In the High Halls of the Fennians

[Serbovia]

PROLOGUE

18th of June, 1902
Yrjönlinna
West Kalevala Republic
The Fennian Union

The sun shone over the Cape of Yrjö, casting its rays to the warehouses, piers and other structures that made up what was - at least in the mind of young Joakim Häyhä - surely the biggest and most mighty commercial port ever built in the history of mankind. From a thirteen-year old's perspective, the ships from Fennia and faraway lands docked in the many piers and the bristling activity of the thousands of people in Port District was full of wonder. He had spent many an afternoon before returning home from school at the roof of that abandoned import warehouse gazing at those wonders and dreaming of faraway lands. It was a very tall house, so he could see almost the entirety of the harbor.

Great Engellex, Mergogne, Eiffelland, Hajr and even faraway lands of Touzen, Yujin and Cantignia were in his mind. He recognized some of the flags of those countries in the steamers at the piers, amidst the more usual sights of the Fennian Thaumantic trawlers, coastal freighters and the occasional liner. He saw a passenger steamer, S/S Pohjantähti where a line of men, women and children with assorted baggage were waiting to board. Those were, he knew, people moving to New Fennia. He wanted to live in Himyar. It probably wasn't as cold over there as it was during the Fennian winter. His father was always going on about how they had a right - no, a duty - to civilize Himyar, their responsibility as Christians and representatives of Western civilization.

His father had told him that before the Fennians had come to Himyar, the children there wouldn't learn to read or go to schools and were forced from an early age to work by their parents without the opportunity to play or go to school. When he drank, his father told Joakim war stories from what he'd called his glorious mission of peace, about how Fennians had pacified the savage tribes and about how his men had cut down charging tribal warriors with the "machine-guns", as he'd called them. Joakim had had a sleepless night after that. He'd asked him if all the "negro men" were like that, and his father had told that as a punishment of their transgressions against God, God had taken civilization away from them and it was the duty of the Christian peoples to restore them into the light. But his teacher of religion at school had told Joakim that God was all-forgiving. It didn't make much sense to him.

What truly caught the boy's attention this time, however, wasn't the multitude of ships powered by steam and sail arrayed throughout the harbor. In distance at the very starting point of the cape where his father had told was a base of the Fennian Navy. The big warship, bristling with turrets and guns and white as light from its hull - an armored cruiser - and the masses of people at its berthing pier. The lines of soldiers in their uniforms of light brown and their pith helmets, rifles on their shoulders, and the officers inspecting this group of men. Even from a distance Joakim recognized the flag as one belonging to a regiment of Jägers - he had learned all the flags and the uniforms from his father - undoubtedly heading to Himyar. The ranks begun to organize in lines, in an orderly manner heading to the gangway leading to the ship deck, as women and others of his age waved their goodbyes behind a fence separating the pier and the naval base from the rest of the harbor.

The bell of the Sailors' Church - at the very far end of the pier with its tower having welcomed sailors to Yrjönlinna for decades - rang. It was four. Joakim knew that his mother was awaiting for his return from school, so he decided to go.

The scene of the embarking soldiers was one that had captured his imagination, and for the rest of the day he dreamed about what adventures they'd surely experience in far Himyar. He thought about it even when bedtime came, and before going to sleep he swore that one day - when he was older - he would be among those men.

 

[Serbovia]

PROLOGUE - DAY OF DEPARTURE

3rd of September, 1907
Along the Yrjönlinna-Kalevala Railroad
The Fennian Union

The send-off at the Yrjönlinna Railway Station had been one of the rare occasions when Joakim Häyhä had seen his father smile. For a moment there, he had actually been sure that he had seen a teardrop in a corner of the old man's eyes, but he didn't know. Though he knew somewhere deep that his father loved him, he also knew that Vilho Häyhä was a hard, stern man, of the kind that considered the show of emotion to be an act of weakness. Whether it was love or hate, approval or disappointment, optimism or fear, Vilho had only shown those feelings in some late hours of those evenings when he had been drunk, either when alone in his study with a bottle of vodka or having returned from a long evening at the officers' club.

A century from now, biographers detailing the life and death of the Stateholder General would actually suggest that his father had suffered from a post-traumatic stress disorder. Of course, such things were unknown in this day and age. As was, for matter, the idea that the young soon-to-be-officer cadet sitting quietly in his train seat would one day rise to become an autocrat of the entire Union.

His mother Katariina had sent him off with a gentle hug and the usual advices of motherly love. On top of that, she had enthusiastically filled his travel suitcase trunk with almost the full amount he was allowed to take with him to the Officers Academy when it came to personal items.

The last chance to back away had been in July, when the letter sent by the Union Officers Academy had notified the 18-year old Joakim Häyhä that he had passed his tests of entrance and that he should reply with a letter of affirmation before the end of that month. He had to admit that he had given the idea thought. Having graduated from secondary among the top ten of his year, and having been acquinted with all sorts of interesting subjects from foreign languages and history to Christianity itself, he was sure that he'd manage in any institution of higher education in Fennia, perhaps even in those abroad.

Did he hesitate now? Joakim didn't know, and it was too late for that anyway. Actually, it had been just a few months ago when he had entertained the thought of convincing his parents to finance his studies at the Kontula Institute of Architecture instead, but he had dismissed that notion as childish. They'd have never agreed to that, especially when it came to his father. Vilho Häyhä was an officer of the Union Army, and his father had fought in the forces of the King of Kalevala during the Unification Wars against the Agder and those opposed to the idea of an unified Fennia. His father was expecting him to continue the family tradition, and to a certain level Joakim Häyhä felt obliged to do that.

Besides, he surmised as he watched the train pass West Kalevalan countryside one farm and field after another, he had always wanted this. Ever since that day on the top of the old warehouse at the harbor - over five years ago - he had known that one day he too would be a soldier of the Union. Thus he dismissed the briefly entertained idea that he had made a wrong choice. Perhaps, in actuality, his uncertainty was of his impending passage from youth to adulthood with his departure from the protection of his birth home into the world. Kalevala, the capital of the Fennian Union and its largest city, awaited him. He had never seen the place himself, but he had heard many stories. "Your mother won't be around to cook and clean for you anymore, son, you'll have to do that on your own", his father had told.

Though Joakim had understood that to be an exaggeration - surely the Officers Academy would have a canteen of some kind - he had understood the significance of the words that his father had said. He was a man now, and would have to assume the responsibilities of a man.

For much of the train trip to the city that would eventually define much of his adult life, Joakim Häyhä sat and dwelt on this.

 

[Serbovia]

23rd of October, 2012
Ratsumiehenpuisto 1
Headquarters, Union Defense Staff
Kalevala
Kingdom of Kalevala
The Fennian Union

"As you know, the Havenite government recently announced a withdrawal of its submarine forces from the Northern Thaumantic, though that is a claim we are yet to fully ascertain even if the Navy has reported a decrease in their detected submarine activity. However, we must still take into account the risk of their forces running interference in the event of escalation. While estimates conducted by the Operations Department, and I refer to the dossiers in front of you gentlemen, indicate Fennian victory in a protracted war we must note that those estimates are based on a hypothetical Fennia-Havenshire conflict, not one that would be a side-track of a broder war. Thus, should the Long Sea crisis escalate into armed conflict and Havenshire join in the Navy would have to commit substantial anti-submarine forces to the Thaumantic Ocean."

The assembly of high-ranking officers in their dress uniforms - Land Forces gray, Navy white, Air Force blue, Marine black and MP brown - sat in silence as they listened to the presentation given at the front of the conference room by Colonel-General Miikka Pakkasvirta. Though almost in his sixties, the head of the Operations Department showed no signs of tiring up. Joakim Häyhä understood well why, as his aide-de-camp had told him one day, some of the officers at Defense Staff had nicknamed the man General Exposition.

Then again, the Commander-in-Chief of the Fennian military and the country's de facto ruler mused, if one spent most of his time drawing up schemes for wars and lesser acts of gunboat diplomacy he would make every effort to present them to his compatriots given the opportunity. The key peacetime role of Operations was to devise and update the operation plans that would form the basis of Fennian strategy in a number of hypothetical wars. Some of those, such as Operaatiosuunnitelma Punaparta - Operational Plan Redbeard - for a Fennian-Havenite war were considered to be in place for actual use one day, while others were mainly maintained for the purposes of keeping certain officers busy by updating them on a regular basis.

