“Fighting in the Kusari mainland is now reaching its breaking point. The Kusari Imperial Army and the allied forces present on the mainland are being pushed further and further back. The threat to the Kusari capital has now become so extreme, that the Kusari Government is evacuating much of its staff, ministries, agencies, and departments to the southern Kusari city of Raffna.”

- Geopol Press

+++

West Orland

November Palace

Situation Room

July 8, 2025

“The hopes of a full-scale offensive into the Pozneki Republic… have been dashed.”

The words from General Victor Albrecht came without surprise to the Heiss War Cabinet. Amelie’s ministers were clearly distraught at the news, but, well, it was to be expected. The chemical attacks…while they had focused on the horrors it inflicted on civilians, had an effect as well on the great offensive.

No more were the Orlish and Lorathian Armies speeding through Larissan and Pozneki positions. No more was the frontline moving dozens of kilometers every hour in her alliance’s favor. No more was there a lightning campaign. Ever since the strikes happened, the contaminated logistical lines complicated everything.

Her forces had to stop for days just to decontaminate the struck areas. All while fighting off repeated CFN counterattacks. That was right when Amelie and the Orlish Government were coordinating their response to the attacks. Supplies and resources had to be diverted to protect civilians rather than supply their troops. Even precious rations meant for her troops at the front had to be diverted to starving Gallians.

Now was the moment of truth. The CFN’s brutal tactics worked. The humanitarian and near-genocidal act they had committed. It worked. And that only raised the silent fury that had been endlessly bubbling inside Amelie’s heart. The fact that these evil…monstrous tactics worked.

“We’re…” Pristina spoke, shaking her head. “Are we planning for another assault? This was our all-out gamble, after all. Remember, our girls down at Kusari have been desperately calling the OAF for more ground support. And by that, I mean, a major ground and air operation in Kusari.”

“No, we’re not,” General Albrecht said. “The OHC calculated our munitions stockpiles. It looks ugly in the short term. We’d be unable to execute a major operation for the next three months.”

“I’ll try to speed up our war production,” Anne adamantly said. “Tell me what the Armed Forces need to cut that figure down to half. I’ll get it done. I’ll try to coordinate our factories to expedite their production processes. Increase work times. Reduce safety procedures. Anything. We’re not losing Kusari!”

“Anne, you can’t just do that! It’s not like there are even many safety regulations we have left to ‘slow down production’,” Allison defensively insisted. “Haven’t we already gutted the rights of our people enough? I swear, we’re turning into nothing but a mirror of our enemies at this rate. What’s the point of us legislating more and more equal rights when in reality we’re just treating both women and men worse and worse where it matters, like in the workplace?”

“We’re closing the threshold to forced labor,” Jacqueline said, quite disappointed at the reality on the ground. “Everyone’s working long hours. Regulations are being cut left and right. Everyone is required to work…for a specific number of hours, or else they’re liable for military service. It’s all going to bite us back one day if the people get tired of these conditions.”

“Yeah? And what, lax things up when we’re competing with the Federalists?” Walter pointed out, his arms crossed. “Let me remind you all what the norm is in the Free State. More, more, and more. They’re squeezing the soul of their people there, and creating automatons to replace those who are lost to keep the big machine going. Soon, they’ll be declaring total war. Total mobilization. Where everyone, men, women, the old, children, adults, you name it, is directly creating weapons or using the weapons against us.”

“That’s why we’re trying to streamline our bureaucracy," Amelie said. “To speed up the mobilization further.”

“Well, your efforts are correct. It’s just that Minister Thell here seems way too opposed to our decisions that maximize efficiency and output.”

“A war becomes worthless to fight when the state abandons humanity,” Allison retorted. “We have to keep reminding the people that this is a worthy cause to fight for. That’s not happening if you keep beating them just because they didn’t increase the tanks produced a day to twenty units or whatever goals we have in mind.”

Walter’s smile grew.

“False. I think we demonstrated pretty well that you can have people fight for a soulless entity that threw away your humanity. Pretty viciously too, might I add, considering the mountain of dead Order Pact soldiers the Kingdom’s expeditionary forces killed.”

“You both have good points,” Amelie broke the discussion to a halt. “Allison, we’re not abandoning our humanity or anything. Let’s not be that alarmist. Anne, you don’t need to cut back on what meager regulation levels we already have now for our workers. And Walter, we’re not going to stop chasing greater production levels to keep up with our enemies. I think we just need time.”

“Time we don’t have. Or we’ll lose North Kusari,” Pristina said. “That would be a blow too far for the alliance. Can we even absorb that?”

“Perhaps?” Walter said as he turned to General Albrecht. “General, tell me, does the Kusari have a good fallback line that they could theoretically use?”

“Yes. The Great Minda River cuts from the Lham region in southwestern Hebei, through central Kusari, straight down into the southwestern Kusari coastline. They’d have to abandon everything in northwestern Kusari though, alongside the capital, and three hundred million people.”

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Walter turned his chair back to face the Heiss Cabinet, smiling to himself as he shrugged.

“Well? Seems like we have a good plan now. Fallback to a better defensible line. Adelaide, maybe you can talk sense to them.”

“That’s not happening,” Adelaide replied. “The Empire isn’t going to abandon nearly half of its people to the CFN just because we told them so. They’re going to violently refuse. If we even let them lose that much land, they might criticize us openly. And harshly. That’ll create disunity in the MN.”

