Vitalik's Sci-Fi Novel "Snow Moon" Chapters 28-29

Chapter 28

Merdan, Viridia · 3724 Frosttime 15

In the conference room, Zey, Den, Bai, and Mu sat around a table.

They heard the door. They immediately paused their conversation and waited to see who would come in.

The door opened. It was Vildor.

"We have a guest."

"Who is it?" Zey asked.

"One of the generals. Actually, one of the few I respect. I ran an analysis through Emerald, and everything I got on him was very positive."

"What does he want?"

"To talk. About the ongoing case."

"Of course, we'd be happy to speak with him," Bai replied. "Is he here now?"

"He is."

"Then let him in."

A middle-aged man walked into the room. He wore a shirt designed almost perfectly, striking a balance between looking like a traditional Viridian military uniform and being suitable for everyday wear.

"I'm Lekto," he announced. "Pleased to meet you."

Zey was about to respond when Den signaled him to stay quiet.

"I'm Den. This is Zey, Mu, and Bai. Welcome."

Lekto walked in and sat down on an empty chair.

"Listen," he began, "I want to understand what you're actually thinking."

"This is the first time in Viridian history that anyone has tried to get a court to dismiss senior government officials. It seems insane. I know people are frustrated, but you're trying to dismiss the entire military leadership. That way you won't have a capable army."

Then he stopped.

"But... I know people are frustrated. We've seen the same Silver Tongue polls as everyone else."

"So what are you thinking?"

Den began to speak.

"Are you familiar with the operation to rescue Tafindel?"

"Of course. We've been trying to piece together what actually happened."

"That was us—Kungope. We rescued him together with two Free City defense companies."

Lekto's jaw dropped.

"Wait, you were there? How many of you are there?"

"A few dozen of us. I'm one of the senior council members. Zey and Mu over there commanded in person, operating alongside me."

"I see..."

Lekto paused.

"So what's your plan? Take personal control of Viridia's drone fleet and use it to retake the North Shore?"

"I know it's not a very polite plan. But you have to understand. We're desperate. The Arctic Empire is expanding. They clearly plan to target you before they target us: you're more advanced, and our defensive preparations are better. So we think the Arctic wants to wipe out Viridia entirely within the next year or even sooner. Then they'll take the United City-States one by one, then head south to clean up Messalia and Haragmir, or just bomb them to save time. We can defend ourselves well with what we have, but we're actually heavily dependent on your most advanced technology, so we need to unite now."

"You can't just requisition an army like picking up a new car and driving it. Our soldiers, including our commanders and generals, have worked together for years, trained together. They know Viridia's logistics inside and out. They know how many new drones we can produce, what's needed, what you can do with Helis aircraft if you have to convert them into drones. They have over a thousand drone pilots, plus thousands of various support personnel. And with only a few dozen advisors from your side, you'd have to let almost all drones fly on AI alone, and they'd get disoriented, and the Arctic would deceive them at the first opportunity."

"I know we failed completely on the North Shore, but you can't just throw away everything we've built. Even the command structure—that's a system they spent years磨合ing into shape. You can't just tear it down and replace it and expect to get a good result."

Bai felt the conversation was drifting off track and saw her opportunity to step in.

"Lekto," Bai began. "We actually don't want to wipe out the top three layers of Viridia's military hierarchy. Even if we could transfer all one thousand of our Mingpengtai players tomorrow and have them successfully pilot your entire drone fleet, and somehow solve all the logistics problems, the court case would still take over three months to complete. We don't have that time. So that was never our plan."

"Then what is your plan?"

"We want people like you to step in and help."

Lekto responded with silence.

"Even the most criticized and hated institutions are never as hopeless and incompetent as social media makes them out to be. We know that. But at the same time, they can also fall into an unhealthy state. And your situation is the toughest: you have to shift the paradigm from peacetime to wartime, at a time when many generals may be receiving bribes or being blackmailed by the Arctic. We know this is true—our backdoor surveillance cameras have already caught several. So we don't want to wipe out the military, but we also know we can't keep it as it is."

"So I think you have an opportunity to step up. You're respected by all sides. I verified this when you and Zey talked. Consistently high ratings within the military and within the council, and among different people of different personality types and different political factions. I think you should consider proposing to the council that you take over and manage things. We can work with you within your structure."

Den, Zey, and Mu immediately nodded. This line of argument hadn't originally been in their plan, but they all recognized it as the right pivot.

