AN: Edited by Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid.
I would also like to thank Icura for their suggestions that prompted me to rework chapter 9 and 10.
1943, November 11th, Berun:
Lergen had been dreading this moment. He knew the Chancellor would be upset that thousands of coalition soldiers were being rendered combat ineffective from shell shock. General Patton in the Unified States' Army had slapped two soldiers at a field hospital for having shell shock symptoms and no physical injuries with the accusations of those soldiers trying to avoid front line duty. And slapping was far lighter punishment compared to the standard procedures for someone charged with dereliction of duty.
He took a deep breath and knocked on the Chancellor's office door.
"Come on in." she responded.
He slowly opened the door and saw her reading some papers as he stepped into her office.
"Chancellor, I have reports of the drastic uptick of service members suffering from shell shock symptoms in Bharat even if they hadn't been taking heavy fire. This will have a significant effect on the entire coalition force if we don't find a solution soon. The reports were sent by General Romel."
She set aside her papers as a cue to him to slide his report across her desk. A few tense moments passed while she skimmed through his report.
The Chancellor looked up from the report. "What are the high command's and the military medical department's opinions on this situation?"
He pushed up his glasses. "Deeply divided. I'm not exactly sure of what to do as I had never seen such a high number and severity of shell shock cases. General Romel stated that he was working with other coalition commanders to address the problems that they were all facing but opinions widely varied. The commanders from Kanata complained that they couldn't seem to find a training or recruit selection process to avoid having to deal with shell shock symptoms in the first place."
I nodded at General Lergen's answer. I could understand why as he would need my approval to authorize drastic disciplinary actions to force our soldiers back into combat.
"I'll let you know when I finish reading the report. We'll have a talk about this later."
He turned to exit my office as I continued reading the report. I'll need to keep him in check to protect our soldiers. Elya had told me about General Patton slapping two shell shocked soldiers, and the last thing I need is Lergen to do something more drastic than that.
There were two things in General Romel's report that caught my attention. The first one was where the encircled North Bharatis had launched a counteroffensive to retake a strongpoint. Coalition intel predicted their operation ahead of time so the defenders had established a minefield and barbed wire fences using captured inventory from the previously retreating communists. It was sort of obvious as that was the last strongpoint between our Krishna River Salient and the coalition's southeast push from Pune, and the loss of the strongpoint meant the communists' pocket would be split into two pieces. The commies took one look at the defenses and backed off.
The North Bharatis' second attempt at retaking the strongpoint used thousands of civilians to "manually" sweep the minefield, cut through the barbed wires and act as human shields against the bullets. A coalition commander recognized that the defenders were struggling with shooting at the communists, and gave the order to blanket the area with artillery fire and bombing strikes which pulverized both the civilians and North Bharati soldiers. In the aftermath, many coalition soldiers including Germanians became combat ineffective due to "shell shock".
What made my blood boil was when the report mentioned North Bharati propaganda claiming that they had used a penal battalion made up of "enemies of the state" for the mine clearing and human shield operation. A colossal waste of human life, especially since there was no way they could be rescued unless the CSR's Sibyrian Army had arrived over the mountains before we had even started on the defensive line construction. There were radio broadcasts, flyers and posters in the occupied land stating that anyone attempting to undermine the Bharati government or military would be viewed as unlawful combatants and thus subjected to conscriptions to the penal battalions. Of course North Bharat would declare itself as the rightful government of the entire Bharati subcontinent with their continuing refusal to recognize South Bharat government's legitimacy.
I looked at the safe where my Type 95 orb was kept. Would it be worth the mental corruption and the loss of memory if it meant I could shatter the communists' will to fight, stop further war crimes against civilians, and put an end to all of the shell shock symptoms? If the encircled army and North Bharat surrendered right now, maybe we could fortify in the mountains in time for the CSR's arrival. It would be far less damaging in the long run compared to using nuclear weapons on what is still South Bharat's territory.
I shook my head. As much as I am tempted to go back to Bharat and make the commies pay for their spiteful, endless war crimes, all it took was the image of Visha's face after I came back from South Bharat at that unforgettable dinner conversation to convince me to not get personally involved with that mess. At least until we have a deputy chancellor that can handle the administrative tasks when both Visha and I are away from Berun. When this war is over, I'll be able to be away from Berun for a few days just to watch the war criminals hang or be shot after their trials.
The second part of Romel's report was a pending military court trial after an airstrike against a fortification resulted in hundreds of dead civilians. A psychologist reported that many of the soldiers exhibited "mentally disturbed" symptoms after surveying the burned out fortress, and recommended treatment instead of prison.
It clicked in my head. I need to start working on a healthcare plan to address those problems before the soldiers return home. Last thing I want is a repeat of the Vietnam War where the US had a large number of neglected, suffering veterans.
How to treat it though? I could push the military and the medical community to conduct intensive studies into identifying people suffering from it, and how to treat it. Although that is easier said than done as mental health treatment is still relatively a poorly understood field compared to my previous world. All I can do is remove the obstacles that are blocking psychologists and other medical researchers from doing their job.
There was a knock on the door. I looked at the clock and my schedule. Zettour was here to discuss his resignation. I let out a deep sigh as I set aside General Romel's report. The beginning of one era and the end of another.
"Come on in." I said.
Zettour stepped into my office with a folded paper in his hand.
"I know it was inevitable, but I'm happy for the years we worked together," he said as he walked toward me to hand me the paper. I got out of my office seat to walk toward him to receive the paper, which I had been dreading ever since I won yet another landslide victory of 64% of the votes compared to the previous election where I had over 70% of the votes. My popularity has gone down, but I need to find a way to accelerate it faster.
I opened the paper and it was clearly his resignation letter and a request to be just a part-time advisor. I looked at him, unsure of what to say. First it was Rudersdorf, now it was him.
"I remember the first day we met at the war college." Zettour said. "I would have been happy to let you marry my daughter if you were a young man at the time."
Curse you Being X and your sick sense of humor for making me a female. "I was just doing my job for the Empire."
"And you blew past everyone's expectations. Rudersdorf had a good point of wanting you to work in Operations as your forward thinking would have been invaluable, but I was too afraid to let that happen when your 203rd mage battalion became the only effective tool the Empire had remaining in the late stage of the war. Even after you became Chancellor, some of us had concerns and kept an eye on you as a precaution, but that proved to be irrelevant with what you've done. I could have never imagined a future where our country is truly safe in Europe."
