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

1945, May 28th, in Berun:

It was inevitable.

Someone was bound to be working on nuclear technology.

I set down the report from the BND. They were still trying to determine which country, or countries, were pushing hard for it. The price of uranium ore had skyrocketed over the past month or so, and there were shell companies that were identified as being involved in the mining or transportation of thousands of tons of ores for some period of time, with no signs of slowing down. Thankfully we had already secured our supply of uranium ores at a fixed price with ironclad contracts before all of that happened and thus we're insulated from the demand shock.

The BND also said they were investigating to see if there might have been any compromises of our nuclear secrets, but so far it's way too early to tell. Considering that the experimental reactor was built somewhere in the Bharati Ocean and the power plant was under heavy security in Germania, it would have required nuclear scientists smuggling lots of information out.

I guess I'll need to think of a pre-planned response when we detect that country's first nuclear explosion. All I can do right now is start pushing for nuclear explosion detections. If I recall correctly from the Fukushima Daiichi and Chernobyl disasters, there were many radioactive isotopes released into the air. Maybe the scientists could come up with something to detect those particles.

But that brings another question. Is it possible for me to retire within a decade? I need to find a wedge issue. And then there's the problem that no one else will truly understand the destructive power of nuclear weapons when they haven't been used on a city.

And looking back on what I've done over the years, it completely contradicts what I believed in. I set up social welfare and regulations to buffer the country from the Great Depression. I pushed the People's Car through with government backing instead of letting the free market decide. I'm now setting Germania and potentially the rest of OZEV on a path away from foreign oil dependence even if it's uneconomical.

There was a knock on my door, but it didn't register in my mind as I continued pondering at the question.

...I need to find a way to step down and ensure my successor doesn't reduce the world to radioactive ash, and preferably to find said successor before I lose my sanity.

But how? I could have the Diet push through a law that specifically limits the situations that we can use nuclear weapons in, but if a law can be passed, it can also be repealed or amended.

I could set up an international limitation on nuclear weapons, but that is vulnerable to the prisoners' dilemma as all it takes is a country to crank away at the nuclear weapons for everyone else to abandon their weapons limitation.

Wait, wedge issue. Considering that the homosexual bar fire ended up causing a riot, I could definitely push the homosexual agenda to quickly get myself out of my office. I just need to avoid causing another riot while also securing a future for Visha and I.

That was when I noticed Visha was in my office standing right next to me as I was smiling to myself.

"Tanya, you seemed worried… until you suddenly started smiling."

Should I be honest with her about my concerns? But she knows me for too long to keep hiding my thoughts from her. Might as well as share some pieces of it.

"We won't be the only ones with nuclear weapons. What frightens me is how they may choose to use them. Maybe they'll show great restraint with weapons that can wipe out entire cities. Or instead use them as a sledgehammer to brutally win wars regardless of the consequences, and it would be even worse if another country already had their own nuclear weapons when one of their cities got razed to the ground by an attacker. As that Bharatian saying goes; 'an eye for an eye makes the world blind', and with nuclear weapons being fired at each other, it would be the end of civilization."

Visha was silent for a bit. Then she spoke up. "Well, publicly demonstrating our nuclear weapon would have intense reactions from around the world. It would probably trigger a build up of weapons among those that distrust us and already have them, or intensify their research if they were still developing them."

I sighed, "So no good options?"

"We could mandate the construction of nuclear bomb shelters... But that would also raise suspicions, and the Diet would balk at the high price tag of trying to protect every person in OZEV."

The Americans would be very unlikely to use nuclear weapons against us. The Albish would need to have a communist coup for them to consider starting a war against OZEV when we are both facing the communism menace. And that leaves the Rus and Chinese.

"So if the Russy Confederation and the CSR got their hands on a nuclear weapon, how would they deliver it?"

"Artillery...? No, too short range and it would risk destroying their own artillery gun in the process." Visha hummed. "Bombers? Until they have their own jet bombers, they would have to send hundreds of planes for each bombing mission in hopes of our fighter jets running out of ammunition before shooting down the bomber that has the nuclear bomb. Rockets? They do have rocket artillery now…"

How does one counter a nuclear missile? Didn't the United States attempt to develop a ballistic missile defense during the cold war in my previous world?

