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Post by callmedelta on Jul 10, 2022 15:02:30 GMT -5
Major General Lucian Berger of the 1st Dragoon Division looked at the telegram in his hand for what must have been the twentieth time as he sat in the office at Ft. Charden. The orders were for the 1st Dragoons, as well as Major General Victor Krzycki’s 3rd Carabineers, to redeploy to the Union’s border. That was…concerning. It was understandable if Pareau was worried about violence spilling over into Franerre, but the Dragoons were used for emergency deployments in vulnerable pieces of the line and the Carabineers were used for breaking through enemy lines. If Pareau wanted to hold the border, they would have sent some conscripts. No, this would be an invasion. They just hadn’t sent the orders yet.
~
“What do you mean ‘Saint Porsson,’ that’s on the other side of the country!” Colonel Olindo Mare argued with his superior, “That’s probably the largest city we have down south!”
“These are orders straight from Marshal Zelgius himself,” Major General Baudet said in as calm a voice as he could manage. The Colonel knew the man well enough that he was just as concerned as Mare was.
“In case you haven’t noticed, if we take a short swim across the river we’re in Elenria!”
“Doesn’t matter. The 17th is shipping out in two days. Get your men ready, whether they like it or not.”
~
“C’mon Sarge,” Olivier ‘Bric’ le Rue said, “Why don’t you give me your seat? Aren’t you supposed to be our ‘fearless leader?’ It’s really bad form to sit when the rest of us are gonna be standing on this long train ride.”
“Long train ride my ass,” Sargent Alex ‘Sarge’ Vidal scoffed, “We’re just being shifted south on the Galatea Line a little bit, it’ll only be, what, an hour or so?”
“Why would they be shifting us around, anyway?” Bric asked. Sarge groaned, knowing what was coming next.
“I’m telling you, it’s Kumosenkan’s fault,” Dylan ‘Tic’ Alare, the squad’s resident paranoid conspiracy theorist, supplied. Sarge didn’t know why the man had a fascination, an obsession really, with Kumosenkan, considering that Sarge didn’t think he’d even been within 100 clicks of the Elenrian border. “They’ve planted sleeper agents within the general staff, and are moving all of our soldiers away from Elenria’s border in preparation for an invasion!”
“Tic, if I give you my seat, will you shut up?” Sarge asked. The trooper seemed to think about it for a moment, before realizing Sarge would see through any bullshit lie he could come up with, and shook his head. Sarge sighed and slipped his cap over his eyes, trying to get some shut eye. He silently cursed whatever Gods or Goddesses existed out there for conspiring to put him in command of what must be the most annoying conscripts in Franerre.
~
The letter came in the mail yesterday. Hugh Cortot was called up for mustering. He was nineteen, and had just finished his year of conscription and was halfway through his mandatory year of active reserve duty. Hugh was nervous. The letter just said that he was supposed to be deployed to the Galatea line, but why was he out there in the first place? The train whistle blew, shaking him from his thoughts. He hefted his pack, on his shoulder, looking back at his mother. The woman, just entering her forties, had that same look Hugh had seen when he had first left for his year-long conscription. He bent down, giving the shorter woman a kiss on the forehead, before getting in line for the train.
~
“You want how many guns?” Quartermaster Jerome Kruzel asked.
“2,500, and ammunition.” The imposing brick of a man who’d requested the guns had all of the paperwork in order for the request, but he’d been giving those same curt answers to everything Kruzel had asked.
“And why do you need these guns?”
“Does it matter?”
“It does to me,” Jerome said, “That’s half of my stock. What could you need so many for?” The pair had been at this back and forth for nearly 20 minutes.
The man let out an exasperated sigh. “There aren’t enough at Ft. Marson, so we’re drawing from the next closest source, which is here.”
“Why are you drawing so many guns from Ft. Marson?”
“Any further questions will see disciplinary action, soldier.” Kruzel wisely shut up.
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Post by callmedelta on Aug 21, 2022 21:55:15 GMT -5
The King had been dreading this meeting. Well, he dreaded every meeting that had both Dufour and Verenes in the same room, but this one was going to be especially dreadful. The war had tensions running high, and with the war beginning sooner than anyone in the room was prepared for, exactly how much Franerre was committing to the war needed to be sorted out. Now. Unfortunately, the leaders of Franerre’s two political parties, Julius Verenes of the National Unions of Franerre and Isaac Dufour Jr. of the Democratic People’s Party got along like oil and water. In the past two years of meetings involving both party heads, Dante was surprised only three fistfights had broken out, considering how much vitriol the two spewed at each other.
