Creature:Percusa (Concept)

Name Percusa. (pur-KYU-suh)

Picture This image was drawn by Pengel_Master of GameFaqs. I am aware that there is another official image out there drawn by BleuMarine of GameFaqs, but for some reason I can't get it to work, sorry BleuMarine.

Homesite http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/gentopic.php?board=926714. Just look for any topic Titled "Percusa".

Main Weapons A Percusa is never truly unarmed. In flight they often use their sharp talons to tear into unsuspecting prey below. On the ground, or when diving, a Percusa can shoot venom from the five hollow spikes that are on the end of their tails. Because these spikes are hollow, they're not much good for stabbing, but scratches and cuts made by these venom-soaked bones are slow to heal and quickly infect.

Location The Percusa live on Velara, (vel-ARRH-uh) the 3 or 4th planet of their solar system. Velara's orbit exchanges their position with another planet named Lemnos. Every six years or so, the two planets pass very close and exchange positions in orbit around their sun.

Religion
The Percusa believe that everything has a spirit, the land, the trees, animals, other Percusa ect, ect. With the most powerful spirits residing in deceased ancestrial Percusa. They believe that it is their purpose to master and control these spirits, becoming stronger than ever, and one way of doing this is by consuming the flesh of the pack leaders and other dominant Percusa after their demise. This belief leads to the ritual eating of a Percusa by it's most dominant progeny after it's death, it is a most honorable thing to do for a dying Percusa to give their strength to the next generation in this manner. In contrast, a shameful 'funeral' would be if their body were purposely left to rot or be feasted upon by scavengers. This is the perscribed ritual for a 'weak spirited' Percusa, as consuming a weak spirit will make you weak. Another detail about this form of worship is that the Percusa believe that a Percusa's spirit becomes stronger if it has many sucessful, strong offspring and that any weak offspring make their spirit weaker. Consuming certain organs, such as heart, liver and kidneys, of a prey animal also lends to spiritual strength, while eating the fat and gristle takes away from their strength. This belief stems from the fact that the fat and gristle are less nutritious than the protein and iron rich organs. Bones, especially skulls, venom spikes and teeth also play an importance, necklaces made from teeth or venom spikes are said to lend strength to the wearer. As gory as this may seem, no Percusa are kill outright for their strength, as it is said that a murdered Percusa's strength is tainted beyond use.


 * The Percusa define murder as the unprovoked killing of a strong, healthy or otherwise useful pack member.

Government
The early Percusa developed a 'pack' way of life. Allowing only the smartest or strongest to breed. This lifestyle has spilled over into the government for the Western Percusa. The Western Percusa are governed by 1 male leader and 1 female leader from each pack, these leaders are called Loklow. These 80 or so individuals are chosen at an annual gladiator-style chapionship fight called Ksotsdo. It's basically like a mix of the Olympics and a presidential election. Also during this tournament, various, lesser positions are fought for. At the end of it each, female will choose a male of her rank to be mated with for the rest of the year. This is hown inter-pack alliances are formed. Often a female will choose the same male year after year. Only Loklow-Rank Percusa may have children. There are usually 1-3 children per litter, and 1 litter per year.

Lifestyle
When a Percusa is 3 years old, it will shed it's fuzzy red feathers and grow the plumage of an adult. If they are the eldest child of their litter, they are taken to the Midway Oasis Military Base to be trained as a soldier. If they are not, they are taken to the Civillian Academy where they will live until they are an adult. At the Civillian Academy, a young Percusa will learn how to hunt, fish, read, write, make clay pottery, communicate with reathlers, play the flute and harp as well as husbandry and the basic Percusan law. After five years of teaching, young Percusa leave the academy, or opt to stay on as instuctors and be supported by tribute from the several dozen packs who send their young to this academy. Older Percusa are also sometimes allowed to become instructors when they can no longer breed, and are thus uninterested in dominance roles. After graduation from the academy, A Percusa is formally an adult, and is adopted into a pack, who the'll live with for the rest of their lives. (Not nessecarily their birth-pack.) Each pack is a sort of people unto it's own, although they are led by a Loklow representative.

Military
The Percusa have a strictly conscript military. When the oldest child of a litter reaches three years of age, he/she is taken to a Military Academy in the dessert, formally known as Midway Oasis. A young Percusa will spend 8-10 years learning various weapons arts and military strategy. They are also tested for various skills. At the age of 15, A Percusa is formally a soldier, and is given a rank and duty according to his/her skills and ambition. Percusa must earn mililtary rank through bravery or deed. Any Percusa who ranks higher than Lieutenant is allowed to breed.

Reathlers
They are the slaves of the Percusa. Centuries ago, they were a great empire in the north, but were defeated when they began to encroach upon Percusan Territory. After the war, most of them were exterminated, but a few queens and workers were kept alive to produce strong, hard working slaves for Percusan use. The great Civil War was between the Eastern percusa and the Western Percusa began because of the issue of Reathler slavery.

The Reathlers: (REETH-ler)

There are 3 classes of Reathlers, the Hunter, the Soldier, and the Queen. The Hunters are males, the Soldiers and Queen are females.

Hunter: The food gatherers and main forces of the Reathler hive. Hunters make up about 80% of any givven hive's population. They are smaller than the Percusa, about 4 ft long(no tail), whereas the Percusa are about 12 ft long. The Hunter wingspan is about 12-14ft. Their skin is a black, leathers hide that is very thick and tough to break through. Their bones are hollow, for better acrobatic ability and speed. They have two small, beady little bug eyes on either side of their head. Hunters have a large beak, very sharp and deadly. Not a curved beak but more like a sharp cone. It is also balck. In fact, all Reathlers are black exept for their eyes. All Reathlers' eyes are bright red. The Hunters have sharp talons. Their talons and beaks can pretty much crush any unfortunate thing they happen to find in them. Many thousands of years later, it will be discovered by top Percusa scientists that the pressue a Hunter Reathler's jaw has is in the area of 2000 lbs per sqaure plig(equivilant to 1 sq inch) crushing power. Hunters are built for speed, not acrobatics(like the Percusa) and cruise at about 120 mph. In a dive, a Hunter can reach speeds of up to 250 mph, although most Hunters who achieve this speed don't hold it very long before their fragile bodies are crushed by the speedily approaching ground. A more common diving speed is 200-220 mph. The Hunters other four legs have shrunken(or never evolved, I'm not sure) away to non-existence, leaving only the two talons on inverted knee joints(like a normal Earth bird). Hunters are practically blind but use an advanced radar system, like bats.

Soldier: Soldiers make up pretty much the rest of a hive's population. Soldiers are the females who are not allowed to breed(I'll get to that in a minute). A typical Soldier Reathler is about 6-8 ft tall, weighing in at about half a ton. Needless to say females cannot fly, their wings evolved into non-existance a while ago. For an easier visualization, think a small elephant, only creepier. The Soldiers' heads are not attached to a neck and are mostly made up of two giant, multi-lens eyes. Red again. Each eye is about 2ft in diamiter, huge. Female Reatlers have solid bones, how this evolutionary marvel ever occured, we will never know. Once again, thick, black, leathery skin, very uninviting. And the six legs are pretty weird too. The legs are about like elephant legs, thick, round and massive. Each leg is spaced how you are probably picturing it, like an ants or a bumblbee with a couple major differnces. The legs come out of the body of the elephant in the middle, 90 degree. It's easier to have a drawin but, unfortunately, I have no scanner. Each leg has 3 joints, rather than an elephant's two; the ball-socket "shoulder", the second ball-socket "shoulder", and a "knee" below that. females don't have feet. Soldiers have the unique ability to excrete a deadly noxious gas into the air, yeah, cool, I know. There is a gland located near each leg-body joint that secretes this gas. The gas does not as much "secrete" as it does blow up. Soldiers use these poison glands, mostly, as a defensive weapon. Or whenever anything within a 24 ft radius becomes annoying to the Soldier. These toxins proved very difficult to combat in the Great War, as it would instantly kill any Percusa 24 ft above the Soldier wh it was annoying. Soldiers move very slow but are able to "charge" at enemies at about 20 mph, if needed. Oh, by the way, the poison gas can only be used once every few hours before it is replenished.

Queen: The Reathlers live in hives, not a bumblbee hive, but I'll explain that later, and their leaders are Queens. There is only one Queen per hive. Queens are picked out fairly easily. First of all, they are much bigger than Soldiers and, secondly, they are the only Reathler that can reproduce. The Queen is basically a beefed up version of the Soldier, about 12ft tall, weighing a ton or so and don't have the poison glands. She also lays an egg about every hour, hour-and-a-half. She is fat, very, and cannot move under her own will. When, for extreme reasons, she needs to change locales, Soldiers push her

THE GREAT WAR: One day, one way or another, the Forest Percusa, as they were once called before being assimilated by the Plains Percusa, got into a fight with the Reathlers. A war eventually erupted and many things were invented in order to kill off the Reathlers. The Percusa finally defeated the Reathlers through a series of night raids on their hives, killing thousands of women and children in the process. We decided to let the remaining Reathler hives live(all 2 of 'em) under strict rules.

1) Every year, Percusa are to take a census of the Reathler nests.

2) Every year, the Percusa recieve 5% of the Reathler population in larvae as sacrifice.

3) Every five years, a Queen is sacrificed to the Percusa.

4) Reathlers are to live and hunt only in land allowed by the Percusa.

Maps
These are all courtesy of Miroku_of_Nite1 from GameFaqs.

Here is a higher up view of our starting lands. 

A center shot. 

Western Lands of our starting lands. 

Eastern Lands. 

Full map. 

Central Lands Central. 

Cental Lands Eastern 

Central Lands West 

Eastern Waste 

Far East Lands 

Northern Lands 

Northern Lands West 

Percusa IV
Here is where I'll make a copy of the Percusa's story, starting with Percusa IV. (Percusa I-III are lost)

The Percusa have become curious about those islands they can just barely see from the shore. So they send an exploration group of 8 individuals to those islands. Led by a young male named Clewis, the group flies on updrafts for hours before they are able to rest their aching wins on solid ground again. They have landed on the northernmost island, and have found something most intriguing.

The group of explorer Percusa land ashore on the far off island(ok, not so far off since it is visible from the coast line but it gives the narrative a dramatic feel, no?). The party of 8 is exhausted so they rest for a day on the beach. The next day they split up into groups of 2 and comb the island by air. It is a small chunk of land, nothing particularly spectacular about it. It is shaped like Australia of Earth, only about 100square miles big. Most of the island is thick deciduous forest, but toward the Southeastern corner, the trees become more tropical like. Thousands of years later, the Percusa learn that this is because it is a volcanic island slowly drifting northwest and the southeast corner has particularly more fertile soil, complete with geysers and underground lava lakes.

The explorers name the island Clewis Island, after their leader. Clewis Island is populated mostly by variations of wildlife of the main continent(whatever its name is). The explorers stay on the island for about a year, mapping it thoroughly. There is one oddity to Clewis Island though...

It takes the Percusa explorers considerably longer to chart the jungle region of Clewis Island, as it is very thick with shrubbery and hard to cut through. What they find about 15 miles in though, they would have never guessed to find. Ruined building lie everywhere! Metallic, short, rusty buildings. The entire city is abandoned. Upon further exploration inside, the Percusa find that the buildings go miles underground and have strange, invisible force fields(ultra strong glass basically)beyond, which is liquid magma. The find delays the Clewis team another year but it is worth it. The mapping of the tunnel systems shows that they are extensive and large. Many of them lead to underground harbors through which, the Percusa can only assume, lead to the ocean. The tunnels are massive, about 100ft in diameter at the smallest, 500 at the biggest. The exploration team returns to the mainland after their 2 year study, loaded down with maps.