I was forming some ideas of how to approach the mad Dr. Schugel for missile interception concepts when Visha interrupted. "They… could also develop miniaturized nuclear bombs for their mages or intel agents to carry. Completely bypasses any anti-air defenses and side steps the problem of needing to develop a long range rocket.."

I blink as I comprehend just what my deputy is describing, "A suitcase bomb…?"

"Something like that. Or at least have it fit in a delivery truck or a car."

Terrorist attacks. Damn it, I'm facing the very real possibility of nuclear terror attacks!

I resist the urge to groan as I figure that I'll have to pile more work on Elya later. Do I even pay the woman enough? "Yeah, let's… let's go have lunch for now. That idea actually scares me."

In CSR, Li Kenong's office:

Li Kenong and Gao Gang were drawing out the Burma railroad plans.

"At the current pace of the railroad constructions and with the number of mages that we are using, we should be able to complete the railroad section in northern Burma by the end of this year. The railroad in Afghanistan is also proceeding as expected. The Russy Confederation reported early success with mineral prospecting, so the railways may end up supporting a mining industry. North Bharat has a significant amount of reconstruction work to do and thus they are more focused on repairing their existing railways." Gao Gang spoke as he traced his hand over the map.

"Once our own reconstruction from the Albish bombs is finished, I'll be looking forward to helping North Bharat get back on their feet. The two railroad links would definitely aid in the reconstruction work." Li Kenong responded. "On a side note, Luo Ronghuan said he eventually intends on having some of our future submarines be based out of North Bharat as a counterweight to South Bharat, the Germanian's hold over the South Bharatian Ocean, and the Albish control of the Suez Canal."

"All the more reason to finish the railroads and help North Bharat rebuild."

Li Kenong paused for a second. "Speaking of submarines, we also need to come up with the whole production chain for the submarines, once we are done rebuilding from the Albish bombings. All the way from the foundries to make the hulls to the drydocks for maintenance."

"How are we supposed to manufacture the torpedoes?" Gao Gang asked. "We have no technical expertise on those at all."

"Kang Sheng said they're working with foreign contacts to try to acquire the production schematics for torpedoes. The Russy Confederation seems to be our best option, as they have their own submarines and expressed interest in analyzing the one we have. For now, the submarines we are building will be used primarily for underwater mage deployments."

"And how many submarines do we need to build?"

Li Kenong pulled out a sheet of paper with some calculations on it. "We have approximately these many resources to build the factories and infrastructure for the submarines when reconstruction is done. After that, Luo Ronghuan should have the finalized number of submarines to be ordered. The rough estimate right now is about 5 submarines within four years after the end of reconstruction for trial runs, and then about 100 submarines within a decade after that, and 300 in two decades."

At a Germanian naval research center:

"More radar guided 30mm rotary cannons, radar guided anti-air missile launchers which means more radar systems as the original ones aren't accurate enough. And all of this on a destroyer platform that was designed in the late 1930's to be optimized around the original 20 and 37 millimeter anti-aircraft guns and to be manufactured at a low cost…" The chief engineer groaned as he realized that his list of problems still goes on. "...Can't make the missile launcher boxes too tall or it would affect the destroyer's stability in rough sea conditions, but it should still hold enough missiles to guarantee wiping out two mage battalions. No removal of the 5 inch guns to make more deck space because the rest of the admirals would go into an uproar. Can't make the hulls bigger because the budget won't allow that. And there's the requirement for depth charge launchers so the destroyers have a standoff capability against underwater mages."

The Chief Engineer looks at the captain sitting across his table."Where do I put them? This… at this rate, the men will have to wear the missiles and depth charges as hats!"

"I don't know! That's why you get paid the big Marks."

"Captain, there's no room! We're not talking about a pair of pants..."

"I know! I know! Goddammit! Admiral Albrecht is pushing those requirements down on us!" The captain yelled. before he breathed, took a few painkiller pills and downed it with coffee.

