A Battle Unseen

[Dredd]

[June, 5624, Presidents Office]

Lazar hadn't seen much need to change much of the décor of Sladeks old office in years past, he had good taste after all, but he did change a few things here and there as not to appear a drone of the old leaders legacy. There were some suits of armor from centuries past, some golden assault rifles (his personal favorites) and old oil paintings of the heroes of the Legionary revolution. But this was all aside the point, Lazar shifting his attention to the numerous documents on his mahogany table began reading.

The main goal was to address the chronic issues Kundrati was now facing in the shadow of the war; Widespread poverty, lack of economic volume, lack of sufficient foodstuffs, the list went on. He considered what could possibly be done to begin repairing the damages. Trade volume with Utari Mosir remained stable, and some ships from Rutania and other countries which valued profit over morality continued to flow, but new partners were needed. Lazar began scanning the map for potential trade negotiations, but who possibly would consider trading with the rogue state. Istalia perhaps, Valruzia? Before anything could even be considered, Lazar remembered one central tenet to Accelerationist Legionarism, that to defy the world powers and bring about absolute strategic autarky, all manners of science and morality must be set aside for the greater crusade, god would understand.

Proposals he sent out to varying departments did not hesitate in expressing their absolute total freedom of proposal no matter how  esoteric or unthinkable other nations might consider them. One of the proposals made by the Legionary Institute of Science & Health made a proposal that offered a chance to alleviate the growing issue of hunger; Starch Bars. Comprised of organic matter of any type that renders nutrition including pulped produce, animal carcasses, bone meal, tree bark, edible insects, and the last even Lazar had to read twice, human corpses. Lazar sat back and contemplated it, had Kundrati truly fallen from grace so much that their own citizens would become meals for the living? He shook his head, there were many accounts in antiquity of glorious heroes surviving and winning sieges, pioneers travelling vast uninhabitable wastes, and cities that withstood horrible famine all by cannibalism. Was it such a terror after all, certainly the bodies had more use to be recycled into the good of the masses than rotting in a crypt or being cremated, in a way even environmentalists could see the logic behind the measure. Of course the public would never be told the true origin of the meals, they would be branded ingredients with items of normal qualities, and produced solely in the most secure government labor camps where no inmate ever left alive, ironic they too would inevitably be added to the same bars they'll be tasked to make. The departments involved predicted a major increase in available caloric intake should the option be signed off, significant enough to begin feeding millions, what mattered long term health concerns when one was starving?

Lazar signed the top secret initiative with his approval. Other acts signed included more nationalization of state assets, the establishment of a new governmental IOU, "Legionarrs", a 6 month promissary note alongside the kuno that could be traded for kuno (but would of course be indefinitely extended to avoid inflation) and would be usable for purchasing in government stores as a bartering item, giving the government a huge influx of ghost funding that would in essence operate the same until the economic conditions allowed them to be paid off (or cancelled). Finally, in order to relieve unemployment massive public work projects would be undertaken to bring back wealth to the people; A new system of roadworks nation wide, statues of Lazar and Sladek in every town square, new naval facilities in the northern coast given Exteas risk in strategic vulnerability, new airfields and coastal defenses, and a massive network of walls and guard posts along the entire Jildrath coast to deny illegal emigration.

Lazar satisfied with the measures ordered them to be implemented immediately, though none of them were permanent solutions, the true task ahead lay in honest free market trade abroad and bringing wealth back to the war wearied nation, of course alongside a huge wave of propaganda efforts for his new personality cult, his own portrait being hung equally next to Sladeks in every school, household, and governmental building. Kundrati would survive, no matter the cost.