>>5900221>>5900321>>5900330>>5900851In a departure from your usual method of attack, Nino organized a infiltration team by divers with no initial artilery or drone support. This risky method, combined with yet another northern strike by Doyle and his mercenaries resulted in a surprisingly smooth establishment of footholds to the north of the river as various groups of veteran soldiers and mercenaries swam and dove the river, emerged from the muddy banks and, using surpressed weapons and in some cases, blades, cleared the watch. In the north, as usual, Doyle’s forces found themselves attacking a solid wall and suffered appropriate casualties. Eventually your forces were spotted and the northwards thrust turned into a more traditional engagement with quickly re-deploying artillery and massed drone swarms covering boats filled with infantrymen as they crossed into secured positions and attempted to thrust northwards.
Unlike the expected fear you thought the Kommunalists would display towards your men, they held their ground and fought well, with the deciding factor being the motivation and the certainty of your own troops, rather than the lack of it by your enemy. After a few days of grinding combat and the reluctance by the Kommunalists to commit reserves to the fight, probably from the fear of whatever the Black lady did to them being repeated, you managed to push them back significantly. The after action reports however, revealed this conflict for the bloody slug it was with you losing five thousand, Doyle six and the Kommunalists ten thousand.
You change into your formal clothes and decide to change the scenery of your meetings from the council to the temple garden. As usual, Jivan, Rani, Hagos, Nino and Lanu show up.
“Good evening.” Hagos opens the meeting.
A chorus of replies follows, before eventually, Rani starts the discussion. “We’ve pushed the Kommunalists back. Are we to attempt negotiating with the major parties?” She asks.
“Maybe.” You reply. “I am interested in hearing more opinions.”
Rani nods “We have demonstrated our martial ability to every one of our neighbors. We have confined the police to Yunqi, we have pushed the Kommunalists back and we have a pact with Doyle. I think we should try negotiating with both of these groups to separately provide them transport to wherever offworld. Ren should know that she will never recover Lanu, while the Kommunalists should know they will never control it.”
“And you think they’ll just give it up?” Jivan asks.
“Ren, I’m not sure. Maybe with payment and tribute and lip service, she may accept it. As for Sandro, perhaps, if he is allowed offworld transit with a large number of his Kommunalists.” Rani says. “Besides, it’s not like we would be able to defeat either in a short timespan.”
>Continue offensive (write-in)>Negotiate with Ren (write-in)>Negotiate with Sandro (write-in)>Negotiate with Doyle (write-in)>Write-in 