Sovereign

“The touted ‘Loop–Satre Line’, or the 2nd defense line set up by MN forces in Gallia, has been breached this morning by four Pozneki and Larissan armored divisions. The determined CFN push has now intensified with massive reserves brought up from the rear in the preceding weeks. Even with mounting losses and tactical defeats on the CFN side, MN ground forces in Gallia remain outgunned and outnumbered. Most Gallian brigades have now reported ammunition shortages, and logistical failures, alongside a slew of problems that the Gallian State and both Orland and Lorathia are rapidly trying to fix. However, the air war remains firmly in the MN’s hands, with CFN losses both in the air and ground to MN airpower still making up the majority of their material and manpower losses.”

- Geopol Press

+++

Kingdom of Gallia

Toldoi

June 26, 2025

“Well, those two don’t seem to be getting along very well,” William remarked as Amelie, Adelaide, and Nia entered the meeting room. Amelie could see how pissed Queen Louise was whenever she glanced at their Prime Minister, and Amelie could see how equally cold Mr. Clovis Doval was at his monarch. “She looks like she wants to zap him or something.”

“Not funny,” Nia said to William, who removed the slight amusement present on his face, before straightening himself.

“Sorry. I’ll stop…”

“Welcome to the…the Kingdom of Gallia,” Louise said, with an obviously forced smile, as the rest of the highest-ranking men of the Gallian Junta, the Ministers of the Interior and Defense, all stood up to receive Amelie’s group. Amelie gracefully smiled, as she, Adelaide, and William shook hands with the leaders of the new Gallian government.

She especially noticed how their Minister of Defense, Remi Leblanc, gripped her hand a little bit too tightly. Amelie responded by pulling his hand in a firmer manner as she smiled at him, making it clear that she was a damned Queen. The man’s hand faltered a bit, and Amelie shook it a few more seconds to make her point clear.

By the time she removed it, Clovis glanced at Remi with a disappointed sigh, before Remi merely shrugged. Amelie just smiled as she went to her seat, eyeing Nia a bit, who also just shrugged, having watched the awkward turn of events.

I’m not going to let them have any stupid ideas. Amelie thought to herself. These three are under me. I’m not letting them get disloyal to me now.

“So, shall we begin?” Amelie asked, looking at Louise. “I believe we have a lot to tackle today.”

“Not really a lot,” Clovis said, as the man sat on his chair, just beside his Queen. “Just two major problems. Mainly the sporadic unrest in my country…the limitations you imposed on us with our response, and…of course, maybe we can talk about the breakthrough that Poznek and Larissa managed to do on the frontlines, which we cannot deny anymore.”

Clovis turned to look at William.

“You got your spymaster here?”

“Just one,” Amelie smiled, as William grinned a bit. Amelie knew that it was William who really propped up Clovis into the leadership role during the confusing days of the mutiny. In other words, this Prime Minister was supposed to be William’s asset. “Just thought that some familiar faces would be nice to bring. That, and he’d be representing our Defense Ministry, since, as you well know, Lady Pristina is quite the busy woman.”

“I can imagine,” Clovis said, and Amelie could see some beads of sweat forming on his forehead, while Louise eyed William suspiciously.

Amelie just clapped as she tried to smile wholesomely at everyone.

“Come on, everyone, I know things are bad, but I believe we should loosen up a bit. We’re friends here. Right, Your Majesty, hmm?”

“Right…” Louise said, still looking at William suspiciously. “We’re…friends.”

“Wonderful!” Amelie said. “Now, as for the issues you raised to us, the…erm, limits of your internal response, well, I believe you are having some issues with it, no?”

“No, we’re not—” Louise tried, before being rebuked by their Minister of the Interior, Enzo Courbis.

“Currently, eighteen cities are still experiencing some degree of unrest ever since the ousting of the previous monarch and government,” Enzo said. “We have so far only deployed Army units utilizing ad hoc equipment to quell the unrest, as the Police has proven politically unreliable, and the Royal Guard has been disbanded.”

Louise merely crossed her arms and looked to her side, clearly pissed by these changes.

