Aliana watched another pair of helicopters bring in survivors from a sunken ship. She thanked whatever Divine was watching over Epa for the fact that the men were rescued alive, and again that Richard VI had enough foresight to order a fleet of aeroplanes. They weren’t enough to handle everything that Allia produced for the war effort, and the experimental artillery and Allia’s own tanks were too heavy and cumbersome to move to Lubska to be tested in live-combat, but they did allow for the vital supply line of Allian engines to make their way into Doschian factories, and for Lubskan grain to make it back to Allia.
This Alanktyda problem had to be sorted out before the granaries started to run dry.
Iliyal looked around Olonia’s tent. Apparently, this was the command tent. Apparently, her unit was the main force of the Lubskan military, with other brigades and divisions still being marshalled. Apparently, the hierarchy was lifted straight from how Goddess Kassandora organised her army in Kirinyaa. Apparently, this was supposed to be a military. Apparently… Iliyal did not even know what else to list off as he stared down at the table in the tent Olonia had brought him to.
They were wrong on all counts. They were so wrong that it was baffling how they managed to even make one step past the starting line but then the backing of an entire willing nation did give a good amount of leeway for failure. Olonia crossed her arms behind her back and stood off to the side as Iliyal bent leaned on that flimsy piece of steel. How did they even manage to somehow fail at furniture?
Iliyal looked up at the ten men who were rank of captains in this brigade. That’s how it went. A squad was ten, commanded by a sergeant. Ten sergeants to one captain. Ten captains to one Olonia. How they expected this model to scale, Iliyal did not even bother trying to comprehend.
But there was something almost comforting in this total failure at organisation. It meant Iliyal could make all the sweeping changes he wanted to, and he didn’t even have to feel bad about removing things other put effort in. “Olonia.” Iliyal asked as he cast one final gaze around the tent. The fabric around them was a dark green, there was a huge table and a stool for the Goddess. A box for her clothes, another for her arms, and that was it. “What is this?”’
He knew the answer already. It was a fucking disaster. But disasters had a habit of needing to be concluded to by one’s own mind rather than being pointed out than others, for someone to take action. If he just told her that everything was terrible, Olonia would most likely follow along, but he wasn’t talking to her now. He was talking to the ten men who served in her leadership now. “This?” Olonia asked she looked at the hierarchy. The ten men shuffled on their feet.
No one wore anything that would not serve as a uniform, but no one matched anyone else. One man had a dark shirt, buttoned up. Another shorts. Another loose pants. A t-shirt here, a vest there. Nothing too bad, but the lack of cohesion was so annoying Iliyal felt his neck tense. “This.” Iliyal replied as he pointed to the hierarchy.
“That’s how we organize for now.” Olonia replied earnestly. She stood there, still in that armour, with that snow-white hair falling down her back. She was so earnest that Iliyal could almost believe her. If it was Kavaa standing there, he would just assume the hierarchy was laid out like that for a reason, but because it was Olonia he assumed there was no reasoning whatsoever.
For the Epan military to be dependant on him, he would need a reorganization, but for there to be an Epan military, he would need to make sure that they weren’t defeated in the immediate start of the conflict. Thankfully, Iliyal had come prepared. He put his own bag on the table and pulled out a blue folder. Blue for the home-front. The red one was for the front-front. “This is how we do it in Arika.” Iliyal said as he pulled out a document outlining Kassandora’s basic hierarchy.
And Iliyal pointed at the top position: Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. In Kirinyaa, that was Kassandora’s position. The Generals were below her, with Iliyal being the highest class and then Sokolowski, Zalewski and Ekkerson below him. “This is you Olonia.” Iliyal said as he tapped that highest rank. Then he looked to the men. “Does anyone know why we are doing this?”
Men always learned better when they felt they got to the answer themselves, no matter how many hints they got to get to that answer. A few of them shifted. One man spoke up. “It’s a more professional way of doing things?” Iliyal shook his head. They wouldn’t get there, he could tell already. He gave Olonia a glance. She was staring at the paper in confusion. Well, this was why he had come here, wasn’t it?
“You.” Iliyal pointed to a bald man. “You have a hundred men underneath you, yes?” The man nodded.
“I do!” He added to his nod.
“You have to secure two buildings, how do you do it?” The man looked at Iliyal, then at the other men in the tent, then at Olonia. She gestured for him to answer.
“I would…” He thought for a moment. “I would make a plan for each of them, and then…” The man saw Iliyal’s dour expression and trailed off.
“If you are making plans on how to siege individual buildings, why are you commanding an entire tenth of this brigade?” Iliyal asked. “Is the maximum capacity of organisation here only ten buildings at a time?” A few of the men furrowed their eyebrows, a few of them made wide-eyed expressions as if they suddenly understood.
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“I understand the argument against adding more ranks.” Iliyal said. “If everyone had their own rank, what would the purpose of ranks be? Isn’t that just a hierarchical chain at that point?” The elf saw several men nod and smile. “Ultimately though, the chain is inefficient but has redundancy, your system is efficient but…” Iliyal thought of how to explain it to them in the simplest way possible. “Split yourselves up, two groups.” They did as told, Olonia watched silently. “Now you.” Iliyal pointed to the group on the left. “You are all dead.” The elf to the men on his right. “Now you have five-hundred men without orders, that you have to save. What do you do?” And he got a series of blank expressions. It was painted on their faces, they had answers, but nothing was good. “Do you see now? There is only one person irreplaceable in this room.” The true answer was that it was Iliyal, but he gave them the wrong one. “Olonia here, as long as she lives, Lubska can fight on.” That was simply the application of more pressure to the Goddess. It was obvious this wasn’t her field, and the less confident she felt about herself, the more she would come to Iliyal for help. “I want, between all of you, to organise ranks into this.” Iliyal tapped the paper as men came round. A few started to write down the various ranks on pieces of paper. “Goddess Olonia will make all decisions on leadership.”
