Chapter 70
A Princely Bargain
As befitted a man of imperial lineage, the room Ling was granted was tastefully opulent, at least by Britannian standards. Credit to where it was due, China did have a few more centuries on the Empire in developing new heights of conspicuous consumption. Still, Ling had little to complain about in his current environs, aside from a certain restlessness. No matter how gilded, there was no denying that he was still presently caged. At least the company he was allowed to keep was genial enough.
"You can relax a bit, Lan Fan," Ling said to his bodyguard. "The Britannians probably don't want me dead, at least not yet."
"We are deep within enemy territory, Master," the woman retorted. "That is reason enough to remain vigilant."
"But our goal here is to turn them into allies. Showing some measure of faith in their goodwill would help in that regard, no?"
"That is your mission, Master," Lan Fan however was unyielding. "Mine is to ensure you live to carry the mission out."
"Dear me," Ling said with a wry smile. "I suppose I should have seen this coming when I allowed you to come along."
"As if the Young Master could have prevented our coming," a gravelly voice sounded.
The smile was still on Ling's face as he looked over at the elderly man pouring him a cup of tea. It was not the fragrant green he was used to from back home, but the quality of the leaves was at least passable. Besides, with the conflict between Britannia and China, Ling suspected that there may well be a shortage in the near future depending on how long the war lasted and what sorts of economic ties were severed between Britannia and the Asian mainland.
"So how much longer do you think we'll be kept waiting?" Ling mused aloud. "It would be nice to make at least some progress on the mission that I got myself taken prisoner for."
"Have you not already conferred with the Cardinal Lamperouge shortly after you surrendered into Britannian custody?" the elderly Fu responded despite the rhetorical nature of the question. "And you have had lengthy discussions with other imperial officers."
"Yeah, but aside from the cardinal, it feels like the other Britannians are just trying to wring as much information out of me as they can to use against China," Ling said. "It doesn't feel like I'm actually cutting any sort of deal with them."
"Then you must wait for the opportune moment to arrive," Fu chided his young charge. "Too hasty a charge will only lead to your own undoing, and you would do China no good in being so undone."
"Quoting more proverbs at me, old man?" Ling said with a sigh.
"Merely reciting the lessons of my own life."
The princeling sighed again. "That somehow makes it even more depressing."
Before a further admonishment could be delivered, all three tensed slightly, a moment before a knock sounded on the door. Lan Fan frowned, unhappy with how close these visitors had gotten before they were detected, but after a curt nod from her grandfather she moved to greet them.
"Who is it?" the woman asked.
"Representatives of Eden Vital, here to speak with Captain Yao."
That saw Ling hop to his feet. "Looks like my patience might finally be paying off."
"Such of it there is," Fu said just loudly enough for Ling to hear while pretending not to.
Lan Fan opened the door, revealing two figures on the other side. One was a statuesque woman with blond hair and piercing green eyes, while the other was a young man that was easily discerned to be some relative, possibly her son, based on how well their features matched.
"Captain Yao," the woman greeted. "I am Prioress Olivia Zevon of the Order Militant of Eden Vital."
Ling glanced over at the other visitor but when no introductions were forthcoming simply smiled and gave a polite bow.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Prioress. May I presume your presence here today means Eden Vital is ready to discuss my mission?"
"We are."
"Ah, excellent. Please, have a seat. Fu, if you would be so kind."
The old man moved deftly, preparing another cup of tea as Olivia accepted the invitation. The youth accompanying her remained standing, clearly acting as a guard of sorts.
"So, cards on the table here," Ling said after Olivia took the obligatory sip of tea. "You want the heretics, I want China to emerge from this conflict whole. My sponsors think there's a way that we can both get what we want, and I hope your presence indicates Eden Vital's own leadership thinks likewise."
"A way certainly exists," Olivia said. "The question however is whether the prospective rewards are worth the risks entailed."
Ling's cheeks twitched as he picked up the unspoken insinuation, that the continuation of China might not in and of itself be considered worthwhile. As a Chinese national, that was hardly a particularly endearing position, but Ling could understand, if not appreciate, the sheer pragmatism of the prioress' stance.
"I'm afraid I'm not much of a diplomat or statesman," Ling said, "so how about we skip all the doubletalk? What does Eden Vital want for its help?"
Olivia tilted her head. "That depends on how China proposes to try and end this war while handing us the heretics. As I said, the entailed risks must balance the proffered rewards."
"Alright," Ling said slowly. "I trust that my presence at least shows there are elements within China that are willing to take action against the heretics."
"Provisionally," Olivia allowed.
Ling was wondering if he was ever going to get a straight yes or no from the woman.
"The problem we have however is we are grossly outmatched by the heretics," the youth continued. "Even a single heretical contractor is capable of doing immense damage, and our leadership would be utterly helpless if the heretics were to move against them. If they die, all hopes for an internal resolution go out the window, which means Britannia would have to slog its way to victory military. And despite the Empire's many advantages, that's not going to be quick or cheap, in wealth or blood."
"So you request a countermeasure against the heretical contractors?" Olivia asked for clarification.
"That's one of the things at least."
An eyebrow rose. "And the others?"
Ling rubbed his hands together. "We know that many in Britannia blame China's leadership for succumbing to the heretic's machinations. And while we do not dispute that our own greed played a major role, it is also a fact that the heretics were spawned from Eden Vital itself."
"Your point, Captain?" It was now Olivia's turn to cut through the doubletalk.
"China requires that custody of the Taklamakan thought elevator remain with an ecclesiastical order of our choosing."
"Unacceptable," Olivia immediately shot down. "Eden Vital would advocate for the outright debellation of the Chinese Federation in that case."
