“Plant-A2 opens up in the Niedelheize Industrial Zone, south of Eutstadt. This development is just the latest in the string of factory openings in the Niedelheize Industrial Zone, which is now growing to a population of eighty-thousand full-time workers. Officials managing the Zone expect that soon, the Niedelheize Industrial Zone ‘will rival’ Eirhow’s industrial production base. Plant-A2 alone is expected to deliver two thousand LSS Mechs within the next few months.”

- Liberty One Radio

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West Orland

County of Wittfield

Niedelheize Industrial Zone

Niedelheize, a new burgeoning industrial city south of Eutstadt, was something Amelie didn’t expect to be this large. Originally, it was established three years ago as a project of Countess Wittfield to create a city that could “be the West’s hub of heavy industries”, but it only grew to a meager twenty-thousand large city filled only with small factories and its supporting industrial establishments. Now, however, with the evacuations from the East, the Niedelheize Industrial Zone was growing rapidly, with larger factories and processing plants being built up left and right.

“So this is where we are throwing a lot of our budget?” Amelie asked as Countess Anne Wittfield nodded. The two of them began inspecting the busy streets of the Niedelheize, which was stocked full of trucks, heavy equipment, cranes, and the bustling groups of workers and engineers all mingling in the small city’s industrial facilities.

“This place was paid with billions of Orlish Blancs, Your Majesty. It’s a strategic investment to open up an industrial base around here, where the Orlish Air Force can easily defend each plant. With our partnership with Rebenslof’s major defense conglomerates, we expect to create a bustling city here that would fuel our war effort and our future endeavors.”

“I didn’t expect that you would be quite the industrialist,” Amelie said, and the Countess smiled.

“The future of the world lies in the hands of technology and industry, Your Majesty. To deny that is pure delusion. I’ve seen how assembly lines produce weaponry by the thousands, or how mere chips built by the hands of the magicless could be placed in our wands to assist our magic. It’s both terrifying and wonderful.”

“Everything, this war, they say, all of it became bloody because of these industries,” Amelie looked up at the massive plant just ahead of them. Plant-A1, one of the first factories opened in the Niedelheize Industrial Zone, already produced thousands of Löwe MBTs, alongside thousands of other OAF vehicles. That plant alone employed forty-thousand workers, almost half of Niedelheize’s population. The residential areas around Niedelheize City housed these workers, almost all of them being nothing but towering utilitarian complexes that prioritized efficiency over form.

“This place will be soulless,” Amelie said, remembering the pictures and videos that depicted Eirhow. “Just like Eirhow. Nothing but a glorified industrial assembly line than a true city to live in. What are the demographics of Niedelheize?”

“Almost all who live here are men, Your Majesty.” She chuckled. “Would any self-respecting woman even choose to live here? It’s not even massive yet, but you can already smell the smog in the air. Once Niedelheize is fully developed, you would be correct, it would be an industrial wasteland, almost similar to Eirhow.”

But an industrial wasteland that would fuel my war machine. Amelie reminded herself. The Federal Republic had Eirhow, which, at the current moment, was said to be supplying the Federalists with an ever-growing stockpile of heavy weaponry that would soon be turned to her Royalist forces once winter season ended. She didn’t look forward to that possibility, as Eirhow had a gigantic industrial base.

Much of what they had faced in the Grand Duchy Campaign, alongside the other campaigns during 2024 had been the original armies and equipment that the rebels held, equipment that was most produced during and before the Great War. In that entire year, the factories and industrial centers of Eirhow and the Free State of Wuringen had never been silent, as the Free State itself had every raw material it could ask for to fuel its industries.

Iron, rare earth, coal, oil, down to uranium to fuel their nuclear reactors. Everything, in great abundance. It was after all why the Free State became Orland’s “industrial heartland”. It alone could fuel the industries based there, and even those outside of it. In comparison, both the Royalist holdings in East Orland and West Orland were lacking in raw resources (especially iron and oil) to fuel their, technically, larger (but more dispersed) industrial base.

And so, while her side “technically” had more industries to speak of, most of it would never be producing war materiel in the capacity to rival the Federalists, as they didn’t have their raw resources to fuel it. But more importantly, most of the industries outside of the Free State weren’t what Amelie needed.

In this war, she needed plants that produced tanks, artillery, guns, ammunition, aircraft, uniforms, boots, mechs, and finished goods that the military consumed. In order to produce that, she needed her industries to produce metric tonnes of alloys, industrial machinery, cement for the new factories, and other components that would maintain and build the factories that would churn out the weapons.

What did she have then? Well, Thein produced wands and other magical goods. It wouldn’t help much. Rolentz was much of the same. Rebenslof did produce a lot of weapons and alloys, but half of its production base produced consumer goods. Appliances and civilian vehicles. She would have to still convert those factories to those that produced her military goods. Then there was Halia, which now had a nonexistent industry to speak of.

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This left her with Eutstadt, which was more of a financial center than an industrial one. They produced services and employed mostly bureaucrats, scientists and researchers, bankers, academics, and other high-maintenance white-collar female workers who sat in their cushy offices instead of being lined up in the assembly line to produce ammunition that her troops needed.

This meant that her major cities were for the most part, useless, outside of maintaining the civilian economy of Orland. Thus, it was the smaller cities like Niedelheize that produced her war machines. While its dispersed nature in West Orland helped prevent the enemy from bombing their industrial bases, it meant that her production efficiency was lowered. A gun plant from South Orland would have to source the components of its guns from, say, a small city from Northwestern Orland.

