AN: Credits to Vasilisa, perfect_shade and Readhead for feedback and revisions.

Maps for some of the scenes are on the Spacebattle forum.

1953, August 13th, in the recently occupied Syria, next to the border with Mesopotamia:

Rubbing eyes bleary after scanning aerial reconnaissance photos, informants' reports and maps of Mesopotamia for many hours, Ali Pasha looked up at his camp aides.

"It's time to make our move," the Turkmen general announced. "The Qajarians are lined up along Mesopotamia's eastern border, and they will strike anytime now."

"We haven't received the order to invade yet," one of his aides objected, his voice brimming with worry.

"The Qajarians have threatened to counter-invade if we cross the border, which could result in Mesopotamia becoming a stalemated battleground. We should at least wait until our forces in southern Syria finish breaking the last of the Syrian resistance so they can join us in invading Mesopotamia," another aide joined in, adding his contribution to the discussion.

"My father is the Grand Vizier of the proud Turkmen Empire, we don't need an order to invade! And the Qajarians are merely trying to delay us so they can finish their preparations and make the first move!" Ali's voice softened. "I understand your concerns, but a general must take action when the moment is right. At present, the Albish are bogged down in Aegyptus and the Lothiern East Indies. The Frankish are bogged down in Aegyptus, Algeria and Indochina. The Germanians are bogged down in Francois and Eastern Europe. The Rumelians are busy crying about our annexation of Cyprus. The Rus and Chinese are fighting each other for some reason. And the Americans are not involved at all. We will never find a better window of opportunity to restore the Empire."

Ali jabbed his finger at the map. "Look here. My elder brother Selim has already conquered all of Syria! While we sit here and twiddle our thumbs, he is leading his army into the Sinai Peninsula to crush the remaining Syrian forces! Selim has already claimed the glory of being the first victor in this war, I cannot risk him also coming over here to steal my victory as well! Nor can I allow the Qajarians to take the initiative in Mesopotamia. It is essential we strike first! When we conquer this miserable land in a lightning war, nobody in Ankara will question us! Then Saudistan will fall next, like a row of dominoes. It will be just like the glorious days under Sultan Osman!"

"When do we start our operation?" the first aide asked, still clearly worried. "We should at least wait another few weeks to consolidate our forces and build up our supplies. And there's also the matter of those mysterious shortages of equipment and provisions that we should have received from Ankara..."

"We move at the next dawn," Ali Pasha waved his hand dismissively. With that announcement, he strode out of the command post, ignoring the chorus of shock and dismay, and returned to his private tent. "Your information had better be correct," he growled.

"It is," the Chinese man replied, smiling placidly. "Our army is advancing to Caucasia and will be fortifying its position there, and Qajar will notice the threat to their northern border. We have made no secret of our movements. But they do not know whether we will attack them to escape from the advancing Rus and CSR forces or find another way to Xinjiang or Afghanistan. No matter what the king believes our intentions to be, he has no choice but to strengthen his northern flank. There will be no reinforcements coming to the aid of the army in front of you. And now for your side of the agreement ..."

"Don't worry, I've already prepared the weapons and supplies you wanted. But I will only give the order to airlift them to your leader once I successfully conquer Mosul."

"Excellent. We look forward to the supplies being flown to Caucasia for us to continue being a potential threat to Qajar and distracting their allies."

1953, August 16th, Mosul, Mesopotamia:

With a thunderous rumble, the Turkmen artillery launched another salvo down onto the city's outer defensive line. The fortifications shuddered, fragments of brick and shards of limestone ricocheting in all directions. Under the hail of shrapnel, the steel shards of the fragmenting shells enhanced by the flying debris, the defenders beat a hasty retreat, but quickly regrouped at another location slightly further back. As the pale dust settled, the garrison soldiers slowly crept back to their original positions. A volley of small-arms fire rang out in response but had little effect on the Turkmens.

"They're like rats clinging to a sinking ship." Ali Pasha shook his head pityingly.

"General," an aide announced, handing over a slip of paper, "our scouts have just delivered this message!"

Accepting it, Ali quickly skimmed the contents. "So the Qajarian vanguard will arrive in three days at the latest… Looks like we're out of time," he muttered to himself. He strode over to his command post.

"Colonel Kassim, we must occupy this city and prepare it to withstand a Qajarian assault within two days," he announced.

"But how to achieve this?" Kassim asked. "These Mesopotamians are weak, but they're clinging to their pile of ruins with surprising tenacity. We'll need to clear the defenders house by house if they keep resisting!"

