CHAPTER 31 extra (Chapter 32 is further down in the page)

AN: Just experimenting with developing a character to see how to best approach future chapters. I appreciate any feedback.

After writing this experimental chapter, I discovered there is a Cyberpunk 2077 anime. The intro scene to that movie is quite fitting for what happens in this extra chapter: watch?v=YRL74JmhVgk


1952, September 3rd, about 200 kilometers northwest of Hongkong:

Huang Jing sighed as he surveyed the village. Or what was left of it.

He had his fair share of investigating and catching suspected enemies of the state, utilizing unethical means to get his job done.

But this was far beyond his area of expertise. He previously could always count on the State Security department having more than enough manpower to deal with even the most stubborn enemies within the CSR, and worst case like what happened several years ago, he could get in touch with the military in the event that a suspect has fanatic religious followers with an old cache of weapons that date back in the era of rebellion against the Shun dynasty.

Not only he had to go find the escaped mage prisoners, but to also capture or kill them. The search was cynically straight forward. Just look for the trail of destruction snaking from the prison in forms of burning settlements and defeated military units that were ambushed or tried stopping the prisoners. Or wait for the frantic telegrams or messages from the latest attacked area. The prisoners that were more discrete with their escape were much tougher to find when the augmented A-tier mages weren't available to assist in the search, and the ones that had successfully blended in with the surrounding population were going to be an absolute headache to root out in the months to come. He had already heard from a colleague and two partners who kicked down an apartment door looking for an illegal book writer, only to instead run into a prisoner mage that was hiding in the apartment, and that was before the State Security department informed all of the agents that there was a "special incident" at the mage prison. That colleague then ran away when his partners ended up in another apartment room, with two holes in a wall.

But his personal priority right now was to stop the most violent prisoners before they burned another town to the ground.

Also disturbing was the State Security department's refusal to evacuate the areas and their instruction to civilians in the area to "remain calm". He didn't know if it was just the department still trying to cover up how bad things got, or intended to use the unsuspecting people as tripwires to detect the mage prisoners.

Jing took a look at his platoon and sighed at what he had available.

'This is like hunting a tiger with a blunt stick. But I have my orders, and people to save.'

With the earthquake that wreaked havoc throughout the central part of the country and other ongoing searches for the escaped prisoners, he had limited resources and personnel to deal with the mess. A few C-tier mages where each had a wheeled DShK 12.7mm heavy machine setup modified for mage operation, a few vehicles that served as infantry transport and heavy weapons platforms, and some militia soldiers equipped with 14.5mm anti-tank rifles. Normally this amount of firepower would have made regular mages think twice about attacking them, but the escaped mage prisoners were on a different scale entirely.

'How hard was it for the idiots to ensure that there would never be a successful breakout? They could have built the prison right next to a military base, or right inside of one, to ensure that emergency responses would only take seconds. Not over half an hour!'

He rounded a corner and looked down at a pile of corpses with blood running from their ears, and grabbed a phone from the radioman's backpack. One of the soldiers vomited when they also witnessed the scene.

He had heard of reports of a particular mage prisoner that would burst people's eardrums as one of their attacks. And that was only after the State Security department admitted that there was such a mage after initially denying the existence of the screaming lady. The State Security department still insisted that there were no mage prisoners, but that they were willing lab participants who betrayed their country, which he knew was also a lie.

You don't just spend over a decade finding enemies of the state who would try to lie to get out of their predicaments, and then not detect lies from your own employer.

'Just what in heaven were the scientists doing back at that research lab? And the lab's security was so lazy about the threats they were holding in cells?!'

He shook his head in disbelief of just how many problems with the State Security department the mage prison breakout ended up revealing. He had previously shrugged off the department's arrogance and other long term issues as just office politics and focused on his work, but now he couldn't ignore it anymore.

'If someone told me a decade ago that my discovery of the Rus mage research lab would eventually lead to all of this… I'd honestly probably arrest them as my first response. And congratulate myself for doing good work for the country. But now? What is right? What is wrong?'

But instinct told him that all he could do was do what he was ordered, and to not challenge his superiors even if they go down the predictable route of covering up everything afterward.

"The screaming lady is somewhere around here. Platoon one, report in."

"Platoon one is checking the district governor's office. The clinic was a complete mess. The monsters didn't spare any patients, nurses or doctors."

"Platoon two, report in."

"No survivors at the police station. We're looking for any last notes before the officers were killed."

"Platoon three, report in."

"No survivors at the school."

I'm going to need to drink an entire bottle of Erguotou after this…

"Platoon four, report in."

"No survivors at the marketplace."

'Damn bureaucrats and their obsessions with keeping things a secret. I only got the call to get here a full day after the prison break already happened!'

Jing paused for a moment. Something seemed off about the voice of the platoon's three leader's voice. He could have shrugged it off as a low quality transmission of the radio communication, but he had to check anyway. An intelligence agent that wasn't paranoid, rarely made it far before their career stalled from being backstabbed by a coworker or superior, or they ended up dead while in the field.

"Platoon three, report in."

Silence.

'They're dead.'

"ALL PLATOONS, THEY'RE AT THE SCHOOL!"

Jing then switched radio frequency to call up the military, while the rest of his personal platoon donned their earmuffs.

"Area command six, I need mage reinforcements at Datang Village. We found the screaming lady, possibly additional prisoners. I lost a platoon already."

"We're sending a platoon of augmented A-tier mages and a platoon of augmented B-tier mages on your way as they're the closest." the radio crackled.

"That will do." Jing smiled. "I'll let you know what we're going up against when the rest of my forces are engaged."

Right when he hung up and motioned his personal platoon to move towards the school, he realized something.

'If that was a mage prisoner pretending to be Platoon 3, why did they report that they're at the school?'

Then a magic bullet struck the radioman while Jing was still standing next to him. The blast sent Jing flying back.

