Sovereign

“The Mandate of Nations finally passes Resolution 3250, formally turning the Mandate of Nations into a defensive alliance. All MN member states that signed Resolution 3250 will now be protected by the MN Defense Pact. Should any MN member state come under another attack from the CFN or other “rogue states” the Defense Pact will be triggered to call all nations into collective defense. However, ongoing wars are not included in Resolution 3250, but MN member states are expected to provide humanitarian, economic, and military aid to friendly MN member states already under attack or under a civil war with a CFN-aligned member state. Half of the MN has now announced mass or partial mobilization, mirroring the actions of the CFN’s mass mobilization.”

- Geopol Press

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Kingdom of Orland

November Palace

The November Palace was now in a flurry of activity.

In front of Amelie, the members of the Heiss Government talked endlessly about the progress on each of their tasks. The Ministry of Health and Social Services, represented by Allison Thell went on and on about the current state of the Orlish Welfare system. All in all, it was clearly going bad, including healthcare. As always, Orlish hospitals remained under high activity with the casualties from the frontlines and from the constant bombings.

The Ministry of Defense, with Archduchess Pristina Dubois, bragged on and on about the developments in both the OAF and RGO. While the Archduchess couldn’t fathom speaking much about the OAF except for whatever they reported to her, she seemed ecstatic about the fact that her KDUs were now starting to do well on the battlefield, being deployed side-by-side with the OAF.

But of course, Amelie didn’t bother to listen much to her. In matters of national defense, Amelie always favored listening instead to the OHC, their various intelligence agencies, the OPM, and the RIU anyway. Still, it was good that the KDUs were deployed in the front. That meant more meat to replace the elite forces she would be pulling out for the Orlish Expeditionary Forces.

Then, the Minister of Economy, Countess Anne Wittfield finally spoke. This was where Amelie was interested.

“Our projections are growing ever more optimistic,” the Countess began with a smile. Even Marie, her daughter, who was sitting just in front of her at the meeting table smiled as well. It was quite the nice arrangement, Amelie thought. Mother and daughter, both in high places of her government for their competence.

“Right now, our industrial output has reached eighty-seven percent of our pre-Civil War figures,” the Countess continued, flipping through the documents she held. “We have opened, moved, reopened, or expanded our industries, especially heavy industries in West Orland. So much so that by next year, we would be able to devote as much as thirty percent of our GDP on military matters, as our industrial capacity would finally be able to support it. While we have increased our military production to keep up with the demands of the Ministry of Defense, most of our expansion has been in supporting civilian heavy industries. We have opened up factories for heavy machinery and tooling for example to support our construction of military-based factories or conversion of civilian factories to manufacture military equipment instead of consumer goods.

“More than that, we have expanded our high-tech chip fabrication plants. Thanks to the OAF’s air cover, we have actually not lost any of our fabrication plants, and with four more fabrication plants that luckily opened up in the last few months due to the previous government’s policy of expanding Orland’s chip-making capabilities, we have actually increased our production of high-end chips by forty-percent, with fourteen fabrication plants online in West Orland, in comparison to a meager four online in the Free State of Wuringen. This will ensure long-term that Orland’s military equipment will be able to source high-end components for whatever new developments we may need.

“Then into the actual production of military equipment, for the last fiscal quarter, we have produced a thousand tanks of all variants of the Löwe MBT, two thousand various AFVs such as IFVs, APCs, and other lighter hulls. We have produced six hundred M2 LSS Mechs and three hundred of the new Parasite Mechs in the expanded production run. Alongside that are four hundred airframes completed, with a hundred being the LF-20 Phantom stealth aircraft, and of course the enormous quantities of rations, munition, rifles, vests, helmets, drones, and everything in between that the MoD considers as bread and butter for its forces. Of course, much of this equipment is still being processed to our logistical hubs, so it’s really up to the OAF to get these things to reinforce the front.