"Their resistance is futile. Broadcast a message to the inhabitants on loudspeakers and on radio." Ali grinned coldly. "Tell them that they have 24 hours to lay down their arms and surrender the city to me. If they refuse to comply, we will blow up the Mosul Dam and wash them all the way into the Qajarian Gulf! If I can't have the city, neither will the Qajarians!"

Meanwhile, at a safehouse in Hambrück:

I took a sip of coffee and continued shuffling through my early morning paperwork. Elections to the Diet were slated for next month, but the wait felt like an eternity. I wasn't happy to hear that the GDU would likely secure an overwhelming number of seats, and that their political platform was a mere carbon copy of my policies to date. But what else could I do when there aren't any viable opposition groups? I'd just have to keep massaging the political parties, including the GDU, in the hopes of one day stimulating an actual functioning democracy.

The next page contained a summary of the events ongoing in the Russy Confederation. Apparently it had devolved into one hell of a mess where even the BND wasn't exactly sure what was going on or what had led to this point. There was now a rebel Chinese army blazing a path of ruin through central and southern Russy. It seemed like they were fighting whatever government the Russy had scraped together after the recent battle in Moskva after the rebels had accused the Rus of "betraying the communist revolution". Now, the main CSR military had joined the fray, apparently involving itself in the pursuit of the rebel army.

And all of this happened when there was supposed to be some sort of a major joint military exercise between the great communist powers.

One particular note was that Shu, when asked for his opinion, had claimed that the rebel army is likely under Li's control, pointing towards their accusation of the Rus as counter-revolutionaries and the speed with which the CSR had deployed forces to crush the rebels as his proof. This conclusion was something of a surprise, as the latest intel I'd been privy to put Li in western Jiuzhou doing his best to irritate his arch-rival Kang. Shu, for his part, had happily stepped up to join Li in causing headaches for Kang and had begun his own series of provocations for much the same reason. Shu hated Li as well, but since Li was in a far weaker state, it was in his interest to keep his two communist enemies actively killing each other for as long as possible while he built up Formosa for the "final victory".

The worst part was when Germania's ambassador had advised Shu to not escalate tensions, he had immediately replied that he was going to make it happen anyways using his personal funds instead of waiting for the Formosan government. Shu claimed Kang would be unwilling to wage any sustained war as long as Li's army was still alive.

I leaned back in my chair. How am I supposed to keep this war maniac's hatred of his enemies in check without coming off as a hypocrite? Oh well, I'll have some time to think about this problem, at least as long as there isn't an even more pressing situation that I have to deal with first.

I flipped to the last page. Huh, a proposal to resolve the problem of Volksauto's meddling to block US oil to Europe. I read through it. And again. And again. My trembling hands dropped the paper. I took a few deep breaths.

"Visha, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"What is it, dear?"

My wife emerged from the bathroom wrapped only in a fluffy towel. But I was too agitated to appreciate the view. Chancellor Adenaue wanted to use my emergency powers to nationalize Volksauto! Sure he promised it would only affect company assets in OZEV states and that Volksauto would be compensated at "fair market value", but this was not what I was expecting as his solution!

"What the hell is Adenaue doing with Volksauto?" I demanded, sliding the paper towards her.

"Oh, don't worry, that little problem's already been resolved," Visha replied cheerfully, drying her hair.

"... what?"

"Yes, Heidler's handling the board, no problems."

"Huh? Heidler?" I stared at her. None of this was making sense. "You mean that GWP party boss from Osterry?"

"That's right, but he moved on from that post years ago. When you retired and the GWP collapsed, he immediately led his followers to join the GDU. Smart man, he could see which way the wind was blowing even then. Over time he even managed to worm his way onto the GDU's central committee. Heidler's one of the key leaders of our loyalists inside the GDU party machine."

I put my head on the table for a moment before bobbing back up to look at Visha. I took a fortifying swig of coffee to brace myself.

"Okay," I said, very slowly. "Why don't you start from the beginning? Just tell me everything that happened that led up to this proposal sitting on my desk …"

1953 August 17th, White House, Washington D.C.:

"It's a warning shot from Degurechaff," stated President Taft, fingers tapping the communiqué from Ambassador Foster Dullas. "Offer to sell us 'next generation' nuclear reactor technology when they have fully confirmed it is safe, but a condition for that deal to even be negotiated is for us to continue to sell oil to OZEV, South Bharat and Akitsushima at 'fair market prices'. All she did was promise to sell us a candy bar, after whipping a third party with a revolver and then pointing it at their head!"

