Extraordinary Meeting II

[Kaiserliche Rheinwehr]

Somewhere under the main dome of Bundestag, in a small sideroom, an uniformed officer is waiting to enter in the Meeting room 11. Almost nothing betrayed the storm of emotions brewing behind his calm mask, except perhaps the datapad in his hands which he checked repeatedly. His meeting is going to prove critical for the future of Rheinland and he understands that what he came to do would affect millions of Rheinlanders.

A few minutes later, an announcer came and escorted the officer through the doors into the meeting room. In a loud, clear voice, the staffer announced the military officer: “Herr Ronald Hetzer, Admiral of the Fleet.” In the room and around the table, Hetzer could see several of the senior Councilmen and he nodded, feeling the weight on his shoulders increasing. Clearing his voice, he began his speech, a speech he had practiced many times in the Military Garrison on New Berlin City.

“Guten Tag Meine Damen und Herren, I am Admiral Hetzer, Rheinland Military. I must say that is my great pleasure and honour to meet you all here to discuss the future of our nation. I humbly ask that you will allow me to present my case before you decide on the Military request.” As he spoke he keyed in the code that would start the presentation; behind him a small holographic projector initiated a series of images and short tactical display of the troop movements.

“The Military have managed in the last few weeks to push through the forces of Kusari and we currently have two battlegroups in the Honshu systems, pushing aside the Kusarian fleets that were in Sigma 21. As we have presented, we managed to produce this outcome due to our increase in the number of ships and manpower on the northern front. At the moment, we are moving in Honshu on two directions, one is toward the Honshu Planet and the other is moving towards the New Tokyo Gate, but we are met with predictable resistance. The battlegroups located in the system had been heavily reinforced and they will pose a significant threat to anything that Kusarians have present there. Our fores are ready and invigorated to take the fight to the enemy. It needs to be noted that another two battlegroups moved into Sigma 21, the Kolleda and Strausberg are moving to reinforce the lines and pacify the Sigma 21.”

The projector shifted and showed now Kusarian battlegroups, “Of course the Kusarians are not staying with their hands tied. While we managed to force the Hyono back to protect Honshu, the Kusarians are bringing two additional Battlegroups to the frontline in a hope to stop us. Additional support may be needed from the Home Defence Fleets to the North Front, as we expect a savage fightback from the Kusarians. We must remember that their Fleet Personnel were mostly indoctrinated into the Neo-Bushido Code and they would fight to the death, including using the most despicable weapon they have, the Kamikaze.” He paused briefly as the Sigma 21 system map came back up on the screen behind him, “In the Sigma 21, we have pushed back the Hyono as I already stated but GMG is still lingering on, threatening our supply lines, and forcing to leave at least one battlegroup to secure the back of the Frontline. Several Armed Forces battalions and Engineering Regiments are now en-route to Saigon to prepare the planet for a large planetary defence. We are using now the Baeke Plan for this operation which is characterized by Blitzkrieg, grab as much space as needed away from the key element, put pressure on their Armed Forces in a different sector, while we fortify the main key points for a possible fall back.”

Sigma 21 map was now replaced by the Rheinland Sector and showed several red areas around the Omegas “As we stated again and again, the Rheinland Military is as ever doing its duty to fight for the national interest of Rheinland, but we are also bound by duty to protect our citizens and our way of life. While the Militarization of the Federal Police gave us additional well trained pilots and ships, which are now used to reinforce the Home Fleets and Northern Expeditionary Force, we need more due to several security reasons.”

Stopping, he looked at the faces of the councilmen, they were looking to find out what he meant. “It came to our attention and I think that the Bundestag knows also about the events in Omega 3. While that is a foreign operation and we were not involved, besides ALG, we received reports from Bretonian Fleet and their allied Crayterians about some strange alliances taking place there, all in the name of Aland defence. It seems that Hessian and Corsair forces were also present and the Embrun of the ALG was moved and operated in the area. This information was verified by the MND who revealed a number disturbing facts, such as an ad-hoc deal between the Corsair and Hessian troops to forget their differences and focus on the attacking force, that Capital Warships were used in operations which did not truly helped the Federal Republic and to be frank, meine Herren, our troops could face the same ad-hoc alliance between the criminal groups within the Omega sector and the Southern Borders.” He stopped and prayed that his explanation of the situation is clear enough for these civilians. “We, the Military Command, run some simulations and showed that we need to maintain an increases presence on the Northern Front so we can achieve our goals and secure Saigon for the future of Rheinland. The people have entrusted us with a duty to protect them and our borders, and we will not fail them in this. A complete review of the Register of Ships showed that a significant number of Capital ships are already in service but not run by Military. This ships find themselves in the possession of Kruger Mineralien, Daumann Heavy Construction and ALG, but they are not the only one, BDM also possessing several capital class ships, as are other elements of the Marine Nachrichtendienst.”

Looking into the eyes of the Chairman, he continued with a calm and confident voice “We, the Military, have the personnel to man all of this vessels but they are not under our command, thus we come to Bundestag with the proposal to order to all Rheinland or Rheinland based Corporations and Law Enforcement Agencies to surrender the control of their Capital ships, both those on active duty or those which are under construction, to Rheinland Military so that they may be used in the defence of this great nation, to secure the goals that this honourable Bundestag set for our Federal Republic. We would also require an increase in the budget to maintain our war capabilities and to issue an edict which allows Rheinland Military request to ship producers to come first. Guns before Butter, meine herren.” He stopped and continued after a few moments in which he let the situation set in the councilmen “Meine Damen und Herren, we are fighting for something greater then petty bickering between corporations and law enforcement agencies squabbles around jurisdiction and power, we are fighting for everyone that lives within our borders, to ensure that they will continue to have a peaceful and prosperous life, that they are going to continue to be able to get education and social services as they need, to make sure that once again they could be proud to say to everyone inhabiting this sector of space, that they are Rheinlanders and that they would not change it for anything in the world. This is what we feel that is our duty within Rheinland Military to protect and fight for. Give us the tools to do this. Enable our forces to do their job as they should by approving this request.” Bowing in sign of respect “Thank you for your time, I shall await your Vote on this matter.”

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