04-07-2022, 07:09 AM
Huitzitaca, Xiomera
April 7th, 2022
Every major city in Xiomera had industry in large supply. However, every city also had a major industry that it prided itself on and was the center of for the Empire. In Tlilotl'pac, it was the tech sector. In Xochiatipan, the Xiomeran automotive industry drove the city's destiny. Huajicori was the proud purveyor of natural resources, both above and under the ground.
Huitzitaca was a different sort of company town. It was the home of the Imperial Admiralty and the Imperial Naval Academy, and the pride of the Empire's rapidly growing naval prowess. It was also a second home for a related private industry - Xiomera's massive defense contractor complex. Almost all of Xiomera's defense contractors had major offices and manufacturing facilities in the Gateway City. They were there to supply the Navy, but also to supply Huitzitaca's second largest enterprise other than the fleet. Huitzitaca was known as the Gateway City for its historic role in ages past, when the city was the only port where foreigners were allowed to enter the Empire. But Huitzitaca had an even older moniker - the City of the Tlaquehualli.
Back in ages when the Empire had been just a dream in the minds of Xiomeran rulers fighting their Huenyan neighbors, Huitzitaca had always supplied the muscle-for-hire that Xiomera relied on to boost its armies. From hundreds, then dozens, of mercenary outfits known as tlaquehualli, one had risen to overtake and gobble up their rivals nationwide and become the single biggest security enterprise in Xiomera. One of the biggest in the world.
Just north of the sprawling Port of Huitzitaca, largest in Xiomera, a massive corporate campus dominated the area. It wasn't anything like the trendy tech firm campuses in Tlilotl'pac, or the luxurious and buttoned-up corporate towers in Tlālacuetztla. Part war academy, part proving grounds, part garrison, part research center and part corporate center, the CSSC Headquarters Complex was home to the single strongest military force in the Empire outside of the Imperial Armed Forces themselves.
On the streets around CSSC Headquarters, signs and banners extolled the virtues of the corporation. CSSC mercenaries were shown in huge depictions as noble men and women thwarting criminals, protecting the peace, and helping people. Each banner bore the CSSC motto: Making the world safe for a better tomorrow.
CSSC did, in fact, provide all sorts of relatively benign security and public service functions. The security guard at the local mall, the workers building infrastructure or helping with disasters in faraway places, the friendly old woman working as a crossing guard outside a school could all be on the CSSC payroll. But there were others on that payroll as well, and their purpose was far less benign than helping your average student cross the street to get to class.
At the top of the soaring tower at the center of the complex that was home to the executive offices, CSSC's leaders found themselves in a dilemma. They were now facing a potential onslaught from two actual nations' standing armies, Eiria and Lauchenoiria. Milintica would be there too, but they hardly mattered. It was the other two that would pose a problem. CSSC had no hard intelligence to show that Queen Sophie had recruited additional help, but they also could not discount the possibility that she had. King Andrew had availed himself of mercenaries, after all; it would be foolish to assume that Sophie might not try a similar gambit.
CSSC could no longer get anything other than trivial numbers of forces or supplies into Auria, with the vise from outside the country closing in. But they had poured thousands of troops into Auria in the year prior, along with enough weapons to arm every Aurian twice over and some of Xiomera's finest heavy hardware to boot. They were as ready as they could possibly be for what was coming. And they still had a few tricks up their sleeve for Eiria and Lauchenoiria, if push came to shove.
While CSSC was essentially the defacto private army and plausible deniability force of the Xiomeran Empire, it could have refused to stick to the Aurian contract in the face of what was coming. Even Empress Calhualyana, for all her power, had no desire to make an enemy of CSSC and potentially have to deal with CSSC deciding to try for a regime change closer to home than Auria. CSSC, however, was not in the habit of running from a fight. They hadn't earned their reputation, and their billions, by being cowards. They also preferred to fight Eiria and Lauchenoiria, and take their chances, rather than risk a fight with the Empress. So the finest men and women that the City of the Tlaquehualli could produce dug in, reinforced their already impressive defenses with renewed fervor, and prepared to fight.
They were, after all, still Xiomerans. And Xiomerans loved a good fight.
---
Recent naval movements around Auria had not escaped the notice of Imperial Intelligence. The IIA prided themselves on having eyes everywhere that mattered. A step would therefore be taken to address that situation.
CSSC had avoided mining the waters around Auria prior to now, mainly to prevent any possible accidental destruction of their own supply ships. That was no longer a concern, since supply ships couldn't get to them anymore. It was now time for the rapid deployment of yet another fine product of the Coatōn Corporation. The C67 Michpatlāni (flying fish) naval influence mine combined acoustic, magnetic and pressure sensors, a sophisticated targeting computer and a high explosive warhead to be a major nightmare to any approaching ships. The Michpatlāni was capable of being deployed by aircraft, helicopters or surface vessels, with a gratifyingly high speed and low relative cost. It was an extremely effective area denial weapon, and CSSC would soon make it as common in the waters around Auria as actual fish.
