NOTE: I will figure out the timeline for this at some point.
Not long after the Queen Mother had departed Esplandia, it was time too for the ailing Gunrei to depart from Esplandia.
He had been permitted to momentarily stay behind to make the most of the finest medical care he was likely to receive in some time, hopefully prolonging his life enough to preserve the fragile peace he had been forced so demeaningly to sign. He had no intention of holding to the peace. Nevertheless, the reception at home was likely to be a cold one.
As his car rounded into the airport where his plane was waiting, he hoped that the rapport he had established after more than 60 years of proselytising would be enough to convince even his most zealous of supporters that peace was the right call for the time. He had insisted to his entourage that it was never his intention to uphold this peace - but they needed time to regroup. This would be enough for his people to attend to their wounded and to solicit allies abroad - potentially in other religious states such as Sutherland. Then they would strike the royal family directly. The Prince would be silenced. Without hesitation. Without emotion. The Royal Family would be at its end, and the Kingdom would cease to exist.
The car came to a halt at his plane and he could see brother Benedict waiting for him. His god daughter, Beatrice, anointed in the light of Flemingovia, had worked for him for many years as his pilot. Here she was like always, attending to his plane, keep it clean and well maintained. She appeared to be lightly polishing the tailshaft of the aircraft.
"Sister Beatrice, working diligently as always" Gunrei said.
"Yes, your grace. Everything is in good working order."
After taking their seats, a silence permeated throughout the aircraft. There was no point to discuss it any longer. There would be weeks of debating the peace when they arrived. For now, they would rest.
Gunrei awoke suddenly to the shaking of the plane. Slowly the others began to stir awake too. The shaking became more violent.
"What is going on Sister" Gunrei called to Beatrice.
"Severe turbulence." she called back "Remain seated and ensure your seatbelts are fastened".
Gunrei got to his feet and attempted to walk to the cabin. The plane shook more violently, knocking him to his feet. Brother Benedict attempted to get up to assist him, but too fell to the ground.
The cabin went dark. "Flemingovia save us" Gunrei uttered.
"I have failed you."
Cape El, The Archbishopric
News of the plane crash into the mountain side had not taken long to reach the Archbishopric. There was nonetheless, no time to prepare. Over a hundred thousand soldiers of the Armed Forces were already within the province and moving quickly towards the capital. The raw of the vehicles echoed over the mountainous terrain.
Soon, the sounds of the coming jets could be heard too. Then the bombardments from the sea.
In the past, the Archbishopric could withstand a siege for several years. But when it did fall, the devastation was terrifying and would last months. The pillaging, the burning, and the executions. The subjects would suffer for as long as possible before a victory was declared.
The Archbishopric had managed to wage a war lasting barely a couple of years. It had destroyed them. For every royal they killed, the royalists had killed thousands of Flemingovianist warriors. For every roadside bomb detonated, McMasterdonia and it's allies destroyed schools, hospitals and temples. Women, children, the elderly had all fallen to the sword of secularism. Gunrei had insisted that every loss was a gain in the eyes of Flemingovia. It was an honour to be martyred in the fight against tyranny.
It was not to be. For they had defeated the rejoiced Matilda II by assassinating her abroad and pitting ally against ally. The Patriarchate had destroyed the arrogant Albert and his dilettante wife. The populist fool Rosemary Whent too was put to death for her treachery and pursuit of sin.
It was an old woman that had done them in, in the end. She had done things Gunrei was not capable of imagining. Some of the most noble of families, some more storied than her own, had been taken like pigs to the slaughter on her orders. Lines that had survived a millennia of war, disease, famine and worse, ended in a matter of minutes at her utterance.
A Grandmother in fear of losing her prized grandson, her dynasty, and her legacy.
She would stop at nothing.
Who would pull entire cities upon themselves, burying their subjects deep beneath the rubble.
The Archbishopric had experienced a failure of imagination. The quiet and demure Grandmother who had sat beside her husband as he ruled, was really not so quiet or demure after all.
She was a monster.
The devastation she would inflict upon the Archbishopric today was unending. A sacrifice on the part of the Archbishop's people so severe that not even martyrdom could justify it. There would be no time for the mother to shield her child, no opportunity for the Priest to read the last rites to his congregation.
She was a disease.
Yet the people embraced her. Shielded her. Legitimised her.
She became unstoppable.
Breaking: Plane carrying Archbishop Gunrei has crashed into the Caspius Alps
In breaking news, we are receiving reports that the private jet carrying the Archbishop Gunrei has crashed into the Caspius Alps, just north of the City of Caspius. The Archbishop and his entourage had departed the Kingdom of Esplandia following a negotiation with the Kingdom of McMasterdonia in which a peace agreement was signed.
A photo of the wreckage submitted by McMasterdonian authorities
There have been no survivors.
In response to the attack, the Queen Mother has ordered the Royal McMasterdonian Armed Forces to deploy to the Northern province of the Archbishopric of Cape El.
"With the death of the Archbishop Gunrei, it is clear that without a strong and immediate intervention in the Archbishopric of Cape El, that anarchy and only anarchy will prevail. We must intervene in order to fully restore order and to ensure that our carefully negotiated peace prevails" The Ministry of Defence said in a statement.
It is believed that more than two hundred thousand ground troops have been ordered into the Archbishopric to restore order. The ground troops will be supported by a large detachment of the royal navy and airforce.
The Ministry of Defence is confident that full order will be restored in a number of days.
