We watched the smoke trail into the sky, staining the last rays of sunshine a thousand shades of flame. The dead lay below that pall, untold thousands. We would have time to bury our dead. But now was the time to rejoice. We had won! The fate of all Europe had been decided today, whether the peace of St Petersburg, London and Vienna would last, or whether that dark tyranny would rise again as if never defeated. For one hundred days, Europa had trembled, as the Emperor came out of his insular exile to rule again, to reclaim his vast empire from its terrible height. But here, on these fields, he had been vanquished. Thank god Berlin had managed to marshal enough soldiers to our side in time, or the Emperor could be the one rejoicing, not fleeing with his tail between his legs.
For twenty-five long years, we had fought across the continent. I hadn't of course. I was born in the early 90s, all I had known was this war. I had joined the army at the first opportunity, I had served under the Union Jack with pride. All my memories of childhood were of the war, of the great colossus on the Continent, which had risen from nothing to bring the world to its knees. But I was told that when the Revolution had initially broken out, we in Britain had greeted it with applause. We saw the flags, the jeering crowds, the palaces with their shattered windows, and we thanked them. We said it was justice, that a great wrong had been righted. We said it was inevitable that they should choose to be like us, that they would adopt sensible government, not the depotisms they had languished under for so long.
How wrong we were. As the mansions burned, and their inhabitants were dragged out and executed, we turned a blind eye, but their brothers in the East could not. An army was raised, and despite their own problems, being a vast and decaying empire of a dozen tongues, they chose to fight the evil that they saw rising in their midst. They saw, long before we did, and now their day is passed.
The Republic had not lasted long. Their experiments in democracy were snuffed out, and a New Terror sliced the throats of a hundred thousand innocents. Now we saw the Revolution for what it was. The despots who had come before were bastards and scoundrels, but we knew them. They knew to keep the peace. The Republic didn't. But nevertheless, we expected the invading army to crush the Republic, to cast into the dirt and reassert order. An army was raised in the Germanies, and they threw in against the Republic. We believed that this would be swift. It was not.
The '93, the year I was born, the Republic began conscriptions. A huge army, the largest perhaps that Europe had ever seen. The smote their old allies, and the squashed the army of Germany. They forged their boundaries, and established a series of sister republics. Worse, that first generation of bloodthirsty ideologues was overthrown and a new generation of pragmatic conquerors laid out plans to rule the continent. Our own allies deserted us in '95, the Coalition against the revolutionaries fell, and that was the beginning of the end. By '97, the Austrians had been pushed back to the Alps, and they sought terms. The only reason we were safe was because we controlled the sea.
We struck back in '98, but the Republic had been preparing itself. The war spread across the Med, we were never prepared for them entering the naval war with such effectiveness. Happily for us, we routed an attempt to take Egypt. The whole of the East would have been open to them, but we put a stop to that. The war would stay in Europe, we wouldn't allow them to spread their taint.
If we were winning the naval war, our allies were losing on the Continent. A new general had emerged, a military genius. He overthrew the corrupt rulers of the Republic and oversaw successful occupations of Northern Italy and Bavaria. His name became infamous, but the Republic stood. We saw in the new century with no great enthusiasm. The continent was overflowing with blood. We came to a reluctant peace with the Republic in '02, and had to watch as the continent's most talented general became military dictator of the most fearsome arsenal in all Europe.
So reluctant was our peace, we were at war again only a year later. But it was only us, alone against the menace. In '04, he took the final plunge was crowned Emperor. The Revolution had turned full circle. They had burned palaces for liberty, and now they crowned an emperor. We reminded the Emperor that he was only human when he tried to invade us. We swept his fleet from the sea and swatted his armies from the air. We were alone, but we were not weak. War had taught us strength.
