The Knife at Our Backs

[callmedelta]

‘Paperwork,’ Director Mesny thought, ‘The entire job’s nothing but paperwork some days.’ He supposed he preferred it to the chaos of something like, say, the Notch War, but Lord knows it was sure boring sometimes. Phillipe didn’t know how the old man did this job for so damn long. Sighing, Phillipe unlocked the door to his office. As he turned on the lights, he noticed a new stack of papers in his ‘urgent’ pile. Mesny had made it abundantly clear that it was to be used for diplomatic emergencies only, but that didn’t stop a few things he didn’t really think qualified from slipping through the net.

Mesny sat down in his chair, taking the manilla folder from the spot on his desk. Opening it up, it appeared to be a transcript of a speech from…Shysil? Shrugging, Mesny began to lazily read the first part of the transcript.

We shall finally take back what was stolen from us! Our Empire!

That caught the Director’s attention, that phrase was worrying, to say the least. He paid more attention, reading the transcript faster now.

An Empire that will March down the pathetic streets of Pareau and Le Troi and piss on their legacies!

This was definitely urgent. Phillipe read to the end faster and faster, already thinking of the messages to Ashinara and Tafatu.

The non human filth, the Frannerri, the Tafatu. All shall be erased by you, and your justified crusade!

There was no doubt about it. This would mean war.

---

Messages were sent to Tafatu and Ashinara, along with transcripts of the speech, inviting them to a conference in Pareau to discuss what matters could be done about Shysil.

[aimway921]

Ashinara would immediately send a representative of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Boris Kivenko, to attend the conference in Pareau. What's more, he also brought with him orders for the Division sent to move to Eleria to halt, letting only a single Battalion of 1,000 troops to continue on. The rest, depending on what is decided at the conference, might stay in Franerre to shore up defenses against Shysil.

[Greywall]

Tafatu would send Aniyah to the meeting, president kendaya was too busy with internal affairs and the new tafatu senate was…for lack of a better word. Fractured.

Tafatu was finding itself paralyzed within its new republic as deficits mounted and military cut backs were made to guarantee certain payments could be made with reconstruction funds not being hindered.

Aniyah and the republic had no idea what was going on as the tafatu had been rather insular following the war.

[callmedelta]

The Franerri party was composed of Director Mesny and Marshal Zelgius, the former of whom began the meeting by passing out a few documents to the Ashinaran and Tafatu delegations. The first document was a full transcript of the recent speech from Shysil. “I would like to thank you all for coming. Shysil’s provocative language is a clear indication that they wish to invade. What’s more, with their entrance to the Sovereign Union, any Shysil invasion is likely to come in junction with a Galran invasion, necessitating a split in our forces across two fronts. I’ll turn it over to the good Marshal to let him explain our military situation.”

Zelgius cleared his throat. “Thank you, Director. If you will turn to the second and third pages handed out to you, you can see an overview of Franerri defenses on the Galran and Shysil borders. Between the two of them, we have approximately 140,000 men and 5,500 guns, roughly 2/3rds of which are dedicated to the Galran front, and the remaining 1/3rd to Shysil. I cannot say if these numbers would be sufficient to hold off an initial invasion by both armies while our reserves mobilize. Unfortunately, Franerre cannot afford the expense of keeping up a larger standing army, so Franerre alone cannot add more manpower to this problem, especially if Tafatu were to require assistance in their own defenses.”

”Which is why the two of us have developed two potential routes for how to defend our borders from these threats,” the Director continued, “But first, we must know with what we are working. Minister Kivenko, Aniyah, what can you both tell us about the states of your own militaries?”

[aimway921]

Kivenko would take the floor for a response first.

"The Royal Army is entering a period of reorganization. As members of the newly created SATO Alliance, we are due to receive weaponry and equipment from UKUG, Marrlan and Roskana. The deliveries, however, are a bit slow right now. We can try persuading the other members of SATO to increase the pace due to an expected conflict, however our closest partner, UKUG, maybe be reluctant and not too thrilled about their equipment being stationed in Franerre specifically. Mr. Mesny, I'm sure I don't need to explain why... No offense. They may, however, be more permissive of stationing said equipment in Tafatu, but that is due to be discussed with UKUG. Speaking of - I believe Marrlan could be approached to help shore up Tafatu's defenses - after all, they did send volunteers to win Tafatu's independence in the first place."

"Next, as you may have heard from our news, Ashinara is revamping it's Reserve system. While we may not have yet the equipment necessary to outfit all the soldier, manpower should not be an issue for Ashinara.

Finally, of the 10,000 troops sent to assist the Samurai in Eastern Eleria, we have ordered 9,000 to halt and wait for further orders, which I hope we shall be ordered to give them by the end of this meeting. They would be available immediately to shore up either Franerre's or Tafatu's defenses."

[Greywall]

Aniya did not have a pleasant answer to give,

"This couldn't come at a worse time, the Tafatu Republican Army has drastically discharged thousands of soldiers into civilian life and many of those veterans of the war for the Republic are now happy working. Our people are not prepared for another war, the financial situation of the Republic is not ideal, the reconstruction of almost every major city is nearing its end and has taken a toll on our economic system. Farmers still find bodies and gratuitous amounts of spent shell casings near Dorville and Ferville in their fields. Then there's the logistical nightmare dear General Omani is dealing with, we have battalions of infantry armed with Marrlan weapons, Frannerri weapons, Ashinarian, UST, and even domestic firearms. We are largely facing opposition within the Senate on the continued maintenance of the Republican Army as the recent railroad deal with the UST has to some of them made our current force no longer needed, it would save millions of Rand."

