Yannena (Ioannina), United Greek Socialist Republics
"Your Excellency, we received the supplies." A middle-aged man, dressed in a military uniform, broke into the Command Centre with an excited expression on his face.
Georgios Paleologos, who was looking at the map of the frontline with a sombre look on his face, was suddenly startled, but after he realised what the general just said, the serious expression disappeared and was replaced by excitent and jubilation.
"Good, good, good."
"Hahah, finally, there is light. Our trust is really not misplaced."
Only he knows how much pressure he had to bear for the last four to five years. Not only did he have to deal with the European Union, which was constantly encroaching on their lands from the north, but he also had to deal with internal troubles.
Originally, when he won the elections and beca the leader of the United Greek Socialist Republic, he had imagined that the suffering his people had gone through had made them more united. He was sure that at least the Greeks on the mainland would be of a single mind. But, it turns out he was sorely mistaken. While the people did maintain unity in the first two years, everything went to hell starting in the third.
Granted, he was aware that the Europeans were pulling the strings, especially the Austrians, Italians, and the Slavs. But he also knew that a ridiculous movent like joining the European Union by dissolving the Republic would not gain montum without actual people giving their support.
It was only one or two when it first started, but in the last few months, the voices of dissolving the Republic and joining the Union have been getting louder and louder.
He even had second thoughts about whether he was doing the right thing. Thankfully, he was able to hold on after reading the reports that constantly reached him from Greek Anatolia and Greek Syria.
Ironically enough, when the connection between the Greek mainland and Anatolia, as well as Syria, was cut off, he had feared that the remnants of the Ottomans would seize the opportunity presented by that weakness and attempt to plunge Greek Anatolia and Greek Syria into chaos. But in retrospect, not only were they doing far better than the mainland, but they also beca the very source of his renewed confidence in the socialist system they had chosen. It was this that kept him moving forward, despite the many setbacks along the way.
But he knew this could not go on forever; after all, there would always be a breaking point. Thankfully, the Bharatiya Empire did not make them wait forever, as he had anticipated; the Bharatiyas had not completely given up on the diterranean.
The Bharatiya Army asked him to mobilise his troops and launch a surprise attack on the naval bases while they carried out their main mission. Of course, when he got such an instruction, they did not tell him what the main mission was, or in fact, they did not even reveal whether the Greek coast was their main target, but Georgios Paleologos figured it out in his own way.
Several days after he led his troops to attack the port of Thessaloniki and Volos, things turned out exactly as he predicted: the Bharatiya Empire breached the Suez Canal and the Bharatiya Navy was once again stationed in the Port of Dakshina Mukhi.
A few weeks ago, he got another ssage from the Bharatiya Empire. The ssage stated that the Bharatiya Navy would not be able to imdiately help them regain their naval bases and ports, stating that they had their own reason to make such a decision. But Georgios Paleologos understood that the Bharatiya did not want to jump the gun too quickly and incur the wrath of all the sizeable rchant ships over 500 tonnes in the entirety of the diterranean Sea.
So, although he was a little disappointed, he did not have the heart to bla them. He only hoped that he would get so support from the Empire as quickly as possible. Sure enough, the next part of the ssage stated that although they would not be able to directly send a battle group, they would be sending logistical supplies, army reinforcents, and ergency dicine.
Having the logistics cut off, the trade and exchange of comrce with the Bharatiya Empire was almost completely wiped out. Given that the European Union was an enemy, they could not trade with them either, so this led the people of the Greek mainland to depend solely on themselves. Thanks to chanised agriculture, which they had quickly implented at the founding of their nation, there was no shortage of food, but there was an extre shortage of dical supplies, weapons, ammunition, ordnance, and all sorts of military equipnt.
All these years, his army had been reduced to fighting with handmade muskets and crude cannons, using their own flesh and blood as a shield to fight the war. So one can expect how important the logistical supplies and the dical supplies the Bharatiya Empire was sending were.
He had been waiting with bated breath for the news about the supplies arriving on the mainland, and finally, that day has arrived.
"Quickly inventory the supplies and send them to the frontline."
Georgios Paleologos imdiately ordered.
The general agreed with a firm expression, offered a salute, and left, his steps rapid and hurried.
A similar situation unfolded in the Parliant of the Kingdom of Israel and the Palace of the Kingdom of Egypt.
With the presence of the Bharatiya Empire in the diterranean, it was as if all three of its allies in the region had regained their backbone.
However, while this was going on, the Europeans were in the midst of doing sothing extraordinary.
Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia.
The defeat of the diterranean fleet, as well as the destruction of the fleet that was blockading the Suez Canal, hit the European Union hard. Their backyard was breached, and their hands and feet, AKA Arica and Africa, were tied up, making them desperate.
It was a do-or-die situation, and like adrenaline that is pumped into the body, huge amounts of resources, as in billions of euros, were poured into the research of weapons and the developnt of industry.
It was so frantic that it even vaguely surpassed the speed of developnt the Bharatiya Empire experienced in its earlier stages of chanisation.
