by Brent Reilly
CHAPTER 32
The newly graduated 3rd Marathon Division arrived in Ireland with the 2nd. After the success of the previous year, Jack couldn’t steal any fliers from him. Jack’s African division would need another year, so Billy had time to kill before kicking the Mongols from Spain.
The 2nd Division returned to the Pyrenees to weaken the enemy in Europe. The 3rd he took to Russia to draw the Mongols west. Hopefully Genghis didn’t know he now had three marathon divisions.
His father left trainers, wands, and coin to turn the Russians and Scandinavians with the greatest endurance into marathon divisions. They earned more training than if they worked for the Mongol Air Force. Billy gave the weakest fliers better wands and put them through basic maneuvers. They didn’t have the skill or endurance to raid in Mongolia, but they were good enough to take on the Mongol units in Russia that survived their previous raids. Billy bloodied them on smaller enemy units and rewarded them by emptying Mongol banks. They fought so well that Billy sent them raiding in the Stans to force the Khan to chase them.
As Billy hoped, Genghis himself led a quarter-million quad force, including several marathon divisions, to confront the Baron’s American, Scandinavian, and Russian divisions.
Genghis and William had different definitions of marathoners -- for Genghis, anyone who could fly a thousand clicks got in; William, in contrast, required them to fly a thousand kilometers a day for one hundred straight days. Like running a marathon, this took years of practice.
But, instead of fighting the Khan, Billy just wanted his marathoners to keep Genghis far from home while Billy raided Mongolia.
Billy flew to the Kamchatka Peninsula in Siberia, where his 1st Marathon Division and one hundred near-marathon divisions waited for him. They anchored ships every five hundred kilometers between the last Aleutian Island and the Kamchatka coast so they could leapfrog into enemy territory undetected. To keep the blocking force at the Bering Strait busy, Billy had his two hundred thousand half-marathoners start harassing them daily.
As Billy hoped, Genghis took all his good quads with him to Russia. Those left behind were more targets than threats. Billy sacked Mongol cities and sent golden wagons towards his ships. What Billy didn’t know is if Genghis would give him the two months his caravans needed to get within a day’s flight of his growing fleet.
Billy destroyed a dozen enemy forces by either surprising them or by wearing them out before engaging. Most of his casualties were caused by small, hidden units that ambushed them. Mostly, though, Billy faced barely organized militia when sacking cities.
It ended up taking Genghis three months to return with his armada. After avoiding combat for months, Billy’s three marathon divisions now attacked the slowest Mongols as Genghis raced east. Still, Billy didn’t want to face Mongol marathoners with weighted down near-marathoners, so they raced Genghis to the Strait, where they surprised the exhausted blocking force from behind. The Americans got several million Mongols and several thousand tons of loot in just one summer. Even more valuable was showing the world that the Baron could make Genghis Khan look like a fool every year.
Billy had several months to kill before the next spring campaign and needed to deter Genghis from crossing into Alaska. So he flew to Siam to see if he could get the emperor’s Millennial Wands.
A few centuries before, the Khan’s brothers conquered the tiny nation. Then, armed with Millennial Wands, the grandson of the Khan’s brother Khasar multiplied Siam by conquering his neighbors. Two centuries later, the Siamese Empire was second in strength only to the Mongol Empire. His brothers’ descendents were highly sensitive to their independence, and protected themselves by marrying the Khan’s most powerful daughters.
Billy dominated dueling arenas in Siam, killing Mongols and hiring the non-Mongols that he spared. He sent mercenaries to recruit more mercenaries. He paid native militias to join him, promised revolution to nationalist groups, and partnered with criminal organizations.
The royal palace was their first target because it united his troops: some wanted revenge on the emperor, most wanted to topple the government, and others wanted the priceless treasures that accumulated in the palace over two centuries.
Billy’s force raided the capital’s munitions depot and bombed the division that protected the capital. Billy knew he couldn’t beat them in the air, so he caught them asleep after they returned from a long training exercise. The next day they beat several battalions that flew in from neighboring bases. The Baron introduced himself in a video offering huge bonuses for Siamese in the Air Force who changed sides. The discovery of the Red Baron promising riches tripled his original force, despite their heavy losses. Every poor quad in the kingdom rallied to his banner.
Now to get his damn Millennials.
They bombed the palace after sunset. At dawn he rotated in the half that he didn’t mind losing, knowing that the enemy’s formation fliers would annihilate them in the daylight. Billy probably killed as many as the rest of his troops put together. At noon the better half took over to exhaust the Mongols while Billy napped in a safe house.