Secretary of State Moores Dullas nodded as he lit a cigar.

"Speaking of guns to heads, I received a phone call from Ehrlich today. He was quite distressed. Volksauto's board fired him while he was on vacation with his family, then passed a resolution to end all lobbying related to international energy disputes. The replacement president appointed by the board, Heidler, is a senior party official of the GDU. He is likely a political loyalist of Degurechaff. I suppose that's a less bad option compared to Volksauto's assets in OZEV being nationalized."

"Do you think she would have actually done it?"

Dullas blew a puff. "According to a leak from an 'anonymous Germanian government official', it was quite a detailed plan and technically legal under her emergency powers. She could sign the proposal at any moment if we restrict oil sales to Germania and the rest of OZEV. And even when the Germanian Diet is back in session, we both know it's going to be filled with her rubber-stampers."

"And there just happens to be an intense public relations campaign from 'activist organizations' that are pressuring Congress to abandon the oil export restrictions. Even some of the staunchest isolationist Congressmen are feeling the heat. Now I wonder why she didn't do it sooner, before Ehrlich lobbied for the oil export restrictions." Taft leaned back in his chair, then narrowed his eyes at Dullas. "It hasn't been the first time she intervened in business affairs..."

"Ah yes, there were suspicions that she had twisted the Germanian steel industry's arms to get the results she wanted for a secret military project. They've done well with keeping the details hidden, but it's hard to hide entire manufacturing facilities dedicated to producing very specific steel alloys with unknown properties, and use tarps to conceal whatever components they are shipping to their naval drydocks. The Albish reported that their attempts to acquire a sample of the alloy, or to get an idea of where those components are being used, consistently ended in failure." Dullas rubbed his chin. "I didn't think that was related to the Volksauto incident."

"Everything is related," Taft muttered as a pattern began to work its way clear of the chaos. "She's putting puppet strings on key Germanian companies to give her both domestic and international reach. Encourage businesses to grow, then use them as proxies to do her bidding."

"How ironic," Dullas breathed. "It seems only yesterday that Degurechaff was on her high horse at the World Cup, lecturing my brother Foster on the vital importance of governments not interfering in the world of business. How brazen can one person be?"

"Comes with the territory, Moores," Taft explained patiently. "Nobody can rise to a position of national leadership without possessing some extremely thick skin and a mighty strong dose of shamelessness."

"I see. But even so, I'm not aware of a solution that doesn't end in an economic war with her. A game that both of us will lose." Dullas defeatedly shrugged.

Taft clenched his hands. "No, she wants us to help her contain her enemies instead of us focusing on tending to our own garden. And it looks like the Albish, Frankish and Legadonians have now joined the communists on her list of enemies. Notice how she didn't ask us to stop the oil restrictions on European countries outside of OZEV?"

"Do we have a choice?"

"If she convinces pro-isolationists in our country to at least stay quiet on actions that support OZEV, then no, we don't." Taft turned his chair around to look out the window. "Not without being eviscerated by our voters."

"What about the voters that dislike high gas prices? Or the businesses that were dependent on cheap oil, highway and suburban construction, and automotive sales? There will be many knock on effects, such as tire companies seeing less sales from slumping automotive sales. If the oil goes overseas, there will be less available for us back home."

"Then we'll have to decide which is the lesser evil."

"We could learn a thing or two from her publicity campaigns against us," Dullas suggested. "Convincing a major power to back or not back a particular side, without any threat of military force. That's something that the old Empire could never do."

"I'll consider it," Taft murmured.

"While we're on the subject of publicity, what are we going to announce if the news of our little nuclear incident in Londonderry leaks out?"

"My staff are currently drafting a bill for Congress to establish a Department of Energy to manage nuclear matters and the stupid oil game," Taft sighed. "Regarding the reactor itself, I'm told that they are currently drilling a tunnel under its concrete pad to inspect the underside to determine if they need to install a new cooling system. And it hasn't been an easy tunneling job because the pad is close to groundwater level."

"This is increasingly looking like a worse version of the Germanian nuclear disaster," Dullas nodded. "Their solution was to reinforce their containment shell to become a nuclear tomb that was to never be opened again. I would have been in favor of us also going public, but the Germanians would be furious that we went behind their backs. The best option I can see is hiding this problem until we get the replacement reactor components and their next generation reactor technology, then they can be mad at us all they want. We're going to be selling oil to them, keep buying plutonium from them and staying out of their foreign affairs. They won't say no."

