Lao, now Minister Lao after Tsao handed his letter of resignation to the Emperor in shame, pondered his next movement. The Emperor wanted war with Vale immediately, but it was far too soon for that. One does not simply declare war on another nation in Remnant without adequate reason, not if he wanted Mantle to continue to be confident of their Alliance, nobody wants an insane hysterical ally after all.
He tapped his fingers on his shiny new mahogany desk, his mind exploring all avenues of possibilities for his next move.
Hmm...
What. To. Do?
...
Perhaps he should accelerate the settlement programme on the East coast of Sanus? Tensions between the two nations were already high over the East Coast settlement, so perhaps increasing the number of people in the settlement programme will exacerbate the situation. If it doesn't, drop a couple of coins here and there, who knows what might happen between the two rival settlements. God forbid should some violence erupt(!)
Yes...
Send a couple of loyal men and their families to the new settlement...and whisper some sweet promises into their ears, and the rest of the pieces will fall into place.
He'll get someone to write up a list of potential families to send to Sanus, but before that, the Menagerie Problem.
He leaned back on his luxurious chair, taking in the sights of his spacious new office. He allowed a sigh of contentment to pass through his lips before he refocused on the problem at hand.
That Island was always a source of issues for Mistral, with its untameable natives, the unhappy population within the Kuo Koana colony and very little profitable Dust resources to mine.
The Emperor wanted to send in the army into Kuo Koana and ensure loyalty (fear) from the citizens, and remind them of the last time they rebelled. He himself have no issues with such move, except with the upcoming war with Vale, he needed all the manpower and resources concentrated on their Western neighbour, not tied up in some godforsaken corner of Remnant.
Besides, khaki/green soldiers or not, Menagerie knows better than to rebel against Mistral with what little manpower that they have. No matter how much they hate Mistral, when the Emperor says jump, they will ask how high.
Oh!
That gave him another idea!
To prove their loyalty to the Emperor, they should be asked to 'donate' half of their able bodied men to serve in the army. The Emperor will like that, as it punished those animals, anything to increase military power the generals will always approve of and the Protector should appreciate that the boot of Mistral's armed forces won't be crushing Kuo Koana to dust...this time.
It was win-win for all.
Now, where has that lazy assistant gone off to? He has some new decrees for the Emperor to sign.
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Kuo Koana, July 1919
One month after Pacification Campaign
The sun was out in all of its blazing glory, and the sweaty workforce down below were busy digging.
Kaino was not supposed to be here, he was supposed to be with his fellow warriors, hunting in the Ever Green Valley alongside his ancestors.
But here he was, shovelling dirt out of the ground alongside his fellow captives. They told him he was lucky to be alive when they found him, feverishly insane and leg nearly lost to infection. So he supposed he was supposed to be thankful to be alive now, shovelling dirt and soil on his useless leg.
At least they were feeding them.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Did he care what the ditches and trenches were for?
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
No, he decided, he did not.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
This was his fate.
His people gambled and fought for greater stakes.
They lost, and life was rarely kind to those who lose.
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The Council Room, Kuo Koana
The room was filled with a mixture of British officers, Kuo Koana natives and a few Tribal leaders who didn't fight or make war against Kuo Koana, all sitting at a large table with Bagheera at the Head, and the General sitting at his right.
The would be King was having a conference on the affairs of the Island. And it had gone off to a rocky start.
"I'm afraid to say that with all the manpower shortages, we shall soon be forced to recruit...women...into the armed forces, sir" Bletherby sat down as he finished.
MacCraw sighed as he listened to his other subordinates roared against the proposition while the Islanders looked confused at the ruckus. He was of the British sentiment about women and their place in society, but he was forced to face the cold hard facts of life.
Even when the BEF and the Militia were recently incorporated into a single military force, manpower was still in terrible short supply. Too many men were shackled down by paperwork, support and logistic duties. The man had a point; if women could fulfill those duties, the Armed forces would greatly increase their combat numbers.
He listened to his officers and the natives bickering back and forth with each other, the volume increasing with rising emotions. Dear Lord, where has their sense of propriety gone? Going off at each other like a pack of Europeans in an international event.
Well, bugger this and bugger that.
"SILENCE!"
...
The whole room fell silent to the uncharacteristic yell from Bagheera and the General.
MacCraw huffed and puffed, fixing each officer with a gimlet eye, as though to dare them to shout again, while Bagheera looked as though he was regretting his decision of creating the Council.
"Good. Now, Bletherby has a very good point here. We are facing a manpower crisis, and too many men are doing non combat related duties when they should be holding rifles.
