AN: Edited by Gremlin Jack, perfect_shade, and Nla Eid.
January 24th, 1945, morning in Berun, about 12 hours after the incidents in the East Jiuzhou Sea (2pm in China Standard Time is 7am in Central European Time):
I was just starting to wake up when my phone rang.
Confused, I picked up the receiver as Visha stirred awake. It was Elya.
"Chancellor, you need to come to the council room." The chairwoman's tone conveyed an urgency that had me sitting up instantly, "The Albish suffered a major disaster off the coast of the CSR, and the communists had also launched another offensive against South Bharat!"
"What!?" I exclaim, waking Visha whom I wasted no time in explaining the situation as both of us got dressed.
Shortly after Visha and I entered the room to meet Elya and General Lergen, the rest of the people filled in. Foreign Minister Dertinge, Admiral Albrecht, air force Generals Weiss and von Richtoffer, and other military officers were among those that joined us. Dr. Schugel was the last one to come in, and now I was very confused.
Elya used her orb to project the initial positions of the Albish ships on a map of the East Jiuzhou Sea, cleared her throat, and began.
"The Akitsushima Dominion had many nearby ships and patrol aircraft when five CSR cargo ships attempted to run past the Albish blockade. This occurred after the two Albish carriers had already deployed their planes for another routine night time bombing mission over the CSR. The positions on the map were what the Akinese reported. Our destroyers were simply too far away from the action to get any intel other than radio intercepts and faint magic signatures over large distances which they concluded were only possible with numerous or large magic explosions."
I had expected the CSR to eventually do something about the Albish conducting strategic bombing over their homeland with impunity. But what is up with the five cargo ships?
"As a summary of what happened, at the first cargo ship was the scene of a bloodbath where the two sides appeared to be equally matched and a sloop escaped from the fight. At the second cargo ship, it was a decisive CSR victory. The third cargo ship was sunk at a long distance by two Albish ships, but the cargo ship's crew ended up boarding the Albish ships anyway. The fourth cargo ship was where the Albish had an overall victory, at a great cost. Much of the damage was from the boarding mages that overloaded their computational orbs to turn into suicide bombers when they realized they couldn't win. The fifth cargo ship and many of the fishing vessels in the vicinity were destroyed before their mages could even get underway. There were also attacks on isolated Albish ships from the fishing vessels, but the results were inconclusive."
She showed some of the dots moving to intercept the cargo ships.
Shortly after the dots met, some of them went dark.
"A Black Swan-class sloop decided to open fire on the third cargo ship, which the cargo ship then raised a white flag and deployed a large number of lifeboats as it sank. When the sloop and a cruiser sailed closer to pick up the survivors, that was when the CSR's augmented mages in those lifeboats jumped onto the two ships to capture them."
Elya paused for several seconds to let everyone recover from the shock.
Visha perked up while the word 'augmented' was still processing in my mind. "Augmented mages?" she asked. Dr. Schugel immediately opened his notebook and was ready to start writing.
"The Akinese said there were clear signs of the CSR mages using some sort of a pump, a tank of liquid and tubes connecting the pump to their lower necks to give their mages power. Unfortunately the mges had an incendiary charge paired with the orbs in the backpacks which meant upon their death, the content of the backpack was destroyed. According to the Albish survivors of the fourth cargo ship's battle, the aerial CSR mages had prioritized destroying any intact corpses of their augmented comrades before fleeing."
"What are the capabilities of the mage augmentation technology?" Dr. Schugel asked before I could.
"Based on the testimonies of the surviving Albish crew members, they all boarded their ships by jumping from their boats and were occasionally seen climbing up the metal surfaces. There were no mentions of them flying. In combat, the augmented mages could be taken down with concentrated gunfire and used much less magic than the usual mages. The problem was that there were large numbers of the augmented mages to make up for their individual disadvantages. I think the CSR found a way to make their C-tier mages useful for direct combat."
"If they're using those augmentations on their C-tier mages… That would explain how they could field so many of them to operate anti-aircraft and artillery guns!" I shouted, as Dr. Schugel continued writing.
"Fascinating. When will we get the recordings, photographs and samples?" Dr. Schugel asked.
