New Year, New Plan
Isfahan - March 21
Today was Nowruz, the first day of the new year in the Persian calendar. A light snow fell outside Gunduz’s window. It felt like a lot of holidays took place this month. To the average citizen that was great, because it meant more days off from work—this particular Nowruz would extend the weekend into Monday the 21st. For Gunduz, it aggravated her because she couldn’t take any days off. On Saturday, she had sat in on one of Shayan’s war room discussions and reviewed Huma.
I think I’ve been too harsh on him lately. Was already cranky from lack of coffee. Huma’s progress didn’t help. The Persians’ advance had slowed to a crawl due to Jerusalem’s “dumb as bricks” strategy.
Funny how they took our own “dumb as bricks” strategy and made it even dumber. Casualty rates shot through the roof. The Majlis and the press were starting to complain.
Poor Izinchi Ochimeca. Everyone’s gonna pile on her just as the old Diet did to her. That idiot senator Mozaffar’s already tormented her enough at that last hearing she lashed out at. Feel sorry for that girl. She’s the only survivor from before, and they treat her…exactly as she was treated back then. I frakking hate politics sometimes.
On Sunday, she had been handling paperwork for a mass vaccination campaign. She had already gotten the major hospitals, shipping companies, and local community groups onboard with her plan. Aside from issues relating to the worsening weather, the only issue was they were still using the standard smallpox vaccines for strains from the last century, not anything specific for Pesah. There wasn’t anything she could do. It was up to the Malians now.
Look, I understand this stuff takes time, but can you guys please hurry the frak up? The death rate in North Eimerica’s surging into the thousands as we speak.
Today, Monday, was the worst. Argeiphontes had made a breakthrough. Normally, that would be a good thing. The Artesh had gained valuable intel from remotely viewing the Panopticons of Crusaders on the field. This wasn’t one of those times. No, the breakthrough came from more involved remote viewing the Panopticons of commanders and officers. At first, her dedicated operatives connected to Panopticons in the crumbling Central Asia front for training purposes, but as more and more Crusaders fell there, they turned their attention to Mesopotamia. As they did so, they uncovered a much larger and denser Panopticon network than that in Central Asia. This network seemed to be based around a hub in Basra, which backed up the findings from that botched remote control test run Humboldt had done. There was a staggering number of soldiers, vehicles, and weaponry being amassed in Basra. Watching and listening through the Panopticons, the Artesh had learned there was a Crusader offensive being planned.
They called it Operation Gaugamela, after the battle in which Alexander the Great decisively defeated Achaemenid Persia and paved the way for its complete conquest by his Macedonian Empire.
These names are getting too frakking grandiose. Even I know when to stop! The operation seemed to recycle elements from the invasion of Russia a week into the war: a fast and overwhelming offensive to punch through border defenses, rush to the capital before anyone could react, and take out everyone important before they could launch a counterattack. Gunduz knew not to underestimate the simplicity of another “dumb as bricks” strategy. This strategy took out Russia, which was far better equipped than Persia, in less than a week. Russia had far more men, industry, and land than Persia. Most importantly, it had Olga Kirova.
No matter how hard I try, I’ll never be as good as Chancellor Kirova. I can see why Willie liked her so much, even though she’s known me for far longer. No, I am absolutely not
jealous!
If Russia lasted less than a week, Persia would likely only survive half that. Even by Shayan’s most generous estimates, a Crusader force that large and armed would wipe the floor with them. It wasn’t fair. They had been making so much progress with Huma recently, even if their advance had slowed from what it used to be. Gunduz hated how all that was about to be undone with a simple blitz on Isfahan.
Not fair, not frakking fair! Why the hell does Jerusalem get literally everything handed to it on a silver platter, while we have to move mountains and pull off miracles to even have a glimpse
of victory, and even then it can all be undone and reversed with another
damn silver platter?! Sometimes, I swear the universe is out to get us. Ahura Mazda has a horrible sense of humor.
But there was another way.
Yesterday
It was her fault for agreeing to a meeting on Sunday. The vaccination paperwork already made her cranky enough, and now Magnus Kvensen wanted to talk? She took a sip of water. Without her beloved coffee, she was even crankier.
“Please tell me you’ve grown a third eye or something.” She slammed her cup against the desk, not out of rage but boredom. “Surely my Sunday can’t get any worse.”
“Uh…sorry if I’m interrupting you at a bad time, ma’am,” Magnus said, “But my team has an idea about Gaugamela.”
Gunduz’s eyebrow perked up.
An idea? From these kids? Eh, I’ve got nothing better to do today, why not? “I’m listening.”
“Yes, I totally understand if I’m stepping out of line, I’ll return to the lab to—wait, what?”
