Sovereign

“Pezan Armed Forces repels CFN invasion! After a month of heavy fighting in the mountainous border regions of the Confederation of Pez, the combined Larissan–Pozneki–Lombardian Armies have finally given up on breaking through Pez’s stubborn defense lines after egregious military casualties. Bridges, roads, and access points to Pez have been blown up by the nation’s military. Air defense systems have also fully denied the CFN air force from touching the nation’s cities, outside of consistent suicide drone and missile attacks to keep pressure on the small nation. MN member states have now applauded the effectiveness of the Pezan military, and the nation’s Defense Ministry has reiterated that it will not surrender ‘even if Gallia falls’.”

- Geopol Press

“Today is quite possibly the worst day for the Larissan and Pozneki Air Forces after an ambitious bombing operation against Gallia. Approximately six hundred CFN air assets, in an attempt to unfreeze the rapidly floundering offensive, launched a six-hour-long assault against Gallian strategic targets. But with the Kingdom's rapidly expanding air fleet of LF-20 Phantoms based in Lorathia responding, alongside the combined response from both the Gallian and Lorathian Air Forces, nearly half of the CFN’s air assets have been shot down in a span of the offensive. Confirmed losses have climbed to a brutal three hundred fifty CFN aircraft shot down, with MN forces losing barely even forty-five, mostly older LF-12s from Gallia destroyed in their airfields. One such example is Fighter Squadron 15 based near Redcastle, composed of twenty-four LF-12s, that reportedly fired ninety-six MRAAM-100 missiles at a range of one hundred kilometers against multiple flights of Larissan ZU-34s. The squadron confirmed forty-three kills from the salvo. Once again, it is superior technology bringing triumph for the nation.”

- Liberty One Radio

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West Orland

November Palace

June 2, 2025

Amelie couldn’t believe the morning reports. Overnight, while Amelie was blissfully asleep, the world tethered between an MN or CFN victory. The entire Heiss Cabinet around her was also in the same daze as Chief Air Marshall Lewis Zimmerman reported the actions of the combined MN air forces over Gallia while most of them were asleep. It was, by all accounts, something no one had expected.

“It’s over,” Walter laughed with a victorious smirk. “We’re going to bring the hammer on them and screw them on Gallian soil. It’s clear! It’s damned clear. We have to act now, and do it now!”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Jacqueline held him off and narrowed her eyes to the Chief Air Marshall. “Mr. Zimmerman, I believe there are more explanations coming. We can’t be hasty just because of…of an unexpected win.”

“Yeah, but the question now is how we will use this win to leverage it into developments in the front,” Amelie said, crossing her arms as she leaned back on her chair. “I must say…our reaction times…must be unparalleled.”

“We were almost caught in a complete surprise,” Zimmerman admitted. “For the first thirty minutes of their strike, their planes penetrated deep into Gallian airspace. Strikes against logistical hubs, communication centers, command centers…hell, we lost nearly an entire squadron of Gallian LF-12s sitting on their hangars in an airfield near Toldoi. But, we scrambled our forces for a quick counterattack.”

“It was mostly Gallian SAMs that delayed the initial attack,” General Albrecht said. “Stupid as their High Command may be, they certainly placed their SAM Battalions in the correct positions. It forced the enemy to avoid high air defense concentrations, or conduct preliminary SEAD operations. Many of their planes mainly carried anti-radiation missiles to strike Gallian SAM systems. So once they ran out, they had to go back to Larissan airfields to resupply.”

“And that’s when we started our counterattack,” Zimmerman grinned. “They were hoping that our forces would be too dazed and disrupted to respond. In fact, they probably underestimated the damage that their SEAD and ground attack missions would do. So when they sent in more assets to further finish the job, we sent in the big metal. Four LF-20 Phantom squadrons, in the span of one hour, scrambled from our bases in Lorathia, and massacred them in the next hours as the enemy tried to remain in control of Gallian airspace.”

“They stupidly funneled a lot of sorties even after the third hour,” Walter laughed as he read through the report files. “Who the hell was leading these morons? Perhaps they’re desperate?”

“Desperate probably,” Amelie smiled a bit. “I mean, this is such a massive attack. They definitely wanted this to be their perfect chance to destroy Gallia and our presence on the continent. Most likely, as the hours went by and losses mounted, they sent more and more squadrons because they cannot lose any more after losing so much.”

“Sunk cost fallacy,” Jacqueline chuckled a bit. “After all, it seems that their losses in the first three hours, a hundred twenty, still seemed to be something large to ignore. I can see that their high command felt a pure need to just win at that point. But they should have pulled out. A hundred losses would have stung, but not thrice after they committed.”

“We caught them into a trap we have not consciously created,” Pristina smiled. “Well, well, congratulations then, Mr. Zimmerman. You and your men sure did something.”

“I…well, I appreciate that, Ma’am,” Zimmerman replied awkwardly. Certainly, Amelie noticed that while the relationship between the OAF leadership and the Defense Ministry was…icy at best, it was slowly improving due to the performance of the OAF and the rising support from MoD and Pristina’s RGO. Still…there was a bit of awkwardness in the room…certainly…

“I share the same sentiments,” Amelie gracefully rescued things before it got cold. “The Air Force acted well today. This is a victory that all of Orland ought to celebrate. I want those airmen who participated valorously to receive their appropriate decorations in a public event once they are rotated. Defense Minister, I expect you and the Chief Air Marshall to do this ceremony well.”

“I will, Your Majesty,” Pristina nodded. So did the Chief Air Marshall.

“We will,” Zimmerman said. “Still, there is…a bit of a complication, right now, actually.”

