by Carlo Zen
"Company Four, contact negative."
So the lack of an expected occurrence is a sign of a gravely worrisome situation.
"...That's weird."
This is a bit absurd.
The enemy isn't here. They're supposed to be here, but they're not. If they were missing from one position that would be one thing, but if they're missing from every position, you start to feel like you're chasing phantoms.
It's as if their decentralized advance is a sandy illusion.
...An illusion?
That's a hypothesis.
But what if that hypothesis is reality?
The plan is to take out each individual group of enemies approaching in a decentralized way. I see; they'll be too much to handle if they're concentrated, but if they're split into three, we're able to overwhelm them both quantitatively and qualitatively.
So General von Romel didn't make a mistake in having us go out to destroy them before they're able to surround Turus Naval Base.
At least, not if the enemy is actually conducting a decentralized advance.
But they must not be. Our intention was to attack the split-up enemy before they concentrated, but the way things are going, there's a good chance they're actually concentrated now. They could even already be in battle formation.
Now then, our HQ still hasn't been able to locate them. If, under these circumstances, we get attacked by an enemy force twice our size, what will happen? Clearly, we'll end up on the bad side of Lanchester's law. If the enemy is divided, we can win, but if they're concentrated, we won't be able to handle them.
"Connect me to HQ! It's urgent! Hurry, it's an emergency!" We thought we would make fun of them for advancing split up. Instead, they got us. No, perhaps the Imperial Army was arrogant. Full of regret, she raises her voice. "The Imperial Army was too conceited!"
How could we underestimate the enemy's intelligence? What an error. The mistake of following precedent because we stopped thinking indicates inflexible reasoning and a lack of innovation. When we deployed to the south, we thought about facing a colonial army in an unconsciously biased way, and it's taking its toll.
This is a trap. This has to be a trap laid by the Republican Army.
"They tricked us! The enemy isn't here!"
Where are they? That's obvious.
They must have fulfilled the rule of force concentration. They made efficient uses of the resources they had. They're probably sneering at our naive predictions this very minute.
Because the concentrated enemy forces are surely committed to the main battlefield.
"Battalion commander to all companies. As of this moment, abort your missions. Gather up immediately. I say again, gather up immediately!"
As a commander engaged in a reconnaissance mission, Tanya knows exactly what this means. That's why she gave the order to contact headquarters right away.
"You haven't gotten HQ yet?!"
But the apparatus picks up noise... The area around their headquarters is already under heavy jamming, so their signals are blocked.
But just barely. They just barely manage to get a spotty connection. Tanya orders Serebryakov to explain the situation and tries to come up with countermeasures.
"...What are we going to do now?"
The problem is how to take care of things.
Reality is that the enemy field army is gathered together. We can't expect interdiction missions like obstructing traffic or severing their supply lines to take effect before the forces attack.
And if their forces are concentrated, a simple comparison of fighting power shows we're overwhelmed. Considering the progress of the battle, our options for supporting the main forces are limited, too.
After all, our corps have already advanced, lured by the honey of destroying the divided enemy troops. Armies can't stop very easily once they've started. Even if HQ decided to retreat, the enemy wouldn't let that stop them---they'd follow close in pursuit. If that happened, the communication lines would be severed before the main imperial forces could even build resistance lines, and the southern front would go down in history as a major defeat.
Even if they retreat to Turus Naval Base, without command of the sea, it will only be a matter of time before they have to surrender.
Now, the important thing here is how I can run away without harming my military record.
Beneath her disgruntled face, Major Tanya von Degurechaff is deep in thought. If she doesn't want the Imperial Army to lose, she can't deny the possibility of going back to support the others. So for a moment, she seriously considers the idea, but she concludes it's impossible. At this point, an imperial victory is out of the question.
We're up against an overwhelmingly superior foe. If we can't take them out, there's no chance of winning.
And considering we're in a desert, the option of holing up in the temporary defensive position set up by the field engineer team and waiting for the situation to change is hopeless. In a desert, water is precious. Probably as precious as gasoline. Maybe if we were near a water source, it would be different, but at any other position in the field, a couple days' siege is enough to have us writhing in thirst. So defending a fixed point where there is no water is too dangerous.
"Water, water. Without water, we can't fight a war... Shit, this is why I hate the desert," Tanya gripes, but she doesn't stop thinking.
Currently, it's impossible for the Imperial Army to face a large force in the desert. They don't have enough water. But if they retreat, the enemy will follow them forever. Even if they confront them, if they can't defeat them all, they'll run out of water and die of dehydration.
It'd be a terrible irony to suffer from thirst at Turus Naval Base with a view of the sea. No thanks.
Under the circumstances, the measure they could take to contribute to an imperial victory might as well be going and dying in a fight against the huge enemy army. No way am I taking any suicidal missions like that.
"All right, in this case the only thing to do is strike the enemy's water!"
