[center][h3]P R O L O G U E [/h3][/center] [hr] [center] [i][b][url=https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR0uW-VdWIf0SY1fOaWDm05ZomTCr2jccn-d-IaDCVJq_h-Ie2Y] Bartan Kahmir - Captain of the 203th Detachment of the Great Northern Army[/url] Eastern Delsai-River, Delsai - 1st Day of Spring, 10th year after the assassination of the Emperor[/b][/i] [/center] [hr] The constant shelling had been worst for the horses. The loud noise, the smell and the feeling of the ground shaking after a nearby explosion has torn on their nerves. Multiples time, they had torn off their bounds, and stormed away, some even jumping into the river in the east, swollen the the spring water from the north, and turned into a roaring current. They drowned and were swallowed whole by the waves, in an blink of an eye. They had lost seven horses that way, before Bartan Kahmir, sixth son of he Baron of Ulaar, had given the order to slaughter all of them. They thin beasts, yet for his starving men, it was a feast, as some barley could wait for the flesh to be roasts over small fires of wet wood. The red meat of the horses, was still a found memory in the mind of Kahmir, as he once more glared at the picture on the wall, in this small, makeshift bunker, so close to the roaring river, that he could hear the loud orders shouted on the other side. The nationalists had no need to be silent... His fingers moved over the picture of his family, his two young boys, who he had not seen for six years and his pale wife, clinging to his uniform, her eyes still red from crying, after hearing that he would leave. Back then, things had been so different. It had been just the noble cause of the Heavenly Empire, against the vile traitors on the coast, corrupt goons of the decadent Commonwealth, leeching of the riches of Zengrav. Now, the war was so different. Yet little changed it for him. If he fought the blues, he fought the blues! If he fought the reds, he fought the reds, and if he fought the whites, he fought the whites...and the iron men of Lavania. Yet he could not care less, who the emperor was, and where he would place his royal ass, for him, it was about the future of his children. He would allow these goons to take away their future of Minga-Nobility! Another artillery shell shaked the ground below, and a little bit of dirt rained down onto the Mingas head, as he picked up the picture, once more hiding it away in his uniform. Another shell, hit far off, and this time, it was followed by loud screams, making it clear, that this time one of the many trenches had been directly hit. By now, they had run out of clean bandages, and a clean cut to the throat was a lot more merciful, then the horrible fate of infection. His heart was pounding, as he pulled out his revolver from his, checking the hammer, before looking into the cylinder. [center][i]Four bullets! [/i][/center] Intellgence had claimed, that the nationalists could no cross the river for at least another month, yet for the last past week, they had shelled them without any break. Even they didnt had endless ammunition, and Kahmir knew, that they would cross that river, either tonight, or tomorrow or after, but the Whites would come, and the great northern army wouldnt be able to stop them. They had been able to hold them in Saraat, when the lavanian army had attacked them with airships, tanks, mechs and their feared Iron Infantry. They had not been able to hold them in their countless attempts to block their march north, pushed futher and futher, until they had to spend the winter in this cursed swamp land. At this moment, three armies already had marched through it in just a few months. The no more food left to confiscate, and with the bridges blown up, by the retreating nationalists, none came in. It was this hunger, that was more deadly then any bullet, and that could even turn the strongest man into a monster. Captain Kahmir had seen men, once proudly marching, begging for food, hanged deserters for cannibalism and eaten rats himself. He himself had lost so much weight, that the felt like a stick in his uniform and it costed him so much strength to walk tall in front of his remaining men. They could see their brothers in arms succumb to hunger, yet the moment they would see an Minga officer falter, their moral would shatter like a mirror falling onto the ground. This, would be the end of it. It was in this moment, that the captain realized, that the bombardment has suddenly stopped, for the first time. His heart was pumping, as closed his eyes. [b]"Ancestors...protect my family when i am gone! Let me ride with my father and brother over the endless green planes.." [/b] His hands formed fists, to stop them from shivering, as he could feel a hot current move up his throat. A deep breath, and it was gone, as he reached for his whistle. The nationalists where coming! [hr] [center][url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NdETLNglhc] A message meant for the Royalist, heard by all of Zengrav...and the whole world[/url] [/center] [center][h3] T O A L L R O Y A L I S T F O R C E S... STOP[/h3][/center] [center][h3] N A T I O N A L I S T F O R C E S H A V E C R O S S E D T H E R I V E R... STOP[/h3][/center] [center][h3]R I V E R F O R T S H A V E F A L L E N O R A R E A B O U T T O F A L L... STOP[/h3][/center] [center][h3]A R M Y I S I N F U L L R E T R E A T... STOP[/h3][/center] [center][h3]W E C A N T H O L D T H E M... STOP[/h3][/center] [center][h3]S A V E U S.... STOP[/h3][/center] [hr]