“Prime Minister Jacqueline Heiss has now signed a massive two hundred billion military aid bill for Orlish allies in the Mandate of Nations. The money will be spent to buy massive orders of weaponry from Orlish defense corporations, which will be sent throughout the year toward Orland’s allies that they will pay as low-interest loans once the war is over. It is unknown which nations will receive what, but it is speculated that Hebei, Asanai, and Lorathia will be the ones receiving the lion’s share of the incoming deliveries.”

- ROCN News

+++

West Orland

November Palace

June 15, 2025

Amelie slackened as she finally sat in her office’s seat.

“Ah…how much I’ve missed you,” Amelie said, looking around her room. The staff and servants, already finished cleaning and fixing her place before she even arrived last night from her Larissan visit. Unfortunately, she arrived at 02:00 hours at the November Palace, and her work right now would start…

She looked at the clock on the wall.

Seven AM.

Amelie crossed her arms, a little bit miffed at how little sleep she had in her room. She already anticipated that sooner or later, someone will finally barge into her—

Three knocks on her door. Must be William again. Amelie sighed.

“Come in,” she shouted, quite bored, as she picked up her pen. As expected, it was her equally workaholic right-hand man. William, carrying another set of files, clearly marked by the various intelligence agencies of the Kingdom—and of course, by the Orlish High Command, stood in stiff attention as he entered and closed the door. “So what’s the big news today?”

“Well, as usual, we’re being fucked in the rear,” William said dryly as he walked to Amelie’s desk and placed the set of files on it. Then, he fished one that came from the Army Field Intelligence—AFI. “From our ground forces, I have two general overview reports coming in. One from the Orlish front. Another from the Gallian front.”

“Can I hear something about our guys in Hebei for now? I’d like to check in on what’s happening to Empress Xue.”

William placed the file he was holding back to the desk and pulled another one, this time, it was from the Naval Intelligence Division—NID.

“That will be the reports from our dispatched Marine Corps units and of course, from Strike Force Four.”

“Okay, how’s the situation down there?” Amelie asked, as she opened her notebook, which had now evolved into a nightmarish mess of binders and crap and endless scribbles from her deteriorating mind. “Is she winning, or what?”

“Well, first of all, as of now, the estimates of the NID is that, no, they ain’t. Their analysis, which came from the combined reports of our Marines and Air Force squadrons on the ground showed a marked deterioration in Imperial Hebeian military capabilities.”

Amelie scribbled, ‘need to help Empress Xue again soon’ on her notebook as she frowned.

“Why?”

“Well, it’s quite simple, really. Over the last few months, the Empire has lost two major campaigns. The Third Ginzhu Campaign, and the West Liao Campaign. Those defeats led to approximately one hundred fifty thousand military casualties, as well as the loss of three major cities, again, Ginzhu, which was recaptured last year, is lost again. Hanjing, and, well, Laoding too. That, and they lost approximately eighty-thousand square kilometers of territory, and again, the entirety of the Ginzhu province.”

Then, William chuckled.

“Then again, at this point, Ginzhu is literally a wasteland considering the endless back and forths there, so I guess it’s not much of a loss.”

“Any bright news?”

“South Hebeian forces have now settled into better defense lines, and the frontlines are stabilizing.”

“And the worst news?”

“If the North Hebeians and the participating Confederacy and Pozneki military units recover in a few months, your friend over there is figuratively screwed soon.”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it. That’s why Jacqueline signed that thing. We should…be able to divert crap soon enough, I guess.”

“Mhm…” William then flipped through the NID file. “Want me to look over at the Kusari situation?”

“Screw it. Go on, I guess.”

“Delightful. On the Kusari front, we have lovely news. The Royal Guard and the Marine Corps have successfully opened up the encirclement, and much of the Kusari forces.”

Amelie felt her lips curl up into a proud smile.

“Why, if that isn’t quite the good news in the morn—”

“The Kusaris of course evacuated without their heavy equipment, and all their units that managed to escape came in mostly with just their light vehicles, small arms, and whatever crap they luckily got out. In other words, they fully lost at least ninety percent of their three-hundred-strong tank force in the pocket. Congratulations to us.”

Amelie groaned.

“Argh…how am I even supposed to replace that?! The next shipments should be for strengthening them, not replenishing their losses. Come on…” Amelie nursed her temple as she turned red. “Can’t the CFN be really braindead for once?”

Stolen story; please report.

“I think they had a number of their brain-dead moves already,” William chuckled. “Unfortunately, the same can be said about our side. The Kusari Command’s insistence to hold on to the Laresh Region was quite braindead, for example.”

“There were tens of millions of people in that place to be fair,” Amelie replied. “Like, I can understand why they’d insist on holding on until their people have been evacuated.”

“Which is stupid, now look at them,” William laughed. “Even with our KDUs, Marines, and airpower in place, they’re about to get cracked in the next CFN offensive. That’s what the NID’s assessment is. The enemy will most likely push down southward and capture Rajabad. Can you believe that? They’re gonna lose their damned capital because of their stupidity.”

