by Carlo Zen
We are currently taking suppressive fire. At this moment of parting, Command would like to thank our comrades who fought with all their might. But we are unable to repay the sacrifice of our comrades fallen in the mud. Having lost air superiority, all we can do is pile up losses in vain.
Though it’s well-known how vulnerable ground troops are when control of the airspace is lost, we take this opportunity to reemphasize that threat. The unique maneuvers the Imperial Army employed in Dacia have now been proven many times over in several other battles.
• Even if achieving air supremacy isn’t possible, stop enemy aerial attacks with an ambush if a chance present itself.
• Strive to improve weather forecasts.
• Aerial mage units put up a serious fight, so defend with your lives. Though the war situation has worsened, hold your ground.
In response to some doubts related to rank issues, we believe that our troops proved their innocence with their flesh and blood. We hope you will recognize their contributions.
Additionally, we’re at a disadvantage against an enemy with a less-rigid organization, so we require greater flexibility and agility on the operational level. We hope you’ll consider these systemic issues.
• We’ve noticed that repetitive phrasing in political commissars’ messages and reports weakens the effectiveness of the ciphers encoding them.
• Our operations often seem to be found out when messages are sent. This seems to have led to the leaking of our HQ location. There’s a good chance that was the cause of this aerial-mage-unit attack. Please use officer messengers and work to shorten messages as well as avoid repetition.
• Frequent use of ideological terms is an extreme weak point in terms of encoding.
Please know that necessary intelligence being restricted during operations can invite extreme difficulties. But aside from Command, everyone did their best.
Letting our comrades die like dogs was entirely Command’s failure, so please refrain from blaming the units beneath us. I wish luck to all our comrades in arms.
Long live the motherland, the party, and the people.
THE SAME DAY, MOSKVA, COMMISSARIAT FOR INTERNAL AFFAIRS OFFICE
The moment he finished reading it, the feeling he had was of a great nothingness. In response to the outcome of the clash with the Imperial Army, the commissar for internal affairs, Loria, emitted a deep sigh.
“…How awful. I never thought it would get this bad.”
The official report, the copies of telegrams, and the insider he’d sent to inform him…
“Numerical superiority, plenty of equipment—we even improved the supply lines, and this is what we end up with?”
Their current status was more miserable than he could have imagined.
An enemy airborne unit caught them from the rear, and after throwing them into confusion, the Imperial Army, with armored troops as the main thrust, punched through their front to encircle and annihilate them. This army should have been doubly prepared for this day but collapsed so fast, the fight was like a scene from a poorly made propaganda film.
The only difference between that and one of those videos the party made was the gap between the heroes and the villains.
With the exception of the Federation Army, which was supposed to win, getting mopped up and being driven off by the Imperial Army, which was supposed to lose, everything was just like in the films. The fellows at the studio were apparently more talented in their pursuit of reality than one might think.
Shall I send them all to Sildberia? The resemblance was so uncanny that he half felt like actually taking out his anger on the filmmakers in that way.
“So this was a serious blow to the army, then?”
A little effort apparently wouldn’t be enough to turn the war around. One read through was enough to see that. To put it plainly, this situation couldn’t be solved with the all-purpose lack of revolutionary spirit line.
“Tell me something, comrade. Were there any issues with how the Western Army was operating?”
“I hear it was basically according to doctrine, sir.”
This staffer had a lot of nerve for a mere colonel—implying that ultimately, it wasn’t the army’s fault.
Of course, that’s why Loria had chosen him to serve under him.
“Just to confirm, when you say basically, do you mean there was some exception?”
“Apparently, there was some planning with the political commissars in the field to reinterpret orders how they saw fit.”
“Comrade Colonel, I’m not blaming anyone. This inquiry isn’t about making accusations. Could you perhaps tell me what sort of changes were made to the doctrine?” Loria continued, “If I felt like purging somebody, I could make up any number of reasons. I just want to know what the situation is on the ground. My question is clear, Comrade Colonel. What sort of changes did the commanders in the field require?”
“…I don’t think it’s the sort of thing that bears reporting to the Commissariat for Internal Affairs…”
“Comrade, I thought you understood me.”
After all, the General Staff kept sending him liaison officer assistants like human sacrifices. Even this colonel had only recently been able to speak without flinching.
“To put it simply, they were slight tactical improvements made on the ground taking into account the skill level of the troops and the partial tactical withdrawal.”
“Ohhh? Slight?”
“…Comrade, couldn’t you please accept slight…?”
Although the purging of the military was a great success when it came to bending it to the army’s will, when it came to acknowledging the officers’ self-respect as specialists and making good use of them, it seemed his predecessor had gone a bit too far.
In the end, perhaps the omnipotent medicine of revolutionary ideology was pseudo opium. So the path to establishing socialism would require some adjustments. As long as they were trying to bypass a bourgeoisie revolution, necessary fixes should be made along the way.