So Tanya narrows down her choices to the realistic supporting move of striking the enemy's supply lines, after all. There has to be some kind of military support, or all their friendly troops will be wiped out. And this should protect her military career, as well. But. She suddenly regrets this idea.
Her battalion can take pride in being one of the best, but it's still just a single aerial mage battalion.
Regardless of their abilities, they will be hopelessly outnumbered. Even if they were going to support the troops' withdrawal, it would be practically impossible by orthodox methods. And even the long-range penetration in de facto enemy airspace to strike their water transport lines is just unreasonable. And in terms of securing their own water, too, the imperial maps had almost no information about nearby oases. Should we bank on friendly contact with local nomads? If it doesn't work out, I'll be the one suffering from thirst. I'm definitely not interested in that, either.
"Think, think... What is the enemy's logic?"
The enemy thinks they've tricked us, so what's the next logical step?
In short, the Republic Army feigning a decentralized advance thinks the imperial troops are concentrated.
Oh? No, that's it.
"I see. The main forces certainly are concentrated. So how about we use their logic against them?"
As she mumbles, she continues her train of thought. And what if the enemy falls into the same bias that the Imperial Army was trapped in until moments ago? They think they have all our units pinned down.
Naturally, she can expect that under that assumption, the enemy won't be paying much attention to the possibility of a powerful combat unit coming at them from behind. In a sense, it's a prospect stemming from a wish. But in this situation, her human psyche gives her hope.
"Good," she crows, but even if that hypothesis is true, she is still distressed about what her role will be. Certainly, it might be possible to cause some temporary confusion by jabbing them in the ba
ck, but...
Can the battalion maintain that confusion? Not sure. Even if they can create a break in the encirclement, God only knows if they can keep it open. In other words, you can put as much faith in that plan as you can in that bastard Being X.
Actually, the more she thinks about it, the more dangerous it sounds. If they do manage to punch a hole, the army will no doubt order them to hold their ground to keep it open even an instant longer.
Maybe I should just run away? But there's definitely a court-martial waiting for her if she does that. Fleeing before the enemy and, on top of that, abandoning the troops to do so... She's sure no one would protect her like they did when she screwed up off the coast of Norden.
In that case, her fate would be getting sent to a silent firing squad, getting shot after being repatriated and court-martialed, or if she was lucky, a messenger would deliver a pistol and tell her to commit suicide. Not many options.
There aren't many ways to explain away fleeing before the enemy. No, you can try to gloss it over, but for better or worse, a soldier is expected to fight bravely. Anyone who takes a hike when their allies are in a crisis is just like unlucky Admiral Byng.
No officer wants the same fate as Admiral Byng who "failed to do his utmost." Tanya has seen with her own eyes that there are officers in the field who would rather fight a reckless battle.
Of course, she never dreamed she would be in this position herself. If she had official orders to leave, that would be a different story, but since it's common military sense in the present situation to rescue the main forces, surely General von Romel would give such an order. That fact can't be ignored.
So then I should fight under the given conditions. All I can do is fight and find a way out of this up ahead.
My top priorities are survival and self-preservation. Therefore, it's essential that I don't appear to have abandoned my fellow troops, so if possible, I'd like one result of my actions to be that they take as little damage as possible. Still, only as little as possible. If I can prove they took less damage because of me, then the reality that I helped save them will lessen the criticism I receive over my lack of motivation.
Okay, so how can I uphold my reputation while minimizing damage to the troops and also escaping to live another day? Looking back through history, you see there is nothing more horrible than a fighting retreat. And in that case, even if you manage to survive, you didn't really defend what you were supposed to.
Under the circumstances, it's too risky to ask the heavily encircled main forces to withdraw with minimal casualties. But there are examples in history where both conditions were met. For example, the Battle of Sekigahara. The results of the clash between eastern and western armies are famous, right? Betrayal, conspiracy, hesitation? In any case, there's a lot to learn there.
The final days of the defeated army were utterly miserable. Most of their territory was either seized or the meager kokudaka from its rice yield was gobbled up. In the first place, many of them failed to leave the battlefield. But there was a nearly crazy bunch who, despite participating in the battle, not only managed to get their general out but also showed off their martial zeal.
Their name? The Oni-Shimazu.
...The Shimazu clan?
In other words, the logic is that if we ram through the enemy and then leave, we're not fleeing before the enemy?
No, but... Tanya feels somewhat conflicted. Let's be honest. She mentally complains that breaking through the enemy and making it back is mission impossible.
I'm not sure if the guys who can casually pull feats that warrant special mention in history---think Kellerman's charges---are sane. This is a difficult era for a sensible person like me.
But if I must...
If I have no choice, that's my duty.
EARLY IN THE MORNING OCTOBER 13, UNIFIED YEAR 1925, REPUBLICAN ARMY CAMP
"...It seems we've won."
"Yes, General."