Gentlemen, while I would never suggest that we send women into Frontline combat, I would not be opposed to them joining the Artillery Corps, the Logistics Corps and the Signalling Corps. We are currently the premier fighting force in the world now, but from what his Grace has told me, even we cannot fend off a joint invasion of Mantle and Mistral if we do not have every man out there on the front lines. Do you understand?"
Grumblings and unhappy mutterings went around the room. What next, giving women voting rights? Reluctantly, the officers gave their support to the proposal, alongside the Islanders.
Bagheera, happy to finally settle the issue, moved on to the next item on the agenda. "Right, next on the agenda, we have the Island's youths. Now the General here told me that some of his officers came up with a brilliant plan to get children away from street gangs. Let's hear this plan now, General."
"Very well, your Grace. As any of you know, there is a large quantity of youths living on the Island without much guidance or discipline. I suggest that we should set up the Scouts Organization on the Island, with experienced soldiers and warriors offering expertise to the younger generation."
"What kind of expertise, General?" Pumba, the boar faunus native asked. He was one of the good sort in MacCraw's opinion. Knows his place well and plays by the book.
"Well, expertise such as rifle musketry, outdoors survival and navigation, Mr Pumba, as well as a whole lot of other activities."
Bagheera looked more intrigued by the idea, as does a lot of other people on the council.
"Hmm...yes...that does sound like a delightful idea. Simone, please work with the General to get the necessary equipment and men to set up the Scouts for Kuo Koana's youth."
"And what of our children, your Grace?" Interjected a Tribal chief.
"Hmm...we may need to have segregated Scout houses to avoid friction between our children. Would this suffice, Chief Kala'meha?"
The chief, though not happy with the idea of segregation, understood the reason for it. Years of hate does not wash away overnight, so he simply nodded his head in approval and consent.
"All in favour, say aye."
Chorus of ayes sounded from the majority of the room. Bagheera looked more beggared by the minute, the General noticed in sympathy, as the meeting continued to drag on.
"While we are on the subject of children, if I may your Grace?" A voice spoke up from the British side of the Table.
"You may, Lieutenant Colonel." Consented a bored sounded Bagheera.
"As you may or may not know about English and Welsh history, the longbows were a key component to military success-"
"Please Lieutenant Colonel, get to the point. No need to drag it out."
"Right you are General, well my point is that children should learn rifle musketry, for the rifle is the longbow of today. I recommend all able bodied citizens from age twelve upwards to learn rifle musketry. And yes, I do include females in the proposal as well, your Grace."
"Interesting proposal from the Lieutenant Colonel."The Tribal chiefs, who have seen the deadly effect of those British rifles on their war mongering neighbour tribes, supported the proposal wholeheartedly. The British side looked uneasy about women learning to shoot guns, most unladylike in their opinion, but then again apart from a few exceptions there were hardly any ladies on the Island. It was the thought of carrying the ancient tradition of marksmanship forward into their new country that struck a chord with the more traditionalists sections of the British officers.
"Right, well, all in favour say aye."
Ayes rang round the room as most of the people supported the proposal. Bagheera internally groaned at the slow pace of the meeting, hoping that the end is near, for the sake of his sanity.
"Alright, next item, the new name for our Island nation to replace 'Menagerie'..."
Or perhaps the meeting wasn't that bad after all. This will prove most interesting.
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Fort Wellington
Uncle Ben, was looking at a group of meditating young men, and was feeling proud of himself.
After he got permission from the General and his Grace to teach these young men how to access aura, he immediately rounded all the aura users and began his teachings. It was difficult at first, as many of them didn't want anything to do with aura, but after a demonstration with a punch to a rock they all changed their tunes.
The real difficulty lay in teaching them the basics as they all came from different backgrounds. Some of them require little input while others require...more forceful methods. To make it manageable he divided them all into groups.
He sighed serenely as he turned to the mess hall to get some tea. This would turn out to be a bad mistake.
20 minutes later
He returned to see not a field of peace and quiet, but a scene of rowdiness and choas. A bunch of lads gathered around a cocky looking fellow and a large rock. He had a bad feeling about this.
"Heee-Yah!"
Crack!
"Mr Ben, Tompkins broke his hand again!"
He resisted the instinct of all teachers to strangle their troublesome students. This was much, much harder than he thought.
"Take him to sick bay and have him report to Doctor Ellis." That should teach that little brat to attempt higher level techniques with such arrogance.
Tompkins heard the order, and tried to not whimper as he was frogmarched to the sickbay...and to the gentle hands of the Good Doctor Ellis.
Everywhere he turned there was someone trying to do something idiotic, their aura blinding them from common sense.
"NO! STOP! Don't just try to channel aura into your gun!"
To think he actually volunteered to do this.
This was much, much harder than he thought it would be. Much, much harder indeed.
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Author's note: What should be Menagerie's next name?