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General Marcus Seralor looks over his troops with a slight frown on his face. He can't display his discontent with the situation too openly. He has to serve his country to the best of his abilities and he will see to it that they are kept safe. However, that doesn't change the fact that he doesn't like the way things are developing. The Kingdom of Triessa has been building up their forces along the border and he's being given a lot of pressure from the higher ups to do the same. It wouldn't do to let the people in that country have an easy way into the country. And naturally that also means relocating a good proportion of the countries special forces to this location as well. He doesn't like it, he knows the neighboring countries don't like it and there's nothing that he can really do about it all. And that's what annoys him the most. They aren't acting openly against them. All the people in the Kingdom of Triessa are doing is building up their military. Everyone knows a war will likely come eventually. How could it not with people like them running their country.

The general walks the path of the base as he lets his mind wander. Some of the soldiers running exercise drills stop and salute him as he passes. He returns the salute but doesn't really stop or interfere. There isn't all that much need for it. There's no real for a sense of urgency at the moment. And everyone here knows it. There is a definite tension in the air, but it's nowhere close to an oppressive one. Everyone knows that eventually Triessa is going to make a move against them and they need to be ready at a moment's notice to respond. The thing the general is most concerned about is really some of the nearby countries. So far they haven't gotten any indication of any of them taking sides and insisting on a state of neutrality, but if an alliance was formed it would escalate extremely quickly and he doesn't know how many would end up dying as more and more of the world was wrapped up in everything. That was the worst-case scenario. The best-case scenario as far as Marcus is concerned would be for Triessa to make a stupid move that is doomed to fail and bring about global pressure for them to stand down and make amends.

He eventually ends up at the part of the base that is reserved for the special forces of the army. And he finds them running a simple drill as well. But unlike the main body of the army, these individuals are always off on their own separate area. They don't really interact much with the general soldiers and that's probably for the best. There is a lot of superstition to try and get around, not to mention the amount of jealousy involved. The special forces are in a league of their own, which makes them far more valuable than the rank and file soldier. These are not nearly as well disciplined as he would like and he does repeatedly drill into their commanders that they need to maintain order just like everyone else in the army. But as they are more valuable, they get the better secured areas of the base, get paid more just for being a part of this branch of the military and priority to shipping them out is given to these first.

Marcus sees primarily the practical purpose of their existence. They are here and Triessa would not hesitate to throw their own special forces at his main army, so he needs to have just as many if not more than they do to try and dissuade them from attacking. It was a concept he head read about, of mutually assured destruction. That a rational enemy would not attack if they knew that doing so would destroy themselves in the process. But that is part of the problem, would that really stop them from attacking? There is one nice saving grace in his mind and that the arena games are still going on as normal. Watching projectors duke it out is one of the main pass times for both countries. There are about five other countries in the league, but a full two thirds are run by teams in either Triessa or his own country. And a war would mean that any of the professional athletes would be forfeit and used as prisoners of war. So long as the seasons are continuing as normal there is little likelihood of there being an immediate war. It's also far more likely that they'd see little border skirmishes before an all-out attack as Triessa is testing his defenses.

But that doesn't necessarily make him feel any better. Especially since every other week he gets a call or an in person call from someone higher up on the picking order demanding that he produce more results than he is able to do. Now with the normal army he can maintain them and run drills to get them and keep them in the best condition he can. But with the special forces it's down to the extreme limitation that they are fairly rare. And no amount of demanding he get more is going to have any impact of him being able to actually have more.

In fact that was effectively the reason why he was walking the base at the moment. There was an official from the capital that was supposed to be berating him about his lack of preparedness against a enemy army that he can't really make any move against. And they're too superstitious an individual that he knows they won't bother coming out all the way to the special forces training facility in order to keep ragging on him. Personally he'd actually prefer it if the capital would just let him do his own thing, provide him with the funds to do all the things they are demanding of him and just overall stay out of his way.

"Running away from the brass again, eh?" Colonel Samantha Garis says, choosing to walk up and sit right next to him. Garis is the one specifically in charge of the special forces units. And so it made perfect logistical sense for them to come and sit next to him whenever he chose to come visit.

"There's only so much I can take of that idiot in one sitting. It doesn't matter how many times he demands me of it, it's not like I can just wave my arms and make more forces suddenly appear. It's almost like he wants there to be a war. Honestly if both sides just flat out agreed to it, I imagine the entire thing could be completely avoided and both sides completely scaled down."

"He's just afraid of them attacking and being seen as weak by his constituents. And we both know they'll never agree to terms to just walk away from the threat. If something like that could have worked, it would have worked a long time ago. I'm sorry, but it looks like we're just going to have to get used to a life of constantly having to deal with politicians like that and the constant demand to be ready for a threat that very well may end up never coming."