“What?”

“We…may or may not have used up seventy percent of our air-to-air missiles stored in Lorathia,” he smiled awkwardly. “For context…we fired nearly two thousand missiles of all sizes throughout those hours. The skies of Gallia…definitely looked like a fireworks show hours ago.”

“T-that much?” Amelie’s jaw hung low. “How…?”

“Not everything hits, unfortunately,” the Chief Air Marshall said. “The enemy did worse. They probably fired four to six thousand at us. Really, most didn’t even find or hit our LF-20s. Mainly because those six hours were extremely chaotic. Missiles were flying everywhere. Friendly and hostile squadrons merged into dogfights. SAM missiles sometimes attacked friendly AAM missiles. The only ones that had fun were our LF-20 squadrons, who mostly fought in standoff distances where they were practically untouchable. One ZU-34 was even chased by a dozen MRAAM-120s because the entire salvo was fired on a squadron that already soaked up an entire barrage of the same missiles and it was the last guy flying. It was…”

“An aerial clusterfuck,” Walter finished. “Well, who cares? The enemy’s in a worse position no matter how we look at it. They fired more. Lost more. Shit, they’re probably in a severe case of collective post-operational depression right now. Heads must be rolling in their leadership. They’re over. We need to flip the game and bomb ‘em back to the stone age. Get the armored brigades into Gallia now. It’s time to teach Poznek why they shouldn’t have been way too much of an enthusiastic puppet to their master.”

“It’s a performance that we’ll probably never see happen against the Federalists,” General Albrecht said. “Quite frankly, we went into this war expecting the capabilities we’ve seen the Federal Republic throw on us. Coordinated attacks. Comprehensive airspace denial. And the constant achievement of temporary but effective local air supremacy using their LF-20s. It seems that our prediction of us being a dominant aerial power during the ‘Next Generation Air Fighter Program’ has been true. Empress Illyenov might not be as stupid as we say. Her last attempt was the last chance for Larissan Airpower to confidently challenge Orlish Airpower. Without a proper stealth multirole aircraft, most of the CFN can actually never go toe-to-toe against us. Except for the Federal Republic.”

“Hence why the Queen’s strategy of prioritizing defeating the Vaeyoxan CFN has merits,” Jacqueline said. “This just further proves it. The Federal Republic has the technological means to counter us. The Confederation of Larissa doesn’t. They can bully the rest of the MN, but when Orland’s in the picture, especially when we’re in full force, this happens.”

“This just means the Federalists will absolutely transfer their technology to Larissa,” General Albrecht said. “Expect that within a few months, the first native production runs of LF-20s will appear in Confederate factories. Most of their industrial lines may be outdated, but they have some advanced factories and a professional worker base near Velikov that can produce these things if they receive the full blueprint and a good number of advisors sent with submarines by the Federalists.”

“Well, that’ll still take time,” Walter said. “And by that point, they’re only going to be playing the catch-up game to us. Each month that passes is another month that Minister Wittfield’s efforts of converting West Orland’s industrial base into a war footing becoming true and true. This month, we produced sixty-eight LF-20s. Next month? Probably eighty. Next, and next? Heh, only the Federalists will be able to keep up. What’s the eastern CFN going to do once they have to face four or six hundred LF-20s? Even if they have a hundred or two, they’re over.”

“That’s wishful thinking,” Minister Wittfield said. “The Federal Republic also is ramping up their industry. We can’t send all of our advanced air assets to Vaeyox when we need them to fight our peer opponent here. Right, Mr. Zimmerman?”

“Indeed,” Zimmerman sighed. “Truthfully, I’m actually going to need to rotate two of our LF-20 squadrons from Lorathia. We fear that the Federalists will attempt another air operation to disrupt us. And we need airframes and the pilots to counter that. Especially now that this happened, it’s pretty much assured that the Federalists will do a follow-up attack to divert us from Gallia and soften the blow of this defeat to the rest of the CFN. And we cannot just…well, insist on keeping our LF-20s in Lorathia. It’s not going to end up well in our frontlines in Orland if the Federalists succeed here.”

“That, and, we’re still unsure how badly the Gallians were hit,” General Albrecht added. “Remember, they still bombed a lot of things, even if most airfields and other things were untouched. Preliminary tallies for example showed that they lost around seventy-plus self-propelled guns, MLRS platforms, and other ground-based systems in those hours when we were all caught with our pants down. Who knows how much worse it is.”

“Well…” Amelie sighed. “If that’s the case then, then we’ll wait for further information. General Albrecht, Chief Air Marshall Zimmerman, and Defense Minister Dubois, you three will continue analyzing our war situation in lieu of these events to determine the best course of action. We need to see if we have the capacity to do something. Walter, I need you to calm down on hyping our victories—”

“What?” Walter frowned. “It’s good PR. The more we show the people of the world that we can win, the more they’ll contribute to the win. Heh, show them everything. Shot down Larissan planes. Burned Pozneki pilots. The whole thing.”

“That bloodthirst will bite us back one day,” Jacqueline warned.

“Yeah, but it’ll win us this war,” Walter said. “Showing burned and dead CFN meat will surely galvanize the population. Just like how we showed dead Lieplatzan girls. Plaster it on everyone’s eyes.”

“In any case,” Amelie sighed. “We should really figure out now who to focus on. Countering the Federalists…a counteroffensive in Gallia…or a massive air offensive against CFN anti-air in East Vaeyox. It seems to me that with our dwindling munitions supply at the moment, we need to pick and choose. More importantly, I want to choose the right option from the three. That’s all.”