Fu and Lan Fan tensed behind Ling while the man himself spent a moment or so blinking rapidly. That was a much more unequivocable reaction than he had been expecting, or hoping rather. In fact it was so forceful that Ling was a bit uncertain just how rigid a position it was.
"Eden Vital," the captain began again slowly, "does recall that China is a nuclear power, yes?"
As threats went, that was about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but clearly dancing around the edges was going to do no good for either side here.
"Eden Vital would advocate, and enable, the outright debellation of the Chinese Federation," was Olivia's amended response.
That elicited a grimace from Ling. While one might be forgiven for skepticism in the notion that a religious order might be able to tip the balance in a nuclear exchange, the captain was fairly certain Eden Vital was not bluffing here. Whatever ace they held up their sleeve, or even aces, they really thought they could neutralize China's nuclear arsenal and ensure its conventional military defeat. That also implied the Order had been holding back, quite a bit, thus far.
"What would Eden Vital propose as an alternative then," Ling asked, effectively backing off.
"Eden Vital would require stewardship of the Taklamakan thought elevator and its surrounding environs transferred to an ecclesiastical order of our choosing."
The choice of words did not escape Ling, on multiple counts.
"It would not be transferred to Eden Vital itself?" the captain inquired.
"The Order will not rule that out."
Ling grimaced again. The negotiations were not going well, but then again he was hardly a trained diplomat. Unfortunately those that his side could actually trust were in short supply.
"China would still be considered the sponsoring nation-state of the Taklamakan thought elevator," Ling asserted.
Olivia cast a level gaze at the captain, which the man did his best to return nonplussed. It was honestly a much more difficult act to maintain than he would have thought possible.
"China would be considered a sponsoring nation-state of whichever ecclesiastical order given stewardship of the Taklamakan thought elevator."
With how many words remained the same in Olivia's response, Ling had to take a moment to parse through the rest of the statement to pick out the differences. When their nuance became evident, the grimace deepened further. He knew that Eden Vital was extremely aggrieved with China over their support for the heretics, but this was starting to push into the bounds of vindictive.
"And who would the other sponsoring nation-states be?" Ling asked, at least halfway rhetorically.
"That will depend on whether any other signatories of the Treaty of London aside from Britannia wishes to invest as well in the venture," Olivia's answer however threw Ling once more.
That Britannia would be one of the other sponsors was a given, but the Chinese captain had not expected that the Empire, or Eden Vital, might yet invite others to partake. Though thinking it over, Ling could see the angle the Order was working here. Access to even a portion of a thought elevator's compute capabilities was extremely valuable, especially for many of the European nations that needed to share. Britannia already had sole possession of four elevators, so could afford to concede a significant percentage in the Taklamakan elevator even if they installed Eden Vital as the new stewards. At the same time, by drawing the Europeans in, they could indirectly tie the hands of the Chinese, limiting their ability to fully utilize the thought elevator via direct and indirect means, and all nominally in the name of cleaning up the mess caused by the Chinese-heretical cooperation. As obvious as its goal was, there was just enough plausible deniability that the Empire and Eden Vital probably could sell it diplomatically. No, not probably, definitely.
"I'm not sure this won't make my superiors feel they're being backed into a corner without any other options," Ling stated bluntly.
"Captain Yao, your superiors could have chosen to fight when Eden Vital first issued its warning," Olivia however did not sound particularly sympathetic. "We even offered our assistance then."
"And now that we are in position to ask for that help, you would raise the price so?" Ling said coldly.
"Goodwill once spurned must be earned anew from scratch," Olivia answered with equal frigidity.
As Ling met Olivia's gaze, it became evident to the captain just how angry Britannia, or rather, Eden Vital was over China's sheltering of the heretics. Perhaps he and his superiors had been overly optimistic, to think that the Order would welcome a simple reversion to the old status quo. Certainly, some penance was to be expected, but the demand here would be outright crippling.
"What you suggest infringes upon the very heart of China's sovereignty," Ling tried once more.
"Sovereignty is a privilege, not a right," Olivia however had a ready answer to that as well. "No state is entitled to it. Those that fall short should have it revoked as a moral and ethical imperative."
Ling unclenched his jaw. "And does that include Britannia?"
Somehow, Olivia's eyes actually hardened further. "The man my sister-in-arms married was one that unseated a grossly unworthy sovereign."
Having been extensively briefed on Eden Vital's relations with the Britannian imperial family, Ling was at least able to work out that Olivia was referring to the late Empress Marianne and the Emperor Charles. Which, considering the manner of the latter's ascension, served as an unequivocal enough answer to his question. But Olivia was far from done however.
"Whose time in joyous matrimony is brutally cut short by the very heretics that China now shelters."
Somehow, the sinking feeling in Ling's stomach found even greater depths.
"And whose blood may yet be spilled in cleansing the stain of heresy from this world."
It was personal, on a level that Ling and the others had grossly underestimated, the captain realized with no small amount of horror. And the thing of it was they really should have recognized this much earlier. It was not as if China had not suffered its own losses from the machinations of the heresy, including those of kin. Indeed that was supposed to be one of the points of leverage Ling was supposed to use to try to get the Britannians to hold off on too egregious concessions. Why had it not occurred to them that the Britannians might hold as intense, if not even more so, an enmity over the loss of family as them?
This particular battle was lost, Ling sensed that. And if he tried pressing further he would simply magnify his losses. If there was one characteristic that made him so eminently suited to this mission despite all his other shortcomings though, it was the lack of an overweening pride that would see him throw good money after bad.
"Assuming China acquiesces to these, terms, what form would the assistance from Eden Vital take?" Ling asked.
To that Olivia's eyes shifted to rest upon the visibly seething woman standing behind Ling.
"The prospect of a contract."