“W-well, we better support them well to hold on then,” Amelie shook her head adamantly. “William, we can’t let one of our major allies lose their capital. That’d be too much of a blow to us.”

“Good on you to realize that. Now, let’s just hope that Sir Zimmerman can create another goddamned miracle, because I tell you what, while Orlish ground forces are doing well down there, the rest of the frontlines aren't.”

“If only those church prayers worked…”

“Well, maybe if you pray harder in those ceremonies as Queen things would work out.”

“I’m already doing it!”

William smirked.

“Well, guess someone fell out of the Goddess’ good graces.”

“Shut up.”

“Anyway, now onto the cool stuff,” William placed the NID file on Amelie’s desk and fished the AFI file. “The Orlish and Gallian fronts.”

Amelie took a deep exhale.

“How bad is it?”

“Which one do you want first? The Orlish one or the Gallian one?”

It’s like I’m being forced to pick between two piles of dung.

“The Gallian one.”

“Good choice. There, we have some awesome news about our glorious counteroffensive,” William said, clearly exaggerating his words. “Now, due to your brilliant decision of launching the attack weeks earlier than it should be…”

“Hey,” Amelie cut him off. “You said it was a bright idea.”

“I have lots of ‘bright ideas’ you’d disapprove of, and I believe it's for good reason.”

“Whatever, carry on.”

“Okay, yeah, I’ll be serious. We are somewhere in the middle. A bit on the winning side.”

“That’s nice, I guess…”

“But we’re not making the required progress to really…you know, achieve our actual goals.”

“That being the great push straight to Poznek once their armies collapse?”

William nodded.

“Precisely! Now, while we have advanced around sixty thousand square kilometers forward in terms of territory for the past few days, mostly in our southern and northern pincers, and, well, the recaptured territory directly in front of the Gallian capital—we’re not so fast.”

“So, no big encirclements?”

“Well, the Air Force is doing their job of bombing the crap out of the desperate lines of Larissan or Pozneki tanks, trucks, and vehicles out of the areas threatened by the two pincers,” William slowed down. “But…yeah, I’m going to be frank. Those routed divisions are getting the heck out of the danger zones before we close the pincers. For reference, both pincers are around ninety-eight kilometers away from each other. North to South. Fun, isn’t it?”

“But there’s a salient?”

William showed the picture of the massive salient on the Gallian front. It really looked like her forces were trying to eat a massive territory in the center. That…looks less impressive when you realize the distance of those two pincers. Amelie breathed out. They’re just gonna drive out of it.

“Well, the thing is, it was mostly because of the delays due to the failed assaults of our airmobile units in the south and the north. We had to secure a couple of bridges during the early days, and well…it flunked.”

“Yeah, I heard that.”

“And this is the long-term result,” William sighed. “Unfortunately, it is out of our control, but the enemy managed to set up successive desperate defense lines in front of our advancing pincers to delay us. While they failed at causing significant casualties, they sure did succeed at completely slowing us down.”

“And there goes my lightning campaign…”

Amelie scribbled ‘Clericia’s fault’ angrily in her notebook.

“Alright, what about Orland? Is there some glimmer of light here? A scrap of some good news I can latch on to? Something I can brag about in my next press conference? Anything? Anything at all.”

“To believe that we’re having any luck with the Federalists is quite the height of delusions,” William said, amused. “Would you like the sugar-sprinkled version or the chili-dipped one?”

“The chili dipped one?”

“We’re fucked.”

Amelie just buried her face in her hands.

“I need some morning tea.”

“I’ll gladly ring the servants—”

“Just call Nia. I need Nia. Is she awake?”

“Still sleeping soundly in her room last I checked.”

“You checked?”

“Well, I just asked the staff,” William said. “Pfft, why would I go to your chambers? Also, didn’t you come from the same floor? You didn’t check?”

Amelie felt a vein pop in her temple.

“I walked my way here half-asleep, okay?”

“So you sleepwalked?”

“I am not as used as you at being this sleep-deprived.”

“You’ve been at it since last year, and you’re still not used to it?”

Amelie smiled smugly.

“I get my beauty sleep from time to time. Is it not a Queen’s right?”

“Well, that explains things.”

“Ugh, just…tell me what’s happening here.”

“Well, it’s simple really. We finally stabilized the Löt Axis yesterday after the 10th Army mobilized their reserves for the counterattack five days ago.”

“And…?”

“We lost twenty-eight thousand men in the span of five days, alongside one hundred fifty tanks, and two hundred other armored vehicles. General Bohm is at the moment on his knees at the OHC asking for reinforcements, both for men and heavy equipment. The enemy, on the other hand, seemed to have withdrawn in good order, so…well, in essence, they poked us to make us lose equipment.”

“How can they trick us that way!”

“Congratulations, you now found out about the qualitative advantage of more experienced and fanatic Federalist local commanders and units,” William smiled as he closed the file. “Need I say more?”

Amelie pouted.

“You always serve the worst breakfast.”

“It’s my pleasure, Amelie.”