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Graz - 1904

Gunther Burstyn had just got out of work. He seemed extremely happy. The Reason? He just received a telegram. From where? Vienna. Saying what? His project of a mobile armed carcass had just passed through the Department of Defense. He was invited to build one of those things, with the department funding his project without limits.
The testing site was near Linz.

(CLASSIFIED), along the river Danube. February 1905.
Burstyn project was ridiculed by many of the members of the department of defense, but the emperor quite liked his idea and supported it fully, annoying Hotzendorf completely, which resulted into a heated discussion between the two. That event ruled out Hotzendorf completely from the chance of command the Army.
The Emperor visited the facilities a lot, which boosted the morale of the team.
In march the first 100 carcasses were ready for deployment; 20 were gifted to Germany, 10 to Italy and 5 to the new member of the Dreibund, the Ottomans. The reaction was quite amazing , but the Austrian government asked to keep the carcasses secret so the alliance retains a military advantage in a future war.

January 1906.

More and more models of the carcasses had been ordered for the army, and the General Staff was eager to test their new toys. That didn't seem to have come in a good moment, since the days of 1906 appeared to be calm.
That changed quickly. In January third, the king of Italy started to threat the Ottomans with war, influenced by the Italia Irredenta movement and the works of a young journalist by the name of Mussolini. While a socialist, the king liked his expansionist ideas, calling for an Italian dominance of the central Mediterranean. The Italian aims were Tunis and Lybia, under Ottoman dominance. In the sevent day of January, Italian ships bombarded the port of Benghazi. Italy was officially expelled from the Alliance.
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