I winced at Dr. Schugel's words. I should probably ask Elya to keep an eye on him so he doesn't run off with performing mad scientist experiments on mages to recreate the 'stick tubes into necks' mechanical augmentations.
"General Weiss said the airforce had sent out a bomber jet with extra fuel tanks to fly directly from South Bharat to Akitsushima Dominion, pick up copies of the recordings and photos, refuel, fly back to South Bharat, and have another jet plane make the jump to the Middle East and eventually to Berun. It should take about two days." Elya said while Weiss nodded
Admiral Albrecht asked, "And the HMS Prince of Wales that you mentioned earlier?"
Elya sighed and continued projecting the dots. About 50 aerial mages were displayed, with half of them hanging back.
"The aerial mages held out just long enough for the augmented mages to arrive in their motor boats. Their motor boats were armed with machine guns and magic bullets to engage the Albish mages and continue suppressing the ships' secondary turrets and close range weapons. Some of the motor boats had magic enhanced explosive charges which were used to ram the cruiser."
Elya displayed a dot for an Akinese aircraft in the distance. The CSR mages then boarded the battleship with the cruiser disabled. There was an Albish photo showing some of the mages couldn't jump high enough, so instead they latched onto the hull and climbed their way up."
Elya switched to a different part of the map. "It was also around this time when the 36 Albish mages that were redeployed from the HMS Prince of Wales had come across a captured cruiser. The Albish mages discovered that all of the prisoners were executed, and regular CSR soldiers and sailors that had already boarded the cruiser beforehand. The CSR forces had welded hatches shut to stall the Albish mages, destroyed all of the lights except for those that were right next to the expected entry points, and occasionally used suicide bombings, which were lethal in the confined spaces. Eventually the few remaining CSR forces decided to ignite the magazine holds to kill as many Albish mages as possible instead of surrendering. Only about a dozen Albish mages survived the battle with the cruiser being a complete loss. They were too exhausted and injured to fly back to the HMS Prince of Wales, and in fact ended up using the lifeboats until an Aki ship picked them up."
I winced at the idea of mage vs mage combat in such confined, dark spaces where there is almost no room to maneuver and every compartment had to be manually cleared. Urban combat was already its own hell. To fight inside of a ship where an explosive spell can easily over-pressurize a compartment or an enemy mage is hiding behind some pipes is a nightmare.
Elya then displayed the dots of an arriving squadron. "The HMS Warspite and her escorts had arrived while the CSR mages were still fighting for control of the HMS Prince of Wales, and the Prince of Wales' disabled escort cruiser was left alone by the mages. The HMS Warspite and its escorts all attached themselves to the HMS Prince of Wales, and conducted a counterboarding action. We don't know what happened in the HMS Prince of Wales, but considering that the Akinese reported seeing fires appear from the Prince of Wales and the Albish abandoned it to move the rest of their ships to a safe distance before the battleship suffered fatal ammunition explosions, I'm assuming that the CSR mages had turned themselves into suicide bombers."
"Where were the Albish planes?" General Weiss asked.
Elya adjusted the presentation to show the planes as separate dots on the map. "By the time something went wrong with the boarding actions, most of their deployable planes were already conducting bombing operations over the CSR's mainland to target their infrastructure and industries. The remaining fighter cover was pulled from the HMS Prince of Wales to deal with the five cargo ships. When those bombers and their escorts flew back to the last known locations of the boarding operations, the augmented mages were already onboard the Albish ships or defeated. To complicate the matter, the CSR mages had brought their machine guns on board the captured ships for anti-air operation. The Albish carriers did sink some of the captured ships with another wave of bombers, but we believe two or three of the captured ships escaped the scuttling efforts and we are awaiting confirmation from the Albish. Even when those captured ships were broadcasting radio signals from the Albish prisoners begging to not be killed as the CSR mages on board would ensure that none of them would survive should the ships sink."
"And where are the captured Albish vessels located now?" one of the officers asked.
"They're now in the CSR's ports, protected by their coastal railway guns and anti-aircraft batteries." General Lergen responded. "The CSR had also been setting up intensive anti-submarine patrols and countermeasures to deny the Albish any opportunities of rescuing or scuttling the ships, and I would not be surprised if they were also keeping an eye for any attempts at copying their underwater mage operations. As for the second situation that is unfolding..."
