AN: Credits to gdstriker and Sunny for the revisions.
Also flev.42 granted permission for me to utilize his omake for one of the scenes.
This is where the plot of the rewrite chapters significantly deviates from the old chapters. Some of the plot details will be rearranged (e.g. moving a scene from old Ch 9 to new Ch 8) to make way for new major events in the later rewrite chapters.
On the Archive Of Our Own and Spacebattles website, the maps of the military operations are posted there for the readers to understand what is happening.
The old Ch 7 is at the bottom of this page.
1943, June 18th, somewhere in Aegyptus:
"How well do you know Mohamed Salem and Abdel Mohieddin?" Salah Refaat sucked on his cigarette.
"They are my friends," Nasser gave a terse response, his handcuffs clanking against the table.
"My superiors say Salem in particular has them worried, so I suggest you say something more if you want to avoid the worst for you and him."
"He had relatives that died from the previous outbreaks a few years ago," Nasser softened his voice. "Could you blame him for being haunted by that memory?"
"What was your goal with the relief efforts?" Refaat crushed his finished cigarette into the ashtray.
"We saw suffering amongst our people and couldn't bear to just watch it," Nasser shook his head. "Were we supposed to pretend that nothing was happening?"
"Did you ask for official permission?"
"I was told it was denied after our arrests." Nasser then leaned forward. "If you were in the same position, what would you do?"
Refaat slid a photo of two elderly people. Nasser took it and flipped it around to see a handwritten note.
My grandparents would not be alive if it wasn't for your group's relief efforts.
Refaat then took the photo away from Nasser's hands. "I have no further questions. But my superiors decided to still hold you in your cell regardless of how things go. Cause no trouble."
Meanwhile, in one of the five palaces:
"Unbelievable…" King Ismail muttered as he looked out on his balcony at the protest crowd that was gathering in front of the palace gate. "And the rabbles have also gathered at my other palaces to protest as well, so I can't just ignore them!"
"There's also a growing boycott against the expeditionary recruitment. We will need to crack down on this disobedience, and if the volunteer drive is unsuccessful, implement conscription." Commander-in-Chief, Haidar Mahdi Pasha, turned around to face away from the balcony.
"I will not be arming anti-war protesters, as they could turn on us with weapons that we paid for." King Ismail gripped the railing. "These protests are the fault of your disobedient junior officers, who have embarrassed my government with their actions."
"Yes sir," Mahdi nodded. "My staff is conducting a political reliability inspection of our officers to avoid a repeat incident and we are already looking at over a hundred officers to dismiss. In the meantime, what should we do with the imprisoned officers? All of them claimed they were helping the people and couldn't bear to ignore the suffering from the outbreaks."
"It's too late to uncook the eggs," King Ismail turned to Haidar. "I would have called in the army to crush the protests, but that will result in recruitment problems for the next few years. Instead, I will need to appease the populace for now. I will open up the treasury for one-time charity. You will release the officers and monitor their every footstep. And it's time for my health minister to very publicly step down to appease the mobs."
"What if the officers still cause trouble?"
"Then find a way to quietly dispose of them," King Ismail dismissively waved his hand as he walked away. "Also, I am waiting on the proposal of what our expeditionary army will look like and how they will take part in the Bharatian war."
Mahdi paused for a moment with a worried look, then a wide grin emerged across his face. "I will be making some last-minute changes to what officers will be assigned to die overseas."
1943, June 28th, in South Bharat:
General Romel looked around at the attendees of the Allied War Council to make a mental note of what countries were represented.
It's strange to see all of these people when just a few months ago, the Albish were dragging their feet over the seriousness of the threat. Now we have Ispagna, Lothiern, Legadonia Entente, Kanata, Commonwealth Australia, Unified States and even a contingent from the Middle East, most notably Aegyptus, to join the coalition against North Bharat. Akitsushima Dominion joined us as a repayment for how much we helped them in the previous war. Although someone is missing…
"Is there not a representative from the South Bharatian military?" Romel asked no one in particular.
Henry Law, General of the Allied Kingdom Expeditionary Force, and General Poulin, the Francois Republic's military representative, glared at Romel for a moment.
"You had to rub it in about how unreliable the South Bharatian military is, while you run around with volunteers pulled from them," Law sneered.
"Haven't been able to run around with the volunteers yet as they haven't finished training. Besides, I was just going off of what the media in your country is reporting, that South Bharat's military is a shining beacon of example and that all Germania did was steal manpower from it." Romel shrugged as he took a step back. "But I'm done talking, you can begin your presentation."
Poulin angrily snorted as Law stepped into the center of the room to begin his presentation.
Of course they're still not going to work with us. Not that it matters as we already started our preparations before the war started after determining the best course of actions to counter an aggressive communist invasion. Romel thought as he gave a blank stare back.
"The rapid communist advances have finally stalled out after they outran their logistics supply, even after resorting to looting the occupied territory for supplies," Law's eyes scanned the room. "This is our opportunity to strike back at the communists, by launching an amphibious invasion to capture the industrial centers of Karachi, Hyderabad, and the rest of North Bharat's coastal areas, then dig in to blunt any desperate counterattacks. The major loss of their industry and population would severely curtail their future operations. We would also reinforce the existing frontlines in South Bharat to prevent any desperate moves from the North Bharatian forces that are already in South Bharat. This would pressure the North Bharatians to withdraw forces from South Bharat to respond to the crisis and serve as a useful peace negotiation leverage."
General Romel waited for the side conversations to die down before his aides rolled out a poster of a different invasion plan, then walked up to the center of the room.
"I would also propose amphibious landings, but closer to the frontlines. Specifically to trap the North Bharatian military in a massive pocket. Even if they don't care about individual lives, they will have to rebuild their entire military with scraping-the-barrel conscriptions just to protect their pre-war borders. Two landings will create a pocket in the main subcontinent, and the third landing will create a pocket in Bengal. With our air superiority over the subcontinent, we will also be using paratroopers and mages deployed over the interior of the subcontinent to disrupt the communist logistic routes and secure important positions before the rest of our forces arrive to link up. This would help ensure our encirclement is completed within time. And we will not reinforce the South Bharatian frontline, as I want the communists to have false confidence and overextend themselves again, right before we trap them."
"How do you intend on meeting all of those aggressive timetables to catch the communists before they can retreat back north?" Poulin scoffed. "It's also the monsoon season, and your map's proposed landing locations of Bombay, the mouth of Krishna River and Bengal's river delta region puts us straight into the flood waters."
Romel smiled as he pointed at the rivers. "I have studied the climate and geography of the Bharatian subcontinent, and I intend on exploiting the monsoon season. Lightened frigates and destroyers can push up the Krishna River and Bengal's rivers before our mass-produced heavily-armed boats continue the rest of the journey. Our forces will ride on the rivers far faster than the communists can march on foot through the mud. I already have the armed boats, I just need the manpower to tighten the noose on the communists and the air support to provide aerial resupply for the paratroopers and mages operating behind enemy lines."
Law also joined in on the criticism. "I find your decision to let the South Bharatian military take another beating to be strange. Where are the South Bharatian volunteers that have flocked to Degurechaff's control?"
"They still need to complete their training before they are called upon to launch a counteroffensive after we complete our encirclement so that the trapped communists don't have the illusion of being able to dig in and wait for rescue. Ordering raw recruits to be on the offensive is akin to herding cats to swim through a lake."
Before Poulin or Law could interject, Admiral Yamamoto Takano stood up and began speaking, while his son Lieutenant Yamamoto Yoshimasa provided the translation to Albish.
"The Bengal amphibious assault will be led by us. According to locals, the Meghna, Padma, and Brahmaputra rivers are deep enough for lightened ships to sail up them to prevent the overextended communists from retreating back across those rivers."
"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 the captured railroads for rapid advances, you're using the rivers against them." the Legadonia Entente representative noted. "Although, in regards to both proposed amphibious landing plans, shouldn't they be expecting us to conduct such operations?"
"They have nearly 3000 kilometers of coastlines and several major rivers to defend," Romel smiled. "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 North Bharat relying on their mines as an early warning system," Law hesitantly agreed. "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."
Douglas McArthur, General of the Unified States Volunteer Corps, put aside his smoke pipe. "And where would the Chancellor be during all of this? She has been doing a fine job of staring down the communist mages so they aren't causing trouble, and also insulting them by doing paperwork in the air."
"She'll be heading back to Germania shortly before the landing operations start, and it will be very public." Romel had a toothy grin. "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."
"I refuse to go with this encirclement plan," Poulin got up from his seat.
"Are we going our separate ways then?" Romel raised an eyebrow. "Conducting our operations separately would only end up delaying both of our counter offensives, and result in more of South Bharat being subjected to the abuses from the communists."
Law prepared to exit the room while Poulin already took his leave. "My plan is a lot more simple to execute as it doesn't hinge on all three prongs executing on time. Less room for things to go wrong. And we will still be launching it next month, with or without you and your partners."
"Can we at least wait until Degurechaff has left South Bharat?"
Law paused for a moment. "I don't have a problem with that at all. Cheers"
The rest of the Commonwealth partners followed Law out of the room.
"We won't have enough forces without them to pull off our three-pronged amphibious and airborne invasion plan. What now?" Yamamoto turned to Romel, while the remainder of the people in the conference room looked on.
"I already have the plans developed with the assumption of no coalition support." Romel seemed unfazed. "Although now that I'm thinking about it, we'll need more paratroopers. And to make room for more paratroopers and their necessary supplies and equipment with the transport aircraft that we have, I'll need to find a different way to deploy our mages."
1943, July 1st, in Nanjing, CSR:
"It's total war," Kang pushed a stack of European newspapers towards Zhang. "OZEV members have taken individual legislative actions to resume some level of wartime economy, and it's only a matter of time before they start using their alliance mechanisms. Considering just how recent their previous war was, I expect a storm of materiel and war veterans to come pouring into South Bharat within a few months."
"They haven't invaded the Russy Confederation to utilize the Trans-Sibyrian railways to invade us…" Peng trailed off as Kang shot him a furious glance.
"You know you should prepare for that possibility," Kang tsked. "The NKVD and other Rus factions have been nervous about the Bharatian war escalating to a full-blown world war with how the situation is collapsing. In fact that is the main reason why the Russy Confederation hasn't immediately imploded into infighting with our military withdrawing from their land. It seems I have underestimated how much the fear and hatred of the OZEV is holding them together."
"And what about the other European countries?" Zhang sighed as he pushed one newspaper off to the side of the table, and glanced at the headlines of the next one.
"Slower activity, but will still pose a problem going into the next year. The Allied Kingdom and Francois Republic in particular have me worried. The NKVD reported the two countries are pressuring Middle Eastern countries to send an unknown number of soldiers to South Bharat within a few months, such as Aegyptus, Syria, Turkmen Empire, and Qajarian Empire."
"There is no way we can defeat South Bharat before the coalition hits us with a massive counteroffensive," Peng shook his head. "We may actually end up being outnumbered in this war unless drastic measures are taken."
"What are our forces in the Russy Federation doing?" Zhang set aside the newspapers.
Kang set down his cup of tea after sipping it. "The NKVD had to make significant political concessions to end the war in the former Russy Federation, now being renamed as the Russy Confederation, to focus on the crisis in the Bharatian subcontinent. This also allows our entire Sibyrian Army to be redeployed."