Ling blinked, then a sharp gasp sounded. Olivia looked back at the captain.
"One of your primary concerns is the prospect of the heretical contractors making a move against your leaders, no?" the prioress reiterated. "While Eden Vital's own contractors would be capable of matching them, you would prefer China possess some independent means of protecting your own, no? That is, after all, what the heretical cardinal offered you originally, yes?"
Ling stared at Olivia blankly as he struggled to muster a response. Or pick one that did not come off as overly defensive. Like, how a mere contractor wouldn't really be independent means, since it was still at the sole discretion of the Eden Vital grandmaster who got one. Or how Britannia's refusal in the past to grant one had been what motivated China's leaders to accept the heretic offer. But then again, Olivia was likely already aware of all this and saying it aloud was, while likely cathartic, still hardly productive.
"How many?" Ling asked instead.
"One," Olivia answered without missing a beat.
One. That was certainly better than zero, though Ling had hoped for more. With the way Olivia was regarding him, the captain knew that requesting more would be futile.
"The Order will also deploy its own contractors to help bolster your own when the time comes."
That was another item on Ling's list, so even if there was one big loss in the terms thus far, the two concessions thus far were far from small either. The captain ran a hand through his hair.
"I suppose that will have to do," Ling said. "So, how long will this whole contractor thing take?"
"A few months," Olivia said. "I will take your guard to the Citadel, where she will undergo augmentation before-"
"Wait, what?" Ling's head snapped up. "I'm the one that'll be the contractor!"
"Ah," Olivia looked almost apologetic. "Unfortunately, the augmentation process is not without some measure of risk, especially for those past a certain degree of, physical maturity."
Ling's mouth opened and closed as this time he was genuinely at a loss for words.
"Also, the grandmaster favors women as contractor candidates," Olivia continued, somehow making it worse. "The Europeans were at least aware of this when they sent theirs." The prioress tilted her head. "Is China not aware?"
By the way Ling finally managed to clamp his mouth shut without a word, evidently not.
If he did not know better, Suzaku could have almost believed he was back in Tokyo as he rolled into Lelouch's office. The room was fitted out in an identical manner, perhaps according to some set Eden Vital template. Either way, it was a familiar, almost nostalgic sight that greeted him as the cardinal came into view.
"Your Eminence," Suzaku greeted respectfully as his chair came to a halt.
"Mr. Kururugi," Lelouch responded likewise with a nod, then without any further preamble. "What would you be willing to sacrifice, in exchange for a shot at those responsible for Euphemia's assassination."
It took a moment for Suzaku to actually register Lelouch's words, then another for a reflexive response to form. In a third and final moment however he was able to squelch it before he could blurt it out. The cardinal continued looking at Suzaku in the intervening silence, patiently waiting for an answer.
"I would give," Suzaku finally began, "what I myself could offer, without making others also pay in my stead."
Lelouch's expression remained perfectly schooled as he listened, not even shifting at the qualifier Suzaku listed. It only began to change as he himself spoke.
"And if that was not enough? If the price demanded that the lives of others on top of your own?"
Suzaku did not have an answer for Lelouch, at least not one he could muster quickly. Indeed he took long enough that the cardinal felt he needed further prompting, or even prodding.
"What if it cost you Kaguya?"
"No!" Suzaku reflexively shouted.
Somehow the cardinal remained utterly unperturbed by the outburst, almost as if he was expecting it.
"Even if she offered?" Lelouch asked next.
Suzaku took several deep breaths as he tried to compose himself. If he was being completely frank, it wasn't working.
"What do you want, Your Eminence?" he asked in turn, a noticeable edge to his tone.
The cardinal leaned back, looking infuriatingly, if not relaxed, then at least more certain than Suzaku himself.
"The war against the heretics has come to a point where," Lelouch began, "in order to secure victory, I will be obliged to throw countless bodies at the problem. And amongst those bodies may well be those that both of us care about."
Suzaku glowered at the other youth. "There has to be another way."
"The more bodies I have available," Lelouch said, "the lower the probability that any single one of them might be called upon to be sacrificed. Statistically speaking, at least."
The glower did not go away.
"If you're trying to guilt-trip me into volunteering for something, you needn't have bothered," Suzaku said. "Whatever it is you need, I'll do it, just keep my family out of it."
"Mr. Kururugi, unless you intend to seek a medical discharge in the near future, you are already one of those bodies that I can throw into this fray," Lelouch said levelly. "The purpose of this conversation is to determine if you are qualified to undertake, and succeed, on a specific mission without getting a great many people killed in the process."
The anger was ebbing away ever so slightly, replaced by a sense of confusion.
"I don't understand," Suzaku admitted frankly.
The cardinal clasped his fingers together. "Do you know what you and Sister Kallen had in common back during the Shinjuku Incident?"
Suzaku blinked, confusion now more than blanketing his prior irritation. Still, he answered, taking it on faith that the cardinal was getting to a point.
"We both wanted what was best for our people."
The cardinal however immediately refuted this. "You were both looking for a chance to die."
Suzaku flinched. Even a physical strike could not have hurt as much as these mere words. Worst of all, he could not deny it.
"The evaluation from your therapist indicated that you were making measurable progress after you were forced to attend sessions," the cardinal continued, "and that progress only accelerated after we were able to override the conditioning you were put under. Even so, I was still obliged to sign a waiver to overrule the medical board that would have otherwise deemed you unfit to continue in uniformed service."
By now there was a lot less blinking and more of gaping on Suzaku's part.
"At this point I, and Eden Vital, have invested too much in you, not to mention the magnitude of the threat we face, to just cut you loose," Lelouch stated. "Whether we get our return with you as expensive cannon fodder or as an actual piece in the board however, well, that depends more on you."
