Encounter with the Inca Empire
Spring, 3960. The Aymara resistance began its campaign in earnest.
Their base was Wonnam, and thanks to the region's mild climate, they could march about in plate armor all day as long as they shielded themselves from the sun — so march they did, boldly and without hesitation.
"Brethren! Join us!"
"Together, we shall reclaim the land that is ours!"
"Hurraaah!"
First, they set about swiftly absorbing the kindred tribes around them. For all the power of plate armor, it had its limits when their numbers were thin.
"Another tribe over there…."
"What should we do, chieftain?"
Amaru had always assumed the vast land couldn't hold only Aymara, but he hadn't imagined there would be so many foreign tribes.
"For now, let us show them a glimpse of our strength and invite them to join us."
"Yes!"
Before marching north toward the Inca, they conquered and assimilated the countless tribes to the east and south.
With nothing but stone axes and stone arrowheads to be found wherever they went, no force on the land had any hope of resisting them.
Some tribes, glimpsing the gleaming armor, called them the army of the gods and began to follow them willingly.
While the village men were away on campaign, the women stayed behind in Wonnam, far too busy with the fields to be idle.
And with the men gone, the women's lives grew markedly freer.
The biggest change was overnight stays.
"You're really not going home?"
"Why? Do you not want me here with you?"
Rari, who had come to visit Lee Yung's quarters, pouted at him with sidelong eyes.
"No, I'd love it if you stayed!"
"Really?"
"Really!"
Couples like them, sharing their nights together, were becoming more and more common.
Most were women who, like Rari, had been somewhat sidelined within their own tribes. Not only did the Aymara hold beauty standards directly opposite to those of Daehan — word had also spread of one particular Daehan rule, and the women had grown all the more forward because of it.
It was an old Daehan tradition: if a man paired with a local woman, he would move heaven and earth to take responsibility for her. If word ever reached Daehan that he had abandoned her or left her behind, his precious seedless watermelon could be dashed to pieces.
Besides them, the sound of a growing population echoed from every corner of the village.
"By the way, Rari — wouldn't you like to see Daehan someday?"
"What kind of country is Daehan?"
After a night spent together, Lee Yung had slyly asked whether she'd ever considered going there.
Curious as ever, she was full of questions, and Lee Yung could only tell her what he himself knew — the university, weapons like cannons, and the trains.
"What! A cart of iron that moves by itself?"
Startled, Rari shot bolt upright, and the blanket slid down her shoulders — giving Lee Yung a very fine view.
"Eek!"
Only once he'd seen everything there was to see did she burrow back under the blanket, suddenly bashful, and urge him for an answer.
"Mm-hm. They're called steam engines, and they're incredible. And Grandfather and Father are building ships of iron, too. People say they might be as enormous as this fortress!"
"Wow…."
Merely imagining it was enough — a dreamy haze was settling over Rari's eyes.
Despite being stationed at a harbor fortress, Lee Yung was navy to the bone. The moment an ironclad was completed, he ached to put his name forward at once.
But there were still plenty of small problems left to solve, and so the ships could not yet be launched, he'd told her.
"Why don't you come with me to Daehan?"
"My family is here…."
"What if your family came along with us?"
"Do you really think they'd leave this place?"
It was a genuinely thorny question. Lee Yung had family in Sinsi, and she had family in Wonnam….
For either family to relocate would be no small feat.
"Even the northern half of the Eastern Continent is easy enough to travel between…."
"Where is that?"
"Huh? Daehan's land is so vast that it's split across two continents."
And as his tales of Daehan's territory continued, Rari's mouth slowly began to hang open.
"What?"
"Wow…."
She was utterly dumbfounded. Her own tribe had always considered Wonnam itself colossally large — yet here he was saying that walking across Daehan's land would take the better part of a year?
"I'll persuade my parents. Let's go to Daehan."
A dream had been born in her — a longing to see the wide world. Above all, she burned to know more about that land where, he said, people could freeze to death.
For a girl who had lived her whole life in a temperate climate, the very idea was beyond imagining.
