Lord of War (3)
Of course, our Empire couldn't just leap into action right away either.
"Come on, we're in the middle of a massive civil engineering project right now—we don't have any fleets free to move, okay?"
"Who the hell do you think you're bullshitting?"
On the surface, we were claiming that our fleets were tied up in the colossal national construction project known as the Warp Gate network, making any immediate deployment impossible. On top of that:
"We're the farthest away of anyone—why are you even coming to us about this?"
"..."
Reaching the region where the current crisis was unfolding would take nearly a full year. That distance became our perfect public justification for staying put.
Of course, the real reason was...
"Do we really need to rush over there?"
"True. There's no need for us to waste our strength fighting them directly."
"Exactly... no reason our fleets should be frittered away as pointlessly as Syr's were."
There was the shadowy faction quietly hoping the eastern nations and the Warlord would simply annihilate each other. And then there was the other side:
"Are you joking?"
"Fine, write off the eastern states if you want—but are you just going to ignore the suffering of the ordinary people living there?"
Those who opposed the cynics on either rational or emotional grounds. In the end, the shadowy camp won the debate, and their approach was the one we were now pushing both domestically and abroad.
As always, I had simply stepped back and watched the argument play out. Once the video conference ended and the channel closed, I let out a long breath.
"...Whew."
"Good work, yeah. Funny how those people still don't realize they're being completely played by you, Minister."
Just as Riel said, the scheme to delay the Seveli Empire's entry into the Warlord conflict had succeeded, and I was finally able to relax a little.
The reason was simple.
"If we keep this up, we should be able to turn the eastern nations into vassals of the Empire—exactly the way you wanted, yeah."
"Right."
My original plan had been to form a galactic-scale federation in preparation for the confrontation with Prosnak... and then place our Empire at its head. For that to happen, the eastern nations currently being overrun by the Warlord needed to be weakened first.
Of course, I hadn't started out thinking that way.
"Honestly..."
"Yeah?"
"When I first saw the Syr Citizens' League collapse and Kerzin and Uko'Praknar surrender, I seriously considered it."
"Ah... you mean the bill you were going to submit to the Galactic League, yeah?"
I nodded at Riel's words. At first I had indeed planned to table the Warlord's rampage as an emergency agenda item as quickly as possible. But events had unfolded far more favorably than my worries had anticipated.
"Turns out the eastern nations are fighting better than I expected."
"Well, early on the Warlord's fleets were concentrated, sure... but now the front has split into three, yeah?"
As she spoke, Riel casually pointed at the war situation map still displayed on the office screen.
"The Zeltec front is pure defensive attrition, the Mekt-Fuchs front is mostly mobile warfare using their vast territory... and now even the Loirakan have joined the war, yeah."
"Mm."
At her words I felt a quiet gratitude toward the Loirakan Republic—the ones who had finally tipped the scales of this war.
"What's the Loirakan fleet doing?"
"They split their forces in half. One half is reinforcing the Mekt-Fuchs front, the other half has crossed the Uko'Praknar border and is invading, yeah."
And they were even taking it upon themselves to smash the Uko'Praknar—the ones who had nearly wrecked the balance. From our perspective it was the definition of getting something for nothing.
Of course, the Uko'Praknar Interstellar Union was no pushover either—strong enough that their name regularly appeared in the upper ranks of Arto's UI as a proper Superpower.
"They're splitting their forces in half of their own free will? Practically begging to be defeated in detail."
"This is our chance! In the name of the Warlord, our domain will expand!"
Just as they said, when a Loirakan fleet of only half strength crossed the border, the Uko'Praknar fleets sortied with swaggering confidence to counterattack. But...
"We will never forgive the traitorous vermin who carved out the heart of the galaxy!"
"Deshabut!"
That half-strength Loirakan force proceeded to smash the Uko'Praknar fleets to pieces.
"How in the world did we lose?"
