The Great Siege of Bergazeet: Origins
The grand fortress of Bergazeet was the greatest symbol of imperial dominance in the Sea of Hinata. All traffic head into the Sea of Zeta had to go by the fortress and its vast anchorage. It's conquest some 60 years before had been one of the ITN greatest's triumphs, but it left the locals, both the tribal kingdoms of Warung Kopi and later the civilised nations of the Republic of Zeta and Kingdom of Deuxlunesia with great anxiety.
The fortress had been taken from the Warung Kopi, and while they had tried repeatedly to retake it over the years, none of their efforts came close to succeeding. By the time of the Heishin War, they had made peace with their loss and naturally turned their focus into fighting each other.
While the Republic of Zeta directly helped in taking the peninsula in 1088, and the Kingdom of Deuxlunesia had fully welcomed its conquest at the time, they both began to regret this. As stated above, the Peninsula was such a dominate point of power that the entire Zetan Sea was practically subdued by its mere presence. With the further Imperial development of it into a true monster, this came to greatly concern the Republic of Zeta for good reason. Many of the hawks within the Zetan Senate had been itching to remove this knife from the Republic's throat immediately.
On the other hand, the Kingdom of Deuxlunesia had seen the peninsula become an issue when it came to the activities of their filibusters in their attempts to acquire land from the Warung Kopi on both sides of the Sea of Hinata. Several incidents had nearly provoked a full-on war between the Kingdom and the Empire in the past. If they could remove the Empire from the peninsula, they would have a great chance to achieve their aims of a greater cotton Kingdom.
But the issue for both powers was neither of them were able to accomplish this task given their fleets. Even combined, the Empire would be able to swiftly respond to this and crush both of them utterly. They thus called upon the Kanarucans, an ally and one of the largest naval powers in the world to assist them in at least deterring. Loyal to their brothers, the Kanarucans set up naval bases in both nations and stationed a large squadron in particular across the Bergazeet Strait in port of Olympia that was a serious challenge to the Tsukinode Naval presence. The Empire, of course, didn't stand idly during this whole affair. They increased the garrison and squadron defending Bergazeet and built greater fortifications. It was also common knowledge that the Western Fleet as a whole would be able to end any attempt, even with the three combined powers, against the fortress in due time.
However, the Heishin War would drastically swing the balance of power at last to the budding coalition. While the Imperial Navy itself did not get directly involved in it, the conflict paralyzed the high command of the navy and though the Navy claimed it would remain neutral, there was a tug of war inside the admiralty over what side they should support. This left the Bergazeet extremely vulnerable, and with Vitalis Septem's knowledge filtering back towards the Republic of Zeta and its allies, the time now was to strike at last.
An ultimatum was delivered to Bergazeet on October 12th, 1144, by the three powers. It was passed to the commander of the Naval Station:
Vice Admiral Louis d'Avranches
He looked over the ultimatum carefully, puffing a cigar, before weighing his options...