0245PM NW Time - July 15th - 1969 - Dryadalis Kingdom - Anyllunaa Outskirts

On the outskirts of the port city lies a large hangar, only a few are allowed to enter. Those who’ve managed to get close to it claim to hear the smashing of hammers, noise as if metal itself was being bent, and as if a sky wyvern was screeching inside, at least those rumors from children say, but even then no one truly knows what’s inside. Patrols wander around the area, both Americans and Elves, as the security has increased ever since three Elves managed to break in, and one managed to escape.

Currently inside, in something that the Americans would rather keep secret until they unveil it, a one of a kind ship, one specifically called by President Nixon to be dismantled and reassembled in the other world.

The USS New Jersey.

It was a logical choice, as it was already being used in Vietnam, some believed that the US Navy should use the New Jersey as a way to ensure the Navy’s arrival in the other world. It was also believed that when the US eventually will explore out of the area into other parts of the world after the war, the USS New Jersey would be used to demonstrate Gunboat diplomacy since it seems to be normally used in this world, or that’s the theory, based on their technology,

Inside the hanger, or ‘closet’ as it’s called in the navy, is the USS New Jersey going into its last maintenance check. Its Captain, Captain J. Edward Snyder, stands in the main control room of the New Jersey, overlooking the deck as his men walk around finishing maintenance checks. He’s just standing there groaning, as the last few weeks have been hell for him, his body feels as if it is going to collapse.

But, it’s not for any relation with overlooking New Jersey, it was something, in his mind, far more annoying. Then, he can hear the sound of heels on metal as it gets closer, he feels his soul drop, when the metal door into the room slowly opens, and the outline of a woman appears entering.

“Good morning, Mr. American! I have arrived to overlook your ship setting sail!” The voice of a woman, of around eighteen years of age for humans, but for her, she’s nearly 200 years old. Ealirel Chaeven, the Elven Princess, ever since the formal friendship between their nations, she was immediately hooked on the Americans and their technology and has made it so that she’ll involve herself with anything regarding the Americans, regardless of their opinion on the matter.

The only reason why Snyder could understand what she’s saying is fragments of magic crystals, infused with translation magic by Elven Mages, which he doesn’t bother wondering how it’s possible, as even the scientists back at Fort Nixon have given up on understanding magic.

“Please, Miss Chaeven, call me Captain Edward. I have told you this well over a dozen times to you for the last few weeks,” he said in a defeated tone.

“Well, I don’t see why I shouldn’t call you ‘American’, I have seen plenty of you call my people Elves without regarding names,” she says in a smug attitude.

“Well, I guess it is true… But, it doesn’t mean that you should not regard someone's name,” Snyder said.

“Yes, I suppose that is correct. But, now, what do you think of my dress? I took it upon myself to copy your flag design, red, blue, and white, correct?” She says, twirling in the red, blue, and white striped dress.

“Good God, this woman is an American freak…,” Snyder thought to himself. Ever since she began involving herself with the Americans and fell in love with their technology, she’s become a massive freak for America. Despite that, she has no care for their government, but rather is more fascinated by their military. However, this isn’t the strangest thing she’s ever done, was attempting to fly one of the helicopters at Fort Nixon during the July 4th celebration. If the pilot wasn’t there, she could have killed herself and some people that day.

“It looks great on you, Miss Chaeven… but perhaps you would like to go onto the deck? I heard we’ll be going into the sea in a few hours?” Of course, this was a lie, New Jersey wasn’t planning to venture into the sea until tomorrow, he only said this so that her guards could more easily find her and persuade her to return to her temporary house in the city nearby.

“Oh, yes, you are smart, Mr. American! Here, come with me, I wouldn’t wish for the Captain to miss out on such an important event for your ship!” Ealirel grabbed Snyder’s wrist and began dragging him out of the control room and led him to the main deck. He pulled her hand off only when finally at the deck, and she began rambling on about something relating to the ship. Snyder, though, had no care for what she had to say and slowly walks away from her as she rambles before suddenly the ship begins to shake, and the chains holding it let go, and it drops into the water. Snyder and Ealirel hold on to something before the ship stabilizes, which excites Ealirel, but not so much for Snyder. As he slowly stood up from the shaking, his number two, Henry Moreno, walked up to him.

“Are you alright, Captain?” He asks Snyder.

“What the fuck was that? Why the hell is the ship embarking? I thought it was due till tomorrow?” Snyder asks.

“Apologies, I thought they sent a letter to you about it. The Vice-Admiral at Fort Nixon has reported that the ‘assets’ are moving after what was expected, so we are to depart now. And yes, the men have already gone through the procedures, we’ll be fine to set sail.”

