AN:
Massive credit to Vasilisa for significantly revising a large portion of this chapter for better character interactions, perfect_shade for advising me on how to setup the scenes, and Readhead for his revisions through the chapter.
1952, October 28th, in Iberia-Colchis, part of the now collapsed Caucasia:
The plan was straightforward. I had already held a luncheon, a press meeting and a public speech in Crimea, all of which were well received overall. It seemed the people of the critical peninsula were relieved to see me back.
Unfortunately, that congenial mood hadn't extended to their former countrymen here in Iberia-Colchis. This crowd was clearly more skeptical and less welcoming than the Crimeans had been. I suspected the reception would be more than a little frosty, based on Anna's reports from the "polling agents" in this region. Over my career in politics, I had given enough speeches that I didn't need the help of a stealth optical spell to know when I'm dealing with a tough crowd.
Oh well; Once my tour here finished up, I would be heading back to Germania to plan for the CSR's Chairman visit scheduled for early December. Hopefully that summit would go as well as my Crimean sojourn.
I don't blame the locals at all for their suspicion. They were far closer to the Russy Confederation than even Dacia, and would be rightfully worried about what my successor would do when I eventually retired for good. Not to mention there were bound to be communist agents in the region, which meant abundant security precautions and even more abundant paranoia prevailed in the western Caucasus..
Still, it could have been worse. While the Colchisans were suspicious, they weren't outright hostile. Based on their attitude alone, if nothing else, I was cautiously hoping that this visit would be more productive than my trip to the Legadonia Entente so many years ago.
As I stepped up to the microphone with a translator next to me, both of us behind multiple panes of thick ballistic glass, I powered up my stealth casted shielding with an added boost, just in case anyone tried something more serious than regular bullets. I also spun up a magic painkiller dose, for the inevitable headache the stealth casted spells would begin to assert by the end of my speech.
"Only three and a half years ago," I began, "the Germanian government broke their promises and betrayed Caucasia. Betrayed all of you."
I paused for a moment.
"In our paranoia over a potentially communist candidate who took part in the elections, we inadvertently dealt Caucasia's democracy a mortal blow by backing a candidate who claimed that he would fight communism on our behalf. All of you paid the price for that decision. I regret our choice for a number of reasons, and I intend to learn from it and to take steps to ensure that no other democracies are trampled in a similar manner by other fearful overreactions."
I spun up my optical spell for a brief moment to see the crowd's reactions. Overall, their reactions ranged from surprise to acute disbelief. How unfortunate.
"But, the past cannot be undone, and so we must look to the future," I continued, trying to get the speech back on a more optimistic track. "It's time for us to make the best of our bad situation. As the President of Germania, I will be returning to the policies that predated President Paul, the policies that worked before. I will direct OZEV's foreign policy towards the promotion of stability and democracy in Iberia-Colchis and Crimea."
The ballistic glass suddenly shattered and the shards of what had to be a 30 or 40mm shell deflected off the now visible surface of my stealth casted shield. The barely controlled throbbing headache from maintaining that shield went away as the spell lapsed. Ah, that brought back memories of fighting in North Africa and dealing with the Albish snipers who picked off mages using massive 40mm sniper rifles, and nearly took my head off as well.
A voice spell from a BND mage agent crackled in my ear as I spotted glimpses of gunfire in the distance. 'We've identified the location of the sniper and are suppressing them with return fire. Moving in to apprehend. Stay in cover. Evacuate the crowd.'
No, I don't think I will. Visha will hate me for this, but I need the people here to believe that the rule of law has returned, that government by assassination is over. I need them to believe that I will help them and stand by them in the face of those who would overturn the law for their own ends. Right now, I need to help them stop screaming and panicking at this pathetic assassination attempt.
I contemptuously stepped over the broken glass and up to the very lip of the stage before letting the people know that I wasn't done yet with a magically reinforced shout of "Attention!"
That got some of them to pause.
I cleared my throat and continued speaking, occasionally tapping my reflex spells to suddenly jerk around to throw off the would-be sniper, and ignoring the panicked voice spells from the BND mage telling me to not risk my life.
"I've been in more dangerous situations than this, and this so-called sniper is putting up a pathetic effort" I said dismissively, neatly sidestepping as another bullet whizzed past overhead. "Regardless of whatever violence the communists attempt, we will not submit to their terroristic demands. A government that does not represent its people does not deserve to be in charge."
Another communication spell from a BND agent whispered in my ear. 'Suspect has been disarmed. Literally. We're providing first aid before taking him into custody.'
"But I need your help in this long journey to a free, prosperous and safe society. Because the alternative from the communists is THAT!" I shouted, pointing at the fresh bullet hole in the wall behind me, only centimeters above my head's height.