Gunduz narrowed her sleep-deprived eyes. “What time zone are you in, Kvensen? Out with it.”
“W-well, you know how Thea is Theodor Tesla’s sister, right?”
“Yes, Kvensen, I’m well aware of their familial ties. It’s in her frakking surname, as anybody with eyes can read.”
“And did Wilhelmina talk to you about the regent Elias Anhorn? How he was obsessed with killing her?”
Elias Anhorn. I’ve barely heard his name until recently. Some random CB ideologue from before. But now he’s become such a big deal as a Regent of Jerusalem. For some reason, the guy is really fixated on killing Wilhelmina and her family. I don’t know how or why this is a thing, but I don’t care. He wants to hurt Willie. If I could deal with him, I would.
“Yes, I know about Elias Anhorn.”
“What if I told you we could take them out?”
“…Take them out?!”
Magnus nodded.
“You’re joking.”
But Magnus’ expression didn’t change. “I’m serious. We talked about it, us four. If we play our cards right, we could deal a massive blow to Gaugamela.”
“Are you sure?” Gunduz said. “You think we could pull it off?”
“There’s a chance,” Magnus said.
Gunduz was really interested now. “What are we talking about?”
Today
It was a crazy plan. There was no way would it work.
But it was the only plan they had that wasn’t essentially “roll over and pray for a quick death.” Gunduz would have to roll the dice and hope for the best. At least the chance of victory, even if it was slim, would not be zero.
In essence, the plan called for her and Wilhelmina to bait Gaugamela into attacking. Using targeted press releases, the princess would make her presence in Isfahan known to the committee. Although it was common knowledge she was already there, the committee had not acted on it yet. They would specifically target Elias Anhorn. Willie had always said that Elias was obsessed with killing her, even ordering his own troops to stand down so he could do it himself, which allowed her to escape. By playing on this fixation, they could goad Elias into personally leading Gaugamela into Isfahan. They could then do the same with Theodor Tesla, who similarly fixated on his sister. Theodor had already been spotted in Basra at the Gaugamela hub, so it wouldn’t be too much of a leap to get him to join the invasion. Then as soon as Gaugamela crossed the border and made for Isfahan, Gunduz and Wilhelmina would throw everything they had at the Crusaders, focusing on taking out both Elias and Theodor. If necessary, she would have the Artesh fight all across Persia, from the border to the front door of Ali Qapu. With any luck, their capture, humiliation, or even deaths would demoralize the enemy, throw the Crusader army into disarray, and provoke a power struggle in Berlin. After that? Well, she would worry about it when she got there.
She had already gone over it with her ministers and top Artesh generals. Shayan quickly came around to the plan. As an apology for Saturday, she assigned him to Isfahan’s defense, so the Crusaders would have to go through line after line of Artesh divisions before they got to him. The other generals expressed their doubts, but some sharp words from her brought them back in line. The ministers and Majlis leaders were much harder to get onboard, especially Senator Mozaffar, a rising politician who had gotten on her nerves lately. Some dismissed Gaugamela as harmless or overblown. Gunduz shut those deniers down instantly. Others feared redeploying the Artesh in the way Gunduz wanted would weaken Huma. She admitted it would. The best she could do is issue an order to withdraw them to better defended territory until the danger passed or Börte arrived from Taurica. Defending the Persian homeland took priority.
Gunduz hated intervening in the Majlis’ affairs more than she had to. The monarchy getting involved in the civilian government evoked memories of Reza Khan using his puppet Cyrus II, Gunduz’s great-grandfather, as a bludgeon against opposition factions in the Majlis.
Even if it was that damned Reza the whole time, they blamed Cyrus. They still
blame my family. Meanwhile, people still buy T-shirts of that fascist war criminal. I don’t even know how. But it was what it was. The fact was that whole mess that was World War II resulted in the Majlis gaining a peculiar power: the authority to begin the process to abolish the monarchy. It had almost been done in 1946 because everyone hated Cyrus II. If the Majlis as much as suspected Gunduz would go down her great-grandfather’s path, it would hold another referendum and dispose with the Seljuks altogether.
And then this country will really
go to hell. Remember how all those historical republics ended up?
Regardless, she would have to deal with them. Though with the generals on her side, she could afford to show the politicians the door until it was all over. Once the dust settled, she would have either won, allowing her to give them her best “I frakking told you so” smug face, or lost, in which case everyone would be dead and it wouldn’t matter anyways.
Oh well. I’ll handle Mozaffar and those idiots later. They’ll either understand or be dead. Though not by my hands.
Next came the actual strategy.
Yesterday
“So what you’re saying is…we’re not even going to engage them head-on?” Shayan said.