Shortly after the expedition returned, they had a meeting of all the leaders of the major clans and several lesser clans (some of which are satellite clans or sister clans of bigger ones anyway). Despite there being disagreement on some things, they pretty much all agreed that they should found a colony on the island to act as a base. With that, they started bickering over which clan or clans should claim it, but one of the older leaders (I think they are already weaning off that cannibalism habit. I'm sure us humans have some 'primitive' habits or tendencies, but we have tamed that stuff through civilization, so there is no reason the Percusa can't achieve getting rid of or at least suppressing the habit) who belonged to one of the most prestigious families in the Canyon clan, and known to be a good mediator stepped in. He said: "yes each clan has their own claim here, but remove those borders and we are all one people.' he points to a young male who is the leader of a small group that is pioneering further west near the mountains and many of those in his group are friends and volunteers from other clans that met each other during Ksotudo and other times, "Ctassa's fledgling group consists of those from varied clans, yet they put the clan differences aside to pioneer a new clan in a new place." "If they can do so, then why not we?". another clan leader who would be middle aged speaks up "I have known Moi'dana (the elder Percusa) since I was a pup at the Ksotudo, he speaks with wisdom of generations from one of the oldest Percusa clans. I have seen other examples of what he speaks of, and I believe it could work." After a minute or two of quiet muttering in the gathering, the leader of one of the coastal clans makes an attention getting bark and speaks "We shouldn't be fighting about this. I say we follow Ctassa's example and select the most willing and skilled volunteers...perhaps at the next Ksotudo. As for the watercraft, I'll gather the most skilled crafters in my clan and those most skilled in other coastal clans."

Even though the leaders of the coastal clan agreed on their part and could discuss the specifics later, there was still some discussion about how do deal with clan ownership as the island was unclaimed by anybody even though the explorers would have a section of land on the island should they accept, which is a kind of reward for their efforts.

Several months later on the coast, the coastal clan leader had done his part and gathered the best crafters to build several large boats to carry passengers, supplies, etc. and could go back and forth between the island and the mainland It took a few weeks to get everything set up such as shelters, even if they were temporary ones. Soon they had a colony of around 100 percusa on the island beach and had built a makeshift dock.

The Percusa send a much larger, and more permanent, group of Percusa explorers to Clewis Island. Since their water traversing skills are under par, they cannot bring many things with them at once, most of their necessities they create on the island. A main camp is set up on the landing beach and two other, smaller camps are built, one deep in the jungle, the other, in the actual ruins, on the surface. Since this is an exploratory group, not a colony, only strong males are sent.

The running of the actual research camps is pretty smooth. Clewis runs the whole thing, with 3 team leaders for the bases. After the first 2 months, they discover something important, tides. While deep in one of the underground caves near an underground harbor, 15 Percusa are suddenly swept into the depths. Rescue is impossible. After two more years, the explorers get the idea and only explore the tunnels half of the year. Because of Valera's two moons(it has two, right?) and the nature of their orbit, half of a Valera year is low tide on Clewis Island and surrounding areas, the other half is a dramatic, 100ft higher high tide.

Not much is discovered about the species that used to live in the ruins, other than they were huge, liked water, dug good, and had horrible senses of design(Orange drapes in a Pink lab? Yuk!). The Ruins take a bit of damage, some tunnels are caved in because some genius Percusa team leader ordered his team to see what was BEHIND the glass holding the lava. He was later killed by Clewis and left to rot in the jungle.

The Ruins(I'm just gonna call the Ruins with the capital from now on) eventually become a sort of religious icon. The Percusa explain the Ruins with an ancient race of immortal creatures of one form or another(Think the Greeks Mt. Olympus, home of the gods). As for ownership, the Ruins become an understood neutral shrine for all Percusa. Priestesses live their and every Ksudo sacrifices are made to the spirits. Clewis Island becomes slightly populated but, because of lack of huntable animals, the island remains nearly deserted all year except Ksudo. About the only thing definitely good about exploring the Ruins is a new form of jar is invented using jungle leaves.

One day a group of Percusa youth are playing near a river, roasting bugs and small animals in a fire pit. When their pack leaders call them back, they quickly put out the fire by throwing sand on it. The next day the Percusa return after their schooling to discover that their fire pit looks wrapped and shiny. After some experimentation, they discover that, if heated, sand turns into a rigid, opaque solid. They tell their mother's and, soon, the Plains Percusa develop a form of glass blowing. Although the glass is primitive, it's color is never pure and the surface varies greatly in quality, the Percusa is it to great advantage making pots of all sorts and, eventually, bell jars used for underwater exploration.

The decades of peace continue. The Percusa's culture thrives and settlements steadily grow in population. Eventually, the yearly Ksudo at Clewis Island becomes a huge event, bigger than any other Ksudo locations before it. Soon, the amount of visitors that cannot fly, young ones and old farts mostly, becomes too much of a burden on their families to take to the Clewis Island Ksudo. An entrepreneurial Percusa, who enjoys fishing out on his private raft, gets the idea to ferry passengers to Clewis Island every year(for a small fee of tools or what have you, of course). Soon his business thrives even during the off season and his fleet of improved boats are a common sight along the coastlines. Many new techniques are perfected, but most notable is the sail and the use of natural waterproof adhesives in shipbuilding.

A young Percusa named...um...let's call him Bob, is near the shore of the sea. He grabs a small stick and puts a worm like creature on it, and for fun sticks it in the water. A fish called the pooka snaps down on the stick. Bob pulls it up and brings it with him for a small addition to his lunch. An older percusa sees this and soon they make sticks with hanging sinew with worms attached to it by a small hook(they can make spears...why not hooks?) for catching pooka. Eventually fishing becomes a good food source.

After a few years a percusa named Wintolk finds some odd plants. The first he finds can be used to bandage wounds and will heal the wound faster then normal, he calls it the bange. The second grows in odd shapes like a tear drop, but has a strong spice in it when cut. He uses this for seasoning in meat and calls it gorlac. Finally, he finds a grain type plant that when mashed and baked like a jar makes bread. He finds this very good for handling meat, despite it's odd taste. He calls it grimin and the bread made from it is often flavored with spice and rubbed with juicy meat.

The invention of swords come through an unexpected process. Every Ksudo at Clewis Island massive crowds form around the Temples of the Spirits(the Ruins). The jungle foliage is too difficult to clear for the crowds, our primitive axes just don't work on the rubbery plants. One day a rather clever metallurgist thinks to extend the axe blade and shorten the handle. With further development, the swords become curved and razor sharp. They are not produced in mass numbers, as there is no need for melee weapons right now, but they become extremely useful in low brush clearing throughout Clewis Island and even see some use on the mainland.

Recently, the Reathlers have requested extended roaming land, their populations have been slowly increasing and have finally reached the point were overpopulation is a problem. The species has behaved well for the past few hundred years and all the Percusa tribe leaders hold a meeting to discuss the matter.

The gathering of Percusa leaders meets with two Reathler messengers. The messengers make a good case, the Reathler population is filling the limits of their Percusa-allowed territory(mostly uninhabitable forests on high mountains) to the point were starvation is a serious threat. The Reathlers have kept their distance since the Great War(I think it has a certain ring to it) and not complained once about the yearly sacrifices for over 500 years. The Percusa tribe leaders see the Reathler's point and allow them more territory.

The Reathler situation has made the Percusa tribes realize how out-of-touch they all are with each other. It took over sixth months to gather all the major leaders for the community meeting. The Plains Percusa leader, Mot'rok, proposes a united alliance of Percusa. Thirty-two of the 54 leaders agree that this will be the best way to improve communication, trade, defense, and guild and schooling organization. Eight of the more formidable leaders die in the "agreeing" process, leaving the other 14 tribe leaders no choice but to agree with the unification.

At the next Ksotso the tribe leader decide that the best form of unification would be a vote-based system that is held by the strongest of the strong. They will call it...the Loklow (a Representative government). It takes about two years for every tribe to go through the process of choosing a Loklist(representative), during which time many smaller, more primitive tribes drop out of the Loklow, mostly the tribes to the Northeast. In the end, a body of 46 representatives move to the western shore of Lake Misugosu. They live in a small community, very high class, kind of like a Camp David. A new guild arises out of this organization, the messengers. The need for rapid communication becomes greater than ever and a few fast-flying Percusa a recruited to the Loklow. Eventually, there is a whole network throughout the continent(which still needs a name, by the way) and Clewis Island. The Loklow system works fairly well, schools become more standardized in how long students attend and what material is covered, better trade routes are set up through a crude public road system(very crude, we're talking signs that say in what general direction a settlement is). Problems are abundant, though, as with any new government. Many of the 46 Loklists are idiots with pulsing muscles and it is very difficult to upkeep Camp Dany because the Loklists want to keep from building a full on town near Lake Misugosu. Decisions are made agonizingly slow, due to the wide variation in Loklist intellect and background(remember, all the Percusa tribes have been in pretty different stages of advancement). It takes over 10 years to get the schools to ALL teach basic fishing and fire making techniques. But the Percusa have something to be proud of now.

The Loklow is now firmly established, running pretty much smoothly and most Percusa agree with the acts that are passed. One day the Loklists of 2 lands from the Central area(Yucatan, Pal'Chu) propose that the Loklow re-invite the Eastern Percusa to join the alliance. There is general agreement and it is decided to send a Messenger to the Capitol City of Yuan Wu Tsae. Three days later, we get word that the Easterners refuse the alliance, they claim that we are blood mongering slave owners. While this may be true, the Loklow is fed up with the Eastern Percusa, all trade ties are severed with the Far East. Tensions are high but the Easterners seem not to want war, just to stay separated from us. However, the small city of Al'Dabu sent a separate messenger to the Loklow the next day. The more westernized city wants to join the Loklow, but the city is under the rule of the more morally straight Easterners.

The Loklow counter the Al'Dabu with a compromise offer. In exchange for free trade, the Loklow will agree to protect Al'Dabu from Eastern suppression. The Al'Dabu leader agrees and the Loklow governed nation moves in and around the city. Military protection lets the populous of the city feel safer, this town turns out to be militarily conquered by the Easterners. Al'Dabu used to be an independent tribe. The Easterners watch from the hilly region as the city flourishes. The Easterners are now an anti-military nation, but rule their citizens with an iron grip. Their form of government is an Emperor-led dictatorship, basically. There is a tense peace between the 3 groups...for now.

The Loklow Empire turns a blind eye to the Eastern Percusa for now, deciding, rather, to focus their attention on internal infrastructure. A primitive form of tar has been in use for some decades now, discovered on the volcanic Clewis Island. The Loklow pass an act to further develop this tar and use it with smooth stones to build easily traversable, durable roads. Two years later, the first road, stretching from Percusopolis, through the Jediosudo Pass, and into Pal'Chu. This is a major leap in transportation. All major cities are connected within 3 more years. Fresh ocean fish now are a possibility, even if only for the more powerful Percusa.

Speaking of good news. Al'Dabu has been invaded by a massive Eastern army. The LE troops only held them back long enough to get the women and children out of the town. The Easterners are much more powerful than we thought, their Emperor, Shok, was able to amass a force of over 300,000 Percusa warriors, to the LE's best estimates. The Women and children of Al'Dabu have been relocated to Yukata.

They really know much more on sneak attacks than the Plains Percusa did in the Great Reathler War, sneaking in on the ground beneath brush or forest, preferably, and flying out at our troops in the air. The Easterner's warriors are more lightly armored than our current troops, but use a much more deadly curved, short sword. Their metallurgy skills are obviously much better than ours and warrior training, better. Their armor is a tightly-knit cloth, very flexible, and impenetrable by any of our current ranged weaponry.

As we have not had a reason for a military in hundreds of years, the LE is dangerously unequipped. Here is a list of the equipment our troops currently use, to the best of my knowledge: - a metal helmet used for head butting, ramming - a long spear used in first wave attacks as a dropping projectile, metal tipped - a short spear used as a melee weapon in the air or on the ground, metal tipped - heavy metal claw gloves to fit over the Percusas' clawed feet, used to rake the eyes out of Guard Reathlers - really big nets taken into the air, used to tangle other airborne threats by dropping them or diverting them into it - catapults (We got these from allying with the northern Percusa, I think. I know we have them, though.)

Our tactics are pretty straight forward, fly out, keep attacking until one side dies. There are no commanders or squad leaders, just Percusa looking out for each other in the heat of battle. We have never used the catapults in violence yet.

It is decided by the spirits that the best course of action is to capture the Midway Oasis. This is the only decent source of water in the Great Eastern Waste and it will prove vital in battles to come, predict the priestesses. The Pecusan static defenses were never evolved much, and, consequently, the only way they can really defend the oasis is to bring lots of troops there with some civilians to build up weapon storage facilities. A road is built from Pal'Chu to the oasis for quick supply lines. There is no shortage of weapons, over the past few hundred years there have always been some farseeing blacksmiths who keep a private stockpile of arrows, armor, and other deadly paraphernalia. The Loklow calls upon the blacksmiths of the land and they react with great support, donating every available weapon to the cause. Because of the great work the Loklow has done for the LE, there is great public support of the war, volunteers abound to fight for their country flock from all over the land to the Great Eastern Waste to fight. Our homeland is behind us.

