America Brings Liberty to an Oppressed World

Chapter 3: Shifts in Power

January 6th, 2077
Aldrian Imperium, Aldria

A knock on the door. "Come in."

The door slowly crept open, revealing a man dressed in a sharp navy blue officer's uniform and white cap. The markings on their sleeves and collar indicated they were a rear admiral. The man snapped his legs together and saluted.

"Rear Admiral Maximilian von Richter reporting at your request, Grand Admiral."

Grand Admiral Wolfgang Albrecht of the Imperial Navy. "Please sit down." He instructed the rear admiral to sit in the chairs opposite of his desk. "Tell me, do you know why I've summoned you to my office?"

"I believe it may have to do with the report I sent from my previous deployment." Richter had just returned from sea today, after what is perhaps the most shameful deployment on his record as a naval officer. He was still trying to comprehend everything that happened four days ago, how he'd lost a single destroyer to unknown aircraft, then had three of his battleships blow up by an unseen threat. "I'm still puzzled by what happened four days ago."

"Which is why I brought you here, to discuss more detail about it." As Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, Albrecht had full power over all naval affairs, just under the Emperor himself.

"Starting from the beginning, you detected multiple unidentified aircraft approaching from high altitude?"

"Yes, we picked them up on our aethereal radars. We then made attempts to contact them, but were ignored."

"Or couldn't receive." The grand admiral added the possibility.

"It is possible, but either way we received no response. So we carried out standard procedures and presumed them hostile." Albrecht nodded, urging the rear admiral to continue. "We launched magic missiles at the aircraft, yet they immediately took evasive maneuvers. They were able to somehow detect that we'd launched missiles at them." That part intrigued the grand admiral. No known adversary has demonstrated the ability to detect when and from where magic missiles are launched, making them a very powerful asset in the Imperium's ability to wage war. If someone were able to detect them, then the effectiveness of magic missiles may be jeopardized, along with the Imperium's military superiority.

"You stated that all missiles failed to reach their targets, correct?"

"That is correct. We then fired another wave of magic missiles, but those failed to reach their targets as well. It was then the planes dived and attacked us." Attached to the report was a captured image of one of the aircraft. Its design looked remarkably foreign and alien, but there was no mistaking it as some sort of jet powered aircraft. Unlike Imperium jets which had their engines mounted under the wings, this plane had its engines installed directly into the fuselage. Albrecht was no expert on aircraft design, but he could realize the benefits for such a choice in design. Who could've possibly developed such a jet powered aircraft other than the Imperium? "They fired missiles at one of our destroyers. Fortunately our aethereal shields were effective in preventing damage to our ships. Unfortunately these planes fired enough missiles to overload a destroyer's shield and leave in vulnerable to destruction. After that, the aircraft flew off and we assumed that to be the end of it."

"Yet before you could commence rescue operations of the sunken destroyer, you lost three of your battleships."

"Correct." Rear Admiral Maximilian was still a bit shaken from the encounter. "I had no idea what attacked or sunk my battleships. Their aethereal shields suddenly overloaded and shut down before they sustained spontaneous catastrophic damage. No one reported or saw what had hit them. Fearing I would lose more ships I ordered an immediate retreat, regretfully leaving any surviving sailors to an uncertain fate."