The night sky was painted by a beautiful canvas of stars as the city of Italica put itself to rest. News from the capital regarding the regular bouts of "Palace Intrigue" was beginning to take its toll on the young guardian of the city, Piña Co Lada. To her, the senate's infighting and her brothers' continued clashes with each other only served to dig the empire further into a premature grave. The state of the city itself further signified that belief, with rampant banditry plaguing the country side and threatening Italica with a possible siege.

As such, she dutifully sent a letter, requesting that legions be sent over to help her calm the countryside, for there was only so much her Rose-Order of Knights could do. But in the ever wonderful eyes and wisdom of her dear father, the letter was soon sent back with a reply to continue handling the situation with the resources she had, whilst another pillaging campaign was being mustered within the capitol.

Pillaging, the very thing plaguing the very territory the empire required if it wished to sustain its foodstuffs. It sickened her, but her father was still the emperor... and the economy was still very much in trouble. Despite having the monopoly on power and wealth, it still did not help the treasury any with all the constant bribes and vanity projects gold was being spent on.

It was almost like they were asking for an intervention from the gods in order to sort their mess out. But what do the gods do? Nothing... nothing at all. Well, apart from the apostle of Emory... Rory Mercury. Though she is less of an ally and more of an "independent player" who just so happened to help a tad with the bandit problem.

Otherwise known as, another headache...

Getting up from her chair and walking over towards the balcony, she couldn't help but marvel at the peacefulness of it all. The stars were shining brightly on them all, as the lamplit streets slowly fell asleep. One could make a beautiful mural of it all, had it not been for the strange white glow over the horizon.

Part of her thought it was the gate being opened at Alnus in preparation for the campaign, but that was quite a few days away from Italica. She rubbed her eyes a bit to see if her mind was playing tricks with her, but the white glow was still there. It almost looked like a pillar of light when she thought of it.

Whatever it was, she didn't want to deal with it. The army would when they got there.

All she wanted to do now, was simply... sleep.

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Sleep was a concept unknown to a guardsman. A guardsman could rest, but could never sleep. Doing such a thing would be a dereliction of his duty towards the Republic.

A guardsman always was ready to defend those in need.

A guardsman served no leader, only the people.

The code a guardsman always followed, was the civic code of the Grand Charter.

The Republic cannot endure without the eternal vigilance of her citizens. The Rights of Humanity cannot be denied if said vigilance endures.

Vigilance towards the Republic and her people. That, was a guardsman duty.

And so there they fought, throughout the city streets as planes shot each other out of the sky. As the last remains of the Republic's fleet fought in the bay. As tanks slaughtered each other whilst trains tried their best to ferry citizens out of the burning city.

He could see it all from his vantage point. 100 stories in the air, the pride of the nation stood tall and lit up along with the rest of the city. The pillar of light as they called it. Almost 50 searchlights turned the building into a pillar of light... a beacon of hope. Hope...

The Arcandus power grid had been designed to light up the entire city even in the most drastic of situations. Many thought it foolish, but now here they were... using each towering skyscraper as massive anti-aircraft batteries. Their constructions held, and the blocks surrounding each skyscraper had been turned into near citadels with enough fuel and ammo to keep the lights going and the guns blazing for well over a few months.

A few months...

They had the food to hold out, but it was still hard to believe that the capital was under siege. Maximillian Entros was but a sergeant within the Republican Guard... one of thousands assigned to defend the "Pillar of Light" battery citadel. An area that was nearly a couple square miles around the Haverford Building. Part of it included city hall and the Senate Hall, and he could see that the enemy was nearly close to their perimeter.

He had been assigned to help direct the searchlights to the street level, in order to help the nearby flak guns provide fire support on ground units once the aircraft got too close for them to be of any use. He was proud to do it along side his brothers and sisters. And they were quite the motley crew, with a few city police officers thrown into the mix since their squad cars had been destroyed.

Still though, it had surprised him that he had been sent up to the Haverford Building, for he was a cavalryman with the guard. He had expected himself to be escorting some senator or maybe even the Consulate President himself. But no, he was told to leave his horse with the rest of the guard's horses, and to ride the elevator to help provide support.

He didn't even have a change of uniform...

His sword was still sheaved at his side, his hussars helmet was still on without a scratch. His uniform was almost spotless, with the occasional powder mark near his sleeves due to... obvious reasons. Hell, had it not been for the fact that the capitol was under siege, he would've nearly fussed over it all.

But he was a guardsman. They fought in their best in every conflict the Republic had fought in.

As so there he was, dressed in his best and prepared to go down like a soldier.

The 40mm gun was beginning to overheat now at this point. They had a few close calls with strafing runs but no one was injured yet.

All around him, it was as if the lights were beginning to glow brighter. It was blinding... it was... intoxicating. He couldn't see any of the aircraft anymore. He couldn't see the sky. He couldn't see the flag of the nation flying high above on the building's spire. All he saw was light.

And then darkness.