The declaration of war

Quart was standing at the railing of the Piville-II, one of the largest cruisers the Pivillean fleet had to offer. Staring through his binoculars, he could see a ship at the horizon. He looked closely and was finally able to recognize the fluttering Union flag at the rear of the ship as it came closer. Directly below the union flag a second one had been added, showing the emblem of the Pivillean Empire. He went to the rear of the Piville-II and looked behind the ship. Five other ships were following his, four of them being gunboats sailing under the Pivillean flag. The fifth ship, however, showed the flag of the United Nations, the UN. Quart smiled – his allies were supporting him well. “An aircraft carrier, supplied by the United Nations… @Jackson_G14 really is a powerful ally”, he said to himself. "I think he might become very useful in the future..."

The Unova had arrived at the Piville-II, the gunboats were surrounding her while the UN aircraft carrier stayed behind to intervene if necessary.

Quart greeted @Exilenela as he boarded the Unova. He had taken many precautions to ensure that @Exilenela would not trick him.

Quart had ordered one hundred pivillean soldiers aboard of the Unova before she had left the Union harbour; this had been one of his many instructions towards @Exilenela. “Ah, the Unova. A great battleship, indeed”, Quart said as he walked past @Exilenela. “I see that one of your smaller ships has come with you to bring you back home….very well.” He turned to Admiral Strout, the commander of the Pivillean navy. “Bring @clou44 up here. The sooner we are done, the better.”


After @clou44 and @Exilenela had boarded their support ship to bring them home, Strout turned towards Quart. “Sir, what should we do now? We could easily eradicate our enemies by sinking their ship now. Should I load the cannons and…”

“No”, Quart interrupted him. “Killing @clou44 and @Exilenela right now would cause nationwide uproars. Executing agitators is fine... but not if they have whole nations behind them. Especially not if there are too many witnesses”, he said, pointing at the UN aircraft carrier. “For now I will keep my word and keep the truce as long as necessary while we start our rearmament. Anyway, with this problem being out of the way we should now return to the harbor of Piville…I want to enjoy the sight of the Unova, this masterpiece of engineering."

Quart smiled. With the Unova in his possession and the United Nations as an ally, the continuation of the war after the truce would be wonderful.

 

314 wandered through the tunnels under Piville. It was a complete darkness, only slightly illuminated by his lantern. His steps echoed inside the tunnel. He was very proud of this system. He had built it by himself over the years, merging corridors from the Piian ruins, the sewers and secret paths into one big system that allowed those with a map of it to travel to any important point in Piville.

Over the course of the past few weeks he had hidden himself down here, trying to fight Quart from the underground. When the war began 314 didn’t believe that Quart could win… but this opinion had slightly faded over the past days, especially after bringing the Unova to the harbor of Piville.

He finally reached one of the destinations he had marked on his map. He stood in a big hall, many pillars supporting the roof. This was a part of the sewers, but a very important one. 314 opened his backpack and took out multiple parcels. In the shine of his lantern he saw multiple wires and metallic elements encasing a small deactivated lamp. He proceeded to place a total amount of eight parcels on various pillars, activating them one by one. When he finished, he looked back at his work. Eight red lights were blinking in the dark. “Perfect”, he said to himself. “The fifth location is rigged with explosives, too. Only one more to go.” With this he turned away, toying around with a small remote control. He faded away into the darkness and silence fell upon the hall with its blinking lights.

 

Lord Quart stood at one of the windows of his office and looked over to the harbor, recognizing the Unova in the distance. He enjoyed the sight of the Unova every single time he saw this glorious battleship formerly owned by the Union. After staring into the distance for what seemed like an hour, he went back to his desk. The report he had received was something special…he read it again. This promised to be an interesting case. Apparently somebody had been able to copy the Pivillean P-1 tank class.

“Theoretically, this is not much of a problem. Thanks to the head developer @FiFyFoFumOtter the P-1 series is outdated and extremely weak compared to the new P-2 series, the old ones were the first pivillean tank model ever…however, spying on us and copying our technology – as weak and old as it might be – is a severe affront and as a proud nation, we can’t tolerate this.”

