Destiny Awaits No One

[Tarusa]

Kremlyov, Empire of Tarusa

The next letter had been taken by another courier to the home of Captain Daniil Morozov. The captain had worked in the Ministry of Defense for a short period of time under Makarov but had shown great promise and had found himself positioned well within the ministry due to familial connections as his own father had served alongside Makarov in their younger years as Junior Officers. This was a man with which Makarov had no doubt would offer his assistance with the correct encouragement as he was as loyal to Makarov and the Empire as Makarov himself was.

With Morozovs home under watch from the SII they waited to see if the sign would be given to signal his willingness to cooperate. The first night there was no change, nor the second night, on the third night from the arrival of the letter only one of his two porch lights were turned on and was such on the 4th night. It was clear, he was ready to offer his assistance in some form to Makarov.

 

[Holy Frankish Empire]

The signal was brief and there had been much apprehension from the SII. After a few drops to confirm intentions and messages between headquarters and the operations cell, Bertrand de Cayeaux made his move. The SII was not the best in the world at operations or clandestine activities. It was, arguably, one of the best at intelligence gathering itself. The wealth of information that SII brought in was staggering. World leaders, political parties, foreign agencies, and even some common men- all filled the countless files that stacked up in the SII archives. Unlike many agencies, the SII had an extensive - yet efficient paper system for medium security and below filing. This, however, was not one of those cases. Everything passed on this had to be digital. After some days- Cayeaux made a message drop. The drop was just a receipt from a small Frankish specialty grocery that catered to high end Tarusan clients, Frankish expats, and uppity students.

de Cayeaux looked hard at the manifest before him- 500 bottles of wine. 1000 chocolate bars. The small specialty grocery was stocked well. Yet the entire store was a front for the SII with Cayeaux as manager. He tapped the edge of the manifest- noting that 67 bars of fine Frankish soap were nowhere to be found. "The fucking truckers are skimming again" he thought. He looked up to see a man who he knew walk in the door. Not that he knew him personally- rather he knew the man's profile. Cayeaux nodded to him and turned to help some other costumers. After all, his shop had to maintain appearances. Le bon Paquet was a store with many loyal and some influential costumers. The man approached the counter as the Tarusan couple left, receipt in hand. "Yes, I am here to pickup a grocery order" he said, sliding the online order receipt across the counter. Cayeaux nodded, feigning disinterest. He looked down the list and nodded as he counted out items. He stepped away and grabbed a small box. He began to fill it with Frankish jams, white sausages from Pillau, a bottle of middling-quality wine, some sweets and three baguettes. The baguettes had thin wax paper bags that encased them. Holding the second baguette vertically, he discreetly slid an SD card into the bag which made a very light sound as it slid to the bottom. "You will find the baguette to be especially fresh today" he said, without any real emotion. Sliding the box over, he glanced at the order receipt. "I see you paid online, I wish you a good day".

The little SD card had a wealth of information- the Tsars financial records for the last 6 months, personal and sexual relationships, sleep patterns. It was all the SII could gather. Or at least, all they would gather and give to somebody outside their network. Soon, the SII hoped that the information would begin to whittle away at the Tsar's position of power.

 

[Tarusa]

Morozov spent the weeks following his meeting with the Franks figuring out which officers he could trust and which of those would likely switch allegiances when the moment was right. His first contact and schmoozing was with a couple of the staff officers from within the Ministry of Defense with whom he was close with and he believed would be ready to follow the old Minister of Defense in making a course correction in the way the Empire was going. With them on his side he would be able to mask his movements more directly as official trips for the MoD across the nation as he found others who were dissatisfied with the current leadership and were prepared to act to save the Empire and act as a middleman between the groups coordinating and gathering information.

His month of work so far culminated in finding nineteen division commanders, five army commanders, and several of their subordinates who would support the cause. While that would sound impressive, it was also not the support they would feel comfortable enough with using to carry out immediate actions against the Tsar and see his overthrow as it was just a small portion of the officers and military. It would be enough to begin the hopeful expansion of more to the cause, but it would give them the chance to gather greater information and subvert from inside against the Tsar. Their goal was to safeguard the Empire, the military was loyal to the crown and the Empire, with his overthrow there would be another that could lead.

It would be balancing the tightrope as there were always other elements of dissidents that if weakness was shown would potentially attempt and make their own moves as their own voices were beginning to grow louder within the boundaries of imperial reach. If and when the time would come, the goal of these military men would be to quickly and with as little bloodshed as possible restabilize the Empire.