Gunduz forcefully moved unit counters around on the war room’s map of Persia. “No. Did my words not get past that thick skull of yours? Even if we threw the entire Artesh at Gaugamela, it wouldn’t make a difference.”
“Ma’am, what are you suggesting?”
Gunduz rearranged the unit counters into two parallel lines stretching from Basra to Isfahan. Then she moved the Gaugamela counters out of Basra. As the enemy counters made their way towards Isfahan, she slammed the Persian counters into it from the north and south.
“We let them into Persia, but along the way, we hit them with everything short of an all-out offensive. Whittle down their numbers. Minimize our casualties and prioritize taking out their commanders, particularly Anhorn and Tesla.”
“You sure those two will actually be part of Gaugamela?” Shayan said. “They’re Regents. Reasonably, they’d stay behind.”
“I have it on good authority that those two monsters
aren’t reasonable people,” Gunduz said, “They’ll be there.”
“And what’s saying they won’t just push past our attacks and reach Isfahan?”
“Well…”
Actually, about that… “Nothing, really. There’s a good chance they’ll enter Isfahan.”
Shayan stared at her. “Permission to speak freely, ma’am?”
“Sure, whatever.”
“Then
what the frak do we do?!”
“If it comes to that…”
Then we’ve got no choice. “We put all of our cards on the table. Our best troops from all of what remains of Schengen, you, Argeiphontes, Willie…and maybe even myself.”
“Don’t be serious, ma’am! You’re the Shahbanu!”
“I’m the frakking Shahbanu. Didn’t you forget? You know I got certified.”
“I’m not sure if that’s a good thing…”
“Regardless, our priority is neutralizing Anhorn and Tesla. We kill or capture them, Gaugamela will likely collapse.”
“How can you be so sure?” Shayan said.
“They did the same to Russia.” Gunduz smirked. “We’ll do the same back to them.”
Today
She would be lying to herself is she said she was confident of their chances. She really wasn’t. But it was the same logic as that which drove Konstantinov, Börte, and Operation Huma. If they didn’t do anything, they were guaranteed to be frakked. On the other hand, this plan at least gave them a chance, however slim. And it wasn’t like she was alone.
Yesterday
The lab looked more like a garage at this point. Tools and toolboxes were randomly scattered across the floor. The air smelled of engine oil. Gunduz scoffed and rolled her eyes. “So this where so many taxpayer dinars are going, a car shop.”
Mozaffar’s gonna have a field day.
“I assure you, those dinars went to good use,” Magnus said, “Because you see, we’ve scaled down the reactor to something for practical use.”
Thea rolled out from under the Impala. “He means a car engine.”
Gunduz finally noticed the black car sitting in the middle of the room.
“Princess Four-Eyes. So focused on looking at everything around you that you forget about what’s right in front of you.” Guess I’m no different, huh? The car looked almost identical to the pictures of the original on a nearby table, but a hole had been cut in the hood for the engine, which partially stuck out. She facepalmed. “We’re so frakked, aren’t we?”
“I know how it looks, but I’ve talked it over with the others,” Thea said, “We may have a plan for taking out Theodor, if he makes it to Isfahan.”
“And, pray tell, what is this master plan to take out the diabolical evil genius who’s responsible for Jerusalem’s craziest weapons of mass destruction?”
Alexandra looked up from the steering wheel. “He’s always wanted to get his hands on our betharium reactor. So I say we use it to lure him into a trap. If we need mobility, this is our ride.”
“Have you even
tested this thing?”
Alex appeared from another room, carrying a spare tire. “No test drive yet, but we’ve fired up the engine a couple times. Care to do the honors, Alexandra?”
“Got it!” Alexandra hit the ignition. Instead of hearing the usual sputtering cough of an internal combustion engine, she heard a quiet hum, like that of an electric motor, and saw a faint light blue glow coming from the engine’s top.
“The viewports are just there to make it more obvious,” Alex said.
“Thea, move!” Alexandra said.
Thea rolled away from the car just as Alexandra tapped the gas. The car lurched forward at an unexpected speed. Magnus yelped and jumped out of the way of the Impala as it accelerated towards the wall. Alexandra, whose face remained calm and collected through all this, casually hit the brake and stopped. “Damn, I still have to adjust the pedal for safer acceleration. But otherwise I’d say that was a success!”
These kids are a lost cause. Gunduz turned to Angelica and Tania, who were playing cards at one of the tables. “Please tell me at least one of you have something I can use.”
“I’m going with those four,” Angelica said, “Those nerds’ll need an armed escort.”
“You know we can still hear you, right?” Thea said.
“
Oui, whatever,” Angelica said.
I like this girl’s attitude!
