[RP ACADEMY] The Flower-Flag Coup: Last Days

[Greznea]

Thursday, February 7th
14:35 PM Local Time
Valkolay District, Beredino

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The day had been quiet for Gregor.
He'd spent most of his waking hours at work, sifting through financial documents and settling salary payments for the month for Severu Railyards, a prominent transportation company operating out of Beredino Railway Superstation. His office, a small room within the building, was cluttered, dark and not as clean as he'd hoped. It was tolerable, though, as back in Ahrana it had been much worse. He'd heard things had gotten much better after the nationalists had been overthrown, according to his son, but he'd not lived in Ahrana for decades and didn't intend to anytime soon. Greznea was much, much more stable, in his opinion.

His thoughts stopped there for a moment, and he leaned back in his comfy office chair to think, chin on the palm of his hand. 'Was it better?' he thought to himself. After all, though Ahrana had suffered a more violent transition of power, Greznea was undergoing what the press had called a coup d-etat. He'd heard reports about how soldiers were in the streets of many cities across the nation, and how the Diktator was losing his grip on power. He'd heard that shots had even been fired between the police and the conspirators in a neighboring village just a few hours from the capital by car, and that worried him. Although, the fact that his job was still here, and the railyards weren't going to be shut down anytime soon, let him ultimately dismiss the train of thought, and get back to his work.

The phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Moya lubov', there's been shots, our son says our grandkids are still at school, I-"

Gregor grew a look of shock on his face.

"What?! Anna, please tell me you're not hearing right."

"Net, I know it....there's been shots..."

Gregor didn't even bother to say anything else. In a haste, he hung up the call, pocketing his phone as he rushed to throw on his jacket and make his way home. He ran his way down to the passenger waiting area at the station, and he managed to catch an outbound metro headed for Buskayev District, where his home was. He boarded, and found he was the only one on the train, which ran automatically, explaining its continued use. The trip only took twenty minutes, and when the train pulled into Buskayev Mitroya-Pisku (Buskayev Metro Station), he had to watch his own feet to prevent a fall as he ran out the still-opening train doors and sprinted for his house.

He could hear the sounds that his wife had described to him, still ringing over twenty minutes after she'd told him. Quieted, yet sharp cracks, repeating again and again at almost random intervals, reached his ears continuously, and he could now even see smoke pillars coming from the Capitol building. As he reached his small, one-story house and ran up the driveway, the sounds suddenly stopped, the city eerily quiet. Though he could not hear them, he could see several choppers in the sky, flying in formation, heading toward the harbor. He didn't know this at the time, but, what he saw was the beginning of the end for the Regime.

The sound he did hear, however, was much closer at hand. A single TN-0C,* or Tenok, APC driving down the road. The commander of the vehicle presumably saw Gregor standing outside his home, wife in his arms and worry on his face, as the vehicle stopped in front of his house, and the rear hatch opened. Out stepped a fully-geared soldier, armed with a P-M2**, face hidden by a balaclava. The soldier made his way up the driveway to the family, letting his rifle hang by the sling over his vest as he spoke, opening a pouch and retrieving a few royals.

"Sir, I sincerely advise you stay inside as the rest of the neighborhood is. I know how scary this must be, but I promise you no harm is going to come to you or anyone else here."

"What's going on?" Gregor asked, with concern all-too-evident in his voice. The soldier noticed his heavy Ahranian accent.

"Ah, an Ahranian?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

"Helps explain. Think of your democratic revolution, but this time its done with much less violence."

The soldier handed the royals to Gregor's wife, patting Gregor's arm before turning and rushing back into the APC, which promptly started back up and beelined out down the street.

Friday, February 8th
23:47 PM, Local Time
Navy National Headquarters, Beredino

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"Nikita, get up here!"

Nikita looked up above him, at the checkpoint tower's top. There was standing his friend and squadmate, Nimija, who was looking through his night vision while on watch.
He saw his friend urgently gesturing to him to climb the ladder, and so, since there wasn't an officer outside with them, he left his post and did so, turning around and climbing up the rickety, metal bars to get to the top. Once there, his friend spoke again, concern in his voice.

"Look at their end. See those marines? The f*ck they doing?"

Nikita squinted his eyes, straining them to look. He wasn't assigned to watch, and so he didn't have NVGs equipped on him. Luckily, moonlight existed, and so though the night was dark, he could see far enough to spot what Nimija was seeing. At least ten marines, clad in their combat gear, running down the road straight toward the checkpoint. Nikita and Nimija, however, looked a bit too long at the group, as one of them spotted the pair, raised his rifle, and shot three rounds at them.

"Shit!"