The scene before their eyes was the Republic's revenge on the Empire, something that most Republican soldiers had been dreaming of since the collapse of the Rhine front.
He had lured the enemy with false reports of a decentralized advance. Now he had them encircled with his concentrated forces and was about to annihilate them. They were going to do to the Empire exactly what had been done to them on the Rhine front, and the resulting pride invigorated not only the staff but the troops as well.
For General de Lugo, it was the first step in a counteroffensive for which he had prepared in every possible way. Of course, he was also relieved that the efforts he had put in so far were working.
It had taken a long time, but if they could defeat the Imperial Army here, they could reinforce their defense of the southern continent. They could take back Turus and turn it into a strong stepping-stone for a counteroffensive on the continent.
It was all finally within reach.
Which was why...
...the alarm going off grated so badly on his ears.
"M-mayday from the 228th Mage Company!"
What is going on? That was basically the look on the radio operator's face as he delivered his report like a cry for help.
"The 12th Mage Battalion providing direct support for the right flank also requires urgent assistance! They say the enemy has almost broken through!"
The multiple dire reports from the right flank were added to the map with symbols showing the progress of the battle. Everyone looked at the new situation out of the corner of their eyes and fell silent. They knew it meant the mage units on the right flank were just barely holding out.
But they all hesitated. They could hardly believe it.
"Emergency alert from Division 7 Command! What seems to be a regiment-sized unit of enemy mages is attacking the right flank!"
"What?! We didn't have them encircled?!"
Finally, the division headquarters had reported in about the enemy movements. The staff officers would have preferred a calmer notification, but unfortunately, such hopes were dashed.
The hoarsely delivered report from a high-ranking frontline officer said that they were being attacked by a regiment of enemy mages. It was such awful news that de Lugo wanted to shout, That's not funny!
He thought he had them surrounded. Since the plan was to target the enemy flanks, the troops were trained specifically for counter--land attacks.
The job of stopping the pesky enemy mages was the mission of his own mages concentrated in the center.
Each flank also had enough mages to stop a battalion's worth, just in case.
But if their opponent had a regiment... That could mean that almost none of the imperial mages on this battlefield had been surrounded.
"Of all the stupid---! Then who are the mages in the center fighting?!"
But that's not consistent with the intel we have! De Lugo fell silent and stared at the map---their estimates of the enemy fighting force and the current actual scale of their mage units. There shouldn't have been such a severe discrepancy between them.
It was true that his main mage force was engaged with what they believed was the main imperial mage force. He had just received a report that due to their numerical superiority, they were maintaining the upper hand.
So given the reports and the intel they had gotten ahead of time, there should be no way the enemy had mages to spare. But de Lugo pondered for just a moment.
If it were possible. Well, it couldn't be, but... Do we only have numerical superiority because the enemy pulled a regiment of mages out of their forces?
But that would mean they basically have a brigade's worth of mages in this battle. The possibility that our intel net missed that is greater than zero, but...I'm confident in our grasp on enemy movement.
The conclusion he had reached was that the Imperial Army had a regiment at most. That should have been all the enemy had. It shouldn't have been possible for reserves to crawl out of the woodwork like this.
"Confirm if it's really a regiment!"
So
the composed part of his mind doubted whether it was really a regiment.
For example, maybe they were using some kind of deception to fool them into thinking the group was regiment sized.
Or the confusion could have caused a misunderstanding. But then what about all the reports from his units? He knew what they meant. Whether he could accept it or not was another problem.
"General de Lugo, we've already lost two companies!"
And most importantly...
The dazed looks on the staffers' faces spoke volumes. De Lugo understood their disbelief and bewilderment quite well.
The fact that two companies had been taken down meant that there was an enemy force out there big enough to overwhelm them in an instant.
It would be different if they had put up resistance and been defeated. But if the enemy was stronger by the standard margin, the first message from a unit making contact would never be mayday.
"If the 12th Battalion is about to be breached, the enemy force must be at least twice the size of that."
And on top of that, there was the report like a shriek from the battalion assigned as direct support. If they were almost broken as well, the delaying defense along the entire right flank wasn't functioning as intended. Are you telling me there's an enemy mage unit so powerful we can't stop them even if we get support from the right flank division?
"Ngh. Send the mages from the center over as backup! At this rate, they'll break the encirclement!"
De Lugo's brain had fallen into worry on this outrageous turn of events, but Colonel Vianto's shout rebooted it.
Vianto had recovered fastest of all the momentarily paralyzed staff officers.
Though they were behind, the others started to understand what needed to be done.
If the batteries on the right flank were hit, there would be no way to stop the enemy from leaving, so the right flank needed reinforcements.
...It was an utterly sensible plan.
But there was nothing sensible about their opponents. It happened the moment the unit was pulled and sent over.
"5th Mage Battalion to HQ! The enemy mages are rapidly approaching!"