Ophio was not only the Regent of Amatla; he was also a great commander. He understood how to use news to inspire the people and awaken the fighting spirit in soldiers and civilians alike.
The enemy was far stronger than they were. If they wanted to hold out—or even win—they needed willpower to make up for the disparity. If their soldiers' morale faltered, the situation would only worsen.
After this impromptu planetary broadcast, and under Sestus's spiritual encouragement, the entire planet's population spontaneously entered a state of war readiness.
People became fervent yet rational, abandoning illusions and preparing to resist.
They realized that when war came, no one could remain uninvolved. Whether one was a noble, a commoner, or even a wandering merchant merely passing through for supplies, it made no difference.
The traitors would slaughter everyone without distinction. That was the shared fate awaiting them all.
Though the consuls had repeatedly stressed that Amatla's war supplies were more abundant than ever before, transport ships from the Five Hundred Worlds were still delivering materiel to this star system at any cost, every moment of every day.
Due to the Warp storms, most of those incoming transport ships had been traveling at sublight speeds. Even so, many vessels had still been affected by the storms' influence upon realspace.
Travel had become an exceedingly dangerous undertaking, but more and more people still came. They brought supplies and the support of other worlds.
At that moment, Amatla's asteroids and moons had been fitted with vast numbers of ground-based macro-cannons and lances.
Countless permanent fortifications covered the former civilian structures. The people of Amatla were especially fond of bathing, so grand and fantastically designed public bathhouses stood everywhere. They were part of the planet's culture, but now all of them had yielded to the