But recent intelligence has reported sightings of Eastern scouts just east of the Al'Carlit Ruins. These ruins have stood since the dawn of sentient Percusa, a massive stone city, giant staircases, pyramids, sophisticated yet ruined water canal systems, these ruins second in strategic value only to the Midway Oasis.

The initial influx of soldiers quickly tapers off as some are killed in battle, some are captured and many more just plain desert. So, because of this lack of young volunteers, the Loklow leaders enforce a conscription order on every eldest child of every litter between the ages of 12-30. The conscription order is met with great opposition by the people, and few report in to the training base... That is until one night, a surprise attack on Clewis Island leaves many dead and crippled. Even worse, these savage Easterners don't even allow the kin to consume the bodies, they just leave them for the carrion birds. The people become outraged, and now the leaders cannot keep the volunteers out of the training camps. It takes several months for the newly trained soldiers to actually get onto the battlefield, but against the untrained forces of the East, these new soldiers swiftly assure several victories for LE. (This conscription is standing order that will become our basic military recruiting protocol after the war.) In the meantime, the Al'Carlit ruins have been taken by the East and morale is at an all-time low because of their loss.

The Loklow leaders decide to train and employ spies into the enemy stronghold. All total half a dozen spies are sent in. By various means, including defection, being taken prisoner and even bringing in dead soldier's bodies for a bounty, five of the six spies make it into the ruins/stronghold without trouble. Once firmly in place, the spies will send us information out to us via messenger Tivalli. One of them will also feed the general in command of the ruins various bad information.

In the South mines, there has been a rash of fires and explosions, often resulting in death and serious injury. With the war going on and all, it’s sort of been shelved. Until recently. A famed Percusa scientist named Lebon recently made a personal trip to the mines where these explosions have occurred. He quickly finds that the source of these explosions is the direct product of a very fine, black powder that is commonly found in these mines. After much experimentation, and the loss of an arm and his pinfeathers, Lebon finally finds a way to dilute the powder so it can be safely transported and used for the war effort. By mixing the powder with mud, and forming it into fist-sized balls, he has invented the first bomb. With these new weapons, the Percusa can now fire bombs at their opponents during dogfights. These bombs blow the enemies to bits, effectively making it impossible for their kin to claim the body. The effect is a serious demoralizer for the East. Soon tales abound with stories of fearsome Western bombers. For the first time, the tide has turned in our favor.

In the meantime, our spies have reported that there is to be a meeting of the Eastern Generals at the Eastern capital Yuan Wu Sae, three weeks from now. We have a chance to cripple the Eastern Army, we cannot let this opportunity slip us by.

The leaders decide that the best course of action is to send several assassins to the Eastern capital under the guise of merchants from Al'Dabu. Being a non-militant nation, the East is very protective of their merchants, and the Assassins reach Yuan Wu Tsae without trouble. Once inside the capital, the assassins meet with the two spies that are in the city and form a plan of attack. For the first five days of the week-long war conference, there is not trouble whatsoever for generals and security begins to relax. But on the night of the sixth day of the conference, the lazy guards are wakened by the screams of a servant who has found her master, the general in a pool of his own blood. Messages are quickly relayed all over the imperial palace, but it is too late for nine of the twelve eastern generals. The assassins meet back at their hideout (A hotel that caters to traveling merchants) and discuss what to do next. So far they have suffered no casualties, and they're still armed with the poisons they are to take if captured.

The seven assassins decide amongst themselves that it would be best for them to wait until the trouble passes and leave later, when the city has calmed down. In the meantime, they can gather good information about the East, and what they are planning to do. So the seven go to sleep, and in the morning they are shocked to find that someone has slain nine of the twelve great generals of the East. Gossip spreads like wildfire. Some claim that it was the new General who hired the assassins to take out his competitions... Others speculate that maybe the Emperor himself did it because he is going crazy. Some think that maybe the Crown Prince did it, and his father is next... Most simply believe that it was the Westerners... But how did they infiltrate the Imperial City? A particularly gossipy maidservant asks Misha-El (One of the Seven) what he thinks of the assassinations. Recognizing a chance to start a rumour, Misha-El thinks quickly of a reply.

"It's obvious that Crown Prince Tsae Ku did it! He's tired of waiting for his father to die... Why I wouldn't be terribly shocked if His Imperial Majesty is next!" The maidservant looks at Misha-El with wide eyes. She is shocked at his bold statement... But yet she cannot ignore the logic of it. It is true that Tsae Ku is an impatient and man. Quickly the maid bustles off to finish her shopping. Unbeknownst to Misha-El and his companions, that female is the woman in charge of the Emperor’s harem, and the biggest gossip this side of the Eastern Waste. Before the day is out, half the city is bustling with talk of the treasonous Tsae Ku. But the party most interested in this bit of info is Prince Tsae Ryu. Tsae Ku's younger half brother. With public opinion turning on his brother, Tsae Ryu has found his chance to steal the throne... But he is going to need some help. Unbeknownst to the seven, Tsae Ryu saw Misha-El outside of the General's quarters that one night. It takes him three days, but he finally tracks down the seven at their hotel late one night. The seven are startled to find that they have been found out, and quickly their swords are drawn. But before the killing stroke is made, Tsae Ryu speaks. "I am Prince Tsae Ryu, and I want to make a bargain with you seven." Quickly the Prince spells out his plan. He wants to hire the seven to kill his father and make it look like Tsae Ku did it. That way Tsae Ryu will become emperor of the East. Of course he will pay them anything they want.

The Seven sheath their swords and go away to the other side of the room to talk quietly among themselves about what to do with Ryu and his proposition. They finally come to an agreement, and Suja, their leader approaches the Prince. "We agree with your plan, but we want something we can keep to make sure that you will hold to your word." Ryu smiled, "What would you like? My seal? My dagger with my father's seal on it?" Suja laughed, "No, we want your son." Ryu's eye widen with horror, he doesn't trust these assassins anymore than they trust him, but he will have the throne at all costs. "Very well. One of your females will meet me in the market tomorrow near the fountain. Dress as a nursemaid." Suja agrees with the plan, and Ryu departs. The next morning, the transfer of Ryu's infant son is made without a hitch. Kiva, the assassin in nursemaid's garb, takes the little boy to a ramshackle house on the edge of the city, where she will wait for her companions to come after the Emperor is dead. Late that night, Suja walks boldly past the guards, who have drunk deeply of Ryu's store of ale that he has opened for them. Suja creeps into Prince Ku's room and steals his dagger that has both his and the King's seal on it. Suja also collects a few orange feathers from the floor. With the prince's dagger, Suja makes short work of the King, then he scatters the feathers he took from Ku's room all over His Majesty's body. Job complete, Suja leaves through the Emperor’s open window and returns to the hotel where five of his companions wait anxiously. The next morning, the city is shocked to find their aging Emperor dead in a pool of blood. But... They are even more shocked to find that it was Tsae Ku who did it. After all, wasn't it his dagger that they found not three feet from His Imperial Majesty? And don't those feathers look just like the ones on Tsae Ku? According to Eastern Law, A man must be put to death if he has taken the life of a family member. Tsae Ku and his household are promptly burned at the stake that evening, and the next day Tsae Ryu is crowned as Emperor.

The six assassins agree that asking for half of the Royal Armory would be a good idea, because then they could smuggle the arms back west and use them for the Western cause. But of course His Imperial Majesty won't suspect a thing cause any merchant worth his feathers could make a fortune from selling the arms to the soldiers. The six send a message to Emperor Ryu, 'politely requesting' an audience. This is also not unusual, as dozens of merchants have been bringing gifts to the new Emperor in order to gain his favor. Of course the six are admitted to the throne room, as are twenty other merchant groups who come bearing gifts. Ryu realizes that the assassins have come for their payment, and orders everyone else out, including his guards. Once the room is clear, Ryu asks them what they want. "Most esteemed Emperor, we, your humble servants ask that you give us what is due. We would like for your men to pack half the royal armory onto some animals so that we may make our fortune by selling the weapons to soldiers." Suja says in his oily-smooth voice. Ryu practically choked on the wine he had been drinking. "That's outrageous! You could just as easily sell it all to the West!" The Emperor shouts. "Suja nods, "Ah... yes we could.... But tell me, what is the price of a Crown Prince's life?" Ryu suddenly regrets handing his son, the new Crown Prince over to the untrustworthy assassins, they have him by the throat and he knows it. "Very well. You shall have the choice of the armory’s weapons and the stable's beasts to carry it all away." "Thank You... Your majesty ...The Crown Prince will be returned when my fellows are safely outside the city." For the rest of the day, the six are busy directing the Imperial servants on how to pack the weapons and ready the animals for the long trip to Al'Dabu. As the sun sets, Misha'El hires a mute beggar-boy to deliver a message to a certain ramshackle house on the edge of the city.

"Take the child to the palace and act as though you found the child in the street... Assure yourself a place in the palace staff and spy in on any kind of meeting you can." Kiva reads and burns the message, assuming that it can't be traced back to her. Later that day, Kiva trades an old widow her nursemaid's cloak for the widow's tattered rags, then sets off for the palace. At first the gateman is wary of the crazy looking woman and the naked babe, but it's not long before the Crown Prince's identity is confirmed by the small tattoo on his foot. The gates man calls for the guards who hustle the young prince upstairs into the imperial nursery and take Kiva to the dungeon. Kiva waits several hours before His Majesty, Emperor Ryu comes to personally question her. "Where did you find my son!?" Kiva does a quick bow, then replies "Why Your Majesty, your servant found the beautiful child lying in a basket-bed near her home this morning... As soon as I recognized the tattoo on his foot, I knew he was your own son. So I brought him to the palace." Kiva is an excellent liar, and easily convinces the emperor into believing that is in fact a poor, young widow. After about an hour of questioning, Ryu orders the woman be released and sent on her way. But as the guards hustle her out of the cell, Kiva falls prostrate on the ground before the emperor, "Your Imperial Grace... Seeing as I found and rescued you son... Mightn’t I get a reward? ...I'm a fair cook ...Ka Li, my husband always said that I had the best stews... Perhaps... If it being not too much trouble, I could have a place in you kitchen?" Ryu nods his assent, then leaves the dark, dank dungeon. Meanwhile, the six assassins are making good time, and expect to be in Al'Dabu in a week. One of them has already flown ahead and informed the leaders of the assassins success and of the large arms shipment coming in.

Our spies in the Al'Carlit ruins inform us that the Lieutenant General has replaced his predecessor and is slowly readying for a major assault at Midway.

The leader at midway decides to send the assassin (the one that came with the message) into the ruins as a defector and attempt to kill the General. The assassin, Jor'el, easily acquires a semi-torn soldier's outfit and sets out for the Al'Carlit ruins. For several days, the officials are suspicious of him, but when he 'informs' the General that the Westerners are planning a full-out attack on the ruins three days from now, all suspicion is cleared from Jor'el's name. But the problem now is that Jor'el only has two nights to act. So Jor'el, now a trusted soldier of the east, 'panics' because he just received word from his cousin, and he needs to speak with the General now. Jor'el is admitted to the general's planning room, where he has many future battles planed out. "What is it Jor'el. What is this news that is so urgent that you had to speak to me?" "Sir, the Westerners are planning to kill you, tonight!" General Dau Ji laughed, "And how do they plan to do that?" Jor'el drew his knife. "Like this." There was a quick struggle, but to the guards outside, it sounded like something had fallen off the general's cluttered desk. But when they hear nothing for nearly an hour, the guards become concerned and try to enter the room. But Jor'el had thought of that and blocked the door with the general's heavy chair. When the guards finally manage to break in, they find the general dead and his battle plans gone. Meanwhile Jor'el is fast on his back to the oasis. It takes nearly two months to get a new general to 'volunteer' to command the Al'Carlit ruins, and another two weeks to make plans to take the midway oasis. In the meantime, the five assassins reached Al'Dabu safely, and the arms they have brought are shipped all over to the many battlefronts, as well as to the capital, where researchers are quickly working out how to make steel.

The weapons have arrived, the general at the ruins doesn’t want to be there, and he's built up a pretty crappy defense. The time has come to attack.

