A Battle Unseen

[Doc]

Imperial Seat, Kaliburg, 2:30pm

The Chancellor put his papers together.  "Alright, that concludes the Science discussion.  Thank you Mr. Lincoln.  And next on our agenda is Lady Waltrip.  Foreign Policy..."

Lady Waltrip looked at her papers.  "We are looking at sending Her Imperial Majesty to Hutori.  She would like a personal visit with the King and Queen of Hutori.  We may have some business there, but the visit would primarily social and personal.  We are thinking of arranging it for early fall.  Uh...  Naval Exercises, Captain Buenaventure went over the military side.  We are still working toward starting the Frigate program and KalMilInCo is still in communication.  The Empire is calm and all is staying on course.  Likatonia remains inert, and shows no sign of returning to the Legion's orbit.  Athosia and Baltusia remain inert.  We are proposing cultural exchange with Xsampa.  And we are keeping an eye on developments in Indrala.  Dovani is quiet."

The ministers nodded along, but they were really waiting for updates from two countries specifically.  "First to Egelion.  They are beginning an investigation to the bombing.  Lady Nicole seems to have been injured, and she was treated in their medical facility.  Her son Prince Artemio was also wounded, but likewise has been treated for his injuries.  Both appear to be ok.  We have offered IBSI resources to assist with the investigation but more importantly, to help them set up their own state intelligence agency."

"What is your read on whether they will accept the offer, Lady Waltrip?" asked Director Simmons, from the IBSI.

"I'd say there is less than a 50-50 chance that they will accept the offer," answered Lady Waltrip.  "They didn't ask for it.  We always try to be helpful with our neighbors, but I suspect there is a bit of hesitation to ever accept things we offer.  We have the offer on the table, that's really all we can do."

"Is there any indication of Legion involvement?" asked Chancellor Koenig.

"We have no evidence of that," said Lady Waltrip.  "They lack internal cohesion to the degree that they have no operational capacity this far east.  They may be able to sneak a few dozen of their so-called super soldiers, which are really just tall guys who work out a little bit more than average, into Etxea, but I would be very surprised if they ever accomplished anything on this level of sophistication so far from home."

"And what of the sanctions regime?" asked the Chancellor.

"Well," Waltrip said with an exasperated sigh...  "They have met Her Imperial Majesty's conditions, technically."  

"Lady Waltrip, how do you mean?"

"The Legion is kind of a letter of the law kind of group, not a spirit of the law.  We know this:  its all they have ever been.  They aren't committed to peace, as Her Imperial Majesty is.  They remain committed to death.  That hasn't changed at all.  But they did technically, and extremely unenthusiastically, met the barest possible minimum requirements for the ending of the embargo.  So we have ended it."

"I see," said Koenig.  "Is there any indication that Her Imperial Majesty may have us reinstitute those sanctions?"

"There is zero chance of that, Sir Koenig." said Lady Waltrip.  "Ending Anantonese Involvement in that hellhole known as Artania is Her Imperial Majesty's priority.  She wants nothing to do with that rotten country anymore.  They are currently and stupidly bombing Etxea now, so Her Imperial Majesty has decided that she will likely never visit.  The Legion are exactly the monsters we always knew they were."

"How will this affect the humanitarian aid?" asked Minister Brennan, of Food and Ag.

"There is a final shipment headed to Davostag," said Waltrip.  "It will probably be the last one, given the dramtically worsened security situation in that part of the world.  The shipment is nearly in port, and that will bring our total humanitarian assistance to about 2.3 Billion, and then an additional 93 Million to Davostag for administration of the fund.  But Her Imperial Majesty can't justify helping a nation who decided to return to war.  It makes us look bad:  She's out and hopefully now that their people have gotten a taste of real food, maybe they will demand it from their government, which will reduce their resources for bombs and munitions."

"Anya, just so we are clear, the Empire did not send them any direct monetary aid, is this correct?" asked Director Simmons.

"That is correct Director," answered Waltrip.  "We did not send a single Imperial Ruble to the Legion.  It was all surplus medical supplies from ODEN and trade credits to Davostag to purchase food which are redeemable with recipts, of course."

"Was any of that aid fungible?" asked Koenig.

"Well, Chancellor, in so much that not having to pay any money for food for a while allows the Legion to put money into bombs, sure.  But our reports show that they weren't spending much on food or medicine for their people anyway:  They were feeding dead corpses back to their people without their people knowing it.  So its not like they had to buy that meat on the world market.  This had a negligible impact on their budget.  But perhaps now more people will demand these things from them, and it might lead to destabilization of the Legion when we cut it off.  Especially if they insist on prosecuting this inane and infantile war."

"I should say, I was opposed to offering aid to the Legion in the first place," said Director Simmons.  "They are currently claiming credit for everything."

"They claim credit for everything anyway, Director," said Waltrip.  "Have you ever known that guy to tell the truth?  He's so slimy I had to soak my hand in bleach after I shook his hand.  He's the scummiest piece of s--t I have ever had to sit in a room with."

"Then why did you agree to the deal, Anya?" asked Simmons.

"Because we told her to," said a familiar voice from near the door.  The Ministers all turned toward the very familiar voice, and without even thinking rose to their feet and stood staring silently and looking at the table.  Nobody saw her or heard her enter the room, or take a seat in the corner of the Cabinet room, and nobody was sure just how much of the Cabinet meeting she had heard.  "Please take your seats.  You people never get tired of questioning our fiat, but we assure you, our interests are met by that deal, whatever your opinion on it is.  Lady Waltrip did her duty, and that is all you need to know.  Do you seriously believe she would have done that if she had not been commanded to do so by ourselves?"

When the Empress had finished speaking, the Ministers returned to their seats.  "So Please Her Imperial Majesty, we had no idea she had arrived," said Director Simmons to the Chancellor.

"Are we not permitted to attend the meetings of our own government?" asked the Empress, rhetorically.

"Of course Her Imperial Majesty may..." the IBSI Director was cut off.

"We did not require a response, Director.  But thank you for your permission."  The Empress turned to her Foreign Minister.  "Lady Waltrip," she emphasized, to remind the IBSI Director that the Foreign Minister, as a member of the Peerage, was also entitled to being referred to formally, "you may continue, please."

"As I was about to say, Her Imperial Majesty prefers things as they are because it is in her interest to not have anything to do with the Legion or with most of Artania any more.  This was a buy out more than anything.  We aren't even really sure they have fully dismantled their WMDs:  We have no independent verification.  Additionally, we do have documents:  We were planning to hold on to those, but I am advising that we release them in total, so people can see what they are up to.  We don't believe its everything--Lazar is a liar, and nobody was under the impression otherwise.  And yeah, he made an offer.  The offer was apparently amnesty in exchange for Etxea rejoining the Legion lock stock and barrel.  It was a deal Etxea couldn't possibly accept, and I believe that was Lazar's goal all along.  He seems to believe he doesn't have to negotiate anything with Etxea.  But he never intended to actually seek peace that wasn't absolutely on his terms.  He always intended to meet the letter of the requirement, but not the spirit.  Her Imperial Majesty wanted out of the conflict though, so the 2.4 was a small price to pay."

The Ministers, keenly aware that they were now being observed, said nothing for a moment.  Chancellor Koenig finally broke the silence.  "Thank you for your report, Lady Waltrip.  And next up, Dr. Zearing with Tourism."