Kyle too was aware of the tight deadline well beforehand. He was also receiving the same reports from his observers, relayed through messengers and arctech radios serving as repeaters.
Generally, the Versian Military was smaller than all three Counts’ forces combined, but if they focused all their firepower onto Count Leon and surrounded him, Kyle would lose the momentum and run the risk of being targeted within the city, left alone without allies.
Already his ADCON squads were engaging in skirmishes around the city, raising the alert level of the Nest division that had slunk back to Tenar after their defeat at Desham.
Kyle would have been outnumbered if he only had the two thousand and five hundred soldiers of his brigade, but luckily for him, the seeds of revolution and discontent with the current government that he had sown in the past had been brewing over the past two months.
The religion that Kyle had started as a ploy to gain more followers were building their own momentum, treating the Ghost of Tenar as a figurehead. The loyal adherents of the new movement grew in number over time, allowing Dekar to easily utilize them as new members and supporters. Kyle did not expect the religion to grow to such a wide scale that nearly every citizen in Tenar had heard about it, with the government attempting to clamp down on the spread.
The tight censorship on such rumors only led to even more citizens being dissatisifed with the government, even though they were in the midst of a war. This was building off the original assassination attempt of Mornero by Kyle, where only cronies of Mornero had been targeted. This already tripped alarm bells in the minds of the citizens, who had already began to wonder about conspiracies within the governement. With such a censorship policy, the discontentment only spread even more hand-in-hand with the new religious movement.
“Mornero is not blessed by Goddess Nona – he aims to suppress us all and fuel his own cronies for war!” The newly self-proclaimed leaders of the religion told their followers. “When the Ghost of Tenar finally returns to exact his final revenge, we shall join him and return Versia to its rightful state, with no corruption!”
Their dissent and disastifaction grew even stronger when Johan was discovered to be alive. Now with the Versian military claiming that the ‘cult’ had been destroyed in Creuliz, the local rebels in Tenar were more riled up than ever.
“First they lie to us about Johan being dead, but now they killed him? They are unfit to be the rightful government of Versia!”
“Traitors, the lot of them!”
With this, Dekar had even more supporters and followers, building up a strong case for his return to government. Regular protests had broke out in the past month, though they were quickly suppressed by the heavy-handed military.
As such, Kyle had a willing base of followers and supporters to use as diversionary tactics, increasing his numbers nearly twenty times. With this, I can plunge the entire city into chaos while I go for the government heads.
A simple decapitation strategy, but it hinged on Count Leon’s frontal attack. The moment the observer reports talked about Count Leon’s victory at the first defensive line, Kyle had his squads begin to sabotage the various military installations across Tenar.
Supply warehouses, wagon bays, ammunition dumps, each of them were being blown up while Kyle waited for Count Leon to reach Tenar. This slowed down the Versian military’s attempts to stall Count Leon, forcing them to divert troops and resources to clamp down on the attacks. The Versian military was torn apart, having to fight rebels within Tenar while trying to organize a defence to push back.
“Who the hell are these soldiers? Where are the rebels getting these sort of equipment from?”
“It must be Count Leon’s troops, they are supplying rebels with weapons!”
“The power station is under attack!”
“Forget that, protect the artillery emplacements on the walls!”
“Just hold on – if we can hold on for a week, we will be able to surround Count Leon and force him to surrender!”
The Nest division began to sweep the catacombs and hiding spots of the rebels, using Agent Black to flush them out again. However this time, Kyle and his forces were already prepared in advance, using gas masks and fighting toe-to-toe with Nest squads through the winding tunnels.
The battle has begun. Kyle deployed all ADCON squads, sending his men supported by local rebels to attack their objectives, spreading the fighting through the city.
“Boss, are we not going to wait for Count Leon’s forces?” Feldon asked.
“There’s no time, Nest is already onto us. We need to strike out now before they surround us completely and pull them away from our base.”
