Disclaimer: Vox Populi, IIT Kanpur, is the exclusive owner of the information on this website. No part of this content may be duplicated, paraphrased, or interpreted in any other way without written consent from Vox Populi. If you want to reproduce any of the content on this page, please contact our chief editors directly or reach out to us by email at voxpopuli@iitk.ac.in.
In this eighth edition of As We Leave, Pratyush Gupta, a Y20 undergrad student from the department of Computer Science and Engineering, pens this piece reflecting on his fascinating journey at IITK. He writes about his Inter IIT experience with aerial robotics team. It will definitely bring a smile to your face when you decipher it step by step.
Disclaimer: The views presented below are the author’s own and are not in any manner representative of the views of Vox Populi as a body or IIT Kanpur in general. This is an informal account of the author’s experiences at IIT-K.
This is the story of my time with Team Aerial Robotics. I have tried to write it in a different style. Everything in the article, from incidents to names, is directly linked to something in the real world. If you cannot figure out what a particular reference is, you aren’t thinking hard enough. And for those of you inclined towards history and literature, all of the names used are connected to either historical or literary characters. To start off, I’ll tell you that Rurik represents the Y20 Team Heads, which includes me.
Read on folks.
Prologue
Rurik had received the crown from his people. But rather than an air of celebration, the mood at the coronation was of sobriety and mourning. The crown was once the owner of vast estates in the Heli Labs. But the present was far from glorious. All that remained was a rump state, if even that. Rurik was no king, merely the leader of dervishes. They had no home to call their own and no army worthy of conquering one. The Aerians were in dire straits, and it was no secret. Rurik was not a newcomer to his dynasty’s problems. The present state of affairs was brought about by the Great Plague. The plague had turned many great realms to dust, and Rurik’s ancestors had done well to keep the Aerians alive. While they lacked the resources of the great empires, and recovery would be long and arduous, the Aerians counted themselves fortunate to have survived the Plague.
Part 1: The dancing dervish
Rurik’s famed ancestors had once led troops across the Black Chasm into Iberia, and his people clamored to repeat the feat. Rurik, however, knew that any promises of a campaign such as this could only be empty. The Aerian armies were bare, the fleets were non-existent, and morale had been sapped. His immediate goal would thus be to rebuild his broken military and claim a home for his people.
Rurik attempted to build a home in Praetorium Quinque and Praetorium Duo numerous times. One of these is burned into the hearts of the Aerians for the remarkable insult it embodied.
Through negotiations, Rurik had secured a small patch of barren land in Praetorium Quinque. Even in this godforsaken place, the Aerians built a semblance of a home. That was until one day, Praetorium Quinque commanded them to leave and do so within a week. The Aerians attempted to appeal, but no one truly cared for them. They were forced to gather what they could on their backs, and Praetorium Quinque set fire to the rest. It was a raw demonstration of power. The land would again be barren after Rurik was driven out, a marker of shattered dreams and broken hopes.
Part 2: The taste of a hearth, Praetorium duo
The Nauticans were old friends of Rurik. While the plague had battered them too, they still held their lands, unlike the dispossessed Aerians. This friendship would soon prove invaluable for Rurik.
He planned a campaign against the Shastra and appealed to the Nauticans for help against the common foe. The Nauticans were willing to allow the Arrians into their lands for the campaign’s duration. The news was greeted with great fanfare. After years of dervishdom, would they have some place to call their own? It was not theirs in any real sense, but they were no longer nomads. The sinews of war began to tighten. Rurik drilled his troops relentlessly and built his engines of war. During this time, the Aerians built one of their most beloved siege engines. Some would call it the Ferrum pedites. Others would name it the Homme de Ferre. The Ironfoot, as this engine will be referred to in this text, will soon meet its first test.
Part 3: The Ironfoot
Rurik initiated the campaign in winter. It was the first time he led men into battle, and his inexperience showed. But he had prepared his army well. The Aerians laid siege to the Shastran fortress of Gundabad. The beloved Ironfoot would prove critical to the assault that would finally take this castle. Rurik was quite surprised; he had not expected this victory, which made it all the sweeter. With the fall of Gundabad, the way to the Shastran capital of Madras lay wide open. If the Aerians of today had such an opportunity, they would have laid waste to Madras, but Rurik’s time was different. While he had a functioning army, he did not have the logistical resources to attack Madras. Greater fights were coming up, and he intended to save his hosts for those.
Part 4: The Tenth Technician War
The great Technican Institutes were once again at war. As the vast war machines of these empires cranked into motion, smaller powers often sought to strengthen their position by participating in these conflicts in the hope of reward. Rurik and his men owed their loyalty to Kanpur according to old feudal customs, and they decided to honor the same.
