"...At this point, only Triumph City can decide the fate of the Velanders."
Dawn City, Embassy Street, the study of the Legion's embassy to The Alliance.
Watching the bustling crowd of protesters outside the window, Bannott, the commander of ten thousand, sighed softly and, by sheer coincidence, voiced the thoughts of someone a thousand miles away.
An hour earlier, he had learned from The Alliance's foreign minister, Cheng Yan, that The Alliance had declared war on the Southern Legion.
Not long after that, the Administrator of The Alliance's declaration of war speech appeared in a special edition of the Survivor Daily and on television stations across The Alliance.
The Alliance had set its war machine in motion with terrifying efficiency and cohesion.
Just as it had when it declared war on the Torch Church.
In contrast, the Southern Legion had continued pinning its hopes on some "brilliant move" from the General Staff right until the end, hoping it would turn the situation around.
But once their opponents saw through their schemes, that fellow had become like a gambler who had lost all his chips, staring blankly and left helpless.
Now, not only The Alliance, but even the Enterprises on the East Coast had finally had enough and turned their guns on them, completely abandoning their weakness and the fantasy that "peace would simply fall from the sky."
The only remaining question was Triumph City's stance.
If Triumph City chose to "stand by them through thick and thin," then the Southern Legion still had a sliver of hope.
The cost, however, would be mobilizing every Velander on the planet to wage total war against the survivors living in the eastern part of the Central Continent.
If that happened, the gamblers of the Southern Legion could be said to have won their