April 7th, 2022
Every major city in Xiomera had industry in large supply. However, every city also had a major industry that it prided itself on and was the center of for the Empire. In Tlilotl'pac, it was the tech sector. In Xochiatipan, the Xiomeran automotive industry drove the city's destiny. Huajicori was the proud purveyor of natural resources, both above and under the ground.
Huitzitaca was a different sort of company town. It was the home of the Imperial Admiralty and the Imperial Naval Academy, and the pride of the Empire's rapidly growing naval prowess. It was also a second home for a related private industry - Xiomera's massive defense contractor complex. Almost all of Xiomera's defense contractors had major offices and manufacturing facilities in the Gateway City. They were there to supply the Navy, but also to supply Huitzitaca's second largest enterprise other than the fleet. Huitzitaca was known as the Gateway City for its historic role in ages past, when the city was the only port where foreigners were allowed to enter the Empire. But Huitzitaca had an even older moniker - the City of the Tlaquehualli.
Back in ages when the Empire had been just a dream in the minds of Xiomeran rulers fighting their Huenyan neighbors, Huitzitaca had always supplied the muscle-for-hire that Xiomera relied on to boost its armies. From hundreds, then dozens, of mercenary outfits known as tlaquehualli, one had risen to overtake and gobble up their rivals nationwide and become the single biggest security enterprise in Xiomera. One of the biggest in the world.
Just north of the sprawling Port of Huitzitaca, largest in Xiomera, a massive corporate campus dominated the area. It wasn't anything like the trendy tech firm campuses in Tlilotl'pac, or the luxurious and buttoned-up corporate towers in Tlālacuetztla. Part war academy, part proving grounds, part garrison, part research center and part corporate center, the CSSC Headquarters Complex was home to the single strongest military force in the Empire outside of the Imperial Armed Forces themselves.
On the streets around CSSC Headquarters, signs and banners extolled the virtues of the corporation. CSSC mercenaries were shown in huge depictions as noble men and women thwarting criminals, protecting the peace, and helping people. Each banner bore the CSSC motto: Making the world safe for a better tomorrow.
CSSC did, in fact, provide all sorts of relatively benign security and public service functions. The security guard at the local mall, the workers building infrastructure or helping with disasters in faraway places, the friendly old woman working as a crossing guard outside a school could all be on the CSSC payroll. But there were others on that payroll as well, and their purpose was far less benign than helping your average student cross the street to get to class.
At the top of the soaring tower at the center of the complex that was home to the executive offices, CSSC's leaders found themselves in a dilemma. They were now facing a potential onslaught from two actual nations' standing armies, Eiria and Lauchenoiria. Milintica would be there too, but they hardly mattered. It was the other two that would pose a problem. CSSC had no hard intelligence to show that Queen Sophie had recruited additional help, but they also could not discount the possibility that she had. King Andrew had availed himself of mercenaries, after all; it would be foolish to assume that Sophie might not try a similar gambit.
CSSC could no longer get anything other than trivial numbers of forces or supplies into Auria, with the vise from outside the country closing in. But they had poured thousands of troops into Auria in the year prior, along with enough weapons to arm every Aurian twice over and some of Xiomera's finest heavy hardware to boot. They were as ready as they could possibly be for what was coming. And they still had a few tricks up their sleeve for Eiria and Lauchenoiria, if push came to shove.
While CSSC was essentially the defacto private army and plausible deniability force of the Xiomeran Empire, it could have refused to stick to the Aurian contract in the face of what was coming. Even Empress Calhualyana, for all her power, had no desire to make an enemy of CSSC and potentially have to deal with CSSC deciding to try for a regime change closer to home than Auria. CSSC, however, was not in the habit of running from a fight. They hadn't earned their reputation, and their billions, by being cowards. They also preferred to fight Eiria and Lauchenoiria, and take their chances, rather than risk a fight with the Empress. So the finest men and women that the City of the Tlaquehualli could produce dug in, reinforced their already impressive defenses with renewed fervor, and prepared to fight.
They were, after all, still Xiomerans. And Xiomerans loved a good fight.
---
Recent naval movements around Auria had not escaped the notice of Imperial Intelligence. The IIA prided themselves on having eyes everywhere that mattered. A step would therefore be taken to address that situation.
CSSC had avoided mining the waters around Auria prior to now, mainly to prevent any possible accidental destruction of their own supply ships. That was no longer a concern, since supply ships couldn't get to them anymore. It was now time for the rapid deployment of yet another fine product of the Coatōn Corporation. The C67 Michpatlāni (flying fish) naval influence mine combined acoustic, magnetic and pressure sensors, a sophisticated targeting computer and a high explosive warhead to be a major nightmare to any approaching ships. The Michpatlāni was capable of being deployed by aircraft, helicopters or surface vessels, with a gratifyingly high speed and low relative cost. It was an extremely effective area denial weapon, and CSSC would soon make it as common in the waters around Auria as actual fish.
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