03-23-2026, 05:44 AM
November 30th, 2025
With the walls closing in ever closer, Neina Arana and her last followers found themelves in a dilemma.
The ideal course of action would have been to flee, to emerge from the bunker deep underground that was her final sanctuary and find an escape. But the problem with that was there was nowhere for them to escape to. Xiomeran warplanes controlled the skies over Milintica. Xiomeran warships controlled the waters surrounding the country. The one route that wasn't controlled by Xiomera, in the north, was currently occupied by a UCS-led fleet which would be just as effective as the Xiomerans at blocking passage.
Even if safe passage off the island could be achieved, there was simply nowhere close enough. The nearest country to Milintica was Doi Nam, whose new government was extremely unlikely to welcome someone who had been vying with Calhualyana for the title of Worst Tyrant in Caxcana. The only other options were all far to the west or north, and equally likely to reject Arana. To the east lay Xiomera, Huenya and Eiria. All three countries, for obvious reasons, were not on Arana's list of most desired retirement spots. It didn't help that Arana had done a very good job alienating virtually every nation possible, on top of all the other impossibilities her situation posed.
So, in the increasingly stifling environment of their bunker, Arana and her followers despaired, raged, plotted utterly impossible plans, drank, fought and found other ways to run out the clock to the inevitable.
At 2:00 am on November 30th, the inevitable happened.
---
Maro Arepata, leader of the Red Wave Guards, was in the middle of a particularly unsatisfying attempt at sleep when the first echoing booms rang through his tiny chamber. He woke with a start, clumsily rising from the bed to his feet. He was already dressed and armed; the bunker had been on constant red alert since the government had sought refuge there. Maro slammed the chamber door open and ran towards the entrance of the bunker, shaking his head as he ran to force alertness into him. At the entrance, his remaining Red Wave Guards were arranged in a row. More loud booms sounded from outside the vault style door at the entrance. His troops looked back at Arepata, who shrugged and did his best to appear confident. "That door is solid steel and locked solid. No one can force it open."
The booms stopped and were replaced with a series of grinding noises. As Arepata and his men watched, the giant vault door slowly spun open. As the door hit the wall with a sharp rattle, a group of soldiers were silhouetted in the entrance. "Surprised, Maro?" Iaka Hamuera smirked. "I mean, you shouldn't be...but you never took away my door access? Really?"
Arepata snarled at that; he was a warrior of ideology, not freaking tech support. He had assumed someone had revoked Hamuera's access to the system. In the absolute pile of collapsing chaos that Arana's government had become, follow through had not exactly been a strong point of anyone.
"You know, it's fine, Iaka," Arepata said in a sharp tone. "At least now we get to kill you and your traitors to the revolution in person."
"You can certainly try," Hamuera said with another smirk as she unholstered her pistols.
As Arepata shouted and led his Red Wave Guards to try and stop the Popular Freedom Militia and armed civilians already pouring through the entrance, another eight figures dressed in black fatigues followed. Four of them broke off to help Hamuera's force, while the other four quickly darted for the hallway. Any Red Wave Guard, Milintican soldier or random person who tried to be an obstacle found themselves ruthlessly and quickly put down by the leader of that fire team, as the other three provided her supporting fire.
The fire team in all black continued down the hallway, their destination a goal to be achieved at all costs. After a relatively quick sprint (and a trail of ill-advised opponents behind them), the four reached the door to their prize. Two more Red Wave Guards, on either side of the door, began firing at them as they approached. Two thrown knives, hitting each of them in the chest, ended that minor display of resistance. The leader of the fire team kicked the door open, rifle raised at the ready.
There was only one person in the room, sitting at an ornate wooden desk. She looked up as the soldier approached her. "I've been expecting you. Eventually." Neina Arana pursed her lips as the soldier walked up to her desk. "On behalf of the Interim Government of Milintica and with its authority, I am placing you under arrest. Stand up and come around from the desk. Place your hands behind your head and drop to your knees," Huatli said coldly.
"And if I don't?" Arana's expression was actually curious.
"Then you can die here with your stupid revolution. I'm not here to negotiate." The rifle pointed squarely at Arana's forehead, dot from its laser sight dancing in the middle of it, reinforced that statement. Arana sighed, stood up and did as Huatli demanded. As two Milintican militiamen entered the room and began to cuff Arana, she looked up at Huatli with a surprising smile. "You know, I am almost looking forward to whatever trial Matōchmizalo and you UCS lackeys have planned for me. I won't be quiet, you know. My voice will be heard loudly and clearly on the biggest stage, with the world listening." Arana grinned even more broadly. "My words will inspire people around the world, even if you hang me. The 'stupid revolution' you dismiss will claim you all in the end, whether I am alive to see it or not. The day will yet come when all of you capitalists and right-wing fools face the same gallows as me."
The calm and even amused conviction in Arana's voice annoyed Huatli. "Maybe we'll just give you to the Xiomerans like they're asking. No one will hear anything from you then, yes?"
