Sovereign

“They used us as a tool to kill…and shamed us for it.”

- Unknown.

+++

Near the Orlish–Lieplatz Border

February 5, 2025

0238 Hours

It was to be the first joint operation between the Royal Investigation Unit and the Naval Intelligence Division. It was to be a preliminary raid against the Lieplatzan communications network on the West Coast. Agent Davis Blum had known that the Queen wanted her forces to enter into the Lieplatzan border with the enemy paralyzed for the next few hours. There was no other way than this.

He and his men had already long been investigating the “Shell''. It was one of the main communications HQs used by the Lieplatzan State for command and control. Naturally, their communication hubs and command and control sites were dispersed across the Lieplatzan countryside, as all armies did. However, internal cells reported that the enemy’s General Staff had a meeting and an intelligence briefing in the “Shell'', and that they had left multiple files that detailed the locations of at least a quarter of their concealed field HQs.

Prime targets for an opening surgical strike.

And so, the NID director ordered them to conduct a quick surgical strike of their own to retrieve that intel. In fact, at least half of the NID was now all running rings around the Lieplatzans, with infiltrator units already funneling in intel about Lieplatzan military positions, troop and equipment numbers, readiness, and even the last known positions of known Lieplatzan generals.

Of course, Army Field Intelligence was just as active, and so was the new player on the field. The Royal Investigations Unit. Many said that the Queen herself regarded the RIU as a direct replacement to the OIA. It had not been a shock to both the NID and the AFI that their more extreme brothers turned coats the moment the revolution occurred. In fact, both agencies initially plotted to directly gain the Queen’s favor of being the new replacement. Which was nothing but a folly.

Of course, why would she trust men to handle intelligence ever again after that? And thus, Agent Davis watched as the service that he dutifully served under was sidelined, distrusted, and slashed off its budget. He didn’t hold much of a high view with the RIU agents they were in right now. In fact, the palpable inter-service jealousy and resentment had been noticeable in his men since this assignment was given to them.

“Why are we working with them?” One of his agents asked.

“Aren’t they the Queen’s favored daughters? Surely, they can handle the heat on their own.”

“We found the intel first. Why should they execute the retrieval and take credit?”

And on, and on did his men air their disapproval. To them, they were being slighted. They were doing honest work, dutifully serving the Queen for her cause, only to be met with derision and distrust, all while being replaced as if their service meant nothing. Even Agent Davis once questioned if there was a point to even do any of this.

He knew that should things continue, the end result would be the disbandment of the agency he served under, thus rendering most of them jobless and liable to the ongoing conscription. Thus the question grew.

What were they serving for then?

Why didn’t they just give them the upfront bitter deal they were going to give anyway and toss them into machine gun fire directly instead without giving them the charades of serving as an intelligence agency?

Regardless, disapproval or not, they had no choice.

“Funnell in boys,” the RIU agent beside Agent Davis said, as the telltale glow of her halo appeared. There were four of them in total, armed with the latest Z-14 Porter ASMGs, which were the first iterations of newly developed arcane submachine guns capable of utilizing magic to enhance their firepower.

Agent Davis gave his men his orders, and his eight-man squad sneaked toward the gates of the facility. Two silenced shots rang in the distance, and two Lieplatzan sentries dropped in the dark. Agent Davis began receiving radio reports from other units that were circling the facility, all of them already breaching through different entrance points.

“Are the networks down?” The RIU agent asked beside him.

Like him, the woman wore a uniform not too dissimilar to his. Civilian clothing underneath, with the same light bulletproof vests. From a distance, an onlooker would have thought that they were one and the same, both serving one armed unit. Agent Davis nodded.

“It should be, otherwise, they’d be raising hell already in response.” He said. “Hopefully, the Lieplatzans wouldn’t be alerted.”

“By daylight, someone would come here and figure out what we did,” the RIU agent said. “We’d have hours at best.”

“Enough for the Air Force to launch their initial surgical strikes,” the NID agent said. “By daylight, their defenses should be open-wide. The Air Force would rule the skies unfettered.”

The RIU agent didn’t seem to be very much convinced. “I had seen the OAF fail many times to trust that assessment. But regardless…I can see that we do not have much of a choice.”

The NID agent was silently pissed at her scathing remark against the OAF. Must be her female arrogance bleeding through again. They had all blamed the OAF again and again for military defeats when it was only they who were doing anything in the fight. At some point, Agent Davis could only laugh at it.

If women would think they could do better, then why hadn’t the Royal Guard or the RIU begun actually doing something on the front?

While the OAF, NID, and AFI had been embroiled in a conflict that spanned deaths of such massive scales, and been involved in the majority of both covert intelligence and counterintelligence operations, the RIU and the Royal Guard had been languishing behind.

Granted, the RIU was a smaller agency that the Queen had only assigned to the most important of operations, but he and his men were doing the grunt work regardless. They had the most field agents. They had the most casualties. Hell, practically half of the intel that the RIU used in their operations, alongside much of the supporting muscle, had been derived from the NID and the AFI.

