Chapter 1: Revenge of the Fallen
"It's getting colder now. Can you feel it?"
"Yes, father."
"Go. Get your mother and your sister."
"Yes, father."
The young man didn't hesitate. He immediately turned and began to run.
"Wait." His father told him. "Bring the muskets."
His eyes grew wide as he realized why they would need them. Over the hill in the distance he could see the burning torches and lights that move with the sea of soldiers rapidly approaching their city. "Yes, father."
When he reached his house he used his shoulder to burst open the door. His mother had locked it just in case her men were unable to get back to her in time. Her fears were not to be realized as her son came rushing through the door. "They are coming! Just over the hill now! The bombardment will begin any moment, and father wants us gone now!" His sense of urgency was unsettling in the quiet city.
The matron quickly grabbed their premade supplies for surviving in the wilderness for at least a few months, and then threw her daughter over her shoulder. As she was about to leave the house, she turned around and gave it a long, deep looking over. "Our home. Our city. Our nation... It will all be gone..." She fought back every tear she so desperately wanted to unleash upon her stress-ridden cheeks. For her family, she knew, she had to remain strong. The matron and the patron would stand together and protect what they could from the splendid life they had created. In the attic she could hear ruffling and the loud clashing of metal, wood, and lead. Her husband had asked her son to bring the weapons of war. The very same ones that would destroy everything they loved.
"Where's Zack" The son asked his mother.
"He left with the town militia."
"What!? He's going to try to fight!?" The son was ashamed that he was fleeing while his brother would be fighting against the enemy. "I should be with him!"
His mother denied him. "No. You have a different obligation!" Deep down, he knew she was right. In the far distance he could hear the sound of cannons beginning to shoot off. His beautiful city, the place where he had been born, the place where he had first fallen in love, and the place he had hoped to live the rest of his life, was going to be destroyed in a flash of gunpowder and blood. Pressed into duty by his family, he would do everything he could to protect them, just as his brother would.
With his little sister, and his mother, he began running back to the cemetary hill, where his father and him had first stood earlier tonight. "Hurry, mother! We're almost there, I can see the hill now." Just as he said those words, as if the Wurttemburgers had heard him, the hill exploded as a cannon shell landed directly where the silhouette of his father had been. He stopped in his tracks, dropping the muskets, ammunition, and supplies he had been carrying. Likewise, his mother put his sister down on the ground. They both closed their eyes, hoping to reopen them to a different reality, as if the explosion, the war, and everything had all just been a bad dream. But there was no such luck in their lives, and reality remained. As his mother fell to her knees, he slowly stumbled his way towards the hill, drunk with grief.
As he glared down at the body of his father, thrown several tens of yards away from where it had once been, he could feel the cool tears streaming down his cheeks. "No..." he said to himself. But reality was cruel. "Yes." it stared back at him through his dead father's eyes.
With a new look burning in his eyes, he glared up at the artillery bombarding his city.
"I will make you pay." Anger burned brightly, and the struggle had just begun.
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After the Wurrttemburger victory at Strasbourg, Eberhard had been thrown into the hearts and souls of every one of his citizens. Or at least most of them. Westphalia, using the rallying cry, "Onward for victory, and onward for the Alliance!" captured Flanders from the Spanish King Charles II. Even after it's fall, Charles refused peace, and continued to denounce the newly independent nations who had so badly damaged his legacy.
Many citizens, across Europe, began to tell stories of the incredible rise of Wurrttemberg, and its stand against the Holy Roman Emperor. It influenced several people across the world to attempt their own rebellions against the tyrannical institutions which they had once obeyed. Nations such as the United States, and Quebec arose from such rebellions. Other nations, such as Mysore of India, used these stories to regain independence from those who had recently conquered them. The world had seen freedom, and everyone wanted it.
The Alliance had kicked Spain out of Northern Europe, and proved to France that it would not be pushed around. In response, another fellow German nation, Hannover, joined the Alliance. Together, King Eberhard of Wurrtemberg, King Joseph of Westphalia, and Queen Anna of Hannover stood against the tyranny and oppression of the Major Powers of Europe, declaring they stood for the independence of all free people across the globe.
"This world was made for all of us!" Eberhard would say, "We shall not allow a single nation to tarnish the freedoms given by god himself; among them, the freedom of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness wherever it may lie! I challenge you dark and defiled nations to stand against me, for I am a large man, and I will strike you down as a hammer does to a nail!" Newspapers across Europe brimmed with excitement and military advisors were called to France by the dozens. None of them presented an attainable solution. Wurrttemberg had won the imaginations of its own people, and the people of every nation.
Several times Queen Anna and King Joseph had advised Eberhard to move against Paris itself, and hopefully draw the enemy into friendly terms, but Eberhard had always declined. His kingdom, however, was running dry. He had no large farms to feed his people with, and hardly any type of industry to give his people jobs. There was no choice. He needed peace to deal with problems at home. He turned to Wolfgang Sutor, the Lord Secretary of War, who had performed brilliantly and mercifully against the Bavarian rebellions, and said, "Wolfgang. It's time. Send our men into France, we will force them to sign a peace treaty with us."
"Yes, sir." Wolfgang replied. There was no turning back now.
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[IS AAR] Der Kampf [Cancelled]
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Originally Posted by Heartfire