“God damn it, I wanted to leave the little miss princess over here on the deck for her guards to get her… Wait, where even are her guards?” Then, the doors to the ‘closet’ opened up, and he watched as his remaining men walked onto the ship. Once all men were on board, the New Jersey began to set sail. As it left, Snyder saw what seemed like the princess’ guards in the hangar, and he merely watched them as they disappeared from view as the ship entered the sea.

“Now, Mr. American, shall we head to this control room of yours?” The princess says as she walks up to him on the deck. He looked around and saw his men confused by the Elven princess, and the particularly strange dress she’s wearing.

“Uh… y-yes, let’s do that,” he said, as he pushed her along to the control room. “Still would have preferred for you to stay on the mainland,” He thought to himself. Once he made it back to the control room with her, he saw his men already on the controls, as numerous smaller navy vessels began to link up with the New Jersey. Currently, the New Jersey is the only large Navy ship currently in the Other World, due to it taking time to disassemble, bring to the Other World, and reassemble, the only reason why the New Jersey was reassembled do quickly was because it was the main ship that was being worked on. Currently, something like an aircraft carrier would take months.

Now, a dozen missile boats surround the New Jersey, as well as some FAC (Fast Attack Craft) to give the New Jersey support if needed. Originally, the Navy didn't use missile boats, but it was believed that using them might be useful when it comes to the fact the enemy ships are wood, not cold hard steel like the ones on Earth.

“So, where exactly are we heading to, Mr. American?” Ealirel asked him.

“For the last time,… forget it. One of our planes spotted a massive fleet of what seemed like galleons heading to the port city, Anyllunaa. Command didn’t think anything of it because it was predicted they wouldn’t get close till tomorrow, but now here they are, a day ahead of schedule.”

“Galleons? Where are they from, and what are their numbers?” Ealirel asked, with some voice of confidence in her voice.

“Well, command said around two hundred and three galleon style ships, some smaller ships as well, and they seem to be of Zapad origin,” Moreno said, entering their conversation. “Yesterday, a plane spotted that they were closer than what was originally predicted, confusing everyone at command.”

“Maybe they’re using a Nevis Propeller…?” Ealirel said in a whisper.

“Huh, what was that, Miss Chaeven… did you say something?” Snyder said.

“Yes, I think they’re using a Nevis Propeller, it’s used on large ships in order to travel faster. It’s powered like magic and looks something similar to your ship propellers that I’ve seen, but smaller and made of wood. They’re powered by magic, but a person must control them and are very expensive to use. It’s also a one-use item, meaning they’ve been moving since they left port and continuously replacing them. If I am right, they have one on every ship, which means this could be their entire navy force, and a massive part of their economy spent on it.”

“So you're telling me if we destroy every single one of these ships, their Navy will practically be all but destroyed?” Snyder said. “As well as possibly desolate their economy?”

“Obviously! But, I am sure with your ships, you’ll be easily able to destroy them!”

“Captain, radar shows possible hostels, South East, Unknown number of them. What are our actions?” A man said on the radar.

Snyder walks to the man and looks over his shoulder onto the radar. “How far out are they?”

“Approximately thirty miles out. Our main guns should have ranged of five miles out, our missile boats should have ranged in ten. Your command?”

“Get close in 8 miles. If they prove any hostility, blast their ass back to the 18th century.”

“Yes sir!” the man said, before getting onto the ship's coms. “All personal, be advised, we are approaching possible hostiles, all men board guns, be prepared to fire on command.” Men began to run across New Jersey manning the large guns, as the main 16"/50 caliber Mark 7 guns on the front began to take aim. Suddenly a flash of red light appeared in the sky, and once it got close it relieved itself to be a ball of fire, which did nothing more than leave a burn mark on the New Jersey’s paint job.

“Well, it seems as if they are hostile, Captain. Now, are you going to “Blast their ass back to the 18th century”? Whatever that means,” Ealirel said.

“Alright then.” Snyder goes over to the coms, presses the button, and begins to speak. “Enemies South East prove hostile, get the main caliber guns on the front to open fire!” Once done, he looked back to Ealirel, and says, “You might want to cover your ears for this, Princess.”

The nine caliber guns point upward into the sky, before firing their guns into the air.

—

The captain of the fleet looks into the air as strange lights appear from the strange massive metal ships.

“Seems as if your magic did nothing,” he said, as he turned over to the mage on his flag galleon.

“Well, how would I know it didn’t do anything. For all, I know, all it left was a burnt mark on them…” Then, the noise of whistling was beginning to be noticed, and the two looked up as two flashes of light fly past them and into the rest of the fleet, and massive walls of water erupted in the air, and explosions rock the fleet.

“What in the fucking hell?! Are they shooting literal light at us!?” The captain shouted.

