Circumference

Second Coalition Formed
Ny Skölm, Sveynland – November 28, 1435
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Last week, rumors became reality outside Parliament when news broke that the minority government had formed a new coalition. The Social Democrats' minority government has faced numerous hurdles since their victory back in February, mostly compromising with the conservative parties. The most recent, and one of the hardest, challenges for the government was the 1436 Budget, which contained heavy compromises with the conservatives. This, alongside a heavy fear of pushback from the Socialist Party (SSP), made it clear to the Social Democrats' leadership that the minority government alone could prove a challenge. Following the Budget's passing, Prime Minister Mio Mathisen and other senior party members held discussions with various parties to create a potential coalition government. Discussions included parties such as the Liberal Party (TLP), Farmer's League (SFL), Moderate Party (SMP), and the Centre Party (TCP). Although conservative parties were met with, it was ultimately deemed an unfeasible alliance for the Social Democrats. Ultimately, the coalition's discussions were finalized with the Farmer's League, with the coalition government set to take authority by next week following a new cabinet's creation. This new coalition government will hold a majority in parliament, allowing for easier legislation to pass for the Social Democrats.

This news is expected not to be purely of national interest, however. Over the past few years, comments about Sveynland's internal politics have been made by Okruzhennsyia's (Kiberia) newspapers and businesses. Many of which criticize the push towards Social Welfare spending and legislation. Although no official statements or acts have been presented by the Okruzhennsyian state, some parliament members have felt the attempted push to pressure the Sveynish state. "These attempts at pressuring our government will not go unnoticed," stated Dan Olson, a senior Moderate Party member. Despite the attempts, no official acknowledgement or statements have been made by the Prime Minister or his cabinet. Showcasing a possibly low concern about these critiques from the current government.

Republika Łukowii - 1435 AH

Closed Doors II

The room above Kovalevsky Bank had filled again, though this time the mood carried a different edge than the last gathering. The Mitove crisis had been managed, the emergency funds had been delivered, and the military had been redeployed to the city as agreed. The oligarchs had held up their end of the arrangement. What they had not anticipated was that the president had apparently interpreted their cooperation not as leverage successfully applied but as an opportunity successfully exploited.

The Okruzhennsiya (Kiberia) agreement had landed on the table between them like an accusation.

"He did not consult a single one of us," Halski said, his voice carrying the particular flatness of a man controlling something considerably less flat underneath. "Not on the railway concessions. Not on the port expansion. Not on Rozkov." He let the last word sit. "A city with the largest Okruzhenn population in the country, and he has invited Okruzhenn companies to center their development there as though this requires no comment from anyone."

"He consulted the relevant ministries," Kovalevsky said carefully. "The agreement went through the proper channels."

"The proper channels," Wójcik repeated, with the tone of a man repeating something in a language he found distasteful. "The proper channels that he has spent the past year filling with people who answer to him and not to anyone in this room. Yes, Kirill, we are aware of the proper channels."

Drahomirov had not spoken yet, which meant he was thinking, which meant what he said when he finally did would be worth hearing. He spoke now, quietly as always. "The port is the problem. The railways I can live with; railways go where the money sends them and the money can be redirected. But Okruzhenn (Kiberia) companies with operational familiarity in Mitove's port infrastructure is not an investment. It is an arrangement. And arrangements of that kind do not get undone by redirecting money."

The room agreed with him in the way that rooms agree when nobody wants to be the first to say the obvious thing out loud.

"We send a note," Kovalevsky said finally. "Formal, through the Prime Minister's office. Concerns enumerated, recommendations attached. It goes on the record and it goes on his desk and he cannot pretend he was not informed."

"And if he ignores it?" Halski asked.

Kovalevsky said nothing, because the answer to that question was not one he was prepared to give in this room on this evening.

The note was drafted that night and on the Prime Minister's letterhead by morning.

-------

It was delivered to the presidential office before noon the following day, carried by a secretary who had learned over her years in government service to read rooms without appearing to do so. She read this one correctly and left quickly.

The president read the note twice. Then he set it on his desk, aligned it precisely with the desk's edge in the way that people sometimes handle objects they are deciding how to feel about, and sent word that he would see the Prime Minister at three o'clock.

