“Two Lorathian guided missile destroyers have been sunk in the North Allas ocean by Orlish Federalist submarines. The two destroyers were conducting routine escort operations on a sea route used by hundreds of civilian vessels when they detected a suspected Weirlöff-Class nuclear attack submarine. The LRN Duncan and LRN Sirius attempted to fully locate the Federalist submarine and fired multiple anti-submarine missiles. Unfortunately, the attempt failed, and both subs were sunk within thirty minutes. As of now, twelve more civilian cargo vessels and tankers have been sunk in the vicinity of the engagement, as the global shipping war continues.”
- Geopol Press
Kingdom of Rizalia
Bato Naval Base
December 16, 2025
Amelie woke up early today.
Quite frankly, work at setting up the big operation had been taking so much time for her. Endless high-level and low-level diplomatic talks happened each day, and she was flying back and forth from country to country. Then there were the various inspections and check-ins with the units participating in the operation, and Amelie had been…
She looked at her eyes in the mirror as she silently brushed her teeth. She was starting to look more and more horrendous. She spat out the used toothpaste and rinsed her teeth. She sighed to herself. So much work. Most of it was self-inflicted to be quite fair.
But that doesn’t mean I should shirk from it!
Amelie raised her face as she looked at the mirror.
I’m not just going to be a Queen who sits in my palace. I’m here. I’m…doing my best to lead. That’s all there is to it.
Quite frankly, her underlings could already do most things. And Amelie was risking herself by being a disastrous micromanager. But at the very least, it wasn’t what she was doing. For some reason, Amelie felt better at being present all the time. It felt…more active. But at the same time, she didn’t want to breathe down on the necks of her subjects either.
I’m just here, to give them my presence. That’s right. Amelie smiled to herself. I may not be able to do much but talk and direct the broader scope of things, but being here should help. Because…I guess it would feel better for them. I’m here. I’m here…with them…
She sounded less and less convinced of her excuses.
Perhaps she should just piss off back to Eutstadt at this rate. And do more Queenly things. Like sleeping and just waiting for the next report or emergency. Amelie sighed. She didn’t like that anymore. She felt less in control of things. The further she was from developing situations, she felt less control over things.
And if there was anything she didn’t like, it was having no control when people died.
Amelie patted her hair dry. The morning was quite quick. Nia combed and fixed her hair. She got herself properly dressed. She did her morning beauty routine to salvage whatever looks she had. And then she had breakfast while being served with the morning news. As always, the news was all about horrendous stuff, but Amelie was already so far used to it.
As such, she merely skimmed through it as she ate. Within a few minutes, William had already arrived, right when Nia finally took her seat as well to begin eating her breakfast. Amelie naturally turned and smiled at William as he closed the door to their private room.
“Hey, good morning. Have you had breakfast?” Amelie asked. William nodded as he made his way to the table they were dining on.
“Yep. Had coffee and bread already,” he placed a folder on the table. Amelie and Nia on the other hand continued eating, while William took his seat on the third chair that was in the middle of the table. “Right, so…the 2nd and 5th KDUs have arrived here today. Most of them at least.”
“Is that so?” Amelie asked, raising her eyebrows. “They’re…the ones we’re sending to Hebei, right?”
“Yep. Alongside the 3rd and 16th Mechanized Brigades of the Army. The Lorathians have also already unloaded the equipment used by the 24th and 26th Royal Hussars in Tirad City down south. Should be only a few more days before these guys are sent off to Hebei proper.”
Amelie nodded thoughtfully as she took another slice of her steak. She silently mulled about the current situation. It felt…almost slow to her. She envisioned that Operation Eastern Jade would happen in December, but at this rate, it might take until January.
“I hope we’re not being too slow…” Amelie mumbled.
“Well, we can’t fully rush things either even if we want to. Coalition operations are…fickle and harder to execute, especially since the Hebeians, Rizalians, Kusaris, and Asanians are still learning how to fight like how we did in the Ivory Alliance back then.”
“What about Asanai, by the way?” Amelie asked. “How are they doing?”
“They already have all four of their armored brigades and two mechanized brigades ready near Ginzhu. Specifically, their main formations are the 1st Imperial Armored Division ‘Midori’ and the 2nd Imperial Armored Division ‘Kawasaki’. Nearly five hundred Type 14 MBTs, mostly fresh from the last three years of production, will be participating there.”
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“Hmm…how do they stack up against our Löwe tanks?”
“I’d say they’re close to Löwe EP4As.”
“EP4As?” Amelie seemed a bit surprised. “Damn…so these are really modern stuff…”
“The fourteen in the Type 14 name means that it was introduced back in 2014, Amelie.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah. That’s why, I’d say they’re close to our EP4As. We probably only have around six to eight hundred total at the moment. Now of course…the thing is, these two divisions comprise two-thirds of Asanai’s armored corps. Because they only have three armored divisions.”
“Wait, they only have that much?” Nia asked. “That’s…not a lot.”
“Only when compared to Orland. A massive superpower,” William countered. “It’s fairly large for a nation that mostly remained pacifistic for a century. Hence why this will be a mainly Asanaian operation. The ground part of the operation mostly will rely on them. It’s not just these two armored divisions that they sent by the way. They also sent an entire marine division, alongside three infantry divisions.”