I did not need that reminder of almost missing my chance at a safe posting in a rear position.
Zettour continued on. "The only regret I have is not speaking out for you when you proposed that the Empire seek a peace treaty. Even if the Emperor and the rest of the generals still pressed on ahead for victory at any cost and I lost my career right there, I shouldn't have left you to the wolves."
I shrugged my shoulders. "It was a learning experience, that's for sure. I got ahead of myself and didn't read the room."
"If you did consider that as a learning experience, well I hope you're ready to become Kaiserin."
What? No. No. NO!
"I don't understand. I'm a Chancellor that can be removed from the next elections or if the Diet decides to go for a vote of no confidence."
Zettour chuckled. "You've always been humble in the private setting. But at least one of my colleagues let it slip by calling you Kaiserin instead of Chancellor."
"...Kaiserin? No, this isn't right!"
"It's all right. I'm relieved for this country to be in such capable hands."
That was almost exactly what Rudersdorf said on that fateful night when he ruined my carefully planned retirement plans by leaving me stuck in charge. I was about to say something when Zettour spoke again.
"Don't stress too much, I'll still be around if there's something bothering you."
I spent several minutes or so in my office calming myself down and thinking through how to deal with this mess. There's always the next election to wait for. I just need some good wedge issues to split the party so I don't get another landslide victory.
Sometime later, Elya entered my office with a folder. "Chancellor, I have information about the candidates that are vying for the foreign Minister position."
After a lengthy discussion, I had a good understanding of what to expect if I appointed Georg Dertinge or Fritz Weber.
Georg Dertinge had a less traditional diplomatic work history. He was a member of the conservative Germanian National People's Party and was part of the previous Chancellor's inner circle. After the previous Chancellor's fall, he established a news agency that provided local newspapers with information and foreign media companies with readily translated information so they didn't have to import raw information to translate it themselves, or rely on existing publications from Germanian media companies. And there are a lot of foreign media companies that use his services. He later cofounded the Germanian Democratic Union with Conrad Adenaue in opposition to the Germania Workers' Party. Elya thinks that was after her agents had a talk with him and the future of his news agency. He's probably using his news agency as a way to get his message out to the international community, which might explain why he reacted by co-establishing a political party. If the information was already translated, why try to sift through the raw, untranslated information? A great way of injecting one's political viewpoints into the news without making it obvious.
As for the other cofounder, Conrad Adenaue, he was an unusual one. He has been the mayor of Cologne for decades dating back to before the first Europan War and compared to other cities, Cologne did very well under his administration even in the final years of the first Europan War and during the early years of Germania. He initially considered running for Chancellorship when the GWP was on the rise, but had family problems which he decided had to take priority. His public statements said that I would plunge Germania into an unwinnable war. All while still retaining his mayor position, which means he had to be very good at his job to not get ousted by the GWP supporters. He criticized the Francois Republic for trying to destroy Ildoan Kingdom's democracy, and the Allied Kingdom for being the enablers. After the defeat of the Francois Republic, he argued for a lasting reconciliation with the Francois Republic as the mortal threat was communism, and the Russy Federation. He favored further integration of OZEV including an unified military structure, and that they should also include the Francois Republic, Lothiern, Legadonia Entente, Ispagna, Allied Kingdom and Unified States in the fight against communism. His reason for a tighter integration with the Francois Republic was that there is no point in further rivalry when both of us are now faced with a resurgent Russy Confederation and the new superpower Chinese Soviet Republic.
The real interesting thing was that Elya had obtained some information about Conrad using that bid as a way to raise publicity and funding. I told her that she shouldn't be spying on non-communist political parties, but she argued that it was from "open source research" and "polling", and thus it was fair game.
Fritz Weber is still the ambassador to the US, and had years of foreign diplomatic service, so he certainly had the experience. And a sizable portion of the Germanian diplomatic staff was backing him as well.
There were other candidates as well, but while they had similar views as Fritz, they either do not have as much experience, or have views that I disagreed with, such as one that I would have considered a Euroskeptic and another that called for opening another front in the Bharat War by invading the Russy Confederation. Operation Barbarossa is a fool's dream, and the last thing I want to deal with is an unified Rus force and a horde of cannibalistic CSR "volunteers" when my soldiers are fighting in Sibyria during the winter.
Fritz's position is still what I would call "classical", and had criticized Dertinge's party for wanting to partner with untrustworthy neighbors. I wouldn't blame him as the Francois Republic had just been defeated, the Allied Kingdom dragged their feet in helping us fight against the Rus, and the Legadonia Entente currently has a complicated relationship with us, where it is apparent that they don't fully trust us, but aren't hostile anymore. Ispagna and Lothiern have been off doing their own things.
Dertinge's position would pave the way for an European Union that I knew about in my previous world. But I'm not exactly sure about Dertinge's foreign diplomacy prowess. But then again, he has contacts with many foreign media companies, which would be helpful in diplomacy if he controls what information they see and can reach out to them for personal discussions about certain topics. The one sticking point is that the GDU also has an anti-homosexuality stance and criticized my relationship with Visha, and Konrad himself is a deeply religious man. Although Dertinge has kept quiet on those anti-homosexuality issues for some reason.
Wait, if I pick Dertinge, it could potentially fracture the GWP as the GDU is a competing political party, and his reconciliation policy would anger some of the GWP supporters. The GWP and GDU would be fighting each other. This could be a good wedge issue to get me out of office by the next election, and help establish the European Union. I feel a smile from across my face, now that's a win-win!
In the CSR:
"Buying 12.7mm and 14.5mm magic bullets, DShK heavy machine guns, and PTRS-41 anti-tank rifles from Rus arms factories? And they are to be routed to Afghanistan?" Li Kenong asked himself as he read the order request. "And why would they need such heavy weapons?"
He figured if the Sibyrian Army's mages needed those before entering North Bharat for combat, there was probably a good reason for it. He started writing up an order for the logistics office in Rus to begin paying the arms factory for the weapons and ammunition.
1943, November 16th, Berun:
I was reading through the newspaper and saw that my plan of using Dertinge as a wedge issue wasn't working as intended. Elya reported that Conrad appeared astonished if not downright shocked when he was told about Dertinge's nomination. Sure, we lost a few members from the GWP, but not enough to allow me to get out of office.
There was a knock on my office door.