1952, November 20th, in Berun:
I yawned as I leafed through my morning reports, before taking a sip of coffee.
"Hmmm, the nuclear science department is petitioning yet again for funding for 'new generation' bomb designs, eh?" I murmured to myself. I thought for a moment, before taking my stamp and imprinting a large red NEIN on the request form. And for a good measure, I used my orb to carve my signature under that stamp. I jotted a note in the margin, explaining that there was insufficient budget for Germania to pursue both nuclear weapons development and nuclear power development at the same time.
At this point, the scientists' priority right now should be ensuring that as many of the already-built nuclear power plants can operate safely at full capacity to provide power in the event of a potential oil shortage, as well as working on safer nuclear power plant designs. Oh, and if they could figure out a non-weapons use for the ever growing pile of weapons grade plutonium, that would be great. In other words, further weapons' development was now at the bottom of the list of funding priorities.
Speaking of which, I'll need to check if the Unified States would be interested in buying our plutonium. Global nuclear proliferation is of course a concern, but it was only a matter of time before the Americans revealed their own pile of nuclear weapons. And I could count on them to not nuke me, especially if I was the one selling them their fissible material.
I set the document in my Out tray and moved on to the international affairs intelligence briefs. The first summed up a series of reports from the BND regarding a series of suspicious bombings and drive-by-shootings primarily targeting cafes throughout the Francois Republic. Initial public news reports blamed the attacks on pro-Algerian elements. The attacks had caught the BND's attention after at least six known SCE, national police and military members were identified among the victims in the attacks.
In the BND's assessment, either the pro-Algerian actors had suddenly become markedly more competent as well as bold enough to launch such high profile attacks, hinting at significant foreign support, or the pro-Algerian actors were being scapegoated and something else was happening. Elya's girls also found the SCE and civilian police response to be curiously lethargic; they seemed to be struggling with their investigations of the attacks, attacks actively targeting their members.
The report's author had left a footnote theorizing that there might be major infighting within the Frankish government that had escalated to outright violence between the rival factions, based on the increasing political divide within the Frankish public and the government over their colonial war situation.
But the report's author also noted that they deemed that particular theory as an unlikely long shot. It was far more probable, the BND thought, that the communists were out for revenge for turning the Chinese spies into fish food.
With a roll of my eyes, I set the report aside. As long as the attacks don't spill over into Germania, I could care less about the Francois Republic reaping what they sowed with their mindlessly aggressive activities. How ironic that they had no issue conducting terrorism in Germania, yet struggled to deal with terrorism on their own soil!
The next report in the stack was regarding the Legadonia Entente and Suomi. I had put out feelers to them about some sort of a cooperation where OZEV could fund their electrical grid and hydroelectric infrastructure, and in return OZEV would get some of their electricity generation. The two countries had yet to say anything other than "still reviewing the request".
It better not be the damn Albish who is pressuring them in the backdoors to make it hard for us. Elya had previously briefed me on the Allied Kingdom having an unusual diplomatic interest in the Nordic Council.
The third report covered the deteriorating situation between New Granada and Brasilia. They had occasional border skirmishes in the past, but now it was rapidly escalating to sustained artillery barrages and air strikes. Apparently the escalation ignited when a border guard shot his commanding officer and then fled across the border, and the demand for his extradition was refused by the other country. Both countries declared general mobilization for "defense of their homeland" in response.
Since then, Peru had issued an ultimatum to New Granada to cease attacking Brasilia, while Brasilia had warned Platia to stop its military build-up in the disputed border areas that Brasilia and Platia had claimed for decades. Paraguay, Uruguay, Guiana, Suriname and the rest had all declared neutrality, but the BND predicted there was a possibility that at least one of those neutral countries sitting between the combatant countries would end up getting invaded if one side tried to outflank the other.
The only country expected to not involve itself was Francois Guiana, unless the Francois Republic dared to test the Unified States' commitment to its Monroe Doctrine.
It seems Latin America was not content to be left out of the fun of experiencing a continent-wide war, and wanted to create a European total war hellscape all for themselves. I suppose I should be grateful that I didn't have to fight in the jungles for months on end as a regular soldier. It would be a novel experience to witness a significant conflict that neither I nor my country held any stake in.
I frowned, trying to remember what the original cause of this escalating brouhaha even was, since the border guard incident was truthfully the latest in a long run of flashpoints. Something about an attempted coup in New Granada last year and Brasilia being blamed for orchestrating it? Or was that some random memory dredged up from something I'd read in my previous life?