On the other side of the city, Zayin was already leading a riot that was building in size, supported by the ADCON squads. “Mornero is illegimate! He killed President Johan in Creuliz!” The rioters stormed utilities such as water treatment plants, power stations and arctech radio relay stations, forcing the military to engage them in a fierce gunfight that ravaged the urban blocks.
Surprisingly, Kyle was not the only one who had followers on his side : Mornero too, began to rally the citizens in a presidental address a few hours after the first diversionary attacks on the outskirts of the city.
[Fellow Versians, today, the war has reached the capital. Do not be swayed by those who claim to love Versia, yet attack our city in our time of need. There is nothing to gain by fighting amongst ourselves while the enemy is at our gate! I call on every loyal Versian to stand up and defend our rights. Those who sabotage us wants us to be subjugated under the Yual Dominion! Stand up!]
The general call to arms did not go unanswered – patriotic citizens took up their personal weapons and guns to join with the Versian military, forming a temporary militia against the rioters and rebels in the city.
“Dogs of Mornero! You follow a false leader who is corrupting Versia from within!” The rebels hollered on loudspeakers, attempting to crush the morale of the soldiers and milita.
“Fuck you! You just want to see us under Count Leon’s foot! If you like him so much, why don’t you go and suck his dick?!”
The clashes across the city became even more violent, as the fighting spread even further than Kyle had anticipated. Good, chaos is what I exactly need.
At the same time that the fighting was happening, secret ADCON squads moved near the walls, blowing up as many anti-air weapons as they could as well as flare spotters that would prevent the stealth hovercrafts from entering the city. The squads had yet to take out all of them, but Kyle was already running out of time.
Finally, Count Leon’s infilitration force met up with Kyle at the base. Kyle counted them, seeing that there were close to two hundred and fifty armoured knights, all well trained and professional.
The leader of the knights stepped forward, shaking hands with Kyle. “Let’s get to work. Count Leon insists that Tenar falls as fast as possible. If we do not capture the city in a week, Count Leon will retreat.”
“I understand.” Kyle nodded. “We are already engaging the military at multiple locations at the city. In one hour, we will strike at the government palace.”
Kyle prepared his own men for the upcoming operation, gearing them up as best as he could. He himself had allocated three hundred of his soldiers to the strike force, while he geared himself up in the Version 0 exosuit, hefting a heavy railgun. Time to storm the palace.
Mornero gripped the arctech radio hard as he listened to the military general. “What do you mean they can’t move?”
[It’s exactly as stated – the besieging force of Ocra is preventing the major gangs of Raktor from sending help. Even if they made it through, they would only be able to reach in a day or two.]
“Damn those criminals, I supported them from the beginning and they are just going to abandon me? Don’t they know they would lose if I lose too?!”
Mornero had been expecting a division to be sent from Raktor in order to assist Versia, but it turned out that the enforcers were fighting harder than ever, preventing the major gangs from diverting too many soldiers lest they lose control of their own districts in Raktor.
“How does Count Leon forces have enough supplies to make such a push?”
[Sir, I believe they are on the verge of running out of supplies – if we can hold on for a week more, they will be starving and eventually surrounded by our west and east armies.]
Mornero nodded, just as another explosion exploded in direct view of his office, the plume of smoke visible for kilometers. “I want a full lockdown of the city. Protect the government palace with everything you have on hand!”
[Sir, we can only afford to divert so many troops. If we divert even more, Count Leon would immediately push up and take over the second defensive line!]
A pincer attack – infiltration from within with a forward threat from the front. Mornero grimaced as he assessed his situation.
Originally the war had been going well for him. To his surprise, the three warfronts were entering a stalemate, partly due to his agreement with the major gangs of Raktor to work together. However, he was even more surprised of Ocra, who was still stable and not surrendering. They must have ran out of supplies weeks ago – the sheer tenacity of the Versians in Ocra is remarkable.
Of course, he did not know about Kyle’s ability to supply the city through Count Leon’s blockade, but he was at first feeling good about the state of the war. The major gangs would raid Count Leon’s supply lines and hand a bit of them over to the Versian military.