"The Sibyrian Army is already marching to North Bharat through Afghanistan, regardless if Kang's agents in Afghanistan are successful or not. It will take them a few months." Peng then motioned at the map. "The rest of our military will be traveling to Tibet and Burma to support the road and railway constructions as part of their march to North Bharat."
"Burma?" Li sat upright.
"Same situation with Afghanistan," Peng shifted uncomfortably in his seat. We're marching in, regardless if we strike a deal with the local government and the Buddhist monks. There is no time for caution."
Li turned his head to Zhang, seeing the Chairman depressingly slumped in his seat, then began speaking. "I will have to end the already stalled Great Leap Forward to an end, for fuel rationing and suspension of almost all major projects throughout our country to send our construction labor force to Afghanistan, Tibet, and Burma to connect North Bharat to ours and the Rus transportation networks."
Kang had a puzzled look as he turned to Li. "Why are you accepting everything now?"
Li returned a blank stare at Kang, "It doesn't matter what we do at this point. We're stuck on this path of destruction with no way to back down without losing face. Might as well take down the rest of the world with us into the grave."
"That's defeatism. You can't go aro-" Kang was then cut off by Zhang.
"He couldn't have said it any better. Any peace talks would have the capitalists demand the capitulation of North Bharat." Zhang stirred, before getting up from his chair. "Which would then result in Tibet burning from rebellion again, and this time the capitalists can directly intervene across the border from a united Bharat. And if Tibet falls to the darkness, the rest of this country will be at the mercy of the foreigners again. It is time we ask our people to make great sacrifices to stop that chain of disaster from striking."
1943, July 9th, in Aegyptus:
"What is this report?!" General Abdel Sirri Amer yelled, saliva droplets flying.
"A compilation of what Majors Nasser, Salem, and Mohieddin reported, along with other observers that we sent over to South Bharat." Colonel Anwar stood at attention.
"Complete nonsense," Amer pointed at one section. "The Chinese 'advisors' showing initiative even when they have been cut off from their upper command, and that our officers also need to be able to act on commander's intent rather than strictly following written orders? Of course they would say that, as they are politically unreliable officers who demonstrated disobedience with their so-called relief efforts!"
Anwar said nothing as Amer continued to rant. "And this stupid insistence on automatic weapons! A waste of ammunition when our army will have supply difficulties for being overseas."
"What about the comments on the North Bharatians under the guidance of Chinese 'advisors' executing guerilla warfare in the rear areas and conducting nighttime infiltration attacks?" Anwar got his word in while Amer breathed heavily. "Are our men prepared to withstand those tactics?"
"An exaggeration from the South Bharatians to cover up their own failures."
"Let's say all of these reports are wrong," Anwar pushed the reports aside. "That still doesn't explain why North Bharat made major progress over a short period of time and now multiple European countries are gearing back up for war."
"South Bharat is just more incompetent than the communists, and Europe was caught sleeping by the war." Amer dismissively waved his hands.
"Do you think the Chinese won't get more involved when they see the Europeans are preparing to storm North Bharat?"
"That's not my business to be worried about," Amer then pointed at his office door. "Get out. Stop wasting my time."
Six days later, in one of the five palaces;
"Our soldiers will be ready to be deployed to the Bharatian subcontinent. 50,000 in a month, another 50,000 in the next." Haidar Mahdi Pasha confidently boasted.
"I was worried about having to tell that snooty Ambassador Michael Powell of further delays," King Ismail nodded. "I didn't expect this war to be a straightforward matter for our army to deal with."
"And in the worst case situation, the rebellious officers will be the ones dying far away from here. That will also prevent future protests from rallying around them."
"What was that Albish saying?" King Ismail laughed. "Two birds with one stone? Anyways, I will be going on a long vacation in about two weeks. See to it that everything is taken care of."
"As you command my king," Mahdi bowed.
Meanwhile, in Kabul, Afghanistan:
As the Allied Kingdom ambassador left the palace, the king, Mohammed Zahir Shah, breathed a sigh of relief and then walked back to his office. It was too late for him to turn his back, there was no point in alerting the ambassador of the communist activity as the Allied Kingdom and other countries were in no position to save his country when the CSR was preparing to march about half a million men through his lands, with more arriving to build the roads and railway behind the advancing army. Even if he did try to warn the ambassador, the communist mages would immediately kill them both and begin their purges.
Shah opened his office door and saw the envoy sitting at his desk, along with his family standing in the corner.
"You made the right decision," the Chinese mage envoy smiled. "They are free to go now."
As his family hurriedly walked out of the office, Shah let out a deep sigh. "You didn't have to threaten them."
"A few of the Princely States in South Bharat have tried to betray us after we made deals with them, and we caught Nepal's monarchy trying to play both sides, for which their deal was altered as a punishment. Then there was Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam of Hyderabad, whom I had to personally deal with."
"You were there when his men overthrew him?!" Shah had a horrified look.
"I offered him a good deal, and he refused." The envoy shrugged her shoulders, then got up from his chair and walked towards the exit door. "But my job here is done."
"You say that I would keep my family, wealth, and sovereignty." Shah held up his hand. "But why make that offer when we both know that I am living on borrowed time after your country finishes building their railroads through my land?"
"Nanjing does not wish to micromanage a region they are not familiar with and has much bigger concerns to worry about," the envoy smiled. "So do your part of assisting our army with quickly traveling through your lands. The faster they get to North Bharat, the less likely my superiors decide to change their mind. In the long term, you are responsible for ensuring the security of the railroads and the expansion of mining and quarry operations. Do well and your son will be able to take your place without interference."
"I find it strange that you left out any mentions of communism," Shah narrowed his eyes in suspicion.
"Railroads. Mines. Quarries. Don't screw them up." The envoy turned away from Shah to keep walking out of the office.
1943, July 26th, somewhere northeast of Karachi, North Bharat:
"I wish my mentor Koenig was here to see all of these firework shows that we have created," Captain Teyanen thought to himself as he waited silently in the foliage overlooking a bridge. "But I guess he'll have to settle for the after-action reports while he's training our mages that have arrived in South Bharat, so that we have more infiltration mage teams."
"You'd think there would be more patrols around here to at least deter us from blowing up this same bridge for the second time this month," one of Teyanen's subordinate mages quietly tsked.
"That's why we blew up two dozen other random sites throughout the region to keep them guessing," Teyanen snickered as if he was a little kid who had gotten away with repeatedly stealing cookies from the jar. "A grain silo here. An electrical substation there. Ambushing the bus convoy of new recruits that were headed for basic training seemed to have done the trick."
"You think we might have crossed the line by leaving an empty Craven A cigarette box on their corpses?"
"Technically not a war crime as they were all going to be future combatants in the span of a few weeks," Teyanen seemed unfazed.
"I meant pinning the blame on the Albish…"
"The previous attacks weren't generating the responses that we needed to obtain. We will keep breaking things until we get indications of them moving their reserve forces." Then he grinned. "At last, our prize is here."
A train chugged along, and then Teyanen's grin widened as the train began to cross the tracks.
"Wait until it's fully on the bridge…"
"Just like last time, I know." The subordinate sighed.
The two ends of the bridge were reduced to splinters as the explosive charges ripped apart the temporary wooden structures that were holding up the hastily repaired sections of the bridge. The destroyed bridge sections, along with much of the train, plunged into the river.
"Hmm, what was in that train?" Teyanen hummed, only to stop when he could hear the cries of livestock in the sinking train cars.
"I think a lot of people's ration cards are about to be cut short, specifically for meats." The subordinate nervously chuckled. "We should probably get going."
Two days later, in South Bharat:
Satra and Hyderabad fell earlier this month after the North Bharatians resumed their push against the still-broken South Bharatian military.
Not that it mattered as all of the communists' rapid gains were about to evaporate. And while they seemed to have some idea of their impending doom, the North Bharatians had begun shifting their reserve forces away from the frontline areas to reinforce their coastal areas. This meant the communists that were already busy pushing further into South Bharat would be isolated from help if anything went wrong.
As I got on the plane to fly back to Berun, I turned around to smile at the photographers. Miss Caldwell was among one of them, she had agreed to an arrangement where she would be flown out to our fleet afterward to "observe a fleet exercise". She had no idea that we were about to implement a repeat of Operation Revolving Door on a much larger scale.
I stepped off the plane and blinked for a moment. Transitioning from waking up from a long, peaceful sleep to being blinded by the camera flashes was not an easy one.
Before I even finished stepping off of the stairway, one of the reporters managed to push his way forward.
"Gunter Groz, a reporter for the Berliner Tageblatt, do you plan on returning to South Bharat? Their military has crumbled after your departure and the communists are grabbing any sort of transportation means to speed down south. The mage battalions that had previously shadowed you are now wreaking havoc on South Bharat."
"No, I have done all that I could and now I need to attend to matters in Berun to ensure that South Bharat continues to get the support they need to stop the red menace." I hurriedly replied, then quickly walked past the reporters to get to my waiting car, where I knew Elya was waiting in there to brief me on some matters.
Another reporter's shouting got my attention. "What is your opinion on the Americans joining the war?!"
I blinked for a moment. "I'm sorry, I didn't have access to the news during my flight. What convinced them to get directly involved?"
The reporter looked down at his notebook. "In short, a ship named 'USS Maine' struck a mine somewhere off the coast of the occupied Bombay and was completely destroyed. North Bharat accused the Americans of violating the territorial waters of the communists' self-declared 'Unified Bharat', while President Frederick Rosenvelt's only answer was 'Remember the Maine, no compromise with tyranny' when he signed the declaration of war that was passed by a majority of Congress."
I restrained myself from the glee of the communists blundering into dragging the normally isolationist Americans into war at such a rapid pace. Even the Empire's unrestricted submarine warfare took some time to push them into war.
I'll have to give credit to Millie's unceasing flow of photos, films, and articles from South Bharat to the Unified States showing the brutality of communist rule in the occupied territories. North Bharat's rapid advances would not have been possible without "living off the land", in other words robbing the locals of food, medicine, fuel, transportation means and livestock. Overruling Savarkar's decision to implement a scorched earth policy was controversial, but it looks like it had paid off by showing the communists to be the sole monsters in this war.
I put on a sorrowful face. "The crew of the USS Maine, and their families that may have lost loved ones, have my condolences."
After I got into the car and it started moving, I relaxed and stretched my arms. Good, the communists have taken the bait. The Americans putting boots on the ground instead of dancing around with "non-affiliated" volunteers was a nice bonus. Now it's up to General Romel and his partners to spin the revolving door to slam into the communists' faces.
Elya finally spoke up. "Things in the Bharatian subcontinent are all going according to plan. Their main force is pushing hard south, while their reserve force is being repositioned much farther north in Karachi. While the Albish forces and their allies would be taking heavier losses from storming a contested beachhead, nothing stands in the way of our coalition's landing operations."
"How is the home front doing?"
"Well, I finished reorganizing my previous hodgepodge collection of agents and establishing the Bundesnachrichtendienst." Elya let out a sigh of relief. "On the domestic political side of things, everyone is in relatively high spirits even with the reintroduction of some of the wartime economic policies. Something interesting that the BND is observing is the Allied Kingdom's Gloster Aero Company which is developing its own jet engines and jet aircraft, and already has several prototypes flying. Production is predicted to start in a few months."
I tapped my chin. "Perhaps I could sell our older jets to the Unified States to help pay for our war effort and to deny the Albish a sales opportunity as we have the more mature technology. After all, we do have the development of newer jets in the works."