He picked up the phone and dialled the secretary of defence’s number. Without any introduction, he began. “I have seen your report about this plagiarist… @stoler202… let’s make this as quickly as possible. I assume a barrage of two dozen nuclear missiles should suffice. Launch in two minutes. And no, this is not a request. It is an order.” With this he terminated the call and walked through a door into his control room. After exactly two minutes twenty-four red dots appeared on a digital world map, moving towards the twin towns of LesMines and LosCraftos, both owned by @stoler202. Quart smiled – this was what he had requested, indeed. His smile grew even wider when he looked at the transmitted images of a pivillean reconnaissance drone ten minutes later. “Perfect”, he said to himself. The drone was showing a completely destroyed landscape, only some smoking ruins indicated that this had once been a town. Quart remained inside the control room for another four minutes, enjoying the sight of the smoldering debris that had once been a town. Then he left the command room, went back into his office and stamped the file as “ SOLVED – SUBJECT ELIMINATED ”.

 

6 A.M. – A24 airforce base, pivillean territory.

Lord Quart stood at the end of the runway at an airforce base a little outside of Piville, the sun rising in the east. He heard the sound of four engines which quickly became louder as the pivillean P4-Mk2 jet descended. @stoler202 and his CEO Johnson were arriving in time. He looked at the list @stoler202 had sent him the day before.

1. “Safe landing space, Johnson is arriving by jet.” – Done. This airforce base was one of the most secure ones in the whole Pivillean Empire.
2. “A luxury room in one of your finest hotels.” – Done. The Plaza Hotel was one of the most luxurious of the whole continent, located in the heart of Piville.
3. “Permission for me (@stoler202) to witness all negotiation.” – Done, he was arriving together with Johnson.
4. “2 bodyguards.” – More than done. Quart had assigned dozens of pivillean elite soldiers to guard them on their way to Quart’s office.
5. “Safe return of Johnson to LosCraftos.” – Not yet done, but Quart planned to keep his word.

Soon after the jet had landed Quart, Johnson and @stoler202 entered a limousine to bring them to Quart’s conference room, escorted by helicopters and forming the center of a convoy of military vehicles guarding them. Quart was able to see that his guests were a little nervous. After all they were in hostile territory, surrounded by sheer military power. He smiled – he loved to be in advantageous positions… but nothing was supposed to happen to those accompanying him.

After around ninety minutes they passed Glory Hall, the pompous seat of government. Another two minutes passed until they reached the Plaza Hotel. They agreed to meet at 2 P.M. and that the limousine would bring them to him.



2 P.M. – Conference room. Glory Hall, Piville.

Lord Quart turned away from the window when he heard a knock at the door and he asked them to come in. Johnson walked in front of @stoler202, carrying a briefcase. Quart thanked both of them for being on time, treating his guests with respect.

“Now that we are here, let us begin”, Johnson said and opened his briefcase. “I would like to present you…” Quart raised his hand, signalling him to remain silent.

“If I may say something first…” Quart began.

“The products of SNI – Star Nation Industries – are only a secondary, if not tertiary, reason why I requested you to come here. My prime motivation are two questions… where did you get the P-1 blueprints from and how much of your SNI infrastructure is still intact?” Both @stoler202 and Johnson were quiet, they hadn’t expected this question.

“While I confess that my bombarding of the Star Nation might have been a little… hasty decision, it was a decision led by the fact that somebody…” – his staring eyes inescapably focused both of them – “illegally purloined top secret construction blueprints. And if somebody steals secret but harmless plans, who could guarantee me that they would not also steal far more… dangerous plans?” Neither @stoler202 nor Johnson knew what to say, this meeting was differing greatly from what they had expected, it was more of an interrogation than a meeting. Finally, Johnson confessed, his voice trembled with slight signs of fear.

“M-Mr. Quart, m-my company had received an order from @stoler202 to produce pivillean P-1 tanks, he provided us with the construction blueprints.” Quart turned away from them and walked towards the window, staring into the distance. “@stoler202… is that correct, and if it is, where did you get the blueprints from?”

“I stumbled upon them when a troop of scouts found an abandoned bunker in the wild around our nation; apparently it used to be run by @Exilenela during the first pivillean war last September”, he answered.

“@Exilenela… I should have suspected that…”, Quart said, more to himself than to his guests. “Thank you for being honest. Now we may continue. Mr. Johnson, you may show me some of your SNI products, but please answer me one last question… is the SNI infrastructure still capable of fulfilling any orders after the surface of the Star Nation has been reduced to rubble?”

