Alcingeria Chapter Fifty Seven: Queen Yuka's Plan

After marching up to fend off the vampire mafia's attack on Queen Yuka's castle, the task force discovers that Queen Yuka has been manufacturing machine guns of her own. How can this be?

Chapter Fifty Seven Queen Yuka’s Plan:

Wednesday July 7^th 1690

            We charged up to the mafia and were in range of their machine guns just as they reached the front gate of the castle. They turned around in shock and didn’t ask questions. They opened fire with their machine guns.

            “Repel!” I heard the manipulation magic users cry the instant the gunfire started.

Most of the gunfire was deflected, however a few bullets weren’t and a few magic users were hit! They cried out and fell to the ground.

            “Healers! We need you!” Gerald cried.

            “Healing gaze!” I heard someone say.

After a few seconds the few magic users who were hit stepped back onto the front lines. That healer could heal multiple people at once!

            “Destruction magic users, show them some offense!” Gerald cried.

I heard a variety of different spells being cried out including ‘fireball’ ‘Windstorm’ ‘gust’ and ‘combustion’. The mafia members were thrown against the huge gate behind them and they landed on their faces. They got back up quickly before another barrage of destruction magic was made. Just then, the gate behind them began opening. It opened slowly, and the mafia didn’t attack us. We didn’t attack them, either. They saw what was behind those gates just as well as we did. No matter how close you were, it still wouldn’t make sense. Standing behind the mafia were four of Queen Yuka’s guards, all armed with machine guns.

            “Get out of the way!” Gerald shouted.

We ran out of their line of fire and the rest of us followed him. No sooner did we do that, the guards opened fire, cutting the mafia members down with bullets. When not a single mafia member remained standing, the automatic gunfire stopped. We all looked to them with fear and surprise.

            “The task force has returned!” One of the guards said.

            “They got everyone out!” Another cried in joy.

            “We must bring them to Queen Yuka!” The third exclaimed.

            “Follow us, we’ll take you inside.” The fourth one said.

We all followed them through the gates, into the main entryway and into the throne room foyer. We walked into the throne room. Queen Yuka and Princess Estaire both looked to us, they broke into wide grins.

            “Task force! You completed your mission! Is the mafia base destroyed?” Queen Yuka asked.

            “Yes, your majesty. We have done as you commanded and the mafia base is no more.” Gerald replied.

            “Very well done! I believe you law enforcement officers are up for promotions. As for you non-law enforcement members, you have earned my high trust and respect. I would like to give you all my personal thanks. Without you, the mafia would still be causing trouble. I am in debt to you all. If you ever need something, within reason of course, all you have to do is ask.” Queen Yuka told us.

            “Thank you, we really appreciate it.” I said respectfully.

            “Do you truly think the mafia is defeated?” Edward asked.

Queen Yuka placed a finger on her lips thoughtfully.

            “For the time being, yes. However I do not believe we have seen the last of them. They are truly a force to be reckoned with. We have indeed dealt them a great blow, but they will rise again one day.” She said wisely.

Just then, more guards came into the throne room. They all carried machine guns, presumably the ones that belonged to the now deceased mafia members.

            “Your majesty, we have taken their machine guns.” The guard said.

            “Excellent work. Put them over there.” Queen Yuka said, indicating a spot in the corner.

The Queen turned to us with a dark and devilish look. This couldn’t be good.

            “Task force, you have done me a great disrespect.” She said.

That threw me. What did we do?

            “Eh… You majesty? What did we do?” Gerald asked.

            “You brought a dark magic witch into my castle, that’s what.” She said calmly, putting emphasis on the words ‘dark magic witch’.

            “Your majesty, what do you mean?” Gerald asked.

            “That witch you rescued and brought back here, Alice. She is a dark magic witch.” Queen Yuka said.

Everyone’s eyes went wide.

            “My Queen! My deepest and most humble apologies! I had no idea!” Gerald said.

Queen Yuka chuckled and shook her head.

