Strawberry Fields

by Stalliongrad

Chapter 2

“Lieutenant Barris reports good success in organizing guerrillas to rise against the Archon near the outskirts of Vinnin, the first shipment of rifles should reach them by the end of the week.”

Gabriella glanced over to the map of Griffonia, where her war council had marked out the territories of the empire and the known troop deployments of the various imperial states. Emil Stormfeather, Gabriella's Minister of Defense, currently had the spotlight and was addressing the room on Strawberry's progress towards rearming the long neglected military.

It had been a tedious two years since her return to Readewetter. Her absence from the Strawberry Duchy had left her administration grinding to a halt, paralyzed and bloated with sycophants, incompetents, and narcissist nobles. She wanted nothing more than to raise the state grenadiers and march on Griffenheim, but there was not a chance in hell her ducal troops would be able to match the Imperial Army.

Was this Boreas way of punishing her for neglecting her domain for so long? The gods were surely cruel in their jests. Still, she was thankful for Regina’s efforts to guide the government in her absence. The Strawberry Duchy had undergone the first steps towards a second industrial revolution, and Readewetter had seen some moderate industrial development through liquidating some of the royal estates and subsidizing the industrial workforce.

Today the factories produced toasters and televisions, but tomorrow they would churn out guns and artillery.

“Major Irontalon reports good progress in overseeing the military factories to create standardized rifles and in mobilizing the army. The recruitment centers report a good turnout, especially after your speech to the nation. However…”

Emil paused hesitantly, looking meekly at his document as if he could somehow bargain with the paper into providing a more positive report.

Gabriella ruffled her feathers in annoyance, glaring at Stormfeather to carry on.

“Raiding the imperial army has drawn us some criticism from the capital, and the guilds are still providing some resistance to our administrative reforms. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education is reporting some issues in attempting to reduce illiteracy in some of the cities near Starclaw.”

Regina chuckled, “Cousin Gene sent a communique earlier today that having more officers won’t mean much if half of them can’t read.”

Gabriella shot her a look but then gave an exhausted sigh, “Point taken, we’ll put that on the agenda for tomorrow, Erich?”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs straightened his tie and cleared his throat.

“Your highness, Bronzehill has confirmed their support for us and have agreed to aid us against the Archon. Riots in Feathisia have kept communication with the Feathisian government tenuous, but it can be assumed that Duke Gerlach will undoubtedly support you. Some minor troubles in the local political scene but nothing that should worry us.”

Gabriella’s heart fluttered a bit at the mention of Gerlach, and she hoped that she would see him at least once before the year’s end. Erich flipped the page on his report, and his face immediately turned grim.

“As of yesterday, Yale has officially capitulated to Griffenheim. We expect Greifmarschen to be the next target within the month. Romau is firmly in the Archon’s sphere of influence, and Angriver has not responded to any of our diplomatic requests. We haven’t attempted to reach out to Katerin-”

“Don’t even bother with that,” Gabriella sighed.

She looked over the military reports and gave a slight frown, pondering for a moment before dragging her claws gently on a map. She drummed the tip of her talons on the Skyfall Federation.

“Regina, how are the state of affairs in Skyfall and Fezera?”

Regina gave Gabriella a puzzled look before responding.

“The local Politie were apparently successful in charging Mayor Godard with corruption and have shut down most of the major crime families. Their economy is still garbage but they’ve made decent strides in attempting to reform their government. Guichard’s niece Genevieve Guildedwing is the chancellor of Skyfall now, and she’s working towards revitalizing the federation’s economy.”

Gabriella chuckled, “If I recall correctly, Guichard made a huge showing last year of buying out the private armouries and funding their fleet in preparation for a possible invasion from Fezera. Now Genevieve is paying for an army with no enemy to fight. Lets do her a 'favor' and hire Skyfall's army for our war against Eros.”

“That could work, we’ll need more funds though. We’re still subsidizing the domestic industry and we haven’t seen a huge return on the investments yet.”

“A loan. We’ll take out a loan under the pretext of investing in our eastern provinces. The banks in Skyfall love to charge a high interest rate, and we’ll begrudgingly agree so long as they allow us to contract some of their military as mercenaries. Guildedwing will practically leap at the chance to gain some profitable loan repayments and make use of her idle army; it'll be like killing two griffons with one bullet for her. We can increase our trade with Skyfall and allow them collateral with some rural land to make them less apprehensive of us defaulting on our loan.

Regina laughed, “We’re paying for Skyfall’s army with their own money essentially. It’s a canny ploy Gabriella, and I love it.”