CHAPTER 21: Intention after victory
"Sir Hawkon, we've had to pull back from our fallback prisoner bay over this week." one of his advisers said, having been within the armada of Mentranians and Berserkers that had been on the edge during the confrontation with the Hooligans and Outcasts.
Hawkon was inside an isolated building, out of the view of the regular Mentranians as to be expected. He knows that there's a war between his regime and the outsiders looking to bring it down, because it's a war he himself declared. But over the past two weeks, Mentra, apart from the battle it had on the edge with the Hooligans and Outcasts earlier in the week, has been awfully quiet in terms of targeting the Hooligan's home island. The regime hasn't attacked New Berk at all.
Also in the room was a certain squad of Mentranian vikings. All besides Hawkon like statues as they maintained their dignity and professionalism around their leader.
"You had to pull back?" the young Mentranian leader questioned.
"Yeah. We could make out the Hooligans attacking us from the forest, and there was another tribe of foreigners with them. In the end, their infiltration of the bay was too much for us."
"Our defenders are striking the Hooligans with effort, as are our Berserker allies, so it's painfully disappointing that, at a time of war, you're showing incompetence. Where has your competence gone?"
"Father," the adviser's face was warming up from the anxiety, "we didn't anticipate them approaching us in the manner they did."
"We're at war. You should be planning these things out. If the Hooligans carry on achieving these little victories against our men, be in no doubt that our strength will be compromised. Our sovereignty will be at risk."
"I know. This war is crucial for our island, father. I understand the importance of needing to win it. I can assure you that we'll be defeating the one-legged bane and his tribe of foreigners. I fully accept the responsibility of us having to evacuate from the bay."
The adviser, who was also an adviser under Hawkon's father when he was leader, figured that confessing to his mistakes would be a much better thing to do than to try and steer the blame away, especially when it came to Hawkon.
"You're right. And I hold you responsible for that failure as well. And at a time of war, there's no space for mistakes." Hawkon declared. "Therefore, you are to be discharged from your current position of influence, and sentenced to a punishment deserving of those who compromise Mentra's ability to fend off the enemy."
"Wha-what?" the adviser stuttered.
The Mentranian squad besides Hawkon raised their crossbows up. The adviser took a couple of steps back as his heart began racing. Hawkon simply looked at the frightened adviser with a straight, solemn expression. The squad had opened their crossbows to the adviser, firing tens of arrows into his now fleeing body, before the adviser simply fell down to the floor, covered with arrows.
The death squad of Mentra, Hawkon's personal asset as apart of his intention to maintain power, has just committed a death sentence upon the subtle request of the Mentranian leader.
Nobody within Mentra's close ranks are safe. During this war, if somebody is evidently responsible for a failure, they're as good as dead. Hawkon wanted no incompetence within his defence force.
In this period of war, the young dictatorial viking felt totally relaxed in being this ruthless despot. If he's to defeat the Hooligans, and Hiccup, he has to take a tougher and more brutal stance in his ruling over Mentra than his father ever did. He may have let Guddorn off the hook when the leader of the deterrent program was forced to abandon dragon island, alongside his colleagues, after the Hooligans attacked them, but Hawkon sees value in Guddorn, and it wasn't in a period of war, unlike now and with this adviser.
"Nobody shall live to see our island suffer countless failures in this crucial period. Clear this up men and we'll talk to the defenders about our intentions afterwards." the Mentranian leader said.
Whilst Mentra and the regime sounds and looks like it doesn't have a grand plan for this war, in reality, it really does. It's just going to take some time for it to be viable. It required the construction of what Guddorn described as 'human-dragon-flying suits', also known as the wing suits used by Hiccup & co in the colours of their dragons.
Addressing a packed hall of defenders, Hawkon was in front of all of them behind a wooden podium, whereby the hall was quiet enough for him to be able to echo across the corners of the giant room what he was about to say. These weren't the only defenders Mentra had either, there were tons more, but they couldn't all fit in the hall.