            “No, actually I was just having some fun. The truth is without her, we would have all been decimated in that mafia attack. Alice is also the reason we had machine guns to fend off the attack. Face it, you all most likely would’ve been killed if my men didn’t show up when they did.” Queen Yuka said.

            “Well, I suppose.” Gerald said, not really believing it.

Just then, Alice walked into the throne room.

            “Ah, Alice! What a pleasant surprise.” The Queen said.

            “Hello, your majesty.” Alice said with a curtsey.

            “Now, as I was saying. Alice broke into the mafia base stealthily and stole four machine guns. Now with the machine guns we took from those mafia members outside, we have quite a few. I will get my best engineers and my best magic users on the job of reverse engineering these weapons.” Queen Yuka said.

I didn’t like where this was going. The evil Queen was getting machine guns for herself.

            “Your majesty, why do you need machine guns?” I asked, fearing the answer.

Queen Yuka smiled happily. She touched her fingers to her lips.

            “You see, I have desired to gain more power. No sense in denying it, everyone wants more power at some point. Such is human nature. I have been wanting to conquer more land and expand Vulrock, but the other provinces have quite capable armies. As do I. However if I were to go to war with any of the other provinces, losses on both sides would be very large. This is what happens when two superpowers go to war. The repercussions are very, very severe. The machine guns will greatly reduce the losses on my side.” Queen Yuka began.

            “So what you’re saying is… You want to use the machine guns to conquer the other provinces?” I asked in absolute shock.

Queen Yuka nodded, Estaire looked very, very grim. She must have heard the plan before we got here.

            “Very sharp observation, Mister Bradford. That’s precisely what I plan to do.” Queen Yuka replied.

My stomach lurched upon hearing her answer. She wanted to conquer the other provinces before, and now she could do it. Not only that, but she was going to do it with weapons that shouldn’t exist yet. The natural advancement of technology had been accelerated using magic.

            “Plus, I now have my very own dark magic witch. She has pledged allegiance to me. She will be the main factor that will tip the war in my favor.” Queen Yuka said evilly.

Alice giggled. It was a deceitfully innocent giggle.

            “Yes. As Queen Yuka already knows, I have a curse on me. I need to kill other living things, otherwise I’ll die myself. This war will be the perfect opportunity for both the Queen and I to get what we want.” Alice said.

            “So you don’t want to die, and Queen Yuka wants power?” Macalister asked.

Alice nodded, grinning.

            “Yes, that’s exactly what it is.” Alice said.

            “When will you launch an attack? What province will you invade?” Robert asked.

Queen Yuka chuckled.

            “I’ve waited a long time to mount an attack on the other provinces. However I made up my mind a long time ago. I will invade Delron. Judging by my estimates, it will take my engineers and magic users about three days to recreate machine guns. That’s when I’ll launch my attack.” She stated proudly.

The Queen was going to invade Delron in three days! That was on the tenth of July!

            “Your majesty, think about what you’re doing!” Gerald objected.

Queen Yuka turned to him, she looked angry.

            “Excuse me, Mister Baldwin?” She asked threateningly.

Gerald took this as a ‘please explain yourself before I kill you’ and began explaining.

            “What I meant to say was that you shouldn’t do this.” He said, more calm.

            “And why not?” Queen Yuka asked, her slate grey eyes flicking to every face in the room.

            “Because if you start a war, people, innocent people, will die! Is that what you want?” He asked.

Queen Yuka looked conflicted, her grey eyes flicked to the ground. She then looked up at Gerald.

            “It isn’t what I want, however victory is only achieved through sacrifice. Whether or not the sacrifice is yours or someone else’s, it doesn’t matter.” Queen Yuka said coldly.

            “You’re willing to kill thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of innocent people just to gain power?” Gerald asked.

            “Yes.” She replied simply.

Gerald shook his head, closing his eyes.

            “Your majesty, what you’re saying is barbaric and foolish! Vulrock is just as powerful as any of the other four provinces! Why start a war when things are already fine?” Gerald asked.