"A pre-emptive strike against their Naval installations, conducted jointly by the Navy and the Air Force to seize an element of surprise, would even the odds", interrupted Air General Johannes Pakkala, head of the Air Force, "As many of you know, plans for such an assault are included in the Redbeard Plan."

"And would be sheer madness with our current level of intelligence", Lieutenant General Yrjö Hannula said dryly. Though lower in rank, the head of Army Central Intelligence knew that in practice the only ones in the room superior to him were the Stateholder General himself and War Minister Aminoff.

"Then get more intelligence", Pakkala replied in an equally dry tone.

Joakim Häyhä saw Hannula's point. After all, the two documents that the Stateholder General read in the course of his morning breakfast and the ride from his villa to the National Palace were the daily intelligence briefs presented by Hannula's Army Central Intelligence and its interior counterpart, the Security Department. Havenshire was a country where Fennians gleaned substansially more out of signals interception and espionage on the country's foreign embassies and the country itself. Though Havenite border officials forgot to do their jobs when you gave them a vodka bottle, the country was more insular than a Pohjanmaan village full of inbreds. The comparison mildly amused the 63- year old.

"At this moment, we will keep all of the options open", General Häyhä said finally in his bass tone that caught the attention of all in the room, themselves men who commanded the attention of tens or even thousands of armed Fennian men, "I have a degree of confidence in mr. Vannas for the success of diplomacy. Besides, Havenshire is just a distraction from the real goal, a feint."

Though his body was by no means the same as that during his younger days, when Joakim Häyhä had been an officer of the cavalry, he was proud that he'd retained his wits in order. A student of war for all his life, Häyhä often found himself applying the art and strategem of war to matters of high politics as well. Ultimately war and politics were the same, if not in tools but in the core logic of it all. Knowing what your opponent was doing, then reacting while distracting the adversary from your real objective - the key to success in both politics and the battle of arms.

"As for the Thaumantic Conference, the Foreign Office will appraise all of the situation as it develops", added Johannes Niiranen, the Deputy Foreign Minister.

Others in the room regarded the man with only mild interest, as did the Stateholder General himself. With Kauko Vannas in Ivernia, he had sent his deputy here in his place. Häyhä wasn't surprised that Vannas had chosen such a man as his second-in-command, even if he didn't appreciate the choice. Johannes Niiranen was far from a shrewd politician of statesmanship. In fact, Häyhä had never met a man so dry and bureucratic in character. Knowing Vannas, that had been the key reason why Niiranen had been appointed as his deputy. While the man was absent of any ingenuity and drive, you could count on him to be loyal and execute the directives given to him as they were told. Häyhä valued more originality and the ability of contribution in his subordinates, despising lack of initiative, but his Foreign Minister wanted subordinates that would not pose a challenge in the man's own political schemes.

Kauko Vannas, Häyhä thought as he motioned for an aide-de-camp standing in a corner of the room to bring him water, was useful but a man that needed to be kept in check. The man had recently gained so much influence in the National Unity Front that Häyhä suspected that he was making preparations for a power grab in the event that the elderly Stateholder General would pass away. The thought was midly offending to Joakim Häyhä as he thought that he well had years ahead of him. What also offended and alarmed him was the possibility that Vannas was plotting for his earlier demise. Though 3 Unioninaukio - headquarters of the Foreign Ministry - was so filled with Security Department infiltrators that Häyhä knew everything happening there up to the point of their eating habits.

So, what was the real goal? The Long Sea. With war engulfing the Mezhist Union, the Jurzan had become increasingly important to Fennia as a source of oil, and also as a potential outpost of Fennian influence in North Himyar which the Foreign Ministry was busy slowly building. However, the Carentanians put all that at risk with their military posturing. In part, it was reaction, but in part it was seizing an opportunity to neuter the dangerous "Workers Republic" and putting those upstart reds back to their place.

"General Pakkasvirta", Häyhä said as he received a glass of water from an aide, "What of Operaatio Pihtapuu?"".

Pihtapuu - Operation Firtree - was the plan of deployment of Fennian military forces to the Long Sea.

"As you can see from the documents before you, gentlemen", the head of Operations Department continued while another aide changed the map placed on an overhead projector projecting to a screen in front of the room from that depicting the Northern Thaumantic into that depicting the Long Sea, "The current Firtree plan is depended on the collaboration of Danish and Engellexic governments, which however is likely and already attained with regard to the Danes, in sanctioning the movement of our troops to Danmark and the Long Sea littoral. The operation will be a show of force, with similar initiatives by our allied governments to pressure Rijeka and to exercise support for the Jurzani sovereignity. Should that fail, however, I have made preparations of a follow-up, Operaatio Turisas."

Operation Turisas. The name was oddly fitting, Häyhä remarked to himself. Turisas was an ancient Fennian god of war. And should it come to that, the god of war would certainly relish the results.

Colonel-General Pakkasvirta continued, "Initial forces allocated to Operation Firtree include the 1st Marines, 17th Paras and the 6th Light Armored Corps with the addition of a composite special services group made up of appropriate Land, Marine and Army Central Intelligence elements, along with two fighter regiments, a composite bomber group and a patrol bomber regiment. Additionally, the 2nd High Seas Group of the Navy has been earmarked..."

 

[Serbovia]

Ratsumiehenpuisto 1
Headquarters, Union Defense Staff
Kalevala
Kingdom of Kalevala
The Fennian Union

"...it was the unintended consequence of an ongoing program of the Yrjönlinna University of Technology on behalf of the National Development Office to research new and more efficient insecticides to improve agricultural output within the Protected Territories", Colonel General Rainer Lintuvaara explained as the graying Naval admiral on the other end of the table surveyed the dossier adorned with the insignia of the Quartermaster Department and a large red stamp "secret", "Instantly after the Development Office contacted us, the appropriate research and related documents were declared secret and my officers have moved in to take control of the research. The researchers involved have been offered a transfer to the Chemical Protection Center.

Officially KSK - Kaasusuojelukeskus or Chemical Protection Center - was the War Office's research facility to develop defenses against germ and chemical warfare used by the enemy, which was the extent of the little information publicly available on its operations. Though it did just that, persons such as Colonel General Lintuvaara - Quartermaster General of the Army - were aware of the fact that it also served to coordinate the Union Army's secret program of offensive chemical warfare and the manufacture of substances such as mustard gas, tabun and sarin in secret installations in Fennia Proper and the Protected Territories.

"So what you're saying", Admiral Mikael Aminoff said and drew in from a big cigar in his left hand, "Is that this could be the discovery of a new chemical agent with far more lethal properties than those currently in our military stockpiles?"

"Yes", Lintuvaara said with a nod.

"I will bring this up with the Stateholder General", Aminoff replied as he continued to examine the documents before him, "Tell the Chemical Protection Center to appoint an appropriate research team."

The Quartermaster-General of the Union Army was satisfied with that. For long an advocate of the development of such weapons that could give the Fennians a decisive edge over their plethora of enemies, he was discontent with the objectives of some of his fellow generals over the chemical program which he'd been a patron of for a long time. The older generals did not understand. Technology and the creation of an industrial scale of slaughter had made the old notions of noble, aristocratic warfare irrelevant.

Certainly, Colonel-General Lintuvaara surmised, his role in the Fennian defense establishment wasn't as glorious as that of the generals in charge of the operational formations or responsible for drafting the war plans for the eventuality the Union would lock swords with its foes. But it was all the more important, for the Quartermaster Department dealt in devising the scientific methods of war that would ensure the battle was half won before the first shot was even fired.

"On to other matters. What with the Frescanians and the Sylvanians seeming bent on making Agderike their bridgehead into Scania, and adding to that the constant threat on behalf of the Reds, we need to accelerate the pace of the Five-Year Reform", the War Minister continued, "Including not only the existing programs to replace old hardware but also the development and fielding of new weapons and equipment for our armed men. To appear weak and unwilling would be disastrous in a time like this."

Lintuvaara took another set of dossiers from his briefcase, also secret, handing them to Aminoff.

"I've prepared an overview of the work being done so far", he said in response, "The Quartermaster Department has made requests to Valmet, Valek, Yrjönlinna Shipyards and the other appropriate companies to speed up the production of equipment already slated to replace existing older models, such as the PsV45 tank program and our jet fighter programs. Additionally, we expect to be able to present tenders for the manufacture of the Navy 55 program to Union shipyards before the summer."