"I don't have as much information on the Americans, but all of the indications show that they are lagging behind the Albish on jet aircraft development."
Someone is missing in this car, and also at the airport…
"Where is Viktoriya Serebryakov?"
Elya brushed her hair. "Ah… She said she will be waiting for you at your residence."
I was getting worried that Visha hadn't replied to my messages for the past month. Nothing to worry about. She probably has some sort of a welcome home surprise party setup at home for me.
"Are you also coming along?" I excitedly asked.
She hesitated for a moment. "Uh, I have somewhere else to be. Just making sure the communists haven't pulled any last-minute surprises."
"Understandable, well I hope you can stop by in a few hours or so. Everyone needs a break every now and then." I smiled, although for some reason there was a brief look of pain on Elya's face.
Hmm, I pitied her. Her workload must be massive for her to miss out on the party.
After the car stopped at my residence, I thanked Elya and stepped out to briskly walk up to the front door. As soon as I opened the door, I smelled food from the dining room.
"Visha! I am home!" I excitedly shouted.
But there was no response.
I walked over to the dining room and saw Visha seated at the table. It looked like she had put her best effort into the food, but her face had a blank stare. And I suspect she is quite upset. I can't remember when was the last time I saw her furious at me.
"Tanya, take a seat. I think we should talk.."
I should have bought some flowers.
In the Bay of Bengal, on a Germanian destroyer:
"So many boats…" Miss Caldwell looked out at the densely packed formation of the riverine combat boats that were filled with men; some of the boats had tarps covering parts of them. A formation of planes passed by overhead.
"We're not just landing at the beach," Major Neumann leaned against the railing while Caldwell's liaison officer stepped away. "It's going to be a long trip up the river and far inland."
Caldwell looked around. "I noticed Germanian mages have been rapidly disappearing for the past several weeks. Your company is the only one I've seen since last month."
"They've been tasked for… other things." Neumann hesitantly replied. "I can explain in more detail in a week, or you might run into them again."
Birgit then walked up from behind Neuman and hugged him.
"Please, not right now…" Neumann's voice trailed off.
Caldwell's face brightened up. "I've heard things about you two."
Actually I don't know much about the American mage, but I'm curious of what they will reveal with me pretending to know what is going on.
"Ah, Miss Caldwell!" Birgit released Neumann from her grip and offered a handshake to the reporter, "I've read some of your publications before. You seemed to always be in the right spot at the right time to get the perfect pictures and films."
Caldwell smiled at the mage as she shook hands. It always feels good to know that her work reaches so many people. "It would seem so. But please, call me Mille."
"Will do!" Birgit chirped.
"I'm a bit confused as to why you're here. I thought all of the American forces were further north?"
Birgit shrugged, "The brass embedded forces in all fronts for combat experience. After all, it's been a while since the Unified States military has seen active combat."
Millie noticed Neumann looking away and appeared to be slightly uncomfortable.
"Umm… am I intruding on something?" She asks with a tight smile.
"No," Neumann said.
"Yes," Birgit said.
Neumann slowly backed away before Birgit grabbed his arm. Millie, confused, decided to not say anything to see where this would go.
"Can you give us a moment?" Neumann asked, but Birgit immediately interjected.
"To discuss about what? Millie already figured it out before she even asked us."
'Figured out what? Is there something going on here that I'm not... Wait! Are they…?'
Neumann was about to reply when his orb crackled. Millie could hear a voice call out from his orb: "Quick reaction force, move out! We have a team that needs help!"
Caldwell and Birgit watched on as Neumann took off with his company of mages and flew away from the ship until they became distant dots over the horizon.
"...He seems a bit shy." Millie eventually broke the silence, "How did you two meet?"
"It was at a training exercise where Germania sent over their Type 97 orbs and their mages to train American mages. He was one of those instructors. And it was a happy coincidence that I was one of the few American mages to visit Germania's mage academy."
About half an hour passed by before another company mages flew past the destroyer and the two carrier's planes started taking off. Birgit's orb crackled, much like Neumann's.
"...Well, I'm sorry Millie, but it seems like I have to go now - Neumann asked me to tag along with the reinforcement mages. They are falling back to prepare to tangle with some North Bharati and CSR mages that stumbled into our infiltrator mages." Birgit then gave her a curt nod before flying off to join the reinforcement mage company.
Caldwell's liaison officer returned as a second wave of planes passed by. "We should head to the pilothouse, we're about to start moving."
Caldwell nodded and the two made their way to the pilothouse just as "All ahead full" was announced. The ship, along with the rest of the fleet, seemed to pick up speed.
Caldwell turned to the liaison officer. "What's going on?"
"Clearing out the last remaining enemy resistance."
Caldwell saw a tired-looking Birgit fly back towards the destroyer, and she snapped photos of Birgit who then noticed the camera flashes and waved at her. As they approached the mouth of the Krishna River, she could see colored smoke in the distance, and the 5-inch guns moved to unleash their shells at the smoke.
"What are we shooting at?" Caldwell asked, just as Birgit returned with a half-eaten sausage sandwich.
"We spotted anti-tank guns concealed in the marshes. I didn't expect the communists to still remain at their positions after we dropped the smoke canisters on them." Birgit took another bite.
More radio chatter was heard, followed by a continuous barrage.
"Where's Neumann?" Caldwell then looked around.
"His company had to travel a long way to rescue a deep infiltration team that was operating a few dozen kilometers behind enemy lines," Birgit finished her sandwich and reached for the pilothouse's platter of Franzbrötchen sweet rolls.
"Do you think most of the Germanian mages were tasked for the deep infiltrations?" Caldwell whipped out her notebook.
"I'm not sure, but I wouldn't be surprised." Birgit shrugged her shoulders as she grabbed the entire plate. "I guess I'll pester Neumann when he gets back, and bribe him with these delicious rolls."
"Ma'am, you can't just take the ship officers' snacks like that." The liaison officer tsked with a sigh while Birgit flashed a silent smile as she walked away with the platter.
A squadron of bombers flew overhead and dropped their payloads, which exploded into great masses of fire and thick smoke. Figures could be seen diving into the water and trying to get the sticky burning mixtures off of themselves before succumbing to being cooked at hundreds of Celsius or suffocating from the white phosphorus fumes and massive amount of carbon monoxide.
The Germanians kept firing until the landscape was so far away from how it looked mere minutes ago. Caldwell looked on in equal parts awe and horror with her camera in her hands, and she was only pulled out of it by a radio transmission that she overheard.
"Cease fire! Targets destroyed. Commencing amphibious phase!"
As the destroyers entered the river, that was when the riverine combat boats were untied from the destroyers and their motors roared to life. While a few boats moved off to ferry the men to the shorelines, the rest pressed forward.
"Enemy mage platoon inbound from 6 o'clock direction, coming in at low altitude and just over the trees!" One of the officers called out.
"I suggest you record this," the liaison officer chuckled, while Caldwell nodded and had her camera ready.
As soon as the enemy mages came into view, all of the destroyers' and the riverine combat boats' anti-air guns opened fire for a few seconds.
"Where did they go?!" Caldwell looked on with shock when the cannon fire ceased and the enemy mages were nowhere to be found.
"Food for the fishes," the liaison officer chortled.
A number of the riverine combat boats' crews removed their tarp to reveal a strange turreted weapon and multiple barrels as the destroyers cut their engines to drop anchors to avoid running aground in the shallower upstream.
"Those are flamethrowers, with the same sticky burning mixture that you saw earlier. The ones with the multiple barrels are our new miniature rocket artillery system." The liaison officer pointed at them before Caldwell could ask a question. "Also, this is the end of the line for us, Miss Caldwell. I recommend that you board the next wave of the boats as they will be heading upstream."
AN: The below scene was originally flev.42's omake. It's better than what I would have been able to come with on my own: threads/the-cold-war-2024-rewrite-replaced-45k-words-and-first-7-chapters.948007/page-263#post-100350304
Back in Berun:
If I were asked to describe Visha as a partner, I would say that she is usually as warm and sweet as a freshly baked cake.
That's why seeing her pretty face contorted into a hard, expressionless cold stare at me completely shook me.
Hell, I can't remember when was the last time something had chilled my blood as much as that. Even in the last months of the Empire, I wasn't that rattled by how things kept getting worse. Or maybe that was already acceptance of an unwinnable situation, compared to this shock.
I looked down and saw on the table the source of this tense, suffocating atmosphere.
A picture of me doing paperwork in the air while two entire mage battalions were seen off in the distance.
"But... those battalions never shot at me?" I stammered, and she then pushed another picture forward onto the table.
It was me flying in the sky in my flight uniform. But this photo could be called controversial because it showed my magic illumination of me hugging two women by the waist in an overly friendly manner, both of whom I could tell by their darker skin color were from Bharat.
The one on my left was an adult woman, in her mid-30s. The one on my right was a young girl, almost entering adulthood. Both were poorly dressed and showed quite a bit of skin, which by the mindset of this era might as well be naked.
Maybe I overdid the illumination…
"Visha I -"
"Before you left for Bharat; a faraway country, with unstable politics and half a step away from war, you told me that it would be a quick trip, that you wouldn't get more involved than necessary. And that if you were somehow there longer than planned, you would step back and just take the opportunity to sample the sweets the country had to offer, along with other local delicacies... When you said that I was relieved. But I didn't think you meant those kinds of delicacies."
Ok, in retrospect, that was a very poor choice of words on my part.
"I needed to bait the communists toward the destroyers," I tried to defend myself.
"And you needed the pictures of this bait of yours to appear on the news and be seen by the public...instead of just skipping that part?"
I remained silent and looked down in shame.
Visha was still clearly annoyed. She stopped harassing me with her gaze and picked up a magazine from a small stack she had ready for this talk.
"The responses to these images have been mixed. Americans are taking it with humor and making jokes. Saying that you fight the communists to protect Bharat's democracy, its independence, but most of all, their women." Visha dismissed that article and picked up another. "Over in the Allied Kingdom, they have been less of a joker. Some newspapers compare you to King Ismail for your taste in foreign women, and they use that to insinuate almost desperately that you are an unreliable ally for South Bharat."
She threw it away again and picked up another newspaper "Francoise is Francoise. They used this to discredit you. In one publication they used 6 different ways to call you indecent, 7 to call you a slut, and 5 to call you a homosexual. It seems to me they even invented new words just to attack you and how would you expect, none of those are nice" I recognized the following as a BND report "North Bharat decided to use this as anti-capitalist, anti-German, and anti-you propaganda in general. Saying that if they lose the war you will steal all their women and use them for your obscenities."
Visha turned to the next page "We still have no information about Rus and Chinese reaction, but like Francoise, we expect it to be bad." Visha turned to the next sheet " The OZEV members, South Bharat and Akitsushima have had their newspapers turn their eyes about your... tactics, and focus on the death of the North Bharat mages and the successful operation, but still the gossip magazines of all of them have reported a suspicious increase in sales and people are talking.
When she finished, Visha gave a fixed look, with a raised eyebrow as if demanding an explanation from me. I felt pierced by his gaze.
Ah, this reminded me of a situation I had in my previous life when I worked in human resources.
An employee had overindulged at a company party and had displayed a deplorable attitude. So much so that he came close to dismissal.
Having some experience in these situations I knew what to do.