            “I don’t want to have equal power to anyone else! I want more power! I want to be the most powerful person in all of Alcingeria and no one, no one! Will stop me!” The Queen exploded.

            “Your majesty, you need to stop this! A great power has come into your hands, you must use it for the right reasons!” Gerald reasoned.

            “I can use my power however I so desire! I’m the Queen!” She spat back.

Gerald stood up straight, he eyed the Queen with cold eyes.

            “Then maybe you shouldn’t be.” He said with narrowed eyes.

Queen Yuka looked taken aback. She looked at Gerald, expecting an apology. She didn’t receive one.

            “Excuse me?” She asked.

Gerald stiffened, remaining composed.

            “You heard me.” He said coolly.

Queen Yuka shook her head in disappointment.

            “You could have been a general in the war. You could’ve been so much more.” She said, still shaking her head.

She turned to Alice, who immediately stood at attention.

            “Alice. Kill him.” She ordered.

Alice’s sapphire blue eyes lit up with joy. A small smile cracked her lips. I saw Gerald’s mouth drop open, his eyes were wide. He didn’t take back what he said. I agreed with him, the Queen was going to use the power of the machine guns for evil. Alice extended her hand towards Gerald.

            “Retribution.” Alice said quietly.

A dark orb of magic appeared in Alice’s hand. It remained in her hand for a few seconds as its diameter grew to the size or a dinner plate. The orb then flew out of her hand, her arm recoiled back slightly. The orb flew across the room towards Gerald. Gerald’s amber eyes widened. The dark orb collided with his body with a hollow smack! All sign of life drained from his eyes. He fell to the ground, face first with his hands near his head. Everyone in the room collectively let out a gasp of surprise and horror, including me. Gerald was dead! Sadness flooded through me, I didn’t know what to do. I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. Queen Yuka laughed.

            “He got what he deserved.” She muttered.

Everyone eyed her strangely, their gazes full of fear.

            “Sh-she killed Captain Baldwin!” Edward stammered.

Queen Yuka’s gaze turned on him.

            “Yes, and unless you want to be next I suggest you hold your tongue.” She warned.

He clenched his fists and set his jaw. He leaned in towards the Queen, as if he was going to spring across the room and attack her. The Queen looked amused.

            “Go ahead. I dare you.” She challenged with raised eyebrows.

Edwin placed a hand on Edwards shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Edward nodded and stood down.

            “Smart choice. I would like to thank you, the members of the task force, for returning the magic users safely back to us. You also destroyed their base. The mafia is a powerful organization and are rumored to have bases all over Vulrock. Although you struck a blow against them, the mafia is far from being disbanded.” Queen Yuka said.

There was no cheer of approval, no applause. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on Captain Gerald Baldwin’s corpse.

            “This meeting is now over.” She said in dismissal.

With that, everyone filed out of the throne room. My friends and I walked outside, we found Edwin, Edward and Darwin. They were all in tears.

            “Gerald’s dead! The captain’s dead!” Edward mourned.

            “He was a good man.” Darwin said soberly.

There was a moment of silence between the three men as they bowed their heads for their friend.

            “We need to strike back against Queen Yuka. We need to stop this war from happening. It isn’t right.” Edwin said.

            “Edwin, how will we do that?” Edward asked.

            “I don’t know, but we have three days before Queen Yuka’s army marches out, and maybe four before it reaches Delron. We don’t have a lot of time.” Edwin said.

            “Edwin, you do realize that doing that would brand us as traitors! We’d be hung!” Darwin objected.

Edwin’s eyes were cold and still. He spoke with total control.

            “I know. As Gerald’s second in command I will take over control of the group. We are going to stop this war.” He said with certainty.

Edward nodded, looking his friend in the eye.

            “We’d be going renegade if we do this. You know that, don’t you?” He asked.

            “Yes, I do. We all witnessed our friend die in there. There was nothing he could do, he was defenceless. The same thing is going to happen to anyone who opposes the Queen in the future.” Edwin said.

There was a few moments of consideration as everyone weighed their options.

