Scandavian States
22-06-2007, 06:11
Her Imperial Highness Lien I was quite concerned about the state of international affairs, especially with the so-called Questarian Commonwealth mobilizing. She had called her advisers together on the issue so that she could form a course of action for her nation. It was altogether too likely that very soon her nation would be involved in a very dangerous war with a less than certain outcome. She had led her nation through many wars, and won them all, and for that (among many other things) she had the love and respect of her people. In the brief and, thankfully, infrequent moments of insecurity, she wondered if her people would adore her still if she failed them this time. Thankfully it never took much effort to crush the melancholy musings with a stern reminder to herself that her armed forces were some of the best in the world; better, in many respects, than those of the Sovereign League and the mobilization of the Questarian Commonwealth proved it in her mind.
28% per cent income tax indeed, though Lien. I hope the Questarians bloody well choke on it and shoot all those fucking fascists they call leaders.
"Your Highness?" Asked Primus Deva Chandrasekhar.
Lien lightly shook her head, "I apologize, I'm afraid I was spacing. At any rate, please start the briefing."
Deva nodded, "Very well, Your Highness. I will begin by summarizing what our allies and potential enemies are doing. First, let's start with Questarians; as you know, they're mobilizing and they appear to be serious about starting a war and they've only stopped just short of calling out both NATO and Gholgoth. At this point we really can't deter them, so I would suggest we brace for the storm. Gholgoth isn't blind, obviously, and they appear to be mobilizing as a unit; I don't anticipate that the Questarians, even with the help of their 'Commonwealth', will be able to breach the defenses of a unified Gholgoth, although Admiral Sorensen might have a different take on that. NATO is not such a happy story, unfortunately; the Oceanian seems to be having qualms about upholding the charter, although Sir O'Connel had been instructed to let that slide simply because it is not sure that the Questarians won't simply force them to fight. The Dontians are fairly prostrate for help; unfortunately their military is in fairly sorry shape, God knows what possessed them to let that happen when they knew this war had to be coming; that said, they are perfectly willing to help, they just need our support to do so. I will let our general officers explain the Imperium's situation."
The Empress acknowledged this and then shifted her gaze to the Director of the External Security Service, "What do you have for me, Dragan?"
Dragan Kozak, like most good spies, was in every respect entirely forgettable. "Your Highness, I have many things for you. First and foremost, from what EON has picked up some signals intel that makes it clear that the Questarians are looking to increase their total forces to half a billion men. While the number itself is imposing, it has several downsides and says some important things about the Questarians that work to our advantage. Second, our analysts believe that despite the fact that the Questarians have failed to involve the entire Sovereign League, it is unlikely in the extreme that they will leave us sitting alone in their back yard, waiting to pounce. Third, there are rumors floating around of discontent among the Commonwealth members because the Questarians have been coopting government agencies without so much as a 'by your leave' and have otherwise been generally exploiting their nations; the ESS will be trying, as much as is possible, to turn the cracks into real breaches. While I could go into further detail, there are others here who would be better suited to explaining them."
Lien nodded and shifted her gaze to Akela Okalani, the Director of Trade and Commerce, "And what of our economy? And the enemy's? Surely this ridiculous income tax rate of theirs and the massive mobilization is going to hurt their economy?"
The Director nodded, "Indeed, Your Majesty. Their twofold problem is as you stated it. They are removing a good portion of the tax-paying population from their decently paying jobs to low-paying military jobs. That alone is going to hurt their tax base by a substantial amount. It's only going to get worse once they start taking casualties, from the projections I have seen they're are looking at the better part of 200 million casualties by war's end and that's the low end. On the income tax rate, my analysts believe that it's only going to get higher as the war progresses, that ties into the increasing casualties and the need to recruit from the workforce to replace losses on two fronts. Unlikely though it is, given the seeming fanaticism of their population, it would not be surprising if the war ended simply because the people resorted to civil disobedience by refusing to pay the ever-increasing taxes."
The Empress poked at the obvious hole, "And if they don't increase taxes? It's not like they can't be aware of the possibilities you have outlined."
"Then this war is going to be very short, ma'am," Okalani replied. "Unless everything goes right for them, they're going to have to keep asking for money to replace material losses and manpower from the work force to replace casualties. Worst case estimates from my analysts say that even if they were to win this war, mobilizing like they have will effectively wreck their economy. It's certainly possible, although it really depends on how much damage we manage to inflict.
"As for our economy, we should be in fairly good shape. Obviously we will suffer some damage, maybe even a considerable amount, but in the end we are better able to absorb it because our people don't have an obscene income tax hanging over their head, nor are we looking to effectively drain our tax base."
Lien accepted that and gave General Jackson her consideration, "General, how goes my Army?"
