AN: Edited by Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade, and Nla Eid.

The story post on the spacebattles forum has the maps showing the movements and positions of forces.

1944, April 13th, in Berun:

I put aside a newspaper of South Bharat's government handing out awards to the volunteer army for their rescue operations. It was a messy operation and there were many casualties. I did not expect them to be so happy about throwing away their men to rescue some coalition forces. The Albish sent me a terse thank you statement, but I could definitely tell that they were upset, and that confuses me. Their boys were saved, so why are they angry about it?

I picked up the latest report of the situation along the front lines. It's a repeat of the beginning of the trench warfare that I was familiar with. While we were building our fortifications along about 4,700 kilometers, the CSR has been constantly probing to find weak spots or areas that we simply didn't have the time to get to building. The coalition switched their focus from trying to knock North Bharat out of the war entirely to holding the door shut against the CSR's incessant pounding to buy time for the defensive line constructions.

We had some close calls given the CSR light infantry's and mages' proficiency with night time infiltration tactics, such as establishing beachheads on our side of the large rivers that were part of our defensive line, but you can only use those so many times before the opposing side wises up to them. The biggest one was when they overran a mountain range that was the most northwest of Ajmer and established a large salient.

At the cost of over 50,000 casualties. And they ended up only holding the side of the mountain facing North Bharat after the coalition's counter attack. The salient itself is just begging to be encircled by a counteroffensive from us if they keep pushing in. They gained just enough land to bury their dead, although there probably wasn't much left to bury after all of the artillery shells, bombs and napalm that was rained onto the human wave assaults. Elya reported that their Minister of National Defense, Peng Dehuai, was sacked in the aftermath of that battle. Luo Ronghuan, previously the Marshal of the Army, took his place. I guess their minister was incompetent if he was the one who got the blame for the casualties and his direct subordinate was promted in his place, instead of letting a subordinate be the scapegoat. Or they had a case of office politics and internal power struggle that I'm all too familiar with in my previous life as a HR manager. I guess the communists' office politics might not be too different from the corporate world, except for possibly a lot more imprisonments and deaths for the losers.

The prototype jet bombers with their higher altitude guided bombs have also been a great asset in dealing with some of the more difficult targets. And the dedicated photo reconnaissance jets that are now giving us intel over Tibet and Afghanistan again, although I don't want my air force to be excessively reliant on those after the war is over. I remember the United States had a major diplomatic incident when their U-2 spy plane was shot down over the USSR. The CSR had increased their anti-air gun deployments over the months, and it seems that all of them are manned by mages to use their magic shells. With their limited logistics capability, it would make sense for them to maximize the kill probability with each shell or even try to hit multiple planes that are in close formation with a single shell. Their mage operated guns have been a major hazard to the older propeller driven planes and our mages.

Speaking of aircraft development, seeing the newspaper photo of our first helicopter actually being used for something useful made me giddy. The test pilot was doing his thing for a sea trial when they overheard radio chatter of someone falling off of a ship. They suspended the testing and for the first time in history, used the helicopter for search and rescue operation, and successfully retrieved the person from the water. The press was still skeptical of the "mechanical mage machine" contraption, but I wasn't deterred.

I finally had time to work through some economic reforms, especially when the war veterans are using the trade school and college tuition benefits. I had to make sure that the economy was ready for the influx of workers with technical skills and higher education. There is nothing more dangerous than having a large number of highly educated people that are unemployed or stuck working in underpaying jobs that they are severely overqualified for. That's a quick way to get communism or other extreme political activism going.

The OZEV integration treaty talks are still going on. I occasionally suggested changes or new things that the Euroskeptics in my previous world would hate, but I doubt those would be passed anyways.

I flipped through another set of reports. Oh good, Dacia reported that they are making steady progress with establishing oil rigs in Caucasia and Kazakh Republics, and the infrastructure to support the operations. The Russy Confederation and the CSR seemed fully distracted by the Bharti War. Putting a check on the expansion of communism and finally being able to sidestep the Middle East problem was worth the mounting war expenses.

My phone started ringing and I picked it up right as Visha also burst into my office.

"Chancellor!" Elya yelled out over the phone. "The CSR wants peace talks!"

Visha only needed to look at my expression before moping, "Aw, Elya beat me to that, didn't she?"

I hopped over my desk, happily skipped over to Visha and gave her a kiss.

1944, April 27th, in Bombay at the peace conference:

"Why are you dragging this war on?" Allen Shone said. "You know as well as we do that we could simply have the grand fleet blockade your nation and there is nothing you could do about it.

Liao Chenghi carefully kept his face neutral, but made sure to make a grand production of noting down some thing or another in his notebook. The important part was to draw out the pause, lest he appeared susceptible to threats of force and weaken his position. Then after an appropriate time he spoke, also ever so carefully not responding at all to the previous challenge.