"Excellent", Aminoff replied, "The Navy should be a top priority given how historically volatile the Thaumantic has been, and with the growing emphasis on sea trade that has been brought by the situation of our Northern neighbor. Not neglecting other arms of the Union Army, of course, particularly the projected removal of most propeller models from Air Force service and the rocketry and rotor programs which I've been told your department is to contact Mezhist suppliers on."

"Yes, I was just getting to that, sir, if you'll open that Air Force dossier you will see further details..."

 

[Serbovia]

OOCisregard.

 

[Serbovia]

Päämajoitusmestarin toimisto
Quartermaster General's Office

Unionin Puolustusesikunta
Union Defense Staff
SALAINEN - SECRET

The Quartermaster Department has prepared this overview of ongoing military equipping programs overseen by the Quartermaster Department, specifically for the purposes of the ongoing five-year army reform campaign. This overview is intended to the Corps of Generals and the relevant senior officials of the War Office, the Interior Office and the National Development Office as a concise overview of ongoing military development in terms of material and technology. Specific reportage pertaining to these programs is handled through Quartermaster Department program heads to appropriate parties.

UNION LAND FORCES, CIVIL GUARD, BORDER GUARD CORPS, MARINE CORPS, MILITARY POLICE

Yleiskivääri 1955/Universal Rifle 1955

In observance of international trends of infantry armament, the Universal Rifle 1955 program has been initiated to examine the possibility of adopting a new selective-fire rifle caliber weapon for the use of the Fennian military. Anticipating the change of infantry warfare to urban environments and others where firepower will supersede effective range in importance, the QD proposes the adoption of a new type of Universal Rifle for the use of combat infantry units in the Fennian military. The weapon should be of 7,62x51mm caliber, with an effective range of 400-600 meters, with a magazine capacity of 20-30 rounds and with a theoretical rate of fire of 600-700 rounds/minute. While the State Metal Factories are to be commissioned to provide a prototype design, the QD is also examining the prosepct of commissioning the Mezhist Union- made StG 44/45 for experimental use. The aforementioned model should also be basis for any domestically designed and manufactured new service rifle.

Konekivääri 1955/Machine Gun 1955

The Machine Gun 1955 program is to devise an improved version of the Machine Gun 42 general-purpose machine gun for production and adoption of a new standard general-purpose machine gun for Fennian military use. The weapon would enter service alongside Universal Rifle 1955 and use the same 7,62x51mm caliber devised as the new standard infantry rifle caliber of the Fennian military. The adoption of a new rifle/machine gun cartridge will be coordinated so that entire troop units would make the transition at the same time. With the adoption of MG 55, the MG 26 would be entirely removed from Union military service.

Continuing replacement programs:

The adoption of Submachine Gun 44 as the new standard submachine gun model will continue. The adoption of Pistol 49 as the new standard service pistol will continue. Anti-Tank Weapon 52 will continue to enter service as the new standard man-portable anti-tank weapon, replacing Mezhist- designed models currently in use. Where appropriate, infantry weapons removed from Regular and Reserve service will be passed down to Civil Guards or civilian law enforcement, stored for exports or distribution to friendly insurgent movements in foreign countries or scrapped.

Projekti Sotavaunu/Project Chariot

The adoption of Tank 45 "Karhu" as the new universal tank of the Union Land Forces and Marine armored units will continue. Owing to its characteristics as a suitable and modern general battle tank, Tank 45 will replace the current models of "line" and "heavy" tanks in Fennian military use with a single universal tank able to carry out the designated roles for both. This will improve standardization and supply chain management within Fennian armored units. However, the limited adoption of a new "heavy" tank model for purposes of longer-range firepower is being examined on an initial basis by the Land Forces.

Projekti Vankkuri/Project Horsewagon

Project Horsewagon aims to improve the mobility of Union Army infantry and armored infantry through the adoption of a new set of infantry vehicles. At this time, the Land Forces have specified a need for a tracked personnel carrier (Panssaritela-ajoneuvo 55, Armored Tracked Vehicle 55) replacing half-tracks currently in use and also partially replacing tracked troop and weapons carrier in use. Additionally, a need for a new heavy reconnaissance vehicle (wheeled) has been specified to replace the RasPa series of armored vehicles. The State Metal Factories will be contracted to devise a prototype while the Quartermaster Department will also examine the possibility of using foreign- made vehicles for the purpose.

Projekti Hiirenloukku/Project Mousetrap

As a cooperative exercise of the Land Forces and Civil Guard elements along the Northern Border as well as the appropriate Border Guard units, the amount of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines will be increased in the Northern border zone. For Project Mousetrap, an increase of 15-30% in mine density has been specified along key regions and routes of the border, as well as a proportional increase of glass and wooden mines harder to detect than metallic ones. Additionally, modernization and basic repair of designated border strongpoints is being initiated.

UNION NAVY

Hävittäjä 55/Destroyer 55

Destroyer 55 will be a replacement to the Puolustaja class of large, ocean-going fleet destroyers currently in Fennian military use. The Destroyer 55 design follows on the proven operational qualities of its predecessor, providing the Union Navy with a heavily armed class of destroyers capable of combat roles alongside larger vessels. Projected to displace 3700 tons and crewed by a crew of 230, the Destroyer 55 ships will have the armament of five 152mm guns (two twin mounts, one single mount), twelve 40mm anti-aircraft guns, eighteen 20mm anti-aircraft guns, eight torpedo tubes, six depth charge projectors plus minelaying capabilities. First examples of the class are to be commissioned this year.

Saattohävittäjä 55/Escort Destroyer 55

The Escort Destroyer 55 will be a replacement to the current Varma and Valpas class of escort destroyers in Union Navy service. Instead of two follow-up classes, the Navy has elected to develop a single replacing class due to reasons of production simplicity. The key requirements for Escort Destroyer 55 will be high speed and maneuverability enabling it to operate both in escort roles in defense of merchant vessels and in combat operations especially along the Fennian coast, through utility as a "large torpedo boat". Escort Destroyer 55 is projected to displace 1700 tons and with a crew of 200, and will be armed with four 105mm guns, twelve 40mm anti-aicraft guns, six 533mm torpedo tubes, four depth charge projectors plus minelaying capabilities.

Sukellusvene 55/Submarine 55

The Submarine 55 project will introduce a new class of diesel-electric submarines to service of the Union Navy in replacement of the current Vetehinen class submarines in the Navy Submarine Service. The Yrjönlinna Naval Shipyards are to present a domestic design based on the Vetehinen class, while the possibility of acquiring a foreign submarine model is also being examined. Current submarines in Navy use are to be modernized pending the adoption of a new submarine class.

Partiovene 55/Patrol Boat 55

A joint program of the Union Navy and the Coast Guard to replace the Viima and Miekka class vessels with a new type of similar size, specification and role. The function of the ships delivered to the Union Navy would be brown- and green- water offensive warfare as torpedo boats while the Coast Guard vessels would serve as fast patrol boats for interception of territorial violators and wartime coastal patrol roles.

UNION AIR FORCE

Hävittäjä 56/Fighter 56

Program to replace the current Valek H-45 and H-48 fighters in Union Air Force and the Union Navy use with new models of fighter aircraft, one as a carrier-based fighter-bomber/night fighter and the other as a land-based fighter-bomber/reconnaissance aircraft. The State Aircraft Factories and Fennair will design operational prototypes and foreign options are also being examined.

Pommittaja 54/Bomber 54

A planned tactical bomber/maritime bomber/reconnaissance aircraft using jet propulsion and projected to be a follow-up in design to the current P-45 Viima tactical bomber. The State Aircraft Factories have been contracted to design a prototype with the projected specifications of a 3600kg ammunition payload, maximum speed of over 900km/h and a combat radius of 1300 kilometers. A flyable prototype is set to be ready within the year. The aircraft would be an effective replacement of previous propeller-based models in use and would complement the P-45 in service.

Raskas Pommittaja 54/Heavy Bomber 54

An initial project to devise a jet-based successor to the Mezhist- made RP-42 Tornado heavy bomber. The State Aircraft Factories are in the process of designing a prototype with a projected payload capacity of 10000kg and a maximum speed of 913km/h. Owing to an estimated lack in current Air Force strategic bomber capability the Heavy Bomber 54 project has been designated a high-priority program.

Projekti Ukonvasara/Project Ukko's Hammer

An interservices program to examine the adoption of guided rocketry to Union Army use in form of land, air and sea-based systems.

Projekti Varpunen/Project Sparrow

An Air Force program examining the adoption of military rotorcraft. Limited purchase of foreign models for field trials is proposed.