Despite the ringing in his ears, blood in his eyes and in a stunned state, he could hear the two augmented C-tier mages fire their DShK machine guns at something, constantly switching between what appeared to be explosive, incendiary, armor piercing and optical guided spells as if they were trying to find the best option against the incoming hostiles. A nearby truck with a 20mm autocannon exploded as well. Two trucks each with quadruple 7.62 mm Maxim machine guns on a single mount opened fire in another direction.

As he moved his head, he saw a blur of two mages erratically charge towards the C-tier mages, with the DShK magic bullets forcing only one of them to seek cover while the other charging mage pressed on.

One of the C-tier mages was suddenly cut in half from an armor piercing magic bullet fired from somewhere in the distance, and soon after, the other C-tier mage had their neck snapped by the charging mage. The soldiers closest to the now very dead C-tier mages did not last long either. The Maxim crews and other soldiers were tunnel visioned on something else, and were oblivious to the closer threat due to their earmuffs.

He tried to raise his arm and point, but the best he could muster was to uselessly shake his arm.

The mage hovered up in the air with their newly acquired DShK machine gun and an emotionless facial expression, while the Maxim crews ceased firing and cheered as they had gunned down a hostile mage, still oblivious to their impending doom.

The hovering mage, without saying a word, scythed through the vehicles and the soldiers with the magically enhanced heavy bullets.

'Where's the screaming lady?'

He heard the distant shrill of a female voice from the direction of the school, and the noise of gunfire. The mage with the DShK machine gun flew towards the school as well, along with glimpses of other flying figures in the distance converging on the school. He could have sworn hearing cackles from those figures.

'We were nothing more than a tripwire for these monsters. Sacrifices for my higher ups' mistakes.'

Jing lost consciousness as he heard the gunfire fade away, accepting that all of his platoons were dead.

'Is this the cost of lies?'


1952, September 14th, somewhere in Parisee:

Vallon was sitting at his kitchen table inspecting a package that was mailed to him, after shooing his kids out of the kitchen. Of course, he was careful to check the package was free of explosives or poison. Because the SCE had made a frequent usage of poisoned mail or mailed books with bombs built into them to neutralize targets throughout Indochina, North Africa, Middle East and recently in Europe as well. It would be embarrassing if he fell for that same trick.

He had reformed his previous informal network that operated outside of government oversight and had connections with the Francois military into the Agence Armée Secrète not too long after his dismissal from office in order to continue fighting the communists and colonial rebels. It didn't matter how much he molded the SCE, because at the end of the day, the deadlocked government would still remain officially in charge of it.

One frustrating instance of political interference was Prime Minister Gassier and some of his cabinet members shooting down the idea of partitioning Algeria's countryside and their cities into sectors using electrified barbed wires, searchlights, landmines and checkpoints to curtail rebel movements. While other cabinet members did try to help support his plan, they were ultimately unsuccessful. He also heard rumors about the heated arguments between Navarre and Gassier's defense minister over the idea of relocating over half of Francois Indochina's local population to "secure hamlets" to cut off local logistical and manpower support to the rebels.

He glanced at a newspaper that he had crumpled up a few hours ago. A headline peeking through the crumpled paper was titled, "Prime Minister Gassier cancels tax proposals and promises no conscription, negotiates with striking unions."

'Fighting a half-funded, half-assed war will only cause the loss of the colonies. If they didn't want to do what was necessary to win against the rebels, they shouldn't have wasted so much resources and blood from their indecisiveness!' Vallon thought to himself as he opened up the package and retrieved a letter from it.

It took years of identifying those that would support his vision or persuading those that were on the fence to join in, after witnessing the Frankish government struggle over the colonial issues due to polarized politicians and an even more polarized public. The growing pro-colonial and anti-colonial protests only added to the chaos. His most recent major gains were recruiting a few disgruntled commando mages that were blamed for the heavy casualties that their unit took after a decapitation strike against communist leaders in Francois Indochina.

Simultaneously, it took significant efforts in scheming and deception to make the Agence Armée Secrète a reality without drawing any unwanted attention. To do what was necessary to safeguard the Republic's future in the ever changing world.

But it appeared some of the SCE and military members were also involved with another organization called "La Main Bleue" or as the Albish would have named it in their language, "The Blue Hand".

'Of course if I could set up shadow networks in the government with layers of deception so that people don't bother with our important work, so can others.' Vallon glared at what he was reading. 'This era is a time of growing innovation and technological advancements all over the world. But it's also a time of chaos and conspiracy, and I'm in the thick of it. Bringing order to chaos.'

And the La Main Bleue was rather extreme. He wouldn't have minded as long as they also focused on the communists and the so-called "freedom fighters" that threaten Francois Republic's colonial holdings, but intentionally going directly after the Germanian government was unacceptable to him. It would give Germania the perfect excuse to install a puppet government, after putting up with the third war from the same country in less than half a century, and give the communists plenty of time to overrun the colonies in the process.

Either Degurechaff or the communists would dominate the world in the aftermath of that disaster. He could not allow his children to grow up in such a dark world.

'I've approved risky plans before. Plans that had high collateral damage. It's not my fault that the damn Germanians chose to harbor dangerous rebels instead of expelling them. But this… these idiots had to be chugging wine to come up with this crazy plan."

The La Main Bleue was going to send an agent on a suicide mission to drive alongside a police van that Degurechaff would be riding in to get to the courthouse for her trial, then detonate the car bomb. This was with the assumption that she would be maintaining her shield spell the whole time, thus requiring a large quantity of explosives to guarantee taking her down.

The backup plans were equally callous as well.

The incredibly messy part is that the LMB agent was a non-mage commando that recently returned from Francois Indochina as part of an unit rotation, who was also a member of the Agence Armée Secrète.

He couldn't officially tell SCE or the military about the plot because that might tip his hand about his establishment of the AAS to the politicians.