That would not fly today. King Dante Emil Soleil Della Rosa II, Sovereign of Franerre, Shield of Her People, Defender of the Foa Restoration and Mordred’s Revolution, was pulling out all of the tricks in his playbook to make all of his royal authority known. He scheduled the meeting to take place in the throne room, and the King decided to wear his military dress uniform, medals and all. Around the blue and red dress uniform he wore a navy blue cloak, in his hands was a silver scepter with a sapphire on its head. On the King’s own head, where an officer’s cap would normally be on a military uniform sat the King’s crown. An intricate lattice work of silver and gold, alternating emplacements of sapphire and ruby. Dante found the whole outfit to be stifling and overdone, but such was the price of authority.
The King sat on his throne, nodding to the guards at the end of the room, the only other people in the room besides himself. The man opened the door, Verenes and Dufour waiting on the other side. Unsurprisingly, they appeared to have been in the middle of a quiet argument which stopped as the door was opened. Both men strode forward until they were at the foot of the raise dais the throne sat on. Verenes had to do full bow on one knee, while Dufour merely had to do a small standing bow since he was a high ranking member of the nobility. Julius was surely angry at the situation, but to ask Isaac to do the same bow would just set the man off. The King resolved to let tradition stand as he bid the two men to rise.
Dante summoned up as regal a bearing in his voice as he could manage as he spoke. “As we begin this meeting, let me make myself clear. You two act like squabbling children, and there may in fact be children better behaved somewhere in Franerre. In this room, you two will be civilized. There will be no shouting, no insults or jabs, and no attempting to goad the other into breaking the rules. If I think you have broken these rules, I will have the offender thrown out of this room where I will continue the discussion with the one remaining. Am. I. Clear?” Both men nodded. “First Chambermen Verenes, you may begin the discussion.”
“I’ve seen the reports from Le Troi,” Verenes began, “We gave proof in the field that Franerre can win this war. This entire room is in agreement on that. But this isn’t Franerre’s war, it’s the Tafatu’s war. We need an economic mobilization, not a military one. Our storehouses have vast quantities of weapons that can be shipped to the Tafatu, not to even mention the captured Union equipment, Ashinaran equipment, and the variety of foreign equipment that could be sent to the Tafatu. More bullets, rifles, and artillery shells can always be made. More Franerri lives can’t. That’s not to even touch upon the jobs created by the need to create those arms, or the jobs lost by sending more men into battle.” With Verenes finished, the King nodded to Dufour.
“While I can see where the First Chamberman is coming from,” Dufour said, though his tone of voice and the look on his face made it obvious he was lying, “I must disagree. I have also seen the reports from Le Troi: our men were outnumbered, and it could have easily turned the other way were the element of surprise not on our side. The guns the First Chamberman would have us send to the Tafatu could just as easily be used to arm Franerri troops who would need less training than fresh Tafatu units. Further beyond the immediate battle, think of what message this war will send to our adversaries. Franerre will have been proven capable to totally mobilize her forces and will have proven her superiority on the field of battle, perhaps making the mighty Kumosenkan or Galra reconsider any plans of invasion. That fact alone will save more Franerri lives and jobs in the future than what will be spent in this conflict.”
Verenes took a deep breath, steadying himself, before responding. “Respectfully, Dufour, you’re wrong.” That strode the line of an insult, and Dufour wasn’t necessarily finished speaking, but the King didn’t stop Verenes. “If Kumosenkan or Galra want to invade, the only reconsidering they’ll do is seeing Franerre for the threat she actually is, and devoting more resources to her. Additionally, a full scale mobilization would leave us weak to those same threats for however long this war with the Union lasts. Finally, and most importantly, war is not some game of national prestige. Real, good men fight and die in them, and I want to reduce that human cost as much as possible.”
“That is a complete and utter lie,” Dufour shot back, now his turn to nearly insult and basically interrupt Verenes. This situation was starting to slide out of control. But it wasn’t quite there yet. “While you may not want them to be, wars are a game of national prestige. The world sees Franerre as a poor, irrelevant, backwater, ex-Lusatian colony who does not matter in the slightest. By winning this war, by bringing it swiftly and decisively to a close, we prove all of those assumptions incorrect. And you say that you want to reduce the human cost of war, yet all you do by arming the Tafatu is shift it onto them, and probably increase it due to their inexperience. If you really wanted to decrease the human cost of war, Franerre would mobilize an overwhelming force and crush the Union. Lastly, if Kumosenkan or Galra wanted to invade, we’d see their troop buildup before it happened, and we would have time to react.”
