The next day…
“So, Project Ragnarok’s reason is…?” Cecilia sat at her mahogany desk, her fingers laced as she looked at her sister.
“From what I can tell, Vekaiyu is building some sort of super-weapon, and personally…”
Cecilia held up a hand. “I understand Natalka, and believe me, while I do agree that Vekaiyu’s research concerns me greatly, especially with their research in particle acceleration, we have to think about this carefully. I don’t want people to think we are like Vekaiyu, a nation that thinks everyone is out to get her. There is also the problem of Ragnarok itself. Ragnarok is quite impressive, but at the same time, terrifying. It is capable of carrying and even launching nuclear missiles, ICBMs, mind you.”
“Well the ability to launch ICBMs isn’t quite ready yet. The ability to launch nukes is ready though.”
“I see. Still, the ability might make some, no a lot of people, both frightened and upset, especially Southern Yugoslavia, our closest ally.”
“Well, there are other promising technologies, such as the Heimdal, the siege tank, and the Goliath. But most importantly, the Golem.”
“Yes, the Golem was most impressive. I see no problem with that.”
“And what about Project Yorktown?”
“Project Yorktown will have to continue. While I would prefer that these projects wait until we see what our Southern Yugoslavian guests have to say, we have already begun to work on them, so we might as well continue.”
Before Natalka could say thank you, Cecilia warned her. “However, if Southern Yugoslavia tells us to pull the plug, we have no choice but to cease all of the projects, or the ones they tell us to stop working on.”
“I understand. Still, why would they want to halt any of them?”
“Political reasons is my guess,” Cecilia answered. “Still, we have to be careful of certain black spots, one of which are stimpacks.”
“Ouch. I hated using those things. Gave you a migrane and a nasty hangover after using it. Not to mention, I hate drug use. One reason why I never used them after that one time.”
Cecilia nodded. Only infantry used stimpacks. They were discontinued being used, but there were a lot of people who were considering of restarting their usage. MedTech, a Southern Yugoslavian medical research company, was curious about stimpacks and were starting to study them. It was a matter of time until they started asking Zak to demand Vulshain to cease all usage and production of stimpacks and to destroy all remaining stimpack in storage.
The stimpacks were meant to greatly increase a soldier’s reflexes and speed, but they had some nasty and risky side-effects, too. It was these side-effects that led to almost, if not, all production and usage of stimpacks.
“We have to be prepared to do as Southern Yugoslavia says, if we want to repair the damage done to our alliance with them,” Cecilia said.
Natalka nodded in agreement. “By the way, Project Yorktown has a little…side project.”
“Oh?”
“We call it the Spitfire Cannon, or Spitfire gun. Basically it is an experimental particle weapon.”
“Oh Den Mother, Natalka, pleased tell me this isn’t something stolen from Vekaiyu!”
“It isn’t. It is basically technology gained from Rygard. They had three experimental laser weapons, reverse-engineered, crudely I might add, from East Malaysian technology, stolen and smuggled by East Malaysian anti-government groups. DIEIS found documents and blueprints of them. The Spitfire Gun uses an intense magnetic field to focus a small nuclear explosion into a cohesive beam of energy. Really impressive, too. Perfect for a siege weapon.”
Groaning, Cecilia finally sighed. “Please, please, please don’t put that on the Yorktown Project until after we talk with the Southern Yugoslavians!”
“I won’t. Still, you have to stop worrying about making your boyfriend angry. He’s a soldier, so he should understand. I think.”
“I don’t know Natalka. Still, I think we should be prepared for what they tell us.”