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El Haluf's Retribution in Toulon

In the night of February 4, 1921,10 Noblemen from the city of Panama in the Central American Protectorate gathered around a mound of black cloth that enveloped an object that, as history moved onwards, nobody remembered what it could be beneath. Nobody even knew who started to throw the first cloth, but when the nations of what is now known as El Haluf have been finally subjugated under Spanish rule, a man, forgotten in history, threw a black cloth over the object underneath, and he was shortly followed by many more.

Over time, this has grown into tradition in Panama as Halufis make pilgrimages to the site in order to add their very own black cloth to the "veiled object." Now however, 10 Noblemen carried their torches as they gathered around the Veiled Object. With a signal from a ceremonial gunshot, the Noblemen tossed their torches to the heap of cloth in front of them, burning away centuries of linen contributed by thousands of pilgrims to reveal the forgotten statue of a man, unknown in his identity but forlorn on his posture, defiantly pointing a sword to the west. On the pedestal of the statue layed an inscription:

By our Will, we shall return.

Qasim the Explorer

The Spanish-Coalition War may have been a war of conquest for its belligerents, or one of self-defense for Spain itself, but to El Haluf, this war is but an effort to fulfill a covenant made by millions of Halufis centuries past; that their nation shall one day return to North Africa, and their honor be restored when Spain is utterly defeated and subjugated. El Haluf itself mobilized into a state-wide factory, dishing out hundreds of ships a month, supplying the coalition with oil from Venezuela, steel from Colombia, and weapons created in the many Forge Islands of the country.

But the Fires of Bizerte awaken something in El Haluf, as the thousands of Tunisia that died in the raids made by Spain was but a grim reminder of their oppressors. To El Haluf, the raid reminded them of the Dominion Creed that they pledged to not only memorize, but live by and apply in their life: that it is the solemn duty of each Halufian to protect it's Dominions to never again be subjugated by another foreign power. In that instant where Bizerte was laid ablaze and it's people scoured, El Haluf mustered itself to war as a pantheon of saints, names of all those who was slain in the fires of Bizerte was etched in the Books of Sacrifice.

A massive offensive in Catalonia made by a combined Irish and Halufian task force compelled the Spanish to redirect their forces to their core territories. Unbeknownst to them however, a far larger fleet, impractical in its viability but impressive in its scale, was mustered by El Haluf. 40 warships sailed for the sleeping city of Toulon, a major port city in Southern France. The city itself was a historic site throughout centuries, and it has been a major site of contention during the Napoleonic wars, the Italian Unification, and the Great War. But in this war, they have been innocent so far. To El Haluf, however, not one man who supports the Spanish is innocent.

Broadcasting the events in the most advanced radio broadcasts it could possibly carry, The Dominion Navy recorded live it's most horrible action yet: the destruction of Toulon as retribution for Bizerte. In the morning of a Wednesday, Halufian cruisers bombarded the city with rockets, rapidly plunging the city in a hellstorm that made the concrete crack in the intense heat the fires made. People unaffected by the fire simply choked on the spot as the hellstorm ate away all the oxygen in the surroundings. The Spanish fleet didn't anticipate the arrival of such a massive fleet, and they failed to muster a counteroffensive as ships that are still anchored in the docks were knocked out by Halufian destroyers launching torpedoes.

Even buildings of stone crumbled under the immense heat of the hellstorm that ensued, but El Haluf is not yet over. Any part of the city that is not yet affected by the fire was lobbed with Mustard Gas from the Battlecruisers, rendering the protection of bunkers and shelters actually counter-intuitive as the buildings that were supposed to protect the civilians from harm became traps for either the gas or the smoke that passed through the ventilation systems, or is simply consumed by fire.

An hour later, the guns from the warships became silent, and Radio broadcasters could now clearly capture the sounds that emanated in the city from the distance, to be broadcasted not only in El Haluf, but to the entire world as a whole as a testament that for the Dominion Navy, this was simply service fulfilled. What was intended to be something ceremonious was replaced with dread. Screams of agony and anguish from dying civilians filled the city as sirens from emergency vehicles fruitlessly tried to take out the fires that are quickly spreading in Toulon, making the endeavour difficult with the Toxic Gas that was quickly spreading in multiple city blocks.

In the Dominions of El Haluf,
many laughed and rejoiced over this victory,
many cried in remorse,

most were silent.