 

[Tarusa]

Morozov found his way once more in Le bon Paquet purchasing some more fine Frankish goods. It had been awhile since he had been inside of the store. As he checked out he passed on the envelope with the cash inside of it, "You will find a very generous tip inside, the baguettes are quite delectable". Inside the envelope buried between the cash was the same SD card that had been passed to him months before but this time with the information his conspirators and himself had managed to gather.

On the SD card was information about the continued growth of the chemical weapons program of the Empire, its previous research and future programs. The files ordering the usage of chemical shells in Al-Maghreb from the Tsars lackey in the Ministry of Defense and its cover story. The location of former Minister of Foreign Affairs Luka Volkov is his house arrest, and redacted files on the charges of treason against the former ministers. The final piece of information was a list of the units that would be loyal to the cause of overthrowing the Tsar that he had currently managed to pull the support of, not significant but enough to say there was a growing trend internally against the Tsars brutality against the populace and his foreign policy bumbles that were extremely difficult to find information about within the borders of the Empire as it continued to close itself off more and more with each passing month from the worlds news.

Morozov waved as he exited the store to make his way home, hoping that the information would be able to lend some credible assistance in the efforts of the actors behind the scenes abroad knowing full well should he be caught or fail, it would not be internal exile he would face but an immediate death.

 

[Tarusa]

Bruckenthal

Most of the conspirators had hoped to remain in the shadows, continue to build strength while waiting for a better moment of opportunity to oppose the Tsar. A few select others wanted to act as soon as possible and publicly to show the dissent within the Tsars army and populace. Lt General Sergei Chernov had a different idea in mind and had several subordinates who were behind his planned operation.

Sergei had made it an ordinary sight for those living in the countryside around Bruckenthal to routinely see military vehicles on patrols and carrying out training exercises in the field. The sounds of helicopters performing low altitude missions, small arms and heavy ordinance firing, heavy equipment moving between training sites and just allowing crews to maintain proficiency at a more aggressive level than was traditional. He had justified the increased training activity and higher readiness level to those in the Ministry of Defense as proactive posturing against threats growing in Germania.

The late Monday morning Sergei decided to put his plan into action. He issued the orders to his most loyal subordinates, and a company from the 13th Tank Division, 7th Tank Regiment and a company from the 228th Motor Rifle Regiment headed out of the base. The sun was fully up, mid morning approaching mid day when the column reached the outside gate of the Volkov residence. They were met by the Interior Troop guards at the gate. Sergei exited his vehicle parked to the side of the column and proceeded forward, stopping to the side of the tank positioned at the front.

"We are here to right the wrongs committed, to set the Empire back on the correct path of our late Tsar Yuri. Open the gate, surrender your arms and go home, no harm will befall you men this day."

The resolve on the border guards became immediately clear as they lost the look of confusion and began to prepare for a fight. A voice was heard from the distance over a megaphone, clearly the detachment commander assigned to keep the residency guarded and locked down.

"You are committing treason against the Empire and your Tsar, as soldiers of the Interior Troops it is our job to protect the Empire and keep the peace and stability internally. You shall stand down and return to your posts or face the firing squad for this folly."

With his response the soldiers at the rear dismounted and took position to start the fight. Sergei took cover behind the lead tank as he was passed a rifle, they were all in this together and there was no returning to his vehicle without making himself a clear target, he would be dead if he gave up or tried to return to the vehicle, so he would need to be able to defend himself.

He took one last look, peeked around the right side of the tank and fired two rounds at one of the guards, unknowingly if he had hit his target or not before vanishing behind cover again. The lead tank smashed thru the gate, the rattling of machinegun fire from the tanks, infantry, and APC's as the column rolled forward. Both sides exchanging fire rapidly and violently.

When it was all over, the bodies of the interior troops were policed with those of the interior troops being laid next to the mansion and those of Sergeis' being loaded into vehicles. They had came for Luka Volkov, they were leaving with him as well tucked away in the back of one of the APCs'. The destination of the convoy was for one of the training grounds just miles away, Sergei and Luka would disappear from there, the remaining officers and enlisted would play as if they were not the responsible forces for the attack but were a response team sent by a "loyalist" commander.

 

[Tarusa]

Chapter 3, Rise of the Communists

It was a land of vast jungles, marshes, rivers, and savanna that was sparsely populated in many regions with a few urban centers. For decades the Free State had largely been ruled by the thumb of former members of the Imperial Army and the Askari that served under them for the benefits of being a higher caste with better treatment for themselves and families. Total control over the defined borders of the Free State was just a myth, in reality control was exercised only when necessary or sporadically at the Romanov Corporations discretion. Largely the authority was exercised over areas that were economically prosperous for the corporation which was in total control of all business in the Free State, there always had been resistance and most likely always would be resistance whether it was the Romanovs, the Novikovs, some other government, hell probably even if it was a native government.

