Marshal Alium Deumi; Presidential Command Post, Nigyia, Commonwealth of MerinaTwo men strode along the old citadel walls, loose stone underfoot bolstered by makeshift structures of sandbags and plywood in places, as a weak springtime sun shone down from a pallid sky. Beyond the walls, the city spread out below them all the way down to the grey waters of the Rhoynar to the south, the neat dressed stonework of the royal district giving way to rough blockwork and, eventually, corrugated steel and ply structures further from the centre.
Intermittently, they would pass men from the Presidential Headquarters Company, clad in their distinctive "giraffe" pattern camouflage fatigues, hunched over their weapons, scanning the streets and rooftops below and eyeing wearily the few cars that rumbled past below. These men were unusual for more than just their uniform. Many despots in history have learned that the best men to protect power are those who could never hope to wield it themselves, and the men of the PHC were just that. Foreigners, mostly Kaedweni, though a handful of pagans from Pindar and Xhol were included in the ranks, along with clan-less half-bloods and bastards. These men were armed with a mix of expensive, imported firearms from the Presidential Arsenal - which had amassed quite a collection before the war - and armoured as the average fighter on a Merinan battlefield could scarcely dream.
One walker wore the same spotted pattern uniform; a powerfully-built but grossly fat man, he towered above his companion, the scars on his big round face poorly concealed behind a huge bristly mustache. This was the President himself, Olumbe Nguessa, and the men of the PHC stirred themselves into appropriate dutifulness at his approach. His companion was almost his opposite; a small, slight bespectacled man with a receding hairline and clean-cut appearance, dressed in the darker Merinan Army fatigues, immaculately clean and pressed. This was Marshal Alium Deumi, Marshal of Merina and the Chief of the Merinan General Staff, the unassuming first solider of the Commonwealth.
"On the subject of the General Requirement" The Marshal interrupted Nguessa's latest diatribe against someone-or-other - his old comrade-in-arms had become increasingly agitated and, seemingly, somewhat paranoid since the crisis began - in a gentle, but firm, tone "We have received now two offers from substantial overseas suppliers, have you had a chance to review either of these?"
"Hmpfh" The President huffed. He was not a natural administrator, he had people for that sort of thing "I have taken a look. I presume you are about to make a recommendation?"
"How well you know me" Alium smiled slyly "The Quintelians have bid lower for the ration package than the Tamorans, though there is a limit on what they can supply us-"
"Do what you must to feed the men" Olumbe cut in, irritably "If you need more resources, of course come to me, otherwise the decision is entirely your prerogative"
"As you say" Alium nodded, curtly "Is the same true for the uniforms?"
"It is indeed"
"Do you want to discuss the tanks, then?"
"Of course"
"Of course" Alium smiled at this, reminded of those days - many years ago now - that he had been Nguessa's Executive Officer. His boss had never been much taken with administration, though the rumour that he couldn't count was entirely unfounded, his forte being more in his fearsome leadership of men in action "The Tamorans are offering us T-90 at a... fair enough price for a fairly modern fighting vehicle, though I do worry it might be a bit advanced for general issue, particularly to reservists. What the Quintelians are offering us, meanwhile, is about the same age as our current inventory, and totally incomparable with anything else we've got on strength, but the price is excellent"
"Is cost going to be an issue?" The President demanded
That... rather depends how far we are willing to go on this" Alium considered "If we are going to be expending only our immediate cash reserves, then we'll be able to feed ourselves for the time being, and bring in a little extra infantry equipment to boot, though there won't be enough left to be messing about bringing new vehicle types into service"
"And if we were to be able to procure more... funding, would we be able to get much more for our money?"
"The MBT-1 I would consider for that price, if we can get them in at the A5 standard" The Marshal considered "With the night sights and fire control we'd have the machine to beat the Impera Brigade's armour, though its obviously not half so well protected as the T-90, and even then we'd not likely be able to field all too many at such short notice"
"Hmmm"
The Impera Brigade was something of a sore point for Nguessa; his former Presidential Guards unit had taken part in the failed coup two years ago, and had taken with it the best of the Army's equipment and most modernized examples of the T-55 main battle tank. Rather more than just the indignity of it all, these machines in the hands of well trained (by Merinan standards) and now battle-hardened tankers had proven a literal terror in the night for the Merinan National Army's armoured units, and, if they were activated, their reserve armoured units with their vintage T34-85Ms would barely stand a chance.
"Speak with Major de Vries" President Nguessa decided, at length, referring to the Kaedweni officer commanding the Presidential Headquarters Company "He will provide you with sufficient loyal officers and NCOs to form a reliable new armoured unit. Take crewmen from
Katamba and
Mombatsu if you must to bring them up to strength with trained crews, and furnish them with new tanks - tell our suppliers that we're undertaking an evaluation exercise if you have to. Feed the men and buy such equipment as you must to mobilize the reserves; the cash will be made available in good time"
With that, they went on to talk of other things, of drink, women and times gone by, as old soldiers are like to, walking the wall in the sunshine.
Three hours later, officers of the National Constabulary broke down the door of the Operations Manager of the Kaedo-Albion Minerals facility in Makasa. He was, understandably, quite surprised by this. An old hand in the mining game, KAM had bribed, lobbied and blackmailed its way into a position of relative safety, well behind the battle lines, to continue their lucrative business even through the years of war. As he was led away to face charges that the Chief Constable of Anuk was, at that very moment, making up, Constables were ransacking the site, searching for the one thing that KAM Makasa was famous - although infamous may have been a more appropriate - for processing.
Diamonds.
Commonwealth of MerinaMerinan National Armed Forces General Staff; General Requirement, Notice of Supplier Selection
TO: Quintelian Ministry of Defence AND Tamoran Foreign AffairsCongratulations on being selected to fulfill the General Requirement,
The following decision has been reached with regards to 05/04/20 General Requirement issued by the Merinan National Armed Forces General Staff:
Infantry Equipment Package - Order to be placed with TAMORA for 30,000 units - to include radios, cleaning kits and night vision equipment - at $10,000/unit, with $300M total value.
Mechanization Sustainment Package - Initial order to be placed with TAMORA for 18 used units of T-90 Main Battle Tank, for evaluation purposes, at $2M/unit, with $36M total value. Further, initial order to be placed with QUINTELIA for 38 units of MBT-1 at A5 standard, for evaluation purposes, at $100,000/unit, with $3.8M total value.
Additional request to be made to Dalton Motors for quote on manufactured components for
MNAF current inventory vehicles.
Contingency Ration Package - Order to be placed with QUINTELIA for 1M units at $10/unit, total value $10M. Further order to be placed with TAMORA for 1M units at $15/unit, less 10%, total value $13.5M.
All payments to be made in Standard Dollars upon delivery of specified items.