Jackson grinned and replied, "Quite well, Your Majesty. As Director Okalani just stated, the Imperial Army views its current 1800 divisions are more than enough to secure the integrity of the Imperium. If things go bad and we have to start forming new divisions from conscripts, we plan to give them the same training that we give our volunteers so that they will not be sub-par. All our normal contractors assure us they can more than keep up with demand for new equipment in such a case. That said, we believe we can face off the Questarians and their Commonwealth stooges with our land forces as they are. Simply put, the Questarian Army, which is the best of the lot, is a rather poor shadow of the Imperial Army in both training and equipment and these new recruits of theirs, effectively the average conscript, doesn't really help. We have enough force multipliers, starting with training and working down to the quality of our equipment, that we believe could take on and win against he expanded Questarian Army. Not without massive casualties and effectively leaving our outlying Duchies defenseless, mind, but we could do it. However, we're not going to be alone in this; we know we can count on the Allaneans for sure and our new allies from the Golden Throne will probably send a field army or two. Given what we plan to deploy, we should have more than enough to force our way through the bottleneck the north of Questers forms and advance on their capital."
"Very well. And what of the Dontians? What can we do to help them?" Lien asked.
"We're not sure, actually. We have more than enough rifles in stockpile to send them some immediately. I'm sure we'll have to recompense ONDI in some way for violating the terms of the production licenses, but we can send them aircraft and missiles. Also, since one of our corporations bought our helo supplier, we can send those without fear of compromising a licensing agreement. Manpower wise, we can probably send a few field armies once the situation becomes clear; it will be tough if the Skinnies jump in, but if they don't we'll have a lot of freedom of action."
"That's fine, just so long as we can do something." The Empress said. "Admiral Sorensen, what of the Imperial Navy?"
"Our situation is probably the most muddled, Your Majesty. We honestly have no idea what the Questarians are going to do on the naval front, although we anticipate that they're either going to be short on ships in Haven or with their invasion of Gholgoth. From the naval intel Dragan has passed to us, it seems that the Questarians are rather fixated on capital ships. My analysts can only guess that it's because their doctrine tends to be rather capship oriented and so they project that orientation onto their enemies. If that's so, we're probably going to lose a goodly percentage of our capship tonnage, especially our battlecruisers; I've always thought the Tenchu class was over-stuffed with missiles and I'm not happy with what I've seen lately in combat simulations on that front. However, if they do focus on our capships, they're going to be in for a nasty surprise. From what I've seen of their ship designs, they tend to be gun-heavy and what missiles they do have are usually in armoured box launchers; the concept of a VLS-heavy warship seems foreign to them. I think they're going to underestimate what our escort ships can do and if they do they're going to pay for it."
"Are you saying you expect an easy victory, Admiral?" Lien questioned.
"No, not at all. One thing the their war with the Doomies taught us is that they favor offensive strikes launched from aircraft carriers as their primary weapon. Further, those same strike aircraft pilots have shown a rather frightening predilection for suicide tactics when the attack becomes hopeless. I fully expect to lose quite a few ships that way. Unless they hit Gholgoth first, we'll be hampered from launching first strikes against their fleets since we obviously don't want to look like aggressors. We anticipate they will launch aircraft well inside of missile range, both surface-to-air and surface-to-surface. If they launch inside of range of our AWACS, we'll know immediately and will be able to launch a missile strike right away. In fact, that's probably our best hope for a decisive victory. However, even a decisive victory against one of their fleets will hurt, I can almost guarantee it," Sorensen explained.
Lien sighed, "It's a shame my old service is probably going to get most of the beating in this war. Just as well, that's what they're there for. General Kerensky, your turn."
"Your Majesty, unlike my other counterparts in Joint Strategic Command, my service's duties will be quite simple. We will act as a strategic reserve to reinforce the land front or to launch an invasion of one of the Commonwealth countries. Basically, my Marines are ready and willing to go wherever you need them, whenever you need them," Kerensky's pride in her service was rather evident in her delivery of the short speech.
"Very well. Aerospace Marshal McLeod?" Lien prompted.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Our response to any attack will be two-fold. One, we will begin immediately hitting the attacking forces with whatever forces are in range and we will continue to do so until the forces are destroyed and retreating. Two, we will begin launching SEAD and kinetic strikes against the Questarians and their Commonwealth. As envisioned, the SEAD strikes will probably take about a week to suppress air defenses in the northern reaches of Questers, after which we will begin strategic bombing campaign against economic, political, and military targets. Kinetic strikes will be launched against their fleet bases and any other targets that present themselves as being worth the expenditure of those weapons. We will supplement the kinetic strikes with ICCM strikes against C4i infrastructure in the north of Questers and against political targets when the opportunity presents itself. Of course, we will be substituting the ICCM normal warheads for conventional warheads; I would suggest that the Questarians be informed of this so that they don't freak out when they realize they've been hit by what are normally strategic weapons. Several thousand kilos of HE will do enough damage that it could be mistaken for a low-yield isomer warhead."
