A Machine Called Earth

Every tale, every story, every adventure, has a beginning. Although you know the beginning of Hector’s story, starting at Tammerville, there is still much that you don’t know. And it is best to start at the beginning, the very beginning.

When Hector was twelve, and only three weeks after his birthday, his father returned home from a mission that had taken him away from Tammerville and his family for about eight months. And on that very evening, the night of his return, he was killed. How did he die? Who was it that killed him? They are questions for another tale, but this is a tale for how Hector joined the Blackcoats, and became the young man he has become. Out of necessity, Hector joined the Blackcoat order, so he could provide for his mother and sister. And out of guilt, Valimir took him under his wing. Valimir was older than Hector’s father and was mentor to him as well. Valimir was around at the conception of the Blackcoats and was a solider before, and had fought during the ‘Great War.’ Valimir had trained Hector’s father, watched him grow in skill, fall in love, and start a family. He had watched Hector grow up and felt obligated to take him under his wing also.

Throughout the next four years Valimir taught him all the skills of a Blackcoat, as well as many that were foreign to all except Valimir, and throughout those years, Hector began to be the son Valimir never had. But Hector was not his only apprentice, Hector’s childhood friend: Charlie, was also under the leadership of Valimir. Valimir trained Charlie as a favor to Jacob, Charlie’s uncle, who had fought alongside him during the ‘Great War.’

In the first two years of his training, Hector had learnt a great many things. Both offensive and defensive: Shooting, sword fighting, close range unarmed fighting, and using an opponent’s bodyweight and size against them, as he was a small child.

It was something that happened within this second year, which was the event that changed everything. It was thirty odd years after the ‘Great War,’ and the land of Arccon was on the brink of peace. After a century of fighting, the peoples of Syre and its offshoot towns, were finally beginning to patch things up with the native peoples of Arccon, particularly those to the west. Thus, there was a council to be held, where each town and province would send a political representative to discuss peace treaties and trading agreements. And, this council was to be held in the capital of Arccon, much to the grief of the Native peoples, Syre.

Tammerville, which was a much nicer place than it is now, decided to send the current mayor of that time, the upright ‘Mayor Copper-bottle’, along with the captain of the guard, Valimir. A strange, unpredictable man, who you would not be surprised, if you found a thousand bodies buried all over his farm estate. With him were the two young guns of the military, the nephew of the greatest weapon smith of Tammerville, Charlie, and lifelong friend, Hector. Hector and Charlie had both joined the guard, as at the time, it seemed the only option. It was also a life of adventure, which was something that Hector craved desperately, not that he had a choice in joining. Life at Tammerville was dull at best. Especially for two young boys with hearts for adventure. It was a life of routine and oppression. Becoming guards was their best chance for adventure, and seeing life outside of town.

Charlie was, as just said, an apprentice weapon smith. Trained since he could walk, from his uncle, Jacob. And Hector was assigned to Valimir, he was his mentor, his trainer. And what better training is there, then on the job experience. Their task was simple, guard mayor Copper-bottle as he made his way to Syre. His task was to be the representative of Tammerville and negotiate treaties and communicate the responsibilities of Tammerville, and the surrounding territories, in a way were each town and province, would meet the needs of neighboring townships.

Especially relating to the clean-up efforts and rebuilding of Syre itself, after the attack during the Great War.

“It is a little strange, still having the meeting at Syre. Due to it still being quite, what’s the word, destroyed?” Hector said, “But perhaps they wish each town to witness the devastation first hand, in hopes that they’ll be more supportive.”

“You couldn’t be more right old-chap.” Valimir responded. “If you divided the land of Arccon into sections. The north, resides the Syrien people, who came from across the sea, almost a thousand years ago now. The west, east and southern regions are inhabited by those native to Arccon.” This was one of many small history lessons which Valimir would give the boys. “They’ll no doubt be going for the sympathy vote, if you ask me.”

“I say they should gather another army, and sail to where those attackers came from, and give them a taste of their own medicine.” Said Charlie.

Hector butted in, saying. “I hardly think they have the means for an attack. Syre is still very much in ruin. Why do you think there are still so many refugees in Tammerville?”

Charlie let out a displeased yet agreeing grunt.

Their guard duties seemed simple enough. Escort the mayor to Syre, follow him around, then head home. Easy. Thing is, not all towns wanted to work together, some towns thrived on ripping off passing travelers and traders. Especially on the rail line. Others just outright hated the Syrien people. This view was held by factions of those native to Arccon, wishing the Syrien people to leave, and go back to where they came from.

