Plus Ultra

by Carlo Zen

  “Major…my sincere apologies.”

  “Lieutenant Weiss, I’ll consider your error the result of inappropriate training. I guess it’s a good thing we’re doing this live-fire exercise.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Sheesh, I never expected there to be problems during such a simple exercise. The fringes of the Imperial Army are unexpectedly shaky. How sad.”

  Up above, she breathes a sigh. She even misses what’s coming over the radio reports for a split second. Tanya takes a deep breath and suppresses her emotions that threaten to blaze out of control. The reality is that education and training for the new realities of war aren’t reaching even the best soldiers. Which means, unfortunately, the army’s doctrine2 is failing to meet real combat situations.

  I’m forced to realize that apparently those in the rear don’t understand the frontline experience. Or perhaps a better way to put it is that they’re failing to acknowledge the paradigm shift?3 It’s almost certain that most of the officers in charge of training recruits still fail to understand three-dimensional warfare.

  Veterans of the Norden and Rhine fronts have written enough reports on what they learned through combat to make anyone sick, but the people reading them are only interpreting the information through the old models of war. The implications are truly sad. The situation is far worse than I thought, to the point where I feel disgusted—this is just tragic.

  The entire Imperial Army is failing to learn from even the instructor whose exorbitant fee can only be paid in blood and iron: experience.

  Now I understand why General von Zettour and the other Service Corps authorities assumed the combat accounts couldn’t provide enough instruction for the armies in the east and south and wanted to create a unit immediately under the General Staff Office partially just to advise them directly.

  The extravagant folly of lowering your guard in combat airspace to sink into thought… This kind of contemplation is only possible because of our overwhelming air supremacy. In a way, it would make sense to be happy we’re winning, but there are a few problems on Tanya’s mind that make celebrating impossible.

  “We’ve found their command post.”

  “That’s awfully fast. It’s not a fake?”

  Unbelievable things keep happening one after the other. Even Tanya never imagined there would come a day she would distrust her subordinate’s reports this much.

  Yes, we have air supremacy, and we’re using leadership decapitation tactics…but does that mean the top of the enemy command chain can be exposed so easily?

  “There’s no mistake, Major.”

  “Is it the frontline command? Lower than that?”

  If they could pick it out in this chaos, it had to be either a division or brigade command post.

  “No, it’s the headquarters of the invading army.”

  “What? Are you sure?”

  For a moment, the words seem to mean something inconceivable.

  Headquarters?

  Of the entire invading army?

  “We intercepted an unencoded transmission.”

  Conclusion: It has to be a basic form of disinformation. Even if they are panicking, there’s no way even the lowliest radio operator, much less a comms officer from their headquarters, would send information without encoding it.

  “Then it has to be a fake message.”

  “No, I understand why you would say that, but…everything we’re picking up in this airspace is clear.”

  “…Seriously? That’s hard to believe.”

  “But they aren’t even limiting the signal strength. It may seem unlikely, but it could be real.”

  Though the look on his face is half-disbelief, he reports in a voice that can only belong to people who thoroughly understand their job. To put the incomprehensible situation into plain words: Is the Dacian Army attacking with only ground troops and sending unsecured communications from their headquarters…for the benefit of the Imperial Army?

  Though Tanya just reprimanded a subordinate for relying too much on rigid common sense, she’s plagued by it as well. Of course, her own sense is optimized, raised to a whole other level.

  I still doubt what he said, but when I use my orb to listen in to the signals, there is a huge convoy emitting uncoded transmissions in one spot.

  “Lieutenant Weiss, bring your unit and support mine. Lieutenant Serebryakov! Round up the company and follow me!”

  ““Roger!””

  Just in case it’s a trap, we make sure to secure a route for rapid withdrawal as we approach. I have Lieutenant Weiss’s company get into position to support our advance, and with their overwatch covering our backs, I have my company begin aerial maneuvers for reconnaissance in force. Presuming the enemy will fire a volley, I consciously thicken my defensive shell. I enter the enemy’s range knowing that in addition to the Type 97, I can boot up my Type 95 in a worst-case scenario.

