Sovereign

“General Richstoff and the Lieplatzan Junta’s remaining top leadership has seemingly disappeared, with the head of the monstrous military state’s whereabouts remaining unknown. Speculations that they have escaped, or worse, committed suicide, is now growing rampant amongst international analysts. Such a possibility however is an ugly one, for these men need to be tried for their crimes against women and humanity.”

- ROCN News

+++

West Orland

November Palace

March 2, 2025

“The operation’s complete report is now being handed to all of you. At the moment, that’s the best after-action overview we can offer.” General Albrecht said, representing the OHC once more. The three men most responsible for the liberation of Lieplatz—General Victor Albrecht, Admiral George Halberd, and Chief Air Marshall Lewis Zimmerman seemed to be almost standing on trial in front of the Heiss Cabinet.

The members of the Heiss Cabinet were already reading the report files handed to them, which detailed everything that happened in an overview. The entire sequence of events, the documented crimes, and abuses conducted by the Lieplatzan Junta, down to the casualties and losses sustained by the Orlish Armed Forces and the limited KDUs that participated in the tail end of the invasion.

“In the end, fourteen-thousand Orlishmen found themselves as casualties in this whole debacle,” the Prime Minister lamented. “That’s in an entire month of operations.”

“It’s actually lower than the casualties we sustain each week with the Federal Republic, Your Majesty,” the Chief Air Marshall said. “In comparison, the Lieplatzans suffered somewhere around a hundred fifty thousand casualties.”

“That just shows the OAF’s effectiveness against anyone but ourselves,” the Deputy Prime Minister, Walter Plock said proudly. “If only we had full air superiority, we’d have long cracked the Federalists. This just proves that the doctrines we used to beat the Order Pact are still viable. Those Lieplatzan trenches didn’t last when our air force bore down on them.”

General Albrecht nodded. “Indeed. Especially when we knocked down their SAMs using SEAD. All in all, the lesson we learned here is that mobile warfare is the only way to win this war. But we cannot do that without air supremacy.”

“We just confirmed old lessons, something that the Federalists know well too,” the Chief Air Marshal said. “And I should say, gaining air supremacy is difficult when we are fighting our own air force. We’re really only finding this war difficult because we are fighting our own forces. Deploy us in another country, and the OAF will still show what made Orland a hegemon.”

Amelie smiled a bit. “That’s good. I was worried we lost all of our force projection capabilities since the start of the civil war.”

“Not gonna happen,” General Albrecht said. “Even if most of our forces are tied with the Federal Republic, the OAF stands supreme if we deploy expeditionary forces. Of course, the problem is that we’ll still be limited by the conditions on our frontlines here. This means we cannot send our full force to the Ivory Alliance should a Confederate invasion come in Gaul. But still, we can send something.”

“Thus, we cannot be overconfident,” Admiral Halberd cautioned. “There are still real risks that we might lose in the frontlines with the Federalists, or we won’t be able to send anything against the Confederacy. But I believe that wouldn’t come due from frontline defeats, but from developments here, in Eutstadt.”

The Prime Minister raised her head from the report files. “Here?”

“I know why,” Defense Minister Pristina Dubois said. “Morale issues with you men, no?”

“I won’t call it morale issues, Defense Minister,” General Albrecht said. “But ideological ones. Remember why we’re fighting for your side. Because if we lose that cause, my words would mean nothing to our men. All these well-equipped, advanced, battle-hardened veteran troops mean nothing if they find no reason to fight for the Royalist cause, and find that reason in the Federalist’s promises.”

“I think we’re all in agreement to that,” Amelie said.

Ministers Alfred Hegel and Jan Sobieski both gave their resounding affirmations. “Damn right, we are! For heaven’s sake, when are you going to put your foot down and brute force women into being useful?”

The question from the mouth of Minister Hegel almost stunned the women of the room.

“Minister Hegel, please don’t speak of us that way,” Minister Allison Thell defensively said. “We’re trying, for heaven’s sake.”

