A smirk crossed Saint-Just's lips briefly, as the admiral spoke. Exactly the question he expected from someone like Clement. Leaning a bit forward in his chair, the colonel started his speech.
"I won't lie, Amiral, I would propose exactly that. For multiple reasons. Though I'd use the word guidance rather than rule. After all, that's what intelligence does: offer insight and guidance." He cast a glance around the room, looking at the flag officers who gathered in the briefing room: "Most of the people here are frontline officers. Your business is war, and you've been waging it regardless of the odds stacked against you."
"I'm sure there are some military leaders in this room more capable than me," he looked the admiral in the eye as he said that, for a long time, and without flinching: "But the EDA will be more than a military, if it is to succeed. It will need own infrastructure, facilities, civilian personnel, and logistics. I'm sure that you all can put your time to better use." Having said that, he'd stare at the admiral just a little bit longer: "There is also the matter of navigating through the political pitfalls, forging alliances, and handling the foreign matters. Again, something that one of you could handle. But would you want to?"
After a brief pause, Maximilian moved on the final point: "I know I am a dark horse. But me being outside the military hierarchy also gives me more room to mediate disputes between flag officers..." he glanced at the people who were sitting at the table with him. "... that will undoubtedly arise." Giving them just enough time to tart questioning their peers' motives, he proceeded: "And although I may not be a renowned commander, I can inspire loyalty. There have been no dissent and desertions in Escadron XXII for the duration of the war. Commandant Gauthier can attest to that."
Having made his points, he looked at the admiral, his head tilted slightly to the right, the smirk now gone, and his expression dead-serious: "Does that answer satisfy you?"
De Fournier grinned when Amiral Clement spoke. He definitely liked the points Louis made, as so often, he supports the ideas of his old friend. After the others were done, he began to reveal his own plans to the others.
"Well, as Comte du Larrau, I have personal interest in the security in the Aquitaine system, so my Battlegroup Le Cendre will stay there, for now. I will, as my rank of Contre-Amiral asks for, follow the chain of command and so follow the command of Amiral Clement. He is a very good leader, I do trust him. If he says it is correct to choose you as leader, Monsieur Sanit-Just, I will gladly accept you as leader, if he does not... Well, then... You understand, I'm sure."
Jean-Pierre leaned back into his seat and looked at the others, awaiting at least mimical reactions from his Amiral.
"It is no big deal to control your soldiers if you only have a handful of agents, trained for unquestionable loyality.
Yet you've failed even that. Or didn't agent Josselyne leave your organization to join up with my forces?
You're indeed right. We all want to focus on our own military agenda. I could use someone to do the civilian work.
But why would I chose you? What makes you better than anyone else? Bordeaux is a thick jungle, turning this into a civilized world will not be an easy task. My soldier's lives depend on the success of this operation."
Louis took a quick look onto the other discussion members, especially watching the expression of monsieur de Fournier.
He went silent for a short moment, thinking about his decision.
"Colonel Saint-Just, if you really wish to serve our renewed Kingdom, I will not stop you.
You may decide the civilian and political matters.
However, when it comes to the military, my battlegroups are allready occupied preparing for their next mission.
They will not follow your orders, I however, am willing to consider them.
The coming weeks will show me if you're worth serving the Royal Enclave. If you aren't..."
He hesitated, to not threaten the colonel just yet.
"I think you understand. Do all of us a favor and do not mess this up."
He nodded and remained still on his seat, to let the other commanders speak their mind.
Rose-Marie Dumont nodded while looking at Colonel. "It satisfies me, regardless of others think. Colonel has a point. We are frontline officers. However brilliant we might be on our own right, Colonel seems to know his domain and closer to civilian matters than us. We are...distanced from such intricaties, we wage war in the name of Roi." She then looked at Amiral Clement. "Also Amiral Clement has a point. We can not blindly follow people who claim leadership without proving they are worthy of such an undertaking. Nonetheless, I will consider Colonel's possibly valuable advice, as long as it has merit and does not collide with goals of Marteau des Hebrides or Enclave as a whole. My battlegroup is under a refit process at the moment and we opted to keep several options at the table to approach how we are going to deal with inevitable retaliation. Some of the options include direct cooperation with your units, mon Amiral."