Kovalevsky arrived on time, which was itself a kind of statement. The president did not invite him to sit immediately, which was a different kind of statement. He stood at the window with his back partially turned, looking at whatever the view from that window offered, and when he spoke his voice was conversational in the way that certain kinds of warnings are conversational.

"I read your note, Kirill."

"I assumed you would."

"Thoughtfully written." The president turned from the window. He was not a large man but he had the particular stillness of someone who had decided before entering a room how the room was going to go. "Prudent concerns. Reasonable recommendations. Very responsible governance." He picked up the note and set it back down. "Tell me, when you wrote it, were you writing as my Prime Minister or as Halski's secretary?"

Kovalevsky's expression did not change. "I wrote it as the Prime Minister of Łukowia, which is what I am."

"You are," the president agreed pleasantly. "And I am the President of Łukowia, which is what I am, and the Okruzhennsiya (Kiberia) agreement was negotiated by my office through the proper channels and signed by my hand, and the concerns enumerated in your very thoughtful note were considered and weighed before the ink was dry." He sat down now, which somehow made the room feel smaller rather than more relaxed. "I understand that certain people find the agreement uncomfortable. I understand that foreign companies entering the market with their own logistics and their own capital represents an adjustment to arrangements that have been very profitable for a very long time. I even understand why those people felt it necessary to put their discomfort on my desk with your name on it." He paused. "What I want you to understand, Kirill, is that the more that note is followed by another note, and another conversation, and another closed room above that bank, the less patience I will have for the arrangements those rooms have produced. Are we clear?"

Kovalevsky held the president's gaze for a moment that lasted slightly longer than comfortable. "Perfectly clear."

"Good." The president's tone did not change. "Then I imagine we are finished here."

Kovalevsky stood, straightened his jacket, and walked to the door with the careful unhurried movement of a man who was not going to give the room behind him the satisfaction of knowing how the conversation had landed. At the door he paused, not turning fully.

"For what it is worth," he said, "the note was not about the profits."

The president's voice came back evenly. "Then what was it about? They have been doing not but amassing more wealth since the depression hit and I haven't seen any actions taken to help the people with that bloody money!"

Kovalevsky turned fully now, which was itself a concession of a kind; a man who had intended to leave deciding that the conversation was not finished after all. He returned to the chair he had not been invited to sit in earlier and sat in it, which the president noted and did not comment on.

"These men are not what you think they are," Kovalevsky said. "Or not only what you think they are. They have buried fathers in Łukowian soil. Their children speak Łukowian before they speak anything else. What they built, they built here, from nothing, during years when half the businesses in this country were going under and they were the ones keeping the lights on. You may not like how they accumulated what they have, but they accumulated it in Łukowia, during Łukowia's hardest years, and they are not indifferent to what happens to it." He paused. "An Okruzhenn company expanding a port in Mitove during an active insurrection does not look to them like investment. It looks like a foreign hand reaching into something that belongs to this country, and they would like to know whose interests that hand is serving."

The president was quiet for a moment. "And if I told you their concerns about the port had already been raised with the Okruzhenn delegation and appropriate conditions attached, conditions that do not appear in the public text of the agreement?"

"I would say that is the kind of thing that might have been mentioned before the note was necessary."

The president almost smiled. Almost. "Consultation," he said. "Is that what we are talking about?"

"Before further agreements of this scale are finalized, yes. Not approval. Not veto. Consultation. The people in that room have connections, expertise, and institutional knowledge that your foreign ministry can use, if you are willing to let it be used without treating it as a concession." Kovalevsky paused. "And their companies operate in the same markets these foreign firms are now entering. A government that actively works against its own established industry in favor of foreign capital will find that industry considerably less willing to absorb the costs of the next crisis."

"That sounds like a threat, Kirill."

"It is an observation," Kovalevsky said, in a tone that did not entirely distinguish between the two. "As is this; the men in that room are not opposed to foreign investment. They are opposed to being made irrelevant by it. There is a difference, and the difference has a solution."

The president leaned back. He had heard the shape of what was being offered and was turning it over, looking for the edges. "And in exchange for consultation and preferential treatment for domestic companies in future procurement and contracting decisions, what exactly does the nation get from the people in that room? Beyond their continued cooperation, which I am already paying for one way or another."