'If the LMB doesn't drop that plan, I have to deploy my own agents to stop them. And they would likely retaliate.'

Vallon leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling, hearing the foot stomps of his children, the voice of his wife speaking to them.

'I never asked for this. But I don't see any other way.'

He let out a deep sigh as he got out of his chair and walked over to a false portion of a wall. Opening it revealed a hidden telephone that was connected to a dedicated line that he knew for certain was not bugged.

As he dialed a number, he muttered to himself.

"Sometimes the best way to deter someone from crossing bridges that should not be crossed, is to blow them up beforehand…"


AN:

Erguotou drink: wiki/Erguotou

The most famous brands are Red Star (红星, Hóngxīng)[1] and Niulanshan (牛栏山), both from Beijing. It is available in various strengths, the average being 50% alcohol by volume or 100 proof.[2]

What the quadruple Maxim machine gun mount looks like: wiki/ZPU#Precursor

I've been reading through the light novels again, and there's a scene in book 7 where the Federation mages showed up with new orbs that allowed them to tank a lot of hits.

One quote stuck out to me: "We can't get through them without a direct hit from an 88 mm."

Which meant the State Security guy and his platoons were going up against roided up versions of those Federation mages.

wiki/Organisation_arm_secr

wiki/La_Main_Rouge

Reference to the "use electrified barbed wires to lock down a country": wiki/Morice_Line

wiki/Strategic_Hamlet_Program


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CHAPTER 32:

AN, credits to perfect_shade, Sunny, Vasilisa and Readhead for helping me revise this chapter.

I had these two videos in mind of how Germania's and CSR's mage technology increasingly diverge over time. You can also see how the way the two sides fight in the video are very different.

watch?v=rNm6qGwx5kI

watch?v=jkWYnCAhr60


1952, September 15th, Hamburg:

I slept poorly that night in the jail cell. That wasn't the fault of the jail nor its wardens, though; the accommodations were quite good, considering the penal nature, and the food was surprisingly good. I honestly had no idea that prisons in Hamburg catered their meals from the finest restaurants in the city, but I suppose a five course dinner would put even the most hardened con on the road to rehabilitation.

The problem was all of the noise and chaos outside with the police station, which was besieged by protestors all night long. It was good to see the people taking an active voice in their government, and such a display of civic mindedness was well worth a night's rest.

A police officer tapped on my cell door as I was washing my face. "The chief wants to meet privately with you to discuss something, uhh… Ma'am."

"Give me two minutes." I replied while drying my face.

I had expected to be escorted to an interrogation room, but instead found myself guided to the police chief's office.

"Please, take a seat," The police chief said by way of greeting as he poured two small glasses of peach schnapps,"and help yourself to tea, coffee and snacks, unless you'd prefer other refreshments?"

"Thank you. But I would like to get to the point of what this meeting is about." I smiled thinly as I took my seat.

He pushed one of the glasses across his desk to me. "A toast, for the crushing success of your political maneuvering. You have saved Germania with a single stroke."

I glared at him. It was far too early in the morning for such flattery, and I was in no mood to tolerate any foolishness. "What are you talking about?"

The chief nervously cleared his throat before opening a newspaper for me to see. "We are… lawfully complying with the newly passed censorship law. I don't think President Paul intended on having you arrested, considering how he had called me last night, demanding your immediate release. I just told him I was just following the provisions of the law as they're laid out in black and white."

A nervous smile crossed the lawman's face. "He probably should have read the law more closely," he chuckled weakly, "Especially since he's the one who personally passed the thing. Anyway, I congratulate you for being thirty steps ahead of him by maximizing the public outcry with how you handled our arrest, not to mention baiting him into passing that law in the first place by needling him with your talk show; I was worried you would resort to violence."

Thirty steps ahead of Paul? What is this police chief talking about?! I was just hosting a talk show when his goons barged into my studio!

He pointed out at the window. "The protests around us right now are just a fraction of what's happening in Berun. President Paul's remaining cabinet resigned this morning and a wildcat strike amongst the professional civil servants is paralyzing the entire bureaucracy. The army's leadership has ordered all soldiers to remain in their barracks. To deter President Paul from dismissing them all, the generals also provided signed statements from multiple levels of subordinate officers who backed the order to remain in the barracks. President Paul only has Berun's local police to rely on now."

Impressive. I guess the military takes its non-involvement with politics seriously. That's a major weight off of my shoulders.

"What about the Bundespolizei?" I raised an eyebrow. "Don't they have jurisdiction over the entirety of Germania?"

"Ah, yes," The police chief rolled his eyes, "The Bundespolizei. They said they could not respond as they had coincidentally lost the maintenance paperwork for all of their vehicles and helicopters, so now they need to do a full inspection of all of those assets. But they can't process the paperwork because of the civil servants' strikes. So they're sending a few dozen officers on horseback, against a mob that is approaching approximately 50,000 numbers and still growing by the minute. Also, the railroad and bus companies requested that their employees not partake in the strikes or protests, and instead help run the trains and buses to transport as many passengers as possible to Berun. What a coincidence that they have been selling a large number of discounted one-way tickets to Berun."

"And the Bundespolizei within Berun that could just walk over to the protests? Or what about the Bundespolizei mages?"

"No idea, but I'm sure they found some legal loopholes to stay out of the mess."

Well, if it isn't the classic Germanian way of sabotaging things. Drown your enemy in paperwork and red tape, taking exquisite care to stay within the letter of the law the entire time.

"So," I asked, "what's the plan for me?"

"Technically we're supposed to hold you until a preliminary court trial determines if they want to grant you bail or not." The police chief chuckled. "They're pushing ahead with that instead of leaving you in limbo with the strikes that are also affecting the court systems."

"Do you think they'll grant me bail?"

The police chief looked out the window. "If President Paul still hasn't resigned by then, I would not be surprised if they denied bail on some legal technicality just to maximize the public outrage against him."

