Summoning Our Country - NHS Kai

Chapter 35.5: Smoke in the Fog

NOTE: This is rose. Consider this a leadup to a big chapter, hopefully out before the year ends.

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Cent. Calendar 23/02/1640, outside the port of Astaran (Point Jeanne), 6:52

It was a cold winter morning in the northeastern fishing town of Astaran. Around two months into the war with Parpaldia, their army landed in the kingdom and took the town for themselves; weeks later, it was now the busiest port on the northeastern coast with dozens of Parpaldian transport ships unloading men, supplies, cannons, and war animals to shore up their presence. As all this hustle and bustle was going on, the Parpaldian occupiers were lenient enough to allow the town's native population to continue with their daily lives. For most of the residents, this meant being able to continue with their livelihood as fishermen.

The horizon to the east was dyed a somber orange as the sun was about to burst forth from its slumber. However, the morning fog that had set in was still pretty thick, so the powerful glow of the rising sun was somewhat stymied. At the town's fishing port, a lone fishing boat was setting out and clearing the breakwater. At the helm was its captain, who maintained overwatch and had his hand over the wheel.

It was already 6:52 in the morning, an arguably very late time for the fishermen who were going for the morning catch, so no other fishing boat was leaving the port. However, the port was by no means empty—on the other side of the port where the Parpaldians had built a makeshift unloading facility, a couple of transports were docked and were in the process of unloading their cargo. Outside the harbor, however, were dozens more of these transport ships, anchored some distance from one another and waiting for their turn to unload their cargo. These hulking vessels, some more than thrice the fishing boat's size, loomed in the fog as the boat made its way out into the sea.

"Hmmm..."

The captain glared at the Parpaldian vessels. They were massive but unprotected. Unfortunately for their side, the Royal Altaran Navy had been dealt a massive blow roughly a month ago, and there was now virtually no challenging the Parpaldians at sea. But...

"Seems about the same..."

The captain muttered to himself as he squatted down onto the floorboards, dislodged a loose plank on the corner, and procured a dark metallic brick from underneath. It was about the size of the plank—roughly a whole arm's length—and was mostly inconspicuous apart from one of the faces on its long side, which was filled with raised squares in a grid pattern.

The captain pushed some of the squares in sequence as if they were buttons before hovering his finger over a circular button near the top of the brick. It was labeled with two scripts corresponding to the common Asheran script and the local Altaran script but they said the same thing: "Press to Talk."

"Alright..."

Just as he was about to press it, however, something caught his attention.

"Wait! That ship..."

As his boat was entering the open ocean, he spotted a lone transport ship anchored at the tail end of the 'line' of vessels waiting to enter the port. It wasn't exactly alone—there appeared to be a warship further behind it—but the key fact about it was that it wasn't there yesterday evening, the last time the captain had set sail when he was trying to go for the night catch.

"Damn!"

He quickly set aside the brick and produced a map from the same place he got the brick. It was a map of Astaran and the local area but it differed from the usual maps due to its elaborate grid system that corresponded to accurate coordinates. Skilled in navigation due to his extensive time as a sailor, he found his position and the position of the new ship in no time. He promptly took note of the coordinates and re-entered the sequence on the brick before pressing down and holding the press-to-talk button.