Kovalevsky had anticipated this, which meant he had been authorized to offer it, which meant the room above the bank had already decided this conversation might go this direction. "Public works investment. Housing projects in the northeastern agricultural districts and the mining communities of the southeast. Not charity; structured investment, with their names attached, through foundations or development funds that the government co-administers. It addresses the poverty problem your office has been trying to budget for since the election and it gives them something they have been short of since independence."

"Which is?"

"Legitimacy," Kovalevsky said simply. "They know what people call them. They know what you call them, privately. A man can only be named an oligarch for so long before he either accepts the name or does something to complicate it. Several of them would prefer to complicate it, if the terms were right."

The president was quiet for longer this time. Outside the window the light had shifted without either of them noticing. When he spoke again the conversational pleasantness was gone, replaced by something more direct and considerably more tired.

"I will not pretend this is anything other than what it is, Kirill. They want protection for their markets and a seat at the table they were not elected to sit at. I want their money pointed at something other than their own pockets. Neither of us is doing this out of the goodness of our hearts."

"No," Kovalevsky agreed. "But nations have been built on worse foundations than mutual necessity."

The president picked up the note from where he had set it and held it for a moment. Then he placed it in the drawer rather than the wastepaper basket. A thing put in a drawer could be retrieved. A thing in the wastepaper basket was a decision.

He had not yet decided.

"Tell them I will consider the framework," he said. "And tell Halski specifically that the next time he wants to send me a message, he can put his own name on it."

Kovalevsky stood, straightened his jacket, and walked to the door. This time he did not pause.

He had gotten what he came for. So, he suspected, had the president.

Republika Łukowii - 1435 AH

Scandals A Plenty

For the past days the alarm bells had been ringing non-stop at the Foreign Ministry. First were the deals made with various nations that required relentless work from employees to see through without issue. Second was a much, much worse situation. A scandal of the highest order was unfolding on the world stage, between the nations of Verdezia and Oren (Polingo), which had also drawn Łukowia into its orbit. One was an ally nation while the other was an ever growing economic partner, further complicating the situation considerably. The scandal surrounded an engine built by a Verdezian company that was allegedly being reverse engineered by parties in Oren(Polingo). And because of the alliance and the joint engine development program conducted between Oren(Polingo) and Łukowia, the company was calling Łukowia to account as well, threatening to revoke the license on the engine currently being produced and tested for the next generation of Łukowian fighter aircraft.

Although not all the details were known to Łukowian officials, the situation still demanded their input in a way that resolved the scandal without upsetting either side; an outcome that would certainly affect Łukowia regardless of which direction it fell. Several options presented themselves. The easiest but most destructive would be to expel Oren(Polingo) from the joint engine development program, losing an ally in the process for the sake of an economic relationship. The opposite was equally possible, to support Oren(Polingo) openly and risk the development of the next generation fighter aircraft being delayed indefinitely. The third option, and possibly the only one that did not require burning something irreplaceable, was to act as mediator between the two nations and attempt to resolve the issue diplomatically before it hardened into something that could not be undone.

The decision was made to invite representatives of both nations to Łukowia for talks aimed at resolving the scandal before it became something considerably worse. During those talks it was also planned to approach Verdezia about joining the engine development program outright, or alternatively conducting a formal technology transfer for an agreed price; turning an aggrieved party into a stakeholder rather than an adversary, and solving the underlying problem permanently rather than managing its symptoms.

The Foreign Ministry was under no illusions that this would be straightforward. But there were also voices from KZL and from within the military that made the stakes clear enough without needing to be reminded. The now named KZL M.12-0's entire development program rested on the Vida Tipo 32-12 license. A revocation was not merely a diplomatic embarrassment: it was a direct blow to Łukowia's aviation future at the precise moment that future was beginning to take shape.

To that end, and with a calculation that was equal parts diplomacy and demonstration, it was decided that the incoming delegations would be shown what was at stake in concrete terms. A prototype M.12-0 had by this point completed enough of its early test flights to be presented without embarrassment, and the decision was made to arrange a brief flying demonstration at the KZL facility outside Kalisz for the arriving representatives of both nations.