Then he turned to me with a smile. "You must have some grand plan for all of this afterward, right?"

"Do you know," I began, trying to keep my voice as level and calm as possible, "if the cabinet or Diet members would be returning to their offices after Paul resigns?"

"I thought you wanted to clear out the house to put in your hand picked people?" The chief replied, looking at me with an expression of honest confusion.

A wave of realization hit me. 'Oh no,' I thought, 'there's going to be so many empty posts when I come back to the office! And so much paperwork I'll have to do on my own in the meantime, while also searching for qualified replacements.'

"Do you mind if I take your entire bottle of your schnapps?" I asked, right before downing the pour the chief had already given me. I was aware that I would be blackout drunk before I would be even halfway done with the bottle, but I need something to stop me from considering hanging myself. At least I would have a jail cell to myself to drown my sorrows.

"Help yourself with it! Let me know whatever you need for your celebration of victory! In fact, I could have our break room cleared out so you can hold a celebration party with my officers while we wait for Paul to resign!"

I nodded and put up a stiff smile. Somehow, now that I had been corralled into a social function, my lonesome jail cell seemed like a welcoming yet distant refuge. Even the prospect of drinking with the officers was of secondary importance, though; Internally, I was cursing at Being X for forcing me out of my retirement and into cleaning up the messes left by my predecessor.


1952, September 22nd, somewhere outside of Berun:

Johann Dressler tried to make sense of the path that had led him to this moment.

Was this a victory? If it was, it was the most hollow victory in European history, at least from where he was sitting.

The Berun police claimed that they were going to focus on protecting their own officers in the face of the rapidly growing mob, and had started their withdrawal from the besieged Chancellery.

Fortunately, he hadn't had the time to be concerned about the sudden de facto neutrality of the Berun police department, since some genius in Paul's personal security decided to open fire on the mob when they started breaking down the barricades.

The debatably good news for the beleaguered security team was that the hail of automatic fire drove back the mob temporarily.

The unambiguously bad news was that the Berun police immediately stopped feigning neutrality and announced they were going to take Paul's entire security staff into custody over the shooting and joined the mob in storming the Chancellery. But only after they publicly appointed all of the riot participants as assistants to law enforcement to maintain a vestige of legality. They did offer anyone who didn't want to assist the Berun police in arresting Paul's security staff the option to leave the scene, but Dressler knew almost no one had taken them up that offer.

As it turned out, armored police vehicles were quite proficient at ramming barricades, or using tow cables to pull them down.

Paul didn't even bother with the official resignation process before he and some of his security staff evacuated via a news reporting helicopter, and no one knew where he was now. And with the protestors and a radicalized Berun police in control of the seat of government, Dressler doesn't even have a President's office to sit in. Or the Chancellor's or Deputy Chancellor's offices.

Instead, the President of Germania was sitting in a cramped office space in a nuclear survival bunker, encircled by sterile concrete walls and staring at a plain metal table. Supposedly the bunker had been intended to house a contingency government in the event of an end of the world. Paul had thought he would need the bunker against the foreign enemies of Germania, not against Germanian citizens.

As for Tanya von Degurechaff, her bail had been denied, which was what had set off the storming of the Chancellery to begin with. Technically, she was still in jail pending her court trial, but everyone knew that with Paul out of office, she would soon be in charge. And that court trial would be yet another opportunity for her to hold a speech.

As Dressler closed his eyes to think, he recalled his meeting with General Lergen many decades ago, where he'd first learned about Degurechaff's background. So much trouble, so much confusion, and all because he'd hired a 17 years old girl to campaign for his minor political party.

"She's coming back. Maybe as Chancellor-President again," Dressler muttered to himself. "Was this her plan all along? Did she know about the terrorist attacks in Hamburg in advance, and made sure she just happened to have a brush with death in the first one, and be right on scene for the second one? Was the BND involved? Were the so-called terrorist incidents possibly false flag attacks?"

The worst part was that, unlike the last time she was Chancellor-President, there was no longer a Diet to put the brakes on her insanity. While Degurechaff could call them back if she felt like it, President Paul had kicked open Pandora's Box of personal rule; he had even given the Diet the courtesy of an opportunity to remove him from office before he'd put the body out of its misery. If the deeply fragmented Diet somehow mustered enough protest votes to get some media attention of their opposition to whatever mad policies she pushes through, she could dissolve them again with the snap of a finger. The precedent had been established.

The secure red phone rang and Dressler automatically picked it up.

"President Dressler, the civil servants still remain on strike. The new laws that you passed to implement additional checks on the President and Chancellor offices and to repeal the recently implemented security laws are stuck in the stalled bureaucracy. Almost all government communications has been reduced to courier services with the telephone and backup telegram lines being down and with the postal service joining the strike."

Dressler stared off at the empty wall in front of him.

"President? Are you there?"

He then snapped out of his daze. "Call for snap elections. I'm resigning as well. I hope some deputy minister is ready to keep the country from falling apart further until the elections are done."


1952, September 24th, in Hamburg:

I walked out of the courthouse and into a large group of people who were all cheering for me. The proceedings had been essentially an inverted show trial, where no one had any interest in trying to press charges against me, and even gave me the opportunity to present a brief speech in my own defense. After I walked out, I held a Q&A for about an hour on the courthouse's steps with the crowd before flying off back home with Visha.

"I checked the news and there is no one else running in the snap Presidential elections, except for some joke candidate who's dressed up in a ridiculous costume with the name 'Lord Buckethead'." Visha laughed. "You're the only candidate."

"That means Paul's actions thoroughly destroyed the political parties." I groaned. "We can't have a functional democracy without them!"

"So are you going to establish your own political party?"

"I'd rather take a hands off approach. Call the Diet back in and let them figure it out themselves, while avoiding the usage of emergency powers. In fact, I think there are some things in the constitution that need to be revised so that in the future, a future Paul can't cause the same level of destruction."

