Prologue: Viva La Revolución
24th December 2019, 1100hrs
Hugo Bolivare Arena
Alendal, Democratic Republic of Leasath
The lone prisoner was dragged into the stadium at gunpoint, naked save for his boxers, having gone unwashed since his imprisonment two months prior. He winced as the sudden light glared into his eyes and turned away, only to be met with a backhand by his escort, to the roars of the crowd.
"Forward, hero." the soldier escorting him hissed.
The prisoner ignored him, chuckling away.
"What's so funny?"
Again, he was met with silence.
"I said, what's so funny?" the soldier raised his hand for another wallop.
"Soldado! Enough!" another voice boomed.
Like a switch gone off in his head, the soldier dropped his hand, stiffened his posture, and prepared for a salute. Standing before him was the Leasath Army's Chief of Staff, Major General Luca Sorrenta, flanked by Sergeant Major of the Army Daniel Ribero.
"At ease, Sergeant. Hand him to me."
The scrawny figure offered no resistance as the sergeant shoved him almost directly into Sorrenta's face. The General, unfazed, gripped the captive on the chin and tilted his head up to face him. His face was littered with cuts and scars, several of those covered up by the matted beard he had grown in captivity. The crowd craned their necks to ogle at the hapless prisoner.
"So, the 'People's Hero' eh, Antony?"
The captive smirked.
"I am just a boy from Curamacao. These are not my people."
In a past life, the captive had been known and celebrated, as Colonel Raul Antony. His rise to stardom among the people of Leasath began with his actions during a 2015 border conflict with the nation of Perbla, to the North. Heavily outnumbered and outgunned, Antony and his section ambushed a Perblan armoured column, commandeered an enemy main battle tank, and proceeded to wipe out the rest of the column single-handedly. In doing so, he had averted an attack on a nearby settlement. A photo taken of them standing atop their commandeered tank became the stuff of legend among both the common people and the military rank and file.
As the years passed, Antony found himself increasingly disillusioned with the increasingly nationalist belligerence of the military's top brass. With Osea rebuilding its vast arsenal in the wake of the Circum-Pacific War of 2010, the nations of South Osea too scrambled to raise their own defence spending. Perbla was doing it, as was Leasath, and Aurelia to the South. That all changed in 2016 with the election of the Aurelian Social Democratic Party, and the liberalisation of its numerous resources allowing it to assume a far more diplomatic foreign policy position. For its part, Leasath elected Sorrenta's predecessor- Lieutenant General Diego Gaspar Navarro, as its head of state. In the eyes of many, they would sooner have had the Devil as President.
That same man now regarded Antony from several dozen yards away, a sadistic delight dancing in his eyes. The cause? Antony had disobeyed a direct order from Navarro himself to open fire on Perblan civilians. The abdication of his and almost every other unit involved in that operation would give way to two years of bloody guerilla conflicts known as the Leasath Civil War. Despite the hard-fought battles, the hostilities would be brought to an end- not by defeat in combat, but by two of Antony's own lieutenants,who had turned him in in exchange for asylum and eight hundred thousand Osean zollars. Now, here he stood at the mercy of the most brutal wartime leaders in South Osea, in a stadium packed with his most ardent supporters.
Antony looked back at Navarro, raising his eyebrows before re-addressing Sorrenta.
"Tell me, Sir. How do you get into the good books of someone like that without killing innocents?"
"Unlike you, I follow orders, Hero. If I'm told to rescue a man, I spare no effort to save him. If I'm told to kill him," Sorrenta squinted at his captive and clucked his tongue "I shall hunt him down to the ends of the Earth."
"Ohh, so you're his attack dog then? Or do you just let him bang each of your-"
His quip was met with a huge gob of spit.
"Get this fucker out of my sight. You are not even worth a dog's shit."
As Sorrenta stormed off, Sergeant Major Ribero grabbed Antony by his scruff and yanked him over to a single metal pole, effortlessly fastening his hands behind it.
"Ayyy Sergeant Major, not so tight, huh? I'm not running anywhere now, am I?"
"You have taken too many of my men's lives, Hero. Your own countrymen, your comrades in arms. Does it not bother you?" Ribero said coldly.
"Heh, no. Not when they are turned on by senseless bloodshed. Murderers are not my comrades."
"Hmph, and yet you had no problem doing your little tank stunt. The tank crews you killed were "just following orders" too, no?"
Antony paused in contemplative thought for several moments.
"What's the matter, no more smarty mouth jokes?"
"I am a person first, and a soldier second. If you have no people left to defend- no joy, no fear, no love, not even anger, how do you justify an army?"
He turned to Navarro, who had been glaring at him, arms folded.
"You cannot go on forever, Generale. One day, you'll run out of bullets and bombs. No more young men to throw at the enemy. What then?"
"There's always more." Navarro answered menacingly "You simply lack the will to do the hard things that must be done."
Navarro reached into his breast pocket, digging out a faux medal, decorated with golden wings.
"Hero of the Republic. For your actions in the face of great adversity."
"What are you doing with that?"
Navarro unsheathed the medal's pin, grabbed Antony's chest above his nipple, and shoved the pin through his skin. Thoroughly desensitised to Antony's screams and the crowd's triumphant cheering, he clasped the medal in place and motioned for another soldier to come over.
"Killing me won't change anything, Navarro." he growled. "The seeds of revolution have already been sewn, and they will grow against people like you."
A burly corporal splashed a bucket of saltwater on Antony, prompting him to cringe and wince as the salt aggravated his wounds.
Navarro held up a microphone to Antony's face.
"Any last words?"
"Yeah. My body will fertilise this ground, and the peoples of the Earth will strike back at you with all of their fury! So, kill me, then! Kill me if you fucking dare!"
The President backed away.
"My friend. You have truly lost your mind. Let us ease you out of your misery"
Two crocodile clips were attached to either side of Antony's body, each being hooked up to a mobile fifty kilovolt generator.
"That's right! Liberate my spirit from this body so I can be with MY people! The people of Leasath! Of the world!"
Navarro strolled over to the generator, his hand thumbing the switch.
"Goodbye, Hero. We don't need more hypocritical hippies like you."
"VIVA LA REVOLUCÍON!"
He flicked the switch, taking a moment to let himself and his minions savour its effects, switching it off after seven seconds.
"Get him off, quickly. He's starting to stink." Ribero instructed his men.
As what was left of the People's Hero was unceremoniously tossed in a body bag and wheeled away, Navarro turned his gaze southwards, hands clasped behind his back. General Sorrenta stepped in alongside him.
"You're a good man, Sorrenta. Men of your calibre are hard to find, and even fewer of your loyalty." Navarro said, never turning.
"The pleasure is all mine, Sir."
The Chief of Staff followed Navarro's gaze, and instantly knew what he was scheming. All he needed to ask was 'when'.
"Reorganise and rally your men, but wait for my signal. When the time is right, we will strike them with a hurricane's force."
Sorrenta nodded in assent. The moment they would exact vengeance on their oppressors would soon be upon them.
"All of Aurelia will burn."