'Eh, not my problem. If the Americans wanted to cling to their Monroe Doctrine, then they can have fun enforcing it,' I mentally shrugged before filing the report away.
As I skimmed through a report updating me on the state of the economy, I heard a knock. I hit a button on my desk and the automatic door swung open, admitting Elya into my office.
"Good morning," the endlessly perky woman chirped. "Sorry to bother you."
"Miss Caldwell?"
Elya nodded. "She's waiting by your car."
"Then let's get this show on the road." I stood and grabbed my coat. I double checked a pre-made magic illusion presentation that I had prepared for the nuclear power plant tour.
Millicent Caldwell was as vivacious as ever, decked out in the latest vibrant American fashions, which seemed to favor frills and wild colors this season. As usual, she towered over me. "Good afternoon, President Degurechaff!" she chirped, big blue eyes sparkling brightly.
"Acting Caretaker President. Please, Milly, you can always just call me Tanya," I smiled. It was impressive how much this seasoned journalist just shy of 40 years old could still come across as some wide-eyed ingenue. I wasn't going to fall for her standard "innocent and awkward" act though. That had almost worked on me once, all the way back in the 1940s when she first interviewed me, but I had long since grown wise to her bag of journalistic tricks.
"Haha, I don't think I'll ever get used to that," she chuckled. "And this is my photographer, Jimmy."
I nodded at the bashful redhead standing behind her.
"I'm so excited, I've never visited a nuclear power station before," she gushed, as my chauffeur drove us along the autobahn.
"It's unfortunately not as grand a sight as it could be," I sighed. I wasn't taking the American sightseeing to one of Germania's operational state-of-the-art plants that had finished their safety upgrades and were authorized to run at full reactor power. Instead, we were going to the reactor that melted down a year ago and had been successfully contained under the cyclopean containment structures before visiting one of Paul's hastily-thrown-together abominations, which still remained shut down as its containment structure construction was stalled indefinitely due to complications caused by installing it after the initial reactor construction.
It was undeniably a risk, exhibiting one of my country's worst boondoggles to the foreign media, but I was gambling that the very risk of a PR hit from Millie's exposee would help awaken the world to the incredible dangers of nuclear energy and convince them of the necessity of taking safety precautions with all the seriousness they deserved.
If airing one of Germania's pieces of dirty laundry in public could prevent future Chernobyls and Three Mile Islands, then I could put up with the national embarrassment.
Besides, the best way to counter an ambush was to spring it on your terms; likewise, the trick to handling a potential scandal is to take the initiative in revealing it. Doing so was far preferable to waiting for someone to eventually leak the information because it gave me the chance to control the narrative from the start. I've seen too many instances of scandals being poorly handled in my previous life. Not to mention the greatest value from past mistakes came from the lessons that could be gleaned from the experience; suppressing any awareness of said mistakes crippled institutional development.
General Ugar, as the man in charge of the nuclear program, was on site to welcome the four of us, as were Lergen, Weiss and Zettour. Strictly speaking, a few low-level flunkies would have served as perfectly adequate tour guides, but I'd felt it would add more weight for our journalist visitors if some of Germania's military heavy-hitters were in attendance. My own warnings could be dismissed by foreigners as political bluster, but the same couldn't be said for them. They had a kind of gravitas I could only dream of possessing.
Ugar knew the ropes, and immediately turned on the charm. He had Milly and Jimmy all but eating out of his hands as he led the way through the facility, pointing out areas of interest and highlighting the additional, newly installed safety equipment. Elya and I followed a half-step behind, flanked by Weiss and Zettour. I had to work to keep the ironic smile off my face. Perhaps it was time to drag Ugar out of the military and give him a cabinet position? Germania could surely use his schmoozing skills.
"How does it feel coming out of retirement and returning to office with Viktoriya Serebryakov?" Milly suddenly turned and asked me. I was a little taken aback by her boldness. I couldn't tell if she was genuinely interested in hearing about how I really felt about being ripped out of my retirement because President Paul kept making incredibly poor decisions, or if she was going to try to bait me into something. I couldn't underestimate her, especially after Elya had reported that Milly had been writing articles about her own world tour after the Bharatian War.
"Well, I wished we could have remained in retirement." I sighed, letting my shoulders droop slightly. "We could have gone for another world tour!"
"You could still visit countries! I saw the newsreels about your visits to Crimea and Iberia-Colchis!"
"Unfortunately," I dryly replied, "there were some minor expectations that I would get some work done while on those official visits. Completely unfair, I'm sure you would agree." Worryingly, Milly just nodded at that and once again I felt the sinking realization that I had just shot my mouth off in front of a reporter.
