Storms Over Europe (An Alternate Weird History Quest in The Inter-War)

That's why I want to send warnings to them. It gives credence to other diplomatic actions we can later pursue.
 
[X] Deploy the Active Duty Armed Forces to cordon the area and send representatives to begin negotiations
-[X] If negotiations fail, the ADAF should engage them in battle and rout them back to the USSR
 
Whilst early in the game, this resource is unlikely to be particularly expended early in the game,

So, I'm a little nervous as 3/4 options are versions of Use Diplomacy, and I may have psyched myself out but

[X] Something Else
-[X] Order the military to mobilize to deal with this threat.
--[X] If the Soviet Union disowns them, crush them and spread the information that the Soviet Union has no control over its armed forces and military production, leading to bandits with modern weapons spilling into other nations.
--[X] If the Soviet Union waffles around, involve the League of Nations. It will likely not do much good, but it might get you some allies.
-[X] Demand an explanation from the Soviet Union.
-[X] Send a warning of the threat to the Baltics, Finland and Romania so that they can prepare themselves in case the Soviet Union sends raiders over their borders too.
-[X] Address the other political parties in private and ask for their support to repel this attack. Point out to the Communists that their fate will be Soviet Gulag if Poland loses this fight.
-[X] Address the public:
--[X] If SU disowns the attackers: Speak about the threat coming over the border from the chaotic and failed state that has sprung up to tyrannize the former lands of the Czarist empire. Call for unity in the face of these murderous brigands.
--[X] If SU does not disown them: Invoke the Holodomor as the fate that Stalin wants to visit upon Poland and call for unity in repelling the genocidal aggression of the Bolscheviks.

going with this.
 
[X] Deploy the Active Duty Armed Forces to the area, engaging and destroying the enemy. These terrorists will not live to see another sunrise.
 
[X] Deploy the Active Duty Armed Forces to cordon the area and send representatives to begin negotiations
-[X] If negotiations fail, the ADAF should engage them in battle and rout them back to the USSR

[X] Something Else
-[X] Order the military to mobilize to deal with this threat.
--[X] If the Soviet Union disowns them, crush them and spread the information that the Soviet Union has no control over its armed forces and military production, leading to bandits with modern weapons spilling into other nations.
--[X] If the Soviet Union waffles around, involve the League of Nations. It will likely not do much good, but it might get you some allies.
-[X] Demand an explanation from the Soviet Union.
-[X] Send a warning of the threat to the Baltics, Finland and Romania so that they can prepare themselves in case the Soviet Union sends raiders over their borders too.
-[X] Address the other political parties in private and ask for their support to repel this attack. Point out to the Communists that their fate will be Soviet Gulag if Poland loses this fight.
-[X] Address the public:
--[X] If SU disowns the attackers: Speak about the threat coming over the border from the chaotic and failed state that has sprung up to tyrannize the former lands of the Czarist empire. Call for unity in the face of these murderous brigands.
--[X] If SU does not disown them: Invoke the Holodomor as the fate that Stalin wants to visit upon Poland and call for unity in repelling the genocidal aggression of the Bolscheviks.
 
[X] Begin negotiations with this terror group and ascertain their demands. Many disagree with this course of action.

eh I don't like this. Smells like war
 
Apologies for the delay folks, I've been having pretty severe symptoms of anaemia rendering me pretty much bedridden most of the day and unable to focus. I'll get something out likely today, tomorrow at the latest.
 
Steel Negotiations
In a matter of hours, tens of thousands are mobilised from active duty stations and moved into the area of terroristic action. The enemy makes motions to strike out, but they are quickly rebuffed by strong resistance and the prevalence of anti-tank rifles which seem reasonably effective on the enemy strider machines, able to take out the legs and even punch through the central torso with a clean shot.

After this show of force and the full encirclement of the area in question, the beginnings of negotiation take place, it is rapidly established that indeed the Soviet Union is not affiliated with these, at least anymore. Whilst the first few attempts to talk are chilly, after a week of hourly barrages to cut off their sleep, they are far more willing to talk.

The initial conversations are with, apparently, scientists and intelligentsia that command these striders. They are tight-lipped and nervous about all conversation before, amazingly, the realization strikes that you are indeed not Soviet.

Upon that realization, something which, when you realize they have been marching west, avoiding all urban centres or even villages since somewhere in Siberia, becomes far more reasonable, they are much more open with their history.