The two men had a brief silent pause before the chief engineer spoke up. "If we get rid of the upper 5 inch guns, or reduce the armoring of the ships, I could fit most of the requested systems without compromising the ship's stability. Besides, the new threats are enemy mage swarms, and armoring is useless when a swarm of them can board a battleship or crack the keel with the underwater explosions. Alternatively, if we can ask the higher ups for a larger budget limit, I can shift some of the extra weight below the water line to maintain stability. If none of those are possible, we could look into using bilge keels and deployable outriggers. We could also look into upgrading the propulsion system to help maintain speed and endurance even with the increased weight, although that would also increase costs."

"Outriggers? Wouldn't that slow down the destroyer?" The captain asked.

"Have them deployed in rough waters and hope the enemy mages don't destroy them beforehand." the chief engineer shrugged. "I'm assuming your superiors might balk at the idea of pressuring the Chancellor to increase the budget?"

The captain nodded yes.

"I'll just drop an anonymous note in the mail if we run into resistance."

In Berun:

It was a good thing that we had some snacks at the marketplace before coming to this restaurant, as it was packed with people doing post-war celebrations with returning veterans and the service was taking a while.

Visha cleared her throat as we sipped our coffee. "I think we might need to talk about the legal status of homosexuals. As of now there's a patchwork of local laws with varying levels of protection, or restrictions."

Right, there hadn't been any specific federal laws in place regarding LGBT matters. But if I'm going to be pushing for the "everyone is to be treated fairly", it should include everyone instead of just being specifically for LGBTs.

I stirred my coffee a bit. "What about equal protection of all citizens? No discrimination against people based on gender, sexual orientations, color, race, ethnicity, religion or culture? And speaking of anti-discrimination, I think we also need to address the topic of disabled veterans that can work, but need accommodations to do so."

Visha hummed, "What would be the line between 'can't accommodate' and outright discrimination?"

I waved my hand. "I'll let the lawyers deal with the specifics."

I then noticed a heated discussion between two businessmen at the next table over between. Years of sharpened instincts sprung into action as if it wasn't a lifetime away as she strained her ears to pick up on potential opportunities in the making.

I surreptitiously spun up an enhancement formula to comfortably listen in on the gentlemen a table over, but otherwise it sure took me back to my time rubbing shoulders with corporate high society in various Tokyo bars and general nightlife.

I had quickly learned back then to always keep an eye open for upper management that had a drink too much and lips a little too loose, ready for any chance that may present itself throughout a night.

Opportunities like this one shaped up to be, It seems that while investors would be interested in new hydropower projects in Legadonia Entente, the sticking point was the cost of building the transmission lines from such remote areas. Especially as Legadonia Entente is still recovering from the Rus invasion while contributing to the counter-insurgency operations in the Baltic states, which means additional investments were required before the hydroelectric dams could be functional.

I'm hesitant to throw money at yet another country with the Bharatian War making a mess of the budget.

Now that I'm thinking about it, Osterry and Ildoan Kingdom would have a lot of mountain rivers to build hydroelectric dams on. Perhaps if the projects and the electrical grid upgrade was funded by OZEV as a whole and in return the contributors are allocated a portion of the electricity output, that would definitely help with the energy security of OZEV while avoiding saddling Germania with the full cost. Legadonia Entente could also be part of that plan if they're willing to cooperate.

"Tanya, are you okay?" Visha asked.

I blinked my eyes in confusion. I must have been eavesdropping and lost in my thoughts for a bit too long.

"Sorry, what were we talking about?"

Visha rolled her eyes. "I was asking about establishing aerial lacrosse in South Bharat and you were just mumbling along. I think we could invite them to some sort of an international aerial lacrosse competition, then we can help train their selected athletes."

"You're asking to host that in Germania?"

"Why not?" she tilts her head slightly

"We're… a bit tight on the budget." I shrug, "I don't want a repeat of the World Cup's expenses when we still need to help South Bharat to rebuild and help the new republics."

She visibly drooped at that and I internally sigh. Perhaps I was too pessimistic with my wording.