And so she had already been spending her nights in Lee Yung's quarters for days now.
While the men consolidated the surrounding lands, the Inca's reach was creeping down from the north.
From the high plateau of the Andes, the Inca army descended the southwestern mountains and advanced along the coast.
Demonstrating their strength to the small tribes along the way, extracting surrenders, and absorbing them, their power swelled steadily.
And then they arrived at Wonnam.
"What is that place?"
"The local natives say it is a city run by a nation called Daehan."
"Never heard of it."
Apart from the few northern tribes that traded with the Aztec and Maya, no one on the southern half of the Original Continent knew anything about Daehan.
The only ones who did were the Aymara.
"Hm. Quite a lot of people. Subdue them first and deliver word that they are to surrender. Let them learn the power of the Inca Empire that stands behind us."
"Yes."
As part of the Inca army broke off and headed for Wonnam, panic gripped the settlement as people scrambled for shelter.
"An army we've never seen before!"
"We drilled for this — everyone into the fortress the moment anything happens! Move, now!"
"Get the elders inside, quickly!"
The people of Wonnam were hurrying into the fortress. They had long known of the Inca threat to the north, and a large army coming from that direction could only mean the Inca.
This was the first moment of collision — the instant where the Inca Empire and Wonnam would begin their clash.
"The Inca Empire has appeared?"
"Yes, Commander. What do we do?"
"What's there to worry about? Just have everyone focus on evacuating the residents."
The moment word reached the Daehan Company that gold had been struck at Wonnam, men had swarmed in and begun expanding the harbor fortress — and by now it could truly be called impregnable.
Built to Daehan's star-fortress specifications, its sloping walls made it look as though an attacker might climb them — except for the countless cannons mounted along the top and the storehouses piled with guns and ammunition.
What's more, resupply could come by sea at any time, so unless the enemy seized control of the waters, the fortress was absolutely beyond capture.
And on top of everything else, the Inca's best weapons were obsidian axes and arrows — a battle was simply not possible for them in the first place.
"My only concern is whether anyone's dawdling instead of evacuating."
Bang! Bang!
Usam had sent men down to help the civilians and was peering down anxiously when — out of nowhere — the sound of gunfire began to crackle.
Bang! Bang!
The telltale smoke of black powder began to rise from spots all across the village.
"Did the enemy close in faster than we thought? Keep a skeleton crew up here and get the rest down there at once!"
Was it a moment of carelessness, because the walls commanded such a long view? Or had they simply underestimated how quickly the enemy could approach? Usam's face contorted.
"Get the elders moving, quickly!"
"Hurry!"
The village was chaos as everyone fled for shelter. The infirm elderly were the problem — with most of the men away, there were nowhere near enough hands to support them.
"Everyone, gather here! We need to buy them time!"
"Can we really do it?"
"We fire, and we fall back. That's all!"
"Then let's do it! Are we just going to stand and watch?"
Fifty-three women, trained by Lee Yung in marksmanship and combat, had assembled. Warriors, perhaps, was the right word for them now.
"Everyone remembers, right? Fire once, and run — no exceptions."
"We split into squads and take turns covering the retreat!"
"We head for the mountains and draw their eyes with us."
"Let's go!"
Each woman shouldered a pack and sprinted in the opposite direction from the fleeing villagers — straight toward where the Inca were coming from.
"Look! The raiders are coming!"
"There must be hundreds of them!"
"Stay calm! We just need to keep our distance!"
Watching the enemy charge from afar, they tamped down the powder and readied their shots.
If the Inca caught them, they would be sacrificed on an altar or condemned to a life too dreadful to imagine. Tension and fear had their hands trembling ever so slightly.
"Everyone, stay calm. Only a calm hand can hit its mark."
Rari stepped forward. She had talked long into the night with Lee Yung and picked up more than the others here or there — she felt it was her place to lead.
"Right. Let's steady ourselves."
"If your hands shake, you can't even load."
The girls' hands, settling down, seemed to move a little faster.
"They're coming in a line from that side, so we fire in sequence and fall back a little at a time. That way you reload as you retreat."
