Duel over Presidia

This article is about an in-universe event. For the in-game mission, see Kings.

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This article's title is a conjecture. There is no official name for the article's subject slthough it contains canon information.

Any changes to the article's title should reflect consensus.

Duel over Presidia
Monarch firing at Crimson 1
Preceding	Second Battle of Presidia
Following	Federation uprisings
Details
Date/Time	18:00+, August 23, AC 432 (local time)
Part Of	Cascadian Conflict
Location(s)	Presidia, Cascadia
Outcomes	Pyrrhic Sicario victory End of Cascadian Conflict Crimson 1 killed The Deal fulfilled
Combatants
Sicario remnants
Crimson 1's faction
Strength
Monarch
Crimson 1 (KIA)
Casualties
None
Crimson 1

"Here we are, fighting for Cascadia's soul. That's the deal you made, right?"

― Crimson 1

After Crimson 1 violated a signed ceasefire to end the Cascadian Conflict moments before, he fought a duel against Monarch over the burning ruins of Presidia as the true final battle of the war.

Prelude

"You drove me to this...this death and destruction over the Federation. Millions of lives lost..."

― Crimson 1

Following the loss of his entire squadron in Operation Recall, Crimson 1 was driven mad. He spent the three weeks since his defeat with supposed Federation actors securing the PW-Mk.I prototype fighter in a last-ditch effort to at least get back on Monarch and his allies for harming his pride or even secure a Federation victory from the jaws of defeat; unfortunately and unbeknownst to him, he arrived too late to fulfill the latter goal, as a ceasefire had already been declared and his remaining allies were packing up and leaving Cascadia.

He proceeded to detonate the same cordium warheads that were used in the Prospero Disaster, killing combined millions of soldiers and innocent civilians and leveling much of the capital's downtown district, which soon threatened to engulf the entire city. He even shot down everything flying in the area - Federation, mercenary, CIF included - that got in his way and sank the rebel fleet, ensuring things were strictly settled between him and Monarch.

Battle

"The Federation might try to forget about you, but I won't! This is for the good of the world! Die, mercenary!"

― Crimson 1

With his revenge complete, the renegade Peacekeeper provoked the Crowned Mercenary in one last battle, using everything in his craft's arsenal, ranging from missile swarms and railgun bursts to energy cluster bombs, to bring down Monarch for good, and even resorted to taunting and blaming him for perpetuating the war and taking everything he had and repeatedly goading him into killing him.

The duel was ultimately not in his favor, as his plane suffered repeated hits until its engines blew out, disrupting Monarch's HUD and causing his craft to trail fire. Even then, he still carried on, although weakened and at death's door, fighting until his craft gave its last. Right before his plane exploded in a massive blast that finally obliterated him, Crimson 1 gave his barely victorious archnemesis an ominous monologue.

Aftermath

"It's all gone to hell. The world is about to be remade."

― Evelyn London

The duel - and the war itself - ended in a pyrrhic victory that came at tremendous cost; the Cascadian capital had been destroyed, the country itself left in ruins, and countless millions more lives lost for nothing but to sate one man's vengeance. Regardless, what little remained of the CIF's active units moved on to to reclaim the area surrounding the city, treating the handful remaining Federation Ground Forces soldiers who survived Crimson 1's wholesale rampage with extreme prejudice on suspicion of them conspiring with him, primarily because of the unclear nature of the attack and the subsequent loss of all communications.

The Pacific Federation, accused of deliberately breaking the ceasefire in a spiteful, fatalistic, and cowardly gesture, became an international pariah, with its newer member states following Cascadia's footsteps by seceding and the Periphery launching a new, followup war against them, backed by vocal Cascadian support. With the Independence Force's military strength almost completely gone, the Cascadian Foreign Legions were likely formed in its place in order to support the Periphery's campaigns against the Federation.