Taft's phone suddenly rang and he picked it up.

"You could have waited until the Secretary of State was back in his office… what do you mean Saudistan is sending a diplomat to meet us tomorrow? Turkmen invasion of Mesopotamia? Qajarians declare war on the Turkmen Empire to 'protect Mesopotamia's sovereignty'? Oil and security guarantees?"

A few minutes later, Taft put the phone down with a confused look on his face.

"I apologize for that. I'll talk to my subordinates about why they should respect their chain of command," Dullas had a deeply annoyed expression on his face.

"Never mind that now. It seems Saudistan is panicking over the Turkmens invading Mesopotamia, and have demanded our immediate assistance. They fear Mesopotamia may be partitioned outright or become the main battlefield for the Turkmens and Qajarians. Then there's that ongoing mess in Aegyptus, including their Sinai Peninsula where a large portion of the Syrian military rejected their reinstated monarchy after said monarchy publicly swore fealty to the Turkmen Empire as a protectorate."

Taft frowned. "In light of the situation, the Sauds have offered us a deal. And it requires us to guarantee the security of Saudistan. In return, they would prioritize selling oil to us at a discounted rate. My pro-isolationist constituents are going to lose their minds if we dive into the Middle East."

"The Sauds must not trust the Aegyptians, Turkmens or Qajarians, or the major powers backing them. Otherwise they would have first tried to play us off of the Allied Kingdom, Germania or CSR." Dullas smiled. "We can have Saudistan deliver the oil to other countries of our choosing. And since we're buying them at a discounted rate, we can upcharge OZEV and its allies to the 'fair market price'. We would never have to export our own oil and thus keep the domestic oil prices low, so that everyone can keep driving their cars. And I'm sure many voters, businesses and campaign donors would be willing to tolerate some foreign adventures if it means the American way of life isn't disrupted."

"What happens if someone thinks our security guarantee is a bluff?"

"We sell military goods and provide training to the Sauds. They would be paying us the same money that we paid them for the oil," Dullas nonchalantly shrugged. "Similar to what we are doing with New Granada. Who, I should note, have continued to purchase military goods from both us and from the Germanians for their inevitable war against Brasilia. With a similar arrangement in place, Saudistan will at the very least be able to stall any invasion long enough for us to come up with a plan."

Meanwhile, at the Hambrück shipyards:

When we walked over to the drydocks, I could see the keel of a destroyer was just starting to be built.

"The next generation destroyers started construction after the funds were made available, to replace all of the old destroyers which are earmarked to be sold to New Granada. Unlike our submarines, they are designed around already tested concepts and components, including anti-air and anti-ship missiles that were previously designed for our old destroyers' scrapped upgrade program. The missiles are to be refurbished and upgraded after years of sitting in storage." Gerhard motioned his hand at the keel.

"There were many arguments over scaling back the 5-inch cannon turrets to just two to make room for a helicopter hanger and launch pad, missile launchers, and the four American 37 millimeter rotary cannons which each fire up to 3,000 rounds per minute. A compromise was made for the 5-inch cannons' rate of fire to be doubled and to have faster turret rotations and cannon elevation controls to engage inbound missiles. High sensitivity magic detectors are used in parallel with improved radar systems for situation awareness and target tracking."

"Four of those rotary cannons?" Visha blinked.

"Even stealth mages will still be detected kilometers away by the radars for the rotary cannons to engage them." Gerhard smiled at Visha's horror. "After all, the then Chancellor Degurechaff wanted the Germanian Navy to deny the enemy's air superiority with the previous destroyer design. And air threats have gotten worse since the 1930's."

Hmm, he raises a good point about radars still being able to detect human sized aerial objects even if the mages aren't emitting any magic. Looks like I'm going to have to let Dr. Schugel know about how his well designed stealth orbs and absorption orbs can still be countered, just in case the communists double down on brute forced radars to detect our mages. I feel sorry for the birds that end up in the wrong place and wrong time.

"It only takes one round of that caliber to kill a regular mage…" Visha muttered.

"That is if they get past the missiles and 5-inch shells, both that will engage air threats before they get within range of the 37mm rounds. They could come out of the water at close range from a submarine, but that would be difficult against the improved sonar and anti-submarine weapon systems." Gerhard nonchalantly shrugged before continuing his explanation.