Rurik’s troops had gained a reputation for siege warfare and attempted to utilize this reputation to gain concessions from the Technicia Kanpuria. Praetorium Duo fell under Kanpuria jurisdiction, and after negotiations, the Sanctum Technicium within Praetorium Duo was granted to the Aerians for the duration of the war. We shall refer to it by the name SnT room for the rest of the text.
The Drona Campaign
Covering the history of the Great Drona Campaign is outside the purview of this text. To summarise, we can state that The Campaign lasted the entire winter and extended into the next spring. It was the most brutal fighting Rurik had endured and was marked by a constant lack of provisions and equipment in difficult terrain. The issues were often exacerbated by poor coordination from the high command. One incident stands out.
The Drona tribe, whose lands would become the center of the fighting, had agreed to a parley with the warring parties. There would have been valuable tactical and strategic information on offer. Rurik was eager to participate in the conference. However, the high command completely forgot to inform Rurik of the location and time. To add to the travesty, none of the high command attended the conference. Incidents like these would be sadly common for many who served Technicia Kanpuria. While Rurik did not have expectations of any useful aid from the central command, the apparent sabotage of his efforts was utterly exasperating.
After months of grueling effort, the culmination of this campaign would come at the Battle of Empiar in March 2023. There are sparse records of this battle, but we do have some Aerian memoirs to go by. Rurik arrayed his forces against the enemy in the early morning, but battle only commenced in the afternoon. Rurik saw Kanpuria banners rising over his left flank as the fighting raged. Before he could react, the men bearing these banners charged, but not against his enemy. They crashed heavily into Rurik’s left flank, ripping it asunder. Though shaken by the treason, Rurik had maintained enough control over his army to withdraw in good order. While Rurik would later reform his troops and launch a devastating night assault to claim a hard-won victory, this treason would deeply scar the Aerians.
Eventually, peace would be signed in the Tenth Technican War. Technicia Kanpuria had sustained some serious setbacks in the war. The Eleventh Technican War would bring complete and utter disaster to the Kanpurians. However, that was in the future. The results of the Tenth War had already begun to spark unrest.
The Politikia
We shall not cover the civil unrest that erupted in the wake of the Tenth Technican War in this text. It is a long story, and for brevity’s sake, we must move on. To summarise, Kanpurian setbacks in the war became a key theme in the struggle for power that followed. Rurik distanced himself from political struggle. Greatly disillusioned and with scars of the Technican War still burning bright in his memory, he refused to attach his name to the Grand Council of Kanpuria.
The Implications of the Drona Campaign for Rurik
The Shastran Campaign, followed by the Drona Campaign, had proven the Aerian mettle. The Sanctum Technicium was firmly under Rurik’s grip by now. While there would be some attempts to usurp it by the Techno-governor of Praetorium Duo, they would be thwarted. The Techno-governor had attempted to seize the holdings of both the Aerians and the Nauticans. However, he was forced to retreat. He would eventually exile himself for many months, which ended the brewing unrest.
The continued conflicts had provided Rurik with a clear heir. Rurik had no children of his own. However, over the long years of war, a talented young commander, Oleg, had risen through the ranks. And thus it was that on a solemn morning in April of 2023, Rurik abdicated from his position as the king of the Aerians. Then he crowned Oleg and gave him the following words as a parting gift:
While the Gods did not see it fit for me to bear a son, you are no less than a son to me. I have seen Odin’s strength in your eyes. I see in you the flame that will cut a swath across this land and bring vast glory and prosperity to our nation. I pray that you may never falter, and yet if you feel your heart shiver, know that I stand with you until the moment I draw breath.
A portrait of Rurik and Oleg
Some parting words
Today, Oleg’s reign has run its course. It has been illustrious, and he has far surpassed the achievements of his father, Rurik. Oleg himself had this to say about his reign:
You know the poem “The Road Not Taken”? There are two roads, and I am walking on the damned grass.
Oleg, much like his father, did not have any sons, or at least any that were worthy of being the king of the Aerians. Eventually, Yaroslav ascended to the Aerian throne.
In the meantime, Rurik had grown older. Yet he had watched the fortunes of the Aerians rise. He reflected on the times of his youth when they were but wandering dervishes. As he lay on his deathbed, soon to become little more than a memory, he smiled. He had seen Yaroslav, a man whose prowess was far beyond Oleg, and Oleg himself had proven stronger and wiser than he had. From the ashes of the Great Plague, the phoenix had risen, and it had not yet stopped its ascent. Rurik closed his eyes for the last time and saw the gates of Valhalla open before him. His time had come, and he would pass to Odin with a heart full of joy.
Written by: Pratyush Gupta
Edited by: Sanket Bansal, Zehaan Naik
Designed By: Sanyam Shivhare