Quickly hurrying along to bury my minor gaff, I continued. "Gone are the days where I could swim with my love through a coral reef off the coast of the Akitsushima Dominion, free of any worry about geopolitics. Or hike through the tropical forest and up the mountains in Hawaii of the Unified States without considering the many problems of our day."
"But while you were vacationing in Akitsushima, you helped the Emperor survive a coup," Milly said with an impertinent wink. "You just gave a speech and the coup melted away on the spot! That's not exactly a typical tourist activity, Tanya!"
"Eh, that speech was improvised on the spot to distract the coup plotters from storming the TV station." I shrugged. "I was just buying time."
Milly raised an eyebrow. "Oh? If my sources are correct, you were also in California the same day that the Shockley Semiconductor Company imploded."
Damn, she's getting good at baiting me into traps.
"What are you getting at?" I asked with a neutral tone.
"The point that I'm making is that regardless of you being in retirement or in office, you keep setting major historical trends. Akitsushima Dominion's Emperor had been steadily rolling out democratic reforms and working with the Unified States on economic deals. And there have been talks of a 'silicon valley' in California with the recent breakthrough of FRD Semiconductors developing commercially viable silicon based transistors, which had drawn the attention of several major investors to the nascent semiconductor industry. I've tried to understand how transistors work, admittedly without success, but you seem adamant that they will change computing and the rest of society too."
"I'm not sure if I should take that as a compliment, or…"
"Tanya! Sorry, President Degurechaff, I'm just saying that you have been severely understating how much work you have done, even in retirement!"
Okay, now she's just trying to play kiss up. I'll go along with it.
"I see…" I tapped my chin. "While we're on the topic about our personal adventures, how about yours?"
"I had some heated arguments with my mother." Milly sighed. "My mother has been insistent that I settle down in recent years. As you can imagine, that notion disagreed with me quite a bit, causing friction between us but I believe I have found a compromise neither of us is happy with."
Oh? Why would her mother try to curtail her highly successful career? Wouldn't her mother be proud that her daughter is a major contributor to society? Maybe she's trying a new way to get me to lower my guard? I've never had a reporter who tried that method on me. I might as well play along with it.
"And what have you been doing instead?" I raised an eyebrow.
"Well. I did find a fiance that I will be marrying soon, per her wishes." Milly smirked. I glanced at Elya for a split second and noticed that she had a brief surprised look on her face before she suppressed it.
"Oh, congratulations." I blinked a bit. It seems that even Elya was not aware of this abrupt upcoming marriage. They must have met and fell in love in a short time, or far outside of the BND's view. "I didn't know a wedding was in the cards for you. Well done, I suppose." I coughed self-consciously, trying to remember long-disused protocol for discussing important milestones in a coworker's life. "So that would eventually make you Mrs… Ah, who are you going to marry?"
"Another journalist, from Ispagna. His name is António Maia. He can't return to his home country after getting trouble with the Ispagnish authorities for his coverage of Ispagna's counterinsurgency operations. My mother really lost it when she learned that he had an active arrest warrant from Ispagna. Screamed something about how it was unacceptable to marry a criminal on the run from the law." Milly sighed, but then perked up. "If you're interested, I can send a wedding invitation to you and Visha though!"
Right, Ispagna also has their own colonies, and is stuck in the same sinking boat that the Francois Republic and the Allied Kingdom refuse to get off of. All of them wasting blood and resources on their vanity colonies. And he probably wouldn't be welcomed in those two countries, or worse, get extradited back to Ispagna.
Wait, a wedding invitation?! Is she trying to boost her career by inviting Visha and me? Or is it another way to rub into her unhappy mother's face?
"I don't see why he would have any problems in Germania. Freedom of the press is very important for us." I smiled before teasing her a bit. "I have no grounds to judge anybody for their controversial matrimonial decisions, after all, not after all the controversies that arose from my relationship with Visha going public. As for the wedding invitation, please let me know the date so I can check my calendar for any scheduling conflicts. I know Visha will be thrilled."
"I can be flexible with my marriage scheduling!" Milly beamed with a wide smile. "You two are busy taking care of the Germanian government, and I don't want to interfere with that!"
"Speaking of Visha, how have you two been doing lately?"
Now was probably not the best time for absolute candor on that matter, as I was currently in the doghouse after putting myself into harm's way again without Visha being beside me. She was unmollified at my insistence that I had taken all the necessary safety precautions with the BND and the Germanian military patrols combing the place, and not to mention the stupidly thick protective glass. It's not my fault some crazed commie had chosen to conceal himself and a 40mm anti-mage rifle in an attic for days leading up to the speech in an effort to evade my security team's screening efforts.