Arana chuckled softly. "Like you've got the guts to do that. You're all too soft to knowingly send someone off to be tortured. I enjoyed the idle threat though. Goodbye for now. We will see each other again soon enough." As the two Milinticans frog-marched their former president out of the room, Huatli sighed slightly and lowered her rifle.
---
While Maro Arepata tried to fight and Neina Arana walked to what she thought would just be the next stage in her own heroic struggle, the rest of her inner circle met their fate in different ways.
Intelligence Director Ngaire Arepata, Maro’s brother, had no intention of a final battle as his brother did. When the fighting started, Ngaire walked back to his own tiny chamber. Sitting down at his desk, he reached over and pressed a button on a music player. The soft strains of traditional Paora songs filled the small room. Ngaire opened a desk drawer and extracted a small bottle. Breaking the seal, he downed the contents in one swift gulp. When the forces storming the bunker finally found him, Ngaire had his eyes closed as if sleeping, arms crossed over his chest. He had followed the People's Democratic Republic to its death.
The remaining members of Arana's Cabinet, huddled together in another room, desperately tried to bribe the soldiers who found them to find some path at escape. The angry Milinticans who had found Arana's enablers had zero interest in the money and baubles they were offered, unceremoniously cuffing them and marching them off just as their president had been. But a few of the Milinticans, eyeing the bribes that had been offered after everyone else had left the room, did shrug and stuff some of it in their pockets. Times had been hard under Arana, after all.
The final act was left to General Teyanolli, leader of the People's Army. When he was found, he voluntarily agreed to surrender and make the final announcement. At 3:15 am, the order was issued from the General for all who still had been taking orders from Arana's regime to stand down. There would be need to ferret out die-hard communists who refused to accept that their dream was dead for weeks, even months, afterward. But officially, the People's Democratic Republic of Milintica was dead.
---
At Wairarapa, Matōchmizalo gave a triumphant speech later in the morning announcing the capture of Arana and her cabinet, and the surrender of the General. "The Modern Socialist Republic of Milintica is restored. Long live the Republic!" he shouted to a cheering crowd.
But even as the crowd cheered, Matōchmizalo knew that Milintica's fight was hardly over yet. With a lot of help, he had been restored to power and Milintica freed from the Arana menace. But a far greater menace, and one far harder to appease or thwart, was yet standing. Matōchmizalo would have to negotiate with the Xiomeran Empire to ensure that his battered country did survive after all.
With the walls closing in ever closer, Neina Arana and her last followers found themelves in a dilemma.
The ideal course of action would have been to flee, to emerge from the bunker deep underground that was her final sanctuary and find an escape. But the problem with that was there was nowhere for them to escape to. Xiomeran warplanes controlled the skies over Milintica. Xiomeran warships controlled the waters surrounding the country. The one route that wasn't controlled by Xiomera, in the north, was currently occupied by a UCS-led fleet which would be just as effective as the Xiomerans at blocking passage.
Even if safe passage off the island could be achieved, there was simply nowhere close enough. The nearest country to Milintica was Doi Nam, whose new government was extremely unlikely to welcome someone who had been vying with Calhualyana for the title of Worst Tyrant in Caxcana. The only other options were all far to the west or north, and equally likely to reject Arana. To the east lay Xiomera, Huenya and Eiria. All three countries, for obvious reasons, were not on Arana's list of most desired retirement spots. It didn't help that Arana had done a very good job alienating virtually every nation possible, on top of all the other impossibilities her situation posed.
So, in the increasingly stifling environment of their bunker, Arana and her followers despaired, raged, plotted utterly impossible plans, drank, fought and found other ways to run out the clock to the inevitable.
At 2:00 am on November 30th, the inevitable happened.
---
Maro Arepata, leader of the Red Wave Guards, was in the middle of a particularly unsatisfying attempt at sleep when the first echoing booms rang through his tiny chamber. He woke with a start, clumsily rising from the bed to his feet. He was already dressed and armed; the bunker had been on constant red alert since the government had sought refuge there. Maro slammed the chamber door open and ran towards the entrance of the bunker, shaking his head as he ran to force alertness into him. At the entrance, his remaining Red Wave Guards were arranged in a row. More loud booms sounded from outside the vault style door at the entrance. His troops looked back at Arepata, who shrugged and did his best to appear confident. "That door is solid steel and locked solid. No one can force it open."
The booms stopped and were replaced with a series of grinding noises. As Arepata and his men watched, the giant vault door slowly spun open. As the door hit the wall with a sharp rattle, a group of soldiers were silhouetted in the entrance. "Surprised, Maro?" Iaka Hamuera smirked. "I mean, you shouldn't be...but you never took away my door access? Really?"
Arepata snarled at that; he was a warrior of ideology, not freaking tech support. He had assumed someone had revoked Hamuera's access to the system. In the absolute pile of collapsing chaos that Arana's government had become, follow through had not exactly been a strong point of anyone.