“As for shipbuilding, we have reopened three major shipyards in West Orland that we closed a decade ago. These shipyards required significant capital to reopen, and they are still only partially online, but two of these shipyards can produce large surface combatants and submarines, and the least capable of producing supercarrier hulls as a replacement for the now-canceled Halia Shipyard, though, it will not be offering the same production capabilities that we expected in the Halia Shipyard, and we may only produce at most two or three carriers from it in the next five years. Alongside that, we have finished the construction of five Gallant-Class DDGs, two Sentinel-Class CGs, and eight Tiger-Class FFGs, alongside other naval hulls. Though, seventy-five percent of these new hulls are yet to be commissioned by the Navy.

“All these however are expensive endeavors…and our spending is projected to reach a staggering one point two trillion blancs once FY2025 ends. By FY2026, we expect spending to reach two point five trillion blancs, and by FY2027, if this war is still ongoing…we are gearing up to a four trillion blancs spending budget, representing nearly forty percent of our current eleven trillion blancs of nominal GDP after the loss of our territories to the rebellion. We are…mobilizing everything, and Orland will surely be in even greater debt even if we win this war.”

The Countess looked around the room, as the early optimism from her production reports faded into a gloomy atmosphere when the topic of spending and debt was brought up. One of the main exact causes of the disastrous 2024 economic crisis that helped bring this war too. Amelie knew how bad the Countess’ forecast was long-term.

Orland’s economy already buckled before the First Great War, then it had to fight for years subjecting it to even greater pressures even if Orland won. Then it buckled again, and now, a war was on Orland’s land all while the economy, while being drugged to produce even more—was placed under greater strain.

The reality was, once Amelie won, whatever utopic abundance Orlishwomen enjoyed would be over. She already talked to the Countess about it. There would be less spending on women’s social welfare once this was over. All of it would be going into reconstruction and debt maintenance/payments.

Still, Amelie wasn’t going to lose hope. She had seventy percent of the Orlish economy under her flag. Even if the Federalists had the industrial advantage for now due to the Free State, by the second or third year, once West Orland’s civilian industries fully mobilized for wartime production, she’d have outlasted the Federalists and would have ensured their defeat in this attritional war.

All we need to do is hold on until then.

“...That about ends the Q1 report of FY2025,” the Countess said.

“Well…” Prime Minister Jacqueline could only shake her head. “I suppose it is to be expected, everyone. For now, let’s just focus on winning the war instead of going all doom and gloom about what happens afterward. We’ll rebuild, I’m sure of it. We’ll build back Orland and her economy to its illustrious strength two decades ago, eventually.”

Amelie smiled. “Thanks for the optimism, Jacqueline. In any case, we have three good news now at least. First is the KDUs deploying, second, the resolution finally passed, third, our industries are alive and well. However, I’m afraid we still have issues, no?”

“Aye,” General Albrecht, who was present, as always, in the meetings (even if he was not part of the Orlish Cabinet) spoke up. “About the reorganization of the OAF, we’re adjusting our estimates to a year before we reach the amount of armored and light mech brigades that we have targeted in order to conduct an offensive in our lands. We lost six hundred tanks in just five months. That’s the equivalent of six armored brigades lost overall, and we have only sent four hundred tanks to the front in that time period.”

“Wait,” Amelie frowned. “Minister Wittfield said we are producing a lot. How is it that we only sent that many actual tanks to the frontlines?”

“Because the new crews are still training,” the General said. “They’re trickling in, but slowly. Right now, our bottleneck isn't the actual production, but effective manpower. You ordered us to maintain at least three months of training time for our tank crews after all.”

Oh…

Amelie remembered that. She had been pissed that many of her nation’s young men serving under her in these death coffins were dying at a stupid rate. So instead of the OAF sending in young men with one month of training (she heard that the normal rate was at least six months), Amelie forced the OHC to increase it to three months.

“Wait, I remember that you all told me that it shouldn’t hurt too much even with the downsides?” Amelie asked. “I ordered that so we can keep at least a level of decency in our armored corps. Is it…is it compromising our frontline units?”

