Inquista Inquista
11 Mar 2020, 18:30

Archbishop Craticus and Bradley got up from their seats as Tulsi and Florence arrived.

“Tulsi, I’m such a big fan of yours. I’m sure if you’ve seen what I’ve done in the Western Sahara, you’d also be a big fan of mine. A war criminal apologist is always welcome in my sanctuary”, Craticus smiled as he shook General Tulsi’s hand.

Craticus then turned to shake hands with Florence. “Minister Parly, welcome.”

The Archbishop returned to the table and sat down. Bradley gestured for the foreign counterparts to join them and take a seat at the table.

Craticus then pointed to a television monitor which was hanging from above the table. The monitor displayed a live feed of the tightrope and crocodile pit outside of the lair entrance.

“We were watching you, Tulsi. Most impressive. The way that you knocked that crocodile down was everything,” Craticus laughed before suddenly becoming very stern. “However, I think you may have actually killed it. I’m not sure that you know, but obtaining crocodiles for a secret lair is actually very expensive, so we will unfortunately have to make you pay for damages. We will expense the charges for a new crocodile to the Nicoleizian government.”

Bradley nodded as the Archbishop spoke. Once Craticus was done, he gave Bradley a look and Bradley pressed a blue button on the table, which resulted in the table top flipping upside down and revealing a map of Reitzmag.

“Give us the latest report, Bradley,” Craticus commanded.

“At approximately 05:33 GMT this morning, the Holy Inquistan Air Force moved into Reizic airspace in order to establish a no-fly zone, as you’ve probably heard. According to our initial reporting, there was still a considerable amount of activity in Reizic airspace as our air force move in. Most of the activity consisted of commercial aircraft departing Reizic airspace. There were some aircraft coming in, though. We were not able to establish communication with most of them, but based on current news reports, and statements from the European Council, we have good reason to believe they were Czech communist sympathizers. We don’t quite know the extent to which the Czechs have been operating, but to be frank, we don’t quite care either. We don’t believe confrontation or conflict with the Czechs would be beneficial to our operations or to international diplomacy so we didn't bother pursuing them - this time.”

“Progress has been made since our initial entry, however. We’ve established full control of the air in virtually all of the country’s perimeters, but we are still working on locking down the perimeters around the southeast. Commercial and foreign aircraft have not entered into Reizic airspace since our initial entry. Now that we have gained some footing, we will shoot down any aircraft which violates our no-fly zone. As of yet, it does not appear the Reizic rebels have any aircraft. However, the rebels have made great progress on the ground, capturing several military bases, and they could make use of any aircraft that they may have captured. With that said, the military of Reitzmag didn’t have many aircraft to begin with, so the rebels likely won’t have more than just a dozen aircraft in total. The rebels are equipped with anti-air weapons, so we are approaching rebel-controlled regions with caution. We have several air-to-ground reconnaissance and AWACS aircraft monitoring rebel-controlled space, and several squadrons of bombers also now in the picture. Should any Inquistan aircraft be shot down, we will begin to indiscriminately bomb the hell out of them.”

<Reitzmag Map>

“Now, if you pay attention to the map, you can see the rebels are making a lot of progress on the ground, particularly in areas you wouldn’t’ expect – such as on the border with Pravoslaviya. We don’t believe it would be wise to fight the rebels on all these various different fronts. We can’t afford to begin deploying our forces thinly in a scattered manner. Besides, it should be the duty of the Reizic military to contain them, even though the Reizic military is currently flopping harder than Spain’s last EV entry. Instead, we are looking to deploy our forces into North Moreland and Esserbrund. East Moreland is the rebel stronghold, so capturing all the rebel-held territory in the east will be our priority.”

“Our ground forces are being mobilized as we speak and are readying for transport,” Craticus interrupted. “They should be landing in North Moreland and Esserbrund this evening. We will be establishing our own bases of operation, so setting up the bases should take some time. For now, our concern is containment rather than making any advances. Once the rebel expansion has been contained, we can begin to speak about to plans to push forward. We believe it would be most beneficial if Icholasen and Gallorum contributed ground forces alongside Inquista. We’re looking to set up a sophisticated operation fit with various tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery batteries, etc. Any and all help would be appreciated.”

What Craticus strategically forgot to mention was that Inquista was also sending Crusader operatives into Reitzmag. A small portion of Crusader operatives were going to be planted into the military machinations of North Moreland and Essermund. The vast majority of Crusaders, however, were going to be secretly deployed into San Marino. There, the Crusaders would be disguised as ultra-Orthodox, Pravoslaviyan volunteer militia.