Chapter 74: RM Vol 2: National Development – Chapter 21: Internal Affairs

Holding up the internal reports, Yuki contemplates the information she receives.

Things have been changing in the last couple of years for the Belkan Reich. With the installation of five additional Void Reactors, Belka's needs for power have been fulfilled with the national storage now having an excess of surplus mana should they're required. Having said that, the addition of mana-powered heavy industries equipment, have increased doubled the Reich's industrial capability. Of course, it will be a while until the civilian sector gets a hold of them but right now, they're content with the extremely cheap fossil fuel price and electricity bills.

As for the extremely large military procurement order that Yuki had placed two years ago, things have been going smoothly overall.

For the Army, we are now sitting at a grand total of 36 Divisions with most of them either armored or mechanized. It's expected that with the upcoming recruitment campaign, they will be able to establish two more corps by next year. Outfitted with the next generation of weapons, Yuki is proud to say that the Belkan Army will be invincible on any battlefield if nothing goes horribly wrong that is.

The Leopard MBT and its offshoot variants have been performing very well either in trials or mock combats. The crews and engineering teams alike have come to love the ease of use, firepower, and overall reliability of the platform as a whole. And because of that, there's a petition to make a so-called Tank Biathlon to have the best tank crews in Belka compete against each other in a multi-match sports championship. It's such an intriguing concept that Yuki has it approved instantly, it will take a few months to organize such an event but she has a feeling it will be quite a bombastic event for the whole country to enjoy.

There was an issue, however. Though it did get remedied by Einstein, back in one of its amphibious trials, the Puma IFV platform incurred a major failure, one that cost the life of a test driver. During an amphibious landing test in a simulated combat environment, a Puma IFV was sunk after its surrounding water was bombarded by artillery shells. The waves from around the vehicle had caused it to be unstable, making it dip below the waves. This caused the vehicle to take in too much water and sink. Although the majority of the crew and the accompanying Grenadiers managed to escape the sinking vehicle, the driver failed to make it. It was a sad day and Yuki personally visited the lone family member of that driver, his sister, to offer her Yuki's condolence. It was an unpleasant experience and Yuki was forced to reflect on herself, knowing that it was her oversight that caused an unnecessary loss of life. Einstein fixed the issue by adding a wave breaker to the Puma and improved the platform's stability and water-pumping capability. Though the matter was regretful, it didn't change the adoption of the Puma into the military's arsenal after all the kinks have been ironed out.

On a side note of infantry-carrying vehicles, many smaller auxiliary vehicles, i.e. MRAP and cargo hauler... have been accepted into service and are being outfitted to the entire armed force. They're much easier to design and procure with little to no fault has been detected. Even if there was, it's soon ironed out by either Yuki or Einstein.

As for small arms and infantry equipment, it gladdens Yuki to finally see that her entire military is equipped with the next generation of military gear. It will take a while for the heavier stuff to catch up but it's getting there, probably in the third quarter of the year will the Army is done modernizing.

To have them maintain their ridiculous technological advantage over the enemy, Yuki has had the Army train regularly on all kinds of tactics, mostly to have them familiar with the new ways of war. She has them drilled either in a guerilla warfare scenario or a near-pear threat combat situation. Yuki has a feeling they will be needing the constant reminder otherwise they will come to grow too arrogant for their own good. The new Army is expensive and too valuable to be defeated by stupidity.

Moving on to the Air Force, as expected, fleets of turboprops are built much faster than the jets Yuki ordered. For every jet Yuki received, she has three more turboprop aircraft already up in the air, whether they are the Osprey, Atlas, Skyraider, or the much bigger strategic bomber Hs-36 Bear.

The Bear was a new design she made back when the Spanish Inquisitor came for a visit. It's a long-range strategic bomber with a flying-wing design and is powered by six contra-rotating turboprops in a pusher configuration. Aside from the fact that it can carry 40000 kg of ordnance and is still able to bomb a target halfway across the world, the Bear can be outfitted and modernized for a variety of missions.