"Gentlemen. We're officially at war with the Hooligans. Our armada and our men had a huge grip on the prisoner bay to the north east. I won't hide my disappointment for your inability to hold the enemies off. If this failure carries on, your inability to defeat the enemies and protect our sovereignty will be seen as traitorous in the eyes of our vikings."
Hawkon moved a few bits of paper on his podium to the side; it looked like he was reading off of them to perfectly explain his intended outcome of this war.
"As things stand, our defenders must pursue the Hooligans and whatever allies they may have, for two reasons. The first is to 'test' their might and their strength, and the second is to hold them off until we launch our ultimate plan. This plan seeks to end this war in our favour in the quickest and most efficient way possible, a way that the Hooligans will never see coming, and one that will surely guarantee our victory."
"We have already rid their Chieftan of his wife. We can rid them of their land too, regardless of the high altitude. All of this will be possible in our new plan. This is a highly secretive piece of information that, should it be spread outwards, will result in an immediate punishment of the highest calibre. No longer can you all make mistakes. It's either competence or danger from this point on wards. There'll be no space for incompetence, and the overseers party of our island will make sure of that, as will I."
The defenders all remained still, as their leader continued onto the plan.
"We must prepare for our victory starting from now. That is why, as apart of our grand plan, we must take up as much land as we can find, starting with dragon island that we initially lost. Mentra must become flexible to hold off the enemies from all sides and positions. Whatever there is in this archipelago, we take. We turn into ours. The ongoing pact with our Berserker allies will make this more viable."
Hawkon continued on.
"An hour from us rests a hostile island that we have consistently shown our might to. That might must now turn into a full scale invasion, whereby we conquer that island of outcasts and make it our own. We retake, we invade, and we conquer anything in this archipelago, in preparation for when we inevitably attack the homeland of the Hooligans. There's another significant aspect of this plan that I will hold off on revealing until it has been formally finalised. But ultimately, we must use our strength and allies to take over lands on this whole archipelago, from our enemies and any foreigner tribes. That way, this war will lean more towards our favour and the Hooligans will no longer have anywhere to fall back on."
Hawkon was looking to finish his speech to his defenders. That was nowhere the plan in its entirety, it was just a preview of it. Hawkon had a map of the archipelago for himself on his podium, and a short while ago he had made a giant circle around the archipelago. With two truly telling terms in the middle of it, obviously written in the viking symbols.
Mega Mentra.
The end goal for Hawkon was for him to rule over the whole archipelago with an iron fist, with it being called under his rule 'Mega Mentra'. That was the intention for when they conquer New Berk and the Hooligans.
Mentra used to boast about not striking first, and not being provocative to outside tribes, but it's been attacking Outcast Island as Alvin revealed, for quite a short while now, and Hawkon's intention of ruling over the entire archipelago, with a wide-spread cult of personality around him, clearly demonstrates that the regime has changed its path quite significantly.
But it didn't care. Any pledge Hawkon made about the regime's standing in the overall world of vikings was scrapped. This was war time, so it had to be done.
This war may have begun with the Hooligans fending off his defenders at the 'prisoner bay', also known as Dragon's Edge to the Hooligans, but Hawkon's plan started with the invasion of Outcast Island, with the help of the Berserkers his regime was in a treaty with. Losing the prisoner bay was only a minor loss to Hawkon, but it was still enough for the adviser to be killed on the spot for the failure to hold onto it.
Guddorn the Glorious, the Mentranian who was initially responsible for the deterrent program of Mentra, was currently in a tense one-on-one meeting with the Mentranian leader in Hawkon. Guddorn was about to be assigned the new leader of the current armada of Berserkers & Mentranians which'll sail to Outcast Island and invade it, ridding it of any Outcasts that Alvin & co may have left to guard the island.
"Sir Hawkon." Guddorn saluted.