Elya flipped the rotating board over to switch from the map of the East Jiuzhou Sea to the map of Brahmaputra River area, centered around Guwahati.
General Lergen continued. "CSR and North Bharat had also launched the Brahmaputra River offensive, centered around Guwahati, after their offensive toward Lucknow was stalled. A concentrated battery of anti-tank guns and mage operated anti-tank rifles destroyed the riverine boats and barges. The heavy Rus artillery guns were redeployed from Lucknow front to the Brahmaputra River offensive to provide covering fire for the CSR infantry crossing the river using rowboats. They also attempted to use high pressure water pumps and combat engineer mages to carve through our earthen embankments. Multiple rocket launcher vehicles were used by the communists for the first time, and it appears they are being operated by the Rus based on intercepted radio communications. We had noticed the buildup of forces, but we underestimated how much they were able to conceal their buildup, and did not expect them to already have rockets. As of now they have established several beachheads, although they are struggling to break through. That might be due to decapitation strikes against CSR's army headquarters and their logistic operations."
"Decapitation strikes?" I asked.
"We had an operation where some of our mages coordinated with South Bharatian mages to use the CSR's night time infiltration tactics against the CSR, as the South Bharatians don't have stealth casting. They destroyed large quantities of anti-aircraft guns and their ammunition stockpiles, then performed a fighting retreat with air support to pull away some of the communist mages from the area. It was reported that their augmented mages had opted to flee instead of defending their anti-aircraft guns for an unknown reason. During that fighting retreat, the Americans had their 'Wild Ferret' mages and 'Wild Weasel' fighter planes bait out the remaining concealed anti-aircraft guns for bombers and ground attack planes to finish them off. We also learned that the Americans have been equipping their planes with small magic detectors to help locate the anti-aircraft guns. This allowed coalition air forces to bomb multiple headquarters, supply depots, bridges and other locations with minimal resistance, and for our Lucknow counteroffensive to proceed smoothly until we reached our original defensive line north of Lucknow. We had intercepted a radio report about a very important CSR commander being severely injured and a personal transport plane being arranged to fly him back to their country for medical treatments."
"Major Neumann provided reports on the Americans' combined mage and aircraft doctrine usage and how they countered mage operated anti-aircraft guns." Elya winked. "Birgit Johansson was very helpful in having him as an observer."
Elya then projected a front line along Burma. General Lergen took a sip of water and finished his statement.
"Simultaneously, an offensive from the communists was launched from Burma into South Bharat in an attempt to support the Brahmaputra River offensive, many of the fighters consisting of Burma locals that are likely armed by the CSR and the Rus. If there was one thing that the Albish got right, it was that they had suspected for a while that the communists might try something like this and had already constructed defensive works along the eastern border of South Bharat which stalled the Burma locals long enough for the Unified States' air force to carpet bomb the flanking maneuver, which caused the invaders to flee back into Burma. We have also observed the Americans using a limited number of air-dropped flechettes for the first time, as our ground forces have found numerous corpses that were nailed to the ground with sharpened metal projectiles."
Foreign Minister Dertinge cleared his throat. "It is possible that those operations are the CSR's last gamblit, because they had requested a new round of peace talks, most notably being open to having some of the North Bharatian war criminals face justice. Even if they don't hand over the captured ships, they still have possibly hundreds of sailors and officers in their prisoner camps from the attack."
"And since the CSR revealed their augmented mages by using them in direct combat instead of support roles, there is nothing stopping them from using those same mages in Bharat." Elya added in. "They could pull a repeat of the Francois Republic's 1000 mages tactic to storm our defensive lines."
I noticed Elya had a look of worry on her face, and I can't remember when was the last time I saw something like that.
"What is the state of the coalition? Are they considering asking for peace now?" I asked.
"Not good, and that was before the CSR launched their attack." Foreign Minister Dertinge sighed. "It will be a bombshell among the foreign press when news of the CSR's raid against the Royal Navy becomes public, and I expect the CSR to announce it any minute even if the Albish and the Akinese try to cover up the extent of the disaster. The Akinese ambassador said that the Albish had asked them to help with rescuing the captured ships and crew. That request was refused when their Emperor issued an imperial decree ordering the military to focus on the defense of the homeland, so the entire Akinese fleet sailed home instead. Though on that note, the Akitsushima Dominion had also requested a military alliance with us and said that they are willing to accommodate more military bases, especially for their Tsushima and Formosa Islands as those are right next to Joseon and the CSR."
