It was a nice and quiet morning in the port town of Narbo, the people were going to work, opened their shops and the fishers set sail for the open waters. Ships were going in and out of the port, with one large steel behemoth of a warship docked in the largest part of the port. That ship has been damaged from a battle with pirates of these waters but the damage wasn't too severe and the ship is ongoing some quick repairs. The morning was very misty, and you couldn't see over 40 meters in front of you. Some fishers who were at the time far our in the waters saw a weird shape moving in the mist. It looked like something massive, something truly unnerving. After some time looking at the shape, they saw more shapes appear, and they started hearing a thunderous sound coming from the skies. All of a sudden the mist started to clear and what emerged terrified them. Large warships bearing the AHS flag, their main rival who was funding the pirates and rebellions inside the Empire. And the terrifying sound they heard, was actually made by airships and planes flying above their heads, this wasn't good.
After a few more minutes since the fishers spotted the enemy force, the townsfolk noticed something as well, as by now the mist has mostly risen and they could be seen at over 200 meters from the coast. All of a sudden those ships emerged from the mist, unloading the first volley of high caliber shells, they hit everything from random shops to the fishermen to their homes. After the ships fired the aircraft soon emerged, they dropped over 50 tons of explosives in the first bombing run, completely decimating any form of defense that the town had.
The crew of the Imperial warship quickly manned the guns and started loading shells to fire back at the invaders, but, as they were about to shoot a shell from an AHS ship hit the ammunition department of the warship causing a massive explosion that tore the ship in half. Anti-aircraft guns were manned in minutes after the attack and soon started firing tracer rounds into the sky, desperately trying to clean the air of enemy planes.
Soon, airships were flying over the town, dropping over 400 tons of explosives, turning most of the town's merchant and port districts into rubble. They had taken out most of the AA guns and now the port area and the beaches were mostly cleared. The AHS warships soon unloaded their troops, who then started to advance on the town.
The troops established a beachhead, however, after they started to advance on the town and its districts a mixed militia and garrison force started to give major resistance to the advancing forces bearing the AHS banner. The fighting was often house to house, and even though the resistance was strong, they were no match to the overwhelming firepower of the AHS, who tore through buildings with their bombs and shells.
One of the commanders in the HQ of the local garrison has used the communications device to call for help against the invaders, which was then quickly broadcasted to the capital.
*Scene End*
Hurry Ustinov, we are gonna be late" Echa said while running through the palace hallways. The council had been summoned by the King himself. As the crisis of the Empire became too much for one person to handle.
They entered the council room and Ustinov said: "Sorry for being late King, Echa has alerted me that Posadist was once again stealing his research papers.". "Damn that Posadist, I think we really should keep a better eye on him, he keeps trying to steal Echa's research data on our nuclear program, huh, I wonder why he would need such a thing." said the King.
"Well anyway, you are all probably wondering why were you summoned here?" King said. "Well yeah obviously we are." said the Absolute Monarchist.
"Well, Enigma, tell them the situation.", said the King, "
"Our financial situation is in ruins, and the separatist movements are getting more and more support by the day, this situation is beyond alarming, even my secret police force can no longer keep everyone under check because if we did try to do it, we would kill over 40% of the empire's population." worryingly said Enigma. "Maybe by trying to appease everyone we have turned our guard down, and have instead just made everyone comfortable, too comfortable...".
"Enigma this is nonsense, my policy of appeasement is the only reason we have kept the entire compass except for the fringe extremes together for this long!" King shouted.
Enigma started ranting: "With all due respect sir, this is not a good way to govern our Empire in the future unless you want to start a civil war that is. We are running on a net neutral or some days even a net negative income, we cannot afford appeasement anymore, the radicals are getting more and more support, the separatists are revolting on many places, and the pirates are harassing our shipping lines, we cannot continue to do things this way, altho we could-"
"SIR OUR LARGEST WESTERN PORT HAS BEEN ATTACKED AND OVERTAKEN BY THE AHS FORCES, WE ESTIMATE OVER 20k DEATHS BOTH MILITARY AND CIVILIAN!" Shouted a messenger as he smashed the hall room doors open.
The entire room fell silent. King sat down in his chair and sighed. "Why? Oh, why would this happen now?" King cried out. The absolute monarchist slowly smiled and looked at enigma, who smiled back.
"We must assemble the national guard divisions quickly, I will give a general mobilization order, they shall meet our steel in battle!" Ustinov angrily said. "No, don't do that, we won't mobilize everything to fight the AHS.", the king replied, "What? That's nonsense! We must defend against the AHS! That has to be our top priority!" Ustinov screamed. "NO. OUR TOP PRIORITY IS KEEPING THE EMPIRE TOGETHER! THOSE TROOPS ARE CURRENTLY KEEPING ORDER AGAINST THE VANGUARD AND THE SEPARATISTS, WE CANNOT AFFORD TO LET THEM UNGUARDED!" The King shouted back.
"Actually, yeah this makes sense, I'm not the military genius of Ustinov, but we can't let those get any more support. AHS is a foreign threat that everyone can rally to fight, but with the vanguard and the separatists, there are many on our population who have sympathies to such ideologies, if they do gain any significant support, we will most likely fall apart." Echa calmly said.
"Exactly my friend, it is good that I promoted you to such a high position, alright, let us have a vote." the King said. "Who is in favor of rejecting what Echa told us and going with the plan of Ustinov and mobilizing everyone to fight the AHS?" Ustinov and one other council member lifted hands. "Who is against it?" most of the people in the room lifted their hands. "Then it's decided, Ustinov, you will be given 8 national guard divisions and 5 conscript divisions from the most stable regions in the Empire, with us being able to mobilize 25 more in about 4 months of time."
The meeting ended and after that, the people were walking down the hallway, when the Absolute Monarchist came close to Enigma and whispered: "Why didn't you vote for them to order a mass mobilization, it would destabilize the nation enough for me, I mean for us to take over?" "Because unlike you I'm not a moron, if we both voted for mass mobilization as you and Ustinov did, something would be fishy as the King knows I would never support anything like that if I was on his side, we can't be too obvious, just you wait though, we will take control, sooner or later, time is our weapon, we will use the loses to the AHS as a power move to decrease the public opinion of the current king and you will be put on the throne, as we will restore the monarchist faction that has lost the great compass war all those years ago." Enigma whispered back. "As long as you get me in power I will do whatever you say I guess." The Absolute Monarchist replied.
After that conversation, Engima walked away smiling.
