The Warlock, the Witch, and the Empire

Chapter 11

Dradevows

In the dragon-shaped continent of Dradevows, things were very active.

Vale, once a shining city of human prosperity, had fallen to assault from a combination of Grimm hordes, White Fang and mercenary forces, and sabotage. It now lies as a smoldering ruin from the aftermath of the battle, leaving thousands, maybe even millions homeless from the devastation left in the battle's wake. Even the people's so-called protectors of Huntsmen and Huntresses with only a police militia force to aid them were unable to fight off the hordes and were overwhelmed in their sectors, meaning much of humanity's fighting force in the kingdom was dead.

But not all hope was lost for them.

For the space government that visited them long before the fall, known as the Galactic Empire, had been invaluable in evacuating many people from the carnage in their sector of the city that they were given to protect. Once all civilians were evacuated, and confirming that the native fighting forces were dead on their own side, the Imperial fleet that saved the people opened fire with their turbolaser batteries onto the now ruined city to wipe out the Grimm hordes that were trying to occupy the land, seeing as Vale was lost and attempting a ground assault would result in many dead.

Though many of the Valean survivors were shocked to see their home city be destroyed, they mostly believed that it was already lost during the assault when the Grimm broke through the walls and that there was nothing they could do about it.

After the battle, the Imperial forces started unloading the people into one of their major seaside bases into makeshift refugee camps they made on quick notice due to the rapid response teams making use of what they had. Not much and not the living conditions the Valeans were accustomed to, but they were grateful, nonetheless.

The Imperials then took it a step further by having captain Dalvin Maldice come before the assembled masses and announce to everyone the speech he and the Warlock had practiced for this part of the plan. About how the Beacon Academy had failed them not only during the Fall, but also before the battle, from the White Carriage Massacre to the Breach that they made sure to craft in the form of blaming it on the students playing with their lives.

Naturally, some people resisted and openly objected against his speech, but those few were quickly drowned out and shut down by the masses after they were countered by civilians that genuinely believed the captains words, with the most vocal being the survivors of the Massacre and eyewitnesses of the Breach saying that they saw a Huntress team exit the tunnel that allowed the Grimm to enter. Once they said their pieces, the general populace grew from moderately liking the Huntsmen Academies to having a completely negative view of them, seeing them as child soldier recruitment fortresses that sent their children to die against numerous Grimm without much proper aid, and even a few families that lost their kids to Beacon missions giving out their own venom against the the school.

Once their flame was tended to and kept lite, Maldice went on to extend an offer they never thought possible: to ask any willing adults or old youth to join their newest Imperial Academies being built so as to make up for lost manpower during the Fall and give them a proper military once they retake and restore Vale greater than before, becoming the first Remnantian Army Troopers. Though hesitant at first, many men and women that didn't have much to lose soon stepped forward to see if they were cut out for military life, even some surviving Beacon students wanting to join in the conscription, none of them knowing the harsh training they are about to go through for army training, not accounting the training that would be given to promising applicants that would be selected to become the first Remnantian Stormtroopers.

Once that was said and done, anyone that didn't wish to join simply went back to their refugee camps to think about all that had happened to them in their lives. Though the plan was working perfectly: many of the population of Vale was now convinced that the arrogance of Beacon had led to Vale's downfall and were now resentful towards them, and some surviving students of the school now feeling ashamed of failing their home kingdom, convincing them to come forward to join the Imperial army off at a later time.