War Rooms
“Zyckevele is not half bad. We can work that with them. Right, I'm the Raging Blood. I do have a say in this. More than Ego.” Fox began. “Well, since they both want to work together, we can gift them a few Vipers and Insect Snakes. Patented, of course. And maybe ask them for a few more medium NUAs. I have seen the records. Our cutting edge Courusel machinery new batches are barely getting to work, eh?”
“Not so meaningful but helpful, hm?” Luis drank a sip from his glass. He then nodded, gesturing for Fox to continue. Fox nodded, leaning his head leftwards, “Since the new navy should have been finished being forged… and the now extensive air force is at the ready. How about testing?”
“Mm?” Luis twitched a frown. Fox elaborated, “Where to test the new things you’ve been building? The top secret ones, not the ‘small’ fray you’ve shown me and let me participate in.”
“Hah,” Luis inclined his head and looked at Fox with upturned eyes. Fox tilted his in the same direction, still eyeing Luis. The latter didn’t say anything but nodded after a bit, “That could be more useful, yes. Go ahead then.”
“I suppose I can tell them we’ll be ‘lending’ Miros’s brains for a bit in exchange?” Fox added. Luis was taken aback, but he didn’t show it, making grimaces with his open mouth before drinking up his glass with a shaking head.
Discussing a bit more about what to respond to the other countries, emphasizing warmth and protection to the parties that have a ‘shady’ business with Lýmoca, and equals to those like Cors, Preato, Collan, and even Mount Veneta.
Argopolas and Melenon couldn’t be contacted secretly anymore, but that wasn’t an issue. The help was confirmed globally, with Lýmoca coming into the scene of the world yet again, drawing jealousy from many, one, places for sure.
Both men stood beside each other and in front of the central table at some point. Luis thought of something with his eyes narrowed, his 5th glass in his hand, with the other 4 in his stomach. He asked Fox, flinging his chin towards him, “Do we have any confirmation it was ANS?”
“Of course they were. I massacred their people in Terka. I know how they fight, even without their cowardly suits. It was them alone, although I reckon they called more of their dogs.” Fox replied, shrugging a bit. Luis frowned, therefore asking after some consideration.
“Aren’t you one cowardly agent, too? You used a NUA as well.”
Fox looked at Luis in startled askance before shaking his head, “I didn’t use it to protect myself alone. They could have landed more hits and cause me more damage, although the outcome would have been the same. They just didn’t. Too afraid.”
“…” Luis had nothing to reply with. All he could do was shake his head in defeat. He then came back with doubts, “But why would they attack? Even if they wanted to kill me and destabilize Lýmoca, it wouldn’t have mattered to Argopolas and Melenon situations.”
“No why— what.” Fox commented. Luis looked at him. Fox rambled on, “It doesn’t matter the reason behind it. Only what we do with it. And since we’re not saying anything about the culprits, that’ll let the world debate whether it was ANS, the southern ‘traitors’, or both.”
“It’s most likely Cerka and Torka who will draw in the most attention from it, then.” Luis said, rubbing the tip of his chin. Fox voiced, “Good. That will be enough to deal with the matter at hand and not point fingers at the guy upstairs.”
“Mn.” Luis nodded. Fox then nodded and headed to the exit. Luis looked at his back before shouting, “Congratulations on your Enterprise! You better get that working well. It’s been only collecting dust since you can barely stand and walk! I heard you even received 17 calls!”
“So many marriage proposals? Bothersome.” Fox turned and commented, shrugging. Luis shook his head, to which Fox grinned. Luis said, “It’s more notorious when you have two of the most influential and renown Ly women appointed as co-founders and board presidents!”
“I think you’re just glad I didn’t put Lesly in there, too.” Fox said just before stepping out the doorstep, or rather, ‘falling’ outside the war room. Luis’s body stopped altogether, his eyes narrowing after Fox disappeared before shaking his head to regain mental clarity.
“Damned bratty kids these days…” Luis muttered under his breath. He revised the letters, giving them 2 quick reads each before storing them and leaving them for destruction.
… The war room in Lýmoca was practically the first in history. It was also the first time anything was allocated to this type of subject, be it war effort, planning, discussing before, amidst, and after, and responses and actions.
It wasn’t that different with ANS, but only in the sense that they hadn’t entered the war room for the matters it was built for in the past few hundred years. It was still used, but before was nothing like now, where a situation had developed.
They weren’t directly involved, and that was precisely what they wanted to avoid. But now, they were having serious meetings on the subject. While it was still night, there was an important meeting that had to take place before giving space to everything else, and was of gargantuan importance.