"You want to go back into retirement again?" Visha gave me a confused look.

"Well this time I'm going to make sure Germania is able to run without me. Having trained successors who aren't incompetent like Paul, a functional Diet and so on." I frowned. "What if I get sick? And besides, I want to just relax when I'm done cleaning up this mess, such as having to appoint a bunch of new ministers."

"I think it might be a while before retirement is feasible even if we fix the mess within our borders." Visha sighed. "There's stuff outside such as Caucasia and Aegyptus. And of course this time ensuring that Germania has competent successors that they can vote for instead of having a repeat of President Paul."

That last point was very valid. Had I thought further ahead of time instead of tunnel visioning on getting out of office, I could have helped ensure that the political parties had people who could actually run Germania.

"Visha, remember when you told me, 'You don't have to fix everything all at once.' back when we were on the ship, after the Treaty of Triano was shredded?" I smiled. "I'll just take on the problems one at a time. As long as no new major ones pop up, it shouldn't take that long."


1952, September 28th, in Berun:

"This is complete bullshit." I muttered as I finished signing a set of papers, in triplicate, only to look up and see an employee drop yet another stack of folders in my inbox. Noting my baleful glare, he quickly grabbed the processed documents from my outbox and scampered out of the office.

Visha, working at a desk next to mine, perked up at my complaint. "We could just run away, you know. If you really wanted."

"And leave Germania in anarchy?" I moaned as I grabbed another folder. "We're a government of two. Officially one with you being an advisor! I've never had to deal with so much paperwork! Spineless Diet and cabinet members all running off in different directions! Where's Ardenaue anyways?!"

"There you go, being a perfectionist and a workaholic," Visha smiled. "As for Ardenaue, he went for a tour throughout Europe after resigning and according to Elya, is currently in Magna Rumeli. He claimed he needed to decompress."

I sighed as I opened the folder to look at what's inside. "I can stop any time. But who's going to take over if we skip town right now? That lord buckethead candidate?"

"Can stop at any time… Sounds like a work addict." Visha walked over and kissed me on the side of my head while sticking her hands under my clothing. "It would be a good comedy show if we let the buckethead guy run the government for just a week, wouldn't it? Imagine the TV ratings. Things are already messy enough, so what's another week?"

"Visha, you're taking my words out of context. I didn't mean that we can stop our work and make love in the middle of our office. Although do remind me to offer that buckethead guy an option to hold a comedy show where he gets put in charge of rebuilding the government. I still technically hold the TV time slots for my talk show that I could give to him."

"We can offer that to him right now, can't we?" Visha whispered in my ears. "It would be a good way to distract the population from the ongoing turmoil with some laughter."

"I can't argue with that." I whispered back, then groaned when I looked through the papers in the folder.

"Oh, this is some Ministry of Energy crap. Why am I having to handle this?"

"Well, he and his deputy resigned." Visha shrugged. "And I wouldn't be surprised if the acting deputy had no idea what he was doing."

Elya suddenly walked in with a folder in her hands, with Visha's hands still in my clothing, and she immediately turned around to walk away, only for Visha to withdraw her hands and call out, "It's fine Elya, we'll save it for later. Did you have something to report?"

"It's the Frankish intelligence again. Or the lack of. I have no idea." Elya sighed. I could see there was pain in her face.

"Let's see the report." I offered a hand out.

Elya walked over to my desk. "I didn't know you were this busy."

"Once we find qualified replacements, I will be so happy for all of this work to be shifted onto them." I sighed, looking at the stack of papers in my inbox. "How's the screening process going?"

"We're thoroughly investigating all of the candidates and made that as a high priority for the BND. I myself will also look over the reports on them." Elya winked as she opened up the folder. "You'll have the list by tomorrow."

And of course I'll have to thoroughly interview the candidates as I don't know what agenda Elya has. But I don't have any alternative easy options to help filter through the lists of candidates.

I looked down at the report and skimmed through it.

"I am so confused." I grabbed one of the papers to hold it up closer to my disbelieving eyes.

"I understand." Elya said. "When I first saw the police reports from Lothiern and additional reports from our agents in Lothiern and Francois Republic, I thought it was some sort of a fictional spy novel."

I sat down. "Let me get this straight. The Frankish intelligence agency, the SCE, probably didn't have an official role in this. But the Francois Republic has at least two paramilitary or terrorist organizations running around. Both with fierce anti-communist and pro-colonial ideologies."

"Yes."

"Two agents opened fire on each other at a Germanian-Lothierian border post, on the Lothiern's side. Then one of the agents' luggage in the car exploded during the exchange of gunfire."

"Yes." Elya sighed.

"And both of them are SCE agents." I rubbed my forehead.

"Actually, only one of them is." Elya pointed at a section in the report. "One of them is a Frankish commando. He was part of a unit that was on the Vietnamese rebels' bounties list, according to our foreign intel sources. Whatever his unit did over in Francois Indochina, seemed to have struck the rebels' nerves to the point where they're offering rewards for capture or proof of death. Which is impressive or horrifying for a non-mage unit."

"So even the Frankish military has their own paramilitary or terrorist organizations? And they're violently competing against the SCE or groups associated with the SCE?" I looked over at the TV. "I'm surprised that this sort of information about the shooters' identities has yet to hit the public news yet."

"The Lothierian authorities are confused and trying to maintain silence about it until they hear from the Frankish government of what is going on."

I closed the folder and rubbed my forehead. "How are we suppose to counter the Frankish when they're that special kind of incompetence if their agents are running around with paramilitary organizations and they had a shootout with their military's own paramilitary organizations? Not to mention any infiltration or disruption efforts that go slightly wrong could quickly end up in the trigger happy SCE just detonating a bomb or do something violently drastic that leaves everyone dead?"

