Stevenage
England

"As you can see, missile production has ground to a halt due to a lack of parts being imported from around the world."

"What can we do about that?"

"We have all the schematics for such parts - we here at MDBA UK are working with BAE Systems to get production lines for those parts up and going, but it will require a large up-front investment. We plan to cut down on the missile types we produce, replacing the Brimstone missile with the SPEAR-3 and keeping the ASRAAM, Meteor, Rapier and the variants of the CAMM."

"Good - are you going to be completing this entirely internally?"

"No, we plan to outsource this to a few other companies, like Rolls Royce and Lockheed Martin UK. That should hopefully allow us to get the missiles back in production, but we may need to import certain materials from abroad. I was told that the government were currently working on that."

"Yes, a favourable deal is currently in the making, but anything more than that is classified. I'll report the good news back to the Prime Minister."

Glasgow
Scotland

"How is the construction of the Type 26 Frigates coming along?"

"We have sped up production, albeit at a significant cost, but they will still take a while to make. HMS Glasgow should be completed within the year and the other in the next few years."

"Do you know about the type 31 Frigates?"

"I'm not 100% certain, as we aren't building them. But they should have a similar time frame."

"The Dreadnought Class Submarines?"

"Those are a different matter - even if we dramatically increase spending to move up the timeframe, I wouldn't expect to see them before 2027 at the earliest."

"Hmm, that's annoying. They would be an excellent asset to have in a worst-case scenario. Never mind, I will let you get back to your job now."

Telford
England

"How goes the process of upgrading the Challenger IIs to Challenger IIIs?"

"All is going as planned so far. Regarding the proposal to speed up production, we believe we can have half of the 148 done by the end of this year and the other half by mid-2025."

"So all is good?"

"It appears to be."

"That's good - I will report back as such to the MoD.

10 Downing Street

"And that's the report on our military production."

Timothy Roberts leaned back in his chair, "That's all good, I take it?"

"For the most part, Sir, the timescales have been moved up quite dramatically for most of them. There is a slight issue with the cost. It will be a lot - although much of the budget for this comes from cancelled projects like HS2."

"You can't put a cost on safety." Timothy leaned back in his chair - this would hopefully reassure some of the more fearful members of Parliament.

Since the attack on Gibraltar, they had been shoring up their defences greatly. They had deployed a brigade to Gibraltar along with Royal Engineers to build forward operating bases and fortified artillery positions. They would not be caught unaware this time, as the 4 Skynet satellites which had come over with the UK were now constantly monitoring the UK and mapping out new land. They also hoped to launch the new Skynet 6 satellite this year - bringing it forward from 2025.

"Admiral Lucian has departed Barwan with the fleet and is escorting Barwanese diplomats here. The plan is to have them make port in Portsmouth, staying in the Queen's Hotel Portsmouth for a few days. They will then take the train into London, where we will meet them."

"How long will that be?"

"It should take them seven days to arrive in Bristol - they will stay there for three days and then reach London the day after. We will meet them at Waterloo station with the Grenadier guards. Then, we will take them to Buckingham Palace, where the meeting shall be held."

HMS Queen Elizabeth
Northern Sea

Admiral Lucian stood on the bridge of Britain's flagship, wearing his Sig Sauer P226 as always on his right hip, but now on his left sat a magnificent longsword which had been bestowed upon him by the King of Barwan. It was a beautiful sword, with jewels encrusted into the hilt and a large ruby embedded in the pommel.

As his gaze lingered on it, one of the Barwanee diplomats noticed, "Do you like it?"

When he nodded, the man continued, "It's a beauty - many would wish for a similar weapon to prove their honour in combat."

Lucian chuckled, "I think I'm a bit too old to see much combat now. Any combat I see will be from within the safety of this bridge."

The diplomat, Earl Oliver Kelly, said, "You and me both, after the brutal war with Beakha almost 20 years ago, I don't wish to see another battlefield in my life."

There was a moment of silence before a sailor shouted, "Sir, there's something on the radar."

He looked over at the screen to see a blinking dot getting closer. It then diverged into ten smaller dots - still moving towards them at the same speed.

"General Quarters. General Quarters. All hands to your battle stations," Tom Roberts, captain of the HMS Queen Elizabeth, called over the ship's coms. "Get fighters in the air," he said to the flight control deck.

Within a few minutes, they had 2 F35bs in the air, circling the fleet. The objects, which were just 20km - most likely having taken off from the coast 25km away - would arrive in around 40 minutes based on their current speed.

"Oliver, do you know what these might be?" the Admiral asked the man watching from his seat.

"They are most likely wyverns from Skipa. They must be trying to intercept us, as we are coming from a Barwanese port - as you know, our relations are poor."

"The people who attacked Gibraltar?"

"The very same."

A look of unbridled anger crossed the Admiral's face, "Shoot on sight, guns only. There's no need to waste missiles on those things."

Once the wyverns had entered visual range and had confirmed that they were these so-called dragon knights, the F35bs didn't engage. This was because the F35 B had no gun, and the UK had opted not to purchase gun pods yet. As such, they waited for the wyverns to enter the range of the Mk 45 Naval Guns on the Type 45 destroyers - before effortlessly shooting them down.

"Collect the bodies - the scientists back home will want to look at these."

Unrekable

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The release schedule might be a bit spotty for the next two weeks, but I hope to upload a chapter every other day.
And I want to try making my chapters longer from now on.