"The issue is the prisoners of war and what you intend to do with them. However the proposed new borders are a concluded matter as far as the CSR is concerned. Similarly the other contentious issues with that singular exception have been resolved to our satisfaction. Which leaves your treatment of said prisoners as the only problem remaining."

"You're asking for a lot, to just release soldiers regardless of their crimes." The South Bharatian representative ground out. Discontent visibly restrained as he continued. "To let go of the men that gassed the cities of Hyderabad and Bhopal with pesticides and herbicides when the populace decided to secede from your government that started this war if I need to remind you."

"There is no proof of that. Our own records do not show anywhere that such an order was ever given." Liao retorted, outrage, truthful or not, leaking into his voice. "For all we know some corrupt commander of your own forces ordered the operation to frame our allies. Or do I need to remind you that before the Chancellor personally intervened your own soldiers were happily massacring their own dissidents and undesirables indiscriminately?!"

"We could just set the prisoners free where they are. Let them walk back over the border right past hundreds of kilometers of angry South Bharatian citizens." Zettour interjected before the glaring match between the southern representative and CSR diplomat sipping tea could devolve any further.

"We all know they'd be lynched before coming anywhere near the new border. Between scorched earth tactics and using civilians for forced labor or outright human shields, your men did a fine job of burning half of South Bharat to the ground. The South Bharatian haven't forgotten a single war crime perpetrated against them, of that I assure you. A couple public trials to appease them is just a slap on the wrist. At least compared to the Unified States seeking recompense from North Bharat for all the farms they had destroyed and the Unified States subsequently supplied food in order to stave off the worst humanitarian crisis of the century."

"And in the Arene Massacre, unlawful combatants were slaughtered." The North Bharatian representative interrupted. "Once those citizens took up arms against our army and refused to stop attacking our government and military personnel after we repeatedly warned them of the consequences, they became unlawful combatants that are not subject to laws of war. Thus they were going to die anyw-."

Liao shot the man a glare, prompting him to cease his blathering that threatened their entire operation.

Zettour for his part could now see why Degurechaff picked him for this job in her stead. He had heard through his channels that she did not like to be reminded of Arene in the slightest. He would be concerned for anyone's safety after saying that kind of thing to her face. Representative of a foreign nation or not, he wasn't sure they would be able to leave with their life intact. Their dignity certainly would have been gone once the Argent was through with them. At this point he wasn't sure how much a difference it would make. The way the talks were going they may not even be able to agree to a twelve hour cease fire to attempt to sort out more of the issues without the fighting still going on during their talks.

Meanwhile the South Bharatian was visibly fuming. Enough so for Zettour to place a hand on his shoulder as a clear sign for restraint, lest the man torpedo any chance left for finding a solution by doing something extremely foolish.

"What the North Bharat forces are doing as part of their operations are none of our business." The CSR delegate deflected any further inroads into that matter while eliciting disbelieving laughter from the Albionese ambassador.

"So, what about Burma?" Shone asked. "None of your business either?"

"It's your colony." Liao shrugged for emphasis. "What do we have to do with them?"

"So you're saying you are not backing the rebels in Burma bordering your country? Nor are you building a railway line and several roads through said border region?" Shone responded, nearly hissed. "Then that simplifies how we will deal with both tremendously. Seeing how you're not involved in either."

"We are so sorry for not killing or arresting all of the Buddhist monks in our lands so that they would not travel into a Buddhist majority region. That they possibly may seek to establish their own country together with their new neighbors is an internal affair to Burma and not our responsibility."

"As for the road construction and railway building?" Liao asked only to answer the rhetorical question the next moment. "There were no border guards to ask for business visas when our people sought to expand into the area and offered to build the required infrastructure for their businesses. If you reassert control of the area, of course, they would pay the required taxes for operation."

"Gentlemen," John Foster, the US representative, raised his voice at this point along with his hands in appeasement while Shone was gritting his teeth. "We should all calm down for a moment and agree to a temporary ceasefire. There is no need for people killing each other even as we negotiate. Let us halt the fighting first, then resolve our remaining issues."

This elicited nods around the group. The fact that the man had been trying to stay out of the thick of it, playing the arbiter, certainly helped to have people not see him as a biased mediator despite his government's own interests in the matter.

For now they could all agree to buy some more time. And now the South Bharatian representative asked about war reparations which instantly kicked off a shouting match between him and the North Bharatian representative.

Zettour contemplated opening up a bottle. Liao and Allen certainly looked like they needed it. Youngsters being new to a global war they weren't sure how to stop anymore… funny how it is a literal youngster who first suggested the situation unraveling before him.

In the CSR:

"We can't keep this war running for years." Zhang Wentian groaned. "The Great Leap Forward was called off when Li ordered fuel rationing to keep the tanks and transport planes running."

"We won't need the transport planes as much when the two railways are completed." Li Kenong responded.

"And what will the coalition do by that point?" Zhang Wentian asked.