Hmm. We could justify having a military base on Tsushima Island as that has historically belonged to the Aki and the base is just to help protect them. But having a military base on Formosa Island… Well, if the CSR is anything like China in my previous world, they might pick the illogical option in their blind anger and continue the war as they view Formosa as their land. And the rest of the coalition might abandon me with their evaporating public support to continue the war.
"...I think the CSR is asking for peace because they don't want to repeat what the Empire did." General Lergen said, turning eyes towards him at the comparison. "If South Bharat is under our control and the Akitsushima Dominion is asking for an alliance, we're about to surround the CSR and their allies on three sides with our allies. I find their railroad constructions disturbing, because when they complete it, they could theoretically have trains travel in a circle between North Bharat, Burma, CSR, Russy Confederation and Afghanistan. Maybe they are thinking of using the Empire's Interior Lines Strategy."
South Bharat under our control? What? I expected General Lergen to be a warmonger, but maybe he also wants to keep expanding our empire. I need to remind him to not step out of line.
"South Bharat?" I state as I look at Lergen in the eyes. "The Albish won't give up that country easily."
Lergen looked uncomfortable at that. Good, I won't have to worry about him trying to annex South Bharat. Now, I still have to worry about the CSR's naval development being significantly accelerated with the captured fleet and crews. A smile crept to my face as an idea came to my mind.
In the CSR:
"Some of our surrendered men refuse to return back to our land?!" Luo Ronghuan roared.
"The coalition made it clear that they won't force prisoners against their will. Besides, we have coalition prisoners that also want to join us, including some of the Albish." Zhang Wentian responded. "They will mock us if we act like hypocrites over this matter. Kang Sheng, tell us about what sort of prisoners we got that would be beneficial to us."
Kang Sheng set down his tea cup. "The most significant ones are small groups of Albish naval personnel who were previously captured from our boarding operations. Some propaganda with half-truths, reminders of how it was their own military that had their ships torpedoed or bombed to kill everyone instead of allowing the ships to be captured, treating them well, offering a 'fair' compensation to be advisors and maybe existing leftist or anti-government sentiments before our boarding operations has convinced some of them to defect to us. It's one thing to have the hardware. To know how they actually operate and how they are used in a combined fleet action is a significant advantage for us. The Frankish advisors have been very ecstatic over the opportunity of exploring the Albish ships."
"The Albish and the Akinese thought we were easy chickens to slaughter because of our lack of navy." Zhang Wentian said. "They will no longer threaten our country when we start building up a navy."
Luo Ronghuan's face twisted, but eventually spoke. "Whatever, the loss of some men is insignificant. We can replace them. Kang Sheng already informed me that our mage technology secrets are secure and he had dealt with a defector augmented mage that tried to surrender to the coalition forces in Bharat. Now, what should we do with the destroyer, sloop and the submarine?"
"The Albish will demand them back, but I've instructed Liao Chengzhi that handing over any of the vessels is a non-starter when they had bombed our homeland for weeks with relative impunity. I think those ships should be sufficient reparations for the infrastructure damages and civilian casualties they caused, unless they offer something very valuable for us to eventually return the ships after we finish reverse engineering them. Li Kenong, you seem concerned about something."
Li Kenong cleared his throat. "I know we haven't started reverse engineering those ships yet, but just the amount of steel used in their ships is a staggering amount. Our industries would struggle with providing sufficient raw material to build a fleet to match the Akitsushima Dominion without impacting the rest of our economy and military, and that's not including some of the more difficult components such as electronics and complex machinery pieces. Our economy still needs to grow if we are to survive a total war. Just this war was pushing us to the edge!"
"So we're just left with white elephants? At the cost of nearly 1000 mages?" Luo Ronghuan clenched his hands.
"We would need to build simpler versions of the Albish ships." Li Kenong responded. "Cheap to produce, but with enough capability to protect our coastlines."
"I'm assuming there is no easy solution to our oil situation?" Zhang Wentian asked. "I know North Bharat will also need them as well to build their economy."
