Dark Fate, Chapter 274 (Patreon)

Chapter 274 – Warning

Despite the ‘call’ lasting another hour, nothing much was really said. This part of the event was entirely Mhyreth and Vyllan’s show. Well, mostly Mhyreth since Vyllan was a sleepy thing, being only a day old. If she’d been a normal person, before the System, Mhyreth would have been tired, too, but there was plenty of magic to remove fatigue, and her being a Greater Tomebound Succubus meant that handing her some smutty writing would cause her to recover very quickly indeed. Magic could be a cheating existence like that.

The one part of the conversation that involved me was a discussion with Yhrath about where to place the [Transport Beacon]. Once installed, the things were a pain in the ass to move, especially since moving them disrupted the connection between beacons, meaning the lengthy attunement process would need to be redone. So, most people agreed that it was a good idea to take the time to properly plan where to place the things, before activating them for the first time.

But it wasn’t something you could just slap down wherever. The circle covered by the [Transport Beacon] was six meters in diameter, which meant you needed to have a room that was at least that big. Probably a bit larger. And no, putting it outside wasn’t an option, unless you had an interior courtyard or something, because leaving big, expensive magical conduit out in the open, where anyone could paw at it, and maybe sabotage it? That was a problem.

The problems didn’t end there, of course. Having a [Transport Beacon] in your base meant that there was a vulnerability baked into your defenses. Yes, you didn’t put a [Transport Beacon] in your base unless you trusted whoever was on the other side, but that trust only extended so far. When mortals were involved, well, mortals eventually died, and just because you could trust the last generation, did not mean the successors were cut of the same cloth. And that was not even considering what happened when revolutions, coups, or invasions happened. Even if the ‘reliable’ side won, if the base was breached, then there was a chance that attacks could be sent through the [Transport Beacon] to the ally, permanently damaging relations.

However, you couldn’t just throw the [Transport Beacon] in some dark, secret corner of the base, either. Putting it in a secret room that isn’t on any building schematics sounded like a great idea, until you circled back to the problems of anyone being able to use the device if they could supply enough MP. If you put the thing someplace hidden, then a spy could charge the thing gradually, over time, so that they had an easy escape route if things went bad. Which meant you needed guards.

On the other hand, most people tended to get defensive when they came out of a teleporter and were faced with a few dozen armed guards all pointing weapons their way. And ‘defensive’, when you were Tier 3, was just a polite way of saying ‘destructive’. It was all but impossible to build a building that would stand up to a Tier 3’s attacks, without investing enough resources to make a treasurer cry, which meant keeping Tier 3s or higher from reflexively attacking was extremely important.

So, we needed to find a place that was large enough to fit the circle, with controlled access to prevent misuse or sabotage, where it could be easily guarded without putting people on high alert. Finding somewhere that fit the bill was problematic, but not impossible, especially when you were dealing with spaces that had been magically enlarged. It took about twenty minutes, but we figured out a good place in the palace for the [Transport Beacon].

Yhrath wanted to come over immediately and see his grandkid in person, but that simply wasn’t possible. The synchronization and attunement process for the [Transport Beacon] would take about a week, and you couldn’t start pouring MP into the beacon to charge it until after it was synchronized. Sure, there were work-arounds, like charging up mana crystals so that you had the million MP ready and waiting, but those methods were pretty expensive, and still didn’t shorten the wait for the attunement process.

I left Mhyreth to continue chatting with her folks while I went to keep an eye on the evolving political situation on Earth. So far, no one had gotten the bright idea to attack the Empire’s territories on Earth, but I kept the defense forces on alert, just in case. The areas affected by the Flames of Vengeance were still up in arms, but most of the civil wars were burning themselves out, with more than a few regimes having been brought down, and their leaders torn apart, sometimes literally. No new conflicts had erupted, either, which was good to hear. However, the war between Pakistan and India was still going strong, and showed no signs of stopping.

Which is why I was not entirely surprised when I got called to the War Room by an alert. Walking in, I saw Slave-Commissar-General Monique Stratton standing by the displays. “What do we have, Stratton?”

“Movement in the Pakistan-India war, Master. One hour ago, Pakistan launched an all-out air and sea offensive, and the upgrade kits they’re using on their vehicles are making all the difference. The result has been monumentally one-sided, with critical damage being done not only to India’s mobile assets, but also the bases they stage out of. As of this moment, India effectively has no air force or blue-water navy.”