"Come in."
Visha walked in holding some papers and she had a smile on her face. It was good to see her warm up around me again.
"Hello, Visha, what do you have for me?" I greet her with a smile.
"Otto Lutz has two updates for you, Chancellor." She reads over one of the paper, "The first one is that Dr. Fischer's work on the Type 99 Block 2 Orb is complete. There's nothing too special about it, just various tweaks and optimizations, such as slightly improved stealth and shield spells. The biggest changes would be the reflex and other melee combat related spell improvements in response to the CSR mages' preference for close quarter combat. The orb will be starting production soon, so we might see their use in the Bharati War if the war drags on. As for the Type 100 Orb, Dr. Fischer had been working with the jet fighter researchers to understand the sound barrier aerodynamics phenomenon and developed a shield spell that would allow mages to safely reach up to 925 kilometers per hour, compared to the Type 99 orb's 644 kilometers per hour. He specifically referenced your Type 99 prototype test run as the final goal. He already has a prototype running."
"925 kilometers per hour for how long?"
"They said they're not sure how long the orb can withstand that speed and it might be just for a short duration sprint, but it was designed for a higher mana output compared to the Type 99 orb."
I was silent for a moment, "...They don't need me to do a test-run on it, do they?"
Visha frowned. "I told them that they are not to give you a prototype orb. Remember when you melted the prototype Type 99 orb?"
I indeed did, and that nearly killed me. Although that was because I bypassed the safeties and overloaded it. But now I recall that I promised myself that I wouldn't be a test pilot again, and so I sigh in relief.
"Fine. Fine. Just tell them that I would rather have a good enough orb now, than to wait for several years for a "perfect" orb. If the 925 kilometers per hour can't be achieved safely, at least go for something that's more than 644 kilometers per hour. I don't want a repeat of the Type 95 orb's development where the Empire sunk endless resources and time into it." I say tiredly.
Visha frowns, probably either because of my sigh from earlier or just my tired tone of voice. She silently thinks for a second and then looks up with her face indicating that she just had an idea. "I think you're feeling a bit cooped up. When was the last time you had time for yourself?"
I try to think of an answer but come up blank. She had a good point - It's been a while since I had time for myself… but it can't be helped.
"Has Lieutenant Colonel Koenig come back from his adventures in the new republics?" I opt to ask instead.
Visha looks at me silently for a moment before opening a small notebook and flipped through a few pages in it. "He said he'll be in Berun next week to start teaching at the mage academy."
"Ah, excellent. I want to talk to him to catch up on all of the missions he has operated and see how he wants to adjust the curriculum at the academy. Anyways, what's the next report?" I ask Visha, who discards the notebook and pulls up a paper from the stack.
"The second one is that Igor Sikorsky's prototype helicopter, the VS-300, is ready for a hovering test. He requests that you observe the test run at the Usedom Island testing center and provide your input on the project. Apparently there has been a lot of pushback from the other R&D staff and the military, and especially from the aerial mages. They're all doubtful of how useful a helicopter would be. And personally… I should also mention that I'm also a bit confused about how we would use helicopters."
Ah, now I definitely understand why the Unified States and Allied Kingdom rejected the helicopter when even Visha was doubtful about it.
"Tell Lutz that I'll make the time to visit Usedom Island for the helicopter testing. I believe it will be an important asset for our military and eventually the civilian aviation industry as well."
"Civilian aviation industry?" One of her eyebrows raised in confusion.
"Medical transport, search and rescue, tracking down criminals that are fleeing in a vehicle or on foot, power line inspection, news reporting, transporting people when there are no nearby airfields, and so on." I waved my hand dismissively.
"News reporting?"
"Mount a film camera on the helicopter. I'm sure TV watchers would appreciate having a birds eye view of an event."
"A lot of that can be done by mages as well. We already have an orb in development that might allow a C-tier mage to hover for a short duration."
"But mages are finite. You saw what happened to the Francois Republic when they invaded us. They had to scrape the barrel to get enough mages to threaten us, and those colonial mages were meat shields for their few skilled mages. Whereas for helicopters, we have a far larger pool of regular people to train as pilots. As long as we have the raw material to build the helicopters and the fuel to keep them going, they will work well. And with helicopters replacing mages in some of those roles, we could restructure the mage academy's curriculum to be more focused on special operations instead of conventional warfare. We already have lieutenant colonel Koenig and the stealth orbs to make it a reality, and that needs to happen if the CSR and Rus keep up with their proxy wars."
Visha nodded and flipped to another set of papers.
"General Ugar reported that they were able to operate the reactor for over 100 hours straight with no significant problems, and can proceed with building the power plant. He did say that the scientists are still confused of why the reactor power fluctuates on its own even with constant temperature and no adjustment to the controls, and why the reactor still generates a measurable amount of heat even after a full shut down. There were also issues with starting the reactor, where it was determined that depending on the power level of the reactor and the duration of its power level before shut down, sometimes the reactor would not start until several hours later. There was a suggestion to pull all of the control rods out to see if that would allow the reactor to start, but General Ugar refused to allow that. Some of the scientists suspect that the nuclear fission's intermediate steps are generating elements that are contributing to the power fluctuation."
Intermediate elements. Reactor is still hot after shutting it down, and unable to start at times. Now I'm searching my mind hard for memories from the internet binging that I did decades ago at this point.
"Have them check for short lived intermediate elements. That might be causing those reaction behaviors."
Visha raised an eyebrow, but wrote in her notes.
"Have they also discussed reactor safety?"
"Other than a backup coolant pump, not really."
"Why?"
"In their notes, they believe that a reactor accident is unlikely to happen as long as the reactor is properly supervised and maintained."
Chernobyl didn't have a containment structure. Fukushima Daiichi's containment structure couldn't withstand a hydrogen explosion. I'll be damned if I let that happen again on my watch. The simplest safe solution for a first generation reactor where the scientists don't even fully understand why it has unstable power output, is to build an overkill containment structure that will contain molten material and leaked radioactive water from a reactor meltdown to avoid groundwater contamination and not allow any radioactive airborne particles from an explosion to escape. And also resist a bombing or mage attack. For the cooling and reactor safety, they will have to cover every single failure mode such as complete loss of power, pipe rupture, natural disaster, or human error.
