[h2]Lanist Khaganate, Shipyard Alpha[/h2]
It was a week after the Western Beach Incident, as it was called now. The landship had finally been finished, and its ceremonial launching was today. Yuri Lanist checked himself in the mirror, adjusting his brown tie. He was wearing a tailored suit, one he had specifically requested to be made for the occasion. As much as he hated it, he couldn't really show up to one of the most important days for the Lanist Khaganate wearing jeans and a T-shirt. He combed his black beard and hair, and thought he looked good enough. He got out of his luxurious penthouse appartment right in the middle of the Khaganate's Capital city, Avarga, and took an elevator straight down to a classified metro station, part of a larger network underneath the capital designed to transport government officials such as members of the kurultai to and from the places they needed to go. It was laid underneath the normal metro network, and connected several important building all throughout the city, there were even some tunnels that lead far outside the city, to various other places in the Lanist Khaganate, although those required stronger vehicles than metros to get there in a reasonable amount of time. Coincidentally, Yuri was about to use on of those vehicles. The Maglev train arrived at the exact time it was supposed to, and he boarded it. In less than a minute, the train was already across half the city, then it stopped. Some more government people, none important enough for Yuri to personally know, got into the train. The train continued to the Shipyard Alpha, the place where the finished landship was. It had been built there by the AIR together with a few humans to oversee the process.

Ten minutes later, the train exited the tunnel, and Yuri could see the shipyard from far away already. It was the afternoon, and the shipyard reflected the yellow light like a beacon, very visible over the vast tundra and taiga the Lanist Khaganate had its territory in. The shipyard was titanic, and it was getting bigger every moment as the maglev train got closer. As it kept growing, Yuri started to see more and more details, from the Khaganate flag painted on its side, to the bow of the landship already sticking out from the massive facility it was built in. Eventually, the maglev arrived at a station that seemed tiny in comparison to the rest of the building. Yuri exited the train, and was immediately greeted with both a crowd of people standing in the reception area that had been specifically built for the day's event, and the smell of delicious food. There were all sorts of people there, members of the Kurultai, but also soldiers, workers, and many more. All of the people in the room were formally clothed, just as Yuri was. Along the way to the buffet, Yuri came across General Nurzhan, who was telling stories about his time down in the south of the Khaganate, where he was sent to fortify the area by General Yun after the WBI, to a group of junior officers. The junior officers gasped in amazement as he told stories of how he built fortresses and bunkers in days rather than the weeks it would normally take, due to his, as he called it 'surperior skill at the construction of fortresses'. He also passed along Stephen Michel talking to General Yun about the whole diplomatic situation with that strange military army from the east. "Oh yeah, " He heard Stephen say from a distance "I should still give the orders to send those planes out to explore the rest of the world, I'll do it as soon as we get back from this stuff." Near the buffet there stood Isaac Plant, the minister he talked with about the strange meteoric object a week earlier. Isaac walked together with Yuri towards the buffet. 

"Sir, I think we should start considering starting up a space program." The minister of Science said "It would be nice to support our men in the field with actual intelligence from satellites, we've also already found multiple foreign-made objects in orbit, suggesting that either this new nation we discovered, or rather that discovered us a week ago, has made those satellites, or more likely that there are multiple nations on this planet."
"I agree with the idea of having a space program," said the Khan "Very well. After the launching ceremony is over, I want you to contact scientists you know that are familiar with the field of aerospace engineering. I also want you to set up grants for people who can do research towards rocketry."
While they were walking towards the buffet, they came across General Anderson, who was wearing a red evening gown, nicely complementing her red hair. "General Anderson, you are looking lovely today," Yuri said, "What do you think about the idea of satellites as support for our troops."
"I think it's a very good idea," she replied, slightly blushing "It will help a lot when deciding on where to expand. I think it will help us reveal the location of that weird army we say last week as well."
The three finally reached the buffet. Yuri got a plate and picked up some food, carefully tasting it first. It was delicious, and he told a waiter that was passing to send his compliments to the chef. 

After an hour of eating, drinking and talking to various government officials and officers from both the Kurultai and not from the Kurultai, it was time to pass on to the main event of the day, the ship launch. The crowd of people slowly walked towards the next area, which was a large chamber, missing one wall. The chamber was about as high from the ground as the middle of the ship, and it was right at the end of the shipyard, near the bow of the landship. There were a lot of tiered seats near the wall opposite to the missing wall, and there was a small podium next to what essentially the landship itself for the important people to stand on. Everyone took their assigned seats. General Anderson had been placed far away from General Nurzhan, Yuri noted as he was walking towards the podium in front. [i]Good[/i], He thought, [i]wouldn't want their bickering to ruin anything[/i]. He stood on the podium, where there was a small lectern with a microphone on it. He started talking, his speech being sent on television all over the Khaganate: 

"Greetings, Khanians. Today is the day we celebrate an amazing achievement in the history of the Lanist Khaganate on this planet. We have managed to succesfully build, and we will succesfully launch a landship in the span of a few months. As you might know, the succesful completion of such a massive-scale project is extremely costly, and many sacrifices have been made by everyone, although most have been made by you, the average worker, sitting at home watching this speech right now. With this landship, we will be able to protect our nation, the glorious Lanist Khaganate, and secure more resources for our people that have made so many sacrifices to get to this point. This landship is a living example of how we, mankind, is capable of rising above our internal conflicts, of rising above strife. That we can take any blow and shrug it off, and that we can conquer anything that faces us if we want to. The brave men and women that will fight beside this vehicle will gaze upon it and will see: this is hope. That is why I would now like to introduce the captain of this vessel, Jord Artac." Jord stepped forward from his seat on the front row and walked towards the podium. "And I would like to ask General Anderson, who will command the landship as its general, to throw the traditional bottle of vodka against its bow." General Anderson stepped forward and walked towards the podium, where she received a bottle of vodka. She stood on the edge of the room, and threw the bottle of vodka. It was a perfect hit, and as soon as the bottle hit the landship and broke apart from the impact, the Lanist Khaganate's anthem started playing. All of the people in the room held their right hand over their heat, and as soon as it was finished they all started clapping, Yuri included as he clapped for the people who build the landship. He ended his speech with the classic, "I have been Khan Yuri Lanist, thank you," and walked off the podium.