While you don't agree with the idea that Roldan won't be able to get the job done, you'd rather have him replaced than get an influx of svelk troops. You'd try to suggest yourself again, but you know the Emperor has made his mind up on the matter.

"If you believe General Roldan cannot get the job done, then I suppose it might be better if he's replaced." You remark which gets Jacob's disapproval.
"But he can do it! Replacing Roldan at this point would be folly!"
"Enough Jacob! The decision has been made! General Roldan will be replaced and demoted!" the Emperor remarks.
"Demoted?"
"Yes demoted! Be happy he isn't being executed for incompetence on the battlefield!"
"But I thought he was just going to be replaced! My Emperor I beg you not to do this! Roldan has worked so hard for his position!"
"Jacob, is there some sort of reason why you keep arguing this point with me? Delusions? Stupidity? A death wish perhaps?" the Emperor asks and Jacob shuts up immediately.

Mistress stretches and yawns before commenting on the situation.

"If you all are done in this pointless exercise male ineptitude, is there anything else I need to waste my time with here?"
"Yes, we're done. Get the hell out of my chambers and take Jacob with you. And while I wish I could chat with you my son, I still have to speak with Marik. I sometimes wonder if he just uses his madness as an excuse to be absent minded and claim he didn't know there was a meeting. I just hope he's actually made progress on his project he convinced me to proceed with." The Emperor remarks and the rest of you leave his chambers.

You expect Mistress to make some sort of remark as you're all walking out of the palace, but she ends up quickly walking ahead of you instead. Jacob doesn't speak with you either, he glances at you a couple times, but he's obviously a little upset that you supported the Emperor's decision to have Roldan replaced.

Really though, you can't worry about it. As far as you're concerned hanging on to your sanity is a lot more vital. You can only imagine how the svelk would've grated on your nerves if they had been transferred, especially since you're not actively advancing any more, but rather just defending against gnoll attack. Idle svelk mercs in between the down time isn't something you want to deal with.

Alison is certainly happy to hear about the close call of playing host to a bunch of svelk.

"Well I'm certainly glad you supported the Emperor's first decision, I don't think morale would've been great around here with dark elves in the camp." She says.
"No, but I can't say they're that great now." You reply.
"What do you mean? There hasn't been any major complaining that I know of, and I tend to keep apprised of the situation with my troops."
"Well, maybe it's just me then. I'd like to be actively DOING something other than sitting around waiting to be attacked."
"Welcome to the army. You do know that boring waiting around in between battles is what we do right?"
"I'm well aware that's part of it, but its not like we need to sit here. We could at least be attacking the gnolls so as to make them no longer a threat. I mean we should be doing that anyway. After all, we're going to have to deal with them eventually, better to do it now when we have the strength rather than later. I've heard other soldiers commenting about feeling something similar. And I would think that you probably would like to take the fight to the gnolls as well."

Alison nods.

"Well, I can't argue with you on that point. The troops are a little restless in that respect I suppose. I admit it would be good to get some of this pent up violence out of everyone's system, but as you've said, the Emperor's orders are to stay here."
"I don't know, but I'm starting to think that maybe we should just NOT stay here."
"Seriously? You'd go against a direct order from the Emperor?"

At this point you don't know. You want to be loyal and follow orders, but your desire for battle is still there. Not to mention you know you could win if it came down to it. Surely the Emperor would approve if you were victorious.

You decide you're going to do it, you're going to make a full attack on the gnolls.

"It's about time we took the fight to those mongrel dogs." Alison says with a little enthusiasm, but then her cautious side comes out. "But what about the Emperor?"
"You don't need to worry about that. I will take full responsibility if he gets angry about it. I'll just say I took command of your battalion."
"Hah, I always knew you were going to do that some day, anyway."
"Sorry, but I can't think of any other way."
"Don't apologize to me, I won't have to face the Emperor's wrath, well I hope I won't at least."
"Like I said, don't worry about that. And don't worry about me either. I don't want to sound prideful, but I'm fairly confident the Emperor won't even get too angry with me, especially since I intend on wiping out the immediate gnoll threat."

A month goes by and you're initially successful on your promise. The gnolls are no match for you in straight up combat. You even manage to save a few of the occupied Felkan communities from complete destruction and are welcomed as liberators.

Just when you think you can drive the gnolls out entirely you're dealt two big blows.

One, the siege of Yaquan has not gone well since Roldan was replaced. It seems that General Ackerson has not only managed to fail in taking the city, but he's also managed to lose so many soldiers that there has been a call for your battalion to support his losses.

This couldn't have come at a worse time mainly because now the gnolls who you thought you had on the run were craftier than it seemed.