By this point Suzaku was not sure what he was supposed to feel. He knew that the order for him to attend therapy sessions, with an Eden Vital counselor at that, had come from high up, though he had not been aware that his continued service had been that contingent. Then there were the other insinuations by the cardinal. Whoever these heretics were, whatever capabilities they possessed, they were dangerous enough that the cardinal looked, not exactly scared or desperate, but almost unfettered in the lengths he was prepared to go to defeat them. Though considering they were the ones behind Euphemia's murder, Suzaku was not sure he was any different. No, there was a difference, Suzaku was slowly realizing. Whereas his mindset had been centered around avenging Euphemia, Lelouch was focused on stopping the heretics. Two ends that, while meeting in the same place, could see them walking very different paths.
"I won't sacrifice others for the sake of my vengeance," Suzaku stated resolutely. "I'll pay with my own life before it comes to that."
"It may well," the cardinal said bluntly.
Suzaku shrugged. "I'm a soldier. That comes part and parcel with the service."
"And if, by some miracle, you actually make it out of all this alive?"
An eyebrow rose. "If the odds are so low, does it matter?"
That actually saw sigh that sounded almost of exasperation escape the cardinal.
"Until you were hospitalized due to the Sakurazukamori's conditioning, I was not aware you were in a budding relationship with my sister," Lelouch said, causing Suzaku to blink quizzically at yet another seeming non sequitur. "I will be blunt, Mr. Kururugi, I was not pleased to learn of it."
That was not exactly the sort of thing Suzaku wanted to hear even now, but presumably there was a reason the cardinal had never made known this displeasure when Euphemia was still alive and otherwise did not try to separate Suzaku from his sister.
"The reason for my displeasure is that even at that point, or rather even now, it remains unclear as to whether you have overcome your suicidal inclination," Lelouch continued. "It is all well and good if my sister found someone she could be happy with for the rest of her life, but if that someone ended up throwing away his life because he suffered an ingrained sense of self-loathing, better she suffer a broken heart at the outset than to have her strung along on what amounts to false pretenses."
Suzaku actually felt a flare of anger at that last bit. Intellectually he grasped the rationale behind Lelouch's concerns, but the youth still felt disparaged to suggest his affection for Euphemia was so shallow. Inadvisable though it may be, Suzaku let that irritation assert itself.
"What of yourself and Milly?" Suzaku asked. "What about her, if you are forced to sacrifice yourself in this war against the heretics?"
If the cardinal was perturbed, his ready response did not show it.
"If I am forced to give my life for the sake of my loved ones, then so be it, but I am certainly not going to go looking for opportunities to sacrifice myself."
"Neither am I," Suzaku insisted stridently.
The cardinal's expression remained decidedly unimpressed at that assertion.
"Do you recall what the Mandate you were given is capable of?"
Again Suzaku was a bit thrown off by the cardinal's seeming random hopping of topics.
"It's supposed to manipulate probability somehow," the youth nonetheless answered, "to make what I want to happen-"
A sharp intake of air sounded as realization suddenly dawned upon Suzaku."
"To make what I want to happen actually happen," he finished.
Lelouch nodded. "If you really were seeking to die, the newly granted Mandate would have in all probability killed you instead of helping you break the negative feedback loop in your mind. In that instance at least it can be said that you had no desire to go to your death. The next time you are faced with such a do or die situation however?"
His prior frustrations were far from assuaged, but Suzaku now had a better handle on the cardinal's concerns with him, as well as how grounded they were. After all, this Mandate was something that could not be withdrawn after being granted, and if he really did go into some critical mission with the mindset of sacrificing his life, that might well accidentally happen.
"I would like to think I am no longer on such a self-destructive path, Your Eminence," Suzaku said after a moment, "but I've discovered that there's quite a bit going on in my head that I previously never realized. I understand though that for deciding where to best employ me, you arguably need greater assurances before risking relying on me for too critical a mission."
There was a definite note of satisfaction in the dip of the cardinal's head this time, Suzaku felt. Though exactly on what Lelouch was satisfied the Japanese youth was as yet unclear. At minimum, he probably was not disappointed in Suzaku, or so Suzaku himself hoped at least.
"There is a mission," the cardinal began anew, "one that if successful, could cut short this war before it escalates into a full-fledge intercontinental conflict, or even worse, a nuclear exchange."
There was another sharp gasp from Suzaku but he did not otherwise interrupt the cardinal.
"Achieving success in this mission is going to be extremely difficult, and to have any chance at all you will need to undertake another round of augmentations, which will restore, and probably enhance, to you the full mobility you previously had before being exposed to sarin."
Suzaku's eyes went wide at that. He had always known Eden Vital possessed capabilities beyond what they publicly advertised, especially after he received the upgraded neuro-link, but for the cardinal to treat restoring his mobility in so casual a manner?
"May I ask," Suzaku began slowly himself and trying to sound as respectful as possible, "why this was not offered previously, Your Eminence?"
"Because the augmentation process is extremely expensive," Lelouch stated bluntly. "The base cost starts in the tens of millions, while the opportunity costs involved in diverting the resources to perform the augmentation can easily reach into the hundreds of millions if not billions."
Left implicitly unspoken was that Suzaku therefore would be expected to perform a service of similar such magnitude in order to justify that cost.
Suzaku swallowed. "Okay, well, that seems fair enough."
The cardinal snorted. "The question is do you wish to commit to the mission? And spare me the nonsense about not having a choice, you always have one, even if it is to let others die in your place."
Suzaku tried to recall if the cardinal was this blunt and hardened the other times they'd met. In retrospect, the answer was definitely a yes.
"Can I at least ask what the mission is?" the youth said with a wry smirk.
