I couldn"t help but smile to myself.I"d long since left Aina back at the capitol and flown to the border at Sofia, where technically all the action was happening.
Needless to say, Luciano wasn"t at all happy to see me. This wasn"t what he had in mind when I said I"d get back to him. But his slack jaw wasn"t the reason for my mirth. I"d felt things suddenly become strained between myself and Aina and I knew very well I"d done quite a great job at pushing her away. But alas, it felt good to give in, it felt good to think her as someone I could crawl back to.
But she wasn"t the only reason for my mirth.
As it seemed the closer I was to the battlefront the more efficient the War tab was. I currently had Luciano as well as the other generals save for Loup present in the pseudo war chambers. The war tab had splayed across in a nicely fashioned a 2d-3d model of the battlefront that I could easily manipulate to my liking. Not that any of the others could see it, but they"d have literally no choice but to trust my judgement.
I"d immediately taken to naming the several divisions of men, dividing the unnecessary clumps of soldiers in some places into smaller squads as I planned to use them to break enemy lines.
"Peridot will need to be made up entirely of men capable of para dropping, Luciano, pull them back and have them ready for a dangerous drop.
Once Helgen bursts open through the lines the rest of the divisions are going to be making a h.e.l.l lot of noise, I know currently it"s a stalemate across the theatre but it"s a risk I"m willing to take.
Once the pressure is felt and the enemy is pushed back, Upsilon is going to break off and attempt a flank, they don"t need to be successful, just a pain in the a.s.s big enough to leave their airs.p.a.ce less defended and safe enough for our paratroopers."
My cousins only stayed silent, they hummed now and then but gave no input. Luciano and the oldies on the other hand.
"Sir its barely been a day into the war, do we really want to take such a big risk with our entire force? We"re barely able to coordinate so many men on the fronts, communicating is terribly lackl.u.s.tre in these outskirts."
"I agree with Luciano, sir, it"s just not something we could comfortably coordinate and even if we could there will be ma.s.s casualties and so early in the war…"
"It would be handing our a.s.ses to the Malagasy on a silver platter." The most gruff-looking of the oldies, Rano added.
I nod idly at their objections but quickly dismiss them with a wave of a hand, "I have thought of such communications problems, there"s a widening breach to cover and we"ll need something small but efficient to relay orders directly to the division captains. And that is why I brought Mister Nizar Razafy from the Ministry of Information." At my beckon, the stout man walks in, heavily intimidated by the curious looks thrown at him.
"You have the stage Mister Razafy."
"Ahem!" with the discomfort in his throat temporarily gone, Nizar shoved his shaking hands behind his back and away from view before taking to speak rather unsteadily on his proposal.
He then delved deep into spewing hordes of technological jargon that barely anyone in the room aside himself could understand.
"Please Nizar, be a bit considerate with us." I politely interrupt, we"d get nowhere if he had to define every word he used in a sentence.
"Ah, yes, of course, sir, I apologize. It"s quite simple really. The outside world has developed a certain type of technology that when applied to my own can greatly improve the functionality of simple walkie-talkies.
I originally planned to apply this technology of mine to manipulate certain radio wave and make it a lot easier to reach out and disrupt the activities of satellites. It was a moderate success, but with the extra "help" from the Malagasy, it will be an achievement."
"You mean to say that you need this part from the Malagasy?" Luciano asked quite incredulously, seeing the man nod he went on to bark out some more, "then what exactly is the point of you being here? How can we get the thing that you say will help us break through enemy lines without breaking through enemy lines!"
"Calm down, Luciano, the man hasn"t finished. Please, go on Nizar."
"Ah. Yes, sir. Well, as you say, Luciano, there will be a difficulty. The spies settled in Madagascar have already been given the order to steal the piece and once they are successful, they will need extraction. This will be where the army comes in.
I will provide you with their contacts and the manner in which the extraction is completely up to you then. My usefulness, unfortunately, starts after I have gotten the piece."
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"Unfortunately," Luciano snidely repeats.
I wave the man out of the room and once again I have their attention, "So if there"s a will there"s a way. What do you think about this?"
Their faces still looked grim, but in their eyes, I could see the sliver of hope that I needed instilled in them all. There had to be faith.
"It still sounds like a risk, sir," one of my cousins, Alex spoke up at last, "We aren"t even sure if these men, the spies haven"t already been compromised by the Malagasy, they"ve spent months there after all. All that false propaganda can itch at the weak-minded lot."
Rano eagerly nodded at Alex, "Yes, that is a risk even I hadn"t thought of. What if these spies have already been turned? If they haven"t, can they even acquire the piece without alerting the entire nation of their intent?"
I let out a sigh and rubbed my temples as the men nodded at each other, periodically throwing out what-if"s, chipping at the little hope they"d built.
"Enough!" I let out angrily. I didn"t have the patience for this. Not anymore. "Have some f.u.c.king faith in your own soldiers will you!? And have some f.u.c.king faith in me. They will retrieve that piece and they will be safely extracted out of the enemy"s maws and then Nizar will build the machine and THEN. Then we win this war in one fell swoop."
I point toward Alex, "Alex, here"s a job for you. You"re going to ensure that those men are extracted safely into our waiting arms and that piece is delivered to Nizar. I won"t accept any failures. Priority number one is the piece, understood? Good. Dismissed, all of you."
I banished the lot of them out of their own war room and collapsed into my seat exhausted mentally. My previous mirth went to the wind after hearing all the objections and alternate scenarios they"d managed to dream up for our failure.
It angered me that my brief moment of happiness was quickly banished merely by the thought that they might be right. The entire plan was a huge risk. But I wanted to uppercut the Malagasy hard enough that they fall on their a.s.ses and have a hard time getting up. At least long enough for us to switch out the men"s outdated weapons for the new ones that would finally arrive in about a week.
In truth, the weapons would be here sooner than the extraction would take place but the men were spread out far and wide across the border in more than often static defence. The supply lines weren"t as speedy as one would think.
I felt like puking a bit at the thought of everything falling apart. I downed the gla.s.s of whiskey that was left behind by one of the generals, its burn down my throat made me feel less nauseous somehow, but I was grateful.
I found the bottle on the floor and poured myself a generous portion and took another swig.
"Ahhh! Refreshing," I wasn"t one for alcohol, more likely to have tea or cola but there were exceptions for everything.
"Seems like it"s just you and me buddy," I spoke to the bottle as I walked out of the room and off with it in hand, intent on having it warm me up until I fell asleep.