Three more months had passed in the blink of an eye as Elias settled into his new found life.
Spring had begun to unfurl across Montenegro, melting the last stubborn banks of snow and painting the rocky ridges in wildflowers as summer was well on its way rising up from the south.
But while nature embraced renewal, Elias Kaine had been building something far less poetic.
A machine.
A network.
An empire in miniature.
In the capital, Elias had become the right hand of Baron Radomir Petrović.
His efficiency, foresight, and unnerving ability to anticipate political moods had elevated him to the head of the Baron's staff.
Ministers knew his face.
Servants followed his orders without question.
Noble sons attempted to mimic his sharp dress and sharper tongue.
He was, without holding a single title, powerful.
And he used that influence well.
While he orchestrated court dealings by day, at night Elias returned to his attic sanctuary to review operations at the Red Alert Base tucked in the Zabljak range.
The Eagle View interface now spread wide across multiple regions.
The Telegraph office had been completed months ago, its uplink silently expanding his view over the region, beyond what his own roaming forces could see, this was done thanks to the engineer tapping into the countries own telepgraph lines, and though only a single connection was made, Elias found himself connected to all the interlinked telegraph lines the country over, even having to go so far as have a spy stay behind at the base slaving away as admin staff recording and sorting all the communications coming over the wire.
Mountains, roads, distant fortifications, even the occasional troop movements as army forces moved towards the border to replace those already stationed there.
But it was the base's infrastructure that had truly evolved.
The Tiberium Reactor now powered everything.
Its sleek, humming structure hidden beneath natural rock formations ensured there would never be a shortage of electricity again in the near future.
The War Factory, backed by the new energy surplus, continued to churn out Ore Miners feeding the economy with clockwork precision whenever further growth was acceptable, as the need to hide his growth of forces was required.
To have a mass influx of military volunteers could draw suspicion but at the same time, Elias couldnt just have soldiers sitting idle doing nothing more than hunting, so instead he allocated the funds from soldiers into more ore crews.
He could always produce his army moment before the outbreak of war afterall, nothing was stopping him from simply hording a massive amount of credits afterall.
Copper veins were still holding strong, and ontop of those an iron vein was also located within the range.
Engineers had even begun reinforcing the mines with timber beams to prevent collapse as they delved deeper and deeper into the range.
Three more Lottery Draws had taken place during these months as well:
The first yielded a Veteran Medic Kit, this kit was a combination of both a Neutral support build (Hospital) and a team of five combat medics who were just as skilled as semi-modern doctors.
Elias had installed it near the barracks, increasing the bases facilities while also allowing a safe place for the wounded soldier to come and recover before returning to the front lines.
The second?
A Tech Blueprint for an early version of the Mobile Construction Vehicle (MCV).
Though expensive, it promised future expansion beyond the original base, a feature that wasn't availible to those playing the earliest iteration of the game, but that had appeared in later version, while costing 2,500 credits the option to create satellite bases was very appealing it could further protect the primary HQ while also allowing for the expansion of their reasource gathering by setting up new bases near other notable mineral operations.
The third and most recent had been a jackpot: a Veteran Rifleman Division Pack – fifty elite, system-trained infantry who surpassed even the general rank and file riflemen created from the barracks, just conversing with these men through his mental link made it clear to Elias.
Their training, tactics, and discipline would outclass any Balkan conscript quickly allowing those in command to see their potential and elevate them to join in command positions.
Elias had grinned for hours.
Back at the base, 100 Riflemen lived in and protected the base, while other newly created units now departed daily toward various cities, quietly entering the Principality's army under false names and forged credentials provided to them via the system and the facilities of the HQ.
Elias ensured they were clean, forgettable, competent.
Soldiers who quickly found themselves being promoted for their initiative and discipline, two of the elites had already been recognized by their CO's and sent for schooling to become Commissioned Officers starting their schooling with the rank of Second Lieutenant the lowest of the junior officer ranks.
The Engineering Corps, meanwhile, had transformed the base into a fortress.
Three subterranean levels.
Anti-personnel trenches.
Bunkers with false fronts dotted the higher ridges, accessible only through narrow paths known to the engineers.
One mountain trail had even been reshaped to collapse under heavy weight, a built-in defense in case of future invasion by armoured forces.
In Elias' notebook, operations multiplied.
Operation Ironweb had evolved into a regional intelligence network, incorporating the movement of enlisted Riflemen, while some of the engineers had begun to also move to the cities to find employment to also assist in gathering information, since engineers could be commissioned to work on military projects.
His recent calculations made the future clear.
At his current pace—and assuming the ore veins held for at least ten more years—he could generate enough credits to field an army larger than Montenegro's entire wartime strength by the outbreak of the First Balkan War, assuming of course that his casualties from the Crimean war were not all too extensive over the two years the war itself would run, all while preparing for the principalities first war of its own against its former overlord, the Ottoman empire, whod come calling in another five years to try and regain some lost territory since Montenegro gain independance from the Empire.
Conservative projections placed him at around 15,000 infantry and a dozen artillery pieces, supported by engineers, medics, and logistical teams by the time the first Ottoman war broke out.
If he ramped up production aggressively, 30,000 wasn't out of reach either completly overwhelming the ottoman attackers.
Combined with Montenegro's official forces, Elias could command a greater army than the Kingdom had ever imagined, though at a cost if they appeared on the world stage with such a large army the other nations of europe would become wary, and turn their attentions towards the tiny nation, instead it would be better to train up an elite force one that could conduct field operations against much larger armies and still come out the victor.
But he didn't just want more troops.
He wanted better.
Tech development was his next step, since his forces were using just slightly better than ball muskets, he wanted to get them upgraded to bolt action at the very least to increase their rate of fire.
He needed to unlock Advanced Infantry, Mobile Radar Systems, Rocket Artillery, and the holy grail—Air Superiority, planes hadnt been invented yet and wouldnt be for another couple of decades, but preparing for that eventuality was something he should be on the lookout for.
And to justify any of this in the political landscape, he had to keep moving up the ladder, while at the same time drumming up trouble from within the country itself, his forces finally had enough of a presence within the military that he could begin to think about starting up some thugs or gangs within the country to sow disent and discourse splattering mud on the governing conducted by it's leadership.
The young prince was still in the prime of his life, newly married and enjoying his coronation as a prince.
His autocratic grip was just starting to tighten.
Parliament as of yet didnt even exist as the people wholly looked unto him as their sovereign saviour