"I'll be writing some requirements that I expect the nuclear scientists and power plant designers to meet. If they don't implement all of those, I won't allow them to build the power plant. If there are any shortcuts, I will force feed them radioactive waste! Also, any details of their reactor pressure vessel?"
"Um, they said they opted to not use a pressure vessel so they could replace fuel rods during full reactor operation for the plutonium extraction."
"How is that possible?"
"They plan on using removable steel blocks for the reactor lid."
I took a deep breath when I realized what they were doing. These suicidal scientists are recreating Chernobyl!
"Then I expect the containment structure to be an overkill if they want to use an easily removable reactor vessel lid. There will not be a nuclear disaster in Germania, ever, and if there is one, that containment structure will hold all of the radioactive shit inside."
Visha nodded and wrote some more in her notes. I waited for her to be done before she flipped to another report.
"We received combat performance documentation of South Bharati officers and mages that were trained in Germania after they had returned back to South Bharat, and they are impressive. Progress in tightening the encirclement around the trapped North Bharati army has been improving. Our South Bharati volunteer army is asking us to have more of their officers and mages trained by us. South Bharat's army command has been complaining to South Bharat's local government about the 'excessive' foreign influence and the 'potential instability', but I don't think their complaints will get anywhere with them underperforming compared to our volunteer army."
I had a blank stare at Visha for a few seconds.
"Who authorized their training in Germania?"
"General Lergen." Visha said with a confused look on her face. "Why?"
I knew I should have kept a closer eye on that war maniac! But using Elya to keep an eye on him would be crossing the line though. Last thing I wanted was to make the military feel that they're not trusted, and a quick way of being overthrown in a coup, which isn't an ideal retirement plan.
"If the Allied Kingdom finds out about our foreign training program, they will think that we're making a play for South Bharat. The last thing I need is a second anti-Germania coalition being formed with the Allied Kingdom leading it, when I'm busy dealing with the Russy Confederation's and the CSR's activities."
"You didn't want South Bharat?" Visha asked, with an even more confused look.
I rubbed my forehead in agony. How could this have gone so wrong? I never wanted South Bharat as a colony. Angering the Allied Kingdom and getting into the colonial game when everyone is losing is just dumb.
"Where did you get that idea?"
"It was when you were in South Bharat forming an army using their draftees to be led by our OZEV volunteers and Germania marines, then later had the draftees paid by us when South Bharat cut off their pay. Especially your intervention in the civilian government."
I slammed my head on the desk. Visha jumped back a bit.
"I just wanted to stop the spread of communism! They were mass executing their citizens, including children that were as young as me when I was going through OCS! I couldn't let that happen on my watch! Besides, how could I trust the South Bharati military command with our arms shipment or to hold the line when they were stealing food from their own men?!"
Visha didn't say anything as I pulled my head back up, now rubbing my forehead in pain.
"Why did things go so wrong?" I asked.
"You didn't notice South Bharatis in Berun during the evenings and weekends? Or the newspaper articles about the new guests?"
That was when I realized it's been a long time since I've actually wandered around in public and got a sense of the day-to-day life, instead of spending all of my time on official government work. "I should probably get out more often," I absently conclude, "Just to see what is happening in Germania."
"...Do you want us to go out together?" Visha asks apprehensively.
I pause, considering her idea before frowning and then shaking my head apologetically, "I'm sorry, Visha but I don't want the attention while out for a casual stroll. I sigh, "A shame that Neumann is still in the Bharati subcontinent instead of being here to pretend to be my older brother for my disguise."
Visha smiles back half-heartedly before her eyes widen, "We could disguise ourselves to pretend to be sisters." She giggles as she suggests that, though a hint of disappointment is still there.
"Maybe." I chuckle, "Let's save that discussion when it gets closer to the weekend. Is there anything else to report?"
"Well, on the positive note, the war in Bharat should be coming to an end." Visha said with a smile. "So maybe we don't need to keep training more South Bharatis on our soil."
"Oh?"
"The coalition just publicly announced that the war will be over by Christmas, and that the two Bharats will be reunified."
That was bad. They are doubling down on chasing the North Bharatis into the mountains when the CSR could be there waiting to spring an ambush.
"Then we'll need to train a lot more South Bharati officers and mages for the coming winter."
Visha stared at me in confusion. "I… I don't understand, you just said…"
"I know. I know. Had Elya and General Lergen not yet briefed you of the CSR's upcoming plans then?"
"No."
We carried on the conversation in my soundproof room with a noise blocking spell so I could brief her on everything about the CSR's inevitable assault through Afghanistan. That brief turned into us talking some more about official business - mostly on how things are in other countries, and that conversation then took a sudden turn when Visha, her wandering eyes making it obvious that she's only half-listening, suddenly asked: "This place is sound-proofed, right?"
I blinked and stopped in the middle of my assessment of the performance of Germanian products in the American market, "Uh… yes?" I replied with confusion, didn't I tell her that already?
Visha grinned, and the situation quickly escalated when she pushed aside some stack of papers and kissed me from across the desk. My eyes go wide at the sudden, but not unwelcome, action, which I then feel myself melting into within seconds. The feeling of her soft lips on mine, and the sweet taste of her lipstick causes an involuntary moan to escape me… which Visha seemed to have taken as a sign to push in with her tongue.
We both gasped when we eventually pulled back for air, the room somehow feeling hotter than it did before. I can hear the HR manager inside of me screaming at how unprofessional all of this is, but the blood pounding in my ear is even louder.
Still, that little part of me manages to push something out. "V-Visha, this is unprofessional!"
My red-faced Deputy Chancellor, who has her arms on my desk, raises an eyebrow, "Is that a no?"
Suddenly, I am a rookie who's trying to figure out why her flight spell failed mid-flight, "W-well, uh…" I tried to think up an excuse, but all I managed to do was look flustered until Visha rolled her eyes and pulled me up from my chair.
It didn't take long for us to exchange more than just kisses.
In Ludhiana, northwest of Delhi:
Han Xianchu sighed as he stared at the map of North Bharat.
"How am I going to explain this to my superior, who would definitely inform Luo Ronghuan?" he absently asked himself.
Karachi and Vadodara in the southwest of North Bharat have been captured by the coalition and they're advancing north now, especially with their combat boats sailing up the Indus River and replenishment barges helping those boats push forward. He was in disbelief of the rapid advancement.
