text: [Themes: edutainment]
  
  "We need to fall back!" you say with a yell.
  
  You quickly clamber out of the armored car, as your driver clambers out with you. The two of you quickly hurry towards back towards the line, shouting at the machine gunners.
  
  "The armored car's disabled, we need to fall back! Let's go!" you scream.
  
  You quickly fall back to the inner defensive line, where it soon becomes clear that the Battle of Dublin is coming to an end, and you're not the victors. The Free State forces have better weapons, more numbers, and outnumber you. You've been pushed back to the inner areas of the Four Courts, and the plan's changed. No longer do you hope to spark off the war between the British and Irish again. Instead, you've started a war between Irishmen.
  
  With few choices left, the remaining rebels, those who haven't been captured or killed, have little choice. However, you do, as you're left with the option to help the anti-Treaty leaders escape through a mass break out through using several sympathizers among the pro-Treaty side. However, you can also stay behind as a distraction force, Cathal Brugha, who has volunteered to stay behind to hold off the Free State forces for long enough to escape. As they look for volunteers for both movements, you wonder what's left to do.
  
  > escort the anti-Treaty leaders to freedom
  You quickly volunteer to escort the leaders out. You join up with them, as you drop your weapons aside, donning caps and coats and changing out of your clothes. You quickly head out, looking like civilians as you move through the abandoned, war-torn buildings, before quickly moving to one of the smaller barricades that's been put up to stop you escaping. Here, under the falling sun, a small group of four soldiers wait for you, guns and rifles drawn.
  
  You walk towards them, hesitant given how easily they could gun you down and secure their victory in the battle and the greater war to come. Surprisingly, however, they don't even try.
  
  "You've started a war, Seán," one of them says, moving the barricade to allow you to walk past.
  
  "I'm aware," Seán Lemass says. "Hopefully, it can be for the greater good. I appreciate this. I'd hate to be shot as an example. Now, let's get out of here."
  
  With that, Free State soldiers allow you to escape, perhaps showing you're not enemies, even after what's just happened. Hell, you've been through a lot more in the war with the British.
  
  You quickly hurry out of the city and out into the farmlands, escaping the endless trouble that the city brings and heading out to meet up at a nearby safe house from some anti-Treaty friends. You split up, returning home after finding Joseph among the survivors, thankfully, quickly heading home to lie low.
  
  > A trip to Dundalk
  A great deal of time moving between safe houses in the country side, trying to avoid capture at the hands of the more numerous, better-supported Free State. You launch a few ambushes, but it's painful to kill your fellow countrymen, and the fighting is relatively sparse compared to what it could be. After some time, it becomes clear you're lacking in both weapons and men. Fortunately, you and Joseph are sent to to County Louth to remedy that solution, and to assist in the operations of the IRA there. Dundalk is the home of a large Free State barracks and prison. There's a large stockpile of guns, as well as hundreds of IRA prisoners being held there for opposing that bloody Treaty through the only way they know how. It's almost too ideal a target, and should solve both of your biggest issues.
  
  Due to your experience, you're appointed as the lieutenant of the anti-Treaty IRA commander by the name of Frank Aiken, a well-known and daring commander who has fought well, especially for someone so unsure of his position on the treaty. Well, co-lieutenant, more accurately, given how Joseph's also been given the role. The two of you really are tied at the hip. You quickly meet the man, a young, serious man with a Charlie Chaplain-esque toothbrush mustache. You end up in his car, driving along the road towards Dundalk to regroup with the main force of soldiers, ready to do what needs to be done.
  
  "The plan is simple, gentlemen," Frank Aiken says. "We've secured a pair of old mines and rigged them up. We're going to use those to blast our way into the barracks, and get to work securing the arms and prisoners. Through that, we'll gain a much larger force and the entire town will be Dundalk."
  
  You arrive at a large grouping of soldiers, just at a small farmhouse on the edge of Dundalk. The group assembles into formation, and you and Joseph are among the first intruders in, planting a pair of old captured mines on the barracks wall so you can break in, quickly heading to capture the prisoners and arms.
  
  After a short journey of frog-marching through the hills, you reach the barracks, and escort your soldiers ahead as you quickly ahead before any sentries catch you. You quickly hurry ahead with your squad, ready to plant the mine, as you decide how to do it.
  
  > stay close to the barracks and move in quickly, taking the enemy by surprise
  You press up against the wall, staying a few meters back and behind the wall, as the rest of your squad joins you. The poor lad who drew the shortest straw moves up to the mine, setting off its timer as he rushes back to you guys, diving into cover.
  
  There's a brief moment of waiting as you patiently wonder how long the timer's set for. God knows the Free State boys would actually get a bit of training in explo...
  
  The explosion tears through the air with a roaring boom, as chunks of steel and mortar tear through the air. A huge piece of concrete tears through the wall, smashing into you and the men behind it with tremendous force. You're sent flying through the air as the flying chunks of debris hammer into you, killing you instantly.
  
  Perhaps it's better to stay a few steps more back from the mine of unknown strength in future.