[Lauchenoiria]

In the waters east of Caxcana, the Lauchenoirian ships which had meandered so slowly away from Auria turned on their heels and sped back the way they came. It was a waste of fuel and time, of course, but it had been necessary for the ruse designed to fool Calhualyana. They had, of course, headed away at a much slower speed than they were capable of, as the world did so like to underestimate the Lauchenoirian military.

It was not yet certain that Lauchenoiria would join the war, as the Federal Parliament still had to vote on the matter, however the probability was that they would land ground forces within the next week or so. At the very least, Lauchenoiria was contributing to the war effort in some ways that were yet to be revealed; but they hoped to do more. That would, however, depend on what the Empress decided to do to Lauchenoiria as punishment for the ruse.

Alvarez had anticipated some form of reprisal, but she did not know what form it would take. While the ships maneuvered in the South Xiomeran and Nereus Seas, back home the security services of Lauchenoiria were taking every step they could to protect their country against whichever form of attack Xiomera would choose. New firewalls were installed on government servers, border checkpoint security was almost doubled, parliaments both federal and provincial had their security increased.

The military was on high alert; the seas were scanned for enemy ships and the skies watched intently for enemy aircraft. Decades-old bunkers were cleaned out just in case, and the government had begun to stockpile food stores in case of sabotage to crops. Those who had fought in the resistance during the civil war, and who still kept their guns in spite of laws against it, kept them close and their families closer in case of invasion. People downloaded their cloud files to harddrives, and wrote down landline numbers on paper in case the internet went down.

Lauchenoiria was not at war with Xiomera, though one would be forgiven for thinking otherwise. The population, however, had all seen war before and recently at that. They prepared for the worst even without the government forcing the matter; and they were all determined to defend their country if it came to that. Nobody quite knew what to expect from Calhualyana, if it would be something small or something devastating. But Lauchenoiria was united in their opposition to her; after Alvarez’s speech her approval ratings had doubled.

In cabinet meetings and in their nightmares, the government of Lauchenoiria speculated about the meaning of the words uttered by the Empress and by the Xiomeran mercenaries fighting in Auria. What did CSSC mean by “ordinary Lauchenoirians… will suffer” given the war was so far from home? Was this a threat of invasion? And to what extent did CSSC’s communications reflect the will of the Xiomeran government? Or was this all misdirection to keep them afraid?

Nobody knew what would come next. The Federal Parliament continued to delay the vote on formally declaring war on King Andrew’s Aurian government in anticipation of Xiomera’s reprisal, wanting to know what they were up against before committing to fight a war so far from home at the same time. Lauchenoiria was holding its breath, staring intently inwards at itself as it waited to see what happened. Only one thing was certain: something would.