"And we also have to worry about the communists at the same time. One of our agents in the Francois Republic recently discovered that the SCE had murdered the entire Chinese spy ring. There are likely more communist spy rings in Europe if the captured spy ring was that large."

"Murdered?" I blinked.

Elya rubbed her hands in stress. "All we know is that they boarded a ship, which did not dock anywhere else, and the ship returned back to the same port the same day without the Chinese spies on board."

The room was silent for a few seconds as I leaned back in my chair.

"I suppose we could try manipulating the SCE to conduct certain high risk operations for us if they're that bloodthirsty." Elya shrugged. "On a side note, did you see yesterday's report of the Albish planning on secretly importing grain from the Unified States for a third party?"

"I did. And I'm assuming that it was too much of a coincidence for them to be doing that when the CSR had a major earthquake and refused to publicly release any details about the extent of the damages." I rolled my eyes. "Which also confirms that they have indeed signed a secret deal of some sort."

"What should we do with the information?"

"The only thing I can think of is to continue finding out more details about the deal. We need to know what the Allied Kingdom and Chinese Soviet Republic are getting out of that deal."

I felt something twitch in me.

"Visha and Elya, could you step out of my office for about half an hour? I just need to… think about something."

The two of them looked at each other, and quickly walked out of my office, closing the door.


In the hallway, just outside of the President's office:

"Tanya put up a privacy spell." Visha said. "I wonder what's going on?"

"Permission to eavesdrop?" Elya smirked.

"What?"

"The BND had been experimenting with what they could do with the new H-10 and E-2 Block 2 orbs that are about to start mass production. And one of their projects was breaking privacy spells using those two orb models."

"Just one time." Visha frowned. "I hope you won't be using that to trample on people's right to privacy."

"Of course, everything will be done in accordance with legal regulations." Elya winked, before spinning up her E-2 orb.

A few minutes passed with Elya tinkering with the privacy-cracking spells, and both of them could hear Tanya's screaming.

"...AND I'M STUCK WITH ALL OF THIS WORK AS A TWO-WOMEN GOVERNMENT! All I did was step away, and this crop of idiots without a shred of competence played the stupid game of ramming as many objects up their ass! Why do I have to fix everything myself?! I should have Elya go find Ardenaue and drag his lazy ass from his vacation and help me clean up some of the mess that he contributed to!"

"Well, it seems Tanya is quite more energetic about ruling Germania compared to her last few months of her previous office term." Elya giggled, while Tanya continued to rant on and on, followed by the noise of a desk being turned over. Then Tanya cursed about having to clean up the papers that went flying everywhere.

"I'll make sure to calm her down and make her feel relaxed when we head back home." Visha sighed. "I don't want her to die of a heart attack."

A few minutes passed and there was silence. Visha knocked on the door.

"Come in. I'm done thinking to myself." Tanya's voice echoed through the door.

When the two of them opened it, everything looked fine. The blonde's rage had subsided as fast as it had exploded, and she was now seated once more and processing official papers at an even faster rate as if nothing had happened.


1952, October 1st, at the orb testing facility:

When Visha told me that Dr. Schugel had something new to show off, I was conflicted about it. I really didn't want to be a test mage.

But all it took was for Visha to promise me that she wouldn't push me into testing new things, along with a nice dinner and coffee before going to bed together.

As soon as we landed, Dr. Schugel raced out of his office to greet us, lab coat flapping and white hair flailing wildly, a manic gleam in his eye. Still as crazy as ever, it seemed.

"I haven't heard from you about your progress on the tri-core operation! Do you know how important that data is?!" Dr. Schugel demanded in a huff, not bothering with the pleasantries.

"Nice to see you too, Herr Doktor. It's been a trifle difficult obtaining test data, what with being in prison and all," I drawled sarcastically.

"What did you blow up this time?" he rolled his eyes. "A stealth casted unstable explosive spell with the tri-cores? Or did you cause a spectacular thermal runaway in the solid state components when I specifically warned you not to do that?"

"Nothing -"

"Oh, so who's orders have you been violating this time?" he sighed.

"Nobody's -"

"You've been punching holes in generals' offices again then."

I grit my teeth in irritation. What kind of impulsive, violent maniac did he take me for? Mad scientist or not, Schugel had known me for years, and should be very aware of what a cool, even-tempered person I was. Everything I've ever done has been for the most logical and pragmatic reasons.

"You can't talk to her like that!" Visha snapped, finally having had enough. A stern look adorned her face. "She's the President now ... and the Chancellor ... and the Diet. Well, more of a temporary caretaker government, until Germania is sorted out."

"I imagine Paul may have some strong issues with that."

"He might if he hadn't fled like a coward," Visha retorted.

Schugel brightened immediately. "That blithering idiot is gone? Oh thank the Lord for making that possible!"

I mentally sneered at the mention of Being X. If he was still around, he's probably laughing at my eternal inability to enjoy a quiet retirement.

"I'm guessing you've been too busy to follow current events?" I asked.

"Very much so! Come on inside!" He swept away.

When we entered the building, I saw a table with a pile of what looked like H-10 and E-2 orbs, and what appeared to be a classic looking orb next to them as well. Dr. Schugel turned to me.

"Before I began, how did your tri-core orb experiments go?"

"I've only been able to synchronize the three cores in short durations. Otherwise I would get headaches."

He frowned. "Hmm. If you're having troubles, then I doubt other mages would have any better success. I'll need to work on some sort of a synchronizing circuit to make it easier for you to balance the cores."

"What's with the piles of the orbs?" Visha asked while picking up one of them.

"The H-10 and E-2 Block 2 orbs have entered mass production! But at the current production rate due to budget restrictions, it would take years to equip a third of Germania's mages with them. The procurement folks refused to have all of the mages equipped, screeching something about how expensive the orbs are. Bah! Even worse, the silicon transistor mass production is still stalled, so there won't be any E-3 orbs. Which was why I replaced the Type 99 Block 3 mechanics in the E-2 orb with the Type 100 mechanics. And also added in the safety circuit."