She understood how bad it must of looked, but this was the truth, the new Tafatu Republic was simply not ready for another war. "There's maybe a 100,000 troops still under Omani's command, a couple thousand or so artillery guns in storage. But even if I bring this to the Senate they'll want guarantees to try and avoid such a fight."

[callmedelta]

"In that case," Zelgius said, "I believe our best way forward would be a joint training program between the three of our nations. The Ashinaran, Tafatu, and Franerri militaries are wildly different organizations. We will all have our different strengths and weaknesses, different lessons to learn from each other to overall improve all three of our militaries. What's more, allowing for joint training like this would allow for our officers to have experience in working together with foreign forces, hopefully allowing for a much smoother time working together when Shysil does inevitably attack. To save costs, this will not be a large joint training program -- I imagine no more than 10,000 soldiers from each nation, the number likely being closer to 5,000 in reality. But, if we continue to cycle through units, it should eventually improve the overall strength of our forces, and even allow for improvements in domestic training with the lessons learned from the joint training."

[Greywall]

Aniyah often wondered in Franerri were deaf, it seemed her words fell completely to the floor and were ignored. "It's not a matter of training, its a matter of logistics, we have weapons from several nations, ammunition, poor roads, most of our military is pulled by mule. We...I don't know how else to tell you, we have a mess of a situation in the Republic. And the Senate isn't willing to purchase nor correct it at this time."

[callmedelta]

“I understand that your logistics situation is disorganized and chaotic,” Zelgius said, “But that would require large scale investments that you have stated yourself your Senate is unwilling to make, and thus it would fall on Franerre and Ashinara to invest in Tafatu’s military. I mean no offense to you when I say this, Aniya, but there are many, myself among them, who would rather Franerri money be invested into the Franerri military if possible, and I’m sure many Ashinarans are of the same mind. And so, I proposed an idea that I thought would provide maximal benefit for minimum investment from all parties involved. Other investments into Tafatu may potentially be on the table, I admit, but this is something I know for certain Franerre can invest in, should Tafatu and Ashinara be willing.”

[Greywall]

Aniya didn't know if anything could be done, but she simply nodded and hoped Omani could fill in the gap.

[aimway921]

"Zelgius is partially right, training is very much essential. While a trained soldier with bad equipment is not as good as a trained soldier with good equipment, he is also leagues ahead of any untrained soldier with supreme equipment. However the logistics system is also something that must be addressed. Ashinara has a partnership with Ulster-Gaelia, and we shall attempt to negotiate additional resources that would allow us to take on the brunt of your logistics. Franerre, meanwhile - you remember the rail line we built from Franerre, through Franerre, all the way to Juaz, connecting all the major Tafatu cities in between? We should extend that railway towards Bellen to ensure better logistics for the Tafatu troops on the border. Tafatu's budding rail network being connected to Franerres, I believe the Franch are in a position to take on that project."

"As for your Senate," Kivenko turned to Aniya. "They need to understand that when national security is at stake, it is not the time for bickering. If anything, you can press your opposition on where it would hurt them the most - their reelection prospects. After all, I doubt people would want to vote for politicians who chose to weaken the country's military in the face of an impending invasion."

"Finally, as I mentioned before, Ashinara is undergoing re-armament with Gaelic weapons. Once we have a significant amount of decommissioned Ashinaran weapons and ammunition to spare, we will be open to setting up a lend-lease program with Tafatu."

[callmedelta]

"Your rail line idea is already taken care of," Mesny replied, "Franerre has extended a low-interest loan to Tafatu for the purposes of extending their rail infrastructure across their nation. It doesn't reach every settlement, mind you, but it's a host better than what was there before. Secondly, Franerre is also going a similar re-armament with Lusatian weapons and would be amenable to a similar offer as the Ashinarans. The calibers are the same, thankfully, so that is one logistical issue you shouldn't need to worry about in the future, but I will admit that it does not help right now. My third proposition is something that may. I believe that, given the strategic necessity of the times we find ourselves in, it is in Franerre's best military interest to directly financially assist in Tafatu's military." Zelgius showed no response to the statement. "But even I recognize that just handing Tafatu cash would be wildly unpopular on the homefront, even if it is perhaps the fastest way to solve Tafatu's military problems. I believe the best method, therefore, would be a further extension of Franerri and potentially Ashinaran capital to Tafatu in the form of further low-interest loans. Franerre would be willing to extend Ashinara a loan matching the Senate's own defense spending, up to 50 million Jewel's worth, at annual 0.5% interest noncompounding for a term of 10 years. This way, the Senate is incentivized to spend more on their own defense, which should hopefully persist even after the loan has been paid off. If Ashinara were to join in this offer, the Senate could get three times their money's worth for what they spend on defense. My last proposal is that of technology sharing. Franerre is welling to extend licenses for any military technologies developed for free, so long as the technology does not move beyond our three nations."