"Federacy forces, led by alleged 'autonomous units', are now attempting to pierce Royalist lines in the Grand Duchy of Ludendorf, in what appears to be another attempt to capture the official capital of the nation. This blatant action, right when thousands of people are dying on both sides of the Red Flu pandemic, has been called 'brazen' by the Defense Minister, Pristina Dubois. In a speech in parliament, Prime Minister Jacqueline Heiss urged the Kingdom to remain stalwart in the face of the growing threat from Federacy war machines. She also urged more women to sign up for the military, noting that the Kingdom needs more people to hold off the 'inhuman monstrosities' unleashed by the Federacy."

- ROCN News

+++

West Orland

Duchy of Rimwurz

November Palace

May 4, 2026

"So how's the enemy advancing?"

"You're Majesty…the situation is…dire."

Those words from General Albrecht sank badly in the room. They were expecting improvements by now, considering the numbers they were receiving from the Army about their kills on the ground.

Even Amelie believed that they found a way to at least…mitigate the current technological disparity. But it seemed that wasn't the case.

"How…" Amelie chose her words carefully. "How is this possible? You told me just last time that we've managed to cause an armor loss ratio of 1:2 in favor of our side. How did it turn around?"

"Because the enemy had been planning for this. It seems that their gambit is that we'll focus on defending the northern Halian corridor from their assaults. That's where they poured in hundreds of their lighter drones, but…"

"But what?"

"They've launched another strike on the southern Halian corridor. Down there, it's a mix of normal armor and infantry, supported by a few contingents of their autonomous forces. Due to us repositioning our troops up north to counter the first punch, we had to pull a few formations in the south, and now, the south is having severe problems."

"How far did they break through?" William asked, still reading the reports near him.

"About fifteen kilometers," General Albrecht frowned. "It may not sound much, but in the context of the corridor in the Grand Duchy, all of that is heavily fortified territory, and we don't have a lot of strategic depth left."

"Should they push any further, they'd threaten Halia again," Pristina spoke from the side, her fist striking the table. "That is simply unacceptable. Even if our government isn't trapped there anymore, it still is our true capital."

"Barely anyone lives there," Amelie mumbled, as she looked down. "Sacrificing too many of our troops over there just to hold on to a thin strip of land doesn't sound like a very prudent idea."

"But so is abandoning the corridor and the capital," Jacqueline shook her head adamantly. "I cannot, in good conscience, accept that. Even if the Navy assures me that they can keep the sea lanes open to the Free Confederation, losing Halia simply is unacceptable. Our national morale is already bad enough with the Red Flu pandemic. If we lose Halia, only the goddess knows how bad it'd get…"

"That's true," Amelie placed her gloved hand beneath her chin, closing her eyes as she sank into her thoughts. "What to do…what to do?"

"Your Majesty," General Albrecht spoke up. "I propose a plan to move two army corps from our southern front to reinforce the Halian Corridor."

"What?" Amelie opened her eyes again, bewildered.

"I believe it's extremely unlikely for the Federal Republic to attack us in our southeastern duchies. Even if they do make an attempt, the strategic depth there is much, much greater, so they'll get bogged down even if defenses there are reduced."

"...I see, but, if they attack and drive south to our coast, it's over for us."

"Well, all plans come with risks, Your Majesty. But the thing is, I believe the autonomous forces problem is too big, that unless we move a significant amount of our forces in the Halian Corridor, we won't be able to stop them in their tracks."

"And if we aren't able to stop them, Halia will be lost," Jacqueline turned pale at such an idea. "I need you to give us a feasibility assessment of such a plan. I personally will vote for it if it's truly required."

"I…am not sure," Amelie spoke up. "But, okay, how fast do we need to make a decision about this?"

"How fast?" General Albrecht asked. "I can't answer that. All I can say is the faster we make a decision, the better. This is a developing situation, and whatever we decide about it must be done now."

"I see…"

Amelie remained silent, waiting for a few hours as her ministers got to work. Calls were made, assessments were made, and they remained stuck here as the analysts in the military produced their reports.

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Amelie kept herself tuned to whichever new updates came from Halia. It wasn't looking good. Casualties were rising, the enemy was driving forward, and the units facing the onslaught were having a hard time.

Every hour, practically, a hundred to two hundred soldiers were being lost in heavy fighting. The same was true with equipment. Dozens of tanks each hour were being destroyed, so that by the time a full compilation of the data was presented to her and her government, at least another four hundred troops and sixty armored fighting vehicles were lost in the front.

She looked at the data, as General Albrecht continued to explain to them. Then, she raised his hand.

"Everyone. I approve of this."

+++

Southwestern Orland

Soldiers, most of them wearing masks and other protective gear to prevent the spread of the virus amongst the army, were called up to work out of nowhere.

