AN: Credits to Readhead, gdstriker, and perfect_shade for the revisions.

There will be some plot disjoint between this rewritten chapter and the old Chapter 7, as I didn't want to keep packing more into this chapter. Also I've been busy with some real life stuff and wanted to release something for now.

After releasing this rewritten chapter, I am waiting for reviewers to go through Chapter 54 before releasing it. Chapter 55 draft is almost done for my reviewers to look at.

Rewrite of Chapter 7 will be put on hold until after the release of Chapters 55 or 56. I need some time to think about how to eventually work my way up to the total rewrites of Chapters 12-14. The entire plot about the Albish-Chinese naval battle is going into the trash bin, to be replaced by something else.

But I haven't decided what to do with the "let's invade North Bharat directly and speedrun towards their capital city" plot that kicks off in the old Chapter 9. Either I make some revisions to it or shorten it down.

The old chapter 6 is at the bottom of this page.

1943, May 27th, northern outskirts of Pune. After the fall of Bombay (Mumbai).

I quietly chewed at my skewer of grilled meat and vegetables as I sat back, contemplating the state of the war.

Or, rather, contemplated the possibility of an incredible near end of the war. Mass routing and rippling panic, that that was the less charitable but far more accurate description of recent events. While my two freshly minted battalions of straggler South Bharatian mages had served as a very useful stop-gap, the rest of the army remained in total shambles.

I didn't hold this failure against them, of course; that would be unreasonable. There was only so much a double-handful of mages could be expected to accomplish. Unfortunately that meant in order to put a stop to the massacres and salvage the situation, I would require a different approach, and so had left command of the two battalions in the able hands of Major Neumann and his girlfriend, Birgit, while I had returned to headquarters.

The clack of a typewriter pulled me back to the present. Wearily, I glanced over at Millie, industrious behind her desk.

"You sound busy. Out with it, what's the damage for today?" I shuffled over to take a look.

"The big picture horror-show, supplemented by the usual personal stories culled from my interviews of soldiers and refugees." Millie sighed as she ripped off a sheet of paper from the typewriter and handed it off to me, then started typing the next page as I took another bite of meat. "You know, to inject some human interest. Numbers and city names don't mean much, but some personal stories? That's where the real story comes together."

Glancing over my shoulder, I winced at the tightly-typed lines; Millie had been right to characterize it as a horror-show. Sterilized by the black and white, a tragedy was unfolding all across Bharat. Yesterday, Nagpur had fallen before North Bharat's central offensive. South Bharatian lines were retreating rapidly in the east after the supposedly neutral Nepal had unexpectedly allowed the communists to freely move through their territory, bypassing the stiff Koshl River defenses that had previously seen thousands of North Bharatian corpses floating before the machine-gun emplacements and the shoreside bunkers, blood polluting the already filthy river water into a potential human biohazard for the whole region .

All of those bunkers now stood abandoned, their defenders in headlong retreat as the new advance turned the entire line.

"Full retreat everywhere, huh? Might as well call it a theatre-wide rout." I flicked the empty skewer away, the stick piercing through the map, where the city of Pune was located, and sinking deeply into the wooden black board. That city would be the next big problem. "Will there even be a South Bharat left by the time the first group of Germanian volunteers arrive? Who can say. Where's their government anyways? Have they stopped running, at least?"

"Scattered in every direction," Millie rolled her eyes. "The local press snagged a photo of the defense minister boarding a ship in the port city of Ratnagiri, in disguise and possession of a one-way ticket to another country. I went through the entire list of contacts that Home Affairs Minister Savarkar provided a while back ago; according to the few who bothered to answer, at least Minister Savarkar has only 'relocated his ministry' as far south as Satara, about a hundred kilometers from here, as the crow flies."

"Satara, you say?" I grabbed my rifle and prepared to take off. "Now I know where the root of the massacres lies, at least. Time for some gardening. What about you? Where are you going?"

"Satara too," Millie said, looking up as her typewriter dinged! another completed line. "I'll probably meet you there. I'm heading south as soon as I complete my last scheduled interview with one of the lads on the front line. Assuming the front line hasn't retreated to Satara too, at least."

As I flew toward the center of the city of Pune, something on the ground caught my attention. I swooped down to take a closer look.

The regiments below had chosen a good location to take a stand, hopefully as part of a broader effort to anchor a new defensive line. A few easily-blocked bridges crossed a river both deep and swift; north of the river, a broad, open field would leave the communists little cover as they advanced on a potential crossing. Meanwhile, the South Bharatians would have plenty of buildings in the sprawling districts of the city south of the river, more than enough to turn any advance into a painful slog.

Unfortunately, the South Bharatian forces I could see were totally swamped in a fruitless effort to control the massive flow of refugees streaming southward, the displaced citizens of Bombay fleeing the communist hordes. One of the disordered units, a small pocket of uniforms in a human flood, disappeared, drowned in that torrent just as thoroughly as if they had fallen over the side of the bridge and into the actual river below. Useless for mounting a defensive effort, wasting precious time needed to set up kill zones and make the most of their resources.

Scanning, I picked out a likely officer among the human waves and flew down to alight atop the bridge parapet beside him.

The South Bharatian yelled out in momentary, startled panic, then calmed down when he saw my face and switched to a rough Albish. "Oh, it's you, the blonde one. You scared me."

"Blonde one?" I blinked for a moment, nonplussed by that greeting.

"The mages have been speaking about you."

Nothing of interest, then.

"Are there any coordinated evacuation plans?" Glancing around at the chaos surrounding me, I saw nothing that resembled order. Still, I had needed to ask. "At least to keep the refugees from interrupting your defensive positions? What is the strategy for this battle?"

"There are no plans at all, none that I know of!" The officer scoffed. "I haven't heard from my commander for over a day now. Keeping my men from deserting their positions to go look for their loved ones takes up all of my time. Crowd control is utterly beyond us, much less establishing a defense."

The scoff evoked a moment of some old arrogance, the pride of an officer of the upper castes. It was a thin mask over an exhaustion that was not only physical. I wondered if the man had slept an hour in the last two days, and how many kilometers he and his disintegrating command had marched over the last week.

"Where's your map? I have an idea." I could see a plan come together in my mind. If held here, then it could take pressure off of other units and I may get a chance to rebuild something resembling a functional command rather than a disorganized waste of cannon fodder.

He looked confused for a moment, before withdrawing one from his pocket and unfolding it. "I'm not sure what plan you could possibly have for this."

"Have some of your men find volunteers, offer money or food if needed." I didn't waste my breath, using a ragged nail, I traced a possible path across the map, following roadlines as best as I could in the evening dark. Behind the nail, a thin divot marked the line, gouging the path out of the worn paper. "Give them sashes, or some other trapping of officialdom, and deputize them as path guides for the rest of the refugees. They'll get the evacuees moving, away from your defensive positions, down other paths. Give them directions, a lead to follow no matter the destination, just out of the way of military work. That should simplify the rest of your problems."

"And what about the communists that are likely right behind the refugees?" The officer whose name I hadn't cared for, with my luck he'd fall in the first wave, questioned. "We can't wait for everyone to pass until they're right on top of us."

"I'll buy some time," I scoffed and pulled the magazine from my rifle and checked its load; skimpier than I would have liked, to put it mildly. Ramming it back home, I made a mental note to opt for melee duels where possible. Getting in knife-range was far from my favorite tactic, but allowances had to be made when ammunition ran low. "Tell me where I can find some mages. It's about time for them to start earning their salaries."

"Uh, about the salaries…" The officer trailed off.

"What is it?" The realization of the extent of South Bharat's corruption started to hit me.

"Before I lost contact with my command, I was getting a fraction of the necessary money to pay my men. All of my complaints about the shortchange went nowhere."

I took a deep breath. Looks like I have another major challenge to tackle, after I finish cobbling some defensive measures here and head to Santara to put a stop to the massacres. Every day my retirement dreams seem to slip away.

AN: A fitting theme music to go along with the below scene: watch?v=wCRwig8iIvM

Sometime later in Satara, in a mansion hastily converted into offices:

A disheveled Balakrishna Savarkar slammed down his telephone. The only thing keeping him awake after days of no sleep was sheer rage.

"TRAITOR!" Savarkar screamed as he pushed over his desk, sending the stacks of papers and the telephone flying everywhere.

"If we are rejecting the Prime Minister's offer…" The aide was suddenly cut off by Savarkar glaring at him intensely.

"Surrender?! No, not even in the face of annihilation!" Spittle came flying out of Savarkar's mouth. "His excuse of 'Bharatians shouldn't be killing Bharatians' and 'end the suffering now' is pathetic when the communists were the ones who exploited our internal divisions!"

As the aide stepped away, he meekly said, "Also, we have an important visitor…"

Savarkar cut him off. "No, tell them that I'm busy!"

"She's the President of Germania…"

"And Germania is half a world away!" Savarkar roared as he pointed out the window. "There will be nothing left to rescue by the time their military arrives if we can't hold off the communists!"

The double door to the room banged open as a blonde mage stomped into the room and up to Savarkar, while the guards were trailing behind her trying in vain to persuade her to stop.

"I was being polite the first time out of courtesy," Degurechaff huffed. "We will have a talk, right now. Before more innocent blood is spilled."

"Is your discussion going to help save my country?"

"Did you order the massacres?" Degurechaff asked instead, coming to a stop before Savarkar's overturned desk.

"And I'll fucking order it again! I could care less if people think they are massacres!" He snared, while kicking the telephone on the floor, shattering it into pieces this time. "A necessary purge of enemies of the state, collaborateurs and traitors, the lot of them! We'll take them out before they continue to sabotage us or can defect to bolster the communists numbers. Now, if you don't have anything militarily useful to discuss, leave me. I have a country to save!"

"What will the Albish think of your actions?"

"Does it matter?" Savarkar choked with a mix of intense emotions. "Either Bharat holds out long enough for Londinium to cobble something together to at least stop the rapid communist advances, or I'll be in front of a communist firing squad. I will not flee from my duty and my ancestors' land."

"That doesn't mean you can throw away your humanity," Degurechaff sternly said, while the aide slowly backed away and then quickly exited the room. "And I won't work with a war criminal where their actions just feed the communist propaganda machine. How will I explain to my voters back home that all of the aid we are sending to South Bharat, including massive quantities of food, are just going to fuel atrocities? How will I explain to General Von Romel that he is about to support a war criminal?!"

