The Mainland War – Chapter 34
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Special thanks to Tsuno for helping me edit this!

1 day since the last chapter…

Succubus Homeland, The docks

 

“What is that?” Rex pointed and asked his guards.

 

What he pointed to was the shore battery, the large cannon was built into a turret enclosure and could be spun around using small engines, It also had 2 machine guns next to it that could be pointed into the air. They were positioned around the island in strategic points to make the best use of the weapons if anyone ever tried to attack the island by sea or air. Below them, buried under concrete and steel was a small space that was meant for the crew on duty, this had been expanded into the crew's living space.

 

“A shore defense cannon, manned by the brave shore defense succubi!” His guard told him proudly.

 

“Okay, then what is that?” Rex asked as he pointed his finger a little further down the shoreline on a nice cliff.

 

“A private succubus residence, manned by succubi who are obsessed with cannons and machine guns!” The same guard replied to Rex proudly.

 

What he was pointing to was the second shore defense battery standing proudly with the cannon, machine guns, and all of the other defenses in place. Suddenly upon closer inspection, he could see that windows and a sliding glass door had also been installed into the cliff face with iron shutters over them. He could also see that some other weapons had been added to the succubus home that even the shore defense battery didn’t have. The problem was that it didn’t stop there.

 

“And what about that one?” He asked.

 

“They are telling the world that they are not fucking around!.” The guard told him sagely.

 

What better than a shore defense cannon? Why not have 2 of them, and six machine guns to back them up in a large hexagonal formation? He saw that it was a bunkhouse that several succubi all shared, he could also see that this house had bones decorating it. He could see several trophies on it, proof that these succubi had taken this “hobby” incredibly seriously.

 

“And they all sleep with monsterfaust’s above their fireplaces too…” Rex muttered. 

 

“We have only had a single accident in all of succubus history!” One of his guards defended. “We no longer sleep with loaded firearms under our pillows.”

 

“10 years of succubus development…” Rex muttered when he heard this.

 

“What?” his guard asked.

 

“Every single death takes 5-10 years to replace, it is so rare that I would rather abandon plans than taking risks. Granted, I could sacrifice all of our prisoners of war to the succubi and easily build up their ranks, I could do all kinds of terrible things, but that isn’t sustainable.” Rex said. “It also isn’t moral, being a slaughterer will only make people keep their distance from you.”

 

“ That’s right! It is much better for the world to know that in every succubus home there are at least 20 firearms per resident, they will never want to step foot anywhere near our island!” Another guard answered him.

 

“A succubus is a warrior! No longer will we submit to our enemies and wait for them to have their way with us while we charm them!” One guard responded.

 

“That’s right, there is nothing more horrifying than the first time you use your charm and then have to close your eyes and wait for them to finish themselves.” The first guard said resolutely.

 

Suddenly Rex tried to place himself in the succubi’s shoes and he could suddenly see where a lot of their fears came from. If he had the ability to ensure he would be raped, then another ability to kill the rapist, would he allow himself to endure going through that? He realized he had never considered this angle before, then he suddenly paused as he realized something.

 

“Wait a minute… Then why does Kira own over 33 firearms just herself? No, hold on… I think there might still be a few barrels of rifles stored in the attic, I am pretty sure I saw them up there when I was looking for Kira’s old clothes to give to Shaya.” He paused her when he thought of the little girl.

 

The Browning 50 caliber machine gun was so ahead of its time that it was in use by NATO countries to this very day, even Rex’s home in the US used them on vehicles. Once she understood how the mechanism worked in her little succubus mind, she was able to reverse engineer it to produce her own automatic rifle. John Browning had produced the Browning Automatic Rifle(AN: This was known as the BAR in most games) before he made the larger machine gun that used the same mechanism. This rifle she had made had been strapped to her back and was almost as tall as she was, this led Rex to a horrifying thought.

 

Am I seeing the birth of the succubus version of John Moses Browning? Instead of making a single-shot rifle, she made a revolver, then she jumped right into automatic rifles.

 

Rex could only replicate things that he had seen, and make modifications to them based on what he thought of on the spot. He was best at modifying something that existed in front of him and making it better, but he wasn’t good at making things that hadn’t existed previously. He needed a paper and pencil to replicate cad, but he had to prototype things over and over and failing before he finally figured it out, but she had the equivalent of a CAD program in her head. To solve the mana issue that had been plaguing him for so long, she mixed mana into the grease that worked the bolt, she then added a reservoir that you squeeze.

