Calcutta burned.
Not in flames—but in fear.
The Union Jack still flew above Fort William, but beneath it, the British officers of the British East India Company felt something they had not felt in decades.
Threat.
Reports flooded their desks:
-A native industrial corridor in Bombay running on steam turbines.
-Telegraph lines independent of Company control.
-Armed battalions drilling with precision like European regiments.
-Steel production rivaling Sheffield in quality.
And at the center of it all—
Arjun Rao.
The Viceroy's War Council
Inside Government House, beneath chandeliers imported from London, the Viceroy slammed his fist onto the table.
"He builds factories."
Silence.
"He manufactures rifles."
More silence.
"He prints newspapers calling for 'sovereign federation.'"
Now, fear.
An intelligence officer stepped forward.
"Sir… our informants confirm he has begun experimentation with… armored steam vehicles."
The room froze.
"Armored… what?"
"Landships, sir."
The Viceroy whispered one word.
"Impossible."
But it wasn't.
Pune – The Iron Yard
Steam roared.
In a massive hangar-like structure near Pune, something monstrous stood on iron tracks.
It wasn't elegant.
It wasn't fast.
But it was unstoppable.
Thick riveted plates.
Rotating turret housing a rifled cannon.
Coal-fed boiler driving caterpillar tracks.
Arjun walked around it, hand brushing against the cold metal.
"This is only Mark I," he said calmly.
Behind him stood:
-Meera (communications head)
-Iqbal (logistics and rail command)
-Captain Raghav Singh (former Company officer turned revolutionary)
Raghav stared at the machine.
"If the British see this…"
"They will," Arjun replied. "Soon."
He turned toward the engineers.
"Remember. This isn't for conquest. It's for deterrence."
He paused.
"But if they force our hand… we end the illusion of invincibility."
Economic Warfare
Before guns came trade.
Arjun's first strike wasn't military.
It was economic.
Using his understanding of global finance and trade routes, he:
-Redirected cotton supply chains away from Company merchants.
-Established direct trade links with merchants in Persia and Southeast Asia.
-Began minting silver-backed regional currency.
The effect was immediate.
Manchester mills felt shortages.
Company profits dipped.
London noticed.
And London did not tolerate loss.
The Spark
The British moved first.
A pre-dawn raid.
Bombay docks.
Company troops attempted to seize one of Arjun's steel shipments, citing "illegal militarization."
But something had changed.
Dock workers didn't scatter.
They formed ranks.
Steam sirens wailed.
And from behind stacked crates rolled two armored landships.
The ground trembled.
British soldiers froze.
They had cannons.
They had rifles.
But they had never faced a machine that ignored musket fire like rain.
Arjun stepped forward, coat fluttering in the sea wind.
"Stand down," he said.
The commanding officer sneered.
"You are a subject of the Crown."
Arjun met his gaze.
"No."
He gestured to the massive machine behind him.
"We are no longer subjects."
The officer ordered fire.
Smoke exploded.
Bullets struck steel—ping, ping, ping.
The landship's cannon roared.
Not at soldiers.
At the Company warehouse.
The building collapsed in a thunder of brick and timber.
A warning.
Not slaughter.
Silence fell over the docks.
The British troops lowered their rifles.
For the first time—
They retreated.
London's Response
In the halls of Westminster, under portraits of empire-builders, news arrived.
A rebellion.
An industrial rebellion.
Not peasants with swords.
Engineers with factories.
Strategists with railroads.
Parliament debated.
"Crush it immediately."
"Negotiate."
"Impossible. If India industrializes independently—"
"The Empire fractures."
The decision came swiftly.
Reinforcements.
Modern artillery.
Warships.
Full authority to suppress.
The age of covert resistance was over.
This would be open conflict.
Arjun's Private Moment
That night, Arjun stood alone in the iron yard.
He looked at the stars.
In his previous life, he had dreamed of rockets, startups, space stations.
Now he built tanks in the 1800s.
He whispered to the sky:
"I didn't come here to wage war."
But history rarely gave peaceful paths to the enslaved.
Meera approached quietly.
"Scouts confirm British regiments moving from Madras."
He nodded.
"How long?"
"Two weeks."
Arjun exhaled slowly.
"Then we show them something the 19th century has never seen."
His eyes burned with resolve.
"Coordinated rail mobilization."
"Mass artillery."
"And…"
He turned back to the iron monster.
"Steam warfare."
Final Scene
Across India, telegram wires hummed.
Factories worked through the night.
Rail lines carried steel and soldiers.
Villages whispered.
Merchants calculated.
Young boys looked at landships with awe.
The myth of invincible empire was cracking.
And in the shadows—
The British prepared something of their own.
Something Arjun did not expect.
The first true clash between future and empire was coming.
And when it arrived—
The world would change forever.
To be continued in Chapter 14: The Battle of Iron and Empire