“The Arkelian 1st Armored Division, which had joined Royalist Orlish forces in the Löt–Wuringen Axis, have distinguished themselves in the past few days during mobile defense operations near Löt. Federalist forces have been attempting breakthrough attempts with their armored corps, advancing an average of five or six kilometers each day. The modernized M44-Nörds of the Arkelian 1st Armored Division, which had received significant upgrades with their sensors and even armor-piercing ammunition, have reportedly destroyed ninety-eight Federalist Löwe MBTs over the course of their week-long deployment. This development has been celebrated by the Arkelian Government, calling it a ‘successful demonstration of Arkelian military prowess’. The Orlish High Command has also commended the Arkelian 1st Armored Division in light of these events.”
- ROCN News
+++
Empire of Asanai
Midori City
December 12, 2025
“The Royal Guard is now sending two of our best KDUs into Hebei,” Amelie announced over the gathering of the four heads of state involved in Operation Eastern Jade. “I’ve also approved sending three combat brigades under the I OEF–Hebei to support the thrust into Ginzhu. Not marines, but folks from the Royal Army of Orland. Two armored and one mechanized.”
In one room was Princess Kawasaki Yumi of Asanai, Empress Xue Li of South Hebei, Empress Arushi Mehru, and of course Amelie. Even the more minor participating nations sent their delegates—with officials from Lorathia, Gallia, Arkelia, and Rizalia present at the meeting.
In just a few more days or weeks, the greatest military operation in the Eastern Vaeyoxan region was about to commence. Thus the interstate deliberations.
“That’s quite surprising,” Arushi said. “And in Kusari?”
“We’re pumping it up to eight KDUs alongside six regiments from the Orlish Marine Corps. The four MEUs we sent earlier will also be participating in any ground offensive. All in total, Orland will be committing nearly ninety thousand personnel on the ground. I tried already…but that’s the furthest we can stretch things with our expeditionary forces,” Amelie sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be too sorry,” Li said, as the Hebeian Empress’ expression softened. “Orland is already committing so much in the air and naval front. What more about weaponry? Almost all of us here mainly rely on Orland’s heavy equipment.”
“Yeah, but I do wish that I could dedicate more to all of you,” Amelie said, as she smiled bitterly. “But after deliberating with my military, we cannot. This is the absolute furthest that we can push ourselves.”
“Your Majesty,” the Secretary of the Ivory Alliance, Aurelia Thell, who was Allison’s mother, spoke up. She represented the member states of the Ivory Alliance today. “We’ve already finished the plans with the rest of the Ivory Alliance to send the following to Hebei: Lorathia will be sending two armored brigades and an infantry brigade, alongside an entire MLRS regiment under the IV LEF Corps. The Gallians are sending a single paratrooper brigade. The Arkelians will be sending a single armored brigade. The Lorathian Navy is sending the LRN Princess of Hales and her task force to the Orlish 2nd Fleet as well.”
“That’s good,” Empress Xue smiled even more. “With our combined numbers, we’re almost above forty surface combatants that’ll be participating. That’s…”
“A lot of land strike missiles,” General Albrecht declared as he grinned. The leader of the OHC was also present in the room. He leaned back on his chair. “We’ve already configured the ships of the 2nd Fleet to carry forty-eight HASM-16 cruise missiles already. Both the six Gallant-Class DDGs and the two Rolentz-Class CGs of the 2nd Fleet. The six Weirlöff-Class nuclear attack submarines we’re sending will be armed with thirty-six HASM-16s as well.”
“That’s…a few hundred, no?” Amelie asked. The General nodded.
“We’re also debating the possibility of sending DesDiv 14 and DesDiv 12 into the fight and pulling them out of escort duty in the Pardan Ocean. Those are eight more Gallant-Class destroyers, and they can represent nearly four hundred HASM-16s as well. Though…that might risk our shipping lines a bit. Federalist Weirlöff-Class nuclear attack submarines have been roving our lines more and more after all. Especially after they started assembling the first new ones near Monpleitz.”