"They have already started rebuilding South Bharat, with a focus on heavy industry as the Unified States is committed to keep the food aid flowing so South Bharat's labor force can focus on infrastructure construction and factory work instead of rebuilding the destroyed farms. They're also still expanding the defensive line." Kang Sheng said. "It's a repeat of the 'race to the sea' trench warfare that Eurpe had back in the 1920's, and they had years of experience in that. It would be insane for us to play their game."

"North and South Bharat still want to keep fighting." Luo Ronghuan said. "You've seen the public claims from both. North Bharat wants the restoration back to the original borders, and South Bharat wants North Bharat entirely gone for what their encircled army has done. We all know that both positions are a fantasy."

There was a knock on the door.

"Enter." Zhang Wentian said.

An aide poked his head in. "Chairman, there is an urgent message for you. Directly from Liao Chengzhi."

"Read it then." Zhang Wentian gestured at the aide, who retrieved a piece of paper.

"Liao Chengzhi says that the Albish is committed to conducting a naval invasion of us should the peace talks fail."

There was a stunned silence in the room.

"We all know what happened the last time they did that." Luo Ronghuan muttered.

"They gave poison, opium, to the already sick Shun Dynasty, with their soldiers that marched into the capital after invading us up our rivers..." Kang Sheng gritted his teeth.

Zhang Wentian turned to Luo Ronghuan. "Luo Ronghuan, you will make preparations to attack the Albish fleet should they sail into our waters. I am aware that we don't have a navy, but we do have a lot of mages. The Germanians demonstrated that boarding actions are still an option in their knockout blow against the Francois Republic's navy, and that mages can be used underwater."

"That reminds me, the NKVD had recently sent us high performance boat engine production schematics with the help of their Frankish agents, the ones that were used to power the coalition's riverine fleet. They said it was a gift for not abandoning North Bharat at the peace talks." Kang Sheng announced. "That could allow our augmented C-tier mages to swarm and board enemy ships as they can't fly, and swimming would be too slow."

"The Albish has been more talk than action for a while." Li Kenong responded with skepticism. "Why worry about an empty threat?"

Zhang Wentian spoke up before Luo Ronghuan could say something. "We don't have a navy, and their fleet is close by. They don't need to get in the range of our coastal batteries to blockade us, and we all know our coastal defenses were only designed to deter small invasion forces, not against a sustained engagement against battleships and aircraft from multiple carriers. They can bomb our railroads to prevent our railway guns from being moved around quickly. The Albish would be pressured by their domestic politics to save face after losing Bharat and are on the verge of losing Burma. It's a low risk option for them to demonstrate their strength."

"What if they were bluffing?"

"Then we would have hundreds of augmented C-tier mages for very short term usage, and we can attack their ships anchored off the coast of Bharat with pirate mages. I wouldn't be surprised if the coalition had gotten complacent with their ships around North Bharat. Speaking of the augmented C-tier mages, Luo Ronghuan, do you have any updates on them?"

Luo Ronghuan shuffled through a stack of paper before finding the one he needed. "We had good successes with using the augmented C-tier mages with operating M1938 76 millimeter, M1939 85 millimeter, and KS-19 100 millimeter air defense guns. As long as they do not exceed 30 seconds of heavy mana usage in a single session, they can fully recover within several days without needing hospitalization while a fresh crew takes their place. The severity of side effects scale exponentially with the energy liquid usage. A few C-tier mages have demonstrated unusually high tolerance to the side effects and can safely operate for more than a minute, so we had pulled them from the front lines to study how their bodies are metabolizing the energy liquids. We also have a surplus of the augmented C-tier mages so we never had an issue with going into a fatigue spiral. Although that is partially also due to anti-aircraft ammunition shortages. This freed up our B and A tier mages for other operations."

"Does the coalition have any idea of our augmented mages?"

"Unlikely. The augmented mages wear heavy clothing to hide the tubes connecting their backpacks to their necks. Kang Sheng has assured me that our state secrets are secure."

Kang Sheng nodded as Luo Ronghuan finished speaking.

"How many mages can we use for boarding actions against the Albish fleet?" Zhang Wentian asked.

Luo Ronghuan again flipped through his papers and did some quick math on a blank sheet of paper. "We can pull about two hundred augmented C-tier mages off the front line within a month by using the Rus transport planes without affecting our anti-aircraft defenses. There are many unaugmented C-tier mages that are serving in combat, so I intend on prioritizing recruiting those that have the best combat records, preferably those who had also been in urban combat, and fly them out using the transport planes."

He paused for a moment as if he was thinking of something, "I'm not exactly sure how long training will take as we have never used augmented mages in direct combat. Once they complete their training, we can send them back to the frontline until they're needed, and call in the next group of untrained mages. The longer we drag on the peace talks, the more time we have to train the mages before the Albish sends in their fleet."