The leader at midway orders his troops to raid the caravans that come and go once a week from the Al'Carlit ruins. Up until now, the West hasn't tried attacking the caravan because the guards that travel with it have vastly superior weapons, but now that advantage has been removed, the West is ready to sever the enemy stronghold's main artery. This plan goes well, 30-40 soldiers fly in and take out the two dozen guards that travel with the caravan, then they break the water jars and carry the food away. Leaving precious little resources to reach the ruins. To make things worse on the enemy troops, the Westerners often pour out gallons of water on the ground, in view of the enemy sentries. After three weeks of this, the enemy is getting desperate. The only water in the city is what fell in a small rainstorm last week. All the soldiers have to eat is hardtack and dried jerky, which can get pretty bland after a while.

End of Percusa IV.

Percusa V
I would like to take a moment and recognize El_Carlit0 of GameFaqs, as it was he and not I (JediMutant) who wrote the majority of this part of Percusan History.

Our Story opens with the end stage of the seige on the Al'Carlit military base, currently held by the Eastern Army.

Seeing how weak his enemies are, the General Onassis of Midway has decided to send a small group of soldiers and his second, Lieutenant General Col'el to negotiate the surrender of the Al'Carlit ruins. The soldiers and Col'el approach the ruins warily, they they're at the mercy of the base's archers, but they must complete their mission. Once at the base, the envoy is quickly directed to the General's quarters, where Lieutenant General Iju-Kasha lies in bed, feverish with hunger and thirst. Jor'el asks where the General might be, but his guide, a gaunt, young soldier just sadly shakes his head, "General Ptu-Mae died three days ago, his Leiutenant is the next in line." "He is too ill to speak with us, who would be next in line?" The private shook his head, "No one sir, they're all dead."

Jor'el turns to his young and hungry escort, "Go and tell your peers that we will betaking you all hostage and we will claim these ruins as our own. I will personally see to it that you and your fellows are treated well and given food and water. Now go." The guant male eagerly rushes off to tell the other soldiers the that they can soon expect food and water. Not a single eastern male is absent from the headcount that is done before the company sets out for the Midway Oasis some 20 km from the Al'Carlit ruins. All in all there are 40 lean, thirsty soldiers left from what was once a fearsome 200 strong enemy base. Our seige has worked well... At Midway, the enemy soldiers are chained together, all forty of them, to make escape impossible. Not that they'd want to leave! After a month-long drought and famine, the soldiers are finally putting on lost weight and regaining that shine in their greyed feathers.

"We have decided that you shall hold a fake attack to make the easterners believe us," said one Percusa to a reathler, who could vaguely understand. The battle went off with 6 easterner deaths and they quickly saw the light.

The war gradually continues. The Loklow Empire, having signifigantly weakened the infastructure of the Eastern military chain of cammand, decides that the best course of action to follow is relentless bombing. The primitive bombs the LE use are huge, requiring six Percusa to carry one. The bombs are not very advanced, using mostly that primitive gunpowder they've been mining for a time now; the bombs cause varying degrees of damage, depending on the quality of their construction. But it is a weapon, and a demoralizing one at that.

The capitol city of Yuan Wu Tsae is practically invincible at the moment, sentries are patroling the city on the graound and in the air, so the LE can only use the bombs on the other major city of the East, Mei Chen. Although not powerful, the bombs greatly demoralize the Percusa of Mei Chen, and only further enrage the Eastern population of Yuan Wu Tsae.

Recently, the East has been militarizing the Kun'Wa Shrine. This shrine is holy to the Easterners, it has something or other to do with a very fat Percusa with hippie-like qualities that lived way long ago. Turns out the artificial island the shrine sits upon is a powerful strategic point.

And the LE back in the Southern Plains have finished developing a primitive steel. (Remember, they started developement a while back.) All of the LE's military spears are outfitted with this amazing alloy. With a good hit, we can now penetrate the thick hide of a Reathler Gaurd (*one Reathler was harmed in the testing of this weapon*)

Boats have been a common asset across the continent for hundreds of years, but only the Plains area Percusa have bothered to develop big boats that are capable enough to sail the open ocean. The LE generals come to the craftsmen at the plains, requesting a war boat fleet. This is a monumental task, never before thought of by Percusan minds. The shipbuilders guild in Percusopolis goes into overdrive, recruiting more members and shipbuilders from as far north as Township Erops report for duty. In order to better keep track of the navy, it is decided that the entire fleet will be built and docked in Clewis Harbor. Soon, the Loklow Empire has amassed a navy of over 30 boats, all roughly identical, capable of holding 100 Percusa each, if a bit cramped.

Intelligence reports indicate that the only boats the Eastern Percusa use are dinky fishing boats. The LE army, being at a sort of standstill, has further fortified their positions in the Al'Carlit Ruins and the Midway Oasis. Supply lines are well established and they are ready to take a full-on assault at any time. The constant bombing runs over Mei Chen have not only greatly demoralized the Easterners, but have finally worn away the defenses enough for us to take the town with minimal casualties, if we want.

The LE generals wisely decide not to jump into anyhting they do not know the outcome of. Since they have had great success with spy tactics in previous months, it is decided to insert a more permanent intelligence gathering base in the Far East. This is not easy, as gaurd around the whole Empire is up; merchants are now randomly searched for any incriminating evidence, and none are allowed to enter the palace grounds at Yuan Wu Tsae.

The Loklow spies are able to set up few safe-houses and the ones they do set up are in very inconvinient locations, usually a farm house near the forests. 50 spies are inserted throughout the East, ranging from Chuknor and his squad of four others hiding out in the forests near Mei Chen to Pku'Sa, a lone operative posing as a butcher's aid just outside of the palace of Yuan Wu Tsae. With the hightened security, information is slow to leave the country. But it does flow...

Two important things are revealed in just two weeks' time, the forces at Mei Chen are much stronger than we had anticipated, a force of over 100 strong are hiding in camouflauged shelters in the forests near Lake Tao. And the main forces of the Easterners are not in the cities but the Yul'lu'yin Woods, constantly on the move, and never by air. The Eastern forces are highly mobile and deadly. But their government is slow to react, as the country is still getting back on its feet after our repeated assasinations

At the next Loklow meeting, the Loklist representing Walucaville, Jimig, suggests hiring proffesional soldiers to comlement the massive LE army. After many debates and the loss of Jimig's left eye, a vote is passed to train profesional soldiers in the art of guerrila warfare. Since the Loklow Empire has not developed currency, the soldiers will be paid in land and/or cattle(I forget the name of the Percusan cow).

Natives of Walucaville and the surrounding area have had a long history of land-based tactics. Because of the close proximity to the Western Percusa and the West's nasty habit of attacking anything they see flying near their mountains, flying has taken a back seat for the Percusa of the Western Woods. The main source of meat in the Western Woods is the Xaltork, a large, fast, feathery animal with four eyes. The eyes of these beast are located in such a way that they are very capable of seeing predators from the air. Their most vulnerable direction comes from behind, low. The thousands of years of hunting the Xaltork have led the Percusa in the area to use their flying abilities much less while hunting. The use of traps has also come into wide use in capturing these wily beasts. Due to these conditions, woodsmen and trackers are quite common near the Western Woods.

These trackers become the drill sergents of the special forces of the LE. Since this is a sort of rush job, the recruits are taught a crash course in basic traps and the rest of their training focuses on stealth in the forest. It will be another month before the first recreuits will be able to step onto the battlefield.

In the mean time, things have taken a turn for the worst. Due to inactivity on the Eastern warfront, the Easterners have had time to regroup. Intelligence reports reveal that a provisional government has been set up, led by five of the deceased Emperor's distant relatives. A charge has been led, once again, into Al'Dabu. This came as a complete surprise to our troops and, although minimal casualties were sufferes, the LE has lost Al'Dabu a second time. The defensive catapults used at Al'Dabu were in a state of disrepair and too many Percusa manned them to be efficient.

Also, a minor breach of the Reathler contract has happened. It appears that the Reathlers felt a need to expand a hive of theirs into area the LE had not previously designated for Reathler use. (see map)

red=Reathler territor agreed upon, blue=breach

A battalion (about 1000) of LE Percusa are sent into Al'Dabu. Supply lines have not been set up ther, yet, and defenses are minimil. Catapults are used for the first time, offensively, in teh 3rd Battle of Al'Dabu(pretty sure it's 3rd). The catapults' range is about 200 yards, and we launch various materials in them(flaming phecies being a crowd favorite). The initial bombing raids of long spears and gunpowder bombs lights Al'Dabu on fire. As the town burns, Easterners are forced to flee by air, and our troops easily gang up on them and slaughter them in mid-air. In one week we are able to search the city for survivors. This is a desicive victory for the LE, with a KIA count of under 50 and over 300 Easterners alaughtered mercilessly. On the flip side, Al'Dabu has been burt to the ground, leaving only a natural well as any sort of strategic advantage. The catapults did not perform up to par, most of the projectiles hit way off their marks or broke up in mid-air.

In other news, only 3 more weeks until the first batch of lightly trained guerrilla fighters are ready for deployment. Also, a Reathler Queen has apparently been assasignated. By who, our intelligence cannot tell, the Percusa have traditionally kept to themselves when concerning the Reatlers, but this has seriously caused a disturbance in the Reathler community, as far as the Loklow can tell.

Here is where the Queen was assasignated, the Reathlers in this area will die out slowly, now. 

The Loklow cannot cannot stand leaving the ruins of Al'Dabu on the ground. Military contruction workers are diverted from the Al'Carlit Ruins to the heap of a city. Alhtough it will be impossible to rebuild the thriving metropolis Al"Dabu was, the LE can turn it into a vital military base. By the end of the month, Al'Dabu is a lightly defended sentry post for the LE army. Mostly consisting of tents, the Al'Dabu Military base is named after the city it was founded over, Al'Dabu. We have a light troop garrison placed there and supply lines are running smoothly, as it took a lot of materials to construct the base. That's the good news...

The bad news is that the Easterners have launched a massive assault on the Midway Oasis. Over 2000 troops, by our best estimates, attacked the oasis. The LE only kept the base thanks to the massive redundancy of fortifications that have been built there over the past months.The Easterners flew in low, under the cover of darkness, to about 1000 yards east of the oasis. They all dawned some sort of camoflauge and by daybreakk, our sentries could not see a trace of Percusa. The Easternes waited until about 10am, then struck. Our catapults roved useless in the ensuing battle once again, the rising sun blocking their operators' views. Our air forces had a very hard time picking out induviduals on the ground because of teh Easterners' advanced camoflouging techniques. But the good old method of simple massive numbers prevailed, and the LE won the day with only extreme numbers of casualties. The Midway Oasis is down to a skeleton crew. They cannot survive another assault. From the dead easterners, we have gathered a massive amount of desert camoflouge suits. They are made of a unique species of plant that absorbs light through leaves that look like sand.

To compensate for the lack of personell at the Midway Oasis, the LE generals reassign 1000 troops from the Al'Carlit Ruins to Midway. Midway is slowly being rebuilt, although it is still extremely vulnerable at this point. Supply lines have remained intact, and officers estimate that the base will be up and running again in 2 weeks. Until then, the LE forces are on gaurd. All of the camoflauge they salvaged are sent back to the Walucaville for study.

The Loklow Special Forces are ready for deplotyment. Although the desert defenses are nearly crippled, it is decided to deploy these deadly tools in the Yu'lu'lin Woods for ofensive use. The elite corp spends most of its time combing through the woods, searching for signs of the EE army and setting up pungii pits. The next group of guerrilla fighters sent to the front will be better equiped and trained; until then, they will make do.

NEWS FROM THE FRONT: Our spy network has just recieved word that, in two days time, EE military technicians will be delivering the proto-type of a new, top-secret weapon to Yuan Wu Tsae for mass production. Our spies, unfortunately, have no way of intercepting the air-borne convoy delivering the weapon without blowing their cover.

NEWS NOT FROM THE FRONT: The Reathlers have begun what appears to be a civil war. The Reathlers that breached the LE established lines are now viciously attacking all Reathlers who aren't them. Eastern Empire Flag,

Reathler warfare is brutal. Really brutal. As in "Oh my God you just kicked me in the groin, punched my face, which you then ripped off, and threw it onto my friend's face before nudering him with a golf ball and implaing me with my own arm!" brutal.

From the air, all the LE support troops can see is blood, acid and what looks like Satan's fecal matter. We could not spare many troops, so the local garrisons at Percusopilis, Yukata, and Pal'Chu were sent in to back up the North Reathlers(I'm gonna refer to the Reathlers who didn't breach our lines as North and those who did South). We were not able to send a message ahead to warn the North Reathlers due to the carnage and potential crossfire, so we just sort of went in. After they realize what our troops are doing, the North rally and fight with further verocity. The LE tactics have only improved in the past millenia and we defeat the South decisively. It was a defensive battle, so the lines of war only stay the same.