I straightened my back, took a deep breath, and looked Visha in the eye before speaking "Sorry. I certainly did something very wrong by being so focused on the war and did something hurtful to you. I'm sorry."
Trying to defend myself or excuse myself will simply worsen my position and earn me even more hatred from Visha, the best thing to do is to admit my mistake and the consequences.
Visha's silence was torturous. My heart wouldn't stop beating nervously, I could almost be sure I could hear it beating.
She then spoke again. "The other thing that bothered me is that while you were out there doing all of that, I was stuck here struggling by myself. To deal with the government budget, or to wrangle with the Diet's disagreements! I know you have confidence that I'll be able to handle things myself, but being constantly left to drift alone in the dark, taxes me far more than just stress from dealing with politicians - Tanya, I get worried sick about you too!"
The tension in the atmosphere became extremely high and my hands began to shake. I had received harsh looks from my bosses in my past life, from generals and superiors during the great war, and utter hatred from absolute religious fanatics.
But none of those moments compared to receiving that look from my partner. Love relationships were always bad for me. Lack of affection and my concentration on my studies and work ruined several of my past relationships.
I thought I had left that part of my former life behind. And how naive I was!
"Visha, I'm-"
I reached out to comfort her but she pushed away my hand, making me recoil in shock.
That… hurt. It hurt far more than it physically should.
"If you really understand, then it's okay," Visha said, breaking the crushing mood with a sigh.
I blinked in deep confusion. I found it hard to believe that she would forgive me just like that.
"I know you're not stupid enough to make this fuss on purpose and that you just wanted to provoke the enemy," Visha's resigned tone wasn't entirely reassuring, but at least I felt better knowing she didn't hate me. "Besides, these kinds of tactics are completely your style."
"What do you mean?"
"Please Tanya, I still remember how when you were little, you used your child voice to fool the Dacian munitions factory staff before we blew up the whole place. How you sang hymns of the Empire over the Rhine to lure Frankish mages into veritable meat grinders. How in North Africa you made us attack De Lugo's flank to make him leave his headquarters exposed. And many more examples during the rest of the war. Manipulating the enemy to do what you want is classic you."
"I... I guess." I had the small idea of saying something, but I preferred to keep quiet and not rekindle an already extinguished fire "I think we'd better go to sleep. It's been a long and hectic day."
"You are right, there is a lot of work waiting for us tomorrow." Visha got up and headed inside the house. I also stood up to follow her, but suddenly I found Visha's palm in front of my face to stop me "No. You are not coming."
"What?"
"I'm still mad, so you're going to sleep on the couch for the rest of the month."
"But-"
"I guess you can't stay away from the action," she made an effort to smile a little, "Don't make me consider putting a leash on you." Her small smile now turned into a sly grin.
I choked when I heard that last part as Visha giggled, which her face then hardened.
"The other concern I have is that you can't just keep leaving Germania for long durations. So many things have become your responsibility."
She has a good point. If I ever want to retire in peace, I have to ensure that Germania doesn't implode right after I leave office. Otherwise, I will be forever stuck!
"You're right, I should be training successors to take our place so that we don't have to worry about what happens when we aren't around."
Visha nodded in agreement, then she smiled again. "Ah! I almost forgot, maybe you should pay a visit to your old orphanage. I heard that Sister Margaret fainted when she saw those pictures. And since you were so open with showing off women embracing each other, I figured you were ready to go public with our relationship to control the media narrative."
I did not like where this was going.
"What?" Was the only word that came out of my mouth.
"I will be contacting Gunter Groz for an interview to discuss our relationship," Visha continued to smile.
I put my hands up in panic. "Wait, but we're not rea-"
"You already opened Pandora's box," Visha leaned forward. "There's no turning back now, only forward."
A few days later, Karachi, North Bharat:
"It's quiet. Way too quiet." Smith fiddled with his Bren light machine gun as the armored reconnaissance car rumbled down the narrow road, with a convoy of trucks behind them.
"What do you mean?" Edwards turned his head towards Smith.
"We landed at one of their biggest cities, and not a single shot was fired by them. It doesn't make sense for them to give up that easily."
"Maybe they want to fight us out in the countryside?" Edwards indifferently shrugged. "We are driving out there, so I'm sure we'll start getting shot at soon."
"It seems bold of the command to not order a general search of buildings, block by block."
"You worry too much," Edwards rolled his eyes, and turned back to look ahead.
"What the?!" The driver shouted as they rounded a corner. "There's a big crowd of kids playing on the road in front of us!"
"It's a trap! Drive through them!" Smith screamed as he pointed his machine gun at one of the buildings' upper levels out of paranoia, while Edwards dropped down and shut his hatch.
"I'm not going to run over th-" The driver immediately took a bullet to the face, followed up by gunfire erupting all around the convoy from every direction and elevation.
An acoustic megaphone from one of the buildings blared, "Death to the capitalists and infidels! Give no quarters!"
Bullets hammered the armored car as if it was a sheet metal roof being pounded by a heavy hailstorm, while Edwards reached over to the driver door across the corpse, opened the door and kicked the corpse out.
"Get us out of here!" Smith screamed as he reloaded his machine gun after dumping the magazine's bullets into one of the buildings.
Edwards moved over into the driver seat and rammed down on the gas pedal, sending the armored car surging forward.
The next day:
An enraged General Poulin tossed aside a letter, while General Henry Law and General Sir Harold Wrangel looked on.
"That would explain the lack of any resistance until after we started pushing out of the city. And now we can't make any meaningful advances when our only way of getting reinforcements and supplies is being harassed." General Law held his nose as if he had smelled something disgusting. "They turned their entire garrison into a partisan force after seeing that we had a fleet ready to flatten the city, and their cowardly city garrison commander ran off into the mountains to insult us with this letter."
"Do you remember the Arene Massacre?" Poulin quietly asked, while Wrangel seemed to have an idea spark and started scribbling on a piece of paper.
"Don't tell me that's your solution to this mess…" Law trailed off.
"Their garrison commander said in the letter to hell with our 'capitalist' Rules of War on Land, they will fight the way they see fit, and that this war is survival or annihilation because they will never accept being under European boots again. The hanging of our men that were captured after the convoy ambush made that quite clear."This is going to be a messy war, but I will not fight it with hands tied behind my back!"
"Perhaps we could deport the entire city population and send them north?" Law tugged on his uniform collar as he sweated. "Anyone that stays and resists we can assume is a partisan, making it an easier job to secure the city as a logistics hub."
"And suppose that partisan force ignites a massive uprising in response?"
"Then we'll encourage them to leave the city," Law gestured at the row of battleships and cruisers lined up in the harbor.
Wrangel finally spoke up, "Do either one of you think we can reach Hyderabad, about 160 kilometers from here, before the North Bharatians garrison the city and build defenses around it?"
Poulin and Law gave Wrangel a blank stare, which Wrangel smiled and he continued. "We are already behind schedule with this partisan problem, and aerial reconnaissance confirmed that the North Bharatian reserves are racing towards us rather than responding to the Germanians' encircling adventures in the south. And even if we take Hyderabad, what next with the North Bharatian reserve forces delaying every step of our way north?"
"What is your plan?" Poulin broke the silence.
"I agree with General Law's idea. We deport the entire city of Karachi." Wrangel nodded as he gestured at Law. "Then we raid and booby-trap the entire city. Random buildings and infrastructure will have explosive, fire, or poison traps planted in them. And there will be vague warnings on every single building in the city so that we can say we legally warned them, which will also leave them guessing which building is actually rigged with traps. After that, we pack up and leave, sail to Jamnagar or another coastal city, and repeat the process as far south as the city of Surat, which is roughly 300 kilometers north of Bombay. All in the meantime, we will use our carrier-based bombers to hit targets of interest all across the reachable parts of North Bharat, such as the railways and bridges that the reserve forces would use to try to chase us around."
"This is insanity," Law's face twisted.
"They want to play the partisan game with no rules, and they have an army that wants to bleed us dry while our ankles are being bitten by the partisans." Wrangel nonchalantly shrugged. "So we'll flip the table and send the chess pieces flying by coastal raiding, never staying around long enough for their reserve forces to catch us while our bombers harass their movements. We'll strip anything useful to their war effort and economy, and destroy those that can't be taken. After we leave, they will be bogged down demining their cities and dealing with the logistics nightmare of their massive refugee crisis. The displaced population of Karachi alone would need a massive amount of housing and food from their government just to survive, which would take away from North Bharat's war economy. If their government ignores the crisis on their hands, then they would be discredited for abandoning hundreds of thousands of people to the elements."
"That would provoke their partisans to come out of hiding…" Law seemed less hesitant.
"Indeed," Wrangel's grin widened. "If their partisan forces openly resist the deportation and try to stop us from mining their city, then that means they are now a legitimate combat force. So we would issue a warning for civilians to evacuate while our men retreat back to the ships, and legally level the city with bombardments. We can either march back into the ruined city, or leave to sail to another city."
"And your end game other than just laying waste to their coastal area?"
"When they are done demining Karachi and are convinced that we're just coastal raiding yet again, we then drop the hammer by capturing Karachi again, and switch to an actual invasion. North Bharat would at this point be exhausted from the economic and refugee disasters back home and the encirclements of their main forces in South Bharat." Wrangel then paused for a moment. "Of course, we'll need accurate documentation of our mining work in Karachi so that our men won't fall into our own traps."
"I am concerned about the manpower requirements for such operations," Poulin finally spoke up.
"Aegyptus promised a massive number of soldiers for this war, compared to the rest of Commonwealth countries and His Majesty's colonies. I am under no illusions of the poor Aegyptian combat capability. I have observed many of their field exercises in the past, and they were all exactly the same, with their personnel being more focused on following the script rather than actually learning." Wrangel sneered while Law put a hand over his face to conceal his smirking. "But I doubt they'll have any issue with baiting partisan responses for our more competent forces to smash, looting and destroying, and providing assistant manpower to the trap building teams."
Poulin was silent for a moment.
Then he smiled.
AN:
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan are relatively flat terrain. It seemed that there were some rail networks built before WW2:
wiki/Rail_transport_in_Turkmenistan#History
wiki/Trans-Aral_Railway
wiki/Trans-Caspian_railway
wiki/Turkestan_Railway
The US's first transcontinental railroad was about 3077 kilometers long and took 6 years to build, although that was slowed by the civil war and labor shortages even before/after the war.
Assuming the railway just needs to be built from Turkmenistan's city of Mary to Pakistan's city of Quetta, that's a distance of about 1300 kilometers, and less mountains need to be blasted through as the very western portion of Afghanistan seems to be far less mountainous than the rest of Afghanistan (and the US's Rocky Mountains). With a massive manpower, mages helping with construction, and the possibility of the Rus helping with the rail construction, that railway construction could end up setting world records for how fast it is built in that time period.
Reference to the cigarette brand and how that would have tipped off the North Bharatians: wiki/Craven_A
The brand was widely used in World War II not only by British soldiers, but in general.[6] Craven A was one of several brands donated by tobacco manufacturers to soldiers' rations in the hope of developing ongoing brand loyalty.
