War and Consequence

[Amaryllis]

 Royal Palace, 10:00 p.m.

 

"Your majesty you must understand. Doing something like this just as you're about to declare the new budget is going to cause mayhem amongst the people. Not even your mother would do something this reckless!"  the old man who spoke Ericson remembered he had kept on from his mother's advisory board.

"I would rather deal with now and deal with the fallout in one go than in seperate parts." he said as he looked around the room. The advisory board wasn't big as was tradition with less than ten people and with varying ages although the majority had were more young towards his age as per advice of his mother.

"Remember the last time we expanded, it resulted in our nation getting attacked and the people's ire!" the old man went on, pratically out of his seat and looking around, "And I know I am not the only one who is thinking this."

It took a while but a few mumbles of agreement, "We only ask that you consider putting the plan on hold. Maybe when things calm down and public reception..."

"Public reception has been on the rocks since mother's mistake and the only thing to fix that would be if I gave the people her head and while we're not talking at the moment I do love her to not do that," Ericson said as he then picked up one of the folders he had stacked next to him and opened it, "And I'd rather not wait. Wintery has been too small for too long. Once upon a time I believed that was okay and we didn't draw attention to ourselves. However, that's no longer the case. The cautious attitude mother has had caused our kingdom to be set back not onlyi in technology but also in military might. If we were to go against an actual competent military we would be blown off the map and I would actually like to avoid that. Improving our military an futhering our cyber divison are only small steps, and I believe furthering our extent into Asia will also help us. However, with expansion in Asia by other parties also happening we can't afford to wait."

"Your majesty..."

"We will do what we always do when we had expanded before. Offer rebuild and pardons to those who tried to stop us." Ericson went on as he didn't look up from the folder he was reading as he went on. It was the report his generals had sent stating the condition of their supplies and ETA of mobolization. A campaign such as this could be possible if they were able to plan carefully, "We will treat them as equal as we did when we expanded west."

"I'm sorry Your Majesty, but I must..." the old man tried again.

"I've called this meeting as a courtesy and to perhaps hear what I will be expecting from both you and the people," Ericson went on as he closed the folder and stood up, looking everyone in the eye, "I recall when I sat in meetings when my mother was empress that she would stae her mind on what she was to do and the board would simply tell her of the consequences and suggestions on how to deal with it. Now, I believe it's not so hard to ask for the same thing."

The silence was heavy for a while, uncertainty in their eyes before one began to speak up, "Well, as always be prepared for the protests..."

 

Next Day, 11:00 am

The announcment of the budget would go out and as such anger was immenient with protests already happening at the palace as expected although several military recruitment centers and even Omni Military College were report crowds of protestors outside. With security at the palace, no violence was had but a recruitment center reported their window busted by a brick.

 

Week After 11:00 pm - 3:00 am

Those who lived in the South of the Kingdom were woken up by the roar of bombers and fighter jets flying over their heads and into the unclaimed land beyond them. Some who were closest to the border would say they could see the fire and explosions from their houses as pilots took to orders of taking out their targets, which included major cities and certain rail lines. Small towns were spared although those that hosted military or air bases would find them to be blown up. Fighters were assigned to protect the bombers as retalation was expected to come especailly near the border as several pilots would learn the hard way.

Meantime, ground troops were expected to be prepared to moblize once the signal was given with the order to secure several towns and rail lines not taken out by the bombers. The plan was to keep going further in under the cover of aerial power until the land was theirs.

 

Five Hours Later

Protests again rise up

[Amaryllis]

Royal Palace, 11:00 am

"Are these casualty reports accurate?" Ericson asked, coffee in hand and bags under his brown eyes. 

 

"Considering we just launched the attack, they're as accurate as it could be," General Shēng Píngbì said in a tone that showed his own exhaustion through the computer the two were video chatting. 

 

"Ten pilots shot down," Ericson said to himself.

 

"Expect more later today, your majesty. We're still taking into account ground troops." 

 

Ericson nodded and took several sips of his coffee, "I want them no later than tomorrow, General. How are we on our advancement?" 

 

"Not as successful as we hoped. The rail lines you wanted secured at least a few have been well defended, which were all located further into the area. The ones closer to the border were definitely rush jobs on defense. Our boys in the air were given orders to not fly further in until the ground is secured and to fly back in shifts for refueling."  The General explained.

 

"Have you briefed them on the plan to secure further airforce bases this time when pressing further in?" 

 

"Of course, your majesty." 

 

Ericson took a few more sips of his coffee. He heard a knock on the door and glared at it before telling the person to come in. His brother-in-law came in along with a servant who was pushing in a tray holding pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast.

 

"Your sisters and mother wants you to actually eat something besides coffee." Tenchi said and crossed his arms, his eyes daring Ericson to go against what he said. 