"You would be tasked to protecting the Empress of China from heretical operatives that have been similarly augmented as yourself and keeping her alive while the city is otherwise secured."
The smile disappeared in an instant at the cardinal actually answering.
"How many heretical operatives?" Suzaku's mind immediately shifted over to contemplating the tactical scenario once given the basic mission parameters.
"At least one, likely no more than three."
A frown creased Suzaku's face. "And will I be the only augmented operative deployed to protect Her Majesty?"
"We are currently prepared to provision two operatives," the cardinal responded, "three if you volunteer."
Suzaku blinked. "Who are the other operatives?"
"That is an operational detail that you have no need to know unless you yourself are part of the mission."
"Then I accept," the youth said with no further hesitation.
The cardinal returned the motion without any further dissembling, for which Suzaku was grateful for.
"You will be departing for the Chaldea Citadel in two days, so conduct whatever farewells you wish to make in the interim. There you will spend the next three months undergoing augmentation and induction. And if the grandmaster finds you worthy, you will be extended the offer of a contract."
While he understood the dictionary definition of the words the cardinal uttered, Suzaku was certain there was a great deal of context he was missing and would only become clear once things actually started happening, so the youth simply bobbed his head up and down. Again the cardinal mirrored the motion.
"Welcome to the Order of Our Martyred Lady, Brother Suzaku."
As with most chambers within the imperial palace, this particular one had some ostentatious sounding official name on the building directory that barely anyone was aware of much less actually used. Everyone given the occasion to make use of the room itself called it by another name, one that encapsulated its function far more succinctly, a function it had served ever since the Empress Claire first held council in the chamber to discuss the suppression of those nobles that still resisted her authority even after her coronation. From henceforth, the 'war room' had hosted strategic deliberations by the reigning sovereign and his or her trusted retainers every time the Empire found itself at war. This latest one was little different, as numerous personages filed into the room and took up places around the circular table. None however actually took their seats until Charles himself did so.
For all that there could be a figurative head at a circular table, the emperor certainly qualified. That then would make the seats immediately right and left of him to be of notable honor, denoting not just proximity to His Majesty but also his appreciation of their purpose this day. Little surprise then that Schneizel was to his father's right, while Cornelia his left, marking the civil and martial branches of the Empire. The distribution of the other attendees followed a similar pattern, with ministers of state stretching out after Schneizel and members of the war staff on Cornelia's side. Interestingly, while Odysseus indeed sat on the civil side as the crown prince, he was still one down from his father on Schneizel's own right. Altogether, these participants made up two thirds of the seated attendees. The last third, centered around a young man seated directly across from the emperor, represented another pillar of the Empire, even if by and large it did not constitute a formal branch of the imperial state. Then again, considering Eden Vital's reach and capabilities, it arguably was something of a state within a state in the Empire, embodying civil and martial capacities of its own.
Once everyone was settled, Charles dipped his head to signal the start of the meeting.
"War has been asked of Us," the emperor declared, "and war We have acquiesced to conducting. Where stands Our enemies, and where stands Our own Empire?"
"Your Majesty," Schneizel began the formal response. "At present, we have identified two enemies of a secular nature, the Chinese and Russian Federations, and two, perhaps three of an ecclesiastical nature, the Jokhang, the Eden Vital heretics, and the Russian Orthodox Church."
The latter saw a few eyebrows rise, seeing as it was rather unusual for conflict of such a scale to take on an overtly religious undertone these days. Not that such conflicts were completely absent, the Middle East Federation had employed religious rhetoric in their efforts to resist the Britannian invasion after all, but by and large few powers with the actual economic heft to engage in war on the scale that Britannia could were much inclined towards expending such wealth in pursuit of merely religious ends. It was, in a manner of speaking, usually not worth it.
This particular war was a bit different though, since the ecclesiastical orders involved included several in control of the thought elevators, something that every single person in this room was read in on at least the basic capabilities. Those capabilities were recognized to be valuable enough that there was at least a quantifiable prize to be won, even if they did not guarantee an actually positive return. That was however for the surface level capabilities. Those familiar with the deeper secrets recognized that anything short of a nuclear exchange would still be a bargain for obtaining control of another thought elevator. Still, that qualified the ecclesiastical entanglement of this conflict only insofar as control of the thought elevators went, which thus begged the question of what exactly the Russian Orthodox Church's involvement was, seeing as they were not one of the ecclesiastical orders charged with managing an elevator. No, that was not quite accurate. The Russian Orthodox Church's motive was blindingly obvious. What was less so was whether that motive warranted considering them an active factor in the conflict, though that was where the perhaps in Schneizel's statement came in.
"As far as we can ascertain," Schneizel continued, "aside from the Ise Grand Shrine's declaration of support for Eden Vital and Britannia, none of the other major powers, secular or ecclesiastical, seem inclined to become actively engaged in this conflict. This extends to not just the rest of the European Union and the Roman Catholic Church, but the Baghdad Imamate has also signaled their desire to remain uninvolved until such time as stewardship of the Taklamakan thought elevator actually needs deciding as per the Treaty of London."
Ise's position was hardly surprising, seeing as their high priestess had nearly been assassinated by their own heretics aligned with the Eden Vital renegades, and only lived because an imperial princess had sacrificed her own life in the process.
As for Baghdad, reading between the lines, its position was not actually as stalwartly neutral as was being implied. Rather it was an indication that at present such offers that had been extended to it were insufficiently enticing to get it off the fence. As to what would, that remained to be discovered, though no one doubted such a price existed. Everyone had one, after all.
"This being the case, while it would be foolhardy to completely rule out the prospect of external assistance being lent to our active belligerents, for the interim at least we are unlikely to face anything beyond what they can muster from their own internal resources."