“So I’d like to ask a question. Does our army need to make major changes on the ground?”
The colonel was silent, but at the point that he didn’t blurt any denials, his true feelings were out. And to go a step further, those feelings were surely the feelings of the Federation Army’s General Staff.
“Hmm.” Loria nodded before giving his conclusion. “So there’s an issue with the doctrine?”
“Comrade Loria, may I say something?”
“Our beloved comrade forerunners said that knowing the problem was halfway to solving it. Shouldn’t we be happy to know where the problem lies? Smile,” he said with a grin at the colonel, who was growing nervous. Then he continued, “Let’s be frank. I didn’t think we would lose this badly. Wasn’t the army’s estimation that even if we took a counterattack, we’d be able to end things in a stalemate if we made it a firefight?”
“I beg your pardon, but you probably want to talk to someone higher ranking…”
Grinning warmly, Loria peered into the colonel’s eyes. Checking his reflection there, he seemed to be smiling fairly nicely. Nevertheless, every liaison officer selected by the General Staff ended up, unconsciously or not, backing away from him.
“May I hear what the General Staff thinks?”
Across the desk, the colonel stood at attention, and Loria felt it wrong that he was sitting, so he stood as well and reached out to put a hand on the man’s shoulder.
The colonel had a fine physique with plenty of muscle… If Loria sent him to the lageri, he would be a decent source of labor. But specialists like him had to be made to contribute their specialized knowledge. Loria knew that was more profitable for the party and the motherland.
“Hey, comrade.”
“Y-yes?”
“I’m merely interested in hearing what a specialist such as yourself thinks. I’m not going to tell you to turn in your superior or inform on anyone. You understand that, right?” Loria, for his part, had
already stationed whistleblowers and informers in the General Staff by the gross. There was absolutely no need to have this colonel take that role. What he needed wasn’t a report from an agent but the mainstream view of a specialist on the inside. “What are things like at the General Staff Office?”
“Honestly, the shock has everyone frightened.”
“They’re shocked? Hmm, kindly continue.”
It was very easy for Loria to tell when someone was overly nervous.
The expression on the colonel’s face as he agreed was one of someone trying his best not to have any expression at all. If Loria had wriggled his nose, surely the man’s face would have tensed up even further.
That said, scaring him would achieve nothing. Loria urged him on in the tone he felt sounded like a loving father.
“I don’t understand soldiers’ thought processes perfectly, but I understand how you feel. I didn’t expect the kind of losses we suffered this time, either. So?”
At Loria’s comment, the colonel, nodding, opened his mouth to speak. “Our superiors sent in their pet security division and a division of artillery. We were fully expecting excellent results. No one thought it would end like this.”
“Hrm.” Loria growled and fell silent.
It wasn’t as if it was a horrible habit, but higher-ranking officers of the General Staff were exceptionally talented at making safe remarks.
He was capable of discarding the linguistic flourishes, but he couldn’t for the life of him fathom why the colonel felt it necessary to give a report that simply rephrased the word shocking.
…Is he that hesitant? In that case, I definitely have to know what’s going on.
“Let’s stop beating around the bush. What happened? I want to believe we put forth our best efforts, but…”
“…May I speak frankly with you, Comrade Commissar?”
“Of course, Comrade Colonel. Isn’t that a given? If there is anything at all I can do for the people, I want to hear about it.”
There, Loria realized he didn’t phrase that well. The colonel before him, who had gone pale as a sheet, was like a little bird right before being sentenced to exile in Sildberia.
That wasn’t Loria’s intention this time, but…since he had used the same line to clean up a great many reactionary elements, including his predecessor, perhaps it would be better if he changed his phrasing.
“It seems like I should rephrase that, comrade.”
“N-n-not at all—”
“Yes, I should.” Loria shut him up with a wave of his hand. “Even if the army gets any punishment for the defeat, it will be left up to the court-martial. I personally guarantee that the staff of the Commissariat for Internal Affairs will not intervene. Relax,” he said grandly. And the reaction was extreme. The colonel, who until moments ago had been one step removed from a corpse, came back to life like Lazarus.
“…Could you make that promise to the General Staff?”
“I’ll support you at the party meeting. And I’ll talk to Comrade General Secretary personally. Is that enough of a guarantee?”
“Thank you!”
“As long as you’re happy. So?”
“Huh?”
Apparently, the colonel was so delighted, he had forgotten something important. Loria would endure the political commissars’ unpleasantness only in exchange for him talking.
“I want to identify the problem. Then we’ll report it to our comrades along with Comrade General Secretary and fix what needs fixing… Comrade, don’t you think it would be difficult to defend the army if there wasn’t a problem?”
To put it another way, if he didn’t talk, there was no guarantee.
“…Well, the problem…”
“Yes, what is it?”
“A lack of air superiority. We failed to eradicate the enemy from the sky.”
“The fleet was supposed to have received a good amount of reinforcements. Didn’t it?”