The King could see the oncoming outburst from Verenes, and judging by the man’s clenched fists this may become the fourth brawl between the two. “Enough,” he said. “Why is it so difficult for you two to understand the meaning of the word compromise?” The King let those words sit in the air for long enough to let the two reflect some, but before either could speak Dante continued. “At this time, we need unity and strength, not division and weakness. We will do a mixture of both your plans. I will forbid any more conscripts from fighting in the Tafatu, but the army will get a blank check as far as volunteer units are concerned, and those volunteers will be carrying with them all the arms the Tafatu need. I know neither of you are happy, but will you at the very least accept it?”
Both politicians glared at each other, occasionally shooting glances towards the King. It was Verenes who broke first, slowly nodding. “It’s…tolerable,” Dufour said.
“Then we have ourselves an agreement.”
~
With a mobilization plan agreed upon, all able-bodied volunteer soldiers not already serving in Tafatu were called up for service, to be mustered at two locations. The first was Saint Parsson, where 100,000 Heavy Infantry, 1,000 mortars, 10,000 Dragoons, 10,000 Carabineers, and 6,000 Special Infantry supporting staff were to join the 70,000 Heavy Infantry, 700 artillery, 4,500 Special Infantry support, 10,000 Dragoons, and 10,000 Carabineers already in western Tafatu. In the east, 110,000 Heavy Infantry, 1,100 mortars, 20,000 Dragoons, 20,000 Carabineers and 7,500 Special Infantry support staff were to join the 10,000 Dragoons, 10,000 Carabineers, 1,000 Special Infantry support staff in Do’rville, relieving the 20,000 conscripted Standard Infantry and 100 Artillery pieces of their duty, 1,000 and 20 of which were stationed in Do’rville.
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Post by callmedelta on Sept 6, 2022 22:23:34 GMT -5
“Artillery units have thus far proven most pivotal in the war, on both the Franerri side and the Union’s,” the letter from General Tauroneo to Marshal Zelgius began, “Yet, reading the most recent reports you have sent me, it appears that nearly all of the Royal Army’s artillery has already been deployed here in the Union or are stationary emplacements on our borders. While the current units deployed in the field cannot be called inadequate for our current situation, should the day come when Franerre needs to mobilize her vast reserves of manpower to resist foreign invasion, a truly massive quantity of artillery would be required. In addition, Franerre’s current artillery appears to be quite advanced by Toulian standards: the Canon de 75 modele 1917 outranges the guns of both the Union and our Ashinaran allies as well as possessing a faster firing rate. Should a large number of such guns be produced, exports to Ashinara would be a possibility. It is, therefore, my belief that some number of artillery units should be raised, the specifics of which shall be left to you.”
Zelgius stared down at the letter. Logically, it made sense, and the Marshal knew Tauroneo wasn’t the type to lie. The numbers on his end weren’t the best, however. The Franerri Army was nearly tapped on available manpower. Doubling the amount of artillery in the Army would almost drain it all, and that was nowhere near the numbers the General was recommending. A meeting would be had on it after the war; for now this would have to do.
~
The Franerri Army would begin the recruitment of 62,500 men’s worth of artillery units and order 6,250 new Artillery guns to equip them.
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Post by callmedelta on Sept 24, 2022 1:11:27 GMT -5
The National Chamber was in uproar, echoes of voices bouncing off the grand hall of Franerre's legislative branch until there was no start or end to the cacophony. It was never a peaceful place, but today it was especially bad, and every man in the room knew the reason for it. Reports had came in from the eastern border with the UST; some Union cavalry units had slipped past the lines, and were now butchering their way through southern Franerre. It was a crisis, and an embarrassment for both the government and the army. In short, it was exactly what Isaac Dufour Jr. needed. He raised both his hands, signaling his wish to speak.
Clack clack clack clack clack
"Order, order!" the Master of the Chamber called. In theory it was his job to make sure that all National Chamber meetings ran smoothly and peacefully, but in reality it was an impossible task. Still, the man’s voice held some authority, and everyone eventually returned to their seats except for Isaac. "Second Chamberman Dufour, you have the floor."
Isaac cleared his throat. "Assembled Chambermen, be you members of the PPD or SNF, the facts are overwhelmingly clear; First Chamberman Verenes’ policy of a limited mobilization has now proven disastrous. This war isn’t just limited to the Tafatu and UST anymore. The Union of South Touli has shown the capability and willingness to invade Franerre and butcher our people and have the gall to blame it on his Highness. A mass mobilization of the Franerri Army could have prevented this tragedy, and now proves necessary to make sure worse does not happen. Even further, this demands retribution; this intervention to assist the Tafatu must now escalate into a full on war and a general mobilization must be declared. Those who butchered our people can be given no quarter. The Union of South Touli must be destroyed.”
