08-07-2018, 11:30 PM
Elopolis, Ulinaria, Lauchenoiria
Laura Moore had woken that morning with a deep sense of foreboding. She hoped it was only due to her having slept for far longer than she intended; it had been a month since she'd slept in a proper bed.
She showered, part amazed and part horrified at the sheer quantity of dirt that she'd collected while on the run. She ate breakfast alone in the little modern flat Elopolis City Council had built for low-income residents at a time when war had been something that happened far away in other countries.
The block of flats had been completed about a week after Chaher had come to power. With the general crisis, they had never been offered to anyone on the social housing list. They were now being used as housing for Resistance officers who did not initially live in the city.
As she walked down the stairs, she passed a pair of too-young looking officers returning from a night shift, who gave her a salute as she passed. Moore remembered a time when she had been a pacifist. The memory had taken on the same quality as a dream. She couldn't quite believe it was real.
Yervia-Ulinaria Boundary
Jae Chung crossed the boundary line in the middle of a forest. Someone, some time ago, had stuck a collection of signs informing people they were crossing the boundary on trees and informing passing travellers that "Ulinarian authoritarians will PAY* their share. Join today!".
She'd stumbled upon a Kerlian soldier and a Lauchenoirian soldier about thirty minutes earlier in the woods. The pair were lying together on the ground, half their uniforms off and strewn around the area. They had been silent and all three of them had been startled when she came in sight of them. They'd reached for their weapons, but she had been faster.
She now pressed through the end of the forest, and came to an abrupt halt where the ground dropped away to fields below. The hill edge before her was steeper than she had been expecting, so she cursed and began walking along the edge, looking for a more passable way down into the rural part of Ulinaria.
High-Speed Railway, Ecanta Province
The man who sat on the train had gone by many names. He preferred, if possible, to go by none. As he sat amongst the Lauchenoirian troops being sent to meet the Coalition front lines, he wondered who among them would never make the return journey. He would, of course. He always did.
He had worked for many people, and many sides. Whoever paid the most. He had spent his time at the beginning of the war searching for Moore, but she'd always managed to evade him. Now Moore was publicly in Elopolis, and Charissa Clarke "˜did not require' his services. So, when Yousef Chaher had come knocking, he'd accepted, even if this wasn't his usual commission.
He checked the package was secure once more as they left the train at some small village station he didn't care to learn the name of. The soldiers he was with chattered excitedly in a mixture of English and Spanish, in the manner of young fools who knew little of the realities of war. The man didn't care to be among them any longer.
He slipped away, going unseen in the manner of someone who had practiced extensively. By the time he left the village, his Lauchenoirian Army uniform was gone and he was dressed in the manner of the kind of farmer who chose to live in the difficult climate of southern Lauchenoiria rather than farming the more fertile land to the north.
When he was far enough away from civilisation that he was certain nobody would see, he took out Yousef's package and opened it up. He was rather curious to see what the boy would pay him so much to deliver.
He held up the vial of red liquid. Blood? And then it dawned on him.
Near Aelurian Blockade
It was Fergie's turn to row and Carlito's to guard when it happened. They were alone in the water when all at once, two boats sped towards them on either side. Carlito yelped and dropped the gun on Frederic's head, which promptly woke him.
"Sugar!" Fergie yelled and began to row faster, though she knew it was futile.
"¡Rápido! ¡Rápido! ¡Rápido!" yelled Carlito.
"Allez, allez, allez!" yelled Frederic.
One of the boats stopped abruptly in front of them, forcing Fergie to stop.
Fergie grabbed the weapon and pointed it towards the boat. The Lauchenoirian navy personnel that she faced had many more.
"Put down the weapon, little girl," one of them called. "Don't want to have to shoot you."
Fergie glanced at the other two. They both looked terrified. She placed the gun down on the boat and stepped backwards, faster than she intended. The motion made the boat rock and she fell on her backside in between Carlito and Frederic. Laughter passed through the ranks of those on the boat ahead of them.
LFS Erebus, Aelurian Blockade
Captain Gregor Docherty of the LFS Erebus had not seen much action in this war. In fact, the most exciting thing the Erebus had done so far was capture a trio of teenagers trying to flee off of Aeluria. So, he took a far greater interest in the situation than a man of his position would normally.