In '04, we convinced Austria and Russia to throw in with us. The Emperor had crowned himself King of Italy, the first in a long time, and there was every threat that he would try to take every unclaimed crown in Europe and then where would we be. Sadly for us, the Emperor proved as much a genius strategist as tactician, and he swept our forces from the field. The Spanish were our allies and they were defeated as well, their soldiers so far from home allowed to return to their motherland. The Emperor stood supreme over Germany, and in '06, the decaying beast in the east finally fell apart, although arguably it emerged harder and stronger for it.
So hard and strong were they that they went to war only months after peace was renewed. And received everything we expected. The Emperor's armies tore from them what little dignity they had and added it to her empire. She crossed the Rhine and carved out a new domain, a puppet. And to strangle us, she made the continent cut us off. But war had made us strong. We would not falter, even in the face of hardship.
The Emperor was determined that Russia would not rise again. Her armies ravaged the land, and we did what we could. Our own armies fought in Russia, against the foe, but so much of the land was occupied it was a war of of partisans and attrition. The enemy did well, but they were not prepared for such a conflict. The Emperor's own success had sown the seeds of his ultimate defeat.
Austria tried again to fight the Empire, but she was surrounded and the ensuing peace was humiliating. That victory would lead to three years of uneasy peace in Europe, but the end was coming. In '12, the Iberians refused to comply with the Imperial blockade. The Emperor's army marched across the entire continent, and in Spain they met their doom. The army was routed, and Russia overthrew their invaders. We had them surrounded. We drove them from Western Europe, and from Germany, and then we invaded the Empire proper. The Emperor abdicated and was exiled to Bornholm where we let him play at being Emperor. We should have known better.
The Emperor returned to the Continent the following year and raised an army to win back his Empire. He was vastly outnumbered, but out armies were divided and scattered. By going on the offensive, he hoped to defeat us. But on this day, we ended his Imperial dreams, and we shall finally have peace after twenty five years of nearly constant war.
Swathes of Europe are irradiated, or worse are tainted by engineered plagues and hideous toxins. The soil is poisoned or worse, the very air is noxious. But we will rebuild. The Slavic Empire is slain, and though the decayed remnants of the old USSR is reborn as the Russian Republic, we will try our best to return Europe to the peace and stability that pervaded before the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989. The former Emperor Roman I is to be sent into exile. The peace is to be hammered out in Vienna I hear.
I turn away from the vista of carnage, my exoskeleton clanking around me. What does life have in store for me now? I am a soldier, I have always been a soldier. I know nothing else. And now there is peace.
For twenty-five long years, we had fought across the continent. I hadn't of course. I was born in the early 90s, all I had known was this war. I had joined the army at the first opportunity, I had served under the Union Jack with pride. All my memories of childhood were of the war, of the great colossus on the Continent, which had risen from nothing to bring the world to its knees. But I was told that when the Revolution had initially broken out, we in Britain had greeted it with applause. We saw the flags, the jeering crowds, the palaces with their shattered windows, and we thanked them. We said it was justice, that a great wrong had been righted. We said it was inevitable that they should choose to be like us, that they would adopt sensible government, not the depotisms they had languished under for so long.
How wrong we were. As the mansions burned, and their inhabitants were dragged out and executed, we turned a blind eye, but their brothers in the East could not. An army was raised, and despite their own problems, being a vast and decaying empire of a dozen tongues, they chose to fight the evil that they saw rising in their midst. They saw, long before we did, and now their day is passed.
The Republic had not lasted long. Their experiments in democracy were snuffed out, and a New Terror sliced the throats of a hundred thousand innocents. Now we saw the Revolution for what it was. The despots who had come before were bastards and scoundrels, but we knew them. They knew to keep the peace. The Republic didn't. But nevertheless, we expected the invading army to crush the Republic, to cast into the dirt and reassert order. An army was raised in the Germanies, and they threw in against the Republic. We believed that this would be swift. It was not.
The '93, the year I was born, the Republic began conscriptions. A huge army, the largest perhaps that Europe had ever seen. The smote their old allies, and the squashed the army of Germany. They forged their boundaries, and established a series of sister republics. Worse, that first generation of bloodthirsty ideologues was overthrown and a new generation of pragmatic conquerors laid out plans to rule the continent. Our own allies deserted us in '95, the Coalition against the revolutionaries fell, and that was the beginning of the end. By '97, the Austrians had been pushed back to the Alps, and they sought terms. The only reason we were safe was because we controlled the sea.
