Plus Ultra

by Carlo Zen

  Well, some nations go to war under the pretext of protecting their citizens, so I guess it balances out.

  Deploying troops because of murdered missionaries is a cliché by now. The Empire has a few past conflicts along the same lines.

  Of course, purely as a diplomatic issue, a country shouldn’t be lazy when it comes to protecting its citizens. Or rather, the people pay taxes to be protected. Even in a night-watchman state, the people want protection from their government, so that should be provided.

  In that sense, security is the nation’s duty. Well, it probably only goes so far, but still.

  Oh, I’ve gotten quite off track. This is no time to let my thoughts wander.

  “But what does that have to do with me?”

  How does a mere field major like me fit into a grand strategy like that?

  I honestly have no idea. Really—how?

  In principle, it’s better for confidentiality—there’ll be fewer leaks—if fewer people know, so I’m sure it’s on a need-to-know basis only, but I have to ask.

  “It’s simple. Apparently, your 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion will be the rear guard for the retreat.”

  “…They think far too much of us.”

  Actually, considering what happens to people who know too much… The civilian method is to give people a large retirement allowance or pension to keep their mouths shut. Yeah, that gets expensive. Hence, all the criticism of how much golden parachutes cost.

  Conversely, if you want to keep costs down and resolve things in a practical manner, you can render people incapable of talking. And if you can accomplish it legally on a battlefield, it’s a no-brainer.

  …Is this to threaten us into staying quiet about Arene? The thought sends a chill up my spine.

  Maybe I’m thinking too hard, but it sure seems like my loyalty is being questioned. It’s true that in a pinch I prioritize my own safety, but…I’ve still been getting results for them. And I’m pretty sure I’ve been displaying my allegiance to the organization at every opportunity.

  No, maybe they found out I hesitated in Arene? But I don’t recall that resulting in any failures. Plus, I have the great excuse of protecting our own people.

  Yeah, I want to believe there are no issues. Then why are we getting stuck as the rear guard?

  “Your mission will only be a delaying defense, but it’ll be rough, I’m sure. You’re probably being summoned to discuss it.”

  “A delaying defense when we’re half-enveloped? Losing half of my troops won’t buy us time.”

  We got asked this question all the time in the academy, but I never thought I would actually be put in this situation.

  It’s possible, but I’m not doing it and Let’s try it are very different things.

  It’s easy to say pretty words like, I’ll use my subordinates as a shield, but to actually do it takes a tremendous amount of discipline.

  At least, it’s too much to ask of a young officer like me.

  “Half…? You’d be basically wiped out…”

  “Yes, I’m sure we would be. I never thought I’d end up having to actually implement a scenario from the academy’s oral exam.”

  I want to shout, Surely, you must be joking! but nothing would be more pointless. I feel like I have at least a little understanding of Major Uger’s personality.

  Basically, I don’t think he’s the type of guy to joke around.

  Besides, as long as I have no idea why he would lie to me, it’s safer to assume it’s the truth. In other words, I’m going to be the tail end of the army performing delaying action as we retreat? What an elegant way to indirectly tell me to drop dead.

  Am I allowed to say that this is something they should have a family of warriors like the Shimahdzus23 do and not mere mages? I just barely manage to control my urge to flee out the window of the car. Running away now won’t improve my situation one bit. I have to think how I can resolve this—no, how to survive. I need to find a way out.

  Fortunately, my subordinates are all capable shields. I may need to use the Shimahdzus special, the sutegamari fighting retreat. Maybe I should apply to license it. Gotta follow the rules at all times.

  “You’re overthinking it. It won’t take that long. Won’t you basically be on lookout?”

  “On the perpetual battlefield, you have to be prepared for the worst, though, you know? Not that I enjoy having that temperament…”

  My hope is that they just get the lines moved back in a hurry so we don’t have to suffer. In other words, it’s only a hope. I can’t risk my life on this sad, little chance. We have to be an ultra-vigilant rear guard. What the heck?

  If I was going to feel this sick, I shouldn’t have eaten that beef stew. I wanna throw up. Was the reason Rudel drank milk because his stomach couldn’t handle anything more than that?

  No, I think he was serious about nutrition and just a total battlefield addict.

  But maybe I should take a page from his book and drink some milk; it’d be good for my health. I’ll take some time to seriously consider this later.

  “…We’ll do our best and try not to take too much time.”

  “I appreciate it, Major Uger.”

  Anyhow, what the heck.

  It’ll be fine if I can go to General von Zettour directly and get him to take back the orders later, but…

  If they’re trying to shut us up, he definitely won’t.

  No, even if he doesn’t turn down my request, the danger of being disposed of will never quite leave us.

  In that case, I might have to consider surrendering to the Republic in order to survive. Well, no, I guess that would be dangerous, too… It’s so unlucky that we accidentally sunk that Commonwealth vessel. At worst, I would be sacrificed for long-term friendly relations between the Commonwealth and the Republic or whatever. Actually, that’s definitely what would happen.

  If that’s true, then the first thing I need to do is get out of this jam.