There are battles raging just outside of Delhi and Agra, and both cities are expected to fall soon. Coalition forces were building makeshift airfields using steel mats to maintain their air superiority with their rapidly advancing ground forces. The local garrison in Lucknow surrendered after being encircled when his reinforcement army was diverted to try to salvage the situation in Delhi and Agra. North Bharat's government said they will be falling back to the Rajasthan and Punjab provinces, and the Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh provinces will be abandoned. Any of their forces that couldn't make it to the two fallback provinces had been ordered to retreat to the Himalaya mountains.
And it was only going to get worse. Informats in South Bharat reported that millions of unemployed farmers were working on road, highway, railroad and other infrastructure constructions overseen by mostly Germanian engineers, and fed by massive food imports from the Unified States. Which was an unintended consequence of North Bharat's trapped southern army destroying everything as they retreated deeper into their pocket, including the farms which put those men out of work. Considering that the coalition forces were beginning to deploy an increasing number of vehicles, the war was going to transition to a full blown conventional one once they finished improving their logistics instead of primarily relying on boats and planes. And North Bharat was losing anti-tank guns faster than they could replace them from using them both for anti-boat and anti-vehicle operations, while South Bharat's local industry just kept building more boats with parts shipped in from overseas.
The promised Type 97 orbs were still only trickling in after the Rus opened up their stockpile. Apparently they were difficult to manufacture, and he was told the production would only be able to significantly scale up when the simplified orb design entered production.
Training the mages to use the Type 97 orb was also its own annoyance with the high rate of failures, although for now all he could do was keep cycling through a large number of mages to find competent users for the scarce orbs. According to Peng Dehuai, the Chairman had stated "I have no patience with mages that have water filled heads and only know how to eat, when our enemies are many and our friends that are only with us until we show weakness."
An aide, one whose dusty and sweaty appearance makes it apparent that he's been rushing around camp, came up to him with a report as he was trying to decide where to send a reinforcement army that had just arrived in the Nepal province after their march through Tibet. "The coalition forces are already sailing into Hyderabad. General Hong Xuezhi was captured or killed after enemy tanks led by General George Smith Patton drove through his command headquarters. He was last seen in a hand to hand combat against General Patton after shouting something at the American general, which convinced the American to get off of their tank for the fight."
...Great. Now he just had another front line dumped on him to manage until a replacement general could take Hong Xuezhi's spot.
He looked at the map again, and his brows furrowed as his mind tried to pull up all the implications of this brand-new mess. "Not possible. There are numerous anti-tank guns, anti-aircraft batteries, artillery and DShK heavy machine guns along that river. Chains to block their path. And mines booby trapped to deal with any tampering from the divers and underwater mages. How did they even get the tanks that far into North Bharat?"
"Local commanders reported that General Henry Law is in command of their riverine fleet, and General Douglas McArthur is also present."
Those two were leading this offensive? "Weren't General Patton and McArthur leading the offensive against Delhi and Agra?"
The aide shook his head, "Multiple eyewitnesses report that they definitely saw both American generals. Especially Patton. That commander is hard to miss with his highly polished helmet."
If nothing else, at least that's two of the biggest problems in one place. The other one though..."Where is General Romel then? We know he isn't in the area around Delhi and Agra."
"We have no idea."
He tsks,"Tell the NKVD that either they have double agents in their employment, or some of their informants have already been identified and now the coalition is just using them to feed false information. If General Romel isn't part of either of the offensives, then something strange is going on."
The aide nodded and left the report before saluting and running out of the tent.
He flipped through the report and saw how they countered the defenses. They had been building new boat designs, and held them off until it came time to smash through the kill zone that Hong Xuezhi had prepared and he had personally signed off on.
The mines? They had radio controlled boats with underwater nets to trigger the mines ahead of the main fleet, and some had thermite charges mounted in front to melt the chains. Coalition's air support and rocket artillery made a mess of any defenders that revealed themselves to fire on the boats.
The DShK machine guns? Almost useless against uparmored large boats that are now equipped with multi-barrelled recoilless rifles for return fire to silence the heavy machine guns.
The small boats? All of them packed with their own heavy caliber machine guns.
The dreaded flamethrower boats? Upgraded pumps to send the burning liquid over a larger distance.
How did they get the tanks so far inland to flank the river defenses and run down his mortars and artillery guns? The Unified States brought in their old First Europan War era landing crafts.
He looked at the map again, fingers tracing over the contours and symbols. There had to be a location where he could try to halt the coalition's advance again. Every kilometer that the coalition takes means the trapped North Bharati army in the south has to fight for an extra day to be rescued.
His fingers stop.
Sukkur. It had multiple canals and railroads all converging towards it, and the rail lines connected to Hyderabad to the south, Quetta to the northwest - which was next to Afghanistan - and all the way to Multan, Lahore, Islamabad and Delhi to the northeast. The city might not be on the most defensible terrain, but it was definitely the logistics hub that the coalition would be strongly interested in capturing. As long as he can prevent encirclements around the city, he would have the logistics advantage with the coalition forces being stretched thin by the time they arrive at Sukkur. If he could hold on just long enough for the promised reinforcements to arrive, it would be worth it no matter the cost.
He immediately began his work on writing to the North Bharati home army of the new fallback position. They are to conscript the locals to turn the city into a fortress, and to instruct all of his forces in the river valley area to either converge on the city or perform a fighting retreat to delay the enemy.
In the CSR:
Zhang Wentian rubbed his head at the reports from General Han Xianchu, and the updated map reflecting those new information. "Is there any good news?"
"For our advances through Afghanistan, we have met minimal local Afghan resistance." Peng Dehuai said as he flipped through a set of papers. "According to Kang's reports, the coalition forces have increased their aerial reconnaissance of the Himalayas, including occasionally violating Afghanistan's airspace. To avoid losing our element of surprise, I ordered the Sibyrian Army to cease building roads as they approached the mountain ranges and switch to night time marching. Since we won't be attacking anytime soon, I also had most of our mages head back north to assist with the railway construction, especially for bridges and tunnels. Once the army is almost ready for their counteroffensive, the mages will fly back south and fly between the mountains as they approach North Bharat and then proceed on foot in their last leg of their journey. Even the best magic detectors can't see through mountains."