  I’ll get shot at.

  The possibility was on my mind, so of course I had imagined a number of shots from the ground.

  “…Of all the ridiculous—!”

  That’s why I shout in disbelief. Surely even the sloppiest army can manage to defend their headquarters. In stories, even dictators and corrupt commanding officers diligently make sure their immediate surroundings are guarded.

  But…

  But no one is shooting at us.

  “How disappointing. Gentlemen, are we not at war? Is this lot an actual army?”

  It’s good that things are going smoothly. There’s no doubt about that. But in war, nothing going according to the plan is a given. Even if I thought it would be possible to repulse these invaders, I never dreamed things would go even better than anticipated.

  To think we can storm the Dacian Army headquarters without even falling out of assault formation and face zero resistance.

  “We didn’t accidentally attack a tour group visiting the Empire, did we? If so, that would be a major accountability mess.” The situation is so unexpected that I murmur something uncharacteristically silly—it wasn’t funny enough to be a joke.

  “My apologies, ma’am.”

  “It was an error not to check with immigration first. Next time we’ll make sure to consult with them.”

  The members of the battalion skillfully playing along, hanging their heads to express their regret, must feel something is off, too. If this is all we’re dealing with, it’ll seem like I subjected them to hellish training for no reason. Seriously, these enemies are so easy I’m going to get mistaken as a sadist.

  That’s why, when we descend to capture the field HQ, its flag flying prominently despite the danger, Tanya is so confused that she fires off another rare joke.

  “…Yes, excuse me. Are you the tour leader? The Empire humbly apologizes for the trouble we’ve caused. Embarrassingly enough, Imperial Army Border Patrol thought you were an army…” She mimics her subordinates’ humorous motions, lowering her head and then bowing slightly in the direction of the pathetically wailing, panic-stricken enemies. A silence falls as everyone in the tent is rendered speechless, but the next moment, she abruptly delivers some stock greetings with a cheerful smile. “Welcome to the Empire! What is the purpose of your visit? May I see your passport?”

  The silent Dacians have probably frozen in response to the bizarre circumstances. But as their brains start to reboot, they finally begin to process what is going on. In all the confusion, a fully armed little girl has attacked them before they even realized and is now engaging them in a game of pretend immigration inspection.

  “Cu-cut the crap!” The officers were all wearing so many decorations a sniper wouldn’t have known who to aim at first. This girl is toying with us… Realizing that, one of them leaps at Tanya, but First Lieutenant Weiss steps out of the formation and kicks him to the ground, where he passes out. Problematically, judging from his decorations, he’s the most senior officer present. In a way, this is actually the first thing that hasn’t gone according to plan. />
  “How about the rest of you? Would you like to enter the Empire as prisoners?”

  If they surrender, Tanya will have no choice but to treat them as regular prisoners of war according to the law. Driving off three divisions is easy, but feeding that many prisoners would be really hard. Just the thought of the additional burden it would put on Logistics is dizzying. Still, as slaughter isn’t one of her hobbies, she advises them to surrender…at least, that’s what she’s doing from her perspective.

  “Preposterous! As if the Dacian Army would ever surrender!”

  “This is a waste of time. Shoot everyone except that general.”

  Sadly, they didn’t understand, but she’s happy to give the order to fire.

  The rest is fairly straightforward. Her company of mages conducts a close-quarters battle against a company’s worth of command post personnel. Taking on mages at close range with little more than pistols is suicide. Before long, the outcome that will no doubt be printed in Dacian textbooks is reached.

  They eliminate their targets without a hitch, and the tent is filled with fresh corpses. Like a gang of burglars, Tanya’s company is snatching up every document and apparatus they can find and cramming them into their packs. The papers and high-ranking prisoners, albeit few in number, will be good souvenirs for the General Staff.