Reference to Gunter Groz's employer Berliner Tageblatt: wiki/Berliner_Tageblatt
wiki/History_of_the_jet_engine#Pre_World_War_II
In 1928, RAF College Cranwell cadet [10] Frank Whittle formally submitted his ideas for a turbo-jet to his superiors. In October 1929, he developed his ideas further.[11] On 16 January 1930 in England, Whittle submitted his first patent (granted in 1932).[12] The patent showed a two-stage axial compressor feeding a single-sided centrifugal compressor. Practical axial compressors were made possible by ideas from A.A. Griffith in a seminal paper in 1926 ("An Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design"). Whittle would later concentrate on the simpler centrifugal compressor only, for a variety of practical reasons. Whittle had his first engine running in April 1937. It was liquid-fuelled, and included a self-contained fuel pump. Whittle's team experienced near-panic when the engine would not stop, accelerating even after the fuel was switched off. It turned out that fuel had leaked into the engine and accumulated in pools.
wiki/Gloster_Meteor
Introduction: 27 July 1944
The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to engage in combat operations during the Second World War. The Meteor's development was heavily reliant on its ground-breaking turbojet engines, pioneered by Frank Whittle and his company, Power Jets Ltd. Development of the aircraft began in 1940, although work on the engines had been under way since 1936.
wiki/Bell_P-59_Airacomet
The Bell P-59 Airacomet is a single-seat, twin jet-engine fighter aircraft that was designed and built by Bell Aircraft during World War II. It was the first jet produced in the United States. As the British were further along in jet engine development, they donated an engine for the United States to copy in 1941 that became the basis for the General Electric J31 jet engine used by the P-59 a year later.
Regarding how tanks and anti-tank guns perform against even destroyers, well, not too good: r/Warthunder/comments/4ze0ug/us_destroyer_vs_german_tanks_and_emplacements/
Reference to the sweet rolls: wiki/Franzbr
Reference to the armored car: wiki/Humber_Light_Reconnaissance_Car
wiki/No_quarter
Reference to the new Albish general:
wiki/Dudley_Clarke
wiki/Harold_Rawdon_Briggs
Reference to the proposed anti-partisan strategy:
wiki/Briggs_Plan
wiki/Malayan_Emergency#British_and_Commonwealth_strategies
During the first two years of the Emergency, British forces conducted a 'counter-terror,' characterised by high levels of state coercion against civilian populations; including sweeps, cordons, large-scale deportation, and capital charges against suspected guerrillas.[42] Police corruption and the British military's widespread destruction of farmland and burning of homes belonging to villagers rumoured to be helping communists, led to a sharp increase in civilians joining the MNLA and communist movement. However, these tactics also prevented the communists from establishing liberated areas' (the MCPs first, and foremost objective), successfully broke up larger guerrilla formations, and shifted the MNLA from a plan of securing territory, to one of widespread sabotage.[42]
…
The Briggs Plan also included the forced relocation of some 500,000 rural Malayans, including 400,000 Chinese civilians, into internment camps called "new villages". These internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire, police posts, and floodlit areas, all designed to stop the inmates from contacting and supplying MNLA guerrillas in the jungles, segregating the communists from their civilian supporters.[13][12]
Although in this story, the Albish-Frankish objective is to initially economically ruin North Bharat and to discredit its government, rather than actually holding territory: wiki/Scorched_earth
OLD CHAPTER 7, IGNORE THE BELOW WRITING IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN SEEING WHAT MY WRITING BACK IN 2021 LOOKS LIKE
Chapter 7, Bharat Is Not Yet Lost
AN: Edited by Gremin Jack, perfect_shade and Nla Eid
1943, August 22nd:
The frontlines have become relatively stagnant. Based on the aerial reconnaissance reports, they decided to build up their supplies, forces and even some defenses. Which is understandable now that the Allied Kingdom had dragged a whole bunch more countries into the fight. Why risk losing it all when you can reinforce your gains? The fact that they had to use their mages cautiously in case I make an appearance was a major handicap as well.
Nepal and Bhutan had publicly declared their "neutrality" and the CSR stated that they would guarantee those two countries' sovereignty. I can't blame them when they're completely surrounded by communist countries and are watching South Bharat collapsing. A shame that they picked the worst timing to finally decide which side to back. I wonder if Nepal has to provide Gurkhas in exchange for their treaty with the CSR?
As I got on the plane to fly back to Berun, I turned around to smile at the photographers. Miss Caldwell was among one of them, she had agreed to an arrangement where she would be flown out to our fleet afterwards to "observe a fleet exercise", she had no idea that we were about to start Operation Turnstile. It was a good thing that the rivers are all at a high level from the heavy monsoon rain, and the navy had finished lightening up their destroyers to sail without running aground as soon as they entered the mouth of the river.
When I did arrive back in Berun, I had a hero's welcome. I'm not sure why they are celebrating because South Bharat had been getting their rear end kicked the whole time no matter what I've been doing. I spent most of my time just doing paperwork while hovering in the air, instead of repeating what I did when I served for the Empire.
An aide handed me a short report, an envelope and a newspaper when I stopped by my office to catch up on more paperwork. According to the first report, commie mages had been probing to see if it was true that I left the subcontinent for good, and now they're launching all-out attacks with me being out of the way. Just as planned.
The newspaper's front page brought a smile to my face. A US destroyer had struck a mine and then suffered a secondary explosion that left very few survivors in the aftermath. North Bharat argued that it was impossible for them to place a mine that far out into the ocean and away from the warning buoys.
The only mine related activity that I was aware of my navy doing was clearing the mines, so either the destroyer sailed into the danger zone, someone accidentally left a mine floating freely after cutting the chain or North Bharat should have used better quality chains that don't break from the ocean current. But that didn't stop the newspaper companies and politicians in the US from bringing back the "Remember the Maine" warcry and also criticizing North Bharat for threatening neutral shipping with their mines. This time the enemy was more hated than the late 19th century Ispagna because North Bharat was a communist country trying to snuff out a brand new democracy in its cradle while receiving backing from the distrusted CSR and the hated Rus. Meanwhile Millie's photos, films and articles continue to flow from South Bharat to the Unified States. Now they can drop the pretense of "volunteers" and "observers" being in the conflict. Reminds me of how the Unified States was drawn into the war against the Empire. A familiar experience from an welcomed unfamiliar perspective.
And for the envelope, it was from the Bundesnachrichtendienst with the top secret stamp on it. The Federal Intelligence Service, or BND for short, had identified one of the executives at the Allied Kingdom's Gloster Aero Company that had marriage problems thanks to some tip from our "cult", and sent in an agent to become his mistress. They also found a chief engineer that had some debt problems, and helped him wipe those away for some favors.
I'm going to have to remind Elya to do a better job of tightly controlling information sources. I didn't need to know all of those unsavory details, and the more people who know about them, the more likely it's going to be leaked. But also congratulate her agency for getting information about the Allied Kingdom developing their own jet engines and jet aircraft. The Albish had started on their jet development as far back as 1936, and it likely accelerated after they saw us use jet planes in the final weeks of the Second Europan War. They had already successfully flown six or seven prototypes of their Gloster Meteor jet plane and were even working on carrier models, so it's only a matter of time before they finalize the designs for mass production. Perhaps I could sell the jet engine technology to the Unified States to help pay for our war effort and to deny the Albish a sales opportunity as we have the more mature technology.
Visha was nowhere to be found though.
When I came back to my residence, I smelled food from the dining room. I walked over and saw Visha seated at the table. It looked like she had put her best effort into the food, but her face had a blank stare. And I suspect she is quite upset. I can't remember when was the last time I saw her furious at me.
"Tanya, take a seat. I think we should talk.."
...I think I should have bought some flowers.
In the Bay of Bengal:
Miss Caldwell found herself on a Germania destroyer with an officer assigned as her liaison. From the amount of large riverine combat boats tied together while being filled with men, even for her with no formal military background, her extensive frontline reporting aside, it was obvious to her that they were planning on an amphibious landing. Men scrambling over each other into jam packed boats and a nervous energy in the air that spoke of something big. She expended multiple rolls of film just documenting the preparations of whatever was to come. Curiously, some of those boats had tarps over their weapons for some reason. Her local contacts were giving reports about how North Bharat had intensified their mage operations, and when they confirmed that the Chancellor was no longer on their subcontinent, that was when they launched their offensive to take advantage of having control of the lower altitude sky for once.
There were also intel reports given to her by the liaison officer that indicated North Bharat had drawn down their garrison forces to throw them into the final push to knock out South Bharat. South Bharat's army was crumbling from the unrestrained attacks, which was forcing the new volunteer army that the Chancellor personally created to deploy their reserves to plug the gaps.
From her own investigation into South Bharat's military corruption, it was no surprise that their army was having trouble recruiting and training people to replace their losses or even retaining them, which meant the Chancellor's personal army had been picking up an increasingly larger share of the combat. She wonders if the Chancellor had seen South Bharat's military as irredeemable, or had been plotting to have it replaced with a pro-Germania military all along.
She noticed an American woman was standing very close to Neumann and occasionally they chatted. She knew Neumann was the commander of the OZEV mages that were partaking in the operation, and was confused of why an American mage was with Neumann. Birgit's mage uniform stuck out like a sore thumb, as there were no other Unified States personnel within the vicinity.
She walked up to the pair and the American woman turned to greet Millie, though Neumann, for some reason, seemed to be alarmed.
"Ah, Miss Caldwell!" The American mage nodded towards her, "I've read some of your publications before. You seemed to always be in the right spot at the right time to get the perfect pictures and films."
Millie smiled at the mage, it always feels good to know that her work reaches so many people. "It would seem so. But please, call me Mille, And if I may have your name...?"
"Birgit Johansson." Millie nodded at the mage's reply.
"It's nice to meet you. Although I'm a bit confused as to why you're here. I thought all of the American forces were on the other coastline?"
Birgit shrugged, "Previously a neutral observer until we got involved with the war." She then smiled. "Now just an armed observer."
Millie noticed Neumann looking away and appeared to be slightly uncomfortable.
"Umm… am I intruding on something?" She asks with a tight smile.
"No." Neumann said.
"Yes." Birgit said.
Neumann slowly backed away before Birgit grabbed his arm. Millie, confused, decided to not say anything to see where this would go.
"Can you give us a moment?" Neumann asked, but Birgit immediately interjected.
"To discuss about what? Millie already figured it out before she even asked us."
'Figured out what? Is there something going on here that I'm not... Wait! Are they…?'
Neumann was about to reply when his orb crackled something, and he immediately took off to link up with the formations of mages that were flying past the destroyer. Millie could hear a voice call out from Birgit's orb: "Minimal mana emissions, mage insertion is a go!"
The two watch on as the mages fly away from the ship until they eventually become distant dots over the horizon.
"...He seems a bit shy." Millie eventually says, "How did you two meet?"
"It was at a training exercise where Germania sent over their Type 97 orbs and their mages to train American mages. He was one of those instructors. And it was a happy coincidence that I was one of the few American mages to visit Germania's mage academy."
About half an hour passed by before another company mages flew past the destroyer and the two carrier's planes started taking off. Birgit's orb crackled, much like Neumann's
"...Well, I'm sorry Millie, but it seems like I have to go now - Neumann asked me to tag along with the reinforcement mages. They are falling back to prepare to tangle with some North Bharati and CSR mages." Birgit then gave her a curt nod before flying off to join the reinforcement mage company.
Sometime later, the first wave of planes returned after the second wave was launched. Millie and her liaison officer had moved to a platform next to the bridge now, and so she heard when "All ahead full" was announced from the bridge. The ship, along with the rest of the fleet, seems to pick up speed.
Millie turns to her liaison officer, "What's going on?"