“That’s concerning,” Princess Kawasaki said. “I thought they had no naval shipbuilding capabilities?”
“That was yesterday's news. They seem to have already been producing sections of the Weirlöff-Class SSN inside the Free State for nearly a year. Perhaps enough to produce up to eight submarines at most. It was a problem how to assemble them though, a problem they fixed with their puppet government in Monpleitz. Hence why we really cannot afford to lose too many ships in this operation,” General Albrecht sighed. “It’s impossible to strike deep into East Lieplatz due to the density of their air defense. We tried naval drones, but the remnants of the Federalist and East Lieplatzan surface fleet are active there. We can’t break in.”
“That’s awful,” Empress Xue shook her head. “Regardless, they shouldn’t be a problem, no?”
“Not at the moment,” General Albrecht confirmed. “Besides, it’d be suicidal to send their submarines near Asanaian or Rizalian waters, which is how you get into the Hebeian Sea. Mainly because our underwater detection networks there are already too saturated. It’d be suicidal.”
“It’s a policy of my government to keep constant patrols over our waters and more,” Princess Kawasaki proudly nodded to herself as she turned to Empress Xue. She then began reassuring her. “I doubt those submarines will get in, Empress. We’re going to be fine.”
“Thanks,” Empress Xue smiled. “As for us, we’re preparing a lot of infantry divisions and armored brigades for this fight. However, our air fleet is still lacking. I only have six squadrons that can be prepared for this attack. And since we can’t lose any of them, I’m ordering my air force to only conduct standoff strikes with the missiles Orland delivered to us…”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“That’s fine,” Amelie said. “Kusari is going to be doing the same anyway.”
“Mostly at least,” Empress Mehru confirmed. “We expect Orland, Lorathia, and Asanai to be the main ones responsible for establishing aerial supremacy.”
“That’s the next big goal,” Amelie nodded. “And we now have four ground-based LF-20 squadrons active here. The ONS Rebenslof and the ONS Cuirassier will be contributing another forty-eight LF-20s with their reinforced air wings. Right, General?”
“Yep,” General Albrecht nodded. “Combined, the 2nd Fleet will surge a total of a hundred forty-four combat aircraft. Twelve squadrons of twelve planes each in total. Again, forty-eight LF-20s to ninety-six LF-12s. That’s just the naval-borne ones though. Our land-based squadrons are twenty-four fighters each. And we plan to surge that to eighteen. Mostly based in Asanai and Kusari airbases.”
“About that,” Princess Kawasaki grinned. “We now have eighteen squadrons of F-6A Shinseina multirole fighters at the ready. With Orland’s donated TC-130 air tankers, we’re going to be able to support more strike operations in Kusari from Rizalian and South Hebeian airfields.”
“I wonder when all of these deployments will be finished,” Amelie said. “It’s certainly impressive that we’re all collectively about to dedicate a thousand combat aircraft, hundreds of thousands of ground troops, and nearly half a hundred ships for this, but…when?”
“Orland will be done with its deployments by next week,” General Albrecht said. “After that, we’d just be waiting for allies.”
“That’s the main difficulty between us,” Princess Kawasaki said. “My military is still not used to synchronizing well with our allies. Even with the unified high command we established.”
“Unfortunate, yes, but we'll have to work with it. I believe after this one, we’ll be much better at conducting things,” Empress Xue optimistically said. “I hope fortune favors us this time.”
Everyone in the room agreed.
+++
When they exited the meeting, Amelie, William, and Nia immediately went on a tour around Midori. It wasn’t exactly the smartest thing from a security perspective, but Amelie had insisted on it. She truly wanted to see things for herself a bit more considering how dreary her birthday was.
