The Military of a Vast Interstellar Nation Has Problems in Every Way. (2)
"To resolve the promotion backlog, we have decided to expand the number of ranks."
"And with that, a world where no one's feelings get hurt was finally complete."
The council whose example would later lead other nations to say of Demonia, "Let us never do anything like that."
Every single member of that Military Council, as it happens, was purged and sent to the executioner's block during the empire's normalization process following the Great Rebellion.
Anyway — fresh off learning from a suddenly very virgin-gyaru Colonel Barvel not only why a multi-species nation is such an infuriating pain in the ass to run, but also, entirely by accident, about Demonia's absolutely god-awful looooong rank system, my head was now juggling that convoluted ladder of elongated ranks alongside the combat power of the Marine battalion commander snoring away in his nutrient tank — the original template of 'Darvena', who was still cooing beside me — and his whole crew of cronies.
And when those two overlapped, how should I put it... a question struck me with startling suddenness: were the navy officers in those pirate manga really onto something — did you actually get stronger the higher your rank climbed?
When I voiced this doubt, Colonel Barvel standing before me conveyed that while it wasn't universally true, it wasn't entirely wrong either.
"You're not entirely wrong, Consul. Though I myself am quite a ways removed from that sort of combat ability, mind you."
"Hmm?"
"Officers like me who serve purely in a command role are actually the minority. Far more of us take to the field and fight personally when the situation calls for it. Especially from the flag-officer ranks onward — there you're basically required to have combat ability of your own, no exceptions…"
"Colonel Barvel is quite right," Ilena added. "From Brigadier General and above, an appointee must possess the capability to single-handedly subdue a destroyer if the need arises. Without it, no commission."
"Ooooh…"
Behold. Just how much of a macho-man's paradise was this neighborhood?
Here I was — no missing bits thanks to my TS situation, currently pumping out truly heroic quantities of female hormones — and they just shoved a situation I could never hope to understand right up in my face without a shred of embarrassment.
But unlike me, quietly marveling at the strangeness of it all, the gallery users who heard this news had this to say:
Ohhh, so that's where Babel's superhuman forces came from!
Just like that, fresh TMI kept swirling in and pounding down on me without mercy.
For whatever reason, I had come to a conclusion: while I couldn't speak for other countries, at minimum in Demonia, I could simply apply the formula higher rank = stronger and be done with it.
And while this is unfortunate news for the commander of the 593rd Marine Battalion — but then again, perhaps because we were, after all, two women talking to each other — the conversation went far more smoothly than I'd expected, and we literally just chatted the time away.
By the end of it, I found I liked Colonel Barvel considerably more than I'd anticipated.
But that was that, and this was this — after all, I'd merely been using a spare window of free time to slot in her proper, official transfer registration.
"Alright. That was a very productive hour."
"I'm so glad you found it worthwhile, Consul!"
"Yes, yes. Now then — dismissed!"
"Thank you for your time, ma'am!"
Having decided to wrap things up, I sent Colonel Barvel back to her quarters.
And with her gone, it naturally fell to Ilena to step away as well and tend to the mountain of duties I couldn't handle myself. So while our ever-reliable Ilena and her people were busily running the star system's administration, keeping the peace, and handling all the rest in my stead...
I decided to use this opportunity to knock out the things only I could do — starting with 'Darvena', who had popped out mid-forum-conversation, and everything else piling up on my plate.
Of course, as is always the case with this genre of situation, an alert window popped up informing me that a separate quest would have to be completed in order to release Darvena from her cooing state. But that, too, only lasted a moment.
Super Chimera Soldier — Codename 'Darvena' Activation Quest Guide
<(Some lengthy explanation about how Darvena ended up snoozing away for this reason and that — details omitted)>
Required Materials for Super Chimera Soldier Activation:
├─ Star System Development Level 4 or higher (Current: Lv 3)
├─ Produce at least one bio-weapon (Current bio-weapons: 2)
├─ Possess 10 or more types of special biological material (Current: 54/10)
└─ Own 1 or more Grade-1 bio-research facilities (Current: 3/1)
"Well. Like it or not, this one's going to take time."
As the veterans had all pointed out before I even started — a puppet soldier built from one measly marine battalion commander plus the bodies of roughly twenty-odd former Demonia marine officers, gathered at the point where I'd swallowed a whole star system?
If I couldn't even field that much, then honestly, calling myself a star-system conqueror would have been a bit of a stretch in the first place.
Looking over the list and seeing that every condition except that cursed star system development level was already satisfied with room to spare, I allowed myself to think: great, all I have to do is wait and the problem solves itself!
Of course, that "wait" wasn't a day or two — it demanded a stretch of time approaching a full three weeks...
"Hmm. So every last one of them is a train wreck — good to know!"
And thus, purely to kill time, I spent a while tossing out trivial little lore tidbits like these to the users, who otherwise didn't seem to have anything better to do.