The Issues and the tank
1435 AH

So the years is comming to a end, snow is everywhere in Oren, Christmas songs playing, kids playing in snow, but sadly issues with the Engine Development Program has arised and both Facist and Communist organasations are up to something.

Essentially plans for a revolution have been found as one of the Communist hide-outs have been found, same with the Facist just on a smaller scale, which sparked heavy interigations on captured Communists and Facists about locations of other hide-outs and weapons stashes, many have been raided within a few days, most of the people inside were killed and the stashes were taken as evidence, the military was sent to the biggest cities to patrol the streets and were told to be on high alert. The raid's continue to happen all over the nation to stop any revolution from happening and capturing the leaders to end the Facist and Communist threat on Oren once and for all.

In other news With the Engine Development Program, Oren agreed to stop its reverse engineering program reluctantly, but has shown only slight intrest on allowing Verdezia into the joint engine development program during the meeting in Lukowia but has shown significant intrests in conducting a technology transfer, The meeting results are still yet not final, and should be known soon.

However even with the other issues Oren has finnaly finished its development of the LT vz. 35/LT-35 and it has finnaly gone into production with a potential buyer being Lukowia, The production is going smoothly and the military is happy.

1435 AH | Kingdom of Verdezia

A settlement and an opportunity

The Vida engine scandal was widely reported in the newspapers across Verdezia, primarily supported by the Royal Junta to spurr political sentiment against Oren (Polingo). After news broke out about the engine project, Vida Motores went into full damage control, re-evaluating it's partnership policies and tightening security regarding their intellectual property, especially regarding the upcoming future engine project Vida has been planning with the Tipo 32-12. The offer from Lukowia was debated over longer than anticipated, with many unwilling to co-operate on the talks, only settling for the complete elimination of the engine project. Some hardliners even stated to cut off diplomatic and economic ties to Oren over blatant technological theft without so much as a notice. However, cooler heads prevailed and the decision was made to send a diplomatic team to Lukowia to discuss a resolution to this matter. Despite willingness to discuss the issue at hand, the Vida company and the Royal Junta were dead set on one thing:

- For Oren to immediately scrap the engine project and return all of the documentation regarding the reverse-engineering of the engine to Vida for scrapping/destruction (even though barely any would exist since it just started, but better to be safe than sorry).
- Refusal of Verdezia or the Vida company themselves having any ties to any engine projects between Lukowia and Oren (Polingo).
- Emphasizing upkeeping the engine license with Lukowia, although reluctantly and with possible further restrictions.

The second condition was written in bold. Such an act put a massive dent in the trust of Verdezia towards Oren (Polingo), which they've now regarded as an economic pariah, the Royal Junta beginning to discourage domestic companies in doing business with them or considering investment. They've gone so far as to pressure both the FAD and Santolaria to cancel investments and pull out, both of which refused due to favorable economic opportunities within their market. The Royal Junta issued a public statement via radio of the scandal, using it as an interesting opportunity to strengthen unity, showing that Verdezia has something the world desires, and that they've shown others would go so far as to steal what they have just to get a taste of what Verdezia is capable of.

Social Democrats Push Conservative Thoughts Out
Ny Skölm, Sveynland – December 22, 1435
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The formation of the new coalition government marked a significant stepping stone for the Social Democrats. The new alliance enables the Social Democrats' government to secure a majority, thereby allowing more legislation to pass. A recent action they took was to a proposed legislation to modernize the Sveynish Army. Although not immediately outright discarding the legislation, the coalition made several harsh modifications. The original proposal, mostly made to satisfy conservative parties, saw an increase in spending and devotion to improving the Army. This would be done by increasing training frequency, revising tactical doctrines, investing in modern equipment, and granting a larger budget to the Army, among other things. However, earlier this month the coalition enacted several changes to the proposal, much to the dislike of the conservatives. These changes primarily saw a much lower budget than previously planned, less upfront investment into newer modern equipment designs, and an inclusion of the Air Force into the modernization efforts. This inclusion of the Air Force, however, was nothing more than a very small increase in its budget. These changes caused an eruption from the conservative right, with many demanding the government keep the proposal intact.