"Speaking of the railway construction to Afghanistan, we are making steady progress with multiple simultaneous starting points for the construction." Li Kenong said as he passed out the drawings of the railway construction progress. "There is still a shortage of track material, but I'm expecting that by the time we complete the tunnels, bridges and other hard parts of the route, we should have enough track material to build the railway. The Rus has also been helpful. Apparently they like the opportunity to be able to conduct direct trade with North Bharat after the war is over as they no longer have access to the Baltic Sea or Black Sea for international trade. They also want to conduct geological exploration in Afghanistan."
"Anything about the coalition?" Zhang Wentian asked.
"The coalition announced that they want to win the war by Christmas." Kang Sheng said. "Yet at the same time, the ones with rebellious oversea colonies are slowly pulling their forces out, most notably the Allied Kingdom as the Buddhist monks in Burma are exceeding our expectations. If the Albish is unable to stop losing control of the northern part of Burma, we could proceed with our plans of hiring locals to build roads and a railway through that region, and move supplies through the region to support North Bharat . Peng Dehaui has something to say regarding what we should be doing."
"Given how aggressive they are pushing, a strong counter attack is all that is needed to reverse their momentum. Especially as they approach the mountains where there aren't as many roads." Peng Dehuai added.
Kang Sheng continued. "Something concerns me is that our informats in South Bharat reported South Bharati officers and mages traveling to Germania. The ones that have returned have demonstrated excellent performance against North Bharat's trapped army. I'm afraid that the army might collapse before we can rescue them."
"We could send additional mages to help reinforce their positions." Peng Dehuai said as he pointed at the encircled army's position. "But that would jeopardize our fighting retreats further up north and would result in us having to cover more distances to rescue the trapped army after our counteroffensive. And should the trapped army be defeated, the mage reinforcements are unlikely to escape."
"And we need mages to help speed up the road constructions and the Afghanistan railway for the Sibyrian Army's logistic support." Li Kenong said. "Without those, the Sibyrian Army's ability to conduct their counteroffensive will likely be constrained."
Zhang Wentian slumped in his chair and went silent to consider the options, while everyone else looked at him, awaiting his response.
At the Usedom Island research and testing facility:
The old staff was still here. Dr. Max Kramer, the head researcher, and Otto Lutz, the site's administrator. General Lergen and a few other high ranking military officials such as Admiral Albrecht, and air force Generals Weiss and von Richtoffer were also present. Admiral Albrecht was confused as to why I requested that he attend the first helicopter demonstration, but I definitely knew that the navy and coast guard forces in my previous world made extensive use of helicopters.
After some brief pleasantries between everyone, we were escorted to a concrete lot that was next to the water. In the middle of it was the prototype helicopter. I had to pretend to not be bored because I knew how modern helicopters fly, so I have to feign interest to show my support for this proof of concept.
"Where is Mr. Sikorsky?" I asked as the pilot started the engine and began checking off something in his clipboard.
"He said he's flying it himself." Lutz said.
A scientist testing something on themselves. Maybe Dr. Schugel would have considered valuing safety more if he had magic potential to test the orbs himself. Although with his religious insanity, he probably would have plowed ahead with the Type 95 research if it worked on him and would have mocked the other mages for not being able to figure out how to use the death device.
As the engine reached a steady state speed, the helicopter slowly took off and hovered around the concrete lot.
"Did he mention anything about the speed and altitude it can achieve?" I asked.
"He said he'll worry about that after he finishes working out how to control the helicopter." Dr. Max Kramer said. "It took a lot of effort from him to even get the thing to hover for more than a few minutes. His current plan is to break the record for hovering in one spot without magic or cable anchoring, which was last set by hot air balloons on a windless day."
The helicopter began to ascend upward vertically for an altitude of about 50 meters, before it descended back to about 20 meters.
Generals Weiss spoke up. "I'm still trying to understand the use of this helicopter when we have mages."
"How many mage battalions do we have?"
"About 10 in active combat, ready status or in a training cycle. About another 15 in the mage civil defense."
"And if we were scraping the barrel including conscripting mages as young as eight, how many more mage battalions could we get?"
General Weiss hesitated when I set the parameters to the age that I was enrolled into OCS, but he chewed on the question nonetheless. "Maybe 20?" He eventually answered.
"And what happens if they take attrition from another war, how would we replace them?"
"We won't be able to except for waiting for the next generation, or pulling a repeat of the Francois Republic's colonial mage recruitment."
I turned to Dr. Max Kramer. "Did Igor Sikorsky say what are the requirements for being a helicopter pilot?"
"He's not a mage, so I'm assuming anyone that meets the requirements to begin training as a plane pilot could also be a helicopter pilot."
I turned back to Generals Weiss. "We can mass produce helicopters and train thousands of helicopter pilots. They won't make mages unemployed though, because there are still many uses for them. Such as special operations behind enemy lines."
The helicopter stopped hovering in one location, flew backward for some distance, and then it shifted direction to hover around us in a circle with Igor facing towards us the whole time.
"I'm assuming you wanted me here because you wanted me to observe a substitute for marine mages?" Admiral Albrecht asked.
"You could have a helicopter with every destroyer. And a squadron on a carrier. Or even build a miniature carrier that exclusively deploys helicopters. Far more than the current allotment of marine mages that the navy has. You could also equip those helicopters with torpedoes or anti-ship missiles to extend your strike range, or depth charges to hunt enemy submarines which would have to come up to the surface to shoot back at the helicopters. Or have it carry a dozen passengers or some cargo."
The helicopter then hovered just a few meters off the ground, weaved through a few trees, and ducked behind a building.
"Fly at low altitude. Pop up. Fire off rockets. Then dive back down behind a hill or trees." von Richtoffer said. "Fascinating."
"And another way for paratroopers to enter an area." I said. "Rocket pod helicopters would be useful for providing fire support for air deployed infantry."
I turned to General Lergen. "What do you think?"
He had a pensive expression on his face before speaking; "If I may, Chancellor, I've never expected a mage to be so interested in putting other mages out of work, but I think once we see more advanced versions of this helicopter, I might have a better idea of how to make use of it."
Then we all heard a loud bang as the helicopter climbed past 70 meters in altitude and saw a trail of black smoke spewing from the helicopter engine. I immediately fired up my orb and blasted off, leaving the rest of the group in the dust. When I came up next to Sikorsky, he kept his eyes forward.
"Don't bother me, I've always wanted to try out the autorotation concept. Just let me know if there's a fire behind me."
"What?" I ask, my mind too worried about losing a valuable engineer to comprehend his words.