"We wanted them to be able to defeat major air threats by themselves and when in formations, protect our aircraft carriers from concentrated air attacks. The CSR demonstrated in their skirmish against the Akinese that the future of surface naval warfare is out-ranging and overwhelming the enemy with missiles. We also expect the CSR to continue to rely on mages deployed from submarines for simultaneous torpedo and mage attacks, and it would only be a matter of time for them to also synchronize them with missile attacks."

"It looks like it's going to be larger than our old destroyers, just from looking at the keel," I noted.

"The addition of the helicopter hanger and landing pad added considerable length and tonnage to the destroyer design, and we were unwilling to strip away other weapon systems to make room. The destroyer also had to have a minimum width to accommodate a helicopter. But we believe the helicopter would provide greater mission flexibility, especially when the destroyer is operating by itself."

An idea hit me. I recall there was a reason why modern navy ships did away with missile launcher boxes in my previous world. Where did they fire the missiles from again? Now I remember. Most were stored vertically under the deck and would fire them straight into the air.

"Sometime in the future when the navy is designing a new class of combat ships such as cruisers or upgrade plans for the newly built destroyers, I want to see a feasibility study for storing and firing missiles vertically from below the deck," I blurted out.

"Vertically launched missiles?" Everyone turned their heads towards me.

"There's only so many missiles you can store in a box launcher before it becomes excessively large and makes the ship dangerously top-heavy. And it's a fire and explosion risk if that box is hit. With a vertical launch system, we could get something like 60 missiles depending on how much deck space is available, and the missiles would be protected by the hull and deck."

I noticed Lergen raising a hand to his forehead as Gerhard scribbled in his notes.

"Madame President… While I'm not a naval expert… How would the crews reload the vertical launchers?" Lergen was frowning and sounded pained. I hoped the poor man's ulcers hadn't made a return. "The only way I can see that being safely done is in a port."

"The vertical launchers will be the missile storage," I smiled in return. "The CSR needed saturation attacks for their missiles to reach their targets. If a single ship fires off all 60 missiles in a few minutes, an enemy fleet will struggle to stay afloat. Even if the enemy has our new destroyers and its 'fill the air with lead' anti-air defenses, they can only shoot down so many missiles before being overwhelmed. Meanwhile that missile ship can sail home for beer. The same way a rocket artillery truck works, except with the missiles being guided by radar. And we also have our aircraft carriers so that our aircraft can strike at enemy targets that are distracted by the ship's missile barrages."

"I'll present the idea to the Admiralty," Gerhard cleared his throat. "Speaking of new ship designs, there have been debates among the Admiralty over whether Germania should have dedicated amphibious assault vessels for potential future expeditionary operations, and if so, how best to time their construction to not interfere with our plan to replace our carriers as they reach the end of their service lives."

Even if the Aegyptian war ended today, the Middle East's political landscape had already been forever changed. The presence of three competing factions backed by their respective major powers guaranteed as much, and also made it far more likely that Germania would be pressed to at least demonstrate an amphibious capacity as a deterrence against another country's actions in the near future. Not to mention that significant amphibious lift capacity could only come in handy in operations against the CSR, should the Formosan Straits become a conflict area again.

"Our eastern flank is well secured. OZEV has forward garrisons in Belarusia and Kieva to deter the Rus, and if they launch a surprise invasion, OZEV forces can perform a fighting retreat back to the old Degurechaff Line that stalled the Rus in the last war, buying us time sufficient for mobilization." I tapped my chin, pondering for a moment, then turned to Lergen.

"I am sure you have Eastern Europe well in hand, Erich, but we need a strong naval presence in the Middle East and East Asia to deter the CSR and their allies, and the Turkmen Empire, from starting trouble that we can't crush easily. We can't risk them taking actions that threaten our long term interests and access to critical resources. I'm not getting pushed on the defensive again! Besides, the CSR would be far less willing to support the Russy Confederation in a land war in Eastern Europe if we have the amphibious warfare capability to bring war to their doorstep, and the Rus wouldn't attack us without the CSR's support."

As tempting as it would be to simply write out checks for everyone to have their own pet projects, the money from the Americans would eventually stop coming, and it would be an incredibly bad day if we no longer had the fiscal self-restraint to avoid a long overdue sugar crash. Then there's also the persistent problem that careless government spending would drive up inflation, especially with the ongoing oil supply shock.

I then turned to Gerhard. "I can entertain the idea of dedicated amphibious assault vessels, but it has to fit within the Navy's budget if the Admiralty wants the ships sooner instead of waiting for many years. If the Army has an interest in the dedicated vessels that would deploy their forces, then it's between the both of you to coordinate any budget sharing."

