Apparatus cultores

“79th and higher station welcome you all once more! It’s a beautiful sunrise over the Waris empire as always! The royal family is doing royal family things as per usual! The 67th guards regiment in the west has suppressed a rising resistance and the peace has been restored! Terrorists have been arrested! Jonathan, what have you to say about the situation in the Waris?” Spoke the voice on the radio

“Hmm yes thank you Jake! Jonathan here with SPY NEWS!” replied a more enthusiastic voice on the radio – “We still strongly encourage you to report any suspicious persons to your local town’s watch as the threat of infiltration from neighboring nations is on the rise.” his voice turned more serious – “In the last week, 7 spies have been caught and executed in the central and northern regions!”

“Well deserved” spoke a younger-looking lady at a grand dining table, her gaze fixated on the radio sitting on the table. Her frilly dress flowed down and over the chair, and her body curves. An older man in a suit, decorated with golden highlights, a pendant of gold, rings representing his wealth, each worth more than a regular house would, looked over his newspaper – “Yes indeed. How dare those swines infiltrate our lands” 

The lady nodded – “Have the counter spy agencies picked up slack?” he nodded – “Yes of course, and last I heard they began training regular watchmen in detecting potential spies among people. It was said to me, their behavior and body language can be a giveaway” he returned his gaze to his newspaper. The lady chuckled – “Ours are so much better, isn’t that right, Jothan?” a butler dressed man approached the table, on his hand a towel hung, he presented it to the lady and nodded – “yes miss” 

“Yes miss” said the butler – “Our intelligence officers are the best”. She elegantly wipes her lips on the towel presented to her and got up slowly from the table, showing elegance and high etiquette with every move. “Father”. “You may go, report to me on the Sesata project in the evening” replied her father. She bowed a little – “Yes”. The lady and her butler headed towards the door to the palace.

“Miss, today on the agenda, meeting with Walter regarding the summoning ritual’s research for the Sesata project, tour of the workshop, meeting with Duke Cephas, a status report from the capital’s watchmen captain regarding the rumors of a covert underground resistance, and…” she interrupted him – “Too much, yes, I get it”. He nodded – “Yes miss, my apologies, the carriage will deliver us to the locomotive which will take us to the Sesata project site.” 

A rather long and dull ride later, she stepped off the wagon and looked at a large fenced-off area, with a whole mountain and several hangars. Watchtowers every 50 meters, double fence, guards with guns and dogs patrolling the perimeter, snipers on watchtowers, barbed wire, and machine guns on the corner towers. She smiled – “Waris empire’s greatest secret lies beyond here, is it not the most fascinating sight, Jothan?” he nodded – “yes miss.” 

Jothan was a middle-aged man, his grey, neatly trimmed beard, square jawline, a few scars on his face, and neatly combed and gelled hair, made him seem more like a high-class gentleman than a bodyguard. As they approached the guard’s post before the gates, the guardsmen saluted the princess to the empire – “Major Jedidiah, what a surprise” said a man in dark grey wooly uniform, a trenchcoat with 2 black stripes on his shoulder, a lieutenant, officer on duty. “At ease” replied the lady 

Once inside, they went into the first hangar, the development site. Here, they met with Walter, chief researcher of the engineer corps. “Miss Eli” said Walter, a limping older man, he was roughly 65 by the looks, walking with a cane, limping on left leg, voice raspy from inhaling poisonous gas he had once developed by accident, hair white as the snow but shaved cleanly on his face. She nodded – “Walter, i”m here for the status report on the summoning” 

He nodded respectfully – “Of course Miss Jedidiah” he turned around and limped down the hall “Come, i’ll show you what we have achieved” She followed him confidently, this facility she knew as good as the back of her hand. They approached a large metal door, with a sign above it ‘Test Chamber 1’. He turned around and grinned – “Miss Jedidiah, you might want to be… ready to see something… INCREDIBLE!” said the man with a creepy smile as he spun the door wheel which firmly locked the door from outside. 