“As for me, I’ve tried reaching out to Scandinavia,” Tania said.
“Uh…is that even possible?”
Last I heard, Scandinavia wasn’t exactly…in existence. “And even so, we’re on the other side of Europe from them, right?”
“Still, it was worth a shot,” Tania said, “I managed to
finally get a call through. Unfortunately, it connected to that blasted chancellor Snorrison. Guy hung up on me. Said I was an impersonator.”
I swear, if we both survive this war, at the next world leaders conference I’m gonna punch that guy in the face. Right after I punch Mozaffar. “So…nothing.”
“I’ll stick with Angelica and the others. These nerds sure could use a sniper.”
“Oh come on!” Thea said.
Tania laughed. “Sorry, couldn’t resist.”
“So…basically…your grand strategy to take out Theodor Tesla is to…drive around Isfahan and use the reactor as bait,” Gunduz said.
“It’s actually more complicated, but I don’t want to divulge too many details,” Thea said.
Gunduz crossed her arms and huffed. “Really? Not even to the frakking Shahbanu? I’m literally the
last person who would spill state secrets to the enemy.”
“If you fall into their hands, they could find out.”
“Really, now? What makes you so certain that they’d capture me, of all people, to get to
you?!”
Thea wasn’t fazed by Gunduz’s frustration. “You don’t know how egotistical and shortsighted my
brother can be.” She spat out the word “brother” like she was forced to say it. “Please, ma’am. You have to trust us. We can take him out.”
“Are you really sure?” Gunduz said. “That you can do it?”
“We’ve already scouted out a route and locations for all of us,” Alexandra said, “As well as contingency plans.”
“I was meaning…are you ready to kill him?” Gunduz said. “He’s your brother, Thea.”
Thea’s eyes narrowed. She shook her head. “That was a long time ago. My brother is dead to me. I told you before, that monster with his face is not my brother. I failed to end him before. If the world demands it, I won’t fail again.”
Today
Gunduz sighed. She ended up trusting those six fools. She hoped she wouldn’t regret it. If things went south, she would have lost her four best scientists.
I really hope they pull it off.
After that came Wilhelmina, but Gunduz didn’t need a whole conversation for her.
Yesterday
“I’m in,” Wilhelmina said.
“Yeah, I kind of figured you say that,” Gunduz said.
“You heard me, I’m in—wait what?” Wilhelmina said.
“Yeah, I did.”
“I thought I’d need to convince you.”
“I’m also reconsidering asking you right now.”
“You already said it, we need everyone we can get if—no, when—they reach Isfahan. And you need me to lure Elias.”
“We can find some other way,” Gunduz said, “I don’t know, maybe photo editing? An edited video? Like they did to you before? Something that doesn’t need the real you.”
“No, it has to be me,” Wilhelmina said, “I have to do this. This is the only way it’ll work.”
“Are you trying to atone for Russia?” Gunduz said.
Wilhelmina recalled August’s face. She could recall no other.
Because of me, he lost his entire family. “In a way, yes. I suppose now it’s time to do something similar. But this time, I hold the cards.”
“Willie, I really do appreciate your selflessness these days, but seriously, can you at least look out for yourself?”
Wilhelmina looked at Gunduz. “Didn’t we have this conversation last time? With Huma?”
“I guess we did,” Gunduz said.
“So if you remember how that went, you know how I feel about this.”
Gunduz looked at her with pleading eyes, almost like a puppy.
“You know that won’t work,” Wilhelmina said, “You were always the stick, not the carrot.”
Gunduz sighed. “At least promise me you’ll—”
“You said that last time, and my answer’s still the same.”
Gunduz opened her mouth and then shook her head, frustrated. “Damnit, why does it always have to be like this, huh? You’ve always been a real handful for me, Willie.”
“I could say the same about you,” Wilhelmina said, “But I’m not sure what role you have in this little plan you’re making.”
Gunduz snickered. “That will be
my little secret.”
Today
The snow was falling harder now. Gunduz flipped through the intelligence briefing, going over the information about Gaugamela once more. Then she looked at her own notebook, in which she had jotted down notes for each of the groups she had talked to. It wasn’t the ace in the hole she was expecting, but it would have to do. The timetable Argeiphontes uncovered indicated Gaugamela would be launched within the next two weeks, possibly sooner. There was no time to waste, even on a holiday like Nowruz. She picked up her phone and contacted Shayan.
“Yes?”
“It’s time to put our plan into motion,” Gunduz said, “Once the festivities are over, begin evacuating everyone in Isfahan.”
---
If I had come up with the name Mozaffar sooner, I would have mentioned it in the earlier chapter with Izinchi. My intent is that one of the nameless guys in that hearing was him.
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