Which meant that there were too many bottlenecks in the entire supply chain for her to hammer down. She already had shortages in the raw materials front, she didn’t want another issue in the Royalist industries.

“Alright, so, say, if we really do go all in to expand Niedelheize,” Amelie asked. “Would we be able to support it? Do we even have enough raw materials to keep the industries here running?”

The Countess frowned in response to that. “That’s a question you would have to answer, Your Majesty. Niedelheize is a port city, which means that if we expand the port infrastructure here, we would be easily getting raw materials overseas. The question is, could you source that for Niedelheize?”

“Source it? You mean, from other countries?” Amelie looked back at the economies of other nations. Most were paralyzed, yes, but many nations reportedly had a massive stockpile of mined materials, oil, and other raw resources sitting on their ports ever since the collapse of global trade. She remembered that Princess Xue once said that many of her ports were becoming “stockpiling grounds” due to the revolutionary’s incessant convoy raiding throughout the seas of Pollos, and the fact that many of their major trading partners simply stopped buying their produced goods.

“Yes, Your Majesty. Hebei for example produces a lot of iron, steel, and even cement. If we could get that here and keep that pipeline going, that would be great. East Larissa also produces a good amount of oil that they’re not using, and they’re still under the control of the Imperial Remnants.”

“East Larissa?” Amelie tilted her head, trying to remember what her mortal rival’s country had left after the Confederation’s success at almost overthrowing the Larissan Empire. Indeed, the Imperial Remnants only had two territories left, the Grand Duchy of Theresa, and their remote holdings on East Larissa, where the Confederates struggled to fight on due to its freezing conditions. “But that would require me talking and negotiating with them.”

Amelie frowned, already disliking that idea. Perhaps she had an irrational grudge against House Illyenov, perhaps it was just a well-deserved grudge, but she sure did have a grudge against them. The Empire of Larissa was one of the reasons that the world was in this complete disaster. If they hadn’t initiated the Great War, and the Second Great War, perhaps men wouldn’t have been sent to an apocalyptic war that sealed their complete radicalization. And so, Amelie disliked it, very much so.

I mean, if I really have to. But just… ugh, Larissa, again! I bet if I ask for their oil, they’re going to ask for their Empress. And nu-uh, I would never release the Empress from her arrest. She’d rather eat glass before allowing that to happen. Quite frankly, Amelie would only take them seriously if Princess Anastasia fully apologizes for her country’s crimes, swears her loyalty to the Kingdom of Orland and Amelie, and fully steals the throne from Empress Katerina.

In other words, Amelie disliked House Illyenov so much that she would only cooperate with them if they were Orland’s good little vassal. As they deserved. After all, that Empire was a failed state. Orland may have been devastated by the Second Orlish Civil War, but Amelie knew that regardless of whoever won, the Kingdom would recover and rebuild itself.

The Empire of Larissa on the other hand lacked any proper institutions due to centuries of House Illyenov’s despotic rule. And no, neither the Imperial Remnants, which was nothing but a band of desperate reformers and aristocrats, nor the Confederates, which was nothing more than a bunch of warlords that would eat each other alive once women lost, would restore the Empire to its former power.

“Well, I believe you and Minister Adelaide would have to deal with that then,” the Countess said. “Whether you like it or not, Niedelheize and West Orland would need everything we can muster. Your Majesty, it’s not just Orland that relies on our industries. The entire world relies on our industries as well. Neither Lorathia nor Gaul would be able to fight without Orlish aircraft and armored vehicles, for example.”

“What about the Asanai Empire? Didn’t they take some of the heat from us? I heard their arms industries were booming, and they were selling entire convoys worth of weapons to pro-MN countries, like Princess Hue’s Hebei.”

“The Asanai Empire is only second to Orland. While they are stable, their population is a third of ours. And that Empire is still a pacifistic one. Even now, they produce more washing machines than rifles. Plus, the Asanai Empire can’t produce our stealth aircraft, our LSS Mechs, or our other more advanced weaponry. It just wouldn’t be enough. Orland would have to revitalize its industrial strength. We have the larger manpower, capital, skilled workers, and technical know-how. We just need the fuel for it.”

“And that fuel would have to come from overseas partners…” Amelie sighed. “Hah, everything is really hinging now on the Mandate of Nations becoming united. Both our continued economic and military survival.”

“If the revolution isolates us, it wouldn’t be surprising if we lose this war if they eventually overwhelm us,” the Countess said. “That’s why, we have to maximize everything. Cooperation, trade, our industries, even magic, Your Majesty. We have to find a way to combine magic and technology. I believe that would be the question that would answer if we will triumph or not.”

“Combine magic with technology? Haven’t we been doing that for a while now?”

“Not fully yet. Imagine, Your Majesty, if our mechs were magically lighter. Imagine, if normal guns that even men use could fire special magical ammunition. Imagine if we could teleport gigantic amounts of steel and alloys from their processing plants to our factories using dimensional magic. Imagine, Your Majesty…”

Magic and technology, combined. Amelie could indeed imagine it. It would be the closest thing to women and men working together to defeat our extremist foes.

“I…can we do that?”

“The Arcano-Rifle or the DC Wands alone is already an example of it. We just need to mobilize our industries and researchers for it. But for now, we have to be realistic and focus on getting our pure technology industries up and running. Then we can proceed to the next stage.”

“You have a plan for this, no?”

“A full four-year plan,” the Countess smirked. “Yes, Your Majesty. I’ll send it all to your desk.”