He ignored me and kept his hands on the controls as the helicopter descended. The helicopter came to a rough landing on the grass and nearly tipped it over had I not activated my physical strength spell to push back on it. He unbuckled his restraints and hopped out of the seat to take a look at the engine as the rest of the group came running over.
I turned to everyone else.
"I see a bright future for helicopters. Igor Sikorsky has my support."
In Berun, sometime later:
Visha had not forgotten about the interview proposal, and I would not be surprised if she had been working with Elya to find an interviewer while I was off in South Bharat or when Visha needed time to herself. I had been dreading this moment even though I had prepared the talking points, rehearsed my answers and answers for likely questions.
I decided to pick a setting I was familiar with when it came to difficult interviews. An executive suite in the football stadium where there would be a match in a few days. I recall General Lergen mentioning about the military being more selective with who to send over to South Bharat, and a few senior officers had decided to have professional athletes play and keep the public distracted from the war. Unlike our previous war against the Francois Republic and then the Russy Federation, even if South Bharat completely collapsed, Germania's existence wouldn't be directly threatened. Besides, it would be a shame if Carl Troeger was shot down over in Bharat when he could be keeping the populace entertained.
I did read some of Gunter Groz's work before this interview, and the impression I got was that he had a preference for investigative journalism while occasionally dabbling in tabloid stuff. He did draw the line when a previous employer fired him and he leaked his employer's memos instructing him to invade a celebrity's privacy before going freelance for a few years. I was reading a bit more while waiting for him to arrive when Visha spoke up.
"Tanya, you seem a bit nervous."
I looked at her and was a bit flustered. I need to work better on concealing my thoughts. Then again, Visha had spent well over a decade with me so she knew the little tells that I have.
"I still don't have a way to explain our relationship without offending the people. That's why I'm nervous."
"As you said previously, we have to control the narrative before others create a narrative for us." Visha winked.
There was a knock on the door. It's him.
I let out a small sigh. "Come in."
An aide opened the door and Gunter Groz stepped in. "Good afternoon Chancellor-President and Deputy Chancellor."
"Please, take a seat." I motioned to a couch. He walked over and sat down, and after a few minutes of pleasantries, that was when the interview kicked off.
His first first topic was our foreign policy. I laid out that my end goal for the Bharati War was a free and democratic South Bharat that is safe from North Bharat's interference. And while some may believe that South Bharat was the Allied Kingdom's responsibility, if South Bharat was reunited under the North Bharat's control, that would almost guarantee the rest of southeast Asia would be pressured to be communist or at least communist friendly. Should the CSR be the aggressor decades later, they would have tremendous reserves of manpower to utilize for war, and with that deep manpower reserves also come with a large number of communist aerial mages. Had the Russy Federation not purged their mages, the war against them would have been much more difficult.
I then shifted our discussion to talk about the new republics' future. I reiterated that I wanted them to be democratic and help them resist any attempts from the Russy Confederation to try to reclaim their lost lands, which also include building their infrastructure and economy. The reasoning for that is that when people have good jobs and a roof over their heads, they're less likely to join radical groups. When I was asked about Legadonia Entente and their influence over the Baltic states, I shrugged my shoulders and told him that I always welcomed help against the communists.
When he asked my opinion of the CSR, all I could say was that the country was still an information blackhole for me. But since they were backing another communist country to suffocate South Bharat's young democracy in its cradle, that was a direct threat to Germania's interest. I did mention pushing for a bill to provide benefits and care to veterans who helped Germania fight against the communist threat.
"I've read about your statements regarding veteran benefits and care." Gunter Groz started on his next question. "What gave you the idea to try something so… new?"
"With so many people returning from the Second Europan War and the need for our economy to shift back from war production focus to peace time, droves of service members would find themselves unemployed after post war drawdown while the industries readjust." I shook my head at the last part. "Back in the 18th century after the European powers had finished their great war with the Albish defeating the Frankish, many veterans found themselves unable to find work after they were discharged from the military. Some went down the path of crime or piracy to make ends meet. Instead, I want to give our service members the opportunities to get higher education or go to a trade school, and by the time they finish training, the economy would be ready to hire them."
"And for the veterans that will be returning from the Bharati War?"
Visha spoke up. "It would only be fair for us to extend the benefits to them. We are currently in the process of working on a bill for the veterans of the First Europan War, especially since many of them were left penniless and jobless after the Empire's collapse."
My face twitched at that last part, reminding me of the immediate post-war memories. Gunter Groz immediately picked up on that. "It seems your Deputy Chancellor's comment regarding the plight of the veterans after the Empire's defeat had touched a nerve."
I wasn't exactly prepared for this, but he had a very good point. If there are still people that would be opposed to helping veterans even after hearing about my immediate post-war experience, then I'm going to be taking a dim view of them.
I sighed. "When I woke up from my coma in the hospital, I was told that the war was over, the Empire lost, and I had no pension. When I went to the bank where all of my savings were kept, my account was also gone because the bank's assets were seized. I had no other applicable job skills other than war. That was why I went back to the orphanage, to work for food so that I wasn't left begging on the streets or turning to a life of crime."
"I'm sorry to hear that."
I shrugged my shoulders. "But that was a long time ago. Now all I can do is ensure that no one else has to experience what I went through."
He looked at his notes. "I'm assuming the veterans healthcare is also based on the same reasons that you laid out?"
"Broken people can't contribute to the economy, physically or mentally. And for those that are permanently disabled, it's not fair that we neglect them when they sacrificed so much for our country."
"Mentally?"
"It is Germania's responsibility to help veterans who simply saw too much on the front line. I've seen the reports of service members having combat fatigue from seeing the brutality of war, sometimes with entire companies or battalions being impacted. Especially with the communists showing no regard for the laws of war, such as using civilians for 'manual' mine clearing, bullet sponges, and building fortifications on the front lines where they will be taking fire."
Visha and Gunter Groz gave me a puzzled look. Did I say something completely out of the ordinary?
"Um, Chancellor, could you explain what is 'combat fatigue'? I never heard of that term."
Ah, that explains why. They are probably still thinking of shell shock. "It is a collection of a variety of symptoms caused by experiencing severe trauma. Thousand yard stares, debilitating flashbacks, nightmares, insomnia, high stress, sense of guilt, depression, and other symptoms. Some might call those veterans 'weak willed', but I would be deeply concerned if someone was not bothered at all with watching thousands of civilians being needlessly slaughtered as bullet sponges or calling an airstrike on a fortress that turned out to be filled with hundreds of forced laborers. I certainly wouldn't want such a callous monster in the military like what the communists are doing."