“To accomplish this task, we need every man Franerre can muster. Already in service conscripts, active reservists, even conscripting those men who have aged past their active reservist time. I’m certain we have the guns and artillery pieces to arm them, and if not our factories will work around the clock to arm our brave soldiers. We have been attacked, and now we must strike back. Now is the time for Franerre to prove her might to the world and smite those who would think to wound her. Thank you.” Isaac sat back down, the entire room staring at Verenes sitting across from him. This entire mess was his fault, and Isaac was dying to see how Verenes tried to justify or deflect this, ready to tear whatever flimsy excuses he made apart.
~
Julius Verenes clenched his fists, his grip so tight he almost began to worry if his nails would draw blood. This entire situation was a tragedy. The worst thing about it was the fact that Dufour had a point. Hell, he may be entirely in the right in this situation. If more men had been conscripted into the army, it would be their blood on Julius’ hands, but then at least they would have been given a fighting chance. Those were civilians for Christ’s sake; they had no part in this war. A part of Verenes just wanted to enlist himself. But another part of Verenes, that one he hated most, the politician, was already thinking of a way to salvage this situation. Julius stood, the bones of a response already in his head.
“My policy of a limited mobilization was proposed and put forward in an attempt to save Franerri lives,” Julius declared to the Chamber, “The lives of Franerre’s citizens always have been and always will be my top priority. The situation, however, has changed. Now, the lives of the Kingdom’s citizens are at risk, and are best protected by an increase in the size of our army like Dufour suggests. I am perfectly willing to sign off on a mass mobilization, but beforehand I would like to see how many citizens are willing to willingly join after these heinous attacks on our nation. Thank you.”
~
‘Damnit!’ Dufour thought as Verenes finished. It was a great response, given the circumstances. Great was not infallible, though, but before Dufour could comment another party member beat him to the punch.
“Isn’t this the same reasoning that got us in this mess in the first place?” a man called out from Dufour’s side of the aisle.
“How could you just sign off on throwing away li-”
Clack clack clack clack clack
A member of the SNF had begun to leap to the defense of Julius, before being silenced by the Master of the Chamber. It did little to cull the tension in the room, a constant hum of chatter never dying down. “We cannot afford to be disunited at this time, and I can see that any further debate here will just result in more shouting and no changed opinions. We vote now.”
~
Franerre’s National Chamber has voted to enact Extensive Conscription following the UST attacks on Franerri soil and has now begun to Mobilize.
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Post by callmedelta on Sept 28, 2022 12:50:24 GMT -5
Marshal Zelgius did his best to keep abreast of the constant flurry of reports coming into his office, painting a mental picture of the soldiers he had to work with. Franerre had half a million active reservists before the war. With current casualty reports, that number was down to 478,000. 180,000 of them were currently actively guarding Franerre’s borders, and 10,000 had been deployed in supporting the Marines in the far south. That left him 280,000 men, as well as the new 6,250 artillery guns and their crew who had just been trained who could be called up with only minimal refresher training needed, with 30,000 of the conscripts currently attempting to find the UST cavalry raiding Franerre. Conscription was estimated to add over another million manpower to work with, but they would need more than refresher training to be brought back up to fighting standards, estimated to be six month’s worth. In addition, there were the additional 6,250 artillery guns and crew that had just recently been trained. It was only as the Marshal began to look at where all of these new conscripts would be trained when a flaw in Franerre’s call for mobilization became readily apparent. They simply didn’t have the room to train all of those men. There wasn’t much Zelgius could do for it right now, aside from cramming the bases, and that was just going to make the training take longer. ‘All in all, there’s certainly better scenarios to work with,’ Zelgius thought grimly. He lifted his pen and began to draft the orders.
~
100,000 Standard Infantry conscripts with 1,000 artillery guns and 5,000 Special Infantry support staff would be assembled at Saint Parsson to eventually march and join the Coalition’s army in Ferville. The remaining 180,000 Standard Infantry, 1,800 artillery guns, and 8,000 Special Infantry support staff would assemble at Fort Mercer on the eastern Franerre-Union border to march into the Union. The new 1 million manpower would begin training as Standard Infantry in central Franerre, with 250,000 men being trained every two seasons.
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