Sovereign

“Missiles rain on the Empire of Hebei! The Republic of Hebei has now severed all talks of peace in Hebei after the Empress signed the MN Defense Pact. Attacks have intensified over South Hebeian cities, with Orlish-made REGAL SAM systems and other air defense systems working at full time to intercept both drone and missile strikes. Hebeian mobile AAA systems have also been seen in the fields. Civilians near the frontlines are now being evacuated en-masse by the South Hebeian Imperial Army in anticipated aggression from the north.”

- Geopol Press

+++

Federal Republic of Orland

Wuringen

Eirhow City

“Then how do you fools plan to get out of this bind?” The Federal President shouted in anger. “They’re slowly strangling us. Encircling our seas. Our imports even through the new ports in Lieplatz have been non-existent. What shall our plan be now?”

“President Rimpler, if I may, this is an inaccurate assessment of our situation,” the Minister of Economy—a man who, much like all Ministers in the Federal Cabinet, a military officer, said. “We are still outproducing the Royalists. The industries of Wuringen alone shall overcome the Queen’s stooges within a year. We are moving swiftly to support the FOAF.”

“That’s indeed not far from true,” Minister Heindhöff calmly crossed his arms. “The FOAF still has supremacy in the frontlines. We’ll begin surgical strikes on their economic centers within the next four months. We’ll cripple them, then we’ll blitz to Eutstadt while their forces collapse.”

General Oswald Kluge, now assigned as the Minister of Foreign Affairs (and also the main military governor of East Lieplatz) calmly laughed at the side of the meeting room.

“Aye, the bastards won’t see it all coming soon,” he smirked. “We’ve built up six more armored brigades in just a year. We already have an equal number of armored brigades in the field that they do. When we started, they outnumbered us and we had to concentrate everything on the Grand Duchy push. Now, however, they’re the ones that will be outnumbered on the local frontlines. Especially since they’re sending some of them to the Gallians.”

“Yeah,” Director Alfonso Bluch adjusted his glasses. “My agency has already received more of their plans. They might divert four or six armored brigades from their frontlines against us. To be shipped off to fight the Confederacy. They probably would not stand a chance once they do that, if we mass our forces well for a push.”

“General Albrecht’s a meticulous man, he wouldn’t be so stupid to fall for our nonsense,” President Rimpler angrily countered. “I’ve already seen you people fail at taking Halia from him and that Major. Them pulling off their best maneuver units does not equate to better chances in the frontlines for us.”

“Respectfully, sir,” Defense Minister Heindhöff leaned forward on the table. “So what if we cannot beat them yet? Our strategy is still sound. We keep building up our armor and mechanized forces, alongside our air force, all while that Queen splits the OAF’s attention from us to the Gallian front. Once she loses her forces in Gallia, we’ll strike, and achieve superiority quickly. We’ll punch through her defenses like a knife through butter, destroy the Archduchy and the Free Confederation, and essentially destroy any long-term chance of her leveraging her larger economy to fight us.”

“And it’ll destroy their morale,” General Kluge added. “Losing her assets in Gallia, and losing Gallia itself, then losing the Free Confederation and the Archduchy would be so severe of a blow that West Orland will erupt into chaos. She will not stand a chance once the people of Orland panic under the threads of our armored spearheads.”

“Then the OAF would finally rout,” Director Bluch smiled. “President Rimpler, sir, don’t despair. We still have our cards in this game. We may be the smaller party, and we all recognize that time isn’t on our side, but we still have time to execute the blitz we need to win.”

“And that’s the problem we are facing, gentlemen,” the President declared. “If all your optimistic plans and projections fail, what then? Yes, we are better mobilized right now. Yes, we are still outproducing them. Yes, we have the advantage in the fields, both in quality and quantity. But next year. Or the year after. If we fail at taking Löt and the Free Confederation, and if our naval raiders fail to stop West Orland’s awakening industries, then we will eventually lose in a war of attrition.”

“That’s something we already recognized from the start,” the Defense Minister said. “That’s why we struck the capital first and foremost. Unfortunately, our assumption that the Queen would pathetically surrender and that Orland would bend to our Junta failed, which is why we’re changing our tactics. If we can’t make them politically surrender in two months, let us make them economically surrender in two years. We are preparing for the large-scale offensives, we just need to time it well.”

Heindhöff then frowned at the President.

“Sir, there’s no need yet for your ‘emergency measures’. We are not yet at that point. And it is a can of worms we cannot open. For once the genie is out of the bottle, it will not return. Even if we win once we do that, there’s no point winning a scorched Pollos. We already opened enough questions when we used chemical warfare in the Grand Duchy Campaign. Luckily, no large-scale chemical warfare resulted from it, but only because the Queen held the OAF off. Now, however, they have prepared with chemical weapons of their own. Stockpiles. All because we let that genie off the bottle first. We won’t be opening more until we are desperate.”

“Damn it,” the President shook his head. “We already have the advantage of true AI. We should leverage it now!”

“And what if it turns around and shoots us first?” Heindhöff retorted. “The Project Team has said it already. They’re still developing ways to fully manage our autonomous forces. We cannot unleash it in a rush.”

“They said it’ll take a decade!”

“And thus we shall win this thing conventionally first! If we unleash it and it backfires, it’ll be the equivalent of us firing the first nuclear bomb. We’ll be dead at the end of it.”