Taking a sip of tea before continuing, "For B and A tier mages, I want to prioritize those who excel in fighting in constrained spaces such as buildings, caves, or enemy defensive works, and avoiding enemy anti-aircraft fire. I intend to intensively train them for as long as possible to be the tip of the spear. I don't want to pull more than too many A and B tier mages off the front line, especially when we have a limited amount of Type 97 orbs to go around. We don't want to tip off the coalition that we're sending a large number of mages somewhere else."

"Kang, send me the production schematics. I'll come up with an estimate of how many motor boats we could build so Luo knows how many augmented mages he can use for the boat assaults. " Li Kenong said while Kang and Luo nodded in agreement. "We do have plenty of existing sailboats that can be retrofitted with engines, so it'll be the engine manufacturing that would be the bottleneck."

"I'll have some information fabricated about unrest in the Xinjiang province and northern part of Tibet. As long as the Rus planes and mages are flying towards that direction, they won't suspect anything about our force redeployment for "riot control" measures." Kang Sheng suggested while waving his hand at the map. "They're not stupid enough to try to send a photo reconnisance jet that deep into our territory. And if they try, then I'm sure Luo Ronghuan can come up with a plan to make sure that plane has a one way flight. I've always wanted to see how they can fly so fast without propellers."

"And I can have our soldiers be informed about supply shortages." Luo Ronghuan said. "It might lower morale, but that would provide yet another cover for reduced mage activity levels. Kang Sheng, could you help me with finding Frankish naval advisors that had experience with the Germanian mages' boarding actions, preferably those that hate the Albish, and also ex-pirates who could give some advice on dealing with uncooperative ships? I need to build up an instructor staff to teach the mages. Li Kenong, I will need some ships so I can convert them into training platforms. The Francois Republic's destroyer will also be turned into a training platform. I'm assuming the destroyer's layout will share some similarities with the Albish destroyers, and maybe the Frankish naval advisors would also have an idea of what the Albish destroyers look like on the inside."

Kang Sheng smiled. "It will be done. Also, speaking of ships, I'll have informants keep an eye on the Albish fleet movement."

Li Kenong scribbled in his notes. "That should be straightforward. I'll also make preparations to ensure that we have the parts and the medical staff for the augmentation surgeries. The Type 97 orb production should be able to allow us to equip over 100 mages in a few months, while still having a sufficient number of the orbs for front line usage as well." He pauses in his writing in thought before looking up, "Also, we need to get in touch with Rus engineers to help us modify at least 100 Type 97 orbs to safely operate underwater"

Zhang Wentian nodded and then looked at everyone. "Begin at once. This will be a high priority task for all of us."

1944, July 4th, in Berun

I sighed as I read the latest transcripts of the "peace talks". It was way too early to celebrate. Every time one issue would be addressed, another sticking point would be found by either side. And of course the communists were very keen on avoiding any war crime trials. At least North Bharat dropped the idea of returning back to the original borders when they demonstrated their inability to seriously threaten the defensive lines.

Speaking of the defensive lines, the "race to the sea and mountains" trench warfare is still going on because neither side could come to an agreement over a lasting ceasefire, and there are plenty of fortifications that we have to build to deal with the communists that are still trying to outflank our forces.

I heard a knock on the door, and I looked up to the clock.. The Akinese ambassador is here for a scheduled meeting, and apparently it's something very important.

"Come on in."

An aide opened the door and the ambassador stepped into my office. I got out of my seat for us to bow to each other. Pleasantries were exchanged and I invited him to take a seat, he accepted but his situation didn't last for long.

"Chancellor, may I ask if you have an appropriate room to discuss highly secretive matters?" he asked.

I raised an eyebrow. Now I'm curious as to what the Akitsushima Dominion has been planning for them to be this cautious. I lead the way to the soundproofed room adjacent to my office, and once inside, I put up a privacy spell.

The ambassador seems to be satisfied by the security and begins to speak: "We are concerned about the well-being of the Joseon under the communist rule with them showing a disregard for their own people's lives, and our own security if the war continues." The ambassador spoke. "Our homeland is only a short distance away from Joseon, and while we have a navy and airforce, they have many mages and bottomless manpower to try something."

"They still would take heavy casualties from trying to rush across the waters from boarding your ships or bypassing them." I responded with a slight confusion. "No amphibious operation can be successful without first dealing with the navy that is blocking the path."

The ambassador continued. "We had a wargame exercise where we determined that our fleet could be vulnerable against tens of thousands of small crafts across a large area with a large number of supporting enemy mages. Especially in the case of a surprise attack with minimal heavy units as they have shown in Bharat. Our fleet was originally designed in the event of a war against European powers or the Unified States, with the assumption that our fleet would be going up against cruisers and battleships. Even if we destroy most of the small crafts in the open water, the survivors that make it across could still inflict considerable destruction and casualties, especially with their mages. It would be an embarrassment to our country and the Emperor."

I've studied enough Japanese history to know exactly what Akitsushima Dominion intends on doing. The Emperor may have purged his army leadership, but I'm assuming the navy was relatively unaffected. And now the militants have the opportunity to restart their colonial ambitions by taking back the land that they had been occupying before the Rus pushed them off of it.

