Despite Henri Coanda's outrage, a special jet plane that carried a 12 inch shell in the nose was being prepared for the most loyal Archangels of Michael's Legion.

Even if more expensive than a normal plane and sacrificing the pilot too, 100 such planes should secure our Navy dominance over the Black Sea, and thus allow for the Crimean War to succeed. Naturally, simply waiting behind the Dacian Wall was safer, but it wouldn't force the communists to desist.

The Crimean peninsula was a perfect target for invasion, since it could be easily defended at a choke point with a small number of troops.

My guess was that Stalin would be so outraged, that he would throw his troops at Crimea and the Dacian Wall with suicidal fury, thus massacring his best troops for nothing.

General Antonescu was chosen for the Crimean War, because he was both very competent and a Soviet hater. He also hated Jews, Gypsies, Hungarians, Bulgarians, the Archangel Legion and the Monarchy, but what can you do? Some people like to hate. Antonescu also personally asked me to lead the next great capture, since he was being overshadowed by Land Marshall Avramescu and his Constantinople capture.

The Greeks got the honor the receive their first Sea Admiral commanding the carrier force, since they did have a fleet for a long time, while the Germans in Romania got one of their own as the first Air Marshall overseeing the Dacian Wall airspace.

I was almost tempted to name Codreanu as the Security Marshall, but that wouldn't be wise nor safe. His Legion was great at keeping the population pacified, but they were also hated by mostly everyone. Luckily for them, once they died heroically the Archangels became national heroes, so it kinda worked out.

Once the Soviet Union invaded Poland too, a number of plans became active at once.

The Polish Landbridge was open for fleeing Polish citizens, carried by numerous waiting trucks and trains, while rapid motorized units moved to secure the Western Bukovina and our holy clay.

In Britain, the Cambridge ring was exposed and captured, with leaked info to the press, leading to immense outrage against the Soviets. While not quite at war, the relations froze between the two powers, leading to ambassadors being recalled and even Soviet ships and accounts getting impounded.

My Romanian Empire didn't even allow Soviet ambassadors anyways, considering them simply active spies. Which they were.

Several Polish reserve divisions decided to make a last stand in Lviv, causing over 40000 Soviet troops dead, once reports of Polish officers being gunned down after surrender got out. Also, the Soviet Union was not a signatory of the Geneva Convention, so any prisoners had the right to fear for their health and life.

After the Lviv pocket was brutally quashed by a million Soviet troops, they tried to enter Romanian soil and got promptly butchered by four armored divisions and twenty infantry divisions with aircover and plenty of artillery. Pleads for a cease-fire were called in the open, and eventually they found someone speaking Romanian to ask, as we ignored any Russian language messages on principle.

Hours later, our guns ran out of ready munitions and fell silent, while more Polish troops and civilians kept fleeing around or through the Soviet Red Army.

A group of 300 Soviet bombers was however already in flight to bomb the offending artillery, and thus was shot down by our anti-air, fighters and jet fighters.

A dozen new Aces were born that day, including one flying a jet plane.

More jet fighters were being built everyday, but the technology was quite advanced so we only gained some 30 per month.

Eventually, the Soviet troops drew back some 10 kilometers to step outside the range of the artillery, and then moved on as they had more of Poland to conquer.

I tapped the map on my desk, and the game menu opened to reveal what I obtained from this adventure. Two more counties, some 400000 civilians, a few factories and 4400 dead Soviets. Not bad, for one day of work.

All new Aces were ordered to transfer as trainers for new pilots, while 100 volunteer pilots were found, to depart for Finland and kill even more Soviet planes while protecting Helsinki and the innocent civilians. The Navy sent 5 submarines as well, manned by Romanian volunteers but marked with Finish flags, and to nobody's surprise the alpine battalions already training in Finland also requested to become volunteers. All of them. 5000 of the best snipers I could find.

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In Octomber 1939, Stalin demanded Karelia by sending 500000 soldiers, 3000 tanks and 3000 airplanes as a gift card.

And thus, the Winter War began on the Arctic Circle, and the Finnish SeaLion division conquered Murmansk in 3 days. By the next week, the entire Kola Peninsula was cut off from the Soviets, as the White Sea was frozen and no Soviet ships could get close.

Through the Murmansk port, the Network began to send supplies and volunteers too, recruited from America and Europe from among the anti-communists factions and parties.

Adolf and Benito send their own volunteers and help via the Baltic Sea, and by December the Soviet offensive had stalled and bogged down in numerous pockets surrounded by Finish guerilla on skies.

Our snipers reached and then passed 30 kills each, although they could never hope to match the Finnish 'White Death' sniper with his 700 kills. Some people were just that good.

Then one by one, the 'motti' Soviet pockets were blown to bits by the SeaLion division, making to Soviets lose 2000 tanks in a single month, and over 200000 soldiers.

My investment paid off greatly, and to my surprise the Karelia line still held, although was battered into scrap.

Stalin shot a few hundred officers and sent even more troops into the grinder, while the world laughed. Well, the Poles didn't laugh very hard, but I guess they still smirked a little.

All was quiet on the Western Front, as if the Allies had forgotten they had declared war on Germany. Some fighters battling over France, but nothing else. It was a bit strange, but it had happened before in the other timeline. The French were getting ready to surrender, the British were making plans to evacuate the Monarchy into Canada, while the Low Countries quaked in their boots.

Actually no. That wasn't everything. I still had 53 destroyers being built in American shipyards, and the British wanted them all, since the U-boats were having lots of fun with the merchant shipping.

Taking a long look at the global map, I began to pick and choose nice islands all over the globe.

Nothing big or important, but nice places anyways. The Caribbean had the Trinidad and Tobago Islands for example, or Socotra in the Arabian Sea, and Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean, Saint Helena in the South Atlantic and lastly Ghizo_Island and Nendö_Island in the Pacific.

The British ambassador looked at my claims, eyes frowning. "Quite the dispersal you have here, your Majesty."

"Yes, I did mean to spread all over on purpose. Mostly to give my fleet sufficient range, you understand." I allowed in a noble manner.

"I am not sure Trinidad and Tobago are available for trade..." he mused a bit uncertain.

"Well, do go and ask America for some destroyers. I am sure they will ask far less than I did." I said with a careless shrug.

"We did already ask them. Your offer is far cheaper. We accept!" the man answered a bit in a hurry.

"And also, I want Suez Canal traverse for free, for 10 years. Once America joins the war, my ships will need to leave the Mediterranean too." I demanded in a shameless voice.

The ambassador grimaced in pain, and then nodded. "We all hope America joins the war soon."

"Right. Let me get a few secretaries and diplomats to write the document for us, and we can have some champagne and caviar in the meantime." I said and poked a few buttons on my desk.

A royal guard poked his head in. "The diplomats are here, my King. Should I let them in?"

I raised a glass for a toast. "Indeed. We have a treaty to sign."