After the madness there, an LE officer is brought directly to an NR Queen. He learns that the North has witnesses who say that the South assasignated the Queen to the east of here, which is what sparked the war. She requests the LE's help in defendeing her hive against the invaders.

Here's the problem with Reathlers. They're idiots. They don't have a form of government or religion, they just kill. If the North would just unite, they could easily take on the South and win, no doubt. But the thing is, they just don't have the mental capacity. Like teaching a cat to roll over.

The LE has very few troops in the Southeastern area of the continent(a name would be cool, Miroku) and the only town within range of the South, who seem to have no grudge against us, is Yukata.

GOOD NEWS: Our special forces have just lured about 50 EE troops into an ambush, killing all 50!

A lone operative, Jugla'k, has been posing as a local blacksmith's assistant for some time now in Yuan Wu Tsae. When he gets word from the spy network that the EE convoy carrying a secret weapon will be flying by, he is the first to volunteer for interception. Unfortunately, for him, the plan was never acted upon. But their is new hope for this young glory-chaser. Jugla'k is the only LE spy with access to the armory where the proto-type is supposedly being kept.

One day, after an otherwise uneventful delivery of spears to the gaurds in the armory, Jugla'k asks if he can use the bathroom, knowing full well that the only facilities in teh armory are the staff only bathrooms. The gaurds let him pass and Jugla'k casually strolls on through. But he does not go the bathroom hut, oh no, he sneaks into a large building labeled only "Juktorp Edusn'ak"(Classified). Once in, Jugla'k disposes of teh one inept gaurd and pulls off the sheet of a large object. What he uncovers has never before been seen in all of Percusa-kind.

It is a giant base, rack over four wheels, made of iron and a bamboo-like plant. It has two rows of 40 four foot long tubes mounted on the racks. On a table near by is 80 smaller tubes with points on the ends and fletchings in the back. At first Jugla'k is puzzled, but after translating the documents lying on the table, he learns the terrible truth, these are ranged explosives. Powerful and accurate, according to testing done by EE scientists. What should Jugla'k do?

IN OTHER NEWS: Our spy network has just intercepted a message written by an EE officer heading south. It is written in a foreign tounge, even the Percusan spies cannot desipher it. We must investigate further.

Jugla'k, thinking quickly, stashes the documents away in his man-spy-purse. He sneaks out, undetected and drops off the documents the next day at the nearest safe-house. When LE scientists(by the way, I've been calling them scientists, but they're little more than Percusa with glasses and hammers) they build a proto-type. The rocket launcher proves exeptionally deadly and is rushed into production. They will be in the hands of the LE forces soon.

After two weeks of careful observation, our spies discover that the EE officer in Mei Chen is sending messages to the Southern Reathler territory. What could this mean?

IN THE NEWS: A force of EE troops numbering in the 300 range has just attacked the Midway Oasis. Thanks to our special forces, however, they were starving and covered in warts by the time they got within range of the Oasis.

And troop movement has been noticed in the Rimbulan Ridge. We do not have very many spies in the area, as it is a very inhospitable place with no villages areound for miles.

The newly inserted spies near Rimbulan Ridge quckly discover teh details of teh EE presence in this seemingly unwantable mountain range. The Easterners are carving out massive caves into the sides of the mountains and using them to build a secret navy! Somehow, the EE has built up a massive navy to rival that of our own, and has the troops stationed there to back it up. All the doormitoriesa nd other facilities abre entirely underground. But that's not the worst of it...

Reathlers inhabit this area. The Loklow Emprire has no idea how they got there or why they would be there, but it seems that the Easterners are in league with the Reathlers. So far, no Queen has beem sighted, thank Shleiberko'ok(God), but the massive presence of Hunters and Soldiers is still unnerving.

The LE spies decide that the best approach to finding out how and why the Reathlers are in the Easterner's Rimbulan Ridge base is to kidnap ant interrogate as many EE soldiers as possible. Two weeks and a dozen bloody, beaten, bruised, and mostly dead Percusa later, the spies have a general picture of what has been happening.

According to the hostages, the East had maintained peaceful relationships with the Reathlers long before the Plains Percusa had the Great War with them. Since the war with the east, however, most communication has ceased due to the LE's tight control(mostly) of the land around the Reathlers. With Al'Dabu gone, the East finally had an esier chance to communicate with the Reathlers again. From here the information is sketchy. Depending on the loyalty and severeness of vocal chord inguries incured on the prisoners, varied information is discovered. It is unclear who came to who for aid, the Reathlers against their "oppresive" masters or the East for help against the "savage" Loklow. In either case, it is clear that the EE is allied with the Southern Reathlers and that they are planning some sort of joint assault using the EE's massive navy. Where, we are not sure, but we do know something is going down.

Unfortunately, the spies brash methods have sort of wound them up in an Eastern war prison. And troop movement has been seen near the Midway Oasis again. And it appears that the Eastern provisional government has re-established itself with the new Emperor Kich.

The generals decide to drop small bombs on the enemy bse and outside their entrances to hopefully kill a few via rockslides. But really their purpse is to keep them awake all night long and make them all a little edgy and tired then attack in the morning. The westerners don't want to make the caves collpse, as they still want to use the place later a stheir own base, so the bomb size is limited to about teh size of a baseball. So the bombing commences in the early afternoon, dozens of Percusa fly back and forth over the caves, dropping baseball sized bombs that make a lot of noise and send rocks flying. The easterners quickly realize the situation and hole up deep inside the caves to avoid being hit by a flying boulder, but there is nothing they can do about the noise from the explosions that echo throughout the caves. By the next morning, the eastern forces are tired and edgy, they hav enot slept all night and some of them have begun to go deaf because of the constant noise. When the troops finally begin to hope that maybe the bombing run is through, they find that the bombers have only stopped so that enemy troops could enter the caves. The battle is short and bloody, many Eastern soldiers die valiantly trying to stave of the invasion, but they're just plain too tired to do it for very long. Eventually some of the soldiers flee farther into the catacombs, never to se ethe light of day again. Meanwhile others are captured by the west and tortured for information regaring the makeup of this extensive cave system. A map is made, the remaining arms are inventoried and the prisoners are sent away to be re-educated. The base is firmly in our command. Now we have a beautiful view of a nearby valley where 60% of the cattle raised in the east graze.

The soldiers of the new Rimbulan Ridge base decide that they need a good supply of resources before they begin a campaing into the East. The general has been eyeing a small ranching town not far from the ridge, where much of the East's cattle is raised and processed. In broad daylight, the soldiers move out towards the peaceful town of Niobrara. The inhabitants of Niobrara saw the battle that occurred a week before, and suspected that the Eastern forces had lost when the general had failed to send someone to collect the weekly tribute of meat and fermented drink. That being so, the citizens had assembled a small militia to defend the city from the western barbarians if nessecarry. To their shock and surprise, the Westerners have come for the same things that the previous soldiers needed. Tributes of food, drink and servants. The villiagers are all to happy to comply with the soldier's demands, why they're even smaller than the demands of the Eastern soldiers!

Since they have nothing to do but wait for the Loklow to decide to give them reinforcements, the soldiers at Rimbulan Ridge have decided to fortify the small city of Niobrara agaist the Eastern assault that is sure to come when the Emporer discovers the sudden beef shortage. The soldiers borrow axes and the like from the villiage and begin constructing a high wall around the city so only fliers can get in, making it easier on the people to regulate who comes and goes. Of course they also construct a large gate at the eastern end of town so that cattle can be driven into and out of the city when need be. While they're at it, the soldiers also figure they might as well remodel the stock pens, seeing as this place is going to become an important cattle grazing place for the West as it was for the East. It takes the soldiers about two weeks to get everyting done. In the meantime, scouts have been sent out to map the surrounding areas and the more extensive caves, and the villiagers have begun to respect the western soldiers for all the work they have done. Things are starting to look up for our newly acquired outpost... Until scouts come back with a report that a small army is on it's way, they'll arrive in 2-3 days.

The general sends an emergency message to Midway asking for re-inforcements. Later that day he recieves word from the general there that they won't arrive for three more days. All we have to do is hold off the Eastern army for a day before our reinforcements arrive. What should we do to slow down the army?

The General looks at their meager store of bombs, and considers the small force he is in charge of and decides that facing them in battle or a bombing run would not be a good course of action. He has heard from the locals that way up in the Eastern mountains, there is a small pass that you have to go through if you want to get to this place from the nearest Eastern Military Base. The general leads a small platoon of air bombers, and their supply of bombs out into the mountains where this pass is. From his perch way up high on a cliff, the General can see that the Eastern army is already halfway through the pass. The large male utters an expletive as he tries to figure out how they moved so quickly. But then realizing the advantage of the situation, he smiles with an evil grin and orders the soldiers to commence with the landslide that will fill up the pass with snow, mud and rocks. They move quietly, placing the bombs where they need be until the order is given to fire. The enemy army is so sure of their success and the surprise they're going to give us that they don't even bother to watch for Western soldiers flying above them. Once everything is in place, the general gives the order for the bombs to detonate. With a loud explosion, akin to that of lightning stiking about 3/4 of an inch from your ear, millions of tons of snow, mud rock and various rubble comes pouring down off the mountains into the small pass between them. The Eastern soldiers panic, some begin to frantically throw off their armor and take to the sky, some turn around in a vain attempt to go back the way they came, but most just simply run. When all is said and done, only the few who hurriedly shed their armor are left alive, they are quick to dessert and speed off back to the safe base they left several days ago.

When the re-inforcements for the non-existent battle of Niobrara arrive, the General has a bit of explaining to do as to why there are no longer any enemy troops about to anihilate out newly acquired base. But when all is said and done, the general is to be commended for his quick thinking that resulted in the destruction of nearly 1/5 of the entire Eastern army. Now onto other business, if we hurry, our troops can reach the nearby Liu-Kang military base before they can be re-supplied with troops. The temptation proves too much for the two generals, so they quickly divide their forces and send the larger group off to the Liu Kang base. It takes our soldiers almost two weeks to reach the base, trekking over the pass with full armor. But they have arrived in time, the base is defended by a scant 150 soldiers. After a nights rest, our army is ready to attack the base.

The troops decide to hurriedly build a small catapault out of several trees nearby, meanwhile a single soldier is sent back to Rimbulan base for a few kilos of exploding powder. By morning, the catapault is ready and the stones have been gathered. We are ready for The Battle Liu-Kang. With surprise and numbers on our side, we probably could have taken the base without the catapault, but we would have lost quite a few men in the process. Instead, we spend teh day lobbing gunpowder-coated rocks at their walls, and slaying the small bands of soldiers that dar come after us. When the day is done, there are no surviving enemy troops, our army moves the catapault into the fort and begins to settle in.

The soldiers all agree that the don't want to start angering the locals now, so they graciously hand over the enemy soldier's bodies to the families that live in the nearby town. The villiagers are grateful for the chance to honor the dead in their own fashion. Which usually means that they burn them on a pyre with flowers and incense to speed them on their way to Heaven. So, while the great funeral bonfire is going on in the villiage, it is time to plan our next move.

The two generals in charge of our army agree that the best target to go after would be the merchant city of Tao-Shin. With relatively few soldiers, and lots o spoils for our battle-weary soldiers, a raid on a merchant city is just what this army needs. The generals split their forces, leaving one general here with 200 soldiers to keep the base and taking 500 up North a ways to raid the town. After staking out the place a bit, the soldiers realize that this isn't going to be as easy as it first seemed. True, there are only 50 or so soldiers, but each merchant has at least 10-15 mercenaries guarding his stuff. With 40-50 merchants currently in town, our soldiers can't fight those numbers and expect to come out with few casualties. We need to come up with a plan to git rid of the mercs.

End of Percusa V.