The General shook his head. “Not exactly, though, again, the problem is they would be getting reinforcements in a late fashion. And with constant combat, that means most of our armored brigades are from fifty to eighty percent of actual combat strength. That means that while on paper, an armored brigade should have eighty to ninety Löwes, in reality, it would have around fifty to seventy. Is it bad? No, not really, unless they go down to below fifty percent combat strength at long stretches of time. Is it not ideal? Yes, but nothing is ideal. The true main problem your policy brings is that this means we cannot expand our armored brigades to our desired numbers within a year. But…that’s the tradeoff.”

Amelie slackened in her seat. “Okay…then why are you continuing it?”

“I trust Her Majesty’s wisdom in desiring better tankers,” the General said. “While we want more tanks on the field, we realize that if we’re going to conduct an offensive, we might as well make sure that our new formations would have the quality to conduct a combined arms push.”

“I see then…” Amelie sighed. “Next…on this day’s agenda is women’s conscription. Everyone…when the hell are we mobilizing? And when I say mobilizing, I don’t mean the boys already either dead or dying on the front, I mean us, young women. Our strategic plans are being impaired by the lack of units to replace those being assigned to our expeditionary forces, and I am particularly pissed by it, Jacqueline…”

The Prime Minister gulped. “Look…the Parliament—”

“I don’t care about the opinions of the parliament anymore, just like I stopped caring about the opinions of the fence-sitters in the Mandate of Nations. Are they doing something or not?”

“We’re going to be holding another vote next week—”

“Next week is another week of inaction when I need to find assurances that there will be replacements to the brigades that the OAF is preparing for the OEF. We need more goddess-damned meat on the frontlines because we are diverting our best of the best to prevent the collapse of our allies. When are we going to get the assurance that we will have more bodies to fill the gaps that we will eventually have?”

“...Your Majesty,” General Albrecht suddenly chimed in. “I must say though, regardless of what happens, the OAF is ready to defend the nation. If we’re not receiving women as reinforcements outside of the volunteers in the KDUs…then we’ll hold the line ourselves.”

“And I am not permitting such a scenario, General,” Amelie frowned. “No. Not under my rule. I know that most of our mobilized formations have barely been rotated out of the battlefield. These men have been knee-deep on the trench lines for a year straight, fighting day and night without any hope of reprieve. This level of torment to our defenders is not to be tolerated, even if they would proudly insist that they can hold on if need be. There are no excuses. The conscription bill must be passed, and the OAF will form new units made up of women who can participate in the frontlines side-by-side with their brothers.

“And if it isn’t passed—it’s wartime, everyone,” Amelie crossed her arms. “As the Queen, I’ll do what must be done if need be with the emergency executive powers granted to me. Whether the Parliament passes it or not, our daughters will be sent to the grinder to serve their duties to the Kingdom. Thus, it is up to you, Jacqueline…”

She frowned at her friend because while Amelie knew this wasn’t Jacqueline’s fault, Amelie wanted her to act at all costs now.

“Will your party stain the honor of women by not passing this democratically and thus painting us as traitors to our own nation when I have to force the issue myself, or will you and the UOP show that Orlishwomen can still be trusted to do their duties to our motherland? Regardless of what anyone says, the actions of the UOP will be written in history, and I believe everyone here would find an issue if the party that supposedly represents the average woman acts in an almost treasonous manner in this time of great crisis.”

Every woman in the room fell silent, understanding the Queen’s words. Indeed…it was primarily why even Amelie was holding on from passing a Royal Decree for it. The idea that women, democratically, would betray their own nation by not fighting for its survival…would be a stab to their own self-image that they could accept.

It wasn’t just a question of strategic necessity. No, it was a question about women’s honor, reputation, and integrity. If these democratically elected representatives of the average woman once again voted against it when the world was now teetering on the edge of a war that would determine the survival of Orland itself, it would be a great insult to the honor of every woman alive.

“I…I promise,” Prime Minister Jacqueline nodded. “We’ll do every measure to pass this bill.”

“I expect substance from your words then, Miss Prime Minister.”