Savarkar couldn't help the burble of laughter that escaped his mouth as more guards hurried into the room, alerted by the sounds of destruction; even to his own ears, it sounded mad. "A person who burned Arene to the ground is telling me to stop killing unlawful combatants? How ironic. And I know you can't just abandon my country because that would mean the entire subcontinent would be under the red banner, and the rest of Asia will fall as well. You're not in charge of telling me what to do."

Degurechaff's face turned into a blank, neutral expression.

'Something is wrong…' Savarkar thought to himself.

The windows were all suddenly dimmed before he could think of something to say. The room darkened, causing the guards to stop in their tracks and look around in confusion.

The mage then floated up into the air and towards him, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Do you feel in charge?" Degurechaff had a strangely calm, monotone voice.

"Guards! Arrest her!" He cried out in panic.

She stared at the guards. They looked at each other.

"Leave us," Degurechaff continued glaring into Savarkar's eyes.

The guards took the cue and left, leaving just the two in the room.

"You can't threaten me," Savarkar rapidly breathed. "Not when I'm the only one holding this country together, preventing complete anarchy. Not even the Albish is in position to fully confront the communists."

She raised an eyebrow in confusion. "And this gives you power over me?"

The smell wasn't bothering him earlier, but now it was unmistakable and couldn't be ignored. Sweat, blood, gunpowder, smoke and grime.

He tried stepping away, but she shifted her hand to place it directly next to his neck to stop him and then smiled.

"Time is short so I'll make this brief. You will clean up the mess you made for me. You will call off the slaughter and there will be no more mishaps. I have no use or tolerance for those." The blonde devil continued. "And you will get the fuck back to work. Not make more problems for me from your careless declaration of every women and child as an enemy combatant. Combatant with what, their empty stomachs?!

Savarkar choked on something in an attempt to say something, but stopped when Degurechaff stroked his neck with her hand.

"If there's a risk, just move them out of the way, out of range of the communists, as you're fucking obligated to along with the other evacuees. Now make it happen so that the soldiers that remain can actually fight rather than shoot the helpless or I'll find someone who will." Degurechaff bit out over her shoulder. "With, or without you, North Bharat will not win this war."

As she put her hand away and backed off, landing on her feet, Savarkar's knees buckled.

A sudden wave of fatigue and unpaid sleep debt from days of continuous work suddenly caught up to him, causing him to collapse to the ground as she walked away.

I wasn't a fan of utilizing intimidation and my old war reputation, but when the alternative is letting the slaughter continue and for him to get away with insulting me over the Arene massacre, I didn't really have a choice.

I then heard sobbing behind me before I could walk out the room, and turned around to see a man that was previously full of energy, was now sprawled out on the floor, incoherently muttering, "I just want to see my son again. How can I explain to him that I failed him? That I couldn't avenge his murder at the hands of the communists?! How can I look at my wife to tell her that after all of those years of being away from home to campaign against the Albish colonial government for independence, that it was all for nothing?! Everything is against me, even the corrupt generals that I have to rely on! Those idiots that want to line their pockets, and then run away when the end is near!"

Emotional breakdowns. That was one of the most challenging situations I had to handle as an HR manager back in my previous life, when all logic goes out the window.

Wait, he mentioned corrupt generals… The defense minister fleeing like a rat jumping off of a sinking ship and the mentions about the disappeared pay suddenly makes more sense. Looks like I need to help him with that.

I took a deep breath and brightened the window, lighting up the entire room. Then walked back to him to carefully pick him up and prop up onto a chair.

"I am sorry about the loss of your son, and offer my condolences." I held one of his hands as he looked up. "The communists will pay for what they did. I would also rage if my loved one was murdered by them. But a mass purge is not the way."

"Then what should I do?" Savarkar meekly said.

"For starters, something to guide the refugees away from defensive military positions." I looked into his eyes. "And we will both organize a fighting retreat to slow and bleed out the communists until full rescue comes. The communists will not win this war, not under my watch."

An idea suddenly came to me, and I started to smile. "I think I have a solution to our little public relations crisis with the massacre. Earlier you mentioned your prime minister defected to North Bharat…"

Savarkar with a confused look on his face, nodded yes.

1943, May 29th, in Satara:

I scanned the small crowd that gathered for this hastily assembled press conference and had a small sigh of relief when I saw Millie with her recording camera ready, along with several other journalists.

Looking over at the side and seeing a rested and well-dressed Savarkar approach the stage, I clapped my hand loudly to get the crowd's attention and for my translator to be ready.

"Thank you for your attendance," I performed a namaste gesture, then motioned for Savarkar to come onto the stage. "I understand that this country is facing an existential threat, but with the recent political turmoil, we now need a capable leader to guide us through the crisis."

I paused for a moment.

"Some of you may have heard or even seen the massacres. It is an odd coincidence that those started under the watch of the now traitor prime minister, who then defected to the communists after the massacres were well underway. It was Savarkar that realized he and others had fallen for the trickery, and immediately called off the massacres when the traitor prime minister revealed what he had done."

As Savarkar stepped onto the stage, I gestured my right hand to him while continuing to speak to the crowd. "While the traitor prime minister is busy kissing the communists' boots and setting up a puppet government to have the thin veneer of legitimacy, I would like to present to you the new Prime Minister of South Bharat, Balakrishna Savarkar!"

One of the journalists immediately raised their hand, which Savarkar pointed at him.

"Gunter Groz, representing Berliner Tageblatt, are there any plans of stopping the rapid communist advances?"

"It is still in the works," Savarkar sternly said. "We will make the invaders pay in blood for every kilometer they take until we stabilize the situation. An immediate action I will be taking is forming the National Defense Corps, where males aged 17 to 40 are to be drafted across the country for training, starting with one million draftees in the first round."

"And what about you, President Degurechaff?" Gunter Groz looked at me, while I smiled in return.

As long as I distanced myself from South Bharat's government, the Albish shouldn't be too upset at me. Besides, they should be thankful that I quickly put a stop to massacres in South Bharat and discredited the traitor

"While I am the President of Germania back in my homeland, here I am just a mage soldier to help protect South Bharat's independence and democracy against the communists. As for my role, the communists will lose all of their mages if they want to completely annex South Bharat. But I'm not worried about having to do all of the battles herself as I am counting on Germanian volunteers and other countries to support South Bharat."

1943, June 4th, Nanjing:

"It's just one battle that they are exaggerating for propaganda. She is bound to make a mistake from overconfidence, and we can also plan an ambush. We have a combat-ready mage battalion equipped with the Type 97 orbs that is currently flying towards North Bharat…" Peng trailed off as the film projector sputtered, the tape reel flapping upon running out of recorded news of the events in South Bharat and the enthusiastic Germanian public rallies being led by Viktoriya Serebryakov.

"Were you not paying attention?" Zhang turned his glare at Peng, who was now sucking hard on his cigarette as if Peng was trying to calm himself down. "The damage is done. Even if she never returns to the front line, the recordings of her slaughter of our comrades and her press conference are being played all across Europe at this point. Now war veterans in Germania and possibly elsewhere in OZEV are all signing up to go overseas to join their little empress! The Allied Kingdom has already resumed their wartime economy policies. We will never be able to produce enough of the obsolete dual core orbs when the Europeans have the technological and industrial capacity to grind our mages down!"

"We can still assassinate her, poison her food perhaps…" Peng was cut off by Kang, who sensed Zhang's growing anger at Peng.

"No, now we have to prepare for a long war." Kang avoided looking at Li Kenong's smirking face. "When I asked the NKVD what we should do with Degurechaff, they said they didn't even bother trying to assassinate her, and accused our mages of being foolish enough to deliver an easy victory to her. Even if they had the opportunity, they were afraid of the immense public uproar and the demand for brutal vengeance in Germania. I also tasked one of my top analysts to do further research on her, and I haven't heard from them in the past few days."

Li Kenong was about to say something when Kang kept talking.

"I suggest we end the Great Leap Forward to go to full war economy."

That was when Li Kenong's face turned from delighted to fury.

"Let's say Peng somehow magically gets all of the materiel he needs for a drawn-out fight against the Europeans," Li Kenong barely controlled his anger. "How will he get them to North Bharat? Not through the sea unless you want to donate them straight to the Albish navy! The transport planes flying over the Himalayas mountains have limited cargo capacity and are guzzling through a tremendous quantity of scarce and expensive aviation fuel that has to be transported all the way from eastern parts of the Russy Federation, from what few operational refineries that the friendly Rus factions control! And speaking of the Rus, where's the damn NKVD? They're the ones who got us into this mess! What do they have to say for themselves?"

"They are busy trying to wage a two front political war, of fighting for the control of the Russy Federation with one hand and supporting the North Bharatians with the other. Either way," Kang nonchalantly shrugged, "I doubt they have much to offer as far as support goes, other than the handover of their Type 97 orb stockpile, assisting us with the manufacturing and training our mages on how to use the orb."

"What would it take to accelerate the construction of roads and railways to connect the CSR to North Bharat?" Zhang turned his face to Li Kenong.

Li Kenong pondered for a moment before speaking. "While there are various ways I can accelerate road constructions, the railways will still be a major issue. Difficult to build but also yields the best heavy transportation method. Especially as we have plenty of coal while gasoline and diesel are in short supply. If the Russy Federation is fully backing this war, we need a direct railway between them and North Bharat through Afghanistan. But that requires a cooperative Afghanistan. For our own war efforts, we need railways through Tibet and Burma, and that second region is under control by the Albish."

Kang set down his tea cup. "We need to seek peace with the Rus factions to divert forces to assist with the road and railway constructions, and send additional reinforcements directly to North Bharat."

"We are still battling for Moskva," Peng shook his head dismissively. "The hostile Rus factions still control the central part of the city. To pull out prematurely instead of crushing the anti-Chinese factions would have catastrophic political consequences for the Russy Federation if we are to rely on them as an ally."

"Regarding Burma, which we mentioned earlier, do we have any ideas of how to push the Albish out of that region?" Zhang looked around, and upon seeing blank stares from everyone else, he cleared his throat.

"We should arm the Buddhists there. Promise them autonomy in return for letting us build roads and railroads through Burma."

Simultaneously, the other three men all recoiled in horror. Li Kenong placed his face into his two hands, covering his eyes. Kang's entire body twitched uncontrollably, while Peng spat out a mouthful of his tea after picking the wrong time to drink.