            “I’m with you. You’re right, this war can’t happen. Queen Yuka is going to use technology that shouldn’t even be invented yet, it isn’t right. We can’t allow her to use it.” Edward said.

            “I agree. If Queen Yuka wins the war against Delron, what’s stopping her from conquering the rest of Alcingeria?” Darwin asked.

There was a stunned silence as everyone thought about that. My friends and I walked over to them.

            “We’re in.” Macalister said.

The three renegade law enforcement officers turned to us in shock.

            “Are you serious?” Edwin asked.

I nodded.

            “We are. Gerald was our friend, too.” I said.

            “That’s great, we appreciate the help.” Edward said with a grin.

            “We’ll help in any way we can.” Macalister said proudly.

            “That’s good to hear. We really appreciate this. I don’t know what to say.” Edwin said.

Tabatha stepped forward, so did Antoinette. Tabatha clutched her staff firmly.

            “Well, you could start by apologizing for all of those rude comments towards witches.” Tabatha said with a grin, getting right in Edwin’s face.

Antoinette hung back a little, gripping her wand. Edwin closed his eyes and nodded.

            “Very well, you both have earned my sincerest apology. I’m sorry. If this war is to be stopped, I need to put aside my prejudices and work with you two. Will you both accept my apology?” Edwin asked.

Everyone looked very baffled at Edwin’s apology. I didn’t think he’d apologize!

            “Well… That was easy…” Antoinette remarked.

            “I second that.” Edward said.

            “I must say, I’m surprised you apologized. I’m proud of you.” Darwin said.

Edwin laughed.

            “Well, Gerald is dead. I need to do all I can to stop this war. It was what he wanted. He was killed because he didn’t want the war to happen. In order to honor him, I will do whatever it takes to carry out his last wish.” Edwin said proudly.

Darwin clapped his friend on the shoulder.

            “You really have grown up.” He said.

            “What can I say? Tabatha didn’t kill my parents. Neither did Antoinette.” Edwin replied.

We all stood there, stunned. I was very surprised that Edwin had said something like that. It wasn’t like him. Then again I guess seeing your friend die before your eyes will change you.

            “Okay, so how are we going to stop this war?” Antoinette asked.

We all thought about that for a moment. How did you stop a war?

            “Well, we can start by destroying Queen Yuka’s weapon storage facilities. The machine guns are our primary targets, but destroying her other weapons is mandatory. Next we need to destroy her research and development facility, that’s where her magic users and engineers and reverse engineering the machine guns. Without the machine guns, Queen Yuka wouldn’t dare invade Delron.” Edwin said.

            “That sounds good, but could it really be that easy?” Stella asked.

Edwin laughed out loud. I’m serious, he broke out laughing.

            “Not a chance on god’s green world.” He said when he calmed down.

            “Now that we have a plan, we need to be careful about it. We need to remain undetected for as long as possible. If we’re caught too early, the war will begin and throw the peace into disarray.” Robert added.

            “Yes. And after Queen Yuka conquers Delron, she’s going to conquer all the other provinces, throwing Alcingeria into chaos.” Erin remarked.

            “Indeed. That’s why stopping this war is so important.” Ceberus said.

            “We need to find out where Queen Yuka’s weapon storage and research facilities are.” I said.

            “Well, being law enforcement officers, we know where the weapon storages are. However the research and development facility will be much harder to find.” Edwin told me.

            “Can you take us to the weapon storages?” Asked Macalister.

            “Well, the second door on the right in the throne room foyer is a weapon storehouse, and she has numerous others, but we aren’t allowed to have that information. The Queen is paranoid. We could take you to the one we know about, but that would just make us seem more suspicious the day we go to destroy it.” Darwin said, scratching his chin.

            “I agree.” Robert remarked.

Just then, we heard someone fall. They let out a grunt as they hit the ground and it sounded like they dropped something. We all whirled around in surprise to see who it was. It was Estaire! She scrambled to pick up her brown book that she had dropped. It looked like she was hiding around the corner of the wall, listening in on our conversation.

Author's Note

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