"Maybe in a few years we can revisit the topic. We could have a few volunteers go to South Bharat to introduce the sport." I offer with a small smile, "We still have that offer extended to Greene, after all."

1945, July 2nd, Washington DC in the Unified States:

William Riley, the Secretary of State, John Dern, the Secretary of War, and William Joseph, the recently established Office of Strategic Operations, were seated as President Frederick Rosenvelt glanced once again at the newspapers. The New Amsterdam Times, New Amsterdam Post, and a Germanian newspapers were all on his desk, with the same topic on the front page. The world's first nuclear reactor being operational in Germania providing power to the electrical grid without emitting any smoke.

He knew there were domestic efforts at researching nuclear technology, but it was only a few hours ago when he was told that a "Chicago Pile 4" prototype reactor was struggling to sustain a reaction on its own and only generated a few watts of power at best, not even enough for a lightbulb.

William Joseph spoke up first. "If the Germanians already have a working nuclear reactor generating more than 10 megawatts of electricity and publicly announced that the next power plant would have over 100 megawatts capacity, there is a possibility that they may have already tested a nuclear bomb."

"So why haven't they used it against the communists by this point? A few bombs would have shocked the communists into surrendering." John Dern scratched his chin. "They took a beating in the Second Europan War against the Russy Federation and was only saved by the sudden deaths of Jugashvili and Bronstein, and we could have gotten a far more favorable peace deal in the Bharatian War."

"We could speculate all day on this, but I think our best option is to intensify our nuclear program to play catchup." Rosenvelt responded. "Should we contact the Albish or the Germanians to work together? After all, the main threat against all of us is the CSR with their sidekick Russy Confederation."

"The Albish refused to comment." William Riley shrugged. "I think they might also be working on their own nuclear weapons. It seems that they have a distrust of Germania, which they would certainly be unwilling to work with us if it seems we're too friendly with Germania. As for Germania, I would not be surprised if they refused to share their secrets after we lost the dual core orb technology to the Rus, who then evidently passed it on to the CSR to be used against us."

Damned traitors made things harder than they should be. William Riley thought to himself, before he continued. "Speaking of the Albish, we are making good progress with the home-on-magic missile development thanks to the rocket technology licensing from them and the contributions from the Goddard Rocket Laboratory." John Dern said. "We might have an answer to the CSR's massive mage numbers and their use of mage operated anti-aircraft guns."

"Not that we would be getting into a war anytime soon unless the communists attack us directly." William Riley sighed. "You've seen the public polls. There are rumors from contacts in Congress that there is a bill being drafted to restrict the executive office's ability to wage war and place more of the power to the Congress."

"I know. My own party is drafting that bill." Rosenvelt rubbed his forehead. "I'm afraid the Albish and the Germanians would be the only major powers to keep the communists in check, and this is the time when they need to work together."

1945, September 15th, Berun:

After talking with Foreign Minister Dertinge, it became clear that Legadonia Entente's foreign policy towards the Baltic States is to establish a Nordic Council, with Suomi being the most stubborn one to resist joining it. He had noted that the Entente had been trying to keep their distance away from us, and the Albish, so the Nordic Council is likely to be some sort of a "neutral" regional power. It was interesting to hear him mention that the ambassador from the Entente directly told him that they were not interested in taking sides between the growing rift of Germania and the Allied Kingdom.

I'm not too concerned. It's still an improvement compared to the Entente barely tolerating my presence just several years ago, and the European Union in my previous world had many "partial" members that didn't want to fully integrate themselves into the organization.

I shifted my focus to reports from Anna. Development of alternative energy in this world had been progressing earlier than I had expected. Anna's agents in the Unified States found information about the Smith–Putnam wind turbine project which had a megawatt capacity. It was built in 1941 and suffered a blade failure in March of this year. Due to lack of funding as the previously interested private investors decided it would not be economically competitive against conventional power sources, it remained unrepaired and may be fully dismantled. A utility company that was one of the investors calculated that it was generally about 50% more expensive than their existing power plants.

If I could get a mass production design before the Middle East flares up and causes an oil supply shock, I wouldn't mind a slightly more expensive electric bill when the alternative is telling people to turn off their lights due to insufficient oil supply.