 

It is just like the oil primer on a weed eater, or a chainsaw, she even rigged it to the magazine well so that it will squeeze in some oil when a new magazine is slotted in. It is elegant yet simple, and it works for the mana use of the mechanism…

 

That led Rex to feel like he needed to take a walk like he was just getting too old, that is when he noticed that the succubi had been slowly building more shore defenses. He had been thinking for a while now that the amount of shelling from the shore defense cannons had been getting more frequent lately, he thought this might have just been his imagination. His guards even went as far as to assure him this was the case, they had even tried to tell him the shore defense teams were firing fewer rounds in a day and now he knew why.

 

“So the reason the shore defense batteries were firing fewer rounds a day was that so many ‘Private Residences’ had helped them pick up the slack, and they decided to build them in places I wouldn’t notice unless I went out of my way.” Rex summed up his realizations to his guards.

 

None of them were looking at him, they were all focusing on his surroundings very intently, some of them were even holding their guns. Then a thought began to emerge in his head, and he couldn’t help blurting it out.

 

“Did they find out where I went around the island because of you all?” Rex blurted.

 

All of the succubi guards had a shocked look as if they had been caught stealing from the candy jar, suddenly a lot of things began to fall in line for him. The guards spent all day in his lab and would get bored and pick up random blueprints to look at, he had thought this was just them killing time but now he was wondering if they might have also been helping the Succubus Fulfillment Society. The entire group was obsessed with giving the succubi even more dangerous and deadly weapons.

 

“When did we lose the succubus?” Rex asked.

 

“It was after the monsterfaust was invented, it kind of surprised everyone.” One of the guards said.

 

“Right? It was the first death in so long!” One of the guards said. “We used to lose sisters more often, especially during the demon’s wars.”

 

“I had once seen what happens when a succubus charms more people than she can deal with, it turns into a terrible situation for the succubus where they fight over her like a toy, if we are dealing with beastmen this is very unpleasant!” Another guard spent some time really expressing her feelings and fears. 

 

“Why wasn’t I told?” He asked.

 

“It was an accident, but she was also a very different kind of succubus. Kira said that you would have been unnecessarily saddened over it and overreacted, she felt like this was an accident that the succubus caused by herself.” This guard was trying her hardest to get his attention, none of them spent this much effort to explain their feelings. “I was her neighbor, she slept with several monsterfausts under her bed, even by our terms she was eccentric.”

 

The guards all remembered this old succubus who had seen too many things and was filled with a deep fear of the world around her. She had thought Rex was some celestial being she called the ‘Father of All Succubi’ when he presented firearms and the water that allowed them to separate from other races. Kira had also felt a threat from this succubus who was so fanatical about her husband, she felt a weird sense of relief when she had died. This is also part of the reason why the death wasn’t mentioned. They felt like she could finally rest in peace now that there was nothing left that could harm her, or at least this was their belief.

 

Suddenly his footsteps paused, he could hear sustained gunfire off in the distance and turned his head to listen.

 

“Do you hear that?” Rex asked.

 

“No.” the guard replied. 

 

“Just the waves, it is a beautiful day to walk along the coast.” another guard suggested.

 

“I think we should all go that way, look at how much nicer it is in that direction!” 

 

Rex continued heading to the southwestern corner of the island/  He had not really gone there very much.  As far as he knew it wasn’t being used for anything. The noise of gunfire and explosions continued to grow as they approached that section of the island. All around were trees marked “safe to eat”, the flags he had placed when he was younger were still being replaced and maintained, and new trees had been arranged to grow. He couldn’t help smiling when he remembered his childhood adventures with Kira.

 

The smile disappeared the moment he finished walking through the treeline and saw the source of the gunfire on the other side of the small forest. The succubi had flattened a section of the ground into a large field and built up a wall of sand to catch bullets. What he could see was a gun that would normally be operated with a crank, but the crank had been replaced with a mana-powered motor on the side. 10 long and intimidating barrels were securely built into a frame. A large belt of bullets fed from a round drum and into the large gun.

 

These 10 barrels spun around as a bullet was pulled out of the belt and pushed into the chamber, it then spun into position and fired. The first Gatling gun was made when someone named Richard Gattling thought, “What if I make a gun that is so efficient it reduces the number of men needed on the battlefield? Wouldn’t I be saving all of those lives?” This doctor and inventor swiftly changed his inventing direction from industrial farming equipment to the famous firearm. He needed to quickly invent this revolutionary firearm so that he could save all those people who were dying in the United States civil war!

 

The one wielding it was a large white bear, and visible on the side of the gun was the branding of the Succubus Fulfillment Society.  This gun was another blueprint left to languish on a shelf in his workshop. Various enchantments had been added to the gun for cooling, and thick freezing mist was falling to the ground around the bear's large white legs. He was taking slow steps forward as he sprayed a large concrete wall that was steel reinforced. The 60 caliber bullets were meant for taking down planes on Earth, but here they were smashing chunks out of the concrete.