Lekto pondered for a moment, then responded again. "You've kept silent about the fact that you came here yourselves. Even among all the people who are excited about the idea of Kungope managing Viridia's military and voted for it in polls, everyone thinks it's just a fantasy. If I start saying I can manage things with your support, wouldn't that expose your identity? Even in a closed-door meeting, if the council is as corrupt as you say, the information would leak to the Arctic."

This time, Mu spoke up.

"Don't tell them about us. We have some exploits targeting Arctic drones that we can share with you. The ones targeting the Arctic themselves are outdated—so if the Arctic finds out, that's actually better, it'll help them lower their guard. But these exploits are very effective against the damaged drones you managed to recover from the North Shore two months ago. You can present these results as your own discoveries."

Lekto stared again. They know about the damaged drones? How have they infiltrated Viridia so thoroughly? If Kungope can do this, then the Arctic...

"Oh, we can also tell you about a general taking bribes. We have clear evidence, surveillance footage of him talking with an Arctic spy."

"They used inappropriate compartments for too many discussions," Mu laughed.

"We'll give you a copy of the information we have. You can figure out the plan. After all, it will be your army, your plan," Bai added.

Gladias and Sera heard a knock on Sera's room door.

"Who is it?" Sera asked.

"It's me, Mom!"

"Zven!"

She ran to the door and opened it. Zven ran in, excitedly holding a handheld device and jumping onto the couch.

"What is it, Zven?"

"I have good news, it's about Lily!"

"What is it?"

"She says she's starting to think about coming back!"

"What happened?"

"She said, in Arctic citizenship class, the teacher was talking about Helis, and how the scoring rules are stupid, and an example of how Viridians like to complicate things."

"She's been talking to me through the neckband. I also got a call from Febrik. We reviewed the history of Helis. She stood up and explained to the instructor how to prove that if you score by giving each type of ball some points and adding those points up, then almost always the best strategy is to focus on just one type of ball. But if you multiply, then the points you get from scoring with one type of ball increase as you score with another type of ball, so balance makes sense."

"But the instructor didn't want to listen. He raised his hand and said, in real life it doesn't matter, in real life you just focus on one thing and win, the Arctic understands this, and Viridia doesn't, and that's why the Arctic wins."

Lily replied: But think about personal life and work. If you work hard almost all day every day, your salary will be higher, you can get a bigger house, but you can only enjoy the house when you're not working. It's exactly the same math! So real life also requires balance!

"Then she was put in detention."

"So now she thinks the Arctic are lame and stupid. They talk about trying to be the best, but actually they only care about their own authority."

"Some Arctic people are smart," Gladias interjected. "They did create very good technology. But that teacher sounds like a total loser."

"If someone happens to be born on a winning team, that's exactly how a loser behaves. They fuse their entire identity into the team, they accept all the ideas about why their team is great, and how which team you come from becomes an important marker of your value. Then they don't even notice that they themselves actually have nothing great about them, they're just a pathetic hollow shell inside."

"Glad, don't teach Zven to think about people like that!"

"Zven, it's okay to be mean to people who hurt others." Gladias continued, his tone growing more self-righteous. "If someone is struggling or doesn't understand, then help them and be kind to them. But if someone uses authority they don't deserve to beat others over the head, then fight back immediately."

"Glad!"

"If we want to defeat the Arctic, then we have to know how to make ourselves at least a little Arctic sometimes. But always channel that energy."

Sera sighed.

"I suppose I can see it from that angle. After all, we did find Lily by doing what the Arctic does—surveilling everything. Does that count as a little Arctic?"

"I suppose so."

"Though I'm sure we don't need unrestricted camera surveillance of the nation's teenagers to bring our loved ones home. Unrestricted camera surveillance helped us find Lily, but it also helped those Arctic people nearly destroy us. I believe Zey already knows some better ways to get the benefits without the harms."

"Wait..."

"What is it?"

"I think Zey might be the perfect mentor for Lily. She needs a good example of a true winner—someone who doesn't tower over others and crush them, but helps others rise and wants others to win alongside him."

"Mom, Dad?" Zven interjected. "What are we going to do for Lily now?"

"Can Lily leave the North Shore on her own?"

"I asked, and she said the North Shore border is open, but she's at a boarding school and they won't let her leave."

Gladias groaned.

"I suppose, if nothing else, when we retake the North Shore, we can bring all three children back."

"Let me and Bai figure out what advice to give Lily, Glad. She knows the Arctic are crippled now, and she wants to come home. But until we get her back, she needs advice that won't get her killed."

