Sovereign

“Joint OAF-RGO recruitment centers organized by the Ministry of Defense see a massive uptick in numbers of women joining in on the draft. While the numbers have not been released by the MoD, Defense Minister Pristina Dubois has confirmed that the levels are reaching ‘satisfactory rates’ for the needs of the OAF. Training of these women however is expected to take more time, as the Women Mobilization Bill had provisions that prohibit ‘insufficient training time’ for drafted women, which was one of the compromise clauses of the bill. Still, with KDUs now being sent to the Empire of Kusari, and with many KDUs now participating in the frontlines against the Federalists side-by-side with the OAF, it’s clear that women have now finally stepped up to the duty of defending Orland and the international order.”

- ROCN News

+++

West Orland

Eutstadt City

Amelie exited her vehicle alongside William when they arrived at one of Eutstadt’s recruitment centers. Already, the area was jam-packed with hundreds of young women placed in lines to join the OAF, all overseen by generally bored RGO personnel. It was a lamentable sight for Amelie’s heart, watching all these young women like her all going into the same fate as their brothers did, but, it wasn’t like it was fair to only let men be the ones doing all the dying.

However, unlike the lines of male recruits she remembered during the early days of the war, which were mostly veterans devoid of light in their eyes as they were funneled back into hell, Amelie could see that many of these young women were…in a sense, alive.

She saw faces that looked eager and confident, almost as if they were convinced that they’d “beat those scrawny men” with their magical weaponry.

Then there were those nervous women, who looked like they really were dragged into this mess and would want nothing more than to go home.

Some even seemed like they were just naively following the line, and Amelie could overhear some gossiping about how they would do their duty to the motherland better than men did.

It was…

“Well, they certainly look excited for some grand adventure,” William offhandedly quipped as he finished taking Amelie’s bags from the vehicle. Amelie nodded at him, as he stood beside her.

“Yeah, it’s like…it makes you realize we’re really just sending barely adults to the meat grinder. Kinda like…me…”

“Reminds me of the early days of the Great War,” William said. “Some guys were excited about the whole thing. A faraway adventure that will give us so many rewards once we’re home before the new year. I still remember the guys who said that the Larissans would fold to Orlish technological supremacy.”

“What happened to them?”

“Wiped out,” William said without hesitation. “Well, probably ninety percent of the guys with me on that day on that recruiting station. I still remember which brigades most of my batch was assigned to. They were all rendered combat ineffective just a few months in Liebnich.”

“Liebnich…” Amelie muttered, once again reminded of William’s history in that peninsula. She wondered when it would reach that scale of brutality in the frontlines, and if these young women would ever see it escalate to that. The point where both sides would run out of effective weaponry and dig in for a prolonged war that forced long-term static trench warfare to develop.

Even in Orland, the frontlines were already in that state. The only difference was that both sides weren’t committing any significant, determined offensives that would lead to mountains of casualties. Instead, it seemed that she and Rimpler were playing a game of build-up. Both sides just poked each other, as they built up their strength.

If I attack first with these newly mobilized women, would they use WMDs on us? Would I have to use it too against them? Can I even afford not to? Just the idea of sending girls into gas irks me. It sounds so distasteful.

“Hmm, you know, it’s kinda funny how it’s you that’s more affected whenever I mention Liebnich,” William said. “I guess chemical warfare and trench warfare really are that scary, huh?”

“It is scary,” Amelie insisted. “And don’t tell me it’s not. Or that…that it would ever be something that we have to do. I know General Albrecht forced me to prepare chemical weapons stockpiles since the Federalists tried using them, but I don’t know William. Look at these people. How can someone…even think of sending them to gassed battlefields?”

“Yeah…I wonder why humanity would be that cruel,” William nodded. “But see, the thing is, humanity is in fact cruel. Very cruel. Exceedingly cruel. It’s not just cruelty of women against men or men against women, it’s cruelty on all sides from all sides. Amelie, you have no idea how cruel we were to each other in the Great War. Or how cruel we are right now. My unit…we actually never took POWs.”

“Your unit…what?”

“Yeah,” William said, as he chuckled. “Even I…I think I shot some of them one time when a Pozneki unit charged our trench line and floundered. They tried to surrender desperately, telling us not to shoot, but everyone around me opened fire anyway. Especially when artillery strikes struck us, then gunfire. None of us could tell which Pozneki soldiers surrendered or which ones were still charging to flush us out. So I joined at opening fire at them…”

He looked down at his hand, as it trembled a bit.

“I…I was cruel. Fear. Panic. It’s all just excuses.”

“I don’t know, William,” Amelie replied. “It sounds like the chaos of war made you do it. It wasn’t like you executed POWs like…like how those Poznekis did it to that Gallian tanker. Goddess, I never even saw the footage, just the articles but it’s still disgusting. Really, I don’t think any amount of war crime footage will ever desensitize me from all these…”

“We were like that, or at least my comrades were,” William admitted. “Both sides of the Great War were like that. When the enemy captures you, your chances aren’t good. You’d probably be beaten, abused, or worse, executed to be made an example of. Some units took literally no POWs, and those kinds of black units existed on both sides. And if you were part of a unit that had an infamous reputation for that, the likelihood is that the other side would shoot you on sight if you surrendered. It seems like that type of treatment is now once again fully alive in Gallia.”