When the major gangs revolted in Raktor, Mornero had honestly thought that the war would be won in a swift motion. What threw him offguard was the sudden aggressiveness of Count Leon who immediately stormed the first defensive line, breaking through in a single day.
He knew Count Leon was not a suicidal man, so he already suspected a plan afoot, having recalled the Nest division and deploying them to protect Tenar. He had not forgotten about the rebellious elements in the city. “The attacks in Tenar are random, as though it was a spontaneous effect. But it is clear that someone is fuelling them. Nox, what do you think?”
“I believe the enemy is aiming for a decapitation strategy.” Nox was standing next to him in the office, serving as the liasion for control of the Nest forces. “For every successful coup, the seat of power must be controlled quickly if the city is to be captured. As such, the attacks are a mere diversion, while the enemy prepares to kill you.”
Mornero agreed as well, himself having pulled off a similar strategy when capturing President Johan and paying protestors to riot at the government palace. It was just that the positions were now swapped, and he had to play as the defender rather than the attacker.
“Pull as many forces as you can back to the government palace.”
“Already done, sir.” Just as Nox replied, the glass windows of the office shattered as a mortar round slammed through, blowing up on the ground and blasting paper and weak wooden tables around in a swirling storm.
Nox instinctively used his speed to quickly push Mornero down onto the ground as a few mortar rounds came in, the fragments screeching across the room and threatening to pierce Mornero, with Nox blocking a few stray ones with his tough armour.
At the same time, the sounds of fighting had finally reached the palace, with explosions and gunfire rocking the area. [Sir, there’s more than five hundred of them here!]
“Fend them off!” Nox hauled Mornero up to his feet, rushing over to the side of the room and pressing a button, revealing an elevator that led to an underground bunker. Nox did not enter with Mornero, instead sending Mornero down alone, while he readied himself to clear the palace.
As he stepped out of the office and entered the main corridors, his men were already engaged in a fierce firefight in various sections of the palace. The once grand hallways of the palace with lavish red paint were now riddled with pellet holes and residual soot of explosions, with the black stain creeping onto the ceiling with every fight. The government workers screamed and cowered under their desks, hoping to survive the fight while other ministers were being led by security troops to the underground bunker as well.
Nox helped to push back the attackers, killing the knights of Count Leon with his poison tipped arm-shields as he got up close and personal, piercing through the cracks and seams of their arctech armour. The fighting was eventually stabilized and controlled, with Nox leading a counterattack charge to force the attackers back to the main entrance.
But just as Nox was about to command yet another push, a pellet shot from a railgun hit him right in the chest armour, the kinetic energy nearly overwhelming his absorption engravings that frantically tried to convert it to arcia energy.
The sheer force of the impact staggered him, forcing him to quickly duck behind cover as three more pellets followed up, with one tearing through the head of a Nest soldier, twisting his brain into a sickly mush that gushed out of the through-hole.
Nox gritted his teeth as he grabbed a rifle on the floor, aware of who was targeting him. Kris Greyborn, it’s you again!
M.G.Driver
Now the first chapter already has cool sci-fi tingles, and we all know I love sci-fi to death (galactic era and stuff, you know?)
The intialization chapter was already such a great hook - not too much info dump, and really really really nice looking boxes. Even better than my tables, honestly.
Here's the blurb if you want to give it a try:
Samantha should have known better than pushing to advance technology in a world of magic.
Her people might have hailed her as a Saint for ushering them into an era of unprecedented prosperity — but the Mage Lords, powerful rulers of their own kingdoms, did not take kindly to her overthrowing the status quo.
Now she is trapped inside the arcane computer she has fabricated to save her friends from the Lords' wrath, and only the last dregs of her divine Wish are keeping her alive. As Feral AIs and mind-corrupting viruses attack her last refuge, Samantha must figure out how she can escape this realm before it collapses and buries the last of her hope with it.
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