Summoning the Union of South East Asia (USEA)

Chapter 20: Storm Clouds over Esthirant

The Qua-Toynian officer in charge for the day readied his M-16 rifle and pointed it towards the girl and began shouting at her.

"Halt!"

No avail as she kept running towards him. As she got closer, the officer noted that the girl's eyes were teary, and her overall expression was of fear and desperation but also of unwavering determination. Again, he shouted.

"Hands up!"

The girl raised her hands but kept running despite the warnings from both sides. The Qua-Toyne officer's grip on his M-16 started to tremble as he was at a loss as to what to do. Soon, the girl crossed the clearly marked boundary and had entered the Qua-Toyne principality before finally collapsing on her knees in exhaustion. As she was now in Qua-Toyne territory, her Parpaldian pursuers stopped, before they readied their muskets and aimed it squarely at the Qua-Toyne border guard officer who was standing before the now panting girl that was kneeling.

The presumed leader of this squad of Parpaldians barked an order to his Qua-Toyne counterpart while pointing his flintlock pistol at him.

"That woman is a criminal that has broken the laws of the Parpaldian Empire! You will hand her over at once so that she may be tried and punished for her misdeeds!"

The Qua-Toyne officer kept the sights of his M-16 rifle on his Parpaldian counterpart as the demands were barked at him in a tone he's all too familiar with. It was no secret that the Parpaldian soldiers and border guards looked down on the Qua-Toynians and Quilans as barbarians due to the dubious reason of them being outside the so-called 'civilized area'. The Qua-Toyne officer glanced down at the kneeling girl in front of him and noted the tears that were running down her cheeks.

Amidst the tension in the air, a calm breeze blew, lifting parts of the robes the girl was wearing, revealing bruise markings and shallow cuts on her legs and arms. It was at this moment the Qua-Toyne officer realised that it was highly likely that the girl was tortured in some way. His thoughts were soon vindicated by the girl who began speaking as she finally caught her breath.

"Please...the Parpaldians killed my parents when they refused to hand me over...they burned down my home...and when I resisted...they began beating me with their weapons until I became unconscious...When I woke up- "her pleas were soon interrupted by a booming voice behind her.

"Lies!" he shouted before firing a single shot at the ground close to the girl. The Qua-Toyne officer has had enough and motioned the girl with his head to run to safety behind the checkpoint's sandbag walls.

The Parpaldian officer now had a twisted look on his face at what he perceived was defiance coming from good for nothing barbarians that stood before him. "How dare you!"

"Oh, I dare to alright. Dare to defy those that relish at other people's misery. You have no right to fire a warning shot that landed in Qua-Toyne territory. If you're really dead set on starting a war right here and now, be my guest!"

It was at this moment the other Qua-Toynian border guards readied their weapons and began calling out their targets. Seeing this escalation occur, the Parpaldian soldiers on the other side began calling for reinforcements via their magicom radios. More musketeers rushed out of the nearby buildings and began assembling in lines in anticipation of a battle.

A magic cannon was rolled out and readied by its crew, they set their target as the Qua-Toyne checkpoint building. Just as they were getting ready, more Qua-Toynian soldiers and two USEAN flying machines arrived to the scene. More Qua-Toyne vehicles arrived to disgorge reinforcements who began getting into positions and pointed their weapons at the Parpaldian soldiers.

Hovering in the distance, two of USEA's flying machines stood watch, a chilling sensation crept up the spines of many of the parpaldians as they realised their magic cannons or muskets may not have the range to do any realistic harm to them.