Li Kenong shook his head no.
"Luo Ronghuan, expect to have to use coal for the ships that we build." Zhang Wentian said.
"I have another idea. This could also be implemented while we are building ships." Luo Ronghuan suggested.
"Go ahead." Zhang Wentian responded.
"Submarines need only a fraction of the raw material compared to even a destroyer, and they don't use much fuel either. We had success with the underwater mage operations. What if we have submarines that can deploy mages underwater without ever having to come to the surface? We could strike anywhere in the world, at sea or deploy the mages on the coastlines to have them infiltrate an area. If we have enough surface ships, even if they are anchored in a harbor, the imperialists can't dedicate their entire navy to anti-submarine operations."
"Write a report on it and brief me later about the proposal." Zhang Wentian instructed. "It would certainly utilize our mage advantage. We will eventually need to build surface ships."
"Didn't Germania demonstrate that the age of big guns is over?" Li Kenong asked with a skeptical look on his face. "The Francois Republic lost their entire navy to the Germanian combined arms doctrine, and we made a mess of the Royal Navy with our mages."
"If we go out and build an entire fleet of submarines, the Albish and the rest of the world will see that as not power projection or coastal defense, but as a knife to their throats regarding maritime trade. And if they realize that we could deploy mages on the shorelines of the Albish, American or Germanian homeland, the reaction would be illogically massive against us." Kang Sheng responded. "There are already tensions between the capitalists, such as over the colonialism issue. I would prefer to let them keep bickering amongst each other than to unite against us, like what happened to the Empire."
Luo Ronghuan nodded. Kang Sheng continued. "Speaking of mages, I have implemented strict censorship on the true casualty rate of the mages used in the boarding operation. Less than 100 survived, and that's assuming there are no further deaths in the hospital. I suggest we work on a monument dedicated to 2000 heroes as a compromise for the grieving family members, without disclosing how many actually died. It would be in our interest to hide our mistakes so the imperialists overestimate our strength and thus leave us alone."
Zhang Wentian turned to Li Kenong. "Li Kenong, begin the monument construction when we are done with reconstruction work from the bombing strikes."
Elsewhere in the CSR:
A scream echoed through a closed door and into the hallway.
Inside the room, Chen Shusheng vomited from the effects of the experimental energy liquid the Rus scientists were testing on door suddenly opened and he watched as the CSR and Rus scientists held a heated argument. Several minutes later, the Rus scientists left the room.
He sees a figure approach. And despite his blurry vision, he eventually recognizes them as one of the CSR scientists, "W-What's going on?" he asked.
"They were overly enthusiastic with their research." the CSR scientists responded, offering him a drink – water, not more of those experimental fluids – "It would be incredibly stupid if they got you killed just days after you arrived."
Greedily, Chen Shusheng drank from the glass. "When-" He coughs, "W-When can I see my family or Yang Huimin again?"
The scientist smiles, it didn't reach his eyes.
"When the research is done."
In the same research building:
"When should we tell him the truth?" a scientist asked.
"Tell him that some of his siblings were killed in combat and the rest were killed by the Albish bombing strikes, and that we can't find Yang Huimin when less than 6 aerial mages survived out of about 50 after capturing a battleship?" the facility security officer shot back. "If he becomes uncooperative with our research, he could choose to burn the place to the ground with our own prototypes!"
"I can contact my superior to see if we can find someone that looks exactly like Yang Huimin." a state security officer suggested. "Her family and friends will have to cooperate with the selection process and teach her everything about Yang Huimin."
Everyone stared at him as he took a sip of tea. "I understand. It's an unusual plan, but he has already been declared deceased by the military so we can focus on the augmentation research unimpeded. The benefits of the many outweigh the pain to a few or an individual."
"What happens when he finds out?" one of the scientists asked.
"He shouldn't be able to tell the difference. And even if he does try to break out, he won't win against a company of mages anyways."
"A company of augmented or natural mages?" the facility security officer asked.
The state security officer glared at him as if he was an idiot. "Let me know when your facility found a way to make an augmented mage more powerful than a natural mage without being hospitalized after a short boost, and then I'll give you a company of natural mages."