“I will?” Olonia asked.
“It’s your army, isn’t it?” Iliyal asked her with a bright smile.
“It is.” Olonia replied.
“It’s your men, I’m sure you know them better than me. I can help where I’m needed but I’m no Goddess Kassandora, she has a better eye for talent than me.” Iliyal lied through his teeth, he could tell whether a man could lead after a single conversation, but it was certain now that Olonia would come to him for advice. And he didn’t want anyone growing the idea that it was Iliyal’s fault they didn’t get a promotion. Ultimately, he didn’t know these people and if he started assigning men, then there would quickly be a demand from Jozef to remove him. Even his position as an uncalled-for-advisor was tenuous at best, the only thing he had going for him where Olonia’s respect and his name.
“Okay.” Olonia said.
Iliyal nodded. “Preferably, we would have you trained in a school for this, but war did not wait for us.” He sighed, moved the paper with ranks away and revealed the map underneath. “So we will do some training on the job.” Iliyal looked at the ten men who served as Olonia’s leadership. He almost wanted someone to raise an issue with what he just said yet no one did.
“Alright.” Olonia replied. It was almost too easy.
“Firstly, the other brigades of the Lubskan military, where are they?” Iliyal asked.
“There’s several all along the southern mountains.” One of the men answered quickly. “They’re all individually sieging their own Paladin fortresses.”
“And the ones up north?” He said. “Like Drayim?” The men looked at themselves, then at Olonia. So she was designated as the bearer of bad news then.
“Those we’ve decided not to siege.” Olonia said. Iliyal had to blink at the absurdity of what he had just heard.
“You’ve decided not to siege those?” Iliyal said. “Why exactly?”
“They’re far away from the front and not on any major highways. We can siege them later but they’re not trouble now. And there’s not enough Paladins in them to worry about raiding…” She paused for a moment. “Too much.”
Iliyal sighed, he imagined if this is what Kassandora felt like when she taught him. But he never remembered making a mistake as glaring as this. “A rule of warfare is to always strike fast and strike hard. We currently have the initiative in all regions but the south west, do we not?”
“We have it?” One man asked in surprise.
“We do have it.” Iliyal confirmed for them. “Maisara is marching on us, and we are playing whack-a-mole with odd fortresses. When she advances here, then her northern bases serve as resting spots for her army.” He shook his head. “What you have to make sure of, in warfare, is that when the enemy gives you a chance, you take it immediately. What does it matter if they react, if you’re back in the starting position by the time they can react?”
The men all nodded to him. As did Olonia. Of course they would nod, it made sense. Goddess Kassandora had written the words herself, so of course it did. “Where are the Weapon Divines?”
One man answered, this one had close cut hair and a dark shirt. Top two buttons undone. “In Zawitz, protecting the capital and the govern…” He trailed off when he saw Iliyal’s expression.
“Olonia, send an order to them. They’re to clear the Paladin bases north of us immediately. Have them set off today. Give them a hundred men each as support. Don’t send them alone.” It would be terrible if someone like Aslana fell into the White Pantheon’s hands.
“Me?”
“Well they won’t listen to me, will they?” Iliyal said. Once again, no one commented.
“I will then, alright.” Olonia said as she made quick nods. “No, I see it, if we go fast, we can get rid of them so they won’t be a problem for the future.”
“Exactly.” Iliyal said. “If you have a chance, you need a reason to not be taking it.”
“I see none.” One of the men said.
“And you Olonia, I want you to move through the south. Not with this brigade here, but yourself, use your eagle.”
“Myself?” Olonia asked.
“From sieging brigade to sieging brigade, rather than waiting for this one to get there.” Iliyal confirmed and Olonia narrowed her brows.
“This is the only brigade that has seen live combat, we’ll take the least losses with these…” And she shut up again. “That was wrong, wasn’t it?”
Iliyal sighed, the woman really did have a confidence problem. “It was perfectly correct.” He answered. “But will this brigade be the only one that fights throughout the entire war? Will only these thousand men engage all of Maisara’s hundred thousand? Everyone needs experience, we take losses now to minimize them later.”
“I…” Olonia said. “I can’t believe we didn’t realise that.”
One of the men chimed in. “It’s obvious when phrased like that.” And as did the rest, everyone commenting on Iliyal’s move and how smart it was. The elf clapped his hands to shut them up.
“Gentlemen!” He shouted and got the attention of everyone. “We have a war to fight, if I wanted compliments, I’d get them from pretty elf girls rather than you.” The room laughed at that, even Olonia chuckled quietly to herself. “We have our orders, send the weapons up north, you lot get started on the re-organization and Olonia, you clear out the southern bases.” The elf looked at them again. “Well? Go on!” And they got moving.
Iliyal looked at the men in the room as they ran out, everyone filled with excitement. No one had noticed he had given the order and not Olonia. Even the Goddess herself was still looking at the map and nodding at Iliyal’s plan. Finally, Iliyal around himself a smile. When someone knew what they were doing, then taking over a nation’s military was as easy as stealing candy from a baby.