"While an invasion of Joseon would catch the CSR entirely by surprise as I'm assuming much of their military is deployed in Bharat or in the western part of the Russy Confederation, it would be a serious escalation of the ongoing war." I said.

The ambassador looked shocked for a brief moment but quickly regained composure. "Invade Joseon? The Rus pushed us off of the land with overwhelming industrial power. The CSR could do the same with their manpower and mages."

Ah, I see why they were hesitant to invade Joseon. They wanted to know how much I would support them. Could we win a world war against the CSR? It would be a long and bloody conflict. I am not interested in a repeat of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and those cannibalistic commies had already been hardened by their war in Sibyria.

Then again, the CSR has invaded through the neutral country of Afghanistan and helped themselves with most of Burma. If the Akitsushima Dominion succeeds in their operation, it would definitely force the CSR to finally sign a peace treaty. If it fails, well, that would certainly get rid of the last of the militants in the Akitsushima Dominion with them getting kicked off of Joseon for the second time. As long as the CSR doesn't try to somehow counter-invade, I can let the Akitsushima Dominion fail. I still needed to worry about how the rest of the world would see Germania though.

I pointed at Tsushima Island on the map.

"I can't have my military join in the invasion as that would risk triggering a war with the Russy Confederation and threaten the new republics next to the Rus. But, I can have one or two battalions of mages as "observers" to garrison that island, and a few destroyers as there isn't much of a need for surface ships in the Bharatian War. They will be tasked with dealing with any communists that attempt to cross the ocean to conduct raids on your homeland as a retaliatory strike, while remaining far outside of CSR's and Joseon's territorial waters. Our destroyers' heavy anti-air armaments will easily deal with mages and small crafts."

"That is good to hear."

"Under three conditions. If the peace talks are successful, I won't allow that operation to happen, and there will be no attempts from your country to interfere with the peace talks. As for the third one, there will be a democracy established in the Joseon to ensure our international credibility."

"I'll consult with my superiors with your requests. We intend on maintaining a strictly observation role for the peace talks." The ambassador responded. "The CSR would have strong opinions if we joined in the discussion."

1944, July 25th, somewhere next to the Bohai Sea:

Chen Shusheng was not expecting his life to turn out this way.

When he had first joined the military, he was tested for magic potential like any other recruit. He had such little magic potential that a nurse joked that if there was a D-tier mage class, he would be categorized as that.

Then sometime after surviving the Battle of Ajmer where every single one of his friends were killed, along with his entire battalion being wiped out with him being the last remaining person in the battalion, an officer told him that he was going home. He had expected to die in that battle and not suffer from the nightmares of the Sibyrian war anymore, but instead he would get more nightmares for years to come.

Well, that officer was technically telling the truth about going home. Because as soon as he got off the transport plane, it became very clear that the military had other plans for him, and many others. Now he understood why people were seemingly randomly being selected for "reassignments" and were never seen or heard again.

They were all marched to a hospital where after a brief administrative processing and a medical screening, a group of them at a time would be taken to another room to be stripped naked, scrubbed with disinfectants, and then marched to the numerous operating rooms where the doctors and their staff would perform the same surgery over and over again.

When he woke up from the surgery, he was given a booklet on how to take proper care of himself to avoid complications with the augmentations and was sent to another facility to begin a crash course in mage training.

On the first day of the class, the instructor walked in. And of course his instructor was Yang Huimin, the girl he met while they were marching through Afghanistan.

They both locked eyes for about a second, before she turned her attention to the chalkboard to begin their lessons.

1944, July 28th, Berun:

I was looking at photos of the first Albish jet fighters taking off from an airfield in South Bharat on July 27th. They called it the Gloster Meteor.

"Foreign Minister Dertinge, what did the Unified States say about our offer to sell our early jet fighter models that did not receive engine upgrades and other improvements, and the early engine models that were leftovers from our aircraft upgrading?"

He smiled. "They said that our jets outperformed their prototypes and would be willing to buy them."

"Did the BND tell you anything regarding the Unified States' prototype jets?" I asked, with a bit of confusion in my mind now. Elya had not informed me about the Unified States also pursuing their own jet engines.

"They said they were not aware of the Americans developing their own jets." Dertinge shrugged his shoulders.

Hmm, I'm curious how that one slipped past the BND.

"And the Albish? I'm sure they made their offers to the Unified States."

The Foreign Minister nods, "They did. But the Americans preferred combat-tested aircraft and engines with known deficiencies, known troubleshooting methods and known maintenance requirements They were hesitant to accept the Allied Kingdom's relatively new designs that may have unknown deficiencies."

"What are the Americans offering for our hardware?"

He smiled. "If we also train their pilots and aircrews, and assist them in the licensed production of the aircraft and the parts that go into the aircraft, they agreed to wipe away a large portion of our Second Europan War debts. We still have the tooling for the previous engine model that can be shipped over to the Unified States."