Although, for foreign investments, I should have an organization to have such investments consolidated under. Maybe I could allow individual ministries to dabble with experimental investments with the help of the BND and Foreign Ministry, and setup a State Investment Ministry to handle more established investments. Other countries might get suspicious of my foreign investments, so I guess we'll just be relying on shell companies.

But this goes against the free market principle. Should I have Germania's government be dabbling directly with running companies? The Volksauto was just a one off example, but now with the wind turbine, other alternative energy projects, and getting involved with the Unified States' electronics industry, how should I justify this?

I leaned back in my chair to brainstorm something else. Maybe I could justify the state investments as a necessary evil. The alternative energy projects would buffer OZEV from oil shocks and accelerating the transistors development would help ensure that the free world would maintain a technological advantage over the communist mage swarms.

If I'm pushing for all of this, I can't retire just yet. Not until all of them are fully implemented. Maybe I could scale back my office duties. At the next GWP meeting, I could tell everyone that I have no interest in remaining as the Chancellor for the next elections and would like a different role. As long as I cause some minor controversy such as the LGBT issues, the GWP would have to start looking into finding a replacement for the Chancellorship. Of course I have to phrase my request very particularly to avoid emboldening the opposition to simply undo everything that I have setup. If they see me as weak, they would have minimal fears of me returning back to politics to undo their undoing.

I scribbled some notes about forming the Ministry of Energy and State Investment Ministry before turning my attention to reviewing the papers for a military alliance, trade agreement and an attached secret clause for intelligence sharing with Akitsushima Dominion.

Soon, I heard a knock on the door, and Elya poked her head in.

"Come on in."

She stepped inside. "Chancellor, regarding your request to monitor the Unified States and Albion's nuclear programs, this US Navy captain hit the front page of a local newspaper."

She slid the newspaper to me.

Captain Chaim G. Rickover dismissed. Navy announced that they are not interested in nuclear power.

Well considering that the Americans never got a whole bunch of free German scientists and threatened by Germany's possible atomic bomb development to get their Manhattan Project going, of course they're not going to be interested in using a technology that they don't fully understand. It was only last week when they publicly announced their 'Chicago Pile 4' reactor achieved a self-sustaining reaction, without disclosing how much power it was actually producing. And since they're still isolationist, there's no point in having almost unlimited endurance that a nuclear reactor provides compared to oil or diesel powered engines. It seems this Rickover person is a bit too far ahead of his time.

"Who is this Rickover person?"

"We did some research and even called him directly, posing as a newspaper reporter. This is the information we found so far."

Elya slid a report to me which I pulled closer to read. His family immigrated to the United States to flee the pogroms that were happening during the Rus communist revolution. During his naval career, he earned a masters in electrical engineering and volunteered for submarine duty. He later became the assistant chief of the Bureau of Engineering's electrical section.

"He's a huge proponent of nuclear powered propulsion for submarines, claiming that their underwater endurance is only limited by how much food they have on board. He could be a valuable asset if we have a naval nuclear propulsion program."

"There's no immediate need for nuclear powered vessels yet, but it would still be nice to have some tested designs the day we need to start producing those ships. Does he know Germanian?"

"He translated the book Das Unterseeboot that was written by the Imperial Navy Admiral Hermann Bauer for use by the US submarine service. Even if he can't speak our language, at least he can proficiently read and write."

"Although the Unified States might not like foreigners poaching their military personnel, if they're going to fire them, they have no right to complain. Don't directly mention Germania, just get an understanding of his feelings and what he wants to do. I feel like there's more to the story of why the US Navy kicked him out instead of just telling him to shut up."

Elya scribbled in her notes, and once she finished, she spoke again. "There was also news about the Albish declaring 'Malayan Emergency' after their Malaya colony experienced pro-communist revolts."

"Do you think the CSR might be involved with that?"

"It's too early to tell, but the CSR did publicly state that they had no involvement with the Malaya colony and wished to maintain the peace in the Bharat subcontinent." Elya responded. "If the CSR is being honest about that, they're probably scared of restarting the Bharatian War."

