Chains to the Sky

[Marshal Murat]

Chapter 1 Links

Marcus Plaetes was not smiling. He never seemed to smile. His face was like a drooping racoon. Large black spots surrounded his deep set black eyes. Clammy skin drooped at his cheeks, and wrinkles covered his forehead, scruffy black hair across his head.
Standing on the large platform of copper that crowned the tower of Plaetopolis. The city was floating like all Aira cities. This city was the same build as all Aira cities, a large disk with a bubble of copper expanding from below, filled with helium. The upper part of the disk consists of the city itself, houses, inns, and ports. In the center, a large tower with numerous rooms. At the top, the platform usually used to observe the night sky.

Dressed in the evening toga of white, he stood surveying the three men before him. One was squat, muscular, and a wolf skin covering his back. The other was somewhat tree like, brown hair, tanned, with green tattoos covering his upper torso, which was thin and sickly. The last was a plump man, dressed in an attempt at a toga, which was thick flannel.
"We must stop, the Algari slaves don't work, the men rebel by not mining!" cries the squat man.
"No doubt, because you whip them half to death!" replies the tree man.
"Your slaves, you don't deserve to have any say!"
"We are still people"
"Your property." the plump man replies, shifting slightly in place. Looking dark, Marcus motions over the Algari man. Walking over, he looks Marcus in the eyes.
"Bastard" he mutters, thrusting a knife into the ribcage. Coughing, the man falls backwards.
"Don't let this happen again Monagi. Take this corpse and place it on a crucifix, display him to the slaves." Marcus mutters. Walking downstairs, he is followed by the plump man.
"What if this fails" he asks, somewhat hesitant.
"Then we crucify another, then another, and if they all die, then we conquer some nameless island, enslave the people, and then force them to mine" Marcus replies, sitting down, facing the plump man.
"You know the Timbri have declared protection for the 'nameless' islands, we would have to declare war!"
"Maybe you could lose a few pounds" Marcus looks down at the map of Aira, a loose scatter of dots imposed on a massive continent. He knew below, there were people dying from the wipe, but if they were to weak to fall under Aira control, then they are not good enough to live among the clouds.


Three hundred years ago, the Aira were one of the many tribes on the Aira continent. Deciding they were superior, they had conquerored the many tribes on the continent. Using airships, they enslaved many. However, when the slaves rebelled, the Aira were forced to flee upwards. Crushing the rebellion, they had found the stone Helioa in one of the cities burnt down.
The stone, when burned creates helium. Ever since then, they had taken to the skies, building massive cities among the clouds. Linked to the ground by twelve chains, airships shuttle people around the cities. Below, the slaves work the mines, and build the air cities, and airships.

Now, three tribes had turned against slavery, believing in "equality" and had been punished. Now other tribes had turned against their overlords.

[Monk]

Good start Marshal Murat .

looking forward to more (so i can properly nit pick ). but seriously, i look forward to the next chapter

[Marshal Murat]

Aggri Moraa was tired, and sore. Sore from the helioa mines, the rock, although made up of helium, was heavy. Very heavy. From sunrise to sunset, he had worked endlessly among the mines of a ruined city. Every city built after the Great Rebellion was burned to the ground, and only there seemed to be helioa the precious stone.
Sitting around, numerous slaves had staked themselves into posts, the ground, or carts, refusing to work. Beaten, and beaten, they had been and not had they moved. Aggri didn't care. It freed up food in the mess hall, and beds in the barracks. Lately, many of those that had worked were allowed to get four or five cots and make a larger bed out of them.
Already the stench of death surrounded the mines of Algariana. Those that died staked to something, or Algari Ubera, stabbed and then crucified at the entrance to the main mine. Others had been crucified as well, those that lived moaned in pain in front of the mines.
Large and muscular, Aggri didn't care about this equality. He knew as soon as war was launched, the Aira didn't care if you were a slave or freeman, you were drafted into the navy, and sent in against the enemies of the sky.

The Aira were known to call it "Auxilita" after the founder of the war to freedom paper, Auxilta. Knowing the greatest motivator was freedom, Auxilta drafted a paper, saying that any slave who was of strong stature, and well could serve in the navy, and fight for his freedom. That had inspired many a boy to join the navy during the wars, and few came home.

Suddenly appearing, his son, Barris, a boy of thirteen, short and spindly. The work hadn't made him stronger.
"Father, have you heard?" he inquired in a sheep's sigh of a voice?
"What my son, what have you heard?"
"The Aira have launched a suprise war against the Iscalindia!"
"Iscalindia, the harbor city state?"
"Yes father"
Waiting a couple of seconds, he stood looking away
"Freedom", he whispered slowly.


Marcus watched as the disc rose slowly, a new prototype, a military polis. The same size as a regular city, the polis seemed flipped upside down. The copper bubble was facing to the sun, glittering like a jewel. The underside was a jungle of cannons, bomb doors, and turrets.
Marcus couldn't be happier, despite his very solemn face. Iscalindia had been attacked. Near Utopolis, that harbor had always provided Timbri with submarines. Now it had been surrounded, to be tested by the new polis Milespolis. Ordered to take command, Marcus was more than happy to leave and fight against the barbarians below. On the bridge of his flagship Lycurgus, a war airship.

Aira airships had three designs. Transport airships were simple, with a larger bag, and little habitable room, with four engines.
War airships were larger than that, with a box iron hull with two large engines, and two banks of breech loading artillery with a range of two miles, fired straight. The bridge was at the front of the iron hull, with a blast shield for when they enter combat.
Lastly were "Motherships", large airships with a very large bag, and four clamps for the hulls of war airships. Inside, massive loads of helioa rocks to burn for a liter of helium.

Milespolis was innovative, as it could house eight motherships in the hull, along with the accompaning war airships, or sixteen war airships. The Aira were ready for war. Pacing the deck, Marcus was dressed in the knee length blue navy tunic, with a pair of bracae on underneath because of the lack of heat. Descending, his airship would meet the new ship, Marcus waited to meet the Milespolis.
It was like a toy, something new he had not tinkered with. A big boy toy, a manly toy, a war toy. He could envision the terror of the Milespolis over Iscalindia, the fun of bombarding from above. This is what all Aira nobles and leaders enjoyed the most. Being superior, above the rest of the world.
Superiority.

[Ludens]

This is a good start, Marshal Murat. It certainly looks like a very interesting story.

I do have a few comments though. Firstly, there is a lot of grammatical and style errors in your story. Are you posting this straight away? I would recommend you to wait some time before posting. This way you can reread the text and spot the errors you missed when you wrote it.

Secondly, I like the setting of the story, but I would like to know more about it. You describe the flying city in just a few words: perhaps you can expand on it and give me an idea how it looks.

Thirdly, the thing all your previous stories lacked was an identifiable main character. You stayed rather distant to the characters and the stories did not last long enough for the readers to feel for them. War of the Heavens was better, but still I think you should add more emotion to your stories.

I hope you found this helpful.