There they stood, waiting on the station, waiting, waiting and, more waiting. until they heard the distant whistle, as the train let the station know it was coming. It was quite an exciting time for Charlie and Hector, as they had never been on a train before. Once again the train let out a mighty roar, its whistle resonating off the pillars of the station. And there, it came around the bend like a ghostly figure, shrouded in steam.

“Here it comes!” Charlie said excitedly.

With a loud screech, the train pulled on its brakes, startling Hector. Hector became slightly red-faced when he saw that Charlie witnessed him jolt in unexpected fear.

Once the train came to a standstill, they collected their things, and boarded. Whilst on the platform, Valimir came to Charlie and Hector, saying. ”Keep a sharp eye lads. We are on-the-job, until we return to this platform. Got that?”

“Yes sir.” Charlie saluted. Optimistic of their journey.

Valimir went on first, followed by the Mayor. Charlie and Hector went on afterwards.

Making sure the Mayor was always in the center of the three guards. They left the station.

Valimir, Charlie and Hector, were equipped with a sword, pistol, and rifle. These rifles were not your ordinary single shot muskets. These were of unique design, created by Jacob, the weapon smith. They had a revolving compartment, which held five shots. When fired, you would turn the cylindrical compartment with the bullets, and gunpowder until the next shell lined up with the barrel. It was quite a revolutionary design, (pardon the pun) never attempted before. All other guns at this time were single shot or double barreled.

The invention of the gun was a definite step forward in terms of warfare, however the reload time was quite time consuming, causing a reload during combat, a non-option. Because of this, Jacobs’s rifle design created quite an advantage, allowing you to make five shots instead of one or two.

In the train, there were many rooms, Mayor Copper-Bottle entered one by himself where he fell asleep, and the three guards stood in the corridor outside.

As the train went through its route, stopping at each station on the way, many of the other towns and villages representatives boarded the train. Hector began to think about the seriousness of their mission. Being the youngest and most inexperienced of them, Hector began to feel quite anxious about their mission. Valimir was very kind toward Hector, and since the death of his father, Valimir filled that void that was created. But Valimir was also quite hardened and rough. He always held a firm grip, for everything. Shaking hands, grabbing you by the arm, and a pat on the back, to an old person would knock their teeth out for sure. But he never once held up a fist toward Hector. His ways were hard, if Hector or Charlie didn’t deliver, depending on the task, it might be fifty push-ups or run three laps of the outskirts of town, but never did he hit Hector or Charlie. And so Hector respected Valimir greatly, and wanted to never let him down.

“What happens if something goes bad?” He asked. “I mean, I’ve never killed before.”

“Don’t worry old-chap”, Valimir smiled. “I chose you because I trust you, you’re a good lad. Besides, killing is like riding a bicycle, once you can do it, it’s easy.”

Hector wasn’t exactly comforted by Valimir’s words.

“Anyways, if we have to save the mayor, then we’ll be heroes. Imagine that.” Charlie said, smiling.

Hector’s eyes lit up as he imagined the crowds filling the streets fighting to get a glimpse of them as they’re being rewarded with a medal of bravery. But Valimir grabbed them both harshly by the shoulders saying, “I should hope you two aren’t foolish enough to want to risk your lives and the lives of many just for the hollow praise of man.”

“Of course not.” The boys said in unison.

“Very well.” Valimir said, not buying their sudden recant. “Anyway, it’s a long ride, so go in that cabin,” he said, motioning to the one at the end of the carriage, “and get some rest. I’ll stay in this one with the Mayor.”

So Hector and Charlie went into the cabin and took a seat on either side.

Many more hours had passed and Hector gave into to the rocking of the carriage as it clicked, and clacked along the track, where he eventually fell asleep. However, Charlie, still excited, had his head out the window, looking at the world pass by. His long, bright hair, blowing in the wind.

After some time, Hector woke as Charlie nudged him saying, “Look out the window. There’s an airship.” He said. “Check it out.”

At the thought of seeing and airship, in flight, with his own eyes, Hector shot up and dashed to the cabin window. As he stuck his head out the window, he saw it. It was an airship in all its majestic glory. “Awesome!” Hector said with a smile from ear to ear as he looked back at Charlie. And there wasn't just one, there was a fleet. About five in total. But for two boys that had never seen an airship in flight before, they knew that the airships were flying too close to the train.