  “Set a booby trap. Yes, we’ll put it by that head.”

  At the same time, before the disorganized Dacian soldiers realize something is amiss with their headquarters, Tanya has her troops leave a little parting gift for them, too.

  “The head of that officer we propped up is going to explode. No doubt it’ll be very effective against these guys.”

  A bit of a crude move but also a classic, and the tactic has been in use for so long because it works: rigging a corpse with a booby trap. It’s a huge blow to morale, and we can also inflict casualties on any enemies who come to rescue the HQ personnel. Pretty good return for a low-cost investment of time and effort.

  “If only there were a pamphlet about group sightseeing tours…”

  “Lieutenant, do you have any paint? I’d like to make an immigration stamp…”

  “Hey, don’t play with the corpses! Take this war seriously!”

  Tanya raises her voice slightly to warn her soldiers, who seemed to have relaxed with the path to victory so clear. This isn’t a game for kids. Her troops have to remain vigilant. It’s understandable why tension is low, but they had best stay on their toes. If she loses any men in this joke of a fight, it’ll be a failure worse than useless Italy getting driven off by Ethiopia; I’d never live it down.

  That said, when Tanya flies up to look down on the scene, she’s plenty satisfied with what she sees. The Principality’s army is still marching in ranks down the road, and the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion is assaulting them from every direction. The fragility of an army without any aerial or magic support combined with the virtually insurmountable gap between modern and ancient military technology have resulted in excellent achievements for the Imperial Army.

  Gaping holes have been blasted into the Dacian Army formations, and personnel who have fallen out of rank litter the ground.

  It’ll take more than a few hours to reorganize this chaos. After all, we’ve succeeded in mowing down the command personnel responsible for stepping up and taking charge of this mess. And even if the next in command makes every effort to get the army united again, this is the chaos they’ll be up against. There’s no way to regain control.

  The only way the overwhelmingly inferior Dacian military can hope to hit us hard is by launching a sneak attack with blitzkrieg tactics. Sending unsupported infantry to attack the Empire is incompetent enough to give full-of-shit-guchi in Imphal a run for his money. If any Dacian officers can get this army back on the march by tomorrow, they deserve medals.

  “Lieutenant Weiss! Is your unit assembled?”

  “Yes, Major. What about the remainder?”

  It seems he’s about to ask, Shall we mop them up? and Tanya just barely manages to control herself and not burst out laughing. All this guy wants is to rack up achievements. Even though he only just wrapped up his first battle, and he played it entirely by the book, he’s eager enough to mention the necessity of increasing their success—he is excellent material.

  “Our air fleet has been deployed, right?”

  That’s why she softens up when she poses the question. You could say the key to making things go smoothly is searching for positives. Before, she was critical of his actions but not anymore. That’s the trick to managing personnel in the army.

  “Yes. The Seventh Air Fleet is under way and should arrive momentarily.”

  “Then let’s leave the cleanup to them. We’re advancing.”

  “Ma’am! Where are we headed?”

  Weiss’s brisk response is proof that he’s at least somewhat soldier material. It seems like he’ll perform his duties with more sincerity than I anticipated. If I can use him, I need to use him well.

  “The capital.”

  “The capital, ma’am?”

  “Yep.” Tanya senses that she’s mellowed out quite a bit as she gives him a magnanimous nod. “Have an escort take the injured and prisoners and withdraw. You can choose who to send.”

  “Yes, ma’am. No one sustained even minor injuries, though, so in that case… What would you like me to do?”

  “Oh, right.”

  When he points it out, I realize that it’s hard to imagine sustaining any casualties in that kind of battle. Well, it’s not like I assumed there were any. It was more to be considerate. Or force of habit? Though I’ll eventually have to admit that I’ve been just a little intellectually lazy.

  Tanya has grown used to the weight of her rifle, so is this just making mountains out of molehills because she’s nervous about commanding a battalion for the first time?