"This isn't just a matter of political concern but instead a matter of sovereign security. If our nation's military is remarkably outdated, how are we to remain a respected nation," stated Haukr Nyman of the Moderate Party (SMP). The outrage resulted in a conservative protest in the streets of Gyllstad consisting of about 8,000 protesters. Despite this, the coalition government didn't back down, instead opting to discard the legislation entirely. "As much as the military may need improvement, we have more pressing matters to solve at the moment," stated Lucas Anker, Minister of Finance.

Although the legislation was discarded, the Ministry of Defense has stated an initiative to revise doctrines and improve training across the military. "We simply do not need a piece of legislation to implement necessary changes," said Göstav Olson, Minister of Defense. Despite the attempts to reassure many, the effectiveness has yet to be seen.

Republika Łukowii - 1436 AH

A Bit Too Enthusiastic

When the board of Novaski Zakłady Silnikowe had appointed Iosifich Novaski as head engineer, they had done so on the strength of a recommendation from the air force's maintenance division that described him as, among other things, "unusually energetic", "relentlessly inventive", and "not someone you want standing near anything expensive without supervision." The board had focused on the first two qualities. They were still coming to terms with the third.

Iosifich himself would not have described his approach as reckless. He would have described it as thorough. The distinction, he had explained on more than one occasion to more than one increasingly pale departmental administrator, was that reckless implied indifference to consequences, whereas he was in fact very interested in consequences; that was rather the point of the experiments. The consequences were the data. The fact that the data occasionally manifested as a fireball or a pile of components that had previously been an engine was simply the cost of doing science properly, and anyone who felt differently was welcome to go work somewhere safer.

The department had collectively decided some time ago that going somewhere safer though less interesting was not an option available to them, and had instead developed the particular institutional resilience of people who have learned to flinch quietly and keep working.

The incident log at Novaski's Kalisz facility read, in parts, like the minutes of a very unfortunate engineering conference.

There had been the matter of the propeller shaft. This had occurred during what Iosifich had described in his written report as a "modified torque output assessment" and what the rest of the department described, in the privacy of the canteen, as the morning Iosifich tried to get more power out of a test engine than the shaft connecting it to the propeller had been designed to handle since its conception. The aircraft had been taxied to the runway, the engine had been turned on, and for approximately four seconds everything had proceeded normally before the shaft had expressed its disagreement with the torque being applied to it in a manner that was loud, definitive, and visible from the administrative building. No one had been hurt. The aircraft had not been so fortunate. Iosifich had walked back from the runway with the expression of a man making mental notes, which was accurate; he had filed a twelve page report by the following morning, the central conclusion of which was that the shaft needed to be stronger, not that the experiment needed to be reconsidered.

Then there had been the chamber incident.

The licensed Tipo 32-12-B2 had been, by any reasonable measure, not an appropriate subject for what Iosifich had chosen to do with it. The engine was a precision piece of Verdezian engineering provided under a licensing agreement that Łukowia had negotiated at considerable diplomatic effort and was currently defending at even more considerable diplomatic effort. It was not, most people would have agreed, something you coupled to a second Tipo 32-12-B2 in an attempt to see what happened when you ran both simultaneously through a shared output arrangement of Iosifich's own devising.

Iosifich had not asked most people.

The testing chamber had contained the resulting disagreement between the two engines admirably, which was the best that could be said about the situation. The chamber's walls had performed their function. The engines had not performed theirs, at least not in the direction Iosifich had intended, though they had performed something with considerable enthusiasm. The written report filed afterward ran to nineteen pages and concluded, among other things, that the project was being suspended pending what Iosifich described as "materials refinement" and what the department's structural engineer described as "the laws of physics remaining unchanged." Novaski's relationship with the Verdezian licensing agreement had survived the incident, though only because the diplomatic correspondence surrounding it had carefully omitted certain details about what had been happening in the testing chamber.

The coupled engine program had been quietly discontinued. Iosifich had accepted this with the equanimity of a man who had already moved on to something else.

That something else was currently occupying the workshop at the eastern end of the Novaski facility, and the rest of the department had developed a habit of walking past its closed door with a slightly increased pace.