“So far, around half of the estimated protestors and dissidents have since scattered, but the remnants are proving to be a tough nut to crack. We have reason to believe that these are radicals and that they will not scatter until our current legitimate government is disbanded, which is unacceptable to the interests of Gallia. They are believed to have significant connection to female nobles who resist the changes imposed by the Doval Government, and of CFN agents seeking to spread discord and chaos to our Kingdom.”

“Pfft…” Louise just shook her head to the side, clearly not believing the words of the Gallian Admiral. “Maybe that’s because they want their voice to be heard.”

“The voices of the ‘people’, is…invaluable,” Amelie declared. “But…we understand the wartime hardships imposed on the Gallian State, and that the Gallian State may prefer to perhaps sideline the unproductive opinions of a large minority, but…we advised you to avoid any harsh response specifically for the interests of Gallia. It may just cause the situation to deteriorate, on the contrary.”

“Orland remains fixed on its position,” Adelaide adamantly said. “The International Community will not find a harsh response in any positive light. We prefer our allies to be reasonable in how they conduct themselves, especially as your ally, your reputation is linked to our Kingdom’s reputation, and our Queen’s reputation.”

Adelaide leaned forward.

“No.”

“Well, there’s that I guess,” Clovis said. “Let’s break the formalities. Let us do the crackdowns. Our analysis showed already that we can end the unrest in a week if we remove the leash imposed on the Armed Forces. Then…then the disruptions will end, and the faster we can stabilize the frontlines.”

“I don’t believe any of that!” Louise said. “What if they just start shooting my valued subjects? I am not accepting any response that leaves innocent young women dead on the streets of my Kingdom!”

“Come on, you’re not even supposed to be here,” Remi said, turning to Clovis. “See, I told you, man.”

“Look, she does have a point,” Amelie said. “What are these measures you propose?”

“Whatever our local units deem necessary,” Enzo said. “Short of…doing a massacre, of course, we’re not planning for any of that. But, it is Martial Law. A heavy-handed response, coupled with raids and even executions of the ring-leaders will fully crack the dissidents.”

“No, not happening,” Adelaide said.

“Yeah, I share that opinion,” Amelie shook her head.

“Well, we tried…” Remi said. “Whatever, I guess that settles it then?”

“We could have ended this in days,” Enzo shook his head.

“But alright, we value our alliance with you more,” Clovis said with finality. “Give us more tanks, and those new mechs in exchange for this, as the unrest is causing us a level of industrial disruptions. For free.”

“Signed,” Amelie said. “I’ll see what I can do. Tell me how many?”

“We’ll send the numbers to you.”

“Okay, that’s the deal done then,” Amelie raised her hand to the direction of their Prime Minister. “I believe it’s a good one. A humane regime…”

“...In exchange for the weapons we need,” Clovis took it and shook Amelie’s hand, as she smiled. “It’d be cool if we could have a few more of those LF-20s though.”

“Now you’re just pushing it, Mr. Prime Minister,” Amelie chuckled a bit to herself. “But, maybe, in the next lend-lease agreement.”

“We’d have to pay for it post-war though.”

“Of course,” Amelie replied. “I’m just giving you an exception for now. So I expect that Gallia treats its more…misbehaved citizens gently, okay?”

“Right, Your Majesty.”

“Good.”

“We still got problems,” Remi interrupted. “They broke through our lines. The next defense line is the one in Toldoi itself. We expect them to be here in three weeks at most. While these new promises of free equipment are nice, it’s not going to be useful until the next four months at most.”

“Indeed,” Amelie admitted with a sigh. “But we can ship a lot of guns and small arms in the short term. The figures are in. We’d be able to arm at least twenty to thirty thousand light infantry if need be. Maybe that can help in the defense?”

William nodded.

“We used the same tactic back during the siege of Halia,” William said. “Early on, we mobilized a lot of meat to hold the line until the mechanized forces arrived. They held on decently well when entrenched.”

“We already exhausted our supply of young men,” Remi laughed a bit. “In fact, all of our formations are being dried at the moment. Their numbers aren’t being replaced. The First Great War. Then this. The only ones Gallia has left in its young male population are cripples. And we cannot remove the older men from the factories.”