"You know, it's fine, Iaka," Arepata said in a sharp tone. "At least now we get to kill you and your traitors to the revolution in person."
"You can certainly try," Hamuera said with another smirk as she unholstered her pistols.
As Arepata shouted and led his Red Wave Guards to try and stop the Popular Freedom Militia and armed civilians already pouring through the entrance, another eight figures dressed in black fatigues followed. Four of them broke off to help Hamuera's force, while the other four quickly darted for the hallway. Any Red Wave Guard, Milintican soldier or random person who tried to be an obstacle found themselves ruthlessly and quickly put down by the leader of that fire team, as the other three provided her supporting fire.
The fire team in all black continued down the hallway, their destination a goal to be achieved at all costs. After a relatively quick sprint (and a trail of ill-advised opponents behind them), the four reached the door to their prize. Two more Red Wave Guards, on either side of the door, began firing at them as they approached. Two thrown knives, hitting each of them in the chest, ended that minor display of resistance. The leader of the fire team kicked the door open, rifle raised at the ready.
There was only one person in the room, sitting at an ornate wooden desk. She looked up as the soldier approached her. "I've been expecting you. Eventually." Neina Arana pursed her lips as the soldier walked up to her desk. "On behalf of the Interim Government of Milintica and with its authority, I am placing you under arrest. Stand up and come around from the desk. Place your hands behind your head and drop to your knees," Huatli said coldly.
"And if I don't?" Arana's expression was actually curious.
"Then you can die here with your stupid revolution. I'm not here to negotiate." The rifle pointed squarely at Arana's forehead, dot from its laser sight dancing in the middle of it, reinforced that statement. Arana sighed, stood up and did as Huatli demanded. As two Milintican militiamen entered the room and began to cuff Arana, she looked up at Huatli with a surprising smile. "You know, I am almost looking forward to whatever trial Matōchmizalo and you UCS lackeys have planned for me. I won't be quiet, you know. My voice will be heard loudly and clearly on the biggest stage, with the world listening." Arana grinned even more broadly. "My words will inspire people around the world, even if you hang me. The 'stupid revolution' you dismiss will claim you all in the end, whether I am alive to see it or not. The day will yet come when all of you capitalists and right-wing fools face the same gallows as me."
The calm and even amused conviction in Arana's voice annoyed Huatli. "Maybe we'll just give you to the Xiomerans like they're asking. No one will hear anything from you then, yes?"
Arana chuckled softly. "Like you've got the guts to do that. You're all too soft to knowingly send someone off to be tortured. I enjoyed the idle threat though. Goodbye for now. We will see each other again soon enough." As the two Milinticans frog-marched their former president out of the room, Huatli sighed slightly and lowered her rifle.
---
While Maro Arepata tried to fight and Neina Arana walked to what she thought would just be the next stage in her own heroic struggle, the rest of her inner circle met their fate in different ways.
Intelligence Director Ngaire Arepata, Maro’s brother, had no intention of a final battle as his brother did. When the fighting started, Ngaire walked back to his own tiny chamber. Sitting down at his desk, he reached over and pressed a button on a music player. The soft strains of traditional Paora songs filled the small room. Ngaire opened a desk drawer and extracted a small bottle. Breaking the seal, he downed the contents in one swift gulp. When the forces storming the bunker finally found him, Ngaire had his eyes closed as if sleeping, arms crossed over his chest. He had followed the People's Democratic Republic to its death.
The remaining members of Arana's Cabinet, huddled together in another room, desperately tried to bribe the soldiers who found them to find some path at escape. The angry Milinticans who had found Arana's enablers had zero interest in the money and baubles they were offered, unceremoniously cuffing them and marching them off just as their president had been. But a few of the Milinticans, eyeing the bribes that had been offered after everyone else had left the room, did shrug and stuff some of it in their pockets. Times had been hard under Arana, after all.
The final act was left to General Teyanolli, leader of the People's Army. When he was found, he voluntarily agreed to surrender and make the final announcement. At 3:15 am, the order was issued from the General for all who still had been taking orders from Arana's regime to stand down. There would be need to ferret out die-hard communists who refused to accept that their dream was dead for weeks, even months, afterward. But officially, the People's Democratic Republic of Milintica was dead.
---
At Wairarapa, Matōchmizalo gave a triumphant speech later in the morning announcing the capture of Arana and her cabinet, and the surrender of the General. "The Modern Socialist Republic of Milintica is restored. Long live the Republic!" he shouted to a cheering crowd.
But even as the crowd cheered, Matōchmizalo knew that Milintica's fight was hardly over yet. With a lot of help, he had been restored to power and Milintica freed from the Arana menace. But a far greater menace, and one far harder to appease or thwart, was yet standing. Matōchmizalo would have to negotiate with the Xiomeran Empire to ensure that his battered country did survive after all.
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