"We have our ups and downs." I sighed, but then smiled. "But in the end, I still love her and look forward to retiring for good once the situation in Germania stabilizes and spending my time with her."
"Retiring for good? If that's a joke, I'm not getting it." Milly tilted her head in confusion.
"It's not good for a democracy for someone to rule the country for decades." I cleared my throat to shift the topic a little. "What have you and your fiance been up to anyways?"
"I hope you didn't mind him setting up shop in Germania, although he'll also be working in the Unified States as well. As for what we have been doing... Lots of world tours! We were in South America last year, and had been interviewing government officials in New Granada and Brasilia. At that time, it seemed as if they were getting close to coming to a peace agreement, but… Well, you probably saw today's news."
"Of course I don't mind," I assured her, "If Ispangna wants us to turn him over on the basis of providing coverage that is inconvenient for their government, then they can keep wasting paper and ink on their petitions to us. As for today's news... Yes, it is deeply unfortunate that they are on the path to repeating all of the horrors that Europe went through only two decades ago. What was the damned fool thing up in the mountains this time?"
"This time? Brasilia is a bit unhappy about New Granada claiming they were behind the assassination of their president and his wife. But, they already had long running border disputes before that." Milly narrowed her eyes. "Disputes over resource access had certainly fueled the tensions between the two countries, such as oil fields that both sides are tapping into. Government officials on both sides had taken notice of the Unified States ceasing to be an oil exporter country, and the turmoil in the Middle East. They wanted to cash in on the two opportunities.
"You know," she continued conversationally, "I looked at the material that the oil companies' representatives used to persuade the two countries to aggressively tap into their oil deposits; they made extensive use of your books. Also, your presentation to OZEV back in 1942 which predicted the Unified States' oil consumption exceeding their production featured prominently."
Oh, that presentation. I had almost forgotten about it. How I missed that quiet period after the second Europan War before the Bharatian War kicked off.
"Greed brings out the worst of us," I sighed. I hadn't expected my books and that presentation to have that sort of impact on the world. I looked to the side and noticed Lergen had an oddly suspicious look on his face, but he coughed and turned away when he noticed I had seen him.
"Something that I found interesting was that both sides had been approached by the oil companies from Daneland and Dacia for exploratory offshore drilling. And those companies were aggressive with seeking new oil sources after their costly losses in Caucasia. Which might also explain why both countries had also been seeking foreign warship purchases to build up their naval fleets, and production licenses for budget equipment, vehicles and maybe even vessels."
"And those oil companies were able to afford those expensive lobbyist schmoozing, oil prospecting and oil extraction research, despite the losses in Caucasia, thanks to significant state subsidies from Daneland and Dacia." Elya tapped her pen on her notebook. "I imagine those companies are under pressure to deliver results now, or else."
Ah, President Paul's continuation of the offshore drilling research that started with my approval before I tried retiring, and his incompetence that lead to the oil companies being forced out of Caucasia, helped lead to a war in South America? That's a butterfly effect I wasn't expecting. The Suez Canal being under threat certainly hadn't helped either by jacking up oil prices to drive the market demand.
"Hmmm. I wonder what countries have they approached?" I mused, as the car came to a stop at a checkpoint. The driver presented his documents, and the guard froze up for a second upon seeing all of us inside the car, before saluting us
"The elephant in the room for them is the Unified States. They're afraid of accidentally pushing the Unified States into helping their enemy."
Now that I'm thinking about it, the Germanian Navy's destroyer fleet has been operating well past their expected lifespan. But there's no budget to replace them with newer destroyer designs that only exist on paper, mockup models and scattered prototype components. Maybe I could sell the old destroyers to the two sides and use the profits to launch new destroyer designs, with the option of ordering more ships when the Germanian budget is in a better condition. And the Germanian army and airforce have plenty of older stuff to sell and license. As long as Germania's arms sales to both sides don't show any favoritism and are publicized, the Unified States can't cry foul over that unless they want to admit that they want to have a monopoly on foreign arms sales to the war.
Although I would need to have to hold talks with the Americans first to avoid harming our relationship. In the worst case situation, I could offer them a cut of the profit to see things our way.
"While we're on the topic about President Paul, what policies do you plan on changing after his sudden resignation?" Milly looked down at her notebook. "I'd imagine there were many policies that he enacted that you didn't agree with?"
"It's certainly been busy." I chuckled. "Just finding people to appoint to various vacant positions has been taking up a large portion of my time. Who would have guessed that an unpopular leader would have trouble finding competent people to work for them? While I agree with Paul's decision to rapidly scale back Germania's reliance on oil and using nuclear energy as one of the substitutes, I hated the idea of stripping away safety systems for nuclear reactors. The result of that, you can see for yourself."
