Warhammer: Hail to the Void Lords!.

Chapter 919, 08.918: 'The Courage to Advise for the Militia'

"A series of defeats, no matter how much information is blocked, will eventually come out. The front lines do not lie."

When Horatio asked the question, the colonel suddenly perked up, her eyes sparkling.

"The seeds of panic were sown when news of the green-skinned aliens approaching Sintira, the capital of the Calithis sector, sparked widespread suspicion among civilians about the situation of the war."

When news spread like wildfire throughout the planet that Governor Mario of the sector had quietly moved the core departments of the sector's Ministry of the Interior, leaving the administrative building empty overnight, social panic erupted.

The planet's spaceports were crammed with nobles, families in tow, attempting to flee. The common people of Cintira were ruthlessly abandoned.

Let's go over there!

How could you do this!

...The angry crowd blocked the heavily guarded spaceport, and the protests were as fierce as a tsunami.

It wasn't until someone shouted the slogan: "It's all the nobles' fault! They enjoy such privileges while neglecting their duties, which has led to this situation!"

The female colonel recalled the events as if time had traveled back to that chaotic period.

"Under the chilling light of the 'Tyrant's Month,' crime, riots, and protests erupted almost instantly, completely paralyzing Sintira's administrative capacity."

(The appearance of the Tyrant Month often foreshadows riots and destruction.)
Gunfire erupted, and blades flashed. Angry mobs openly attacked nobles and their families in the streets, breaking through the nobles' private armies and beheading fleeing nobles at the port.

The common people needed someone to be held accountable, and the noble class of Cintira became the outlet for their anger.

Just when this fury was about to engulf the entire planet, the radical officers in Sintira's army could no longer sit still.

The mob even surrounded the military camp, and just as General Palus was about to order a military crackdown, a radical lieutenant colonel proposed to General Palus that conscription be abolished immediately, eliminating the corrupt system of mandatory military service for the nobility.

“I guess General Palus refused,” Horatio said, offering his guess.

“That’s right, he refused. The lieutenant colonel was also arrested on the spot by General Pailus for refusing to carry out the order to suppress the rebellion, and was executed by firing squad for treason.”

As the colonel spoke, she subconsciously checked the ammunition in her pistol. "But what General Pailus didn't expect was that that very night, the radical officers staged a mutiny and surrounded his command post. They lined up neatly in the square, demanding that Pailus abolish conscription and open the right to serve to all citizens of Sintira."

“A mutiny. A very classical term,” Horatio commented. “General Pailus, so easily frightened by a few junior officers’ 'mutiny'? Did he run away in his pajamas?”

The female colonel let out a sarcastic snort:

"Of course not. But he had no choice. Because more than half of the troops involved in this 'mutiny' came from the Royal Guard and elite grenadier regiments of the Throne District. And their leaders were General Nansutti and Brigadier General Rana."

"You said your name is Jadviga de Rana. Who is this Brigadier General Rana to you?" Horatio caught this detail and asked curiously.

“My brother, my own brother. I was there on the night of the ‘mutiny’. In the 17th Flintlock Regiment, which General Pailus praised as a ‘top student,’ as a captain, I stood against my superior.”

"I think you must have infuriated General Palus. The commander of one of his most trusted regiments, a company commander, is now on the opposite side of you."

“But I don’t regret it.” The colonel gazed resolutely at the distant dust and the faintly visible “container building,” her face beaming with pride: “General Pailus finally gave in. He couldn’t completely break ties with General Nansutti; he needed the loyalty of the Royal Guards.”

Ultimately, a compromise was reached: the military reformers withdrew their troops and assumed the main force of martial law, quelling the riots on the planet and restoring order and governmental functions.

General Pellous, on the other hand, allowed the reformers to form a contingent of demobilized service members, which they would then command themselves.

"From that day on, Sintira's army was divided into two factions. One faction was the conservative force led by General Pailus, who represented the interests of the old aristocratic army, led by the Sintira Fusiliers. The other faction was the 'Sintira Military Reform Faction' force, which was formed by us radical officers."

"It sounds like your 'impulse' has changed the status quo, but not completely. Aren't you afraid of General Pailus's retaliation?"

The colonel's brows immediately furrowed.

“A ‘military remonstrance’ demonstration is the limit of what we can do.”

Pailus represents Governor Mario Hax, while the Sector Governor directly represents the government of Terra.

(Marius Haxes)

If we go any further, everyone involved in the 'military remonstrance' will be branded as a traitor and executed, even if the front lines need us.

But you guessed it. All the troops of the military reform faction were sent by Pailus to the front line of the Circus.

He wanted us to prove the value of our 'military reform' and the fact that we formed a square formation to protest against him that night with iron and blood.

Ultimately, General Pailus kicked all of us reformers out of the flintlock regiments, forcing us to recruit from the lower classes of Sintira and the colonists to form a new force.

"Has Governor Marius Hax not caused you any more trouble?"

"As far as Governor Marius Haxes was concerned, as long as the front line could be held and Sintila could be saved, he didn't care who held the front line."

"Oh, so that's why you became a colonel at such a young age?" Horatio's tone was teasing.

“That’s fate. Not long ago, I was just an infantry captain. In the blink of an eye, I was kicked out of the flintlock regiment and became the commander of a newly formed dragoon regiment. But I don’t regret my decision that night, because…”

Suddenly, gunfire erupted again in the distance, interrupting their conversation about the political situation and the battle in Calicus.

The church bells rang urgently, announcing the enemy's return.

Horatio looked up and saw a group of Sintira flintlock gunners firing at the green-skinned orcs attacking again from the ruined church above him.

These soldiers were indeed Sintira flintlock musketeers, dressed in respectable conservative uniforms.

But their equipment was quite different—they were generally short, and some of them were even shorter, clearly demi-humans from the planet Lytrin.

They were all equipped with excellent precision marksman rifles.

Horatio observed for a long time before spotting a girl hiding in the darkness, whose silhouette could only be barely seen from his angle.

She is about 1.6 meters tall. In the Warhammer universe, where women are often 1.7 or 1.8 meters tall, this height is not considered tall, and is even somewhat short.

But this allowed her to blend perfectly into the darkness.

Her dark red night-vision sniper scope emitted a faint reflection. She steadily placed the precision rifle, almost as tall as herself, on a dusty ceremonial table.

Sunlight streamed diagonally across the wall from the eaves, perfectly shrouding the entire gun in the shadow cast by the eaves.

A young girl with a big gun. Hmm, what a strange combination.

(End of this chapter)