"The same Buddhists that fled from Tibet after we took significant military losses pacifying that tumultuous region? They only left Tibet because they thought our generous peace treaty was not good enough!" Peng gasped. "And your idea is to give weapons to those same fanatics?!"

"After they boot the Albish out of Burma with our weapons, they'll turn on us!" Kang joined in.

"We would need to allow them to collect tolls for the usage of the roads and railways after completing construction as one of the ways of bribing them because otherwise they will blow them up!" Li Kenong dragged his hands down his face.

"We need them to cause trouble for the Albish to distract them from supporting South Bharat. This is not the time for half-measures." Zhang tried to maintain his composure, then looked at Kang. "I have seen your reports of the simmering conflicts between the locals in Burma who are seeking independence, and the Albish trying to still run it as a colony."

"You're trying to exterminate a rodent infestation, by burning the entire house down!" Kang banged his fist onto the table.

"I'm not going to allow North Bharat's advances to be halted and then reversed, followed by them being overrun by the invading Europeans." Zhang snapped back in response. "Without North Bharat, the capitalists will have a direct land border with Tibet to reignite the rebellion that we worked so hard to crush. And an independent Tibet that is aligned with the capitalists will be the end of us by giving a massive, mountainous foothold to our enemies for an invasion of our core homeland itself! I would rather risk a disaster in Burma than sit idle for a guaranteed disaster to happen in North Bharat and then Tibet!"

There was a brief moment of tense silence in the room, before Zhang continued.

"Peng Dehuai, you will find a quick peace option in the Russy Federation, then redeploy the forces for the political operation and constructions in Afghanistan, and then march to North Bharat to assist them. Send some of the mobile forces immediately to North Bharat."

Zhang then looked at Kang. "Kang Sheng, you will support him with the activities in the Russy Federation and Afghanistan, and start looking at what options we have in Burma."

And then at Li. "Li Kenong, you will shift the industrial priorities to accelerate the infrastructure construction. The Great Leap Forward is over, we now need a new economic plan for this war."

The three men begrudgingly agreed and then quietly filed out of the conference room, leaving Zhang by himself.

'We should have never chased after this damn Type 97 orb. This is all my fault.' Zhang slouched into his chair.

1943, June 9th, Somewhere in Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, one of the autonomous princely states within South Bharat:

Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad, was sipping his masala chai drink when a mage suddenly flew in from above and landed in front of him.

"Who and what are you?!" The Nizam almost dropped his cup of tea as two guards pointed their weapons at the mage.

"I come to offer you salvation from the communist invasion," the obviously Chinese mage said, and then offered a belated nod of greeting.

She did not, the Nizam noticed, answer his questions.

"You are a communist," the Nizam accused, his eyes narrowing suspiciously.

"The reason why I'm speaking to you is because unlike the Russy Federation or your northern countrymen, we believe that negotiating deals is…" the mage paused for a second. "Inherently less messy than purging everyone that gets in our way."

"What kind of deal?"

"We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. All that we're asking in return is your cooperation in defeating South Bharat. You have our assurance that North Bharat will not meddle in your affairs."

"And what happened to those that took your offer?"

The mage smiled as he opened a leather book cover that had a set of documents for the Nizam. "Many decades ago when we rose up against the corrupt and incompetent Shun dynasty, we made deals with the provincial governors to join us in our revolution and in return they kept their power and position, just under a different name. And they kept their wealth, too. Their children are now in various government positions. Although when one of those governors back stabbed us after signing the deal, and another one executed our envoy who merely delivered our message, we had their body parts redistributed, then their wealth. When the Shun dynasty came to us, we struck a deal where they would leave our lands and to never interfere with our affairs, and in return they would not be harmed."

"Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal. But I think I may have a better one."

The Nizam flicked his thumb from the back of his upper front teeth toward the mage.

The mage closed the leather book cover. "Mir Osman Ali Khan... you disappoint me. I know exactly what that gesture means."

"You can't scare me with this crap. I know you're going to break the deal after South Bharat is gone, and then take away my power and wealth. I want you out of my sight."

"Tell me, Mir Osman Ali Khan... what good is power and wealth... if you don't have an army to maintain it?"

The mage pulled out a whistle and blew it. The doors to the courtyard suddenly came crashing down.

The Nizam stumbled backward as soldiers filled his courtyard, all of them wearing red arm banners over their uniforms, while his panicking guards dropped their weapons to surrender. "What have you done to my army?"

"Some of your army's leadership was more... pragmatic. They know when a war is lost. Better to split the spoils with the victorious side than to beg for scraps, or their own lives, as the losing side. They also know that North Bharat is less… forgiving, and thus would not offer anything close to what we are giving. We may or may not have given your men some gold and silver as well, and promised more out of your treasury. Treasury that you would have kept if you just said yes. It's a shame, I was hoping to settle this problem without bloodshed and thus get a better quarterly performance evaluation report for it."

As the soldiers raised their rifles at the Nizam, the mage motioned at the two guards. "Pick up your weapons."

Shaking, they both compiled and grabbed their dropped weapons.

"If you want to see your family again, you will dispose of your now former master." The mage gestured at the shocked and enraged Nizam, before lifting off into the air.

"Good bye, Mir Osman Ali Khan."

Meanwhile, the same day, elsewhere in South Bharat:

While Savarkar was busy rebuilding the government in the middle of a war, it was time for me to handle some outstanding and unfortunately hands-on business.

I glanced at the notes that Savarkar had given me, then tucked them away under my clothing. Unfortunately while the corrupt defense minister had disappeared after fleeing from South Bharat, the generals that were picked and protected by the defense minister still remained out in the field.

As I and my two translators, Motilal Ayyangar and Joginder Singh Dyal, approached the National Defense Corps marching formations. Even before I could see the faces in the formation, I could tell it was more like a disorganized mob that was loosely heading towards a vague direction. Something was wrong based on how they were all walking and what their faces looked like. Not to mention they were all still wearing civilian clothings, and dirty ones as well.

On my cue, Ayyangar and Dyal jogged over to them and asked what was going on, only to be immediately surrounded by the draftees. I couldn't quite make out what the mob was saying, but it definitely sounded like pleas for help.

"How long have they been marching?" I asked Ayyangar who I felt spun up a physical strength spell to push his way out of the crowd.

"About a week, no food provided by the officers!" Dyal shouted back at me as they struggled to keep up with the increasing voluminous pleas from the mob of marchers.

For them to march for days on foot without sufficient food was complete disregard for their own men's life and grated my HR and military officer nerves. Even the Russy Federation made an attempt at providing food and uniforms to their men before sending them into the meat grinder!

Suddenly a nervous looking junior officer was pushed by the mob into my sight.

"Please explain," I thinly smiled at the officer.

"I am just following orders for them to march to their training location…" the officer stammered.

"What, to starve your draftees to death?! They aren't even soldiers yet!" I snarled, causing the mob to back off and distance themselves from the terrified officer.

"My superiors have given me the run around. I had to buy food with my own money."

"Give me names, who are they with, and their locations." I withdrew a notebook from my pocket and ripped out a sheet of paper, then shoved it and a pen into the officer's hands.

As he frantically scribbled onto the paper, I turned to Dyal. "Find Miss Caldwell, she might still be in Satara. Tell her to meet us for an investigation of the draftee marches, and make sure she has a mage escort in case there's something shady going on with the military. I suspect there are many more draftees that are also being deprived of food. Also ask her to make a public call for more food aid to be delivered to South Bharat."

When the officer shakily gave me the sheet of paper, I nodded at him and turned to Dyal. "Tell Miss Caldwell to come to Panaji."

I then looked at Ayyangar. "We're going to pay someone a visit."

Around Panaji:

After spotting what appeared to be a food truck convoy that was about 30 kilometers away from another marching column, I zoomed down and landed in front of the truck, while Ayyangar landed next to the driver.

"Tell them I need this truck convoy to feed a hungry draftee march," I pointed at the truck as the convoy came to a stop.

"The driver said they received new orders to head elsewhere," Ayyangar looked back at me in confusion.

"What were the old orders?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Deliver food to the marching column."

Interesting…

"Tell them to drive back to the marching column, I want to see how deep the rabbit hole goes." I jumped up into the truck bed and motioned at Ayyangar to get into the truck.

"Yes ma'am," Ayyangar opened the passenger door and hopped in to be seated next to the driver. Shortly afterward, the truck started moving again, followed by the rest of the convoy.

I looked around for a moment and seeing that no one had a line of sight on me with all of the bags and boxes stacked around in the truck bed, I laid down on one of the bags to take a short nap as the truck rumbled along the bumpy, muddy road, as the weather started to drizzle.

Hmm, I had forgotten that Bharat has their monsoon season. Hopefully General Von Romel has taken that in account.

Some time passed when the truck suddenly skidded to a halt. I immediately put on my magic disguise as a Bharatian junior officer and peered through a gap between two boxes to see a more senior ranking officer step out of his car to yell at the truck driver.

I briefly spun up an air reflective to check my disguise, and then hopped out of the truck bed and onto the road, double checking to make sure my orb was recording.

The commander initially yelled at me in a local language, which I simply stared at him. He appeared to cycle a few different languages, let out an annoyed sigh, and finally settled on speaking in Albish

"What is the meaning of this?!" The commander yelled at me. "Were you the one who ordered my convoy to go to the wrong location? Who are you anyways?! You must be one of the lesser ethnic groups to not know the common languages, and arrogant enough to not learn them!"

"My orders were to feed the draftees. I saw your convoy and took command of it." I fired back with a high pitched male voice and nonchalantly shrugged.

I wasn't sure if he was going to fall for my deception since my Albish accent left something to be desired, but it seems I got him all worked up enough for him to overlook that. Because he quickly walked up to me and punched me in the face, which I had to remind myself to not to react violently to just yet. I instead pretended to stagger back.

"Let that be a warning for insubordination. You will take the convoy back."

"There are no draftees at your requested destination, or soldiers, or refugees. I was there to see it for myself." I feigned ignorance and confusion.

The commander shook his head dismissively and chuckled . "I should apologize for mistaking your naiveness and optimism with insubordination. To get it through your thick skull, the destination is a black market. You can take a small cut of the agreed profits after the sale of the goods."

"I won't take your money," I shot a stern look at him, as soldiers and other junior officers gathered around to observe the spectacle.