"On paper the force ratio clearly favored us!"
Faced with an incomprehensible defeat, hot breath blasted from all five nostrils of the Uko'Praknar leadership. The admiral who had commanded their fleets answered their furious questions with the half-enlightened expression of a man who had already accepted his fate.
"That was on paper... In reality, thirty percent of our fleet strength had already been offered up to the Warlord."
"..."
"Even at full strength we only barely outnumbered half a Loirakan fleet. How exactly were we supposed to win after losing thirty percent?"
At his aggrieved tone, the leadership reportedly shot back:
"What about the fleets we absorbed from the Ikh Nur Bal rebels?"
"We'd only just absorbed them—of course they were still reorganizing in the rear."
"Ah."
And so the Uko'Praknar leadership finally grasped reality. Fortunately for them—and unfortunately for the Loirakan—the people sitting in those seats were not complete incompetents.
"Then until the missing fleets are restored, we will fight a thorough defensive war!"
They reorganized the ships seized from Ikh Nur Bal together with the surviving vessels that had managed to return, rebuilding their fleets. At the same time they fell back on the western fortress network prepared long before the Warlord's rise, bracing against the overwhelming Loirakan forces.
Had that plan succeeded, the Loirakan's cheerful march would have been cut short midway. Instead—
—KWA-AAAANG!!
"Terror attack!!"
"The power plants have been hit!"
"Gyaaaah!"
Later it would be attributed to resistance fighters from Ikh Nur Bal. Simultaneous strikes slammed into the fortress network and the power plants of the western industrial zone that the Uko'Praknar had so carefully prepared.
"Hurry! Get the repairs done now!"
The Uko'Praknar military was no pack of fools; they rushed to restore the destroyed plants and used reserve power to bring the fortress network back online. But before the power could be fully restored—
"This body... has arrived."
"...Geumzkeutseuhneu."
—the Loirakan fleets had already entered the sector.
The result was inevitable. The Uko'Praknar Interstellar Union—who had crushed the Ikh Nur Bal Independent Republican League that had once broken free of them, landed a solid blow on Mekt-Fuchs, and dreamed of reviving the ancient Uk Empire—had been on the verge of a second golden age. Instead they lost their entire western domain, fortresses and industrial zones alike.
"Oh great Warlord, please, help us!"
"..."
Later historians would say they clung to the Warlord's pant legs, begging for support with pathetic desperation. And of course the Warlord had no intention of simply abandoning his vassal state—or rather, of ignoring an attack aimed at himself.
"Go, my hounds of the battlefield."
Not long after the Uko'Praknar plea arrived, one of the Keshik fleets—his personal guard and a major pillar of his strength—was dispatched at full speed toward the Loirakan front.
But when a force that formed such a large portion of the Warlord's power suddenly left the line...
"Finally, we can hold."
...the pressure on both the Zeltec and Mekt-Fuchs fronts eased dramatically, and the entire war situation rapidly stabilized.
"...or so the reports say."
"Hmm."
Once the chaotic front lines had settled, I reactivated the eastern overseas spy network that had been out of commission for a while. Through it I obtained the intelligence above and reported it to Artraia. But then—
"Arto, since it's just us, I'll say it straight."
"What is it?"
"The terrorist attacks on the Uko'Praknar fortress network and industrial zone—you were behind those, weren't you?"
A faint smile played on Artraia's lips as she fixed me with a hawk's stare and dropped that little bombshell.
"Who knows?"
At first I tried to brush it off with a blank look, but she kept pressing.
"Arto."
"Dunno."
"Stop joking around and tell me properly."
I finally let out a long sigh and spilled the truth.
"Fine. But don't worry—I had the operatives who carried it out disguised as Prosnak agents, just in case it ever got traced."
Only then did Artraia relax, leaning back against the sofa and stretching as she spoke.
"That's what I was curious about. As expected of you, Arto—your work is always thorough."
So that's what she was curious about.