Dr. Schugel then picked up the third orb.

"I have been working on a passive add-on module orb even for the Type 99 orb users. I'm calling it the Absorbieren Type 1 Orb for now. Or for short, the A-1 orb."

"What do you mean, absorb?" I cocked my head, as Dr. Schugel smiled widely.

"I believe actions would describe it better than words. One of you wear it and power up a shield spell using your Type 99 orb. Just press down on the button to activate it, and press it again to turn it off."

Visha noted my hesitancy and grabbed one to wear.

"President Degurechaff, emit a magic scanning spell at your lover." Dr. Schugel awkwardly coughed. "Or really any magic emissions that don't involve attacking her."

It seems that he's still a bit conflicted over my relationship with Visha. I'd hate to read his inner thoughts of balancing his fanatic religionism with that.

"Come on Tanya, make me warm!" Visha teased me. I heard the mechanical click of the A-1 orb being turned on with Visha pressing down on the button, followed by her activating a shield spell.

I powered up my orb and broadcasted a scan spell.

Except the return was smaller than expected. And Visha was standing only a few meters away from me.

"Hmm… the orb suddenly warmed up…" Visha said, looking down at the A-1.

I tried sending a voice spell at her as well. But she didn't notice it at all.

"I sent you a voice spell." I looked at her.

Visha seemed very confused. "I could barely make sense of it."

I turned to Dr. Schugel. "Okay, what is that A-1 orb that you're talking about?"

"It absorbs mana emissions coming at the wearer when they turn it on. It won't stop magic explosions or magic blade attacks though. I'm still working on adding a feature that allows mages to load in exceptions so that some emissions are not absorbed, such as voice spells. I had been asked by the military and BND to create something that can counter the Chinese high powered scanning spells, and also radar systems that might be able to detect stealth mages."

"And it turns the absorbed emissions into heat?" Visha asked.

Dr. Schugel sighed. "I would have liked to have the A-1 orb convert the absorbed mana into usable mana or electricity for the wearer to utilize, but there has been significant pressure to find a quick solution."

"I am concerned how hot that orb will get if it's being constantly used." I walked over to take a closer look at the A-1 orb that Visha was wearing.

Dr. Schugel walked over to his desk to look at an orb design schematics. "Beyond making it larger, I don't have any good options. Turning mana energy into heat generates a lot of heat. Especially when it has to absorb almost all of the energy from the known mana power output of the Chinese augmented mages when they were tracking the Akinese pilots years ago. And putting a heatsink on it will interfere with its ability to absorb the incoming mana. Use water to cool it by boiling? Bah, too much weight and an added point of failure."

"If you could integrate the A-1 orb into future iterations of the Elektrische Computational orbs, would that allow some of the absorbed mana emissions to be converted to something other than heat?"

Dr. Schugel paused for almost a minute as if he was running calculations in his head.

"Maybe," he muttered. "But I would need a lot of solid state components to even consider something like that."

"When there are integrated circuits, you'll have plenty of transistors to work with."

Dr. Schugel stared at me for a moment. Visha also had a confused look. Right, I'm the one who's looking like a lunatic with me running my mouth about future technologies.

I coughed and suggested a more practical idea for the moment.

"Could mages carry multiple A-1 orbs and cycle through them before they burn up? How many orbs would they need to carry?"

"That is an inefficient workaround." Dr. Schugel turned around and scowled. His facial expression reminds me of the early years when I argued with him over the Type 95 orb's lack of reliability. Before he became a full religious fanatic.

"Well, the military and the BND did ask for a quick solution. Besides, it's not like we're going to be sending all of our mages overseas to play hide and seek with the Chinese mages."

Dr. Schugel let out a deep sigh. "This is heresy. But I'll calculate how many A-1 orbs an infiltrator mage needs to stay hidden from heavy magic scan or radar usage."


1952, October 7th, Berun:

I was quite annoyed that President Paul left dozens of empty positions for me to appoint people to fill them. Sure, even his staunchest loyalists abandoned him when the protestors were pounding on the gates, but it took many hours of back to back interviews and reviewing applicant's resumes. Some of the original appointees that worked with me were back in their offices. It's been a while since I've had to pull up my old knowledge from my previous life as an HR manager to deal with this mess.

I also needed to hold down the fort until the political parties finish reorganizing so I can start the elections. I need a functional Diet to restore Germania's democracy.

As for Visha, I didn't want to burden her with any office work even though she insisted on helping with the paperwork. I ended up relenting and had her be an advisor.

The next set of do-to items were the domestic issues. The one thing I am grateful for is that Paul recognized early on the need to reduce Germania's reliance on foreign oil imports and took exceptionally aggressive measures to prepare for the loss of the Suez Canal, especially with the situation in Aegyptus continuing to worsen and no signs of any deescalation in sight.

But he also left me with a ruined budget and heavy debts, which would get worse if the Suez Canal shuts down due to a war in Aegyptus and thus torpedoing the global economy. Nuclear weapons development ate up the lion share of that no doubt. So that was one of the first things to go on the chopping block, especially when we already have a large stockpile of nuclear bombs and weapons-grade plutonioum to make more bombs, although I did still allow the continued development of missile technology because being able to launch satellites and eventually humans is important.

The military immediately dropped their facade of pursuing "nuclear warfare compatible" systems and went back to focusing on conventional designs. I'll need to review the military developments later, but I have a feeling there has been some serious reforms needed to be done after the Germanian military was stuck with the dual task of preparing for nuclear warfare while also conducting grinding counter-insurgency operations in Caucasia.

Which means any conventional wars against the communists would have to wait for a bit until I deal with the financial mess and then get the military fixed up. Not that I was in the mood to start a war, especially when I could just wait for the communists to implode with their inherently inefficient systems.

