No such thing as a coincidence

Yesterday, we saw Rome and Rei discussing the original settlement of the Ark Lords. Because he is from our time, Rei had a general sense of why the Erklirte would settle to the west of the former site of New York. Rome had no clue, of course. But today, as they follow the footsteps of the men from the past, right away something odd jumps out at them:

     “Where was this battle?” Rei asked.
     “Here,” Rome said, placing another blinking indicator far to the west, on the western edge of Lake Michigan. “It was called the Battle of Chee Ka Go and it was where Hanry Ta Jihn was killed.”
     “Chee Ka Go? Chicago?” Rei said. “Why would they fight a battle way out there?”
     Rome pushed a few icons on the input surface and a written letter appeared on the screen. “It says here that after many years of captivity, Hanry Ta Jihn’s mother escaped. No one knows what information she imparted to him but whatever it was, it told the Resistance where to set up ranks. The battle was very fierce. It was nearly a massacre.” Rome turned to look at Rei. “You know better than anyone that Essessoni weapons are very powerful. It was farmer against spaceman.”
     Rei just shook his head. He couldn’t shake feeling somehow guilty. “So how did they beat them?” he asked.
     “Hanry Ta Jihn’s forces acquired a new weapon. It was called a Vorasdock.”
     “What’s a Vorasdock?” Rei asked.
     “The literal translation in your language would be fire stick,” Ursay volunteered.
     “Fire stick?” Rei cocked his head. “I know the Ark Lords were carrying flamethrowers but where would your people get them?”
     “They were not exactly my people,” Rome said. “This pre-dated the Vuduri. And they were not flamethrowers.” She pressed a few buttons on the keyboard and brought up a rough sketch.
     “This is the only known drawing of a Vorasdock,” she said. “It does not resemble what I saw in Edgar’s storage bin. However, its form factor suggests it is more like your laser rifles than something else.”
     Rei leaned forward. “That’s not a laser rifle,” he observed. “It looks like an M4 carbine.” Rome’s confused look caused Rei to offer more. “A semi-automatic rifle that fires bullets? Chemical weapons with projectiles?” Rome shook her head. Rei shrugged. “Where the hell would they have gotten those?” he asked.
     Rome looked up at the screen. “I do not know,” she said. “If you know what it is then it must have come from your people.”
     “But it didn’t,” Rei said. “You saw the weapons Keller brought. Everything had to be designed to withstand centuries. The particle beam cannons, the laser pulse rifles, the mini-nukes. Even the flamethrowers used fuel that was frozen solid for a millennium. A chemical weapon, a bullet, needs gunpowder. Do you think they made it themselves?”
     “They would not have,” Ursay said. “All such technology had been banned following the Great Dying. This came from somewhere else.”
     “Something doesn’t fit.” Rei said. “It’s too weird.”

You will recall that when the space probe disintegrated on them on the far side of the Moon, they speculated that maybe the historical records would give them a clue as to where the virus weapon was stored. Sure enough, this is it.