“Lýmoca have exceeded their sheer shamelessness!” A congressman shouted, bringing all attention to himself. He was already at the podium, taking the microphone, but his shout made those chatting in low volume also focus on him.
The man nodded before continuing, spreading his arms as he went, “Is it not that they were supposed to be neutral and peaceful? They have broken their oath! There’s nothing stopping them from receiving what they deserve now!”
“It’s not a law to follow one’s moral code, or teachings. Their previous history is this and that, what matters is the now. Should we invade Lýmoca, thank you for being patient enough to cut through the matter, we’ll ask any other country equal to us to do the same— to us!”
“Who said that? If you want the other microphone, you should’ve asked! No need to hide.” The previous congressman, still at the podium, frowned and looked around, trying to find the owner of that voice. It wasn’t needed, as a person stood up and slapped his sides.
“Zyckevele and KAA aren’t worsely prepared than we are. In fact, Zyckevele has quite the properties to prepare for any war. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to take over the Lenove Empire, let alone the Veil Kingdom.” The second congressman said.
“Are you referring to the time we freed the Orcs and Pontians? And when we helped fund the nations of Pexa and Orxa?” A congresswoman stood up and spoke out loud. Her voice was heightened by a quick, small glass microphone amidst her words.
“You mean when the Orcs lost 60% of their territory to become the nowadays Orcesta, and when Pontian evolved into Fresna with less than 40% of their territory remaining? And I won’t forget— ‘oh, I don’t dare’— when we supplied 2 groups of Veil people as Merula formed to create 2 small bridge nations between the giant Merula and Zyckevele!?” The congressman countered.
The other 2 fell silent, before another congressman, and quite the figure, too, spoke out after standing up. His presence was notable. “I believe the fruits of our country have always been tasteful. It hasn’t even come into play, but we can see incidents and conflict between our conflicted parties and those we helped build and become a political entity.”
“Even those we didn’t, we also have them in a better place that they shouldn’t have been. Aren’t they? I’m not mistaken, because we’ve given them the credibility they needed, took care of the competition cleanly, and we’ve talked and talked without forgoing our goal here.”
“It’s senator Stient…” Someone whispered as Garalf Stient continued his words, “Weren’t Ters and Cerks heavily opposed to the Lýlaco Empire, regardless of the aid they received from other neighbors? Even after its fall! It was us whom they found a funding. Heh, never better said.”
“Sure, are we competing? Might as well, I’ll continue.” Laen, who has been listening and wished many of the congressfolk here weren’t as dumb with their words as they are with their personal lives, stepped up the moment Garalf Stient brought attention to himself.
“Endesa and Carnge are already more contributing from their government to their people. The people from those countries have better livelihood, daily salary. Even as they have history of unsafe streets because of the organized crime, which disappeared recently, Orxa and Pexa have just as good sea developed technologies as Endesa and Carnge.”
“The latter have no intentions to depend on the sea. Yet, they are better, and we predict more advancement than in ‘our’ bridge nations in the proximate several decades.” Laen remarked, making some halt and rethink. Garalf looked at this and parted his lips, widening his corners.
“The Pyot and Meztle Islands!” Laen semi shouted before Garalf had half a word coming out of his experienced, comfortable-sounding mouth. “They were considered part of the Lýlaco Empire unofficially before they became such after decades of battling and disputes.”
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Argopolas, Melenon, Collan, Iztos, Xeoxia, Gracia, and even Safe Haven City. All these have been supported by the fallen Lýlaco Empire! Even when it had been thrown in disarray, their morale to the bottom, and their territory conquered— they still did all that, much before ANS!”
“If you still think our efforts are nothing, that one needs to say they are worthwhile after all, or that they might have never been deployed, then what is Lýmoca?” Laen faced his counterparts and those sided with him to not war Lýmoca. If anything, to slap their wrist and butt if necessary.
“It’s been 5 centuries, but they kept relations and even formed more with many other countries, including the east, giant or not.” Laen gestured his head mockingly at them before focusing his gaze on the president, who sat at a step lower than the lowest between both stands.
“I propose that we openly continue to support Cerka, Torka… Orcesta and Fresna.” Laen nodded his head, with Gant lifting his chin above his intertwined fingers. Earl Comfor stood behind his father, at a corner of his father’s shoulder, looking at the others with predatory, upturned eyes.
“We did it before, but we were meek. We wanted to show we were but a peacemaking country. Well, no need to keep our image, not when Lýmoca has been destroying theirs since their ‘unnecessary’ war.” Laen’s chest heaved a bit, the corners of his mouth forming some curls.