“In contrast, Orland and Lorathia will only send the equivalent of one division,” Amelie said, as she sipped her tea. “Hmm…I wish we could have sent more.”
“Well, in Kusari, it’d be mainly our KDUs that will be involved. And the Orlish Marine Corps. Besides, the recapture of Ginzhu isn’t something we should be too locked on anyway. It’s just an extra.”
“But it’s a valuable Hebeian city,” Nia said. “And like…very important for Empress Xue’s legitimacy. It was one of their largest port cities.”
“Yeah, but now Ginzhu and Xilu, or well, just the Ginzhu Metropolitan Area in general, is nothing but rubble right now. The nearly twenty million people who resided in the area have mostly fled. Princess Kawasaki and Empress Xue would essentially be fighting the North Hebeians for a field of rubble just to distract the CFN.”
“That piece of rubble is still quite valuable in some ways,” Amelie said. “I mean…the North Hebeians stationed a lot of troops there.”
“Yeah. That’s why we plan to operationally encircle the Ginzhu Metropolitan Area. Both Ginzhu proper and Xilu City on the west. But I seriously doubt we’d be able to retake it even after a month or two of urban combat operations. Metro areas are simply just such a nightmare to fight in…”
“Well…all the more reason not to let Rajabad fall,” Amelie sighed. “It’d be an absolute pain to retake it if it happens.”
“Heh…, even then, we’d still have to retake three Kusari megacities in Operation Eastern Jade,” William chuckled cynically. “The casualties for this one would be an absolute nightmare for the Kusari Army if the CFN decides to be stubborn.”
+++
Amelie watched as the tanks of the 2nd KDU “Erzherzogin Delphine” and the 5th KDU “Königin Alorie” entered the entrance of Bato Naval Base. They were carried in by heavy-duty trucks on their flatbeds, their turrets, and guns aimed at the rear. It wasn’t just the tanks though. M8 IFVs and M3 APCs, also being transported on trucks soon arrived.
Soon, the self-propelled guns of the unit were also shipped in. Amelie leaned closer to the ledge of the balcony, as William appeared behind him.
“Hmm…those are M45-A1s,” William commented. “Those are some really new stuff…”
“New?” Amelie raised her eyebrows. “They look the same as the other ones.”
“That’s because the upgrades are mainly internal. Unlike the old models, these are optimized for shoot and scoot. It has powerful autoloaders and an advanced onboard control system. That self-propelled gun…it can fire six shells that hit a target simultaneously.”
Amelie was at a loss.
“Uhh…how does that work? What do you mean…hit a target simultaneously? Is it like a machine gun or something?”
“No, no,” William chuckled. “Artillery travels at different trajectories. What it does is range a target at least seventeen kilometers away, then fire six shells at different trajectories so they arrive at the same time.”
“...Okay? And what’s the point of that?”
“Essentially, it would be as if we had six of the old M45s firing or a group of towed artillery firing a battery barrage. The point of barrages is to maximize damage and morale loss because the enemy gets overwhelmed in a short, sudden manner. Like, imagine, if you’re struck by artillery and survive. You’ll run before the next one. If you get rained by a dozen shells from two M45-A1s out of nowhere, you’re probably dead, alongside everyone around you.”
“Oh…and what’s shoot and scoot?”
“Well, that just means these things can fire their guns and then run away quickly. For context, this thing can fire twelve shells in sixty seconds during intensive barrages. Then it can drive away from the combat operations. Just in time before getting hit by any counterbattery fire.”
“That’s…kinda neat,” Amelie looked back at the vehicles entering below them. “Hmm…how many of these things do we have now?”
“Last I’ve heard, the first procurement for it was ordered back in June. Lot 1 of the M45-A1s was produced mostly in the Niedelheze Industrial Zone. Four hundred M45-A1s in total. I believe it was a four billion blancs acquisition project. Pretty experimental, so we’re not yet ordering lot after lot.”
“Hmm…and we gave them to our KDUs?”
“That was the last news I had with it. I mainly track the OAF’s acquisition projects, not really the Royal Guard’s. But yeah, the OAF is mostly staying with ordering older tech. Except for the Air Force. Because we’re now scaling down the orders for older aircraft like the LF-12s. Especially with Lot 8’s seventy billion blancs acquisition for one thousand four hundred LF-20s recently. Same with the Navy and their new ship programs. But for the Army, guns and tanks rarely get big upgrades.”
“Hmm, is the Army taking combat data from our KDUs?” Amelie asked. “Because looking at it, they’re the ones getting all the cutting-edge stuff.”
“Yeah, the OHC is taking notes. But otherwise, they’re more interested in getting more metal in the fields than getting more expensive metal,” William frowned. “Then again, last year, a single LF-20 cost us nearly a hundred million blancs on average. Now it’s down to fifty million.”
“That’s quite the drastic decrease…” Amelie said. “It’s…kinda impressive.”
“Factories in the homefront are becoming hotter and hotter. The more orders we place on our corporations, the faster the prices will fall to the floor. Lot 7 for example only ordered four hundred LF-20s just four months ago. Now we ordered more than thrice that. Maybe we can do the same with Löwe EP4Bs and these new M45-A1s next year. Once the current RGO orders are done.”
“Well…” Amelie smiled as she watched the first vehicles that carried the actual personnel of the 2nd and 5th KDUs arrive. “I hope they perform well then. Maybe we can spread out these new equipment for the rest of our military soon.”