Continuing replacement programs:

The production of H-48 and H-50 series of fighter aircraft to replace earlier models will continue as a stopgap until the H-55 program reaches sufficient maturity. Continued production is planned for R-47 Ukonvaaja ground attack aircraft (replacing H/R-43 Myrsky), K-42 and 47 transport aircraft (replacing K-39) and the MP-48 maritime bomber (replacing LV-41 and MP-43).

 

[Serbovia]

Kalevala
Kingdom of Kalevala
The Fennian Union

Even in the capital of a country such as the Fennian Union, the leaders of which were ever paranoid of the threat of communist assassination or foreign sabotage and surrounded themselves with high security, the motorcades passing the city's streets often were enough to give Kalevala's citizens pause. Particularly so in the case of one particular motorcade, always escorted by Military Police motorcycle outriders and black government sedans and in its core made up of four armored limousines all bearing the standard of the Stateholder General - an Union flag adorned with the Order of Military Merit and the four lions of a rank insignia of an Union Army general - in their knowledge that it carried the de facto dictator of the whole Union.

In the back seat of one of those limousines, the said dictator gazed out of the windows at the passing buildings and quarters along Unioninkatu, the main throughfare of the Union Park section of Kalevala which was the administrative nerve center of the Fennian state. Built, like most of the newer center of Kalevala, to a grid-zoned Fennian Neoclassical plan in the wake of the Unification Wars, it always brought admiration to the heart of General Joakim Häyhä. Orderly, yet aesthetical, and during this time of the year against the backdrop of the emerging summer as the rays of the sun cast their blessings upon a nation that had weathered another long and hard winter.

Still, the Stateholder General mused as the motorcade came to another crossroads where its outriders stopped to pause intersecting traffic to allow him unhindered passage, winter was a constant in Scania. If only in the proverbial sense in form of the perils that had once again surrounded the Union. And more so in form of the state of urgency that Joakim Häyhä had grown increasingly aware of as another year in his life had passed. That urgency came from the looming realization that in spite of all that he had achieved during the sixty-four years of his life, he was a mere mortal.

Though the realization of his mortality had been a constant in the savannas and jungles of New Fennia, where Häyhä as a young man had been among those fighting to preserve the Protected Territories from the threat of return to the tribal savagery that had engulfed those lands before the arrival of the Fennians, he felt that he had forgotten that when the constant threat of the enemy had no longer been a feature of his daily life.

It had been this impending sense of mortality that had driven Häyhä to another important conclusion: that the Union in itself, as a polity, was very largely built on his own person. Though he disdained the concept of a cult of personality - the national veneration of the Stateholder General, his statues throughout Fennia and the schools, apartment blocks and streets named after him - he had understood its purpose in giving the Fennian people something to rally behind. What troubled him in that, however, was the fact that the Union itself would need to survive when Joakim Häyhä would be past this life.

He had never seen himself as a developer or a reformer. The coup of 1937 had been very much an act of preservation, to effect a salvation of the Fennian nation from the disastrous path the country had taken. In such a situation, the only way had been a restoration of order with means beyond those available in a plutocratic system, lest the country descend into madness and civil war. And in the broader perspective, preservation had been what had defined the Häyhist regime from its inception. However, with the looming realization of his own mortality, Joakim Häyhä had started to see a need to make certain that the Union and its regime would withstand his passing.

That had been the reason why he had allowed Vannas to go through with his Great Fennia League. The National Unity Front had been conceived as a movement of the elite of the Fennian society, never being intended as a mass movement such as those in the Mezhist and Communist states. The Great Fennia League would answer to the need of mass mobilization to the cause of the Häyhist regime and the Fennian national government. And the Security Department would keep an eye on thins in case Foreign Minister Vannas would desire to turn it into a renewed base of power for himself. It was well in Häyhä's knowledge, thanks to his control of the secret police apparatus, that Vannas envisioned himself as a successor to his role in charge of the country.

However, the Stateholder General wasn't so sure about that. Simply put, the Foreign Minister seemed to be disquietingly radical. Häyhä had decided that his subordinates would not tear each other apart upon his passing. The only option was for him to designate a successor and to make the way clear for that successor's entrance.

Ever greater was the threat of the foreigner with the developing arms race with Havenshire coupled with the uncertainty that had reigned in the Northern border since the Winter and the collapse of the Kingdom of Agder and Fey. Ostveg remained unrecognized by the Häyhists, and that state would continue until the Norse would relinquish their frivolous territorial claims. With foreign interventionism in that affair, Joakim Häyhä knew with great acuteness that a part of his effort to strenghten the Union - now had come the time to clear the last remnants of the Old Union and to strangle dissent out of the Union lands - was the need to make Fennia stronger against its foreign foes.

 

[Serbovia]

Border Tower Herran Rauha
Border Jäger Regiment 8
Kiestinki
Lapinmaa-Petsamo State
The Fennian Union

"The last of our Fatherland and our first line of defense", the War Minister of the Fennian Union mused as he gave a glance to the other side of the border with the pair of binoculars so courteously provided to him by the commander of Rajajääkärirykmentti 8. Agderike, or Ostveg, or whatever it was called, awaited beyond, the most ancient of all rivals of the Fennian people.

A rivalry which, Admiral Mikael Aminoff reminded himself, had not consigned itself to history. Growing up at the estate his father had built to the Protected Territories, a reward from the Union for his service in the Fennian-Agder War, Aminoff had listened to many of the stories his former cavalry officer father had told him of that war. Beginning from the infamous Siege of Haaga, in which the late Axel Aminoff had participated in the forces of the King of Kalevala, to the reconquest of Malminmaa and the decisive battles that had forced the Agder King into an armistice. For many of his generation, that war was still a reality in form of fathers fallen or maimed in battles against the Agder, or haunted by the memories of seeing brothers-in-arms die before them.

It seemed that the struggle with the Agder over a place in the sun in Scania was a constant of the Fennian people. After all, a renewed conflict did not seem that distant at this time, something the second-highest officer of the Fennian Union Army was more than aware of. His unannounced tour of military units stationed in Northern Fennia had been an idea sparked by that knowledge. First, because Mikael Aminoff had never believed that true leadership could be achieved from the safe confines of his office in Kalevala. Second, because any man of the military knew full well the significance the regular soldier placed to the fact that the highest-ranking officers of the military would actually take the time to visit them where they were preparing for the day no one hoped would actually come to pass.

The immediate Fennian-Agder border zone served as a visible reminder of the shadow of history. Meticulously removed of all foliage in order to permit the Border Jägers the detection of any intruder, and always fiercely guarded by the Fennians, between 1937 and 1941 the Häyhists had fortified the border - the term "Häyhä Line" had been coined by some lower officer and had gained official recognition - as part of the broad military expansion ordered by the Stateholder General. Immediately at the border were layers of barbed wire, then followed by anti-personnel and anti-tank mines and more barbed wire, then the guard towers that were the most recognizable symbol of the border area. Further layers were made of outposts designed to act as defensive strongpoints in the event of a war, prepared artillery and anti-air positions, obsolete tanks installed as fixed pillboxes and more extensive defense positions. All operated and maintained by the Border Jägers in a time of peace, and in the event of a war by Border reservists in concert with local Civil Guards.

"Tell me, Colonel", Admiral Aminoff said with a glance to the Border officer standing next to him, "How have your men been taking these renewed tensions with the Norse?"

"The Norse" had emerged as a neutral term of reference that avoided the issue of continuing Fennian nonrecognition of Ostveg.

"Nothing new, sir", Lieutenant Colonel Ahti Väinölä, commander of Border Jäger Regiment 8, replied, "We've maintained a heightened state of readiness ever since the civil war up North, and there's been nothing to suggest a standing-down would be in order. The men are growing used to it, and the Civil Guards and Army who've propped us up have been a good help."

Väinölä paused for a moment, then continued, "Permission to speak freely, sir?"

"Granted".

"Do you think we'll fight a war with the Norse, sir?"

"I wish I knew the answer to that", Admiral Aminoff replied after a moment of thinking.

The War Minister did, of course, have an idea. But there were things beyond his knowledge and capability to anticipate the future and the moves that the possible adversary would make. The Norse alone wouldn't stand a chance against the Union Army, but what Aminoff was genuinely concerned about was the prospect that they might attempt to regain their lost territories with Frescanian and Sylvanian backing. It was also the prospect the strategists at the War Office were planning for, with secret contingency plans being updated and Army Central Intelligence having been ordered to concentrate in assessing the strenghts, weaknesses and dispositions of said plutocratic militaries.