"That's fine, more in my pocket then." The commander sighed as he turned to the convoy to bark at them to start driving.

"Belay that order!" I shouted at the truck and Ayyangar stopped the driver from doing anything. Then I turned to the now furious commander. "That rank and uniform you wear don't belong to you. You're not worthy of either, not when you're willing to starve your men to death to line your pockets, while your country is collapsing under the boot of communism."

The commander pulled out his pistol and pointed at my head. "You had the option of silver or lead, and you refused the silver. What's one more dead person in this war?"

"And you don't deserve that pistol either."

"You're willing to die over some food?"

Damn, this brings back some really old memories about an accounting fraud case at my employer in my previous world. It took all of my mental strength to not use my full, enhanced strength and turn him into tenderized steak with my bare hands.

"I would tell you to go burn in Naraka, but I think you're already there."

He fired the pistol, and the bullet flattened against my shield. He shot again, apparently just to be sure that it wasn't some imagination, and yet again the bullet was carefully caught before it could ricochet into one of the drivers I still had need of. Terribly shaky aim, I tsked.

I dropped my disguise. "You've probably had surprise inspections in the past right? Including ones conducted personally by you? What do you think of the grade you got on this one?"

The commander dropped his pistol and stumbled backward in shock.

I walked forward and picked up his pistol. "I did say that you don't deserve the pistol, didn't I?"

Before he could say anything, I removed the magazine to throw it into the mud, cleared the chamber of any loose rounds, and used my strength enhancement spell to crush the pistol into scrap metal. I levitated in the air, then threw it at an angle that knocked the commander's cap off, with enough force that the impact broke his car's radiator, causing a plume of steam to rise.

Suddenly I noticed his pants were wet and I could smell he had soiled his pants. The rest of his men stepped away from him, or were staring at the broken car.

"You're going to spill every single detail about your little side business, everyone that you worked with, and everyone that you know are also running their own side business. In return, I'll let you live and not end up having to visit a hospital in the aftermath. As you said, are you willing to die over some food?"

As I watched the draftees all queued up at the field kitchens, Ayyangar walked up to me.

"So, what's next?"

I shrugged. "Wait for Miss Caldwell to arrive to begin her investigation. She's going to love the amassed pile of evidence of how deep the corruption runs in South Bharat's military. The commander ran his mouth non-stop on everything he knew. Now we just need Miss Caldwell to confirm his claims."

"While this bust is massive, I don't think it's enough to reform the military overnight. For the commander to be that brazen while you were disguised…" Ayyangar trailed off.

He had a good point. If they're stealing food from their own men, how could I trust them with the arms shipment? It's probably a major reason why they keep suffering strings of defeats against the commies because they were so focused on lining their own pockets. But I can't just purge their entire military command, because that would be overstepping the boundaries in getting involved with the sovereignty of other countries.

"You're right, we don't have time to try to reform South Bharat's military. But disbanding it is also not an option, not in the middle of a losing war." I rubbed my chin. "But, what if I use volunteers that have fought in the war against the Russy Federation, and my marines, to train and lead the draftees?"

"You mean take over the National Defense Corps?" Ayyangar looked on with concern. "I suppose if your volunteers understand Albish, there are plenty of translators and South Bharatian officers who understand that language. Although I am not sure how South Bharat or the Allied Kingdom would feel about an entire fresh army being under your direct control."

I shrugged. "I would be able to bypass South Bharat's corrupt military command entirely. Based on the amount of food shipments that came in, and additional ones that were scheduled to be shipped, I think I could take in a portion of those draftees. Prime Minister Savarkar and Londinium have no leg to stand on because they couldn't feed their one million draftees to begin with. I haven't even dug into the matter of the soldiers' pay, but if food is being brazenly stolen, I expect the pay never left the coffers, or the officers' sticky hands. Besides, we have a war that we need to win."

"You're going to pay them as well using your own pocket?"

"Germania's treasury. There's too much corruption in South Bharat's military for it to be resolved before the communists overrun the whole place." I retorted. Well, I didn't have to pay them with coal marks. Only something they'd accept as just as valuable. That old trick still worked in a pinch. "They won't care what they're paying with as long as it buys them food all the same."

"I just hope you're ready for the unintended consequences of such a drastic move," Ayyangar nodded his head.

I'm sure Savarkar and Londinium will understand what I did once the military corruption has been purged.

I'll need to go find General Romel to talk about the draftee situation, as it would be his judgment to determine how many soldiers and mages he could divert to train the draftees, and the logistics for the training. The multiple different local languages is going to be a problem, but I'll just delegate that messy work to my subordinates.

I should also let General Lergen know that he's about to have a lot more manpower to handle.

At least exchanging pay scrips they'd pay the conscripts with for supplies they were going to hand out anyway would take care of the immediate costs without straining the general's logistics any further. I was sure he appreciated it, was the least I could do considering the headache I was throwing my most competent officer into.

1943, two days later, in Satara:

Savarkar took a deep breath as the Albish Ambassador Allen Shone walked into his office.

"You're here because she seized control of the National Defense Corps? I had no part of that, all I asked her to do was help with my corruption investigation. And somehow that escalated in this mess of her making." Savarkar then let out a short laugh. "For her to tell me to stop causing trouble…"

Shone shook his head dismissively. "The fact that you even worked with her is enough cause for my presence. And I am well aware that she violated South Bharat's sovereignty by declaring you as Prime Minister without consulting anyone else."

"Tell me, what other options did I have while I was surrounded by traitors, cowards and thieves?" Savarkar jabbed his finger at Shone's direction. "I couldn't help your utter absence, Mr. Shone, and the absence of your army!"

"So you're going to keep working with her?" Shone looked on with disgust. "Let her continue to gain power with her private army?"

"Where were you during all of this time?"

Shone pointed at the Bharatian Ocean on the map across from the room. "I would like to remind you that it is the Royal Navy and the donated warships that cut off the communists' supply route, which means North Bharat will eventually run out of materiel and their advances will stall out. We also have aircraft and mages on your soil to wrest control of the air from the communists."

"I am thankful for the Albish support, but at this moment, unless the Allied Kingdom does more to stop the communists, I am not going to turn away free help from Germania. Just yesterday, supply ships straight from Germania and their destroyer escorts arrived at Ratnagiri port, full of ammunition, weapons and grain! All of which, you might note, are in short supply!"

"Degurechaff has her own interests," Shone ground out, jaw locked tight. "She has already secured an overseas foothold with her acquired islands and has already built up considerable military infrastructure there, which is coincidentally perfectly positioned to support this war. The Bharatian subcontinent is the next logical step for her."

Savarkar sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "I don't have a choice, as she would probably find another prime minister to run South Bharat."

"What do you mean, man?" Shone asked impatiently, angry bewilderment stamped across his face.

"I was the one who ordered the purge, before she showed up in person to put the fear of Shiva into me. She all but held me at gunpoint, insisting I call off the purge."

"...Why are you bringing that up?" Shone seemed caught off guard, perplexed by the new information.

"Remember how Degurechaff publicly blamed the traitor prime minister for ordering the purge?" Savarkar leaned forward, this time with a hushed voice. "She never said it directly to me, but I know she has blackmail material on me. Which means if I don't cooperate with her, all she has to do is reveal what actually happened under my watch. The people will demand my blood. Thus she can force a replacement without having to fire a shot. Or just take direct control using her popularity, the many dozens of Bharatian mages that now only answer to her, and the National Defense Corps, by then a force a million strong, that will be under her command and payroll."

Shone's face contorted with various different emotions, as Savarkar continued. "I suggest you either help me, or accept that South Bharat will sacrifice its hard won independence and gravitate towards their new European master. Or perhaps you should just directly talk to her, because maybe this is all just one giant misunderstanding."

Shone excused himself and briskly walked out of the office.

'I have to warn Londinium that the Devil of the Rhine is seeking to expand her empire. The time for half measures is over!' Shone grimaced at the thought of Germania swiping all of Bharat, both the north and south, from the Allied Kingdom.

Meanwhile in Berun:

General Lergen poured himself a glass of brandy as he and Visha read the reports from South Bharat.

"She had herself purposely shot at! Twice!" Visha yelled. "I know that shooting mages is useless, but that isn't the point!"

"That's one big gamble to get lots of recruits. That explains why she wanted all of those food aid, and she also has the arms shipments to equip them with." Lergen said before downing the entire glass. "Now she can build an army and command them to her liking instead of dealing with South Bharat's military command. But wait, there's more."

He put a telegram sheet on the table.

Visha stared at the sheet. "A proposal for a direct underwater cable between OZEV and Malagasy, and another cable between Malagasy and South Bharat. Instead of using over the air radio transmission and Albish cables to get messages through, Germania could have a secure line to both regions and it would help speed up communications. And she predicted that the war in Bharat might drag on long enough for the cables to be completed before the war ends."

"I think you get the idea of what she has in mind for South Bharat." Lergen said.

He poured another glass and offered it to Visha.

Several hours later, back in South Bharat during night time:

"When are we going to stop running?" Major Neumann called out using a magic voice spell, as I fired a burst of rounds at a communist mage that got too close to us.

"We killed all of the mages that have the knock off Type 97 orbs and were stupid enough to charge ahead of the rest of their comrades!" I gleefully replied. "Now we just need to keep baiting the remaining fools to the west!"

"It's strange that there are no Rus mages leading them, only the half battalion of Chinese mages before we killed them all," Birgit noted.

Normally I wouldn't be this reckless dragging things out, but now that I have about a platoon of Germanian mages gathered for this special operation, I feel much comfortable with handling these four North Bharatian mage battalions.

And I have an ace up my sleeve to finish them off.

I looked back towards the west and could see the approaching ocean in the darkness. Excellent.

"They seem to be slowing down," Birgit had a tone of concern in her voice.

Hmm. That's a problem because I really need them to be over the ocean for my plan to work.

"One moment," I replied back, then darted towards the communist mages, ignoring Major Neumann's pleas for me to stop. "Can't have them wise up now of all times."

During my short time in South Bharat, I had done some research, and while North Bharat is officially a communist country, that doesn't mean all of their people immediately shedded all of their old cultural and religious practices. I'm expecting some of the communist mages to have a strong notion of honor, and perhaps still believe in the notion of 'honor killing'.

With one hand, I lit a bright magic flare against the cloudy dark night and also spun up my voice amplification spell in Albish.