Regardless, all designs past the tests Yuki've thrown at them, all but the Osprey. Who would have known that when the engines on the Osprey rotated on its axis, physics decided to fuck up? Well, they know now. Just like the Puma which had stability issues, the Osprey was much the same when it rotated the engines upward for a vertical landing approach. In one of the tests, an Osprey had one of its engines out of sync with the other, causing the aircraft to tip sideways before the whole thing crashed down onto the airstrip. Thankfully, there were no losses of lives but the Osprey had to go back to the drawing board. Einstein and Yuki wracked their brain over this but they managed to fix the design in the end. They had identified the problem to be gravity interfering and adding too much stress on the engines. So, rather than having the entire engine block rotating, the engines are now kept in position while the rotors and driveshafts tilt. This proved to be a much safer and more reliable approach and the Osprey is now a trusted workhorse for a multitude of tasks that required the finesse that the Atlas can't handle.

Funnily enough, due to the secretive nature behind the modernization program, the stories about UFOs and the like have gained traction in the European community. This can be attributed to the high-altitude testing of the Belkan aircraft, their overall speed and small radar cross-section, and the interference from ONI itself. Yuki and ONI capitalized on the chance to keep the world in the dark about their true ability.

Last, but not least, the Navy. If the Air Force and their shiny new toys' existence can be blurred for a couple of years, then the Navy is quite the opposite. Due to Belka's close proximity to other major powers, hiding the addition of their Capital Strike Groups proved to be impossible. Hence, rather than hiding them, Yuki tasked ONI to make sure any and all information about them is falsified and unproven when it reaches the hand of other nations' leadership. An example would be the Bismarck-class and its 17-inch guns being downgraded to 15-inch guns. While the Yggdrasil-class aircraft carriers are dubbed 'floating hotels' with little to no aircraft complement due to the latter being stuck in development hell. And boy did ONI earn their paycheck well on this one.

Ustio Loyalists commissioned a new class of battleship, Richelieu, as a response to Bismarck. They failed in the trap and only fitted Richelieu and her sisters with 15-inch guns, awfully lacking against the Bismarck-class. Erusea isn't any better, not even getting anything new for they thought their fleet is already good enough. And since aircraft carrier is still an unproven concept, none of the local players made any countermeasure against them, especially since the sinking of the Loyalists' Bearn shattered the class' reputation. Yuki remembers when she and Belka's leadership read this information, they laughed so hard because the enemy severely underestimated the power projection of an aircraft carrier. Oh, they will be in for a rude awakening later.

Anyway, Yuki has digressed.

As of now, Belka currently has three Carrier Strike Groups and four Expeditionary Strike Groups. With the formation of the Belkan Marines Corp, attached under the command of the Navy, Belka can now wage war anywhere and anytime. Though they still need to complete the relevant trials and training for the vessels and crews. It will be another year or two before they are perfectly ready.

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Another interesting piece of information to know is that the entire world is absolutely unaware of the Belkan Navy's underwater might. During a trial run of the Nassault, the lead ship of her class, Admiral Donitz personally took command of her and had her do all sorts of maneuvers right beneath an armed Erusean convoy. The destroyers and cruisers escort of the convoy had been unable to detect the Nassau, even at close range. With that information verified, Admiral Donitz then made a stealthy exfiltration and reported the details to the higher-ups which are Yuki and the Empresses. After listening to the exploits of the daring Submarine Admiral, Yuki and the rest could only laugh wryly before Yuki threw him another submarine combat medal. The man only grinned, receiving another one for his collection. What? Though their tech advantages made it possible for the Nassault to sneak under the convoy, only someone as courageous and experienced as Donitz could make that happen without any mistakes. The man truly deserved it after taking pictures of Eruesean booties for two freaking days!

"Sigh."

Putting the last of the paper down, Yuki leans back tiredly on her chair. That is it for the reports, she still has to sign away some more documents but it will surely take less time than before, the stack is smaller, after all. Taking a drink from her coffee mug, Yuki picks up a document before flipping it open.

"Funding allocation for missile artillery development? So he's already thinking of tactical missiles and strategic missiles." Yuki signed the paper after carefully reading Doctor Werner von Braun's neat writings. "Seeing that the man has successfully put the design for guided and fire-and-forget missiles into mass production, I don't see why I can't indulge in his whims more."

Taking one last look at the design of what's quite possibly the first ever cruise missile, Yuki says. "Perhaps the golden age for line-of-sight combat is fading with them being introduced in the future."

Putting away the signed document, Yuki carries on to finish up the other ones, only stopping when she reads up on Mobius's paper.

"Interesting..." Because Mobius is asking for help.

