Act 1, Chapter 2: Declaration

1120 Hours, 29 June 2004…

Radio Music: Celldweller - The Last Firstborn

I’m inside my hangar maintaining my C-16 while listening to my favorite tunes on the radio, waiting for the response of the war declaration from the Queen of Valus, Elena Reine Bouquet.

Remembering the Queen’s speech gave me goosebumps from how monstrous she could be. Despite being a queen of chastity, humility, and mercy, she will show no mercy to any treacheries, which she swore to protect from her family root.

While I was constantly clicking through my laptop’s keyboard to get my preferred tuning of my C-16, the radio jumped into President Arthur Hulkenberg’s response to the Queen Bouquet’s threat in a stern bark that was the liking of a drill sergeant.

“This accusation is nothing but just a pitiful slander that tries to label me as a psychopathic murderer! I sent dozens of intel 2 years ago on the entirety of the Aquilian continent to monitor any shady activities that led to massive terrorism, including Sauveterre!”

“8 hours before the terror attack, 11 of my intel in Sauveterre were mysteriously assassinated. And one of my surviving Intel in Sauveterre told me he’s being stalked by some shady person who’s wearing the Zalanthian troop outfit. Unfortunately, he’s assassinated too.”

Funnily, the President’s elaboration caught my attention, as I briefly halted my work, put down my laptop, and got my ear close to the radio as the President elaborated in a sterner tone.

“Before you want to do anything stupid, listen up first! There could be a 3rd party organization that controls these atrocities and puts my country to blame, and they wanted us to have a long-accursed bloodbath while remains benefited in these useless wars!”

“Remember what happened back in 2001!”

“If you still wanted a war, fine! But remember, secrets have a knack for revealing themselves until you regret messing with us.”

And that concludes the President’s response with a light microphone drop.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it: he makes a good point in his response, yet his tone of voice is like that of the typical arrogant nationalist that refuses to look at their own mirror.

In which it sickened me to listen to this political bullshit as I switched to the music on my USB and refreshed my mind while continuing to maintain my beloved C-16.

Even my mind can’t stop pondering my 3-year-ago mission, from how many extremists’ bandits I’ve bagged during the massive retaliation toward the rogue nation of the Middle Eastern hemisphere.

***

After I maintained my C-16 deep into each minute detail, I distanced myself just to take a glance at how lovely and fresh my beauty was. After all was said and done, I’m tidying up my tools and the radio back into the stash.

But without any warning, Beck approached my back and startled me.

“Hey dude! Are you still working on that plane?”

As I laughed once and couldn’t take my eyes off my plane, I then briefly responded with a brief chuckle.

“Too bad it’s already done.”

“But what about the scratch on the wing?”

I then glanced at him with a slight smugness.

“Nah, don’t mind it. I’ve fixed it with the crews. In fact, I’ve dealt with worse than this.”

During our conversation and laughs, Ambriel Celeztyn (Pegasi-2) suddenly came from behind us as she startled us by embracing our backs.

“Hey Wyvern boys! Have you heard the recent news about the war declaration from the Valusian Queen?”

Ambriel Celeztyn was the same age as ours. We were close to each other since our childhood, together with Robin Markovic (Pegasi-3), where we attended the same academy until now. But looking at her being tasked with the more elite squadron than ours gives me a slight tinge of insecurity, even though I’ve been promoted to a higher rank than her.

But then I let go of her embrace as I responded with uncertainty.

“Yes, apparently it’s all because of the Sauveterre terror attack that was caused by ‘our’ troops.”

Beck suddenly joined the topic as he elaborated in a slightly harsher tone, with a hint of uncertainty as I was.

“That sounded sketchy to me! No way that our troops stupidly committed to such genocide like the freaking extremists back in the 5/7 incident!”

I raised my shoulder once as I glanced back at my C-16 with a rant.

“Maybe we were facing a kind of Grey Men organization.”

“Are you guys still believing that stupid conspiracy theory?!”

Just as Ambriel slightly retorted into my rant with a questioning tone, I ranted back with a slightly increasing tone of my voice, trying to get her self-aware of the current situation.

“Oh, come on! The last time we occupied the extremist’s GHQ, we caught nothing but just a stupid jack-in-the-box!”

“At least you dumbass come back alive.”

As both laughed at my rant, she then clapped my left shoulder once, as she queried.

“Speaking of which, how was your first full mission?”

“Full mission? This was nothing compared to 3 years ago, during my graduation test! Like, holy shit! They’re more of a pain in the ass compared to this!”

But Beck then corrected my further rant as he re-informed me with a hand gesture.

“You should know that last year’s kills are just for the graduation test, whilst this one is for the real deal!”

“Yeah… but I want that to happen later on.”

