The war began when no one expected it. When the Peacekeeping Forces issued their earlier announcement, a unit that had crossed over from the Wasteland and hidden near the Federation launched an attack on its border troops with Fourth-Generation Tactical Mecha. Before the Federation could react, they destroyed the equipment there and withdrew through the Wasteland.
Before the Federation even had time to condemn the attack, it saw District 25's announcement. Dorothy, however, was not surprised at all. She immediately deployed every unit needed for defense, stationing them at locations previously considered likely targets for Federation attacks, then gradually began arranging border defenses to ensure an immediate response wherever District 25's troops were spotted.
As for the antiwar rhetoric within the Federation...
Dorothy employed all sorts of measures to turn those antiwar arguments into a laughingstock. Yet even with the Federation's propaganda department working hard to suppress them, antiwar statements kept emerging. Independent media accounts spread rhetoric unfavorable to the Federation online, and some people even organized marches, unfurling banners within the Federation. The scale of it made it seem as though someone was backing them.
In fact, someone was backing them.
But Dorothy's propaganda department was no pushover. It was the Federation's propaganda department that was incompetent, not the one under her.
They did not need evidence. They only needed to post a few arrest videos, then declare that all those people were spies sent by District 25. Of course, that treatment was reserved for marchers with no powerful backing. For independent media accounts with millions or tens of millions of followers, they used other methods: throttling their traffic, reducing how often news feeds recommended their content, and heavily publicizing how District 25 treated Federation citizens.
After this series of measures, the voices of opposition and discontent within the