One of the boys was a Laeralite, which is what made Docherty suspicious of the situation. Just why would a citizen of a Coalition state be on Aeluria, who were just as much at war with the Coalition as the Lauchenoirian state?
"I don't like this," he said to his first officer. "I know nothing of this supposed language exchange programme, and that Laeralite is clearly overexaggerating his level of fear. No, the Aelurians are up to something."
"What do you propose we do?" she asked. Lorna Rigley was below average height, but her intellect was sharp and she was fast. They had been in a bar once in Summersea, and some man had been harassing a woman on the other side of the bar. The woman had screamed and all of a sudden, the man was on the ground bleeding, with Lorna standing over him.
"Our asset on Aeluria hasn't reported for a while. We have no current intelligence on the island. We need to send people to the shore."
"Our orders were to remain surrounding the island and apprehend anyone attempting to enter or leave."
"And that's what we'll do. Pick twenty of our best. Send them out in two groups after nightfall. And, I cannot stress this enough, this is an intelligence gathering mission. They are not to get into a firefight unless the Aelurians or their Kivasekian allies start it."
Outskirts of Usera
The fight for the city had taken most of the day. But the Resistance had finally been pushed back, and were holed up in the old cathedral, holding the position with a persistence Chloe Conde would have admired if it wasn't so damn irritating.
As she made her way into the city, they passed over the bodies of the dead. The Kerlians had already cleared out their own dead, but most of the Resistance fighters lay where they fell. Their structure was more organised than some of the DKS** groups she had fought when she first joined the military in her late teens, but it still left a lot to be desired.
Conde reached the cathedral and stayed a safe distance away. The Resistance were firing out the windows while the Kerlians exchanged fire from the ground. She checked the time. This had gone on long enough.
"Storm the building," she ordered, "and remember, I want Viratnen and her little circle alive."
Inside Usera Cathedral
Leonie Bennett wasn't sure if she'd finished high school. She'd sat her last set of exams, but she'd never had results or any kind of official recognition. The perils of running off to fight in a war, she supposed. It was an odd thing to come to mind when she was probably about to die.
A bullet shattered the window near where she stood, and she yelped, jumping backwards to the innermost wall. She could hear fighting in the stairs beneath her and she knew the Kerlians were coming. She felt utterly sick. She fumbled through her pocket and brought out a picture of her with her parents and little brother that she'd rescued from her purse before dumping it months ago. She clutched it and slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
She watched Sonja and Josephine argue without hearing what they said. The ever-closer gunshots from the stairwell preoccupied her. She didn't know what had happened to Oliver. Ramiro Soto stood in another corner whispering to Peter Fischer, Laura Moore's former aide. Rayna Little, the criminal who'd helped Josephine escape Ginsap stood with a rifle trained on the door.
When the door burst open, it felt to Leonie like the world had crumbled to pieces around her. The moment between one breath and the next felt both instantaneous and infinite to the terrified teenager who more than ever before felt completely out of her depth.
Rayna only got off one shot before a Kerlian put a bullet in her head. Sonja leapt towards the window, only to be caught by Josephine, who was now crying for a reason Leonie had missed. The two men raised their arms in surrender, and Leonie did the same. Sonja curled into Josephine.
Chloe Conde stepped foot in the room and time returned to its normal rate. She surveyed the room. Her eyes fell upon Leonie.
"Stand," she commanded. Shaking, Leonie complied. Conde turned back to Sonja.
"Good evening, Ms Viratnen. I'm sorry to say, I come bearing bad news. Your sister unfortunately has passed away."
"She doesn't have a sister, you fascist misandrist," spat Josephine.
"Ms Alvarez, a pleasure. But I am afraid you don't know your wife as well as I do. Isn't that right, Sonja?"
Sonja continued to bury her head in Josephine's chest and did not respond. Conde tilted her head in a gesture to one of the soldiers behind her. The soldier raised her weapon and shot Peter in the shoulder. He screamed and fell to the ground. Sonja's head shot up.
"This is exactly why..." she began, growling, then seemed to catch herself. Leonie watched on in confusion and shock.
"Why Viratnen?" Conde asked. She emphasised the sentence, and it seemed to lack a pause in the middle that would indicate a comma in the written form.
"Stop it," Sonja said.
"You know, Josie, can I call you Josie? I heard the pair of you were planning to adopt before all this happened. Start a family here. A foolish decision. Certainly, it caught our attention. It became our duty to inform you that your relationship was based on a lie."