  “Either way, as long as we’re soldiers, we do what we must. That’s how it is, right?”

  Damn it. I have to pretend I don’t know anything and survive. Of course, the ideal would be if this is all a misunderstanding.

  It’s better to be pessimistically prepared than think optimistically and fail. If you’re assuming you’re fine at the cost calculation stage and you put too much trust in a 5.7-meter standard for sea walls, what happens?

  Of course, a corporation has to be conscious of costs. Rather, I think a nation that wages a war with no sense of cost is far madder. I choose to firmly support peace. That said, I’m all for intervening in a region in order to secure limited interests.

  The costs of a war waged by a practical economic agent should be capped within a permissible limit. And how about the escargots’ standards? Power plants? More like fortresses. Well, the actual fortresses they build have pretty well-known reputations, in various senses of the word, e.g., the Maginot Line.

  Ahh, this is no good. It appears my intellectual curiosity and purity are making my mind wander.

  “Either way, Major von Degurechaff, for now, we’ve reunited. How about a toast to mark the occasion?”

  “All I have is ersatz coffee, but if that works, I’m happy to.”

  Anyhow, next time I’ll make sure to have some milk on hand. Incidentally, for some reason, the Empire is famous for its milk.

  [chapter] VII Preparation to Move Forward

  MAY 10, UNIFIED YEAR 1925

  Magic Major Tanya von Degurechaff is advancing with a dismal look on her face. No, she’s forced to advance. As an imperial soldier, she should be relishing an attack deep in enemy territory with a plethora of emotions, but all that is on Tanya’s mind is the natural human desire to not die.

  That is probably the inevitable thought of someone compelled to charge by circumstances. Tanya, skillfully casting formulas and causing enemies to burst into gory bloom, is doing her best so that on the surface, at least, she is an utterly fearless field major leading the charge
.

  “Break! Break!”

  “04, Fox Three, Fox Three!”

  “Fucking hell, 13 is hit!”

  “01 to 10, 11. Cover him! Then hurry up and get him to the rear!”

  It’s her unit’s radio chatter. The troops are less calm than usual. For them to sound upset during an operation isn’t so rare, but exchanges of struggling, frantic curses are uncommon for the veteran 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion.

  That said, it’s not exactly surprising. She looks up at the sky and finds herself fantasizing about punching Being X’s head off with her clenched fist.

  If God exists, he must be some inflexible being like an evil computer. With that thought, she forces herself to freeze any mental effort that doesn’t help her survive on the battlefield, and she focuses on combat maneuvers.

  The sky is full of shells, and “crowded” doesn’t begin to cover it. Like pelting rain or hail, iron is being shot up from the ground instead of falling down. Just a ton of iron. A truly brutal amount of iron is flying toward a single target. If this unending blaze of gunfire in the darkness represents human activity, then I can declare that civilization has, in a way, evolved in the exact opposite of the ideal direction.

  Hell exists on the Rhine. The trials of purgatory are taking place here today.

  This is where a human’s life is worth the least. No, the lowest price is updated each day after hitting limit-down at this nearest station to hell. This is where the god of the dead and evil spirits make bank. A world where human lives plunge into dreadful deflation relative to lead bullets. This is a purgatory where the boundary between life and death is the haziest it ever gets.

  Distinguished mages are no exception to this rule. Mages are feared on the surface, but the Rhine is also their graveyard.

  “Fairy 01 to CP, we’re completely enveloped. We won’t last long. What’s the situation like?”

  Only mages have trouble dealing damage at eight thousand feet. For fighter planes, that altitude even allows for some comfort.

  On top of that, the high explosives fired at these aircraft and the dense curtain of anti–air shot could slaughter a mage with ease.

  Mages deploy magic walls about a meter from their bodies as protective films.

  If that defends them, it’s the same as the mages receiving no damage at all. But though they’re magic, these walls aren’t so strong.

  The biggest ordinary single shot a protective film can defend against in a direct hit is 12.7 mm.

  Of course, every mage is a little different, but in a saturation attack, even infantry small arms can weaken and penetrate a protective film. If they concentrate on defense and funnel more resources into it, a film can withstand up to about 40 mm.

  Even assuming that level of protection, taking direct hits from large-caliber shells is impossible. Plus, if they do get hit, they may be dazed and unable to rely on their speed to evade.

  As a mage’s last line of defense, the defensive shell, armor they build with their own power right up against their flesh, is as strong as you might think. But since they can’t bend the laws of physics, they have to be ready for shocks from impact.

  Even dispersed, the shock to the internal organs from a direct hit with a 120 mm would render a mage helpless. Even if they were lucky and only blacked out, they would still crash. And probably most of them would get minced where they lie.

  For better or worse, my orb, the Elinium Type 95, can repel up to 88 mm shots with its protective film. Theoretically, it can also create a defensive shell that can stand up to 120 mm grade shots. I’m not anxious to test that.

  Only researchers want to test bulletproof vests in actual combat. The people who have to use them would never do that.