 

The bear was roaring loudly with his tongue hanging out and an expression of pure excitement on his face as he shot this massive weapon. Plastic casing and pieces of the belt flew out of the gun at a rate of 2000 rounds a minute.  The bear had just loaded the gun before Rex had shown up. For safety gear, the bear was wearing a suit of armor made by the succubi consisting of thick plastic plates to catch any shards. Fragments of bullets would occasionally splash back and scratch over the armor. Over the bear's face was a thick sheet of clear plastic.

 

“What is this place?” Rex asked the guards.

 

“It is just another firing range for the succubi.  We are very mighty warriors and need many different terrains to test our mettle.” A guard told him matter of factly, she made it seem so obvious.

 

“Why don’t I see any succubi firing weapons then?” He yelled over the roar of the machine gun.

 

Instead, he could see dwarves firing weapons fitted to their size and the same with other types of beastmen from the Pride of Men. The surrounding succubi instead were focusing on taking measurements and notes.  They were fitting individuals for weapons based on their different measurements. These were all guns that seemed like they were cobbled together from various designs Rex had made over the years. Large caliber shotguns, 50 caliber rifles, he even saw a weapon firing out the great weapon of the succubi and lighting up wooden targets, none of them wielded by succubi.

 


“We have only managed to become apex predators through carefully researching our different prey, this way we can find new ways to ensure we can defeat them.” The same guard said very seriously.

 

Rex was becoming more and more impressed with her the longer she continued to talk, she would have been impressive even on Earth. The ability to spout such utter bullshit with such a straight face would have allowed her to ascend to high places on Earth.

 

“Why does it say ‘Succubus Fulfillment Society’ on the wall over there? Wow, they painted that quite well too.” Rex commented.

 

A concrete wall to the side had the name of the infamous succubus organization, they had spent a lot of time painting it.  It looked like a logo on Earth. 

 

“We have only recently begun to cultivate a group of succubi artists.  They are all very impressive.” The guard told him, tiptoeing around his question.

 

On one hand, Rex was happy to see that the succubi had become so industrious.  On the other hand, he was starting to suspect something from looking at the designs of the firearms. He could instantly recognize the craftsmanship.

 

“These guns were all made by Shaya as one-offs…” Rex muttered as he looked at some of the modified shotguns that were longer or shorter and featured different-sized grips and features. “I bet you give her the specifications and she comes up with something for you… that is also why she uses the workshop after hours…”

 

Then he paused as he looked at the other parts of some of the firearms. He suddenly realized that the S.F.S. had sunk its claws into every single industry. It was the first succubus-created industry that was producing its own products, then he paused as he turned and looked at his guard's uniforms. It was military wear that was all well made, it was also uniform in shape and size with the guards adding their own small changes to them. Most of the succubi were all well dressed, even the S.F.S. succubi watching the demonstrations were wearing snazzy uniforms. 

 

They wore black pants that had a snug fit with various pockets attached, they also wore open-backed crop tops that were gray. The bottom was decorated with a slightly tilted smiling skull motif, and below it were the words ‘Delivering Death With A Smile!’ and above it was ‘Succubus Fulfillment Society’ in bold font. All of them were asking the shooters questions and taking notes seriously, it was quite a sight to see for him. Then he thought about how the distribution of the new currency had begun.

 

The new currency were magical metals pressed into a coin shape, similar to European coins. A cold iron center and a copper outer ring were stamped together into one piece. The stamp featured images of things that all of the islanders loved: bullets, different fruits, some flowers, wine bottles, and spades to represent the succubi. These coins were impossible to duplicate.  Old clay tokens could be exchanged for the new coins for up to a month.  After that the clay tokens became worthless, and only the new coins could be used.

 

“Where did you all get your uniforms?” Rex asked.

 

“I am glad you asked, why don’t I show you and we can all leave this area?” His guard recommended it with an ingratiating smile on her face.

 

Rex was just about to agree with her when the large white bear noticed the group after he had run out of bullets for his gun. A large grin spread across his face when he saw the group, and he called out to the blonde boy.

 

“Grrrr! You come for weapon show?’” The bear called.

 

“Weapon show? What do you mean?” Rex called back to him.

 

They were across the dirt lot and Rex began walking towards the large white bear.  Behind Rex, the guards all had expressions of panic on their faces briefly, before they quickly regained their composure. The lead guard who had done most of the talking, quickly decided that she needed to make a final attempt to misdirect him.