Percusa VI
Half a dozen of our soldiers enter the town under the guise of new mercenaries. The next morning, they hurry to a print shop, and have dozens of posters made. The printer and his apprentice don't bother to call the town soldiers about these mercs obviously serving the West. This town has seen little support from the Emperor in the past, and most citizens don't give a care about the war. So the posters are made, and our soldiers are wary all throughout the day. It was a huge risk ordering the posters from a local press shop, but they had no choice. But eventually night falls, and our soldiers are able to tack up most of the posters all throughout the city. When all is said and done, our soldiers anxious to get out of the town and get some real rest before the coming battle. They are stopped by several soldiers who regularly patrol the skies above the city. Luckily, one of our guys happens to have a leftover poster. He shows it to the soldiers who nod regretfully that they cannot join them in their pursuit. One of the soldiers questions why they don't kill these mercenaries right now, seeing as they're going to be enemy soldiers soon. But the Captain halts him. They're only mercenaries, and besides why would the Western Army ever come this far South of the capital anyways? Our soldiers breath a great sigh of relief when the enemy captain waves them on. Back at the temporary base, our soldiers get some well-deserved sleep and wait for the morning. At the very crack of dawn, there is loud collective commotion rising from the merchant city of Tao-Shin. It would seem that many of the loyal mercenaries have left their bosses and gone to join up with the Western Army at Midway Oasis. Of course when they arrive there, they will be captured and become prisoners of war, but the mercenaries don't know that... All has gone according to General Sellitna's plan. Now all that is necessary is to go in and raid the city. With only 50 soldiers and two dozen mercenaries to stop them, the raid of Tao-Shin is sucessful. After everything is quieted, General Sellitna allows her soldiers to take what they pelase from the rich merchants. After all is said and done, we come away with droves of cattle and loads of gold and jewelry. Our army hurries to get the spoils back to the rimbulan base, where most of it will be smuggled back West and used for comissioning new armor, blades and other weaponry for our soldiers.

We have received 75 new recruits from the academy. We are ready for something big.

The Shao-Li naval base is looking really sweet right now. The Easterners have always held the naval advantage over us, and now General Sellitna is thinking to claim that advantage for us... And she figures that a major Eastern seaport will go nicely on her list of victories. Sellitna sends word to the Liu-Kang base and to Rimbulan for more troops so she can take the naval base. The commanders there send as many as they can afford, as well as food for the soldiers and gold for bribing if need be. Sellitna sends a messenger back with her thanks, then begins her march towards the ocean. Shao-Li began as a small fishing town several hundred years ago. As the Eastern Empire grew, and their knowledge of Ship righting with it, Shao-Li became an important shipyard and naval base. Being so important to the Eastern Empire's navy, this town has quite a few soldiers and the citizens here are very loyal to the empire, being that most of it's citizens are either retired navy soldiers or youths going to be. Sellitna has her work cut out for her. But she doesn’t know that yet, they've only just arrived at the cliffs overlooking the beach-town. After settling in some caves that overlook the town, Sellitna needs to come up with a plan of attack.

General Sellitna orders her troops to start making bombs, as they are going to make some runs over the city tonight. The Soldiers are glad for a rest. Some of them sleep, in preparation for the bombing run, when they’ll have to be up all night. Meanwhile, others begin making bombs from the several kegs of gunpowder they have with them. While the wind and rain rage outside. All day the soldiers ready for the bombing run while the officers draw out the plan of attack, eventually everything is ready, all they have to do is wait for night to fall. Several hours after, now that the town is asleep, the bombardiers are awakened and sent out. General Sellitna and her lieutenant wait inside the cave, and wait for the return of the first flight before they send the next one out. But after an hour, well beyond the time it would have taken for a bombing run and return not one of the bombardiers have returned. After another half an hour and no word from them, Sellitna figures something is up. It could be that the bombardiers got confused in the storm, it could be that they've been spotted by the town guard, or they might have just gotten stupid with their bombs and blown themselves up. Something must be done to find out what has happened.

The General and her officers decide that the wind and rain possibly confused the bombardiers and something went wrong with the bombs. The next flight of bombers is sent out with a warning about handling the bombs safely. But those twelve don't return either. The General and her officers agree that it is unlikely that flights blew themselves up or got lost in the storm. The only alternative is that the town guard has found them, and it's only a matter of time before the storm subsides and the cliffs are searched.

Whatever we're going to do, it has to be done before the storm is over.

Our soldiers must act quickly if they are to take the town. An alarm is sounded to wake the troops and get them assembled ASAP. Within thirty minutes, every one of our 700 soldiers is awake and ready for battle. With some paint, and a clear, flat part of the wall, General Sellitna hastily goes over the battle plans before sending her soldiers out. The army moves out, their intended targets are the barracks, where most of the soldiers are sleeping or sheltering from the wind and rain. But they don't get very far. Our army is met with some resistance by the guard that patrols the skies over the town. But the roughly 2 dozen guards are quickly and easily taken out. Having dispatched most of the town guard, the few remaining are flown back to the HQ and interrogated to find where they're keeping our bombardiers. It doesn’t take much to convince the already injured and beaten guards to tell us that our soldiers are being kept in an underground barracks for prisoners. The officer in charge of the base makes a note on the map of the town, and sends a copy out to General Sellitna on the battlefield. Meanwhile, our army has attacked the first two barracks but to our surprise the soldiers were not asleep. They were armed, and fully awake. It seems that the enemy general ordered his soldiers to stay awake, but in their barracks on the guess that we would attack there first. At first, our soldiers are taken by surprise, but we have the advantage of larger numbers and a full day's rest. The battle is quick to turn in our favor, and the first two barracks fall... But not before one of the enemy officers manages to sound the alarm.

We're in the middle of an enemy town, the alarm has just been sounded and the enemy army stationed here is about to be joined by the local militia.

At first, the battle of Shao-Li is going well, but a lucky shot from the bow of a militia man strikes our General Sellitna in the eye. The arrow's shaft pierces her brain, and the general falls never to rise again. The next officer in line, Sergeant Kameko is stunned. He does his best to hold the army together, but our morale has been broken. Sergeant Kameko thinks quickly remembers when he was a boy, growing up in this area before his mother died and the family moved out West. He remembered how criminals and convicts could take refuge in the temple, and live there without fear of revenge or retribution for their crimes. Thinking that this might be a good way to give the troops a rest and wait for re-enforcement from the Rimbulan HQ. Kameko dispatches several messengers to the various Western strongholds nearby, as well as the temporary base up in the hills before sounding a retreat for the temple. The priests, who had been holding an emergency midnight vigil for the sake of the soldiers and militia battling outside, are shocked to see 620 enemy soldiers come pouring onto the temple grounds in the middle of a fierce storm. Their first reaction is to sound for the town guard, but when the leader of the tired and bloody group asks for refuge, they cannot refuse him. It doesn't take the enemy soldiers long to find our army, and when they do, the local colonel rushes into the temple and attempts to drag our men out by hand. But Caiaphas, the high priest will have none of it. True these men and women are the enemy, but they have asked for refuge in the dwelling of Jove. Having done that, they are formally Jove's house guests and must be treated as such, or a great calamity will befall the city. The colonel, red faced and fit to kill storms out of the temple to awaken the mayor and his council. The mayor, although he recognizes the threat to the city, agrees with Caiaphas in that they cannot risk JOve's anger by attacking the soldiers who are residing in his house. Before long, the whole town has heard about the battle last night, and about the hoard of Western soldiers taking refuge at the temple. Many of them lost sons in the battle the night before, and are justly angry about the mayor's official decision about the foreigners, others are devout and faithful, Caiaphas has said it, so shall it be. Tensions become tight in the town. Within hours, you're either a Jovian or a Militant, you either agree with Caiaphas and the Mayor or you agree with Colonel Sanders. ((Sorry, I had to!)) Days later, people are either wearing white sashes, as those in prayer do or they wear bloodstained bandanas on their arms and necks. Meanwhile, our message has gotten to Rimbulan. Unfortunately, they will not be able to send more troops until the next graduation at the academy some three months from now. Until then, we're on our own. This message comes to Kameko through some spies in the city. The soldiers, who are growing more restless with each passing day, are absolutely crushed. Morale couldn't be lower. But on the bright side, the emperor himself is said to be coming to Shao-Li to decide on the matter... As a descendant of the gods, he is sure to know of the solution to this problem.

Sergeant Kameko believes, along with the other officers, that now would be an opportune time to start a riot in the city. So, late one night, one of the soldiers posing as a cleaning maid for the priests, makes off with a few of the white garments worn by the low-level clerics of the temple. The next day, disguised in the garb of clerics on their way to the market for some more ink and quills, five of our soldiers find themselves in the middle of a public debate between a priest of the temple, and a lieutenant in the Eastern Army. Being a public debate, the five "clerics" blended right into the crowd of Jovians that stood on south side of the street. As the two leaders started getting into it, our five clerics sensed the perfect opportunity. Here there were about 50 or so citizens gathered, and all of them were angry and ready for a fight. All they needed was a good reason... That reason came in the form of a small rock fired from a slingshot at the Lieutenant. Suddenly, all hell broke loose. That rock was the only excuse the two factions needed to get the fight started. Having received the excuse, the two went at it. Meanwhile, our guys beat a hasty retreat back to the temple. Out here, they were fair game. The brawl, which started in the public square with fifty or so combatants, has turned into a bloody miniature war that has lasted at least a week, and shows no signs of letting up. No window sits unbroken in this city, and upwards of 200 are dead so far... Including the mayor and his entire family as well most of the officers ranked above captain. The priesthood though, is amazingly untouched. Having taken a non-combatant approach, they simply sat down and meditated while looters ransacked the temple around them. With no reason to attack the priests, the looters and militants left them alone. At first, our soldiers also took the priests approach to the riot. They simply ignored the mess and went through their exercises and yoga-like stretching to keep their bodies limber... But unlike the priests, the militants have an excuse to beat on us. Now that there are few officers to keep the soldiers in line, they have bullied their way into the temple, and have dragged a dozen or so of our female soldiers out of the temple. The next morning, they are hanged in the public square and left to rot.

Sergeant Kameko's fury eventually wins out. Later, in the dead of night when the town guard is asleep, and the priests are busy attending midnight prayer, fifteen of our men sneak out of the temple armed to the teeth to cut down the rotting bodies of their slain compadres. The plan goes well, and no one is the wiser when the fifteen soldiers, weighted down with their sad cargo, re-enter the temple. Now, before dawn breaks, the soldiers each take their turn respectfully consuming the twelve slain females in the fashion of their religion. By morning, all that remains are a few mangled bones, and the various "sacred" bones which are allotted out to the brave fifteen who rescued them. The soldiers are relieved that the funerals have taken place before the carrion birds could eat them, but that doesn’t replace their grief and anger over the treatment of their companions. They're ready for vengeance.

Sergeant Kameko now has a real problem on his hands. On the one side, Kameko remembers the penalty for such crimes, and leaving the soldiers as they are will certainly anger the Emperor to no end. But on the other side, Kameko's soldiers are equally ticked off over the treatment of their sisters in arms, and they're ready for some vengeance. Besides, what will happen to their souls if they are left as food for the vultures.

With his men half-crazed by anger, and the town wholly unready for an attack, Sergeant Kameko believes that the time is right for a second attempt at taking Shao-Li. As the city goes to sleep, no doubt worried about what the Emperor will say when he arrives two days from now, Kameko arms his troops and begins to lay waste to Shao-Li. The first targets of course are the soldiers barracks, as the plan was before. This time though, there's no one to warn them of their impending doom, and they never awaken from their sleep. Once the soldiers are dead, the town guard is next. Through a series of ambushes, they are picked off, one by one until all of them are gone. Finally, Kameko allows his soldiers to seek out all who have the red and white flag on the doors of their homes. Though it's not our custom to take civilian prisoners, these have not behaved as civilians. Besides, Kameko will need them later. As dawn breaks over the city, our takeover is completed as the last of the prisoners are herded into the underground dungeons, where they are guarded by the officers of our army.

We have taken the city, but we must act quickly if we are to take The Emperor when he arrives tomorrow as well. What should we do to make sure he stays long enough for us to capture him?

Kameko believes that Caiaphas could become a valuable bargaining chip, and quickly moves to capture the temple. As expected, the priests do nothing to stop us, they simply sit passively while we put them under guard and take Caiaphas hostage in his own chambers. Over the next few days, several of our officers are drilled by the unwilling priests on various smaller duties they will have to perform to effectively fake their position when The Emperor arrives. The people of Shao-Li, at least those who remain alive and uncaptured, comply with our wishes now that we have both half the city and their high priest as hostages. The swiftly agree with our tale of how so many people were slain in the riots, and how others simply left to stay with family in the country until the whole mess blew over. It seems a satisfactory excuse, and is more likely than a terrible epidemic. The Emperor is sighted the next day, and the day after, he arrives in the city with great fanfare and pomp. The Emperor Tsae-Ryu is appalled at the state of affairs in the city that is the major port for the Eastern Navy. Caiaphas is quickly "persuaded" by his acolytes to appease Emperor Ryu and beg his forgiveness so that he may sleep well tonight in the royal apartments. Ryu agrees to stay in the royal apartments of Shao-Li, which have been hastily repaired since the riot ended and word got out about the Emperor’s impending arrival. Our boys have done well for themselves on their first day as acolytes to the high priest of Jove. But now that we have Caiaphas under our control and Emperor Ryu practically in our hands, what do we do?