"I'll have a proposal put together for you, with input from the Army." Gerhard looked at Lergen, who nodded in reply.

Several kilometers southeast of Volgograd:

Glancing back from his watch over the tracks, Shusheng took a long, slow glance at the two train engines that strove to heave the great line of train cars forwards. The engines, as well as the two train cars positioned incongruously out in front of the engines, had all been hastily "armored" with a heap of sandbags, which would hopefully take the brunt of any attempt to attack the train.

The leading train cars were effective bullet sponges for the cars directly behind the engines. Unlike their predecessors, those cars were loaded with fuel, explosives and heavy ammunition, all supplies that couldn't be easily transported through Caucasia's inhospitable mountains. Sitting on top of the train cars were sandbagged machine gun nests, but those were expected to be all wiped out from the expected heavy Rus resistance by the time the train reached its destination.

The destination? Volgograd's only remaining railway bridge to the south. Simply destroying the tracks wouldn't do, not after the Rus had proven so adept at rapidly repairing torn up tracks. A more permanent solution was required, so that Li's army would have more time to offload what they needed from the trains for their march south into Caucasia. If even more lead time could be carved out somehow, enough, say, to construct fortifications in the Caucasian mountains before the inevitable arrival of Rus and Kang's forces, then so much the better.

Which was the reason why the somewhat insane bomb train idea had improbably wound up being implemented. After the rearguard had finally collapsed in Volgograd, something worryingly like a cascading collapse had begun. Most notably, Li's hodgepodge of stolen aircraft were in desperate need of temporary airfields or else had to be destroyed to avoid re-capture by the Rus. Airfields that would have to be abandoned and rebuilt again and again during the southern retreat. Already their airfields had descended into chaos from the emergency evacuations.

And once again Shusheng, Fire and an exhausted half-battalion of mages had been tasked with a "simple" objective. Escort the train until it gets onto the bridge to detonate, while ensuring that the train-bound charge was neither derailed nor prematurely detonated.

"Rus tanks neutralized," Fire called out over the voice spell.

Shusheng looked behind him briefly and saw the continuous streams of bullets pouring from the machine gun nests on the train cars. But there were simply too many Rus targets to systematically destroy.

"Keep focusing on any enemies that try to sabotage the tracks or have heavy weaponry," Shusheng let off a few explosive shots at a group of Rus soldiers that appeared to be approaching the tracks, and the secondary explosions afterward confirmed that they were carrying satchel charges or landmines to blow up the tracks. "We have to just let the machine gunners on the train take the brunt of everything else."

"Two Rus mage battalions flying directly towards us… I can sense it, they are the same ones that tried killing us in Moskva." Fire growled.

'Excellent…' Shusheng smiled as he ordered two of his mages to head back to the train and grab something. A gift for the Rus mages.

When the two mages returned, Shusheng called Fire over, which Fire proceeded to hand over his KPV machine gun to five mages to operate. By this point the Rus mages came to a complete halt and hovered low over the ground.

"They have anti-aircraft cannons in the area around them. We'll have to deal with those before they shoot our train." Fire muttered as he prepped the weapon.

"We need a bit more altitude to get more range and accuracy. Go up," Shusheng did a quick calculation, and the two of them flew upward by another two kilometers.

Shusheng then loaded a shell into the tube and started calculating the trajectory while Fire charged up the magic in the shell and held the weapon.

"Rus mages have merged into a single giant formation. We are within range with our DShK and KPV guns, and PTRS sniper teams, once their group shield is down. Enemy aircraft are also inbound," One of the mages reported in.

"Say hello to our little friend!" Shusheng broadcasted an unencrypted voice spell in broken Rus language at the giant group, then fired the weapon.

The modified and lightened 82-PM-41 mortar launched a 82mm shell and it arced across the sky before impacting the tightly grouped Rus mages. The regular explosive and the addition of an explosive magic spell instantly shattered the group shield of the two combined battalions. The Chinese heavy weapon teams then opened fire with their magic casted 12.7mm and 14.5mm bullets to tear through the remains of the weakened group shield and shred the Rus mages' secondary personal shields. The surviving Rus mages routed as a steady stream of their dead and wounded comrades dropped out of the sky.

Shusheng aimed the mortar at one of the two Rus jets as Fire loaded a second shell, the KPV machine gun crew and the PTRS sniper teams focusing their attention on the other Rus jet. In the distance, a squadron of propeller driven Rus aircraft were approaching the area.