 

“Instead of talking here in the hot sun, why don’t we go to the clothing factory! We make wonderful bread, we can serve you both lunch!” She proposed with a smile.

 

“You are quite good.” Rex told her. “What is your name?”

 

A smile crept across her face before she turned her gaze from Rex to the other guards to gloat, before wiping her expression off and turned back towards Rex.

 

“It’s Bren, can I be the head of the guards?” She asked with excitement.

 

“I can’t decide that.” Rex replied.

 

“What?” She asked in surprise.

 

“Kira’s purview is the military and all combat positions, I never wanted that position to begin with.” Rex said. “I deal with the domestic issues, my workforce is the ones who build all of your houses and I build all of your guns, or I did it seems. I wonder if when I showed Shaya how to use a mill if I was just showing an artist how to use a paintbrush.”

 

She looked surprised to hear this, most of the succubi didn’t understand his role in their society. Kira handled all of the military affairs and in general, she handled personnel, she usually selected any workers he needed to start new projects. Keeping him separate for the guard avoided any conflict of interest, their merit would be decided entirely by Kira. It was to avoid situations like this with his guards and the other succubi.

 

“Hey, succubi say they make mother of all bombs! Want to watch them set one off?” The bear asked him as he finished making his way to Rex.

 

“Wow, that sounds quite domineering, I don’t know anything at all about it.” Rex said with a smile as he turned and looked at his guards. “Care to enlighten me?”

 

There was no rule that the succubi couldn’t create things, but Rex was supposed to ensure that what they were making was safe. His role in a sense was to act as an inspector for the island, to double-check the quality of things and ensure they weren’t going to explode. At least with the firearms, he knew that Shaya was well aware of what tolerances were and that she wouldn’t make something dangerous by accident. 

 

“I already know that Shaya wants nothing to do with explosives, she is skittish, and noises louder than a gunshot scare her. As it is, she is probably the only succubus on the island who actually wears ear protection, I am worried that the future of the succubi is quite a deaf one. I don’t care that the succubi are making weapons, but I worry that they are not going to be safe.” Rex told the guards. “I can already see that you all made grenades without safeties installed.”

 

This caused the bear confusion, and he looked over and saw a larger version of the grenade launcher being tested against a target. A frown crossed the bear’s large face as he tried to figure out how a grenade could be safe.

 

“A grenade from a grenade launcher that I make has a device inside that acts as a safety, it needs to spin a certain number of times in the air before it will explode on contact.” Rex explained.

 

“Why?” The bear asked. 

 

“That way if it is fired at the ground, or at a target that is too close it cannot injure the shooter.” Rex explained. “I can tell by how the grenades are exploding, they removed that device for more explosive compound. Why do I feel like this problem is only the beginning though and that I am going to find much worse violations?”

“Who cares, look they are starting!” The bear pointed to the water excitedly. 

 

A small piece of land formed from a large rock could be seen out in the water, it was one of many but certainly the largest. A red flag had been placed into the dark volcanic rock marking that it was the target for the people on the beach. Rex could see dwarves under the shade of canopies, and various well-dressed elves and beastmen.  He could even see some of the workers from his construction crew on their lunch breaks eating their meals off to the side of the large flat field. It almost felt like this was some kind of show that the succubi liked to put on.

 

Approaching the large piece of rock from the air, a large group of succubi could be seen moving an object using various ropes. From the ground, it was impossible to see the shape of the object, but he could see the entire group carefully positioning it in the air. The more Rex saw scenes like this the more he felt like he needed to take the opportunity that Shaya was giving him to invent some aircraft. Since they didn’t use the fuel produced by the refinery, they had a lot of it stockpiled up and Bob was starting to complain about it.

 

Suddenly the succubi seemed to get the object into position and one of the succubi could be seen flying down to the suspended object and a few seconds later, he was able to see it start falling. 

 

“Look! I wonder what they made this time?” 

 

“The last one was able to explode into a bunch of little bombs, but it didn’t work well.” 

 

“I wonder what this one will do?”

 

They didn’t need to wait long before it soon approached the rock outcropping, Rex was really curious just what they had come up with. Then he looked over and saw a succubus with an easel and a piece of paper, on it she was tracing a device in the air. To his surprise, it actually was a few metal drums welded together with a cone attached, like a large version of their grenades. Sure enough, large magical stones were taped all around the device, he could see it clearly from the artist's sketch.

 

She was trying so hard to make the device seem more elegant, but it was clearly thrown together by some madwomen. All around the dirt lot people turned their eyes towards the falling explosive as it quickly made its way to the planet. Rex wasn’t expecting much from it, he had seen plenty of modern explosives before during demonstrations since they shared the same ordnance field as the company that made mortars and javelins. He took some time to look around the dirt field at the various spectators.