On the other hand, Admiral Aminoff acknowledged the fact that the Norse themselves had just emerged from a civil war and might not have the stomach for a drawn-out conflict. As for the Frescanians and Sylvanians, he knew that plutocratic governments operated on rules very different compared to Häyhist Fennia. For such a government, to whom popular attention was its lifeblood, sowing the seeds of international conflict was a convenient way to deflect popular attention away from domestic policy. And they had much to gain from the idea of the Norse believing that their survival in Scania was dependent on Frescanian and Sylvanian support. The more enthusiastic of the generals were even suggesting a pre-emptive attack against the Norse to end Fennia's historical enemy once and for all.

The more Mikael Aminoff thought about this, the gladder he was that in 1937 he had been among those officers that had deposed the plutocracy that had been leading the Fennians to the road of chaos and anarchy.

"To be truthful", Admiral Mikael Aminoff said with his eye back to the Norse side of the border, "It depends on so much. One can only anticipate how the international relations develop to a certain degree. In such an environment, the role of the soldier is to prepare so that he may serve his nation to the best effect in the eventuality Fennian arms be once again fired against our foes."

It was, Aminoff knew, a question he would be asked numerous times, by different men in uniform in different garrisons throughout Northern Fennia. But to the best of his possibilities, as the leader of those men he felt obliged to give them some kind of an answer.

 

[Serbovia]

Guesthouse "Oulunsalo"
Headquarters, Malminmaa Coastal Defense Region
Malminlinna
Kingdom of Kalevala
The Fennian Union

Admiral Mikael Aminoff chuckled in reading the editorial of today's Kalevalan Sanomat, especially as the text prepared by some senior editor of that newspaper - safely in the pocket of the Information Office, as were other outlets of Fennian media - progressed to the parts referring the story Associated Press had released over the reinforcement of the defensive minefields along Fennia's border fortifications with former Agderike. The Norse reaction had been an anticipated one, and it had been seized upon by Kaarlo Nurmi's Information Office as a device of propaganda strenghtening the idea of the Union's justification in its policies with the Norse and the apparent aggressive intentions of Kristiania.

In actuality, Aminoff noted to himself, the fact that the Häyhä Line alone seemed to have been interpreted as a threat by the Norse populace had reinforced a belief among Army Central Intelligence that Chancellor Bakken was drumming up popular support for an attempt to seize Malminmaa by force. This led to the other aspect of the leak and its consequences: the Defense Staff hoped that the Norse military leadership would gain an inflated perception over the sense of importance of the Häyhä Line in Fennian defensive arrangements - in actuality, the war plans maintained for possible use of the Norse called for a quick seizure of initiative in which static defense systems would not be particularly important - while for the Fennian populace in itself the idea of a strong line of defense would serve as a boost of confidence in the Union Army.

Indeed, Office 42 - the branch of KST's Special Services responsible for disinformation operations - had deliberately leaked the minefield story to Associated Press to evoke such a response. Admiral Aminoff made a mental note to recommend the officers who came up with the idea for a promotion when the time was due.

He put down the paper, and then examined the pile of military dossiers on the table of the guest house's living room to decide what he was going to go through next. Even after another day spent touring the troops and meeting with their commanders - with Aminoff today having reviewed the headquarters and seagoing units part of the Malminmaa Coastal Defense Region - he felt that he could not rest. The urgency his role as War Minister and the second-highest officer of the Union Army had now been given with the worsening state of Fennian-Auswegian relations did not permit that. Rest, he'd concluded, would be done in a calmer time.

"Bring me more coffee", Aminoff said after inviting the military servant assigned to him to the room, "Then you can have the rest of the evening off."

As the Petty Officer assigned as his personal aide scurried off for that errand, Aminoff examined the set of dossiers, all labelled secret either by War Office or the Defense Staff.

The headlines told him that they were plans for the eventuality no one actually hoped would happen - aside from the increasingly loud groups of junior officers insisting that Fennia should hit Ausweg before the Norse would attack on their own accord - that had been meticulously drafted by strategists in Kalevala. Partly by Aminoff himself, actually. Having been in communication with General Heinrichs, Chief of the Defense Staff in Kalevala, Aminoff knew that his subordinates were at work in planning for the eventuality that an armed confrontation with Fennia's Northern neighbor would become inevitable.

He opened a dossier detailing a standing War Office plan of total national defense in event of an armed conflict - Operaatio Vartiotorni or Operation Watchtower. It was a standard plan to be implemented in the case of a full-blown war, with variations regarding the specific nature of the conflict depending on the enemy faced. It detailed a full mobilization of the Union Army, the requisitioning of the Merchant and Fishing Marine for use as troop transports, auxiliary cruisers, disguised commerce raiders, armed trawlers and more, the utilization of Fennian industries in production of war equipment and supplies, the reinforcement of existing crisis stores of essential resources, organization of the civil defense, the deportation of identified malcontents and dissidents to the Protected Territories and further plans that would be put in place in the event of war by the War Office.

The second dossier was an existing plan that had been drafted for a war against the Kingdom of Agderike, Operaatio Hakkapeliitta or Operation Hackapelite, named as such for the nickname given to Fennian cavalrymen during the Fennian-Agder War. Portions of that plan, Admiral Aminoff knew, were being incorporated to a new plan called Operaatio Pohjantähti - Operation North Star - which assumed Auswegian intent to seize Malminmaa with Sylvanian - and possibly, Frescanian - assistance. The Stateholder General had ordered the preparation of that plan in two categories: one to assume a purely defensive conflict and the other for a pre-emptive offensive to be carried out by the Union Army at the indication that such a foreign invasion was in the works, before the invading forces could muster themselves to a sufficient degree.

Those were, of course, only plans. What, however, was taking place was a quiet increase of military readiness in order to provide sufficient early warning of possible preparations of war on behalf of Kristiania. Heightened patrols in Fennian waters and their surrounding littorals, the intensification of military intelligence operations and heightened operational levels of the air and border defenses would minimize the chance of a surprise attack.

Even if Aminoff considered a full war to be unlikely, he remembered a famous Fennian military maxim that'd been drilled to his head in the Naval Academy: "Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

 

[Serbovia]

Secret and encoded letter to Colonel-General Rainer Lintuvaara, Quartermaster-General of Union Army, from Lieutenant General Petteri Honkasalo, Quartermaster-General of the Union Air Force

Following consists of the summary of updates pertaining to the course of the ongoing Air Force development programs as directed by the Quartermaster Department, and which your office specified as high enough in priority to necessitate my direct reporting to you:

First, Project Sparrow continues with the procurement of 10 Fa 223 helicopters from the Mezhist Union. These have been designated HeK 53 (Helikopteri Kokeellinen, Helicopter Experimental) and placed under Transportation Flight Squadron 522 (Provisional) at Kokkola Air Force Base. The existence of the unit and its operation within the base remain secret. The purpose of KuLeLv 522 will be the evaluation of the purchased helicopters and their tactical use. The unit comprises members of the Air Force and Naval Aviation as well as attached personnel from the State Aircraft Manufactories for technical consulting. KuLeLv 522 will evaluate the utility of such rotorcraft in military use and their suitability to Fennian military doctrine, as well as the possibility of purchasing Fa 223 or commissioning Valek to manufacture a domestic model.

Second, the Kilpisjärvi Aerodrome - recently freed from aircraft testing use by the State Aircraft Manufacturies - has been identified as a suitable center for the commencement of Project Ukko's Hammer. I have directed Brigadier General Juho Vilkuna, the military head of the project, to commence the repurposing of the said facility to house portions of the project which need to be conducted under the highest secrecy, including manufacture of suitable parts and eventual testing. Other portions of the project will be conducted in existing Union Army and Valek facilities. Update to the status of Ukko's Hammer is being requested considering the high importance of its purpose in fashioning useful guided military rocketry will have for the foreseeable future.

Brigadier General Vilkuna has commissioned a number of Valek Engineering Division personnel for the project due to their existing experience in the design of jet aircraft, even though obviously the scope of that Project is somewhat different. Currently, the primary focus is in the development of a long-range offensive rocketry (for both conventional and chemical ordnance), guided anti-aircraft rocketry and air-to-surface ordnance which have been identified as the most feasible uses of technology within the scope of the Project.