Johnson pulled multiple charts from his briefcase. “Yes, sir. Around twenty percent of the Star Nation Industries have been destroyed, but eighty percent are located either in the underground or as local branches in other towns and nations and are functioning properly.”



7 P.M. – Conference room. Glory Hall, Piville.

Lord Quart stared through the window, watching the sunset outside which tinted the room into a gloomy red. Johnson and he had spent the last few hours discussing weapon deliveries for Piville. The main success of this discussion had been the ordering of SNI-76K20 and SNI-11B42, meaning a special type of high-explosive grenades and machine guns for the pivillean infantry. He said goodbye to both of them, his elite soldiers would escort them back to the airport.

However, they would return to the Star Nation in separate planes.

Quart had planned everything from the beginning – he remembered @stoler202’s fifth condition. ‘Safe return of Johnson to LosCraftos.’
He smiled. @stoler202 had made a mistake… a big one. During the meeting he had indirectly received a confirmation of his suspicion – Johnson was not dependant on @stoler202, quite the opposite. He was theoretically independent, restricted by him. Since he had no real relevance for his deal with Johnson, he would get a special treatment… Quart smiled. It wasn’t really his fault that @stoler202’s jet had an unfortunate… malfunction which caused the fuel lines and the oxygen lines to pump a highly explosive gaseous mixture into the cabin as soon as it would reach cruising altitude… and of course it was not his fault that the pilot was informed of this and would use a parachute to escape the jet in time.
Quart’s smile grew even wider – he was happy that @stoler202 had survived the barrage because he had introduced him to Johnson. But now, since he was no longer of any use, it was time to fix the fact that he had survived at first.

Once more he stared out of the window, this time for multiple hours until the TV screen in the background began to show breaking news of the tragic explosion of a pivillean jet in international air space.

 

5:48 A.M. - Atrium. Glory Hall, Piville.

Lord Quart was sitting in the atrium of the pivillean seat of government. Since the atrium was surrounded by walls and it was still very early, the environment appeared in a gloomy light, barely usable to read the newspaper. He was staring up into the sky, watching the starry sky slowly transforming into the red dawn of the day. He looked down at his copy of today’s Piville News. After yesterday’s tragic airplane ‘accident’, five independent experts have confirmed that the victim of this explosion was in fact the leader of the Star Nation, @stoler202. “Of course he is”, Quart thought. “I wouldn’t want to put so much effort into obliterating the wrong person.”


9:21 A.M. – Lord Quart’s office. Glory Hall, Piville.

Once again he looked down at the map stretching across his desk; it was the map of the Pivillean Empire. Since the war had begun it had expanded greatly, now stretching over most parts of the continent. Resistance against the Empire had been fully eradicated at this point, except the Union in the north. This was still the major problem Quart was confronted with.

“Maybe…it is about time that somebody teaches the Union a lesson” he said while calling his general staff.


10:01 A.M. – Conference room. Glory Hall, Piville.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad you made it here in the short timeframe since my announcement to you”, he greeted his general staff. “I have called because in my opinion it’s about time we teach the Union a lesson, especially @clou44. While @Exilenela continued to follow the path he had taken until this point, @clou44 was somebody to worry about. “I have received multiple reports about Union Laboratories developing nuclear weapons, funded by one of the Union leaders, @clou44. Yes, the very @clou44 we have exchanged against the Unova a while ago.” Before anybody had the time to question the exchange for such a powerful enemy against a powerful battleship, Quart continued. “So far two nuclear bombs have been manufactured. This was the bad news. The good news, however, is that both the facilities for nuclear development and the storage units for the nuclear products are located in the same town. And the fantastic news… is the fact that I now know in which town they are located.” He showed them a map of the Union. “This is why we will use the one and only nuclear bomb Piville owns so far on… Clouverville”, he said and pointed at the location on the map. “Clouverville is the nuclear development town of the Union, founded and led by @clou44.

“When will the attack happen”, one of the generals asked. Quart smiled.

“Today.”


2:59 P.M. – Control room. Glory Hall, Piville.

Quart was staring at multiple screens at the same time. One of them displayed the missile silo of the nuclear ICBM, one showed a digitalized map of the continent and ton three screens he saw the view of multiple reconnaissance drones over Clouverville. He looked at the countdown display. The missile would start at exactly 3 P.M.