Nikita shouted as he pulled Nimija down with him behind the steel half-walls of the tower, right as the second two bullets sharply cracked over them . Nikita reached over his friend and half-punched the red switch sitting to the side of the post, which switched on the checkpoint's alarm. After that, hell broke loose.

Shots began to rapidly pick up from the marines, bullets repeatedly whizzing and cracking past the two frightened men, huddled together atop the tower, and the sounds of panicked army boys could be heard inside the nearby makeshift barracks as soldiers rushed out the front doors, only for a good portion of them to get cut down by autorifle fire from the MG gunner in the opposing squad. Most, though, managed to take cover behind crates and a parked APC, with two soldiers savvy with vehicles climbing into the APC and manning the machine gun mounted on it. The fire from this forced the marines behind cover, allowing Nikita and his friend to slide down the tower ladder and flee behind a stack of HESCO blocks to the side of the checkpoint entrance.

Nikita gripped his P-M2 close to him as the shots continued to ring out, shouting filling the air as much as the sound of gunfire as the checkpoint fell into chaos. The ten marines continued their approach, and Nikita peered around the side of his HESCO wall to see four of the marines rounding the side of the APC and emptying their mags into the soldiers caught in the open, before pulling out the two men in the APC and executing them. Nikita knew he couldn't fight this, and so he, along with Nimija, fled from the checkpoint, making their way to a nearby machine gun position, only a few meters away, which was not manned.

Nikita ran inside the guard tent at the position and shouted to the six men inside, demanding they get up and arm themselves because the nearby Checkpoint Bravo Two-Two had just fallen and needed to be retaken. He knew more marines would already be flooding in to secure it. So, as the six men rushed to get their gear on, he sat down at the radio and made a call to brigade command.

"This is Private First Class Nikita Vasilo-Srnenta, assistant watch at Bravo Two Two. Checkpoint is Red, I repeat, Checkpoint is Red. Immediate Assistance needed, out."

Only five minutes after he'd sent the message to command, he heard the sounds of APCs coming up the road, and heard the machine gun nest opening fire on the checkpoint as the vehicles arrived, and unloaded. Nikita himself rushed outside with his rifle and joined one of the squads arriving, which immediately after leaving the APC took cover and opened fire on the checkpoint.

Nikita could see from behind the crate he sheltered behind, the marines stacked up inside the checkpoint, firing full magazines without aiming and seemingly only trying to keep everybody down as he saw more and more marines coming from behind the checkpoint. He watched as a marine got struck by a bullet while running to an ATGM launcher, blood and bone ripping out from the neck as the man twisted and collapsed forward onto the asphalt. Nikita finally fired his rifle as friendlies approached the checkpoint, though he didn't know if he hit anything as the situation was so chaotic. He noticed four marines holding a sandbag position, and one of them was aiming an RPG round directly at the APC. So, Nikita left his position and opened fire, trying to keep their attention away from his friend's only support. He watched as two of his bullets struck down the man with the RPG,  but that would be the last thing he ever saw, as a bullet struck him in the side of the head, and he collapsed on the floor.

An hour later, the checkpoint was retaken.

Sunday, February 10th
12:00 PM Local Time
Boscora Plaza, Beredino

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Mikhaeli's right hand was held high as his close friend, Sormata, stood in front of him, in his hands the recently-written Transitional Charter of Greznea. News reporters and journalists clambered just a few feet away to get good photos of the event unfolding, and many were speaking to their film crews to either side as they recorded the historical moment unfolding.

"Mr. Nykarovod, do you swear to to the people of this nation, that you will uphold the words of this Charter, and the sovereignity of this great Republic, with dignity, generosity, and kindness?"

"I swear."

"Do you swear to uphold the office of President with humility, responsibility, and the vindication of liberty and justice for the people of Greznea?"

"I swear."

"Then Mr. Nykarovod, I proclaim to this nation, you, as the President of the Transitional Government for Democracy in the Republic of Greznea."

These words were broadcast live to homes all across the nation, and to the hundreds of thousands of people in the plaza watching it unfold. As Mikhaeli was handed the Charter, the crowds erupted in loud applause and cheers, as the reception of the Charter by him marked the official end to the authoritarian regime that had ruled for over two centuries, and was the act that brought democracy to Greznea. Mikhaeli turned to face the grand crowd in front of him, and he gave a light bow to them all as he then turned to his friend and embraced him. It had been a long ten days, but the coup itself was over, and they could rejoice in their rights as human beings.

The Flower-Flag Coup was over.






* The TENOK is the most commonly used APC in the Greznean Land Defense Command, and is modeled off of the russian BTR-80.
** The P-M2 is the standard rifle of the Greznean Armed Forces, and is greatly based off of the AK-15.