"Our mages and aircraft dealt with the enemy mages, and destroyed enemy airfields, communications and coastal defenses. The first wave of mages are now retreating to rest and prepare for later operations. The second wave of fighter planes will be assisting in shooting down any pursuing enemy mages and the bombers will be targeting any ground forces that are trying to move towards us. We're going to be sailing into the river."
Millie saw a tired looking Birgit fly by, and she snapped photos of Birgit who then noticed the camera flashes and waved at her. Another group of mages flew from the ships to replace the exhausted group. As they approached the mouth of the Krishna River, there was a burst of radio chatter and she could see the 5 inch guns move to aim at something in the distance. A volley of shells fired off.
"What are we shooting at?" Miss Caldwell asked.
"One of our mages reported seeing an anti-tank gun that was concealed in the marshes."
More radio chatter was heard, followed by a continuous barrage for a few minutes.
"Looks like another anti-tank gun was revealed from the first volley destroying its concealment. Just shelling the entire area now just to be sure."
There were three flashes from another patch of vegetation. Two anti-tank rounds fell short in the water, and one round struck a destroyer. The patch of vegetation was turned into craters several seconds later.
A squadron of bombers flew overhead and dropped their payloads on targets marked by the mages. The targeted areas exploded into great masses of fire and thick smoke. Figures could be seen diving into the water and trying to get the sticky burning mixtures off of themselves before succumbing to being cooked at hundreds of Celsius or suffocating from the white phosphorus fumes and massive amount of carbon monoxide.
The Germanians kept firing until the landscape was so far away from how it looked mere minutes ago. Millie looked on in equal parts awe and horror, and she's only pulled out of it by a radio transmission that she overhears:
"Cease fire! Targets destroyed. Commencing amphibious phase!"
As the destroyers entered the river, that was when the riverine combat boats were untied from the destroyers and their motors roared to life to begin ferrying men to land.
"Enemy mage battalion inbound from 6 o'clock direction, coming in at low altitude and just over the trees!"
As soon as the mages came into view, all of the destroyers' and the riverine combat boats' anti-air guns opened fire. The sheer amount of flak thrown up in the air made it so that it only took a few seconds for the enemy battalion to rout.
A number of the riverine combat boats removed their tarp to reveal a strange turreted weapon, which were then revealed to be flamethrowers - the Germanians started spraying jets of burning mixture at targets and set the entire riverside on fire. Millie thinks she could hear the screams coming from the flames, and could see occasional burning figures dive into the water.
After about an hour passed with a few 5 inch shells fired here and there in support of sporadic skirmishes, an occasional burst of 37mm and 20mm shells and some more communists being set on fire. The destroyers cut their engines to drop anchors to avoid running aground in the shallower upstream. The mages returned again in full formations, this time to continue flying deeper in Bharat after their rest and recovery from the earlier operations to clear a way for the boats.
"End of the line for us, Miss Caldwell, I recommend that you board the next wave of the boats as they will be heading upstream."
The remaining boats that still had their tarp removed them to reveal their miniature rocket artillery system.
Back in Berun:
I can't remember the last time I've seen Visha this angry before since the fact is, I've in fact never seen her this angry before.
"You promised that you would stay away from the frontline! And that you would be safe!"
I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down from panicking. Frankly, I had no idea what to do in this situation. The few 'romantic' relationships I've had in my previous life never panned out well, something about me was too cold, they said, and I don't think I've gotten around to improving on that.
"Visha, look, I was never in danger-"
"You put yourself in harm's way!" Visha yelled as she slid a newspaper clipping towards me. It was a picture of me doing paperwork in the air while two entire mage battalions were seen off in the distance. A description below said, "Instead of a fleet in being, a mage in being to deter communists. They are too afraid to attack the Chancellor even when she's filing papers."
"But... those battalions never shot at me?" I tried to justify.
She then slid another newspaper clipping towards me, one where I see an article of me baiting a battalion of commie mages into the destroyer's AA umbrella. I winced. That was an outright breach of what we agreed on right there.
"You made a promise." Visha says, her voice belying a hurt that makes me wince, "I understood that you had to go over there for the peace talks with Zettour needing rest. When the war broke out, I understood that South Bharat needed serious help to not get pushed out into the ocean or that little southern island. And I was happy that you put an end to the massacres. But then as your stay in Bharat dragged on for months, I started to get worried, and there wasn't anything that I could do about it since I was down in Berun doing almost all of the administrative work while you were off on your wild adventure!"
"Visha, I'm-"
I reached out to comfort her but she pushed away my hand, making me step back in shock.
That… hurt. It hurt far more than it physically should.
Normally, this would have been a straightforward problem for a competent HR manager, and if they believe they can't be impartial, then they find a superior to refer the matter to. Problem is, there's no way I can be impartial, and there are no superiors to refer to. I guess the president could have helped deal with the matter… except I'm also the president.
Frustration started to rise within me. I discouraged dating in the workplace in my previous life, and I knew the reason why: If the relationship turned sour, it was near impossible to keep it separate from the professional worklife, and all it did was just cause headaches for HR managers like me - and yet here I am, falling into the same trap.
...Why am I still the Chancellor? If I had retired quietly, this wouldn't have all blown up in my face. I wonder if Being X helped make the war possible just to mess with my relationship. The bastard just has to try and ruin everything that's good in my life, but he can try all he wants - I'm not letting him ruin this one good thing even if I'm dead!
I take another deep breath. Standing here, almost at attention, makes me feel like I'm being chastised. But I think it would be a bad idea to try and make contact with her again when she's still angry. "Visha, what do you want?" I ask softly.
Visha shakes her head, "It's not about me, it's about us! I don't see this working if you just run around and leave me alone to deal with the government budget, or to wrangle with the Diet's disagreements!" She pauses for a moment to take a deep breath, "I know you have confidence that I'll be able to handle things myself, but being constantly left to drift alone in the dark, taxes me far more than just stress from dealing with politicians - Tanya, I get worried sick about you too!"
I was silent for a moment, both to give Visha time to gather herself after her outburst and for me to digest her words. It's true that I have confidence in her abilities to run Germania while I'm away, being a capable woman is one of the things I admire about her, truth be told. But I suppose I'm the fool for failing to take into account my subordinate's... my partner's emotional wellbeing as well.
Eventually, the silence was broken when I spoke: "...Back at the beach when we first got the news regarding North Bharat, I didn't know how to say no or explain that I might have to go there depending on the situation." Visha looks at me in the eye as I continue: "I was afraid you would keep bothering me to change my mind."
Visha softened her face. "I don't want you to continue running off to the front line like what you did in the previous war..."
And neither do I, I reply in the privacy of my mind, but with Being X's accursed sights on me, there's no way I can promise Visha that I'll stay out of conflict.
Silence reigns as I think, which has me eventually taking a sample of the food Visha had prepared. It was good. The fact that I got a sample of her cooking right after coming back from a battlefield kind of reminds me of the time we were together in the front…
I was about to take another bite when the thought came: "...What if you came along with me?"
Visha looks at me for a moment and then bites her lower lip. She has made it clear that she would've preferred an outright promise from me to stay out of conflict, but I can see that she understands that the image that I've forged in the previous war, and the one that I've cemented in Bharat, will prevent me from doing that.
"...I guess you can't stay away from the action." She eventually says, and then makes an effort to smile a little, "At least I can keep you from charging straight into an enemy mage battalion... Maybe I'll even need to put a leash on you." She says, her small smile now having turned into a sly grin.
I choked on my food when I heard that last part and Visha giggled. She took a moment to sadistically enjoy me being flustered before her face turned serious again as she continued speaking. "But then who would run the government? You knew that vacation in the South Bharati Ocean was only possible because we had spent weeks planning for it ahead of time so that we wouldn't be coming back to a complete mess."
Hmm… now that I think about it, training Visha to take my place wasn't going to work. Even if she becomes Chancellor, I would still get roped into at least being involved in running Germania, despite how much I would like to retire.
Visha had a concerned look, maybe it's because my face was giving away what I was going to say. "Visha, what if we find and train someone who could act as a substitute? Like a deputy? And now that I think about it, we should start reforming Germania's government to be more autonomous without our input. Once we have fiber optic and satellite communi-"
I stopped myself when I noticed that Visha had a confused look on her face, "Where would we find such a person?" she asks,
And therein lies the problem with my idea, "...I suppose that's something that we and Elya are going to have to put some effort into."
Visha had a deep skeptical look on her face. "But what if this deputy seizes power from you?"
Well that would simplify my retirement situation, as long as they weren't going to do something incredibly stupid afterward, such as launching a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the CSR followed by a naval invasion or something like Operation Barbarossa against the Rus.
I waved my hand dismissively. "That's why having a strong rule of law system is important. Unlike absolute monarchies or dictatorships where an untimely death can trigger a brutal free-for-all fighting over the throne, a strong democracy can survive without having a leader or having a bad leader for an extended period of time. Besides, I don't want a blind loyalist, I want someone who can lead Germania to success regardless of political beliefs and a system that can ensure a steady stream of replacements even if both of us are no longer around. Except for communists of course."
Now her face showed confusion. "You don't want to rule Germania forever?"
If I tell her right now that I had never intended to rule Germania in the first place and was content with running around with a backwaters political party so I had a bed to sleep in and food to eat, she would think I am insane!
I cleared my throat. "I just want to avoid a single point of failure. A bus factor."
"Bus factor?"
Oh, right, that term is probably too new for this world. I remember hearing it being mentioned by employees from the IT department, and I found the concept to be interesting when I looked it up.
"Bus factor is how many people can be hit by a bus before the organization is unable to function." I explain to Visha, who listens in apt attention, "If the commies realize that killing us will barely harm Germania other than providing a perfect casus belli for our successor, then they won't."
Visha raised an eyebrow. "So, no running off unless it's also with me, and we have someone to run the place."
"And no more shattered promises." I raised my glass.
She also raised hers and we both took a drink.
"So about Miss Caldwell and you..." Visha asked with a cryptic smile tugging at her lips.
I look at her, confused. Why would she be worried about Millie?
AN: The video to set the mood for the next scene: watch?v=NUraRBy2Fcs
In the CSR:
Zhang Wentian and the rest of the council were staring at a map. They all knew they were staring at a train that was loaded with burning dumpsters and derailing in slow motion.
Bombay's defenders defiantly refused to surrender and put up a brave resistance against the landing crafts. Right up until the battleships and cruisers anchored next to the waterfront area fired their main batteries, pulverizing entire city blocks with a single volley of barrages. The makeshift barricades and fortifications consisting of piled up vehicles, garbage and whatever construction material the defenders could scavenge were swept away from the shockwaves. Which was enough to force almost all of the defenders to capitulate or flee in a time span that rivaled the short Albish-Zanzibar War. The remaining holdouts were lynched or besieged by mobs who either hated North Bharat or were fearful of another barrage. Now the Allied Kingdom, Francois Republic, Ispagna, Lothiern, Kanata, and Unified States are all laying siege to Pune that is just southeast to Bombay..
On the opposite side, there was Germania that was turning the Krishna River into a barricade with their brown water navy, and the destroyers that were anchored in the deeper parts of the river. The destroyers and boats had damn good anti-air defenses as they had beaten back multiple mage attacks. Now they're snaking upstream of the river to establish strongpoints along the way. There were rumors that Germania had a new type of a flamethrower and North Bharati soldiers were now afraid of attacking the combat boats. And their riverine boats also had artillery capability for indirect fire support.
