Jake Thompson had been preparing for this for months and had exhausted every contact he had to put things in place. He'd remembered when he'd turned up to speak to his King, Kyle Barren of Borland, the rightful ruler of the territory that masquerades as East Moreland. The plan had impressed Barren and he'd been only too happy to give his young officer the green light.
The first step had been to flex his hacking muscles, that hadn't been too difficult because after all the Northfort Science Museum wasn't exactly a place that expected a Borlander to be poking around their database. It took Jake an afternoon while sat on a beach in Seleucid to get what he needed. That was step one of the process and probably the most risk free, even if the authorities spotted the hack they'd probably simply put it down to either industrial snooping or some inquisative kid, even then they'd take an age to work out where in the world it had come from and by that point Jake would be on to his next stop.
It was there he teamed up with his fellow Borlander, Will Rae, a 30 year old with 15 years of service in the battle against the Morelanders. He was considered the Borlanders expert in munitions and the pair had used the confusion of the collapse of Seaforth to drive over the boarder from Seaforth just weeks before the mountain passes where blown closed. They'd had just enough time to negotiate their deal with the Khalinz Brigade. They'd found it quiet a cheap deal to, it had cost them some boxes of rifles, a few RPG's and other supplies as well as a briefcase stuffed full of high denomination bank notes. Will had nervously driven them to the coast and then they'd sailed away in a fishing boat they'd "acquired" by stint of stealing it in the dead of night.
The next few weeks had been a little fun for Will and Jake. They both liked playing around with technology and had often sat around camp fires in the Alps planning hyperthetical operations against the Morelanders and their allies, little did they ever expect to get this far. They experimented in a warehouse they'd rented on an industrial estate in Keepton, they masqueraded as a custom T-Shirt company that had simply hired some space and set up a little start up business. It had given them cover for packages and boxes coming and going and they'd used that cover to good effect as their little creations had found their way across Mundus.
It was from this warehouse Jake and Will watched the bank of monitors each attached to a keyboard and joystick. One by one the screens flicked on and the faces of Borlanders in hiding across Mundus came into view. Each gave a thumbs up to the tiny cameras and recieved a confirmation that things were in order. The grainy image on the screen showed the agent grin and then only their feet as they walked away from what they'd left. That had been a week ago and since then the screens had provided in some cases interesting viewing as the homemade SwarmBots had been slowly moved into position.
Isle of the Goddess, Lodja
Thirty Swarmbots had been dropped off by kayak on one of the rocky outcrops of the Islands flanks. It had been quiet a challenge navigating them across the rockpools and one or two had been either washed away or in one case taken away by an inquistive crab. That had lead to quiet a chuckle between Will and Jake who hypothesised as to what would happen when the crab cracked the Bot open. The other 28 had however managed to make their way into the settlement that surrounded the bottom of the Island, it was there that they'd found the school that provided the children of the Island's staff an education. It was on old stone building and they'd found a gap in one of the walls through which they could squeeze the mechanical soldiers.
The bots had been left in the bottom of a cupboard hidden behind some boxes. In the last few days proximity alarms had gone off and they'd had a nervous wait to see whether they'd have to trigger them early. Thankfully they'd remained hidden in the dark recesses of the stock cupboard waiting their moment.
Claith, Ui Cenneslaig
The Musuem of Clan's was a popular tourist attraction in the centre of the city, it occupied a beautiful old stone building. Ornate stone plaques showed the coats of arms of some of the major clans of Ui Cenneslaig, many of them even had spread beyond their ancient homeland. It was coming up to the school summer holidays and that meant school field trips. Anyone with any sense stayed clear of the place this time of year as it was full of wild kids keen to try the hands on exhibits, be it watching reinactments, making their own handicrafts or playing music. Access was pretty easy too, the crowds making it simple for a person with a backpack to wait for the crowd to be watching some piper, or sword fight providing a distraction for the 30 bots to scurry out of the now open backpack and into an air vent.
From there Will and Jake had explored the air ducts and found the prime spot, it was above the canteen and they'd watched every day for the last four days how at exactly midday literally hundreds of school kids settled down with their packed lunches to fill up on sugar and e-numbers before enjoying their afternoon out of class.
Portworth Marine Institute
The Insitute was always popular with tourists, school children and was of course famous for being the work place of the former Queen of East Moreland, Matilda Osman. She had been a researcher there and now a single mother she had resumed part time work. Will and Jake were convinced Matilda would have had custody of Princess Rhiannon and they knew when she did the young Princess often went to work with her mother. The Princess had originally feared the Dolphins her mother worked with but now she found them funny and enjoyed tossing them fish. That had been why this place had been choosen, it gave a chance to hopefully get a member of the Ironside's, but it seemed they'd been misinformed.
It was still a useful place though, there were hundreds of meters of pipes, ducts and shadowy places that 30 tiny little robots could hide. They'd mainly moved them round during the closing process, before the alarms were turned on but when very few people where around. They'd lost one bot when its leg got damaged crossing a grate and the next day they'd sent in one of their agents to move the thing from view. Now the 29 remaining bots where positioned under the stadium style seating that made up the viewing area of the shark tank on the second floor of the five floor aquarium.
Krokom, Nya Aland
Flight 82 was returning some of the servicemen and woman who had been helping out on work in Uppsala. The city was all but fixed but there were still a few bits and pieces that needed tidying up. By the estimates of Jake and Will around half the seats on the flight would be filled with Morelanders, the rest well that didn't really matter. This had been the most challenging of infiltrations, the SwarmBots had been dropped at the airfields edge and had to walk a mile in. Will and Jake knew their home made ones wouldn't be as good as the SmartWar ones that had conquered the moon but even if they were half as good it should be possible.