I gestured towards the reactor that had melted down inside of its containment structure, which became its tomb. Now there was a construction crew working around it, digging around the foundation with an excavator.
"What's going on here?" Millie asked.
"Ensuring the containment structure of the melted down reactor will remain an impenetrable tomb for decades to come. Including checking the underground structure for any cracks that could allow radioactive leaks into the groundwater, and also building a concrete bathtub around it as a further precaution." I sighed. "Imagine if this reactor didn't have a containment structure as Paul had demanded, and spewed its invisible death across Germania."
Jimmy dutifully snapped away with his enormous camera. "For now, the focus will be upgrading the unsafe reactors that were built under Paul's authority so that they will never threaten Germania again, as there are still some reactors that are shut down. The budget is a bit tight right now."
"I recall the last time President Paul mentioned shifting Germania away from oil, it was met with public skepticism." Milly raised an eyebrow.
Naturally people are hesitant to spend money on things that might not be necessary, right up until a disaster does occur that makes those precautions necessary.
"Until the situation in Aegyptus calms down and there is a guarantee that there won't be any funny business with the Suez Canal, I cannot let a potential conflict over the Suez Canal threaten OZEV with a shortage of oil. Best to diversify our energy sources now rather than later." I pointed at a map hanging on the wall. "While Malagasy would benefit from greatly increased shipping traffic if the canal is shut down, it would have an overall negative economic impact for everyone."
"What's your plan for the rest of OZEV?" Milly asked curiously. "They don't have access to nuclear power."
"And I don't expect to be running a profit with nuclear power, or the build up of wind turbines." I frowned. "I am willing to take the risk of having Germania go without some luxuries to prepare for hard times ahead, and I ask the rest of OZEV to pitch in. Our economies are all interconnected, so if one of us stumbles, we will all go down with them. It is essential that we help each other succeed."
"You seem to have done your research on Aegyptus to be this concerned."
"After the explosion incident in the Suez Canal; that was I realized just how much of our economic lifeblood flows through its banks. Which was why I took an interest in it." A thought struck me. "Just out of curiosity, were you also in the Middle East during your world tour?"
"Yes, I was. I was able to get a lot of interviews, with leaders, officials and average people on the street," she said proudly.
We all perked up with interest. You could never have too much intelligence. Milly blushed a bit under our combined gaze.
"I'm still working on the drafts, but I can share some details from my articles. I can only speak for what I've personally witnessed, but I believe the Albish and Frankish might be underestimating the public mood that is set against them."
"I'm assuming the general population in Aegyptus is very much against the Albish and Frankish?"
"It's more than Aegyptus."
"So Nasser's popular reach extends into other countries…" I glanced at Elya. A slight nod showed that Millie's findings aligned with her own polls.
"The vast majority of the populations in the countries next to Aegyptus also dislike the Albish and Frankish," Millie explained. "Some pro-Algerian actors were also in the different countries, and it appears the monarchies that have connections with the Francois Republic have been trying to suppress them."
"I doubt the suppression is yielding the results that the monarchies and the Frankish were hoping for," Lergen said with a wry smile.
"Indeed. My information is all anecdotal of course, but some of the general public I've interviewed claimed to know at least one other person who had gone off to volunteer to fight in Algeria against the Frankish."
Ugar, Zettur, Lergen and I shared a look. Ah, the influx of foreign fighters. A bane to any counterinsurgency operation. And there's bound to be a flow of materiel and money into Algeria from the Middle East.
"How much do you think the Albish and Frankish are aware of the public mood in the Middle East?" I asked.
Elya added in her own two cents. "Historically, it didn't matter to them. And I wouldn't be surprised if they continue to treat the populace with indifference."
Millie nodded in agreement.
"It's one thing to know about the general population's mood. I've always wondered how the Aegyptian government feels about the Albish and Frankish ratcheting up the pressure on them?" I mused. "From the outside the Aegyptians appear to believe they can win a war."
"President Nasser is adamant that it's all a bluff from the Albish and Frankish."
"Oh? Where is he getting his confidence from?"
From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Elya was quietly taking notes.
"He assumed that the Albish and Frankish are aware that the countries next to Aegyptus have their own rumblings of discontent in their population. He explained that even if those countries join the war against Aegyptus, they will have to simultaneously deal with major unrest. And both European powers are busy with existing colonial wars. The Allied Kingdom is busy with their Malayan Emergency and helping Lothiern prop up their East Indies. The Francois Republic is busy with Algeria and Indochina. And those three countries also have African colonies to worry about."