“You’re all being obtuse,” President Rimpler mocked. “Cowards. Our autonomous forces project would literally mean that we’d have the equivalent of thirty armored brigades with the amount we have produced already. We’d even surprise them so utterly with it. More than half of our military strength literally lies on this thing that only we have. Then the autonomous production site—”

“Those sites were created in a rushed manner, sir,” Heinhöff fumed. “We have no assurance that we will have full control of their operations until the project’s team has ensured that Tau-Core and its subordinate command cores are fully stable to take command. The design alone of Tau-Core is already questionable. It’s an intelligence that literally hates women to the guts.”

“And women are our enemy. That just means it’ll fight them extra well.”

“And what if our autonomous forces start killing women really extra well and in a very extra manner?” Heindhöff challenged. “Will you be willing to take that ethical conundrum, Mister President? I will not deploy a force that could willingly go ballistic and fire on my boys or innocent civilian women. Not under my watch. The Revolution has honor, sir. Honor it will keep.”

“Enough,” the Vice President, Kaleb Krebs declared. “Gentlemen, while it is of great use that we discuss the question of whether or not we’ll deploy our most advanced and…dangerous creations to the equation due to the changing developments on the field, I believe that this discussion has now…at the moment, been destroyed by our less than cool heads. President Rimpler, I recommend that we discuss this at a more opportune moment.”

“...Alright. Meeting dismissed.”

+++

“Well, there’s that then,” General Kluge mumbled as the Ministers of the Federalist state left the meeting room. “Guess the boss really wants us to unleash the ADF.”

“Not gonna happen,” Heindöff said. “Not under my watch. Not under your watch. Not under the watch of the Armed Forces. That man’s a lunatic.”

“Bet he thinks he’d be in control of the machines,” Kluge laughed. “Delusions really do cloud the mind. I mean, our scientists and researchers already said it. They need more time.”

“That’s under the assumption that our researchers aren’t nuts themselves.”

“You’re having suspicions?”

“Have you seen the reports about Tau-Core?” Heindhöff frowned as they marched through the empty hallways. “Damned thing is spewing hate against all of womankind. And we’re supposed to let it be in control of thousands of various autonomous warfighting platforms?”

“Well, it’s the only way. Not like those cheap mass-produced platforms can be used by squishy humans. They’ve been designed that way. And the only way to turn that investment into any use is to get an intelligence to control them.”

“Or we humans can control them like drones.”

“They said they already tried that. Ended up way too subpar in comparison to those controlled by their trained AI. Not to mention…it’s what the project is for. Autonomous forces. Something that would fight on even if we men lose.”

“Damned bastards,” Heindhöff stopped and punched the wall. It didn’t budge. “They’re walking us into a trap. A trap that we men will be responsible for. Why the hell did we even fund these black projects if this is what we’ll create?”

Kluge sighed. “Defense Minister, as the movement said…it’s the only way.”

“Oh, and we can win this war rather quickly if we just nuke them all into pieces. Doesn’t mean I’d want us men to stain our already shattered reputation by trying to win a war of revolution by deploying tactical nukes on Orlish soil.”

“...I have an idea then,” Kluge smirked. “The Confederacy…they say they have it too, don’t they?”

“Mhm. Cold War relics,” Heindhöff said. “Seemed like they had the same program they kept under wraps from the Larissan Imperial Government.”

“It’s quite a chilling coincidence, yes, but it does have something that we could…well, find opportune. What if they deploy theirs first in Gallia? See how it ends up?”

“Still opens up the can of worms, you moron. Plus…are we really going to reveal to humanity that we men have plotted so far into this that we have been developing world-ending technologies under their noses for decades?”

“I mean, they already accuse us of that anyway. We’re all terrorists to them.”

“And we’d just make it worse. This revolution is not a revolution for just our victory. It’s for the victory of all humanity. And the redemption of us men from every torment we found ourselves in and from our sins against each other. We have killed enough with our hands. Are we going to kill more? What kind of a revolution are we fighting for then?”

“Most men don’t care about those ideals, Defense Minister,” General Kluge said. “We already resigned ourselves to a scorched world idea. If we’re not going to win—we’re unleashing those things regardless. That should already tell you enough that we’re not some noble people seeking a noble resolution. Quite frankly, the idea makes me laugh. It makes me laugh how we try too hard to act good. We’re already monsters to them. Quite frankly…are we really even that far from monsters?”

That small question made Heindhöff stop. Quite frankly, it was the most difficult question for men to answer for themselves. Really…the world, for them…was monstrous. And in that world, they had been molded as monsters themselves. Why? Who the hell were the cannon fodder, the executor, the enforcer, the ones who killed the most with their own hands?

It was men. Heindhöff knew that. Heindhöff knew that it was him and his brothers who fought all those wars and spilled blood. Heindhöff knew that it was male corporations that exploited penal laborers for every ounce of productivity. Heindhöff knew it was them who developed, produced, and created every deadly technology known since the Industrial Revolution.

They could say it was in the service of the Matriarchy and women. That all of them were just unwilling puppets dancing to the desires of the society they existed in. They could say that they were just following orders. Yet…they still did all those atrocities to themselves.

Women may have been the ones whispering to them to pull the trigger against their fellow brothers…but consistently, it had been them pulling the trigger and killing their brothers.

Now…they were doing those atrocities against women too.

“That’s why we will not fail,” Heindhöff's voice turned even more grim. “Or we will truly turn into the monsters they paint us as. I’d rather it doesn’t come to that, because if it does…we would all be irredeemable.”