Into The Horizon: An NHS Fanfic

Chapter 8: Expedition to Mu(1)

May 2nd, 1898, 0800 Hours Sea of Tracia, 2100 Nautical Miles North of Thria.

More than a month after the discovery of Padia, and with its subsequent development efforts ongoing, 1st Expeditionary Group has now been tasked with meeting with the Second Civilization Area's Mu. According to Rina the Elf, alongside Mu are the nations of Nigrat Union in the Southwest, and Magicaraich Community in the Southeast. Unlike Mu, which is a magicless transferred nation, Nigrat and Magicaraich are lands invaded by this world's natives in the distant past, and due to magic being far superior during primitive times against people with only swords and arrows, Mu lost a large part of itself to the natives.

Now, the natives that reside in Mu continent made their own nations, along with the two are the nations of Hinomawari, Leifor, and Sonal. On the west, of Leifor, there is also the Inertia and Paganda, but according to her, they are no better than leeches sucking up to Leifor's name.

With the superiority of magic, the nations of Nigrat and Magicaraich are equal to the level of civilization of Mu, particularly the Magicaraich Community, being a federation of academic institutions, has been known to have no reservations on usage of either magical or mechanical knowledge, they prefer to fuse the two together to create greater technologies.

At first, Admiral Ethan Bond is afraid of encountering these magical nations because of the Annonrials, and Rina also warned him that the members of the civilized zones, especially the superpowers, belittle all nations outside of civilization areas regardless of technological advancement.

This got Bond thinking; what exactly in this world makes a nation civilized, and how exactly is one considered a Superpower?

Winnos did not have the concept of Superpower. All the 4 nations are equal to each other to a degree. The only time one nation, Entia, became the ruling power was during the Great War, with Thria and Valkia relying on its help to defeat the Havik war machine. 

Rina told him then that the label of Superpower is decided in what is known as 11 Countries Conference held every 2 years, the next one being in next year of Central Calendar 1640.
The Central Calendar and the Standard Calendar shows different years, but since the Winnos Federation does not want to give up their own calendar, rather than replacing, they just added put the names and years side by side, given that the dates are similar anyway.

With it still being a year away, Bond sent this informationn Winnos Naval Command, which is then discussed with the Federation Government. They have come into the verdict that if they want to join that conference, they must establish themselves as a superpower.

Now, the expedition's main objective is to establish the Federation as a suitable superpower, with trade and friendly relations subjective to the group and diplomat's decisions. The Winnos Federation is not willing to be subjected to exploitative or undermining terms.

The Winnos Federation is already facing a major problem. The threat posed by Annonrial was spine-chilling to say the least. Although their victories at the Lhorus Sea saw the defeat of more than 120 enemy ships, a Combat Armada still nearly got annihilated. If the enemy were not caught off guard by the 2nd CBA while they are resupplying, a similar outcome may have occurred. 

With the current number of ships both active and reserve being only at around 700, it is not enough to guard their new territories in Padia. It is almost as large as the Federation waters, and just 300 will not be enough for things get worse or if the Annonrial, based on their size and technological level, were to be serious. 

Currently, Home Defense is composed of 5 combat armadas, each having 90 ships including those in reserve and the logistics needed for them. However, out of those 450 ships, there are only a couple dozen are battleships, and most of them are the outdated Guardian-class. Even his flagship, the Keeper, will be having a hard time if he were to come face to face against an enemy battleship like the captured Cerium-class.