It had taken them a couple of days to get them into position, they'd wandered through the tall grass that made up the outfield, hurried across the tarmac under the cover of darkness and sneaked into the cargo depot. There were hundreds of boxes there and it took them just a few hours to find one that was heading to East Moreland. The boxes were all palletised and they stuck the 30 tiny bots deep in the centre. When the day of the flight came they waited for the boxes to be moved onboard the plane and then wandered the bots around the aircraft interior and then just waited for everyone to take their seats.
Royal Merrimen University Open Day, NorthfortThe Royal Merrimen University Open Day would see thousands of people from across Mundus attend, the institute was the nations CETO appointed place of study and its founder, Dr.Marcus Merrimen a well respected scholar had a slight media celebrity. The place had also in its short four year history educated two Ironsides, or one and a half to be exact. King David himself had gained a masters from the place and his niece the Archduchess Sophie Harrison-Ironside, had become one of the first batch of graduates to earn a degree in Mundus Studies. It prided itself on being open, friendly and hospitable to all, and today that included 60 SwarmBots, the largest of the groups.
These had been easy to get in, one of their agents, a student called Harvey was on a robotics course here, he'd even helped construct some of the devices that were being used and he'd offered his services at the Open Day to show some of his own SmartWar inspired bots. He'd put up around his little makeshift arena posters of the Lunar Three, the bots that had survived for over a year on the surface of Lunar and become something of social media sensations and his stand demonstration of the bots hurrying around moving boxes, climbing steps and various other tasks attracted a large crowd. His Professor watched on proud of what his student had created completley unaware of the help he'd had in his handiwork.
"Professor Deans, can you keep an eye on them for me.....you know make sure they don't take over the world or anything. I just need to nip to the loo" Harvey asked his tutor who was only to happy to take over the supervision of the display. Harvey wandered off heading towards the Great Halls bathrooms, and kept going down the stairs out the front door and into his car. He was just leaving the University grounds when he heard the feint "BOOM" and fire alarm of the bots tiny explosive charges going off. He imagined the panic in the hall as those closest to the bots began to feel light headed and fighting for breath. It was a pattern repeated across Mundus over the next hour as the bots blew up releasing the tiny boxes of Sarin which was now released into the atmosphere. It wasn't as much as Will and Jake had hoped to get but extracting it from the weapon they'd recovered from the Khalinz had been tricky and they didn't have much payload per bot.
Across the globe handfuls of people began to feel the impacts of the sarin, their chest tightening and their muscles spasming . Passengers on board the flight began to vomit as the aircrafts body kept the gas circulating. Soon the pilot, who by now was over the Sea of Alucard lost control as his vision blurred. He just about had the awareness to keep it airborne as it began to spin. In the rear several passengers began to collapse, the dosage itself shouldn't have been high enough for mass casualties but the constant circulation meant exposure couldn't be avoided and soon a handful of elderly passengers were fighting for their lives.
In the school, musuem and Marine Insitute these locations had been selected on purpose, they'd be full of children, their bodies less able to deal with the gas which was being released meant more damage was done to their tiny systems. Cries of pain and confusion filled the air as in each venue people began fighting for every breath and then the weaker children began to pass out. The explosions caused panic and people ran for exits causing even greater injuries from the stampede.
Will and Jake smiled as on each screen they watched the carnage from the one bot that wasn't part of the initial plan, this one had sat and watched giving the duo a prime seat for the carnage they'd caused. It was only when the first responded turned up that they knew their viewing pleasure was drawing to an end. Filled with 80grams of Pentaerythritol tetranitrate this bot was the biggest, now as their King leaned forward from his seat behind them he leaned forward and pressed a button. Instantly the screen relaying the signal from he bots went black. While the explosion wouldn't have been enough to cause mass casualties it had caused more injuries, and more panic. Kyle leaned back a broad grin on his face. "I'd have liked a bigger body count he" he said with a smile, "But that was nice.....very nice. Any time you two get another idea I'm all ears."
AN OFFER FROM THE KINGDOM OF BORLANDToday you have witnessed the latest development in modern battlefield technology. Despite the best attempts of nations across Mundus we have unleashed a weapon that has bypassed defences and caused mayhem in the very heart of our enemy and its allies. Local sources
[1] that 62 people have died in four countries while around another 201 are hospitalised. This is only the beginning and was only a small scale of what we are capable of. You were given fair warning and not a single nation made efforts to work with us to halt our attack, we gave much more warning than when nations such as Achkaerin and the fake state of East Moreland launched attacks against Veashek. We also gave much more notice than when the former CIS launched an illegal attack on Soviet Safraen without warning. We do not wish war but have had it forced upon us, and when forced into war one must do all that is possible to ensure victory.
I am however not a vicious monarch. I wish to see no further suffering nor casualties. Our forces have prepared strikes against other targets of interest and these shall take place in 48 hours. It is my hope that the nations of the world will work with us to find a peaceful solution that will enable me to issue orders to stand down these forces.
I shall issue this order if the following takes place.
1. The following people are released from prison, Charles Ofdensen, James Ironside, James Cluskey and General Brook of Verover.
2. That the cities of Academica City, Roberton and Keepton are placed under the control of the Kingdom of Borland alongside the Principality of Northern Borland.
3. That members of the Alba Karinya Organisation recognise our membership with immediate effect.
4. That our application to join CETO passes within 48 hours.
If all these demands are meet I will be reassured that the world does in fact desire peace and will gladly give that peace a chance. I have no wish for their to be further casualties of war and urge all right minded nations to pressure the false nation of East Moreland to end the cycle of bloodshed they created by stealing our land.
May The Gods Watch Over You and Mundus Know Peace
King Kyle Barren
King of Borland and the Borland Folk
