05-02-2023, 12:46 AM
Paralysis had prevailed.
The more conservative elements in the Legislature and the government, led by Great Speaker Texōccoatl, had begged Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli to launch a military operation to reclaim as much of "Western Xiomera" as possible before the Xiomeran "annexation." Tiacihitli had been opposed, along with a slim majority of the Legislature. The failure of the last operation Huenya had launched against the separatists was still fresh in their minds. So was the fear of a wider war.
Texōccoatl and his backers argued that things on the ground had changed since Huenya's previous failure. The military was better organized, trained and equipped. Huenya had received substantial help from Greater Acadia and its UCS partners. It had also begun to master the Xiomeran technology and weapons it had inherited after the civil war, and to improve on it as well as adapt it to Huenyan fighting style. This time, Huenya was ready for the Empire, they argued.
Tiacihitli held firm. If the conservatives and the war hawks were wrong, the consequences for Huenya could be disastrous. It could even mean the end of the Federation. They wanted to wait for a more opportune moment to respond.
And they got their way. Huenya was a democracy, and the doves had just enough votes.
So on May 1st, all of Huenya got to watch, and seethe over, the celebrations in Xonacatlán and in Tlālacuetztla. Western Xiomera became the province of Xonacatlán - the 13th home province of the Xiomeran Empire. And no one did anything to stop it.
Historians would later have much to debate about how this event would trigger those that were to follow. But on the 1st of May, 2023, the only thing to debate was that Huenya had been humiliated by the Empire once more.
The more conservative elements in the Legislature and the government, led by Great Speaker Texōccoatl, had begged Vice-Speaker Tiacihitli to launch a military operation to reclaim as much of "Western Xiomera" as possible before the Xiomeran "annexation." Tiacihitli had been opposed, along with a slim majority of the Legislature. The failure of the last operation Huenya had launched against the separatists was still fresh in their minds. So was the fear of a wider war.
Texōccoatl and his backers argued that things on the ground had changed since Huenya's previous failure. The military was better organized, trained and equipped. Huenya had received substantial help from Greater Acadia and its UCS partners. It had also begun to master the Xiomeran technology and weapons it had inherited after the civil war, and to improve on it as well as adapt it to Huenyan fighting style. This time, Huenya was ready for the Empire, they argued.
Tiacihitli held firm. If the conservatives and the war hawks were wrong, the consequences for Huenya could be disastrous. It could even mean the end of the Federation. They wanted to wait for a more opportune moment to respond.
And they got their way. Huenya was a democracy, and the doves had just enough votes.
So on May 1st, all of Huenya got to watch, and seethe over, the celebrations in Xonacatlán and in Tlālacuetztla. Western Xiomera became the province of Xonacatlán - the 13th home province of the Xiomeran Empire. And no one did anything to stop it.
Historians would later have much to debate about how this event would trigger those that were to follow. But on the 1st of May, 2023, the only thing to debate was that Huenya had been humiliated by the Empire once more.
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