Billy ate an early dinner before going to work. The enemy won, as he expected. Bodies littered the palace and smoke still rose from fires when he landed before the main gate and politely asked to speak with the emperor. In beautiful armor made more glorious by copious blood stains, the tired emperor soon peered over the ramparts. He looked like he had been up for the last few days.
“Yes? What is it?”
“I’ll leave Siam if you duel me for Millennial Wands,” Billy said, holding out his famous sticks.
Quads, who had been going in and out of the main entrance, now backed away in a hurry. The gate fell before some of them even got inside. An alarm rang out and troops soon lined the fortress walls.
“So you’re the famous Red Baron. I’ve done nothing to you. Why do you make trouble for me?”
“I want your Millennial Wands. And many of your descendents married the Khan’s descendents, and therefore must die. But I’ll leave today if you duel me for Millennials.”
“Then you’re out of luck, Mr. Baron, because I gave them a few years ago to my only descendent more powerful than me.”
If Billy knew that, he wouldn’t have flown here in the first place. “Then I won’t be leaving you in peace after all. I’ll tell you what: to keep things fair, I’ll duel you with my backup wands.”
Billy’s backup wands, however, were also Millennials, and therefore their duel would not be fair. While non-fatal contests like wrestling should be fair, war is about power -- who controls what -- so it’d be stupid to not tilt everything in your favor when the lives of millions are at stake. It’s why Billy exhausted the bastard before challenging him.
As expected, a few hundred quads soon flew from the palace. Billy rose straight up while humming a nursery song his mother sang to him. Her singing always calmed him.
Billy flew high to fight just several at a time. Then he’d dive down to pick them off. Those having trouble breathing were the easiest. This tactic only worked because they didn’t have enough rested troops to rotate; otherwise, they’d just wait him out or chase him down.
All too soon, Billy landed before the gate again. But this time he removed the smoking armor that protected his left leg, then soaked up his wands to ease the pain. His left boot looked cooked and he walked with a limp.
The emperor didn’t see any point in sending more troops after the Baron, so he walked out the gate and sized up his opponent. He didn’t venture far from the protection of the troops lining the battlements, so the emperor wasn’t interested in fair fights, either.
The two eyed each other warily, their fingers twitching. Billy hadn’t felt this alive since he lost his virginity. The emperor was famous for his fast draw. Speed kills, went the old mantra, because whoever fired first forced the opponent to concede the initiative. Duels, battles, and wars were won by those who shaped events, no
t by those forced to respond to them.
People called him “the” emperor not because he was the only emperor, but because of how he got the title.
When Genghis gave his brothers permission to invade Siam, he never dreamed those drunks would conquer so much, so fast, with so few troops. Not even they knew they had a tactical genius in their midst. When Genghis backtracked from his promise, they remained defiant. When Genghis led an air force to subdue them, his brother’s grandson beat him like a spoiled brat. When Genghis demanded obedience, his great-grand-nephew instead proclaimed himself emperor of Siam. Even Mongols still laugh at that, a khan who controls half the world having to address a rival overseeing a small kingdom as “emperor.” Genghis had just lost his first fleet against the Japanese and lacked the troops to force his great-grand-nephew to obey. By the time he had the strength, the Siamese Empire fielded a very formidable force.
On his deathbed, Genghis’ brother brokered a truce. But what really kept the peace all these years is how much Genghis respected the emperor, as a dueler, a general, and a ruler.
Decades later, after Genghis suffered a severe setback in India, the emperor surprised the Indians from behind. Together, the Great Khan and the emperor rolled up the subcontinent. Instead of calling him “emperor,” Genghis referred to his rival as “Junior,” meaning he was like the son he never had.
The other reason Genghis Khan did not subdue the emperor of Siam is that he blocked the emperor of Indonesia from expanding north. Although the Indonesian royal family married many Mongols, they identified as Indonesian. So the Indo Empire expanded south, conquering Australia. Genghis felt safe as long as his two strongest rivals limited each other’s size.
So Billy now faced one of the greatest fighters in the world, up there with Subodei and Genghis himself. And something of a living legend.
What worried Billy wasn’t the emperor, but his wand launchers. They had been acting up lately, after so much usage, and needed to be replaced. One bad spring and he was a dead man. Well, a dead boy.