Gladias grumbled and reluctantly accepted.

3724 Frosttime 18

"Hmm, I just got a reply from Lekto," Sera said to Gladias as she poured herself tea in the hotel room.

"What did he say?"

"They held a special closed-door meeting yesterday. Vildor was there too."

"Lekto presented evidence of another general taking bribes. He raised the topic of reforming the military leadership. He adopted some of the suggestions Bai made: he deliberately steered the conversation so that critics would first defend the existing top general themselves, and then proposed another general as the obvious successor if change was necessary. Then he revealed his cards and showed more evidence—the top general had been meeting regularly with someone later confirmed to be an Arctic spy, and the other candidate they proposed was being blackmailed."

"After that, he proposed a different strategy they could use against the Arctic, which involved exploiting their reliance on AI against them. He demonstrated some exploit methods targeting Arctic drones, including some Kungope footage from Red County—though he explained it was sent to him through a spy he knew in Red County."

"It worked, much more easily than he or Bai had anticipated. It turned out that for those lazy and tired senators, letting Lekto do what he wanted was the path of least resistance—because it meant the legal case would end immediately. And for those senators being blackmailed, they just needed an excuse to say resistance was unfeasible, and Lekto's arguments, combined with knowing the legal case might at some point start probing their situation, provided that. So Lekto is now commander-in-chief."

"That sounds like a perfect solution. Kungope can be involved with the military, they can work with Lekto, and he and most of the rest of the structure remain. So instead of going in and replacing everything, we preserve continuity. This is exactly what the prediction bot wanted."

"Exactly."

"So, we won?"

"The Battle of Merdan Hall is over. The Battle of the North Shore is about to begin."

Chapter 29

Elenae Forest, Viridia · 3725 Snowmonth 29

Zey and Mu stood at the top of a snowy mountain. As far as the eye could see, green pine trees were covered in thick white snow. A biting cold wind blew against their faces. The rest of their bodies were covered by jackets in a mix of white and gray, thick enough to let them enjoy their surroundings but deliberately not so thick as to make them warm. Beyond the distant forest, the sun had just risen in the east.

"So this is where our future will be decided." Mu said calmly.

"Do you think we're ready?" Zey asked.

"No." Mu replied. "But meaningful things never wait until people are ready before they happen."

"Let's hope the Arctic aren't as ready as we are."

Behind them, they heard footsteps slowly climbing the mountain, each step slower than the last, struggling against the thick snow. After a moment, Zey felt someone embrace him from behind.

"Whatever happens today, Zey, I'm glad I met you."

It was Bai. Zey turned and grabbed her hand, pulling her up the last step to stand at the same height as him and Mu.

"I'm glad I met you too."

The three of them waited in silence for a moment, watching snowflakes blow through the forest to the east.

"So what's the plan?"

"The last transport to Eldir arrives today. By now, the Arctic can't possibly be unaware that we have some kind of large detachment here. So I'm sure they've already started preparing their forces to meet us. These forests are hard to cross, but not especially difficult. So our best chance is to strike tonight, advance from the west to the northern part of the North Shore, completely bypass the North Woodland, then cut it off and surround it."

"Are you confident in this plan?"

"In my last battle with the Arctic, I completely messed up, and Mu saved the day. So no, I'm not confident. But it's our best chance."

Bai embraced Zey from the side again.

"I believe in you."

Mu broke her silence. "I believe in you too, Zey."

They silently stared at the thick cedar forest for another five minutes, then began slowly walking back to their temporary shelter.

Den, Mu, Zey, and dozens of Viridian generals and Kungope leaders sat in a small room, with Lekto standing at the front speaking.

"Alright, does everyone know their assignments?" Lekto asked loudly. "Gallois?"

"I lead the Northern Group. Our mission is to cross the forest, move far to the northeast until we reach the coast, and establish a boundary separating the Arctic from the entire peninsula. This will require fighting and encircling Arctic forces on my southern flank on the North Shore, and repelling any reinforcements on my northern flank."

"Good! You, Terpo?"

"I lead the Central Group. Our mission is to push directly east through the forest. We expect to engage the main Arctic drone group. No offensive positional objectives—our job is to keep them busy and ensure they don't break through."

"And you, Den?"

"I lead the Southern Group. Our mission is to cross the forest, advance southeast, and then set up a defensive line on the outskirts of the North Woodland."

"Vakaria?"

"I lead the Maritime Cluster. The main mission is to use maritime drones to attack the North Shore area east of the North Woodland from the south, pinning down and encir