Although friction still lingered among the Union nations, it had been pushed to the background in the face of a behemoth like the Bharatiya Empire. If each European nation were an animal ruling its own territory in the jungle, then the Bharatiya Empire was a bloodthirsty tiger, ard with sharp claws and vast wings. Beneath its looming shadow, no single creature could stand as an equal, and so the Europeans found themselves drawing closer and closer together.
As a result, despite their differences, Europe’s logistical networks beca smoother than ever before. High-quality tal ore flowed from Sweden. Artisans ca from France. Engineers, researchers, and scientists from Britain contributed their expertise. Shipbuilders from Spain and Portugal laboured alongside lens makers and glassworkers from the Netherlands. Generals and infantryn from the Polish-Lithuanian Kingdom, the Austrian Kingdom, and Slavic Byzantium coordinated their efforts, while engineers from the Kingdom of Prussia refined designs and improved machinery. All of them worked toward a single objective: to forge more advanced machines, deadlier weapons, and stronger battleships than they had ever produced before.
Königlich-Hannoversches Institut für Dampfchanik, Royal Hanoverian Institute for Steam chanics, is one such initiative taken by the European Union as a whole, which is specifically tasked with researching the steam engine capable of powering a locomotive.
The institute was a little different today. The Royal Hanoverian Institute for Steam Machines was no longer the dull and gloomy research park it had been in the past. Instead, it glistened with a lively atmosphere, and it is for no other reason than the arrival of various monarchs, kings, and nobles from all over Europe.
As for why?
The answer is simple: Newton finally succeeded in figuring out how to manufacture the damn steam engine.
Europe finally had a tal heart that could run a tal beast capable of galloping across the entire continent without complaints or rest.
Especially Charles Stewart, he was over the moon as the king of the kingdom which had been attacked by the Bharatiya Navy and was also most likely to be attacked once again by the enemy due to its detached geography from Europe. He was always in a state of paranoia and anxiety, especially in his advanced age; his mind amplified his unease, but now that Newton had finally invented the damn steam engine, he would fully cover his kingdom, not leaving even a single city without railway tracks. He would make sure that the entire force of the kingdom would be able to be concentrated at a single location in a matter of days; only then could he rest at ease.
The other kings and nobles were not as eager and desperate as Charles for the steam engine, but they were also extrely excited and happy that Sir Isaac Newton finally managed to crack the manufacturing of the large steam engine.
All the nobles and the king practically stood on their feet and clapped like an excited audience in a football ga when they witnessed the steam engine placed on a rudintary locomotive body chugging along, pulling a large granite rock.
Given its significance to the European Union, when Charles suggested that the engine be nad Baldr, the Norse and German god associated with light, purity, and radiance, everyone readily agreed with it and even suggested naming the entire locomotive the Light Bringer.
8
However, unknown to anyone, Newton, despite being in the middle of the celebration, had no smile on his face. It was not only because he was too tired from constantly bearing the pressure from the nobles and the kings, but also because he was tired of chasing the backs of the Bharatiya scientists.
In the eyes of the outsiders, he is the greatest scientist and engineer the European continent has ever produced. People say that he is single-handedly responsible for the industrial revolution in Europe and also the reason why Europe is even able to compete with the Bharatiya Empire, but he personally felt like he was a thief whose sole purpose was to disassemble, break apart, and destroy the inventions of the Bharatiyas and figure out how to build them himself.
Sadly, just when he would think that he had achieved sothing and he could go back to doing his own research, which he loved, the Bharatiyas would co up with sothing new, and faced with the pressure of the kings and the nobles, which he could not refuse, he had to jump back into the research once again. This process for the last 20 to 30 years was never-ending.
The sa happened this ti around as well. Technically, he should be happy that he was able to finally research a way to manufacture all the machine tools, albeit rudintary versions of the Bharatiyas, and also figured out how to construct the large steam engine, but reading the report of how the Bharatiya had started to use a new power system completely different from the steam system, and it was already put into use on a battlefield, his ntal state collapsed and he broke down in fatigue.
Since the new power system was only used on small vehicles like the bikes, the nobles seed to be underestimating it a little, thinking that it was not as dangerous as the steam tractors, the steel bastions of the Bharatiya Empire, but he knew that the Bharatiya Empire had taken a huge leap ahead of the European continent once again, putting a gap of at least several decades between them.
He could not even imagine what level of power a system that would not need coal, would not need water to generate electricity, and is fully contained within it would reach in a few years. He did not even know if he could crack such a technology in his lifeti, not to ntion that he did not want to crack it either. When he was young, he would probably have been excited to tear apart the machine and curiously study the technology and try to replicate it or use it in his own way to invent other machines, but he was over 60 years old with the mindset of a person over 80.
In his mind, he was the personification of Sisyphus, pushing the rock up the hill again and again, in the end, for the rock to only roll down the hill so that he could push it up again. This ti, he has decided it was ti for him to retire. It does not matter if he is confined to a single room by those damn nobles who knew nothing but send him veiled threats against his family.
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