“It’s as if they’re using the power of the Gods!” A man shouts. Men panic around as more flashes of lights hit the fleet from the ship, as men attempt to get to safety further inside their ships. Eventually, the bombardment of light ends and the captain of the frontal ship leading the ship emerges from underneath. When he looks over into the sea, he sees dozens of broken ships in the water. Wood everywhere, barrels of supplies scour about, dead bodies of men float on the water as blood colors the water surrounding their bodies. Some ships hit are still above water but are slowly sinking. Overall, he sees well over five dozen ships dead.

“C-captain, s-shouldn’t we run away?!” A man shouts, emerging from the bottom of the boat. He thought of it for a while, it’s possibly the only good option, be he decides against it. He is an emerging captain in the Zapad Navy and proved himself to be a great captain, aiming to gain the rank of admiral. For him to retreat and return to Zapad would be a great humiliation, and given Zapad military culture, he would either be greatly demoted or arrested.

“No, we will continue to fight. Raise the red flag! We shall charge at them, and prove that we are not cowards, and prove we are brave! Our names will forever be written down in history by the Gods!” The man stood silently, and nodded lightly with some hesitation, before going to raise the red flag. Once the red flag was raised, the rest of the remaining ship began to set sail to the strange ship.

—

“Sir, it seems like the remaining ships that avoided the bombardment seem to be charging at us. What’s your command?” A man said.

“Let them come, let the missile boats and FAC’s engage the remaining ones. Get New Jersey to move with them and engage with smaller guns,” Snyder said. New Jersey began to move forward alongside its support. Once in range, the missile ships began to launch their four MM-38 Exocet missiles from their two launch boxes. The missiles fly through the air, not guided, but heading to the galleons. When the first missile hits the boat in the front with a red flag, it takes off the chunk of the ship from the front, and when others begin to hit the boat, destroying it nearly to destruction. The other missiles begin to hit the other ships, taking large chunks out until they began to sink. The New Jersey’s main guns opened fire, and after a while, the remaining ships raised their white flags, surrendering to the New Jersey. The FAC’s began to drive around the broken shipwrecks, taking any survivors from the water and pulling them onto the FAC’s.

“Well, little princess, how was that presentation?” Snyder said to Ealirel, who was watching the FAC’s grabbing the survivors in the water.

“Well, I must say I chose the right day to wear this dress! I knew that your power was great, but this is truly unheard of, only battle reports. In fact, I wasn’t even supposed to be on the ship right now! I was supposed to be in the middle of a meeting right now.”

Snyder looks at the princess as she gives him a grin, before he gives the order to return back to the hanger.

0610AM NW Time - July 16th - 1969 - Washington D.C - White House

Nixon sits in his office as himself and the CIA director helm go over information of the other world. Ever since the US entered the other world, information has been a key thing, making sure everything is in check and going according to plan, if even one thing goes wrong that means Congress would get suspicious of the money going into an unknown project.

“Reports state the war is going smoothly, and New Jersey is believed to have completely obliterated Zapad’s navy. As well as that, the fire in the border of the Elves, Vostok, and Zapad have finally died down, and plans for 38th Infantry Division alongside the 10th Mountain Division are being prepared to push into enemy territory. As well as that, Lieutenant General Hal Moore is requesting a joint air-borne and sea invasion of the Zapad capital, as its capital is a coastal city, and their navy is next to non-existence, information courtesy of the Elves. As well as this, he requests more personnel to be sent over, though that part is tricky, despite the nearly over fifteen thousand personnel and the divisions, the ‘divisions’ are only parts of the actual divisions, as well the men that are there are stretched thin.”

“Getting all those supplies out for an air-borne, and sea invasion will take another month, but it should be possible until more high caliber ships are reassembled there, replacing the smaller boats, and have them fight alongside the New Jersey. But those men, many were handpicked by the CIA, but you know, war and all, some were just thrown in. I'd like to send in more men now, but I fear leaks will get out given Soviet spies seem to have already found out about the base,” Nixon said as he groaned, it’ll be another thing he’ll have to worry about.

“Yeah, that’s a big thing we need to worry about. I assume though that the request for more personnel will be put on hold?” Helms said.

“Yes, tell him that his request for more men will be pushed for now.”

“Alright, something else interesting here too. A German scientist called… Sigmund… the man who found out how the Elves and possibly the humans ot the other world use magic, had found something interesting he wishes to show you, Mr. President. Possibly tomorrow.”

“I’ll see if I have time tomorrow,” Nixon said. “Is there anything of interest, Helms?”

“Yes, sir. Some CIA operatives have made contact with a very particular group. A revolutionary group, their name translated into english is the ‘Saplings of Liberty’. Strange name if you ask me.”

“Revolutionary group? Are they those Neo-Nazi revolutinary groups, or those democracy kind?” Kixon asked, with a bit of enthusiasm in his voice.