They didn’t exactly go to many places to gawk and enjoy. It was mostly just William driving them like caged schoolgirls with his SUV to random destination sights. The only half-lucky thing they truly had was a few trips to good Asanaian restaurants, which served some fancy delicacies for the enjoyment of the two girls.
And now, Amelie and Nia were being forcefully dragged by William out of a fancy sushi restaurant. The two protested it as they were led outside, but William turned around and frowned at the pouty ladies.
“Oh come on, you two,” William crossed his arms. “I said I received some suspicious reports—”
“It’s about your men encountering hooligans, William,” Amelie pouted even more. “I haven’t even tried to…the other ones, that they were showing off.”
“Yeah, right. Absolute killjoy,” Nia added.
William simply facepalmed.
“Ah, whatever…” he groaned. “Okay, okay. We can keep doing this. But this is like…the last, okay? Look, even with the tightened security, I don’t trust Asanaian authorities to keep anyone in this massive city safe.”
“Yeah, you do have a point,” Amelie said. “But, it’s not like we’re dragging a lot of security guys now. We’re being stealthy. Extremely stealthy. No one’s at risk but me and…well, Nia and you. And I don’t know. Don’t you think you’re severely limiting your life? I feel crushed by it. I just…”
Amelie ran around the slightly snowy fields outside of the restaurant to take a few of the falling snowflakes.
“I just want to feel free for once…is what I’m saying. Don’t you want it too?”
“I do, but like, I’m hired to do security,” William said, frowning. “That’s my number one priority. Always.”
“You sometimes spy on us, you know,” Nia huffed.
“Hey! I don’t place cameras in people's bathrooms,” William shot back. He crossed his arms and shook his head. “Besides, it’s for security. Security, security, security—”
“Go eat sushi,” Amelie blankly said, dragging him back into the restaurant. “You need to enjoy living a little bit.”
“I said I’m not—”
And the trio soon disappeared back inside the establishment.
+++
William was now driving them back into the Orlish Embassy in Midori. They were alone. A single unsuspecting vehicle on the city night. And as Amelie had deduced, nothing at all happened. She smiled to herself. Meanwhile, behind them, Nia was already blissfully asleep.
“Hey, I told you,” Amelie turned to William a bit. “It was fine.”
“Maybe we just got lucky.”
“Yeah, maybe…” Amelie nodded. “I felt a bit selfish today, huh?”
“Yeah. You were.”
“Well, it’s just tiring…okay? I’m just…” Amelie’s smile turned melancholic. “Living…in this increasingly tighter security cordon. It’s kind of a bummer.”
“I think that’s an understatement,” William replied. “You’re going to be living in that lifestyle for the foreseeable future.”
“Yeah. I know. Can’t believe what the terrorists want actually succeeded. They got me. They…terrorized me. Pretty well,” Amelie chuckled a bit. “I can’t even go anywhere now.”
“Heh. Struck fear into the heart of the leader of the MN,” William chided. “Yeah…crazy. I think.”
“Crazy, but nowhere near as crazy as what other people go through nowadays. Even now, look at what we enjoyed today. I bet it’s unreachable for so many of our girls and boys at the frontlines.”
“It is.”
“I feel guilty now.”
“You didn’t indulge much in anything. And you postponed celebrating your birthday until today. I wouldn’t even call this much of a celebration.”
“Many don’t celebrate it nowadays,” Amelie turned to her side. “Soon, the big offensive will come. So many birthdays would become…nothing.”
“We’re getting well-prepared ahead of time. Trust me, the casualties will be greatly reduced. Besides, I doubt the CFN has enough assets to counter our air offensives this time around. They lost so much. They’re still licking their wounds.”
“It doesn’t matter if there’s a thousand or a hundred thousand to me William. I like to tell myself that I can detach myself more easily now from those numbers, but…” Amelie teared up a bit. “You know…I signed this operation myself. And thousands of people are about to die again. Again. And again. And again. I just long for the day when I won’t sign any more of this.”
She turned back to William.
“Will that happen, one day, William?”