We struck back in '98, but the Republic had been preparing itself. The war spread across the Med, we were never prepared for them entering the naval war with such effectiveness. Happily for us, we routed an attempt to take Egypt. The whole of the East would have been open to them, but we put a stop to that. The war would stay in Europe, we wouldn't allow them to spread their taint.
If we were winning the naval war, our allies were losing on the Continent. A new general had emerged, a military genius. He overthrew the corrupt rulers of the Republic and oversaw successful occupations of Northern Italy and Bavaria. His name became infamous, but the Republic stood. We saw in the new century with no great enthusiasm. The continent was overflowing with blood. We came to a reluctant peace with the Republic in '02, and had to watch as the continent's most talented general became military dictator of the most fearsome arsenal in all Europe.
So reluctant was our peace, we were at war again only a year later. But it was only us, alone against the menace. In '04, he took the final plunge was crowned Emperor. The Revolution had turned full circle. They had burned palaces for liberty, and now they crowned an emperor. We reminded the Emperor that he was only human when he tried to invade us. We swept his fleet from the sea and swatted his armies from the air. We were alone, but we were not weak. War had taught us strength.
In '04, we convinced Austria and Russia to throw in with us. The Emperor had crowned himself King of Italy, the first in a long time, and there was every threat that he would try to take every unclaimed crown in Europe and then where would we be. Sadly for us, the Emperor proved as much a genius strategist as tactician, and he swept our forces from the field. The Spanish were our allies and they were defeated as well, their soldiers so far from home allowed to return to their motherland. The Emperor stood supreme over Germany, and in '06, the decaying beast in the east finally fell apart, although arguably it emerged harder and stronger for it.
So hard and strong were they that they went to war only months after peace was renewed. And received everything we expected. The Emperor's armies tore from them what little dignity they had and added it to her empire. She crossed the Rhine and carved out a new domain, a puppet. And to strangle us, she made the continent cut us off. But war had made us strong. We would not falter, even in the face of hardship.
The Emperor was determined that Russia would not rise again. Her armies ravaged the land, and we did what we could. Our own armies fought in Russia, against the foe, but so much of the land was occupied it was a war of of partisans and attrition. The enemy did well, but they were not prepared for such a conflict. The Emperor's own success had sown the seeds of his ultimate defeat.
Austria tried again to fight the Empire, but she was surrounded and the ensuing peace was humiliating. That victory would lead to three years of uneasy peace in Europe, but the end was coming. In '12, the Iberians refused to comply with the Imperial blockade. The Emperor's army marched across the entire continent, and in Spain they met their doom. The army was routed, and Russia overthrew their invaders. We had them surrounded. We drove them from Western Europe, and from Germany, and then we invaded the Empire proper. The Emperor abdicated and was exiled to Bornholm where we let him play at being Emperor. We should have known better.
The Emperor returned to the Continent the following year and raised an army to win back his Empire. He was vastly outnumbered, but out armies were divided and scattered. By going on the offensive, he hoped to defeat us. But on this day, we ended his Imperial dreams, and we shall finally have peace after twenty five years of nearly constant war.
Swathes of Europe are irradiated, or worse are tainted by engineered plagues and hideous toxins. The soil is poisoned or worse, the very air is noxious. But we will rebuild. The Slavic Empire is slain, and though the decayed remnants of the old USSR is reborn as the Russian Republic, we will try our best to return Europe to the peace and stability that pervaded before the Eastern European Revolutions of 1989. The former Emperor Roman I is to be sent into exile. The peace is to be hammered out in Vienna I hear.
I turn away from the vista of carnage, my exoskeleton clanking around me. What does life have in store for me now? I am a soldier, I have always been a soldier. I know nothing else. And now there is peace.