January 27th, 1945:
I definitely did not have a good night's sleep after Elya's evening briefing with the additional information and some augmentation samples she got from the Akinese. Especially with our expected future mage operations against the CSR before the ceasefire takes effect. The only small positive news was Elya's Albish cult reporting the Albish government's internal reactions when the CSR responded with "Thank you for the ships. Our chairman does love them. They are acceptable reparations for the damages and civilian deaths from your bombs." after they demanded the CSR to return the captured ships.
Even Visha's coffee could only do so much to keep me awake, forcing me to give myself a small shot of magic adrenaline. But now was the time to strike while the iron was white hot. Starting with the navy's "Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization" program for our destroyers and carriers, aka "Flottensanierung und Modernisierung", shorted as FM. For 1930's designs that were meant to be as cost efficient as possible, they were definitely going to show their age as we approached the 1950's. And while they have great anti-air defenses, I never expected a country to throw several hundred mages in a massive boarding operation with some of them operating underwater, until the Albish ended up being the receiving end of that surprise.
Visha, Elya, Lergen, Admiral Albrecht, air force Generals Weiss and von Richtoffer, a few other senior officers, Dr. Schugel and Dr. Max Kramer were present at this meeting to discuss the future of Germania's military R&D now that we knew the CSR's only advantages were their massive manpower, access to Rus technology to give themselves a head start, and their ability to potentially field tens of thousands of mages with their augmentations. They could field literal mage corps or armies for a single concentrated offensive if they wanted.
The things that we all agreed on was to intensify anti-boarding training, designing new sonars that can detect humans at a sufficient range to allow our ships to use depth charges, using divers to patrol underwater when the sonars aren't in use, use more CIWS, and replacing the anti-ship missiles with radar-guided anti-air missiles. On the land, more anti-air systems, and helicopters armed with 30mm rotary cannons, rocket pods, and small onboard magic detectors.
"Speaking of helicopters, according to Foreign Minister Dertinge, there are some countries that have expressed interest in buying ours or licensing production using our designs." Visha said. "Such as the Akitsushima Dominion, Unified States, and the Francois Republic. The Francois Republic especially, as they requested to buy hundreds of helicopters. Mostly for infantry transports."
"The Franks want to use those helicopters for their colonial wars." General Lergen said. "It's a good transport option for rough terrain that lacks any roads."
Far be it for me to stop the Francoise from reenacting the Indochina war when Germania can profit from it. I wave the topic away. "Back to the CSR, do we have any way to counter the CSR's own stealth mage doctrine of firing a few shots and then blending back into their infantry masses?"
"That should be straightforward!" Dr. Schugel confidently exclaimed. "I can add memory retention to the new magic detector to keep the last known magic signature location."
"I don't want to bundle all of the new things into a single project." I responded. "We need a fast answer to the CSR's stealth doctrine before they resume supporting the insurgency in the new republics."
"Would the magic detector with memory capability be small enough to fit in helicopters and ground vehicles?" General Lergen asked. "If they know the general location of the previously located mages, they could target the area to force the mages to bring up their shields to reveal their exact location. It would also be convenient for our infantry to be able to use even a short range magic detector as they would be able to call in artillery or bombing strikes on the suspected location."
Dr. Schugel grinned widely. That was all I needed to know. As long as he can deliver the magic detector quickly, we might be able to catch the CSR mages by surprise.
"Speaking of magic detectors, do we know if the CSR is working on stealth casting?" I asked.
Elya flipped through her notes. "I don't have any information on that. If they have that technology, they probably have those mages blend in with the regular infantry and have the more expendable C-tier mages generate all of the magic signatures to draw attention away from the stealth mages."
I looked at Dr. Max Kramer and Dr. Schugel. "Do you have anything in the works to help Germania deal with the CSR's augmented mages?"
Schugel grinned widely. I mentally braced myself for what he had to say.
"I had divine inspiration for a successor to the H-7 orb! It's so efficient with the mana usage, that I also had to work on a magic detector that can still work against it."
"It'll be ready for production in a few years." Dr. Max Kramer said. "We're still trying to resolve the problems with it constantly jamming."
"Any safety hazards?" I asked.
"Considering how little mana it uses, the worst outcome we had were the gears seizing and then breaking because of how light they are."
