The Southern Campaign (5)

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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!”

The warning scream was from the mage unit directly supporting not the right flank but the center.

“Ridiculous! They’re not striking the batteries?!”

He had just sent the 2nd Mage Battalion and the newly pulled 1st Composite Mage Regiment over to the right flank.

But he was forced to realize, with utter loathing, that the enemy mages who had been running amok on the right flank had changed course.

The maneuver wasn’t even aiming to stop the reinforcements. For a moment, no one was sure where the enemy was headed.

It wasn’t a move to destroy the right flank’s encirclement, which had seemed to be on its last legs. No. And it wasn’t even a move to intercept the incoming backup.

It was a charge at the central Republican forces.

“They’re like devils…” The truth came out of Vianto’s mouth as a complaint.

Vianto was more familiar with mages than anyone else present, and he understood the enemy’s intentions. Or maybe it was more that he knew from experience what they would target next.

Striking the right flank was just one of their objectives. If the Republican Army had left them to their own devices, they would have broken through the right flank and left.

But what do they do if the Republican Army does the sensible thing and reinforces the right flank?

Simple.

They strike where units have just been removed: the center.

It wasn’t as if units would be taken from the left to go all the way on the right. To check enemy mages on the right, units would be taken from the center. Supposing the mages charged in a straight line, the noise and jamming would be such that their ability to detect enemies would be temporarily paralyzed.

Then if the Imperial Army moves based on the sign of reinforcements on the way?

That moment, Vianto instinctively understood the horrible truth, and his spine froze.

The mages were finally protecting the right flank. The exact instant they finished fanning out, they became useless. They couldn’t contribute a single thing at the decisive moment the center was being attacked. No, we made them useless!

The enemy maneuvers appeared to be the meanderings of a cornered group, but in fact they were more devilish than the devil, using tactics that were the height of cunning and extremely devious. The enemy mages were pulling off maneuvers Vianto wasn’t even sure were theoretically possible.

He thought he was well versed in the terrors of the imperial mages.

“General de Lugo, please fall back.”

“What?”

“The enemy is coming here! Damn it! They mean to re-create what they did on the Rhine front!”

They would take out the headquarters with a “surgical strike.”

Anyone would laugh it off as a bad dream, but the Empire executed it on the Rhine lines.

They broke through the Republican main lines, positions built to have incomparably tight defenses, and took out the fortresslike headquarters.

The panic that overtook the frontline units at the time was on a practically indescribable scale.

…And the current Republican Army didn’t have a substitute for de Lugo. It had just exchanged its old wineskin for a new one. It didn’t have another ready.

The Free Republican Army, as one could tell just from the name, had taken enormous efforts to achieve. So if the general at the head of the Republic fell now, of all times, continuing an organized resistance would be nearly impossible.

To the Imperial Army, even if its entire Southern Expeditionary Corps got wiped out, if they managed to take de Lugo with them, it would still be a victory.

No, it’ll be hard to take out the Imperial Army now. They’ll probably just get a little beat up.

And what will happen to our firepower and units if we send them out to face those mages?

At the very least, we won’t achieve our initial objectives.

“Men, protect the general. This is our final battle.”

The enemy broke through on the Rhine, but here Vianto couldn’t let it happen. He wouldn’t give the Imperial Army another headquarters.