I downed an entire cup of coffee that was expertly brewed by Visha, as I grabbed another stack of papers and quickly flipped through them. A whole bunch of international events with one of them mentioning border skirmishes between New Granada and Brasilia, I'll get to those later. I already gave Elya the go-ahead to conduct polling operations throughout the Middle East because we agreed that there had to be something that was making Izz al-Arab Nasser so confident that he could win a war against all of the countries stacked against him. I also asked Elya to conduct polling operations in Europe to gauge just how much support Algeria and Aegyptus is receiving from Europe outside of government channels, such as political rallies. I have a feeling that group at that poisoned restaurant was just a fraction of the Algerian and Aegyptian political activity in Europe.

One letter from the acting deputy foreign minister reported that Pullska wanted talks on having an unified OZEV energy policy, including widely interconnected electrical grids so that members could freely trade electricity with each other as needed. I certainly wouldn't mind the rest of OZEV chipping in to help ensure that everyone is buffered from a potential oil supply shock from something dumb happening in Aegyptus. Especially as Germania's budget is already strained to begin with. But I can't help feel that there has to be a reason why Pullska seems to be so enthusiastic with pushing for such an expensive project when many people were skeptical of the Albish doing something that would risk shutting down the Suez Canal, the backbone of what was left of their colonial empire and the Frankish colonial empire.

I heard a door open and close, with Visha stepping in.

"How's your afternoon?" I smiled at her.

"The talks between the acting deputy ministers were exhausting." Visha sighed. "They only made some progress with what the budget will look like after I mentioned about what you expected how things might go in the future.

I noticed the two folders Visha was holding onto. "I'm guessing you're here to discuss something?"

"Two things actually." Visha winked as she walked up to my desk. "On a side note, Miss Caldwell asked if she could interview us later this month or next month."

"Oh? I wonder what she's been doing since the last time we met?"

"Her most recent tour was in the Middle East. I think she might have some valuable information about what is going on in that region."

"I would be happy to see her. What's in those folders anyways?"

She opened one of the folders.

Ah yes, the continued disintegration of Caucasia. I don't think it's worth trying to piece that chaotic region back together now.

But what's this paper from the Albish?

As if on cue, Visha started talking.

"The Albish offered to assist in stabilizing the Iberia-Colchis region and Crimea. They also suggested they could cause chaos among the communists in the rest of Caucasia. Maybe even Kazakh as well."

I looked at the world map behind me. "Why, so they can ensure that the Rus would never have direct access to the Black Sea and the oil in Caucasia?"

"Well, you know the stereotypes of the Albish doing what's best for them." Visha shrugged.

I pondered for a moment. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but much of the oil rich deposits in central Asia are now under the communists' control, right?"

"That is true. Various oil companies through OZEV took heavy losses when they pulled out of Caucasia a few years ago from the escalating violence. Dacia was especially hit."

"And with the Albish now seeking to raise hell in those areas, it would deny the communists of Caucasia's oil. Thus the communists will have to find other sources." I smiled. "Ah, how I missed the Albish government."

"I wonder if the communists will have to buy the oil from the Middle East?" Visha tapped her chin.

"Well that would mean the Albish and the Frankish would be holding the proverbial leash on the communists if it came to that. There's no way the communists would try to rely on oil from the Middle East."

"Actually, Elya reported that the Albish intelligence hopes that they can keep the communists tied to their newly signed deal and thus rely on the Middle East for oil. They were already helping the CSR with establishing fake companies to secretly import grain. They're still trying to determine the full extent of the deal."

"Newly signed deal?" I frowned. "As in the Albish made a pact with the communists? While simultaneously putting a good face to us by offering to undercut the communists in Caucasia and Kazakh?!"

I slumped in my chair. Perfidious Albish! How can I trust them when they're backstabbing and making deals with both sides at the same time?!

"She doesn't know what was in the deal, but it seems selling oil from the Middle East to the communists was part of it."

I then looked at Crimea and the western part of Caucasia.

"Perhaps I could visit those two regions to convince the locals that Germania would not betray their democracy again, with Paul out of the picture." I tapped on the map. "Maybe that could help stabilize the two regions to keep the Albish and communist influence out, and later on, use the two of them to help retake the rest of Caucasia after the chaotic communist rule is discredited."

Visha then opened the second folder.

I stared at it. Then rubbed my eye and looked at the folder's content.

"Visha, did you stealth cast an illusion?"

"No."

The Chinese Soviet Republic's Chairman requested a visit to Germania for talks with their President. Me.

I reached for my phone and hesitated. Who do I even call first to ask what to do? Was this some sort of a joke?


AN:

CGP Grey's "Rules for Rulers" video which sums up President Paul's situation: /rStL7niR7gs?t=854

Historical context on the civil servants strike: wiki/Kapp_Putsch#Reactions

In Berlin, the strike started on 14 March and by the next day it had spread all over the Reich. It was the most powerful strike in the history of Germany, involving up to 12 million workers. The country was paralysed. In Berlin the gas, water and power supply stopped.[3]: 226 [14]

With the country paralyzed, Kapp and Lüttwitz were unable to govern; in Berlin, communication between military units was by courier only. The rank and file of the bureaucracy were on strike, and there were no newspapers. Proclamations asking the workers to return to their jobs, promises of new elections and even the threat of capital punishment for strikers remained without results and the Putsch collapsed on 17 March, four days after it had begun.[3]: 226

Context on the Berun police making all of the rioters as "assistance to law enforcement": wiki/Refusing_to_assist_a_police_officer

Reference to the helicopter evacuation: wiki/Romanian_Revolution#Military_defection_and_Ceau's_fall

As for the "Buckethead" candidate and comedy show reference:

watch?v=Z7EdJtTG354

watch?v=A-XubUsTy1s

watch?v=-9smD823aE0