"You're going to turn around now? After I killed half a battalion of your comrades in this night alone, you have nothing to show for when you tell others about your retreat! Where's your honor?"

Still no response from them. Time for a more extreme measure.

As I stared at the North Bharatians, I carefully spun up a magic illusion of me embracing other women, featuring us a little undressed. The magic animation was a bit fuzzy, but I think I got the point across.

"I do love to get in bed with women! You wouldn't want me to go after your wives and daughters, would you?"

Initially it didn't seem like there was any reaction, but I did sense some increasingly heated exchange of communication spells between the North Bharatians. I spun up my full combat suit to the maximum, just in case it had the intended effect.

"Neumann and Birgit, prepare for covering fire." I ordered them and their subordinates.

"How am I going to explain this to Serebryakov when she demands me to explain what you have been doing? You know she's going to bully me to find out the truth!" Neumann cried out, which I ignored. Visha will understand that there is a war against the communists to be won, and unusual measures are required when the communists have the advantage in this moment.

Then I saw bright flashes from all of the communist mages simultaneously opening with a volley of fire before they started burning hard to give chase. Thankfully they were a little outside of their effective rifle range, so my decoys and aggressive vectoring allowed me to easily dodge their bullets. Especially with Neumann, Birgit and the rest of the Germanian mages providing cover fire for my hasty retreat.

"What now?" Neumann asked.

"A few more kilometers, we need them over the deep ocean." I giggled. "Birgit, I hope you were recording all of this."

Yes, but I'm not sure if it's proper for me to release it publicly…" Birgit hesitantly replied.

"Nonsense, I want the entire world to know about our victory!"

"What will Serebryakov say?!" Neumann choked.

"Sheesh, all I did was just taunt them to get them all fired up and emotionally compromised. You worry too much" I rolled my eyes.

After several minutes of the intense chase with the communist mages ceasing their shooting to focus their magic power on high speed flight, a line of searchlights from about two kilometers away turned on in the middle of the darkness, and focused onto the communist mages.

Excellent, my four destroyers are here on time, just as planned. And the commies are too close to easily escape from their impending doom.

"I've always wanted a proper test of our destroyers' anti-air capability against massed mages. Thank you for participating in a live fire exercise!" I jeered at the communists, right before the destroyers unleashed their barrages of proximity fuze shells at the hapless targets.

1943, June 16th, in one of Aegyptus's palaces:

"The conduct of our mid-rank officers is outrageous! They are being insubordinate to your commands!" Commander-in-Chief, Haidar Mahdi Pasha, breathed heavily.

King Ismail pushed aside the photos of the volunteer disease outbreak relief activities on his desk. "You're saying that they are focused on these activities instead of preparing for the training of a large number of new recruits?"

"Indeed. If that many officers were willing to act without orders, then it could set the precedent for disobedient activities or even a coup. Their disease outbreak relief effort is just a cover for whatever scheme they are working on."

King Ismail got up from his chair to look out the window. "Londinium has me on their leash. My cousin is suffering from delusions of grandeur, especially now that the Albish is directly backing him."

He then turned around to look at Mahdi. "I need a loyal military. It is expected for children to obey their elders; I expect the same obedience from my officers. Those who cannot obey, cannot be trusted."

"I agree," Mahdi nodded. "So, what should we do about them?"

"Have them arrested. They shouldn't be infringing on my health minister's work anyways, as he assured me he can handle the disease outbreaks and his reports show that the officers' volunteer efforts are redundant." King Ismail dismissively waved his hand.

"As you wish," Mahdi bowed before turning around and departing.

Meanwhile in Nanjing:

"You can't be serious…" Wang Ming trailed off when Kang Sheng finished talking.

"It's not my decision, but I still have to carry it out, and I need you to do your part. Especially since I was the one who promoted you ahead of others to put you overall in charge of smuggling operations." Kang flatly said.

"Arming enemies of the state?! That is ridicu-" Wang was cut off by Kang slamming his fist on the table.

"I already made that argument, so don't make this more difficult for me." Kang glared. "You have your orders."

Wang bowed briefly, and then briskly exited the office. On the surface, his face looked neutral.

Inside, not so much.

'Back opposition groups against the imperialists. But they don't have to be communists?' he screamed mentally. 'This goes against what our country was established on!'

As Wang walked down the hallway, thoughts swirled in his mind.

'No collectivization of the peasants' farms…'

When he walked down the stairs, he absent-mindedly said his hellos to some colleagues.

'Our forces freeing political prisoners and aristocrats from the Russy Federation's gulags, and the slaughter of fellow communists in the Russy Federation…'

After unlocking his office door, stepping in and then closing the door behind him, Wang slumped to the floor to sit down.

'Lev Bronstein was right that counter revolutionaries pretending to be communists were no better than capitalists. And Kang was the one who denied Lev Bronstein's refuge in the CSR after pressure from Jugashvili.'

As he got back up on his feet, he searched his mind of who would be willing to stand up against a counter revolutionary Chairman Zhang Wentian, his cronies and those that were spineless enough to just follow orders. He needed his own reliable allies if he was going to steer the country in the right direction.

Wang cracked a smile, then sat down at this desk to prepare for his work.

'The 28 Bolsheviks Group; I studied with them in the Russy Federation before Lev Bronstein's ouster, and knew them well. Some of them are also high up in their positions. And I have the advantage of being Kang's go-to subordinate.'

AN:

Reference to what Tanya was eating at the start of the chapter: wiki/Seekh_kebab

wiki/Materiel

Materiel[1][2][3][4] (/məˌtɪəriˈɛl/; from French matériel 'equipment, hardware') is supplies, equipment, and weapons in military supply-chain management, and typically supplies and equipment in a commercial supply chain context.[a]

In a military context, the term materiel refers either to the specific needs (excluding manpower) of a force to complete a specific mission, or the general sense of the needs (excluding manpower) of a functioning army.[a]

"Armies of Sand: The Past, Present, and Future of Arab Military Effectiveness" book:

Reference to the rapid communist offensives:

Page 78 to 82:

Summary: North Korean military performed quite well even as the US and UN forces began to arrive. They strongly applied Soviet military doctrine. Things only changed after the US air dominance and subsequent bombing of NK logistics.

Reference to the South Bharatian military routing due to overwhelming refugee flows:

Page 192:

Where ARVN units broke, it was typically because their unit commanders had deserted or proved incompetent, because they were put in untenable positions by still higher level leaders, or because civilian refugees had compromised their unit integrity. There were a number of incidents during the Easter Offensive where civilian refugees badly undermined the morale of ARVN units.89 In particular, the first large-scale instances of what would come to be called ARVN's "family syndrome"—soldiers deserting their units to try to find, protect, or rescue their families—emerged in 1972

Page 198:

Thieu had II Corps try to withdraw to Saigon while the rest of I Corps attempted to pull back into defensive enclaves around Danang and Hue. He added to the confusion by flip-flopping over whether Hue should be defended. All of these moves, beginning with the withdrawal of the Airborne, prompted a torrent of civilian refugees. The un-organized retreat quickly turned into a rout. Redeploying ARVN formations became intermingled and disorganized by the refugee flows. And "family syndrome" resulted in mass desertions by soldiers who went to find their loved ones and escort them to safety.113

Page 199:

Moreover, because the Ruff-Puffs were so closely tied to the people, it exacerbated the civilian refugee surge southward.114 Histories of the war also note that in many cases, senior officers simply abandoned their formations after the retreat order was issued, but many junior officers ("battalion commanders and lower officers," according to General Thinh, the commander of II Corps artillery) stayed with their men and tried to fight back against the North Vietnamese or at least keep their units together as they retreated south. Nevertheless, their formations crumbled from panic, refugees, and enemy attack.115 The retreat led to the loss of 75 percent of II Corps' combat power.116

.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1952-54v09p2/d997

In 1929, the Egyptian Prime Minister decided to send Egyptian Army Officers to England for Staff school training, but discovered that none of the regular officers were scholastically equipped to meet Aldershot standards. Young college graduates were then chosen to take the Staff course on the condition that they become regular Army officers. Thus for the past twenty years there has grown up within the Egyptian Army a middle-echelon of well-educated officers who resent the fact that the older ill-educated top-ranking officers were apparently keeping them from promotion.

During the Palestine War the extent of the graft and corruption among these older officers became apparent to an alarming degree, and during 1950 the younger officers succeeded in forcing a thorough investigation of the Arms Scandal, resulting in the retirement of the majority of the top-ranking generals, including Haidar Pasha, the Commander-in-Chief, Osman Mahdi Pasha, the Chief of Staff, and Sirry Amer Pasha, Commander of the elite Frontier Corps.

However, not long ago after the retirement of these officers, they were quietly reappointed to their old positions by the King, and the junior officers again found themselves the victims of graft, corruption and favoritism by the Palace clique. One of the more recent flare-ups of discontent was registered when, in January 1952, the younger officers elected General Mohamed Naguib Bey President of the Cairo Officers. Club, thus frustrating the machinations of the Commander-in-Chief, Haidar Pasha.

Reference to the newspaper: wiki/Berliner_Tageblatt

Reference to the Hindu god:

wiki/List_of_Hindu_deities#Shiva

Shiva is the god of destruction, and the third of the Trimurti. His consort, as well as his shakti (divine energy), is Parvati, the goddess of power.

wiki/Shiva

Shiva is known as The Destroyer within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity which also includes Brahma and Vishnu.[2][14]

Reference to Naraka: wiki/Naraka

Naraka (Sanskrit: नरक) is the realm of hell in Indian religions. According to some schools of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism, Naraka is a place of torment. The word Neraka (modification of Naraka) in Indonesian and Malaysian has also been used to describe the Islamic concept of Hell.[1]

Reference to the honor killing: wiki/Honor_killings_by_region#India

Historical basis for the widespread corruption:

wiki/National_Defense_Corps_incident

406,000 drafted citizens were deployed in 49 training units,[4] then National Defense Corps soldiers were ordered to march southward on the Korean peninsula under the Chinese offensive. However, funds for food purchases were embezzled by the National Defense Corps Commander Kim Yungun (Kim Yun-keun) (Kim Yoon-keun), son-in-law of Defence minister Shin Sung-mo.[5] Approximately 300,000 men were lost to death or desertion during the three-week, 300-mile "death march".[6] By June 1951, when an investigating committee made known its findings, it was reported that some 50,000[7] to 90,000 soldiers starved to death or died of disease on the march and in the training camps.[2][5][8]

wiki/Battle_of_the_Yalu_River_(1894)#Fleet_composition

Though well drilled, the Chinese had not engaged in sufficient gunnery practice beforehand. This lack of training was the direct result of a serious lack of ammunition. Corruption seems to have played a major role; many Chinese shells appear to have been filled with cement or porcelain, or were the wrong caliber and could not be fired. Philo McGiffin noted that many of the gunpowder charges were "thirteen years old and condemned."[15][2] What little ammunition there was, was to be preserved for real battle. Live ammunition training was rarely carried out. Li wanted to delay the battle against the Japanese fleet, thus allowing the Chinese more time to equip their ships with additional ammunition. However, the Imperial Court called him a coward and his recommendation was turned down.