"Hopefully it won't come. No one likes war. We are here to protect our own country from any threat that befalls it and if there is a threat, we won't hesitate to rise to the challenge and keep the civilians safe. That is why we do what we do. Under the best of circumstances we should be in a situation where a threat shows up, we deal with it quickly and decisively and the general public is never made aware of everything we do."

"The definition of my group in a nut shell. The average person knows that I am in charge of the special forces but don't actually know what makes them different from the normal army. And the vast majority of the people wouldn't even want to know what all our group is usually doing. We're the group everyone fears exist but can't bring themselves to acknowledge the logic behind us existing. Because they certainly would be in the exact same situation."

"I know, but logistically it is best kept as a state secret about the specifics of your group and your group is probably almost more effective in a real fight than even the air force likely would be at a fraction of the cost. But you know how the brass is. They think that by spending twice as much on something that they should be able to get twice the results, despite the fact that the laws of reality just don't happen to work that way. And unfortunately, I probably need to get back. He'll probably start sending a car for me to go meet him in my office if I'm gone for too long, assuming he hasn't just gone and done that already."

Marcus stands up and after getting a salute from Colonel Garis he walks off back through the base. There really wasn't anything he could really do about the situation. He was responsible for their situation and would keep those in charge informed about his own status and any movements about the forces in the other country. Though some have been calling them the enemy, Marcus always felt that was a premature distinction to make on a neighboring country before they even made any aggressive front. Even trade between the two countries is proceeding normally. There is definitely some tension between the two countries, but he wouldn't call them enemies. When he gets back into the headquarters, he finds that the politician has been pacing back and forth through the entryway, probably for some time.

"And where did you run off to?" he demands.

"I didn't run anywhere," Marcus states flatly. In all reality of the two he still held the upper hand. Though he did report to the government, he was not so simply replaced. If they did something well out of line he could make sure that they definitely paid for that transgression and would be voted out the next election. He doesn't have that much sway, but he could manage that. However, if they removed him from his post, not only would Triessa know that their base is not being properly managed but that there is a vulnerability they can exploit if they push the matter on his replacement, effectively being able to blackmail them to maintain the peace. But there aren't many who are of his rank that are perfectly fine with being saddled with such a job as to operate both the normal army and their special forces at the same time.

It is something that both of them knew. Marcus was at the current time irreplaceable and there really is nothing this politician can really do to him. He can make demands all he wants but ultimately until they can find a replacement there is no real threat to anything the politician demands. Of course, if they started looking around for a replacement he'd know and then it'd become an issue of who do the people trust more, this particular politician or a decorated General. And as a direct result of this sort of situation, the politician has no real option but to accept his disrespect or flippant manner.

"I was touring the base at a rather casual pace. If you had wanted, I would have been all the happy to give you a personal tour of the entire training facilities, including where our special forces are running drills."

"There will be no need for that," the politician quickly exclaims. "I'm on a very busy schedule and don't have time for such dalliances, which is why it is so unforgiveable for you making me wait."

"Relax, your plain won't leave without you. And honestly, you coming here in person really isn't going to change anything. We are as battle-ready as we have been since the last time you came around. And no level of demands are really going to make that change. We will be ready to respond in kind if Triessa makes a move, but I will not be committing my men to initiate an act of war."

"And I am still saying that it's not good enough. All of our analysts show that they are growing their forces on pace with our own, which means that there is no guarantee that you will be able to keep them away if they were to catch you off-guard or did something unexpected like the scheming bastards they are."

"The only way that we're going to get the forces you want is if we change policy and be completely open about what our special forces are and put out a call for any that fit the bill to publicly come and enlist."

"There's no reason to be so hasty as to go to such lengths," the politician quickly stammers.

"And there's nothing I can really do about the strength of our forces. The treaty puts a limitation on the ordinance and vehicles. The only thing that there is no limitation is the personnel and unless you want to me to double up on the recruitment of the ordinary soldiers there is simply no possible way to group our forces any fast than they already are."

The politician frowns at that, but that is simply the truth. He can prepare all he wants and make sure that the enemy knows that any attempt to attack them will be met with the full might of their enemy. And beyond that there is not much he can really do but escalate at effectively the same rate as the other side. Technically he wasn't telling the truth. If they went and brought in all of the equipment from the entire country all into this base they will be vastly stronger than the other side at present. But he's not going to suggest this as it would leave them vulnerable to respond to a threat to any of the other countries and might be taken to be an active threat from Triessa, drastically increasing the chance of them doing a sort of pre-emptive strike of the military base. And if that succeeded then again the entire country would be defenseless. But there's nothing he can really do about it. If the politician wanted more progress, he'd have to approve for more progress. They're on budget and fully staffed. After more complaining and demanding, eventually the politician claims their time is now needed elsewhere and leaves. Which is just as well. It allows Marcus to go back to his office to review reports and get some real work done and hope that there comes a time when a politician is coming not to say his forces aren't strong enough, but that they have to scale back the size of his forces.