VR WARS Volume II - Coalition Army

WAR OF RIGHTS

A ballroom in the Legend’s keep that brought to the same stage the leaders of every nation involved in the VR Wars competition sounded like the perfect opportunity to scout the hidden talents unknown to the public. Driven by the fact that the footage of the event was kept to a minimum where only the entry of every competitor in the hall and Von Kluge’s announcement would be broadcast live, prompted Pedro and Rui to pull several all-nighters to strategize how they would approach the situation. The incitement behind their logic was to the advantage of the secrecy behind the event, which made the general public opinion anxiously theorize what exactly was happening inside the virtual world and use it to extricate whatever they could from their opponents. And thanks to the recklessness of one of his subordinates, they had done exactly that.

When Angelo accidentally exposed his AWP for everyone to see in a confrontation with Vladimir Stoica, his willpower resonated throughout the hall, reaching every member who was inside. It triggered a chain reaction that led every user to manifest their will to protect themselves from the outcome. No matter how many times he had warned Angelo to stay quiet, the man did the opposite; it was as if he enjoyed getting unwanted attention. But Pedro couldn’t accuse him or get rid of him, especially not when his unadulterated dumbness had revealed every AWP user in the mix. The faces of each were explicitly implemented in his photographic mind; he could plan accordingly and manipulate the pieces on the chessboard to his vision. Nonetheless, the sour taste of defeat remained all the same to him, vividly present in his eyes—the feeling of being outshined by a commoner.

Well past the hour the event had ended, Pedro sat in a chair in his dorm, looking dreadful in the dead of night. He bit his thumb’s nail, torturing his mind as to why things happened the way they did. Known among his peers as the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang ‘The Sleeping Dragon’, the Supreme Commander of the Portuguese Coalition cowered in his thoughts that left him with sleepless nights and the main reason for all of it: Angelo!

Feeling self-conscious about how he had treated the former Commander of the UAT Valadão the other night weighed heavily on him. He had underestimated the wild card that Angelo was. No matter his warnings, orders, or even bits of advice, nothing could hold back the levels of lethality that man could produce. “Valadão couldn’t chain that dog, and from the looks of it, neither can I,” he reflected on how the element of chaos surpassed his wildest imagination. Always a vigilant man, Pedro had read reports on Angelo before meeting him and planned accordingly to his deviant character, but the way things had turned out the past few weeks assured him that the previous reports on the ‘Angel of Death’ did not do him any justice.

“I have to stop his momentum, and the only way to do that is by surpassing him.”

The last days saw the revealing of the upcoming matches in the competition, with Portugal having to battle its neighboring country first, the Iberian Federation. And the transformation of the Portuguese coalition to a whole other level, filled with a new desire, Pedro reworked the way they operated from scratch with optimized schedules, improved coordination, and even the creation of new tactics for every type of combat. He pushed himself past his limits to become the very embodiment of what a true master strategist should be.

Since Germania was on the other block of the board, the chances of both countries facing each other before the finals were zero. However, to reach the finals, they would have to win three matches in total where not only their Iberian cousins blocked their way, but even Poland, who had already defeated the UAT in the preliminaries, and also Romania, which the ‘Vlad Dracula’ ruled over.

As if faith intertwined both countries to mock them even further, Portugal and the Iberian Federation shared a tragic past dating back centuries. The most recent clash happened merely ten years prior.

The War of Rights between Portugal and the Iberian Federation occurred while the economic crisis still raged strongly. Regardless of it being the shortest of the last century, lasting merely two weeks, it claimed the lives of nearly a hundred thousand people, civilians, and military from both sides. The cause for this was the refusal of the Portuguese to integrate into a united Iberian cause that put its people first and foremost and opted for a single nation to rule the Iberian Peninsula. A righteous cause that came with the fall of Spain as a country, the abdication of its king, and the partition of it into fragmented states that resembled older medieval countries.

During this turbulent time of civil unrest, Portugal sought to annex the entire northern regions of Lugo, Orense, Pontevedra, and La Coruna under the pretext of safeguarding its borders from the ongoing conflict already happening. Some army units even reached the famous Asturias, where the Reconquista had begun, but were immediately pulled back because that was sacred soil for the Spaniards and could centralize the country to take action against Portugal.

In an attempt to uphold and unite what hadn't been a whole for five hundred years, the representatives of each separate state conveyed and agreed to create the Iberian Federation. Its isolationist principles somewhat rebounded the region's economy—solidly directed by almost dictatorship-like governance that pulled most of the Peninsula out of the crisis that overwhelmed everyone else. However, the measures taken resulted in a nation that brought back fascist values that weren’t seen in the country since the death of its last dictator, Franco. The menace of it was so great it pulled Portugal away from its sphere of influence. Even though the country’s diplomatic roots were beyond any hope of salvation from corruption and incompetent leadership, the people shaped by years of freedom wanted nothing to do with isolation and abdication of their individual rights in favor of the nation.

Hence, with tensions increasing between the two countries and the resource disparity rising in Portugal, the Iberian Federation, in an attempt to incite a just war between the two, cut the flow of water into the country. Due to a severe drought that affected the entire world for nearly twenty months, water was the primary reason for the dozen or so conflicts that scorched Europe in the last decade, the only resource that outweighed all others. Despite protests and multiple pleas to the UN and NATO, overwhelmed with everything else happening all around Europe, these fell on deaf ears. Public outcry appealed for drastic measures and sanctions, but since the IF (Iberian Federation) opted for a closed economy, these had little impact on the overall board. Severance of diplomatic ties was all that Portugal could do.

Counting on its abundant supply that could easily last for a year, the people returned to their everyday lives, expecting the dust to die down with the passing days. But the one thing they didn’t count on was the ineptitude of the Portuguese government to distribute accurately and ration appropriately; the abundant reserves of water were exhausted within two months.

Portugal, sensing no other alternative than war, began to mobilize. However, even before they had a chance to organize themselves, the IF, detecting an opportunity to strike, surprised attacked its neighbor with a relentless bombing campaign on its small industrial centers. In the face of insurmountable adversity, the Portuguese retaliation was minimal but effective. With a single and isolated precision strike on the IF’s only nuclear central station, entire regions were in the dark for days while radiation spilled to both nations, which caused most of the human losses of the war. Just as the IF was beginning its early stages of a ground invasion, the UN finally intervened, sending a combined army to Portugal and surrounding the IF with a combined fleet whose missiles aimed at every urban center in the country. Yet, with the declaration of an armistice and talks between Portugal and the IF opening up, both claimed to be in the right for their actions. One side declaring to be defending itself from foreign aggression and the other alleging illegal annexation of territory and crimes against all humanity for the bombing of its nuclear plant.

Not seeing eye-to-eye on any point made by the neutral UN representatives, negotiations were appeased with the release of water back into Portugal and war reparations by the IF. All the land gained during the turmoil was handed back to the IF, and Portuguese borders were once more resumed back to their original form that had been for a thousand years.

During the ten years that passed, people still argued about who had been right and wrong to start the war. Henceforth, the term War of Rights was immortalized by all.

This fated battle between nations was, for many, a blessing in disguise, with no clear victor or loser over the last war; it was by employing VR that this match allowed the opportunity to test out the newer generations’ strength. And perhaps find an answer that would end the bitter hatred that led to constant and pointless quarreling between two peoples that had lasted over a decade.

But merely one day before the match, a sudden twist of events would bring about a total collapse of all logic and ignite a fervor so great it beckoned real war between the two countries.