Under Black Summer Skies

[Bacharth]

"Hello, my name is Erik Henriksen, and I am an Austervanian soldier. I fear I may not have much time to record this, but as I speak, the Japanese Nationalists are bearing down on our stronghold in Frosliker. The university where this all began is now where it will all end. I hope those of you on the outside will see the blood and violence this has caused just in Sakhalin. These nationalists are murdering everyone that says they are Varangian or Norse or whatever. Anyone in a uniform or bearing an Odinist symbol is killed."

As the camera zooms out, the door is kicked open, and the soldier screams obscenities as men dressed in rag-tag clothing stab him to death. The last thing the camera sees is a pool of blood carrying the soldier, a massive hole in his chest. The nationalists have taken over Sakhalin.

******

A bomb explodes in Nordsborg. The town hall explodes in a fiery rage. Men in the town square that aren't shooting people shot and raise their guns in the air. The heavily outnumbered Austervanian Army held out in the town hall, while small squads of guerrillas placed fuel bombs, normally intended for mid-air detonation, in the building's sewer system. Erik Betrakte when he heard about this thought that it was quite ironic.

Soon, the entire area north of the Valhöl Bay was under control of the Siberian nationalists.

[Bacharth]

Flight 217 from Frosliker left the airport at 2:30 in the morning. On board, only Erik Betrakte and one trusted assistant flying the plane knew where they were going. Vincent Beauregard had left by car to live under an assumed name in Vladivostok, but his car had been bombed by Varangian Nationalists. Henrik Oppøre fought on the front lines for a few days before being caught by a stray bullet. The views of Norse Distopyanism died that day.

*****

On the front lines, the Russian Nationalists and Japanese Nationalists kept fighting in their own territories, with terrorist attacks happening in Nord-Austervania and Sakhalin. The Austervanian military was reduced to a few squads across the nation, as the war went to a more rioting/guerilla warfare mode. The Varangian nationalists had taken over the area previously controlled by the patriots.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Civil war had always been an ugly thing, it hampered stability and was a threat to peace all over the region. Since the fall of the Yamato government and the subsequent wars in Indochina, Asia, or at least Hanseatic influenced Asia had been at peace. Sarah and her allies, Zargaritha, Austervania, Golgotha, and the other nations that had formed out of previous Hanseatic lands had prospered. The events that currently divided Austervania were as depressing as they were unfortunate. Even worse, to have formed out of arguments in the universities was even worse.

Sarah looked down at her reports, the Austervanian Civil War was taking a turn for the worse, the leadership of all the factions had seemed to but vanish into thin air as anarchy gripped the nation. Rioting a guerrilla warfare ravaged the land, and while Austervanian television talked about the destruction of their own people, the reports that bothered Sarah were the deaths of Hanseatic civilians that had been caught in the cross fire. Many Siberians and the Norse enclave had been Hanseatic prior to the rise of the Austervanian government. Mind you, there had been European immigration, but for the most part she still considered many of the population to be part of the Commonwealth. Which made the reports even harder to bear.

Leaning over the papers, Sarah looked at the military congregation around her. Mainly consisting of Brisbane pencil-pushers and logistic experts. She chuckled, her crack team of officers. The only one that mattered her was Kolm, every other general capable of leading soldiers were out in the field. But that made it easier for an operation to take place.

"In truth Lady Sarah, something like this shouldn't be too hard to undertake. With Borneo's independence we have over one hundred fifty thousand soldiers stationed in Vladivostok and Japan under General Asgiersson. I would imagine that seventy-five thousand should be sufficient to quell what is essentially a rebellion. Don't you agree?"

"Well I like the attitude Roleski, but its not something that I feel extremely comfortable about. I would rather ship another fifty-thousand from Australia up to Vladivostok and deploy them behind the vanguard."

"Entirely doable Milady."

"Kolm?"

The supreme general stood up from his chair and bowed. "I can ready my brigades in two days time and ship them up. In the meanwhile, I'll tell Hannah to march seventy-five thousand towards the Austervanian border. The loyalists are closest to the Hansa so the fighting will be fiercest at first. The rest of the country should welcome us with open arms."

"Very good Johann." Sarah turned to the rest of the congregation. "Gentlemen, thank you. That will be all.

---

Two days later, 75,000 men with over 800 tanks and 10 air force squadrons approached the border of Southern Austervania. Their goal was simple, take the capital, with force if necessary, and restore order to the region. The land had been Hanseatic once and it would be Hanseatic again. The Austervanian experiment was over, too much death, too fast.