He began to count the remaining seconds. “Five… four… three… two… one…” Finally, the counter reached zero. “Go”, he shouted. In the same moment the engine of the rocket ignited, slowly propelling the projectile out of the silo and into the sky, leaving a big trail of dense smoke behind.

Quart followed the red dot on the screen, just as he had done only a few days ago when eliminating the Star Nation. After exactly four minutes and twenty-seven seconds the three screens showing the drone views lit up bright before only showing black. “Apparently these drones are about as resistant against nuclear explosions as Clouverville”, Quart laughed. When a fourth drone arrived over the town ten minutes later, he saw the true chaos the explosion had caused. Remains of the mushroom cloud were still floating in the air, the radioactivity was interfering the transmission. The former town of Clouverville… now only burning ruins were left of it.


6:01 P.M. – Lord Quart’s office. Glory Hall, Piville.

He sat in front of the TV. Of course the complete destruction of Clouverville was the prime topic in the evening news. He watched the speech of @clou44 as she addressed both the Union and the ‘remaining free nations’, as she called it. Quart only listened loosely, occasionally hearing phrases such as ‘a national tragedy’ or her talking about ‘thousands of casualties’. He smiled – now both @clou44 and @Exilenela had a good impression about what he was willing to do to achieve his goals – everything.

 

7:36 A.M. – Lord Quart’s office. Glory Hall, Piville.

Lord Quart was sitting at his desk, looking down at the report. A few days ago he had ordered to set up a small piece of Piium for sale at the black market. And now… apparently somebody had bought the bait.
“Dr. Harrison… I think I have seen this name before. But where... where...?” He knew where he had to check – in the largest room of Glory Hall which filled three floors underground.


10:17 A.M. – Archive, second floor. Glory Hall, Piville.

After hours of searching he had finally found it, hidden between two bookshelves. He pulled out the dossier and blew off the dust. Indeed, there it was – “Dr. Edmund Harrison, PhD of applied sciences and engineering… this is it”, Quart said to himself and began to read. Sometimes he murmured over certain phrases. “Originated from Star Nation… Studied in Piville, Parisian district…” Suddenly his finger stopped following the lines and remained over one certain sentence. “As of February 2015 it is proven that he is one of the most important subordinates of @stoler202, being responsible for weapon and defense technologies…” he read aloud. He became silent as he thought. Suddenly, he stood up and went back to his office. He was still missing one piece of the big puzzle…


2:02 P.M. – Lord Quart’s office. Glory Hall, Piville.

“And you are absolutely sure”, Quart asked.
“There is no doubt”, the voice replied from the phone. “The encrypted transmission we managed to decode is definitely from…”
“Yes, yes. Thank you”, Quart interrupted him and terminated the call.


2:14 P.M. – Conference room. Glory Hall, Piville.

The general staff meeting was going on, everybody was talking. Suddenly, Quart opened the door and entered the room. He looked absolutely not happy and silence fell over the room immediately, everybody watched Quart with fear.
Quart was furious. “Where are those self-proclaimed experts who identified @stoler202?”
One of the generals replied. “They have returned to their towns. One from LesMines, two from France. The origins of two others are not known to us, but the fifth is a Pivillean, sir.”
Quart sat down in his luxurious armchair at the end of the room. “Alright. Find out where the other two are. I want them to feel my wrath – they were wrong. @stoler202 is alive. Further investigations need to be conducted”, he said with a very angry tone in his voice.
“But… sir… that is impossible. @stoler202 is officially dead. You must be wrong…”, one of the attending general staff members replied. Quart’s eyes narrowed. He rose from his chair and walked over to him, looking him directly into the eyes.
“Listen. I have received undeniable evidence of his survival. His identification was incorrect – and either the experts are at fault or I will make you responsible since you were the one responsible for the explosion of his jet. Now consider what I have just said and tell me the truth… who is at fault? You… or the experts?”

After a moment of tense silence, he replied. "They, sir."

Quart smiled. “Well, well… if you say so, then it probably really is their fault… now go. Go and let them feel my ire. And before you ask… no, I don’t need any survivors of my anger. Also… find @stoler202 and bring him here, also conduct further research on the real victim.” With this being said Quart turned away, left the room and slammed the door behind him.

 

9:10 P.M. – Conference room. Glory Hall, Piville.

