Arvorenia had always been a painful thorn in Arovannea's side.
A constantly interfering, meddling, Nonscian-inhabited colonial power in the middle of Solitas. The country had chosen to support New Westmore even with its rapidly degrading diplomatic situation, and while this had caused João to receive some international flak it clearly didn't deter him from considering war against Arovannea.
The Arovanneans had seen some of the terms floated around by the Arvorese public. "Finishing the old job", "total dismemberment", "strip their economy", all of these seemed to confirm in the hearts and minds of Arovia that Arvorenia really only desired to subjugate their Golden Isle. This of course wasn't the case, but how else should one of the few native-Solitan countries left view such a situation?
Luckily for the Arovans, they had allies while New Westmore really did not. Unbeknownst to most following the situation, secret talks with the Lafari, the Kurikians, and their erstwhile allies-of-convenience in Nimova the Easunians were all underway to see what support they could and could not lend. The crimes Hart had committed demanded a non-ideological retaliation, a unity of the world to show that no, they would not tolerate a state of terrorists and rogue privateers.
Meanwhile, at Point Whiskey, the old Mareuvian coalition planned to liberate all of Mareuvia.
But was this enough? Perhaps not...
Unless.
~
God. Please spare our home from the southern nightmare.
Let the rightful hand of equality and liberty strike down the Arvorese. I plead you, may you aid us to strike Hart from his ivory tower of creeping fascism, to give us, our People the Strength to be your faithful servants for the Kingdom of Heaven, amen.
~
There was always plans for a war with Arvorenia. Arovannea did not have the strength of its glory days, and it was always assumed that someday, their Estander-born southern neighbors could take advantage of that fact and make them the newest sordid story of native genocide in Solitas. Just another colony. Just another weave in the tragic, blood-stained ragged tapestry that was this world's history in imperialism.
Nobody expected Arovannea to properly win such a war, but they would be damned to just roll over and accept inevitable extinction. They would make every hillock, every gutter, every brook choke with the blood and bones of the invaders. They would not have Arovia for free. If it could be so, they would gladly accept their fate in the pyre if they could only drag their attackers to the flames as well.
For this end, Arovia had long been fortified and armed to the teeth. Naval fortifications, rocket batteries, hidden artillery - there wasn't a port on the island left unguarded, a state of affairs that had lasted for well over a century.
Anti-aircraft missiles, SAM sites, aerial mines waiting for a launch - these littered Arovia's greatest cities, stuffed into every nook and cranny they legally could be. There was really no spot on the island that had never been militarised to some degree - even the civilian police force was more militaristic than your average gendarmerie.
But even that wasn't seen as enough by the Orientist government now in place. They were well aware that without some drastic measures, their chance of victory against the Arvorese alone was very slim indeed. What was left to do? They already had a militant army, a militant police force, a militant LAND.
Ah. Of course. The next answer is to have a militant people.
A rifle for every hand, military training for every high schooler and college student, stockpiles of rations and equipment, squirreling away essential materials such as oil, fortifying mines and wells to the teeth. Things normally expected out of a country such as Illiricium in terms of martial culture had already long existed in Arovannea. It was out of necessity - they had a siege mentality that rivaled the Gloginu. 500 years of attempted foreign subjugation, constantly and without rest. They had progressively lost more and more of Solitas to the foreign dogs. Watched as their fellow peoples were massacred, converted, enslaved, redlined, assimilated.
This could not - would not - be their own fate. They had to remain strong, or at least they must endure, for the sake of Solitas. They were the last free, native Solitanesian nation in Ekylos. All the other original East Solitanesians had been colonised and destroyed by settlers. They could not let their dying lights be forgotten.
~
"The missiles are already programmed to strike at the designated points in Arvorenia, sir. We've marked out where their largest shipbuilders, airfields, fuel depots and most filled naval bases are. We also have key locations in their major cities marked out for destruction - namely, their military command and the royal residence. May I have permission to ask?"
"Yes, lieutenant. What is it that you need?"
"Well, why are we targeting the royal residence and parliament again sir? Won't this just seem to be unnecessary wasting of our missile stock?"
"Do you really believe João will refrain from bombing the Parliament himself, or ignore our nuclear power plants?" The commander leaned back, his face tight with suppressed fury. "He will be just fine with leaving millions of our people to starve, beg in the streets, all while he scrounges up our homeland's resources to feed his own imperial machine. Bombing these targets serves two purposes - to handicap the enemy military and to handicap the enemy's support. If he cannot stop his parliament or his palace or his vaunted navy from being smited by God's hand? Why support his war? A war in the name of a fascist, a fascist who would happily murder every Arvorese man, woman, and child if he could? Hart has shown how unreliable he is to his "allies". We must send the message - we won't spread our legs for any invader. For every inch of our land sullied by foreign jackboots, we will water our fields with the blood of a dozen enemy soldiers." He quickly took a swig of tea, and appeared to briefly calm down. "Any other questions, lieutenant?"
"No, sir. Shall we launch?" she asked.
He thought on that for a while. This was definitely a point of no return. The rockets they were slinging southwards were not nuclear, but merely conventional warheads. The damage they would do would still be quite high - many civilian casualties were expected.
But there was no choice, not with the small window of opportunity they had available. Arvorenia had not yet mobilised effectively - this was a chance to game the war's outcome before it even properly started and it HAD to be taken. They were almost certain to lose anyways.
If they could take down João and his nation with them, it was all fine in the end. One less empire on the face of Valsora.
"Yes. Launch codes pre-emptively given. Fire at will." He punched in a message to the high command notifying them that they were now launching, and they returned confirmation of his green light to go.
"Missiles readied. Launch!"
~
Southern Arovia was awash with military activity. The Home Fleet was nearby, and thousands of troops awaited transports to take them to Old Arymia for battle.
...but many other troops were there awaiting the doomsday scenario. The scenario Arovanneans had grimly cleaned their gun barrels and sharpened their sabers in preparation for. They had braced for this day for over half a millenium.
An invasion of Arovia.
The soldiers were well entrenched, huddled in their forts and dug-outs, knowing their likely fate was death at the hands of marines or shells.
No matter.
The enemy could not finish the job of colonising Ekylos. They would not.
Arvorenia would have Arovia when the Arvorese had no more fathers, brothers or husbands, when their land was smoking and cratered from bombs, when their people were dying of shrapnel wounds and starvation in the streets, when their nation was reviled as an outpost of fascism across the world. Arovannea would not cease to exist without taking down the other "ar" nation as they fell.
Come and take it, João. Our shining bayonets wait patiently for the blood of settlers.
We will be your empire's graveyard should we fall. Careful of what you wish for.
It may just come true.
~
Love Peace and Friendship