Guddorn and Hawkon were in the Mentranian overseers party headquarters, situated somewhere in the middle of Mentra. It was as large as the hall that the Mentranian was in before. It had a wooden table, in a half circle shape, with various empty chairs, as well as a hundreds of other chairs ahead. Hawkon was at the middle chair of the circled table. This table was where overseers party associates of Mentra would usually sit, conducting meetings with each other to discuss the inside and outside affairs surrounding Mentra. But given that the regime was now at war, the overseers party was always discussing tactics.
Guddorn was stood right ahead of the large table, as Hawkon looked on.
"You had a valiant effort in our deterrent program. And given we're now in a crucial war with the Hooligans, it's vital that we have a strong lead in our men and Berserker allies. Have you been briefed on the plan by Larson?"
"Our dear second in command? I have, father. Sir Gustav has briefed me on the plan, and I've been given the grand scheme of it as well."
"Very good. Although I ought to say this; that grand scheme is one we aren't going to talk about, even if we're in an isolated vicinity like this one. We have to keep it forbidden and under trusted minds if it is to work with no obstacles. But one part of it I can reveal is that when we win this war and capture the blood of the Hooligans and their children, this whole archipelago will be engulfed into our sovereignty. Mentra will expand."
"I applause this plan, father."
"Indeed. And I'm glad to hear your endorsement, because I'm going to be giving you the position one of my father's advisers failed us with. Leading the battles on our side."
Guddorn had tons of experience in that area.
"Father, this is an honour. I promise you that I'll ensure our armadas will-"
"You need to hear the details, Guddorn. Bear with me for a moment. As the commander of our armada, you'll be tasked with not only testing the strength of the Hooligans, but you'll also be guiding our men into showing off their ultimate might, where you'll hold the Hooligans off, until our plan has been fully finalised. As it stands, the one secretive aspect of our plan has yet to be finalised. This war is ours to toy with, so you will toy with the Hooligans, hold them off, and then our actual attack will begin once this plan has been finalised."
Guddorn the Glorious was honoured to have received such an endorsement from the Mentranian leader.
"I'm eternally grateful for this position, father. The Viking's Mentra will definitely have a might never seen before by the foreigners." Guddorn proudly declared.
"That's what we need to be hearing, because as apart of this war, we need to start neutralising and conquering as much land as possible around this archipelago. Therefore, you will be leading the invasion of the Outcast Island just an hour from us, to initiate that process."
Guddorn nodded.
"What we need to be doing, before we launch our true and actual attack on the Hooligans, is to stretch out our influence and presence across the archipelago as much as possible, so if the Hooligans ever sail within a close distance of us, they won't ever get a 'head start' per say, whilst we cook up our plan. It'll also light the way for our intention after our victory. You will also be leading the mission for reclaiming the prisoner bay that my adviser initially lost us to the Hooligans."
"Sir, we will take no prisoners. I will lead our armada with the passionate might it possesses. We will sweep over the whole archipelago like a wave. No amount of Hooligans will be able to stop us engulfing the area." Guddorn confidently declared, feeling confident in his ability to lead the armadas of Mentra.
"Your words are satisfactory. I'm going to be stationing the Chieftan of the Berserkers, our ally leader, in another position for this war. Gustav Larson, your second in command, will be situated within the same roles as I will be taking. Strong leadership and competence will win us this war.
"Rest assured, when we attack the Outcasts, as we've already shown them our might over these passing weeks, they'll be cornered and finished off in the way the Hooligans will be once our plan enables us to strike their tall home land."
"Haddock's wife will be greeted by the Hooligans and her husband very soon, wouldn't you agree?" Hawkon declared, still proud of the fact that his regime had executed the wife of Hiccup, which was pretty much the firing bullet for this war to start.
"No doubt. All foreigners shall be crushed under us."
At that, the Mentranian leader and the now-leader of Mentra's armada shook hands. The war was now about to get even more brutal, and Mentra hasn't even got started on its 'real' attack on the Hooligans yet.
Outcast Island is inevitably about to be invaded by Mentra. It's a good thing Alvin had left, but him being gone means there isn't any leadership on the island to fend off the upcoming invasion.