South Vietnam's corruption: /foreign-policy-and-complexities-corruption-case-south-vietnam

Why, then, did this phenomenon persist, and even grow progressively more egregious over time? The basic conditions were set at South Vietnam's birth in 1954, when the country emerged suddenly from its colonial past. With very few competent civil servants, with no functioning political system or tradition of democracy or transparency in government and with deep divides across religious, regional, ethnic and class lines, the new government built a military establishment from scratch. Few expected the state to last more than a couple of years. With the advent of active insurgency, the government of the Republic of Vietnam faced a deadly and immediate challenge that absorbed all of its attention.

OLD CHAPTER 6, IGNORE THE BELOW WRITING IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT MY WRITING BACK IN 2021 LOOKS LIKE

AN: Credits to Gremlin Jack and perfect_shade for helping with revising Chapter 6

Aggressive queen moves

1943, May 21st:

As I was flying, I thought over what the South Bharatian mage said. Me as a leader for South Bharat? Ridiculous. They wouldn't throw away their hard earned independence and agree to be ruled by an European leader yet again. They probably just need competent military leadership to survive this war and that's it. If I get too involved with them, the Albish might feel threatened with me sitting on their last major supply of non-communist tea. And I know that the Albish and the British in both worlds had fought wars with Jiuzhou and China over tea. Better to not get involved with the colonial game.

And then there are the purges that are still going on elsewhere. I knew that the truth about the mass killing would come out sooner or later, now I just have to deal with the source of the madness. Especially with Miss Caldwell being present.

I am so glad that I told Elya to not purge the communists back in the early years and simply prosecute them under the appropriate authorities. The scandals that she dragged the communists into were a bit too aggressive for my taste. I've always wondered why they became increasingly silent until none of the newspapers ever mentioned about them, but I figured they saw the truth of communism and stopped preaching it.

Then again, the only countries backing South Bharat are Germania and the Allied Kingdom. Well, there's also the Francois Republic, but they're more a sidekick than a major participant. I'm not sure how the Albish would respond to the massacres, but I don't have time to wait around to find out. Especially when I have no idea where the Albish embassy staff are heading to after they evacuated from the capital. South Bharat's military command was so in chaos that they didn't know where their prime minister was located, so I guess the South Bharatian mage had a point about wanting a competent leadership. What I did find was another prison shooting everyone. Thankfully the next prison superintendent was more ethical and ordered the killings to stop as soon as I told him that I would not tolerate his activity, and while he appeared to be nervous, he was more than happy to point me towards where the Minister of Home Affairs had relocated to.

Turns out he was in Satara, about 260 kilometers southeast of the now captured capital. I also learned that word of my capital defense and the complete routing of North Bharat's main mage attack force had been spreading across the country over radio. The mage that I thought died from their missing limb was actually able to surrender to South Bharatian mages and had gotten an orb recording of the NKVD mage running off and his recon group being destroyed by me.

Time to pay the minister a visit.

"What do you mean I gave the order?" the minister denied. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"And where's your prime minister?"

"I would have told you to go bother him because it would have made more sense for a head of state to meet a head of state, but I heard several hours ago that he's preparing to move again with Pune being threatened by the advancing communists. We had no solid contingency plans of what to do if the capital had to be evacuated so everyone just went everywhere. In fact, I know some people have opted to stay put in Bombay to wait for the communists to arrive to meet them."

Great, their government is completely scattered, is unable to talk to each other, and the remaining ones in the capital are probably going to defect to the obvious winning side. There's no way they are going to be able to organize a careful retreat.

"Even if you never gave the order, that still doesn't explain the recording I got on my computational orb of a prison outside of your capital that was lining up and shooting everyone. Both prison superintendents stated that the prison system is under your authority."

"A fabricated evidence."

"Try telling that to your Ablish contact when an American journalist publishes the photos and films of the butchering for Europe and the Unified States to see. Including the scene where a young girl was almost executed. You should start conducting public relations damage control yesterday."

"As the Americans said, better dead than red."

Now I'm starting to get angry at him trying to dance around the issue and pretend to be an idiot, after his government neglected their military, pushed South Bharat into war instead of making some concessions to the commies to use the extra time to build up their military so that they didn't lose their capital within the same week of the war starting, and now he's giving the commies figuratively and literally piles of ammunition for their propaganda machine. All because their prime minister and possibly other high ranking idiots naively thought the Ablish would commit their entire military to bail them out. It looks like I'm dealing with distant, insane relatives of the pre-WW1 Legadonia Entente' and Dacia's politicians. Because even they didn't just massacre every person that was remotely suspected of being pro-Empire.

"You know that you're just going to keep retreating until you're stuck on the southern island of Ceylon. And while I know you're also counting on the Albish to bail you out, but they're a bit tied up with their other unruly colonies that haven't broken away from them yet and I had to constantly annoy them over the months to get them to deploy a token force to your country. If your country want Germania's continued assistance and an arms deal to equip their military with newer weapons to deal with the communists' superior training they got from the Rus and CSR, and their superior numbers from drafts while your government did nothing other than give angry speeches, you are first going to rescind the slaughter order."

He laughed. "A person who burned Arene to the ground is telling me to stop killing unlawful combatants? How ironic. And I know you can't just abandon South Bharat because that would mean the entire subcontinent would be under the red banner, and the rest of Asia will fall as well. You're not in charge of telling me what to do."

He went for the nuclear option by bringing up Arene. If he thinks I'm a monster, then I'll use that to my advantage. Negotiating 101.

I lay my hand on his shoulder. I also casted a spell to dim the lights coming from the windows to darken the room. His bodyguards looked around in confusion.

"Do you feel in charge?"

That was when his stupid smile disappeared off of his face. "Guards! Arrest the chancellor!" he cried out.

I stared at his bodyguards. They looked at each other.

"Leave us."

His bodyguards took the cue and left. It was just us two now.

"You can't threaten me. Not with the Allied Kingdom here."

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "And this gives you power over me? You don't even know where your prime minister is right now."

The smell wasn't bothering him earlier, but now it was unmistakable and couldn't be ignored. Sweat, blood, gunpowder, smoke and grime. He tried stepping away, but I shifted my hand to place it directly next to his neck to stop him and then smiled.

"Time is short so I'll make this brief. You will clean up the mess you made for me. You will go to the nearest radio station to call off the slaughter. And you will get the fuck back to work. With, or without you, North Bharat will not win this war."

Radio broadcasts across South Bharat:

"As a recommendation from the Chancellor of Germania, Tanya von Degurechaff, I declare that the extrajudicial punishments of suspected communists and enemies of the state to be rescinded effectively immediately. Anyone swept up in the mass arrests are to be freed immediately. I apologize for failing to stop the executions as I was not aware of what was actually ordered and believed that the prisoners were just being detained for state security. Anyone found continuing to perform the inhumane actions will be subject to criminal punishments from the South Bharatian government, or the Chancellor herself."

Somewhere in Hyderabad, Hyderabad State, one of the autonomous Princely states within South Bharat:

"The reason why I'm speaking to you is because unlike the Russy Federation, we believe that negotiating deals is…" the CSR mage paused for a second. "Inherently less messy than purging everyone that gets in your way. When we rose up against the corrupt and incomptetent Shun dynasty, we made deals with the provincial governors to join us in our revolution and in return they kept their power and position, just under a different name. And they kept their wealth, too. Their children are now in various government positions. Although when one of those governors backstabbed us after signing the deal, and another one executed our envoy, we had their body parts redistributed, then their wealth. When the Shun dynasty came to us, we struck a deal where they would leave our lands and to never interfere with our affairs, and in return they would not be harmed."

"What do you want from me?" demanded Mir Osman Ali Khan, the Nizam (monarch) of Hyderabad.

"We're willing to wipe the slate clean, give you a fresh start. All that we're asking in return is your cooperation in defeating South Bharat. You have our assurance that North Bharat will not meddle in your affairs."

"Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal. But I think I may have a better one."

The Nizam flicks his thumb from the back of his upper front teeth toward the CSR mage envoy.

The envoy closed the leather book cover that had a set of documents for the Nizam. "Mir Osman Ali Khan... you disappoint me."

"You can't scare me with this communism crap. I know you're going to break the deal after South Bharat is gone, and then take away my power. I want you out of my sight."

"Tell me, Mir Osman Ali Khan... what good is power... if you don't have an army to enforce it?"

The envoy pulled out a whistle and blew it. Gunshots were heard and the doors to the courtyard suddenly came crashing down.

The Nizam stumbled backward as soldiers filled his courtyard, all of them wearing red arm banners over their uniforms. "What have you done to my army?"

"Some of your army's leadership was more... pragmatic. They know when a war is lost. Better to split the spoils with the victorious side than to beg for scraps, or their own lives, as the losing side. They also know that North Bharat is less… forgiving, and thus would not offer anything close to what we are giving. We may or may not have given your men some gold and silver as well, and promised more out of your treasury. Treasury that you would have kept if you just said yes. It's a shame, I was hoping to settle this problem without bloodshed and thus get a better quarterly performance evaluation report for it."

As the soldiers raised their rifles at the Nizam, the envoy lifted off in the air.

"Good bye, Mir Osman Ali Khan."

1943, July 6th:

Satra and Hyderabad have fallen sometime ago. Kolhapur, Hubli, Bagalkot, Adoni, and Nalgonda are encircled. The commies are also marching directly east towards Patna and the autonomous Bastar State.