"Well, just to be on the safe side, I'm still going to push ahead with the Akinese military alliance treaty."

1945, October 26th, in the CSR:

Luo Ronghuan flipped through a set of reports regarding the naval developments. The prototype construction of an exact copy of the Albish submarine was still in the planning process. The torpedoes were nowhere close to being ready for production, so the first generation of submarines would do without them and instead rely on deploying mages and sea mines.

The salvage teams taking apart the sunken Albish ships had retrieved closed circuit rebreather diving kits, which are now being reverse engineered as they were far superior to snorkels or the heavy diving suits. There was also a proposal to take a torpedo design, remove the warhead, reduce the speed and use it to help propel underwater mages so they didn't have to use their magic. And those two devices would go perfectly well with the submarines as it would allow underwater mages to be deployed at a large distance from a targeted ship.

He heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" he demanded.

"Your good friend." Wang Ming responded.

"Come on in."

Wang slowly opened the door and stepped into the office. Luo motioned at a thermos holding hot tea and a set of tea cups, but Wang politely declined.

"You probably heard of the Akitsushima Dominion signing a military alliance and trade agreement with Germania." Luo said. "What's your opinion of it?"

Wang frowned. "Now the imperialists are surrounding us on three sides with OZEV and South Bharat. I don't like being put in the former Empire's position of being surrounded with enemies."

"And I don't think there's much we can do." Luo sighed. "Open war against any three would just restart the entire mess that we just dealt with. I wonder what the Chairman plans on doing about that."

"It would take a long time to build up the oil industry in Sibyria and the Rus's Central Asia holdings. I was angry at the so-called peace deal that was proposed where we would be buying oil and borrowing money from the Albish, and then the imperialists revealed their true colors by blowing up the ships anyways."

"I guess our only option is to avoid another world war, at least until our oil situation is resolved. Or we take out the imperialists' oil supply so all of us are on an equal footing." Luo then shifted his look. "Then there's the Germanian stealth mages that could just fly into our capital undetected, make a mockery of us by blowing up all of the symbolic buildings including the Forbidden City, and then fly out. We're still having trouble getting anything close to what they can do."

"The NKVD said they might have an idea." Wang said with a smile. "They're working on an 'active magic scanning' that can greatly amplify very faint magic emissions and small magic spells into easily detectable levels."

He then frowned a bit. "The problem is that it uses a tremendous amount of mana, and of course any mage using the active scanning will be detected by even the cheapest magic detectors from a vast distance"

Luo's face brightened up. "If we can keep improving our mage augmentation technology, we could utilize the active scanning."

"Speaking of foreign affairs, we'll need to figure out what to do with Afghanistan, Tibet and Burma. Religious, non-communist, autonomous states have always bothered me. North Bharat also irks me with their fusion of religion and communism, but they're less of a priority compared to the rest."

Luo nods and takes a sip of his tea. "I agree."

Hm. How long has he been working for? It was already getting lukewarm…

1946, February 8th:

Looking at the reports of the CIWS demonstration for the Akitsushima Dominion, I'm glad their Emperor ordered the invasion of Joseon to be cancelled. They were initially hesitant of buying a gaijin's weapon, but it became very apparent that their Type 96 25mm Gun, the standard short range anti-aircraft gun on all of their ships, were completely inadequate against mage swarms and even less against jets. The only weakness of the CIWS was against sea-skimming mages and jets, but there's always the "accuracy through volume of fire" which their Type 96 cannons couldn't do.

Admiral Albrecht was initially hesitant to the idea of selling our latest anti-aircraft systems as it had the risk of leaking the information to the communists like what happened with our Type 97 orb, until I explained to him that the sales would help fund the navy's fleet modernization program and development of better CIWS, such as the prototype where watercooled quadruple barrels and improved radar are used to help maximize anti-aircraft firepower with the limited deck space. That, and having powerful allies means the CSR can't just focus on us.

I looked at the next set of reports. The BND had noticed that the various opposition groups, despite having wildly different viewpoints, are seemingly directing almost all of their efforts against the GWP and the GDU. The GDU has been dealing with an internal power struggle with Conrad and Dertinge fighting with some of the more religious hardliners that insisted the GDU should not continue its "unholy alliance" with the GWP.