I took a mental breath of relief. Dr. Schugel making something that doesn't have any safety risk is a rarity.
"What's the progress on the Type 100 orb?" Visha asked.
Dr. Max Kramer cleared his throat. "We are facing some delays with the Type 100 with its ability to detect stealth casting. We aren't sure how long it will take, so I would like to ask for the development of the Type 99 Block 3 project which uses the high speed flight spell from the Type 100 orb as we know that one works. We'll have to reduce the maximum speed to avoid overloading the Type 99 orb."
"You have my approval with the Type 99 Block 3 project." I said. "How long do you think it would take for it to reach production?"
He looked through his notes. "About a year. We should be able to use most of the tooling from the Type 99 Block 2 production. We can also upgrade the Type 99 Block 2 orbs by replacing about a quarter of their internals which can help speed up their rollout."
"There is something I would like to experiment with." Dr. Schugel said, with an even wider grin. "Remember when the 203rd mage battalion used the V-1 rockets for the Operation Revolving Door?"
I did not need a reminder of riding in a rocket that could explode prematurely and kill me. Visha also had a concerned look on her face.
"I've heard Germania is working on intercontinental ballistic missiles."
General Lergen facepalmed while Elya took a step back.
"What if we could deliver elite mages right into the heathen CSR's capital for a decapitation strike to end a world war before it actually turns into a world war?"
If I just tell the mad doctor no, he'll eventually find a way. The only reason he gave up on the Type 95 orb was that even he admitted there was no way he could explain how it exactly works other than a religious miracle that just happens to work with only one person. I have to give him some far off objective to accomplish first.
"Dr. Schugel, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but we would need advanced electronics for the guidance of the missiles for them to fly into outer space and then back down to the ground. Yes we could have the mages do all of the guidance themselves, but that would leave them exhausted by the time they get out of the rocket."
Elya perked up. "Ah, Chancellor, we identified individuals who could help with advanced electronics development. Anna said what they are working on could replace vacuum tubes."
I faintly remember telling Anna to look into transistors technology. I didn't expect to instantly have a foot in my mouth as a result of that. Well, time to hear what Elya has to say.
"What kind of research were those key individuals doing?"
She smiled. "A Germanian physicist named Herbert Mataré has been working on what Anna calls transistor technology. She also identified a group of researchers in the Unified States that are also working on the same technology."
I knew the United States in my previous life became a computing and software juggernaut. Instead of fighting against the inevitable tide, I could simply join them.
"Then we'll need to fund Herbert Mataré's research. As for the Unified States, have Anna identify companies and key individuals that we could invest in without raising suspicions. If a key individual wants to establish their own company, we can help them create startup companies for them to exercise independence to focus on their work. I don't think we will be able to beat the Americans in the computer and software technology field, but we can certainly bet on the winning horses."
"Software?" Dr. Max Kramer asked as Elya scribbled notes down.
I blinked for a second. I need to stop getting ahead of myself.
"I meant programming computing devices, like being able to rewrite magic spells for orbs, or using the same spells on different orbs."
As the conversation continued, my mind drifted to thinking about the new magical arms race. Where different countries are pursuing different mage combat doctrines, and how we would be using helicopters, aircraft and anti-air systems to form the bulk of the counters against the communist mage hordes to free up our mages for special operations.
I really need to find a way to retire from this before the stress of overhauling our military and reconsidering mage conscription gets to me. Though I can't leave things as it is now lest I risk it all blowing up in my face later.
Curse you Being X!
AN:
wiki/Bar_Lev_Line#Breach
Within the first hour of the war, the Egyptian engineering corps tackled the sand barrier. Seventy engineer groups, each one responsible for opening a single passage, worked from wooden boats. With hoses attached to water pumps, they began attacking the sand obstacle. Many breaches occurred within two to three hours of the start of operations—according to schedule; however, engineers at several places experienced unexpected problems. The sand from the breached openings in the barrier was reduced to mud, which was one meter deep in some areas. This problem required that the engineers emplace floors of wood, rails, stone, sandbags, steel plates, or metal nets for the passage of heavy vehicles. The Third Army, in particular, had difficulty in its sector. There, the clay proved resistant to high-water pressure and, consequently, the engineers experienced delays in their breaching. Engineers in the Second Army completed the erection of their bridges and ferries within nine hours, whereas the Third Army needed more than sixteen hours.[9]
The 'Wild Ferrets' and 'Wild Weasels' are based on this: wiki/Wild_Weasel
wiki/Lazy_Dog_(bomb)
The weapons were designed to be dropped from an aircraft. They contained no explosive charge but as they fell they would develop significant kinetic energy[2] making them lethal and able to easily penetrate soft cover such as jungle canopy, several inches of sand, or light armor.[3] Lazy Dog munitions were simple and relatively cheap; they could be dropped in huge numbers in a single pass.[3] Though their effects were often no more deadly than other projectiles, they did not leave unexploded ordnance (UXO) that could be active years after a conflict ended.
