So-called "Battle Studies"

Dear Readers,

When Twitter was up, an upcoming album by someone named John Mayer--all right, fine, I do remember him from when I was alive--made it onto the trending topics. This reminded me that I've been meaning to write something about battle strategies in neo-Aegea.

Of course, I really do not know that much about the society at the time this is written. I know that later I will write more, and become the preeminent scholar of that civilization and its time stream, but for now I do not have the expertise yet.

What I can tell you follows. First, neo-Aegea, or "Aegea" to its residents, is a place different from Earth. It exists in the future, from your perspective. Don't worry, I'm not giving you "spoilers" for reality. If you want your time to get there, you still have to figure out how.

Neo-Aegean society is also entirely underwater. This leads to interesting implications for warfare.

Neo-Aegea's inhabitants will have technology far beyond yours, including advanced weapons and genetic engineering. However, it's clear to me that for at least the first millenium of its existence, the civilization there will lose most understanding of its advances, and simply take them for granted. At least, I believe that is what will happen.

Part of this technnology appears to be robust, genetically engineered soldiers. It seems that they will be developed over time. It seems the first generation will be called Spartoí, and will not be much different than growth-accelerated clones. Their name, of course, betrays this society's heavy Greek cultural influence. I believe that this week, my "Day in the Life" post may focus on the rank and file lives of these early soldiers.

The second generation of soldiers I know far less about, except that they exist. During their time, however, I begin to hear more words relating to larger military organization. A hierarchical structure based on powers of two arises at this time. The Phalanx sits at the top of this military organizational pyramid, commanded by Admirals called Nauarchi.

We know much more about the third generation of soldiers, the Thalassians. Named for the goddess Thalassa, or so I suppose, they are a seamless marriage of human genetics and machine technology. How these Thalassians arose from a Dark Age is something that I do not yet understand, but I will endeavor to find the answer. For now, all I have is an image of massive, muscular, steel-blue amphibians swimming in clouds and descending on one another underwater, as harpoons and fiery fluids fly between the two sides. I can think of little more terrifying than these descriptions of Thalassians in battle.

Always,

Dr. John Skylar
Chairman
Department of Anachronism
University of Constantinople