They wouldn’t have saved the Queen of Lieplatz had it not been for the NID and AFI personnel who died in the darkness while holding off and delaying the majority of the response forces of both the Lieplatz and the Federal Republic. Yet, it seemed that the credit for it only went to the RIU for doing the last part of the job.

The same was no different here.

The NID agent however shovelled those resentments deep in his heart for now. Going against his new “buddies” right during an important operation would only endanger them. Screw the Royalist State if that was how they would be treated, but at the very least, Agent Davis would try his best to keep his men safe.

They’d take the intel and boot the hell out of this facility before their Quick Response Forces arrived. Then, whatever happens after that wouldn’t be his business.

He laughed inside.

Just another guy serving in the darkness. Like most of his brothers, their names would be forgotten in history, and their efforts would remain unrewarded. Yet they would go on. That was the last of their pride in being men after all…

Their ability to get things done.

He keyed his radio.

“Alright all units, commence Watchtower Breach.”

+++

West Lieplatz

0322 Hours

A Lieplatzan HMLV limped out of the destroyed military base. All around it was nothing but devastation. The wounded cried on the ground. Destroyed tanks and armored fighting vehicles filled the streets. The light had only been the raging infernos from the destroyed fuel depots around the area.

Three Orlish missiles and a dozen guided bombs were dropped all around them in just a few minutes. The rude awakening had completely caught them by surprise. The Colonel inside of the HMLV himself could not fathom how it happened. They were preparing already for the worst.

In fact, the units in their base had only been here today before they would depart early in the morning for the border. His unit, the 5th Combined Arms Battalion, was supposed to wake up and reposition after their long journey from the East Coast. Yet the Colonel probably had no 5th CAB left. As he drove around the destroyed base, he could see his men scrambling to get out of their barracks, some of which were completely leveled and destroyed.

He looked to the left. There, he could see that H Company’s IFVs, lined up in a neat row just hours ago, were reduced into nothing but wrecks on an ugly crater, most likely struck by a guided bomb. The wide-eyed Colonel could only stop his vehicle to dismount and see the carnage for himself.

He hadn’t even fired a shot against them yet, and his Battalion was already gone. He looked to his side, as one of his officers began detailing to him about the fact that the communications were down and that the radios they packed with them were being jammed.

Another officer reported to him the casualties, his voice slightly cracking even as he recited it with his professional facade. The Colonel merely made a grim nod, realizing at last that the fight was already beginning.

And that they were being paralyzed.

“Gentlemen…we’re out of this fight…” he said. “This Battalion is no more. And I doubt the State of Lieplatz would not be the same within the next week.”

He looked at them, all of them awaiting his next words.

“Save yourselves and our men, gentlemen. That’s the only thing we can do now.”

+++

West Orland

November Palace

Situations Room

0422 Hours

The Queen looked at the blue-screened displays with nothing but a cold, calculating glance. Amelie’s eyes had been watching the “destroyed targets” icons on the map of West Opellia. Everything was detailed on it. On the border, she could see the countless units of the OAF ready to participate. On the other side, the spotted and reported enemy units were all represented by red diamond icons.

But most importantly, for now, she looked at the identified critical targets for the Air Force. Enemy railways, supply depots, HQs, radar installations, air bases, and missile silos, all of it were being targeted. Another “destroyed target” icon appeared somewhere close to Nordia, which was marked as an air base just seconds ago.

“Fort Nordia has been destroyed, Your Majesty,” the cold voice of the Chief Air Marshal said over the speakers. While Chief Air Marshall Zimmerman was not present in the situation room, as he was coordinating the entire air operation at his Headquarters in Area-28, which was the Air Force’s new Headquarters and largest air base in West Orland, his presence was felt throughout the room.

“And with that, half of their ability to deploy aircraft to counter us,” General Albrecht smirked on the displays, as he too was outside of the situation room. The Deputy Prime Minister, who was beside Jacquline, gave the Air Force Chief an appreciative nod.

“This seems to be going well,” Walter said. “That joint operation of the RIU and the NID really did well. We still have more targets to destroy from that.”

The Prime Minister sighed. “Seven of them died,” she lamented. “I hope their service would be appreciated.”

“It will be,” Amelie said, remembering the operation she had watched earlier. While the RIU agents got out of it unharmed, a sudden shootout with OIA agents that were actually at the facility, alongside a hastily deployed explosive when they tried to deny the NID and the RIU from getting the files killed seven NID operatives, alongside their leader, a man named Agent Davis Blum.

Regardless, her RIU operatives and the remaining NID agents retrieved the intel, giving the Air Force intel so fresh that they almost knew the positions of a quarter of their military’s special installation in real-time. In fact, only three of the targets had been inaccurate, and only through sheer luck that the Lieplatzans moved them at the last minute. Regardless, Amelie managed to nab a quick victory from them, and now, her nation was turning that into results.

“He and his men served well,” Amelie said. “The war would end sooner due to their sacrifices. They won’t be forgotten.”

Just like all those who are about to die in the next few days. Amelie further steeled herself. May we reach Nordia quick

She hoped General Richstoff would finally see reason for once.

And step down from an office he painted in blood.