The gnolls have been breeding and training a large group of wyverns within a small mountain in the area. They've also been bringing reinforcements from beyond the Felkan borders. You're taken off guard enough that you actually have to fall back before you're completely overrun.

If you leave to go to help General Ackerson, the gnolls are going to not only take back everything you gained, but will take your territory as well. However, if you stay to fight back the gnolls, you'd really be defying orders, not to mention possibly costing the Empire a needed victory against the Felkans.

There isn't much for it, you'll have to split the battalion with Alison and decide which front you want to fight on.

You go to the Felkan front

Given that you feel responsible for the problems going on at Yaquan you think you need to go if only to try to fix things.

"I had a feeling you'd want to go to the Felkan front." Alison remarks.
"Someone is going to have to fix this mess. I'm just hoping I can do something about it."

Within the next few days Alison and you say your final goodbyes before you leave. You hope Alison will be able to deal with the gnolls with less troops, but she tells you to not worry about her problems and just focus on the task you'll have to accomplish.

Your march to Yaquan is an uneventful one, but when you arrive you've got more than enough to deal with.

General Ackerson's war camp is one of the most unorganized camps you've ever seen. He obviously isn't that well respected either as he is arguing with a couple of his lieutenants and a mage of some sort.

"Galen, I'm sick of hearing your excuses, just get it done!" Ackerson exclaims to the mage.
"Oh yes, its so easy for you isn't it? Just sitting in the back giving orders and not being in the line of immediate fire. Magic isn't an unlimited art that we wizards can just keep on doing for days on end with no rest! It's bad enough you wasted all of our golems and we're reduced to salvaging the remnants. By the Emperor, at least Roldan tried to think things out, I wonder if you even passed the academy or if you just had a relative that promoted you…"

At this point Ackerson lunges at Galen and the pair have to be broken up. You help keep a little order and when they see who you are everyone straightens up a little more.

"Is this what's been going on here? Petty bickering and incompetence on a scale that could be classified as treason? Everyone needs to shut the fuck up right now, because I'm not going to say this again…"

Doesn't take long for you to establish a new order of things. Technically General Ackerson is supposed to still be in charge of this operation, but given your close ties to the Emperor you aren't debated.

While you manage to reorganize the army and take new approach of attack, you can still see why Roldan was having so much trouble with this city. The gnome lightning guns are still ripping through most of the troops and its taking all the magic of the remaining mages left just to upkeep a simple barrier so the war camp can't be targeted.

In fact you wish Roldan was still here just so you could promote him back up to help you, but unfortunately he was killed in battle shortly after his demotion. (Another one of Ackerson's bright ideas to make a frontal assault on the city again) The svelk mercenaries at this point have left claiming that no amount of money is worth this meat grinder. All of this makes you really wish you hadn't supported the Emperor's idea to replace Roldan.

You decide to have tunnels dug under the city and bring it down that way. It takes longer than you'd like, but you can't rely on mage support to help with it due to their main concern to upkeep the barriers.

Eventually your men break through to the sewer system where you believe it should be an easy victory from there, but unfortunately the gnomes trapped the hell out the sewers and you lose several troops in the process. One of the Felkans even manages to sneak about the sewers and collapse the invasion tunnels setting your victory back.

Meanwhile your troops on the surface are faring no better, though they fear you more than they did Ackerson or even Roldan and that fear is enough for them to make that push to finally break down the gates. Sensing true victory at last, you decide that you're going to join the fight personally.

You enter the streets of the city with your troops, mopping up whatever pitiful resistance remains. There isn't much though and soon the city is yours and you can't wait to write to Alison about your great victory.

Unfortunately she will only hear of it from someone else.

War being what it is, is always a messy endeavor. Just when one thinks a battle is over, there is always that last hold out or trap and that's what gets you.

The city's mayor reportedly stayed in the city hall the entire time of the siege and is supposedly still alive. You, Ackerson and a couple of other officers enter the city hall for the purpose of dictating the Empire's acquisition of this city, the changes that will come AND seeing if the mayor is willing to comply. Hopefully he does since it saves time on replacing him with your own bureaucrats which might take a while.

No sooner have you entered and you see the place is completely empty. At first you think its just because people went elsewhere, but it doesn't take long for you to not feel right about the place.

"We need to get out of here…" is the last thing you utter before the entire place explodes. One final trap set by the Felkans.

You are eventually found half burned, blown up and crushed by the rubble. You're barely breathing by the time they dig you out, and by the time they carry you out, you've already expired.

Your victory and death at Yaquan is remembered and used as a propaganda point for the Empire for the remainder of their war with the Felkan Kingdom.