1 deadbolt after another loudly came undone with each spin, before the door creaked. A guard standing by the door on the inside saluted the opening door, as it slowly hung open. Eli peeked inside to see a massive glass chamber in the middle, with metal mesh on the inside of it, and a bright source of light in the middle of the glass chamber. Walter chuckled – “Go on in miss!” 

Step after step, a loud clang of her heels on the factory metal flooring echoed through the otherwise empty and quiet room. Jothan followed her, but his steps, as always, quiet like a cat’s, his gaze fixated on the glass chamber. Eli stopped and a gasp echoed through the room, followed by a loud buzz of electricity, and a maniacal chuckle from Walter coming from behind – “Heheheheehe! Yess! We have summoned an elemental” he said as he walked up beside her.

Inside the glass chamber floated a little spark, it looked no more than a shiny ball, but it constantly discharged electricity. Arching to the metal mesh on the inside of the chamber, with an occasional powerful discharge, causing a fairly loud buzzing. Her face twisted into a grin and she nodded – “Excellent!” Walter grabbed a stapled pile of papers from a table near the wall and brought it to her. She glanced at it ‘Elemental summon one, report’

She took it and read over the table of contents of the report before flipping to pages of interest to her, namely ‘duration of the experiment’ and ‘power produced’. Upon skimming over those, her face shifted to that of disappointment – “this.. Lesser elemental as you call it, is only capable of producing mere 60 volts?” 

Walter nodded – “yes miss Jedidiah… We are exploring changing the ritual to summon either elemental of fire or steam to use within our steam engines, rather than replacing the engines and generators with spark elemental.” he said and scratched the back of his head. Upon pondering for a moment, she handed the papers back to the researched and approached the glass chamber – “Still… to think we have succeeded and a summoning ritual, father will be pleased” 

She was taken to the ‘Sesata assembly and machinery’ warehouse next. It was loud inside, as one would expect of a workshop. Several factories were built within a single hangar, a complete and independent manufacturing facility, state-of-the-art technology. Painted guidelines and metal ‘road’ outside the safety walking markings decorated the industrial floors. They ventured straight to the assembly hall. Just before opening the door, Walter stopped and turned to face her 

“Miss Jedidiah, it is my greatest pleasure to inform you that the assembly of the project Sesata is at 80% completion” Jothan grinned – “Excellent to hear, Walter” Eli turned to face Jothan for a brief second before turning back to Walter – “completion of Sesata is essential in securing our position as a world power and reassuring that the Ailletus federation doesn’t consider invading us Walter. It is a pleasure to hear that! Staying ahead of the estimated schedule is wonderful!”

He chuckled – “A world power we shall be, miss” He said as he swung the door open to a massive room. Inside the assembly room, several cranes hung off the ceilings, with constant hammering, buzzing, sparks from welding, and shouting. The crew was working in full swing. Eli stared upon the project Sesata which now towered before her, in the middle of the room, Jothan stood beside her, only an audible swallow could be heard from him. 

Before her stood a tracked vehicle, towering no less than 8 meters tall. A titan of unimaginable size and firepower. A small castle on tracks. Shaped like a star bunker with 6 points, cannons coming out of every point, on top of the star bunker, a dome that could open up, housing inside itself a weapon powerful enough to wipe an army from existence, the steam cannon. She grinned madly as she observed the work for a while. Walter – “The interior can house 100 soldiers, and required 20 personnel to operate, do you wish to see the interior?”

She chuckled lightly – “with this, we shall be, undeniably, the mightiest nation on this continent! We’ll station it at the border with Ailettus such that they never even think of invading us” Jothan’s mouth, gaping open, unable to mutter a single word as he watched the crew working on welding this monstrosity before him. Eli nodded at Walter – “I’ll abstain from a tour for now, have no time for that. We need an engine powerful enough to move this beast” 

Walter nodded – “We have created a new composite allow capable of withholding the pressures necessary to provide enough power for that, but the problem is the generation of that kind of immense pressure, hence why we shall try to summon fire or steam elemental, miss” She turned around – “You have another 3 months until a demonstration is required by my father, I advise you hurry up” she left the facility and returned to her palace. 

