Your day started off uneventfully, with a warm cup of tea and a bunch of documentation to review, but only half an hour into your job several of your top-level advisors came rushing in, their faces flustered as if they saw some ghost or apparition. "Madame Prime Minister." One of them said. "We have a situation developing in Norway. Would you please come with us to the briefing room?"
You know something's not right, no advisor worth their salt would just come barging in, usually, they would knock first and you would typically answer, but for them to be barging in like this indicated something very wrong has happened. You quickly nodded and went to the briefing room. A secure room meant for classified discussions on the most sensitive subjects a Prime Minister ought to hear. While this usually revolves around Military and Intelligence matters, sometimes political maneuvering can be discussed if the matter is of sufficient importance.
Inside the briefing room, you see your top military generals, the ones in charge of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Landing Forces all standing in front of you, each of them wearing grim expressions on their faces as they saw you opening the door. "Tell me what's going on," you asked them.
"Madame. It seems that the French and British have stationed several nuclear weapons on the Norwegian island of Svalbard, ships and transport aircraft have been converging in the city of Longyearbyen and our spy planes have detected both military forces constructing nuclear weapons facilities there, perhaps as a way to more easily reach Japan should something happens."
They then give you pictures the spy plane took, and it's clear that there are trucks, nuclear missiles, and other sorts of military installations being built on the Arctic island. You then asked why this matters, in response, they showed you a map with a
North Pole projection and ran a line from Svalbard to the Home Islands. Everything then made sense. You realize the sudden gravity of the situation and asked them what we should do next.
"We are not sure Prime Minister, this is perhaps a reaction to us placing IRBM's in the Caspian, near
Fort Alexandrovsky. A measure meant to delay the enemy should their advances break our first line of defenses in the Volga. Perhaps they might be spooked and went on with this as retaliation. We could theoretically impose a blockade with our submarines, but that would run the risk of triggering an open conflict between us and the Syndicalists, something even Paris and London don't desire. We could use aircraft to drop leaflets, and do mock bombing runs, but that also runs the risk of getting our planes shot down, and possibly inflaming tensions with Paris and London."
"Nonetheless, this is a major issue Prime Minister. I do not think that the French and British are aware that we know this, so we should perhaps contact them diplomatically on this matter. We will try to ensure the press doesn't get a hold of this matter. But something with this level of gravitas will leak one way or another."
"Nonetheless, what do you want to do first Prime Minister, something like this could not go unanswered."
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