Which were considerable enough all by themselves, no one was naïve enough to think otherwise. But then again, the same could be said of Britannia as well.
Charles' head turned towards the left half of the table.
"And are Our forces sufficient to meet this challenge?"
The question was more of an overall prompt than one that the emperor expected to be answered with exact specificity.
"We will certainly endeavor to not disappoint, Your Majesty," Cornelia responded in her capacity as Marshal of the Empire. "The initial incursions by the Chinese and Russians have been defeated, decisively so, but we are still mustering the forces that will be required to achieve outright victory."
"The mobilization act will be passed by parliament tomorrow," Schneizel stated. "What manpower the armed forces require will be met." He glanced over at the man on the opposite side of Odysseus. "Along with the funding to equip and sustain them."
Henry Velaines, the minister of finance, gave a nod even as his expression remained stiff. Wars, even short ones, could be ruinously expensive, and though the Empire had prepared for this conflict for several years now, the prior fighting it engaged in just to reach this point had not been cheap either. Now, Britannia was preparing to mobilize on a scale not seen since the Great War against the Soviet Union.
"In the meantime, I understand a significant number of volunteers are already showing up at recruitment offices," Schneizel remarked.
To that Cornelia looked at the man on her own left, who gave a grunt.
"The numbers will help, some," Field Marshal Zechs Vander, the man that did most of the actual running of the war staff in Cornelia's place whenever the princess was cavorting around the world, stated. "And the number of reservists that we'll be able to call up will help bolster our initial numbers substantially. But anyone that we are recruiting fresh, it will be at least six months before they have any chance of being combat effective, which puts a lower bound on when any major offensive operation can be undertaken, and that's on top of our existing defensive commitments. Your Majesty, Your Highnesses, I will be frank, we are going to be stretched thin."
As with everything involving this war, there was a great deal to unpack from a seemingly simple statement. In practical terms, assuming one set aside the prospect of a nuclear exchange, the avenues by which China and Russia could actually strike at Britannia in a meaningful way was fairly limited. Going across the Atlantic was a non-starter, there was no way either of the opposing countries could shift the naval resources to even transport, much less protect along the way, enough troops to attack the Britannian east coast. The Pacific was hardly any better, thanks to the thrashing the Empire had just handed their regional fleets in their efforts to attack a much closer target. No, the Empire's core territories were functionally beyond China and Russia's ability to attack conventionally. Its non-core territories on the other hand were still at considerable risk, even in light of the Empire's opening victories.
The difficulty, and indeed the stretched nature of the Empire's situation, was a consequence of just how far away the non-core territories were from the imperial homeland. Even Japan, the closest such territory, was on the other side of the largest ocean in the world. The Middle East was even worse. Going west added the Indian Ocean on top of the voyage across the Pacific, skirting along the southern perimeter of the Chinese Federation in the process, while going east required rounding the tip of Africa which, while not controlled by overtly hostile forces, was still not exactly friendly territory either. At the same time, all these territories were proportionally closer to the Chinese and Russian Federations, making for a much shorter logistical tail for any offenses they launched. That was of course no guarantor of success, as the recent failed invasion of Japan amply demonstrated, but one could not also discount the immense effort by the Empire to actually win those battles. Whatever resources the Chinese and Russians poured into outfitting and dispatching their invasion forces was easily eclipsed by what it took for the Empire to dispatch three entire battle fleets plus the army divisions and air force squadrons to Japan. That such an effort was within Britannia's means stood testament to the Empire's wealth, but the strain it placed upon the nation should not be understated, nor of the very genuine risk that this disparity in cost would eventually tip the balance against the Empire. As such, stretched thin was a very apt summation of Britannia's present situation.
"Our greatest complication right now is in the Middle East," Zechs continued as he typed on his keyboard and brought up a projection of a world map. "While our local forces do at the moment have ample stocks of munitions and other supplies, they'll run those stocks down very quickly if they have to engage in anything more serious than a guerilla insurgency. Shipping them new supplies to replenish those stocks is going to be a priority, and at present the war staff is inclined to go the eastern route, rounding the cape and landing at the southern edges of the Arabian Peninsula or further north in the Persian Gulf or Red Sea." Blue lines appeared to show the paths the field marshal was describing. "The EU might be mostly sitting out of this conflict, but they're unlikely to grant us passage into the Mediterranean to resupply our forces that way. Conversely, they're less likely to attempt to impede any convoys skirting around Africa than the Chinese anything that we try to transit through the Indian Ocean."
The map zoomed into the Middle East region, focusing specifically on the northern portion.
"The main threat vectors here are mostly in the north, though they are disparate enough that it is unclear on just what axis we might get attacked. We share a land border with the Chinese Federation, but the overall region is extremely contentious and difficult to traverse. Sustaining an overland offensive would be arduous, to say the least, and while we cannot dismiss prospects of it out of hand, it can be considered a low probability threat."
With how clinically the field marshal described things, one might be forgiven for momentarily forgetting that the matters he spoke of involved the life and death of countless thousands.
"It is also unlikely that the Chinese Federation could, in the short term at least, muster an oceanic-based invasion of the Middle East. Their West Sea Fleet has always been the smallest of their regional naval commands, and with their South Sea Fleet functionally pinned by Fifth Fleet, the Chinese are limited in their ability to reinforce it sufficiently to mount another amphibious assault."
Which meant by and large the Middle East was probably safe from any attempts by the Chinese to attack it, in the short term at least. But China was only one of the opposing belligerents in this war.