Quart was sitting at the big table. Multiple screens had been set up in the room for his general staff to watch. He had ordered one of his soldiers – Davidson – to ‘visit’ the remains of the Star Nation and to search for evidence that @stoler202 was still alive. Quart looked at the screen of his laptop which displayed a spectrograph of a live transmission’s audio track, Davidson had called.
“@stoler202 is officially dead, Lord”, Davidson said. Quart smiled.
“Great. I hope this is true this time”, he replied before Davidson terminated the call.s laptop, Davidson had called. ord"top, Davidson had called. d to to watch.

He had expected this call. He had expected it for a few minutes already… he closed the program and opened a different one, it was a video livestream. He smiled. @stoler202 had thought he could trick him by threatening Davidson… Quart loved to add more secret technology to gadgets than the people using them knew of.

Of course the communication watch included a microphone…but there were already multiple secret microphones incorporated well hidden in the agent clothing, not even the wearer knew about them. The watch actually had no real purpose for communication… but the fact that it included a secret camera made it invaluable for cases as this one.

The livestream abruptly ended as the watch was destroyed, but he still had the audio recordings from the clothing. He continued to listen to the conversation. If he had correctly evaluated @stoler202, then he knew exactly what would happen next. He would not be disappointed – as Davidson fell to the floor Quart knew exactly that he had been right. @stoler202 had done the same Quart would have done, eliminating any risks. He grinned for a moment, and then remembered that he had just lost one of his agents. He stopped smiling. “Well, well. Apparently the pathetic remains of the Star Nation have committed an act of hostility, killing an unarmed Pivillean. Also, we now have decisive evidence that @stoler202 is alive. He turned to the general of the land forces, the general of the air force and the admiral of the fleet. I want all three of you to mobilize your troops. I want two hundred elite soldiers, seven tanks, three gunboats and four bombers to invade LosCraftos today . The soldiers will be half parachute troopers and half infantry. Bring me @stoler202 – alive .

 

3:51 A.M. – Control room. Glory Hall, Piville.

“This helicopter…” Quart began. He was staring at a video taken by a reconnaissance drone during the attack; it showed @stoler202 escaping with a helicopter. “This helicopter can’t be a product of the Star Nation. Judged by its appearance and the fact that it managed to escape two interceptor planes it seems to be equipped with the newest technology available. Turbo boosters, Anti-Aircraft systems, outstanding maneuverability… it looks more like a product of the Union Laboratories. Now I wonder whether it was stolen, bought or… whether he was actually supported by @Exilenela and @clou44. Apparently the pieces I have thought to form separate puzzles can possibly be the same… one giant conspiracy against the Pivillean Empire. But who is behind this?

314? Possible. I have been unable to locate him since destroying the town of Gooseberry…
@Exilenela and @clou44? Likely. They are definitely the greatest enemy of the Pivillean Empire.
@stoler202? Unlikely. He seems to be more of an inferior ally, used for both increased power and somebody in the front rows while the back row stays anonymous… but who knows.”
He rose from his chair. “Anyway. Have you been able to locate the Piium?”

The scientist answered immediately. “Yes, Piium has a strong radiation. While not directly harmful to humans, it is easily detectable via satellites.” He entered a few commands into the computer and a blue dot appeared on the digital map.

“His current trajectory might lead to the conclusion that he is flying towards…” he continued.
“The Union!” Quart exclaimed.

“An understandable guess, yes. But if we consider his past movement…” He proceeded to enter more commands. More and more dots appeared, this time in a light blue colour. New dots continued to appear until a curvy line formed – the movement of @stoler202 within the past hours.

“A spiral…” Quart said. “He is constantly nearing the center of this spiral… Piville .” He called the secretary of defense. “Order ten interceptors to the airspace over Piville, immediately. Prepare the anti-aircraft guns… all of them. @stoler202 is coming, and apparently he is armed. Oh, and his helicopter seems to be equipped with excellent technology, probably from the Union.” He turned to the scientist. “Do we have any ideas what this Z34 is?

“Two ideas, sir. We managed to save two blueprint fragments from the self-destruction of the bunker complex. One is the Z34P1V, a Piium-fuelled backup generator. The other, however… is the Z34K3Y, a very powerful bomb which uses an uncontrolled chain reaction of the Piium’s self-disintegration.”

“The second one seems to be a far more ‘efficient’ use of rare Piium for @stoler202… we can’t wait for him to reach Piville. Shoot him down as fast as possible.