The project was a 14 cylinder twin row radial engine, which represented something of a departure even by Iosifich's standards; not a modification of existing hardware or an experiment conducted on someone else's licensed technology, but a ground up design that began with the M.11's domestic engine as its conceptual ancestor and then proceeded to ask what that engine might become if one removed the constraints of caution and available precedent. The M.11's powerplant had proven itself reliable enough in service that its fundamental architecture was worth building upon. What Iosifich was building upon it was, depending on perspective, either an ambitious evolution or a fourteen cylinder argument with the limits of current Łukowian capability.

The department had greeted the project with lots of helmets prepared and the cautious optimism of people who have learned that with Iosifich, the conventional starting point is usually where he starts and rarely where he finishes. Fourteen cylinders arranged in two rows of seven around a central crankshaft was already at the outer edge of what the most advanced foreign manufacturers were building. The fuel mixture calculations Iosifich had submitted for review suggested compression ratios that were, depending on who was doing the reviewing, either impressively ambitious or a reason to check the testing chamber's walls for cracks before proceeding. The cylinder head design he had sketched, and Iosifich's sketches had a way of becoming reality faster than anyone had budgeted for, incorporated cooling arrangements that two of the Kazhkraine specialists had examined at length before producing a written response that was diplomatically worded but conveyed, between its careful lines, a certain unease. While the new engineers that had joined the team from Oren (Polingo) were more enthusiastic about the plan.

Iosifich had thanked them for their feedback, filed it under a folder labeled with their initials, and continued working.

The engine's first full assembly was estimated to be six weeks away. The department had begun, without discussing it openly, to verify that the testing chamber's repairs from the last incident had been completed to specification.

They had. Mostly.

Republika Łukowii - 1436 AH

Under The Same Roof

The president had not been in the room above Kovalevsky Bank before. He had known about it for some time, one did not run against the established order of Łukowian politics without developing a reasonably accurate map of where that order conducted its real business, but knowing about a room and being invited into it were different things, and he had not been invited. He had invited himself, which was also a kind of statement, and the men already seated when he arrived had read it correctly and said nothing about it.

Halski sat to Kovalevsky's left. Drahomirov to his right. Wójcik and two others whose names the president knew and whose faces he was putting to those names for the first time occupied the remaining chairs. They were, he noted, exactly what he had expected; well dressed, unhurried, with the particular stillness of men who had learned long ago that the person who moves first in a room usually loses something.

He sat down without being invited to and opened without preamble.

"People are dying in the northeast."

The room received this in silence.

"Farming communities, mostly. The cold this winter has been unusual enough that the mortality figures from three provinces have come across my desk in the past two weeks." He looked around the table. "I am not telling you this because I believe any of you are unaware of it. I am telling you this because I want to establish, before we discuss anything else, that whatever we agree to in this room today is happening because people are dying in the northeast, and I intend to make sure that fact appears somewhere in the public record of whatever we decide."

Halski's expression shifted slightly, which for Halski was the equivalent of a considerable reaction. "You are framing this as charity."

"I am framing it as governance," the president said. "You are welcome to frame it however suits you publicly. Privately I am telling you what it is."

"What it is," Drahomirov said, with his characteristic evenness, "is also an Okruzhenn (Kiberia) problem. The communities suffering most severely are not exclusively Łukowian farming villages. You know this."

"I know this," the president agreed. "Which is why we are having this conversation rather than a different one.

The different one hung in the air without needing to be specified. Everyone in the room understood that the Okruzhenn (Kiberia) investment agreement had created a situation where a foreign government was now in a position to present itself as a more generous patron to Okruzhenn (Kiberia) communities inside Łukowia than the Łukowian government itself. In the northeast, where winters killed people and the government's presence had historically manifested more as taxation than assistance, that was not an abstract diplomatic concern. It was a competition Łukowia was currently losing.

"Public housing," the president said. "Built this year, before the next winter. Northeastern provinces, with priority given to the farming communities that have taken the worst of it. The government provides the land allocation and the administrative framework. You provide the capital and the construction capacity." He paused. "Your names go on it. Foundations, development funds, whatever structure your people prefer. The government co-administers to ensure the money goes where it is supposed to go, and both parties sign off on the final figures."

Wójcik leaned forward. "And the procurement contracts for the construction itself?"

"Domestic companies," the president said. "With preference given to established Łukowian firms where capacity exists." He said it in a tone that suggested he was aware of exactly whose firms those were and had decided that particular battle was not worth fighting today.