Later that night, Kameko and the other "acolytes" meet with Caiaphas and inform him of his options... Meaning that he must either reccomend Kameko as a holy adviser to The Emporer or die. After extracting an oath not to kill The Emporer, Caiaphas agrees to the plan. And the next day, as Emporer Ryu tours the city, Caiaphas exclaims the virtues of his senior acolyte Kameko. The Emporer agrees to take the matter into consideration while he is in Shao-Li, but for now he must judge upon the matter that had brought him to the naval port. After sitting in the town hall listening to the arguments of the religious side, the witnesses for the military side are called forth, but oddly... only few appear. Those that do appear to speak on the behalf of the militaristic party are not the greatest speakers, nor are they key witnesses to the alledged atrocities our men seem to have comitted. (This is of course, no accident!) The Emporer closes the court at sunset and promises to deliver a judgement at noon the next day. Although our men have done a good job at silencing incriminating witnesses, Kamekko is still unsure of what Ryu's verdict will be. He wants to make sure of the descision before the dawn breaks, but how?

The officers decide that the best course of action from here is not to kill Emperor Ryu, as that would do little good for the war effort, but rather their plan is so sneak out of town with their best boats and sabotage the ones we leave behind. So while the town rests, and Emperor Ryu sits in his chambers meditating on the verdict he must deliver in the morning, our men sneak out into the shipyards and begin sawing away at the masts of the lesser ships while their compatriots ready the best of the Eastern navy for sail. Meanwhile, Kameko glides in a lazy circle pattern over the palace, as his wings pump up and down, he waits for a signal from one of the ships. At the sight of a light reflected off a mirror, Kameko goes into a dive and flies right through his bedroom window. Not even bothering to land, Kameko goes sailing though the wide hallways of the Imperial Apartments and only stop when the two gigantic eunuchs in charge of Ryu's safekeeping halt him. Kameko hurriedly explains that there is an emergency that he must tell His Majesty about immediately. The eunuchs are a very superstitious pair, and immediately assume that the High Acolyte had a vision concerning a Ryu and immediately allow him entrance. The Emperor is outraged at being woken at this late hour, but as soon as he hears of the trouble at the docks that Kameko so recently saw in a vision, he swiftly dispatches the Imperial guard to call for the militia and set sail after the thieves. But their attempt at overtaking our fleeing men is in vain. Almost immediately after they get past the breakers, the masts of the ships begin to fail. Also, a problem that they hadn't noticed back in the docks appears... They are leaking, badly. Reluctantly, the captain of the guard orders a retreat and our soldiers get away with the finest ships the East has to offer. If Emperor Ryu had been angry about how the town had fallen to rioting, he is outright (Insert expletive) that they have gotten away with his prized ships and made his guard look like fools. Fortunately though, his anger falls on the guards and not Sergeant Kameko. After his tantrum has passed, Ryu commends Kameko for his quick action and agrees with Caiaphas that perhaps Kameko should become one of his advisers. Caiaphas remains silent about Kameko's origins. Through several conversations he has had with our officer over the past week, Caiaphas has learned that Sergeant Kameko was actually born in the Rimbulan province. Caiaphas believes that Jove chose redeemed him from his western upbringing by sending the vision about the ships leaving. Since Ryu has nothing to judge upon, he leaves the following day. He is of course accompanied by Vizier Kameko. Meanwhile, the forgotten hostages in the underground barracks/dungeon eventually all starved to death because they had been left with no food. Their bodies won't be discovered for thousands of years until archeologists, studying ancient civilizations stumble upon the ruins of Shao-Li. Upon their arrival at Clewis Island, the LE hold an emergency meeting on what to do with this unexpected surprise of ships. After much argument, and the deaths of a few weak-spirited senators, it is finally decided that the ships will be carefully taken apart so that we can train shipwrights. It will be nearly a year before we will have our first working warships, but the battle must continue. The soldiers who brought in the ships are sent back to the Rimbulan base so a new attack may be launched. Meanwhile in the past few weeks, Kameko has constructed a spy network all throughout the capital of The Empire. The Lords and Ladies of Ryu's court do not sneeze without Kameko knowing of it within minutes. Ironically, it is with his salary as Vizier that he keeps his spies paid. Through his spy network, Kameko has learned of a major Eastern Offensive that is set to begin in the Spring, when weather will be favorable for sailing. The Empire’s first target is Clewis Island, where our only shipyard is. Kameko needs to smuggle this information out of the country, and fast. He only has a month before the imperial warships set sail.

Kameko decides that sending one of his spies to Al'Dabu with a sealed message will do the trick. So, Kameko writes out a message for General Karune, who is an old friend of his family and will surely recognize his handwriting and believe his story. To be extra sure, Kameko writes his letter in the Western script, he also draws cross-hatching across the letter and seals it with red wax, to ensure that no one adds anything to his message. Kameko gives his spy explicit instructions to take the message to a soldier in Al'Dabu. Kameko explains to his messenger/spy that the letter he carries contains secret orders from Emperor Ryu that could possibly cause the downfall of the independent merchant city of Al'Dabu. The Spy disguises himself as a merchant just starting out in the rug trade. He bears a few simple rugs that he hopes to sell in Al'Dabu. With that story, he joins a caravan headed out west. All goes well for the spy and his mission, but curiosity eventually overwhelms him. He opens the letter from Kameko, and although he is not fluent in the Western script, he can read a bit of it. Although this male is a spy, and an occasional thief, he has always remained loyal to Emperor Ryu. The Spy panics, and tells the other merchants that an emergency has come upon his family. He tells them that his rugs do not matter, then he rushes off to the capital. Armed with the incriminating letter written in Kameko's hand, the spy shows it to the guards of the Imperial grounds. Immediately, word of Kameko's treason reaches Emperor Ryu. With the irrefutable evidence against him, Kameko is sentenced to death by beheading. News of Sergeant Kameko's death eventually reaches the Loklow. Along with that news also comes rumours of an all-out offensive planned by The Empire, beginning with Clewis Island. The Leaders have decided to take no chances with Clewis island, but they have barely three weeks before the Imperial Warships arrive. What are we to do?

At Rimbulan base word has been received that Kameko is dead, and that they are to begin an all-out invasion of the Eastern Empire's cities. Our army stationed at Rimbulan is quick to move out and occupy the broken and battered city of Shao-Li. There, they wait for re-enforcements from our other eastern bases before continuing north towards the capital. Meanwhile, the Imperial Generals have received word that an army is slowly making it's way towards Tsae-Wu. Immediately the invasion plan is scrapped as troops are diverted to various strongholds to prepare for our attack. But all too often, the enemy troops are caught unawares by the seemingly supernatural speed that our troops move at. In truth, we are able to move swiftly from city to city because we don't bother to carry food items with us. Instead of carrying food with them, our troops simply raid farmhouses and small cities for their food. This also helps to keep the soldier's morale up by giving them things to do.

Since this is a relatively minor battle, and since victory is all-but assured, Commander Diater has decided that they might try a little experiment with their explosives. With his munitions Colonel and his chief siege engineer, Diater finds a way to fasten packets of highly explosive powder to the rocks that are thrown from the catapults. This will, in theory, cause massive damage to the city walls as well as throw bits of rock everywhere and cause plenty of confusion for the troops stationed at the city. Now we need to figure out what to do once said confusion has been made.

Expecting a brutal fight with the city guard, Diater wants to get as many of his heavily armored troops in as fast as he can, so he decides to split his forces into four battalions that will strike at four different locations around the wall and pour in through the holes. As night falls and the city of Hagi falls asleep; Diater makes his move. At his signal the catapults let their cargo fly. The rock and black powder salvoes hit their targets with loud crashes and booms. At first the startled citizens of Maruyama assume that a thunderstorm has suddenly blown in with some much-needed rain. But as the royal palace, target #4, is bombarded, the exploding gunpowder causes a fire that quickly spreads to the rest of the compound and alerts the sleeping citizens of the attack on their city. Many of the civilians panic and flee for the outlying farming villages. The rest simply cower in their homes. watching their families and friends dishonorably flee in terror is has an incredibly demoralizing effect on the embattled soldiers, and the city soon falls to Diater's forces. Once the flames in the palace are extinguished, Diater finds that the place is not badly damaged and he quickly stakes the town out as a territory for he and his mate. Of course this will require approval from the Loklow, but it is not uncommon for commanders to claim places they have conquered for their families. In the meantime, Diater has been ordered to wait at Maruyama for re-enforcements and his cousin; General Lashir. It will be a full week before Lashir and his troops arrive. In the meantime, Diater's own soldiers are getting fussy. What should he do?

Fearing a counterattack, Diater orders his bored soldiers to start rebuilding the city wall. Fortunately the mason's guild master stayed in town, and it takes little persuasion on Diater's part to convince him to help the soldiers rebuild the wall. By the time Diater's cousin Lashir and his re-enforcements arrive; most of the major damage is repaired, but, as Diater warns his cousin who will be staying in the city with a few hundred men, it will not hold long under any kind of attack. Diater wishes to depart immediately for the next target, but Lashir tells him that they have been ordered to stay put until we receive word from the Loklow General on where the imperial warships are docked. Diater is frustrated with this order, but he uses the extra time to finish repairs on the wall and show his cousin around their family's new territory. But after a week of waiting Diater is getting worried. The Imperial Army could attack at any time, and they're still not ready to face them.

It's almost a relief when he receives word from a spy that the Imperial warships are at Hagi; a naval port some two day's journey from here. Though not exactly an order from the Lord General, Diater knows he cannot wait for the Lord General to give him leave; the spy has told him the warships won't stay there that long... The spy has also told him that General Lashi is not to be trusted, he has fallen for an Eastern female and has sired her three children.

What should Diater do?

Commander Diater cannot resist the temptation of single-handedly taking down the might of the Eastern Navy. Diater dismisses the spy and tells him to return to Hagi and wait for him there. That night; Diater goes to the barracks reserved for his men and wakes his officers. "We are to depart tonight on a secret mission for Hagi. Be quiet about waking your men, for there are traitors among Lashir's men." He tells them a small lie, but it serves his purpose. By morning Diater and his men are half through with their journey to Hagi. By nightfall they have made their camp just outside the town. Since he has brought no siege weapons; Diater decides to go for a pincer strategy. One group will go to the docks and bomb as many ships as they can and get the town guard's attention. The other group will go and take the town hall. Diater goes with the second group and leaves his trusted officer Gamlon in charge of the bombers. The plan is a disaster. As soon as the bombers begin planting their devices hundreds of soldiers begin pouring out of the ships. Meanwhile Diater waits to hear the sounds of bombs so he can take the city. After an hour has passed and no sounds of exploding ships have reached his ears; Diater sends a messenger to the docks. The messenger returns breathless and beaten. He reports that every single one of their bombers have been killed and their bombs seized by the enemy. Diater realizes that his quest for glory has become a disaster. The spy had been lying all along about Lashir and the loosely guarded warships. He should have trusted his kinsman all along. Diater has lost four-hundred men and let the one big secret of the Western success slip to the enemy. He is faced with few choices. The Eastern soldiers have not yet realized that Diater did not die at the docks last night. Dead, he must act quickly if he is to escape to Maruyama.

Diater is desperate. He knows that if he returns to Maruyama they will break his wings and cripple him as punishment for his treason. Driven by this desperation; Diater can see only one way out. He must attempt to take Hagi, or die trying. Diater sends a messenger back to Maruyama with the full explanation of why he is in Hagi. Diater knows that if he wins the treason won't matter, and if he loses... Well it still won't matter Diater rallies his troops for a go at the city, and they march on. Meanwhile in Maruyama General Lashir receives the message from his cousin. The old warrior falls into a faint when he reads of his cousin's treason and of his desperate attempt at regaining his honor. Vainly, the old general waits for a second message from his cousin. The message that would herald victory for Diater's soldiers. But it never came. By dawn of the next day, Lashir tries to come up with a way to explain Diater's treachery, not for Diater mind you, but for the rest of his clan. But as Lashir sits in his quarters with a quill in hand, he hears the distant sound of trumpets and sees banners and soldiers coming over the hill.