"Stop it," Sonja begged.
"Sonja Viratnen, daughter of Hanna and Antero Viratnen. Both executed in 1994 for treason. Their thirteen-year-old daughter, abandoned in her home and forgotten by the authorities. Their daughter, who went on to fight for DKS. Everyone knows the story, especially now. Except, that isn't exactly true, is it?"
"Stop, please!"
"It always seemed quite inconsistent to me. When we find a family of traitors, we don't usually let one of their members escape. So how did little Sonja manage it?"
"Stop."
"Answer: she didn't. You are not Sonja Viratnen."
"Stop!"
"What the hell are you on about?" Josephine growled.
"Sonja Viratnen died in 1994 with her parents. And then someone else took her name. Erased the record of her death. Escaped, and ran. Survived even when her comrades perished. Who is this miracle worker? Who had such knowledge of Kerlian records? What little thirteen-year-old would risk doing such a thing?"
"Please, please stop it!" Sonja was kneeling on the ground at this point, crying. Leonie, forgotten, began to edge closer to the door.
"Do you want to know who your wife is, Josephine Irma Alvarez Gallego?"
"I know who she is," Josephine retorted, but there was uncertainty in her voice. Leonie edged further.
"Meet Jennifer Eleonora Hale, daughter of Camila Wren Hale, sister of Cornelia Rosa Hale. Do you recognise the names?"
"You... expect me to believe..." Josephine was at a loss for words. Sonja was sobbing now. Leonie tried to make a break for it. One of the Kerlians grabbed her and forced her to her knees. Conde glanced back at her briefly then continued to ignore her. The Kerlian holding Leonie tightened her grip. Leonie tried not to gasp.
"Do stand up, Jennifer. Now your sister has passed, it is time for you to take your rightful place as the Hale family representative on the Council of Kerlile."
*PAY is the acronym for the Partido Anarquista de Yervia (Anarchist Party of Yervia), a pro-Yervian independence fringe party. They are known for disliking the other provinces and sticking propaganda posters in strange places.
**Democratic Kerlian State, the anti-regime faction in the 1992-99 Kerlian Civil War
Laura Moore had woken that morning with a deep sense of foreboding. She hoped it was only due to her having slept for far longer than she intended; it had been a month since she'd slept in a proper bed.
She showered, part amazed and part horrified at the sheer quantity of dirt that she'd collected while on the run. She ate breakfast alone in the little modern flat Elopolis City Council had built for low-income residents at a time when war had been something that happened far away in other countries.
The block of flats had been completed about a week after Chaher had come to power. With the general crisis, they had never been offered to anyone on the social housing list. They were now being used as housing for Resistance officers who did not initially live in the city.
As she walked down the stairs, she passed a pair of too-young looking officers returning from a night shift, who gave her a salute as she passed. Moore remembered a time when she had been a pacifist. The memory had taken on the same quality as a dream. She couldn't quite believe it was real.
Yervia-Ulinaria Boundary
Jae Chung crossed the boundary line in the middle of a forest. Someone, some time ago, had stuck a collection of signs informing people they were crossing the boundary on trees and informing passing travellers that "Ulinarian authoritarians will PAY* their share. Join today!".
She'd stumbled upon a Kerlian soldier and a Lauchenoirian soldier about thirty minutes earlier in the woods. The pair were lying together on the ground, half their uniforms off and strewn around the area. They had been silent and all three of them had been startled when she came in sight of them. They'd reached for their weapons, but she had been faster.
She now pressed through the end of the forest, and came to an abrupt halt where the ground dropped away to fields below. The hill edge before her was steeper than she had been expecting, so she cursed and began walking along the edge, looking for a more passable way down into the rural part of Ulinaria.
High-Speed Railway, Ecanta Province
The man who sat on the train had gone by many names. He preferred, if possible, to go by none. As he sat amongst the Lauchenoirian troops being sent to meet the Coalition front lines, he wondered who among them would never make the return journey. He would, of course. He always did.
He had worked for many people, and many sides. Whoever paid the most. He had spent his time at the beginning of the war searching for Moore, but she'd always managed to evade him. Now Moore was publicly in Elopolis, and Charissa Clarke "˜did not require' his services. So, when Yousef Chaher had come knocking, he'd accepted, even if this wasn't his usual commission.