“We’ve seen how badly the CFN is treating the Central Vaeyox too,” Pristina said. “Either the Larissan Confederation annexed them and are treating them like trash. Or they establish puppet governments that treat their people like trash.”

“Well, that’s the magic of CFN occupation, but we can’t do anything about that without taking the pragmatic solution of retreating to at least stop them from taking over the entire country,” Walter said. “At the rate we’re going, the Kusari Imperial Army is going to collapse badly. Both Asanai and us can’t do much in the air anymore, considering how many munitions we have expended. And our KDUs and marines on the ground are barely holding on.”

Amelie looked down at the table.

“General,” Amelie spoke. “What are the current ideas within the OHC? What should be our next course of action?”

“We should prepare for a long-term stalemate in West Vaeyox,” General Albrecht said. “Both the CFN and allied forces are expended and tired. We have no choice but to dig in. And the same is true for them. As for Kusari and Hebei…we’re still formulating something.”

“Then do it. Please, call us in the moment you have an idea on what to do in East Vaeyox.”

+++

“This is a disappointing state of affairs,” Amelie said to William as the two walked out of the situation room. Quite frankly, the tiring failures of her policies were getting to Amelie’s nerves now. She thought to herself that she had it in the bag when the great offensive was going well. Then something screwed her entire plan. It was as if by divine providence, every measure she took would be stopped by something.

Every choice. Every decision. Every plan.

Leadership was truly a difficult thing to do. There was no shortage of failures that could be attributed to her name. To live in these arduous times, when all she could do was lead from the rear…it was painful for Amelie’s heart. Still, in a way, she didn’t have regrets for the decisions she took. She prioritized protecting civilians first and foremost when the chemical bombs dropped.

And that was something that Amelie at least felt was good. But that still cost her things on the military front. And would continue to cost her going forward.

“Being the Queen must be quite painful now,” William replied. “You know, I’m starting to feel bad for you.”

“Surprising, William. I imagined you’d feel more bad about the soldiers and people dying right now.”

“Well, I’m just saying. Since the WMD fiasco started…you’ve turned pale. And…your eyebags…”

“Tell me how I’m supposed to properly sleep at night when hundreds of thousands died in a few hours under my watch?”

William took a deep breath.

“The problem with you is that you take too much responsibility for everything. I talked to General Albrecht. Even he had no idea how to stop the disaster. No one could. Shit, do you not understand the part about them dropping those munitions on CFN-occupied territory? Tell me, how could you have magically protected the people there?”

“I don’t know.”

“Exactly. Look, the only thing you chose that the OHC and your intelligence agencies disagreed with was the immediate deployment of chemical weapons. Why? Do you believe it to be wrong?”

“They say that it weakens our deterrence…”

“But your gut tells you that if we do it, it’ll just escalate and normalize WMD deployment, which leads to you know what…when we’re unprepared for it.”

Amelie grimaced.

“Yet, even if we wait for two years, we’ll still be forever vulnerable to an exchange. William, it’s so hard. Deter them by escalating back, and we might destroy ourselves badly now. Refuse to escalate, and we still might be destroyed in the future anyway, while putting ourselves in an awful military position today.”

“Well, then it becomes a question of morals.”

Amelie looked to her side, straight to William. He just kept walking, staying silent for a while.

“Tell me, what kind of a leader is a good one? Someone who delays misery and tries to stop it…or someone who gives in and allows it to come because ‘it’s impossible to stop it’?”

“Well…the former?”

“Exactly. You’re that type of leader. Were it Queen Areya…or Queen Alorie in your position, do you know what our world would be right now? Neither your mother nor grandmother would have tolerated weakness. When the Order Pact deployed gas, we deployed it the next day. And we specifically were preparing for a nuclear escalation…to press the red button, immediately, if a single nuclear strike touches Gallian or Lorathian soil.”

“So…considering that hundreds of thousands of Gallians died…”

“Yes, she’d have pushed the red button without a care,” William said. “And maybe she’s right. A WMD strike must be faced down with a WMD strike. That’s the MAD doctrine. That’s what keeps WMDs off the table. The only reason it didn’t happen during the First Great War was because both sides communicated underground that the gas would be limited in the depopulated contact lines. We have none of that today. We have absolutely zero official contact with the CFN. Your mother…would have launched tactical nuclear strikes on Larissan and Federalist silos that day.”

“And…”

“And then of course they would do the same to us. First booms come, and millions die. Both sides become really angry, and out comes the ones aimed at the cities. That’s the decision you refused to take. You broke MAD for us and allowed the enemy team to take an unfair victory…to let billions live.”

He turned toward her.

“So tell me. You’re doing things awfully? Wrong. Things could have gone more awful.”

Amelie found herself patted by William on her shoulder as he smiled.

“At least now you’re not dealing with the aftermath of glassed Orlish cities. But instead, you’re just dealing with the MN’s wounded pride and compromised anti-WMD deterrence.”

“...Thanks, I guess.”

“Now get back to work.”

“Screw you.”

“Sorry, sorry, just kidding,” William chuckled. “You should probably take a nap or something. It’s not like you can conjure up a plan on your own. The OHC will come up with something tangible soon.”

He’s just raising my spirits for a second to crush it.

Amelie just looked down as they continued walking back to her office.

Such a meanie.