"What makes him so certain that the other countries in the Middle East would erupt in riots if they declared war on Aegyptus?"
"He claims there is deep discontent in those countries against their ruling monarchies that are seen as European puppets, and that while Aegyptus's revolution is the first successful one in the region, Aegyptus's problems before the revolution mirrored many of the other countries' problems as well. The brutal war in Algeria had not gone unnoticed despite the Frankish attempts at censoring any information coming out of there."
"What about the other countries' government officials that you interviewed?"
"On surface, they all expressed pro-Albish and pro-Frankish views. But you read between the lines, they were very clearly indicating that in the event of a conflict with Aegyptus, the two European countries would need a sizable military force to not only defeat Aegyptus, but to also suppress the inevitable insurgency. And the countries next to Aegyptus might need to keep a large portion of their military forces garrisoned back home to deal with the inevitable protests. There's also a real concern about how many military units and commanders would be more loyal to Aegyptus than to the monarchies, as Aegyptus's revolution was ignited by their military. Especially if the monarchies order the invasion of Aegyptus."
"And if mass rioting and insurgency flares up in the Middle East, many of those foreign fighters in Algeria will likely return home to train people on how to fight." Lergen tapped on his chin. "I don't see any viable military means of dealing with that level of catastrophe. But it seems the Albish and Frankish are set on using their military to solve a political problem, like what we previously did in Caucasia."
"Did they mention anything about their interactions with the Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic?" I pressed on with my questions.
"Officially they said they would like those two countries to try to win the hearts and minds of the people and not do anything that could threaten the stability of the monarchies." Millie paused for a moment. "But we both know what that really means."
"They're politely telling the Albish and the Frankish to not piss off the populace and force the monarchies into unstable situations."
"Indeed." Milly sighed as she looked at the results of a different unstable situation. Namely, the giant smoking crater that had once been a fissile material storehouse.
The thoughts of Elya's reports from the Middle East came flooding into my mind. If my history knowledge from my previous life was correct, the Middle East had a very complicated history with European powers for quite a while, and then ended up being a blood-soaked chessboard between the US and the USSR in the following cold war. Of course there were some that tried to pursue a non-aligned path, but they were still stuck on that chessboard. Now that I'm thinking about it, I wonder at what point in my previous life when the European powers such as the UK and France finally realized that their colonial days were over? Could this brewing Aegyptus crisis be the straw that breaks their backs? My mind spun wildly. It was like watching a slow motion train derailment, with the Albish and the Frankish on the train and being oblivious to the disaster of their own making, and Aegyptus refusing to get off the rails because they were convinced the train would be stopped in time. The worst of all, is that the rest of Europe and South Bharat would be negatively impacted from the Suez Canal and the surrounding area being turned into a war zone.
Milly seemed to have noticed something was off. "Tanya, you look pale. Are you okay?"
I blinked a few times. "No, I'm fine. I was just thinking of something."
"Whatever that you were thinking of, it seemed to have bothered you greatly." Milly looked worried for me. "I've never seen you look this concerned before. Not even during the middle of the Akinese coup when you were staring down rebellious military personnel."
"All I can do is hope the Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic don't start shooting their way into Aegyptus."
"What will Germania's stance be should the conflict escalates?"
"All I can say is that I would be deeply annoyed if I had to clean up the Albish and Frankish mess in the Middle East."
I paused for a moment to end the interview on a positive note. "I am hoping for some de-escalation of tensions with the Chinese Soviet Republic before the Albish and Frankish cause too much trouble. Their Chairman is coming to Germania early next month."
"Ohhhhh…" Milly's eyes opened wide. "I'll clear my schedule then! What do you plan on discussing?"
"I am not sure what plans he has in mind, but if can avoid a shooting conflict, I'll take that as a win."
"Ladies and gentlemen, we're almost at the second reactor site." the driver announced.
"I hope you have plenty of film to spare for photos of how to not build a nuclear power plant." I smiled. "Would be a shame if this plant actually went up in flames before it was shut down for its safety overhaul."
As we stepped out of the car, that was when I poured mana into my orb and fired up my illusion to show everyone what an accident at an unshielded reactor would look like.
Everyone seemed to have been startled or jumped back a bit at the illusion of the reactor's flimsy building roof being blown open and burning graphite blocks flying out of a raging inferno, with thick black smoke quickly lifting into the air. Jimmy hesitated for a moment, and withdrew a recording camera from his bag to film the illusions.
"This is what would have happened if the plant that had the accident didn't have the concrete tomb holding all of the radioactive smoke and dust inside!" I shouted. "I couldn't simulate the pressure waves and heat sensation, and I didn't want to deafen all of you with the noise of the explosion, so this is the best I can do."