Orders came from the top, mere hours ago, that entire brigades were moving out. Most of them were reserve brigades, formations kept at the rear of the actual frontline in case of an emergency.

Mechanics rushed to work on their vehicles, and others moved supplies rapidly into trucks and logistic vehicles. Within hours, convoys of tanks, IFVs, and APCs carried on the flatbeds of heavy-duty trucks passed through the dark highways of southwestern Orland.

The few civilians near these highways could only point and watch in awe as the massive movement of military assets unfolded in front of their eyes. Those in towns and cities after all had to be quarantined that the only thing moving through the roads for the past few weeks were the most essential people.

Even military units rarely moved, owing to the fact that the front had largely calmed down recently. Now however, to the people of Orland, it was clear that something big was happening again.

Not just the disease spreading amongst them, but perhaps in another upcoming battle for the Kingdom.

A masked young girl at one of the cities pointed at another convoy of trucks with tanks on their flatbeds speeding on their city's main highway, before her mother, who also wore a mask, pulled her away.

"Mommy," the young girl said. "I think I saw big sis!"

"That's unlikely," the mother said. "She told us she's in a garrison unit. There's no way she'll be sent to the frontlines like those guys."

The young girl looked at her mother, unsure.

Of course, none of them knew that General Albrecht included rear units for these reinforcements.

+++

West Orland

Duchy of Rimwurz

November Palace

May 6, 2026

It had been two days since Amelie had made that decision earlier.

Her days in the palace remained unchanged. She constantly worked with Jacqueline's ministers, alongside officials responsible for containing the Red Flu outbreaks cropping up in Orlish cities daily.

Hours upon hours of work piled on her desk, as the Kingdom increasingly divulged its decision-making to her. Amelie wasn't sure why that was becoming the case now. Even William, the ever-consistent deranged man that he was, was asking Amelie more and more about decisions regarding the nation.

Maybe it was because her decisions earlier regarding Red Flu were working. Right now, the Bio Weapon Control Agency is getting really close to a new vaccine. Not only that, but volunteer rates from recovered patients who donate their antibodies for post-exposure prophylaxis were skyrocketing.

As a result, the files on her desk indicated improved recovery rates. Coupled with the usage of emergency antivirals developed last month, with fast-tracked approval from the Kingdom's regulatory bodies, Amelie saw that the death rates were now down to a range of twenty to as low as fifteen percent.

It still was a deadly and infectious hemorrhagic fever virus regardless, and without magical and medical treatment its death rates were as high as sixty percent, but as long as the Kingdom's measures were in place, Amelie was happy to know that things wouldn't be that bad.

On the other hand…

She looked at the reports from the Ministry of Defense.

Amelie was seeing a different pattern here. Things were still dire. The enemy had pushed deep into her Kingdom's defense lines, now up to twenty kilometers deep from their original positions.

It seemed that the autonomous forces thing was truly a major problem. Again, while those Courier drones were manageable, those Enforcer-type drones were truly a menace on the field. The only ones having an easy time countering those monsters were her mech formations.

Both the Panther and Parasite mechs respectively. Unfortunately, the Panther was completely outclassed by the Enforcer drone, both in close combat and long-ranged combat. Most of her normal formations were being badly beaten by the damned things, with loss ratios only slightly better than her tank formations.

On the other hand, the mass-produced Parasite mechs of her Kingdom were achieving worse casualty ratios against the enemy drones. The only good part about them was that each Parasite mech represented fewer resources lost.

Not only was the Parasite mech cheaper than the Panther mech, but it also only required half the factory man-hours to produce. Best of all, only one person would die when it was shot. It was quite the cold calculus in that case for Amelie.

"If that's the case…then the Parasite mechs might be the best solution I have for now for this drone problem," Amelie frowned, not liking it. "But it feels like I'm just sending poor guys in their tin cans again to their deaths."

Amelie was already recently cooking up a plan for the military to shift a significant part of its production and development to the lighter, one-pilot variants of their mechs. She looked back at the talk she had recently had with General Albrecht about the Enforcer drone versus Löwe tanks problem.

To create something to match such a fearsome autonomous drone, Amelie would have to gamble on creating a completely new tank from scratch. But how would such an endeavour be optimal? Not to mention, it would still mean that three people would die every time one was lost.

On the other hand, the enemy would lose nothing outside of the drone itself in the event of destruction.

"If the Federacy can produce a thousand Enforcer drones each quarter, and we produce three thousand Parasite mechs…even with a two-to-one casualty ratio, we win," Amelie thought. "But, it sounds so awful for the pilots."

She needed to figure out something fast. She already had a plan to deal with the virus, but not this one, and each time she delayed making a decision, the more problems like the Halian Corridor attack would crop up.

She looked up at the ceiling, blinking a bit to wet her dry eyes, tired from a lack of sleep and too much staring at her laptop's screen.

"I need some tea."

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