"Would you say that you also had… issues with readjusting after the Empire's defeat?"
I just walked myself into a trap set by him! To tell him that I had problems would be admitting weakness. To tell him that I was perfectly fine could be seen as dishonest or be used to undermine my own platform for mental health treatment.
I looked at Visha. She smiled and took my hand. "Well she did say people need help. We've been with each other for about two decades now."
Well I wasn't sure how to bring up this topic that I would have to eventually talk about, but here we go.
Gunter Groz gave us an eager look. "How did you two first meet?"
"It was when the Chancellor was just a Lieutenant, and I was a corporal." Visha said. "During the first Europan War, I simply admired her. It wasn't until I watched her campaign for a political party when I started to have romantic feelings for her."
"What convinced you to turn those feelings into an actual romantic relationship?" he asked as he rapidly scribbled notes.
Visha blushed. "I was initially hesitant as homosexuality is generally frowned upon, but there were two events that convinced me to pursue. The first one was when the Chancellor asked if I was dating a guy, and when I said no, she then assumed it was with one of my female friends. She said she fully supported that sort of relationship, and seemed surprised when I also said no. The second one was when I talked with one of my friends and they suggested 'just let it happen'."
Now this was something I was unaware of.
"Was the Chancellor aware of your romantic feelings?"
Visha said "Maybe" and I said "No" at the same time. Gunter Groz seemed very interested in that as he said, "Ah, the classical one-sided relationship where one person is unaware of the other person's deep love. Chancellor, what were your thoughts during that time?"
I chewed on my lip. I don't think Visha is even aware of exactly why I was avoiding a relationship. I looked at her and she nodded, so I took that as a cue to tell the truth. "To be in love with a direct subordinate, in the military, politics or government, was something I was trying to avoid. I was keeping a distance out of professionalism."
"And what changed all of that?" Gunter Groz asked as he continued writing.
I continued on. "When OZEV was at war with four countries all at the same time, I was feeling very stressed. I mean the Empire had only dragged in countries one at a time, so I was concerned about us being defeated even faster than the Empire. Visha walked in and..."
"I kissed her." Visha giggled. "She was shocked, but it was like a switch was flipped and that was when she stopped trying to keep her distance."
"So with both of you being in love, are there future plans between the two of you? Marriage? Adopting kids?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "Unlike war, politics or government matters, this is something I haven't been planning ahead."
Visha nodded and also added, "We still have much to learn from each other."
Gunter Groz pondered for a second, and asked the next question. "Do you think Germania should be open to homosexual relationships?"
"Should Germania's government be involved with dictating how people should live their lives? Judge their beliefs, culture and lifestyle?" I shot back with my own question. "How can we claim we are a democracy if we repress our own people? How can we tell our current and future OZEV members, South Bharat and Akitsushima Dominion that we respect them and that they should trust us, if we are quick to judge? At least the former Russy Federation didn't pretend when it came to dealing with anyone that had the slightest possibility of disagreeing with their government. If they hadn't lost the war, there would have been no more people left in Kieva to oppose the Rus."
Visha squeezed my hand. I paused for a moment to calm down and to allow Gunter Grotz to finish writing. "But I can understand why people would frown upon seeing different things that they aren't used to. Ignorance leads to fear, fear leads to hatred, and hatred leads to violence."
"In other words, it's about respecting differences and treating others with fairness?" Gunter Groz summarized my statement.
I smiled. "Yes."
In Afghanistan:
Chen Shusheng was marching with his formation through the mountains. Actually, more like climbing over the rocky surfaces because the trail wasn't wide enough to get everyone through fast enough, and road construction was called off. The only thing he could see was the white stripe on each soldiers' backpack in the moonlit light, and the occasional wooden post with a white paint or cloth on it.
He felt a rock shift under his feet and attempted to grab onto something, but instead he just tumbled off the path and the slope became rapidly steeper. The only thing waiting for him at the bottom was a dry creek bed full of rocks.
Suddenly, he felt someone grab him and pull him back up. He could see a glow of the mage's face from the orb and the spell she used to stop his fall.
"Interesting," The mage remarks as she adjusts her hold on him, "Every other person who went tumbling down a cliff had a panicked look on their face and often screamed. You looked like you were at peace."
Chen could only sigh, "I accepted my death." He mutters, though the mage is able to hear it still and she hums.
"You probably saw too much things in Sibyria, didn't you?"
Chen remains silent for a moment before hesitantly speaking: "It takes a strong man to deny what's right in front of him, and I'm not that person."
"Were you involved in…" Here Chen could guess that the mage is biting her lip, even though he cannot see her, "What happened when winter set in?"
"Yes." He answered blankly.
The mage is silent for a moment, but then continues, "At least you're honest about what you did in Sibyria." She looks off to the side, though as to where to is something Chen doesn't know. "I have to tell myself that it was just a necessity of survival and that I'm not a bad person. Every single day. It felt wrong to stealthily track Rus forces not to take them prisoner for interrogation, but as a hunt for food. Except for the Rus prisoners that offered to help us track their comrades down to save their own skin, that was also brutal. And it certainly didn't help that mages need lots of food which meant a failed hunt resulted in us going hungry." The mage unexpectedly vents out, leaving Chen unsure of exactly how to respond.
"...What's your name?" He eventually says.
"Yang Huimin, yours?"
"My name is Chen Shusheng."
"Chen Shusheng? Hopefully we don't meet again with you falling off a cliff." Her tone is playful, but it turned serious upon the next part: "Because when we get closer to Bharat, mages won't be allowed to fly."
She dropped him onto the ground, and for the first time since she rescued him, Chen finally got to see his rescuer's face before she flew off.
"Well, she is attractive…" he thought to himself.
And its thoughts like that kept his foot on the ledge instead of open air.
AN:
General Patton's slapping incidents (from Wikipedia): wiki/George_S._Patton_slapping_incidents
How different countries viewed "combat fatigue", aka PTSD: wiki/Combat_stress_reaction#World_War_II
Where I got Georg Dertinge from: wiki/Georg_Dertinger
There is a more in-depth German Wikipedia article about that person.
VS-300 helicopter Youtube video from 1941: watch?v=paWUTEsSSLQ