The emperor’s hands hovered over the twin wands in his belt. He drew, but looked shocked when wands magically appeared in the Red Baron’s hands, shooting the largest, hottest, and fastest fireballs he had ever seen -- quite beautiful, actually, bright yellow with streaks of red dancing inside them. The surprised veteran barely evaded them. Billy shot two very wide bursts, which forced the emperor to flight. Billy couldn’t approach his opponent because of the quads on the ramparts, so he needed to lure his opponent towards him.
Billy dodged fireballs by backing up in the air. He alternated between boot wands, which made him look like he was climbing giant stairs backwards, and used his hand wands to keep him vertical as he traded shots. A volley from the quads from the palace threatened to scorch his path. They were fired too far away to kill, but close enough to burn. Even a brief distraction could prove fatal.
So Billy pretended the wand in his burnt boot faltered. With a cry of shocked disbelief, Billy fell to the ground, landing hard and tumbling out of control. Shrieking in desperation, he scrambled to replace his left boot wand.
Seeing his chance, the emperor pounced -- by leaving the protection of his troops. Since Billy’s hands pointed away, the old man went for the kill. Billy avoided his next shot by using a wand to push himself across the ground towards his opponent.
But Billy fired a burst from his right boot wand. The emperor turned in the air to protect his face, and thus never saw the blade extend from Billy’s left boot wand into his side. The boy would never forget the incredulous look on the old man’s face as Billy tackled him in the air and flew away to the astonishment of everyone watching.
The Baron tricked the Emperor!
Hundreds of quads chased them, so Billy flew ever higher. The emperor had trouble breathing, but that made transferring ownership of his wands that much easier. It’s dangerous to transfer powerful wands while people are shooting at you, but all Billy had to do was rise ever higher.
Once finished, Billy circled around and dropped the emperor on his palace from very high altitude. Billy followed in a controlled fall to record the dying man’s facial expression. Despite the pain, the emperor clearly understood his fate.
“You know what I like most about a fair fight?” Billy screamed. “The better fighter always wins.”
It wasn’t even true. A sudden gust of wind, a death stick catching on clothing, a boot wand “coughing” at the worst possible moment could all kill a better fighter.
But he wanted that to be the last thing his enemies heard before dying.
After two centuries tormenting the Siamese and their neighbors, the emperor finally got what he deserved. Billy knew the video would be popular locally, but he also wanted the Khan to see it, so he did his primal scream just as a rooftop spire halved the world’s most famous emperor in two. Billy recorded the thousands of angry quads swarming him before flying straight up to safety. Billy later learned that the emperor gave the wands to a super quad named Jirko who married one of the Great Khan’s daughters.
Billy tired them out literally all night. After midnight, the most grateful non-Mongols that he spared in the arena infiltrated the palace, a few at a time, wearing enemy uniforms. They had spent the day ransacking rich Mongol neighborhoods. They first cleared out the palace, slaying dozens of sleeping quads, then ambushed the Mongols as they landed to rest. At dawn, the survivors of his force arrived to clean the place out.
After that, Billy never lacked for quads. Removing the head of the government and military gave thousands of natives in the air force an excuse to switch sides. He made a video urging Siamese to kill every Mongol and everyone pro-Mongolian under the nationalist slogan, “Siam for the Siamese.” And to take their stuff. Billy emphasized how rich their oppressors were to make being patriotic profitable.
After consolidating the city and installing a new mayor, police force, and militia with natives, Billy led his guys against the remaining military units, many of which simply defected to the Indonesian Empire.
Billy knew they won when the kingdoms that Siam long threatened started raiding on their own. Rebel groups sprouted like weeds and anyone dressing Mongolian was shot on sight.
It surprised Billy how quickly he destabilized a mighty kingdom. He was just killing time. If he set out to overthrow the Mongols ruling Siam, he’d have brought marathoners. He didn’t because they’d have to cross half the Empire to get there, then cross again to escape. He couldn’t risk losing his irreplaceable troops. Still, having a few hundred quads he trusted would have really helped.
At a summit of the powerful groups vying for control, Billy bribed them into working together by transferring tons of gold to the new democratic government. The biggest warlords, criminal gangs, business leaders, and tribal leaders would prosper if they helped organize free and fair elections. And he warned them he’d return to fix things if they broke their promises.
But perhaps their biggest motivation to work together was the Indonesian threat. The Indos easily had the strength to overwhelm them, Red Baron or not. Even the criminals knew their new government needed broad popular support to survive.
Billy expected Genghis to arrive with a mighty armada to crush the rebels, but instead he led just one thousand guys. Assuming this was the best battalion in the empire, Billy wisely left before they landed.