 

Ericson kept up the glare before turning to the computer, "I want full reports on the targets not secured. At the least, we'll have to move on from them. At the worst, we'll have bombers circle back to destroy them and use other means to transport supplies. I want them no later than tonight." 

 

The General saluted his response and Ericson turned off the screen. The servant wheeled the tray up to his side and Tenchi dismissed her, but he didn't leave when she did.

 

"Did they tell you to babysit me too?" 

 

"Considering I'm still here and not helping Lucia give the boys their bath, you can make a reasonable guess to the question." 

 

Ericson rolled his eyes and picked up a slice of toast before turning to the computer. After typing in a few things, news reports popped on the screen. Protests as always."

 

An Hour Later 

An amateur video of the early morning operations was released on the internet and was the highlight the afternoon news.

 

 

 

 

[Amaryllis]

Omni Special News 

We come to you live with this special broadcast outside of the Dragon Hide's Military base where it is believed General Shēng Píngbì is monitoring our kingdom's latest attempts at expansion under our emperor. As you can see, we are not allowed to go inside. We were actually lucky to be allowed this close as it was shown protestors would be turned away with threats of arrest for tresspassing if they got too close. Of course, this did result in a few physical altercations between protestors and the guards at the gate.

 

-screen flashes to show a male protestor and guard engaging in a fist fight as several other protestors yell- 

 

As you can see, tension has run high qnd it looks like it'll run higher as the video showing our kingdom's earliest wave...

 

-the amateur video is shown again- 

 

...is now being put into perspective with the estimated casualties. So far we have counted fifteen pilots shot down and killed and we're estimating ground troops at the very least two thousand lost. This isn't even taking into account civilian casualties brought on the natives which is estimating to be seven thousand or that recently our men have pushed further into the region so the numbers are expected to go up. 

 

People are also expecting a press conference with the emperor soon although rumors state it will be televized and not the usual live one. We will have to wait to find out.

 

This Omni News. 

 

Status Report: Ground

Rails line that could be secured have been and will be used to transport supplies as soon as possible. Small towns and communities have also been secured and plans to have more medics and engineers come in to help rebuild and help the injured are underway. Those who will not being staying in their assigned positions are prepared to move further in with the intent of taking several key bases and towns before air power comes in. Orders to not destroy the bases are understood.  

 

Status Report: Air

Rail lines that could not be secured are destroyed. Those assigned to follow the troops on the ground are refueled and ready to go. Those that are not will be given shifts to return across the border for possible mantenience if needed. 

[Amaryllis]

Royal Palace

You do know there are other things going on in the world, right?"

 

Ericson looked up as the the make up artist finished touching up his face. Lucia was standing there, holding one of her boys, which one Ericson couldn't tell, with a wide frown on her face. Sighing as he stood up dressed in his royal attire and ignoring the camera crew talking as the prepared.

 

"We haven't even spoken on the Swedish civil war and from what I'm hearing that's nearly over. Or even acknowledge the rumors that there was some type of weapon used in Korea." She said.

 

"The Swedish civil war broke out after I launched our expansion campaign. I was already sending men out into a conflict that was not liked. I was not sending out more when several countries were already handling it."

 

"Your majesty we're ready to go in five."

 

"And I'd rather know what the hell was used in Korea before sticking my nose into it."

 

Lucia still didn't look happy but remained quiet. Ericson shook his head.

 

"Look we'll talk about this more. If our kingdom ever travels further down south then we'll have to look into this more, but for how. I wish to just focus on the one thing."

 

Without saying another word, he turned and walked in front of a set of cameras just as someone was saying they were going live in five seconds...

 

Omni Special Broadcast

"Hello, this is your emperor speaking. As it's known, I'm quite aware that I'm not the most popular person to you guys, and I take that anger with understanding. However, I believe I must explain why this happening. Our kingdom compared to its neighbors and even across the world is compared to that a fly against a swatter. It was alright for us as we had competent allies and we adopted a more stay low lifestyle. 

 

"That is now not possible. We can't hide behind our allies and we've allowed this lifestyle to make us weak and lag behind in advancement. With the expansion of Walpurgis growing, this proves our old way of living isn't allowed. 

 

"Now that doesn't mean I'm going to push us into this recklessly. I know this needs to be done in steps. It's why we are developing our military and we are expanding our borders. It's why I'm willing to be the bad guy for a short amount of time. If our kingdom falls, we all suffer and as your emperor I have to stop this and I thank you for taking into consideration."

 

 

[Amaryllis]

Occupation A Success

 

Emperor Ericson,

The last of the resistance has fallen. Medics and engineers have been assigned to areas to begin reconstruction. Troops will also be assigned to remain to stand guard as police until things are stablized. Casualty reports and be sent me you in full this evening.

General Shēng Píngbì