“Warring Lýmoca is nuts. We shall go with it when we feel things are too stable and we have only one way to get off from that boredom— to cripple our nation through and through. Otherwise…” Laen shrugged, as sincere as anyone could be before the president of the greatest nation in the world.
“Ah, well. Alright, alright… begin the voting.” Gant Comfor raised his hands and stated. 2 glass panels appeared before the stands facing each other. They were empty, with only the top filled with their names. It was time to vote. Both sides faced each other before starting to vote.
Laen’s name unhesitatingly popped below the simple red, ‘against’ label, followed by many others. Heyn Poetswalt and Asla Veyson among them. It didn’t take long for both labels to be filled with their respective votes. Without mistake, and quite expectantly, the vote ended with a vast majority against warring Lýmoca. Of course they, no one, would want to see that.
“Now that this has been solved… oh, does anyone have more doubts?” President Gant looked at everyone before standing up, as if just remembering he should re-confirm beforehand. Nobody said anything. Garalf Stient only pressed his lips, having nothing to pedal with anymore.
“Then, let’s get off this place and go to the table. It’s more comfortable there.” Gant looked at Laen, “Kid, I liked your idea. You’re welcome everyone, we will stay past the deep of the night. Grab your coffees and snacks. The bathrooms will be opened.”
Gant walked to the side where the long table was, prepared with servants walking to place plates and hot drinks, and made everyone else salivate a bit. Since they were staying until tomorrow, and even maybe have a rest here until a few days from now, they might as well.
“Thank you, sir. I salvaged this, haven’t I?” Laen stood before Heyn, who looked at him and nodded slowly. Placing a palm on Laen’s shoulder, Heyn spoke before turning to get his portion. “There’s no point thinking you solved something. At least we can keep running here.”
“Asla,” Laen nodded and stared at the lake green eyes. “I can’t tell if I’m sitting on my seat, or constantly tripping over a loose rope. It’s so intense sometimes, and I end up losing most right moments to speak. What would I do without you?”
“Die without going farther than a spokesperson, like that old man right there.” Asla nodded upwards to Garalf, who had a chat with the president, who just wanted to reach the table and relax. Asla looked back at Laen, “Don’t miss it, Laen. These are… times for the opportunistic.”
“Heh…” Laen appreciated the comment, but he felt that it could mean a bit, if a lot, more than apparently. The opportunistic? How many opportunities would there be? And how opportune?
Laen shook his head before walking to grab his coffee, Heyn, and Asla’s, before walking to his seat and eat his fill before the documents to spend their livelihood in here were distributed.
***
A week and 2 days later.
The Cerk-Valad and Ters-Avican Wars raged on. After the first week, days before today, Argopolas and Melenon stabilized their situation, as much as they possibly could.
Argopolas had it easier. Even without a formidable navy, they had lived around that shore for over a millennium. Of course they would have build defenses since the AO times, pertaining to underwater detectors, movement-impairing, be it amphibious assaults or attempting to dock in.
With the SO, things such as anti-armor artillery and built fortresses against bombardment from the sea, far off or directly, were built; they were capable enough to delay the enemy.
It wasn’t because they were waiting for Lýmoca, although they were. This was their land.
With the acceptance in the Lýmocan congress about their intervention in the war, some things happened. One of them was the official meetings, from noon to evening or even night after the morning press conferences, and the bickering between Lýmoca and ANS.
But more importantly, the consideration of Argopolas and Melenon from Lýmoca’s part, and the authentication of Cerka and Torka’s motives by ANS’s part. Lýmoca directly opened a communications channel using IWS and following the ‘rules of war’.
With this, Lýmoca brought news directly from the warring countries, which wasn’t possible before. The information was first heard and ‘worked’ by the cabinet and the President, which was later on filtered and transmitted to all of Lýmoca, which easily found its way out of the country’s net. Similarly, Lýmoca kept reassuring both countries and the world of their approach.
Thus, when Lýmoca started showing those reports, the information confirmed from direct sources, of which some were no longer available due to the increasing escalation of the war. They started spreading messages of honoring the defense of one’s territory; one’s land.
Even now, more than half of Melenon’s population, much smaller than Argopolas, had been evacuated to the capital and on the other side of the war, far from the coasts. While that was a no-war zone, any other place of Melenon, of which 40% has already been taken by the enemy despite the solid response, civilians have been caught in the fire.
Of the 70 million in Melenon, how many would feel their hearts clench when listening to reports of refugees nested in certain tall-high buildings massacred by Ters soldiers? It all demonstrated the true motives of the declarations of war; indiscriminate, uncaring, and inhumane.