Months passed and unrest grew. Ailettus had been reportedly piling forces on the border with the Waris empire. Tensions grew between the Waris empire and the Ailettus federation due to the rising risk and leakage of the sesata project to the public. A rat was in the inner circles and they were hard-pressed to find said rat before the project got sabotaged. Most days, Eli and Jothan spent in the Sesata project grounds, keeping everything in order and safeguarding the project intel personally.

Still, information seemingly leaked and suspicions arose within the engineer’s corps. The crew working on assembly and development, the chief engineer, and even the princess herself fell under the suspicion and were interrogated by the intelligence agency of the Waris empire. Displeased by this ghost hunt, Eli Jediddiah ordered all personnel within the facility to remain on-site until the project is complete. As it was nearing completion. The day after tomorrow is to see the next summoning attempt. 

The staff, while unhappy, were mostly soldiers who did not resist an order from the princess of the empire. The days passed and seemingly no intel leaked out, but the troop gathering on the border, by Ailettus continued. The day of summoning had come, and a successful one it was. Before them, in the glass chamber in the testing chambers #2, now stood a shapeless shape, a figure comprised of nothing but mist, steam to be precise. 

Researchers rejoiced as the ritual altering worked and months of work came to fruition. The final task was to place the elemental inside the engine chamber such that it would control the steam and increase the pressure, per their estimates, 10x, in attempts to break out of its prison. Everything seemed to be in order, everything seemed to be on track to succeed. Everything, except one thing, the rat was still not found. Guards were placed in the assembly room of the steel beast to guard it day and night. 

Jothan was reported to Eli, seen entering the testing chambers where the elementals were. This was nothing unusual as he was her personal assistant, yet still, per her orders, everyone entering the testing chambers or the assembly warehouse were to be reported to her personally, without informing anybody else. The next morning, she summoned him into her room. A knock on the door followed by a stern “come in”. 

She put some paperwork aside and looked him in the eyes “Jothan, it was brought to my attention that you’ve been frequenting the testing chambers and assembly room in the past 2 days. Is there a reason for that?” Jothan smiled confidently, not a hint of hesitation in his voice, or honest expression – “Miss, you’ve been quite overworked. I’m just personally tending to the matters at hand and reassuring security is tight and always on their posts.”

She squinted at him, staring into his eyes – “and?” he nodded – “all is in order miss. I’ve not seen any abnormalities or suspicious behaviors among the personnel or the security.” she picked up the paper form she previously sat aside and returned her focus to it – “dismissed.” Jothan bowed – “Yes miss, the final assembly is set to begin in 4 hours” She did not respond, her focus was on the paper form she was filling out. 

The time has come, the steam chamber for the massive steam engine to power the mighty war machine was brought into test chamber #2 where the steam elemental was held captive. The creature, through intricate tubes, was forcefully transferred inside the new chamber, a smaller and sturdier chamber. Not at last it was to be installed in the machine and its engines were to roar to life for the first time. 

The installation process went well and the creature was installed. The furnace was lit and the water was poured. The operations crew were in positions, curtains were lifted and the hangar doors swung wide open. The engine began to slowly growl to life as the water turned to steam, and the steam turned to power, moving the mighty large pistons of the engine of the war machine, known as the project Sesata. 

The machine rumbled to life, the engines coughed and the machinery creaked. Squeaks and rumbles. The entire warehouse shook when a loud explosion was heard, the main piston was now active, the machine was ready to roll. The steel beast growled and howled as the operators switched the levers into positions to propel this monstrosity forth. It faced the massive hangar doors, which were now open, leading to the outside. 

Princess Eli Jedidiah watched the beast creak as it began to slowly roll. “A huge success” said she, beginning to walk towards the stairs to descend down to the main floor and follow the war machine to the outside testing ground. At first, all seemed fine as the beast’s driving test began. The crew watched the gauges closely, reassuring that all was in order, before putting the machine through its paces. It was not the fastest machine in the world, but it rolled with confidence.