This produced a silence that was different from the earlier one, the silence of men doing arithmetic rather than waiting.

Halski spoke first, which meant the arithmetic had resolved itself faster for him than for the others. "The northeast is also where most of our agricultural processing infrastructure is concentrated. Housing investment in those communities is not entirely without return for us regardless of the charitable framing."

"I am aware," the president said, in a tone that suggested he had been counting on exactly that.

"You are asking us to do something that benefits you politically," Halski continued, "that happens to benefit us economically, that we will be seen to be doing out of patriotism." He tilted his head slightly. "I want to be clear that I understand the structure of this arrangement before I agree to it."

"I would expect nothing less from you," the president said.

Another silence. Drahomirov had been watching the president throughout with the expression of a man revising an assessment. He spoke now, more quietly than usual. "The Okruzhenn (Kiberia) communities in those provinces. The housing, it covers them as well? Not separately designated, not a different standard?"

The president met his eyes. "The same standard. The same contractor. The same foundation letterhead." He paused. "A Łukowian roof is a Łukowian roof. I am not in the business of building different grades of them based on who is sleeping underneath."

It was possibly the most direct thing said in that room in some time. Drahomirov nodded once, slowly, which in that room carried the weight of a speech.

The remaining details were negotiated over the next hour with the focused efficiency of people who had already decided to agree and were now only determining the terms. Capital figures were discussed and landed on a number that satisfied the government's minimum and did not exceed the oligarchs' comfort. Administrative structures were sketched. A timeline was established that was ambitious enough to be credible and realistic enough to be achievable, which was rarer than it sounded. Kovalevsky said little throughout, having apparently decided that his role today was to ensure the room did not overheat rather than to advocate for any particular position.

When it was finished the president stood and looked around the table one final time.

"I want to say something before I leave," he said. "Not for the record. For this room." He paused. "I did not come here today because I have changed my mind about what this country needs or how it needs to get there. I came because people are dying in the northeast and because I am practical enough to know that the fastest road between here and a Łukowian roof over their heads runs through this room." He picked up his coat. "I expect the same practicality in return."

He left without waiting for a response, which was a kind of statement as well.

The room sat with the quiet for a moment after the door closed.

"Well," Halski said finally.

"Yes," Drahomirov agreed.

Kovalevsky poured himself a drink he had been waiting for since the president had sat down uninvited forty five minutes ago, and said nothing at all, which was probably the most eloquent response available.

1436 AH | Shòulíng Republic

Dark clouds forming

As the Shòulíng Republic steps into the new year, many in the government reminisce on the previous year. While many important reforms have been enacted, such as re-organizing and expanding education across most of the rural areas of the nation as well as kickstarting infrastructure development with important railway projects, there were, without a doubt, many issues left to be resolved as well as new issues brought upon the actions the government undertook during 1435. No doubt one of the most controversial agreements signed was the Shòulíng-Okruzhenn Mutual Economic Agreement. Many major industrial figures as well as smaller business owners were outraged regarding the unfair, almost monopolistic concessions the government made towards Okruzhenn (Kiberia) companies (which included a business tax rate of nearly 50% less compared to domestic firms). The increased competition as well as an influx of much cheaper goods to the Shòulíng market compared to what the domestic firms could offer caused numerous smaller business to close down, with some of the major competitors reporting major losses in market share in comparison to major companies. The North Xieren National Steel Corporation reported a market loss of nearly 20% due to incoming foreign competitors as the company could not compete resource wise due to the much higher business taxes and payments compared to foreign competitors.

