Ch.322Side Story. Steam and Colony (5)

One day, a rumor—one that would shock the entire continent of Europa—began to spread.

The rumor claimed that in Britannia, the island nation dominating Europa’s maritime supremacy, not only had an entire colony fallen to rebel forces, but when troops were sent to suppress the rebellion, they too were utterly defeated.

While the general public cheered at the fact that Britannia—which had consistently committed various unpopular acts while pretending to be righteous—had finally gotten what it deserved, the intellectuals and leadership of various nations who truly understood the situation regarded this as an extremely serious problem.

The forces sent to suppress the colonial rebellion were not only powerful, but their commanders were selected for their competence and skill. Yet they hadn’t merely been annihilated—not a single person had returned alive.

Some wondered what kind of rebels could cause such a disaster, but what truly terrified these wicked and ill-mannered imperialists was the fear of colonial secession.

“If you have mouths, speak up, you Conservative lords!!”

“How dare a Labour Party with only three seats raise its voice?!!”

“What?!! Who do you think you are?!! I challenge you to a duel! Come outside right now!!”

The fundamental cause that plunged both the House of Commons and the House of Lords of the United Kingdom of Britannia into chaos was that Europa’s current prosperity and abundance were built on a foundation of contradictions, barely sustained by exploiting resources from external colonies.

After the accidental invention of the steam engine, Europa had developed its entire territory based on this technology, but the resources consumed in this process eventually exceeded what could be produced within their territories.

Precious metals like copper and zinc were consumed in overwhelming quantities and quickly depleted throughout the continent. Even the supposedly abundant iron ore and coal were no longer being mined within Europa—an unprecedented situation.

In particular, while iron ore might have been plentiful enough in some other human history to never be depleted on a continental scale, for Europa, whose geological composition differed from that other world, this was truly a terrible catastrophe.

Of course, metal resources could at least be recycled by melting down existing products, but the real problem lay with resources like coal that couldn’t be properly recycled once consumed.

Moreover, if the colonies broke away, the entire continent of Europa would have to worry about where tomorrow’s food would come from.

While environmental pollution resulting from industrial revolution driven by steam engine development is almost a constant, the pollution in Europa—leading the industrial revolution in this steampunk world—was particularly severe.

To put it bluntly, in the process of industrializing the entire country, not a single environment remained intact.

Smoke from factories plastered across the entire country and various household steam engines covered Europa’s skies. On days with heavy fog, massive smog would form, killing tens to hundreds of people.

In the United Kingdom of Britannia, which stood at the pinnacle of this smog phenomenon, there were children who had never seen a clear sky in their lives. Naturally, the land and water were also terribly polluted.

Outside the cities, the land was so severely damaged that most plants were either withering yellow or dying. The state of rivers and coastal waters where factory wastewater was indiscriminately discharged had long since caused the death of “all” fish and aquatic life forms.

Attempting to farm using such water resources was impossible since the land, water, and air were all polluted. Consequently, Europa had come to rely on colonies for food resources like grain and livestock—and even timber.

About two-thirds of Europa’s citizens subsisted on food sent from the colonies—bread and meat in lead-soldered cans. All luxury foods were replaced with canned fruits, and even water had to be purchased in cans.

This was because excessive mining development had contaminated the entire country with mining toxins, polluting even the underground water table, turning it into heavy metal-laden water full of lead and mercury.

So, with slight exaggeration, in this situation where losing colonies could mean collective death from lack of drinkable water, having failed once to prevent colonial independence, they could hardly hide their concern that “news of colonial independence might spread to other colonies.”

The one small consolation was that the colony Britannia had lost wasn’t a special food-producing colony but rather one that produced a variety of goods like other colonies.

The only special production facility it had was a rubber tree plantation, and even that wasn’t particularly large compared to other more established colonies.

But this was far from reassuring for the nations of Europa. Like the imperialist powers facing the newly established Soviet Union, these nations, gripped by madness, simply could not leave that independent colony in the southwestern Aporacha alone.

“Let us begin the meeting. The first topic is—”

Just as the foreign ministers of Europa’s colonial powers gathered to discuss a joint response—

“—Breaking news! The neighboring colony has been invaded! Colonial forces annihilated! Communication with the governor’s office has been cut off!!”

While Europa’s powers were tied up for various political and diplomatic reasons, the independent colony, calling itself the “Colonial Liberation Army,” attacked Aporacha’s colonies, annihilating colonial forces and beginning to topple governors’ offices.

“W-what…?!! Isn’t that just a false rumor…?!!”

“No, it is not!! This information has already been cross-verified by the intelligence department!!”

And the military power of the “Colonial Liberation Army” revealed in this process was sufficient to shock Europa’s powers.

First, the majority of the Colonial Liberation Army’s forces consisted of liberation militia trained from locals burning with hatred and vengeance. For better or worse, their combat effectiveness was exactly at the militia level, as their name suggested.

They would be at a disadvantage in a direct confrontation with the front-line infantry of this era, who underwent rigorous training and were armed with breastplates and thick anti-knife coats. But instead, these militia had overwhelming numbers, tremendous passion, and suspiciously good equipment.

While they couldn’t supply breastplates, they could provide uniform-like clothes and firearms to everyone, and they had replaced hands cut off by those evil colonial powers with special prosthetics.

The overwhelming morale stemming from their hatred and anger to sweep away those invaders without leaving a single one transformed them into revolutionary warriors dedicated to killing colonial powers. With such revolutionary warriors in great numbers, no mere colonial army could stop them.

Additionally, the mechanical soldiers, the elite troops of the “Colonial Liberation Army,” might sound like invincible warriors from rumors alone, but even when only verified information was considered, their level surpassed the elite troops of the powers, reaching an overwhelming realm.

Rumors about soldiers with their entire bodies mechanically modified had already been verified as true through the examination of one of their corpses, but the analysis results were enough to explode the already chaotic leadership of the powers.

“H-how, how is this possible…?!!”

“…What’s wrong, Doctor?”

“They’re at least 500 years ahead! No, this is fundamentally different from our technology! It’s like technology from ‘a world without any magic’!”

Despite being researched at Europa’s finest university, the technology was deemed impossible to interpret—too advanced and fundamentally different at its core.

The technology used was judged to be at least 500 years ahead, meaning the gap was like a mobile phone thrown to someone from the Joseon Dynasty.

And what shocked them most was something else entirely.

“…What?!! Bipedal war machines?!”

“Y-yes!! They’re more than twice the size of our 24ft Steam Knights! And there are more than 10 of them!!”

Bipedal war machines easily exceeding 50ft, or about 16 meters in height, had appeared in a rural colony, and dozens of colonial governors’ offices had collapsed because of them.

To compare the shock Europa’s powers received, it was as if some African warlord suddenly brought a space battleship and launched orbital bombardments.

While they were confused and in disarray, the Colonial Liberation Army liberated more than half of Aporacha’s colonies and began binding them together as one force. Finally, the powers felt a genuine sense of crisis and rarely united.

They decided to mobilize their naval forces—the only area where they could still confidently claim superiority—to launch a large-scale amphibious operation on the coast of Callipolis near the Colonial Liberation Army’s base.