 

[Serbovia]

Loimaa Installation
Loimaa
Grand Duchy of Savonmaa
The Fennian Union

Each day in their anonymous suburban house in an equally anonymous town of Kurttila - largely a habitational suburb of the regional capital of Juva - Antti Penttala ate breakfast with his family, asked his children about their school schedule, asked his wife about her plans for the day and said dear good-byes to all before jumping to his car and making the leg to Juva in busy morning traffic. In many aspects, the beginning of Doctor Penttala's day was quite similar to millions of other breadwinners throughout Fennia. What, however, stood out, was how his day would continue.

When he arrived to Juva, Penttala would leave his car to the guarded parking lot of the local National Development Office building - officially, he was a liaison of the Office's agricultural section to local universities and companies researching insecticides, pesticides and fertilizers - then make his way to a bus waiting to pick up its daily cargo of passengers from the very same building. There, his identity would be checked and he would be inspected for any contraband by members of the Military Police, before being allowed into the bus. When filled, the bus would then leave the parking lot followed subtly but closely by unmarked Security Department sedans. Then, the bus would exit Juva and go off to a seemingly illogical route designed to throw off anyone possibly following the bus to its destination.

After this stage had been completed, the bus would arrive in the small town of Loimaa and enter what official Fennian maps designated as a munitions depot and testing area operated by the Fennian Union Army. There, it would be checked first in a checkpoint leading into the area, and then at the gate of the so-called munitions depot. After this daily routine of arriving to their secret place of work was complete, researchers - including Doctor Colonel Penttala - of the so-called Loimaa Installation of the Defense Staff Chemical Protection Center were ready to commence their work.

The buildings part of the Loimaa Installation were actually built to externally resemble warehouses and whatnot one would expect to find in a munitions depot, another security measure in case any foreign reconnaissance aircraft managing to penetrate Fennian air defenses would manage to overfly the facilities - which Penttala found rather dull, even if the interiors themselves were nicer and far more functional, together with the underground portions of the facility. It was in his office of Building A - housing administrative portions, meeting rooms and offices of the senior personnel - that Penttala begun his day, going through the reports and messages he was usually flooded with as the facility's Director of Research.

What he was especially interested in was the newest initiative of the Loimaa Installation that was rapidly becoming his pet project. The V Program, for Voitto or Victory, looked to be the most promising undertaking of the Chemical Protection Center ever since the first nerve agents had been cleared for production. All thanks to some civilian scientists who had been conducting research on a new set of organophosphate compounds for insecticides. Their discovery had proven too toxic for safe civilian use, but the War Office had instantly seized on the opportunity, thus giving birth to the V Program. Penttala's team had received all of their research and even some newly hired scientists involved with the civilian side of that initiative, and taken upon the task of developing a new series of nerve agents from the Stateholder Marshal himself.

Sipping his morning coffee, Colonel Penttala noticed a memorandum from one of his subordinates, detailing their progress in evaluating his idea of using live test subjects when time came for the V Series. Penttala congratulated himself of the idea that convicted criminals presented a ready pool who could be recruited for a "medical program" in exchange for pay and a reduction of sentence - if they made it through alive - and who would not be sorely missed by anyone in particular. The facilities needed were already extant in the Installation.

Penttala's thoughts drifted back to his daily leg to work and how the outer trappings of his life did not seem so different from the ordinary. What in his mind differed, though, was that unlike the many other Fennian breadinners what he did for a living exclipitly and directly related to maintaining the safety of the Union in itself and the survival of the Fennian race. A goal for which he was prepared to sacrifice his private life in not being able to tell friends and family what he did, and in that recognition would be limited to official medals and awards handed out in secret. He accepted this because the job mattered.

 

[Serbovia]

26 Kalevankatu
Security Department
Fennian Union Military Police

Kalevala
Kingdom of Kalevala
The Fennian Union

"A rather interesting turn of events, sir", Colonel Petteri Juntura announced upon his entrance to the office of his superior.

Seated behind his desk, Major General Miika Saarenmaa turned his eyes away from today's Kalevalan Sanomat and met the eyes of the head of Home Counter-Intelligence, whom Saarenmaa had summoned to his office. As the head of the Home Headquarters of the Security Department, Saarenmaa was in charge of all operations of the Fennian secret police within Fennia Proper, and of certain categories of operations within the Protected Territories. Accordingly, he occupied a position of importance in the Häyhist infrastructure of internal security, often conferring with Council Ministers and the Stateholder Marshal himself on matters of highest importance to state security.

"Do tell, Colonel", Saarenmaa replied, motioning Colonel Juntura to sit down. He did so, occupying a sofa in the other end of the rather spartanly decorated office room from which Major General Saarenmaa supervised the activities of several thousand Security Department officers throughout the country.

"With me is a preliminary report of the items we confiscated from the Red interlopers arrested during the recent operation in Kalevala, concerning both the suspected Carentanian agents and their Fennian accomplices", Juntura commenced, getting up to hand a set of papers to Major General Saarenmaa, "The evidence uncovered so far runs contrary to our initial assumptions."

"Go on", Saarenmaa said while viewing the papers that Counter-Intelligence had duly designated as secret.

"Included in the items confiscated during the raids, a list of which you'll find in the papers, were a map of the nearby areas of the Saviniitty Penitentiary Work Institution, and what we've identified as photograps of the said facility. As it happens, it appears that our initial suspicion of military-technological espionage was proven wrong, though our knowledge of such motives is being suppressed from the general public for now."

Major General Saarenmaa paused to think. The Saviniitty facility, located forty kilometers north of Kalevala, was part of the extensive network of work institutions maintained under Interior Office administration throughout the Union. Set up for the purposes of rehabilitating persons whose conduct and morals were considered undesirable by the mainstream Fennian society, the work institution system had been subsequently utilized by the Häyhists for the imprisonment of political offenders in the Penitentiary Work Institutions, where the overwhelming majority of convicted seditionists served their term. In contrast to the regular work institutions which had a rehabilitatory function for people such as homosexuals, drug addicts, vagrants and fine evaders, the Penitentiary Work Institutions were heavily guarded facilities where tight discipline was imposed by a guard force chosen particularly for their political loyalty to the ruling National Unity Front.

"Doing what, exactly?", he inquired.

"Unknown at this time, sir", Juntura replied, "At this time, we can only guess, though the likely suggestion seems to be that they were gathering intelligence for a Carentanian black operation to free some inmate they consider valuable. Perhaps an agent of theirs whom the Politicals mopped up for sedition but missed a more serious act of treason? Or alternatively, a possible Carentanian attempt to infiltrate the Saviniitty facility to incite a prisoner uprising."

"You might be correct, though it's too early to say", Saarenmaa mused. Saviniitty was a facility used for high-class seditionists and persons transferred from other Penitentiary Work Institutions owing to their troublesome character, including many of the old Communist Party of Fennia. Inmates who were too unruly even to that camp usually vanished in night and fog into the nearby forests or were sent to the even more infamous Talvilinna Army Penitentiary. The theory that Carentanian intelligence agents would choose that place for such an uprising seemed to be a plausible one, though it still lacked an appropriate motive. Perhaps, the senior Security Department officer mused, the aim had been the release of some person considered valuable to the Carentanians.

He paused to think and then continued, "Where are they now."

"Well, literally below our feet, sir".

Below our feet or in the basement were synonymous to the underground detainment cells that made up a part of the Security Department headquarters complex. There, persons in investigative detention from Kalevala or from important investigations elsewhere in the country were held pending trial, and often interrogated for confession in ways which would've been considered abhorrent by any police organization of any democratic European country. More than a few persons who had antagonized the regime to a point where not even a show trial was considered sufficient for them had met their end in an execution chamber included in the said underground detention center.

"Authorize a third-level interrogation. You can go"

"Yes, sir", Colonel Juntura replied with a salute which Saarenmaa met in kind, then exited his superior's office.

The order to subject the Carentanians to the most brutal interrogation techniques available for the Fennian secret police had come without a blink in the eye. Major General Saarenmaa had grown used to that. In fact, he had been used to that ever since that one night of the tumultous events of the Häyhist Coup in 1937 when he, as a Major of Military Police, had been the last person to see thirty-seven of the more notable opponents of the coup to the aforementioned night and fog.

In this very same building, in fact. In the basement.

 

[Serbovia]

Erikoisohjelmayksikkö
Special Projects Division

Päämajoitusmestarin toimisto
Quartermaster General's Office

Unionin Puolustusesikunta
Union Defense Staff
HUIPPUSALAINEN - TOP SECRET
From:Lieutenant General Kristian Sojakka, Commanding Officer, Special Projects Division
To:Colonel-General Rainer Lintuvaara, Quartermaster General of the Army
Status update: Project Victory and Project Ukko's Hammer

As per your request, I have conferred with the scientific and military heads of both Project Victory and Project Ukko's Hammer to receive updates on the development achieved in these programs and done personal visits to the crucial installations of both programs.