“I hope no one in the I OEF Corps does that then,” Amelie muttered. “I’ll severely reprimand them if they act beyond the ethos I want them to uphold. They’re there to valiantly defend Gallia, with tact and Orlish honor. POWs must never be mistreated.”

“Heh…I imagine had you never enforced those kinds of rules hard in the OAF since the Civil War started, we’d be seeing more Federalists executing Royalists and vice-versa. Still, I doubt the Larissans, Poznekis, and their allies would afford captured Orlishmen the same treatment. And if we send these women in and make them fight and they somehow end up in captivity…Goddess help them.”

Amelie felt the hair on her skin rise at William’s ominous words. That was…one of the nightmare scenarios for her. Women soldiers as POWs. Really, this entire war boiled her blood. But what could they do? It wasn’t like women under CFN-occupied territories were living decently. For them, their rights were already being curtailed heavily by revolutionary governments paranoid of a magical uprising.

Some were already being put into forced labor to fuel the CFN’s war machine (not that her side was technically not doing the same to men already). She needed to rally women into the fight to not end up in those kinds of situations. Sadly, that would mean that female POWs would have to face a nightmare.

Damn it all, really…

+++

Amelie finally appeared in front of the podium for the speech in front of the new recruits. Quite frankly, the fanfare was low outside a few journalists taking pictures and footage on the side. Most of Amelie’s audience was really just the young women who were now joining in on the fight.

Well, speaking to men was hard for Amelie to do, quite frankly. But she managed. Oh, but speaking to women?

“Everyone,” she began with a smile, as they all looked up to her. “How are we doing today?”

“Not great, Your Majesty!” Someone from the back responded. “I was supposed to get a good job in a consulting firm now I’m here!”

“I’m supposed to be a lawyer!” Someone else shouted. “Quite frankly, I don’t think I belong to some dirty front.”

The crowd stirred, with many agreeing to the few women who protested their draft. But Amelie could also see some arguing back. Someone from the back shouted that it was their natural duty. Someone challenged the women who wanted to back down if they had pride, shaming them for not standing up for their fight.

And on and on did the crowd go. It was pretty much unscripted, as Amelie planned it to be. Really, she just wanted to get an accurate idea of how young women were taking this entire mass mobilization thing in their hearts. And it seemed like it was truly mixed. She could see any who lamented their loss of liberty. Many were angry and frustrated at being dragged down into the mud too.

But she could also see many who spoke of duty to the motherland. Some argued that it was time to support their poor brothers fighting to the death for them. While some were so convinced of their own superiority that they proclaimed that they would triumph the moment they stepped on the frontlines and finally let the “real” warriors in.

“Everyone,” Amelie suddenly spoke, breaking the growing tense standoff between the recruits. “I can hear you and your complaints. I can hear that many of you feel like your lives are…not in the best of times…”

“Of course, it’s not!” Someone shouted. “Why are we supposed to fight like pigs? We had a future ahead of us!”

Amelie shook her head, ignoring the scathing complaint.

“I know,” Amelie said. “But that’s why we have to fight. Not just them. Not just you. All of us. Women, men. Young, and old. Orlish and non-Orlish. We all have to do our part for the nation. For this Kingdom. Because if the Kingdom loses and collapses—there is no future for you

“The decision to drag you all here, sometimes, against the will of many, is not something that my Ministers, my government, or I took lightly. We took a long time weighing the situation, and deliberating whether or not such extreme measures are needed. And it is. Women of Orland, I know not all of you would be so scared of a fight we must also fight that you’d betray the nation.

“I know many of you fear the front, but your brothers also feared it once. No, I refuse to believe they don’t fear it now. I believe they do so too. Just like you, they are just scared youngsters sent to fight for the defense of our homeland. Yet they stood tall and fought. And fought. And fought. With grit. With determination. With honor.

“You will do the same. You will. Because that is your duty. Will you really let your brothers outshine you in the field of duty, or will you fight and outshine them with valor both for their sakes, your sakes, and for the sake of the nation and future generations? I believe that most of you will do the latter. So please, I believe in you! Fight back! Win a victory for a free and honorable Orland. That is your duty as a woman. That is our duty.”

There was silence for a while, with many still doubting Amelie’s words, but one, then another, then the crowd was in full agreement once the over-enthusiastic ones took over and the skeptics were silenced. It wasn’t perfect, but she hoped to rile up women to the fight by appealing to the two things they seemed to enjoy.

Their self-image of being the more important and capable citizens of Orland.

And their pride as women.

After all, if they were the “superior” ones, would it really be acceptable for them to not be the ones doing the heavy lifting for the nation? The notion was stupid, to Amelie’s view, but it would be even more stupid right now that it was inconsistent.

At least, if she turned the narrative into something consistent, instead of “we are superior but we shouldn’t fight” into “we are superior thus we must fight”, well, she’d have more meat for the frontlines she wanted to win.

This is good. For now.