“Judging from the report, they are democratic, they want to get rid of the current system of government and apparently ‘re-establish’ a democracy. So they’ve turned to us to help supply them with things like food and weapons.”

“Well, while I do like my democratic revolutionary groups, especially under our influence, I don’t really see a reason to supply them with things like that. Now with the current Elven government such great allies currently. Why would they think that we’d help supply them?” Nixon said.

“Well,” Helms said as he put a piece of paper in front of Nixon, “I’ve already read it. The CIA operatives apparently wrote this in their report, talking about the meeting they had with their leader. I’m sure you’ll find it interesting.”

The paper details things that were brought up in the meeting, from the government truly being an oligarchy, mass starvation for those outside the large cities, any of those who attempted to raise their voice against their treatment would have their villages burned to the ground,and crop failure of over fifty percent. For Nixon, he found the report surprising, as he didn’t expect anything like it to be happening behind their back.

“Some of our men have also reported massive amounts of supply wagons each week carrying off possibly over tons of what they described as wheat out of farms. As well as that, the population in major farming towns, despite it being around agriculture, seem to be starving,” Helms said, before picking up a cigar. “They’re only feeding those in the cities where the majority of the population live to mask the crop failure, and worsening conditions, but even then, there’s already some food shortages in some places in the cities, mainly slum areas. Afterall, you feed the majority, they won’t care for the minority.”

“Good God, I thought we were about to open trade with the current government though? So shouldn’t that level out the starvation problem with their people?” Nicon asked, standing from his chair and pouring himself a drink.

“Well, yes, only problem is that the supply line we were planning to build in order to officially begin trade has been delayed due to unforeseen problems, mainly with Elven civilians attempting to meet with the workers, which have no idea of the elves existence, as well as their main city being in the trees. We originally thought that we would have to resort to using things like our Chinooks to transport things for trade, but it’s too slow, and one of the platforms our Chinooks were using collapsed, so some of the pilots began fearing the other platforms would collapse also. We could divert the road to another area to trade, but the time and money we’re spending already congress is starting to get suspicious. They’ll find out by next month if we keep this up.”

“Politics… I would have told congress in the beginning if it wasn’t for the damn Democrats, and possible leaks getting into Soviet hands. Gone too far now to tell them,” Nixon said, putting his hand on his cheek and resting his head. “;Tell me something else interesting, and I wanna hear all of it.”

“Well, the two operatives that met up with this revolutionary group’s leader left two comments on what they think of him. The first is that they believe they can be trusted with some restrictions. The other though says… quote unquote, “They are idotic, simple minded fools, with no true idea how democracy, or running a country truly works, but simply that if you have a democracy, all of society's problems, from famine, to racial tension can be fixed”... this is quite the comment.”

“Well of course they would think like that, they have no role models afterall,” A voice rang out in the office, and when Nixon and Helms turned to see who it was, they saw Haldeman, director of the White House Chief of Staff, standing there, closing the door.

“How long have you been listening in on us, Haldeman?” Nixon asked.

“Now long, Mr. President, but long enough. Now, regarding this revolutionary group, of course they would think that, there’s probably no good example for them to lean on, when we were starting out as a nation we had men like James Madison and Benjamin Franklin to help guide us, but them? They only have one man that probably actually knows about how Democracy works. But even then it’s still wrong.”

“I don’t want to hear this, if you have something meaningful spit it out or I’ll need you to leave,” Helms said, with a less than friendly tune in his voice towards Haldeman.

“Well, what I mean is that they just need a role model, and that’s where we come in. If we take this group under our sphere of influence, we can dictate the future of their world. Currently, the current Oligarchy has been cooperative so far, but I can’t help but imagine once that entire war over there is over, and they start modernizing, they’ll eventually betray us. From what I understand their civilians don’t mind us, they rather seem to like us, but their nobles, most importantly their dukes, not so much.”

“As much as I may not always agree with him,” Helms said, taking a glance at Haldeman. “He’s right, some of my CIA have already been spying on their mainly noble men. They have caught some conversations or meetings with some of them. The translation basically states that they see us like a helpful pet, one they’ll put down once their usefulness is gone,” Helms said, taking a deep breath, before sighing. “Clearly, they’re arrogant and prideful bastards. Plus, if the group does come under our influence and they gain control of the country, we can get more land, which equals more things like oil since we’ve confirmed there’s oil there. We’ll need it, since it’s predicted we’ll get into an oil shortage in the 70’s.”

Nixon stayed quiet for a second, taking the options in, before giving his answer. “Fine, but, If this group really wants our help, I’ll need hard evidence of this mass starvation outside their major cities, and possibly them betraying us in the future. Helms, I trust you can do this?”

“Certainly, Mr. President, I’ll see what I can do.”

Shortly later, both Helms and Haldeman leave the room, leaving Nixon to drink yet another bottle of alcohol.