“And here he’ll go again,” Louise rolled her eyes. “He’ll justify again to crack down harder on women to drag them into the frontlines. Tell me, old man, how’s that going to work when you punched someone in the face and then gave her a gun, huh?”

“As if any of you have any choice,” Remi shook his head. “It’s either us or them. Have none of you seen their massacres already? They’re conducting reprisals to women mainly. I imagine a CFN-occupied Toldoi won’t be a fun place for those who protest mass mobilization.”

Amelie sighed, crossing her arms as she leaned back in her seat. Pacifying their population to arm them is such a ridiculous requirement. Goddess…I really am propping up a government that has no right to rule. Amelie frowned as she watched their literal Queen argue with her Defense Minister, while the Gallian Prime Minister and Interior Minister remained silent. Without Orland, Gallia would have fallen a long time ago to civil war. Or to whatever the hell Lieplatz turned out to be. Damn you, Clericia! Look at how much you ruined your Kingdom!

Then again, I can say the same for my mother. But at least I had enough time and power with me to turn it around somehow. Gallia doesn’t! They’re surrounded by enemies at all sides, and inside, they bicker and bicker and bicker like little children. Neither Clericia’s regime nor this Junta have any right to exist. But…I have to keep propping them up. For as long as possible.

She sighed, realizing that post-war, Gallia probably would not be in a good situation regardless of her victory.

“That’s why we’re planning for a counteroffensive,” Amelie said. “We already have a lot of troops ready for it. We’re just gathering them and waiting for the best moment. Once the opportunity presents itself, we’ll drive them off from Gallia with an overwhelming show of force.”

“Yes, but the plan that General Albrecht and the OHC gave us is to hold for another month,” Remi said. “It’s not possible. All your forces are being kept in reserve near the country’s interior—”

“Sending them to battle will render them incapable of conducting an effective combined arms campaign.”

“Exactly,” Remi said. “That means Orland and Lorathia are planning to sacrifice my nation for a grand victory. That’s the truth, isn’t it? Your piecemeal forces and the Gallian Armed Forces are just meant to bleed them in our defense lines and our urban north before the Orlish and Lorathian Expeditionary Forces sweep in from the south to murder them all.”

Louise appeared horrified.

“What?!”

Clovis simply pinched the bridge of his nose as he looked down.

“We already have plans to evacuate the capital of its civilian population,” Clovis said. “Holding Toldoi without sending in all of the reserve forces from the LEF and OEF assigned for the counterattack…would mean that the capital will fall. We can’t hold the north.”

“That’s defeatist,” Amelie said. “We just need a little more time. No one’s saying we’re letting Toldoi fall. What we’re saying is that we need more time to send in more forces and prepare them for the big fight. Sending them prematurely will defeat the coup de grace that my Generals are looking for.”

“Then why can’t you just send everything to stop them at the gates?” Louise asked. “We can kill more of them in defense!”

“Their entire plan hinges on the CFN stretching their supply lines and being caught completely off-guard,” Clovis answered. “We’re now outnumbered three-to-one in tank numbers. They need a miraculous win to defeat millions of the CFN tide with a few hundred thousand. Even technological leverage can only go so far.”

“We’ll catch them at their weakest,” William said. “I’ll try suggesting changes to the big plan. Perhaps in two weeks, their armored corps would have already been depleted of supplies, numbers, and morale enough that we can start maneuvers to cut them off.”

“VACCOM is already doing that,” Amelie said. “They analyze and revise the plans based on how the frontline is going. The latest report they gave my desk is three to four weeks. A month away.”

“Well, perhaps, it’s time to convince General Albrecht not to focus on the optimal timing,” William said, before grinning a bit. “Assuming Gallia likes to gamble, would you four love a premature counterattack? Sure, it’s a bit more risky, and again, not the most optimum solution, and if it fails…you know what will happen, but…Toldoi might be untouched if we do that. So how about it?”

The Gallians looked at each other before they all settled in a unanimous decision in just a second.

“We want our capital saved.”