Lazy Dog projectiles were used primarily during the Korean and the Vietnam Wars.
wiki/Herbert_Matar
His best-known work is the first functional "European" transistor, which he developed and patented together with Heinrich Welker in the vicinity of Paris in 1948, at the same time and independently from the Bell Labs engineers.
A reference to the "2000 heroes": wiki/Defense_of_Sihang_Warehouse
In Chinese, the 452 defenders are known as the Eight Hundred Heroes
Chapter title reference: watch?v=FzifREiUCDo
Extra stuff that didn't make the cut, where Visha, Elya, Lergen, Admiral Albrecht, air force Generals Weiss and von Richtoffer, a few other senior officers, Dr. Schugel and Dr. Max Kramer had their meeting:
I took a drink of coffee before beginning the conversation. "I understand that the navy has already been working on the upgrade designs for our ships under the FM Block 1 upgrade program. The CSR has paved the way for a new era of naval warfare. I would like to hear your inputs on how we can counter the tactics that the CSR used against the Albish, and possible future ones as we have to assume that they will keep improving their mage augmentation technology and having more C-tier mages converted into eventual aerial mages."
Admiral Albrecht was the first to speak up. "While there are magic detectors that can pick up on enchanted items, they are very limited in range and require active scanning. The water certainly interferes with those magic detectors. For now, we can have our fleets maintain constant movements in the water and to never idle, and in port, significantly increase security. And also intensify anti-mage boarding action training."
"We could probably use our existing high sensitivity magic detectors and active magic detectors for the basis of the underwater detector designs." Dr. Max Kramer speaks up. "But, I don't have a timeline of how long that will take."
"If they learn that we can detect their magically enhanced explosives, they will look into shielding those devices to reduce the detectable mana or cease using magic with explosives, so that is something to keep in mind. The CSR mages have no problem with pretending to be regular humans for their stealth operations." Visha added.
"We'll need sonars that can detect swimming humans in that case." Admiral Albrecht said as Dr. Max Kramer scribbled in his notes.
"If we force them out of the water with sonar, then what do we do next?" Visha asked.
"I think the easiest option is to use more of the 30 millimeter CIWS, especially when the CSR demonstrated that their mages are expendable and are willing to throw them away on very high risk operations." Admiral Albrecht said. "The jet fighters have also demonstrated great potential against massed aerial mages, so we are looking forward to implementing upgrade plans for our carriers to support naval version of our jet planes."
"We still can't get the radar system to detect water skimming targets due to the massive amount of clutter caused by the ocean waves, so those 30 millimeter rotary cannons will need a manual targeting system as a backup." Dr. Max Kramer said.
I remember the last time we discussed naval R&D, I had them look into anti-ship missiles. "Admiral Albrecht, I think we should consider using guided missiles against aerial mages instead of ships. Cruisers and battleships won't be our concern for a while, until the CSR starts building their copies of the ones they stole from the Albish. And I highly doubt the Albish would ever threaten us when the CSR just demonstrated that they are the new major power on the block by humiliating them."
Admiral Albrecht scribbled in his notes. "We'll definitely look into that weapon platform option."
I turned to the army generals. "Do you have any plans on how to deal with the massed mages?"
"Definitely more anti-aircraft guns." One of them said, "We could also use the new helicopters as gunships against the aerial and ground mages by equipping them with magic detectors, rockets and the 30 millimeter rotary cannons. As for the ground mages, we will definitely need handheld magic detectors to help locate those mages when they fire so we can call in artillery or bombing strikes on their position before they can flee."