Just as the jets launched their rockets, Shusheng fired the mortar while the 14.5mm guns opened up.

One of the jets exploded, while the other one was able to pull away with light damage. The Chinese mages then concentrated fire to intercept the inbound rockets that were close enough to threaten them, while Shusheng fired a third shell to explode in the direction of rockets flying towards him and Fire.

As the last of the rockets were intercepted by the gunfire, Shusheng then looked back over at the other Rus aircraft.

"They're all falling back," he laughed as he fired a fourth shell. "Firing for effect on the anti-air cannons. There's nothing protecting them now."

"We could go in for the melee," Fire suggested.

"We're outside the effective range of their anti-air cannons, and I'm keeping it that way." Shusheng retorted as he fired another shell.

Soon after the anti-air cannons were struck again by the mortar, he observed the remainders were being abandoned by their crews.

'The path for our train is clear now. I love it when a plan comes together…'

Shusheng smiled, only to look back and see that the train his mages were supposed to escort had a problem. Most of the machine gun nests on the train cars were silenced with the dead Chinese soldiers laying everywhere, and swarms of Rus soldiers were charging at the train.

And they were still kilometers away from the targeted bridge.

He swore as he and Fire quickly turned the mortar around and fired a shell, which while it did vaporize a chunk of the Rus infantry, it also landed too close to the train and destroyed the two front sandbag train cars.

Almost immediately after the Chinese mages concentrated their fire on the swarming Rus infantry to delouse the train, Shusheng noticed another problem. It wasn't from the Rus mages or aircraft.

Instead it was a Rus train rounding a bend at high speed.

'What, did they forget to order their train to stop?! And why didn't their train stop when it was obvious it was speeding into an active battlefield?!'

Shusheng stared in dismay as the Rus train barreled ahead and crashed into the bomb train. The train engines burst open on impact and released their large volume of highly pressurized steam, while the rest of the train cars derailed and piled up. Bags of flour spilled out and burst open from the tumbling Rus train cars, shortly before the bomb train's volatile cargoes detonated.

He then looked back towards the north and ran an area scan.

'Oh, they have a lot more propeller aircraft this time, and they're coming from all directions...'

"Fire! Drop the mortar! We are leaving now!"

1953 August 18th, Mosul:

General Ali Pasha gazed out on the city of Mosul from the Great Mosque of al-Nuri's minaret, feeling the warm sun.

'They believed my bluff of blowing the Mosul Dam to flood the city, and now I control this city long before the Qajarians could arrive.'

After he walked down the steps to the base of the minaret while thinking about the logistics planning for arms shipments to Caucasia in support of the Chinese rebel army, an aide came running up to him with a set of reports.

"What now? I am aware that the Qajarians captured Baghdad, Tikrit and Erbil, and that Fallujah will be a battleground between our southern forces and the Qajarians slowly advancing from Baghdad, so why do you disturb me?" Ali raised an eyebrow.

"They are now advancing towards Mosul at a rapid pace, and it's who they are with that is the concern," the aide breathlessly replied.

"Another country intervening in Mesopotamia?" Ali grabbed the reports and skimmed through them while continuing to walk towards the command post. "Uniforms and equipment don't match other known military forces in the region, and the unknown forces have only been seen in the northern area…"

Ali's face twitched in disgust and annoyance as a realization hit him. "The filthy North Bharatians are with the northern Qajarian army! That can be the only explanation of the descriptions, and why the Qajarians are sprinting towards here without making lengthy preparations to pry the city from our hands."

"So what do we do?"

Ali stopped walking. "Make preparations to defend Mosul. If the enemy proves too overwhelming, we'll give the special instruction to our detachment up at the dam. If I can't have this city, no-one can! And I certainly won't allow the North Bharatian infidels to have any opportunity to spread their heretical 'religious communism' throughout the region!"

AN:

Historical context for the Turkmen Empire blundering into war without directive from its top leadership: wiki/Ottoman_entry_into_World_War_I#Two_ships_and_one_admiral

On 14 September, Enver directed Souchon to take his ships into the Black Sea and to fire upon any Russian vessel thatthey encountered.[49] That was problematic in many ways. The directive, which went over the head of Cemal Pasha, the Navy Minister, was presumably issued by Enver as acting commander-in-chief although Souchon's place in the chain of command was unclear. Said Halim forced a cabinet vote on the issue of Enver's directive, and it was countermanded.

