Auroris

Reactionary wing of the Partido Conservador reportedly unhappy
November 27th, 1896

The Partido Conservador reportedly faces internal disunity as meetings have been held in several cities in Poporo's most populous province, Caristia, including the capital city of Port Royal: Caristian PC delegations are some of the country's most authoritarian ones, as the Frente Monárquico Tradicionalista (which merged with the Partido Moderado in 1861 to create the Partido Conservador) was strongest in these regions.

Since its formation, the conservatives have looked to their liberal counterparts when lacking a majority, both with the Partido Liberal before 1884 and with the Liberal-Radical merger into the Unión Demócrata Liberal since then: the mergers of both liberals and conservatives have pushed the parties towards the centre, with the common denominator being an explicitly socialist Alianza Laborista Poporana being left in the opposition. Neither radicals nor reactionaries are, however, said to have simply taken this well, with some leading figures in the latter camp, such as Luis Alberto Rivera, never having fully shed their monarchist, traditionalist, and reactionary beliefs.

The reactionary camp has been further emboldened by the rapid rise of nationalism, as Arovannea, the Poporan eternal rival, rapidly modernizes, and the Intisari Directorate seems to pose a real threat. Some reactionary voices have already called for a return to a monarchist system, or a strong presidential figure elected separate from the Parlamento. The socialist ALP, empowered by what some votes perceive as the "bourgeois alliance" of UDL and PC, are also surging back to their peak levels, and have taken on a stripe of populist, nationalist rhetoric in recent years.

With the Parlamento Poporano having a mandate until 1899, snap elections seem unlikely at the moment, albeit the rapidly changing climate of Poporan politics and the empowerment of more nationalistic and authoritarian movements could see the government lose its majority in the unicameral legislature.

Fire in the Dawn
Jan 18th, 1897

Woken up in the early hours of the morning, Corporal Pearl Harvest was NOT, in fact, having the best time of her life here. The entire city has gone to well, to say, a heaping trash can's worth of problems and worse in the span of a few hours. And she - the gunner for this overly clunky 40mm 'automatic cannon' thing that Command sent her regiment a few weeks ago is extremely exhausted trying to orchestrate a fighting retreat whilst towing this monster back to base. With the two regiments scattered and asleep, they've taken extreme losses against this sort of... uprising. Who knows how many of her fellow countrymen are getting torn apart by these radicals right now.

Nearly dying several times later, she and a rag-tag squad of whomever she and a friend can find is fighting over an intersection in the suburbs, part of another scratched up company from everywhere and everything that survived the sheer shock of tens of thousands randomly invading. There had been no mobilization, no error or fault of intelligence. And now she's going to pay for it apparently. Oh, here comes another wave.. "Great, just get out already!"

pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom

She fires a burst at a squad of offending Poporan soldiers, downing several. Keep pushing, the commander said. Keep pushing, again, and again. A tired girl - Sylvia, she remembers - nearby asks for when would be rest. There's going to be none:

"You walk, madam. You walk or you die, girl. Now, we push." There's a grunt of frustration and exhaustion, before the collective breaths of four pushes the cannon carriage forwards another few meters. Another set of houses, another block of enemies to take out. How many times did we do this already?

A few scattered rifle shots coming from atop a building - she pushes the gun north, and west towards a residential building and grins her teeth:

pom-pom-pom-pom-pom-pom

She has five belts left. She can see a carriage - horse and all, being pushed to rush to her position. It's another one of those explosive carriages, are they? Again, again, she loads six rounds into the machine and comes out-

pom-pom-pom-pom-BOOM-pom-pom

The rhythmic crack of the cannon fires again and again. She can't hear the fire of the rifles anymore, nor Sylvia taking over a dead machine gun team's gun firing - the noise of it fades into the background as she gathers the strength to keep pushing.

Forward. You walk or you die, mate.

~~~

Meanwhile, Brigadier General Helian Severn - commander of all Intisari forces in the city of Andraste - probably just the fortress of Andraste now is having a harsh time of his own. Unlike the men and women fighting and dying down bellow, his frustrations mostly come to how to pull his troops into a somewhat defensible line from a hundred pockets all around the city. Pushing with his staff for directions, he has two regiments - no, one and a half regiments, to defend against a enemy that outnumbers him five to one or even more.

The confused and hurried reports from the small army of runners and telegraphists tell him everything. There is no frontline. Then... he must make one. Intisari doctrine may be geared towards defense, but that petains that his troops wouldn't rout due to the sheer pressure of everything around them burning. He looks towards the burning lights of the city bellow him, and steps out.

The lines and battle map do not matter anymore, he realized. The scattered forces in the city must feel the weight of a thousand tons of lead on their backs... They needed someone that can rally them together.

Leaving the command post behind for his second-in-command to deal with, he heads towards the trenches. Rallying his only remaining reserve, the 1st/2nd Battalion, he pushed them forward.

The battalion commander - someone that reminds him of his aide sometimes, is shocked and horrified to see their commanding officer this close to the frontline - but Helian doesn't care. He NEEDS them here. He needs to hold this darn position, here and now.

The eyes of Poporan cavalry met him soon after. The battalion deploys - nervous souls who have heard everything burn around them looked into him to see hope. The trenches fill with machine guns and a battery of light artillery.

Five hundred meters. They're charging. He doesn't think they understand.

Four hundred meters. The battalion CO reports that all assets are ready. The cavalry are still charging.

Three hundred meters. A great mass of horse and men - an entire regiment charging into their doom/

Two hundred meters. It's time.

"Fire!"

The screams of animal and human soon comes after - it's a brutal thing... but the taste of victory fills him with confidence.

Andraste WILL hold.

Frente Tradicionalista splits
September 29th, 1897

The rightmost wing of the Partido Conservador, a broad right-wing party formed after the conservative Partido Moderado and the reactionary Frente Monárquico Tradicionalista united in 1861 in an attempt to retain a right-wing majority heading into the 1862 elections, has split. The traditionalists have been reported to be long unhappy with what they perceive as reliance on the Unión Demócrata Liberal, a similar merger between the old Partido Liberal and Partido Radical. The events in Andraste, which the conservative-led government quickly denounced, seem to have been the catalyst for traditionalist factions all across Poporo to quickly begin revitalising the remaining structures and connections of the FMT in order to "rebuild" the reactionary party.

Compared to the FMT, the newer Frente Tradicionalista presents a significant difference in regards to their economic position: while the FMT of old was remarkably industrialist, the new FT seeks to establish a sort of "state capitalism", in which the state would oversee production. It also calls for a massive remilitarization campaign, and seeks to enlargen the state. The FT is however, still monarchist: Poporo is a presidentialist republic as is, where the president holds ultimate executive and legislative power, and the FT calls for executive power to instead be concentrated under a king, who would choose his successors.

27 MPs previously belonging to the Partido Conservador have also split off into the FT: while the liberal-conservative coalition still holds a majority of 100/150 seats in the Parlamento, the PC are no longer the largest party, despite Prime Minister Leopoldo Scott belonging to the conservatives. The liberals could force a snap election seeking to install their own PM: although a move like this would be guaranteed to hurt their relationship to the Partido Conservador.

With nationalism on the rise amongst Poporans and elections set to be held in 1899, the FT now has two years in a favourable political environment to attempt to fill the shoes of the FMT. The 1899 elections could mirror those in 1854, where the FMT surged from 9/100 seats to 37/100 after what was described by many as a "complete national humiliation" at the hands of Arovia.