JUNE 30, 1939
12:52 A.M. SALIAN CENTRAL TIME

PALACE OF THE PEOPLES
MERGO, CENTRAL FEDERAL DISTRICT
SALIAN SOCIALIST UNION REPUBLIC

[center]AN EMERGENCY SESSION OF THE THIRD ALL-UNION CONGRESS OF SOVIETS[/center]

"How much longer shall we wait?" Levda Brons railed from the floor of the Congress, shaking in her hand the printed out telegrams which documented the atrocities in Zhanghei. A human from Salia's great western breadbasket, she still remembered the days of the Empire and had made a name for herself during both the Revolution and ensuing Civil War. Such was her acclaim, and the level to which the common soldier regarded her will, that it was often joked that the Red Army was hers and the Union was merely borrowing it. "We stand in a fine building, that we have given a fine name, but look at what we have to show for such! The imperialists of Fuso have done more to aid our comrades in Longguo than ourselves!"

A roar filled the chamber in response to the revolutionary's remonstrations, the assembly of men, elves, and dwarves whipping themselves into a furor of proletarian zeal. The Deputies had been ordered into session well after sunset on the 29th, and hours of such speeches had dominated their night and into the next day. Unusually, [i]every[/i] Deputy had been summoned, over two thousand in all, instead of merely the Supreme Soviet or its even smaller Presidium which typically handled day to day state business. Despite this, almost every member was in attendance, for such a convocation was long expected within the Union.

The shouts of effacement and debasement eventually faded away, the energy of the Deputies spent after they had convinced each other - and more importantly, themselves - that they were free of ideological cowardice. Another voice rang out loud and clear from the floor as Ioseber Hasvil began to speak, a dwarf from the southern mountains who had also made a name for himself in the Civil War; and who had been derided as little better than a bandit in the years before the Revolution. "Comrade Brons is right. All here know that I have long urged caution as we prepare ourselves for the coming struggle, but if even a tenth of the news is true then the time for caution has longed passed. Our international duty is clear, we must aid people of all races from the menace assaulting the world."

A far softer muttering of agreement filled the chamber at the second speech, those few who had been opposed to Levda's haranguing softening their position. It was well known that Brons and Hasvil were political rivals within the Party, possessing competing ideologies and visions for the future of the Union. There were very few things that they had agreed upon since the conclusion of the Civil War, and for them to speak with one voice here and now silenced the few critics who remained within the ranks of the Deputies. All present knew that only one person could have arranged such a display.

At the far end of the massive chamber stood a lone dias beneath the grand seal of the Union, at which sat the membership of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Congress. Both Brons and and Hasvil had descended from that dais to speak, and both returned when they had finished, the pair sitting to the left and right of the elf whose seat was in the direct center. Vliyim Ulnov had been the architect of multiple revolutions, most of them ignominious failures, but they were remembered only for the one glorious success that established the Union Republic. Though descended from a family that claimed descent from nomadic snow elves, their family had long been settled in the cosmopolitan urban centers of the old empire where the long lived race had enjoyed preferential treatment as bureaucrats, and administrators, and lawyers. Famously, they had taken the advantages granted to them by birth to spend half a century assailing, and then overthrowing, the Emperors of old. For over a decade they had guided the Party and People, having been successively elected to chair all three iterations of the Presidium. They rarely spoke directly, for they rarely needed to, making their will known in far subtler ways. A hush fell upon the chamber when they finally did.

"What is to be done?" they asked, the reverential silence turning uncomfortable. "What is the will of the People? Is it fire and death, or peace and plenty?" To their left and right Levda and Ioseber sat impassively, their faces as still as masks as the pair waited for Ulnov to bring the matter to a close. Though the three formed an effective triumvirate, it was well understood that Vliyim was the true core of the movement, the beating heart of power until their retirement or (more likely) death. They did not wait for any Deputy to be so bold as to answer their question, not that any would have attempted to. "But some fates cannot be denied. War comes to us, be it soon or be it late, and its worst face has been bared to our comrades in Longguo."

"What is to be done? If war will come to us, if war has come to our comrades, then there is only one thing that [i]can[/i] be done. The world and the Reiyk must know that the tragedies of Zhanghei will not be tolerated. That the bonds of international solidarity between working people of all nations overcome even the oldest of prejudices. That there are lines that must not be crossed, and horrors that will not be tolerated. The people long for peace, but the road to it will be long and frightful."

"What is to be done? To the workers, soldiers, and miners of the dwarves I say the doors under the mountains must be unsealed, the fires lit and the forges readied. To the workers, soldiers, and peasants of men I say that once more you shall march, not in the name of an Emperor but for the peace and prosperity of all mankind, and not merely to war but to the fields as well. To the workers, soldiers, and nomads of the elves I say that the time has come to leave the forests, that the fury of our fathers sing out once more."

"What is to be done? War with the Reiyk, certainly, but we are called to do more than war. Our husbands and wives, our sons and daughters, shall march to war, of that all here know. But we must open our homes and cellars as well. The harvests in Longguo will be devastated, its people starving, and their homes destroyed. The same will occur to Fuso. Perhaps in time such horrors shall visit us as well, but for now we must not neglect the people for whom we fight this war to save. If we are to win this war, we must provide more than mere soldiers. Our ability is mighty, and the need is great. Only by treating all the nations as if they were within the Union shall we succeed in this greatest of endeavors. Only together shall we stand."

"What is to be done? I ask you, this Congress of Soviets, what is to be done?"

The resounding cheers and calls for war drowned out sound and thought until it became difficult to know how much time had elapsed, the throng of Deputies quietening only when their throats grew hoarse. By a unanimous vote, the Salian Socialist Union Republic had pledged itself to the plight of Longguo, fully opening its borders to the beleaguered state and pronouncing a formal declaration of war upon the Alfheiches Reiyk. Cynical elements within the Union could not help but notice that posters exhorting the people to volunteer for their international duty had appeared before dawn, often serving as the first notice many received of the Congress' decision, murmuring that the Presidium had long waited for an excuse to begin this war. Even they however could not dismiss the threat of the Reiyk, the most reactionary elements still residing in the Union chauvinistic enough to prefer a government at least run by their own kind over domination by a Sueben successor state with delusions of grandeur.

War had come, and though the first divisions prepared themselves to be sent west they were not the first bearing the red star to bring relief to the beleaguered. Trucks bearing food and medical supplies drove upon roads hidden deep beneath the hour, vanishing into the mountainhomes with the first rays of the sun, bearing the vital aid across the border. Arms and armor, materiel and ammunition would all soon follow, with soldiers in their wake, but it was these which arrived first. The great stone doors, some carved millennia ago, remained open as the first convoys streamed out - not just for them, but to permit refuge at last to the tired and dispossessed. The time had come for the Union to prove its promise not just to itself, but the world, and it rose to its task with a fervor.