He checked the package was secure once more as they left the train at some small village station he didn't care to learn the name of. The soldiers he was with chattered excitedly in a mixture of English and Spanish, in the manner of young fools who knew little of the realities of war. The man didn't care to be among them any longer.
He slipped away, going unseen in the manner of someone who had practiced extensively. By the time he left the village, his Lauchenoirian Army uniform was gone and he was dressed in the manner of the kind of farmer who chose to live in the difficult climate of southern Lauchenoiria rather than farming the more fertile land to the north.
When he was far enough away from civilisation that he was certain nobody would see, he took out Yousef's package and opened it up. He was rather curious to see what the boy would pay him so much to deliver.
He held up the vial of red liquid. Blood? And then it dawned on him.
Near Aelurian Blockade
It was Fergie's turn to row and Carlito's to guard when it happened. They were alone in the water when all at once, two boats sped towards them on either side. Carlito yelped and dropped the gun on Frederic's head, which promptly woke him.
"Sugar!" Fergie yelled and began to row faster, though she knew it was futile.
"¡Rápido! ¡Rápido! ¡Rápido!" yelled Carlito.
"Allez, allez, allez!" yelled Frederic.
One of the boats stopped abruptly in front of them, forcing Fergie to stop.
Fergie grabbed the weapon and pointed it towards the boat. The Lauchenoirian navy personnel that she faced had many more.
"Put down the weapon, little girl," one of them called. "Don't want to have to shoot you."
Fergie glanced at the other two. They both looked terrified. She placed the gun down on the boat and stepped backwards, faster than she intended. The motion made the boat rock and she fell on her backside in between Carlito and Frederic. Laughter passed through the ranks of those on the boat ahead of them.
LFS Erebus, Aelurian Blockade
Captain Gregor Docherty of the LFS Erebus had not seen much action in this war. In fact, the most exciting thing the Erebus had done so far was capture a trio of teenagers trying to flee off of Aeluria. So, he took a far greater interest in the situation than a man of his position would normally.
One of the boys was a Laeralite, which is what made Docherty suspicious of the situation. Just why would a citizen of a Coalition state be on Aeluria, who were just as much at war with the Coalition as the Lauchenoirian state?
"I don't like this," he said to his first officer. "I know nothing of this supposed language exchange programme, and that Laeralite is clearly overexaggerating his level of fear. No, the Aelurians are up to something."
"What do you propose we do?" she asked. Lorna Rigley was below average height, but her intellect was sharp and she was fast. They had been in a bar once in Summersea, and some man had been harassing a woman on the other side of the bar. The woman had screamed and all of a sudden, the man was on the ground bleeding, with Lorna standing over him.
"Our asset on Aeluria hasn't reported for a while. We have no current intelligence on the island. We need to send people to the shore."
"Our orders were to remain surrounding the island and apprehend anyone attempting to enter or leave."
"And that's what we'll do. Pick twenty of our best. Send them out in two groups after nightfall. And, I cannot stress this enough, this is an intelligence gathering mission. They are not to get into a firefight unless the Aelurians or their Kivasekian allies start it."
Outskirts of Usera
The fight for the city had taken most of the day. But the Resistance had finally been pushed back, and were holed up in the old cathedral, holding the position with a persistence Chloe Conde would have admired if it wasn't so damn irritating.
As she made her way into the city, they passed over the bodies of the dead. The Kerlians had already cleared out their own dead, but most of the Resistance fighters lay where they fell. Their structure was more organised than some of the DKS** groups she had fought when she first joined the military in her late teens, but it still left a lot to be desired.
Conde reached the cathedral and stayed a safe distance away. The Resistance were firing out the windows while the Kerlians exchanged fire from the ground. She checked the time. This had gone on long enough.
"Storm the building," she ordered, "and remember, I want Viratnen and her little circle alive."
Inside Usera Cathedral
Leonie Bennett wasn't sure if she'd finished high school. She'd sat her last set of exams, but she'd never had results or any kind of official recognition. The perils of running off to fight in a war, she supposed. It was an odd thing to come to mind when she was probably about to die.
A bullet shattered the window near where she stood, and she yelped, jumping backwards to the innermost wall. She could hear fighting in the stairs beneath her and she knew the Kerlians were coming. She felt utterly sick. She fumbled through her pocket and brought out a picture of her with her parents and little brother that she'd rescued from her purse before dumping it months ago. She clutched it and slid down the wall to sit on the floor.