To a man, they are researchers, specialists, guards and trainers for what is being called the Stal'nyye Deti, the Steel Children. Working on a new generation of Warmachine, they have committed horrific crimes in the service of the Soviet Union, each of these mechanical warmachines is a miracle of science and indeed piloted by a wired in soldier.

Through rigorous testing, it was established the ones most able to adapt to controlling these machines were children in their pre-teen years given time to adapt to the machinery. They somehow manage the machinery via wires driven into their central nervous system, additionally having been reduced to merely a circulatory system managed by immunosuppressant medication and regular nutrient drips from internal reservoirs.

We have them in a bit of a bind, their nutrient supply, a transfusion which keeps the strider pilots alive and spare parts for said striders are running very low. Whilst the few killed are a black mark against us in their eyes, being more or less mentally children, they are also at fault for driving them to violence, using this browbeating, we've managed to push them into a corner.

Our options are many, but mostly relate to two categories.

What to do?
[X] Take them in as regular military forces to better study them and display Polish technical superiority.
[X] Promise to take them in, eliminate the handlers and disassemble the dangerous machines for study and reproduction.
[X] Something Else?

Publicity of Event?
[X] Tell no one, NDA's on the soldiers and enforced silence on the command staff should limit this tale to rumours that can be discredited.
[X] Make a fuss about Soviet experimentation being
horrifically inhumane and against all reason. It should provide a diplomatic victory, but will incense the Union.
[X] Something Else?
 
[X] Take them in as regular military forces to better study them and display Polish technical superiority.
They're child soldiers who never asked to be made into abominations, but they seem to have adapted to it to the point that killing them will be cruel. without actual nerves, it's not like they're in pain from this. Our best option is to let them live out what ever remains of their "natural" lives, in service to the state. Study of them will allow us to divine ways to use this technology more humanely. (can anyone hear the clarion call of the cult of the MechWarrior in our future?)

[X] Make a fuss about Soviet experimentation being horrifically inhumane and against all reason. It should provide a diplomatic victory, but will incense the Union.
The soviets are going to hate us anyway. We oust their "secret weapon" to the world, pull some of their teeth, and make ourselves look good taking in their victims and giving them the best lives we can provide given their unique circumstances. If any of the pilots are able and willing, have them give testament to the events that transpired to the best of their memory, as well as first hand accounts of their views of their current lives.
 
If we make a fuss about soviet crimes and then proceed to take advantage of said crimes by integrating them in the army we will appear to be morally dubious, at best. The way I see it we either get a better army now (instead of later) or we get a Defensive Pact and I much prefer the defensive pact.

[X] Soviet crimes against humanity
-[X] Treat the children as victims and do your best to try and return some semblance of normalcy to them.
-[X] Reverse engineer the machines without killing the children if possible.

-[X] Invite our neighbours (along with Finland) to have a chat with the soviet deserters so that we can leverage the soviet's inhumanity into a feeling of regional anti-soviet solidarity thus helping in our goal to create a defensive pact.
 
There's no normalcy to return them to beyond what they currently have, they're brains with a heart and veins and have been for quite some time, and they're probably not "children" by this point, as they'd have needed likely years to get combat ready. Other than that, that sounds like a good plan
 
I know, what I am hoping to do is to go full on diplomatic victory because this is the only opportunity we have been handed to make military expansion acceptable in the eyes of our neighbours while ensuring an allience and the medical and robotic research we can gain from attempting to help them will be valuable.

That said, from a humanitarian stand-point, even if they are no longer children we can still improve their quality of live and I am not willing to kidnap children to wire their brains into machines (just think about the political issues it would create) so if we were to use them they would be an irreplaceable unit that is also quite fragile (in the uodate they were killed by anti-tank rifles).

Edit: Acording to WoG they are not so weak as to break from anti-tank rifles alone but my point stands that replacing the broken/dead ones is difficult when we are not fully dictatorial.
 
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The deaths to anti-tank rifles were a minority to be fair, you had them engaged with vastly superior numbers for a week and they suffered merely a handful of fatalities.
 
[X] Soviet crimes against humanity
-[X] Treat the children as victims and do your best to try and return some semblance of normalcy to them.
-[X] Reverse engineer the machines without killing the children if possible.

-[X] Invite our neighbours (along with Finland) to have a chat with the soviet deserters so that we can leverage the soviet's inhumanity into a feeling of regional anti-soviet solidarity thus helping in our goal to create a defensive pact.
 
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