Karl von Stein was once a well-respected advisor for the Frankish king, Charles I. However, he will now be referred to as Karl. Over time, Karl began to change his view of things in the kingdom. Karl was a firm believer in communism and its ideals, such as the belief that everyone is equal. These beliefs eventually led him to resent Charles I, as Karl had seen how big of a divide there was between the nobility and the lower class, along with all the social injustices that took place in the kingdom. Karl brought up these concerns to the king and the other advisors, but instead of being praised and having his ideas, such as raising the taxes of the nobility and distributing their wealth to the lower class, carried out, he was reprimanded and told his ideas were stupid and impossible to do.
Karl decided that words were of no use to people like the king and started plotting. Karl started a secret group known as the PLF (the Proletariat Liberation Front) with the end goal of deposing Charles I and making a new government structure that would finally implement all his ideas. As the years passed, the PLF grew, going from small rural communities to larger, more populated cities like Paris and Lyon. With the rapid growth of the PLF, Karl began to make friends in places like Great Britain and the Iberian Peninsula in a quest to fund the uprising that was soon to come and make sure the PLF had the weapons needed to fight the Frankish military.
Finally, after all these years of preparation and work that Karl and his allies had done, it was time to finally put an end to the monarchy and its injustices. Overnight, the city of Nice fell to the PLF after thousands of workers across the city took up arms from secret weapons stashes and armories set up through an underground tunnel system in the city that the PLF had dug over the years. The workers coordinated with each other and launched several attacks on government buildings and strategic positions throughout the city, quickly overrunning the small, untrained Frankish military units guarding the buildings. Even with martial law immediately placed into effect by the governor, a massacre ensued after an intense battle with local authorities and military units. After a week, the fighting was over.
The first city to fall to the PLF had been Nice, and as it fell, word finally reached King Charles I. The king was furious. 3,500 Frankish knights and 800 cavalry units were immediately dispatched from Lyon and encamped outside of the city, unable to approach for fear of being struck down by the enemy archers and captured ballistas that sat on Nice's walls. For now, they would have to wait until reinforcements arrived with siege weapons. Along the coast, the city of Marseille was the next target for the PLF, but this wouldn't be as easy as capturing was as Marseille was large and had a large local military force and was on high alert after receiving news of the massacre at Nice.
The PLF still started slowly mobilizing workers and peasants in the city for an uprising although it was much harder this time as the curfew had been changed to 8 and martial law had been enacted all over the city with the local military setting up checkpoints everywhere in preparation for a strike which was now expected following the detainment of a citizen carrying documents about the upcoming attack. The French officials now knowing of the impending attack hurried to their Villas protected by their guards. And after 3 weeks, the PLF struck.
They had gathered roughly 20,000 supporters in Marseille alone with the use of propaganda highlighting the monarchy's failures and mistreatment of the lower class. Unfortunately, there was little armor for these peasants and workers to use as most of it was being saved for Karl's upcoming plans but there were plenty of weapons. PLF leaders in the city coordinated and launched critical attacks on things like government buildings, military installations, and infrastructure hubs along with striking multiple checkpoints which they had been studying for the past few weeks. Affiliates and corrupt officials also helped the PLF's cause, sabotaging communications and supplies along with surveilling government buildings and studying their layouts for possible strikes.
It all happened at dawn. All of a sudden, thousands of PLF militants in groups launched coordinated attacks across Marseille, seizing control of government buildings and transportation hubs across the city, effectively cutting off communication and transport networks for the Frankish soldiers in the city. Fights break out in every corner of the city with civilians fighting in support of both sides causing the streets to fill with bodies that only accumulate as time goes on. As the fighting intensifies, the PLF militants start making moves on military strongholds which fight back showing no intention of surrendering. The city hall becomes a battleground with 300 highly trained soldiers facing off against an estimated 1,500 civilians.
Throughout other parts of the city, the PLF militants engage in guerrilla warfare, sneaking up on soldiers in groups and striking them. As word spreads about the uprisings in Marseille and Nice, nations such as Great Britain, a rival to the Frankish kingdom, show their support and provide supplies to the PLF forces in the docks of Marseille via their powerful navy. King Charles hearing of the battles taking place all over Marseille dispatches a larger force of 15,000 soldiers including 12,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry along with siege weapons such as catapults to both of the cities; the rest of the army is kept on standby across the country.