Lashir's heart leaps within his chest. It's Diater. It has to be.

General Lashir can just barely make out his family banner coming over the crest of the hills just outside of town. In his excitement he doesn’t stop to think that Diater would have sent a messenger instead of abandoning his newly conquered city. Lashir orders for the gates to be opened and the trumpeters to blow for the triumphant arrival of Commander Diater. But Lieutenant General Vira thinks there's something fishy about the whole thing, and voices her opinion to Lashir. But the General refuses to listen; he is hell-bent on the idea that the approaching army belongs to his cousin Diater. Vira is left with no choice but to lock Lashir up in the palace dungeons and assume command of the army. She quickly rallies the troops and readies them for battle against the attacking army. She frantically orders archers up into the watchtowers and starts raining catapult boulders upon the enemy hoard. The enemy army, which had been hoping that we would open the gates and let them destroy us, realizes that they have lost the element of surprise and retreats... For now. Later that night Vira is informed by a trustworthy spy, that just happened to be with one of the platoons that was deployed to Hagi, that Diater and his men are dead. They fought viciously to the end, and took out two for every one of theirs, but in the end they were vastly outnumbered and they fell like warriors. Vira brings this spy down to the dungeons where Lashir is being held. With the spy's testimony she is finally able to convince the General that his cousin is dead. Lashir immediately turns cold. His eyes now show a certain... Bloodlust for his cousin's killer. Confident that Lashir is once again in full control of his faculties, Vira opens his cell and plans with him on how to best get revenge for Diater.

Though Lashir's impulses tell him to go and take Hagi while the soldiers re here, he is still under orders from the Lord General to stay in the vicinity of Maruyama.

While the General decides..we turn our focus to a small village where an old percusa has invented a new wepon, bomb carriers. Four percusa carry a large box full of bombs which they drop when they open a hatch.

After extensive wheeling and dealing the newly armored, well fed, sexed up, wealthy, and haughty nomads inform the Loklow armies where the retreating Easterners went. But what the enemy army has done, we find out, goes against all military strategy in the practical sense that the Loklow generals have ever heard of. The nomads tell Lashir that the retreating army has apparently split up. It appears that the bulk of the army has fled just a few miles west of the city, camping out in a rather dense area of foliage. But the rest of the Eastern troops are simply unaccounted for! From the information Lashir DOES have, the Eastern troop count is about 600. Down from 650, about. This is a disturbing fact, but nonetheless, the Loklow armies must hold this city. It is known that this Eastern army is the last large force of trained warriors in the EE’s arsenal. We must hold the Maruyama. Lashir has a tough decision, to put it lightly.

Lashir decides the best course of action to take would be to send out a small force to strategicaly retreat and lure the Easterners into the well defended city. Lashir deploys a group of 50 of the Loklow special forces toward the enemy. The deadly, skilled warriors startle the Easterners into chasing after them without thought. The extensive training of our spec ops soldiers enables us to take out over a hundred in their numbers just in retreating tactics. But the Eastern commanders see through the plan at the last minute, and order a change of course to the south. The Loklow special forces are unnable to coax the enemy any closer to the city for the next four days. And the missing fifty eastern soldiers remain unnacounted for. Worst of all, with the enemy spread across the south-western edge of the area surrounding the city, our supply lines have been cut off, and the only continuous supplies are coming from air units, which can carry considerably less materials.

In other news, winter is approaching again and the nomads will be migrating down toward Al'Dabu in two weeks time. Their assistance is limited, but nevertheless, valuable.

Having served at Al' Carlit Lashir knows firsthand the damage a seige can wreak. After a quick meeting with his officers, it is decided unanimously that the supply lines need to be re-opened. The only way to do that is to destroy the army sitting outside their front door. Lashir's officers spend the day readying their troops for an all-out assault. Every soldier present knows that they must succeed, or die. As the night falls, the sleeping enemy is awakened by the sound of the town gates opening and the shout of our warriors as they poured out. The battle was short and bloodless for our soldiers. The demoralized and tired enemy army didn't put up much of a resistance. Our supply lines are restored, and we've broken the back of one of the Emperor's armies.

We've managed to capture several of the officers alive.

End of Percusa VI.

Percusa VII
After spending a night in the dungeons of Maruyama, the Eastern officers are ready to talk. As well as they should be, with their extensive knowledge of anatomy our soldiers are well acquainted with where to strike the nerves. This, coupled with threats to eat their companions alive, makes the officers sing like birds. Out of the many things that the officers spill to our torture masters, only four are corroberated by other officers. With a message and re-inforcements from the High General; Lashir is finally free to leave Maruyama to the lieutenant that has been sent to govern the city. Lashir only has time to act upon one piece of information.

Vira excuses herself, pleading wearyness from the journey and retreats to her chambers for the night to decide what to do about the stubborn High Priest. After little sleep and lots of thought, Vira has decided that she cannot go crying to Lashir with her problem. She must deal with this hrself, afterall she's a friggin' Liuetenant General, just three ranks away from The Great General himself! With a new resolve, Vira re-enters the High Priests reception chamber, and demands a private meeting with him. His Exaltedness is still unimpressed, so Vira does what comes naturally to someone of high rank... She begins reciting the battles she has fought at and the rivals she has slain in the fighter's pit. The telling lasts long into the day, and forces both Vira and His Exalted ness to miss both afternoon meals. As the sun sets over the holy city, the High Priest is still unimpressedwith Vira's exploits, and demands only to meet with Lashir. Yet Vira is still persistent. Having finished with tales of her own exploits and battles, she moves on to tell the story of her family, longtime natives of the Rimbulan Ridge territories. At this, the High Priest is finally paying attention. He asks Vira to list the names of her parents and siblings, something any respectable Percusa east or western would know by heart. Vira, although a bit surprised, happily obliges the Priest and begins with her mother's offspring. As Vira finishes with the names of the four broodlings her father sired last spring, His Exaltedness dismisses the guards and steps down from his throne. Surprised by the Priests reaction, Vira can't help but feel that this is a trap and begins to wish that she had not allowed the doorguards to confiscate her sword. But Vira's apprehension is short-lived. Just as Vira prepares to fly up and sting the him, His Exaltedness removes the cowl that he had worn around his face. Vira gasps and falls into a swoon. His Exaltedness, the High Priest of the Eastern Empire is none other than her cousin/fiancee, Sergeant Kameko! Kameko explains he had not dared to hope it was she, and how a priest, who was Ryu's personal chaplain, had recieved a message from Jove telling him how Emporer Ryu had begun to abuse the sacred church and that Kameko was the key to disposing of Ryu. The priest had taken Kameko's place on the guillotine and how Kameko had been "chosen" by Jove to be the next High Priest. He had wished to speak with a General about this, so his past could be kept secret from the populace, but now that he knew it was she, he knew he could trust his childhood sweetheart. For reasons only apparent to Vira and Kameko, Vira waits several days before finally leaving The Holy City and re-joins General Lashir in a stronghold some two day's journey from Yuan-Wu Tsae. She comes bearing a letter from His Exaltedness, detailing how he believes that Ryu has abandoned the teachings of Jove and how he pledges his services to the Loklow League. Of course he leaves out the part about him being Sergeant Kameko, the fewer who know, the better.

The army will wait in the city of Shirkawa while His Exaltedness rallies the religious sects together against Ryu.

There has been unrest within the Church of Jove for some time now. Emporer Ryu hasn't kept close ties with the preists, as his predessecors did, and they are unhappy about being left out of major descisions. Most of the priests, and many of the peseantry, feel that Jove is displeased with the Emporer for leaving them out and this is why the East is losing the war. All they have been waiting for is a High Priest with the crest feathers to split off from the Emporer. All Kameko has to do is wait for the opportune moment. His moment comes about three weeks later at the Festival of Semreh, which celebrates the birthday of Jove's eldest son, the god of war and peace. Thousands are gathered in the Holy City to witness the sacrifices of hundreds of Jackalope and Angerford, as well as His Exaltedness, High Preist Okemak's speech to the faithful. Okemak (Kameko if you didn't catch that) sees this as his chance to strike a major blow for the West. He begins his speech with a prayer to Semreh for a quick end to the war, then to Jove himself for wisdom in the coming years. Then he begins his rant against Emporer Ryu. He tells of how funding has been cut off more and more from the Church, and how raids on temples, by nomads, and soldiers of both sides, have gone unpunished and finally he tops it off with evidence of Jove's displeasure with the Empire; the war is being lost and every day the Westerner's gain more ground. Finally, Okemak ends his speech with a call for The Faithful to rebel against Ryu, and leave their homes within lands owned by The Empire and take up the land that is being offered to them by Jove's preists. Afterall, why should they continue to blindly follow a man who claims divine lineage that is over 1500 years old? Would it not be better to follow Jove's chosen one instead of the descendant of his bastard son? Many in the throng cheer at these words. Most of them, because they are poor and desire to become landowners under the Church instead of Serfs under Ryu. The plan is working well, and within days word spreads thrughout the Empire of Okemak's public rebuke of The Emporer.

Meanwhile, Lashir and Vira's campaign is wildly sucessful. Many Jovian soldiers have simply left their posts to join their families is settling in new homes on their own land, while the morale of the rest of the Eastern soldiers has been broken to pieces. Lashir and Vira triumphantly approach Yuan-Wu Tsae and seige it, but after several days, reports from their spies inside the capitol say that everyone is eating well and happy, this seige could take a while.

The skies of Yuan Wu Tsae are well gaurded. The last scouting mission, well over thousands of feet in the air, ended in a brutal and swift 9 weeks of torture for the Loklow scout. We must go in by some other means...

Every other Friday night, Kat'Ri, a local fisherman, sets off into the river to fish for the legendary Jaws Bite, a mythical Jurrasic fish, the last of which, is said to live just outside of the capitol. Kat'Ri's wife calls him nuts every time he goes to hunt Jaws Bite, but she lets him go so she can have some peace and quiet with the tan pool boy.

On this particular Friday night, Kat'Ri says goodbie to his wife, she wishes him goodluck, and he goes off to the docks to hunt the elusive dual-finned prehistoric myth. He gets in his modestly sized fisherman's boat and heads out for the other side of the Island of Amphora. Once he gets there he calmly blows out the two lanterns on his boat, making it a ghost in the water, redirects the sail, and heads to the western shore. Kat'Ri anchors his boat 20 feet of the coast and flies low to the forest nearby. From here, it is a 4 mile hike to the bi-monthly Yuan Wu Tsae illegal fight club, where Kat'Ri will proceed to get kicked around for 5 minuets, then hike back, as secrecy must be maintained, no flying is allowed at matches.

While Kat'Ri is getting his beak crushed in, 10 members of of the Loklow special forces, dressed as Eastern fishermen, fly low to the boat 20 feet off the west coast of Yuan Wu Tsae River, pull up anchor, redirect the sail, and head back to the docks. Once there, a Percusa exits the boat onto the docks, unloading 9 boxes. He hauls the boxes over and places one on every boat available, the gaurds do not see this as unusual, as fishermen commonly get midnight deliveries sent directly to their boats. The delivery Percusa walks back to Kat'Ri's house and continues on until he reaches the Loklow secret safe house.

During the changing of the gaurd at the docks, nine boats mysteriously drift away into the night. They just so happen to drift, however slowly, to the western bank, where there awaits a small army. A section of this army will come back in the boats to secure the premisis of the docks and the nearest watch towers. The rest will fly low over the river after the perimiter is secured. It seems there was a tip-off yesterday that the Westerners would be invading from the east tomorrow morning, so the heads of security sent most of their men home tonight to rest up for the big attack. The rest are concentrated on the other end of the city, away from the docks.

The LE troops attack immediatly that night, quickly blitzing fer all the important government buildings. The entire city is woken by the fires started and the screaming gaurdsmens' last cries for mercy. The plan is a complete success. By the time the soilders gaurding the other end of the city realize that they should come and help, most of their officers have been killed by the raids. As a result, the Eastern troops are easy pickins for the Loklow warriors.

It is morning now, and the residents of the Capitol are finally gaining the courage to come out and see the wreckage. What they see is unbearable. The civilian residents are outraged by the death of the government as they knew it and show their hatred for the wicked Westerners. Now we have full on riots on our hands of Percusa who have little or no care for their own safety and supply lines have not yet been established to feed our troops. The food will run out soon, either from consumption or the protesting Easterners burning it. The city is fast becoming a chaotic mess of certain death for any Percusa who is not escorted by 8 of his best trained warrior friends.