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The following is a fan-based

FICTION

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"Faux Dissent"

June 12 1935 EC

Corporal Isara Gunther

Aslone, Barious, Principality of Gallia

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With the reorganization of the Militia, there was no surprise in Isara's heart that the war had yet to be finished.

The invasion of her homeland was but a small aspect of the much-larger conflict engulfing Europa as a whole. With the Federation trying to claw its way into the region to establish a second front against the Empire, it was only expected for rebellions to erupt in favor of a republic. It wasn't a widespread case, but it was enough to raise some worry among even the most peaceful member of Squad 7. A quick look on what happened in their stay in Aslone just confirmed this.

Up to that point, some of the less-pleased people over the Imperial leadership over Gallia had thought the small 'Intelligence group' assisting them was more of a group of wardens to keep an eye on them in case of potential dissent. But while Rosie's own speeches against them should have raised a conflict or two, the punishments were extremely lenient. Isara wasn't sure what was holding them back, but it was clear they were looking for something.

Something that they found in Aslone as a revolt had erupted and torn half of the city apart. The skirmish was ridiculous as Isara knew, even lacking the knowledge on how a rebellion was meant to unfold, that they shouldn't have been able to be so well-equipped and well-behaved in a combat engagement. Yet the rebels did and it almost felt like they were fighting a legitimate army again. Despite the few risks around and the rare injuries sustained by a few of their members, the better-equipped Squad 7 was able to encircle and destroy the violent agitators.

The real issue came while the Intelligence Group was studying the corpses and 'looking into their identities'. Isara knew there, as they were busy with this task, that it had to do with something they weren't told about. Something important as they were busy at it for hours. Her brother was alerted and, after Eleanor was alerted of the peculiar activity, a discussion ensued and while Isara wasn't allowed to know much of it, her brother looked extremely... irritated.

Not towards the Empire, which was good since that meant any future visits to the Major General weren't going to be forbidden, but rather against a specific Imperial figure, Prince Maximilian. There wasn't much told in that regard, but it got to the point where Eleanor delivered a speech about 'keeping sharp' as 'the rebels were having Federation Agents training them'. A bit of a lie, this much Isara could tell, but no one else seemed to pick up this detail from the speech.

To Isara, this sounded quite the dreadful development, and as much as she was nervous over the chances of this situation worsening, she ultimately decided to be a bit brazen and inquire about it to the Major General once she was back to Rangritz.

Hopefully that was going to shed some lights to her many doubts.

"Helping Claw"

June 12 1935 EC

Major General Kurt Hertling

Castle Randgriz, Randgriz, Principality of Gallia

The hastily-planned invasion of Hollandia had yielded some positive results.

Sure, part of the region was still under revolutionaries' hands, but they lacked major ports to allow supplies to come. In fact, with Maximilian finally mounting a damn offensive to encircle and recapture Fouzen, the chances of a potential D-Day through a safe port was defeated for the time being. Snow Cruisers or not, the Federation didn't have the proper logistics to land the invasion force needed to dislodge Armeekorps Gallien.

Still, that didn't mean that surprise weren't soon to come, and thus I decided it was best to keep the reinforcements we were getting. Despite the fact I would have preferred to not deal with this group of people, there is very little I could protest as the Imperial General Staff had their hands tied up.

X-O. Officially, it was an 'Experimental Weapon Unit' that was conceived with the notion of deploying advanced weaponry that had yet to be tested in live action. The leader of the group was Executive Heinrich Belgar of the Imperial Science Institute. Pick Josef Mengele's interest in science, mix him with Heinrich Himmler's ambitious and 'purifying' goal, and then add the greed of Martin Bormann and you obtain the crackpot that was Dr. Belgar.

Formerly an associate for the Miller Company together with the last owner, Albert Miller, the bastard had purposely killed the guy and sabotaged Gallia's economy in the process by destroying the most lucrative source of Ragnite-related products. I wasn't that surprised he wasn't there to strut over the Gallian capital, and I knew already that his 'excuse' of wanting to see the 'damage' inflicted at Ghirlandaio was but just a cover for the bastard to visit where once Miller Company existed, in Hafen.

Instead of him, I had two individuals sitting in front of me, and already studying the copies of the map of the current occupation.