To make matters worse, many of the Princely States have either defected to the communists by declaring war on South Bharat, are embroiled in chaos from failed coups or other power struggles, or their leaders just packed up their bags to flee south. Kingdom of Jeypore defected to the communists which instantly split South Bharat in two between the southern boot of their continent and the eastern land that borders the Allied Kingdom's Burma colony. South Bharat's attempts at "restoring order" in those Princely States often varied from mixed results to complete failures. Thankfully the Kingdom of Mysore announced that they will light a torch against the darkness of communism, because they could have dramatically worsened our situation if they had also started waving the red flags.

Apparently there were still deep divisions within South Bharat's government even with the commies pressing down on them, and the Minister of Home Affairs was in the more nationalist hardline faction. The more moderate factions wrested control away from them after the extrajudicial slaughter was stopped, and they had met with me to discuss Germania's support of South Bharat.

Right before the Prime Minister resigned from the political fallout, he announced the formation of the National Defense Corps where all males aged 17 to 40 were to be drafted across the country for training in a few concentrated areas, starting with two million draftees in the first round. The interim Prime Minister changed the number to one million draftees citing logistics concerns.

With so many people drafted in such a short time period and then being ordered to march to the training concentration areas, I had to go investigate to see it for myself.

As I approached one of the marching formations, which was more like a mob, I knew something was wrong based on how they were all walking and what their faces looked like.

My translator asked one of them what was going on. The first thing the man responded was, "Do you have food?"

It didn't take long to learn that they were being barely fed. For them to march well over 100 kilometers on foot without sufficient food was complete disregard for their own men's life and grated my HR and military officer nerves. Even the Russy Federation made an attempt at feeding their men before sending them into the meat grinder!

I met one of the junior officers to ask what was going on. He said his superiors have ignored his urgent requests for more food, and instructed him to keep the draftees marching forward.

I turned to one of my aides. "Find Miss Caldwell and tell her to investigate the draftee marches, and make sure she has mage escort in case if there's something shady going on with the military. I suspect there are many more draftees that are also being deprived of food."

I turned to another one of my aides, "Get a report out to Visha that we need a lot more food shipped to South Bharat with the assumption that all one million draftees are being deprived of food. Order them from the Unified States if needed. If it turns out to be just a small problem, I'm sure the refugees would appreciate the extra food."

I flew towards Panaji, one of the staging areas for our food aid, found another marching column where the men were also short on food, and found a food truck convoy that was about 30 kilometers away. I landed on the front truck to have a talk with the driver and the guide.

"Uh, good morning Chancellor? What are you doing here?" the guide asked.

"I need this truck convoy to feed a hungry draftee march. The South Bharatian military neglected to acquire enough food for their one million drafts."

"What about the refugees?"

"Take half of the convoy to them. I'll be taking the other half."

"Yes ma'am."

We split the convoy in two, and I was going to lead half of it towards the hungry draftees. I put on my disguise using stealth casted spells and looked at myself in the mirror to check. The driver stared at me in confusion from my drastic change in appearance.

"Don't say a thing. I want to confirm a suspicion of something. If it's true, you're going to have one hell of an entertainment."

The driver nodded and we continued on the bumpy, muddy road. We had just started the monsoon season and the roads were already starting to get bad. Those river boats are going to be extremely important with the land logistics being a literal mess.

As we approached the marching column, a soldier ordered us to halt. Shortly afterward, the commander pulled up in his car and hopped out.

"What are in those trucks?" he demanded.

"Food for the draftees. We were told that they weren't getting enough food." I responded.

"Ah, that won't be necessary. They're fine." the commander responded as he walked up to me. He pulled out a map and circled a town. "I need your convoy to go here. With military escort."

"For what?" I asked.

"You, and the rest of the drivers will be compensated after the food is offloaded."

"To the black market?"

"Well of course."

"We won't take your money."

"That's fine, more in my pocket then. You can step out of the truck if you don't want to drive over there."

I motioned my driver to stay put while I stepped out.

"That rank and uniform you wear doesn't belong to you when you're willing to starve your men to death to line your pockets, while your country is collapsing under the boot of communism."

The commander pulled out his pistol. "Silver, or lead."

"And you don't deserve that pistol either."

"You're willing to die over some food?"

Damn, this brings back some really old memories about an accounting fraud case at my employer in my previous world. It took all of my mental strength to not use my strength enhancement spell and turn him into tenderized steak with my bare hands. "I would tell you to go to hell, but I think you're already there."

He fired the pistol, and the bullet ricocheted off of my shield. He shot again, apparently just to be sure that it wasn't some imagination, and yet again the bullet ricocheted off.

I dropped my disguise. "You've probably had surprise inspections in the past right? Including ones conducted personally by you? What do you think of the grade you got on this inspection?"

The commander dropped his pistol and stumbled backward in shock.

I walked forward and picked up his pistol. "I did say that you don't deserve the pistol, didn't I?"

Before he could say anything, I removed the magazine to throw it into the mud, cleared the chamber of any loose rounds, and used my strength enhancement spell to crush the pistol into scrap metal. I levitated in the air, then threw it at an angle that knocked the commander's cap off, with enough force that the impact broke his car's radiator, causing a plume of steam to rise.

Suddenly I noticed his pants were wet and I could smell he had soiled his pants. The rest of his men stepped away from the commander, or were staring at the broken car.

"You're going to spill every single detail about your little side business, everyone that you worked with, and everyone that you know are also running their own side business. In return, I'll let you live and not end up having to visit a hospital in the aftermath. As you said, are you willing to die over some food?"

Thanks to that sticky-fingered commander throwing everyone he knew under the bus, I had amassed quite a pile of evidence of how deep the corruption ran in the South Bharat's military. His associates shouldn't be surprised by his betrayal, there's no honor among thieves anyways. Miss Caldwell and her mage escorts were turned away at gunpoint by a mage platoon when they tried to ask questions about a food convoy being redirected, so I gave her the orb recording and the evidence over to her so she has something to write about.

If they're stealing food from their own men, how could I trust them with the arms shipment? It's probably a major reason why they keep suffering strings of defeats against the commies because they were so focused on lining their own pockets. But I can't just purge their entire military command, because that would be overstepping the boundaries in getting involved with the sovereignty of other countries.

What if I use volunteers that have fought in the war against the Russy Federation, and my marines, to train and lead the draftees? Preferably those that know Albish because some of the locals understand it, and there are translators readily available that can communicate between Albish and the local languages. I would be able to bypass South Bharat's corrupt military command entirely. Based on the amount of food shipments that came in, and additional ones that were scheduled to be shipped, I think I could take in a portion of those draftees. South Bharat has no right to complain about that because they couldn't feed their one million draftees to begin with.

And as for South Bharat's mages, well if any of them volunteers for us, I'll just have my own mages help train them. I could also crack the whip as needed. A shame that South Bharat has a shortage of artillery guns and artillery ammunition for me to conduct the classical live fire exercises.

I'll need to go find General Romel to talk about the draftee situation, as it would be his judgement to determine how many soldiers and mages he could divert to train the draftees, and the logistics for the training. The multiple different local languages is going to be a problem, but I'll just delegate that messy work to my subordinates.

I should also let General Lergen know that he's about to have a lot more manpower to handle.

"She did what?" Allen Shone was stunned. "What do you mean she seized control of the draftees to build her own army?!"

"According to Miss Caldwell's publication, the Chancellor accused South Bharatian's senior military command of embezzling food from the draftees and also the food aid from Germania, and selling them to black marketers. And one of the officers attempted to execute the Chancellor as she was disguised for an undercover sting operation to investigate the food theft.

"If she intends on seizing control of South Bharat, she now has an army to do so. My god she's going to be stealing our former colony! What did the interim Prime Minister say about the Chancellor's actions?"

"Nothing sir. He refuses to comment on anything regarding the Chancellor ever since the Minister of Home Affairs called off the purge before resigning. Based on the radio broadcast, it seemed like she was holding a gun or a magic blade to his head while he was making that announcement."

"She has control of the civilian leadership. And now she's making a play for their military. We need to notify Londinium immediately."

In Berun, sometime later:

General Lergen poured himself a glass of brandy as he and Visha read the report from the Chancellor.

"She had herself purposely shot at! Twice!" Visha yelled. "I know that shooting mages is useless, that's not the point."

"That's one big gamble to get lots of recruits. That explains why she wanted all of those food aid, and she also has the arms shipments to equip them with." Lergen said before downing the entire glass. "Now she can build an army and command them to her liking instead of dealing with South Bharat's military command. But wait, there's more."

He put a telegram sheet on the table.

Visha stared at the sheet. "A proposal for a direct underwater cable between OZEV and Malagasy, and another cable between Malagasy and South Bharat. Instead of using over the air radio transmission and Albish cables to get messages through, Germania could have a secure line to both regions and it would help speed up communications. And she predicted that the war in Bharat might drag on long enough for the cables to be completed before the war ends."

"I think you get the idea of what the Chancellor has in mind for South Bharat." Lergen said.

He poured another glass and offered it to Visha.

1943, August 3rd:

To say that the situation had not developed in favor of South Bharat would be a vast understatement. The south western defense line centered around Coimbatore was forced to withdraw further south along the Nelliyampathy Hills and Anaimalai Hills. The south eastern defense line that stretched from Karur to the coastline along the river had been unable to withdraw south to Karaikudi due to the constant attacks over the river, which left a giant gap between the two lines and that has become a chaotic tug-of-war with both sides recognizing the opportunity and danger it posed for each other. On the eastern front, the commies established multiple beachheads across the Meghna, Padma, and Brahmaputra rivers before the monsoon season started and were able to hold onto most of them to exploit them for further advances, resulting in capture of Dhaka.

The only reason North Bharat's offensive had slowed significantly was due to the monsoon season that runs from June to September. Which means the rivers are at a much higher level than usual, and that should make it easier to use the river combat boats against the North Bharat, once the boats do arrive in sufficient numbers. I'm grateful that we got some prototypes out here to train the men for upcoming operations. I also invited Akitsushima Dominion to train with those boats, as they'll also be needed for riverine combat.

OZEV's first joint security council created a proposal for OZEV members to pay for our volunteers' pay and benefits to help cover the war expense, and based on Visha's report, it's likely that the members will be approving it. What I don't understand is how they're all war manics even after the grinding fight against the Rus.

As for the new volunteer army, it appears the South Bharat's military was so inept and corrupt that we ended up getting a lot more draftees than expected, and the interim Prime Minister has not bothered with another draft wave. Because we're actually giving them a sufficient amount of food, and those men were deserting in droves from the South Bharat's draft army to us. I hate to take away food from the refugees, but how am I supposed to say no to the draftees?

