Retribution

On the 12th Rains, while the Empire is still distracted with Reluir, Mirian airships slip a military vanguard across the Circen sea by cover of night. Troops are secretly deployed north of Belport's outskirts to run covert interference with the two cities - stopping needed supplies from reaching Valsk and any information from entering Belport. Further north as autumn sweeps across Valsk, select Royal Guards and Helvarg set about sabotaging the colonisers’ stranglehold. They infiltrate the believed-to-be impenetrable city and secretly push plans with the subdued populace to stage an uprising from the inside on the day of the attack. By the 19th Rains, all the pieces are in place. The preparations are done, and the larger forces lie waiting for the signal to start. Like clockwork, the Kingdom’s fight to take back their lost land strikes across the North Continent.

The Armada and Mirian airships surge towards Belport from the rocky waters of its surrounds. From the sea they launch a ferocious assault against the harbour in an effort to pierce it, while from the air they rain magical bombs upon the city and its walls. The sea churns, the sky trembles and flashes terrifyingly. The colony’s formidable defense forces scramble to initiate their own counter-attack - something they have planned for rigorously if not thought they would need so suddenly. Yet while they pour their efforts into defending the harbour, the Mirian soldiers dropped north of the city descend upon Belport from the other side, determined to break the Empire’s grasp at long last.

In snowy Valsk meanwhile, things to don’t go as planned for the Kingdom. Just before the dawn of the attack, its saboteurs are discovered and plans for inside support during the strike go awry. Viceroy Aeron Rotherzog quickly punishes those caught with characteristic, unflinching cruelty and, long terrified of his notoriously savage wrath, the locals abandon their uprising. Now aware of the surprise strike, the Viceroy loses no time in initiating his own well-honed plans for keeping the Northern stronghold. Attack after attack beat against the city - but its famously strong walls do their job and the colony’s defenses stand firm against Miras’s onslaught. Valsk falls into a siege.

The Empire mainland sends what it can - a naval onslaught of its own from Linhythe and a respectable fleet of its Air Force - but with so much of it moved south for Reluir and airship fuel in dangerously low supply after the crisis just months ago, its resources are terribly limited. The reinforcements are met by waiting Kingdom forces as they arrive. The ships of the newly christened Agate Alliance - made of former Corsairs who have pledged true loyalty to Amedra - now defend their new employers against their old ones, and Mirian airships meet Koben in their first air battle.

All over the North and its seas, battle rages - yet with so many things that could change its course, no-one can say when or how it will fall. Will the Belport colony hold against the furious two-pronged attack? Will the captive Valski rekindle the dashed uprising and Miras break the siege in Valsk? Will the Empire reinforcements break through and deliver much-needed help or will Miras’s line hold? All that can be said for sure is that blood will flow.