The first one to jump to attention was Crymaria Levin, the Valkyrie that had been assigned to their group. While many would think she was Selvaria 2.0, the truth is that she was a more complex individual. Differently than Selvaria, she found no love interest to bind her to a sense of humanity. She had a friend in the form of her wolf, but that was as much as she was willing to socialize with others- the results of the experiments had left plenty of trauma to fuck her that way.

The other individual was a bit bland in appearance, but was a tougher cookie than Crymaria. Forseti, formerly known as Kai Schulen of the Atlantic Federation's Edinburgh Army, was a chief strategician- he lacked an official rank, but was seen as the head of the military branch for the Unit. And said unit had just enough troops to reinforce some of the more shaky outposts by the sea. His choice to pass to the enemy's side was motivated by something which I had all intentions to address as quickly as possible, but I couldn't just drop the nuke on the spot. I had to slowly butter them both to the truth.

"Fraulein Levin, Herr Forseti, if there's any question, feel free to ask, I understand that a map can't and will never provide all the information needed to obtain a clear view of the situation."

Forseti looked ready to speak first, but Crymaria had him beat to it.

"Why are areas in the south registered as unoccupied?"

"The southern cities are not occupied by Imperial forces, and the National Militia is currently handling their security as planned by the recently-signed armistice. Princess Cordelia is thus recognized as the supreme leader of those forces and answer to her and my orders for the time being," I elaborated calmly, noticing a scoff from Forseti.

"What about Teyall? The Federation will strike if it isn't reinforced-"

"By choice."

My interruption drew a few surprised looks.

"By choice? You decided to leave that port undefended?" Crymaria inquired, perplexed by this decision.

"I decided to leave it unprotected on a direct manner, but the real protection comes from our recent acquisition of the islands south of Zoene. We have found a few unused small ports to connect the isles to the main city and these have been repurposed to be used as base of operations for some of our submarines. If a fleet tries to get through, they will be trailed by torpedoes and brought to complete annihilation."

"Which means that they will have a rough time dealing with that," Forseti conceded, nodding in agreement to the solid state of that trap. "However, as I was looking the map, I couldn't help but notice a particularity that has long changed from the moment we were sent to assist you- the reason of concern has mostly dealt with, the Federation no longer has viable ports to launch an invasion."

"For the time being, no. But the situation is far from stable for the current men I have under my command to handle and... some things are better said by person than not. Which is why I would have preferred if Dr. Belgar had been present as I could offer him this letter."

Forseti frowned as he had the envelop handed to him, and the content of the message was soon for him to read as he quietly did so. A few minutes later, his frown had worsened.

"Surely Prince Maximilian isn't that foolish. A rebellion? With the few loyal troops at his disposal?"

Crymaria's eyes widened. "P-Prince Maximilian is planning a revolt."

"He is, yes. But his plot is not without merit. After all, he has one of the elements needed to acquire the sort of power which could bring the Empire to its knees if he wanted. Which may be likely considering that the imperial inspectors had gone awfully quiet for a week now after being sent to check his current whereabouts and planning," I explained some more. "From what I managed to understand, he is trying to find a weapon in Rangritz, one that was said to be wielded by Valkyrur of the past and used to decimate armies. His plan is to give the weapon to Major General Bles and order her to attack Schwartzgrad."

"Why would- why would the prince do something like this?"

"...It's tied to his past," I admitted. "I doubt you two are familiar with this, but the Prince's mother and most of her retinue was assassinated by men hired by rivals to the throne back when Maximilian was young. That seems to be his reason to plan the destruction of his real enemies."

"And what do you have in mind to use against him if most of your troops are defending against the Federation?"

I leaned back, smiling a bit. "The very thing that had troubled him and forced the high command to send Armeekorps Gallien the first time around."

Crymaria reacted fast. "The Militia? You wish to use them against him?"

"Not just that, but a better-equipped one as they had him struggle while also using obsolete weapons. This group of people- they will be key to stop Maximilian's army."

"But it will not stop Selvaria. You want me to stop her."

I blinked at Crymaria, surprised by her swift realization but...

"Not truly. Not when a full fight would decimate the entire field and claim too many lives. No, there's also the fact I am not willing to play chess like Belgar tends to."

A frown adorned her face. "Why not?"