Many industrialists, who have previously been highly supportive of the Shòulíng Democratic Front, started withdrawing funding for future candidates. Their pro-business stance started getting questioned to be more in favour of foreign competitors, with many starting to see SLMZ as more focused on maximizing profit instead of helping spur the domestic economy. The closure of several domestic businesses caused unemployment to rise, with the worker population getting more and more disgruntled. Many of the laid off workers managed to get work employed by foreign companies, but the amount of workers laid off was simply too much to be swept up by the foreign competitors, and local business and firms did not have enough resources to expand operations or hire more workers. The rise in unemployment caused major unrest as domestic income started getting lower on average due to a lack of work. In government, the People's Radical Party attempted serious efforts to lobby increased public works as well as welfare systems and increased housing projects, but due to major backing from bigger corporations as well as suspected foreign companies fundling money to the Presidents inner circle, many of them were quickly shot down by the Federal Assembly. The closest one to almost pass, the Eastern Living Act, which would see urbanization projects in the eastern regions of Shòulíng, failed to pass the Federal Assembly by just eighteen votes. This caused the RJD to go on an aggressive campaign to attempt to sway public opinion against the SLMZ. Public unrest over lower income and rising unemployment began sweeping major cities as discontent grew, beginning to enlarge the rift between the SLMZ and the coalition government of the Federal Democratic Party (LMD) and the RJD.

One 27th of December, 1435, on one of the platforms on the Great Jian Railway Station in central Samhung, a 49-year-old disgruntled worker (who would later be identified as Gao Yi), shot President Xian Jiahao as he was preparing to board a train. Reportedly, Yi had bought a ticket for a train bound for Gangwei, which was set to leave around 20 minutes after the train the President was set to board. Yi, wearing a thick brown coat to conceal his weapon, pulled out a not!Luger P08 pistol and shot the president in the back four times before attempting to run away, soon being apprehended by the Presidents body guards and the station's security. The assassination sent shock waves throughout the state, taking up the front page of local newspapers. It was an event not seen since the chaos of the post-revolutionary period in the late 1400s. On the 3rd of January, 1436, the Prime Minister, Sun Luoyang, succeeded him as President before formal elections were to be held in 1438. One of the campaigners of Jiahao, Duan Fang, succeeded Luoyang as Prime Minister from the SLMZ.

On the 15th of January, a Federal Assembly was called. Several pieces of legislature were proposed, especially in light of recent public unrest due to rising unemployment. Many in the SLMZ began arguing that actions taken by the previous administration helped to save the economy during the Great Depression, seeing as how economic figures showed signs of growth throughout the year. However, the RJD and LMD further argued that long-term, this kind of investment is not sustainable, as foreign competitors would not be able to match the rise of unemployment if the country begins to completely rely on foreign investment for economic development. They heavily argued in pursuit of pro-worker legislature to increase worker rights and institute public works, ensuring continued domestic development while providing workers with stable employment and a living wage. However, the SLMZ were against major government intervention in economic affairs and asserting that private companies are capable of picking up the mantle and expanding the Shòulíng market, both to increase competition with foreign companies and increase the overall value of the market, making employment in Shòulíng much more desireable. With another Prime Minister and President combination from the SLMZ and refusing to budge on legislature that would help improve worker possibilities and conditions, the RJD stormed out of the Federal Assembly in protest, soon followed by several smaller left-leaning pro-worker parties.

The countless situations
1436 AH

Well Oren has made multiple decisions and multiple events have happened.

Starting with the Communist and Facist situation, it has been sucessfully stopped with the Facist uprising leader killed in a raid of the main base, while the Communist uprising leader has been caught trying to escape the law by moving from town to town, The Comunnist uprising leader has been condemned by the official Communist party leader, the Communist uprising leader has been sentanced with Treason and has been sentanced to prison for 30 years, Oren has succesfully aborted going into a civil war, leading to soldiers finnaly returning to their original posts leaving the cities they were put to protect.

In other news Oren has sent Lukowia their 10 of their new LT-35's with around a total of 160 being planned to be sent over to Lukowia by 1438, while in Oren the LT-35 is showing promising results in Oren with Oren planning to even sent some over to Kazhkraine, and with such fine results being made, a lot of engineers are very excited for the future to work on a medium tank.

Silvestr Král has annouced that he will work on improving the country such as wanting to increase minorities rights and womens rights, as he believes since the nation is already stablilising and growing, it is time to help the minorities and calls the people of his nation for unity and equality with some having mixed reactions while some actively trying.

And for the final news, Křídla větru, Plameny and Hlaslidu companies are setting up over in Lukowia and Kazhkraine to expand their markets, and each of them were told by the goverment them to move over to both Lukowia and Kazhkraine to keep the current markets independent from outsiders and if they did they would be rewarded with the goverment funding a expansion to 3 location of their choice.