“To the citizens of Lone Star,” I began, voice calm but edged with steel, “we hear your cries. You flee not from us, but toward us. Know this: Aeternum does not come to enslave. We come to protect, to rebuild, to end the tyranny that starves its own children.”I leaned closer, my tone sharpening. “To King Halbrecht, who calls himself sovereign — your people are voting with their feet. Every family that comes to us is another voice declaring your reign finished. You are already dethroned.”The broadcast ended. Silence lingered in the studio. Then Rafaela, ever radiant, murmured from the wings: “You’ve given them hope, Mies. Hope can move armies faster than any engine.” I only nodded. Because I knew — she was right.In Star City’s main square, the gallows were crowded with trembling peasants. King Halbrecht himself stood on the balcony of his palace, face red with fury.“They cheer for our enemies,” he thundered to the crowd. “They betray their king for scraps from foreigners!” He raise
From the hidden corners of Lone Star, ACIA agents compiled damning dossiers. Grain shipments hoarded by nobles while their soldiers starved. Torture pits filled with innocents branded “Aeternum spies.” Secret executions of dissenting lords.Each report was sent back to Vaelric City, where scribes began drafting the future narrative: Lone Star’s collapse was of its own making. Aeternum merely ended their suffering.Already, these documents circulated discreetly among UNA allies. Protests once staged against Aeternum’s “warmongering” now faltered in the face of mounting evidence. Rivals might sneer, but the truth could not be denied: Lone Star had become the villain of its own story.That night, alone with my maps and candlelight, I pressed my pen against the parchment and drew a single line from Vaelric City to Star City.“This will be the road that ends a kingdom,” I whispered.But my thoughts wandered beyond the battlefield. I thought of the farmers forced into levies, of the childre
“Both of you are correct,” I said evenly. “But remember this — our war is not merely about crushing armies. It is about rewriting faith. Every city that surrenders to us willingly, every village that learns Aeternum’s protection is better than Lone Star’s cruelty, becomes a nail in their king’s coffin.”I looked at them each in turn. “Speed, yes. Brutality where needed. But above all, order. That is how we win not just the land, but the people who live upon it.”They both bowed. My decree was final, as always.By the third week, the Aeternum flag flew over a third of Lone Star’s territory. Roads once ruled by brigands or tax collectors now echoed with Aeternum supply trucks and patrolling soldiers.Messages flooded into Vaelric City — not of rebellion, but of surrender. Small lords sent envoys begging to be spared. Entire villages deserted their posts, offering keys to their towns. Refugees from deeper inland streamed toward Aeternum lines, reporting the cruelty of Lone Star nobles wh
I signed the operational addendum in the late hour. It was a dry bundle of clauses: absolute priority to noncombatant protection, mandatory medevac thresholds, court-martial for looting, and immediate removal of any commander proven to commit collective punishments. Practical lines—who to notify when a civilian complaint came in, how to log seizures, how many days’ rations constituted a supply cache—stuff that read like paper but acted like armor.Bina approved it without flourish. Alessia asked one pointed question about enforcement and then turned back to her maps. Mina organized patrol rotations to match supply distribution. Andrea recalculated trains and trucks to stretch the fuel lines further. In the command tent everything folded into place like machinery.I walked to the edge of the encampment that night and watched lamps wink out across the fields. Men and women in Aeternum uniforms moved like caretakers—treading the thin line between force and mercy. We had enough weapons to
The convoy arrived like a new season: engines humming, treads leaving fresh furrows in the once-empty road. Armored carriers moved in the lead, not to intimidate the villagers but to make the path safe—metallic flanks reflecting a brittle morning sun. Behind them rolled trucks of crates, palletized goods strapped down in neat rows, med vans with red sigils, and a vehicle painted in civilian white that housed a field kitchen.At the makeshift barricade on the ridge, a knot of local militia and a single Lone Star captain tried to hold the line. They had the old armbands and the leather jerkin. Their rifles were patchwork—rusted barrels, wooden stocks. Pride stiffened their shoulders. They were not prepared for the precision of the Aeternum advance: silent drones that mapped their fields, engineers who could splice a road into submission, MPs who walked up to the barricade and placed a small paper card on the stones—an ultimatum dressed as an invitation.The captain spat and shouted defi
In the southern province of Veymar, Baron Tellen held his own court. He sneered as gaunt peasants were dragged before him, accused of hoarding grain.One by one, men and women swore they had nothing left, that soldiers had already stripped their barns. Tellen laughed cruelly, ordering them flogged anyway.“Spare the whip on their backs,” he told his captain. “Save it for their children. Pain breeds loyalty faster.”His cruelty was not discipline—it was desperation, the collapse of a man too blind to see his doom. In taverns that night, villagers whispered not of loyalty, but of revenge.From the map room in Vaelric City, I read every coded report.“Crackdowns escalating… arrests in Star City… baron’s abuses in Veymar…”I traced the crimson pins on the map, each one marking another noble’s cruelty. And with every cruelty, more names filled Vaelric’s registry.I closed my eyes, feeling the hum of the estate’s generators, the steady rhythm of typewriters outside as staff compiled field d