"I prefer to keep all soldiers that are somewhat tied to me alive rather than send them to the slaughter. I don't care if you are a Valkyria or not, Fraulein, you are not getting sacrificed for something that stupid, no."

Surprise flashed in her eyes, but that was bound to intensify as I handed her a folder with some files inside.

"Also, I think Selvaria may not be aware of this small detail of the project that turned you both in what you are now. In fact, there's irony in it."

The girl reached for the paperwork, but Forset held a hand to gesture her to stop.

"What's inside it?"

"Paperwork I had authorized to be released for Fraulein Levin to read."

"What?" He snapped and I sighed.

"Maximilian's contribution to the experimentation on Valkyries."

The hand went down, the topic hitting right in the spot where he would let irregularities go through as it was the very one that had forced him out of the Edinburgh Army, and Crymaria went back to browse the papers. Silence filled the room, but so did a growing cold that slowly rised up as Cyrmaria kept on reading. Her teeth gnawed, her eyes flashed red and I sighed, drawing her attention.

"I-Is this true?"

"It is. The paperwork was relayed by the very organization which X-O is tied to, the Imperial Scientific Bureau," I replied calmly. "Selvaria has been turned in a true puppet, used through fake love by a prince that craves nothing more than the destruction of the Empire."

"...What do you plan to do with this then? You don't seek to... kill Selvaria?"

"As clean as that would be, I believe her death would only bring her in a situation she can use her Final Flame. And that's the sort of destruction we don't need," I reasoned strongly. "I understand you hate Maximilian now, Crymaria, but you can't rush Selvaria and expect to win that confrontation."

Her wrath lessened. "So... what's your plan?"

"We will take care of Maximilian first, then neutralize Selvaria by rendering her unconscious. There's much a Valkyria can handle, but we have canisters of sleeping gas that can be used to put her out of commission in due time."

"And then?" Her posture eased, but she was still stern-looking and ready to snap.

"And then she will be provided the option to evaluate the truth, with your supervision," I finished by turning to look at Crymaria. "And trust me when I say you will have the choice to let her be redeemed or be locked up forever."

"...Will you?" She murmured weakly, her shoulders sagging.

"The Empire, they wouldn't-"

"If I win the war, they will hardly have a reason to say no to my polite request," I reasoned calmly, surprising the two with that boast. "And yes, it will happen soon because I know the Federation will make a fairly big mistake quite soon."

Forseti frowned. "How can you tell?"

"Because they had been behaving desperately on the main line, which means they are in a tight spot where they either make a breakthrough or risk an internal collapse," I reasoned. "And because some of our spies have found out about their 'Snow Cruisers' as they are being prepared for a large trek into the ice."

I leaned closer, making it clear that I knew what was up with him and the Snow Cruisers. "Now, Herr Forseti, how about you tell me if my assumption over what fuels these ships is right so that I can perhaps mellow the high command from trying to do the same with our own 'sources of energy'."

His lips twitched, the man glaring at me as I caught him in a very tight spot.

He gave me the 'clues' rather than telling me the full truth, perhaps worrying what Crymaria was going to do with this piece of information and... that wasn't going to stop the Valkyria from seeking retribution from the Federation too.

AN

Maximilian will soon strike, and the Federation is going to dare an Operation Cygnus with less than ideal conditions.

REVIEW Q&A!

Semsas:
1) The Gallian Army is that bad. Imagine mixing Italian Incompetence with French's inadequate equipment and an officer staff composed mostly by people put there by connections and money. The point of the first game is that the main characters are from the Militia force. The army was already badly-equipped as the Prime Minister at the time was quite corrupted and had stacked the military with 'nobles with experience'. In truth the army pretty much collapsed really fast and the militia was even worse in terms of equipment. And no, I didn't change stuff to make them worse- they were that bad by lore alone;
2) The circumstance is far more complicated. While it's true that nobility is 'king' in the Empire, the way their society is constructed makes all nobles less interested in petty squabbles and more focused on outpacing each other. Maximilian's mother and many of his childhood friends died because of attempts at his life since he was seen as a potential threat. The reason why SI is capable to call the 'shots' is because he is following the chain of command by asking first for permission before just taking over the campaign. He is not as free as Maximilian is at the moment, but rather forced to play 'around' his limitations while securing support via success.