Maximilian's reaction to the news of the coup in the Dunbar Kingdom was not the expected rage, but a moment of profound, liberating catharsis. Receiving Ambassador Veth's secure telephone report—detailing King Dunbar's pathetic flight and the rebels' futile assault on the Scorpian Embassy—Pro-Consul Max threw his head back and laughed so hard that genuine tears actually fell from his eyes. He wiped his face with a satisfied sigh, the remnants of his laughter echoing in the sterile Central Command Center. "Predictable, Veth," he finally managed, his voice thick with triumph. "But the timing? Flawless. Gigante has handed me the Kingdom on a silver platter, all wrapped in a perfect legal justification for intervention. They insulted my technology; now I will demonstrate what my technology can do when commanded by Order." The strategic reality was now clear: the chaotic, feudal magic the rebels sought to protect was about to meet the absolute, scientifically weaponized power of Scorpia.
Max's first order was a masterpiece of psychological warfare and calculated cruelty, designed to break the will of the Dunbar populace before the first shot was fired. He decreed that before the kinetic phase began, the citizens of Dunbar must be fully aware of the terror that was coming. He swiftly ordered thirty dedicated airships—logistical haulers hastily repurposed for propaganda—to deploy immediately to the Dunbar Kingdom. Their mission was not to drop bombs, but to dump paper pamphlets across every major city, town, and scattered rural settlement. The pamphlets, starkly printed in red and black and bearing the bold, imposing Scorpian sigil, carried Max's personal decree, carefully framed as an act of benevolent warning: "Citizens of Dunbar! Your King is safe on Scorpian soil. The feudal anarchy of Gigante and his corrupt nobles has broken your peace and insulted your future. Seek shelter, find cover, and pray to the God of Order. For in seven days, Pro-Consul Maximilian will rain down fire and hell on the rebels. This is not an invasion; it is a liberation. Your future safety is guaranteed by Scorpia." This mass warning achieved two critical goals: it psychologically distanced Max's actions from a mere invasion, positioning him as the necessary liberator from the rebels' instability; and it simultaneously instilled a pervasive, existential terror that guaranteed the surviving citizens would welcome the Scorpian military occupation as the ultimate salvation from the promised inferno.
The true kinetic purpose of the mission, codenamed Divine Retribution, was the field validation of Max's terrifying new strategic weapon, the culmination of years of integrated scientific and arcane research. The coup had provided a pristine, live-fire scenario to test the new MSW-2 Warhead (Mana-Suppression Warhead, Generation 2). Max ordered the launch of approximately fifty V-2 rockets, all armed with this improved, apocalyptic payload. The MSW-2 was the pinnacle of Max's scientific genius—a weapon engineered not just to neutralize the enemy's body, but to utterly negate their magical heritage. The warhead was a volatile, meticulously balanced cocktail of materials designed to achieve maximum, multi-spectrum destruction and arcane disruption: the primary arcane catalyst was a mixture of Liquid Mana, Liquid Hydrogen, and Liquid Oxygen, which, when hypergolic, would generate a colossal, instantaneous anti-mana field; this core arcane killer was surrounded by Thermite and Magnesium for intense, blinding thermal reaction; Napalm and Nitroglycerin provided the massive, indiscriminate blast force and sustained incendiary effect; Liquid Nitrogen was included for rapid, localized material fatigue and dense fog creation; and finally, Mercury, used as a heavy, persistent arc-disrupting agent to contaminate the environment and destabilize residual magic long after the blast.
The effects of these fifty rockets, which began landing across Dunbar just one week after the coup—precisely targeting strategic rebel garrisons, known mage academies, and military communication nodes—were immediate, catastrophic, and scientifically precise. The arrival of the first MSW-2 missile was marked not by a simple explosion, but by a sudden, terrifying atmospheric collapse. The primary effect was the instantaneous creation of a supercharged anti-mana field. This field, generated by the exotic fuel mix, acted as a localized, temporary arcane black hole. Any Dunbar mage caught within the blast radius experienced an immediate, agonizing severance from the arcane. Their own spells, which they believed were the superior force, detonated internally or dissolved into useless, painful sparks, leaving them physically devastated by severe mana-burn and psychological trauma. Gigante's rebellion, fueled by a pride in their magical heritage, was instantly rendered powerless, their mages collapsing into useless heaps of broken flesh. Furthermore, the MSW-2 instantly shut down any localized magical defenses, wards, or hastily erected shields, including those around the rebel command centers, leaving the remaining Dunbar forces utterly exposed.
The second wave of destruction came in the form of overwhelming thermo-kinetic annihilation. The coordinated blast of the napalm and nitroglycerin, amplified by the extreme, sustained heat of the thermite and magnesium, created localized firestorms. The intense heat flash was capable of killing instantly across a wide radius, melting armor and fusing metal. The accompanying napalm created widespread, unstoppable conflagrations that consumed military stockpiles, supply routes, and any light defensive structures, leaving only fused metal and ash. The raw kinetic force of the blast, combined with the extreme thermal expansion caused by the heat and the immediate, brittle freezing effect of the liquid nitrogen, caused fortified stone and metal structures to shatter and collapse entirely, burying entire rebel command centers under tons of rubble.
Finally, the less visible but equally devastating environmental effects set in. The rapid evaporation of the liquid nitrogen created immense, dense clouds of supercooled fog, choking the battlefield, dropping visibility to zero, and causing severe respiratory and frostbite injuries to any unarmored personnel caught in the toxic mist. More insidiously, the vaporization of mercury saturated the immediate atmosphere and surrounding ground. This heavy vapor acted as a persistent, low-level arc-disrupting agent that would inhibit the ability of any surviving Dunbar mage to effectively cast spells for weeks, poisoning the very soil they sought to defend with their magic.
The coordinated arrival of fifty such apocalyptic warheads across the Dunbar Kingdom—methodically destroying strategic military garrisons, leveling mage academies, and crippling communication nodes—left the rebel army terrified, disoriented, and utterly powerless. The rebels, who had fought with the belief that their crude, chaotic magic was superior to Max's engineering, had been undone by a weapon that leveraged their own arcane energy against them. The pamphlets had delivered their promise of fire and hell. The test was a categorical success: Scorpia's technological might, weaponized by strategic science, was not merely a threat; it was an apocalyptic certainty. The Dunbar Kingdom was now politically broken, militarily annihilated, and ripe for military occupation and the final imposition of the God of Order. Gigante's attempted coup had simply accelerated the inevitable annexation by providing Max with the perfect pretext for total, ruthless control.