[color=8882be][i]The Emperor's funeral was grand, refined and elegant. The entire thing took most of a day, with some of the speeches being moved to the day after. Grand Duke Dimitri was present for the entire funeral, and gave a brief but eloquent speech, expressing the grief of the Russian people, and the great loss the world shared in his demise. He hinted that retribution, if was deemed necessary, would be served with the full might of the Russian Empire and it's allies behind it. [/i][/color]

[color=f7941d][i]I am Commander Bronislav Ivanov, I command the Imperial Guard's 48th Army Corps in Yakutsk, Siberia. We have recently been tasked with mobilizing quietly and moving to the Manchuria area. We have no orders to attack, but I have been warned that we may be moving into a combat zone and should make all the necessary preparations. Secrecy could mean our survival, so I drafted orders to prepare for an exercise in the Ural mountains. The lads would pack everything for that, plus I hinted at a probable royal inspection upon arrival, so the lads would have everything in good working order too, or as much as they could. Dmitri had sent a surprising amount of extra stores, arms, munitions, and uniforms, so he might actually be able to achieve something approaching operations ready. The lads were very grateful for all the food Dmitri had sent, and the new uniforms were warmer, and also the boots were not full of holes. Dmitri had almost sent enough of everything, what he lacked in supplies he made up for in a very generous war chest. I made the necessary acquisitions, and we spent the week training in and with the new gear. 

As the week ends I give orders to move out, my aides posting a schedule to load the trucks that would be transporting us all to the Japanese front. How could I think of it as anything else? It was a perfect plan they had come up with, assassinating the Emperor in such restless times, when Russians would fight each other instead of their enemies. And after the last war, no one wanted start another fight with japan... except for me. I had lost a father and two brothers to them on the field of battle. And I had sworn to avenge them, perhaps God was smiling upon me at last, and would aid us in this new war.

[hr]

I send a letter back to Dmitri, announcing that I was moving to Manchuria with 48th Army Corp in tow, and the utmost secrecy. It was impossible to hide our movements, but I took steps to make them in consequential when possible, and when not, I relied on misinformation, we moved west to an exercise in the Urals. Even most of our drivers didn't know our true destination. They would learn when they were directed to continue following the lead vehicle, by myself and my staff. We were going south, and then east. We would transfer the heavy equipment to trains at Neryungri, and the 48th would regroup at Tynda where I would set up my personal HQ, and begin scouting out Japanese positions to the south and south east. I had strict orders to hold at Tynda, so I would also be gathering stores and ammunition for the coming war. As I get into my personal vehicle, an aide rushes up handing me a sheet of paper. It had a simple message, a headline for some newspaper probably. It read, "Jap agents frame local dissidents in assassination." I crumpled the sheet, in my hand, and told the aide that we would continue as planned until new orders arrived, which I would be checking for regularly. I would soon find my initial assumption correct, it was the front page headline of the national newspaper.[/i][/color]