Arming a fellow anti-communist country with secondhand hardware and having some of the debt weight taken off of our back. Now that's a win-win!

1944, October 1st, somewhere next to the Bohai Sea:

Chen Shusheng looked at his new equipment now that the course began to cover some practical applications. It was a heavy backpack that contained the pump, tanks, a wire connected a wrist panel to the backpack, and surplus inventory single core orb. In the event of their death, the orb's self-destruction would ignite an incendiary charge next to the tanks and burn up the entire backpack or at least the energy liquids to deny any reverse-engineering opportunities for the enemy.

The practical examples were to only last for very short durations as they still needed to continue to study even while recovering from the side effects. Too much usage would put them in agony for days, or worse, a visit to the hospital.

After inspecting the backpack's interior parts, he put on the backpack and connected the two tubes to the ports that were surgically implanted on the lower portion of his neck. He then opened the cover for the wrist panel and selected the low mana pump setting. There was a button for the high mana usage, and if pressed down for a few seconds, it would cause the pump to run at maximum capacity, which only had a few seconds of safe operation and thus was only meant for suicidal or last resort usage. In order to fly, heavy usage was required, but the curriculum was not going to teach that, so instead they would be later learning how to perform long distance jumps with light mana usage.

As soon as the energy liquid began to course through his body, he felt a sickening surge. He focused his mind and casted the shield spell. It flickered a lot, but when his partner tossed a ball at it, it bounced off of it.

"For a first time try, that is very good." Yang Huimin said, humming before she walked off to comment on other students' attempts at forming a shield.

1944, October 18th, somewhere next to the Bohai Sea:

Luo Ronghuan watched the target ship with his binoculars. A few of the Frankish advisors suggested having the explosives detonate at some depth below the ship to "break its keel" instead of directly attaching the explosives to the hull. They had conducted small lab model scales, but this would be the first time where they would try the keel-breaking method. They also had reinforced the hull to simulate a battleship's hull based on the Frankish advisors' inputs.

The underwater mages emerged from the water after previously being undetected by magic detectors from the CSR, Russy Confederation, Francois Republic, and commercial grade detectors. They then went airborne, and soon he saw the ship get pushed upward by three underwater explosions, and then fall back down into the water. About a fourth of the ship broke off and sank separately. The rest of the ship had visible cracks in the hull.

"Would there be any way for the Albish crew to save a ship in that condition?" he asked.

A translator spoke to one of the Frankish advisors, and then returned the answer to Luo Ronghuan.

"Much of the crew would be injured or killed from the shock. And even if the ship didn't break apart, there would be hundreds of small leaks everywhere which means simply shutting flood containment doors won't work compared to containing a single large leak. That's assuming the flood containment structures themselves haven't been damaged from the shock."

Luo Ronghuan smiled. The Albish had dominated the ocean for decades, and their foreign policy significantly benefited from that, at the expense of everyone else on the receiving end of their booming barrages and the following landing of their Royal Marines. Now they were going to be directly challenged should they attack the CSR.

1944, December 24th, somewhere next to the Bohai Sea in the afternoon (morning in Berun):

With training over, graduation done with, and everyone being given three days of leave before boarding the trains to take them back to the front lines, Chen Shusheng's heart was racing. He had asked Yang Huimin out on a date, and she said yes. She agreed to meet him at a restaurant, and even though it would have easily cost him a week's worth of his pay for some of the fancier dishes, he had no regrets about it.

Word had gotten out relatively quick. Maybe she had told one of her friends about the date, and from that point the rumors kicked off. A few of his classmates had given him a hard time about waiting until right after graduation to officially date an instructor. One of them came up to him.

"How did you two meet anyways?"

"We were both marching through Afghanistan." Shusheng responded.

"Ah, that makes sense. Too busy marching to North Bharat to make love." the classmate teased.

"I wonder what would be worse, the commander making an example of us for "good order and discipline", or both of our families screeching at us?"

"I think I would rather take double punishments than to let the families find out." the classmate shrugged.

1944, December 24th, in Berun at around noon:

I let out a deep sigh as I read the latest reports.

The peace talks have officially failed, and it ended with a bang from both sides. Although everyone could see the writing on the wall with both sides repeatedly walking out and minimal progress being made while the war still raged on.

It ended with a bang when the Unified States and Allied Kingdom conducted day and night strategic bombing operations on North Bharat's cities and transport infrastructure to bypass the CSR's anti-air defenses and knock out North Bharat's war industry. They also bombed northern Burma as well to disrupt CSR's logistics and their railroad construction, with the Allied Kingdom justifying that as "it is still our territory". I made my usual public declaration denouncing strategic bombing because of the high collateral damage against civilians, but it was obvious that the two countries did not care for my opinion and were using those bombings to try to force the communists to come back to the peace talks.

