piece of radio line.
**
As the white green light decayed, the wind suddenly stopped to blow on the sail, leaving the ship stranded in the middle of the sea.

On the top of the sail, a whisper came to break the silence.

From the sky, the aurora's remaining light shot down the ship. Then, the ship vanished, into the thin air, with its only sailor.