The Quickstroke Incident

The Quickstroke incident was a failed assassination attempt during the coronation ceremony of Emperor Tertius, the assassination attempt was made by the Quickstroke Faction, a secret Forareich faction headed by First Marshal Pausanion and several other leading officers.

## The Incident

### The Bombings

At around 14:00, 3 bombs detonated across Rechester. The bombings were meant to draw out the security forces out of the reach of the new Emperor Tertius, leaving the emperor with only 30 Imperial Guardsmen to face the 400 conspirators.

The 3 bombs detonated as planned by their timers, killing 6 civilians that were unfortunate enough to be close to it. The bombs wrecked houses and infrastructure, leading to confusion among the first responders as telephone lines were also cut in preparation for the assassination attempt.

### The Coronation

The coronation went as planned with Tertius walking down the hall with the ancient ancestral sword Swancroon in his scabbard. Although he was supposed to be wearing robes, Tertius was wearing his plate armor much to the dismay of Pausanion who was accompanying him down the hall. When Tertius was given his crown by his wife Claudia however, that was when Pausanion took the opportunity to strike.

Unleashing his concealed dagger, Pausanion struck the emperor behind his neck. Through sheer luck however, the emperor had earlier worn a new experimental body shield and forgot to turn it off when he finished testing it. The dagger bounced off the shield and realizing that he had failed his chance, signalled the other conspirators to help him. By the time Tertius looked behind, the room was filled with laser fire as both the Imperial Guard and Quickstroke conspirators fought one another. Tertius was rushed out of the palace just as more conspirators started entering through the palace. Thinking fast, Tertius unsheathed his sword and with his meagre sword training, managed to dispatch several of them before being pulled back by his guard.

By this time, everything went awry for the conspirators as the guardsmen were wearing body shields and thus were deflecting most blows and were killing conspirators left and right. After the hall was cleared of any conspirators, Tertius was coronated there around bodies of dead conspirators and with blood all over the walls under the supervision of the 30 Imperial Guardsmen who welded the doors so that none could enter. By the time the ceremony had finished, the Imperial Guard alongside several reinforcements began a rampage inside or around the palace, killing any who conspired against the emperor except for Pausanion who escaped to the city square.

By the time Pausanion had escaped to city square, the security forces had already arrived back in the palace to find bodies littering the courtyard and the palace. Realizing that Pausanion might command an auxilliary cohort that was stationed nearby, Tertius contacted the commander of the cohort who confirmed that they had Pausanion in captivity for revealing that he had conspired against the emperor and was trying to recruit them to his side.

Pausanion who had by know been stripped of his rank and uniform was visited by the Emperor who demanded to know why he conspired against him. Pausanion gave no response and thus was executed by Tertius himself when Swancroon beheaded his head.