As for OZEV and our South Bharatian volunteer army, we had been continuously expanding the fortifications. If the communists have no hope of breaking through, they will have to accept the new reality.

I grabbed another report and opened it to see what has been happening in Lucknow after the communists revealed their own "force the other side to come back to the negotiating table" solution.

They had been digging tunnels under parts of our defensive line directly north of Lucknow and filled them with explosives during the dragged out peace talks. During the strategic bombing, they lit the explosives off before having their infantry charge in. I've always suspected that the city would be difficult to hold because of the flat terrain directly north of it and being close to the Himalayas, and I was not surprised with General Romel's decision of establishing a fallback defensive line behind the Ganges River south of Lucknow. Delhi was too well defended for being such a high value city, so the communists had gone for an easier option.

They had also concentrated their 100 millimeter anti-air guns in the area beforehand and had them hidden under camouflage netting. With their mages using spells to extend the range of their shells to target our high altitude jet bombers, our air power had to deal with their anti-air defenses first before going after their advancing forces.

The only thing that somewhat stalled their advance was our artillery having a ready stockpile of incendiary rockets and shells. The reports indicated that the CSR mages are using shield spells to protect the infantry from the airburst munitions, and the infantry are also carrying bags of dry dirt to dump onto the fires for them to keep advancing. And they finally had Rus artillery guns for counter battery fire. There were also reports of occasional artillery shells that had a far bigger explosion than expected, along with magic energy being emitted from the blast, which tells me that they now have magic artillery shells for their mages to enhance. I would have loved to do something similar, except with the limited quantity of mages, I would much rather have them focus on tasks that machines and regular humans can't do, such as special operations. I can always have more advanced artillery systems. Instead of the South Bharatian forces retreating to the river defensive line, some of them announced that they would hold Lucknow to the last man. Completely illogical.

We both had been sharpening knives behind our back during the peace talks, and stabbed each other in the face at the same time. What a mess. I could use nukes to shock the communists into coming back to the negotiating tables, but if the surrender isn't an unconditional one, it would be only a matter of time before they develop their own nuclear bombs and use it against us in the future out of revenge. But an unconditional surrender might prompt them to fight on to the bitter end.

I opened yet another report.

Elya reported that the Albish leadership had become emboldened with the news of the CSR's internal struggles and have begun moving ships from the Bharatian water to the east. The Akinese ambassador said that they have privately agreed to help support the Albish naval blockade and are beginning to redeploy their navy as well after the last of their soldiers have left the Bharat subcontinent. I guess they technically would be supporting the blockade by taking Joseon away from the CSR and having their fleet around it. Can't send out ships if the coastlines and harbors are being filled with Akinese marines.

Unfortunately it appears time is starting to run out for us, and Elya was adamant that she did not have anything to pull off a repeat of Lev Bronstein's coup to destabilize CSR's leadership. I'm not surprised because if the Russy Federation was a hard target, the CSR was a much tougher one. While one could find Rus people living in OZEV with an axe to grind against the communists, the number of people who would blend into CSR's society was near impossible to find.

Meanwhile the Unified States is swinging back to their isolationism with the growing anti-war protests, and the other countries in the coalition are also facing their own war weariness problems. OZEV is also having some war weariness, but since most of the dying is from the Bharatian service members rather than OZEV thanks to our massive local volunteer army, and our defensive posture when the coalition was counter-punched during last winter, I think that is helping to soften the blow. It seems that every anti-war protest in OZEV is being met with a much larger pro-war or anti-communist protest. Elya insisted that the BND had no role with the counter protests.

I looked at today's newspaper and smiled a bit at the small positive news of our first helicopters starting to enter service. The front page had a photo of the helicopter being used to evacuate wounded people, a helicopter airlifting supplies to a mountainous area, and another helicopter deploying a squad in response to a suspected communist infiltration was on the front page. The high command was still debating over how to use the helicopters for combat operations. As far as I'm aware, the navy is planning on using depth charges and small torpedoes and the army is going for rocket pod helicopters paired with an aerial recon element so the helicopters could pop up from behind a hill, forest or building, fire a barrage, and dive back behind cover to avoid anti-aircraft fire.

1944, December 24th in CSR's evening (Berun's noon):

Chen Shusheng and Yang Huimin were walking along the waterfront after dinner. It was more expensive than he expected, but hopefully they can meet again later without paper bills flying out of his pockets.

"Where are they sending you off anyways?" Huimin asked.

"Back to North Bharat on the eastern front. They said they were going to assign me to mage sniper training once I get there. What about you?"

"They recently changed my orders. Apparently the command liked how well I taught students so they wanted me to stay to teach mages on how to operate the Type 97 orb and the next group of C-tier mages. So how did you get selected to be an augmented mage in the first place?"

"I have no idea to this day." Shusheng shrugged his shoulders. "I do remember a nurse joking that if there was a D-class mage rating, I would have belonged in that category because of how difficult it was for their instruments to pick up on magic."