Projekti Voitto/Project Victory

The Chemical Protection Center (KSK, Kaasusuojelukeskus) has now managed to commence limited manufacture of an experimental nerve agent solution, tentatively named Agent VA. (Aine VA) Substance VA is based on the original insecticide solution forming a basis of the entire Project Victory, but we have managed to refine the persistence and lethality of the solution. The current version of Agent VA is in lethality equivalent to the versions of sarin gas in the chemical stockpile of the Union Army, but the core difference is that in comparison to sarin and other G series agents, Agent VA is persistent in nature. I have instructed the Chemical Protection Center to continue its ongoing development with the aim of improving the agent's lethality and suitability for field use.

It is my continued belief that Project Victory shows high potential for the future and the possibility of improvement of our nation's defensive capabilites. The possibility of having a persistent nerve agent, also suitable for large-scale manufacture and delivery by artillery or aerial bombing, will provide a strategic advantage to the Union Army in any estimated conflict between the states considered to be most likely foreign adversaries of the Union. In effect, such a weapon could be utilized in an area-denial capability in a similar nature as the deployment of a minefield, to deny an enemy force access to certain areas and to channel enemy movement to areas where they can be easily engaged and defeated by conventional military forces. Additionally, the area-denial use could be expanded to strategic installations of both civilian and military use, such as airfields, harbors, bridges, key manufactories and other facilities. Operating under a constant threat of exposure to chemical agents will require a military force to use protective equipment, which in turn will reduce their combat effectiviness.

I have also reviewed the security arrangements of Project Victory, due to concerns expressed over the involvement of non-KSK research staff over the project. While all involved have undergone the appropriate security vetting and strict compartmentalization of information is utilized according to the War Office Secrecy Regulations, it is my opinion that additional Security Department monitoring and the use of covert informers is necessary to prevent the risk of a security breach. Certain civilian researchers involved have had problems adapting to the methods and purposes of the Chemical Protection Center, and their involvement continues to be a necessity in spite of full military control of the research materials obtained before the research was transferred under military control.

Projekti Ukonvasara/Project Ukko's Hammer

As per the directives of the Stateholder Marshal and the War Office, Project Ukko's Hammer now continues with additional resources in order to answer to the continuing development of military rocketry throughout Europe. I continue to agree with the Stateholder Marshal's assessment that Ukko's Hammer is perhaps the most crucial development program underway in the Special Projects Division due to the widespread effects in warfare that developed and militarily useful guided rocketry will likely have.

At the moment, the most promising sub-project of Ukko's Hammer is the development of a defensive missile for the interception of enemy aircraft, especially in defense of cities and vital sites against enemy bombardment in order to complement traditional anti-aircraft gunnery. The immediate focus of this sub-project is in the development of such a defensive missile to be employed in defense of cities and vital targets due to the lack of mobility that a combat- effective system will likely have. It must also be given the highest importance due to increasing performance of fighter and bomber aircraft and their availability to hostile countries such as the Tripartite Pact members. The State Aircraft Manufactory has been commissioned for the purposes of designing a prototype for such a system due to their existing expertise in jet aircraft engines. This sub-project has been designated Program Fireshield/Tulikilpi.

In collaboration with the Union Air Force, the Special Projects Division has also identified the need for an offensive surface-to-surface missile capable of carrying an explosive or chemical payload in order to attack vital enemy rear-area sites and similar infrastructure. The impetus for this program comes from the prediction that with the increasing efficiency of anti-aircraft defense (owing to both the development of higher-performance jet interceptors and improved anti-aircraft gunnery, as well as the estimated deployment of anti-aircraft missiles by major military powers before 1960), the traditional tactical and strategic bomber aircraft will be reduced in importance and perhaps entirely prevented in attacking targets in areas of high anti-aircraft saturation. This has been allocated as a separate sub-project under the designation Project Ukonvaaja (Thunderstone) with collaboration from the Rocketry Department of the State Aircraft Manufactory.

Additionally, the Special Projects Division is investigating the development of an air-to-air missile (Program Firespear/Tulikeihäs) and an anti-tank missile suitable for launch from fixed positions or wheeled or tracked vehicles. (Program Speartip/Keihäänkärki), which are the two other conceptual developments that have arisen from Ukko's Hammer that are most suitable for development and operational deployment. We expect to have prototypes for these by next year. Other conceptual developments continue as well, but the aforementioned three programs are now being prioritized with the aim of producing viable armament types.

 

[Serbovia]

Sota-asiaintoimisto
War Office

Fennian Unioni
The Fennian Union
SALAINEN - SECRET
To all formation commanders of the Fennian Union Army, Fennian Union Border Guard Corps, Fennian Union Military Police Corps, Fennian Union Coast Guard Corps and the Fennian Union Civil Guard

As per the heightened state of international relations, specifically the developing political tensions over the so-called Faroes Purchase, and the estimation by Foreign Office and Army Central Intelligence that a heightened risk of military conflict now reigns in the Northern Thaumantic, I have with consultation of Stateholder Marshal Häyhä and Chief of the Defense Staff, General Marshal Heinrichs, issued on this day the following orders to an immediate and full effect:

1) Effective immediately in all active-duty units of the Fennian Union Army and the uniformed and military-effective services of the Interior Office, all active-duty personnel and drafted conscripts are to maintain themselves prepared for unit mobilization within a six-hour notice. All off-garrison leaves are temporarily revoked until further notice by order of the War Office.
2) Active-duty units with first-line operational responsibility over the Häyhä Line, as well as those with second-line reinforcement responsibility, will maintain themselves at a full operational readiness.
3) Navy and Air Force units with first-line operational responsibility over the assurance of the sovereignity and inviolability of Fennian territorial waters and airspaces will maintain themselves at a full operational readiness and are to assume a heightened operational posture in ensuring the inviolability of Fennian territories.
4) Units of the Military Police Corps with assigned protected critical infrastructure locations will maintain themselves at a full operational readiness.
5) Units responsible for the stowage and maintenance of chemical weapons will maintain themselves ready for the operational preparation and delivery of chemical weapons to assigned deploying units upon the necessary orders issued by the Chief of the Defense Staff, or subordinate Defense Area and Army Group commanders in the event communication with Chief of the Defense Staff is cut off.
6) Army Central Intelligence, and branch-level intelligence units with direct reporting responsibilities to KST*, will immediately assume a full operational posture to provide a maximum amount of militarily useful intelligence material for the use of the War Office and the Defense Staff.

These measures have been implemented as a contingency in response to growing international tensions, and their scope should remain secret for as long as possible. Exercise the highest operational security under all conditions. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

Grand Admiral Mikael Aminoff,
War Minister

OOC: KST = Keskussotilastiedustelu = Army Central Intelligence

 

[Serbovia]

Päämajoitusmestarin toimisto
Quartermaster General's Office

Unionin Puolustusesikunta
Union Defense Staff
SALAINEN - SECRET

The Quartermaster Department has prepared this overview of ongoing military equipping programs overseen by the Quartermaster Department, specifically for the purposes of the ongoing five-year army reform campaign. This overview is intended to the Corps of Generals and the relevant senior officials of the War Office, the Interior Office and the National Development Office as a concise overview of ongoing military development in terms of material and technology. Specific reportage pertaining to these programs is handled through Quartermaster Department program heads to appropriate parties.

Yleiskivääri 55/Universal Rifle 55

Entrance of Yleiskivääri 55 and Yleiskivääri 55B into Union Army service is proceeding as planned. The Union Naval Infantry has already made the full transition with the speedy delivery of YK55B rifles by the Mezhist Union and the introduction of those rifles to Naval Infantry service. Introduction of the YK55 rifle is underway, with priority given to the Border Corps and Land Forces units deployed in the vicinity of the Austwegian border. The new rifle has been met with positive reviews by servicemen owing to the increase of firepower now available to the infantry platoon.

Units receiving the new battle rifles will pass down still-useful semi-automatic rifles to reserve and combat support units to achieve a full removal of the Kiv98K from service, aside from sniper roles.