Formed into five rows, the women planned to volley in order and withdraw bit by bit.
Thankfully, the enemy in the distance had no idea what awaited them — it could hardly have worked out better.
"They seem leisurely enough — they'll probably wait to run until the arrows start flying. Let's rain fire down on them instead."
"Yes!"
And with their aims taken, the women began to squeeze their triggers.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Ten shots per rank at a time. At such range, plenty of shots missed — but with three or four enemies toppling with each volley, it was well worth the effort.
"Good! That's it, you're doing great! All we have to do is knot the ankles of that leading group — the main body stays right where it is!"
The Inca, taking the blows, still had no idea what was happening.
"Aaagh!"
"It hurts! What is this?"
"Uuuuuh…."
The Inca had begun dropping one after another.
"What's going on?"
"I didn't see anything at all!"
However large the bore, a bullet is nearly impossible to see with the naked eye — and the Inca began to drown in terror.
"Could this be the punishment of the gods?"
"Look — thunder!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Through Inca eyes, it was utter madness: every time a great crash split the air, an invisible arrow pierced a man's heart and burst his skull.
"Aaaah! Save me!"
"Waaah — Mother!"
Begging and weeping had begun to break out among them. With this happening at the very front, it was only natural that the formation dissolved into disarray.
Crack-BANG!
"Guhk—"
"Aaaah! My hand! My hand!"
"This is a warning from the gods — they're telling us not to come any further!"
Some were all but convinced they were witnessing a miracle worked by divine hands.
"It's merely their weapon! If it were divine punishment, we'd have all dropped at once! Anyone who doesn't want to die here — run, NOW!"
The commander, who had watched for a long while, finally grasped the truth: the enemy was wielding a new kind of weapon, one his people had never seen.
It was a ranged weapon, and one that took a long time to fire — close the distance quickly, and victory would be theirs.
Bang-bang-bang
"Everyone, run!"
"Stand still and every one of us dies! Faster — go!"
And so, to the unrelenting crackle of gunfire, the Inca began to run.
Bang! Bang!
The girls were firing with everything they had.
But with every shot, the smoke thickened — and through the haze, the enemy began stalking closer, stride by stride. Tension and fear began creeping over the women as well.
"They're getting closer!"
Shaking hands spilled powder; some loaded and forgot the ball entirely.
Crack-BANG!
"Cough, cough."
"It stings so much…."
Choking on smoke with every shot, the girls were hit by a desperate turn of events.
The moment the enemy realized something was wrong and broke into a run —
"Rari! They're charging!"
"Good! Now we run!"
"Everyone, run!"
The girls' whole purpose had been to draw the enemy's gaze. Now that the Inca were coming after them, it was time to flee without so much as a glance back.
And run they did — truly ran, toward the mountains, away from the fleeing villagers.
Behind them, Inca warriors came pouring after in their hundreds.
"Hhhk…."
"Don't cry! Use that breath to run faster!"
Fear or exhaustion, the girls' legs were quivering beneath them.
But they did not stop. There was only one thought in their heads: stop, and you die.
"They're closing in!"
Was there no help for it — the raw difference between a man's body and a woman's? The Inca warriors drew nearer and nearer.
Thwip-thwip
"Arrows!"
"Move, everyone!"
None had struck yet, but the arrows were whistling in barely a pace behind their heels.
They could halt right here and fire — maybe kill a handful more — but no one could promise what would happen after.
And they were all women. Something unspeakable would be waiting for them.
"No! We can't!"
"Should we not go to their aid, sir?"
"Have you forgotten the clause? We do not interfere in disputes between natives!"
"How can the people who live in our harbor be strangers to us?"
Lee Yung and the commander Usam were locked in a heated argument atop the fortress walls.
Relatives of Usam's own family were surely out there too — he wanted to go as much as anyone. But they were soldiers. They were bound to act by the rules that had been laid down.
"Ugh…."
"Commander!"
Lee Yung's heart was being eaten alive. With nearly all the village men away, whoever could be firing out there — who else could it possibly be?
To help, or not to help? Usam's head felt ready to split open.