The sounds of the ocean's tides waved in the noticeably more coastal air around. Company warships lingered in the coast's horizon afar, Company transport ships lingered in the iconic bay area of Coastfield's once grand port and coastal district, people and supplies being faired to the ashen shores…by smaller boats.

Volunteers, soldiers, marines, and sailors…were hard at work…their many noises echoing both close and afar. The foreigner wandered across the ash and despoiled ruins…of the area that had been hit the most…the area that had become the epicenter of that fire-tide.

Indeed, the coastal districts were hardly even ruins compared to all the rest of the inner-city; this area had been…thoroughly and utterly obliterated. It had not just been shelled by those 'heavy monitor' or 'artillery' ships but had also been directly 'broadsided' by warships.

Truly…it was very evident to the Company that there was nothing here to even rebuild; the Company's port, dockyards, logistic and supply hubs, all such strategically relevant things…had to be constructed anew. Something…which could not be done…until basic infrastructure had been reestablished in the inner-city…which was something that could not happen until…the ruins had been cleared of debris, rubble, bodies, and…toxic ash.

Though, speaking of bodies…the grand port and coastal districts being…the epicenter of that fire-tide…there were hardly any bodies to be found, for anyone even remotely close had become one with the endless sea of ash. Thus, the foreigner…even though her task was to patrol, explore, collect any remains stumbled upon…the wagon trailing behind her, being driven by a rather indifferent mule, remained empty.

Though… Hmm… The foreigner paused in her wandering; she could see the coast clearly; she could see…the bay area… Hmm…a bombardment from the sea; that was what had happened…

Hmm… Something had been bothering her about all of this, ever since she was dispatched and could actually…observe the epicenter.

Hmm… Well she had double-triple patrolled the area she was…assigned and given that she had found no bodies, she decided to…wander about and investigate. Paying attention to the details around, paying attention to the…patterns of damage around…piecing together the development of the fire-tide based off of the distribution of how utterly despoiled areas around were—how much of it was glass and ash…versus rubble and debris. Such did…have a pattern to them, even if faint and hard to see.

She followed a trail…that did not exist, but one she…began to infer…pavement becoming more disformed and glassed, the fire-tide's violence increasing…as she followed its echoes.

Eventually, the foreigner's…hunches and inferences led her to stumbling into a spot, a singular large spot and area…right near and around the coastal districts…but not exactly within them, a bit deeper into the inner-city. She approached and investigated…what appeared to be…what used to be…a rather large…fat and wide…building of sorts. It immediately became clear to her…that quite the boom had happened here, and also quite the fire.

The pavement and streets around…were…the most despoiled she had seen thus far…thoroughly and utterly…glassed. There was hardly any rubble and debris at all, besides…metal that had clearly been melted and hardened…intermixing with ash and other compounds. It was all just…thoroughly and utterly charred…toxic ash and glass.

Though, it was not simply burned down. No… The more she investigated, the more it became even more clear… That pieces, fragments, chunks…of metal…were scattered about…the same kinds found in that former-building. The depressions in the ground... were already evidence enough, but this only...further confirmed her hunch…that a big boom had likely happened here, one that…blew the building apart.

Hmm…interesting…she approached further…stepping into it all, her boots sinking into the toxic and putrid ashen ground… Hmm… This feeling… This ground was… Hmm… She took off one of her gloves…in a breach of conduct, before…sticking her finger into the ash below, deeper and deeper… Nothing…

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Before, suddenly, zap—her finger was zapped.

« Aeja… » she muttered out as she retracted her finger, waving her hand somewhat; ouch. Statically charged ash—very weird… But this ash was clearly not at all normal; it was a product of a violent and arcane-augmented combustion and reactive conversion process…with carbon-based compounds.

Hmm…those 'demon-flames' themselves had already appeared…oddly charged, but to think…that even the strange ash produced had statically conductive properties. Hmm… Though, that was besides the point. Why was the ash…here…statically charged? No where else was this the case.

Hmm… Concentration.

That was the hunch she was getting…from all of this. This area had an immense concentration of that 'demon-fire', even if it was…hard to tell, given how…despoiled everything else around was…

Hmm…

"You there!" suddenly a voice shouted; the foreigner…immediately fixed her posture as she stood straight as a twig, turning her attention…to the arriving officer. "What are you doing here?" the Company officer interrogated.

"…ehm…my job?" the foreigner replied; "I was looking for the bodies…"

"You won't find any here" the officer immediately remarked, lambasting; "and besides, did you not notice the signings?! This area is too dangerous; no one without permission is allowed… The Company will deal with this area on its own accord."

"…I did not…notice the signs; I give the sorry…" she replied.

The officer sighed, "no matter. Just be on your way, volunteer…we have plenty of work needing to be done."

The foreigner acknowledged, before promptly…departing away. She returned to her wagon and mule and began to make way…back to where she was…supposed to be. Upon returning, she went back…to…staring at the coast.

Hmm…

Bombardment…from the sea… Broadsided… From her understanding of primitive affairs a 'broadside' was a linear firing trajectory… Right, those warships in the distance had…cannons mounted on their sides…

Then there was the actual…shelling, which had been done at an arched trajectory…like artillery.

Hmm… She had observed the Company setting up their fortifications and positions…back when she was being funneled around; so, she was able to observe…the Company's artillery compositions… They had cannons, howitzers, and 'siege guns'…which were rather large.

Given the extensive range of the shelling, those 'heavy monitors' must have had…ordnances. Though… The cannons…used by their warships did not have the same…range, thus…had to be closer…to the shores, but not too close…because the bay area constrained…their line formation… Right… Lines were key in these primitives' warfare, evident by the line of Company ships in the horizon.

Their cannons also used different…shells than siege guns and howitzers, and she only observed the Company load…specialized shells into howitzers, not cannons… But of course, different primitives had different…well…things, thus variances.

Hmm… The shelling itself was all over the city but concentrated in some areas yet…not enough to…do whatever damage she had seen done to that building.

Indeed, she recounted…she recalled…the patterns of those thuds and booms, connecting dots and pieces together. Within that forty-seconds, she inferred that…100 to 120 shells were fired in total… Hmm… From this she extrapolated…given the repetition of the thuds…and the gap of time between each cycle of thuds and given the fact…that not many ships could form up properly due to the tight bay, she inferred…

Those 20 to 24 ships would have to be…smaller than their base-warships, hmm… And due to their arched firing capabilities…could be behind or…in between but… Hmm, no, no… Those ships moved in lines…thus needed to maintain that…then they could…

Ugh, primitive warfare was not at her domain, most especially naval warfare—she was not a Red-Coat, she was a Violet-Coat.

But the point still stood: the foreigner was unconvinced that the bombardment could have done nearly as much damage on its own…to cause the entire horizon of the coast…to burn the way she remembered it burning. One-hundred shells concentrated but largely scattered about…just did not create…seem to…add up to what ended up happening.

Likewise, that 'demon-fire'—those strange ordnances… Apparently that fire was once used by…that so-called 'Demon-King' of these lands, the Far West having…reversed-engineered it. The United Central Trade Company, from her understanding, was the permanent link between the Far West and…these lands. Following with this…if other Far Western entities had such demon-fire shells, what reason did she have to not infer that the Company…also had such things? And given that Coastfield had been…an important military, supply, and logistic station for the Company…

Indeed, it was reasonable that they could have stored such here…in bulk.

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