I smiled to myself as I leaned back. The GWP would definitely have to find a replacement Chancellor and President. I was getting real tired of the extra administrative duties of holding both Chancellorship and Presidential offices, and with no more wars to serve as a convenient excuse for the GWP to kick the can down the road, I could start to tone down the madness.

I heard a knock on my door. I pushed the papers aside before telling them to come in.

It was Elya, and she looked a bit nervous.

"Is it the communists?" I asked.

She shook her head no. "It's Alsace-Lorraine's referendum. I've been getting reports of suspicious uptick of pro-Frankish activities in that region, with the background checks of some of the pro-Frankish movement organizers yielding unusual results."

Oh. That. The war has been keeping me occupied for a while.

"Do we know who is backing them?"

"Not yet. But if we bring in a few for…" Elya looked around for a second. "Questioning, it could help identify who they might be working for."

"I don't want to give any indications of us interfering with their referendum. So no activities that might end up being blasted in the newspapers."

Elya scribbled in her notes. "Passive monitoring then?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "Seems like a safe option."

"What about the domestic opposition?" Elya asked as she continued writing.

I rest the side of my head on my fingers as I resist the urge to groan, "Elya, you can't just strike down on anyone that shows the smallest sign of opposition…"

"I wasn't!" Elya grumbled. "I only had the polling agents conduct passive monitoring. Besides, you said to leave the common people alone back when we were dealing with the communists."

I relaxed a bit, and then suddenly became stiff when Elya mentioned about the communists. "What happened to the communists' leadership?"

Elya happily described in detail how she handled the red menace. I kept a straight face, but inside, I was completely baffled at how much I was unaware of her agents dismantling the communists and was concerned about just how brutally efficient she was. I might hate the communists, but the BND's capability in the hands of a less mentally restrained successor would be a totalitarian's twisted wet dream.

I couldn't criticize her, not when I was the one to appoint her and when all she did was be overly enthusiastic in her duties of protecting the state. So as long as I keep the BND in check and not have the current opposition groups squashed, it would help set a precedent to reduce the risk of abuse of power.

"Oh, has anyone told you yet of who the GWP and GDU picked for the Chancellor and Deputy Chancellor when we win the elections again?" Elya asked.

I raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Aren't they supposed to pick the people after the election results come out?"

"Well with the opposition groups focusing only on the local elections, the choices were obvious." Elya shrugged her shoulders. "Visha would be the Chancellor, and Conrad would be the Deputy Chancellor. Don't worry, the BND didn't find anything suspicious about Conrad or Dertinge. It seems those two are now tied with GWP unless they want to give up their offices."

So they still want me to be President. This is getting annoying. I just want to retire!

AN:

wiki/Chicago_Pile-1

wiki/X-10_Graphite_Reactor#Operation

By February 1944, the reactor was irradiating a ton of uranium every three days. Over the next five months, the efficiency of the separation process was improved, with the percentage of plutonium recovered increasing from 40 to 90 percent. Modifications over time raised the reactor's power to 4,000 kW in July 1944.[50] The effect of the neutron poison xenon-135, one of many fission products produced from the uranium fuel, was not detected during the early operation of the X-10 Graphite Reactor. Xenon-135 subsequently caused problems with the startup of the Hanford B reactor that nearly halted the plutonium project.[56]

wiki/S2W_reactor

It generated 13,400 horsepower (10.0 MW).

wiki/Obninsk_Nuclear_Power_Plant

The single reactor unit at the plant, AM-1 ("Атом Мирный", Atom Mirny, Russian for "Peaceful Atom"), had a total electrical capacity of 6 MW and a net capacity of around 5 MWe. Thermal output was 30 MW. It was a prototype design using a graphite moderator and water coolant. This reactor was a forerunner of the RBMK reactors.

wiki/Smith_wind_turbine

wiki/Malayan_Emergency

wiki/Shchuka-class_submarine

On 23 January 1930, the USSR Revolutionary Military Council (Revvoensoviet) adapted a proposed submarine concept that were to "execute positioning service on closed theatres". Plans were made to construct up to 200 submarines in three main versions, the later ones would be larger and with longer range than the previous versions. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, only 88 submarines were commissioned. It was still to be the second most numerous submarine class of the Soviet Navy (only the M class were more numerous with 111 built). Seven ship construction yards were involved in the program - No. 189, 190, 194 in Leningrad, No. 112 in Gorky, No. 200 in Nikolaev and No. 202 in Vladivostok.