The Avican government wasn’t dumb, either. They might get desperate, and more as time goes, with their technology far below Torka’s. But they knew how to think, and how to provision a war in all ‘fronts’. It wasn’t an easy task, but Lýmoca facilitated the propaganda.
Torka never had an admirable combatant air force, if only cargo, and many. But their major points in this war was through land, while the assaults through submarines that also didn’t belong to them further helped devastate all moral of the Avican coastal forces.
Not even the first week was needed before Melenon was forced to retreat from the coasts, but Torka didn’t have any units in the water, making Melenon fear aid from Cerka… but no such thing happened. Moreover, Argopolas never saw Torkan soldiers, only Cerks.
It was but a 1v1 in these wars where 5 countries were involved but only 4 were actively fighting it. Furthermore, why were Cerka and Torka not responsive yet? It seemed like they didn’t believe the Lýmocan forces would truly appear, or that they would be an issue for them.
This was easy to catch upon by any netizen, let alone Lýmoca’s executive branch supervising the wars and PSD. It just wouldn’t matter to Lýmoca for the time being…
Argopolas held the line strongly, but it spread from their peak north to their peak south. They were slowly being pushed back, kilometer after kilometer every day. Cerka was careful, more than Torka with Melenon, and they didn’t want to misuse their new toys for rapid benefits.
While that was admirable, Cerka did have some combatant air force, putting pressure in the chokehold where the Valads held strong against their navy, only falling just as hard and many. While Melenon lost more percentage of their territory, and the coasts were becoming enemy’s roads-only. It was Argopolas who was suffering bigger losses every time, barely able to respond.
Cerka was well situated at sea, destroying the Valad fortresses and their weaponry, let alone the ammunition warehouses, which were a better target for the not-so-solid air defenses in Argopolas. But although they were more respectful of the country they were invading, all buildings in Valad coasts were turned to rubble, if not dust, or charcoal; incomplete walls.
And yet, the war rooms of 2 countries indirectly involved or supporting one side or the other were still in their war rooms, discussing, planning, and countermeasures. While the latter referred only to their media against the another, it was only the beginning, with things only heating up.
Who knew what it would get like once Lýmoca mobilized. More so, how would they aid Argopolas or Melenon? Who was first? Information told, even with recent recruits, right before, during, and after the exceptional victory in the Ters-Ly War, Lýmoca had but 750,000 soldiers, give or take.
That wasn’t enough to ensure one’s nation safety, only to secure that of others.
One theme of utmost concern was to identify which country had the best means to defend themselves. After all, it was just as the world had put their thought onto everywhere on the web, Lýmoca could only respond to one first.
Argopolas had missiles, but they were easily detonated in the air, still long distance, by the Cerk navy and their new toys. It wasn’t just missiles they were gifted, but turrets, especially anti-missile type, effective for missiles, although not much so for aircraft…
Furthermore, that navy had the top-notch systems to travel, locate, identify, communicate, and cyber strike.
As for Melenon, Torka was a small force. No matter how fearsome their current land army number might look like, their air force was subtly discounted. Melenon’s navy might suck worse than Terka’s back then, but they at least had one.
They were smart and not only did they let the enemy rush in before stopping them, containing them into a choke still tens of kilometers from the capital, the recruits Torka sent were being decimated. It was a mix of both, perhaps for experience gaining programs in the enemy’s side, but they were barely advancing, and Melenon was gaining more and more strength. Albeit slowly.
It was more difficult for Argopolas to create propaganda because their forces had to give their all against the sea, with the enemy’s navy demonstrating to be a larger threat. Turning this war into the first naval-importance battle in the south after centuries.
Meanwhile, Melenon didn’t use their navy to just attack or defend, which Argopolas didn’t even bother with. They had their few, small, impoverished units move towards Meztle Island, seeking ‘refuge’ for some time, which the Meztle Island didn’t even hesitate to give.
Some things were happening there, too…
Were Cerka, Torka, or even ANS to say anything about this, let alone attack, Lýmoca would just bicker with ANS again, shoving them all into a ‘what do you want? Wanna fight us all then?’ and the silent duo would remain silent.
Nevertheless, things were becoming worse for Argopolas as ANS sent its first ships with nothing else but semi-top quality combatant aircraft to Cerka, while giving Torka a few more super tanks.
The pressure on Argopolas and Melenon only increased, but Lýmoca was preparing ever closer. They just had to wait. They just had to trust their true ally for now; heavendamned time.
…