…

On 25 October, Enver instructed Souchon to manoeuvre in the Black Sea and to attack the Russian fleet "if a suitable opportunity presented itself"[53] That was not passed through the normal chain of command, and the Ministry of Navy ignored it. The Ottoman cabinet, including Sait Halim, was not informed.

…

On 29 October, the whole Ottoman fleet returned to Constantinople. Enver wrote a congratulatory letter at 17:50.[54]

wiki/Ottoman_entry_into_World_War_I#Reactions

The Battle of Odessa instigated a crisis environment within the Ottoman leadership. Sait Halim and Mehmet Cavit Bey presented strong protests to Enver. The attack was weak and in dispersed naval raids and so it was only a political provocation, rather than as a serious naval operation.[64] Talat told Wangenheim that the entire cabinet excluding Enver opposed to the naval action.[64]

Over the next two days everything was in chaos. Sait Halim to Sultan and several others to Sait Haim offered their resignations. Mehmet Cavit Bey, the Finance Minister, was one of four ministers to resign and declared,

"It will be our country's ruin—even if we win."[65]

— Cavit Pasha

Then there was this particular offensive that went horribly wrong. Sending soldiers with insufficient winter gear, into an extremely mountainous region where most of the artillery units were bogged down and never made it to the battlefield location, during winter when temperatures were well below -20 Celsius without wind chill included, against an entrenched Russian force that had a much closer rail line to keep them supplied and reinforced. Then refusing to retreat until well after the reinforced Russians launched a counteroffensive:

watch?v=Ew39InPunOY

wiki/Battle_of_Sarikamish

Strength: 100,000

33,000 dead

10,000 died in hospitals

10,000 wounded

7,000 captured[5]

The Ottomans employed a strategy that demanded highly-mobile troops who could arrive at specified objectives at precise times. The approach was based on both German and Napoleonic tactics. The Ottoman troops, ill-prepared for winter conditions, suffered major casualties in the Allahuekber Mountains. Around 25,000 Ottoman soldiers had frozen to death before the start of the battle.[4]

…

2 Divisions caught by snowstorm and according to İlden, 10.000 soldiers died from frostbitein Allahu Ekber Mountains. Number of these 2 Divisions decreased to 3200 when they got off from Allahu Ekber on night of 26 December. X Corps lost 90% of troops before engaging in a major battle. Hafız Hakkı thought number of soldiers can be increased to 10.000 in 2 days from deserted soldiers, therefore he decided to continue offensive.

…

After the battle, Ottoman War Minister Enver Pasha, who had planned the Ottoman strategy in Sarikamish, publicly blamed his defeat on the Armenians, and the battle served as a prelude to the Armenian genocide.[6][7]

Context for the "American way" phrase: wiki/American_way

wiki/PTRS-41

a World War II-era semi-automatic anti-tank rifle firing the 14.5×114mm cartridge.

wiki/82-PM-41

a Soviet 82-millimeter calibre mortar developed during the Second World War as an infantry battalion mortar, and which began production in 1941.[2]

As for why a 82mm mortar shell made a mess of the two Rus mage battalions: wiki/Mortar_(weapon)#Compared_to_long_range_artillery

Fin-stabilized mortar bombs do not have to withstand the rotational forces placed upon them by rifling or greater pressures, and can therefore carry a higher payload in a thinner skin than rifled artillery ammunition. Because of the difference in available volume, a smooth-bore mortar of a given diameter will have a greater explosive yield than a similarly sized artillery shell of a gun or howitzer. For example, a 120 mm mortar bomb has approximately the same explosive capability as a 152 mm/155 mm artillery shell.

I'm assuming that the 82mm mortar shell would have roughly the same blast as a 105mm/120mm artillery shell, and that's without the addition of magic casting to it.

wiki/Mosul_Dam#Planning

Planning for the Mosul Dam began in the 1950s with the help of Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, a British firm who identified a location in 1953. In 1956, the Iraq Development Council contracted Koljian American to carry out studies for an irrigation dam at the location. The studies were completed the next year when Iraq asked the Harza Company to carry out a similar investigation who recommended a different location in 1960, based on karst foundations for two other recommended locations.

wiki/Great_Mosque_of_al-Nuri,_Mosul

Tradition holds that the mosque was first built in the late 12th century, although it underwent many renovations over the years. The mosque withstood various hostile invading forces over its 850-year history until it was destroyed, along with its distinctive minaret, in the Battle of Mosul in 2017.