Japan's WW2 ships' anti-air guns were… disappointing: wiki/Type_96_25_mm_AT/AA_Gun

The Type 96 was a mediocre weapon compared to its contemporaries in other navies. It was hampered by slow training and elevating speeds (even in power-operated triple mounts), excessive vibration and muzzle flash, and that the ammunition feed was via a 15-round fixed magazine, which necessitated ceasing fire every time the magazine had to be changed.[10] According to "US Naval Technical Mission to Japan report O-47(N)-2", all magazines had to be loaded by hand as no specialized loading equipment was ever developed. Overall, it was more comparable to the 20mm Oerlikon, though vastly inferior to the 40mm Bofors weapons used by the US and allies in every respect except rate of fire (and only barely in that respect: the Bofors could put out a sustained 120 round/minute because of its constant-fire top-fed ammo clip design, whereas the 25mm's frequent ammo box changes lowered its nominal rate of fire to only half of its theoretical maximum of 260 rounds per minute).[11]

The Japanese ranked in order of seriousness the problems with the gun as:

1. Elevation and traverse were too slow, even with powered mounts;

2. The sights were ineffective against high speed targets;

3. Firing the multiple mounts caused excessive vibration, which reduced accuracy and prevented effective target tracking;

4. Too little ammunition in each magazine resulted in a low overall rate of fire.

Rickover in real life was not a pleasant person to work with, and made a lot of enemies: wiki/Hyman_G._Rickover#Forced_retirement

According to former President Jimmy Carter, several weeks following his retirement, Rickover "was invited to the Oval Office and decided to don his full dress uniform. He told me that he refused to take a seat, listened to the president [Reagan] ask him to be his special nuclear advisor, replied 'Mr. President, that is bullshit,' and then walked out."[95] The Navy's official investigation of General Dynamics' Electric Boat division was ended shortly afterward. According to Theodore Rockwell, Rickover's Technical Director for more than 15 years, more than one source at that time stated that General Dynamics officials were bragging around Washington that they had "gotten Rickover."[96]

Rickover has been called "the most famous and controversial admiral of his era."[99] He was hyperactive, blunt, confrontational, insulting, and a workaholic, always demanding of others without regard for rank or position.[100] Moreover, he had "little tolerance for mediocrity, none for stupidity."[101] Even while a captain, Rickover did not conceal his opinions, and many of the officers whom he regarded as unintelligent eventually rose to be admirals and were assigned to the Pentagon.[102] Rickover frequently found himself in bureaucratic combat with these senior naval officers, to the point that he almost missed becoming an admiral; two selection boards passed him over for promotion, and it took the intervention of the White House, U.S. Congress, and the Secretary of the Navy before he was promoted.[13][103]

Rickover's military authority and congressional mandate were absolute with regard to the U.S. fleet's reactor operations, but his controlling personality was frequently a subject of internal Navy controversy. He was head of the Naval Reactors branch, and thus responsible for signing off on a crew's competence to operate the reactor safely, giving him the power to effectively remove a warship from active service, which he did on several occasions. The view became established that he sometimes exercised power to settle scores.[104] Author and former submariner Edward L. Beach Jr. referred to him as a "tyrant" with "no account of his gradually failing powers" in his later years.[105]

I also read the book "Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage", and he definitely exercised power to settle scores. A captain ended up getting Rickover's wrath because the captain was legally not allowed to tell people who did not have a "need-to-know" on some very secret missions (in this case, it was wiretapping undersea Soviet cables), and Rickover insisted on knowing about all of the operations that the submarines were involved in.