Suddenly, a beeping noise came from the speakers of Quart’s laptop. Somebody was requesting a communication.

“@stoler202”, he said almost inaudibly. He accepted the call.
“Mr. Quart, I want to negotiate with you”, he said.
Quart laughed. “Negotiating? I could order dozens of fighter jets to blow up your helicopter. Surrender and hand over the Z34K3Y.”
“So you found out about it…”, @stoler202 replied. “Anyway, this is exactly what I wanted to tell you about - I suspect that you have been tracking the Piium signals for the last few hours.” Quart nodded into the camera. “Now tell me, Mr. Quart… how much Piium would you estimate aboard of my helicopter?”

Quart slooked over to the scientist. “How much?”
He replied after thinking for a few seconds. “Judged by the radiation signature and by the fact that Piium radiation can only be blocked by multiple metres of concrete or lead… about 1.4 ounces, I would say.”

Quart immediately stopped smiling, @stoler202 noticed it. “Ah, I see you understand, Mr. Quart… 1.4 ounces. But the Piium you put up as bait had a total mass of… 2.8 ounces? Now tell me, where did those fifty percent disappear to?”
Quart said nothing, he was thinking. This was not good at all…
“Basically, you are telling me that there are more Z34K3Y bombs, @stoler202?”
“This is correct. I have one on my helicopter, but the other one is stored in a secret place… it will be used to destroy the capital of the Pivillean Empire if something happens to me.”

A tense silence filled the room while Quart was trying to word an answer inside his head.
“Very well…”, he finally said. “What do you want?"

“I want a guarantee that Piville will not attack the remaining few bunkers of the Star Nation spread across the continent. In exchange, I will not attack Piville.”
Quart was absolutely not happy with this. “I need time to think about this.”

@stoler202 answered immediately. “Oh, absolutely no problem. I will give you… two hours.” With this being said he disconnected, leaving Quart no chance to protest.

 

1:58 A.M. – Somewhere near Glory Hall, Piville.

314 was strolling around the secured garden area of Glory Hall. This part of Piville was normally impossible to enter for civilians, especially if they were searched nation-wide and in international territories by Quart. 314 had been able to acquire a Glory Hall Guard uniform earlier; this disguise allowed him to walk around freely. He toyed around with an object, throwing it a bit into the air and catching it again. He looked at the façade of the building, especially the windows. Finally he found the one he was searching for, the sixth and seventh window from the right; the windows of Quart’s office. He smiled. After weeks of preparation, he was finally ready. For months he had planned to overthrow Quart and restore peace to Piville, and now the time had finally come.

He stopped playing with the object and inspected it in the light of a lantern – it was an incendiary. He smiled once more and then he threw it. He heard the sound of the glass breaking... ten seconds later, the first flames began to illuminate the office from within. It was two o’clock in the morning – the end of Quart’s era had begun.


3:21 A.M. – Lobby. Glory Hall, Piville.

Lord Quart was absolutely furious. Somebody had set his office on fire. It had taken a little over an hour to finally extinguish it, multiple important documents were destroyed. The damage dealt was immense. He aggressively gave out orders in the middle of the disorder around him, a mix of not knowing what to do, panic and shock. It would definitely take a while to bring the situation under control... Quart noted 'Press conference at 11 AM' into his calendar and proceeded to go home again.


3:49 A.M. – Cherry Blossom Avenue. Berlin district, Piville.

Quart was walking home quickly, still furious. Whoever had done this would pay… who could it be? @Exilenela and @clou44? It would simply not fit their usual style.

Suddenly, he stopped. A thought began to grow in his head. “314…” he said. “Of course… it could be 314. And if that is the case, he is definitely up to something. Something I will not like.”

As if it was to emphasize his point, the flash of an explosion cut through the darkness, followed by a shockwave which threw him to the ground. He looked into the direction where it had come from. A statue of Lord Quart used to decorate the Cherry Blossom Avenue as a symbol of his triumph, but now… it fell.

He quickly jumped to the side as the debris of the statue pierced into the ground, less than two metres away from him. Quart had never been somebody who would brush something aside as ‘coincidence’. Two attacks against symbols of his regency within two hours were definitely not something he enjoyed… the possibility of 314 being responsible for this was very high. He quickly got back up to his feet and sprinted home. He had a helicopter ready near his villa, he only needed some important things from there.


