Chronicles of Two Powers

Chapter 15 - Broken Trust

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The safehouse inside the castle deeply contrasted with the devastation outside. Designed for royalty, it featured luxury and security, featuring polished wooden floors, ornate chandeliers, and small slit windows from stone, over a metre thick. Through them, Sollan Bay was visible, shrouded in smoke and flickering with embers. The muffled echoes of fires, sirens, explosions, and roaring engines penetrated the heavy walls.

The room was alive with panicked chatter, voices overlapping in a chaotic tone of fear and uncertainty. Nobles in finely tailored garments clutched at one another, their faces pale as they whispered frantically. Military officers stood in tense clusters, discussing what actions to take. Servants huddled near the walls, their hands twisting aprons, their gazes darting between the nobles and the officers, awaiting orders.

Ambassador 'Johnson' Jaeger exhaled sharply near the chamber's centre, rubbing his temple. "Fucking hell," he muttered, shaking his head. "They look like B-17s to me." He spoke to the Japanese ambassador next to him, Ambassador Tenjo.

Tenjo remained still momentarily, his gaze fixed on the smoke rising beyond the windows. The distant rumble of explosions punctuated the air. He inhaled slowly before speaking, his tone measured but laced with anger beneath the surface.

"There is no mistaking it," he said. "Jylon has long been on par with late-war America in both technology and culture. If those truly are B-17s..." He paused briefly, his jaw tightening. "Then this attack could have only come from them."

Johnson frowned but said nothing. The Japanese ambassador adjusted his glasses, his expression darkening. "It is well documented that Jylon was an ally of the Aetesian Empire until they severed ties and withdrew their military and economic presence from Aetesian territories following the outbreak of war with our nations. Until now, they have positioned themselves as neutral." He turned from the window, his gaze sweeping the room, landing on a noblewoman clutching a crying child, her face full of silent terror. "Why, after all that, would they launch such an attack?"

His words hung heavy in the air. Johnson crossed his arms, staring toward the smoke-choked horizon. "That's the question, isn't it?"

Johnson stepped forward with Tenjo, drawn to the narrow slit of a window carved into the thick stone walls. He pressed a hand against the cool surface and peered out at the chaos below.

Sollan Bay was ablaze. Fires raged through the streets, casting an eerie orange glow against the thick plumes of black smoke that rose like funeral pyres into the overcast sky. Even from this distance, he could make out the skeletal remains of buildings reduced to charred husks, their shattered frames jutting out from the wreckage like broken ribs.

His gaze settled on the smouldering ruins of two bombers in the heart of the city. One had embedded itself into the remains of a residential block, its twisted fuselage still burning as firefighters battled the flames. The other lay sprawled across a street, scattered for blocks. Emergency responders alongside American and Japanese military police worked frantically, pulling survivors from the wreckage of buildings while others covered the bodies of those who hadn't been as fortunate, risking their own lives as bombs still fell over the city.

A distant explosion sent a tremor through the floor, and the noblewoman's child whimpered, burying his face in her silken gown. The woman's grip tightened, her knuckles white, her eyes wide with a silent fear. Johnson saw not just a noble but a mother.