Even the worst tool had a suitable use. That was the lesson the Emperor had taught Hammurabi. Countess Katarina Karkov was hardly terrible; she was merely somewhat greedy for power and money. People like that were easy to control and predict. The Emperor knew when she would be loyal, when she would betray him, when greed would consume her, and when she would be incorruptibly upright—she was still on the Space Station, far from the Balkan Peninsula's many disputes. Clearly, this was not where she could display her talents. That was only because the time had not yet come. Regent Victor von Doom was creating a favorable working environment for her, a stage truly suited to the art of wielding power.
It all began with the Yugoslav Civil War and the effects of the Vienna Accords and Program of Action signed in 1993: the Slovenian Ten-Day War of 1991, also known as the Slovenian War; the Croatian War from 1991 to 1995; the Bosnian War from 1992 to 1995; the Kosovo War from 1996 to 1999; the Preševo Valley Conflict from 1999 to 2001; and the Macedonian Conflict of 2001.
Behind this bloody conflict, which claimed over 140,000 lives and left millions homeless, was a chaotic war between armed groups bound together by bloodline, race, political affiliation, and religious faith, all whipped into frenzy by ambitious men wielding populism. It was not until the Latverian Liberation War began that the Emperor brought forth the Gene-modded Warriors and advanced armaments he had accumulated over many years. With unmatched marching speed and technological superiority, he crushed every air-defense installation and government department across the Balkan Peninsula, utterly defeating the armed factions in the provinces that had once belonged to the Yugoslav Federation and were now independent. Only then, atop the capitalist monument