4:03 A.M. – In front of Lord Quart’s villa. Roman district, Piville.

Quart was nearing his home, he could already see it on the top of the hill when he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

“Good evening or morning, Mr. Quart, whatever you prefer to call this time.” Quart stopped moving and slowly turned around. It was too dark to see any more than the silhouette of a person, but that was unnecessary – Quart had already recognized the voice.

314 smiled. He threw his remote control up into the air so that it was illuminated by the street lamp. He caught it again. “Five months and eleven days… this is how long your leadership lasted so far. Congratulations, this is a big achievement. However, I am sorry to tell you that… it will not be any more”, he said and without hesitating he pushed the red button of his remote.

The sound of a detonation made the ground tremble, but there was no light and no shockwave. Quart turned around and looked at his villa – which was crumbling apart and sinking into the ground right before his eyes. “The sewers”, 314 said with a triumphant tone in his voice. “There was a hollow space under your mansion and I used it to place a… surprise there.”

While Quart had been angry after the attack on his office, he was now furious.

“You!” he exclaimed. “You… you ruined so much… you destroyed my office, you blew up my statue and now you devastated my villa containing my illegally claimed riches…” He started to slowly walk towards 314 who moved back at the same speed. “You… shall regret this… you might think that you are clever, but in reality you can’t win against me!”

“Empty threats, Quart”, 314 replied.

“Oh really”, he angrily answered. “I have thousands of soldiers at my command. The pivillean army obeys to me and from my time as the leader of the Piville Intelligence I collected enough interesting information to blackmail pretty much any Pivillean of importance if it is necessary. And what do you have?”

“I have… thirteen helpers.” 314 smiled. “But they have an advantage… they are much closer right now than your army.” Just as he finished his sentence, his helpers emerged from the darkness and surrounded Quart. “I am sorry, my Lord , but your regency… is over.”


11:26 A.M. – 314’s office. Glory Hall, Piville.

It felt strange to be back in his office. 314 closely examined the room while sitting at his desk. Nothing had changed. Both Xynth and Quart had preferred their own offices, sealing his old room to make the memories of it fade away.

The past hours had been extremely stressful. 314 had officially returned and already given a press conference. He had stated that he saw himself as a temporary leader to organize everything until normality would return to Piville. His thoughts began to wander around, again he thought of his office. The room was very dusty, but a thorough cleaning had to wait. He focused himself again; there was something important he had to do.


11:32 A.M. – Conference room. France, Union territory.

@Exilenela and @clou44 saw the incoming call from Piville. They had not seen any news this day; they had been busy with their strategic meeting since 4 o’clock in the morning. @Exilenela accepted the call and activated two cameras, one for himself and one for @clou44. They had expected Quart and were extremely surprised when 314 appeared on the screen.

After explaining the situation of last night, he finally started to talk about the reason of his call. “With this new change in leadership”, he said, “we should end the war Quart has started.”

After a full minute in which @clou44 and @Exilenela had muted their microphones to discuss with each other, they told 314 the result of their dialogue.

“Well… 314…”, @clou44 began. Both of them were smiling, but it wasn’t a normal, happy smile. This… was more like a vampire’s smile. “We have decided…” @Exilenela continued, “…to reject your offer. We have put much effort and so many troops into this war by now… so many that we want to see results. Furthermore… you remember what happened the last time we allowed Piville to exist? The last time the treaty was fulfilled for a few weeks until multiple violations of its terms occurred… no, this time we will continue the war until Piville either fully belongs to us or fades away in the dust of history.” As @Exilenela finished his explanation, @clou44 terminated the call and 314 sat in his chair, motionless.
Everything else had gone so well… the United Nations led by @Jackson_G14 had officially announced that an internal change of leadership was none of their businesses and that they would continue to support Piville, no matter who led it. But @clou44 and @Exilenela…what were they up to? He continued to imagine hundreds of possible actions for the whole day until the dusk began to illuminate the room with a red shine.

He rose from his chair – even after hours of thinking and picturing many different scenarios he still had no true solution to this problem. He sighed.

“As soon as I think the problems caused by Quart are finally fixed, @Exilenela and @clou44 suddenly cause new ones. Great”, he sarcastically said to himself. He watched the sunset through his panorama window until the sun dropped below the horizon and his office turned dark and gloomy, forming a wonderful image of his current mood.