And further east was even worse: the rivers were deep enough for the Akitsushima Dominion to park almost their entire navy in it. Almost all of the eastern army was pinned between the wide rivers and the counter-attacking South Bharati forces. A tank company had attempted to engage a cruiser and a few destroyers, only for the entire company to cease to exist from the ships' return fire. There were reports of a few North Bharati soldiers going insane and trying to swim across the entire width of the Padma river, which was 4-8 kilometers wide. One infantry battalion attempted to board a destroyer with sail boats and row boats, which resulted in a complete disaster as the destroyer waited until they were too far from land to retreat before opening fire. The Commonwealth Australian forces landed on the western banks of the rivers to begin advancing with impunity against the few North Bharati forces that weren't encircled.
"So I have bad news and a minor good news." Kang Sheng said, The bad news is that the trapped North Bharati armies reported a massive uptick in rebellions when the news about their situation became public, especially in the Hyderabad State. Also, one of the Princely States that previously joined us had sent peace requests to South Bharat and their backers." He shakes his head, "The good news is that they won't be betraying us after our garrison force stationed at their palace terminated their monarchy. I put out instructions to increase the garrison numbers at the other Princely States to avoid more defections from us. The North Bharati field marshal in charge of the encircled army told our agents that they will be digging in and dragging on the fight for as long as possible to await rescue from us instead of trying to race north. He said he realized that they can't trust the backstabbing civilians, so they will be creating plans to do without them in order to ensure his army's survival. They will also be conducting scorched earth policy. sayingthat, "If the war is lost, the people will be lost also. We must deny the imperialists of all the resources we cannot take. It is not necessary to worry about what the unlawful combatants will need for elemental survival." Kang Sheng waits a moment for the words to sink into the others inside the room, "All they ask is that we and the NKVD help deal with any foriegn agents that are supporting the rebellions and the coalition's air power."
The rest of the council looked pensive about the message's wording.
"...If I'm understanding that correctly, they intend on starving civilians by extracting maximum possible resources from them like what the Rus did, and then shove those civilians into the path of the enemies to slow down their advances by having hundreds of thousands of mouths to feed? Possibly as human shields given that they will treat all civilians as disposable?" Peng Dehuai asked. "That's a publicity disaster in the making! Even if we win the war. If the encircled army is defeated before we can rescue them, I expect many executions or lynching in retaliation."
Zhang Wentian pounded his fist on the table, "Our responsibility is to take care of OUR people, not to worry about what North Bharat or the Russy Federation is doing to their people. We should only intervene if they mishandle their internal affairs so poorly that it threatens our well being. As Germania's Chancellor stated when Ildoan Kingdom was descending into civil war, countries should not interfere with other countries' internal affairs. My more pressing concern is if North Bharat has any reserves - Anything - to at least prevent their capital from being taken."
Peng Dehuai briefly looks at a piece of paper before sighing, "They don't. They already committed almost all of their combat ready forces that weren't doing garrison duties into the final offensive so any replacements are just going to yield wooden fences against a tank until they finish training. It'll take them months to rebuild their army, and that's not including the logistics of replacing the lost materiel either." Peng Dehuai waves a hand on the map's coastlines. "They gambled everything on the naval mines to hold their coastlines while trying to prepare for a knockout blow against South Bharat. That Germanian Chancellor messed up a lot of things by just showing up in Bharat, and then again by just leaving Bharat when our allies fell for that mouse trap. It seems like everything she touches turns into dog crap for us."
Kang Shen nods in agreement. "They still have no idea why large swathes of their naval mines disappeared or weren't functioning at those amphibious landing sites." He says, "But then again they're too busy trying to pull themselves out of the trap to do any detailed analysis. The NKVD reported that they sent agents over to Burma to ignite revolts against the Allied Kingdom in an attempt to open up another front. I instructed them to not make it as obvious as their previous attempts with North Bharat, and that while the situation is critical, stealth and plausible deniability is mandatory. We won't have our own agents in Burma to avoid escalating the war."
Li Kenong seems to have gotten an idea at that, "Could we have our Buddhist monks go to Burma to cause some chaos?" He asked.
Zhang Wentian thinks on the idea for a moment, ."That's... an interesting idea. As long as they make no mentions of communism, the Albish will find it difficult to use those monks to blame us for instigating revolts. Work with Kang Sheng to come up with a plan and brief me on it."
"I also see that as a good opportunity. The Albish would not expect it." Kang Shen agreed.
"Anyways, what forces can we muster to save North Bharat?" Zhang Wentian redirects the discussion to the trainwreck that is North Bharat. "I know I previously said we didn't need a full mobilization. I was too confident of North Bharat, and too blinded with the focus on the Great Leap Forward."
Peng Dehuai sifts through a few pages of paper before speaking up: "We can send maybe 40,000 infantrymen from the Tibet region to the northern part of the Bharat subcontinent within two weeks with the greatly improved mountain roads thanks to Li Kenong's construction projects." He then points at the map, "Although I'm afraid of drawing down the garrison too much because the locals in Tibet may choose to break the fragile peace treaty and rebel again. We can also send over 100,000 infantrymen from the Yunnan province to attack from the direct east, which would pin the eastern South Bharati army against the trapped eastern North Bharati army and our forces, if the North Bharati army can hold out for a few weeks. There are other forces we can muster, but they are much farther away and I don't have an exact timeline of when they can arrive in North Bharat. Full mobilization and then sending the armies to the front line will take a few months. The trained mages we have available will take much shorter time to respond. We can deploy a few hundred mages within two weeks, and another few hundred from the Russy Federation. The mages from the training grounds should only take a few days at most to arrive at the front line instead of marching over the mountains, although there will have to be discussions if we want to shorten the mage training cycles."
"If we directly invade Burma, the Allied Kingdom will panic at the potential loss of their rubber plantations, and so will the Francois Republic as their colony is right next door." Kang Sheng sighs and shakes his head, . "It would be an all-out war instead of just being a war in the Bharat subcontinent, and we can't sustain something like the Empire's 8 years long attritional war - and we know how that all turned out."
"Our infantry in the Yunnan province can be redeployed over to Tibet to attack from there, but it will add about a month of delay. I guess we'll just hope that the NKVD is successful in causing widespread disruption in Burma to pressure the eastern South Bharati army."
"We could also consider pulling our Sibyrian army from the Russy Federation and redeploy them south." Kang Sheng said. "But it will wreak havoc on our plans for stabilizing the Russy Federation and our ongoing support of the insurgents in the OZEV's republics."
Peng Dehuai takes a closer look at the map before speaking out: "We have a few corps and divisions that are relatively not too far away from Afghanistan's border." He says. "The ones that are in the middle of Sibyria and far away from the railroads will be much more difficult to get the new orders to them and for them to get out of the remote wilderness to head to the nearest train stations."
"Then we'll need to secure peace deals with and between the Rus factions to ensure that all of our gains won't evaporate as soon as we start redeploying our forces. And they should be picking up more of the insurgency support in those new republics for us anyways, instead of shooting each other." Zhang Wentian said. "If the Russy Federation has to be fragmented into separate countries because the factions won't agree with each other beyond allying with us, then so be it. It might take decades, but they'll reunite again sometime in the future."
"Wouldn't OZEV consider invading the Russy Federation?" Li Kenong asked. " If they take the Trans-Sibyrian railways, they could quickly advance against us."
"Well that would greatly simplify the peace deals because all of the Rus factions would be united against OZEV." Zhang Wentian said. "They might not put up as much of a fight compared to before their initial war with OZEV and other European countries, but it'll buy them and us time to move the industries eastward and blow up the railways as OZEV advances. If they want to advance across the entire Sibyria to get to us, I pity their soldiers."
"The direct road infrastructure between our forces that are besieging Moskva, and North Bharat, is almost non-existent." Li Kenong warned. "We would need lots of local guides to use mountain passes to march our forces directly south without losing too much to attrition. And then there's the question about the modernized divisions that are equipped with tanks, artillery and other vehicles that would be difficult to bring through Afghanistan."
"What about using the Trans-Sibyrian railways for transporting most of our army?"
Li Kenong shakes his head, "It would take too long as our current railroad scheduling is optimized around providing reinforcements to the Sibyrian army and any supplies or equipment they can't acquire in the Russy Federation. We don't have enough rolling stock to transport over two million men across several thousand kilometers within a year, not when we also need trains to transport our other forces within our borders to the Tibet region to begin their march."
Zhang Wentian thinks on the points raised for a moment before speaking: "Then we'll have our mages help build the roads and railways south. I don't expect to be able to have the entire Sibyrian army march to North Bharat immediately due to the poor infrastructure, so most of them will have to stay behind to build the roads and the railway to support the logistics effort and garrison the Russy Federation. I understand that building a railway through the mountains would be a... struggle, but at least we can reduce the distance of the baggage convoys over the roads by having the trains cover more of the distance. And also, hire locals to help with the construction supplies and work. For the modernized divisions, we can transfer them across the Trans-Sibyria railways and then south to attack through Tibet because we already have the roads there, and if we time it right, it would fool the coalition into thinking that would be our main attacking force instead of the one coming through Afghanistan.
"Where would we get the railroad construction supplies?" Li Kenong asked. "We don't have any underutilized railroad related industrial production capacity to meet the construction requirements."
"If we have to delay our domestic railroad construction projects to complete the Afghanistan railway, then so be it. Kang Sheng, find what railroad related industries are still operational in the Russy Federation. We will need to buy construction supplies from them so we don't have to ship all of the material across the entire length of the Trans-Sibyrian railways. If we have to rip up secondary rail lines to use their material, then so be it. Speaking of the Rus, what did the NKVD have to say?"
"I already have location lists of operational and lightly damaged factories in the Russy Federation. I'll instruct the NKVD and my agents to inquire about the railroad material. As for the NKVD, they are in full panic mode." Kang Sheng said. "They gave us the Type 97 Orb and other mage equipment production schematics, a stockpile of those equipment and are willing to greatly expand the training for the usage of them. And also gave other military and industrial technologies that our forces in the Russy Federation didn't find. Including some captured Germanian equipment and vehicles, an intact Germanian air-to air rocket that hit one of their bombers but its warhead failed to detonate, and information from their reverse engineering of other unexploded rockets that the Germanians used."
"Ah, so they finally stopped trying yank on our leash to make us do their bidding, after their original plan for North Bharat to reunite with the south by force failed completely. They broke the Weiqi board, and now they expect us to pick up the pieces."
"Our production of the Rus weapon and equipment designs that we had previously acquired are fully operational, so we can start equipping some of our reinforcements with them. It'll take time for our entire military to be equipped with the newer equipment." Li Kenong said. "Going from a bolt action rifle to a semi-automatic one is a big change by itself."
"Speaking of Afghanistan, how much do we know about that country?" Zhang Wentian asked.
"Not much right now, but I can do some research." Kang Sheng responded. "Though the worst I expect are just some nomadic tribes loosely ruled by a king."
"We'll march through Afghanistan then. We can't let North Bharat fall, because then we would have a staunch rival right on our doorstep, and Tibet would be the perfect location for them to stir unrest in." Zhang Wentian said. "And while our forces are marching through, if their king refuses to ally with us, we might as well replace Afghanistan's monarchy with a communist government. If Tibet and Xinjiang can be pacified, I'm sure Afghanistan shouldn't be that much harder."