"How dangerous would the smoke and dust be?" Millie asked.
I turned to General Ugar. "You've worked with the nuclear scientists long enough. What do you think?"
He hesitated for several seconds before speaking. "It would burn. And won't stop burning until all of the fuel has been depleted, which would take a long time. Short of diverting an entire river into the reactor or somehow acquiring truckloads of boron to drive them off of a ramp and fly into the reactor, I don't know any feasible way of stopping a self-sustaining, burning reactor."
"I think she wanted to know what would happen to plants, animals and humans in the vicinity." I retorted.
"Ah. It would be bad. A large portion of Germania would have to be evacuated, or people will die from radiation exposure. Any food grown in central Europe would be potentially dangerous to consume. All sorts of health problems related to high radiation exposure would plague Europe for at least decades."
"And if I looked into a burning reactor?"
"Uhhhh…" General Ugar stared off in the distance. "It would not be good. Any photos or films you take would be destroyed from the intense radiation."
"So why build the reactors in the first place?" Jimmy spoke up for the first time.
"The alternative is to have OZEV on their knees every time an oil problem comes up. Without the free flow of oil imports from the Unified States during the Second Europan War, I don't see any feasible way of winning a war against the Russy Federation. At best it would be a slogging stalemate. And the situation has gotten worse with OZEV's collective demand for energy has skyrocketed over the past decade. The growth of nuclear, hydroelectric, and minor wind power has not kept up." I glared at him. "For a country's very sovereignty being held like a leash over something they have no control, does that country really have self-rule?"
I paused for a moment. "But that doesn't mean we will take unacceptable risks. Even if the reactor operators were all drunk and untrained. Even if all of the first and second line of safety systems fail. A reactor failure will not threaten Germania. And if another country pursues nuclear power, I would hope they would take similar precautions, and not copy Paul's recklessness. I have already instructed our nuclear scientists to develop safer reactor designs that don't have nuclear weapons usage."
"Speaking of hydropower, what about the Legadonia Entente and Suomi?" Millie asked "I have read that they have been struggling with funding the construction of new dams and electrical lines to them."
"I have reached out to those two governments earlier this month. They said they were reviewing my proposal of assisting them in the construction." I shrugged my shoulders. "It would be beneficial for them. OZEV would get reliable electricity supply that won't be affected by something dumb happening in the Middle East. They would get additional jobs from the construction and operation of the new infrastructure, and a steady revenue from electricity sales."
As everyone continued staring at the illusion of a reactor burning, I hope they will never see an actual reactor explosion, or the usage of a nuclear weapon. Maybe the communists will get the message about the horrors of a nuclear war if we keep escalating things.
AN:
Cafe war reference: wiki/Caf_Wars
References to the border guard's murder and escape: wiki/Werner_Weinhold
watch?v=7fSEbr5dnf0&t=46s
Venezuela's oil industry dominated their economy as early as 1929. And considering that region in this story is close to the New Granada and Brasilia border, it's going to be a conflict area: wiki/History_of_the_Venezuelan_oil_industry#First_Dutch_Disease
Aegyptus radio station reference: wiki/Voice_of_the_Arabs
Nasser's popularity in the Middle East: /RYiGIQLo98s?t=957
Historical context on monarchies in the Middle East having issues with their military forces defecting to Egypt: /business/john-f-kennedys-yemen-crisis/
But Kennedy also made it clear to the crown prince that he believed the most serious threat to the survival of the House of Saud came from within the country. Unless Saudi Arabia took steps to modernize, Kennedy believed the monarchy was doomed. In the private one-on-one, Faisal promised to abolish slavery in Saudi Arabia, begin woman's education, and end arbitrary arrest and confinement. It was an extraordinary and unique moment in America's relationship with the kingdom, the only time an American president has intervened successfully in the kingdom's internal affairs.
...
The CIA warned the president that both Saudi Arabia and Jordan were highly vulnerable to their own revolutionaries. Hussein told the U.S. ambassador in Amman, "I wonder who will be next, King Saud or me?" Both kingdoms were militarily weak. The Saudis could barely summon 5,000 combat-ready troops. The Royal Saudi Air Force had to be confined to staying on the ground because of repeated defections of planes and pilots to Egypt. The Royal Jordanian Air Force, Hussein's pride and joy, sent six fighters to Saudi Arabia to help defend the kingdom; the squadron commander and two aircraft defected to Egypt.
On a side note, I found this video of a Victoria 2 multiplayer "South American Thunderdome" after writing this chapter: watch?v=tHAJEYWSHgk