Congress Building,
Altenburg, Adler
The full congress had assembled for the speech that was to be delivered by Chancellor Wolf. With the war in favor of the Republic, the national morale high, it was a mere formality when the main opposition leaders protested the waste of time and money that would go into assembling the full government. Assemblies like this only took place at the State of the Union, Extraordinary sessions such as the Declaration of War just a few weeks prior and sessions to honor visiting Heads of State or Government.
With the war ongoing, security was higher than usual at this kind of gathering, which is to say quite a bit as the Republic’s security protocols for such an event was already quite high. Flags fluttering and the speech ongoing, the broadcast suddenly stopped. Security Klaxons began their errie wale across the capital as smoke billowed and rubble collapsed where the Capitol Building once stood. Emergency personnel and military vehicles rapidly made there way to the site. Smoke billowed out and the sky turned a fiery orange grey as a haze seemed to settle over the city. Martial law was quickly declared and the nation seemed to hold its breath.
It was near instantaneous that the military began to order a complete halt to their advance in Nolvik. No word had come out of the Foreign Department. It was a total blackout with the media in a frenzy and the nation wondering who, if anyone, had survived. Reports looks grim though as the rubble of the House Chamber was completely collapsed and the windows in a fifteen block radius shattered. All members of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches had been present save for the designated survivor, the Secretary of State who happened to be in Drakhma on a last minute visit ordered by Chancellor Wolf, and one of the five Joint Chiefs of the Defense Staff.
It would be three hours before the nation would have its answer. The acting chancellor was to be Alphonse Lehardt, designated survivor of the Executive Branch and now former Undersecretary of Defense. As Acting Chancellor Lehardt announced to the nation that the government had been destroyed and that the Governors of the States were to be assembled in the capital to pick new senators post haste, he also informed the nation that the war effort was to be halted until further notice but forces were not to withdraw. Â Secretary of State Eindhoven was directed to fly to Nolvik under a flag of truce to discuss a ceasefire.
Martial law was declared across the nation and under a little known clause of the Constitution, Acting Chancellor Lehardt declared that rights to assemble, freedom of the press and freedom against unlawful detention suspended as the suspects of the attack were to be hunted. A national call to arms against the enemies of the republic has gone out. Surprisingly enough though the Acting Chancellor and what is left of the national government has made no attempt to blame any organization or state for the attack at this time. Adler is on high alert and their enemy would do well to take heed that a caged animal can be the most dangerous.