  Plus, when my orb blocks a shot, high-density-interference factors get scattered around and obstruct magic use over a wide area. It’s possible to take advantage of that effect to make yourself nearly undetectable. A simple way to think of it is that it’s like putting an ECM24 on full blast.

  It’s probably exceedingly difficult to spot flying objects with optical apparatuses at night.

  Of course, since it’s so similar to an ECM, the interference in itself is a frank indicator.

  If your radar whites out, it’s self-evident that something is there.

  As such, the situation is not suitable for stealth maneuvers.

  If we’re detected but they can’t lock on, however, guided missiles or disciplined fire won’t be a threat, so breaking through at high speed and harassing them a bit makes a great invisibility cloak.

  The huge, critical side effect of that is my psychological suffering, but there’s nothing I can do about it.

  “Phase two will be finished momentarily. Until phase three orders are given, each unit should continue designated operational maneuvers.”

  A noise-filled radio message.

  Not only is it encoded, it’s a transmission between mages that uses a special format with directional waves via orbs. You can just barely have a conversation using this system, so it only really works for practical communications.

  The high density of magic remaining in the air creates ear-piercing noise.

  I hate that we’re supposed to throw off the Republican Army observers when we don’t even know the positions of our fellow soldiers. After all, we’re a rear guard that is jutting—or rather, charging—into enemy territory.

  Once the entire theater gets involved and large-scale maneuvers begin, concealing ourselves will become important. Although we’re withdrawing under cover of night, regardless of how it would go with a division, doing it with an army group is a different story.

  As highly mobile and responsive as my group of excellent mages is, we’re not a big enough force to cover the entire Rhine area.

  And with one somewhat undermanned augmented battalion, the normal methods would be impossible.

  Which is why we have this deceptive plan to convince the enemy that we’re planning an offensive using a reconnaissance-in-force mission. The General Staff concluded that it wouldn’t be possible to hide the activation of the rail network that would accompany the large-scale maneuver in the theater, so instead they deliberately spread false information about it: “The Empire is moving supplies and troops in preparation for a major offensive.”

  If I hadn’t heard about it when I met with General von Zettour in the capital, I would have believed it myself, they put so much effort into the story.

  In the capital, a public relations officer made reference to a “large-scale operation,” albeit in unofficial settings.

  There were rumors of “a major operation on the Rhine lines.”

  And there were the supplies bustling back and forth by rail. It’s a huge, tricky retreat designed to draw the enemy out and destroy them. We’ll need a ton of matériel. And reports on Arene are being thoroughly censored.

  Thanks to that, we’ve convinced even most of the informed people that the movement on the imperial side is reinforcements for the suppression of the revolt in Arene. The Empire admits, blushing, that it has failed to quell the situation. The parts of the story that couldn’t be blocked with a strict gag order have been turned into rumors that control had been achieved to keep up appearances. The tight plan tricks people into believing the opposite of what’s true.

  We don’t have enough data to guess how the Republic is taking it, but people have a tendency to believe what they want to believe, so I think we can expect some results.

  Even so, they’re probably suspicious that the Empire, which supposedly has supply line issues, is launching a desperate all-out offensive. But I can’t believe we actually fooled them, even if they are suspicious.

  The trick worked brilliantly, and it seems the Republic was even on guard against our desperate offensive. The Imperial Army’s most elite mages have performed a recon-in-force on an unprecedentedly deep level and met with formidable Republican Army interception, just like the Empire wanted.

  Thus, Tanya and her battalion,
reflecting the desperate Imperial Army’s impatience, must pull off this deceptive recon-in-force mission with no regard for casualties.

  And the report that the Republican Army is on guard against deep penetration by a recon-in-force unit was music to the Imperial Army General Staffers’ ears. They bought it, they all think, relieved by the good news. Now the retreating units don’t have to worry about getting their butts kicked.

  But though she may be a staff officer, Tanya is in a fight for her life on the battlefield and thinking about awful things like a smile on Being X’s face.

  In order to keep the enemy from finding out it’s a ruse, the battalion is forced to carry out this recon-in-force mission without regard for sacrifices.

  The 203rd Aerial Mage Battalion is spread out along the front acting as a decoy and rear guard so the enemy doesn’t realize the army is retreating.

  Behind us, they’re probably doing their best to move the clunky field guns to the rear. Once that phase is over, the infantry will withdraw. The field engineers have already laid traps. We can expect the move to be finished within the next few hours. Hence, my unit is stuck getting shot up like this while we buy that time.

  The object of the recon-in-force fishing so frequently performed on this front is to find out about the enemy’s defensive preparations and positions of their forces. Since both sides see recon as a sign of a major impending offensive, the receiving end would prioritize concealing their troops and not move their reserve forces around in an aggressive way.

  If that would buy the retreating Imperial Army the time they needed, then Tanya and her battalion had to go in. That’s what the orders told them to do.

  Of course, in order to prevent us from gathering intelligence, the Republican Army gives us an enthusiastic welcome with dense anti–air fire. Plus, since we’re facing an interception from a base so far back, our rate of safe returns isn’t going to be very high. In fact, the yardstick for whether it’s actually recon-in-force or not is how many casualties the attacking team suffers.