“The Gephrans no longer dare to leave their cities freely. We must use our advantages to cut off all connections between the cities, turning each one into an isolated island in this war!”
In a cave, the young man codenad Swallow was discussing the next battle plans with his team, which included his commanders and several leaders from his rebel group.
They gathered to hear valuable insights from Swallow to spread among the resistance.
Swallow’s group was the first rebel faction to make a na for itself—according to the Gephrans. Locals in Allia called these bandits the Pioneers of Freedom or Heroes of Resistance to honor their fight against Gephran oppression.
But was there really oppression?
If one thought carefully, before these uprisings, ordinary people in Allia suffered little harm. Their lives were much like those of their ancestors. In fact, because Gephra tried to win hearts, so ordinary lives improved.
So social rules changed—Gephra replaced the old currency with Gael and mandated new textbooks supplied by Gephrans in schools.
For ordinary people, these changes were mostly acceptable. Their social status and daily lives remained largely unchanged regardless of which ideology or education they accepted.
The real victims were the forr privileged and ruling classes—their power and wealth were stripped away. Unwilling to accept the shift, they were the first to rebel.
Driven by their ambition, the first rebel groups ford, chanting Down with Gephran tyranny! They assassinated Gephrans and attacked patrols, igniting deep conflict between locals and Gephrans.
With so malicious propaganda, what was originally a conflict between old and new elites beca frad as a struggle between people and rulers.
Policy mistakes further inflad the hatred.
Yet no one can guarantee every decision was right. The Allia governor was no saint—so policies were good, others flawed. As tensions escalated, small problems were blown out of proportion.
Among many groups, Swallow’s had the clearest resistance ideology, with firm beliefs and effective tactics. The current tactics they were using were first proposed by Swallow himself.
Their strategy was to dismantle Gephran forces outside the cities, trap them within city limits, and then infiltrate gradually to weaken their resistance.
Initially, people rejected Swallow’s approach. They wanted to drive Gephrans out of the cities imdiately, but every attack led to rivers of blood.
Many innocents were slaughtered. Even now, streets bore dark red stains that no rain could wash away.
Swallow proposed moving out of cities to expand maneuvering space, shifting the main frontlines from heavily monitored cities to vast wilderness. This brought unprecedented success to the resistance.
Now, Swallow introduced the island strategy. People began accepting and learning his theory; mbers from other groups ca to study.
“We must sever all links between cities, creating fear within them. They won’t know what’s happening elsewhere and will worry about being attacked.”
“This will drastically shrink Gephrans’ activity zones. They’ll likely confine themselves to small areas, reluctant to appear openly due to threats like assassins.”
“We don’t need to liberate the entire region at once. We’ll take one small city first, use it as a base, then expand our influence until we connect everything.”
“By then, Gephrans will be weak, and we’ll be strong…”
Swallow’s theory was simple and clear, easy to understand and build upon. So silently thought, this man truly lives up to his codena, Swallow—a sign of excellence.
The atmosphere in the cave was confident. The resistance was winning steadily, and everyone radiated the belief that victory was certain.
This was partly due to the Gephran army’s poor quality—they had no idea how strong the Gephran navy was while their army was so weak, even inferior to lightly trained civilians like themselves.
From initial fear to now calm confidence, tens of thousands of Gephran corpses had cented the resistance’s belief. If their opponents were only this weak, they were sure to expel all invaders and reclaim their holand.
anwhile, so n had already traveled on foot, crossed a ridge, and infiltrated nearby.
They quietly eliminated many hidden sentries along the way. These n followed their instructors’ exact guidance on how to place sentries, where to place them, and how far apart they should be.
This made it easy for the major’s team to map all sentry placents and approach the rebel stronghold undetected.
“Rember, capture alive if possible. If not, kill on sight.”
After giving the final orders, the major took a deep breath and commanded the attack. His team quickly spread out, taking strategic positions to clear out the rebels.
What they didn’t expect was that not only were the locals here, but other rebels had co to study. These outsiders didn’t follow the local rules. Two of them went out for a smoke and discovered an empty sentry post.
“Supposed to be strict here…” one mocked, handing a cigarette to the other, smirking.
People said the Allia Independence Front was strict, professional, unlike other ragtag groups. It sounded like they were the elite and everyone else was trash.
They all risked their lives equally—why draw such lines?
Seeing the missing sentry, the two outsiders gleefully plotted to embarrass the Independence Front.
Their plan was simple: play a harmless prank, like claiming soone slipped in nearby and a sentry vanished.
That would alarm the whole group. When the truth ca out—that the sentry was just slacking—they’d see how arrogant the Front really was.
The two barely had a few puffs before dropping their cigarettes and quickly returning to the cave. Soon, an alarm sounded.
The major froze—it wasn’t part of the plan. Sothing had gone wrong.
Knowing the cave was interconnected, the plan was to burn toxic smoke at other entrances to force rebels out of a wider exit where they’d be trapped.
Outside lay their encirclent, ready to annihilate them. But now, things had changed.
After a mont’s hesitation, the major ordered an imdiate assault, keeping other plans unchanged.
Gunfire shattered the night’s silence, fierce fighting painting the early sumr night with blood.
The gunfire lasted long. After the toxic smoke drifted out, confirming no survivors inside, the major’s n erged cautiously, with so staying on guard.
After a few sporadic shots, the area fell silent.
Most were dead, but so survived—Swallow was among them.
He was the leader of the Independence Front, a symbol of their spirit. People protected him in the center. He was wounded but not fatally.
“Who are you?”
Bound, Swallow looked at these ard n, different from the Gephran army he had faced before. His mouth was dry from blood loss.
He didn’t believe they were Gephrans—if the Gephrans truly had such elite troops, the resistance wouldn’t still exist here.
The major didn’t answer. Instead, he raised his weapon and slamd the butt hard against Swallow’s head.
With a loud thud, Swallow’s vision went dark, and he lost consciousness.
At that mont, the governor, who had just had a drink and was lying in bed ready to sleep, was jolted awake by the shrill ringing of the phone.
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