  If that’s the case, I need to compose myself better. A leader shouldn’t dampen the mood for no reason.

  “All right. Then have the ones who are the most exhausted go. This is going to be a long advance. Yeah, send some of the newer officers who just had their first battle back to base.”

  “May I send one platoon from Fourth Company?”

  “That seems reasonable. I’m leaving it up to you.”

  Weiss actually makes fairly good calls on things like unit management, and Tanya has come to trust him during their time at the garrison. Peacetime company commanders aren’t worth their salt unless they can properly lead their subordinates. Whether he turns out to be a decent wartime company commander or not depends on his experiences going forward. I just hope he grows.

  Anyhow, at least one of my hand-selected war maniacs has the right skills and spirit for battle. With his measure of common sense, I have no complaints about making Weiss my right-hand man, and I’m eager to have him contribute to my security. Well, I guess I should just keep using him and see how things go.

  “Okay, now we can push farther, Lieutenant!”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Farther! Even farther! Let’s see how far we can go! You never know until you try.”

  But for now, we should enjoy our bonus level. With that thought, Tanya smiles in amusement. It’s the smile that chilled Colonel von Lergen to the bone. She grins from ear to ear in celebration of their continuing advance. Now, onward! Onward, still!

  That is the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion’s raison d’être, and none other. Mysteriously enough, First Lieutenant Weiss is wearing the same smile without realizing it as he salutes.

  Every soldier accepts the orders without question, believing that if anyone can forge a path forward, they can.

  With the arrival of the Eastern Army Group’s strategic reserves, the Seventeenth Army and Air Fleet (which had split up on their way over), the Dacian Army lines were demolished. Two thousand dead and innumerable prisoners. The battle had pitted six hundred thousand against seventy thousand, and the seventy thousand trampled them. The outnumbered side
, the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion, had been the first to strike and held absolute control of the skies over the combat zone. After scoring a victory, they decided to attack the capital ahead of the air fleet. At the time, Battalion Commander von Degurechaff was so confident it veered close to arrogance, boasting, “Who couldn’t run them over?”

  SEPTEMBER 25, UNIFIED YEAR 1924, 3:17 AM AIRSPACE ABOVE THE OUTSKIRTS OF THE CAPITAL OF THE PRINCIPALITY OF DACIA

  Night fell on the capital of the Principality of Dacia as calmly as any evening since the beginning of time.

  The people, roused by a certain excitement that accompanied the start of the war, had chattered boisterously, alcohol in hand, with great and senseless fervor, but by this time at night, every place had quieted down and most had gone to bed.

  This could be called a nice, quiet night. Cloud cover is limited; visibility is good. A slight southeasterly breeze is blowing, but it isn’t so weak that gunsmoke wouldn’t disperse.

  The only tiny smudge hidden in the night is the 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion.

  “This is the first night attack on a city in this world. That said, the mission actually isn’t very difficult.”

  The one who whispered is the battalion’s commander, Major Tanya von Degurechaff, who is leading them from the head of the formation.

  If there were a photograph of her to capture the moment where she gazed at the city with a gentle, elegant expression, it would prove the aptness of her alias “White Silver.” Soaring peacefully, she enjoys being able to proceed through the starry expanse without trouble. But inside her are thoughts incongruous with the beauty of the night—the upcoming turbulent attack. It will be fun to burn their target down.

  A night incursion on the enemy capital that hasn’t instituted a blackout—this will be as easy as flying in parade. As expected, though still astounding, there is no aerial or magical interception—not even any anti–air fire. The fact that Tanya can’t spot a single artillery battery improves her mood even more.

  Of course, although it’s only in the realm of possibility, there is a nonzero chance that the whole place is full of hidden gun emplacements. But…if they made such careful preparations, why would they let enemy soldiers into the capital? Ultimately, if the Dacian military takes air combat so lightly, I can’t imagine they’d have the wherewithal to construct any elaborate firing positions.