 

The succubi all looked proud, and they were standing with their clipboards in anticipation. The dwarves had brought alcohol and were sitting on folding chairs holding drinks and playing dice games. The beastmen were mostly in groups or in pairs, they looked like they were picnicking with cloth bags filled with various meat and vegetable dishes. Looking at the large white bear next to him, a smile crossed his face as he walked over and hopped on the bear’s back.

 

“I am happy to see the island coming along. I have done everything I can to lose as few people as possible and to make this a safe place to live.” Rex said.

 

“You have worked hard, it is good place!” The bear said.

 

“Hey, Bren.” Rex called.

 

“Yes?” The guard responded.

 

“Succubi do not leave a corpse behind when they die, only a magical stone.” Rex started, then he stopped for a moment to gather his thoughts. “I want to make a monument to remember every succubus who falls, but I also want to make a place to remember the dead.”

 

“Why would we need that?” She asked in confusion.

 

“If something ever happened to some of my friends in the succubi, I would want a place to go and remember them. I also think anyone who gives their life in service to the island should be remembered as a hero.” Rex said softly. “I also have Kira to worry about.”

 

“It will be fi-” The bear started.

 

Just as the bear was about to reassure the boy on his back, from below and far off in the waters, the bomb had finally hit the ground. A large explosion was triggered.  At first, it caused no change in Rex’s expression, until a burst of colors appeared in the flames. As the pressure wave was expanding from the explosion, suddenly a string of different explosions started going off in the air around the explosion. All kinds of different phenomena began to race out from the explosion and greatly expanded its coverage.

 

“What the fu-” Rex began in shock.

 

BOOOOOOOM!

 

Flames, ice, steam, lightning, plasma explosions, he was seeing so many things happening all at once that he couldn’t keep up with it all. It looked like thousands of spells were all being cast at once, and it was causing a massive amount of destruction. Gasps of astonishment were breaking out all around, as small pieces of rock managed to reach the people in the crowd. Even Rex was shocked to see the sheer amount of destruction the explosion caused out in the water.

 

“Is that what happens when you release a massive amount of mana all at once?” Rex muttered.

 

Suddenly he thought of the giant ball of roiling mana inside of his lab, it must have at least a thousand times as much mana in it. He went pale when he came to the conclusion that he had the equivalent of a nuclear warhead roiling in his lab.

 

“What a big boom!” The bear called excitedly.

 

Rex whipped his head towards the guards who all had guilty expressions as he saw what they had been up to, but he couldn’t care about any of that right now.

 

“Get the ropes out, we need to go now!” Rex told them all with panic. “I just wanted to take a walk and relieve some stress, not get even more!”

 

***

Meanwhile…

Beastmen Plains, Broken Wing Mountain

 

“Leader, the beavermen sent more carts this time!” A birdman called as he landed in a large room filled with wooden poles to act as perches. 

 

The large room was lit by burning torches that were made of wood dipped in crude oil, something they got from a nearby oil seep. The tall fir trees growing along the top of the large mountain were used to make large bridges inside of the large wooden structures. In the middle where many of these logs wove through each other to create a nest-like structure, a large beastman sat inside of this massive basket, surrounded by a harem females. He was being massaged and fed strips of meat, and all of his feathers were being cleaned.

 

His coloration was brown, black, and white, he also had an incredibly intense gaze with an equally sharp beak. His gold and black eyes quickly fell onto the messenger who was flying up to his perch on top of the mountain. The colorful female bird all around him quickly took subservient positions, sitting around the Falcon King with their heads down. He was elevated in the middle using a large basket-like chair that held his large body.

 

“Carts of bodies?” The Falcon King asked to confirm.

 

“Two of them, they were filled with the hunting band we sent, your oldest son was among them.” The birdman reported with some fear.

 

“Oh, so Lorric failed?” The Falcon King said with disdain. “I still have 83 other children, no matter. Prepare the army, I will lead them personally, we fly out tomorrow as a group, tell everybody.”

 

“One more thing, the wounds resembled what the dwarven boomsticks leave behind.” The birdman reported with some hesitation.

 

“Oh? They might have stolen some or bartered for some from a raid, only the dwarves know how the powder is made to work them. I have one myself, I wanted to study one of them.” The Falcon King calmly stated. “Every Beast King always has a few dozen heirs to inherit their throne, but I will pay back the affront.” 

 

“How many troops will we send?”

 

“All 20,000 of them.” The Falcon King replied calmly.

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