“……Comrade. It…”
“Comrade Colonel, I can tell from your attitude thus far.” Loria patted the colonel’s shoulder with a sigh and sat back down. If he was being this generous and a man with guts still couldn’t speak his mind…
It wasn’t hard to imagine the existence of a taboo.
And what sort it was.
“Is this about aerial mages?”
“……Yes, comrade.”
Though he replied timidly, it was probably praiseworthy that he’d honestly admitted it. Loria needed men like this.
“I’d like you to explain. Isn’t the effect mages have on air superiority negligible? I’ve heard they can only be a minimal threat to planes.”
“The issue is everything about them. This is an extreme example, but aerial mages mainly fight at lower altitudes. We have reports of Named who are flying higher, but they’re in the minority.”
“I’m aware of that. What about it?”
That’s how that fairy came to visit Moskva.
If he had known, he would have personally done much, much, much—multiple times—more to keep her from getting away.
…He had given the point people who had made light of mages bodily reeducation, but this was such a huge defeat that he was compelled to feel that wasn’t enough.
“Air combat at its essence is getting into position. This is the root of a large misunderstanding.”
“I don’t know much about it, but the idea is to get behind the enemy to fire, right?”
“Yes.” The colonel nodded, and he began to explain the basics of aerial combat in a familiar way. It made sense that the General Staff had dispatched him as the liaison officer.
“According to ace pilots, practically everything depends on finding the enemy as well as a superior spot to fire from.”
“I see. So it’s not like the old days where you used to just point guns at each other and shoot.”
“No, it’s as you say. That’s why it turns into a dogfight and getting into a good firing position becomes so critical. So,” the colonel continued, “on this point, our mainstay fighter planes’ specs are such that they’re much faster than mages, which meant…that on paper, with those specs, they were argued to be superior.”
With the repetition of the word specs, even a man who wasn’t a military specialist could imagine what he was trying to say. Surmising that it must have been mere theory, Loria shook his head. “So what’s the actual situation?”
“We can’t even engage.”
Loria gasped in spite of himself. It was easy enough to regain superficial composure, but inside he was troubled. News to me…
Of course, publicly, they had stressed that it was possible to resist mages with planes.
“Why not?”
“Planes need to land on runways, while mages can land anywhere their mission demands.”
That was enough to explain that they had a choice. Once the colonel was satisfied the commissar understood, he said something rather quickly that Loria had never heard before.
“To be perfectly honest, rather than fighting it out with the planes, they can hole up at ground level and transform immediately into an anti-air firing nest.”
“What about taking them out with the infantry?”
“It would be extremely difficult to defeat them with infantry firepower. Anti-tank rifles just barely work, but it’s too hard to aim at them with bolt-action models.”
In other words, from an operation standpoint, it was impossible to use infantry for this job.
“I thought we were able to boast that they were ‘reactionary relics’ slower than planes, weaker than tanks, and fewer than foot soldiers.”
From the dumbfounded look on the man’s face, Loria realized his childish comment was being misunderstood, so he hurried to take back his joke.
“I was kidding, Comrade Colonel.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand. On the contrary, he knew what a little filly his precious fairy was. How satisfying it would be to break her.
“They ca
n be deployed more freely than planes, their defense is solid enough to be comparable to a tank’s, and they’re also as multipurpose as soldiers, right? …Sheesh, I thought I had it figured out in my head, but this really is a handful of a service, huh?”
The reason a military power like the Empire, or a highly militaristic organization like the Imperial Army, would make such extensive use of aerial mage units was that they were so convenient. It was impossible to laugh them off as anachronistic reactionaries clinging to magic.
He had to acknowledge their advanced maneuvers that had taken off the tops of not one but two, three forces. The Empire’s magic army wasn’t about ideological reaction—it was progressive.
“So only aerial mages can fight aerial mages? Hmm, but this is indeed a problem.”
“Huh?”
Blank looks. Right, these guys are soldiers, after all.
“And it’s awkward that the Western Army was emphasizing the contributions of the aerial mages, Comrade Colonel.”
These guys are so dense, thought Loria, feeling slightly irritated. Soldiers paid too much attention to practical matters. He couldn’t have them looking down on theory and politics.
“You must think we threw too many of them into the lageri, but this is a bit of a delicate matter.”
“Why is that, comrade?”
“Doesn’t it sound like an excuse?”
Though the colonel said nothing, his shocked expression showed that he acknowledged his mistake. Their view must have been clouded as they marveled that he had actually out and said it.
“…But they were trying so hard to tell you what was actually going on.”
“And you’re right, of course. The problem is that I and many other nomenklatura9 weren’t informed of any of this to begin with.”
The magic officers during the czarist period had been a firm force of resistance against the revolutionary administration. Federation nomenklaturas’ allergy to magic was severe. Magic? We’ll drive it off with science. That’s what they boasted, and in reality, they were close to eradicating the mages within the Federation, so it was difficult to change their mind so abruptly.