"I shall inform Sadira of that. I believe that is all I shall require from you for now. If there is anything that comes up that you believe needs my attention, see to it that I receive this information," the Empress said in dismissal.
28% per cent income tax indeed, though Lien. I hope the Questarians bloody well choke on it and shoot all those fucking fascists they call leaders.
"Your Highness?" Asked Primus Deva Chandrasekhar.
Lien lightly shook her head, "I apologize, I'm afraid I was spacing. At any rate, please start the briefing."
Deva nodded, "Very well, Your Highness. I will begin by summarizing what our allies and potential enemies are doing. First, let's start with Questarians; as you know, they're mobilizing and they appear to be serious about starting a war and they've only stopped just short of calling out both NATO and Gholgoth. At this point we really can't deter them, so I would suggest we brace for the storm. Gholgoth isn't blind, obviously, and they appear to be mobilizing as a unit; I don't anticipate that the Questarians, even with the help of their 'Commonwealth', will be able to breach the defenses of a unified Gholgoth, although Admiral Sorensen might have a different take on that. NATO is not such a happy story, unfortunately; the Oceanian seems to be having qualms about upholding the charter, although Sir O'Connel had been instructed to let that slide simply because it is not sure that the Questarians won't simply force them to fight. The Dontians are fairly prostrate for help; unfortunately their military is in fairly sorry shape, God knows what possessed them to let that happen when they knew this war had to be coming; that said, they are perfectly willing to help, they just need our support to do so. I will let our general officers explain the Imperium's situation."
The Empress acknowledged this and then shifted her gaze to the Director of the External Security Service, "What do you have for me, Dragan?"
Dragan Kozak, like most good spies, was in every respect entirely forgettable. "Your Highness, I have many things for you. First and foremost, from what EON has picked up some signals intel that makes it clear that the Questarians are looking to increase their total forces to half a billion men. While the number itself is imposing, it has several downsides and says some important things about the Questarians that work to our advantage. Second, our analysts believe that despite the fact that the Questarians have failed to involve the entire Sovereign League, it is unlikely in the extreme that they will leave us sitting alone in their back yard, waiting to pounce. Third, there are rumors floating around of discontent among the Commonwealth members because the Questarians have been coopting government agencies without so much as a 'by your leave' and have otherwise been generally exploiting their nations; the ESS will be trying, as much as is possible, to turn the cracks into real breaches. While I could go into further detail, there are others here who would be better suited to explaining them."
Lien nodded and shifted her gaze to Akela Okalani, the Director of Trade and Commerce, "And what of our economy? And the enemy's? Surely this ridiculous income tax rate of theirs and the massive mobilization is going to hurt their economy?"
The Director nodded, "Indeed, Your Majesty. Their twofold problem is as you stated it. They are removing a good portion of the tax-paying population from their decently paying jobs to low-paying military jobs. That alone is going to hurt their tax base by a substantial amount. It's only going to get worse once they start taking casualties, from the projections I have seen they're are looking at the better part of 200 million casualties by war's end and that's the low end. On the income tax rate, my analysts believe that it's only going to get higher as the war progresses, that ties into the increasing casualties and the need to recruit from the workforce to replace losses on two fronts. Unlikely though it is, given the seeming fanaticism of their population, it would not be surprising if the war ended simply because the people resorted to civil disobedience by refusing to pay the ever-increasing taxes."
The Empress poked at the obvious hole, "And if they don't increase taxes? It's not like they can't be aware of the possibilities you have outlined."
"Then this war is going to be very short, ma'am," Okalani replied. "Unless everything goes right for them, they're going to have to keep asking for money to replace material losses and manpower from the work force to replace casualties. Worst case estimates from my analysts say that even if they were to win this war, mobilizing like they have will effectively wreck their economy. It's certainly possible, although it really depends on how much damage we manage to inflict.
"As for our economy, we should be in fairly good shape. Obviously we will suffer some damage, maybe even a considerable amount, but in the end we are better able to absorb it because our people don't have an obscene income tax hanging over their head, nor are we looking to effectively drain our tax base."
Lien accepted that and gave General Jackson her consideration, "General, how goes my Army?"