Konekivääri 55/Machine Gun 55

The State Metal Factories have submitted a Kk55 prototype for testing within the Land Forces and Naval Infantry. Based on the already familiar Kk34/42 type of general-purpose machine guns, Kk55 is mainly differentiated from its predecessors by higher production quality with which greater reliability and lower barrel wear is to be achieved. Entrance of Kk55 to service is to occur at the same time as Yk55, due to the resulting change from 7,92x57mm to 7,62x51mm as standard caliber. Kk26 will be entirely removed from Union Army service with the adoption of this weapon, as will several models used as vehicle armament.

Specifications:Weight 16kg bipod, 26kg tripod; Caliber: 7,62x51mm VALMET, Rate of fire: 1000 rounds per minute, Effective range: Up to 2000 meters, Feed: 50-round drum magazine or belt feed.

Projekti Sotavaunu/Project Chariot

The State Metal Factories have been commissioned to design a prototype for a heavy fire support tank to operate in conjunction with armored units equipped with the PsV 45, and in replacement of the PsV 42 Tiikeri heavy tank. This tank would be operated in the same doctrinal basis as PsV 42, in heavy tank battalions to be attached to key combat units at the discretion of the commander of an Armored or Armored Jaeger Corps for the provision of long-range firepower. Projected specifications include 65 ton weight and a crew of four, an armament consisting of a 120mm main gun and two 7,62x51mm machine guns and a sustainable speed of 35km/h.

Additionally, the State Metal Factories have been commissioned for an "up-gunning" program of the PsV 43 tank to provide additional firepower to reserve armored units pending the adoption of the PsV 45 to full degree within the reservist units, by fitting the PsV 45's 84mm tank gun to the PsV 43 in place of the present 76mm tank gun.

Projekti Vankkuri/Project Horsewagon

A joint Land Forces/Naval Infantry testing unit, designated Provisional Armored Jaeger Battalion 502, has been formed to evaluate the Eiffellander- made armored personnel carriers recently acquired for testing purposes. The mission of the unit will be to evaluate these designs and alternatives for the improvement of existing Armored Jaeger mobility and to contribute in the development of a replacement to the half-tracks and tracked carriers currently used for this purpose.

Projekti Katapultti/Project Catapult

Project Catapult aims towards overall improvement of artillery firepower available to the Land Forces in divisional, corps, army and army group levels. This involves evaluation of new methods of fire plotting and direction, artillery communication and artillery spotting as well as towed and self-propelled field artillery models in use.

Projekti Hiirenloukku/Project Mousetrap

Project completed with satisfactory results by Land and Border Guard combat engineer servicemen. Defense Staff strategists estimate a significant improvement in the ability of the Häyhä Line to dissuade and to slow down any Austwegian invasion in the near future through the additional placement of anti-personnel and anti-tank mines, with special attention to sections of the border considered to be likely attack routes for any Austwegian force.

Hävittäjä 55/Destroyer 55

Production of the Destroyer 55, designated Merikarhu class destroyer, is underway and the first two examples UA Merikarhu and UA Vartija have entered service within the Northern Thaumantic Fleet. The Merikarhu class will replace the current Puolustaja class destroyer in the role of large, ocean-going fleet destroyer for capital ship escort, and the Puolustaja class will eventually be reduced to Inactive Naval Reserve status, scrapped or sold abroad.

Specifications:
Displacement: 3800 tons full load
Length:133 meters
Draught: 4,40 meters

Propulsion: 2x Konpella shaft-geared steam turbines, 4 boilers, 66000 shp
Speed:35 knots
Crew:305

Armament:
6x 127mm dual-purpose guns (three twin mounts)
16x 40mm anti-aircraft guns (four quadruple mounts)
10x 533mm torpedo tubes
2x anti-submarine mortars
6x depth-charge throwers
Mine-laying capabilities

Saattohävittäjä 55/Escort Destroyer 55

The Vankka class escort destroyer has entered production in order to provide eventual replacement to the current escort destroyer models in Union Navy service, which will face relegation to the Inactive Naval Reserve, scrapping or foreign sale. The design of the Vankka class reflects a traditional escort destroyer role of anti-submarine warfare, patrol duty and convoy escort, but with increased speed and endurance to achieve greater suitability for fleet operations.

Specifications:
Displacement: 1700 tons full load
Length: 95 meters
Draught: 4,2 meters

Propulsion: 2x Konpella shaft-geared steam turbines, 2 boilers, 21000 shp
Speed: 28 knots
Crew: 170

Armament:
4x 100mm dual-purpose guns (two twin mounts)
8x 40mm anti-aircraft guns (one quad mount, two twin mounts)
6x 533m torpedo tubes
1x anti-submarine mortar
2x depth-charge throwers

Sukellusvene 55/Submarine 55

The Uisko class submarine has entered production in order to augment the operational capabilities of the Union Navy Submarine Service and in eventual replacement of the Vetehinen class submarine imported from the Mezhist Union. In essence, the Uisko class is an enlarged version of the Vesikko class intended to act in the role of long-range penetration and anti-shipping operations in the Thaumantic Ocean.

Specifications.
Displacement: 2300 tons submerged
Length:95 meters
Draught: 5,2 meters

Propulsion: 4x Konpella diesel engines + electrical generators, twin batteries, 2x low-speed electrical motors, 2740shp submerged
Speed: 20 knots surfaced, 9 knots submerged
Crew: 80

Armament:
10 533m torpedo tubes (six forward, four aft), 28 torpedoes
Minelaying capabilities
Four 20mm guns

OOC:I'll do the Air Force update later due to laziness.

 

[Serbovia]

Päämajoitusmestarin toimisto
Quartermaster General's Office

Unionin Puolustusesikunta
Union Defense Staff
SALAINEN - SECRET

Hävittäjä 55/Fighter 55

With the choice of the State Aircraft Manufactory for the Air Force tender to develop and produce a new jet-powered, swept-wing fighter-bomber aircraft to replace the H-42 and H-43 propeller models in Air Force use and also to provide an eventual replacement for the H-45 and H-48 jet fighters, production of Hävittäjä 55 Aarnikotka is currently underway. Initial product models have now entered service with Tactical Flight Regiment 7, and their use is being monitored by Air Force quartermasters and the State Aircraft Manufactory for continuing evaluation purposes of the aircraft.

Pommittaja 54/Bomber 54

The State Aircraft Manufactory has delivered first two prototype aircraft to the Air Force for the Bomber 54 program, which will replace propeller-powered tactical bombers and large reconnaissance aircraft in the Air Force inventory. These aircraft will now be trialled by the Air Force Tactical Development Center with the aim of examining the need of modification prior to the aircraft's entry in production.
Specifications:
Crew: Three

Length:19.96 meters
Wingspan: 19.50 meters
Loaded weight: 20000kg

Maximum speed:933 km/h
Combat radius: 1300km
Service ceiling:15000 meters

Armament:
Four 20mm cannons
Up to 3600kg of ordnance in an internal bomb bay and two underwing hardpoints, option of mounting cannon or rocket pods on hardpoints for interdiction roles

Raskas Pommittaja 54/Heavy Bomber 54

The State Aircraft Manufactory is currently in the process of devising a prototype to meet the requirements of the Heavy Bomber 54 project, owing to the increased capabilities of jet-powered interceptor aircraft now rendering Heavy Bomber 42 obsolete in its expected role of penetrating enemy air defenses for conventional and chemical bombardment against the enemy's population centers and key military and civilian infrastructure. The option of acquiring a Mezhist Union- built model is also being sought.

Projekti Varpunen/Project Sparrow

The joint Union Army program examining the adoption of the helicopter for military service is proceeding with satisfactory results, and the training of trial pilots for the helicopters purchased from the Mezhist Union under high secrecy has been completed, with Project Sparrow now transferring to full-scale operational testing. An overview of the placement of these helicopters and their testing purposes follows:
Union Air Force/Land Force:70 examples with Development Flight Regiment 18 for doctrinal development and experimental use in army cooperation, utility transport, liaison, search and rescue and casualty evacuation roles
Union Air Force/Border Guard: 10 examples with Development Flight Detachment R for doctrinal development and experimental use in border surveillance roles.
Union Naval Aviation: 30 examples with the Naval Aviation Development Center, Northern Thaumantic Fleet, for doctrinal development and experimental use in maritime surveillance, onboard delivery and anti-submarine warfare roles.

The Stateholder Marshal has directed that the development of a domestic helicopter model will commence with the aim of trial production by next year, and for this purpose the State Aircraft Manufactory is fully involved with Project Sparrow to draft plans for a helicopter model suited to the particular needs of the Union Army.