In Berun:
General Lergen was reading a report from General Romel regarding the Bharat situation.
The encirclement operation is operating ahead of schedule and North Bharat's eastern army is completely trapped after they threw all of their artillery assets against Akitsushima Dominion's ships in an attempt to break the river blockade. They inflicted some damages on the ships, but lost almost all of their artillery assets in the process.
Unfortunately, North Bharat's southern army has decided to dig in instead of breaking out as expected. Lergen knew that considering the amount of land that the southern army had under its control before its encirclement, it could stage a sustained fighting retreat and continuously fall back to new defensive positions. And it could definitely repurpose local factories and workshops to support its last stand. How they would get the locals to work in the occupiers' war industry is a different question, but there were certainly unethical ways of forcing people to work against their will
At the southern army's northern front, they were waging guerrilla warfare to slow down the coalition's southern advance, which was likely just a delaying action for their fortification construction.
General Romel and the Germania Navy were arguing with each other over if they should attempt another amphibious assault, this time on the more southern Penna River when it became clear that North Bharat's army had no interest in recapturing the Krishna River. The monsoon season is coming to an end soon, and once the river levels return to normal, it would make it more difficult to sail the destroyers up the river. The Akitsushima Dominion's navy said they would only be able to assist once the North Bharat's eastern army had surrendered.
On the coalition's northern front, advancement has been slow due to the priority of liquidating the giant pocket before the encircled army could build a significant amount of fortifications, except for the Australanders who were making rapid westward advancements as they didn't have to worry about liquidating large pockets.
The very end of the report made Lergen stiffen, and made him look at his bottle of brandy in the back of his office. General Romel requested some of the South Bharati volunteer army members to come to Germania for Officer Candidate School as he needed a competent local army to also push against North Bharat. South Bharat's original army has been severely depleted and is struggling to recruit or retain its manpower, which meant the volunteer army had to increasingly take on more of the actions even though many of the original army's officers refused to join the volunteer army. There were no mentions of South Bharat's government approving of the OCS training.
Romel also requested to have some of South Bharat's mages sent to Germania to attend the mage academy.
If the Chancellor wanted to take over South Bharat, she would need a competent officer corps to lead her army, and she had already shown that she did not trust South Bharat's existing officer corps. Having mages loyal to her would make it far easier to overthrow South Bharat's government. He couldn't blame her for the lack of trust when one of their senior commanders tried executing her. He didn't like the idea of using the army as a tool to force policy changes, but to intentionally go against the Chancellor's policy would also be a bad idea.
Lergen walked over to the back of his office to pour himself a glass of brandy, and walked back to his desk to begin writing a letter to the OCS asking if they could accommodate recruits from South Bharat, and another letter to the mage academy for accommodating recruits from South Bharat as well.
In the CSR:
Zhang Guanghou was pacing back and forth in his office, strewn in papers, chalkboards covered in scribbles and attached pieces of papers, film recordings and computational orbs that also held recordings. The instruction from his superior, Wang Ming, was simple: Understand the Germanian Chancellor's psychology, habits and anything that would help the CSR anticipate how she would respond to scenarios or negotiations.
It's been a few years now, and the results he was getting didn't make any sense.
They had analyzed every single audio and video recording of her, dating back to the Empire, thanks to the efforts of the CSR students studying in the Francois Republic and the NKVD finding raw information to send back to the CSR. When they found the recording of her issuing the so-called warning in Dacia before blowing up their capital, that was when one of the linguists said "I've studied in Germania before. Her dialect does not match the dialect commonly spoken in the region that she grew up in."
That didn't make any sense. If it was the only thing that was abnormal, it could have been overlooked. But it got a lot more confusing as they dug deeper.
Then there was how the Chancellor always seemed to be more than a dozen steps ahead of everyone, and was never caught in a bad position in the long term, such as how the Francois Republic's attempt at debt collection against Germania using an army ended up in a complete disaster, and Germania getting almost all of the Treaty of Triano's restrictions lifted. There was no way the Francois Republic would have agreed to the dismantling of the Treaty of Triano, and based on the diplomatic fallout between them and the Allied Kingdom, the Chancellor definitely had struck some sort of a deal with the other countries for the renegociation that was favorable to them while also leaving Germania in a much better position and diplomatically isolating the Francois Republic. Germania's navy completely annihilated the Francois Republic's navy in a single battle, which was still difficult for the CSR's military to comprehend of how Germania could have been so many steps ahead of the Francois Republic, despite the information provided by the Frankis naval "advisors''. There was no way that the Chancellor didn't have a role in establishing her navy and how they would fight. He had performed a statistical analysis on all of the most influential leaders of the world, but the Chancellor's forward thinking and subsequent events that happened "just as planned" blew those leaders' track records out of the water. Even Ottone von Bismarck's records paled in comparison.
It was simply not possible. But it happened anyway.
He had other mathematicians calculate using the information. They had generally similar conclusions, so if there were errors, it had to be with the raw data that he used. But if there were such errors, where could they be?
And then there was the fact that a pre-teenage girl rapidly rose through the military officer ranks, published articles and other writings that would have been typical of an experienced military commander or business leader, created the best mage battalion that the world had ever met, and while many of the combat records are still classified, her actions were easily responsible for the Empire to drag on the war for at least a few more years.
Then worked her way through politics to rule Germania, and successfully played off the Franks, Albish, Americans and other European powers to recreate the Empire all but in name, and also added more countries in the process such as Dacia. There was a good reason why the Franks panicked when she was elected Chancellor. The Albish's "keep Europe divided" doctrine turned into a failure with OZEV being the dominant European power.
The first question is where in heaven does a pre-teenage girl gain the knowledge, experience and maturity to even graduate at the top of the Empire's War College, when other fellow students were in their 20s to 40s? Certainly not from the orphanage. Unfortunately the NKVD refuses to set foot in Germania for them to pay the orphanage a visit and interview the staff members there, saying something about attempting it being an exercise in futility.
The only thing he could think of was this person called "Doctor Adelaide von Schugel" where the Chancellor had participated in some orb testing. It was after that where her aerial mage performance went from "a damn good fighter" to "can anyone stop her?". But of course there was no way those R&D documents would be made publicly available at least for decades, and if the NKVD is afraid of visiting an orphanage in Germania, there was no way they were going to try to steal secret documents or meet the doctor.
He took a long drag on his cigarette.
Wait... if the Russy Federation had made breakthroughs in mage augmentation technology… maybe the Empire already had them beat by turning an already unusual young girl into a supersoldier with the doctor's experiments! What if the "raised in the orphanage" story was just a cover? Could the Empire have also beaten the CSR with mage breeding?
But if that was the case, then why hadn't the Empire created more of those super mages? Multiple versions of Tanya von Degurechaff, even if they were somewhat inferior, would have been a nightmare for the countries attacking the Empire. Maybe it was because the Chancellor was one-of-a-kind because only one of the experiments worked? But that alone wouldn't be enough. His friends involved with the mage breeding research had mentioned how intelligence could not be predicted just based on the traits of the family history. And besides, the knowledge and the social manipulations that the young girl showed was just strange and could not be accomplished with just breeding alone. After all, how often does a child revolutionize warfare?
He sat down, put out the cigarette, opened a bottle of painkillers, took a few tablets, and downed them with tea that had been sitting at room temperature for at least a few hours.
If there was one thing for certain, the Germanian Chancellor is likely not a natural being. Maybe an artificial creation of some sort.
Ah, well, all he could do now was write a report so he has something to show his superiors. All of this research required a lot of resources and time, and his boss would be demanding results.
Two weeks later:
"What is this?!" Wang Ming spat as he tossed the report at his desk. "How am I supposed to explain to the Director of Central Investigation with this nonsense rambling?!"
"But my calculations…" Zhang Guanghou muttered, who was summoned to explain the report, before Wang Ming interrupted.
"You should go see a doctor. Maybe you're just stressed from the overwork. I took a look at your office the other day and it was… unusual. Like you were trying to calculate the universe or something. The other staff members mentioned that you rarely left your office and often slept in your office."
"No, no, no, I can explain to you all of those calculations and work that you saw in my office." Zhang cried out. "It's not the chaotic mess that you think it is."
"Please don't make my headache worse." Wang as he put his hand on his forehead.
"But the other mathematicians…"
Wang cut him off. "You might have something wrong with your input in, garbage out."
"But the linguists say that…"
Wang waved his hand dismissively. "An inconsequential thing. The dialect thing isn't important."
"But the NKVD…"
"When was the last time you went on a vacation and NOT think about this work?"
"Will you settle down and have another cup of tea? I can explain all of this!" Zhang raised his voice. "Something isn't right with this Germanian Chancellor!"
"Just go see a doctor." Wang sighed. His subordinate is clearly going to overwork himself to death at this rate. "That's an order. I would've said that you've lost your mind, but I want to believe that you're just stressed."
Two days later:
"What happened to the study on the Germanian Chancellor's psychology?" Kang Sheng asked.
"The entire analyst team had apparently gone insane." Wang Ming shrugged his shoulders. "I couldn't quite tell what the doctor's sloppy writing was, but either it said they recommended a few months of rest, or diagnosed him with insanity. Or both. One thing for certain was the doctor reported that my lead analyst had gone on a long rambling speech about the Chancellor's not being human or something. So I had him taken away for medical treatment, and that wasn't an easy decision to make because he was a valuable asset to our operations. When I talked to the rest of the analysts, it quickly became apparent that they were also convinced that the Chancellor was abnormal. Those lunatics actually chased me out of their office. The guards had to drag them away screaming."
Wang nodded as thought to himself, 'And they were more aligned with the Chairman's counter-revolutionary ideology than I would have liked, now I can justify getting replacements that have the correct ideology. Oh well, at least there are some good things I can get out of this mess.'
"What?" Kang sputtered. "How does that make any sense?"
"Reminds me of an old book that I read years ago, I think back to when I was studying in the Russy Federation. The quote 'And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.' seems to apply to this situation."
"I find it implausible that studying a young girl's political record could cause such insanity." Kang shakes his head in disbelief, "Anyway, how long would it take to assemble another team?"
Wang thought to himself, ''I could use this to keep purging staff members to ensure that when I finally make my move to force out this traitor, no one will support him, but that could start to look suspicious.'
"I don't know if I want to try to assemble another analyst team and risk having a repeat of this mess." Wang said. "Perhaps we should focus more on working with the NKVD for developing our intelligence networks in the Francois Republic. Some of the Franks that helped us with the naval technology acquisition are willing to keep helping us." Wang said as he pointed at the map. "It's physically the closest location we can get to the Chancellor without operating on her counter-intelligence's home territory, and there are still some anti-Germania attitudes among the Franks. If we can get the Franks to spy on Germania for the NKVD, it would give us another layer of plausible deniability in case Germania's counter-intelligence uproots them."
"That's a good point." Kang said as he scribbled in his notes. "Don't the Franks also dislike the Albish?"
"Have you seen their newspapers leading up to the Second Europan War?" Wang responded. "They all ranged from calling the Albish spineless to being complicit to Germania's rise."
"I have." Kang narrowed his eyes. "Maybe the Albish has some intelligence operations against Germania. After all, many of their actions were dancing between considering Germania as a threat or the Russy Federation as a threat. It was only with the NKVD forcing the Albish to give up on their Bharat colony that made the decision final. If we could leverage the Franks to tap into the Albish information feed, that would be great."