It was funny when the interim Prime Minister announced that anyone that had joined my volunteer army would no longer be paid by South Bharat's government, probably out of desperation to try to convince the draftees to come back to his military. I had a telegram sent to Visha to ask the Diet for emergency funding to give the draftees a small amount of pay, with the justification that if we have a local volunteer army, it would reduce the casualties of our marines and the OZEV volunteers. And the Diet approved the bill the next day.

The even more hilarious and sad situation was when I was told a major reason why we had even more defections from the South Bharat's army to ours despite the low pay, was because we were actually paying them instead of the corrupt commanders taking a slice or all of the soldiers' pay for themselves.

We were able to make use of the new army to hold both defensive perimeters, and General Romel had new volunteers from OZEV assigned to the carrier task forces and Germania's islands to undergo impromptu amphibious assault training, as the marines and the more experienced volunteers were still needed to train the local recuits. Volunteer mages that were good swimmers were also assigned for the underwater training.

Local intelligence reports strongly suggested that North Bharat's forces were severely overextended, and although there is still the presence of the NKVD and CSR, their observed amount of personnel used on the frontline is relatively small. They just need a good shock to break them. A repeat of the Inchon landing in the Korean War against North Bharat would do the trick, although we would need two simultaneous landings on the opposite sides of Bharat given the much larger size of the country. I had sent out a message to Akitsushima Dominion's ambassador in Berun for them to provide some navy advisors to help General Romel plan the naval invasions.

Visha also sent me a letter begging me to stay away from the frontline. Apparently my actions have ended up all over the newspapers in Europe and Unified States.

I could see why she thinks I'm putting myself in danger. But considering that the enemy mages always keep their distance to avoid tangling with me and I always have escape routes if they decide to give chase, I'm not too concerned. It seems that they all adopted Green's strategy of "keep your distance" when dealing with me. Their old single core orbs severely limited their ability to try to chase me down, while I'm not willing to run towards them in case they just happen to be hovering directly over an ambush waiting for me. With this stalemate, sometimes I do administrative paperwork on a clipboard while loitering in the air.

It's also gotten to the point where the commies' command posts are well concealed with hidden cables connecting to radio transmitters that are located miles away, have multiple hidden escape routes, or surrounded by an entire field of anti-air batteries located too far away to hit with artillery fire. I have to give them credit for taking precautions to avoid decapitation strikes. I don't mind because that means I can justify loitering around instead of putting myself in danger.

I did have to take some extra precautions when the commies started assembling an entire battalion of mages equipped with the Type 97 Orbs and semiautomatic rifles, and it appears their only mission is to keep an eye on me. I wonder how many copies of the Type 97 orbs did the Rus produce and stockpile to hand over to North Bharat, as I doubt North Bharat has the local manufacturing capability to make those. I was always close to a Germania mage battalion in those situations so if they wanted to give me chase, they would have to deal with my mages first.

There was one time where two or three battalions chased after me during the night time. Normally I would have made every effort to avoid such a situation, except General Romel came up with an idea where I would simply lead the enemy battalions straight into a trap while a Germanian mage battalion operating in stealth mode would be shadowing the enemy mages in case anything goes wrong. He had reported that the Germanian Navy was onboard with the plan. As long as I maintained a higher speed than what their orbs could reach, they would never be able to get within range to land an accurate hit on me. I also used decoys to frustrate them. I didn't detect any NKVD or CSR mages in the battalions so my guess is someone in the North Bharat military had lost their patience and wanted me dead at any cost.

I was more than happy to lure them over the ocean and straight into a pre-prepared line of destroyers to see how effective my ships' heavy anti-air armaments are. The destroyers had all of their lights turned off and did not open fire until the commies were about a kilometer away. The looks on those commies' faces when the destroyers switched on their searchlights right before the cannons open fired was priceless. I love it when I can delegate all of the heavy work to my subordinates, and in this case, wiping out the battalions in a single battle without having to fire a single shot.

Most of the survivors surrendered when my mages dropped their stealth mode to sandwich the enemy mages against the destroyers' anti-air fire instead of letting them freely retreat.

Nevertheless, all of that didn't really matter because the South Bharat's military was too weak to take advantage of the commie mages' restrained operations.

General Romel and a mage aide walked into the war conference room that was attended by several countries' military representatives. Germania's navy and the Akitsushima Dominion's navy worked out an amphibious landing plan that would try to minimize the usage of the roads during the monsoon season.

General Romel suspected that the Allied Kingdom had pulled some serious strings for Ispagna, Lothiern, Legadonia Entente, Kanata, Commonwealth Australia and a small Unified States volunteer force to join the coalition against North Bharat. He noted that it would have been so much easier if the entire coalition was present at the start of the war instead of Albion, Francois Republic and OZEV fighting with one hand tied behind their back. He wasn't sure what inspired Albion to suddenly become more active with asking others for help with the war. He knew there was no way the Chancellor was going to allow OZEV to commit their entire military to Bharat with the insurgency flaring up across all of the new republics, the Moskva still being under siege by CSR-backed factions, and the Diet still wanting to reduce military spending. South Bharat's and Akitsushima Dominion's representatives were also present.

Henry Law, General of the Allied Kingdom Expeditionary Force, and General Poulin, the Francois Republic's military representative, glared at Romel for a moment before General Law began his proposal.

"We could reinforce the existing perimeters and begin a counter-attack. Meanwhile an amphibious landing force at Karachi will head straight for their capital, Multan."

"The march to their capital would be about 900 kilometers long with only one main route to get to it, which would make it trivial for them to keep delaying us every step of the way." The South Bharat representative responded. "And they have more major cities to fall back to. The monsoon season will leave the roads in a messy condition."

"From the naval intel reports I got, North Bharat had intensified their mining of the waters around Karachi to the point where our minesweepers would struggle to clear most of them without being detected, and that would alert the communists to a possible naval invasion." General Romel said as his aide displayed discovered minefields on the map using their orb. "Also, counter attacking without breaking their cohesion first will allow them to continuously fall back behind defensible terrain, such as flooded rivers."

"What do you propose?" General Law demanded.

"Three amphibious landings. One at Bombay which will march towards Hyderabad. They have put down naval mines around Bombay, but it's not as extensive compared to Karachi's waters and our divers and our underwater mages can clear the mines so North Bharat isn't alerted by the presence of minesweeper ships. In fact, we can have the minesweeper ships go after other locations to fool the communists into thinking that the amphibious landings would be conducted in other locations."

"Underwater mages?" one of the representatives asked.

"Their Chancellor did express interest in that concept with her World Cup interview. She was telling us what she would be doing." another person laughed.

General Romel continued on. "The second one will sail up the Krishna River as the flooded rivers will allow our lightened destroyers to demolish any resistance, then further up the river using our large number of riverine combat boats. There are also mines at the mouth of the river, but that shouldn't be a problem. Using the river will reduce the distance we have to cover using muddy roads. A small force will sail as far up the river as possible to establish delaying actions against any retreating communist forces that approach Hyderabad, Kalaburagi, and Vijayapura. If the retreating communists want to bypass the skirmishers, they will have to travel through the mountainous western region toward Pune, and by that time, the first amphibious landing's defenses around Pune should be ready to receive the attacks. North Bharat's southern army would need to march the full 1000 kilometers to break out of the trap while also fighting rear guard actions from the counter attacking South Bharat's army. We only need to cover about half of the distance assuming both the first and second landings can cover about 500 kilometers each. The communists would need a miracle to outrun us. If they decide to continue their offensive in hopes of overrunning the defensive perimeters, then we can start marching north and south to put pressure on North Bharat and their trapped armies."

The aide displayed more sets of markings on another map as the Akitsushima Dominion representative began his proposal.

"The third amphibious assault led by us will go up the Meghna, Padma, and Brahmaputra rivers. According to locals, those three rivers are deep enough for Kaibōkans and lightened destroyers to sail up them to prevent the communists from retreating back across those rivers."

"What are Kaibōkans?" General Poulin asked.

"Sea defense ship. Smaller version of destroyers. We'll land our forces on the western side to attack North Bharat's rear areas while their eastern army is trapped, although our ability to advance will be hampered by our small amount of infantry. The riverine combat boats will also be useful for advancing up the smaller rivers."

There were discussions between the representatives.

"Mate, if you need manpower, we can help out." the Commonwealth Australia representative spoke up. "We don't really have many ships or transports of our own, and it seems that Bombay's traffic is going to be a dog's breakfast from everyone piling into it."

"That would be excellent. What's a 'dog's breakfast' though?" the Akitsushima Dominion representative responded.

"Of course the country who came up with the plans for the Battle of the Osfjord would also come up with this, except instead of using railroads, you're using the high level rivers against them." the Legadonia Entente representative noted.

"Shouldn't they be expecting the amphibious landings?" someone asked.

"They have nearly 3000 kilometers of coastlines and several major rivers to defend." as the aide used their orb to mark all of the areas they had to defend. "While there are ideal locations for landings, they can't heavily defend them all while throwing their weight against South Bharat, which is why they are relying so heavily on naval mines to act as an early warning system should our minesweepers aggressively remove them."

"He is right about the early warning system." Admiral Horan added. "Whenever our minesweepers would sail in, we would pick up on radio broadcasts about our minesweepers. If the minesweepers stick around for too long, that is when our reconnaissance planes spot their mages and ground forces moving in."

"I almost forgot, they may choose to redeploy their mages to delay our encirclement movements to buy time for the rest of their army to retreat, or at least save their mages. Their mages that have the Type 97 Orbs can cover the 1000 kilometers distance in about two hours if they burn hard and fast. As for the Padma river region, their mages will be able to respond almost instantly." he added in. "We should be prepared for that."

"And where would the Chancellor be during all of this? She has been doing a fine job of staring down the commie mages so they aren't causing trouble, and also insulting them by doing paperwork in the air." Douglas McArthur, General of the Unified States Volunteer Corps, asked.

"She'll be heading back to Germania shortly before the landing operations start, and it will be very public. North Bharat will commit to an all-out offensive as they would be able to use their mages unrestrained with her being gone, which will make it harder for them to retreat afterwards."

"What should we call this operation?" someone asked.

"Operation Turnstile." General Poulin laughed. "A familiar experience, this time from an unfamiliar yet welcome perspective."