I nodded, understanding why I’d been called in, now. While, on the face of things, this was not something I needed to pay attention to personally, that was a short-sighted, surface-level take on things. Yes, neither country was my responsibility, but I had positioned the Ceres Royal Navy to ensure that things did not progress into nuclear war, and a sudden, massive shift in the military landscape, like Pakistan wiping out the air and sea forces of India, was going to put pressure on Indian leaders. If Pakistan doubled down on their advantage by using bombers and close air support to get their ground force moving towards India’s capital again? Well, that’s where the problems started.

Powerful people on the verge of losing power got desperate. The more desperate they were, the more likely they’d be to go to any lengths to try and hold on to their power. If they got desperate enough, then they might even stop caring about holding on to power, so long as they ensured everyone else burned with them. There was a very real chance that if India thought it was going to lose completely that the military would stop caring about my promises to rain hell down upon anyone throwing nukes around. And, once they got to that point, all bets were off.

“What is the status of India’s strategic weapons stores?”

“No movement, currently. We’ve been watching the bases they keep the strategic weapons located at, on alert for any suspicious movement. But the fact that things are progressing so rapidly leaves us concerned.”

I nodded at Stratton’s words. “Get with Intelligence. Have them send messages to the commanders in the field, with reports on their families. As much detail as they can get. No direct threats, just a simple mention that, if India uses nuclear weapons, they might be in the blast radius of the CRN’s reprisals, but even if India loses, the Ceresan Empire is willing to take in ‘political refugees’.”

“Carrot and stick, with their families on the line, huh?”

I smiled slightly, and shrugged. “The key to dealing with people who are on the edge of desperation is to give them clear and concrete consequences if they choose the action you don’t want, preferably making sure that the consequences go beyond just them, and on to their loved ones, as well, and then give them a bit of hope, and a way out of the trap. You try and corner them completely, and they will fight to the end, doing whatever is necessary to make you bleed, even if they can’t actually stop you. But if you open just a little gap in the encirclement, they will rush for it, even knowing that it is probably some kind of trap.

“In this case, we do not target the top officials. People at that level have a depressing tolerance for watching other people die for their beliefs, usually since they sit in a bunker, or a fortified building far away from the people who would die in their name, defending their wounded pride and foolish honor. They would let a country burn, rather than admit their fault. On the other hand, those who are the actual commanders in the field, the ones that would have to give the orders to the ground and air crews to arm, deploy, and fire the nukes? They are more likely to be impacted by someone threatening their kids, and their family’s kids, and all the people that they know personally. They are the ones that can be swayed by a hope of getting their families out, even if the country falls.”

Stratton nodded slowly. “But that lifeline for their families, and possibly for them, only works so long as nuclear weapons don’t start going off. Are you not worried about poking their pride, and maybe nudging them further towards dying gloriously?”

“I admit that it is a concern, yes. However, modern militaries tend to frown upon those types, and not let them get into higher positions of command. People who want to go out in a blaze of glory for king and country are generally not disciplined enough to effectively manage a war stretching across entire theaters. They’re the lieutenant you put in charge of a special unit that you’ll have taking on strategic, high-risk missions, not the general who stands back and gives orders from a bunker where other people are sent to their deaths. Same reason why you don’t really want the really reckless hot shot pilots as your fighter pilots. They’re a danger to themselves, others, and the mission.

“Oh, glory hounds and ultra-patriots or similar types of fanatics are useful. In any war, you’re going to have times when you need someone strong, crazy, and completely willing to die for the cause to do a job. But most wars are not like that. Hell, most battles aren’t even like that. You can’t boot out the fanatics entirely, because then you won’t know where they are, or what they’re doing. But you can’t give them too much power, either, or they start running campaigns based on what their special book club or homeowner’s association says, rather than what is practical and possible for the military forces you have on hand.

“No, when it comes down to it, most soldiers, from the lowest Private to the top Generals, fight the battles for the people around them, the people they’ve lost, and the people still living behind the lines. The actual cause, the methods used, and so on, change from person to person sometimes, but the true reason why a soldier fights can usually be summed up as being who he fights for. Which means that the key to subverting a soldier, or at least ensuring that they remain open to conversation, means pulling on those levers just enough to make sure they know the consequences, but not so much that they feel they have nothing to lose, because that rolls straight back around to desperation, which will set them off.”

Stratton nodded. “I will have the warnings set out within the hour.” A pause, and then, “What about the Pakistanis?”

“Send the warnings to them, too. Make sure they keep this conventional, instead of opening up the strategic weapon stockpiles. Because if they launch, I’ll burn them, just like I’d do if India launches.”