Through flat grounds and hills. Its wide, thick tracks made it easy for it to drive through mud and puddles too. A mighty war machine showed no signs of hesitation, truly a miracle of engineering and creation. Powered by a summoned elemental, operated by 20 men crew. The star’s points swung open, the cannons emerged from them, it was a weapon firing test. Able to fire in any direction, it had practically no blind spots where it shouldn’t shoot. 

At last, the steam cannon’s testing time had come. The iron dome unfolded, revealing a massive cannon stationed on the top of the star-shaped bunker. The cannon was mounted on a rotating platform, capable of 360 degree rotation, operated by 2 crew members, a massive cannonball was loaded in through the back with use of an elevator, and then pressure began to grow within the firing chambers. 

The crew by the cannon watched the gauges as the pressure slowly but steadily raised. The other crew member rotated the cannon towards a bunker built on a hill about 500 meters away. He checked his sights and the wind direction, dialing in on a variety of levers and gauges “AIM SET!” yelled the cannoneer. “Pressure still low” responded the 2nd man.

Princess, Jothan, Walter, and a hundred or so men who worked on the assembly or were guards at the facility, watched with anticipation, waiting for the city-busting cannon to fire it’s first shot. A weapon of theory, powerful enough to blast through any bunker or city wall at a distance of up to 2km, fired from a short distance of 500 should obliterate the bunker. “TEN!!! NINE!!! EIGHT….” shouted the gunner of the massive cannon

As the countdown reached 3, suddenly the iron beast began to roll backward – “HALT! HALT!!!” shouted the gunner from the cannon’s position, but the beast continued to roll. A loud creak, and left tracks locked up as the right continued to roll, turning sesata’s massive cannon to face the hangar in which it was created – “HALT I SAID!” Demanded the gunner but the machine continued its movement. 

“TSOOOOO” hissed the steam exhaust valves. “ONSSSSS” hissed the steam exhaust valves again. In the time when the machine began to roll, Jothan, retreated from his position beside the princess. While all others were focused on the machine, he was focused on his escape. A perfect distraction for him to make his retreat and get to safety. A loud hiss, a loud boom, followed by dozens of screams and shrieks. Sounds of metal tearing through metal, metal collapsing on itself. The machine fired 

Without command, seemingly on its own the machine began to roll towards the hangar once more. The men inside, the operational crew panicked! Drivers pulled hard on braking levers, but none of it did anything more than stall the machine for a short couple of seconds every time. A steam pipe hissed as it ruptured inside the command room. A small leak at first, which grew. Hot steam flooded the control room forcing the crew to evacuate

They ran for their lives in an attempt to escape the seemingly sentient machine. Pipes in their path ruptured, seemingly trying to stop or hurt them, as they hurt it. The machine rolled through the hanger, sowing death and destruction in its path, and then through the other hangar, where the spark elemental was still held captive. Upon destruction of its glass chambers, the spark got absorbed by the machine’s electrical grid, as the machine rolled towards the fences. 

Having destroyed both facilities and killed most of the crew that worked on it, it made its way towards a foresty region, where Jothan awaited. The heavy machine growled to a halt as it approached Jothan who in turn grinned – “Wonderful, truly, a weapon of mass destruction. An indestructible bunker, now controlled by 2 elementals.”

He took out his comb and combed his hair back, fixing it, and then grinned confidently – “now, as per the agreement, I helped you escape, now you either destroy this machine and become free or ride to Ailettus with me to seek revenge on the horrible Waris empire that treated you both so poorly. 

In the next 5 years, Ailettus federation conquered the Waris empire that fell into a state of civil war. With the help of the project sesata, they ceased key points and dominance without facing much resistance. Under their control was the first, autonomous machine which sparked a whole new technological generation.

In the future, Ailettus empire paved way for the standardized summoning of the elementals until they at last established a connection between their world and the elemental realm. Working together for the mutual benefit, elementals powered their machines and automated their technology, in turn, humans provided them with power and resources that elements craved. Leading to rapid technological growth. 

A society, with the most unique technology. Eventually, they became known as the Apparatus cultores, a human society that lived alongside elementals and sentient – elemental-controlled machines.