Divided Nation

The Outpost

     As we sailed closer and closer to the outpost, I saw signs of the recent battle. There were ship wreckages and dead bodies floating on the water as they bobbled around and occasionally bumped into each other. The shore turned from jagged rocky coastlines like from the Sea States into a more smooth and sandy coast.

      "They came out of the night," Harold said after we had boarded his ship and discarded our older one, "We were caught completely off guard. By my predictions, they were still supposed to be at Port Royale right now."

      "Their numbers also outnumbered ours," He continued, "A portion of their ships sailed off to attack the States, I'm assuming, but they must have bumped into you on their way there."

      "What about you guys?" I asked, "How did you manage to prevail?"

     "Do you know what the Outpost is most famous for trading?" Harold asked and I immediately knew how he had won the battle.

    Vermithor was the most flammable material in Gala. A barrel of that stuff could obliterate a stone castle to rubble. A single drop could burn an average size vessel. And the outpost was most famously known for producing Vermithor. It was one of the main reasons that the Regime had decided to establish a colony there. To mine the Vermithor.

      "The ships docked at the harbor were loaded with that stuff," Harold explained, "That was one of the reasons that we lost so many men at the initial attack. When we blasted their ships with cannons, the Vermithor erupted. You know how that material is, it'll burn right through the water."

     I nodded. Vermithor couldn't be put out by anything. It would still burn in water and it would eat right through sand or anything else you put on top to extinguish it. However, Vermithor was extremely rare and it took years to produce a barrel. The Outposts mines only contained powder Vermithor, which had to be cooked at high temperatures to produce tiny droplets of pure Vermithor.

     "We managed to steer clear of the fires, but a couple of our ships were caught right in the middle of that inferno," He said, "Good thing it had died only a couple seconds after. After we took the Outpost, we found around ten barrels of Vermithor in the storage room. We didn't want the thing to accidentally explode when we were in the Outpost, so we took it outside and dumped it into the ocean."

     "And when the Bay fleet came," I guessed, "They sailed right into a death trap."

      "I guess you could say that," He replied, "Truth be told though, I didn't even plan for it to happen. It sort of just happened at the right time."

    "What happened to the fleet?" I asked, looking at the water and wondering why it wasn't filled with wreckages.

      "The Vermothor ate right through their ships," He replied, "It vaporized instantly. Even the bodies didn't survive. There was just nothing left."

     As we approached the shoreline of the Outpost, I realized that he had been right. As we neared the Outpost, the only wreckages and bodies that we had seen were from my fight, not Harold's. The coast was simply empty of anything.

     When I was a child, my father had taken me to the Outpost once to see the Vermithor productions there. Before, we had powered our cannons with Vermithor powder, but once we had discovered gunpowder, it was a lot cheaper and easier to get. We were on the verge of shutting down the mine and abandoning the Outpost, but one of my father's advisers, Crampton, had convinced my father that we might need Vermithor for war one day. He had left the mine open but didn't really pay any attention to it.

     Back in that day, many people were protesting against expansion outside of the Garrisons. We had taken land from the natives there after all, but the area was rich in materials. GoldRidge, Amberstone Hall, and the Outpost itself were all for rescources in the area. GoldRidge for gold, obviously, Amberstone Hall was for amber and finally, the Outpost was for Vermithor. My father had been on the verge of withdrawing back inside the Garrisons, but he got assassinated before the chance came.