Maximilian listened to what the admirals had to say. His expression as emotionless as the tone of commandant Gauthier used to be. Only when amiral Clement brought up Josselyne, did the corner of his lip twitch, but that was it. Then Contre-Amiral Dumont made her point. Saint-Just just nodded slightly as the woman mentioned that she couldn't follow him blindly. It would've been foolish to assume otherwise, given their ranks and ambitions. As the admirals finished speaking, the Colonel stepped in again, dead serious for now: "I wouldn't expect anything else. Though amiral, a little remark. The new Commandant of the Lance Royale cohort now reports to me as well. In my opinion, that's more than a handful of agents." Hopefully, that would remind the arrogant Clement that he wasn't the only big fish in the pond.
"And Escadron XXII is loyal to Gallia and le Roi, so you can't really count Josselyne's transfer as a desertion..." the man paused for a moment: "Unless he left your employ after that as well." Having said that, the Colonel let a slight smirk into the corner of his lips: "But let's not dwell on that. Rest assured, I do intend to serve the Enclave to the best of my abilities. Though, if I mess it up, you'd lose nothing you already had, Amiral. Your area of responsibility, however, determines the fate of us all." The true meaning of this seemingly respectful and appeasing remark was up to interpretation.
Maximilian put his fingers together, his elbows on the table: "Since you're the highest-ranking officer here, I suppose you'll be coordinating our battlegroups..." he looked around. "...If there are no objections. That includes the military branch of Escadron XXII currently run by Adelaide Gauthier."
He looked at the red-haired woman, who turned her face to the colonel. For a moment, her indifference was replaced with a somewhat surprised and questioning look. But a slight nod from the Colonel blew those emotions away, and Gauthier nodded in agreement, before resuming her previous posture. "If there are no objections, questions, or concerns, we can conclude the meeting here."
The Contre-Amiral listened to the colonel and waited until he finished.
"I do not object the decision to give the coordination task to Amiral Clement, I do indeed support it. I will fly back to my Battlegroup at Issodun, I do not have anything more to say for now, Colonel."
Jean-Pierre stood up and nodded to the rest of the persons present. Then he left the room.
Now that the talk of military assets have reached it's near to full conclusion, Roger realised he could bring up one of the other issue's that the Enclave currently as to deal with, mainly the situation regarding public relations, supply routes and of course, the mention of building a shipyard.
"Pardon me but if I may, I would like to have a word now that the main topic has been discussed. I would like to address the topic of infrastructure. Currently we only have two places in our ZOI, that can be seen as sources for materials. Planet Bordeux is the first but as of yet not fully operational, the second place is Vierzon Mining Facility near Planet Eday. Planet Eday is currently being mined for plenty of metals with most notably Tantalum. But obviously, these two places might not be enough, thus we need a strong, if preferably even a reliable source of goods if we want to build this second shipyard. I suppose it is thus important, we first find ourselves allies willing to help us. Kusari and Rheinland are possible, but might be hesitant after.... y'know, THAT. So, how, what, and with who are we going to business with?''.
"As then for the shipyard itself, what kind of shipyard will it be? Will it be from a newly created chassis where we can use and bring whatever we want or will we be required to get a ''Hercules'' station building ship, get a fixed set of materials and grow and expand from there?."
Saint-Just cast a quick unapproving glance at the low-ranking officer who dared to interfere in the conversation. Nonetheless, he did let the Molly lieutenant make his point. Scolding him for insubordination now would make the situation worse. But before he could decide on the course of action, Adelaide stood up and stepped into discussion.
"These are good points, lieutenant," a shade of commendation made way into her normally-emotionless tone. "And we have plans how to achieve all this, one step at a time. First, we focus on planet Bordeaux and Aquitaine. Then, once we have our own industry going, we divert some effort to planet Toulouse and Roussillon." She looked at the people who gathered here: "But it's too early to discuss it. A lot will depend on what happens in the coming months, and on the agreements we reach here."