Resistance itself had been more emboldened despite the presence of Imperial Troops that had for decades been absent but then found themselves based in the Free State after the withdrawal from Thrakia and the Pannonia crisis. With the Imperial Troops had come ideas that had largely been kept out of the country which rarely could see outside influences on its strict standards and protocols. Military men with too much time on their hands often found themselves in the company of the native population, while partying and carrying out activities, the idea of socialism and its teachings. There was a harsher hand being dealt by the Askari and the Private Military of the Romanovs. "Raids" had increased in frequency, raids were the term they claimed it as, could be better described as banditry by the ruling authorities, sometimes just by some Askari looking to have a little extra on the side for themselves. Those who tried to fight back often times found themselves missing limbs, sometimes somebody would get lucky and only take a severe beating, but the taking of limbs was a staple for generations that the Tarusans carried on themselves, gleefully embracing the tradition.

LEW (League for Emancipation of Workers) had formed from some of the smaller resistance groups from the area who had embraced the ideas of Socialism and decided to band together, the ranks included some deserters from the Imperial Army who traded their allegiance for sex and drugs. The target was no more than a smaller gold mine in the fringes of the imperial reach. They would detonate explosives on the roadways into the mine, and target the heavy machinery for destruction to incapacitate the mine for a length of time. It was not a glorious revolution, but it would be a start in the remote jungles of nowhere.

 

[Tarusa]

Kipsest, Kingdom of Csengia

Tsesarevich, Grand Duke, Konstantin while not the ruler of Csengia had overwhelming sway with his wife and with his new role as the heir apparent to the Tarusan throne came a greater promotion in the Imperial Military to Major General. He had rebuffed previous attempts by his fathers former advisors that had been disgraced as he had taken to supporting his brothers role as the new Emperor, keeping the Empire he was loyal to and the Kingdom he now served tied together under the Kiselev dynasty.

Times had changed some since the last time he had been approached for such a meeting, new information passed on from sources inside the empire had reached the Inquisitors of Csengia from other sources. The information while not overwhelming convincing had cast a shadow over his thoughts that he would perhaps need to have more details and meet with Makarov finally. Konstantin gave the Inquisitors permission to put out the feeler for whomever the benefactors of this information was that if they knew where to find Makarov, he would given an audience within the Csengian palace to plead his case as he was perhaps truthful in some of his claims that his brother would be the downfall of the Empire, erasing his fathers legacy.

 

[Tarusa]

Kipsest, Kingdom of Csengia

No fanfare, no public, just the early morning darkness and the feint outline of a few lights on in the residence of the royal family. It was unknown how Makarov had made it into the country, there were some theories but none that could be proven. He had walked up to the gates, and identified whom he was as he was detained and brought within the palace grounds. A few more lights turned on as he was escorted, his arrival had been announced, escorted into a small building off the main residence he was seated and the doors closed, still cuffed he waited.

Hearing the door open behind him he did not turn around just kept looking forward, the solid but firm steps coming closer then it stopped, a tugging on his hands and he was free.

"Makarov, my fathers old friend. You are a stubborn old bastard still"

It was Konstantins' voice, he was relieved to have this time in private to finally appeal his case and continue to fulfill his service to the Empire. The slightest smile came once more across his face, the first in a very long time. Konstantin continued as he sat down in front of his fathers friend, handing him a cup of coffee.

"Enjoy this coffee, it may be the good day you hoped, or it could be the last free coffee you enjoy. My brother wants you back in Kremlyov to face charges and execution, he will no doubt with time find out you have been here. You have your audience with me, so use it wisely or he shall be finding out you have came here by my turning you over to him."

For Makarov, he had already known long ago when he first wished to see Konstantin that it was his only hope, and if it did not work then the fate of the Empire was already determined. Taking a sip of the coffee then setting it on the floor next to him, he began.

"Tsesarevich, the accusations against myself and the other ministers are false. My life, my career, it has all been for the Empire. Whomever the true culprit is, I do not know, but I wish I did as I would strangle them with my bare hands wringing the last bit of life out of them. One of us was snuffed out as was his family, your brother is pushing aggressively in the ventures of chemical weaponry, he is eroding away at the rights of nobles and commoners."

The conversation went on for well over an hour, closer to two as they discussed what they had known, and what was speculative. As it drew to a close, Konstantin stood up and headed towards the door stopping to rest his hand on Makarov shoulder. "You may stay here if you wish, your safe and you will return home." As the door opened Makarov shouted a few last words, "The Frankish Emperor will support your claim"

The door closed firmly, he could see the guard once more standing in front of it.