Jackson grinned and replied, "Quite well, Your Majesty. As Director Okalani just stated, the Imperial Army views its current 1800 divisions are more than enough to secure the integrity of the Imperium. If things go bad and we have to start forming new divisions from conscripts, we plan to give them the same training that we give our volunteers so that they will not be sub-par. All our normal contractors assure us they can more than keep up with demand for new equipment in such a case. That said, we believe we can face off the Questarians and their Commonwealth stooges with our land forces as they are. Simply put, the Questarian Army, which is the best of the lot, is a rather poor shadow of the Imperial Army in both training and equipment and these new recruits of theirs, effectively the average conscript, doesn't really help. We have enough force multipliers, starting with training and working down to the quality of our equipment, that we believe could take on and win against he expanded Questarian Army. Not without massive casualties and effectively leaving our outlying Duchies defenseless, mind, but we could do it. However, we're not going to be alone in this; we know we can count on the Allaneans for sure and our new allies from the Golden Throne will probably send a field army or two. Given what we plan to deploy, we should have more than enough to force our way through the bottleneck the north of Questers forms and advance on their capital."
"Very well. And what of the Dontians? What can we do to help them?" Lien asked.
"We're not sure, actually. We have more than enough rifles in stockpile to send them some immediately. I'm sure we'll have to recompense ONDI in some way for violating the terms of the production licenses, but we can send them aircraft and missiles. Also, since one of our corporations bought our helo supplier, we can send those without fear of compromising a licensing agreement. Manpower wise, we can probably send a few field armies once the situation becomes clear; it will be tough if the Skinnies jump in, but if they don't we'll have a lot of freedom of action."
"That's fine, just so long as we can do something." The Empress said. "Admiral Sorensen, what of the Imperial Navy?"
"Our situation is probably the most muddled, Your Majesty. We honestly have no idea what the Questarians are going to do on the naval front, although we anticipate that they're either going to be short on ships in Haven or with their invasion of Gholgoth. From the naval intel Dragan has passed to us, it seems that the Questarians are rather fixated on capital ships. My analysts can only guess that it's because their doctrine tends to be rather capship oriented and so they project that orientation onto their enemies. If that's so, we're probably going to lose a goodly percentage of our capship tonnage, especially our battlecruisers; I've always thought the Tenchu class was over-stuffed with missiles and I'm not happy with what I've seen lately in combat simulations on that front. However, if they do focus on our capships, they're going to be in for a nasty surprise. From what I've seen of their ship designs, they tend to be gun-heavy and what missiles they do have are usually in armoured box launchers; the concept of a VLS-heavy warship seems foreign to them. I think they're going to underestimate what our escort ships can do and if they do they're going to pay for it."
"Are you saying you expect an easy victory, Admiral?" Lien questioned.
"No, not at all. One thing the their war with the Doomies taught us is that they favor offensive strikes launched from aircraft carriers as their primary weapon. Further, those same strike aircraft pilots have shown a rather frightening predilection for suicide tactics when the attack becomes hopeless. I fully expect to lose quite a few ships that way. Unless they hit Gholgoth first, we'll be hampered from launching first strikes against their fleets since we obviously don't want to look like aggressors. We anticipate they will launch aircraft well inside of missile range, both surface-to-air and surface-to-surface. If they launch inside of range of our AWACS, we'll know immediately and will be able to launch a missile strike right away. In fact, that's probably our best hope for a decisive victory. However, even a decisive victory against one of their fleets will hurt, I can almost guarantee it," Sorensen explained.
Lien sighed, "It's a shame my old service is probably going to get most of the beating in this war. Just as well, that's what they're there for. General Kerensky, your turn."
"Your Majesty, unlike my other counterparts in Joint Strategic Command, my service's duties will be quite simple. We will act as a strategic reserve to reinforce the land front or to launch an invasion of one of the Commonwealth countries. Basically, my Marines are ready and willing to go wherever you need them, whenever you need them," Kerensky's pride in her service was rather evident in her delivery of the short speech.
"Very well. Aerospace Marshal McLeod?" Lien prompted.
"Yes, Your Majesty. Our response to any attack will be two-fold. One, we will begin immediately hitting the attacking forces with whatever forces are in range and we will continue to do so until the forces are destroyed and retreating. Two, we will begin launching SEAD and kinetic strikes against the Questarians and their Commonwealth. As envisioned, the SEAD strikes will probably take about a week to suppress air defenses in the northern reaches of Questers, after which we will begin strategic bombing campaign against economic, political, and military targets. Kinetic strikes will be launched against their fleet bases and any other targets that present themselves as being worth the expenditure of those weapons. We will supplement the kinetic strikes with ICCM strikes against C4i infrastructure in the north of Questers and against political targets when the opportunity presents itself. Of course, we will be substituting the ICCM normal warheads for conventional warheads; I would suggest that the Questarians be informed of this so that they don't freak out when they realize they've been hit by what are normally strategic weapons. Several thousand kilos of HE will do enough damage that it could be mistaken for a low-yield isomer warhead."
"I shall inform Sadira of that. I believe that is all I shall require from you for now. If there is anything that comes up that you believe needs my attention, see to it that I receive this information," the Empress said in dismissal.