“Not enough. Won’t be enough at this rate,” Minister Sobieski said. “You’re all dragging your feet and being useless. Volunteer forces of the KDUs are nice, but if you all really want to get the OAF in some grand worldwide campaign, then you all would better give us a million or two of fresh young women to feed into the meat grinder in the frontlines, and millions more in the homefront.”

“He’s right,” even the Minister of Economy, Countess Anne Wittfield said. “Perhaps a third of those managerial white-collar positions are useless. We don’t need any more bloated bureaucrats, middle managers, and pencil pushers in our economy at this moment. Which is where the majority of women fall in. We need actual manpower to fuel our industrial weight. Though, it might take a year or two to fully mobilize and train people for it.”

“Thank god someone sane understands!” Minister Sobiesky said as he laughed in an almost delirious manner. “I thought we were surrounded by utter fools.”

“You’re not,” the Minister of Economy sharply said. “Don’t assume nonsense. Everyone in this cabinet knows that half of our population is too coddled and such a situation is detrimental to our war effort. The difference is that you men are ignoring political realities. This government is dealing with the problem in a cautious manner, as we should. Being an impatient child will not bode well either.”

“In any case,” Amelie breathed out. “It’s great that we all recognize the issues we are facing. That’s…good…”

“Well, you did handpick this government, Your Majesty,” General Albrecht said. “Quite frankly, serving under this one is better than the last one.”

“Let’s not make backhanded remarks to a dead Queen, please,” the Archduchess said. “Not the time and place.”

“Apologies, Defense Minister.”

Everyone fell silent until Walter leaned forward from his seat. “So everyone, what’s our big plan, from now on?”

“Yeah, on that. About Lieplatz,” Amelie said. “Still no General Richstoff news?”

“Nope,” General Albrecht replied. “Bet that bastard blew his brains before our boys apprehended him. But we are still searching. If he didn’t, our intelligence agencies should have him soon. Maybe if we’re lucky, some Orlish Marine or Army trooper will find the bastard hiding in some shabby hole. Who knows?”

“So it comes down to luck then,” Amelie said.

“And patience.”

“I still can’t believe all that happened,” Minister Thell said, as she scanned the report file. “The amount of these poor innocent women we’re treating in Orlish hospitals and medical facilities is astounding. And just…seeing how many died in unmarked mass graves…”

“We have no official numbers,” General Albrecht said. “Not without knowing the figures from the other half of the country. As of now, the estimates are ten to twenty thousand dead. The range becomes harder when you factor in the East. Could reach up to fifty thousand at most.”

“The absolute horror,” Prime Minister Jacqueline said. “For centuries, this scale of casualties for women has never happened. It’s hard to accept this.”

The men in the room didn’t have a response to that.

General Albrecht breathed out. “About the state of the new Lieplatzan Royal Armed Forces…”

“Yes?” Amelie asked. “We need that, quick, actually. Preferably, we need to free up OAF troops to send to Gallia.”

“We have around four hundred thousand troops of the Lieplatzan Army that surrendered to us,” General Albrecht said. “While their material losses were heavy, with half of their original capabilities gone, and a good chunk still unaccounted for, we can replace that. The thing is, we have four hundred thousand battle-hardened veterans lying idly in our POW camps…”

“And?”

“Most of these men surrendered quickly because they disliked the Lieplatz Junta, and wanted to defect to us,” General Albrecht explained. “Much of their radical units actually were transferred to the Protection Corps before we crossed the borders…which means they already weeded themselves off from the Lieplatzan Armed Forces before any ‘deradicalization’ efforts on our part commenced.”

“So you’re saying, we can simply arm these men again, and send them in the frontlines against the Federalists?” Amelie asked. “That sounds like a risky idea.”

“Indeed,” General Albrecht said. “But I didn’t say we wouldn’t screen and weed out the bad apples first. That would be quite stupid. That just means the risk of them turning their arms around will be higher. But what I’m saying, if we can get the Lieplatzan Queen to do some carrot-on-stick approach, all while we rearm, screen, retrain, and embed OAF advisors, we can rebuild the Lieplatzan Armed Forces to fight alongside us.”

