The Storm Breaks

March 7th, 1939. 

The air inside the Volkshalle command center was stifling, charged with an anxious energy that permeated every corner. The telegraph machines clattered incessantly, transmitting a flood of reports from across Valoria's borders. Officers shuffled in and out, their faces taut with urgency, their whispered conversations laced with a palpable sense of dread. Outside, the winter storm that had raged throughout the night was finally beginning to ease, but within the command center, a far more ominous storm was brewing.