Knowing that Sardegna is messing around with creating supersoldiers. Yuki can't just sit still without making a similar program, albeit one that is not a bloodied mess like the Sardegnian's. So, Yuki invested much more heavily into Mobius's department to find a scientific way to enhance Belkan soldiers without using mana or ether. Mobius happily accepted the funding and proceed to unravel the mysteries of the physiques of the many races that populated Belka. By combining said knowledge she infers from her quest with the information she gained from researching Demons, dead or alive, Mobius is hoping to create a perfect serum that can perfect a being's genetics and allow them to unlock their full potential. According to Mobius's words, the serum should work on all lifeforms that have a physical body so technically, even Lu and Hel can receive a power boost from it.

After Nicolae agreed to use her innate ability as a Shoggoth to help Mobius, being that she can imitate the physicalities of any lifeform, the green-haired mad scientist achieved breakthrough after breakthrough in the field. Yet, even with all the funding and aid she received, there is still a long and complicated road to travel, Mobius admits it in the papers Yuki is reading. Hence, she cooperated with Einstein to make something else as a stopgap. A magitech suit that, in theory, will enhance the wearer's physical attribute and provide aid in casting magic. But there's a catch, the suit is too powerful and expensive. So powerful that it will kill a human wearer by tearing their limbs off, their fragile body unable to keep up with the boost from the suit. So expensive that a suit cost the same amount of money they used to build a destroyer. And although the suit has been tested to be compatible with any race that has a stronger physical baseline than a human, they are disappointed when they can't mass-produce it.

"The most glaring issue here is that humans can't wear it without dying..." Yuki inferred.

Money isn't an issue for Belka, not when their industries are racking up gold for them. It's with this knowledge that Mobius is asking for Yuki's permission to use the still-in-development, imperfect serum on human test subjects. Though it won't be as powerful as what Mobius's aiming for, the imperfect serum should be able to enhance the physical attributes of a human... with a certain degree of fatality, of course. Yet, Mobius is confident that if a test subject adversely reacts to the serum, she can put them in stasis, and either fix their ailment or inject them with the perfect serum in the future. This way, no life will be needlessly lost due to their hastiness and lacking techniques.

Yuki contemplates what she is reading, does she, Belka, really needs to do this? The suits can be produced and worn by races like Oni, Devil, Angel, or Beastman so by that logic, what's strong will be even stronger. Yet, this will no doubt leave the human in the dust, serving as pawns until the deployment of the stronger combat force. Though the current mentality of coexistent between races in Belka is fine for now, what will happen when this variable is added to the equation? Yuki really doesn't want to figure out that mess, not at all. So, Yuki continues reading the document to pick up on anything else that can help her cement her decision.

Aside from stasis being used to save the life of the test subjects, Mobius states that the chance of success is much higher if the human has strong willpower and pain endurance. Physical fitness is an added plus but not a requirement for even a disabled veteran can have a second wind after injecting the imperfect serum. Reading thus far, Yuki has a nagging feeling that the current imperfect serum is actually perfect in the eyes of disabled veterans and physically impaired people, even with a chance of dying. After all, what do they have to lose?

Sighing, Yuki makes the choice to allow the Brainiacs to go ahead with their experiments. With such a high payout with minimal risk involves, Belka will be stupid not to carry on with the matter. Of course, Yuki adds in a few instructions of her own.

• The whole project will be kept under wrap by ONI. The project, henceforth, will be known as the RAVEN program.
• The current subjects will be veterans that are willing and have nothing left to care for but their loyalty to the Reich.
• Compensation will be given to the affected parties when an experiment goes wrong.
• To aid in future testing and improve the chance of success. Orphans will be educated, trained, and indoctrinated to join the project with generous benefits. Though if they refuse to partake in the procedure, they are allowed to return to their normal lives under observation or join other branches of the armed force.
• Successful subjects will be dubbed Raven for identification purposes and are paired with the newly developed magitech suit. A Raven will then go on to join a special training course to make them a true elite combatant, serving as the counterweight for the Sardegnian's equivalent supersoldier program.

With her signature on the document, Yuki heaves one last sigh of the day before placing the papers in a secured container, leaving it for Dreamer to handle. Though she allows it, Yuki can't help but feel it's a bit inhumane to drag even orphan children into this. There are many reasons Yuki could use to justify the act but she would rather not stoop that low.

"For the greater good huh... Truly laughable." Yuki let out a dry laugh as she leaned back on her chair.

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