"The Russian Federation does not share any land borders with our Middle East territories," Zechs moved onto the other opposing nation. "If they wanted to reach us overland they would have to negotiate passage through several other EU members. Exactly how likely that is remains as yet unclear, though His Majesty's government," the field marshal nodded to Schneizel, a motion the prince returned, "has issued ample warnings to their relevant counterparts that any infrastructure used by the Russians to stage their troops for offensive action into imperial territory would be considered legal military targets by the Empire, regardless of whose borders that infrastructure lies within."
Naturally those counterparts had not taken the warning, or threat really, particularly well, but so long as they respected it enough to not grant the Russians passage, the threats would have served their purpose and at a cost the Empire was willing to bear. For that matter, giving those other nations an excuse to do just that was one of the rationales behind issuing the threats.
"The prospects of a sea-based incursion by the Russians on the other hand are a bit more complicated."
It was never a good thing when something was described as complicated.
"The Russians have a small but well-equipped flotilla in the Caspian Sea, enough to make trouble for anything else floating in the waters, but again well short of anything that would be needed to see troops landed in a contested environment. Their Black Sea and Baltic Fleets on the other hand constitute large, powerful formations that could credibly suppress local defenses to allow for an amphibious landing, especially if the two fleets could be brought together in the Mediterranean and our own warships kept out."
The latter was already a given based on Zech's prior remarks. The former, well, it said something about just how annoyed Russia's European neighbors were with it that the field marshal could even speak of its prospects instead of its surety.
"The Russians will probably be able to transit their Baltic Fleet into the Mediterranean via the Strait of Gibraltar on account of their EU membership. The Black Sea Fleet however may be restricted from transiting through the Bosporus by Turkey, as the Turks never surrendered control of the strait and the existing treaties grant them the right to deny access to warships of belligerents in an active war that Turkey itself is not party to." The field marshal gave a shrug. "The Russians might attempt some sort of legal fiction about rebasing their Black Sea warships, but such a maneuver will inevitably come with diplomatic costs, which I presume His Majesty's government is certain to try to further inflate."
The edge of Schneizel's lips quirked but the prince otherwise kept his expression placid.
"On top of the naval combat power," Zechs went on, "it is still an open question as to whether they can arrange for the shipping to move sufficient troops to create and then hold a beachhead in the Middle East. The war staff's belief is that they probably could, and despite the listed difficulties, the most probable threat the Empire is likely to face in the near term might well be a Russian amphibious incursion into the Levant via the Mediterranean."
"And our own prospects of fending off such an incursion with the sort of decisiveness that we met the Japanese landings?" Schneizel asked.
"At present force levels, I would consider us to have fair odds, Your Highness," Zechs answered.
Which anyone with any inkling of strategy knew meant the chances were not as good as the war staff would have liked. It was a poor leader that gambled on the outcome of a battle on anything like fair odds, after all.
"May I presume then that despite the public proclamations by the Chinese and Russians," Schneizel began again, "the war staff's greatest strategic concern right now is the Middle East, not the Asian theater?"
Zechs glanced over at Cornelia, who offered a curt nod.
"That is so, Your Highness," the field marshal then answered.
Schneizel now cast his own glance over at Lelouch. "And what say Eden Vital?"
The cardinal was not the one that responded. Instead, the middle-aged woman to his own immediate right did so.
"Eden Vital has yet to detect the sort of buildup of assets that would presage any wide-scale offensive against the Middle East," Olivia Zevon, recently arrived from the Citadel, replied. "Such a buildup would take time and be difficult to disguise, so should the Chinese or Russians turn their attention eastward, we should have ample warning."
"Can Eden Vital be counted upon to provide that warning?" Schneizel pressed.
"It can," Lelouch stated resolutely.
That saw the prince offer a satisfied nod. If the Order was prepared to employ its more esoteric methods to monitor for such a buildup, then they were probably as assured as could be of being forewarned.
"Then His Majesty's government's recommendation is that strategic priority remain on the buildup in Japan," Schneizel said, more to his father than his sister or her flag officers.
"Agreed," the emperor gave a nod. "This war will not be won standing on the defensive. The Chinese and Russians must be brought to heel through direct action."
And thereby settled the question raised, even if obliquely, by the war staff. As was pointed out, Britannia at this point had substantially two major theaters to worry about, the Middle East and Japan. Arguably their territories bordering southeast Asia were also at risk, but as the previous discussion made clear, the concern here was predominantly where Russia might attempt to wield its remaining assets. The Chinese, while still a threat, possessed a smaller strategic depth from which to draw upon, at least in the short term. In the long term, the best solution was to knock them out of the war before they could grow into that sort of threat, which was best done by taking the fight to them using Japan as a base. So long as such fighting didn't trigger some out of suicidal desperation, at least. Still.
"Any effort to credibly force a landing on the Asian mainland is going to require the mobilization waves we are currently conducting to complete their training and equipping," Lelouch said. "That being the case, it would make sense to dispatch those reserves that are already at or near operational readiness to the Middle East, to further deter the Chinese or Russians from any ideas in that direction. We can then rotate them out with the newer recruits as we get closer to D-Day."
The uniformed offers to Cornelia's side regarded Lelouch thoughtfully. While knowledge of his appointment as cardinal of the Order Militant had been percolating for some time, even after the operational successes he oversaw in Japan, there was still a bit of doubt about whether someone as young as him could shoulder the responsibilities that came with being a theater commander. Still, so far at least Lelouch was displaying a sound set of instincts as well as a flexible mentality. Good qualities for any officer, so this was at least a promising start.
"I'm sure the war staff can come up with a rotation schedule toward that end," Schneizel said with a slight quirk of his lips. "What I am personally curious of is what sort of deployment schedule Eden Vital is intending to pursue."
And here it was, the metaphorical elephant in the room, Eden Vital's possession of a standing army that it was now mobilizing.