With that, commandant looked at her superior officer, who had been listening to her speech somewhat curiously. He made a barely-noticeable nod, and Adelaide sat down.
Louis remained silent for a moment, looking at the face of the colonel.
Without another word, he nodded, stood up and turned to commandant Gauthier.
"Meet me in 3 days, on board of the Die. We shall discuss our next operation there."
He smiled when talking to Gauthier, then turned his face back to the table.
"All others have orders to group up with the Soleil Royal in Dublin. Expect to recieve important orders within the next two weeks."
After having given the order, Louis turned around and left the room. His guards quickly bowed, then followed their Amiral away from the conference room.
Seeing that the meeting is pretty much considered at an end by atleast one of the officers present, Roger too decides it is time to leave. He doesn't want to stay any longer then neccesary with these people and just get back into space ASAP considering he heard enough.
''Well everyone, it seems that meeting is coming to a conclusion. And I have to say, it was quite the experience to have met such a... bright set of individuals eager to advance and bring hierarchal stability to the current situation. I unfortunately was sadly of less use then I had hoped, but perhaps some other time.'' Roger rises from his seat.
''So as of now, if there is no need for me here anymore, with your permssion I shall take my leave. To the all of you, adieu, adieu, au revoir.'' Roger once more bows politely, salutes and walks towards the exit.
But as he stood infront of it, he actually stopped and turned around. ''Actually, before I leave however, Colonel Saint-Just, I wish to apologies for my... unknowingly inconsiderate action. If had better assessed your words considering your closing statement of ''no objections, questions, or concerns, we can conclude the meeting here.", I might have kept myself quiet to not further disturb the situation that we all could have left in peace earlier. S'il vous plaît pardonnez-moi Colonel.'' Roger bows very deeply.
''As for you Commandant Adelaide Gauthier...'' Roger knows what he wants to say, but has trouble doing so. He knew he was new here, and for that reason he could become a freshly moulded pawn of anyone here if he is not careful. Especially of the Commadant, considering she just stepped in for him, it could be considered that he now owes a favour to her, which was something he hated. But still... It still would only be polite to say thing he wanted to say.
''Merci gentiment Commandant.'' Roger bows even deeper, and when he was done, he left the room.
''Aight crew, we done here, back to space we go.'' The crew all nodded and followed suit to the Senseless Irishman.
-20 minutes later, location unkown-
''Mar sin, Roger, leathcheann fuilteach tú, how did it go?'' A woman sat next to Roger as his co-pilot ''Well Petra, glad to be f*cking gone, that's for certain.'' ''Bad first impression? Couldn't have been as bad as mine.''''Could have been worse I suppose...''
''You sure? I have known ya since Fool's Gold division, you really seem out of it honestly.''''I just f*cking hate myself that I once blindly trusted Gallia and now share seats with genocidal murderers.''''Well, that's your own volition of fault mate, tall and proud involuntary drafted into serf-ship right here.''
''Should I have just left Bretonia while I had the chance and left for Omicron Theta or something?''''Well, you being here now atleast saved my ass. Also the Cryer girl, and Gateway guy and that IMG dude, who all ended up as YOUR serf.'' ''...'' ''Roger, you might be the biggest f*ck up of a man in Molly history, but atleast a f*ck up with a good heart. You f*cked up in believing the wrong ''good'' thing, but atleast in your purgatory here, you can atleast help those who are stuck with you.'' Petra gave Roger a smile, but Roger just keeps on flying.
''Mate, you want a chicken of raft?'' ''Chicken on a raft on a Monday morning, oh what a terrible sight to see...'' Roger sang quietly, but with a slightly happy undertone. ''Tógfaidh mé é sin mar tá, one chicken on a raft coming up.'' Petra slaps Roger on the back, leaving Roger alone in the cockpit letting him enjoy some alone time flying in peace.