And thus, all of us chatted and laughed in my hangar to kill some time. Even Beck brought us zero-sugar beers to celebrate our first victory and our official kills. And although we celebrated in this bare tranquility, we still should never let our guard down in a slight.

Because we are about to face the eternal agony in the future.

***

2052 hours, 29 June 2004…

Earphone Music: 30 Seconds To Mars – Capricorn (A Brand New Name)

This night, I’m inside my dorm room, continuing my unfinished report about the recent mission that I’ve started and even finishing some of my homework. All the while listening to my favorite tune and searching for some hidden truth about the declaration of war by Queen Bouquet herself.

Through the search engine, I found one of the obscure article links that was titled “The Untold Truth Behind the Sauveterre Attack” from Inpropaganda.com, a website that they claimed to debunk all the misinformation from the biased mainstream media that was full of propaganda and agenda.

When I clicked the link, a tinge of surprise suddenly electrified my thought. It said that Daniil Kasinka was the one who wrote this article, one of the Orekish (Principality of Orekan) ‘Truth Hunter’ journalists who dared to risk his life just to spread the truth. And he wrote this article, like.

***

The Sauveterre Attack: A Deception or the Start of Something Worse?

The claim that Zalanthian troops were responsible for the Sauveterre attack raises more questions than answers. If history has taught us anything, it’s that wars are often fueled by deception, false flags, and calculated manipulation.

Look back at the 10-Year War (1940–1950)—the Bristan Conzis (Confederation of Nationalism & Socialism) disguised their own troops as Chekian Red Forces to exterminate Orekish and Kasovian natives. The goal? To pin the blame on Chekia and spark a retaliatory bloodbath. And it worked—Chekia, believing the attacks were genuine, responded in kind, creating a cycle of slaughter fueled by deception.

Fast forward, and the Imperial Gumanese Army used the same playbook. They slaughtered Southeastern Akasian natives while disguised as the Xiaonese Army, shifting blame onto Xiaonese forces and setting the stage for further subjugation and horrific experiments.

We thought these tactics died when both Brista and Guman were nuked into submission—not once, but twice. But during the Cold War (1955–1990), the same deception played out on a global scale. The NSC (Nationalism, Socialism, and Communism) bloc mirrored their fascist predecessors, masquerading as Allied forces while butchering entire populations in occupied territories. Their aim? To demonize the free world and democracy while pushing their totalitarian agenda.

Need examples? Look no further than these Cold War-era massacres:

- Orekan Massacre (1958)
- Kasovian Massacre (1959)
- Xiaojun’s Great Leap (1961)
- South Yonsam Massacre (1961)
- South Sietsamese Massacre (1962)
- East Chekian Massacre (1963)
- Astarian Massacre (1964)
- Selagorian Massacre (1964)
- Wijari Massacre (1965)

Each of these atrocities was followed by relentless propaganda campaigns designed to brainwash the masses, rewriting history in real time to fit the narrative of the NSC regimes. And don’t even get us started on the 1990–1992 Gulf Crisis, when Sulaimani Hassanabi Bukhari turned his own country into a mass grave under the guise of resisting foreign influence.

The witnesses to these horrors? Executed.
Or worse—burned alive, beheaded, mutilated, raped, and erased from history.

And yet, today, we see fools walking the streets wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the faces of history’s greatest murderers—men responsible for millions of deaths, now repackaged as symbols of “equity, diversity, and inclusion.”

The 1950s and ’60s Cold War massacres committed by the NSC regimes make the atrocities of the 10-Year War look like a mere warm-up. But that doesn’t mean we should ever justify what was done in the ’40s. Genocide is genocide—regardless of who commits it.

But how is this connected to Sauveterre? Now, let’s return to the Sauveterre attack. One of my intelligence contacts reports something deeply disturbing:

None—yes, NONE—of the so-called Zalanthian troops involved in the attack were actually Zalanthian.

That’s right. The majority of the perpetrators were non-Zalanthian operatives. So, the question is: Who really orchestrated this attack?

Could it be the Valusian military itself, staging a false flag operation to justify war?
Could it be the NSC, once again trying to smear the free world and reignite old conflicts?
Or could it be the work of some shadowy “Grey Men” organization, stirring chaos for its own hidden agenda?

Theories are everywhere. Speculation is rampant. But until we uncover solid evidence, we must tread carefully.

For now, we continue investigating. When the truth emerges—and it always does—you’ll hear it here first.

***

And that’s the end of the article.

I have a deep agreement with Daniil’s journalism on these topics. Although he could be extremely biased by shoving us with his usual Orekish nationalism propaganda or even victim playing through his notorious memes, there’s no one I could trust more than him when finding the most vital information that the governments wouldn’t want us to see.

Even so, I have to remain hidden when uncovering this unwanted truth. Where I’m afraid I could end up like what he ranted on in this article.