"The majority of our current mobilization wave is composed of veterans and reservists, though from mostly the provincial guards," Olivia again answered on the Order's behalf, "so that should not unduly interfere with the military's callup of its own reservists."
A likely deliberate move on Eden Vital's part, though it spoke much of the Order's organizational prowess that they orchestrated such a clean delineation between theirs and the Empire's respective pool of recruits.
"At present we expect to be able to form three divisions using our existing active members as cadre," Olivia said. "The divisions will mostly be composed of infantry, though each would have an armored battalion attached to provide some additional firepower."
An infantry division in the Britannian Army amounted to approximately fifteen thousand soldiers and Eden Vital used a similar table of organization, so the Order was talking about fielding upwards of fifty thousand soldiers in total. Even with such numbers however there were some quizzical looks directed towards the Order's side of the table.
"Three divisions seems a rather lowball estimate, no?" Schneizel said.
That caused Cornelia to blink and shift her gaze over to her brother. Nor was she the only one to react so as almost all eyes settled upon the prince.
"Surely you all have seen the reports," Schneizel continued. "The recruitment offices in Japan have seen so many volunteers trying to enlist that they are having to actively turn people away. With the greater publicity that Eden Vital's Order of the Black Knights has received, presumably you are seeing a similar such influx."
"We are," Lelouch said with a nonchalant shrug, "but there is a limit to how many Eden Vital will be able to train up quickly enough to make a difference in this war. If we want them to be campaign ready within the year, the Order Militant's limit is expanding to three divisions from our current regimental cadre. If we had another year, we could perhaps double that, and we will be using one of the divisions as a strategic reserve to rotate troops and get a start on that, but the hope here is that our part of the war will not last too much longer than a year or so."
Another reminder that Eden Vital's involvement in this conflict was very strictly delimited. They were not here to help topple the Chinese or Russian governments, at least not as a primary objective. If the need arose to get at the heretics, then so be it, but the Order obviously preferred if they could complete their objectives without causing the debellation of entire nation-states. Then again, if the heretics were defeated, arguably the Chinese and Russians might also lose their impetus for continued fighting, or so the hope went.
"I see," Schneizel said with a thoughtful nod. "Very well then, His Majesty's government will set its own operational planning based on the aforementioned numbers." He now glanced back to Cornelia's side. "Setting aside the armed force's own manpower mobilization, there is also the materiel question."
"We have been shifting substantial stocks of munitions to Japan over the past few months once it became clear the situation there had sufficiently stabilized to allow for the islands' usage as a forward stockpile," Zechs said, tilting his head in the cardinal's direction to indicate who he considered responsible for that improvement. "Local industry is still tooling up, but domestic production in the homelands is expected to be able to meet most of the projected demand once fighting resumes."
"And how long do you envision it taking before that actually happens?" Odysseus said, speaking up for the first time this meeting. "Six months is the nominal time it'll take to train up the new troops, but getting them fighting will take crossing the ocean to land them on the Asian mainland. That's going to take plenty of naval, and air, power."
As a reservist in said navy, the crown prince's interest in the former was perhaps a given, along with the losses said service had already suffered in evicting the Chinese and Russians from Japanese waters. Of not just materiel, but also the men and women that manned them.
"Eighth Fleet's ships took no damage from their operation," the grizzled figure of Fleet Admiral Gregor von Muckenberger, the naval representative of the war staff, heaved as he answered. "Ship losses were measurable amongst the destroyers and cruisers of the combined Third and Seventh Fleets, though the carriers were wholly unscathed. The good news is the ships already in progress in the yards should make good all our losses within the next year." The man's eyes gleamed. "Plus, Taskforce 81 has been declared operationally ready and can depart for Japan immediately."
A few murmurs sounded at that. Britannian naval doctrine had its numbered fleets centered around a carrier task group and in support of this the Empire actually maintained twice as many carriers as it had numbered fleets. In peacetime this allowed one carrier to be maintained at operational readiness while the other underwent maintenance or refueling, while in wartime it could theoretically surge deploy and functionally double its striking power. With the creation of an aerial fleet, the Empire maintained this same two carrier pattern, though the sheer complexity and expense of building any sort of aircraft carriers had meant it wasn't until now that the second such aerial carrier was completed and brought up to operational readiness. For that matter, the rest of Taskforce 81's ships had been completed and undergone shakedown trials before the carrier they were supposed to escort. Now though, thanks to Taskforce 80's own expedited maintenance cycle, Britannia could also double stack Eighth Fleet along with the Third and Seventh Fleets and potentially bring to bear six carriers' worth of combat power, plus their attendant escorts, on top of the platform Japan itself offered, in support of a landing on the Asian mainland. Even before the destruction of the Chinese and Russian carriers in the Pacific, that would have represented almost as many carriers as the rest of the world combined, and only a few came close to the size of the Britannian classes. Having sole command over almost half the world's resources came with certain benefits.
"It may be too much to ask to be toasting victory in Luoyang or Saint Petersburg in a year's time," Charles said, his own eyes gleaming, "but come the new year, it is Our will that the Chinese and Russians come to rue ever having stirred Our wrath."
To that, not a single shred of disagreement could be found in the war room.
End of Chapter 70
I've actually ended up working my way backwards. The last scene in this chapter was actually the first one that I finished. For whatever reason, Ling's scene was the one that I was the least inspired to work on, even though it's fairly crucial for future plot reasons.
Err, even setting aside the different familial dynamics I've created for the Britannian imperial family in my story, Marianne was not a commoner in my world-building. Her lineage was that of French nobility, but still nobility nonetheless, on top of which the Lamperouge family has a long history as part of the clergy, which in the old English system was lumped with the nobility into a single class separate from commoners.