“I don’t think it’s supposed to be that close.” Hector said. “We should probably tell Valimir. He did say to alert him, if there was anything out of the ordinary.” Charlie nodded with a sick feeling on his face, as though his wish was about to come true.

They ran into the next room to where Valimir and Mayor Copper-bottle were. Valimir was smoking a pipe, a simple yet guilty pleasure of his. He cared not for shaving regularly or even that his clothes were ever wrinkled and stained. But he never left his house without his pipe, and a bag of tobacco. Valimir already knew what was happening, and already had the Mayor shoved under the bench in a poor attempt to hide. The only thing hidden, was his sense of dignity.

With a simper grin Valimir looked towards the boys. “Looks like we’re going to ave some fun.”

“What do you mean?” Hector said.

“Bandits.” Valimir responded. “I’m sure of it. They’ll be here to make sure Mr. Copper-pot and all his mates don’t make it to Syre.”

“But how do you know that they are bandits, and not just a couple of trade ships or something?” Charlie asked, hoping that it wasn’t the case.

Valimir glanced out the window again. “Have a look yourself.”

Charlie looked out, and by this time the airships had let down large black flags from the base of the hull, spanning the entire length of the ship, blowing furiously in the wind. The flags, endowed with the international symbol of pirates, a skull.

With a few huge clunks coming from the roof of the carriage, the airships threw down their anchors attaching it to the train. These anchors began retracting, pulling the airship closer to the train.

“They mean to board the train.” Valimir said almost too calmly. Hector and Charlie, hanging out the window, tried to cut them loose, but the chains that attached the airships were far too strong for their puny swords.

The bandits then boarded the train on the carriage behind theirs. “Alright old-chaps, this is it. You lads ready?” Valimir said. Charlie and Hector nodded nervously.

There they made their way to the door connecting the carriages, and opened it. There were a couple of feet of uncovered walkway from their carriage to the next. The train was moving quickly and there was a strong gale blowing through the gap. One carless step would result in falling to your doom.

Valimir, Charlie and Hector, burst through the door, into the next carriage, with their guns drawn, quickly taking cover behind a row of seats. They waited for the wave of enemy fire to pass, then they burst forth and fired their rifles. Bullets flew across the carriage and puffs of gunpowder filled the room. Adrenaline and excitement taking captive of the young boys, and within no time they cleared the room of hostile threat, but there must have been more. They searched the cabin but there were no survivors.

Charlie walked down the carriage surveying the area. Due to the absence of hostiles, he lowered his gun.

“We got them all, those bastards didn’t stand a chance.” He said.

Without notice, some bandits, burst through the side windows from above and shot Charlie in the leg. Now in Valimir’s training, he conducted many scenarios where the three of them moved in a tri-formation, where one watched one, and that one watched the other. Each of them always had someone watching their back. And it was Hector who was supposed to be watching Charlie. But Hector was not in position and was not watching, for he was staring at the floor, about to throw up. Hector always regretted that he didn’t stop them, but he was quite shaken up by the loss of life. Now it wasn’t seeing dead bodies that shook him up, for he had seen many. But he had never seen a dying person. He was staring into one of the bandits as he bled out, trying not to spew out the contents of his stomach, caught in almost a trance, watching the life slip away from the man’s eyes.

However Valimir took the bandits out, as he was accustomed to the stench of death, and the taking of life. Filled with rage, as Hector saw his best friend drop to the floor, with blood gushing from his leg, he ran to the end of the carriage, and barged into the next carriage. From there he began firing at the bandit scum, one, two, three and four shots fired. Landing in their targets.

Hector had no memory of what happened next. For he blacked out.

Due to Hector’s wrathful outburst, many civilians were saved, and along with the heroic efforts of Charlie and Valimir, the bandits were neutralized. However the meeting never took place.

Unsure of where the bandits had come from, the whole land was on edge, and peace was no longer an option. And since there was no way to know where the bandits had come from, each town thought that the attack was from the other, and since then, tensions grew within the land. Charlie recovered from his wounds, but he could never walk the same again. He was left with a limp, and a brace around his leg. A constant reminder especially to Hector that he failed.

This was the beginning of the downward spiral of the civilization of Arccon. Even though there was always tension between the native peoples and the people of Syre and its off-shoot towns, things grew worse. Syre which once held the power in the land, was crippled, and the native provinces, wanted to reclaim their land. Even though the outsider peoples of Syre have dwelled in the land of Arccon for centuries.