 

5:54 P.M. – Rocky Peak, high-security prison. Pivillean Empire.

A storm had arrived over the Pivillean Empire. Many regions were affected, although intensity varied from area to area. Minor damages were caused by loose objects being thrown around by the wind in multiple regions, for example the capital city, Piville. Other areas, however, suffered from a greater intensity.

Rocky Peak was a high-security prison located on the top of a cliff at the Pivillean Sea, the same ocean that also bordered the capital. The cliff was located around 120 miles away from Piville and was known for its harsh climatic conditions.

Waves with the height of small houses crashed against the cliff, the wind was howling. Many trees had already fallen over. Bushes and sand from the nearby beach were swirling through the air. The cliff – which the inhabitants of the nearby villages called “Rocky Peak” and which had given the prison its name – was the zone with the biggest effects of the nationwide storm. From time to time, the constant force of the wind loosened smaller pieces of the cliff’s material and boulders the size of melons splashed into the ocean below.


5:58 P.M. – Rocky Peak, Block A, Cell 107. High-security prison. Pivillean Empire.

He had closed his eyes, listening to the howling storm. Even though the walls were very thick, the sound reached every single cell of the whole complex. He opened his eyes again and glanced at his watch. 98 seconds left. He rose from his bed and stared into the mirror. The person who had formerly been known as the ruler, the Lord of Piville, looked as if he hadn’t slept for weeks. While this was not true, he definitely felt like it. A few days ago he had lost everything he had worked for, @314 had brought him down. He had been degraded from the Pivillean leader to a simple prisoner of Rocky Peak. He looked into the mirror again. Although his face created the impression of him being tired, his eyes indicated otherwise – energetic and aggressive as always. “Thirty seconds...” he said to himself. He began to count down as he opened multiple drawers of his wardrobe, taking out anything of importance. “Thirteen... twelve...”

The force of a detonation threw him across the room. The dust and the wall parts spreading all across the room and the sound of at least ten alarm sirens caused him to become disoriented for a few seconds.
“That was ten seconds early!” Quart exclaimed as he stood up and began to climb through the newly created hole in the wall. “Next time, follow the plan as I created it”, he said.
“Yes, mylord”, a second person replied. “However, I didn’t want to wait any longer... I was bored.” The person saying this had climbed out of a tank – and no small one. The person was no other than @FiFyFoFumOtter – the weapon expert who had served under Quart for a long time. He smiled.
“Anyway”, Quart began. “At least you brought me out of my cell. Now show me what your new P-3 tank is able to do.”
Quart closed the hatch behind him and the P-3 tank proceeded to escape the prison yard at an amazing speed, flattening multiple smaller military vehicles.


5:59 P.M. – Control Room. Glory Hall, Piville.

@314 stared at the screen and shook his head in disbelief. An astonishing tank model had broken through the outer wall. Not only that, but the tank proceeded to simply drive through a service building. Since it was not reinforced like the cell blocks, it offered little resistance. He couldn’t believe his eyes when the tank fired at one of block A’s walls. However, he could believe it even less when a very dusty and slightly damaged Quart stepped through the hole in the wall and climbed into the tank. He recognized the driver. Of course it had to be @FiFyFoFumOtter, nobody else would have been able to develop such an outstanding tank. He watched in horror as this unstoppable force destroyed everything in its path and finally unhinged the armoured main gate. Although the guards’ bullets seemed to have no effects, some grenades managed to deal moderate damage to the tank. “It is too late...” @314 began. “It has happened... Quart has officially escaped from the most secure place the Pivillean Empire can offer. Quart, the most dangerous person I have ever seen... is back in action. I wonder what he will do next... ”


6:06 P.M. – Rocky Peak Cliff, Pivillean Empire.

Quart had opened the hatch of the tank and looked back to the prison. The sound of the sirens reached very far, he could still hear them although they had to be at least a mile away. Nobody followed them. Of course not – how would they after @FiFyFoFumOtter had flattened all of their vehicles? He smiled. It felt great to be free again.

Although Quart had no clear plan yet, his goals were very obvious – eliminating all those who had betrayed, disappointed or fought him. @Exilenela and @clou44 were his enemies... but since they were also the enemies of @314 at the moment, they would stay alive for now. However, there were so many other choices... Xynth, for example... and of course 314.