That option did seem doable, if a bit risky for Amelie. The thing was, she needed troops freed for the potential conflict in West Vaeyox. Well, the potential was a lie. The upcoming MN conference this March was mainly going to be about that and the ongoing wars in Vaeyox as a whole. It would be about what women-aligned countries would do now that radical male-led revolutionary republics…were in that whole “global revolution” game. It was an inevitable war that both sides were preparing for, no denial on that one.

General Albrecht already said it himself. The OAF can fight outside the country. But they need more people, especially here. It made sense. Half of the OAF, alongside newly-raised (most likely women) second-rate (she found describing them that way distasteful) could hold the Federalists at bay. At the moment, they already were transitioning into a new grand strategy.

The Federalists…were hard to beat. They had technology on par or even superior to them. Worst of all, the entire winter and the frontlines in Orland solidified extremely. Both her side and the Federalists invested heavily in deep defensive lines. Not only that but in those months, Amelie ordered vast amounts of SAM systems to cover West Orland and the Free Confederation. She had entire trench networks that would be impossible to beat by those Federalists unless she lost her powerful air defense networks and the already numerically superior Royalist Air Force. So much so that the Federalist strategic bombing efforts were faltering.

The problem…the Federalists did the exact same. The OHC already briefed her about it. Holding them would be hard, but it was extremely possible. In fact, the chances of them beating her were impossible, at least offensively. But…but, and this was where Amelie’s plan fell. The Federalists…were isolated from the rest of the revolutionary effort.

They were isolated from Vaeyox, where the Confederacy, and the rest of the “Vanguard Republics” were at. Unlike the Federal Republic, these countries, except for the Republic of Asturia, were inferior to Orland’s and the Ivory Alliance’s armies. The Confederacy…though massive, and indeed powerful, was also inferior technologically to Orland.

The only reason the Ivory Alliance struggled against the Republic of Asturia was the fact that they also operated under the Ivory Alliance’s doctrines, and technology and that they held a powerful industrial capability. Add in the fact that her Orland generally didn’t support the invasion of that country (Amelie, at this point really wanted to pull her hair out considering that the Republic of Asturia had already reformed rapidly into a democracy while at war, but the Queens of Gallia and Lorathia still insisted to topple them, when they could have been an ally) that the Lorathian-Gallian intervention failed.

On the other hand, the Confederacy was a big problem, but only temporarily. If Amelie could stop them at Gallia, she would have an easy shot at dismantling the second powerhouse of the revolution. And along that, were the rest of her enemies in Vaeyox. If she could end the revolution in Vaeyox by blunting their attempts of launching offensives against MN-aligned countries while Amelie’s Orland was distracted…

She could strangle the Federalists. They would bleed and bleed while being cut off from the rest of their allies. If she could not beat them right now due to an offensive being an impossible option, then she planned to starve them out. To let them wither in the vine. To starve them out. An entire rebel fortress nation, under her siege.

But she needed troops to hold them while the OAF shifted to an expeditionary role. Both in Orland and Lieplatz.

In Orland, she had the option of mass conscripting women into the Royal Guard, and fully implementing the KDU-style organization en masse, essentially giving her a second Orlish Army, except, it would be manned by young women. Second, the United Crowns of Arkelia were now speeding up their mobilization efforts. It seemed clear that they would intervene soon.

That would be more second-rate troops she could use to man the trench lines.

Then, up north, if I can rebuild the Lieplatzan Armed Forces quickly from these surrenderees…I will have more garrisons up north…and since no offensive action will be taken, we will be in pure defense…

It’s doable.

Amelie nodded. Perhaps that would really be the best plan of action. The OHC did already tell her it in the first place, and General Albrecht was reconfirming it right now in front of the cabinet by telling them of this option…so…

“Alright, General,” Amelie said. “We’ll try that plan of yours. We’ll add it to our long-term strategic plans.”