"It was probably some clueless officer saying, 'Ah yes a C-tier mage, send him for surgery and training.'" she chuckled. "Hopefully your family isn't too bothered by it."

"They'll get over it. As long as I'm alive, they won't be upset. Although speaking of family, how would your family potentially react to our relationship?"

Huimin paused for a few seconds. "With the government now playing a role in deciding marriage couple selections for mages instead of just the two couples' families, it's going to be interesting. If the government doesn't approve of us being together, I'd expect pressure from both of our families because that's a lot of benefits not being available to government approved mage marriages. My mother has indirectly implied that she'll approve any marriage if the benefits are guaranteed and the man meets her minimum requirements."

"Oh? Minimum requirements?" Shusheng raised an eyebrow. "That's a bit vague. Let me guess, it's still pretty high isn't it?"

Huimin rolled her eyes in response.

"I'm not surprised." Shusheng said. "I wasn't the best at school, and I decided to follow in my father's footsteps of volunteering for the military."

"What did your mother say?" Huimin asked.

"She eventually gave up on me and hounded my siblings instead." Shusheng shrugged his shoulders.

"I originally wanted to go into mage sports. I remember reading the news article about the World Cup in Europe, and aerial lacrosse seemed like a lot of fun." Huimin said. "Unfortunately, if they're using mass surgeries for C-tier mages to fight for short durations, it's pretty hard for a B or A tier mage to avoid military service."

"Maybe after this war you can join the reserves and try for the mage sports again."

"That's something I am looking forward to. Anyways, should we meet again tomorrow morning? I heard about a great breakfast place, and then we can head to a theatre for a play performance."

"Of course! Of course!" Shusheng nodded and smiled, 'Well, there goes another one of my weekly paychecks.' He privately thought to himself.

Before he could respond, someone he recognized as one of Huimin's friends ran up to them, panting all the while. "Chen! Yang! We have to go back! There's been a change of plans and command is recalling everyone back. Something big is going to happen!"

AN:

Anyone who has played XCOM's Long War mod is probably aware of the "fatigue spiral", where sometimes your A, B, C, D, E, and F squads are all shot up or exhausted, so it's up to the fresh recruit G squad to respond to a terror mission in a country that is on the verge of leaving the XCOM council. This 30 second video sums up the fatigue spiral: watch?v=yyhnAAOIr7I

wiki/Gloster_Meteor

The Gloster Meteor was the first British jet fighter and the Allies' only jet aircraft to achieve 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. The Meteor first flew in 1943 and commenced operations on 27 July 1944 with No. 616 Squadron RAF.

As for how the Unified States caught Tanya and the BND by surprise: wiki/Lockheed_P-80_Shooting_Star

The project was so secret that only five of the more than 130 people working on it knew that they were developing a jet aircraft, and the British engineer who delivered the Goblin engine was detained by the police because Lockheed officials could not vouch for him.[6]

I'm assuming it would be easier to build a railway through the northern part of Burma than through the mountainous Tibet and then over the Himalayas: wiki/Rail_transport_in_Myanmar

Regarding the underwater explosives, I was thinking of the modern torpedoes that explode at some depth below ships to break their keels: watch?v=PW7oNYwtPpQ

wiki/Torpedo#Damage

Bubble jet effect

The bubble jet effect occurs when a mine or torpedo detonates in the water a short distance away from the targeted ship. The explosion creates a bubble in the water, and due to the difference in pressure, the bubble will collapse from the bottom. The bubble is buoyant, and so it rises towards the surface. If the bubble reaches the surface as it collapses, it can create a pillar of water that can go over a hundred meters into the air (a "columnar plume"). If conditions are right and the bubble collapses onto the ship's hull, the damage to the ship can be extremely serious; the collapsing bubble forms a high-energy jet that can break a metre-wide hole straight through the ship, flooding one or more compartments, and is capable of breaking smaller ships apart. The crew in the areas hit by the pillar are usually killed instantly. Other damage is usually limited.[64]

The Baengnyeong incident, in which ROKS Cheonan broke in half and sank off the coast South Korea in 2010, was caused by the bubble jet effect, according to an international investigation.[65] [66]

Shock effect

If the torpedo detonates at a distance from the ship, and especially under the keel, the change in water pressure causes the ship to resonate. This is frequently the most deadly type of explosion, if it is strong enough. The whole ship is dangerously shaken and everything on board is tossed around. Engines rip from their beds, cables from their holders, etc. A badly shaken ship usually sinks quickly, with hundreds, or even thousands of small leaks all over the ship and no way to power the pumps. The crew fare no better, as the violent shaking tosses them around.[64] This shaking is powerful enough to cause disabling injury to knees and other joints in the body, particularly if the affected person stands on surfaces connected directly to the hull (such as steel decks).

The resulting gas cavitation and shock-front-differential over the width of the human body is sufficient to stun or kill divers.[67]

A video that also explains how underwater explosions can crack ships' hull: watch?v=UdFNuc5XtII