She watched Sonja and Josephine argue without hearing what they said. The ever-closer gunshots from the stairwell preoccupied her. She didn't know what had happened to Oliver. Ramiro Soto stood in another corner whispering to Peter Fischer, Laura Moore's former aide. Rayna Little, the criminal who'd helped Josephine escape Ginsap stood with a rifle trained on the door.
When the door burst open, it felt to Leonie like the world had crumbled to pieces around her. The moment between one breath and the next felt both instantaneous and infinite to the terrified teenager who more than ever before felt completely out of her depth.
Rayna only got off one shot before a Kerlian put a bullet in her head. Sonja leapt towards the window, only to be caught by Josephine, who was now crying for a reason Leonie had missed. The two men raised their arms in surrender, and Leonie did the same. Sonja curled into Josephine.
Chloe Conde stepped foot in the room and time returned to its normal rate. She surveyed the room. Her eyes fell upon Leonie.
"Stand," she commanded. Shaking, Leonie complied. Conde turned back to Sonja.
"Good evening, Ms Viratnen. I'm sorry to say, I come bearing bad news. Your sister unfortunately has passed away."
"She doesn't have a sister, you fascist misandrist," spat Josephine.
"Ms Alvarez, a pleasure. But I am afraid you don't know your wife as well as I do. Isn't that right, Sonja?"
Sonja continued to bury her head in Josephine's chest and did not respond. Conde tilted her head in a gesture to one of the soldiers behind her. The soldier raised her weapon and shot Peter in the shoulder. He screamed and fell to the ground. Sonja's head shot up.
"This is exactly why..." she began, growling, then seemed to catch herself. Leonie watched on in confusion and shock.
"Why Viratnen?" Conde asked. She emphasised the sentence, and it seemed to lack a pause in the middle that would indicate a comma in the written form.
"Stop it," Sonja said.
"You know, Josie, can I call you Josie? I heard the pair of you were planning to adopt before all this happened. Start a family here. A foolish decision. Certainly, it caught our attention. It became our duty to inform you that your relationship was based on a lie."
"Stop it," Sonja begged.
"Sonja Viratnen, daughter of Hanna and Antero Viratnen. Both executed in 1994 for treason. Their thirteen-year-old daughter, abandoned in her home and forgotten by the authorities. Their daughter, who went on to fight for DKS. Everyone knows the story, especially now. Except, that isn't exactly true, is it?"
"Stop, please!"
"It always seemed quite inconsistent to me. When we find a family of traitors, we don't usually let one of their members escape. So how did little Sonja manage it?"
"Stop."
"Answer: she didn't. You are not Sonja Viratnen."
"Stop!"
"What the hell are you on about?" Josephine growled.
"Sonja Viratnen died in 1994 with her parents. And then someone else took her name. Erased the record of her death. Escaped, and ran. Survived even when her comrades perished. Who is this miracle worker? Who had such knowledge of Kerlian records? What little thirteen-year-old would risk doing such a thing?"
"Please, please stop it!" Sonja was kneeling on the ground at this point, crying. Leonie, forgotten, began to edge closer to the door.
"Do you want to know who your wife is, Josephine Irma Alvarez Gallego?"
"I know who she is," Josephine retorted, but there was uncertainty in her voice. Leonie edged further.
"Meet Jennifer Eleonora Hale, daughter of Camila Wren Hale, sister of Cornelia Rosa Hale. Do you recognise the names?"
"You... expect me to believe..." Josephine was at a loss for words. Sonja was sobbing now. Leonie tried to make a break for it. One of the Kerlians grabbed her and forced her to her knees. Conde glanced back at her briefly then continued to ignore her. The Kerlian holding Leonie tightened her grip. Leonie tried not to gasp.
"Do stand up, Jennifer. Now your sister has passed, it is time for you to take your rightful place as the Hale family representative on the Council of Kerlile."
*PAY is the acronym for the Partido Anarquista de Yervia (Anarchist Party of Yervia), a pro-Yervian independence fringe party. They are known for disliking the other provinces and sticking propaganda posters in strange places.
**Democratic Kerlian State, the anti-regime faction in the 1992-99 Kerlian Civil War
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax